Busby, Various(1)
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Cage a ManFOR ELINORA Cage There WasThe ceiling above him was low and gray; Barton's firstthought was. What am I doing in the drunk tank? On sec-ond thought it didn't stink like a drunk tank, and Bartonwas far enough awake to know that he was not hung over.So he sat up and looked around. The first thing he noticedwas that he was naked, along with everybody else. If thiswere a drunk tank, it had to be the first coeducationalnude drunk tank in his limited experience.He could make no guess as to .where he was, or why.Presumably there was some other place he'd rather be,somewhere he belonged�but when he tried to think ofone he drew a blank. Briefly, he wondered why the lackdidn't bother him.He seemed to be the only person awake; at least no oneelse was sitting up. Looking, Barton estimated about fiftypersons sprawled in the room, neither crowded nor widelyseparated in a space about twenty-five feet square. Hestood, and found the ceiling claustrophobically low: notmuch over six feet, clearing his head by a few inches butheavy'-heavy-hanging over it. He didn't like that.Floor and walls were gray, as well as the ceiling. Sol-idly. There were no openings that he could see, anywhere.There was light, a little yellowish, but no visible sources;the light was simply there. The gray surfaces were notluminous and the air did not glow. Barton skipped that;it wasn't important. What was important was that he hadto take a leak.No place. He stepped gingerly over and around thesleeping bodies, noting little about them except that theybreathed. When he accidentally touched one, it was warm.The floor was at body temperature also, with a slight de-gree of "give." After exploring the room thoroughly. Bar-ton was faced with the fact that it was not only solid butseamless. Yet the air (warm, like the floor) was fresh andclean. It seemed to move against him gently from all di-rections, though be could detect no gross air currents.He still had to pee. Going to one comer of the room,he considerately rolled the nearest occupant out of splash-ing range and faced the corner. At first he couldn't do it;all the times he'd stood in line (at theaters during inter-mission, at overcrowded facilities in tourist haunts), withimpatient others waiting behind him, came up to clampthe sphincter tight. Waiting, he finally relaxed and theflow came. The interesting thing was that at the floor itsimply disappeared: no splash or gurgle. The floor mightas well not have been there. It looked dry, felt dry (Bar-ton felt it) and had no telltale smell at all (Barton smelledit).He had a sudden wild thought that perhaps the wholeroom was an illusion, and gathered a few bruises tryingto launch himself through the floor, a wall, and even theceiling, before he decided that in this case liquids had cer-tain advantages over solids. His guess might be wrong, heknew, but that didn't mean it was stupid.Other people were beginning to wake, sit up and evenmove around. Barton realized that he hadn't paid enoughattention to the resident population, of which he wasperhaps 2 percent. So he stood quietly in bis corner andlooked.The people ranged from ordinary to exotic, in Barton'sview. Some were as usual as anyone can be among somefifty naked persons in a sealed room. Others were notablefor such things as highly stylized patterns of tattooing,possible cosmetic surgery, and selective depilation. Stillothers,. Barton thought, must have come out of a freakshow. Some of them be found hard to believe, but therethey were. The frightening thing, though, was that thesepeople were beginning to speak among themselves, andwhile Barton spoke French and a little German, and couldrecognize several other languages, he heard not one famil-iar word from anyone near him. Well, yes�there wasone over therel"Anybody here speak ENGLISH?" he bawled out sud-denly. From the far side of the room came a "YES." Ac-cented, but unmistakable. Barton began shouldering hisway toward the sound, shouting "ENGLISH" now andthen as a navigational aid."English" turned out to be a Doktor Siewen, a tall wiryman with a great bushy shock of white hair, and somealarming ideas. He and Barton traded names and shookhands, the ritual prelude to any constructive activity be-tween strangers."I know considerable languages, Barton," said Siewen,"and some of them I hear in this place, but not many.Also I hear people talking in languages I didn't think ex-ist.""I thought I knew a lot of ethnic types, myself, butsome of these people don't look like anything I've everseen, even in pictures."'There is also that," Doktor Siewen began, but Justthen he and Barton were knocked apart. A woman pushedbetween them; two men were chasing her. There werestrangenesses about all three. One