The Winds of Altair by Ben Bova Read Free Book Online

word popped out of his mouth. Did I make it up, he wondered, or did Crown really have that name before I linked up with him?
    "Okay," Dr. Carbo said finally, "his name is Crown. Today we want to see if you can get Crown to do some scouting for us. We're going to head off toward the east . . ."
    He droned on, his voice very serious, his face grim. Amanda fussed around Jeff, checking all the connections, telling him without words that if he ran into any trouble they would be here to pull him out of it. Jeff gave her a fleeting grin, and she arched an eyebrow to show him that she had caught it.
    Jeff found himself drumming his fingertips on the cushioned fabric of the armrests, impatient to get Carbo's briefing over with. He felt eager to be back on the world below them, to get back to being Crown.
    At last Dr. Carbo finished. He and Amanda left the chamber and went into the control room. Jeff could feel the surge of electrical excitement that rushed through him as they turned up the power on the equipment. He closed his eyes and forced himself to relax on the couch.
    Carbo stood beside Amanda and watched the young student seemingly fall into an instant sleep. Easily. Too easily. He had seen people embrace drugs and the direct cortical stimulation that his neuro-electronic probe could provide with the same happy, beatific smile on their lips. He tried to put that worry behind him. This is something very different, he told himself. The boy shows no evidence of addiction. Not yet, at least.
    Jeff seemed to be in a deep slumber, totally relaxed, every muscle slack. Then the closeup monitoring viewscreen showed that his eyes began to move rapidly behind his closed eyelids. His fingers clutched at empty air. His head jerked and twisted. On the main control panel the data monitors whined to life. The central viewscreen glowed and formed the scene from the hilltop that was becoming familiar to them.
    "He's done it again," Amanda whispered.
    With a curt nod, Carbo replied, "It gets easier for him each time."
    She made a small movement that might have been a shake of her head. "It looks as if it puts him in pain."
    "There's no trace of pain on the monitors."
    "I know," Amanda said. "But . . ."
    "He's enjoying the experience. He's a hero. Every young man wants to be a hero."
    "Maybe so. But he's losing weight. Have you noticed that?"
    "A kilo or so. Nothing to worry about."
    "I worry," Amanda said.

    Crown awoke instantly. Not that he was ever deeply asleep. A wolfcat has no natural enemies, but still there are dangers: a brainless serpent, a hungry pack of scavengers, another wolfcat challenging him for his hilltop.
    He got up on all sixes and stretched, catlike, before trotting out from under the rock ledge where he had slept the night. In the gentle, diffuse light of early morning he gazed out from the top of his hill. The forest beckoned, with its scents of food.
    No, not the forest. Eastward, across the grasslands, toward the rising sun.
    Crown grunted. Food was in the forest, but there would be food in the grassland, too. He had eaten well the day before. Hunger could wait. For a while.
    Still, it felt strange to turn his back on his own hunting territory, to leave his hill and the forest. With a final glance over his shoulder, he lumbered down the hillside and turned off toward the grassy open land that stretched out to the horizon and the morning sun.
    He's doing it! He's controlling the beast.
    There were new odors in the grassland. Strange scents. The area was fairly flat, with nothing more than a gentle roll here and there to break the monotony. No trees at all, although there were some clumps of shoulder-high brush, and the grass itself came up to Crown's knees. The wind was strong. With nothing to get in its way, the wind no longer sighed; it gusted and shouted as it whipped Crown's fur and made the grass bow down in waves that he could follow from the horizon right up to where he was walking.
    By midmorning Crown's innards