Read Online Migration by Julie E. Czerneda - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Julie E. Czerneda
Tags: Fiction, General, Science-Fiction, adventure, Space Opera, Human-alien encounters, Science Fiction; Canadian
Ads: Link
refit,” Melosh reminded his commander. “We off-loaded our live armaments. We cannot close the transect from only one end. We cannot save whatever remains of this world. We can run, but the Dhryn could follow.”
Wu turned and met his own reflections in each of the Norwelliian’s immense emerald pupils. Not surprisingly, he looked grim in all three.
Timing, Wu knew full well, didn’t make heroes. Resolve did.
“You’re right, Melosh. There’s only one way we can hope to stop the Dhryn and that’s to catch them on the planet surface. Get the crew to the escape pods.” Putting his tea aside, Wu stood, straightening his uniform jacket with a brisk tug. “But first, find me the weakest spot on this planet’s crust.”
The mighty Guan Yu spat out her children, all nestled in their tiny ships, then sprang in silence toward the twitching corpse of a world. Her captain sat quietly at the pilot’s console, tea back in hand, ready to do what had to be done.
No hero. Not he.
A chance, nothing more.
He’d take it.
Then, the scope of the nightmare made itself known as the Dhryn’s Progenitor Ship came into view from around the far side of the planet, catching the sunlight like a rising crescent moon. Glitter rained down from her to the surface, still more returned, until it seemed to any watching that the mammoth Dhryn vessel didn’t orbit on her own but instead floated atop a silver fountain of inconceivable size.
Then specks from that fountain swerved, heading straight toward the Guan Yu . Hundreds. Thousands.
He had no means to destroy her.
Wu’s lips pulled back from his teeth and he punched a control. The Guan Yu hurtled downward even faster than before, seeking the heart of what had been the home of the Eelings.
He could only make the Dhryn pay.
The escape pods went first, each disappearing within a cloud of smaller, faster ships. Swarmed. Consumed.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Wu tossed aside his teacup and secured the neck fastenings of his helmet. Lights flashed and dimmed, flashed and dimmed. The Guan Yu lost atmospheric integrity. One or more seals had failed.
Dissolved.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take you with me,” Wu promised his unwanted guests.
As the first feeder, clothed in silver, drifted down her corridors, the Guan Yu screamed her way through the atmosphere and stabbed into the weakest part of Ascendis’ crust. Shock waves rippled across the continent, setting off quakes and volcanoes.
The air itself burned.
The Great Journey must continue until home is attained. That which is Dhryn has remembered. All that is Dhryn shares that goal.
There will be danger.
There will be hardship.
It is the way of the Journey, that most will not reach its end.
So long as that which is Dhryn achieves safe haven, all sacrifice is joy.
- 3 -
TOUR AND TROUBLE
“ I TOLD YOU to go, Lamisah . Why didn’t you listen?”
A soft, reasonable voice. The voice of friendship, of trust.
The words. It hadn’t been those words. Those—were wrong.
She’d go, but she couldn’t see.
Mac shoved her hands outward, pushing at the darkness. The darkness burned .
She screamed as her fingers dissolved, as the backs of her hands caught fire, as the bones within her palms curled like putty and dripped away. Drip. Drip .
She screamed as the drips were sucked into mouths—into mouths that insisted, in their soft, reasonable voices, voices of friendship, of trust:
“We told you to go, Lamisah . We warned you.
Didn’t we?”
Her arms went next . . .
Mac rubbed her hands up and down her arms, shudders coursing through her body until it was all she could do to sit still, to stay on the couch, to fight for calm.
“That was—” she began, then pressed her lips together. A familiar nightmare, although it usually started at an earlier moment. If she had to dream it, Mac preferred this version. She’d rather face a floating bag of organic acids than look into those familiar yellow-irised eyes and see their warm
Wu turned and met his own reflections in each of the Norwelliian’s immense emerald pupils. Not surprisingly, he looked grim in all three.
Timing, Wu knew full well, didn’t make heroes. Resolve did.
“You’re right, Melosh. There’s only one way we can hope to stop the Dhryn and that’s to catch them on the planet surface. Get the crew to the escape pods.” Putting his tea aside, Wu stood, straightening his uniform jacket with a brisk tug. “But first, find me the weakest spot on this planet’s crust.”
The mighty Guan Yu spat out her children, all nestled in their tiny ships, then sprang in silence toward the twitching corpse of a world. Her captain sat quietly at the pilot’s console, tea back in hand, ready to do what had to be done.
No hero. Not he.
A chance, nothing more.
He’d take it.
Then, the scope of the nightmare made itself known as the Dhryn’s Progenitor Ship came into view from around the far side of the planet, catching the sunlight like a rising crescent moon. Glitter rained down from her to the surface, still more returned, until it seemed to any watching that the mammoth Dhryn vessel didn’t orbit on her own but instead floated atop a silver fountain of inconceivable size.
Then specks from that fountain swerved, heading straight toward the Guan Yu . Hundreds. Thousands.
He had no means to destroy her.
Wu’s lips pulled back from his teeth and he punched a control. The Guan Yu hurtled downward even faster than before, seeking the heart of what had been the home of the Eelings.
He could only make the Dhryn pay.
The escape pods went first, each disappearing within a cloud of smaller, faster ships. Swarmed. Consumed.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Wu tossed aside his teacup and secured the neck fastenings of his helmet. Lights flashed and dimmed, flashed and dimmed. The Guan Yu lost atmospheric integrity. One or more seals had failed.
Dissolved.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take you with me,” Wu promised his unwanted guests.
As the first feeder, clothed in silver, drifted down her corridors, the Guan Yu screamed her way through the atmosphere and stabbed into the weakest part of Ascendis’ crust. Shock waves rippled across the continent, setting off quakes and volcanoes.
The air itself burned.
The Great Journey must continue until home is attained. That which is Dhryn has remembered. All that is Dhryn shares that goal.
There will be danger.
There will be hardship.
It is the way of the Journey, that most will not reach its end.
So long as that which is Dhryn achieves safe haven, all sacrifice is joy.
- 3 -
TOUR AND TROUBLE
“ I TOLD YOU to go, Lamisah . Why didn’t you listen?”
A soft, reasonable voice. The voice of friendship, of trust.
The words. It hadn’t been those words. Those—were wrong.
She’d go, but she couldn’t see.
Mac shoved her hands outward, pushing at the darkness. The darkness burned .
She screamed as her fingers dissolved, as the backs of her hands caught fire, as the bones within her palms curled like putty and dripped away. Drip. Drip .
She screamed as the drips were sucked into mouths—into mouths that insisted, in their soft, reasonable voices, voices of friendship, of trust:
“We told you to go, Lamisah . We warned you.
Didn’t we?”
Her arms went next . . .
Mac rubbed her hands up and down her arms, shudders coursing through her body until it was all she could do to sit still, to stay on the couch, to fight for calm.
“That was—” she began, then pressed her lips together. A familiar nightmare, although it usually started at an earlier moment. If she had to dream it, Mac preferred this version. She’d rather face a floating bag of organic acids than look into those familiar yellow-irised eyes and see their warm
Similar Books
