[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
convinced? Think, Gunecvod! We could be the critical link in the ultimate
destruction of the Amplitur. In saving your own people from the Pur-pose. Don't
throw that chance away. Who are you to make a decision of that scope?''
"Who am I?" Gunecvod blinked as he attempted to focus painful consideration on
the suddenly confusing sub-ject. "I am ... I am .. ."
It was true. He was only a simple soldier. Not a S'van, not a Turlog. An
ordinary warrior of unspectacular lin-eage.
Was that movement behind him? He whirled, searching wildly for bulging eyes on
weaving stalks, for a large, soft body armed with questing tentacles and
irresistible thoughts. Alone; he was so alone. With his wavering de-termination,
with his cataclysmic thoughts.
The Human female lay nearby, half-paralyzed by his weapon. He took a wavering
step toward her. "I ... I am sorry. I do not understand, I didn't ..."
She looked up at him, anxiety and compassion colliding in her expression. "I
understand. You didn't know what you were doing. It's all right." She looked
sharply to her left. "There is an Amplitur here."
Suddenly he was very calm. He knew, with the clarity of perfect certainty,
exactly what it was he had to do. He raised the muzzle of his rifle. Behind him,
a reluctant Ranji drew his sidearm and aimed.
As Cossinza screamed good soldier Gunecvod gripped the muzzle of his weapon in
his teeth and, as a warm and welcoming peace took possession of him, thumbed the
trigger.
She was still staring at the smoking body when Ranji knelt beside her. ' 'I
didn't mean for him to do that. I didn't mean for that to happen. When I reached
out to him I was just trying to make him feel better, to ease the pain that was
tormenting him and making him act this way.''
He helped her find a place to sit up. "Meanwhile I was pushing him to withdraw
and the Amplitur was pushing him to shoot, and in the midst of all that you hit
him with a double dose of sympathy and understanding, the one thing he wasn't
expecting and didn't know how to handle. The contradiction between what he
started out to do and what he was feeling from you was too much for him. He
couldn't take it anymore." He glanced in the corpse's di-rection.
' 'I guess he was tired of arguing with himself, of trying to decide which were
his thoughts and which were being imposed from outside. So he resolved it the
easy way. Damn. This wasn't what I wanted." He rose to survey their
surroundings.
"You need medical attention. This far out in front I'd rather not use a
communicator. Might be picked up and targeted by the other side." He eyed her
speculatively. "I could carry you."
She shook her head. "Fighting's moved deeper into the mountain. Hand me my
rifle." He did so and she cradled it in her lap. "You can find help a lot faster
without me. I'll be all right here."
"Sure?"
She managed a wan smile. "Just don't stop for a sand-wich on the way back.''
He nodded, turned, and started off toward what he hoped was the center of the
advancing Weave force.
Chapter Twentyfour
Twenty strides and several thoughts later he rounded a corner . . . and there it
was. A glistening, glutinous shape resembling a shift loader encased in amber.
One eyestalk and one quadruple-digited tentacle swung lazily toward him. Horny
mouthparts clacked rhythmically while irides-cent blobs of color pulsed and
contracted within the smooth epidermis, chromatic indicators of their
progeni-tor's emotional state.
Once it had been an object of respect; indeed, venera-tion. A Teacher. Now it
was as alien to him as a living creature could be. In place of the visceral
hatred that ve-neered his spirit old memories, old teachings, old admi-ration
threatened to overwhelm him.
He blinked, smiling to himself. Cold realization burst the narcotizing bubble of
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file:///F|/rah/Alan%20Dean%20Foster/Foster,%20Alan%20Dean%20-%20The%20Damned%2002%20-%20The%20False%20Mirror.txt
nostalgia.
You move fast, he thought, but that won't work on me. Not now. Not anymore. I'm
ready for you. My whole life has been spent preparing for this.
Having identified Ranji as one of those unsettling mod-ified Cossuutian Humans
capable of pushing, the Amplitur followed its reflexive defensive reaction with
more subtle suggestions. Why did Ranji fight so hard to deny his her-itage? Why
not allow the pain to be banished? Follow and return. Abandon this foolishness,
the confusion that was tormenting him. Return to the peace of the Purpose. The
harmonizing, calming, reassuring tranquillity of the Pur-pose.
Ranji felt as if someone were trying to stuff his head full of thick, cottony [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl wyciskamy.pev.pl
convinced? Think, Gunecvod! We could be the critical link in the ultimate
destruction of the Amplitur. In saving your own people from the Pur-pose. Don't
throw that chance away. Who are you to make a decision of that scope?''
