02 Quetzals Flock

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QUETZAL'S FLOCK stripped off the Kous and waded in. Hammadi followed suit. It was impossible to sink. It was invigorating and the soreness in the muscles melted away. Hammadi grinned. "I always come here when I go to the Ship." Kane jerked into alertness. "I thought there wasn't any interest in the Ship." "Obeid has brought me here many times - to teach me." "Is there anything to teach?" "Obeid has passed on the Knowledge." "What knowledge?" "The Knowledge of how to work the Ship." He looked as if he was confiding a great secret. "You know how to work the Ship? Do you mean, that you know how to pilot her?" "Her?" "On my world, we always call a ship, her." "Why?" "Damn it! I don't know! You can really pilot the Ship?" "Theoretically, my father. The Ship is non-functional. That is the word Obeid used." "Just what is wrong with the Ship. Was something damaged beyond repair when it landed, or what?" "The Ship is dead! You have to see it to understand." "I can't wait!" Kane was bursting with curiosity. What had he meant by dead? It sounded like a mixture of half forgotten space terminology, correlated with the shattered hulk of a Picun. The question was probably academic. It came back to numbers. The Ship would have accommodated the original crew, with a certain factor allowed for a carefully controlled breeding of the crew members. The people of Jubal would now be numbered in their millions and probably, scattered across the viable areas of the planet. Kane wallowed around thoughtfully, whilst Hammadi waded to the side and stationed himself on a rock shelf. Kane joined him. CHAPTER 11 "How many people live on Jubal, Hammadi?" "How many?" "You must be hundreds, maybe thousands of millions." "I don't understand the word millions." Kane leaned back. It wasn't possible that they didn't have a numbering system! Hammadi had been taught the Knowledge. You couldn't pilot a ship without calculations. "You are one - and I am one - that makes two." "You mean - the Enumeration!" 66
QUETZAL'S FLOCK "I've heard it described more simply! So - What is the Enumeration of the people of Jubal?" "We are not many - perhaps ten to the fourth power." Kane was not all that good at mental arithmetic, he left that sort of thing to the Bole. It took three attempts and he still came up with ten thousand. "That's impossible! You must have a population greater than that. You've lived on Jubal for nearly ten days. You told me that your gestation period is very short and so is your childhood. You're adult long enough to produce thousands of children in a lifetime. You must number more than ten to the fourth power!" "Not so, my father. It's true as you say, we do have a long adulthood, but we don't have that many children born. Our women have the power to wither. It is a capability built into them by the Masters, so that the Ships of the Fleet did not become over-populated during the long journeys between the stars. They do not conceive unless they desire to do so. The discipline of the Ship still applies, the numbers are strictly limited, so that only those are born which we can feed. We love our children. We love and merge our bodies with each other, but we do not breed!" Kane let out his breath slowly. "I admire your self discipline. Was it like that before the Ship, on your Home World?" "The Master of Dreams did not know. We have wandered between the stars for so long, that our memories of the Home World are only legends." It was awe-inspiring, almost frightening. These people were still governed by the discipline of a ship which made an unplanned completion of its journey twenty thousand years earlier. They had been one ship of many. A fleet which had a purpose. Perhaps one of the others had touched on a blue-green planet orbiting a small, yellow sun and had left their seed there, before continuing on their endless journey. Had Hauptmeier been right after all? Had there been four strains of intelligence which had resulted in Homo Sapiens? Kane had found the Feline on Lynxe and Danyk was the classic representative. Now, on Jubal, he had found the Aquiline, the hawk-like - and soon he would seek out Eridos and face his hatred, because he was to be the representative of these people. Kane looked at Hammadi and had the intense wish that it did not have to be Eridos. Hammadi bore the racial characteristics of his mother's people. The high cheekbones; the long, thin nose; lips which were firm and even a little thin; a high brow beneath short, straight hair; small ears, close to the head; his eyes, a little deep set and certainly dark, even though they were as blue as his father's. Kane sighed, there had to be a little of him in this grown man who was his son. Hammadi looked up and found Kane staring at him. Kane didn't look away. Was it wrong to admire his own flesh and blood?" "Tell me, Hammadi. Do you have a woman - and children - and even your children's children?" Hammadi slowly grinned and looked away. "Does my father wish to be old so soon? You may sleep quietly. I have not made you a grandfather - yet! I have a woman, we have loved for over one day, but she has not given me a child. We had intended to wait until after the long sleep, but perhaps we will not be given the time. The Dwarf comes soon and we know we will die with the planet!" "Not if I have anything to say!" Hammadi stared at him calmly and said nothing. Not long after, they rolled into their Kous and Kane stared into the darkened sky. He had no idea how his 67
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK The Tepe Eridos wal
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK the black ocean and
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK which they didn't e
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK Their way led throu
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK "We have none, my L
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK Hammadi exercised h
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK was a pile of beddi
Page 15 and 16: QUETZAL'S FLOCK wouldn't be standin
Page 17 and 18: QUETZAL'S FLOCK He placed the Bole
Page 19 and 20: QUETZAL'S FLOCK called Sol. In some
Page 21 and 22: QUETZAL'S FLOCK you spoke to the pe
Page 23 and 24: QUETZAL'S FLOCK aberrant thought su
Page 25 and 26: QUETZAL'S FLOCK "Tell me, Master of
Page 27 and 28: QUETZAL'S FLOCK "We know about the
Page 29 and 30: QUETZAL'S FLOCK purpose of mating!
