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we were highly elated. Now we had a real planet, in the radical meaning of the
word, a real wanderer which could ^o where it chose, settling in one solar
system or another and leaving it again when we so decided. By that time we
were almost self-sufficient, there was obviously no need for us to become
migrant workers, as your city and its enemies had been. And since we were well
on the way to the second galaxy in any event, and since there seemed to be
absolutely no limit to the velocities we could mount with the huge mass of our
planet on which to operate, we chose to go on and explore."
"To the Andromeda galaxy?"
"Yes, and beyond. Of course we saw very little of that galaxy, which is as
vast as our home; we think that it is not inhabited by any widespread,
space-cruising race such as yours and mine, but in the brief sampling of its
stars that we were able to take we might well simply have missed hitting upon
an inhabited or colonized system. By that time, in any event, we had made the
discovery which was to become the basis of our lives and purposes from then
onward, and knew that we should have to return home very shortly. We left the
Andromeda nebula for its satellite, the one that you identified for us as M-33
on our old star-tapestries from the Great Age, and thence took the million and
a half light year leap to the Lesser Magel-lanic Cloud. It was during our
transition from the Lesser to the Greater Cloud that you detected us. That
was, to be sure, an accident; we had intended to go directly through into the
home galaxy and onward to Earth, where, our experience with you had given us
good reason to believe, we might find a reservoir of knowledge great enough to
cope with what we had discovered. That our own knowledge was insufficient was
never for a moment in doubt.
"But it is an accident of the greatest good omen that we should have been
found again by you as we were returning home, Mayor Amalfi. Surely the gods
must have arranged such an accident, which otherwise is impossibly unlikely;
for if there is any man not on Earth itself who can help us, you are that
man."
"You were not once such a believer in the gods, as I recall," Amalfi said,
smiling tightly.
"Opinions change with age; otherwise what is age for?"
"So does history," Amalfi said. "And, whether I can
help you or not, it Is a lucky accident that you stopped here before carrying
on into the home lens. Earth is no longer dominant there. We've had
oonsiderable difficulty in understanding what actually is going on, the
messages that we get from there came pouring in to us in such an enormous
garble; but of one thing I'm sure: there's a huge new imperialism on the rise
there, on its way to becoming as powerful as Earth once was, and as Vegas was
before Earth. It calls itself the Web of Hercules, and what remains of
Earth-'s interstellar empire doesn't appear to be putting up much of a
resistance against it. If you want my advice, I would suggest that you stay
out of the home galaxy entirely, or you may, well be gobbled down whole."
There was a long silence around the Hevian council table. At last, Miramon
said:
"This leaves us with little recourse indeed. It may well be that there is no
answer, as we have often suspected. Or it may be that the gods have indeed
brought us back to the one source of wisdom that we need."
"We will know soon enough," Retma said quietly. "If in that instant there will
be time enough to know anything. Or enough of time left thereafter to remember
it."
'1 shall probably be unable to advise you so long as I don't know what you're
talking about," Amalfi said, impressed in spite of himself by the tone of high
seriousness with which the Hevians spoke. "Just what was the discovery that
turned you back? What is the forthcoming event that you seem to dread?"
"Nothing less," Retma said evenly, "than the imminent coming to an end of time
itself."
For a while, even after they had explained it to him, Amalfi was so unable to
believe that the Hevians had meant what they said that he was prepared to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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