[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
restriction simply set up orbit around the hole."
"Around the hole!" he exclaimed. "There is no way out of such a gravitational well, by definition, and even a stable
orbit would suffer tides that would tear apart any object that-"
"Precisely," she said. "You call it suicide. We can't kill ourselves as easily as other creatures can, and there is often a
great deal of discomfort in the trying, so we utilize special means. We preferred to think of it as passing through an
aperture to another realm. Who can conjecture what lies beyond?"
Not Psyche! his hope cried, but he kept that quiet. "Who indeed?" he agreed. "If your kind has anything like a Tarot
deck, you must have a card with a black blot in the center: the Hole. In lieu of the one we call Death, or
Transformation."
"We do," she agreed. "It is the concept of our philosophy. All that we are, and all that we are not, is governed by that
singular concept. The hole in the glob. The ultimate escape from the ultimate confinement."
"Perhaps one day I will ride a ship directly into that hole," he said. "The notion is appealing."
"You wish to suicide? You can't go directly into the hole; the vortex forces you into the spiral orbit. The hole has its
particular rules about the manner of its utilization."
Suicide? If Psyche does not live. "You would not understand," he told her gently. "Continue with your history."
She did not protest. "We regressed-but we would forget even the rationale for that ignorance, and develop again,
only to remain corked. Oh, we have a score to settle with the Ancients, who did this to us."
"But the Ancients are three million years dead," Herald pointed out.
"Then we have no recourse," she said.
"It is strange they would do that to you," Herald said. "Many other species, like the Worm colonists of Mars, they
exterminated outright."
"While others, like the Solarians, they left untouched," she said. "What was their rationale?"
"If only we knew! There has to be a reason. A foolish, inconsistent species could not have conquered the Cluster. If
we could fathom their nature and intent, perhaps we could discover their science. And that is what we have to do."
She made a sonic shrug. "Here we are talking about Jets and Ancients, when I had asked about you. How come you
to this Galaxy?"
"I am a healer. I Transfer where my commissions take me. I had to exorcise a-" He broke off.
"I did not catch that," Sixteen said. "What was your mission?"
"It was a failure," he said shortly.
She took the hint and was silent. She was very good about things like that. They jetted on toward the great volcano.
In four hours they reached it. Now they slowed, angling across to achieve the phenomenal, sixty-meridian-wide lava
sheet, the residue of the vent's colossal effusions. Near the western edge of it rose Olympus Mons, one of the classic
volcanoes of this system. To reach it they had to traverse the rugged mountain range that circled it, rising high to
reach the most convenient pass. Then on to the volcano itself, finding a channel through the rim wall that was the
abrupt edge of the mighty cone, slanting up toward its lofty half-meridian height. The rise was not steep, but the
steady effort was a drain on the diminished resources of Herald's host.
At last they overlooked the central caldera, pocked by smaller calderas where the surface had collapsed after the hot
lava leaked out. It was an impressive but barren scene.
"Why are we looking here?" Sixteen inquired. "Sapients do not normally camp in volcanoes."
"That is one reason why," Herald explained. "The Ancients evidently sought to conceal their presence on Mars, at
the time of their occupancy, and after. The remains of a site within a volcano are likely to be the first obliterated
when the lava flows again. But while in use-what better concealment for a continued flow of creatures and
equipment? The kind of heavy construction for which the Ancients were noted would have been obvious to sapient
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observers. So they needed extensive natural cover."
"Why?" Sixteen asked. "Hadn't they already destroyed the colony?"
"The colony of Worms on Mars, perhaps. But observers on nearby Earth...."
"They were subsapient then, or at least borderline. The humanoid Solarians had no civilization three million years
ago. And even if they had, the Ancients could so readily have vanquished them. Why would they hide, then depart
without attacking Earth?"
"I don't know," Herald admitted. "If I find any key artifacts here, we may begin to understand this mystery."
