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I've been kidding myself, he thought sourly. This sort of thing is not for the
likes of me. Nagy and Sabatini or whatever it is-this is their element. I'd
take on a Val if I had to, but on my turf, not its. Damn you, Lazlo Chen! If
we ever get away with this you ain't gonna depend on old Raven for support.
Not with you sitting back there fat and lazy in your desert domain. I'll do
your damned dirty work, but this is too much.
"Raven-Warlock-Sabatini" came Nagy's electronic voice through the speakers. "I
don't think I'm gonna make it. I want you to know a few things just in case."
"You go into shutdown and don't think. You can't afford the energy," Sabatini
cautioned.
"Forget it. Listen, I'm gonna tell you a few things. All of you. First, I
already showed you a Val can be taken in space if you're crazy enough and
unpredictable enough. They have a weakness and it's called conceit. They think
they understand human beings perfectly, and maybe they do, but they don't
think like human beings. They're machines. Logical devices. When they see a
predetermined course of action, and the sequence is logical, they tend to
assume the conclusion will be the obvious. That's why we nailed the Val. On
the ground they're just as vulnerable, but they have a lot more tricks. Don't
let one get too close to you or you'll never know what hit you. They can be
had, though, even on the ground. Use high-intensity lasers that'll carve
through walls.
That won't stop 'em, but it penetrates. The head's a dummy. Ignore it. Their
brains are in their asses-about seven to eight centimeters above the crotch.
Just imagine that they have a navel and aim for it. Crisscross. X patterns.
The hind is more vulnerable than the front, though. Try to ambush it and don't
stop until it's down. Don't get within four meters until you're sure it's
totally dead."
This way interesting. Raven felt torn between telling Nagy to shut up and take
it easy, and learning what he could from a dying man. He said nothing.
"Don't assume, too, that all your dangerous enemies are machines. There are
times when machines just can't do the job, and the supply of Vals is small,"
Nagy continued. "Master System has human troops, as well, out here, on several
bases. Mindprinted, genetically bred, as devoted and loyal and singleminded as
Vals. You can even argue with a Val-it's just doing its job. You can't argue
with these troops, and not all of them are human."
Raven looked at Sabatini. "You know about them?"
Sabatini nodded. "I heard about them. Never saw 'em -that is, none of my
people ever did."
"When you take the first ring," Nagy went on, "everything else will stop
except for you. Vals and troopers and everything else will be pulled out for
the hunt.
There's help out there-I've started you on your way-but the odds are still way
against you. You'll need more people and you'll need for everyone to be
willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. Except for Sabatini here, none of the
rest of you can even get in to scout around and case an area. None of them are
Earth-human-except for Chen."
"What the hell do you mean by 'ultimate sacrifice'?" Raven wanted to know.
"Death? You know we are prepared for that."
"Not death. Life. You can't just put on a mask and stick up a Center,
particularly when you are the one who looks and acts alien. Out here, you are
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
the monsters. Dying is one thing. Could you, for the chance at a ring and
action, become a monster to yourself? You better ask that. You better have
Hawks ask that of everyone. The only way you're gonna steal those rings under
the noses of chief administrators and Master System on worlds that aren't
really human is to become one of them. You better face that fact and also face
the fact that Chen's counting on just mat. Nobody left who's Earth-human.
Nobody who can come for his ring without being pretty damned obvious."
"For one who came unexpectedly along for the ride he seems to know a great
deal about this," Warlock whispered.
Raven nodded. "You not tellin' us something we ought'a know, son?"
"I'm telling you all you ought to know, Raven. You can trust Savaphoong within
limits. He won't betray you to Master System, but if you had four out of five
rings he's clever enough to figure out where the fifth one is and take those
four from you. Build your contacts with the other freebooters, as well. Don't
depend on a single source. The same goes for Clayben. He'll be a real team
player until you win. He really is terrified of you, Sabatini-use that, but
watch your back. He created you, but he's also the one who figured out how to
capture and hold you. Being hard to kill isn't the same thing as being
immortal.
You would have died with us back there no matter what."
"I'll remember. Clayben took me by surprise when I was immature. I will not
allow that to happen again."
"Look, I'm running out of time here. Go for Janipur first. It's no pushover,
but if you can't take that ring you can't take any of them. Oops! We're
punching out in just a minute. Stand by. Sabatini, get back on the console. We
want to make sure that somebody here can drive this thing no matter what."
Sabatini did as instructed and was quickly back under the ship's interface.
Neither Raven nor Warlock bothered to do more than slightly brace themselves;
after what they'd been through, punches were getting routine.
"Looks to be all clear right now," Sabatini told them. "No sensor readings of
anything that shouldn't be here in the immediate neighborhood. Let's give it a
wide sweep."
The sensors gave information on practically everything within line of sight
for
a 360-degree radius, but they weren't good enough, particularly in wide scan,
to identify all objects accurately. What they could detect was the
all-important murylium that would mean a ship.
"Vals can do what we can't," Nagy warned them. "They can power down
completely.
So long as their engines aren't on and they're just using storage power for
instrumentation, they can escape detection with the shields around the
murylium core, so we aren't out of the woods yet. Still, we ought to be able
to get several minutes' warning if it powers up from nothing, unless it's
right next to us."
"Seems to me we did pretty good from a standing start," Raven noted.
