Marune: Alastor 933 Read Online Free PDF Page B

a road winding aver placid hills, a spaceship.
    “Now another series,” came Ollave’s voice. Pardero saw a campfire surrounded by shadowy figures, a beautiful nude maiden, a corpse dangling from a gibbet, a warrior in black steel armor galloping on a horse, a parade of harlequins and clowns, a sailboat plunging through the waves, three old ladies sitting on a bench.
    “Next, musics.”
    A series of musical sounds entered Pardero’s ears: a pair of chords, several orchestral essays, a fanfare, the music of a harp, a jig, and a merrydown.
    “Now faces.”
    A stern and grizzled man stared at Pardero, a child, a middle-aged woman, a girl, a face twisted into a sneer, a boy laughing, a man in pain, a woman weeping.
    “Vehicles.”
    Pardero saw boats, chariots, landvehicles, aircraft, spaceships.
    “The body.”
    Pardero saw a hand, a face, a tongue, a nose, an abdomen, male and female genital organs, an eye, an open mouth, buttocks, a foot.
    “Places.”
    A cabin beside a lake, a palace of a dozen domes and cupolas in a garden, a wooden hut, an urban tenement, a houseboat, a temple, a laboratory, the mouth of a cave.
    “Objects.”
    A sword, a tree, a coil of rope, a mountain crag, an energy gun, a plow with a shovel and hoe, an official proclamation with a red seal, flowers in a vase, books on a shelf, an open book on a lectern, carpenter’s tools, a selection of musical instruments, mathematical adjuncts, a retort, a whip, an engine, an embroidered pillow, a set of maps and charts, draughting instruments and blank paper.
    “Abstract symbols.”
    Patterns appeared before Pardero’s vision: combinations of lines, geometrical shapes, numbers, linguistic characters, a clenched fist, a pointing finger, a foot with small wings growing from the ankles.
    “And finally …” Pardero saw himself - from a distance, then close at hand.
    He looked into his own face.
    Ollave removed the apparatus. “The signals were extremely faint but perceptible.
    We have recorded your psychometrics and now can establish your so-called cultural index.”
    “What have you learned?”
    Ollave gave Pardero a rather queer look. “Your reactions are inconsistent, to use an understatement. You would seem to derive from a most remarkable society.
    You fear the dark, yet it challenges and exalts you. You fear women; you are made uneasy by the female body - still the concept of femininity tantalizes you.
    You respond positively to martial tactics, heroic encounters, weapons and uniforms; on the other hand you abhor violence and pain. Your other reactions are equally contradictory. The question becomes, do all these strange responses form a pattern, or do they indicate derangement? I will not speculate. The data have been fed into an integrator together with the other material I mentioned.
    No doubt the report is ready for us.”
    “I am almost afraid to examine it,” murmured Pardero. “I would seem to be unique.”
    Ollave made no further comment; they returned to the office, where O.T. Kolodin waited patiently. From a register Ollave drew forth a square of white paper.
    “Here is our report.” In a manner perhaps unconsciously dramatic he studied the printout. “A pattern has appeared.” He read the sheet again. “Ah yes …
    Eighteen localities on five worlds are identified. The probabilities for four of these worlds, with seventeen of the localities, aggregate three percent. The probability for the single locality on the fifth world is rated at eighty-nine percent, which under the circumstances is equivalent to near-certainty. In my opinion, Master Pardero, or whatever your name, you are a Rhune from the Rhune Realms, east of Port Mar on the North Continent of Marune, Alastor 933.”
     
    1. A drab translation of the word geisling, which carries warmer and dearer connotations.

Chapter 3
    In the blue-and white-tiled lobby Kolodin asked Pardero: “Well - so you are a Rhune. What then? Do you recognize the word?”
    “Not at