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breath before she spoke.
"My father . . ." She began uncertainly. "He is dead. I have nothing left on
Earth. I walked a good many days to get here, because I hoped for something
new. Tell me about this trip to space."
"First " He frowned. "Can you prove who you are?"
"As well as my father ever did."
"Documents?"
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"His ring." She would not betray his memory. "All he left me."
She offered her left hand, the early sun burning golden on the round topaz,
and tried not to flinch from his touch. Her right hand still near the knife,
she let him slip the ring off her finger. Frowning at it, he found the name
inside, which she had never seen. Max Kwan. Cut a little roughly, she thought
when he returned it, but he was nodding as if happy with what he had seen.
"Come on aboard." He gestured. "The story will take ex-plaining, and I guess
you'd better meet my friend. Anyhow, I imagine you're hungry?"
"Starving."
Yet, halfway to the craft, she stopped, waiting for him to turn back.
"You need to know one thing." She faced him, her hand on the hilt of the
knife. "I was one of my father's men. That's the way I grew up. Whatever
happens, I want to be treated like one more man. I won't be another man's
woman."
Puzzled for a moment, Bolivar laughed.
"I like you." He waved away her warning, speaking easily. "With a bath and a
new outfit and a few meals in you, you'll be beautiful. But we don't want you
for that." He offered a strong brown hand. "Take my word."
She looked into his eyes for a moment, and gripped his hand.
Prepared for new things, she found them on the craft. She felt apprehensive
about Bolivar's friend, but he was not in sight. They sat at a kind of table,
and a quick little machine brought them something in a queer-shaped cup and
dishes of what Bo-livar said was food. The tastes were strange at first, but
she was hungry enough to eat.
She asked, "What do you want me for?"
"My friend says he's a miner. The ores on his own world are all worked out. It
seems there's somebody he calls the Elder-hood that has quarantined Earth. He
needs evidence to show them that he has a legal right to open mines here."
She stared across the table. "What has that to do with me?"
"You'll call yourself the new Sun Tycoon." He grinned, happy with the notion.
"Claim you own or rule the Earth. Sign whatever documents the Elderhood
requires. Testify in a court if they have courts, and if he needs you."
"I don't own the Earth." She shook her head, astonished. "The Kwans never did.
They managed well enough without. Selling synthetic foods and gravity power.
Trading what they found in space "
"No matter." He gestured to sweep her doubts away. "Things have changed."
"All I have is my father's ring "
"Still no matter." He squinted at her shrewdly. "My friend seems to know his
way. I've been around. If we need more evidence, I think we can arrange it."
"I'm not sure " Hesitant, she shook her head. "Not sure my father really was a
Kwan."
"Who cares?" He shrugged and pushed his drink aside, bending toward her.
"Think it over. Think what you've got here on Earth. Balance it against what
all we can promise you."
Listening, she bit her sun-cracked lip.
"I've heard about your father. I guess you know most people called him crazy.
For talking the way he did about building the skyweb back and restoring our
space empire. But think about it. My friend and I can do it for you."
He stopped to wait while she thought about it.
"Really?" She frowned at him. "Can you?"
"Look around you." He gestured at the robot, the strange white walls, the
dishes on the table. "Look outside."
A wide oval window at the end of the table looked out over the dead ruins of
Kilimanjaro Down and the drought-browned thornbush beyond, where waves of
African heat were already dancing.
"Make your choice."
"Not yet "
She shrank from something like a lion's roar and crouched away from the
monstrous thing coming into the room. Bolivar stood up with Sun Country
manners to introduce them.
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"Miss Roxane Kwan, my friend Nebo." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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