Judge by Karen Traviss Read Free Book Online Page A

was a subject he didn’t want to discuss, because nobody wanted to imagine how much she’d changed with a dose of c’naatat and only a bunch of genocidal Nazi cephalopods for company. Ade was compiling a long list of things and people he had to check on as soon as he got time on the ITX link, from Eddie and Giyadas—Jesus, the kid would be an adult now—and the state of Jejeno, and even Lindsay and Rayat. What mattered most right then, now that he was sure Shan was fine and Aras was okay, was to look after his detachment, whose status was still an issue.
    â€œIt’s always the bloody same, and it doesn’t change, no matter what.” Barencoin kept moving the focus around, changing the image in the bulkhead. Suddenly, he was getting images from 45-degree angles, as if a new cam had moved in. The Eqbas must have put their atmospheric remotes in place already. “All this frigging around to disembark. Not that there’ll be anyone waiting on the jetty for us, eh?”
    â€œSpeak for yourself,” said Becken. “I’m a bloody space marine. I’ll be beating women off with a shitty stick.”
    â€œNot if we end up in the Muslim sector.” Barencoin nudged Ade in the ribs.
    â€œCan’t you go and ask what the holdup is?”
    â€œAre we there yet?” Ade lisped, mocking. Shut up, Mart. Time enough to find out just how crappy things are down there now. “Are we there yet, Dad?”
    â€œI just want out of here.”
    â€œIf you feel like hassling Esganikan, go ahead, mate. I’ll stand back and enjoy the show.”
    â€œSeriously, what are you going to do? Are you really going to go ashore with that thing inside you?”
    â€œIt’s only some kind of bacteria. Not a zombie tapeworm.”
    â€œYou going to ring a bell or something to clear a path, then?”
    Ade had already shown Barencoin the Eqbas smartgel barrier that turned from liquid to a thin film when you touched it. Eqbas tech was all about materials that reshaped and reformed into something else entirely. He shrugged, fumbled in his belt pouch, and pulled out the small ball of gel in its sac. “They’re bloody clever, the Eqbas. This is a pretty good barrier.”
    â€œYou’re going to dress up in a giant condom. Classy, yet understated…”
    Ade wondered how much to tell him, but distracting Barencoin was sometimes like keeping a kid quiet. Ade had developed the knack of getting the gel to flow over his skin like a liquid by prodding it just the right way. And it was all a matter of what you prodded it with, of course, but that was more than Barencoin needed to know right then. “It works okay.”
    Ade cupped the gel ball in his palm and pressed his index finger into the surface. It deformed and crept over his hand like a rising glossy tide, matting down to a more even satiny texture as it went. Barencoin stared. Becken craned his head to watch.
    Ade withdrew his finger with a flick and the gel’s progress stopped at his wrist to form a barely visible glove. Barencoin tilted his head, fascinated. Then he reached out and touched the back of Ade’s hand.
    â€œFeels clammy.”
    â€œThat’s to stop perves like you trying to hold my hand, Mart.”
    Becken tried an experimental prod too. “It’s still a giant condom.”
    And that, of course, was how Ade had come across the technology. He’d had never been good at controlling his blushing; he blushed now. It wasn’t a very marine-like thing to do, but Shan always said she found it endearing. It made him feel like a total pillock. Becken, ever alert to the little telltale signs of discomfort among his mates, sniggered.
    â€œDon’t tell me that’s what Eqbas use,” he said. “What about this genetic transfer thing they do when they’re shagging? They can’t do that with a franger on, can they?”
    It was a very old word for very old