Passage at Arms by Glen Cook Read Free Book Online

were household words on the Inner Worlds. Real heroes of the Fleet. Men and women who'd survived their ten missions. They were a depressing bunch. I began to develop a sour outlook myself, and to wonder just how bright I'd been, asking to join a Climber patrol.
    Then the Commander turned up at my room in Transient Officers' Quarters. "Our last night here.
    Heading for the Pits tomorrow. The rest of us are going slumming. Want to come along?"
    "I don't know." I'd tried the O clubs. They were filled with dreary staff types. Their atmosphere was both boring and stultifying. There's nothing deadlier than a congregation of conscientious bureaucrats.
    "We're going a different place. Private club. Climber people and guests only. The real front-line warriors." His smile was sarcastic. "Give you a chance to meet our astrogator, West-hause. Just turned up. Good man, but he talks too much."
    "Why not?" I had yet to meet any Climber people but those with whom I was traveling. The others might be less taciturn.
    "Called the Pregnant Dragon, for reasons lost in the trackless deserts of time." He grinned at my raised eyebrow. "Don't wear your best. Sometimes it gets rowdy."
    Something came up which demanded the Commander's attention, so we arrived late. But not late enough. I should've stayed behind.
    That night witnessed the destruction of a hundred cherished cities in my land of illusions.
    The Dragon was up near the surface, in an old subbasement. I heard it long before I saw it, and when I saw it, I asked, "This's an Officers' Club?" ,
    "Climber people only," Westhause said, grinning. "Down people couldn't handle it."
    Four hundred people had packed themselves into a space that had served two hundred before the war.
    Odors hit me like a surprise fist in the face. Alcohol. Vomit. Tobacco. Urine. Drugs. All backed by mind-shattering noise. The customers had to shout to make themselves heard over the efforts of an abominable local band. Civilian waiters and waitresses cursed their ways through the press, getting groped by both sexes. I guess the tips made up for the indignities. Climber people had nothing else to do with their pay.
    Athwart the doorway, lying like some fallen angel seduced by the sins of Gomorrah, was a full Commander wearing Muslim Chaplain's insignia. Smiling, he snored in a pool of vomit. Nobody seemed inclined to move or clean him. Conforming to custom, we stepped over his inert form. Not a meter beyond, two male officers were playing kissy-face huggy-bear. I'm afraid I gasped.
    I mean, it does go on, but right inside the front door of the 0 club?
    The Commander grunted, "Hang on to your nuts. There's more fun to come." He halted two steps inside, ignoring the lovers. Fists on hips, he stared about as though springing a surprise inspection. Having glimpsed what was going on, I expected an explosion.
    He threw back his head and cut loose with a great jackass bray of laughter.
    And Yanevich bellowed, "Make a hole for the best goddamned Climber in the Fleet, you yellow-assed scum."
    The cacophony declined maybe one decibel. People looked us over. Some waved. Some shouted. Some moved toward us. Friends, I supposed.
    A tiny china doll, ethereally beautiful in makeup which exaggerated her aristocratic Manchu features, slid beneath our elbows as lithely as a weasel. A meter away she paused and, eyes sparkling, mimicked the Commander's stance.
    "You're fucking full of shit, Steve," she shouted at Yanevich. "Ninety-two A's the best, and you fucking well know it."
    Yanevich lunged like a bear in rut. "Shit. I didn't know you guys were in."
    "Come down off your goddamned mountain once in a while, graverobber." She laughed and wriggled as he mauled her. "Can you still get it up, Donkey Dick? Or did it fall off out there in the ruins?
    We just got in. I could use an all-night hosing."
    "We're headed out, Little Bits. Tell you what. You have any doubts, I'll stick a wad of gum on the end. You let me know when you're chewing."
    I was