man caught her; thetwo sank to the floor together in tight embrace. But thesecond man came upon them, kicking and clawing; soonall three were battling viciously. Barton wasn't sure whoseside the woman was on.He started to say something,to Siewen, but a great feel-ing of heaviness came over him. ,His legs collapsed; theimpact half-stunned him. He rolled over painfully, andwas able to see that nearly everyone else was on the flooralso. The heaviness increased."This tells us where we are. Barton," Doktor Siewensaid, in great strain. "Or where we are not. You knowwhat is this? Artificial gravity, it has to be."Barton tried to shake the moths out of his brain. "Howabout just straight acceleration? I mean, on a spaceshipthing you could get that, couldn't you?""On a spaceship with a room this big," said Siewen,"who could bother to disturb the navigation, only to stopa little squabble in the zoo?" The heaviness increased intoblackout..,Barton ached all over; someone was shaking him by theshoulder. "Wake up, Barton; wake up." It had to be Dok-tor Siewen, unless the whole thing had been a bad dream,so Barton opened his eyes. It hadn't been a dream, or elseit still was. Standing beside Siewen was a woman, not likeany Barton had ever seen. Barton stood up; she was tallerthan he and very slim."Barton, this is Limila," Siewen said. "You can see, sheis not the type human we grow on our world." Limilasmiled; her teeth were small, and by Barton's standards,too many. She held out a hand for him to shake; it hadan extra finger. A glance downward showed a pair of six-toed feet. The nails of both toes and fingers were thickand pointed, clawlike."Hello, Barton. Yes?" she said."Hello, Limila. Yes." Her hair was odd. It was per-fectly good shiny black hair, twisted up into a knot at thecrown of her head, but forward of her ears it did notgrow. The front hairline began above one ear and wentstraight up and over to the other; Barton recalled an oldmovie of Bette Davis playing Queen Elizabeth I. In com-pensation, at the back it grew solidly down to the base ofthe neck. Like she's slipped her wig. Barton thought be-fore he got his thoughts back on track. "Where's she from,Doc?""We can't yet talk such technical data,*' Siewen said."But Limila has been captured a longer time, was in an-other group with English-speakers, has fantastic talent oflinguistics to learn as far as she has.""Does she�" He turned to Limila. "Do you knowwhat any of this is all about?" Her breasts were wrong.Not in shape, but set very low and wide on the ribcage."We are have by the Demu, I think," she said. "Noone know what happen then. No one come back." Shelooked away, her eyes half-closed, apparently losing inter-est in the discussion."What's a Demu?" Barton asked. She didn't answer,and in a moment walked away."Now what's wrong with herT*"We were talking before," Siewen said. ^You were notawake for a long time. Barton; finally I worried you werenot all right. But Limila told me of the Demu. Likely shedid not feel to repeat herself."The Tilari, Limila's people, have star travel," he con-tinued. "They are not what you call easy to the mark.They trade with other races and have respect from all.But the Demu raid the Tilari or anyone else; they takepeople and there is the end of it. They come from no-where and go back the same way.""Hell, somebody must know something about them,"Barton growled. He was getting a little tired of being toldhow invincible the Demu were, because he didn't wantto have to believe it."They are seldom seen. They have unconsciousness de-vices, which also derange memory function for a time,and other ways not to be noticed. They could have slepteveryone here without the gravity if wanting to; thatlikely was for threat, to make us to behave better.""Or maybe just plain sadism," Barton said. "I think Tdlike to meet one of them sometime without his magicgadget. Anybody know what they look like?""A small ship of them, raiding scout perhaps, crashedon Tilara very long time ago. All were killed. The Tilarijust began to study the wreck and the dead ones; thenmust have come another ship. The wreck and dead onesgone, also all but two Tilari in the study group. The twohad gone for food supplies and needed instruments.""At least somebody lucked out," Barton said. "Sowhat's their report?""I said, a long time ago. Barton. It is all vague, veryvague by now; Limila has only read it in her schoolingas a child."She says they were roughly human shape and size.Hard like stone to the touch. She thinks they have not thefeatures of face and other things-real people have. But theDemu think they are the only real people.""How can anybody know that?""Demu picture record, seen by the two Tilari nottaken," said Siewen. "With sound-capsules, from whi... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl lemansa.htw.pl
