The Tatja Grimm's World
Page 22
“Svir, you aren’t the only one who had his world kicked to pieces.” She laughed, but it was not a happy sound. “I loved Jolle. He manipulated me just as I have all the rest. If I hadn’t been fooled, most of this would not have happened. Cor would be alive.
“But this doesn’t change the fact that I really loved him. Jolle turned out to be evil, but he was also … someone strong, who seemed to like me. Pröfe is a kinder man. But he’s not Jolle.
“I’m going to disappear tonight, for good. So is Pröfe. I won’t go into the details—I’m afraid they wouldn’t be completely intelligible—but Pröfe signaled his vehicle last night, and we have transportation now. I imagine Haarm Wechsler will be quite relieved. The bureaucrats will have to find a Crown Surrogate, but after the way I treated them above O’rmouth, I don’t think they’re interested in having a ruler as unreliable as me. They may even believe I’m something supernatural. Yet everything I did was child’s play.
“Now … I’m so scared. After tonight, everyone I meet will be as smart as me. Once more I’m just a bright animal. Pröfe can’t lie nearly as well as Jolle: Pröfe is really not sure if I’ll ever fit in with his people. I may be lost forever, too bright for this world, too dim for Pröfe’s.”
She faltered. Then her voice filled with forced enthusiasm. “Svir, things are hard for you just now, but see the good that can come: You are going to live through the beginning of the most exciting time in Tu’s history. In the next two hundred years, the people of Tu will move science along to the beginnings of what you have seen with Jolle and Pröfe. No slavers will deny you progress. In three centuries human nature itself will change, and all that went before will have been chrysalis. Your descendants will be like me.”
The bat undid its wings and fluttered to the next flower, ten inches from the first. It was less than fifteen inches from his head.
“You will never see me or Pröfe again … I guess you’re just as happy about that.” The bat turned, and one wing draped down so low that Svir could see the individual blue and orange hairs that composed its fur. “But people like us will never be far away. We can’t give back what was taken from your ancestors, but we will see that your grandchildren regain it. There are many wrong turnings possible. There are pestilences that could kill all life on the planet—if you misuse the discoveries you will make. We will do our best to protect you—in appropriate, undetectable ways.”
Svir’s clenched hands became claws as they flashed up. Tatja, caught his wrists in the first four inches of motion. Her grip was unshakable. And for once she misunderstood his motives. “Please, Svir. I don’t mean protection like you’ve had the last few days. People were killed and ruined because we were fighting a superman, not someone who could be maneuvered.” She looked closely at him. “I hadn’t realized how twisted this has left you. You got caught right in the middle, as I did; but I was their equal—and you were nearly destroyed. If Pröfe had any equipment with him, he could cure you, make you realize that there are still ways out … .
“I take back one thing I said: I will return. Soon. The cure is simple, and I owe you more than that …” She let his hands fall back into his lap, and for a moment her lips brushed his cheek. She stood up slowly, and left the clearing. For several minutes he could hear her moving through the brush, toward the nearest camping area.
His eyes never left the beautiful mammal that moved so delicately on the branch. It had slid along the top of the branch, now edged back under. Its clear black eyes gazed down at him. In a moment …
Svir lunged up to catch the bat in a two-handed crushing blow. But the little animal was too fast, and it flashed from between the approaching hands. It fluttered up through the branches and into the blue spaces above.
Books by Vernor Vinge
*Tatja Grimm’s World
The Witling
*The Peace War
*Marooned in Realtime
Across Realtime
Comprising:
The Peace War
“The Ungoverned”
Marooned in Realtime
*A Fire Upon the Deep
*A Deepness in the Sky
*True Names and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier
*The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge
*Available from Tor Books
CONSCIOUSNESS RETURNED IN PATCHES
There were unpleasant dreams. Something was banging his head; it wasn’t the knock of his alarm clock. They were dragging him feet first, and his head was bouncing off uneven ground. The dream faded to pleasant grayness, then came back in a new form: he was rolling down a hillside, the rocks cutting into his body.
Rey came to rest in foul-tasting water, and wondered if he would drown before he woke up. Strong hands pulled him from the water. Through the ringing in his ears he heard someone say, “There. A moment of sitting should help him catch his breath.”
He coughed weakly and looked around. No more dreams: the nightmare was reality. He was sitting by a shallow pond, near the bottom of a pit. The edge of the pit was ten yards above his head, except on one side, where it broke low and gave a view of the harbor. He was not alone. There were dozens of people here: all that remained of the Science crew. They clustered around their newly fallen companion. Looking up at their faces, Rey saw hope in some, fear and despair in others.
“What happened,” he croaked.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vernor Vinge is a four-time Hugo Award winner (for the novels A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire Upon the Deep, and the novellas Fast Times at Fairmont High and The Cookie Monster) and four-time Nebula finalist. He’s one of the bestselling authors in the field, and has been featured in such venues as Rolling Stone, Wired, The New York Times, Esquire, and on NPR’s Fresh Air.
Highly regarded by scientists, journalists, business leaders—as well as readers—for his concept of the technological singularity, Vinge has spoken all over the world on scientific subjects. For many years a mathematician and computer science professor at San Diego State University, he’s now a full-time writer. He lives in San Diego, California.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
TATJA GRIMM’S WORLD
Copyright © 1987 by Vernor Vinge
Originally published in July 1987 by Baen Books.
Part I appeared in a slightly different form as The Barbarian Princess, copyright © 1986 by Vernor Vinge. in Analog, September 1986.
Part II appeared in a different form as Grimm’s Story, copyright © 1968 by Vernor Vinge, in Damon Knight’s anthology Orbit 4, published by Putnam and Berkley, 1968.
Parts II and III appeared in a different form as Grimm’s World, copyright © 1969 by Vernor Vinge, published by Berkley Books, 1969.
All rights reserved.
Edited by James Frenkel
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
eISBN 9781429915137
First eBook Edition : June 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vinge, Vernor.
Tatja Grimm’s world / Vernor Vinge.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates Book.”
PS3572.I534.T35 2006
813’.54—dc22
2005055944
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