[Jan Darzek 04] • Silence Is Deadly

The people of 00 were frightened. Even the children were frightened. Darzek read mute terror in every gesture, in every hesitant purchase, in every pale face.

The tension was exacerbated by the unnatural silence of the place.... The people even walked silently, their wooden-soled shoes somehow negotiating the cobble-stones without clomping. Females and vendors haggled with soundless gestures. Itinerant musicians, such as would have been a prominent feature of a fair on almost any other world, were replaced by shabby performers shaping whirling disks of color into exotic patterns for small troops that watched intently- but did not applaud.

Kamm, the Silent Planet. For the first time, that concept oppressed Darzek. Silence seemed to hang about him heavily as he watched the slow-moving crowds, watched the triangular coins fall noiselessly onto the vendors' padded trays, watched insect-like creatures buzzing in furious silence over a soggy pile of something that looked like sea mollusks. He repressed an urge to cry out; he knew the sound would drop from his lips unheard.