Whatever Gods May Be Read Online Free
Author: George P. Saunders
own prophecy of doom. Thalick quickly rejected the notion, though. Zolan wasn't really doing anything that could possibly worsen an already hopeless condition. In fact, the Stinger couldn't remember the last time he had seen his friend so joyful.
Though the ache of despair for the man's mental unhingement still sickened Thalick, it was now cushioned somewhat by the obvious painlessness Zolan was experiencing. This comforting observation helped the Stinger make his next decision rather quickly.
Thalick rose to his full height and moved to the edge of the cliff. The nickname 'Bug' had been an apt alias; the Stinger most closely resembled a giant scorpion. Only the ringed antennae, the stubby wings tucked neatly on his back, and the house-like dimensions of Thalick separated his appearance from that of the miniscule insect that once populated these deserts by the millions.
HOLD, ZOLAN Thalick warned, then flung himself off of the mesa's edge.
Zolan continued laughing as Thalick floated down to the valley below. Bouncing in the sand, the Stinger refolded his wings and broke into a lazy crawl. He listened to Zolan babbling happily behind him, then turned his attention to the burning suns above.
THREE
By now, the faster traveling Little One had positioned itself squarely in the center of the primary. The dim light that pervaded across the sands was haunting and strobe-like, casting shadows over the dunes and rocks where shadows had no right being.
Suddenly, the sky lighted up as it had done once before at dawn, creating a charged curtain of energy extending to all points on the skyline. For as long as the interphase lasted, the spectacular borealis would display its fireworks performance across the world. Indescribably beautiful, it would continue for only an hour, yet it was a necessary palliative for a planet that would die without such treatment. The coupling of both suns briefly affected the magnetic field of the globe, causing a chain reaction in the atmosphere. The child of this union was the colorful ionized blanket Zolan and Thalick were now watching. The borealis precipitated complex chemical transformations high above the stratosphere that would one day completely restore the ozone this world had lost ages ago which had shielded out the deadly rays from the sun and space.
Already, in the past few centuries, the vestigial layovers and mutations of Mankind, as well as other sapient life around the globe, were decreasing rapidly and the number of deaths due to cancer from ultraviolet exposure had been greatly reduced.
As Thalick scrambled down into the valley, the sky raced through the color spectrum of dark blues to bright oranges, occasionally punctuated by blinding flashes of white. The atmospheric pyrotechnics were a terrifying tribute to nature, but to both Zolan and the Stinger, the skylight brouhaha was only mildly distracting. After five centuries of morning and evening displays, the borealis was no more alarming to them now, than the rising of the moon had probably been for the ape-like ancestors to Man a few million years earlier.
And yet, a civilization that had come much later and that had flourished briefly before immolating itself in atomic hell fires would have had a much different reaction to the celestial miracles transpiring overhead. Indeed, the people of that crushed society would have been awed and dismayed at what they would have seen.
Accustomed to a sky with only one sun, they would today have had to adjust to a sky with two -- a sky over a tired and ravaged world they had helped to smash and which they had known from the beginning as Planet Earth.
By midday, Thalick had traveled nearly fifty miles. He had wanted to turn back several hours earlier, but Zolan had insisted that he keep going. The two friends had been heading east and now they had arrived at the outskirts of the largest human community on the planet - New Phillips.
New Phillips
Though the ache of despair for the man's mental unhingement still sickened Thalick, it was now cushioned somewhat by the obvious painlessness Zolan was experiencing. This comforting observation helped the Stinger make his next decision rather quickly.
Thalick rose to his full height and moved to the edge of the cliff. The nickname 'Bug' had been an apt alias; the Stinger most closely resembled a giant scorpion. Only the ringed antennae, the stubby wings tucked neatly on his back, and the house-like dimensions of Thalick separated his appearance from that of the miniscule insect that once populated these deserts by the millions.
HOLD, ZOLAN Thalick warned, then flung himself off of the mesa's edge.
Zolan continued laughing as Thalick floated down to the valley below. Bouncing in the sand, the Stinger refolded his wings and broke into a lazy crawl. He listened to Zolan babbling happily behind him, then turned his attention to the burning suns above.
THREE
By now, the faster traveling Little One had positioned itself squarely in the center of the primary. The dim light that pervaded across the sands was haunting and strobe-like, casting shadows over the dunes and rocks where shadows had no right being.
Suddenly, the sky lighted up as it had done once before at dawn, creating a charged curtain of energy extending to all points on the skyline. For as long as the interphase lasted, the spectacular borealis would display its fireworks performance across the world. Indescribably beautiful, it would continue for only an hour, yet it was a necessary palliative for a planet that would die without such treatment. The coupling of both suns briefly affected the magnetic field of the globe, causing a chain reaction in the atmosphere. The child of this union was the colorful ionized blanket Zolan and Thalick were now watching. The borealis precipitated complex chemical transformations high above the stratosphere that would one day completely restore the ozone this world had lost ages ago which had shielded out the deadly rays from the sun and space.
Already, in the past few centuries, the vestigial layovers and mutations of Mankind, as well as other sapient life around the globe, were decreasing rapidly and the number of deaths due to cancer from ultraviolet exposure had been greatly reduced.
As Thalick scrambled down into the valley, the sky raced through the color spectrum of dark blues to bright oranges, occasionally punctuated by blinding flashes of white. The atmospheric pyrotechnics were a terrifying tribute to nature, but to both Zolan and the Stinger, the skylight brouhaha was only mildly distracting. After five centuries of morning and evening displays, the borealis was no more alarming to them now, than the rising of the moon had probably been for the ape-like ancestors to Man a few million years earlier.
And yet, a civilization that had come much later and that had flourished briefly before immolating itself in atomic hell fires would have had a much different reaction to the celestial miracles transpiring overhead. Indeed, the people of that crushed society would have been awed and dismayed at what they would have seen.
Accustomed to a sky with only one sun, they would today have had to adjust to a sky with two -- a sky over a tired and ravaged world they had helped to smash and which they had known from the beginning as Planet Earth.
By midday, Thalick had traveled nearly fifty miles. He had wanted to turn back several hours earlier, but Zolan had insisted that he keep going. The two friends had been heading east and now they had arrived at the outskirts of the largest human community on the planet - New Phillips.
New Phillips
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