[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
but the Protos need to know how you fare on this journey.
Page 26
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
We believe you should make it without the plate, for in no other way can we
assess the real importance of the plate."
"Then you admit you still have it. What if you can't communicate with your
fellows once we're out in space? How do you know that water isn't essential to
your telepathy?"
The Proto was silent. Lavon stared at it a moment, then turned deliberately
back to the speaking tubes. "Everyone hang on," he said. He felt shaky. "We're
about to start. Stravol, is the ship sealed?"
"As far as I can tell, Lavon."
Lavon shifted to another megaphone. He took a deep breath. Al-
ready the water seemed stifling, although the ship hadn't moved.
"Ready with one-quarter power. . . . One, two, three, go."
The whole ship jerked and settled back into place again. The raphe diatoms
along the under hull settled into their niches, their jelly treads turning
against broad endless belts of crude caddis-
worm leather. Wooden gears creaked, stepping up the slow power of the
creatures, transmitting it to the sixteen axles of the ship's wheels.
Gradually the sky lowered and pressed down toward the top of the ship.
"A little more work from your diatoms, Tanol," Lavon said. "Boul-
der ahead." The ship swung ponderously. "All right, slow them up again. Give
us a shove from your side, Tolno, that's too much -
there, that's it. Back to normal; you're still turning us I Tanol, give us one
burst to line us up again. Good. All right, steady drive on all sides. It
shouldn't be long now."
"How can you think in webs like that?" the Para wondered be-
hind him.
"I just do, that's all. It's the way men think. Overseers, a little more
thrust now; the grade's getting steeper."
The gears groaned. The ship nosed up. The sky brightened in La-
von's face. Despite himself, he began to be frightened. His lungs seemed to
burn, and in his mind he felt his long fall through noth-
ingness toward the chill slap of the water as if he were experiencing it for
the first time. His skin itched and burned. Could he go up there again? Up
there into the burning void, the great gasping ag-
ony where no life should go?
The sand bar began to level out and the going became a little easier. Up here,
the sky was so close that the lumbering motion of the huge ship disturbed it.
Shadows of wavelets ran across the sand. Silently, the thick-barreled bands of
blue-green algae drank in the light and converted it to oxygen, writhing in
their slow mind-
less dance just under the long mica skylight which ran along the spine of the
ship. In the hold, beneath the latticed corridor and cabin floors, whirring
Vortae kept the ship's water in motion, fueling themselves upon drifting
organic particles.
One by one, the figures wheeling outside about the ship waved arms or cilia
and fell back, coasting down the slope of the sand bar toward the familiar
world, dwindling and disappearing. There was at last only one single Euglena,
half-plant cousin of the Protos, forging
"All right," Lavon agreed. "Full stop, everybody. Shar, will you
supervise gear-changing, please?"
Insane brilliance of empty space looked Lavon full in the face just beyond his
big mica bull seye. It was maddening to be forced to stop here upon the
threshold of infinity; and it was dangerous, too. La-
von could feel building in him the old fear of the outside. A few mo-
ments more of inaction, he knew with a gathering coldness in his belly, and he
would be unable to go through with it.
Page 27
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Surely, he thought, there must be a better way to change gear-
ratios than the traditional one, which involved dismantling almost the entire
gear-box. Why couldn't a number of gears of different sizes be carried on the
same shaft, not necessarily all in action at once, but awaiting use simply by
shoving the axle back and forth longitudinally in its sockets? It would still
be clumsy, but it could be worked on orders from the bridge and would not
involve shutting down the entire machine - and throwing the new pilot into a
blue-
green funk. Shar came lunging up through the trap and swam him-
self to a stop.
"All set," he said. "The big reduction gears aren't taking the strain too
well, though."
"Splintering?"
"Yes. I'd go it slow at first."
Lavon nodded mutely. Without allowing himself to stop, even for a moment, to
consider the consequences of his words, he called:
"Half power." , The ship hunched itself down again and began to move, very
slowly indeed, but more smoothly than before. Overhead, the sky thinned to
complete transparency. The great light came blasting in.
