Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent Read Free Page A

unsatisfying.
    She was distracted by doubt. Could it really be true, as Symat had
said, that her career trajectory, with its pleasing succession of
tasks and promotions, was just a Qax social construct, a series of
meaningless challenges meant to keep bright, proactive people like
herself contented and contained and usefully occupied - useful for
the Qax, that is?
    Meanwhile it was a busy time in the Conurbation. The cramped
corridors were crowded with people, all of them spindly tall, bald,
pale - just as Luru was herself - all save the pharaohs, of course;
they, having been born into richer times, were more disparate, tall
and short, thin and squat, bald and hairy. The cadres were undergoing
their biennial dissolution, and everybody was on the move, seeking
new quarters, new friends, eager for the recreation festival to
follow, the days of storytelling and sport and sex.
    Luru had always enjoyed the friendly chaos of the dissolutions,
the challenge of forming new relationships. But this time she found
it difficult to focus her attention on her new cadre siblings.
    At the age of twenty-two Luru was already done with childbirth.
She had donated to a birthing tank; it was a routine service
performed by all healthy women before they left their late teens, and
she had thought nothing of it. Now, thinking of the families of Mell
Born, she looked at the swarms of youngsters scrambling to their new
cadres, excited, all their bare scalps shining like bubbles on a
river, and wondered if any of these noisy children could be hers.
     
    Gemo Cana said, ’I read your report. You’re right to question why
Suvan needs to manufacture his strange elements. He’s obviously
planning something, some kind of rebellious gesture. ’ She looked up
from her data slate, as if seeing Luru for the first time. ’Ah. But
you aren’t interested in Symat Suvan and his grubbing in the dirt,
are you?’
    ’I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
    Cana put down the slate. ’It got to you. The outside. I can see it
in you. I knew it would, of course. The only question is what
difference it’s going to make. Whether you will still be useful.’ She
nodded. ’You have questions, Luru Parz. Ask them.’
    Luru felt cold. ’Symat Suvan told me that the Qax’s ultimate
intention - ’
    ’Is to cauterise the past. I suppose he talked about our identity
being dissolved, and so forth? Well, he’s right.’ Cana sounded tired.
’Of course he is. Think about what you’ve done. What did you think
was the purpose of it all? The Extirpation is an erasing of mankind’s
past. A bonfire of identity. That is the truth.’
    ’But - ’
    ’There are further plans, you know,’ Cana said, ignoring her. ’For
example: the Spline starbreakers penetrate only the first few tens of
metres of the ground, to obliterate shelters, archives and other
traces. But the Qax intend to perform a deeper ploughing-up. They
have a nanotech replicator dust, which - Well. You see, with such
tools, even the fossils will be destroyed, even the geology of the
Earth itself: never to be retrieved, the wisdom they contain never to
be deciphered.
    ’Another example. The Qax intend to force mass migrations of
people, a mixing, a vast melting pot.’ She touched her chest. ’Then
even this will be lost, you see, in a few generations - the
differences between us, the history embedded in our bodies, our
genes, our blood types. All mixed up, the data lost for ever. There
is a simpler proposal to replace our human names with some form of
catalogue numbers. So even the bits of history lodged in our names
will be lost. It will only take two or three generations before we
forget…’
    Luru was shocked at the thought of such cultural vandalism.
    Cana evidently read her expression. ’So at last we’ve dug far
enough into Luru Parz to find a conscience. At last we’ve found
something that shocks you. And you’re wondering why any human being
would cooperate with such monstrosity. I’ll