Cage a ManFOR ELINORA Cage There WasThe ceiling above him was low and gray; Barton's firstthought was. What am I doing in the drunk tank? On sec-ond thought it didn't stink like a drunk tank, and Bartonwas far enough awake to know that he was not hung over.So he sat up and looked around. The first thing he noticedwas that he was naked, along with everybody else. If thiswere a drunk tank, it had to be the first coeducationalnude drunk tank in his limited experience.He could make no guess as to .where he was, or why.Presumably there was some other place he'd rather be,somewhere he belonged�but when he tried to think ofone he drew a blank. Briefly, he wondered why the lackdidn't bother him.He seemed to be the only person awake; at least no oneelse was sitting up. Looking, Barton estimated about fiftypersons sprawled in the room, neither crowded nor widelyseparated in a space about twenty-five feet square. Hestood, and found the ceiling claustrophobically low: notmuch over six feet, clearing his head by a few inches butheavy'-heavy-hanging over it. He didn't like that.Floor and walls were gray, as well as the ceiling. Sol-idly. There were no openings that he could see, anywhere.There was light, a little yellowish, but no visible sources;the light was simply there. The gray surfaces were notluminous and the air did not glow. Barton skipped that;it wasn't important. What was important was that he hadto take a leak.No place. He stepped gingerly over and around thesleeping bodies, noting little about them except that theybreathed. When he accidentally touched one, it was warm.The floor was at body temperature also, with a slight de-gree of "give." After exploring the room thoroughly. Bar-ton was faced with the fact that it was not only solid butseamless. Yet the air (warm, like the floor) was fresh andclean. It seemed to move against him gently from all di-rections, though be could detect no gross air currents.He still had to pee. Going to one comer of the room,he considerately rolled the nearest occupant out of splash-ing range and faced the corner. At first he couldn't do it;all the times he'd stood in line (at theaters during inter-mission, at overcrowded facilities in tourist haunts), withimpatient others waiting behind him, came up to clampthe sphincter tight. Waiting, he finally relaxed and theflow came. The interesting thing was that at the floor itsimply disappeared: no splash or gurgle. The floor mightas well not have been there. It looked dry, felt dry (Bar-ton felt it) and had no telltale smell at all (Barton smelledit).He had a sudden wild thought that perhaps the wholeroom was an illusion, and gathered a few bruises tryingto launch himself through the floor, a wall, and even theceiling, before he decided that in this case liquids had cer-tain advantages over solids. His guess might be wrong, heknew, but that didn't mean it was stupid.Other people were beginning to wake, sit up and evenmove around. Barton realized that he hadn't paid enoughattention to the resident population, of which he wasperhaps 2 percent. So he stood quietly in bis corner andlooked.The people ranged from ordinary to exotic, in Barton'sview. Some were as usual as anyone can be among somefifty naked persons in a sealed room. Others were notablefor such things as highly stylized patterns of tattooing,possible cosmetic surgery, and selective depilation. Stillothers,. Barton thought, must have come out of a freakshow. Some of them be found hard to believe, but therethey were. The frightening thing, though, was that thesepeople were beginning to speak among themselves, andwhile Barton spoke French and a little German, and couldrecognize several other languages, he heard not one famil-iar word from anyone near him. Well, yes�there wasone over therel"Anybody here speak ENGLISH?" he bawled out sud-denly. From the far side of the room came a "YES." Ac-cented, but unmistakable. Barton began shouldering hisway toward the sound, shouting "ENGLISH" now andthen as a navigational aid."English" turned out to be a Doktor Siewen, a tall wiryman with a great bushy shock of white hair, and somealarming ideas. He and Barton traded names and shookhands, the ritual prelude to any constructive activity be-tween strangers."I know considerable languages, Barton," said Siewen,"and some of them I hear in this place, but not many.Also I hear people talking in languages I didn't think ex-ist.""I thought I knew a lot of ethnic types, myself, butsome of these people don't look like anything I've everseen, even in pictures."'There is also that," Doktor Siewen began, but Justthen he and Barton were knocked apart. A woman pushedbetween them; two men were chasing her. There werestrangenesses about all three. One man caught her; thetwo