[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Page 101
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
soon as we make the jump to null-space I will want a conference of the Arm in
the wardroom."
Chin took the module and bowed slightly. "As you command, Holy One," he
responded, and turned and made his way swiftly back to the bridge.
Kumazon Klee had already disengaged from the starbase an-
chorage and was now taking the ship out and away, awaiting course and speed.
The mute Lebur saw Chin come on the bridge through the bank of monitors in
front of him, turned, and waited expectantly.
The captain wasted no time beyond a cursory check of the status screens to
assure himself that all was correct a habit, 150 Sack L Chalker since the
ship's computers really did the flying and Klee'sjob as helmsman was mostly to
ensure that all was well and monitor ship's functions for possible mechanical
problems. Then the module was inserted, seal intact, in the special input port
to the right side of the bridge command chair. The port broke the seal, made
the connection with the module, and then it was the mod-
ule's turn to make certain that the ship was the correct one, the input port
was the correct one, and through contact with the ship's computers to verify
that only the personnel aboard were actually there and that all was well. If
anything was amiss. Chin
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%...arathon%201%20-%20The%20Demons%
20at%20Ra.txt (118 of 236) [1/19/03 4:36:50 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Quintara%20
Marathon%201%20-%20The%20Demons%20at%20Ra.txt had one chance to answer
satisfactorily any anomalies; if he couldn't, or it was definitely the wrong
place, or things couldn't be fixed, then the module would dissolve and short
out the ship's computer as well.
All, however, checked out. and the module then began dump-
ing its instructions into the main computer of the Faith of Gu-
rusu. Chin and Klee both stared at the main status monitor, waiting themselves
to find out where they were going.
The ship began to move of its own accord, gaining speed and setting its course
as it went. With all the programs now fed and verified, the screen signaled
for Chin to remove the module, which he did. The seal was burned away, but the
module was still good for a single backup just in case they had problems on
the way.
He reached over and quickly typed in the questions he wanted answered. The
Mizlaplan could easily have built computers that talked, but in the interest
of equality and out of deference to those races for whom hearing was a
problem, they accepted manual input and projected screen data as an
alternative. When
Kumazon was on the bridge, as now, he always used that system.
On the screen the basics appeared almost instantly.
Destination: Medara, second from the star called only
VX-2664-A. Colonization Project. Classification: frontier. Col-
onies: 1, prototypical. Inhabitants: 55, of whom the majority were Terran.
Mission: prevent destabilization of colony by My-
cohlian interlopers.
It was pretty far out. His chart had actually put it outside the
Mizlaplan, in a sort of No Man's Land. In fact, the nearest habitable worlds
were Mycohlian, as Chin had suspected. They never chose this team unless the
job was particularly dirty.
The captain punched up what was known of the Mycohlian worlds. One Terran,
which was bad all things considered, one
THE DEMONS AT RAINBOW BRIDGE 151
Thion, and one Corithian. He liked neither Thions nor Corithi-
ans particularly. Neither of them was represented within the Mi-
zlaplan races and each of them was in its own way unpleasant, but at least now
they would all know that the intruders would probably be Terran. The other two
Page 102
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
would stick out rather obvi-
ously in the small colony.
The three known empires although neither the Mizlaplan nor the Exchange liked
to think of themselves in those terms-
covered more than a quarter of the galaxy at this point and con-
tained, among them, over four hundred sentient, advanced races.
Only a relative handful of races had any sort of spaceflight be-
fore being discovered and incorporated into one or another of the political
giants, and fewer still had discovered the means to cheat light speed and
become interstellar civilizations. And, of the tatter group, only five existed
in truly vast numbers, either because of the age of their interstellar
civilization or because, like Terrans, they bred faster than a cold virus.
With almost three-quarters of an entire galaxy left to explore,
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%...arathon%201%20-%20The%20Demons%
20at%20Ra.txt (119 of 236) [1/19/03 4:36:50 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Quintara%20
Marathon%201%20-%20The%20Demons%20at%20Ra.txt each empire had different
priorities. New civilizations and races were the primary aim of the Mizlaplan;
they brought the Truth and Way of Mizlaplan to those ignorant of it, white
protecting them from the venal and satanic ways of the other two empires.
