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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] The two hunters stoically partook of the marvels of the cafeteria, where local proteins were combined with colors and flavors and then altered to produce food more familiar to the giants. Born's interest perked up at this explanation. "I understand, now. What kind of local foods do you use to make yours?" "Oh, whatever's available. The instrumentation is very versatile. We send out a scoop-equipped skimmer, and it brings back the requisite number of kilos of raw material-vegetable and animal." "Could I see where this wonder happens?" "Sure." He took them through the cafeteria to the processing room, showed them the hopper where plants and animals gathered from the forest were reprocessed with expensive offplanet nutrients, vitamins, and flavorings. Born studied the bales of shrubs and bushes. The majority were herbaceous succulents, the woody material removed and discarded as scrap. None of those gathered were decayed, none were blighted or dying. These giants did not emfol-they took what they needed, efficiently, easily, blindly. His face remained an enthusiastic mask, despite his thoughts. They moved on to the recreation chamber, where even Losting was awed by the marvels devoted to idle amusement. Eventually, after this extended tour calculated to impress, Hansen conducted them to the laboratories where research on the fruits of many skimmer trips took place. Born and Losting were introduced to earnest teams of preoccupied men and women engaged in intense, incomprehensible tasks. "McKay!" Hansen called to a tall, thin woman dressed in a dark lab frock, hair tied in a thick bun. "Hello, Chief." Her voice was low, her black eyes piercing. She examined the two hunters. "Interesting-something local that is exactly what it appears to be, for a change." "This is Born and Losting, great hunters. Gentlemen, Gam McKay, one of our very best-what was your word, Born-?shaman, yes, shaman." "I heard Jan and Kimi made it back. With the help of these two?" "You'll see the whole report as soon as they get around to making it out," Hansen declared. "Right now I'd appreciate it if you'd show our friends what you and Yazid got out of that conch bulb." She nodded and they followed her down a narrow walkway between benches stacked high with glittering, light-catching devices, until they reached the end of a table. To one side lay three large crates made of a transparent material like the station windows. These were filled with the branches of the Page 112 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html chaga. The bushes from which the branches had been taken, Born noted, had been in full bloom. Each branch was heavy with red-bordered, white-throated flowers, now beginning to wilt noticeably. The woman McKay opened a small cabinet and carefully removed a tiny clear vial. "This is the distilled extract of about two thousand blooms." She unscrewed the tiny cap and offered it to Hansen. With a smile, he declined. "Born, how about you?" She extended the vial toward him and instructed him to sniff at the open top. Born did so. The scent that rose from the vial was that of the chaga, but intensified many, many times. He reeled slightly, but his expression did not change. "I am familiar with it," he told them. McKay looked disappointed and turned to Hansen for encouragement. "Familiar-is that all he can say?" "Remember, Gam, Born lives among such aromatic blossoms, hunts among them daily." The chemist continued mumbling to herself as she locked the vial back in the cabinet. "Why is this done?" Born asked Hansen as they left for the next lab. "Properly thinned and blended with other enhancing and stabilizing chemicals, Born, the little container will serve as a base for a brand new fragrance-what we call perfume. It will be worth a great deal of?" Once more he tried to explain that awkward concept. "I still do not understand. What can such a thing be used for?" "Women will use it, Born, to make themselves more attractive, to make themselves seem more beautiful." "They clothe themselves in the odor of death." "Isn't that putting it a little strongly, Born?" Hansen wondered, taken aback by the grimness of the hunter's comment. He was trying to sympathize with the hunter's natural lack of understanding. However, his explanation seemed to do little to improve Born's understanding. Born was trying to see, he honestly was. So was Losting. But the further they went through this house of strangeness, the more they saw of its purpose and intents, the harder understanding became. For example, there were the three crates filled with mutilated chaga. The branches had been taken unemfoled from the mature parent plants. Thousands more would be similarly torn to make a little concentrated chaga smell. For what? To heal the sick or nourish the hungry? No, it would be done for amusement-a kind of amusement beyond the comprehension of the two hunters. It took Losting longer to see these things than Born. When the bigger man finally realized, though, he was less subtle in his opinions than his companion. "This is a horrible thing you are doing!" Hansen had already evaluated and recovered from Born's outburst. Now he [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |