You don't
need to read the results off graph paper. What more could any analogue
computer do? But it doesn't influence the sky."
"It was never meant to," the old man said, surprise in his voice. "Such
power--"
Then he stopped, staring at Hanson while something almost like awe
spread over his face. "Yet ... the prophecy and the monument were right!
You have unlocked the impossible! Yet you seem to know nothing of the
laws of similarity or of magic, Dave Hanson. Is that crystal similar to
the sky, by association, by contagion, or by true symbolism? A part may
be a symbol for the whole--or so may any designated symbol, which may
influence the thing it is. If I have a hair from your head, I can model
you with power over you. But not with the hair of a pig! That is no true
symbol!"
"Suppose we substituted bits of the real thing for these
representations?" Hanson asked.
Bork nodded. "It might work. I've heard you found the sky material could
be melted, and we've got enough of that where it struck the camp. Any
one of us who has studied elementary alchemy could blow a globe of it to
the right size for the sky dome. And there are a few stars from which we
can chip pieces enough. We can polish them and put them into the sphere
where they belong. And it will be risky, but we may even be able to
shape a bit of the sun stuff to represent the great orb in the sky.
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