Ben Bova - Exiles 3 - End of exile

VIP免费

2024-12-16 1 0 282.1KB 118 页 5.9玖币

Ben Bova - Exiles 03 End of Exile.htm

To Regina, with love and hope for a better tomorrow.

Book One

The glass was cold.

Linc rubbed at it with the heel of his hand and felt the coldness of death sucking at his skin. His whole body trembled. It

was chill here in the darkness outside the Ghost Place, but it wasn't the cold that made him shake.

Still he had to decide. Peta's life hung in the balance. And before he could decide, Linc had to know.

Wiping his freezing hand against the thin leg of his ragged coverall, Linc peered through the misty glass into the Ghost

Place.

They were there, just as they'd always been.

More of them than Linc could count. More than the fingers of both hands. Ghosts.

They looked almost like real men and women. But of course no one that old still lived in the Wheel. The adults were all

dead—all except Jerlet, who lived far up above the Wheel.

The ghosts were frozen in place, just as they had always been. Most of them were seated at the strange machines that

stretched along one long wall of the place. Some of them were on the floor; one was kneeling with its back against the

other wall, eyes closed as if in meditation. Most of them had their backs to Linc, but the few faces he could see were

twisted in agony and terror. He shuddered as he thought of the first time he had seen them, when he had been barely big

enough to scramble atop an old dead servomech's shoulder and peek through the mist-shrouded window at the horrifying

sight beyond.

It doesn't scare me now, Linc told himself.

But still he could feel cold sweat trickling down his thin ribs; the smell of fear was real and pungent.

The ghosts stayed at their posts, staring blankly at the long curving wall full of .strange machines. The strange buttons and

lights; the wall screens above them were just as blank as' the ghosts' eyes—most of them. Linc's heart leaped inside him as

he saw a few of the screens still flickering, showing strange shadowy pictures that changed constantly.

Some of the machines still work! he realized.

The ghosts had been people once. Real people, just like Magda or Jerlet or any of the others. But they never moved, never

breathed, never relaxed from their agonized frozen stares at the dead and dying machines.

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/...3%20-%20End%20of%20Exile%20v0.5%20(1975).htm (1 of 118) [1/31/2004 1:02:46 AM]

Ben Bova - Exiles 03 End of Exile.htm

They were real people once. And someday... someday I'll become a ghost. Like them. Frozen. Dead.

But some of the ancient machines were still working; some of the wall screens still lived. Does that mean that the

machines are meant to keep on working? Does it mean that I should try to fix the machine that Peta broke?

His whole body was shaking badly now. It was cold here in the darkness. Linc had to get back to the living section, where

there was light and warmth and people. Living people. Maybe it was true that the ghosts walked through the Wheel's

passageways when everyone was asleep. Maybe all the frightening stories that Magda told were true.

It was a long and painful trek back to the living area. Many passageways were blocked off, sealed by heavy metal hatches.

Other long sections were too dangerous for a lone traveler. Rats prowled there hungrily.

Linc had to take a tube-tunnel up to the next level, where he felt so much lighter that he could almost glide like one of the

bright-colored birds down in the farming section of the Living Wheel. He stretched his legs and covered more paces in one

leap than he had fingers on a hand.

Here in the second level it was fun. The corridors were empty and dark. The doors along them closed tight. There were

strange markings on each door; Linc couldn't understand them, but Jerlet had promised long ago to someday show him

what they meant.

He was alone and free here, soaring down the corridor, letting his muscles lift his suddenly lightened body for long jumps

down the shadowy passageway. He forgot the ghosts, forgot Peta's trouble, forgot even Jerlet and Magda. There was

nothing in his mind except the thrill of almost-flying, and the words of an ancient song. His voice had deepened not long

ago, and no longer cracked and squeaked when he tried to sing. He was happily impressed with it as he heard it echoing off

the bare corridor walls:

"Weeruffa seethu wizzer Swunnerfool wizzeruv oz___"

Then he sailed past a big observation window and skidded to a stop, nearly falling as he braked his momentum, and turned

to look through the broad expanse of plastiglass.

