# Forum Other Languages English for Russians - Изучаем английский язык Practice your English  S. Lukyanenko. The Dreamline . Proofreaders are welcome )))

## Ramil

Edit: Changed topic header. 
I chose S. Lukyanenko "The dreamline" for testing myself in fiction translating.  
I'm asking native speakers to check the following chapter for mistakes and style issues. Also I'm concerned about verb+preposition constructions. I would be grateful for any additional remarks. 
EDIT: Made some corrections myself.  
Sergery Lukyanenko
The Dreamline
Part one. God the Father and God the Son
1
Children were what Kay hated the most. Were this affected by his own childhood in the asylum “The New Generation” on Altos – it was unknown. Whatever the case, he never lingered on one planet any longer than nine months. On the planets which had undergone a fertility treatment during the Feud War and conscientiously worked as suppliers of cannon fodder for the Empire he never stayed longer than four months and a half.
Besides, Kay didn’t like it to be killed. It was quite painful sometimes and it was always associated with considerable expenses. And Kay needed money. He loved his hyperboat which demanded expensive maintenance, women who didn’t demand this much, wines of Empire and Mrshhan association, fragrances worked by the old Klackon masters and such pleasures of other races which human can understand and endure.
Now his two antipathies have joined together. And the most unpleasant thing was not even the fact that he was about to be killed by a kid, for a kid and using one of the most unpleasant ways to do it. The real distress was in the fact that Kay had not yet got around to pay for the aTan renewal.
And this, as everybody knows, is fatal.
The hotel room was shabby enough not to kindle some burning interest of robbers and was decent enough to guard Kay from filchers. The boy standing by his bed matched the second category judging by his appearance. Where did he get the electronic key to open the door and the nullifier for blocking the alarms, remained a mystery. The weapon in his hand was easier – algopistols, weapons of sadists and losers, were inexpensive.
“Let’s do it this way”, offered Kay trying very hard to keep his face calm, “you will turn your gun aside and then we’ll talk. As serious people.”
The boy smiled, “I am not serious”.
He didn’t look all that serious indeed – swarthy and dark-haired, the kid was about twelve or thirteen. A jaunty shirt made of pink silk and short white trousers made him appear even less hazardous.
“Listen”, Kay appealed again, “Even if you throw the gun out of the window…”
The boy frowned a little.
“Even if you throw the gun out of the window, I won’t be able to do anything to you! You can see…”
“I see”
“I can’t talk with the gun pointed at me…”
“And why should I talk to you?” the boy was surprised a little.
In his thoughts Kay praised all known gods. The more is said now, the less would be the chances the punk pushes the trigger. To kill a man whom you’re talking to is not so easy, honestly though, Kay wasn’t so sure about whether this rule was applicable to children.
“You’re going to kill me, right?” he asked.
The boy nodded.
“Death from an algopistol is the most terrible thing one can imagine. Believe me, I know it.”
“Have you killed?” the boy was interested.
“I’ve been killed.”
The kid narrowed his lids. He clearly understood.
“So,” Kay continued making his voice sound confident and friendly, “If you’re going to use this abomination on me then tell me for what at least. This is not so great a favor, isn’t it?”
“You’re right”, the boy agreed surprisingly easy. He walked to the armchair that was standing by the wall, sat in it cross-legged and placed the pistol on the arm rest. Unfortunately, he didn’t risk anything. Kay was sprawled on the bed, naked and totally helpless. His body was covered by a thin silvery web that firmly bound Kay to bed-sheet, the bed itself and the wall the bed stood by. The spray container stood on a table where the boy left it as if he was going to repeat the procedure if necessary.
“So, what ill have I done to you, my little friend?” Key carefully turned his head trying to avoid the thin fibers cutting through his body. “Are you a robber? My congratulations, you’re a gifted one. And lucky too. I’ll tell you where the cash is and the code for the card. I need to fly away tomorrow, so I won’t be looking for you and your police…”
The boy’s face wavered.
“I’m not a robber. And you’re not going to fly anywhere. Your flying here was enough.”
There stood a silence in the room for a moment. Then Kay asked very quietly:
“Who this girl was to you?”
“A sister.”
“My friend, this was a pure accident. I was landing on the field of the spaceport. I landed within the allocated zone…”
“But you didn’t land within the circle! You killed her deliberately! I know what you’ve said to the flight-control – “I hate children, these little bitches always creep under the nozzles”. Many saw your landing; you’ve swerved over the field in order to hit Lena with the beam!”
The boy’s voice became thready, cracking. And Kay understood with horror that the boy’s winding himself up. Preparing himself to push the trigger.
“I didn’t see her, believe me. Why would I want to do it…”
“Of course, you were just dancing in the air.” the boy assumed with contempt.
Key chocked on the prepared phrase. How he was supposed to explain to this kid from ghetto that he was indeed dancing? How to express the weight of the piloting headpiece, and the blue haze that surrounds you, and the weightless ship which you became one with? The humming of gravity drives, the air flows, the exhilaration of flight… Yes, he was dancing. And he didn’t look on the concrete plain where stood a girl who bribed some spaceport guard and was waiting for his ship in order to run to the hatch first and to offer the cheapest drugs on the  planet, herself as a guide or simply herself…
He was dancing, and the gravity beam slipped over the girl, rubbing her into concrete and turning her into the bloody dust, into that grayish-brown spot that he saw when he exited the ship.
“Kid, my autopilot went haywire so I took the control, but the ship swayed…”
“You’re lying.” the boy said mercilessly, “Everybody in the port knows that your boat is in perfect order.”
He took the pistol, carefully unlocked it and approached the bed.
“Listen,” Kay said feeling an icy chill on his skin, “I have the aTan. You won’t be able to kill me permanently, understand? I’ll come back and make you think of algopistol as of a good riddance.”
“You’re lying” the boy hesitated slightly.
“No, I’m not. You see my body, there’s not a single scratch on it. Men of my profession don’t look like that. I resuscitated a month ago, you understand?”
Boy didn’t show any interest in Kay’s profession which Kay vaguely hoped for, but considered the end of the phrase, instead:
“If you had resuscitated only a month ago you might not have your aTan renewed yet.” he said thoughtfully, “I’ll risk.”
Kay cried, in his thoughts, of course. He came to Cailis in order to renew his immortality – it was quite cheaper here than on Sigma-T where he’d been killed. He loved money that made his life pleasant and he had just lost this life.
“At least” he asked quietly, “you can kill me not with the algopistol.” Your sister died instantly, so don’t make me suffer. In this case you’ll have the chance that I won’t be very zealous with the revenge.
The boy examined Kay carefully, assessing with great interest his neck muscles, and then shook his head:
“I’m not sure I can strangle you…”
“In the closet, on the second shelf from the bottom, there is a blaster. An assault “Bumblebee”, you know… the officer’s model. The money and the credit card are there too. The access code is thirty two, orange, “WOLF”. All of that is your prize. Kill me with the blaster.
“All right” the boy tucked the pistol under his belt and headed for the closet. Key squinted at his left arm. The web covered it poorly holding only the tips of his fingers. The arm was free from the shoulder to the second phalanges.
“How did you get in the hotel?” asked Kay. He bit his lips in order to feel the taste of blood and the pain and jerked his arm. The polymeric fiber indifferently took the sacrifice disjoining the last phalanges of his four fingers. The thumb remained intact which was good.
“I passed off for a call-boy” the kid explained carefully opening the closet. “Paid to the receptionist, hey there is only money here and no gun…”
“Here it is” Kay said taking his hand from under the pillow. The blood from his cut-off fingers gushed out with thin pulsating spurts. The ribbed barrel of the “Bumblebee” wobbled back and forth. The boy turned raising his gun and froze staring at the fancy blood fountains.
“I hate children” whispered Kay, “pity I didn’t see your sister. I’d killed her deliberately.”
The stump of his forefinger pushed the trigger. When naked tissues touched metal a sharp pang forced Kay to give a cry. The hand faltered and the thin red beam slipped over the boy’s shoulder. Now it was the boy’s turn to cry either from fright or Kay managed to mark him still. The boy crouched and the algopistol bloomed with a cone of flaring green light. It blended surprisingly well with the splashes of blood. 
It’s hard to miss when shooting a weapon for losers.
When the field of neuron activator or simply algopistol reached Kay he forgot about the pain in his hand. He himself turned into pain. It happened before, but then his aTan had been paid up and he could believe at least that he would revenge.
Kay didn’t cry for long, a second later there wasn’t strength left to cry. In a minute an a half of intolerable agony he died, blind, deaf and cut to pieces by the “web” he was writhing in.

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## Ramil

Here's the original just in case.  
                            Сергей ЛУКЬЯНЕНКО 
                                ЛИНИЯ ГРЕЗ    
                     ЧАСТЬ ПЕРВАЯ. БОГ-ОТЕЦ И БОГ-СЫН  
                                    1 
     Больше всего Кей не любил детей. Сказалось ли на этом его собственное
детство - в приюте "Новое поколение" на Альтосе, неизвестно. Как бы там ни
было, он никогда не задерживался на одной планете больше  девяти  месяцев.
На  тех  планетах,  которые  во  время  Смутной  Войны  прошли  фертильную
обработку, и честно служили поставщиками пушечного мяса для Империи, он не
задерживался более четырех с половиной месяцев.
     Кроме этого Кей не любил, когда его убивали. Порой  это  было  крайне
болезненно, и всегда - связано с  немалыми  тратами.  А  деньги  Кею  были
нужны. Он любил свой гиперкатер - требующий дорогостоящего ухода, женщин -
не требующих столь многого, вина Империи и  Мршанской  ассоциации,  запахи
работы старых Клаконских мастеров и те удовольствия  прочих  рас,  которые
способен понять и выдержать человек.
     Сейчас две его антипатии сложились воедино. И самым  неприятным  было
не то, что его собирался убить ребенок, из-за ребенка, и  одним  из  самых
неприятных способов. Беда была в том, что Кей не успел оплатить  продление
аТана.
     А это, как известно, фатально.
     Номер гостиницы  был  достаточно  жалок,  чтобы  не  вызвать  жгучего
интереса грабителей и  вполне  приличен,  чтобы  оградить  Кея  от  мелких
воришек. Мальчишка, стоящий у его  кровати,  внешне  подходил  под  вторую
категорию.  Откуда  он  взял  электронный  ключ  чтобы  открыть  дверь   и
нулификатор для блокирования сигнализации оставалось загадкой. С оружием в
его руке было проще - алгопистолеты, оружие садистов и неудачников,  стоят
недорого.
     - Давай мы поступим так, - отчаянно стараясь сохранить спокойное лицо
предложил Кей. - Ты отведешь ствол - и мы поговорим. Как серьезные люди.
     Мальчишка заулыбался:
     - Я несерьезный.
     Он действительно не выглядел слишком серьезным - смуглый черноволосый
пацан двенадцати-тринадцати лет. Веселенькая рубашка из розового  шелка  и
короткие белые брюки придавали ему еще более неопасный вид.
     - Послушай, - вновь воззвал Кей. - Даже если ты выкинешь  пистолет  в
окно...
     Мальчик слегка нахмурился.
     - Даже если ты выкинешь пистолет, я ничего не смогу тебе сделать!  Ты
же видишь...
     - Вижу.
     - Я не могу разговаривать под дулом...
     - А зачем мне с тобой разговаривать? - слегка удивился мальчишка.
     Мысленно Кей вознес хвалу всем известным  богам.  Чем  больше  сейчас
будет сказано, тем меньше шансов,  что  гаденыш  нажмет  на  курок.  Убить
человека, с которым разговариваешь, не так-то легко... правда Кей  не  был
уверен, что это правило относится к детям.
     - Ты ведь собираешься меня убить? - поинтересовался он.
     Мальчик молча кивнул.
     - Смерть от алгопистолета - самое страшное,  что  только  можно  себе
представить. Поверь, я это знаю.
     - Убивал? - заинтересовался мальчик.
     - Меня убивали.
     Пацан прищурился. Он явно понял.
     - Так вот, - придавая голосу  самый  доверительный  и  дружеский  тон
продолжил Кей, - если уж ты хочешь применить на мне эту мерзость  -  скажи
хотя бы, за что. Это не такая уж большая милость, верно?
     - Верно, - неожиданно легко согласился мальчик. Подошел к стоящему  у
стены креслу, уселся в него, заложив ногу за ногу, пристроил  пистолет  на
подлокотник. К сожалению, он ничем не рисковал. Кей  валялся  на  кровати,
голый и совершенно беспомощный. Тонкая серебристая паутина  покрывала  его
тело, намертво скрепляя Кея с  постелью,  кроватью  и  стеной,  у  которой
кровать  стояла.  Баллончик  спрея  мальчик  поставил  на  стол  -  словно
собирался в случае необходимости повторить процедуру.
     - Так чем я тебе насолил, дружок? - Кей осторожно, чтобы тонкие  нити
не врезались в тело, повернул  голову.  -  Ты  грабитель?  Поздравляю,  ты
талантлив. И удачлив. Я скажу тебе где наличные,  и  каков  код  карточки.
Завтра мне надо улетать - так что искать тебя я не буду, а ваша полиция...
     Лицо мальчика дрогнуло.
     - Я не грабитель. И никуда ты не улетишь.  Достаточно  того,  что  ты
прилетел.
     На мгновение в номере наступила тишина. Потом  Кей  спросил  -  очень
тихо:
     - Кем была тебе эта девочка?
     - Сестрой.
     - Дружок, это просто несчастный случай. Я садился на поле космодрома.
Я сел в границах отведенной зоны...
     - Но ты сел не в круге! Ты убил ее - нарочно! Я знаю, что  ты  сказал
диспетчеру - "ненавижу детей, вечно эти маленькие сучки лезут  под  дюзы".
Твою посадку видели многие - ты вильнул над  полем,  чтобы  ударить  Ленку
лучом!
     Голос мальчика стал тонким, срывающимся. И Кей с ужасом  понял  -  он
взвинчивает себя. Взвинчивает, чтобы нажать на курок.
     - Я не видел ее, поверь. Зачем мне нужно было...
     - Ну да, ты танцевал в воздухе, - с презрением предположил мальчик.
     Кей поперхнулся заготовленной фразой. Как объяснить  этому  мальчишке
из трущоб, что он действительно танцевал? Как передать тяжесть пилотажного
шлема, и голубизну вокруг, и  невесомый  корабль,  которым  ты  стал?  Гул
гравитационных двигателей, потоки воздушных течений,  опьянение  полета...
Да, он танцевал. И не смотрел на бетонную равнину,  на  которой  девчонка,
давшая мелкую взятку охранникам космопорта,  ждала  его  корабль  -  чтобы
первой подбежать к люку, предложить самые дешевые  на  планете  наркотики,
себя в качестве гида - или просто себя...
     Он танцевал. И гравилуч скользнул по девчонке,  втирая  ее  в  бетон,
превращая в кровавую пыль, в то серо-бурое пятно, которое он увидел, выйдя
из корабля.
     - Мальчик, у меня барахлил автопилот. Я взял управление,  но  корабль
при этом качнуло...
     - Ты врешь, - безжалостно сообщил мальчишка. - Все в  порту  знают  -
твой катер в полном порядке.
     Он взял пистолет, аккуратно снял его с  предохранителя  и  подошел  к
кровати.
     - Слушай, - ощущая ледяной холодок на коже,  сказал  Кей.  -  У  меня
аТан. Ты не сможешь меня убить насовсем, понимаешь? Я вернусь и  сделаю  с
тобой такое, что алгопистолет покажется лишь избавлением.
     - Ты врешь, - едва заметно заколебался мальчишка.
     - Нет. Ты видишь мое тело - на нем ни царапины. Люди  моей  профессии
так не выглядят. Я оживал месяц назад, понимаешь?
     Мальчик не  заинтересовался  профессией  Кея  -  на  что  тот  смутно
надеялся. Зато оценил конец фразы.
     - Если ты оживал месяц назад, то  мог  еще  не  возобновить  аТан,  -
задумчиво произнес он. - Я рискну.
     Кей  закричал.  Мысленно,  конечно.  Он  прилетел  на  Каилис,  чтобы
возобновить свое бессмертие - здесь это было не в пример дешевле  Сигмы-Т,
где его убили. Он любил деньги - которые делали жизнь приятной. И  потерял
эту жизнь.
     - По крайней мере, - тихо попросил он, - ты можешь убить меня  не  из
алгопистолета. Твоя сестра умерла мгновенно - не мучай меня. Тогда у  тебя
будет шанс, что я не стану слишком усердствовать с местью.
     Мальчик внимательно осмотрел Кея, с особым вниманием оценивая  шейную
мускулатуру. И покачал головой:
     - Не уверен, что смогу тебя задушить...
     - В шкафу, на второй полке снизу, бластер. Десантный "Шмель", знаешь,
офицерская модель. Там же деньги и кредитка. Код доступа -  тридцать  два,
оранжевый, "ВОЛК". Все это твой приз. Убей меня из бластера.
     - Ладно, - мальчик, засунув пистолет за пояс, направился к шкафу. Кей
скосил глаза на свою левую руку. Паутина легла на нее  плохо  -  прихватив
лишь кончики пальцев. От плеча и до вторых фаланг рука была свободной.
     - Как ты прошел в гостиницу? - поинтересовался Кей.  Закусил  губы  -
так, чтобы почувствовать вкус крови и боль. И рванул руку. Полимерная нить
равнодушно приняла жертву,  отделив  последние  фаланги  четырех  пальцев.
Большой палец остался невредим. Хорошо.
     - Я представился мальчиком  по  вызову,  -  осторожно  открывая  шкаф
объяснил пацан. - Заплатил портье... Эй, здесь  только  деньги,  пистолета
нет...
     - Вот он, -  вынимая  руку  из-под  подушки  сообщил  Кей.  Кровь  из
обрубленных пальцев била тонкими пульсирующими струйками. Ребристый  ствол
"Шмеля" ходил ходуном. Мальчишка повернулся, поднимая пистолет,  и  замер,
глядя на затейливые кровяные фонтанчики.
     - Ненавижу детей, - прошептал Кей. - Жаль, что не увидел твоей сестры
- убил бы ее сознательно.
     Обрубок указательного пальца надавил на курок. Когда обнаженные ткани
задели металл, резкий укол боли заставил Кея вскрикнуть. Рука дрогнула,  и
тонкий красный луч скользнул над плечом мальчишки. Теперь закричал  тот  -
или от  страха,  или  Кей  его  все  же  зацепил.  Мальчишка  присел  -  и
алгопистолет расцвел конусом мерцающего  зеленого  света.  Он  удивительно
удачно сочетался с брызгами крови.
     Из оружия для неудачников трудно промазать.
     Когда поле нейронного  активатора  -  в  просторечии,  алгопистолета,
коснулось Кея, он забыл про боль в руке.  Он  весь  стал  болью.  Это  уже
случалось - но тогда его аТан был  оплачен.  И  он  мог  по  крайней  мере
верить, что отомстит...
     Кей кричал недолго - через секунду у него  уже  не  осталось  сил  на
крик. Через полторы минуты невыносимой муки он умер - ослепший,  оглохший,
изрезанный на куски "паутиной", в которой бился.

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## paulb

I have to leave very soon, but  
"Were this affected by his own childhood in the asylum “The New Generation” on Altos – it was unknown." 
"Were" is definitely incorrect here. 
Better this way: 
It was (or is) unknown if this was due to his own childhood in the New Generation Asylum on Altos. 
The opening of the next sentence would be better as "In any event". 
I'll try to do more later.

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## chaika

Whether this was affected by ... Altos was not known.
four and a half months
didn't like to be killed
expense.
hyperboat, which
(since you just used "expense" I would use "costly" next)
rest of sentence I don't understand.
humans 
... I'm ready to pass the baton....

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## Ramil

I continue, feel free to add comments: 
2 
Death is the last adventure. Resurrection doesn’t bear anything new in it; it is like the ordinary awakening.
At first, Kay saw a light. Then there was a knobby grey tower, raising over him and as motionless as if it were dead. It must be said however that the dispute about whether the term ‘life’ is applicable to the Silicoids has been lasting for several hundred years already.
“Name” the word came from within the grey surface.
Ignoring the question, Kay raised a little. The Silicoid didn’t try to stop him. This race moved with reluctance except the cases when they were in for kill.
The room where he was in was well familiar. It was a reanimation module of the aTan company save the wall screen where the name of a planet should be displayed was turned off. Kay was lying on a white disk two meters in diameter – a molecular replicator which had just recreated his body, new and healthy as it had been stored seventeen years before. An open framework of aTan-emitter which had pushed into his new brain all his childish grievances, mistakes of youth and adult crimes – everything that comprised the Kay’s personality, hanged over the head. He was resurrected. Resurrected in spite of his aTan wasn’t paid up?
“Name?” patiently repeated the Silicoid.
“Kay Altos.”
“Citizenship?”
“Human Empire.”
“Code?”
The Silicoid’s voice came from the whole surface of his body. Lacking the vocal ligaments and respiratory tract he talked by exerting his silica muscles and vibrating the whole surface of his body. This created a strange polyphony and volume as if the whole choir whispered the words in unison.
“Three, nine, six, three, one, four, nine, one” said Kay in a low voice. One shouldn’t flaunt the personal code even in the aTan company which knew it all too well anyway. Squinting he looked at his left hand – the fingers were intact. No, he has not been patched by surgeons, he has been indeed resurrected. But why?
“The code is correct” the Silicoid turned away which was simply an act of politeness and floated towards the exit. Blue sparks were crackling under the bottom of the gray column. Before the opened door he stayed for a moment and Kay thought he felt the impossible, that the Silicoid was smiling.
“And who’s going to tell me what all of this is about?” asked Kay rhetorically looking at the bas-reliefs on the walls – there were flowers, naked women, naked men…
“I am.”
Kay turned around. There was a man sitting not far away from the replication disk. This was something at least. Kay wasn’t a racist but a heart-to-heart conversation with a Silicoid was beyond his comprehension. The man seemed to be in a friendly mood. Judging by his appearance, he was about forty to forty five with a sleek face, physically not very developed. Even his bouffant gray suit couldn’t conceal this fact. An aTan official? Not from the very bottom, but not from the very top…
“Thank you for a new life” said Kay taking his legs down from the disk.
“You’re welcome”
The words were normal, but it was the tone that Kay didn’t like. He chose to remain silent.
“So, what are the questions?”
“I…” Kay stopped.
“Come on, come on…” the man apparently enjoyed the conversation. “You didn’t pay for the aTan? I’m aware of that.”
“I have the money. I renewed my immortality six times and…”
“That doesn’t matter. The rules of the company are simple – you pay for immortality in advance and for only one time ahead. Do you know why?”
Kay shook his head. The man, as it appeared, belonged to the sort of people who were able to speculate for hours on the nuances of ceremonial gastronomy of the Bulrathi, advantages of interphased drives for small ships, or about tactical blunders of the Mrshan in the Feud War. These speculations are usually entertaining, but almost always are ill-timed. 
When the Psilonians were selling a device which was later named aTan to people, to very far seeing people, as you understand, they’d laid only one condition. A very strange condition if one doesn’t know their psychology. They demanded that aTan would have to be granted only once during a lifetime. Do you understand, Kay? They value life very much, but they are afraid of immortality. And what did we do?
Kay shrugged his shoulders.
“We proved to them, but only after the contract had been signed, that a resurrected man would be a new person. A legal successor of the previous one, but new nevertheless. And he would have the right to sign for the aTan once again. Wasn’t that good?”
“Great” Kay searched for clothes with his eyes without success and prepared to wait.
The man laughed.
“Never mind, I’ve got distracted. What do you want to ask?”
“Where am I? Is it Cailis?
“No, you’re not on Cailis, it’s Terra.”
If the man wanted Kay’s face showed surprise then he wasn’t disappointed. Kay chose not to hide his emotions particularly when they were flattering to the stronger opponent.
“But aTan doesn’t have offices on Terra…”
“This is not a company’s office. It’s a private aTan.”
Kay forced a laugh and raised his hands helplessly:
“That’s great. I didn’t hear it and you didn’t tell me that. The company has the exclusive right and there are no private resurrectors…”
“You’re wrong, Kay Altos. The exclusive right was granted to a private person. This private person founded the aTan company.”
“I know who you are.” said Kay, “You are Curtis Van Curtis, the owner of the aTan company, the oldest man in the galaxy.”
Curtis nodded.
“Well done, Kay. Now they will bring you some clothes and we’ll go to my summer office to drink some wine. You’re a very lucky person. Not only you got a new life, but also landed a great job.”

----------


## translationsnmru

aThan - насколько я помню, название компании и технологии происходит от "а" + "танатос" (thanatos). В английском, кстати, есть родственное слово athanasia (бессмертие).

----------


## Ramil

Thanks, here's the next part: 
3 
There are private ownerships fenced off by iridescent walls of force fields and the name of the aThan company on the shores of the Lake of Geneva, in the Amazon rainforests, in the Baltic deserts, on the swampy lowlands of China, and in the Siberian taiga . All of them are the parts of Curtis’ estate interconnected with hypertunnels into a single whole. Even if you had managed somehow to look through the force fields from the outside you would see only the strange fragments of buildings with balustrades leading to nowhere and galleries rising from the air. The picture from the inside would be quite different. You would see the whole palace that was born by crazy imagination and by even more crazy money. You can take a funicular and go up to the top of Everest and skid down directly into the crystal waters of the Baikal Lake. Having swum a little in the icy waters of the Siberian Lake you can come ashore on a hot Cuban beach. And if you are invited to visit the owner of the company after your walk it would take you no more than a couple of minutes to get to his thousand feet high spire-house in Geneva.
Kay stood on the open pad that topped the building. Wind was fluttering his hair as if it was inviting to feel the short joy of free fall. An invisible force field must surely have surrounded this “study” in the open air, although it was uncertain whether Curtis having infinite number of lives was afraid of falling from the top of his tower. At this thought Kay stepped away from the fenceless edge. Curtis needed him for some purpose, but his value could drop down along with his body. A good employee shouldn’t have a dizzy head.
“Do you like the wine, Kay?”
Kay took a little sip from his glass.
“Yes, Van Curtis, this is a rare sort… but I prefer the blue sorts of Mrshan wines.”
“Perhaps, you’re right. But the yellow sorts are better for your health; they don’t damage the liver and prolong life.”
This resembled a mockery, but Kay remained silent. He was turning an ancient crystal wineglass in his hands that was worth probably no less than immortality and looking at Curtis. The aThan’s owner sat at the simple wooden table with identical wineglass in his hands. There was only one armchair on the pad – this was either an intentional neglect or else nobody was granted the honor of sitting beside Curtis on the top of his empire.
“How do you find the look?” Curtis inquired.
“Dizzy” Kay murmured, “I prefer to look afar.”
“It’s like a kaleidoscope isn’t it?” Curtis laughed. “I understand… deserts, lakes, oceans, forests, steppes and all of this is on such a plot of land. I don’t need much, Kay. I don’t need the Red sea of the whole Himalaya even though I could buy them. A little bit of everything. Sobriety and variety – these are the keys for not losing interest in prolonged life. You don’t understand it yet, young man. You resuscitated six times save today. But none of your aThans lasted more than five years. It’s a spendthrift. Even having the qualification and incomes of yours it won’t last for long.”
“What do you want, Van Curtis?” asked Kay wearily, “Even life as a gift isn’t worth moral teachings.” He approached Curtis and sat on the table.
“I need you to die for me, permanently and irrevocably... or to get an eternal life. This would depend on how will you do.”

----------


## paulb

I'm dividing up your paragraphs just to make it easier to write comments. 
Children were what Kay hated the most. Were this affected by his own childhood in the asylum “The New Generation” on Altos – it was unknown. Whatever the case, he never lingered on one planet any longer than nine months.  
On the planets which had undergone a fertility treatment during the Feud War and conscientiously worked as suppliers of cannon fodder for the Empire he never stayed longer than four months and a half.
--This would be better style with the subject at the beginning, and it is also a little bit too long. You can break it into two sentences, and in fiction you can even use a sentence fragment like this: "He made it a point never to stay longer than four and a half months on planets which had undergone fertility treatment during the Feud War. Conscientious suppliers of cannon fodder." 
Besides, Kay also hated to be killed. --Later you wrote "his two antipathies". If you put "hate" here then it matches with "hate" at the top and you can have "his two hatreds" below. 
It was quite painful sometimes and was always associated with considerable expense. --removed "it" and changed last word to singular 
And Kay needed money. --normally it is bad writing style to start with "and", but in this sort of fiction it is actually very good! 
He loved his hyperboat, which demanded expensive maintenance, women who demanded only slightly less, wines of the Empire and the Mrshhan association, perfumes worked by the old Klackon masters and whatever pleasures of other races a human being can understand and endure.
--"Hypership" might sound a little more like other science fiction in English. 
Now his two hatreds have joined together. --see comments above 
 And the most unpleasant thing was not even the fact that he was about to be killed by a kid, to be killed for a kid, and to be killed in one of the most unpleasant ways possible. --The best/worst way to do something is the "best/worst way possible".   No, the real distress was in the fact that Kay still hadn't gotten around to paying for his aTan renewal. --This sentence is humorous, but it will confuse the reader about what "aTan" is. It should be changed to something that sounds more familiar. It can still be a funny word, but it has to be one a reader can guess the meaning of. 
And this, as everyone knows, is fatal. 
The hotel room was shabby enough not to kindle some burning interest of robbers and was decent enough to guard Kay from filchers. --I like "kindle" and "burning" but it doesn't quite fit well here. I would remove it and change it this way "The hotel room was shabby enough not to attract the interest of professional thieves, but decent enough to keep Kay safe from casual filchers." 
The boy standing by his bed was in the second category judging by his appearance.  
Where did he got the electronic key to open the door and a nullifier for blocking the alarms remained a mystery.  
The weapon in his hand was easier – algopistols, the weapon of sadists and losers, were inexpensive.

----------


## Ramil

> I'm dividing up your paragraphs just to make it easier to write comments.

 Thanks, your help is much appreciated.   

> --This would be better style with the subject at the beginning, and it is also a little bit too long. You can break it into two sentences, and in fiction you can even use a sentence fragment.

 I thought about it. Still I was trying to remain as close to the original as possible.    

> He loved his hyperboat, which demanded expensive maintenance, women who demanded only slightly less,

 About hyperboat. Well there's the difference in the original between the гиперкатер (a small ship as I understood) and корабль (a bigger ship).
Thus, I chose to pick another word.
And about women who demanded only slightly less. Here we can see in the original:  _гиперкатер - требующий дорогостоящего ухода, женщин - не требующих столь многого,_  
...women who don't demand this much (well, they are called 'easy women' as I understand).   

> This sentence is humorous, but it will confuse the reader about what "aTan" is. It should be changed to something that sounds more familiar. It can still be a funny word, but it has to be one a reader can guess the meaning of.

 Well, that was the author's intention I guess. There's no such word as аТан in Russian either, still the meaning of it is explained a few paragraphs further.    

> And this, as everyone knows, is fatal.

 Is there some mnemonic rule I should remember for using everybody vs. everyone?

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## paulb

One general comment. Kay is usually a woman's name or nickname in English. It might be a little confusing, so you could change it to "Kae" or "Kai" or "something else if you like. 
“Let’s do things this way”, offered Kay, trying very hard to keep his face calm, “you'll put your gun down and then we’ll talk. Like serious people.” 
The boy smiled, “I am not serious”. --excellent. A good place to NOT use a contraction 
He indeed didn’t look all that serious – swarthy and dark-haired, about twelve or thirteen. --changed order and took out some words 
 A jaunty shirt made of pink silk and short white trousers made him appear even less hazardous. --"hazardous" is PERFECT. I love it. 
“Listen”, Kay appealed again, “Even if you threw the gun out the window…” --we just say "out the window" 
The boy frowned a little.
“Even if you threw the gun out  the window, I wouldn't be able to do anything! You see…”--removed "can"
“Yes...”
“I can’t talk with a gun pointed at me…”
“And why should I talk to you?” The boy was a little surprised.--just changed the order. 
In his mind Kay praised all known gods.  
The more he talked now, the slimmer the chances  of the punk pulling the trigger. --English idiom "slim chance". Also, triggers are pulled. 
It's not that easy to kill a man you are talking to, --changed order  but frankly Kay wasn’t so sure if this rule was applicable to children.
“You’re going to kill me, right?” he asked.
The boy nodded.
“Death from an algopistol is about the most terrible thing one can imagine. Believe me, I know.” --removed "it" at the end 
“Have you killed someone?” the boy was interested.
“I’ve been killed.”
The kid narrowed his eyes. He clearly understood.
“So,” Kay continued making his voice sound confident and friendly, “if you’re going to use this abomination on me then at least tell me why.  
This isn't much of a favor you're doing me, is it?”--This is my best guess. This sentence didn't translate well, and my Russian isn't good enough to do it myself. Also, tags have to be the opposite of the main verb. "It is a nice day, isn't it." "It isn't very cold today, is it" 
“You’re right”, the boy agreed quite easily. --"Surprisingly easy" is grammatical and makes, but just doesn't work. To get that same sense you you have make it much longer like this: "I was surprised at how easily he agreed." 
He walked to the armchair by the wall, sat in it cross-legged and placed the pistol on the arm rest. --took out a few words 
Unfortunately, he didn’t take any chances. 
Kay was soon sprawled on the bed, naked and totally helpless.  --I assume that the kid tied Kay to the bed, so a little time word helps make a transition here. 
His body was covered by a thin silvery web that firmly bound Kay to bed-sheet, the bed itself, and the wall. --removed a few words 
The spray container stood on a table where the boy left it as if he was going to repeat the procedure if necessary.

----------


## paulb

> Originally Posted by paulb  I'm dividing up your paragraphs just to make it easier to write comments.   Thanks, your help is much appreciated.        Originally Posted by paulb  --This would be better style with the subject at the beginning, and it is also a little bit too long. You can break it into two sentences, and in fiction you can even use a sentence fragment.   I thought about it. Still I was trying to remain as close to the original as possible.      
> 			
> 				He loved his hyperboat, which demanded expensive maintenance, women who demanded only slightly less,
> 			
> 		  About hyperboat. Well there's the difference in the original between the гиперкатер (a small ship as I understood) and корабль (a bigger ship).
> Thus, I chose to pick another word.
> And about women who demanded only slightly less. Here we can see in the original:  _гиперкатер - требующий дорогостоящего ухода, женщин - не требующих столь многого,_  
> ...women who don't demand this much (well, they are called 'easy women' as I understand). 
> [quote:3usawg3g]This sentence is humorous, but it will confuse the reader about what "aTan" is. It should be changed to something that sounds more familiar. It can still be a funny word, but it has to be one a reader can guess the meaning of.

 Well, that was the author's intention I guess. There's no such word as аТан in Russian either, still the meaning of it is explained a few paragraphs further.    

> And this, as everyone knows, is fatal.

 Is there some mnemonic rule I should remember for using everybody vs. everyone?[/quote:3usawg3g] 
In the world of boating ship=big and boat=smaller, but not  in science fiction. Usually they are all "ships", whether they are big or small. Another possible choice would be "hypercraft", but that doesn't sound any better. 
I see about the women. I suggest "women who demand very little". 
On everybody vs everyone, I don't think there is a rule. They mean the same thing. I just thought in that case "everyone" sounded better.  
One of my ESL Teaching professors had a story about learning Japanese. He said some nouns in Japanese would end with -wa, and some would end with -ga. He asked many people to explain how you know which one to use, but no one could tell him. They just said "it is the Japanese way." After spending some time in Japan, he started using -ga sometimes and -wa sometimes. Some things in language are a mystery  ::

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## Ramil

> “Have you killed someone?” the boy was interested.

 I should disagree on this. The boy asked whether Kay killed people in general. 
Compare:
Ты убивал? (indefinite) vs.
Ты убил кого-нибудь? (perfect) 
At first I wanted to translate: Have you been killing? 
What would be the best choice?    

> Kay was soon sprawled on the bed, naked and totally helpless.  --I assume that the kid tied Kay to the bed, so a little time word helps make a transition here.

 Kay had been *already* sprawled by the time the conversation took place. The boy glued him with spray. Why did you insert '_soon_'?

----------


## paulb

> Originally Posted by paulb  “Have you killed someone?” the boy was interested.   I should disagree on this. The boy asked whether Kay killed people in general. 
> Compare:
> Ты убивал? (indefinite) vs.
> Ты убил кого-нибудь? (perfect) 
> At first I wanted to translate: Have you been killing? 
> What would be the best choice?      
> 			
> 				Kay was soon sprawled on the bed, naked and totally helpless.  --I assume that the kid tied Kay to the bed, so a little time word helps make a transition here.
> 			
> 		  Kay had been *already* sprawled by the time the conversation took place. The boy glued him with spray. Why did you insert '_soon_'?

 On killing--there isn't a good way to make this a past imperfect in English. Unfortunately sometimes you have to decide whether you want a very accurate translation or one that sounds right in the target language. These all sound fine:
Have you ever killed someone?
Have you killed before?
Have you killed a lot of people?
But these don't fit well (in this situation):
Are you a killer?
Are you in the habit of killing people?
Do you kill people often? 
On inserting "soon"--that was my mistake. I thought Kay was being tied up DURING the conversation. It feels a little strange that the author didn't mention it earlier, but that is the author's problem, not your problem. Leave it just as you wrote it.

----------


## Ken Watts

In order to understand the story I start here and apologize for repeating any suggested corrections, alternative words, optional words, and moved words:  

> Sergery Lukyanenko
> The Dreamline
> Part one. God the Father and God the Son
> 1
> Children were what Kay hated the most. Whether this was affected by his own childhood in the asylum “The New Generation” on Altos – was/is unknown. Whatever the case, he never lingered on one planet any longer than nine months. On the planets which had undergone a fertility treatment during the Feud War and which conscientiously worked as suppliers of cannon fodder for the Empire he never stayed longer than four and a half months.
> Besides, Kay didn’t like to be/didn't like being killed. It was quite painful sometimes and it was always associated with considerable expenses. And Kay needed money. He loved his hypership which was expensive to maintain. W didn’t demand this much, wines of the Empire and Mrshhan association, fragrances worked by the old Klackon masters and such pleasures of other races which humans can understand and endure.
> Now his two antipathies have been joined together. And the most unpleasant thing was not even the fact that he was about to be killed by a kid, but that the kid and using one of the most unpleasant ways to do it. The real distress was in the fact that Kay had not yet gotten around to paying for the aTan renewal.
> And this, as everybody knows, is fatal.
> The hotel room was shabby enough so that it didn't kindle some burning interest of robbers and was decent enough to guard Kay from filchers. The boy standing by his bed matched the second category judging by his appearance. Where he got the electronic key to open the door and the nullifier for blocking the alarms, remained a mystery. The weapon in his hand was easier – an algopistol, the weapon of sadists and losers, and was inexpensive/cheap.
> ...

----------


## Ken Watts

> 2 
> Death is the last adventure. Resurrection/Regeneration doesn’t bear anything new in it; it is like an ordinary awakening.
> At first, Kay saw a light. Then there was a knobby grey tower, raised up/rising up over him and as motionless as if it were dead. It must be said however that the dispute about whether the term ‘life’ is applicable to the Silicoids has been lasting/ongoing for several hundred years already.
> “Name” the word came from within the grey surface.
> Ignoring the question, Kay raised himself up/Kay rose up a little. The Silicoid didn’t try to stop him. This race moved with reluctance except for the case when they were in it for the kill.
> The room that he was in was very familiar to him. It was a reanimation module of the aTan company except that the wall screen where the name of a planet should be displayed was turned off. Kay was lying on a white disk two meters in diameter – a molecular replicator which had just recreated his body, as new and healthy as it had been stored/regenerated seventeen years before. The open framework of an aTan-emitter which had pushed into his new brain all his childish grievances, mistakes of youth and adult crimes – everything that comprised Kay’s personality, was hanging over his head. He was resurrected/regenerated. Resurrected/Regenerated in spite of the fact that his aTan wasn’t paid up?
> “Name?” patiently repeated the Silicoid.
> “Kay Altos.”
> “Citizenship?”
> ...

----------


## Ken Watts

> 3 
> There are private ownerships/properties fenced off by iridescent walls of force fields and the name of the aThan company appears on the shores of the Lake of Geneva, in the Amazon rainforests, in the Baltic deserts, on the swampy lowlands of China, and in the Siberian taiga . All of them are parts of Curtis’/Curtis's estate that are interconnected with hypertunnels into a single whole. Even if you had managed somehow to look through the force fields from the outside you would see only strange fragments of buildings with balustrades leading to nowhere and galleries rising from the air. The picture from the inside would be quite different. You would see the whole palace that was born/conceived and built by crazy imagination and by even more crazy money. You can take a funicular and go up to the top of Everest and skid down directly into the crystal waters of the Baikal Lake. Having swum a little in the icy waters of the/this Siberian Lake you can come ashore on a hot Cuban beach. And if you are invited to visit the owner of the company after your walk it would take you no more than a couple of minutes to get to his thousand foot high spire house in Geneva.
> Kay stood on the open pad that topped the building. Wind was fluttering in his hair as if it was inviting him to feel the short joy of free fall. An invisible force field must surely have surrounded this “study” in the open air, although it was uncertain whether Curtis having an infinite number of lives was afraid of falling from the top of his tower. At this thought Kay stepped away from the fenceless edge. Curtis needed him for some purpose, but his value could drop down along with his body. A good employee shouldn’t have a dizzy head.
> “Do you like the wine, Kay?”
> Kay took a little sip from his glass.
> “Yes, Van Curtis, this is a rare sort… but I prefer the blue sorts/vintages of Mrshan wines.”
> “Perhaps you’re right. But the yellow sorts are better for your health; they don’t damage the liver and prolong life.”
> This resembled a mockery, but Kay remained silent. He was turning an ancient crystal wineglass in his hands that was worth probably no less than immortality and looking at Curtis. The aThan’s owner sat at the simple wooden table with an identical wineglass in his hands. There was only one armchair on the pad – this was either due to intentional neglect or else nobody/no one was granted the honor of sitting beside Curtis on the top of his empire.
> “How do you find the look?” Curtis inquired.
> ...

----------


## Ramil

Thanks a lot, paulb and Ken Watts your help is appreciated. 
I should say that this project is not in any way commercial and for learning purposes only. After this little disclaimer I continue: 
4
“Far away from Earth, far away from Cailis, where you’ve been killed, Kay…” Van Curtis stood on the edge of the pad looking down. There were a bit of ocean, a dark strip of a forest, and a patch of night clutched between them, “there is the planet Graal.”
“I haven’t heard of it”
“Not surprising. It’s a new poorly developed world. My interests demand my presence there.”
Van Curtis suddenly spat into the emptiness and Kay suppressed a smile – this act was completely out of character of the aThan’s owner.
“It’s good you don’t laugh, Kay. That what you’ve just heard is strictly secret in itself. And I will have to tell you more and trust you even more than that. I’m taking risks…”
Van Curtis turned to Kay and grasped his shoulder.
“Do you know what it’s like to be the most powerful man in the galaxy? Billions of people hate me. Those who cannot afford to buy aThan, those who went bankrupt by paying for it, those who can’t stand the luxury of this residence. Billions of hating eyes, millions of hating hands… I pay not only for the protection against potential killers. Apart from that I keep personnel for psychological protection against those ill-wishers which could have some psychic powers even without knowing this themselves. Beyond this residence, beyond Terra, they wouldn’t just kill me, no… They would torment me for years until I go mad and become a nitwit peeing in his pants. No aThan would help me then. Yet, I’m willing to risk…”
“Do you need a bodyguard?” asked Kay, unbelieving.
“Not that simple. If I disappear for as little as one day from within these walls it would become known. Competitors, enemies… A hundred of mice would bite a cat to death, Kay. And I am a very fat and lazy cat. I will have to risk and trust this business to my son. And you, Kay Altos, the professional bodyguard will accompany him.
“I agree… if my agreement matters”, said Kay, “the job is the job, even if it has more risk than usual. You could simply hire me.”
“Really? And make it so that everybody knew about it? Anyone entering these walls attracts universal attention of many powerful companies and governments. It's even more so for those who leave. But you got here, shall we say, virtually. And you’ll go out the same way.”
“I see,” Kay forced a smile, “I hope it will be painless.”
“Well, much less painful than from an algopistol. According to the Cailis police report you’ve been killed with it?”
Kay didn’t answer.
“I’ve been waiting for a long time, Kay. I had about a hundred men in view. Experienced pilots, bodyguards, hired killers. It was necessary that some of them died without paying for the aThan renewal. You know, I hope, that neural grid implanted under your thick brainpan always works. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve paid for the aThan or not, it would do its job and send the full report about a missing life to space. The company decides on whether to delete this signal from memory or to copy it to a new body. You didn’t renew your immortality and the regional office has deleted the signal. The body matrix has been deleted too. But I decided otherwise in my exclusive throughout the Empire private resurrector and returned you to life, my young unlucky friend. You do not exist officially anymore, but you’re standing before me.
“Thank you.” said Kay sincerely.
“You don’t need to thank me yet. You will work off for every muscle, every gland and even for that shit in your bowels which had to be recreated for a complement. If you get my son to Graal then in addition to the documents and a substantive bank account you’ll get a grand prize. Immortality, Kay! No matter how many times you get yourself killed your aThan would be paid up by the company. Well, is it a fair price?
“Quite.”
“I like your reserve, Kay. I’m an old man… even though my body is only fifty years old. I have the right to be talkative. You’re young and you are capable of much… with years. So, Kay, I wish I could provide you with a new body, but experience shows that you wouldn’t be efficient in it. So we’ll have to risk. Tonight, every office of the company will receive the matrices of three persons: Mr. and Mrs. Ovald and their son.
“Will there be three of us?”
“No. Only you and Arthur will meet with an accident. You are a freelance trader that roams the frontier. Your ship has crushed… due to sabotage apparently. All of this will be staged; there is a good simulator in the building. You know, the browsing though the memory of a client is forbidden, but there is always some curious smartass. I hope they won’t look any deeper than two or three hours before your death.
“Did you browse through my memory?”
“Kay!” Van Curtis thrust his hands in the air. “Perhaps you don’t understand it, but those who set the rules have to play by them. Browsing through memory is forbidden! If an average executive finds out that Van Curtis breaks his own laws even occasionally then my reputation, my empire, all of it would collapse. Moreover, Kay, I don’t give a damn, which particular whore or robber had caught you when you were off guard. I am familiar with your file, Kay. Four times you died shielding the client by yourself, once in an absolutely unequal fight. Once you’ve got drunk and fallen into the river…”
“I’ve been pushed, Curtis”
“I don’t care. I hope the price would make you stay on alert and forget about little joys of life… for the sake of life itself.”
“Of course, Van Curtis.”
“So, you’ll be resurrected. I don’t know where, Kay, for the sake of your own safety. There are twelve chances out of a hundred that we’re being watched even here.”
Kay looked in the clear sky.
“Young man, there are so many screens above us that there is practically no difference between the basement and the roof. So, you’ll be resurrected then you will buy a ship. You’ll have a limited credit otherwise it would raise suspicions. But don’t think of me as of a skinflint. As far as your money are spent there will be additional amounts arriving. Then you will go to Graal. Having my son landed on any safe place you can do whatever you want. And he’ll see to our family business.”
“Sounds easy, Van Curtis.”
“Simplicity rules, Kay.”
“Let’s speak about guarantees then.”
Van Curtis frowned.
“What are the guarantees that my aThan would be renewing? Where are the guarantees that once on that precious Graal of yours Curtis the junior wouldn’t beam the back of my head? Where are the guarantees that a dozen of killers wouldn’t go for removing Kay Altos who knows too much?”
“Well, well, well…” Van Curtis smacked his lips as elderly people do. He walked along the edge of the pad and said with regret:
“You risk much, Kay…”
“It’s the profession.”
For a second Curtis peered at Kay. Kay looked directly in his face struggling with the compulsion to avert the eyes. At last, Curtis laughed:
“Profession you say? And how do you judge about my profession, the head of galactic corporation … by the movies? Do you know that almost two hundred years ago when my firm had been no more than another curious line in the news one of my bitterest enemies bought the aThan? He died soon in an accident. There weren’t many clients then, nobody simply believed us those days, and the price of life in the world after the conflict in Tucano seemed too high. I directed the resurrection process myself. I could… yes, I could…”
Curtis stopped speaking looking somewhere afar.
“Our feud lasted for many more years, Kay. He kept renewing his aThan. At last I bankrupted him. Then Shulman terminated the contract, took off on his yacht and headed for the nearest star.”
“This could be a gesture dictated by the circumstances” said Kay very mildly.
“You’re not a fool. A gesture, you say? Of course! But remember, was there a single word about my dishonesty in business among all those lies that are kept pouring on me every hour in every information network? A word at least?”
Kay shook his head.
“People don’t work for me for money alone, and not even for life. They are committed because I don’t betray my men.”
“All right” Key suddenly got tired of arguing. “There is the last question. How do you guarantee my honesty?”
“Your honesty? It’s quite simple, Kay. There is the neural grid in your brain. If you betray me then sooner or later, in whatever hole you would be hiding, you will face death. And believe me, you’ll resuscitate in this very house. It would happen no later than I hire the best torturers one can buy for money. You would be tortured forever, Kay. It would be your personal hell. Hundreds, thousands of years of torments. Pain would become your air, your food and your dream. You’ll be dying and be resurrected for even stronger pain. You would be given rest in order to intensify your agony later. I would gather writers that would devise new torments and producers that can turn them into a play. I would get sadists from prisons and lovers of human meat from clinics. I would seek help from other races and they would dig up archives of the wars with humans. And you would be brought sometimes here to the most quiet and cozy place of my house and I would remind you this conversation.”
Curtis Van Curtis, the master of life and death stood before Kay Altos from the planet Altos, the rootless maverick that didn’t even have a surname and talked very calmly and earnestly. When he stopped Kay lifted his arms:
“You are persuasive, Van Curtis, I’m yours forever.”
“I never doubted it.” Curtis shivered his shoulders, “It’s chilly, Kay. Let’s go to the study, I don’t want to catch cold on top of my problems.”
The floor under them obediently went down. They floated in a black capsule of a force field and Van Curtis looked with curiosity over a man whom he had promised the greatest reward and the most horrible ordeals since the beginning of the world. He was a god, a strange god of the Human Empire that got a right to punish and pardon, to kill and return to life. A god that is afraid to step down from his hand-made Olympus.
“Can your son fly small interstellar ships?” Kay looked as if he’d already forgotten the recent conversation.
“Not only small ones.”
“Weapons?”
“He manages handguns quite well, he’s good with ship mounted weapons, he’s worse with cold weapons… all these planar swords and other exotics.”
“Is he physically developed?”
Curtis gave a short laugh and patted his belly:
“He is, far better that I am. I’d say that he’s in perfect shape for his years.”
“Well, it’s quite accepta…” Kay raised his eyes. “How old is he, Curtis?”
“He was born sixteen years ago”, vaguely said Curtis.
Kay made a wry face, but his grimace was caused more by relief rather than discontent.
“Biologically though, he’s twelve years old.”

----------


## Ramil

5 
“What is wrong with that, Kay?” Curtis measured the study with paces. Whether it was for the contrast with “the study” on the roof, or for some other reason, this study was very small. It was five by five meters; there was a desk with an armchair and a sofa before it. Kay lounged on the sofa, the owner though couldn’t sit. “A father with his little son doesn’t look suspicious. You’re going to Graal in search of new goods… drugs, ore, exotic animals. What’s the matter?”
“Curtis, I repeat, I have never worked with children. I simply dislike them.”
“I’m aware of that! And I know about the asylum on Altos… all that young crowd that had been evacuated from the Three Sisters before Sakkra troops landed. I know about their customs and your misfortunes. I may be unaware of who exactly among your classmates had forced you into a sexual intercourse and who simply dipped your head in a bowl. I know that you were physically the weakest and that you endured a lot. Then you had cut the throats of a couple of your offenders and run away. Then you tagged along with a travelling circus…”
Key got numb. These were only words for Van Curtis. For Kay, they were…
“They say that you all on the Second are…”
“All you have there is two shoals and an ocean of foul water…”
“Do you have gills? Hey, guys, let’s dip Kay a little bit deeper…”
He simply got unlucky. He ended up in a block where the boys from the Third planet of “the Three Sisters” the three habitable planets of the Shedar star system lived. It was a simple mistake in documents. Shedar’s the Second and the Third had been at odds for many years right until the day when the Sakkra in search for new living space made the humans to close the ranks. The adults made peace with each other. The adults were flying warships together, the adults were working at factories together, and they were dying in planetary landings together. The children were left with only one war – between themselves.
“If you behave…”
“Guys, who’s going to be the first?”
“Kay, I’ve been told that you do a good…”
He didn’t notice that he was standing and blocking the path of Curtis who was thinking aloud.
“Of course, after these sad years, a good attitude from the adults had influenced your mentality. A good psychiatrist could help…”
“Curtis,” he took his employer by the sleeve of a suit. “You may be a god… or a devil… Even the damn aThan of yours that you have bought from the na

----------


## Ken Watts

> 4
> “Far away from Earth, far away from Cailis, where you’ve been killed, Kay…” said Van Curtis who stood on the edge of the pad looking down, a bit of ocean, a dark strip of a forest, and a patch of night clutched between them, “there is the planet Graal.”
> “I haven’t heard of it.”
> “Not surprising. It’s a new poorly developed world. My interests demand/require my presence there.”
> Van Curtis suddenly spat into the emptiness and Kay suppressed a smile – this act was completely out of character for the aThan’s owner.
> “It’s good you don’t laugh, Kay. What you just heard is strictly secret/confidential in itself. And I will have to tell you more and trust you even more than that. I’m taking risks/chances…”
> Van Curtis turned to Kay and grasped/clutched his shoulder.
> “Do you know what it’s like to be the most powerful man in the galaxy? Billions of people hate me. Those who cannot afford to buy aThan, those who went bankrupt paying for it, and those who can’t stand the luxury of this residence. Billions of hating eyes, millions of hating hands… I pay not only for protection against/from potential killers. Apart from that I keep personnel for psychological protection against those ill-wishers which could have some psychic powers even without knowing this themselves. Beyond this residence, beyond Terra, they wouldn’t just kill me, no… They would torment me for years until I go mad and become a nitwit peeing in his pants. No aThan would help me then. Yet, I’m willing to risk/chance…”
> “Do you need a bodyguard?” asked Kay, unbelieving/not believing all of that.
> ...

----------


## translationsnmru

I'd say "..looking down, where lied a bit of ocean and a dark strip of forest/woods with a patch of night cluched between them" 
or "...looking down, toward a bit of ocean...", etc.

----------


## Ramil

6 
Kay slept well. The rooms in the suite he was provided with seemed infinite and he has neglected to look for a bedroom with a promised gravity bed. A sofa in the library was convenient enough and the fruits in a crystal vase served as a breakfast. For the second time in his life he tasted the whimsical terran fruit – an apple and judged they were quite edible.
A silicoid, probably the same that had attended at his resurrection, brought a tray with a breakfast. Kay supplemented his fruity diet with a cup of coffee and asked:
“I’ve been promised an instructor. Is it perchance you?”
The grey stone pillar ignored the irony.
“Follow me. The instructor is waiting for you.”
Either Van Curtis liked walking or the silicoid thought it was unnecessary to use the communications. They walked along the long corridors, sometimes they walked out in the open air. They passed the night jungle where a sharp voice of some bird tried to break the silence and finally got to a beach that was bathing in sunset. The silicoid floated along the surf and splashes of water were sizzling when they hit its stone body. Kay took off his shoes and walked behind. A white haired boy that was playing with a ball near the water gazed after them.
“Curtis the junior?” asked Kay the silicoid.
“No.”
The ocean ended with a live fence. The silicoid stopped by a wicket and said:
“You’ll walk alone from here. I shouldn’t see your instructor. We are in the state of war.”
Kay mentally recalled everything he had known about the Silicois and nodded:
“Fine. I’ll walk alone. Are you allowed to answer my questions?”
“Sometimes.”
“Why do you serve Curtis?”
“The Silicoids do not serve.”
“My thought exactly. Why?”
“I’m returning my debt.”
“Aha, I see.”
The grey pillar waited patiently.
“What can you tell me about Curtis?”
“What?”
“Anything.”
There were ripples on the grey stone surface. And invisible choir whispered:
“He is like his house.”
“Not very cheerful, eh?” Kay smirked opening the wicket, “Thank you, you boulder…”
He stepped on sand. Yellow sand went to horizon where the night streets of Geneva could be seen through iridescent haze of the force field barrier. The sun was in zenith here and the drops of sweat appeared on Kay’s forehead. It was not due to the heat only, however. He saw the instructor.
The Bulrathi were one of the most powerful and dangerous races of non-human space. They had an appearance of six feet high bears, yet no bear could boast with such agility, their fur was strong as if it was made out of steel wire, and they had balanced intelligence.
This particular bulrathi was old. Dark brown fur had lost its luster and run in innocent curls. His teeth bared in greeting were grinded off by half.
“Greetings, Kay. Put on the armor. Are you ready?”
His voice was surprisingly melodious and mild which was an incidental peculiarity of evolution that tricked the humans in the age of First Contacts too often.
The armor was lying on the sand nearby. The dark blue rough scales that folded in many strange forms were a light plastic armor designed for hand-to-hand combat only. Muscle enhancers were removed but a medicine unit flashed with a green light in readiness.
“What is your name, old one?” asked Kay connecting the armor segments. The bulrathi snapped his teeth:
“My name is not for you. I am your instructor. Human Kay, do you value your body?”
“It has to live for another three days…”, Kay had connected the last segments of the armor and took a battle stance. “I am ready, bulrathi.”
A blow in his belly threw him to the fence. The medical unit in his armor hummed dozing Kay with stimulants and anesthetics.
“This blow doesn’t kill immediately” explained the bulrathi closing in, “In a week or two your liver stops working. An unpleasant surprise for captured humans we had been releasing during the Feud days.”
Rising, Kay kicked the bulrathi in the groin. The fur had dampened the blow, the leg responded with pain, but the bulrathi reeled back.
“We used to simply castrate the prisoners,” said Kay. “Or sterilized the planets. Right?”
“I was on a planet which the “Reaper” had flown over.” told the instructor. “Your kick is painful, but ineffective.”
Kay managed to dodge the next blow. Bulrathi whirled raising the sand in the air with his claws. Then suddenly he lowered on all fours and dashed to Kay.
Kay jumped and flew over the gaping maw and having landed on the huge body he kicked its sides. The anatomy of the Bulrathi was very close to the humans and kidneys were the weak spot of all races. Then he tumbled to the sand.
The bulrathi raised and passed his paws over his body. Then he asked calmly:
“Usually, the humans assume that a sentient being wouldn’t attack on all fours. You’re looking young. Have you been at war with us?”
“I like to watch chronicles.”
“Your imperfect vision simplifies the storing of information.” the bulrathi made a grunting noise. “Why have you won that war? You’re weaker than we are and you’re less smart than the Psilonians. You are average…”
“We are average in everything.”
“Yes… It’s a pity that the galaxy is ruled by the middle…”
The next attack caught Kay off guard. He was pressed against the sand by the four hundred and fifty pound carcass and couldn’t even move. The jaws of the bulrathi opened and as Kay felt a strange, surprisingly pleasant smell they reached out for his throat…”
There was a thin sound right at the moment Kay sensed the touch of the fangs. The bulrath bellowed and moved his jaws away. He raised his right paw, there were an ordinary human watch on it gleaming through the fur.
“You got lucky, human” he said relaxing his voice. “You have endured five minutes of fighting without rules. I’m not permitted to kill you now.”
He rose with unearthly grace. Kay was lying and watching at his might-have-been executioner.
“Get up, Kay. Now I’m going to teach you how a human can kill a bulrathi. And remember, this knowledge is for you only.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Speak.”
“Why do you have such a pleasant smell from your mouth? Your kind prefers stale meat, don’t you?”
“It’s deodorant, you half-wit. Any sentient race practices hygiene.”
“Logical.” Kay stood up. The medical unit was still working but the whole body was aching, “All right, tell me how to kill you?”
“The most vulnerable zone of our race is the area around the sigmoid gland,” the bulrathi begun in a hollow voice, “if you draw a line from my genitals to my right eye then in the middle of that line there will be a spot that is unprotected by the muscle layer…”

----------


## Ramil

7 
Van Curtis invited Kay to a dinner. After receiving brief instructions on the code of conduct given by the silicoid, wincing, Kay rose from the armchair and undressed ignoring the still stone mass. He bleakly looked at his reflection in the mirror. The armor didn’t protect him from bruises. It didn’t protect against the blow in the liver also if the instructor was right.
“Bulrathi are the best fighters in the galaxy” said the silicoid hollowly.
“Even better than you are?” Kay touched his shoulder and made a quiet howling sound.
“Probably. They have found a way to kill us in a hand-to-hand combat.”
“Really? And what is it?” Kay was interested.
“I wouldn’t have said that even if I knew.”
“I’ll ask about it.”
“Lie down on the floor.”
Kay looked at the silicoid with surprise but chose not to argue. He stretched on the thin and somewhat dusty carpet and the silicoid slowly floated over him. A heavy wave passed over his body.
“The gravity massage” the silicoid explained for some reason, swaying back and forth. “You will feel better. We can not only kill with that field of ours…”
The bodyguard from the planet Altos usually didn’t suffer from any bad flashbacks, but for some reason he remembered the spaceport on Cailis and the bloody spot fifty yards away from his ship. These little bastards always creep under the nozzles…
“Thank you, I feel better already.” Kay rolled from under the silicoid. “Will Curtis junior be present at dinner?”
“Probably.”
Kay put on a rich suit with a wide opalescent tie and hard leather shoes that were totally unsuitable for any action and then went after the silicoid. He was curios and vexed at the same time as it always has been before a meeting with a client whom it was impossible to say no. A professional should have a choice, damn it.
“Do you have a desire to ask questions?”
“What? Ah, well… yes, of course. Do you wear clothes?”
“I am dressed now” replied the silicoid with dignity.
Key chocked but held a laugh.
“Now it’s my turn to ask questions.” the silicoid slowed down and waited for Kay “if the humans gain the power, what would they do?”
“I don’t understand” answered Kay honestly. They went out of the spire house and walked towards a small round pavilion not far away. They had to cross a pine grove, to pass by some stupid stones that were installed in a circle and by a tiny corvette from the Feud War era that was melted into a granite pedestal.
“Let’s rephrase it. If the might of the Human Empire grows beyond measure how would the policy of the mankind change?”
“We would stop paying attention to other races. We will simply ignore them. Would you act differently?”
Silicoid didn’t answer. Then he swayed towards the corvette and said:
“During the Feud War Curtis Van Curtis served in the units of freelance hunters. They didn’t have any regulations, orders and strategic objectives. We never found out how to fight the unorganized enemy.”
“Van Curtis is a courageous man!” said Kay aloud.
“I agree. But many say that his ship survived the war in amazingly good shape. The drives are worn out but the armor is intact. The most surprising fact is that he returned from his last flight with a broken computer. We have arrived. I don’t consume organics but I wish you a good gustatory sense and successful digestion.”
The silicoid spun graciously in half a circle and floated back. Kay stood staring at the Curtis’s ancient ship. Then he opened a door to the pavilion. He had an organic body that needed food and a perfect appetite stirred up by the training with the bulrathi.

----------


## Ramil

8 
The wooden pavilion turned out to be a stone castle from the inside. The huge hall reminded Kay of the churches of the One Will where he was taken to in his childhood and stirred some obscure sense of tremble and aversion. His legs were sinking in the dry thatch that covered the floor. The arched ceiling turned the rustle of thatches and the sound of his steps into a steady noise.
Curtis Van Curtis was sitting by a round table aggressively hacking a slab of fried meat. Seeing Kay he rose up a little:
“Have a seat, Kay! Out of respect for your morning deeds we have bear’s meat today.
Kay smiled unintentionally and sat by the table. He had no doubt that Curtis had watched the training… he was only interested in whether it was indeed a timer on the bulrathi’s hand or it was Curtis’s signal that had averted the bloodshed.
“Did you like your instructor?”
“I’ve never thought the Bulrathi can die out of ecstasy.”
“The sigmoid gland, isn’t it? Yes they die in ecstasy… if the blow is strong enough to penetrate the fell. It’s all about the hormones… The old bear didn’t tell you that he has an implanted steel plate that covers the sigmoid gland beside the fat. Otherwise some of his trainees would surely have him killed. And that blow in the liver that he likes so much! It is the invention of his and god only knows how many human prisoners had died before he polished his skill… Have a wine, Kay.”
Kay looked at the bottle with a pale blue liquid in it and shook his head.
“Let me have yours instead, Curtis. I do care about my liver now.”
“Be my guest, Kay.”
Kay sipped a yellow viscous liquid and nodded. Yes it was a good vintage…
“Curtis, is my trainer really that old?”
“The bulrathi? Yes, he did participate in the Feud War. He’s of my age. Their religion forbids the aThan… but this race lives long even without it.”
“I know much about that war. They were allied with the Sakkra and were suppressing our planetary bases. If they weren’t there the Sakkra wouldn’t have lived till the Three Sisters conflict.”
“Kay, don’t rake over the old grudges. Your world has been burnt by the big white frogs and not by the big brown bears. I don’t demand that you love your instructor but you need training. There will be one more day of training and starting from tomorrow you’re going to start rehearsing the legend with my son. Here he is, by the way…”
Key turned. From the opened door with a sea and the sunlight beyond it, there was walking Arthur Van Curtis, his client.
His fate.
Arthur was about twelve… biologically, Kay corrected himself. He was a swarthy, dark haired adolescent and his face was so familiar that Kay remembered pain. A very strong pain caused by the algopistol. 
Kay was lucky that Van Curtis didn’t look at his face at that moment. He was smiling looking at his only heir although the immortals probably have no need for heirs. For a very long time Kay had been learning to survive so the grimace on his face held for no more than a second. 
“Hi, dad” said Curtis junior. “How do you do, Kay? I suppose you’re the toughest guard in the world. Will you be able to protect me?”
Now when Arthur Curtis was nearby the similarity had dissolved. He was a bit younger that the boy that had killed him on Cailis. A little bit, but it was enough for his age. His clothing, a training suit made of green silk came from the best couturier and it had not been pressed out of the recycled plastics at factory. Despite he was younger he was noticeably sturdier and had more developed muscles because he had the money behind him and the money meant the best food, the best exercise equipment, trainers and masseurs. Moreover, his gaze bore no hollow hatred of the hunted animal but ironclad confidence and imperiousness instead.
“I know that I’m not in my best shape, everything turned out not exactly as it had been planned,” Arthur continued, “I have drowned recently, I’m sorry. So, do you take the job?”
Curtis senior made a wry smile. Kay stood and stepped towards Arthur. Yes, he was younger, yes, he was sturdier, and yes, he had another kind of gaze. But everything else didn’t change.
“Do you know what bodyguard is?” praying that his voice remained steady and unemotional asked Kay.
“Of course.”
“Get down!”
Arthur continued standing and looking at Kay. Kay knocked him down.
“If I say get down then you must get down,” said Kay over the lying boy, “if I say jump – you jump because I would never say that for no particular reason except for today. Every time your life would depend on it. Jump!”
Curtis junior jumped. Right from the floor and froze before Kay.
“You shouldn’t beat my son,” said Van Curtis from behind his back. And Kay sensed very clearly that there was a gun pointed right between his blade bones.
“Mister Van Curtis,” said Kay without turning around, “you need a real bodyguard. I am ready to work for you. But in a couple of days I might have no time to push Arthur aside from the line of fire. If I can I would shield him. But it would be better that he simply got down allowing me to shoot. Do you agree? By the way I didn’t beat him. I pushed him. These are the different things.”
“Perhaps.” Van Curtis answered in a level voice. “Sit down, both of you.”
“Dad, Kay is a good bodyguard.” said Arthur flopping onto a chair beside his father and starting to dangle his feet just as if nothing had happened. “He’s tough.”
“Arthur!” said Curtis with a slight surprise. Kay sniffed and started on the bear’s meat.
“I had a great hunt today,” Arthur continued with excitement, “killed that tiger.”
“My congratulations,” Curtis answered sourly.
“Dad, can one eat them?”
“Whom, the tigers? Only liver… I think.”
“Yuck! That’s disgusting. I won’t eat it. Make them bring another tiger, all right?”
“I will, calm down Arthur.”
Kay was drinking his wine and enjoying the situation. He liked this castle that was hidden within a wooden pavilion. He liked the nervousness of Curtis senior.
“Do you know Kay that by the legend this castle belonged to the king Arthur.” said Curtis somewhat hastily, “And the table we’re sitting at is that very Round Table. I presented this castle to Arthur on birthday…”
“I have heard neither of King Arthur nor of the Round Table” answered Kay.
“An ancient legend,” Curtis seemed revived, “it was even before the first interstellar travel…”
“Dad, it is pure nonsense, there isn’t enough room for one hundred and fifty fighters at this table. Not to mention their armor. But the story is quite beautiful, there were many characters. And there was even Kay as a secondary character.”
For a moment he and Kay looked at each other. Then Arthur rose from the table and kissed Curtis in his cheek.
“I’ll be going, dad…I don’t want to eat…”
Kay waited until Arthur had left and only then allowed himself to burst into laughter looking at the appalled Curtis.
“What’s the matter, Kay?” he asked wearily.
“I liked your son, Curtis. He’s an ordinary twelve years old kid. We’ll work fine together.”
“I hope you are joking,” Curtis allowed himself to relax a bit, “he is a smart young man but the shock from his first death has not yet worn out completely. Besides, you were right about the hormones. I have consulted with the doctors: a slight infantilism in behavior should have appeared.”
Kay nodded. He was walking along the edge and he knew that. Arthur Van Curtis who, as his father believed, had been unaware of their conversations, simply mocked Kay. He mocked him by behaving like a child whom he wasn’t already.
“We’ll make friends” said Kay emptying the bottle.

----------


## vox05

> After landing my son on/at any safe place then you can do whatever you want.

 Is 'then' required here?

----------


## Ken Watts

> Originally Posted by Ken Watts  After landing my son on/at any safe place then you can do whatever you want.   Is 'then' required here?

 No, *vox05* it is not required.  I made a mistake to mark "then" in red. But remember these texts from *Ramil* are long, so at the time I was doing this it made more sense to me to insert "then", or you could place a comma after "place," or you could just leave that part the way it is. So I apologize for marking "then" in red. But *Ramil* is a very smart guy, and I think he knows that even natives are not perfect. So I think he can sort through my corrections and suggestions and choose what he thinks is good or not. I am not an English professor like *paulb*, am just a lawyer, so hopefully the way I make my corrections and suggestions is just another helpful way to look at it.

----------


## vox05

> Originally Posted by vox05  
> Is 'then' required here?   No, *vox05* it is not required.  I made a mistake to mark "then" in red. But remember these texts from *Ramil* are long, so at the time I was doing this it made more sense to me to insert "then", or you could place a comma after "place," or you could just leave that part the way it is.

 Thank you, I just wanted to make sure - I just were checking all these  read/blue corrections to check what were wrong originally.

----------


## Ken Watts

> Originally Posted by Ken Watts        Originally Posted by vox05  
> Is 'then' required here?   No, *vox05* it is not required.  I made a mistake to mark "then" in red. But remember these texts from *Ramil* are long, so at the time I was doing this it made more sense to me to insert "then", or you could place a comma after "place," or you could just leave that part the way it is.   Thank you, I just wanted to make sure - I just was checking all these read/blue corrections to check what was wrong originally.

 Yes, the red color means I think it is a correction. If you see red on the last letter of a word and the first letter of the next word, it means I deleted some text that was between these words.  Usually you see the blue color after a / mark, so that means I think it is an alternative, another way of saying it that may or may not be better. If there is no / mark then blue means the word or text is optional, that is you can use it there or not use it.  That is how I should have shown "then". The green color means I moved the word or some text within the sentence.

----------


## Ken Watts

[quote=Ramil]5 
“What is wrong with that, Kay?” said Curtis as he measured the study with paces/as he strode back and forth in the study in measured paces. Whether it was for the/Whether it was to contrast with “the study” on the roof, or for some other reason, this study was very small. It was five by five meters; there was a desk with an armchair and a sofa before/facing it. Kay lounged on the sofa, the owner though couldn’t sit. “A father with his little son doesn’t look suspicious. You’re going to Graal in search of new goods… drugs, ore, exotic animals. What’s the matter?”
“Curtis, I repeat, I have never worked with children. I simply dislike them.”
“I’m aware of that! And I know about the asylum on Altos… all that young crowd that had been evacuated from the Three Sisters before Sakkra troops landed. I know about their customs and your misfortunes. I may be unaware of who exactly among your classmates had forced you into a sexual intercourse and who simply dipped your head in a bowl. I know that you were physically the weakest and that you endured a lot. Then you cut the throats of a couple of your offenders and ran away. Then you tagged along with a travelling circus…”
Kay got numb. These were only words for Van Curtis. For Kay, they were…
“They say that you all/that all of you on the Second are…”
“All you have there are two shoals and an ocean of foul water…”
“Do you have gills? Hey, guys, let’s dip Kay in a little bit deeper…”
He simply got unlucky. He ended up in a block where the boys from the Third planet of “]the Three Sisters", one of the three habitable planets of the Shedar star system, lived. It was a simple mistake in documents. Shedar’s Second and Third planets had been at odds for many years right until/right up to the day when the Sakkra in search of new living space made the humans close ranks. The adults made peace with each other. The adults were flying warships together, the adults were working at factories together, and they were dying in planetary landings together. The children were left with only one war – the one between themselves.
“If you behave…”
“Guys, who’s going to be the first?”
“Kay, I’ve been told that you do a good…”
He didn’t notice that he was standing and blocking the path of Curtis who was thinking aloud/thinking out loud.
“Of course, after these sad years, a good attitude from the adults had influenced your mentality. A good psychiatrist could help/could have helped…”
“Curtis,” Kay said as he took his employer by the sleeve of a suit. “You may be a god… or a devil… Even that damn aThan of yours that you have bought from the na

----------


## Ramil

9 
The master of immortality met the sunrise in his study. It was neither the markedly humble study where he had reasoned Kay into working with Arthur nor it was the ostentatiously open one on the roof of the tower.
This study, hidden under the surface, resembled a cockpit of a medium cruiser. Curtis indeed copied the austere style of military ships where he had spent his youth. There was a time when he was dreaming of commanding of such a ship. This was very long ago, almost two hundred years…
His occupation at the moment could seem more than strange to anyone. He was sitting away in his armchair and leaning his head sideward. He was drawing. A light pen was sliding across the screen leaving thin varicolored strokes. Something started to emerge, something very familiar, resembling a human face, but from a very strange point of view. It was as if an ant was trying to discern a man through a varicolored prism.
“Like this.” said Curtis and lowered his pen. He looked at the side screen. There, on the yellow sand, stood Kay and the bulrathi. They had been fighting in a sparring only a minute before. Now Key was taking off his armor and carefully putting a segment after a segment on the sand. A red dot was glowing near his image – a mental sensor indicated the intensity of emotions.
“Enlarge, sound on!” commanded Curtis and moved his armchair closer. The cameras managed to process a freestyle command their owner gave and were already picking the Kay’s face. “What are you up to, lad?” murmured Curtis. 
“Why have you played us off with the Sakkra?” asked Kay while removing the last segment of his armor. The bulrathi closely watched his moves. His strange diamond shaped eye pupils narrowed into thin slots.
“It’s tactics. We have adopted your own method: divide and conquer.”
“You didn’t succeed.”
“No, we didn’t.”
Slowly, in the same manner he had been taking off his armor, Kay took off his white shirt. Then he stretched. His muscles rolled under his skin.
“Bulrathi, you said that you had consulted the Sakkra during their war for the Three Planets. Perhaps you even participated in the landings?”
“Perhaps.” the bulrathi spread his palms a little. The forefinger on his left hand was missing which made its size matching a human hand.
“I am from the Three Planets, bulrathi. From the Three Sisters as they were called then. These were quarrelsome sisters… but they didn’t covet other worlds. We were on the border of the sector and we were the first to meet the Sakkra’s attack.”
“That’s amusing.” said the bulrathi.
“There were too many of them. They have crushed our defense. The cruisers from Terra didn’t make it in time. The children and some women were loaded on the freighters… we had a good freighter fleet. Most of us made it to Altos… Two hundred million of spongers, bulrathi! We were hated on Altos. The other worlds didn’t accept us. Our fathers died fighting the frogs – that wasn’t the best way a man can die. The Three Sisters have been burnt by meson bombs – there had been no other choice. Nobody needs them anymore.”
“A buffer zone.”
Kay went silent. He moved his palm over his chin as if he was checking his shaving.
“You know, I wept when the last Sakkra world had died in flames. I wept because I had nobody left to revenge to. I was growing up for too long…”
“I am forbidden to kill you,” said the bulrathi, “Curtis Van Curtis needs you.”
“I know. Bulrathi, your mother ate the grass and washed in hot water. Your father reared the ranks. Your children dig ditches on the fields.”
The fingers of the bulrathi sprouted claws. His voice became thin as a flute:
“You’re taking risks, human. Even my debt doesn’t cancel my honor…”
“Cuzuar buul-rathi, kh, haa! Kh, haa, buul!”
“Hazr, khomo!” the bulrathi sooner sang it rather than spoke. 
Curtis Van Curtis bolted from his armchair. In two leaps he reached the center of the study where opalescent flickers were dancing in the air.
“Arabia, the range!” he shouted while taking a small gun that resembled a toy from the pocket of his trousers. Curtis knew that he would not arrive in time.
He indeed had arrived when it was too late. 
Kay was sitting beside the corpse of the bulrathi. He lost all his strength and might in his death. From five yards it could be mistaken with a dead cow of northern breeds. The body crooked having taken the form of quadruped creature. The muzzle was pushed into the sand its bared fangs first. Only two deep furrows under the still legs didn’t tally with the peaceful look.
“What happened here?” asked Curtis putting away his gun. Kay turned slightly to face him. Until that very moment he looked totally unharmed yet Curtis saw a long but shallow wound on his stomach.
“I think he had a spontaneous heart failure,” said Kay mildly. “Fortunately, he had the time to teach me everything he thought would be necessary… and everything he knew.”
Curtis leaned and lifted the head of the bulrathi looking into the dead face. Its look was somewhat surprised.
“Spontaneous, you say? Poor Aggash, he sincerely believed that an unarmed human can kill a bulrathi using the only one way. I haven’t got around to dispelling his illusion. Take it, Kay.”
He threw his light grey coat to Kay. Kay pressed it to his stomach without a word.
“Where did you learn about the reflex spots?”
“I had a friend who had fought through the Feud War.”
“I see. Aggash was a valuable employee.”
“Then he deserves a ceremonial funeral.”
“A bulrathi that died from the human hand? You’re kidding, Kay.”
“Was there anybody who said something about the hand? Or about murder?”
“I suppose, there wasn’t. You don’t know what you have said to him, do you?
Kay shook his head.
“You permitted him to lick your excrements.”
“And that’s all?!” said Kay rising from the sand. He cast the Curtis’s coat onto the body and accidentally it fell onto the Aggash’s face. Without even knowing it, Kay managed to humiliate the bulrathi even after his death.

