"Kim Stanley Robinson - Vinland" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

Copyright ┬й 1991 by Kim Stanley Robinson, All rights reserved
. First appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine,
November 1991. For the personal use of those who have
purchased the ESF 1993 Award anthology only.


Vinland the Dream


Kim Stanley Robinson


Abstract. It was sunset at L'Anse aux Meadows.
The water of the bay was still, the boggy beach was dark
in the shadows. Flat arms of land pointed to flat islands
offshore; beyond these a taller island stood like a loaf of
stone in the sea, catching the last of the day's light. A
stream gurgled gently as it cut through the beach bog.
Above the bog, on a narrow grassy terrace, one could
just make out a pattern of low mounds, all that remained
of sod walls. Next to them were three or four sod
buildings, and beyond the buildings, a number of tents.
A group of people--archaeologists, graduate
students, volunteer laborers, visitors--moved together
onto a rocky ridge overlooking the site. Some of them
worked at starting a campfire in a ring of blackened
stones; others began to unpack bags of food, and cases
of beer. Far across the water lay the dark bulk of
Labrador. Kindling caught and their fire burned, a spark
of yellow in the dusk's gloom.
Hot dogs and beer, around a campfire by the sea;
and yet it was strangely quiet. Voices were subdued.
The people on the hill glanced down often at the site,
where the head of their dig, a lanky man in his early
fifties, was giving a brief tour to their distinguished guest.
The distinguished guest did not appear pleased.


Introduction. The head of the dig, an archaeology
professor from McGill University, was looking at the
distinguished guest with the expression he wore when
confronted by an aggressive undergraduate. The
distinguished guest, Canada's Minister of Culture, was
asking question after question. As she did, the professor
took her to look for herself, at the forge, and the slag pit,
and the little midden beside Building E. New trenches
were cut across the mounds and depressions, perfect
rectangular cuts in the black peat; they could tell the
minister nothing of what they had revealed. But she had
insisted on seeing them, and now she was asking