snuffed a spook. Apparently they failed to make the connection. But so did I. I’m sure you have. Michele testified about me standing next to the fiber column and watching my chargering registering. The bank could verify that my account got fatter as others got leaner. They didn’t need to prove how I did it, only that I had. They did. Which made me guilty.
Not that I put up a spirited defense. It didn’t seem to matter. Nothing mattered anymore. My timestone was gone. I was going to die, and there was nothing I could do about it. I even figured out where it would be. I was destined to freeze to death. I knew that the punishment for fraud would be a year or two at a prison farm. Big deal, you say. Well, get this—the prison farms are located in Antarctica. You know, the icebox of the world.
So naturally I was found guilty. Just as certainly I would be sent to a prison farm. There I would most definitely die. Fate must be consummated. There was nothing I could do about it. Only a timestone could manipulate the time matrix. My timestone was gone.
So I was in a rather grim mood as I lay in my cell on the eve of my sentencing. I knew a hand-slap punishment would be a death sentence for me. I wasn’t even cheered up by watching the coverage of my trial on the halo. I was that depressed.
The war news came on next. I didn’t bother to turn it off. Tonight the coverage came from Titan, where the elves had launched another offensive against Chronus. They showed footage of the “bombardment.” None of the elven pulsar beams even made it through the city’s force-field. Life there went on as notoriously as usual. Patrons still frequented the famed mindcasinos.
Suddenly I remembered something. I could have kicked myself for not thinking of it earlier. The sailor had told me it as he died. I’d forgotten about the miner, Nels. And the other timestone. The holo scenes from Chronus reminded me. There was another timestone. Nels knew where it was hidden. He could be found among the mindriders of Chronus. Maybe I could cheat fate if I could locate the other timestone. I had done that once before. It might work again. But how was I going to get to Titan? I was going to be sent to Antarctica. As I watched elves eluding Terran combrids in forests of glass, the solution came to me. Quite simple, really. There was only one way, I had no other choice.
The next day, before the judge could sentence me, I asked him to let me volunteer for the Combrid Corps. The request was a formality, He couldn’t refuse me. Any citizen had the right to go to the Combrid Corps in lieu of any other criminal penalty. Normally, joining the Corps was the alternative to capital punishment. But it could be substituted for lesser punishments as well.
I can still remember the surprised look on the Lord Judge’s face when he granted my request. He must have thought me mad to trade a year or two on a prison farm for six years in the Corps. Less than one percent of combrids survived their tour of duty. The average life span was closer to two months. But I knew going to a prison farm in Antarctica was the same as a death sentence for me. There was only one way for me to cheat that destiny. I had no other choice.
But still, I had to smirk every time I saw myself reflected from the inside wall of my hybridization tank. My plan was clever, no doubt about it. Even if I couldn’t find the other timestone, I might thwart the time matrix. By becoming a combat hybrid, I was changing myself into another creature entirely. More than just superficial appearance. Even my genes were different. I was not the same being as I had been; I was no longer the same as the dead face the timestone had planted in my mind.
So now you know the whole plan. Pretty smart, eh?
Now I just had to get out of the Corps before I got my new self killed. And I had to come up with some way to get that dead face out of my thoughts. It was giving me the creeps.
AS I STOOD at ease with my fellow
Not that I put up a spirited defense. It didn’t seem to matter. Nothing mattered anymore. My timestone was gone. I was going to die, and there was nothing I could do about it. I even figured out where it would be. I was destined to freeze to death. I knew that the punishment for fraud would be a year or two at a prison farm. Big deal, you say. Well, get this—the prison farms are located in Antarctica. You know, the icebox of the world.
So naturally I was found guilty. Just as certainly I would be sent to a prison farm. There I would most definitely die. Fate must be consummated. There was nothing I could do about it. Only a timestone could manipulate the time matrix. My timestone was gone.
So I was in a rather grim mood as I lay in my cell on the eve of my sentencing. I knew a hand-slap punishment would be a death sentence for me. I wasn’t even cheered up by watching the coverage of my trial on the halo. I was that depressed.
The war news came on next. I didn’t bother to turn it off. Tonight the coverage came from Titan, where the elves had launched another offensive against Chronus. They showed footage of the “bombardment.” None of the elven pulsar beams even made it through the city’s force-field. Life there went on as notoriously as usual. Patrons still frequented the famed mindcasinos.
Suddenly I remembered something. I could have kicked myself for not thinking of it earlier. The sailor had told me it as he died. I’d forgotten about the miner, Nels. And the other timestone. The holo scenes from Chronus reminded me. There was another timestone. Nels knew where it was hidden. He could be found among the mindriders of Chronus. Maybe I could cheat fate if I could locate the other timestone. I had done that once before. It might work again. But how was I going to get to Titan? I was going to be sent to Antarctica. As I watched elves eluding Terran combrids in forests of glass, the solution came to me. Quite simple, really. There was only one way, I had no other choice.
The next day, before the judge could sentence me, I asked him to let me volunteer for the Combrid Corps. The request was a formality, He couldn’t refuse me. Any citizen had the right to go to the Combrid Corps in lieu of any other criminal penalty. Normally, joining the Corps was the alternative to capital punishment. But it could be substituted for lesser punishments as well.
I can still remember the surprised look on the Lord Judge’s face when he granted my request. He must have thought me mad to trade a year or two on a prison farm for six years in the Corps. Less than one percent of combrids survived their tour of duty. The average life span was closer to two months. But I knew going to a prison farm in Antarctica was the same as a death sentence for me. There was only one way for me to cheat that destiny. I had no other choice.
But still, I had to smirk every time I saw myself reflected from the inside wall of my hybridization tank. My plan was clever, no doubt about it. Even if I couldn’t find the other timestone, I might thwart the time matrix. By becoming a combat hybrid, I was changing myself into another creature entirely. More than just superficial appearance. Even my genes were different. I was not the same being as I had been; I was no longer the same as the dead face the timestone had planted in my mind.
So now you know the whole plan. Pretty smart, eh?
Now I just had to get out of the Corps before I got my new self killed. And I had to come up with some way to get that dead face out of my thoughts. It was giving me the creeps.
AS I STOOD at ease with my fellow
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