Endless Universe - Marion Zimmer Bradley, ebook, CALIBRE SFF 1970s, Temp 1
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\vTITLE="Endless Universe"AUTHOR="Marion Zimmer Bradley"PUBLISHER=""EISBN=""COPYRIGHT=""\v\a151Baby Stealers \a151Monsters \a151Perverts\a151ImmortalsThose are some of the names the planet-siders have for them. They call themselvesTHE EXPLORERSAnd the contempt of the earth-grubbersmeans nothing to them, compared to thelure of the stars. Because they are the lastpioneers, the frontiersmen of space. For theExplorers, a metal ship is their one truehome, its crew their only family, their lives aconstant adventure in anENDLESSUNIVERSEAce Science Fiction Books by Marion Zimmer BradleyTHE BRASS DRAGONDOOR THROUGH SPACEENDLESS UNIVERSESEVEN FROM THE STARSSURVEY SHIPDarkover seriesSTAR OF DANGER THEWINDS OF DARKOVERTHE BLOODY SUNTHE PLANET SAVERS/THE SWORD OF ALDONES/DARKOVER RETROSPECTIVETHE WORLD WRECKERSendlessuniverseMARIONZIMMERBRADLEYACE SCIENCE FICTION BOOKSNEW YORKA shorter version of this novel was originallypublished as ENDLESS VOYAGE.ENDLESS UNIVERSEAn Ace Science Fiction Book / published by arrangement withthe authorPRINTING HISTORYAce edition / May 1975Fifth printing / April 1983All rights reserved. Copyright \a1691975, 1979 by Marion Zimmer BradleyCover art by Attila HejjaThis book may not be reproduced in wholeor in part, by mimeograph or any other means,without permission. For information address: Ace Science Fiction Books,200 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016ISBN: 0-441-20668-9Ace Science Fiction Books are published by Charter Communications, Inc.,'200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016.PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" 'Tis not too late to seek a better world."TennysonCONTENTSI. PLANETS ARE FOR SAYING 1GOODBYEII. A TIME TO MOURN 49III. HELLWORLD 129IV. COLD DEATH 229V. A WORLD WITH YOUR NAMEON IT 295Part One PLANETS AREFOR SAYING GOODBYEIPlanets are for saying goodbye.That's an old saying in the Explorers. I neverbelieved it before. It never really hit me.Never again. You never really realize whatnever means. It's a word you use all the time but itmeans ... it means never. NEVER. Not in all themillions of billions of trillions of . . .Get hold of yourself, dammit.'Everything on this planet had changed, but notthe pattern of the Explorer Ship: it was lightednow from inside, and outlined in silver; a chainedTitan, shadowed against the dark mass of themountain that rose behind the new city.The city was still raw, a mass of beams and scars12in the wounded red clay of the planet's surface.Gildoran had first seen the great ship outlinedagainst the mountain two years ago, planetsidetime\a151before the city had risen there, before any-thing had risen there\a151and every day since, butnow it felt as if he hadn't ever seen it before. Therewere strange sharp edges on everything, as if theair had dissolved and he saw them hard-edged inspace.Never again, I was a fool to think anythingcould be different.How could Janni have done this to me?I thought she was different. Every fool kidthinks that about the first woman he cares about.Gildoran passed through the gates. They werestill guarded, but that was only a formality. Onevery planet Gildoran had known\a151he could re-member four in twenty-two years of biologicaltime\a151the earthworms kept away from Explorerships.I took Janni. I thought she'd have to feel the wayI did. Wonder, and awe. But she was bored. Ishould have known then, but instead I was flat-tered, I thought it was just that she'd rather bealone with me. Maybe she would. Then.That seems a long time ago now.The guard didn't bother checking the offeredident disk. It was a formality anyhow. Gildoran'sidentity was on his face, like all Explorers. Heknew what was whispered about them, butlifelong training made it beneath Gildoran's dig-nity to notice it or seem to remember it.3But I remember. Keep away, they say. Keepaway from the Explorers. Keep your childrenaway. They'll steal your children, steal yourwomen.I wouldn't have stolen Janni. But I might havestayed with her.He walked with the arrogant pride of all theExplorers, conscious, and proud, of the differ-ences that set him off\a151set him off cruelly, aplanetman might have said\a151from the rest of theswarming humanity around the city, the crewsworking to load the ships. He stood seven feetseven, although he was tall even for an Explorer,due to a childhood and youth spent at mini-mal gravity. The white\a151paper-white\a151skin andbleached white hair were colorless from years ofhard radiation. He knew there were other