John Dalmas - Regiment 1 - The Regiment

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The Regiment
John Dalmas
Volume One of the Regiment Series
Contents
PROLOGUE 4
PART ONE 6
Introduction To Enigma 6
CHAPTER ONE 7
CHAPTER TWO 9
CHAPTER THREE 14
CHAPTER FOUR 17
CHAPTER FIVE 20
CHAPTER SIX 22
CHAPTER SEVEN 27
CHAPTER EIGHT 35
CHAPTER NINE 38
PART TWO 42
The Tswa 42
CHAPTER TEN 43
CHAPTER ELEVEN 51
CHAPTER TWELVE 57
CHAPTER THIRTEEN 63
CHAPTER FOURTEEN 71
CHAPTER FIFTEEN 73
CHAPTER SIXTEEN 75
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 78
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 82
CHAPTER NINETEEN 90
CHAPTER TWENTY 93
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 96
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 100
PART THREE 110
TYSS 110
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 111
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR 115
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE 120
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX 121
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN 127
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT 131
PART FOUR 136
Death of a Regiment 136
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE 137
CHAPTER THIRTY 139
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE 143
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO 149
PART FIVE 155
Finding the Trail 155
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE 156
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR 161
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE 165
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX 167
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN 169
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT 173
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE 180
PART SIX 183
The School 183
CHAPTER FOURTY 184
CHAPTER FOURTY-ONE 193
CHAPTER FOURTY-TWO 198
PART SEVEN 201
Resolution 201
CHAPTER FOURTY-THREE 202
CHAPTER FOURTY-FOUR 206
CHAPTER FOURTY-FIVE 219
PROLOGUE
.... So the woman Ka-Shok, who would become mother of the T'sel, sat in the
shade of a fish-hook bush, looking out through the heat shimmers across the
gravel pan where the only midday movement was a drill bird flying from thorn
jug to thorn jug, to listen and peep, peck and swallow. And Ka-Shok wondered
what the truth was of our origins. For to her, the old stories of gods and demons
seemed unreal in the world of heat and drought, of hard labor beneath the stars, of
boreworms in the root crops.
It occurred to her then that one should be able to look at a place and see what had
been there in its past, seeing things the way they had been instead of the way they
were at present. If one knew how. It also seemed to her that she did know how, if
she could only do it right.
Now to do something, one must first start. And she decided to start by closing her
eyes to what was there at that time; perhaps then she could see the long before. So
she closed them, but before long went to sleep and saw only dreams until a
scorpion stung her.
That was but her first attempt, for its failure, and the failures that followed, did
not discourage her. Before the season of rains came two more times, she had
begun to see the past; and not only the past of where she was, but the pasts of
other places. And of living people-things that had happened to them before that
lifetime, which she had not expected. And she spoke of these things to her
husband, who thereupon beat her and called her crazy, and to her daughters and
son who, in fear, began to keep her grandchildren away from her.
But she continued looking, seeing more and more, further and further back, only
saying no more about it. And it was as if this activity, though pursued in silence,
was like a signal fire in the night, attracting seekers. For a certain few people,
both old and young, some of them strangers, sought her out, confiding in her their
dreams and wonderings, seeking her advice. Until at length, she and some of
those few went away, west into the Jubat Hills, where they lived on the sparse
catch of snares and fish traps and the roots of certain plants, and together they
sought back in time, with her as their guide.
Mostly they kept apart from any others. But this one and that would return to their
homes from time to time. And when anyone asked them what they had been
doing, they answered simply that they had been praying in the hills with an old
woman. For what they had seen seemed at the time too strange to tell others, who
might beat them for it or drive them away.
Nonetheless, bit by bit, others, not knowing why they did so, decided to go and
pray with Ka-Shok, who by then had begun to be wizened and gray-headed. And
they became too many to be fed from snares and fish traps. So one who owned
land and water rights took Ka-Shok and the others home with him, to the dismay
of his son there, and they dug many cells into a hill, that each could have his or
her own. And this man declared rules of conduct, and rules of duties, that so far as
possible they might continue to seek without the distractions of misconduct, for
they did not yet know T'sel.
And not only did they see more and more of what had been in the past, but they
began to glimpse behind the Here, and behind the There. And before Ka-Shok
departed the ancient husk her body had become, more and more seekers had come
to her, until the community moved again, occupying an entire valley and building
irrigation works greater than had been seen before on Tyss.
For they had seen marvels in their past, not only of vessels going among the stars,
but of the place they had come from. And from the seeing, learned much.
And of even greater import, they had begun to perceive the T'sel.
PART ONE
Introduction To Enigma
CHAPTER ONE
Feature Editor Gard Fendel's index finger, stout and hairy, touched refile, and the
personnel summary for Varlik 681 Lormagen disappeared from the screen. Not
that Fendel didn't know the young man personally and professionally, but it had
seemed wise to examine the background data.
