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"You are right, Chef," said Crust-Crawler. "We can't live on artificial food forever. Don't forget, our main objective is to become natives of Egg once again." "I will invite the clan to the next turnfeast," said Otis-Elevator. 21:02:58 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE 2050 Emperor The long procession from the distant clan compound started to arrive well before the end of the turn. Every clan member except those in charge of the herd came. Dented-Shield, the leader of the clan, led the procession, carrying her battered shield high in front of her. Right behind her came her warriors carrying a freshly killed food Slink. It was pink with glowing white spots. Next were younglings with pouches full of nuts and berries. Then came the Old Ones. From their pouches peered the eyes of tiny hatchlings. Bringing up the rear were the herders who were not out taking care of the herd. "Where did they get the pink and white food Slink?" Crust-Crawler whispered as the procession approached. "There is a clan farther east that is charged with growing that flavor of food Slink," Otis-Elevator replied. "I notice that most of the glow-jewels that I have given them are missing. They probably traded the jewels to the other clan for one of the food Slinks the Emperor allows them to keep." "Welcome, friends of the Dusty Crust Clan," said Captain Otis-Elevator. "Your gifts of food for our meager turnfeast are most welcome. While we wait for the turnfeast to start, perhaps you would like to taste these preturn samples we have set out on the food mats." "Let us give thanks to Bright for our new friends and their marvelous food machines," said Dented-Shield. "May we all never be hungry again." The warriors and the younglings dropped their loads of food, which were picked up eagerly by Chef Pouch-Pleaser's crew. The members of the clan, having just finished a long trek, were hungry and wandered about between the foodmats, sampling the large variety of foods that the food machines could produce. "Aren't you spacers going to eat any of the food?" Letter-Ready asked Otis-Elevator, who picked up a dark red ball of chewy meal-mush and put it into an eating pouch to reassure Letter-Reader.
"We would rather wait to taste the food that you brought," said Otis-Elevator. "The food Slink isn't bad," said Letter-Reader, putting a couple of golden yellow crystals into a food pouch. "But I don't understand why you would want to eat groundnuts and singleberries instead of these tasty chunks." "You will see after a few greats of eating nothing but meal-mush from the machine we will give you," Otis-Elevator told him. "I'll never get tired," said Letter-Reader, sucking on the end of a yellow and silver stick. "I'm going to try everything on the instruction scroll." "Are you going to be operating the machine?" asked Otis-Elevator. "Yes. I'm the only one in the clan who can read, so they put me in charge of running it." "The turnfeast is ready,"'trummed Chef Pouch-Pleaser loudly into the crust. They all went into the compound to the eating area where the pink and white food Slink, perched on a dressing of chopped groundnuts and fresh singleberries, was waiting for them. It was soon surrounded by spacers, while the members of the Dusty Crust Clan gathered around their new food machine. Letter-Reader almost forgot to eat as he operated the machine, producing piles of golden yellow crystals, dark red balls, blue-white eggs, and yellow and silver cylinders, each one tasting better than the next. "It is truly a miraculous machine," Dented-Shield told Crust-Crawler as they shared squirts from a bag of singleberry juice. "It causes me to worry, though. My workers will become restless if they do not have to hunt for food." "They could come here and we could teach them other things. We will teach them to read letters, work with numbers, and how to operate machines. We will even teach them how to make machines of their own." "An excellent idea!" said Dented-Shield. "I will leave some of them here when we depart. Perhaps while you are teaching them, they may be of service to you in building your giant machine that will pull down the starships from the skies." Suddenly, three herders came into the eating area, moving as fast as their treads could take them. One of them had dropped his herder pike in his panic. "The Taker has come!" the first shouted. "She counted the herd and was very angry," said the second, coming up to Dented-Shield. "She said for us to take her to you, and we came as fast as we could." An alarm rang through the crust. "Five Swifts approaching from the east," said a computer voice. "Magnetic barriers are activated." "Swifts?" said Crust-Crawler.
