Read Online Voyage Across the Stars by David Drake - Free Book Online Page A

cars. They are made on Elysium, aren’t they? Or do you—?”
    “Oh, the machinery!” Risa said delightedly. “Oh, my goodness, you thought you’d see that! All of that is underground, right here, most of it, under the houses and some distance beyond, I believe. I’m sure they’ll show it to you if you’d like, but it isnthe sort of thing we—on Elysium—wanted in the open. My goodness,” she repeated, her laughter bubbling into the sky as an image occurred to her. “You must have thought you were on a planet where you’d have to grow a long white beard and learn to card wool. Really, I’m sure my parents can help you get home.”
    “Risa,” said some undifferentiated part of the dashboard in a bass voice, “why don’t you bring our guest by the house first. We have some clothes for him. After he’s had a chance to bathe and change, your mother and I will walk him over to the Hall for dinner.”
    “All right, Dad,” the girl replied. Slade could not see how she was keying the mike, but there could have been a button on the control stick. Risa made a moue over her shoulder at the man. “I hope you like red,” she said. “Kelwin dearly loves it, and I doubt anyone else in town has clothes to lend that might fit you. Not that you’re as heavy as Kel. . . .”
    People were standing on porches or against vine-covered fences, watching the car approach. The individual yards were separated by walkways, but there did not seem to be any provision for ground vehicles. That was not completely inexplicable, but the only air cars Slade had seen were the quartet that had rescued him. Additional transport should have been parked in the yards, even if none of it happened to be airborn at the moment.
    Then Risa guided her vehicle—a trifle too fast at first, because she was unused to compensating for Slade’s considerable mass—around a house of weathered stone. An older man and woman waved from where they stood, well clear of the opened back wall. Risa tilted the fans forward to balance momentum with their thrust. Then she drove neatly into the building and parked beside two very similar cars.
    The garage was well lighted. Slade had expected the floor and walls to be stone or concrete. It was with a sense of surprise that he realized these were some synthetic which glowed without any external light source.
    The older couple had walked in as Risa shut the fans down. They could have passed as Slade’s age or less, but the castaway’s instinct was that they were much older. The man had Risa’s hair and features, while the woman was nearly blond and somewhat less fine-drawn. Both smiled warmly at the girl and her passenger. “I’m Nan,” said the woman as she stretched out a hand to Slade, “Risa’s mother; and this is my husband Onander. I’m sure our daughter has welcomed you to Elysium, but let me assure you that the welcome was from the whole community.”
    The hull and seat-back flexed beneath Slade’s weight when he levered himself out of the space in which he had ridden. He touched Nan’s hand as he stepped from the vehicle, though he was careful not to put any strain on her. “Lady,” he said, conscious of his image but able nonetheless to be sincere, “your daughter and her friends saved my life. I can’t think of any welcome better than that one. And if there’s any way you might help me get home, the way the Terzia thought you might, I—well, how could I owe you for more than my life? But I would appreciate it.”
    “Of course we’ll help you,” said Onander. He clasped the bigger man, hand to biceps, in a gesture that brought their left wrists together as if they were mingling blood. “But I hope you’ll accept a night of our hospitality here. We dare allow few visitors, but someone the Terzia recommended is welcome not only as a guest but also as a font to slake our curiosity. But you will—” he glanced down at Slade’s garment with a smile and not censure—“be more comfortable