Lormagen had been in athletics as a boy and youth, and ran and used a health club
as assignments permitted. At age thirty he looked physically rather fit. More
important, and Fendel hadn't known this, he'd served a three-year enlistment in
the military a decade earlier. No combat, but he'd know his way around. The
question left was how much stomach young Lormagen had for discomfort and
possible danger.
Fendel's finger moved to his intercom. "Derin," he said, "send Lormagen in."
"Yes, sir."
The voice quality of the intercom system was excellent. The slightly metallic
timbre had been designed in deliberately, for warships and privateers. It enabled a
crewman or officer, intent on something else, to know without looking that the
speaker was not someone in the same compartment, and should be acknowledged
at once if possible. It also made the words sharper and clearer, helping to ensure
they'd be understood.
That had been very long ago, very long forgotten. Now an intercom was just an
intercom, made the way intercoms had always been made. They worked very
well.
Varlik 681 Lormagen came in, the door sliding smoothly shut behind him. Gard
Fendel motioned him to a chair.
"Sit, please."
"Thank you, sir."
Leaning his forearms on the desk, Fendel waited until the younger man was
seated.
"You did a very professional, may I say very Standard, job in covering the Carlad
kidnapping."
Varlik darkened just slightly at the compliment. In the context of journalism, to
have one's work called Standard was highly complimentary, if somewhat
inappropriate. "Thank you, sir. You honor me."
"I'm considering giving you a new assignment that's even bigger. One that can
make your byline one of the majors among our subscribers."
Varlik's alertness level rose. He nodded.
"You're aware of the insurrection on Kettle, of course," Fendel went on, "and that
it's continuing. Beast of a place for a civilized man to fight a war, but there it is.
Well, it seems now that T'swa mercenaries are being sent there to break its back.
That tells me it's worth having someone there to cover it.
"Two regiments of T'swa, actually, which really catches my interest. I'll certainly
want at least one feature on them."
T'swa mercenaries. Varlik had seen a T'swi once, up close: a heavyset elderly man
with skin incredibly dark, the color of a blued gun barrel; straight, close-cropped
hair gone white; nose bold, hawk like; wide, thin-lipped mouth; unnaturally large
eyes shaded by bushy, jutting brows. Despite his white business suit he'd looked
so different, so striking, that the image, long unlooked at, was easily recalled.
When Varlik had commented on the man's appearance, someone had told him he
was the T'swa ambassador to the Confederation. Tyss was the only gook world
allowed diplomatic representation. The ambassador had a staff of two or three,
housed in a cubbyhole somewhere in one of the peripheral government
complexes. It was doubtful that they did anything. The T'swa had been granted
the privilege centuries earlier by one of the Consars, probably Consar XVII, "the
Generous," acting as suzerain and administrator general for the Confederation.
"The Department of Armed Forces," Fendel was saying, "admits that this is only
the second time in well over a century they've contracted for a T'swa regiment.
The last time was in the Drezhtkom Uprising, some eighty years ago."
His eyes stayed on the younger man's face, watching for any sign of reluctance or
even tentativeness. He didn't want to send a reporter who'd spend his time there in
an air-conditioned, safe area headquarters.
Lormagen's eyes were steady as he nodded.
"If you're interested," Fendel continued, still testing, "and if I decide to send you,
I'll want you to leave day after tomorrow on a military supply ship. It's a twenty-
six-day trip, and I'll want you there while the fighting's still going strong. Those
T'swa are likely to finish off the local gooks pretty quickly when they arrive."
"Yes, sir. Day after tomorrow, no difficulty. I'd like very much to have the
assignment."
Fendel sat back then, decision made. "Fine. It's yours. Call Captain Benglet at the
Army's Media Liaison Office and find out the departure details. The supply ship
leaves sometime in the afternoon. And while I'm not expecting full-length video
features, of course, take plenty of cubes. This assignment has strong visual
potential."
He dismissed the young man then and watched him leave. There'd been no trace
of unwillingness. They'd said they wanted someone with energy and imagination;
Lormagen definitely had the energy.
Imagination! Fendel returned to his screen. An odd thing to want in a newsman,
or in anyone for that matter. But there were those whose position put them beyond
argument, or nearly enough for any practical purpose.
CHAPTER TWO
Excerpt from "The Story of the Confederation," by Brother Banh Dys
T'saben. IN, The Young Person's Library of Knowing About
You have already heard, my friend, of the Confederation of Worlds. But as yet
you do not know very much about it. The Confederation of Worlds is an
organization of 27 planets on which human beings live. The primaries of some of
the 27 can be seen from here on Tyss. Ask your master or your lector to go
outside with you some night soon and point out to you those which are visible.