Page 1 and 2:
STARQUAKE Acknowledgments
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Prelude Burrowing through the dark
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science instruments and consoles, w
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Please take a rest." "Doctor Wong,
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about half a day we will be in prop
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Amalita floated over to the table a
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One of her near eyes caught him loo
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"All you need to do is shrink the h
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Pierre spoke quickly to the robotic
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slid open. He entered the security
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Slinklings, and Cold, Chilly's mate
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page and didn't like what he saw. "
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He activated a conference link and
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egg-tending fever. Every time I see
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A glowing speck swung around the to
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"If only Dragon Slayer had some mea
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"That gives us four greats of turns
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"I see someone in the back." "Brigh
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with spots of different emittance t
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Web Construction is the biggest con
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activated. "There are 144 connector
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With the X-ray illuminators in plac
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up and wait. Then there would begin
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06:55:16 TUESDAY 21 JUNE2050 Quiet
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There was a loud clang from nearby.
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Hearing the decimal number for the
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walls made out of high quality supe
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It was turnfeast, and Time-Circle s
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"After the success with the three m
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"Renegotiate them," she replied. "J
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"Those machines produce both the an
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millimeters away it fades into the
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She started with the animals. Three
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idly to the surrounding crust. She
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06:58:07 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE2050 Qu
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kilohertz gravitational radiation t
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"We're losing it!" Heavy-Egg shoute
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y the errant streams. Treads grippi
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"Less than a turn," said the Comm O
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"Our total space force consists of
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"Bright has cursed us all!" Hohmann
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straight toward her, moving rapidly
Page 85 and 86: You should be able to find more cag
Page 87 and 88: close. She could have done a good i
Page 89 and 90: "My plan is to use the robots on Eg
Page 91 and 92: were mixed to produce an ultra-hot
Page 93 and 94: and gravitational waves. Status 82%
Page 95 and 96: "There is someone muttering nearby.
Page 97 and 98: farming class how to tell ripe nut-
Page 99 and 100: of engineers who can fix the damage
Page 101 and 102: Eighty turns later, Qui-Qui returne
Page 103 and 104: They worked their way through the m
Page 105 and 106: other two read zero. Must be breaks
Page 107 and 108: Qui-Qui would arrive at each clan c
Page 109 and 110: satiated, however, for he would nev
Page 111 and 112: They charged, the mounted warriors
Page 113 and 114: out that what was needed was a spec
Page 115 and 116: "You must be Qui-Qui," Ferocious-Ey
Page 117 and 118: stage' for our lander. We can store
Page 119 and 120: "We are aware of that," said Plasma
Page 121 and 122: "One," said Cliff-Web. "And an infi
Page 123 and 124: field. Cliff-Web had returned to no
Page 125 and 126: "There are flying animals on the hu
Page 127 and 128: nothing, tor the forces were gravit
Page 129 and 130: "We will need to have a new power g
Page 131 and 132: "Good. Let's cut it up and haul it
Page 133 and 134: The trade was made, with the captai
Page 135: operation," said Power-Pack. "My se
Page 139 and 140: "But she only has eight eyes now!"
Page 141 and 142: her whip-sword and urged her Swift
Page 143 and 144: for the Taker to come again." "The
Page 145 and 146: As if to punctuate his offer, there
Page 147 and 148: As he flowed up over the crumbled b
Page 149 and 150: "Focus the laser on the landing bas
Page 151 and 152: "It has been a long time since the
Page 153 and 154: their quirrls sparred with each oth
Page 155 and 156: "The humans take forever to do anyt
Page 157 and 158: "That's the last of the HoloMem sto
Page 159 and 160: to the Science Deck. Pierre looked
Page 161 and 162: "Hey! Look at the sightseers," Abdu
Page 163 and 164: choose will be a better name, anobl
Page 165 and 166: The screen on the communications co
Page 167 and 168: This was the first time there had b
Page 169 and 170: "Coupling experiments successful,"
Page 171 and 172: Manager-Director/5 set up a confere
Page 173 and 174: "The cheela are bringing them now."
Page 175 and 176: "Mine," replied Abdul. "She's right
Page 177 and 178: Amalita and Abdul in two segments o
Page 179 and 180: 15 min 31 g cheela generation 29 se
Page 181 and 182: and behaves much like a young cheel
Page 183 and 184: Ngw* 5. CI»ft-Wort Plant Upon reve
Page 185 and 186: We wanted Dragon Slayer at a 406-ki
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Figure 10. Gravity Catapult The wor
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6. F. J. Tipler, "Rotating Cylinder
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