Strings by Dave Duncan

Author:Dave Duncan [Duncan, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure, General
ISBN: 9780759253537
Publisher: ereads.com
Published: 1990-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

14

Tiber/Cainsville, April 8

SOON THEY STOOD on the grass, and all that remained visible of the world that had birthed them was a vast circular darkness overhead, mysteriously balanced on its two ramps, seeming to contain nothing but a few lamps gleaming high on the gantries in the dome. Cedric led the way forward, out from under the shadow of that dark umbrella, until they reached the sunlit grass and could walk beneath the clean blue sky, frilled with new-washed white clouds. Soon the window was invisible, and the ramps seemed to end in midair.

The guards looked around longingly for something to shoot at, but no threat showed on Tiber.

There should have been a fresh smell of crushed grass from the skiv tracks. The bubble suits masked that, and they masked the wind also, diluting it to a mere crackly flopping of their own material. But they could not conceal the warmth of the sun, or the lushness of the hills, or the autumn glory of the woodland in the valley bottom. Far off to the east lay a hazy blue range, snowcapped. Baker announced that there was an ocean westward—the aerials had photographed it already, and didn’t the clouds that way have a maritime look to them?

Cedric did not care. The one lush little valley looked good enough all by itself. Four head to the hectare, easy. He would settle for this—and Alya, of course.

A circle of skivs had settled down as a camp near the edge of the wood; already suited rangers were out, peering at trees. Technicians fussed around the rocket launchers on a grassy hillock a safe distance away. Another group of vehicles was just disappearing over the skyline upstream.

Cedric crouched to poke at a tire scar. The soil was dark and rich, but the grass looked a little strange. The ground was peppered with flowers and feeding butterflies. He found a flower with two red heart-shaped petals and rose to offer it to Alya.

She took it and thanked him with a look that needed no words.

And then he held out his other hand to show its contents, starting with Jathro, who glared and spat out an unintelligible oath.

Cedric was startled and then started to laugh. “No offense meant, sir! I just wanted to show you. It’s animal dung.”

“I can see that!”

“But don’t you see what it means? Not more than two days old, and obviously something big.” Cedric glanced at Devlin and Baker, and they were way ahead of him, of course.

Baker was grinning. “Herbivore. Could be edible, maybe.”

“Well, something’s keeping the grass cropped,” Cedric said, “and on Earth I’d have said these were horse buns.”

“Want to domesticate it, do you?” Baker asked. “As the sun sinks slowly in the north, gallant Sheriff Cedric forks his trusty seven-legged feathered warthog and gallops off in a shower—” He dodged as Cedric threw the specimens at him.

Alya’s face was glowing, but they all felt it—peace and freedom and boundless opportunity. The new world, Eden regained.

Thunder rolled over the meadow, and they turned to watch the first rocket scamper up the sky on a rope of white light.

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