The Godmakers by Frank Herbert Read Free Book Online Page B

him didn't expect this mission to succeed. This was a desperation move with an expendable pawn.
    A sudden feeling of sympathy for the Gienahns came over Orne. Tanub and his fellows had no say in their own fate. Desperate humans were calling all of the moves.
    Desperate and frightened humans who had grown up in the shadow of the Rim War terrors. Did that give these humans the right to decide whether an entire species should survive? These Gienahns were sapient creatures.
    Although he had never considered himself very religious, Orne said a silent prayer: "Mahmud, help me save these . . . people."
    An inner calmness washed all through him, a sensation of strength and confidence. He thought: I'm calling the moves!
    A cool gloom swept over the jungle, bringing a sudden stillness to the wild sounds. A cluttering commotion came from the Gienahns in the trees and around the sled.
    Tanub shifted, grunted.

    The Gienahn who had been standing atop the load jumped down to the left.
    "We go now," Tanub said. "Slowly. Stay behind my . . . scouts."
    "Right." Orne eased the sled forward around an obstructing root, watched the headlights pick up the swinging, scampering figures of his escort.
    Silence invaded the cab while they crawled forward.
    "Turn a little to your right," Tanub said, indicating an aisle between the trees.
    Orne obeyed. Around him shapes flung themselves from vine to vine.
    "I admired your city from the air," Orne said. "It is very beautiful."
    "Yes," Tanub said. "Your kind finds it so. Why did you bring your ship down so far from our city?"
    "We didn't want to land where we might destroy anything."
    "There is nothing to destroy in the jungle, Orne."
    "Why do you have just the one big city?" Orne asked.
    Silence.
    "I said, why do you . . ."
    "Orne, you are ignorant of our ways," Tanub growled. "Therefore, I forgive you. The city is for our race, for the foreverness. Our young must be born in sunlight. Once, long ago, we used crude platforms on the tops of the trees. Now . . . only the wild ones do this."
    Stetson's voice hissed in Orne's ears: "Easy on the sex and breeding line.
    That's always touchy. These creatures are oviparous. Sex glands apparently are hidden in that long fur behind where their chins ought to be."
    Who decides where chins ought to be? Orne wondered.
    "The ones who control the birthing sites control our world," Tanub said.
    "Once there was another city. We destroyed it, shattered its towers and sent it crashing into the dirty mud where the jungle can reclaim it."
    "Are there many . . . wild ones?" Orne asked.
    "Fewer each season," Tanub said. His voice sounded boastful, confident.
    "There's how they get their slaves," Stetson said.
    "Soon, there will be no wild ones left," Tanub said.
    "You speak excellent Galactese," Orne said.
    "The High Path Chief commands the best teacher," Tanub said. "Do you, too, know many things, Orne?"

    "That's why I was sent here," Orne said.
    "Are there many planets to teach?" Tanub asked.
    "Very many," Orne said. "Your city -- I saw very tall buildings. Of what do you build them?"
    "In your tongue, glass," Tanub said. "The engineers of the Delphinus said it was impossible. As you saw, they are wrong."
    Stetson's voice came hissing on the carrier wave: "A glassblowing culture!
    That'd explain a lot of things."
    The disguised air sled crept down the jungle aisle as Orne reviewed what he had heard and what he had observed. Glassblowers. High Path Chief. Eyes with vertical slit pupils. An arboreal species. Hunters. Warlike. Slave culture. The young must be born in sunlight. Culture? Or physical necessity? They learned quickly. They'd had the Delphinus and her crew only eighteen standard months.
    A scout swooped down into the headlights, waved.
    Orne stopped the sled on Tanub's order. They waited almost ten minutes before proceeding.
    "Wild ones?" Orne asked.
    "Perhaps. But we are too strong a force for them to attack. And they do not have good weapons. Do not be afraid,