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population of mobile, self-directing activity patterns measuring, on average,
an inch or so tall, who perceived themselves as self-aware, autonomous beings.
While Eubeleus stood staring at the outside of the matrix, one of those beings
found its mind being penetrated by a cosmic flux that carried meaning.
The communication flowed from the mind of Iduane, who by this time had linked
into the system via one of the neurocouplers located near the control center
some distance above, from which Eubeleus had just descended.
"I hear you, Arisen One," Ethendor intoned in the temple of Vandros, raising
his arms and looking skyward as the vision engulfed him. "What is desired? Thy
servant awaits."
And the voice spake: "Soon now, the stars shall shine again and the skies be
relit in splendor. Prepare, for the time of the Great Awakening draws nigh."
"How shall we prepare?" Ethendor asked.
"The earth and the air of Waroth must be cleansed of the deceivers before all
can be ready to arise. Nieru must be avenged for harmony to reign once more
among the gods, and then shall the Arising be universally blessed.
The false prophets who blasphemed the image of the purple spiral must be
hunted out and destroyed. Only then will the heavens be appeased. Go therefore
to the king and bid him set his forces to the task. Thus has Vandros spoken."
"They shall be purged from the land," Ethendor promised.
"And thereafter, when the lands of Waroth have been cleansed, the king shall
lead the faithful into the realm beyond, and exterminate the false legions of
the Spiral who have gone before."
The high priest's eyes widened. "Shall the task continue, even in
Hyperia?"
"Hyperia is the task! Waroth has been merely thy proving ground."
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"There, then, shall I go to serve the gods!" Ethendor cried.
"Fail not, and there thou shalt become as one of them," the Arisen One
promised.
It would be a good way of getting their fighting spirits up before they came
out to join the real action, Eubeleus had decided.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Hunt leaned back wearily in the chair in Murray's lounge and felt the contours
adjust to his changed posture. "I don't know, Chris. We came here to evaluate
Ganymean science, not to stop a bloody invasion. I'm a physicist, not a
general."
"Well, actually that's not quite true," Danchekker said. "It was merely
the official story. We came here, if you recall, to help Garuth get to the
bottom of his problem with the Jevlenese. I'd say that objective has been
accomplished quite effectively."
"To get to the bottom of it, and see what could be done about it," Hunt
replied. "What have we done to accomplish the second part? Garuth's locked up,
the Ents have got JEVEX back and half the Jevlenese working for them, and
they're all set to take over here completely."
Murray sent a puzzled look from one to the other. "Ents? What Ents? I've never
heard of them. What the hell are Ents?"
"It's an involved business. But you can think of them as the personalities
that people here are sometimes taken over by," Danchekker said by way of some
kind of an answer.
Murray didn't follow. "I thought that was just headworld freaks getting their
brains scrambled," he said. "That's what most of the Jevs think."
"It gets rather more complicated than that," Danchekker told him.
Gina, listening from a chair at the table and thinking to herself that none of
this talk was going to get them anywhere, stood up abruptly. Attention focused
upon her. For a moment she hesitated, unsure of how she wanted to continue.
Hunt was watching her, his eyebrows raised questioningly.
"I'm not sure I understand all this." She moved over to the door, then turned
to face back at them. "This whole planet is wired to operate as a fully
computer-managed environment, like Thurien, right? Before the Pseudowar, VISAR
ran Thurien, and JEVEX ran Jevlen."
"Can't argue," Hunt agreed, nodding.
Gina tossed out a hand. "VISAR connects all over the Thurien system of worlds
via its network of i-space links. JEVEX used the same technology. So, there
has to be Thurien-designed i-space hardware all over this planet, which can
talk to JEVEX, which turns out to be on Uttan. Have I got that right?"
"Pretty much," Hunt said. "The i-space connections come in through a number of
trunk-beam termination nodes scattered around Jevlen. Those are where the
black-hole toroids are generated that give you the I/O ports. You can have
smaller ones, too, for special purposes, like the one we've got at
Goddard. There are a couple inside the Shapieron, too."
Gina nodded. "Okay. But just sticking to the regular trunk nodes, won't they
have to be reactivated to talk to Uttan when Eubeleus turns JEVEX on again?"
"Yes, I assume so. Otherwise there wouldn't be much point to the whole
business, would there?"
"Fine." Gina nodded, as if that made her point. "So if these trunk nodes can
connect to JEVEX from light-years away, why can't VISAR?"
Murray nodded slowly as he followed the gist, regarding Gina in a more [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]