sank to the floor together in tight embrace. But thesecond man came upon them, kicking and clawing; soonall three were battling viciously. Barton wasn't sure whoseside the woman was on.He started to say something,to Siewen, but a great feel-ing of heaviness came over him. ,His legs collapsed; theimpact half-stunned him. He rolled over painfully, andwas able to see that nearly everyone else was on the flooralso. The heaviness increased."This tells us where we are. Barton," Doktor Siewensaid, in great strain. "Or where we are not. You knowwhat is this? Artificial gravity, it has to be."Barton tried to shake the moths out of his brain. "Howabout just straight acceleration? I mean, on a spaceshipthing you could get that, couldn't you?""On a spaceship with a room this big," said Siewen,"who could bother to disturb the navigation, only to stopa little squabble in the zoo?" The heaviness increased intoblackout..,Barton ached all over; someone was shaking him by theshoulder. "Wake up, Barton; wake up." It had to be Dok-tor Siewen, unless the whole thing had been a bad dream,so Barton opened his eyes. It hadn't been a dream, or elseit still was. Standing beside Siewen was a woman, not likeany Barton had ever seen. Barton stood up; she was tallerthan he and very slim."Barton, this is Limila," Siewen said. "You can see, sheis not the type human we grow on our world." Limilasmiled; her teeth were small, and by Barton's standards,too many. She held out a hand for him to shake; it hadan extra finger. A glance downward showed a pair of six-toed feet. The nails of both toes and fingers were thickand pointed, clawlike."Hello, Barton. Yes?" she said."Hello, Limila. Yes." Her hair was odd. It was per-fectly good shiny black hair, twisted up into a knot at thecrown of her head, but forward of her ears it did notgrow. The front hairline began above one ear and wentstraight up and over to the other; Barton recalled an oldmovie of Bette Davis playing Queen Elizabeth I. In com-pensation, at the back it grew solidly down to the base ofthe neck. Like she's slipped her wig. Barton thought be-fore he got his thoughts back on track. "Where's she from,Doc?""We can't yet talk such technical data,*' Siewen said."But Limila has been captured a longer time, was in an-other group with English-speakers, has fantastic talent oflinguistics to learn as far as she has.""Does she�" He turned to Limila. "Do you knowwhat any of this is all about?" Her breasts were wrong.Not in shape, but set very low and wide on the ribcage."We are have by the Demu, I think," she said. "Noone know what happen then. No one come back." Shelooked away, her eyes half-closed, apparently losing inter-est in the discussion."What's a Demu?" Barton asked. She didn't answer,and in a moment walked away."Now what's wrong with herT*"We were talking before," Siewen said. ^You were notawake for a long time. Barton; finally I worried you werenot all right. But Limila told me of the Demu. Likely shedid not feel to repeat herself."The Tilari, Limila's people, have star travel," he con-tinued. "They are not what you call easy to the mark.They trade with other races and have respect from all.But the Demu raid the Tilari or anyone else; they takepeople and there is the end of it. They come from no-where and go back the same way.""Hell, somebody must know something about them,"Barton growled. He was getting a little tired of being toldhow invincible the Demu were, because he didn't wantto have to believe it."They are seldom seen. They have unconsciousness de-vices, which also derange memory function for a time,and other ways not to be noticed. They could have slepteveryone here without the gravity if wanting to; thatlikely was for threat, to make us to behave better.""Or maybe just plain sadism," Barton said. "I think Tdlike to meet one of them sometime without his magicgadget. Anybody know what they look like?""A small ship of them, raiding scout perhaps, crashedon Tilara very long time ago. All were killed. The Tilarijust began to study the wreck and the dead ones; thenmust have come another ship. The wreck and dead onesgone, also all but two Tilari in the study group. The twohad gone for food supplies and needed instruments.""At least somebody lucked out," Barton said. "Sowhat's their report?""I said, a long time ago. Barton. It is all vague, veryvague by now; Limila has only read it in her schoolingas a child."She says they were roughly human shape and size.Hard like stone to the touch. She thinks they have not thefeatures of face and other things-real people have. But theDemu think they are the only real people.""How can anybody know that?""Demu picture record, seen by the two Tilari nottaken," said Siewen. "With sound-capsules, from whi... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]