Read Online The D’neeran Factor by Terry A. Adams - Free Book Online
Authors: Terry A. Adams
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granted. She had gone to the planet at once, before They could change Their minds again. A bored Fleet guardian hovered at her shoulder and thought about patting her behind. She watched the sinuous leathery A creatures for days without seeing a single piece of behavior to support her conviction, immediate and direct, that they had already entered the gray area between bestiality and sentience.
âEnchanted Riverâ was a treasure.
Ho, working under the auspices of a rough coalition of Earthly nations, had been unhampered by the stringent regulations developed later by the Polity. He had gotten right down in the beingsâ midst, and at considerable personal risk watched every detail of their lives for months. He thought their intelligence was on a level with that of certain extinct terrestrial primates, and he held out great hopes for their future.
No one paid much attention even then. Colony One and Co-op had just been established, and there were enough strange things in places where the air was safe to breathe. The contact with Fâthal came a few years later, and Hoâs ambiguous pets were forgotten. The infant Polity remembered to interdict the placeâafter the Co-opers decimated a population of potentially future-sentient mammals on their own planetâbut the act was neither necessary nor daring, since no one wanted anything on A. Marshall Ho became a footnote in the history of exploration, and then disappeared altogether. âEnchanted Riverâ was never translated into Standard. Hanna did not know why; the translation program was still available, and she had done the job herself by pushing a button. She supposed no one had ever been interested enough to push the right buttons.
She skimmed the work in a couple of hours, her attention so concentrated that when she was done she could have repeated long passages from memory. Then, just to be sure, she ran a search for any mention of something she had seen on A. There was nothing.
(âWhen did they start building dams?â she said to the Fleet sentinel.
âTheyâve always made âem. Instinct. Read Rutherford.Twenty-six fifties,â he said, looking longingly at her breasts. It was a long and lonely tour of duty out here, and he was nearly at the end of it.
âIâve read Rutherford. Iâve seen his pictures. What they were building then wasnât as sophisticated. And it was confined to a limited area.â
âThatâs very interesting,â he said, edging closer.
She never had to hit him. Her blast of anger straight into his head was enough; and taught her for the first time what true-humans thought of telepathy. It was all mixed up together in memory: the discomfort and his bitter resentment and theâpups, she supposed she must call them
â
learning to build. The vague stirrings of extension of the learning skill to other things. Inchoate, as yet. Unrealized. When need called it would happen. But no telepath had gone there before, and no one else could have sensed it.)
The dams created quiet deep pools where the beings lounged and played. Ho described their environment in exhaustive detail; but he did not mention dams. His photographs showed no dams. Now the structures were everywhere, wherever the A Primitives lived.
It was negative evidence. It was better than saying: I am a telepath and I know. But would it be enough?
She had been still for so long that her muscles were cramped. She got up and the heat and stench faded. Her memory of sunlight filtered through leaves vanished, and her cabin seemed cold and dark. It was standard issue; she had brought little with her from Dâneera, and regretted the omission. It seemed noisy, as if many voices were talking very loudly nearby.
After a minute she realized there were no voices. But somewhere on
Endeavor
were some very excited people.
She went out into the corridor and followed her instinct toward the source of
âEnchanted Riverâ was a treasure.
Ho, working under the auspices of a rough coalition of Earthly nations, had been unhampered by the stringent regulations developed later by the Polity. He had gotten right down in the beingsâ midst, and at considerable personal risk watched every detail of their lives for months. He thought their intelligence was on a level with that of certain extinct terrestrial primates, and he held out great hopes for their future.
No one paid much attention even then. Colony One and Co-op had just been established, and there were enough strange things in places where the air was safe to breathe. The contact with Fâthal came a few years later, and Hoâs ambiguous pets were forgotten. The infant Polity remembered to interdict the placeâafter the Co-opers decimated a population of potentially future-sentient mammals on their own planetâbut the act was neither necessary nor daring, since no one wanted anything on A. Marshall Ho became a footnote in the history of exploration, and then disappeared altogether. âEnchanted Riverâ was never translated into Standard. Hanna did not know why; the translation program was still available, and she had done the job herself by pushing a button. She supposed no one had ever been interested enough to push the right buttons.
She skimmed the work in a couple of hours, her attention so concentrated that when she was done she could have repeated long passages from memory. Then, just to be sure, she ran a search for any mention of something she had seen on A. There was nothing.
(âWhen did they start building dams?â she said to the Fleet sentinel.
âTheyâve always made âem. Instinct. Read Rutherford.Twenty-six fifties,â he said, looking longingly at her breasts. It was a long and lonely tour of duty out here, and he was nearly at the end of it.
âIâve read Rutherford. Iâve seen his pictures. What they were building then wasnât as sophisticated. And it was confined to a limited area.â
âThatâs very interesting,â he said, edging closer.
She never had to hit him. Her blast of anger straight into his head was enough; and taught her for the first time what true-humans thought of telepathy. It was all mixed up together in memory: the discomfort and his bitter resentment and theâpups, she supposed she must call them
â
learning to build. The vague stirrings of extension of the learning skill to other things. Inchoate, as yet. Unrealized. When need called it would happen. But no telepath had gone there before, and no one else could have sensed it.)
The dams created quiet deep pools where the beings lounged and played. Ho described their environment in exhaustive detail; but he did not mention dams. His photographs showed no dams. Now the structures were everywhere, wherever the A Primitives lived.
It was negative evidence. It was better than saying: I am a telepath and I know. But would it be enough?
She had been still for so long that her muscles were cramped. She got up and the heat and stench faded. Her memory of sunlight filtered through leaves vanished, and her cabin seemed cold and dark. It was standard issue; she had brought little with her from Dâneera, and regretted the omission. It seemed noisy, as if many voices were talking very loudly nearby.
After a minute she realized there were no voices. But somewhere on
Endeavor
were some very excited people.
She went out into the corridor and followed her instinct toward the source of
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