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...
When the caravan left Biitso, nothing more had been said about the sealed crates. The chieftains had evidently forgotten the matter, and Salazar had better sense than to remind them.
"Don't Kooks have such a thing as an inn or hotel?" asked Kara as Salazar, with the help of Kono and Uwangi, set up the tent.
"Guess not," he said. "If one goes traveling, either he stays with someone connected with him by their complicated rules of caste and kinship, or he squats down wherever he can find a wall to rest his back against. The idea of bothering about physical discomfort is foreign to them. Even if they had inns, their caste rules about eating and sleeping would present innkeepers with an impossible problem."
On the second night after leaving Biitso, thunder rumbled and rain began to fall. Kara said: "Don't be silly, Keith! Drag that bag in here and spend a dry night."
"Are you sure—"
"I can't have you getting sick on me." As Salazar, grumbling under his breath, brought in his sleeping bag, she added: "Now, repeat after me—"
"Eh? What's this?"
"Never mind. Just repeat after me, loud and clear: I will not ..."
"I will not ..."
"Make a pass at ..."
"Make a pass at ..."
"Or make love to ..."
"Or make love to ..."
"My platonic friend Kara Sheffield."
"My platonic friend Kara Sheffield. Say, what is this? Some sort of magical incantation?"
"In a way. I know you pretty well, Keith. In most matters you're punctilious, literal-minded, and—with one unfortunate lapse—a man of your word. So if you promise, right out loud, not to try any intimacies, I'm pretty sure you'll keep your word."
Salazar gave a snort of laughter: "But what if you make advances to me? What am I supposed—"
"Mount Nezumi will dance a pachanga before that happens!"
After a long pause, Salazar spoke:
"Keith! Go to sleep!"
At Machura, the Empress, surrounded by musketeers and spearmen, said: "Hail, honorable Sarasara! Is your health good?"
"Hail, Your Imperial Majesty!" said Salazar, down on both knees. Beside him Kara knelt likewise. "My health, thank the Universal Law, has been excellent. Has Your Majesty's health ..."
After completion of the long exchange, the Empress said: "Are these the promised Terran guns?"
"They are, Your Imperial Majesty."
"Come inside, with your companion. Arrangements will be as before."
Hours later, bathed, groomed, and rested, Salazar and Kara found themselves alone in the audience room with the Empress. Gariko said in English: "I am pleased with your success, Sarasara. Is this loan of Terran weapons known to any other Terrans?"
"Only two others in Henderson, whose discretion I can vouch for. What has Your Majesty done with the guns?"
"The crates are stacked in the armory. But I must tell you that your plan has met objections from some of my ministers."
"What objections, Your Majesty?"
"My Minister of War—or you could call him General Shta—opposes any sort of dependency on Terrans. He has read a history of Terran civilization and avers that to give them the slightest grasp upon us will result in our being conquered and reduced to servitude. He cites many instances."
Salazar said: "Your Majesty, the events that Minister Shta refers to occurred centuries ago. On my world, we have learned to be more scrupulous in observing the rights of other peoples."
"Ah, but here you Terrans are not on your world; nor has your species evolved appreciably since the earlier days of which you speak. You are at bottom the same excitable, impulsive, aggressive creatures that you were back then. And now you are in the position regarding us that the people of Yura—Yero—"
"Europe," Salazar prompted.
"The people of Europe were when they invaded the other continents of your world. Having technical advantages—well, we shall discuss this further. The final decision shall be mine.
"Meanwhile I must know more of your plan for putting the Terran guns to use. My spies tell me that the Choshas will soon invade Shongosi. How shall we transmit news of this invasion to our forces in time to enable them to meet the Choshas before the latter have overrun Shongosi and perhaps entered Feënzun as well?"
Salazar thought before replying. "Your Majesty's people have no electrical communications. Lacking these, what method swifter than a rider on a fast juten would serve? On Terra, men once set up lines of signal towers, by which they sent messages from one tower to the next by means of a device with arms that could be set to symbolize the characters of our system of writing."
"That is not feasible here, Sarasara. It would take much too long to build the towers and train the signalers. Secondly, while your system of writing, I understand, makes do with a mere thirty or forty symbols, ours employs hundreds. These could not easily be conveyed by wagging the arms of your device. What else?"
"Your Majesty, on Terra we have many species of small, flying creatures called 'birds,' somewhat like your zutas. A few of these have been trained to bear messages."
"None of us has, to my knowledge, ever sought to employ zutas thus. It is a possibility, but for the future. Is there aught else?"
Salazar pondered. "As Your Majesty knows, we Terrans communicate afar by electrical devices. I know your people believe that such devices distress your ancestral spirits; but if, of myself and Miss Sheffield, one were in Shongosi and the other at your army headquarters, the invasion could be reported instantly."
After a silence, Gariko said: "It is too late to call a special meeting of ministers today; but perhaps I can arrange one for tomorrow afternoon. You shall be informed, and your presence is expected."
"May my companion, Miss Sheffield, attend also?"
"Surely. Do you require anything for your comfort?"
Salazar said: "We should be grateful for a few more cushions, Your Majesty. Your floors are of an admirable hardness."
Gariko could not smile; but the rippling of her cervical spines implied that she might have done so if furnished with human lips instead of a turtle's beak. She murmured: "It amazes me that creatures, so soft-skinned and sensitive to the slightest discomfort, should ever have conquered the vast distances between your world and ours. But cushions you shall have. May you be in good health ..."
Salazar strolled the streets of Machura with Kara, taking in the limited sights of the town. Kara said: "I find the monotony oppressive. All the houses look alike, as if they had come out of the same cookie cutter."
Salazar shrugged. "An infinite number of apartment blocks on Earth are just as uniform."
"And the people don't seem in the least interested in us."
"Kooks decide what they intend to do and concentrate on that goal. It takes more than a mere pair of monsters from outer space, like us, to distract them ..."
A young Kook planted itself before them, saying in Feënzuo: "May your health be good! You are Terrans, are you not?"
"Yes," said Salazar.
"And you are a male, and the smaller one a female?"
"You are right, young fellow."
"Have you twain traveled hither together?"