"Terry Carr - dance of the changer and the three" - читать интересную книгу автора (Carr Terry)

THE DANCE OF THE CHANGER AND THE THREE
Terry Carr
This all happened ages ago, out in the depths of space beyond
Darkedge, where galaxies lumber ponderously through the
black like so many silent bright rhinoceroses. It was so long
ago that when the light from Loarr's galaxy finally reached
Earth, after millions of light-years, there was no one here to
see it except a few things in the oceans that were too mind-
lessly busy with their monotonous single-celled reactions to
notice.
Yet, as long ago as it was, the present-day Loarra still re-
member this story and retell it in complex, shifting wave-dances
every time one of the newly-changed asks for it. The wave-
dances wouldn't mean much to you if you saw them, nor I
suppose would the story itself if I were to tell it just as it
happened. So consider this a translation, and don't bother
yourself that when I say "water" I don't mean our hydrogen-
oxygen compound, or that there's no "sky" as such on Loarr,
or for that matter that the Loarra weren'taren'tcreatures
that "think" or "feel" in quite the Way we understand. In fact,
you could take this as a piece of pure fiction, because there
are damned few real facts in itbut I know better (or
worse), because I know how true it is. And that has a lot to
do with why I'm back here on Earth, with forty-two friends
and co-workers left dead on Loarr. They never had a chance.
There was a Changer who had spent three life cycles plan-
ning a particular cycle climax and who had come to the
moment of action. He wasn't really named Minnearo, but
I'll call him that because it's the closest thing I can write to
approximate the tone, emotional matrix, and associations that
were all wrapped up in his designation.
When he came to his decision, he turned away from the
crag on which he'd been standing overlooking the Loarran
ocean, and went quickly to the personality-homes of three of
his best friends. To the first friend, Asterrea, he said, "I am
going to commit suicide," wave-dancing this message in hilves. At last the Oldest
said, "To accept thanks is to accept responsibility, and in
only-today, as I am, there can be none of that because there
can be no new act. I am outside time, you know, which is
almost outside life. All this I have told you is something told
to you before, many times, and it will be again."
Nonetheless, the Three went through all the rituals of
thanksgiving, performing them with flawless grace and care
color-and-sound demonstrations, dances, offerings of their
own energy, and all the rest. And Pur said, "It is possible to
give thanks for a long-past act or even a mindless reflex, and
we do so in 'the highest."
The Oldest pulsed dull red and did not answer, and after
a time the Three took leave of him.