The stars were circling slowly outside, quiet and solemn and unblinking. So many stars! More stars than there were people

down in the Living Wheel. More than the birds and insects and pigs and all the other animals down in the farms. More

even than the rats. So many.

Was he right about Jerlet's teachings? It seemed to Linc that some of Jerlet's words meant that the Living Wheel—and all

the other wheels up at the higher levels—were actually part of a huge machine that was whirling around and carrying them

from one star to another. Linc shook his head. Jerlet's words were hard to figure out; and besides, that was Magda's job, not

his.

Then the yellow star swung into view. It was brighter than all the rest, so bright that it hurt Linc's eyes to look at it. He

squinted and turned his face away, but still saw the brilliant spot of yellow before his eyes, wherever he looked.

After a few moments it faded away. And Linc's blood froze in his veins.

For he saw stretched across the scuffed, worn floor plates of the passageway a vague dark shadow stretching out, reaching

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/...3%20-%20End%20of%20Exile%20v0.5%20(1975).htm (2 of 118) [1/31/2004 1:02:46 AM]

Ben Bova - Exiles 03 End of Exile.htm

up the far wall across the passageway from the window.

His own shadow, Linc realized quickly. But that brought no relief from fear. For the light casting the shadow came from

the yellow star.

It really is getting closer to us, Linc told himself. The old legends are true!

Keeping his back to the window and the yellow star, staring at his slowly shifting shadow, Linc felt panic clutching at him.

The yellow star is coming to get us. It's going to make ghosts of us all!

Linc had no idea how long he stayed, nearly paralyzed with fear, at the observation window. His shadow crept across the

floor and up the far wall of the passageway, faded into darkness, then reappeared again. And again, And again.

Finally he pulled himself away, muttering, "If I tell the others about this, they'll go crazy. But Magda... I've got to tell

Magda."

His voice sounded odd, even to himself. Shaky, high, and unsure. "I wish Jerlet was still with us."

He stalked down the passageway purposefully, no more playful lightweighted leaps. Into the next open hatch he ducked,

then stopped at the platform that opened onto the longspiraling metal stairs of the tube-tunnel. Jerlet was upward, in the far

domain where legends said there was no weight at all and everything floated in midair. Downward were the others, his own

people, in the Living Wheel, where there was warmth and food and life.

And fear.

"Jerlet. I've got to find Jerlet," Linc told himself sternly, even though he had no idea of how far the journey would be, or

how difficult.

Linc placed his slippered foot on the first cold metal step leading upward. But he heard a scuffling sound—faint as a

breath, but enough to make him freeze in his steps.

Again. A faint rustling sound in the darkness. Something soft padding on the metal steps in the shadows below.

Rats? Linc wondered.

There hadn't been any rats in this tube-tunnel fora long time.

although it had taken the death of four of Linc's friends to clear the tunnel of them. The little monsters fought fiercely when

they couldn't run or hide.

Linc gripped the hilt of his only weapon, a slim blade that had once been a screwdriver. He had ground the working end

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/...3%20-%20End%20of%20Exile%20v0.5%20(1975).htm (3 of 118) [1/31/2004 1:02:46 AM]

Ben Bova - Exiles 03 End of Exile.htm

down until it was a sharp dagger. Holding the plastic hilt in a suddenly sweaty palm, Linc peered into the darkness of the

tunnel, looking down the spiraling steps for the glint of red, beady eyes.

If there's too many of them___

The shadows seemed to bunch up and take shape. A person.

"Petal" Linc shouted; and his voice echoed off the tube's cold metal walls.

The kid jumped as if sparks from a machine had seared him.

"Peta, it's me, Linc. Don't be afraid."

"Linc! Oh, Linc___" Peta scrambled up the steps and

grabbed at Linc's outstretched hand. He was breathless, sweaty, wide-eyed.

