Read Online Shakespeare's Planet by Clifford D. Simak - Free Book Online

Something that caught his fancy. He say we not disturb the dead.”
    â€œDead?” asked Horton.
    â€œWell, maybe too dramatic I make it sound. The gone, then, those who went away. Although that does not sound right either. How can one disturb those who have gone away?”
    â€œThe buildings all look alike,” said Horton. “They look to me like barracks.”
    â€œBarracks is a word I do not have.”
    â€œA place to house a number of people.”
    â€œHouse? To live in?”
    â€œThat is right. At one time a number of people lived here. A trading post, perhaps. Barracks and warehouses.”
    â€œNo one here to trade with.”
    â€œWell, okay, then—trappers, hunters, miners. There are the emeralds Nicodemus found. This place may be packed with gem-bearing formations or gravels. Or fur-bearing animals …”
    â€œNo fur-bearers,” said Carnivore, positively. “Meat animals, that is all. Some low-grade predators. Nothing we must fear.”
    Despite the whiteness of the stone of which the buildings had been constructed, they gave the impression of dinginess, as if the buildings were no more than shacks. At the time they had been built, it was quite apparent that a clearing had been made, for despite the trees that had crept into the erstwhile clearing, the heavier forest still stood back. But, even with the sense of dinginess, there was a feel of solidity in the structures.
    â€œThey built to last,” said Horton. “It was a permanent settlement of some sort, or intended to be permanent. It’s strange that the building you and Shakespeare used was set apart from all the others. It could, I suppose, have been a guardhouse to keep an eye on the tunnel. Have you investigated these buildings?”
    â€œNot me,” said Carnivore. “They repel me. There is nastiness about them. Unsafeness. To enter one of them is like entering a trap. Close up on me, I would expect it, so I could not get out. Shakespeare poked around in them, to my nervousness. He bring a few small objects out of which he was fascinated. Although, as I tell you, he disturb but little. He said it should be left for others of his kind who knew of such things.”
    â€œArchaeologists.”
    â€œThat’s the word I search for. It escape my tongue. Shakespeare said shameful thing to mess up for archaeologists. They learn much from it where he learn nothing.”
    â€œBut you said …”
    â€œA few small objects only. Easy to the hand. Small, he said, to carry and perhaps of value. He say you must not spit in the eye of fortune.”
    â€œWhat did Shakespeare think this place might be?”
    â€œHe had many thoughts about it. Mostly, he wonders after heavy thought, if it not be place for malefactors.”
    â€œYou mean a penal colony.”
    â€œHe did not, to my remembrance, use the word you say. But he speculate a place to keep those not wanted otherwhere. He figure maybe tunnel never meant to operate but one way. Never two-way, always one-way tunnel. So those sent here never could go back.”
    â€œIt makes sense,” said Horton. “Although it wouldn’t have to be. If the tunnel were abandoned in the ancient past, it would have been a long time without maintenance and would progressively have broken down. What you say about not knowing where you’re going when you enter a tunnel and two people entering it and winding up at different destinations sounds wrong, too. A haphazard transportation system is impractical. Under a condition such as that, it seems unlikely the tunnel would have been widely used. What I can’t understand is why people such as you and Shakespeare should have used the tunnels.”
    â€œTunnels only used,” Carnivore said blithely, “by those who do not give a damn. Only by those who have no really choice. Go to places that make no sense to go to. All planet tunnels lead to are planets you can live on.