Hyperion 2: The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Author:Dan Simmons [Dan Simmons]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Hardcore Sci-Fi, Epic
Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 2011-01-27T05:00:00+00:00

--Not until' spoke it did I remember it. [Your slow-time body is no more]

--I have died twice since you sent me to my birth. [And have you learned/taken to your spirit/unlearned anything from

this]

Brawne grips Johnny's hand with her right hand, his wrist with her left. She must be gripping too hard, even for their analog states, for he turns with a smile, disengages her left hand from his wrist, and holds the other in his palm.

--J( is hard to die. Harder to live.

[Kwatz!]

With that explosive epithet the megalith before them shifts colors, internal energies building from blues to violets to bold reds, the thing's corona crackling through the yellows to forged steel blue-white. The

"palm" on which they rest quivers, drops five meters, almost tumbles them into space, and quivers again. There comes the rumble of tall buildings collapsing, of mountainsides sliding away into avalanche.

Brawne has the distinct impression that Ummon is laughing.

Johnny communicates loudly over the chaos:

--We need to understand some things. We need answers, Ummon.

Brawne feels the creature's intense "gaze" fall on her.

[Your slow-time body is pregnant^. Would you risk a miscarriage/

nonextension of your DNA/biological malfunction by traveling here] Johnny starts to answer, but she touches his forearm, raises her face

toward the upper levels of the great mass before her, and tries to phrase her own answer:

--I had no choice. The Shrike chose me, touched me, and sent me into the megasphere with Johnny . . . Are you an AJ? A member of the Core?

[Kwatz!]

There is no sense of laughter this time, but thunder rumbles throughout the egg-chamber.

[Are you/ Brawne Lamia/ the layers of self-replicating/ self-deprecating/ self-amusing proteins between the layers of clay]

She has nothing to say and for once says nothing.

[Yes/1 am Ummon of the Core/AT} Your fellow slow-time creature here knows/ remembers/takes unto his heart this^. Time is short%, One of you must die here now% One of you must learn here now^

Ask your questions]

Johnny releases her hand. He stands on that quaking, unstable platform of their interlocutor's palm.

--What is happening to the Web? [It is being destroyed]

--Must that happen? [Yes]

---------------- THE FALL OF HYPERION ----------------

--Is there any way to save humankind?

[Yes} By the process you see]

--By destroying the Web? By the Shrike's terror? [Yes]

--Why was I murdered? Why was my cybrid destroyed, my Core persona attacked?

[When you meet a swordsmanY meet him with a sword'} Do not offer a poem to anyone but a poet]

Brawne stares at Johnny. Without volition, she sends her thoughts his way:

--Jesus, Johnny, we didn't come all this way to listen to a fucking Delphic oracle. We can get double-talk by accessing human politicians via the All Thing.

[Kwatz!]

The universe of their megalith shakes with laughter-spasms again.

--Was I a swordsman then? sends Johnny. Or a poet? [Yes%, There is never one without the other]

--Did they kill me because of what I knew?

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