Alan Dean Foster - Dirge

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By Alan Dean Foster
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group
THE BLACK HOLE
CACHALOT
DARK STAR
THE METROGNOME AND OTHER STORIES
MIDWORLD
NOR CRYSTAL TEARS
SENTENCED TO PRISM
SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE
STAR TREK® LOGS ONE-TEN
VOYAGE TO THE CITY OF THE DEAD
.. WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE…
MAD AMOS
THE HOWLING STONES
PARALLELITIES
The Icerigger Trilogy: ICERIGGER
MISSION TO MOULOKIN THE DELUGE DRIVERS
The Adventures of Flinx of the Commonwealth:
FOR LOVE OF MOTHER-NOT
THE TAR-AIYM-KRANG
ORPHAN STAR
THE END OF THE MATTER
BLOODHYPE
FLINX IN FLUX
MID-FLINX
The Damned:
BOOK ONE: A CALL TO ARMS BOOK TWO: THE FALSE MIRROR BOOK THREE: THE
SPOILS OF WAR
The Founding of the Commonwealth: PHYLOGENESIS
Books published by The Ballantine Publishing Group are available at quantity discounts on
bulk purchases for premium, educational, fund-raising, and special sales use. For details,
please call 1-800-733-3000.
DIRGE
BOOK TWO OF
The Founding of the Commonwealth
ALAN DEAN FOSTER
A Del Rey® Book THE BALLANTINE PUBLISHING GROUP • NEW YORK
To John Haynes Web-site designer par excellence
Chapter 1
Kairuna was kneeling beside a flattened blue-brown bush that rose no higher than his knee,
watching half a dozen dull yellow slugs with legs combine their efforts to spin a mutual home
out of what appeared to be cerise silk. The nature of the instinct that impelled them to
effortlessly meld their minuscule exertions would have to be identified by the xenologists.
Absolved by his work classification of the need to analyze or classify, he was free to marvel
and wonder at the intricate beauty of the delicate alien phenomenon. He felt sorry for the
techs who were required to stop, stand, and interpret. Sometimes it was a lot better just to
be able to look.
Straightening, he let his gaze rove over the endless forest. Well, not literally endless. The
Earthlike pseudo evergreens only occupied the broad temperate belt that followed the
planet's equator. A traveler journeying to north or south would eventually run out of forest and
into one of the great ice caps that dominated the surface of Argus V But since preliminary
surveys from orbit had indicated that the forest belt varied between two and three thousand
miles in width, there was plenty of room left between the brooding ice for trees.
And for ambulatory life, not all of which was as inconspicuous as silk-spinning slugs. In the
two months they had been exploring the planet the surveyors had encountered a number of
interesting and exotic larger life-forms. The local carnivores were efficient but not especially
impressive -nothing the team couldn't deal with. Their presence added to the ambience of
what was proving to be a chilly but otherwise hospitable world.
"Norway." Idar came up behind Kairuna, puffing hard and lugging her tripod-mounted
census taker with her. "Western Canada. Tasmania." Slapping her gloved hands together,
she began to set up her instruments. Depending on how they were calibrated, they could
take an image of a chosen section of ground together with an approximation of every kind
and variety of life-form that dwelled therein.
"Kind of cold for me." Kairuna came from and preferred a warmer clime. The pristine
atmosphere and the oxygen infused into it by the untouched forest helped to compensate for
temperatures that, while remaining above freezing, precluded anyone but stoic fanatics from
running around in short pants. He was glad of his insulated jacket and boots.
"Won't keep colonizers from coming." Idar squinted into an eyepiece, adjusted a readout,
bent slightly to squint again. "Some folks would call this paradise."
"If so, it'll always be one with limited horizons." Kairuna gazed northward. They were working
about a thousand miles south of the northern ice cap, but he still fancied he could see the
glint from its leading edge sparkling on the sharp blue horizon.
"So it's not another New Riviera. What would be? But so far it looks as good or better than
Proycon, and people are clamoring to settle there." Laboring behind her instrument, the
census taker shrugged. "There's still plenty of room available for settlement. Oceans are
small because so much of the planet's water is locked up in ice. People will like it here."
Raising her head to look over the top of the eyepiece, she grinned. "Should be bonuses all
around."
Kairuna contemplated the possibility and found it warming. The gruff voice that chose to
dissent made him wince and smile at the same time.
"Bonuses! Ha! I wouldn't count on it!"
