Wil McCarthy The Queendom of Sol 04 To Crush the Moon (Bantam)

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Dutifully transmitting the nation s network traffic by the effort of their own
eyes and arms.
Bruno s first surprise is the stream of refugees trickling uphill, against
the pull of gravity. A family of four rolls by on a pair of six-wheeled
scooters, whirring with the unmistakable tones of the old-fashioned electric
motor. Up ahead, almost lost in the gloom, he can make out the lights of a
slightly larger group. These are not traumatized people, hollow with the shock
of murder and destruction. Indeed, he hears the sound of laughter drifting
along the road, and the cases and trunks strapped to the vehicles show every
sign of having been packed with care and forethought. These families have
simply done the math, and concluded that the coastal lowlands of central
Imbria are no longer the fashionable place to be.
And though Bruno is hardly in a position to criticize them, he asks, Where
are they going?
Manilus, probably, Radmer answers. It s a large enough city to absorb a
few extras. If their treaders hold out, if nothing breaks down, they ll be
behind city walls again by morning.
Will they be safe there?
For an extra few Luner days, I imagine. It hardly seems worth the effort,
but people always do this. In a way it s admirable: squeezing out the last few
drops of the good life, refusing to buy into the gruesome promises of war. And
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more often than you d think, some miracle really does intervene, and spare
them the nightmares they ve never quite believed in.
Well, then, why doesn teveryone flee?
You re asking me? I suppose the glib answer is that treaders those vehicles,
there are expensive. But the real answer goes deeper than that. People are
rarely eager to march into certain doom, but there are those who ll stand
their ground at any cost. And truthfully, it takes both kinds to clean up
afterward. War after war, people like that have their spirits broken, while
people like this survive with their illusions intact. And that s what soldiers
are for, Your Hi er, Ako i. If we cannot protect idealism, then there s
little point in protecting anything.
Soyou re their miracle, Bruno says, almost reproachfully.
Sometimes, Radmer admits. When luck and timing allow it. But not for a
very long while. I really was retired. I swore I d never take another human
life, and I ve kept that promise. These people have no brickmail inside them,
no wellstone, no fibrediamond or regeneration factors. When they lose an eye,
it never grows back, and they get only a few years of practice to refine their
skills.
And dolcet berries! one of the Dolceti chimes in. I reckon those helps us
a bit!
There is scattered laughter at that remark, but Radmer presses on. For me to
fight against these children even in the cause of justice was terribly unfair.
Such battles are their own to win or lose. It s their world.
Hmm. Yes. But these new enemies come from without. You ve roused yourself
from the fireside at last roused me as well! to strike down a foreign invader
who upsets the balance of power you ve so carefully cultivated. To protect
your children.
Don t romanticize it, Radmer warns. I did have children of my own, once.
And Bruno answers, As did I. There s nothing pretty about this mess, but
having agreed to participate, I do mean to understand it.
Bruno s second surprise is that there are twenty-two of those six-wheeled
vehicles, those treaders, waiting for him and his escorts. Fully equipped,
yes, and with a pair of army lads standing guard to make sure the travelers
and inn guests don t have a chance to swipe anything.
Someone has called ahead, Bruno says, impressed.
To which Radmer reacts with irritation. What kind of place do you think this
is? Yes, it s still the Metal Ages here, but we didn t have wellstone and fax
machines in the colonies, either. Not after the first couple of centuries. Did
that make us uncivilized? Even badly outnumbered, the Eridaniansdefeated the
Queendom of Sol.
Meaning no offense, Bruno says mildly, for he s tired of taking the blame
for his ignorance. Plenty of blame attaches to him for other reasons, but this
at least is not his fault. When he lived here, briefly, it was another age
entirely. The Iridium Days, yes. He s never heard the songs of Lune s history,
never even glanced at a current political map for more than a few seconds. How
could he? And anyway, it was entropy that defeated the Queendom. The
Eridanians were simply there at the time.
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Soon, Natan is showing Bruno how to mount a treader. There s no great trick
to it there were electric motorcarts of similar design in Old Girona, and
alcohol-powered scooters in the islands of Tonga, which Bruno and his family
had occasionally ridden. But the treader is more complex, better balanced.
Bruno sees at once that its six wheels, cunningly articulated, will keep the
chassis approximately level through considerable variance in the terrain.
These are off-road vehicles, deigning for the moment to travel a ribbon of
pavement.
In another minute they re off and rolling, a loose pack of riders with Bruno
and Radmer at the protected center. They re not moving all that fast forty
kilometers per hour, perhaps a little less but the progress is steady, and the
treaders seem little troubled by the steepness of the climb. Neither their
motors nor the wind noise is loud enough to be troublesome. Indeed, it s an
eerily silent way to travel, like flying a glider low and slow, not touching
the ground at all. But Bruno is glad he s not riding out in front, for the
treaders headlight beams travel only as far as the next little curve, where
they re swallowed by the superabsorber blackness of the forest.
This is the most direct route, Radmer tells him apologetically. Flau have
been known to reach an altitude of six kilometers, but their gas bladders
suffer permanent damage, and they re too hypoxic to follow navigation
commands. Even in emergencies such as this, their service ceiling is capped at
four kilometers. But Gillem is the highest airfield in Imbria, and one of the
highest on Lune, and the Black Forest Pass will lead us to Tillspar.
The bridge?
Right. And once we re across the divide into East Highrock, we can follow
the old Junction Highway what remains of it east to the base of the Blood
Mountains, where the Stormlands begin. The northern route, through a town
called Viewpoint, would be a flatter, brighter way to pass the night, but it
would take four hours longer. It s a delay we can ill afford.
And the southern route, Bruno says, trying to picture the jagged land [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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