Starhammer by Christopher Rowley

Author:Christopher Rowley [Rowley, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science fiction; American
ISBN: 9780712616270
Publisher: Century
Published: 1987-09-03T05:00:00+00:00

—|—

Aboard the Orn last minute checks remained to be made. The crew went about the list with grim faces, convinced they were going to their deaths. The young Elchites sat in the bridge, openly armed to prevent any thought of mutiny. Eblis Bey sat with Jon Iehard in the main cabin, and they drank a dilution of a fiery distillate the Elchite carried in a sleek little flask inside his robes.

The Bey seemed in good spirits; he toasted their mission.

The mote lay on the Bey's thigh, inactive, its tiny eyes retracted. It looked exactly like a glossy green billiard ball.

The Bey caught Jon's expression. "A fascinating little monster, no? Strangely enough, from what I can deduce from my little friend, motes were a kind of pet. They had to be grown, but they remain, in a fundamental way, machines."

Jon recounted his experience with Fabulous Fara and searched in his pockets for a moment before finding the little silvery cube. He brought it out.

The Bey's eyes lit up.

"Marvelous, this is another of their eternity substances. Some of their machines are built of similar materials. High albedo, thin, even transparent, but indestructible! Yet other machines have completely rusted away. We infer their presence in the long-ago from concentrations of iron oxides in the surrounding rocks."

He turned the cube over in his hands, "The saddest thing, perhaps, is that most likely we will never find out what this is or what it is made of. From Rhap Dimple's descriptions of the ancient sciences, the flowering of the arts employed biological principles and techniques to crystals and even machines. Things were constantly being grown. How, or why, or even what was grown we have much less conception of."

He was about to hand the cube back when Rhap Dimple became active with a squawk.

"Trace! Yes! Unit to report!"

"What is the matter?" the Bey asked. The mote hovered over the cube and a blue spark passed between them.

"Hey, that's my cube!" Jon said, reaching for it. But when he took it, it was hot and, it seemed, slightly smaller than before. "What happened?"

In response, he felt something strange impinge slightly on his consciousness, a shiver, a wind, a premonition.

"Traced! It is you!" The mote hovered in front of him.

"Me?"

"Where were you traced?" squawked the mote.

"I'm afraid I don't understand. What do you mean, Rhap Dimple?"

"You carry tracer! Made recently, strong signal! Where were you traced? Where is the ancient master! Yes! Only they can trace!"

Jon looked to Eblis Bey. "Do you know what it's talking about?"

"I would hazard a guess. The so-called template must produce a solidified mental trace of living organisms. Your cube is such a trace. The mote can sense it somehow."

"It was warm when I took it back from you. Fara said that all the bubbles were inert."

"But yours was the first cube. Perhaps the others all lacked something in their creation."

As Jon tried to explain how he'd come to receive the cube, the mote hovered.

"I'm sorry, Rhap Dimple," Eblis Bey said. "There are no ancient masters left.

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