The Darkside Of The Sun by Terry Pratchet Read Free Book Online Page A

needn’t tell you that. I used to go out on the hospital rafts once, but we’ve come a long way from those primitive limb replacement tanks.
    ‘Anyway, Mr Chairman, it is alive in its own right. It is in fact a highly complex organism under your control. I can guarantee that it matches your body almost on the atomic level. It will have certain advantages, of course – your heat tolerance, for example ...ah, yes, at your age I’m not surprised you should ask. Yes, your children will be human in every respect—’ and the doctor made a surprisingly apt dirty joke. ‘But be careful of misunderstandings. It is now you , not some alien slime. The colour? The state of the art, I’m afraid … come back in, oh, ten years and I guarantee that we can turn out a body with not even a trace of green. As for the hair, well, absence of hair is not yet a generic characteristic of a Widdershins. I’m sorry, at the moment it’s a warts-and-all process.
    ‘Before you go, Mr Chairman, I would like to show you the hospital. I’m sure the staff would like to meet you, uh, unofficially. As for myself, I am proud to shake you by the manipulatory appendage.’
    Dom fastened his choker collar and turned round.
    ‘How do I look?’
    ‘Pale green, boss,’ said Isaac soberly. He indicated a small plastic case.
    ‘There are some body cosmetics here, boss. Your mother sent them.’
    Dom turned again and ran his pale green fingers over his face. The googoo had tried to follow body pigmentation as far as possible, but even so he looked as if he had been on a copper-rich diet for a year. He had watched himself on the newscasts while he was recuperating. The fishermen were already fiercely proud of a Chairman who was completely green, and didn’t seem to mind that it was not as a result of prowess on the hunting sea. But his mother’s unspoken comment was that it would offend offworld dignitaries.
    ‘Beng take them!’ he said out loud. ‘What do they matter. Anyway, green is a holy colour.’
    Outside the little hospital six security guards stood to attention as Dom walked out, followed by Isaac and, at a discreet distance, some of the hospital staff.
    Hrsh-Hgn waited beside them. He was holding a high-velocity molecule stripper, and looking sheepish.
    ‘It suits you,’ said Dom.
    ‘I am a pacifist, ass befits a philosopher, and thiss is barbaric.’
    They boarded the Chairman’s barge, which was joined by five flyers as soon as it was airborne.
    Dom stared unseeing at the seascape.
    ‘Who is replacing Korodore?’ he asked after a while.
    ‘Darven Samhedi, from Laoth.’
    ‘A – a good man.’ But still, it took more than efficiency to be security man on Widdershins. ‘Will the phnobes take to him?’
    ‘He is rumoured to have shown shape-hatred. We will ssee.’ Hrsh-Hgn looked down at Dom. ‘You were fond of Korodore.’
    ‘No. He didn’t encourage friendship, but … well, he was always there, wasn’t he?’
    ‘Indeed.’
    Dom turned in his seat and looked at Isaac.
    ‘And if you say one sarcastic word, robot …’
    ‘No, chief. It crossed my mind that Lord Korodore was somewhat over-enamoured of miniature cameras but that was his job. He was a regular guy. I mourn.’
    Four months ago, thought Dom, someone killed him and tried to kill me.
    I am going to find out why.
    A light drizzle was blowing when the squadron landed at the second Sabalos home, a small walled dome near the administrative centre of Tau City. Even Lady Vian came out to meet him, bundled in a heavy cloak, and looking slightly happier for being in a city. Tau was not overwhelmingly cosmospolitan, though a sight more so than the home domes.
    ‘That is not a becoming colour,’ were her first words.
    They dined in the small hall. Down the table Samhedi and the senior members of the household eavesdropped respectfully. Joan, after a polite enquiry about the hospital, was silent.
    Vian looked across at her son. ‘Why don’t you try those body