"What are you doing up here?" Linc asked. "I thought you were waiting for Magda to...."

"I've got to get away! Monel and his guards... they're after me!"

Linc thought of Peta as just a kid, although all the people in the Living Wheel were exactly the same age, of course. But

Peta was small, his skin pink and soft, his hair as yellow as the star that was coming toward them. He looked more like a

child than a young man. Linc, whose face was bony and dark with the beginnings of a beard, towered over him.

Linc held the slim youth by both shoulders. "Listen. You're supposed to be waiting for judgement by Magda. You can't run

away."

Peta's hands were fluttering wildly. "But Monel and his guards... he said I'd broken the pump on purpose. He said they

were going to cast me into outer darkness!"

"He can't do that___"

"But Magda can. He said Magda told him that's what she was going to judge."

Linc shook his head. "No, Magda wouldn't make up her mind before hearing your side of it."

Peta glanced back over his shoulder. "I was hungry. And tired. I'd been working in the tanks for a long time... everybody

else had a chance to eat, but Slav said I couldn't stop until I finished weeding my whole tank."

"Slav knows what's right," Linc said. "He's fair."

Even in the shadowy light of the tube-tunnel, Linc could see Peta's normally pink face had gone completely white with

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/...3%20-%20End%20of%20Exile%20v0.5%20(1975).htm (4 of 118) [1/31/2004 1:02:46 AM]

Ben Bova - Exiles 03 End of Exile.htm

fright. "I know... but I stuffed the weeds I had pulled into the water trough."

"Oh no___" Linc could feel the back of his neck tensing.

"And they clogged the pump... ?"

Peta nodded dumbly.

"And that's why the pump broke, and now half the farm tanks can't get water," Linc finished. "Half our food supply is

ruined."

Peta's voice was a miserable whine. "Monel came to my compartment with his guards. They took me out... said they were

taking me to the deadlock to... to cast me out."

"He can't do that!"

"I ran away from them," Peta babbled on. "I grabbed the stick that Monel carries and hit the guard that was holding my arm

and ran away."

"You what?"

"I... hit... the guard." It was a tortured whisper.

"You hit him? You really struck him?" Linc sank down onto the metal step and let his head droop into his hands. Peta

stood fidgeting in front of him, his mouth opening but nothing coming out except a barely audible squeak.

Looking up at him again, Linc asked, "How could you do it? If you had deliberately tried to break every rule Jerlet's given

us you couldn't have done worse."

"They were going to push me into the deadlock," Peta cried.

Linc shook his head.

"Help me!"

"Help you?" Linc spread his hands helplessly. "How? Half the people will starve because you were lazy. Maybe I can fix

the pump, but you know Jerlet's laws about touching the machines. And you hit a guard. Violence! All the tales about the

wars and the killings... didn't they mean anything to you?"

"They were going to cast me out!"

"Not even Monel would do that without Magda's judgement," Linc snapped. "I'm no friend of his, Jerlet knows. There's

a lot about him I can't stand. But he'd never hurt you with anything except his tongue. He and his guards were playing with

you, and you were stupid enough to believe they meant what they were saying. Only Magda can give punishment, you

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/...3%20-%20End%20of%20Exile%20v0.5%20(1975).htm (5 of 118) [1/31/2004 1:02:46 AM]

Ben Bova - Exiles 03 End of Exile.htm

know that."

Peta dropped to his knees and clutched at Linc. "Help me, please! They'll take me back for judgment—"

"That's just what you deserve."

"No! Please! Hide me... help me get away from them."

Linc shook his head. "You can't hide away, all by yourself. You'd either starve or have to steal food; MonePs guards would

catch you sooner or later. Or the rats would."

"Please Linc! Do something. Don't let them get me. They'll... ."

Linc pushed him away and stood up. "Come on, I'm taking you to Magda."

"Noooo," Peta cried.

