TRULLION: Alastor 2262
JACK VANCE
daw books, inc.
DONALD A. WOLLHEIM, PUBLISHER 1633 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10019
copyright ©, 1973, by jack vance.
All Rights Reserved. Cover art by David B. Mattingly.
FIRST DAW PRINTING, JANUARY 1981
123456789
DAW TRADEMARK REGISTEReD U.S. PAT. OFF. MARCA IEGISTKADA. UK. CSO EH U.S.A
TRULLION:
Alastor 2262
1.1Welgen Sound
2. Welgen Spit
3. Blacklyn Broad
4. Lace Islands
5. Ripil Broad
6. Mellish Water
7. Near, Middle, Far Islands
8. Seaward Broad
9. Athenry Water
10. Rorwquin's Tooth
11. Clinkhammer Broad
12. Sarpassante Island
13. Sarpent Channel
14. Tethryn Broad
15. Prefecture Commons
16. Zeur Water
r
17. Fleharish Broad
18. llfish Water
19. Bellicent Island
20. Five Islands 21.SelmaWater
22. Vernice Water
23. Fogle Island
24. Harkus Island
25. Farwan Water
26. Ambal Island
27. Rabendary Islai
28. Ambal Broad
29. Gilweg Water
30. Gilweg Island
Out toward the rim of the galaxy hangs Alastor Cluster, a whorl of thirty thousand live stars in an irregular volume twenty to thirty light-years in diameter. The surrounding region is dark and, except for a few hermit stars, unoccupied. To the exterior view, Alastor presents a flamboyant display of star-streams, luminous webs, sparkling nodes. Dust clouds hang across the brightness; the engulfed stars glow russet, rose, or smoky amber. Dark stars wander unseen among a million subplanetary oddments of iron, slag and ice: the so-called "starments."
Scattered about the cluster are three thousand inhabited planets with a human population of approximately five trillion persons. The worlds are diverse, the populations equally so; nevertheless they share a common language and all submit to the authority of the Connatic at Lusz, on the world Numenes.
The current Connatic is Oman Ursht, sixteenth in the Idite succession, a man of ordinary and undistinguished appearance. In portraits and on public occasions he wears a severe black uniform with a black casque, in order to project an image of inflexible authority, and this is how he is known to the folk of Alastor Cluster. In private Oman Ursht is a calm and reasonable man, who tends to under- rather than over-administrate. He ponders all aspects of his conduct, knowing well that his slightest act-a gesture, a word, a symbolic nuance-might start off an avalanche of unpredictable consequences. Hence his effort to create the image of a man rigid, terse and unemotional.
To the casual observer, Alastor Cluster is a system placid and peaceful. The Connatic knows differently. He recognizes that wherever human beings strive for advantage, disequilibrium exists; lacking easement, the social fabric becomes taut and sometimes rips asunder. The Connatic conceives his function to be the identification and relief of social stresses.
Sometimes he ameliorates, sometimes he employs techniques of distraction. When harshness becomes unavoidable he deploys his military agency, the Whelm. Oman Ursht winces to see an insect injured; the Connatic without compunction orders a million persons to their doom. In many cases, believing that each condition generates its own counter-condition, he stands aloof, fearing to introduce a confusing third factor. When in doubt, do nothing: this is one of the Connatic's favorite credos.
After an ancient tradition he roams anonymously about the cluster. Occasionally, in order to remedy an injustice, he represents himself as an important official; often he rewards kindness and self-sacrifice. He is fascinated by the ordinary life of his subjects and listens attentively to such dialogues as: old man (to a lazy youth}: If everybody had what they wanted, who would work? Nobody.
youth: Not I, depend on it.
old man: And you'd be the first to cry out in anguish, for it's work what keeps the lights on. Get on with it now, put your shoulder into it. I can't bear sloth.
youth (grumbling): If I were Connatic I'd arrange that everyone had their wishes. No toil! Free seats at the hussade game! A fine space-yacht! New clothes every day! Servants to lay forth delectable foods!
old man: The Connatic would have to be a genius to satisfy both you and the servants. They'd live only to box your ears. Now get on with your work.
Or again:
young man: Never go near Lusz, I beseech you! The Connatic would take you for his own!
girl (mischievously): Then what would you do? young man: I'd rebel! I'd be the most magnificent starmenter* ever to terrify the skies! At last I'd conquer the power of Alastor-Wilhelm, Connatic and all-and win you back for my very own.
* starmenters: pirates and marauders, whose occasional places of refuge are the. so-called "starments."
girl: You're gallant, but never never never would the Connatic choose ordinary little me; already the most beautiful women of Alastor attend him at Lusz. young man: What a merry life he must lead! To be Connatic: this is my dream! girl: (makes fretful sound and becomes cool.)
Lusz, the Connatic's palace, is indeed a remarkable structure, rising ten thousand feet above the sea on five great pylons. Visitors roam the lower promenades; from every world of Alastor Cluster they come, and from places beyond-the Darkling Regions, the Primarchic, the Erdic Sector, the Rubrimar Cluster, and all the other parts of the galaxy which men have made their own.
Above the public promenades are governmental offices, ceremoniakhalls, a communications complex, and somewhat higher, the famous Ring of the Worlds, with an informational chamber for each inhabited planet of the cluster. The highest pinnacles contain the Connatic's personal quarters. They penetrate the clouds and sometimes pierce through to the upper sky. When sunlight glistens on its iridescent surfaces, Lusz, the palace of the Connatic, is a wonderful sight and is often reckoned the most inspiring artifact of the human race.
Chapter 1
* * *
Chamber 2262 along the Ring of the Worlds pertains to Trullion, the lone planet of a small white star, one spark in a spray curling out toward the cluster's edge. Trullion is a small world, for the most part water, with a single narrow continent, Merlank,* at the equator. Great banks of cumulus drift in from the sea and break against the central mountains; hundreds of rivers return down broad valleys where fruit and cereals grow so plentifully as to command no value.
The original settlers upon Trullion brought with them those habits of thrift and zeal which had promoted survival in a previously harsh environment; the first era of Trill history produced a dozen wars, a thousand fortunes, a caste of hereditary aristocrats, and a waning of the initial dyn...
widez2