Burleigh nodded. The _Nadine_ had cleared for Loris. That was where it
should make its next landing. The little yacht went on. All five of its
proper company watched as the planet's surface enlarged. The ice-cap
went out of sight around the bulge of the globe, but no markings
appeared. There were cloud-banks everywhere, probably low down in the
atmosphere. The darker vague areas previously seen might have been
highlands.
"I think," said Carol, to Moran, "that if it's too tropical where this
signal's coming from, we'll take you somewhere near enough to the
ice-cap to have an endurable climate. I've been figuring on food, too.
That will depend on where we are from Loris because we have to keep
enough for ourselves. But we can spare some. We'll give you the
emergency-kit, anyhow."
* * * * *
The emergency-kit contained antiseptics, seeds, and a weapon or two,
with elaborate advice to castaways. If somebody were wrecked on an even
possibly habitable planet, the especially developed seed-strains would
provide food in a minimum of time. It was not an encouraging thought,
though, and Moran grimaced.
She hadn't said anything about being sorry that he had to be marooned.
Maybe she was, but rebels learn to be practical or they don't live long.
Moran wondered, momentarily, what sort of world they came from and why
they had revolted, and what sort of set-back to the revolt had sent the
five off in what they considered a strategic retreat but their
government would think defeat. Moran's own situation was perfectly
clear.
He'd killed a man on Coryus III. His victim would not be mourned by
anybody, and somebody formerly in very great danger would now be safe,
which was the reason for what Moran had done. But the dead man had been
very important, and the fact that Moran had forced him to fight and
killed him in fair combat made no difference. Moran had needed to get
off-planet, and fast. But space-travel regulations are especially
designed to prevent such escapes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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