Book 1 - Shadowline Read Free

manage that. I might damage a
few head forcing it, though.”
    “Do what you have to.”
    “I hate to injure prime stock, sir. But there’ll be
no production otherwise. We’ve had to be alert to prevent
self-induced abortion.”
    “That bad? It’s really that bad?” Pained
surprise flashed across the usually expressionless features of the
Norbon. “That does it. You have my complete sanction. Do
what’s necessary. These contracts are worth the risk.
They’re going to generate follow-ups. The Osirian market is
wide open. Fresh. Untouched. The native princes are total despots.
Completely sybaritic and self-indulgent. It’s one of the
human First Expansion worlds gone feral. They’ve devolved
socially and technologically to a feudal level.”
    Rhafu nodded. Like most Sangaree with field experience, he had a
solid background in human social and cultural history.
    The elder Norbon stared into the pens that were the cornerstone
of the Family wealth. “Rhafu, Osiris is the Norbon
Wholar. Help me exploit it the way a Great House should.”
    Wholar. That’s the legendary one
, Deeth thought.
The
bonanza. The bottomless pot of gold
. The world so big and wild and
rich that it took five Families to exploit it, the world that had
made the consortium Families first among the Sangaree.
    Deeth was not sure he wanted an El Dorado for the Norbon. Too
much work for him when he became Head. And he would have to
socialize with those snobbish Krimnins and Sexons and Masons.
Unless he could devour the dream and make the Norbon the richest
Family of all. Then he would be First Family Head, could do as he
pleased, and would not have to worry about getting along.
    “It’s outside trouble, I swear it,” Rhafu
said. “Sir, there’s something coming on. Even the
trainees in Isolation are infected. They’ve been complaining
all week. Station master tells me it’s the same everywhere.
Agriculture caught some boar pickers trying to fire the sithlac
fields.”
    “Omens and signs, Rhafu? You’re superstitious? They
are the ones who need the supernatural. It’s got to be their
water. Or feed.”
    “No. I’ve checked. Complete chemical analysis.
Everything is exactly what it should be. I tell you,
something’s happening and they know it. I’ve seen it
before, remember. On Copper Island.”
    Deeth became interested again. Rhafu had come to the Norbon from
the Dathegon, whose station had been on Copper Island. No one had
told him why. “What happened, Rhafu?”
    The breeding master glanced at his employer. The Norbon frowned,
but nodded.
    “Slaves rising, Deeth. Because of sloppy security. The
field animals came in contact with wild ones. Pretty soon they
rebelled. Some of us saw it coming. We tried to warn the station
master. He wouldn’t listen. Those of us who survived work for
your father now. The Dathegon never recovered.”
    “Oh.”
    “And you think that could happen here?”
Deeth’s father demanded.
    “Not necessarily. Our security is better. Our station
master served in human space. He knows what the animals can do when
they work together. I’m just telling you what it looks like,
hoping you’ll take steps. We’ll want to hold down our
losses.”
    Rhafu was full of the curious ambivalence of Sangaree who had
served in human space. Individuals and small groups he called
animals. Larger bodies he elevated to slave status. When he
mentioned humanity outside Sangaree dominion he simply called them
humans, degrading them very little. His own discriminations
reflected those of his species as to the race they exploited.
    “If we let it go much longer we’ll have to slaughter
our best stock to stop it.”
    “Rhafu,” Deeth asked, “what happened to the
animals on Copper Island?”
    “The Prefactlas Heads voted plagues.”
    “Oh.” Deeth tried not to care about dead animals.
Feeling came anyway. He was not old enough to have hardened. If
only they did not look so much like real
people . . . 
    “I’ll think