----------


## Rtyom

Рамиль, ты собрался всю книжку переводить «на радость» нашим англоязычным друзьям?   ::

----------


## Ramil

> Рамиль, ты собрался всю книжку переводить «на радость» нашим англоязычным друзьям?

 пока не надоест

----------


## Ken Watts

> 6 
> Kay slept well. The rooms in the suite he was provided with seemed infinite and/so he had neglected to look for a bedroom with a promised gravity bed. A sofa in the library was convenient enough and the fruits/fruit in a crystal vase served as a breakfast. For the second time in his life he had tasted the whimsical terran fruit – an apple and judged they were/it was quite edible.
> A silicoid, probably the same that had attended at his resurrection, brought in a tray with a breakfast/with breakfast. Kay supplemented his fruity diet/his diet of fruit with a cup of coffee and asked:
> “I’ve been promised an instructor. Is it perchance you?”
> The grey stone pillar ignored the irony.
> “Follow me. The instructor is waiting for you.”
> Either Van Curtis liked walking or the silicoid thought it was unnecessary to use the communications (transport ?). They walked along the long corridors, sometimes they walked out in the open air. They passed the night/dark jungle where a sharp voice of some bird tried to break the silence and finally got to a beach that was bathing in sunset/was bathed by the sunset. The silicoid floated along the surf and splashes of water were sizzling when they hit its stone body. Kay took off his shoes and walked behind. A white haired boy that was playing with a ball near the water gazed after them.
> “Curtis the junior/Curtis junior?” Kay asked the silicoid.
> “No.”
> ...

----------


## Ken Watts

> 7 
> Van Curtis invited Kay to dinner. After receiving brief instructions on the code of conduct given by the silicoid, wincing, Kay rose from the armchair and undressed ignoring the still stone mass. He bleakly looked at his reflection in the mirror. The armor didn’t protect him from bruises. It didn’t protect against the blow to the liver also if the instructor was right.
> “The bulrathi are the best fighters in the galaxy” said the silicoid hollowly.
> “Even better than you are?” Kay touched his shoulder and made a quiet howling sound.
> “Probably. They have found a way to kill us in a hand-to-hand combat.”
> “Really? And what is it?” Kay was interested.
> “I wouldn’t tell you that even if I knew.”
> “I’ll ask about it.”
> “Lie down on the floor.”
> ...

----------


## Ken Watts

> 8 
> The wooden pavilion turned out to be a stone castle on the inside. The huge hall reminded Kay of the churches of the One Will where he was taken to in his childhood and stirred some obscure sense of trembling and aversion in him. His legs were sinking in the dry thatch that covered the floor. The arched ceiling turned the rustle of thatches and the sound of his steps into a steady noise.
> Curtis Van Curtis was sitting by a round table aggressively hacking/cutting a slab of fried meat. Seeing Kay he rose up a little:
> “Have a seat, Kay! Out of respect for your morning deeds we have bear’s meat today.
> Kay smiled unintentionally and sat by the table. He had no doubt that Curtis had watched the training… he was only interested in whether it was indeed a timer/the watch on the bulrathi’s hand or it was Curtis’s signal that had averted the bloodshed.
> “Did you like your instructor?”
> “I’ve never thought the Bulrathi could die out of/die from ecstasy.”
> “The sigmoid gland, isn’t it? Yes they die in ecstasy… if the blow is strong enough to penetrate the fell (fur ? hair ?). It’s all about the hormones… The old bear didn’t tell you that he has an implanted steel plate that covers the sigmoid gland beside (behind ?) the fat. Otherwise some of his trainees would surely have him killed. And that blow in the liver that he likes so much! It is an invention of his and god only knows how many human prisoners had died/prisoners were killed before he polished his skill… Have a wine, Kay.”
> Kay looked at the bottle with a pale blue liquid in it and shook his head.
> ...

----------


## Ken Watts

> 9 
> The master of immortality met the sunrise in his study. It was neither the markedly humble study where he had reasoned Kay into working with Arthur nor it was the ostentatiously open one on the roof of the tower.
> This study, hidden under the surface, resembled the cockpit of a medium cruiser. Curtis indeed copied the austere style of military ships where he had spent his youth. There was a time when he was dreaming of commanding of such a ship. This was very long ago, almost two hundred years…
> His occupation at the moment would seem more than strange to anyone. He was sitting away in his armchair and leaning his head sideward. He was drawing. A light pen was sliding across the screen leaving thin varicolored strokes. Something started to emerge, something very familiar, resembling a human face, but from a very strange point of view. It was as if an ant was trying to discern a man through a varicolored prism.
> “Like this.” said Curtis and lowered his pen. He looked at the side screen. There, on the yellow sand, stood Kay and the bulrathi. They had been fighting in a sparring only a minute before. Now Key was taking off his armor and carefully putting segment after segment on the sand. A red dot was glowing near his image – a mental sensor indicated the intensity of emotions.
> “Enlarge, sound on!” commanded Curtis and moved his armchair closer. The cameras managed to process a freestyle command their owner gave/had given and were already picking out Kay’s face. “What are you up to, lad?” murmured Curtis. 
> “Why have you played us off with the Sakkra?” asked Kay while removing the last segment of his armor. The bulrathi closely watched his moves. His strange diamond shaped eye pupils narrowed into thin slots.
> “It’s tactics. We have adopted your own method: divide and conquer.”
> “You didn’t succeed.”
> ...

----------


## Ramil

Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.  
Here's the next part 
10 
Whatever were the Curtis’s thoughts about what had happened he never talked of it ever since. Two medics that were working too well for the ones looking so young had glued the Key’s wound and administered several ampoules of unknown preparations then applied a thin film of aerosol as a finishing touch.
“Will it hold for two days?” inquired Kay.
“Even for two years if you like.” one of them shrugged his shoulders. The familiarity of the tone only strengthened the suspicion that these two “young guys” had undergone the aThan not long before.
Key was relaxing in his room. It was twilight outside; the rhythm of life in the estate was bound to the local time of the tower.
The silicoid appeared when Kay was starting to doze off.
“In the fights with organic lifeforms the bulrathi sometimes used poisoned claws” he informed instead of saying some words of greeting.
“He didn’t have time to apply poison and the medics administered some anti-toxin, but thank you anyway.”
“May I?” the silicoid had floated to the sofa and even before Kay could surprise he bent his body and sat beside Kay. Kay moved farther away – the stone body poured heat. “Let’s have a moment of silence in memory of life gone.” solemnly said the silicoid.
Kay went silent for two minutes. Then he asked:
“Is it difficult for you to set a screen?”
“It’s easier at closer distances. Unfortunately you cannot move closer. It’s done. We’re shielded from any listening.”
“Even from the Curtis’s?”
“Yes.”
“Are you so sure that I have some words for you?”
“Yes, speak.”
“The Bulrati have found your weak spot, boulder. The structures that generate your force field are unstable. Isn’t it amusing for a race that is obsessed about power balance, is it? A sound of specific frequency and intensity resonates with them… so even a slight push would be enough to turn you into a motionless, helpless albeit still thinking stone.”
“What is the sound?”
“I cannot emit it. You would need a throat of a bulrathi.”
“You could be lying.”
“Perhaps, perhaps not.”
“Why have you disclosed this to me?”
“The humans fought with you only episodically. You live on the planets we wouldn’t willingly go to. The Human Empire may have its interests; the Basis of Silicoids may have its own. They don’t cross. And even if war happens we wouldn’t send a bunch of castrate singers against you. A laser pistol would even our chances, a fusion blaster would give me ten out of ten an advantage. One has to be a bulrathi to seek the advantage in a hand-to-hand fight with a silicoid.”
“We were worried about that, Kay” sounded or murmured the silicoid. “We don’t like unclear situations.”
“I thought so myself… What can you tell me, silicoid?”
“Curtis Van Curtis bought the aThan prototype from the Psilonians for twenty five hundred credits.”
“Well, at that time this price was…”
“… as surprisingly low as it is now. A year and a half later the Psilonians had encapsulated their space. That’s all. I said everything I could. My debt before Curtis will last for quite a long time.”
The air quivered as the protection screen had disappeared. The silicoid took the air. The sofa was emanating a faint smell of burnt leather.”
“We have honored the late with silence. As clear a silence as he deserved. And now, Kay, Arthur Van Curtis is waiting for you. You have work to do.” 
When Kay entered the premises of Arthur Van Curtis he remembered his asylum. Any of the rooms of Curtis junior could easily house its whole “G” block with its multilevel dormitory, learning and recreational modules. This one, for example, was an oval hall ornamented with tapestries painted in dark colors. Kay didn’t have any complex on inferiority about that; Altos gave him the only thing it could give – life. It was just a childhood flashback.
“Hi, daddy.” said Arthur. He was sitting on the floor in the Lotus pose with his eyes closed and his hands resting on his knees.
“You’re wrong, it’s me.” said Kay and sat nearby.
“I know it’s you. But we should be getting used to our legend, shouldn’t we?”
“That’s right, hi sonny.”
Arthur winced without opening his eyes.
“No, I don’t think you call me ‘sonny’. It would sooner be ‘kiddo’.”
“No way.”
“All right, let’s think about it… You are tedious, boring and very pleased with yourself; you save every credit, and you try very hard to bring up a decent merchant out of me… You call me ‘son’ or simply by name.”
“Ok, son. Can your name be shortened somehow?”
“What?” Arthur opened one eye.
“When we are revived I will have to express a lot of emotions. According to the legend this will be our first aThan. No matter how cold-hearted and stiff I should be I shouldn’t just say “my son Arthur”. How did your father call you when you…”
“Son.” Arthur smiled and closed his eyes again.
“Well, we’ll decide it once there then. Where do we live?”
“Endoria. We’ve got a house near the ocean…”
“…two storey high, a vineyard, a landing pad for flyers…”
“…you leave your ship at the government port. It’s farther than Endoria-Plus but far much cheaper…”
“…you’ve graduated the compulsory course at the average private college then I’ve decided to educate you myself…”
“…my mother runs the financial affairs of the “Ovald & son” company and never flies with us. Sometimes you cheat on her, and you have a lasting affair on Ruch. I pretend I don’t know about it.”
“It’s all right.” Kay nodded. “Now we know the official part. Let’s speak about things that weren’t in the instructions.”
“Are you the one of those who always try to play safe?”
“Of course, I have to be. What food do you like?”
“Tasian jelly.”
“A son of minor trader couldn’t have ever tasted it.”
“Why? We were freighting the jelly from Tasia to Terra. For Curtis Van Curtis himself. And we ate these two percent that are written off for the transportation losses.”
“Well, all right, I suppose. What is it you don’t like?”
“Cheese sandwiches.”
“Why?” Kay was at a loss.
“I really don’t like them!”
Kay nodded and rose up with difficulty stretching the numb legs. Arthur continued sitting as if he had turned into a stone.
“A couple of questions outside the legend. What is this room?”
“It is the hall for meditation. Why?”
“Just interesting. Have you got any brothers?”
“None that I know of.”
“Have you ever been off Terra?”
“This is the third question already.”
“All right, let’s continue…”
Kay walked around Arthur.
“Are you afraid of the dark?”
“No.”
“Height?”
“No.”
“Death?”
Arthur turned his head and their eyes met.
“Of course not, daddy.” said the boy with icy voice.
“And are you afraid of me?”
“Only when you had been smoking trab.”
“Never had it.”
“All the traders smoke trab. There is the package in the bone casket behind the drapes. Take it.”
There were many interesting things behind the drapes. A casket with trab, several other caskets, an opened though turned off communicator’s control panel, an activated sentry droid whose cameras were steadily watching Kay’s every move… Kay put the plump package into the pocked and returned to Arthur.
“Do I smoke it often?”
“When the business if bad. Seldom.”
“Do I like to preach morale?”
“Of course.”
“Have I told you about the differences between stamens and pistils?”
Arthur began to smile.
“Yes, when I had turned ten, you summoned me to your study… to the cockpit and said ‘Arthur, you’re growing up and you have to learn about some aspects of adult life. When a man and a woman are in love and they want to have a little baby they do some things…’.”
“Do I have to be such an idiot?” asked Kay.
“Yes, every time, everywhere. You do want me to act natural?”
“Ok, now it’s your turn.”
“Do you shave?”
“Every day except for the days I’ve been smoking trab.”
“Do you snore?”
“Sometimes”
“Are you unkempt sometimes when you think nobody sees you?”
“Of course.”
Arthur mad a back roll and easily straightened.
“You’re not bad, Kay. Would you like juice? Or wine?”
“A glass of yellow Mrshhan”
“A glass of yellow Mrshhan and a glass of orange juice” repeated Arthur in the air. “Damn, I whish we had more time. We would have pulled together then.”
“We will. We don’t have any other choice. Let’s continue…”

----------


## Ramil

11 
They woke Kay up shortly before dawn. He went to bed at three o’clock and his awakening was far from being pleasant.
“Curtis Van Curtis is waiting for you” simply said the man that came. He was wearing a powered armor with activated protection and the holster of his “Bumblebee” was unfastened. Kay preferred not to argue with this kind of people. He dressed up in silence and went out of the room. The man in armor followed Kay and directed him with slight touches of his hand. His helmet was closed so Kay didn’t see his face. There were two corridors and three local hypertunnels. As they walked and passed the tunnels more armored guards were joining them and finally they’ve brought Kay to a study that was unfamiliar to him. The room resembled the cockpit of a medium cruiser judging both the design and the number of instruments. Curtis walked out to meet them.
“The situation has changed, Kay.”
“And so I became unnecessary?”
Curtis frowned.
“Why do you say so? Nick I didn’t order you to bring Kay under escort!”
“I’m sorry, Van Curtis. We’ve been providing protection.”
Curtis took Kay by the shoulder and nodded releasing the guards.
“Everybody is high-strung at the moment, Kay. A spy has been caught, one of my employees. It’s possible that he had managed to transmit something, I don’t know. We had to kill him.”
“Interrogate him…”
“He’s dead.”
“I though all your men had the aThan.”
“Of course, but he was not human.”
“Pity.” Kay agreed.
“The operation must begin immediately. Have you checked your legends?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t know, Curtis.” Kay fumed.
“Be quiet, mister…” Curtis’s gaze immediately stopped being friendly.
“I hired you for a very important mission… and I expect a good work. You will deliver my son to Graal safe and sound. Not a single hair should fall from his head. If worst comes to worst you will kill him yourself. And remember, Kay. Immortality! Eternal pleasure or eternal torment. Remember that!”
“Dad?”
They both turned over. Kay had started to live by the legend.”
Arthur Van Curtis was no son of god anymore. They saw a boy wearing shabby jeans, a checkered oversized shirt and battered shoes. There were a dozen lapel pins with planetary coats of arms on his shirt: an undying fashion among the young. Kay remembered that when he had treated himself into a cruise onboard the “Southern Star” a year before, the boy steward attached such lapel pins after visiting each new planet.
“Are you sure in Kay, son?”
“Well, yes.” Arthur went silent. “Yes, father. He will try hard.”
Kay thought ‘What a filthy son of a bitch.’ then stepped towards Arthur and patted his head. “It’s time, son.”
“It’s time dad.”
“You’re doing well.” said Curtis sourly. “It sounds convincing.”
“Everything will be all right, Mister Van Curtis” Arthur promised while taking Kay’s hand.
“Me, Arthur and Kay to the imitation room.” Van Curtis commanded without bothering to hide the irritation in his voice.
The world around them flickered and changed. They disappeared from a hall filled with control panels and appeared in a tiny empty room. The walls were tiled with pale blue stones and there was a single door there.
“Go now.” Curtis pushed Kay to the door. “I don’t know how much time you will have but everything will happen quite real.”
The door opened as soon as Kay had touched it. He entered the airlock – a tiny cylindrical cabin with two more hatches in it. So… the right one leads to the cargo hold and to the engine bay, the left one leads to the living module. It was a small freighter, one hundred maybe one hundred and fifty tons of working load, one of several thousands that scurry across the galaxy. There were a couple of space suits in the protective cases, a photograph attached with a sticky tape on the wall – a pretty woman was wagging a finger and the sprawling words ‘See if there is a planet before getting out!’.
Yes, it was a greeting from caring Mrs. Ovald to her scampish husband and naughty son. The buzzard Van Curtis worked thoroughly.
Kay looked at the opened ‘external’ hatch. Curtis Van Curtis put his hand on his son’s shoulder and was telling him something. The only words Kay heard were “… remember, I am always with you. Return immediately if the situation goes out of control. I love you Arthur and I believe in you. Don’t hurry; we have an eternity at out disposal…”
An eternity of pain…
Kay turned away and checked the space suits. The small one was nearly new while the bigger one was well worn but still in a rather good condition.
There was a noise of the closing hatch.
“I’m thinking about buying a new spacesuit. What do you think son?” asked Kay without turning around “If this flight proves profitable.”
“Of course, dad.”
Arthur’s eyes were dry, but Kay had seen a lot of tears that are wept somewhere inside.
“You look sad, Arthur. What are we going to do?”
“Let’s go to sleep. We’ve already checked the cargo, so…”
Kay nodded. Many novices think that the death in a sleep is the easiest one. They’re wrong. Usually you wake up anyway…

----------


## gRomoZeka

Рамиль, когда ты успел научиться так шпарить по-английски?  ::

----------


## Ramil

> Рамиль, когда ты успел научиться так шпарить по-английски?

 Ну, это заняло около 20 лет )))

----------


## Crocodile

> Originally Posted by gRomoZeka  Рамиль, когда ты успел научиться так шпарить по-английски?    Ну, это заняло около 20 лет )))

 Nice! And, by the way, good choice of the book! The next one should be The Knights of Forty Islands. That might be more challenging.

----------


## Lampada

На всякий случай, для тех, кто захочет читать книгу и по-русски, вот текст:  http://bookz.ru/authors/sergei-luk_anen ... r_126.html
Рамиль, может быть, можно будет поместить законченную работу в разделе Dual-Language Books?

----------


## Ramil

> На всякий случай, для тех, кто захочет читать книгу и по-русски, вот текст:  http://bookz.ru/authors/sergei-luk_anen ... r_126.html
> Рамиль, может быть, можно будет поместить законченную работу в разделе Dual-Language Books?

 Можно, если я её когда-нибудь закончу ))). Но тогда уж, ближе к концу, т.к. я постоянно что-то кое-где правлю.
На самом деле я специально выбрал фантастику.
Современный язык (не классический), много диалогов с прямой речью и описаний. К тому же, некоторые слова нужно выдумывать самому.

----------


## Ramil

12 
His sleep or catching up with his sleep, to be precise, was calm. There were seven deaths behind his back – it was quite an experience. Besides, Kay was sure that Curtis Van Curtis wouldn’t let them die so trivially.
Arthur, as it appeared, didn’t understand it.
“Dad, wake up…”
Kay pried his eyes open cursing everything and everyone. Nothing was so much fatiguing as the interrupted sleep while anticipating death. But Arthur, as all children do, rushed the life and his concept of life comprised death quite naturally.
“You’re waking me up over trifles again” he murmured. “What’s happening?”
The living module of the freighter was tiny. There were two piloting seats and two folding berths on the side walls. The whole front wall was a screen – a stupid custom on Kay’s opinion. It was silly to look on the stars through that ‘window’ and controlling the landing through it was simply suicidal.
“There’s something wrong with the engines.” Arthur said guiltily.
Kay rose and caught himself at genuine hastiness of his moves. He was starting to believe in the ‘flight’ of their ‘ship’ that was standing on the ground. It was good.
There was indeed ‘something’ wrong with the engines. The small control screen of interphased drive of the freighter… 
…a semblant drive on a semblant ship…
…displayed a chaotic dance of figures that represented the power of the focusing field. The alarm light of the autopilot was flaring red and then changing to green repeatedly. Kay tapped the screen with his finger and remarkably, the figures obediently stopped at normal readings.
“What the hell?” Kay said angrily.
“Maybe we should lay adrift?” asked Arthur from behind his back.
“And lose another day for calculating the new coordinates? Let’s call for technicians and the Patrol instead!” sarcastically replied Kay.
The field power changed again – up to the highest limit. The ship jolted slightly. Arthur smiled meekly.
Is he afraid?
“Well… It’s either a generator malfunction or the control block went haywire.” Kay turned around. There was a cabined with equipment, detectors, spare blocks… “Arthur, replace the central processor in the control block of the drive. I’ll hold control from the panel.”
Arthur didn’t move.
“He’s afraid!”
“What is it with you, son?!” Kay screamed.
“Yes, daddy.” Arthur grabbed the plastic box with the processor from Kay’s hands and ran to the airlock.
“And do stop shaking, we have bought the aThan!” Kay shouted after him.
Is this the accident promised by Curtis? How very humane. A momentary explosion… but how can an interphaser blow the whole ship up?
What are you up to, Curtis Van Curtis?
Arthur ran through the airlock and opened the hatch to the engines bay…
…and the generator power dropped to zero on a panel. Alarm sounded in unison with a low explosion.
Kay was thrown on the control panel. Something was breaking nearby and Kay heard as the air was running out into the space.
“Son of a bitch” Kay thought without any spite while raising his head. Blood was coming out from the wound on his forehead. His liver started aching – the last regard from the bulrathi. His ears got stuffed up…
Then he saw Arthur or what had left of him – some bloody pieces of clothing and something else. Kay didn’t want to look closer. Curtis senior chose a quick death for his son.
For him, he chose a realistic one.
‘I’m a pilot; I don’t believe in aThan, I must struggle…’
Kay started towards the airlock on his faltering legs. Gravitation still remained. He had to make an attempt, a futile attempt to get in the spacesuit…
He didn’t expect what he saw, not even from Curtis. The airlock was torn apart and the space could be seen through the ragged hole. He saw the streamlined body of the cargo hold drifting slowly away across the blackness that was stitched with the starts. Blue sparks danced across the engines console…
‘Damned son of a bitch…’ thought Kay helplessly feeling as his eyes started to bulge. Then the bloody haze veiled the world around him.

----------


## Ramil

PART TWO. THE BODYGUARD 
1 
That day Vladimir Chen was on a stand-by duty in an aThan branch office on Incedius. He was the youngest employee – he had not even turned thirty. Moreover, he had never died yet.
A night was coming, a feast of death. It was the third hour of his duty. The old people were dying from illnesses, the young ones were dying from wounds, and the neurotics were committing suicide having forgotten about immortality they had bought. This was the time of the most intense work on any planet. Incedius, however, was too poor a world, and many aThan clients had exhausted their immortality during that month.
“A signal” Chen said and pushed a button of overall readiness. Lines of text were appearing on the screen before him. The neural grid transmitted the information instantly, yet, its decoding needed time. Ann Horn, Vladimir’s workmate took her eyes from a magazine.
“Gertrude Khai… human… female…”
“Oh really?” inquired Horn.
“Citizenship… Incedious. Real age… forty two, the matrix was taken at forty one, resuscitations… once. Stand down, aThan is unpaid.”
By pushing a button Chen deleted the half-decoded signal.
“Prepare a report.” said Horn returning to her reading.
“I’m doing it…” Vladimir’s fingers started dancing on the keyboard. “Isn’t it sad, is it? There was a life and now there is no more.”
“Many are no more.” Ann had stopped even being tired from such conversations. Her body breathed with the maturity of a woman in her mid-thirties. But she had been living nearly for ninety years and got used to view the philosophy of novices as light and unavoidable nuisance.
“After shifts like this, one regards differently such things as life, love, beauty…” Vladimir squinted.
Ann sighed and crossed her legs. A low seat presented her in the most appealing aspect. Unfortunately it had not yet occurred to Chen that Ann’s attitude towards him was not even maternal. Her eldest grandson could have been a father to Vladimir… besides she preferred sex with women in recent years.
“You know, our work is not just a discount for aThan and good money for me.” Chen continued reassured by Horn’s silence. “You start to perceive life. And I made friends… I got to know you…”
Horn put the magazine away. It appeared to her suddenly that the only way to calm the guy down would be giving it up. Perhaps it would be less tiresome.
Chen had an ill luck.
“You have a signal.” said Ann rising from her seat. “There is the second one…”
Vladimir turned to the screen. The work interested him still and his irritation went away quickly.
“Arthur Ovald… human… male… Citizenship… Endoria… Endoria!”
“He’s far from home.” Ann sat by a parallel control panel. “Some blotter perhaps. A journalist.”
“Many birds are flying in” agreed Chen readily. “Real age… twelve…”
“A kid.” Horn allowed herself a slight smile.
“The matrix was taken… ha… at twelve, resuscitations… none… aThan is paid.”
“A lucky one.” Horn even smacked her lips. “I may even cut a strand of his hair. For luck.”
Chen strained and made a vulgar joke. Horn winced. Scabrous sayings didn’t suit Vladimir, the more it was when they concerned children.
“Another signal” jabbered Chen getting the feeling that his chances for a midnight sex were minimal now. “Kay Ovald… human… male… citizenship… Endoria. I bet a cup a coffee it’s his brother.”
“Go bring one. The real age is thirty five… the matrix was taken at thirty five… there were no resuscitations, aThan is paid. It appears their ship cracked up. It’s his father, Chen.”
“Not necessarily.” replied Vladimir without much confidence. “Ann, would you see to the reanimators?”
Horn looked at him preparing to say some things about certain negligent employees that risk losing both the discount for aThan and good money, but decided against it. Vladimir was so young and so fervently silly…
“Curiosity made a cat perish, Vlad” she said rising up. Later when she was walking down the corridor to the molecular replicators module, Ann thought that everyone had undergone this stage. It’s rather interesting to watch the first thousand of deaths. Later you understand that they are all alike… 
… Having been left alone Chen took a tiny chip from his pocket. After half a minute of fumbling he wired it to the central computer. The only thing that remained to be done was to decide whom to begin the browsing with…
The technology (at least the one that had been available to him) allowed reading the data of visual and acoustical analyzers of a person that had died. It resulted in some kind of a film, a little bit strange, but fascinating. Vladimir was not troubled by scruples. He was resurrecting these people, after all! What would happen if they shared a little bit of their memory?
‘Let’s begin with the father’ he decided.
Athwart Curtis Van Curtis’s notion his employees widely practiced ‘peeping’; it was an old and innocent term. They were interested in sometimes not only in the last minutes of people.
Chen picked the three last days from Kay Ovald’s life from the whole array of data and turned the screen on at random moment.
The picture was confused as usual. Some individual details were very vivid and contrasting; everything else was static and blurry. The peculiarities of memory…
Kay Ovald was walking in the forest with someone. Then, very abruptly, he came out to the sea, and then he was by a live fence of sick bush. Endoria appeared to be a diverse planet… Kay’s companion was out of his field of view they didn’t talk much and Vladimir switched to the events of the last day. The fight with the bulrathi and many other events remained unseen.
“Let’s go to sleep. We’ve already checked the cargo, so…” said a dark haired boy looking into Kay’s face. Must be his son, of course. Chen imagined the long hours filled with the inventory of boxes and containers and wanted even to turn the screen off. Nevertheless, he scrupulously checked if the boy and the man went to different beds then switched over to replay the last minutes.
His curiosity was richly rewarded here. Curtis’s stage managers would be pleased. Vladimir Chen watched the catastrophe in space for three times in a row. He also replayed the same events from Arthur’s eyes twice. This record, however, was shorter and thus, less interesting.
Speculating over the horrors of space, Vladimir decided to keep the record of Kay Ovald’s three last days. The death in space was a spectacular show and Endoria too was worth seeing. He didn’t copy the Arthur’s memory.
Curiosity made a cat perish, but not a cat alone. Vladimir Chen was steadily walking the same path.

----------


## Ramil

2 
Kay’s first thought after his resurrection was that he wouldn’t forgive Curtis this death. It was not about pain, an algopistol killed more painfully being what it was. It was simply a disgusting death, disgusting and perfectly staged through.
“Name?” asked a soft woman’s voice.
This is my first aThan…
“Oh, where am I?” Kay started to stir on the replicator disk; its hardn surface was familiar and friendly. The indicator on the wall displayed ‘Incedius’.
“Everything is all right, mister. You are alive. What is your name?”
“Kay… Kay Ovald… Where am I?”
“Your citizenship?”
“Endoria… I am a citizen of Endoria and I demand that… is this aThan?”
“Yes, you were saved. You’ve been granted a new life. Tell me your code. This was a very patient woman, an old woman with a young face. Kay told her the code. Then he played embarrassment having noticed that he was naked. He put on aThan’s free clothing that was only suitable perhaps for mopping the floor and exclaimed:
“Oh my god, my son! He’s dead!”
“Arthur Ovald is here, nearby.” said woman reassuringly. “The both of you have returned to life.”
Kay beamed with a smile and said in half-whisper:
“It appears the aThan was a lucky catch after all! Didn’t it?”
“We hope we will make a long standing partnership” the happiness on woman’s face was almost sincere. A medic on duty quietly moved to the corner behind Kay’s back. He was hiding a syringe with a sedative in his fist.
“You are carrying it out quite well… for a novice.” a woman noted.
Jackass!
“We, the Ovalds are not so easy to break.” assured Kay. “Miss, can I see my son?”
She hesitated.
“Our rules… well, never mind, follow me.”
“Can you tell me, where have we ended it up?”
“Incedius.”
“I heard something about it…”
“Yes, they say a lot about our planet right now. Right here, mister Ovald, you may come in.”
Arthur was sitting on the edge of the replicator. He had already put on his free pants and he was putting on a t-shirt. His movements was slow, it appeared that the medic had to work here for a change.
It was unclear whether he was just playing or he had really panicked.
“The old geezer Curtis didn’t lie in his adverts!” shouted Kay. “We’re alive, Arthur!”
Arthur Curtis raised his eyes. He didn’t look any younger; at least not younger enough for noticing it, still the semblance with the boy that had killed Kay on Cailis dissipated a little.
“Father.” he said with a trembling voice.
“My boy.” Kay picked Arthur in his arms.
Quite suddenly Curtis junior saw it fit to start crying.
Even standing with the kid in his arms with his eyes half-closed Kay didn’t stop monitoring the situation. There were seven people crowding in the reanimation module, apparently the whole personnel that was on duty. There were two women in white coveralls – the replicator operators, two men in pale green suits – the doctors. Some swarthy and golden haired young creature of indeterminate gender– a girl most likely. Two very sturdy men – the guards.
The whole staff of aThan came to get a moral satisfaction.
Yes, it must have looked very touching to onlookers – a self-satisfied provincial merchant and his teenage son having only just purchased the aThan that survived in a catastrophe.
Hip, hip, hurrah!
Who’s slandering aThan? Simple people, the backbone of the Empire, rise from ashes for a new life! Only the most dangerous criminals are deprived of the aThan. Work for your immortality, work for yourself, work for Curtis Van Curtis!
aThan was only available to three races in the galaxy. Only the humans imposed no restrictions on immortality. Pay and live…
For a short and elusive moment Kay Altos saw himself with the eyes of the aThan personnel. He saw a man who got lucky. He saw a stiff merchant that softened after seeing his resurrected son.
For a moment Kay Altos was very glad for himself… 
A young creature approached them and said with velvety voice:
“I am a thanatologist of the company. Let me congratulate you with your first aThan and give several recommendations.”
Kay nodded. Arthur was still in his arms clutching at him.
“You have a right for one recovery day. I recommend you to make use of our service. Remember you have a temporary aThan within the company’s office. Have a rest and consider the renewing of your immortality.”
Kay started nodding obediently.
“There is a store and a bar at your disposal. Do you have a credit in aThan?”
“Yes, the card… It remained there!”
“Do not worry we’ll give you a new one.”
The young creature lowered its voice:
“We can render any service that may help in overcoming the stress.”
Kay pointed at Arthur with his eyes. The thanatologist nodded with understanding.
“May we have your permission to publish the information about you? It is such a remarkable incident.”
“Dad, don’t! Mom will w-worry!” mumbled Arthur.
“No, I think we shouldn’t at that.” Kay expressed a vivid worry.
“As you wish” the thanatologist was the politeness itself. “If you have a desire to speak… to tell about what had happened, to take a load off your mind – I am at your service.”
“Yes, damn it… It was the goddamned interphaser. It has a focusing field which controls that the delta-space wouldn’t appear within a ship, but either it was due to wear or due to a bug in the program, this field became unsteady…”
Thanatologist’s little face faded out.

----------


## Ken Watts

> 10 
> Whatever were Curtis’s thoughts about what had happened he never talked of/about it ever since. Two medics that were working too well for ones looking/ones who looked so young had glued/closed the Kay’s wound, administered several ampoules of unknown preparations and then applied a thin film of aerosol as a finishing touch.
> “Will it hold for two days?” inquired Kay.
> “Even for two years if you like.” said one of them as he shrugged his shoulders. The familiarity/experience of/in the  tone of voice only strengthened the suspicion that these two “young guys” had undergone the aThan not long before.
> Kay was relaxing in his room. It was twilight outside; the rhythm of life in the estate was bound to the local time of the tower.
> The silicoid appeared when Kay was starting to doze off.
> “In the fights with organic lifeforms the bulrathi sometimes used poisoned claws” he informed instead of saying some words of greeting.
> “He didn’t have time to apply poison and the medics administered some anti-toxin, but thank you anyway.”
> “May I?” the silicoid had floated to the sofa and even before Kay could react in surprise he bent his body and sat beside Kay. Kay moved farther away – the stone body poured out/radiated heat. “Let’s have a moment of silence in memory of a life gone.” solemnly said the silicoid.
> ...

----------


## Ken Watts

> 11 
> They woke Kay up shortly before dawn. He went/had gone to bed at three o’clock and his awakening was far from being pleasant.
> “Curtis Van Curtis is waiting for you” simply said the man that came. He was wearing a powered armor with activated protection and the holster of his “Bumblebee” was unfastened. Kay preferred not to argue with this kind of person. He dressed in silence and went out of the room. The man in armor followed Kay and directed him with slight touches of his hand. His helmet was closed so Kay didn’t/couldn't see his face. There were two corridors and three local hypertunnels. As they walked and passed the tunnels more armored guards were joining them and finally they had brought Kay to a study that was unfamiliar to him. The room resembled the cockpit of a medium cruiser judging both the design and the number of instruments. Curtis walked out to meet them.
> “The situation has changed, Kay.”
> “And so I became unnecessary?”
> Curtis frowned.
> “Why do you say so? Nick I didn’t order you to bring Kay under escort!”
> “I’m sorry, Van Curtis. We’ve been providing protection.”
> Curtis took Kay by the shoulder and nodded releasing the guards.
> ...

----------


## Ken Watts

> 12 
> His sleep or catching up with his sleep, to be precise, was calm. There were seven deaths behind his back – it was quite an experience. Besides, Kay was sure that Curtis Van Curtis wouldn’t let them die so trivially.
> Arthur, as it appeared, didn’t understand it.
> “Dad, wake up…”
> Kay pried his eyes open cursing everything and everyone. Nothing was so much fatiguing as an interrupted sleep while anticipating death. But Arthur, as all children do, rushed life and his concept of life comprised death quite naturally.
> “You’re waking me up over trifles again” he murmured. “What’s happening?”
> The living (command ?) module of the freighter was tiny. There were two piloting seats and two folding berths on the side walls. The whole front wall was a screen – a stupid custom in Kay’s opinion. It was silly to look at the stars through that ‘window’ and controlling the landing through it was simply suicidal.
> “There’s something wrong with the engines.” Arthur said guiltily.
> Kay rose and caught himself at/in genuine hastiness of his moves. He was starting to believe in the ‘flight’ of their ‘ship’ that was standing on the ground. It was good.
> ...

----------


## Ramil

3 
For the third time during this day Kay went to sleep. Curtis Van Curtis assured that recreational premises of aThan weren’t equipped with surveillance systems. Nevertheless Kay sprawled on the floor and had been giving thanks for his salvation to the One Will for half an hour. Then he was explaining for several minutes to dozing off Arthur that what had happened was a valuable lesson of life. Only then he allowed himself and Arthur to sleep their fill.
It was morning according to clocks but the windows were shielded by a force field. Kay searched for a switch without success and went to the bathroom. He scraped off his bristle with a one-off razor and took a shower. Then he drove Arthur to wash.
They were served a breakfast: two sausages with mashed potatoes, a salad, a couple of toasts, jam in tiny cans and coffee. They ate in silence – the comedy had finished and the work began.
“There’s something wrong…” said Arhtur while finishing his coffee. Kay looked at him strictly and Arthur went silent.
At the aThan’s store that was two levels below their recreation room, they bought normal clothing. Smiling placidly Kay permitted his ‘son’ to buy expensive jeans and shoes but when business got down to shirts, socks and underwear he inclined him to choose the cheapest ones. Kay was choosing his suit for nearly half an hour. He wasn’t satisfied with the price, the cut, the fabric, the planet where it had been manufactured…
“It’s cold outside and raining. It is autumn.” noted the assistant that had seen worse sorts of characters.
Kay gave up and bought Arthur a good jacket. For himself he chose a dark raincoat and a cap of local fashion. Then he smiled ingratiatingly:
“I sometimes smoke trab…”
“Are you a registered drug consumer?”
“Of course!” mister Ovald was exasperated.
“Then you have a twenty percent discount… Do you prefer green or black sorts?”
“Green.” Kay decided.
Arthur frowned.
“Well, and the weapons, of course…” Kay started towards the showcase he had taken fancy to right from the start.
“Please choose only within the yellow sector.” warned the attendant. “Red is for imperial servicemen and professional bodyguards only.”
Kay froze, having had already taken an aim to the ‘Bumblebee’ he grew accustomed to. He completely forgot about this detail.
The yellow sector included low energy weapons that were only suitable for self-defense against street ruffians and not much else. There were about ten modifications of stunners that were differing essentially by design only, needle pistols that were unable to pierce through any armor, gravity batons, ultrasonic shock grenades…
Arthur and Kay exchanged glances. Their mission was near failure. A professional could use any weapon but grew accustomed to two or three of his favorite models.
“I’m sorry, can you tell me which sector does the ‘Convoy’ belong to?” inquired Kay carefully.
‘Convoy’ was a low energy laser pistol. Its shot caused only a painful but shallow burn that could stop an enemy. The fact that this pistol had a substantial energy reserve and a high rate of fire was delicately ignored by the law. In automatic fire mode a series of laser impulses could burn a man through in two seconds.
“The ‘Convoy’?” the girl looked in the list. “The yellow sector.”
They bought two ‘Convoys’, additional magazines, several shock-grenades, a needle pistol for Arthur, and a gravity baton for Kay. For some reason, the attendant wasn’t surprised at this unexpected warlike behavior.
Near the exit to the city they were caught up with the young thanatologist.
“Wouldn’t you renew your aThan?”
“Not yet, our finance…” Kay lifted his hands.
“You will get your documents and the facts about the planet from a security officer.” the creature said coldly leaving them alone. “The languages on the planet are: Standard, Russian, German, and Korean. The aThan company wishes you good luck and good health.”
They took their documents and thin grey leaflets with the description of the planet. The guards opened the armor plated doors and Kay with Arthur entered a long dark corridor leading from the underground office of the company onto the surface. The dull sun could be seen somewhere ahead.
“I think I understood what’s been wrong” suddenly said Arhtur. “The breakfast should have consisted of local food. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless it was dangerous.”
“Look in the leaflet.” Kay took out his “Convoy” shifted the safety switch to the automatic fire mode. “I know nearly nothing of Incedius.”
“I know” Arthur stopped. “You should have asked me… daddy. There is a civil war going on here for three months already. And they’ve been using biological weapons.”

----------


## Ramil

4 
The tunnel ended up on a flat stone plain. A landing pad for flyers was empty and a low decorative fence was stuck over with wet leaves. An opened door to the flight-control cabin was swinging in the wind silently back and forth. It was drizzling even though a pale yellow sun which was giving nearly no warmth at all was seen over the horizon. Straight rows of cottages were seen in the distance. They looked bad… deserted.
“What a wonderful morning.” Kay said to the rain holding the ‘Convoy’ by his hip. “Why didn’t these bastards warn us?”
“You didn’t ask?” Arthur pulled the hood of his jacket and put his hands in the pockets. “They were offended that we didn’t renew the aThan having so much money. They gave us leaflets with information… gave us breakfast. Well, would it have changed anything? We can return even now and renew our contracts. They count on it.”
“We don’t need it, do we…” Kay breathed out noisily. “It looks quiet. Read the last section to me.”
“Right now, daddy.” replied Arthur fooling around. “Planetology, economics, politics, culture… here it is... the current situation.”
“Give me a brief summary.”
“The conflict between two population groups of Velikorossia… it occupies this whole continent. One side stands for the forced return of Azure islands also known as Jeng Shi which was occupied seventeen years ago by the Sagun principality. The other side stands for continuing of peaceful negotiations on the territorial problem. The former are supported by Kaiserland, the latter naturally get support from Sagun. The war is going on the whole territory… A month ago both sides started resorting to doom virus and bio-terminator. The estimated number of victims is about four millions. The forecast on outcome is unclear. Imperial authorities maintain neutrality. Currently skirmishes are going on for control over Kitezh… it’s the capital.
“My congratulations, Arthur” Kay took a map from his leaflet and unfolded it. “We’re very close, it’s thirty kilometers to the city.”
“And the imperial spaceport?”
“It’s located symmetrically to us in relation to Kitezh.”
“Aha…”
They exchanged glances and Kay felt sympathy to Curtis junior for a moment. The boy turned out to be a better client than many of his former ones. Many adult men would have cursed at everything and demanded guarantees of safety.
“Well, how are we going to go, straight or circling around?”
“God only knows…” Kay looked around again. “Kitezh is somewhere there… how far would it be if we circle around?”
“Ninety four kilometers” answered Arthur after a second.
“Mathematician… Say a hundred. And half of it would be off the roads.” Kay put the pistol into the pocket of his raincoat and raised his head. The air smelled only with rain and damp foliage… but then doom-virus had to have no smell.
“Nevertheless it’s safer to circle around the city.” Arthur began.
“Of course, it is three days of walking at least. There’s no food. Are you vaccinated against doom-virus?”
“Sure.”
“I’ve been vaccinated too” Kay took a pause “but not in this body.”
Arthur shrugged his shoulders – it’s your problems, then he asked:
“So shall we circle around?”
“Depends… Get down!”
Curtis junior dropped down so quickly as if he’d been pushed under his knees. Kay dropped on one knee over him grabbed his pistol and froze.
Arthur was lying still for a minute then he turned his muddy face and looked at Kay in perplexity.
“I think I saw something” said Kay without lowering his pistol.
“You, idiot…” shouted Arthur with his voice rising to a shrill.
“No, I’m not mistaken.” said Kay with relief. And a fan of violet flashes from the ‘Convoy’ passed over the back of Curtis junior that made him duck to dirt again. For the next several moments they were half rolling and half creeping on all fours and the bullets were smacking in the puddles behind them. At last Kay ducked Arthur in a concrete ditch of a gutter that was encircling the landing pad then Kay jumped after him and started to laugh.
“What is it with you?” asked Arthur rising on his elbows. He was lying in muddy ditch water, wet to the bone and shivering with cold. A crazy bodyguard on top of all this was too much.
Still laughing, Kay switched his pistol to fire in single shots and explained:
“It was clear as day that there had been an ambush. I thought that if we just stand there for a little they would break and try to get closer. They’ve lost the element of surprise now.”
“I thought you killed them all.”
“No, I didn’t kill anyone. A couple of burns that’s all.”
Kay took off his cap and put it on Arthur’s head then crept a couple of meters further along the ditch. Then he turned to Arthur and made a strange gesture – he threw his hand upwards and quickly lowered it back.
Arthur understood it in his own way. He turned over on his belly stood on his fours and looked out of the ditch for a moment.
There were splashes of bullets again. At this moment Kay leaped up giving Arthur a momentary spiteful glance. His pistol spat fire twice and someone screamed through the shots. Before their opponents could shift their aim Kay disappeared back in the concrete ditch and crept to Arthur.
“What are you doing kid?”
“But you…”
“I asked you to put the cap onto the barrel or onto your hand and lift it. Remember, I will never ask you to risk your life. You’ve got me for such things, understand?”
“I will.” promised Arthur breathing heavily.
Kay drew the cap over his eyes and turned away. Still Arthur could see him through a neat bullet hole with parched edges.
Shooting stopped.
“Hey!” shouted Kay folding his palms around his mouth. “Who’s your leader?”
There was a single shot then there was a reply.
“I am. What do you want?”
“How about a temporary truce? Let’s talk.”
“What damn truce are you talking about? Raise your hands and come out. I’ve got thirty men over here.”
“And do you want to get half of them killed?”
“What do you propose?” the man replied. He was calmer this time.
“I will get up and make ten steps forward. There won’t be any weapon in my hands. Come to me and let’s have a talk.”
“Get up!”
“Do I have your word that I won’t be shot at?”
“All right” a reply followed after a short pause.
Kay searched through his pocket and produced a shock grenade in a small metallic case and handed it to Arthur.
“Do you know how to use it?”
“Yes”
“If I get shot, put it on your forehead and activate. You don’t understand? You won’t be able either to kill yourself with the ‘Convoy’ or get out of this mess without me.”
“Okay.” Arthur took the grenade.
“My regards to your father.” Kay rose up.
He stood for a second expecting a shot. Then he shrugged his shoulders and made several steps forward. A figure appeared in the door of the flight-control cabin. They met in the middle, Kay and a man of medium height in a light armor. They looked at each other critically.
“Who are you?”
“Traders from Endoria. I was flying with my son… our ship blew up.”
“Where were you going to?”
“To Cailis.”
“Bad luck.”
“Indeed.”
The man was feeling uncomfortable. Kay carried himself too freely and too friendly.
“What do you think of local problems?”
“Couldn’t care less, to be honest.” Kay answered in Russian.
“Are you russian?” the man inquired.
“A very little.”
“Will you go with us?”
“We need to get to the spaceport. We don’t fight.”
“I saw it how you didn’t fight… All right, give up your weapons, documents and money and get lost.”
“You will have nothing with aThan cards and you cannot falsify imperial documents.”
“We have a war here, haggler. And if your piece of junk blew itself up nearby then go and blame your fate. Give up your weapons.”
“We’re not going to make it through without it. Take one pistol and one stunner.”
“Are you going to haggle with me here?” the armored man was dumbfounded.
“You have twenty two, maybe twenty three men” Kay began “only two have armor, including you. Your weapons are hunting rifles with ordinary and fragmentation bullets, a couple of shotguns, and three stunners that didn’t even fire. No ammo?”
The bandit leader was silent.
“I made burned the hands of three of your guys; one other has a burn on his belly. Another one won’t be able to see with his right eye, I’m afraid. And listen now, I didn’t shoot to kill. I was just cooling them down a little. The whole band of yours will be able to get us, granted, but only half of them, no more, would live to see it.”
The man unclenched his fist. A short tube could be a one-shot pistol… could be not.
“If you’re that tough tell me what are you going to do with a bullet in your belly?”
“I will spit it to your face and tell you that the Russians never kill each other.”
“Are you hoping for the aThan?”
“My immortality has expired. But my son still has it. He’ll get back and revenge.”
The man looked at the ditch. It was very close and he was in full view. He clenched his fist again hiding the pistol.
“How do you propose to do it?”
“It’s easy. Take the stunner from the holster. Take it yourself; I don’t need any bullets in my back. There is a pistol in the pocket of the raincoat. There is also cash, not much but I’m sure you will find uses for it. I’ll return to my son. When you all leave so that we could see it we will run away from here.
The man chuckled, took the pistol and money and quickly put it under the breastplate of his armor.
“You’re lucky you’re Russian. You’re not lying to me, are you?”
“Check it for yourself.” Kay was the politeness itself.
“Do you speak our tongue?”
“I speak badly but I do understand” answered Kay with a slight hesitation.
“Get back to your ditch.”

----------


## Ramil

5 
They remained in the ditch for another half an hour waiting for rustles and whistling to cease and seeing as small groups of men started falling back to the cottages.
“How did you managed to persuade them?” asked Arthur while turning over on his back. He didn’t pay attention to water anymore. It seemed warm to him probably.
“A little bit of flattery, a little bit of threats, showing off, a bribe and a pinch of nationalism.”
“What?”
“Well, there’s a drop of Russian blood in me. I played on it… “the Russians don’t kill the Russians.”
“Is it true?”
“It’s nonsense. Quite the contrary, it’s in their tradition. But it flatters and helps to save one’s face. I’ve been repeating this phrase for at least twenty times by changing only nationality. It works usually… if your opponent needs an excuse to back away. You see, nationalism is always just an excuse. And it could be used in both ways: ‘we are peaceful’ or ‘we are courageous’, ‘we’re hard-working’ or ‘we’re lazy’. You can shrug off anything to national or race traits and get away with it.
“That’s amusing.” decided Arthur after thinking it over.
“Yes it is… Give me your gun; you will go with the stunner. Cover our rear.”
Kay rose and started walking away from the settlement. Arthur followed him looking about. They weren’t shot at. 
Somewhat three hours later they got to a good concrete road and followed it while it matched their direction. By that moment the rain had washed off all the dirt from them and much of their inspiration from victory.
“It’s total wasteland no further than thirty kilometers from the capital.” Kay was cursing quietly “And they’re fighting over the right to fight for some islands! Did you see them on the map, Arthur?”
“No.”
Kay turned around and shook his head.
“We need rest. But not here. Go forth Arthur, Graal awaits thee… What have you got there, by the way?”
“A half-credit penny.” Arthur answered gloomily.
After another hour of plodding through sown but not harvested fields (a local thorny cereal seemed unaffected by rain and soaked ground) they tumbled upon a house fenced by metallic chain link. The building had nearly no windows, it was low and gray, and seemed uninhabitable.
“The everyday work of a farmer.” said Kay while looking at the building. “It must be a pigpen or a barn. Do you like bacon?”
“What’s so funny?”
“I am working, Arthur, let’s go.”
They crept under a bent fence onto the territory and found the entrance – the rolling metal doors.”
“Knock-knock!” Kay said loudly while rolling the door to the side. A beam flashed from the darkness inside.
They jumped to either sides of the door. No more shots followed. Kay waved his hand slightly to the right and back. Arthur took off his cap obediently, put it on the barrel and moved it in front of the opening. As the next shot had inflamed the poor headdress Kay slipped into the darkness.
Arthur didn’t have to wait for long. A series of impulses illuminated the shed with violet flashes. Then Kay shouted:
“Come in, Sir Arthur, for everything is in order. The wrong has been righted. The strength has served the right.”
“Hey, you do know about Arthur and the Round table!”
“I should not argue with you.” answered Kay as he dragged the body out of the shed by the legs. The smell of burned flesh made Arthur to turn away.
“At least we have solved our problem with food.” Kay said as he stooped by the door.
“I won’t” Arthur replied quickly.
“There is a bag near the wall, you fool. Ransack it while I…” Kay continued his work. The dead man was old and his long grey hair dragged in the mud clotting into black icicles.”
Arthur was opening the tin-cans when Kay returned.
“It’s only food and a couple of beer cans here.” he announced.
“The deceased wanted to survive but we wanted the same.” resumed Kay. “It’s not a bad place, isn’t it?”
The shed turned out to be a farmer’s garage. By the walls there stood heavy and bulky machines and there was a grey cube of a recharging device in the corner. Kay examined it and shook his head, climbed into one machine then into another one…
“Will you eat, Kay?”
“Certainly.”
They ate canned meat and drank a bottle of beer. Then Kay built a fire out of wooden panels which he had mercilessly torn out from the walls. Meanwhile Arthur fixed a metal grating of unknown origin by the fire and hanged his wet clothing on it. Kay followed his example.
“What he was shooting with?” asked Arthur looking into the fire.
“A laser rifle. He was a rich farmer … by local standards.”
“I hope he had the aThan.” Curtis junior said seriously.
Kay laughed quietly but didn’t say anything. They were sitting for some time slowly getting warm. Rain was tapping on the closed door and under the ceiling hung a blue-gray cloud of smoke.
“Arthur…”
“What is it, Kay?”
“I’m going to ask you one question… no, not now.”
“Why not, go ahead.”
“No, you’re going to lie and I want to know the truth.”
“One doesn’t really need the whole truth.”
“You’re too clever… We’ll spend the night here. There’s no point in roaming in the dark.”
Arthur didn’t understood but chose not to say anything. Kay put on his clothing that was still damp, climbed into the nearest harvester and started examining the control panel. Arthur looked at him from the floor, in the light of fire his indistinct figure was flickering and grotesquely distorted by the cockpit glass.
“Splendid.” said Kay with satisfaction. “That’s why the old man didn’t use fire…”
“Listen, dad…”
“What?”
“Why do you hate children? I know you had a hard time in your childhood but that’s not the reason.”
Kay sat on the cockpit floor with his legs dangling in the air.
“Truth for truth, frankly?”
“As it was with the silicoid. Come on.”
“I’ve never been a child. I have always been forty years old, Arthur. It’s very hard not remembering yourself being a careless boy. To try to be like your age-mates, to envy them… Too good a childhood turns a kid into an adult quicker than a bad one.”
“Did you have a good childhood?”
“My father was a senator on Shedar the second. I did have a very good childhood indeed. I turned seven on the evacuation day … and I wasn’t a child anymore. I saw as assault capsules were landing on the sandbanks… only at the port our last base was still holding the sky. My father remained on the planet with guerilla groups. They had believed still that the Empire would come to help. They were probably alive when Emperor Gray had ordered to scorch the planets. I’m not saying he was wrong. An assault would have taken far more lives than there were guerillas on the occupied planet… the planet that wasn’t amongst the most obedient ones in the Empire to begin with. Altos harbored us and we survived. They didn’t leave us our surnames, I stopped being Kay Lacitis. We became the children of the Empire. But I couldn’t become a kid again and everybody felt that. Such children are adored by their parents but they have no friends. I tried, Arthur, I tried hard. The housemaster of our block “G” was a very good man, a person of many sides, the author of many TV-series for kids that were broadcast over the networks on Altos, not a sadist or pervert unlike many who like such jobs very much. He sincerely believed that children should be guarded against the adults. He always talked about friendship and kindness… but he couldn’t understand why his tight-knit pupils disliked little Kay. For him, I remained a touching kid with a thin neck …”
Arthur smiled inadvertently.
“… and sad eyes. My classmates saw that I was different and defended against me as they could. When I understood that I couldn’t turn back into a child I became adult. One night… it doesn’t matter. I tagged along with a traveling circus. It was one of those places too, but they treated me almost humanly. I mopped the floors, sold tickets, assisted to the clowns. For a year I was the living target for Redgar Red the man-gun…”
“Did you kill him too?”
“What? No, Arthur, Redgar has taught me everything: how to shoot, how to throw knives, how not to close your eyes when you’re getting shot at. Then he said that the circus for me was just a staging post and made me work with Diana, his girlfriend. She was a trapeze artist. I liked it until she fell and got her neck broken. I’ve been passed from artist to artist and worked a little bit with everyone. Our clowns Yacek and Narek gave me more than a dozen psychologists could do. Still they had never tried to drag me into their big double bed even though they were as gay as clear is a day. I know how animals look when preparing to attack and how to defend from a psy-mutated tiger. I should be grateful to Jassan for that. He was the only Mrshhan among us. He also taught me to have a knack for wines…”
Kay went silent.
“You hate children because you had no childhood yourself.” Arthur said without mercy. “You envy them. You think that the child’s envy to adults is stronger even than women’s envy to men. You constantly consider yourself being hated.”
“Yes.”
“Then you ask.”
“Is it difficult to try to be an adult while remaining a child?”
“Of course it is, Kay.”
“Let’s sleep now, Arthur Van Curtis.” Kay jumped down. “Get in the cockpit and close the door. I turned the heating on and there is a broad seat inside.”
“And you?”
“I’ll look for another tractor. Good night.”

----------


## translationsnmru

> 5 
> They remained in the ditch for another half an hour waiting for rustles and whistling to cease and _seeing as small groups of men started falling back_ to the cottages.
> ”

 Я думаю, ты имел в виду "watching small groups of men retreat..." 
"seing as" - это разговорное выражение, означающее "поскольку" или "потому что". И вообще, почему не "They stayed in the ditch for half an hour, until rustles and whistling stopped and small groups of men started to..."? Так и короче, и ближе к оригиналу.

----------


## Crocodile

> I saw as assault capsules were landing on the sandbanks…

 Probably, the better way would be: "I saw the assault capsules landing on the sandbanks…"   

> assisted to the clowns

 Maybe: "assisted the clowns"   

> Redgar has taught me everything: how to shoot, how to throw knives, how not to close your eyes when you’re getting shot at

 Maybe: " Redgar has taught me everything: to shoot, to throw knives, not to close your eyes when you’re getting shot at"   

> Our clowns Yacek and Narek gave me more than a dozen psychologists could do.

 Maybe: Our clowns Yacek and Narek gave me more than a dozen psychologists could give. (and "give" being optional)" I'm not really sure if that's important, or "do" could also do fine. Does anybody know?

----------


## Ramil

Thanks guys, got it fixed. 
6 
When Arthur woke up Kay was already preparing breakfast. Furthermore he drove one harvester out of the row and parked it near the gate. Arthur looked skeptically at the clumsy machine – it had a drum tiller in front of it, four huge wheels and an automatic packer behind. There was no hull as such; all the parts were clearly visible. The cabin that protruded on its thin supports looked like everything but reliable.
“I wouldn’t call this a good idea” noted Arthur while taking his ration.
“There wasn’t anything better…” Kay looked critically at the wheels. “Speed is up to forty five kilometers per hour and this is in a harvesting mode. Its charge is nearly full. How was your sleep?”
“Like at home.”
“And I got cold. There must have been something wrong with the climate controller.”
They finished their breakfast and threw the bag with the remaining cans into the cabin. Kay handed the laser rifle to Arthur, a nickel plated device with a cumbersome side magazine, and ordered:
“Get in the cabin.”
From the glass bubble Arthur watched as Kay opened the gates. He stood for a while and said in a loud voice:
“Would you look at this beauty? The rain is over and the dew has fallen… The arrish will muck up I’m afraid, sonny!”
“Kay, I asked you not to call me ‘sonny’!”
“All right, sonnie.” Kay said while climbing into the cabin. “It’s time for some thrashing, right? Move over.”
His eyes glistened with excitement. Arthur got out from the seat in perplexity and sat on the cabin floor. Kay put his hands on the levers.
“Watch and learn. There’s no such thing as useless skill.”
The harvester roared and rolled out of the hangar splashing the dirt around. Kay laughed. The thorny cereals were stretching up to the horizon.
“The bread has been standing for too long, wouldn’t you say?”
“This is not wheat, Kay.”
“I know, Arthur,” Kay’s face had lost its foolish expression for a moment. “Fever, euphoria… then there will be hallucinations. It’s the doom-virus. Let’s go!”
The tiller made a howling sound as it lowered to the ground. The harvester drove through the fence and rolled across the field. The packer started champing as it was throwing out the plastic packs with pressed grass behind them.
“How much time do you have?” asked Arthur quietly.
“About three hours. Then there will be a period of unmotivated aggression and then the heart stops. I will try to make it, kid.”
They were going in silence for almost an hour. Arthur was looking through the window holding the rifle on his knees. Kay was singing frivolous songs. After a while Kay asked:
“What did they want?”
“Who?”
“Those people… riding horses… wearing hats with blue stars on them…”
“I didn’t see anyone…” answered Arthur averting his eyes.
“Ah… If I call you Leshka then shoot. Okay?”
“I promise I will.”
Sometimes Arthur saw pillars of smoke in the distance… Sometimes Kay steered around something or in pursuit of something invisible. Arthur didn’t say anything.
Then there was an attempt to stop them. A small bunch of armed men, probably the same that they had encountered near the exit, opened fire at the harvester.
“A hailstorm.” noted Kay dryly. Arthur never understood whether he was joking or he didn’t perceive the reality already. The harvester veered and headed onto the crowd. Arthur half opened the door and began shooting the rifle – it had a remarkable rate of fire and a sizable magazine. 
“No foul weather will stop me from harvesting my last crops.” declared Kay when bullets started tapping against the cabin. The glass pretended to be bulletproof – it got covered with cracks but didn’t yield. Kay had finished his harvest to the end and then returned to its former course. The plastic bags were all used up and some monstrous cannibal stuffing of flesh mixed with grass was pouring out from behind the harvester.
“It is very indicative that you don’t even get sick.” noted Kay while casting quick glances at Arthur. “Your daddy deserves killing but it’s impossible unfortunately.” 
Arthur didn’t understand.
They scudded along the suburbs of Kitezh past a wooden church that was in flames, past houses that were ruined by artillery fire and past monuments that were carefully covered with protective casings. The monuments were numerous.
“A nation that doesn’t remember its past is doomed.” Kay commented this fact. “Thus our nation is immortal.”
When towers of the spaceport appeared ahead Kay asked in a dull voice:
“Shall we fly over the river, what do you think?”
“Let’s go.” agreed Arthur looking at the approaching highway. They crossed the highway and drove towards an iridescent force field barrier. A couple of combat vehicles of the imperial infantry idly rolled out of the gates and turned their turrets in their direction.
“We’ll die together Leshka” said Kay squinting “things could turn out better, right?”
Arthur took his stunner and carefully fired at Kay’s temple. Then he dragged the numb body from the seat and stopped the harvester. It was more difficult to find the controls for the tiller. The soldiers didn’t approach until Arthur had stopped it.
Curtis junior jumped from the harvester and ran towards the guards. He was only twelve so they didn’t shoot.
“Help my dad!” shouted Arthur. “Help, he has a doom-fever I had to stun him! Help, we’ll pay! We are from Endoria, the home planet of the Emperor! Help!”
He cried too naturally and the lieutenant of the Imperial military had children too. The lieutenant nodded to his soldiers and two of them having lowered their visors headed towards the dented up with bullets and blood stained harvester.

----------


## Ramil

7 
During rare minutes when another dose of viral phage had lowered the toxin level in his blood and senses were returning to him Kay was thinking in the sterile cleanness of his empty ward. His delirium ended; his consciousness was clear albeit sluggish. At this point he could only recover or die if viral phage that was administered in huge doses would have mutated and confused his flesh for virus. Soft manipulator paws washed him, changed his bedclothes, injected drugs and turbid liquid nutrients.
When a woman wearing a green medical suit entered the ward with a raised visor he understood that he had survived.
“My name is Isabelle.” she said as she was sitting on the bed.
“A beautiful name.” noted Kay moving his disobedient tongue with difficulty. “You’re a blond angel.”
“What is the name of your wife?”
“Karin.”
“A pretty nice name too.” the woman nodded. “I am your doctor. Are there any gaps in your memory?”
There was ice in the blue eyes of this woman. There were a long life and a long service for the Emperor. In some way, she was a doctor indeed, a surgeon that cuts off unnecessary cells of social organism.
“No… I think not… I can lose my memory, miss?”
“We’ll see.”
And they had seen. Kay told her about his childhood, about Uncle Raul that had left him a small inheritance, about the Endorian climate, about him evading taxes time after time, about his meeting with Karin and about Arthur’s birth.
“He’s a good boy… he didn’t desert his father… Is he all right, miss?”
“The Emperor doesn’t leave his subjects in distress.” informed Isabelle with dignity. “How did your ship perish?”
“We started from Endoria in the evening of the thirteenth, on the sixth decade of eastern winds…”
“… interphasers don’t usually play pranks, but …”
“… Arthur was torn to pieces, Lord! One wouldn’t want to see things like that again.”
Isabelle’s face remained straight. She had seen things much worse than a boy torn to pieces.
“…the aThan did work, after all. I didn’t believe it would till the end, to be honest…”
“…we found this shed and there were a dead old man and some tractors in it…”
Isabelle put her palm on Kay’s throat and said without any emotion:
“It is not good to lie to the servants of the Emperor… We want the truth, the whole truth… Kay. Your life is still too fragile… and you’re lying.”
“Miss…” Kay was wheezing, “He fired at us, what could I do? God, they are all nuts here…”
Isabelle wiped her hands on the bed sheet and smiled:
“It’s better now. The Emperor doesn’t get concerned about deaths of insurgents and bandits, but he likes sincerity.”
Kay started nodding hastily.
“You wiggled out of troubles pretty slick, Kay Ovald. The whole harvester is covered with blood from wheels to roof, as if it had gone through a slaughterhouse.”
“Miss, I couldn’t think coherently when I was driving it. There were attempts to stop us… I didn’t hurt Emperor’s people, miss, did I?”
“You were lucky you didn’t.” Isabelle replied coolly. “You are a very lucky person. A mere merchant… and such prowess … People that go beyond their profession always stir my curiosity. Your business is commerce, not military deeds.”
“We, the Ovalds have always been serving Emperor Gray hand and foot!” said Kay raising his voice. “My grandfather Arthur whom I named my son after fought in the Feud War…”
“Drop it, Kay. I’ve heard enough about your grandfather’s deeds from the boy. They don’t concern you. Have a rest.”
At the door Isabelle added:
“We will report to Endoria about your lucky escape. Shall I tell something to your wife?”
“Tell her that I love her… and tell her not to worry.”
“The latter could be a bit premature.”
The door had closed and Kay lowered his head on a pillow. He could only hope that the old sly fox Curtis had envisaged everything. That he was smarter than this old woman from the Imperial Security Service. 
Sitting in her office which was furnished plainly as it was proper for an Imperial serviceman Isabelle Kahl was preparing the weekly report. She took pleasure in a routine job that according to tradition was unloaded onto the Deputy Regional Commander. There were simple figures about civilian casualties, expenses of the Service and numbers of recruited agents. But there was so much work, so many lives and even more deaths behind them. 
There was so much power!
A message from Endoria came only by the evening. Isabelle browsed through the official information, watched the video that was shot by an agent in the Ovald’s house. Karin Ovald, a tall thin woman broke into tears after seeing Kay’s peaked and half-mad face on the photograph. But she quickly put herself together and pressed on the agent with questions: “How to get in touch?”, “Why didn’t they pass information earlier?”, “We’re not the last people on Endoria!”, “Will the Service pay for a flight to Incedius?”
“What a gaunt bitch” concluded Isabelle as she stopped the record. This trader had no taste whatsoever. There is more to a woman than a beautiful face. It is clear now at least whom his son had inherited his features from. “Arthur Ovald. Surveillance.” she commanded.
The screen came to life again but Arthur wasn’t in the small room.
“Search.”
Arthur Ovald was in the shower. Isabelle was eyeing the boy closely leaning her head sideward. A handsome whelp. His father was not bad too but he was ruder and simpler…
Meanwhile the boy sat on the bottom of the shower and started doing things teenagers sometimes do which shower had always been a perfect cover for.
Kahl felt as she started to get excited. Work had been leaving her little time for sex.
Isabelle turned on the screening and took a dildo from the bottom drawer. Still looking at the screen she put her legs onto the desk…
Arthur had been taking shower long enough so that Isabelle Kahl could get all the emotions she desired. She brushed herself up, turned on the automatic secretary and said:
“The Ovalds family. Cancel the red mode. The yellow mode for a week. Field supervision… Luis Nomachi. Video surveillance… video surveillance remains on me.
She liked the recent sensation. The things she had to do with the Service Director Kurt brought little satisfaction.

----------


## Ramil

8 
On the next day Arthur Ovald was permitted to visit his father. Kay in reclining posture was eating oat gruel. Its taste was just wonderful compared to warm mineral water which they had allowed him to drink the day before.
“Dad?”
Kay silently handed the plate to a nurse, a red haired girl with a slim figure. He and Arthur looked at each other.
“I’m glad you didn’t put your grandfather’s name into disgrace.” said Kay.
Arthur smiled.
“You look far better, dad.”
“No wonder here.”
Arthur squinted at the nurse and said:
“They got in touch with mom… we were talking. I told her that there was no need for her to come. You’re going to be discharged in three days and we’ll fly home, right?” 
The old sly fox Van Curtis. He outsmarted the Service and I really have got a house on Endoria and a wife named Karin… 
“We will have to go, son. Someone at our spaceport needs a good scandal. We’ll shake everything out them… for the ship and for all this trouble.
The red-haired nurse smiled as she was turning away. This big guy was very overconfident. The spaceport technical services had become very skilled in such scandals.
Then again, this Endorian is very stubborn and lucky. Perhaps he would be able to squeeze some amount out of them … in a couple of years.
“Arthur, bring me a normal sandwich…” whispered Kay Ovald behind her back. Here he is too. As soon as patients get the ability to move they immediately start dreaming of breaking the rules… 
…Luis Nomachi was a man of deceptive appearance. He was plump as a donut and very cheerful. He seemed to be glad at anything that happened. His ability to promote his career caused a few raised eyebrows among his colleagues. Luis was regarded as a stool pigeon; there were talks about some high-ranked patrons. But this was not the case. Luis simply could accept any rules of the game. Such as him survived on the occupied planets, persisted resignations of their superiors, and went higher and higher, slowly but steadily. Their growth had been limited by the lifespan before but it was their time now, it was their opportunity. They could adapt to everything, sustain victories and losses, they were growing on the body of the Human Empire like a thorny weed. One couldn’t even call them immoral. They just corresponded too well to the current moment.
Nomachi had some uncomplicated task this time – controlling of two Endorians who were presently under a yellow mode – the father and son who made it from the regional aThan office to the spaceport. A lucky miss! Kahl did some initial checking and shuffled the case to him. Some passive surveillance, data checking – what could be easier?
But why Isabelle Kahl took personal interest in the Endorians? Why had she kept them in the red mode until she could talk to Ovald senior and query information from their home planet? Nomachi lacked Isabelle’s beastly intuition and seventy years of experience. But he trusted someone else’s experience and had persistence that was sooner peculiar to a door-spring rather than a man.
He was crouching at the computer terminal and constantly chewing crackers from the package and opening one file after another from the “Endorians case”. There were a report of the outer perimeter guard lieutenant, a medical report, interrogation transcripts of the boy, a record of conversation between Isabelle and Kay, a report from the Service on Endoria. The average information authenticity evaluation is eighty six percent. Great! The golden middle… not too little and not too much to raise suspicions. They were lying about something, of course. Just like any other honest man would do.
But Isabelle Kahl didn’t entertain doubts about them.
Luis got back to the operative information. Here are the photographs of Kay and Arthur… Stop! They don’t look alike all that much. Karin Ovald cuckolded her husband? Possible… Luis queried the file with Karin’s brief description. The portrait… Well if she was boy’s mother and Kay was his father… Luis ran physiognomic analysis.
Firty two percent. Arthur could be a son of them both, he could be born from another man, or he could be adopted. Then again it was an average result. Well, let’s try it differently: what is the probability that Arthur is Karin’s son… what is the probability that Arthur is Kay’s son…?
Twenty percent. Six percent.
Nice. The program found something wrong. The boy that had been the son of Karin and Kay could be neither Kay’s son nor Karin’s son. How extraordinary…
The program could glitch. Karin could cheat on her husband. The adoption bureau could have used the same equipment when it was selecting a baby and pick up a suitable child for their couple and not for Karin or Kay separately. It was totally unnecessary to begin the investigation…
But the spring man couldn’t stop halfway. There were checks on Endoria, there were local checks. What was left out? aThan? An everlasting eyesore of the all-seeing Service. An everlasting shame. They were using aThan on a common basis and sometimes after some mutually successful exchange of fire they were resurrected side by side with their killers. Curtis Van Curtis’s Empire was a state within a state. It was very humiliating to know that all secrets of the Service could be downloaded from memory of a deceased and generously resurrected executive. In spite of Curtis’s assurances he had been giving to the Emperor himself, in spite of its outward friendliness, in spite of its reduced rates aThan continued to keep its secrets…
But even the strongest armor had its weak spots.
Luis made an inquiry for reactivation of the agent that had been recruited from amongst aThan employees. He sent it without motivation, hoping that it would be rejected. He didn’t want to waste time on this case… but he simply couldn’t stand falling back.
His inquiry passed.
“So be it.” said Nomachi to the computer terminal. “Let’s scan you all the way through in due order. You don’t pay taxes for nothing, do you…?” 
…Kay was exercising. The body didn’t weaken much; apparently his muscles were stimulated artificially during his illness. Kay was concerned more about possible surveillance so he had to restrain himself. The fact that the gym of the small hospital was perfectly equipped added to his vexation a lot.
Having finished with yet another weight machine Kay looked for Arthur who was sitting on some framework that resembled a torturer’s workplace. His arms were fixed on some hydraulic springs.
“Go, go, go.” encouraged mister Ovald his son “wet your shirt while we’re paying this lot of money anyway.”
“Uh-huh” promised Arthur as he was slowly raising his arms.
Kay went to sauna and lied down on the bench feeling as his sweat was drying up. It was against the rules but it was so relaxing. Then he perspired again and waited until this sweat would dry up too.
Arthur came and settled on the lower bench. After a while he said:
“Mom must be worrying. When are we flying home?”
This was a key phrase. Arthur was afraid of something, or just hurried to get to that Graal of his.
“In three days there will be a flight to Ilion. We’ll be a stone's throw away from there.”
“And the flight to Epsilon Volantis flies off tomorrow evening. We can fly it… I counted…It’s going to be faster.”
“We should count money too, son” said Kay in a tutorial manner. “You know what situation we’re in. It will take some time to extract the cash from the skinflints in our spaceport… I’m going to the swimming pool and you stay and sweat duly.” 
Sixty kilometers away from the Imperial spaceport, not far away from the aThan compound, Luis Nomachi was speaking to its agent.
“Are you sure our meeting is safe?”
“The screen is secure.” said Luis with contempt.
“You don’t know what our security systems are capable of…”
“Yet you know of ours!”
Golden haired creature if indeterminable sex made its angel-like face and said in a whining tone:
“Such extensive demands… I’m ready to serve the Emperor, but…”
“You have some ‘buts’ for the Emperor?” inquired Luis “I haven’t heard of such things yet.”
The creature went silent.
“I don’t give a damn about your problems. I’m sure that you fuck with every other man and woman in that hell-hole of yours. And I’m even surer that the video where you mash the genitals of a bulrathi would just fascinate them.”
“L-listen, you have to u-understand me as one man understands another…”
Luis burst into good-humored laughter.
“What a droll little fellow you are. You should have been born a reusable stretching condom – you would have been in the place you belong to.”
“My sexual life has only just begun forming into something stable…” said the thanatologist with a broken voice.
“Form away, and remember the more information you dig up on the Ovalds the longer period you be left alone for. My regards to your lovers.”
Luis walked to his flyer. He wasn’t afraid to turn his back on this sort of people. It was great that the majority of people find interracial sex unacceptable. This makes the minority very useful for the Service…
As he was getting into the cockpit he thought also that should interracial contacts ever get legalized they would need to indispose the people towards something else: masochism, homosexuality or kisses in the lips. These would be nothing more but details.
One cannot afford to lose so convenient a stratum of informants.

