Read Online Third Watch by Anne McCaffrey - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Anne McCaffrey
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animal odors, fresh, exotic flowers, and rotting vegetation assaulted their nostrils.
Awnings covered the merchandise of the foremost layer of street-level vendors, and banners hanging from the windows of the upper stories fluttered in a brisk breeze, creating a colorful canopy that whipped and twisted overhead.
It was larger and cleaner than the nanobug market, and had bigger, permanent enclosures, some several stories high. Except for the generally rowdy and rank atmosphere, it could have been a regular city.
Pircifir’s ship had a very powerful drive, and she knew they had traveled far beyond the planets in Vhiliinyar’s immediate vicinity, maybe even beyond the planets where she and her people had been trying to contain the plague. He had declined her help or Ariin’s on the bridge, and she could not get a look at the charts, so she did not know exactly where they were. She only knew she had never been here before, in any time, although as they had approached from the air, she had thought there was something familiar about its color scheme.
The inhabitants were human, as far as she could tell, with a few other species sprinkled in among them. There were also companion animals and beasts of burden. She wondered if anyone had a litter of kittens. She’d need to start looking for a new cat now that Khiindi had turned into Grimalkin. She didn’t suppose he’d want to turn back, and even if he did, it wouldn’t be the same.
Besides the vendors, there were entertainers of all sorts. Jugglers juggled everything from balls to small dogs. Mimes who surely had to be of nonhuman stock struck poses and seemed to morph into exaggerated, cartoon imitations of audience members. Dancers shuffled, twirled, leaped, and tapped. Although some of them wore the same kind of street clothes and shipsuits favored by the vendors, others wore bright, if somewhat tattered, costumes, spangled with tarnished embellishments. You had to get pretty close to see the tatters and tarnish though. From a distance they looked splendid. At least Khorii thought so. Ariin snickered and said she saw where Akasa had got her start. Grimalkin was most attracted to the dancers, some of whom wore very little clothing of any sort. Pircifir had obviously been here many times, and strode purposefully through the crowds, ignoring the strange and tantalizing displays, shows, and foods all around them.
Khorii didn’t see any litters of kittens, but there were talking dogs, counting horses, and camels who could spit at a target and hit it dead center many feet away. The crowds gave that corral a wide berth.
Tall and striking as Pircifir and Grimalkin were, had she not been able to read their thought patterns, she’d have lost them in the crowd. Grimalkin occasionally did a protective check on her but was mostly enjoying himself. Pircifir seemed to have specific objectives.
Ariin tried to keep up with him as well. “He’s the one who will find the aliens they make houses from,” she told Khorii. “Not you or your overgrown kitty cat. You may be tagging along to sightsee, but I happen to have a mission.”
“Let me know when you accomplish it, so I can be sure and take the credit then,” Khorii told her tartly. “I wouldn’t want to disappoint you, after all.”
They were both surprised when they fetched up unexpectedly behind Pircifir as he stopped to talk to a man standing in front of gaudy signs displaying all manner of alien life-forms. “Hurry, hurry, hurry,” the man’s recording blared over his dialogue with Pircifir, “see the beautiful humanoid symbiont bonding with the serpent—she slithers, she shakes, she rolls in the belly of the snake.” The picture behind him showed a female wearing very little. Whether Grimalkin’s interest was aroused by that or by the fact that the female was depicted as being within the body of an enormously long and convoluted reptile, Khorii was unsure. The face of the snake had a faintly humanoid look to
Awnings covered the merchandise of the foremost layer of street-level vendors, and banners hanging from the windows of the upper stories fluttered in a brisk breeze, creating a colorful canopy that whipped and twisted overhead.
It was larger and cleaner than the nanobug market, and had bigger, permanent enclosures, some several stories high. Except for the generally rowdy and rank atmosphere, it could have been a regular city.
Pircifir’s ship had a very powerful drive, and she knew they had traveled far beyond the planets in Vhiliinyar’s immediate vicinity, maybe even beyond the planets where she and her people had been trying to contain the plague. He had declined her help or Ariin’s on the bridge, and she could not get a look at the charts, so she did not know exactly where they were. She only knew she had never been here before, in any time, although as they had approached from the air, she had thought there was something familiar about its color scheme.
The inhabitants were human, as far as she could tell, with a few other species sprinkled in among them. There were also companion animals and beasts of burden. She wondered if anyone had a litter of kittens. She’d need to start looking for a new cat now that Khiindi had turned into Grimalkin. She didn’t suppose he’d want to turn back, and even if he did, it wouldn’t be the same.
Besides the vendors, there were entertainers of all sorts. Jugglers juggled everything from balls to small dogs. Mimes who surely had to be of nonhuman stock struck poses and seemed to morph into exaggerated, cartoon imitations of audience members. Dancers shuffled, twirled, leaped, and tapped. Although some of them wore the same kind of street clothes and shipsuits favored by the vendors, others wore bright, if somewhat tattered, costumes, spangled with tarnished embellishments. You had to get pretty close to see the tatters and tarnish though. From a distance they looked splendid. At least Khorii thought so. Ariin snickered and said she saw where Akasa had got her start. Grimalkin was most attracted to the dancers, some of whom wore very little clothing of any sort. Pircifir had obviously been here many times, and strode purposefully through the crowds, ignoring the strange and tantalizing displays, shows, and foods all around them.
Khorii didn’t see any litters of kittens, but there were talking dogs, counting horses, and camels who could spit at a target and hit it dead center many feet away. The crowds gave that corral a wide berth.
Tall and striking as Pircifir and Grimalkin were, had she not been able to read their thought patterns, she’d have lost them in the crowd. Grimalkin occasionally did a protective check on her but was mostly enjoying himself. Pircifir seemed to have specific objectives.
Ariin tried to keep up with him as well. “He’s the one who will find the aliens they make houses from,” she told Khorii. “Not you or your overgrown kitty cat. You may be tagging along to sightsee, but I happen to have a mission.”
“Let me know when you accomplish it, so I can be sure and take the credit then,” Khorii told her tartly. “I wouldn’t want to disappoint you, after all.”
They were both surprised when they fetched up unexpectedly behind Pircifir as he stopped to talk to a man standing in front of gaudy signs displaying all manner of alien life-forms. “Hurry, hurry, hurry,” the man’s recording blared over his dialogue with Pircifir, “see the beautiful humanoid symbiont bonding with the serpent—she slithers, she shakes, she rolls in the belly of the snake.” The picture behind him showed a female wearing very little. Whether Grimalkin’s interest was aroused by that or by the fact that the female was depicted as being within the body of an enormously long and convoluted reptile, Khorii was unsure. The face of the snake had a faintly humanoid look to
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