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.Winter was coming.Always, on Ragnarok, winter was coming or the brown deathof summer.Ragnarok was a harsh and barren prison, and no amount of desire could evermake it otherwise.Only the coming of a Gern cruiser could ever offer them thebloody, violent opportunity to regain their freedom.But what if the cruiser never came?It was a thought too dark and hopeless to be held.They were not asking alarge favor of fate, after two hundred years of striving for it; only thechance to challenge the Gern Empire with bows and knives.Fenrir stiffened, the fur lifting on his shoulders and a muted growl comingfrom him.Then Humbolt heard the first whisper of sound; a faint, farawayroaring that was not the wind.He watched and listened and the sound came swiftly nearer, rising in pitch andswelling in volume.Then it broke through the clouds, tall and black and beautifully deadly.Itrode down on its rockets of flame, filling the valley with its thunder, andhis heart hammered with exultation.It had come the cruiser had come!He turned and dropped the ten feet to the ground inside the stockade.Thewarning signal was being sounded from the center of town; a unicorn horn thatgave out the call they had used in the practice alarms.Already the women andchildren would be hurrying along the tunnels that led to the temporary safetyof the woods beyond town.The Gerns might use their turret blasters to destroythe town and all in it before the night was over.There was no way of knowingwhat might happen before it ended.But whatever it was, it would be the actionthey had all been wanting.He ran to where the others would be gathering, Fenrir and Sigyn loping besidehim and the horn ringing wild and savage and triumphant as it announced theend of two centuries of waiting.* * *The cruiser settled to earth in the area where it had been expected to land,towering high above the town with its turret blasters looking down upon thehouses.Charley Craig and Norman Lake were waiting for him on the high steps of hisown house in the center of town where the elevation gave them a good view ofthe ship yet where the fringes of the canopy would conceal them from theship's scanners.They were heavily armed, their prowlers beside them and theirmockers on their shoulders.Elsewhere, under the connected rows of concealing canopies, armed men werehurrying to their prearranged stations.Most of them were accompanied byprowlers, bristling and snarling as they looked at the alien ship.A few menwere deliberately making themselves visible not far away, going aboutunimportant tasks with only occasional and carefully disinterested glancestoward the ship.They were the bait, to lure the first detachment into thecenter of town."Well?" Normal Lake asked, his pale eyes restless with his hunger forPage 73 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlviolence."There's our ship when do we take her?""Just as soon as we get them outside it," he said."We'll use the plan wefirst had wait until they send a full force to rescue the first detachment andthen hit them with everything we have."His black, white-nosed mocker was standing in the open doorway and watchingthe hurrying men and prowlers with worried interest: Tip, thegreat-great-great-great grandson of the mocker that had died with Howard Lakenorth of the plateau.He reached down to pick him up and set him on hisshoulder, and said:"Jim?""The longbows are ready," Tip's treble imitation of Jim Chiara's voiceanswered."We'll black out their searchlights when the time comes.""Andy?" he asked."The last of us for this section are coming in now," Andy Taylor answered.He made his check of all the subleaders, then looked up to the roof to ask,"All set, Jimmy?"Jimmy Stevens' grinning face appeared over the edge."Ten crossbows are cockedand waiting up here.Bring us our targets."They waited, while the evening deepened into near-dusk.Then the airlock ofthe cruiser slid open and thirteen Gerns emerged, the one leading them wearingthe resplendent uniform of a subcommander."There they come," he said to Lake and Craig."It looks like we'll be able totrap them in here and force the commander to send out a full-sized force.We'll all attack at the sound of the horn and if you can hit their rear flankshard enough with the unicorns to give us a chance to split them from this endsome of us should make it to the ship before they realize up in the controlroom that they should close the airlocks."Now" he looked at the Gerns who were coming straight toward the stockadewall, ignoring the gate to their right "you'd better be on your way.We'llmeet again before long in the ship [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Winter was coming.Always, on Ragnarok, winter was coming or the brown deathof summer.Ragnarok was a harsh and barren prison, and no amount of desire could evermake it otherwise.Only the coming of a Gern cruiser could ever offer them thebloody, violent opportunity to regain their freedom.But what if the cruiser never came?It was a thought too dark and hopeless to be held.They were not asking alarge favor of fate, after two hundred years of striving for it; only thechance to challenge the Gern Empire with bows and knives.Fenrir stiffened, the fur lifting on his shoulders and a muted growl comingfrom him.Then Humbolt heard the first whisper of sound; a faint, farawayroaring that was not the wind.He watched and listened and the sound came swiftly nearer, rising in pitch andswelling in volume.Then it broke through the clouds, tall and black and beautifully deadly.Itrode down on its rockets of flame, filling the valley with its thunder, andhis heart hammered with exultation.It had come the cruiser had come!He turned and dropped the ten feet to the ground inside the stockade.Thewarning signal was being sounded from the center of town; a unicorn horn thatgave out the call they had used in the practice alarms.Already the women andchildren would be hurrying along the tunnels that led to the temporary safetyof the woods beyond town.The Gerns might use their turret blasters to destroythe town and all in it before the night was over.There was no way of knowingwhat might happen before it ended.But whatever it was, it would be the actionthey had all been wanting.He ran to where the others would be gathering, Fenrir and Sigyn loping besidehim and the horn ringing wild and savage and triumphant as it announced theend of two centuries of waiting.* * *The cruiser settled to earth in the area where it had been expected to land,towering high above the town with its turret blasters looking down upon thehouses.Charley Craig and Norman Lake were waiting for him on the high steps of hisown house in the center of town where the elevation gave them a good view ofthe ship yet where the fringes of the canopy would conceal them from theship's scanners.They were heavily armed, their prowlers beside them and theirmockers on their shoulders.Elsewhere, under the connected rows of concealing canopies, armed men werehurrying to their prearranged stations.Most of them were accompanied byprowlers, bristling and snarling as they looked at the alien ship.A few menwere deliberately making themselves visible not far away, going aboutunimportant tasks with only occasional and carefully disinterested glancestoward the ship.They were the bait, to lure the first detachment into thecenter of town."Well?" Normal Lake asked, his pale eyes restless with his hunger forPage 73 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlviolence."There's our ship when do we take her?""Just as soon as we get them outside it," he said."We'll use the plan wefirst had wait until they send a full force to rescue the first detachment andthen hit them with everything we have."His black, white-nosed mocker was standing in the open doorway and watchingthe hurrying men and prowlers with worried interest: Tip, thegreat-great-great-great grandson of the mocker that had died with Howard Lakenorth of the plateau.He reached down to pick him up and set him on hisshoulder, and said:"Jim?""The longbows are ready," Tip's treble imitation of Jim Chiara's voiceanswered."We'll black out their searchlights when the time comes.""Andy?" he asked."The last of us for this section are coming in now," Andy Taylor answered.He made his check of all the subleaders, then looked up to the roof to ask,"All set, Jimmy?"Jimmy Stevens' grinning face appeared over the edge."Ten crossbows are cockedand waiting up here.Bring us our targets."They waited, while the evening deepened into near-dusk.Then the airlock ofthe cruiser slid open and thirteen Gerns emerged, the one leading them wearingthe resplendent uniform of a subcommander."There they come," he said to Lake and Craig."It looks like we'll be able totrap them in here and force the commander to send out a full-sized force.We'll all attack at the sound of the horn and if you can hit their rear flankshard enough with the unicorns to give us a chance to split them from this endsome of us should make it to the ship before they realize up in the controlroom that they should close the airlocks."Now" he looked at the Gerns who were coming straight toward the stockadewall, ignoring the gate to their right "you'd better be on your way.We'llmeet again before long in the ship [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]