Nightmare Kingdom: A Romance of the Future Read Online Free Page B
Author: Barbara Bartholomew
would receive an edict warning him against selling them anything resembling weapons.
Sage dared to publicly appear as their friend and supporter no longer. He and his family would be at risk if he did so.
He’d given them more than a fair trade and wished them the best before they left his market. The words had not been actually said, but Jamie knew anyway that he was warning them to prepare to defend themselves. He felt the bad old days were coming back.
As they climbed into their little truck with Karen as the most skillful driver behind the wheel, nobody approached to smile or perhaps exchange a word or two as they would normally have done. They only watched with hidden glances, a few even daring to stare.
No matter how they felt about the aliens who occupied New London, the people of Terrainaine realized policies had changed. Jamie sensed something different from hostility. They were being looked at with a kind of fearful pity.
They drove slowly until they were a few miles beyond the shining, metallic city with its tall windowless buildings, then without having to be told, Karen stepped up the pace and Jamie found himself hanging on with all his strength as they bumped across the desert at an alarming speed until they reached the mountains where they were met by a trio of their hardiest supporters, two of them Mack and Karen’s young sons.
Each carried a share of the modern Aremian weapons they’d bartered to gain as they climbed up and then down the mountains where, on their own side, another and swifter vehicle waited for them.
Once again Karen drove like a wild woman, expertly managing consistent high speeds even when they entered the lush terrain of the ir own community with its obstacles of trees and creeks. Jamie knew he should breathe more easily now that he was back in home territory, but instead he was gripped with a terrible awareness that they had to get back with all due speed to warn the people of New London.
They had been chosen and brought here for a purpose and that purpose was once more alive and active.
Mack and Karen’s two boys began to engage in brotherly skirmishing and name-calling as the city that was their home came into sight just ahead of them. New London was a beautiful place with homes and public buildings designed like those in the warmer climates on Earth. The houses were long and low with graceful arches and colorful tiled roofs.
Large bladed p lants and tall grasses, brilliantly colored flowers impacted eyes that had only too recently witnessed the subtle browns and tans of the desert. The people of Earth occupied less than one percent of the planet, but undoubtedly it was the best part.
They were all glad to be home, even if they were the bearers of bad news.
It was the wet season in New London and as they drove toward the center of the city, a heavy rain began to fall.
Old George greeted them after they pulled into the huge garage that was part of the old council building which they’d taken over as their headquarters after the city government had moved into newer, and in Jamie’s opinion less defensible headquarters. In the days when the original settlers had fought to their deaths to defend New London, this had been the most secure building in the city.
And Jamie and his followers had spent the last dozen years shoring it up, making it safer from the attacks they felt certain would finally come.
After securing the new firepower, they told George what they had learned and then sent messengers out to those like them who were ready to defend New London that it was time to take up residence here in their safest place.
FOUR
Once Aremia, the original planet settled by hu mans who had departed for space in a wave of colonization that occurred centuries before the western European cultures had even risen to recognizable civilization, had been a crowded planet, filled with its pueblo-style habitations. But these days only the most privileged lived on the empire’s
Sage dared to publicly appear as their friend and supporter no longer. He and his family would be at risk if he did so.
He’d given them more than a fair trade and wished them the best before they left his market. The words had not been actually said, but Jamie knew anyway that he was warning them to prepare to defend themselves. He felt the bad old days were coming back.
As they climbed into their little truck with Karen as the most skillful driver behind the wheel, nobody approached to smile or perhaps exchange a word or two as they would normally have done. They only watched with hidden glances, a few even daring to stare.
No matter how they felt about the aliens who occupied New London, the people of Terrainaine realized policies had changed. Jamie sensed something different from hostility. They were being looked at with a kind of fearful pity.
They drove slowly until they were a few miles beyond the shining, metallic city with its tall windowless buildings, then without having to be told, Karen stepped up the pace and Jamie found himself hanging on with all his strength as they bumped across the desert at an alarming speed until they reached the mountains where they were met by a trio of their hardiest supporters, two of them Mack and Karen’s young sons.
Each carried a share of the modern Aremian weapons they’d bartered to gain as they climbed up and then down the mountains where, on their own side, another and swifter vehicle waited for them.
Once again Karen drove like a wild woman, expertly managing consistent high speeds even when they entered the lush terrain of the ir own community with its obstacles of trees and creeks. Jamie knew he should breathe more easily now that he was back in home territory, but instead he was gripped with a terrible awareness that they had to get back with all due speed to warn the people of New London.
They had been chosen and brought here for a purpose and that purpose was once more alive and active.
Mack and Karen’s two boys began to engage in brotherly skirmishing and name-calling as the city that was their home came into sight just ahead of them. New London was a beautiful place with homes and public buildings designed like those in the warmer climates on Earth. The houses were long and low with graceful arches and colorful tiled roofs.
Large bladed p lants and tall grasses, brilliantly colored flowers impacted eyes that had only too recently witnessed the subtle browns and tans of the desert. The people of Earth occupied less than one percent of the planet, but undoubtedly it was the best part.
They were all glad to be home, even if they were the bearers of bad news.
It was the wet season in New London and as they drove toward the center of the city, a heavy rain began to fall.
Old George greeted them after they pulled into the huge garage that was part of the old council building which they’d taken over as their headquarters after the city government had moved into newer, and in Jamie’s opinion less defensible headquarters. In the days when the original settlers had fought to their deaths to defend New London, this had been the most secure building in the city.
And Jamie and his followers had spent the last dozen years shoring it up, making it safer from the attacks they felt certain would finally come.
After securing the new firepower, they told George what they had learned and then sent messengers out to those like them who were ready to defend New London that it was time to take up residence here in their safest place.
FOUR
Once Aremia, the original planet settled by hu mans who had departed for space in a wave of colonization that occurred centuries before the western European cultures had even risen to recognizable civilization, had been a crowded planet, filled with its pueblo-style habitations. But these days only the most privileged lived on the empire’s
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