FANTASTIC PLANET v2.0 by Stephan Wul Read Free Book Online Page B

led the two doctors outside.
    Terr knelt
at the old black Om's bedside. He took her hands and found them freezing cold.
The smell of medicine was floating around her.
    'Young one',
she said, 'I'll not see the Exodus'.
    'Don't
speak', whispered Terr, 'you're tiring yourself'.
    She gave a
small broken laugh. A cough shook her thin shoulders beneath her gown. She
pointed at a flask on a table. Terr made her drink a few drops and lifted her
head a little. She soon calmed down.
    'Listen... I
wanted to see you before... I went. Yes... yes! I'm not scared, you know! I
wanted to tell you that... I really like you, young one. Don't make such a
face. Look at me, I'm laughing... We all go. One day it'll be your turn, in a
long time, I hope.'
    She wagged
her head.
    it's not very clever, what I'm saying. I'm nothing
but an old fool. You others, thanks... to the Traags' headsets, you're much
more clever than me. Even the little ones... little Oms can now read all the
Traag words. It's thanks to you. As far as intelligence goes, you've got some.
But... at the beginning, when you were still little, all we achieved was thanks
to me. Because I was... energetic, wasn't that so?'
    Terr nodded
in approval. She was clenching her old nervy fist on the blanket.
    'Me, energy,
you... (She slowly tapped his forehead with her finger)... the head. So, I
wanted to tell you... with your head, and if I give you my energy, you will
succeed with the Exodus. The two are needed. I know you've already got lots of
energy, but I'm also giving you mine. I won't be here later on. It's you who's
going to command everything... In fact you've already been commanding lately.
The others listen to you, don't they?'
    She panted
for a while not saying anything, and then her hands gripped Terr's like claws.
    'Can you
feel it? Can you feel it, young one? The energy flowing from
my arms? It's going through yours. I'm giving it to you. It's leaving
me. Can you feel it? You...'
    Her head
felt heavier on the fabric. Her crimson lips remained frozen in a smile.
    'Old Lady?'
said Terr.
    He gently
freed his warm hands from the dead lady's cold fingers. He shut her eyes and
stayed hunched over her for a while. He then walked slowly towards the door.
    Everyone in
the adjacent room was standing. Terr waved to them that it was all over.
Without looking behind him he went out, followed by Char whose hps where
quivering with emotion.
    In the large
corridor a crowd had gathered, having heard vague rumours. All were looking at
Terr as he appeared at the top of the stairs.
    'The Old
Lady has died', he announced in a voice lacking in resonance.
    The crowd
froze, stunned. The Old Lady had always been the symbol of their unity, their
hopes and their destiny. As Terr appeared to stand down, a female
    Om voice
cried out:
    'Long live
the Aedile!'
    This
triggered off and explosion of cheering.
    'Terr! Our Aedile! Long live the Oms' chief! Three
cheers for the Exodus!'
    Terr raised
his hand to hold back the commotion, with little success at first. A nervous
tic made his chin tremble beneath his blond beard.
    Someone came
out of the Old Lady's quarters, elbowed their way to be near the new Aedile and
present him a telebox. Seeing the small machine the crowd quietened down
gradually.
    'Free Oms',
said Terr, 'the Old Lady died pressing me for a successful Exodus. She's been
fighting for us for days and days. And then, she fought against death...'
    More than
just the crowd that was there, he could feel his voice addressing thousands of
Oms leant over their receptors throughout the city, and further away to
sentries in advanced posts lining the tracks. Further still, his speech was
going to stir pillage units at work in Traag cities.
    ***
    Somewhere
around Klud, a Traag child was playing at recording parasites from a telebox.
He was putting them through a plurigraph and suddenly realized that some noises
sounded like words. Traag words, as if said at full speed and distorted by
animal throats, were