United States or North Macedonia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Things it must have done, since the magter are obviously the dominant life form on this planet. They paid a high price for the symbiote, but it didn't matter to race survival until now. Did you notice that the magter's brain is no smaller than normal?" "It must be or how else could that brain-symbiote fit in inside the skull with it?" Brion said.
His stomach rose at the thought and he clutched the edge of the sand car. Killing like this was too personal. Talking abstractedly about a body was one thing, but murdering a man, then lifting his dead flesh and feeling his blood warm upon you is an entirely different matter. But the magter weren't human, he knew that. The thought was only mildly comforting.
In every external physical detail the man was human. Brion's theory was becoming more preposterous with each discovery. If the magter weren't alien, how could he explain their complete lack of emotions? A mutation of some kind? He didn't see how it was possible. There had to be something alien about the dead man before him. The future of a world rested on this flimsy hope.
"Tell us," Ulv grunted. "There would be no war if the magter could be contacted, made to listen to reason. They are killing you all. You could tell me how to talk to the magter, how I could understand them " "No one can talk to the magter," the woman broke in. "If you say something different they will kill you as they killed Gebk's brother. So they are easy to understand. That is the way they are.
Let's get out of here, the quickest way we can." "I smell air from outside," Ulv said, "coming from down there. This cannot be, because the magter have no entrances this low in their towers." "We blasted one in earlier that could be it. Can you find it?" Moonlight shone ahead as they turned an angle of the corridor, and stars were visible through the gaping opening in the wall.
Any other planet would have jumped on the magter with both feet and shaken the bombs out of them. We fumbled it so long it almost got both worlds killed. Your mind-parasite drew us back from the brink." "I don't understand," Brion said. "A simple matter of definition. Before you came we had no way to deal with the magter here on Dis. They really were alien to us.
I have the knowledge to avert this slaughter and you won't listen to me. And I know where the cobalt bombs are in the magter tower that Hys raided last night. Get those bombs and there is no need to drop any of your own!" "I'm sorry, Brion. I appreciate what you're trying to do, but at the same time I know the futility of it.
The car had been seen when they entered the city probably by some of the magter who had destroyed the Foundation building. They had not seen where it had gone, or Brion would surely be dead by now. But they must have spotted it when Telt tried to leave the city and stopped it in the most effective way possible, a dart through the open window into the unsuspecting driver's neck. Telt dead!
Brion glanced at his watch and was instantly sorry. Ten-thirty. The last shelter concealing them was five metres from the cave. They started to rise, to rush the final distance, when Ulv suddenly waved Brion down. He pointed to his nose, then to the cave. He could smell the magter there. A dark figure separated itself from the greater darkness of the cave mouth. Ulv acted instantly.
The man had backed in, firing behind him as he came. Ulv had no compunctions about killing, only his darts couldn't penetrate the magter's thick clothing. As the magter turned, Ulv's breath pulsed once and death stung the back of the other man's hand. He collapsed into a crumpled heap.
Word Of The Day