The Wolf Worlds by Allan Cole, Chris Bunch Read Free Book Online Page B

and then they were inside.
    Flashing moments of red gore:
    Di!n, a fixed smile on her face, as she slowly spitted a Jann officer against a bulkhead;
    The whistle of spears wailing down a long corridor into a knot of panicked Jann troops;
    Alex ripping a compartment door off its dogs and spinning it into squad weapon as its gunner tugged uselessly at a jammed tripod;
    Ida calmly snapping shots as a platoon of Jann, assembled in one hold, maneuvered forward;
    Bet, on the back of not particularly pleased Hugin. Munin soaring ahead of her, smashing down three Jann.
    And then silence.
    The red fog faded, and Sten looked around.
    They were in the ship's control room. Bodies were scattered across the room, and blood seemed to trickle everywhere.
    On one side, a handful of Stra!bo warriors, spears ready. The cats. The Mantis troopers. Sten.
    And, his back to the semicircular main control panel, the Jann captain.
    In full uniform.
    "Talamein spoke against us," the captain said. "We have not found favor in his eyes."
    Sten didn't answer, just walked toward him.
    "You are the leader of this rabble?" the captain asked.
    He took Sten's silence for assent.
    "Then it is only right and fitting," the captain said, slowly drawing the saber at his side. "I shall fight a warrior worthy of my stature."
    Sten considered. Suddenly Di!n was beside him, pressing a spear into his hand. She nodded—yes. You.
    Sten hefted the spear, then dropped it, and, in one motion, lifted his willygun and fired twice.
    The rounds caught the captain in the head, splattering his skull back across the twin view panels.
    Sten turned away, holstering the gun. Nem!i was looking shocked, and then his expression cleared. He smiled.
    "Ah," he said gently. "For Acau/lay. You do understand our culture."
    "Is it gonna lift, Ida?" Bet asked, slightly worried.
    "Of course it is." the Rom woman snorted. "So we've got half the ship sealed against leaks, we're taking off with no landing gear, there's a bad fuel leak, and I haven't had a bath in a week."
    "No problem for a lass like you," Alex agreed.
    Her thunder somewhat stolen, Ida snorted and hit keys.
    Maneuver drive belched, hiccuped, snorted, and the Turnmaa's nose lifted.
    "Now, as long as I can keep this computer from realizing what I'm doing…"
    And she slammed both drive pots full forward.
    Somehow both Yukawa drive units caught at once, and the Turnmaa clawed its way upward, searing the ground as the ship lifted for space.
    Below it, only a handful of the Stra!bo were watching. They'd

    buried their dead, held their feast, and life went on.
    Di!n, at the head of her phalanx, watched the Turnmaa flame upward and out of sight, silently thinking her own thoughts for many minutes after the last wisps of exhaust floated away and became indistinguishable from the clouds.

BOOK TWO
    GARDE

CHAPTER SEVEN
    THE MAN IN the river appeared to be in his mid-thirties. His long fishing rod was bent in an almost complete half-circle and the near-invisible line sang out from the reel almost to the growling rapids a few dozen meters upriver.
    The man was muttering a steady stream of curses, half under his breath—curses and almost-prayers.
    "Run on me again like that, y'clottin' guppy, and I'll turn you loose. Come on, salmon. Come on back down. Come on."
    Suddenly the salmon broke water, a silver arc flashing in the gray spring sunlight, and came downriver.
    The curses doubled as the man touched the wind button on his reel, one thumb held on the reel itself to prevent overwinding.
    The meter-long fish torpedoed directly at the fisherman, and he stepped hastily back, swayed as his rib-booted foot slipped on a rock and he almost went under.
    Then the salmon was past him and running again.
    He flipped the reel switch and now let line run out, braking with an already seared thumb on the line.
    Mahoney cut the power on the combat car and it dropped gently to the moss-covered ground. He stepped out of the wind-screened sledge and eyed the