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The Star Hyacinths, by James H. Schmitz
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Star Hyacinths, by James H. Schmitz This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Star Hyacinths
Author: James H. Schmitz
Illustrator: Virgil Finlay
Release Date: August 12, 2008 [EBook #26292]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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the STAR HYACINTHS
By JAMES H. SCHMITZ
Illustrated by FINLAY
On a bleak, distant unchartered world two ships lay wrecked and a lone man stared at a star hyacinth. Its brilliance burned into his retina ... and he knew that men could easily kill and kill for that one beauty alone.
The robbery of the Dosey Asteroids Shipping Station in a remote and spottily explored section of space provided the newscasting systems of the Federation of the Hub with one of the juiciest crime stories of the season. In a manner not clearly explained, the Dosey Asteroids Company had lost six months' production of gem-quality cut star hyacinths valued at nearly a hundred million credits. It lost also its Chief Lapidary and seventy-eight other company employees who had been in the station dome at the time.
[Illustration]
All these people appeared at first to have been killed by gunfire, but a study of their b