Their Master's War by Mick Farren Read Free Book Online Page B

trooper with the knife looked up as he approached the table.
    "So how goes it, Dyrkin?"
    The giant snorted. "How's it supposed to go when you've spent all the watch unblocking a filter in the forsaken twenties?"
    The trooper with the knife shrugged. "You shoulda gone sick like me." Dyrkin scowled. "Still jerking off that knife, Ren-chett? I wouldn't have thought you'd be so eager to use it again, not after the last time."
    Renchett wiped the blade one last time and then slid it into his boot. "I'm in no hurry. No doubt we'll be dropping into some kind of shit soon enough... and talking of shit—" He jabbed a bony finger in the direction of Hark and the other recruits. "You see what we got here?" Dyrkin nodded. "I seen it. I was just getting around to dealing with it." He suddenly lunged across the table and grabbed Hark by the front of his singlet. "You're sitting in my chair, filth. What you got to say about that?"
    Hark's mouth dropped open. "I didn't know—I—"
    "Then you ought to have known."
    Hark found himself jerked up and out of his seat, dragged across the table, and thrown bodily into a bulkhead. He lay winded for a few seconds, then he started to grow angry. He might have been delivered into this alien place, but he was still an Ashak-ai warrior. He
    scrambled to his feet and swung his fist at Dyrkin. The blow was stopped cold by a massive hand. The giant twisted Hark's arm, forcing Hark to bend half double. At the same time, he brought the steel forearm down across Hark's back. Hark's knees buckled, and he dropped to the deck plates with the world spinning around him.
    Four
    Hark woke with a gasp. He was lying in a pool of water. His face was wet, and his singlet was soaked through. For a moment, he had absolutely no idea where he was or even who he was. All he knew was that he couldn't feel his left shoulder. Then he moved his head, and he felt it with a vengeance. Pain surged through him, and for a moment he wondered if his neck had been broken. A ring of grinning faces were staring down at him, hard faces with scars and cold unfriendly eyes. He knew where he was. He was on the Gods' starship. Except all that had changed. The Gods weren't Gods at all, they were creatures called the Therem, and he was part of their army. He groaned. The grins broadened. Dyrkin, the giant with the prosthetic arm, stood right over him. His grin was the meanest of all.
    "You learned your place now, new meat, or do you want to go around again?" Hark tried to sit up. He felt as if he were going to vomit. "I..." Renchett, the one who seemed to be in love with his knife, was holding a plastic container. He must have dumped the water over the fallen man.
    Hark tried to speak again. "I...won't sit in your chair no more." Dyrkin nodded. "You learn fast, new meat."
    Beyond the grinning circle of old hands were the other four recruits from Hark's group. They weren't grinning. Their faces showed an unhappy combination of relief that they weren't the ones who'd been getting the treatment at the hands of Dyrkin and apprehension that they might be next. Renchett turned and glared at them.
    "One of you get him up on his feet and into his coffin."
    None of them moved. The four stood as if fear had rooted them to the spot. Renchett scowled. "You hear me, you scumsucks?"
    The four looked at each other as if each was unwilling to be the one to draw attention to himself by stepping through the ring of longtimers. Renchett didn't wait for a volunteer. He grabbed the nearest by the front of his singlet.
    "You, asshole, get that man to his coffin! Move!"
    Renchett assisted the movement with the steel toe of his boot. The recruit leaned over Hark, extended a hand, and hauled him to his feet. Despite the pain in his shoulder and the weakness in his legs, Hark had noticed something. Renchett had referred to him as a man. Not as new meat, scumsuck, or asshole but as a man. He wondered if he'd passed some sort of initial test. Hark swayed, and a second