|
|
|
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
into what appeared to be a confectionery shop.
An older woman wearing an elaborate ankle-length robe-gown of some sort, but
carrying a rain-parasol, stood by another door, her eyes meeting mine, gray
eyes as cold and impassive as the clouds above. Her gaze did not flinch as we
passed her and turned the corner onto a fractionally wider street, one with
the same low permastone buildings that seemed to dominate Tyanjin, or what of
the city that I had seen.
We walked less than eight hundred meters more before Elysa led me down a ramp
and onto an induction tube platform, except it wasn t an induction tube, but
an older-style subsurface magfield transit system. I hadn t realized that
there were any left.
Page 119
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
It shouldn t be long, she said in a low voice.
I nodded, and slowly surveyed the platform. It was filled with people, and we
towered above almost all of them & standing alone with a circle of space
around us. I strained to catch the strange words, but even with the nanites
and the translation protocols, my understanding was limited, to say the least,
since all I heard was a standard word, often meaningless, in place of whatever
the locals were speaking.
& outsider & his whore &
& barbarian boars & rut &
I glanced at Elysa and could see the flush beneath her skin, but she said
nothing.
& time will come &
& none too soon &
The train that appeared at one end of the platform rumbled, rather than
glided, and it lurched to a halt, a sign of equipment not in the best of
repair. Elysa gestured, and we made for the front compartment, stepping inside
only moments before the doors hissed shut.
Even in the close confines of the compartment, a compartment where I had to
slouch to avoid banging my skull on the overhead, there was a zone of space
around us, and the odors were remarkably like an aged space vessel, and
totally unlike the scented sanitary air of an induction tube.
Although I felt like a curiosity, the remarkable thing was that no one looked
at us more as though we were an embarrassment to be suffered or endured
without being acknowledged.
I leaned toward Elysa and whispered, Does everyone avoid looking at me
because I m a Noraman? Or because I m a pre-select?
What do you think?
Another question. Both.
You re right.
I stood, hanging onto a polished tubular steel pole, as the old magtrain
hissed and lurched through three more stops. At each stop people disembarked,
but fewer got on, and those that did tended to be taller, better dressed,
although I didn t see any that could have been overtly identified as
pre-selects.
As the train slowed for the fourth stop, Elysa glanced at me. We ll get off
here.
I followed her out and onto a platform that was nearly empty, then up another
ramp, and back into the open. Elysa took a deep breath, as if of relief, then
promptly turned left and began to walk swiftly. Caught off guard, I had to
take two quick steps to catch up with her.
The open air felt good less confining although the misty rain brought out
a pervasive odor of age as we headed along the damp permacrete of the walk
that flanked a gentle inclined street. Each step took us past buildings with
signs I could not read, and I had to wonder if standard was as universal as I
had thought & or as the net systems of the world would have had me and others
believe.
Only a handful of gliders mainly taxis slipped down the street, deftly
avoiding the ubiquitous composite magscooters that seemed to comprise most of
the vehicular traffic, as well as the silent but awkwardly blocky
electrobuses. In Noram, scooters were used seldom, and then by youths, or
norms, while in the Sinoplex it seemed as though everyone used them except
for pre-selects.
Elysa caught one of my glances at another unreadable sign. How does it feel?
What? To be illiterate in a culture? I smiled ruefully. If I lived here,
I d spend the time and effort to make sure I wouldn t be.
Most pre-selects wouldn t.
I had never been one of most pre-selects, but there wasn t any point in
saying that, especially since that wasn t her point. She was trying to tell me
that the pre-selects had created a culture foreign to norms, as if most elites
in history hadn t. But then, most elites in history had eventually failed.
Page 120
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Where are we headed?
To the base of the hill there. She pointed slightly to the left, over a low
two-story structure. Over the top of the faded blue stone tiles rose several
trees overlooking a red tile roof.
A hundred meters ahead the street ended by running into a larger avenue,
running perpendicular to the one we walked. A black wall rose on the far side
of the cross street.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plkwiatpolny.htw.pl
|
|
| Cytat |
Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
|
|
