[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
frequency. Adam thought:
Like an
Earth housecat, playing with a victim
. But on a deeper, stronger level, he was thinking also:
Come on, you obscenity, come up where and try that on me. Come on
.
But he was a damned fool, to be upset by the sight of one animal eating
another one. He watched a little longer, answering a few more questions from
above, then turned his back and went on with his job.
An hour later, when Adam had finished the rest of the scheduled First Out
procedures, and was back in the control room of the scoutship, he found Brazil
looking at him with an oddly fascinated expression. The first thing the
Colonel said was:
"I wonder why your big playmate out there didn't have wings."
Adam let himself sink into the right-hand seat with a tired sigh. "Wings?
Why?"
"The original did; Geryon was his name. Remember? Or don't you like to read?"
"Jur who?" But something in Adam's memory stirred faintly.
Was it something he had read? Or something else?
But what?
"G-e-r-y-o-n." The Colonel spelled it out. "A thing Dante met when he was
visiting the Inferno. It had the face of a just and kindly man. And wings.
Among other attributes."
Adam gave a half-laugh. "He encountered it in a likely place, I
think. Kind of took me by surprise, out there."
Chapter Six
By the third standard day after First Landing, scoutships were shuttling in an
almost continuous pattern between Alpha One and the tiny accessible area of
Golden's surface that the explorers had come to call the Stem. As everyone had
expected, General Grodsky had decreed Total Investigation here; that meant
that eventually everything within reach on Planet Golden was to be sampled and
studied. Planeteer teams had already begun analyzing the air, the water, the
soil, and many of the smaller forms of life. As yet no attempts had been made
to obtain specimens of the larger animals. For one thing, the human natives
might be inconvenienced or outraged by such activity, and for another, until
more had been learned by observation there was at least a theoretical chance
of getting an intelligent, non-primate-theme human being in the game bag by
mistake. A very few such races were known to exist in the
Galaxy, of intelligent beings therefore classified as human, but with no more
physical resemblance to Earth-descended humans than to marigolds or mollusks.
The indications so far on Golden were that life here held at least fairly
closely to the commonest Galactic theme patterns for
Earth-type planets. Beside the natives who were obviously
intelligent beings in the primate theme, there were deer-types and
giraffe-types to be seen grazing on the green plains. Species of large animals
strongly centered in the cat-theme of Galactic evolution had been observed,
preying as might be expected upon the larger herbivores. And here on Golden,
as on every habitable world that explorers from Earth had yet examined, there
were also apparent exceptions to the standard Galactic themes here, most
notably so far, the species of large omnivores that were already being called
geryons.
Page 26
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Day and night the radar equipment of the Earth-descended explorers never
ceased for a millisecond to scan the Field. But still the Field was never
observed to move or change. Every attempt to measure or analyze it had so far
proven fruitless, as every technologically advanced instrument brought into
contact with it died on contact. The Field simply existed, as it had since
Fakhuri's first sighting, shrouding the planet completely except for the tiny
Stem area of the surface.
On the third day after First Landing Golden's rotation was only very slightly
slower than that of Earth a small group of women and men in protective
groundsuits approached on foot the invisible but very sharply defined line
where the Field came down in a nearly vertical wall to meet the soil of
Golden.
These planeteers carried with them long wired probes, similar to the ones that
had earlier been lowered into the Field from a scoutship. It was soon
discovered that at ground level the result was the same. Electrical currents
died as soon as any part of the wire carrying them was introduced into the
Field. The surface of the Field was soon found to be very smooth in every
region tested, and very sharply defined. The anomalous condition now a
favorite term of description was soon shown to extend, in the same plane as
aboveground, for at least a few meters below ground level. Plans were begun
for deeper exploratory excavations.
Electrical devices of any kind invariably went dead when they were shoved
across the invisible boundary. Yet the boundary appeared to mean nothing to
birds and animals, or to the native people who like the birds and animals were
observed passing in
and out of the Field at will, with the bioelectric activities of their bodies
presumably unaffected by it.
"Do you know what the word is on Golden?" asked Adam through his groundsuit's
airspeaker. He was sighting carefully into a radar instrument as he spoke, and
a moment later he began to drive another marking pole into the soft ground,
just inside the newly charted boundary of the Stem.
Kwame Chun Li, the only planeteer on this mission who was less of a veteran
than Adam, moved his electrical probe a little further on, positioning it in
accordance with Adam's gestures. "
'Presumably'?" Chun Lui offered. "I hear the physicists are having it
programmed into their writers on a single key."
" 'Apparently' is the one I had in mind," said Adam.
Small Earth animals, pushed into the Field inside a wheeled cage, showed no
immediate effects from the exposure, and gave no sign that they were even
aware of a change in their environment. But the second time the experiment was
tried, and on a number of tries thereafter, the small padlock securing the
door of the animals' cage fell open. On examination the locks showed no sign
of damage, nor could they ever be made to repeat their bizarre behavior
outside the Field. A whole new set of experiments, having to do with the
behavior of mechanism inside the Field, was launched.
Levers, screws, and other simple machines, when not part of any complex
system, were always observed to perform normally inside the Field. But anymore
complex mechanical combinations or systems tended to display wildly erratic
behavior. A fine antique chronometer, put at risk by the devoted scientist who
owned it, was almost but not quite certain to run at the wrong speed, or even
backwards, when it was pushed across the border.
No pattern was apparent. Within the Field, the law of complex machines was
Chaos. Hope for the life of Chief Planeteer Golden, never bright, faded again;
it seemed that the complicated mechanism of his ejection capsule could never
have carried him free of his falling scoutship.
Any forcefields that the explorers from Earth were capable of generating
Page 27
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
simply ceased to exist at the boundary of the Field.
And beyond that border, many non-biological chemical reactions, especially the
more complex ones, could not be induced to conduct themselves properly.
Over there, atomic clocks and power supplies failed quite dependably, as if
their impelling isotopes had been turned to lead. Over there, a fusion power [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
frequency. Adam thought:
Like an
Earth housecat, playing with a victim
. But on a deeper, stronger level, he was thinking also:
Come on, you obscenity, come up where and try that on me. Come on
.
But he was a damned fool, to be upset by the sight of one animal eating
another one. He watched a little longer, answering a few more questions from
above, then turned his back and went on with his job.
An hour later, when Adam had finished the rest of the scheduled First Out
procedures, and was back in the control room of the scoutship, he found Brazil
looking at him with an oddly fascinated expression. The first thing the
Colonel said was:
"I wonder why your big playmate out there didn't have wings."
Adam let himself sink into the right-hand seat with a tired sigh. "Wings?
Why?"
"The original did; Geryon was his name. Remember? Or don't you like to read?"
"Jur who?" But something in Adam's memory stirred faintly.
Was it something he had read? Or something else?
But what?
"G-e-r-y-o-n." The Colonel spelled it out. "A thing Dante met when he was
visiting the Inferno. It had the face of a just and kindly man. And wings.
Among other attributes."
Adam gave a half-laugh. "He encountered it in a likely place, I
think. Kind of took me by surprise, out there."
Chapter Six
By the third standard day after First Landing, scoutships were shuttling in an
almost continuous pattern between Alpha One and the tiny accessible area of
Golden's surface that the explorers had come to call the Stem. As everyone had
expected, General Grodsky had decreed Total Investigation here; that meant
that eventually everything within reach on Planet Golden was to be sampled and
studied. Planeteer teams had already begun analyzing the air, the water, the
soil, and many of the smaller forms of life. As yet no attempts had been made
to obtain specimens of the larger animals. For one thing, the human natives
might be inconvenienced or outraged by such activity, and for another, until
more had been learned by observation there was at least a theoretical chance
of getting an intelligent, non-primate-theme human being in the game bag by
mistake. A very few such races were known to exist in the
Galaxy, of intelligent beings therefore classified as human, but with no more
physical resemblance to Earth-descended humans than to marigolds or mollusks.
The indications so far on Golden were that life here held at least fairly
closely to the commonest Galactic theme patterns for
Earth-type planets. Beside the natives who were obviously
intelligent beings in the primate theme, there were deer-types and
giraffe-types to be seen grazing on the green plains. Species of large animals
strongly centered in the cat-theme of Galactic evolution had been observed,
preying as might be expected upon the larger herbivores. And here on Golden,
as on every habitable world that explorers from Earth had yet examined, there
were also apparent exceptions to the standard Galactic themes here, most
notably so far, the species of large omnivores that were already being called
geryons.
Page 26
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Day and night the radar equipment of the Earth-descended explorers never
ceased for a millisecond to scan the Field. But still the Field was never
observed to move or change. Every attempt to measure or analyze it had so far
proven fruitless, as every technologically advanced instrument brought into
contact with it died on contact. The Field simply existed, as it had since
Fakhuri's first sighting, shrouding the planet completely except for the tiny
Stem area of the surface.
On the third day after First Landing Golden's rotation was only very slightly
slower than that of Earth a small group of women and men in protective
groundsuits approached on foot the invisible but very sharply defined line
where the Field came down in a nearly vertical wall to meet the soil of
Golden.
These planeteers carried with them long wired probes, similar to the ones that
had earlier been lowered into the Field from a scoutship. It was soon
discovered that at ground level the result was the same. Electrical currents
died as soon as any part of the wire carrying them was introduced into the
Field. The surface of the Field was soon found to be very smooth in every
region tested, and very sharply defined. The anomalous condition now a
favorite term of description was soon shown to extend, in the same plane as
aboveground, for at least a few meters below ground level. Plans were begun
for deeper exploratory excavations.
Electrical devices of any kind invariably went dead when they were shoved
across the invisible boundary. Yet the boundary appeared to mean nothing to
birds and animals, or to the native people who like the birds and animals were
observed passing in
and out of the Field at will, with the bioelectric activities of their bodies
presumably unaffected by it.
"Do you know what the word is on Golden?" asked Adam through his groundsuit's
airspeaker. He was sighting carefully into a radar instrument as he spoke, and
a moment later he began to drive another marking pole into the soft ground,
just inside the newly charted boundary of the Stem.
Kwame Chun Li, the only planeteer on this mission who was less of a veteran
than Adam, moved his electrical probe a little further on, positioning it in
accordance with Adam's gestures. "
'Presumably'?" Chun Lui offered. "I hear the physicists are having it
programmed into their writers on a single key."
" 'Apparently' is the one I had in mind," said Adam.
Small Earth animals, pushed into the Field inside a wheeled cage, showed no
immediate effects from the exposure, and gave no sign that they were even
aware of a change in their environment. But the second time the experiment was
tried, and on a number of tries thereafter, the small padlock securing the
door of the animals' cage fell open. On examination the locks showed no sign
of damage, nor could they ever be made to repeat their bizarre behavior
outside the Field. A whole new set of experiments, having to do with the
behavior of mechanism inside the Field, was launched.
Levers, screws, and other simple machines, when not part of any complex
system, were always observed to perform normally inside the Field. But anymore
complex mechanical combinations or systems tended to display wildly erratic
behavior. A fine antique chronometer, put at risk by the devoted scientist who
owned it, was almost but not quite certain to run at the wrong speed, or even
backwards, when it was pushed across the border.
No pattern was apparent. Within the Field, the law of complex machines was
Chaos. Hope for the life of Chief Planeteer Golden, never bright, faded again;
it seemed that the complicated mechanism of his ejection capsule could never
have carried him free of his falling scoutship.
Any forcefields that the explorers from Earth were capable of generating
Page 27
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
simply ceased to exist at the boundary of the Field.
And beyond that border, many non-biological chemical reactions, especially the
more complex ones, could not be induced to conduct themselves properly.
Over there, atomic clocks and power supplies failed quite dependably, as if
their impelling isotopes had been turned to lead. Over there, a fusion power [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]