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decked out in brown and green and capped with brighter white, a more intense
absence of color.
Proximate details were easier to resolve. Strange trees and vines bound the
land together in a vibrant network of intertwined life. Harmless huge insects
drifted among the vines on iridescent wings that were shards of soap bubble.
They scattered on languorous hums as the nearly nude couple drifted down
through them.
At precisely the right moment the man and woman came to placid rest on a beach
of ruby sand that had been formed by millions of years of wave action on a
shelf of solid corundum. A translucent emerald sea sang joyously against the
reef just offshore as they consummated their journey.
Afterward they rolled onto their backs, the woman s fingers lightly gripping
the man s wrist. Naomi inclined her eyes to her companion. Sweat lightly
beaded her forehead, and her pale blond hair formed golden veins against the
deep red sand. She smiled.
 You ve got to hand it to the Hivistahm. For a race whose lovemaking is pretty
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damn prosaic they really know how to create a dazzling enviromood for us
nonreptilians.
Nevan Straat-ien saw no reason to disagree as he lay on his back searching the
simulated sky. It was a perfect sky, devoid of pollution, speckled with just
the right number and kind of clouds. Exactly as had been requested. The rate
of their imaginary descent to the beach had been controlled by their
respective degrees of arousal, all monitored by the Hivistahm s remote
foreplay software, everything combining to insure that they landed on the
opulent sands at the truly perfect moment.
He had no complaints.
Other simulations allowed them to tumble together down an icy mountain slope,
or glide beneath the sea surrounded by choreographed piscine inhabitants. Such
enviromoods served to take the participants minds off the battle raging for
Chemadii, to which they would soon have to return.
Base Atilla was the most advanced of the three hardened bastions that the
Weave expeditionary force to Chemadii had succeeded in establishing on that
contested world. By coincidence it was located on the shore of the western
sea, a far bleaker and less stimulating coast than the one that had been
conjured up by the Hivi sensorial. The sands of the beaches that backed onto
the military complex were dirty white and profligate with decaying oceanic
flora, while the ambient temperature was anything but tropic.
As the thin, slightly metallic headband he wore monitored internal hormonal
shifts, the sky above faded and the sand beneath him grew dull. They were
lying on a utilitarian platform bed beneath a four-meter-high dome the color
of fresh milk. Flattering lighting came from indirect sources. He blinked and
sat up, hooking his knees with his forearms. The sensorial had concluded.
 It s a shame that having invented something this sumptuous, the Hivis can t
enjoy the full effect themselves, she opined.
 They get something out of it, he replied.  It s just that their hormones
don t rage like ours. Memories of shimmering insects and ruby sands were
already waning.
There was nothing synthetic about Naomi, however. She lay next to him, open
and unself-conscious. The length of her hair was a dead giveaway that she
wasn t a combat participant. Her actual duties lay in Supply and
Replenishment, a classification that provided them with a considerable source
of amusement.
They lingered beneath the dome because his leave ended tomorrow. It was the
first time since they d met that they d had more than two consecutive days
together and both had intended to make the most of it. In this they had been
successful.
He knew they missed him in Planning. Chemadii was one of the frontline worlds
on which the Amplitur and their allies had recently been able to muster real
strength. It was a place where there had not been and were not likely to be
any quick, decisive victories. The enemy was deeply entrenched and had thus
far given every indication of remaining so.
Which would make the triumph all the greater when the minions of the Purpose [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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