（外文电子版资料）Charles Sheffield - The Peacock Throne.pdf

THE PEACOCK THRONE Charles Sheffield A DF Books NERD’s Release Copyright (C)1996 by Charles Sheffield First published in Isaac Asimovs Science Fiction Magazine, February 1996 Peter Cook died a few weeks ago. I never met him, and I didnt catch the announcement, but when a friend mentioned it to me the next day, casually over dinner atThe Pines of Rome , I felt an odd visceral shock. Cook was just about my own age. He was one of the people who defined my sense of what is funny, starting way back with the “Beyond The Fringe” review and continuing right through his disastrous (and un-funny) appearance as a TV butler. The last time I actually saw him in a movie was his cameo role as an ancient clergyman in “The Princess Bride.” The dinner conversation that night swirled on at once to other things, but Cooks death lingered at the back of my mind. I can see no reason for that. Everyone must die, sooner or later. But I suspect that if Peter Cook had not died, and if I had not for that reason been for the next few days somewhat preoccupied with intimations of mortality, the rest of this might not have happened. But I was, and although I was busy when the phone rang and I would normally have allowed my answering machine to take over, my residual sense of unease took over instead and I picked up the receiver. “Christopher Dutton?” said a quiet male voice. “Yes. “A mutual friend suggested that I give you a call. If you have some free time in the next couple of days, I would like to take you to lunch or to dinner. There is no such thing as free time. It is our most precious and irreplaceable commodity. Supposedly there is also no such thing as a free lunch. It did not seem a good idea to offer these trite thoughts to a stranger. Instead, I said, “Whos the mutual friend?” And, when he told me the name, “OK. What else did he say? “That you tend to have your own agenda. “Dont we all? “I