Read Online A Taste Of Despair (The Humal Sequence) by Robert Taylor - Free Book Online
Authors: Robert Taylor
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anyone in human space. Essentially a box-like base with a few controls and a flip-up screen. Quite why the box was making such a meal of the opening procedure was beyond Hamilton.
“It’s a little ostentatious.” Rames scowled.
“I did say he liked drama, didn’t I?” Hamilton muttered.
After what seemed like minutes the device finally stopped moving and the communicator sat ready. Unlike the units everyone was familiar with, this one had only a single button, marked “communicate”.
Hamilton looked around at everyone, then shrugged and pressed the button.
Almost at once a man’s image appeared on the little screen. Hamilton had never seen him before, but there was no mistaking the smug look that he gave Hamilton.
“Hamilton! Dear boy! I’m so glad to see you again!” The Walsh-that-did-not-look-like-Walsh said.
Hamilton scowled. “Walsh. I see you made it to human space in one piece.”
Walsh smiled. “No thanks to you! I don’t know what you did to my ship, but it caused no end of problems.”
“Glad I could help out.” Hamilton muttered.
“Ultimately, your exploits caused delays, nothing more.” Walsh explained. “As you people say, ‘the fly in the ointment’. An annoyance, but nothing more. Once you pick it out of the ointment and flick it away, it might as well have never existed at all!”
Rames, Klane, Grimes and Jones made their way to where they could see the screen.
“If I’m such a minor nuisance,” Hamilton asked. “How come you went to all this trouble to talk to me?”
“Honestly? Curiosity, mostly. I just wondered what you were trying to accomplish with this quarantine nonsense of yours? I’d have thought simply flying off into obscurity to plot and plan against me was the more likely outcome.”
“That was the plan.” Hamilton admitted. “But circumstances altered that.”
“And now here you are.” Walsh grinned. “Trapped in the quarantine section of a space station on the edge of nowhere. Not just you, but all of the crew of the Hope’s Breath. And you’ve found some replacements for those you managed to get killed last time out. How nice!”
Rames muttered. “I can see why you hate this guy. But he doesn’t seem all that dangerous. Wacko, maybe.”
Walsh wore a look of tolerant amusement. “Ah yes! Captain Rames, of the Ulysses . So good to meet you! I see from the sealed military records of your career that you’ve worked with Hamilton here before. I also see that working with him cost you any real career advancement options. How is life out there on the frontier? Enjoying it?”
“Don’t let him get to you.” Hamilton advised. “He likes to needle people.”
Walsh pouted. “Now Hamilton! Is that any way to talk about a friend?”
“What do you want this time Walsh? I see you’ve singularly managed to fail to destroy humanity, as you promised last time.”
Walsh’s smile returned. “That was then. I was young, impressionable. Turns out when I got here I didn’t have half the numbers of my kind that I hoped for. I wonder who could be responsible for that, eh? Anyway, I quickly outfitted another ship and returned to gather up my abandoned comrades.”
“Shame I didn’t hang around then. I could have finished what I started with the Hope’s Breath.” Hamilton scowled.
Walsh nodded. “Yes, it was a shame. I was so looking forward to finding out what happened and meeting you again. You can imagine my disappointment when you weren’t there. Of course, I expected some sort of sabotage, so I brought a ship equipped with large amounts of data storage for my kind to occupy. It’s a very common type of memory array, I believe you call them people!”
“Sonuva…” Klane muttered.
“So I wasn’t there. A shame for both of us.” Hamilton said. “So you just loaded up your programs into the people and headed back?”
“Essentially.” Walsh admitted. “But, you know, whilst I was having the second ship built I did my best with the
“It’s a little ostentatious.” Rames scowled.
“I did say he liked drama, didn’t I?” Hamilton muttered.
After what seemed like minutes the device finally stopped moving and the communicator sat ready. Unlike the units everyone was familiar with, this one had only a single button, marked “communicate”.
Hamilton looked around at everyone, then shrugged and pressed the button.
Almost at once a man’s image appeared on the little screen. Hamilton had never seen him before, but there was no mistaking the smug look that he gave Hamilton.
“Hamilton! Dear boy! I’m so glad to see you again!” The Walsh-that-did-not-look-like-Walsh said.
Hamilton scowled. “Walsh. I see you made it to human space in one piece.”
Walsh smiled. “No thanks to you! I don’t know what you did to my ship, but it caused no end of problems.”
“Glad I could help out.” Hamilton muttered.
“Ultimately, your exploits caused delays, nothing more.” Walsh explained. “As you people say, ‘the fly in the ointment’. An annoyance, but nothing more. Once you pick it out of the ointment and flick it away, it might as well have never existed at all!”
Rames, Klane, Grimes and Jones made their way to where they could see the screen.
“If I’m such a minor nuisance,” Hamilton asked. “How come you went to all this trouble to talk to me?”
“Honestly? Curiosity, mostly. I just wondered what you were trying to accomplish with this quarantine nonsense of yours? I’d have thought simply flying off into obscurity to plot and plan against me was the more likely outcome.”
“That was the plan.” Hamilton admitted. “But circumstances altered that.”
“And now here you are.” Walsh grinned. “Trapped in the quarantine section of a space station on the edge of nowhere. Not just you, but all of the crew of the Hope’s Breath. And you’ve found some replacements for those you managed to get killed last time out. How nice!”
Rames muttered. “I can see why you hate this guy. But he doesn’t seem all that dangerous. Wacko, maybe.”
Walsh wore a look of tolerant amusement. “Ah yes! Captain Rames, of the Ulysses . So good to meet you! I see from the sealed military records of your career that you’ve worked with Hamilton here before. I also see that working with him cost you any real career advancement options. How is life out there on the frontier? Enjoying it?”
“Don’t let him get to you.” Hamilton advised. “He likes to needle people.”
Walsh pouted. “Now Hamilton! Is that any way to talk about a friend?”
“What do you want this time Walsh? I see you’ve singularly managed to fail to destroy humanity, as you promised last time.”
Walsh’s smile returned. “That was then. I was young, impressionable. Turns out when I got here I didn’t have half the numbers of my kind that I hoped for. I wonder who could be responsible for that, eh? Anyway, I quickly outfitted another ship and returned to gather up my abandoned comrades.”
“Shame I didn’t hang around then. I could have finished what I started with the Hope’s Breath.” Hamilton scowled.
Walsh nodded. “Yes, it was a shame. I was so looking forward to finding out what happened and meeting you again. You can imagine my disappointment when you weren’t there. Of course, I expected some sort of sabotage, so I brought a ship equipped with large amounts of data storage for my kind to occupy. It’s a very common type of memory array, I believe you call them people!”
“Sonuva…” Klane muttered.
“So I wasn’t there. A shame for both of us.” Hamilton said. “So you just loaded up your programs into the people and headed back?”
“Essentially.” Walsh admitted. “But, you know, whilst I was having the second ship built I did my best with the
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