----------


## Ramil

9 
A six hundred and fifty foot liner looked small on the concrete plain of landing field. Thick glass was nearly soundproof. Vehicles that were scurrying from buildings to the liner and back looked like toys of some rich kid.
“Such as Arthur Curtis, for example” thought Kay. But there was no former dislike towards the boy in his mind. He did get him out after all. Whatever were his reasons – he got him out of this mess.
Another group of passengers walked past them. The wealthiest citizens of Velikorossiya preferred emigration to another planet rather than to Kaiserland or Sagun. Certainly, as it had always been the case, the wealthiest ones were they who had begun the war. There were women in rich furs, men in suits which looked modest until one gets close, children that were well-fed and well dressed. Many of them had dogs on the leashes, and one ugly dark skinned girl carried a cat.
“I miss mom.” said Arthur.
“Don’t whine, son.” replied Kay calmly.
“I miss her very much!”
Kay crouched and looked into Arthur’s eyes. The boy clearly was on the brink of a nervous breakdown.
Why? Did he yearn to be with his virtual mother? Or that other real one whom Kay had never seen?
“Brace yourself, kid…” Kay passed his hand across Arthur’s face. His palm was wet. “Hey, what’s the matter with you?”
Arthur remained silent.
Curtis Van Curtis won its position with not only luck, an iron ass, and his ability to get on the right side of people. He also had very good instincts similar to those of a good woman Isabelle from the local Service division. Arthur could have inherited these instincts as well.
“Let’s see what we can do, son.” Kay took Arthur by hand and they went to a ticket window.
“There are available accommodations.” promptly reported a girl in the old-fashioned glasses “Suites, first class, business class…”
The small display showed the price. Kay scratched his head.
“Hmm, how about the second class...?”
“There are no second class accommodations on the ships that fly over such distances.” the ticket agent’s face became stern. Then she looked at Arthur’s imploring face and relaxed a bit. “Are you pressed for money, mister?”
“Yes… you see, we need to get to Endoria, but our ship… I’m a pilot myself. I am a trader myself… was…”
“Let’s see what we can do for you…” girl’s fingers fluttered over the keyboard… “What is your boy’s age?” 
…Luis fiddled over a disk. The thanatologist didn’t disappoint him even though he was scum. It was Kay Ovald’s three-day memory record! Whatever garbage it contained the mere fact that it existed was a sensation. Here it was – the morals of aThan. Here it was – the price of immortality.
He inserted the disk into a computer and started picking a video decoder. Damn aThan used its own computers, programs and encodings… 
… “And so, considering the boys’ age, the lack of luggage, the underload of the flight, and your change to the ship of our company on Volantis… the discount will be… fifty two percent!” the ticket agent shrugged her soldiers as if she was surprised at the result too.
“Dad…” whispered Arthur.
“Make up your mind, the boarding ends in fifteen minutes.”
“Well, we can’t afford to let this opportunity slip!” Kay gave up. “We’ll fly it.”
He pushed their documents under the transparent screen of the ticket window and put his credit card on the interface panel.
“Do you accept aThan cards?”
“Sure…” 
… Lord, the kid got smeared up, thought Luis as he watched the bloody chunks on the cockpit walls. Then the picture blurred in red – the eyes of Ovald senior burst out.
Nomachi took a cracker package from the drawer and tore the plastic. He did well and the excess pounds be damned.
“Rewind for two days.” he asked the machine and its well trained service program understood the command.
The screen showed a barefanged face of a bulrathi and Luis chocked over a cracker.
“Cuzuar buul-rathi, kh, haa! Kh, haa, buul!” said the voice of Kay Ovald.
“Hazr, khomo!” the bulrathi replied in falsetto.
Bits of a cracker were falling on the keyboard from Luis’s gaping mouth. 
A small van stopped under the liner’s bottom. Remaining passengers were disappearing in the boarding tube.
The guard was listening nervously to the hum of the warming up generators as he passed the detector over Kay’s documents. The indicator lit with yellow. Passive supervision? Well, this doesn’t forbid leaving the planet. The boy that was following him was under supervision too… are they all out of their minds in the ops?
The guard patted the boarding tube as it was pulled in the hull – for luck and hurried to a bus that was beeping with impatience. It was dangerous to remain near a ship that was launching on its gravity drives. 
…When Kay looked away from the dead bulrathi… how did he manage to kill it anyway…it was a mere touch… there was another shock in store for Luis.
Everybody knew this man. Curtis Van Curtis. And he closely resembled… Kay Ovald’s son. No, Arthur Ovald resembled him, to be precise.
“Give me the portrait of Arthur Van Curtis!” yelled Nomachi. The machine was fighting the unexpected task for about fifteen seconds and during this whole time Luis was dancing by the desk edgily.
“The only available photograph has been taken at the age of five” the computer informed helpfully.
A cherubic little boy was smiling to Luis from the screen.
“Probable present appearance!” bellowed Luis.
Now there was a seventeen years old fellow who was looking from the screen with his lips tightly shut.
“And at twelve?”
The display showed Arthur ‘Ovald’ nearly identical to the one whom Nomachi had seen that morning.
“Ugh…” said Luis “Ugh!”
“Too little data.” the computer protested.
“Turn off, you scrap!” said Nomachi as he was running out from the office…. along the corridor… past the guards… through the waiting room…
…Luis burst into Isabelle Kahl’s office. His shock was so great that he didn’t even stop to think it over.
“Turn on the screen.” demanded Nomachi without greetings.
Isabelle turned the screen and the personal recorder on and asked:
“What made you so excited?”
“We have…” said Nomachi as he was approaching the desk “we have Arthur Van Curtis in our hands!”
“And who else?” asked Kahl without bothering to hide her contempt.
“His bodyguard apparently. The man who had threshed a couple dozens rebels with a harvester.”
Isabelle’s face turned white.
“Did you detain them, Luis?”
“I… no… I was in a hurry…” with horror Nomachi heard the intonations of that whining pervert the thanatologist in his voice.
“Arthur and Kay Ovalds. Search.” Isabelle leaned towards the screen.
“Working… working… Arthur Ovald…” delightedly informed the computer “left the planet onboard the ‘Volantis’ cruise liner ten minutes ago. Kay Ovald left the planet onboard the ‘Volantis’ cruise liner eleven minutes ago.”
Luckily for Nomachi he managed to hold the suicidal question about how the same liner could take off at different times.
“Give me the flight control…” Kahl demanded as she gave Luis a hating gaze. “I am Deputy Commander of Imperial Security Service planetary division Isabelle Kalh.” she blurted to a man that appeared on the screen. Her title had never appeared to her this long and unnecessary before. “I demand that liner Volantis be returned immediately. It’s a matter of extreme urgency, in the name of the Emperor.”
She tore off the neck of her blouse and produced a personal badge on a chain, and then thrust it to the camera. With bulging eyes Luis looked at her bare breasts – they were covered with burns and small cuts. He couldn’t believe that Kahl was inclined towards masochism.
“It’s too late.” reported the flight control officer, “The liner has just entered the hyperspace. What happened? Terrorists? A bomb?”
Isabelle cut the connection off. She lowered onto a seat and asked wearily:
“So, who was in our hands? And how did you know?”
She cast a sidelong glance at her breast and wrapped the blouse up with annoyance. Luis understood that his chances on good career and the very life had just gone out the window.

----------


## Ramil

10 
Liners of the class which Volantis belonged to started smoothly. Arthur and Kay fixed themselves in the seats but it was nothing more than a tradition. There were about ten minutes of slight gravity changes – even the most sophisticated machines couldn’t compensate all the G-effects for a hull that big.
Then something changed subtly. The floor became solid as the surface of a planet and the distant noise of the engines that was heard through the hull changed its tone.
“We’ve entered the hyperspace” said Kay as he was unfastening his seat belts. “Well, what do you say?”
Arthur raised his face – it was wet with tears. His whisper was barely audible but it resembled a silent cry:
“I don’t want… I don’t want it… again…”
Kay lowered on his knees beside him and asked:
“Do you remember I wanted to ask you one question back on the planet? So, I’m asking it now.”
Arthur nodded and went quiet.
“How many times did you die, kid?”
Curtis junior’s face wavered.
“How many times?” relentlessly repeated Kay.
“Seventy three times” Arthur’s eyes went dull. Kay shuddered.
Seventy three jumps from the fragile bridge of life over the universal nothingness. The pain of failing consciousness, the cold breath of the eternity and the sharp jerk of neural grid that returns you back. It is death that is horrible, not resurrection. Nobody in the galaxy had undergone the aThan so many times. Nobody could afford such a squander. Nobody except Van Curtis and his son. The boy that had been dying all his life.
“Oh my god” Kay felt dizziness. “Are you sixteen years old?”
Arthur nodded.
“For the first time you died …”
“At twelve.”
Curtis junior had been dying every month… even more frequently – every three weeks. What was the eternity of pain that had been promised to Kay for failure compared to Curtis’s son who lived by these sorrows voluntarily? They were his air, his food, his school… his life. This boy and death were on very close terms.
This boy could never become a grown-up already.
“You are the thirty seventh.” whispered Arthur “I was led by men, women, teenagers, a mrshhan, a ten years old girl. I know all of you, I’ve seen you all in hell. You’re all tough at first. There are seas of blood behind you and nobody can stand in your way and blah, blah… You are all tough… were.”
“I will get you through.”
“Everyone said that. They all had a carrot and a stick. I feel it already… when something breaks… as it does now. They know who we are.”
“We got away, Arthur”
“They’ll catch us.”
“Why couldn’t you get there after all these times?”
“I don’t know. It’s like I’m being held by… something.”
“Graal is only given to worthy ones, remember?”
Arthur smiled meekly and raised his head in a desperate attempt to hold his tears. Then he said:
“There are no more worthy ones left, my faithful servant. And I am the last who has the right to touch the Grail. Forasmuch as I have sent ye all knowing that only I am immortal… wherefore I… I…”
Kay gently enfolded Arthur in his arms. For the first time in his life he was embracing a child that was even more unfortunate than he. They met in space and time – two maimed souls – an adult who had never been a child and a child who could never become an adult.
“I will get you through.” Kay repeated. “I’m not a servant of yours, Sir Arthur. I’m your step brother, my little king. You will see your Graal.”
Arthur wept quietly. His body had gone limp on Kay’s chest. The liner was floating across the space – a steel container for thousands of sorrows.
“What is it there on Graal?” asked Kay.
“God…” whispered Arthur his face was still nestled in his bodyguard’s wet shirt.
“What?!”
“A god, Kay. A god from a machine.” Arthur’s fingers clenched on Kay’s shoulders and were shaking so Kay chose not to ask again.
There was a buzzer from the door. Kay draggled for a second, then pushed Arthur aside, took a kerchief from his pocket and handed it to the boy. Then he opened the door.
There was a little girl with short thick braids in embroidered dress.
“Good afternoon, sir.” she made a clumsy curtsey. “We are your neighbors. I would like to ask whether your son wants to show me around the ship. It’s my first flight.”
A blonde haired woman was looking out through the next door. She waved her hand to Kay and said:
“Hi!”
“Hi!” answered good-natured Mister Ovald. He turned away awkwardly and asked his son: “Would you like to show the young lady around the ship, Arthur?”
“Yes, I would, father” answered his obedient son. “Good afternoon, my lady.”

----------


## Ramil

11 
Isabelle Kahl was looking at Arthur Van Curtis’s portrait. The boy was smiling… secure in the depths of the computer and onboard the ship that was flying away through the hyperspace. There were so much money, betrayal and heroism behind his only one photograph… and it was so easy to take him alive.
“I should have realized.” said Isabelle “He’s very much alike with Curtis senior.”
“We still have man’s memory record.” Luis tried to comfort her “His staying at Curtis’s residence is something at least.”
Kahl’s gaze didn’t require any further clarification. They had more than something… and now the Service on Volantis will get all the glory.
Nomachi put everything at stake.
“Nobody except us knows who the Ovalds are.” he said in the air. “We could demand their extradition from Volantis… or simply intercept them there.”
“You’re speaking of treason.” noted Kahl in a level voice.
“I’m speaking of completing the operation. We should take Curtis junior ourselves.”
“Even the two of us is too much for such an operation.”
“I have the aThan.” he said promptly.
“So do I, I understand.” Isabelle was hesitating. “If someone knows that we risked Service’s interests for the sake of personal careers…”
“But if we take Arthur…”
“Who knows of the memory record?”
“My informant at aThan and the person who made it. I doubt he watched the whole record through… only the last minutes.”
“Is removal possible?”
“Whom, people from aThan?” Luis was struck dumb. “They are all immortal!”
“No, the record!”
“Well, the gangs grow more and more impudent every day. They dare to attack even the Imperial Spaceport… I can think of no reason why they should leave the aThan compound alone.”
“Good, it would be great if the bandits took two prisoners… and held them between life and death…”
“Consider it done.”
“Luis.” she embraced him almost tenderly and looked into his eyes, “If you go with me… till the end… we will rise higher than you have ever imagined. But if you try to take advantage of me… I would make it so that you were declared ‘a person with one life’.”
Nomachi nodded. He believed that Isabelle could wring such a sentence from the Service Commander on Incedius Kurt Rokheim. Kurt was a noisy and talkative giant and was not burdened by either brilliance or stupidity. He loved it, when interrogating women, to extinguish cigars against their breasts.
A mistress that permits doing this could get much.
“We’ll take the best men. And the best non-men.” Isabelle continued “Call Akhar and T/San. I will call off Cadar and Marjan from the operation.”
“Should we take non-humans?”
“Luis, we should take anyone who doesn’t use aThan. Akhar, T/San… Cadar who is in debts up to his ears, Marjan who believes in her ancient god, do you understand? And another thing – find out who Kay Ovald is. You can check each and every citizen of the Empire but find out who he is.”
Luis bolted from her office giving thanks to providence that he had renewed his aThan. Kahl looked after him. There must be a way to kill an immortal… must be or these industrious fools would take over the world.
And Arthur Van Curtis will tell her about this way.
“How it was so that I couldn’t see you through, boy?” said Kahl in a purring voice. “Deceived me… little brat.”
Arthur Van Curtis was smiling at her from the screen.

----------


## translationsnmru

> “I should have realized,” said Isabelle. “He looks very much _like _ Curtis senior.”

 Обрати внимание на пунктуацию при прямой речи.
Только сейчас заметил, что ты регулярно повторяешь одну и ту же ошибку: ставишь точку перед выражениями типа "he said" после прямой речи. 
Нужно так (в AmE, по крайней мере):
"This is direct discourse," he said.
Или
"This is direct discourse," he said, "so mind your commas."

----------


## Ramil

Thanks. I'll try ))) 
12 
Kay indulged himself with a glass of Terran wine in the bar (a huge screen with a false view on the space, three tables and a polite guy behind the counter). The wine turned out to be a little bit too weak and too sour to his taste, nevertheless, he drank it all.
The lighting was dim here and there was some unobtrusive music so Kay intended to spend some time in the bar, but in a few minutes he was joined by a couple of emigrants from Incedios, either newlyweds or simply sweethearts. They wanted to talk and judging Kay wasn’t a local they plopped nearby. The conversation was interesting even for the first ten minutes or so. Then Kay got bored and left. He had a dim feeling that the couple wanted to complete their getting to know in a bed but never dared to get it out in the open.
Kay bought a capacious bag in the liner’s store, some clothing for him and Arthur, a stunner and a ‘Convoy’ to replace those which the Service had confiscated on the planet. They didn’t allow him to take the weapons though – it was possible only after he was off the ship. Kay knew that if Arthur’s presentiments were true the whole pack of patrols would be waiting for the ship upon its exit from the hyperspace and none of the pop-guns of his would help, but he felt naked without weapon.
Kay’s mood started to turn to worse. Kay had long since grown out of habit to worry about forthcoming trouble… but something was grating on his nerve. By the time he got near their cabin he finally isolated the problem.
He was stopping thinking of Arthur as of a client. He was breaking the fundamental rule – you don’t guard your friends.
Kay Altos allowed himself sympathy towards the boy. He didn’t think of the carrot and the stick anymore, he just didn’t want Curtis junior to die for yet another time.
This was catastrophic…
The ship’s television network was broadcasting some local soap opera. Its heroine, a young girl from a poor but honest family was stealing fruits in the garden of a rich fertilizers dealer. Having caught her in the act he was stunned by her beauty and took her to work at a store. An owner of the store was struck to his very heart and helped her to enroll onboard a passenger ship. A ship’s captain…
…The most disgusting thing was not even the fact that numerous love scenes were performed all in the same key and with absolute lack of taste. Looking at young diva’s broad face with widely set eyes Kay couldn’t imagine who in his right mind would put an eye on her with possible exception of a convict having just served a ten years sentence. Could it be true that this was considered an ideal of beauty on Incedios?
He ordered the last, ninety sixth episode and had fully grasped the main point of the plot. The diva was working at the central office of aThan on Terra and at the same time looking for his little son that had been born in the tenth episode and kidnapped in eleventh. When Arthur had returned to their cabin Kay informed him with amusement in his voice:
“Look, it’s Curtis Van Curtis.”
“Really?” Arthur looked at the slim white haired fellow who was seducing the beauty without any success and said, “Who was her first lover?”
“A fertilizers dealer.”
“She’ll return to him then.”
Arthur was right. The diva returned to Incedius and incidentally recognized a gallant lieutenant of the Imperial military as her kidnapped son. The trader who had lost his memory and wealth somewhere in the middle of the serial immediately healed after looking at his girlfriend of youth, must be due to a shock from fright.
“I understood this people.” said Kay as he turned the screen off, “They’re hopeless. And absolutely invulnerable.”
“Oh, come on.” said Arthur as he was unmaking his bed, “This film was paid by aThan. All movies where Curtis Van Curtis is a white-haired retard that falls in love with a total dumbass are paid by aThan. This lowers envy and aggression.”
Kay didn’t understand whether Arthur was speaking seriously. He was, judging his tone.
“Have you showed the ship to the lady?”
“Yes, everywhere they allowed us to. Then we had some tea with her mother.
“A nice woman.”
“Kay…” Arthur sat on his bed and started unlacing his boots, “I talked a lot today, forget it. Or no, not everything. Because I want to ask you…”
“Speak.”
“Don’t kill me. Never kill me whatever happens. Or I wouldn’t be able to remain your friend.”
“Do you think it’s more important for me than Curtis’s order?”
“Yes.”
An eternity of pain.
“I wouldn’t kill you.”
“Thanks.”
Kay sat on his bed and turned off the light.
Whom would become a man who had been killing since his early childhood? A bodyguard. Whom would become a man who had been dying since his early childhood?
“Good night, Arhty.”
Arthur was silent for a very long time. Then he said:
“Good night, Kay. And remember you gave me your word.”

----------


## Ramil

PART THREE. THE SLIPPERY FRIENDS 
1 
Days followed days and rest was the only notable thing. The liner flew through the hyperspace encapsulated within itself. Even if an interstellar war started or every single planet was burned out, here, in a fragile metal shell, an isolated and transient life of its own would continue on.
Arthur aired the girl from the next cabin like a well-bred boy. Kay encountered the newlyweds again in the bar but this time too they weren’t any bolder. It was easy to nudge them a bit… but Kay’s thoughts were occupied by the people from the Service that were awaiting them at their destination. He didn’t notice when he had believed and grown accustomed to this thought. It was simply with him now – a short skirmish at the end of the flight. Kay didn’t want to multiply the number of people who would grieve upon his death.
Finally he found comfort in the arms of a girl from liner’s service staff. She didn’t need anything except a little bit of healthy instincts and quite a bit more money. It was Curtis’s money anyway so he didn’t feel any regrets.
It was Arthur who interrupted his stasis.
“Vera’s mother thanked me” he blurted out as he broke in the cabin. Kay was browsing through an advertising brochure of Volantis yet again thinking over whether it was possible to hijack the liner by oneself. Everything appeared against it…
“And this made you so excited?” he was surprised.
“They said goodbye. Tonight they’re getting off the ship.”
Volantis was still three days ahead and there had been no planned exits from the hyperspace. Kay told that to Arthur and he smiled triumphantly:
“The liner drops a shuttle in the Dogar star system. A whole bunch of passengers are flying there.”
Kay cursed and bolted from the cabin. He should have considered such a possibility instead of preparing for an imminent death.
Kay found the third co-pilot who was responsible for passenger disembarkation on the cargo deck. An unprepossessing man whom the uniform wasn’t adding any solidity listened to him patiently. Then he carefully checked his documents and asked:
“Are you aware of the fact that a shuttle drop bears a certain risk?”
“Of course.” Kay was eyeing the man who was smoothing over his moustache and couldn’t understand where he was getting at.
“Do you have the aThan?”
“Yes, but it’s unpaid.”
Strangely enough this remark satisfied the third co-pilot. He produced a ruled sheet of paper from his pocket and said:
“There is only one seat. You can send your son … or go for yourself.”
“Give me the list.” asked Kay.
…He finally managed to persuade Hertrude Teffer to fly to Volantis. He described the luxury of stores to her, and free and easy morals of the young, and gave her enough money for each of the above. Hertrude agreed to deliver her berth in favor of Kay.
One could think that god himself watched over her. Nevertheless, she met her second dawn on Volantis naked and tied to a stone table in the garden of a luxurious estate. A hospitable host was standing by with a knife in his hand and waiting for the sunrise. The morals of the young people on Volantis were even more free and easier than Kay thought, and the cult of Sun the Protector became quite popular during recent years.
When the sun rose the god had turned away from Hertrude Teffer.

----------


## Ramil

2 
A patrol ship of the Imperial Security Service had weak armament but very high speed. It appeared in the Volantis star system at the moment when vividly chatting passengers of the liner were embarking the shuttle.
There were two non humans onboard the corvette if one, of course, wouldn’t count T/san human which he sometimes insisted on denying any logic and four humans, if one would relate Marjan to humans, which was disputed on some planets.
“The liner is still en route.” said Luis while browsing through the situation report, “The Empire is still in one piece.”
The planet was turning below them – an ideal globe with absolutely no clouds and nearly no water at all. A laced framework of the stellar shield drifted between the planet and the star thus lowering deadly radiation.
“Don’t get too close to the shield, Cadar.” reminded Isabelle to the pilot, “They would burn us without any warning.”
“I know, my superior.” replied Cadar with no particular respect. He was even older than Isabelle, but renewed his aThan only occasionally and his prolonged living could only be explained by his luck. Cadar didn’t give a damn on regulations, subordination and his career. He participated in the most risky ventures and remained unhurt. Kahl took him along partly because of his luck. A man who had gone through the Toucano conflict without a scratch was a worthy opponent for Kay Ovald who liked driving harvesters so much.
“Did you get any results, Luis?” asked Kahl in a softer voice. They had an intercourse during their flight and there was some hint at sympathy in their relations. They had plenty of intimacy even without it though – Arthur Curtis had cemented their alliance.
“Yes, I did.” Nomachi didn’t look very enthusiastic though, “No registers including the civil one contain a record about this man. He must have changed his body …”
“No.” Isabelle cut it short.
“But there are no Kay Ovald among the living!”
“Then look for him among the dead.” Kahl gave this advice and went out of the cockpit. She liked working with Nomachi – he needed only general directions to start working. After that he carried it through with a patience of a silicoid. It was a pity Luis would have to be removed… he had persistence she was lacking herself. 
The shuttle dropped into a real space. There were slight vibration of the hull and gravity changes, and then the pilot announced from his cockpit cheerfully:
“Citizens of the Empire, we are in the Dogar space. The flight to the orbital base will take about six to seven hours. Please, relax and enjoy the view.”
There was nothing to enjoy except for the orange disk of the star on the screen. But Kay and Arthur were in the back of the cabin thus even this questionable pleasure was off by twenty rows of seats in front of them.
“Is everything all right now, son?” asked Kay. Arthur shook his head.
The shuttle was decelerating as it approached the planet. Someone got up from his seat and headed towards the automatic bar looking for a drink. Kay eyed the safe door which was located near the airlock gates. Passengers’ weapons were kept there… unavailable still. The safe looked rather easy.
Kay Ovald patted Arthur’s shoulder and walked to the safe. Some people cast surprised glances at him but didn’t say anything. The only pilot was too busy with the controls in his cockpit to see anything happening in the cabin. 
“I found him.” said Nomachi, “His name is Kay… Kay Altos. He’s a professional bodyguard, had a license and the citizenship of the Empire. He died two weeks ago on Cailis. He didn’t renew the aThan and someone nailed him down in a hotel room.”
“Not very impressing.”
“He was in the first hundred two years ago. Moved down a bit later…”
“That’s odd. Van Curtis could find a better bodyguard for his son. And why does he have a citizenship of the Empire? Some distinguished services?”
“No, Althos is from the Three Sisters.”
“Ah, just a vagabond…”
Isabelle walked across her cabin and sat on a bed.
“We’re missing something here, Nomachi. It’s not so simple… either with Kay or with Arthur.”
“Van Curtis’s whelp can’t be simple.”
“I wish I could look at him when he’s grown up.” Kahl smiled, “It’s a pity he wouldn’t make it…” she shifted her gaze to Luis, “Come here.” 
The safe was really easy. If only Kay had a “Convoy” or a drill at least… But he didn’t have anything more impressive than a toothpick that he had got with his breakfast. He took a gin-tonic from the bar machine and returned to his seat.
“We’ll be there soon.” he promised to Arthur but the loudspeaker came to life again as soon as he had said that.
“Citizens of the Empire. A Dogar quarantine ship is approaching. The landing is delayed a bit… Small formalities, nothing more.”
The pilot tried very hard to hide his surprise and he nearly succeeded. Only a little baby whom the tone was still more important than words started to cry somewhere in front of them. Kay put his hand on Arthur’s shoulder and closed his eyes.
Big trouble often begins with small formalities.

----------


## Ramil

3 
Marjan was praying on her knees. Isabelle stopped at the cabin door watching the ritual – her badge allowed her to open the door without sounding the signal.
When dressed and from behind, Senior Service Operative Marjan Moohammadee looked very human. Her dark flowing hair covered her neck and her hands that were folded on her chest were invisible. Only a slight humming that accompanied her every move couldn’t be produced by a human being.
“… for the flesh is weak and there’s no other way, and our way is for you…” Marjan stopped, “How can I be of help to you Deputy Commander Kahl?”
“You were a bodyguard before you joined the Service, weren’t you, Marjan?”
Mookhamadee stood up very smoothly as she was turning around at the same time like a flexible screw on its threading.
“Yes, I was.”
Now she stopped looking like a human. Her hands were too large and there was no more flesh in them as there it was in a Teflon pan. Her face resembled a stamped mask made of silver and cut glass… the mechanists always started altering the organism from their faces for some reason. Plastic wrap could be seen from under the dark metal rings that were forming her neck.
“Marjan, does the name Kay Althos ring any bells to you?”
“Many bells.” the soft human lips on her silver face opened. Moohamadee had not yet replaced her larynx with a speech synthesizer.
Kahl felt inspired. A team-mate who knew the opponent was a big luck. Sometimes it meant more than a platoon of Imperial troopers.
“He is the object of our operation.” Kahl decided not to say anything about the boy for the time being.
“I understand.” even if Marjan was surprised her silver mask hid all emotions.
“What can you say about him?”
The crystal lenses darkened leaving Marjan alone with her memory.
“Kay Althos… he was very interesting… I saw him three times. He had a good physique, excellent reactions, and constant self-control, high skills in Synthesis Yo-Do and Powerkilling. High… extremely high skills in languages, including non-human ones. As a consequence, he’s got the ability to establish contact with anyone, if he’s interested. Psychic powers are close to zero. He’s secretive and prefers to hide his abilities, although he can sometimes be open and let his hair down.”
“It’s a perfect profile except for psychic powers.”
“A bodyguard has no need for psychic powers” replied Moohamadee with contempt, “Some special but unstable skills only relax.”
“Do you consider Althos a formidable opponent?” Kahl continued her questions.
“No.” lenses on Marjan’s face lightened up, “He carries doom within.”
“What?”
“Some lameness, fatefulness” explained Moohamadee patiently “This is typical for people whose planets had died. Body alteration could have helped him but he prefers the aThan.”
“Thank you, Marj. Prepare a report with your considerations. Tonight you’re going to tell everybody all you would remember about Kay.”
Kahl shrugged her shoulders as she was walking out of the cabin. Ovald didn’t look all that fateful to her.
Perhaps he had forgotten his planet? 
There was a jolt as the shuttle entered the docking field. The gravity changed a little – they were pulled to the quarantine ship. The screen still showed the space – magnificent and indifferent as usual. A strained silence hung in the cabin – the passengers were busy remembering their transgressions. Kay Ovald was thinking about Van Curtis and the eternity he was promised.
Curtis Van Curtis usually kept his word.
“Arthur…”
“No” answered the boy without even turning around. He moved his shoulder shaking Kay’s hand off, “No, you promised.”
There was a rattle from the airlock hatch. The baby from the front rows started crying again. A door of the piloting cockpit opened and a young man, holding his holster on his belt and maintaining a false smile ran to the airlock.
“What’s happening here?” exclaimed a dark skinned girl hysterically. But the pilot had no time for her. The airlock had opened already and two men entered the shuttle. Contrary to Kay’s expectations their armor wasn’t decorated with badges of the Service. They had only three-colored chevrons of the Quarantine Service – a white circle in a red-black ring. One of them appeared unarmed; the other one had a Bumblebee.
“Quarantine?” asked Arthur quietly. Kay shrugged his shoulders. The quarantine service could stop a shuttle from Incedios but why these men had their visors raised then?
The pilot quietly exchanged a few phrases with the incomers then he looked at some paper, turned around and said aloud:
“Everyone with active aThan, stand up.”
There was a movement through the seats but nobody stood up. The pilot started arguing over something with the quarantine servicemen. The unarmed one waved him away negligently, turned to his companion and said:
“Tell the commander… tisth-al arah zey jisthal…”
And Arthur Curtis saw the face of his bodyguard convulsed as if he’d remembered something unpleasant.
“Some minor formal procedures for everyone’s good.” the quarantine officer with a gun announced loudly, “Everyone remain on your seats until further notice.”
Kay stood up and went to the airlock taking the documents from his pocket.
“Gentlemen… I’ve got it written here, can you clarify this for me… there were no stops planned…”
Ignoring the gun pointed at him he thrust his documents to the pilot.
“What can I do?” he waved them off, “I don’t give orders to the quarantine service!”
Kay directed his attention to the incomers then. The documents were passed into the hands of the unarmed quarantine serviceman. He browsed them through in puzzlement and said:
“You are Kay Ovald from Endoria, so what does it mean?”
“It means you’re dead.”
Pilot’s gun miraculously appeared in Kay’s hands and made a whistling noise. Orange light flared on the armor of the quarantine guard and it clanked as it started swelling. The guard made an unhuman squealing noise and made a step. Boiling blood gushed from the armor joints.
One has to be very proficient with guns in order to deliver a plasma charge between the segments and boil a man in his own armor. The guard with a Bumblebee understood that and chose not to test Kay’s reactions. Silently he dropped his gun and raised his hands in the air.
“Wise choice.”
The pilot who was trying to find something in his empty holster reeled aside hiding behind the seats when Kay waved his gun at him.
“The shuttle won’t be able to undock from the cruiser.” informed the now disarmed quarantine man.
“I understand” said Kay indifferently, “Zaar-so, thwiss? Darlok shee cero?”
“Zaa Dar? Sheree seech hooman?”
“No.” Kay shook his head, “You’re wrong here, I don’t work for you.”
The serviceman dashed to the airlock. The first shot caught him in the air, blasted his armor leaving a smoking funnel in his back and throwing him to the floor.
A man with a broken spine got up from the floor and staggered towards the airlock. A woman started screaming, then another one. Kay fired again and blew off the half of man’s head, but only the third shot between the shoulder blades made the man stop and fall on the floor.
Screams made his ears ding. The smartest ones crooked in their seats, several men sat petrified unable to avert the eyes from the scene. The cabin, once neat, now resembled a trashed butcher’s shop. There were splashes of blood on the beige wall panels; the smell of burned protein turned one’s stomach. Imperturbable in the havoc he had caused, Kay was walking across the cabin to Arthur holding the gun at his hip. The boy clung to a seat and was looking at him in horror.
“We have no other choice, Arthy…” Kay was nearly shouting, “Tell me I can do it!”
Arthur waggled his head.
“Kid, it’s not the Service, it is far worse!”
Curtis junior looked into the gleaming funnel of the barrel. The gun radiated regular heat that could be felt even half yard away.
“Arthur…” Kay looked back and added the pilot to his score with one shot. The Bumblebee he picked up fell on the floor again. A man who was sitting near the airlock rushed to the hatch crouching. Kay didn’t shoot at him.
“Kid, believe me…” Kay sat on his seat while still pointing the gun at Arthur, “We must not allow them to take us alive… It’s Darlok!”
Arthur was silent. His bodyguard, it appeared, had finally gone nuts since the only thing the species of the Darlok race and the humans had in common was the number of limbs. The quarantine officers killed by Kay resembled darloks no more they resembled silicoids.
“Arthy…” Kay’s finger laid on the trigger. And Arthur saw his old friend death in his eyes. Kay was its extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador now, merciless and unstoppable. The Three Sisters, trampled by the Sakkras and burned by human bombs, underage tormentors of little Kay that couldn’t be a child, twenty years of working with a gun in his hands, Arthur himself torn apart by the ‘interphased drive’ explosion, rebels from Incedios – all of it was in his eyes. And they still had enough room to house the death of Arthur Van Curtis who was an immortal.
“Don’t kill me.” said the boy that couldn’t become an adult.
Kay Altos gave a cry as he stood up. The gun in his hand sprung to life willingly sending fiery death into the cabin. In painful consternation Arthur understood that Kay was killing children the first. He managed to shoot three times before squeaking of a stun bomb that was thrown from the airlock filled the cabin.

----------


## Ramil

4 
‘Volantis’ jumped out from the hyperspace near its home planet. Static sparks ran along the hull and died out absorbed by the metal. The liner began a slow turnaround entering the deceleration trajectory.
At the same moment moment its sensors detected a tiny ship on approaching course.
“The Incedios Service?” the second pilot checked decoded transmission again with distrust. “Gentlemen, who robbed Incedios? Was there really anything worth stealing?”
The liner opened its docking port without waiting for request. The ship’s trajectory was fairly obvious, after all. 
“Akhar, remember the boy must be taken alive.” Kahl was already packed in a powered armor and giving last minute instructions. “He may try to kill himself – don’t let this happen.”
A bulrathi mercenary who was one of the few non-humans who worked in the Incedios Service nodded. He accepted no armor and his only clothing was a short skirt made of hard silvery cloth. Akhar took a gun however. Decades of the Feud War had broken the habit of the Bulrathi to rely on physical strength alone.
“Marjan, T/san you provide a fire support. I, Luis and Cadar will be covering you.”
Isabelle Kahl lived through things many enough for not worrying about being considered a coward and she didn’t want to die at the moment of her triumph. She and Nomachi were the only ones wearing heavy armor. It limited one’s mobility but could withstand two or three blaster hits.
“Let’s go.”
Holding a stunner in his left hand – the Bulrathi always kept the right one free for close combat Akhar jumped into a short docking tunnel. Immediately after him with a grace of perfectly tuned mechanism rushed Marjan. T/san who was lying on the floor in the pose of rest waited for three seconds and started moving too. Its metal body which was an unachievable ideal for Moohamadee gleamed with specular anti-laser covering. Its articulate legs straightened thrusting T/san forwards and simultaneously an iridescent halo of a force field wrapped its head around. Head was the most vulnerable spot of the Meklonians. Its ancestors were organic species and its long reptilian neb still had some vulnerable tissues. 
The liner’s captain entered the dock himself. His body was too young for so high a rank – a clear indication of him practicing aThan. A sophisticated tattoo on his left cheek and long red hair gave no less clear an indication of him belonging to Volanis’s elite. The Service rarely stopped ships of such class so the captain felt obliged to have done with this misunderstanding personally. Several of the crewmembers free of duties were standing behind his back equally ready for either a routine check or a thorough checking of the liner. Nearly all of them were carrying some things from Incedios which might be considered contraband but there were so many secluded spaces onboard a huge ship.
When a huge barefanged bulrathi ready for a fight jumped out of the docking tunnel holding a stunner that looked like a toy in his furry paw the captain reeled back. The old fears came to life again… a sudden thought flashed in his head that the most fearsome adversaries of the mankind were once again walking the path of war.
Akhar regarded the meeting party with only one look and froze in a combat stance. The Service badge that was gleaming through the fur stopped the crewmembers from drawing their weapons.
He was followed by two other creatures. One was a Meklon cyborg in a combat transformation the other one who looked like a parody to the former one was born as a woman. After them, there were two men who were dramatically different in appearance. One was a squab who was smiling amiably and waving his “Bumblebee” as if it was a swagger stick, the other one was gaunt, withy, and resembled a walking bipod for his “Argument-36”.
The last who entered the dock was a white haired woman also wearing a powered armor. A golden badge of the service hung on a chain over her armor – the woman belonged to high ranking command staff.
“We need two humans known as Kay and Arthur Ovalds.” she said.

----------


## Ramil

5 
Kay returned to his senses. The stun bomb served its purpose so he didn’t remember as he was taken prisoner.
He had no gun already and his hands were tied by a flexible wristband behind his back.
He was lying on the floor in a large room, apparently a gym of the cruiser. There were people lying about with their hands also tied. Kay didn’t see Arthur. Instead a sickly looking white haired man with thin lips in a military uniform of Dogar was waiting for his awakening. An injector in his hands quickened Kay’s coming around apparently.
“You have committed a crime” said the thin-lipped man.
“I caused losses, ress tith-al” replied Kay straining his throat into an alien language.
The man was silent for some time. Then he asked:
“How it can be that you know the second layer of truth of the Darlok language?”
“This wasn’t a business of yours before me and it won’t be yours after.” Kay pulled his knees to his stomach and straightened in awkward albeit still sitting a pose.
“You will have to die.” informed the Dogarian.
“And to take the knowledge with me.” agreed Kay.
The Dogarian stood up looking around the hall filled with stunned and slowly returning to their senses people and said:
“There is a lot of knowledge which will become ours. Why yours would be more valuable, illyth?”
“Because I know the Darlok language up to the third layer of truth, nes tcik.”
The man hesitated. Kay even laughed with heavy and unhopeful laughter of the doomed. Then he asked:
“Will it help if I say teesh-Darlok zenth aal foz?”
The thin-lipped man thought for a few moments then he shook his head:
“No. You have fallen too deeply for going up the stem of the grass.”
“And if I hadn’t started shooting in the shuttle?”
“It’s all the same. No.”
“Thank you. I’ve been worrying about that.”
The Dogarian moved his head. It was a strange move as if he wasn’t satisfied with the fact that his neck was flexible. Then he inquired:
“Whom would you talk freely?”
“His name was Bart Paolini, he was convicted for espionage on Rhylus.
“Insufficient information.”
“I called him Eszanti Kree Chethsiafo.”
The man winced:
“Repeat.”
Kay repeated.
“We’ll try.” decided the Dogarian. “Do you have any reasonable requests?”
“My son… we were nearby when you took over the shuttle. Our fates must be interwoven.”
“All right” the Dogarian turned away and walked towards the door carefully stepping the writhing and moaning bodies over. Kay waited until the door had closed and struggled to his feet, trying hard to maintain equilibrium. The body was aching and there was ringing in his ears after the stun. But he continued walking until he saw Arthur lying on his back.
“Hi” said Arthur.
“Hi” Kay agreed and sat beside on the floor. “What are you smiling at, you fool?”
“You didn’t kill me.”
“If the man whom we may call King Pendragon gets his hands on me I wouldn’t be able to find any words for an excuse. I cannot even find them before myself.” Kay lay on the floor and wiggled a bit making himself comfortable. “Stretch your fingers, Arthy, or your hands would go numb.”
“Okay.”
A woman that was lying nearby opened her eyes. One of her cheeks was burnt purple-red. When her eyes became alert she shuddered and cried:
“You bastard! You murdered Riki! You mean freak!”
Her tied hands prevented her from reaching Kay. Then she spat in his face. Kay turned his head wiping her spit and simply said:
“You would understand how much I did for him. And now shut up or I’ll kill you too.”
But woman didn’t shut up at his words. She continued writhing in hysterics until a stunner charge flaring from under the ceiling calmed her down.
After this, even moaning became quieter.

----------


## Ramil

6 
“You let them get away.” said Isabelle. Those who knew her well were aware that this calmness of her tone was nothing more than a sign of a storm comin. Akhar walked closer.
“I allowed the passengers whom you had permitted to leave the planet to take free seats in the shuttle.” the captain of the liner didn’t have any particular desire to confess in non-existent crimes. “That’s my right to do so…”
Akhar made a slight move and the doubling over captain was sent flying under the feet of his men.
“Here’s your right.” informed Kahl. “Why didn’t you notify us about the shuttle drop on Incedios?”
The captain was coughing violently unable to continue the discussion.
“Answer!” roared the bulrathi. He loved his job – it gave him power to order humans around. Sometimes they were the same people who had crushed his civilization during the Feud War.
“This… this is not required by the regulations…”
Isabelle leaned over the gasping man:
“You’re not that na

----------


## Ramil

7 
They were untied and fed in small groups twice a day under close watch. The food was as simple and balanced as possible. The Dogarians (although Kay continued stubbornly to call them Darlok’s people) were only worried about health of the prisoners and not their gastronomic preferences. Three times a day, they were taken to a lavatory under close watch too. At first this made several young women go into hysterics and led to the weirdest form of protest possible. By the evening though, they were answering the call of nature without unnecessary noise.
They were permitted to talk to each other, but two attempts of starting a fight, with Kay being the subject of aggression both times, were suppressed by stunner shots. Kay didn’t attribute it to any special importance of his – any disturbance would have been suppressed the same way. But he was the only inner enemy for the shuttle passengers. His actions led to this bitter imprisonment, his shooting killed three innocent children not to mention the pilot and the quarantine officers… everyone thought so. He should have died.
The Dogarians who were standing guard by the hatch didn’t share the common opinion, however. In the evening, when light was switched off and assorted vigilantes started creeping in, the guards reminded of the existence of night vision goggles. After this the hatred for Kay was expressed in words only.
Kay ignored the insults. The only thing he was interested in was Arthur’s condition. The boy talked to him if Kay started the conversation and turned away if some passenger started cursing at the murderer of his son. And he was thinking… thinking of something.
“Can you kill yourself?” asked Kay one day.
Arthur nodded as Kay expected. Tied hands had never been an obstacle for suicide.
“Do it, Arthur.”
The boy shook his head. This too wasn’t unexpected for Kay. He said no more and looked at the ceiling tiled with soft plates and feeling with his whole body as the cruiser was flying through the space… a usual cruiser with ordinary human crew who knew the language of Darlok.
On the evening of the third day of flight a young man half crept half rolled to Kay. His suit looked well ironed still – expensive fabric resisted their imprisonment for all its worth, but his unshaved face and his shirt hanging out of his trousers left no trace of elegancy at all.
“My name is Vyacheslav” he began in whisper, “I am a doctor, forensic examiner. You don’t appear sick.”
“I am well.” Kay agreed.
“Why did you start shooting? I heard as you told your son about the Darlok…”
“We were captured by Darlok hirelings.”
“Well, let’s suppose so, but why?”
“Do you remember the Feud War?”
“I was born much later.”
“Have you studied history then? Humans had been fighting with the Darloks for only two years and after this Emperor forged peace on very hard terms. We even lost a couple of planets. But we couldn’t afford to fight any further. There was sabotage at factories and missile bases, constant espionage caused the loss of the most advanced technologies. Darlok agents were everywhere – no race could hook so many traitors. Once discovered they died shouting “Darlok!”.
Vyacheslav frowned.
“Any race had its own traitors…”
“But not in such numbers and not so fanatical… They killed themselves during interrogations without saying a word. And autopsies…”
The doctor started nodding. A lying and nodding man looked rather ridiculously.
“I remember. A neural destruction syndrome! Their brains rotted within minutes after death.”
“Aha.” Kay confirmed it with bleak satisfaction, “They possess a psy-control technique that turns a man into a puppet. All they need is prisoners… and the Darloks get them. When those two entered the shuttle they exchanged a phase in Darlok. Do you know what did they say? ‘Report that we have about hundred sub products here.”
Vyacheslav was lying in silence for a minute. Kay couldn’t understand whether he had believed him or not until the doctor asked him:
“So that’s why you started killing children?”
“I decided to start with them. A child that works for the Darloks is far more dangerous than an adult – that bunch of emigrants of yours wouldn’t attain high positions, but a child would strive upwards… and with the whole race supporting him he would make his career in the army, in the Service or in some planetary administration.”
“You speak so as if children are guilty in advance.”
“Of course,” Kay agreed, “you are very cold-blooded person, you know.”
“I am a forensic examiner from Incedios… and I’ve been playing a role of a sub product since my childhood.”
“I am used to it too.”
A dogaian who stood watch on the upper deck watched as two men were talking for a long time. The supervision hatch was a slapdash piece of work – just a hole in the floor. The inconvenient pose made the watchman feel his whole body numb. When the men started laughing he sent one stunner charge to each.
He didn’t like watching human laughter that he had been imitating for so many years.

----------


## Indra

Небольшой простительный оффтоп) *Ramil*, думаю, тебе будет интересна статья о трудностях перевода Лукьяненко на английский http://www.bakanov.org/default.php?rubrica=90&id=547

----------


## Ken Watts

> PART TWO. THE BODYGUARD 
> 1 
> That day Vladimir Chen was on a stand-by duty in an aThan branch office on Incedius. He was the youngest employee – he had not even turned thirty. Moreover, he had never died yet. The night was coming, a feast of death. It was the third hour of his duty. The old people were dying from illnesses, the young ones were dying from wounds, and the neurotics were committing suicide having forgotten about the immortality they had bought. This was the time of the most intense work on any planet. Incedius, however, was too poor a world, and many aThan clients had exhausted their immortality during that month.
> “A signal” Chen said and pushed a button of overall readiness/the ready button. Lines of text were appearing on the screen before him. The neural grid transmitted the information instantly, yet, its decoding needed time. Ann Horn, Vladimir’s workmate took her eyes from a magazine.
> “Gertrude Khai… human… female…”
> “Oh really?” inquired Horn.
> “Citizenship… Incedious. Real age… forty two, the matrix was taken at forty one, resuscitations… once. Stand down, her aThan is unpaid.”
> By pushing a button Chen deleted the half-decoded signal.
> “Prepare a report.” said Horn returning to her reading.
> ...

----------


## Ramil

8 
Kahl didn’t have any problems with the Service on Volantis. She gave them too big a cut – the Darlok associates so no one took any particular interest in her minor infringements.
Nomachi thought that Isabelle was wrong. If Curtis junior had slipped away they should have investigated the band of slavers. This too would have promised new ranks and big bonuses, but Kahl appeared as if she’d gone mad so Luis left his considerations to himself.
Obeying Isabelle’s order their small ship jumped to the Dogar system. A heavy flywheel of the Service had been gaining momentum already, crushing corrupt officials and numerous pawns. It appeared that cruise liner ‘Volantis’ dropped shuttles in the Dogar star system on a regular basis. They’ve been reaching the planet with astonishing speed – only a month or a month and a half later. Now the Service was busy routing people who had undergone the Darlok imprisonment throughout the Empire. This was not a pleasant occupation but about twenty years before a similar operation had already taken place.
Kalh visited the directorate of the Dogar Service. She had a polite welcome, strange it might seem, but Isabelle became a heroine of the day. Kahl’s revealing of a spy network and keeping aloof from the pie worked to her popularity.
Her speeches about the criminals that were onboard the shuttle raised some eyebrows, however. Having gotten in the hands of the Darloksians they were punished already. Whatever means the Darloks used to brainwash their victims the original personality got ruined anyway.
Isabelle was nodding and agreeing, and waiting for the return of the hijacked shuttle. She was preparing for the capture of Darlok agents and even impassive T/san tried not to get on her way. 
They were awakened in the middle of the night. The Dogarians got people up from the floor and dragged them along the corridor being neither excessively rude nor indulgent. The flow of stumbling and falling to each other’s hands people leaked through the corridor and filled the huge cargo bay.
Kay and Arthur were separated by the crowd. Vyacheslav managed to keep near Althos. The Dogarians loosely encircled the crowd waiting for the hatch to open.
“We’re going to see now whether you were right.” said the doctor, shouting over the crying children and sobbing women.
“I like your style.” replied Kay trying very hard to maintain equilibrium.
The hatch disappeared in the floor and the sunlight smote their eyes. It seemed very bright after ship’s lighting. The air of other world filled with sharp spicy odor besotted like a light wine. Sparkling glassy mass which the ship rested on was stretching to the horizon. There were several vehicles of unusual appearance standing at some distance and an ungainly figure wrapped in a free cloak.
“Score one for you, Kay…” the doctor said shivering.
The darloksian slowly entered the airlock. Kay squinted at the guards hoping to see traces of fright, disgust or respect. But the agents of Darlok looked upon the incomer as equals.
Kay didn’t like it for some reason.
The alien resembled a human by his constitution. Only his shoulders were too narrow and his hands folded on the stomach bent in unnatural smooth arcs. Thin gloves covered his fingers and two gleaming eyes could only be seen under the hood.
Everybody, even the children who were looking for their parents in the crowd, went quiet.
“People of the Empire,” said the darloksian in a low voice, “I welcome you in the space of the Darlok Unity.”
Somebody cursed but the cloaked creature ignored that.
“You will be given a chance to share the ideas of Darlok.” he continued, “You will serve the future of the galaxy… the future that will have a place for the humans too. Bithse.” 
The guards started pushing the crown to the exit past the cloaked figure that stood aside.
“Kay Ovald, come to me.” the dark gap of the hood turned to Kay. He stopped allowing people to pass further. Vyacheslav swayed and slightly pushed him with his shoulder thus wishing him luck.
They remained alone.
“Kay Ovald, you deprived the Darlok of its six servants.”
“I’ve been on my path.”
“You got unlucky.”
“Indeed.” Kay agreed.
“By what name did Eszanti Kree Chethsiafo know you?”
“Kay Altos.”
“Good. He’ll arrive for a conversation, but this isn’t going to change your fate.”
Obeying the darloksian’s gesture Kay exited and looked back at the ship. It had a low profile – a usual quarantine cruiser plagued by treason. The darloksian was talking with the dogarian officer in the airlock.
The prisoners were loaded onto an open platform that was hovering in the air. Darlok guards replaced the dogarians and the platform started floating over the glassy field towards buildings that slowly appeared in the distance. A tiny white sun was very hot and even the head wind didn’t bring any relief. Kay found Arthur in the crowd and stood behind allowing the boy to lean against him.
“Are we going to die?” asked Arthur.
“We will cease having independent personalities.” answered Kay, “It is much worse, Arthy. Even aThan wouldn’t help since the neural grid wouldn’t have any reason to activate.”
Arthur thought it over and said:
“So, there is no chance?”
“One in a million” Kay chose not to spare him.
“It’s what I’ve been waiting for.” said Arthur Van Curtis and smiled.

----------


## Ramil

> Небольшой простительный оффтоп) *Ramil*, думаю, тебе будет интересна статья о трудностях перевода Лукьяненко на английский http://www.bakanov.org/default.php?rubrica=90&id=547

 Да, Ночной Дозор был бы гораздо труднее. Но этот роман, к счастью, не сильно изобилует подобными нюансами. Трудностей, описанных в статье, я пока не встречал, хотя находятся трудные предложения, над которыми приходится долго думать. 
Но я ещё никогда не получал такого кайфа от перевода. ))) 
Буду продолжать потихонечку.

----------


## Ken Watts

> 2 
> Kay’s first thought after his resurrection was that he wouldn’t forgive Curtis for this death. It was not about pain, an algopistol killed more painfully being what it was. It was simply a disgusting death, disgusting and perfectly staged throughout.
> “Name?” asked a soft woman’s voice.
> This is my first aThan…
> “Oh, where am I?” Kay started to stir on the replicator disk; its hard surface was familiar and friendly. The indicator on the wall displayed ‘Incedius’.
> “Everything is all right, mister. You are alive. What is your name?”
> “Kay… Kay Ovald… Where am I?”
> “Your citizenship?”
> “Endoria… I am a citizen of Endoria and I demand that… is this aThan?”
> ...

----------


## Ramil

9 
The dogarian quarantine ship exited the hyperspace. Fifty men that knew the Darlok language but couldn’t laugh were coming home. Everything went fine – the shuttle filled with the sub products was delivered to base… they only needed to find a suitable excuse for two missing men. But the space was cruel and people died often.
The ship flew to Dogar. There were dozens of ships circling around its orbit – freighters and passenger liners, private yachts and military cruisers… A border world was frequently visited by the imperial military.
Only they were a bit more numerous than usual this time.
The orbital base was waiting for the ship. Everyone onboard was waiting also – dozens of officers and hundreds of armor clad soldiers, personnel of the Service in interrogation chambers that were prepared in a hurry, reprogrammed security droids and a handful of bulrathi mercenaries. The leakage of information to their race was authorized by the command staff…
The ship was adjusting its course approaching the docking ports.
Obeying an imperial officer’s gesture the flight control master (a deep personality check had been performed three days before, the loyalty index is 0.93, he was authorized for participating in the operation) turned on the microphone. He winked at the officer and said:
“Q-S, you are cleared to land on the pad two.”
“Roger that, the second pad.” responded the ship.
“How’s your work?” inquired the flight master.
“The pay is lousy, so is the work.”
“Indeed… Achi!”
The officer raised a stunner.
The flight control master (loyalty index is 0.93; only the Emperor himself has the loyalty index of 1.00) jumped out from the seat. He rolled on the floor and sprang to his feet before a soldier in a powered armor.
Reflexes were quicker than reason. The soldier raised his left arm and the “Guardian” fixed on his forearm made a scorched four inch hole in the flight master.
“Darlo…” whispered the flight master as he was falling at the soldier’s feet.
The quarantine ship started turning around awkwardly moving away from the base. But the Service boats, assault capsules of the imperial military and tiny figures in mobile spacesuits were already approaching it. Base defense systems opened fire turning the hyperdrive resonators into molten metal.
The Service never let suspects go.
Agents of Darlok never surrendered.
A grey hull of the quarantine ship trembled losing its shape. Flames touched the approaching marines and subsided revealing scattering debris.
Even if some quarantine officer had time to shout ‘Darlok!’ there was nobody to hear it. 
They were driven into a tunnel through a whole series of diaphragm hatches. Then there was a long walk in a dim yellow light that was lovely after the flaming white sun. Vyacheslav was looking about – he looked more like a tourist on an excursion rather than a doomed to death prisoner.
The people were left alone in a small hall divided by the grating into two parts. Nobody paid attention to Kay anymore, not even the parents of the children he had killed. Somebody was praying, somebody simply stood by the grating staring at the darloksians. One of them who looked like an ancient monk in his cloak was sitting by a control panel near the wall. Another three were talking quietly. Try as he might, Kay couldn’t make out anything.
“What do you think is it going to start right now?” the doctor asked Kay.
“I don’t know.” Kay looked in Vyacheslav’s face, “You know, aThan is triggered when a man dies and they still keep us in one piece.”
The doctor made a stiff smile:
“I’ve undergone the Jen self-control school.”
“Even with your heart stopped you would drag on for three or four minutes. You’d better leave now… while the crowd is covering you.” 
The man that had his aThan paid up hesitated.
“The more I see…”
“Forget about the rewards.” advised Kay.
“I’m thinking of the Empire.”
“Do it a service, don’t take risks.”
The doctor didn’t answer. Having the aThan and a guaranteed way to kill himself he felt invulnerable.
The grating bent forming a short passage to the middle of the hall. A glowing field of a local hypertunnel appeared at the far end of the passage.
“File in.” commanded an escort guard. People didn’t move. The darloksian raised a weapon and spasms of pain rolled over the crowd, “I will increase the intensity.” said the creature in a dark cloak.
Somebody staggered along the passage then stepped into the field and disappeared. This broke the will of others. The crowd slowly started entering the tunnel that led to the unknown.
“We were promised our fates be interwoven.” shouted Kay drawing Arthur close.
“You all share the same fate.” replied the darloksian.

----------


## Ramil

10 
Kay had not seen more strange a place than this. The darloksians’s prison was made out of glass.
Cells surrounded him everywhere – the small transparent cubicles with six foot edges. Some of them were empty; some had people in them – his recent companions that were simply standing there, pacing back and forth, or lying on the floor. Each cell had a tiny transparent toilet bowl, a tiny washstand, also transparent, and no doors whatsoever. Apparently all communications were carried out via hypertunnels. Somewhere deep below, several transparent stories down, there was a dark floor. Light came from above – uniform, cold, and pale-yellow.
Kay looked up, turned around looking at his neighbors. Above him, a young dark-skinned girl was lying and looking at Kay with mad eyes. Two adjacent cells were empty. In the third one, there stood the doctor from Incedios moodily looking around. He waved his hand at Kay and he waved back. Arthur was sitting on the floor in the fourth cell.
Kay slowly walked to the transparent wall and put his forehead against it. Arthur was looking at him and didn’t move.
The boy had been broken down…
His wristbands suddenly weakened and slipped down – they appeared to have a remote controlled lock. Kay rubbed his wrists – there were broad red indents on them that would remain a long time. He crouched and put his palm on the glass. Arthur did the same from the other side.
“What are you waiting for, kid…” Kay said to himself.
“A miracle.” quietly replied Curtis junior. Sound passed perfectly through ‘the glass’. 
… Isabelle Kahl was sitting before Admiral Lemach. The admiral had long since had turned one hundred and fifty, but his first aThan that he had purchased in the long forgotten past was still unused. People were saying he was lucky. Kalh changed this characterization to ‘cautious’ with no hesitation.
“Your eagerness does you credit…” Lemach walked across the cabin that was too luxurious and too outstanding among austere interiors of the imperial orbital base. He stopped by the panoramic window which could be even real and looked at Dogar that was floating under them – it was white on blue, all snow and oceans.
“I joined the Service to work.” replied Kahl sharply.
“You sound as if we do nothing here.” the admiral lifted his hands in the air, “We are obeying Emperor’s orders and stand unprovoked…”
“But my Lord Admiral…”
“Skip the formalities, Kahl. I don’t demand it from my captains and your rank is equal to theirs. Let’s not stir old grudges… for now. What do you want?”
“To punish the Darlok.”
“Whom else? The Darlok is allied with the Alkaris and has a pact of mutual assistance with the Psilonians. We can only fight for their total extermination… and other races have not yet forgiven us for the Sakkra.”
“I am not talking about war… or genocide…” Kahl started cautiously.
“And what do you think would happen after the raid of the Imperial forces into the Darlok space?” the admiral turned away from the window. He was small and skinny, and looked like a parody to that brave officer whom Kahl had remembered since her childhood from the CNB news, magazine covers, and patriotic posters on the walls. She would have never believed it if somebody had told her then that one day she would be sitting in his cabin being still young as before… having young body at least… and pushing, pushing the hero of the Toucano conflict.
“There is no need for a raid, admiral. The Empire is not responsible for actions of individual citizens who may wish to rescue their relatives or friends, for example.”
“You plan to form an assault group out of civilians?” Lemach was interested. “What a novel approach… very productive.”
“I have an assault group. We are going with the mort-bombs, so there wouldn’t be a molecule left after us. No proof, no evidence whatsoever.”
“Perhaps. What do you want from me then?”
“A ship with a ‘hot-tracks’ detector.” Isabelle held her breath. She played ‘all or bust’.
The admiral theatrically clutched at his head.
“What is happening, miss… Has the Service been watching us too?”
“Of course not, Lemach. At any rate I am unaware of this…” Kahl made a pacifying smile, “But we do control military research and development… and it would be only logical that such a legendary fleet as yours had gotten the new equipment.”
“Legenday huh…” Lemach grunted and Kahl understood that she had touched a sore spot, “It’s not a fleet anymore. It’s a bunch of bureaucrats and parade boys… never mind… a ‘hot-tracks’ detector, what else?”
Isabelle shrugged her shoulders:
“Well… some heavy weaponry: Ultimatum, Blitz-D, Chance, Condor…”
“Excalibur maybe?” asked Lemach with irony in his voice.
“I am unfamiliar with this model.” said Isabelle firmly, “But we’ll take it if you’d recommend.”
Lemach went silent.
“… and an electronic warfare support ship,” Kahl continued, “something like the ‘Silence circle’ with a planetary nullifier. We would have to suppress their planetary defense bases.”
“Well you’re quite serious, aren’t you.” Lemach sat in his armchair, rested his chin on his hands eyeing Kahl. “You’re a pretty girl…”
“I am at your service, Lemach.”
The admiral burst in dry coughing laughter.
“Let it drop, Kahl… I have no illusions about myself. When my last apoplexy strikes though then you are welcome. I will be that stout fifty years old man like I was on those pictures you hanged on the wall above your bed. You did hang them didn’t you? Kahl, what is driving you at it?”
Isabelle didn’t answer, but it wasn’t necessary though since Lemach was thinking aloud:
“Patriotism? Nonsense… you’re not of that sort. Career? The whole Incedios of yours isn’t worth the risk. The Darloksians can capture people with aThan and you know it. Revenge? Perhaps… but what’s the point to administer revenge upon the dead? Love? … Well, Kahl? Was there someone on the shuttle? You’re not that romantic, are you?”
“I am.” said Isabelle and was surprised on how sincere her words sounded.
“I’ll give you a ship with a ‘hot-tracks’ detector, the ‘Silence circle’, two destroyers, and heavy weaponry,” Lemach rubbed his hands, “and a couple dozen volunteers. Those whom I could trust my own life. You don’t assault planets when you are only six, Kahl. You were taught different things but I know it.”
Isabelle stood up and made a polite bow.
“And another thing, Kahl… a bulrathi and a meklonian are a good addition to the assault group. But is it worth taking them into this kind of action?”
“They don’t practice aThan, admiral” simply replied Isabelle.

----------


## Ken Watts

> 3 
> For the third time during this day Kay went to sleep. Curtis Van Curtis assured/made sure that the recreational premises of aThan weren’t equipped with surveillance systems. Nevertheless Kay sprawled on the floor and had been giving thanks for his salvation to the One Will for half an hour. Then he was explaining for several minutes to the dozing/nodding off/the sleepy Arthur that what had happened was a valuable lesson of life. Only then he allowed himself and Arthur to sleep their fill/to their heart's content.
> It was morning according to clocks but the windows were shielded by a force field. Kay searched for a switch without success and went to the bathroom. He scraped off his bristle with a one-off/single use razor and took a shower. Then he drove/told/directed Arthur to wash.
> They were served a breakfast: two sausages with mashed potatoes, a salad, a couple of toasts, jam in tiny cans and coffee. They ate in silence – the comedy had finished and the work began.
> “There’s something wrong…” said Arhtur while finishing his coffee. Kay looked at him strictly and Arthur went silent.
> At the aThan’s store that was two levels below their recreation room, they bought normal clothing. Smiling placidly Kay permitted his ‘son’ to buy expensive jeans and shoes but when business got down to shirts, socks and underwear he inclined/told/directed him to choose the cheapest ones. Kay was choosing his suit for nearly half an hour. He wasn’t satisfied with the price, the cut, the fabric, nor the planet where it had been manufactured…
> “It’s cold outside and raining. It is autumn.” noted the assistant who had seen worse sorts of characters.
> Kay gave up and bought Arthur a good jacket. For himself he chose a dark raincoat and a cap of local fashion. Then he smiled ingratiatingly:
> “I sometimes smoke trab…”
> ...

----------


## Ken Watts

> 4 
> The tunnel ended up/The tunnel exited on a flat stone plain. A landing pad for flyers was empty and a low decorative fence was stuck over with wet leaves/had wet leaves sticking on it. An opened/open door to the flight-control cabin was swinging silently back and forth in the wind. It was drizzling even though a pale yellow sun which was giving nearly no warmth at all was seen over the horizon. Straight rows of cottages were seen in the distance. They looked bad… deserted.
> “What a wonderful morning.” Kay said to the rain holding the ‘Convoy’ by his hip. “Why didn’t these bastards warn us?”
> “You didn’t ask?” Arthur pulled the hood of his jacket up and put his hands in the/his pockets. “They were offended that we didn’t renew the aThan having so much/because we had more than enough money. They gave us leaflets with information… gave us breakfast. Well, would it have changed anything? We can return even now and renew our contracts. They count on it.”
> “We don’t need it, do we…” Kay breathed out noisily. “It looks quiet. Read the last section to me.”
> “Right now, daddy.” replied Arthur fooling around. “Planetology, economics, politics, culture… here it is... the current situation.”
> “Give me a brief summary.”
> “The conflict between two population groups of Velikorossia… it occupies this whole continent. One side stands for the forced return of the Azure islands also known as Jeng Shi which was occupied seventeen years ago by the Sagun principality. The other side stands for continuing/the continuation of peaceful negotiations on the territorial problem. The former are supported by Kaiserland, the latter naturally get support from Sagun. The war is going on over the whole territory… A month ago both sides started resorting to the doom virus and bio-terminator. The estimated number of victims is about four million. The forecast on the outcome is unclear. Imperial authorities maintain neutrality. Currently skirmishes are going on for control over Kitezh… it’s the capital.
> “My congratulations, Arthur” Kay took a map from his leaflet and unfolded it. “We’re very close, it’s thirty kilometers to the city.”
> ...

----------


## Ramil

11 
Lights went off in the evening. Kay was lying on the floor and it seemed convenient and even natural when his hands weren’t tied. Arthur was tumbling behind the thin transparent wall, and the girl was tumbling above. She finally ventured into using the sanitary facilities when it became dark.
“What miracle the King is waiting for?” Kay asked quietly.
Arthur was silent for a very long time as if he hadn’t heard the question, then he said:
“Seventy three times… I should have gotten there by chance if nothing else.”
“I agree.”
“Kay, I’m tired. I don’t want to knock at that door forever. If there’s something in me that prevents me from getting there then let my path end. But if I can, if I have the right, then let it be a sign, a miracle. Let it be so that we escape.”
“Arthy, there was a chain of random events that failed us. Let us try again and I’ll get you through.”
“No” Arthur cut it short. In a minute, he added with a much softer voice: “They are random events for you, Kay, maybe, but I have grown accustomed to them already.”
The glass ant-hive became quieter. Shy people had ended their evening procedures, those who believed had finished praying and the desperate ones grew tired of tears. Kay Althos and Arthur Curtis were talking separated by the thin and cold wall.
“Arthy, tell me, the god… is he good or evil?”
“He’s the God.”
“Even if he is from machine?”
Even through the glass Kay felt that the boy had stiffened.
“It’s even more so, Kay.”
“That’s good…”
Somewhere, many rows of glassy cubicles away from them, someone screamed. It was a terrible and desperate scream. Kay strained, but the screaming continued on and on, born by solitude and desperation rather than pain. Then there was a stunner flash and the screaming ceased. Instead a baby started crying but this cry was very quiet as if it came only in a dream.
“Tell me a story, dad.” Arthur asked suddenly.
“What?”
“Parents always tell stories to children before they go to sleep.” Arthur said. His voice was not very confident, “Tell me something.”
“I have no children… that I know of.”
“But now you have a son.”
Althos didn’t answer.
“Kay!”
“A long time ago…” Kay heard his voice with surprise. He wasn’t afraid of inevitable listening… he didn’t want to look like an idiot.”
Still, children are always told bedtime stories. Why wouldn’t somebody tell a story to that girl that is crying alone in her cell?
“…when people lived only on Terra and called it Earth, when they couldn’t fly to other stars, on a small island, there lived a boy who had to become a king…” Kay continued as he closed his eyes. He was tired of seeing darkness.
But darkness remained.
“… and he sent his knights to look for the god, not for the sake of finding him, but to find out who was the best. But nobody ever asked the king a question why wouldn’t he go for himself? And he was glad he wasn’t asked because he knew that the one who ruled over the best didn’t have to be the best himself. He simply had to be a king…”
“… they all returned save the worst who had died on their way and the best who had found the god. And the king who only wanted to see who was whom regretted that he was a king. One dark night, when even guards were weary, he took off his crown and exited his palace.”
“He didn’t really.” Arthur said in a sleepy voice.
“He did in the story. The king exited his palace, saddled his horse and girt his ancient sword, and took to the road. He rode and there were no dangers on his path because his knights had passed it three hundred times before. His sword rusted in its sheath and his horse started stumbling because of its age. And then he found the god.
The king stood in silence and didn’t avert his eyes and the god broke the silence first. He asked, ‘What do you want? Your knights came to me and I accepted them. So why did you come yourself?’ And the king answered as he lowered his eyes since he had gotten blind anyway, ‘I only wanted to know if there is a god for the kings.’ And the god laughed, because then the gods had been like men. ‘Now you do know?’ he asked.
The king shook his head and replied, ‘No, still I don’t know, because I didn’t see the god when I was a king. And now, when I see at last, I’ve stopped being a king.’
“He also stopped seeing things” Arthur said suddenly in a clear voice.
“What else he was supposed to look at?” 
Light that was reflecting in the glass surfaces woke them up in the morning. Kay was lying on his back and looking as Arthur was washing up several steps away. The water was icy but still he stripped to the waist and washed. Then he turned to Kay and tapped his finger against the wall:
“I think I understood what was wrong with your story.”
“Well?”
“The king didn’t stop being a king after he saw the god. He only saw the god after he stopped being a king!”
Kay could only throw his hands in the air. Arthur smiled… then lowered his eyes and said:
“But your story doesn’t tell about how he stopped being a king.”
At noon, containers with food appeared on the floor of each cell. It was standard rations of the Imperial military. Kay ate with appetite and made Arthur eat too with mere a stern look.
Then cloaked figures appeared in several cells. They took with them three men, a woman, Arthur’s friend Vera, and that girl that had been crying that whole night.
Nobody came back.

----------


## Ramil

12 
Neither the crew nor even the captains of both destroyers knew about the objective of their flight. They simply followed the ‘Foxhound’ – a tiny ship with enormously big a propulsion module. The ‘Foxhound’ was following the hyperspace trail that the quarantine ship had left in the Dogar system. It remained a mystery how it was done even for the personnel that was attending to the ‘hot-tracks’ detector. They had to alter their watches and ask what day it was after each shift, however.
A corvette of the Imperial Security Service followed them carrying fifteen troopers.
The “Silence circle” brought up the rear of the task force. This ship was once a tanker and seemed a surprisingly easy target. Its huge tanks which were designed to carry liquids were filled now with miles of wires, electronic parts and additional power sources. Its five hundred meter antenna fixed on lattice girders had to be equipped with its own engine otherwise the ship would have been torn apart at its first maneuver.
The path that the ‘Foxhound’ was seeking out in the ocean of the past time led their task force into the Darlok space to a small white star called Layon which the Human Empire fought for three unsuccessful battles a hundred years before.
Kahl was roaming the corvette, silent and happy. Nomachi tried to avoid her – even his temper had been growing shorter and shorter recently. 
The day dragged as a continuing nightmare. Time after time the darloksians took people from their cells, by twos, by threes. This had worn off people’s morale. Kay saw as some elderly man was trying to smash his head against the wall. The transparent material was springy, but after the third hit it was colored with red. Then a stunner beam stroke from above, and the paralyzed man was taken away.
Kay, Arthur and the doctor from Incedios remained in their cells. They had waited till the evening when they were fed and then the lights went off again.
“Good night, Kay” Arthur said from behind the wall. He was still waiting for a miracle, a little king in his search of god.
“Good night.” Kay agreed. Fortunately, this time Arthur didn’t ask for a story. Althos’s nerve was at its limit.
They lay for several hours making futile attempts to fall asleep. The silence was overpowering, the dead silence of the darloksian prison. A torment by silence. Kay wondered whether the humans used this one. Perhaps. The human race has always been famous for finding new ways of humiliating their like.
The Darlok as compared to the Humans was not cruel. How one can call cruel a conversion of potential enemies? Once to be a man who worked for the Darlok called prisoners ‘sub products’. One cannot hate a sub product.
Kay Althos didn’t hate the Darloksians either. He would be perfectly content with merely a slow and painful death of all species of this race.
Somewhere deep in his heart Kay hoped that this would happen eventually.
When Kay Althod had finally started dozing off a dark figure that was rather perceptible than seen appeared in the center of his cell. It came after him.
“Kay?” asked the visitor for some reason, then he spoke in Darlok, “Follow me without resorting to violence.”
The pronunciation was perfect – a human being couldn’t imitate the whistling voice of the Darloksians. But there was something familiar in the way his guest had formed this phrase. Kay stood up without saying a word and glanced at Arthur. Then he stepped into the hypertunnel.
The transition from the darkness into the light was unpleasant. They appeared in a small oval room – the Darloksian in his dark cloak and Kay Althos, unshaven, and in the wrinkled and dirty suit of his. There were two chairs suitable for both humans and darloksians, and a low table with a vase that was filled with fruits. The fruits exhaled a faint delicate odor.
“We were promised the interweaving of our fates.” Kay said.
“This is only a conversation, Kay” the darloksian continued in Standard, “You did want to talk.”
“I will only speak with Bart Paolini… His Darlok name is Eszanti Kree Chethsiafo.”
“So speak.”
Kay’s laugh was sincere and long. Then he said:
“What are you hoping for, alien? Bart worked for you but he was a human. Remove your hood!”
The darloksian raised his hands and slowly removed the fabric from his head. Kay saw something like a lump of bluish grey quivering tentacles with their thin tips moving back and forth. Two round and unblinking eyes glared through them.
“Kay, it’s me.” said the darloksian. The voice was coming from within the tentacle entanglement, from the invisible mouth or whatever served as such, “You cannot see the principal things with your eyes… do you remember how you told me that story?”
Althos sunk into the chair and the alien followed his example. The tentacles started moving faster, some of them were reaching out for Kay and some were reaching out for the vase. The alien took a small fruit and held it against the tentacles. Thin stings sank into it and the fruit started to shrink.
“This is impossible…” was the only thing Kay could say, “Bart was a human…”
“The truth would seem even less pleasant than your wildest guess.” the darloksian replied, “what would make you believe? We were mining thzot crystals and we had to work at nights. You got me out from under the rock fall… and I smashed the head of fat Hem when he decided to finish you. When I had fever you slopped out my shit… risking getting infected. You were convicted for exceeding the bodyguard rights and your aThan was unpaid…”
“You were a human!” Kay said.
“No, Eszanti Kree Chethsiafo was in the body of Bart Paolini.” the alien said patiently, “What’s so surprising? I left the fieldwork so I no longer need a human body.”
“So you overwrite the mind completely?”
“One may say it this way too.” replied the alien after slight hesitation, “The remnants of former memory remain… but they are few. The one who occupies your body would know little of you. That’s why I came – to know.”
“Only for this?”
“Generally yes, Kay Althos.”
“I see.” Kay made a helpless gesture, “I’m a fool, Kree.”
“You were thinking that we would put love for the Darlok into your head give you our name and send you back? No, Kay. Not so easy.” said the alien mildly.
“Do you remember, Kree… when you told me that you worked for the Darlok… you promised protection.”
“You know too much truth, Kay.”
“I see.” repeated Althos.
The human and the alien were sitting one in front of the other. Eszanti Kree Chethsiafo was waiting patiently.
“How will it be?” Kay asked.
“Painless. You’ll be rendered unconscious before the procedure.”
“Can I ask you not to do it?”
“Why?”
“Curiosity, Kree.”
“Then you’ll feel pain.”
“I don’t care.”
“This will look disgusting for a human.”
“I suspected as much.”
“I will do it for you, Kay.”
“Thanks. That’s something at least.” Althos yawned, “Now you wouldn’t drag it for too long?”
“It will happen in the morning. Do you want to tell me something?”
“No, I don’t.”
“I understand… I have permission for torments, but I wouldn’t exercise it. You endure pain too well.”
“Take me back, Kree, I want to get some sleep.”
The darloksian rose up but was not in a hurry to activate the hypertunnel yet.
“Kay Althos, why do you ask to leave you conscious till the end?”
Althos picked the biggest fruit and came closer. The alien stepped away. Then Kay held the fruit near the tentacles and they started twitching in expectation of food.
“I would like to see the true appearance of the darloksians, Kree.”
“How did you know?” the voice of the alien rose for the first time. Althos carefully handed the fruit to the tentacles and wiped his hand against his trousers with disgust.
“These bodies of yours had always seemed too independent… too spontaneous. Conscious beings don’t have that many instincts. If you transplant the mind completely then the conclusion suggests itself.”
“You know too much, Kay” the creature whose tentacles were ravenously consuming unexpected food raised its hand, wrested the fruit out and threw it on the floor, “I grieve that your mind has to die… but imagine what the Empire would do if it knew the truth about us?”
“It will do it, Kree. We’re not going to avoid the second accusation of genocide.”
The darloksian came close to Kay and put his hand on Kay’s shoulder. Althos didn’t back off.
“You saved my life, Kay, when I was human. AThan is unavailable to us and for that I am grateful.”
“The feeling’s mutual…”
“Will you give me your word that while being conscious, you wouldn’t resist? You have caused us harm already.”
“I give you my word up to the seventh layer of truth that I won’t resist.” Kay promised looking straight into the face of the alien.
“Go.” 
Kay slept through the rest of the night. But sleeping brought him neither rest nor strength. Having been woken up by the light, Kay washed his face and sat down by the wall looking at Arthur who was still asleep.
Kay found some comfort in thinking that he wouldn’t die alone.

