Foster, Alan Dean - Flinx 8 - The Howling Stones
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Author: Alan Dean Foster
Title: The Howling Stones
Series: A Novel of the Humanx Commonwealth
Series No: Flinx 08
Original copyright year: 1997
Genre: Science Fiction
Date of e-text: 12/23/2000
Prepared by:
Last Revised: / /
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Version: 1.0
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***************************************************
By Alan Dean Foster : Published by Ballantine Books:
The Icenggger 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
FLINX IN FLUX
MID‑FLINX
BLOODHYPE
THE HOWLING STONES
The Damned
Book One: A CALL TO ARMS
Book Two: THE FALSE MIRROR
Book Three: THE SPOILS OF WAR
THE BLACK HOLE CACHALOT
DARK STAR THE METROGNOME and Other Stories
MIDWORLD NOR CRYSTALTEARS
SENTENCED TO PRISM SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE
STAR TREK@ LOGS ONE‑TEN VOYAGE TO THE CITY OF THE
DEAD
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE . . . ... WHO NEEDS
ENEMIES?
MAD AMOS PARALLELITIES*
* forthcoming
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 1‑500‑733‑3000.
*******************************************************
Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If this book is
coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as "unsold or destroyed"
and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it.
A Del Rey© Book Published by Ballantine Books Copyright O 1997 by Thranx, Inc.
All rights reserved under International and Pan‑American Copy-right Conventions.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House,
Inc., New York, and simulta-neously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited,
Toronto.
http://www.randomhouse.com
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 97‑92418
ISBN 0‑345‑40645‑1
Printed in Canada
First Hardcover Edition: January 1997
First Mass Market Edition: January 1998
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
*******************************************************
Chapter One
People tended to overlook Pulickel Tomochelor in a crowd. It was something he'd
grown used to. He'd always been overlooked: in academia, in sports, at social
gather-ings. Only a few unusually perceptive instructors had taken note of his
singular abilities. These he'd paid close attention to, and by cleaving to them,
he had been corre-spondingly raised up.
His accomplishments were never spectacular but always solid, satisfying without
standing out. He was, in short, that most valued of all commodities in both
business and government: the reliable employee without a personal agenda.
And yet there was enough there, determination com-pensating for lack of
brilliance, for him to be called upon more than once to deal with problems that
others could not solve. Where they could not succeed, Pulickel To-mochelor
invariably produced results. From this he took, as was his manner, a quiet
instead of boisterous satis-faction. Not for him a plethora of medals or awards,
not for him applause during multiple personal appearances or the rapt attention
of the media. A commendation in his official record was recognition enough. Nor
did he dis-dain the occasional bonus.
There had been a woman once, too, to offer praise and support. She had moved on,
leaving behind a confusion of memories leavened with vague dissatisfaction.
Do-mesticity was the sole task at which he had failed; the only matter left
inconclusive in his life. It rankled and left him unfulfilled inside. As with
the responsibility, the fault was not entirely his, but it ate at him
nonetheless. He stored it in a far recess of his mind and moved on,
concentrating on his work and his career, which by all ac-counts were far more
successful than any selective com-ponent of his personal life.
Keeping busy was part of it. His schedule allowed little time in which to
develop a social life, much less raise a family, and the nature of his work
mitigated against long-term relationships. It was hard enough to sustain
intimacy when one was sent to different parts of the same world and well‑nigh
impossible when constantly on the move from world to world.
Other men and women managed to establish and main-tain long‑term unions, but
they usually worked together. Pulickel preferred to operate alone, with his
thoughts his sole companion. Or so he frequently strove to persuade himself.
While the sociology of other beings opened for him like ripening fruit, the
actions and reactions of repre-sentatives of the opposite gender of his own
species re-mained as impenetrable as the core of a neutron star, and often
weighed on him equally as heavy.
