[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
could not know just how deeply into it Skip already was.
Digen held his breath, wanting to scream out to Hogan "Don't move!" But just
then Hogan felt the whirling draft from the door Digen had opened, and he
turned. Skip, in the grip of reflex, pounced the moment Hogan moved. At the
same time, Digen launched himself at Skip, preparing to offer transfer.
Digen lifted Skip's tentacles from Hogan's arms, sliding his own tentacles
into place. But Skip yelled out in the shock of pure shen, and, realizing that
Digen was prepared to serve, he wrenched himself away, rolling on the floor
in-agony, yelling, "No!" Hogan stood rigidly as if skewered by an electric
current.
In a blur, Im'ran slid to his knees beside Skip and took him into transfer
position, lavishing on the undeveloped channel all the skills and resources of
a Donor. Digen turned to shield Hogan from the sight of the transfer, taking
the Gen into his own arms. Hogan was stiff, not just from fright but from
cold. His blood pressure was dropping and he'd begun to black out.
Picking up the Gen bodily, Digen said, "Let's get you in by the fire."
By the time Digen reached the door to the front pantry, the transfer was
complete. Digen said, "Come on inside, both of you. It's too cold out here."
By the fire in the front room, Digen chafed Hogan's hands and feet. The Gen
revived enough to look up and say ruefully, "You seem to make a habit of
rescuing me."
Im'ran came in with Skip, and Digen swallowed a sharp reprimand to Hogan. He
got up and fetched the kettle out of the fireplace to make tea, "How long were
you two out there?" he asked Skip, handing him a glass.
"An hour," said Skip.
"You have to take better care of a Gen than that," said Digen. He handed
Im'ran a glass, saying, over his shoulder, to Skip, "You enjoy it?"
Page 167
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"Im' is smooth. You know that. All the Tecton Donors are like that."
"No," said Digen, offering Hogan a glass. "Im' is something very rare."
"Digen," said Im'ran, "I didn't plan that."
"I know. In a few weeks you'll have the whole underdraw thing to go through
all over again."
Hogan said, "In a few weeks we could be back in civilization." He was
stroking the sides of his wrists, where Skip's ronaplin had sensitized the
nerves, and his nager held regret. He raised one arm to smell the sensitized
area. He'd wanted to experience transfer at least once and he'd wanted it with
Skip. He knew it would have killed him. He locked glances with Digen.
AH the unresolved anxieties flooded through Digen. He had to take a
definitive action. He had to put it all behind him or it would kill him.
Hogan a surgeon, and a fine one, a friend and a loyal one an example of
humanity's best and he would have died under Skip's hands. Not because he was
genetically defective. Not because he was unfit to survive. Because he was a
cripple, like Digen himself. The Tecton existed for the sake of the joelhogans
of this world, not for the farrises. The farrises could afford to take the
punishment. The hogans couldn't.
He looked at Skip. "You've kind of been in all this right from the start.
You've become a man through it all. Will you give me your word not to let what
I'm about to say go beyond this room?"
"I've pledged to Rior, Digen unto Roshi. I had no choice I've nowhere else to
go. I won't do anything against Rior.".
"Nor I," said Digen. "Rior is too fine a thing to destroy. But I've got to
take my friends home. We'll require your help. Or Did anyone see you come
here? Are you accepting banishment being here?"
"I came to get your supply list. So many people are sick there aren't any
more guards on the house."
Digen cast about outside, noting that what he said was indeed true.
Ilyana, in suspended shock, had come from the bedroom to hear Digen's
decision. Now she advanced into the front room, saying, "Sick? What do you
mean, so many are sick?"
"Oh, everybody dozens, anyway all from those who were at the
celebration they're all coming down with the shaking plague."
"Shaking plague?" said Hogan. "How do you know?"
"Roshi was the first and he knew right away& "
"Roshi's sick?" asked Ilyana. "With shaking plague?"
Chapter 17
PLAGUE
"The shaking plague!" said Im'ran.
Page 168
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"That's what Roshi's been so afraid of all along," said Skip. "That's why
he's been acting like this with Fen and with you and everybody. But now it's
happened and everybody knows it."
