Trullion: Alastor 2262 Read Free

peoples. Jut Hulden cared nothing for travel; his interest in the other worlds lay in the quality of their hussade teams and the location of the Cluster Champions.
    When Glinnes was sixteen he saw a starmenter ship. It dropped from the sky above Ambal Broad and slid at reckless speed down toward Welgen. The radio provided a minute-by-minute report of the raid. The starmenters landed in the central square, and seething forth plundered the banks, the jewel factors, and the cauch warehouse, cauch being by far the most valuable commodity produced on Trullion. They also seized a number of important personages to be held for ransom. The raid was swift and well-executed; in ten minutes the starmenters had loaded their ship with loot and prisoners. Unluckily for them, a Whelm cruiser chanced to be putting into Port Maheul when the alarm was broadcast and merely altered course to arrive at Welgen instead. Glinnes ran out on the verandah to see the Whelm ship arrive-a beautiful stately craft enameled in beige, scarlet and black. The ship dropped like an eagle toward Welgen and passed beyond Glinnes’ range of vision. The voice from the radio cried out in excitement: -They rise into the air, but here comes the Whelm ship! By the Nine Glories, the Whelm ship is here. The starmenters can’t go into swhisk; they’d burn up from the friction! They must fight!” The announcer could no longer control his voice for excitement: “The Whelm ship strikes; the starmenter is disabled!
star-watching: at night the stars of Alastor Cluster blaze in profusion. The atmosphere refracts their light; the sky quivers with beams, glitters, and errant flashes. The Trills go out into their gardens with jugs of wine; they name the stars and discuss localities. For the Trills, for almost anyone of Alastor, the night sky was no abstract empyrean but rather, a view across prodigious distances to known places-a vast luminous map. There was always talk of pirates-the so-called “starmenters” — and their grisly deeds. When Numenes Star shone in the sky, the conversation turned to the Connatic and glorious Lusz, and someone would always say, “Best to steady our tongues! Perhaps he sits here now, drinking our wine and marking the dissidents! “ — creating a nervous titter, for the Connatic’s habit of wandering quietly about the worlds was well known. Then someone always uttered the brave remark: “Here we are — ten (or twelve or sixteen or twenty, as the case might be) among five trillion! The Connatic among us? Ill take that chance!” At such a star-watch, Sharue Hulden had wandered off into the darkness. Before her absence was noticed the merlings had seized her and had taken her away underwater.
    swhisk: star-drive.
    Hurrah! it drops back into the square. No, no! Oh horror! What horror! It has fallen upon the market; a hundred persons are crushed! Attention! Bring in all ambulances, all medical men! Emergency at Welgen! I can hear the sad cries … The starmenter ship is broken; still it fights … a blue ray … Another … The Whelm ship answers. The starmenters are quiet. Their ship is broken.” The announcer fell quiet a moment, then once more was prompted to excitement. “Now what a sight! The folk are crying with rage; they swarm in at the starmenters; they drag them forth …” He began to babble, then stopped short and spoke in a more subdued voice. “The constables have intervened. They have pushed back the crowds and the starmenters are now in custody, and this to their own rue, as well they know, for they desperately struggle. How they writhe and kick! It’s the pruanshyr for them! They prefer the vengeance of the crowd! … What a dreadful deed they have done upon the hapless town Welgen…”
    Jut and Shira worked in the far orchard grafting scions to the apple trees. Glinnes ran to tell them the news. “… and at last the starmenters were captured and taken away!”
    “So much the worse for them,” Jut said gruffly, and