"Who am I?" Gunecvod blinked as he attempted to focus painful consideration on
the suddenly confusing sub-ject. "I am ... I am .. ."
It was true. He was only a simple soldier. Not a S'van, not a Turlog. An
ordinary warrior of unspectacular lin-eage.
Was that movement behind him? He whirled, searching wildly for bulging eyes on
weaving stalks, for a large, soft body armed with questing tentacles and
irresistible thoughts. Alone; he was so alone. With his wavering de-termination,
with his cataclysmic thoughts.
The Human female lay nearby, half-paralyzed by his weapon. He took a wavering
step toward her. "I ... I am sorry. I do not understand, I didn't ..."
She looked up at him, anxiety and compassion colliding in her expression. "I
understand. You didn't know what you were doing. It's all right." She looked
sharply to her left. "There is an Amplitur here."
Suddenly he was very calm. He knew, with the clarity of perfect certainty,
exactly what it was he had to do. He raised the muzzle of his rifle. Behind him,
a reluctant Ranji drew his sidearm and aimed.
As Cossinza screamed good soldier Gunecvod gripped the muzzle of his weapon in
his teeth and, as a warm and welcoming peace took possession of him, thumbed the
trigger.
She was still staring at the smoking body when Ranji knelt beside her. ' 'I
didn't mean for him to do that. I didn't mean for that to happen. When I reached
out to him I was just trying to make him feel better, to ease the pain that was
tormenting him and making him act this way.''
He helped her find a place to sit up. "Meanwhile I was pushing him to withdraw
and the Amplitur was pushing him to shoot, and in the midst of all that you hit
him with a double dose of sympathy and understanding, the one thing he wasn't
expecting and didn't know how to handle. The contradiction between what he
started out to do and what he was feeling from you was too much for him. He
couldn't take it anymore." He glanced in the corpse's di-rection.
' 'I guess he was tired of arguing with himself, of trying to decide which were
his thoughts and which were being imposed from outside. So he resolved it the
easy way. Damn. This wasn't what I wanted." He rose to survey their
surroundings.
"You need medical attention. This far out in front I'd rather not use a
communicator. Might be picked up and targeted by the other side." He eyed her
speculatively. "I could carry you."
She shook her head. "Fighting's moved deeper into the mountain. Hand me my
rifle." He did so and she cradled it in her lap. "You can find help a lot faster
without me. I'll be all right here."
"Sure?"
She managed a wan smile. "Just don't stop for a sand-wich on the way back.''
He nodded, turned, and started off toward what he hoped was the center of the
advancing Weave force.
Chapter Twentyfour
Twenty strides and several thoughts later he rounded a corner . . . and there it
was. A glistening, glutinous shape resembling a shift loader encased in amber.
One eyestalk and one quadruple-digited tentacle swung lazily toward him. Horny
mouthparts clacked rhythmically while irides-cent blobs of color pulsed and
contracted within the smooth epidermis, chromatic indicators of their
progeni-tor's emotional state.
Once it had been an object of respect; indeed, venera-tion. A Teacher. Now it
was as alien to him as a living creature could be. In place of the visceral
hatred that ve-neered his spirit old memories, old teachings, old admi-ration
threatened to overwhelm him.
He blinked, smiling to himself. Cold realization burst the narcotizing bubble of
file:///F|/rah/Alan%20Dean%20Foster/Foster,%...20Damned%2002%20-%20The%20False%20Mirror.txt (134 of 139) [7/1/03 12:04:34 AM]
file:///F|/rah/Alan%20Dean%20Foster/Foster,%20Alan%20Dean%20-%20The%20Damned%2002%20-%20The%20False%20Mirror.txt
nostalgia.
You move fast, he thought, but that won't work on me. Not now. Not anymore. I'm
ready for you. My whole life has been spent preparing for this.
Having identified Ranji as one of those unsettling mod-ified Cossuutian Humans
capable of pushing, the Amplitur followed its reflexive defensive reaction with
more subtle suggestions. Why did Ranji fight so hard to deny his her-itage? Why
not allow the pain to be banished? Follow and return. Abandon this foolishness,
the confusion that was tormenting him. Return to the peace of the Purpose. The
harmonizing, calming, reassuring tranquillity of the Pur-pose.
Ranji felt as if someone were trying to stuff his head full of thick, cottony [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]