They looked, descending cautiously into the main caldera. Herald kept alert for any trace of aura. It required close
contact to heal a living entity, or even to analyze a living aura properly, but be could pick up the whiff of aura in an
otherwise aura-free region from a fair distance. His notion seemed far less sensible now that he had submitted it to
Sixteen's scrutiny; still he hoped....
Why, he wondered, had Hweeh agreed so readily? The chances of discovering Ancient artifacts here were not small,
they were virtually nonexistent.
There was nothing. He tried to control his letdown. He needed a positive attitude, or the healing he was performing
on his Jet host would be ineffective. He didn't want to become impotent again! After all, there was a whole planet
remaining.
If only he wasn't so certain that the Cluster Council committee would do nothing! The Amoeba must even now be
moving its battleships into position, and there was no one to cry the alarm or to attempt effective resistance but
Herald the Healer. That was another kind of impotence: to know the threat, and to be unable either to act or to cause
others to act. Another kind of hell.
They started back up the steepening walls of the caldera. The descent into it had been easy, a relief after the long
climb, but now there was a problem. Toward the rim the inner wall became almost vertical, and Herald was abruptly
tired, in body as well as spirit.
Extremely tired. He jetted upward determinedly-and flamed out.
His propulsion gone, he rolled helplessly down the slope.
=Herald!= Sixteen cried, reverting to her native intonation in her stress. She jetted after him.
She quickly caught him in her lifting strands and steadied him against her sleek fuselage. "The drug- You
overextended, and it betrayed you!"
No wonder he had gotten disorganized! The warning had been right; he had not comprehended the pitfalls of this
medication. But this did not diminish his urgent need. "Give me another dose," Herald told her. "There's work to be
done."
"No. You have to rest. In a while you will be able to sustain the medication."
He knew she was right. If he did not heed reason now, he was a complete fool. So he relaxed. "So many mysteries,"
he said. "Why should the Amoeba take all the trouble to come here to our Cluster to conquer us? Couldn't they
locate any energy for their purposes closer to home? Why did the Ancients conquer the Cluster, then vacate? They [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl akte20.pev.pl
restriction simply set up orbit around the hole."
"Around the hole!" he exclaimed. "There is no way out of such a gravitational well, by definition, and even a stable
orbit would suffer tides that would tear apart any object that-"
"Precisely," she said. "You call it suicide. We can't kill ourselves as easily as other creatures can, and there is often a
great deal of discomfort in the trying, so we utilize special means. We preferred to think of it as passing through an
aperture to another realm. Who can conjecture what lies beyond?"
Not Psyche! his hope cried, but he kept that quiet. "Who indeed?" he agreed. "If your kind has anything like a Tarot
deck, you must have a card with a black blot in the center: the Hole. In lieu of the one we call Death, or
Transformation."
"We do," she agreed. "It is the concept of our philosophy. All that we are, and all that we are not, is governed by that
singular concept. The hole in the glob. The ultimate escape from the ultimate confinement."
"Perhaps one day I will ride a ship directly into that hole," he said. "The notion is appealing."
"You wish to suicide? You can't go directly into the hole; the vortex forces you into the spiral orbit. The hole has its
particular rules about the manner of its utilization."
Suicide? If Psyche does not live. "You would not understand," he told her gently. "Continue with your history."
She did not protest. "We regressed-but we would forget even the rationale for that ignorance, and develop again,
only to remain corked. Oh, we have a score to settle with the Ancients, who did this to us."
"But the Ancients are three million years dead," Herald pointed out.
"Then we have no recourse," she said.
"It is strange they would do that to you," Herald said. "Many other species, like the Worm colonists of Mars, they
exterminated outright."
"While others, like the Solarians, they left untouched," she said. "What was their rationale?"
"If only we knew! There has to be a reason. A foolish, inconsistent species could not have conquered the Cluster. If
we could fathom their nature and intent, perhaps we could discover their science. And that is what we have to do."
She made a sonic shrug. "Here we are talking about Jets and Ancients, when I had asked about you. How come you
to this Galaxy?"
"I am a healer. I Transfer where my commissions take me. I had to exorcise a-" He broke off.
