Dusts of Avalon - Beastwithin.org

III. A E Sa short notice. e Major promised some updates, but that appears to be still asgood as we can get right now.” Daleworth sniffed a bit. “But it looks really weird,don't you agree?”“And the araeologists?” Dr. Grovepath asked.“Let me ask you something, doctor.” Daleworth lowered her elbows on herlap, bending forward on her seat and looking the doctor in his eyes. “I suppose Idon't need to ask an expert like you what the Trojan Horse was, right?”“What about it?” Dr. Grovepath asked.“Care to take guess what I thought was the most interesting part of that legend?”“Well, I can't begin to guess… even the most impractical decoys are oen surprisinglyeffective? Giant wooden horses make good catapult ammunition?”“Well, that's what most field officers might say. And what fruitcakes mightsay, respectively. But when they asked me that question in the very beginning ofmy studies in the Academy, the eggheads who were probing my psye almostput me in the military intelligence tra. Care to guess what I answered, doctor?”“Well, no…” Dr. Grovepath scrated his hair.“e awesome thing about the Trojan Horse is that it told us a lot about theGreeks and Trojans. ink about it.”“Oh yes. You mean mindsets — it tells us what kind of a commander woulduse a giant wooden horse as a tactical ploy, and what kind of a commander mightaccept su gi, or even what kind of a madman would spin su an outlandishtale if they wanted people to believe what really happened in the war…”“Exactly. And the araeologists are here for similar purpose. I'm no expert,again, but doesn't that space station look like some sort of a human fortification?It looks like it's inspired by iron-age or mediaeval fortresses and su.”“Yes, you could say that. So if the Planners built it, that means they've copiedour old fortresses?”“Yes, and that raises only one question: Why? Why did they copy us? Whatthe hell were they thinking? Now, the Planners don't usually make plans like this— they tend to be a bit more straightforward and all — but if they did, this mightreveal a lot about what the Planners know about us, and how they try to deceiveus.” Daleworth straightened up. “Simply put: every nugget of information helpsus understand the Planners, even their most ludicruous plans.”“I see.”“Do you think the Trojan Horse was a ludicruous plan, doctor? Just out ofcuriosity.”“Well, the plan itself, well, that wasn't really su a bad idea, but the liledetails, the lile details… I sometimes wonder how it really turned out.”“What do you mean?”“Well, the thing about myths…” Dr. Grovepath said and thought a while. “e