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Authors: Ben H. Winters
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omens, while we stand in drawing rooms making circles with our hands raised, chanting obscurely, every time a lightning storm happens to raise the level of electricity in the air.”
“Oh, then you don’t believe in it?”
“I can’t believe in it, Countess.”
“But if I’ve seen them myself?”
“The peasant women, too, tell us they have seen goblins.”
“Then you think I tell a lie?”
“Oh, no, Masha, Konstantin Dmitrich said he could not believe in it,” said Kitty, blushing for Levin. Levin saw this, and, still more exasperated, would have answered, but Vronsky with his bright, frank smile rushed to the support of the conversation, which was threatening to become disagreeable.
“You do not admit the conceivability at all?” he queried. “But why not? We admit the existence of groznium, a wondrous alloy unimagined before the time of Tsar Ivan. Why should there not be some new beings, still unknown to us, which . . .”
“When
groznium
was discovered,” Levin countered hotly, “it was found, after careful experimentation over many years, to hold all thoseuseful qualities originally claimed of it by its champions. Far from being the stuff of parlor games and hopeful acolytes, it has revolutionized every sphere of Russian life!”
Vronsky listened attentively to Levin, as he always did listen, obviously interested in his words.
“Yes, but the xenotheologists such as the Countess only say we don’t know at present what these beings
are,
only that such beings do exist,” he argued mildly, “And these are the conditions in which they might appear to us.”
As if to reinforce Vronsky’s point, the sky just then began to rumble with thunder, and a bolt of lightning leapt forth from the clouds outside the Shcherbatskys’ big front window.
“Let the scientific men find out what these aliens might be,” Vronsky continued. “No, I don’t see why there should not be a new race somewhere in the universe, if we found a new
metal
. . .”
“Why, because with groznium,” Levin interrupted again, “all the promises of its potential have been
proven!
It has allowed for every positive change in our society! Every easeful thing, every moment of leisure we enjoy thanks to the helpful machines that do such work for us—all this we owe to groznium: the Grav, the transports, the robots—!” He gestured with energy at the ring of quiet and attentive Class IIIs, who stood in a respectful semicircle at the outskirts of the room.
But the conversation had ended, and the ceremony, so nonsensical to Levin, began. It took more than an hour of chanting and elaborate prayers before the ceremony was concluded—abruptly, and to Levin’s secret pleasure—when Countess Nordston threw open the parlor window to urge the Honored Guests to be swift in blessing us with their presence, but all that entered the Shcherbatskys’ magnificent front room was rain.
CHAPTER 13
V RONSKY SAT UP that night, viewing Memories in the monitor of his Class III, which was located in a smooth, furless patch of the animal’s exterior, where the “soft underbelly” of a real
Canis lupus
would be found.
Alexei Kirillovich had never had a real home life. His mother had been in her youth a brilliant society woman, who had had during her married life, and still more afterward, many love affairs notorious in the whole fashionable world. His father he scarcely remembered, and he had been educated in the Regimental Underschool, where he was assigned and instructed in his special military issue Class III, soon growing to cherish the ersatz hunting wolf with its thick collar of bristling metal “fur” and menacing voice-box growl.
Leaving the school very young as a brilliant officer, after a distinguished six-month tour along the border, Vronsky had at once gotten into the circle of wealthy Petersburg army men. Although he did go more or less into Petersburg society, his love affairs had always hitherto been outside it. In Moscow he
“Oh, then you don’t believe in it?”
“I can’t believe in it, Countess.”
“But if I’ve seen them myself?”
“The peasant women, too, tell us they have seen goblins.”
“Then you think I tell a lie?”
“Oh, no, Masha, Konstantin Dmitrich said he could not believe in it,” said Kitty, blushing for Levin. Levin saw this, and, still more exasperated, would have answered, but Vronsky with his bright, frank smile rushed to the support of the conversation, which was threatening to become disagreeable.
“You do not admit the conceivability at all?” he queried. “But why not? We admit the existence of groznium, a wondrous alloy unimagined before the time of Tsar Ivan. Why should there not be some new beings, still unknown to us, which . . .”
“When
groznium
was discovered,” Levin countered hotly, “it was found, after careful experimentation over many years, to hold all thoseuseful qualities originally claimed of it by its champions. Far from being the stuff of parlor games and hopeful acolytes, it has revolutionized every sphere of Russian life!”
Vronsky listened attentively to Levin, as he always did listen, obviously interested in his words.
“Yes, but the xenotheologists such as the Countess only say we don’t know at present what these beings
are,
only that such beings do exist,” he argued mildly, “And these are the conditions in which they might appear to us.”
As if to reinforce Vronsky’s point, the sky just then began to rumble with thunder, and a bolt of lightning leapt forth from the clouds outside the Shcherbatskys’ big front window.
“Let the scientific men find out what these aliens might be,” Vronsky continued. “No, I don’t see why there should not be a new race somewhere in the universe, if we found a new
metal
. . .”
“Why, because with groznium,” Levin interrupted again, “all the promises of its potential have been
proven!
It has allowed for every positive change in our society! Every easeful thing, every moment of leisure we enjoy thanks to the helpful machines that do such work for us—all this we owe to groznium: the Grav, the transports, the robots—!” He gestured with energy at the ring of quiet and attentive Class IIIs, who stood in a respectful semicircle at the outskirts of the room.
But the conversation had ended, and the ceremony, so nonsensical to Levin, began. It took more than an hour of chanting and elaborate prayers before the ceremony was concluded—abruptly, and to Levin’s secret pleasure—when Countess Nordston threw open the parlor window to urge the Honored Guests to be swift in blessing us with their presence, but all that entered the Shcherbatskys’ magnificent front room was rain.
CHAPTER 13
V RONSKY SAT UP that night, viewing Memories in the monitor of his Class III, which was located in a smooth, furless patch of the animal’s exterior, where the “soft underbelly” of a real
Canis lupus
would be found.
Alexei Kirillovich had never had a real home life. His mother had been in her youth a brilliant society woman, who had had during her married life, and still more afterward, many love affairs notorious in the whole fashionable world. His father he scarcely remembered, and he had been educated in the Regimental Underschool, where he was assigned and instructed in his special military issue Class III, soon growing to cherish the ersatz hunting wolf with its thick collar of bristling metal “fur” and menacing voice-box growl.
Leaving the school very young as a brilliant officer, after a distinguished six-month tour along the border, Vronsky had at once gotten into the circle of wealthy Petersburg army men. Although he did go more or less into Petersburg society, his love affairs had always hitherto been outside it. In Moscow he
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