The Stones of Nomuru
- Автор: Де Камп Лайон Спрэг
- Серия: Viagens Interplanetarias #7
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «The Stones of Nomuru». Краткое содержание книги:
Mild-mannered Terra archeologist Keith Salazar was just minding his business, digging up the alien past on an out-of-the-way site on the planet Kukulcan, when suddenly he was beseiged by intruders on his scholarly peace: hostile natives, an indifferent ex-wife, and a demon developer with rapacious eyes glued on both his site and his true love.
In the course of protecting his dig, regaining his loved one and vanquishing his rival, Salazar will fight a giant reptilian predator bare-handed, leap into snake-filled pits, engineer the planet's first imperial conquest, lead and train a battalion of alien riflemen, and hold a séance. Pretty exciting work--but then maybe Keith Salazar wasn't such a milquetoast after all...
"Yep. Everything okay with you?"
"No trouble so far. How's your job going?"
Salazar told her. "I wanted to ask the chiefs if their spies had any word of a Chosha advance; but they said they'd shoot me if I hung around."
"Keith dear, once you tell me the invasion has started, head for Tuui as fast as you can! Don't get so interested in the battle that you stay up on your mountain until the Choshas arrive to collect your head!"
"Good advice, darling. Good-night!" He silently mouthed: "I love you!"
"Good-night, Keith."
Days passed. Salazar swept the distant plain with his binoculars, seeing wandering dust devils and a few clusters of black specks, like grains of pepper spilled on a beige tablecloth. These turned out to be herds of wild herbivores. Archaeology had instilled in Keith Salazar the virtue of patience.
Between spells of watching, he prowled the mountaintop, making mental notes of the geology and looking for relics of the Kookish Stone Age. He found one projectile point, like that which he had picked up in his flight with Kara. He chuckled at the thought that now, if the Empress proved niggardly, he could at least claim expenses from Patel by calling this expedition an archaeological reconnaissance.
He pocketed the artifact and found Kono cooking a frugal meal. The Kook squatted in a hollow on the western side of the crest, where the rear slope began to fall away. Salazar had insisted that Kono make his fires there, keeping them small and using only dry wood, lest the smoke betray them.
On the seventh day of Salazar's vigil, his binoculars picked up a dust cloud of unusual size and persistence. An hour later, a swarm of black specks appeared beneath the cloud, crawling towards the Tsugaa. Another hour, and the specks grew into Kooks on jutens.
Salazar told Kono: "Strike the tents and start packing." He buttoned Kara and told her the news. She said: "I'll pass the word. Now you ride homeward hell-for-leather!"
Below, news of the approach had reached the camp. Trumpets blew, drums beat, and the Shongorin milled like a colony of ants whose nest has been broken open. With his glasses, Salazar picked out the form of High Chief Miyage, beside a standard bearer. The High Chief was forming up a body of juten cavalry.
Another hour, and the leading elements of the Chosharin were within sight of the Shongo forces on the western bank. Salazar could hear faint war cries above the buzz and chirp of Kukulcanian insectoids. Then, as he scanned the field, he muttered:
"Jeepers! They can't be that stupid!"
Although Salazar's military knowledge was obtained entirely from books, not experience, it seemed to him obvious that the course for Miyage would have been to defend the west bank of the river with musketry. He should hold his cavalry, far inferior in numbers to the mounted nomads, in reserve, ready to dash in wherever the Choshas obtained a foothold on the bank. Instead, saber in hand, Miyage was leading his cavalry down to the river and into the ford. Salazar could see tiny diamonds of sunlight sparkling on the fountains kicked up by the jutens.
Evidently Miyage meant to cross and attack the Chosha army head-on. The Shongo jutens splashed across the ford. Through his glasses, Salazar caught the flash of sun on the saber that Miyage brandished. Then the Shongorin plowed into the nomads and were swallowed up in a vortex of circling mounts and whirling blades.
