Read Online The Garbage Chronicles by Brian Herbert - Free Book Online Page B

breathed deeply.
    “Thank God!” Evans said.
    Outside the ship, Wizzy was just exiting the last exhaust tube when the engines turned over. Had the engines started just a fraction of a second earlier, Wizzy might have been blown away into deep space and lost forever. As it was, he had to cling to a deflector fin with magic suction while the ship accelerated.
    Some of the humanoid creatures clung to the ship too. But they soon lost their grips and fell back as the Amanda Marie picked up speed. Wizzy saw them float aimlessly in the asteroid belt behind the ship.
    Inside, Javik was beginning to think of Wizzy. He flipped a dashboard toggle to reverse-thrust the engines. When the ship stopped, he threw the Hi-Tech gearbox into neutral.
    Wizzy reentered the airlock, then was admitted to the cabin. He flew in, angry as a Jahuvian hornet. “Hey!” he squealed. “Remember me? I coulda been lost out there!”
    Javik apologized, then pushed the toggle to resume acceleration. The Amanda Marie surged ahead.
    “I’m just the guy who saved your butt,” Wizzy said, glowing an angry shade of bright orange. He dropped to the corrugated metal deck, breathing hard.
    “I would have gone back for you if you’d fallen off,” Javik said. “I just wanted to be sure the engines were running okay.”
    “Hrrumph!” Wizzy said.
    Javik laughed. “In case you’re wondering, Wizzy—wanting to learn things as you do—you just displayed the emotion of anger.”
    “Anger? That is good?”
    “Sometimes,” Javik mused, glancing back at Wizzy and noting he was still bright orange. “It’s gotten me into a lot of trouble, though.”
    “Is that what I am now?” Wizzy screamed. “Angry? Well, it feels good! Damned good!” , Javik tossed a disdainful look over his shoulder.
    “Hrrumph!” Wizzy said again. He scooted aft along the cabin floor. “Must learn more about this anger,” he said. Evans watched him disappear into Blanquie’s sleeping compartment without another word.
    “Some meckie you’ve got there,” Evans said. She tossed the humanoid’s purple badge in a disposa-tube. Then she moto-shoed forward, grabbing a half-bulkhead for support as Javik turned the ship.
    “Mother, why did you delay in switching to a new fuel cell?” Javik asked, speaking into his dash microphone.
    “Unknown,” Mother said. “Better have me checked over in the next astro-port.”
    “That’s a long way off,” Javik said. “We alternate rest times from now on, Evans. Can’t leave Mother alone.” He watched Evans slide into the co-pilot’s seat.
    I’ll never go near her again, he told himself, arching his eyebrows thoughtfully. Never again,

CHAPTER 4
    When God created life on Cork, he must have been in a whimsical mood.
    Report of the sayerman team sent in pursuit of Winston Abercrombie

    Sixty-six hours later, the Amanda Marie entered orbit just outside the atmosphere of Guna One. Javik scanned a clip chart on the wall to his left. “Should be Garbage Central down there,” he said.
    The ship’s engines rumbled for a moment, bouncing Javik’s long legs together under the instrument panel.
    “You’ve hardly spoken to me since the Davis Droids,” Evans said, squinting in the light of three synchronized Guna suns, She studied a planet file on the CRT screen, noting that the combined energy produced by this solar triumvirate was little more than the output of Earth’s single sun.
    “That hydraulic line fixed?” Javik asked tersely.
    “Mother took care of it,” Evans said.
    “Took care of it, ‘sir,’ to you, Evans!” Javik snapped. “Don’t forget it!”
    She paused for a moment, then: “Yes, sir.” Javik heard anger in her tone.
    Evans clamped an Ego Booster headset over her ears and mentoed it on. Javik overheard portions of the recorded message as it played in her ears: “You are important and incredibly talented. You have many unique qualities.”
    “Turn that thing down!” Javik said.
    She did as he instructed