----------


## Ramil

13 
Marjan Moohammadee got along with imperial troopers very well. Perhaps it was due to the fact that they had gotten used to rely on quasi-intelligent mechanisms in their work and many of them had body parts that weren’t there when they was born.
Isabelle Kahl looked calmly upon this. She didn’t like the mechanists and their preachments about total cyborgization of the mankind drove her wild. But it wasn’t important this time…. since all the raiders save her and Luis would have to die. The troopers could believe in the aThan and anticipate a fierce fight but Kahl had already sealed their fate. Arthur Curtis and the secret of immortality will be her trump ace on her way up. She wouldn’t share even a shadow of this secret.
Time was essential. The Darloks in their constant search for new agents could destroy Arthur’s mind –could use a precious gem as a paving stone. Never before, Kahl had experienced so great a hatred towards the aliens. She would reduce them to dust; she would ban them from the galaxy… if Arthur Curtis allowed her to climb the pyramid of power.
The Empire needed a good rousing. 
At first they came after Vyacheslav. He made a wry smile at Kay and disappeared with his convoy guard. Then, nearly simultaneously, the darloks appeared in cells of Arthur and Kay.
The Darloks took the term ‘interweaving of fates’ very seriously.
The hypertunnel delivered them into a roomy hall. Its white plastic walls looked freshly washed and the air was filled with odors of chemistry and fresh blood. Four metal tables in the middle of the hall looked as if they had been borrowed from an operating room.
But Kay would sooner call this place a morgue.
One darlok stood in the farther corner nearby a small plastic container and held a weapon that resembled a stunner by its design. The container was left ajar and there could be seen a sleeve of a sweater under its cover. The sleeve was small – the clothing was taken off from a woman or a child.
The four darloks that brought them here looked unarmed. The other two were standing beside Kay and Vuacheslav. One of them was holding Arthur’s shoulder. The last darlok was holding a young red haired woman. Her eyes were mad and her legs were failing.
“Kay Althos, do you want to see it all?” asked the darlok with a stunner. His voice was familiar.
“Yes, Eszanti Kree Chethsiafo” Kay replied.
The darlok who was holding the girl started undressing her. She didn’t resist. Kay stood listening to the measured breathing of the alien behind his back. What was happening looked like a scene from a shoddy old movie – the aliens were going to dishonor a girl.
But her fate was far worse.
“You did want to see it all” said the one whom Althos knew as Bart Paolini when they had laid the naked girl onto a table her face down. Kay was silent. He tried to understand where the equipment that transplanted consciousnesses was hidden.
He understood that there were no apparatus and that is had never existed only when through an opened door had entered yet another darlok. He was carrying a small disgusting creature in his hands.
It was a snake. Just a snake about a foot length with a thin body covered with greenish scales. Its tiny head ended with a short tentacle crown.
This was the true appearance of the Darlok race.
The little body couldn’t hold a fully developed brain, of course. The Darloks didn’t have it. Born parasites they had developed into creatures that not only used the body of a host but its mind also. Similarly, a tiny spy microchip rebuilds a computer turning it into something very different from the original design of its maker.
“Your race must die.” Kay said. The alien behind his back stiffened but there was no reply. The darloks were too preoccupied with what was happening.
The incomer put the snake onto the girl’s back. She shivered but didn’t make other moves. She had sunk into her fear, into the only sanctum left to her by the fate. The snake made a short move and its tentacle crown leeched in between her shoulder blades. There was a spatter of blood.
Arthur cried out turning away and struggling from the darlok’s hands. At the moment Eszanti Kree Chethsiafo dashed to the boy Kay jumped.
He managed to knock his convoy down but fell himself. Then he rolled to the Kree’s feet and when the stunner started its move towards him he kicked the darlok in the groin. 
Anatomies of humans and of the creatures which the Darloks generally used as hosts were similar in this matter. The alien made a croaking sound and released Arthur.
Struggling with Eszanti Kree Chethsiafo, Kay looked over his shoulder for a second. His convoy guard had not yet risen up. The girl’s guard and the one who brought a snake didn’t engage in the fight. They froze by the table which the girls was writhing on and pressed her against it with all their strength preventing her from flipping over on her back and squash the parasite. Vuacheslav’s convoy had enough problems of his own. The doctor from Incedios was striking him with short and precise blows of a professional. During these seconds the body of the alien had been broken in several places but still he continued fighting.
Finally Kay managed to wrestle the stunner out and leaped onto his feet. Eszanti Kree Chethsiafo reached out for him. His hood fell off his ugly head exposing the twinkling tentacles. Two oval eyes covered with networks of brown veins were hanging out from the entanglement of tentacles on elastic stems.
“You promised!” cried out the former friend of Kay Althos.
“Consider me a foul liar.” Kay agreed and pulled the trigger. The alien’s body softened. Althos kicked with his heel at what was considered head. The tentacles turned out to be very soft – they burst with squelching sound as he kicked. Leaving his foot in the sticky mess Kay turned over his shoulder.
Vyacheslav’s opponent was lying on the floor – a twitching, formless pile covered with a cloak. The doctor had already been busy with Arthur’s guard – holding him by the head tentacles he kept striking blows somewhere in the chest. The alien jerked spasmodically with each blow.
Kay fired at the darloks who were holding the girl. They sank upon the floor but their victim wasn’t moving already. There was no snake on her back, but only its empty skin between the shoulder blades. What comprised the body of a true darlok had entered her body, slipped into the spinal column and embedded in human flesh.
Arthur stood up with an effort, looked at the girl and doubled over, vomiting. Kay didn’t move – he was holding the stunner at ready and watched the doors and the spot they had appeared from the hypertunnel.
“So that’s how they do it.” said Vyacheslav leaning over the naked body.
“Who are you?” asked Kay spitting the blood. His lips were hurt in the fight and were burning now.
“The ‘Shield’. A special force of the Emperor.” the ‘doctor’ looked at Kay critically, “Have you got the aThan?”
“Yes.”
“Glad to hear that. Cover me for the next four minutes. The brain must die. I hope we’ll meet again.”
For a moment Vyacheslav’s face was concentrated, looking somewhere inside. Then he slowly sank upon the floor. The ‘Jen’ technique allowed killing oneself almost instantly.
Kay reached Arthur in two steps and raised him by his armpits ignoring the fact that he was still sick. He retreated to the corner where he could see the whole room. His guard started moving finally and Kay gave him another charge from his stunner.
“Kay…” Arthur was half whispering and half moaning.
“Happy?” inquired Kay moving his gun form right to left. “Will it count for a miracle?”
“No, but … doesn’t matter…” Arthur left the phrase unfinished.
Kay put his hand on the thin neck that stiffened immediately. He didn’t have a weapon so he had no choice in the way he could kill. The girl on the table suddenly stretched and raised her head looking at the battlefield. Kay fired at her.
“Kay, hurry up.” Arthur wept, “I don’t want … like this. Kay!”
Althos tightened his fingers a little clamping the hot, pulsating arteries and … removed his hand.
“Wait, Arthy…”
“What?”
“They could take us several times already. There’s bound to be monitors and a stationary stunner here.”
“So what?!”
“Be silent.” said Kay mildly. “Be silent. I started to believe in a miracle.”
Arthur went silent and squeezed up against Althos. In silence they felt as the floor was vibrating slightly. They heard a distant rumble that was coming in waves as if it had no source and came from all directions at once…
“It’s an orbital bombardment, Arthy” said Kay still unbelieving.
“Someone is bombarding the planet by circle around this place. I didn’t know that the Darlok was at war with somebody.”
He went silent as stroked the boy’s head with that very hand he was about to have him strangled with. 
His stunner was still pointed in front of him.
“The only thing I still don’t understand is whether we should be glad about it.” Kay finally said.

----------


## Ramil

PART FOUR. THE STONE GUESTS 
1 
The lighting went off about ten minutes later. The distant rumbling they had heard before continued without stop. Layon was pounded at heavily. Kay’s first thought was that somebody had finally gotten around into seeing to the prisoners.
But no attack followed. They sat in the corner, Arthur was still holding at Kay and Kay didn’t remove his finger from the trigger. Once in a while the paralyzed darloks started stirring and Kay fired into the darkness thus giving the aliens new doses of stun-radiation.
“Why nobody knew about it, Kay?” asked Arthur after another shot.
“Because they didn’t surrender and their flesh decayed immediately after death of the carrier. It was called the neural destruction syndrome and considered to be caused by the psychotropic alteration of the mind.”
“So nobody knew?”
“Those who knew weren’t human already.”
“Then it’s a miracle.” Arthur said seriously. He seemed to have stopped sobbing but his face remained wet.
“If we have gotten out of here then it would be a miracle.” Kay pushed Arthur aside and stood up, “Follow me and try to keep pace.”
They walked along the wall. When they stumbled upon darlok bodies Kay stepped on them trying to inflict maximum damage.
Finally, Althos felt a small slit in the wall. After a minute’s search he found a rough pad. It was clearly a sensory lock.
“Stay here” Kay walked into the room. This time he didn’t step on the paralyzed darlok but pressing its thin arm with his foot against the floor he began tearing its finger off. The absence of at least a knife drove Kay wild. It would have been easier with a human body… but Kay didn’t want to bite at the flesh of the alien. He worked for several minutes dismembering the joint. The darlok started croaking – the pain had penetrated even the stun.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to bring him here in one piece?” Arthur asked from somewhere in the dark. It was not hard to realize what Kay had been doing.
“Maybe, but it’s much more interesting this way.” replied Althos as he finished doing his dirty work. He came by and put the finger he had torn away on the sensor pad. It clicked. The lock had an independent power source but the motors that opened the door were powered by mains. With some effort Kay pushed the door into the side slot.
A long corridor with a low ceiling was illuminated by orange lamps. Kay thought right from the outset that these weren’t emergency lights and there was a reason for this room to have such lighting. The walls of the corridor were transparent and the same dim shadow prevailed behind them.
It was a terrarium. There were fine yellow sand, and black flat stones scattered here and there, also scarce thorny bushes. And there were snakes, hundreds of green snakes. Some were lying motionless enjoying the warmth of the sand. Others were crawling around half eaten lumps of meat. As distinct from their symbiont hosts which had been considered the Darloks before, the snakes were flesh eaters.
“Are they… intelligent?” Arthur asked from behind his back.
“I don’t think so.” Kay said while still looking at the Darloks behind the glass. “All by themselves … hardly… Let’s go, Arthur, I’m not a biologist.”
The second door that they had opened with the same ‘key’ revealed much more. It had no independent lighting but instead there was a window onto the terrarium. A dim light passed through it. The roomy hall resembled a store or a props room in a theater. There were rows of hanger racks with carefully laundered and ironed clothing and assorted footwear under them. There were also weapons lying on a long shelf.
“How careless.” noted Kay putting away the stunner. He picked an ‘Ultimatum’ – a human weapon that had remained unchanged since the Feud War. A shoulder strap helped holding a twenty pound device made of ceramic metal. Its two side handles carried all the control elements on them.
“Turn away.” ordered Kay as he pointed the ‘Ultimatum’ at the terrarium window. The darloks that were basking in the sand began to stir. Having as weak intelligence as they might have they still did understand what weapon was.
“Pooh!” the ‘Ultimatum’ sighed as it emitted a thin white beam. It wasn’t a shot per se – a laser impulse burned out the molecules of air along the line of fire clearing the way for antiparticles.
The glass burst raining fire into the terrarium. In its place, there was a raging wall of blue fire – the ancient makers of the ‘Ultimatum’ didn’t believe in firing accuracy of poorly trained soldiers. A heavy wide-band disintegrator was a weapon that had turned the tide of many planetary battles in the past. It incinerated everything in the area of impact.
“Now I am ready for close encounters” Kay said stepping away from the wave of suffocating heat. Arthur took a ‘Bumblebee’ from the shelf and backed away too.
They didn’t find other doors and they didn’t know how to activate the hypertunnel. Then Kay burned one wall through. In a short flash they saw a dark hall that stretched far into the darkness. Before leaving, Althos took a gun from Arthur and dismembered all paralyzed bodies.

----------


## Ramil

2 
They presumed that they were underground. There were no windows and a feeling of many tons of stone above their heads. They crossed the hall of unknown purpose – it was absolutely empty. They illuminated their way by shooting the ‘Bumblebee’ and found two corridors. One of them had an alarmingly low ceiling and a damp floor of raw dirt. The other one was tiled with stone slabs was more suitable for humans. They went along the latter one stumbling upon the walls every now and then – the corridor kept turning at fancy angles.
“…like burrows, huh” muttered Kay as he advanced forward, “cozy, narrow burrows… what an idiot!”
The last remark was obviously related to himself. He stopped switched something on the ‘Ultimatum’… and Arthur saw a pale blue glow over the gun.
“It has a night vision device.” Kay explained, “… I worked with it seldom… forgot everything…” 
Arthur decided not to ask where Kay had worked with the ‘Ultimatum’, a weapon that was allowed to Imperial troopers only. All stress of the last few days had gathered inside him now. He grasped his bodyguard’s belt in order to keep pace. The corridor slowly went upwards… but they didn’t know how deep they were transported by the hypertunnel.
“Why did you change your mind about killing me, Kay?”
“I liked the idea of a miracle” Althos said as he continued walking.
“Tell me.”
“Do you know about the carrot and the stick your father had promised me?”
“I see.”
“Well besides… I didn’t want to lose your friendship.” Kay added.
“Did it really manifest somehow?”
“Is it really necessary?”
They walked for another half an hour. Kay’s breath became heavy – the ‘Ultimatum’ wasn’t known for its light weight. Then he stopped so abruptly that Arthur knocked against his back. In the weak light of the little night vision screen Curtis junior saw the intense face of Althos. He spotted something but didn’t shoot.
“Don’t move!” Kay shouted in the darkness. And quiet voice that resembled a multi-voiced choir replied:
“I’m motionless. Who are you?”
Arthur had no need to look at the screen. He knew the species that spoke with their whole body.
“Kay Althos and Arthur Van Curtis!” his bodyguard replied without hesitation.
“It is good.” rumbled the silicoid. He chose not to imitate human emotions and it was a clear indication that he had enough emotions of his own, “We’ve been sent after you. Can I approach?”
“Yes. Keep your body vertical. Any deviation would be considered an attack.”
The silicoid floated near them – a dark pillar with dancing sparks under its base. He asked:
“May I create light?”
“Not a bright one.”
A little fireball appeared over the silicoid. It could have been a weapon but Kay chose not to protest.
“We intend to take you off Layon.” said the silicoid.
“Why? You are not at war with the Darloks and you don’t support the Humans.” Kay didn’t lower the ‘Ultimatum’.
“Interests of the Basis.”
“We care not about the interests of the Basis of Nous” Kay was eyeing the silicoid. Its appearance was unusually gaudy – its stone body was covered with a golden coating which was alternating with charred spots, “What will happen to us, boulder?”
“A conversation onboard the ship. Most probably death afterwards.”
“Let’s go.” Kay lowered the weapon.
“Go along the corridor, you’ll be met. I will remain here.”
“Why?”
“I sense the presence of the darlok symbionts that are following you. Hurry up.”
“Ah, that’s how you did find us.” said Kay with satisfaction, “Have a joyous battle and an easy death.”
“My body is unsuitable for the symbiosis with darloks and my death would be easy” answered the silicoid with dignity, “Go now.”
They continued their way leaving the silicoid behind. The golden pillar was floating motionless in the middle of the corridor. When the humans hid around the corner the silicoid extinguished its light. About five minutes later they were caught up with a blast wave.
“Lay in the Basis and find peace. It’s time for reflection. Once to be one becomes many things. And the world will strengthen…” intoned Kay.
Arthur didn’t understand these words but the silicoid would have been as pleased as it would have been surprised probably. The farewell will of the Basis of Nous had never been translated from the language of electromagnetic oscillations into any acoustic speech.
Then they were joined by three more silicoids who were all charred nearly black. Only few remnants of their golden armor gleamed here and there. Arthur thought that the smell of burning was coming from them but he was mistaken. The smell was coming from above.
In their company they came onto the surface – into the black noon of Layon. It was nearly dark although the sun was trying to penetrate the clouds of ash. The air was reeking smudge. There were silicoids floating between the smoking ruins to gather near a huge ship. This area remained relatively intact – no heavy weaponry was used here apparently.
“Nice work” said Kay. Arthur started coughing – he could barely walk. Kay swung the ‘Ultimatum’ to his back and picked the boy in his arms.
For some reason Kay thought of the Three Sisters. Shedar’s Second looked differently after the human bombardment… there was much water there and instead of smoke there was vapor.
Nevertheless Kay thought of his burned home.

----------


## Ramil

3 
“This is impossible.” Kahl whispered. She bent over the strategic table looking at the hologram that was created by the battle computer. Layon was displayed as coal black sphere, only in a few places there were light green spots. Where once had been planetary bases there were two mile deep craters. It was difficult to make out though since the silvery dots of ships which were orbiting Layon blocked most of the view.
“About thirty two thousand ships” the captain of the destroyer was looking at Kahl from the screen. “They have overrun the defenses in a couple of hours. It must probably be the whole of their fleet.”
“The Basis of the Silicoids is at war with the Darlok Unity?” asked Kahl rhetorically.
“They are now.” replied the captain with evident pleasure.
T/san who was lying at the corner burst in hoarse laughter which imitated a human one. The Meklon has its score to settle with both the Darloks and the Silicoids.
Yet no race in the galaxy was free of any claim from the others. 
Arthur and Kay were led along the passages of the silicoid assault ship for nearly half an hour. There were neither lifts nor transporters since this race didn’t need them and their way turned into a series of jumps and pull-ups. The silicoids that accompanied them changed periodically. Some of them disappeared in the side passages; some new ones took their place. They communicated on some frequencies that were unavailable for humans and their actions seemed totally spontaneous.
Their convoy stopped by yet another door. Kay felt as the shoulder strap of his ‘Ultimatum’ started to slip down and raised his hand thus allowing the force field to disarm him. Another silicoid extracted the gun from Arthur’s belt with the same virtuosity. The only race that lacked even the semblance of hands didn’t experience any difficulty whatsoever because of it.
“Should we go in?” Kay asked. They didn’t answer. It could be so that these troopers simply didn’t know the Standard. Kay kicked the door and it obediently folded under the ceiling.
This cabin was prepared for the humans. There were two seats – a bit clumsy but equipped with safety belts. Near the wall hovered a silicoid over the grating disk that protruded from the floor. Ignoring him, Kay put Arthur in the seat, fastened him, then sat and fastened himself.
Obviously the silicoids were waiting only for them. Immediately, the ship trembled, then there was a sharp jerk and the acceleration force pushed them into their seats. The silicoid ships weren’t equipped with gravity compensators.
“May I ask you what are you doing?” Kay inquired.
“I’m participating in the acceleration of the ship.” sang the silicoid.
“Ah… Is it true that you had been flying the hulls that had no equipment whatsoever before? And you borrowed the idea of independent engines from us?”
“Yes. We adopted the idea of independent engines just as well as the idea of external weapons from the Humans.”
“Well, never mind. What were you doing on Layon?”
“Saving the galaxy.” informed the silicoid briefly. The acceleration force increased for a minute so that Althos went silent. But as soon as the invisible press had weakened he spoke again:
“Can you communicate now?”
“Yes, these functions are carried out independently.”
“Fine. May I ask you what your name is?”
“It sounds like Sedmin for the human ear.”
Kay closed his eyes and said:
“That’s interesting. I always thought that your names are inseparable from your social rank. And only the Foot of the Basis can have this name.”
“You are right. In our society I hold the rank equal to the Emperor of the Humans.”
“I’m flattered.” was the only thing Kay could say at the moment.
“Death is always death no matter who caused it, be that the Emperor or a soldier.” disagreed Sedmin. 
“They’re retreating…” Kahl said to no one in particular. There were all of her men and non-men in the cabin, and also sergeants of the assault group given by Lemach. Everyone’s eyes were locked on the situation hologram. The silvery dots over the planet were whirling as they disappeared one by one – a flock of metal butterflies that had flown onto the lamp and extinguished it.
“The planet was of little strategic value for the silicoids.” noted Nomachi, “Destroying it was sensless.”
“Perhaps it was not the planet they were interested in…” Cadar dropped a remark.
“What is it then?” Kahl turned over to him. Cadar held her gaze.
“I think you are in a better position to judge, my superior.”
Now everyone was looking at Isabelle. Everyone except Nomachi who made a wry smile and walked aside.
“That’s nonsense!” said Isabelle sharply, “Our goal is rescuing the prisoners whom the silicoids don’t care for. T/san can you suggest anything?”
The meklonian straightened its limbs taking a pose which resembled a stance of a hound. Its prolonged reptilian muzzle didn’t show any emotion.
“The notion about our similarity with the Silicoids is erroneous.” he reported, “We have never stopped being organic creatures and couldn’t understand the stone race.”
“But you fought three wars with them.”
“The bulrathi fight with them still.” with these words T/san reverted from the pose of conversation to the pose of rest. He added, “What concerns me personally, I have too many parts made by human hands. The Meklon decided I am no more a full-fledged representative of our race. My psyche is closer to one of esteemed Marjan Moohammadee…”
“Akhar?”
The bulrathi raised its heavy gaze and said with reluctance:
“The silicoids had attacked us during a period of fullest flourish when our fleet was preparing for subjugation of the Human Empire. Their policy is dictated by the law of the Basis of Noos – to maintain the power balance. Perhaps the Silicoids considered the Darlok had become too powerful.”
“And attacked an outlying unremarkable planet?”
“Who would know what was down there now?” the bulrathi’s paw pointed at the hologram displaying a black scorched sphere.

----------


## Ken Watts

> 5 
> They remained in the ditch for another half an hour waiting for the rustling and whistling to cease and seeing small groups of men had started falling back to the cottages.
> “How did you manage to persuade them?” asked Arthur while turning over on his back. He didn’t pay attention to water anymore. It seemed warm to him probably/most likely.
> “A little bit of flattery, a little bit of threats, showing off, a bribe and a pinch of nationalism.”
> “What?”
> “Well, there’s a drop of Russian blood in me. I played on it… “the Russians don’t kill the Russians.”
> “Is it true?”
> “It’s nonsense. Quite the contrary, it’s in their tradition. But it flatters and helps to save one’s face. I’ve been repeating this phrase for at least twenty times by changing only nationality. It works usually/It usually works… if your opponent needs an excuse to back away. You see, nationalism is always just an excuse. And it could be used in both ways: ‘we are peaceful’ or ‘we are courageous’, ‘we’re hard-working’ or ‘we’re lazy’. You can shrug off anything/You can shrug anything off to national or race traits and get away with it.
> “That’s amusing.” decided Arthur after thinking it over.
> ...

----------


## Ken Watts

> 6 
> When Arthur woke up Kay was already preparing breakfast. Furthermore he had driven one harvester out of the row and parked it near the gate. Arthur looked skeptically at the clumsy machine – it had a drum tiller in front of it, four huge wheels and an automatic packer behind. There was no hull as such; all the parts were clearly visible. The cabin that protruded on its thin supports looked like anything but reliable.
> “I wouldn’t call this a good idea” noted Arthur while taking his ration.
> “There wasn’t anything better…” Kay looked critically at the wheels. “Speed is up to forty five kilometers per hour and this is in the harvesting mode. Its charge is nearly full. How was your sleep?”
> “Like at home.”
> “And I got cold. There must have been something wrong with the climate controller.”
> They finished their breakfast and threw the bag with the remaining cans into the cabin. Kay handed the laser rifle to Arthur, a nickel plated device with a cumbersome side magazine, and ordered:
> “Get in the cabin.”
> From the glass bubble Arthur watched as Kay opened the gates. He stood for a while and said in a loud voice:
> ...

----------


## Ramil

4 
Acceleration effects ceased half an hour later when the assault cruiser had jumped into the hyperspace. Sedmin was still hovering over its disk, probably communicating with other silicoids.
“I know my question is naïve” Kay began, “but I’ll ask anyway. Have you got some organic food? Or water at least?”
“We have” replied Sedmin briefly and a niche opened in the wall. Kay unfastened and took a couple of packages from it. He glanced at the packing.
It was dated twenty two hundred thirty eight. The food had been prepared more than a hundred years ago. Kay wondered what ship or what laboratoriy the silicoids obtained this stuff from.
At least it became clear that they had no intention to kill them immediately. The stocks were enough to provide them for a couple of weeks… if the food wasn’t spoiled.
Kay opened the packing and released the conserving gas. Every course was packed in a separate pail and all it needed was to turn the activator. The technology was practically identical to the modern one.
When the pails had warmed up Kay handed one pack to Arthur and took another for himself. He removed the foil from the biggest pail – there were meat with peas… and a small sheet of polymeric paper over the food with stains of gravy on it which rolled itself up under the heat. At first Kay thought it was a napkin, but then he saw the letters…
“Dear soldier! Fight the alien scum hard, defend Earth. Call me after the war: 09453376n76. Ann.”
Arthur looked at Kay inquiringly, Kay handed him the sheet and asked:
“Do you know what Earth is?”
“Yes, it’s the old name of Terra… but why the number is so strange?”
“It’s the old coding system. Such notes were often sent to the Space Marine Corps during the Feud War and the bloodbath on Toucano. Factories were operated mostly by women.”
Sedmin looked as if he wasn’t even noticing their conversation. Submitting to a sudden impulse of protest, Arthur carefully folded the sheet and put in into his pocket. They ate in silence for several minutes.
“We talk now.” It sounded half as a question and half as a command.
“We can” said Kay as he was finishing his coffee. It was perfect… perhaps it was even real! “Why have you attacked the Darloks?”
“To have a talk with you.”
“Is it worth a war?”
“I don’t know yet. But there will be no war. The Darloks cannot conduct diversionary operations against us and it negates their main military advantage.”
“Let’s talk then.”
“Kay Althos, you were resuscitated and charged with the task of protecting Arthur Van Curtis. Is it so?”
“Probably.”
“What does Curtis need on Graal?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s probably truth.” Sedmin decided after some pause, “It doesn’t demean the facts. Kay Althos, do you know that Arthur Van Curtis has been trying to reach Graal for the last five years already?”
Kay didn’t answer.
“You see… Curtis Van Curtis had become whom he is now by bringing the aThan into the world. This technology has changed the balance of powers… The Human Empire now dominates in the galaxy.”
“The Mrsshans use the aThan and the Psilons also. They invented it.” Kay objected.
“The Psilons didn’t invent neither the neural grid nor the molecular replicator.”
Kay glanced at Arthur and he averted his eyes.
“No race has ever created a technology capable of repeating the aThan. Its working principles go beyond the most fundamental views on this world.” the Silicoid’s voice-choir became sad, “Kay Althos, according to information we possess, Curtis Van Curtis had visited a planet which was later named Graal during the Feud War. And he brought the aThan from it. Till present day, every new aThan has been undergoing a final assembly stage under personal supervision of Curtis Van Curtis. Without him, the aThan is just a set of non-functional equipment.”
“I didn’t know that.” Kay said sincerely.
“Now you do. This is why the Emperor of the Humans had agreed to grant Curtis a special position that de-facto put him above the law.”
“Why are you telling me this?” asked Kay sharply.
“I’m telling you this so that you could think whose side you are on.”
“I still see nothing wrong with it, Sedmin. Wherever Curtis had obtained the aThan, it serves a good purpose. And it’s not for the Humans alone. The Mrsshans and…”
“Kay! The mankind has been always a strong race. It survived in the Feud War when all civilizations of the galaxy opposed it. But short life and numerous species of little value were putting restraints on you. Everything changed when aThan had appeared. The most talented and strong individuals were granted the immortality. Not just infinite prolongation of life, but a resurrection after accidents and illnesses. Your science advanced – the scientists were unrestrained by shortness of life. Your soldiers were ready to die since they knew they would resuscitate. And the most important thing – you’ve been granted a new evolutionary factor. Not a negative one when failing species do not breed, but a positive one when successful ones continue themselves over and over again…”
Arthur shriveled in his seat. Sedmin was ignoring him completely. He was talking with Althos only.
“So what are your fears?” Kay shrugged his shoulders, “Yes, we live longer… but you have always had this advantage. The Empire hasn’t been in any war for a long time. We had enough problems of our own and every race can find plenty space where to expand – beyond the explored space.
“Yes, you have lessened your former aggressiveness.” Sedmin agreed, “Thus, we didn’t take any action. We waited. The Basis of Noos had been shattered but the Humans passed the test of immortality.”
“So what is it?”
“A new factor, Kay. What does Curtis need on the planet Graal? Another aThan? Some new technology that would be unavailable for other races?”
“Asking me about that… asking Arthur even is pointless.”
“Kay Althos, the Humans have exterminated the Sakkras whose fault was mere a uncontrolled reproduction rate. Now it’s the Darloks’ turn whose defense methods are unacceptable for you. What’s next? Aggressive Bulrathis, arrogant Alkaris, or impulsive Mrsshans? Perhaps the Basis of Silicoids which is obsessed with the idea of the balance of powers?”
“Our policy…”
“…is dictated by nous. The Human Empire is stronger than any other race but a combined force of eight civilizations is too much even for it. What happens if Curtis would grant humans The Power? If a single human would be capable of destroying the whole star fleet?”
“This is nonsense! You suppose…”
“We suppose everything. The aThan technology denies logic. Another ‘aThan’ may bring no immorality to the galaxy but death.”
“Where did it come from? Some precursor race?” Kay allowed a smile.
“There were no precursor races in the galaxy. The most ancient races are the Darlok and ourselves. Does it really matter where would trouble come from is one can simply block its way.”
“Then you’ve burnt the wrong planet.” Kay said quietly.
“Graal is unavailable for us” Sedmin suddenly swayed, floated from his disk and approached Kay, “The ships of the Basis leaving for Graal never come back. And that of humans that lives on Graal has never, ever seen them. The ships just didn’t exit the hyperspace jump.”
Althos whistled and turned to Arthur:
“Is it perchance your daddy’s work, Arthy?”
“Curtis has nothing to do with it, unfortunately.” Sedmin continued to ignore Athur. “Presently a squadron of bombers is flying to Grail at relativistic speeds. Their flight will last for another forty six years. Besides… I doubt they would succeed. They will simply disappear just like all the previous ones did.”
“What do you want then?” asked Kay wearily, “To kill us? But the aThan wouldn’t allow it. You should have left this chore to the Darloks. Or the Basis is capable of beating the no-one-knows-whose-a-technology? To erase our memory preventing the neural grid from activation? To screen our psy-field? Ah! Another option! To hold us prisoners for life? To make our life very long leave us no ability to kill ourselves? How much will you give me for the idea?”
“Nothing. Everything you mentioned has been tried already. There was no effect.”
Kay was staring at the silicoid perplexedly.
“What has been tried? What do you mean?”
“I think your companion can explain this to you better than I.” dropped Sedmin, “Believe me, these methods are impractical. The best practice up to date is simply to kill Curtis that would throw him back on Terra and gain us time. But we cannot risk forever. We must make a decision. A total war with the Humans could be the result of such a decision. If nothing else helps we would resolve to this.”
“You would resolve to genocide? To extermination of another three of four races we would destroy before we are done with? Are you ready for this?”
“No. Not yet. That’s why I am talking with you now.”
“You were talking with me alone this far.”
“I’m tired of talking with Curtis. Kay Althos you differ from the other guides. Even the death which brought you to Terra was unusual… do you understand? Kay Althos, you’ll be given time to think it over. A long time. If Curtis chooses to tell us the truth, if we know what Graal is, then the decision of the Basis of Nous would be made.”
The doors opened and Kay saw two silicoids. They had golden film of armor gleaming on their bodies.
“You’ll be taken to the premise that was prepared for you.” Sedmin informed, “I’ll be waiting… I know how to wait. Go now, we need to remove the excess oxygen from the ship’s atmosphere.”
Althos grabbed Arthur by the shoulder and jerked him up on his feet so that the pails with food scattered on the floor and said:
“Let’s go, son. We have much to discuss. You’re a grownup already and you have to learn where the idiots do come from…”
Sedmin stood without move. The humans left his cabin but he continued hearing Kay’s voice:
“When two adults need an idiot, they pick the first person they come across and tell him just a little bit of truth…”
The Foot of the Basis made a light sound which only a good radio receiver could hear. Strange it may seem, but it would have sounded then quite like a sigh. Sedmin couldn’t understand why a simple discontent must be wrapped in colorful speeches.
And he couldn’t understand also why Kay’s emotional aura expressed such anger and Arthur’s was full of embarrassment and confusion.

----------


## translationsnmru

Хлеб/хлеба, которые в поле — это никак не bread.

----------


## Ramil

> Хлеб/хлеба, которые в поле — это никак не bread.

 А что тогда? Cereals? 
5 
It was a good premise. The armchairs, beds and the table must have been taken from some Terran ship.  The silicoids thought even of aesthetics. A panel painting on the wall pictured several animals, bears presumably, that were frolicking among the fallen trees in a forest on some terran-type planet.
“What is it with you, Kay!” exclaimed Arthur when they had remained alone. Althos let him go.
“I’m tired of being an idiot, Arthy. A bodyguard cannot work blindfolded. You or your father should have warned me about this.”
“About what?”
“About the silicoids. How should I interpret Sedmin’s words?”
“I don’t know!”
“Stop lying to me, Arthy!” Kay grasped Arthur’s shoulder again, “You’ve been going to Graal thirty six times. Who stopped you?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“This is my business, boy. I have an eternity at my disposal.”
“You think so?” Arthur smiled. His smile was a bit wry since Kay’s fingers were clenching him too strongly, “Let go off me, you bastard!”
Kay released his grip and slapped Arthur’s face. One… two… three times… Arthur’s head was jerking with each slap and his cheek became red. He tried to kick Kay in the groin but Althos offhandedly blocked the kick. Arthur cried out and sank onto the floor.
“Don’t hold me as your pawn, boy.” Kay bent over him, “You risk nothing but I have been shrugged off right from the beginning as it appears. I don’t like this way to do business.”
“You’re a psycho.”
“You’re an angel though. Boy, what’s the worth of blood on my hands? I am only an instrument for you… just like those who protected you before me.”
“And I am Van Curtis’s instrument.” Arthur replied while still sitting on the floor.
“You are his son.”
Arthur’s face twitched.
“You idiot… I’m not Curtis Van Curtis’s son.”
Kay sat onto the floor and went silent eyeing the boy’s face. Then he averted his eyes.
“Curtis Van Curtis has no children.” Arthur said.
Kay remained silent.
“He has no need for children. It’s immortal… and Graal would accept only him.”
Arthur’s voice was trembling – he wept.
“I… I am a clone. I’m as much an instrument as you are… or they were…”
“I’m sorry.” said Kay.
“I was created for this only purpose… to go this way through…”
“Please, forgive me.” Kay apologized again.
“I am a clone… According the Imperial law I have no rights whatsoever.”
“Hi Arthy.”
The boy raised his eyes.
“Hi Arthy.” Kay repeated, “I’m Kay Duch from Shedar’s the Second. This world did not recognize the Genetic Moratorium of the Empire. I am a super in the third generation. According the law I should be sterilized and undergo a series of downgrading operations. Senator Lacitis’s wife gave me the documents of their son who had died after the Sakkras’ first attack. But even this name was denied for me.”
Arthur sobbed wiping his tears and asked:
“And what kind of super you are?”
“Visual memory, linguistics, reaction rate.”
“Hi, Kay Duch.” 
The Silicoids’ Foot of the Basis Sedmin was watching as Arthur wept on Kay’s chest for a long time. Then he transferred his perception onto the Memorizing ones and ordered to lift the surveillance.
He already knew what Curtis would tell Kay about. 
“I always have known it, for the whole of my life.” Arthur said. He was sitting on the berth with his foots on it. He was no longer weeping. Kay Duch-Althos was rummaging through the cupboard. Having found a triangular flask he looked at its label, nodded with satisfaction and sat in the armchair.
“This… this seemed normal somehow. Casual. Officially, I am Curtis Van Curtis’s son but his exact biological copy in reality.”
“What about memory? Consciousness?” Kay opened the flask and drank right from the bottle. The brown liquid parched his throat. The Higarian brandy had nearly sixty percent of alcohol. 
“The memory is my own.” Arthur replied dryly.
“Why worry then? Does it really matter what percent of your genes match Curtis’s – fifty or one hundred?”
“It doesn’t for me, but it does for the Empire…”
“Forget about the Empire. What does Curtis senior need on Graal?”
“The Dreamline.”
Kay took another sip and looked at Arthur inquiringly.
“I don’t know what it is. I know only how to get there.”
“You’re lying. Is that some kind of a new technology?”
“Yes.”
“Whose one?”
“Kay you don’t want to know about it.”
“Was Sedmin right about the precursor races?”
“There were no precursor races. Kay, leave it already…” Arthur’s lips started to shake.
“Take some” Kay handed him the bottle, “But not much.”
Arthur obediently made a gulp from the bottle, winced and returned the flask.
“What did Sedmin mean when he spoke about throwing you back on Terra?”
“I can only guess.”
“Guess away.”
“Do you know how the aThan works?”
Kay didn’t answer thinking that the question was rhetorical. But Arthur was waiting patiently so Althos sighed and began:
“A molecular replicator copies any biological object. But such objects remain dead… unanimated. The Church of the One will was so pleased with this fact. Only when the original dies and the neural grid releases the Psi field information it can be planted into a new body…”
“No, not quite like that. The neural grid cannot transmit so huge amount of information. It works continuously in the real time mode.”
“Ah…”
“The information is accumulated in the company’s computers. When the signal terminates the man is assumed dead. So the screening of psychic field would lead to the only one result – a creation of a new personality.”
“A fully fledged one?”
“No. It would be a human vegetable… an automated human, to be precise. He would be able to eat, drink, answer the questions, and carry out orders but he wouldn’t have a psyche. Man is not only the sum of body and memory.”
“Your words would have pleased the Patriarch.”
“And why do you think the Church has blessed the aThan? We proved that soul exists.”
Kay gulped some more brandy and said quietly:
“This means that the silicoids…”
“No, they cannot destroy us. If they screen the psychic field, this is possible by the way; then two zombies of Arthur and Kay would be created on Terra. But as soon as the original we would die the zombies will come to their senses. Something that stands above the psychic field would find the new bodies without any aThan. We call it the ‘Psi-factor’. The races of Darloks, Alkaris, Klackons lack this very factor that makes aThan useless for them.”
“I see.”
Arthur’s face became redder and his speech grew faster.
“The silicoids cannot destroy us completely. Screening of the psychic fields would lead to the one result only – for some time there would live a couple of zombies on Terra. As soon as we find the way to kill ourselves they will inherit the consciousnesses. Erasing our memory would lead to the same result. I’m not sure, but… the Darlok symbiosis would have probably released the Psi-factor too.”
Kay didn’t believe in the last remark. Arthur was too frightened on Layon. But he decided not to say this aloud.
“Have you been through this already?”
“Y-yes.” Arthur faltered, “A year and a half ago I was taken prisoner on Hentar-2. There were a group of humans, but then a silicoid appeared among them. They put me into some chamber… it must have had some screening systems. The aThan worked. For two months, I’ve been … out of my head. Then the consciousness returned – apparently I had killed myself.”
“Or your personality was erased.” suggested Kay cautiously.
“My personality was erased a year ago on Sigma-T” Arthur shuddered and forced a laugh “I’ve been laid under some antennas… there was pain at the temples and that’s all. There were only humans there. We suspected the Ramds company… the silicoids remained in the shadow…”
“They would try to rally all races of the galaxy against the Humans” Kay lay down on his berth. His head was dull but his thoughts remained clear. Brandy didn’t besot him, “Is Graal really worth all this?”
“Graal worth nothing, but the Dreamline does.”
“I would like to sleep, Arthy” Kay closed his eyes.
“Sleep then.” Arthur agreed.
Althos was nearly asleep when Arthur asked him:
“You don’t feel disgusted that I am a clone?”
“And you don’t feel disgusted that my embryo was assembled under a microscope?” murmured Kay.
“Good night, Duch” Arthur was tossing and turning in his bed, “I’ll think what we can do.”
“Thank you, My King” Kay said as he covered his eyes with his hand. It didn’t occur to the silicoids to put the light switches inside their cabin… Or they chose not to.

----------


## Crocodile

I have some doubts regarding the translation of "Подножие Основы" as "Foot of the Basis."
First, I'd like to propose the translation of "Основа" as "Foundation."
I'd suggest using "The Base of the Foundation."
What do you think?

----------


## Ramil

6 
“I must ask you, Lemach” said Isabelle. The admiral was sitting reclined in his armchair and looking at her wearily and silently – his health must have taken a turn for the worth lately, “Let me continue the operation, admiral.”
“Changes are coming, Kahl…” Lemach said quietly, “Big changes. I cannot trust it to the hyperspace transmision… but the Empire can’t afford a conflict with the Basis of the Silicoids right now.”
“There will be no conflict.”
“Oh, really? Well, I cannot give orders to the officer of the Service anyway. You can act on your own discretion.”
“But I would be helpless without your ships…” Isabelle forced herself to admit it.
“All battleships must return to their bases. This is not my order and I cannot question it.”
“But ‘The Persecutor’ is not a warship…”
Lemach threw his hands in the air in mock surrender.
“Kahl, you… intrigue me very much. What’s happening?”
“I cannot trust it to the hyperspace transmission.”
“All right.” Lemach agreed surprisingly easy, “The convoy must return, but support ships will remain at your disposal. But I have a favor to ask… if by any miraculous chance you happen to succeed, I would be the first person you would visit.
Kahl nodded.
“I’ll mention it to the assault group that remains on your ship just so you don’t forget about it.” Lemach added, “Good luck.”
The screen went blank. Isabelle was sitting still with her head in her hands and staring at the dead glass.
“What may be the Silicoids’ interest in Arthur Curtis?” asked Nomachi. They were alone in the cabin – the only members of the crew who knew about their real goal, “What makes you think that they have him?”
“I don’t know…” Kahl admitted, “But it’s the only possible option that would satisfy me.”
Nomachi swore in his thoughts. He was tired of his tiny cabin which he needed to share with close-mouthed Cadar, he was sick of sublimated food; he didn’t care for insane and exhausting sex with Isabelle. Silently he cursed the moment he had decided to compare the portraits of Arthur Ovald and Arthur Curtis.
He secretly hoped that the little brat had perished for good in the Darlok hands or during the bombardment of Layon. 
“I want to talk with Sedmin” Arthur said.
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then keep repeating it aloud.” advised Kay who was wiping his face with depilating napkin. His week’s old bristle was coming off like a grey dust.
“I need to talk with Sedmin” Arthur said into the empty air. He was still lying on the berth apparently having spent the night without bothering to take off his clothing, “I want to talk with Sedmin…”
Kay finished his shaving and opened a cup of tea. He took a sip, but didn’t swallow it but gargled instead and spat it on the floor. Then he began to sing quietly:
“A-a-a-a…”
“Are you all right?” inquired Arthur.
“I’m going to change the profession.” informed Kay, “will go for the Imperial Opera… A-a-a-a… How do you find my voice?”
“You sound like a wounded bulrathi.”
“That’s just splendid.”
During the next couple of hours Arthur kept repeating his desire to speak with Sedmin. Kay continued his vocal exercises. Finally the door opened and a silicoid appeared in it.
“The Foot of the Basis Sedmin awaits Curtis for a conversation.”
Arthur jumped off his berth and stepped through the door. He only dropped to Kay:
“This is for Sedmin’s ears only.”
“A-a-a…” Kay sang in reply, “Tell me if you happen to find an ear on the silicoid. A-a-a…”
Curtis junior left in firm belief that his bodyguard was going crazy. 
…Their small squadron separated in the Layon star system. The destroyers jumped to Dogar and ‘The Circle of Silence’, ‘The Persecutor’ and the unnamed corvette of the Service followed the tracks of the Silicoid armada. This wasn’t difficult – thirty two thousand ships left powerful disturbances in the hyperspace metrics.
Kahl had no idea about any possible good use she could find for the planetary nullifier, but she had grown accustomed of using everything she had at her disposal. This was the case not for people alone but for the ships also.

----------


## Ramil

> I have some doubts regarding the translation of "Подножие Основы" as "Foot of the Basis."
> First, I'd like to propose the translation of "Основа" as "Foundation."
> I'd suggest using "The Base of the Foundation."
> What do you think?

 I wouldn't like to use the word 'Base' since it may cause ambiguity (planetary base, orbital base etc) 
So you propose: 
Основа Силикоидов - the Silicoid Foundation (the Foundation of the Silicoids)
Основа Разума - the Foundation of Nous
Подножие Основы = the Base of the Foundation
Интересы основы - Interests of the Foundation
Встать в подножие (Основы) - to stand in the Base (of the Foundation)
Тридцать девятая Основы - the thirty ninth of (in) the Foundation 
What would the natives say? What is better: the Foot of the Basis or the Base of the Foundation? Or something else? 
And I'm  ::  about this fragment: _
Это разговор с глазу на глаз.
- А-а-а... - пропел Кей. - Если найдешь у силикоида хоть  один  глаз, сообщи. А-а-а..._ 
I don't like my translation: _“This is for Sedmin’s ears only.”
“A-a-a…” Kay sang in reply, “Tell me if you happen to find an ear on the silicoid. A-a-a…”_

----------


## Crocodile

Exactly! That's the whole complexity here. Initially, I was thinking more in the direction of "The Foundation Root," but the Silicoids wouldn't have plants and thus wouldn't call their leader "The Root." But, for sure, the Silicoids wouldn't have feet, so by no means can they call their equivalent of Human Emperor "The Foot."  ::  All words describing stone-like creatures have to pertain to the stone-like structures, haven't they? Also, I'm still awaiting for your translation of "Пусть Основа не дрогнет, когда разум придёт в движение." As to myself, I can't just pull the adequate translation out of my sleeve, I have to admit ...

----------


## Ken Watts

> What would the natives say? What is better: the Foot of the Basis or the Base of the Foundation? Or something else?

 _Foot/Base of the Foundation_, either one sounds good to me. Considering the other translations you have given "Foundation" sounds better than "Basis".
Instead of "stand in the Base" it sounds logical in English to say _stand at the Base or Foot of the Foundation_.  

> And I'm  about this fragment: _
> Это разговор с глазу на глаз.
> - А-а-а... - пропел Кей. - Если найдешь у силикоида хоть  один  глаз, сообщи. А-а-а..._ 
> I don't like my translation: _“This is for Sedmin’s ears only.”
> “A-a-a…” Kay sang in reply, “Tell me if you happen to find an ear on the silicoid. A-a-a…”_

 Your English sounds perfectly fine and makes sense.
But if "eye" must be in it, then maybe: _This is a private/tête-à-tête conversation.
. . . Tell me if you happen to find an eye on the silicoid . . . ._  

> *глаз* . . . eye; *с глазу на глаз* tête-à-tête

 Collins Russian Dictionary 50 (2003)  

> *tête-à-tête* . . . a private conversation between two people . . . [< French, "head-to-head"]

 Encarta(R) World English Dictionary [North American Edition] (2007) http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_18617 ... %AAte.html

----------


## Ramil

tete-a-tete is 'head to head', so if I mention 'eye' in the next sentence it would be illogical.  
As for the Silicoids I'd stop at _the Foot of the Foundation_ then. 
Crocodile, 'foot' does not always mean some body part. 
Consider:
the foot of mountain
the foot of a column 
The only alternative I could think of is 'bottom'
The Bottom of the Foundation. I've already explained why I don't want to use the word 'base'.

----------


## Ramil

> "Пусть Основа не дрогнет, когда разум придёт в движение."

 Let the Foundation not tremble when the Nous stirs.   ::

----------


## Ramil

7 
“Follow me.” said the silicoid.
Arthur was absent for two hours. When the door opened Kay expected to see him, but it was just a guard.
“It’s my turn, right?” Kay asked as he exited the cabin. The silicoid didn’t answer. They walked along the corridors that were immersed in darkness. Only a ball of light made by the silicoid helped to find the way. The air was too fresh and too dead at the same time – it had been enriched with oxygen only recently. The silicoids were content with as little as three or four percent so they had to change the atmosphere for their prisoners. 
Sedmin wasn’t alone this time. There were three silicoids floating in the middle of the cabin. They were either communicating on their radio frequencies or simply thinking of something. Arthur was sitting in the armchair and looked stressed like a hunted animal.
“Hi, the Foot of the Foundation” Kay said as he came near his ward, “I hope you weren’t too hard with the boy?”
“He chose to be sincere by his own will.” hummed the silicoid that was floating in the middle of the small group.
“And so you are satisfied?”
“Yes. Now I’m going to ask you questions and you’re going to answer them. What is the Dreamline?”
“Alas, Arthur wasn’t so sincere with me” Kay sat on the armrest of an unoccupied seat, “It appears that this information is for the royalty only.”
“He doesn’t know.” said Arthur quickly, “It wasn’t necessary.”
“I believe you.” agreed Sedmin as he closed in, “We can feel when the words bear truth and when they do not.”
“You promised that …” Curtis junior began.
“I remember. Kay Althos, we received valuable information from Arthur Curtis. It changes our views on Graal.”
“So you decided to let us go?” Kay made a slight bow, “I thank your ancient and wise race.”
“We nearly decided to let you go.” the silicoid said paying no attention to the tone. Kay stopped short and looked at Arthur inquiringly. Arthur nodded.
“The situation is unclear.” Sedmin said, “Adoption of the technology which Curtis named the Dreamline by the Empire should lessen its threat for the Foundation of Nous. The probability of the Human aggression would be close to zero…”
“Maybe I’d better stop you myself?” Kay asked Arthur.
“However,” the silicoid continued, “the weakening of the Humankind may provoke other young races. The balance of powers would be upset one way or another. We don’t know how to act.”
“Do you have any choice?” Kay inquired.
“Yes. We can delay you… for a long time. You will be alive, but would never leave the Silicoid space. This will give us time… time needed for making a decision.”
“To delay us? Oh really…” Kay patted his chest, “I can stop my little motor at any second. I can stop breathing and so does Arthur.”
“You would have neither hearts nor lungs” said Sedmin with no trace of threat in his voice, “Just your brain. And it will live… for a very long time.”
“You’re bluffing.” Kay said feeling as his blood ran suddenly cold.
“No, Kay Althos, born as Kay Duch. We can preserve biological objects separated. Within three minutes should I only give such an order your bodies would be disassembled. Your brain wouldn’t have time to die. The aThan wouldn’t work.”
“You’re bluffing” Kay said again knowing already that Sedmin was speaking the truth.
“Do you want to check it?”
There was no threat in the silicoid’s voice. Even the deadliest enemies of this race have never accused it for being excessively cruel.
“No.” Kay surrendered, “I believe you.”
“A wise choice.” a note of sympathy in Sedmin’s voice could be false, but it could also reflect his true feelings – that equivalent of a sympathy a silicoid could feel towards a human.
“What are you waiting for then?” Kay eyed the three silicoids. Consisting of silicon and crystal structures and having force fields rather than hands they were completely invulnerable against an unarmed human.
Or so everybody thought.
“We are deciding, Kay Althos. Curtis junior told us the truth or a part of it at least. Having let you go we would lift the threat the Humankind poses to the galaxy. But there are too many unaccounted factors. If we delay you this would give us some time. A small time, unfortunately. Van Curtis would create a new clone. Besides, his plans may change.”
Arthur shivered but didn’t say anything.
“Decide then.” Kay said, “Let the Foundation not tremble when the Nous stirs.”
“You know much.” Sedmin wasn’t surprised, “You are a human who tries to understand other races… while hating them at the same time.”
“My feelings regarding you are neutral.”
“We are too different… Kay Duch, what would you suggest us to do? You don’t know the truth about the Dreamline so the knowledge wouldn’t affect your decision. Speak up.”
“Will you listen?”
“Not necessarily.”
“All right.” Kay roused himself up either to flex his muscles or simply arriving to a decision, “Sedmin, when you stood at the foot of the Foundation, you had succeeded Granid on this position.”
“This happened.”
“Was your way considered being more true for the Foundation?”
“No. It was unclear then. We have entrusted ourselves to the stability of creation.”
“You fought, to put it simply.” Kay concluded. He was a bit interested in whether the silicoid felt any emotions when he remembered his ascension (or descent?) to power.
“You offer is absurd.” Sedmin swayed his body and Kay felt as something invisible passed in the dangerous proximity from his legs, “There are no supporters of either decision among us. There is no one to determine the truth in a fight.”
“My offer is even more absurd than you think, boulder. I will fight with one of you. The winner will decide.”
Sedmin looked as if he simply couldn’t understand what had been said. He floated around Kay as he scanned him through using any means available to him before he asked:
“And what weapon would do you like to use?”
“No weapon. An unarmed combat, as it is customary for trials of unknowable truth.”
Arthur turned away. Speaking with the insane was futile.
The silicoids were silent.
“I propose a trial by the stability of creation.” Kay said.
“Your plan is naïve, Kay Althos. You wouldn’t die, we shall save your brain” Sedmin must have considered Kay’s offer a trick.
“Who will challenge me?”
Sedmin slowly moved aside. He ordered something apparently since another silicoid followed him. Only one alien remained in front of Kay – a half ton of stone floating in the air.
“Kay Duch, Shedar’s the Second” Kay said and made a formal bow, “I bear you no malice.”
The silicoid bent its body in a grotesque bow and sang:
“Meezar, the thirty ninth of the Foundation. I bear you no malice.”
Arthur Curtis looked at his bodyguard. He knew what was going to happen to him and what was lying in store for them afterwards. To fight unarmed with a silicoid was even more insane than attacking a tank with a knife, but Kay Duch-Althos was already assuming the combat stance.
The boy put his hands on his head as if this could defend him from the silicoid surgeons who were preparing for trepanation of their two sculls. He closed his eyes.
Meezar began its heavy move onto Kay. He jumped aside and gave a long scream that resembled a night yelling of a cat in the spring.
Arthur Van Curtis who could recognize death in any disguise made a mistake this time. He decided that Kay Duch was dead.
The silicoid apparently thought the same. The stone pillar flew in semicircle and an invisible wall knocked Kay down. He fell unable to breath. The silicoid was approaching – unemotional and deadly like a rock fall.
Kay Duch jumped on his feet and delivered a blow at the stone body. His hand exploded in pain.
Meezar made no sound and fell onto the floor. His pillar body was nearly round so it rolled rumbling towards Sedmin. But this move has nothing to do with his mind already.
Unable to generate the force field the silicoid turned into a thinking stone.
“This… is… very… impressive.” Sedmin said very clearly. Meezar stopped caught in his force field.
Kay was not listening as he came to Arthur and took him by his hands.
Curtis junior looked at his bodyguard his eyes blinking frequently.
“What do you decide, Kay?” asked Sedmin. Somewhere beyond human perceptions there was raging a storm. The information was circulating over the huge ship – the Humans have learnt the Bulrathi’s trick. The Humans can kill the silicoids with their bare hands.
Kay Duch-Althos was looking at Arthur. The boy had the mysterious Dreamline behind him which would make the humankind peaceful and safe and wouldn’t unsettle the balance of powers. It would make the humankind such as the aliens want it to be.
“Decide Kay.”
Behind Sedmin there were dismemberment and their brains hidden in a bottle. Perhaps they would allow them to keep the eyes.
“The hell with the humankind…” said Kay and mussed Arthur’s hair, “Let us go, Sedmin. Please.”

----------


## Crocodile

> Originally Posted by Crocodile  "Пусть Основа не дрогнет, когда разум придёт в движение."   Let the Foundation not tremble when the Nous stirs.

 Not bad at all. However, in another place you said: "But this move has nothing to do with his *mind* already." Can't we use "the Mind" and not "the Nous" or at least use them consistently? As to the usage of "stirs" ... I like the word, but can't we say something closer to the original: "Let the Foundation not tremble as the Mind is set in motion."  
Also, "the stability of creation" seems to me more like "the stability of the Universe", or "the stability of the Existence" for the word "creation" implies someone who created that world. And even though the Creator's existence becomes apparent when the meaning of the Dreamline is unveiled, the Silicoids wouldn't know that in their philosophy. (And the reason why I think they wouldn't is because they mentioned earlier that aThan's existence is not consistent with their model of the Universe.) And so, they call their world "Мироздание" (= "здание мира") which is more neutral with respect to the Creator's existence. I think many of their important terms would have their roots in the stone-made objects as buildings, structures, etc. What do you think?

----------


## Ramil

> Originally Posted by Ramil        Originally Posted by Crocodile  "Пусть Основа не дрогнет, когда разум придёт в движение."   Let the Foundation not tremble when the Nous stirs.     Not bad at all. However, in another place you said: "But this move has nothing to do with his *mind* already."

 So? This only says that his mind couldn't control the body.  
The word Разум can be translated differently. (The same with разумный).
Nous
1.	Greek Philosophy. mind or intellect.
2.	Neoplatonism. the first and purest emanation of the One, regarded as the self-contemplating order of the universe. 
I think this word albeit rare fits very well in here. But using it in narration is unnesessary I think. That's why the synonyms are made for.    

> Can't we use "the Mind" and not "the Nous" or at least use them consistently? As to the usage of "stirs" ... I like the word, but can't we say something closer to the original: "Let the Foundation not tremble as the Mind is set in motion."

 (passive voice implies that somebody or something had set it in motion). 
... comes in motion maybe.  
But I like 'to stir'. Look:
to stir in one's sleep
stirred curiosity
to stir imagination
etc. The Nous is not really a movable thing. ))) You can say that it was set in motion only figuratively while you can really stir it if you try.   

> Also, "the stability of creation" seems to me more like "the stability of the Universe", or "the stability of the Existence" for the word "creation" implies someone who created that world.

 Мироздание - is not 'здание мира' I think it's more like 'созданный мир'.
Universe is bad, Existence is better but it means "всё сущее" and not "мироздание".   

> And even though the Creator's existence becomes apparent when the meaning of the Dreamline is unveiled, the Silicoids wouldn't know that in their philosophy.

 They could have the philosopy (or religion) of their own. They have at least one 'saint' here:  _Прощальное пожелание Основы Разума_ as a proof.   

> I think many of their important terms would have their roots in the stone-made objects as buildings, structures, etc. What do you think?

 I doubt it's that easy, why do you assume that they have something to do with buildings and structures? The fact that they're made of stone doesn't really prove anything. A living stone does not need shelter after all.

----------


## Crocodile

Interesting thoughts.   ::

----------


## Ramil

8 
Express capsules were used very widely some time ago. They were dropped by ships flying in the hyperspace having calculated the course in such way that the capsule entered the real space in immediate proximity to a planet. An expendable engine allowed to decrease speed and the parachute system provided landing. Its freight compartment could house about a ton of cargo or five to six unduly optimistic people.
The only thing capsules didn’t provide was reliability. There wasn’t enough space in a flattened ceramic sphere for a backup engine so capsules burned in atmosphere. There were no spare parachutes and they crushed on impact with surface. There were no space for a stand-by navigation system and capsules missed the planets completely to drift in space forever.
“I hope nothing wrong happens or we would end up on Terra.” Kay said as he was making himself comfortable in his seat. Arthur didn’t like his tone, but he chose to ask about something else:
“Have you ever been on Tauri?”
“Yeah, I have.”
“How did you like it?”
“It’s a good planet. You’re going to like it too.”
“Uh-huh.” grumbled Arthur with doubt.
A tiny intercom screen that didn’t even provide a stereoscopic view lightened up. They saw a silicoid.
“Kay Althos. The Foundation has decided.”
“Thank gods… Speak up.”
“The Silicoid Foundation cannot make a final choice. Therefore it entrusts your fates to the stability of creation. No silicoid will undertake any action that would help or hinder you except for this particular moment. Curtis’s success in reaching the Dreamline would be accepted kindly as well as his failure. We entrust you to your fates.”
There was a sharp jerk and the force of acceleration made them groan.
“You had to entrust us… so rough… hadn’t you?” Kay whispered.
The capsule was vibrating violently like an off-road vehicle. The picture on the screen disappeared since no communications were possible between ships in the hyperspace.
“If we got drawn into the ship’s swirl we’ll end up a couple of parsecs away from the star.” Kay informed.
“You’re telling me…”
Vibrations ceased. The screen displayed a dance of digits as the navigation system started its orientation. Kay narrowed his eyes as he looked at the small lines.
“Well?”
“What shitheads!”
Kay’s fingers started flying across the control panel. Gravity disappeared then appeared back. Then the capsule turned around and a sharp whistling sound filled the cabin.
“We will land in seven minutes.” Kay removed his hands from the control panel, “If our engine doesn’t fall to pieces at overload, and if the gravity compensator would absorb all the g-force.” 
Operators of the Persecutor’s sensors detected a capsule drop in the Tauri star system. This was odd enough, but the standard instructions recommended continuing the pursuit of the main group. The choice between thirty two thousand ships and a tiny capsule seemed easy – they simply didn’t know whom they were after.
Three Terran ships continued their way. 
The express capsule had neither external cameras nor view ports. Silence signified the end of deceleration phase. When the gravity compensators were dumped there were a few seconds of weightlessness and there was a sharp jerk when the parachute has opened. Then there was only swaying in the air as they descended.
“We’re going to land, after all.” Kay said with surprise, “Arthy, if you wanted a miracle then here it is.”
“I don’t want anything…”
“It’s a bad sign. Arthy, you don’t want to tell me about the Dreamline, do you?”
“No, I don’t.”
“You’ll have to.” Kay promised.
There was another jerk of the capsule.
“Happy landing.” said Althos as he was unfastening his seat belts. The capsule landed askew so that they had to climb to the hatch in the ceiling. This was foreseen by the makers and several step irons were provided on the wall for this purpose, “Do you know that such capsules were used in the Feud War for planetary assaults?”
“Hardly believable.” said Arthur as he was releasing himself from the seat. He looked at the display and asked suspiciously “Are you sure that I’m going to like this planet?”
“Yes, why?” Kay released the last lock and opened the hatch. Heavy snowflakes and icy wind burst into the cabin.
“Minus twenty three degrees.” informed Arthur as he zipped up his jacket.
Kay looked in the hatch opening with astonishment. There was darkness filled with snowstorm.
“This is impossible.” he said quietly, “Tauri is a garden planet.”
Kay pulled up and sat on the edge of the hatch, blinked for a moment getting used to the darkness. Untouched, deep snow was everywhere except for around the capsule where it melted a little. No stars were seen through the dense clouds.
“You haven’t confused Tauri with some other planet?” asked Arthur as he was getting out too. The cold gave the boy a friendly embrace and made him shiver.
“I had been living here for two years, after the labor camp. There are no winters on Tauri. It’s been terraformed to the ‘Eden’ class…”
For the first time Arthur saw Kay being confused, frightened even. His bodyguard was afraid of no real danger. Althos was afraid of the unknown.
“What is that light, Kay?” 
A dim violet luminescence was barely seen through the falling snow. It resembled a wall of light rising into the sky…
“I’ll be damned!” Kay burst in laughter, “We managed to land within the compensation area, Arthy!” optimism returned to him surprisingly quickly. He grasped Arthur’s belt and jumped down onto the snow.
“What are you doing?”
“Guess.”
There was cracking from under the capsule. The burnt sphere trembled.
“I see.” Arthur said running farther off. They stopped thirty feet farther watching as the express-capsule disappeared beneath the ice. There was a splash of dark water that froze instantly. Snow started to cover the fresh ice.
“Can you walk three miles?” asked Kay.
“Let’s go.” replied Arthur hiding his frozen hands into his pockets. He needed no additional explanations – the compensatory zones of planetary terraforming facilities were six miles in diameter. An eternal summer that according to Kay prevailed on Tauri was provided by a hundred or so areas of eternal winter.
They walked fast at the beginning. Snow was the only thing that hindered them as it sometimes went up to Arthur’s waist. Kay advanced forward and started clearing the path like a bulldozer. The shock from rapid change of recent events prevented them from feeling the cold to its full extent.
“You did a nice job on the silicoid.” said Arthur.
“Shut up and breathe with your nose.” Kay cut it short. His figure was becoming clearer as the eyes grew accustomed to the dark and the grey fabric of his suit was gradually covered with snow.
As luck had it they walked into the area free of snow. There was only ice, smooth as glass. Apparently, this area of the compensatory zone had been cleared recently and the excess water was taken to the irrigation system. Kay fell two times, Arthur did three. By waving his arms Curtis junior gradually caught the trick of maintaining the balance. But in spite of everything, walking on the ice was much easier.
When they hit the snow again Arthur felt that his numb fingers weren’t responding. It cost him quite an effort to put his hands back into the pockets but it didn’t help much. Then he fell. His legs refused to bend for some reason.
“Kay I won’t hold much longer.” Arthur said as he was rising from the furry snow. It seemed very soft… and inviting.
“According to my expectations you should have given up at the midway.” Kay said dryly as he turned to him. His face was white and cold as ice.
“See you on Terra?” Arthur asked and sat on the snow.
“Probably.” Kay Althos watched as the boy closed his eyes then he looked at the violet luminescence that surrounded the compensation zone. It was still slightly less than two miles away.

----------


## Crocodile

> And even though the Creator's existence becomes apparent when the meaning of the Dreamline is unveiled, the Silicoids wouldn't know that in their philosophy.
> 			
> 		  They could have the philosopy (or religion) of their own. They have at least one 'saint' here:  _Прощальное пожелание Основы Разума_ as a proof.

 I disagree on that point (which I think might turn into a very interesting discussion of it own), but since it has very minor practical implication on the translation, I wouldn't insist.   ::

----------


## Ken Watts

> 7 
> During rare/the few minutes when another dose of viral phage had lowered the toxin level in his blood and his senses were returning to him Kay was thinking in the sterile cleanness of his empty ward. His delirium ended; his consciousness was clear albeit sluggish. At this point he could only recover or die if the viral phage that was administered in huge doses would have mutated and confused his flesh for virus. Soft manipulator paws washed him, changed his bedclothes, injected drugs and turbid liquid nutrients.
> When a woman wearing a green medical suit entered the ward with a raised visor he understood that he had survived.
> “My name is Isabelle.” she said as she was sitting on the bed.
> “A beautiful name.” noted Kay moving his disobedient tongue with difficulty. “You’re a blond angel.”
> “What is the name of your wife?”
> “Karin.”
> “A pretty nice/A pretty name too.” the woman nodded. “I am your doctor. Are there any gaps in your memory?”
> There was ice in the blue eyes of this woman. There were/They showed a long life and a long service for the Emperor. In some way, she was a doctor indeed, a surgeon that cuts off unnecessary cells of the social organism.
> ...

----------


## Ken Watts

> 8 
> On the next day Arthur Ovald was permitted to visit his father. Kay in a reclining posture was eating oat gruel. Its taste was just wonderful compared to the warm mineral water which they had allowed him to drink the day before.
> “Dad?”
> Kay silently handed the plate to a nurse, a red haired girl with a slim figure. He and Arthur looked at each other.
> “I’m glad you didn’t put your grandfather’s name into disgrace/didn't bring disgrace on your grandfather's name.” said Kay.
> Arthur smiled.
> “You look far better, dad.”
> “No wonder here.”
> Arthur squinted at the nurse and said:
> ...

----------


## Ramil

9 
Arthur opened his eyes. Above him, there was a white ceiling with webs at the corners and a large round lamp shade hanging on the wire. He was lying on a bed, undressed and covered by a thin blanket. Sunlight was stroking his face like a warm hand.
“Kay?” Arthur whispered.
The room was very small. Its walls were covered with wallpapers, the only window was ajar and cool wind was blowing into. The only furniture consisted of his bed, a hard chair with a high back and a broad low polished black cupboard. Natural wood didn’t tally well with the overall shabbiness… but Arthur had seen many places that were ever stranger than this.
“Kay?” repeated Arthur louder this time as he cast away the blanket. He stood and looked out the window having twitched the tulle curtain aside. It wasn’t high, so he didn’t see anything but trees. He looked at the dark-green foliage, at some fruits that resembled apples, at the yellow sunlight that penetrated the branches… Either chilly wind or some bad premonition gave Arthur a little shiver. It all resembled Terra too much.
His clothing was folded on the chair. Arthur put on his jeans and come to the door. He touched it and the door wings, which were also made of wood, swayed a little.
He wasn’t locked up at least.
Very carefully Arthur opened the door and froze as he heard an unfamiliar voice. The voice was crackling and senile.
“I didn’t like it on Maretta, no. Snow’s everywhere, how do you suppose to live there? In the last year we had snow lying here for two weeks. They said it was the new base in the mountains that caused it. We thought we would never recover. The gardens were frozen out so we didn’t even gather the first harvest, simply plowed it into the ground and forgot about it…”
“Awful indeed!”
Arthur smiled and leaned against the doorpost. He recognized Kay’s voice.
“You’re used to this sort of things, naturally. What can I say if you’ve gotten out of the collector?! Still, I suppose you’ve got nothing growing on Maretta?”
“Why? We have moss, icy grapes… we ship it to the Emperor himself.”
“Not too bad…” said Kay’s partner in the conversation sounding not very convinced, “Of course, a real fruit…”
“But we have fish instead. You would not even imagine the places we ship our fish to.” Kay said with inspiration, “You are yet to taste it if the business’s good.”
“We would, I suppose.” promised the owner of the senile voice with no particular enthusiasm, “You could offer our apples on Maretta too…”
“We’ve also collected much plankton this season!” Kay interrupted, “And not only the upper one… you know… it’s like small worms. We swept the sea bed too. You wouldn’t believe how much the bottom one had bred up during the warm period! It’s like… it looks like bugs but they live in the water. And what’s amazing – they don’t die when you dry them! Just drop them into a glass of water, let them soak a little and they’re playing again, little devils!”
Arthur bit his hand in order not to laugh. There was a pause behind the door and then the stranger coughed and started over tentatively:
“Here, in my gardens…”
“I’m sorry, but it’s time for having some food” Kay said in unexpectedly strict voice, “my faith doesn’t permit me to commit this shameful act in the presence of strangers.”
“Uh… well, have a good appetite.”
“Humiliation cannot be good.” Kay informed sadly.
There was a noise of shuffling steps then Arthur heard:
“If your kid’s illness persists rub his skin with vinegar. It’s the best remedy against fever, believe me…”
“I’ll pickle him.” Kay promised somberly. The closing door sounded as if it was frightened too. Arthur was shaking with silent laughter.
“Come in” Kay invited from behind the door, “Let’s humiliate together while the food is still warm.”
Arthur pushed the door. This room was noticeably bigger with a soft carpet that covered the whole floor, a long sofa along the wall and a glass cupboard with chinaware. Kay sat by the round table in the center.
“I see you managed to get rid of the old man finally?” Arthur asked.
“She’s an old woman. It was not that easy, by the way, she’s a rare sort. She was an obstetrician in the Imperial assault troops.”
“Whom?”
“An obstetrician, sonny. There were plenty of women there. Good morning, by the way.”
“Good morning, dad.” Arthur looked out the window. “Trees, sunlight, clear sky. Where are we?”
“Tauri as intended. The main supplier of fruits in this sector. We are from Maretta, dealing with fish and plankton.”
“I gathered already.” Arthur made an attempt to sit by the table, but Kay shook his head.
“See that door? Hygiene for a Marettian is above all. Then the next door – there you’ll find a fry pan on the cooker and the cutlery in the dresser.”
Arthur washed his face in haste and went to the kitchen. The windows were wide open and Arthur saw gardens stretching to the horizon. He took the fry pan of impressive size from the stove. The stove was either very expensive or very old – it used open flame for cooking.
“And the bread!” shouted Kay from the room.
Arthur put the fry pan before Kay and was going to sit down again.
“A well-mannered youth should serve his father while he eats.” Kay stopped him. He removed the lid and there was fried fish in there. It was very delicious, judging by the smell, “he should stand behind in order not to see the disgusting act of chewing. Then he’s permitted to eat the remnants, not disregarding the bony pieces…”
Curtis stood behind Kay’s back obediently. He felt good. He was even ready not to disregard the bony pieces.
“Sit down.” Kay said mildly, “You can forget about good manners, we don’t eat in the presence of strangers anyway.”
“Did we absolutely have to be from Maretta?” Arthur asked while picking a piece of fish.
“We could have come from Bootis, but I can assure you that you would care for your responsibilities even less.”
They ate fast tearing the fresh bread with their hands and drinking somewhat salty water from the decanter.
“Kay, I remember you carrying me a little…” Arthur hesitated but finished the phrase, “Thank you for saving me, but why did you take off my jacket?”
“Because I could put it on myself, under the coat.” Kay answered calmly, “the synthetics are stretchable – it was very convenient.”
Arthur said nothing.
“Boy…” Kay caught Arthur’s chin and lifted it up, “romantic books where the weak are given warm clothing are very nice, I suppose, but I had to get us out of there. A light chilblain would have done little harm to you – the doctors patched you up in twenty minutes while you were still unconscious. Retaining the ability to move for me was more important otherwise we would have returned to Terra, do you agree?”
“What are we going to do?” Arthur parried the question.
“You’re going to rest. And I will go to the capital and buy us a ship. Don’t make faces, they have a good transportation network here, I’ll be back in no time.”
“I don’t know anything about Maretta…”
“Water, ice, fish, trawler ships. It’s like the compensator where we got into yesterday. The prevailing nationalities are the Kazakhs and the Mongols. These are the Asian types, very scarce. The Lithuanians and the Latvians live there also… but I don’t know what they are. There is also a small Meklon enclave … they mostly repair the trawler ships. The religion is a local variant of the One Will that distinguishes Nasar the Prophet as a godlike figure.”
“Is that all?”
“There is a terminal in my room. Spend about five minutes and look for yourself. See you.”
Kay rose up and patted Arthur’s back. He walked towards the door and said:
“Don’t walk far away from the house. The garden is huge – you can get lost.”
“Are you going now?” Arthur exclaimed with a slight panic in his voice. Kay smiled at him from the door:
“Arthy, it’s the safest planet in the Empire. I’ll tell you about it tonight… just believe me for now.”
“There are no such things as safe planets!” Arthur glumly said to the closed door.

