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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: Jacob Anacor has found a measure of peace with himself as ambassador to a virtually incomprehensible alien race, the Scherzi. Outcast from his own family, an embarrassment to his government, the isolation of the post is perfect. When a ship is destroyed in his system and he rescues the only survivors--the Vol Rissiks--he finds all that peace threatened and he must find a way to preserve his integrity and his sanity while not betraying either his civilization or the Scherzi.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Bending the Landscape--Science Fiction, 1998
Fictionwise Release Date: April 2005

8 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [257 KB], eReader (PDB) [38 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [25 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [24 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [82 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [96 KB], hiebook (KML) [70 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [52 KB], iSilo (PDB) [21 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [27 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [54 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [38 KB]
Words: 7088
Reading time: 20-28 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

Jacob Anacor opened the embassy lock and watched from the observation bubble as the two survivors were borne unconscious into the receiving area on a bed of scherzi. Their suits rippled brightly through the moil of graphite-grey filaments that swarmed around them. They seemed to float on their rescuers.

Abruptly the alien mass withdrew, leaving the pair of humans behind on the cushioned examination platform. The scherzi rolled back near the lock doors, writhing among themselves, a tangle of threads, filaments, and tentacles, slicing the human air, arcing out and diving back in like the traces of solar flares, only dark, light absorbing. Anacor stared at them--five individuals or fifty, after six years as Forum representative on Canolus he still could not tell--relieved that they had not tried to dismantle the environment suits.

One of the survivors moved, an arm raised, reaching for something, and, finding nothing, falling back. Anacor initiated the scans on the biomonitors. One after another the readouts flashed "Clear". No radiation, no virulent microbes, vital signs normal with the exception of elevated histamines. He opened the door and descended to the floor of the receiving area. The scherzi grew briefly more agitated. Anacor knelt beside the green suit and unlatched the helmet. Gently he slid it off. A young face, unlined, pale, short brown hair. He pushed up the eyelids, even though the monitors had already confirmed that both were alive and relatively unscathed. Blue eyes. Anacor felt a tug of recognition. He moved to the yellow suit and removed the helmet.

Older face, long pale hair, a line etched in the space between severely-arched eyebrows.