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Norton, Andre, 1912-2005

"Star Born"

At the same time the warrior seated beside him
tugged at the sleeve of his tunic and jabbed a finger toward the
ground, clearly an order to follow. Raf cut speed and cautiously lost
altitude, determined that he was not going to be rushed into any move
for which he did not know the reason.
The globe was hovering over a small island set a little apart from the
others. A moment later Soriki's excited voice drew Raf's attention
from his controls to what was going on below.
"There's, people down there! Look at them run!"
They were too far away to be sure of the nature of the brown-gray
things so close to the color of the sea-washed rock that they could
only be detected when they moved. But it was evident that they were
alive, and as Raf brought the flitter closer, he was also certain that
they ran on their two hind feet instead of on an animal's four pads.
From the under part of the globe ship licked a tongue of fire. With
the force of a whiplash it coursed across the rock and in its passing
embrace, the creatures below writhed and withered to charred heaps.
They had no chance under that methodical blasting.


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