In the Company of Others Read Online Free Page B

turned at the commotion with everyone else, the growl of outrage vibrating in a wave from the door to the bar. The following, ominous hush let Sammie’s roar through clearly: “Enter onna right , morons! Where’re you raised, huh—?”
    The rest of what the usually vocal Sammie might have said died away. “Malley! What’s going on?” Pardell hissed. Malley, taller by a head than most, was staring in the direction of the tavern entrance. “Who—?”
    â€œStrangers,” Malley said, astonishment clear in his hushed voice.
    â€œHow many beers have you had?” Pardell muttered, straining to see for himself. The station might be bursting at the seams with humanity, but people kept to their own sections. Thromberg had sacrificed a significant amount of its interconnectivity through the emergency modifications to house the immigrant population trapped here, and, unstated, Station Admin was nothing loath to keep its inhabitants in isolated communities. Especially since the riots.
    No doubt Sammie’s regular clientele knew each other on sight, all too well. “Thought you knew everybody,” Pardell teased his friend.
    â€œShut up,” Malley said almost absently. “They’re Uniforms. Earth Uniforms.”
    â€œEarthers? On-station. In Sammie’s.” Pardell wasn’t sure which was more ludicrous: the idea an Earth ship could dock at the station without the news spreading translight, or that such troops would simply walk in here first. Outward Five was nowhere near the stem docking ring, by any measure. “In Sammie’s,” he repeated numbly.
    â€œShhsh. I’ m trying to hear what’s going on.” Despite this, Malley gave a low growl of his own when bodies suddenly pressed closer on all sides, everyone facing the door with the quivering attention of a crowd unsure whether to bolt or cheer. His strong arm made a wall between Pardell and the nearest set of shoulders. “Watch where you’re going, Denery!”
    Syd Denery’s back rammed into Malley’s elbow before the smaller immie could help himself. He craned his head around to face Pardell, an anxious look on his wizened features. “Sorry, Aaron. Can’t help it. They’re shoving us back to make room for the Earthers. Maybe you should head out before it gets worse.” With another contortion, Denery managed to twist minutely farther away, as he did so, informing his immediate neighbors in an urgent, cheery whisper: “Hey, Aaron’s back here, y’know. Careful, you louts!”
    â€œI’m all right,” Pardell said to the world in general, feeling the familiar humiliating heat of an angry blush on his face.
    â€œNo,” Malley countered. “I don’t like this. You should get out of here—”
    Pardell sputtered: “How—?” just as the unthinkable happened and a mass of people fell backward toward him as though knocked flying in some game. Amid the cursing and apologies, he felt contact on all sides.
    Confusion. Anger. FEAR!
    ... Time stopped. All Pardell could hear was his own heart, hammering like some frantic bird caged within his ribs. There must have been dozens of people touching him, connecting with him, bombarding him with their emotions until he knew he couldn’t stand another feeling . . .
    PITY.
    ... It drowned him even as his body was wrenched free. Suddenly, all of the connections were broken at once as Pardell felt himself launched through the air. He had an instant to be amazed at the pile of struggling, intertwined bodies beneath him before Malley’s toss landed him on the floor behind the bar.
    Anything broken? Pardell asked himself cautiously, unwilling to move and find out. He remained curled where he’d dropped, ignoring the spilled liquid and crumpled containers under shoulders and hip, working on controlling the natural impulses of his stomach and waiting for his heart to