TangleRoot (Star Sojourner Book 6) Read Online Free
Author: Jean Kilczer
sent,
they can't be left to destroy the emerging lifeforms of an early planet, can they?
At times I believe there is still hope for you. Tell the Terran Joseph to plant them in a winter zone of the planet. There, the vines will not spread as fast and with –
With other lifeforms in hibernation, they'll be little for them to consume and destroy. Right?
You took the words right out of my mind.
Will you be there if things don't go as intended and I need more help?
Am I not always? What else do I have planned, human, besides directing the entire ecology of my homeworld?
Spirit? My sister Ginny. Is she still happy on the planet where she lives now?
She is content.
Does she have any memory of me, or how I got her killed in that…
That helicub crash over the mountains? No.
I wiped tears from my eyes.
Spirit?
Yes, Terran.
I could almost feel his sigh in my mind.
You have taught me the meaning of patience with your constant demands. What more?
If I die trying to save Lisa and Sophia, will I have any memory of them when I reincarnate?
You will not.
Then death's a mindwipe.
A fair analogy.
It doesn't seem fair.
Would you like to argue with Great Mind? I can summon Him.
No! No, that's all right.
Do you mind if I return to tending my world now, or have you other work to entangle me in your constant webs?
It's not my fault.
There is a cephalopod with three sexes evolving in my ocean. What is it you humans say? This will be three for the cooks?
Uh. One for the books. Spirit?
Yes, Terran?
Thank you.
You are croteducking welcome!
Whatever.
The day was fading. Snowflakes swirled in the wind like white dust devils. I shivered and zippered my jacket. How was I going to get to Black Mesa, miles away on the road to Espanola? I could probably hitch a ride with someone. Hundreds of people would soon leave their Lab jobs and return home to Espanola. I rolled to my stomach and looked out. Yes, traffic was already thickening.
Wait a minute. Had I made the local news? I fished out my comlink, tapped on the screen, and checked the news.
Oh shit.
It was like looking into a mirror. A reporter stood in the Biology Department and held up my Lab badge with the photo. “…six feet,” he was saying. “Blond hair and blue eyes. Slim. Twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. Wearing black pants and jacket and a blue shirt.”
I sighed. “You forgot the black scarf, crote.”
Damn them!
I punched in Joe's number and took a deep breath.
“Where are you, Jules?” Joe said tightly.
“Listen, Joe, I've got a plan.”
“You never had a plan in your whole damn –”
“Listen to me! Spirit is backing me up on this one.”
There was a pause, then, “Go ahead,” he said wearily.
I explained the story Spirit and I had concocted about having to guide the gangsters to a planet with tel power, then guiding them back to the trade lanes. “I checked out the astro charts,” I said. “Planet Equus in the 51 Pegasi System is newly discovered, Joe. It's an E-type world, suitable for human habitation. It's designated C for colonization, but it's on hold until Alpha approves their ecological studies.”
“What happens when you get there?”
“That's why you're in on this, and the team, if you can get them together. You have to plant the Lab specimens of Blackroot on the planet before we arrive. By the way, Spirit calls it bristra.”
“After we land,” he said, “you'll zero in on us with a telepathic send?”
“You got it.”
I heard Joe sigh. “They've just about destroyed the plants that got loose here on Earth. I'll talk to Chancey and Bat. We'll have to steal the Lab specimens. It's illegal to possess…bristra.”
“Joe, Spirit wants them planted in a winter zone of the planet to limit their destruction of the ecosystem.”
“I'll bring my woolen underwear. Where are you?”
I wouldn't put it past Joe to pretend to go along with my plan, and then bring the police down on me.
“Doesn't matter. I'm doing the
they can't be left to destroy the emerging lifeforms of an early planet, can they?
At times I believe there is still hope for you. Tell the Terran Joseph to plant them in a winter zone of the planet. There, the vines will not spread as fast and with –
With other lifeforms in hibernation, they'll be little for them to consume and destroy. Right?
You took the words right out of my mind.
Will you be there if things don't go as intended and I need more help?
Am I not always? What else do I have planned, human, besides directing the entire ecology of my homeworld?
Spirit? My sister Ginny. Is she still happy on the planet where she lives now?
She is content.
Does she have any memory of me, or how I got her killed in that…
That helicub crash over the mountains? No.
I wiped tears from my eyes.
Spirit?
Yes, Terran.
I could almost feel his sigh in my mind.
You have taught me the meaning of patience with your constant demands. What more?
If I die trying to save Lisa and Sophia, will I have any memory of them when I reincarnate?
You will not.
Then death's a mindwipe.
A fair analogy.
It doesn't seem fair.
Would you like to argue with Great Mind? I can summon Him.
No! No, that's all right.
Do you mind if I return to tending my world now, or have you other work to entangle me in your constant webs?
It's not my fault.
There is a cephalopod with three sexes evolving in my ocean. What is it you humans say? This will be three for the cooks?
Uh. One for the books. Spirit?
Yes, Terran?
Thank you.
You are croteducking welcome!
Whatever.
The day was fading. Snowflakes swirled in the wind like white dust devils. I shivered and zippered my jacket. How was I going to get to Black Mesa, miles away on the road to Espanola? I could probably hitch a ride with someone. Hundreds of people would soon leave their Lab jobs and return home to Espanola. I rolled to my stomach and looked out. Yes, traffic was already thickening.
Wait a minute. Had I made the local news? I fished out my comlink, tapped on the screen, and checked the news.
Oh shit.
It was like looking into a mirror. A reporter stood in the Biology Department and held up my Lab badge with the photo. “…six feet,” he was saying. “Blond hair and blue eyes. Slim. Twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. Wearing black pants and jacket and a blue shirt.”
I sighed. “You forgot the black scarf, crote.”
Damn them!
I punched in Joe's number and took a deep breath.
“Where are you, Jules?” Joe said tightly.
“Listen, Joe, I've got a plan.”
“You never had a plan in your whole damn –”
“Listen to me! Spirit is backing me up on this one.”
There was a pause, then, “Go ahead,” he said wearily.
I explained the story Spirit and I had concocted about having to guide the gangsters to a planet with tel power, then guiding them back to the trade lanes. “I checked out the astro charts,” I said. “Planet Equus in the 51 Pegasi System is newly discovered, Joe. It's an E-type world, suitable for human habitation. It's designated C for colonization, but it's on hold until Alpha approves their ecological studies.”
“What happens when you get there?”
“That's why you're in on this, and the team, if you can get them together. You have to plant the Lab specimens of Blackroot on the planet before we arrive. By the way, Spirit calls it bristra.”
“After we land,” he said, “you'll zero in on us with a telepathic send?”
“You got it.”
I heard Joe sigh. “They've just about destroyed the plants that got loose here on Earth. I'll talk to Chancey and Bat. We'll have to steal the Lab specimens. It's illegal to possess…bristra.”
“Joe, Spirit wants them planted in a winter zone of the planet to limit their destruction of the ecosystem.”
“I'll bring my woolen underwear. Where are you?”
I wouldn't put it past Joe to pretend to go along with my plan, and then bring the police down on me.
“Doesn't matter. I'm doing the
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