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Necropolis was nothing more than a crudely sculptured rocky promontory reinforced with masonry. Stone was all it had ever been and stone was all it could ever be. This sphinx was art apotheosized. No wonder in his dazed and weakened state of a few hours ago he had invested her with life. Even now, thinking clearly again, he felt that at any moment she would rise and walk beneath the stars. What had happened to the race of people who had sculp- tured her? Hall wondered. To the race of people who had built the three pyramids over which she was standing guard? Did that same race of people have something to do with the building of the Egyptian pyramids? Did Nothing happened to the race of people who built the pyramids, Daniel Hall. And nothing is going to happen to them if they can help it. 288 Robert F. Young As the words formed themselves in his mind, he saw that the Brobdingnagian head was turning toward him. Simulta- neously he realized that, far from being inanimate, the mas- sive leonine body was rampant with life. At length, me file:///F|/rah/Isaac%20Asimov/Asimov,%20Isaac%20-%20Mythical%20Beasties%20(SSC)%20UC.txt (208 of 251) [5/21/03 2:06:12 AM] file:///F|/rah/Isaac%20Asimov/Asimov,%20Isaac%20-%20Mythical%20Beasties%20(SSC)%20UC.txt mysterious eyes met his and regarded him like a pair of intelligent golden suns. He stood stark stil] in the starlight, a statue now himself. In the final analysis there was no reason why a sphinx couldn't be alive. Statues were sculptured of men, too, but this did not mean that men were made of stone. Even the poor Egyptian child who dressed your wound in the Temple of Hathor is less anthropocentric than you are, Daniel Hall. She realized I was alive the moment she saw me. And yet you allowed yourself to know resentment simply because her thought world ruled out the possibility of your being her equal, thereby forcing her to think of you as a slave. For shame, Daniel Hall.' "And now what happens?" Hall asked, half in cynicism, half in fear. "Are you going to devour me?" There, your anthropocentric nature is influencing you again! You think that merely because a being is larger than you are, it must be evil. And the larger it is, the more evil it becomes in your mind, and the more partial to human flesh. No, I'm not going to devour you, Daniel Hall it is you and your kind who are going to devour me and my sisters. That is. you would be going to devour us if we hadn't taken the necessary steps to prevent you from doing so, although the possibility exists that you may still succeed. You are on the verge of devouring us, not because you want to at the moment, but because you haven't bothered to find out whether or not we exist. "That's not true!" Hall objected. "I was sent here myself to find out!" And so was one of the members of the Uvelian forces. But even if either or both of you were able to report your respec- tive findings to your respective headquarters the battle would still take place, and you know it. Incidentally, it's unneces- sary for you to speak, to say nothing of shout. I can receive thoughts as well as send them. THE PYRAMID PROJECT 289 It was you who seized our controls then who who caused us to crash. It was I who seized your controls and caused you to crash, Daniel Hall. My sister in the neighboring demesne took care of your opponent. If our project is successful, we will need both of you. However, although I caused you to crash, Daniel Hail, I had no intention of causing you bodily injury. Small details are beyond the scope of our telekinesis. But I see that thanks to the skillful ministrations of Ahura, you've fully recovered. Ahura? The little Egyptian princess whom you were so rude to a few minutes ago in the Temple of Hathor. She's no more of an Egyptian princess than you are! Hall "said." Egypt was consolidated with the Union of Terran file:///F|/rah/Isaac%20Asimov/Asimov,%20Isaac%20-%20Mythical%20Beasties%20(SSC)%20UC.txt (209 of 251) [5/21/03 2:06:12 AM] file:///F|/rah/Isaac%20Asimov/Asimov,%20Isaac%20-%20Mythical%20Beasties%20(SSC)%20UC.txt States over a hundred years ago when the capital was built at [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |