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and controlled the Earth's wealth completely. A consortium could have been
formed easily enough, was formed, for the returns would be rich and continue
forever.
The forced settlers of Halvm6rk were migrant farmers with a vengeance. For
four years did they labor, raising and storing their crop against the day when
the ships came. It was the long awaited, highly exciting, most important event
in the cycle of
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logy%20(UC).txt their existence. The work ended when the ships signaled their
arrival. The standing corn was left in the field and the party began, for the
ships also brought everything that made life possible on this basically
inhospitable world. Fresh seed when needed, for the mutated strains were
unstable and the farmers were not agricultural scientists who could control
this. Clothing and machine parts, new radioactive slugs for the atomic
engines, all the thousand and one parts and
-supplies that maintained a machine-based culture on a nonmanufactu ring
planet. The ships stayed just long enough to offload the supplies and fill
their holds with the grain. Then they left and the party ended. All the
marriages were consummated, for this was the only time when marriage was
allowed, all the celebrations finished, all the liquor drunk.
Then the trip began.
They moved like gypsies. The only permanent structures were the machine
storage buildings and the thick-walled grain silos. When the partitions had
been taken down and the tall doors levered open, the trucks and copters, the
massive harvesters, planters and other farm machinery were wheeled inside.
With their vitals cocooned and their machinery sealed in silicon grease, they
would wait out the heat of the
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Harrison, Harry - To the Stars Trilogy.txt summer until the farmers returned
the following fall.
Everything else went. The assembly hall and the other pressurized dome
structures were deflated and packed away. When the jacks were retracted, all
the other narrow, long buildings settled onto the springs and wheels beneath
them. The women had been canning and storing food for months, the slaughter of
the sheep and cows haef filled the freezers with meat. Only a few chicks, ewe
lambs and cow calves would be taken;
fresh herds and flocks would be raised from the sperm bank.
When everything was in place the farm tractors and trucks would haul the units
into position to form the long trains, before being mothballed and sealed into
the permanent buildings and silos themselves. The engines, the main drive
units, would be unjacked after four years of acting as power plants, and would
rumble into place at the head of each train. With the couplings and cables
connect ed, the train would come to life. All the windows would be sealed and
the air conditioning switched on.
It would not be turned off again until they had reached the twilight zone of
the southern hemisphere, and the temperatures were bearable again. The
thermometer could easily top 200 degrees when they crossed the equator. Though
the night temperatures sometimes fell as low as 130 degrees this could not be
counted upon. Halvm6rk rotates in eighteen hours, and the nights are too short
for any real temperature drop.
"Jan Kulozik, there is a question for you. Your attention here, Kulozik, that
is an order!" Chun Taekeng's voice was beginning to crack a bit after a good
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
evening of shouting.
Jan turned from the map and faced them. There were a lot of questions but he
ignored them all until the noise died down.
"Listen to me," Jan said. "I have worked out in detail what must be done, and
I will give you the figures. But before I do you must decide. Do we take the
corn or not, it is just that simple. We must leave, you cannot argue about
that. And before you decide about the corn, remember two things. If and when
the ships come they will need that corn because people will be starving.
Thousands, perhaps millions, will die if they do not get it. If we do not have
that corn waiting, their lives will be on our heads.
"If the ships do not come, why then we will die too. Our supplies are low,
broken parts cannot be replaced, two of the engines already have lowered
output and will need refueling after thi~ trip. We can live for a few years,
but we are eventually doomed. Think' about that, then decide.
"Mr. Chairman, I ask for a vote."
When The Hra4il rose and signaled for attention, Jan knew that it would be a
long, dragged-out battle. This old woman, leader of the Mahrova Family,
represented the strength of reaction, the force against change. She was
shrewd, but she had the mind of a peasant. What was old was good, what was new
was evil. All change worsened things, life must be immutable. She was listened
to with respect by the other leaders, because she voiced best all their
unreasoned and repetitious
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logy%20(UC).txt rationalizations. They settled down when she stood, ready for
the calming balm of stupidity, the repeating as law of age-old, narrowminded
opinion.
"I have listened to what this young man has said. I value his opinion even
though he is not a leader, or even a member of one of our families." Well
done, Jan thought.
Take away all my credentials with your opening words, sound preparation to
destroy the arguments.
"Despite this," she continued, "we must listen to his ideas and weigh them on
their own merit. What he has said is right. It is the only way. We must take
the corn. It is our ancient trust, the reason for our existence. I ask for a
vote by acclamation so no one can complain later if things do not go right. I
call upon you all to agree to leave at once, and to take the corn. Anyone who
does not agree will now stand."
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It would have taken a far stronger individual than any of those present to
rise to his feet before that cold eye. And they were confused. First with a
new idea, something they thought very little of at any time, much less at a
time when the decision was one upon which their lives might depend. Then to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]