Terra by Mitch Benn Read Free Book Online Page A

their claim at the back row of this new lectorium and resumed their customary habit of muttering private jokes to each other. It was quite unusual for either of them to speak to anyone else; this and the indelicate nature of the question caused the atmosphere to thicken.
    - No, said Terra after a moment’s hesitation. No, I eat the same things as every . . .
    - Because that’s what Ymns do, isn’t it? I read about it on the Source. They kill animals and eat their insides while they’re still warm.
    - No, no, interrupted her sister. They kill animals and then set FIRE to them, and eat the burnt bits.
    Uneasy glances passed between the pupils as quite a few stomachs turned over at the thought of this. Bsht decided to intervene.
    - Now, now, it was only a few eras ago that we Fnrrns ate animals as well; then we invented protein manipulators and we didn’t have to any more.
    - The G’grk still eat animals! said Thnst, clearly warming to the topic.
    - The G’grk don’t count as Fnrrns. They’re barely better than animals themselves, muttered Shnst.
    This was greeted by murmurs of consensus, but not a consensus which made Bsht especially happy. - Shnst, she began, that’s hardly . . .
    - The G’grk could use protein manipulators if they wanted to, they just like killing things too much, continued Shnst regardless. They’d rather keep on living like savages.
    - They wouldn’t know how to use a protein manipulator even if they had one, giggled Thnst. They’d just grunt and stare at it then stab it and try to eat it.
    Everyone laughed now, except Terra and Bsht. Terra kept an intimidated silence. Bsht didn’t.
    - The G’grk aren’t dumb beasts, Thnst, and there may yet come a day when we would all do well to remember that.
    The lectorium fell quiet once more. Not a hush of anticipation this time but a queasy, fearful silence. Bsht went on.
    - Over the eras the G’grk have shown great ingenuity and organisation. It’s just a shame that their culture still prizes war and conquest above other, nobler things.
    As Bsht spoke, the lectorium visualiser, registering the topic of conversation, began flashing up images and text illustrating the history of Fnrr’s most bellicose civilisation.
    While the other nations of Fnrr had long ago embraced reason and science as the foundations of society, the G’grk still clung to ancient codes of honour and bravery. They worshipped invisible overlords they called ‘The Occluded Ones’ and believed that domination of Fnrr – and elsewhere – had been promised to them as their inevitable destiny. The G’grk’s homeland occupied the whole of the vast Central Plain of Chsk-Tshff, the continent from which Mlml was separated by a thin strip of ocean. They had conquered many surrounding nations over the eras, but their more recent attempts at expansion had been contained thanks to the superior technology of other nations’ defences; the G’grk’s rejection of science meant that such ‘tech’ as they possessed had been plundered from other countries, and as such they tended to use it rather inexpertly.
    A shudder of fear passed through the rows of pupils as the image of the G’grk leader, Grand Marshal K’zsht, appeared. Old, scarred and war-painted, he clutched in his fist the ceremonial lance which served as the Grand Marshal’s emblem of office. This lance was held to be so sacred that, once won (the G’grk’s culture of conquest extended inwards into their own society as well as outwards; advancement came through duelling, challenges and sometimes straightforward assassination), the incumbent Grand Marshal would never let it out of his grasp, even in his sleep . . . and given the process by which new Grand Marshals were often ‘appointed’, sleeping with a weapon in his hand was a practical as well as ceremonial necessity.
    - They belong in the past, said Shnst angrily. Hey, Fthfth, I hope you do invent time travel so we can send the filthy G’grk back to the