The Annals of the Heechee
- Автор: Пол Фредерик
- Серия: heechee #4
- Год: 1988
- Язык: английский
- Год: Del Rey
- ISBN: 9780345325662
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «The Annals of the Heechee». Краткое содержание книги:
Advanced Heechee technology had enabled Robinette Broadhead to live after death as a machine-stored personality, enjoying his life by flitting along the wires from party to party with a host of other machine-people. But suddenly his decadent existence ends when an all powerful alien race intent on the utter destruction of all intelligent life reappears after eons of silence, and threatens the lives of all heechee and humans. Even Robin, virtually immortal and with unlimited access to millennia of accumulated data, cannot discover how to stop these aliens. It began to seem that only a face to face meeting could determine the future of the entire universe....
It helped still more when Captain had the bright idea of giving Audee a Heechee pod-a modified one, of course. As Captain told Audee, one part of the Heechee pod was useless to Audee, if not indeed dangerous to his health. That was the tiny microwave-radiation generator. The Heechee race had evolved on an otherwise pleasant planet of a star that happened to be near a large and active gas cloud; Bremsstrahlung radiation in the microwave frequencies had drenched that world from prebiotic times, and the Heechee had evolved to tolel-ate it-indeed, to need it, as human beings need the sun. So when they began venturing to places where the radiation could not follow, they had to bring their own source of microwave along.
Then, when a little later on in their history they discovered how to preserve the essentials of a deceased Heechee, they found another use for the pods. Each one contained the stored transcription of an Ancient Ancestor.
They even gave Audee an Ancient Ancestor of his own.
To his surprise, she wasn’t really Ancient at all. She had been dead only a matter of weeks; she had been Captain’s own lover, and her name was Twice.
That was the final step in Audee’s assimilation of the notion that the Heechee were “people.”
It’s a small universe, isn’t it?
As Audee began to get used to Captain, Captain got used to Audee—enough to open a discussion that had been very much on his mind. He got his chance when Audee asked about the Foe.
It was, after all, the central problem the universe posed to both Heechee and humans. The Foe. The Assassins. The race of inimical, death-dealing beings whose existence had caused the Heechee to pack up and flee to a safe hideout in the galactic core.
Audee made Captain go over and over the story, often with the other Heechee in the crew chiming in; it still wasn’t easy to grasp. “I understand about Tangent’s trip,” he said, “and I understand that you knew a lot of civilized races had been wiped out, but how did you get from there to this idea of crumpling up the universe?”
The Heechee looked at each other. “I think first it was the deceleration parameter,” said Shoe.
Captain writhed his biceps in agreement. “Yes, the deceleration parameter. Of course, it was only a question for theoretical astrophysicists at first, you understand.”
“I would understand better if I knew what a deceleration parameter was,” Audee groaned.
“It could also be called an anomalous braking effect,” White-Noise offered from the other side of the room.
Captain flexed his twisty biceps in agreement. He went on: “It means only that our astronomers had observed that the universe was expanding less rapidly, by a power law, than it should have. Something was slowing it down.”
“And you figured out it was the Foe?”
Captain said somberly, “In conjunction with the other evidence, and after ruling out every other possibility, it became clear that it could be nothing else but some artificial intervention on a cosmic scale. And there just were no other candidates.”
“I can see that that would be disconcerting,” said Audee.
“Disconcerting,” Captain rasped. “It changed everything.” He gazed thoughtfully at Audee out of those pink eyes with the blotch of pupil in the middle. He glanced at the other Heechee swiftly, then made the snuffling sound that was the Heechee equivalent of clearing one’s throat to announce a change to a serious subject. “It is not too late,” he announced.
Audee blinked. “Not too late for what?”
“It is not too late for your people to join ours in the core,” Captain said precisely, speaking slowly to make sure that Audee understood. “It would be quite congenial for your human race inside the core if you were to come there.”
“It sounds,” said Audee politely, trying to lighten the conversation, “as though it might be a little crowded.”
“Crowded? Why crowded?” asked Captain, cheek twitching-it was the equivalent of a frown. “We have mapped this Galaxy quite carefully, and when we retreated to the core, we chose the best planets to take there with us. There are not too many left outside that are congenial to your race-or to ours.”
Audee saw a chance to do a little justified boasting on behalf of the human race. “Ah, but we make them congenial,” he explained proudly.
“There are six planets already mapped and explored, for example, that would be perfect for human beings except that the temperature range is a bit low. We can fix that. We’re seeding those planets’ atmospheres with chlorofluorocarbons. They trap heat-like carbon dioxide-which causes a greenhouse effect, which will—”
“I understand carbon dioxide,” Captain gritted. “I also understand chiorofluorocarbons and, yes, it is true that certain of these compounds will in fact persist in an atmosphere for many centuries once put there. I agree that this may in certain cases raise the mean temperature of a planet by a few degrees.”
“Well, a few degrees is all you need for some of them,” Audee said reasonably. “And there’s Venus. It’s too hot by far. But before long we’ll probably spread reflective dust particles in its upper atmosphere. This will cut down the insulation and make Venus habitable. Then we can do the same thing on other planets-there are two or three already identified. We can seed life where life never existed to make its own Gaea effect. We will move planets, if we must, to better orbits—”
Captain was growing testy. “But we have already done all of that inside the core,” he urged. “Do you know how many habitable planets we already have in place? More than eight hundred fifty, most of them not yet occupied even by advance parties. As you see, we planned for a long stay.”
“Yes,” said Audee neutrally. “I see that.”
Captain hissed faintly in puzzlement. He was aware that there was something in Audee’s tone but couldn’t tell what it was. He snuffled again and went on: “So you can join us! Some planets are prettier than others, to be sure, and I am certain you could have some of the very finest. Your entire race could fit on one of them!—two or three at the most,” he corrected himself, thinking it over.
“And do what?” asked Audee.
Captain blinked at him. “Why-wait, of course,” he said. “It is possible we would be safe there, Audee Walthers. Especially if we stop all transmissions at once and begin the transfer of all human beings and energy-using devices into the core as soon as possible.”
“Energy-using devices?”
“Devices that radiate detectable energy. That would give away our presence,” Captain explained.
“Ah,” said Audee, nodding, having spotted the flaw. “But you people posted automatic sensors,” he pointed out. “Why wouldn’t the Foe have done the same?”
“Perhaps they have,” Captain said glumly. “I didn’t say it was certhin we would be safe. I only said it was possible. And if they have not in fact detected this-outbreak-then we can stay inside there, for millions and billions of years, if necessary, waiting.”
“But waiting for what, Captain?”
“Why-of course, waiting until some other race, perhaps, evolves to challenge them!”
Audee studied the Heechee carefully, wonderingly. It was clear that more than language differences lay between them.
“One has,” he said gently. “Us.”
For some time after that Audee worried that he might have hurt Captain’s feelings. He had, after all, implied against the entire Heechee race an accusation of cowardice. What Audee didn’t know was that Captain took it as a compliment.
If there is one part of Audee’s trip that I envy him more than any other, it is his penetration of the black hole itself. Not that Audee enjoyed it. No one would; it was scary.
As they approached that glowing, boiling, violently radiating furnace of infalling gases that marked the approach to the Heechee hideout, Captain ordered everyone strapped into their hanunock sacks. WhiteNoise applied power to the crystal helix the Heechee called a “disruptor of order.” It glowed diamond-bright. The temperature rose. The ship began to shake.