The Temporal Void Read Online Free PDF Page A

‘Hey, big man, how’s it going, huh?’
    ‘No change,’ Troblum said. His gaze swept across Stubsy, who was hanging on to the side of the door, preventing any glimpse of the big hallway beyond. The man was wearing his usual expensive and tasteless garb, too-tight gold sports trousers and a shirt with a vivid black and orange flower pattern, open to the waist. But his face looked haggard, as if he was suffering the mother of all hangovers, with dark circles under his eyes, and at least two days’ stubble. He looked flushed as well, his skin hot and sweaty.
    ‘I’m here to pick up my collection.’
    ‘Yeah,’ Stubsy said, scratching the base of his neck. ‘Yeah. Yeah. That’s it. You are.’ Somewhere in the house behind him was the sound of bare feet running on tiles.
    Troblum had to consult his social interaction program. ‘Can I get them now, please?’ he read off his exovison script.
    ‘Okay,’ Stubsy said reluctantly. He swung the door open and stood aside.
    The open area in the middle of the house was exactly as before, with waterfalls bubbling swiftly down the surrounding boulders to top up the pool. Green and yellow flowering plants twice Troblum’s height waved in the gusts that were starting to spill over the low roof. Nobody was swimming. Three of Stubsy’s Olympic warrior women companions were waiting in the patio area, with one lying on a sun lounger while the other two stood motionless beside the long bar. Troblum’s mild field scan showed him that all their enrichments were inactive.
    The sound of thunder rolled through the sky. All three companions looked upwards at the noise.
    ‘Are you going to put up a force field?’ Troblum asked Stubsy as he sank his bulk into a sun lounger. The wood and fabric creaked as it accepted his full weight. He’d chosen the one next to the companion in the emerald green bikini. She was gripping the edges of her own sun lounger very tight, as if she was holding herself down against a gravity inversion. ‘That storm looked big.’
    ‘Force field,’ Stubsy said. ‘Yeah. Good idea, man. Uh, yeah, we can do that, sure.’
    ‘Did my collection arrive okay?’
    Stubsy nodded his head, and perched himself on a sun lounger beside the companion in the green bikini. ‘Yeah,’ he said slowly. ‘It’s here. We ferried it over from the freighter as agreed. The captain was very curious, you know. I had to slot some extra cash his way. I’ve got it all downstairs. Man, I wasn’t expecting so much junk, you know.’
    ‘I have been collecting for a long time. And it is not junk.’ Troblum glanced up as a force field came on above the villa. The sound of the wind shrank to nothing. ‘I’d like to get it loaded on my starship today.’
    ‘Where is your starship, man?’
    ‘Close,’ Troblum said. He wasn’t going to give anything away until he’d sorted out payment and the collection was ready to move. ‘Do you have a cargo capsule?’
    ‘Sure, sure.’
    ‘There’s something else I need from you if you don’t mind. I’ll pay for the trouble, of course.’
    Stubsy drew down a loud breath, as if he was having trouble swallowing. ‘What’s that, then, man?’
    ‘I want to meet someone here in private. Someone you wouldn’t ordinarily have at your house. You’ll have to clear them with the city’s defence system.’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘Think of her as a police officer.’
    ‘Police?’ Stubsy grimaced a smile. ‘Ho boy. Well, what the hell, we’re all going to die in the Void boundary anyway, right?’
    ‘Possibly,’ Troblum said. He didn’t know what to make of the expansion phase yet. If it really couldn’t be stopped then fleeing to a colony world was going to be no use at all. He’d have to travel all the way to another galaxy, as Nigel Sheldon had been rumoured to do. It would be a huge challenge for the Mellanie’s Redemption . Fortunately, the hardware he’d taken from the Accelerator station should make such a flight achievable, if he