There was a lurch as the shuttle skewed sideways and the pilot's voice sounded
apologetically over the cabin speaker. A couple of passengers grumbled. Senisran
be-ing a frontier world, there weren't many of them. Save for a few barely
developed diplomatic communities and a smattering of isolated scientific
outposts linked by satel-lite relay, the world expanding in the viewport off to
his left was populated solely by a substantial but scattered native population.
The locals raised no objections to the relay system because they couldn't see it
and didn't know it was there anyway, their knowledge of astronomy be-ing limited
to that which could be observed by the naked seni eye.
Pulickel shifted in his seat as much as the landing har-ness would allow. He was
shorter than the Common-wealth average, slim but well built, his olive‑hued skin
reflective of his ethnic heritage. His features were small, fine even, and
distinctly non-threatening. Similar in ap-pearance to the superb wood carvings
his Javanese an-cestors had turned out in quantity, he revealed his inner
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humanity only when he smiled, his teeth a slash of per-fect white like an ivory
inlay set among paduk wood. He did not turn the eyes of attractive women, but
neither did they find him displeasing to look upon. His desert‑dry personality
generally took care of any initial interest, fil-tered through speech that was
always proper, polite, and reflective of an advanced education.
His eyes were small, black, and active, his hair black, long, and combed
straight back. Pressed as if in prepara-tion for a formal dinner, his field
shorts and short‑sleeved shirt collapsed in a jumble of angles against the less
dis-ciplined curves of his body. An experienced traveler, he'd brought one case
only. It rested snug in back, in the cargo bay, and if properly looked after
contained everything he would need no matter the length of his stay.
He spared yet another glance for the attractive middle-aged woman seated on the
aisle two rows in front of him. It was always difficult when they were taller
than you, he reflected, and many were. Unfortunately, he did not possess the
drive necessary to overcome his perceived handicap. As a result, he had not
spoken to her since board-ing, and doubtless would not speak to her when they
disembarked. Experience had shown him that attractive single women preferred
their men tall, muscular, slightly uglified, and dangerous. He was none of those
things.
With a sigh he turned to the port and studied the atmosphere through which the
shuttle was dropping rapidly. One day he'd find someone, he told himself. One
day when he had time to look and his work didn't interfere. Meanwhile he would
have to content himself with the ac-colades of superiors and colleagues, which
he received in ample quantity.
The sky outside darkened and Pulickel thought imme-diately of inclement weather.
Again the shuttle bounced and for a second time the pilot was apologizing.
"Sorry. We just ran past a flock of cemacerotic gliders. At least, that's what
I'm told they were. Minor evasive maneuvers were in order. We're descending and
now they're slightly above us and to port. Those of you on that side may still
be able to see them."
Everyone on the left side of the shuttle leaned up against their respective
ports. Among the thick clouds overhead could be seen rapidly vanishing flaps of
vast membranous wings. Pulickel recalled his weeks of study- prep on Senisran
and its natives, flora, and fauna. The cemacerotic gliders were enormous aerial
fliers who lived by skimming the surface of Senisran's seas for plankton- size
life‑forms, straining them through gigantic beaks that were lined with a
substance not unlike the baleen of a whale. Living in small colonies on the
peaks and crags of the highest islands, they were inoffensive, harmless
creatures‑unless one happened to run into you. Such ac-complished soarers were
they that some biologists sus-pected they often circumnavigated the globe
without ever touching land.
Recently discovered Senisran was an ocean planet, not unlike the long‑settled
and well‑known Cachalot. In lieu of any continental landmasses, the
globe‑girdling seas were spotted with thousands upon thousands of islands: some
isolated, some clustered tightly together, most strung out like the strands of
broken necklaces in hundreds of indi-vidual archipelagoes. A few were sizable
but none espe-cially impressive, the largest being about half the size of
Earth's Madagascar. All save the northern‑ and southern-most were hot, though
the humidity varied with location and latitude. There were no polar ice caps on
Senisran.
