"Keith Fenwick - Skid 02 - Skid 2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fenwick Keith)

eating. The offworlder was half the universe away so it couldn't be that.
Raele stepped gingerly through the hatch and started across the space
port to the controllers office.
'Probably asleep,' Raele decided wondering why nobody hustled out to to
meet him. No officious clerks or attendants. No special messenger from Inel.
Not even any other pilots greeting fellow travellers and swapping stories of
the latest mission with. Nobody, nothing.
The only sign of normality was the service crew unobtrusively going about
it's business on his ship.
Raele walked across the space port which was flanked by tall structures
the offworlder had called trees. He was headed toward the building that housed
the senate when it was in session and where Inel also had his offices. Surely
someone would be there?
Raele found the building empty as he had half expected, his footsteps
echoed hollowly and he shivered slightly. Where had everyone gone? Raele
searched Inel's private apartments and found them empty as well. He sat behind
Inel's desk and looked at his console. From here Inel kept tabs on every part
of Skidian life. It also meant death for anybody to intrude into this inner
sanctum, though Raele was beginning to doubt that anyone would disturb him.
The console came to life surprising Raele and then began to make its
preprogrammed status report as if he were Inel.
Raele read as the report scrolled down, noting that everything seemed
normal enough. Even the problems with the syn plants had been solved while he
had been away. Skids vast industrial complex was running as it always had, a
monument to Skid's technological abilities and sophistication.
So where was everybody?
The report continued scrolling, detailing production of different
essential industries, the status of defense systems, inbound and outbound
flights. Only his own had been logged Raele noted. Population statistics.
Raele gazed at the figures scrolling off the bottom of the screen and
then scrolled them back up not believing what he was seeing.
Almost the entire population of the planet had disappeared! Raele sat
stunned for, he didn't know how long, staring at the figures. That they were
true he had no reason to doubt, so where was everyone?




one


Sue looked at her doctor expectantly, wondering why he had such a
congratulatory expression on his face. She had visited him a few days
previously, complaining of nausea. After filling the toilet bowl with vomit
for the third or fourth time she decided she must have picked up some kind of
bug.
Who knew what nasties really lurked in the streams where they'd drunk? Or
hid in the rough cooking areas where they had prepared their food during the
trip into the forest she'd recently returned from?
A slight bout of food poisoning or a tummy bug, Sue wasn't too concerned