The Night of the Long Knives

ere as on a

sed alarms of st

nt armies cl

er B

tthew

things at the same time, and although we were told a lot of things, we were seldom if ever told the why of them, and through it all was the constant impression that we were dea

it a name. After a while the situation got mo

because after the first-and perhaps unguarded-revelation, we learned little more of the war between Atla-Hi and Savannah Fortress and nothing of the reasons behind it. Presumably Savannah was the aggressor, reaching out north after the conquest of Birmingham, but even that was just a guess.

weapon for Atla-Hi, or ammunition for a weapon, or parts for some essential instrument like a giant computer, but the voice ignored my questions on that point and didn't fall into the couple of crude conversational traps I tried to set. We were to drop the cubes when told, that was all. Pop had the box of th

e the drop when the signal came and hang onto those myriad steel cubes as our only bargaining point. Still, I could see no advantage to refusing before the signal came. I'd have liked to discuss the point with Alice and maybe Pop too, but app

all it wanted about us-and apparently knew a good deal to start with. For one thing, they must have been tracking our plane for some time, because they guessed it was on automatic and that we could reverse its course but nothing else. Though they seemed under the impression that we could reverse its course to Los Al

d the plane somewhere in the Central Deathlands. I even had to describe the cracking plant and freeway and gas tanks-I couldn't think of a lie that mightn't get us into as much tr

rayl. I guess they knew well enough we'd bumped him off, but didn't bring it up becaus

-practicing murderers, because when he had to speak up, while he was getting instructions on prepar

aid some of their boys called

Pop admitted

ious about it, although you may think that you are. Our skeptics (which includes all but a very few of us) split quite evenly between those who think that the

admission, but it seemed to do us no damage. Pop really did seem out of his depth though during this part of our adventure, more out of his depth

a sort of sadness and bewilderment that beings as smart as the voice from the screen sounded should still b

view today)-the kind of cat that ought to have outgrown war or thought its way around it. Maybe Savannah Fortress had simply forced the war on them and they had to defend themselves. I hadn't contacted any Savannans-they m

because the situation had just got more difficult and depressing too

dden and a second voice came in, a deep voice with a sort of European accent (not Chinese, oddly)-

hesitate to make the drop or if they should put a finger on the button that reverses their course, then-pouf! Such brutes under

reen was silent for ten seconds or so. I guess the first voice thought it wasn't nice for us to overhear Atla-Hi bickering with itself, even if the second voice didn't give a damn (any more than a farmer wou

e talking once more, but it had something to say that was

so, now or subsequently, if you make the drop when we give the signal and if you remain on your present course until then. Afterwards you will be at liberty to reverse your course and es

it, even Pop. However I did get that funny feeling again that the voice wa

haze-which hadn't shown any foreign objects in it so far, thank God, even vultures, let alone "straight strings of pink

e plane's main gun in any forward direction. There was a rearward firing gun too, that you aimed by changing over the World Screen to a rear-view TV window, but we didn't get around to mastering that one. In fact, in spite of my special talents it was all I could do to achieve a beginner's control over the main gu

rushing orange haze which at last was beginning to change toward the bronze of evening. If something showed up in it I'd be

hey wanted us on a known course so they could plan better for the drop and recovery. (I think maybe the voice would have given me some hints-and maybe even told me more about the steel cubes too and how much

ever it was)-but at the same time another part of me was disgusted with the idea of acting like I belonged to a live culture (even a smart, unqueer

with the box and 'chute

s and packing them in one bag-I couldn't figure out at first what she had in mind. O

verything had to

said, "Mak

oward him, writhing her lips in silent "talk" to tell

owed up in the darkening haze ahead-a whole half dozen straight lines spreading out from a bl

he door of the pla

on the blank central spot, w

ght lines grew d

couldn't be applied to gunnery instantly deduced that she'd had some last-m

ng combo. The thought flashed to me: it's a cit

pink line dippe

a struggle. Alice snarli

patter of hot metal inside the cabin, a blinding spot in the middle of the World Screen, a searing b

spots that were only after-images. The cabin stunk of ozone, but wind funneling through a hole in the one-time World Screen was blowing it out fast enough-Sava

er across the closing door. He looked mean. She looked agonized and was pressing her burnt hand into her side with her elbow as if he'd stamped on the han

hadn't already tried. My first thought had been that the spatter of hot metal

ad only started to operate within yards of the ground. Another lurching fall and another bounce, less violent. A couple of repetitions of that, each one a little gentler, and then we were sort of bumping along on a

ll happened-at the moment I hardly cared what else Savannah did to us. I needn't have wasted the mental energy. The decision was made for me. As I

r it no longer had a violet nimbus. The Los Alamos blue went dull

y faintly (not as if speaking directly but as if the screen had heard and reme