"Jerry Davis - A Long Curved Blade" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

A Long Curved Blade



A LONG CURVED BLADE
┬й 1994 by Jerry J. Davis

Previously Published in Leopards Realm Magazine

Laying in his two-person bunk with a pillow over his head, Douglass could still hear the
sounds of lovemaking drifting through the frictionless air ducts. These air ducts were perfect
for carrying sound, and thanks to them nothing that went on in the capsule was private. The
woman who was moaning was his wife. The man --- well, that was no secret. It was
Cromwell, the weatherman.
Doug listened, feeling sick and hopeless --- then another sound caught his attention. A
distant warbling cry, a chorus of voices. Then a woman's voice was sobbing over the
communications system. Her voice rang through the metal of the capsule. "It was a skike,
another damn skike," she was saying. "It killed a boy." Doug rolled off his bunk and wriggled
into his jungle gear, stepped into his boots, and grabbed his rifle. He pushed through his door
and hurried out into the circular hall, heading for the front door.
Leo Calderon, the expedition leader, was sealing off the capsule as Doug came trotting up.
He looked at the dirty jungle clothes and the gun in Doug's hand and said, "No, you're not
going out there."
"Who else is out? Selene is out there!"
"Selene and Lipton are safe in the village. There's no need for you going out."
"It killed a child."
"I don't care----"
"Goddamn it, it killed a little kid!" Doug shoved past the older man and pulled the quick
release lever. The doors slammed open and he leapt out into the dirt and leaves, the million
insects.
"Douglass, come back here!"
Doug trotted down the path, flipping his rifle on and glancing at its scanner.
"Douglass! That's an order!" Leo was shouting. "You come back here now!" His voice
grew distant, then faded out altogether. Doug didn't notice, he just kept running. The village
was right ahead, he could see it through spiral leaves and odd horizontal limbs. There was a
wooden gate with an elaborate mechanical latch --- every piece meticulously carved from
wood --- he let himself in and ran toward Lipton, who was holding a rifle but was so pressed
by the colonists that he could only point it straight up.
"Where's your wife?" Doug yelled.
"Over there by the body," Lipton yelled back. "She saw it happen, the boy was protecting
her."
Doug pushed his way through another crowd and found Selene on the ground hugging her
knees and crying. In front of her was the gory mess that had been a colonist boy, about 11
standard years old. Doug recognized him, he remembered giving the child a candy bar, and

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A Long Curved Blade

was then chewed out by Cromwell, Leo, and his own wife for "introducing alien food into
their diet" and "interfering" with their studies.