Parker Interstellar Travels 6: The Celaran Ruins Read Online Free PDF Page A

now. Besides, I can hardly teach you how to act on the
frontier. You just become experienced, then you fit in.”
    “Then
we can train. You can teach me.”
    Jason
did not like acting like such an eager recruit in front of anyone, but he
wanted to submerge his core worlder image. The only way he could do that was to
learn everything as fast as possible.
    “We
just did,” Imanol said.
    “I
mean, I want to know more about being out on the fringe, rather than being a
core worlder.”
    “It’s
just something that comes with being someplace where everything isn’t handed to
you on a silver plate.”
    “Like
what?”
    “Like
the recycling pipe under your fabricated habitat breaking open, and you having
to crawl under there and fix it!” Imanol growled.
    “What?
What about the robots?”
    “Maybe
your robot , your one and only robot, broke that week. Or maybe
your robot wasn’t designed to fit between the insulative slab and the bedrock
under your house. Or maybe you don’t have the program handy and you have to
write it yourself, and before you get it right the thing puts a couple new
holes in your floor.”
    “On
the frontier, if a robot breaks, it can’t always be instantly replaced,” Jason
guessed.
    “That’s
right. Often, it’s the case.”
    “I
don’t know... anything about fixing things.”
    “No
one does out of the womb. Well, not unless their parents are organized crime
using neural trainers on fetuses.”
    “Why
would you say such a thing? No one would—”
    “It
happens,” Imanol growled. “But that’s not where I was heading. I’m just saying,
you just have to pick it up as it happens. Just stay calm and think it through.
You’d be surprised. Doing your own plumbing on an alien world really gives you
an appreciation for how long it took to perfect these mundane technologies in
the first place. Core worlders don’t have any respect for anything except fancy
VRs and fashion, or the latest entertainer.”
    Imanol’s
diatribe had become rather harsh, so Jason decided not to say anything else.
    “Your
brain obviously still works,” Imanol said more calmly. “You just think it
through. Make some mistakes. You’ll fit in just fine soon enough. Besides, like
I said, we’re a whole new breed out here, even the frontier isn’t this crazy
dangerous. You’ll be dead in no time anyway.”
    Telisa
walked in.
    “Hi!”
Jason said.
    “Training,
yes? I heard crazy dangerous,” she said.
    “Getting
ready to get someone back,” Jason said.
    Telisa
nodded.
    Did
she know that already?
    She
sat down across from Jason and Imanol.
    “There
are things you weren’t allowed to know as new recruits,” Telisa said. “Shiny is
more powerful than you may know.”
    They
waited for her to continue.
    “Shiny
uses many artifacts, among them, some real Trilisk gems. The most valuable of
all of them is a Trilisk AI which can interpret the wishes of sentient beings
of different races and provide them. Almost magically, limited to some degree
by the complexity of your understanding of what you want. We called it praying
things up.”
    “You’ve
used it yourself?” Imanol said.
    “Yes.
It’s truly amazing. Shiny used it to bootstrap an industrial complex on a
mineral rich asteroid. From nothing to starship construction in a few weeks. I
think he brought it to Earth, though I’m not sure. I think the original Shiny
has it with him at all times. He knows how to screen out the prayers of other
beings. So you see, it’s going to be easier to deal with him than to force him
into anything. He’s also used to betrayal and prepared to counter it. It’s a
major characteristic of his race.”
    “He
did a number on us, for sure,” Imanol said. “I understand why you didn’t tell
us about the other stuff. I also get now why you said we could have almost
anything we wanted.”
    Telisa
looked away. “I should have trusted you all more, and him less.”
     

 
    Chapter 4
     
    Weeks
later the New Iridar arrived