[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Philas nodded gravely. "But we have no choice."
Dura sighed. "We do. I've told you about Parz City... Philas, we must go there. It's an immense
distance, and I don't know how we'll manage the journey. But there is food there. It's our only hope."
"What will we do, in Parz City? How will we get food?"
Dura felt like laughing. We'll beg, she thought. We'll be hungry freaks; if we're lucky they will feed
us rather than Wheel-Break us. And...
"Dura!"
Mur came crashing through the forest toward them; his eyes were wide with shock.
Dura felt her hands slip to the knife tucked into the rope at her waist. "What is it? What's wrong?"
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"There's something outside the trees... A box of wood. Drawn by Air-pigs! Just as you've described
it, Philas..."
Dura turned, peering out through the thin foliage. There, easily visible beyond the stripped twigs of
the forest fringe, was an Air-car, huge and sleek. It was calling, in a thin, amplified voice.
"...Dura... upfluxer Dura... If you can hear me, show yourself. Dura..."

"Tell me about the Xeelee," said Hork V.
The Palace anteroom was a hollow sphere about five mansheights across, anchored loosely in the
Garden. Fine ropes had been threaded across the interior, and light, comfortable net cocoons were
suspended here and there. Smaller nets contained drinks and sweetmeats.
Adda, Muub and Hork occupied three of the cocoons. The three of them faced each other close to
the center of the room. Adda felt as if he were trapped in the web of a Crust-spider.
Adda found Hork's demanding tone, his stare over that bush of ludicrous face-hair, quite offensive.
This was the new Chair of the Parz Committee. So what? Such titles didn't mean a damn thing to
Adda, and the day they did would be a sorry one, he reckoned.
Let them wait. Adda allowed his gaze to slide around the opulence of this chamber.
The painted walls were the ultimate folly, of course. They were designed to give an illusion of the
open Air. He studied the drawn-in vortex lines, the purple paint that represented the Quantum Sea.
How absurd, thought Adda, for these City people to close themselves away from the world in their
boxes of wood and Corestuff, and then go to so much trouble to reproduce what could be found
outside.
The centerpiece of the anteroom was a tame vortex ring. And, Adda conceded, it was impressive. It
was contained in nested globes of clearwood which revolved continually about three independent
axs, maintaining the spin of the Air trapped within. Every child knew that if an unstable vortex line
threw off a ring, the torus of voracity would rapidly lose its energy and decay away; but this trapped
ring was fed with energy by the artful spinning of the globes, and so remained stable.
Of course, it wasn't as impressive as the million-mansheight-long vortex lines which spanned the
Mantle and arced over the Garden, and which were available for viewing without charge or effort...
"I'm glad you're finding the room so interesting." Hork's tone contained patience, but with an
undercurrent of threat.
"I wasn't aware you were in a hurry. After all, you've lasted ten generations without talking to the
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Human Beings; what's the rush now?"
"No games," Hork growled. "Come on, upfluxer. You know why I've asked you here. I need your
help."
Muub interposed smoothly, "You must make allowances for this old rascal, sir. He rejoices in being
difficult... a privilege of age, perhaps."
Adda turned to glare at Muub, but the doctor would not meet his eye.
"I ask you again," Hork said quietly. "Tell me of the Xeelee."
"Not until you tell me that my friends will be returned from their exile."
"From their indentures," Muub said impatiently. "Damn it, Adda, I've already assured you that
they've been sent for."
Adda watched Hork, his mouth set firm.
Hork nodded, the motion an impatient spasm which caused ripples to flow over the front of his
chest. "Their debts are dissolved. Now give me my answer."
"I'll tell you all you need to know in five words."
Hork tilted his head back, his nostrils glowing.
Adda said slowly, "You can not fight Xeelee."
Hork growled.
"That's your intention, isn't it?" Adda asked evenly. "You want to find a way to beat off Xeelee as if
they were rampaging Air-boars; you want to find a way to stop them smashing up your beautiful
Palace..."
"They are killing the people I am responsible for."
Adda leaned forward in his sling. "City man, they don't even know we're here. Nothing you could do
would even raise you to their attention."
Muub was shaking his head. "How can you respect such such primal monsters? Explain that,
Adda."
"The Xeelee have their own goals," said Adda. "Goals which we do not share, and cannot even
comprehend..."
The Xeelee moving behind mists of legend were immense. They were to the Ur-humans as Ur-
humans were to Human Beings, perhaps. They were like gods and yet lower than gods.
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Perhaps gods could have been tolerated, by the Ur-human soul. Not the Xeelee. The Xeelee had been
rivals.
Hork twisted in his sling, angry and impatient. "So the Ur-humans, unable to endure the aloof
grandeur of these Xeelee, challenged them..."
"Yes. There were great wars."
Billions had died. The destruction of the Xeelee had become a racial goal for the Ur-humans.
"...But not for everyone," Adda said. "As the venom of the assaults grew, so did Ur-human
understanding of the Xeelee's great Projects. For instance the Ring was discovered..."
"The Ring?" Hork growled.
"Bolder's Ring," Adda said. "A huge construct which one day will form a gateway between
universes..."
"What is this old fool babbling about, Physician? What are these universes of which he speaks? Are
they in other parts of the Star?"
Muub spread his long, fine hands and smiled. "I'm as mystified as you are, sir. Perhaps the universes
reside in other Stars. If such exist."
Adda grunted. "If I knew all the answers I'd have spent my life doing a lot more than carve spears
and hunt pigs," he said sourly. "Look, Hork, I will tell you what I know; I'm telling you what my
father told me. But if you ask stupid questions you are only going to get stupid answers."
"Get on with it," Muub murmured.
"Even if they could have been successful," Adda said, "wise Ur-men came to see that to destroy the
Xeelee might be as unwise as for a child to destroy its father. The Xeelee are working on our behalf, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]