The Temporal Void Read Online Free Page B

past the cold vapour, and the rugged land was only two kilometres below. In the wan pre-dawn light the starship blended perfectly into the grey overcast sky as it sank fast through the clear air. He landed it next to some tall palm-equivalent trees that were already starting to wave about as the wind built up.
    To visit Stubsy Florac he selected an armoured fabric one-piece he could wear under his toga suit. Then he ran a fast check on the biononics which produced his integral force field to make sure of their functionality. In combination, the armour and shielding should be able to stop a great many weapons, but he didn’t delude himself about their ultimate ability if a fully enriched Accelerator agent cornered him. For a moment he considered taking a weapon. There were two jelly guns stashed away in a locker. Both of which would need charging. But he didn’t have any experience in physical combat, his biononics could produce a respectable distortion pulse if pushed, and besides Stubsy wouldn’t like him carrying that kind of hardware into his home. It was going to be bad enough turning up unannounced and then asking for a further favour. So he left the guns in the locker and went into the airlock.
    There was a one-man regrav scooter stowed in a midship cargo hold. Troblum gave it a suspicious stare as it floated out to hover a couple of centimetres above the thick blue-tinged grass. He hadn’t used it in decades. It looked uncomfortably small now, and it bobbed about alarmingly under his weight as he tried to lift his leg over the saddle. It took three attempts, but he eventually managed to sit astride it, wincing at what he was sure was a pulled muscle just above his hip. Biononics went to work tracking down and repairing the cells in his overstrained flesh. A transparent plyplastic visor unfurled from the front of the scooter, producing a streamlined hemisphere to shield the rider from the slipstream, though it had to curve outwards to enclose Troblum. He directed the little craft towards Stubsy’s grand villa just outside the valley, keeping his speed to a prudent fifty kilometres an hour at a three-metre altitude.
    While he was travelling, his u-shadow analysed all the spaceports whose networks were connected to the sparse planetary cybersphere. It produced a list of starships currently on the ground, none of which were Earth-registered. Hardly complete, he acknowledged, but then he was fairly sure that Paula Myo wouldn’t draw attention to herself here, which is undoubtedly what an Earth registration would do. Nor was there a ship that fitted the profile of an Accelerator agent. If anyone was here for him, they weren’t out in the open.
    His scooter arrived at the line of slim silver pillars which marked out the boundary of Stubsy’s estate. His field functions reported several sensors locking on as he slowed. He called Stubsy’s code. It took a disconcertingly long time for the dealer to answer.
    ‘Troblum, man, is that you out there?’
    ‘Of course it’s me. Will you let me through your perimeter, please.’
    ‘I didn’t know you were on Sholapur. You didn’t land at Ikeo spaceport.’
    ‘I told you I needed discretion for our last transaction.’
    ‘Yeah, yeah, right.’
    Troblum gave the silver pillars an uneasy glance. He was feeling very alone and exposed out here. ‘Are you going to let me in?’
    ‘Right. Yeah. Sure. I’ve cleared you through the defence systems. Come on in.’
    The top of the two pillars in front of him turned green. Troblum eased the scooter forward between them, tensing up as he passed over the line. When nothing happened he breathed easier.
    Beyond the big white villa, a dense curtain of rain was heading in across the steel-grey sea. As he settled in front of the high glass doors, Troblum looked down the long slope to the lovely little cove below. There was no sign of Stubsy’s glide-boat anchored offshore.
    Stubsy opened the door, and gave Troblum a nervous grin.