The Slaves of Heaven (1974) by Edmund Cooper

Author:Edmund Cooper [Cooper, Edmund]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Berkley Medallion
Published: 1975-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

17

AFTER their night together—which, Berry supposed, might well be the last he spent in the arms of an Earth woman—he saw Tala only at meal times in the refectory. Bors Zangwin did not approve of this because he felt it might disturb Berry’s concentration. But Berry demanded to see Tala regularly as a guarantee of good faith, so that he could be sure she was not being ill-treated in any way. He asked if he could see Vron also, but the Programer explained that this was beyond his power.

Vron had been assigned to a risto called the Lady Somavalt and would remain a child-bearing proxy until she had carried the statutory three. The Programer did not tell Berry that an Earth child—Berry’s child—had been removed from her womb so that it could be prepared for the reception of one of the Lady Somavalt’s fertilized ova. Nor did he mention that Vron was in shock and under sedation. These matters would definitely have disturbed Berry’s concentration.

On the first morning, under hypnosis, Berry absorbed a programed crash-course in modern terrestrial history. It began with the brush wars of the late twentieth century, passed on to the population crisis of the early twenty-first century, then to the period during which the reserves of fossil fuels became exhausted, to the crumbling of technologically advanced cultures and to the inevitable nuclear conflict. He learned how and why the great civilizations had perished, leaving behind a comparatively few hardy survivors who eventually established the culture of the clans.

Tala was surprised when, at lunch, Berry, none the worse for his hypno-learning, tried to explain to her why the hot spots existed on Earth and how the once great power blocs, having become politically unstable because of their starving populations, were driven to mutual destruction. Bors Zangwin listened to the account with some satisfaction. Berry had been programed only with facts. But here he was evaluating those facts, interpreting their significance, judging personalities long dead, forming opinions on events long past. Truly, his Q ratings had been conservatively estimated by the psycomputer.

In the afternoon he was again medically and psychologically tested. The results showed that his health remained good, that his performance quotient and talent quotient remained stable but, indeed, his intelligence quotient strangely had increased seven points. During the late afternoon he was given first the basic maths program then the advanced.

At the evening meal he confused Tala greatly when he tried to explain the significance of Operator J—the square root of minus one.

During the night, sleepteach gave him general games theory, the principles of chess, and the habits, customs and laws of the culture that had developed in Heaven Seven.

At breakfast—taken as all meals were, at the high table —Berry remarked to Bors Zangwin that chess was a fascinating game, not unlike the game of chief stone, played by some of the old men of the clans.

“Would you like to play me at chess, Berry?”

Berry smiled. “It would be an interesting contest, chief.” “Then I will send for pieces and a board.

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