On these innumerable island groupings dwelt the na-tive population, organized
into hundreds of different tribes, clans, associations, and alliances, each with
its own gov-ernment, social system, religion, and morality. It was this riot of
cultural diversity that made formal contact between offworlders and locals a
difficult and time‑consuming proposition. Not only was a planetary government
non-existent, the aboriginal seni had yet to conceive of the idea of
nation‑states. In some cases, on small isolated islands, visitors making contact
were reduced to signing treaties with the representatives of individual extended
families, whereupon they would have to begin negotiations all over again with
the inhabitants of the next island.
As if things weren't complicated enough, Senisran had been discovered
simultaneously by the Commonwealth and the AAnn Empire. The result was that both
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sides had representatives on the planet, each attempting to secure covenants of
friendship and alliance with as many of the native governments as possible. On a
number of island clusters, contact teams operated in direct competition with one
another. It was a frustrating, time‑consuming process made all the more
difficult by the sense of com-petition that existed between contact teams.
Local arrangements complicated matters even further. Humanx and AAnn
representatives sometimes found them-selves expected to go to war with
neighboring islanders as soon as they formalized a treaty with a set of new
friends, who, it subsequently developed, had formal al-liances with three other
island groups, but not the one just over the horizon. Or ancient family quarrels
entered into the negotiating process. There was nothing straight-forward about
any of it.
Which was one reason why Pulickel had been sent for.
Neither the Commonwealth nor the Empire would take up arms on behalf of any
native. That was strictly against the rules of contact agreed upon by both
sides. They could only stand by and watch helplessly as treaties settled through
arduous and difficult negotiation frequently came apart under the strain of
local conflict, whereupon all would have to be completely renegotiated from
scratch. It was a diplomatic nightmare, none of which would have had any
ramifications beyond those tribes immediately involved save for two things:
Senisran was strategically located in a region claimed both by the Commonwealth
and the Em-pire, and it offered an assortment of valuable commodi-ties actually
worth transporting through space‑plus. It was valuable both from a
politico‑military and commercial standpoint.
Certainly the natives were willing to cement formal contracts and to open trade,
he mused as the shuttle be-gan its final approach. According to all the reports
he'd perused, only a few island groups were openly hostile to outside contact.
Since these more hostile natives ex-pressed an equal dislike for humans, thranx,
and AAnn, they could for now be passed over. They, too, would come around once
they saw the advantages that accrued to‑ their neighbors through contact with
more technologically ad-vanced off‑world civilizations.
With Senisran boasting a planetwide insufficiency of flat, dry land, the shuttle
set down on unsinkable pon-toons, momentarily disappearing within a traveling
fountain of its own making. As the craft slowed, Pulickel considered how best to
acquire an assortment of the re-markable native handicrafts for which the semi
were rapidly becoming known. He'd promised at least a dozen colleagues back home
a representative sample each. Origi-nal art was one commodity that technology
had yet to supplant and was therefore an item highly amenable to interstellar
trade.
It being an ancient truism that commerce treads hard on the heels of
exploration, many of the great Common-wealth trading houses already had
representatives at work on Senisran. Dozens of others pressed the appropriate
government departments for access credentials, eager to trade with the locals
for their exquisite wood, shell, and bone carvings, necklaces, and sculpture. It
seemed as if every island group had its own distinctive style, each more
striking and beautiful than the next. The acquisitive AAnn were no less
enthusiastic. Such trade was carefully regulated, lest the semi procure
technology too advanced for their society to absorb.
In addition to an astonishing range of handicrafts, Senisran also offered an
expanding selection of unique comestibles. The well‑off of Earth, New Riviera,
and other sophisticated worlds were and had always been willing to pay
outrageous prices for new tastes, new sensations. Any dozen half‑competent
companies could introduce new electronic gadgets onto the market, but a new
fruit or vegetable was infinitely more valuable.
