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"Seeking visions in the kelp violates civil rights," Flattery had proclaimed.
"If your son uses the kelp, then he and all who use it, including the kelp,
know the most private thoughts and dreams of your youth, of your entire life
before his conception. That constitutes mind-rape, the ultimate violation."
He passed his law making contact "for the purposes of communication" an
offense punishable in varying degrees, all of them unpleasant. The Zavatans
universally ignored this law, much to the benefit of the kelp.
The Immensity had to snatch Rico quickly, before he alarmed the others. The
enemy Nevi approached, and there was no time for petty confrontations. The
Immensity had appropriate reverence for the kelpling Crista Galli. She would
be the instrument that would complete the symphony of the kelp. But without
Rico's genius the kelp saw hopelessness, death and despair in
Crista's future, and in all of their futures.
The hylighter had turned in a superb performance. The Flying Fish now rested
atop an Oracle, an old one secured by a small but hardy Zavatan band. Its
cavern, much larger than Flattery's, was occupied equally by the live kelp
root and the Zavatans. Passage from the water side was too dangerous for a
foil. The humans had burrowed a passageway down from the top of the bluff to
meet the kelp's burrow in the rugged rock near shore. It was identical to the
Oracle that lay at the foot of Twisp's command center beneath the high
reaches.
Flattery had scoured the kelp clean from his cavern, to make it suitable to
his tastes. He had destroyed one of the kelp's nests, a socket where the kelp
rooted into the continent itself.
Zavatans protected hundreds of these stations along the coastline, careful to
keep Flattery's people at bay. Each Oracle was a strategic kelpwork of
communication, a link with the entire world and with the Orbiter above it.
The Immensity had learned from certain Zavatans how images are formed on the
matrix of the human brain, and how its own flesh correspondingly formed the
images that it saw against the dreamscape of the sea. When it had learned to
project its thoughts, its images, as Rico LaPush projected his holos to fill
empty space, then it would commence the salvation of Avata and of humans. Woe
to
Flattery, it thought. Woe to selfishness and greed! It dragged Rico inside
the Oracle and among his own kind as quickly as it could so that he would not
be unnecessarily fearful of his new pupil, Avata.
Page 160
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What happiness could we ever enjoy if we killed our own kinsmen in battle?
-- Bhagavad-Gita
When he announced after their midday ration that he would run the P, the
Deathman's squad beat him up. They thought that would bring him to his
senses, or at the very least make running around the demon-infested Dash Point
physically impossible. It didn't work.
"I know why you're doing this," his squad leader told him. He was called "Hot
Rocks," and his sister was married to the Deathman's brother back in
Lilliwaup. They talked in private behind some boulders bordering Kalaloch's
refugee camp.
"Just like everybody else who does this, you're fed up with killing. You want
to do something for somebody, leave your insurance to your family, right?"
The Deathman just leaned back against the boulder and stared at a clear patch
of blue sky scudding with the clouds.
"Who gets your back pay? Your mom? Your brother? That little piece of
blonde action you've been
file:///F|/rah/Frank%20Herbert/Herbert,%20Fran...%20Void%204%20-%20The%20Ascen
sion%20Factor.txt (161 of 211) [2/4/03 9:43:22 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Frank%20Herbert/Herbert,%20Frank%20-%20Destination%20Void%204%2
0-%20The%20Ascension%20Factor.txt plugging in the camp?"
The Deathman's hand snapped toward Hot Rocks but stopped still at his throat.
Hot Rocks didn't flinch. Hot Rocks never flinched.
"My brother."
Hot Rocks cursed under his breath, then whispered, "Wouldn't it be better to
go back there?
Tour's almost over, the worst is over. We're all going home in a month. One
month. If you still feel this way . . ." he looked both ways, ". . . then
fight this thing at home. Work it out at home."
"I'm no good for home," the Deathman said. "The things I've done . . . I'm
not normal, you're not normal. We can't go back there. We can't!"
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