Authors: Mitch Benn
Terra (28 page)
There was a pause.
‘What happens now?’ asked Terra.
O
nce in deep space, Lbbp had transmitted a message to Fnrr, saying that Terra was settling in and that he and the Ymn envoys were on their way.
The message passed at infralight speed through wormholes, spatial folds and interstitial vortices and was received by the Preceptorate’s extraplanetary communications array. There it was relayed, as was all information, to the Extrapolator.
The Extrapolator assimilated the news and processed it with what, in an organic brain, would be called contentment. All was proceeding as the Extrapolator had foreseen. The war had been averted, the planet was safe, and the Ymn child was back where she needed to be.
For now.
A few without whoms:
Thanks to Simon, Jon, Genn, Mark and the rest of the Gollancz gang. Thanks to Greta for being Terra AND Fthfth, and to Astrid for being Astrid. Big thanks to Ken and Liz Bartlett for the use of The Barn and Hilary Bartlett for unfailing moral support. Thanks to Max Leadley-Brown and Lee Budgie-Barnett for unpaid editorial duties and moral support. Thanks to Dad for turning me into a science-fiction freak and Mum for letting him. Thanks to Ian Wilson for managing to manage managing me. Finally, thanks to Neil Himself Gaiman for being an inspiration on so many levels, and to Clara Benn for literally EVERYTHING else.
A Gollancz eBook
Copyright © Mitch Benn 2013
All rights reserved.
The right of Mitch Benn to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Gollancz
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane
London,
WC2H 9EA
An Hachette UK Company
This eBook first published in 2013 by Gollancz.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN
978 0 575 13211 5
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.