dif-ferences, bone-deep, marrow-deep, cell-deep.Gene-deep. He never thought about them. But hehad known from childhood that no one else everforgot them.Janni hadn't forgotten them.Not for a moment.The crews around the ship parted to let himthrough, edging faintly back as he passed. But thiswas at the edge of his consciousness. He wouldhave noticed it only if they hadn't.Had she only wanted an exotic? Was it only hisstrangeness that had attracted her? Not romance,but a perverse desire for the bizarre, the alien, thefreakish?Did women like Janni boast of an Explorer4lover, as they might boast the romantic conquestof a gladiator from Vega 16?Feeling faintly sick, Gildoran moved towardthe refuge of the ship.It's beautiful, more beautiful than anything elsethey'll ever build here. But it doesn't belong, andneither do I, and now I know it.Behind him the new city was swarming withlife, multiplex human, parahuman and nonhu-man life, the life of a Galaxy which had achievedthe Transmitter and was no longer limited any-where by space or time. Life showed all sizes,shapes, colors, and integuments. Isolation anddifferences had vanished. All through history,from the first stirrings of consciousness in manand nonman, transportation\a151of people, of goodsand services and ideas\a151had been the onebottleneck jamming mankind to an even rate ofgrowth. But with the advent of the Transmitter,consciousness in the Galaxy had outstripped thatlimitation, and now there were no such limita-tions.Or only one limitation. The speed of theExplorers.Without us, none of this would be here. Butwe're still the freaks. We live in time anddistance. They live free of them.But only because of us.The hint of a new planet to be opened, a newworld to be developed and explored, the creationof new labor markets, new projects and products,new work of every kind from running ditch-5digging machines to selling women for use andpleasure, had brought them swarming here fromthe first minute the Transmitter booths had beenhooked into the Galactic network. Right here inthe city behind him there were big red men fromAntares and small bluish men from Aldebaran,furred men from Corona Borealis Six and scalymen from Vega 14, and there were women tomatch all of them and more. Every new, just-opened world was like this. A carnival of new lifefor the young, of second\a151or third, or twenty-'third\a151chances for the old; for the misfits, theexcitement-seekers, the successes wanting newworlds to conquer and the failures who hadn't losthope that this time they'd make it big.But Gildoran walked through it, indifferent. Hedidn't bother looking back at the city.There's nothing there for me now. There neverwas. Only Janni, and I know now she was neverreally there. Not for me.He had no part in this world anymore. Once theTransmitter was set up on any world, the Explor-ers were finished with it. The Explorer ship whichhad found the world, explored it, subdued it suf-ficiently to build a Transmitter there, officiallyopened it, had nothing left to do. Nothing, that is,except to collect their tremendous fee from HeadCenter, and lift off to find another one. The GypsyMoth had been here for a year and a half. It wastime to move on.There are other worlds out there, waiting.Plenty of them.Yes, damn it, and women on all of them.6Someone called Gildoran by name and helooked round, seeing over the heads of the crowdthe white bleached hair and starred tiaras of twoof his companions from the Gypsy Moth. Heslackened pace to let them catch up with him.Raban was twice Gildoran's age, a man in hisforties\a151biological time, of course, although hehad probably been born several hundred yearsbefore by sidereal or objective reckoning\a151withthe small stars on his sleeve that meant official-dom on the ship. Ramie was a small, fair girlwhose great dark eyes showed that she had be-longed to one of the pigmented races before theship radiation got in its work. Now her skin andhair were lucent pale, like Gildoran's own, but theeyes retained a long, curious tilt, and her voicehad a light and fluting quality."It won't be long now, will it?""About midnight," Raban said. "Sorry toleave?"Sorry, oh God, a wrench like death, neveragain, never again. . . . Oh, Janni, Janni,Janni . . .Gildoran made himself grin, although it feltstiff. "You must be kidding. It was a beautifulplanet, but look what they've done to it." He ges-tured toward the noise, and construction scarsbehind them. "Like a big nasty mushroom grow-ing up overnight."Ramie waved at the night sky behind her.Beyond the blurring of the first vapor lights, com-ing on in the growing sunset, a few pale stars werevisible behind t... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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\vTITLE="Endless Universe"AUTHOR="Marion Zimmer Bradley"PUBLISHER=""EISBN=""COPYRIGHT=""\v\a151Baby Stealers \a151Monsters \a151Perverts\a151ImmortalsThose are some of the names the planet-siders have for them. They call themselvesTHE EXPLORERSAnd the contempt of the earth-grubbersmeans nothing to them, compared to thelure of the stars. Because they are the lastpioneers, the frontiersmen of space. For theExplorers, a metal ship is their one truehome, its crew their only family, their lives aconstant adventure in anENDLESSUNIVERSEAce Science Fiction Books by Marion Zimmer BradleyTHE BRASS DRAGONDOOR THROUGH SPACEENDLESS UNIVERSESEVEN FROM THE STARSSURVEY SHIPDarkover seriesSTAR OF DANGER THEWINDS OF DARKOVERTHE BLOODY SUNTHE PLANET SAVERS/THE SWORD OF ALDONES/DARKOVER RETROSPECTIVETHE WORLD WRECKERSendlessuniverseMARIONZIMMERBRADLEYACE SCIENCE FICTION BOOKSNEW YORKA shorter version of this novel was originallypublished as ENDLESS VOYAGE.ENDLESS UNIVERSEAn Ace Science Fiction Book / published by arrangement withthe authorPRINTING HISTORYAce edition / May 1975Fifth printing / April 1983All rights reserved. Copyright \a1691975, 1979 by Marion Zimmer BradleyCover art by Attila HejjaThis book may not be reproduced in wholeor in part, by mimeograph or any other means,without permission. For information address: Ace Science Fiction Books,200 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016ISBN: 0-441-20668-9Ace Science Fiction Books are published by Charter Communications, Inc.,'200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016.PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" 'Tis not too late to seek a better world."TennysonCONTENTSI. PLANETS ARE FOR SAYING 1GOODBYEII. A TIME TO MOURN 49III. HELLWORLD 129IV. COLD DEATH 229V. A WORLD WITH YOUR NAMEON IT 295Part One PLANETS AREFOR SAYING GOODBYEIPlanets are for saying goodbye.That's an old saying in the Explorers. I neverbelieved it before. It never really hit me.Never again. You never really realize whatnever means. It's a word you use all the time but itmeans ... it means never. NEVER. Not in all themillions of billions of trillions of . . .Get hold of yourself, dammit.'Everything on this planet had changed, but notthe pattern of the Explorer Ship: it was lightednow from inside, and outlined in silver; a chainedTitan, shadowed against the dark mass of themountain that rose behind the new city.The city was still raw, a mass of beams and scars12in the wounded red clay of the planet's surface.Gildoran had first seen the great ship outlinedagainst the mountain two years ago, planetsidetime\a151before the city had risen there, before any-thing had risen there\a151and every day since, butnow it felt as if he hadn't ever seen it before. Therewere strange sharp edges on everything, as if theair had dissolved and he saw them hard-edged inspace.Never again, I was a fool to think anythingcould be different.How could Janni have done this to me?I thought she was different. Every fool kidthinks that about the first woman he cares about.Gildoran passed through the gates. They werestill guarded, but that was only a formality. Onevery planet Gildoran had known\a151he could re-member four in twenty-two years of biologicaltime\a151the earthworms kept away from Explorerships.I took Janni. I thought she'd have to feel the wayI did. Wonder, and awe. But she was bored. Ishould have known then, but instead I was flat-tered, I thought it was just that she'd rather bealone with me. Maybe she would. Then.That seems a long time ago now.The guard didn't bother checking the offeredident disk. It was a formality anyhow. Gildoran'sidentity was on his face, like all Explorers. Heknew what was whispered about them, butlifelong training made it beneath Gildoran's dig-nity to notice it or seem to remember it.3But I remember. Keep away, they say. Keepaway from the Explorers. Keep your childrenaway. They'll steal your children, steal yourwomen.I wouldn't have stolen Janni. But I might havestayed with her.He walked with the arrogant pride of all theExplorers, conscious, and proud, of the differ-ences that set him off\a151set him off cruelly, aplanetman might have said\a151from the rest of theswarming humanity around the city, the crewsworking to load the ships. He stood seven feetseven, although he was tall even for an Explorer,due to a childhood and youth spent at mini-mal gravity. The white\a151paper-white\a151skin andbleached white hair were colorless from years ofhard radiation. He knew there were other dif-ferences, bone-deep, marrow-deep, cell-deep.Gene-deep. He