"The best thing is to give yourself up. Maybe she'll make your punishment easier then. I'll ask her to go easy on you."

"Very well spoken!"

Linc wheeled around. From out of the darkness above him, Monel and three guards came down the metal stairs. Two of the

guards held Monel's chair, grunting with each step they took. Another three guards appeared out of the shadows on the

steps below them.

Monel was smiling. Once he had been as tall as Linc, but since the fall that ruined his legs and forced him to stay forever in

his chair, his body had seemed to shrivel and dry out. Now he was a twisted, frail knot of anger and pain. His eyes burned

in the darkness. His voice was as brittle-thin and hurtful as a bare high-voltage wire.

"Don't look so surprised, little Peta," he said in his thin, acid-bitter voice. "Once we saw you scramble into this tunnel it

was a simple matter to set a trap for you."

Linc bent down and, as gently as he could, lifted the wordless Peta to his feet.

"I thought for a moment," Monel said to Linc, "that we would catch you in the trap, too. But you turned out to be a loyal

friend of Magda."

Linc said nothing. He could see in the dimness a dark welt along the cheek of one of the guards. Must be where Peta hit

him.

Monel's smile was blood-chilling. "Let's go see Magda now. She's waiting for her little Peta."

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/...3%20-%20End%20of%20Exile%20v0.5%20(1975).htm (6 of 118) [1/31/2004 1:02:46 AM]

Ben Bova - Exiles 03 End of Exile.htm

The meeting room was filled. All the people were there; many more than the fingers of both Linc's hands. More even than

the knuckle joints on each finger.

Magda sat in the center of the meeting room, as she should. She sat on the old desk with its tiny, dead viewing screen and

the pretty colored buttons alongside it. Everyone sat on the floor tiles around her, as they should. All eyes were on Magda.

Even the empty shelves that Lincd the walls of the big room seemed to be staring at her. There were only a few ancient

books left on the shelves, dusty and crumbling. They were being saved for an emergency, for a time when the cold seeped

so deeply into the Living Wheel that even this last precious bit of fuel would be needed. All the other books had been used

for warmth long ago, before Linc could remember.

Magda sat on the desk, her back straight, her chin high, her eyes closed. Her slim legs were folded under her in the correct

manner for her duty as priestess. Her dark hair was carefully combed and glistened in the shadowless light from the ceiling

panels.

She wore her priestess's robe, and although it was threadbare and patched in places, the strange signs and lettering on it still

stood out boldly: ELCTRC BLNKT, II0 v, AC ONLY. In her right hand was the wand of power and authority, which the

ancients called a sliderule; in her left was the symbol of justice and compassion, an infant's skull. Around her waist was the

golden chain of the zodiac, with its twelve mysterious signs.

Linc sat at Magda's feet, close enough to the desk to reach

out and touch it. Which no one in his right mind would dare to do. The desk was sacred to the priestess, and not to be

touched by ordinary hands.

He looked up at Madga's face, framed by the huge silver-gray wall screen behind her. When she was serving in her office

as priestess and meditating, as she was now, Magda seemed to be unable to see anyone, so fiercely did she concentrate on

her duty.

Still she was beautiful. Her eyes were darker than the eternal night outside the Wheel. Her face as finely cast as the most

delicate tracings of the golden zodiac signs. Yet there was strength and authority in those high-arched cheekbones and firm

jawLinc. And wisdom came from her lips.

She stirred and opened her eyes. The crowd sighed and shifted uneasily. Her meditation was ended.

Magda's deep black eyes focused on the people. She swept her gaze across the room and smiled.

"I'm ready," she said simply.

Monel started to push his wheeled chair forward, but Linc was faster and got to his feet. Peta, sitting flanked by two of

Monel's guards, didn't move at all. He seemed petrified, too terrified even to tremble.

