"Christopher Stasheff - Rogue Wizard 06 - A Wizard in Chaos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

quieted. They came down onto firm ground, and both horses seemed to relax,
though their flanks still quivered. "Not bad for their first spaceship ride,"
Dirk said. "Did you have to keep them hypnotized the whole way?"
"Probably not," Gar said, "but it was only a fifteen-minute hop, so I kept them
in trances just to be on the safe side." He raised his voice a little. "Back to
orbit, Herkimer. Stay tuned."
"I will await your communications, Magnus," said the resonant voice of the
ship's computer. It called its owner by his birth-name, not the nickname he had
won on his travels. "Good luck."
The ramp drew back in, and the huge disk rose silently, spinning away into the
night, until it was only one more star among many.
"How far to the nearest castle?" Dirk said. "About a dozen miles, but there was
a battle going on there this afternoon, and the troops seemed to be celebrating
as we were coming in for a landing," Gar answered. "We might do better to head
for the nearest town."
"Let's hear it for city lights." Dirk mounted.
So did Gar. They rode off side by side toward the dim track that Herkimer's
night-sight program had shown them.
"How about this," Dirk suggested. "We ride together until we're sure the way is
reasonably safe, then split up to spy out the lay of the land and what's on it."
"My instincts are against it," Gar said, frowning. "There're too many evils that
can happen to one of us alone."
"Yes, especially on a planet like this, founded by a group. of very idealistic,
quasi-religious anarchists. I guess they managed to stay peaceful, living under
colony domes, long enough to Terraform the continent."
Gar nodded. "Then, when the land was ready for the seeds of Terran plants, they
opted for the primitive life, going out to farm and live in small villages of
prefab huts, with no government higher than a village meeting." He sighed. "How
could they possibly have thought it could last?"
"They figured they could all just imitate the saintly lives of their sages,"
Dirk reminded him, "and that would keep them from hurting one another or
offending one another-or so say the historical notes in the databank. Voila! No
need for government!"
"Not exactly hardheaded realists, then."
Dirk nodded. "I'll bet they were determined not to depend on hightech
agriculture or sophisticated birth-control techniques."
"But they did depend on human nature being considerably more virtuous than it
is," Gar said darkly.
"So they fell back into a medieval standard of living."
"They were probably idealistic enough not to mind the hardships," Gar sighed. "I
wonder what went wrong?"
"What went wrong?" Dirk asked. "Just look at those pictures we took from orbit!
Castles on the hilltops with people in satins and furs walking the courtyards,
packs of men in armor on horseback, and people in rags plowing the fields! What
do you think went wrong?"
"Well, yes, that much is obvious," Gar admitted, "but I'd like to know the
details. They do seem to have strayed into some form of government."
"Only locally," Dirk said grimly. "How many battles did we spot from orbit? A
dozen?"
"Seventeen," Gar admitted. "None of them very big, though."