Glory's War by Alfred Coppel

Author:Alfred Coppel [Coppel, Alfred]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

BOOK TWO

14. Approach

Bleeding off excess delta-V, Glory passed over Twin Alpha at 660,000 kilometers. From this distance the Planetary Ocean was a beautiful pattern of ever-changing swirls in shades of blue from cobalt to turquoise. White clouds outlined a vast weather system sweeping northeastward out of the fastness of the southern ocean toward the narrow island-continent of Ararat.

Duncan, with the conn, lay in his pod, Wired to the ship. Beside him slept Mira, her paws and legs twitching in some dream-chase through green jungles she had never seen. Since Duncan’s adventure overboard, the cat had not moved far from his side. She guarded him the way a senior lioness might watch the pride’s lead male.

At this moment Glory was presenting Duncan with a magnificent view--experience, really---of the planet below. It seemed to Duncan that he flew, naked to the wind and sun, many thousands of meters above the alien sea. Directly below him, he could make out a sandy bottom dotted with forests of waving, thick-fronded kelp. Brilliant blue-green flowers attached millions of schooling creatures like tiny fish in silver armor.

The Starman wondered if any of the colonists inhabiting Nineveh had ever actually seen what he was seeing now. It was possible that they had not. Ararat lay on the distant horizon--five thousand kilometers away. With an ocean so vast and unbroken, there was little incentive for much oceanic exploration by the colonists. In time, there would be, of course. The Ninevites had the means: boats and helicopters. But for the incessant warfare between the Twins, the sea of Nineveh might have been colonized by now.

There was nothing to prevent it, Duncan thought, and it was a thing that badly needed doing. But to judge from the broadcast fragments from both Alpha and Beta, the war--the “Recurrence”--took precedence. Always and forever, thought Duncan bitterly. What would the quarrelsome colonists think when he told them of the Others, those beings without time, without distance, shape or mass, but nevertheless there, waiting. Or waiting no longer? Perhaps they had wearied of waiting while man explored a space they considered theirs.

I am a Starman, Duncan thought. Not a diplomat. Not a soldier. More the point, not a god. I can only tell them what I believe is out there.

In dreams Mira tracked his thought and snarled softly. You know, little queen, Duncan thought. You know but you cannot tell me. We lack the words in common. Why have we waited so long to learn the languages of the creatures with whom we shared the Earth? Duncan wondered. Have we waited too long?

“Be patient, Duncan. We are slow learners. “

Anya Amaya’s thought, tinged with the essence of Glory, came clearly through the drogue. Duncan smiled. His image of her bypassed his eyes, which stared sightlessly at the bridge overhead. His point of view shifted from the set of imaging cameras in the rig to the one in the chartroom, where the Sailing Master was physically inspecting a replica of an old chart from the

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