[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
glimpse more than a fraction of their empire.
It must make you very sad.
I take each day as it comes. I d rather take good memories from one world,
than fret about the thousand I ll never see.
You re a wise man, Minla said. We were lucky to get you.
Merlin smiled. He was silent for many moments, letting Minla enjoy the last
calmness of mind she would ever know. There s something I need to tell you, he
said eventually.
She must have heard something in his tone of voice. What, Merlin?
There s a good chance you re all going to die.
Her tone became sharp. We don t need you to remind us of the risks.
I m talking about something that s going to happen sooner rather than later.
The ruse of shadowing the Waynet didn t work. It was the best thing to do, but
there was always a chance... Merlin spread his hands in exagger-ated apology, as if
there had ever been something he could have done about it. Tyrant s detected a
Husker attack swarm, six elements lying a light-month ahead of you. You don t have
time to steer or slow down. They d shadow every move you made, even if you tried
to shake them off.
You promised us
I promised you nothing. I just gave you the best advice I could. If you
hadn t shadowed the Waynet, they d have found you even sooner.
We aren t using the ramscoop design. You said we d be safe if we stuck to
fusion motors. The electromagnetic signature
I said you d be safer. There were never ironclad guarantees.
You lied to us. Minla turned suddenly spiteful. I never trusted you.
I did all in my power to save you.
Then why are you standing there looking so calm, when you know we re
going to die? But before Merlin had time to answer, Minla had seen the answer for
herself. Because you can leave, she said, nodding at her own percipience. You
have your ship, and a syrinx. You can slip into the Waynet and outrun the enemy.
I m leaving, Merlin said. But I m not running.
Aren t they one and the same?
Not this time. I m going back to Plenitude, I mean Lecythus, to do what I
can for the people we left behind. The people you condemned to death.
Me, Merlin?
I examined the records of the Regressive War: not just the official
docu-ments, but Tyrant s own data logs. And I saw what I should have seen at the
time, but didn t. It was a ruse. It was too damned easy, the way they took control of
that rocket factory. You let them, Minla.
I did nothing of the kind.
You knew the whole evacuation project was never going to be ready on time.
The Space Dormitories were behind schedule, there were problems with the Exodus
Arks...
Because you told us falsehoods about the helium in the moon s soil.
Merlin raised a warning hand. We ll get to that. The point is, your plans were
in tatters. But you could still have completed more dormitories and ships, if you d
been willing to leave the system a little later. You could still have saved more people
than you did, albeit at a slightly increased risk to your own survival. But that wasn t
acceptable. You wanted to leave there and then. So you engineered the whole
Regressive attack, set it up as a pretext for an early departure.
The Regressives were real! Minla hissed.
But you gave them the keys to that rocket silo, and the know-how to target
and guide those missiles. Funny how their attack just missed the one station that you
were occupying, you and all your political cronies, and that you managed to move
the one Exodus Ark to safety just in time. Damned convenient, Minla.
I ll have you shot for this, Merlin.
Good luck. Try laying a hand on me, and see how far it gets you. My ship s
listening in on this conversation. It can put proctors into this room in a matter of
seconds.
And the moon, Merlin? Do you have an excuse for the error that cost us so
dearly?
I don t know. Possibly. That s why I m going back to Lecythus. There are
still people on the surface Regressives, allies, I don t care. And people you
abandoned in orbit as well.
They ll all die. You said it yourself.
He raised a finger. If they don t leave. But maybe there s way. Again, I
should have seen it sooner. But that s me all the way. I take a long time to put the
pieces together, but I get there in the end. Just like Dowitcher, the man who gave
your father the whetstone.
It was just a stone.
So you said. In fact, it was a vital clue to the nature of your world. It took
spring tides and neap tides to lay down those patterns. But you said it yourself:
Lecythus doesn t have spring tides and neap tides. Not anymore, at least.
I m sure this means something to you.
Something happened to your moon, Minla. When that whetstone formed,
your moon was raising tides on Lecythus. When the moon and Calliope were [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl akte20.pev.pl
glimpse more than a fraction of their empire.
