Infinite Day Read Free

time becoming denser and sinking lower. He saw his distorted shadow appear on the ground, then bent down, pushed a finger into the soft, gritty sand, and saw it move away. I have a physical form!
    Suddenly the reptile, perhaps a meter long, seemed to sense his presence. It swung its head toward him and, snuffling as though puzzled, waddled over. It opened its jaws wide, displaying a pink tongue and curves of sharp teeth.
    Exulting in his new powers, Nezhuala waited until the creature had come within a pace of him. Then he leaned down and, seizing the snout with one hand and the base of the tail with the other, effortlessly picked up the creature. He held the squirming beast high in the air for a moment and then, in a single sharp movement, snapped its spine in two.
    As he cast the limp form away, he laughed aloud.
    I can be wherever I want to be. I can be whatever I want to be. I have exceeded humanity. I am the new man. The prototype of they-who-are-to-come. I transcend space now. One day I will transcend time.
    Driven by a strange sudden urgency, he withdrew himself to the summit of the Blade of Night.
    My powers are proven. Now I have a task to do.
    In a flash he was back on the throne, in the darkness, feeling the hard, bare metal around him and sensing beads of sweat on his face. I feel tired. The realization that his abilities were not limitless irritated him. I remain beholden to the powers.
    He focused his mind. Where am I to act? Here? No, not here; not even in this system. Elsewhere. But where?
    The answer—or was it an order?—came to him. Bannermene.
    The lord-emperor hurled out his mind again. The room vanished and he flew, gliding through space as if borne along by some cosmic wave of energy. He slid between stars, their planets and comets flashing silently below him.
    A star loomed, and before it hung a blue and green world.
    Now I must enter this world, exert all my powers to become present, however briefly, as fragments of sound and smears of light. What will I become?
    As a small spacecraft grew in his field of view, an idea struck him. I will become the king of terrors.
    Laughing again, he sang out an order.
    â€œBecome Death!”

    Two million kilometers out from the turquoise ball that was Bannermene, the three-person logistic and construction tug Xalanthos-B was preparing to dock with the brand-new Assembly defense vessel (Landscape Class), the Hills of Lanuane .
    Captain Kala Singh looked up from her screens and glanced out the side window at the spidery assemblage of columns and wires gleaming in the light of Anthraman, the system’s sun. The picket line—what does it really do? Will it work?
    The cabin was silent apart from the faint purr of pumps, the soft tap of the copilot’s fingers on keys, and the occasional footfall from George in the engineering cabin to the rear.
    Kala felt tired. For the first time in my life I want a trip to be over .
    She turned her gaze back to the tiny, glistening silver object hanging between the stars like a piece of jewelry and marveled again. How extraordinary. A year ago this warcraft was not even thought of. Now twenty like it are in service with the Assembly Defense Force, and more are being built all the time .
    They were now barely a hundred kilometers away and approaching fast. Kala began her checklist for docking.
    There is too much silence . “Well, mission nearly accomplished,” she said to break the stillness.
    Hanna, copilot and navigator, just grunted.
    There’s been a lot of both silence and grunting on this trip; I’ve never known anything like it . George walked heavily forward from engineering. As he did, Kala glimpsed an expression of something that might have been irritation flicker across Hanna’s face.
    This ship is too small for three. How odd that in the thousands of years the basic L and C tug has been in service, no one has noticed it. Or has it just recently become too small?
    â€œWe are nearly