The Mycohl wanted to extend their power and control as far as they could, to
impose their own harsh and brutal system on all they could seize, maybe just
because such expansion fueled their empire and justified its kind of rule. The
Exchange pri-
marily sought new products and new ideas and new customers, although there was
an underlying feeling that they had to protect anyone new from the other two
systems.
And, of course, any world that was habitable by any race of the three had to
be held, or it would be defaulted to the others.
This was a matter of principle that extended even to worlds that were pretty
well worthless, uninhabited pieces of rock. Chin thought of it as a kind of
intergalactic game of Go, the ancient game of his own Terran people, where you
had to take all the empty spaces and cut off your enemy. Expansion could never
stop, lest your enemies capture all the space around your own vast empire and
block it from expanding farther. If that ever happened to any one of the
empires, while the other two kept expanding and growing, the cut-off empire
would become de-
pleted, lose its purpose, and begin to wither, eventually to be digested by
the two victors -
152 Sack L Chalker
And that was why a bunch of Mizlaplan were out on a worth-
less chunk of rock trying to establish a colony. The Mycohl had been turning
at that point in the frontier, beginning to threaten a flanking movement,
cutting off an area of expansion. Medara was essential to the Mizlaplan not
for what it was but for where it was.
And, as he looked at the star maps, that fact worried Gun Roh
Chin the most. It was a very long way to the next inhabited
Mizlaplan worid, although there was nothing in between to speak of. Possession
was most of the law in this grand game, too. Until the Mizlaplan scouts could
discover another world in line beyond
Medara in that direction, Medara had to be not merely claimed but held,
possessed, inhabited. If they failed to establish a per-
manent colony there, someone else could claim it like an aban-
doned ship. Of course, treaties forbade the other empires from in any way
influencing the success of a colonization effort, but everyone understood that
this only meant not getting caught at it. An agreement between two empires
could always force a decision on the third, so the Council of Empires could
invoke penalties on one member if it got caught doing something for-
Page 103 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl karpacz24.htw.pl
Page 101
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
soon as we make the jump to null-space I will want a conference of the Arm in
the wardroom."
Chin took the module and bowed slightly. "As you command, Holy One," he
responded, and turned and made his way swiftly back to the bridge.
Kumazon Klee had already disengaged from the starbase an-
chorage and was now taking the ship out and away, awaiting course and speed.
The mute Lebur saw Chin come on the bridge through the bank of monitors in
front of him, turned, and waited expectantly.
The captain wasted no time beyond a cursory check of the status screens to
assure himself that all was correct a habit, 150 Sack L Chalker since the
ship's computers really did the flying and Klee'sjob as helmsman was mostly to
ensure that all was well and monitor ship's functions for possible mechanical
problems. Then the module was inserted, seal intact, in the special input port
to the right side of the bridge command chair. The port broke the seal, made
the connection with the module, and then it was the mod-
ule's turn to make certain that the ship was the correct one, the input port
was the correct one, and through contact with the ship's computers to verify
that only the personnel aboard were actually there and that all was well. If
anything was amiss. Chin
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%...arathon%201%20-%20The%20Demons%
20at%20Ra.txt (118 of 236) [1/19/03 4:36:50 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Quintara%20
Marathon%201%20-%20The%20Demons%20at%20Ra.txt had one chance to answer
satisfactorily any anomalies; if he couldn't, or it was definitely the wrong
place, or things couldn't be fixed, then the module would dissolve and short
out the ship's computer as well.
All, however, checked out. and the module then began dump-
ing its instructions into the main computer of the Faith of Gu-
rusu. Chin and Klee both stared at the main status monitor, waiting themselves
to find out where they were going.
The ship began to move of its own accord, gaining speed and setting its course
as it went. With all the programs now fed and verified, the screen signaled
for Chin to remove the module, which he did. The seal was burned away, but the
module was still good for a single backup just in case they had problems on
the way.
He reached over and quickly typed in the questions he wanted answered. The
Mizlaplan could easily have built computers that talked, but in the interest
of equality and out of deference to those races for whom hearing was a
problem, they accepted manual input and projected screen data as an
alternative. When
Kumazon was on the bridge, as now, he always used that system.
