[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
games and go back and forth, but I doubt that these people want contact. I
didn't sense that there were very many of them. Two or three, perhaps. Four
tops. Hardly a hunting party or a tribe.
"
Still, none of them would get the sleep they had been looking forward to only
a little earlier. Not this night.
Mogutu was thoughtful. "You know, Colonel, we could use that storm. How about
it?"
"Just what do you have in mind?" N'Gana encouraged him.
"I could get up and around, using the storm for cover, then, when they're
still drying out, I could make a godawful demonstration that might panic them
right toward you."
"Possible. Equally possible is that these people, born and raised in this
environment, will do the same to us instead, or simply come after you with
everything they've got including knowledge of the terrain, weapons, their
numbers, your position, and so forth. Not a good option. Still, I shouldn't
like them on our back if we have to cross that damned river and swamp combo. I
keep giving mental commands to my combat armor and deploying my heat and
Page 162
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
motion detectors."
Harker smiled slightly when he heard that. He'd been doing the same thing.
Finally, Kat Socolov cleared her throat. "Um, Colonel? You and your
bloodthirsty sergeant here keep treating these people as if they are lions in
some imaginary ancient jungle. Have you considered speaking to them instead?"
N'Gana looked completely baffled.
"Speak to them? What the devil do you mean?"
"
You know talk. Like were doing now.
'
"
"But these people are are ..."
"Stone Age primitives? Probably, but it's also true that, even in a worst-case
scenario, they are only a few generations removed from us. From the Helena of
the Confederacy and Father Chicanis.
Knowledge can die with frightening suddenness, and ignorance can
march in a heartbeat, but, Colonel, changing your language takes a lot
longer than this. Conquered nations held on to their native tongues
even if they had to learn the speech of their conquerors, and those languages
survived even when there was a con-scious effort to suppress them. You
came from this highly civilized background a couple of worlds removed from
your ancestry, yet what was the language spoken in the streets of your
homeland during your youth?"
"Uh well, around the house they always spoke Tua-reg, a Berber language. Of
course, we all spoke English."
"And you, Sergeant?"
"Well, it was a dialect of Ethiopian, actually, although everyone also spoke
French because there were so many dialects and nobody would ever standardize
on one. Yes, I begin to see what she means."
Even the usually quiet Hamille, whom they tended to forget most of the time,
was in tune with this concept. "My people speak " It gave a series of sounds
no human could ever utter. "There are many other tongues on my world. No one
speaks human speech except to humans."
Socolov looked at Harker, who shrugged. I always talked like this," he said.
"
"Well," said the anthropologist, "as someone who speaks both Ukrainian and
Georgian, I think
I've made my point. Father, what would they speak around here? Greek?
Turkish? Confederacy
Standard, which is really a form of English although they never admit that?"
"Why, Greek was common, but everyone used Stan-dard, too, because the fact was
that this was an attempt to recreate an ideal of a rich family's past and they
came from Greece. Still, there were a number of ethnic languages even on
Helena, so Standard was everywhere. I feel certain that they would
understand it, at least if you didn't use any words or terms that
might be outside their experience. I suspect much of our technological
jargon would be mean-ingless to them, but if you kept it basic, I see no
reason why, using your logic, they wouldn't understand something. And, if it's
Greek, I can certainly help there."
"So can I," she told him. "You simply can't get a degree in my field without
Greek and Latin even if you intend to excavate the ruins of the third moon of
Haptmann circling Rigel."
"I think we are elected then," the priest responded, ig-noring N'Gana and
Mogutu. "We're also probably the least threatening."
"That is why one of us must accompany you," N'Gana told her. "If they
attack remember the man who sent the message that brought us
here! someone who will react without hesitation is necessary. Harker,
why don't you go? You're nonthreatening but capable, I think."
Page 163 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl fopke.keep.pl
games and go back and forth, but I doubt that these people want contact. I
didn't sense that there were very many of them. Two or three, perhaps. Four
tops. Hardly a hunting party or a tribe.
"
Still, none of them would get the sleep they had been looking forward to only
a little earlier. Not this night.
Mogutu was thoughtful. "You know, Colonel, we could use that storm. How about
it?"
"Just what do you have in mind?" N'Gana encouraged him.
"I could get up and around, using the storm for cover, then, when they're
still drying out, I could make a godawful demonstration that might panic them
right toward you."
"Possible. Equally possible is that these people, born and raised in this
environment, will do the same to us instead, or simply come after you with
everything they've got including knowledge of the terrain, weapons, their
numbers, your position, and so forth. Not a good option. Still, I shouldn't
like them on our back if we have to cross that damned river and swamp combo. I
keep giving mental commands to my combat armor and deploying my heat and
Page 162
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
motion detectors."
Harker smiled slightly when he heard that. He'd been doing the same thing.
Finally, Kat Socolov cleared her throat. "Um, Colonel? You and your
bloodthirsty sergeant here keep treating these people as if they are lions in
some imaginary ancient jungle. Have you considered speaking to them instead?"
N'Gana looked completely baffled.
"Speak to them? What the devil do you mean?"
"
You know talk. Like were doing now.
'
"
"But these people are are ..."
"Stone Age primitives? Probably, but it's also true that, even in a worst-case
scenario, they are only a few generations removed from us. From the Helena of
the Confederacy and Father Chicanis.
Knowledge can die with frightening suddenness, and ignorance can
march in a heartbeat, but, Colonel, changing your language takes a lot
longer than this. Conquered nations held on to their native tongues
even if they had to learn the speech of their conquerors, and those languages
survived even when there was a con-scious effort to suppress them. You
came from this highly civilized background a couple of worlds removed from
your ancestry, yet what was the language spoken in the streets of your
homeland during your youth?"
"Uh well, around the house they always spoke Tua-reg, a Berber language. Of
course, we all spoke English."
"And you, Sergeant?"
"Well, it was a dialect of Ethiopian, actually, although everyone also spoke
French because there were so many dialects and nobody would ever standardize
on one. Yes, I begin to see what she means."
Even the usually quiet Hamille, whom they tended to forget most of the time,
was in tune with this concept. "My people speak " It gave a series of sounds
no human could ever utter. "There are many other tongues on my world. No one
speaks human speech except to humans."
Socolov looked at Harker, who shrugged. I always talked like this," he said.
"
"Well," said the anthropologist, "as someone who speaks both Ukrainian and
Georgian, I think
I've made my point. Father, what would they speak around here? Greek?
Turkish? Confederacy
Standard, which is really a form of English although they never admit that?"
"Why, Greek was common, but everyone used Stan-dard, too, because the fact was
that this was an attempt to recreate an ideal of a rich family's past and they
came from Greece. Still, there were a number of ethnic languages even on
Helena, so Standard was everywhere. I feel certain that they would
understand it, at least if you didn't use any words or terms that
might be outside their experience. I suspect much of our technological
jargon would be mean-ingless to them, but if you kept it basic, I see no
reason why, using your logic, they wouldn't understand something. And, if it's
Greek, I can certainly help there."
"So can I," she told him. "You simply can't get a degree in my field without
Greek and Latin even if you intend to excavate the ruins of the third moon of
Haptmann circling Rigel."
"I think we are elected then," the priest responded, ig-noring N'Gana and
Mogutu. "We're also probably the least threatening."
"That is why one of us must accompany you," N'Gana told her. "If they
attack remember the man who sent the message that brought us
here! someone who will react without hesitation is necessary. Harker,
why don't you go? You're nonthreatening but capable, I think."
Page 163 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]