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Words: 65619 in 40 pages
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Release date: November 3, 2023
Original publication: New York, NY: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1962
A TRACE OF MEMORY
Illustrated by BIRMINGHAM
When Legion signed on as a soldier of fortune he did not expect to wind up as the master of a private island. Nor did he expect to cower in ancient Druid pits ... nor fight for his life in the great hall at Okk-Hamiloth, on a planet galaxies away. A master story-teller sweeps you through time and space in a novel of retribution.
He opened his eyes and saw a grey wall where a red light gleamed balefully in the gloom. He lay on a utility mat on a high couch, clad in a gown of strange purple. In his arm there burned a harsh pain, and he saw on his skin the mark of the Hunters. Who could have dared?
He sat up, swung his legs over the side of the narrow cot ... and saw the bodies of two men huddled on the floor, blood-splashed. Beyond, at a doorway, lay another, and another.... What carnage was this? Gently he rolled the nearest body on its back--and crouched rigid in shock. Ammaerln, his friend.... Not dead, but the pulse was faint, too faint. And the next corpse? That, too, wore a face that had been dear to him. And the bodies at the entry--his faithful men. All were friends!
Beyond the door the ranged shelves of a library gave back not even an echo when he called. He turned again to his dead. It was fresh death, the blood still wet. Quickly he scanned the room, saw a recording monitor against a wall. He fitted the neurodes to the dying man's temples. But for this gesture of recording his life's memories, there was nothing he could do. He must get him to a therapist and quickly. But no one answered his calls. Was he alone in these chambers of death?
He ran through the library to a great echoing hall beyond. This was not the Sapphire Palace beside the Shallow Sea. The lines were unmistakable: he was aboard a ship, a far-voyager. Why? How? He stood uncertain. The silence was absolute.
He crossed the Great Hall and entered the observation lounge. Here lay another dead man, by his uniform a member of the crew. He touched a knob and the great screens glowed blue. A giant crescent swam into focus, locked, soft green against the black of space. Beyond it a smaller companion hung, blue-blotched, airless. What worlds were these?
When he had ranged the vast ship from end to end he knew that he alone still lived. Seven corpses, cruelly slashed, peopled the silent vessel. In the control sector the communicator lights glowed but to his call there was no answer from the strange world below.
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