Books In English "City Of Illusions" Ursula K. Le Guin | Page 99

the colonists chose to take the ship and fly back across the great gap of
years to Earth, to rejoin their people. The rest stayed on Werel,
self-marooned. In their lifetimes they could never know what had become
of their home world and the League they served, or who the Enemy was,
and whether he ruled the League or had been vanquished. Without ship or
communicator, isolated, they stayed, a small colony surrounded by curious
and hostile High Intelligence Life Forms of a culture inferior, but an
intelligence equal, to their own. And they waited, and their sons' sons
waited, while the stars stayed silent over them. No ship ever came, no
word. Their own ship must have been destroyed, the records of the new
planet lost. Among all the stars the little orange-yellow opal was forgotten.
The colony thrived, spreading up a pleasant sea-coast land from its
first town, which was named Alterra. Then after several years—Orry
stopped and corrected himself, "Nearly six centuries, Earth-style, I mean.
It was the Tenth Year of the Colony, I think. I was just beginning to learn
history; but Father and…and you, prech Ramarren, used to tell me these
things, before we made the Voyage, to explain it all to me…" After several
centuries, then, the colony had come onto hard days. Few children were
conceived, still fewer born alive. Here again the boy paused, explaining
finally, "I remember your telling me that the Alterrans didn't know what
was happening to them, they thought it was some bad effect of inbreeding,
but actually it was a sort of selection. The Lords, here, say it couldn't have
been that, that no matter how long an alien colony is established on a
planet they remain alien. With gene-manipulation they can breed with
natives, but the children will always be sterile. So I don't know what it was
that happened to the Alterrans—I was only a child when you and Father
were trying to tell me the story—I do remember you spoke of selection
towards a…viable type…Anyhow, the colonists were getting near
extinction when what was left of them finally managed to make an alliance
with a native Werelian nation, Tevar. They wintered-through together, and
when the Spring breeding season came, they found that Tevarans and
Alterrans could reproduce. Enough of them, at least, to found a hybrid
race. The Lords say that is not possible. But I remember you telling it to
me." The boy looked worried and a little vague.
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