Starfishers Volume 1: Shadowline Read Free

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 about what you’ve told