Starship Spring Read Online Free

and telling her about a particularly funny incident that had occurred in Mackinley a while ago.
    We were finishing the meal with brandy and whisky—imported from Earth—when my com chimed: Da Souza. I placed the device in the middle of the table and our guide smiled out at us.
    “I hope you don’t mind my interrupting. I said I’d call in and go through the tour options with you.”
    “The dig,” Maddie said, bright-eyed.
    Hawk said as an aside to Matt, “How the hell did you swing it, Matt? I thought the underground site was off-limits to plebs like us.”
    Matt grunted. “Thank Dr Petronious.”
    Da Souza was saying, “We could take a trip to the dig tomorrow afternoon, if you wish. The next time-slot after that—I have to work around the archaeologists—would be in three days.”
    “There’s no time like the present,” Hannah said.
    Maddie backed her up. “I’ve been dying to see the dig for weeks. Let’s do it tomorrow.”
    We agreed and Da Souza said, “That’s settled, then. I’ll pick you up at one tomorrow afternoon.” She cut the connection.
    Soon after that, with the Ring of Tharssos lighting our way, we left the restaurant and retraced our steps up wooden walkways and across rope bridges to our spectacular hilltop villa.
     
    * * *
     
    We slipped Ella into bed and then Hannah and I sat on the balcony outside our room, just taking in the ambience. The Ring of Tharssos bathed the scene in silver, and the almost fluorescent spume of the waterfall contrasted with the surrounding darkness of the vegetation. Another unique feature of the villa was the encapsulating sound baffle, reducing the thunderous roar of the water to nothing more than a background murmur.
    After a while Hannah yawned and said she was turning in. I said I’d join her shortly, and sat admiring the view and listening to the night sounds from the rainforest: the almost mechanical ticking of an army of invisible insects, the throaty rumble of things that sounded like toads.
    I saw movement on the patio below, and half expected to see the slim form of an Ashentay. The figure was slim, but it was not a native. Maddie crossed the timber boards, holding a drink, and paused before the balcony.
    She smiled up at me. “Can’t sleep?”
    “Just admiring the view,” I said.
    “Mind if I have a word?”
    “No, of course not.” I joined her on the patio and we sat at a table near the rail. She offered to get me a drink, but I was inebriated enough after the whisky.
    “I’m fine, Maddie,” I said. “Is something wrong?”
    She worried her bottom lip with small, perfect teeth before smiling at me and saying, “It’s Matt. He’s…” She stopped.
    I recalled his manner over dinner, when talking about his patron.
    “Is this something to do with Dr Petronious?” I asked.
    Maddie smiled at me. “Do you know, David Conway, for someone who likes to present a bluff, rough, uneducated exterior to the world, you don’t miss anything, do you?”
    “I’ve known Matt for so long…” I shrugged. “He seemed bothered about something… his relationship with this Petronious character?”
    “He was fine for most of the trip. He never likes travelling with his exhibitions—the whole media thing leaves him cold. But he was coping, and we had plenty of time to do the things we wanted, see the sights, visit people. I’d say Matt was on good form,” Maddie said.
    “Then he met Dr Petronious?”
    “We were on Bokotar, Sirius II. It’s an odd place, mostly desert, much of it too hot for habitation. The colonists there are a strange people, insular, suspicious. They’ve adapted to their inimical world and think themselves superior because of it.”
    “And Petronious is from Bokotar?”
    Maddie shook her head. “No, Dr Petronious isn’t human. He’s a Kallashian, from Antares II.”
    “Aren’t they—”
    She nodded. “They’re a reptilian race, humanoid in form, though.”
    “What did you make of him?”
    “Oh, I found