Ten Little Aliens: 50th Anniversary Edition Read Online Free Page B

against the Schirr is the question of why the Morphiean Quadrant has involved itself in a conflict against Empire’
DENNI
, Gisel
ATE 159922
    Age: 25
    Visual: Black female
    She rose out of the slums of Paris II , climbed through the ranks in Stellar Infantry and things are still looking up for fantastic gymnastic Gisel Denni, who has received zero demerits since starting Academy. She’s out to go far. Far out.
    In her own words:
    THE ONLY GOOD SCHIRR IS
++ ‘one that toes the line’
SHADE , Adam (aka SHADOW)
ATE 287645
[CURRENT READER]
    Age: 30
    Visual: White male
    You saw him shot down in flames just this very afternoon, but this Shade ain’t no shadow of his former self. ’Course, that’s not so hard when you consider he started active service as a Royal Escort back on dear old Mama Earth before going to war in U.S. Pan-Galactic. Went Elite after ten months in medicare, but needs serious merits now if he wants to make the grade… Hey, have a good war , soldier!
    In his own words:
    THE ONLY GOOD SCHIRR IS
++ ‘adam shade unavailable’
LINDEY , Stace
ATE 161662
    Age: 28
    Visual: White female
    From humble beginnings serving in Little Europe with the Luxdirigibles, the so-called Pauper Fleet, Lindey rose out of troubled waters thanks to a scholarship to the Zero-Gs. After five years’ combat in low-grav environments, Lindey traded walking on air for dry land when she won an unheard-of second scholarship to go Elite.
    In her own words:
    THE ONLY GOOD SCHIRR IS
++ ‘stuffed with frag-grenades and delivered to the Spook Quadrant’
SHEL , Eiji
ATE 334684
    Age: 33
    Visual: Oriental male
    Shel joins Academy Elite as Marshal Haunt’s adjutant and science officer on Personnel Exchange from the Japanese Belt , where his exploits have been deemed CLASSIFIED. Spooky!
    In his own words:
    THE ONLY GOOD SCHIRR IS
++ ‘I have no time to comment’
HAUNT , Nadina
SENIOR STAFF HEAD, INSTRUCTOR
    Age: 39
    Visual: White female
    Scourge of the Schirr on twenty worlds from Idaho to New Jersey, if our beloved Staff Head ever wore all her hard-won medalwear she’d need anti-gravs just to keep her upright . Joined Elite after making Marshal following 15 years of front-line service . Served in every war zone going, and survived everything the Schirr could throw at her. Now she’s throwing YOU back at them , soldier. Be worth it , now, y’hear?
    In her own words:
    THE ONLY GOOD SCHIRR IS
++ ‘
Good
and
Schirr
do not belong in the same breath, soldier. They don’t even belong in the same
head
. The only possible good in the universe is
absence of Schirr
. Not absent hiding out in some stinking pit in the outer rim, not turning invisible like some damned Spook, but dead, wiped out,
burnt
out. And we didn’t start that fire, soldier, but we are going to stamp it out and stamp the
Schirr
out, so hard that in 20 years no man, woman or child will have the first conception of what those stinking, sticky-faced ++
    [space exceeded]
    GROUP GREET @ 22 HUNDRED ++ THEATRE TEN ++
    STUDENTS WISHING TO GRADUATE ARE REMINDED TO STAY ALIVE THRU TRAINING ++
----

C HAPTER T WO
    A PPOINTMENT WITH D EATH
    I
    BEN LOOKED AT Polly and narrowed his eyes. ‘You saying I’ve got a cold wet nose and floppy ears?’
    Polly rolled her eyes but she was smiling, her straight white teeth framed by crimson lips. ‘You know what I mean,’ Polly went on in her
oh-so-frightfully
tones. ‘People are either dog people or cat people. And you’re a dog.’
    ‘Yeah, well, reckon I know how you’d take it if I called
you
one,’ Ben retorted.
    ‘I’m a cat person,’ Polly declaimed, running slender fingers through her long blonde hair.
    ‘Thought you reckoned you were just the whiskers on the thing, not the whole moggy.’
    ‘I just mean I make my own way, that’s all. Independent.’
    Ain’t that the truth, Ben thought wryly to himself. They’d shared a few adventures now since leaving London, thanks to the TARDIS’s dodgy compass, and throughout it all Polly