It was endlessly frustrating to the backlog of commer-cial interests to have to
wait for official contact to be es-tablished with each island or island group,
but it was the responsibility of Commonwealth authority to see to it that trade
and interchange proceeded smoothly and with-out acrimony. Commerce was not
allowed to proceed un-til a point scout had established formal relations with
the group of natives in question. First‑person first‑contact was a delicate and
sensitive undertaking that called for highly trained individuals with plenty of
experience.
Individuals like Pulickel Tomochelor.
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He was a specialist's specialist, whose talents were in demand throughout the
frontier. As there was only one of him, his time had to be rationed. He had
devoted his ca-reer to unraveling seemingly insoluble conundrums. As a
consequence of his success, it was going on ten years since he'd been given
anything resembling an easy as-signment. He didn't mind. It made his personal
sense of satisfaction all the greater.
He smiled to himself as the shuttle turned to port and entered the harbor at
Ophhlia, the principal Humanx base on Senisran. In exchange for its use, the
increasingly so-phisticated locals received a hefty monthly fee. A ridge of high
mountains ran from east to west along the mid-line of the sizable island,
protecting the harbor and its thriving facilities from the daily cloudbursts
that blew up out of the south.
Personally, Pulickel always sympathized with the con-fusion that was common to
undecided native groups, who were by far in the majority. Beset by endless
requests and frequently contradictory promises from two different sides and
species, whom were they to believe: human or AAnn? From the native viewpoint,
who held the real power and offered the most benefits? With whom should they
ally themselves? In such critical negotiations, the skill of each side's on‑site
negotiator was paramount.
Where Pulickel shone was in his ability to understand alien cultures and an
alien point of view. He might never reach the exalted rank of Counselor, but in
another ten years or so he could see himself in charge of the entire xenology
department, passing judgment on the reports of others and handing out
assignments from a spacious office high atop the Science Tower in Denpasar.
Solving the problem for which he'd been sent to Senisran would serve to carry
him a few steps farther toward that goal.
The distant whistle from the shuttle's engines faded as it coasted to a stop
inside the enclosed, climate -controlled landing dock. Though they were now in a
sealed environment, the climate processors could only mute the heat and
humidity, not eliminate them entirely. Suitable comments were exchanged among
the passen-gers as they disembarked. Pulickel kept silent, measuring the
conditions against what he'd been led to expect.
Through the transparent tube that encased the walk-way, disembarking passengers
could see the shuttle float-ing behind them on brilliantly clear water. Beyond
the polarized, diffusing material, tropical sunlight illuminated the jumble of
low‑rise buildings that comprised orderly Ophhlia. It flashed green off the
mountaintops beyond. Even within the disembarkation lounge, the pervading smell
was of damp green growing things: the musk of fresh soil. Inside, the treated,
mechanically massaged at-mosphere was cool but heavy.
He gave a mental shrug. He'd spent time on more than a dozen alien worlds, some
hotter, some colder, a few where the atmosphere would kill anyone who tried to
breathe it. Compared to the average, the air of Senisran felt like home. After
the long journey out from Earth, he was eager to leave the shallow trappings of
imported civi-lization behind and get out into the field. He looked for-ward to
it much as another man might look forward to a date.
"Tomochelor?" A rough‑looking, stocky, heavily bearded individual broke from the
small crowd to block Pulickel's path. He wore a duty uniform of green shorts,
shirt, and sandals. Insignia decorated his sleeves and shoulders. "Eric Train.
On behalf of the department, wel-come to Senisran." He extended a hand and
flagged Pulickel's up and down. "No hand luggage?"
"No. I just have the one case."
"That'll be waiting for you in the baggage area." He turned and Pulickel fell in
step alongside him. "I've seen your schedule. You have a couple of days here in
town before you have to head out to the site. I'd be glad to show you around."
