Free The Gentle Seduction by Marc Stiegler Page A

weaponry."
    "Are there safety devices to prevent misfiring?"
    "Yes."
    "Are you planning to use these weapons against us?"
    "No."
    "That's what the folks at the space station thought. Customs inspection ended."
    "What?"
    "Customs is much easier when you can just see what's in a person's mind. One thing, though." The thought was wryly amused.
    "What's that?"
    "Leave your war robots in orbit. There's really no need to land them."
    "Sure." Veddin blushed an apology, but the Westfalls were already gone.

    The landing was unlike any other. In the FreeFed, all ship-to-shore communication was handled via the ship's communication channels. Here, there were all the normal communication and detection electroptics, but in addition there was a mental link with the ground controller. Veddin found himself acting as a passive relay between the ship and the port.
    At least he wasn't alone in being upset by the arrangement; the port controller had never dealt with a pilot who was in direct mental communication with his ship, either. "All in all, I'm glad it's over," the controller admitted to Veddin as the ship touched down. "It takes a bit to adjust to that kind of arrangement." His thoughts turned sympathetic. "I fear that for you, though, the adjusting is just about to begin."
    Veddin grimaced. The Seekers, when they first told him that he was half of a Couple, warned him that Hydra was different from Kaylanx. "Less sex, more laughter," was their capsule description. It had been funny, at the time: the Seekers had been so grave , while discussing sex and laughter, of all things! Here, their warning took on new meaning. Veddin had had trouble just finding a traffic controller who didn't giggle incessantly. The Seekers' warning had been true, despite its irony.
    And there would be other problems, Veddin realized as he looked outside at the damaged hovacar coming to meet him. Veddin knew it was damaged, because there was just an open cockpit where the sealed capsule should have been. With an effort, Veddin accepted that the hovacar was not damaged at all. Lords of Tarantell! The people on board wore no spacesuits, nor even breathing masks! They were outside , on the surface of a planet, without any protection whatever! It made Veddin very queasy indeed. He tried to think of the phenomenon in a different way: Here was a planet where, instead of sealing small cities, they'd simply sealed the whole planet from outside disturbances.
    He still felt queasy. Well, the people were wearing more clothing than people normally wore around Kaylanx; perhaps Veddin could think of the full-length pants, shirts, and boots as a sort of very light spacesuit. A very light spacesuit.
    He pulled on the clothes the Seekers had given him on Kaylanx. They were a bit small—even the Seekers had been unprepared for a 230-centimeter-tall ex- wrestler—but Veddin was thankful for them. He would have felt terribly exposed, standing outside on a planet with only a pair of shorts, sandals, and a utility harness.
    At last he stepped out of the airlock. As Veddin came down the ship ramp, he recognized one of the three Couples waiting for him: Tarn and Tara Westfall. Each Couple stood hand in hand, fingers lightly interlaced. Meanwhile, the song of joy in Veddin's soul—Autumn's song, he realized—grew stronger.
    Veddin stumbled as the world ended.
    At least, it seemed like the world ended. Autumn's song just . . . stopped. For a moment Veddin was too stunned by his own loss to notice events around him.
    One of the Couples screamed. Another Couple dropped to the ground, and the third Couple grabbed each other desperately.
    A supply truck nearing his ship veered, coughed across the white armalloy skirt of the spaceport and crashed into a derrick. Thick smoke billowed around it.
    Veddin regained partial awareness. The lost song was still his most immediate reality. When he saw the truck burning he gasped, "Autumn!" She must be in the wreckage.
    Now fully aware, he ran for