Alan Dean Foster Flinx 10 Bloodhype

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unfriendly."
"Interesting," she said, recovering rapidly. Whatever else could be said about
the voice, it was completely devoid of any hint of malice. She was instantly,
perhaps unreasonably, reassured. "Telepathy."
"A serviceable label, given lack of proper referents," the creature murmured.
The eyes shifted slowly, slightly. "Also for want of a better term, you may
address me as `Peot.' I am quite immobile. I can, however, detect a number of
your species pointing what I ascertain to be lethal devices in my direction.
While I do not believe they could do me harm, I
would prefer to avoid the possibility that one may stumble accidentally, thus
forcing me to find out. I assure you I mean you no evil."
One of the guards, an older man with some gray in his sideburns, turned his
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20Bloodhype.txt head to face Kingsley. His weapon did not move.
"Sir?"
Kingsley had not become wealthy by hesitating. "Take the rest of the boys and
resume your normal stations. Stay there unless you're sent for."
"As you wish, sir. I protest, though." He gestured to the other five and,
without taking their weapons off the alien, they began to edge out of the
chamber.
"Oh, and Haddad?"
"Sir?"
"Call Martinez at stores and tell him it seems we won't be needing that cannon
after all. Tell him just to get back here himself."
Aye, sir."
The engineers had edged back and were slowly resuming their multiple
conversations?quietly, this time.
"I've a million questions and no place marked `begin the game here,' "
began Chatham, "so ...
"A moment," said Peot solemnly. The eyes closed and the alien went
incommunicado for several minutes while the humans shifted about restlessly.
They reopened.
"There were a number of things I had to determine. It is difficult also for me
to adjust to the span of time that has passed."
"No more so than it is for us to adjust to your presence," said Kitten.
"Perhaps not, small female. My Machine tells that I am the last of my race.
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This fact is not entirely unexpected, yet it is heavy on me."
"Characteristic number one," Porsupah whispered to Kitten.. "Facility for
understatement."
"You might say that, and there's no point in you whispering, Pors."
The Tolian did a blush?equivalent.
"I am here now because the Machine felt it needful for the continuance of my
work."
"Your work. What is your work?" Kingsley asked.
"I am a Guardian ... the Guardian."
"And what must you still guard ... after half a million years?" The small
attempt. at levity fell fiat. The alien's visage did not encourage humor.
"The Vom."
"I see. The Vom. Pray tell,. what is the Vom? Or Voms, as the case may be."
"Long ago, my race encountered a being ... if `being` is indeed the proper
term ... so alien that we suspected it must have traveled here from another
galaxy. Although the concept of crossing the intergalactic abyss was one
before which even our finest minds shrank it always seemed the only rational
explanation of the creature's origins. It was discovered that the
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20Bloodhype.txt creature was powerful beyond imagining, sometimes in ways
difficult to understand. Also, it did not invite close study...
"Attempts at contact proved fruitless. The thing destroyed whatever life it
encountered. It began with the higher forms on a planet and moved to the
lower; until it had eliminated even the miscroscopic existences. A planet
stripped by the Vom was as thoroughly sterilized as if it had passed through a
sun. Conventional weaponry proved useless against it. New machines were tried
and offered some hope, but the thing was too clever to be trapped. Several
times we appeared to have destroyed it. Always it escaped by avoiding rather
than inviting a fight until it had discovered a method of combating each new
development we threw at it. Its caution convinced us of its mortality, so we
at least knew it could be destroyed....
"Always it grew stronger. At the cost of a great many planes?of?existence,
time, and effort, a way was found to contain it on a single planet. The life
on that planet was forfeited so that we might protect ourselves."
Peot did not comment on the thoughts that passed through the chamber following
that remark.
"This new device prevented it from leaving the planet by its familiar method.
We believe it could at one time travel through space on its own, but had
clearly forgotten or lost this ability eons ago. After consuming all life on
the planet, it shrank rapidly in size and power."
Kitten discovered that her palms were damp. She glanced over at Mal and was
mildly surprised to see the freighter?captain rubbing his own against the legs
of his coveralls.
"I don't think I like the way your thoughts are leading," said Kingsley.
"It is ,really weakened. So much so that it may now be possible to destroy it
forever. To have survived to realize that end would make even the sleep of
millennia worthwhile."
"The thing is here, now, on Repler," said Philip. It wasn't a question.
The eyes swiveled to rest on the young engineer. "Yes, that is so."
(Something/there/veiling/physical youth/ hiding??/determine/what?/not
now/standoff?/more than/ less than/query?query?/silence/silence/ *?*/.)
Those present got only the confirmation.
"Well for Solsake, where? Let's be about rooting out this archaic bugaboo or
whatever! The military base at the capitol can?!"
"I have evaluated your thoughts on the matter and those of the two military
attaches present," came the thoughts firmly. Both Kitten and Porsupah started.
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So much for classified information. "The Vom is weakened, true.
Enormously so, yet it is still powerful enough so that simple energy devices
will not harm it."
"Simple, hell!" snorted Kingsley. "The rectory there mounts energy rifles on
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