[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
touch of her fingers as if through layers of the finest ancient silk. Her
voice was silken too, just as he remembered it.
Mira said: "But each year made a difference to me. I
thought you were trying to forget me. Remember the vows about eternity that we
once made?"
"I thought I might forget them, but I did not. I found I
couldn't."
Sixty-five years ago, Hagen and Mira had quarreled, while visiting Azlaroc as
tourists. Angry, Hagen had gone offworld without telling her; when the alarms
sounded,"
giving warning that the year's veil was falling early, she had been sure that
he was still somewhere on the surface.
She had remained on Azlaroc herself, vainly searching for him. By the time he
came back, meaning to patch up the quarrel, the veil had fallen already.
He could not see that anything about her was changed.
Yet seeing her again was somehow different than he had expected it would be.
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Reaction to his coming back was growing in her.
"Hagen, Hagen, it is you. Really you."
With embarrassment he asked: "Can you forgive me for what happened?"
"Of course I can, darling. Come, walk with me. Tell me of yourself and what
you've done."
"I& later I will try to tell you." They started walking, in the same direction
as when he overtook her. How could anyone relate in a moment or two the
experience of six and a half decades? "What have you done here, Mira?
How is it with you?"
"How would it be?" She gestured in an old, remembered way, with a little,
sensuous, unconscious movement of her shoulder. "You lived here with me; you
know how it is."
"I lived here only a very short time."
"But there are no physical changes worth mentioning.
The air my yeargroup breathes and the food and water we consume are recycled
forever. Even the particles of land formed in my year are special to us. And
the changes that do happen-how can I tell you about those, in a moment?
We do still change and grow, though not in body. We
explore the infinite possibilities of each other and of our world. It is the
only way we can survive. There are only eleven hundred and six in my
yeargroup, and we have at least as much room here as do the billions living
out their common lives on the surface of some planet."
Hagen took her hand as they walked along. He said: "I
feared that perhaps you had forgotten me
."
"Can I forget where I am, and how I came to be here?"
Mira's eyes grew very wide and luminous, though they were not artificially
enlarged like Ailanna's. There was a compressed fierceness to Mira's lips.
"There was a time when I raged at you, Hagen, but no longer. There is no
point."
They walked on a little while in silence. He could not notice many changes in
the city around them. She held his fingers tenderly, and her gaze softened as
she looked at him.
Hagen said: "You are going to have to teach me how to be a settler here. How
to-"
She stopped in her tracks. "Then you are here to stay."
"I didn't tell you that?" He smiled broadly, unleashing a surprise. Something
about the whole scene felt strange, unreal to him. "Yes, you'll have to teach
me a great deal.
Unless you are now too deeply committed to someone else?"
"No."
Holding her hand, he pulled her along with him again.
"You must teach me how to put up with gawking tourists& and with the physical
restrictions on not entering new rooms and passages here in the city, when
more are dug out in the future& are you willing to teach me how to be a
settler?"
"I would be. I am."
Now he wanted to talk and talk with her. "Do you never want to burrow into
these new places, make them your own?" There, for example, was a new little
tourists'
shortcut to some sight or other, cut at right angles away from the passage
they were walking in. Although he could go through there if he wanted to, Mira
could never walk that way. Not ever.
"We could do that," she answered. "But why? There's so much room for us
already, more than we'll ever need. It would just be an act of aggression
against the later settlers and the visitors. Like following someone just to be
Page 47
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
following them.'' She smiled at the thought. "I suppose they could dive
against us and retaliate, somehow disarranging our lives."
He drew a deep breath. "Do I disarrange your life seriously, Mira, by diving
to you?"
"Hagen!" She shook her head reprovingly. "Of course you do. How can you ask?''
She pretended to look at him more closely. "Is it really you who has come
back, of someone else, with outlandish eyebrows?" Then the wild, daring look
he knew and loved came over her, and suddenly the scores of years were gone.
"Come to the pool and beach, and we'll soon see who you really are!"