Both techs turned a rueful, knowing smile in the direction of the newcomer. Alwyn was a
short, stocky, dyspeptic, highly experienced member of the survey mission's support team.
Able to raise a shelter, arrange for purified water, or fix an enormous variety of instruments
in the field with little more than a pocket repair kit, he was as valuable a member of the
expedition as he was personally irritating. Nobody on board the Chagos liked him very
much, not even his fellow corps members. In addition to recovery and repair, his other area
of specialization seemed to be carping and bitching. He did not even have the good grace
to shut up when he was working, forcing whichever tech or scientist whose gear he was
rejuvenating to have to stand around and listen to his complaining.
He was, however, very good at what he did.
"Why shouldn't we?" The more argumentative Idar confronted the support specialist without
hesitation. "It's been years since anybody found a world that was even remotely Earthlike."
She gestured expansively at the forest. "Maybe it's only partly colonizable because of the ice
caps, but the rest of it, the upper temperate forest lands like this, will draw settlers in droves.
You know the rules: Everybody qualifies for a share in the primary finding and exploration
benefits." She chuckled. "Even you, unless you want to sign over your presupposed
nonexistent bonus to me."
"Thanks," the specialist muttered, "but I'll hang onto the designation, just in case I'm wrong
and the government decides to play fair and honest with this one."
"With this one?" Kairuna's heavy black eyebrows arched. "How many primes for colonizable
worlds have you been on?"
"Well, none, actually." The small, muscular form turned away. "This is my first."
"This is everybody's first." Kairuna mentioned the obvious while Idar adjusted her
instrumentation slightly in order to take a new sighting. "There are a lot more ships out
looking than there are habitable worlds being found."
"Right enough," Alwyn agreed. "And half of those seem to be full of giant bugs who've
already laid claim to the place."
Idar looked up from the eyepiece of her taker. "The thranx are our friends."
"Yeah, sure," the tech groused. "The government keeps trying to convince us of that. Trying
too hard, if you ask me. What about that covert colony they set up in the Reserva
Amazonia? If it hadn't been for that wandering street thug stumbling into the place the rest of
us still wouldn't know about that!"
"It was part of a secret government project." Kairuna watched something slim and elegant
soar across the clear blue sky. At this distance he could not tell if its wings were fashioned
of feather, membrane, or some as yet unidentified organic substance.
Alwyn was nodding vigorously. "Sure was. It was such a secret government project even the
government didn't know about it. You ever seen a thranx? I mean, in person?" he challenged
the bigger man.
"No," Kairuna confessed. "Only tridees."
"They're ugly little bastards. Like big crickets or mantids with an extra set of limbs." He
shuddered. "I don't care what the lovey-dovey
we're-all-sapients-together-in-this-galactic-arm propagandists mew. You won't catch me
cuddling up next to no goddamn giant bug. And there are plenty of people who feel even
stronger about it than I do. Me, if I ran into one, I'd step on it."
"The thranx are a little big to step on," Kairuna reminded him. "Especially for someone your
size."
"And they might step back," Idar added without looking up from her work.
Alwyn thrust his chin forward belligerently. "Exactly my point. The galaxy's a vast, unfriendly,
dangerous place."
"The more reason to make friends with those who inhabit it alongside us," Kairuna argued.
Lively blue eyes stared back up at him. "The more reason to be careful just who we nestle
up to."
The discussion was interrupted - not by the weather or the indigenous wildlife, not by the
need to continue working, but by a reverberant, insistent howl. Standing on the little knoll
debating interstellar relationships while taking the measure of the alien forest, they turned as
one in the direction of the wailing, sonorous bellow. It was unfamiliar to all of them.
"What the hell is that?" Alwyn had walked quickly to the edge of the knoll to gaze with even
more than his usual wariness in the direction of the landing transport. Idar's recording was
forgotten. Kairuna stood behind the two of them, staring over their heads in the direction of
the mournful, insistent howl.
It came not from the vicinity of the landing transport but from the vehicle itself. It was Kairuna
who finally recognized it.
"That's the general alert."
"General alert?" The census taker frowned back at him. "What the hell's a 'general alert'? I
know all sorts of situation-specific alarms, but I've never heard of a general alert. Especially
not on surface." Her expression was bemused as she stared down the hill in the direction of
the camp that had sprung up around the landing field that had been cleared to allow shuttle
craft a safe place to set down.
