BinarySystem #2: System by Eric Brown

Author:Eric Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science-Fiction
Publisher: Solaris

Chapter Twelve

A LINE OF pilgrims followed the road winding from the city into the hills. The heat was punishing. Imp informed Delia that the temperature was forty-five and rising. She pulled up the hood of her thermal suit and ordered Imp to cool her down. As they left the last of the buildings in their wake and struck out into the hills, her suit’s refrigeration nexus kicked in. She felt sorry for the furry Fahran at her side, who must be suffering beneath his heavy pelt.

An hour into the trek, she gave in and climbed onto Var’s back, enjoying the elevated view. She looked back at Larahama, the city nestling in a wide valley, the huge ball of the fiery primary high above. She had taken the beauty of the city for granted: familiarity, she thought, breeds not contempt but apathy; six months ago, with only the cities of Earth and the newly constructed cities of the colony worlds as comparison, she would have found the alien magnificence of Larahama, with its ethereal towers and great central dome, breathtaking in its otherness. Now, the city was just one more wonder to add to all the others she had encountered on Valinda.

Despite herself, she wondered if she were becoming reconciled to thinking of the planet as home.

Ahead, the dusty track wound into the foothills, edged by the jungle falling away on one side and by a thick, green, tendrilly growth on the upper slopes. Even as she watched, the tendrils grew, writhing like snakes and transforming into jungle. Fahran workers were stationed in teams every twenty metres along the road, chopping away at the constant growth with sickle-bladed tools.

She looked ahead; the road skirted the side of the mountain for kilometres, a silver line like a geological stratum populated by the tiny figures of the Fahran. She wondered how many thousands of Fahran she would find at journey’s end.

Three hours into the trek, they stopped beneath the spreading shade of a tree and drank from a canteen of water Mahn had brought along. They rested for half an hour, the little Fahran sitting against the bulk of one of Var’s great forelegs.

She had noticed a change in Mahn over the course of the past day: usually talkative, he was more reflective and reserved now. It was as if the enormity of the pilgrimage was at last dawning on him.

“Do you know how close to Chalto we’ll be able to get?” she asked him.

“There will be crowds of many, many thousands, Delia. Even if we were close to the front of the crowd, I have been told that the view is limited. It will be enough to view him at a distance, even if the spectacle is thus reduced.”

Delia nodded. She would be able to assist him, there. She would have Imp record the moment when Chalto arose, then play it back and magnify it for Mahn’s delight.

“Tell me about the Rising,” she said. “Is there some kind of schedule?”

“Chalto will rise at the sunrise after next,” he said.

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