spoke, and secretly she was fascinated by the stranger,
subconsciously grooming her clothing and herself to look
attractive. She did not know that Si Shim was in love with a young
male named Eric of Amesbury, son of the village chief.
He entered his small hut, constructed by his
new friends, for he had no skills of his own to offer the tribe,
and began reviewing all the artifacts he had gathered. Five
funerary pots, three tiny copper knives, sixteen barbed flint
arrowheads, a kit for knapping flint, and metalworking tools,
including cushion stones that functioned as a kind of
portable anvil, and some boar tusks. There were also a black
stone wrist-guard and two red wrist-guards, a shale-belt ring, and
a pair of gold hair ornaments. Si Shim turned the artifacts over in
his hands, studying them, seeking to gain more insight into the
mindset of these people.
Eric entered the hut and greeted his lover.
"Hello, my friend, I see you still fondle this trash. Why the
longing for my father's possessions?"
"I hold a passion for your people, my
friend," Si Shim replied as he put the goods into a bag made of
animal skin and tucked the bag under his bed.
"I hope your passion includes me," Eric
said.
These two played a dangerous game, for it was
not acceptable behavior for men to be intimate and even worse for
men of such an age difference; Si Shim was twice Eric's age. Si
Shim was expected to join with a girl of the tribe to help cement
relationships between the tribe of Amesbury and the tribe of Si
Shim. But he had other plans. He would return to his own home and
take Eric with him.
"With the passing of the new moon, I will be
traveling back to my people, my friend. I ask that you take this
long walk with me," Si Shim said.
"I would travel the heavens above with you,
friend," Eric replied.
"That is good to hear spoken, though heaven
is a distant road to travel." Si Shim rose from his small bed,
walked over to Eric, and gave him a warm embrace.
The young girl that Si shim had spoken to
earlier, carrying a small snack to entice Si Shim's interest in
courtship, appeared at the doorway, only to find the two men in
each other's arms.
Shocked and rejected, the girl turned away
quietly and decided to speak with Eric's father, the village
chieftain. The two men did not notice her arrival or departure.
Later that morning, the village chief,
enraged, sent armed men to Si Shim's hut. The two men were dragged
before the chief, who had them executed immediately. Two graves
were dug near the stone rings of the village and Si Shim, with his
treasures scattered about his body, was buried as an Amesbury
archer. Eric was buried not far from him and village life went on,
the two men quickly forgotten.
Si Shim's spacecraft sat dormant for a number
of years until the Tasker's programming kicked in, based on Si
Shim's probable death since he had not returned for so long. It was
time to collect plant samples and human artifacts from other areas
of the planet. Soon the craft must return to Alcazaba, when the
small black planet did its single orbit of the sun and was closer
to Earth than it would be again for hundreds of years.
Any Tasker was capable of carrying out such
tasks, for they flew ships to asteroids and planets to mine for
materials needed by the Mahouds. Each had in its chest a complex
mechanism which directed and controlled it. Thousands of years in
the past, when Mahoud left Earth, one of the original robotic
guards had been accidentally left behind. A few hundred years
before Si Shim reached Earth, the remains of this guard were found
by some Greeks. They didn't know what the controlling device was
for but they were inspired by the cogs and wheels to create from it
an astronomical calculator. It, too, was lost but eventually found
around 1900 in a shipwreck off the island of Antikythera in Greece
and therefore called the Antikythera Machine.
The Taskers, even after the improvements made
by the Mahouds, were still quite crude compared
subconsciously grooming her clothing and herself to look
attractive. She did not know that Si Shim was in love with a young
male named Eric of Amesbury, son of the village chief.
He entered his small hut, constructed by his
new friends, for he had no skills of his own to offer the tribe,
and began reviewing all the artifacts he had gathered. Five
funerary pots, three tiny copper knives, sixteen barbed flint
arrowheads, a kit for knapping flint, and metalworking tools,
including cushion stones that functioned as a kind of
portable anvil, and some boar tusks. There were also a black
stone wrist-guard and two red wrist-guards, a shale-belt ring, and
a pair of gold hair ornaments. Si Shim turned the artifacts over in
his hands, studying them, seeking to gain more insight into the
mindset of these people.
Eric entered the hut and greeted his lover.
"Hello, my friend, I see you still fondle this trash. Why the
longing for my father's possessions?"
"I hold a passion for your people, my
friend," Si Shim replied as he put the goods into a bag made of
animal skin and tucked the bag under his bed.
"I hope your passion includes me," Eric
said.
These two played a dangerous game, for it was
not acceptable behavior for men to be intimate and even worse for
men of such an age difference; Si Shim was twice Eric's age. Si
Shim was expected to join with a girl of the tribe to help cement
relationships between the tribe of Amesbury and the tribe of Si
Shim. But he had other plans. He would return to his own home and
take Eric with him.
"With the passing of the new moon, I will be
traveling back to my people, my friend. I ask that you take this
long walk with me," Si Shim said.
"I would travel the heavens above with you,
friend," Eric replied.
"That is good to hear spoken, though heaven
is a distant road to travel." Si Shim rose from his small bed,
walked over to Eric, and gave him a warm embrace.
The young girl that Si shim had spoken to
earlier, carrying a small snack to entice Si Shim's interest in
courtship, appeared at the doorway, only to find the two men in
each other's arms.
Shocked and rejected, the girl turned away
quietly and decided to speak with Eric's father, the village
chieftain. The two men did not notice her arrival or departure.
Later that morning, the village chief,
enraged, sent armed men to Si Shim's hut. The two men were dragged
before the chief, who had them executed immediately. Two graves
were dug near the stone rings of the village and Si Shim, with his
treasures scattered about his body, was buried as an Amesbury
archer. Eric was buried not far from him and village life went on,
the two men quickly forgotten.
Si Shim's spacecraft sat dormant for a number
of years until the Tasker's programming kicked in, based on Si
Shim's probable death since he had not returned for so long. It was
time to collect plant samples and human artifacts from other areas
of the planet. Soon the craft must return to Alcazaba, when the
small black planet did its single orbit of the sun and was closer
to Earth than it would be again for hundreds of years.
Any Tasker was capable of carrying out such
tasks, for they flew ships to asteroids and planets to mine for
materials needed by the Mahouds. Each had in its chest a complex
mechanism which directed and controlled it. Thousands of years in
the past, when Mahoud left Earth, one of the original robotic
guards had been accidentally left behind. A few hundred years
before Si Shim reached Earth, the remains of this guard were found
by some Greeks. They didn't know what the controlling device was
for but they were inspired by the cogs and wheels to create from it
an astronomical calculator. It, too, was lost but eventually found
around 1900 in a shipwreck off the island of Antikythera in Greece
and therefore called the Antikythera Machine.
The Taskers, even after the improvements made
by the Mahouds, were still quite crude compared
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