It must make you very sad.
I take each day as it comes. I d rather take good memories from one world,
than fret about the thousand I ll never see.
You re a wise man, Minla said. We were lucky to get you.
Merlin smiled. He was silent for many moments, letting Minla enjoy the last
calmness of mind she would ever know. There s something I need to tell you, he
said eventually.
She must have heard something in his tone of voice. What, Merlin?
There s a good chance you re all going to die.
Her tone became sharp. We don t need you to remind us of the risks.
I m talking about something that s going to happen sooner rather than later.
The ruse of shadowing the Waynet didn t work. It was the best thing to do, but
there was always a chance... Merlin spread his hands in exagger-ated apology, as if
there had ever been something he could have done about it. Tyrant s detected a
Husker attack swarm, six elements lying a light-month ahead of you. You don t have
time to steer or slow down. They d shadow every move you made, even if you tried
to shake them off.
You promised us
I promised you nothing. I just gave you the best advice I could. If you
hadn t shadowed the Waynet, they d have found you even sooner.
We aren t using the ramscoop design. You said we d be safe if we stuck to
fusion motors. The electromagnetic signature
I said you d be safer. There were never ironclad guarantees.
You lied to us. Minla turned suddenly spiteful. I never trusted you.
I did all in my power to save you.
Then why are you standing there looking so calm, when you know we re
going to die? But before Merlin had time to answer, Minla had seen the answer for
herself. Because you can leave, she said, nodding at her own percipience. You
have your ship, and a syrinx. You can slip into the Waynet and outrun the enemy.
I m leaving, Merlin said. But I m not running.
Aren t they one and the same?
Not this time. I m going back to Plenitude, I mean Lecythus, to do what I
can for the people we left behind. The people you condemned to death.
Me, Merlin?
I examined the records of the Regressive War: not just the official
docu-ments, but Tyrant s own data logs. And I saw what I should have seen at the
time, but didn t. It was a ruse. It was too damned easy, the way they took control of
that rocket factory. You let them, Minla.
I did nothing of the kind.
You knew the whole evacuation project was never going to be ready on time.
The Space Dormitories were behind schedule, there were problems with the Exodus
Arks...
Because you told us falsehoods about the helium in the moon s soil.
Merlin raised a warning hand. We ll get to that. The point is, your plans were
in tatters. But you could still have completed more dormitories and ships, if you d
been willing to leave the system a little later. You could still have saved more people
than you did, albeit at a slightly increased risk to your own survival. But that wasn t
acceptable. You wanted to leave there and then. So you engineered the whole
Regressive attack, set it up as a pretext for an early departure.
The Regressives were real! Minla hissed.
But you gave them the keys to that rocket silo, and the know-how to target
and guide those missiles. Funny how their attack just missed the one station that you
were occupying, you and all your political cronies, and that you managed to move
the one Exodus Ark to safety just in time. Damned convenient, Minla.
I ll have you shot for this, Merlin.
Good luck. Try laying a hand on me, and see how far it gets you. My ship s
listening in on this conversation. It can put proctors into this room in a matter of
seconds.
And the moon, Merlin? Do you have an excuse for the error that cost us so
dearly?
I don t know. Possibly. That s why I m going back to Lecythus. There are
still people on the surface Regressives, allies, I don t care. And people you
abandoned in orbit as well.
They ll all die. You said it yourself.
He raised a finger. If they don t leave. But maybe there s way. Again, I
should have seen it sooner. But that s me all the way. I take a long time to put the
pieces together, but I get there in the end. Just like Dowitcher, the man who gave
your father the whetstone.
It was just a stone.
So you said. In fact, it was a vital clue to the nature of your world. It took
spring tides and neap tides to lay down those patterns. But you said it yourself:
Lecythus doesn t have spring tides and neap tides. Not anymore, at least.
I m sure this means something to you.
Something happened to your moon, Minla. When that whetstone formed,
your moon was raising tides on Lecythus. When the moon and Calliope were [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]