The Practice Effect
Page 31
Brady followed Dennis’s look.
“That thing?” He pointed incredulously at the pixolet. The creature preened, and grinned back with a row of needle-sharp teeth.
“Yes, that,” Dennis said with a nod.
“Of course, I’m only going by pieced-together accounts from legends more than a thousand years old. But I’m pretty sure that’s what happened.
“We can only imagine what the Earth of the fortieth century is like, now that these Krenegee have been loose there for centuries. Perhaps the age of biologicals is past and the era of tools has returned there—magical tools beyond belief.
“I’d be glad of it, for the bioengineering did sound a bit questionable, ethically.”
Dennis stood next to Linnora. She and Pix looked up at him and he smiled. Dennis turned back to Brady and concluded, “Now, at last, the barriers to this world are dropping. For some reason a weird intertime path to twenty-first-century Earth was the first to open, perhaps because ours was the first zievatron of all.
“Soon other paths will open. And these people have got to be ready when they do. The Blecker are probably still out there, waiting for a chance to get in.
“That’s why I think I’ll hang around after we fix the return mechanism and send you back home.”
Linnora took his hand. “At least that’s one of the reasons,” he amended.
Brady looked perplexed. “That’s a pretty convincing story, Nuel. Except for one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You still haven’t told me what this talent is you’re saying that nasty little thing has! What was this gift Earth supposedly sent through?”
Dennis looked surprised. “Oh! You mean nobody’s explained that part of it to you yet?”
“No! And I’ll tell you I can’t take it much longer! Something’s screwy about this world! Did you notice the strange juxtaposition of technologies these people have here? I can’t figure out what’s going on, and it’s driving me crazy!”
Dennis remembered how many times he had sworn vengeance on Brady during his months on Tatir. Right now he had the fellow in his power, but all the malice he had felt before was gone. He decided to satisfy himself with one little bit of revenge.
“Oh, I’ll let you figure it out for yourself, Brady. I’m sure a mind like yours can come up with the answer, if you practice it hard enough.”
Bernald Brady sat there. He had no choice but to fume silently while Dennis Nuel laughed. As the woman, the little man, the alien creature from the future, and his onetime rival all grinned at him, Brady had the uneasy feeling that he wasn’t going to enjoy the learning process much at all.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Brin is the author of eleven novels, including Heaven’s Reach, Infinity’s Shore, Sundiver, Startide Rising, Brightness Reef, The Practice Effect, The Postman, Heart of the Comet (with Gregory Benford), The Uplift War, Earth, and Glory Season, as well as the short story collections The River of Time and Otherness. He has a doctorate in astrophysics and has been a NASA consultant and a physics professor. He lives in southern California.