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"Yes, sir," said Hoddan. "Hm-m-m," snorted his grandfather. "Looks flimsy to me!" He waved his hand again. "You remember your cousins." Familiar, matter-of-fact nods came from the men of the battered ship. Hoddan hadn't seen any of them for years, but they were his kin. They wore commonplace, workaday garments, but carried weapons slung negligently over their shoulders.
He drew his finger across his throat, and nodded, and went cheerfully out the crew's landing-door in the very base of the ship. He went across the tarmac and out between two of the gigantic steel arches of the grid. He hired a ground vehicle. "Where?" asked the driver. "Hm-m-m," said Hoddan. "There's a firm of lawyers.... I can't remember the name " "There's millions of 'em," said the driver.
I'll counter with a formal request for an exit-permit. I'll talk to you again when he leaves." Hoddan went out. He paced up and down the other room into which he was shown. Darth wouldn't be in a Golden Age! He was wiser now than he'd been this same morning. He recognized that he'd made mistakes.
Somebody's here from Walden! They want you!" Hoddan could not believe it. It was too unlikely. But he opened the door and Thal came in, and Fani followed. "Good morning," said Hoddan automatically. Thal said mournfully: "A bad morning, Bron Hoddan! A bad morning! Men from Walden came riding over the hills " "How many?" "Two," said Fani angrily.
But the mere antiquity of the ship made Hoddan hunt more carefully. He found a small compartment packed solidly with supplies. A supply-cabinet did not belong where it was. He hauled out stuff to make sure. It was ... it had been ... a machine shop in miniature.
It could not possibly take on its complement of passengers and crew in so short a time. The opening of the blister was a sign of surrender. The two first ball lightning bolts were miniatures. Hoddan now projected a full-sized ball. It glittered viciously in emptiness, the plasma-gas necessary for its existence furnishing a medium for radiation.
"You couldn't even pick out its sun, from where we are now!" Thal gulped. "I ... do not understand what you want with us," he protested. "We are not experienced in space! We are simple men " "You're pirates now," Hoddan told him with a sort of genial bloodthirstiness. "You'll do what I tell you until we fight. Then you'll fight well or die. That's all you need to know!" He left them.
The ambassador said: "There was an old-fashioned way to make ozone...." When Hoddan nodded, a little surprised, the ambassador said: "By all means go ahead. You should be able to get parts from your room vision-receiver. I'll have some tools given you." Then he added: "Diplomacy has to understand the things that control events. Once it was social position. For a time it was weapons.
That was it. She was a remarkably nice girl. But Hoddan suddenly doubted if she were a delightful one. He found himself questioning that she was exactly and perfectly what his long-cherished ambitions described. He tried to imagine spending his declining years with Nedda. He couldn't quite picture it as exciting. She did tend to be a little insipid
"Here's your daughter, sir," said Hoddan, and yawned. "I hope there won't be any further trouble with Ghek. We took his castle and looted it a little and brought back some extra horses. Then we went to the spaceport. I recharged my stun-pistols and put the landing grid out of order for the time being. I brought away the communicator there." He yawned again.
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