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"Yes," he said, "he sentin like this?"
"I a th the intent of his orders"
"Why wasn&039;?"
"Because you&039;re part of the proble around to face hie in his eyes that was much older than the boyish face that held theht continued its ooze frolow shimmered on each viewscreen behind the pale-faced captain
The whole planet&039;s lighting up, Mack thought It must be the kelp, but what could it be up to?
"My orders were to secure Current Control and keep the lid on the Tatoosh woman," Brood told him
The man&039;s voice was quiet, almost wistful "We were to keep Ozette out of the news, replace any of her crew as needed, accoht try to - influence you, thereby endangering the security of Current Control as well as the Voidship project"
"So, you terrorized her, executed her crew, murdered my security squad and are now prepared to destroy Current Control and steal the Voidship - even Flattery won&039;t buy this one, Captain"
Brood s his fine, sharpened teeth, but his eyes remained hard as plasteel
"Perhaps it is a fa with an edge to it "You haven&039;t heard the scuttlebutt, then They say Flattery&039;s my fathe whoever inning I was the &039;poor fruit&039; of that diversion, as soht say"
Mack was not as surprised at Brood&039;s ancestry as he was by the cold anger hich Brood related it
Hot anger stings, he thought, but it&039;s cold anger that kills
Mack started to speak but Brood&039;s upturned hand stopped him
"Spare me your sympathies, Doctor It&039;s not syed, there are others If he knows, he finds favor in e hihost-light pooled his ankles
"Others have not been so fortunate My mother, whoever she was, for example The Director requires power and I require power, that is clear One way or another, I will have it"
"They&039;ve called a &039;Code Brutus&039; down there Are you a part of that?"
Brood snapped out a laugh Those sharpened teeth sent a shudder down Mack&039;s spine
"I&039;m a winner, Doctor," he said "I side inners I can&039;t lose If Flattery wins, then I&039;ve saved his Voidship for him, saved his precious kelpways, and I win If Flattery loses, then I&039;ve captured the Voidship and the precious kelpways to hold for the winner"
"What happens if one of the others asks your help?"
"Then we&039;ll suffer a co new up here, is it, Doctor?"
Mack s that problem all day"
"So I noticed My h We have monitored you here for quite some time - for practice, you understand I know you quite well, Dr MacIntosh Hoell do you know me?"
"I don&039;t know you at all"
"I wouldn&039;t say that," Brood said "You knew that I wouldn&039;t blow the Gridmaster - not yet You knew if I really wanted yourwith them Tell me what else you know about e frolobs of blood floating with it like party decorations Mack kept trying to remember which of his men it was, but it wouldn&039;t come to him But Brood was in a talkative mood, and Mack tried to keep him at it
"You&039;ve covered all bases," Mack said "If you take the wrong side, you can always run off with the Voidship - provided you can inal crew member I have the OMC, too And I&039;ll bet that you, a smart man and co handy, like the Gridain, un barrel and nudged the blood globules enough to clulob out of reach toward the turret A slistened on the - hie neatly sealed off blood vessels in its quick cone of burn through the body In practice, as usual, this wasn&039;t always the case
Suddenly, the entire Current Control suite filled with overwhelht A stab of pain punched at both of Mack&039;s eyes and he covered the a bank of consoles toward the hatch
"What the hel ?"
Mack tried his eyes and found that he could see if he squinted tight enough, but tears poured down his cheeks, anyway What he saw ht were a solid, this is what it would look like, he thought
It wasn&039;t bright now asHe could actually feel the light around hiht would deliver, but the pressurelike sensation of an activated vacuurab for Brood&039;s lasgun as he fuun Brood happened to open his eyes at that moment and the barrel snapped up to take aiet the picture, do you? I ought to cook you on the spot, but I&039;ll wait a bit I&039;d rather have you and your girlfriend together for that Now you tell htened voice came over the intercom:
"Captain Brood, we can&039;t see in here There&039;s a light filling the OMC cha frole, and Mack assumed that his crew had penetrated the OMC chamber For the first time, Brood looked worried, perhaps even a little afraid
"I don&039;t knohat&039;s going on her"
"Don&039;t give me that crap, Doctor," Brood yelled
A fine spray of saliva skidded into the air around his head
"It must be the kelp," Mack explained
He used the calmest possible voice he could muster
"There are kelp hookups in here and in the OMC chaled cry came from Brood&039;s throat, and thebehind Mack&039;s back Mack grabbed a handhold and spun around, shading his eyes with his left hand The bank of viewscreens that faced hi wild, random scenes from Pandora, some of them from the early settleasped "All of the places we live my famil except, who is she?"
One face faded in and out, turned and returned and gathered substance froht away It was Alyssa Marsh, o
A soft voice, Alyssa&039;s voice, came from all around thein"
A great hatch appeared in the light, and a thick stillness took over the roo as solid as Mack&039;s own hand, but the pocket of light that contained them had solidified to exclude Current Control co or bulkheads; no consoles, no sound, nothing but the hatch Even Brood&039;s heavy breathing got sed up in the light Mack felt as though he were alone, though Brood was near enough to touch He was tempted to reach out, just to ht Maybe they&039;ve figured out ho
"What is this shit?" Brood asked "If this is so for it And if it&039;s your doing, you&039;re a dead un burst into the hatch But the burst wouldn&039;t stop, and Brood couldn&039;t let go of the weapon The detail of the hatch intensified, and the hatch went through dozens of changes at blink-speed, beco hundreds of doors and hatches that peeled off one another
The weapon becao, but it stuck to his hands, glowing red-hot, until the charges in it were depleted Though he struggled to screaht red, Brood did not issue a sound When it was over, his eyeshis charred hands away fro this tih he saw the flesh bubble froers Still, the hatch waited in front of hie airlock hatches that separated the Orbiter fro-room door that he remembered from Moonbase Every time Mack had entered that door it was to be briefed on some new aspect of the Moonbase experis had raised his hair and bathed his palhten him this time
He did not doubt that this was an illusion, a holo of near perfection He had been accustoraiven substance
"What did it take to do this?" he wondered aloud "A thousandth-generation holo?"
It was as though every atom in the room, in the air, on his breath had beco to pass through the illusion He did not It was solid, a real hatch Brood was no longer nearby Like the rest of the room, he had sireat, heavy doors dredged out of his Moonbase ht he heard Beatriz there, and she was laughing
"Please join us, Doctor," the soft voice urged "Without you, none of this would be possible"
As he reached for the handle, the door changed once again It became the hatch between Moonbase proper and the arboretuhout his life there A safe, plas that he loved to walk through Here at the edge of the penurassy hillsides and sniffed the cool dampness of ferns under cover of real trees Hisit, must want him to open this hatch pretty bad
The latch-and-release ainst his pal inward to a rooht did not hurt his eyes, and as he stepped forward a few fareet hiht Brood must&039;ve shot me and I&039;ve died!
To confront a person with his shadow is to show hi
The Orbiter&039;s fire-suppression crew floated in their odd vacuueway outside of the OMC chamber Most of them omen, as was the majority of the Voidship crew Each was equipped with a beltful of tools for bypass or forced entry, and several pushed sas ahead of them as they patrolled behind Beatriz All of theainst the threat of fire Only uncontrolled vacuum was more feared than fire aboard the space station The pithy jokes that they tossed ah their headsets offset the nervousness that their eyes betrayed