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."Wait until you meet KR, Moon.You'll understand everything then."They boarded the shuttle at the tail of the crowd.Moon caught a glimpse ofits tubby, boxlike exterior through the airlock's port: It was a crate, justas Cress had said, with no propulsion of its own.It was drawn down to the planet and shunted back up again just like any otherPage 102 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlpiece of freight, clutched in an invisible hand of repeller-or tractor--beamsfrom one of the planetary distribution centers.A shipping window was a columnof no-man's space thirty meters wide, licking out into the zone of heavyindustry betweenKharemough and its moons.On board they were led to tiers of seats above a central floor screen thatshowed her a view of the planet's surface, misty with blue and khaki; shetried to concentrate on the solid immensity of it, and not to remember that itwas unspeakably far below them.No one drifted weightless out of a seat evenhere on board the shuttle;the Kharemoughis claimed, with unsubtle pride, that getting rid of gravity wasthe hard part; they could produce it whenever they wanted to.The exits sealed, the shuttle broke free from the station's grasp and beganits drop into the tube of force.Moon sat oblivious to themuted conversations, mostly incomprehensible, around her-oblivious toeverything but the vision of the planet's surface rising up to meet them inmid fall An amorphorous, cloud-swirled plate widened into ever clearer detail,while Elsevier's hushed voice pointed out the burnished blue seas, and thegreen-ochre of this world's islands, so huge that they shouldered aside thesea itself.The island centrally below grew until it was all she could see,dividing and redividing into murals of mountain, forest, farmland, all rollinginexorably into morning.and then, before she quite realized it, a slenderring of twilit city laid out in ripples concentric around an immense, shining,treeless plain.".landing field," Elsevier said.At the final moment she had the feeling that another giant's invisible handplucked them out of the air, before they impacted on the glowing grid lines ofthe field.It swept them aside, into one of the stolid warehouse buildingsthat peri metered the landing area, and at last set them down.The crowd of passengers left the warm-colored interior of the passengerterminal.Moon felt her feet tingle as she walked at the pressure of an alienworld.or else they tingled with bad circulation.The artificial gravity ofthe space city was less than she was used to, and this was more; her feet camedown like ballast no matter how carefully she moved.It was barely dawn here on the planet surface, the air was still cool;Elsevier rubbed her arms inside her sleeves.Moon slipped on her own wine-redrobe and belted it without protest.The Kharemoughis were a modest people, andElsevier had warned her that the free ways of the Thieves' Market did notextend down to the ground.Sunrise opened like a flower in the east, the skyoverhead would still be black and starless.Looking up, her breath caughtin her throat at the sight of the sky.Overhead the darkness was curtainedwith light, banner folds of green rose yellow gold icy blue; sighing bands ofrainbow, rays of scintillating whiteness crowning an enchanted dreamland."Look at that, Silky." Elsevier lapsed into Sandhi as her gaze followed Moon'sup; the words were not praise."It's disgraceful.""You can say that again, citizen." Three fellow shuttle passengers, dark,slender native Kharemoughis, stood beside them waiting for a taxi; one of themnodded his helmeted head in disgust."Pollution-you'd think there no tomorrow was.Ye gods, the sheer tonnage ofcast-off junk floating up there.I don't know how they expect us our job todo.It's not traffic control any more, it's a demolition derby.""SN--" The second of the three was a woman; she laughed lightly, tapped himnot quite playfully on his uniformed shoulder."These citizens aren't fromaround here," a significant lifting of the eyebrows."They don't need by ourpetty complaints to be bored, do they?""Yes, old man." The third helmet bobbed."You really do need this vacation.You're like a bio purist sounding."Page 103 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThe first man pushed his hands into his belt, looking annoyed."What's wrong with the sky?" Moon pulled her gaze down, reluctantly."It'sfull of light." The way it should be."It's beautiful."The first man glanced at her with a frown starting, ended up smiling in spiteof himself.He shook his head, more in sorrow than in anger."Ignorance isbliss, citizen.Be glad you're not aKharemoughi." A hovercraft slowed in front of them, and they climbed in."Welcome to Kharemough," Cress said pointedly in Tiamatan, "where the godsspeak Sandhi." He grinned at her.Elsevier claimed the next taxi; the Kharemoughi Nontech at the controls gavethem a group stare of mild astonishment when she asked for the estate of KRAspundh.She held up a graceful hand, showing him the ruby signet she wore onher