Tropic of Creation Read Online Free PDF Page B

world-habitats. They were creatures of their metal worlds, only fighting on planetary surfaces for the rare ground offensive against Congress World targets.
    If they mined here, what did they extract? No substitute for neymium, surely, the cause of decades of war. Neymium was the door to interstellar journeys, a fuel source so compatible with the fusion drives that ships were freed from the weight of massive fuel cargoes, freed to move fast enough, far enough. When Congress Worlds discovered the Belt, however, they found their trading partners had long since staked their claim, and weren’t happy to share. Congress Worlds looked at the Belt and thought of freedom, wealth, and converse among their worlds without dependence on ahtra traders. The ahtra looked at the Belt and thought,
Keep out
.
    Damn likely the ahtra had a similar view of the place where he now stood.
    But they were at peace, Eli reminded himself. Still, it was a fragile construct, a thing of words and promises between two alien combatants. Perhaps, to the ahtra, agreements meant nothing. Of course, having a system of tunnels on a backwater planet did not break the peace. If thatwas all it was. But he felt certain there was more. And if there was, he’d find it, showing Command that he could pursue the ahtra when it was right to do so. Could pursue them as far as need be.
    “To hell and back
,” he whispered. His own voice was a startling, almost a tangible thing in this quiet world, and made him feel vulnerable for the first time.
    He came to a side tunnel. A profound smell of mustiness hit his nostrils. Playing out the tether, he turned down this branch. In the beam of the lamp around him, Eli noticed that, at the base of the walls, there were long ropes of soil. Kneeling, he picked up a tubelike section, fingering its dust as it spilled through his fingers.
    He came to an enlargement of the corridor. As he swung his lamp he saw that he was in a large cavern with curious walls. The closest section contained nooks perhaps three feet wide, filled with tightly rolled material. He moved forward to touch it, judging it to be cloth from the threads that dangled from frayed edges. Pulling on one roll to dislodge it, an entire section of cloth separated, releasing a thin stream of sand from the center. He took a better grip and pulled again, this time removing the entire roll, which finally dropped out of the nook onto the floor, raising a small eruption of dust. Then it was a simple matter to kick open the roll. As it unwound, the cloth split in protest. Eli stared at the contents.
    Bones. Human bones. No, surely ahtra bones. It was a burial chamber. The nooks contained hundreds of bodies. Eli looked back down at the bones he’d dislodged. If ahtran, the skull should show the junction of the data tendril. As he knelt down for a closer view, a sound came to his conscious mind, a noise he’d been hearing for the last seconds that he’d thought came from his own ears. Someone was approaching, running.
    He stood, dousing his light and withdrawing to the wall. He could feel a burial roll pressing against his neck.In another moment, light burst into the cavern and two ahtra appeared. Eli had time to notice their full armament, their guns drawn, before they spied him. His own gun was pointing at them and they hesitated. One of them spoke and brought his hand up in a slicing motion. If there were only two Eli might bring them down, but his situation was ambiguous. He appeared to be grave robbing, or at least desecrating. To them he was an intruder.
    Besides, it was peacetime. He wouldn’t be the first to fire.
    He slowly lowered his gun.
    The two ahtra advanced, circling him and herding him away from the burial cloth and its contents. As he stepped backward, Eli came in view of the corridor down which he’d come. Ten or fifteen ahtra stood there, holding greenish-yellow lights, casting their gray faces in a ghoulish light.
    The first ahtra—whether male or female,