The Stones of Nomuru
- Автор: Де Камп Лайон Спрэг
- Серия: Viagens Interplanetarias #7
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «The Stones of Nomuru». Краткое содержание книги:
Mild-mannered Terra archeologist Keith Salazar was just minding his business, digging up the alien past on an out-of-the-way site on the planet Kukulcan, when suddenly he was beseiged by intruders on his scholarly peace: hostile natives, an indifferent ex-wife, and a demon developer with rapacious eyes glued on both his site and his true love.
In the course of protecting his dig, regaining his loved one and vanquishing his rival, Salazar will fight a giant reptilian predator bare-handed, leap into snake-filled pits, engineer the planet's first imperial conquest, lead and train a battalion of alien riflemen, and hold a séance. Pretty exciting work--but then maybe Keith Salazar wasn't such a milquetoast after all...
"I come upon such cases all the time," said Firestone. "Men call themselves reasoning animals; but that's true only part of the time."
"Diane appealed to my sympathies. Sort of got me on my blind side, by a song-and-dance about the dreadful things her family and her ex-husband had done."
"Did you ever ask the family or the ex for their side of the story?"
"No, but I learned enough so I should have been warned. Diane's family is the most quarrelsome this side of Donnybrook Fair. Their get-togethers are one long wrangle, with everybody trying to put down, or take advantage of, or pry something out of everyone else. Such attitudes carry over into the married lives of the younger members; all of Diane's siblings have had turbulent domestic histories. They're takers, not givers. I suppose Diane's more to be pitied than blamed; but that doesn't excuse me. What happened to me, Cabot? Had my brain turned to mush?"
Firestone said: "Your brain wasn't the organ in charge at the time. People have been falling in love with unsuitable mates ever since Helen ran off with Paris of Troy and I daresay long before that. These urges come upon most people, more often on men— nature's way of spreading their genes through the species."
"How could I do that when all the time I never had a hostile thought about Kara? She still attracts me."
"One can love two women at once, being attracted to one while still attached to the other. Could you have subconsciously resented the feet that she was the dominant one of the pair of you?"
Salazar shrugged. "Maybe. I should be glad to have that dominance back; but she's dead set against it. Why?"
"To most," said Firestone, fingering his beard, "abandonment by a loved one is a major trauma; and most have a deep, visceral fear of it. When the abandonee sees a former spouse, he or she is torn. A lingering attachment pulls the ex-mate one way, while a lasting resentment pulls the other. As to which wins, I couldn't predict."
"I see," said Salazar, staring moodily. "Guess I did give her cause for hard feelings. I used to think I was a pretty good guy, but I find I had feet of clay clear up to my knees."
"Couldn't you have had just a quiet affair, without upsetting your marriage?"
Salazar shook his head. "For one thing, Diane's a blabbermouth; a clandestine affair with her would stay clandestine for no more than ten minutes. For another, I felt I had to be honest with Kara; my damned scientific training."
"No matter how it hurt?" Firestone sighed. "A little hypocrisy isn't always bad. Hypocrisy, like liquor and religion, is one of the lubricants that make civilized life possible."
"Wish I'd asked you before things had gone too far."
"You'd have paid as much attention as the tide did to King Canute in the legend. But don't give up. If you two can still stand each other after weeks of camping out in the bush, it just might be love. You've got plenty of rime, with modern longevity."
"I know. The myths promised eternal youth, and medicine has given us eternal middle age instead."
Firestone: "What do you do for temporary relief?"
"Nothing. You know what happens to professors who fool with students."
"Having a hard time?"
Salazar shrugged. "Chastity may not be the most fun in the world; but nobody ever died of it. One gorgeous redhead politely propositioned me last term. Shell be back as a graduate next fell, after the same thing."
"Grades of A?"
"No; she's an all-A student who doesn't need to offer her alabaster body. She just likes it—and me. She hasn't said so in plain Anglo-Saxon, but stick around."
