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when needed. The electronic people will increase our fighting efficiency
considerably. Also, they are so very pleasant to talk with. We enjoy
being around them. Oh my! I do believe that I have made a social
error! Mickolai, I would like to introduce you to my friend and my ship,
Belladonna. Belladonna, this is our planetary commander, General
Mickolai Derdowski."
Belladonna and I said the usual formal words to each other. Then I
said, "But as to enjoying our metal ladies' company, I expect that the
feeling is mutual. So what you have here is something approximately
equivalent to one of our tanks, but much smaller."
"Yes, but being much smaller, we will be much harder to hit," he said. "
'We're pressing on with each new ship, less weight and larger power.
We'll have the Loco Engine soon, and thirty miles an hour!' "
"You are quoting Kipling, one of my favorite poets!"
"Indeed, I have been making a very thorough study of your human
culture, and Rudyard Kipling is certainly one of my favorites, also."
"I'll drink to that. And to him!"
Agnieshka poured him another bowlful of something. I wish that I knew
where he put it all.
When it was time for Bellor to go, he started to return to his small
space ship, but his coordination was way off. At one point, he tried to
move all three of his right legs at the same time, and fell over.
"Well, my friend," I said. "It seems that I finally know what your limit is
in alcohol!"
"It is indeed true that I have overindulged, to my considerable
embarrassment, but it was not the alcohol that subverted the control of
my legs. Ethanol is only a healthy food to people of my sort. It was
rather the inordinate amount of various sugars in some of your potables,
some of which have a certain physiological effect on those of my race.
Fructose in particular. Without stepping over the bounds of good taste,
may I ask if you could you perhaps assist me to my vehicle?"
"Are you sure that you can drive?"
"I am sure that I cannot," Bellor admitted. "However, Belladonna is
fully functional, and she will take me home quite safely."
"As you wish." I picked him up, swearing that he weighed less than all
the booze that he had drunk, and put him back in the small pool of
water in his tank. Once he managed to get all of his legs inside, the lid
closed, and the little black ship went home.
Agnieshka, who always seemed to know what I was thinking, said,
"Remarkable creatures!"
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Contents
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
FROM CAPTURED HISTORY TAPES,
FILE 1846583A ca. 1832 a.d.
BUT CONCERNING EVENTS OF UP TO
2000 YEARS EARLIER
Wrapping It Up
Kren spent the rest of the day collecting up heads and decapitated
bodies and sending them down into the tunnel for resurrection, that is to
say, to be eaten alive by young carnivores who would soon have their
brains taken over by the person that they had just eaten.
The colonel's insignia on his shoulders was a great help in getting the
troops to obey him. Never once did he have to kill one of them to
encourage the others.
Bronki and Dol were wearing armor with captain's insignia that Kren
had arranged for. They set up a surgery in one of the basements, and
with the help of a dozen shanghaied soldiers, performed well over a
thousand questionably legal operations on slaughtered civilians. Many
of them were members of the former nobility hereabouts, but some of
them were merely servants who had gotten in the way. Kren decided
that he might as well have them all. There were plenty of young
carnivores. With the right conditioning, he was sure that he could make
most of them into willing slaves.
When they ran out of heads and decapitated bodies, the duke's men
started slaughtering the nobility who had been captured, but not yet
killed. Many of them were still in their eating stupors, and never did
wake up.
Bronki ran into over a dozen of the nobility who had once been friends
of hers, since in five thousand years, you meet a lot of individuals. With
a bit of trickery, and some help from Dol, she managed to send these
down for resurrection with their brains intact, having quietly cautioned
them to act as if they were brainless when they woke up, and reminding
them that one day, they would owe her some really big favors.
* * *
Duke Dennon spent his time negotiating with groups of Tendi's soldiers
who had yet to surrender, and accepting their oaths of allegiance, once
they did.
"Kren, I think that this might be written up as one of the most successful
campaigns in history," the duke said. "We have taken a major duchy,
killed almost a thousand of their soldiers, and captured nine entire
divisions of their troops, thus far. And we did it with an assault force of
only two divisions, and the loss of barely two dozen of our own
warriors! And I owe much of this success to you! I thank you, Kren,
and somehow, in the future, I will find a way to reward you properly." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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