The Sinners of Erspia
- Автор: Бейли Баррингтон Дж.
- Год: 2011
- Язык: португальский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «The Sinners of Erspia». Краткое содержание книги:
The sun had set and Hoggora, High Priest of the Forces of Darkness, felt vigorous and confident. True, the villagers, contrary to Drosh's report, had assembled a force to match his own. He was faced, in fact, by an alliance of villages, and this would be a battle to go down in legend. But darkness had come, and the darkness always made him feel strong. He looked forward with joy to the carnage that was about to commence.
His cavalry was lined up on one side of a shallow river, the infantry jostling behind. On the other side of the water was a less colourful, but more rigidly disciplined parade. It was a case of ferocity versus fortitude, as it had always been. But this time the outcome would give one side or the other a decided advantage for years to come.
Beyond the silent ranks, the priests of Ormazd, in their tall, coiffed headdresses, raised their faces to heaven in rapt prayer. Hoggora prayed, too, hurling his voice hoarsely to that point in space where he knew the Mouth of Ahriman hovered.
"Ahriman! Aid us!"
And then, as if in answer to his supplication, an event took place that caused the entire assembly, on both sides, to pause and become stock-still. It was an invisible event, but one that was yet felt by everyone present. In the perpetual tussle that took place in each man's mind, one of the contending factors abruptly went missing. Ahriman alone remained, to exult in his victory.
It was as if a shadow of evil swept over the world, a shadow that could never be lifted. The priests, sensing the death of the Good God, wailed in disbelieving horror. The ranks arrayed before them shivered and moaned as they, too, felt the strength of their lord leave them.
But among Hoggora's army an incredible chafing joy took hold. Hoggora screamed a command, howling in triumph. A volley of arrows whistled across the river. Lances were levelled, pennants flew. With a great shout, the Horde of the Evil One surged across the shallow water to claim its own.
TWO
Orchid Paradise
The drive had been in operation for only minutes when a mechanism behind the panel of the control board chattered and a sheet of parchment-like material came stuttering out of a slot.
Laedo snatched it up as it floated floorwards. Words, still smoking, had been etched or burned into the sheet in argot galactica.
Experiment incomplete, they read. Return station to duty.
Laedo stared. It had not occurred to him that the projector station might be able to monitor the performance of its staff.
How to reply? Laedo searched the panel. The mechanism had not spoken out loud, so he presumed there would be a writing plate or something even more primitive, such as a keyboard. But he found nothing. Finally, in exasperation, he responded as if to a normal control device.
“The experiment has been abandoned. The staff are all dead,” he said, raising his voice.
After a pause there came more chattering and another sheet of parchment was extruded.
Must report to Klystar, he read. Then he felt movement under his feet.
The dials on the board were shifting their settings. With a yell he seized control levers and tried to correct the course, but it was no good. The station was changing direction and all the flight parameters—velocity flow, fuel rate, flight tensor—were being adjusted by an unseen, expert power.
Not back to Erspia. Not towards Harkio. To where?
He groaned and sank back in the pilot's seat.
The door slid open. Histrina stepped into the room, her gun thrust into the belt of her gauzy shift-like gown, dimpling her soft belly.
“What's wrong?” she asked, in the cool and self-possessed voice she had acquired since the killings.
“I don't know where the hell we're going—if anywhere."
“I thought we were going to your home world. To Harkio."
“So did I. But this thing has a mind of its own. I think it's trying to take us to Klystar, the being who made Erspia. Only I don't suppose it even knows where Klystar is."
“Well, do something,” Histrina said, in a tone whose sharpness surprised and even frightened him a little.
Raising his face, and ignoring Histrina's puzzlement at seeing him address thin air, he spoke again.
“Klystar went away a long time ego. There's no one to report to. Hand back control of the station to me."
This time there was no chattering of words being burned onto parchment, and no change in the dial readings. “It's no good,” Laedo muttered.
Histrina clenched her fists in frustration. “Think of something else, ” she insisted bitingly.
“I'll have to see if I can get the casing off and jigger about with the cybernetics somehow. The trouble is, putting it out of action might disconnect the drive unit controls as well. We'd be stranded."
“Look!” said Histrina.
Over the control panel a part of wall had changed colour from grey to smudgy white, forming a wide oval patch. The oval cleared and became glasslike. It was a viewscreen.
In it, Laedo saw what he presumed lay ahead of them: black space dotted with stars. Then, to the accompaniment of more movement under their feet, the view swivelled round.
Suddenly they were looking at a planet, shining in the darkness, lit on one side by an unseen sun.
“It's Erspia!" Histrina cried. “We're back at Erspia!"
“No, we couldn't be.” Laedo inspected the dials with a frown. “We haven't gone back, not unless these readings are all wrong. We're thousands of miles away."
For all that, it did look a lot like Erspia. Now he spotted where the planet's daytime illumination came from: a point source of light, orbiting the globe not far away. It was the Erspia system in duplicate, and automatically he began to see it not as a planet proper but as a spherically shaped planetoid, even though the screen gave no ranging figures from which to estimate size.
“Erspia looks brownish-green from space,” he said to Histrina. “Look close at that planet. It's mottled in different colours."
“I don't see."
Laedo wasn't sure if he saw the colours either now. Perhaps it had been an optical effect, a sort of shading of phantom hues. But the globe was definitely lighter in tone than Erspia. It was almost pastel.
“It's obvious Klystar made more than one world,” he said tonelessly. “We'll wait till the station parks itself in orbit or whatever. Then I'll have a go at the casing."
But the station didn't go into orbit. Laedo gave a hiss of indrawn breath as the planetoid's globe shape swooped nearer.
They were going in—fast!
“Look out!” he yelled to the hidden controller. “There's a planet ahead! We're going to crash!"
“What's happening?” Histrina shrieked.
“We're out of control. Quick—get into this chair.” He pointed to the padded, braced seat next to his. It wasn't much protection, but it was better than standing.
Histrina disregarded his advice. “I'll fix that thing,” she snarled. She pulled the gun from her waistband and pointed it at the control board as the worldlet swelled and swelled on the screen, blotting out the ebony margin that had surrounded it.
“No!” Laedo jumped up and began wrestling with her, forcing the nozzle of the gun away from the control board. “That won't help! Stop it!"
Again he felt the floor shift beneath his feet, then a slight pressure. He knew that these indications were leaks through the artificial gravity from much more powerful acceleration forces that would have crushed them both instantly. Either the station was changing course, or it was decelerating.
“It's all right!” he shouted. “Put the gun away, Histrina!"
Dubiously she obeyed. The sunlit side of the planetoid was now so close that blurry surface features could be made out—fuzzy mottled colours, lavender, light green, daffodil yellow, swaying and sliding past. Then, abruptly, it all streaked aside and they were once more looking into space, with the point-source sun glaring out at them.