Dark Universe by Daniel F. Galouye Read Free Book Online Page A

Unification--things that really mean something!"

    He had always been sure that if his mother had lived she would have been quite like Kind Survivoress.

    He started to answer her. But she was no longer there.
    _______________

    Jared rolled against the softness of a manna fiber mattress and felt the bandage on his head.

    From somewhere in the distance, rising above the audible background, came a reassuring paternal voice pacing itself through the monotonous patter of the Familiarization Routine:

    ". . . Here we are under the echo caster, son. Hear how loud it sounds? Notice the direction of the _clacks_--straight up. We're in the center of the world. Listen to how the echoes come back from all the walls at practically the same time. This way, boy . . ."

    Jared elevated himself on an unsteady elbow and someone caught his shoulders, easing him down again.

    It was Adviser Lorenz, who turned his head the other way and urged,
    "Go tell the Wheel he's coming around."

    Jared caught Della's receding scent as she left the recess. It had to struggle through the heavier odors clinging to everything around him--odors that identified Wheel Anselm's grotto.

    From outside, the tutoring father's spiel bore back in on Jared's conscious, complicating his attempts to reorient himself.

    ". . . There, directly before you, son--can you hear that empty space in the sound pattern? That's the entrance to our world. Now we're going over to the poultry yard. Watch it, boy! There's an outcropping about five paces in front of you. Let's stop here. Feel it. Get an idea of its size and shape. Try to hear it. Remember _exactly_ where it is. And you'll save yourself many a bruised shin . . ."

    Jared tried to banish the distracting voice and compose his thoughts.
    But the effects of his recent dream lay heavily upon him.

    It was most odd that Kind Survivoress should emerge from his forgotten fantasies all of a sudden, as though he had reached back into the abyss of his past and brought forward a warm, memorable slice of childhood. But he recognized the manifestation for what it was--no more than a wistful yearning for the security he hadn't known since his own father had taken him by the hand and Familiarized him with his world, as that attentive father outside was doing now.

    "What in Radiation happened?" he managed.

    "You took a lance broadside on the temple," Lorenz reminded.
    "You've been out like an echo caster for a whole period."

    Suddenly he remembered--everything. And he lurched up. "The monster! The Zivvers!"

    "They're gone--all of them."
    "What
    happened?"

    "Best we could make out was that the monster seized a Zivver at the entrance. Two other Zivvers tried to save him. But they just collapsed in their tracks."

    _Clacks_ from the central caster entered through parted curtains and bounced off the Adviser's face, carrying away a composite of his apprehensive expression. Something else was hidden among the wrinkles, adding further tautness to his closed eyelids--an uneasy hesitancy. The Adviser appeared to be deciding whether to say something.

    Jared, however, was more concerned over the monster's having invaded the Upper Level. Until now, he had been certain the Barrier was adequate to keep the creature on the other side. He felt that he and Owen deserved whatever they had gotten for violating the taboos. But it didn't end there. Rather, the monster had crossed the Barrier to enter one of the worlds of man. And once more Jared wondered whether he might not be responsible. He had invaded the Original World first, hadn't he? And hadn't the monster picked a most convincing time to strike again--just when he was beginning to compound blasphemy by giving thought to resuming his search for Light?

    The Adviser drew in a decisive breath. "What were you doing when you got hit by that spear?"

    "Trying to reach the Zivver on guard at the entrance."

    Lorenz stiffened audibly. "Then you _admit_ it?"

    "What's there to admit? I heard a chance to