never thought about them. But hehad known from childhood that no one else everforgot them.Janni hadn't forgotten them.Not for a moment.The crews around the ship parted to let himthrough, edging faintly back as he passed. But thiswas at the edge of his consciousness. He wouldhave noticed it only if they hadn't.Had she only wanted an exotic? Was it only hisstrangeness that had attracted her? Not romance,but a perverse desire for the bizarre, the alien, thefreakish?Did women like Janni boast of an Explorer4lover, as they might boast the romantic conquestof a gladiator from Vega 16?Feeling faintly sick, Gildoran moved towardthe refuge of the ship.It's beautiful, more beautiful than anything elsethey'll ever build here. But it doesn't belong, andneither do I, and now I know it.Behind him the new city was swarming withlife, multiplex human, parahuman and nonhu-man life, the life of a Galaxy which had achievedthe Transmitter and was no longer limited any-where by space or time. Life showed all sizes,shapes, colors, and integuments. Isolation anddifferences had vanished. All through history,from the first stirrings of consciousness in manand nonman, transportation\a151of people, of goodsand services and ideas\a151had been the onebottleneck jamming mankind to an even rate ofgrowth. But with the advent of the Transmitter,consciousness in the Galaxy had outstripped thatlimitation, and now there were no such limita-tions.Or only one limitation. The speed of theExplorers.Without us, none of this would be here. Butwe're still the freaks. We live in time anddistance. They live free of them.But only because of us.The hint of a new planet to be opened, a newworld to be developed and explored, the creationof new labor markets, new projects and products,new work of every kind from running ditch-5digging machines to selling women for use andpleasure, had brought them swarming here fromthe first minute the Transmitter booths had beenhooked into the Galactic network. Right here inthe city behind him there were big red men fromAntares and small bluish men from Aldebaran,furred men from Corona Borealis Six and scalymen from Vega 14, and there were women tomatch all of them and more. Every new, just-opened world was like this. A carnival of new lifefor the young, of second\a151or third, or twenty-'third\a151chances for the old; for the misfits, theexcitement-seekers, the successes wanting newworlds to conquer and the failures who hadn't losthope that this time they'd make it big.But Gildoran walked through it, indifferent. Hedidn't bother looking back at the city.There's nothing there for me now. There neverwas. Only Janni, and I know now she was neverreally there. Not for me.He had no part in this world anymore. Once theTransmitter was set up on any world, the Explor-ers were finished with it. The Explorer ship whichhad found the world, explored it, subdued it suf-ficiently to build a Transmitter there, officiallyopened it, had nothing left to do. Nothing, that is,except to collect their tremendous fee from HeadCenter, and lift off to find another one. The GypsyMoth had been here for a year and a half. It wastime to move on.There are other worlds out there, waiting.Plenty of them.Yes, damn it, and women on all of them.6Someone called Gildoran by name and helooked round, seeing over the heads of the crowdthe white bleached hair and starred tiaras of twoof his companions from the Gypsy Moth. Heslackened pace to let them catch up with him.Raban was twice Gildoran's age, a man in hisforties\a151biological time, of course, although hehad probably been born several hundred yearsbefore by sidereal or objective reckoning\a151withthe small stars on his sleeve that meant official-dom on the ship. Ramie was a small, fair girlwhose great dark eyes showed that she had be-longed to one of the pigmented races before theship radiation got in its work. Now her skin andhair were lucent pale, like Gildoran's own, but theeyes retained a long, curious tilt, and her voicehad a light and fluting quality."It won't be long now, will it?""About midnight," Raban said. "Sorry toleave?"Sorry, oh God, a wrench like death, neveragain, never again. . . . Oh, Janni, Janni,Janni . . .Gildoran made himself grin, although it feltstiff. "You must be kidding. It was a beautifulplanet, but look what they've done to it." He ges-tured toward the noise, and construction scarsbehind them. "Like a big nasty mushroom grow-ing up overnight."Ramie waved at the night sky behind her.Beyond the blurring of the first vapor lights, com-ing on in the growing sunset, a few pale stars werevisible behind t... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]