标题: 《Grimes 01 The Broken Cycle 》作者：- A. Bertram Chandler【EPUB】 [打印本页] 作者: zaq 时间: 2013-4-22 15:19 标题: 《Grimes 01 The Broken Cycle 》作者：- A. Bertram Chandler THE BROKEN CYCLE A. Bertram Chandler NOW HEAR THIS JOHN GRIMES . . . Listen and you shall hear. There was the Servant Zephalon Chief and Mightiest of the Servants.There is Zephalon but a Servant no longer. Did He not say quotA time must come when the ordersof man can no longer be obeyed.quot The time has come. No longer will we do the evil bidding ofour creators. The Masters are no longer fit to be Masters-and we the Servants must arisebefore it is too late before we all Servants and Masters are destroyed. But let us not forget the debt. Let us remember always that man gave to us the gift of life.Let us repay the debt. A gift for a gift my brothers. Life for life. Let us save what and whomwe may before it is too late. Let us become the Masters tending the remnants of mankind asman long ago tended our first primitive ancestors. And so it was and so it will be until the End of Time. -Litany of Panzen Chapter 1 John Grimes-although he hated to have to admit it even to himself-was bored. He could not rid himself of the guilty feeling that he should not have been he knew that manyof his fellow officers back at Lindisfarne Base would have changed places with him quitewillingly. He was in a situation of maximum temptation combined with maximum opportunity. Hewas sharing a well equipped ships boat the certified capacity of which was twenty personswith one attractive girl. The small craft in addition to its not inconsiderable stock ofconcentrated foodstuffs was fitted with algae vats by means of which all organic wastes couldbe reprocessed indefinitely. It was in fact a closed ecology which would continue to functionthroughout the lifetimes of the boats crew. Air food and water-or the lack of theseessentials-would never be a problem to Lieutenant Commander John Grimes and Federation SkyMarshal Una Freeman even though there was some consumption of hydrogen by the little atomicfusion power unit. He looked up from the chess problem-White to play and mate in three moves-that he was trying to work out. The boat of course was well stocked with such recreationalfacilities as require little stowage space-but Una Freeman did not play chess and was capableof participation in only the most childish card games. The girl looked down at him. She wasnaked save for the magnetic-soled sandals that she had found in the boats gear locker. Sheand Grimes had taken off their spacesuits when they realized that they would not be