Blood Lines

Man Meets Ball

The all-brain cyborg known as Ball and I are old friends. We met as big-game hunters, stalking the most vicious creature in the Universe'the Pondoro Wolverine, also known as the greer.

Now we're on the planet Ptolemy for an even more dangerous contest'a ritual renga competition (plus a little sport shooting of dragons). First prize is a parasitic life-form with hyper-Newtonian communicative abilities.

The loser gets Death.

The winner gets to envy the loser.

And the game is about to begin...

Simply Ball

A silver meteor appeared among the circling squadron of giant dragons. One dragon fell, its tucked wings splayed open, like a parachute. Another dropped like a stone, and the rest scattered in fleeing dives.

Sun glinted on a bright speck, which floated lazily down and paused just above the deck.

"Simply Ball!"

"And just in time, too," came the rejoinder. "I should have known better than to imagine you could stay out of trouble here, Ramsey."

I lowered my gun. "Nice to see you, too," I said.