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directly with your Companion anymore. It has to rely on intuition and feeling to get thoughts through." "I don't
understand." "Humans essentially have two brains. The cerebrum, the big, thinking and remembering part, is divided
into two
halves, the left and right hemispheres. Follow?" He nodded. "Okay. It's almost like we do have two brains. Most of the
cognitive processes, numbers, language skills, are all centered on the left side. The right side handles things like
intuition, feeling, emotion. That's not an absolute breakdown , of course, and the processes in women's brains tend to
be more evenly distributed than in men's." She smiled. "That's why we tend to rely a bit more on emotions and feelings
than you men do." "Except that I've been feeling like I've been living on nothing but feelings and guesses and
intuitions lately," he told her. "I guess this explains why." "Partly. And you've also been feeling pretty lost, I imagine ,
just not knowing who you were, where you were...." "Will I get my memories back?" "Yes. . . ." She didn't sound
entirely sure about that, and her hesitation chilled Macklin's soul. "What's the matter? Is there a problem?" "The
problem," she told him, "is that we're both stranded on this primitive dirtball of a planet. Our ship was destroyed, and
we have no immediate way to get off this rock and back home." He sighed. "And home, 1 take it ... Shanidar, you
said?" She nodded. "Shanidar is where I have to go to get myself fixed up?" "Shanidar, or any of the other Associative
worlds. Even one of our starships would have the medical facilities to fix you right up." "Associative?" "Um ... that's a
kind of loosely knit collective of civilizations that have banded together for mutual protection and to protect emergent
species, like ours. Like Earth. The Monitor Corps is a kind of guardianship over young cul-
tures. We're Monitors ... you and 1, working for the Associative ." "I'm not sure I understand," he told her. "Are we ...
human?" She laughed. "Oh, yes! As human as anyone on this planet. Our ancestors came from here." "Our ...
ancestors?" "There are more different races among the stars than anyone could possible imagine," she told him, "and
each one is different from every other. The chances that a species evolving on one world would look anything like the
natives of another, well, they're so small they're not worth thinking about. "Obviously, the Monitors need to be able to
watch over worlds, especially primitive ones, like Earth, that can't be considered yet for membership in the Associative,
and they need to have operatives who can live on those worlds without calling attention to themselves. What usually
happens is they secretly pick up a number of natives, usually people who were in terrible danger, for one reason or
another, and isolated, out of the mainstream of their civilization. They'd take them to another, uninhabited world to
start a colony. Those people are carefully trained, given the advantages of advanced civilization. Within a few
hundred years, you have people who can return to the homeworld and serve as the Associative's eyes and ears
without being noticed by the locals." "So ... our ancestors came from Earth. They were kidnapped ?" "Ours were from a
place called Roanoke, to be exact," she told him. "A colony of English settlers was planted there almost three hundred
Earth years ago, in 1587 by the local calendar. But the colony was dying, threatened by disease, by hostile natives, by
war with an enemy nation,
Spain. They were in the process of trying to move their colony anyway, to a neighboring island called Croatoan, when
the Gtai ships arrived." She shrugged. "It wasn't really a mass kidnapping. The colony was on the verge of extinction.
Our ancestors were happy enough to get away from there. So far as the rest of the world was concerned, though,
those hundreds of people just ... vanished. "For the past two centuries now, our people have been watching Earth for
the Associative. We have ... we had a base on Earth's moon, and we have agents scattered about the planet in various
places, in hidden outposts, as observers . We were on our way to become observers here, you and I, when ... when we
were attacked." "Attacked? By who?" She sighed. "I'm ... not sure. There are a number of species who don't adhere to
the Associative Charter. Or who oppose Associative policies on emergent worlds." Macklin had the impression that
Doris wasn't telling him all she knew. She sounded worried ... maybe even a little scared. He wondered what she was
hiding from him. He shook his head. "Are you okay?" she asked. "This ... this is all a little hard to take in." "Having
trouble believing it?" "Not really. There's just so much. It ... it kind of takes getting used to." "We're going to have to
leave here, you know." "Leave? And go where?" "Out of Tombstone, first of all. Maybe up into the hills outside of
town. I have an emergency communicator from the lifepod. If I can establish contact with one of our ships, we may be
able to call one in for a pickup." "But ... why can't we do that here?" He found he didn't want to leave Sarah Nevers's
place. It had become
like home these past few days, a place of refuge. Of safety. "Well, first off, we wouldn't want a Gtai ship setting down
at high noon in the middle of Fremont Street, would we? It would attract attention ... and do some serious damage to
this culture. People on Earth, you see, still think theirs is the only inhabited world in the universe. It'll be a real shock
for them when they learn differently, unless they're carefully prepared first. "Besides. .." She hesitated, and Macklin
sensed again the worry in her. "We're not safe here. Or we won't be for long. I want to get out of this place as quickly [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]