Darr Veter bent over the chart frame: the strip of map was moving quickly, showing their movement — hadn’t they flown too far north? They had crossed the sixtieth parallel some time before, had passed the junction of the Irtish and the Ob and were approaching the plateau known as the North Siberian Uval or Highlands.
The two travellers had become accustomed to the open country during their four months at the excavation of ancient grave mounds in the hot steppes of the Altai lowlands. It was as though the explorercs of the past had travelled back to times when only occasional small parties of armed horsemen crossed the southern steppes….
Veda turned and pointed ahead without a word. A dark island, seemingly torn off from the earth, was floating in streams of heated air. A few minutes later the platform approached a small hill, probably the slag-heap of what had once been a mine. There was nothing left of the buildings and the pit — just that slag-heap overgrown with wild cherry, The round flying platform suddenly listed.
Darr Veter, acting like an automaton, seized Veda by the waist and jumped to the opposite, rising side of the platform. It straightened out for a fraction of a second only to crash down flat at the foot of the hill. The shock absorbers took the shock and the recoil threw Veda Kong and Darr Veter out on to the hill-side where they landed in a clump of stiff bushes. After a minute’s silence the stillness of the steppe was broken by Veda’s low, contralto laugh. Darr Veter tried to picture the look of astonishment on his own scratched face. The moment of surprised stupefaction passed and he joined in Veda’s merriment, glad that she was unharmed and that there were no ill results from the accident.
‘‘There’s a good reason for forbidding these platforms to fly higher than eight metres,” she said with a slight gasp, “now I understand.”
“If anything goes wrong the machine drops down in a second and you have to rely entirely on the shock absorbers. What else can you expect, it’s the price you have to pay for little weight and compactness. I’m afraid we’ll have to pay a still higher price for all the safe flights we’ve had,” said Darr Veter with an indifference that was slightly exaggerated.
“In what way:’“‘ asked Veda, seriously. “The faultless functioning of the stabilizing instruments presupposes very intricate mechanisms. I’m afraid I should need a long time to find out how they work. We’ll have to get away from here in the way the poorest of our ancestors did.”
Veda, with a sly glint in her eyes, held her hand out to Darr Veter and he lifted her out of the bushes with an easy movement. They went down to the wrecked platform, put some healing salve on their scratches and glued up the tears in their clothes. Veda lay down in the shade of a bush and Darr Veter began to study the causes of the mishap. As he had suspected, something had gone wrong with the stabilizer, and it, had cut out the engine. No sooner had Darr Veter opened the lid of the apparatus than he realized that there could be no question of repairing it — it would take him too long to delve into the nature of the intricate electronics before he could even start on it. With a sigh of annoyance he straightened his aching back and glanced at the bush where Veda Kong had curled herself up trustfully. The hot silent steppe, as far as the eye could see, was devoid of people. Two big birds of prey circled over the waving blue mirage of the grass.
The obedient machine had become nothing more than a dead disc that lay helpless on the dry earth. Darr Veter experienced a strange feeling of loneliness, of being cut off from the whole world, something that came from inside him where it had existed apart from his mind in the dull memory of his body’s cells.
Al the same time lie was not afraid of anything. Let night come, the naked eye would see over greater distances and they would certainly see a light somewhere that they could make for. They had been flying without luggage and had not even taken a radiotelephone, torches or food with them.
“There was a time when we could have died in the steppes if we had not had a sufficient supply of food with us… and water!” thought Veter, shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight. He noted a patch of shade under a cherry bush near Veda and stretched himself, carefree, on the ground, the dry grass stalks pricking his body through his light clothing. The soft rustling of the wind and the heat brought forgetfulness, thoughts flowed drowsily, and pictures of long-forgotten days passed slowly, one after another, through his memory, a long procession of ancient peoples, tribes and individuals…. It was as though a gigantic river of time were flowing out of the past, with the events, people and clothes changing every second.