"I told you!" Alwyn was irritatingly triumphant. "You can't trust a new world, no matter how
benign a face it presents."
In reference to faces, Kairuna wished the annoying service specialist would take his
elsewhere. It did not matter that he might be right: The botanist was tired of listening to the
other man's ranting.
"Come on," he urged them. "We'd better go and see what's happening."
"General alert." Nodding smugly, Alwyn joined them in descending from the densely forested
knob and retracing their steps. "I knew it."
Surrounded by members of the Chagos's staff, Burgess was staring intently at the tridee.
Magnification was visual, not schematic, so he was able to observe the craft that had just
joined them in orbit in all its alien glory. It was an impressive ship, at least twice the size of
the Chagos. While the prevalent configuration was similar to that of the Chagos and all other
vessels equipped with the universal variant of the KK drive, its design and execution differed
in a multitude of significant respects.
"Not ours," one of the techs seated nearby murmured unnecessarily.
"Not thranx, either," the first officer added. "Unless they've been hiding something from us.
Could it be one of those AAnn ships the thranx are always trying to warn us about?"
Burgess looked doubtful. "I've seen the AAnn schematics the thranx have provided. This
design is much too sleek. Could it be Quillp?" Burgess longed for expertise in an area his
crew, through no fault of their own, did not possess.
"I don't think so, Captain." Though far from positive, the first officer felt secure in hazarding a
guess. If he was proved wrong, he would be delighted to admit the mistake. He hoped he
was wrong. The inherent pacificity of the Quillp was well known.
Looking sharply to his left, Burgess snapped a question. "Any response to our queries,
Tambri?"
The diminutive communications officer glanced over at him and shook her head. Her dark
eyes were very wide. "Nothing, sir. I'm trying everything, from Terranglo through High and
Low Thranx to straight mathematical theorems. They're chattering noisily among themselves
- I can pick up the wash - but they're not talking to us."
"They will. Keep trying." Burgess turned back to the three-dimensional image floating in the
air of the ship's bridge. "Who are they and what the blazes do they want here?"
"Maybe they've already claimed this world." The observation no one had wanted to voice
came from the back of the command section. "Maybe they're here to inform us of a claim of
prior rights."
"If that's the case," the first officer declared, "they've been mighty subtle about advertising
any prior presence here. There isn't so much as an artifact on the planet, much less an
orbital transmitter. There's nothing on either of the two small moons, or anywhere else in the
system."
"That we've found yet, you mean." Having stated a contention, the dissenter felt bound to
defend it. "We've only been here a couple of months."
"Okay, okay," Burgess muttered. "Let's everybody keep calm. Whatever the situation, we'll
deal with it. We didn't expect to encounter sapience here, much less evidence of another
space-traversing species. They're probably taking our measure as carefully as we are
theirs." But I wish they'd respond to our communications, he thought tensely.
"Look there!" Someone in the growing crowd pointed.
A second, much smaller vessel was emerging from the side of the first. Winged and ported,
obviously designed for atmospheric travel, it began to recede swiftly from the flank of it;
parent vessel. Its immediate purpose was self-evident. Any thing else those aboard might
intend could not be divined from tracking its progress.
"Get on to Pranchavit and the rest of the landing party,' Burgess barked at the
communications officer. "Tell their they're probably going to have company."
Once again the officer looked up from her instrumentation "They'll want to know what kind of
company, sir."
Burgess glanced over at the tridee holo. "Maybe they car tell us."
By the time Kairuna and his companions arrived at the camp, it was alive with questions and
concerns, anxiety and confusion. No one seemed to know what was going on, including
those who had recognized the audible signal for what it was. Now they troubled themselves
with unsupported inferences and paranoid suppositions. In such company, Alwyn was in his
element.
Pushing and shoving their way into an already crowded mess hall, the three late arrivals
found themselves confined to the narrow remaining open space next to the rear wall. Up by
the service door that led to the main stockroom, Jaler Maroto was waving his arms for quiet.
When that didn't work. he put a compact amplifier to his lips and simply shouted everybody
down.
"Shut up! If you'll just shut up, I'll tell you what's going on." As the crowd noise subsided he
added apologetically. "Or at least, what we know."
"I know!" Alwyn was not afraid to proclaim theories where others were hesitant to venture
facts. "Something local's finally showed up to cause trouble. What is it?" he demanded to
know. "A herd of predators? A fast-mutating Plague?"