Behind Lavon there was an uneasy stir. The whiteness grew at the front ports.
Again the ship slowed, straining against the blinding barrier. La-
von swallowed and called for more power. The ship groaned like
"What is it? Stop your damn yelling."
"I can see the top of the skyl From the other side, from the top side! It's
like a big flat sheet of metal. We're going away from. it.
We're above the sky, Lavon, we're above the sky!"
Another violent start swung Lavon around toward the forward port. On the
outside of the mica, the water was evaporating with shocking swiftness, taking
with it strange distortions and patterns made of rainbows.
Lavon saw space.
It was at first like a deserted and cruelly dry version of the Bot-
tom. There were enormous boulders, great cliffs, tumbled, split, riven, jagged
rocks going up and away in all directions, as if scat-
tered at random by some giant.
But it had a sky of its own - a deep blue dome so far away that he could not
believe in, let alone estimate, what its distance might be. And in this dome
was a ball of reddish-white fire that seared his eyeballs.
The wilderness of rock was still a long way away from the ship, which now
seemed to be resting upon a level, glistening plain. Be-
neath the surface-shine, the plain seemed to be made of sand, nothing but
familiar sand, the same substance which had heaped up to form a bar in Lavon's
universe, the bar along which the ship had climbed. But the glassy, colorful
skin over it
Suddenly Lavon became conscious of another shout from the megaphone banks. He
shook his head savagely and said, "What is it now?"
"Lavon, this is Tol. What have you gotten us into? The belts are locked. The
diatoms can't move them. They aren't faking, either;
we've rapped them hard enough to make them think we were trying to break their
shells, but they still can't give us more power."
"Leave them alone," Lavon snapped. "They can't fake; they have-
n't enough intelligence. If they say they can't give you more power,
hold any l arge object pretty tightly. That's why I insisted on our
building the ship so that we could lift the wheels."
"Evidently the ancients knew their business after all, Shar."
Quite a few minutes later - for shifting power to the belly treads involved [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
but the Protos need to know how you fare on this journey.
Page 26
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
We believe you should make it without the plate, for in no other way can we
assess the real importance of the plate."
"Then you admit you still have it. What if you can't communicate with your
fellows once we're out in space? How do you know that water isn't essential to
your telepathy?"
The Proto was silent. Lavon stared at it a moment, then turned deliberately
back to the speaking tubes. "Everyone hang on," he said. He felt shaky. "We're
about to start. Stravol, is the ship sealed?"
"As far as I can tell, Lavon."
Lavon shifted to another megaphone. He took a deep breath. Al-
ready the water seemed stifling, although the ship hadn't moved.
"Ready with one-quarter power. . . . One, two, three, go."
The whole ship jerked and settled back into place again. The raphe diatoms
along the under hull settled into their niches, their jelly treads turning
against broad endless belts of crude caddis-
worm leather. Wooden gears creaked, stepping up the slow power of the
creatures, transmitting it to the sixteen axles of the ship's wheels.
Gradually the sky lowered and pressed down toward the top of the ship.
"A little more work from your diatoms, Tanol," Lavon said. "Boul-
der ahead." The ship swung ponderously. "All right, slow them up again. Give
us a shove from your side, Tolno, that's too much -
there, that's it. Back to normal; you're still turning us I Tanol, give us one
burst to line us up again. Good. All right, steady drive on all sides. It
shouldn't be long now."
"How can you think in webs like that?" the Para wondered be-
hind him.
"I just do, that's all. It's the way men think. Overseers, a little more
thrust now; the grade's getting steeper."
The gears groaned. The ship nosed up. The sky brightened in La-
von's face. Despite himself, he began to be frightened. His lungs seemed to
burn, and in his mind he felt his long fall through noth-
ingness toward the chill slap of the water as if he were experiencing it for
the first time. His skin itched and burned. Could he go up there again? Up
there into the burning void, the great gasping ag-
ony where no life should go?
The sand bar began to level out and the going became a little easier. Up here,
the sky was so close that the lumbering motion of the huge ship disturbed it.
Shadows of wavelets ran across the sand. Silently, the thick-barreled bands of
blue-green algae drank in the light and converted it to oxygen, writhing in
their slow mind-
less dance just under the long mica skylight which ran along the spine of the
ship. In the hold, beneath the latticed corridor and cabin floors, whirring
Vortae kept the ship's water in motion, fueling themselves upon drifting
organic particles.
One by one, the figures wheeling outside about the ship waved arms or cilia
and fell back, coasting down the slope of the sand bar toward the familiar
world, dwindling and disappearing. There was at last only one single Euglena,
half-plant cousin of the Protos, forging
"All right," Lavon agreed. "Full stop, everybody. Shar, will you
supervise gear-changing, please?"
Insane brilliance of empty space looked Lavon full in the face just beyond his
big mica bull seye. It was maddening to be forced to stop here upon the
threshold of infinity; and it was dangerous, too. La-
von could feel building in him the old fear of the outside. A few mo-
ments more of inaction, he knew with a gathering coldness in his belly, and he
would be unable to go through with it.
Page 27
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Surely, he thought, there must be a better way to change gear-
ratios than the traditional one, which involved dismantling almost the entire
gear-box. Why couldn't a number of gears of different sizes be carried on the
same shaft, not necessarily all in action at once, but awaiting use simply by
shoving the axle back and forth longitudinally in its sockets? It would still
be clumsy, but it could be worked on orders from the bridge and would not
involve shutting down the entire machine - and throwing the new pilot into a
blue-
green funk. Shar came lunging up through the trap and swam him-
self to a stop.
"All set," he said. "The big reduction gears aren't taking the strain too
well, though."
"Splintering?"
"Yes. I'd go it slow at first."
Lavon nodded mutely. Without allowing himself to stop, even for a moment, to
consider the consequences of his words, he called:
"Half power." , The ship hunched itself down again and began to move, very
slowly indeed, but more smoothly than before. Overhead, the sky thinned to
complete transparency. The great light came blasting in.
Behind Lavon there was an uneasy stir. The whiteness grew at the front ports.
Again the ship slowed, straining against the blinding barrier. La-
von swallowed and called for more power. The ship groaned like
"What is it? Stop your damn yelling."
"I can see the top of the skyl From the other side, from the top side! It's
like a big flat sheet of metal. We're going away from. it.
We're above the sky, Lavon, we're above the sky!"
Another violent start swung Lavon around toward the forward port. On the
outside of the mica, the water was evaporating with shocking swiftness, taking
with it strange distortions and patterns made of rainbows.
Lavon saw space.
It was at first like a deserted and cruelly dry version of the Bot-
tom. There were enormous boulders, great cliffs, tumbled, split, riven, jagged
rocks going up and away in all directions, as if scat-
tered at random by some giant.
But it had a sky of its own - a deep blue dome so far away that he could not
believe in, let alone estimate, what its distance might be. And in this dome
was a ball of reddish-white fire that seared his eyeballs.
The wilderness of rock was still a long way away from the ship, which now
seemed to be resting upon a level, glistening plain. Be-
neath the surface-shine, the plain seemed to be made of sand, nothing but
familiar sand, the same substance which had heaped up to form a bar in Lavon's
universe, the bar along which the ship had climbed. But the glassy, colorful
skin over it
Suddenly Lavon became conscious of another shout from the megaphone banks. He
shook his head savagely and said, "What is it now?"
"Lavon, this is Tol. What have you gotten us into? The belts are locked. The
diatoms can't move them. They aren't faking, either;
we've rapped them hard enough to make them think we were trying to break their
shells, but they still can't give us more power."
"Leave them alone," Lavon snapped. "They can't fake; they have-
n't enough intelligence. If they say they can't give you more power,
hold any l arge object pretty tightly. That's why I insisted on our
building the ship so that we could lift the wheels."
"Evidently the ancients knew their business after all, Shar."
Quite a few minutes later - for shifting power to the belly treads involved [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]