Page 31 and 32: QUETZAL'S FLOCK "Quetzal does not o
Page 33 and 34: QUETZAL'S FLOCK CHAPTER 6 It was on
Page 35 and 36: QUETZAL'S FLOCK Kane shook his head
Page 37 and 38: QUETZAL'S FLOCK The brazier flared
Page 39 and 40: QUETZAL'S FLOCK The Flock-mind was
Page 41 and 42: QUETZAL'S FLOCK "They have just bro
Page 43 and 44: QUETZAL'S FLOCK The Sentinel and th
Page 45 and 46: QUETZAL'S FLOCK Urartu continued to
Page 47 and 48: QUETZAL'S FLOCK CHAPTER 8 Dagh expl
Page 49 and 50: QUETZAL'S FLOCK Siyulk. They killed
Page 51 and 52: QUETZAL'S FLOCK "The Lord Quetzal i
Page 53 and 54: QUETZAL'S FLOCK Motya let out a yel
Page 55 and 56: QUETZAL'S FLOCK He held open the te
Page 57 and 58: QUETZAL'S FLOCK "Does that convince
Page 59 and 60: QUETZAL'S FLOCK "Who is Maia?" He f
Page 61 and 62: QUETZAL'S FLOCK Maia had once said
Page 63 and 64: QUETZAL'S FLOCK His face had become
Page 65: QUETZAL'S FLOCK building. The Ship
Page 69 and 70: QUETZAL'S FLOCK Kane didn't have th
Page 71 and 72: QUETZAL'S FLOCK "The Unmentionable
Page 73 and 74: QUETZAL'S FLOCK CHAPTER 12 He woke
Page 75 and 76: QUETZAL'S FLOCK Hammadi had a sligh
Page 77 and 78: QUETZAL'S FLOCK Hammadi stared at h
Page 79 and 80: QUETZAL'S FLOCK Tursac and his part
Page 81 and 82: QUETZAL'S FLOCK Kane stirred and tr
Page 83 and 84: QUETZAL'S FLOCK "It's what! All rig
Page 85 and 86: QUETZAL'S FLOCK He could see that H
Page 87 and 88: QUETZAL'S FLOCK CHAPTER 14 The Ship
Page 89 and 90: QUETZAL'S FLOCK "Now - but once, th
Page 91 and 92: QUETZAL'S FLOCK "The expansion prog
Page 93 and 94: QUETZAL'S FLOCK "Each of the stalls
Page 95 and 96: QUETZAL'S FLOCK Perhaps, they scent
Page 97 and 98: QUETZAL'S FLOCK circulated through
Page 99 and 100: QUETZAL'S FLOCK were in urgent need
Page 101 and 102: QUETZAL'S FLOCK underneath the hood
Page 103 and 104: QUETZAL'S FLOCK which told him that
Page 105 and 106: QUETZAL'S FLOCK will take over the
Page 107 and 108: QUETZAL'S FLOCK CHAPTER 17 The Picu
Page 109 and 110: QUETZAL'S FLOCK The time to talk ca
Page 111 and 112: QUETZAL'S FLOCK Sharta was already
Page 113 and 114: QUETZAL'S FLOCK stay there until th
Page 115 and 116: QUETZAL'S FLOCK been with Hammadi,
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK Kane hammered home
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK "Your future is gov
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK CHAPTER 19 Kane rem
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK acknowledge that a
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK "As always, full of
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK His legs were saggi
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK brushed against the
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK "The Ship must have
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK your threats? Why d
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK CHAPTER 21 He didn'
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK "It's the coming of
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK "Get through the Ar
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK "How can one parley
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK doubt, in anticipat
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK "Tell me about the
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK Ajanta. Meet your b
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK CHAPTER 23 They sat
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK "I wonder at the co
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK "Have you gone dumb
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK eventually give the
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK Obeid had two thous
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK Kane knew the way i
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK "You have called me
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK CHAPTER 25 The ligh
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK part of his psyche
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK With his remaining
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QUETZAL'S FLOCK "So, my dear brothe
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