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about it only because of the Shaman's education.
What was so two-trillion-dollars' special about him? Surely there were others who could transfer to
bug-eyed monster bodies. Others who would be more amenable, with a lot more education than Flint
had. Maybe some ugly or ill ones, who would be glad to get out of their poor human bodies, gambling
on a better alien body. Why take a barbarian flintsmith from the farthest colony planet?
Surely there was good reason. Either the job was so dangerous or horrible that only the most ignorant
person would go, or he had some qualification that made him so much better than others that it was
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worth the expense of mattermitting him here. Since an ignorant person would not stay ignorant long,
the latter seemed more likely. The Regent had said that Flint had a very strong Kirlian aura.
Apparently not many people had that-and only the ones with it could transfer.
How badly did they want him? If they had dozens like him, they would not bother to chase him very
far, and wouldn't care if he died on an outbound starship. But if he were the choice, they would keep a
very close eye on him. And the planet-ransom they had already expended in fetching him here
suggested the answer. He could put that to the test-and might be able to use it to bargain with. If they
really thought he was prepared to die rather than submit to transfer, they just might treat him kindly in
an effort to bring him around. And the greatest kindness they could do him would be to mattermit him
home to think it over.
His decision was made. He would gamble his life and sanity on the assumption that he was really
important. That two-trillion-dollar investment suggested better odds than the fifty-fifty of freeze-
traveling.
The capsule would not go all the way to the spaceport. Like his thoughts, it sheered off from the target
unless really pressed. Was the spaceport off limits?
All right. Flint pushed buttons until the capsule, confused by conflicting directives, stalled in place.
Like a dinosaur, it wasn't very smart. Then he forced open the lid, exerting pressure he knew was
beyond the capacity of most civilized men. He climbed out and dropped to the wire. It was guyed at
regular intervals-how the capsules got past these connections he wasn't sure-and poles went to the
ground. He was at a dizzying height, but was confident of his ability. He took hold and swung to the
nearest supporting pole, then let himself down to the ground. It wasn't as handy as a vine tree, but it
wasn't difficult either. The gravity of this planet was slightly less than at Outworld, giving extra
buoyancy.
Solarian pedestrians stared as he came down. It was not his green skin that impressed them, for the
natives of Earth were of several colors themselves; it was rather his agility that claimed their
attention. They were advanced culturally, but regressed physically. He could fathom their weakness
just by looking at them, and it disgusted him. So he ignored them and made his way at a lope toward
the spaceport. Naturally his whereabouts would soon be reported, if they didn't have a spy-beam on
him already. However, that was the idea. He was acting exactly as they would expect him to. If they
really wanted this savage, they would close the net quickly and thus provide him his leverage.
Starships were always in need of strong men for hull repairs en route and things like that, the Shaman
had said. The dust of space constantly pitted surfaces, and sometimes larger debris gouged out little
craters that had to be patched. Maybe that was why so many freezers were lost; no one to patch up the
damage. It was not the big meteors that took out ships, but the steady accumulation of microscopic
abrasion that could finally hole the hull if not watched. They'd take him aboard, no questions asked.
To one side of the spaceport, there was an incredible expanse of water. Flint had never seen water in
greater amount than a temporary flood lake before. This was monstrous, stretching from the spaceport
all the way to the horizon. And it had waves: large traveling ripples that moved to the shoreline and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]