Jack L. Chalker Web of the chosen

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

derwebs.
"This was the first town site," George explained. "It could have held the
original six hundred easily, and we actually got some prefab stuff up before
things started to fall apart. The earliest buildings on the point there are
patterned after the ones we built, even the church."
So that was the building with spires, I thought. A
church. I'd seen a couple on various worlds, but this sort of organization
came out of ancient history. But, then, these were a people of ancient
Page 21
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
history, taking centuries to cover what I had covered in months. I was
35
The Web of the Chozen as alien to these people as we all were to normal hu-
mans four hundred and seventy years distant.
"Of course," George continued, "as the population has expanded, we have spread
far beyond the original site now very far beyond. There's only a few thou-
sand of us around in these parts, in three towns."
"A few thousand of you?" I gasped. "But you said you started with six hundred!
You can't have been down twenty years!"
"That's true," he acknowledged. "But, you see, ev-
ery single one of the Chozen that's what we call this
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%...20-%20The%20Web%20of%20the%20Ch
ozen%20UC.txt (28 of 170) [1/19/03 4:45:38 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Web%20of%20
the%20Chozen%20UC.txt particular animal we are on this planet started with the
original six hundred."
I was stunned anew. "You mean there were no creatures like this on this planet
before you landed?
That's impossible! There must be a billion of you around on all four
continents! Not in twenty years!"
George sat up on his tail and gave a shrug. "It's true. When we surveyed, the
largest land animal around was a large rodent, and the largest animal pe-
riod was something resembling an aquatic dinosaur.
We split into four groups, centered on each continent's best zone, to check
where the best places would be to start out. Seventy-five men and seventy-five
women in each commune, each with a whole continent to settle.
We had radios and the shuttlecraft, so we could keep in contact, we thought.
Well, after we were all down, the dissolution of everything started, so
rapidly and so absolutely that we couldn't do a thing about it. Then the
Change came, and, if I can judge by just this col-
ony here, when we became the Chozen only one in ten of the men remained a
male, the rest became females.
In our case, seven of us remained men; the rest, fe-
males sixty-eight in all.
"Breeding is well, you might say compulsory.
You'll see. A female mates once every two years, I'd guess, and always lays
six eggs yes, don't start. We hatch.
"Well, five are always female and one male. There's
36
The Web of the Chozen no infant mortality to speak of, and instead of the
usual ten to thirteen years, the young reach full matu-
rity in just two and start breeding. You can figure out the result."
It was getting late as we approached the large house, which, as leader, George
occupied. It was grass-
lined and stocked with tubers, and provided a comfort-
able place to lie down in. The Chozen relaxed by lying on their sides, feet
out, I found. Very comfortable.
My old pilot's mind did the arithmetic. Let's see
okay, there would be sixty-eight females, seven males, so we'd multiply the
first litter by six and the rest by five. That was 408 the first breeding
cycle, two years in. Now they all bred, and we'd get 2,040 by the end of the
fourth year. Ten thousand two by six, fifty-one thousand by eight, two hundred
fifty-five thousand at ten years, over a million two by only twelve years, six
million at fourteen, thirty-one million by sixteen, a hundred and sixty or so
million by eighteen, and now, at about twenty years, almost eight hundred
million from this one colony. Multiplied by the four colonies, the result was
even more staggering over three billion of the Chozen on the planet. And the
next cycle
Page 22
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%...20-%20The%20Web%20of%20the%20Ch
ozen%20UC.txt (29 of 170) [1/19/03 4:45:38 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Web%20of%20
the%20Chozen%20UC.txt
Fifteen billion?
"I don't believe it," I whispered. "This world's about right now. It can't
stand any more inhabitants. You'll be out of food no matter what in just a
couple more years, over the trillion mark before another decade!"
George nodded. "I know. The death rate's mostly from accident, so it's rather
low. Either that has to in-
crease dramatically in the next year or two, or there has to be a lot of
sterility suddenly, or we'll be up to our tails in people with no increase in
food."
"Starvation will return violence to your perfect world," I pointed out. "The
most dangerous people are starving people."
37
Five
In the next few days I learned to handle my new body and my odd new sight much
better. The fact is, being of the Chozen was not at all unpleasant, like
suddenly becoming a child again. No cares, no responsibility, no worries. Most
of the Chozen were born this way, and all but a handful were still children.
The young grew to adulthood in just two years, but they learned very quickly.
Parents taught them speech and as much else as possible during the abbreviated
childhood. Even as adults, they respected their elders, and listened to the
stories of their heritage, their cul-
ture, and their ideals and faith. To all but a hundred and fifty of the
colony, and those stretched damned thin across the face of the continent, this
was their own, their only world, their only form, their only life.
Legends, rumors, and the lack of manpower to fill what little need for
knowledge of the old ways existed were already causing tremendous gaps between
old and young. There were simply too many children, of ne-
cessity too spread out. Most were primitive savages, with little or no hint of
a link to humanity or civiliza-
tion.
They played their games, and life was fun and little else. I could tell that
even close in to this village and
George's guiding hand the last links were already breaking. Two years wasn't
enough to teach them their past. Already the majority of the inhabitants were
only two to four years old, and far removed from humanity.
In a century, provided or, perhaps, even helped by
38
The Web of the Chozen
the inevitable toll of starvation, they would be so alien, so simple and
primitive, that they might as well have no link with humanity whatsoever.
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%...20-%20The%20Web%20of%20the%20Ch
ozen%20UC.txt (30 of 170) [1/19/03 4:45:38 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Web%20of%20 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne