Читать книгу Overturned - Rothilda von Rotortod - Страница 11

The business premises of the StarWind Company, which promised its customers comprehensive support in the area of "Energy Consulting", appeared bright and friendly. Located on the tenth floor of a modern office complex, the company's headquarters offered an eagle-like view over the city.

Behind a broad window front, which took up almost the entire outer wall, individual, generously proportioned offices were grouped around a showroom. The office furniture shimmered in transparent plexiglass that in the light-flooded rooms seemed to float in the air. Thus everything emanated the promising message of a new era: Transparency! Purity! Clarity! Future!

The name "StarWind" had initially caused laughter on Kadohan. The expedition leader – who was now sitting as office manager in the StarWind premises – could still remember the reactions of his co-deciders in the Future Commission. Most of them had taken his proposal as a joke. Was this not too obvious an allusion to the real objectives associated with the alleged energy supply? Wouldn't even the most stupid Earthling realise that StarWind was a Trojan horse?

But the expedition leader did not get unsettled by the laughter of the others. "I can understand that you find the name funny. But try to put yourself in the Earthlings' shoes. Remember what I told you about their spaceships? By our standards, they are rather bouncing than flying. The Earthlings can't even fly to their neighboring planet! They are already proud when they manage the jump to their moon without any problems. So how could they assume that beings from a planet light years away are among them?"

The expedition leader stroked his eyes with a finger – which on Kadohan was an expression of contempt for others. After the laughter had died down completely, he added: "Please do not forget: For the Earthlings, the universe is not a space for locomotion. They see other galaxies only from a distance. Therefore, the cosmos appears to them as one big mystery. And because their thinking constantly mixes with their feelings, they see the infinity of space as a kind of symbol for what they call 'God'."

"God?" a Kadohanian woman asked in astonishment. "What is this?" It was a younger participant who had been appointed to the expert panel for the first time.

The expedition leader sighed. "This is really hard to explain ... God is basically a synonym for everything that the Earthlings are not able to understand. It stands for everything that goes beyond their limited imagination, be it the intrinsic link between things in their world or the relationship between their own world and others."

"And why should it be of any use to allude to space with the name of our company?" the new commission member wanted to know. "Won't that rather disconcert the Earthlings?"

"In fact, quite the opposite will be the case," the expedition leader contradicted. "Precisely because they do not understand the universe, they are fascinated by everything that is linked to it. They even invent their own stories about space travel, in which they dream up what they cannot achieve. And 'star' is also a term they use for people who stand out from everyday life, for beings they look up to like to the stars. So alluding to distant stars and the secret power that emanates from them makes our company even more attractive to Earthlings."