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In the hollowness, there appeared a presence, fragmented, grievously incomplete, but powerful and recognizable even so. file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt (100 of 504) [1/17/03 7:20:21 PM] file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt "Set Engineer," Olmy said aloud. My friend. The nonvocal communication was level and strong, if toneless. Even incomplete, Konrad Korzenowski's personality and presence were commanding. "We've come home." Yes? How long since you last spoke to me? "Five hundred years." I am still dead .... "Yes," Olmy said softly. "Now listen. There is much you must know. We've come. home, but we are not alone. The Thistledown has been reoccupied. It is time for you to come with me now .... Chapter Ten Patricia and Lanier passed through the fence and security checks, entered the second chamber library and followed the strips of lights across the empty floor and up the stairs. On the fourth floor, they entered the reading area with its dark file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt (101 of 504) [1/17/03 7:20:21 PM] file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt cubicles. Lanier sat her down in the lighted cubicle and went off into the stacks, leaving her alone to again feel the chill, the spookiness that seemed--even amid all the strangeness---reserved for the library alone. When he returned, he held four thick books in his arms. "These are among the last books printed for mass distribution, before all information services became solid state. Not on the Stone, but on Earth. Their Earth. I suppose you've already guessed what sort of library this is." "A quaint one. A museum," she said. "Right. An antique library, better suited to those with antique habits, no? When you get to the third chamber library, you'll become acquainted with the Stoners' state-of-the-art systems." He held out the first volume. It was printed in a style similar to that of Page 60 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html the Mark Twain book, but with heavier boards and thick, even tougher plastic paper. She read the spine. "'Brief History of the Death, by Abraham Damon Farmer."" She opened to the printing history and read the date. "2135. Our calendar?" "Yes." "Are they talking about the Little Death?" she asked hopefully. "No." "Something else,' she murmured. She read the chronology heading the first chapter. "'From December 1993 to May 2005."" She closed the book on her thumb." "Before I read any more, I want to ask a question." "Ask away." He waited, but it took her some time to phrase it properly in her head. "These are history books about a future, not necessarily our own, correct?" "Yes." "But if this chronology is . . . right, appropriate . . . if it could possibly be our future . . . then there's going to be a catastrophe in less than a month." He nodded. "I'm supposed to prevent it? How? What the hell can I do?" "I don't know what any of us can do. We're already working on that angle. If . . . a big if... it's going to happen at all. At any rate, it should be obvious to you, as you read these books, that the Stone's universe is not the same as ours in at least one important respect." "And that is . . . 7" "In the Stone's past, no giant asteroid starship returned to the Earth-Moon vicinity." "That might make a difference?" file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt (102 of 504) [1/17/03 7:20:21 PM] file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt ."I'd think so, wouldn't you?" She turned the page. "How long do I have?" "I'm leaving tomorrow for Earth. You'll be going to the first circuit the day after." "Two days." He nodded. "i'll be staying here?" "If you find it acceptable. There's an office behind the stacks outfitted as a sleeping area, with food and hot plate. Porta-potty. The guards will check on you every couple of hours. YoU're not to tell any of them what you're reading. But if you feel any sort of distress, let them know immediately. Any sort of distress. Even just getting sick to your stomach. Understand?" "i'll stay here with yOU this first time." He squeezed her shoulder gently. "Take a break with me in a couple of hours, okay?" "Sure," she said. She watched him settle into a cubicle seat. He took a slate out of his pocket and quietly typed on it. She turned the page on the first chapter and began. She did not read in a linear fashion, instead skipping from the middle of the book to the beginning, Ien to the end, looking for pages where the majoi, events were synopsized, or conclusions were file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt (103 of 504) [1/17/03 7:20:21 PM] file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt Page 15 Page 61 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html In the last years of the 1980s, it became apparent to the Soviet Union and its client states that the Western world was winning--or would soon win--the war of technology and therefore ideology both on Earth and in space, with consequences unforeseen for the future of their nations and their system. They contemplated several ways of overcoming this technological superiority; none seemed practical. In the late 1980s, with the deployment of the first United States space-based defense systems, the Soviet states stepped up their efforts to obtain technological "fixes" through espionage and importing of embargoed goods--computers and other high-technology equipment but this was soon shown to be inadequate. In 1991, the space-based defense systems they themselves had deployed were shown to be inferior in design and ability, and it became obvious to the Soviet leadership that what had been predicted for years was in fact happening; the Soviet Union could not compete with the free world in technology. Most Soviet computer systems were centralized; privately owned or noncentralized systems were illegal (with a few exceptionsnamely, the Agatha experiments), and the laws were rigorously enforced. Young Soviet citizens could not match the technological "savvy" of their counterparts in the Western bloc nations. The Soviet Union was soon going to suffocate under the weight of its own tyranny, remaining a twentieth- (or [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |