S.T.A.R. Flight Read online

  Cherry Lee stared thoughtfully down at the penthouse as the helicopter climbed into the sky. “What will happen to her?” she wondered.

  Chung Hoo tucked his hands in the sleeve of his jacket. “She will die,” he said calmly. “Shot or killed in some other way by her own people. They dare not leave her at large,” he explained. “She dare not go back to excuse herself. As Martin pointed out, a caste system such as that of the Kaltich must always punish those who injure a member of a higher caste.”

  “But if she’s an alpha?”

  “She isn’t,” said Preston. He shifted a little but not too much. The cabin of the helicopter was roomy enough but, somehow, Cherry Lee had managed to press herself hard against his chest. It was the most natural thing in the world to drop his arm around her shoulders. “An alpha would never consent to physical work and Hilda Thorenson has had to work, and does work, really hard. She also allows limitation on her personal freedom and that’s another thing no alpha would ever tolerate. She wears red, true, but only because of a subconscious desire to improve her status. She has money, agreed, but so has every Kaltich.”

  “You know,” said Cherry Lee. “I could almost feel sorry for her.”

  Preston remembered the seven lashes. “I’m not.”

  “What’s going to happen now?” asked Cherry Lee. She moved, letting Preston’s arm slip from her shoulders to her waist, pulling it tight with shameless abandon. “Are you going to get the plans from his mind? Build the Gates?”

  “Yes,” said Chung Hoo.

  “Right away?”

  “Yes.”

  “How long will it take? Getting the plans, I mean.”

  “A day. A week. I cannot be sure.”

  “And after?”

  “Paradise,” breathed Chung Hoo softly. “For everyone.”

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  Also by E.C. Tubb

  The Dumarest Saga:

  1: The Winds of Gath (1967)

  2: Derai (1968)

  3: Toyman (1969)

  4: Kalin (1969)

  5: The Jester at Scar (1970)

  6: Lallia (1971)

  7: Technos (1972)

  8: Veruchia (1973)

  9: Mayenne (1973)

  10: Jondelle (1973)

  11: Zenya (1974)

  12: Eloise (1975)

  13: Eye of the Zodiac (1975)

  14: Jack of Swords (1976)

  15: Spectrum of a Forgotten Sun (1976)

  16: Haven of Darkness (1977)

  17: Prison of Night (1977)

  18: Incident on Ath (1978)

  19: The Quillian Sector (1978)

  20: Web of Sand (1979)

  21: Iduna’s Universe (1979)

  22: The Terra Data (1980)

  23: World of Promise (1980)

  24: Nectar of Heaven (1981)

  25: The Terridae (1981)

  26: The Coming Event (1982)

  27: Earth is Heaven (1982)

  28: Melome (1983)

  29: Angado (1984)

  30: Symbol of Terra (1984)

  31: The Temple of Truth (1985)

  32: The Return (1997)

  33: Child of Earth (2008)

  The Cap Kennedy (F.A.T.E.) Series (E.C. Tubb writing as Gregory Kern)

  Galaxy of the Lost (1973)

  Slave Ship from Sergan (1973)

  Monster of Metelaze (1973)

  Enemy Within the Skull (1974)

  Jewel of Jarhen (1974)

  Seetee Alert! (1974)

  The Gholan Gate (1974)

  The Eater of Worlds (1974)

  Earth Enslaved (1974)

  Planet of Dread (1974)

  Spawn of Laban (1974)

  The Genetic Buccaneer (1974)

  A World Aflame (1974)

  The Ghosts of Epidoris (1975)

  Mimics of Dephene (1975)

  Beyond the Galactic Lens (1975)

  The Galactiad (1983)

  Alien Dust (1955)

  Alien Impact (1952)

  Journey Into Terror (originally published as Alien Life (1954, rev 1998))

  Atom War on Mars (1952)

  Fear of Strangers (first published as C.O.D. – Mars (1968))

  Century of the Manikin (1972)

  Dedication

  To

  Terry

  E.C. Tubb (1919 – 2010)

  Edwin Charles Tubb was born in London in 1919, and was a prolific author of SF, fantasy and western novels, under his own name and a number of pseudonyms. He wrote hundreds of short stories and novellas for the SF magazines of the 50’s, including the long-running Galaxy Science Fiction, and was a founding member of the British Science Fiction Association. He died in 2010.

  Copyright

  A Gollancz eBook

  Copyright © E.C.Tubb 1969

  All rights reserved.

  The right of E.C.Tubb to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  This eBook first published in Great Britain in 2011 by

  Gollancz

  The Orion Publishing Group Ltd

  Orion House

  5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane

  London, WC2H 9EA

  An Hachette UK Company

  A CIP catalogue record for this bookcis available from the British Library.

  ISBN 978 0 575 10759 5

  All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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