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[ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ] -I assure you, there is no real danger of love between us! I have not forgotten Fuel of Furnace, and never will. I a a T T n n s s F F f f o o D D r r P P m m Y Y e e Y Y r r B B 2 2 . . B B A A Click here to buy Click here to buy w w m m w w o o w w c c . . . . A A Y Y B B Y Y B B r r mentioned him only to explain my situation.- -You lie, Flame! You loved Fuel because he was the highest aura you encountered, even as I loved Psyche. Had his aura been a mere ten or fifteen, you would never have noticed him, regardless of his other merits. I do not question those merits. I am sure he was deserving, as much so as my Psyche. But it was aura alone that compelled you to choose him from a thousand other deserving entities. Now my aura moves you regardless of your will, as yours moves me. You and I are Kirlians, a type apart. We can love each other, and shall love each other, if we do not separate soon. Then we would both be false.- -To our dead loves,- she finished with acerbity. -Herald, can it be so wrong? We only recognize reality at last- -My love is not dead!- he exclaimed, experiencing a wash of emotion that shook him. -She lives, somewhere in this Ancient network, and I must recover her!- -Very well, she lives. And to free her, you must mate with me. Would you rather leave her locked in the tomb of the Ancients forever?- Never that! -It is a paradox! To save her, it seems I must betray her!- -Think of it this way: The fire took her from you. It is fitting that Flame bring her back. If I could restore my Fuel similarly, I would not hesitate.- -It would be more fitting that my low-Kirlian mistress perform that service.- -So you do love the mistress, too,- Flame vibrated knowingly. -No!- But honesty compelled him to reconsider. -She has an aura so low it can hardly be measured. As far beneath norm as mine is above it. Yet she is a worthy sapient, intelligent, feeling, competent. I wronged her not by taking her as mistress in my hour of need, but by denying her my love. I think- He broke off for a moment, surprised. -I think Psyche herself would have wanted me to give that love, in that circumstance.- -There is a corollary.- He came to it with a certain difficulty. -If she were to grant that love... she would by similar token grant this love.- -Our Kirlian nature enables us to compromise,- Flame vibrated. -After this mission is done, if we both survive, and if you have not recovered your high-Kirlian true love, I will on occasion animate your low-Kirlian false love. We need make no apologies for such a liaison.- -That will not be necessary,- Herald said with sudden decision. -We have our liaison here.- He found himself potent, and completed the act. Afterward, they stood together on the Ancient disk, waiting for the site to respond. -It would be ironic if nothing happened now,- Flame vibrated gently. -Or if too much happened, like an Amoeba strike,- he added. -But regardless, it was worthwhile, of itself. I love others, but I could love you also, in other circumstances.- -And I you,- she agreed. -I would not even exclude this circumstance.- -You have helped me to know myself, as my friend Hweeh has done, and to comprehend some of the impact I have on others.- -Your friend Hweeh?- -Hweeh of Swees of Segment Weew. He is the leading research astronomer of the Cluster, and a fine intelligent entity, with an aura of one hundred and twenty-five. He enabled me to come here, since this locale is restricted, by exerting influence in his Segment.- -I thought I recognized the name. The Minister of Furnace told me that he was acting on behalf of the clearance made by an astronomer of Weew. I had wondered how Weew entered the picture.- -That is a long story. The threat of the Amoeba is being contemplated by a Cluster committee, and- -A committee! Are they serious?- -That's why we had to- He was interrupted suddenly. The disk on which they stood started to sink; the site was opening! a a T T n n s s F F f f o o D D r r P P m m Y Y e e Y Y r r B B 2 2 . . B B A A Click here to buy Click here to buy w w m m w w o o w w c c . . . . A A Y Y B B Y Y B B r r -Suppose we remain locked inside forever, as Melody of Milky Way and Dash of Andromeda were?- Flame inquired nervously. -This I would define as an 'other circumstance,'- he vibrated. -Then we should be lovers, eternally.- -No offense intended to you, but I prefer that we complete the mission.- The aperture spiraled closed above them as they spiraled down. Gas pushed out the water. They stood in a bare cylindrical chamber. The wall faded into inchoate color. This was a form of animation: reflection of the thoughts of the visitors, overlapping each other until they controlled it. Now they could not converse sonically, for the £ hide did not vibrate properly in air. But Herald knew what to do. He summoned a controlled animation: a visio-sonic communications unit. The thing rolled into proximity from the nebulous background. "Communicate," Herald made it say in Clustric, as the machine-screen formed his own image, a Slash. "Where are the bones?" Flame asked in the same language. Her self-image was of a winding tongue of fire. Her body was semisolid, but its surface bore oil that burned, providing heat energy for the internal functions. She was beautiful. "Bones?" "The hosts of Melody and Dash never emerged from this site. Only their auras returned. After a thousand years, the £ bodies-" The screen showed a pile of huge £ bones in disarray, with little incendiary flies, fireflies, scorching out bits of desiccated flesh. Her image of death. Grisly thought! "The remains could have been incinerated completely or dissolved by the site maintenance mechanism. Or they might have been preserved intact by inert gas, sterile, and lifted to the surface on the same platform-shift that brought us down here. We are not in a position to know." "Strange that a creature as cognizant as Melody of Mintaka should desert her innocent host in a place like this, permitting her to die of hunger and confinement." That bothered Herald too. "What happened to the two prior hosts?" he demanded of the image-machine. Maybe the site itself would answer. It did. By a rapid series of images it told how the £ had been given suitable food refined by the site equipment, and granted visions of all the beautiful things they could imagine, creating a kind of perceptual paradise. It was not reality, but it had been a good deal more satisfying than many realities were. They had lived a long time before dying natural deaths. "It was an idle question," Flame said. "But I am glad to have the answer. It seems the Ancients were not cruel." She looked about at the changing images around them. "We should get on with the mission, before the Amoeba does. I suffer premonitions of impending doom." "It is not necessary for you to risk yourself further," Herald told her. "Now that you have enabled me to enter the site, you can Transfer directly back to your natural host in Furnace, assured that your £ host will not suffer." Her image flared with irritation. "While the Amoeba bombs this site and attempts to eliminate you," she replied. "If [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ] |