"There's a plague, all right," the team leader declared through the amplifier, "but it's one we
brought along with us." Delighted to take advantage of the emotional release, a number of
the assembled turned their laughter in the specialist's direction. Unrepentant but temporarily
subdued, he tried to meet the ridicule of each and every one of them with a defiant glare of
his own.
"A ship has gone into orbit near the Chagos," Maroto informed scientists and support
personnel alike. "We don't mow where it's from, what species built it, or what their intentions
are. So far nobody on the Chagos, including the people who are supposed to know about
such things, has been able to pull a fact out of a big basket of ignorance."
"They're not thranx?" someone in the crowd wondered loudly, referring to the intelligent
insectoid race with v/hom humankind had been cautiously developing-relations over the past
thirty years.
"We don't know who or what they are," Maroto replied, 'because they're not responding to
the Chagos's repeated queries to identify themselves. If they're thranx, they're being mighty
close-mouthed about it."
"The bugs may be ugly, but I've never heard of them going mute," Idar murmured softly.
"I know what they are." When no one reacted to his latest assertion of certitude, Alwyn
assumed a plaintive tone. "Well? Doesn't anyone want to know what I know?"
"Nobody wants to know what you know, Alwyn, because you never know half of what you
claim to know." Unlike his companions Kairuna had the advantage of being able to see over
the heads of just about everyone in the crowd.
"Go ahead and mock." Alwyn was confident as ever. "These are the hostile, rampaging,
bloodthirsty aliens we've always feared encountering as we extend our sphere of influence."
"I thought the AAnn were supposed to be the hostile iliens," Idar pointed out.
"That's what the thranx claim, but so far we've only the bugs' word for AAnn hostility. No,
these are something new.
- New and hostile," he concluded with an assurance that regrettably was not born of proof.
"If they're hostile," a contrary Kairuna argued, "why are we still standing here talking? Why
haven't they turned this site and all of us to dust?"
"Just you wait." Secure in his latent mistrust, the specialist glanced knowingly skyward.
Aside from the fact that scattering into the trees could be misinterpreted by those aboard
the rapidly descending alien shuttle as a hostile gesture, there was - the feelings of a certain
suspicious support specialist aside - no overwhelming reason to do so. The parent ship
continued to swing in low orbit within viewing distance of the Chagos, moving neither toward
nor away from the human vessel, its communicators silent, the identity of its occupants still a
mystery. No one on board the Chagos was surprised when the alien shuttle braked
atmosphere and began a swift, calculated curve that would put it on the surface directly in
the midst of the survey team's encampment. Indeed, given the ongoing proximity of the two
KK-drive craft, Burgess and his fellow staff officers would have been perplexed had the alien
shuttle chosen to set down anywhere else.
"No component of the landing team is properly trained to handle a first contact," the
Chagos's second officer felt compelled to point out.
"Pranchavit has good people working for him," Burgess reminded the officer. "And Maroto's
had offworld experience. Between our support personnel and the scientific complement I'm
sure relations will develop in an orderly and prudent manner we can all be proud of."
"What if they can't communicate?" the first officer wondered. "Even the best intentions can
go awry if misinterpreted."
"We don't have any choice." Burgess's expression was solemn. "I can't tell Pranchavit and
Maroto to ignore the aliens. The rest of us will just have to maintain the alert and hope
nothing untoward happens down below." Seeing the apprehension on the faces of his staff
he added, "Look, there's
Nothing we can do from up here. Zdanko's contact team has been back on board for weeks
because we didn't find any sentients on the surface in our first month here. Nobody could
imagine that they'd show up later. It's never happened before."
"There must be something we can do," someone shouted wistfully from across the room.
"There is," the captain admitted. "Prayer would not be out of order. All of you please feel
free to invoke whatever deities enjoy your affection." He turned back to the tridee.
"Especially on behalf of those of us who are stuck down on the surface until his situation
resolves itself."
Idar and Alwyn stood beside Kairuna as they had been instructed: assembled with the rest
of the survey team between the cleared landing field and the trees ready to greet the arriving
aliens. Argusian vertebrates soared high above the open grassland, scanning the surface
for prey or seeds according to reference. A cool breeze kept the somber proceedings from
becoming stiff, making it necessary for the anxious assembled to keep moving in order to
stay warm.
"I don't get it." Both arms wrapped across her chest, Idar watched her breath congeal in the
afternoon air. "What are we doing here? Not that I'm not as curious as the next person, but I
don't see why our presence is necessary. We're not part of any formal first-contact squad."
"Neither is anyone else." Kairuna gestured skyward, once. 'The official contact team is stuck
up on the Chagos. So the job, and the burden, not to mention the responsibility, has been
dumped on Pranchavit and Maroto." He gazed across the bobbing heads in the direction of
the field, where the headers of the survey team's scientific and support contingents stood
side by side, watching the northern horizon and waiting for something to happen. "Better
them than you or I."
"I could do a better job than any of 'em," Alwyn avowed. 'At least I wouldn't be standing out
there with my ass ex-posed to the four winds and no gun."
"You heard the appraisal from the experts on board the Chagos," Kairuna admonished him.
"If these aliens intended hostilities they would already have attacked the ship."
Not if they're still sizing us up and trying to gauge our strength," Alwyn shot back. "Or waiting
to see if we're good to eat."
"What are you doing here, anyway?" Idar challenged him angrily. "If you're so worried about
malicious aliens, what possessed you to apply for a position on a deep-space exploration
run?"
"Let me guess." Kairuna responded before the other man could reply. "Money."
"Good guess." Alwyn tugged the brim of his warming cap down over his forehead, trying to
shut out the wind. "But that's not the only reason. Earth was getting too dangerous Too many
people crammed into too many big cities. That's what the colonies are all about. Room to
move around and keep clear of the crazies."
"So why didn't you apply to move to one of the Centaurus worlds, or New Riviera?" Idar
wondered aloud. "With your technical qualifications you could have emigrated anywhere.'
"It's the same there as on Earth," he responded without hesitation. "Too many lunatics. The
only difference between Earth and the colonies is that the more adventurous nuts apply for
emigration." He nodded skyward. "Deep space seemed the safer bet. At the time."
"It still is." Kairuna exuded quiet assurance. "I think you're going to be surprised. I think we're
all going to be surprised."
"Yeah, we'll be surprised, all right," the specialist muttered. "That's why I'm standing back
here, as far away from the designated greeting point as possible. Closer to the forest that
way. At least in the woods we'll have a chance."
"You'll have a chance." Idar did not try to hide her distaste. "The rest of us aren't going
anywhere. I've got work to do, and as soon as this formality is concluded, I'm going right
back to it."
Not deigning to respond, Alwyn turned to his other companion. "What about you, Kai? You
with me?"
"Only as far as dinner." The big man taunted him gently. "Why wait for disaster to strike,
Alwyn? Why not make a break for the forest now, before the unspeakably horrid alien
invaders arrive?"
"Because I'd have my pay docked for disobeying a general directive, and you know it. Go
ahead and laugh. We'll see which one of us snickers last, and which of us is still able to do
so."
"Hush!" Idar was staring to the north, where the first snow-covered mountains rose above
miscolored alien trees. "I think it's coming."
At first nothing more than a distant point of light sifting down through an azure sky, the alien
landing craft grew rapidly in size and dimension until its descending silhouette differentiated
sharply from the framing clouds. Assembled between field and forest, fewer than a hundred
human faces strained to make out the lines and design of the unknown vessel.
As it drew nearer still they saw that it boasted a peculiar arrangement of wheels instead of
the familiar, all-purpose struts that extended from the underside of similar human and thranx
craft. Half a dozen wings protruded from its flanks, running from the nose all the way back to
the tail. This extravagance of lifting surfaces was counterbalanced by an absence of any
visible antennae or weapons. Tinted bright yellow, the sides and undercarriage of the alien
superstructure were flecked with unfamiliar and indecipherable mauve hieroglyphs.
The landing was smooth and almost silent, as if the pilots had been practicing on similar
open fields for years. As the whine of multiple engines became tolerable, hands fell from
ears to shade eyes as the craft turned to approach the crowd. There being no need for
ceremony while engaged in survey, Pranchavit and Maroto were reduced to greeting the
visitors in clean duty clothes. Kairuna smiled to himself. The prim head of the Argus
scientific team, at least, was no doubt regretting the absence of his fancy dress uniform.
There was a stirring as the landing craft maintained speed during its turn, and a few of those
gathered in front found themselves wondering if perhaps their desire for a good view of the
proceedings might not be misplaced. But the many- winged alien lander pivoted neatly on
its double set of nose wheels and lined up parallel to the crowd. Those in front relaxed.
