第86节

d limited until the moment when - after a long

period of biological experimentation - a new type of Tracker started to

fill the cots in the Life Institute: an individual with a

high-resistance to ground-sickness - the disabling and potentially

fatal psychological state produced by the twin fears of open spaces and

isolation from the combat or workgroup.

Wing-men were able to resist both; the problem was their scarcity - a

result of the continuing high percentage of infertile males and females

in the population and the relatively short average life-span of forty

years. Even now, nearly a thousand years after the birth of the

Federation, its population was only a.little over 750,000 men, women

and children and the statistics showed zero growth for the last nine.

The latest conservative estimates put the combined total of Southern

Mutes and the more numerous Plainfolk at around fifteen million.

These odds, combined with the now undeniable fact that the ancient

verses contained clear references to wing-men and Skyhawks

('cloud-warriors') and wagon-trains ('iron-snakes') made over four

hundred years before the Federation had gotten around to actually

building them, had forced the Family to rethink their attitude to the

art of prophecy.

If the creation of Skyhawks and wagon-trains had been foreseen then one

had to accept the other more sinister events predicted in the verses

would also come to pass.

Which was bad news since they described- in unequivocal terms - the

total destruction of the Federation by the Plainfolk led by Talisman,

the Thrice-Gifted One - a messianic warrior whose birth would be

heralded by a volcanic eruption.

Jefferson the 31st, and the hand-picked medical team at the Life

Institute were convinced the child that Clearwater was carrying within

her was the long-awaited saviour. And they believed that the 'great

mountain in the West' that would speak with 'a tongue of flame that

burns the sky' was either Mount Rainier or Mount St Helens - both

located in what had once been the Pacific coast state of Washington,

home of the Seattle Supersonics and birth-place of the Boeing

Jumbo-jet.

Of the two, Mount Rainier was the highest, peaking at over 14,000 feet,

but the pre-H geological records held by COLUMBUS categorised Rainier

as extinct, with no evidence of any volcanic activity over the previous

2,000 years, whereas Mount St Helens, 9,600 feet high and situated

fifty miles SSW of Mount Rainer, had exploded with great violence in

May 1980, blowing off the entire top section and part of the

north-facing slope, in what was classified as a Vulcanian-type eruption

- the highest of four grades capable of registering up to 9.9 out of a

possible 10 on the Richter Scale.

The records for the world as a whole also showed that even extinct

volcanoes could come to life through shifts in the underlying

geological formations. Mount Rainer was only one of several volcanic

peaks in the Cascade Range, which was why a long-dead Supreme Council

had decided a watch should be kept on them all.

Earth tremors could be detected at long range by seismographs which

produced the familiar needle-traces of the shockwaves travelling

outwards from the epicentre of the disturbance through the earth's

crust. These were routinely monitored by all nine divisional

underground bases as part of their own security procedures, but it was

not always possible to differentiate between a severe earthquake and a

volcanic eruption.

To eliminate any misreading of the signs, electronic packages designed

to record the frequency and strength of earth tremors and then

broadcast the data at weekly intervals to the Federation had been

placed on the slopes of the likely candidates and had been in operation

for the last one hundred and fifty-seven years.

'The only snag was maintenance. Because the instrument packages were

concealed to avoid attracting the attention of passing animals or

Mutes, solar panels had not been a viable power option. The Federation

had used its unparalled expertise to produce batteries that only needed

to be changed every two years. Recently, a new version with a

five-year life-span had been perfected and installed. These were now

due for replacement, and the usual SIG-INT field engineer unit had been