Read Online Deucalion by Brian Caswell - Free Book Online
Authors: Brian Caswell
Tags: JUV059000;JUV038000
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possessed an ability as exotic and potentially rewarding as mind-speech, but we were . . . channelled, I guess. If you stare long enough at the read-out screen of an electron microscope, if your whole world consists of analysing the infinitesimal strings of DNA that hold the key to the structure of life, you tend to lose sight of the big picture.
But on Deucalion it was different. Whoever Iâd been on Earth, whatever attitudes Iâd had, were gone. Iâm not so sure it wasnât a good thing.
The information on the Elokoi had been available in Osaka, even if the creatures themselves werenât. But nowhere in the notes â or in the diary entries â did it mention trying to find out much about them. Apart from the search for the particular gene-cluster that made them âspecialâ (translation: âable to do something that we couldnâtâ), it seems I hadnât been interested in them in the slightest.
How do you figure that?
I mean, I was just on nineteen years old . . . sorry, fifteen and a half Standard. Youâd think something like that would have interested me, at least a little. What kid isnât interested in aliens?
Thatâs what I meant by channelled.
Anyway, pretty soon after I got to Edison, I started reading up on them. Not the biological information, but the Elokoi themselves. Their history and their stories. I actually went to visit the Reserve outside of town to meet them. I had to get clearance, of course, but being Council Funded opened a lot of doors.
I donât know what I expected. Iâd spent the best part of nine Standard months in the hospital and the retraining facility, among mostly first- and second-generation Deucs. Their attitude to the Elokoi is nowhere near as bigoted as the Old Earthers, but better or not, they didnât show much understanding or interest in a race that had existed on Deucalion for at least as long as there had been humans on Earth.
My guide was Rael, an old Elokoi who had once worked in the Ocra plantations near Williamsburg. His use of Standard was a little bizarre, but I could make out his meaning most of the time. He introduced me to his family. He was firstmate to a powerful-looking female called Leani, who sat outside their dwelling and watched me without saying a word. She had three other mates, Rael informed me, but two of them were out hunting Yorum along the Fringe. Taek, the fourthmate, was working on the communal Capyjou plantation over on the other side of the Reserve.
Leani was unusual for an Elokoi, because she had mothered more children than she had mates. Rael introduced me proudly to his two offspring, a son named Sianti and his daughter, Kieta. Their siblings, two boys and another girl, were with the teachers. I thought maybe I would meet them later.
As it turned out, I didnât. Not on that day. The Reserveâs main village was incredibly quiet. There were a few hundred Elokoi there during the middle of what was a pretty hot summerâs day, cooking outside their dwellings, carving, weaving, or just sitting in the sun together. There was hardly a sound from any of them.
Even the few young children who were not with the teachers played silently together, running, hiding, even wrestling, but without the cries and laughter of human children. The Researcher inside me wondered what kind of noise I might be hearing if I could pick up the mind-speech I knew must be buzzing around us as we walked.
But what hit me most was the sense of . . . peace. Not silence, but peace.
I looked at the buildings and the primitive conditions. It wasnât as if the offworlders had gone to any expense when they set up the Reserve. But it didnât matter. I spent a couple of hours wandering around with Rael, and he didnât once point out a building or an object to praise it, or criticise. But I learned a lot about the members of his family and about his Clan.
Among the Elokoi, an individual is judged
But on Deucalion it was different. Whoever Iâd been on Earth, whatever attitudes Iâd had, were gone. Iâm not so sure it wasnât a good thing.
The information on the Elokoi had been available in Osaka, even if the creatures themselves werenât. But nowhere in the notes â or in the diary entries â did it mention trying to find out much about them. Apart from the search for the particular gene-cluster that made them âspecialâ (translation: âable to do something that we couldnâtâ), it seems I hadnât been interested in them in the slightest.
How do you figure that?
I mean, I was just on nineteen years old . . . sorry, fifteen and a half Standard. Youâd think something like that would have interested me, at least a little. What kid isnât interested in aliens?
Thatâs what I meant by channelled.
Anyway, pretty soon after I got to Edison, I started reading up on them. Not the biological information, but the Elokoi themselves. Their history and their stories. I actually went to visit the Reserve outside of town to meet them. I had to get clearance, of course, but being Council Funded opened a lot of doors.
I donât know what I expected. Iâd spent the best part of nine Standard months in the hospital and the retraining facility, among mostly first- and second-generation Deucs. Their attitude to the Elokoi is nowhere near as bigoted as the Old Earthers, but better or not, they didnât show much understanding or interest in a race that had existed on Deucalion for at least as long as there had been humans on Earth.
My guide was Rael, an old Elokoi who had once worked in the Ocra plantations near Williamsburg. His use of Standard was a little bizarre, but I could make out his meaning most of the time. He introduced me to his family. He was firstmate to a powerful-looking female called Leani, who sat outside their dwelling and watched me without saying a word. She had three other mates, Rael informed me, but two of them were out hunting Yorum along the Fringe. Taek, the fourthmate, was working on the communal Capyjou plantation over on the other side of the Reserve.
Leani was unusual for an Elokoi, because she had mothered more children than she had mates. Rael introduced me proudly to his two offspring, a son named Sianti and his daughter, Kieta. Their siblings, two boys and another girl, were with the teachers. I thought maybe I would meet them later.
As it turned out, I didnât. Not on that day. The Reserveâs main village was incredibly quiet. There were a few hundred Elokoi there during the middle of what was a pretty hot summerâs day, cooking outside their dwellings, carving, weaving, or just sitting in the sun together. There was hardly a sound from any of them.
Even the few young children who were not with the teachers played silently together, running, hiding, even wrestling, but without the cries and laughter of human children. The Researcher inside me wondered what kind of noise I might be hearing if I could pick up the mind-speech I knew must be buzzing around us as we walked.
But what hit me most was the sense of . . . peace. Not silence, but peace.
I looked at the buildings and the primitive conditions. It wasnât as if the offworlders had gone to any expense when they set up the Reserve. But it didnât matter. I spent a couple of hours wandering around with Rael, and he didnât once point out a building or an object to praise it, or criticise. But I learned a lot about the members of his family and about his Clan.
Among the Elokoi, an individual is judged
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