Resnick, Mike - Oracle Trilogy 03 - Prophet

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Prophet
by Mike Resnick
2
Fictionwise Publications
www.fictionwise.com
This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are
products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright ©1993 by Mike Resnick
NOTICE: This ebook is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or
distribution via email, floppy disk, network, print out, or any other means to a person
other than the original purchaser is a violation of International copyright law and
subjects the violator to fines and/or imprisonment. Fictionwise Publications offers a
$500 reward to anyone who provides information leading to the conviction of a person
infringing on any Fictionwise ebook copyright.
COVER DESIGN BY CHRIS HARDWICK
This ebook is displayed using 100% recycled electrons.
Prophet
by Mike Resnick
3
Prophet
by Mike Resnick
Volume 3 of the Oracle Trilogy
Prophet
by Mike Resnick
4
To Carol, as always,
And to absent friends:
Lou Tabakow
Bea Mahaffey
John F. Roy
Isaac Asimov
Prophet
by Mike Resnick
5
Table of Contents
Prologue
Part 1: The Gravedancer's Book
Part 2: The Iceman's Book
Part 3: The Silicon Kid's Book
Part 4: The Anointed One's Book
Part 5: The Prophet's Book
Epilogue
Prophet
by Mike Resnick
6
PROLOGUE
It was a time of giants.
There was no room for them to breathe and flex their muscles in
mankind's sprawling Democracy, so they gravitated to the distant, barren
worlds of the Inner Frontier, drawn ever closer to the bright galactic Core
like moths to a flame.
Oh, they fit into human frames, most of them, but they were giants
nonetheless. No one knew what had brought them forth in such quantity
at this particular moment in human history. Perhaps there was a need for
them in a galaxy filled to overflowing with little people possessed of even
smaller dreams. Possibly it was the savage splendor of Inner Frontier
itself, for it was certainly not a place for ordinary men and women. Or
Prophet
by Mike Resnick
7
maybe it was simply time for a race that had been notably short of giants
in recent eons to begin producing them once again.
But whatever the reason, they swarmed out beyond the furthest
reaches of the explored galaxy, spreading the seed of Man to hundreds of
new worlds, and in the process creating a cycle of legends that would
never die as long as men could tell tales of heroic deeds.
There was Faraway Jones, who set foot on more than 500 new worlds,
never quite certain what he was looking for, always sure that he hadn't
yet found it.
There was shadowy figure known only as the Whistler, who had killed
more than one hundred men and aliens.
There was Friday Nellie, who turned her whorehouse into a hospital
during the war against the Setts, and finally saw it declared a shrine by
the very men who once tried to close it down.
Prophet
by Mike Resnick
8
There was Jamal, who left no fingerprints or footprints, but had
plundered palaces that to this day do not know they were plundered.
There was Bet-a-World Murphy, who at various times owned nine
different gold-mining worlds, and lost every one of them at the gaming
tables.
There was Backbreaker Ben Ami, who wrestled aliens for money and
killed men for pleasure. There was the Marquis of Queensbury, who
fought by no rules at all, and the White Knight, albino killer of fifty men,
and Sally the Blade, and the Forever Kid, who reached the age of
nineteen and just stopped growing for the next two centuries, and
Catastrophe Baker, who made whole planets shake beneath his feet, and
the exotic Pearl of Maracaibo, whose sins were condemned by every race
in the galaxy, and Father Christmas, and the One-Armed Bandit with his
deadly prosthetic arm, and the Earth Mother, and Lizard Malloy, and the
deceptively mild-mannered Cemetery Smith.
Prophet
by Mike Resnick
9
Giants all.
Yet there was one giant who was destined to tower over all of the
others, to juggle the lives of men and worlds as if they were so many
toys, to rewrite the history of the Inner Frontier, and the Outer Frontier,
and the Spiral Arm, and even the all-powerful Democracy itself. At
various times in her short, turbulent life she was known as the
Soothsayer, and the Oracle, and the Prophet. By the time she had passed
from the galactic scene, only a handful of survivors knew her true name,
or her planet of origin, or even her history, for such is the way with giants
and legends.
But she had an origin, and a history, and a name.
This is her story.
Prophet
by Mike Resnick
10
Part 1:
THE GRAVEDANCER'S BOOK
1.
A hot, dry wind swept across the surface of Last Chance, a remote
world on the edge of the Inner Frontier. Dust devils swirled up to heights
of 60 feet, breathing became almost impossible, and the few indigenous
animals burrowed into the ground to wait out the duststorm.
A lone figure, his clothing nondescript, his face protected against the
elements by a dust mask, walked down the main street of the planet's
only Tradertown, looking neither right nor left. The door of an abandoned
building suddenly buckled from the force of the wind, and he quickly
crouched, withdrew a hand weapon, and fired at the source of the noise.
摘要:

ProphetbyMikeResnick2FictionwisePublicationswww.fictionwise.comThisebookisaworkoffiction.Names,characters,places,andincidentseitherareproductsoftheauthor’simaginationorareusedfictitiously.Anyresemblancetoactualeventsorlocalesorpersons,livingordead,isentirelycoincidental.Copyright©1993byMikeResnickNO...

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