and leggens … and … everything? Gone! All gone!” Duster pressed his fist to his temples. Like some mad animal, he spun in circles.
Celester played the symbols on his chest. A light mist was seen to fall out of the cloud above. It fell only on Duster; it glistened on his hair. He stopped spinning around and became quiet and calm. Soon he came back to his place next to Justice and did not take his eyes from Celester.
You still think it’s all right to tranquilize them? Thomas traced to Justice.
Before she could reply, Celester was speaking to them.
“The Currand XVII and Gler XII, whom Hellal IX calls Siv and Glass, have gone with their kinds. They are doing well, more so than this Hellal, who is interrupted in his progress by your being here with him. This is no criticism of you four. You may stay in Sona as long as you wish. It is the fact of the matter.”
We should get out of here, traced Thomas. Leave Duster and the others to get back in the groove of things. They’ll have enough to eat and they won’t ever have to swallow any more dust.
This can’t be the end of it, Justice traced. She was thinking, This can’t be all I’m here for. Is Sona a good place? It appears to be. But so many duplicates!
I’m not ready to go yet, finally she traced to Thomas.
You make me sick! You don’t have any right to keep us here!
Thomas, I’m sorry. Please, just a while longer. Firmly she closed her mind to her brother.
Carefully she spoke to Celester. “A while ago you said you weren’t sure you could create life. How can you not be sure?”
“I meant that we have never needed to create from nothing,” he toned. “We begin with some genetic material, however little.”
“Then your kind are not gods,” she said.
“Not us,” he toned with a stirring of powerful rhythms, “but perhaps the Starters were.”
He began a singsong that had equal soundings of wonder and regret at so much that had come and gone.
“Let us speak of the evolutionary process that awakened Starters,” Celester toned. “We believe their antecedents existed from the beginning of humanity on the earth. We believe the seers had genetic gifts which lay dormant until the time such power would be most useful. Each generation had its descendant seers, until the final time of danger to humanity. That was the time of the ultimate catastrophe, when the end of life on earth was more than possible. It was probable.”
He toned in solemn plainsong, “It began with highest technology and majestic nature. Who could guess that such disparate elements would combine in devastation?
“Far-reaching advances in technology used up reservoirs of the world’s resources. Armies of unskilled and out-of-work came into existence. Abundant use of nuclear fusion and fission energies and of sun energy we call solarity were achieved goals. But energies were expensive, using enormous amounts of power and water. Producers sold the technology and the energies to whoever could afford them.
“There was anger,” toned Celester. “Half the world had no resources by then and could not afford expensive energies. Thus, they used forest lands for fuel. Many lands died.
“There was a flaw,” sang Celester. “Oh, it was not the poor with nothing. It was the enlightened rest who had too much. They were overwhelmed by the numbers of the poor. They could discover no profit in giving aid to so many, most of whom would starve and die anyway. ‘They’re too many,’ they said. ‘Let them stop being born.’ Such waste amid scientific advance is incomprehensible. Better that all have less than leave most to perish.
“But so be it. Anger. Hatred. Too many differences. In Africa a drought spread to the Congo basin, where there was no rain for two centuries. Over time, survivors had painstakingly trekked southward where there was green and plenty to support life. But not all life and not forever. When the weight of the living became too great on limited resources,
Celester played the symbols on his chest. A light mist was seen to fall out of the cloud above. It fell only on Duster; it glistened on his hair. He stopped spinning around and became quiet and calm. Soon he came back to his place next to Justice and did not take his eyes from Celester.
You still think it’s all right to tranquilize them? Thomas traced to Justice.
Before she could reply, Celester was speaking to them.
“The Currand XVII and Gler XII, whom Hellal IX calls Siv and Glass, have gone with their kinds. They are doing well, more so than this Hellal, who is interrupted in his progress by your being here with him. This is no criticism of you four. You may stay in Sona as long as you wish. It is the fact of the matter.”
We should get out of here, traced Thomas. Leave Duster and the others to get back in the groove of things. They’ll have enough to eat and they won’t ever have to swallow any more dust.
This can’t be the end of it, Justice traced. She was thinking, This can’t be all I’m here for. Is Sona a good place? It appears to be. But so many duplicates!
I’m not ready to go yet, finally she traced to Thomas.
You make me sick! You don’t have any right to keep us here!
Thomas, I’m sorry. Please, just a while longer. Firmly she closed her mind to her brother.
Carefully she spoke to Celester. “A while ago you said you weren’t sure you could create life. How can you not be sure?”
“I meant that we have never needed to create from nothing,” he toned. “We begin with some genetic material, however little.”
“Then your kind are not gods,” she said.
“Not us,” he toned with a stirring of powerful rhythms, “but perhaps the Starters were.”
He began a singsong that had equal soundings of wonder and regret at so much that had come and gone.
“Let us speak of the evolutionary process that awakened Starters,” Celester toned. “We believe their antecedents existed from the beginning of humanity on the earth. We believe the seers had genetic gifts which lay dormant until the time such power would be most useful. Each generation had its descendant seers, until the final time of danger to humanity. That was the time of the ultimate catastrophe, when the end of life on earth was more than possible. It was probable.”
He toned in solemn plainsong, “It began with highest technology and majestic nature. Who could guess that such disparate elements would combine in devastation?
“Far-reaching advances in technology used up reservoirs of the world’s resources. Armies of unskilled and out-of-work came into existence. Abundant use of nuclear fusion and fission energies and of sun energy we call solarity were achieved goals. But energies were expensive, using enormous amounts of power and water. Producers sold the technology and the energies to whoever could afford them.
“There was anger,” toned Celester. “Half the world had no resources by then and could not afford expensive energies. Thus, they used forest lands for fuel. Many lands died.
“There was a flaw,” sang Celester. “Oh, it was not the poor with nothing. It was the enlightened rest who had too much. They were overwhelmed by the numbers of the poor. They could discover no profit in giving aid to so many, most of whom would starve and die anyway. ‘They’re too many,’ they said. ‘Let them stop being born.’ Such waste amid scientific advance is incomprehensible. Better that all have less than leave most to perish.
“But so be it. Anger. Hatred. Too many differences. In Africa a drought spread to the Congo basin, where there was no rain for two centuries. Over time, survivors had painstakingly trekked southward where there was green and plenty to support life. But not all life and not forever. When the weight of the living became too great on limited resources,
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