Starquake.pdf

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"The Emperor's warriors do not crawl on the crust," said Dented-Shield. "They ride on the backs of trained Swifts." Dented-Shield rose from the resting pad next to the eating mat she had been sharing with Crust-Crawler and started to leave. Crust-Crawler joined her. 'This is no concern of yours," said Dented-Shield. "I shall go out to meet them myself. They are angry with me, not you." "I want to meet them and explain that the loss of the food Slinks was an accident," Crust-Crawler said. "The Emperor does not accept excuses," said Dented-Shield. "Perhaps he will accept payment. Or perhaps the Taker will accept a bribe. Besides, I think I should turn off the magnetic barrier before one of the Emperor's tame Swifts burns a tread." "That would be wise," said Dented-Shield. Crust-Crawler turned off the magnetic barrier and stood beside Dented-Shield as they waited for the Taker and her party to approach. The five Swifts each carried a heavily speckled cheela. The random dark red and yellow-white speckled pattern even extended to their eyeballs. Behind the five Swifts plodded a line of porters, their pouches overloaded with cargo. Some were speckled, but nowhere near as much as the five warriors. The warriors kept their eyes looking in all directions, since they were in strange territory, but they seemed unimpressed with the huge gravity catapult off in the distance and the shiny machines scattered about the base. "I don't see how they can see out of those pink eyeballs," Engineer Thermal-Conductor whispered. "That would put them at a great disadvantage in a battle." "They can't see well," Dented-Shield explained. "But the speckled ones make up for it by their control over animals. It is rumored that the Emperor can talk to animals." "I can see how riding on a Swift would be a significant advantage in a battle," said Otis-Elevator. "One warrior on a Swift would be much more than a match for a dozen warriors on the ground." "Two dozen," said Dented-Shield quietly. "I know." Her eight eyes looked down at the deep dents in her shield. She dropped the shield on the ground and moved forward to meet the Taker, unarmed. "Greetings, Taker of the Emperor," she said. "I am Dented-Shield, Leader of the Dusty Crust Clan." "You failed," said the Taker. Her harsh voice was slightly muffled by the body of her Swift. "We have come to take the 132 Zebu Slinks that belong to the Emperor. You are four short. You know the penalty." "Yes, Taker." Dented-Shield moved closer. "What is the penalty?" Crust-Crawler whispered to Letter-Reader, who was standing next to him. "An eye," said Letter-Reader. "One eye for each Slink."
"But she only has eight eyes now!" "I will move forward with you, Dented-Shield," said one of the elders of the clan. "I will too," said another. "Wait!" said Crust-Crawler. "We are visitors from the stars in the sky. When our great ship came down from the stars we accidentally killed some of the Zebu Slinks that the clan was guarding. We would be more than willing to pay the Emperor for his loss." "It is good for you that you admit your crime, slave," said the Taker. "You are indeed a stranger. Otherwise you would know that the Emperor has no need of money. Money is for trade between slaves. What the Emperor wants, he takes." "We can give him a machine that makes food," said Crust-Crawler. "It will make more food than a great of food Slinks." The Taker paused, her eye-stub waves switching from one pattern to another as she considered. Crust-Crawler took advantage of the hesitation. "I have some samples right here," he said, moving over to the food mats. He picked up a half-dozen each of the red balls and the golden cubes and brought them back. Forming a strong manipulator he reached up over the back of the Swift and handed them to the Taker. The Taker took one each and looked them over carefully. Then she glared down at Crust-Crawler. "Eat them!" she commanded. "Now!" She watched carefully as he took them back from her and put them in a feeding pouch. After a few sethturns he opened his pouch to show her that they were gone. He then raised the rest up for her to choose another. She sucked carefully at the golden crystal, then dropped it in her eating pouch. "The Emperor will take the food machine," she said. "I will place it on another machine that will carry it for you," said Crust-Crawler. "I had better give them a cargo-glider," said Power-Pack. "It has a large accumulator. We don't want the Emperor to run out of food." Within a few methturns a cargo-glider was loaded with a second food machine and brought before the Taker. 'This is the box that controls the glider," said Crust-Crawler. "I have set it for automatic. Wherever the box goes, the glider will follow." The Taker took the box, then called over the leader of the porters. "Here, slave," she said. "You carry the box. Be careful you do not damage the Emperor's food machine. The penalty will be severe." "Yes, Taker," said the porter. Crust-Crawler noticed that he only had nine eyes.
Page 1 and 2:
STARQUAKE Acknowledgments
Page 3 and 4:
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. "
Page 25 and 26:
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
Page 41 and 42:
activated. "There are 144 connector
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With the X-ray illuminators in plac
Page 45 and 46:
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
Page 53 and 54:
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
Page 59 and 60:
"Renegotiate them," she replied. "J
Page 61 and 62:
"Those machines produce both the an
Page 63 and 64:
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 and 136: operation," said Power-Pack. "My se
Page 137: "We would rather wait to taste the
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
Page 187 and 188: Figure 10. Gravity Catapult The wor
Page 189:
6. F. J. Tipler, "Rotating Cylinder
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