Howling Stones Read Online Free

island world, and the semihumanoid natives found them unpleasant to look upon. So it fell upon humans and AAnn to compete in the face-to-face negotiations.
    “There it is.” Even as he pointed, the pilot banked to starboard and descended to give his passenger a better view. “Parramat.”
    Pulickel had been on many similar craft, but while seasickness held no worries for him, aerial maneuvers always left him feeling slightly queasy. He would be relieved when they were down.
    The mass of islands and islets rising from the azure sea was in no way remarkable. As near as Pulickel could tell, it differed only slightly from the thousands of similar islands they had overflown on the long flight out from Ophhlia.
    The pilot proceeded to circumnavigate the entire archipelago, pointing out the thirty-six main islands and the occasional important minor group that had been dismissed by Survey with a collective name. Pulickel did his best to pay attention. To the north lay the archipelago of Ririroarak, to the west Mosiniatan, to the south Bebat, and to the east the close-packed island groups of Komapau, Seriseri, and Apla. Other clusters lay farther afield. All were inhabited, but thus far only Ririroarak and Seriseri had been visited by representatives of the Commonwealth. The Department of Xenology had many demands on its time and resources. Senisran received its fair share of attention, but no more.
    “You know that the AAnn have a station here, too.” As the pilot maintained their descent, Pulickel did his best to match the view outside with the survey map of Parramat he’d committed to memory. The two lined up adequately in his mind, except that the reality was far more beautiful than the recordings he’d been given to study.
    “I’ve seen the prospectus,” he informed his guide. “It doesn’t matter. Their base is on an island in the far north of the group. I don’t expect their presence to affect my work.”
    The pilot grunted softly. “Hope not. I reckon trying to make sense of one island culture after another is hard enough without the lizards making things more difficult than they already are. Personally, the less I have to do with them, the better I like it.” In response to a nudge on a switch, there was a whine from the belly of the craft as her landing pontoons deployed.
    “They’re not lizards.” As the g-forces on him increased modestly, Pulickel shifted uneasily in his harness. “They’re far more closely related to the extinct order
dinosauria
, being warm-blooded and possessing distinctive characteristicsof their own. The resemblance to terrestrial lizards is purely superficial.”
    “Yeah, right.” His attempt at casual camaraderie thus rebuffed, the pilot’s voice returned to neutral. “Hang on. Might be a little bumpy setting down. The lagoon’s ten kilometers wide and the water inside is flat calm, but afternoon winds can be tricky.”
    Pulickel went silent, wondering if the pilot was being honest or if he was simply tired of trying to make friends with his stuffy passenger. Not that it mattered one way or the other. They wouldn’t be seeing one another again for some time, if ever.
    Banking sharply, they made one overfly of the landing site to check local conditions. Pulickel’s view filled with water in a dozen amazing shades of blue and green, all enclosed within a huge lagoon ringed with low islets composed of largely uncolonized sand. Although a fair proportion of the material was a familiar white, in many places it was a startlingly bright red or yellow. This reflected its origin in aqueous alien growths that, while analogous in form and lifestyle to communal Terran corals, contained a high proportion of silicon as opposed to the more common calcium. The result was sand that was not only differently and more brightly colored but extraordinarily reflective, and reefs whose component structures tended to be sharp and angular rather than soft and rounded.
    A single sharp bounce and they