Fire Time Read Online Free

Ishtar?’
    ‘No, mostly homebrew beer and local wine.’ Conway forced loquacity on himself. ‘They taste different enough from Earth’s that many lifetimers don’t care for what little import we get. We’re self-sufficient, our agriculture flourishes, but, well, everywhere else is a whole other ecology to affect the soil, plus weather and radiation and– Anyhow, a few people operate stills, but they admit what they produce is nothing to brag about.’
    ‘You see, already you’ve helped me,’ Dejerine laughed. ‘I’ve been warned to stock up before departure.’
    While he prepared the refreshments, Conway glanced around. Though not an admiral’s suite, the chamber was large and well furnished for Tsiolkovsky Base. However commodious in peacetime, facilities here grow overloaded when men were shunted in by the thousands for ready transport to scenes of action. They must be doubled into barracks;power shortages developed till interior Earthweight generators must be shut down; that meant everybody must suffer tedious extra hours of exercises; on liberty they must stand in line for a chance at sightseeing crawlers, climbing outfits, slide-ski slopes, or catch a train to Apollo and hope not to get very badly rooked. … A half-wall transparency, dimmed against glare, showed majestic desolation. A cargo ship crossed the view, backing down on gravs toward an auxiliary field hastily scraped from the basalt.
    This room held few personal traces of its occupant. You travel light through space, barebones in wartime. Some printouts lay on a table: a book about Anubelea, a girlie periodical, a mystery novel, the collected poems of Garcia Lorca. Beside them stood a humidor.
    ‘Here you are.’ Dejerine handed Conway his drink. ‘And would you care for a cigar? … No? I suppose tobacco also turns peculiar on Ishtar? Well, I’ll ignite if you don’t mind.’ He settled into the facing seat and lifted his own glass.
‘Salud.’
    ‘Uh, cheers,’ Conway responded.
    Dejerin chuckled. ‘That’s right. You are becoming your true self. I expected you would.’
    ‘You checked me out, sir?’
    ‘Nothing more than your open file. I don’t pry. What I did was ask the bank for data on personnel from Ishtar whom I might contact. Your name appeared. According to the entries, you were born there and never got off the planet until lately. I doubt if a coward or incompetent would have been tolerated that long, assuming he survived. Then in spite of growing up among – what is the figure? – about five thousand scientists, technies, and their children, more than three hundred parsecs from Sol and seldom visited – you showed such promise in visual art that you were offered a scholarship here. And
then,
when the war broke out, you didn’t continue safe in your studies, you enlisted, in one of the toughest branches at that. I need no more information to know you fairly well.’
    Conway flushed, took a considerable sip, and ventured: ‘Obviously you’ve been assigned there, sir, and you’d like tohear what I can tell you. Isn’t that surprising, for a man with your record? The assignment, that is.’
    Dejerine frowned a bit. ‘Such things happen.’
    ‘I mean, well, after your message I used the bank too.’ The brandy had no doubt gone fast to Conway’s un-practiced head, for his words came rapid and needless – not flattery, Dejerine judged, but a gauche attempt at responding to the senior’s amicable overtures. ‘You were my age when you got the Diamond Star for a rescue off Caliban. You went on to be exec of a blastship, captain of a ranger, operations chief for constructing a base on Gea. Quite a variety, even if the Navy does like to rotate jobs; and you’re quite young for your rank.’ He checked himself. His cheeks reddened. ‘I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to be forward.’
    ‘That’s all right.’ Dejerine waved his cigar in dismissal. Discontent remained on his mouth.
    ‘If I may guess, sir – Gea has