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Sea of All Things and the island beneath him: no Dreen had idmaged any of
this, so Habiba said.
A quirk of nature had made the island, a round boat kept afloat by airpockets
of pumice and held in one place by a continuous whirlpool that spun it in the
center of the sea.
What keeps the whirlpool going?
Again, Habiba did not respond.
Habiba's Cone of Control sat on precision rollers, turning in an equal but
opposite direction to the whirlpool. This kept the cone stationary in
relation to the volcano's outer rim. There was no sensation of movement
within the cupola.
Coming out of her Thoughtcon trance, Habiba saw the lights on the volcano rim
that locked the cone in its single directional orientation. Six hundred
lights on tall towers ringed the Sea of All
Things. They flashed alternately red and blue. Whenever the cupola's
visuplex was open, she could hear the faint synchronized "pips" as the cone's
receivers acknowledged each light's signal.
But the cupola was sealed now for Thoughtcon.
Habiba listened and heard only the deep, soft breathing of entranced
subordinates.
"The Sea of All Things," she said, forcing the magnificent words to tumble
through the minds of those below her.
All turned to look down on the sea: perfectly clear water to tune them in to
perfectly clear thoughts.
Despite its clarity, the sea gave the illusion of not being deep. But Habiba
knew it extended into unfathomable depths, conforming to the "ampleness" of
Dreenor itself. As with all of
Dreenor's water, the sea surface held no impurities, no algae, no suspended
particles. Creatures were known to live far down in its darkness where even
Habiba's uniquely amplified vision could not penetrate. Creatures conceived
by Dreen idmagination lived there and young Storytellers competed to idmage
the most outlandish life forms for the Sea of All Things.
Even Habiba, who had heard more stories than any other Dreen, did not know all
that lay beyond the reaches of her secret powers. There were stories about
stories and some of them had the ring of truth. It was a fact that she could
not possibly share every story. Thus, she could not know everything that
existed. In this aspect, the sea stood as a symbol of the idmage mystery. No
one could know all things and the sea could not contain all things except in
potential. Therefore, the sea, as a symbol, represented only the ideal of
perfect and complete knowledge.
Some of these reflections filtered down the Thoughtcon spiral, accepted at
lower levels according to the abilities of each Dreen.
Only Habiba and Jongleur were expected to go in and out of Thoughtcon trance
during the Sharing.
Jongleur occasionally added refinements or suggestions. He did this mostly in
private sessions afterward. Today, however, Mugly intruded with constant
harping worries about Earth. There was no doubt that his argument gained
force from the theft of the special Excursion Ship. Habiba was forced to
consider the threat.
Ryll is only a child and he may make very serious errors.
Who could deny it? The child already had shown a tendency toward mistaken
judgments.
Perhaps we should have treated him with a Soother. It had been so difficult,
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though, to say her firstborn's firstborn might be . . . well, aberrant.
But what to do about Earth?
Their warlike people now possessed spacecraft capable of attacking other
planets. She saw their present ships as no immediate threat, but if Earthers
achieved the Dreen drive, they could come through the Spirals to threaten
Dreenor itself.
What if, through some quirky accident, they captured this child and his ship?
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It was a horrible thought and her own past words came back to haunt her. She
had said a thing to
Jongleur and others on many occasions.
"We have no weapons for defense or offense. This is as it should be. History
has proven that the entry of even the tiniest weapon into any society always
leads to violence and the ultimate destruction of the entire social organism
that has allowed this mistake."
Dreen idmaging had experimented with countless forms of Free Will, every time
with the same dismal result. But the most recent reports brought from Earth
complicated her considerations.
Mugly intruded with one of his warnings: "The danger increases. Experiments
in travel through the Spirals are being conducted on Earth at this very
moment."
That was the substance of a recent report. No doubt of it. An Earther named
Lutt Hanson, Jr., was reported to have relayed radio messages in Spiral form,
transmitting from spaceships in the
Earth solar system.
How could the Earther fail to suspect that Spiral travel also was possible?
This human might be close to a solution.
The warriors of Earth could be at our doorstep with their terrible weapons.
The Elite Storytellers below her had brought even more ominous news today, a
report from the latest Earth excursion.
Earth nations have concluded a mutually verifiable treaty freezing and
bridling their most awesome weapons.
So they were not as likely to exterminate themselves. It meant they were not
in imminent danger of meeting the fate that had destroyed other people
reaching a similar stage of war technology.
"Our problem is the universe's problem," Habiba said. She gazed across the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]