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.The wise knew she was a dark star rotating around aGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlbright one, which accounted for her being a variable, butwhen an expedition crashed on one of her planets, whenthe first colony vanished, when a transgalactic flyer burnedin the system, people began to recall her original reputa-tion and shun her.That, of course, made her an excellentpirate base and all six of her variously inhabitable planetswere soon messed about with blood and broken loot.As is natural in such evolutions, she ultimately gavebirth it said in the "United Planets Vacugraphic OfficeStar Pilot" which Ole Doc was reading to a strong rulerwho ate up the lesser ones and for the past three hundredand nineteen years had been getting along as a monarchyof six planetic states governed from Dorcon.It said inthe book that there were spaceship ways and limitedrepair facilities, fuel and supplies to be had at Ringo,Dorcon's chief city.Certainly they would have so small athing as a pile there.Ole Doc started to open the switch to tell Hippocrateswhere they were going but received a flood instead:" 'The manual circuits must be supplied by auxiliaryhanbits of torque compensated valadium.Five erg secondsof injected.' "Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlPlainly Hippocrates was not pleased.Ole Doc laugheduncomfortably.He had picked the weird little creature upat an auction a century back, meaning to examine hismetabolism which was gypsum but the gnome had been sowilling and his brain was so accurately gauged to remem-bering that somehow Ole Doc had never thought againabout examinations but had succumbed to these deluges ofbeing informed.A gong rang.A whistle blew.A big plate before himbegan to flick-flick-flick as it displayed likely landing spotsone after another.A metal finger jutted suddenly from thegravity meter and touched off the proximity coil.The shipwent on to chemical brakes.The cockpit turned at rightangles to ease the deceleration of the last few hundredmiles and then there was a slight bump.The Morgue hadsat down.There was a clang inside as her safety doors slidopen again, a tinkle of ladders dropping and a click-click-click as instruments dusted themselves and put themselvesout of sight in the bulkheads.Ole Doc unbuckled his crash helmet and stood up,stretching.The port guards were sliding open of them-selves, displaying a green expanse of field, a surroundingregiment of trees and the plastic towers of a city beyond.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlBut the instruments were not yet through.The analysercame out, a square massed solid in red and green bulbswhich recorded the presence of anything harmful, unnatu-ral or hostile.And while it said green to atmosphere,gravity, vegetation, food, habitations, the weather, storms,the surface temperature, the sub-surface temperature, radio-active presences and a thousand others, it said red-red-red to soldiers, weapons, dead men, women and hostility.The strip at the bottom of the board read: "Relativelyunsafe.Recommend take-off."Ole Doc owed his continued presence in the flesh to acertain superstition about instruments.If they were there,they should be observed, and, if they gave advice, itshould be taken.And he was about to take off on chemi-cal and go elsewhere nearby when Hippocrates thrust hisoutraged antennae into the comportment." '.momentary inattention to fissure temperaturesmay result in ionization of farundium particles and conse-quent ' ""STOP IT!" said Ole Doc.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlHippocrates stopped.But not because he was told.Hewas reading "Relatively unsafe.Recommend take-off." Thisgave him an impasse and while his dissertation struggledfiercely with this check, Ole Doc dropped down into hisdining salon and drank the milk which waited there forhim.The ports were all open there, for the salon was beauti-fully designed, done by Siraglio shortly after the turn ofthe century, panelled in gold and obsidian and exquisitelymuraled with an infinity of feasting scenes which, togeth-er, blended into a large star map of the Earth Galaxy asit had been known in his time.The ports were so designedas to permit scenery to become a portion of the muralwithout ruining it.But in this case the scenery did notco-operate.Six hundred and nineteen dead men swung from thelimbs of the landing field trees.They were in uniformsbleached by suns and snows and their features were most-ly ragged teeth and yellow bone.The blasts of theMorgue's landing had made a wind in which they swung,idly, indolently as though in their timeless way they waltzedand spun to an unheard dirge.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlOle Doc set down the milk.He looked from floweringbeds, well groomed grass, splendid walks back to thehanging dead."Hippocrates!"The gnome was there instantly, all five hundred kilos ofhim."Stand by the ship.If anyone approaches her but my-self, turn on Force Screen Alpha.Keep in communicationwith me and the ship in readiness to blast.Questions?"Hippocrates was too thwarted to reply and Ole Docchanged into a golden tunic, threw a sun-fiber cloak abouthis shoulders, buckled twin blasters around his waist andstepped down the ladder to the ground.A man develops, after a few score years, certain sensi-tivities which are not necessarily recognized as senses.Carrying on the business of the Universal Medical Societywas apt to quicken them.For though the members of thesociety possessed amongst them the monopoly of all medi-cal knowledge forbidden by the various systems and statesand although they had no sovereign and were inviolate,Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlthings happen.Yes, things happen.More than a hundredebony coffins lay in the little chapel of their far offbase Soldiers of Light who had come home forever.He directed, therefore, his entire energy to getting a pileand escaping Ringo within the hour if possible.And,guided by the sound of repair arcs and hammers, prompt-ly brought himself to the sub-surface shops beside thehangars of the field.And at the door he halted in stupefied amazement [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]