At last Salazar tore his gaze away from the unfolding battle and said to Kono: "Let us go!" Taking the lead strap of his juten, he set off down the steep western slope, man and animal jumping, skidding, and sliding.
XII – THE RANGERS
As the first day of Salazar's flight from Hetori drew to a close, he called Kara. She asked: "How did the battle go?"
"I left before it was decided, but I'll lay you a hundred to one that the Choshas won." He described the High Chief s charge. "It's Manzikert or Nicopolis all over again. What's Jidsho doing?"
"Getting ready to march."
"He hasn't left yet?" Salazar's voice rose.
"No. He's still packing up."
"Oh, hell! At that rate, the Choshas will overrun most of Shongosi. Tell him to hurry, and have Kange load his men into the trucks pronto and take off for Neruu. I shall meet him there. What will Jidsho do if the Shongorin win?"
"He'll say politely, he and his army just came to help. Then they'll march back to Feënzun."
"Has Jidsho any information on the Choshas' route?"
"I think he said that, according to Gariko's spies, they'll either come by way of Neruu or go up the Mozii past your ruins."
Salazar mused: "Sacking Neruu would be a more direct way to conquer Shongosi; but marching across my dig to the Sappari would cut Shongosi off from any possible intervention by the Terrans of Henderson. Although it's against Terran policy to interfere in native conflicts, in this case, without Terran help, the entire populations of Shongosi and Feënzun may be destroyed. How are you making out?"
"I'm still bunking with Kange. He's a dear when you get to know him."
"Getting a crush on him?"
"Be sensible, Keith! If you were pals with a female shaped like a man-sized octopus, would you call it a crush if you liked her?"
"Depends on how sexy an octopus she was. At least, she'd have eight arms to hug me with—"
"Good-night, silly!"
Next morning, as Salazar and Kono jogged towards Neruu, the Kook made a brave attempt at English: "S-sorjairs c-come!"
Salazar got out his binoculars and twisted in the saddle. Through the broken parkland among the copses wound a trio of juten riders, pushing their exhausted mounts. As the trio shortened the intervening distance, one Kook drew a pistol and waved it, shouting: "Halt!"
By their paint, the three belonged to Miyage's cavalry. They croaked and cawed among themselves: "This is the Terran who arrived in our camp ere the battle. It must be a Terran plot—"
"Nay, he is a spy for Feënzun. It is known that he sojourned with the Empress—"
"You are both mistook; he is the mad Terran who digs up ancient bricks and stones."
"Enough talk!" shouted the first. "I will settle the question at one blow!" He aimed the huge pistol and pulled the trigger.
Salazar had held his rifle pointing near but not at the Kooks. When the first one essayed a shot, by reflex the archaeologist whipped up his gun and fired before he realized that the attacker's pistol had merely clicked. The Kook whose gun had misfired gave a screech, toppled off his juten, thrashed about in the herbage, and at last lay still.
"This Terran," shouted Salazar, "is not too mad to shoot straight, and my gun shoots all day without reloading. I regret this witless death, since your comrade's pistol failed to fire. Now tell me what has happened!"
The Kooks exchanged glances before one replied: "The barbarians have prevailed. They surrounded us riders and cut us to pieces. Then the Choshas charged across the ford in the teeth of our fire. Many fell, but others reached the bank ere our musketeers could reload. There was fierce fighting all along the line. The Choshas rode in, shooting and spearing and swording, while our folk strove to pull them from their saddles to dispatch them on the ground. But in time the nomads' numbers told, and our people broke and ran."
"Will more fugitives follow you?"
"Aye. It was late in the day when our formations broke, and in the dark not even the Choshas could slay us all. We carry word—"
At that instant, the speaker's juten toppled over, spilling its rider, who scrambled to his feet. Salazar said: "You have evidently killed your beast."
"We know that, Terran!" snapped the remaining mounted Kook. The fallen one limped to where stood the beast whose rider had been shot. The dismounted soldier unsentimentally went through his dead comrade's pouches, appropriating articles. Then he mounted and rode off with the other, calling back: