Jack McDevitt Eternity Road

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to him."
"And the others?"
"Quait? He's a scholar. Like Silas." She took a deep breath. "We lost Silas.
And Flojian came because his father's reputation was ruined by the first
expedition."
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His eyes grew thoughtful. "If those are your reasons for coming, child, then I
advise you to go back. Write the venture off and invest your money in real
estate."
"Beg pardon?"
"But I would put it to you that those are not the reasons you dared so much.
And that you wish to turn away because you have forgot your true purpose."
"That's not so," she said.
"Of course it's so. Shall I tell you why you undertook to travel through an
unknown world, on the hope that you might, might, find a place that's half
mythical?" Momentarily he seemed to fade, to lose definition. "Haven has
nothing to do with brothers or with scholarship or with reputation. If you got
there, if you were able to read its secrets, you would have all that, provided
you could get home with it. But you would have acquired something infinitely
more valuable, and I believe you know what it is: You would have discovered
who you really are.
You would learn that you are a daughter of the people who designed the
Acropolis, who wrote
Hamlet, who visited the moons of Neptune. Do you know about Neptune?"
"No," she said. "I don't think so."
"Then we've lost everything, Chaka. But you can get it back. If you're willing
to take it. And if not you, then someone else. But by God, it is worth the
taking." His voice quivered and he seemed close to tears.
Momentarily, he became one with the dark.
"Winston," she said, "I can't see you. Are you still there?"
"I am here. The system's old, and will not keep a charge."
She was looking through him. "You really are a ghost," she said.
"It's possible you will not succeed. Nothing is certain, save hardship and
trial.
But have courage. Never surrender."
She stared at him.
"Never despair," he said.
A sudden chill whispered through her, a sense that she had been here before,
had known this man in another life. "You seem vaguely familiar. Have I seen
your picture somewhere?"
"I'm sure I do not know."
"Perhaps it is the words. They have an echo."
He looked directly at her. "Possibly. They are ancient sentiments." She could
see the cave entrance and a few stars through his silhouette. "Keep in mind,
whatever happens, if you go on, you will become one of a select company. A
proud band of brothers. And sisters. You will never be alone."
As she watched, he faded until only the glow of the cigar remained. "It is
your own true self you seek."
"You presume a great deal."
"I know you, Chaka." Everything was gone now. Except the voice. "I
know who you are. And you are about to learn."
"Was it his first or last name?" asked Quait, as they saddled the horses.
"Now that you mention it, I really have no idea." She frowned. "I'm not sure
whether he was real or not. He left no prints. No marks."
Flojian looked toward the rising sun. The sky was clear.
"That's the way of it in these places. Some of it's illusion; some of it's
something else. But I wish you'd woken us."
She climbed up and patted Piper's shoulder. "Anybody ever hear of Neptune?"
They shook their heads. "Maybe," she said, "we can try that next."
22
After the encounter in the grotto, Chaka became more prone to investigate
sites that aroused her interest. It may have been that she began to view the
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quest differently. The value of the expedition, in her mind, would no longer
hinge exclusively on whether she learned what had happened to Arin, and to the
other members of the first mission. Nor even to whether they found the
semi-mythical fortress at the end of the road. In a sense this was also an
expedition into time, a foray into an elusive past. They had already seen
marvels that exceeded what she would have considered the bounds of the
possible. What else lay waiting in the quiet countryside?
*I think it's a flying machine," said Flojian.
The object vaguely resembled a giant iron bird. It had a sleek main body
flanked by a pair of cylinders, and crosspieces that looked like wings, and
spread tails. It was in the middle of a forest, one of nineteen lined up four
abreast, five deep, except for one column in which the foremost was missing.
There was no single one among the group that had not been crushed and folded
by the trees.
One had even been lifted completely off the ground. Nevertheless, the objects
were identical in design. It was easy to see what they had originally looked
like.
The crosspiece extended about fifteen feet to either side. It was triangular,
wide where it was attached to the central body (just above the flanking
cylinders), and narrow at the extremities. A hard, pseudo-glass canopy was
fitted atop the main body, near the front. It enclosed a seat and an array of
technical devices so complex they looked beyond human comprehension. The
forward section flowed
into a narrow, needle-shaped rod.
Below the bubble, black letters spelled out the legend:
CANADIAN FORCES.
The main body expanded, flaring toward the rear, encompassing the twin
cylinders, which terminated in a pair of blackened nozzles. Four tapered
panels, two vertical and two horizontal, formed the tail.
Flojian discovered a concrete pit by stumbling into it, and examination
suggested that the entire area, with its legion of artifacts, might once have
been enclosed.
Quail climbed onto the frame and looked down into the canopy. "A month ago
I'd have said flying machines were impossible,"
he said.
But they had been in one. Although these were a different order of conveyance
from the maglev.
Quait lifted a panel, pulled on something, and the canopy opened. He exchanged
grins with the others and lowered himself into the seat. It was hard and
uncomfortable. The various devices seemed ready to hand. He was tempted to
push a few buttons. But experience had made him cautious.
It was not only the conversation with Winston that had changed the tone of the
mission. The discovery that they possessed, in the wedge, a weapon of
considerable power had also done much for their state of mind.
The day after they'd left the grotto, a black bear had attacked Flojian.
Flojian had gone instinctively for his gun, but had dropped and then kicked
the weapon.
The creature got close enough to deliver a blast of hot and torpid breath.
Flojian had then produced the only defense he had available: the wedge.
Despite the demonstration on the
Peacemaker, he hadn't yet learned to rely on the small, harmless-looking black
shell. But it put out the creature's lights as it might have extinguished a
candle. That night they'd feasted.
A group of six armed Tuks also tried their luck, stopping them on the trail
and announcing their intention to take the horses, the baggage, and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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