[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.“Are you okay?”“Apart from a sore head,” she smiled, “I’m fine.”Hendry looked around at the passing landscape.They had left the mountains behind them and were coming down the other side.Behind the sledge, the dark peaks reared, cold and hostile, while ahead.It was the sight ahead of the sledge that occupied Carrelli and Olembe.They were pointing out various features and discussing them in lowered tones.With Kaluchek’s help, Hendry managed to shuffle to his knees and peer over the front edge of the sledge.“What do you think?” she asked.He had expected, going by what he had seen so far of the aliens’ civilisation, something rudimentary by way of a township, a primitive collection of stone-built dwellings similar to the village they had seen on the other side of the mountains, though perhaps on a grander scale.Even the fact that the aliens obviously had a manufacturing capability had not prepared him for the sight of the city that sprawled before them in the bowl of the mountains.It was vast, and consisted of great blocks of buildings that reminded him of the architecture of Earth’s nineteenth century.It had evidently been constructed from the centre outwards, built along great boulevards radiating from a hub of grand buildings, which dominated all the others.Between the buildings, the wide streets were silver with ice, along which citizens skated in ones and twos, and draft animals hauled carts not dissimilar to the one in which they were travelling.The sight of the city was impressive enough, but what made it truly a thing of wonder were the airships that sailed above it.Hendry counted fifty of them, all sporting brightly coloured balloons— globular, oblate and cigar-shaped—before giving up.They criss-crossed the grey skies without colliding, a veritable feat considering their number.Some made short hops across the city, putting down on rigs erected on top of buildings, while others ventured out to the foothills.They flew at various levels, at differing speeds, creating a dramatic kaleidoscopic effect when seen from the elevated vantage point of the mountainside, the polychromatic aerial display contrasting with the monochrome drabness of the city beneath.“What’s amazing,” Olembe was saying, “is that we travel five hundred light years through space to find a race which functions on principles similar to those of Earth a couple of hundred years ago.They have wheels, carts, sledges, skates, airships.”Carrelli considered his words, then said, “Perhaps it’s not so unusual.They’re a bilateral, carbon-based, upright species, after all.It would be surprising if during their evolution they had not discovered the things you mentioned.”“You mean,” Kaluchek said, “that things like sledges and skates and everything else, they’re the most efficient devices for the particular environment, so it’s inevitable that they would have been developed?”Carrelli nodded.“No doubt we’ll find many things peculiar to this race, adapted for the type of beings they are, but it isn’t surprising that we have so much in common.”Hendry said, “Is it surprising that the two species we’ve discovered have both been upright and bipedal?”Carrelli shrugged.“That’s hard to say, Joe.The sample is too small to make a judgement.Perhaps we’re an anomaly, and life in the universe will prove to be very different.Or the reverse: perhaps all life in the universe is similar to ourselves.” She paused, then went on, “There is always the possibility that whoever built the helix populated it solely with air-breathing bipeds.”They were silent for a time, considering this possibility.“The more pressing question,” Olembe said, “is what these bastards intend to do with us.”Kaluchek looked across at him.“You sound frightened, Olembe.”“Not frightened, sweetheart, just let’s say concerned.It’s best to consider all possibilities.You pacifists might be right, and the monkeys might turn out to be angels in disguise, but we need a plan of action if they decide to turn nasty.”Carrelli looked at the African for a second or two, before nodding reasonably.“I don’t disagree, in principle.What do you suggest?”Olembe looked surprised.“Well.the advantage we have over them is that we’re bigger.We could take them by surprise and overpower them easily, grab their weapons and take it from there.”“If we do need to act,” Carrelli said, “then we must do so after having agreed the action amongst us, is that agreed? There should be no action without consultation, no lone heroics.If we can do so, we avoid taking life—is that agreed? We haven’t travelled five hundred light years to kill members of only the second race we’ve discovered.” She looked round the group, receiving affirmative nods from everyone including, somewhat reluctantly, Olembe.“Okay,” he said, “but I know in my bones, that these guys have it in for us.”He had the last word, and in the following silence they all gazed ahead at the city.They were approaching the sprawling outskirts now, meaner dwellings and larger buildings that overflowed from the valley bowl and crept up the hillside.The road between the low, granite-grey buildings consisted of churned slush for the last sloping kilometre into the city, but it became a mirror-smooth canal of ice when they reached the valley bottom.The draft animals hauling the sledge seemed at home on the ice and proceeded at a brisk trot.Their passage had attracted the attention of locals: at first one or two passers-by had dawdled to take a look at the curious cargo, but now the word had spread and a posse of thirty or forty padded citizens trailed the sledge, kept back by the dozen mounted mountain-dwellers.Hendry felt uneasy beneath the scrutiny of these strange beings, and wondered if alien crowds had the same propensity for unheeding reaction as had their counterparts on Earth.All it would take was one hothead to incite the crowd to violence against the bizarre off-worlders.They came at last to the sanctuary of a foursquare building within a walled compound, situated on the edge of the city.The sledge passed through great iron gates, which were hauled shut behind them, effectively barring the curious crowd.Hendry’s relief was tempered by the thought of what might lie ahead.The entourage of mountain-dwellers remained guarding the sledge.One of their number dismounted and hurried across a cobbled courtyard to the door of the building.He passed inside, watched by everyone including Hendry and the others, and emerged a minute later trailing perhaps a dozen beings in black uniforms.Kaluchek looked at him, and he wondered if she was thinking the same thought.It was the black uniforms, and not so much the fact that the creatures were armed with primitive rifles, that struck fear into his heart.He wondered if dark uniforms symbolised the brutality of authority on this world, too.The armed aliens, evidently some form of police or militia, surrounded the sledge, and one of their number yipped a high command.Seconds later another dozen militia hurried from the building and took up positions next to their comrades, rifles levelled.It was impossible to tell from their facial expressions how they were reacting to the presence of aliens in their midst, but their body language suggested unease, even fear.They appeared skittish, fidgety.At a movement from Carrelli, easing herself into a more comfortable position, they backed off and raised their weapons nervously.Carrelli said, under her breath, “No heroics, Friday, okay? They have us surrounded, and those weapons might look like antiques, but I don’t want a head full of buckshot.”“Yes, ma’am,” Olembe muttered
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]