thumb.He turned back to the controls without comment and began a long arcaround the perimeter of the field."What's wrong with the sky, anyway?" Moon peered out through the taxi dome;the sky was brightening, the aurora faded before the light of day."Industrial pollution," Elsevier said quietly.'"Are we forever doomed torepeat the errors of our ancestors? Is history hereditary, or environmental?"""Nicely put," Cress said, glancing back from his seat beside the pilot."TJ's words." Elsevier brushed the compliment aside like a gnat."Kharemough was fairly well-off even after the Old Empire fell apart, Moon.They still had some industrial base--though hardship was great here, likeeverywhere, after they were cut off from the interstellar trade that hadsupported them.They learned to do things for themselves, but in ways thatwere cruder and infinitely more wasteful.They suffered the consequences ofpollution and overpopulation; they almost destroyed their world over amillennium ago, before they got clean hydrogen fusion and moved most of theirindustry into space.But now they've exchanged their old problems for newones--not such serious ones, at present, but who knows what they'll mean tofuture generations? Cause and effect; there's no escape from them."Moon touched the tattoo hidden under the enameled sunburst collar, looked pastSilky at the sea of green foliage beneath them.She leaned away from him asshe looked down; knowing he was afraid of her touch, and still secretlyrepelled by his glistening alien ness They had drifted up and across thenarrow band of city--mostly, from what she could see, warehouses and shops ofevery imaginable kind, not yet stirring to the day; but not many apartments orhouses.Now they were rising over open woodland, broken by small park likeclearings holding private homes."I thought you said there were still too manypeople here, Elsie.They aren't even as crowded as islanders.""There are, my dear--but with so many of them and so much of theirmanufacturing out in space, the surface dwellers have all the room they want,and can afford.They gather around hubs like the one we just left, thatdistribute everything they need.The wealthier you are, the farther out youlive.KR lives quite a way out.""Is he rich, then?""Rich?" Elsevier chuckled."Oh, filthy rich.It all should have been TJ's,he was the oldest; but he was censured and stripped of his rank for hisscandalous behavior.I'm sure he did it on purpose, he loathed the whole castesystem [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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."Wait until you meet KR, Moon.You'll understand everything then."They boarded the shuttle at the tail of the crowd.Moon caught a glimpse ofits tubby, boxlike exterior through the airlock's port: It was a crate, justas Cress had said, with no propulsion of its own.It was drawn down to the planet and shunted back up again just like any otherPage 102 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlpiece of freight, clutched in an invisible hand of repeller-or tractor--beamsfrom one of the planetary distribution centers.A shipping window was a columnof no-man's space thirty meters wide, licking out into the zone of heavyindustry betweenKharemough and its moons.On board they were led to tiers of seats above a central floor screen thatshowed her a view of the planet's surface, misty with blue and khaki; shetried to concentrate on the solid immensity of it, and not to remember that itwas unspeakably far below them.No one drifted weightless out of a seat evenhere on board the shuttle;the Kharemoughis claimed, with unsubtle pride, that getting rid of gravity wasthe hard part; they could produce it whenever they wanted to.The exits sealed, the shuttle broke free from the station's grasp and beganits drop into the tube of force.Moon sat oblivious to themuted conversations, mostly incomprehensible, around her-oblivious toeverything but the vision of the planet's surface rising up to meet them inmid fall An amorphorous, cloud-swirled plate widened into ever clearer detail,while Elsevier's hushed voice pointed out the burnished blue seas, and thegreen-ochre of this world's islands, so huge that they shouldered aside thesea itself.The island centrally below grew until it was all she could see,dividing and redividing into murals of mountain, forest, farmland, all rollinginexorably into morning.and then, before she quite realized it, a slenderring of twilit city laid out in ripples concentric around an immense, shining,treeless plain.".landing field," Elsevier said.At the final moment she had the feeling that another giant's invisible handplucked them out of the air, before they impacted on the glowing grid lines ofthe field.It swept them aside, into one of the stolid warehouse buildingsthat peri metered the landing area, and at last set them down.The crowd of passengers left the warm-colored interior of the passengerterminal.Moon felt her feet tingle as she walked at the pressure of an alienworld.or else they tingled with bad circulation.The artificial