[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Falling forever in the nothingness, they suddenly realized that a new element
was forming, a something beyond shape, beyond the ability of even the Higher
Races behind them to truly comprehend.
He comes, the thought said, and it was all.
Spirals of silver, green, and violet, like spider's webs, shot from him who
still could be only glimpsed, a darkness beyond darkness, a creature spawned
Page 201
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
in a cosmos whose rules they were unable to comprehend. Strange, overpowering
foul odors hit them all although they were sealed in their suits; great
menacing balls of incredible smoothness struck all around them, bouncing here
and there, coming very close.
Some of its rules ...
RED for the rage at what they would do to those if left free. YELLOW for the
faith that sustained those who would oppose them. BLUE for the knowledge
needed to fight them.
But ...
The colors sprang from the three; red, blue, and yellow gold, swirled around
them, energized them, transfigured them in all ways.
They grew and spread mighty wings of force, controlling their position and
descent. Off the Seal now, under it, behind it, using it as both shield and
weapon, pressing forward, making the Seal their one mighty thought forcing out
all others, creating before them a solid, impenetrable juggernaut and pressing
forward, not falling now but in motion, in controlled, confident flight. Homo
in excelsis, united, powerful, balanced, supreme!
The black coldness of pure Will, tempered not by pity, or sympathy, nor
tainted by morality, love or hate, beauty or ugliness, pushed against them, a
solid wall of smooth, shiny blackness, in which all colors were combined as
one having equal value and thus canceled themselves out. A terrible,
machine-like blackness, Reason without Feeling, immense, monolithic, alone.
Anticipating that this was the attack he had to fight off but had not thought
it necessary to fight this time, the Engineer's tactic was to attempt to
absorb their radiations. The shield of the Seal, however, glowed a perfect
white, reflecting back all of the blackness and enveloping within its
contrails the three who pushed it on.
Black pentagrams spit from the receding wall of darkness, some bouncing
harmlessly off the shield, others swooping and swerving in and out and about
attempting to snare just one of them, to unbalance the shield and turn it so
that blackness could overwhelm it. To those attacks they returned the circle
and the star; centered on the pentagrams they set them spinning dizzily out of
control, containing the blackness of the pentagram within and rendering it
harmless.
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20...%20Marathon%203%20-%20Ninety%
20Trillion%20.txt (212 of 217) [1/19/03 4:43:37 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Quintara%20
Marathon%203%20-%20Ninety%20Trillion%20.txt
The battle raged, each side in near constant thrust and parry, but as it raged
they tired as well, and as it raged the Engineer kept falling back. Soon it
became obvious that the three would tire while the Engineer had no such
limitations, and it was a matter of not tiring too greatly or too soon before
the Engineer fell to the Hatch.
The Engineer, too, understood this. From the expanse of his transdimensional
realm he fashioned weapon after weapon, hurling them again and again as if in
hope that numbers would make up for lack of direction, forcing them to
counter, counter, counter again and again, tiring them beyond their ability to
sustain the push of the attack.
They passed beyond what they thought was their limit, pain and nausea racking
them, their colors fading and with that their maneuverability and their
ability to fend off the constant attacks and keep the shield fully energized
as the pure white the logic of this place required.
How long had it been? How long must they go on? How long could they go on?
Only the faces, the dead faces, kept them going now, the faces that floated
past. . .
.
Manya, and Savin, and Morok the Holy Ladue . . .
Page 202
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Robokuk, and Desereth, and Josef, too, and Tris and the Durquist and Jimmy
McCray. . . .
And beyond them the other faces, the pleading faces, the faces looking into
the pit of horrors. Terran faces, and Rithian, too, and Gnolls, Mesoks,
Julkis, Thions, and hundreds more. Ninety trillion, but not strong; ninety
trillion and uncountable futures for their children and grandchildren until
the very universe was dead, and darkness enveloped all those shining lights
around them, all those tiny galaxies and supergalaxies and megagalaxies and
beyond. ...
