Read Online Brightness Reef by David Brin - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: David Brin
Tags: Science-Fiction
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spill over the rumbling water wheel and thrilling each other with lurid tales of what they might see if ever the moment came when Henrik lit his fuses. With delicious mock-terror pounding in their chests, they counted down heartbeats until-kablam!
Dwer loved making sound effects, especially the pretend detonation that finished off the dam, accompanied by waving arms and lots of saliva. Sara’s younger brother then gleefully described the wall of water tossing proud boats like trifles, smashing Nelo’s drying racks, and driving toward their bedroom window like a fist.
Lark took over then, thrilling and terrifying the younger kids as he portrayed their attic being sheared off by a watery blast, sent careening through the garu forest while farmers stared down in pity. Each pretend near-miss made Sara and Dwer cry out till they leaped on their laughing older brother, pummeling to make him stop.
And yet-after Dwer and Lark had done their best to scare her, they would toss and turn, while Sara never had nightmares. When she did dream about the dam bursting, she used to picture a great wave simply taking them in the palm of its gentle hand. As froth concealed all of Jijo, it magically transformed into the fluffy, charged substance of a cloud. Always, the fantasy ended with her body lighter than mist, fearless, soaring through a night radiant with stars.
A roar of approval yanked her back to the present. At first she could not tell if it came from the party wanting quick action, or from those resolved not to wreck nine generations’ work on the mere evidence of their own eyes.
“We have no idea what it was we saw!” her father declared, combing his beard with gnarled fingers. “Can we be sure it was a spaceship? Perhaps a meteor grazed by. That’d explain all the noise and ruckus.”
Sneers and foot-stamps greeted this suggestion. Nelo hurried on. “Even if it was a ship, that don’t mean we’ve been discovered! Other vessels have come and gone- Zang globes, for instance, come to siphon water from the sea. Did we wreck everything then? Did the older tribes burn their towns when we humans came? How do we know it wasn’t another sneakship, bringing a seventh exile race to join our Commons?”
Jop snorted derisively.
“Let me remind the learned papermaker-sneakships sneak! They come under the shadow of night an’ cloud an’ mountain peak. This new vessel made no such effort. It aimed straight at the Glade of the Egg, at a time when the pavilions of Gathering are there, along with the chief sages of the Six.”
“Exactly!” Nelo cried. “By now the sages should be well aware of the situation and would have farcast if they felt it necessary to-“
“Farcasting?” Jop interrupted. “Are you serious? The sages remind us over an’ over again that it can’t be trusted. In a crisis, farcasts may be just the thing to at-tract attention! Or else”-Jop paused meaningfully-“or else there may have been no calls for a more terrible reason.”
He. let the implication sink in, amid a scatter of gasps. Almost everyone present had a relative or close friend who had taken pilgrimage this year.
Lark and Dwer—are you safe? Sara pondered anxiously. Will I ever see you again?
“Tradition leaves it up to each community. Shall we shirk, when our loved ones may’ve already paid a dearer price than some buildings and a stinkin’ dam?”
Cries of outrage from the craft workers were drowned out by support from Jop’s followers. “Order!” Fru Nestor squeaked, but her plaint was lost in the chaos. Jop and his allies shouted for a vote.
“Choose the Law! Choose the Law!”
Nestor appealed for order with upraised hands, clearly dreading the dismemberment of her town-its reduction to a mere farming hamlet, rich in reverence but little else. “Does anyone else have something to say?”
Nelo stepped up to try again but wilted under a stream of catcalls. Who had ever seen a papermaker treated thus? Sara felt his shame
Dwer loved making sound effects, especially the pretend detonation that finished off the dam, accompanied by waving arms and lots of saliva. Sara’s younger brother then gleefully described the wall of water tossing proud boats like trifles, smashing Nelo’s drying racks, and driving toward their bedroom window like a fist.
Lark took over then, thrilling and terrifying the younger kids as he portrayed their attic being sheared off by a watery blast, sent careening through the garu forest while farmers stared down in pity. Each pretend near-miss made Sara and Dwer cry out till they leaped on their laughing older brother, pummeling to make him stop.
And yet-after Dwer and Lark had done their best to scare her, they would toss and turn, while Sara never had nightmares. When she did dream about the dam bursting, she used to picture a great wave simply taking them in the palm of its gentle hand. As froth concealed all of Jijo, it magically transformed into the fluffy, charged substance of a cloud. Always, the fantasy ended with her body lighter than mist, fearless, soaring through a night radiant with stars.
A roar of approval yanked her back to the present. At first she could not tell if it came from the party wanting quick action, or from those resolved not to wreck nine generations’ work on the mere evidence of their own eyes.
“We have no idea what it was we saw!” her father declared, combing his beard with gnarled fingers. “Can we be sure it was a spaceship? Perhaps a meteor grazed by. That’d explain all the noise and ruckus.”
Sneers and foot-stamps greeted this suggestion. Nelo hurried on. “Even if it was a ship, that don’t mean we’ve been discovered! Other vessels have come and gone- Zang globes, for instance, come to siphon water from the sea. Did we wreck everything then? Did the older tribes burn their towns when we humans came? How do we know it wasn’t another sneakship, bringing a seventh exile race to join our Commons?”
Jop snorted derisively.
“Let me remind the learned papermaker-sneakships sneak! They come under the shadow of night an’ cloud an’ mountain peak. This new vessel made no such effort. It aimed straight at the Glade of the Egg, at a time when the pavilions of Gathering are there, along with the chief sages of the Six.”
“Exactly!” Nelo cried. “By now the sages should be well aware of the situation and would have farcast if they felt it necessary to-“
“Farcasting?” Jop interrupted. “Are you serious? The sages remind us over an’ over again that it can’t be trusted. In a crisis, farcasts may be just the thing to at-tract attention! Or else”-Jop paused meaningfully-“or else there may have been no calls for a more terrible reason.”
He. let the implication sink in, amid a scatter of gasps. Almost everyone present had a relative or close friend who had taken pilgrimage this year.
Lark and Dwer—are you safe? Sara pondered anxiously. Will I ever see you again?
“Tradition leaves it up to each community. Shall we shirk, when our loved ones may’ve already paid a dearer price than some buildings and a stinkin’ dam?”
Cries of outrage from the craft workers were drowned out by support from Jop’s followers. “Order!” Fru Nestor squeaked, but her plaint was lost in the chaos. Jop and his allies shouted for a vote.
“Choose the Law! Choose the Law!”
Nestor appealed for order with upraised hands, clearly dreading the dismemberment of her town-its reduction to a mere farming hamlet, rich in reverence but little else. “Does anyone else have something to say?”
Nelo stepped up to try again but wilted under a stream of catcalls. Who had ever seen a papermaker treated thus? Sara felt his shame
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