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Mowrak gave the others a look which said that made his point. "You see? What
more can I tell
you?"
"You sound as if you're involved in that kind of thing yourself," the
technician remarked.
"Yes, a geologist. Back at Rhombus briefly, but working out east. I'm the tour
guide today. We have some people here new to Earth, just down from orbit."
"I hear the
Melther Jorg is back in."
"That is where we're from," Naseena said.
"Welcome to Earth. I hope it treats you all well." They returned short nods.
The technician took them all in with a glance. "We've got some more
interesting things inside. Come on, I'll show you."
"I've got another question . . ." Yorim moved up alongside the technician as
he turned to lead the way through the doors. As the others began following,
Kyal stayed back to look once more over the drawing of the Terran war tank
mounted on the wall. The heat and noise in such confinement, hemmed in by
machinery above, below, and on every side, must have been fearsome. He
wondered if they actually found volunteers for such tasks, or if the crews had
to be forced to accept them. All in all, he decided he'd take agoraphobia.
A movement nearby made him turn his head. Jenyn had also stayed back and was
standing beside him. He regarded Kyal questioningly, then half- turned to look
back at the Terran tank. After a moment or two, he said, "They were a violent
and destructive breed, yes. But couldn't that have been a manifestation of
other qualities too, Master Reen? They understood the power to effect change
that comes from having order and discipline. They stood together to bring
about the things they believed in, instead of letting themselves be carried
along by the herd. And yes, hey would fight to the death if they had too. They
didn't just passively accept whatever lot fell to them by other people's whims
and preferences, the way Venusians would. It could cause grief in the short
term; but there was something magnificent and stirring about it that perhaps
we could use a little more of at times. Don't you think so?"
Jenyn's tone was soft and exhorting, but at the same time his pale blue eyes
had a challenging light in them. Kyal recognized the Progressive line and
shook his head. "Save it for the language students.
Politics isn't what I do."
"It's the future, the way things are going to be. You won't change it. Why be
left behind?" Jenyn didn't expect any instant conversion, Kyal knew. He was
trying to plant seeds.
Kyal resisted the impulse to be blunt. "Well, we are being left behind, aren't
we?" he answered. "I
think it's time to catch up with our friends."
Inside, they found the others clustered around a large wooden table, where
pieces from the tank's engine had been laid out after painstaking etching and
cutting to separate what was left of them from masses of corrosion like others
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lying on a bench by the wall. There were also parts of its instruments and
control gear, along with several conical objects that the technician said were
tips of the projectiles fired by the cannon. Yorim was examining a plate from
one of the tracks. Looking around at the rest of the shop, Kyal picked out the
hub and rim of a large wheel that looked amazingly like one from a Venusian
agricultural tractor; a couple of shelves of electrical devices and
components; an assortment of helmets, belt buckles, other oddments of
clothing; knives, cutlery, and various hand tools. The technician was showing
Whylen some long objects that could have been firearms.
There were also a few other items that didn't fall into the category of
"equipment and machinery" but had ended up here anyway, including some
surprisingly well preserved pieces of wooden furniture. Kyal stopped to
inspect a sitting, cross-legged figure about a foot high, carved out of stone,
on a shelf to one side. Mowrak saw him looking at it and came over, at the
same time gesturing to Naseena, who was watching. "You'll see a lot of these
farther east, where we're going," he told her.
She moved over to join them. "Who is he?"
"Some kind of religious deity from an earlier culture earlier than the one
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