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warm it for you. Then, if you want to sleep, I can keep an eye on things for you. And--and I d better put
on more of my clothes.
She turned as she was about to go out the door.  The food concentrate tastes very nice after you
get used to it. Thank you for getting it.
Somehowthat, rather than the kisses, was the treaty of peace between them.
When Gillbret entered the control room, hours later, he showed no surprise at finding Biron and
Artemisia lost in a foolish kind of conversation. He made no remarks about the fact that Biron s arm was
about his niece s waist.
He said,  When are we Jumping, Biron?
 In half an hour, said Biron.
The half hour passed; the controls were set; conversation languished and died.
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At zero time Biron drew a deep breath and yanked a lever the full length of its arc, from left to
right.
It was not as it had been on the liner. TheRemorseless was smaller and the Jump was
consequently less smooth. Biron staggered, and for a split second things wavered.
And then they were smooth and solid again.
The stars in the visiplate had changed. Biron rotated the ship, so that the star field lifted, each star
moving in a stately arc. One star appeared finally, brilliantly white and more than a point. It was a tiny
sphere, a burning speck of sand. Biron caught it, steadied the ship before it was lost again, and turned the
telescope upon it, throwing in the spectroscopic attachment.
He turned again to theEphemeris, and checked under the column headed  Spectral
Characteristics. Then he got out of the pilot s chair and said,  It s still too far. I ll have to nudge up to it.
But, anyway, that s Lingane right ahead.
It was the first Jump he had ever made, and it was successful.
TWELVE:
The Autarch Comes
The Autarch of Lingane pondered the matter, but his cool, well-trained features scarcely creased under
the impact of thought.
 And you waited forty-eight hours to tell me, he said.
Rizzett said boldly,  There was no reason to tell you earlier. If we bombarded you with all
matters, life would be a burden to you. We tell you now because we still make nothing of it. It is queer,
and in our position we can afford nothing queer.
 Repeat this business. Let me hear it again.
The Autarch threw a leg upon the flaring window sill and looked outward thoughtfully. The
window itself represented perhaps the greatest single oddity of Linganian architecture. It was moderate in
size and set at the end of a five-foot recess that narrowed gently toward it. It was extremely clear,
immensely thick, and precisely curved; not so much a window as a lens, funneling the light inward from all
directions, so that, looking outward, one eyed a miniature panorama.
From any window in the Autarch s Manor a sweep of vision embracing half the horizon from
zenith to nadir could be seen. At the edges there was increasing minuteness and distortion, but that itself
lent a certain flavor to what one saw: the tiny flattened motions of the city; the creeping, curved orbits of
the crescent-shaped stratospherics climbing from the airport. One grew so used to it that unhinging the
window to allow the flat tameness of reality to enter would seem unnatural. When the position of the sun
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made the lenslike windows a focus for impossible heat and light, they were blanked out automatically,
rather than opened, rendered opaque by a shift in the polarization characteristics of the glass.
And certainly the theory that a planet s architecture is the reflection of a planet s place in the
Galaxy would seem to be borne out by the case of Lingane and its windows.
Like the windows, Lingane was small yet commanded a panoramic view. It was a  planet state
in a Galaxy, which, at the time, had passed beyond that stage of economic and political development.
Where most political units were con. glomerations of stellar systems, Lingane remained what it had been
for centuries--a single inhabited world. This did not prevent it from being wealthy. In fact, it was almost
inconceivable that Lingane could be anything else.
It is difficult to tell in advance when a world is so located that many Jump routes may use it as a
pivotal intermediate point; or evenmust use it in the interests of optimal economy. A great deal depends [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]