Clarke, Arthur C - Fall of Night 02 Read Online Free Page B

perhaps an atavism himself. How many times down the ages
had other Keepers read that message of his and acted upon it for better or
worse? Surely, if there had been any earlier cases, some record would have been
made.
                   Rorden thought intently for a moment: then,
slowly at first, but soon with mounting confidence, he began to put question
after question to the machines, until every Associator in the room was running
at full capacity. By means now beyond the understanding of man, billions upon
billions of facts were racing through the scrutinizers. There was nothing to do
but wait. . . .
                   In after years, Alvin was often to marvel at his good fortune.
Had the Keeper of the Records been unfriendly, his quest could never have
begun. But Rorden, in spite of the years between them, shared something of his
own curiosity. In Rorden's case, there was only the desire to uncover lost
knowledge: he would never have used it, for he shared with the rest of Diaspar
that dread of the outer world which Alvin found so strange. Close though their
friendship became, that barrier was always to lie between them.
                   Alvin 's life was now divided into two quite
distinct portions. He continued his studies with Jeserac, acquiring the immense
and intricate knowledge of people, places and customs without which no one
could play any part in the life of the city. Jeserac was a conscientious but a
leisurely tutor, and with so many centuries before him he felt no urgency in
completing his task. He was, in fact, rather pleased that Alvin should have made friends with Rorden. The
Keeper of the Records was regarded with some awe by the rest of Diaspar, for he
alone had direct access to all the knowledge of the past.
                   How enormous and yet how incomplete that
knowledge was, Alvin was slowly learning. In spite of the self-canceling circuits which
obliterated all information as soon as it was obsolete, the main registers
contained a hundred trillion facts at the smallest estimate. Whether there was
any limit to the capacity of the machines, Rorden did not know: that knowledge
was lost with the secret of their operation.
                   The Associators were a source of endless
wonder to Alvin, who would spend hours setting up questions of their keyboards.
It was amusing to discover that people whose names began with "S" had
a tendency to live in the eastern part of the city—though the machines hastened
to add that the fact had no statistical significance. Alvin quickly accumulated a vast array of similar
useless facts which he employed to impress his friends. At the same time, under
Rorden's guidance, he was learning all that was known of the Dawn Ages, for
Rorden had insisted that it would take years of preparation before he could
begin his quest. Alvin had recognized the truth of this, though he sometimes rebelled against
it. But after a single attempt, he abandoned any hope of acquiring knowledge
prematurely.
                   He had been alone one day when Rorden was
paying one of his rare visits to the administrative center of the city. The
temptation had been too strong, and he had ordered the Associators to hunt for
Alaine's message.
                   When Rorden returned, he found a very scared
boy trying to discover why all the machines were paralyzed. To Alvin 's immense relief, Rorden had only laughed
and punched a series of combinations that had cleared the jam. Then he turned
to culprit and tried to address him severely.
                   "Let that be a lesson to you, Alvin! I
expected something like this, so I've blocked all the circuits I don't want you
to explore. That block will remain until I think it's safe to lift it."
                   Alvin grinned sheepishly and said nothing.
Thereafter he made no more excursions into forbidden realms.
                  
     
     

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