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His gaze narrowed. "Don't be oblique with me, Fawn. You know I can't stand
that.
What are you trying to say?" The Parramati held their ground, watching the two
hu-mans, listening to their strange speech.
"You had a bad experience with the transportation stones. Just two stones."
She nodded in the direction of the softly lambent terminal. "We were lucky
this time. Next try might be different. A photo‑trap is a wonderful
piece of technology. They're placed all around the station to secure specimens
for study.
But the fauna they catch probably don't think they're such a wonderful piece
of technology. They don't even know what's happened to them, or how. If we're
not careful, we could find our-selves in a similar position."
He shook his head sadly. "This is a modus for travel, not a trap! I am sorry,
Fawn, but your analogy fails me. I cannot believe what I am hearing‑and
from a fellow scientist, no less." He spared a quick glance for the termi-nal,
as if to assure himself it was still there.
"This discovery may change our view of the entire cosmos. It's fundamental.
The tunnels may give us ac-cess not to a few new worlds but to millions. It
will alter humankind's entire future."
"Yes," she murmured, "but how? New physics are one thing. New ways of thinking
are harder to cope with. We can't even keep a lasting peace with the AAnn or
main-tain psychological peace among our own kind. What makes you think that
we're ready to deal with hundreds, maybe thousands of new sentient species, at
least one of whom is not just more advanced than we are but in-conceivably
more advanced? Beings who push worlds around like cookie crumbs."
"There's nothing magical about this." He indicated the terminal. "Once the
principles are understood, we can manufacture our own and access the tunnel
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of engineering that dedicated research couldn't break down."
"As easy as that," she muttered.
"Yes," he replied defiantly, "as easy as that. We'll use the tunnels to travel
wherever we wish. I'm not saying that the process will be simple, or
immediate, but it will happen."
"I'm not so sure." She took a step toward him. "I really think maybe it would
be better to let the Parramati take charge of these stones. They'll keep them
safe, and some-day the humanx will discover the secrets of the tunnels on its
own.
When we're ready."
"We stand on the threshold of the discovery of the ages and you stand there
spouting Luddite cliches. " He eyed her pityingly.
She was not to be moved. "I just believe in taking exis-tence one universe at
a time."
He backed up until he was standing next to the ovoid "Come with me, Fawn."
"Come with you? Come with you where?" She watched him warily. "What are you
thinking now?"
"We'll go back. Instead of racing about aimlessly we'll find some way to make
contact. Draw attention to our-selves. It is the right thing to do. You'll
see.
I have so many questions ... "
"Too many questions. I'm sorry, Pulickel, but you're wrong about this. Let the
Parramati dismantle the termi-nal. Then we'll talk. I'm having enough trouble
trying to deal with this one world without having to worry about thousands.
Let's see if the humanx can get a proper handle on this one comer of this one
galaxy before we expose it to a few thousand others we know nothing about and
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may not be able to handle. Somehow I don't think that we and the thranx are
the only intelligent species with an agenda for advancement."
He stared at her in disbelief, tight‑lipped and quivering with anger and
frustration. Had she lost her mind or just gone troppo? She'd been too long
alone in this place.
Finally he would get the recognition he deserved. Government‑wide,
society‑wide recognition; not just piddling little promotions in the
aftermath of each assign-ment successfully carried out. He would have anything
he wanted. This would make him the most famous scien-tist in the Commonwealth,
placing him on a level with Newton and Einstein and Kurita. And his colleague,
his friend, wanted to consign it all to the care of a group of
heavy‑legged aboriginal aliens, who in their turn would reduce it to a
pile of useless, inert green rocks.
Absurd, unthinkable, mad. He would not be denied.
He had only once used the pistol that was part of his field kit. It was
intended for defense against Senisran's less benevolent species. But he'd
carried similar devices on other worlds and was no stranger to their function.
They were tools, nothing more. With‑careful deliberation he removed it
from its holster.
"... and that's why we‑" Fawn was telling Ascela and Jorana when she saw
the gun. She stopped in mid-sentence, her eyes widening. Pulickel had seen her
surprised before, but never shocked. A first time for everything, he told
himself.
"What ... do you think you are doing?"
"You know, Fawn, a man waits all his fife for one big chance, one real
opportunity to rise above the crowd, to distinguish himself from the herd. To
take it and fail is bad, but not to take it at all is a hundred times worse."
It felt good to give voice to his feelings. He might not con-vince her, but he
was certainly convincing himself.
"Most people never get that chance. I've spent a career toiling for the
Department, doing good work but not great work, receiving commendations but
not accolades. When the media want comments on the division's inner workings,
I'm never the one they interview. When proce-dural decisions are made, I'm not
the one consulted. I'm a valuable functionary, but nothing more. Well, I'm
tired of being a cog."
She did her best to reassure him, but she wasn't smil-ing. "Take away one cog
and the whole machine stops."
"Nice try. Please don't come any closer, Ascela." The big person had taken a
short hop toward the diminutive xenologist. Now she retreated. Fawn had
demonstrated the effectiveness of modern weapons for the Torrelaua-pans on
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pis-tol cut a revavuaa in half. She passed a warning along to the increasingly
restless big persons nearby.
Retreating slowly, Pulickel used his left hand to feel behind him for the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]