（外文电子版资料）TITAN-JohnVarley_ch25-ch.docVIP

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Oceanus brooded for 10,000 years while he felt Gaea’s grip grow weaker. There was still a chance she could wipe out the budding independence he concealed so carefully. Its grievances festered. Why must he be in the dark? He, the mightiest of oceans, eternally covered with ice. The life that struggled on the bleak ground above him was stunted. Many of his children would die in the full light of day. What was so good about Hyperion that he should be so lush and fair? Quietly, a few meters a day, he extended a nerve beneath the ground until he could speak directly to Rhea. He recognized the seeds of insanity in her, and began casting his eyes to the west for an ally. Mnemosyne was no good. She was desolate, physically and emotionally, mourning the passing of her lush forests. Try as he might to kindle resentment against Gaea, Oceanus could not penetrate the depths of Mnemosynes depression. He tunneled on. Beyond Mnemosyne was the night region of Cronus. Gaea’s grip was strong here the satellite brain that held sway over the territory was a tool of the overmind, and had not as yet developed a personality of his own. Oceanus kept moving west. Without realizing it, he was laying a communications net that would unite the six rebellious lands. He found his strongest ally in Iapetus. If only he had been closer, they might have overthrown Gaea. But the tactics they imagined depended on close physical cooperation, so he and Iapetus could only plot together. He was forced to fall back on his alliance with Rhea. He made his move around the time the pyramids were being built on Earth. Without warning, he stopped the flow of cool fluids passing through his immense body and through the support cables he controlled. At the far eastern end of the sea that dominated his frozen landscape, he had control of two river pumps.-huge three-chambered muscles that lifted the waters of Ophion into western Hyperion. He stopped their massive beating. To the east, Rhea