- •Tuf Voyaging—1: The Plague Star
- •It was obvious to Haviland Tuf that something was happening.
- •Initiating release
- •Initiating release
- •It was a stroke of tactical genius worthy of Napoleon or Chin Wu or Stephan Cobalt Northstar. Jefri Lion was infinitely pleased with himself.
- •It occurred to her suddenly that Tuf was probably responsible for these cat-things that were harassing her. The very idea made Celise Waan furious. The man was a barbarous wretch!
- •It was all very interesting, Rica Dawnstar thought.
- •In her last moment, Celise Waan saw the light.
- •In the meantime, though, this particular creature might be a nuisance.
- •In the corridor behind her, Haviland Tuf glimpsed motion. “Excuse me,” he began.
- •It roared down the corridor and into the intersection.
It roared down the corridor and into the intersection.
Twenty meters away along the cross-corridor, the minimind of the plasma cannon took cognizance of the fact that something exceeding the programmed target dimensions had entered the fire zone. There was the faintest of clicks.
Haviland Tuf was turned away from the glare; he put his body between Chaos and the heat and awful noise. It lasted only an instant, fortunately, although the smell of burnt reptile would linger in that spot for years, and sections of the deck and walls would need to be replaced.
“I had a gun, too,” said Haviland Tuf to his kitten.
Later, much later, when the Ark was clean and he and Havoc and Chaos were settled comfortably into the captain’s suite, and he had moved all his personal effects and taken care of all the bodies and done what repairs he could and figured out how to placate the incredibly noisy creature that lived down on deck six, Haviland Tuf began to search the ship methodically. On the second day, he found a store of clothing, but the men and women of the EEC had been shorter than he, and more slender, so none of the uniforms fit.
He did, however, find a hat he took rather a liking to. It was a green duckbilled cap, and it fit snugly atop his bald, milk-white head. On the front of it, in gold, was the theta that had been the sigil of the corps.
“Haviland Tuf,” he said to himself in the mirror, “ecological engineer.”
It had a certain ring to it, he thought.