Nothing of an overtly offensive nature was in evidence Kairuna knew of several researchers
and techs who had armed themselves in defiance of directives. Pistols remained concealed
by multiple layers of cold-weather clothing and bulb jackets.
Eagerness filled the air like a cool fog. What would the aliens look like? Would they be
atavistically alarming like the thranx? Elegantly handsome and yet vaguely sinister like the
AAnn? Or quaintly charming like the Quillp? Humankind had yet to voyage sufficiently far,
had still to encounter enough intelligent species, to be blase at the prospect of meeting still
another.
Perhaps they would look like nothing the smooth-skinned simians in their glistening new KK-
drive starships had ye met. They might be towering horrors or diminutive pacifists Or
diminutive horrors or towering pacifists. No one knew The aliens had failed to respond to
interrogatives from the Chagos, either verbally or visually. Kairuna and the rest o; the survey
team would be the first to gaze upon these new previously unencountered alien
countenances. He and his associates were acutely conscious of the singular privilege that
was being accorded them.
Everyone had been thoroughly, if hastily, briefed. No matter what the aliens looked like, no
matter how repulsive or absurd or disconcerting or surprising, all reaction was to be kept to
a minimum. There was to be no cheering lest sudden loud noises upset the visitors. No
wrinkling of faces, no distorted expressions that might be misinterpreted in the event the
visitors communicated by similar means. No expansive gestures in case they asserted
themselves in a manner akin to the highly gesticulatory thranx. Response to any overtures
and all expressions of greeting would be made by Pranchavit and Maroto. Everyone else
was welcome to watch, but in stillness and silence.
That did not prevent Idar from nudging Kairuna in the side as an opaque cylinder slowly and
silently descended from the belly of the alien craft. It looked as if a particularly sleek bird was
laying an oblong egg. Nearby, a grim-faced Alwyn patted his side.
"Not to worry. I'm carrying a regulation sideshot with a full clip."
"It won't be of much use to you in the brig," Idar hissed at him.
"Both of you, be quiet." Kairuna nodded. "They're coming out. Or something is." The
possibility that the aliens might choose to make first contact through intermediaries such as
mechanicals could not be discounted.
There were no mechanicals, however. The aliens had chosen to greet the tightly packed
crowd of anxious bipeds in person. There were three of them. Nitrox breathers themselves,
they were clad only in lightweight clothing of some unfamiliar fabric that shimmered in the
bright, cold air, and no helmets or other headgear whatsoever.
The reaction to their appearance was a uniform gasp on the part of the assembled humans.
Kairuna was unaware that his lower jaw dropped slightly, leaving him standing in full
defiance of orders with a mock stupid expression on his face. Idar stood wide-eyed but with
more presence of mind as well as person. Alwyn, whose left hand had been hovering in the
vicinity of his concealed weapon, was moved to comment, but mindful of the general
directive to keep quiet, he held his peace.
It was a good thing he had the forbearance to keep from drawing the gun. The aliens might
not have reacted immediately to its emergence, but his fellow humans surely would have. It
was not that his naturally suspicious nature was in any way mollified by the aliens' utterly
unexpected and novel appearance, only that he was for once no less shocked than his
companions.
Chapter 2
I he reaction on Earth to the announcement that yet another intelligent space-faring species
had been discovered no longer dominated the news portion of the general media People
were more interested in the progress of the new settlements being opened in the Centaurus
group, the results of the lottery to determine who would be granted emigration visa: for New
Riviera, the latest DNA-HGH gene splicing scandal involving the parents of would-be sports
superstars, whether a new wholly artificial fat-free chocolate was safe for human
consumption, and possible ballot fixing involving the two run off candidates for world council
representative from Oceania As far as relations with nonhuman species were concerned the
vote on the possible expansion of the thranx colony in the Reserva Amazonia and a series
摘要：

ByAlanDeanFosterPublishedbyTheBallantinePublishingGroupTHEBLACKHOLECACHALOTDARKSTARTHEMETROGNOMEANDOTHERSTORIESMIDWORLDNORCRYSTALTEARSSENTENCEDTOPRISMSPLINTEROFTHEMIND'SEYESTARTREK®LOGSONE-TENVOYAGETOTHECITYOFTHEDEAD..WHONEEDSENEMIES?WITHFRIENDSLIKETHESE…MADAMOSTHEHOWLINGSTONESPARALLELITIESTheIcerig...

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