Курии. Начало
«You see?» asked the beast, pointing upward, it seemed at a starry sky above our heads.
«Yes,» I said. I did not recognize the patch of the heavens above us.
«That was our star,» he said, «a yellow, medium-sized, slow-rotating star with a planetary system, one small enough to have sufficient longevity to nourish life, one large enough to have a suitable habitable zone.»
«Not unlike Tor-tu-Gor, or Sol,» I said. «the common star of Earth and Gor.»
«Precisely,» he said.
«Tell me of your world,» I said.
«My worid is of steel,» it said. It seemed bitter.
«Your old world,» I said.
«I never saw it, of course,» he said. «It was, of course, of a suitable size and distance from its star. It was small enough to permit the escape of hydrogen, large enough to retain oxygen. It was not so close to the star as to be a ball of scalding rock nor so far as to be a frozen spheroid.»
«It maintained temperatures at which water could be in a liquid form.»
«Yes,» it said, «and the mechanisms, the atomic necessities, of chemical evolution were initiated, and the macromolecules and protocells, in time, were formed.»
«Gases were exchanged, and the hydrogen-dominated atmosphere yielded to one in which free oxygen was a major component.»
«It became green,» it said.
«Life began its climb anew,» I said.
«Out of the two billion years of the wars and the killings, and the eatings and the huntings, came my people,» it said. «We were the triumph of evolution in all its heartless savagery,» it said.
«And the doom of your world,» I said.
«We do not speak of what happened,» it said. It moved to the wall and, passing its paw before a switch, caused the projection on the ceiling to vanish. It turned then to look upon me. «Our world was very beautiful,» it said. «We will have another.»
«Perhaps not,» I said.
«The human being cannot even kill with its teeth,» it said.
I shrugged.
«But let us not quarrel,» it said. «I am so pleased that you are here, and I am so fond of you.»
(…)
«What would you think if a Kur betrayed his own kind?» I asked.
He looked at me, startled. «It could not happen,» he said.
«Surely Kurii, in their own wars, have occasionally demonstrated treachery.»
«Never to men, never to another species,» said the beast. «That is unthinkable.»
«Kurii, then,» I said, «are in this regard nobler than men.»
«It is my supposition,» it said, «that in all respects Kurii are nobler than men.» It looked at me. «But I except you,» he said. «I think there is something of the Kur in you.»
«In the room of the dueling,» I said. «There was a large mirror.»
«An observation port,» it said.
«I thought so,» I said.
«You fought splendidly,» he said. «You are very skilled with that tiny weapon.»
«Thank you,» I said.
«I, too, am skilled in weaponry,» it said, «in various weapons traditional with my people, and in modern weapons, as well.»
«You maintain, even with your technology, a dueling tradition?» I asked.
«Of course,» it said. «And the tradition of the fang and claw is continued as well.»
«Of course,» I said.
«I am not fond of modern weapons,» it said. «An egg-carrier or even a nondominant could use them. They put one at too great a distance from the kill. They can be effective, and that is their justification, but they are, in my opinion, boring. They tend to rob one, because of their nature, of the closeness, the ininiediacy, the joy of the hot kill. That is the greatest condemnation of them. They take the pleasure out of killing.» It looked at me. «What can compare,» it asked, «with the joy of real victory? Of true victory? When one has risked one’s life openly and then, after a hard-fought contest, has one’s enemy at one’s feet, lacerated, and bleeding and dying, and can then tear him in victory and feast in his body, what can compare with the joy of that?»
The eyes of the beast blazed, but then the fierce light subsided. It poured us again a glass of paga.
«Very little, I suppose,» I said.
«Do I horrify you?» it asked.
«No,» I said.
«I knew I would not,» it said.
«How did you know that?» I asked.
«I saw you fight,» it said.
I shrugged.
«You should have seen your face,» it said. «You cannot tell me you did not like it.»
«I have not told you that,» I said.
«In time the war will be finished,» it said. It looked at me, «If we should survive it, there will be afterwards no use for such as we.»
«We will, at least,» I said, «have known one another.»
«That is true,» it said. «Would you like to see my trophies?» it asked.
«Yes,» I said.