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...
"So much for our vaunted freedom of the press!" snorted Salazar. "Knebel had better be careful if he doesn't want to lose his shirt. Skeptics have been exposing such tricks for millennia, but people will still pay anything to be bunked and nothing to be debunked. What have you in mind now? A séance in the palace?"
"That's right."
Salazar wrinkled his face. "To a scientist, that's like asking a pious Jew or Muslim to eat pork; but I guess there's no help for it. How do you propose to stage it?"
"If we could collect Gariko and her ministers, we might induce some ancestral spirits to say that poignettes and rifles are fine with them. Name me some influential Kukulcanian spooks."
"I'll try to remember some Kookish history and mythology," said Salazar. "Let's see—Gariko's predecessor was her father Odzi. His predecessor was his mother Datsimuju; her predecessor was her father Hamashti, he of the boundary stones. It goes on and on, back to their mythical ancestor Simmo, who's their Abraham or Romulus. I don't remember much of it. Where shall we have the séance?"
She peered at the little low table. "Right here. I can handle this table with my toes, but the one in the meeting room is too heavy."
"How are the spirits to communicate?"
"Let's think ... In this language, 'yes' is wa, and 'no' is yao. Since the first word has two letters and the second word three, we'll let two raps stand for 'yes' and three for 'no.' "
"Fine so far. But if we want to go into details, we might spend the whole night asking questions. We'd be like a lawyer on cross-examination, probing and fishing until he hits pay dirt."
"A mixed metaphor if every I heard one," said Kara. "Since we know the answers we want, we shouldn't have to fumble around."
"Still, it might take more time than the Kooks may be willing to spend. How would it be to have the spirits speak directly on our poignettes?"
"Who'll do the talking? It has to be someone outside the room, who's in on our scheme and speaks good Feënzuo."
"Guess I'm nominated," said Salazar. "Suppose the ghost takes offense at me and orders me banished? You've turned your poignette on, and I go to the other room and say the spirit's speech."
"How about your accent?"
"Pretend that the language has changed since the spirit was mortal." He glanced at his poignette. "It's almost time for me to sell those jokers on the stance, and I'm no salesman."
Again, Keith Salazar and Kara Sheffield faced the council of ministers. Salazar said: "My lords and ladies, since there is a difference of opinion as to whether your ancestral spirits would be displeased by my proposals, let us ask the spirits themselves."
"How can we?" said the Empress. "They appear to us only in dreams, and then their messages are often garbled or obscure."
Salazar smiled. "We Terrans have among us some who are sensitive to the spirit world. Spirits speak through them."
Fosku, the Minister of Commerce, said: "I have heard of these spiritually sensitive aliens. But, honorable Sarasara, would you have us defer our decision until you fetch such a person from a Terran city?"
"No, my lord. We have such a person here, my associate Sheffield. She needs a few hours to prepare her mind for spirit communication. If you will return this evening, at about two hours after sunset, we shall receive you in the rooms Her Majesty has generously placed at our disposal."
There was a murmur of agreement. Shta was opposed, with Gakki doubtful; but the others evinced enough curiosity to carry the vote.
"I shall be present," growled Minister Shta, flicking out his tongue. "If there be any trickery, be assured that I shall detect it!"
Back in their two-room suite, Salazar and Kara arranged cushions around the low table. Salazar halted, saying: "I just had an idea. To add a touch of theater, we could rig up a thread to pull over one of those torcheres."
"Wouldn't that set the house afire?"
"No; the flame will be out when we darken the room. We shall merely spill a little oil."
"Let's hope this rug isn't a priceless antique." Kara rose and examined a torchere. "This is too heavy to be pulled over by a mere thread. But—I know!"
She rummaged among her toiletries and produced a dispenser of dental floss.
"Just the thing!" said Salazar. "I'll rig it so the string isn't visible until you start to pull, and then it'll be dark. If we run it under the edge of this rug ..."
Around the low table, on their cushions sat Salazar, Kara, the Empress, and eight ministers hip to hip. The room was totally dark save for a minute trace of light that escaped around the edges of a rug hung over the window. Since moonlight on Kukulcan was negligible, the only source of this illumination was a few lanterns hung outside the palace. Even when his eyes had adjusted to the gloom, Salazar could barely distinguish the shapes of his table mates. He was glad to know that the shape on his left was Kara, for in the blackness he could not have distinguished her from the Kooks. She sat where, by shedding a slipper, she could grasp a table leg with her toes.
After a while, Kara moaned and spoke: "I feel the power rising within me ... Entities gather in the room ..." Salazar murmured the translations.
At last she said: "If there be an intelligence in this room, other than those with hands upon this table, let it manifest itself by rapping once."
The table tilted slightly and returned to its position with a thump. There was a serpentine hiss from the Kooks as Salazar translated the question. The voice of the Empress spoke:
"Have her ask if the spirit be that of my sire Odzi."
Salazar passed on the question; Kara repeated it. The table rose and fell thrice. "It means 'no,' " said Salazar.
"Ask if it be that of his dam, Datsimuju."
Again the reply was no. Salazar said: "Your Majesty, it will take all night if you go through the entire list of your honorable forebears. Permit me to ask a daring question: Is this the spirit of the great and glorious Simmo himself?"
The table tipped twice, thump, thump. "It means 'yes,' " explained Salazar.
Again the hiss of indrawn breaths. Salazar could imagine the nine forked tongues darting. He said: "We are honored, Your Ghostliness. May I question you?"
Thump, thump, thump.
"No questions?" said General Shta. "What good is communication with a spirit who refuses to answer?"
"A moment, my lords and ladies," said Salazar. "Emperor Simmo, is it that something or someone in this room offends you?"
Thump, thump.
"Is it the presence of myself and my fellow Terran?"
"Thump, thump, thump; pause; thump, thump. "Yes and no," said Salazar. "Is it only one of us?" Thump, thump. "Is it I?" Thump, thump.
"Is it that you dislike a Terran's questioning you?" Thump, thump.
"If I depart, will you then answer the questions of others?"
Thump, thump.
Salazar rose. Minister Gakki protested: "Honorable Sarasara, if you leave, how shall we communicate with the spirit? Sheffira speaks but little Feënzuo."
"My lady, he will understand when one of you speaks," said Salazar.
Careful not to trip over the dental floss, he stalked into the other room of the suite and closed the door. Then he clicked on his poignette and spoke into the instrument, pitching his voice in imitation of the harsh, rasping Kookish speech and using an archaic form of the language, of which he had a smattering.
"Hail, mortals! The shade of Emperor Simmo asks: Wherefore have ye disturbed our rest?"
Through the door Salazar could hear a stir among the Kooks. There was a murmur of voices; then one spoke up: "O great lord, we wish your guidance."
"We offer it. Speak!"
Minister Shta's voice wafted from the poignette on Salazar's wrist: "We are, as Your Imperial Majesty knows, faced by an invasion. Terrans have offered us the use of their rapid-fire guns and of electrical devices for swift communication. But we fear such alien aid ..." Shta then summarized the arguments that he had set forth that afternoon.