Together, Hogan and Digen said, "Now wait a minute." They looked at each
other, and Digen went on, "How could he possibly anticipate an outbreak of
something like shaking plague without taking cultures to screen every Sime in
the valley?"
Lips compressed, Skip looked around at them all. "Well, he did swear me to
secrecy when I went to work in the lab but everybody else knows now, so why
shouldn't you?"
"Knows what?" asked Ilyana.
"A few months ago just before you came back he discovered a mutant strain of
the shaking plague among some routine cultures. It doesn't grow out on the
usual culture plates in less than ten days."
Hogan asked, "Then how do you know it's shaking plague? It should only take
twenty-four hours to grow out."
"That's what makes it a powerful weapon. Turned loose in the Tecton with the
channels vectoring it with every transfer and the labs not catching it at
all why, the Tec-ton is wide open, defenseless against this, but only those
foolish enough to stick with the channels will die. The Distect was supposed
to be immune because we stick with our own transfer mates. That's why he
didn't want the celebration because there'd been an accident in the lab, and
he wasn't sure whether anyone had been infected. He tried to take all the
possible carriers away with him but then Digen played and everybody well, on
Founder's Day you experiment."
Ilyana said, "I ordered the celebration."
Skip said, "He wouldn't tell you why. He knew you wouldn't approve the
plan Digen wouldn't. I didn't find out until this morning."
Numbly, Ilyana repeated, "I ordered the celebration."
Digen said, "And I played the shiltpron. Skip, what's the mortality rate on
this strain?"
Skip shrugged.
Im'ran said, "You mean Roshi intends to infect the Tecton on purpose with
this disease, and he doesn't even know the mortality rate?"
"He may know," said Skip. "He's too sick to tell."
Ilyana strode to the coat. rack and snatched her rain jacket. "I'm going to
my brother." She was halfway out the door before anyone moved, and then they
all surged forward at once.
Slogging through the frozen-stiff muck to Roshi's house a virtual copy of
Digen's they passed many houses with drawn shutters and an aura of illness. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl karpacz24.htw.pl
could not know just how deeply into it Skip already was.
Digen held his breath, wanting to scream out to Hogan "Don't move!" But just
then Hogan felt the whirling draft from the door Digen had opened, and he
turned. Skip, in the grip of reflex, pounced the moment Hogan moved. At the
same time, Digen launched himself at Skip, preparing to offer transfer.
Digen lifted Skip's tentacles from Hogan's arms, sliding his own tentacles
into place. But Skip yelled out in the shock of pure shen, and, realizing that
Digen was prepared to serve, he wrenched himself away, rolling on the floor
in-agony, yelling, "No!" Hogan stood rigidly as if skewered by an electric
current.
In a blur, Im'ran slid to his knees beside Skip and took him into transfer
position, lavishing on the undeveloped channel all the skills and resources of
a Donor. Digen turned to shield Hogan from the sight of the transfer, taking
the Gen into his own arms. Hogan was stiff, not just from fright but from
cold. His blood pressure was dropping and he'd begun to black out.
Picking up the Gen bodily, Digen said, "Let's get you in by the fire."
By the time Digen reached the door to the front pantry, the transfer was
complete. Digen said, "Come on inside, both of you. It's too cold out here."
By the fire in the front room, Digen chafed Hogan's hands and feet. The Gen
revived enough to look up and say ruefully, "You seem to make a habit of
rescuing me."
Im'ran came in with Skip, and Digen swallowed a sharp reprimand to Hogan. He
got up and fetched the kettle out of the fireplace to make tea, "How long were
you two out there?" he asked Skip, handing him a glass.
"An hour," said Skip.
"You have to take better care of a Gen than that," said Digen. He handed
Im'ran a glass, saying, over his shoulder, to Skip, "You enjoy it?"
Page 167
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Im' is smooth. You know that. All the Tecton Donors are like that."
"No," said Digen, offering Hogan a glass. "Im' is something very rare."
"Digen," said Im'ran, "I didn't plan that."
"I know. In a few weeks you'll have the whole underdraw thing to go through
all over again."
