Читать книгу The Ride - Tom Ph.D. Anderson - Страница 4

◊My name is Bob Nesslun. I am a Ghoul Hunter. I kill creatures that try to kill me for a living. Anytime a large dangerous animal wanders into an area where modern weapons cannot be used and develops a taste for human flesh, you call me or someone like me to come to your world and deal with the problem. I am the only ghoul hunter who works alone and kills these creatures using only his bare hands.

My first memories are from the Market Sphere university planet of Udell. I grew up on Udell in the care of my Uncle, Professor Nesslun. My Uncle was a huge bear of a man. He was a Grand Professor of mathematics, the highest ranking professor of mathematics on a university planet. Professor Nesslun was also a very successful businessman and was quite wealthy. He was a very important, powerful man. He also preferred the sexual company of other men. The thought that he might be handed a baby and be told it was his responsibility had never entered his wildest dreams. He also had not known that his baby sister had a child.

The Constable explained to him that I had been pulled from the rubble of a public building on a planet ravaged by a war between two mining companies. There were no records, no names, only the tattoo on the bottom of my foot. The tattoo identified my Mother’s name and my Mother’s planet of birth, nothing more. With this information they were able to find my Uncle.

As my only living relative my Uncle could raise me himself, give me to someone else to raise, or simply give me back to the authorities to deal with. To my eternal gratitude he decided to raise me himself. My Uncle told me that when he looked down at me he could see the eyes of his baby sister Melissa. He could no more have given me up than he could have cut off his own hand. Other than their mother, his sister Melissa was the only woman my Uncle had ever felt a bond with.

Eventually I finished my mandatory schooling. I knew I was a disappointment to my Uncle. My grades were always, at best, in the middle of the top third. I never developed the scholarly bent that I would need to become a first line teacher or researcher and although I had the empathic abilities of my mother, I had no desire to go through the necessary training needed to become even a grade two empath.

My Uncle was disappointed, but I didn’t want to settle down on Udell. I wanted to see all the first line planets of The Market Sphere, tour the more interesting worlds of the Baronies of the Sons Of Shonlin, and maybe even a short trip into the Empire of the Lan-Thu itself.

After my graduation from mandatory schooling I was sent to the vocational school on the planet of Thrandon. I seemed to have a knack for the atmosphere regulation equipment used in the deep gloried mines. Gloried mines produce most of the fuels and trace metals which make our civilization possible. I was soon on my way to the mining planet of Nimbus.