[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Titan, the whole surface of the moon must have convulsed. No wonder the cities were lost..."
She imagined the ice-ground cracking, becoming briefly liquid once more, swallowing communities
whole; there must have been mile-high tidal waves in the low gravity methane seas, overwhelming the
food ships in moments.
Spinner was silent for a while. Then, "You're saying this was done deliberately?"
Louise smiled. Superet, reconstructing the future from the glimpses left by Michael Poole's encounter
with the Qax, had come across the concept of astarbreaker: a planet-smashing weapon wielded by the
Xeelee a weapon based on focused gravity waves. Superet had even had evidence that a starbreaker
of limited power had been deployed inside the Solar System itself: by the Qax invaders from the future,
during their failed onslaught on the craft of the Friends of Wigner.
She said to Spinner, "You ought to be getting used to this by now. We know the Xeelee had weaponry
sufficient to destroy worlds. For some reason they spared Titan. Instead they wiped it clean.Just as
they did Callisto."
Louise took the pod down to one of the largest individual islands, close to the rough rim of the Kuiper
Sea. There was a soft crunch when she landed, as the pod crushed the friable-ice surface.
A small airlock blistered out of the side of the pod's hull, and Louise climbed through it.
Instantly she was enclosed by a shell of darkness. In the murk of photochemical smog, her suit lights
penetrated barely a few feet. Looking down she could only just make out the surface. Under a layer of
thick frost, which creaked as it compressed under her boots, the ground was firm, flat. She lifted herself
on her toes, trying her weight; she felt light, springy, under Titan's thirteen percent gee. There was a soft
wind which pushed at her chest.
Snow, drifting down from the huge atmosphere, began to lace across her faceplate; it was white and
stringy, and when she tried to wipe it off with her glove it left clinging remnants. It was a snow of
complex organic polymers, drifting down from the hundred-mile-thick chemical soup above her head.
"Louise? Can you still hear me?"
"I hear you, Spinner."
She took a few steps forward, away from the gleaming pod; soon, its lights were almost lost in the
polymer sleet.
"You know, we terraformed Titan," Louise told Spinner. "There were ships to extract food and air from
the seas. You could walk about on the surface in nothing more than a heated suit. We got the atmosphere
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
clear, Spinner-of-Rope. You could see Saturn, and the rings. And the Sun. You knew you weren't alone
down here that you were part of the System..."
Now, the terraforming had collapsed. Titan had reverted. It was as if humans had never walked Titan's
surface.
"There used to be a city here, Spinner.Port Cassini. Huge, glittering caverns in the ice; igloos on the
surface... A hundred thousand people, at least.
"Mark was born here. Did you know that?" She looked around, dimly. "And as far as I can remember
this was the site of his parents' home..."
She tried to imagine how it must have been to stand here as the final defense around Titan fell, and the
Xeelee onslaught began.The starbreaker beams cherry-red, geometrical abstractions burned
down, through the hydrocarbon smog, from the invisible nightfighters far above the surface.
Methane seas flash-evaporated in moments and the ancient water-ice of the mantle flowed liquid
for the first time in billions of years...
"Louise? Are you ready to go home, now?"
"Home?" Louise raised her face to the hidden sky and allowed the primeval, polymeric snow to build up
over her faceplate; for a moment, tears, ancient and salty, blinded her. "Yes. Let's go home,
Spinner-of-Rope."
"Helium flash,"Mark said.
Uvarov had been dozing; his dreams, as usual, were filled with birds: ugly carrion-eaters, with immense
black wings, diving into a yellow Sun. When Mark spoke the dreams imploded, leaving him blind and
trapped in his chair once more. He felt a thin, cold sensation in his right arm: another input of
concentrated foodstuffs, provided by his chair.
Yum,he thought.Breakfast.
"Mark," he whispered.
"Are you all right?"
"All the better for your cheery questioning, you construct."He spoke with a huge effort, fighting off his
all-encompassing tiredness. "If you're so concerned about my health, plug yourself into my chair's
diagnostics and find out for yourself.Now. Tell me again what you said. And what in Lethe it means..."
"Helium flash," Mark repeated.
Uvarov felt old and stupid; he tried to assemble his scattered thoughts.
"We've heard from Lieserl. Uvarov, the birds are continuing to accelerate the evolution of the Sun."
Mark hesitated; his intonation had gone flat, a sign to Uvarov of his distraction. "I've put together Lieserl's
observations with a little extrapolation of my own. I think we can tell what's going to come next...
