Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber Read Free Book Online Page B

reared, sacrificed fifty-seven years of their lives to a public pretense of anger and violent disagreement, for nothing.
    Shan-wei and the other “Techies”—just under thirty percent of the original Operation Ark command crew—had retired to Safehold’s southernmost continent. They’d built their own enclave, their “Alexandria Enclave,” taking the name deliberately from the famous library at Alexandria, and rigorously adhered to the original mission orders where technology was concerned.
    And, even more unforgivably from the perspective of Langhorne and Bédard’s new plans, they’d refused to destroy their libraries. They’d insisted on preserving the true history of the human race, and especially of the war against the Gbaba.
    That’s what really sticks in your craw, isn’t it, Eric? Kau-yung thought. You know there’s no risk of the Gbaba detecting the sort of preelectric “technology” Shan-wei still has up and running at Alexandria. Hell, any one of the air cars you’re still willing to allow your command staff personnel to use as their “angelic chariots” radiates a bigger, stronger signal than everything at Alexandria combined! You may say that any indigenous technology—even the memory of that sort of tech—represents the threat of touching off more advanced, more readily detectable development, but that’s not what really bothers you. You’ve decided you like being a god, so you can’t tolerate any heretical scripture, can you?
    Kau-yung didn’t know how Langhorne would respond to Shan-wei’s threat of open defiance. Despite his own position as Safehold’s military commander, he knew he wasn’t completely trusted by the Administrator and the sycophants on Langhorne’s Administrative Council. He wasn’t one of them , despite his long-standing estrangement from Shan-wei, and too many of them seemed to have come to believe they truly were the deities Bédard had programmed the colonists to think they were.
    And people who think they’re gods aren’t likely to exercise a lot of restraint when someone defies them , he thought.
    Pei Kau-yung watched Hamilcar ’s distant, gleaming dot sweep towards the horizon and tried not to shiver as the evening breeze grew cooler.

    â€œFather. Father! ”
    Timothy Harrison muttered something from the borderland of sleep, and the hand on his shoulder shook him again, harder.
    â€œWake up , Father!”
    Timothy’s eyes opened, and he blinked. His third-born son, Robert, Matthew’s grandfather, stood leaning over the bed with a candle burning in one hand. For a moment, Timothy was only bewildered, but then Robert’s shadowed expression registered, despite the strange lighting falling across it from below as the candle quivered in his hand.
    â€œWhat is it?” Timothy asked, sitting up in bed. Beside him, Sarah stirred, then opened her own eyes and sat up. He felt her welcome, beloved presence warm against his shoulder, and his right hand reached out, finding and clasping hers as if by instinct.
    â€œI don’t know, Father,” Robert said worriedly, and in that moment Timothy was once again reminded that his son looked far older than he himself did. “All I know,” Robert continued, “is that a messenger’s arrived from Father Michael. He says you’re needed at the church. Immediately.”
    Timothy’s eyes narrowed. He turned and looked at Sarah for a moment, and she gazed back. Then she shook her head and reached out with her free hand to touch his cheek gently. He smiled at her, as calmly as he could, though she was undoubtedly the last person in the world he could really hope to fool, then looked back at Robert.
    â€œIs the messenger still here?”
    â€œYes, Father.”
    â€œDoes he know why Michael needs me?”
    â€œHe says he doesn’t, Father, and I don’t think it