"I'd enjoy that." Actually, Pulickel wasn't sure that he would, but he'd learned
early on in his career that when traveling, no amount of research, no matter how
thor-ough, could substitute for the knowledge of someone lo-cal. While Train was
exposing him to the few simple pleasures Ophhlia had to offer, Pulickel would
patiently pump him for more practical information.
"How was your flight?"
"Like any KK‑drive journey. Pleasant enough. Quiet and busy. I had plenty of
time to study and to work with the language synapse. It's a long way from
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Earth." They left the busy main atrium and turned down a side corri-dor. "I must
say that based on everything I've read I don't quite see why my presence is so
actively required."
Train put a comradely arm around the other man's shoulders, a gesture that
Pulickel disliked but had grown used to. "Let's just say that Parramat's a
special problem that needs a specialist's attention." The newly arrived
xe-nologist knew as much but politely allowed Train the pleasure of explication.
The terminal was busier than Pulickel expected. Though Senisran was a far‑off,
recently discovered world, Ophhlia was a busy place. Things were happening here.
"After the initial contacts," Train was saying, "the xenology department was
able to put together a few basic contact templates. With minor variations for
individual island groupings these have worked pretty well‑until Parramat. "
"So all the reports say." Pulickel commented only to show that he was paying
attention.
"But these Parramati, they're different." Train was shaking his head dolefully.
"Not physically, of course. As far as appearance, physical ability, and
intelligence, they're no different from any of the other seni. By the way,
except for the overtly warlike tribes, the natives are nice folks‑for
semihumanoid aboriginal aliens. And even the most aggressive tribes are usually
ready to sit down and have a chat or share a meal before they paddle off to bash
somebody else's heads in.
"Generally speaking, we're getting along well with them. Staying a few jumps
ahead of the AAnn. You know the lizards: they tend to be kind of impatient,
whereas the seni are a species that likes to take its time. It reflects the
nature of their environment. That's not to say that if we weren't here that
every one of them wouldn't readily align themselves with the AAnn."
Pulickel nodded. The AAnn were always in a hurry, expecting a yes‑or‑no answer
to a question the first time it was asked. Establishing formal relations with
new species often required a good deal more patience. This the AAnn had learned,
but their natural instincts still had a tendency to frustrate their own efforts
in that area. As a result, the Commonwealth had forged ahead in its efforts to
secure alliances with Senisran's scattered and highly individualistic tribes.
Struggling to catch up, the Empire had poured considerable resources into its
local efforts. In territories where the locals remained uncommitted, such as the
Parramat Archipelago, they were just as active as the representatives of the
Commonwealth.
The Parramati had shown themselves to be wary of the offers from both sides, as
was to be expected. Like primi-tive sentients anywhere, they didn't want to make
the mistake of allying themselves with a weaker party. So they listened
patiently to the presentations of both visi-tors, human and AAnn alike, and
asked questions, and debated among themselves, and put off making any kind of
final decision. Pulickel was being brought in to hurry things along.
"You know, of course, why we're making a greater ef-fort than usual to bring the
Parramati quickly into the Commonwealth fold." Train preceded Pulickel through a
security door.
The slight newcomer nodded. The efforts to which his host was referring had less
to do with the welfare of the inhabitants of the Parramat Archipelago than with
what lay beneath their several dozen islands. Specifically, an unknown number of
rare earth deposits of exceptional commercial value, from niobium and yttrium to
obscure minerals with names even Pulickel couldn't pronounce.
Train was patting him on the shoulder. "You know, I envy you, going out to
Parramat. Resolve this one and you'll really make a name for yourself."
"I have a name," Pulickel replied quietly. He wanted to shrug the other man's
arm off his shoulders but restrained himself. False conviviality always made him
queasy. He hated attending parties, even parties of two.
