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    The Ties That Bind
    The Ties That Bind
    The Ties That Bind
    Ebook51 pages35 minutes

    The Ties That Bind

    By Walter M. Miller

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    About this ebook

    The Earth was green and quiet. Nature had survived Man, and Man had survived himself. Then, one day, the great silvery ships broke the tranquillity of the skies, bringing Man's twenty-thousand-year-lost inheritance back to Earth....
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStart Classics
    Release dateJan 8, 2015
    ISBN9781633554603
    The Ties That Bind

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      Book preview

      The Ties That Bind - Walter M. Miller

      The Ties That Bind

      By Walter Miller

      Start Publishing LLC

      Copyright © 2012 by Start Publishing LLC

      All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

      First Start Publishing eBook edition October 2012

      Start Publishing is a registered trademark of Start Publishing LLC

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      ISBN 978-1-63355-460-3

      The Earth was green and quiet. Nature had survived Man, and Man had survived himself. Then, one day, the great silvery ships broke the tranquillity of the skies, bringing Man's twenty-thousand-year-lost inheritance back to Earth....

      "Why does your brand sae drop wi' blude, Edward, Edward? Why does your brand sae drop wi' blude, And why sae sad gang ye, O? O I hae kill'd my hawk sae gude, Mither, mither; O I hae kill'd my hawk sae gude, And I had nae mair but he, O."

      --ANONYMOUS

      The Horde of sleek ships arose in the west at twilight--gleaming slivers that reflected the dying sun as they lanced across the darkling heavens. A majestic fleet of squadrons in double-vees, groups in staggered echelon, they crossed the sky like gleaming geese, and the children of Earth came out of their whispering gardens to gape at the splendor that marched above them.

      There was fear, for no vessel out of space had crossed the skies of Earth for countless generations, and the children of the planet had forgotten. The only memories that lingered were in the memnoscripts, and in the unconscious kulturverlaengerung, of the people. Because of the latter half-memory, the people knew, without knowing why, that the slivers of light in the sky were ships, but there was not even a word in the language to name them.

      The myriad voices of the planet, they cried, or whispered, or chattered in awed voices under the elms....

      The piping whine of a senile hag: The ancient gods! The day of the judging! Repent, repent....

      The panting gasp of a frightened fat man: The alien! We're lost, we're lost! We've got to run for the hills!

      The voice of the child: See the pretty birdlights? See? See?

      And a voice of wisdom in the councils of the clans: The sons of men--they've come home from the Star Exodus. Our brothers.

      The slivers of light, wave upon wave, crept into the eclipse shadow as the twilight deepened and the stars stung through the blackening shell of sky. When the moon rose, the people watched again as the silhouette of a black double-vee of darts slipped across the lunar disk.

      Beneath the ground, in response to the return of the ships, ancient mechanisms whirred to life, and the tech guilds hurried to tend them. On Earth, there was a suspenseful night, pregnant with the dissimilar twins of hope and fear,

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