"We have a problem," Linc said in the time-honored words of custom. "Peta messed up his work at the farm tanks and one

of the main pumps is broken because of his carelessness___"

A gasp went through the crowd. Most of them already knew about the pump's breakdown, but still the thought of losing

half their food shocked them.

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/...3%20-%20End%20of%20Exile%20v0.5%20(1975).htm (7 of 118) [1/31/2004 1:02:46 AM]

Ben Bova - Exiles 03 End of Exile.htm

Magda glanced at Peta but said nothing.

"And then when Monel and his guards threatened him," Linc went on, "Peta hit one of the guards and ran away."

The crowd sighed again, louder this time. Whispers buzzed through them.

The priestess's face went cold. "Is this true, Monel?" she asked.

Monel wheeled his chair up to where Linc was standing and motioned his bruised guard to step forward. "The evidence is

clear to see," he said. The guard turned slowly so that the whole crowd could gape at his bruised face.

"Peta was frightened," Linc said. "Monel told him they were taking him to the deadlock."

"A lie!" Monel snapped. "Peta was running away and we tried to stop him."

Linc shook his head. "Peta has decided to give himself up to your justice, Magda. Monel and his guards came on us in the

tube-tunnel just as he agreed to return to you and ask for mercy."

Magda tapped her wand against her knee for a moment. "What do you have to do with all this, Linc? Were you there when

it happened?"

"No. I was off duty." No sense telling everybody about the Ghost Place. Or how close the yellow star's getting. It would

only scare them. "Peta and I met by accident in a tube-tunnel." Monel edged his chair slightly in front of Linc. "Peta is a

lazy clod. And stupid. His laziness and stupidity ruined half the farm tanks. Ask Slav if it's not so!"

"Are they really ruined?" Magda asked. "Yes," came Slav's heavy voice from the rear of the crowd. She looked down at

Peta. "All that food—ruined. How can we live without food?"

Before the frightened youth could answer, Linc said, "I brought Peta to you for justice. And mercy."

She almost smiled at Linc. For an instant their eyes were locked together as if no one else was in the room with them. Linc

could feel his own lips part in a slight grin.

"But worst of all," Monel shouted, "is that Peta is violent! He attacked my guard. He could attack anyone, at any time. Any

one of you!" He waved his arm at the crowd.

They muttered and stared at Peta. He hung his head so low that no one could see his face. The guards alongside him tensed

and watched Monel, not Magda.

"We all know the punishment for violence," Monel went on, still speaking to the crowd rather than the priestess. "Violence

is the one crime we cannot tolerate."

"Cast him into outer darkness!" someone shouted. "Cast him out!" one of the guards echoed.

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/...3%20-%20End%20of%20Exile%20v0.5%20(1975).htm (8 of 118) [1/31/2004 1:02:46 AM]

Ben Bova - Exiles 03 End of Exile.htm

"Yes... yes___" The crowd picked up the vibration.

Monel turned back toward Magda, his thin face flushed with success, his crooked smile triumphant.

Magda raised her arms for silence, and the crowd settled down to a dull murmur. She waited a moment longer, staring at

the people, and they became absolutely still. Peta sat unmoving, his head sunk low.

"Peta," she said softly. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

He raised his face high enough to look at her. With a miserable shrug he let his head droop again.

"Peta," Magda said, but now it wasa voice of command, "get to your feet."

He slowly stood up.

"Is it your fault that the pump is dead?" she asked.

He nodded dumbly.

"Did you strike the guard?"

"He.. .they said___"

"Did you strike him?"

Peta's voice broke. He nodded.

Monel rubbed the wheels of his chair. "He admits it."

"He came here for justice and mercy," Linc said.

"The punishment for violence is to be cast into the outer darkness!" Monel raged. He turned back to the crowd again.

"Everybody knows that. Right?"

Before they could respond, Magda raised her slim arms.

"The punishment for violence," she said in a steel-cold voice, "will be decided by the priestess, and no one else."

"Give me a chance to look at the broken pump," Linc said. "Maybe I can fix it."

