StarHawk by Mack Maloney Read Free Book Online Page A

asked worriedly. “Certainly you can’t execute him.”
    Multx wearily shook his head.
    “It is only that my troops so handily won this engagement that I am able to go easy on him,” he replied.
    “Few know of his indiscretion at this point. They are too busy with other things.”
    He waved his hand to indicate the roomful of inebriated officers.
    “And I can maintain our façade,” Multx went on. “But only if nothing else happens. I just hope Mister Hunter is smart enough to keep his lips sealed about what he saw.”
    “He is smart,” Erx said quickly. “That much we know.”
    “And he will remain in confidence about this matter,” Berx added. “We will guarantee it.”
    Multx wiped his brow with his uniform sleeve. He seemed pale.
    “I don’t want to regret taking him along with us,” he said wearily. “But if our scheme to get him into the Earth Race goes awry, not only will the happy days we dream of not be forthcoming, we might have some answering to do to my superiors as well…”
    “All will be well, my brother,” Erx tried to reassure him. “It’s only by risk that our rewards might be great.”
    Multx gulped his drink and grumbled: “Let’s pray that is so. Still, I think it’s best that our feathered friend stay in the brig for the remainder of the journey Inward. Only then can we be sure he’ll find no further trouble to get into.”
    It pained them to do so, but the explorers raised no objections to this. Though a jail cell was not much different from his original billet, Erx and Berx felt responsible for Hunter’s plight. But it would be wise not to argue against Multx’s decree.
    Time to change the subject.
    “We, too, watched the battle closely,” Erx told him, trying to pump Multx back up again. “We could tell it went just as planned. Your troops were sterling in action. Your strategies, flawless.”
    Multx leaned back against the wall and rubbed his tired eyes.
    “All true,” he told them. “But this fight was not pretty, my brothers. Far from it.”
    Erx and Berx fell silent. What was the matter here? Where was the eternally confident Multx? The ever-boastful Multx? Multx the warrior? Multx the conqueror? The man known as the most-connected officer in the Space Navy? Certainly the incident with Hunter was not all that was weighing on him.
    Finally Erx leaned forward and lowered his voice to a whisper.
    “I must tell you, old friend,” he said to Multx, “I’ve seen you looking better. Is something else troubling you?”
    Berx jumped in: “You’ve just won a major engagement, Zap. So it did not go as ‘cleanly’ as you hoped—war is not supposed to be clean. We all know that. Why then so low?”
    Multx hesitated for a moment. Rarely did anyone speak to him on such a personal level. But he knew his friends were right.
    “I cannot answer why I feel this way,” he finally revealed, looking down at his hands. “Because I do not know myself.”
    He paused to take a breath. It was almost painful to watch.
    “I realize I have just eliminated a problem that has been plaguing the Empire for too long,” he went on.
    “And did it quickly, too. Therefore I should be deliriously happy. Yet I am not, because I can’t get rid of this notion that something bad is about to happen. To me. To this ship. To all of us.”
    “An intuition, you mean?”
    “Something like that,” Multx replied.
    The star commander looked up at them, his face more ashen than before.
    “And I cannot tell you, comrades, just what an unpleasant feeling it is…”

7

    Fly down to the dry sea today…
    Yes, that might be a good idea. See the south side of the sky for one last time and then hurry back. The false sunset looks blood red today, especially from fifty thousand feet. Bury the throttles, lean back in the cockpit, open the canopy, and stick his arms out. Now you’re really flying, man . Helmet off. Belts unbuckled. The beams from the crimson giant wash over the face, warming whatever it