05. Children of Flux and Anchor by Jack L. Chalker Read Free Book Online Page B

call."
     
     
     
    3
    WAR TROPHIES
     
     
     
    Under the long reign of the old Church, there had always been a carnival in each Anchor before the sacrament of the Paring Rite, when excess population had been disposed of ruthlessly by sending children of age into Flux. The old Church, and its cruel rite, were long gone now, and, for a while, so were the carnivals, particularly from austere and fanatical New Eden. Now, however, they were coming back, and to New Eden first of all. The carney people had kept their extended families intact and plied their trades independently in Flux and whatever Anchors were interested, and now they were reestablishing themselves. This was in no small measure due to the Central Command of the Signal Corps, the military arm of the Stringer's Guild, who had fostered and protected the carney folk all those centuries because they were the best observers of Anchors— changes in various Anchors, changes in leadership and attitude, and changes in economic fortunes, all of which were of importance to the men and women who controlled the trade through Flux.
    It had been Rasheed Vishnar's plan to throw the largest carnival ever on World and to reinaugurate the custom. Vishnar, Chief Judge of the Logh District, was an old-school New Edenite leader, one of the original set of leaders formed by Adam Tilghman in the times after the whole cluster had been turned to Anchor. He was a Tilghman man through and through, and had been placed under arrest when the Seven rebelled—a fact which gave him even greater authority and influence after the defeat of the rebellion and the invaders. He was an unreconstructed True Believer, but he was not an austere sort of man and he genuinely loved people, particularly children.
    Vishnar had been the technical boss of Onregon Sligh, the brilliant scientific mind who'd deciphered the ancient records and machinery from Coydt's own researches, then joined the Seven. Vishnar himself was a scientist, and a good one, although he had nowhere near the intelligence of Sligh, and after purging or "fixing" essential Sligh men through Flux, he continued the scientific research, more administering than actually doing the work himself, since he was first and foremost a political leader.
    He was a big man, a hundred eighty-eight centimeters in height and weighing in, with ample girth, at around a hundred thirty-six kilograms. With a round face and short, neatly trimmed full beard, dressed in the black cloth of a church elder, he looked both formidable and comical at the same time.
    He had an enormous custom-designed home on the edge of the city, well away from casual traffic, and while most of the scientific research was done in the gleaming old temple in the city center, there was some done out at his place as well, particularly on things that simply couldn't fit into the Research Institute. His projects had paid great dividends to New Eden and continued to do so as they learned more and more about the old technologies and how to apply or adapt them to New Eden's requirements, and he was proud of that. He also loved showing off new things to visitors he knew and trusted, almost like a child proudly showing his new toys, and if he wasn't as up on the principles involved, he was well aware of all the ongoing projects and what they were about. It was because of this, too, that he maintained close ties to the stringers and to friendly forces in Flux, the only New Edenite leader who had no particular fear or dislike of Flux wizards if they were decent folk and respected New Eden's ways.
    His love of children and his almost-childlike glee at his technological toys and things like the carnival made many people see him as something of a big child himself, but that was underestimating him. He had been there since before the start; he had been one of Coydt's hand-picked leaders, and had overseen the ruthless extermination of opposition in the early days of the takeover.
    Still, when the stringers