Star Born by Andre Norton (best authors to read txt) ๐
Description
This sequel to The Stars Are Ours! was first published in 1957 by the World Publishing Company. It continues the tale of the humans who escaped an anti-intellectual Earth and founded a colony on Astra, a planet across the galaxy. Astra has a vibrant, intelligent species, as well as the ruins of a much older civilization.
Norton weaves two stories together by alternating points of view with each chapter. We follow a 4th generation colonist, as well as a mechanic-pilot newly arrived on Astra as a member of a research mission from a recently revived Earth.
Each is on a journey of discovery, and they find themselves allied with opposing sides of an ongoing war between two intelligent, indigenous species.
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- Author: Andre Norton
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Dalgard crossed to join that group, but it seemed to him that his welcome was not unqualified, and that some of the openness of the early hours of the night was lacking. He might have been once more under suspicion.
โKnife brotherโโ โto Dalgardโs sensitive mind that form of address from Sssuri was used for a special purpose: to underline the close bond between themโ โโlisten to the words of Sssim who is a Hider-to-Watch on the island where they rest their ships during the voyage from one land to another.โ He drew Dalgard down beside him to face a young merman who was staring round-eyed at the colony scout.
โHe is likeโ โyet unlikeโโ โhis first wisp of thought meant nothing to the scout. โThe strangers wear many coverings on their bodies as do they, and they had also coverings upon their heads. They were bigger. Also from their minds I learned that they are not of this worldโ โโ
โNot of this world!โ Dalgard burst out in his own speech.
โThere!โ The spy was triumphant. โSo did they talk to one another, not with the mind but by making mouth noises, different mouth noises from those that they make. Yes, they are likeโ โbut unlike this one.โ
โAnd these strangers flew the ship we have not seen before?โ
โIt is so. But they did not know the way and were guided by the globe. And at least one among them was distrustful of those and wished to be free to return to his own place. He walked by the rocks near my hiding place, and I read his thoughts. No, they were with them, but they are not them!โ
โAnd now they have gone on to the city?โ Sssuri probed.
โIt was the way their ship flew.โ
โLike me,โ Dalgard repeated, and then the truth which might lie behind that exploded within his brain. โTerrans!โ he breathed the word. Men of Pax perhaps who had come to hunt down the outlaws who had successfully eluded their rule on earth? But how had the colonists been traced? And why? Or were they other fugitives like themselves? So much, so very much of what the colonists should know of their past had been erased during the time of the Great Sickness twenty years after their landing. Then three fourths of the original immigrants had died. Only the children of the second generation and a handful of weakened Elders had remained. Knowledge was lost and some distorted by failing memories, old skills were gone. But if the new Terrans were in that city.โ โโ โฆ He had to knowโ โto know and be able to warn his people. For the darkness of Pax was a memory they had not lost!
โI must see them,โ he said.
โThat is true. And only you can tell us what manner of folk these strangers be,โ the merman chief agreed. โTherefore you shall go ashore with my warriors and look upon themโ โto tell us the truth. Also we must learn what they do here.โ
It was decided that using waterways known to the merpeople, one which Dalgard could also take wearing the diving equipment, a scouting party would head shoreward the next day, with the river itself providing the entrance into the heart of the forbidden territory.
XII Alien PatrolRaf leaned back against the wall. Long since the actions of the aliens in the storage house had ceased to interest him, since they would not allow any of the Terrans to approach their plunder and he could not ask questions. Lablet continued to follow the officer about, vainly trying to understand his speech. And Hobart had taken his place by the upper entrance, his hand held stiffly across his body. The pilot knew that the captain was engaged in photographing all this activity with a wristband camera, hoping to make something of it later.
But Rafโs own inclination was to slip out and do some exploring in those underground corridors beyond. Having remained where he was for a wearisome time, he noticed that his presence was now taken for granted by the hurrying aliens who brushed about him intent upon their assignments. And slowly he began to edge along the wall toward the other doorway. Once he froze as the officer strode by, Lablet in attendance. But what the painted warrior was looking for was a crystal box on a shelf to Rafโs left. When he had pointed that out to an underling he was off again, and Raf was free to continue his crabโs progress.
Luck favored him, for, as he reached the moment when he must duck out the portal, there was a sudden flurry at the other end of the chamber where four of the aliens, under a volley of orders, strove to move an unwieldy piece of intricate machinery.
Raf dodged around the door and flattened back against the wall of the room beyond. The moving bars of sun said that it was midday. But the room was empty save for the despoiled carcass, and there was no sign of the aliens who had been sent out to scout.
The Terran ran lightly down the narrow room to the second door, which gave on the lower pits beneath and the way to the arena. As he took that dark way, he drew his stun gun. Its bolt was intended to render the victim unconscious, not to kill. But what effect it might have on the giant reptiles was a question he hoped he would not be forced to answer, and he paused now and then to listen.
There were sounds, deceptive sounds. Noises as regular as footfalls, like a distant padded running. The aliens returning? Or the things they had gone to hunt? Raf crept onโ โout into the sunshine which filled the
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