Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson Starchild Trilogy

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)/Starchild%2001-03%20-%20The%20Starchild%20Trilogy.txt autonomic circuits of
the flyer compensated for his weight and he sat bobbing slightly, looking down
on them.
"Truth is," he said, "Cliff Hawk was only working for me. Insolent pup! I knew
he thought he was pretty high and mighty, chasing after pure knowledge and all
that stuff. But all I wanted was a cure for this virus. Ever since I picked it
up on the reefs, more'n twenty years ago, it's been sleeping there inside me.
I didn't mean for it to kill me, Quamodian. But I didn't mean to take on the
Visitants, either."
He soothed his splinted arm with rough, blunt fingers, staring up at the
many-hued sky. "I did like some of the things the Visitants had to offer, of
course. Physical immortality, just about. A
cure for this fusorian poison. Power the rogues were my way of getting those
things, without letting those parasites into my body. Hawk was just my
engineer."
"So you knew Cliff Hawk was creating a rogue?" Quamodian leaned forward to
search the Reefer's lax and bloodless face.
'Two rogues, Quamodian. The first got away." He grinned with a spasm of pain.
"Looks like the other one did too!"
"I see," whispered Andy Quam, staring up at the angry aurora. "The first one
entered our sun. Now it's rogue too!"
The Reefer shrugged.
Clothilde Kwai Kwich cried, "Monitor Quamodian! This must be reported at once.
Since our citizens are not in contact with Almalik, we must return immediately
to Wisdom Creek and report via the transflex station there."
"It's been reported already," said Andy Quam.
"Impossible! How could it be? We just found out . . ," 425
"By Rufe's parents. They knew about it, didn't they?" The boy nodded, looking
pleased and excited.
"And they've gone to Nuevo York to pass the word along."
The Reefer scratched his ribs cautiously, winced and groaned. "So that's about
it, right? Now bow about taking me in to Wisdom Creek?"
"Not just yet," said Andy Quam, deadly quiet. "One more question. What about
Molly Zaldivar?"
'That witless little thing! She ruined Cliff Hawk. In love with her, he was;
she tried to stop him, and messed everything up."
He gasped and leaned forward, clutching his chest. "But I don't know where she
is now, Quamodian,"
he moaned. "Please! Isn't that enough? Won't you take me in before this thing
kills me?"
On the way to Wisdom Creek Andy Quam used the flyer's circuits to contact the
control dome for priorities. "Thirty-minute delay on all messages, Monitor
Quamodian," said the dome. "I will inform you when your circuits can be
cleared."
Grim-lipped, Andy Quam ordered the flyer to the Star-church. Now that he knew
what was wrong with the sun his responsibility was at an end. Almalik would
cope with the problem somehow or Almalik would fail; Quamodian didn't care. At
that moment the only thing on his mind was Molly Zaldivar, stolen into space
by the rogue and doomed to early death by the lethal rays of the old power
source in the cavern. As for the Reefer, Quamodian didn't care in the
slightest whether he lived or died.
Yet there was a sort of grandeur in what happened at the Starchurch. They were
greeted by the new robot inspector, his egg-shaped black body bobbing with
excitement at the presence of so many illustrious visitors. Even though this
was not a Starday, a circle of the saved were kneeling on that wide floor
beneath the imaged suns of Almalik, and Quamodian and Monitor Clothilde Kwai
Kwich led the procession that brought the limping, sullen figure of the Reefer
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to the Visitants. Behind him the carnivorous citizen, the green spiral citizen
and the cloud brought up the rear.
The kneeling worshippers chanted their praises of Almalik. Then Juan Zaldivar
stood up to ask the
Reefer the statutory question if he'understood the nature of symbiotic life;
if he had chosen of his own free will to accept
426
the fusorian symbiotes in his body, blood, brain and bone; if he understood
that this choice was made forever.
To each question, the Reefer croaked, "I do."
He knelt, and the inhabited saved ones knelt with him, their golden brands
glowing in the gloom.
They chanted again, then- voices rolling solemnly against the mighty dome that
held the thirteen suns of Almalik.
The Reefer gasped a sudden protesting cry.
He rose half to his feet, turned wiih a sudden look of wild alarm, then
pitched forward on his damaged arm.
Quamodian heard a sharp, hissing crackle. Fine golden sparks were dancing up
from the glowing
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and faces of the saved ones, floating delicately toward the prone body of the
Reefer. They flew together, gathering into a tiny cloud of golden fire that
hovered over him.
The yellow fireball sank hissing into his skin.
An arm of it darted around his body, touched his cheek, retreated to rejoin
the rest. The air was suddenly heavy with the sweet reek of the Visitants.
The Reefer's moans subsided.
Then the chanting ended. He stirred, opened his eyes, stood up easily and came
to shake Andeas
Quamodian's hand, "Thanks, friend," his great voice boomed. A serene and
gentle smile had fallen over his scarred ferocious face. The star of the
Visitants now glowed faintly above his ragged beard. "All my pain is gone."
Juan Zaldivar came to take his hand. "You are saved now. You'll feel no pain
again," he said solemnly. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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