Tin Woodman Read Online Free PDF

hasn’t thought this through. He’s incapable of that. He needs a personal triumph so badly that he can’t conceive of his need being frustrated—certainly not by a boy whom he holds in such obvious contempt. To Darsen, Harlthor must be a piece of equipment, a robot to be powered by his will, to be ordered about and used and possibly sacrificed for an objective—just as that minor megalomaniac must have viewed his soldiers in that battle on Goridan.
    I think I’m making sense. But I’m not an uninvolved observer, and may be projecting my feelings on to the situation more than I like to admit. I can’t forget my horror—no, anger—when I learned that Darsen was to be the new commander of Pegasus. It’s useless to pretend to myself that experience and time have changed my belief that I should have been given command. I still wonder what kind of system gives a man like Darsen a second chance after a disaster like the Goridan massacre. Someone in the high councils of the service, far beyond the levels of Darsen’s personal influence, saved his career for him. Well, maybe it fits in with my theory . . .

    Mora lounged in her chair, watching Div, who lay on her bunk in a semi-somnambulent condition, his breathing slow and quiet. There had been much to discuss, and they had done so exhaustively, with minds and mouths. Realizing that not much time was left, Mora had insisted that Div rest on her bunk. No time to see about your quarters, she claimed. And Div had not objected.
    She sat now, content to watch him rest, to feel his presence. Delicately, she let her mind attempt to lull his into deeper sleep.

    ••• A GLIMPSE OF RAINBOW DAWN THROUGH THE MIST OF A METHANE WORLD •••
    ••• WHIRLING VORTEX DROPLETS OF AMMONIA ICE CLINGING TO HULL •••
    ••• THE BURNING RAIN WHICH KILLS •••
    ••• VUL ••• DEATH ••• ALONE •••
    ••• EMPTINESS •••
    ••• COME ••• YOU HAVE COME •••
    ••• WELCOME •••

    “Div!” Mora cried out inadvertently, stiffening. The alien sensation passed. Div tried to sit upright abruptly, as if in terror. Mora stood, trying to ease him back. “What was that?” she asked, afraid of the answer she already knew.
    “Tin Woodman,” Div replied. He lay back again, clutching onto Mora with something like frenzy. Struggling to understand the impressions she had accidentally glimpsed, Mora realized that they had been hidden in Div’s mind all the time.
    “You’re already in contact with it, then?”
    Div stared at the ceiling for a moment, then turned to her, holding her eyes with his.
    “Yes, I caused it to wake.”

    Later, Div asked, “How long? Before I have to go out there, I mean?”
    “About two hours,” she said.
    “I can’t sleep. I’m going to go back to the observation deck, to see it again, to be closer.” His sudden vehemence frightened her. He jerked up from the bed to his feet.
    “Do you have to?” she asked.
    “You can come with me, if you like. Please do.”
    “No,” she whispered. “I can’t. There are bound to be other people up there. I don’t want to face them so soon. I need time to think. No, I won’t!” She looked at Div desperately as he opened the cabin door. He turned back to her, silhouetted in the blue light of the corridor beyond.
    I know, he cast gently. I wish I didn’t love them, too.

FOUR

    Leana Coffer sat at the bridge’s launch monitor, running through a last check of the hangar deck’s subsystem’s display. “Hangar depressurized,” she reported, turning away from her console to face Darsen at his command station. “Bay doors are powered up, and robot guidance on the spider checks out normal.”
    Glumly drumming his fingers along the edge of his desk, Darsen acknowledged the report.
    “We can proceed with launch on your command, Captain,” finished Coffer.
    “Activate the spider’s inboard monitor now,” Darsen ordered, gesturing toward the globe of the