{"product_id":"2940012999757","title":"The Citadel of Lost Ships","description":"The Kraylens are a dying tribe, a scrap of old Venus, but Campbell is determined to help those that had helped him! \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eexcerpt\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Roy Campbell woke painfully. His body made a blind, instinctive lunge for the control panel, and it was only when his hands struck the smooth, hard mud of the wall that he realized he wasn't in his ship any longer, and that the Guard wasn't chasing him, their guns hammering death.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe leaned against the wall, the perspiration thick on his heavy chest, his eyes wide and remembering. He could feel again, as though the running fight were still happening, the bucking of his sleek ship beneath the calm control of his hands. He could remember the pencil rays lashing through the night, searching for him, seeking his life. He could recall the tiny prayer that lingered in his memory, as he fought so skillfully, so dangerously, to evade the relentless pursuer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen there was a hazy period, when a blasting cannon had twisted his ship like a wind-tossed leaf, and his head had smashed cruelly against the control panel. And then the slinking minutes when he had raced for safety—and then the sodden hours when sleep was the only thing in the Universe that he craved.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe sank back on the hide-frame cot with something between a laugh and a curse. He was sweating, and his wiry body twitched. He found a cigarette, lit it on the second try, and sat still, listening to his heartbeats slow down.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe began to wonder, then, what had wakened him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was night, the deep indigo night of Venus. Beyond the open hut door, Campbell could see the liha-trees swaying a little in the hot, slow breeze. It seemed as though the whole night swayed, like a dark blue veil.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor a long time he didn't hear anything but the far-off screaming of some swamp beast on the kill. Then, sharp and cruel against the blue silence, a drum began to beat.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt made Campbell's heart jerk. The sound wasn't loud, but it had a tight, hard quality of savagery, something as primal as the swamp and as alien, no matter how long a man lived with it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe drumming stopped. The second, perhaps the third, ritual prelude. The first must have wakened him. Campbell stared with narrow dark eyes at the doorway.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe'd been with the Kraylens only two days this time, and he'd slept most of that. Now he realized that in spite of his exhaustion, he had sensed something wrong in the village.","brand":"eStar Books LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47082096460016,"sku":"2940012999757","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012999757_p0.jpg?v=1763575424","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012999757","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}