The Singers of Time

Начало книги

An Earth human whose name was Augustine once sang in his confession:

"What, then, is time? "If no one asks me, I know.

"If I wish to explain it to someone who asks, I know not."

But one of the aiodoi, who do know that they are also scientists (since the aiodoi know that they are everything), sings instead: "Time is always. "Time is all.

"Time is only illusion, but there is no other truth than time."

The individual was known as Chief Thunderbird, and he was a Turtle—at least, that was the name human beings had given their benefactors from space. Chief Thunderbird wasn't his actual name, either. That too was simply what human beings generally called him. Properly he was addressed by his title, which was Proctor for Human Oversight. In his own language he had a name, of course, but that didn't matter to human beings. Human people had no hope of pronouncing the shrill squawks and high-frequency hisses of the Brotherhood.

Читать дальше →