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Title: Hostage
A Terran Empire story

Author: Ann Wilson

Release Date: June 9, 2008 [EBook #25742]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOSTAGE ***

Produced by Al Haines

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HOSTAGE

A Terran Empire story

by Ann Wilson

Copyright (C) 1992 by Ann Wilson

Nemra, 2555 CE

The crash must've been more realistic than he'd planned, Ranger Esteban
Tarlac thought groggily as he regained consciousness. His head hurt
where something had hit it, and his body ached in a pattern that
matched the crash webbing's. But at least one thing was going
according to plan: he'd obviously been captured by the rebels, since he
was hanging by his wrists with his arms stretched painfully apart--and
only the rebels, on this world, would be willing to risk treating a
Ranger with such hostility.

He blinked a couple of times, then got his feet under him and
straightened, taking the weight off his arms. A look around satisfied
him that he was indeed a prisoner of the rebels--and on display in the
middle of their base. That detail hadn't been part of his plan, but
shouldn't affect it adversely. Even from here, the base looked like
the large recreation area it supposedly was; if Tarlac hadn't been
familiar with sensor data that showed it was actually close to the
equivalent of a planetary defense base, as far as equipment
went--personnel were a different matter--he would have thought himself
at the main campfire site of a particularly prosperous commercial camping
area.

"So Your Highnes