Gates of the Universe by Robert Coulson & Gene DeWeese

Author:Robert Coulson & Gene DeWeese [Coulson, Robert & DeWeese, Gene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0373720041
Publisher: Laser Books (Harlequin Enterprises)
Published: 1975-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Kari grinned at him. “I was always considered strong,” she said. “The young men in my village were afraid of me. Especially after I killed one for trying to make love to me.”

“Yeah, that would be sort of discouraging,” Ross admitted. “You have rules about lovemaking on your world, then?”

“No. Why should we have rules? It’s a natural thing for men and women to do. But this time my head hurt, and I didn’t feel like it, and he insisted.”

“So you killed him for it?”

“I hit him harder than I intended to,” she explained. “With a rock. Anyway, nobody from my village was much loss. The nomads were better, but I didn’t really like them much, either. The people here aren’t any better than the ones on Leean, but I guess,” she added thoughtfully, “that you and Orl are all right. I never knew any magicians before; we didn’t have many on Leean.”

Leean, Ross decided, must be a squalid little planet. He was about to ask more about it when a rumble from Orl diverted his attention. The saurian was sitting up, holding his head in his hands and obviously feeling terrible. Ross grinned sympathetically; he well knew that feeling.

“You seem to be improving, anyway,” he remarked. “Kari said you’d be all right, but I was a bit worried. Among other things, we need you.”

Orl muttered something unintelligible.

“How come you were by yourself, anyway?” Ross asked, struck by something that had been subconsciously bothering him. “On Solthree, or Earth”—he used the English “Earth” in place of the Venntran one—we almost never send one lone scientist out to solve a problem. We use teams.”

Still holding his head, Orl replied, “We are also generally organized into teams on Elsprag. But this was considered a very dangerous operation; we could not afford to risk a great amount of manpower, or any scientists at all. We need our scientists to solve problems at home.”

Ross was momentarily stunned. “But,” he said, “I thought you were a scientist.”

Orl waved a hand in the air, and after a moment Ross realized that he was asking to be helped to his feet. With Kari helping, they got the saurian upright, and he shuffled in a small circle on the grass, stumbling now and then.

“No,” he said. “I am not a scientist at all, though I have had enough training to be able to recognize the machinery and the aura of the old Venntrans. Basically, I am a seeker and a communicator.”

Ross got nothing out of the word “aura”; it seemed to have something to do with mental emanations, but a mental emanation which might be left behind in a deserted city, like a broken tool. “Seeker” seemed to cover pretty much what the English word “explorer” did, in its widest application, such as exploring new fields of knowledge. It also had a concept of thinking strange and unreal thoughts. Orl, then, was more imaginative than most of his race, which was a startling idea. But it was the last word that brought Ross up with a jolt.

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