He ran in laughing pursuit as Mira turned and fled. She led the way to the
vast underground grotto of blackness and fire, where she threw off her
garments and plunged into the pool. He followed, lightly burdened by his
diver's gear.
It was an old, running, diving, swimming game between them, and he had not
forgotten how to play. With the gear on, Hagen did not need to come to the
surface of the pool to breathe, nor was he bothered by the water's chill.
Still, Mira beat him, flashing and gliding and splashing away.
He was both out-maneuvered and outsped.
Laughing, she swam back to where he had already collapsed in gasps and
laughter on the black and golden beach under the artificial suns that usually
looked more natural than the bland, low sky above the surface.
"Hagen, have you aged that much? Even wearing diver's gear I could beat you
today."
Was he really that much older? Lungs and heart should not wear out so fast,
nor had they, he believed. But something else in him had aged and changed.
"You have practiced much more than I," he grumbled.
"But you were always the better diver," she argued softly, swimming near, then
coming out of the water.
Some of the droplets that wet her emerging body were water of her own year,
under the silken veils of time that gauzed her skin; other drops, the water of
later years, some of the present where Hagen lived, clung on outside the
veils. "And the stronger swimmer. You will soon be beating me again, if you
come back."
"I am back already, Mira. Back to stay. You are three times as beautiful as I
remembered you."
Mira came to him and he pulled her down on the beach to embrace her with great
joy. Why, he thought, oh why did I ever leave?
Why indeed?
He became aware of a woman in diver's gear swimming nearby. By her attitude
and the shape of her body he recognized Ailanna. She was watching him and
Mira, had perhaps been watching and listening to them for some time. He turned
to speak to Ailanna, to offer some explanation and introduction, but she
submerged in the water and was gone. Mira, when he turned back, gave no sign
of having noticed the other woman's presence.
On the morning of V minus 15, Leodas Ditmars woke at the time he had set for
himself the night before, and ordered breakfast in his room. When the machines [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl akte20.pev.pl
touch of her fingers as if through layers of the finest ancient silk. Her
voice was silken too, just as he remembered it.
Mira said: "But each year made a difference to me. I
thought you were trying to forget me. Remember the vows about eternity that we
once made?"
"I thought I might forget them, but I did not. I found I
couldn't."
Sixty-five years ago, Hagen and Mira had quarreled, while visiting Azlaroc as
tourists. Angry, Hagen had gone offworld without telling her; when the alarms
sounded,"
giving warning that the year's veil was falling early, she had been sure that
he was still somewhere on the surface.
She had remained on Azlaroc herself, vainly searching for him. By the time he
came back, meaning to patch up the quarrel, the veil had fallen already.
He could not see that anything about her was changed.
Yet seeing her again was somehow different than he had expected it would be.
Page 46
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Reaction to his coming back was growing in her.
"Hagen, Hagen, it is you. Really you."
With embarrassment he asked: "Can you forgive me for what happened?"
"Of course I can, darling. Come, walk with me. Tell me of yourself and what
you've done."
"I& later I will try to tell you." They started walking, in the same direction
as when he overtook her. How could anyone relate in a moment or two the
experience of six and a half decades? "What have you done here, Mira?
How is it with you?"
"How would it be?" She gestured in an old, remembered way, with a little,
sensuous, unconscious movement of her shoulder. "You lived here with me; you
know how it is."
"I lived here only a very short time."
"But there are no physical changes worth mentioning.
The air my yeargroup breathes and the food and water we consume are recycled
forever. Even the particles of land formed in my year are special to us. And
the changes that do happen-how can I tell you about those, in a moment?
We do still change and grow, though not in body. We
explore the infinite possibilities of each other and of our world. It is the
only way we can survive. There are only eleven hundred and six in my
yeargroup, and we have at least as much room here as do the billions living
out their common lives on the surface of some planet."
Hagen took her hand as they walked along. He said: "I
feared that perhaps you had forgotten me
."
"Can I forget where I am, and how I came to be here?"
Mira's eyes grew very wide and luminous, though they were not artificially
enlarged like Ailanna's. There was a compressed fierceness to Mira's lips.
"There was a time when I raged at you, Hagen, but no longer. There is no
point."
They walked on a little while in silence. He could not notice many changes in
the city around them. She held his fingers tenderly, and her gaze softened as
she looked at him.
Hagen said: "You are going to have to teach me how to be a settler here. How
to-"
She stopped in her tracks. "Then you are here to stay."
"I didn't tell you that?" He smiled broadly, unleashing a surprise. Something
about the whole scene felt strange, unreal to him. "Yes, you'll have to teach
me a great deal.
Unless you are now too deeply committed to someone else?"
"No."
Holding her hand, he pulled her along with him again.
"You must teach me how to put up with gawking tourists& and with the physical
restrictions on not entering new rooms and passages here in the city, when
more are dug out in the future& are you willing to teach me how to be a
settler?"
"I would be. I am."
Now he wanted to talk and talk with her. "Do you never want to burrow into
these new places, make them your own?" There, for example, was a new little
tourists'
shortcut to some sight or other, cut at right angles away from the passage
they were walking in. Although he could go through there if he wanted to, Mira
could never walk that way. Not ever.
"We could do that," she answered. "But why? There's so much room for us
already, more than we'll ever need. It would just be an act of aggression
against the later settlers and the visitors. Like following someone just to be
Page 47
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
following them.'' She smiled at the thought. "I suppose they could dive
against us and retaliate, somehow disarranging our lives."
He drew a deep breath. "Do I disarrange your life seriously, Mira, by diving
to you?"
"Hagen!" She shook her head reprovingly. "Of course you do. How can you ask?''
She pretended to look at him more closely. "Is it really you who has come
back, of someone else, with outlandish eyebrows?" Then the wild, daring look
he knew and loved came over her, and suddenly the scores of years were gone.
"Come to the pool and beach, and we'll soon see who you really are!"
He ran in laughing pursuit as Mira turned and fled. She led the way to the
vast underground grotto of blackness and fire, where she threw off her
garments and plunged into the pool. He followed, lightly burdened by his
diver's gear.
It was an old, running, diving, swimming game between them, and he had not
forgotten how to play. With the gear on, Hagen did not need to come to the
surface of the pool to breathe, nor was he bothered by the water's chill.
Still, Mira beat him, flashing and gliding and splashing away.
He was both out-maneuvered and outsped.
Laughing, she swam back to where he had already collapsed in gasps and
laughter on the black and golden beach under the artificial suns that usually
looked more natural than the bland, low sky above the surface.
"Hagen, have you aged that much? Even wearing diver's gear I could beat you
today."
Was he really that much older? Lungs and heart should not wear out so fast,
nor had they, he believed. But something else in him had aged and changed.
"You have practiced much more than I," he grumbled.
"But you were always the better diver," she argued softly, swimming near, then
coming out of the water.
Some of the droplets that wet her emerging body were water of her own year,
under the silken veils of time that gauzed her skin; other drops, the water of
later years, some of the present where Hagen lived, clung on outside the
veils. "And the stronger swimmer. You will soon be beating me again, if you
come back."
"I am back already, Mira. Back to stay. You are three times as beautiful as I
remembered you."
Mira came to him and he pulled her down on the beach to embrace her with great
joy. Why, he thought, oh why did I ever leave?
Why indeed?
He became aware of a woman in diver's gear swimming nearby. By her attitude
and the shape of her body he recognized Ailanna. She was watching him and
Mira, had perhaps been watching and listening to them for some time. He turned
to speak to Ailanna, to offer some explanation and introduction, but she
submerged in the water and was gone. Mira, when he turned back, gave no sign
of having noticed the other woman's presence.
On the morning of V minus 15, Leodas Ditmars woke at the time he had set for
himself the night before, and ordered breakfast in his room. When the machines [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]