“Veter!” Through his sleepiness he heard the voice of his beloved calling him; awakening he sat up. The red ball of the sun was already touching the darkening horizon and not the slightest breath of wind was to be felt in the still air.
“My Lord Veter,” said Veda playfully bowing before him in imitation of the women of ancient Asia, “would you deem it unworthy to awaken and remember my existence?”
Darr Veter did a few physical jerks to drive away sleep. Veda agreed with his plan to await darkness. Nightfall found them engaged in a lively discussion of their past work. Suddenly Darr Veter noticed that Veda was shivering. Her hands were cold and he realized that her light clothing was not much protection against the cold nights of those high latitudes.
The summer night on the sixtieth parallel was quite light and they were able to gather a fairly large pile of twigs.
An electric spark discharged by the machine’s big accumulator gave Darr Veter fire and the bright flames of burning brushwood soon made the surrounding darkness blacker as it showered its life-giving warmth on the travellers.
Shivering Veda soon opened out again like a flower in the sunlight and the two of them fell into a sort of almost hypnotic reverie. Somewhere deep down in man’s spirit, left over from that hundred thousand years during which fire had been his chief asylum and his salvation, there remained an eradicable sense of comfort and calm that came over man sitting by a fire surrounded by cold and darkness.
“What’s worrying you, Veda?” said Darr Veter, disturbing the silence; there were signs of sorrow in the lines of his companion’s mouth.
“I was thinking of that woman, the one in the kerchief…” answered Veda, quietly, her eyes fixed on the burning embers that were collapsing in a shower of gold.
Darr Veter understood her immediately. The day before their trip on the flying platform they had completed the opening of a big Scythian hiirgan or grave mound. Inside the well-preserved log vault lay the skeleton of an old man, a chieftain; the vault was surrounded by the bones of horses and slaves lying round the fringe of the mound. The old chieftain lay with his sword, shield and armour beside him, and at his feet was the skeleton of a quite young woman in a crouching position. Over the skull lay a silk kerchief that had at some time been tightly wound about her face. Despite all their efforts they had not managed to preserve the kerchief although, before it had fallen to dust, they had succeeded in copying the outlines of the beautiful face impressed on it thousands of years before. The kerchief preserved another awful detail — the imprint of eyes starting out of their sockets; the young woman had undoubtedly been strangled and then thrown into her husband’s tomb to accompany him on his journey into the unknown world beyond the grave. She could not have been more than nineteen, her husband no less than seventy, a ripe old age for those days.
Darr Veter recalled the heated discussion that had taken place between the younger members of Veda’s expedition. Had the woman married him willingly or had she been forced to it? Why? For the sake of what? If she married him for a great and devoted love, why had she been killed instead of being treasured as the best memorial to him in the world he was leaving?
Then Veda Kong spoke. For a long time she had been looking at the grave mound, tier eyes shining, trying to penetrate mentally into the depths of the past.
“Try to understand those people. The great expanse of the steppe was to them really boundless, with horses, camels and oxen as the only means of transport at their disp
osal. These great spaces were inhabited by little groups of nomad herdsmen that not only had nothing to unite them but who were on the contrary, living in constant enmity with one another. Insults and animosity accumulated from generation to generation, every stranger was an enemy, every other tribe was legitimate prey that promised herds and slaves, that is, people who were forced to work under the whip, like cattle…. Such a system of society brought about, on the one liand, greater liberty for the individual in his petty passions and desires than we know and, dialectically, on the other, excessive limitation in relations between people, a terrible narrow-mindedness. If a nation or tribe consisted of a small number of people capable of feeding themselves by hunting and the gathering of fruits, even as free nomads they lived in constant fear of enslavement or anniliilation by their militant neighbours. In cases when the country was isolated and had a big population capable of setting up a powerful military force the people paid for their safety from warlike raids by the loss of their liberty, since despotism and tyranny always developed in such powerful states. This was the case with ancient Egypt, Assyria and Babylon.
“Women, especially if they were beautiful, were the prey and the playthings of the strong. They could not exist without the protection of a man and were completely in his power. If the man who owned them died, nothing was left to them but an unknown and ruthless life at the cruel and greedy hands of another man. Her own will and endeavours meant so little for a woman… so terribly little, that when she was faced with such a life… who knows, perhaps death may have seemed the easier way.” Veda’s ideas created a great impression on the young people. The finds in the Scythian grave mound were some-tiling that Darr Veter, too, would never forget. As though reading his thoughts Veda moved closer and slowly stirred the burning twigs, following with her eyes the blue tongues of flame that ran across the coals.
“What a tremendous amount of courage and fortitude was needed to he oneself in those days, not to become degraded but to make one’s way in life,” Veda Kong said softly.
“It seems to me that we exaggerate the difficulties of life in ancient days,” said Darr Veter. “Quite apart from the fact that people were used to it, the chaotic nature of society was the cause of a variety of incidental happenings. Man’s strength and will-power struck flashes of romantic joy out of that life in the same way as steel strikes sparks from grey stone. I shudder more at the last stages of development of capitalist society, towards the end of the Era of Disunity, when the people, shut up in towns, cut off from nature, exhausted by monotonous labour, grew weaker and more indifferent as they succumbed to widespread diseases.”
“I am also at a loss to understand why it took our ancestors so long to understand the simple fact that the fate of society depended on them alone, that a community is what the moral and ideological development of all its members makes it, that it depends wholly on the economy….”
“The perfect form of scientifically organized society is not merely a quantitative accumulation of productive forces but a qualitative stage in development. It’s all really very simple,” answered Darr Veter. “Furthermore, there is the understanding of dialectical interdependence, that new social relations are as improbable without new people as are the new people without the new economy. When this was realized it led to the greatest attention being paid to education, to the physical and mental development of man. When was this finally realized?”
“In the Era of Disunity, at the end of the Fission Age, soon after the Second Great Revolution.”
“It’s a good thing it didn’t come later! The destructive means of war….”
Darr Veter stopped suddenly and turned towards the open space between the fire and the hill. The thunder of heavy hoofs and panting breath came from somewhere nearby, making the two travellers jump to their feet.
A gigantic black bull appeared before the fire. The flames were reflected in blood-red lights in his wicked rolling eyes. He was snorting and pawing up the dry ground, obviously contemplating an attack. In the feeble light he seemed of gigantic size, his lowered head was like a granite boulder, his mighty withers rose behind it like a mountain of solid muscle. Never before had either Veda Kong or Darr Veter been close to an animal that possessed malicious, death-dealing strength and whose unthinking brain was deaf to the voice of reason.
Veda pressed her hands tightly to her bosom and stood stock still, as though hypnotized by the vision that appeared suddenly out of the darkness. Darr Veter, obeying some powerful instinct, stood in front of the bull to protect Veda as his ancestors had done thousands and thousands of times before him. The hands of the man of the New Era, however, were empty.
“Veda, jump to the right,” lie just managed to say as the bull plunged at them. In their rapidity of action the well-trained bodies of the two travellers were equal to the primeval agility of the bull. The giant flashed past them and crashed into the thicket of bushes and Veda and Darr found themselves in darkness a few paces from the platform. Away from the fire the night did not seem so dark and Veda’s dress could no doubt be seen from some distance. The bull extracted itself from the wild cherry bushes and Darr Veter heaved his companion towards the machine: with well-performed vault she landed on the little platform. While the animal was turning, tearing up the ground with its hoofs, Darr Veter got on to the platform beside Veda. They exchanged hurried glances and in the eyes of his companion Darr saw nothing but frank admiration. He had removed the cover from the motor during the day when he had tried to find out how it worked. Mustering every ounce of strength, he tore the cable of the balancing field from the rail of the platform, put one end under the spring of the accumulator terminal and pushed Veda protectively to one side. In the meantime the bull had its horn under the rail and the machine was swaying dangerously. With a happy grin Darr Veter pushed the end of the cable into the animal’s muzzle. There was a flash of lightning, a dull thud, and the savage beast collapsed in a heap.
