Bridgehead Read online

  “I’m all right,” he said. His eyes were slitted in a face scrunched tight with pain.

  “You’ll be all right,” said Dr. Layberg as he snapped out his clean handkerchief, “as soon as we get you to some burn cream and wrap you up against shock.” He laid the linen diagonally over the arm and hand and began to knot the free corners. “I’ve got a proper first-aid kit in my car,” he said to the two women, “but I think it’s simpler to run him over to the emergency room. One of you phone ahead and tell them I’m bringing in a patient with second-degree burns on arm and face. Use my name.”

  Sue Schlicter burst into the laboratory. The air currents she stirred reminded the quartet of how good fresh air smelled. “Are you all right?” the tall woman demanded. “Are you all here?”

  Professors Hoperin and Gustafson were right behind her, Hoperin limping. The phone he held had gouted hot plastic also. Though his hand had been spared, the dial had lain against his right thigh when it boiled away.

  “Michael, you’re all right?” said Louis Gustafson, echoing Schlicter’s more general concern. Gardner was the professor’s personal responsibility.

  “What happened downstairs?” asked Sara Jean as Lexie Market helped Layberg tie the makeshift bandage.

  “One of the transformers melted,” said Charles Eisley from the hallway. The door was filled with those who had already entered the lab. “Nothing serious. Not in comparison to what had already happened.”

  Eisley rubbed his hands and looked down at them. When he raised his eyes, he continued in a louder voice that cut through the babble, “Professor Gustafson, everyone. I’m going to make some phone calls to Washington as soon as possible. I want you all to realize that. The—responsible authorities must be informed.”

  Isaac Hoperin sniffed. Without personal rancor, however, he said, “And much they’re going to believe now, aren’t they, with all the apparatus destroyed and Skiuli gone.”

  “Professor,” said the diplomat, “this isn’t over. It’s important that State and not the Pentagon make the next decisions—how much to make public, whether to make anything public. But the decision won’t be made here.” Except, Charles Eisley thought incongruously, he had decided that he was going to remarry.

  “Gone?” Mike Gardner asked as he lowered his bandaged arm. It throbbed with every pulse. He was beginning to feel dizzy.

  “Selve disappeared just as the equipment overloaded,” muttered Professor Gustafson. “Rebounded, I presume. The—” He coughed. “Astor is gone also.”

  There was a brief stir in the doorway. Hoperin eased aside to admit Arlene Myaschensky with a sheaf of photographs in her hand. “I hoped you might…” Arlene said. She held the pictures toward Louis Gustafson, though her eyes widened as they took in the state of the lab and the people in it. “The—We haven’t been going back in time. These pictures…” She broke off as she realized that only Charles Eisley, whose gaze sharpened, was paying attention.

  “It’s too early to worry about what the government may do,” said Sara Jean Layberg in a clear, distant voice. Her eyes were focused beyond the walls of the room. “Any moment now the—counterstrike, they called it? Any moment now we may all be dead on a dead planet. They must have defenses, but we don’t, the whole Earth.”

  “It’s all right,” said Sue Schlicter as she laid her arm across the other woman’s shoulders.

  “It’s not all right!” Sara Jean said. She tossed her head so violently that tears sprang from her cheeks to glister through the air. “It burned up, it didn’t work. They’re going to die on Vrage, Selve’s people, and we’re going to die here.…” She flung herself, not away from Sue, but into the arms her husband spread to receive her.

  “No, it’s all right,” the tall woman repeated into the waiting silence. “Your friend was smiling when he disappeared. Your friend Selve was smiling.”

  Sue reached out with the object which had dropped to the concrete when Selve’s pouch disappeared from around it. It was the goblet Sara Jean had given the Traveler, unbroken despite its obvious fragility.

  “He wouldn’t have smiled if it hadn’t worked long enough, would he?” said Sue Schlicter.

  Their fingers touched as Sara Jean took the goblet from Sue. The faces of both women glowed with hope and trust.

  About the Author

  David Drake (born 1945) sold his first story (a fantasy) at age 20. His undergraduate majors at the University of Iowa were history (with honors) and Latin (BA, 1967). He uses his training in both subjects extensively in his fiction. David entered Duke Law School in 1967 and graduated five years later (JD, 1972). The delay was caused by his being drafted into the US Army. He served in 1970 as an enlisted interrogator with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, the Blackhorse, in Viet Nam and Cambodia. He has used his legal and particularly his military experiences extensively in his fiction also. David practiced law for eight years; drove a city bus for one year; and has been a full-time freelance writer since 1981, writing such novels as Out of the Waters and Monsters of the Earth. He reads and travels extensively. You can sign up for email update here.

  Tor Books by David Drake

  The Dragon Lord

  Time Safari

  From the Heart of Darkness

  Skyripper

  The Forlorn Hope

  Birds of Prey

  Cross the Stars

  Killer (with Karl Edward Wagner)

  Fortress

  Bridgehead

  Jungle

  The Square Deal

  Voyage

  Tyrannosaur

  Patriots

  LORD OF THE ISLES

  Lord of the Isles

  Queen of Demons

  Servant of the Dragon

  Mistress of the Catacombs

  Goddess of the Ice Realm

  Master of the Cauldron

  The Fortress of Glass

  Mirror of Worlds

  Thank you for buying this

  Tom Doherty Associates ebook.

  To receive special offers, bonus content,

  and info on new releases and other great reads,

  sign up for our newsletters.

  Or visit us online at

  us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup

  For email updates on the author, click here.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Begin Reading

  About the Author

  Tor Books by David Drake

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  BRIDGEHEAD

  Copyright © 1986 by David Drake

  All rights reserved.

  A Tor Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

  175 Fifth Avenue

  New York, NY 10010

  ISBN-13: 978-0-765-35647-5

  ISBN-10: 0-765-35647-3

  First Edition: February 1986

  Second Edition: January 2007

  Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, ext. 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].

  eISBN 9780765387066

  First eBook edition: July 2015