Kuldesak by Richard Cowper

Author:Richard Cowper [Cowper, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy
Publisher: Doubleday & Company
Published: 1972-08-09T23:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

Mel was released from custody at curfewsend next morning. The cure Jo had smuggled into the cell had done its work well but it would still be some days before the last of the pseudo tissue peeled away and, until it did, the scars were there for all to see. But the wounds the Factor’s lash had inflicted on Mel’s soul were beyond the reach of any such remedy. Without being able to express it in those precise terms, he was aware that he had at last encountered genuine evil—that which inflicts pain and degradation on human beings in the name of an abstract social justice. He now understood why the Challenge was a vital part of the Manhood Ritual and why it must never be abandoned.

He tried to explain something of what he felt to Jo while he lay prone in his sleepcell and she doctored his wounds. “It’s not just the Handlers and the Factors,” he said, “they’re simply carrying out their orders, and it’s not even the Plants —that Magister really tried to do his best for me, I know he did. It’s the whole shugging system that’s rotten. And we’re trapped in it. Not just us Roamers—everyone!—every thing! Why? What’s it all for?”

“It’s Godswill, Mel.”

“‘Godswill!’ Don’t you give me that shug! Who is this ‘god’? Who’s seen him?”

“Shush!”

For a while Mel lay silent, then he said: “When I was out there last night and that voice spoke to me I really was scared to death but it wasn’t the same kind of fear I felt when I heard that Godhole say: ’The accused having been found guilty is sentenced to plenary chastisement within the statutory limitation ’ I didn’t even know what it meant! And when they hung me up and shoved that pipe inside me and the Handler said: ‘Areas four, five, six and seven, two strokes only’ I wanted to scream out at them—’This is me—Mel! I’m a man! You can’t do this to a man!’ But I couldn’t. I knew that they didn’t know what a man was! To them I was just a thing, an object, something which had been sentenced to ‘plenary chastisement.’ I wasn’t me at all. Not to them. At the best I was just another Roamer who had broken the Law. I could have been you, or Father, or Bitos, or even Frankie— it wouldn’t have made a chip’s difference.”

Jo concluded her ministrations and put the container of cure away. She sensed the change in her brother and her relief at having him back was tempered with anxiety. “Promise me you won’t go and do anything stupid, Mel. They’re bound to have you watched for at least a year.”

Mel grunted. “Well, what about it?”

“Promise me you’ll stay in the Levels now, Mel. Please! Don’t try to get Outside again.”

Mel closed his eyes and said nothing.

“Mel, they’ll kill you!”

“If they don’t catch me they won’t.”

“But what good will it do? No one can live out there. It’s just—just a place.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.