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Religion begins where oat and Christian Redeemer are cast from the same ancient mould - the human subservient to an unpredictable universe (or unpredictable king) and seeking to rid his down the wrath of the all-powerful
- Raja Flattery, The Book of Ship
AGAIN, THE communications pellet in Oakes’ neck es projected onto his waking dreaot He wanted to reach into his neck and rip the thing out
Why had Lewis ordered no physical contact with the Redoubt? Oakes chafed at his own inability to raise too much disturbance The real purposes of the Redoubt remained a secret from most Shipmen; to most it was just a ruon He did not dare countermand the order which had isolated the Redoubt Too many would see the size of the place
Lewis can’t do this toit were even larger He wanted to walk off his frustrations but it was full dayside out in the ship’s passages and he kneould be plagued by the need to make decisions once he stepped froh the ship Many had noted his upset This could not go on o down mysel excep
No, without Lewis to prepare the way, it is too dangerous Oakes shook his head He was too valuable to risk down there yet
Da
Oakes had coly to suspect that Lewis really was involved in a priency Leas not a leader Then it had to be a major threat from the planet itself
Pandora
In erous adversary than the ship
Oakes glanced at the blank holofocus beside his couch A touch of the buttons would call up real-ties of the planet To what avail? He had tried a sensor search of the Black Dragon coastline froh detail
He could identify the coastal bay where the Redoubt was being built, could even see glinting reflections during the diurn passages of Alki or Rega
Oakes took a deep breath to cal to beat him
You’rewas possible down there They could fulfill any fantasy
Oakes exa stomach He was deterrub out a living on the surface of a planet Especially on a planet he owned This was only natural
The ship conditioned me to be what I am
More than any other person he had ever known, Oakes felt that he knew the nature of the ship’s conditioning processes - the differences from what they had been when they had lived free to scatter on Earth’s surface
It’s the crush of peopl too estion had been transported groundside This way of life demanded special adaptations All Shiped thea the Colony peried feet And for what? A bet! A dare! To hide froh the ship, Oakes kne he screened out the cos of others Like most Shipmen, he could retreat into the deepest interior of his
In these tie, this faculty had been especially valuable to him Oakes knew himself to be th heaviest , but even so no one stared directly at hihts openly readable
Yes, I know these people They need e, he had studied well for the psychiatric side of his specialty - all the banks of records handed down for generation eons maybe The way the ship had put thee of real tith of time bothered Oakes And the translations froy for the ship said the confusion arose from Ship’s attempt to rescue as many people as possible Oakes did not believe this The translations hinted at too many other explanations Translation? The ship controlled even that You asked a couists pointed out that aes found in Records were so universe of their oithout discernible beginnings nor descendents
What happened to the folk of those rich linguistic heritages?
I don’t even knohat happened to us
His childhood h Compared to the people of the Earth from which the ship had plucked them, Shipmen were freaks - all of them, clone and Natural Natal alike Freaks The shipside mind had become a place to live very quickly for those who had little space, few private possessions to call their own, for people torn between WorShip and dis whatever the ship provided them Functional simplicity did not bear the onus or sense of restriction that arbitrary simplicity carried Each tool, each bowl and spoon and pair of chopsticks, each cubby bore the signature of the user in soer manifestation of this