gravity ofthe space city was less than she was used to, and this was more; her feet camedown like ballast no matter how carefully she moved.It was barely dawn here on the planet surface, the air was still cool;Elsevier rubbed her arms inside her sleeves.Moon slipped on her own wine-redrobe and belted it without protest.The Kharemoughis were a modest people, andElsevier had warned her that the free ways of the Thieves' Market did notextend down to the ground.Sunrise opened like a flower in the east, the skyoverhead would still be black and starless.Looking up, her breath caughtin her throat at the sight of the sky.Overhead the darkness was curtainedwith light, banner folds of green rose yellow gold icy blue; sighing bands ofrainbow, rays of scintillating whiteness crowning an enchanted dreamland."Look at that, Silky." Elsevier lapsed into Sandhi as her gaze followed Moon'sup; the words were not praise."It's disgraceful.""You can say that again, citizen." Three fellow shuttle passengers, dark,slender native Kharemoughis, stood beside them waiting for a taxi; one of themnodded his helmeted head in disgust."Pollution-you'd think there no tomorrow was.Ye gods, the sheer tonnage ofcast-off junk floating up there.I don't know how they expect us our job todo.It's not traffic control any more, it's a demolition derby.""SN--" The second of the three was a woman; she laughed lightly, tapped himnot quite playfully on his uniformed shoulder."These citizens aren't fromaround here," a significant lifting of the eyebrows."They don't need by ourpetty complaints to be bored, do they?""Yes, old man." The third helmet bobbed."You really do need this vacation.You're like a bio purist sounding."Page 103 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThe first man pushed his hands into his belt, looking annoyed."What's wrong with the sky?" Moon pulled her gaze down, reluctantly."It'sfull of light." The way it should be."It's beautiful."The first man glanced at her with a frown starting, ended up smiling in spiteof himself.He shook his head, more in sorrow than in anger."Ignorance isbliss, citizen.Be glad you're not aKharemoughi." A hovercraft slowed in front of them, and they climbed in."Welcome to Kharemough," Cress said pointedly in Tiamatan, "where the godsspeak Sandhi." He grinned at her.Elsevier claimed the next taxi; the Kharemoughi Nontech at the controls gavethem a group stare of mild astonishment when she asked for the estate of KRAspundh.She held up a graceful hand, showing him the ruby signet she wore onher thumb.He turned back to the controls without comment and began a long arcaround the perimeter of the field."What's wrong with the sky, anyway?" Moon peered out through the taxi dome;the sky was brightening, the aurora faded before the light of day."Industrial pollution," Elsevier said quietly.'"Are we forever doomed torepeat the errors of our ancestors? Is history hereditary, or environmental?"""Nicely put," Cress said, glancing back from his seat beside the pilot."TJ's words." Elsevier brushed the compliment aside like a gnat."Kharemough was fairly well-off even after the Old Empire fell apart, Moon.They still had some industrial base--though hardship was great here, likeeverywhere, after they were cut off from the interstellar trade that hadsupported them.They learned to do things for themselves, but in ways thatwere cruder and infinitely more wasteful.They suffered the consequences ofpollution and overpopulation; they almost destroyed their world over amillennium ago, before they got clean hydrogen fusion and moved most of theirindustry into space.But now they've exchanged their old problems for newones--not such serious ones, at present, but who knows what they'll mean tofuture generations? Cause and effect; there's no escape from them."Moon touched the tattoo hidden under the enameled sunburst collar, looked pastSilky at the sea of green foliage beneath them.She leaned away from him asshe looked down; knowing he was afraid of her touch, and still secretlyrepelled by his glistening alien ness They had drifted up and across thenarrow band of city--mostly, from what she could see, warehouses and shops ofevery imaginable kind, not yet stirring to the day; but not many apartments orhouses.Now they were rising over open woodland, broken by small park likeclearings holding private homes."I thought you said there were still too manypeople here, Elsie.They aren't even as crowded as islanders.""There are, my dear--but with so many of them and so much of theirmanufacturing out in space, the surface dwellers have all the room they want,and can afford.They gather around hubs like the one we just left, thatdistribute everything they need.The wealthier you are, the farther out youlive.KR lives quite a way out.""Is he rich, then?""Rich?" Elsevier chuckled."Oh, filthy rich.It all should have been TJ's,he was the oldest; but he was censured and stripped of his rank for hisscandalous behavior.I'm sure he did it on purpose, he loathed the whole castesystem [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]