Even now Quintara-led fleets bore down on them, on the Holy Worlds of the
Mizlaplan, upon the very capital of the Exchange, upon the great ringed mother
world of the Mycohl.
There would be no second chance. If the Engineer escaped from this he would
join those fleets, energize them, envelop all before them in his darkness and
engulf them in the Nothing. Even if they fought off the attacks, others would
come, again and again, as numerous and infinite as the pentagrams thrown at
them, until at least one bastion fell.
The grid appeared suddenly: green lines of force representing they knew not
what, yet it was familiar to them. The harder blackness, the creatures of the
spaces of the grid, reached out for them and then retreated as if receiving
horrible shocks.
They turned leftward and into the spiral sinister that led down, down, to the
city below.
Now the narrowing that had so blocked their path became their ally; there was
less space for pentagrams to get past the Seal, and diminishing all the time.
Now the shield was virtually touching the walls, burning, scouring the
foulness that dwelt within those places. The sight of it and the break it gave
them infused them with renewed energy reserves from places they hadn't
suspected were there.
Suddenly they burst out and the great city was below them; now the Engineer
reached out, called his minions to his aid, and the city was suddenly ablaze
with activity. It did not matter; the fall was now too short. The Engineer
plunged into the whirling eye of energy at the edge of the city and sank
beneath
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20...%20Marathon%203%20-%20Ninety%
20Trillion%20.txt (213 of 217) [1/19/03 4:43:37 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Quintara%20
Marathon%203%20-%20Ninety%20Trillion%20.txt it, and they followed.
Beyond was an outer darkness, a place that had no rules or reason, a place
into which the bright energy drained. The Engineer plunged through to that
place, but the three were stopped by the Seal, which struck the opening and
stuck there, setting the whole great pool of energy ablaze with a bright white
glow.
They rested a moment, bathing in the glow, exulting in the victory, but the
job was not yet finished. Connectors, conductors of pure force dipped into the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szkicerysunki.xlx.pl
Falling forever in the nothingness, they suddenly realized that a new element
was forming, a something beyond shape, beyond the ability of even the Higher
Races behind them to truly comprehend.
He comes, the thought said, and it was all.
Spirals of silver, green, and violet, like spider's webs, shot from him who
still could be only glimpsed, a darkness beyond darkness, a creature spawned
Page 201
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
in a cosmos whose rules they were unable to comprehend. Strange, overpowering
foul odors hit them all although they were sealed in their suits; great
menacing balls of incredible smoothness struck all around them, bouncing here
and there, coming very close.
Some of its rules ...
RED for the rage at what they would do to those if left free. YELLOW for the
faith that sustained those who would oppose them. BLUE for the knowledge
needed to fight them.
But ...
The colors sprang from the three; red, blue, and yellow gold, swirled around
them, energized them, transfigured them in all ways.
They grew and spread mighty wings of force, controlling their position and
descent. Off the Seal now, under it, behind it, using it as both shield and
weapon, pressing forward, making the Seal their one mighty thought forcing out
all others, creating before them a solid, impenetrable juggernaut and pressing
forward, not falling now but in motion, in controlled, confident flight. Homo
in excelsis, united, powerful, balanced, supreme!
The black coldness of pure Will, tempered not by pity, or sympathy, nor
tainted by morality, love or hate, beauty or ugliness, pushed against them, a
solid wall of smooth, shiny blackness, in which all colors were combined as
one having equal value and thus canceled themselves out. A terrible,
machine-like blackness, Reason without Feeling, immense, monolithic, alone.
Anticipating that this was the attack he had to fight off but had not thought
it necessary to fight this time, the Engineer's tactic was to attempt to
absorb their radiations. The shield of the Seal, however, glowed a perfect
white, reflecting back all of the blackness and enveloping within its
contrails the three who pushed it on.
