Read Online The City Who Fought by Anne McCaffrey, S. M. Stirling - Free Book Online Page B

Worlds and not just a primitive frontier zone."
    "Exactly, Ms. Hap," Claren said. He was a mousy-looking little man, with thinning black hair combed back over his head. He dressed like a humorist's caricature of a bureaucrat, down to the keypad holder on his belt. "It's what I've been saying for years."
    "What do you think, Simeon?" Channa asked.
    "Sounds good to me," the affable city manager replied.
    Claren coughed violently; one of his hovering assistants scurried forward with a glass of water.
    Channa waited until he had recovered. "Surprise you, did he?"
    "Surprise me? Me? No, no, something caught in my throat. Air's dry, I think." He hastily swallowed another sip of water to reinforce that interpretation. "Now, here," and his fingers flew over the key of his terminal, "are some plans we've had pending, with the projected—"
    "Answer the question, please, Administrator Claren," she said firmly but quietly. She might be new, but she could recognize "sign now, please ," when she heard it.
    "Well, ah, this isn't the first time these specific projects have been put forward," Claren said. "But, ah, there has never been a sufficiently positive reaction to implement the schemes. Until now, that is. It's a pleasure to work with someone who can appreciate planning ahead and is so naturally decisive. Ahhhhh, oh dear." His voice trailed off.
    Channa's took on a steely note. "Changed our mind, have we, Simeon?"
    "This station wasn't in a position to plunge into such an ambitious project. Much less have the incentive,"
    Simeon replied smoothly. "Tell was a roughneck like me. Neither of us had the background for coordinating such enterprises. Here, anyway."
    Channa turned, subliminally aware of something moving through the air behind her. It was a message tray, floating at elbow height. The domed top folded back, revealing chilled glasses and a frosted, uncorked bottle of a fine vintage. A single red rose lay on the white napery. Her lips grew thin but, as she saw Claren watching her closely and knew that she must be flushing, she controlled her impulse to sling the bottle at the sensor that linked Simeon to this office.
    "Yes, by all means let us drink to the success of this undertaking, Claren," she said and began to pour.
    Facetiously, she lifted her glass towards the sensor and sipped, mildly surprised at the dry crisp taste.
    "Hmm. Not a bad white! Didn't know you had it in you, Simeon."
    "I'm not without a few talents of mine own," he replied, wishing there was an imager in Claren's office so he could project the suave smile he was feeling.
    She downed the rest of the glass, replacing it on the float. "If you'd just transfer the plans to my terminal, Administrator Claren, I can peruse them at my leisure." Then she strode purposefully out of the office.

    * * *
She was storming by the time she got to their lounge. "I bet you think you were being subtle ! Subtle like colliding with an asteroid, you—" She swung around to the screen which he had prudently left blank, giving her anger no focus. Then she began to hear the sounds filling the room.
    Simeon delightedly watched her expression gradually alter from livid to astonished and finally to enchanted as the lilting sounds of the Reticulan mating croon filled the lounge. The sounds were long, low, dreamy. There was no formal melody, but somehow the theme suggested the stillness of deep forest and dew falling like liquid diamond in streaks of sunlight dazzling through the leaves.
    Channa stood still for a moment. She winced slightly as the door closed with an audible swoosh, annoyed that any other sound marred the perfection of what she was hearing. Then, stepping carefully, as though fearful that cloth brushing against cloth or shoe against carpet might cause her to lose a precious second of the complex music that surrounded her, she walked to a chair. She sat down so slowly she seemed to float down to it, scarcely seemed to breathe as she absorbed the music.
    My first impression