THE CRUCIBLE OF EMPIRE — Snippet 21
Chapter 7
In his secluded office at the edge of the base, Preceptor Ronz felt the new urgency like a sharp prickle down his spine, an irresistible twitch that commanded his feet to move, to take him somewhere else. He stared blindly at the curving quantum crystal walls, trying to see beyond. The situation had altered.
THE SORCERESS OF KARRES — Snippet 21
The monorail car slowed to a halt again. Goth looked warily up from her reverie and saw a familiar, heart-warming sight. The lattice ship, its gaudy syntha-silk covering bright in the morning sun, decked out with bunting and flags. She nodded to herself. Spy-lock or no spy-lock, let them try following her around the lattice-ship. Here on Nikkeldepain she was the one who didn’t know where she was going. And security on the lattice ship was fairly tight for areas that were off-limits to the paying public.
TORCH OF FREEDOM — Snippet 53
Zilwicki. He was the queen’s father, or maybe step-father. And his first name was Anthony, right? Brice wasn’t entirely certain.
TORCH OF FREEDOM — Snippet 52
Chapter Twenty-One
In the event, the weeks that Brice Miller and his friends spent fretting over their upcoming encounter with the notorious Jeremy X, proved to be pointless. When they were finally introduced to the feared and ferocious terrorist, after they arrived on Torch, it turned out that the reality bore no resemblance to the legends.
THE SORCERESS OF KARRES — Snippet 20
She was quite reluctant to even touch the box again. On the other hand, she was now very sure that she shouldn’t let it fall into the hands of Mebeckey and his cohorts. If she left the box here they might come back and find it. But she couldn’t just take it, since that would be rather obvious. Looking at the wall and the faint line where someone had obviously dusted often, the box had been lying on that shelf for many years. The box, however, was almost the same size and shape as the box her breakfast had come in. That was now in the previously empty trash-can attached to a post just down the road.
THE CRUCIBLE OF EMPIRE — Snippet 20
Jalta backed away, while Kaln froze, one dark-napped hand still on the wires.
The human tech, a youngster no more than twenty with fair skin that had gone even paler, was sweating. He clenched a wrench in one hand as though he wanted to give her a solid whack on the head. “Sir, I don’t know exactly what’s going on here, but if they pull those dynamo wires, we’ll be hours getting them reseated and tested.” He glared over his shoulder at Jalta as well. “It could mean we won’t lift on time!”
TORCH OF FREEDOM — Snippet 51
This is stupid, he thought. I can’t change any of it, and neither can Herlander. Not only that, I know perfectly well that all that pain is just eating away at him, adding itself to the anger. The man’s turning into some kind of time bomb, and there’s not a damned thing I can do about it. He’s going to snap — it’s only a matter of time — and I was wrong when I downplayed his probable reactions to Bardasano. The break is coming, and when it gets here, he’s going to be so damned angry — and so unconcerned about whatever else might happen to him — that he’s going to do something really, really foolish. I don’t know what, but I’ve come to know him well enough to know that much. And it’s my job to keep him from doing that.
THE SORCERESS OF KARRES — Snippet 19
Chapter 10
Goth found the waiting tedious. She whiled away the time by climbing back into the car and checking out the contents of the glove compartment. Those would have given the customs official more pause than the rock-drills had.
THE CRUCIBLE OF EMPIRE — Snippet 19
****
Mallu was feeling somewhat improved, but the human medician wouldn’t discharge him from her care.
“I want to swim,” he said, restless in the hard human-style bed, rather than curled up in a proper soft pile of dehabia. The medical bay was never quiet, with beeps and hisses and attendants fussing about him all the time. He longed for solitude. His chest ached, though he was trying to disregard it.
THE SORCERESS OF KARRES — Snippet 18
Chapter 9
Three ships, needle-like and of some alien design, came hurtling out of cover from where they must have hung, hidden from instrument detection, close to the radiation of a giant blue-white star. Pausert hit the laterals, sending the Venture into a steep curve away. What sort of shielding must they have on those ships? He would never dare to take the Venture that close to a B-class supergiant.
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