Return - Book III of the Five Worlds Trilogy by Al Sarrantonio Read Free Book Online

the ribbon, and opened it for inspection, his eyes narrowing as he read.
    “Aggression by Earth … ? All force necessary… ? Imprisonment of pirates … ?” At this he turned and grinned at his henchmen. “Hear that, boys? We’re to be imprisoned!”
    There rose a roar of laughter.
    Shatz Abel returned to the paper, guffawing. “… followed by summary execution… ?”
    Shaking his head, he folded the paper over on itself and creased it.
    “You don’t mind if I fold it, do you?” he asked the administrator with a mock politeness that hid a well of growing animosity.
    “Of … course … not!” Larsen squeaked.
    “Good.” Shatz Abel continued to fold the treaty, making smaller and smaller squares.
    He smiled at Larsen, held the treaty—now compacted into a four-sided object smaller than the width of three of the pirate’s fingers—gently between two fingers, and popped it into his mouth.
    Loudly chewing, he turned to his men for support, which was fast in coming.
    Swallowing, wiping a few crumbs of parchment from his beard, he turned back to Larsen and said, “Look! No more treaty!”
    From the pirate’s crew stepped Yar Pent, bearing a parchment tied with blue ribbon.
    “What’s this?” Shatz Abel said in mock surprise; he opened the new paper up and gave it to Administrator Larsen, who took it resignedly from the pirate.
    “Read it if you want to,” Abel said, “but you’ll sign it nevertheless. From this moment on, Pluto is an ally of Earth.”
    Dejectedly, Larsen signed the document, which Shatz Abel took back.
    “And now,” the pirate said, “I think it’s time to celebrate!”
     
    I t was only much later, after the debauchery that followed, after a long night when the dawn of SunOne was rising over Tombaugh City, throwing its artificial and ghostly light upon the cold planet, that Shatz Abel sat with Yar Pent on the gangplank of their ship and let his guard down.
    “You realize this piece of paper means nothing,” Shatz Abel said, drawing out the crumpled parchment from his tunic.
    “Everyone here knows that,” Yar Pent replied, pausing to drain the last of a scatter of wine bottles littering the tarmac below them. “It’s nothing to worry about.”
    “Oh, I worry, all right,” Shatz Abel said. “Even though we’ve thrown a scare into Larsen and his cutthroats, as soon as we leave they’ll be back in Cornelian’s pocket. They know it, and so do we. That black-hearted bug has all the weapons and most of the manpower. We can’t control Pluto, or hold any of the moon outposts on Jupiter or Uranus. He’s got us beat out here before we start.”
    “At least we can skim as much salvage and weaponry as possible before Cornelian turns his eye on us.”
    “And that’s all we can do,” Shatz Abel said grimly. “We take what we can and turn tail and run for Earth. And then we wait for the worst.”
    “It can’t be as bad as all that,” Yar said.
    “Believe it,” Shatz Abel said, and now he showed anger. “I feel helpless, and I don’t like it. I promised that boy king that I’d get him back to Earth, and I did that. But now there’s precious little any of us can do to help him, now that he’s there. Once Cornelian turns his eye on Earth, that’ll be that.”
    Yar brightened. “There’s always the Three Comets!”
    “That they’ll smash Mars to bits? Ha! I’ll believe that when I see it. The Machine Master’ll waylay ’em, or whatnot.”
    The pirate looked up into the false dawn of SunOne. “No, my friend,” he said, “at this point the High Leader of Mars holds all the cards.”
     

Chapter 8
     
    “S he is curiously strong,” the High Leader said, as he rested in the oil-filled half tub mounted on a rodded pedestal that served as both his bed and lubricant bath. He had decided to combine his monthly rest and renewal with business and repair, and one hand hung languidly from the side of the tub as the Machine Master worked on its bent digit.
    The Machine