Farmer, Philip Jose World of Tiers 03 A Private Cosmos

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

"No! The scientists accidentally discovered that an unused bell had the potentialities for developing into
an entity. That is, an unused bell was a baby Beller. And if it were talked to, played with, taught to speak,
to identify, to develop its embryonic personality well, it became, not a thing, a mechanical device, but a
person. A rather alien, peculiar person, but still a person."
"In other words," he said, "The framework for housing a human brain could become a brain in its own
right?"
"Yes. The scientists became fascinated. They made a separate project out of raising Bellers. They found
that a Beller could become as complex and as intelligent as an adult Lord. Meanwhile, the original project
was abandoned, although undeveloped Bellers were to be used as receptacles for storing excess
memories of Lords."
Kickaha said, "I think I know what happened."
She continued, "No one knows what really happened. There were ten thousand fully adult Bellers in the
project and a number of baby Bellers. Somehow, a Seller managed to get its needle-antennae into the
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
skull of a Lord. It uncoiled and dematricised the Lord's brain and then transferred itself into the host's
brain. Thereafter, one by one, the other Lords in the project were taken over."
Kickaha had guessed correctly. The Lords had created their own Frankensteins.
"At that time, my ancestors were creating their private custom-made universes," she said. "They were
indeed Lords gods if there ever were any.
80
A PRIVATE COSMOS
The home universe, of course, continued to be the base for the stock population.
"Many of the Sellers in the hosts' bodies managed to get out of the home universe and into the private
universes. By the time that the truth was discovered, it was impossible to know who had or had not been
taken over, there had been so many transfers. Almost ten thousand Lords had been, as it was termed,
'belled.'
"The War of the Black Bellers lasted two hundred years. I was born during this time. By then, most of
the Lord scientists and technicians had been killed. Over half the laymen population was also dead. The
home universe was ravaged. This was the beginning of the end of science and progress and the beginning
of the solipsism of the Lords. The survivors had much power and the devices and machines in their
control. But the understanding of the principles behind the power and the machines was lost.
"Of the ten thousand Bellers, all but fifty were accounted for. The 9,950 were placed inside a universe
specially created for them. This was triple-walled so that nobody could ever get in or out."
"And the missing fifty?"'
"Never found. From then on, the Lords lived in suspicion, on the verge of panic. Yet, there was no
evidence that any Lords were belled. In time, though the panic faded, the missing fifty were not
forgotten."
She held up her right hand. "See this ring? It can detect the bell-housing of a Black Beller when it comes
within twenty feet. It can't detect a Beller who's housed in a host-body, of course. But the Bellers don't
like to be too far from the bells. If
A PRIVATE COSMOS
81
anything should happen to the host-body, a Beller wants to be able to transfer his mind back into the bell
before the body dies.
"The ring, detecting the bell, triggers an alarm device implanted in the brain of the Lord. This alarm
stimulates certain areas of the neural system so that the Lord hears the tolling of a bell. Now, to my
knowledge, the tolling of the alarm bell has not sounded for a little less than ten thousand years. But it
sounded for three of us not two weeks ago. And we knew that the ancient horror was loose."
"The fifty are now accounted for?" he said.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"Not all fifty. At least, I've seen only a few," she replied. "I think what happened is that all fifty must have
been cached together in some universe. They lay in suspended animation for ten millennia. Then some
human, some leb-" She stopped on seeing his expression and then continued, "Some human stumbled
across the cache. He was curious and put one of the bell shapes on his head. And the Beller
automatically extruded the needle-antennae. At the same time, the Beller awoke from his ten thousand
year sleep. It anesthetized the human through his skin so that he wouldn't struggle, bored into the skull
and brain, discharged the human neural configuration and memories, and then transferred itself into the
brain. After that, the human-Beller found hosts for the remaining forty-nine. Then the fifty set out on their
swift and silent campaign."
There was no telling how many universes the Bellers had taken nor how many Lords they had slain or
possessed. They had been unlucky with three: Nimstowl, Judubra, and Anana. She and Nimstowl had
managed to inform Judubra of the situation, and he had permitted them to take re-
82
A PRIVATE COSMOS
fuge in his universe. Only the Black Bellers could have made a Lord forget his perpetual war against
every other Lord. Judubra was resetting his defenses when the enemy burst through. All three Lords had
been forced to gate through to WolfFs palace in this universe.
They had chosen his palace because they had heard that he was now soft and weak; he would not try to
kill them if they were friendly. But the palace seemed to be vacant except for the taloses, the half-metal,
half-protein machines that were servants and guards for Wolff and Chryseis.
"Wolff gone?" Kickaha said. "Chryseis, too? Where?"
"I do not know," Anana said. "We had little time to investigate. We were forced to gate out of the
control room without knowing where we were going. We came out in the Temple of Ollimaml, from
which we fled into the city of Talanac. We were fortunate to run into Clatatol and her gang. Not four
days later, the Drachelanders invaded Talanac. I don't know how the Black Bellers managed to possess
von liirbat, von Swindebarn, and the others."
"They gated through to Dracheland," he said, "and they took over the two kings without the kings'
subjects knowing it, of course. They probably didn't know that I was in Talanac, but they must have
known about me, I suppose, from films and recordings in the palace. They came here after you Lords,
but heard that I was here also and so came after me."
"Why would they want you?"
"Because I know a lot about the secret gates and traps in the palace. For one thing, they won't
A PRIVATE COSMOS
83
be able to get into the armory unless they know the pattern of code-breaking. That's why they wanted
me alive. For the information I had."
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
She asked, "Are there any aircraft in the palace?"
"Wolff never had any."
"I think the Bellers will be bringing in some from my world. But they'll have to dismantle them to get them
through the narrow gates in the palace. Then they'll have to put them together again. But when the
humans see the aircraft, the Bellers will have to do some explaining." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Linki