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."There, you see, Professor.A simple, truthful solution.Now, your immediateoverriding objective is to acquire control of Tyson and the legitimate testdata.You are authorized to use any resource you deem necessary to accomplishthis task.You will concentrate solely on accomplishing this mission.Anotherfailure will not be acceptable, even for you.Do you understand, Professor?"Rising to leave, Professor Helosas replied, "Understood, sir.Fully."After Professor Helosas departed, P-Quan sank into deep thought.The suddeninvolvement of the Luin in this matter alarmed him greatly.In the past, theirinvolvement only occurred on those rare occasions when they considered theissue at hand to be one of either potential strategic importance to theEmpire's security, or an immediate threat to that security.He did not pretendto understand the interest of the Luin in Tyson.Few beings in the Empireunderstood them or their methodology anyway.They were, after all, theunquestioned intellectual elite of the Empire.They controlled all politicaland military power in the vastly flung political structure.Not that the Maen were an ignorant or unintelligent race - they weren't.Compared to the average human being, the dullest of the Maen was asuper-genius.The fact that Tyson had so easily outsmarted him disconcertedP-Quan greatly.In his vast experience as a planetary governor who had rulednumerous developing worlds, he had never seen an event such as this broughtabout by such a primitive backwards species.Tyson's ability to stay one stepahead of him was truly an anomalous and unexpected situation, and most likelythe primary reason for the direct involvement of the Luin.He had to find away to protect himself in case this situation continued to go badly.He wouldPage 75ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlnot underestimate Crash Tyson and Decker Payne again.After much thought, P-Quan activated a channel on his private communicationsset, which connected him to the local head of security for the KalimariSystem.Magus was not only an old friend and head of the local militaryintelligence, he also commanded all of the Morcor Military Forces for theKalimari System.In case Helosas failed to get Tyson under control, Magus andthe Morcor surely would.P-Quan thought grimly, Mr.Crash Tyson does not have the slightest clue as towhat he has gotten himself into - not the slightest inkling whatsoever!Chapter EightCaptain Parker's condition deeply concerned Dr.Nao.Even though he hadapplied all of his vast knowledge of vascular and neural microsurgery, Dr.Naorealized that Parker's leg was not positively responding to his treatments toany appreciable degree.He had tried every technique he knew, but to no avail.The vascular damage was so extensive that the tissue-healing processprogressed at a much slower rate than that at which the tissue decayed.It wasonly a matter of time before would gangrene set in.In all likelihood, Parkerwould lose his leg: a pity, given that he was such a young man.Dr.Nao cringed upon viewing Parker's wound.The sight brought back countlessmorbid memories of the Civil war.So many millions died, he thought sadly.Andnow that ugly carnage appears to be starting all over again.He wondered ifanyone could ever ascribe any point to any of it.Such human carnage revoltedhim.But then, as one young Marine on his deathbed told him, "For free men,freedom is all there is." With his last breath, he said, "It's all I reallyhave that's worth living for." He then died at the ripe old age of twenty.Dr.Nao had attended to thousands of young men making that journey.Afteryears of witness, it became apparent to him that freedom, for some men - realmen - had developed into a basic necessity: a fundamental requirement of life.He concluded that for these men, no gray area existed regarding this issue.Either you exercised free will or you did not.Presently, one thing becameabundantly clear: life under the PLAG meant that you conformed, or you died.It was that simple.When Crash and Colonel Laughton entered the makeshift medical ward, they foundDr.Nao bent over Captain Parker, attending to him.When they approachedParker's bunk, Crash in particular found it difficult to speak to Parker,after observing just how serious his injuries were.Colonel Laughton, on theother hand, had seen so much carnage and death during the Civil War that hehad become inured to such sights.He was not indifferent, by any means, butover time, he had developed the ability to suppress emotions that might beseen by others as weakness.He dealt with his pain privately, away from anyonewho might interpret his true passion for his men as that of a weak-kneed fool.Crash, on the other hand, was not so adept at achieving such public repressionof his emotions.He forced himself to put on a happy face, and hoped that hecould pull the deception off.While Crash and Colonel Laughton knew that they were powerless to help Parkerphysically, they could at least try to bolster his spirits.Colonel Laughtonbelieved that a man's proper attitude towards any challenging situation was atleast half the battle to victory.As they approached his bunk, Parker turned to look at them."How much longer are you going to stay on vacation, son?" Laughton askedjokingly."You have half my Air Force grounded."Crash and Laughton quickly realized that Captain Parker's trauma went muchdeeper than just his physical wounds."Have you ever known a one-legged pilot,sir?" Parker replied abrasively."The doctor says I'm probably going to losethis shot-up piece of meat.It won't even make good dog food, the way itsmells!"Laughton had been in this situation countless times before with other men -some much worse than this.Some men healed; some did not.The individual'sattitude seemed to make the primary difference in such situations.He had toget Parker not only to want to recover, but also to see a compelling reason asPage 76ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlto why he needed to recover."Your plane will be back to full combat status in a few days, Captain,"Laughton stated in a commanding tone."Those old 23s were built to go to warand come back.You did a fine job bringing her in son - a fine job.Theproblem is, Captain, we don't have anyone else qualified to fly her.It's onlya matter of time before the PLAGGERS find us.We would be in a SOL situationwith only half our Air Force up there." He paused to let his meaning sink in,before he went on to say, "I hope you're not telling me that your old plane istougher than its pilot?""Damn it, sir! Look at it! It's a mangled stump of rotten meat.I can't flylike this.It's probably going to kill me if they don't cut it off!""Son," the Colonel said in a deliberate manner, "I realize that you're intremendous pain.I could BS you - blow smoke up your ass - for an hour, so asto try to make you feel better, but I won't.I know you're more of a man thanthat.I have only one thing to say to you [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]