"Fix it?" Monel almost laughed. "You mean—make it work again, so that the crops won't die?"

"Yes," Linc said.

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/...3%20-%20End%20of%20Exile%20v0.5%20(1975).htm (9 of 118) [1/31/2004 1:02:46 AM]

Ben Bova - Exiles 03 End of Exile.htm

"Madness! You know it's against Jerlet's law to touch such a machine. And even if you could, how would you fix it? It's

not like a cut finger that can be healed___"

"Or a bruised face that will be normal in a little while?"

Monel's face darkened. "That's something else again. But the farm pump is a machine. Once it's dead, it's dead. It can't be

healed, or fixed."

Turning to Magda, Linc said, "Let me try to fix the pump. Maybe we can save the crops. I've fixed other things before...

wires, some of the electrical machines. Maybe—"

But Magda shook her head. "It's forbidden to touch that kind of machine. You know Jerlet's laws."

"But...."

"It is forbidden."

And she closed her eyes for meditation. Everyone in the crowd did the same. Linc sat down on the floor and shut his eyes.

He tried to squeeze out all thoughts and let his mind float free. But he kept seeing the frozen ghosts at the Ghost Place. He

shuddered. The cold is getting worse; it's coming into the living section. Even some of the crops in the farm tanks are dying

of the cold. Then he remembered the yellow star approaching. Strange that we'll all die in fire.If only we could use that star

to warm us and drive away the cold....

But such thoughts were not helping him to meditate. Linc tried to get his mind free. The world is only a temporary illusion,

he chanted to himself. The world is----

"I have decided," Magda announced.

Everyone looked up at her.

She pointed the wand at Peta. "No one has committed the sin of violence among us since Jerlet left us, back when we were

all children. We must ask Jerlet for judgment, because the punishment for violence is too heavy even for the priestess to

bear alone."

Peta's thin chest was rising and falling in rapid, choking gasps. Magda touched the colored buttons on the desk top where

she sat. The big wall screen behind her glowed to a silvery-shimmery gray.

Jerlet's face filled the screen, huge, dominating the whole assembly, bigger than Linc's own height, mighty and powerful.

He was old, far older than anyone in the Living Wheel. His face was strong and square, with deep creases around the eyes

and mouth. His hair was long and thick, streaked with gray as it curled over his ears and down to his shoulders. His voice

was a thundering command, saying the words of the law just as he always said them:

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/...3%20-%20End%20of%20Exile%20v0.5%20(1975).htm (10 of 118) [1/31/2004 1:02:46 AM]

文档加载中……请稍候！
如果长时间未打开，您也可以点击刷新试试。

下载文档到电脑，查找使用更方便

5.9 玖币 0人已下载

立即下载 VIP免费下载

摘要：

BenBova-Exiles03EndofExile.htmToRegina,withloveandhopeforabettertomorrow.BookOne1Theglasswascold.Lincrubbedatitwiththeheelofhishandandfeltthecoldnessofdea\thsuckingathisskin.Hiswholebodytrembled.ItwaschillhereinthedarknessoutsidetheGhostPlace,butitwasn'tth\ecoldthatmadehimshake.Stillhehadtodecide.Pe...

展开>> 收起<<

Ben Bova - Exiles 3 - End of exile.pdf

共118页,预览24页

还剩页未读，继续阅读

声明：本站为文档C2C交易模式，即用户上传的文档直接被用户下载，本站只是中间服务平台，本站所有文档下载所得的收益归上传人(含作者)所有。玖贝云文库仅提供信息存储空间，仅对用户上传内容的表现方式做保护处理，对上载内容本身不做任何修改或编辑。若文档所含内容侵犯了您的版权或隐私，请立即通知玖贝云文库，我们立即给予删除！

Ben Bova - Exiles 3 - End of exile

相关推荐

开通VIP享超值会员特权

作者详情

相关内容

热门标签

举报选择: