James P. Hogan Saturn 02 The Anguished Dawn

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forward and touch the blade wonderingly. To show his magnanimity in return, he
made signs that the rest of Keene s party could bring the Scout down to the
settlement. His settlement. Rakki s.
As soon as Keene got a moment he raised his compad and called Ivor, who was
still in the truck.
Was that you who did that?
It was. You needed a miracle.
Oh. Is that how they work?
The Lord works in strange ways, Doctor.
How s the probe?
Serengeti says the compressor fan might be a bit chewed. I put it down over
the ridge until someone can get out to look at it.
Okay.
Beth moved over toward Keene as the others arrived. That was quick thinking,
Beth, he complimented. You read the situation exactly right. I guess we ve
got Gallian to thank for making sure we had a professional psychologist along
on the team.
Not really, she told him. I just took a course of psychiatric nursing
training when I was a student.
So which part of it taught you about human nature like that? I m intrigued.
None. She hesitated. It was something I saw a long time ago in a Tarzan
movie.
* * *
Rakki couldn t understand what kind of gods these were who expended effort on
others who could be of no benefit to them. They had total power to command
whatever they wanted. If they needed the labor or obedience of him and his
clan, they could compel it. And yet they seemed to seek approval and to serve
favors. It went against everything that, in his experience of life, was
necessary to survive and rule.
He watched with mixed feelings the brown-skinned female inside one of the
huts, examining the eyes and mouth and skin of one of the infants, who had
been vomiting and emptying body contents continuously and burning up inside
with a fever madness. On the one hand, he felt a sense of pride in knowing it
was he, Rakki, who had allowed the strangers into the settlement to show their
skills.
On the other, he was perplexed, for didn t it make more sense to let the
inherently weaker die, rather than grow to consume more food than they would
ever replace? Outside, the white-faced female was letting others taste foods
of kinds that neither he nor his people had ever seen before.
Why should these gods care if Engressi s baby lived or died? Why should they
give away their food when there was nothing he could see that they stood to
gain in return? It made no sense.
Shell Eyes was sitting on skins, tending her own baby-one who would grow
strong and earn its place in the clan. Nearby, White Head was exchanging signs
and words with the bearded god. It seemed that the bearded god was an
Oldworlder who had once lived somewhere to the south before the Long Night,
and they both knew some words of a speech that had been spoken then, although
Rakki had never heard of it. The bearded god made gestures upward and looked
toward the roof.
White Head seemed awed. What does he say now? Rakki asked him.
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They went to another world beyond the sky. Now they have come back.
Rakki couldn t imagine anywhere beyond the sky. What is it they seek from
us? he muttered.
Why must they be seeking anything?
It is the way. They must know this, for they are powerful. The strong only
become weak by serving others.
You lived, Rakki, because Enka came looking for you, and brought us to where
you were,
Shell Eyes said, referring to Gap Teeth by his name. You became strong again
because of others.
Others who needed my strength, Rakki said. You live here now because I
lead. You left the caves to escape from Jemmo. Left to him, you, White Head,
would have died.
Is that why you think we saved you? White Head asked.
Rakki scowled and found that he couldn t answer. The question had made him
angry. He wasn t sure why. Everyone must seek for themselves, he said. And
turning away to end the conversation, he stalked out of the hut.
The head god, whom the metal bird obeyed, was standing a short distance away,
talking with the warrior god who had watched. Rakki studied them and their
strange garb again, and his eyes came back to the gun that the warrior was
carrying, now slung behind a shoulder like a bow. It looked heavier and larger
than the one Rakki had handled briefly at the caves. Sims said it was more
powerful, holding more bullets and sending them farther.
Rakki forced himself to control his resentments, remain calm, and think again
why he should permit these gods to steal glory before his own people. Because
by tolerating their arrogance, he might gain a place as an ally to them in
whatever it was they sought. If he and his people became allies, then they
would have access to guns too. Then his vengeance upon Jemmo would be total
and crushing, and he would rule the Swamplands as well as the caves.
Everyone had to seek for themselves. It was the way.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The Jupiter survey mission vessel Trojan was virtually a sister ship to the
ill-fated Osiris, which had perished during its return voyage to Earth after
bringing Keene s group and other Terran survivors to Kronia. Like the Osiris,
it had been constructed with armaments during the time of political tension
that had existed between Kronia and Earth, and the armaments had been retained
as a resource for the Security Arm in case of need. In fact, the Security Arm
were crewing and operating the craft jointly with SOE, making the Jupiter
mission a combined planetary survey and
SA training venture.
Also like the Osiris, Trojan was built with a unique Kronian variable geometry
that combined linear and rotational accelerations to provide a simulation of
normal gravity whether the ship was in freefall or under drive. The basic form
was that of wheel attached to one end of an axle. The axle was the main body
of the vessel and consisted of a relatively thick cylindrical forward end,
with a thinner section extending tailward like the handle of an old-fashioned
potato masher and containing the fusion reactant tanks and propulsion system.
The larger part carried the heavy equipment, cargo bays, and docking port, and
also formed the base for six spoke booms (the Osiris had been built with four)
extending radially to accommodation modules carried at their ends. The modules
were interconnected by a circular communications tube to complete the wheel.
The booms pivoted at their bases to be capable of trailing back like the
spokes of a partly opened umbrella when the ship was under drive acceleration.
The angle they assumed was always such that the forces produced by the
vessel s forward thrust and by the rotation of the whole structure formed a
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resultant perpendicular to the decks in the modules at the ends. Telescopic
sections in the connecting ring compensated for changes in the ring s
circumference when the trailing angle altered.
Colonel Birt Nyrom, commander of the Trojan s SA contingent, stood in the
minigravity of the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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