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Excerpt:
MindSearch
by
Stephen Goldin
Chapter One
Twenty years after the Leone-Wandatta Treaty, twenty years after honest
relations had opened between human and Dur-ill worlds, there were still
ways in which the isolationism hadn’t changed. The races dealt with one
another but still held themselves curiously apart, as though prodded by
guilts of the old war that separated the two intelligent species for
over a century. Humans traveled freely to Dur-ill worlds, but they did
so mostly aboard human spaceships with other humans for companions.
Humans visited and even lived on Dur-ill worlds, but stayed mostly
within enclaves segregated by custom rather than law. The same was true
of Dur-ill who traveled in human space. Dur-ill and humans both felt
more at ease with their own kind than with each other; their differences
and their memories could not easily be forgotten.
The Hura-Nada was a Dur-ill spaceliner of standard class, neither
luxurious nor spartan. Its passengers and its crew were all Dur-ill.
Barring the usual minor annoyances, there should have been nothing to
mar the shipboard feeling of unity.
But there was an alien presence on the Hura-Nada; crew and passengers
alike could sense it like a tangible taste in the purified air. There
was a difference hiding among the sameness—a difference that took no
pains to disguise itself, a difference all the more frightening because
it made no attempt to do anything. It just was.
The strangeness was readily traced to three passengers, two males and a
female. They had names—the males were Wisson-Dai and Gir-Thorna, the
female was Ath-Agroda—but that hardly seemed to matter.
There was nothing about their looks that would set them apart from other
Dur-ill. They were slender and bipedal with large unblinking eyes on
either side of their heads, enormous mouths, and scaly gray skin,
although the female was of a race that had pastel purple mottling
patterns. The trio did not dress alike or share the same cabins. And yet
there was some quality that set them apart from the other passengers and
made people think of them as cut from the same mold.
The Three Strangers—as the other passengers, and even the crew, began
calling them—did not talk much, either to other people or among
themselves. When in public they were seldom separated from one another,
and every so often would share knowing glances or smile as though at
some private, unspoken joke. Sometimes they seemed to be mimicking each
other’s behavior, although they stopped instantly when they realized
they were being watched. During the communal steambaths they held
themselves strictly apart from the general camaraderie. A few of the
bolder passengers attempted to make friends with them early in the
voyage, but the Three Strangers remained aloof and at last the others
gave up trying. But there was no way to stop the shipboard gossip.
The Hura-Nada was now nearing the planet Iwagen, final
destination of this bizarre trio. The Three Strangers stood together in
the central lounge, watching the planet grow in the oversized telescreen.
Other passengers were also watching the image of Iwagen, but left a
discreet distance between themselves and the threesome. The Strangers
either didn’t notice or didn’t care.
A silent sequence of thoughts flashed through the air among the trio. “Iwagen
is such a backward world, even having lost space travel until fifteen
years ago.**Yes, but it requires seeding. The Mentad must flourish.**It
will be good to get off this ship and away from the depriveds.**There
will be more depriveds on the planet than on the ship.*But we will not
be in closed confinement.**Once the seeding begins and we grow strong,
it will hardly matter anyway.”
Six hours later, the Hura-Nada landed at the tiny Iwagen
spaceport in the city of Aladek. The Three Strangers and a few other
travelers disembarked. The rest of the passengers and crew breathed a
collective sigh of relief that the alien presence was at last removed
from their midst. The Three Strangers could sense the feelings, but they
did not care.
The Mentad had arrived on Iwagen.
* * * *
As the Hura-Nada sat on the landing field, another ship was in
orbit around Iwagen, awaiting permission to land. This was a smaller
ship, with no passengers and a crew of one. More to the point, it was a
human ship, brand new and just completing its maiden voyage.
Richard Cheney floated in the webbing at the control station, surrounded
by dials, readouts, and the computer board that ran the entire ship. He
was feeling more smug than any eighteen-year-old had a right to be.
There were parts of him, his older self, that disapproved of such
behavior in general—but even that portion of his mind was relaxed today,
reveling in the good feelings. Richard Cheney had just been away from
Iwagen for the first time in his life, visiting a human world and
surrounding himself with human contacts. His trip had more than
accomplished every goal he’d set, and now he was returning home in
triumph with a brand new ship to call his own.
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