----------


## Ramil

10 
Arthur Curtis dutifully watched a documentary about Maretta. It took him half an hour, so now he knew something about his temporary homeworld. He didn’t like the planet – there really wasn’t anything but water and ice. Such worlds usually gave refuge to the people who had sold their former territories or lost them due to natural disasters. The only interesting thing in the movie was the part about the Meklon enclave. Being members of the Tripartite Alliance they had been granted the right to live on the Human worlds. During thousands of years of artificial evolution these cyborgs preserved their semblance with six foot lizards. They looked ridiculously on the snow and their noticeable nervousness in near the cold water stirred involuntary feeling of pity for them. Having suffered a crushing defeat in the years of the Feud War, the Meklons became ardent admirers of the human race. By replacing their mechanical parts with ones of imperial manufacture they intended to become one with the Humans – an odd practice but it was encouraged by the Emperor.
Arthur switched the terminal off and came by the window. From Kay’s room he could see not only the infinite garden but also the flickering barrier around the compensation zone. It gave the boy a shiver.
He vaguely remembered as Kay picked him up in his arms and carried him through the snowstorm. It was a short moment for freezing Arthur, but it must have been infinite hours for Kay. He also remembered Kay’s swearing, confused faces, injections, a bathtub with regenerative gel… Then there was another injection – apparently a soporific.
Kay got him out. But he borrowed his jacket with no hesitation and this fact vexed Arthur for some reason.
“I beg your pardon…”
Arthur turned around. He saw an old woman standing in the door. She was tall, gaunt, and wearing a short pink skirt and silvery t-shirt. The warm climate dictated its fashion to all ages. Her grey hair which was too lush to be real was decorated by a coquettish flower.
“Good afternoon.” said Arthur Ovald, an exemplary son of a merchant from Maretta.
“Well, it’s quite a different look.” the woman said with satisfaction, “you were barely alive when you were brought here in the middle of the night… I am Henriette Fiscallocci, my husband is a supervisor of the climate facility. You can call me auntie Fiscallocci.
“Thank you, auntie Fiscallocci, I am Arthur.”
The former obstetrician of the Imperial assault troops eyed Arthur openly with elderly curiosity.
“It’s my husband’s fault, of course.” Fiscallocci continued, “it’s his duty to control the space over the zone… but who knew you would land right into the collector? All these express-capsules should have been banned years ago. I cannot remember worse a design, except for the ‘Needle’ perhaps… but they had been decommissioned after six months of operation. All right, all is well that ends well. Have you finished your meal, boy?”
Arthur nodded. This old woman caused some obscure feeling of unrest mixed with curiosity.
“If you get hungry I’ll be on the third floor. I’ll prepare and go away, don’t worry, I know of your customs. You have a strict planet, don’t you, Archy?”
“It’s ordinary. But I’m not Archy, my name is Arthur.”
The woman threw her hands up in the air.
“It’s the memory, memory… I’m nearly one hundred and fifty years old, boy. It’s time already… but I still hang to something…”
She turned around preparing to leave.
“I’m sorry, auntie Fiscallocci, can I go for a walk?” quickly asked Arthur.
“Go ahead… Pull some fruits. You haven’t tasted them when they are right from the branch, have you? You are the guests and my husband has blundered too. If you get lost go towards the collector – there is a path to the house there…”
Henriette Fiscallocci left muttering something. Arthur gloomily watched her go. There were many things he didn’t like. Firstly, the fact that the old woman didn’t attack the new helpless listener with her talks of the gardens of Tauri. The second thing was her mentioning of the ‘Needle’. During the time when he had not yet begun his travels to Graal he collected models of old ships. Astonishingly beautiful and even more fragile the ‘Needle’ class small reconnaissance boats had never been in service in the Imperial assault units.
Arthur walked to his room and put on his shirt. Then obeying some obscure feeling of protest he put on his jacket. It still held the shape of Kay’s body and it started to shrink on his shoulders adjusting to the boy’s figure.

----------


## Ramil

11 
The whole house was made out of wood – all three storeys of it. Any man of Terran origin would be amazed at that but Arthur Curtis had seen even greater a luxury.
He came down to the ground floor into the roomy hall. There were nobody there, the Henriette’s husband, apparently, was very enthusiastic about his work… or the company that gathered in the climate control facility. One wide and low armchair was occupied by a dozing black cat. In reply to Arthur’s quiet ‘pss, pss, pss kitty’ it rewarded Arthur with only a contemptuous gaze.
There was a heap of magazines on a transparent table – gardening, social life of the Empire and Tauri, fashion and more. The collection was usual for a wealthy Taurian woman who expected the forthcoming aThan. Only the latest issue of the ‘Imperial military digest’ that was looking out from under ‘The Gossiper’ was falling out of the grand picture. Arthur wanted to browse through the magazine but he felt shy of this desire for some reason.
He judged that he would certainly have the time for it later. Arthur opened the door (unlocked!) and exited the house.
And in the next moment he was in the middle of an infinite garden.
Tauri was always a paradise. It had a soft climate, fertile soil, numerous calm rivers and small lakes, and two not very big oceans. The planet was colonized shortly after the Feud War by hundreds of millions discharged veterans. They felt no particular desire to return to the Old Worlds that were overburdened with factories and poisoned with industrial waste. They colonized a paradise and improved it to their liking.
Gardens separated by purely decorative fences, family estates, small settlements and cities that were the centers of culture and education – all of this was Tauri. The ISS on the planet was staffed with locals only. The Imperial spaceport looked like a parody to the planetary transportation center where infinite chains of ships were outbound carrying fresh fruits, frozen fruits, jams, vines… everything that could be sold. No planet of the Empire had so many liberties, no world participated so little in the empire-wide projects and paid taxes this small.
But Emperor Gray remembered whose shoulders carried him to power and who defeated the armies of the aliens. He rewarded the military elite that survived the Feud War. Forever. And those who served in the Imperial military now knew this.
Arthur walked along the path that was paved with stones by the flower-beds with unfamiliar flowers and looked over at the house. Its wooden walls were nearly white with slight touches of amber. The house looked as if it had been built only recently. There were no sounds except slight rustling of leaves. The air was infused with a sweet odor.
“Hey, Marettan!”
He looked around. A girl of his years… his apparent years, was hurrying towards him. She was swarthy with a thin ponytail on the back of her head, wearing a short skirt and a white boyish t-shirt. A heavy metallic disk hung on a sling that ran over her shoulder.
“Hi!” said the girl as she approached him, “Was it you who got into the collector yesterday?”
Her tone carried no offense. It sooner expressed some envy of adventure that fell on him so he didn’t argue.
“Yes.”
“My name is Rachel. And I know you are Arthur.”
“How do you know?”
“My father was at the climate facility yesterday when you were brought in.”
“Does he work there?” inquired Arthur.
“No, why? They just hang in there with cedar and VR. They have powerful computers here on the station so they play there…” Rachel went silent eyeing Arthur. Then having made up her mind she tossed her fringe, “would you like to go with me?”
“Where?”
“You’ll see. Come on, this will be interesting!”
Curtis junior hesitated. He wasn’t afraid of a probable trap – the girl didn’t look dangerous and Kay was quite sure in his safety too. Arthur simply had a formidable experience of excursions with his female coevals. Usually he had to listen to a boring nonsense about local points of interest and, not too infrequently, to answer an awkward and slobbery kiss.
Yet, Rachel carried herself quite freely. Either she did not intend to perfect her future coquetry on the ‘Marettan’ or… her kiss might not be all that bad.
“Let’s go.” Arthur agreed.
Rachel led him finding her way by some sixth sense. In a couple of minutes all directions disappeared for Arthur. All that remained was the blue sky above his head like on Terra, the equally spaced trees and the ground which was soft due to leaves that had been falling on it for centuries. And there was silence, silence from everywhere, even rustling of the grass under his feet was sharp to his ear.
Tauri knew no wars and Kay said even crimes here were rare and insignificant. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the planet was populated by the people who grew tired of killing.
“Will you stay here for long?” Rachel asked.
Arthur shook his head.
“Pity.” the girl seemed really upset, “I don’t have many friends here… and they all live far away.”
She sounded as if she never doubted that they would make friends. She didn’t allow herself to worry too much about it though.
“Did they permit you to pluck the fruits?”
“Yes.”
“Pluck me an apple. That yellow one.”
Arthur jumped up bending down the twig, broke the flexible stalk and silently handed the apple to the girl.
“It is not customary to pluck anything without permission in other’s gardens.” Rachel explained biting off a piece of the apple, “Thanks.”
“How about picking them up from the ground?” Arthur defiantly kicked an apple that looked no worse than the one he had just plucked off. Rachel laughed.
“Well, you can pick them if you like, but who would do that? They don’t even gather them for selling. Arthur, why are you wearing a jacket?”
“I didn’t get warm enough after the compensator.” Arthur growled. They didn’t treat natural products so barbarically even on Terra. Military contracts had undermined the ecology of the Old Planets.
“We’re almost there.” Rachel informed ignoring his tone. “Hear that?”
Arthur did hear a steady noise of running water.
“I wanted to swim.” she said, “but I can’t swim alone. There must be somebody with a ‘leash’.”
It finally came to Arthur what was that disk that hung on the girl’s shoulder. The ‘leash’ was an inertialess generator of a ‘flexible’ force field. If a button on a handle was pressed an invisible and ultra-strong force field pulled a man towards it. This device was used at construction sites, by mountain climbers… sometimes parents insisted that their children swam on a ‘leash’. But Arthur had never met a sane twelve years old person even though a girl that would agree to put on a ‘leash’ willingly.
“Do you know how to use it?” Rachel asked and handed him the metal disk. The noise of running water was closer and a strip of blue sparkled through the trees.
“I do.” admitted Arthur gloomily. Descendants of the Feud War heroes must have degenerated pretty well if they didn’t swim without a ‘leash’ on their cozy planet.
“Don’t let me down.” Rachel said seriously, taking off her t-shirt on the move. She was wearing an orange swimsuit – a strong tie and a little bit (since more wasn’t particularly necessary yet) of fabric. A small ring for the ‘leash’ carbine gleamed on the tie.
They came onto the river and Arthur froze.
Its banks were made of concrete since no soil or sand would have remained there for long. The ‘river’ rushed out from the violet glimmer of the compensation zone. Thirty feet below them, spreading icy chill around, there raged a swirling and seething flow.
“There’s little water today.” Rachel said with concern, “It must be shallow…”
“Are you going … down there?” Arthur pointed down with his chin.
“Yes, where else can I swim? The only alternative would be a branch duct filled with fertilizers.” Rachel pulled down her skirt, “there’s a shoal hundred yards down the flow.”
Arthur saw the shoal. It was made of concrete plates that gradually rose from the water to the bank. The river narrowed at this point and spun into a whirlpool disappearing below the ground. Other channels appeared from below the ground fifty yards away around that point resembling blue spokes of a huge wheel. The water in them was calm and muddy. The channels stretched far to disappear in the gardens.
“Attach the carbine” Rachel asked turning her back on him.
“Could you jump right after the collector?” Arthur asked making no move.
“Are you crazy? The water is icy – you can stay there for no longer than a minute! Buckle it.”
Arthur extracted the small nickel-plated carbine from its clamp and decisively passed his hand under the tie of her swimsuit.
“You’re asking for trouble!” the girl promised calmly.
“You’re a fool.” Arthur pulled the tie “Are you sure it will hold?”
“This is not my first time.”
Arthur fastened the carbine. Rachel watched as he turned on the power.
“Its charge is low.”
“It’ll be enough for a couple of pulls. I’ll try to make it to the shoal, but if I get into the whirlpool then activate it. Do you see well?”
“Better than an Alkaris.”
“Then watch…”
The girl took a run and jumped down from the concrete bank with a squeal.
“What a crazy fool…” whispered Arthur peering into the foamy water. 
… Rachel had gotten completely dry by the time Arthur carefully descended down the concrete plates. Only her feet were covered with water droplets from the roaring whirlpool.
“Will you bag some rays?” she asked.
Curtis junior started undressing. He asked:
“Do you have the aThan at least?”
“You’re funny. Who would put the aThan on children?”
“Curtis Van Curtis.”
“I haven’t gotten around into getting acquainted with him yet.” Rachel laughed, “Do you want to swim?”
“What would I attach the carbine to? My ear?”
“Your tongue! We’ll think of something…” Rachel suddenly hid her face into the hot concrete and proposed through the laughter, “I could borrow you my…”
“No way!” Arthur declared.
Finally they decided that the belt from his jeans, if goodly tightened on his chest, would hold the pulling of the ‘leash’. In an hour or so Arthur knew that for sure. His shoulders ached till the evening though.

----------


## Ramil

12 
Formally, it was a free zone of space. Beyond the Silac star system Terran ships could be attacked by the Silicoids… but their mere presence here wasn’t a hostile act. Such were the laws of the galaxy after the Feud War.
The Silicoids paid no attention to the unwanted guests as yet.
“The armada is regrouping.” reported the captain of the ‘Persecutor’, “They are redirecting ships to different bases… which one should we follow?”
Kahl’s plans didn’t trouble him much. The instructions he had received from Lemach allowed him to avoid combat. The captain had no intention to participate in the suicide that woman from ISS must had conceived.
Isabelle didn’t answer. While they had at least some chances of success on Layon, the assault of the Silicoid homeworld was absurd. There were too many orbital stations, planetary bases and warships…
“Are there all of them here?” Kahl asked.
“Practically.”
“What do you mean?”
“The armada dropped a small ship near Tauri. Probably a reconnaissance droid or a scout ship.”
“Could you be more specific?”
“If they were Terran ships I would surmise a drop of an express-capsule.” the captain started to lose his temper. To his surprise though, Kahl was satisfied with his answer.
“We’re going back. The destination is Tauri. I need that capsule.”
Her words expressed no emotion. Let the time had been lost! What could she do if no communications were possible in the hyperspace?! One chance out of thirty two thousand was not all that bad. Here, on Silac there were no chances at all.
A sense that can only be called scent often helped Kahl in the past. She invested too much effort and too much nerve in the pursuit. Arthur Curtis simply could not have perished in the hands of the Darloks or the Silicoid torture chambers. She will catch him… the boy that knows too much.
Neither her subordinates nor the troopers showed any surprise when the three ships had entered the hyperspace again. They were beginning getting used to the pursuit for the sake of pursuit itself. 
The flyer landed on the clearing – a transparent ellipsoid attached to the disk of the gravity drive. Kay opened the door and jumped onto the grass. The yellow house was a hundred steps away in the trees. A sweet and gentle scent hung in the garden. It was moderately warm but not hot.
If Kay Duch could fall in love with any planet it would have been Tauri. Maybe that was the reason why he had left it twenty years before.
Kay visited a couple of stores in the town and now he was dressed according the local fashion. He knew that neither his variegated shorts nor the loose-fitting collarless shirt could make him look like a local. But at least he wasn’t dripping with sweat in his business suit anymore and his shoulder holster with the ‘Bumblebee’ was well hidden by the shirt.
Kay came to the house whistling out of tune a melody which only a native of Shedar the Second would recognize. The cheerful anthem of the dead planet was one of the few things his memory desperately clung to.
He usually remembered his homeworld only in big trouble.
Arthur looked as if he was waiting for him. He was sitting on the hand-rail of the porch and Kay noted that he was barefooted and without his shirt. Tauri could relax people whoever they were be that a fish trader or a co-owner of the aThan empire.
“Hi!” shouted Arthur.
Kay smiled involuntary. Curtis junior was more a child now than he had been ever before, however Kay Duch almost loved this boy now without even knowing why, but having already realized this feeling.
He wasn’t even afraid of losing his professionalism.
“Kay did you see their channels?” Arthur asked. He was high on emotion and desired to share it.
“We’ve got problems kid.” Kay preferred not to beat around the bush. Arthur’s smile faded… but not completely.
“What happened?”
“I found a ship in the port… it wasn’t bad and the price was quite acceptable.
“So?”
“I couldn’t buy it. We spent too much money on Incedios – clothing, weapons, medical services, tickets to Volantis…”
Arthur frowned.
“The aThan card was not refilled with money. No amount came since our hmm… departure from Terra. We’re far from poverty yet bur we cannot afford buying a ship.”
“Money should have…”
“Not a single credit. You can check the card yourself if you don’t believe me. Arthur, have you agreed upon such situation with Van Curtis? Can it be some signal to retreat for example?”
“No.” Arthur jumped off the rand-rail, “The signal to return is different, Kay, honestly!”
“Don’t worry, I believe you. The question is – what does it mean?”
Curtis junior looked at his feet as he was digging the ground with his foot. The he raised his eyes:
“This means that your contract with Van Curtis is terminated, right?”
“Right.” Kay confirmed flatly.
Arthur looked somewhere through his bodyguard then he asked:
“Can I claim some money? To get to Graal by regular routes?”
“Wait.” Kay put his hand on Arthur’s shoulder, “I made the contract not only with Curtis senior. I promised something to you also, right?”
Arthur didn’t answer.
“Kid, I will get you to Graal. But if Van Curtis had changed his plans we would have to negotiate the new terms of the contract. This is a fair offer.”
“What do you want, Duch?” Arthur asked wearily, “What can I possibly give you? The immortals have no heirs. I will never own aThan. Even if I grow up a beard I would still remain an eternal boy.”
“I want three things, Arthy.” Kay squatted down and looked up at Arthur, “I want information, a guarantee and a promise. You will redeem the promise only if you would be able to.”
“Speak up.”
“I want to know what the god from the machine and the Dreamline are. In general outlines at least. And I want to be sure that if we die then Van Curtis would keep his word…”
Arthur shook his head.
“… and resuscitate me if only for eternal torture at his residence. Can you describe my behavior in such a way that he would desire revenge?”
“Are you a masochist?”
“I want you to promise me that as soon as the opportunity presents itself you would help me to escape. The rest is up to me. Your obligations would end there.”
“Kay, the words about tortures weren’t an empty threat. Two of my guides are already having that eternity.”
“The easier it would be for you.”
“Kay I don’t want you to be tortured.” the boy said seriously.
“That’s nice. You will help me to escape then. I wouldn’t have been rewarded in any case, right?”
Arthur thrust out his hand and said:
“The information will be most general. Do you agree?”
They shook hands.
“Speak.”
Curtis junior looked about and sat onto the grass beside Kay.
“There is a portal to another space on the planet Graal.”
Kay waited.
“There is something that can be called god.”
“Why ‘something’?” Kay asked quickly.
“This is not a living being. I did say that it is a god from the machine.”
“Why ‘god’?”
“He… it… created our world.”
“Be more specific, Arthy”
“That’s enough.” Curtis junior cut it short, “I didn’t promise you full information.”
“This is something at least. All right. What is the Dreamline? Why the Silicoids decided that it would do harm to the humankind?”
“It wouldn’t do harm. It would just direct its development to another way.”
“What is it?”
“A technical device…” Arthur went silent biting his lip, “Kay do you want to know it out of pure curiosity?”
“Of course not. I don’t like the Humans very much, Arthy. But I like the aliens even less. If the Dreamline weakens the Empire then I would terminate our contract.”
“And kill me.”
“I promised not to do that. And killing you wouldn’t help, right? So, what is the Dreamline?”
The boy closed his eyes and asked:
“Kay, let’s do it another way. If we reach Graal I would tell you everything and then you will decide…”
“What would it change?”
“I would relieve you of the promise you had given. Having learned the truth you may kill me.”
“I don’t like uncertainty.” Kay said seriously, “To protect you without knowing whether it’s worthwhile – this is not what I call a good way to do business.”
“Life itself is a total uncertainty.”
Kay Duch nodded.
“All right. Let’s consider this agreed. If I would have to do it…”
“Then you would do it painlessly.” Arthur smiled.
“As circumstances would permit, kid. But anyway, I will miss you.”
“Are you serious?”
Kay stood up and raised Arthur from the grass. They stood looking into the eyes of each other – a super from the destroyed planet and a clone from the ancient homeworld of the Humankind. A man who got used to killing and a boy that had been born for death.”
“Come on, let’s see the channels.” Kay said, “Tell me how you dived.”
“Have you been swimming in them too when you lived here?”
“There’s no other water on Tauri. The whole planet is terraformed. Gardens, compensators, channels… four cities…”
“It’s scary at first, isn’t it? And the water is icy…”
“Everything is scary at first.”
…Henriette Fiscallocci watched them go from the window in her room. She liked strong people and these two were very strong. Such men don’t trade fish from the frozen planets and such boys don’t grow up in patriarchal and clannish societies.
The legend must agree with the personality in the first place and only then with the outer likelihood. She was taught so… many years ago.

----------


## Ramil

PART FIVE. ARGUMENTS AND CHANCES 
1 
The next morning was clear and warm as every other morning on Tauri. Arthur woke up with a slight pain in his back – even the local mild sun could burn careless boys, but this didn’t disappoint Arthur much.
Henriette prepared a breakfast. It was a real Taurian breakfast: sweet fruity squash, toasts with jam, soft-boiled eggs and refreshing tea.
“Are they vegetarians?” Arthur asked Kay.
“No, but meat is usually served twice a week. It’s expensive.”
“Will we stay here for long?”
“Three days. Tonight I’m going to buy tickets to Cailis.”
Arthur put the tea away.
“Where?”
“To Cailis?”
“The planet where you’ve been killed?”
Kay nodded.
“I don’t like it.” Arthur shook his head, “If you decided to get even with somebody along the way…”
“My ship remained on Cailis.”
Arthur Curtis looked at Kay skeptically.
“This is Althos’s ship and he’s dead. How do you suppose to get it?”
“I never register my name when I park the ship. Sometimes you have to get out under a different name. All is needed to get onboard is to enter the code.”
“Kay, are you trying to say that you aren’t going to take revenge upon the man who killed you?”
“Yes.”
Arthur hesitated.
“You too should visit Cailis.” Kay dropped, “You’ll see why.”
“Okay.” the boy surrendered, “Just check the account balance when you are in the city. If there is money then we’re not going to Cailis.”
“I’ll check it.” Kay rose from the table, “What are your suspicions about the local Service? Are they showing any interest in us?”
“I don’t know already whether we’ve been suspected on Incedios or not, Kay. But Henriette…”
“She’s clever.” Kay agreed, “But she doesn’t give a damn about the Service. All her speculations are just an exercise for her brain.”
“She knows what the ‘Needle’ is!”
“So do I, still I’ve never served in terror-groups. Arthy, if a man had a troublous life and then settled on Tauri that means he had enough intrigues and skirmishes. Do not worry. Henriette isn’t going to surprise us.”
Kay had three more hours to think so. Arthur had less.
“Do you need a gun?” Duch asked from the door.
Arthur shook his head.
“Have a good time.” Kay advised walking out, “Tauri is an ideal place for it.” 
Curtis junior had been training for nearly an hour on his porch. He was doing that for no particular reason, he had no premonitions. He was doing even exercises of the Synthesis Yo-Do which were oriented for defense. Yo-Do required no particular physical strength and was an ideal martial art for an adolescent.
“Hey, Marettan!”
Arthur looked out the window. Rachel stood by the door with the ‘leash’ disk over her shoulder. Having seen Arthur she beamed and waved her hand:
“Let’s go for a walk!”
“Where?”
“You’re going to like it!”
Arthur closed the window and put on his shoes. He wasn’t accustomed to walk barefooted and had sore feet since yesterday.
… Some five steps further Rachel felt as somebody’s heavy hand lowered on her shoulder. She turned over.
A silvery mask with crystal eye lenses smiled at the girl. The pink human lips moved:
“Be quiet girl.”
A cold plastic palm smothered the cry. Marjan Mookhamadee knew how people reacted on her appearance. She dragged Rachel to the nearest apple-tree. Without removing her palm she pointed the stunner at the girl.
Usually the ISS operatives were recommended not to use weapons against children. But Kahl let it be known that the rules were suspended this day.
“Bye, bye” Marjan said and walked to the house. Cadar was already opening the door and his ‘Argument-36’ moved its barrel slightly poking at the narrow opening.
“Clear” Cadar decided and entered the house. Marjan hurried after him. She heard a panting of the bulrathi behind her. She didn’t want to miss the party.
At this very moment Arthur Curtis started walking down the stairs and Henriette Fiscallocci who was dozing in the hall raised her eyes from the ‘Women of Tauri’ magazine. She saw an emaciated man with intellectual polycharger of the latest model, a mechanist girl and a bulrathi looming behind them.
“What the hell!” Fiscallocci exclaimed.
The barrel of the ‘Argument’ was put against her forehead.
“Shut up, old trout.” the mechanist stepped forward, “ISS. Where are the man and the boy?”
Henriette Fiscallocci looked at the stairway where Arthur froze, still invisible to Marjan. Her gaze was clear and serene.
“Girl, who is in charge of your group?”
“I am” a white haired woman wearing powered armor pushed the bulrathi aside and entered the house.
“Get out! I am a retired colonel of the ISS. My house is exterritorial.”
Arthur Curtis suppressed a desire to sit on the footsteps.
Isabelle hesitated for a fraction of a second.
“Akhar, hold the old woman, she’s raving.”
The bulrathi put a clawed paw on Henriette’s face and diligently made a humanlike smile.
“Check everywhere.” Kahl ordered. Her voice quavered – she felt the taste of victory.
Marjan slipped down the hall. She cast a quick look at the stairs leading up – there was nobody there. A faint sound made her change her plans.
“Upper floor, Cadar.” Marjan turned her back on the stairs and looked at the door made of colored glass. There was another sound. Marjan Mookhamadee walked through the door without bothering to open it.
It was a long, well lighted room. There were bookstands along the walls; optical disks gleaming from a transparent rotating stand. The screen was showing landscapes of Terra – must be an educational program. A big black cat was sitting in a deep armchair and looking at the screen.
Marjan pointed the stunner at it.
The cat hissed and jumped out of the open window resembling a negative of a lightning. It managed to hit the power switch on the player with its paw at that. The screen went blank.
Mookhamadee laughed. The old hag had been entertaining herself by neural stimulation of animals. Well, the laws of the Empire were rough on this issue. Hardly the former employee of the Service would risk lodging a complaint upon the actions of her colleagues.
She walked towards another door. The fragments of colored glass were falling onto the floor from her shoulders.
Luis Nomachi entered the house. He looked with surprise at the bulrathi who was holding the paw on the face of an old woman sitting in the armchair.
“Relieve Akhar.” Kahl ordered, “Our hostess is raving. She thinks that she is a retired ISS colonel.”
Luis frowned. He didn’t like to enter conflicts with fellow-servicemen, let from other planets, let retired. But he liked arguing with Kahl even less. He came to the old woman.
Akhar walked towards the stairway.
“You won’t get away with this.” the old woman informed coldly. 
Cadar went upstairs. His ‘Argument’ twitched its barrel nervously. Cadar looked into one room, then another… He found neither Kay nor Arthur.
Perhaps they were on the top floor?
He saw a porch through an opened door. It was quiet and empty. He hesitated but chose to check this floor through. He passed by a table with plates served for two persons (they’re here!) and came to the porch. He immediately saw the outline of a small body on the bed. The ‘Argument-36’ lowered its barrel having acquired the target.
Arthur Ovald. One less. Cadar pointed the polycharger at the head of the boy. The ‘Argument’ twitched in protest. Must be the blocking circuits installed by some egghead humanists? Cadar didn’t know that for sure. He had never shot at children before. He turned off the intellectual module and switched the ‘Argument’ to the stunning mode. The polycharger became firm and solid.
Cadar pulled the trigger and moved his chin switching on the intercom device fastened on his chest.
“I took one of them, my superior.”
“Whom?”
“The boy. Either he was sleeping or decided that nothing was threatening him under the blanket.”
“Check his condition.” there was a triumph in Kahl’s voice.
Cadar bent over the bed removing the blanket. He saw a rolled jacket, a crystal vase and a dozen of large orange apples. This unsophisticated still life made Cadar go numb for some reason. Nobody fooled him so easy before.
A kick in the knee persuaded Cadar that his misfortunes had only just begun. He fell and Arthur slipped from under the bed and applied a simple painful hold. Before Cadar could remove his hands from this groin Arthur had snatched the polycharger from his hand.
The most tragic thing for Cadar was the fact that he had switched off the intellectual module on the ‘Argument-36’. Now this weapon obeyed everyone just like the ordinary gun.
“You need me alive.” the boy said and switched the polycharger to plasma fire with frightening skill, “And I don’t.”
Cadar made a squeal. He wasn’t even afraid, only ashamed. As if answering to that squeal the glass burst in behind Arthur. T/san threw a somersault and flew into the porch. His huge body instantly made the room cramped and fragile. A flexible paw with many joints snatched the ‘Argument’ from Arthur’s hand, another one winded round his waist and held him close to its metal body.
“You little brat…” Cadar whispered rising up. He was trembling out of humiliation he had just undergone. He didn’t even thank the meklonian. He lifted his hand and punched the boy in his face with all his strength.
“Easy, Cadar.” Isabelle said coldly from behind his back. Akhar stood by her side with a predatory grin on his face, “It’s your own fault.”
Arthur bit his lip and looked at them. His cheek was on fire but there were no tears in his eyes.
“Where is Kay?” Isabelle said in a completely different tone.
The boy didn’t answer.
“Shall I question him?” Cadar asked readily raising up his polycharger.
“You did your best already.” Kahl cut it short, “T/san, stun the boy.”
The meklonian didn’t need any outer weapon. The scales of his armor opened and there was a blue flash. Arthur’s body became limp.
“Search for the adult.” Isabelle said as she was taking the boy in her arms. Her size in the powered armor was nearly as big as meklon’s and Arthur looked small and weightless in her arms, “This order concerns everyone.”

----------


## Ramil

2 
The town on Tauri was small and patriarchal. Kay spent a couple of hours in the quiet café which he loved staying at many years ago. It didn’t change at all. They still served splendid coffee and wonderful chicken grills, a couple dozen sorts of fruity ice cream here. Kay even thought that he recognized a couple of patrons.
Then he booked two first class tickets to Cailis. He didn’t need to pose a skinflint this time. He only needed to buy a ‘Convoy’ for Arthur. He didn’t like that the boy was unarmed. 
“You’re in trouble.” Isabelle said, “You gave harbor to dangerous criminals.”
“And you trespassed a private property, girl.” informed Henriette coldly.
“I’m no younger than you are, bitch!” Kahl exploded.
“The years didn’t add to you wits.”
Isabelle and Mookhamadee exchanged glances.
“What about the cat?” Kahl asked ingratiatingly, “A little black cat which likes to watch educational programs?”
“Nonsense.” the old woman replied dryly.
“Oh really? What if I ask the meklonian to find the cat and dissect it in order we could see its brain?”
“You dirty mean bitch! Chasing children and animals is not a great valor!”
“T/san!”
“Don’t…” Henriette’s voice quavered, “I… lift all the claims.”
Kahl looked over her subordinates triumphantly. Cadar put on a servile smile. Luis who was holding the still Artur’s body nodded approvingly.
“Where is Kay Ovald?” Isabelle turned to the old woman again.
Henriette didn’t answer.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, that will never do.”
“He’s in the town. I don’t know when he gets back.” the old woman averted her eyes.
Kahl didn’t think for long.
“We’re leaving. We don’t need Kay all that much… he’s lucky.”
“Isabelle!” Luis was the only one who disapproved her decision, “It’s only a few hours… this won’t change anything. We must complete the operation!”
Isabelle was preparing to put the brash assistant to his place when a wonderful thought came to her head.
“Perhaps you’re right. Akhar and Cadar! You wait for Kay Ovald here. Take him alive… preferably.”
The bulrathi’s muzzle didn’t show any emotion. Cadar looked surprised.
“This is your chance to rehabilitate yourself.” Kahl informed pleasantly, “Akhar will control your actions. He’s in charge.”
Now the bulrathi couldn’t hide a content smile. His race sustained terrible losses in the Toucano conflict where Cadar had put himself on the record. The moment of triumph was sweet… like a slab of rotten meat.
“We’re going to wait on the ship one standard day.” Kahl dropped as she was leaving. She didn’t even look at the old woman. She was not interested in the splinters of somebody else’s pride. The others followed after her.
When they passed by paralyzed Rachel who was swarmed all over by the industrious ants Marjan said:
“Is it worth the risk? Kay Altos… unlike Kay Ovald is a professional.”
“Cadar is a cheapskate, but the bulrathi will deal… with Kay Ovald.”
Marjan stopped.
“We should get the girl father from the house…”
“They’ll take care of it.” Kahl answered with an unexceptional voice. It was time to shorten the number of her assistants.
…They encountered the line of Lemach’s troopers who were blocking the perimeter a hundred of paces further. The troopers were also a problem, but Isabelle preferred not to think about it as yet. 
They waited in silence. Akhar stood by the window, Henriette was sitting in her armchair and Cadar paced the room up and down nervously.
“Hey you, coward!” the old woman called suddenly.
Cadar turned to her in fury.
“Whom did you call a coward?”
“The one who responded. You are a coward and a cheapskate. Kay will soon finish you off, prepare to die.”
Akhar made a grunting noise and asked without turning away from the window:
“What about me, old woman?”
“You are another matter.” replied Henriette quietly.

----------


## Ramil

3 
A sharp nosed, swarthy girl sat under the tree. She looked like she was taking a rest. But her awkward attempts to reach her face with her hands gave away the truth.
Kay bent over the girl. He was lucky he had landed his flyer on the clearing again. They seldom stunned children on Tauri and it wasn’t hard to draw a conclusion.
“Don’t try to talk.” he said, “The superior functions will return a little bit later.”
He put her skirt in order with one hand and removed ants from her face with the other one. His movements were almost tender.
“You’re Arhy’s friend, aren’t you?”
The girl nodded.
“He was taken away?”
The girl nodded again weakly.
“There is an ambush in the house?”
There was uncertain gesture either it was ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Kay took the metal disk from the girl’s shoulder. It was an inertialess power ‘leash’…
“Do you want to help me?”
The girl started nodding.
“When I enter the house, slowly count to ten and activate the ‘leash’. All right?”
Kay put the girl’s hand on the button and unlocked the safety switch. He could only hope that his belt was really made out of natural leather and it will hold the pull.
“Don’t be afraid. They don’t have anything against you. Just push the button, okay?”
In the silence of infinite gardens Kay Duch walked to the house to kill. 
“Stand by.” Akhar said. His metallic skirt rang when he occupied a position near the door. Cadar stood before it. His ‘Argument’ trembled as if it had felt the nervousness of his owner.
“Only fools need intellectual weapons.” said Henriette Fiscallocci.
The door opened and Kay entered the hall. He saw a skinny man with a polycharger that was pointed at his forehead, the owner of the house who was peacefully sitting in the armchair, and a bulrathi that froze by his side.
“Don’t move.” said the man with the polycharger.
“I surrender.” Kay said, “Don’t beat me!”
Henriette raised her eyebrows in surprise. Cadar grinned. Bulrathi made a disappointed growl.
“Where is your weapon, human?” the bulrathi asked.
“It’s in my belt on my back.”
Akhar slowly walked behind Kay and passed his paw along his waist.
“No weapon here.”
“It’s there, it’s there.” Kay said reassuringly. The bulrathi started to suspect some trick and froze.
“He’s got something in the pocket of his shorts… and under his armpit.” Cadar said looking at the screen of his ‘Argument’. But the bulrathi hesitated.
“There’s a metallic fastening on your belt.” he said at last, “What is it?”
“I’ll explain.” Kay smiled joyously at the man with the polycharger. The man was very edgy and it could prove fatal. What the girl is waiting for?
He shouldn’t have trusted the child.
…For the third time Rachel tried to push the button. The muscles responded slowly and her finger slipped over the smooth surface. She bit her lip so that the blood came out and sharp pain spurred the numb nerves. 
The ‘leash’ vibrated generating a thin thread of the force field.
“Shoot” the bulrathi ordered. Cadar pulled the trigger.
At this moment an invisible rope reached Kay. A sharp jerk made him bend over. It was risky, of course, to attach the ‘leash’ to the belt.
But the game was worth the candle. The mountaineer’s ‘leash’ didn’t just pull the falling man but also generated a force shield capable to hold a formidable rockfall. The bulrathi who was standing behind Kay’s back received a blow as if he had run into a stone wall at full speed. The field dragged him before Kay applying him against every corner on their path. The stunning beam emitted by the polycharger lost in vain.
Henriette Fiscallocci, a retired ISS colonel laughed boisterously looking as Kay had disappeared with the alien. Cadar regarded her with an insane glance and rushed to the door.
“Don’t… beat me…” the old woman repeated Kay’s words. She was convulsed with laughter again. Nevertheless, she stood up and minced towards the window.
The ‘leash’ dutifully delivered Kay and the bulrathi to Rachel’s feet. The girl tried to crawl away when the furry body having dug a deep furrow smashed into the tree. Kay who was covered by the shield along the way jumped on his feet first. His ‘Bumblebee’ fell out of the holster somewhere near the door, but the ‘Convoy’ which he had bought for Arthur was in its place oddly enough. He pointed the gun at the bulrathi.
Akhar, albeit nearly unconscious, remained still a bulrathi, the most fearsome warrior among the organic life forms. Before Kay could shoot, Akhar thrust his paw and grabbed Rachel by her waist. Blood came out where his claws touched the body. The bulrathi held the girl in front of him shielding the most vulnerable parts of his body with her.
Kay was clenching the ‘Convoy’ in his outstretched hands and rapidly shifting his aim trying to point at the organs hitting which might cause an instant death. The bulrathi locked his diamond-shaped eye pupils on Kay and was synchronously shifting the limp body of the girl. This strange duel continued for no longer than three seconds but told them both everything that could have been said about each other.
“Haey bool.” Kay said, “Uhronh-a bool? Meet Kay.”
A shadow of surprise slipped over the bulrathi’s face.
“Seech khomo? Ahhar meet, khomo.”
“Ahhar? Jet? Dort Ahhar, Val Ahhar, Sheevookim Ahhar? Mit Kay Duch, Shedar-nek.”
The bulrathi rose from the ground still holding the girl in his paws.
“Sheevookim Ahhar, Ursa. Kh’haa neet.”
“Release the child.” Kay said, “I will drop the gun and we will continue.”
“Drop it.” the bulrathi agreed.
“Sheevookim Ahhar, din Ursa.”
“I swear!” the bulrathi said.
“Hoor?”
“Meet din Ursa, khomo.” there was fury in the piping voice of the bulrathi. Kay swung his arm back and threw the ‘Convoy’ away. The bulrathi threw the girl onto the ground with the same easiness.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” Kay said. 
Cadar didn’t believe his eyes. Kay Althos and Akhar walked side by side between the trees and having come onto a small clearing they separated and turned to face each other.
“Holy Will!” whispered Cadar, “Scuffles is all he thinks about!”
He raised his ‘Argument’. The polycharger started to acquire the figure that was partially concealed by the trees.
“I will finish you.” promised Cadar to Kay, “I will, not you.”
“Yes, I was mistaken.” replied the old woman from near the window. “Kay will kill the bulrathi, not you. And do you want to see how you will die?”
Her tone was more convincing than her words. Cadar turned trying to point the polycharger at Henriette. Alas, the intelligent module, having acquired Kay, didn’t understand this move. The ‘Argument’ stubbornly bent its barrel tracking the previous target.
“This is how.” concluded the woman. She was clenching something resembling a short pencil in her fingers. It clicked quietly and a thin jet of flame stroke Cadar in his face.
He cried until his throat could cry. But it didn’t last long.
“A weapon shouldn’t be smarter than a man.” Henriette mused trifling with the hot pyrocartridge, the old tool of the Imperial terror-groups, “It doesn’t take much to be smarter than this one though.”
She dropped the pyrocartridge onto the beheaded Cadar’s body near the ‘Argument-36’ that was twitching hysterically. The disposable flamethrower contained nothing of value – a thin ceramic casing, pyrogel, a focusing sprayer and a primer. It was manufactured even at macaroni factories – in times when weapons had been more important for the Empire than macaroni. 
“Before I kill you,” said the bulrathi, “Tell me, who are you, Kay Duch from Shedar the Second?”
“A super.”
Bulrathi bared his teeth.
“This complicates…”
He didn’t finish the phrase and advanced forward. He moved simply, without feints and false moves – a quarter ton of muscles, hard hair, and instincts sharpened by evolution.
With the same ease Kay made a series of short blows into the body paying attention more to the speed rather than the effectiveness. Two blows reached its target but the bulrathi simply ignored them.
Kay never hoped he would.
“Khtar” the bulrathi said. He slowly pressed Kay from the clearing. He would have received a critical advantage in the trees in spite of his formidable size. His ancestors lived in the woods.
Kay Duch stopped. It looked like the deadly insult threw him off balance. Bulrathi grinned and ran. He wasn’t afraid of the blows the overconfident man could deliver before his death.
There was only one blow in the junction of the rib plate and the left supporting belly muscle. The bulrathi made another step and stopped. His paws stretched for a deadly embrace started trembling.
“O-o-o-oh…” he half-groaned and half-sang.
Kay looked at him for a second. Then he pushed him slightly in his chest. The bulrathi heavily fell on his back. His body was shaking in convulsions.
“Feeling good?” inquired Kay as he crouched over the prostrated opponent.
“Lim…” whispered the bulrathi.
“Whom do you work for?”
“Nrap po.”
Kay didn’t know who the ‘Ever vigilant’ were but it wasn’t hard to deduce. However he asked to be sure:
“Who took Arthur?”
“Isabelle Kahl… the ISS of Incedios…”
Kay whistled. The white haired bitch found their track fifty parsecs away through the Darlok imprisonment and the Silicoid assault!
They usually don’t search with such eagerness for a couple of men who broke from passive surveillance.
“Bravo, Kay. Bravo.”
He turned over. The old woman nodded approvingly:
“I haven’t seen the aliens treated this lovely for a long time. And do you know about the shock points?”
“I do.” Kay rose because the spasms of the bulrathi became too wide, “Where is the second one?”
“In the ‘aThan’… or nowhere. I think that he’s nowhere for some reason.”
The bulrathi’s agony ended.
“I didn’t bring them, Kay” Henriette said, “I don’t deal with the aliens… or the ones who deal with them.”
“Was there somebody else?”
“A meklon, a mechanist girl… heavily modified, a thick-headed little fatman, and a white haired girl as their commander… Will you be cutting off the ears?”
“What?” Kay looked confused.
“The ears. The bear’s ears. It’s a legitimate trophy… a valuable talisman. They say they increase a man’s potency.”
“I had enough of my own. Damn!”
Kay kicked the bulrathi and ran to where Rachel was lying.

----------


## Ramil

4 
“Endure” Kay said to the girl. He held her head on his knees and Henriette was busy removing her clothing and applying bandages on her wounds. The sofa which the girl was laid on was covered with brown spots.
“What a beast, the alien beast…” murmured Henriette, “ripped the kid… don’t be shy, my dear, and don’t be afraid of anything. The bulrathi is dead, completely dead. Uncle Kay killed it, it won’t do it again.”
“The aunty was up and doing too.” Kay noted looking at the charred door frame. Even though they had removed the corpse and dropped it in the manure pit, the smell still remained.
“It’s nothing to worry about.” Henriette continued her cooing, “The wounds are shallow. They just look so scary. We’ll heal them in a week or so and then we’ll deal with the scars. Aunt Fiscallocci knows how to heal… you’ll be a beauty as before.”
“Is this really necessary?” Kay asked “All this baby talk I mean? I did notice you using quite another vocabulary.”
“Uncle Kay is rude” Henriette informed, “Rude although good. We have a quiet planet here, we’re afraid of such people. We’re peaceful people… the aged ones and the kids.”
“Yes, because the young usually serve in the Imperial military.” corrected Kay. He gave a wink to the girl who was patiently enduring both the treatment of her wounds and chattering of the old woman. She winked back rather freely. The stunning effects were wearing off.
“And here goes the last plaster…” sighed Henriette, “I wish I had herbs, still, hardly they would help with wounds like these.”
Kay only shook his head. He asked the girl:
“Have you tried speaking?”
She moistened her lips and whispered:
“Rachel.”
“What?”
“Rachel. This is my name.”
“I am Kay. Thank you for the ‘leash’.”
“Will you rescue Arthur? Ouch!”
Henriette jerked back her hand guiltily and shook her head:
“Hey, you’ve got a broken rib… have you been enduring that?”
“I have.” Rachel admitted, “You don’t need to hurry with a doctor… if you need time… I understand.”
Kay and Fiscallocci exchanged glances.
“Such girls as she delivered children between the raids” Henriette said, “because the Empire needed soldiers. And then they were running under fire.”
…The little bastards always creep under the nozzles…
Kay Duch shook his head as if he was trying to shake out the memory and said:
“I have to go. And you need to call a doctor.”
Henriette hesitated.
“Rachel, honey, will you wait for another fifteen minutes?”
“Make it an hour if you like.”
“Only a quarter. Kay, you need to drink a cup of coffee.”
“Well, if I have to...” Kay lowered the girl’s head on the pillow and said:
“I will rescue Arthur, you can be sure of it.”
“There was a woman… with a silver face.”
“I will make earrings out of it and send them to you.”
“I would prefer a ring.” the girl said after some thinking, “My mother doesn’t permit me to pierce my ears. And… it would be more interesting this way. Will you came back?”
“Of course. To lick the wounds. Or to recruit cutthroats for a little war.”
“Sign me in.” Rachel said without any irony. 
The coffee was prepared in accordance with the local customs – without sugar, with cold cream, and with ice cubes in it. Henriette generously added some harshly smelling liqueur into their cups. Kay had not seen such liberties before but chose not to argue.
Honestly speaking Kay would have preferred a glass of cognac. But Fiscallocci didn’t offer anything else even though the bar in her room was full. The room itself would sooner be suitable for a terrorist mercenary rather than an aged gardener.
“Reminders about hard deliveries, huh?” Kay nodded at the weapons that hung all over on the walls. There was even an ‘Ultimatum’ and Kay smiled at it as to an old friend.
“Your irony is idle.” Henriette put away her cup and stroked the cat that perched on her lap, “I was also an obstetrician.”
“So you’ve been working for both life and death?”
“It wasn’t hard. The war lasted for seventy years as you remember.”
“I was born later.”
“Oh really? You so easily hit the sigmoid gland…”
“My teacher was really good.”
“Why was?”
“He died. And I didn’t cut the ears either.”
“Kay, Kay…” Fiscallocci shook her head, “what a rude boy you are.”
“Why did you help me?” Kay asked directly.
“I was a colonel in the ISS terror-groups. My house is untouchable for the Service. This is a privilege granted by the Emperor himself… and no rejuvenated cow has a right to break it.”
Kay knew the name of the only female colonel during the short and dark history of the terror-groups but he preferred to leave this knowledge for himself. The woman that had sent a hundred and fifty thousand aliens and a couple hundred humans to hell had a right to live under any name whatsoever.
Moreover, under her true name, she wouldn’t have lived long. When the Meklons and the Bulrathi were signing the Tripartite Alliance pact with the Humans they had specified the list of humans whom they remained at war with. This old woman who called herself Fiscallocci was in this list.
And what she had just said was a sign of a great deal of trust… or a dose of poison in his coffee.
“…I don’t like it when humans are being hunted by the aliens.” the woman continued calmly, “and I liked you and your so called son for some reason.”
“I must go.” Kay said. Henriette lowered the cat onto the floor and nodded.
“Yes, unfortunately… I wish I could talk to you for a couple of evenings, but… Kay, remember what I’m going to tell you…”
He was listening for seven minutes. It was brief, very precise characteristic of each of the raiders that had appeared in the Henriette’s house, “…ductile and direct. He will squeeze anything out of the standard situation, but … she needed the boy only… when he was captured… a meklon having the most advanced modifications, it would have grinded you to dust, but its limbs move asynchronously in its travelling transformation. It’s a sure sign of a bad splicing of mechanical and organic parts… decide for yourself whether it will help… disregarding physical strength she is more dangerous than the meklon. She has great ambitions…”
“Should I repeat?” Henriette asked.
“I have absolute memory.”
“I see. I am sure of their direction, they went south-east. The distance you will find yourself. Your ‘Bumblebe’ is in the flower bed with forget-me-nots – pick it up. What else… let me remember… Heavy weapons?”
Kay looked at the wall.
“Everything is loaded and working. But there are only old models. Nostalgia, you know…”
“The ‘Argument’ wasn’t all that persuasive.” Kay noted while eyeing the weapons.
“I wish there was an ‘Excalibur’. Alas, I don’t have it… And my armor is too small for you… you shouldn’t have grown up shoulders that big. And don’t take the ‘Ultimatum’! Even you will get exhausted with it!”
“I will take the ‘Chance’” Kay decided and unfastened it from the wall.
Henriette nodded approvingly and said:
“It’s great to see that not all of the young has gone nuts. Take it. It is a good ‘Chance’.
“Yes.” Kay agreed, “One of a hundred.”

----------


## Ramil

5 
Arthur didn’t remember how he was brought onboard the Service ship. Either the meklon miscalculated the power or it deliberately dosed him with a greater stunning charge than it was necessary. He woke up with pain in his chest.
He was in a tiny square room which was a copy of his cell in the Darlok prison. The only difference was the fact that it was not transparent… from inside. There was a toilet bowl, a washstand, and a polyurethane mattress on the floor. He was lying naked and a man in a powered armor was sticking electrodes to his chest.
“Are you awake?” Nomachi asked without stopping his work. He inserted yet another platinum needle under his skin and applied a fixing plaster over it. “Do you know what is it?”
Arthur shook his head.
“It’s easy, my little friend. This is a reanimation complex. If you try to stop your heart or cease breathing then the complex will take control over these functions. Is that clear?”
The cell door opened and there was Isabelle Kahl standing in the door… a woman who questioned Arthur on Incedios. She was wearing the same blue skirt and white blouse with broad sleeves. Curtis didn’t recognize her in the house when she was in the powered armor, but now he was very proud of himself. His intuition didn’t fail him. They escaped Incedios just in time… but the Service managed to catch up with them anyway.
“Have you finished, Luis?”
“In a moment.”
“Do it then and go to the cockpit. It’s too cramped in here.”
“I would better perspire for a little more in the armor than let the kid get away.” Nomachi said sounding slightly offended. 
“Okay, never mind.”
Luis glued the controlling chip to the boy’s skin. Then he produced a fixing spray tube and carefully covered Arthur’s chest with transparent film.
“It’s done.”
“Go then.”
Nomachi rose, cast the last satisfied look at Arthur, and clumsily went out. Curtis junior and Isabelle Kahl remained alone.
“Well, we’ve met again.” Kahl said as she squatted down beside Arthur. Her voice was nearly tender, “Do you know what I need?”
“A good psychotherapist.”
Isabelle laughed. Her voice was clear and happy.
“No, this is not necessary now. You are Arthur Van Curtis. Are you going to deny that?”
“I’m not going to answer your questions.”
“Oh, we know how to ask them, Arthur. You have lost and you don’t have any choice.”
“Where is Kay?”
“So, you want to ask questions instead? Okay, I will answer. Kay will soon be brought here.”
“Ha ha.” Arthur said it with the most offensive tone he could express.
“You think so much in his abilities? I’m not going to argue. Having a bit of luck a well-trained man can escape from a bulrathi… or even kill him. But I don’t need Kay very much. He was a pawn that defended the king. And the king…” Isabelle extended her arm and patted Arthur’s hip, “the king was stalemated.”
“You know.” Arthur said thoughtfully, “I don’t even feel shy before you.”
There was a strange expression on Kahl’s face that quickly changed into a smile:
“You’re not a twelve years old boy, my friend. Your resourceful father drove you through the aThan in order to fool everyone. But you are sixteen… I think you had enough girls to get used to that sort of things…”
“No,” Arthur smiled, and Kahl didn’t like this smile, “I am a shy person. But I don’t give a damn about you. You are already dead. You’ve been dead from the moment you had set your gang on us. I don’t have complexes before corpses.”
“I will have to prove that I am alive to you then.” Kahl’s voice didn’t promise anything good. But her hands, it appeared, were living a life of their own.
“You won’t have the aThan, you won’t have a job, you won’t have a home…” Arthur continued, “You’ll be exiled to some hole that doesn’t even have a name yet. By personal orders of the Emperor… he… will agree… with Van Curtis.”
“Well, am I alive still?” Kahl laughed.
“You really need a psychiatrist.” Arthur said.
“No, kid. I need the aThan, and you’re going to tell me how your father carries out the final stage of the assembly. I need the instruction on how to kill people with a neural grid. And the last thing that I need…” Kahl bent over the boy and whispered, “… is the truth about where you are going. What is Curtis’s business which he sends his son to see to?”
“You’ve got a foul breath.” Arthur said.
“I’m tired of you.” Kahl informed. The cell door opened and she rose from her knees. Marjan Moohammadee calmly looked at them, “It’s good you have come. Work a little with the boy.”
“To which degree?”
“Three A”, Kahl winked at Arthur, “You’re going to like it.” 
The ‘Chance’ wasn’t a heavy weapon. The six barreled automatic laser fire system also known as Matynenko fan laser, or simply a ‘saw-mill’ resembled a multi-barreled machine gun from the dim past. Its six barrels were assembled in pack on a rotating spindle. Each barrel diverged slightly. The rotating lasers activated for short periods of time in random order which allowed them to cool down and provided a wide effective range of fire. This was a weapon akin to the ‘Ultimatum’ – the weapon of the Feud War which was designed for poorly trained users… or for combat of a single professional against many opponents.
Kay preferred to think of himself as of a single professional.
He didn’t know how many men or non-men were opposing him. Henriette saw four but this didn’t mean anything. Anyway, the meklon should be counted for dozen as well as the mechanist girl.
He was walking in the garden trying very hard to spot any tracks... but in vain. He was after the professionals that were equal to him. It was quite possible that the Service ship was already in the orbit… and a burned launch site was all he was going to find.
Then Kay felt a burnt odor. The wind carried it from the west and Kay understood that he nearly missed his target. The ship landed very close to the house.
“I hope your garden is insured… Vanda Kahowsky…” Kay said unlocking the safety switch on the ‘Chance’. The barrels of the beamer sang quietly as they started to rotate. There was no vibration – the fan laser was perfectly balanced and Duch nodded with satisfaction.

----------


## Ramil

6 
Chen Chamree stood twenty paces away from the ship where the burned ground was changing into the burned trees. Kahl didn’t ask to set out the guards but such laxity sickened the Imperial sergeant so he drove six privates out the ship and posted them sentries. Satisfied, he simply enjoyed the scenery.
Chen was born on Mentar, a hot and arid planet, but having some strange charm of boundless desert. Now Chen was trying to figure out about whether he liked it on Tauri or not. There were more contras than pros so far: many trees, the sky was too dark, and the climate was rather cool (for a Mentarian).
The only thing that Chen liked was the abundance of fruits. He plucked a strange fruit that looked like an apple, but had the taste of a strawberry and walked towards the silvery cone of the ship.
“Hey!” somebody called from behind. Chen turned.
He recognized Kay Ovald immediately. He also recognized the weapon in his hands, the fan laser. They knew how to use ancient equipment in the Assault Troops.
“Don’t be crazy.” Chen asked, “Drop down the weapon and they will spare you.”
The man whom Kahl pursued so hard didn’t answer. Chen sweated. The six barrels of the ‘Chance’ were idly rotating pointed at his belly.
“Your son is all right,” Chen made a step towards Ovald, “The Incedios Service has some questions to you, that’s all… lower your weapon, you’re just a merchant!”
Kay Ovald laughed. The easiness he held the multi-barreled weapon with made Chen realize the absurdity of his own words.
“You’re not going to assault the ship alone, are you?!” Chen shouted. The nearest sentry was fifty yards away… they surely had heard him.
“No, I am not.” replied Kay activating the fan laser. 
The ships of the Service weren’t designed for combat, particularly for the planetary one. One could listen to telephone conversations on the other side of the planet… but couldn’t scan the surroundings.
“What’s happening?” Isabelle broke into the cockpit. T/san and Sergeant Ralph Gordon were already there.
“Slaughter.” T/san turned his head, “Deputy Commander Kahl, I suppose Kay Ovald has some heavy weaponry at his disposal. I request permission to exit the ship.”
Kahl didn’t answer as she looked at the screens. The gardens of Tauri burned poorly, only plasma charges of personal ‘Cobras’ made some trees to catch in flames. Still the amount of fallen or chopped apple trees was enough to fill a formidable timber-yard.
“Have you seen the ‘Chance’ in the house?” Kahl asked.
“Yes, it was in the collection on the third floor. I presume Cadar and the bulrathi are dead.” T/san started to move towards the exit.
“Avast!”
Ralph was looking at Isabelle quizzically. His dark skin changed color to grey.
“I’m leading my men out.”
“Don’t” Kahl half asked and half ordered.
“I’m not a subordinate of yours.” Gordon didn’t try to conceal the contempt in his voice, “I am not leaving my men.”
Isabelle raised her arm and the metal gleamed from under her sleeve.
“My regards to Lemach.” she said, “Tell him we’re coming soon.”
A plasma charge from the ‘Guardian’ threw Ralph onto the floor. His hand clenched the pistol handle but he didn’t have time to take it out.
“Hhrooz.” the meklon said. His imperturbability had its limits too, it appeared.
“T/san, take Moohammadee and take care of the others.” Isabelle ordered.
“I have a right to disobey that order.” the meklon sad coldly. “Being an associated Imperial serviceman I protest against the attempt of mutiny.”
“This is not a mutiny.” Kahl lowered her hand. It was stupid to contend with the meklon having only a low-power ‘Guardian’ as a weapon, “I will present all the explanations later. Our actions would be beneficial for both Terra and Meklon.”
T/san hesitated.
“I will take the ship off and you will take care of the soldiers.” Isabelle repeated, “They all have the aThan, it’s not a murder even. We need our hands free, T/san.”
The meklon left without saying a word. 
Kay was lying in the black water of the irrigation ditch and watching the ship taking off. It stopped and hung in the air two hundred feet above him and was swaying on the orange crown of flame.
“So are you in for some ironing?” Kay asked the invisible pilot. Water could protect him against the plasma exhaust and even against the gravity strike… if somebody would be careless enough.
The cone started to shrink in the distance.
Kay Dutch lay in the ditch for several more minutes. He didn’t intend to assault the ship alone, this was too naïve. Kay was only interested in Kahl’s reaction on his attack.
The reaction was the most disappointing – she ran away. They let him know that the Service had no interest in him. They left him alive. They even ignored the seven bodies… not to mention the bulrathi and the man with the polycharger.
The blond woman from Incedios simply watched his reaction.
“You really show more interest in the process rather than the result.” Kay said as he sat on the ground, “We’re very much alike in this.”
The ‘Chance’ weighted down so he put it onto the ground. It will be found by the local Service operatives and returned to Henriette. Kay had neither time nor any reasons to wait for their appearance.

----------


## Ramil

7 
Cailis greeted Kay with a rainy and dark morning. The almost forgot how autumn looked like… only a few planets were as rich as Tauri or Terra to afford the full climate control. The passengers, scarcely thirty, were standing under the belly of the liner in expectation of the transport. The spaceport staff was unloading containers from the cargo hold not very far away from them.
“They practically spit on us.” muttered a man that was standing beside Kay, “Don’t you think?”
Kay only shrugged his shoulders.
“It is always so. Should you only take on the cargo-and-passenger flight from Tauri…”
Duch looked at the rain. Broken mirrors of puddles covered the grey concrete that stretched on to the horizon. It was damp, it looked like the rain intended to pour seriously and for a long time. The warmth that was radiated by the hot hull only made things more unpleasant.
“The imperial ship flies off only in three days and the price… Do you happen to know why did they raise the price?”
The liner soaked completely at last and small black spurts started to fall down from its sides. It looked like somebody had shut the dark curtain around them.
“I don’t know I came here incidentally.” Kay said.
“Oh don’t you know that all prices went up. For all destinations, all kinds of transfers. This is…”
“A war is coming.” Kay replied drily. The man went silent thinking it over. Then he forced a laugh:
“You’re just a pessimist! They say it is caused by the series of sabotage on the fuel refineries.”
“So that’s why I’m saying that the war is coming.” Kay explained patiently. The orange spaceport bus slowly wheeled under the liner.
“You are a pessimist.” the man repeated sadly.
“And you’re a chatterbox.” Kay took his bag and walked to the bus. He spent five days of the flight without leaving his cabin. He was feeling bad. He failed. He miserably failed as a bodyguard.
Yet, he was still not bad as a killer. 
The Taurian liner landed not in the local spaceport where Kay’s hyperboat waited for him, but in the Imperial one which had a standard design, the same for any world. Its bleak violet domes may have looked grandiloquent and old fashioned on Tauri, but they fit very well on Cailis that was muffled up in the rain.
The bus was moving across the spaceport field in sophisticated arcs driving around occasional ships. Kay was sitting beside the window and looking at a lighter that was taking off in the distance. It was old and overloaded judging by how it was gaining the altitude, slowly and heavily. The local bureaucrats seemed not to care much about the ships condition.
At least, nobody crept under the nozzles here.
The customs controls turned out to be a simple formality. A standard test for infections, a thin booklet with laws – some local additions to the Imperial Code, a declaration that permitted to have a two weeks supply of drugs for personal use and asked sternly whether he had in the luggage some mysterious ‘Angarian memorandum’ in any reproducible form.
Kay had to pay a little charge for the ‘Bumblebee’ and the ‘Convoy’ but there was no questions about the weapons. He had the impression that even if he had brought the ‘Chance’ with him they would have allow it through as well.
Cailis appeared to be a very liberal planet. Kay had noted this fact already during his previous visit here.
He had a cup of coffee in a small restaurant on the upper floor and forced himself to finish a chop of meat that reeked synthetics. He was offered several cars in the rent bureau and he chose ‘Mizan-Tornado’, and inadvertently attained sympathy from the bureau staff by doing that. ‘Mizan’ didn’t look all that luxurious but it had a powerful engine under the plastic hood and a user friendly control system that was made under the Meklon license. There were flyers for rent on the adjacent pad but Kay didn’t need to go very far. All he needed was in Angobad, the capital of Cailis. 
Narasin Hun had been working at the hotel ‘Bad weather’ for six years. It was a period long enough to learn how to select a suitable room for a new client, the most expensive one he would agree to take.
With this client, the receptionist felt neither money nor their absence. Only big trouble.
“I need your shift relief.”
“Which one?” Narasin’s desire to argue evaporated for some reason.
“Thick, about my height, with scanty beard.”
“Well…” Narasin caught the gaze of the man and went silent. The stand he was receiving clients behind was high enough and he needed only to push a button in order to raise the armored glass. But Narasin didn’t think it would help. There was a very big holster on the man’s belt and he looked like he had been breaking armored glass at morning exercises, “You must be looking for Gierge Savane?”
“You know better. Where is he?”
Narasin helplessly looked at the hotel detective. He was sitting in the far corner of the hall at the surveillance monitor and was very fascinated with the things that were taking place in some room…
“Don’t make me kill the old man,” the man said calmly, “What do you like more, three bodies including yours or the one that doesn’t concern you?”
Narasin Hun made a desperate attempt to gather all his courage.
“What are you trying to involve me into, mister? What bodies? We have greater penalties for aiding the criminals than for murder itself…”
Surprisingly, it had some effect.
“The sooner I find your shift relief the greater are his chances to survive.” the man informed calmly, “You are not in trouble yet.”
“He’s in the room one hundred seven, it’s along the corridor to the right.” Narasin made up his mind. “He’s been working all the night and now is having a rest.”
“Thank you.” the man walked away from the stand then turned around and said in a confidential tone:
“Bear in mind, I have the aThan.”
There was an old but reliable ‘Style’ laser pistol in the Narasin’s drawer, and the communicator allowed him to call to the room number one hundred seven in a matter of seconds. But he sat still eyeing the detective who was still busy peeking at someone. AThan was a very strong argument for a poor receptionist of the modest hotel. Gierge Savane had never been his friend… and it looked like he would never be. 
Kay was knocking at the door for three minutes, not very loud but monotonously. He even thought for a moment that the receptionist had lied to him.
Then the door opened.
“This is a staff only room.” said the bearded man, “What do you…”
“You’ll find out soon.” Kay said as he grasped Gierge’s pajama. There was a sound of fabric being torn as he pushed the dumbfounded receptionist in the room.
“You bastard…” Savane broke free and froze looking at Kay’s face.
“It’s me. Didn’t you recognize me?”
“Mister…” Gierge’s face displayed a whole specter of emotions, “I’m very glad… your belongings are safe… I took the liberty…”
“Oh, you’re stealing also.”
Kay hit in the receptionist’s belly understanding at the last second that he was delivering the ‘delayed’ blow of the Bulrathi. Gierge Savane was writhing on the floor, but without making any sound. The pain was very strong but he expected things much worse.
“I’m not going to beat you anymore.” Kay promised, “If you be reasonable.”
“Mister… Kay Althos?” he made a wry smile from the floor. He was an expert brawler and knew the distinction between an amateur and a professional, “This is not my fault, mister Althos. I will return all your belongings, everything!”
“Really? And what will it be?” Kay was ill at ease. He didn’t want to kill the receptionist… to kill him with the blow he learned from the alien.
“Clothing, personal items, thee hundred credits in cash, a ‘Bumblebee’, a credit card…” Savane started to jabber.
“Clothes even? What did they bury me in I wonder?”
Gierge rose carefully. He had no experience in talking to people who had undergone the aThan… The rich never stayed at ‘Bad Weather’.
“This was a tragedy for the hotel, mister Althos. It’s been nearly two years since the last murder. It was very unpleasant, believe me…”
“Stop it, guess whom do I look for?”
The receptionist started nodding.
“The boy?”
“The boy.” Kay agreed, “A nice little boy with an algopistol.”
“He escaped through the window… it’s not very high, you see…”
Kay shook his head.
“No, I don’t. I have a debtor on your worthless planet. It would be either you or the boy.”
Savane’s forehead got covered with sweat.
“I know nearly nothing, believe me! He said that he had called you up… yes, I took five credits from him but how could I know?”
“Even in this hole of yours nobody simply walks in the hotel. What documents did he show beside a fiver with the Emperor’s portrait?”
“A school ID, but I don’t remember the name.”
“And I thought you were very good at remembering names.”
Savane surrendered.
“Yes, I think I remember, it was probably a fake, but…”
“Oh, I see, you also extracted money from the boy. For your silence?” Kay Duch shook his head. “You lifted the burden from by soul, thank you. And now tell me his name.”

----------


## Ramil

8 
Tommy Arano, a student of the third round of the general educational program walked out the school. He was thirteen years old and, and according to Cailis laws, he couldn’t drive even a motorized bicycle yet. It would have been unfair to tell that Tommy grieved very much about it. He liked rain. A square of the schoolyard which had always been dusty and crowded was clean and fresh now. Lilac twilight that came after the noon heat made the loathsome school buildings look mysterious and unfamiliar.
Ahmadee, his acquaintance from the fourth round, was unlocking his bicycle on the parking lot. Having seen Tommy he waved his hand.
“Hey, hero! Need a lift?”
Tommy waggled his head. Ahmadee shrugged his shoulders and started the engine. Driving slowly past Tommy he dropped:
“You’re going to get wet.”
“No, I’m not.” Tommy replied as he pulled his hood over.
“That’s right, because I will give you a lift.” someone said behind his back. Tommy turned around. The long overcoat with a high collar and the hat that had been drawn over the eyes prevented him from recognizing the man whom he had seen only once. When he had finally remembered him, sooner by voice rather than by anything else, it was too late.
Kay Althos put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and said:
“I told you I would return, remember?”
Tommy couldn’t answer – his tongue simply failed to obey. His legs became numb too, but he managed to remain on his feet. His worst nightmares were becoming real. The man he had killed returned to life and came back to revenge.
“Let me have you hand.” Althos said. Tommy raised his hand numbly and Althos snapped a wide bracelet over it beside the cheap electronic watch. Then he demonstrated his wrist with an identical bracelet.
“These are linked power handcuffs. We are now inseparable, understood?”
Tommy didn’t reply and Kay started to rummage through the boy’s clothes with slow and skilful moves. Then he inspected the contents of his bag.
A car that was driving by slowed down. The window lowered slowly and Daniar Vasade, the teacher of ancient history, stared his myopic eyes at his best pupil.
“Tommy, is everything all right?”
Althos slowly took the gun from his pocket and aimed it at Vasade’s forehead saying:
“Everything is perfect. You will go home and live a long a happy life.”
The struggle in the teacher’s soul continued for several seconds and Kay considered him a very courageous person.
“I’m sorry.” Vasade said either to Kay or to the boy as he averted his eyes from Tommy’s pale face. The window went up and the car increased the speed.
“When we’re speaking about life and death, kid” Kay said thoughtfully, “your friends decrease in numbers. Without mentioning the acquaintances. Their quantity becomes even less than zero.”
He made a few steps as if he had forgotten about Tommy. A jerk of the power bracelet threw the boy onto his knees, onto wet and rough stones of the pavement.
“Wake up.” Kay said and moved his hand forcing Tommy onto his feet by pulling the invisible chain of the force field, “Isn’t it frustrating to be someone’s marionette?”
The jerk has made the hood to fall down from the boy’s head and now the rain was pouring onto his face. He was glad at that… he didn’t like to cry. Kay Althos put his hands in his pockets and looked at him.
“I have been somebody else’s jumping Jack too, but decided to open a theater of my own,” he informed cryptically, “You’re going to be a leading actor in it.”
He started walking away from the school again and this time Tommy ran after him. The bracelet on his wrist was warm, nearly hot, but he wasn’t happy about this warmth.
Luck smiled at Tommy Arano beyond the school campus, where rows of featureless apartment buildings stretched along the roadway. Even the rain didn’t make them look any better. A dozen of motorcycles were roaring on the parking lot where Kay had left his ‘Mizan-Tornado’. Rays of headlamps were idly crawling in the darkness and made the raindrops sparkle in their light.
“Guys!” Tommy shouted. The headlamps turned at them flooding them with iridescent light.
“Stupid.”, Kay said as he stopped, “But I’m glad you didn’t become completely numb.”
They were approached slowly by someone who tried very hard not to get in the circle of light. A hoarse cracking voice asked:
“Do you have any problems with this man, hero?”
Kay suddenly grinned and said confidently to Tommy:
“I bet I know where this nickname came from…”
The boy didn’t answer. He immediately understood that he had just made a mistake. Althos stepped into the darkness.
“Remain where you are!” shouted a boyish falsetto. Kay stopped and said in a good-natured voice:
“He’s got problems, kids. But these are only his problems.”
“You’re wrong.” replied the owner of the cracking voice, “you are now the only one with problems. Tommy, come here!”
“Explain to them.” Kay asked.
Tommy Arano raised his hand. The darkness replied with many-voiced swearing at the sight of powered handcuffs. Generally, this was the effect Kay wanted to produce.
“Guys…” Tommy was squinting helplessly in the light being as much blinded as Kay was, “He is that man whom… whom… he had the aThan!”
Kay started to move. He didn’t expect that mentioning of his aThan would stop the teenagers. He only needed a moment of confusion.
The rest was simply a matter of skill. He was constrained by Tommy who was chained to his right hand but even a full loss of his one arm didn’t make the professional of his class ineffective. Kay Duch, a super from Shedar II spent less than a second to accommodate his sight then he simply moved silently through the darkness.
There were seventeen of them – many motorcycles carried more than one rider this night. There were three girls and two boys in the age of ten – Kay didn’t beat them even, he simply hurled them away. Too hardly perhaps since they didn’t try to rise. But two teenagers with hand lasers who made futile attempts to take an aim in the darkness left Kay little choice.
Tommy was dragged behind him in the dirt like an anchor, unusual but hardly effective. Kay moved through the weak bodies too fast. He was breaking hands with clenched knuckle-dusters, stabbing the boys onto their own knives, and blocking occasional awkward blows. The two older ones with the guns, about seventeen years old, fell before they could shoot. Kay knocked them senseless in a manner that might even appear sparing.
A boy of Tommy’s age carrying a gravity baton was the last of them. He was turning around, maddened by what was happening seeing nothing already. Kay simply walked to him took him by his thin hand with the weapon clenched in it and hit the boy with his own baton.
The night was crying, weeping and groaning with voices of the children. Kay raised Tommy by his collar and shouted:
“See what you’ve done.”
The boy didn’t answer as he was chocking with tears which Artur Curtis had never been capable of. Kay ducked him into the car, wet and dirty from feet to ears, and started the engine. The cries remained behind and the only sounds heard were Tommy’s sobbing on the back seat.
“You bastard, animal, bastard…”
Kay ignored him completely. He dialed a two-digit number on the keyboard and said quickly:
“An educational center number seventeen, at the exit. A street bovver, many injured, send intensive care units.”
“Who’s speaking?” the dispatcher didn’t sound very shocked.
“A witness.” growled Kay and disconnected. He cast a glance at Tommy and added: “A happenstance witness.”

----------


## kahless

concerning part 9 
second sentence, _lampshade_ is one word.
I would rewrite this ....  

> Its walls were covered with wallpapers, the only window was ajar and cool wind was blowing into

 .
The walls were wallpapered with an intricate floral pattern, (or some kind of description of pattern or color.) and a cool breeze was blowing through the room's only window.  
I would rewrite,  

> He looked at the dark-green foliage, at some fruits that resembled apples, at the yellow sunlight that penetrated the branches

 The yellow sunlight penetrated the branches. He looked at some fruits that resembled apples in the dark-green foliage.  
punctuation...  

> What can I say if you’ve gotten out of the collector?!

  Using a question mark and a exclamation point is not correct. use either one or the other.  
I would rewrite  

> "We’ve also collected much plankton this season!”

 "We've also had a great plankton harvest this season."   

> We swept the sea bed too.

 We swept the seabed, too.  seabed one word, need comma.   

> it looks like bugs but they live in the water.

 it looks like bugs, but they live in the water.   (comma) 
I would rewrite...  

> “I’m sorry, but it’s time for having some food”, Kay said in unexpectedly strict voice, “my faith doesn’t permit me to commit this shameful act in the presence of strangers.”

 "I'm sorry, but it is time to eat. My faith doesn’t permit me to commit this shameful act in the presence of strangers," Kay said in unexpectedly strict voice. 
I would also rewrite.  

> “Uh… well, have a good appetite.”

 “Uh… well, have a nice lunch.” 
also   

> “Humiliation cannot be good” Kay informed sadly.

 “Humiliation can't be good” Kay remarked sadly. 
punctuation  

> If your kid’s illness persists rub his skin with vinegar.

 If your kid’s illness persists, rub his skin with vinegar.   

> An obstetrician, sonny.

  If Sonny is a man's name is should be capitalized. If he is being referred to as sonny, a little boy, then it is probably ok to be lower case. 
I would rewrite  

> Tauri as intended. The main supplier of fruits in this sector.

 In Tauri as intended. Tauri is the main supplier of fruits in this sector.   

> Then he’s permitted to eat the remnants, not disregarding the bony pieces…”

 Then he’s permitted to eat the remnants, as long as he doesn't ignore the bony pieces.  _He was even ready not to disregard the bony pieces._
He had no intention of ignoring the bony pieces. He was very hungry, and had eaten much worse. 
( I used a little literary license there. You might add something about the real nasty things he may have eaten during hard times like, grubs, locusts, snake or any such thing to emphasize that eating bony fish is no big deal)     

> They ate fast tearing the fresh bread

 They ate fast, tearing the fresh bread  (comma) 
finished with #9 
Lampada asked me to look at this. I'll look at more later.
Kahless

----------


## kahless

#10  

> . It took him half an hour, so now he knew something about his temporary homeworld.

 _homeworld_ is two words, _home world_   

> Being members of the Tripartite Alliance they had been granted the right to live on the Human worlds

 rewrite (Being members of the Tripartite Alliance, they had been granted the right to live on the Human worlds)   

> During thousands of years of artificial evolution these cyborgs preserved their semblance with six foot lizards.

 rewrite (During thousands of years of artificial evolution, these cyborgs still resembled six-foot lizards.)   

> They looked ridiculously on the snow and their noticeable nervousness in near the cold water stirred involuntary feeling of pity for them.

 rewrite (They looked ridiculous on the snow to Arthur, and their noticeable nervousness near the cold water involuntarily caused him to feel pity for them.)   

> By replacing their mechanical parts with ones of imperial manufacture they intended to become one with the Humans

 rewrite (By replacing their mechanical parts with ones of imperial manufacture, they intended to become one with the Humans.)   

> From Kay’s room he could see not only the infinite garden but also the flickering barrier around the compensation zone.

 rewrite (From Kay’s room he could see not only the infinite garden, but also the flickering barrier around the compensation zone.   

> It was a short moment for freezing Arthur, but it must have been infinite hours for Kay.

 rewrite (It was a short moment for freezing Arthur, but it must have been an eternity for Kay.)  

> He also remembered Kay’s swearing, confused faces, injections, a bathtub with regenerative gel

 rewrite (He also remembered Kay’s swearing, confused face, injections, a bathtub with regenerative gel)   

> Her grey hair which was too lush to be real was decorated by a coquettish flower.

 rewrite (Her grey hair, which was too lush to be real was decorated by a coquettish flower.)  

> If you get hungry I’ll be on the third floor

 rewrite (If you get hungry, I’ll be on the third floor.)   

> “I’m sorry, auntie Fiscallocci, can I go for a walk?” quickly asked Arthur.

 rewrite (“I’m sorry, auntie Fiscallocci, may I go for a walk?” Arthur quickly asked .   

> Pull some fruits

  rewrite (Pick some fruits)  

> You haven’t tasted them when they are right from the branch, have you?

 rewrite (I'll bet you haven't tasted the fruit picked fresh from the branch.)   

> Henriette Fiscallocci left muttering something. Arthur gloomily watched her go

 Henriette Fiscallocci left muttering something and Arthur was left with a feeling of apprehension.   

> Firstly, the fact that the old woman didn’t attack the new helpless listener with her talks of the gardens of Tauri.

 First of all, the fact that the old woman didn’t attack the new helpless listener with her talks of the gardens of Tauri. 
(Firstly, secondly, etc.. are obsolete usages)   

> The second thing was her mentioning of the ‘Needle’.

 Second was her mentioning the 'Needle'.  

> During the time when he had not yet begun his travels to Graal he collected models of old ships.

 He collected models of old ships before his travels to Graal.   

> Astonishingly beautiful and even more fragile the ‘Needle’ class small reconnaissance boats had never been in service in the Imperial assault units.

 Astonishingly beautiful and even more fragile, the ‘Needle’ class small reconnaissance boats had never seen service as imperial assault units.   

> It still held the shape of Kay’s body and it started to shrink on his shoulders adjusting to the boy’s figure.

 It still held the shape of Kay’s body and it started to shift on his shoulders, adjusting to his boyish figure.

