The screen became blank, and he turned to stare once more at the military visor, still exhibiting the arrival of the Hop occupation crew. From somewhere, far below, a sudden flash appeared, and a pair of Hop soldiers seemed to lose their grip on the air and toppled off the invisible ladder. The others froze in their places.
Far below a sudden flash appeared, and a pair of Hop soldiers toppled off the invisible ladder....
But retribution against the unseen sharpshooter was rapid. Not the Hop ship, but a small Earth craft flashed into view from the side and swooped down, its guns blazing. A building shattered in the lower part of the screen. And the Hop troops resumed their descent.
A few hours later, Venus was the scene of a more serious incident. Here a whole garrison rose in revolt, armed with modern weapons, and well trained in their use. Everson turned aside from everything else to take personal part in the crushing of this revolt. The angry troops fought savagely, but had no chance from the beginning. The loyal forces were concentrated against them in overwhelming strength within an hour, and they threw in everything they had. Half a day of fierce fighting saw the collapse of the desperate gamble.
Through these and other revolts that followed, thought Everson sardonically, no more than ten Hop soldiers were lost. Everson had suggested that System troops would be more effective in crushing a rebellion of their own people, and the Hop authorities had agreed.
Late in the day the Hop Supreme Three contacted Everson. He studied them in his visor, three elflike creatures whose eyes twinkled as merrily as if they had been genuine elves. To judge from first appearances alone, the journalist who had originally christened them hadn't done so badly. They did have the sharp leprechaun ears and the leathery skin of authentic gnomes, born of a marriage of different mythologies. It was not until you got a good all-around look that you became aware of features that no genuine elves or gnomes would have tolerated in themselves. The third eye near the top of the forehead, the fourth on the back of the head, the antenna-like third pair of arms that was ordinarily folded in back and unfolded only in moments of excitement, the ugly and apparently useless patch of blue skin below the neck, visible above the loose clothes they wore—all these testified to a race of creatures that had not been dreamed of in human folklore.