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STORY: Argos died twice. Beyond the 21st Century, the young took control
and space travel was aborted. The sun mirrors of Argos capture energy. Ballard organized
life ships with runners. Without life ships, Argos could not operate--without the
stuff from Earth. Four years pass since a lifeship came. Medical supplies were exhausted.
Many died. Plague and death ran the wheel. Jaq was the son of Logan and Jessica,
born on the wheel eight years ago. Ballard was a god to Jaq. 6 years full without
lifeships. Logan, Jess, Jaq, and nine others leave in a rocket. Argos begins a second
death. Sandman has broken the Sanctuary Line. Ballard escaped to Crazy Horse Mountain
n the Dakotas. He sacrificed himself to destroy the Thinker, bringing down cities
with it. City People, young and pampered were cast adrift in a harsh new environment.
Logan was hunted, men of Deep Sleep after him. Logan fell but a big dark haired man
came up to him but seeing his palm is black, hits him, "You're a stinking runner!"
The man calls others to get Logan. Logan takes a riser to the next level. Then he
sees Jessica in black tights and leotards. Then Jaq was in her place, "They're
going to kill me!" Jaq has no crystal. DS men were after Logan's son. Logan
threw himself at the Sandmen but Jaq falls off a large metal cliff. Logan is shot
with a homer. Logan wakes up, naked under sheets and looks very young. Jess tells
the cities are dead. There is no more killing she tells him. Jaq is sick and will
not get better unless Logan goes to Stoneham. The house they are in was once the
elite of Washington's. Jaq was one of the strongest boys on Argos. He has no immunity
to protect him from viral pneumonia, an infant's disease. Jonath, in suspenders and
with dark short hair, tells Logan he needs to get sterozine from a nursery medroom
but the primary nurseries are inside the cities and impossible to reach. Scavengers
took over--ex-Cubs, gypsies, looters, run in packs. Logan's hair has gotten long.
He will try for a secondary nursery. Jaq lies shirtless under a blanket, his closed,
fluttered. He wakes up and smiles at Logan. Jaq asks not to be left alone and hates
being sick. He tells his father he loves him and hugs him. Logan never thought of
sharing love when he was loved by the nursery. Now Logan had two to share love with.
Logan kisses Jess goodbye and leaves in a helicopter paravane. Each city has Stoneham
and Sunrise Units. Logan terminated a female runner once. She scrabbled along a high
fence. Primary nurseries were larger and handled most of the city infants. Outside
units were designed to take care of the overflow. Sterozine would not get anything
on the open market so adults wouldn't have taken any. Inside the playroom, Logan
thought something was alive. A vibroball was dislodged by accident. He smiles. In
the delivery room, Logan finds nothing and his palm light does not blink any more.
In the cribroom Logan found skeletons. Logan was used to death. He has seen friends
die in the sleeproom and faced mass death on Argos but what he found in the cribroom
stunned him. In each small bullet shaped crib lay a tiny skeleton--bones of 100 babies.
He does not find sterozine. Lucrezia and her followers want to kill the new rider,
he makes them 13, an unlucky number. She has a sword and jetcycle. She whacks him
in the back of the head and puts her sword through his mouth, "I should have
poisoned him. Far more romantic." Tomorrow they ride to the Potomac. Late afternoon,
Logan reaches the city and left his paravane in the woods. He went through a tunnel.
The city was becoming a jungle. Logan goes to DS HQ and finds an ammo pack. He actives
a slide chute and is carried to the arcade area. Prince's machine had been damaged
in an outing against a wilderness group. Now he was forced to ride with Lucrezia.
She has a feather in her cap. He has a wide brimmed Indiana Jones style hat. She
calls him a pisswhelp. He wants to camp and eat. She tells him she is leader here.
Prince looked defeated as she calls riders up and he goes to Aristo's jetcycle. Jaq
asks Jess questions about Earth people dying. He asks about his time to die. She
asks if he is worried about dying. He turns away, "No. Only about living and
being sick. I hate being sick." Jess gives him water. They hope Logan hurries.
Logan finds shattered glasshouses, a re live parlor, and gets to a nursery. He slides
past the long lines of coffin-cribs and finds an empty shelf but another holds sterozine
CC6466. Scavengers beset on Logan. Outlanders fly their cycles toward Jess and Jaq's
home. There was something familiar to Logan about one of the Scavengers. They were
young of course. One was a boy with ripped sleeves and a necklace. Some had headbands.
The one talking to Logan had a head rag. Logan tells them he is afraid of them but
he has a sick son. The leader tells Logan he is good to have gotten this far and
he deserves to go. Logan knew it was a trick, a game they play. Dakk, the leader
watched Logan go, smiling. It is almost dark. Logan heads for a sleepshop--each one
had its own unique way out of the city complex. Dakk feels he should not have been
gambling with the smart one..he should have kept Logan in sight. Ritter, one of Dakk's
men has a bitter, mocking tone. Dakk thinks he knows where Logan will go to. Dakk,
long straight, straw like hair, smiles. |