Satori
Kensho Novel #3 of 4
Author: Dennis Schmidt
Pub: 1981 by The Berkeley Publishing Group
Pages: 293
Ranking:
Out of Print: 
Other Books in the Series:
I must admit that these four books are almost at the top of my list when it comes to works of fiction that are martial arts oriented. I think only Steve Perry's books could top these. Although these are out of print, they are not difficult to locate in used book stores, and they would well reward any effort you put out to acquire them.
Back Cover:
Satori - The Earthmen are coming...
For a thousand years the men and women of Kensho have been evolving a way of living, a civilization that combines technology and spirit in a fashion that the visionaries of old Earth could hardly imagine as the two essential parts of a healthy whole, rather than as deadly enemies out to destroy each other.
In another century Kensho would have become invulnerable to the violence of Earth, but the starship bristling with fearful weapons, an armada at its beck, is orbiting the planet now. Is there no alternative but to submit to the conquerors? Must the New Humanity return to the sad old ways of Earth? There is one possible way out - but if it fails, the people of Kensho will pay the price of annihilation.
PROLOGUE
The probe slid cautiously toward the fifth planet. All its sensors were extended to their fullest, sending out wave after wave of careful electronic questioning. Aside from the usual background whisperings of interplanetary space, only a dead silence returned. Nevertheless, the probe remained tensely alert, ready to run at the slightest sign of hostility.
It paused as if in surprise when it detected the five starships that hung in geosync orbit above the cloud-speckled surface of the world it was approaching. A series of inquiries in various modes and frequencies failed to elicit any response. All five appeared to be dead lumps of orbiting metal. Four were even partially dismantled, showing gaping holes in their hulls. Only one, a dead black monster, seemed completely intact. Visual identification showed it to be a Class B Command Ship of a design at least eight hundred years old! The probe checked its memory cubes for the exact call numbers and tried to contact the ship's computer directly. Again, its efforts were met with a total, death-like silence.
More confidently now, the probe moved toward the planet. The Class B, which could have squashed it as easily as a human could squash an ant, remained totally inactive, perhaps even defunct. The four Class F Arks (identification had finally been achieved despite their condition) that orbited with it were empty-and didn't carry weaponry in any case. There were no indications of dangerous or hostile activities anywhere within the system. Even the surface of the planet was quiet.
The probe took up a position behind the largest of the four moons. The light reflecting from the vast ice fields that covered the satellite showed the intruder clearly for the first time. It was no more than forty feet from end to end. Its center was dominated by a large, dead black globe, some fifteen feet in diameter. At either end, four more globes, equally black, about five feet in diameter, clustered together. In between the three groups stretched a thin, weblike tracery of cables and girders that held the pieces together.
Twice the probe followed the moon around the planet, always keeping position on its far side. The third time around, the smaller globes detached themselves, one by one, moving slightly inward, to form a loose ring just inside the orbit of the moon and keeping pace with it. Two more orbits and they began to move closer and closer, tightening their ring, until they took up positions well within the path of the smallest, closest, and fastest of the four satellites.
Reaching their final orbits, they hung there silently for a while. Then they began to chatter, sending streams of information to the large globe that still hid behind the moon. Every few revolutions, the heart of the probe aimed its antenna outward and squirted a high-speed data-crammed message toward the stars.
Deep in interstellar space, another antenna received the messages. And slowly a huge, dark shape began to move in their direction.
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Last updated on Jul 8, 2001
© 2001 by Ben Holmes - Just another old-timer Judoka
