Страница 51 из 96
"And look at the Archkerri. We evolved from a plant form, though we have a tradition that the ancient humans helped us do this, just as they helped the Tsimmanbul. In any event, we are the vegetable kingdom's leap into sentiency, its final desperate effort to make a form which will survive the coming doom.
"There are other sapient forms of the animal kingdom, which we may or may not encounter during this quest. There is only one sapient form of the plant kingdom. And so far as I know, the mineral kingdom hasn't produced a champion. But then I don't know everything, no matter how I may appear to do so.
"And then there is the tharakorm, the end product of the half-alive, half-dead kingdom. It is without selfconsciousness or a brain, as we know brains. Nevertheless, it may survive where all the other kingdoms perish. I should modify that. The mineral kingdom will not perish, but it will lose its present forms, all melted into one cosmic ball of fire at the end.
"However, the tharakorm, which is now confined to sailing the air, may become a sailor of space itself.
It is evolving toward that state now. For all I know, there may be some tharakorm which have already succeeded in leaving this atmosphere. They could be voyaging through space, outward bound, their sails spread to catch the light of the dying universe and be pushed by it toward that space where there is no matter whatsoever. That is, of course, if there can be such a thing as space without matter.
"But when the big bang comes, and a new universe is born, the tremendous expulsion of light will also push the tharakorm away from the ejected matter. No pieces will catch up with the sailship-things of outer space. Eventually, when there are abysses of space between the various pieces of matter, and stars are forming, the tharakorm will sail toward them. They will fall into worlds where air has formed, and they will be dissolved, and once again viri will live in unassociated forms on these worlds.
"There will be countless tharakorm or their equivalents falling upon countless planets. That is because, I surmise, tharakorm will have formed on every inhabited planet now falling toward its fiery doom. And those which come back from the far reaches of truly empty space to habitable planets will, as I've said, revert to the unassociated forms. And these will evolve into forms that are fully alive, the too-tiny-to-beseen single-celled plants and animals that are the basis of fully alive forms, plants and animals. At one time, the ancients believed that life was formed in the warm soup seas of young planets. But that is not true. Full life evolved from half-life, the countless things that made up the tharakorm or similar forms.
"It's possible that this process has been going on since the first cosmic egg of flaming matter hatched.
Universes are born and expand, contract and become fires, explode and expand, contract and become fires, and so on. But life in its many forms continues, passed on from one world to the next in a halfalive, half-dead state.
"Meanwhile, the increasing density of matter in every contracting universe forms strange, temporary, but not unpassable gateways to other universes. And it is these that enable those forms of life which ca
Deyv and Vana were awed at these visions, though they didn't really believe they were true.
Deyv said, "This is all very well, but how does it concern me? I won't live nearly as long as a tharakorm, and these gateways terrify me. They are not guaranteed entrances to places where the Earth won't die—
for an unimaginably long time yet. Anyway, what is life to me without my own soul egg and my tribe, the people I know and love?
"No, I'm not going one step further on this crazy quest of yours. I'm going home to live out my life, as all men should do, and I'll die when my time comes, as all men should do."
"After all that you've seen?" Sloosh said, and he walked away.
"You are right, of course," Vana said. "However, what if you do get back to your native land? Only to be captured by a woman of another tribe and then have to live the rest of your life with a strange tribe? That happens now and then to your people, doesn't it?"
"Yes, but the nine tribes in my area are not complete strangers," he said. "I've met them during the
Trading Season. Besides, the tribe of my wife, when I get one, will then become my own. And I will see my relatives during the Season. It's not that bad. What is bad is to be without a tribe at all."
When Deyv and Vana had finished the dugout, they took it out at once for a trial sail. Though they upset the boat a .number of times, they finally became fairly skillful sailors. Meantime, the others had completed their larger craft, and they too experimented on the waters close to shore. Whenever the sailbeasts approached them, they quickly retreated to the shallows. This maneuver always worked except when one of the immature beasts chased them. Then they had to beach their boats and wait until the young predator gave up on them.
After one such incident, Vana said, "I really don't see how we're going to get to the mainland. We'd have to be very lucky to escape being noticed by them. I just don't feel like trusting to luck. I've a feeling that we've used up all that the gods gave us at our birth."
Deyv was inclined to agree with her, but he couldn't stand the idea of spending the rest of his life on the island. The slaves and Feersh's children, except Jowanarr, were seriously considering this. They'd said nothing while the boat making was going on. But now that the setting-out was due—overdue, actually—
they were close to mutiny. Feersh railed at them and threatened them with torture and death. Her sons didn't laugh at her, but the slaves weren't hesitant to tell her that she was no longer the feared witch. She was just an old woman whose only weapon was her sharp venomous tongue. One slave, Shlip, dared to tell her that if she didn't shut up he'd wring her scrawny neck. Feersh turned red, so red that she looked as if she were going to have a stroke. Gasping, she swayed, then had to sit down to keep from falling.
The Yawtl enjoyed this very much. He agreed that the dissenters were probably right. Nevertheless, he wasn't going to stay. What was needed was some other method of travel. He'd have to think about it. But since this required some time, he wasn't going to leave yet either.
Sloosh had been observing the birds and winged animals. Shortly after Feersh had been put down by the slave, the Archkerri returned to the camp from the other side of the island.
"I've been watching the birds for quite a while. There are those who make this place their permanent home. And there are those who fly in from the mainland, stay awhile, then fly on out over the water.
They must be going on to land across the waters. Which means that this is not the ocean but a lake." He paused, then said, "Unless they're going to another island."
"You can do what you want to do," Deyv said. "I'll wish you good fortune, though. You've been a good comrade, even if you are rather exasperating at times."
"The same to you," the plant-man said. "There have been times when I've almost thought of you as an
Archkerri. If only you could think as clearly as I do ..."
Deyv's warmth toward him was threaded with another feeling. This was not just sadness at having to leave him. It was something close to panic. Somehow the Archkerri had become a substitute for the man's soul egg. He wasn't a completely satisfactory replacement, far from it. But Sloosh had given Deyv a certain amount of security, and the Archkerri's wisdom, however distorted it was in some ways, had made Deyv feel toward him as he'd felt toward his grandmother. Several times he'd had to repress the impulse to ask Sloosh to cuddle him.