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voice to a grumble, "Oh, yes, Janine. And I love you. But I do not know what
they will do."
"Probably they won't hurt you, Wan."
Scornfully, "Me? It is you I worry about, Janine. This is where I have lived
all my life and sooner or later this would have happened. But you-I am worried
about you." He added gloomily, "They are very noisy out there, too. Something
is happening."
"I don't think they will hurt us-any more, I mean," Janine corrected herself,
thinking about the dreaming couch. The distant chirping cries were coming
closer. She dressed quickly and looked around, as Tor's voice hailed Hooay
outside the door.
There was nothing to show what had happened. Not even a drop of blood. But
when Tor opened the door, fussed and worried, he stopped to squint at them
suspiciously, then sniffed the air.
"Perhaps I will not have to breed you, Danine, after all," he said, kind but
frightened. "But
Danine! Oowan! There is a terrible thing! Tar has fallen asleep and the old
female has run away!"
Wan and Janine were dragged to the spindle, filled with nearly all of the Old
Ones. They were milling around in panic. Three of them lay sprawled and
snoring where they had been dumped-
Tar and two others of Lurvy's guards, failures in their missions, found sound
asleep and brought back in fear and disgrace for the judgment of the Oldest
One. Who lay motionless but alert on his pedestal, cascades of color rippling
around his perimeter.
To the flesh-and-blood creatures the Oldest One showed nothing of his
thoughts. He was metal. He was formidable. He could be neither understood nor
challenged. Neither Wan nor Janine, nor any of his near hundred quaking
children, could perceive the fear and anger that raced through
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file:///F|/rah/Frederik%20Pohl/Pohl,%20Frederik%20-%20Heechee%202%20-%20Beyond
%20The%20Blue%20Event%20Horizon.txt his circulating memories. Fear that his
plans were in jeopardy. Rage that his children had failed to carry out their
orders.
The three that had failed would have to be punished, to set an example. The
hundred-odd others would also have to be punished-somewhat more lightly, so
that the race would not become extinct-for failing to keep the three to their
duty. As for the intruders-there was no punishment grave enough for them!
Perhaps they should be abolished, like any other challenging organism that
threatened to damage its host. Perhaps worse than that. Perhaps nothing within
his powers was quite severe enough.
But what was still in his power? He forced himself to stand. Janine saw the
ripple of lights flicker and freeze into a pattern as the Oldest One rose to
his extended height and spoke.
"The female is to be recaptured and preserved," he said. "This is to be done
at once."
He stood there, wobbling uneasily; the effectors for his limbs were performing
erratically. He allowed himself to kneel once more while he pondered his
options. The exertion of going to the control room to set course-the turmoil
in his mind that had led him to do it-half a million years of existence, all
had taken their toll. He needed time to "rest"-time, that is, for his
autonomic systems to retrace and repair what damage they could, and perhaps
time no longer would be enough. "Do not wake me again till this is done," he
said, and the lights resumed their random flicker, and slowly dwindled to
darkness.
Janine, circled in Wan's arm-his body half toward the Oldest One, half
sheltering her, trembling with fear-knew without being told that "preserved"
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meant killed. She was frightened, too.
But she was also puzzled.
The Old Ones who lay snoring through their trial and judgment had not fallen
asleep by chance. Janine recognized the results of a sleep-gun. Janine knew
also that none of her party had had one.
For that reason, Janine was not entirely surprised when, an hour later and
back in their pen, they heard a stifled grunt from outside.
She was not surprised to see her sister run in, waving a gun and calling to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]