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green stone that shimmered in the midday light, although in the shade, snow
bleached whiter by the omnipresent dust lay piled against the north walls.
The cart whined to a stop opposite the short walk leading to the double stone
doors.
Kemra took in the graceful columns and the transparent and indestructible
armaglass between them. "This was a private dwelling?" she asked.
"All of them on this side of the Barrier were." I climbed out of the cart seat
and set the brake, then lifted one of the rifles. "I'd like you to look at
this one." "It's like a temple, or something from Hzjana." "More likely, the
one on Hzjana came from here." Not that I knew that for certain, but
architecture on the former Colony Planets had to have some origin in Old
Earth.
The carved stone doors, synthetic jade depicting a man kneeling before a
blazing bush in the middle of hillside, opened at my touch. They always did, a
testimony to the engineering and the balance. I'd also cleaned the tracks
several years back, and that helped.
The polish of the entry hall's stone floor was muted by the dust, but remained
as smooth and hard as it had for its builder millennia earlier.
Kemra glanced up at the ten-meter fluted columns. "A replica temple? From
where?"
"From what I've been able to discover, it's an idealized version of something
called Minoan, except the religious motif got confused."
Kemra paused. The mosaic on the wall facing the door depicted a naked,
blond-haired, and beardless young man vaulting through the wide-spread horns
of a bull in the middle of a banner-clad arena. There aren't many cattle left
these days, but Wienstan told me they thought they had the bovine cleft-gene
virus pinned down. So there might be a chance for them.
"The detail is amazing." Kemra leaned close to the minute colored stones, none
larger than a half centimeter.
A wind gust swirled snow outside the north-facing stone doors, but not the
hint of a sound entered the temple-like house, and the powdered dust by the
doors didn't move a millimeter.
Kemra turned and scanned the entire lower entry hall.
When she seemed almost finished, I shrugged and started up the left-hand set
of stairs to the upper level. A landing nearly five meters deep overlooked and
encircled the entry hall on three sides. There were wide squared lintels
framing openings to each of the three wings on the upper level.
At the top, I waited for Kemra, shifting the rifle. I couldn't believe I'd
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need it inside, but in the ruins beyond the Barrier, you never quite knew.
Besides, we'd have to return to the cart.
She paused and turned, looking down again, before giving the smallest of
headshakes. "Where next?"
"The wings are similar. Each provided living space for an individual, or a
couple, at most. The center wing is the most interesting." I stepped into the
entry room, something once called a sitting room, although, eons ago, someone
had removed all the furnishings in the house, or they had turned to dust and
sifted away, or both. "According to what the researchers have been able to
discover, this was just a room designed for sitting and talking."
The room was fully fifteen meters wide and ten deep, with recessed alcoves
that had held artwork on each side. The floor was pale green and white
polished marble, flat and smooth, with a repeating design of triangles.
Beyond the sitting room, past the square arch that had once held double doors,
was a corridor leading to the bedchamber. On each side of the corridor was a
bath chamber. I waited as Kemra inspected each. The one on the left held an
oval marble tub large enough for four people, included a space the size of my
kitchen just for a commode, and had enough closet space for a marcyb regiment.
The bathing chamber on the right was similar, except that in place of the tub
was an armaglass enclosed shower of equally heroic proportions.
Kemra looked through each, then rejoined me in the corridor. 'You read about
these, but . . . seeing something like this ..."
"It gives you a different perspective."
I walked forward into the bedchamber, fifteen meters wide and twice as deep, a
space almost blindingly bright. The side walls were comprised of fluted pale
green stone columns joined by lightly tinted armaglass that ran from floor to
ceiling. The end wall continued the same pattern, except for the set of carved [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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