Aldiss, Brian W The Saliva Tree

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would the divine gift of traveling through interplanetary
space be granted. But perhaps the opposite held true: per-
haps such a great objective could be gained only by species
ruthless enough to disregard more humane ends. As soon as
he thought it, his mind was overpowered with a vast diseased
vision of the universe, where such races as dealt in love
and kindness and intellect cowered forever on their little
globes, while all about them went the slayers of the universe,
sailing where they would to satisfy their cruelties and their
endless appetites.
He heaved his way back to Nancy above the bloody porcine
fray.
She pointed mutely. At the far end, the entrance had
crumbled away, and the sows were bursting forth into the
night. But one sow fell and turned crimson as it fell, sagging
over the floor like a shapeless bag. Another, passing the same
spot, suffered the same fate.
Was the Aurigan moved by anger? Had the pigs, in their
blind charging, injured it? Gregory raised the gun and aimed.
As he did so, he saw a giant hallucinatory column in the air;
enough dirt and mud and blood had been thrown up to spot the
Aurigan and render him partly visible. Gregory fired.
The recoil nearly knocked him off his perch. He shut his eyes,
dazed by the noise, and was dimly aware of Nancy clinging to
him, shouting, "Oh, you marvellous man, you marvellous man]
You hit that old bor right smack on target!"
He opened his eyes and peered through the smoke and dust.
The shade that represented the Aurigan was tottering. It fell. It
fell among the distorted shapes of the two sows it had killed,
and corrupt fluids splattered over the paving. Then it rose
again. They saw its progress to the broken door, and then it had
gone.
For a minute, they sat there, staring at each other, triumph
and speculation mingling on both their faces. Apart from one
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badly injured beast, the building was clear of pigs now.
Gregory climbed to the floor and helped Nancy down beside
him. They skirted the loathsome messes as best they could and
staggered into the fresh air.
Up beyond the orchard, strange lights showed in the rear
windows of the farmhouse.
"It's on fire! Oh, Greg, our poor home is afire! Quick, we
must gather what we can! All Father's lovely cases"
He held her fiercely, bent so that he spoke straight into her
face. "Bert Neckland did this! He did it! He told me the place
ought to be destroyed and that's what he did."
"Let's go, then"
"No, no, Nancy, we must let it burn! Listen! There's a
wounded Aurigan loose here somewhere. We didn't kill him. If
those things feel rage, anger, spite, they'll be set to kill us now
don't forget there's more than one of *em! We aren't going
that way if we want to live. Daisy's just across the meadow
here, and she'll bear us both safe home."
"Greg, dearest, this is my home!" she cried in her despair.
The flames were leaping higher. The kitchen windows broke
in a shower of glass. He was running with her in the opposite
direction, shouting wildly, "I'm your home now! I'm your home
now!"
Now she was running with him, no longer protesting, and
they plunged together through the high rank grass.
When they gained the track and the restive mare, they
paused to take breath and look back.
The house was well ablaze now. Clearly nothing could save
it. Sparks had carried to the windmill, and one of the sails was
ablaze. About the scene, the electric lights shone spectral and
pale on the tops of their poles. An occasional running figure of a
gigantic animal dived about its own purposes. Suddenly, there
was a flash of lightning and all the electric lights went out.
One of the stampeding animals had knocked down a pole;
crashing into the pond, it short-circuited the system.
"Let's get away," Gregory said, and he helped Nancy on to
the mare. As he climbed up behind her, a roaring sound
developed, grew in volume, and altered in pitch. Abruptly it
died again. A thick cloud of steam billowed above the pond.
From it rose the space machine, rising, rising, rising, suddenly a
sight to take the heart in awe. It moved up into the soft night
sky, was lost for a moment, began dully to glow, was seen to be
already tremendously far away.
Desperately, Gregory looked for it, but it had gone, already
beyond the frail confines of the terrestrial atmosphere. An
awful desolation settled on him, the more awful for being
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irrational, and then he thought, and cried his thought aloud,
"Perhaps they were only holiday-makers here! Perhaps they
enjoyed themselves here, and will tell their friends of this little
globe! Perhaps Earth has a future only as a resort for millions of
the Aurigan kind!"
The church clock was striking midnight as they passed the
first cottages of Cottersall.
"We'll go first to the inn," Gregory said. "I can't well disturb
Mrs. Fenn at this late hour, but your landlord will fetch us food
and hot water and see that your cuts are bandaged."
"I'm right as rain, love, but I'd be glad of your company." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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