Odnośniki
- Indeks
- Jack L. Chalker QM 1 The Demons at Ra
- Flint, Eric Ring of Fire SS anth Grantville Gazette Vol 6
- A. J. Rich Tak dobrze mnie znasz
- Beverly Barton Jej tajna broń
- D369. Delacorte Shawna Syn magnata
- Tunel strachu
- 2007 02. Randka w walentynki 3. Kelly Leslie Czyste Rozkosze
- Jack L. Chalker Downtiming the Night S
- King Stephen Uciekinier
- Connelly, Stacy Eine Affaere ist lange nicht genug
- zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- effulla.pev.pl
sure it was the name of the demonlord) "was beginning to have second thoughts about not killing you
immediately when we captured you. Now he won't."
Dhowifa began to speak, but Nukurren cut him off.
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"Why not?"
The white demon did something odd with its mantle, as if quickly raising and lowering its upper
torso where its cowl would be if it had one.
"You were not entirely with the slavers by choice. He hates slavers. We all do. And besides, he's
curious."
"About us?"
"Yes."
Dhowifa now spoke, very softly, in his broken Kiktu. "You is are, not by us, offended?"
"Offended?" asked the white demon. "Because you are" he struggled with the unfamiliar word
"perverts?"
Dhowifa made the gesture of assent, and it was obvious to Nukurren that the demon understood the
meaning of the arm-curls.
Again, the two demons gaped wide their beaks.
"It means nothing to us," said the female one. She moved closer to the white demon, and reached out
one of her limbs. Then, with the odd little stick-tentacles at its tip, she began slowly caressing the back of
the male demon's head, under the long, soft, bright yellow head-growths.
"My name is" here she spoke slowly, carefully enunciating "Ludumilaroshokavashiki, and this is
Dzhenushkunutushen. We have often been lovers. More and more often, now, in preference to others."
Her beak gaped. "Soon I think he will ask me to be his mate, if he can muster the courage."
The male demon's white hide was again suffused with pink.
"And what will you say?" asked Nukurren.
"I will say `yes,' " replied the female demon, very softly.
Nukurren stared at the big white demon, Dzhenushkunutushen. The demon stared back at her.
And suddenly, uncertainly, deep within a monster's eyes, eyes the color of insensate blue fury, Nukurren
caught a glimpse of something she had never thought to find in her bleak and lonely existence.
Chapter 8
Once the survival of the colony was assured, Indira had began looking toward the future. Just a few
days after the discovery of the maia-food, she had proposed, and the five other surviving adults had
agreed, to begin a school for the children. They were faced with the fact that the technological base
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which they had always assumed would be the underpinning of the colony was almost gone. One of the
landing boats was a wreck, not good for much beyond storage and scrap metal. The equipment on the
other boat was still functioning (other than the engines, which were almost out of the complex synthetic
chemical which they used for fuel). But Hector pointed out that the batteries which powered the
equipment would soon be inoperative.
"They're nuclear batteries!" protested Adams.
Hector shook his head. "No they ain't, Doctor. Sorry. They're just little temporary units, designed to be
recharged on a regular basis on theMagellan ."
Adams began a vigorous denunciation of the incompetence of the expedition's planners, but Julius cut
him off.
"Stow it,Doctor Adams! It's water under the bridge. Spilt milk. Let's get on with the business at hand."
Adams glared at the biologist, but he kept his mouth shut. Julius continued:
"The way I see it, we've got to completely put out of our minds any illusions that we can maintain an
advanced technological culture. We've got to face the facts. Every single piece of advanced equipment
on the boat the computers, for instance presupposes a whole technological support base that just
doesn't exist anymore. The problem with the batteries is just the tip of the iceberg."
A sidelong glare at Adams.
"I happen to know how the temporary batteries in the lifeboats were chosen. Everybody on the planning
board wanted nuclear batteries. But nuclear batteries are big, and there was nothing as valuable as space.
So the decision was made to have nuclear batteries on the mother ship alone, and use small temporary
batteries on the lifeboats. It's easy to sneer at that decision now. But it was the logical decision to make
at the time.
"We're going to find the same thing is true over and over again. The minute any single component of any
of the remaining equipment breaks down, that's it. There aren't any replacement parts, and we've got no
way to make them. Even if we knew how, which we don't."
A shrug. "It's one of the prices we pay for having such a technologically advanced culture. We're all
specialists, by and large. Take me, for example. I know how touse the equipment in a biological lab. But
I don't know how to make it. I don't even fully understand how most of it works. The same's true for all
of us."
He smiled. "Except Indira. The historian's profession hasn't changed much over the last five thousand
years."
"So what do you propose, Julius?" asked Janet. "Specifically."
"I propose that we concentrate on teaching the children the essential tools of survival physical and
cultural. Reading and writing. Basic mathematics. Basic medicine. Shelter, and clothing. But most of all,
we've got to teach them which means that we've got to learn it ourselves, since none of us is a
farmer basic agriculture."
"That's nonsense!" expostulated Adams. "We can't eat the plants. And we don't need to,
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anyway we've got the maia."
Julius stared at Adams in silence for over a minute. Indira started to speak, thought better of it. Everyone
else apparently shared her reticence.
Finally, Julius spoke again.
"Do you believe in magic,Doctor Adams?"
"Of course not! And let me say that I find that remark highly "
"Just shut up!" bellowed the biologist. It was the first time any of them had ever heard Julius raise his
voice. All of them, including Adams, were shocked into silence.
Julius glared around the campfire.
"Let me explain something to you, people." He pointed to the south. "The maia are not your fairy
godmothers. It doesn't matter whether you think they're animals or sapient beings. If they're animals,
they're in ecological balance with their habitat. And if they're sapient, as I believe them to be, they're at
the most primitive possible cultural level.Do you understand what that means ?"
Silence. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]