Read Online Viscous Circle by Piers Anthony - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Piers Anthony
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not go to any alien Sphere without consuming years, and he lacked the patience for that sort of thing. They would have to research in a library instead.
Except that the Bands had no libraries. This was yet another alien concept in his mind. A library was a place where references existed, open to all persons interested. Books, tapes, holo-recordingsâall alien devices. There was nothing like that in this region of space.
Cirl, however, was not dismayed. "We shall go to the Education Nexus and question the instructors. They have much broader experience, and will be able to help us."
Of course. Young Bands, like the youth of all sapient species, needed to be trained. Animals inherited most of their vital patterns of behavior, but sapients had to be taught. Naturally the individuals with the greatest stores of information were the ones to do the teaching. Maybe these instructors had taught Rondl himself, and would remember him as a student. Maybe they had recordsâ
"Records?" Cirl asked blankly as they flew back toward the planet. "What are they?"
Another anomalous concept! Aliens kept records; Bands did not. Material continuity was of little importance; what counted was the immaterial continuity of the Viscous Circle. Since all the Band information theoretically went to the group Soul eventually, no physical repository was needed. No wonder the Bands were not recognized as a Galactic Sphere. They simply did not organize themselves in conventional sapient fashion.
Yet as he considered this, Rondl was not at all sure that the other sapients of the Galaxy had the better system. They discriminated against the Bands because the Bands were different. Difference was not at all the same as inferiority.
Cirl was leading the way more slowly than she had on the way out, so that Rondl could use Dazzle as a beam source for communication and rotate for convenient converse. They traveled on roughly parallel lines and flashed back and forth. It was very pleasant, and Rondl found himself wondering whether it was possible to increase that pleasantness.
"I found another gap in my information," he said. "Perhaps an awkward one."
"What is it?"
"I do not know how Bands develop romance."
She was flashless for a moment, and Rondl feared he had committed some impropriety. "Do you have a female in mind?" she finally inquired, guardedly.
Had there been any question? Rondl suddenly realized that there had been several quite attractive females in the recent circle. Cirl might think he wished to pursue one of those. "I haveâif it is permissibleâyou in mind." Now he was afraid she would react negatively. Friendship was not the same as romance, and she had had a bad experience recently.
"I should hope so. I formed a circle for you."
This was a response he had not anticipated. "This is significant? I thought the circle was just for information."
"It is, true. But when one Band organizes for another, it presupposes liaison."
"But all the others were strangers. They couldn't knowâ"
"The very nature of it was suggestive. We invoked the circle; they merely participated. It was our circle. We put the questions."
"Ohâthey were like witnesses to a ceremony."
"One does not convoke a circle for just anyone," she flashed primly.
"I thought maybeâI feared you retained some attachment to the male Band you knew before me."
"That matter is becoming less serious. In retrospect I perceive flaws in him I did not fathom before. You take up my attention now."
So part of her interest in Rondl was as a diversion from that former liaison. He had an alien term for this: rebound. Yet that was not necessarily a bad thing. It merely accounted for a more rapid progress of interest than might otherwise occur.
"You are attractive to me," he said. "Perhaps I lack a proper basis for judgment, and I do not know how I myself am as a potential object of interest for the opposite genderâ"
"Complementary gender," she corrected him
Except that the Bands had no libraries. This was yet another alien concept in his mind. A library was a place where references existed, open to all persons interested. Books, tapes, holo-recordingsâall alien devices. There was nothing like that in this region of space.
Cirl, however, was not dismayed. "We shall go to the Education Nexus and question the instructors. They have much broader experience, and will be able to help us."
Of course. Young Bands, like the youth of all sapient species, needed to be trained. Animals inherited most of their vital patterns of behavior, but sapients had to be taught. Naturally the individuals with the greatest stores of information were the ones to do the teaching. Maybe these instructors had taught Rondl himself, and would remember him as a student. Maybe they had recordsâ
"Records?" Cirl asked blankly as they flew back toward the planet. "What are they?"
Another anomalous concept! Aliens kept records; Bands did not. Material continuity was of little importance; what counted was the immaterial continuity of the Viscous Circle. Since all the Band information theoretically went to the group Soul eventually, no physical repository was needed. No wonder the Bands were not recognized as a Galactic Sphere. They simply did not organize themselves in conventional sapient fashion.
Yet as he considered this, Rondl was not at all sure that the other sapients of the Galaxy had the better system. They discriminated against the Bands because the Bands were different. Difference was not at all the same as inferiority.
Cirl was leading the way more slowly than she had on the way out, so that Rondl could use Dazzle as a beam source for communication and rotate for convenient converse. They traveled on roughly parallel lines and flashed back and forth. It was very pleasant, and Rondl found himself wondering whether it was possible to increase that pleasantness.
"I found another gap in my information," he said. "Perhaps an awkward one."
"What is it?"
"I do not know how Bands develop romance."
She was flashless for a moment, and Rondl feared he had committed some impropriety. "Do you have a female in mind?" she finally inquired, guardedly.
Had there been any question? Rondl suddenly realized that there had been several quite attractive females in the recent circle. Cirl might think he wished to pursue one of those. "I haveâif it is permissibleâyou in mind." Now he was afraid she would react negatively. Friendship was not the same as romance, and she had had a bad experience recently.
"I should hope so. I formed a circle for you."
This was a response he had not anticipated. "This is significant? I thought the circle was just for information."
"It is, true. But when one Band organizes for another, it presupposes liaison."
"But all the others were strangers. They couldn't knowâ"
"The very nature of it was suggestive. We invoked the circle; they merely participated. It was our circle. We put the questions."
"Ohâthey were like witnesses to a ceremony."
"One does not convoke a circle for just anyone," she flashed primly.
"I thought maybeâI feared you retained some attachment to the male Band you knew before me."
"That matter is becoming less serious. In retrospect I perceive flaws in him I did not fathom before. You take up my attention now."
So part of her interest in Rondl was as a diversion from that former liaison. He had an alien term for this: rebound. Yet that was not necessarily a bad thing. It merely accounted for a more rapid progress of interest than might otherwise occur.
"You are attractive to me," he said. "Perhaps I lack a proper basis for judgment, and I do not know how I myself am as a potential object of interest for the opposite genderâ"
"Complementary gender," she corrected him
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