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."They all looked at Rhapsodical Stardimple, where it was floating, optics glued to the planet in the skyplate."The vast machines, the boneyard cities where the ancient Barafi populations died en masse, and the odd remnants of their culture, the motes, the templates, the pops and snaps.Of course once these things became known, there was a constant stream of people from all over the known Galaxy.Even a few laowon adventurers come here, overcoming their pathological fear of radiation.""But you say 'thousands' of their descendants were here?" Jon voiced his puzzlement."How could there have been thousands of them in such a short time?""It was remarkably simple.Old Bolgol was a biologist and a medical doctor, Lotte Fernica was a geneticist and although Lotte was far beyond childbearing years they did have Levia Razevkoy.They decided to produce a large family with her eggs and Bolgol's sperm.It was a natural response to their situation.They were alone on a strange and hostile world.They knew that Pleione's radiation was dangerous and so they colonized the extensive caves at Quism on the North Pole.In a remarkably brief time they overcame the difficulties and produced a crop of one hundred and twelve viable fetuses, mostly female.They also produced the mutated beans and rice that grow on the north polar patch, which, like the South Pole, is the only part of the planet that has anything like reasonable climate."Jon stared in wonder at the planet below."The next generation was much easier, of course, and after that it got out of hand.At the last count there were four distinctly different mutant species running wild in the northern deserts, robbing archeologists and prospectors.They've become quite a menace.Most are cannibals.They maintain herds of meat people.The tales that are told of them are quite horrible.""How can they survive Pleione's radiation?""The mutants live underground in the day, they infest the surface at night.Especially in the northern machine belts and the ancient city sites.It is said they have made genetics their religion and Anatol Bolgol their god.There are rumors that clones of Bolgol and Razevkoy continue to live out there, among the wildest tribes like the Bluegrain Hardscabbies.""It sounds like a savage place," Officer Bergen commented."It is.And the city of Quism is just as savage as the desolate wastes.It is a city ruled by force, not law, and that is something you must all remember while we are here.At any moment violence may strike.You must all be on your guard for the duration of your stay."After course corrections for the chemfuel boosters were fed into the Churchill's computer to ensure the great ship maintained a stable, distant, orbit about Pleione, they crowded into the spaceboat, but the journey to the planetary surface was uneventful and, with the main parachutes deployed, they floated down onto the spaceport at Quism.Dimly visible around the port were long rectangular fields, dark with vegetation.Hundreds of kilometers away, a wall of mountains was made visible by a line of white snow that dappled its peaks.Eblis Bey had briefed them but still the reality of Quism was rather intimidating.The boat was met by a convoy of small armored vehicles.Tense-looking young men appeared from within.They made the sign of Elchis, a cross in the air with the left hand.Eblis Bey went out to meet them in a thin, warm wind, with the mote floating at his shoulders.The leaders kissed his hand, the rest waved weapons and saluted the Bey with a roar.Watching at the edge of the spaceboat's airlock, Jon noticed an odd expression on Finn M'Nee's face; eyes narrowed, lips pinched in disapproval.M'Nee caught him looking at him and flashed him a glance of unrelieved hatred, then turned back into the cabin.They quickly disembarked while an armed group from the spaceport docking authority rode out an electric trolley to tow the spaceboat into the cliffcut hangars.With the four armored cars as escort, they would ride a bus into the city itself and take lodgings in a centrally located hotel.Meg and the injured Riley would be taken from there to the Elchite shelter where a small hospital was maintained.Quism was an old, underground city.In its warren of limestone caves seethed a population that survived principally by supplying, protecting, and robbing treasure hunters and archeologists.At the side of the concrete spaceport apron was a line of barkers for the rival bus owners.They set up a raging din at the sight of six travelers with luggage."My bus is the most comfortable in this system!" screamed one garlic-scented driver with a belly that protruded well over his trouser tops."His bus stinks of the Scurmachers he just carried in.All that boilweed fume!""My bus is best bus!""You will boil in hell alongside your ancestor's liver!""Your ancestor was my ancestor so who the hell cares!""You will be defiled by my dog!"While they argued, swift-fingered accomplices attempted to pick the travelers' pockets and steal anything remotely valuable that might present itself.Jon Iehard noticed the technique at once.He positioned himself close to Captain Hawkstone as two young, olive-skinned men lurched into him.Hands went for the small pack on Hawkstone's back and the loose pockets of his overall rain slicker.Jon rapped the hand in the pack with the butt of his Taw Taw and caught the hand lifting Hawkstone's Ornholme ID card from his pocket.The owners of the hands cursed furiously, but at the sight of the gun they moved away sharply.Officer Dahn shook her head gloomily, then gave a small scream.Jon looked up to see two boys were pushing Meg Vance away in her wheelchair.Jon sprinted after them and recovered her."Cannibalism is a constant threat here.Women sell their own newborns to the butcher, the dead seldom need be buried or cremated.Be alert at all times," Eblis Bey chided.They chose a yellow-and-black bus that belched black smoke and rode on oversize tires down a corrugated roadbed into the city and, finally, to the forecourt of a hotel.The Travel Aires was dug into the solid rock.A wall of reinforced concrete blocks rose in front, and armed guards patrolled the blue-and-white forecourt.The guards wore stiff maroon-and-blue tunics and carried two-handed automatic pistols that looked to Jon like imitation Taw Taw.45s.He noticed the signs of body armor under the tunics.The guards on the forecourt and the young Elchites in the armored vehicles eyed each other with a mixture of disdain and contempt, but neither side spoke.One surly guard spat eloquently after sharing a comment with a colleague.The Elchites looked up along the barrels of their machine guns.The surly guards fell silent
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