Those 27 are not all of the worlds on which people are known to live in our region
of the galaxy. They are simply most of those which have spaceships, and with
spaceships, the Confederation worlds can usually control the others and cause
them to do certain things that they want them to do. Our own world of Tyss is not
one of the 27, of course, and we do not have spaceships. We have the T'sel, and
that which grows out of it. That is why the Confederation does not have power
over us, although it is all right for them to think they do.
The story of the Confederation of Worlds is quite interesting, and only on Tyss is
it known. The first part of it is also the story of how we came to live on Tyss.
Very long ago, many thousands of our years ago, people came to this region of
space from another region very far away. They came across space in eight very
large ships, at a speed much swifter than light, and the distance was so great that it
took years to cross it. If you decide to follow The Way of Wisdom and
Knowledge, or possibly if you do not, you will be able to visit that time and see
that long journey for yourself.
They left their homes to escape a great war. 'The people who began that war, and
who commanded it, were willing to kill to force their own wishes on others. They
were willing to kill great numbers of people for that, although few of those killed
had chosen for themselves the Way of War.
It was not like any war ever fought in this region, for they used weapons so
powerful that they could kill all of the people on a planet in one attack. And that is
what they did-they killed all of the people on certain planets, as a warning and
threat to others.
On one planet, the government on one great populous island nation bought eight
ships, old but large, for they believed that their world would be chosen for
destruction. And besides that, they were a people who despised and rejected war,
because of the kind of war, called "megawar, " which they had in that region.
Hurriedly they prepared the ships for a very long voyage. Each ship would take
several thousand people, and also things they would need when they settled to live
on some far world, including seeds and certain animals. For there would be no
towns or manufactories* waiting, or even people, but only the native planet in its
wild state. Then each sept on the island selected one in 200 of its people to go,
and when all had boarded, the great ships left, never to return.
They traveled together on a set course, not stopping anywhere at all until they
were far outside the region they knew about. They wanted to be very far away
from the war before they chose a new home. After that they continued on the
same general course, but deviated* to one side and another to inspect star systems
along the way for a planet on which they could live.
In this way they discovered the garthid peoples; who look quite different from
humans. The garthids live on planets mostly too hot, and with gravity mostly too
strong, for humans. Indeed, our own world of Tyss would seem cold to the
garthids, although most humans find Tyss much too hot. But nonetheless, the
garthids did not want humans to settle in their sector. So the people of the ships
got from them the boundary coordinates* of the garthid sector and went on, not
visiting any more worlds until they were well away. Our ancestors did not want
anything to do with wars, because the wars they knew had been so
indiscriminate* and unethical.
At last the little fleet of ships came to systems far enough away that again they
paused here and there to explore for a world they could live on. Soon they found
one. It was our own Tyss.
But meanwhile, certain things had happened on the ships. By that time they had
been gone from their home planet for more than four of our years. And what did
they do, enclosed in a crowded ship for more than four years? The crews were
busy, of course, operating the ships and taking care of them. The other people had
certain things to do too, such as taking care of children and cleaning. But still,
much of the time they had nothing needful to do, and they were quite crowded. So
they sat about and talked a great deal. And having nothing like the T'sel, soon
they were bickering. * Before long, some of them came to dislike others quite
strongly.
Factions arose. A faction is a set of people who feel very strongly in favor of
some one thing or set of things, or against some one thing or set of things. It is a
group of people who disagree with others, and it exists only in `reaction to its
polar opposites. Factions are a major cause of destructive war, which is to say, the
kind of war that does not respect the different Ways.
So before they had been very long on their journey, the rulers of the fleet
recognized that they carried with them the seeds* of the very kind of war they had
fled from! For given time, the factions would surely start to fight among
themselves! Therefore the rulers began to counsel together about what they might
do to avoid war. But they did not have the T'sel: They could not see how such
wars could be avoided.
But they did know that the destructiveness of indiscriminate war is proportional*
to the destructiveness of the weapons used. Also, the human mind is prone to
explore the operating rules of the physical universe. You already know something
about that. When done in a particular systematic* way, following certain rules and
limitations, this exploration was known then by the names "science"* and
"research. "* Certain operating rules of the physical universe, or approximations*
of them, which science discovered and described, could be used to do things with;
or to make things with. And the doing and making were known as "technology. "*
The weapons of their huge destructive war had been crafted by technology, by
using the knowledge from science.
The rulers recognized all that.
摘要：

TheRegimentJohnDalmasVolumeOneoftheRegimentSeriesContentsPROLOGUE4PARTONE6IntroductionToEnigma6CHAPTERONE7CHAPTERTWO9CHAPTERTHREE14CHAPTERFOUR17CHAPTERFIVE20CHAPTERSIX22CHAPTERSEVEN27CHAPTEREIGHT35CHAPTERNINE38PARTTWO42TheTswa42CHAPTERTEN43CHAPTERELEVEN51CHAPTERTWELVE57CHAPTERTHIRTEEN63CHAPTERFOURTE...

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