Anderson, Poul - No World Of Their Own (Long Way Home) by Anderson Poul

Author:Anderson, Poul
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE rain stopped near sunset, but there were still clouds and blackness overlay the city. Langley and Marin ate a lonely supper in their apartment. With the sedative worn off, the man had to focus his mind onimpersonalities , he dared not think of her as a fully human being yet. He flung questions at her, and she answered. What he learned tended to confirm Valti’s account of the Society: it really was a nomad culture, patriarchal and polygamous, owning warships but behaving peacefully; its rulers really were unknown, its early history obscure. She gave a less favorable account of Centaurian culture and intentions than Brannoch’s, but, of course, that was only to be expected.

‘Two interstellar imperialisms, moving on a collision course, ‘ saidLangley . ‘Thor really does seem better to me than Earth, but- Maybe I’m prejudiced. ‘

‘You can’t help it, ‘ said Marin seriously. ‘Thorian society has an archaic basis, it’s closer to what you knew in your period than modern Earth. Still, it’s hard to imagine them making much progress, if they should win out. They’ve been frozen too, nothing really new happening, for a good five hundred years now. ‘

‘What price progress?’ shruggedLangley . ‘I’ve gotten pessimistic about change for the sake of change; a petrified civilization may be the only final answer for man, provided it’s reasonably humane. I don’t see much to choose between either of the great powers today. ‘

Unquestionably, the conversation was being recorded, but he no longer gave a damn.

‘It would be nice to find a littlemousehole and crawl into it and forget all this fighting, ‘ said Marin wistfully.

‘That’s what ninety-nine per cent of the human race has always wanted to do, I think, ‘ saidLangley .

‘The fact that they try to bring on their own punishment for being lazy and cowardly - rulers who flog them into action. There will never be peace and freedom till every individual man out of a majority, at least, is prepared to think for himself and act accordingly; and I’m becoming afraid that day will never come. ‘

‘They say there are thousands of lost colonies, ‘ answered Marin softly, with a dream in her eyes.

‘Thousands of little groups who went off to find their own particular kind of Utopia. Surely one of them, somewhere, has become something different. ‘

‘Perhaps. But we’re here, not there. ‘Langley got up. ‘Let’s turn in. Good night, Marin. ‘

‘Good night, ‘ she said. Her smile was shy, as if she were still unsure how he looked at her.

Alone in his room,Langley donned pajamas, crawled into bed, and got out a cigarette. It was time for him to decide. Chanthavar had given him a couple of days; he couldn’t bluff any longer, because he was reasonably sure he did have the answer about Saris. There’d be no use in undergoing the personality-wrecking degradation of a mental probe.

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More and more, it seemed that the only logical action was to tellChantavar . From the

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