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Why did they want to take over the whole of Asia, Africa, and Europe? Colman didn t know. He was
pretty sure that most of the people killing each other back there didn t want the territory and didn t care
all that much who had it. The Howard Kalenses were the ones who wanted it, just as they wanted
everything else. Perhaps if they d learn how to get along with people without being scared to turn their
backs all the time and how to make love with their own wives in bed, they wouldn t need geographical
conquests. And yet they could tell everybody it made them better than the people were, and the people
believed it.
He remembered Jay s mentioning a physicist from the labs in the Princeton module who said that human
societies were the latest phase in the same process of evolution that had begun billions of years ago when
the universe started to condense out of radiation. Evolution was a business of survival. Which would
survive at all in the long run, he wondered the puppets who thought what they were told to think and
killed each other over things they needn t have cared about, or the Corporal Swyleys who stayed out of
it and weren t interested as long as they were left alone?
Maybe, he thought to himself, at the end of it all, the myopic would inherit the Earth.
CHAPTER NINE
ON THE DAY officially designated December 28, 2080, in the chronological system that would apply
until the ship switched over to the Chironian calendar, the Mayflower II entered the planetary system of
Alpha Centauri at a speed of 2837 miles per second, reducing, with its main drive still firing at maximum
power. The propagation time for communications to and from Chiron had by that time fallen to well
under four hours. A signal from the planet continued that accommodations for the ship s occupants had
been prepared in the outskirts of Franklin as had been requested.
December 31, 2080
Distance to Chiron 1.9 billion miles; speed down to 1100 miles per second. Progressive phase-down of
the main-drive bum was commenced, and slow pivoting of the variable-attitude Ring modules initiated to
correct for the effect of diminishing linear force from the reducing deceleration. No response received
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
from the Chironians to a request for a schedule of the names, ranks, titles, and responsibilities of the
planetary dignitaries assigned to receive the Mayflower II s official delegation on arrival.
January 5, 2081
Speed 300 miles per second; distance to destination, 493 million miles. Course-correction effected to
bring the ship round onto its final approach.
January 8, 2081
At 8 million miles, defenses brought to full alert and advance screen of remote-control interceptors
deployed 50,000 miles ahead of ship to cover final approach. Response from Chiron neutral.
January 9, 2081
Communications round-trip delay to Chiron, twenty-two seconds. Formal arrangements for reception
procedures still not concluded. Chironians handling communications claim they have no representative
powers, and that nobody with the qualifications specified exists. Mayflower II s defenses brought to
combat readiness.
January 10, 2081
The propulsion systems master control computer monitored the final stages of phase-down of the burn
and shutdown the main-drive reactors. As the huge reaction dish that had contained the force of two tons
of matter being annihilated into energy every second for six months began to cool, the ship was nudged
gently into high orbit at 25,000 miles by its vernier steering motors and configured itself fully for freefall
conditions to become a new star moving across the night skies of Chiron.
The voyage of the Mayflower II had ended.
CHAPTER TEN
As the Mayflower II wheeled slowly in space high above Chiron, the outer dour of Shuttle Bay 6 on the
Vandenberg module separated into four sectors which swung apart like the petals of an enormous metal
flower to expose the nose of the surface lander nestling within. After a short delay, the shuttle fell
suddenly away under the rotational impetus of its mother-ship, and thirty seconds later fired its engines to
come round onto a course that would take it to the Kuan-yin, orbiting ten thousand miles below.
 Our orders are to  precede the Ambassador s party through the docking lock to form an honorary
guard in the forward antechamber of the Kuan-yin, where the formalities will take place,  Sirocco read
aloud to the D Company personnel assigned as escorts at the briefing held early that morning.
  Punctilious attention to discipline and order will prevail at all times, and the personnel taking part will be [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]