Archiwum
- Index
- McAllister Anne, Gordon Lucy Nieoczekiwana zmiana miejsc
- 1102. Gordon Lucy Dwie gwiazdy
- Gordon Korman The Twinkie Squad (v1.0)
- 234. Gordon Abigail Partnerzy
- Gordon Abigail Za mloda na milosc
- Gordon_Barbara_ _Gwiazdy_na_ziemi
- Dickson_Helen_ _Harlequin_Romans_Historyczny__274_ _Zakochany_lajdak
- Dickson Helen Atutowa karta
- Gordon Dickson Childe 08 The Chantry Guild
- Gordon Dickson Time Storm
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- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- epicusfuror.xlx.pl
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superior? Will you connect me with the Resident or my next available superior
officer? Over to you, Overseer Unit Station 49."
"This is Overseer Unit Station 49. This is Overseer Unit Station 49. Your
message received, Station MRK-3, Trainee-Assistant William Waltham. We can
relay your communication only to Hospital Spaceship Paar. Repeat,
communication from your transmitting point can be relayed only to Spaceship
Paar. Please hold. Repeat, please hold. We are relaying your call to Hospital
Spaceship Paar."
Overhead, the voice ceased. Bill settled back to wait.
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"Station MRK-3, Muddy Nose Village, Dilbia, Trainee-Assistant William
Waltham, this is Hospital Spaceship Paar, Information Center, accepting your
call on behalf of Patient Lafe Greentree. This is Hospital Spaceship Paar " It
repeated the statement several more times. Then it continued. "Are you there,
William Waltham at Station MRK-3?"
"This is Trainee-Assistant William Waltham at Station MRK-3," replied Bill.
"Receiving you clearly, Hospital Spaceship Paar, Information Center. Please go
on."
"This is Hospital Spaceship Paar Information Center Computer Unit, answering
for Patient Lafe Greentree."
"May I speak to Mr. Greentree, please?" asked Bill.
There was a slightly longer than usual time lag, before the Computer Unit
answered again. "Patient Greentree," it announced, "is not able to communicate
at the moment. Repeat, the patient is not able to communicate. You may speak
with the Computer Unit which now addresses you."
"But I have to speak with him," protested Bill. "If I can't speak with him,
will you relay my call to my next nearest superior?"
"Patient Greentree is unable to speak," replied the voice after the usual
pause. "I have no authority to relay your call to anyone else. You may speak
with the Computer Unit now addressing you."
"Computer Unit! Listen!" said Bill desperately. "Listen to me. This is an
emergency.Emergency! Mayday! Emergency! Please bypass normal programming, and
connect me at once with my nearest superior. If you cannot connect me with my
nearest superior, please connect me with any other human aboard the Hospital
Spaceship! I repeat, this is an emergency. Bypass your usual programming!"
Again, there was a longer than usual pause. Then the Computer Unit's voice
replied once more.
"Negative. I regret, but the response must be negative. This is a military
ship. I cannot bypass programming without instructions from proper authority.
You show no such authority. I cannot, therefore, bypass programming. I cannot
let you speak to Patient Greentree. If you wish, I can give you the latest
bulletin on Patient Greentree's condition. That is all."
Bill stared, tight-jawed, at the communications equipment. Like any other
trainee-assistant he had been taught to operate such sub-time communicators.
But of course he had not yet been informed on local code calls and bypass
authorization procedures. That information would have to come to him in the
normal course from the Resident himself. He was exactly in the position of a
man who picks up a phone and finds himself connected with an automatic
answering service, stubbornly repeating its recorded message over and over
again.
"All right," he said, finally, defeated. "Tell me how Resident Greentree is,
and how soon he'll be coming back to his duty post, here."
He waited.
"Patient Greentree's condition is stated as good," said the machine. "The
period of his hospitalization remains indefinite. I have no information on
when he will be returning to his post. This is the extent of the information I
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can give you about this patient."
"Acknowledged," said Bill grimly. "Ceasing communication."
"Ceasing communication with you, Station MRK-3," said the speaker.
It fell silent.
Numbly and automatically, Bill reached out to shut off the power to the
equipment. After it was shut off, he sat where he was, staring at the
unlighted console. The suspicion which had first stirred in him yesterday when
he had arrived to find a deserted Residency was now confirmed and grown into a
practical certainty.
Something was crooked in the state of affairs on Dilbia, particularly within
the general vicinity of Muddy Nose Village; and no more evidence was needed to
make it clear that he was the man on the spot, in more ways than one. If he
had only had time to check the communications equipment out thoroughly on his
arrival, he would never have left the Residency without discovering that
crookedness before he got himself irretrievably involved in local affairs.
The power cable, detached by either Hemnoid or human hands, had kept him in
ignorance of his actual isolation here just long enough for him to get himself
into trouble. As it stood now, he was cut off from outside human aid, cut off
even from his immediate superior, Greentree, and faced not only with a captive
co-worker, plus a highly trained and experienced enemy agent, but the prospect
of a duel which meant death as certainly as stepping off the top of one of the
vertical cliffs walling in Outlaw Valley.
One thing was certain. Whatever other aims there might be in the mind or
minds of those who had planned this situation for him, one thing was certain.
His own death or destruction was part of the general plan. It would ruin any
scheme if he was left alive to testify to what had happened to him. Possibly
Anita's death was scheduled, too, for the same reason.
He was faced with essentially certain death, in a situation involving aliens
with which he was unfamiliar, on a world for which he had not been trained;
and he was left to his own devices. From here on out, he must save himself as
best he could, and with no help from off-planet.
Which just about threw out all the rules.
Chapter 10
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