Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 24, 2025
Presently the fleet of grain-ships would arrive and unload and lift again for Orede, and this time they would make an infinity of slaughter among wild cattle-herds, and bring back incredible quantities of fresh-slaughtered frozen beef. Almost everybody would get to taste meat again, which would be most gratifying. Then, the industries of Dara would labor at government-required tasks.
"Good girl!" he said approvingly. "I'll give this back to you when we land. And thanks. Thanks very much!" She stared at him. "Thanks? When I tried to kill you?" "Of course!" said Calhoun. "I'd made guesses. I couldn't know that they were right. When you tried to kill me, you confirmed every one. Now, when we land on Orede I'm going to get you to try to put me in touch with your friends.
And there's been no check of what men were in the ship and what men weren't. You wouldn't go to Orede if it were likely your fellow had died on the way to you. Here's your coffee. Sugar or saccho, and do you take cream?" She trembled a little, but she took the cup. "I don't understand ."
"Definitely," agreed Calhoun. "She's not doing this for her personal advantage. Whatever she thinks she'd doing, it's more important to her than her own life. Murgatroyd...." "Chee?" said Murgatroyd in an inquiring tone. "There are wild cattle on Orede," said Calhoun. "Herds and herds of them. I have a suspicion that somebody's been shooting them. Lots of them. Do you agree?
Then stillness, and solidity, and the blackness of the Pit outside the Med Ship. The little craft was in overdrive again. After a long while, the girl Maril said uneasily. "I don't know what you plan now ." "I'm going to Dara," said Calhoun. "On Orede I tried to get the blueskins there to get going, fast. Maybe I succeeded. I don't know. But this thing's been mishandled!
But it looks like miners saw men hunting, and got close enough to see they were blueskins, and then got back to the mine with the news!" She waited for him to explain. "I know I'm guessing, but it fits!" he said distastefully. "So something had to be done. Either the mining settlement had to be wiped out or the story that blueskins were on Orede had to be discredited. The blueskins tried for both.
Hundreds of thousands of tons of grain circled Weald in sealed-tight hulks, while the people of Dara starved and only dared try to steal if it could be called stealing some of the innumerable wild cattle of Orede. The blueskins on Orede could not trust Calhoun, so they pretended not to hear. Or maybe that didn't hear. They'd been abandoned and betrayed by all of humanity off their world.
"She doesn't belong on Weald, or with the conditioning she'd have had, there'd be only one place she'd dread worse than Orede, and that would be Dara. But I doubt she'd be afraid to land even on Dara." Murgatroyd liked to be talked to. He liked to pretend that he carried on a conversation, like humans. "Chee-chee!" he said with conviction. "Definitely," agreed Calhoun.
And when hundreds of men jammed themselves into a cargo-boat which could not furnish them with air to breathe, and took off and went into overdrive before the air could fail.... Orede called for no less of worry. "I think," said Calhoun dourly, "that I'll have some coffee." "Coffee" was one of the words that Murgatroyd recognized immediately.
A little before the Med Ship was due to break out from overdrive, the girl said very carefully, "You've been very kind. I'd like to thank you. I I didn't really believe I would live to get to Orede." Calhoun raised his eyebrows. "I wish I could tell you everything you want to know," she added regretfully. "I think you're ... really decent. But some thing...."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking