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.I understand that.The disc is a machine.Machines havea finite life.That's why the Company builds planets.'PLANETS HAVE A FINITE LIFE.'A longer one.They don't start to squeak on their bearings after half amillion years.'YOU GLOAT?'No.I keep thinking of a few hundred million people on a spaceship thesize of a world, and then I think of all the things that can go wrong with aship.I don't gloat, I tremble with fear.And rage.'She stood up and stomped across the room to ease the cramp in hermuscles.It had been a long session, a subterranean travelogue of discmachinery.The earthquake machines stuck in her memory.All that Whump.Beyond the windows the seashore exploded into a sandstorm.Marco craned his head and looked up.Darkness filled the cabin as thesun was eclipsed.Whump.Marco looked up at talons dropping out of the sky when the impossiblebird stooped.Talons big enough to grip a ship.He made a small noise inhis throat and took a dive in the direction of his couch.Whump.Scrabble.Whump.Whumpwhump.Whumpwhump.The ship creaked as the claws took it gently.Then it bounded upward ina series of boneshaking jerks.The dome of the hub swung crazily below, and whirled away.The discdropped after it, teetering across the sky until it was a blue and ochre wall.It paused there, then plunged back under the ship to loom for a moment onthe other side.Whump.Kin concentrated on the view above, to take her mind off the lurching,jerking universe.The talons all but covered the roof port, but she gotoccasional glimpses of the huge white wings, beating now with the slowrhythm of a tide. The ones Kin had met had been almost human compared with some ofthe things force-bred in the quiet green laboratories under the hub.Theypoliced the disc, haunted the hidden air vents and access shafts to themachinery, chased the venturesome from the rim.Occasionally theykidnapped a new Chairman, for the Committee.The Chairmen.Kin stared at the blank screen, then glanced up at thehovering direct-link helmet over the chair.She had no intention of trying itfor size, and the Computers hadn't pressed her, but they had shown her howit was used.The Computers ran the disc.They adjusted its tides, circulated itswaters, counted its falling sparrows, toiled and spun for the lilies of itsfields.But the disc's builders had constructed them as servile mechanisms,lest the disc become too mechanical.A human had to tell them what to do.In the 70,000 years of the disc's history there had been 280 Chairmen,thrust in terror under the helmet.It gave them cold new knowledge.Kin said she didn't believe it.'You couldn't take a Neolithic farmer and turn him into a planetaryengineer,' she protested.WE COULD.THE DISC BUILDERS CONSTRUCTED USCLEVERLY. 'I don't believe it either,' she said.'I can see what a device like the Discwould need.' Whump.'Need a sapient caretaker.No machines could handleall the problems that might crop.' Whump.'Might crop up.But unless thecreature was already a technical sophisticate, he would simply becomemad.'Kin braced herself for the next wingbeat.It didn't come.Beyond thewindow she could see the roc's wing outstretched, the tips of the hugefeathers vibrating in the slipstream.The bird was starting its glide.Half the Disc was spread before the canted cabin.Kin rolled out of hercouch and swayed across the trembling deck until she could grasp abulkhead.The world was a bowl of jewels flung across the sky.Ahead, wearingthe setting sun like the gemstone on a ring, was the Rim Ocean.Roc slid on down the sky, staring at the sun with terrible bird eyes.Sometimes she shrugged her shoulders to dislodge the ice, which flashedand tumbled as it began the long fall.Kin knelt on the floating platform and watched the microfigures ofSilver and Marco thread their way through the tunnels. need to repair yourself.It will take you a long time, but you can do itwithout affecting the biosp -- oh boy, the biohemisphere, I suppose -- toomuch.But you can't go on like it -- not unless you get fresh materials fromoutside.'WE KNOW.ENTROPY IS AGAINST US.'You can't go on cannibalizing old machines for spare parts.You maylast another hundred years, that's all.'WE KNOW.'Do you care about the people on the surface?'THEY ARE OUR CHILDREN.Kin stared at the glowing letters.Then she said softly: 'Tell me aboutJago Jalo.He must have seemed a godsend.'YES.WE WERE ALREADY AWARE THAT THE DISC WASDOOMED.IN THOSE DAYS WE MAINTAINED AN ARRESTORSCREEN AGAINST METEORITES.IT WAS COMPARATIVELYEASY TO EXTRACT THE RESIDUAL VELOCITY FROM HIS SHIP.WE WATCHED HIM BRING HIS SMALLER SHIP WITHIN THEVAULT OF HEAVEN.UNFORTUNATELY WE COULD NOTCONTACT HIM.THAT SHOULD HAVE MADE US SUSPICIOUS.'You allowed him to land, though.' Below them land flashed past in a dusty blur.There was a briefimpression of surf and then the roc was arrowing out to sea.'Didn't you see the big egg in that garden where you were caged?' saidKin weakly.'Didn't you wonder what laid it? Of course it can't take ushome, it's just a big bird.I saw the specifications, back in the Hub.''It seems a little stupid to say this in the circumstances,' said Silver, 'butsuch a creature could not exist in flesh and blood.It would collapse underits own weight.''It doesn't weigh more than five tonnes,' said Kin.'It's one of the Discbuilders' finest constructions.It's alive.It's got sinews like Line cord and itsbones are pneumatic.Just tubes filled with gas under pressure.TheComputers showed me.Marvellous, isn't it?''Why is it losing height? We'll land in the sea,' said Marco.'Yes,' said Kin.'I should get back into your couch if I were you.''You mean we are going to land in the sea?'Marco looked down at the rushing waves.They were low enough forevery crest to be visible.Then he looked at what, on the Disc, had to becalled the horizon.The sun was just a red glow, half hidden by strips ofcloud, tipping the wave tops with fire.Marco thought. 'In a ship like this, only a madman would go.'HE CAME TO THE HUB WITH A DEMOUNTED GEOLOGICALLASER.HE KILLED THE CHAIRMAN OF THE TIME.'You didn't try to stop him?'WE WERE NOT INSTRUCTED TO DO SO.BESIDES, THE MANWAS OBVIOUSLY FROM A TECHNOLOGICAL CULTURE.WE HADTO WEIGH THE FUTURE OF THE DISC.HE ORDERED US TOBUILD HIM A SHIP.IT WAS NOT DIFFICULT.WE CALCULATEDTHAT IF WE ASSISTED JAGO JALO BACK TO HIS HOME WORLDIT WOULD NOT BE LONG BEFORE WE HAD FURTHER VISITORS [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.I understand that.The disc is a machine.Machines havea finite life.That's why the Company builds planets.'PLANETS HAVE A FINITE LIFE.'A longer one.They don't start to squeak on their bearings after half amillion years.'YOU GLOAT?'No.I keep thinking of a few hundred million people on a spaceship thesize of a world, and then I think of all the things that can go wrong with aship.I don't gloat, I tremble with fear.And rage.'She stood up and stomped across the room to ease the cramp in hermuscles.It had been a long session, a subterranean travelogue of discmachinery.The earthquake machines stuck in her memory.All that Whump.Beyond the windows the seashore exploded into a sandstorm.Marco craned his head and looked up.Darkness filled the cabin as thesun was eclipsed.Whump.Marco looked up at talons dropping out of the sky when the impossiblebird stooped.Talons big enough to grip a ship.He made a small noise inhis throat and took a dive in the direction of his couch.Whump.Scrabble.Whump.Whumpwhump.Whumpwhump.The ship creaked as the claws took it gently.Then it bounded upward ina series of boneshaking jerks.The dome of the hub swung crazily below, and whirled away.The discdropped after it, teetering across the sky until it was a blue and ochre wall.It paused there, then plunged back under the ship to loom for a moment onthe other side.Whump.Kin concentrated on the view above, to take her mind off the lurching,jerking universe.The talons all but covered the roof port, but she gotoccasional glimpses of the huge white wings, beating now with the slowrhythm of a tide. The ones Kin had met had been almost human compared with some ofthe things force-bred in the quiet green laboratories under the hub.Theypoliced the disc, haunted the hidden air vents and access shafts to themachinery, chased the venturesome from the rim.Occasionally theykidnapped a new Chairman, for the Committee.The Chairmen.Kin stared at the blank screen, then glanced up at thehovering direct-link helmet over the chair.She had no intention of trying itfor size, and the Computers hadn't pressed her, but they had shown her howit was used.The Computers ran the disc.They adjusted its tides, circulated itswaters, counted its falling sparrows, toiled and spun for the lilies of itsfields.But the disc's builders had constructed them as servile mechanisms,lest the disc become too mechanical.A human had to tell them what to do.In the 70,000 years of the disc's history there had been 280 Chairmen,thrust in terror under the helmet.It gave them cold new knowledge.Kin said she didn't believe it.'You couldn't take a Neolithic farmer and turn him into a planetaryengineer,' she protested.WE COULD.THE DISC BUILDERS CONSTRUCTED USCLEVERLY. 'I don't believe it either,' she said.'I can see what a device like the Discwould need.' Whump.'Need a sapient caretaker.No machines could handleall the problems that might crop.' Whump.'Might crop up.But unless thecreature was already a technical sophisticate, he would simply becomemad.'Kin braced herself for the next wingbeat.It didn't come.Beyond thewindow she could see the roc's wing outstretched, the tips of the hugefeathers vibrating in the slipstream.The bird was starting its glide.Half the Disc was spread before the canted cabin.Kin rolled out of hercouch and swayed across the trembling deck until she could grasp abulkhead.The world was a bowl of jewels flung across the sky.Ahead, wearingthe setting sun like the gemstone on a ring, was the Rim Ocean.Roc slid on down the sky, staring at the sun with terrible bird eyes.Sometimes she shrugged her shoulders to dislodge the ice, which flashedand tumbled as it began the long fall.Kin knelt on the floating platform and watched the microfigures ofSilver and Marco thread their way through the tunnels. need to repair yourself.It will take you a long time, but you can do itwithout affecting the biosp -- oh boy, the biohemisphere, I suppose -- toomuch.But you can't go on like it -- not unless you get fresh materials fromoutside.'WE KNOW.ENTROPY IS AGAINST US.'You can't go on cannibalizing old machines for spare parts.You maylast another hundred years, that's all.'WE KNOW.'Do you care about the people on the surface?'THEY ARE OUR CHILDREN.Kin stared at the glowing letters.Then she said softly: 'Tell me aboutJago Jalo.He must have seemed a godsend.'YES.WE WERE ALREADY AWARE THAT THE DISC WASDOOMED.IN THOSE DAYS WE MAINTAINED AN ARRESTORSCREEN AGAINST METEORITES.IT WAS COMPARATIVELYEASY TO EXTRACT THE RESIDUAL VELOCITY FROM HIS SHIP.WE WATCHED HIM BRING HIS SMALLER SHIP WITHIN THEVAULT OF HEAVEN.UNFORTUNATELY WE COULD NOTCONTACT HIM.THAT SHOULD HAVE MADE US SUSPICIOUS.'You allowed him to land, though.' Below them land flashed past in a dusty blur.There was a briefimpression of surf and then the roc was arrowing out to sea.'Didn't you see the big egg in that garden where you were caged?' saidKin weakly.'Didn't you wonder what laid it? Of course it can't take ushome, it's just a big bird.I saw the specifications, back in the Hub.''It seems a little stupid to say this in the circumstances,' said Silver, 'butsuch a creature could not exist in flesh and blood.It would collapse underits own weight.''It doesn't weigh more than five tonnes,' said Kin.'It's one of the Discbuilders' finest constructions.It's alive.It's got sinews like Line cord and itsbones are pneumatic.Just tubes filled with gas under pressure.TheComputers showed me.Marvellous, isn't it?''Why is it losing height? We'll land in the sea,' said Marco.'Yes,' said Kin.'I should get back into your couch if I were you.''You mean we are going to land in the sea?'Marco looked down at the rushing waves.They were low enough forevery crest to be visible.Then he looked at what, on the Disc, had to becalled the horizon.The sun was just a red glow, half hidden by strips ofcloud, tipping the wave tops with fire.Marco thought. 'In a ship like this, only a madman would go.'HE CAME TO THE HUB WITH A DEMOUNTED GEOLOGICALLASER.HE KILLED THE CHAIRMAN OF THE TIME.'You didn't try to stop him?'WE WERE NOT INSTRUCTED TO DO SO.BESIDES, THE MANWAS OBVIOUSLY FROM A TECHNOLOGICAL CULTURE.WE HADTO WEIGH THE FUTURE OF THE DISC.HE ORDERED US TOBUILD HIM A SHIP.IT WAS NOT DIFFICULT.WE CALCULATEDTHAT IF WE ASSISTED JAGO JALO BACK TO HIS HOME WORLDIT WOULD NOT BE LONG BEFORE WE HAD FURTHER VISITORS [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]