“Oh! You’ve killed it!” exclaimed Veda disapprovingly. “I don’t think so, the ground’s dry!” exclaimed the ingenious hero with a smirk of satisfaction. As though in confirmation of his words the bull grunted feebly, got to its feet and, without looking round, staggered off at a trot from the scene of its disgrace. The travellers returned to their fire and another armful of twigs gave new life to the dying embers.
“I don’t feel the cold any more,” said Veda, “let’s climb the hill.”
The top of the hill hid the light of the fire from them and the pale stars of the northern summer formed balls of mist on the horizon.
There was nothing to be seen in the west; in the north, rows of lights, faintly discernible, flickered on the slopes of some hills; in the south burned the bright star of a herdsmen’s watch tower, also a long way off.
“Too bad, we’ll have to walk all night,” muttered Darr Veter.
“No, look over there!” Veda pointed to the east where four lights placed in the form of a square, had flashed on suddenly. They were only a couple of miles away. Taking note of the direction by the stars they returned to the fire. Veda Kong stopped for a while before the dying embers as though trying to remember something.
“Farewell to our home,” she said contemplatively. “The nomads probably had such homes as this all the time, uncertain and short-lived. Today I have become a woman of that epoch.”
She turned to Darr Veter and put her arm trustingly round his neck.
“I felt the need for protection so strongly! I was not afraid, it wasn’t that. But there was some sort of tempting submission to fate… or so it seems.”
Veda placed her hands behind her head and stretched herself gracefully before the fire. A second later her dimming eyes had again acquired their roguish sparkle.
“All right, lead the way… hero!” and the tone of her deep voice became gentle and filled with unfathomable mystery.
The bright night was full of the perfumes of grasses, the rustling of small animals and the cries of night birds. Veda and Darr w
alked cautiously, afraid of falling into some unseen hole or crack in the dry earth. The brush-headed grass stalks stealthily grazed their ankles. Darr Veter looked around vigilantly whenever they came in sight of dark clusters of bushes. Veda laughed softly.
“Perhaps we should have taken the accumulator and I cable with us?”
“You’re thoughtless, Veda,” said Darr Veter good-humouredly, “more so than I thought!”
The young woman suddenly became serious. “ I felt your protection too strongly….”
And Veda began to speak, or rather, to think aloud, about further plans for the work of her expedition. The first stage of the work at the grave mounds in the steppes was finished and her workers had returned to their old employments or were seeking something new. Darr Veter, however, had not chosen another job and was free to follow the woman he loved. Judging by reports that reached them Mven Mass’ work was going well. Even if he had done badly the Council would not have appointed Darr Veter again so soon. In the Great Circle Era it was not thought advisable to keep people too long at any one job. The most valuable possession of man, his creative inspiration, grew weaker and he could only return to an old job after a long break.
“Doesn’t our work seem petty and monotonous to you after six years communion with the Cosmos?”
Veda’s clear and attentive glance was fixed on him. “This isn’t petty or monotonous work,” he objected, “but it certainly doesn’t provide me with that tension to which I am accustomed. I need the strain, otherwise I’ll become too calm and good-natured, as though I were being treated with blue sleep!”
“Blue sleep…” began Veda and the catch in her breath told Darr Veter more than the burning cheeks that he could not see in the dark.
“I’m going to continue my exploration farther to the south," she said, interrupting herself, “but not until I have gathered a new group of volunteer diggers. Until then I am going to take part in the maritime excavations, I have been asked to help there.”
Andromeda (A Space-Age Tale) вк-1 Page 12