Uvarov, I wish I could show you. In pictures a Virtual simulation it would be easy." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl aikidobyd.xlx.pl
Titan, the whole surface of the moon must have convulsed. No wonder the cities were lost..."
She imagined the ice-ground cracking, becoming briefly liquid once more, swallowing communities
whole; there must have been mile-high tidal waves in the low gravity methane seas, overwhelming the
food ships in moments.
Spinner was silent for a while. Then, "You're saying this was done deliberately?"
Louise smiled. Superet, reconstructing the future from the glimpses left by Michael Poole's encounter
with the Qax, had come across the concept of astarbreaker: a planet-smashing weapon wielded by the
Xeelee a weapon based on focused gravity waves. Superet had even had evidence that a starbreaker
of limited power had been deployed inside the Solar System itself: by the Qax invaders from the future,
during their failed onslaught on the craft of the Friends of Wigner.
She said to Spinner, "You ought to be getting used to this by now. We know the Xeelee had weaponry
sufficient to destroy worlds. For some reason they spared Titan. Instead they wiped it clean.Just as
they did Callisto."
Louise took the pod down to one of the largest individual islands, close to the rough rim of the Kuiper
Sea. There was a soft crunch when she landed, as the pod crushed the friable-ice surface.
A small airlock blistered out of the side of the pod's hull, and Louise climbed through it.
Instantly she was enclosed by a shell of darkness. In the murk of photochemical smog, her suit lights
penetrated barely a few feet. Looking down she could only just make out the surface. Under a layer of
thick frost, which creaked as it compressed under her boots, the ground was firm, flat. She lifted herself
on her toes, trying her weight; she felt light, springy, under Titan's thirteen percent gee. There was a soft
wind which pushed at her chest.
Snow, drifting down from the huge atmosphere, began to lace across her faceplate; it was white and
stringy, and when she tried to wipe it off with her glove it left clinging remnants. It was a snow of
complex organic polymers, drifting down from the hundred-mile-thick chemical soup above her head.
"Louise? Can you still hear me?"
"I hear you, Spinner."
She took a few steps forward, away from the gleaming pod; soon, its lights were almost lost in the
polymer sleet.
"You know, we terraformed Titan," Louise told Spinner. "There were ships to extract food and air from
the seas. You could walk about on the surface in nothing more than a heated suit. We got the atmosphere
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
clear, Spinner-of-Rope. You could see Saturn, and the rings. And the Sun. You knew you weren't alone
down here that you were part of the System..."
Now, the terraforming had collapsed. Titan had reverted. It was as if humans had never walked Titan's
surface.
"There used to be a city here, Spinner.Port Cassini. Huge, glittering caverns in the ice; igloos on the
surface... A hundred thousand people, at least.
"Mark was born here. Did you know that?" She looked around, dimly. "And as far as I can remember
this was the site of his parents' home..."
She tried to imagine how it must have been to stand here as the final defense around Titan fell, and the
Xeelee onslaught began.The starbreaker beams cherry-red, geometrical abstractions burned
down, through the hydrocarbon smog, from the invisible nightfighters far above the surface.
Methane seas flash-evaporated in moments and the ancient water-ice of the mantle flowed liquid
for the first time in billions of years...
"Louise? Are you ready to go home, now?"
"Home?" Louise raised her face to the hidden sky and allowed the primeval, polymeric snow to build up
over her faceplate; for a moment, tears, ancient and salty, blinded her. "Yes. Let's go home,
Spinner-of-Rope."
"Helium flash,"Mark said.
Uvarov had been dozing; his dreams, as usual, were filled with birds: ugly carrion-eaters, with immense
black wings, diving into a yellow Sun. When Mark spoke the dreams imploded, leaving him blind and
trapped in his chair once more. He felt a thin, cold sensation in his right arm: another input of
concentrated foodstuffs, provided by his chair.
Yum,he thought.Breakfast.
"Mark," he whispered.
"Are you all right?"
"All the better for your cheery questioning, you construct."He spoke with a huge effort, fighting off his
all-encompassing tiredness. "If you're so concerned about my health, plug yourself into my chair's
diagnostics and find out for yourself.Now. Tell me again what you said. And what in Lethe it means..."
"Helium flash," Mark repeated.
Uvarov felt old and stupid; he tried to assemble his scattered thoughts.
"We've heard from Lieserl. Uvarov, the birds are continuing to accelerate the evolution of the Sun."
Mark hesitated; his intonation had gone flat, a sign to Uvarov of his distraction. "I've put together Lieserl's
observations with a little extrapolation of my own. I think we can tell what's going to come next...
Uvarov, I wish I could show you. In pictures a Virtual simulation it would be easy." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]