[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

growing astonishment at the deeply mature tone of his voice, //I don't know I
haven't long since sacrificed all our lives, just by accepting Krinata into
Office. There is no way to predict what will happen when a dual-Center Oliat
tries to Dissolve. Sometimes a few officers survive. I have been hoping to
minimize our losses only hoping.//
He felt Dar's scrutiny rake through him, reassessing him, and simultaneously
her very identity shifted, sending starbursts sparkling through the linkages.
So that's what it looks like when Renewal compels realization of an error. An
Oliat couldn't function in the field with such disruptions to the linkages.
//Why hope?// challenged Darllanyu. //Remember, our objective is not to
survive but to implant a colony a Dushau multicolony, the first of its kind.
Raichmat's zunre agreed this is a necessary step for Dushaun. We are moving in
a riptide of history. And always at such points, some die that the concept may
live. Jindigar maybe the Historians have a healthier attitude toward
Completion than Aliom. Maybe we shouldn't cling to ourselves so much as to the
currents that are carrying us.//
Jindigar flicked his attention to Krinata. They all knew she considered
herself Takora/Ontarrah reborn, but they didn't know how close he was to
accepting that as a fact. //Dar, you don't believe that if we die, we will be
reborn ephemeral?// So sacrificing our lives for this colony would be so
trivial that to refuse to do it would be such a crime against the Laws of
Nature that we'd lose our chance at Completion. He couldn't accept that.
//I think,// she replied, //we must admit that we do not know what we don't
know. But we must act on what we do know our objective to begin a society
where Dushau and ephemeral are bound into a single unit designed to protect
this world from the galaxy, and the galaxy from this world, until they can be
united into one. Raichmat's Oliat knew this planet could not be colonized
except by Dushau, but that even we could not survive here as a single species.
Raichmat's knew what the price would be. You were Outreach to Raichmat don't
you remember?//
He remembered. It had been a daring vision rejected by the rest of Dushaun
because so many Dushau would die Incomplete in any attempt to colonize. But he
had known that in such a project the welding of disparate species into a
whole, the protecting of the helpless, the riding of the currents of
evolution lay his Completion. He had known that ever since the day he'd first
met a living ephemeral.
Through the open linkages the thoughts and emotions of the others became his
own. Venlagar and Llistyien at last confronted the possibility that Krinata
really was Takora. Trinarvil puzzled over why, if one Dushau had become
ephemeral, no others had ever been identified. Zannesu deplored his eagerness
to offer his life, knowing it stemmed from the amputation of his mate but
finding no surcease in that. And Krinata restrained her impulse to lead them
Page 84
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
into one more effort, as if she were Center.
//I am Priest and given to the processes of Aliom. Dar, without benefit of
priesthood, has seen what I could not. Paradoxical as it seems, / have no
other way to Completion but to give my life to this deflection of the stream
of history, as if I were Historian too.// The truth of what he'd just said
burst upon him through a dam of resistance he hadn't known was there. He saw
his own death and knew he had to surrender to it with no thought of surviving.
Is this what Takora went through?
He saw a quizzical smile touch Krinata's lips, but she politely concealed her
sharp white teeth. Suddenly she was no longer restraining herself from Center,
for she knew he was committed now to the same course that she was.
//I am not Center anymore, zunre,// Jindigar told them. //I can't lead in
this, for I am too Active to see anything but my own point of view.//
Llistyien answered, //It's our point of view too. Very seldom has an Oliat
been called to such a task, but it's not unprecedented. Jindigar, the Dushau
species will die out if we stagnate on Dushaun.// She gestured at the new
worldcircle. //With this the colony has a real chance. But if we can't accept
that there is no Completion for us, that we're called to serve our species,
then the colony will fail and there will be no Completion for anyone.//
Trinarvil agreed. //I have pursued the Healer's path to Completion: working at
the performing and creative arts, learning all the cosmogonies, magicks, and
sciences, and even doing the regimens of all the priesthoods, including, most
recently, the Ambassadorial. I had no idea it would lead me to the Healing of
a nine-species community. But there is one thing I have learned in Healing it
is not something that is done to you but something you do to yourself. I am of
this community and of this world and so I must do what is necessary to Hail.//
Krinata stated, as if she really understood, //It's up to Center to decide
what's necessary. The Center's job is to guide the officers along Aliom toward
Completion. And, Jindigar, whether you're still qualified or not, you're our
Center and you must decide; not us not a vote you. I'll abide by whatever you
decide.//
//A promise, Krinata?//
She frowned. //No a prediction.//
//And how would Takora decide?//
//That's not fair,// she objected.
//I know.// Takora had once opted to take her Oliat with her to oblivion.
Would she do it again?
Finally Krinata met his gaze. //Takora's had no vital objective worth seven
lives to achieve. We do.//
She was right a habit with her. And he had resolved to make the decisions a
Center must. //You've all been lulled into a false sense of security by the
dangers we have already survived. We're not talking about danger now, we're
talking about certain death.//
A somber stillness settled over them all. They were unanimously willing. But [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
  • zanotowane.pl
  • doc.pisz.pl
  • pdf.pisz.pl
  • akte20.pev.pl