Child of Earth by David Gerrold Read Free Book Online Page A

We’ve had that discussion ourselves—every time we meet a new family. We ask ourselves, is it a good idea to send these people over? But the truth is we have to send families. We can send singles or couples, but families work best. People trust families. And families can live in a community and observe its workings a lot easier than any other kind of observation team. And—” The mom-scout paused. “There’s another consideration too. Our long-range planning.
    â€œEventually, at some point in the future, we hope to establish formal contact, leading to free and open passage through the gate, trade agreements and perhaps even colonization. Colonization was always the plan before the interruption, but now we have to figure out how to deal with the descendants without sending them into massive cultural shock. We don’t want to risk a war or an inquisition. That means were going to need people over there who can act as intermediaries. People who have lived there and who know the culture will be the best representatives of all. So in the long run, we’re training you to be part of the contact team.”

    â€œSpies,” said Big Jes. “You’re training us to be spies and propagandists. Right?”
    â€œWell ... yes, you can think of it that way. But we’d rather you think of yourself as guardian spirits. The people on Linnea aren’t our enemies. They’re our children. But we need them to be our partners.”

WORLDS
    AND I THOUGHT IT WAS just about horses. But we did get to ride Jinker two days later. So I guess we passed the test, whatever it was.
    Just getting on the horse was hard enough. There was a huge wooden A-frame, taller than Jinker, with a giant saddle hanging from it, with baskets on each side. Two of the scouts led Jinker into the A-frame and lowered the saddle onto her back. Then they rolled some stairs on wheels up to her side and we climbed up to ride in the baskets. Jinker could carry four people on a side. The driver climbed up on a rope ladder and sat on a chair just behind her neck. He had a long rod which he used for tapping her neck to guide her.
    At first it was scary, because we were so high off the ground. I thought we were higher than a double-decker bus, but the driver said not quite. But then he said there were some horses bigger than Jinker, so my guess wasn’t all that wrong.
    I sat in front on the left side. Rinky sat behind me. Then Mom-Lu and Lorrin. Aunt Morra and Auncle Irm were on the other side with Parra and Cindy behind them. Bhetto didn’t want to ride. He didn’t like the great-horses that much. Too bad. He missed a good time.
    I was surprised that Jinker wasn’t very fast. The driver said her natural gait was about ten miles per hour. She could hit thirty or forty at a gallop, especially because the gravity on Linnea was lighter than on Earth, but she couldn’t sustain it for long. The great-horses were really too big and too heavy for speed; but they were strong, even stronger
than elephants. A single great-horse was as strong as eight Percherons and could pull an enormous wagonload of goods. That’s why the people on Linnea used great-horses where people of equivalent cultures would have already invented the steam engine.
    Our driver was named Dando. He said he was scheduled to go to Linnea in a few months, just ahead of the first big group of settlers, to help select a target site.
    â€œI thought there were settlers there already—?” Auncle Irm asked.
    â€œScouts and their families only. We’re still in second-stage mapping. Third-stage is when we start a real immigration pipeline, and we expect that certification next month. The first group is in the last semester of training. Second group is halfway through. You folks will probably be in the third or fourth set, depending on how well you do in training. Of course, a lot depends on getting the support system in place