----------


## Ramil

Well, I think that soon I will be able to continue my translation. It's been too much work to do. So if anyone cares, this translation will be definetely continued.
It would be a shame to give it up when more than half of it has already been done. 
But for now, I have some questions:
I need an idiom, as close as possible for "Армия сожрёт нас с дерьмом" (Literally: The Army will eat us with our sh@t) 
And kahless, about picking apples from the branch. There were two options before Arthur - to pick them from the ground or from the branch. In Russian, different verbs are used. Is there any way to express that difference in English? 
Another questions about floors.
It is unclear to me how should I number the floors in a house. In Russian, the first floor means the ground floor (standing on the ground). The second floor is immediately above the ground (first) floor. So imagine there is a three storey house. What would be the numbers of each floor? The first floor, the second floor and the third floor or the ground floor, the first floor, and the second floor? 
The next question is about the best way to translate "Имперский десант". This question is indended more for Russian speakers that know English well enough to understand my problem. I chose to write 'Imperial assault units' but I don't like it all that much. 
And one more thing:  

> Originally Posted by Ramil  It still held the shape of Kay’s body and it started to shrink on his shoulders adjusting to the boy’s figure.   It still held the shape of Kay’s body and it started to shift on his shoulders, adjusting to his boyish figure.

 It shrunk. Kay is bigger than Arthur so when Arthur put it on after Kay it shrunk.

----------


## kahless

Hi Ramil  
In English, if you take a fruit from the tree, you are picking it. We even call the migrant workers who pick the fruit 'fruit pickers'.
If we picked it up off the ground, we would call it 'picking it up'. 
sh@t, I assume this means dung? If this is so, I need a broader description of what the proverb means. as such, it makes no sense to me. 
We would call the first floor of the house, the first floor. Second floor, third floor and so on. When you refer to how many floors in a house, you would say it is a 3 story house. 
I rewrote the 'Imperial assault units sentence for you for grammatical smoothness, but as a military term, it should be changed. I have to go to work now, so I'll continue later. 
The thing about Kay's jacket is I was struggling to come up with something other than 'shrink', which my solution did not satisfy me, and I was going to look at it again anyway. 
Take a look at what I did this morning about the bony pieces of fish in part 8, and let me know what you think. 
Later

----------


## translationsnmru

> The next question is about the best way to translate "Имперский десант". This question is indended more for Russian speakers that know English well enough to understand my problem. I chose to write 'Imperial assault units' but I don't like it all that much.

 Imperial (space) marines? 
Or, perhaps, "Imperial commandos."

----------


## kahless

Ships are also called vessels in English, a small group of ships or space vessels is called a squadron, and a large group of ships is called a fleet. This is true for both air and sea groups, and I believe this also bears true with science fiction space units. Star Trek calls the enterprise a spaceship, and I have heard them refer to a large group of spaceships as a fleet. 
thanx

----------


## Ramil

I saw what you've suggested about bony pieces. The general idea it to express the intentional awkwardness of the phrase in the original text:  _Затем позволяется доесть остатки,  не пренебрегая костистыми кусками...
     Кертис послушно встал за спиной Кея. Ему было хорошо. Он  даже  готов
был не пренебречь костистыми кусками._ 
Kay was mocking Arthur and quoted some homily for the young people of Maretta  :: 
And Arthur felt so good that he was even going to play along. 
About 'dung'  :: 
It's something like '_The Army's going to eat us for breakfast_' (for the things we've done) but ruder.

----------


## kahless

The Army will have our a$$ on a platter.  (is that crude enough?)   ::    

> And Arthur felt so good that he was even going to play along.

 rule of thumb...Don't start a sentence with the word _and_, either lose it or add a comma to the preceding sentence instead of a period. 
I forgot _rule of thumb_ is something that is an established  rule or law. it comes from the Old English idea that you shouldn't beat your wife with a stick thicker than your thumb. rule of thumb   ::

----------


## kahless

chap 11   

> The whole house was made out of wood – all three storeys of it.

 msp, should be stories   

> Any man of Terran origin would be amazed at that but Arthur Curtis had seen even greater a luxury.

 Any man of Terran origin would be amazed at that, but Arthur Curtis had seen more luxurious homes than this.   

> He came down to the ground floor into the roomy hall.

 He climbed down the stairs to the ground floor and walked into the spacious hall.   

> There were nobody there, the Henriette’s husband, apparently, was very enthusiastic about his work… or the company that gathered in the climate control facility

 There were nobody there. Henriette’s husband apparently was very enthusiastic about his work, or the company that gathered in the climate control facility.   

> One wide and low armchair was occupied by a dozing black cat.

  A dozing black cat occupied one wide and low armchair.    

> In reply to Arthur’s quiet ‘pss, pss, pss kitty’ it rewarded Arthur with only a contemptuous gaze.

 Arthur awoke the cat, quietly whispering ‘pss, pss, pss kitty’, only to be rewarded with a contemptuous gaze.
Remember, the cat was dozing so how could it gaze at you?    

> Only the latest issue of the ‘Imperial military digest’ that was looking out from under ‘The Gossiper’ was falling out of the grand picture

 Only the latest issue of the ‘Imperial Military Digest’, that was looking out from under ‘The Gossiper’, looked out of place in the grand picture.   

> Arthur wanted to browse through the magazine but he felt shy of this desire for some reason.

 Arthur wanted to browse through the magazine but felt awkward about it for some reason he did not understand.   

> He judged that he would certainly have the time for it later.

 He decided that he would certainly have the time to satisfy his curiosity later.   

> He judged that he would certainly have the time for it later. Arthur opened the door (unlocked!) and exited the house.
> And in the next moment he was in the middle of an infinite garden.

 Arthur tried the front door's handle and found it unlocked, discovering his exit was an entrance to a very large garden.
infinite means _without end or measure_, a garden would not be infinite.   

> It had a soft climate, fertile soil, numerous calm rivers and small lakes, and two not very big oceans.

  It had a mild climate, fertile soil, numerous calm rivers and small lakes and two small oceans. 
Now I thought I would discuss the last comma I removed. In writing, when you have several items in one sentence separated by commas, the last segment beginning with _and_, is called an Oxford comma.
example...  I have given you my horse, cows, pig, and now my money.
the comma after pig is unnecessary. (I had an author friend teach me about that. i took my manuscript apart and removed them all)   

> The planet was colonized shortly after the Feud War by hundreds of millions discharged veterans.
> The planet was colonized shortly after the Feud War by hundreds of millions of discharged veterans.

  

> no world participated so little in the empire-wide projects and paid taxes this small.

 no world participated so little in the empire-wide projects and paid lower taxes.   

> Arthur walked along the path that was paved with stones by the flower-beds with unfamiliar flowers and looked over at the house.

 Arthur walked along the path that was paved with stones by the flowerbeds with unfamiliar flowers and looked over at the house.   

> There were no sounds except slight rustling of leaves.

 There were no sounds except the slight rustling of leaves.    

> It sooner expressed some envy of adventure that fell on him so he didn’t argue.

 She seemed to be in envy of his adventure, so he didn't argue.   

> Then having made up her mind she tossed her fringe,

 Then having made up her mind she tossed her bangs,
('fringe' is correct, of course, but it is one of the latest hairstyles and I believe only fashion conscious  women who understand what you are saying. Men would go huh?) Keep in mind, very few women read military oriented science fiction, and fringe is a type of bangs.  

> He wasn’t afraid of a probable trap – the girl didn’t look dangerous and Kay was quite sure in his safety too.

 He wasn’t afraid of a probable trap – the girl didn’t look dangerous and Kay was quite sure he was safe, too.   

> Arthur simply had a formidable experience of excursions with his female coevals.

 Arthur simply had some clumsy past experiences of excursions with his female coevals. 
(I think this is what you mean, I didn't use awkward in this sentence, because you use it in the next)   

> Usually he had to listen to a boring nonsense about local points of interest and, not too infrequently, to answer an awkward and slobbery kiss.

 Usually he had to listen to some boring nonsense about local points of interest and not too infrequently, to answer with an awkward and slobbery kiss.   

> Rachel led him finding her way by some sixth sense. In a couple of minutes all directions disappeared for Arthur.

 Rachel led him finding her way by some sort of sixth sense. In a couple of minutes Arthur lost all sense of direction.   

> All that remained was the blue sky above his head like on Terra, the equally spaced trees and the ground which was soft due to leaves that had been falling on it for centuries.

 . All that remained was the blue sky above his head, which reminded him of Terra.  The equally spaced trees and the ground he was standing on was soft, due to the decaying leaves that had been falling on it for centuries.    

> And there was silence, silence from everywhere, even rustling of the grass under his feet was sharp to his ear.

 The silence was so thick, he could hear his heartbeat; even the rustling of the grass under his feet sounded loud to his ear.  

> “Did they permit you to pluck the fruits?”

 “Did they permit you to pick the fruits?”
Pluck may be correct meaning, but in English it is more natural sounding to pick the fruit.   

> “Pluck me an apple. That yellow one.”

 same   

> Arthur jumped up bending down the twig, broke the flexible stalk and silently handed the apple to the girl.

 Arthur jumped up, and bending down the twig, broke the flexible stalk and silently handed the apple to the girl.   

> “It is not customary to pluck anything without permission in other’s gardens.”

 “It is not customary to pick anything without permission in other people's gardens.”   

> Rachel informed ignoring his tone.

 Rachel informed him, ignoring his tone.   

> “I wanted to swim.” she said, “but I can’t swim alone.

 “I wanted to swim,” she said, “but I can’t swim alone.   

> It finally came to Arthur what was that disk that hung on the girl’s shoulder.

  Arthur finally realized what the disk that hung on the girl’s shoulder was.   

> If a button on a handle was pressed an invisible and ultra-strong force field pulled a man towards it.

 If a button on a handle was pressed, an invisible and ultra-strong force field pulled a man towards it.   

> "I do.” admitted Arthur gloomily.

 "I do,” admitted Arthur gloomily.     

> Descendants of the Feud War heroes must have degenerated pretty well if they didn’t swim without a ‘leash’ on their cozy planet.

 Descendants of the Feud War heroes must have become soft, if they didn’t swim without a ‘leash’ on their cozy planet.   

> “Don’t let me down.” Rachel said seriously, taking off her t-shirt on the move

 “Don’t let me down," Rachel said seriously, taking off her t-shirt on the move.  

> They came onto the river and Arthur froze.

 They came to the river and Arthur froze.   

> Thirty feet below them, spreading icy chill around, there raged a swirling and seething flow.

 Thirty feet below them, there raged a swirling and seething flow spreading its icy chill.   

> “There’s little water today.” Rachel said with concern,

 “There’s little water today,” Rachel said with concern.   

> Other channels appeared from below the ground fifty yards away around that point resembling blue spokes of a huge wheel.

 Other channels appeared from below the ground fifty yards away from that point, resembling blue spokes of a huge wheel.   

> The channels stretched far to disappear in the gardens.

 The channels stretched far, disappearing into the gardens.   

> “Attach the carbine” Rachel asked turning her back on him.

 “Attach the carbine” Rachel asked, turning her back on him.   

> Arthur pulled the tie “Are you sure it will hold?”

 Arthur pulled the tie. “Are you sure it will hold?”  

> I’ll try to make it to the shoal, but if I get into the whirlpool then activate it.

 I’ll try to make it to the shoal, but if I get into the whirlpool, then activate it.   

> … Rachel had gotten completely dry by the time Arthur carefully descended down the concrete plates.

 Rachel was completely dry by the time Arthur carefully descended down the concrete plates.   

> “I haven’t gotten around into getting acquainted with him yet."

 “I haven’t gotten around to getting acquainted with him yet.  

> “I could borrow you my

 “I could loan you my   

> Finally they decided that the belt from his jeans, if goodly tightened on his chest, would hold the pulling of the ‘leash’.

 Finally they decided that the belt from his jeans, if securely tightened on his chest, would hold his weight when the 'leash' was pulled.   

> “Will you bag some rays?” she asked.

 I can only guess what you mean.  Does _bag some rays_ mean something about getting some sun exposure? If it does, perhaps, _Will you get a tan?_
would work

----------


## Ramil

9 
Kahl idly stretched herself and pulled the blanket over. Then she looked mockingly at Nomachi.
“You are out of your mind.” he said.
“My, my…” Isabelle smacked he lips, “Emotions... from you, my reserved friend?”
“Kahl, the army will have our ass on a platter. You finished off the troopers… dear gods, they all have the aThan… and we go into Lemach’s lair after that?
“Now he will take us more seriously. I talked to him and he agreed to wait for explanations.”
“What explanations? Whatever for? We’ve got Curtis’s son! Let’s head to Terra, to Endoria, to any large center…” Luis rose from the bed and walked down the cabin. Kahl made a face, but he didn’t notice her reaction on his nakedness. Let’s report everything, deliver the boy and they will take us out of trouble… Kahl, you have a right to report directly to the Emperor! This is even better! We’re not going to remain without medals.”
“Stick that medal into your fat ass,” Kahl said, “or put on some clothes at least. A title of deputy commander on some wild planet is all you have been dreaming of?”
“Well, yes, for the time being!” Luis proudly raised his chin and reached for his clothing. “Afterwards, we’ll see.”
“You’re a fool!” Kahl sat on a bed. “The emperor is on good terms with Curtis, forcedly of course. He wouldn’t risk everything. Still, if we break the boy ourselves, if aThan becomes a government’s monopoly then what would remain of Curtis senior? Zero.”
“Why do we need Lemach?” Nomachi exclaimed hysterically.
“The boy endured the ‘Three A’ class interrogation without making a sound. The truth serum decomposed in his blood in four seconds, the neural suppression caused him simply to fall asleep. We can only kill him, but nothing more.”
“And Lemach?”
“The army has its own laboratories, its own espionage and interrogation school. Together we might be able to break the boy. It’s better to share the rewards between the three of us than penal servitude between you and me.”
Nomachi sniffed resembling a fat and nasty kid. Then he inquired:
“Why three of us? Marjan, T/san…”
“They are pawns. They’re going to get either promotion or reprimand. We are the only ones who takes risk, Luis, only we! But we will be the first to skim the cream off also.
Nomachi nodded doubtfully.
“Well, we’ll risk it. Once we started.”
Kahl suppressed the urge to break her lover’s neck. It carried too little of value anyway. 
Arthur woke up when Kahl entered his cell.
“Hi,” the woman said, “you don’t look bad.”
Curtis junior made no reply.
“You are well prepared,” Kahl continued. “You ignore pain, some strange things happen to drugs in your blood. Is it some kind of immunity that had been introduced even before the aThan?”
Arthur didn’t answer. It weren’t narcoprotectors since they could inhibit the tissue growth in a child’s organism. Instead, symbiont bacteria circulated in his blood that gladly consumed any foreign chemical preparation, even the bioterminator toxin. But Arthur had no intention to share even this little secret of the aThan empire.
“What are we going to do with you?” Kahl lowered the toilet lid and sat on it, “Maybe you will tell me.”
The boy closed his eyes.
“I could permit you to take a shower. You could wash off the blood and relax.”
“Are there any cameras in the shower?” Arthur answered with a question. “It amused me back on Incedios.”
Kahl felt spitted over. It was worse, the boy managed to knock her off balance. It took her several second to relax her throat and reply in a calm voice.
“Of course there are.”
“Thanks, I’ll think of it. You can play the old tapes meanwhile.”
Kahl stood up. She wanted to hit the boy, but it was simply absurd after all Marjan had been doing to him.”
“You will regret it.” she whispered, “We’re going to shake everything out of you… everything…”
“You’re and old and sick psycho,” Arthur said, “even the mechanist is more human than you.”
When Mookhamadee saw Kahl, she didn’t require her enhanced sensors to perceive Kahl’s fury.
“Go to the brat.” Isabelle ordered, “Three B.”
“It’s pointless,” Marjan said as she was rising from the floor. She had been talking to the meklon who, like an ugly Cerberus, was lying in the corridor near the interrogation chamber, “Request permission to apply ‘Three C’ or go straight to crippling methods.”
“I make decisions here!” Kahl shouted. “We have another three days to Laan and the intensity should be increased gradually.”
She didn’t even notice that she was explaining things before the mechanist. Marjan inclined her head.
“Three B, deputy commander.”
When women left, Marjan to the boy’s chamber and Kalh to the Luis’s cabin, the meklon said aloud:
“Why not kill him? The effect would be the same.”
He burst into cracking laughter. T/san was proud of the fact that he managed to develop a genuine Human sense of humor.

----------


## Ramil

10 
“Was it painful to die?” Tommy asked. Kay cast a sidelong look at him as he continued to drive the car.
“Haven’t you noticed?”
The boy continued to screw up his courage. A strange reckless feeling came over him, the same feeling often comes to adults when they face death, but it seldom visits children.
“I did. You squealed like a wounded gayal, even worse.”
“Very funny.” Kay agreed, “Your voice would hardly be any louder.”
The center of Anglobad remained behind. Soon, ugly hovels of the suburbs also disappeared. Time after time they encountered high fences of mansions that stretched along the road that greeted them with warmth of their windows. Tommy looked at them in melancholy. ‘Mizan’ went at full speed sometimes taking over the control so delicately as if it was Kay who managed all the difficulties of the dark and wet road.
“Rented a house in the suburb?” Tommy asked. Althos didn’t answer and the boy carefully moved a little bit forward.
“I wouldn’t.” Kay said without turning back, “You have admitted once that you wouldn’t be able to strangle me.”
The rain continued pouring eliminating the last remnants of the daylight. Tommy huddled on the back seat and looked at the back of Althos’s head. If only he had something heavier than the folder with writing books he would have risked it.
“I thought you were lying about the aThan.” he confessed suddenly, “It often happens in movies… some bandit spreads rumors that he has the aThan and everybody is afraid of him.”
“Life is not a movie. It’s far worse, kid.”
“Anyway, I don’t have any regrets. I avenged Lena. And somebody will avenge me.”
“Probably.”
Tommy shivered.
“Why did you call the police? You don’t like children. And they did tell it on TV that you were a hired killer with sadistic instincts.”
“They tried to stand for a stupid friend. This deserves respect, doesn’t it? We have arrived, by the way.”
The car slowed down as it approached a concrete wall. A symbolic height of the fence was compensated by the force field emitters that were installed along the wall. Long rows of hangars stretched behind it. Protection was disabled since it used too much energy when it was raining even in the stand-by mode. Kay stopped the car near the crossing point. The transparent box was shielded even now.
“I’m going to scream” Tommy said quickly.
“Go ahead.” Kay agreed and turned on the intercom.
“You are entering the restricted zone of the Cailis spaceport.” someone’s bored voice said, “What is the purpose of your visit?”
“Help!” Tommy shouted. Kay ignored it and said:
“My vessel is on the seventeenth landing pad.”
“Primary control?”
“Help, he’s going to kill me!” Tommy shouted again.
“Domino, thirty, alpha, seven.” Kay dictated.
“Thank you for using our service.” the guard replied. “Follow the light.”
“Help… please…” whispered the boy. Kay switched off the intercom and drove the car through the opened gates. Then he said:
“Cold… rain… no need for an inspection… The car’s intercom is set to recognize my voice only, you fool. It filters other sounds out.”
The car slowly crawled by the hangars following the orange spotlight. Tommy didn’t say anything.
“I’ve already contrabanded one guy this way.” Kay informed, “He caused me some big trouble and wounded my client. I’m not a killer, I am a bodyguard. They’re different things… Well, I fixed this guy under the nozzles and took off.”
The boy made a sobbing sound.
“Don’t be afraid, your fate is far more interesting.” Kay said.
Kay dictated another code near the seventeenth hangar, this time to an automat. Wide doors opened and the car drove in. The hangar illuminated.
“We’re almost home.” Kay said and settled back in his seat. He realized that he missed his hyperboat.
Hyperboats appeared about ten years ago with the invention of the Reajax drive that didn’t require so much space as did cheaper interphased drives. Kay’s boat had already become somewhat obsolete during the past years but she was a solid model that came down from an Endorian shipyard, one of the best in the Empire. Its living module, a thirty foot oval, was attached to the engine, a sphere of a somewhat lesser diameter, by means of two lattice trusses. The cylinder of the quark reactor was placed between them. Some people painted their hyperboats in their planetary colors or an imperial bicolor. Kay preferred simple colors – gray and black. But they were applied under guidance of an experienced designer so that this peaceful vessel resembled a military ship.
“Hi, guy…” Kay said as he lowered the window.
“Hi, stranger.” the ship responded with a low contralto. “You look like my owner.”
“It’s me.” Kay replied.
“No kidding?” the voice rose assuming intonations of a quarrelsome wife.
“No kidding!”
“Maybe you can also tell me the password?” the ship inquired insinuatingly.
“Easy meat!”
“All right, come in, you old tramp.” the boat agreed in a clear lyrical soprano. A landing bridge appeared from the living module.
Kay opened the door and proudly said:
“It should sing in ‘Aida’, don’t you think? Its voice was tuned by a former singer… just for love of the game.”
The boy wasn’t able to appreciate the vocal talents of the hyberboat at the moment. He got out of the car and looked around helplessly. The hangar was empty, only a distribution terminal loomed in one corner. The hoses and cables were carefully rolled but the control panel was illuminated. There must be a telephone there but the handcuffs eliminated all opportunities to get there.
“Wake up.” Kay said as he headed towards the landing bridge.
“Should I let the boy in too?” inquired the hyperboat.
“It appears so…”
“It’s not like I am looking forward to it very much.” Tommy said in his last seizure of bravery. Kay roared with laughter.
Compared to the living module of the freighter, the hyperboat was the pinnacle of comfort and coziness, but Tommy, unlike Arthur, couldn’t appreciate that. The cabin could sooner suit an average liner rather than this tiny vessel. There was a soft carpet on the floor, armchairs, cut-glass ware in the dark-wooden cupboard, and a couple of fragile tables. One of them even had faded flowers in a vase.
“You’ve been away a long time.” informed the ship when Kay cast a disapproving glance at the posy, “By the way, the local news told that you’ve been murdered.”
“Well, it’s not the first time.” Kay took the posy from the vase and deposited it in a ceramic vessel on the floor. The vessel made a rumbling sound.
“And they also said that the murderer was a boy about thirteen years old, just the same age as our guest here, as I understand.”
“If only it wasn’t me who tuned up your logic I would have considered you intelligent.” Kay said.
“Thank you.” the ship replied drily, having changed its coloratura to baritone.
Kay looked at Tommy who was standing by the exit and helplessly picking at the handcuffs. Kay sighed and undone its part of the handcuffs. The bracelet on Tommy’s hand clicked and fell down. The boy shivered.
“What are we going to do with you… little murderer?” Kay asked, “Should I push you slowly into the recycler, stick you under the nozzles, cut you to pieces, expose you under the algopistol beam or simply spank you?”
Tommy’s lips began to tremble, he began to cry.
“Oh,” Kay said, disappointed, “Too many oxygen planets for a silicoid…”
“What… what do you want?”
“Go to that door, there is a shower there. Wash yourself, I feel sick just looking at you… all dirt and snivel…”
“Why?”
“I prefer killing freshly washed children.” Kay said, “Sometimes I even feed them. Go, put your clothes into the cleaning unit, they will be clean in ten minutes.”
He turned and walked through a door that opened before him into a small cockpit that was illuminated with lights of awakening control panels.

----------


## kahless

12  

> Formally, it was a free zone of space.

 Formerly, this sector of space was a free zone.   

> Beyond the Silac star system Terran ships could be attacked by the Silicoids… but their mere presence here wasn’t a hostile act.

 Beyond the Silac star system, Terran ships could be attacked by the Silicoids, but their mere presence here wasn’t a hostile act.   

> The Silicoids paid no attention to the unwanted guests as yet.

 So far, the Silicoids paid no attention to the unwanted guests.   

> “The armada is regrouping.” reported the captain of the ‘Persecutor’, “They are redirecting ships to different bases… which one should we follow?”

 “The armada is regrouping,” reported the captain of the ‘Persecutor’. “They are redirecting ships to different bases. Which one should we follow?”   

> “Are there all of them here?” Kahl asked.

 what are they referring to as '_all of them_' can't fix the grammar if I don't know who all of them is.   

> the captain started to lose his temper.

 The captain started to lose his temper.   

> What could she do if no communications were possible in the hyperspace?!

 What could she do if no communications were possible in hyperspace?   

> Let the time had been lost!

 Unsure what is being said here. Possible correction...
Too much time had already been lost.   

> She will catch him… the boy that knows too much

 .
She will catch him… that boy knows too much.   

> Neither her subordinates nor the troopers showed any surprise when the three ships had entered the hyperspace again

 . 
Neither her subordinates nor the troopers showed any surprise when the three ships had entered hyperspace again.    

> They were beginning getting used to the pursuit for the sake of pursuit itself.

 This is not really wrong, but try this...
They were beginning getting used to the chase for the thrill of the chase itself.   

> Kay came to the house whistling out of tune a melody which only a native of Shedar the Second would recognize.

 Kay came to the house whistling a tune which only a native of Shedar the Second would recognize.    

> He usually remembered his homeworld only in big trouble.

 Not sure what you mean here. Do you mean that he only remembered his home world when he was in big trouble, or he remembered his home word when it was in big trouble?  _ home world_ is two words

----------


## Ramil

> 12    
> 			
> 				Formally, it was a free zone of space.
> 			
> 		  Formerly, this sector of space was a free zone.

 It's formally... or technically.    

> “Are there all of them here?” Kahl asked.
> 			
> 		  what are they referring to as '_all of them_' can't fix the grammar if I don't know who all of them is.

 All of the ships. They were after the Silicoid armada.     

> Let the time had been lost!
> 			
> 		  Unsure what is being said here. Possible correction...
> Too much time had already been lost.

 Let = Пусть. She acceted the loss of time, still hoping to catch up with Kay and Arthur. 
Here: _Ни одним словам она не выразила эмоций. Потеряно  время?  Пусть._   

> She will catch him… the boy that knows too much
> 			
> 		  .
> She will catch him… that boy knows too much.

 Hmmm, the original says:
Она схватит  его... мальчика, *который* знает слишком много. 
Literally:
She will catch him... the boy *that* knows too much.   

> Kay came to the house whistling out of tune a melody which only a native of Shedar the Second would recognize.
> 			
> 		  Kay came to the house whistling a tune which only a native of Shedar the Second would recognize.

 here 'whistling out of tune' = whistling badly (off pitch).   

> He usually remembered his homeworld only in big trouble.
> 			
> 		  Not sure what you mean here. Do you mean that he only remembered his home world when he was in big trouble, or he remembered his home word when it was in big trouble?  _ home world_ is two words

 It was a kind of superstition. Any time he remembered his home world it was a sign of trouble coming.

----------


## alexB

> “Are [snt6ygzk]there[/snt6ygzk] all of them here?” Kahl asked.

----------


## kahless

Then...  

> He usually remembered his homeworld only in big trouble.

 would best be, "Any time he remembered his home world, big trouble was coming."   

> “Are there all of them here?” Kahl asked.

 Are all of them here? I agree with AlexB   

> Formally, this sector of space was a free zone.

 I rechecked my dictionary and _formally_ is ok, but for smoothness, try the sentence above.   

> Kay came to the house whistling out of tune a melody which only a native of Shedar the Second would recognize.

 Ok, here goes...
Kay came to the house whistling a melody so badly out of tune, only a native of Shedar the Second would recognize it.   

> She will catch him… the boy that knows too much.

 Ok, so if i get the meaning right, She will catch him because she has to, because he knows too much, either damaging information or valuable information.
If this is so, then for smoothness of grammar.
She will catch him… that boy knows too much.
or [i]She will catch him, she has to. That boy knows too much.[/i
or _She will catch him; she had no choice. That boy knows too much._   

> She acceted the loss of time, still hoping to catch up with Kay and Arthur.

 She accepted the loss of time, still hoping to catch up with Kay and Arthur.
This will work.   

> He was sitting on the hand-rail

 He was sitting on the handrail    

> Tauri could relax people whoever they were be that a fish trader or a co-owner of the aThan empire.

 Tauri could cause people to relax, whoever they were, be that a fish trader or a co-owner of the aThan empire.   

> Curtis junior was more a child now than he had been ever before, however Kay Duch almost loved this boy now without even knowing why, but having already realized this feeling.

 Curtis junior was more a child now than he had been ever before, however Kay Duch realized that he almost loved this boy now without even knowing why.
(Way too many wasted words)   

> “Kay did you see their channels?”

 “Kay, did you see their channels?”    

> “We’ve got problems kid.”

 “We’ve got problems, kid.”   

> “I found a ship in the port… it wasn’t bad and the price was quite acceptable.

 “I found a ship in the port… it wasn’t bad and the price was quite acceptable."   

> We spent too much money on Incedios

 as far as I can tell, this is Spanish, a word meaning Fire or Incendiary.
Let's try this, based on your context.... _We spent too much money on Incidentals._   

> We’re far from poverty yet bur we cannot afford buying a ship.”

 We’re far from poverty yet, but we cannot afford buying a ship.”   

> Arthur, have you agreed upon such situation with Van Curtis?

 Arthur, have you agreed upon such a situation with Van Curtis?   

> . Even if I grow up a beard I would still remain an eternal boy.”

 Even if I grow a beard I would still remain an boy forever.”   

> Two of my guides are already having that eternity.”

 _Two of my guides are already experiencing that eternal damnation.”_
Many different ways to say that, but I think that one says it best.   

> “The easier it would be for you.”

 It would be easier for you.  

> “Kay I don’t want you to be tortured.” the boy said seriously.

 “Kay, I don’t want you to be tortured,” the boy said seriously.   

> “There is a portal to another space on the planet Graal.”

 “There is a portal to another dimention on the planet Graal.”
or
“There is a portal to another sector of space on the planet Graal.”   

> Why the Silicoids decided that it would do harm to the humankind?”

 \Why did the Silicoids decide that it would harm humans?”   

> It would just direct its development to another way.”

 It would just change the direction of its development.”   

> If we reach Graal I would tell you everything and then you will decide…”

 If we reach Graal, I will tell you everything and then you can decide…”   

> “Have you been swimming in them too when you lived here?”

 Had you ever swam these channels when you lived here before?

----------


## Ramil

After a long pause I continue  ::  
11 
When Kay returned to the cabin Tommy had only just begun washing. It took him nearly ten minutes to realize that the airlock wouldn’t open and the ship wouldn’t call the police. Kay expected something like that. He prepared supper and was finishing a glass of wine before Tommy Arano risked going out from the shower.
“Are you hungry?” Kay asked in a friendly manner. “It’s unhealthy to eat this late but we’re not going to sleep any soon.”
Tommy averted his eyes. He had already formed up an opinion about Kay’s actions and expected nothing good.
“Have some food.” Kay repeated and filled up his glass again, “Wait, come here.”
The boy didn’t have any other choice. He obeyed. Kay took a metal comb from the back pocket of his jeans and ran his finger along its sharp teeth with an evil grin.
“You forgot to comb your hair, Arthy.”
“My name is Tommy Arano.” the boy said hopelessly.
“I forgot. The parting is on the left, right? There was a hair-dryer, by the way, but we’re not going to grand-opera.”
Kay put the comb into his pocket and started to unbutton Tommy’s shirt that was still dump. The boy strained, but didn’t risk resisting.
“I thought as much.” Kay said with satisfaction looking at the burnt scar on Tommy’s left shoulder. “I missed several inches… So, what is it, you couldn’t afford a proper treatment or you think that scars make little boys more attractive? My friend, they don’t suit even grownups. Go, have some food.”
Casting cautious looks at Kay Tommy sat and quickly buttoned his shirt up.
“We’re going to test your digestion,” Kay said as he was playing with his glass. “Why have you stopped? Eat it, it’s just a sausage. Eat, and I’m going to tell you a bedtime story that will upset the gastric juice secretion and intestinal motor activity.”
He winced as he watched Tommy started chewing obediently.
“I see they’ve put you down quite hard, boy. Your bravery remained but your will is in ruins. You can flare up, but you cannot blaze… Compared to that, your shrunken biceps and thin shoulders are nothing.”
Tommy lowered his half eaten sausage and for the first time looked at Kay with a hint of curiosity.
“What do you remember? A year ago you’ve been perfectly developed… for a kid, of course. But you forgot tow to keep fit.”
“I’m growing up,” Tommy said.
“Yeah, inwards perhaps. Eat, you need proteins. And stop being afraid, I’m not going to kill you. You cannot even imagine what punishment you’ve just escaped… you’re a lucky fellow.”
Tommy looked at Kay with distrust.
“Do you know who Curtis Van Curtis is?”
“I’ve got seven points in political science,” Tommy said with an indecisive pride. 
“And who is Arthur Van Curtis?”
“His son… I think.”
“Let’s have it this way for now. Eat! Our story begins in a shabby hotel where a man known as Kay Althos was sleeping peacefully. A day before he switched to manual control as he was landing his hyperboat and its gravity drives killed a girl who was doing her own small business…” Kay put away his glass and changed tone, “If it’s so important to you, Kay Althos didn’t want to kill her. He may even apologize before the boy who thinks he’s that girl’s brother. And he forgives the boy for killing him.”
“You are alive,” Tommy said.
“I’m afraid it’s not for very long. I would never have another aThan. In a sense, you did kill me permanently. But I’m asking you to forgive me.”
Kay stood up, walked to Tommy and put a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m very sorry. I’ve never killed anyone aimlessly, neither children nor adults.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Tommy asked. He was weeping quietly.
“You will understand. You’re a smart boy even though you’ve been deprived of your former knowledge. Just listen to the story to the end, all right?”
“All right,” Tommy said. 
When Kay had stopped speaking, he was finishing the bottle of Mrshhan wine and Tommy was nearly done with his first sausage.
“I don’t believe you,” the boy said, “You’re lying. You’ve learnt that there was an accident a year ago and made up this… this…”
“… very, very long story, why? I could just let it go; I could torture you, but why would I lie, Arthy?”
“My name is Tommy!”
“Whatever. Why would I lie? And what was that accident that made you lose all your memories but left no scratch on you?”
Kay suddenly bent over the table and slapped Tommy’s cheek. The boy ducked and grabbed Kay’s hand.
“Go ahead,” Kay cheered him up. “Continue your move and you will break my fingers. This is a move of Synthesis Yo-Do and you know that technique quite well. You’re a little killing machine, Arthy-Tommy. You had your personality erased but they didn’t erase your base memory so that you wouldn’t piss in your pants and wouldn’t have to learn how to talk again. I don’t know why the Silicoids were so soft-hearted but say thanks to them for this. One course of Synthesis Yo-Do and you can use it consciously. You do very well at school in spite of the fact that you, like your friends, spit on your studies. Do you know why? You don’t learn, you remember. You’ve seen Emperor Gray himself not to mention lesser riffraff. You can fly this ship, a destroyer even. You are Arthur Van Curtis, a clone of Curtis senior. You’ve been a prince and became a pauper.”
Tommy Arano slowly relaxed his grip. Kay’s hand completed the move and slowly patted Tommy’s cheek.
“You’re not from Cailis, you’re from Terra. You have been undergoing aThan for dozens of times… and one day they’ve decided to stop you with a new method. They partially succeeded. Now you are Tommy.”
“Clones don’t have a soul…” the boy whispered.
“They have. Otherwise aThan wouldn’t have worked, right? We can argue whether you have a soul or what had left of it when Arthur Curtis was reanimated on Terra. But I’m not a theologian. I don’t care if your soul has split in two halves, divided in two or the One Will mercifully provided you with a new one. You’re not a zombie, you have a free will and you can use aThan. By the way, the neural grid is already implanted in your head.”
“Why do you need me?”
“For the vilest purposes one can imagine.”
Tommy moved away.
“Don’t be afraid, my goals are even viler than this. You’re my picklock, my jack of trumps which I’m going to hide in my sleeve. A king or ace would be more helpful, but we will just have to bluff.”
“I don’t believe you,” Tommy repeated stubbornly. “And even if you’re telling the truth, why should I get involved into this?”
Kay laughed.
“Why? Beggarly Cailis or the aThan empire, an accountant’s career or the power over the galaxy, the mysteries of soap operas or the planet Graal, you choose!”
“This is not mine. There is one Arthur Curtis in this galaxy already, right?”
“It can find a place for you too, believe me.”
The boy was silent. Kay leaned back wearily and said “What time is it?”
Tommy looked at his watch, but it wasn’t him whom Kay was addressing.
“A half past three local time” the ship informed with a juicy baritone. “Kay, my friend, I’m impressed with your story. No halfwit has ever got into such a mess!”
“Shut up…” Kay half asked and half ordered. “I’ve become disaccustomed with you, so be a tender and attentive lady.”
“Of course, my dear. Shall I clean your guns?” the ship responded in a cooing voice.
“You pest.” Kay said as he was stretching his muscles, “Freak… Tommy, did they expect you this night at home?”
The boy smiled bitterly.
“Then call home. Give him a line, ship!”
Tommy moved sharply and stared at Kay.
“The number.” Althos said.
“Are you serious?”
“Just say the number, the handset is on the table. Tell them you’re going back tomorrow afternoon. You better don’t say anything about where you are, otherwise you’ll be disconnected.”
“Do you seriously allow me to call?” Tommy repeated.
Kay covered his eyes wearily and the lights immediately went dimmer. 
“Boy, I had a mother too. Is it so difficult to understand?”
“Yes” Tommy said with a challenge in his voice. 
Althos patiently listened to the Tommy’s conversation with Mrs. Arano. When all important things had been said as he thought he broke the line with a gesture. He stood up and led Tommy to a door that remained closed till this moment.
“I have two cabins,” he informed. “This is yours.”
“Are you going to lock me in?” the boy asked.
“Of course, I don’t have the aThan anymore, remember. Good night.”
Tommy fell to sleep quickly, without undressing. His fears were weakened, but he was too tired and overdosed with information.
Kay forced himself to brush his teeth and remove his shoes.

----------


## Ramil

PART SIX. IMMORTALITY FOR A PAUPER 
1 
“I took a liberty to wake you up,” said the ship. Kay opened his eyes. He was in his boat, the most habitual and homey place of the universe. He had no home so he made it himself. He had a citizenship of the Empire and a personal planet ten yards in diameter.
“Something happened?” he asked.
“No, but it’s already noon according the local time.” the ship’s voice was dry and formal this time. Kay winced but said nothing.
A cold shower helped to remove all traces of sleep and a razor removed the growth on his face. Then Kay changed his clothes, carefully and slowly selecting each piece – a beige slack suit which he usually put on only during the first few months after aThan, a white shirt which was much more expensive than an ordinary one but it could reflect a laser beam of an average power, and soft leather shoes.
“You look great, master.”
“I know. Is the boy awake?”
“Not yet. He’s in the fast sleeping phase. Shall I wake him up?”
“Just unlock the door. Should I put on a tie?”
“Of course. Shall I read some classics?”
“Playing a butler? What have you been reading?”
The ship was silent for a moment.
“Go ahead”, Kay agreed, “but don’t forget about the breakfast.”
“Thank you for your confidence. Your evening sausages were awful, by the way.”
“What?”
“Nothing” the ship replied quickly, “Let me suggest an original novel of the late twentieth century that tells about mysterious events that took place in the town of…”
“Wait”, Kay was thoughtfully looking at the two ties deciding which one to put on, “Do you remember you started reading a book about a pilot that had crushed in a desert. Continue that one.”
“You ordered me to delete the text.” the ship noted coldly.
“You sound as if you’d obeyed that order.”
“Yes, I did.”
“So the text is in your short term memory. Recover it and continue.”
“All right. So stopped at the moment when the pilot woke up thousand miles away from the nearest habitat… I must note that it is a great exaggeration. His flyer was damaged…”
“I remember, read on,” Kay sat in the armchair having chosen a dark golden tie at last. The ship’s voice changed into a soft tenor:
“All this was so mysterious and inconceivable that I did not dare to refuse. However absurd this was here in the desert, within a hair of death…”
Tommy Arano awoke but stayed in the bed for a long time. He didn’t know how long his imprisonment would last. When finally he decided to try opening the door it was unlocked. This surprised him as much as the fact that he was still alive.
Kay Altos was sitting in the armchair and was looking sooner like a young teacher than a thug for hire. The ship’s voice which appeared surprisingly sad to Tommy stopped talking in the middle of the phase:
“On the star, on the planet, on my planet called Earth…”
“Go wash yourself.” Kay ordered to Tommy, “There is a pack in the bathroom, inside you will find a toothbrush and a towel.”
Tommy nodded and walked through the room trying very hard not to get too close to Altos. Then his curiosity prevailed and he asked:
“Why does your ship changes its voice all the time?”
“It hasn’t yet determined his self-consciousness,” Kay said being quite serious, “It doesn’t know its gender, age and social status.”
The boy preferred not to pursue the matter. 
Darian Arano, a clerk of the Cailis Nature Preservation Department didn’t go to work this day. He concluded that it wouldn’t do any more harm to those remnants of planetary nature and his rank of waters control inspector allowed him such liberties. He was half-lying on a low and wide sofa, looking indifferently at the TV screen and cracking salt nuts. The beer in a big plastic bottle had turned warm and disgusting, but getting a new one from the fridge was worth too much effort. The public channel was showing ‘Seven minutes about beautiful life’ – a program sponsored by the government.
“Here’s what I think,” an elderly lady was talking from the screen. She wore a luxurious, but loose-bodied dress made of biosilk, and on the badly laid background behind her, there was a luxurious estate in the mountains, “… there will be days, and very soon, when the young would stop looking for other worlds, our boys and girls wouldn’t go to bed with each new tourist from Tauri, and our scientists would stop trying to go to Endoria. Things will be quite the opposite! Getting a residence permit will become a dream of all planets of the Empire! We just need to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Work and work and stop dreaming. I think so.”
Galya, Darian’s wife, came out from the kitchen. She glanced at her husband, took a beer bottle from the fridge and silently put it nearby. He accepted this sign of spousal concern with a slight but gentle smile.
He asked:
“Tell Luke to make his music quieter.”
Galya nodded. She sat by his side looking at the screen where a handsome officer was theoretitizing about beautiful life against the background (badly laid) with a sporting flyer.
She asked:
“Will Tommy come, what do you think?”
“Where else can he go.” Darian grumbled as he was opening the bottle with beer.
“It didn’t happen before…”
“He must have found a girlfriend. Or wasting time with his schoolmates. Foreign blood, what can I say…”
“Darian!”
“What? I don’t say anything…” Arano took a gulp of beer, “A good deed… will be rewarded.”
Galya left without saying anything. The door to his elder son’s room slammed shut and the roaring of asynchronous music quieted down reluctantly.  Darian was looking at the screen where a charming woman against the background with a desk that was slightly falling out of the three-dimensional perspective was saying:
“We don’t need somebody else’s amenities. We are not going to look at Terra or Galathea. It comes out of the general mentality of Cailis. The phase of buildup is completed, I am telling this as a social psychologist. An inevitable prosperity awaits us.”
Darian was patiently waiting for the beginning of an Endorian detective. It would be unfair to say that a featured movie that was ridiculously expensive in video stores was more important a reason for him than the disappearance of his adopted son. But two stimuli are always better than one, right?
A doorbell rang. The brand-new security system (this technology was very well developed on Cailis, they even made it for export) informed: “Tommy came. Unarmed. He is accompanied by a man of middle years, in a good physical shape. Armed.”
There was a warning sound and the system went silent for a moment, then it added:
“Many weapons, the identification is suppressed by a local nullifier. I’ll be unable to resist. Shall I call the police?”
Darian jumped up spilling the beer. He came to the door where Galya was already standing and smiling helplessly at her husband. The system screen showed Tommy. He was very bleak and stiff. Beside him there was a man of mid-thirties who was dusting invisible specks off his suit.
“What kind of trouble did he get into?” Darian hesitated, looking at the stranger.
The security system was still working and recording. Besides, Tommy didn’t look all that frightened.
“Maybe it’s a Body officer?” Galya looked at her husband’s face sheepishly. The Body of Order commanded more respect than the Imperial Service on Cailis.
“Unlock,” Darian ordered. The door slid aside revealing the dirty stairwell and bluish armored entrances of adjacent apartments.
“Mom…” Tommy said when Galya embraced him. The man gave a slight nod to Darian and asked:
“May I enter?”
“Who are you?” Darian was still hesitating. The stranger’s figure reminded him with a cruel frankness about his paunch that had been growing up since the last year and his rare visits to a gym. The man’s gaze was too self-confident.
“I’m a Tommy’s friend.”
The boy that had been clutching to his mother turned and looked at the man. He looked like he wanted to say something, but chose not to.
“Aha,” Darian said. “Interesting. Come in then.”
The man refused neither beer nor a cigar thus causing even more antipathy in Darian. He sipped beer, lighted up a cigar and left it smoking in an ashtray. Then he introduced himself:
“Kay Althos, a defense and offense specialist.”
Arano chocked on his beer and said:
“Darian, an ecologist.”
“Wonderful, we’re nearly colleagues.” Kay squinted at Galya who was eyeing him quite disapprovingly, “I am sorry for your night worries, we had to talk.”
Darian was desperately trying to maintain a casual tone:
“We have an unquiet district here… mister Althos. There was an incident… a couple dozen boys were put in hospital last night.”
“How many dead?” Kay inquired vividly.
“No… everybody is alive.”
“A nice professional work then, no doubt.”
Arano added two and two and didn’t like the result.
“So, to what do we owe you?”
“One small question,” Kay was all courtesy, “how much did you get for adopting Tommy and passing yourself for his parents?”
Darian realized that this was the only moment he could point Kay at the door, but he couldn’t throw the night incident with the street gang out of his head.
“What the…”
“Miss…,” Kay turned over to Galya, “I think that you weren’t the worst parents for the boy. But he has a real family and a real place in this world.”
“I am his mother,” Galya said quickly, “We’ve lost our daughter not long ago, but nobody’s going to take my son from me.”
Kay Althos averted his eyes for some reason and turned to Darian again.
“Sooner or later your elder son or your former friends will give you away. Or the boy will think why you haven’t got a single childhood photograph or a video…”
“Tommy, leave us!” Galya raised her voice.
“He can’t.” Kay raised his hand and showed a power bracelet. This attribute was a popular enough element of assorted detectives and blockbusters to be confused with something else. Galya gasped and clutched Tommy’s hand.
“Your act isn’t a crime by itself, quite the opposite,” Kay continued, “but you were working for the Basis of Silicoids…”
“What?” Darian roared.
“Alas, it was aliens who erased the boy’s memory. You are their accessories… involuntary ones, I hope. I can prove that to the Service or the Body of Order if necessary, but must I? Tell me the truth and I’ll leave. I give you my word of honor. How much did you get?”
“This apartment and five hundred imperial credits.” Darian didn’t hesitate. When things were getting down to hating the aliens the president of Cailis was more zealous at that than the Emperor himself.
“Not much.” Kay said rising up. “Besides, a true good must be unselfish, right?”
He removed the bracelet from his hand and dropped it onto the floor. Then he took Tommy’s chin and looked into his eyes. Galya didn’t dare to interfere.
“Now you know that I was telling the truth,” Kay didn’t notice anyone else in the room, as it appeared, “You decide what to do with it. I need a partner, not a slave on a leash. I’ll be waiting for you in the car for three hours. Decide.”
“I won’t let him go!” Galya cried out, “In spite of everything, he’s my son! I’m going to lock the door and you can die in your car!”
“If the boy doesn’t go out willingly, he wouldn’t be able to help me.” Kay shrugged his shoulders, “So, calm down please.”
He walked to the door and it opened so quickly that one could think the security system wanted him to leave as soon as possible. Kay turned from the doorway and said:
“Tommy! Galaxy, power, a real life. Decide.” 
Looking through the glass at the rain Kay ate two sandwiches prepared by the ship and smoked a couple of cigarettes with some light drug from the pack that someone had left in the car. He didn’t like the cigarettes, his organism was insusceptible for many kinds of drugs – it was a peculiarity of his nervous system that had been rebuilt even before his birth.
In two hours and a half Tommy came out of the multistory block of flats where he had been living for the only year of his conscious life and walked to the car.
He was carrying a shoulder bag, wearing the same jeans and thin black shirt that got soaked in a matter of seconds. Kay turned on the heating and unlocked the doors.
“Altos, I want to lay down a condition,” the boy said stubbornly staying under the rain.
“Friends call me Duch. Speak.”
“Swear that you won’t kill me.”
Kay shrugged:
“It becomes my traditional oath to the Curtis’s. I won’t, sit down.”
Tommy sat on the back seat and turned a heating louver to himself. Mizan was accelerating fast.
“Does your shiner hurt?” inquired Kay.
Tommy rubbed a fresh bruise under his eye and shook his head:
“No… not really.”
“You have a very high pain threshold,” Kay said, “this is the only thing that comforts me when I think about Arthur.”
“Kay, is he… my double… is he good?”
“He’s very unhappy. He’s good, I think.”
“Ah…”
“Curtis Van Curtis is a man within himself. He’s more complicated than the aThan.”
Kay went silent and completed the phrase only in a couple of minutes when Tommy sat back and started to doze off:
 “I wish I knew the old man’s plan. And which of the things that had happened were planned a month or even a century ago.”

----------


## Ramil

2 
Gorra was one of the oldest human colonies. Here, they still called Terra Earth sometimes and two universities had opened archeology departments. The ruling family claimed to have traced its origins back to Gagarin himself.
Emperor Gray was indulgent about all this. The planet paid taxes regularly, its young people willingly joined the Imperial forces and the faction of Gorra in the Senate never caused any trouble. Gorra took pride in its full self-suffiency. Terra could upkeep the scientists of the Empire and millions of artist, writers and other spongers, Endoria built ships, half-starving Incedios fed nearby mining colonies, Tauri provided fruits for half of the Empire. Gorra did a little bit of everything. Rumors were circulating among the locals that the reserve palace of the Emperor is located on Gorra rather than Endoria. They even named the place – a closed region in the Blue Canyons that had been bought by a private person even before the Feud War.
Lika Saker knew that there was no Emperor's palace in the Canyons. She had been living and ruling here long enough to scan all the surroundings. Today her morning began with the visit of her chief of security. According the rule established long ago, all important messages in the Canyons were delivered aurally. Lika was taking a morning bath when the meklon approached the pool. The water was transparent, only slightly colored with aromatic oils, but the meklon was indifferent to human nakedness. Lika didn’t feel any embarrassment in the presence of the cyborg also, besides, its gender was sooner female.
“A report” the meklon said as it froze at a safe distance from the pool. Water wasn’t all that dangerous for its transformed body already, but its instincts had not yet gotten used to that.
“I listen, Cas/s/is,” Lika stretched her body feeling as strong cool jets started to massage her body.
“There is a ship in the orbit. Its landing trajectory leads to our zone.”
Lika frowned:
“Ship’s type?”
“A hyperboat,” the meklon’s armored breastplate opened and a video terminal appeared, “it’s an old model, its armament is weak, the defense module is enhanced. It represents no danger but it flies very confidently.”
The youngest in the whole history of the human crime Mother-keeper of the ‘Family’ looked at the ship. It seemed familiar as if she had seen it before or even fly it…
“Provide a corridor, Cas/s/is,” Saker remembered it at last, “It’s a friend. An old friend.”
The meklon turned to the door.
“And send a valet here!” Lika called after. She lowered her head and the halo of ash-blond hair spread over the water soaking slowly. She smiled at the decorated ceiling that had been brought here a hundred years before from some Terran cathedral. A half lying male figure on the central fresco had always reminded her of Kay, “Still, you remember,” whispered Lika.
The man on the fresco that had been rising from the ground for thousands of years continued to look at the timelessness. He took no interest in the strange games of his descendants.
“Careful, patient, overclever little Kay…” Lika said as she closed her eyes. 
They walked along a short corridor that had been melted through the rock. A man with a couple of artificial limbs, either a mechanist or simply a man having no aThan, walked ahead of Kay and Tommy. A meklon walking on his hind limbs that was a variant of battle transformation brought up their rear.
Tommy stayed close to Kay. During the last day his doubts had not disappeared completely… but he had only seen cyborgs on TV before. The aliens were not welcomed on the peripheral planets.
The corridor ended with an iridescent force field that had been working in the curtain mode. Behind it, there was a round hall with a vaulted ceiling. Light was coming through a stained glass window.
“Wait here,” said the man. The lower part of his face was made of dark-yellow metal, his lips barely moved as he talked, but his voice nevertheless appeared real.
“We’ll wait,” Kay agreed. The hall was nearly empty with the exception of a dozen of large satin cushions that were lying right on the floor in the center. It looked like they were supposed to sit on them, but they weren’t invited to.
“Duch…” Tommy whispered.
“Relax,” Kay ordered not looking at the boy. They waited for nearly a quarter of an hour in the silent company of the meklon and the cyborg-man. Then a segment of the wall slid aside making no sound. Tommy saw a woman in a plain black silk dress whose age was closer to fifty, being still beautiful and slender, but evidently past her meridian. He wasn’t impressed very much. The only thing that the boy liked, considering himself an expert in Imperial movie stars and fashion models, was her ash-blond hair that fell on her shoulders like a soft waterfall.
Kay looked at Lika Saker who could afford yearly aThans but stubbornly continued to live her first life. He noted a total lack of any makeup and a simple dress.
“I have accepted your invitation, Lika” Kay said.
“You took your time, Duch.” the woman came closer.
“So did you.”
Saker shrugged:
“Nobody has been teaching you manners, it appears. I washed off my makeup, Duch, and tried to find as plain a dress as possible.”
The meklon felt its equivalent of surprise when the Mother-Keeper embraced Kay and put her head on his chest. The cyborg-man was unable to feel emotions – his brain by half consisted of microchips. He simply noted that the threat level had lowered.
Lika raised her head looking at Kay and asked:
“Have you been through the aThan recently?”
“Yes, it’s great you manage without it.”
“Liar.”
“I am very glad to see you the same, Lika” Kay said.
Saker shifted her gaze onto Tommy. The boy was smiling awkwardly.
“A client and a partner.” Kay informed.
“Yes?”Lika said dubiously, “you look tired, boy.”
“We’ve covered the distance from Cailis in twenty two hours” Kay replied instead of him. “Entered the hyperspace without acceleration and jumped out in the photosphere of your star. It took seven correcting jumps. I thought my brain will leak out through my ears… and it’s Tommy’s first flight.”
“aThan has made you rash.” Lika noted with a slight surprise in her voice.
“Andrew, show the boy to the guest room and give instructions to the servants. And have the doctor examine him.”
The cyborg moved to Tommy and he cast a fearful glance at Duch.
“Go,” Kay nodded, “don’t be afraid.”
Lika laughed quietly and said:
“You will get the help you’ve came here for. Don’t worry. I can do much these days.”
“I’m afraid that not even much will be enough for me.”

----------


## Ramil

EDIT: Fixed some mistakes and typos. 
3 
At night, the Blue Canyons resembled some fairy-tale country. Pseudo-crystal nodules which Gorra took pride in were too poor for industrial mining here, but they emerged right on the rock surface and every star in the cloudless sky shared a spark of its light with them. It seemed like they were surrounded by a sleeping town with dark silhouettes of buildings and dim lights of blinded windows…
“The family has picked a beautiful place.” Kay said.
“We love beauty” Lika agreed, “Are you warm? Shall I turn on the screen?”
“No, it was colder on the shoals at night…” Kay Duch found Saker’s hand in the darkness and asked quietly: “Do you see Shedar?”
“I do, my landsman.”
They were lying side by side, still heated from love and shimmering rocks around them argued with the starry sky over them. The terrace on which Saker had arranged her bedroom topped a lone cliff and Kay involuntary remembered Curtis with his ‘study’ on the top of the spire-house.
“Have you been there… after…”
“No.”
“I have once… for three days.”
“Kay, please, don’t.”
“The oceans are still boiling, but on the central archipelago the land is not burning any more. The Empire has established a control outpost on the Elder Sister. It took less damage than the others. It is automatic for the time being.”
“Why are you telling me this, Kay?”
“I haven’t seen any of our friends for a long time.”
“Why, Duch?”
Kay turned and looked into the face which looked young again in the darkness.
“Do they hear us here?”
“They do, but never mind them. I am the Mother-Keeper, Kay. I’m leading the Family for another two years.”
“Do you remember our oath, Lika?”
The woman didn’t answer.
“A dirty cargo hold, and berths to the ceiling, the stink, and a glass of water per day. The Sakkra’s interceptors on our tail…”
“I remember everything!”
“Do you want to forget, Lika?” there was fury in Kay’s voice. “Your mother was with you and your account in the Endorian bank wasn’t confiscated. I got the asylum on Althos… You were growing up in your own house; you went to school and were falling in love with young Endorians. I received the Christmas presents and your postcards, thank you!”
“Kay, we did try to get you out!”
“Yes, you did. Especially your…”
“Leave my mother alone. She died three years ago. She refused the aThan. She knew where the money came from.”
“I’m sorry. But I had been waiting for four years. A little boy who believed in the promises of grownups.”
“Don’t make me suffer, Kay” Lika whispered, “You’ve been waiting for forty years just to come here and tell me that?”
“No. Do you remember our oath? I decided to keep it.”
Saker forced a shaky laugh.
“Everyone who is guilty… we’ll live to revenge. Kay! Sakkra is no more!”
“It wasn’t Sakkra who burned our fathers.”
The woman from Shedar the Second sat on the bed and asked dryly:
“Whom are you going to take revenge on? Upon life? I came here because I hated the Empire. But even mafia is just a gear in its mechanism. Gray could have ground us to dust, but why would the Emperor want a thousand rabid rats instead of one rabid dog? I speak with him every month, Kay! It’s all about the balance of powers and revenues. This is the way it works.”
“I have the key to all powers.”
Lika Saker was silent for three seconds. Then she said:
“The boy with the probability of seventy percent.”
“Right, super.” Kay said with satisfaction, “these neurons of yours still work perfectly well. It’s the boy.”
Lika patted his chest:
“I’ve been thinking you’ve changed your preferences.”
“Thank you very much.”
“You’re welcome. Who is he?”
“I won’t answer… for now. You will know everything… in time.”
“Kay, nobody talks to me this way!”
“I have this right… sister.”
“Duch! We’re from different families!”
“We’re from the same test-tube. Twenty nine percent of common genes – isn’t it enough to be relatives? Do you remember you asked your mother whether we could marry?”
“I don’t need to ask anyone now, Kay…”
The woman stood up, walked along the terrace edge over the shimmering bottomless abyss and bent over a table with drinks.
“I’ll have brut, Lika.”
“I remember, I’ve gone off sweetness too.”
Saker returned with two glasses of champagne. She handed one to Kay and asked:
“I could go through aThan, if you like. My matrix was taken at the age of twenty two. I was a very pretty… girl.”
“Everything is good in its own time. Lika.”
“I see.”
“Now, it’s time to remember the old oaths.”
“Don’t apologize, you don’t know how. What do you want?”
“Will you help me with no conditions?”
“Yes.”
Kay Duch sat and took a drink of champagne.
“I need the best weapon and armor one can get in the galaxy, all your informants network working for me, fighters that can stand against a meklon cyborg, and no questions.”
Saker was silent for a long time.
“You will get everything, Kay Duch.”
“Then go and start the machine. I have to know the whereabouts of Isabelle Kahl, the deputy commander of the ISS on Incedios. She flies a Service corvette with a hull number starting with six. She had support of Imperial troopers from Lemach’s group that is based on Dogar.”
“With the probability of fifty seven percent she’s on Dogar.”
“Kahl left a dozen of troopers to die in spite of the fact that she had a meklon and a mechanist onboard the corvette.”
“Two against one – on Incedios.”
“She left to die a bulrathi and a support executive from Incedios. I don’t need your guesses, Lika. I need precise information!”
“Are you throwing us against the army and the ISS?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Saker said, “wait here.”
Kay laughed as he put his glass on the floor. The only way that was available for him to leave was through the aThan – to Terra.”
When Lika returned in half an hour he was already asleep.
“You have always been a thick-skinned shark.” Saker said as she lay down beside him. “Hop! And you’re already hitting the sack.”
“Sharks can’t stop even for sleep.” Kay replied suddenly in surprisingly clear voice, “They sleep in motion.”
“Then kiss me in a sleep. Be so kind.”
“When you allow someone to tame you, sometimes you have to cry…” Kay said as he turned over.
“You can do neither of these, Duch.”
“The stars cry for me.”

----------


## Crocodile

> ...its gender was _sooner_ female...

 I noticed that usage of "sooner" several times in your text. I wonder shouldn't it be "rather" instead?

----------


## Ramil

> ...its gender was _sooner_ female...
> 			
> 		  I noticed that usage of "sooner" several times in your text. I wonder shouldn't it be "rather" instead?

 Maybe, maybe not. I really don't know.

----------


## chaika

At night
grabbed?
found Saker's
but on the central
any more
were falling in
just to come
until we revenge -- I don't understand sentence.
going to revenge to? same here
could have ground
thousand rabid rats
-- can't do any more. this is difficult for me to follow.

----------


## Ramil

4 
Kay woke Tommy up early in the morning, made him quickly wash his face and eat and then dragged him to the exit from the underground complex. There was several men standing guard near the exit but all necessary instructions were already given. They were shown to the flyer pad and Kay chose a standard imperial model.
Kay didn’t want to risk taking off from the canyon on manual control. He chose to trust the autopilot this time. Apparently, the autopilot was programmed by a man with taste. At first, the flyer climbed to the plateau level and then circled around the rocks they had been inside not long before.
“Kay, who are they?” Tommy asked.
“When your friends on the motorcycles were looting another house, whom did they pay twenty five percent to?”
“To the overseer.”
“And whom did he pay to?”
The boy shrugged his shoulders.
“Here, in this hole, is the top of that pyramid.”
The flyer set on course. The rocky hills have lost all their recent charm in the bright sunlight stretched to the horizon.
“They don’t even hide.”
“Both the planetary government and the Emperor know about them, but they too have their interest here.”
Tommy put his forehead against the window. Below them there were populated areas already – small squares of fields, occasional estates and neat threads of roads.
“Have I really met Emperor Gray?”
“Yes, I think… What are you looking at?”
“Nothing. It’s just I’ve never flown a flyer before.” 
The aThan office on Gorra was large – a rich planet required a lot of immortality. In spite of traditions it wasn’t even isolated and was located on the suburbs of the capital. Many service areas were located on the surface – that too was a sign of Curtis’s indulgence.
Tamura was receiving secondary clients – it was a routine and a low-pay job. But this small Japanese man that had worked his way to become an aThan employee five years before was patient. He was stoically saving for his first aThan (with a due discount for the personnel of course).
The day promised to be good. He had accommodated a nervous woman who told him a boring story about her recent death in a plane crush; an elderly businessman that had died from cancer and suspected that his new body also had the aptitude for an incurable growth, and a young fellow who was unspecific about his profession that rewarded him with a laser beam to the back of his head. The guy had just appeared from the aThan and was in a particular hurry to see his own funeral and the faces of his friends who didn’t know about his immortality.
Then another two clients were sent to Tamura – a free trader from Endoria and his son. The trader was screwy and talked about great price differences on different planets, but agreed at the end that the conditions on Gorra are rather mild.
Tamura checked the numbers of their neural grids. It was a standard procedure but it aroused a great interest in a boy for some reason. He filled in the forms of contracts and specified the details (resurrect immediately, resurrect within a day, whether to notify the relatives), then he took Kay Ovald’s aThan credit card. The money was nearly out, it was no wonder that the tradesman had been hesitating.
“Let me congratulate you with immortality,” Tamura said with almost sincere a smile, “I hope your next visit will take place in a very long time from now.”
“I have a small favor to ask,” mister Ovald said shaking his hand, “could we leave a letter of gratitude to Van Curtis?”
Tamura had suspected that daily letters of gratitude to Curtis when printed would make a roll thicker than a roll of toilet paper, but marketing traditions were respected in aThan, so he handed a company’s letterhead to the Endorian.
“Dear mister Curtis, our benefactor,” Kay Ovald repeated the fruits of his inspiration aloud. “We live again and wish you the same. I think you wouldn’t be surprised at our aThan prolongation, but rather you’ll be glad at that. The line of our dreams leads us to a long journey and hard work. Arthur thinks now you’re all but father to him while I can say only tanks. I hope I’ll be able to pay you with the same frankness and honesty that we had found in your words. Kay and Arthur.”
There were enough idiots among the aThan’s clients. But an idiot with money was a very useful and respectful thing, so Tamura bowed and put a filled letter in a special folder to send it with evening hyper-mail. 
Their way back seemed to take longer. Tommy was gnawing at the hard ice-cream that Kay had bought near the aThan complex. Duch was listening to the evening news on the radio. Four newscasters at once were exchanging jokes and allusions that only a local could understand. They were talking primarily about accidents that seemed to become more frequent on imperial factories. Somebody even compared them with the Darlok terror during the war. Then they started gossiping about a new kind of checks for implanted weapon that were carried out on all large imperial enterprise by ISS officers. They were scanning backs and necks with special detectors for some reason. People were arrested with the set procedures ignored – they simply got stunned with no warning.
It didn’t occur to anybody to make a connection between checks and diversions.
“Kay, I would have resuscitated anyway, right?” Tommy asked, “Even with my aThan unpaid?”
“Of course,” Kay agreed, “Curtis would have taken your death for Arthur’s.”
“I see.” Tommy said thinking of something.
“It’s not that easy,” Kay said looking at the boy, “Firstly, I promised not to kill you. Secondly, Curtis would have gotten to truth in two minutes.”
“The second thing is more important,” Tommy said.
“Obviously.”
Further on they were flying in silence. 
Lika Saker had enough matters to attend to that even Kay’s appearance couldn’t cancel. She tried to reduce them to a minimum, but nevertheless, she could only see Duch at dinner.
“Still noting.” she informed laconically.
“I see.” Kay answered.
They dined together. Tommy too was admitted to Mother-Keeper’s little banquette. The table setting would have satisfied the Emperor himself. The menu was apparently composed according the principle of changing of rare courses with the rarest ones. Kay didn’t particularly like gastronomic experiments, but nevertheless, he appreciated the deepwater fish fillet from Dogar and a mix of ice grape and spinach that had nearly disappeared during the Feud War. The idea of feeding the disinformation that spinach was the most important and vital element of human ration to the Meklons had been invented by a man with a very strange sense of humor, apparently. For seven years, Meklon biologists, the best in the galaxy, had been developing the most deadly virus that attacked spinach. About eight thousand bombers that were disseminating the S-virus over human planets were easy targets for interceptors. When the Meklons realized that the humankind deprived of spinach showed no signs of imminent extinction, the shock was too great for them to bear. The cyborgs had agreed to negotiate peace. The Tripartite Alliance was the end result of it.
But spinach could only grow in fully hermetic chambers with closed ecology cycle since then. The sneaky virus continued to await its victim in wheat, potatoes and other cultures of lesser importance.
Tommy was consuming Tasian jelly masterfully handling a pair of silver pincers.
“You are very well-mannered, boy” Saker noted. Tommy who was artfully separating the orange layer from the green one didn’t understood her. He thought he ate Tasian jelly for the first time in his life.
“What about equipment, Lika?” Kay tried to lead the conversation away from the slippery topic.
“We’re going to visit our armourer after dinner.” Saker handed Tommy an underipe gurange fruit.
“Just a moment,” the boy said and correctly picked a tube screw from assorted cutlery. He screwed it into the fruit and returned the seasoning to Lika.
Gurange, of course, wasn’t suited for jelly. But it was perfect for white meat. 
It took them nearly twenty minutes to get to the parts of underground complex where the armory was located. Enough for Kay to realize who exactly was working for the Family.
Sevold Martynenko was a living legend. He created nearly half of Feud War weapon models. He only left his laboratory about three times per year when a manifestation of pacifists was taking place nearby. His working over the deadliest weapons seemed to get along well with his pointedly peaceful views. The demonstrators didn’t think so and tried to beat Sevold in spite of his guards. Having failed to participate in the demonstration, Martynenko usually returned to his laboratory and created even more awful machines for killing life in all its aspects.
If legends were true, during periods of his frequent crises of creativity, the ISS staged pacifist demonstrations.
“I thought he’s been farming on some quiet planet,” Kay said, “or working under the ISS microscope.”
“It nearly happened,” Saker liked to speak of her achievements, “When the army had refused his quark bombs due to their excess inhumanity, he stopped his work. The ISS didn’t press on him by orders of the Emperor himself, apparently. He settled on Charisma and became an artist. He illustrated books for children, especially for the young ones, some books of poems. Under a different name, of course. We persuaded him to work a little bit more.”
“What kind of books?” Tommy inquired.
“You can ask yourself,” Lika, it appeared, was amused by recent hypostasis of Martynenko, “If he’s in the mood, he will tell you.”
Sevold was in the mood. He was walking back and forth across the laboratory which amazed both by its size and the volumes of assorted junk scattered all over it. There was nobody else in it – the genius preferred to work alone. He greeted his visitors by waving his hand with a sandwich firmly clutched in it. His second hand was on the control panel of a polymer moulder where a mould of intricate form was awaiting readiness.
“Come in,” Sevold said in a friendly manner, “Are they my customers, Lika?”
“Yes,” Saker said as she was sitting down on the only available stool nearby. She neglected neither cosmetics nor a rich garment this time. Sevold, it appeared, didn’t even notice her outward appearance.
“The armor is ready,” Martynenko informed, “Have you ever heard of ‘Seraph’?”
Kay hasn’t, but Sevold didn’t pursue the matter.
“Now we’re going to decide about the weapons…” Sevold murmured as he was walking around Kay and Tommy. He scratched his unshaved cheek. The genius was fat and awkward and it seemed that in his life he had not held anything more dangerous than a fork.
“You can carry everything, but the boy… the boy will be more difficult. All right.”
He sat by the desk cluttered with flasks containing some chemical agents and frowned.
Then he stretched his arm, grasped a large pot with dark-brown liquid in it and sipped.
“It’s tea”, he informed, “Boy, what have you been using?”
“Gravibaton…”, Tommy squinted at Kay, “and an algopistol.”
“That’s disgusting”, Martynenko said with a grimace.
“Gravity batons and neural activator are weapons of the punks! Understood?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ll take ‘Argument-17’,” the gunmaker decided, “It’s light and you don’t have to aim it. We’ll just have to program it to recognize the members of your team or otherwise you would grind them down too.”
“Add the boy himself to the program,” Kay said.
Sevold thought for a moment.
“It’s a good idea. Or he might kill himself accidently. That’s disgusting, isn’t it? I have abased myself so far as to arm children with intellectual weapons… not to mention it was constructed by Karap’tyan…”
He immediately lost all interest to Tommy. Kay felt a rare feeling of complete exposure under the inteng gaze of the old man. Trying get rid of it he said:
“I’ve been using a ‘chance’ recently.”
“So what? It’s a cheap trash, isn’t it? A relic for a museum. A weapon of desperation when they were driving schoolboys into combat… What is it that you haven’t used?”
Kay made a helpless gesture.
“Where are you going to fight?”
“I don’t know”
“Oh, gods… Lika that won’t do!”
“We’ll punish the guilty,” Saker promised.
“Have you been using ‘Excalibur’?”
“No, that’s the one I haven’t used,” Kay admitted.
“You’ll learn. Lika, give him an 'Excalubur', a ‘Bumble-bee’ as a light one, and mount a ‘Guardian’ and a ‘Diana’ on his armor. That’s all otherwise he’ll lose mobility.”
“Do you require anything?” inquired Saker as she was rising.
“R-E-S-T!”
Tommy didn’t risk asking what books had Sevold been illustrating. If he had the chance to watch the master armorer after they’d left, however, he would have witnessed an interesting scene. Martynenko produced a sheet of thick paper with a title being already in place. It stated ‘The games of the uncle Bagryants”. He put it against a half-unmade stationary oscillator which occupied half of the table and stared at its yet clear a surface.
He had a very peaceful mood that day.

----------


## Ramil

5 
“Bitch” Ralph Gordon said. There was no hate in his voice, but rather surprise. The sergeant looked much younger, but Isabelle immediately recognized him. She made a tense smile and advised:
“Don’t get distracted. Lemach is waiting, isn’t he?”
Gordon stared at her again and she thought that assigning a man whom she’d killed as her convoy wasn’t incidental of course.
“Move,” Gordon commanded.
They were escorted along the corridors of the orbital base by a convoy consisting of twelve men – a reasonable precaution considering the capabilities of the Meklon and the mechanist. Kahl demonstratively took off her armor and weapon. Arthur was walking alongside Marjan – an injection of stimulant allowed him to walk after the Three ‘C’ level interrogation. The boy was only dragging his leg slightly and was squinting painfully when they were walking past bright lamps. They were escorted into a small oval hall at last. There was an automatic stationary turret mounted on the ceiling and the metal walls were fritted in some places.
“Everyone except Kahl,” her name sounded like a swear word in Gordon’s voice, “will wait here.”
Escorted by two guards and Ralph Isabelle was transported to the central sector of the base. Lemach was waiting for her in his office, not in the prison cell and that was a small victory by itself.
There was a guard beside Lemach’s apartments. Kahl prepared to wait but the door opened immediately. Ralph pushed her into the office.
The admiral was sitting with his back towards the visitors on the panoramic screen before him there was turbulent ocean surf.
It looked like the picture interested him more than anything else.
“The detained is here, admiral.” Ralph said.
“Leave us.”
Gordon cast another hating gaze at Kahl and left.
Admiral still didn’t turn around.
“Your voice sound much younger, Lemach,” Kahl said. Admiral slowly turned in his chair and replied.
“We have rejuvenated.”
For several long moments Isabelle looked at the idol of her youth.
Fifty years old Lemach made her feel like a schoolgirl again.
“Thank you for meeting me here and not in the interrogation chamber,” she said at last.
“This is easy to correct,” Lemach informed. Local hypertunnels lead to control centers, to the bridge… to the prison.
“The boy should be put in prison.”
“Have you been hunting him? Well-well-well… What did he do, little rascal? Has he perhaps burnt down the ministry of education on Incedios?”
“He knew too much.”
“Why ‘knew’?”
“Because he must not leave here. He has the aThan and this complicates matters… but we must be able to handle that.”
Lemach smacked his tongue.
“We? That’s great. But how are we going to handle the immortality?”
“The boy will explain.”
Admiral stood up and Kahl noticed the deliberate abruptness of his gestures. It appeared, Lemach had not yet fully played with his new… or old and forgotten body.
“Speak up.”
“This is Arthur Curtis, the son of Curtis Van Curtis.”
Her words had the desired effect, there were flickers of fear and perplexity on Lemach’s face. Pushing forward, Kahl explained:
“His father is probably using him in some extremely important mission. So important that even aThan would be just a toy compared to it.”
Lemach paced along the office and asked sharply:
“Why did you kill my men?”
“You shouldn’t have put a convoy to me. I wanted to prove I cooperate willingly. Besides, they all have the aThan. I hurt only their wallets and self-esteem. If we made the boy talk the immortality would be as affordable for us as it is for Curtis.
“Perhaps,” Lemach approached Kahl and looked into her eyes:
“You’re offering me a gamble that can kill us in a couple of moments. If the boy dies and his father knows about what had happened.”
“But the prize is also great.”
“And why do you want to share it between us? The stooges don’t count.”
“Because the boy is immune to drugs and endures the Thee ‘C’ without a cry. I need a powerful ally whose interrogation school differs from ours.” Kahl replied honestly. And after a moment’s pause she added, “Besides, I like you admiral. Especially now.”
“Your luck is double then… In this body I’m inclined to gamble,” Lemach turned to the desk, looked at some screen which was invisible to Kahl, touched the sensor and ordered: “Put the boy into the prison block under close supervision. The detainees are free to move around the base with no right to leave it. Arrange cabins for them.”
He looked at Kahl again and noted:
“That’s funny… especially the fact that Curtis sends the young son into space. I have good specialists. They will start working immediately. The boy will talk.”
“Thank you, Lemach.” Kahl didn’t move.
“I suppose, our strange alliance should be sealed with a small banquet,” the admiral lifter his arms, “Would you like a candlelight dinner?”
“I’d be glad to, as well as a breakfast in the bed,” Isabelle said sincerely feeling relaxed.