"I did not catch that," Sixteen said. "What was your mission?"
"It was a failure," he said shortly.
She took the hint and was silent. She was very good about things like that. They jetted on toward the great volcano.
In four hours they reached it. Now they slowed, angling across to achieve the phenomenal, sixty-meridian-wide lava
sheet, the residue of the vent's colossal effusions. Near the western edge of it rose Olympus Mons, one of the classic
volcanoes of this system. To reach it they had to traverse the rugged mountain range that circled it, rising high to
reach the most convenient pass. Then on to the volcano itself, finding a channel through the rim wall that was the
abrupt edge of the mighty cone, slanting up toward its lofty half-meridian height. The rise was not steep, but the
steady effort was a drain on the diminished resources of Herald's host.
At last they overlooked the central caldera, pocked by smaller calderas where the surface had collapsed after the hot
lava leaked out. It was an impressive but barren scene.
"Why are we looking here?" Sixteen inquired. "Sapients do not normally camp in volcanoes."
"That is one reason why," Herald explained. "The Ancients evidently sought to conceal their presence on Mars, at
the time of their occupancy, and after. The remains of a site within a volcano are likely to be the first obliterated
when the lava flows again. But while in use-what better concealment for a continued flow of creatures and
equipment? The kind of heavy construction for which the Ancients were noted would have been obvious to sapient
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
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w
c
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.
.
.
.
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A
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Y
Y
B
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r r
observers. So they needed extensive natural cover."
"Why?" Sixteen asked. "Hadn't they already destroyed the colony?"
"The colony of Worms on Mars, perhaps. But observers on nearby Earth...."
"They were subsapient then, or at least borderline. The humanoid Solarians had no civilization three million years
ago. And even if they had, the Ancients could so readily have vanquished them. Why would they hide, then depart
without attacking Earth?"
"I don't know," Herald admitted. "If I find any key artifacts here, we may begin to understand this mystery."
They looked, descending cautiously into the main caldera. Herald kept alert for any trace of aura. It required close
contact to heal a living entity, or even to analyze a living aura properly, but be could pick up the whiff of aura in an
otherwise aura-free region from a fair distance. His notion seemed far less sensible now that he had submitted it to
Sixteen's scrutiny; still he hoped....
Why, he wondered, had Hweeh agreed so readily? The chances of discovering Ancient artifacts here were not small,
they were virtually nonexistent.
There was nothing. He tried to control his letdown. He needed a positive attitude, or the healing he was performing
on his Jet host would be ineffective. He didn't want to become impotent again! After all, there was a whole planet
remaining.
If only he wasn't so certain that the Cluster Council committee would do nothing! The Amoeba must even now be
moving its battleships into position, and there was no one to cry the alarm or to attempt effective resistance but
Herald the Healer. That was another kind of impotence: to know the threat, and to be unable either to act or to cause
others to act. Another kind of hell.
They started back up the steepening walls of the caldera. The descent into it had been easy, a relief after the long
climb, but now there was a problem. Toward the rim the inner wall became almost vertical, and Herald was abruptly
tired, in body as well as spirit.
Extremely tired. He jetted upward determinedly-and flamed out.
His propulsion gone, he rolled helplessly down the slope.
=Herald!= Sixteen cried, reverting to her native intonation in her stress. She jetted after him.
She quickly caught him in her lifting strands and steadied him against her sleek fuselage. "The drug- You
overextended, and it betrayed you!"
No wonder he had gotten disorganized! The warning had been right; he had not comprehended the pitfalls of this
medication. But this did not diminish his urgent need. "Give me another dose," Herald told her. "There's work to be
done."
"No. You have to rest. In a while you will be able to sustain the medication."
He knew she was right. If he did not heed reason now, he was a complete fool. So he relaxed. "So many mysteries,"
he said. "Why should the Amoeba take all the trouble to come here to our Cluster to conquer us? Couldn't they
locate any energy for their purposes closer to home? Why did the Ancients conquer the Cluster, then vacate? They [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]