Read Online The Green Knight (Space Lore Book 1) by Chris Dietzel - Free Book Online
Authors: Chris Dietzel
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Eastcheap was going to tell all of their friends and family that not only had they seen a Meursault sword, they had also seen a knight’s head lopped off and then witnessed that same knight reach down, pick his head and helmet off the ground, and place it back atop his neck as if it were an ordinary occurrence.
A’la Dure came up to Vere’s right side and patted her friend on the shoulder, her quiet way of offering encouragement.
Occulus joined them on Vere’s other side and said, “Well, I’ll bet no one expected that to happen when we all woke up this morning.”
“Are you okay?” Baldwin asked.
“I’m fine,” Vere announced, trying as hard as she could to force a laugh. “I’m not the one who just had my head chopped off.”
“Yet,” Fastolf said, laughing.
When Vere turned and furrowed her brows at him, he cast his eyes downward and sipped from another drink he had found.
“I guess now you’ll be willing to go to Edsall Dark?” Morgan said. When they walked outside the bar and into the dirty alley without Vere offering a reply, Morgan added, “Well, let’s get you there soon so you can clean up your father’s mess before you have to get decapitated.”
“It’s no wonder you don’t have any friends,” Fastolf told her, tossing his empty glass on the ground behind him.
“It’s a wonder you do,” Morgan shot back.
A block down the alley from where the Eastcheap was located, a pair of tall, lanky aliens were looming over their next victim. Both were wearing long overcoats, but the little bit of their orange glimmering skin that was visible showed they were Organguans which weren’t to be messed with. Some poor man had sealed his own fate when he owed them money or failed to pay a debt or deliver on some other kind of underworld agreement. Vere and the others walked toward the spaceport without bothering to find out what the man had done or what would happen to him. On Folliet-Bright, everyone was one step away from having a figure walk out of the shadows and aim a blaster at them.
They passed a winged alien, the color of a fading sunset, as it threw up in the alley after one too many drinks. On the other side of the alley, a human man was pressed against a female Diamal and all three of her tails. They passed a scaly thing, the basic shape of a human, but with almost no facial features and skin that looked like wet sand, as it leaned against a stone wall and relieved itself.
“Use a restroom,” Morgan said, staring the alien down and slowing her pace until Vere pushed her forward.
“That is the bathroom,” Vere said. “And anywhere else you want it to be.”
A series of expressions passed over Morgan’s face. When she finally understood that Vere, the supposed future of the CasterLan Kingdom, had probably done the same thing many times herself, she shook her head in dismay while Vere laughed.
“Maybe it’s good you’re here,” Morgan said, “and not where your father’s people can see you.”
Instead of taking offense to the comment, Vere only laughed again and said, “You don’t know the half of it.”
15
The barrier surrounding and protecting the New Zephyr colony from the lightning storms and toxic atmosphere of the surrounding planet was an environmental containment field. It was not a defensive security measure. The Vonnegan fleet could have aimed their thousands of blasters and destroyed every building and every sign of civilization in the colony. They didn’t have to, though.
Instead, the ten silvery modules drifted down toward the land just beyond the containment field and the normal, oxygenated air and mild weather preserved inside it. The ten projectiles made their way through the lightning-filled sky. When they landed, it was with a puff of dust. Instead of exploding, the capsules hit the ground and disappeared.
The containment fields that protected each colony usually extended at least twenty meters underground, where a protective base kept toxic
A’la Dure came up to Vere’s right side and patted her friend on the shoulder, her quiet way of offering encouragement.
Occulus joined them on Vere’s other side and said, “Well, I’ll bet no one expected that to happen when we all woke up this morning.”
“Are you okay?” Baldwin asked.
“I’m fine,” Vere announced, trying as hard as she could to force a laugh. “I’m not the one who just had my head chopped off.”
“Yet,” Fastolf said, laughing.
When Vere turned and furrowed her brows at him, he cast his eyes downward and sipped from another drink he had found.
“I guess now you’ll be willing to go to Edsall Dark?” Morgan said. When they walked outside the bar and into the dirty alley without Vere offering a reply, Morgan added, “Well, let’s get you there soon so you can clean up your father’s mess before you have to get decapitated.”
“It’s no wonder you don’t have any friends,” Fastolf told her, tossing his empty glass on the ground behind him.
“It’s a wonder you do,” Morgan shot back.
A block down the alley from where the Eastcheap was located, a pair of tall, lanky aliens were looming over their next victim. Both were wearing long overcoats, but the little bit of their orange glimmering skin that was visible showed they were Organguans which weren’t to be messed with. Some poor man had sealed his own fate when he owed them money or failed to pay a debt or deliver on some other kind of underworld agreement. Vere and the others walked toward the spaceport without bothering to find out what the man had done or what would happen to him. On Folliet-Bright, everyone was one step away from having a figure walk out of the shadows and aim a blaster at them.
They passed a winged alien, the color of a fading sunset, as it threw up in the alley after one too many drinks. On the other side of the alley, a human man was pressed against a female Diamal and all three of her tails. They passed a scaly thing, the basic shape of a human, but with almost no facial features and skin that looked like wet sand, as it leaned against a stone wall and relieved itself.
“Use a restroom,” Morgan said, staring the alien down and slowing her pace until Vere pushed her forward.
“That is the bathroom,” Vere said. “And anywhere else you want it to be.”
A series of expressions passed over Morgan’s face. When she finally understood that Vere, the supposed future of the CasterLan Kingdom, had probably done the same thing many times herself, she shook her head in dismay while Vere laughed.
“Maybe it’s good you’re here,” Morgan said, “and not where your father’s people can see you.”
Instead of taking offense to the comment, Vere only laughed again and said, “You don’t know the half of it.”
15
The barrier surrounding and protecting the New Zephyr colony from the lightning storms and toxic atmosphere of the surrounding planet was an environmental containment field. It was not a defensive security measure. The Vonnegan fleet could have aimed their thousands of blasters and destroyed every building and every sign of civilization in the colony. They didn’t have to, though.
Instead, the ten silvery modules drifted down toward the land just beyond the containment field and the normal, oxygenated air and mild weather preserved inside it. The ten projectiles made their way through the lightning-filled sky. When they landed, it was with a puff of dust. Instead of exploding, the capsules hit the ground and disappeared.
The containment fields that protected each colony usually extended at least twenty meters underground, where a protective base kept toxic
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