----------


## basurero

> 5 
> “Bitch” Ralph Gordon said. There was no hate in his voice, but rather surprise. The sergeant looked much younger, but Isabelle immediately recognized him. She smiled tensely and gave him some advice:
> “Don’t get distracted. Lemach is waiting, isn’t he?”
> Gordon stared at her again and she thought that assigning a man whom she’d killed as her convoy wasn’t incidental of course.
> “Move,” Gordon commanded.
> They were escorted along the corridors of the orbital base by a convoy consisting of twelve men – a reasonable precaution considering the capabilities of the Meklon and the mechanist. Kahl demonstratively took off her armor and weapon. Arthur was walking alongside Marjan – an injection of stimulant allowed him to walk after the Three ‘C’ level interrogations(?). The boy was only dragging his leg slightly and squinted painfully when they were walking past bright lamps. They were escorted into a small oval hall at last. There was an automatic stationary turret mounted on the ceiling and the metal walls were fritted (my dictionary tells me such a word does not exist) in some places.
> “Everyone except Kahl,” her name sounded like a swear word in Gordon’s voice, “will wait here.”
> Escorted by two guards and Ralph, Isabelle was transported to the central sector of the base. Lemach was waiting for her in his office, not in the prison cell, and that was a small victory in itself.
> There was a guard beside Lemach’s apartments. Kahl prepared to wait but the door opened immediately. Ralph pushed her into the office.
> ...

----------


## Ramil

> fritted (my dictionary tells me such a word does not exist)

 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fritted 
Metal melted under laser fire then hardened again. 
Sintered maybe? 
Any alternatives? Anybody?

----------


## Ramil

6 
The ‘Seraph’ was the best armor model Kay had ever worked with. He’d been training for five hours in a row not because this was really necessary, but because the process itself was a pleasure. Tommy was training in another gym with Family instructors. Kay wasn’t too overconfident to rely on his teaching skills.
Saker appeared when he’d started to remove the armor. She looked around the room critically – crushed wall panels, grinded rock all over the metal floor, bent pipes of the exercise machines, and the fixed armor plate in the center. There was a hole melted through the three-inch thick armor plate that repeated the contour of a human body.
“Let me help you,” she said.
The gray ceramic plates were heavy and hot. As she was aptly unfastening one piece after another Duch emerged gradually from under his fancy shell. He was streaming with perspiration, tired, and having unusually soft eyes.
“Got used to it?” Lika put her hands on Kay’s shoulders. While still sitting on the floor in the middle of the scattered segments of armor, he threw back his head submitting to her touch.
“It feels as if I’d been born in it. Only my legs are aching.”
“I’ll order to adjust the boosters,” Saker had finished with his shoulders and started massaging his neck.
“Don’t. I must feel my weight. So, speak up.”
“Kahl is onboard Lemach’s orbital base. The Meklon and the mechanists are with her. The boy is in the interrogation center of the base.”
Kay stood up, tenderly put his hands on Lika’s shoulders and simply said:
“Thank you. I will never forget this. Tell them to prepare my ship.”
Saker was silent for a moment eyeing Kay and then asked:
“Did Curtis promise you so much, my landsman?"
Kay’s face didn’t falter.
“It’s not about Curtis anymore, sister.”
“Will you tell me?”
“The ship!”
“It’s being prepared, Kay. Can you tell me anything?”
Duch shook his head.
“Kay, the Imperial military base is not a rural prison. They have guns against your armor and armor against your guns, and several hundred professionals also.”
“I know. How much time do I have?”
“Five hours. Don’t make faces, your barge is being equipped with a cloaking device and an additional engine. You’ll reach Dogar in twelve hours. You simply can’t get there faster. Besides, I need time to elaborate the plan… logic has never been your finest point.”
They left the hall together – Lika Saker in a long dark dress and half-naked Kay Duch. The technicians had already started attending the armor – the ‘Seraph’ needed a thorough checking and recharging.
“Kas/s/is and Andrew are going with you. I trust them.”
“Metal against metal?”
“Do we have any other choice? I’ll give you a couple of grunts. They have suppressed self-preservation instinct so you can take full advantage of it.”
“All right. Lika, who is your doc?”
The woman winced.
“What do you want?”
“Everything you can give me.” 
The doctor was young, with a short beard and idle gaze from under his glasses. His movements were very slow. He examined Kay, then having left him lying on a diagnostic couch, he took his time monitoring the lines that were running on a display.
“You are completely healthy.”
“I know, but that’s not enough.”
“How much time do we have?”
“Nearly no time at all.”
The doctor leaned back in the armchair eyeing Kay with calm curiosity.
“Don’t you care for yourself at all, pal?”
“No. Suggest away.”
Saker who was standing in the corner nodded slightly. The doctor shrugged and adjusted his glasses. Then he warned:
“I won’t recover you afterwards.”
“I understand.”
“Is it a one-time mission?”
“Yes. Two, maybe three hours.”
“Good. We’ll implant polymeric cytostims into your muscles, also subdermal keroplast, cardiodriver and hormonomodulator. Plus the usual combat cocktail.”
“Get to work,” Kay said closing his eyes.
Saker was quietly watching as they were administering injections into his muscles. The turbid yellow liquid was hard to inject even through the thickest needles. Then the cybernetic surgeon that looked like a large metal spider, apparently of the Meklon manufacture, plunged a hollow tentacle into Kay’s chest between the third and fourth rib on the left. The tiny capsule of a cardiodriver slid along the tentacle and sticked to the myocardium.
Saker left the room.
“How long will it take?” Kay asked. The doctor who was busy programming the pharmacologic synthesizer shook his head:
“Half an hour.”
The cybernetic surgeon swept a blood drop from his skin, sprayed with fixing gel on it and crawled off.
The doctor produced a small device from the glass cabinet – a glossy brush of narrow needles and a transparent bottle with some opalescent liquid that was fixed over it.
“It’s going to be painful,” he informed and put the ‘brush’ against Kay’s body.
The device made a click and the needles plunged into the skin for a moment.
“I could have guessed,” Kay said.
He didn’t make a sound during the whole operation that inspired doctor’s involuntary respect. But that was definitely not easy.

----------


## Ramil

7 
The hyperboat was unrecognizable with all that equipment that the Family technicians had mounted on it. The extra engine cylinder made it look like an ancient shuttle of the end of twentieth century. The cloaking equipment container had to be mounted on the living module and Kay could only shake his head after he’d imagined the new aerodynamics of his ship.
“I did my best,” Lika said.
Wind was blowing in the canyons – a season of rains was about to begin in the southern hemisphere of Gorra. The brown-green heavy clouds were flowing over the rocks carrying water and fertile silt that were raised by hurricanes in the deltas of polar rivers. The granite field of the landing pad that was large enough to harbor a couple of cruisers looked abandoned years ago.
“Thank you,” Kay said. He was feeling bad, his muscles filled with cell stimulants were aching, his skin soaked with ceroplastics was itching, and his liver that was trying to neutralize the alien tissues was in pain.
Kay Duch was unaccustomed to feeling sick.
“Is it really so important for you?” Saker asked.
“Yes, it is.”
He looked at the woman that ruled the Family, smiled faintly and saw her smiling in reply.
“I can’t tell you anything,” Duch said.
“You don’t need to, Kay.”
“You’ll be in trouble because of me.”
“Don’t think about it.”
Kay Duch touched her lips in a passing farewell kiss and stepped back to his ship. He raised his arm, his fingers were clutched together save the thumb that was pointing sideward, and said:
“Shedar.”
“Shedar.”
He started to the open hatch and the woman remained wrapping her body in a short velvet jacket. Saker didn’t bother to step beyond the safety circle and the ship took off ten yards away from her – a grayish black metal hornet ascending on an invisible pillar of the gravity field. The ship flew vertically and the only sound was made by the cracking stone of the launch pad. A hundred meters from the ground the ship slowed down – the pilot switched off the gravity drives and turned the plasma on. Saker remained looking at the flaming flower that was fading in the sky. When the ship disappeared in the clouds she turned around.
Her assistant was standing nearby – a young girl whom she had taken from the Haxian ghetto. The communicator headband on her head looked like a sophisticated decoration.
“The Eldest Son’s ship will land in seven hours, Mother,” said the girl.
Saker nodded.
“Might I suggest…” there was nothing except adoration and anxiety in the girl’s eyes, “the commander of the Equatorial Base is currently under our mental control. If he acts by instructions the ship wouldn’t reach the surface of the planet.”
Lika shook her head.
“The Eldest Son is furious,” the girl said quietly, “we have gone against the ISS and the army… he might call up a Family meeting.”
“The Mother doesn’t kill her children,” Saker said. For the first time there was something like irony in the girl’s eyes:
“And can children kill their mother?”
“It’s their right.” 
Kay’s ship was not designed to carry six passengers. It had neither space, nor life-support resources. Fortunately, both the Meklon and the cyborg required a lot less oxygen and food than humans and their flight promised to be a short one.
The grunts that Lika gave him turned out to be two young fellows as like as two peas in a pod – either twins… or some very impudent clones. Kay talked with them a little, watched them control the ship and left them in the control room with a safe conscience. The guys were well prepared, pity they had chosen to join the Family.
The Meklon and the cyborg were sitting on the cabin floor. They were either chatting on frequencies unavailable to humans or were playing some game in a virtual space.
“A question, Kas/s/is,” Kay said. The ugly reptilian head turned to him.
“One of our opponents will be a Meklon. Do you have any problems with that?”
“Do you have any problems with the prospect of fighting human opponents?”, the alien asked in reply.
“Good. Another question. Your compatriot has asynchronous movement of his limb in travelling transformation. What does it mean?”
The Meklon was silent for a couple of seconds. Then it said:
“Either there was inaccurate concretion of neural circuits on the cyborgization phase or it was deliberately enhancing its primary function.”
“I don’t understand,” Kay admitted. The Meklon made almost human a shrug:
“The surgeon had butter fingers, got it? This is the first case. And the second one – our opponent was trying to achieve maximum efficiency in one of its transformation. A combat one, for example. It chose to ignore the little inconveniences in the rest pose and other transformations.”
“And what’s in it for us?”
“The former gives me an advantage in a fight, the latter is the other way around.”
“And for me?”
“It doesn’t matter for you,” the Meklon informed him confidently, “If you don’t shoot first – you’re finished.”
“Thanks.”
“You are welcome.”
“Can you rest here?”
“Of course,” Kas/s/is felt that the conversation is over and turned to the cyborg that had never said a word during the whole conversation.
In his cabin, Kay shooed Tommy away from his bed, dropped the thin mattress on the floor and took clean bed-clothes from the cabinet. Then he said:
“You’ll sleep on the floor tonight, all right?”
This lack of hospitality didn’t surprise Tommy. But Kay’s clear intention to go to sleep immediately did.
“We are going to fight soon!”
“We? ‘We have arrived’ said the fly in the cargo hold,” Kay smirked as he was making himself comfortable, “You’ll have the only task – not to get under fire. And it’s still eleven hours till we fight.”
Tommy chuckled and settled on the floor obediently. Then he asked:
“Aren’t you afraid at all?”
“I am. Ship!”
“I’m listening, my friend,” there was a hoarse reply from the ceiling.
“Do you like these pilots?”
“They are all right. The one that has just left to sleep was better, but the remaining one is not bad at all too. Aren’t you jealous?”
“For god’s sake, have fun… And what about this metalware they had attached to you?”
“The engine is a bit stupid but obedient… The cloaking device has opinions. We’ll see how it works.”
“We’ll see,” Kay agreed, “Turn off the light. And wake me up in eight hours… or if the boy tries to kill me.”
“I’ll make him regret that,” the ship promised bleakly, “Sleep well, master.”
Oddly enough, Duch managed to fall asleep only half an hour later when Tommy had already been breathing steadily having lost the fight with fatigue. Kay was afraid and his skin was itching too.

----------


## Ramil

8 
The freighter loaded with frozen meat approached the orbital base several hours ahead of schedule. The officer on duty mentally swore at the pilot who thought he was a speedracer – there wasn’t enough room left on the landing deck. But it was futile to explain the meaning of the word ‘punctuality’ to the civilians. The pilot could easily dump the cargo container and drive his old freighter ‘down’ to the simple entertainments of Dogar.
The officer ordered to drive a passenger shuttle that had been awaiting a group of Endorian tourists to the parking zone and stared at the screen gloomily. The decades of peace had turned the military station into a Lord knows what – into a terminal point for civilian ships, an orbital warehouse, or a cheap parking lot for screwy pilots…
The freighter docked surprisingly easy as if the huge container with mutton was empty… or there was no container at all.
The officer looked at the control panel again – everything was in order. The pilot answered all the required questions, reported his number and the standard password, transmitted the authentication code… and even provided the magenta clearance code. It was more than enough.
After a moment of hesitation, the officer demanded the red clearance code. The automatic responder of the freighter provided it after a short delay. In a minute it obediently provided the white one as well.
The officer was still thinking about how the civilian freighter could possibly know the codes that were intended for military ships of the cruiser class only and whether that was too good for to be true when shots sounded from the landing deck. 
The meklon was first to exit the ship. Immediately after it followed the twin grunts. Kay chose not to ask about their names. It was foolish to allow any hint of human feelings for the pawns.
Duch jumped out the hatch and heard a shot even before his legs touched the frayed floor plates. The meklon who didn’t require any external weapon activated its plasma generator.
The faltering flame made a sigh and Kay could see a spider-like machine writhing in it. Unfortunately, each dock of the military base had a sentry robot. Unfortunately, it clearly had the time to sound the alarm.
“Here goes!” shouted one of the twins. The ancient war cry of the kamikaze pilots sounded ridiculous, but a series of laser charges smoothed the impression over. The Family hitman swept through the hangar corners with the beam – the internal control sensors were usually mounted there. There were clouds of vapor of the moisture that had condensed when the docking hatch was open.
The second fighter ran around the ship in a businesslike manner and stopped. The fusion rifle in his hands was twitching its barrel slightly – apparently this was an intellectual model.
“Kas/s/is, the door!” Kay ordered belatedly. The meklon who looked like a hexapod horse on its hind legs was already hanging over the armored door plate.
Tommy exited the ship which now looked like an old freighter. His armor was programmed to follow Kay so it came to Duch and stopped behind his back. The boy stared at the burning robot through the blue ice of armored glass.
The door started to slide into the floor with no apparent effort seen from Kas/s/is. As soon as the gap width was about half-meter wide, the meklon changed its transformation and jumped over it. There was a slight noise behind it.
Cyborg was the last who emerged from the ship. He started walking towards the door slowly, but so efficiently that he reached it in the moment it had opened completely. There was a wide illuminated corridor that stretched to the base store holds. The meklon was standing five meters away from the door. Under his fore legs there was a still human body. Bluish flashes of working neural emitter were struggling with the white light of ceiling lamps. Kas/s/is was firing barrages along the corridor.
There was no need to talk anything over. The twins were already running along the corridor and the meklon was moving between them like a small tank. Kay followed them – the ‘Seraph’ carried four hundred and fifty pounds of its weights with a grace of a young bulrathi. The ‘Excalibur’ that they had handed him before his departure seemed weightless in the manipulators of his powered armor. It looked like an ordinary emitter either neutron or tachyon… only the enormously thick barrel didn’t conform to the ordinary design of human weapon.
Duch was sincerely hoping that not everything that Saker had said about the ‘Excalibur’ was a joke. 
The last thing that the cameras had transmitted from the hangar put the officer in shock. The sentry robot was in flames, the meklon froze before the door and some men wearing powered armor were shooting at the survey sensors.
He struck the general alert button and shouted:
“The base is under attack! The intrusion through the seventeenth cargo dock!”
The junior shift officer was already running to him from the auxiliary controls. This was a breach of regulation, but there was no time to react on this. The officer was hastily answering the questions that were appearing on the screen. The main computer of the base was developing a plan of repelling the attack and every bit of information could decide the outcome.
“The intrusion by a ruse…”
A passenger shuttle which was heading for the base was ordered to change its course on penalty of immediate destruction.
“Meklons and humans…”
The cabins with aliens in were locked up. The meklon who was exercising in the gym received a radio order to adopt a submission pose and the automatic turret took an aim on it.
“Heavy weaponry, powered armor…” 
The red sector of the armory was unlocked.
“Numbers are unknown…” all personnel having the right to carry arms were on alert.
“No contact with the aggressors…”
The door to the control room exploded filling the room with shrapnel of molten steel. The officer had only noticed a human figure in a powered armor before the whole room was engulfed in flame.
The sentry robot whose line of fire was blocked by a flaming body of the junior shift officer made the only possible choice. A plasma blast stopped the man’s agony and struck in the attacker’s armor.
The ‘Seraph’ held the blow, but it knocked him off foot. He was thrown away from the door, dragged all the way to the opposite wall and hit hard against it. For a moment the Family grunt was lying still. Then he rose with a quiet giggle. The room behind the wrecked doorframe was in flames. The servomotors were humming a little bit louder than usual and the movements of his left leg became a bit awkward… but these were small things and of no moment.

----------


## basurero

> The ‘Seraph’ was the best armor model Kay had ever worked with. He’d been training for five hours in a row not because this was really necessary, but because the process itself was a pleasure. Tommy was training in another gym with Family instructors. Kay wasn’t too overconfident to rely on his teaching skills.
> Saker entered the room when he’d started to remove the armor. She looked around the room critically – crushed wall panels, ground rock all over the metal floor, the bent pipes of the exercise machines, and the fixed armor plate in the center. There was a hole melted through the three-inch thick armor plate that had the shape(?) of a human body.
> “Let me help you,” she said.
> The gray ceramic plates were heavy and hot. As she was aptly unfastening one piece after another Duch emerged gradually from under his fancy shell. He was streaming with perspiration, tired, and his eyes were unusually soft.
> “Got used to it?” Lika put her hands on Kay’s shoulders. While still sitting on the floor amongst the scattered pieces of armor, he threw back his head submitting to her touch.
> “It feels as if I’d been born in it. Only my legs are aching.”
> “I’ll order to adjust the boosters,” Saker had finished with his shoulders and started massaging his neck.
> “Don’t. I must feel my weight. So, speak up.”
> “Kahl is on board Lemach’s orbital base. The Meklon and the mechanists are with her. The boy is in the interrogation center of the base.”
> ...

 This story is rather difficult to follow...
By the way, sentences like "Saker was quietly watching as they were administering injections into his muscles" don't sound very good and should be used sparingly. I would prefer "Saker quietly watched as they administered injections into his muscles".

----------


## Ramil

Thank you, basurero, your help is much appreciated. 
9 
The sound of the intercom was loud enough to wake up not only Lemach, but Kahl also.
“What?” Isabelle couldn’t see the admiral in darkness, only a slight rustle suggested that he had just half-rose in the bed. The very tone of the signal seemed to promise nothing but trouble to the admiral.
“Red square.”
Lemach jumped off the bed. Kahl heard him muttering a curse and asked:
“Trouble?”
“Armed assault on the base,” Lemach replied after a moment’s hesitation.
Isabelle turned on the bed lamp. Lemach was already dressed and was fastening the intercom disk to the collar. The informer’s whisper was scarcely audible.
“They’re after the boy,” Kahl said.
“Nonsense! Curtis wouldn’t risk it.”
“It’s Kay Althos.”
Lemach silently took his sidearm from the safe and girded it to his belt, then he produced an emitter that was unfamiliar to Kahl – with an unusually broad barrel.
The rejuvenated admiral apparently wanted to shoot a little.
“I’m going to the prison block,” Kahl said as she was putting her skirt on, “so do my men.”
“Only men, Isabelle. There is a meklon among the attackers – all aliens on the base were isolated. You can use my hypertunnel.”
“But I need T/san!”
“That’s too bad.”
“Lemach!”
“This is ridiculous, Kahl!” Lemach said and ran out the cabin.
“A xenophobe…” Isabelle hissed as she was gathering up her hair on the back of her head and fixing them with a clasp-pin, “an old fart…” 
As it was expected, they met the first serious opposition on the boundary between technical and living decks of the base. Kas/s/is, having just turned around the corner, immediately rattled back resembling a fiery fireball. Drops of molten metal were dripping from the transparent force field bubble that shielded its head. Its left paw was pressed tightly against its belly.
“Many,” informed the meklon.
The twins jumped to the corner without talking. The one with the intellectual gun tried to stick the barrel around the corner. The gun made a squeaking sound and jerked back. To his surprise, Kay even felt a moment of sympathy towards this dead metal thing. The fire-swept part of the corridor resembled nozzles of a launching cruiser – varicolored beams and overpowering heat, even though he couldn’t feel it through the armor but it was physically real nevertheless. The barely audible sound of exploding ceiling lamps accompanied the scene.
“The wall behind your back, Kay,” the meklon said, “Work, I am self-repairing.”
Kay glanced at Andrew just to be on the safe side – the cyborg, like the meklon, kept the detailed plans of the base in his semi-electronic memory. Andrew nodded while still looking at Kas/s/is. Its damaged limb disappeared somewhere in its belly under the scales. It looked like the cyborg envied the alien.
The ‘Excalibur’ fired. In a violet flash, a segment of the wall turned into a reddish puddle on the floor. Still, there was nothing new – Kay used to work with tachyon emitters before. Through the darkness of the opened gap he could see a narrow corridor filled with cables and pipes.
“No dangerous communications,” kindly informed the meklon.
Kay stepped over the smoking puddle that had started to get hard again. He tore a cable with his hand and tried to bend a thin annulated pipe. It turned out to be surprisingly resilient and he activated the combat mode of his armor with a slight movement of his chin. Tiny white sparks started dancing on the armor plates engulfing Kay in the light that was hard for his eyes. The stubborn pipe melted in his hands and a jet of compressed gas spurted out of its torn ends.
“I sense someone approaching,” Andrew said flatly, “Three in armor.”
Kay walked straight through. Pipes were exploding and melting, the assorted liquids that came out in fountains were making hissing noises. Electric sparks added to the illumination.
The meklon stretched, resembling now a five-legged steel worm, and trotted after Kay. The rest were moving behind. A small water trickle reached the puddle of molten metal and exploded with a cloud of vapor which made the cyborg that was going last to give a startled jump.
“How is your paw?” inquired Kay in a couple of minutes. The technical corridor they were walking along was twisting and turning but still led them in the right direction.
“Better already. Don’t touch this pipe.”
Kay ducked under the pipe wrapped in fibrous insulation and asked:
“Why?”
“Liquid nitrogen. I’m afraid to catch cold.”
The corridor ended in a round shaft. There were plastic step brackets on the wall… unfortunately those who had built this base did not foresee repair technicians wearing powered armor.
“Up,” the meklon decided, “it has to be clearer and fresher there.”
Kay deactivated the combat mode of his armor and carefully tried the bracket. It held.
“Your species used to have no sense of humor at all,” he said to the meklon. He carefully lifted his weight bending off the vertical pipe with his back.
“Simply our sense of what is funny differs from the human one. But since your humor was a major factor of military victories we try to adopt it.”
“Another two or three generations and you’ll succeed.”
“We think the same.”
One bracket broke and Kay was about to fall on the meklon’s head. He stopped talking after this. 
He was turning at Kas/s/is indications, breaking through some obstacles and carefully avoiding the other.
They had been moving so for fourteen minutes when Andrew who was at their rear informed that the pursuit was getting closer.

----------


## Ramil

10 
Arthur woke up. His diseased and drugged unconsciousness was hardly a normal sleep but he was deprived of anything else. He was shivering – he had already got used to this feeling and his head was aching.
The doctor was sitting by his bed. It was a middle-aged man in a pale green robe with a very serious and knowing face. He slightly resembled Hari Nerisyan who treated Arthur in his childhood – and that was unfair somehow.
“He’s awake,” the doctor said looking at the boy, “We’ve made a full blood transfusion and a ray treatment of his bone marrow. I think, his immunity has gone, but I advise to wait a bit with your questions.”
“Thank you, you may leave.”
Arthur saw Kahl. She was wearing a light armor that was as appropriate in the white ward as a pile of manure on a computer keyboard.
“I will kill you,” Arthur said. The doctor left casting a quick glance at him.
“I don’t think you will ever accomplish that, boy.”
“I’m tired of you.”
Kahl stretched her arm and patted his cheek. Arthur had no strength left even to turn away.
“You know, your friend is trying to free you,” she informed.
“So what?”
“I think you will see him soon. Not for long though,” Isabelle looked over Arthur at somebody staying at the bed-head, “We have another ten or fifteen minutes. I will try to get T/san… we’re going to need him.” 
Kay Duch didn’t like killing. The fact of death of certain men per se pleased him sometimes, but he had never liked the process itself.
The way of killing that the ‘Seraph’ offered was definitely not to Kay’s liking.
He unclenched his armored fists. The plasma sparks licked the scorched body for the last time and disappeared. It was the body of a young fellow who wasn’t even wearing armor with some weak emitter that he’d never had the chance to use…
They exited the technical corridor the same way they had entered it – by melting through the wall. They appeared in the barracks with nobody else but the orderly soldier – everyone else were busy looking for them.
“The pursuit is approaching,” Andrew said. He was busy mining the hole in the wall – it was probably as futile as before. They had left a dozen trip-mines behind them, but none exploded. Cyborgs were not the only ones who had fine sensors.
“Mine the body,” Kay ordered. He walked along the neat berths and carefully cracked the door open. He saw a large hall with the walls overgrown with lianas and the grass that grew right through the soft porous floor. A pretty but not very convincing hologram of the sky masked the ceiling.
“Some recreational zone?” the Meklon inquired. He quietly produced his damaged paw from his belly and now was trying to step on it.
“Yes.”
“It is two hundred and forty meters to the prison block.”
Tommy walked by. His armor was still following Kay. He stopped holding his ‘Argument’ at the ready apparently thinking that he wouldn’t have the chance to shoot it.
“Let’s go,” Andrew stepped back from the dead body and quickly walked towards Kay. There was no emotion in the cyborg’s voice, just a hint of pride for the well done work.
They ran along the recreational zone. Andrew sometimes stopped and fixed small disks on the trees, pushed them into the floor or threw them through the ‘sky’. The disks immediately stuck, changed colors to fit the surroundings and spread over the surfaces.
“It would be wise to leave an ambush,” suddenly said one of the twins – the one that destroyed the control room, “My right-leg servomotors are damaged and I can’t maintain the necessary speed.”
“You’ll have to,” Kay said.
There were doors leading to a couple dozens barracks in the recreational area. There were orderly soldiers there as well most probably, but, to their luck, the soundproof walls didn’t allow them to hear the steps and die.
There was the only exit – a broad corridor leading to the transportation node of the living sector of the base. The corridor from the prison block led to the same place.
“By using more boarding operations we would have beaten the humans,” the Meklon noted. His voice was flat, the reptilian cyborgs had long since separated the functions of speech and gas exchange, “Your bases are defenseless.”
Kay didn’t answer, unlike the Meklon he had to spare his breath. They ran into the corridor. It was empty and quiet. Too quiet. They covered fifty meters in seven seconds – even the wall sentry niches were empty. The square hall of the transportation terminal looked abandoned. The elevator doors were open, there was nobody in the adjoining corridors.
Too quiet, too empty.
A deadly luck!
“Keep back,” Kay shouted readying the ‘Excalibur’. The Meklon stretched its limbs with a rattle and switched into the combat transformation. At this very moment those who had been waiting in ambush were ordered to attack.
Personal warpspace devices were the brand-new technology unavailable even to the Family. The clapping of disabled generators joined into a steady noise and people in powered armor started to appear everywhere – past them, in other corridors and in the terminal hall. One of them materialized in the very place where Andrew was standing and the cyborg was thrown aside under the Meklon who now looked like a huge spider.
Nobody wanted to take them alive, apparently.
Kay took two hits before he opened fire – without looking at the enemy and heavily hopping from place to place. The ‘Seraph’ held perfectly. A cloud of strange iridescent vapor appeared over the point where a laser beam had hit. A plasma blast seemed to inflict no damage at all.
The attackers were too many. They avoided using heavy weaponry in order not to hit each other. And their tiny party got a small chance.
The Meklon galloped in a funny manner along the perimeter on his hind legs, its plasma gun that protruded from its chest was firing without stop. Its fore paws tirelessly delivered awful blows to the attackers.
It was the most dangerous foe and, as it happens frequently, made their opponents to forget about the others.
Andrew and Tommy were the first to open the return fire. The cyborg, lacking emotions and having unhuman reactions fired an automatic laser connected to his nerve circuits directly. The boy only needed to pull the trigger to make his ‘Argument’ start delivering plasma to everyone who was not in the ‘friendly’ list.
The eight-seconds’ fire exchange taught a perfect lesson to the commander of the soldiers. Kay noticed that the enemies started to retreat into the corridors and those who were blocked activated some devices that were attached on their belts and simply disappeared in local space wraps. They were clearing the battlefield for some new character… and there was too much open space for his appearance.
“To the walls!” Kay shouted backing away. His armor was still working perfectly but there was no such thing as ideal armor.
Kas/s/is fired a short series of charges after the retreating soldiers and, without stopping, jumped to the wall. In a moment it was already crawling at the ceiling. Its head was extended to maximum and was swinging back and forth. It wasn’t hard to deduce what will go into action next… and the only thing that could help them now were the Meklon’s reaction and its unusual position.
Andrew rose and moved its laser from side to side. There was something wrong with his armor – it smoked and there was flame on the scales. It didn’t look like the combat mode of the ‘Seraph’ – more likely some stuff had managed to set fire to the metal ceramic scales. They didn’t even have time to put out the flame…
Kay saw one of the twins on the left. He was battered, but intact. The second one was lying still near the soldiers’ bodies. His armor was scorched.
Tommy was the luckiest one. Even his armor seemed intact.
“Watch the corridors!” Kay shouted. He suppressed the urge to fire after the soldiers disappearing around the corner. The enemy could appear at every moment and he needed full reaction rate the perceptions of a super could provide. 
“You shouldn’t have called back the assault group,” Lemach said. The base commanded gave him a malevolent gaze.
“The six of them aren’t going anywhere already, admiral. You can throw people to death on your ships, but I prefer to lose machines.”
Light ripples appeared on the screen showing the terminal hall, apparently someone, perhaps the Meklon, was jamming the signal, but it was unable, of course, to suppress all internal surveillance systems.
“I wouldn’t rely too much on machines,” Lemach said. He was sitting behind the base commander at the backup control post. The controls must have been locked – the relations between the base commander and the admiral weren’t what one might call friendly.
“You don’t have to…” the commander touched the intercom button, “Why the ‘Hunter’ lingers so long?”
“It has its own logic,” the invisible counterpart replied without any particular respect, “it has to pick the right moment.”
“Speed it up!”
“It’s pointless,” Lemach said, “pointless.”
He’d been watching the man who appeared to be in command of the attackers for over a minute already. If one chose to believe Kahl, this was Kay Althos – the bodyguard of Arthur Curtis. The powered armor (not just some armor, but the newest ‘Seraph’!) concealed his figure and its lowered visor shielded his face. But he could clearly see his weapon – the ‘Excalibur’.
Lemach beckoned the orderly officer and whispered:
“Call off our men from the prison block and the corridors leading to the docking bays.”
The young lieutenant gave Lemach a quizzical look. The admiral sighed:
“The inner security think they are tough. They are mistaken. Call of our men.”
Then he made himself comfortable and prepared to enjoy the show.

----------


## basurero

> 7 
> The hyperboat was unrecognizable with all that equipment that the Family technicians had mounted on it. The extra engine cylinder made it look like an ancient shuttle from the end of the twentieth century. The cloaking equipment container had to be mounted on the living module and Kay could only shake his head when he imagined the new aerodynamics of his ship.
> “I did my best,” Lika said.
> Wind was blowing in the canyons – the rainy season was about to begin in the southern hemisphere of Gorra.  _Brown-green, heavy clouds were floating over the rocks, carrying water and fertile silt _raised by hurricanes in the deltas of polar rivers. The granite field of the landing pad that was large enough to harbor a couple of cruisers, apparently (?) abandoned years ago.
> “Thank you,” Kay said. He was feeling bad, his muscles, filled with cell stimulants, were aching, his skin, soaked with ceroplastics ,was itching, and his liver, which was trying to neutralize the alien tissues, was in pain.
> Kay Duch was unaccustomed to feeling sick.
> “Is it really so important for you?” Saker asked.
> “Yes, it is.”
> He looked at the woman that ruled the Family, smiled faintly and saw her smiling in reply.
> ...

----------


## Ramil

11 
The ‘Hunter’ was a counter-terrorist robot that was designed specifically for working onboard spaceships or space stations. It was in fact very close to being ideal.
Its three independent laser turrets were powerful enough to penetrate any armor. Its targeting systems ensured nearly one hundred percent accuracy, its reactions were even higher than of the Meklons and its logical circuits had a free model of behavior.
Now the ‘Hunter’ was lashed by a direct order – to speed up the destruction of terrorists. This was wrong – these people had not yet relaxed after the fight, they were still ready…
An ‘eye’, thin like a spider-web, that was extended around the corner was studying the opponents. Together with the feed from the inner surveillance systems it ensured a full picture of the situation.
A Meklon is on the ceiling. The head segment is extended and is moving in random directions. Unfavorable, but it wouldn’t have time to react upon the attack when it is looking in the directions opposite from the Hunter’s.
A man in the armor with a fusion rifle. He is looking at one of the dead bodies. Unlikely to react in time.
A small man with an intellectual gun. Might react but his emitter is low-powered.
A cyborg (the robot sensed the pulsation of electromagnetic fields) with a heavy laser repeater. Dangerous, but he is looking in the opposite direction and his armor is on fire. The performance must be lowered.
A tall man with a powerful tachyon emitter. The movements are very fast and precise. Very dangerous.
The ‘Hunter’ designated three primary targets: the Meklon, the cyborg and the man with a tachyon emitter. The heuristic circuits have made the computation – the enemies had no chances at all.
Six powerful paws, a copy of the Meklon technology, prepared for a jump. The laser turrets started moving and the ‘Hunter’ jumped. The enemies had no chances.
The robot flew out of the corridor seeing how the man was slowly raising his emitter, and the Meklon with the cyborg were turning. They were late. Too late.
A tachyon beam, slowed to the speed of light, appeared in its nerve center. The robot ignored this fact for being simply impossible. It was still trying to execute the order to open fire despite the fact that its metal body had already failed to obey. Its quasi-intelligent emitters were still awaiting the order to fire.
Then the blows from the fusion rifle and the Meklon’s plasma gun turned the ‘Hunter’ into hundreds of scorched pieces. This was understandable and explainable. The robot ceased to function without any emotions which it had been never programmed for. 
“No!” the commander cried out, “NO!”
Lemach suppressed the laughter. There was nothing good, of course, in the destruction of the ‘Hunter’ but this insolent smart-ass required a lesson.
“Why?” the commander asked being quieter this time. He turned to Lemach and said imploringly: “How did they manage to beat the robot?”
“I never rely on machines,” Lemach noted in a vindictive tone. His young and healthy body demanded emotions, fights and intrigue. He should have undergone the aThan long ago…
“How?” the commander repeated in a dead voice.
“One of them has an ‘Excalibur’ apparently,” Lemach informed.
“So what?”
“The tachyon weapon has special relations with time,” Lemach tenderly patted the barrel of its own ‘Excalibur’. You know, this gun fires nearly a second before you pull the trigger. Don’t you have clearance to the information classified under the ‘Blade’ label? I’m very sorry.” 
The survived twin broke down. Kay understood that immediately, even though the man didn’t say a word when his brother was killed. He reacted too slowly upon the appearance of the robot and too indifferently he accepted their success.
It could very well be that the suppressed self-preservation instinct made his own death unimportant for him, but the death of his brother had stronger effect.
Andrew was not doing very well either. His armor stopped burning, but its functionality lowered a great deal. The worse of all was the fact that all the sensors that were mounted on his armor were lost. He was still walking at their rear, but it was a coercive measure now.
Tommy was the only one whom luck continued to smile at. He had shot his fill, he didn’t receive any serious hits and seemed to have lost his grip on reality completely. Key mentally noted that but there was no time to bring Tommy to reason.
In spite of everything, they had easily made it to the prison block. There were a couple of shots at great distances and several closed hatches on their way which Kas/s/is blew out with its gun.
The last door had to be melted with all their guns – the prison was solidly built. But there weren’t anybody behind it. There was a round hall with empty chairs for the guards and control equipment that still worked…
“Anyone can put a paw into plasma,” the Meklon said showing a good knowledge of Bulrathi sayings, “but seldom one can pull it back intact.”
“We are already up to our ears in… plasma,” Kay said as he was walking to the control panels. Nobody shot at him. There was nobody to shoot – the prison was surrendered without a fight.
Andrew followed him making creaking sounds and dropping small chips of his armor on the clean floor along the way. He took off his glove with some effort and put his hand on the interface panel. Then he said:
“Thirty seconds to remove passwords.”
“We have plenty of time,” Kay grumbled looking around.
“Twenty.”
“Shoot me before you tell me the boy isn’t here.”
“I’m forbidden to kill you. Ten seconds.”
“Kas/s/is, destroy the detectors,” Kay asked
“I’m doing that as well,” the cyborg noted.
“Never mind.”
The Meklon studied the room then it rose on his hind legs stretching up nearly to the ceiling. A thin barrel appeared from under its chin. For a few moments Kas/s/is explored the room then its laser started working, melting small holes and craters in the walls and the ceiling.
“I am in the local network,” Andrew said, “Standard regime… no… disciplinary regime… no… special regime… no…”
“Damn it,” Kay said feeling as failure loomed over him.
“Infirmary… yes.”
“Infirmary?”
“He’s been under the Four ‘C’ interrogation. I’m forming a corridor.
Kay held a curse. Four ‘C’! It wasn’t even crippling forms of interrogation – it was a methodical vivisection on the edge between life and death.
Whatever lay audience might say about the ISS and the army, Kay had never heard about a fourth level interrogation being applied to a child.
“Will you fit through the corridor?” he asked Kas/s/is looking at the expanding wall.
“Probably yes.”
“We two will go then,” Kay looked at Tommy. It would have taken too long to switch off the following program, “Three of us. Andrew, wait here. Try to hold the passage and prepare the retreat.” 
Lemach, now at the main control panel, looked through the disposition of his forces. The prison block was secured both by armored soldiers and the robots that had disgraced themselves. Kay Althos will get his charge… but that wouldn’t change anything. The only thing that worried Lemach were the inner surveillance systems within the prison block which were all blocked. Either it was the Meklon’s work or there was a cyborg among the attackers who could drive the computer networks crazy.
“Maybe we should commit Meklons and Bulrathis?” the commander offered tentatively. Lemach smirked.
“Maybe we will.”
“Or… we could use gas?”
“They are all in armor.”
Lemach contacted the sergeants of the assault groups and issued several orders. The ring around the prison block started to tighten. Losses were inevitable of course; particularly in view that Althos had to be taken alive. But the guys will manage. Lemach knew his people and didn’t doubt their training.
He just could not understand why he allowed the attackers to enter the prison block.
“Admiral…”
Lemach turned over to see his orderly officer, but Isablelle Kahl had already pushed him aside holding the ISS badge in her raised hand.
“What does it mean?”
“We are taking them,” Lemach replied coolly. She shouldn’t have spoken in a tone like that with him… and Kahl changed it.
“Admiral, there are my people in the prison block.”
“Marjan and Luis? I’m very sorry. Still they have all the chances to fulfill their duty.”
Kahl was looking at the admiral and biting her lips. Then she shook her head:
“Things can come to a head in games like that, admiral. They shouldn’t have been allowed near Arthur… they could kill him.”
“I don’t think so,” Lemach relaxed. He suddenly realized what he was trying to achieve. It was a little thing – he just wanted the masque of a victor to be off Kahl’s face. He wanted their little living prize be theirs… equally theirs.
A funny thing – once he got younger he started doing foolish things like an enamored youth.
“Take that Meklon of yours and come to the prison block,” Lemach said, “I’ll be there in six minutes. We’re going to take them all. Together.”

----------


## Ramil

12 
One couldn’t escape from a prison like that. The cells didn’t have doors – they were formed remotely only if necessary.
The corridor was narrow and wasn’t designed for the Meklon, so it changed its form once again. 
“Why didn’t they block the controls?” Kay asked rhetorically, “It looks like they have deliberately let us in.”
“Perhaps,” Kas/s/is agreed, “But should we ponder about that now?”
The door was locked, but the melkon didn’t even spend a charge on it. It just pressed hard with its fore paws against it and broke through.
In a small white room, they saw a doctor at the desk. Having seen the Meklon and two armored people coming in he stood up in haste.
“I am a civilian employee and I have the aThan,” he said quickly, “It is not necessary to kill me. I’m not even obliged to render any opposition… and I’m certainly not going to do that.”
Kay looked around the room. There were three doors and a row of closed glass cabinets. There were medicines, medical tools all around, and a half-disassembled medical robot on a diagnostic stand.
“Where is your patient?” Kay asked.
“The boy? He’s in the intensive care. He can’t be transported, he’s very unstable.”
“You tried hard, as it appears”, Kay said, “where?”
The doctor pointed at one of the doors.
“Is he alone?”
He nodded again, but too hastily this time.
“Kill him, Kas/s/is,” Kay asked.
The Meklon swung its ugly paw and the doctor’s neck made a cracking sound. He slowly fell on the floor with his head turned at unnatural angle.
Kay and the Meklon exchanged glances.
“We’ll try it,” the Meklon decided and graciously walked to the indicated door. Kay stopped two paces to the left. Then he ordered Tommy without turning back:
“Stay behind the door. Watch the room. If anything happens – go to Andrew.”
He turned the plasma mode of the ‘Seraph’ and carefully touched the wall. The plastic was melting like ice in the fire.
“Let’s go,” Kay said.
The Meklon blew the door inwards with a single blow and was already half-way inside. At the same time Kay stepped through the wall.
Arthur was lying on a high and cumbersome bed due to many devices attached to it, covered with a bed sheet. At his head, a bulky man in a bright orange shirt was sitting with a sneer on his face. He was unarmed except a tiny cylinder that he held tightly pressed against the boy’s forehead.
“Hi,” the man said, “Did you kill the doctor? I must admit he deserved that.”
Kay and Arthur silently looked at each other. Kay somehow knew that the boy recognized him, even through the visor of his flaming armor.
“I have a shock grenade here with the safety pin removed,” said the man, “if I die his head would crack like a peanut. Is that clear?”
Arthur’s face was of pale green color and with sunken cheeks. Even his eyes changed somehow… there weren’t the imperiousness of the little prince in them any more.
“You will die too.”
“So what? I have the aThan, thanks to Curtis. But you need the boy alive, right? He doesn’t want to die himself… for some reason.”
“Kay…” Arthur said quietly, “Kill him… we’ll start once again. I promise that we’ll go together.”
The fatman’s face faltered.
“We’ve got options to consider, as you see,” Kay said in a friendly manner, “Well, shall we make an exchange? The boy’s life against yours.”
“No more options,” someone said from behind his back, “lower your weapons and slowly turn around. Slowly, especially you, lizard. Bear in mind that I will react on the opening of embrasures.”
For the first time that day Kay Duch felt that he had lost. He turned around, slowly as the unknown enemy required… unknown, yet having a familiar voice.”
The mechanist with a silver face had them in her sights. Both of them – she had an ‘Ultimatum’ that was jauntily clutched in her left hand. A small pistol was in the right one. Her light armor sooner emphasized her figure rather than concealed it.
Tommy was lying at her foot. His gun was lying nearby.
“You can’t demand too much from a child,” the mechanist said, “he was so fascinated with your conversation… and the stunning ray goes perfectly through metal ceramics. Do you know, Kay, why I didn’t stun you from behind?”
Kay shook his head.
“My name if Marjan. We used to work together.”
“Hi, Mookhamadee,” Kay said, “You’ve changed.”
“Hi, Althos. Our people are on their way and I’m sure you won’t do anything foolish. I don’t care about the lizard, I’ll burn him if it moves. It would be a pity that you too won’t survive… Luis, don’t relax yet!”
“Never intended to!” the man with the shock grenade replied cheering up. The Meklon didn’t turn around, it only turned one of is eyes so that he could see behind.
“You’re doing well up to the mark, generally,” Mokhamadee continued, “You work honestly and stick to the client till the end. You shouldn’t have gotten here, of course, but business is business, I suppose. Have you been dying often?”
“I have.”
“Have you seen anyone of our people? I broke out touch a long time ago.”
“I saw Nick,” Kay said, “He left the League and gone into commerce. He’s on Kulthos now… married.”
“What a lump,” Mookhamadee judged, “How about Dinara?”
“I don’t know. Can I turn the plasma off?”
“Hot, isn’t it? Go ahead.”
The flames went out. Kay stood still not trying to raise the ‘Excalibur’. If it didn’t fire then he wouldn’t have time to pull the trigger… Right, Mister Martynenko?
They allowed to catch themselves so stupidly, so shameful!
“You got above yourself, Kay,” Mookhamadee continued, “It’s too much for you to handle. You should have guarded rich old ladies and…”
There were two flashes. Marjan’s hands exploded in fountains of flesh and metal. The ‘Ultimatum’ that was clutched in her left hand flew to the corner and the pistol simply melted. The next moment Kay was already upon the swaying and shocked mechanist that had lost all her dreadful beauty.
Kay delivered a blow into her chest, feeling the power of the armor with delight. The ribs broke and the woman was thrown back to the wall.
There was a rumble from behind and he heard two merging cries – a thin voice of Arthur and Luis’s shriek.
He kicked Marjan into her chin (there was another cracking, thanks to the servomotors) and dashed to the Meklon. Andrew who was standing at the door continued to aim at the mechanist. He must have had a high opinion upon the vitality of his like.
Kas/s/is didn’t require any help. He was finishing crumpling with its fore paws something that had been a human body a few moments before. One of its middle paws rested on Arthur’s head. There was a smoke over the bed and a small crater in the wall.
“Many humans have high opinion about the role of hair in their appearance,” the Meklon noted without stopping its exercise with an improvised ball, “Whilst we think that hair is an atavism that is unworthy our human friends. The boy should adopt this way of thinking.”
Kay removed the Meklon’s paw from Arthur’s head. Curtis junior wasn’t crying anymore, probably because he had not enough strength left to cry. His hair was burnt and the skin on his head reddened and was covered with blisters.
But, considering the circumstances, the Meklon’s shot that vaporized the shock grenade could be called masterful. Luis didn’t consider the simple fact that the shock grenade didn’t contain any explosive material – just an infrasound generator. If he had anything else in his hands the Meklon wouldn’t be able to do anything.
“Endure it, kid,” Kay said. He stretched his arm to the boy’s face and stopped. The armor was still too hot, “Endure it, kings don’t cry… I will get you out.”
“Perhaps, but for the time being it will be I who will carry him,” the Meklon noted calmly.
“Put him to sleep.”
There was a blue flash.
Kay averted his eyes from the slowly relaxing face. Then he said:
“I’ll take the other one.”
“Are we deviating from the original plan?” inquired Kas/s/is.
“Yes.”
“Can I know the reason for it?”
“They don’t look like each other anymore.”
“Well, well,” the Meklon said with an intonation so human that it made Kay to shudder. He walked to the adjoining room past the dead doctor, past stunned Tommy and past Andrew who was overlooking the corridor. He bent over Marjan who was lying in a pool of blood. A new passing through hole appeared in her chest.
“Just to be on the safe side,” the cyborg explained, “she had an organic heart.”
“Really? Well, I’ve got an order for a piece of silver…”
The mechanist’s ears were metallic too – her masque would have fitted some evil goddess. Kay Duch tore off the ear lobe and said to a still body:
“I could jump above my head indeed… but you are metal for scrap now.”
Marjan didn’t answer, but not because she was dead, as Andrew and Duch thought. Her reserve blood pump which usually activated at high physical exertions was working desperately, providing blood flow to the brain and liver. Its valves were shutting the torn arteries and the electrodes that were implanted into her brain were suppressing the intolerable pain.
Andrew didn’t know that heart had stopped being a vital organ for some mechanists already.

----------


## Ramil

PART SEVEN. THE LAIR OF GOD 
1 
T/san was furious. After twenty five years of service in the ISS he’d been held locked for the whole half an hour. They didn’t trust him! And all of this was just because there was another Meklon among the attackers.
They’ve made it to the prison block in time. Lemach had not yet begun the attack. Kahl had to pass three security posts and present her ISS badge three times on their way here – each post had three men in powered armor and a ‘Hunter’ – nearly an impregnable barrier. Kahl thought that if Lemach had shown such a zeal right from the beginning, Kay and his party would have been stopped in the mid-way.
The admiral was standing in the middle of his orderly officers at the portable control post. Down the corridor, where melted doors were seen, there was a group of armored men.
“Do you want to go?” the admiral inquired, raising his eyes from the screen.
Isabelle shook her head.
“You’re right… You may begin!” he commanded.
A metal wave rolled along the corridor. Kahl had to narrow her eyes when attackers’ armor flourished with plasma lights and laser beams struck at the door opening. One of the attackers that ran too far ahead fell under the shots of his comrades either dead or in an attempt to survive.
“Losses are inevitable,” Lemach said squinting at Kahl, “But nearly all of them have the aThan.”
The attackers broke into the prison block. The majority went through the doors, but some other groups entered it through the holes melted in the walls. Kahl knew that the soldiers were entering the prison from all sides… but even those fifty men who acted in front of her eyes seemed to be capable of breaking down any resistance.
Shots ceased.
“That’s all,” Lemach said and turned over to Kahl. He smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. Isabelle’s face was distorted with fury:
“All? And what if the boy died?”
“My men…” Lemach started. The orderly officer who relieved him at the control panel stepped to the admiral.
“I’m sorry…”
Lemach stopped short.
“They aren’t in the prison block, admiral. There were three bodies of our men… and that’s all.”
Kahl pushed Lemach aside and ran towards the door opening. T/san rushed after her. 
Kay had never overestimated his powers. Neither had he relied on luck.
Now he didn’t have any choice than to rely on both.
They left the prison block very simply – using the same way which the base commanders used when they were interrogating prisoners. This part of the Saker’s plan seemed the most questionable one, but the hypertunnel did in fact continue to work. It didn’t occur to anyone that prisoners could escape from one prison into another one.
But by using this way of escape, they received a tiny chance instead of none.
“A cozy place,” Andrew said when Duch carrying Tommy in his arms walked through the hypertunnel.
Kay knew what the cyborg meant. The room was someone’s office – there were a multifunctional control panel with a comfortable armchair and a panoramic screen. On the wall, there hung an ancient tapestry with a collection of assorted weapons. It would have been interesting to stay and explore… if they had a couple of hours to spare.
“Any detectors?” Kay asked as he stepped down from the receiving pad.
“Probably none.”
Kay looked at Tommy. The boy was still paralyzed, but his eyelids started to shake. The mechanist gave him a full doze from her stunner.
The hypertunnel worked again and the Meklon appeared in the office. In order to fit the transfer zone it had to stay on its hind legs, resembling something like a monument to a standing mantis. It held Arthur against its chest and Kay felt a sting of pain when he looked at his pale-yellow face.
“Will you rummage through the machines?” he asked both the Meklon and the cyborg.
Kas/s/is stepped back and replied:
“I wouldn’t risk it.”
“Neither would I” Andrew said, “We are even farther from the dock than we were before, but we have a very good corridor running from here.”
The hypertunnel worked for the last time. The grunt remained in place which was quite reasonable since while staying in the receiving zone he was blocking the passage.
“Let’s undress,” Kay said and lowered Tommy on the floor, “Kas/s/is, attend to the door.”
The armor was heavy as hell, even though they helped each other out, they lost seven precious minutes. Before getting out of his ‘Seraph’ Kay gulped from a tube near his mouth. The liquid was astringent and bitter and had nauseous rancid odor, but then again, ‘combat cocktails’ had never taken any prize on taste contests.
“Now I have two more hours,” Kay said.
“This will be enough both for death and for running away,” the Meklon chose to comment that as he was attaching a badge of the high-ranking ISS officer to its chest.
“There’re going to be three more rooms, according to the plan. The last one is probably guarded. Then, there will be a transportation terminal number eight and the corridor to the docks.”
Kay smoothed his uniform. It had been sewn only a day before, but it didn’t appear new. The captain’s shoulder straps and the ribbon bar ‘Servant of the Empire’ of all four grades completed the picture.
The grunt was a sergeant and the cyborg was a junior officer of the ISS. Tommy had a pale grey pajama that resembled the one Arthur was in. Kay patted the boy’s cheeks, but there was no reaction.
“It’s time,” Kay said and swung the ‘Excalibur’ on his back, “Let’s go, Andrew, take Tommy.”
They went through the open door. The four piles of their armor remained on the floor. Perhaps, Kay did say ‘thanks’ to the metal ceramics plates, but even he wasn’t so sentimental to say that aloud. 
Ian Dumbowsky remained on the secondary post not because he was a bad soldier. He was expecting a sergeant’s arm patch in the near future and a transfer to the elite first regiment that was subordinate personally to Lemach.
The lone fact that he had not yet raised enough money for his first aThan stripped him of the opportunity to participate in the assault on the prison block. Ian could have afforded immortality after three years of service provided he didn’t spend much… but his parents lived on beggary Haxia. Their son’s money who was lucky enough to join the army allowed them to bear their existence on the planet that had been long since qualified as ‘unpromising’.
Ian carried thirty pounds of his light armor with such easiness as if it had been a shirt made of natural silk which he couldn’t afford. The impulse raygun that rested on his elbow seemed to continue his right arm.
Generally, Ian was quite pleased with himself and thought it wouldn’t be all that bad if in his evening mail he would tell his parents about the terrorists in such a manner as if he had participated in their capture personally.
Dumbowsky’s post was situated in front of Lemach’s apartments. Ian hovered in a wall niche that provided him a good overview of the corridor and even some partial cover. The door opened and an unfamiliar captain appeared from it shaking off his sleeve.
Ian straightened. He’d taken up the post only two hours before and he didn’t know if somebody was in Lemach’s apartments. The admiral used to work at nights quite often.
Still he pointed his emitter at the stranger. The officer frowned.
“Your ID,” Ian said in neutral voice.
The captain silently reached in the pocket of his uniform and handed him the card. Ian took it with his free hand and quickly browsed through. Then he said:
“I’m sorry, Mister Shivaki. The emergency situation…”
Niazo Shivaki the interrogation specialist committed to the Endorian Task Force, put his documents away and asked:
“Is the stir still going on, soldier?”
Usually Ian could not stand such officers – indulgent and well-disposed towards soldiers. He wanted to talk to somebody this time, however:
“They broadcast it over the common network that the terrorists are blocked in the prison block. Lemach himself is there.”
Shivaki shook his head apparently in disapproval of the admiral’s desire to be in the middle of action. Then he told confidently:
“We’ve only just arrived and immediately got into trouble. How do we get to the infirmary? These brats felt seedy after a single ampoule…”
“Third level,” Ian replied. He started to get nervous. The captain’s documents were in order, but…”
“Hey, sergeant!”
A white haired guy with a pale unemotional face appeared from the door.
“Get the boys or they’ll kick the bucket before the admiral arrives.”
A human cyborg carrying a limp child’s body in his arms and a Meklon with an exactly the same burden appeared from the door. The young guy wore the ISS uniform, the alien had the token on its chest.
“I must check the documents,” Ian said. He felt suddenly cold and drops of cold sweat ran down his back. Everyone knew that a teenager carrying some secret information was detained, but Lemach didn’t carry out interrogations in his office… and there was a Meklon among the attackers.
“Go ahead, check them out,” the captain agreed.
For some reason, Ian was sure that everyone’s documents were in order, even the alien’s. And they will walk past him, but not to the infirmary, of course, but to the transportation shuttle that will deliver them to the hangar deck in a couple of minutes.
Ian also thought that if he spat upon the regulations and let them go (but gave a warning to the terminal post) he wouldn’t be brought before court-martial, but simply dismissed for violating the guard duty regulations. He would work again in the Haxia mines… and his brother would have to quit the college and join him in a couple of years.
Ian pulled the trigger.
He was ahead of the Meklon for half a second. His beam slashed the white haired guy and amputated his right arm at his elbow. Then Kas/s/is’s plasma blast provided Ian Dumbowsky’s parents with a due pension from the Empire.
“Damn it…” Kay Duch whispered looking as Andrew, having lowered Tommy on the floor, bent over the fallen grunt. His face was distorted with a grimace of pain, but there were no fear in his eyes. The Family doctors knew how to suppress the self-preservation instinct.
The Meklon approached Kay.
“The plan has failed. If even this youth understood who we are then the posts on the transportation nodes won’t let us through.”
“He was alarmed by the fact that we came out of this room…”
“He was alarmed by me. What are we going to do with the grunt?”
Kay didn’t answer and walked to Andrew. Andrew stepped back and Kay looked at the wounded guy. For a moment their gazes met and Duch averted his eyes.
“Do it… quickly…” whispered the guy.
“I’m sorry,” Kay said and raised the ‘Excalibur’. He felt a wave of heat from the silent flash and then Duch pulled the trigger. Andrew was already picking up Tommy.
“We’ll go with the alternative plan,” Kay decided.

----------


## basurero

> Thank you, basurero, your help is much appreciated. 
> 9 
> The sound of the intercom was loud enough to wake up not only Lemach, but Kahl also.
> “What?” Isabelle couldn’t see the admiral in darkness, only a slight rustle suggested that he had just half-risen/sat up in _ bed. The very tone of the signal seemed to promise nothing but trouble to the admiral.
> “Red square.”
> Lemach jumped off the bed. Kahl heard him muttering a curse and asked: 
> “Trouble?”
> “Armed assault on the base,” Lemach replied after a moment’s hesitation.
> Isabelle turned on the bed lamp. Lemach was already dressed and was fastening the intercom disk to his collar. The informer’s whisper was scarcely audible.
> ...

----------


## Ramil

2 
Bodies marked their way to the dock. The transportation terminal post had not yet been informed that the terrorists broke outside the prison block and there weren’t any problems there. But when the capsule was carrying them through the base Lemach had already had all the information – the two posts that didn’t answer calls clearly marked the path of their retreat. The units that were concentrated near the prison started moving towards the docks. Every second counted. Kahl and T/san had disappeared somewhere, but Lemach didn’t even notice that. He remained at the control post – his accurate command was now more important that his presence. All able-bodied base personnel that were situated near the docks were assembled in the terminal hall. The short corridor led from here to the terrorists’ vessel. They had to be stopped here.
Lemach realized his main mistake – he had allowed Kay to liberate the boy. Now they had lost the opportunity to use heavy weapons in order not to harm Arthur. Only stunners and intelligent weapons with humanity circuits activated remained at their disposal – not bad, but Lemach wished he could use more than that.
He had to rely on their numerical superiority. Two dozen men that were situated all over the terminal hall were too many to be destroyed all at once.
The transportation capsule was big enough for all of them, even the Meklon. The small tramcar with mirror walls flew through the base on the soft cushion of electromagnetic field. It had an independent power source and controls – the combat reliability requirements now played against the defenders of the orbital station. There wasn’t any way to stop the capsule.
Kay looked in the neat mirror and adjusted his uniform. This simple masquerade had already played its part and took the young fellow at the first post off guard. Armor would have suited them better now, but alas, it was being kicked in helpless frustration by the troopers who had broken into the Lemach’s office. 
“Arriving in twenty seconds,” the Meklon informed. It stood by the broad door carefully shielding the less defended humans, “Begin the transmission.”
Kay took a small one-use transmitter out of his pocket and pushed the button. The small spiral of its antenna started glowing slightly. A couple of extra roentgens couldn’t do them much damage while their very life depended on the power of the signal.
“If your ship hears us,” Kas/s/is said, “it would be an incredible luck.”
Kay discarded the transmitter and took the ‘Excalibur’ at the ready. Andrew carried two kid’s on his metal shoulders and was now as unfit for fight as he was in his damaged armor. 
The hyperboat still had the appearance of a freighter. The armor plates around the hatch were smelted a bit and a small handful of ash on the floor marked the result of someone’s attempt to get inside. The vessel was left alone for the time being and only two ‘Hunters’ stood guard against some hypothetical enemies that could be hiding onboard. Their automatic systems were a match for the mechanisms of the ship and they wouldn’t have missed any new opening of the battle embrasures.
When the hum of starting machinery reached their sensors the robots’ emitter turrets immediately started tracking the source of the sound. But the ship wasn’t trying to engage them in a laser duel – it simply started its engines.
The sentry robots weren’t programmed to combat spaceships.
The gravity drive started first. The thrust vector was oriented to the opposite direction so the robots didn’t act. The massive doors of the airlock trembled and bent under the virtual mass but held. The vessel started a slow crawl along the transportation corridor.
The movement lasted for only fractions of a second right until the plasma booster started. It was a monstrous violation of safety requirements onboard the station. After a moment’s hesitation the ‘Hunters’ considered it an attack and six laser beams stroke at the nozzles. Perhaps, if they had more time they would eventually cut through tritanium, but the fire storm raging in the dock knew no mercy. 
… At first, only a roar was heard in the terminal hall. Some soldiers who stood still waiting for a capsule with terrorists to arrive risked turning around. They saw a looming heat haze that flew out of the corridor. Then they saw two smelted metal balls. Only a laser beam from one emitter that remained miraculously intact gave away that these were the ‘Hunters’.
Then the death came. 
The capsule door opened reluctantly with jerks. When the embrasure width reached five inches they sensed a burnt scent. Kas/s/is took hold of the doors and forced them apart, the capsule doors first, and then the outer ones that were partly melted and stuck dead. Nothing but reeking semidarkness was seen beyond.
“Dear Gods,” the cyborg said suddenly.
The air was hot and suffocating – everything that could burn in the terminal hall had burned and everything that could melt had melted. The gratings of the climate control system sticking out from the walls that were now stripped of decorative panels sucked the swirls of thick and acrid smoke in. Only this made them able to breathe.
And there was also a smell of burned proteins.
They got out of the capsule – the Meklon first, then Kay and Andrew with the boys on his shoulders. The soles hissed as they touched the floor and even Kas/s/is had to trot. Everywhere around them were burned human bodies that sometimes were pressed down by smoking armor that failed. Some bodies were still burning.
Kay was taken with a fit of coughing. The cyborg was already moving down the corridor that lead to their dock. The Meklon was looking around as if assessing the strength of this non-traditional weapon.
“They won’t forgive you,” it said quietly, “Kay, you’ve outsmarted yourself.”
It produced thin claws out of its paws and trotted across the hot floor. It stopped looking at the pile of metal from which a thin, visible only in the smoke, beam was projected onto the ceiling. One of the surviving lighting panels exploded and it grew even darker.
Kay ran after the Meklon. Andrew had already disappeared in the corridor and a weak child’s moan let it known that one of the boys had returned to consciousness. The temperature there was probably no less than a hundred degrees – the largest oven in history… if one doesn’t count the planets bombarded with meson bombs.
Kay stopped before the corridor to pump the hot air in his lungs. The ‘battle cocktail’ had already started its course through his body. His chemically augmented muscles allowed him to cover the distance in two or three minutes, but he didn’t want to breathe along the way.
At this moment an explosion struck behind him.
He turned around quickly enough to see as a plasma charge exploded one of the doors leading into the terminal hall. The damaged sector of the station was sealed, but it didn’t stop the attacker.
Perhaps, Vanda Kahowski did notice the asynchrony of the Meklon from ISS, but it seemed absolutely perfect to Kay. The strangest thing about its appearance was the woman – the familiar white haired woman in a light armor who sat on the alien’s back. Kay had never seen Meklons allowing such liberties before.
He raised the ‘Excalibur’ as fast as he could and he was even faster than the Meklon. A violet flash forced the alien to jump. His grotesque rider barely maintained her seat. Then Kay pulled the trigger.
It was very vexing to shoot having already seen the miss.
“Take them, T/san!” Isabelle Kahl shouted and jumped onto the floor, “Alive!”
The plasma charge of the Meklon who was changing into the combat transformation exploded the barrel of the ‘Excalibur’ into hundreds spattering drops of white hot metal.

----------


## Ramil

3 
The target was single – the man Kay Althos. T/san ran towards him on his hind legs like a huge mantis wrapped in metal and plastic. Its eyes being much more complex than of a human fixed every Kay’s move.
The man nearly killed it. Technology, that damned technology – that was in what the Humans have managed to excel the Meklons. It was much more difficult to make implanted devices more sophisticated than to perfect the outer weapons. The Humans compensated their slow reactions with semi-intelligent weapons and now they also had tachyon emitters that defied the causality principles. The Meklons had long since have stopped regarding the Humans as enemies – thus was decided by The Perfect and it had become so. But T/san knew a nice workaround – to hate not the Humankind as a whole, but only some of the humans. This notion was once suggested to him by Akhar and the Meklon considered it sound.
Now it had a worthy object for its hatred – a man in a military uniform that was still holding the butt of his damaged tachyon emitter. He clearly intended to use it as a club, but it was impossible to hold it by the hot remains of the barrel.
T/san jumped flying over the man and its stunner that had been already aimed released a full charge.
For the first time in its life the Meklon had met a man whose reaction was a match for its own. Kay started moving at the moment of the alien’s jump dashing to the side with unexpected speed. The stunner charge missed him and the man delivered a blow with his damaged weapon. His strength was of a Bulrathi and combined with the speed of the Meklon’s jump the blow had the astonishing effect. The dent in the breastplate damaged some organic organs and destroyed the protruding stunner.
Stopped in midair the Meklon momentarily turned around keeping the adversary in sight. The man clearly had abnormal reactions – possibly the result of the Imperial genetic experiments which the Meklon counterintelligence had exposed many years ago. The stimulants were probably also present – his body looked unusually warm in the infrared specter. The man was burning himself turning in to a war machine nearly as perfect as the cyborg itself.
The Meklon delivered a blow – its fore paws crisscrossed trying to cut Kay’s legs off. He couldn’t evade its claws but instead he simply stepped towards the alien so that his legs were struck not by the sharp claws but plated flesh. Normally his legs would break but Kay’s skin sprang the Meklon’s paws back like solid rubber. At the next moment Kay ducked under the alien and kicked it in its armored belly.
T/san felt as six hundred pounds of its mass were lifted in the air. The kick wasn’t very strong, but it was unexpected. It rolled towards the smoky metallic pile at the corner of the hall and made a groan as the hot metal touched its scales. Then pain, sudden and sharp, inflamed its fore paw. T/san darted off realizing that it had just lost its limb. The destroyed sentry robot continued to emit the laser beam that disappeared in the smelted funnel on the ceiling.
Kay tried to reach for the gun on his belt but having caught the Meklon’s gaze on him stopped his hand.
“I want to kill him,” T/san said. Kahl who was keeping a bead on Kay only shook her head.
“No, his ship won’t fly away while he’s alive.”
“I…,” the Meklon started again.
Kas/s/is darted out of the furnace of the corridor nearly undistinguishable to a human eye from T/san. Even his false ISS token gleamed on the same place.
T/san, having immediately lost all interest in Kay, dashed towards the new opponent. Kay was on their paths but Kas/s/is reached him first and threw him into the corridor with a single sweep of its paw.
Kahl managed to shoot twice before the Meklons twined in combat. Both had the plasma gun embrasure opened but neither one risked a shot knowing that equally deadly a retaliation will follow. She dashed towards the two reptiles rolling on the floor trying to count their limbs, but a series of shots from the corridor made Kahl retreat to the bleak company of burned bodies.
Now she could only wait for the boasted Lemach’s troopers to arrive.
Kay made it through the corridor in one minute and a half. The ventilation worked at full power and the temperature dropped a bit. He didn’t feel any pain in his legs but he knew that his whole body will swell by the evening (if he would have this evening).
The hatch was open. Kay broke into the cockpit. Andrew was here alone; the boys were probably fastened to their berths.
“Twenty seconds,” Kay said quickly seeing that Andrew’s palm was on the launch control panel, “Give Kas/s/is a chance.”
“Shall I start on plasma?” asked the cyborg in a quarter of a minute. Duch was looking at one of the screens that displayed the dark burned corridor. It was unlikely that Kahl would escape… the death will delay her a bit.
“Start on the gravs,” Kay ordered, “Ship, dump the cloaking block after the start. Let them have two targets instead of one.”
“This base has enough for twenty,” Andrew assured him, “I used to serve at one of those.”
A laser beam cut through the outer hatch and the ship floated into open space engulfed in whirls of the frozen air. 
“Two targets,” the operator informed, “the ship on the seventeenth coordinate is a fake. Its mass is much less than standard.”
Lemach looked at the screen.
“Shall we open fire?” the officer asked impatiently.
“Can you cut its drives off without damaging the cabin?”
“They’ve got good shields. We’ll have to use tachyon beams… It will be blown to dust.”
“Destroy the decoy.”
The operator’s gaze expressed everything but understanding.
“Execute the order!”
Lemach turned to the orderly. That one showed a better discipline – his face expressed no hint of doubt.
“Prepare the ‘Seeker’ and my destroyer. Start the repairs. All information about the incident is to be classified secret. That’s all.”
The orderly started away.
“Wait, how many dead beyond recall?”
“Twenty seven men, admiral. The others have the aThan.”
“Prepare individual condolences to the relatives… and don’t forget to give them to me before sending. I’ll sign them personally.”
In the course of his long life Lemach had learned the value of true humanity.

----------


## Ramil

4 
“Give me something to drink,” Tommy said. Kay handed him a glass without stopping sprinkling the anti-burn spray onto the boy’s body. Tommy’s legs were still numb but he was already feeling his arms.
“Blisters will start to appear within an hour,” Kay informed without much compassion, “but nothing serious.”
“Did we get away?”
“Yes, we’re already in hyperspace. Get dressed.”
Tommy sat on his bed and started putting on his shirt being careful to avoid the burns. Then he asked:
“And where’s Arthur?”
“He is in another cabin with Andrew. He’s even better a doctor than I am a killer.”
Kay appeared to go through the ‘furnace’ unharmed. The keroplast pumped under his skin protected him not only from the Meklon’s blows but from high temperature as well. The inevitable carcinogenic effect seemed not to worry Kay very much.
“Did I fail you?” Tommy asked.
“Moderately so,” Kay sat in the chair and looked thoughtfully at the boy. Between them there stood a wall of solid ice both of them could feel.
“Shall I play some music, master?” inquired the ship cautiously.
“Be silent! You may ask, Tommy.”
The boy carefully put his legs down on the floor. He tried to stand, but without success and reclined against the pillow again.
“Kay, why did you change your mind? Why didn’t you leave me there?”
“How did you understand?” inquired Duch.
“I used my head. I was useless, even more than that. If you needed another fighter you would have asked one from the Family. Wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, I would.”
“Then you wanted to use me for something else. We were rescuing my double so you wanted to leave me there instead of him. With my body still there nobody would have pursued you.”
“Sound thinking,” Kay agreed, “but I didn’t intend to kill you. I promised you, remember? I only wanted to put you to sleep.”
“Thanks.”
“Oh, I recognize the family politeness. You’re welcome,” Kay rose to his feet, “I’m going to Arthur. His condition is far worse than yours.”
“You didn’t answer,” Tommy said and suddenly Kay really heard the Curtis’s intonation in his voice.
“Well, if I say that I felt pity for you would you believe?”
“No, of course I wouldn’t.”
“Don’t believe then.” 
Luis phoned Kahl right from the ‘aThan’ office on Dogar. He informed that he had renewed his contract and asked to send a shuttle for him. Isabelle cut the line. She had enough problems of her own. A whole team of medics and technicians were busy with Marjan, and both T/san and its congener were now lying on the operating tables of Meklon surgeons. Nomachi could get to the station by himself, his ISS token allowed him enough.
She also was frustrated with Lemach’s mindlessness. The admiral was busy inspecting the repairs and conducting negotiations with the planetary administration and the General Staff who were alarmed by the incident. His reputation and recent events allowed him to smother up this scandal. Kahl had no doubts that all the blame would be imputed to some Darlok terrorists.
The admiral summoned her only at night – it was transparent enough. Kahl appeared in his office ablaze in fury and was met by a glass of vermouth. 
“We have to relax a bit,” Lemach said, “The army and ISS don’t get their noses bloodied like this every day, do they?”
“Someone’s nose was sticking too high in the air,” Isabelle said and accepted the glass. She couldn’t afford to quarrel with Lemach in this situation but she was certainly not going to restrain her sarcasm.
“I’m not going to argue that,” the admiral was in a peaceful mood, “Still, what an impudent rascal he is? I am in awe before this Althos of yours.”
“He isn’t mine.”
“Neither he’s mine, unfortunately,” Lemach sipped his wine, “Kahl, you’re wasting your nerves. What did we have? The boy that dumbfounded the whole interrogation system. The boy that could endure any amount of pain and turn drugs into shit. I don’t think that our doctor has found a reason for his endurance. Besides, Arthur had the aThan and I doubt we had covered any possibility of suicide. He simply was too sure of himself.”
“And what do we have now?” Isabelle asked with irony in her voice.
“Now we have a clear track of the ship which is carrying the boy directly to his goal. We’ll fly in the morning and stick on their tail. Curtis junior won’t last long, you know it. But he is determined to fulfill his father’s mission. He’s got to hurry.”
“We’ll fly in the morning,” Isabelle said looking somewhere through Lemach, “In the morning…”
“Are you all right?”
Kahl roused herself and smiled at the admiral, and for a moment, in her face flickered that helpless naivety of the long forgotten schoolgirl who used to hang the portraits of the Feud War heroes over her bed.
“I’m tired, Lemach,” she complained, “I should have killed Althos on Tauri. The boy was so strong because he believed in him. One shouldn’t leave people the belief in their friends. They become strong.”
“What friend? Just a very good mercenary who was promised a mountain of gold and free aThan.”
“You didn’t see him fighting with T/san. A mercenary would have surrendered or died covering the retreat. And Kay fought to win and escape. He had an incentive… And he escaped.” 
Even the cyborg looked tired. He went out of the small bedroom (there was no separate medical block onboard the ship) and having discovered Kay at the table sat nearby.
“Speak,” Kay said as he was finishing his second cup of coffee.
“He will die.”
“I understand. When and of what?”
“Within a week. It’s not because of the torments. His bone marrow is damaged. It appears that their aim was to fully sterilize his blood.”
“Are there no chances at all?”
Andrew shook his head.
“Are you upset with something?” Kay asked. There was a surprise in the cyborg’s look.
“Of course. We failed the mission. The Meklon died.”
He didn’t even mention the twin grunts.
“The boy has the aThan.”
The cyborg was thinking for a second.
“Then why did we carry him to the ship?”
Kay drew close to the cyborg’s grotesque head and whispered confidently:
“So that he could die properly.”
Andrew slowly rose on his feet.
“I’ll take control. Where are we going to?”
“To Ursa.”
“To the Bulrathi?”
“Yes. To the Imperial enclave, of course. As far as I know, the ISS there has enough problems of their own to control the ships passing through. You will board some liner headed for Gorra there and we will continue our journey.”
“All right.”
“Andrew!” Kay said to his own surprise, “We have a mission success, really. Everything is all right. Tell Lika I’ll contact her… whenever possible.”
The cyborg nodded and asked:
“Do you require any medical aid?”
Kay couldn’t understand what is was – either a sudden irony or some sign of sympathy in return.
“No, thank you.”
When Andrew had disappeared in the cockpit, Kay stood up and quietly entered the Arthur’s cabin.
“Hi,” the boy said quietly. Somehow Duch was sure that Andrew had given him a sedative before he left and Arthur’s words caught him off balance.
“Hi,” he replied, “Are you feeling better?”
Nearly all Arthur’s body was covered with pink jellylike cream. He had an automatic injector on his left arm, and a cardio driver that rested on his chest with its spiderlike paws sunk in his skin.
“Oh yes, and soon it’s going to be even better.”
Kay sat on his bed and touched the boy’s hair.
“Who is that boy?” Arthur asked.
“You are.”
“I see. It was him after whom you were so eager to go to Cailis?”
“Yes.”
“Can I talk to him?”
“Tomorrow. You can do everything tomorrow. Do you want to sleep?”
“I’ve been doing this all the time… between the interrogations.”
“I’m sorry it took me this long.”
“We’ll deduce a hundred years from your immortality… as a punishment. Kay, how soon will I die?”
“In a week.” Duch said without hesitation.
“Will you go with me? I will explain everything to my father, you’ll see.”
“We’re going to be on Graal in a week.”
Arthur smiled and the cream on his face was trembling like jelly.”
“Kay, I’m nearly a corpse.”
“Have I ever lied to you?”
The boy didn’t answer.
“Everything will be all right.”
“Are you sure?”
“We have fifty chances out of a hundred. Exactly.”
“This is much,” Arthur said seriously.
“Of course. Now sleep. You’ll need strength. If you don’t hang on for another week, we would have to start from the beginning.”
“I’ll try,” Arthur promised.
“Try. I’ll sit here until you’re asleep.”
He did sit near Arthur for another hour. Then he returned to his cabin and cast a bleak stare at Tommy who occupied the bed, and finally settled in the armchair.
In a couple of hours, however, when the action of the ‘battle cocktail’ anesthetics had ceased he had to wake up anyway.