Black pentagrams spit from the receding wall of darkness, some bouncing
harmlessly off the shield, others swooping and swerving in and out and about
attempting to snare just one of them, to unbalance the shield and turn it so
that blackness could overwhelm it. To those attacks they returned the circle
and the star; centered on the pentagrams they set them spinning dizzily out of
control, containing the blackness of the pentagram within and rendering it
harmless.
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20...%20Marathon%203%20-%20Ninety%
20Trillion%20.txt (212 of 217) [1/19/03 4:43:37 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Quintara%20
Marathon%203%20-%20Ninety%20Trillion%20.txt
The battle raged, each side in near constant thrust and parry, but as it raged
they tired as well, and as it raged the Engineer kept falling back. Soon it
became obvious that the three would tire while the Engineer had no such
limitations, and it was a matter of not tiring too greatly or too soon before
the Engineer fell to the Hatch.
The Engineer, too, understood this. From the expanse of his transdimensional
realm he fashioned weapon after weapon, hurling them again and again as if in
hope that numbers would make up for lack of direction, forcing them to
counter, counter, counter again and again, tiring them beyond their ability to
sustain the push of the attack.
They passed beyond what they thought was their limit, pain and nausea racking
them, their colors fading and with that their maneuverability and their
ability to fend off the constant attacks and keep the shield fully energized
as the pure white the logic of this place required.
How long had it been? How long must they go on? How long could they go on?
Only the faces, the dead faces, kept them going now, the faces that floated
past. . .
.
Manya, and Savin, and Morok the Holy Ladue . . .
Page 202
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Robokuk, and Desereth, and Josef, too, and Tris and the Durquist and Jimmy
McCray. . . .
And beyond them the other faces, the pleading faces, the faces looking into
the pit of horrors. Terran faces, and Rithian, too, and Gnolls, Mesoks,
Julkis, Thions, and hundreds more. Ninety trillion, but not strong; ninety
trillion and uncountable futures for their children and grandchildren until
the very universe was dead, and darkness enveloped all those shining lights
around them, all those tiny galaxies and supergalaxies and megagalaxies and
beyond. ...
Even now Quintara-led fleets bore down on them, on the Holy Worlds of the
Mizlaplan, upon the very capital of the Exchange, upon the great ringed mother
world of the Mycohl.
There would be no second chance. If the Engineer escaped from this he would
join those fleets, energize them, envelop all before them in his darkness and
engulf them in the Nothing. Even if they fought off the attacks, others would
come, again and again, as numerous and infinite as the pentagrams thrown at
them, until at least one bastion fell.
The grid appeared suddenly: green lines of force representing they knew not
what, yet it was familiar to them. The harder blackness, the creatures of the
spaces of the grid, reached out for them and then retreated as if receiving
horrible shocks.
They turned leftward and into the spiral sinister that led down, down, to the
city below.
Now the narrowing that had so blocked their path became their ally; there was
less space for pentagrams to get past the Seal, and diminishing all the time.
Now the shield was virtually touching the walls, burning, scouring the
foulness that dwelt within those places. The sight of it and the break it gave
them infused them with renewed energy reserves from places they hadn't
suspected were there.
Suddenly they burst out and the great city was below them; now the Engineer
reached out, called his minions to his aid, and the city was suddenly ablaze
with activity. It did not matter; the fall was now too short. The Engineer
plunged into the whirling eye of energy at the edge of the city and sank
beneath
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20...%20Marathon%203%20-%20Ninety%
20Trillion%20.txt (213 of 217) [1/19/03 4:43:37 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Quintara%20
Marathon%203%20-%20Ninety%20Trillion%20.txt it, and they followed.
Beyond was an outer darkness, a place that had no rules or reason, a place
into which the bright energy drained. The Engineer plunged through to that
place, but the three were stopped by the Seal, which struck the opening and
stuck there, setting the whole great pool of energy ablaze with a bright white
glow.
They rested a moment, bathing in the glow, exulting in the victory, but the
job was not yet finished. Connectors, conductors of pure force dipped into the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]