Wine of the Gods 4: Explorers by Pam Uphoff Read Free Book Online Page A

need some thinking about.
    "Where did it hit?" Lefty's mind drifted toward the expanse of the wastes.
    The gods all shook their heads.
    "On the other side of the world." The Auld Wulf said. "We broke it up, tried to divert the pieces. At least two large pieces hit, and lots of smaller ones. No one survived, on that side of the world. On this side, a few small, self sufficient colonies held on with magical assistance."
    Lefty shivered. They may be gods, but they aren't all powerful.
    Harry sighed. "Thirteen of us acting together, with thousands of witches and mages, and we couldn't do it."
    "Not the Auralian traditional thirteen?" Never looked fascinated. "So, there's a God of Peace and God of Chance out there? Who else? Who's missing? You all know each other, don't you?"
    Gisele sighed. "The Goddesses of Mercy and Logic. Gods of Art, Youth, Just Deserts, Virtue and Vice. Edmund Vice is Barry Virtue's twin brother. Well named, instead of sarcastically named."
    "Just Deserts?" Lefty started snickering. "That's . . . as odd as Romeau's poetry."
    "He's a royal pain to be around. Think of a practical joker with a god's power. Who's really soured on life." The Auld Wulf shook his head. "And Mercy is . . . merciful only by her own standards. Art's a snob. Even Logic was a bit odd. All things considered, I could do without any of them waking for another century or two."
    Never shook her head. "I really can't think of any of you as snobs or dangerous to ordinary people. You're more like the foundations of the world."
    The four gods all laughed at that. Harry shook his head reprovingly. "The world was here before us, and will survive our demise, probably without noticing."

Chapter Three
     
    2 March 3477
    Dallas , Earth
     
    McCamey walked into Lon's office and closed the door.
    "That's not a good sign." Lon leaned away from his computer and gave his boss his full attention.
    "Has Jackson Jefferson been talking to you?"
    "Not as such. We swapped equipment lists. He commended my parsimony, and I suggested that he should take a good look at the site before moving that much equipment."
    "Really? What did he say?"
    "That I clearly wasn't bothering with a preliminary survey. I pointed out that I had treeless rolling hills and he was on a very steep slope in the middle of a dense forest. Haven't spoken to him since. Has he gone?"
    "Gone? How can he do that when he neglected to schedule gate time? He said New Carolina had flunkies to do that, and that we should have taken care of it."
    Lon could hear the man 's teeth gritting, and sighed. He could see the writing on that wall clear enough. "You want my earliest time, don't you?"
    "Yes. He says he can't be ready to return trucks in a week, so we want your third slot too."
    Lon swiveled his chair back to the computer and brought up the gate scheduling page. "Let me see if there are cancellations, or if I can swap some spots with other companies. What we need are two outbound times and two returns. If JJ goes on March 16, and he wants two weeks . . . "
    "He said three would be perfect."
    "Sloppy. Well, I'll update my estimate for the second gate to sixty seconds, for my first movement. Then he can use the third gate for his return. Let me ask for any cancellations in between for my return . . . And it looks like we can get gates two and three weeks later for regular supply runs. All right. That's the best I can do, right now. He goes on the sixteenth, and I'll go on the twenty-third. Good, a hole popped up on March twenty-sixth. Three days to completely off load is a bit tight but we should make it with no problem. So that's my return. Now the scheduled gate on April 7 is his return, and he'd best schedule a supply delivery for that gate. The scheduled gate on April 28 I'll keep for my first regular supply run. May 16th can be his. Tell him March 16, April 7 and May 16 are reserved for him, and he needs to set up what he needs after that."
    "Your first supply run was scheduled just two weeks