----------


## sperk

> 4 
> “Give me something to drink,” Tommy said. Kay handed him a glass without stopping sprinkling the anti-burn spray onto the boy’s body. Tommy’s legs were still numb but he was already feeling his arms.
> “Blisters will start to appear within an hour,” Kay informed without much compassion, “but nothing serious.”
> “Did we get away?”
> “Yes, we’re already in hyperspace. Get dressed.”
> Tommy sat on his bed and started putting on his shirt being careful to avoid the burns. Then he asked:
> “And where’s Arthur?”
> “He is in another cabin with Andrew. He’s an even better a doctor than I am a killer.”
> Kay appeared to go through the ‘furnace’ unharmed. The keroplast that had been pumped under his skin protected him not only from the Meklon’s blows but from high temperatures as well. The inevitable carcinogenic effect seemed not to worry Kay very much.
> ...

----------


## Ramil

5 
“They do head into the Bulrathi space,” Lemach said thoughtfully. The hyperspace coordinates were rather relative, but the intercept course happened to be susceptible to computation.
“Will we make it to Ursa before them?” Kahl was nervous. She felt uneasy on the bridge of the destroyer. There were assorted screens, short reports of operators filled with slang. All of this spoke much less to her than to the admiral.
“No,” Lemach shook his head, “They must have an augmented drive so our advantage in speed is minimal. We will be late for five or six hours.
“If Curtis plays games with the aliens… let them be the members of the Alliance even…” Kahl swallowed a lump in her throat, “I will be obliged to warn the ISS of the enclave, otherwise it will be considered treason.”
“Put your mind at rest. Does your planet Incedios deal with the Bulrathi?”
“Of course, they are long standing partners. Our relative coordinates are very close…”
“Do liners go to Ursa often?”
“Almost every day.”
“Then why Curtis and Althos flew to Volantis instead?”
Kahl shrugged her shoulders.
“They’re bound somewhere else…” Lemach switched something on the panel and his screen displayed a schematic flat map. Tiny flags indicated the colonies of various races. To a degree, this primitive scheme reflected the distances between stars, but not the absolute ones which were meaningless in practice, but hyperspace relative.
“Frontier worlds,” Lemach touched the screen and the part of the map where the stars were marked with the Imperial bicolor, nearly indistinguishable on the dark violet background, grew larger, “Two dozen of underdeveloped worlds. If Arthur Curtis is headed there then his choice of Ursa as an intermediate point is justified.”
“What will he do there?”
“You’re overestimating me. If I could guess it I wouldn’t have permitted putting the child under torment.”
Lemach touched the flags one after another and they displayed small notes containing the most general information about the planets.
“Keeta, Rayon, Selia, Graal… it can be any of these stars. If we don’t intercept them and they start from Ursa we would be able to tell more precisely.”
“And what then?”
“We’ll meet them in the orbit, that’s all. Simply, our conversation with the boy and his loyal bodyguard will take place at the very end of their journey.”
“If they won’t escape through the aThan.”
Lemach put his hand on Kahl’s shoulder, arrogantly, like her superior, but she chose not to protest.
“No, they won’t. I don’t know why, but they seem to be afraid of the aThan. This is rather odd for Curtis’s son… but it’s very useful for us.” 
From the altitude of one hundred kilometers Ursa resembled Terra more than the majority of Human colonies. There was the same balance between water and land, the same spirals of the clouds…
Kay had been on the ancient Bulrathi home world only once before and couldn’t resist the temptation to land the ship personally. He replied the orbital bases requests (a courier vessel of the ‘Setico’ corporation, passing through, requests landing for rest and refuel, no merchandise and heavy weaponry onboard, staying within the Imperial enclave). They were provided with the landing corridor and nobody seemed to show any further interest to their tiny ship.
The Human enclave was situated on the small archipelago far away from the central continent. The Bulrathi didn’t like water very much and, by allowing half a million of enterprisers on uninhabitable land, they extorted maximum gain out of it: incidental interracial contacts were rendered nearly impossible and there was no need upkeep the fishing industry. Those Humans who risked appearing first on the planet of the yesterday’s enemy made fortunes on fish trade in the following years.
Kay led his ship to the stratosphere boundary on the plasma drives, and then he switched to the clean gravity engine. The Bulrathi were a bit obsessed with the ecology which was normal for the race whose planets had been seldom assaulted but bombarded with all known poisons and toxins instead.
There was only one spaceport in the enclave – the Imperial one, according to the treaty. They were provided with the landing zone in the far corner of the landing field among the other small crafts. There were Human and Meklon yachts, hyperboats, small freighters. Kay thought he also saw a tiny disk with distinctive marking of the Alkari Union – a rare guest on the Alliance worlds. There were no military ships – they were serviced on the orbital bases.
“Will you stay here for a while?” Andrew asked when their ship had touched the concrete. Kay shook his head. With the augmented drive they could reach Graal in three days… and God help Arthur to live on through them.
He could hear the crackling of the hot hull – turning the force shield on during landing would have been a direct insult to the Bulrathi. Kay looked at the external view screen – maneuvering around scattered ships on the field there was an open service car approaching them. It was warm here, and rare clouds seldom poured rain thanks to the efforts of the Bulrathi meteorologists. 
“I can handle all the formalities if you want,” Andrew offered, “you can walk a bit… I’m not in a hurry.”
Kay suppressed a desire to refuse. He knew that the ship wouldn’t launch without him. It was unlikely that even the cyborg could override all the rules he programmed.
“Three hours,” Kay suggested.
“Full refueling and service will take twice as longer.”
“Can you wait?”
“Yes.”
“And will you wait for my coming back?”
Andrew turned to him. There was something pitiful in the barely audible sound of his synthetic muscles – the cyborg’s neck and nearly whole torso were artificial.
“In the time when I had still the ability to feel,” he said, “Lika Saker was my lover. I can’t feel the past emotions, but I remember them. The Mother of the Family has ordered me to help you in everything… Kas/s/is had its own reasons for its loyalty, I had mine. If you believe her you can go without fear.”
“Tell her, you helped me well.”
“I’ll tell her. I have neither conceit nor humbleness, but I’m glad to remain useful.”
Kay left the cockpit with a cold shiver running down his spine. Curtis junior could be a swine, but the aThan that spared the humankind from this particular path to immortality redeemed all his sins.
Except for those which he had not yet committed, of course. 
“Thanks,” Arhtur said, “I’ll try not to pester you with such requests.”
Tommy shrugged his shoulders. Their one day relationship had attained a strange quality that would have made any psychologist happy. If Arthur was maimed physically, Tommy was maimed spiritually. Sometimes they understood each other without words, but sometimes any attempt for explanation resulted in nothing but spite against each other.
“Come on… the cyborg gets off here, you wouldn’t ask Kay, would you?”
“Do you know what he’s up to?”
Tommy shook his head.
“Yeah, that’s quite a bodyguard dad has found…” Arthur made a weak laugh.
“It was I who’d found him first,” Tommy answered in the same tone.
They were still giggling when the door opened and the subject of their conversation appeared in the cabin. Kay wore a white suit with a lotus flower embroidered on the side of his chest – the emblem of ‘Setico’.
“Having fun?” he asked and his question caused more laughter. Arthur, having disposed of the restorative gel, was half lying on the pillows and Tommy was sitting nearby. Before, he had seemed much weaker than Arthur, but now it was the other way around – Tommy looked strong and healthy.
“Will we stay here for long?” Tommy asked finally.
“Half a day at the most…” Kay was eyeing his charge. Arthur looked too unconcerned, too careless… either Andrew overdid things with tranquilizers or Curtis junior did in fact believe his bodyguard’s promises, “Arthy, will you let your friend to the city with me?”
“To the enclave? Whatever for?” Arthur looked really surprised.
“Imagine he’s never been there. It’s his first visit to the alien world.”
“Ah… will you go?”
“I will,” Tommy didn’t hesitate. He didn’t want to impose his company upon Arthur. Kay noted mentally that the boys went out of their way not to call each other by name. This impersonality could be either a sign of a slight mutual contempt or quite the opposite – some strange manifestation of delicacy peculiar more to adults rather than children. More likely it was the latter – Tommy slightly stroke Arthur’s palm in some effort to cheer him up as he was standing up.
“Buy a rouepp in the port!” Arthur recommended.

----------


## Ramil

6 
The service car resembled a SUV with its large wheels, massive seats and a strong base.  On the flat plain of the spaceport it looked ridiculous. It occurred to Kay only later that the vehicle was simply intended for a bulrathi driver.
The driver was stripped to his waist (his blue uniform was laying on the back seat). He was a young good-natured fellow of Asian type. At first he was only casting probing glances at them, and finally inquired:
“Are you on business or vacation?”
“I mix,” Kay replied shortly.
“Nice,” the driver agreed. “You might like to stop over in the ‘Morning’. Alla sings there tonight.”
Duch nodded as if the name of a local singer meant something to him. The driver dropped them off at the customs control and disappeared in the labyrinth of parked ships.
“It’s like Terra,” Tommy assumed tentatively, staying close to Kay, “Isn’t it?”
He seemed to lose all of his newly acquired confidence. His pale shirt was wet with perspiration – the boy had plenty of time to accommodate to the cool climate of Cailis.
“Not really,” Kay said as he was pushing Tommy to the doors, “Rain is a rare occasion here. Wetting one’s fur is unpleasant, wouldn’t you say.”
“How should I know?”
They weren’t any problems with the customs control. A lot of Imperial routes passed via Ursa and customs inspectors had enough work to do. Baring his teeth at them, a Bulrathi officer quickly checked their documents with a hand scanner, twiddled the ‘Bumblebee-M’ in his paws and returned it to Kay. ‘Setico’ was a respected corporation and its officers had a right to carry arms.
“Why do we have different surnames?” Tommy asked quietly when they went out of the pavilion, “I thought I will be your son, like Arthur.”
“One should change the legends once in a while. What? You don’t like your probable status, do you?”
“Yes!”
“When you were going to kill me this didn’t seem to bother you much,” Kay could not help saying it.
They went along the shady boulevard planted with some local species of trees having bluish thick foliage and sturdy trunks. Rows of tall buildings (land was expensive here) had gleaming polarizing fields that reflected the infrared portion of the sunlight. Unfortunately, this made the air in the streets even hotter.
The town lived by the interests of the spaceport only. In the other settlements of the Human enclave people could be involved in fish trade or joint research projects. Amicitia, how the first settlers named the town on the new ally’s planet, was oriented primarily on tourists and flying personnel.  There were numerous small shops with fake souvenirs, luxurious supermarkets where one could find true and unique items of other races and lots of tiny bars that usually offered not so much strong drinks and drugs as assorted refreshments.
Ten minutes’ walk in the sun simply forced them to drop in a shop. The air was cooler there and its personnel, much to Kay’s pleasure, wasn’t importunate at all… it was a trick that worked even better than excessive servility.
Tommy was fascinated by a large showcase that looked like a glass coffin with an ‘Original Feud War Bulrathi combat suit’ in it.  To Kay’s judgment, the suit had too many armored elements to be worn by the overconfident Bulrathi of that time and too many decorative engravings to be a combat suit. He left the boy staring at the suit which was put on a human mannequin for some obscure reason, and walked to the wall where ritual knives of various Bulrathi clans were displayed. They were fake, of course, but masterly made. A sales assistant appeared like a shadow behind him:
“Are you looking for something in particular?”
“Yes, I need a knife of the Sheevookim Ahhar clan, but an original one.”
“We are not permitted to sale the original knives,” the attendant said politely.
“Nobody is permitted to, but they do sale them anyway.”
Greed was struggling with caution on the attendant’s face.
“Can you come back tomorrow evening?”
Kay shook his head.
“Alas then…” the attendant looked relaxed. The Imperial laws were severe to those who dared to threaten the interracial treaties.
Tommy had finally walked away from the showcase and came by.
“Do you have a rouepp, mister?”
The salesman’s face brightened:
“A rouepp? Of course. It’s an excellent souvenir from Ursa for a young man. You do have things to remember, don’t you?”
Kay paid without words, the price wasn’t too high, and Tommy became a happy owner of a four inch ball made of opalescent glass.
“An item from one of the Bulrathi’s religious cults,” the salesman said proudly as if it was he who’d been the central figure of that cult, “It’s a very good psycho-stimulant… even though our scientists deny that. Have you been practicing Jeng, young man?”
“I… had.”
“Excellent! Looking into a rouepp during meditation allows one to live through the pleasant memories again, to come back in time… if one believes, of course.”
“Thanks,” Tommy said bleakly looking at the colored ball. Kay put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and asked quietly:
“What’s wrong? Arthur’s made an ill joke?”
Tommy raised his eyes.
“Oh, no. Quite the opposite. Mister, do you have some Bulrathi exercise equipment? To become strong?”
The salesman beamed a smile at him.
“Of course, young man.”
Kay had to pay also for an elastic plaited cord. Its only redeeming qualities were the rich green color and the fact that it could be worn as a belt. It was unclear to Kay what he was paying for – either the boys’ mockery at each other or some subtle tokens of friendship forming up between the two.
They went out of the store and Tommy gave Kay a questioning glance.
“Shall we find the ‘Morning’ and listen to a local star?” Kay offered.
“Let’s go,” the boy agreed gladly, “And you will buy me some cola. Two bottles.”
They found the bar without much difficulty. It wasn’t, strictly speaking, a bar, but a small restaurant. At the storefront Kay suddenly burst into laughter, having read the full name of the establishment: “Morning in a pine forest’. Tommy didn’t understand the reason of his laughing. Only in the evening, after Arthur had enlightened him about the ancient painting and even showed him a reproduction of it in the computer arts encyclopedia, Tommy agreed that Duch wasn’t all that wrong when he laughed looking at the stage made of crude wooden logs where, accompanied by two Bulrathi adolescents playing pipes, sang Alla – a young Bulrathi female.
Someone in Amicitia had a very keen sense of humor.

----------


## Ramil

7 
Arthur’s condition worsened on the second day since their departure from Ursa. He felt rather good in the morning – he chatted with Tommy and, having asked the rouepp, looked in it for a long time. Kay had had to browse through all the data prepared by a cybernetic diagnostician before he came to a conclusion that there would be no miracle. The boy was dying, slowly because half of his blood was already replaced with universal hemoliquos, but surely – the experiments of the army medics destroyed not only his bone marrow, but his kidneys as well.
At least, Kay got the slight confidence that they would be able to make it to Graal. He allowed himself a short sleep and two calm hours in the cockpit with the only company of grayish hyperspace darkness on the screens and the tranquil voice of the ship reading an old book.
Tommy burst into the cockpit when the ship had interrupted its reading and informed:
“We’ve got trouble, Kay. The boys…”
“Arthur’s dying!” Tommy cried out clutching at Kay’s hand, “Kay, he’s really dying!”
“He can’t really die,” Kay noted as he shook off his hand, “Relax.”
But the boy was right in a manner of speaking.
Perhaps Andrew who had been both a doctor and a killer would be able to explain what was happening, but Kay lacked his experience and the cybernetic diagnostician could only point out the symptoms, but not the reasons for them – massive decomposition of erythrocytes as if the remnants of Arthur’s own blood had rebelled against the neighborhood with polymeric hemoliquos.
That greenish cast on his skin that Kay had seen on the orbital base was there again. Arthur didn’t moan or cry – he was just gasping and heavily rising on the bed as if he was trying to reach for something elusive and invisible.
“Hang on, my king,” Kay said and took his hand, “Don’t you dare to surrender, you hear me?”
Everything the computer could suggest had already been done: the pump was sobbing nearby forcing Arthur’s blood through the labyrinth of filters and cleaning it from the products of decomposition. At the same time, more and more ampoules of hemoliquos were administered – there had been already no other choice but to replace the whole volume of blood. The ship, following the recommendations of the medical computer, raised the oxygen content in the cabin so Kay felt a little dizzy.
“Do you hear me, Arthy?”
The boy’s lips moved: “Yes.”
“Hang on for one more day, boy. Hang on, please…”
There was another movement of the lips – a silent whisper: “Then?”
“Then everything will be all right. I promise. Remember, you wanted a miracle? A sign that would grant you passage? There will be a miracle, just don’t die. Arhy!”
The boy opened his eyes.
“Don’t sleep.”
“Will he die?” Tommy asked quietly from behind his back.
“Get out!” Kay ordered without turning, “Arthy, do you understand what is it with you? Is it not the consequences of radiation exposure, isn’t it? What else can we do?”
Arthur did have a few hunches about his present condition. The symbiont bacteria, an invisible inner shield that protected him from assorted drugs, poisons, and viruses, weren’t killed by the radiation. They hid deep within his tissues, the capillary tubes, in the brain cells. They waited out… and then started to refill the vessels again dutifully attacking all foreign substances.
But now his own blood was just a residual element in the solution of hemoliquos. The irony of the situation was in the fact that the only thing that could help Arthur now was a new portion of bactericide radiation. Anyway, Kay had no necessary equipment for it and Arthur had no strength to explain all this.
“Don’t fall asleep,” Kay repeated, “You live as long as you struggle.”
“Shall I increase the speed, Duch?” inquired the ship.
“Is it possible?”
“Well, this will wear down the engine, but I can squeeze another five percent or so from it,” the ship assured him.
“Make it ten percent.”
“Five, Kay. I’ll try.”
Kay nodded keeping his eyes on Arthur’s face. He seemed to breathe easier – the air in the cabin was sweet and besotting like a wine. One day. Just one more day, even less if the ship will keep its rash promise.
“Arthy, do you remember Rachel?”
Arthur blinked ‘Yes’.
“She sent her greetings to you. She’s a good girl, isn’t she? She even helped me… a little.”
A weak smile.
“Hey, boy… Don’t sleep. We can stop by on Tauri if you want, after you are dealt with this god of yours. If Van Curtis lets you go… but we can stop there on our way back.”
Arthur shook his head, weakly, with doubt.
“What? He won’t? Or your task demands that you sacrifice yourself to some higher powers? Bear in mind that I do not agree to that. This would ruin my entire work.”
He spoke to the boy through the whole night, a relative nighttime on the ship, which nevertheless couldn’t be any shorter. Kay had his issues with that little death – sleep that turned easily into a real death. Duch was shaking the boy, lulled him in his lap – he did everything to prevent him from falling asleep. And he talked and talked without stop…
“You know, when I was of your age, sixteen at the most, I was the biggest glutton on the planet. My body started its reorganization, just as the genetic engineers had planned. The weak and sickly fellow I had been turned into a big bully. Everything I earned I turned into chocolate and cheese that you don’t like so much…”
“… the terror groups burned the city in three hours. When the Alkaris broke into their henhouse there was nothing there but ashes and burned omelet. And there was a road sign from Xendalla in the middle of the town with the word ‘Gideon’ written on it. So that they would know why. There were eggs of the Sky Lord in the town… According to their laws he wasn’t permitted to lay eggs for the next forty years. Half of their officers who were held responsible for the breakthrough were cast down from a cliff with pinioned wings. The Lord was raging and killing his own army. That’s quite an old lady, wouldn’t you say? And I was telling her tales about fish and plankton…
“… an interesting armor, I don’t like powered systems, but melting through a wall with your forehead…”
Arthur neither fell asleep nor died. Kay allowed him to doze off a bit in the morning, but put on one of the most dissonant Mrsshan marches he could find just to be on the safe side. It was still ten hours… ten more hours to Graal. He went out of the cabin and found Tommy sleeping in the armchair with a half-bitten apple in his hand. Tommy woke up immediately.
“He’s still with us,” Kay answered to the silent question, “Don’t’ get vexed at me that I drove you out. But death is like a judge – it likes two witnesses to be present. Consider me superstitious.”
“Shall I go to him?” Tommy asked.
“Go. Talk to him, shake him. Help him if he needs anything… then again, his kidneys don’t work anymore.”
The boy stepped towards the door.
“Wait. Tommy you got along pretty well, that’s good. Who is Arthur for you?”
Tommy shrugged his shoulders:
“A brother maybe.”
“What brother?”
“A younger one,” Tommy replied seriously.
As he was entering the cockpit Kay thought that if Arthur starts another journey to Graal he would never get rid of that role. A younger brother, a king in search of god…”
He also was trying to understand whom Arthur had become to him. And he couldn’t find the answer.

----------


## Ramil

8 
Luis Nomachi, the man who identified Arthur Curtis, changed after the aThan. Kahl didn’t notice that. She continued to sleep with Lemach and besides she was under unceasing stress.
Luis was consumed by fear. He damned the moment he watched the records of Kay’s memory. He hated himself for his rash suggestion to Isabelle to intercept the boy on Volantis and not to go on with the official routine. He damned himself for being so spendthrift.
How could he make so big a mistake…
Moohammadee didn’t speak to him. She had fully restored and it appeared that she managed to put all the blame for their failure on Luis somehow… even if that was true only in her imagination. And Kahl didn’t hurry to make any conclusions.
When Lemach’s destroyer had entered the orbit of the planet Graal of which little was known, Luis felt a dark premonition with his sixth sense. He had never experienced such flashes of intuition and the cold in the pit of his stomach filled him with terror.
He locked himself in his cabin and drank cheap brandy – now he avoided extra expenses. He was waiting for the alarm signal that would become his funeral knell. He didn’t understand how Kay Althos could possibly harm him, him being concealed deep within a mighty warship. He simply felt the approaching of death… as if it had somehow missed its appointed victim before. 
Kay carried Arthur into the cockpit. The stimulants worked and the boy was in clear consciousness even though it didn’t show. The ship was trembling slightly – it was decelerating too fast jumping out the hyperspace. Tommy was casting uneasy glances at Kay, it appeared that the loss of his memory didn’t affect the family sense for trouble.
“We’re going to be near the planet in a quarter of an hour,” Duch said, “Do you want to know what will happen next?”
Arthur nodded and replied quietly:
“Problems. I don’t know which, but there will be.”
“Perhaps. Arthy, I and Tommy acting as your double have renewed our aThans.”
The boy thought over his words for several seconds then nodded.
“Do you understand what I want to do?”
“Yes. And Tommy?”
“He’s going to have the ship, the space and a long life ahead.”
“Don’t you want to ask me first?” Tommy said.
He and Kay eyed each other for a second as if they had just met for the first time. Then Duch shook his head:
“I was thinking it over. But not even Curtis Van Curtis would predict the outcome here. Ask Arthur if you don’t believe me.”
The trembling ceased and the grey haze on the screen was replaced by the bottomless black of normal space. At this very moment the ship’s voice, dry and official, put an end to their argument.
“Kay, it appears that there is a welcoming party there.” 
The destroyer floated over the planet – a three hundred foot long metal body bristling with emitter turrets.
It was built for interception of enemy fighters near poorly defended planets – an ideal ship for capturing a tiny hyperboat that had just jumped in the normal space.
“They don’t have a chance,” Lemach said, “being so close to the planet they wouldn’t have power enough to jump back into the hyperspace.”
“They can just ignore your guns and proceed with landing. We can’t destroy the ship and Kay knows it.”
“The assault groups are ready. Do you want to reinforce them?”
Kahl looked at her men. Nomachi was slightly drunk and Lemach’s offer struck him like a blow. Marjan nodded – unlike Nomachi she was eager to have a chat with Kay Althos. The mechanist was fully operational again, only the lobe of her ear was still missing for some reason.
“Let your specialists work,” Kahl decided, “can we talk to them now?”
“If they would want to talk.”
Isabelle nodded:
“They would… trust me.” 
Kay was expecting trouble, but of another kind. Something that would go beyond the reality limits and block Arthur from reaching the planet with the same efficiency as it was with the ships of the Silicoid Foundation.
But the destroyer that appeared several thousand kilometers in front of them wasn’t a product of some mysterious higher power. It was an ordinary imperial ship that could burn fighters by dozens and turn them inside out in search of the crew if necessary.
“I won’t be able to outrun them,” the ship informed.
Kay didn’t even bother to reply. He got up from the pilot’s seat and looked at the boys. Arthur didn’t look surprised and Tommy… Tommy even looked glad. 
“The ship, the space and a long life? Ha!” he said smugly, “Are you going to leave me to them? I will kill myself... myself.”
Kay took the ‘Bumblebee’ from its holster and looked questioningly at Arthur.
“I don’t know,” the boy replied, “I really don’t know. Let the things go… as they go.”
It was very difficult to take an aim at Arthur for some reason. And it was totally unthinkable to pull the trigger. Kay moved his aim at Tommy – he closed his eyes and clutched the seat arms, without making a sound though.
“I took the liberty to change the course and increase the speed,” the ship said and Kay lowered his gun, “I think this would be the best of our options.”
Arthur laughed quietly.
“You seem to imagine that you too have the aThan? Lay adrift, I still need the ship,” involuntarily Kay looked at the screen.
“Artificial intelligence is forbidden in the Empire, Duch. I do not have other choice either, Duch.”
“You’re just an imitation,” Kay said feeling as something has stuck in his throat, “Just someone a lonely man can talk with. Stop being ridiculous.”
“Silly you,” the ship said and went silent. The course didn’t change.
Kay Duch put the gun on the seat. There was a blinking light on the panel – someone was calling but the ship despite all the rules didn’t even bother to inform him about that. Kay pushed the button and smiled at Isabelle.
“This is going to be a hot reunion,” he said to her and disconnected before the woman could say anything.
The boys were looking at him. Kay walked behind Arthur’s back and put his hand on the boy’s shoulder. The destroyer, wrapped into the force field haze, grew larger and larger on the screen. Its bluish grey shape still looked very tiny compared to the planet.
“Graal is beautiful,” Kay said, “I love planets where there are no cities yet.”
“Take Tommy’s hand. He’s scared.”
Kay took the boy’s hand that was wet but cold as ice and even had time to ask Arthur: 
“And you?”
No time remained for the answer.

----------


## Ramil

9 
When the hyperboat struck the ship’s force field Kahl cried. There was a white flash on the screens in which all her hopes had been destroyed.
“No! No!” she repeated.
Lemach, looking old again, crooked over the console ignoring the reports of the crew and messages of the central computer that were changing rapidly on the screens.
“Send out men!” Kahl shouted as she was shaking his shoulder, “what are you waiting for?”
“Sent them out where? To catch photons?” the admiral slowly turned to face her, “They’ve turned into energy… and gone to the aThan. In an hour Curtis Van Curtis will know about our little hunt for his son and in two he will be talking to the Emperor. They’re already on Terra, you fool!”
Kahl eyed the bridge with a mad stare. Then she looked at the planet that floated slowly under the ship.”
“Into the aThan… they have the aThan here too… Lemach! They could be on Graal! They only needed to get close to the planet… the resuscitation takes place in the nearest branch… Land the ship Lemach!”
“This is not a shuttle, Kahl. It can’t land on the planet,” living notes seem to return to Lemach’s voice, “we could use landing boats but all of them are mothballed.”
Isabelle groaned inwardly having imagined the hours that would be spent on this procedure… all this time Arthur Curtis will be on the planet he desired to get onto so greatly.
“Let’s go after them, Lemach…”
The admiral raised his head:
“Kahl you’re going mad.”
Isabelle turned to look at Marjan… pity the mechanists refuse the aThan. Then she shifted her gaze on Luis and unbuttoned her holster. Her voice was soft like velvet.
“Nomachi, we will have to go after them. Through the aThan.”
Luis stepped back and raised his hand as if he wanted to protect himself from the beam. Then he started babbling slowly as if he was asleep:
“Kahl, I was short of money, the prices were high on Dogar and…”
“I will pay you for this aThan,” Kahl said and pulled the trigger. Nomachi collapsed on the floor and in a second Isabelle fell too under a heavy blow from Lemach.
“Are you out of your mind, you idiot! Shooting in the cockpit!”
“Your hardware is reliable. Much more reliable than humans…,” Kahl giggled shifting her gaze from Lemach on two officers who were aiming at her, “Help me, admiral.”
Fury and reason were struggling in Lemach now. He looked at the sentry sergeant who had just run up to them and ordered:
“Shoot her. For the attempt of mutiny onboard a ship in combat situation.”
“With pleasure,” Ralph Gordon said. His first shot incinerated Kahl’s legs, the second one exploded her chest and only the third one hit her head.”
“My shooting skills seem to be deteriorating,” Ralph noted putting away his gun, “I’m sorry, admiral.”
“Three days in the disciplinary cell,” Lemach said looking at the still twitching remnants, “For poor training.”
Ralph saluted and turned away. Even if the admiral heard him saying “Make that thirty three, I don’t care,” he ignored it completely.
Moohamadee was still standing over Luis’s body. Lemach looked at her for a second then said:
“Marjan, I would like you to help with the demothballing of the landing craft. I think you’re good with the equipment.”
“I will be glad to help,” the mechanist stepped over Luis’s body and walked to the door.
She did increase the demothballing of the boat. With her help the technicians would have completed the operation in three hours, but two hours later a communication from the operations staff of the Dogarian task force was received. Lemach listened to the report of his deputy; issued several orders and the ship left the planetary orbit. The acceleration was short since the destroyer was not restrained by the lack of power. It jumped into the hyperspace when the planet was still looking like a small disk. 
Graal couldn’t afford a full sized branch of aThan. The company has built a minimal complex here – only three modules. Truth to be said, even two simultaneous clients was a rare occasion here on Graal. Save only a team of miners who had happened to stumble upon a Dzoth crystals deposit, earned enough to buy the immortality and then were unlucky enough to get under a rockslide. 
This day was going to be something to remember for the company personnel.
“A signal!”
Karen Braudy was jigging in excitement by the console. Kay Ovald, a trader from Endoria, what could possibly bring him here, she wondered. A landsman of the Emperor… they say all Endorians were strikingly handsome and true aristocrats too. Like in “The Ice Throne” series.
She was born on Graal and very young. She still had that characteristic naivety and optimism. There were two more signals on the auxiliary terminals but there was nobody here to work with them. So Karen noticed them only several minutes later and rushed to the videophone to call the second shift up. 
… Kay Duch realized that he was alive again. His eighth death was easy… unlike the previous ones. Just a moment of darkness and there was no more pain in his overworked muscles and no itching of his skin that had been turned into armor. Only fear remained.
He opened his eyes.
“Everything is all right. You are alive,” said a tiny girl in the aThan uniform, “You’re safe, don’t worry.”
She herself could be calmer. Kay looked at the display board on the wall – “Graal”.
He made it. His aThan was paid up and despite Curtis’s plans the replicators were activated not on Terra alone. Now he had two bodies to replace a single one that was lost in the inferno of nuclear fission. Curtis Van Curtis had one of them; another one was on the planet where God dwelled according to Arthur. Only one of them could gain a full consciousness – the one that had been created first.
“Thank you for your promptness,” Kay said and the girl blushed. Then she put on a serious face and started speaking officially:
“What is your name?”
“Kay Ovald, Endoria, the code is three, nine, six, three, one, four, nine, one. I’m all right. I have a full memory and a clear consciousness.”
Kay lowered his legs from the cold disk, found the cheap clothing and started putting them on. The girl was looking at him in perplexity.
“Thank you, I mean it,” Kay made a grateful smile, “I’m not new to this, miss. It’s my second time.”
The girl nodded seeming to calm down a bit.
“I was not alone,” Kay said feeling as his heard started pounding heavily, “Is everything all right?”
Nothing could be all right, nothing. Two neural grids with identical numbers transmit simultaneously two different signals. Nobody checks the structure of the number of course – a long row of meaningless digits, but how the computer would interpret such signals? As an error? But the aThan knows no errors. As a single signal? Probably.
Arthur and Tommy, how are you going to get along in a single head?
And who was going to find this out – Curtis Van Curtis or Duch?
“Your boys are alive,” the girl seemed deeply touched by all this. Of course she was, children seldom have the aThan.
“The boys?”
“The process will soon be finished… or has already finished. I’m sorry, mister Ovald, is that some kind of Endorian custom to give the twins identical names?”
“Probably so,” Kay whispered.
The machines. Just the machines that are incapable of making mistakes. Nobody had ever programmed them to compare simultaneously incoming signals. Arthur Ovald, twelve years old, the aThan is paid. And once more – Arthur Ovald, twelve years old, the aThan is paid. Commit the resuscitation. Both of them. Right?
Kay felt there was a logical flaw somewhere. No, impossible…
But this did happen. The cards are dealt and there are two jacks of trumps on the table. And nobody seems surprised.
Who’s going to have the twin cards?
You are very nice, miss, what is your name?” Kay asked.
“Karen,” the girl blushed again. Gods, what planet is this… some last sanctuary of innocence?
“Take me to the children, Karen, I’m worried about them.”
Unlike the woman from Incedios Karen didn’t start talking about the rules.
“Let’s go, mister. Did you die… er, sorry, did this happen in space?”
“Yes, we crashed into an asteroid,” Kay answered bleakly. For a girl that was familiar with space only by TV programs this reason was as good as any other.
They left the reanimation module and got into a small square hall. Each wall had identical doors save the one that apparently led to service areas.
“There and there,” Karen said and added apologetically, “we have only three modules, the woman will have to wait. Her signal came later.”
“The woman?”
“Oh, you weren’t together? I thought… It was right after you… there were another two signals. A man and a woman from the ISS. But the man’s aThan wasn’t paid so… It’s really frustrating when a man could continue living but couldn’t pay…”
Kay didn’t listen and stepped towards the closest door. Well, Kahl was still hot on their heels. It’s good that she was alone at least.
“Wait a moment, we have a touch sensor lock here…,” Karen put her palm onto the sensor plate and Kay entered the module. He appeared just in time to see as the framework of the aThan emitter was going upwards revealing a small naked body that was lying still on the white disk. A woman who looked older than Karen but nevertheless resembled her in some fashion bent over the boy casting a quick disapproving glance at them.
For a moment Kay thought that he had still lost. The body (Arthur’s? Tommy’s?) remained still. Then the woman said:
“Everything is all right, my little friend, everything’s good. You’re alive. This is the aThan company.”
The boy rose on his elbows and Kay caught his glance. Arthur? Tommy? The women will accept only one answer.
“My son! Arthur!” Kay cried out and rushed to the boy, “Arthur, you… you… Arthur!”
“Father, please leave,” there was irritation in the older woman’s voice, “Boy, do you remember anything? What is your name?”
“Arthur,” and Tommy blinked at Kay. Duch started to back away then he took Karen’s hand and they left the module.
“My mother’s going to say some things to me about this,” the girl said, but with no particular alarm in her voice, “Don’t you see – the aThan is flawless.”
“Please.”
Karen silently opened the second door but remained outside this time. But Kay had no intention to enter – he saw Arthur sitting on the edge of the disk and saying something to a small dark skinned aThan employee.
“Thank you. It was very kind of you.”
He took Karen by her shoulders and kissed her in her lips. The girl didn’t resist. She was still intoxicated by that strange erotic charge that surrounds all newly resurrected people. This is why so many sexofiles sought jobs in aThan.
“Our psychologist is on his way…” Karen said slowly releasing, “I doubt you need him, but…”
“We’re very pressed for time,” Kay shook his head, “It’s our right to leave immediately, isn’t it so?”
“Yes, but it’s…”
“What? A war?”
“Gods, no. Night. It’s night outside!”
Kay roared with laughter while still holding the girl. A night! Just a night! Yes, he could have some supper and catch a few hours of sleep, not to mention Arthur, no doubt.
But in just a few minutes this naïve girl was going to resurrect Isabelle Kahl who had a right to carry heavy arms and could alarm the whole ISS on Graal however slow and provincial it might have been.
“I’m sorry, Karen, but we are really in a great hurry,” Kay said, “so that we are even willing to sacrifice that splendid free meal you offer.”

----------


## Ramil

10 
The car was old and Kay wouldn’t have trusted its automatic driving system even on a well maintained urban highway. The road condition was deteriorating with each passing minute. Apparently the first few miles were built by the aThan company while the rest of it was clearly built by the planetary government.
“There’s no need to go to the capital,” Arthur said, “I marked a motel on the map where we can buy some food. Then we’ll go straight into the mountains as far as the car would go.”
Despite Kay’s expectations it was Tommy who fell asleep on the back seat wrapped in a plaid. Arthur was sitting in the front seat beside Kay. He looked fresh and content. He was checking with the map only occasionally – most probably he remembered it by heart.
“We have no time to change the car.”
“I see.”
They bought the car at the rent shop near the aThan complex. They had to wake an elderly and incurious keeper and Kay honestly paid the full cost of that bucket of bolts knowing that it was unlikely that he would be able to return it. They got clothing and weapon (a ‘Convoy’ and a stunner) at the aThan store. There was no attendant of course, and they were served by Karen. In spite of that spark of sympathy that had flashed between them Kay failed to persuade her to sell him a ‘Bumblebee’.
He didn’t intend to fight anyone though. Running was a better option and Kay was extracting as much speed from the old and pounding engine as it could possibly give.
“May I take some chocolate?” Arthur asked.
“Of course.”
The boy managed to stretch his legs forward to the windscreen and was nearly lying on his seat. He was staring into the night and rustling the wrapper foil. Yellow fans of the headlights were sweeping the empty road.
“If I brake you’re going to fly through the windscreen,” Kay cautioned.
“No I buckled up, but slow down anyway, we’re going to hit the dirt road soon and we can miss the motel.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Terribly. But this is due to memories. During the last two weeks I had nothing but injections… I’m very tired of that diet.”
“I did hurry.”
“Come on, everything worked out well. We both blundered on Tauri.”
Kay Duch squinted at Arthur. He was finishing his chocolate bar and was slowly moving the tip of his shoe over the windscreen. He chose the same clothes as on Incedios for some reason and Tommy simply repeated his order.
“You grew older, my king,” Kay said.
“Really? Why do you think so?”
“You avoided death which has always been your easy escape route out of the trouble.”
“I had to die anyway.”
“Yes, but we chose the time and place ourselves.”
A weak orange lights of the motel appeared on the horizon. Kay slowed down and said:
“There is one thing I cannot understand though – why both of you have resuscitated? The computer doesn’t care that a single person dies twice simultaneously, perhaps so. But the aThan was paid up only once!”
Arthur laughed.
“Kay you’re forgetting a small detail. In the aThan premises the resuscitated persons acquire temporary immortality.”
“Damn…”
“When the computer had confirmed that one of us had a right for resuscitation the temporary immortality rule was automatically in effect. Therefore while processing the second signal the computer permitted resuscitation because of that. It will report this case as ‘a death in the company premises from unascertained reasons’ in its statistical report. A rare case… but even if there had been seven of us they would have resuscitated all.”
In the motel, a squat wooden building with several trucks parked nearby, Kay woke up the owner and delivered the second blow on his purse. The local food was cheap on Graal, but the fusion rifle that had been sold around the law cost him a triple price.
“I can drive if you wish,” Arthur said when Kay had returned with a heavy bag.
“Go ahead.”
Duch moved onto the back seat which was large enough to accommodate both him and Tommy. It was warmer here since the engine was on the rear. Tommy grumbled something in his sleep and moved closer to Kay.
“By the way, your contract is already fulfilled,” Arthur noted, “I am on Graal and even in two copies.”
“Are you sure that you won’t need my services?”
“Quite.”
“I still would like to accompany you to the end. Do you remember our little agreement?”
“I do.”
Arthur drove very smoothly and soon Kay fell asleep. He was very tired, terribly tired. His client considered their contract fulfilled, but Duch was sure he wouldn’t get the promised reward. He had no more money, no ship and no immortality.
He had to conserve his strength at least. 
On the small and poorly illuminated parking lot of the rental shop Kahl quickly examined a dozen of cars which were slowly rotting in expectation of rich immortals. Then she entered the owner’s hut and appeared outside again several minutes after.
The air was clean and cool and it was refreshing like a cup of a strong coffee. Kahl was sitting on the hood of a sporting ‘Torero’ and looked through the sky in search of a quick and large star – Lemach’s destroyer. The Milky Way shined over Graal resembling diamond dust.
“So lucky,” Kahl said to the sky, “Why is he so lucky? Ah?”
The sky didn’t reply and only sparks of meteors flashed over her head.
“Even the fools are seldom unfortunate,” Kahl continued, “Exactly in the time when you need them the most. This fat bastard didn’t pay for his aThan… Fancy that!”
She heard a steady humming from the direction of the town that they called capital here. Isabelle waited for the ambulance flyer to land and then jumped from the hood. The medic was struggling with his bag that got stuck behind the seat.
“What happened here?” he asked as he cast a brief glance at the woman. In a liquid light coming from the cabin his unshaven face looked even sleepier than it actually was.
“The old man died.” Kahl said.
“Are you sure that his insurance… hey, what the hell? Who do you think I am – a coffin maker?” the medic turned to face her leaving his bag alone. The woman walked by close enough that he could see her eyes.
He saw only madness and death in them.
“No, you are his client,” Kahl said. A rapid fire laser gun in her hand spat fire. Kahl moved her gaze at the pilot and saw his trembling face.
“Miss…”
“Get out.”
“Why?”
“Move!”
The pilot left his seat on the stump legs. He was so obedient that he even walked away from the flyer following the woman’s nod. The lamps of the aThan underground complex were shining nearby – a joyous shining of infinite life, forgotten fears and new hopes. This was the last thing he saw in his life.
“I need this flyer,” Kahl said as she was getting in a seat that was still warm either to the sky or to the men she had just killed. She could commandeer any vehicle on Graal but her badge remained on the ship.

----------


## Ramil

11 
The dirt road soon dissolved in rocky hills and the wheels of their car raised fountains of white dust as they went. Arthur had been driving the vehicle until dawn then he stopped and woke up Kay and Tommy. They ate some smoked meat which was sealed in rude plastic bags and then Arthur fall asleep and Kay sat on the driver’s seat again. He drove for another five or six miles chatting idly with Tommy and listening to the radio. There appeared to be only two channels on Graal – the planetary channel and the imperial one. At noon the music stopped and they heard the address of the Emperor. Grey only said what Kay had been waiting for the last ten days – a war with Darlok had begun. The cause of the war was the explosion in the Imperial embassy on Nardia – the central planet of the Darlok Unity, but Duch only laughed at that, remembering Vyacheslav from the special group ‘Shield’. He didn’t expect any particular shocks from this war – the only ally of the Darloks, the Alkari Union, had many problems of its own. The Tripartite Alliance, based on the Imperial fleet, the Bulrathi shock troops and the Meklon war equipment, was undoubtedly the strongest in the galaxy. Perhaps, if the Emperor had wanted a full extermination the ancient race this war would have been joined by the Silicoids and the Psilon Confederation and the flame of a new total war would have consumed the universe. But Kay was sure that this war would cease with the destruction of the enemy fleet and occupation of a half-dozen planets.
Kahl who was circling her flyer seventy miles behind them (by some quirk of fate she had checked another road first) heard the Emperor’s speech too. She had probably understood that Lemach’s destroyer was already in hyperspace enroute to the rendezvous point with the main armada, but it was hard to tell – her consciousness was sinking fast into her own distorted reality. In this world there was no Emperor, no Lemach, and no Incedios where her position had already been announced vacant. There was only Graal with its emerald green lowlands and barren rocks in the mountains. There were also scattered villages where she could ask about an old car with three passengers. There were only Kay Althos and Arthur who had mysteriously multiplied himself in two. 
The car had served them till the evening when the hills changed into a highland besprent with huge boulders. At first Kay thought of the glaciers but the boulders had no characteristic traces of abrasion – the edges were sharp and ragged. He stopped the engines and quietness wrapped the ancient car like a shroud.
“This place is marked as Evil land, though the locals prefer a swear word.” Arthur said.
“Why.” Kay inquired.
“Too many accidents happen to those who come here. Close to one hundred per cent. Exacerbations of chronic illnesses, accidents with guns, falling from rocks. Another five or six years and the local government would have investigated this place more closely. That’s why we had to hurry.”
“How would you call the Evil land?”
“A doorstep. Don’t worry Kay, you have the key. Two keys even. You knew that somehow otherwise you wouldn’t have gone after Tommy,” Arthur got out of the car, walked to a nearby boulder and shouted from there: “But try stay close to one of us, all right?”
They abandoned their vehicle and walked South across the barren wasteland, getting over the small rocks and walking around the big ones. Kay divided their belongings into three parts and the boys silently distributed the packs in their pockets. Kay had neither the strength nor the desire to talk, moreover, Duch noticed that he started to confuse Arthur with Tommy. The identity of their bodies and clothing was now reinforced by the frightening similarity of their behavior. Either it was Tommy who involuntarily conformed to Arthur or, strange as it might appear, it was the other way around.
In the evening Tommy slid from the unstable rock and scratched his cheek. Kay felt a strange relaxation at that. It was getting dark and they stopped for the night. They used the slipcovers from the car seats as blankets. The polymeric ‘velvet’ held the warmth perfectly and Kay fell asleep nearly instantly.
In the morning he discovered that both boys’ cheeks were decorated with identical scratches.
“I got up at night to take a leak and bumped into a rock,” Arthur explained.
“In front of a mirror, no doubt,” Kay could only say.
They ate and continued their walk. Arthur was on the lead – he knew the way as if he’d been walking on it hundreds of times. Twice they had to turn aside in order to fill their flasks with water from tiny cold springs.
Kay was silent as they walked. For the first time in the past month he found himself useless – it was a familiar feeling at the end of the work but this time it became sharper and more painful.
“Duch, did your ship was really intelligent?” Tommy asked him when they had stopped again to have some rest.
“I programmed it to be quasi-free in choosing the course of action.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“It tried to appear an individual. Any priest or a programmer can prove that this has nothing to do with real intelligence. Just an indistinguishable imitation of it.”
“What’s the difference then?”
“None at all…” 
They reached a small level area between the rocks by the evening when it was starting to get dark. Arthur stopped and looked at Kay with that slight irony that Kah had seen in his gaze only on Terra.
“Shall we stop here for the night, Duch?”
Kay looked at the rocks under his feet. They were slightly darker than they should have been and looked as if they’d been seasoned with water, wind… or fire.
“No, I don’t think so. Small corvettes of that time had very dirty engines. I bet the rock radiates.”
“You understood,” Arthur stated.
“Curtis landed here,” Kay continued, “He was deliberately picking such empty planets that belonged to nobody in order not to encounter the enemy. He was very skilled with computers and his flight logs never aroused any suspicion. Free hunters didn’t take orders from anybody and didn’t report to anyone particular – very convenient.”
“Stop it.”
Duch continued to look at the melted rock.
“A plasma torpedo to destroy an enemy transport, two neutron guns to fight off the interceptors and three grams of anti-helium in a magnet trap to dump it onto an enemy planet. It was a very successful design, these ships turned out to be more useful than the battleships. Thousands of ships, thousands of pilots. There were plenty of cowards among them. Be at ease, Arthy.”
“What is he trying to say?” Tommy took Arthur’s hand. They stood before Kay like two reflections in an invisible mirror.
“That our father is a coward.”
“Arthur, Curtis Van Curtis is not your father. It’s you, but having lived through a different life. Van Curtis was nineteen years old then. He had no aThan, no money, no power. And he didn’t want to die.”
Arthur made a why non-childish smile and said:
“Neither do you, I bet. Let’s go, there’s a groove by the river.”
The river was quiet with the grown-over banks unlike any mountain river Kay had seen before. The promised groove turned out to be a dozen of low trees covered with juicy orange seedpods.
“They’re poisonous,” Arthur cautioned, “you can eat the thorns, but you’re not going to like them.”
Kay built a fire from the dry wood lying on the ground. They had some meat and stale biscuits that were seasoned with some bitter spice. Tommy fell asleep almost immediately without asking questions and indifferent to the next day, Duch idly thought that the boy apparently had begun a game of his own.
“We had an agreement,” he said to Arthur. Curtis junior looked at him through the fire.
“Do you really want to kill me?”
“If I have no other choice. I want the truth.”
“Would you wait until tomorrow?”
“Why?”
“Even the words have different color at night.”
“They don’t if one doesn’t play too much with them.”
“Tell me a story, Kay. For the last time.”
Duch dropped the seat cover on the ground and lied onto the thin fabric. The sky of Graal floated over him – a cold and shining canopy. Arthur lied nearby.
“A long time ago,” Kay said, “a boy that was afraid to die had found the god. The god was old and he was very bored. He created this world long ago, but this world had no place for him. He asked the boy what he wanted and the boy answered. He wanted to become the master of life and death.”
“I know this tale,” Arthur said, “There’s nothing interesting in it.”
“The funniest thing,” Kay continued, “was the fact that the boy didn’t believe in god. He believed only in machines that served him. And therefore his god was a machine, even life and death which were surrendered to serve him as well turned out to be machines.”
“And why did the god make such a present?”
“Because his infinite power and knowledge left no place for desires. And the boy’s desires became the desires of god. The boy left with silicon scrolls which contained the designs of life and death. He had grown old before he could incorporate them in something real… Sleep Arthur, I’ll wait until the morning.”
“Why have you changed your mind?”
“Because this night has its own color too and I want to remember it well. Tomorrow one of us is going to die, right?”
“Yes,” Arthur agreed.
“It’s a shame. I’ve become very attached to you.”
“It’s mutual. You’d better leave, Kay. Take Tommy and go.”
“I’m responsible for you.”

----------


## Ramil

12 
Kahl didn’t even land near the abandoned vehicle. The flyer circled around it illuminating the area with a cone of light then it continued the flight.
“I’m coming,” Isabelle said, “You didn’t really expect to run away, did you?”
There was reeking stench in the cabin. Kahl had not been bothering herself with landings to satisfy her sanitary needs and this seemed quite natural to her.
“I don’t need you at all,” Kahl continued, “I do not care about the aThan and I don’t give a damn about what you are seeking here. Right, Lemach? You didn’t care either, it’s a worthless thing then...”
Lemach that existed only for Isabelle Kahl nodded from the second seat. He was old again as he should have been. The heroes of her childish dreams did not need the aThan.
“And I know how to kill an immortal too,” Kahl continued this time for Luis’s benefit who had subtly replaced the admiral beside her. Nomachi guiltily lowered his head. “A fool will die himself,” Isabelle continued peering at the small night vision screen, “you only have to treat him like a smart guy and he’ll die. And you can always break the smart one. He’ll lose interest in life. And you wouldn’t want to live too, boy…”
She squinted at the seat, but Arthur didn’t appear there. The whelp was waiting for her somewhere below along with his double from nowhere and his loyal bodyguard dog.
“I’m coming,” Kahl said almost tenderly as she was descending her flyer lower to the ground, “coming…”
That invisible thread that formed the woman’s disintegrating mind established a bond between them as strong as it happened sometimes between two loving people. Without even knowing this, Kahl too had the key, and her flyer didn’t fall onto the Evil Land where accidents became the regularity.
It was nearly dawn when Kahl saw a dim spot on the infrared screen – a trace of fire that had died out not long ago. She giggled and adjusted her hair. Then she landed several hundred feet away from that place so that the humming of engines didn’t disturb even the lightest of sleeps. She got out of the cabin and dragged a laser gun by the belt ignoring the pain in her numb legs and the cold wind that cut through her light dress.
Patches of fog floated over the river and some stubborn star was still shining in the light blue sky. Kahl approached the water and drank greedily standing on all fours like a dog. Then, obeying a sudden urge, she undressed and washed herself.
She felt better. She put on her dress and came to flyer. Wrinkling her nose she took a warm plaid from the litter in the cargo hold. Inside the doctor’s bag she found a flask with alcohol and took two full gulps. Then she simply sat on the bank and waited. 
Arthur woke up first. In his sleep he drew closer to Duch and Kay embraced him with his arm. Tommy, having his expertise in the peculiarities of adult-child relationships that he learned about on Calilis, would have immediately released himself. Curtis junior from the other hand had learned to feel the difference when others touched him during the years of his travels. He lied for another minute looking at Kay’s face that didn’t reflect anything but fatigue that ground deep into his flesh, then he carefully removed his arm. Kay didn’t wake up. Arthur rose onto his feet and walked to the river. 
Kahl was sitting motionless like a statue that had been wrapped in a plaid by some humorous fellow. Arthur walked past her without noticing her among the trees in a dim light. Isabelle stood up silently and followed him keeping the distance.
For a moment her mind cleared up. She watched as the boy was washing his face, snorting from the cold water and forcing laughs as if he was feigning something funny before himself. Melancholy, tender as the motherly love itself, lived now in her eyes.
The boy turned and finally noticed her.
“You caused so much trouble Arthur,” Kahl said.
He didn’t reply. He simply couldn’t talk at this moment.
“I know I was mistreating you as well,” the woman continued, “but it was you who has started this game. You should have given up earlier, but you continued your struggle, you kept winning… What now?”
“I won,” the boy said, “I’ve become an adult.”
“You? That is what this was all about? The initiation ritual of the Curtis’ family – to beat the ISS and the army? All right, this doesn’t matter any more. You are not an adult yet.”
She stepped towards Arthur and he stepped back into the icy water. Kahl raised her laser gun and informed:
“I don’t want your secrets. You may have them for yourself. You know these girls at the aThan are so nice. They worried too much that Althos didn’t prolong the immortality neither for himself nor for his kids… You won’t die anyway, am I right? Your daddy will resurrect you on Terra. Live then. Travel again.”
“Don’t,” Arthur said, “Please.”
“I was right then,” Kahl made a clean smile that had died in her many decades ago, “You can be broken after all. Break then. I’ll kill the second you too. And I’m going to let Kay live. This will be interesting.”
She pulled the trigger and a thin white beam struck Arthur in the chest.
“Number one,” Kahl said.
Arthur was still standing. Vapor was rising from his jacket as if it just had been ironed. Kahl pulled the trigger again and this time the beam struck Arthur in the face.
Still Arthur was standing.
“Fall down,” Kahl shouted, “Fall down, you are killed!”
The madness was starting to boil again in her like a furious black vortex. She fired again.
Arthur laughed.
“One is down,” Kahl informed and fired a whole series of shots at the boy, “Number two.”
Then she put her gun on the ground and looked at the groove thoughtfully.
Curtis junior stopped laughing when she walked past him, stopped for a moment, touched his shoulder and kissed his forehead with a light farewell kiss.
“This was necessary. Sleep well.”
The flow was quiet. Kahl had waded several steps in the water before she was overthrown and dragged over the rocks. She could swim up, but it appeared to Arthur that Isabelle didn’t intend to struggle with the flow. There was a last flicker of hand over the water and nothing more.
Arthur was standing in the water for a long time. The aThan healed only the body; the diseased mind remained a medical problem. He didn’t feel pity for Kahl of course, but he wasn’t glad either.
Then Kay’s hand touched his palm.
“Do you want to catch cold?”
“Kahl was here,” Arthur said, “She has gone mad and… killed herself.”
“You’re lucky, my king.”
Arthur looked at his bodyguard.
“Come on, Duch. I’ll tell you everything. Tommy must hear this too.”

----------


## Ramil

13 
Curtis junior removed his shoes and wrapped his jacked around his bare feet. Kay arranged his shoes near the newly built fire to dry up.
“Father found this planet first,” Arthur said with some strange kind of pride in his voice, “Say what you will about him being a coward, but they used to forgive greater crimes for discovering a class ‘A’ oxygen world.”
“Did he inform the colonial service?”
Arthur lowered his eyes.
“Go on.”
“He spent only one night on the ship. In the morning he… something called him out. He didn’t even take his weapon. He simply walked towards the river to this very place…” 
…Curtis Van Curtis, a new conscript who’d been drawn into the military service by the new law that cancelled all previous exemptions, stood on the bank. He didn’t know what brought him here. He must take off and fly to Terra where he will be rewarded for discovering a world that was suitable for colonization. He shouldn’t have risked jumping from one rock to another in search of some local animal.
He waded across the river and headed for the rock that looked just like any other boulder – a lifeless piece of granite. Curtis wasn’t even afraid now although fear had become his shadow in the past. This thought would have brought him satisfaction if only he could feel emotions now.
Like a bipedal robot Curtis Van Curtis approached the stone and the world disappeared, turned into a blinding darkness without time and space. He became a part of something so enormously huge that the five pounds of neurons in his fragile scull started meaning less than the dust in the wind. He felt completely open but felt neither approval nor judgment. He was negligibly small for that.
But at the same time he became the only stimulus for everything that surrounded him. For a second he saw himself through the alien eyes. It was a gaze that came from everywhere at once. This tiny human was strong enough to think of his goals but too weak to really have them.
Curtis Van Curtis felt the gaze of God.
And then the darkness dispersed and he could see Him at last. 
“Father doesn’t know,” Arthur said, “Maybe there’s a planet there or maybe a whole universe. The universe of God… he couldn’t have created this Universe without being equal to it.”
“An iron planet with factories that light up the starts,” Kay looked across the river. There were many rocks on the other bank and he couldn’t see the Door between them.
“Of course not. The father called it machine because it was real physically. He didn’t explain it, but I’m going to see it myself.”
“Curtis couldn’t have seen another God. He needed something to stand on, something to speak with and something to see with. He found only his personal God.”
“Really? So what, Kay? Perhaps he saw only a part, a part he was capable of seeing, so what? You have to be equal to see everything.”
“You are right,” Duch agreed. He looked at Tommy who was sitting nearby. What this boy would have seen – some shining perhaps in a shapeless cloud like on frescoes in churches of the One Will or a man filled with inhuman strength?
And what he himself would have seen?
“Father says that this being doesn’t have desires of its own,” Arthur continued, “This is where you were right with that tale of yours. It had created this world and didn’t interfere any more. This is meaningless for a god. And when the father came through the door he became that part of the universe which still had desires. God offered a world to him.”
There was too much boredom in these worlds for Kay to doubt them. Arthur Curtis had grown up with this knowledge. God granted his father – him a whole universe.
And he refused the gift?
“Still I cannot say that this world is a world of Curtis Van Curtis,” Kay noted.
“Not this one. This world is already made and cannot be changed. Even the things that have not yet happened are preordained. God showed the way though – father calls it a Line of Dreams, the Dreamline. This way can be seen and is passable. At the end of it father would have gotten a new world, a new universe which would have been created for him alone. A universe of his dreams.”
“And he refused?”
“He asked for more time to think it over. Unlimited amount of time to become aware of his dreams. So he got the aThan instead. But now he wants the Dreamline too.”
Kay laughed. He leaned back onto the cold stones and looked in the sky that had been created by someone. Several hundred feet away from him there was drowsing a phlegmatic god who had made a present to his first pilgrim. Curtis Van Curtis awaited the designs of his dream on far away Terra.
“God said that he would have to return,” Arthur continued with a slight resentment in his voice, “He said that father would have to come back no matter old or young. And he has come. I have come to God.”
“Will you dream for Curtis?” Kay asked. He felt relieved – the drama turned into a farce. Duch was quite content with a notion of god that didn’t interfere. He wasn’t interested about the world Curtis Van Curtis had dreamed for himself.
“Everyone has his own dreams. The father will choose his… and I will choose mine,” Arthur reached out and took his shoes from the pegs that were stuck into the ground near the fire.
“Think of what you want, Kay.”
“First of all I didn’t want to kill you,” Kay said, “And I’m glad that I don’t have to.”
“So do I, because you wouldn’t be able to kill me here.”
Arthur put his hand into the fire. Then he slowly grabbed a handful of coals. Tommy gasped.
“Try it, you can do that too,” Arthur said to him and pulled his hand from the fire, “This is the Door, only the chosen ones can stand here. We are protected. Father suspected it but he wasn’t sure.”
Coals were smoldering on his palm – a reddish black pile. A bluish smoke was rising from it. Kay slapped his palm and the flying sparks bit his skin.
Arthur’s palm remained clean and untouched by the heat. His skin didn’t even turn red.
“Don’t worry Kay. In the world of your dreams you can become as invulnerable as I am here. It would be your world that answers to your wishes. If you want the Sakkra ships would be burnt on their way to Shedar. Make a wish and there would be no aliens at all there.”
“I wasn’t granted with the Dreamline,” Kay said while still holding the boy’s hand, “I came too late.”
“But the Dreamline was granted to us.”
Now Kay understood.
“Will it be like with the aThan?”
“Yes, the worlds on the counter. Pay and go. A real world, not the illusions of a drug addict, not a virtual reality. A world where you can become an Emperor or a slave, an immortal or a day-fly butterfly. Everything you want. No limits whatsoever.”
“Now I understand Sedmin,” Kay said, “The aThan was an evolution plus… the best of men continued living. The Dreamline is an evolution with three big minuses. At first the most talented would go, the ones who had realized their dreams. Then the weak and impatiens will leave – the ones who grew tired of the struggle. Everyone who is worthy and who can pay.”
“Father gives people freedom.”
“He sells degradation to the humanity.”
Duch picked up the rifle from the ground keeping his eyes on Arthur and removed the safety lock.
“I don’t think you will succeed,” the boy said.
“Neither do I, but it’s worth a try.”
“You’re wrong, Kay,” Arthur didn’t look frightened. The power that had protected him from a laser beam would hardly make an exception for plasma, “Talk to father, he thought much about it.”
“I’ll have to shout too loud.”
“Not necessarily. This is the Door, Kay. Many paths lead from here…”
Duch didn’t notice anything, no movement of lips, no stress in the gaze, nothing. Just a shadow of remoteness on the boy’s face.
And Curtis Van Curtis, dressed in a formal suit appeared near them. Kay didn’t even have the time to show a surprise.
“Nice to meet you, boss,” Duch said, “We are talking about dreams. Don’t make any fast moves and everything will be all right.”

----------


## alexB

*Just tried to see what it’s like doing all that stuff you’ve been so persistently doing for quite a while now.* 
                    PART SEVEN. THE LAIR OF GOD 
1
   T/San was furious. He, who had served 25 years at ESS, was held behind the locked doors for half an hour. He wasn’t trusted any more! And all that due to one of the offenders being a Meclon. 
   They made it to the prison module just in time – Lemak hadn’t yet gotten to his assault. Kahl had to present her badge to the guards three times on her way there – four men clad in power armor and a “Hunter” were almost an impregnable barrier. “Had Lemak displayed such a vigor from the start --, she thought, -- Kay and his companions would have been captured halfway.”
 The admiral circled by several of his aids stood in front of the control panel tripod. Down the corridor, at the end of which melted doors were showing, armored people were making a formation. 
“Going further down? “, inquired the admiral turning back from the screen.
Isabelle shook her heard.
 “That’s wise of you…OK, do it!”
It was as if a metal wave swept through the corridor. Kahl squinted her eyes when the armor of the attackers blazed with plasma flames and the doorway was struck by laser beams.
One of the soldiers who had gone too far ahead got hit by his own men and fell down either dead or going to ride out the assault lying on the floor.
“Casualties are unavoidable, - said Lemach, casting a sidelong look at Kahl, - but nearly everyone of them has aTan”
The charging crew broke into the prison module, most of them  through the doors and some through the openings in the wall. Kahl realized the Lemach’s soldiers were now rushing into prison from all sides…but just those of them she saw operating before her eyes seemed to be capable of breaching any resistance. 
The shooting subsided. 
“This is it”, said Lemach, turning around to face Kahl. Smiling he placed his hand on her shoulder. Isabella’s face distorted with rage.
“That simple? And what if the boy got killed?”
“My men…Lemach began. His aid who had taken his duty at the control panel made a step towards the admiral.
“Excuse me, sir…
Lemach choked.
“Nobody in the prison module, just three of our men, dead.”
Karl pushed Lemach aside and made for the melted doorway, T/san followed her.

----------


## Ramil

14 
Curtis Van Curtis had been waiting for this moment for four years. Since the very first time when Arthur, still a real twelve years old boy back then, went through the aThan to Graal.
That time he was accompanied by a man who surpassed Kay Althos in all respects. He was a genetically enhanced killer who could overcome a bulrathi in a single combat and could be faster than a meklon… They died at the spaceport on Kulthos right after they had bought a ship. It was a terrorist attack and Arthur became its accidental victim.
Then accidents became the regularity like it was in the Evil Land where only the worthy ones could come. If Curtis had not been so sure that the God wasn’t interfering he would have taken it as a sigh from the skies and went there himself. If there was a slightest chance that there had been no enemy agents in aThan branch offices he would have ignored his own rules and ordered to resurrect Arthur on Graal.
All of this however became impossible after the first attempt to abduct the boy. Someone had learned about his plans and Curtis’s only hope was randomness. It was impossible to predict the planet where a man who died on Terra will be resurrected. One cannot cover all the possibilities so he continued to recruit one guide after another. Althos was good but nothing more. Curtis expected their failure immediately after he had learned that they were resurrected on Incedios. But time passed and their neural grids continued transmitting the signals without interruption. Then there was this Althos’s strange act of renewing of his aThan contract and sending him a letter. Then there were three zombies. And finally was Graal.
Curtis Van Curtis stood on the planet he last visited more than a century ago. Not at the Door, but very close already. He still had to approach the Door though. Kay Althos, the luckiest of his servants was aiming at his boss. Two boys were sitting nearby, identical like two prints from the same negative, with identical scratches on their faces and dressed in identical cheap clothes… as if Curtis had returned suddenly to his own childhood.
One of the boys looked at him seriously and calmly, the other one was smiling and was clearly expecting something from him.
“Don’t be a fool, Kay,” Curtis said.
“Never intended to be…,” Althos moved his rifle aside, but didn’t lower it down.
Curtis Van Curtis looked at the boy with a serious face and said:
“Hello, son. As I can see we’re in trouble again.”
Despite his expectation it was the other boy who replied:
“Hi, father. I was wondering whether you would recognize me.”
Curtis sat on the ground beside Arthur and looked at Kay. Kay seemed to be so fascinated with the flow of the river that he ignored anything else.
“You’ve changed,” Curtis admitted and cheered the second boy with a smile:
“And you must be from Sigma-T? Arthur with erased memory?”
“Bravo,” Kay said, “His name is Tommy, but he is a clone of yours too.”
“How much does he know?” Curtis asked his son.
“Everything. It was necessary.”
Kay Duch waited for Tommy’s answer but he didn’t reply. Curtis spoke first:
“Well, you exceeded the task, Kay. And perhaps you are willing to discuss the new price?”
“Yes, I want to know of two things.”
“I’m listening.”
“What’s behind the Door?”
“God.”
“The machine that had created this world is still not a god.”
“Kay you could have understood me only if you were there yourself. But the path there is open only to me, Arthur… and Tommy.”
“So you do need me?” Tommy spoke for the first time since Curtis’s appearance.
“Of course,” Curtis seemed to have lost all interest in Althos, “Does your fate worries you, boy? I see. It appears, Kay spoke a great deal of my cynicism. Yes, I do need you. Even if that new personality of yours is completely different from the original one this doesn’t change anything. You are my flesh and blood. You are more than a son and I need comrades.”
Tommy nodded and Curtis patted on his shoulder. Then he asked:
“And what is another thing you wanted to know?”
“Why do you want the extinction of the humanity?”
Curtis frowned.
“Don’t look at me this way. A hundred years ago when the Empire was collapsing and its border planets were burning, when children were put to pilot kamikaze interceptors you have refused the most generous gift in history. You refused a world, a real world that would fulfill all your dreams. I would have walked through the Dreamline probably if I were you. But you have returned to the Army, and continued your combat missions having kept the coordinates of this planet to yourself.”
“Althos, you are contradicting your own words.”
“I don’t think that you were driven by patriotism. You could return for the Dreamline after the Tripartite Alliance had been forged. But even now you need it not for yourself, but for sale.”
“I have already created the world of my dreams,” Curtis replied seriously, “That’s all. I don’t need the Dreamline, but if I can get profit by bringing happiness to millions…”
“Don’t make me laugh, Curtis. The finest part of the humanity will leave via the Dreamline. Science and arts will die; stupid warlords will command imbecile soldiers. Then perhaps you will go as well and then aThan and Dreamline will probably stop working. And our Bulrathi friends will remember their former ambitions, the Psilons will stop its self isolation and the Alkaris will stop finding ways to get to another galaxy and remember the planets that had been taken from them instead. The Empire, the whole human race will die. Why?”
“You won’t get the answer, Althos,” Curtis said quickly and looked at Arthur expecting some support, but the boy looked too confused to say anything.
“I have to try…” Kay said and raised his rifle again.
Curtis’s face trembled. He even tried to rise but Duch pulled the trigger.
This was a very old model and the exhaust of the plasma blast sounded like an explosion. A fire flower bloomed on Curtis’s chest and threw him back onto the stones.
Duch was impressed more than anyone. Arthur only shook his head, cast a glance on his lying father, and asked:
“My turn?”
“I’m sorry,” Kay said.
“Go ahead then. We have spoken of this possibility and you are free from any promises you gave me.”
Curtis Van Curtis moved and rose on his elbows first then he struggled onto his feet. His face was pale and his tie was ruined. Aside from that he was perfectly intact.
“You didn’t take a long enough pause, dad,” Arthur noted, “I wanted to see if Kay would kill me or not.”
Duch carefully put his rifle near the fire and stood up. Curtis had already come to his senses, but his anger was directed more at Arthus rather than at his failed killer.
“You… you knew that we were under protection… you little punk… an experimenter…”
“Dad, I’ve been shot at hundreds of times. This is an interesting sensation and I wanted to share it with you.”
Tommy stretched out and picked up the gun.
“Give it to me!” Curtis said sharply. The boy obediently handed him the weapon and Kay thought that the boy had finally chosen his role. Perhaps Curtis thought of this as well. He patted Tommy’s cheek and aimed the gun at Kay.
“Don’t,” Arthur moved between Kay and the gun.
“Arthur, I have two sons now,” Curtis noted drily, “And I find the second one much more obedient.”
“And the first one is much more grateful. Kay brought me here, father. This is that only matters, don’t you think?”
Curtis lowered the gun and eyed Kay thoughtfully. The anger started to disappear from his face.
“Althos, do you agree to work for me for some more? I can be forgiving.”
“If God makes such presents to you I’d sooner worship devil.”
“It’s your right,” Curtis turned away losing all interest in Kay.
“Come on boys, we’re wasting time.”
“I know why you want the Empire dead,” Kay said, “It reflects someone else’s dreams, not yours.”
There was no reaction, but then again, Kay didn’t expect it anyway. Curtis Van Curtis had strong nerves. He was waiting for at least a glance from Arthur. A glance of farewell, pity or approval – anything, but Arthur didn’t look back.
Kay shrugged his shoulders and watched them walk away. Near the edge of the water Curtis stopped and shouted:
“Have a nice trip back, Althos!”
“Don’t get your feet wet,” Kay replied.
Curtis didn’t get his feet wet. He walked on the water. After him, hand in hand, walked Arthur and Tommy. Kay Duch stood in the middle of the Evil Land and waited. If his aThan had been paid up he would have shot himself. But now he was as poor as he was in the beginning of his career.
The aThan was not allowed for the poor, neither would be the Dreamline. So Kay preferred to hope. In the middle of the river the three stopped. Kay didn’t hear the words but he could see Curtis’s gestures. The conversation was a short one and then Curtis raised his hand.
The sound of the slap was clearly audible.
Kay had been picking up the dry wood while one of the boys walked back. He fed the dying fire and pinned the remaining meat on wooden twigs. He didn’t believe in the quality of local canned food. The meat should have been roasted at least.
The boy stopped several paces away from him.
“I knew you would return,” Kay said.
“Really?”
“Well, I was sure… almost certain. To tell the truth I was hoping that Tommy too would disappoint Curtis. But he hates me too much. It’s understandable at least. Besides, his new status is very appealing… Let’s have some breakfast and leave. Kahl couldn’t have caught up with us on foot. There’s bound to be her vehicle somewhere here.”
The boy didn’t reply.
“Curtis did not understand that you had grown up,” Kay continued, “He doesn’t see the difference between Tommy and you.”
“And there isn’t any.”
Kay tossed away his improvised barbecue. Then he approached Tommy and took him by his shoulders.
“Why did you come back?”
“Well, if I say that I felt pity for you would you believe me?”
“No.”
“Right. I did understand it too. Why Curtis wants to destroy the humankind I mean. I don’t like it”
“And did you understand how to destroy Curtis?”
“It’s your job to think of the way.”
Duch laughed. In the distance Curtis Van Curtis and Arthur were walking to the Door. They were already on the far bank. Kay even thought he had guessed at which rock their path would end.
“Tommy, you could have picked a better partner. And an easier goal. Why?”
“If I had stayed I and Arthur would have become enemies.”
“And now you’re friends?”
“Now we are.” 
Two men walked across the rocky plateau of the planet Graal that was lost on the outskirts of the Empire. Kay Duch, a super from Shedar the Second and Tommy Curtis, a clone of the master of life and death with erased memory. They chose not to use Kahl’s flyer – it reeked strongly of death and shit. After all this wasn’t the most difficult journey in their lives, it was just the beginning of it.
Hundreds of parsecs from Graal, Lemach’s armada had just entered the Darlok space and was supporting the Bulrathi assault transports with covering fire. This was a good and honest work. Marjan Moohammadee who was still an ISS officer remained onboard the flagship. She had the patience of the deceased Nomachi and much firmer grip on reality than Kahl’s.
Isabelle Kahl who was now dressed in grey oversized pajama sat in a small ward of the only asylum on Graal. The doctors had not yet lost their interest in her but had already given up all hopes for her recovery. Kahl simply didn’t want to come back to the real world. She was quite content in the world of her own dreams where Arthur Curtis and his double were lying on the riverbank. Dead. Dead forever.
Kas/s/is and T/san, separated by a transparent barrier, were looking at each other. Or perhaps they were talking as well. Nobody had ever managed to eavesdrop to a conversation that was held over the direct beam. One of them was to be brought before an interracial tribunal and the other one had to answer before the ISS top command. They didn’t look very worried about that however.
Lika Saker was standing before a mirror. Andrew, equally indifferent to her cosmetic efforts and her nakedness held a thin web of her silk dress. Tonight the Family was going to meet with the Mother. Many sons wanted to become orphans today.
Their car was waiting for its owners where they had left it. People avoided the Evil Land. Kay had spent half a day before they found the road and things got easier after that. They reached the motel by the evening.
Kay stopped the engine and they got out. In the dim light the motel looked even attractive. Twilight concealed the rude wooden boards and the holes in the doors, cast some blue on the dirty windows and dropped deep shadows on the piles of garbage. An artfully set voice was heard from an open window – somebody was listening to the Imperial channel.
“… managed to avert the meltdown of tritanium and luckily the number of victims didn’t exceed fifty thousand. Humanitarian aid of the Bulrathi Democratic Union started to arrive on Endoria. Emperor Grey said in his address…”
“And all of it was somebody’s dream,” Kay said. I want to know who had gone via the Dreamline to create our world. I’d like to tell him of the Three Sisters, of Incedios and Darlok prisons.”
“And I’d like a plate of soup and a pile of sandwiches.”
“Come one, you troglodyte,” Kay put his hand on Tommy’s shoulder, “We can still afford some dinner…”
At the doorstep he stopped and looked at the lights of the small town, the capital of Graal. It was quiet and calm here, the Imperial ships were burning very far away from this castaway planet. And somewhere far away some other cities were now in flames and Bulrathi troopers who were born to kill were marching into battle somewhere else.
If Curtis Van Curtis gives the Dreamline to humans all of this would be repeated millions of times. Tauri will be scorched instead of Shedar, the Meklons would be exterminated instead of the Sakkras, but the main point would remain the same. God was making his presents but people were dreaming of the same things. Power and might. Life and death. Love and hate.
Whoever would go via the Dreamline the new world would become a happy place for this person alone. Like this world that had fulfilled somebody’s dreams did not become happy.
“I’ll wean you away from your dreams,” Kay Duch said.

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## Ramil

*THE END.*  This work is finished. It was difficult and took almost a year to complete. I've learned much and I want to say a million thanks to everyone who was helping me along the way. Your help was invaluable, guys. There are still many errors that I'll try to weed out and you are still welcome to correct, suggest and criticize. 
P.S. This is the end of the book, but not the end of the story. 
The story of Kay, Tommy and Arthur does not end here. There's the second book which is called 'The Emperors of Illusions'.
Maybe I'll even look into translating it too some day.

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## Basil77

А вот интересно, спрашивал ли Лукьяненко разрешение на использование рас, придуманных создателями "Master of Orion" у авторов игрушки?  ::   Да, и респект за проделанную работу, Рамиль!  ::

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## Ramil

> А вот интересно, спрашивал ли Лукьяненко разрешение на использование рас, придуманных создателями "Master of Orion" у авторов игрушки?   Да, и респект за проделанную работу, Рамиль!

 Скорее всего, разрешение не требовалось, так как названия рас не были зарегистрированы в качестве товарного знака. Я, кстати, тоже у Лукьяненко разрешения не спрашивал на перевод.   ::

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## Basil77

Ну так ты ж не в коммерческих целях его делал, а Лукьяненко на этой книжке немало бабла срубил, надо думать.

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## ScumCoder

Здравствуйте. 
Сохранилась ли у кого-нибудь копия перевода?
В главе 5 части 1 (пост #18, исправления в посте #28) и в главе 6 части 3 (пост #67) утеряна часть текста.
Моя догадка - что движок форума спотыкается при обработке буквы "i с двумя точками" в слове "наивный". 
--- 
Greetings. 
Does anyone have a copy of the translation and/or of its corrections?
In the 5th chapter of the 1st part (post #18, corrections in post #28) and in 6th chapter of the 3rd part (post #67) some text was lost.
My guess is that the forum engine crashes when it comes upon the "i-umlaut" symbol in the word "naive".

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