"Sure, but we never powered down and our shields were in place. From battery,
the engines have to be started, brought up to speed, and initial power
diverted to the shields in order to start. I'm opening the ram scoops wide and
we'll take on as much as we can. Vals do best by psyching you out, not by [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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I've been kidding myself, he thought sourly. This sort of thing is not for the
likes of me. Nagy and Sabatini or whatever it is-this is their element. I'd
take on a Val if I had to, but on my turf, not its. Damn you, Lazlo Chen! If
we ever get away with this you ain't gonna depend on old Raven for support.
Not with you sitting back there fat and lazy in your desert domain. I'll do
your damned dirty work, but this is too much.
"Raven-Warlock-Sabatini" came Nagy's electronic voice through the speakers. "I
don't think I'm gonna make it. I want you to know a few things just in case."
"You go into shutdown and don't think. You can't afford the energy," Sabatini
cautioned.
"Forget it. Listen, I'm gonna tell you a few things. All of you. First, I
already showed you a Val can be taken in space if you're crazy enough and
unpredictable enough. They have a weakness and it's called conceit. They think
they understand human beings perfectly, and maybe they do, but they don't
think like human beings. They're machines. Logical devices. When they see a
predetermined course of action, and the sequence is logical, they tend to
assume the conclusion will be the obvious. That's why we nailed the Val. On
the ground they're just as vulnerable, but they have a lot more tricks. Don't
let one get too close to you or you'll never know what hit you. They can be
had, though, even on the ground. Use high-intensity lasers that'll carve
through walls.
That won't stop 'em, but it penetrates. The head's a dummy. Ignore it. Their
brains are in their asses-about seven to eight centimeters above the crotch.
Just imagine that they have a navel and aim for it. Crisscross. X patterns.
The hind is more vulnerable than the front, though. Try to ambush it and don't
stop until it's down. Don't get within four meters until you're sure it's
totally dead."
This way interesting. Raven felt torn between telling Nagy to shut up and take
it easy, and learning what he could from a dying man. He said nothing.
"Don't assume, too, that all your dangerous enemies are machines. There are
times when machines just can't do the job, and the supply of Vals is small,"
Nagy continued. "Master System has human troops, as well, out here, on several
bases. Mindprinted, genetically bred, as devoted and loyal and singleminded as
Vals. You can even argue with a Val-it's just doing its job. You can't argue
with these troops, and not all of them are human."
Raven looked at Sabatini. "You know about them?"
Sabatini nodded. "I heard about them. Never saw 'em -that is, none of my
people ever did."
"When you take the first ring," Nagy went on, "everything else will stop
except for you. Vals and troopers and everything else will be pulled out for
the hunt.
There's help out there-I've started you on your way-but the odds are still way
against you. You'll need more people and you'll need for everyone to be
willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. Except for Sabatini here, none of the
rest of you can even get in to scout around and case an area. None of them are
Earth-human-except for Chen."
"What the hell do you mean by 'ultimate sacrifice'?" Raven wanted to know.
"Death? You know we are prepared for that."
"Not death. Life. You can't just put on a mask and stick up a Center,
particularly when you are the one who looks and acts alien. Out here, you are
Page 85
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
the monsters. Dying is one thing. Could you, for the chance at a ring and
action, become a monster to yourself? You better ask that. You better have
Hawks ask that of everyone. The only way you're gonna steal those rings under
the noses of chief administrators and Master System on worlds that aren't
really human is to become one of them. You better face that fact and also face
the fact that Chen's counting on just mat. Nobody left who's Earth-human.
Nobody who can come for his ring without being pretty damned obvious."
"For one who came unexpectedly along for the ride he seems to know a great
deal about this," Warlock whispered.
Raven nodded. "You not tellin' us something we ought'a know, son?"
"I'm telling you all you ought to know, Raven. You can trust Savaphoong within
limits. He won't betray you to Master System, but if you had four out of five
rings he's clever enough to figure out where the fifth one is and take those
four from you. Build your contacts with the other freebooters, as well. Don't
depend on a single source. The same goes for Clayben. He'll be a real team
player until you win. He really is terrified of you, Sabatini-use that, but
watch your back. He created you, but he's also the one who figured out how to
capture and hold you. Being hard to kill isn't the same thing as being
immortal.
You would have died with us back there no matter what."
"I'll remember. Clayben took me by surprise when I was immature. I will not
allow that to happen again."
"Look, I'm running out of time here. Go for Janipur first. It's no pushover,
but if you can't take that ring you can't take any of them. Oops! We're
punching out in just a minute. Stand by. Sabatini, get back on the console. We
want to make sure that somebody here can drive this thing no matter what."
Sabatini did as instructed and was quickly back under the ship's interface.
Neither Raven nor Warlock bothered to do more than slightly brace themselves;
after what they'd been through, punches were getting routine.
"Looks to be all clear right now," Sabatini told them. "No sensor readings of
anything that shouldn't be here in the immediate neighborhood. Let's give it a
wide sweep."
The sensors gave information on practically everything within line of sight
for
a 360-degree radius, but they weren't good enough, particularly in wide scan,
to identify all objects accurately. What they could detect was the
all-important murylium that would mean a ship.
"Vals can do what we can't," Nagy warned them. "They can power down
completely.
So long as their engines aren't on and they're just using storage power for
instrumentation, they can escape detection with the shields around the
murylium core, so we aren't out of the woods yet. Still, we ought to be able
to get several minutes' warning if it powers up from nothing, unless it's
right next to us."
"Seems to me we did pretty good from a standing start," Raven noted.
"Sure, but we never powered down and our shields were in place. From battery,
the engines have to be started, brought up to speed, and initial power
diverted to the shields in order to start. I'm opening the ram scoops wide and
we'll take on as much as we can. Vals do best by psyching you out, not by [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]