Instead of being offended by his guest's rejoinder, Train's grin expanded. "All
right, so this'll help you en-hance it. Obviously, I don't have to tell you how
impor-tant the assignment is." He lowered his voice and his bushy eyebrows did
acrobatics. "There's also the matter of your local support, someone who's
already on site. I could tell you how many local xenologists clamored for this
duty just because of that, but I don't want to intimi-date you when you've just
arrived." He chuckled. "Last poor schmuck I had to send out on contact duty
ended up with an old thranx for company. That'd be okay for a few months, but
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for a year ... " He let the implication trail away, then added, "Your position
will be ... different."
Pulickel made himself smile at his host. "Do not worry about me. I don't
intimidate easily. What's the prob-lem? Is the support individual in question
particularly disagreeable?"
Train gave him a funny look. "You'll see."
"I find I'm able to get along with just about any per-sonality type. It's a
necessary skill when one is working for long periods of time in comparative
isolation. I'm sure this individual and I will come to an accommoda-tion. Could
we pick up my case now, please? I'm anxious to see if everything's arrived in
one piece."
Train was still grinning. "It should be waiting for us at Transport."
Pulickel debated whether to press his guide for addi-tional details about his
field support but decided he'd find out soon enough. As he'd told Train, he
wasn't concerned. Young, old, male, female, thranx, or human, he'd worked with
them all, often under far more difficult conditions. It came naturally to him.
He was such a nonthreatening personality that even initially hostile colleagues
ended up adopting a protective attitude toward their new colleague. While he
wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs, it was hard to pick a fight with someone who
always attended strictly to business. The result was a mutually productive
working environment, which was what the xenologist always strove for no matter
where he was assigned.
Train's underlying urgency was no surprise. Pulickel had read the relevant
reports, every one of them. Common-wealth commercial interests wanted the
vacillating situa-tion on Parramat resolved so they could move in and exploit
the exceptional ore deposits that lay beneath the archipelago as soon as
possible‑in an environmentally and socially sensitive manner, of course. It was
empha-sized that the Commonwealth and not the AAnn should be the ones to do
this.
Though he thoroughly understood the situation, Pulickel had no intention of
hurrying his work. He would take his time and do his job properly. Not that he
expected it to prove especially troublesome. A couple of months at most, he'd
decided when he'd finished the last of the field reports. A couple of months and
the commercial in-terests in Ophhlia would have their treaty of agreement and he
would be on his way back to Earth, awash in ac-colades and official
commendations. It had always been thus. Mentally he was already readying himself
for his next assignment.
Meanwhile he expected as well as hoped to enjoy his stay on Senisran. New worlds
and new alien cultures were endlessly fascinating. While certain patterns held
true across the cosmos, every sentient species was dif-ferent and presented its
own unique problems to those charged with establishing formal contact. It would
be in-teresting not only to meet the Parramati but to see how their culture
differed from that of their fellow seni. Cer-tainly he would acquire enough
material for one or two formal papers, which when published would only add to
his growing reputation.
The compact transport vehicle was waiting just outside the terminal, and his
travel case, intact and unbreached, had been stowed securely in the rear storage
compart-ment. Using a remote key, Train opened the single door and followed him
inside. Cool, dehumidified air blew from several vents.
"I'm looking forward to showing you around." Train nudged his guest in the ribs.
"Ophhlia ain't fancy, but with all the money that's pouring in here we've
managed a few amusements."
"I can imagine," Pulickel responded amiably. He was more than familiar with the
kinds of "amusements" common to newly contacted worlds‑which was why he couldn't
wait to be on his way.
Chapter Two
Though he'd believed himself fully prepared, the journey from Ophhlia to
Parramat still took longer than he'd ex-pected. He knew he shouldn't have been
surprised. Dis-tances on Senisran were substantial, and Parramat was located
several thousand kilometers from Ophhlia.
As the low‑altitude transport jet screamed through cloud‑flecked sky, he watched
the landscape change be-neath him. Given the inherent limitations of Senisrani
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分类：外语学习
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时间：2024-12-08
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