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But it was not merely his alienness and his growing desire to return to his Chinese flesh-pots that constituted the problem. There was also his wealth. He had looked forward to a placid old age. He had worked hard. His reward should have been peace and repose. But he knew that with his immense fortune peace and repose could not possibly be his. Already there were signs and omens.
He had covered his too-human body under a multitude of robes and had gloried in the alienness of his head, with its fringe of breathing tentacles and the two lobster-like claws that concealed his tiny mouth. Year after long year, he had built and prayed for the war of vengeance that must come. Almost, it had passed him by.
The shimmering atmosphere, hostile to man, which sealed the red desert was a lens that distorted and concealed by its intervention. The groundcar was a mechanical bug, an alienness with which timorous man had allied himself; allied with it against reality, she and Nuwell were hastened by it through reality, unseeing, toward the goal of a more comfortable unreality.
On and on it moved, its little pinkish feet pattering almost silently on the oxidized metal surface of the rail. Its sensitive ears picked up the movements and the squeals of other rats, but it paid them no heed. Several times, it met other rats on the rail, but most of them sensed the alienness of this rat and scuttled out of its way. Once, it met a rat who did not give way.
Therefore, between your people and mine there can be a common speech. And I may show you my dream store for your enjoyment, star voyager." A flickering of pictures, some weird, some beautiful, all a little distorted not only by haste, but also by the haze of alienness which was a part of her memory pattern crossed Shann's mind. "Such a sharing would be a rich feast," he agreed. "All right!"
"Not completely, Colonel," Meyer said. "That gimmick he built last year the one that blinded those people in Bagdad had five perfect emeralds in it, connected in series with silver wire." "That's true. Our technologies seem to overlap in some areas, but in others there's total alienness." "Which one would you say was ahead of the other?" Stanton asked.
Unless the Traiti were a lot more fragile psychologically than any human thought, such concern with amenities on a warship was out of character. They might be more alien than other evidence indicated or a lot more aesthetic. He couldn't believe they were all that fragile psychologically, and his current close contact was showing less, rather than more, underlying alienness.
The gulf that lay between him and the men of Earth went beyond mere physical differences, however. Earthmen had differences of skin color, facial contour and physical size among them, yet made no sign of distinction. Dal's alienness went deeper. His classmates had been civil enough, yet with one or two exceptions, they had avoided him carefully.
Women, or at least female then. Illusion, yes, already he was convinced that here his eyes could play tricks on him. He could hardly determine what was robe, what was wall, or if more than shades of shades swept before him. Another blank wall, then an opening, and flowing through it to touch him such a wave of alienness that Ross felt he was buffeted by a storm wind.
Had he really moved through some segment of Eternity to reach this ... this place? Had he He felt a chill run through him. What was he doing here? How could he have taken it all so calmly. Afraid of man or devil, no but this was neither. He had to get back. The utter alienness of this bright, shining, lifeless wonderland was too much for him.
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