Hogan said, "In a few weeks we could be back in civilization." He was
stroking the sides of his wrists, where Skip's ronaplin had sensitized the
nerves, and his nager held regret. He raised one arm to smell the sensitized
area. He'd wanted to experience transfer at least once and he'd wanted it with
Skip. He knew it would have killed him. He locked glances with Digen.
AH the unresolved anxieties flooded through Digen. He had to take a
definitive action. He had to put it all behind him or it would kill him.
Hogan a surgeon, and a fine one, a friend and a loyal one an example of
humanity's best and he would have died under Skip's hands. Not because he was
genetically defective. Not because he was unfit to survive. Because he was a
cripple, like Digen himself. The Tecton existed for the sake of the joelhogans
of this world, not for the farrises. The farrises could afford to take the
punishment. The hogans couldn't.
He looked at Skip. "You've kind of been in all this right from the start.
You've become a man through it all. Will you give me your word not to let what
I'm about to say go beyond this room?"
"I've pledged to Rior, Digen unto Roshi. I had no choice I've nowhere else to
go. I won't do anything against Rior.".
"Nor I," said Digen. "Rior is too fine a thing to destroy. But I've got to
take my friends home. We'll require your help. Or Did anyone see you come
here? Are you accepting banishment being here?"
"I came to get your supply list. So many people are sick there aren't any
more guards on the house."
Digen cast about outside, noting that what he said was indeed true.
Ilyana, in suspended shock, had come from the bedroom to hear Digen's
decision. Now she advanced into the front room, saying, "Sick? What do you
mean, so many are sick?"
"Oh, everybody dozens, anyway all from those who were at the
celebration they're all coming down with the shaking plague."
"Shaking plague?" said Hogan. "How do you know?"
"Roshi was the first and he knew right away& "
"Roshi's sick?" asked Ilyana. "With shaking plague?"
Chapter 17
PLAGUE
"The shaking plague!" said Im'ran.
Page 168
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"That's what Roshi's been so afraid of all along," said Skip. "That's why
he's been acting like this with Fen and with you and everybody. But now it's
happened and everybody knows it."
Together, Hogan and Digen said, "Now wait a minute." They looked at each
other, and Digen went on, "How could he possibly anticipate an outbreak of
something like shaking plague without taking cultures to screen every Sime in
the valley?"
Lips compressed, Skip looked around at them all. "Well, he did swear me to
secrecy when I went to work in the lab but everybody else knows now, so why
shouldn't you?"
"Knows what?" asked Ilyana.
"A few months ago just before you came back he discovered a mutant strain of
the shaking plague among some routine cultures. It doesn't grow out on the
usual culture plates in less than ten days."
Hogan asked, "Then how do you know it's shaking plague? It should only take
twenty-four hours to grow out."
"That's what makes it a powerful weapon. Turned loose in the Tecton with the
channels vectoring it with every transfer and the labs not catching it at
all why, the Tec-ton is wide open, defenseless against this, but only those
foolish enough to stick with the channels will die. The Distect was supposed
to be immune because we stick with our own transfer mates. That's why he
didn't want the celebration because there'd been an accident in the lab, and
he wasn't sure whether anyone had been infected. He tried to take all the
possible carriers away with him but then Digen played and everybody well, on
Founder's Day you experiment."
Ilyana said, "I ordered the celebration."
Skip said, "He wouldn't tell you why. He knew you wouldn't approve the
plan Digen wouldn't. I didn't find out until this morning."
Numbly, Ilyana repeated, "I ordered the celebration."
Digen said, "And I played the shiltpron. Skip, what's the mortality rate on
this strain?"
Skip shrugged.
Im'ran said, "You mean Roshi intends to infect the Tecton on purpose with
this disease, and he doesn't even know the mortality rate?"
"He may know," said Skip. "He's too sick to tell."
Ilyana strode to the coat. rack and snatched her rain jacket. "I'm going to
my brother." She was halfway out the door before anyone moved, and then they
all surged forward at once.
Slogging through the frozen-stiff muck to Roshi's house a virtual copy of
Digen's they passed many houses with drawn shutters and an aura of illness. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]