Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent Read Online Free PDF Page B

Book: Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent Read Online Free PDF
Author: Stephen Baxter
replicators in the soil, to make it
lifeless.’ Their ultimate goal had been to wipe off the native
ecology, to make the Earth uninhabited save for humans and the
blue-green algae of the oceans, which would become great tanks of
nutrient to feed their living Spline ships. ’No amount of scraping
with hoes is going to make the dirt green in a hurry.’
    ’We have to support the Coalition,’ said Ingre. ’It’s the way
forward for mankind.’
    Pash wasn’t listening to either of them. He said, ’You’d never get
in the Army, but those Green Guards are the gang to join. Most of
them are pretty dumb; you can see that. A smart operator could rise
pretty fast.’
    They spoke like this only in brief snatches. There was always a
collaborator about, always a spy ready to sell a story to the Guards
for a bit of food.
     
    The cuts began.
    It was as if the Coalition believed that starvation would motivate
the new shock troops of its uninterrupted revolution. Or perhaps they
simply weren’t managing the food stocks competently. Soon the first
signs of malnutrition appeared, swollen bellies among the
children.
    Rala had always kept her handful of replicator dust, from her old
cell in the Conurbation. Now she found a hidden corner by the
Conurbation walls, where she dug out the earth and sprinkled in a
little of her dust. Still nothing happened.
    One day Pash caught her doing experiments like this. By now he had
fulfilled his ambition to become a Green Guard. The former trader had
donned the green armband of his enemies with shameless ease.
    She said, ’Will you turn me in?’
    ’Why should I?’
    ’Because I’m trying to use Qax technology. This action is
doctrinally invalid.’
    He shrugged. ’You saved my life.’
    ’Anyhow,’ she said, ’it’s not working.’
    He frowned and poked at the dirt. ’Do you know anything about this
kind of technology? We used a human version in the Port Sol’s life
support - cruder than this, of course. Nanotech manipulates matter at
the molecular or atomic levels.’
    ’It turns waste into food.’
    ’Yes. But people seem to think it’s a magic dust, that you just
throw at a heap of garbage to turn it into diamonds and steak.’
    ’Diamonds? Steak?’
    ’Never mind. There is nothing magic about this stuff. Nanotech is
like biology. To >grow<, a nanotech product needs nutrients,
and energy. On Sol we used a nutrient bath. This Qax stuff is more
robust, and can draw what it needs from the environment, if it gets a
chance.’
    She thought about that. ’You mean I have to feed it, like a
plant.’
    ’There is a lot of chemical energy stored in the environment. You
can tap it slowly but efficiently, like plants or bacteria, or burn
it rapidly but inefficiently, like a fire. This Qax technology is
smart stuff; it releases energy more swiftly than biological cells
but more efficiently than a fire. In principle a nano-sown field
ought to do better than a biologically planted crop…’
    She failed to understand many of the words he was using. Though
she pressed him to explain further, to help her, he was too busy.
    Meanwhile Ingre, Rala’s cadre sibling, became a problem.
    Despite her ideological earnestness she was weak and ineffectual,
and hated the work in the fields. A drone supervisor, a collaborator,
one of her own people, punished Ingre more efficiently than any Guard
would have done. And when that didn’t work in motivating Ingre to
work better, she cut off Ingre’s food ration.
    After that Ingre just lay on her bunk. At first she complained, or
railed, or cried. But she grew weaker, and lay silent. Rala tried to
share her own food. But there wasn’t enough; she was going hungry
herself.
    Rala grew desperate. She realised that the Guards, in their brutal
incompetence, were actually going to allow Ingre to die, as they had
many others. She could think of only one way of getting more
food.
    She wasn’t sexually inexperienced; even the Qax hadn’t been able
to extirpate that.
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