"Miller,.Steve.And.Lee,.Sharon.-.Liaden.Universe.03.-.Adventures.In.The.Liaden.Universe.v1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Miller Steve)

Six days had seen many accomplishments. His eyes had adjusted
to the lower light level, even as his body rhythms had reached an
acceptable compromise with the overriding song of the world.
Sensors had been set out and calibration programs begun. The
log was up-to-date.

His failure lay in contacting the people.

Hot that there weren’t people. On the contrary, there were at least
two hundred individuals living in the valley at the end of this path,
though the count was necessarily approximate. He found it difficult
to differentiate at distance between one large-shelled person and
another. Given variation in shell size, person size, decoration and
harness, individuality would eventually come through; but it would
be a slow process. Worse, he had yet to find one single person
who would speak with him—or even acknowledge his presence.

He’d tried all the approaches he’d been taught—and several he’d
invented on the spur of the moment—angling for any response at
all.

And had been roundly ignored.

Yesterday, he had boldly stepped in front of a group of three,
bowed low, as he had seen those small-shelled or shell-less bow
when addressing those more magnificent than themselves.

The group split and detoured around him, unhurriedly, but with
determination.

The path wound around an outcropping of rock and sloped toward
the caves and valley floor. Val Con stopped to survey his
prospects, idly twirling the reed.

Across the valley, people were about what he now perceived as
their daily business. Four individuals were in the fields along the
river, working among the growing things with long-handled tools
vaguely reminiscent of hoes. Toward the center, a cluster of eight?
ten? large persons were engaged in a certain choreographed
activity, which could have been dancing, game-playing or military
drill, across the river, large greenish shapes moved among the
hulking rounded stones—dwelling places, so he thought: The town
itself.

Just downhill from him now, though somewhat distant from the
caverns and convenient to a nice flat rock, was a very large
individual with sapphire glinting randomly from the tilework of its
shell. With it were four small people, shell-less, and bumbling in a
way that shouted children to him. The largest was scarcely taller
than he was.