The Saliva Tree: And Other Strange Growths by Aldiss Brian W

Author:Aldiss, Brian W [Aldiss, Brian W]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781504010313
Publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Published: 2015-05-18T16:00:00+00:00

The Source

Only two of the detachment of Seekers left the human settlement and set off across the desert in the direction they had been advised to take. They were the leader of the whole expedition, Kervis XI, and his year-wife, Ysis, who sat beside him in the front of the crawler.

In the sand about them lay memorials of old time. Occasionally they passed a cultivated patch of ground, where men and women stood silent in ragged grandeur to watch them go by, framed perhaps in the entrance of a glass-less block of flats or an old railway station.

Kervis said, ‘I don’t understand it. I only hope this place Ani-mykey will offer a clue to where we can find mankind’s greatest achievement, as the settlement promised it would.’

Ysis regarded the sessions in the settlement as great nonsense. She said quietly, ‘You have made a mistake, Kervis, haven’t you?’

He did not reply. His flow of thought had become confused over the last months as they spiralled through the unending light years towards Earth, and the confusion had increased since they landed. He had been a hard and crystal-clear man. As he grew woollier, Ysis became more indifferent to him and the crew of the Seeker ship more restless. Unhappy though he was, he welcomed the confusion in a curious way.

‘This is Earth, the Earth,’ he said.

‘It’s primitive, more primitive than I could have imagined.’

‘That’s right,’ he said eagerly. ‘It is, isn’t it?’

‘You can see it is,’ she said contemptuously. ‘It’s a disgusting planet. You can’t tell me this is what we are looking for.’

‘I don’t find it disgusting,’ he said quietly.

‘Stop being so simple, Kervis. From Andromeda to here, we have travelled through stupendous civilizations far more glorious than anything in our own remote galaxy. So wonderful is it, it seems as if science can have no end and man’s achievements no limit. Yet we never found what we were searching for—’

‘We were looking in the wrong place.’

‘No, no, it was there on Playder, on Doruchak, Millibine, on any one of a million planets encrusted with the tall towers of man’s faith. But you did not stay to look. So you are a—well, I won’t say you are a failure, because I believe a man to be a failure only when he pronounces himself one, but you have failed in your main Life Objective: to lead us instinctively to the peak of man’s greatness.’

He said gently, ‘Ysis, you speak above yourself. Do not forget I was trained on Ravensour itself for a hundred years to be a Seeker, and the instilled instinct of which you speak is still with me and my Life Objective is still untarnished. Accordingly, I have led the Seekers to Earth, which may have been the cradle of mankind, and you must hold your tongue.’

‘The cradle of mankind! Who needs to go back to the cradle?’

Kervis made no answer. He was tired, divided against himself. He acknowledged much of what Ysis said; yet there seemed nothing to do but press on with his investigation.

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