On the screen the basics appeared almost instantly.
Destination: Medara, second from the star called only
VX-2664-A. Colonization Project. Classification: frontier. Col-
onies: 1, prototypical. Inhabitants: 55, of whom the majority were Terran.
Mission: prevent destabilization of colony by My-
cohlian interlopers.
It was pretty far out. His chart had actually put it outside the
Mizlaplan, in a sort of No Man's Land. In fact, the nearest habitable worlds
were Mycohlian, as Chin had suspected. They never chose this team unless the
job was particularly dirty.
The captain punched up what was known of the Mycohlian worlds. One Terran,
which was bad all things considered, one
THE DEMONS AT RAINBOW BRIDGE 151
Thion, and one Corithian. He liked neither Thions nor Corithi-
ans particularly. Neither of them was represented within the Mi-
zlaplan races and each of them was in its own way unpleasant, but at least now
they would all know that the intruders would probably be Terran. The other two
Page 102
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
would stick out rather obvi-
ously in the small colony.
The three known empires although neither the Mizlaplan nor the Exchange liked
to think of themselves in those terms-
covered more than a quarter of the galaxy at this point and con-
tained, among them, over four hundred sentient, advanced races.
Only a relative handful of races had any sort of spaceflight be-
fore being discovered and incorporated into one or another of the political
giants, and fewer still had discovered the means to cheat light speed and
become interstellar civilizations. And, of the tatter group, only five existed
in truly vast numbers, either because of the age of their interstellar
civilization or because, like Terrans, they bred faster than a cold virus.
With almost three-quarters of an entire galaxy left to explore,
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%...arathon%201%20-%20The%20Demons%
20at%20Ra.txt (119 of 236) [1/19/03 4:36:50 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Quintara%20
Marathon%201%20-%20The%20Demons%20at%20Ra.txt each empire had different
priorities. New civilizations and races were the primary aim of the Mizlaplan;
they brought the Truth and Way of Mizlaplan to those ignorant of it, white
protecting them from the venal and satanic ways of the other two empires.
The Mycohl wanted to extend their power and control as far as they could, to
impose their own harsh and brutal system on all they could seize, maybe just
because such expansion fueled their empire and justified its kind of rule. The
Exchange pri-
marily sought new products and new ideas and new customers, although there was
an underlying feeling that they had to protect anyone new from the other two
systems.
And, of course, any world that was habitable by any race of the three had to
be held, or it would be defaulted to the others.
This was a matter of principle that extended even to worlds that were pretty
well worthless, uninhabited pieces of rock. Chin thought of it as a kind of
intergalactic game of Go, the ancient game of his own Terran people, where you
had to take all the empty spaces and cut off your enemy. Expansion could never
stop, lest your enemies capture all the space around your own vast empire and
block it from expanding farther. If that ever happened to any one of the
empires, while the other two kept expanding and growing, the cut-off empire
would become de-
pleted, lose its purpose, and begin to wither, eventually to be digested by
the two victors -
152 Sack L Chalker
And that was why a bunch of Mizlaplan were out on a worth-
less chunk of rock trying to establish a colony. The Mycohl had been turning
at that point in the frontier, beginning to threaten a flanking movement,
cutting off an area of expansion. Medara was essential to the Mizlaplan not
for what it was but for where it was.
And, as he looked at the star maps, that fact worried Gun Roh
Chin the most. It was a very long way to the next inhabited
Mizlaplan worid, although there was nothing in between to speak of. Possession
was most of the law in this grand game, too. Until the Mizlaplan scouts could
discover another world in line beyond
Medara in that direction, Medara had to be not merely claimed but held,
possessed, inhabited. If they failed to establish a per-
manent colony there, someone else could claim it like an aban-
doned ship. Of course, treaties forbade the other empires from in any way
influencing the success of a colonization effort, but everyone understood that
this only meant not getting caught at it. An agreement between two empires
could always force a decision on the third, so the Council of Empires could
invoke penalties on one member if it got caught doing something for-
Page 103 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]