标题: 《Arena of Decisions 》作者：- Robert F. Young【EPUB】 [打印本页] 作者: zaq 时间: 2013-3-28 21:40 标题: 《Arena of Decisions 》作者：- Robert F. Young【EPUB】 Once upon a time a man named Frank Stockton wrote a quite short tale destined to become immortal. It was The Lady or The Tiger and which one the hero chose was left to the reader to decide. Robert Young does not avoid such issues in this futuristicversion of Stocktons story. Instead he plunges you right down onto the deadly floor of the . . . ARENA OF DECISIONS By ROBERT F. YOUNG Illustrated by SCHELLING T HE Lady Bri-laithe was famed for her beauty throughout the planet-satrapy of Ingcell ofwhich her father Feidlich the Rampant was satrap. She claimed that on her late mothers sideshe could trace her geneology back to Homebase and that her pedigree was responsible for herpulchritude. However as the ancient Homebase colonists who had originally settled on Ingcelland intermarried with the natives had been exceedingly few in number the Lady Bri-laithesclaim was generally doubted. Among the most recent to doubt it was taxfaxman Jaskar Prell theHomebase auditor-at-large who had come to Ingcell to audit the satrapys taxfaxscreens forthe. Erthempire fiscal-period that had begun July 1 2340 A.D. and ended July 1 2350 A.D. Hedoubted it even more after he met the Lady Bri-laithe in person at the banquet which the satrapheld in his honor and more yet when he danced with her afterward in Feidlichs block-longballroom. quotBeauty too rich for use for Homebase too dearquot were the words he spoke to her atthe measures end. quotIt is not for you my Ladyquot he continued a few moments later as theystepped through the self-actuating French doorway that led to the satraps fabled garden quottoendeavor to validate your claim that Homebase is the origin of your genealogical line but forHomebase gratefully to acknowledge the validity of that claim whether it be valid or not.quotIngcells summer sky was bedecked in all its stellar finery and a warm wind was sighing upfrom the south bringing with it faint but fragrant evidence of the distant regain farms wherethe bright-blue blooms that had made the planet famous throughout the galaxy and that had givenit one of the most enviable economic ratings in the Erthempire were robotically cultivated. Thegarden was a fairyland of fountains and flowers of statues and serpentine paths. Beauty suchas the Lady Bri-laithes prospered in such a