（外文电子版资料）Tom Purdom - Romance In Extended Time.pdfVIP

Tom Purdom: Romance in Extended Time I didn鈥檛 hear the three missiles strike when they landed on the rear wheel of our vehicle. The missiles were drops of plastic with just enough mass to make it through the air and they were moving at a relatively low speed鈥揳bout ninety meters per second, I would guess. On a low-gravity planet like Mercury, a modest muzzle velocity will give you all the range you need for most practical purposes. At the moment the missiles hit, I was lounging on a reclining chair, under an awning that protected me from bird droppings, falling insects, and other woodland indignities. I was taking some pleasure in the fact that my accommodations were a sizable improvement over the closets spaceships offer their passengers. I was traveling at a leisurely pace through an idealized temperate-zone forest composed of well spaced, aesthetically varied three-hundred-meter trees. My conveyance had been purchased from an owner who had stocked the refrigerator and the wine chest with a connoisseur鈥檚 selection of prefabricated food and wine. The fabrication unit situated near the rear wheel had been equipped with programs that could produce several hundred items that were supposed to be just as palatable as the champagne I was currently holding in my hand. On my left鈥搘here I could give it an occasional politely conversational glance鈥搕here was a face that displayed an intriguing interplay of two themes: sensuality and alertness. Ling Chime鈥檚 features were round and fleshy, but her genetic designer had tempered the fleshiness with a sharp nose, high cheekbones, and eyes that seemed to be constantly dancing around the landscape. On my right the Elector鈥揕ing鈥檚 employer鈥搘as dispensing genuinely entertaining gossip about the world of the arts. I was even willing to admit that the Elector was just as attractive as Ling was, in her large-scaled, arm-waving way. The whole scene was permeated, in addition, with a pleasant touch of the exotic鈥搕he l