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Thursday, July 5, 2012

A throwing star?


McSee heaved a huge big sigh and then pulled from his tunic four metal stars. Two black and two silver; they glittered on his palm. He said nothing, knowing they said more than he could.
‘They’re technology gismos!’ Saska gasped, astonished.
‘Indeed,’ Rain said. ‘How did you come by them?’
Glint started to laugh. ‘I don’t know, Taranis,’ he chortled. ‘I mean, sorcerers and necromancers, the Oracles and the Medaillon, all crawling from the woodwork of a narrow, backward world…the Ruby, I ask you! And now technology does the same! Hell, we should take pause and rethink this whole thing.’
‘I suspect you’re right, Glint,’ Taranis remarked and was entirely serious.
‘Explain!’ Rain barked out, ignoring both Glint’s hilarity and Taranis’ speculation.
For an instant he wanted to quip something about the shoe being on the other foot, but one look at Rain’s thunderous expression and McSee was forced into silence. Was Rain angry at the presence of technology, or was he angry that he had not known it existed in some form on Valaris?
‘McSee, I’m warning you,’ Rain said. Llettynn and Belun glanced significantly at each other.
‘Fine,’ the big man spat out. ‘Saska was right when she said this is a post-technological world, and we all know it. History tells of the technology that came with the starships and how it was allowed to disintegrate …a bounteous world the settlers called it, and saw no need to hasten the calamities they fled from, mostly caused by over-mechanization and over-reliance on computers and gadgets.’ He jiggled the stars. ‘All was not lost. These stars are harmless in this form, activating only when in motion. Silver paralyses and black are…they are deadly. Innocuous, seemingly, but very dangerous, no doubt another reason they were to vanish, forgotten. A brave new world didn’t need these; humans were alone here and should be able to live in harmony, right? But, again, let us go to history, for it tells how aggressive we are, how we start wars over the tiniest infraction…so, thank God, there were no weapons such as these. Yet they did come with the star ships and someone sometime intended to use them somewhere. Thank God they were allowed to rust away…only they did not. As with the Mantle, the Society is slightly more than what it seems, Rain. There’s still technology on Valaris from settler times, and some of it is highly advanced…well, by our standards anyway. Learning about it, using it, improving and maintaining it, is another of the Society’s duties.’ McSee sighed as he had at the start of his revelation, but his anger had bled away during the relief of confession. ‘It is hidden and safe.’
‘Well,’ Belun remarked.

Gathering of Rain

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