Between the Stars by John Maddox Roberts, Eric Kotani Read Free Book Online Page A

cross-legged on the polished stone floor, glaring up at him from beneath bushy white eyebrows. His silver hair flowed almost to his shoulders and a walrus mustache overhung his piranha mouth. His black coverall was embroidered with a wolf-mask in silver thread.
    "Greetings, Elder Uncle," Derek began formally.
    "Hand it over, nephew," Ulric barked, holding out a platter-sized palm.
    "Hand over what?" Uh-oh, he thought.
    "Don't insult my intelligence! I mean the other artifact! You found more than one, didn't you?"
    Derek assumed a look of wounded innocence. "Who, me?"
    Ulric's ice-blue eyes went into liquid-nitrogen mode. "Don't talk like an idiot, you product of a sperm bank for the hopelessly defective! Do you believe your elders have lost their capacity to think logically? Your recent actions are so transparent I am ashamed to call you my kinsman. I could have come up with a more convincing subterfuge while sleeping off a three-day drunk!"
    Derek kept silence. This was going to be even worse than he had feared. It never occurred to him to turn and walk away, as was his perfect legal right. Clan obligations went far deeper than mere constitutional technicalities.
    Ulric continued his tirade. "You're a glory-hungry young whelp, with an over-inflated idea of your own importance—a common failing of the young. Yet, after finding the now-famous green egg, you did not accompany it back! You passed up your chance to be holographed throughout human-occupied space. You'd have been famous for whole days!
    "Instead, you terminated your employment and ran off as if you were publicity-shy; a laughable concept if ever there was one. There is only one possible answer: There was another alien artifact and you made off with it. Now hand it over."
    "I have no such thing," Derek said, being truthful after a fashion.
    "Then where did you hide it? Don't be cagey with me, Derek. Are you planning to sell it? No, you may be dumb, but you're probably not a crook." Ulric sat back and folded his arms, glaring ferociously. Derek tried not to quake. "Damn!" Ulric muttered at last. "You've given it to that woman, haven't you?" Before Derek could frame an answer, Ulric silenced him with an abrupt wave. "No, don't try lying to me, you just aren't good at it. Everybody wondered why the green egg didn't bring Sieglinde powering into Aeaea on her mythical super-luminal drive."
    "She might've been on Earth," Derek said, helpfully. "Or Luna. Or even farther away. It takes a long time—"
    "Silence." Somehow, Derek thought, Ulric sounded even deadlier speaking quietly than when raging. "She was here in the stronghold not thirty days ago. Now she's hiding out somewhere with that artifact you gave her, you unthinking young wretch."
    Derek decided to drop all pretense. "You're acting like I gave it to some Earthie, or an outsider. Sieglinde's part of the clan; she's a Taggart."
    "By marriage," Ulric grumbled. "She's crazier than the Cianos, and they're all lunatics."
    "She's the greatest theoretical and experimental physicist alive," Derek said, loyally.
    "So she tells everybody. Her faster-than-light schemes have never panned out, but they've cost a bundle."
    Derek relaxed a little. The worst seemed to be past. "It's all been her own money."
    Ulric twisted the end of his mustache and signaled to Derek to sit. With great relief, the younger man did so. A squat, domed robot with a flat bottom came gliding from a wall on a cushion of air. A pair of low-grav beakers rose through a door in its top. Bubbles rose lazily through amber liquid and raised a slow-motion spray on the surface. Derek took one and sipped it. After all these years, he still couldn't believe that Ulric's favorite drink was champagne.
    "It could be worse," Ulric said at last. "My main worry is that that madwoman will destroy the thing trying to take it apart. It was another of the eggs, wasn't it?"
    "Yes, identical to the one sent to the Aeaeans, as far as I could see."
    "As soon as the Althing