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millennial comet sweeps."
"What did you get in return?"
"Oh, they received muCh more than Sky Lance for what they gave. We opened the
Way to them. They're full partners in three gates now, commerce with three
worlds and the normal-space trading systems around them. In return, they
leased raw material and information rights to us. But the most valuable
commodity they contribute is themselves.
You met Olmy's partner. We find them ideal to work with--resourceful,
reliable, unfailingly pleasant. And as far as anyone can tell, they genuinely
enjoy working with us."
"Makes them sound like good pets," Patricia said.
"Yes, there is that aspect," Toiler admitted. "But they're at
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file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt least as intelligent as
we are--unsupplemented, of course--and nobody treats them as if they were
second-class citizens, or pets. You may have to drop some of your past
prejudices to see our situation clearly, Patricia."
"My prejudices are dropped," she said. "I'm just being . . ."
She raised her hands and shook her head. Not once since their meeting had she
looked directly at Toller's face.
"Before we came, every thousand years, Timbl would pass through a sweep of old
comets. They'd regularly lose more than half their population.
All this ocean is cometary water--gathered across billions of years.
Apparently, there was a long lull about a million years ago, and in that time
the Frants evolved to their current form and built up basic cultures. Then
the sweeps began again. Gradually, the individual
Frants became more and more alike, passing information and personality traits
on through chemical messengers, then through cultural means.
They became a holographic society, the better to absorb the shock of the
sweeps. But they had never realized their potential, and weren't about to,
until our gate was opened. Now they have some of our own technologies---using
high-speed pictors to update each other, or even exchanging partial
personalities. All in all, I'm not sure who was the more lucky--the Frants,
or ourselves. We might have lost to the Jarts centuries ago if the Frants
hadn't helped US."
Patricia listened intently, filling in what she hadn't had time to research in
the data service. "Why can't you establish some sort of client-patron
relationship with the Jarts?" she asked.
"Ah! The Jarts are quite another story. You know, of course, that we found
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them occupying the Way when we first connected it to the seventh chamber."
"So I've heard," she said, remembering what the rogue had told her.
"The Engineer had the misfortune of opening an experimental gate on the
Jart home world. Time in the Way was not yet matched with our own time. They
were able to spend about three centuries in the incomplete
Way, making it their home, even learning to open crude gates. When the
Way was connected and opened, there they weremuch as they are today.
Strong, intelligent, aggressive, absolutely convinced they're destined to
populate all universes. We fought a violent war with them and pushed them
back in the first decades. Then we opened selected gates and filled the first
segment of the Way---down to one ex five---with soil and air. All the time we
were building the Axis City, we fought skirmishes with them, pushing them back
farther and farther, closing their gates.
Finally, they retreated to two ex nine, and we established a barrier at that
point. We tried reasoning, making exchanges.
They wouldn't have it. We knew we couldn't rid the Way of them---we weren't
strong enough."
Patricia sat on the lowest step of a stairway leading to the top of the
breakwater. "And how can we help you?"
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"That's a complicated question, actually," Toiler said.
"You can best help us by supporting us. On--by not opposing US.
' "You can all go home now," Patricia said. "Such as it is."
Toiler paused for a moment, puzzled by the abruptness of her leap of ideas.
"Exactly." He sat beside her, and she edged a few centimeters away. "Such as
it is. Personally, despite Set Lanier's most heartfelt plea, I see little
reason to return to Earth now."
"You could help the survivors."
"Patricia, they--you become us. I see nothing iniquitous with letting a world
heal itself. The fact that we've made a causal loop---that we can return to
the worst point in our world-line--is not what I would consider an
opportunity. At the moment, it's a handicap.
Has Olmy explained how we hope to push the Jarts from the Way? For good?"
She shook her head.
"It's an ambitions plan. You've heard rumors about secession--having the Axis
City divide in two?"
She decided to play dumb and shook her head again.
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"Our flaw research group discovered, years ago, that the Axis City could be
accelerated to near c--to near light-speed.
There would be no damage to the city itself, and the citizens would experience
only minor discomfort--" "I think we should all hear about this," Patricia
decided suddenly, standing up."I mean, all of my group.
Not just me."
"They can learn as much as they want. You can guide them when they get back
to the Axis Citymit's all available in City Memory. Or Olmy can explain it to
you."
"Why hasn't he told us already?"
"Patricia, our world is extremely complex, as you know perhaps better than I.
I doubt Olmy has had the opportunity to educate you on a thousandth of the
more important things there are to know about us."
"Okay," Patricia said, stepping onto the sand and facing Toiler.
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"I'm listening."
"It would take over a day to approach that velocity, accelerating at about
three hundred g's---which is very close to the theoretical limit for the.
inertial damping systems, and for something as large as the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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