"Some would envy you."
"Let 'em. My real concern is not assuaging unrequited lust but saving the Nomuru site. Bergen's going ahead with his resort, despite threats of a Kookish war."
Firestone said: "I hear he's made a deal with the Choshas, to protect his resort area."
"He might have, at that." Salazar frowned in concentration. "I shall pay a call on High Chief Miyage, to alert him to Bergen's double-dealing. But Miyage's had it in for me ever since my work last year on the boundary-stone dispute ...
"You see, Cabot, the independence of Shongosi is guaranteed by a treaty between the High Chief of the Choshas and the then Emperor of Feënzun. Evidently Prophet Kampai won't pay the treaty any mind. So if Miyage scorns my warnings against Bergen and the Choshas, my next step, to save the site, will be to go see Empress Gariko. She's friendly to me for the same reason Miyage isn't: my boundary findings were in her favor. Maybe I can convince her to prepare for war with the Choshas."
Salazar stood up. "Thanks for the chow, Cabot; and also for stirring up a brain cell or two."
Firestone said: "I'd better walk you back to your place."
"Why?"
"If you're in Conrad Bergen's black book, it's not a good idea to wander around town alone at night."
"Not quite alone. I'm packing my in-town pistol, the little one."
"And what good would that do if someone shot you in the back? Let's go."
VI – THE FREEMARTIN
Shortly after Salazar returned to Nomuru, Ito Kurita came back from his visit to High Chief Miyage. Kurita reported that the contract with Bergen was not yet final, and that he hoped he had sown enough seeds of doubt to delay the proceedings.
"I did not see the High Chief himself," said Kurita unhappily. "He is most discourteous. He sent word that he had no time for aliens but would let me speak to an underling. It was most humiliating."
After the surveyors departed, the site of Nomuru saw the three assistants diligently shoveling and sieving at one of the test pits, while Salazar struggled to master the art of riding a juten. When he picked himself up from the ground for the second time, he said in Shongo to his riding instructor:
"Sensao, I shall never be able to ride this creature without what we call stirrups."
"Sati—" said the Kook, neck spines indicating puzzlement. "What is the Terran word again, honorable sir?"
"Stirrups."
"Satrapsa? And what be those?"
Salazar explained. The instructor commented: "Strange. We ride without these satrapsa and never fell off."
"I do not, like you, have claws on my feet to hold on with."
"Unfortunate creature! You must order these things in Neruu. Meanwhile, you must try again. Get back in the saddle and tell the juten: 'Go forward; turn left; turn right; halt!' "
"Very well." Mounted again, Salazar said to his mount: "Katai!"
The juten obediently paced forward. A riding juten bore a lead rope looped about its neck, but the rider controlled it entirely by vocal commands.
"Mai shida!" said Salazar, meaning "Turn left!"
The juten promptly turned right. Salazar, who had leaned to the left to brace himself for the turn, rolled off the juten's back again.
"Tomai!" he yelled after the departing beast, which stopped at the command. Bruised and battered, Salazar faced his instructor. "Sensao, what did I do wrong this time?"
"You said mai shida when you should have said mai shida." The Kook pronounced the two commands with different tones.
"But I used the low-rising tone in shida!"
"But, honorable sir, you forgot that, in that combination, the low-rising tone changes to high-level."
Salazar sighed. "I thought my Shongo good enough for most purposes."
"It is, honorable sir, for talking with us Shongorin. When you barbarians misplace the tones, we are intelligent enough to guess your true meaning. When you use the wrong status forms, we know that you do not mean to insult us and make allowances for your ignorance. Now mount again!"
Cursing a language that distinguished the words for "right" and "left" only by a complex system of tones, Salazar once more heaved himself into the saddle. This time he went through the drill without mishap. He had just halted his mount when he heard a cry of "Hurrah!" and saw Oleg Pokrovskii standing at the edge of the site, clapping. A cyhndrical box reposed at his feet, and behind him stood another Terran.