He and for a moment looking up at a low ceiling, dimly
visible in a red glow, the hard under his back. He
turned his head, saw a and a on which a red light
glared.
He his over the of the narrow and sat up. The
room was small, grey-painted, unadorned. Pain in his forearm.
He the of the garment, saw a
pattern of punctures in the skin. He the mark of a
feeding Hunter.... Who would have dared?
A dark shape on the his eye. He from the couch, knelt
by the still of a man in a black with blood.
Gently he rolled the onto its back.
Ammaerln!
He the wrist. There was a pulse. He rose--and saw a
second and, near the door, two more. Quickly he to each....
All three were dead, slashed. Only Ammaerln still breathed,
faintly.
He to the door, into the darkness. The of
a library gave a echo. He to the grey-walled
room, noticed a against a wall. He the
neurodes to the man's temples. But for this of recording
Ammaerln's life's memories, there was nothing he do. He must get
him to a therapist--and quickly.
He the library, a great beyond. This
was not the Sapphire Palace the Shallow Sea. The lines were
unmistakeable: he was a ship, a far-voyager. Why? How? He stood
uncertain. The was absolute.
He the Great Hall and entered the lounge. Here
lay another man, by his a of the crew. He touched
a and the great screens blue. A into
focus, locked; soft against the black of space. Beyond it a
smaller hung, gray-blotched, airless. What worlds were these?
* * * * *
An hour later he had the ship from end to end. In all,
seven corpses, slashed, the vessel. In the
control the lights glowed, but to his call there
was no answer from the world below.
He to the room. Ammaerln still weakly. The
memory had been completed; all that the man remembered
of his long life was now in the cylinder. It remained
only to color-code the trace.
His was by a small from the at
the of the high where he had his own memory-trace!
So he himself had the Change. He took the color-banded
cylinder, it into a pocket--then at a sound. A of
Hunters, of light, at the door. Then
they were on him. They pressed close, in their eagerness.
Without the proper he was helpless.
He up the of Ammaerln. With the Hunters in a
luminous he ran with his to the shuttle-boat bay.
Three in their cradles. He to a switch, his head
swimming with the of the Hunters; light the
bay, them back. He entered the lifeboat, the man
on a couch.
It had been long since he had the of a ship, but he had
not forgotten.
* * * * *
Ammaerln was when the the surface. The
vessel settled and the lock cycled. He looked out at a of
ragged forest.
This was no world. Only the landing ring and the clearing
around it the presence of man.
There was a in the earth by a square at the eastern
perimeter of the clearing. He the of Ammaerln to his back
and moved the ladder. Working bare-handed, he
deepened the hollow, the in it, earth over it. Then
he rose and toward the boat.
Forty away, a dozen men, squat, bearded, in the shaggy
hides of beasts, him and the ladder. The tallest
among them shouted, a threateningly. Behind these,
others at the ladder. Motionless he as one scrambled
up, the top, into the boat. In a moment the savage
reappeared at the opening and of small bright
objects. Shouting, others up to the loot. The man
again the boat. Before the of the others had
gained the entry, the port closed, off a from
within.
Men from the as it up. The rose slowly,
angling toward the west, dwindling. The back, awed.
The man until the light was against the sky.
