"..then the bear who knew no pain, who saw the world as it was -- nothing more nor less -- turned and saw a female bear, beautiful, strong, sure of herself, and totally at ease with the fact of her person.
She stood immobile in her black coat gazing with open eyes across the vista of the world layed out before her. In the distance lay a verdant valley shrouded with morning mist. It crossed her mind how engineering could accomplish what was once the impossible: to span that bridge with a few tons of Beardon Steel, lay hovertrack across the expanse and send 400-car magnetic trains, floating 1/32" above the hard uncompromising trackbed below, rocketing through the countryside at 500 miles per hour. And on the engine of the train, emblazened with glory and honor, the sign of the dollar -- symbol of free trade, earned values, and objective minds.
"Beautiful sight, isn't it Miss?" asked the bear, his eyes humorous and open, offering nothing, but asking nothing in return.
"Yes, " she stated. "A world at our feet, waiting to be shaped, used, put to a purpose by the mind!"
He smiled at her in admiration for stating what he had been thinking before he first noticed her.
"Do you think they'll ever know that?" he asked, although there was no hint of question in his voice, and the tone implied that most others would not.
She laughed, a bit condescendingly, not at him, but at the concept of the others: the whiners, the complainers, the excusers, the need mongers.
He understood her laugh, it was both a condemnation of the world -- the world the looters ravaged, the minds they destroyed, the spirits they crushed, and its salvation -- through the mind that would not compromise its values to the shapeless, to the incompetent, to the avoiders of reality.
He knew then that he wanted her, in the most supremely selfish way.
She caught his glance, how it swept over her body claiming her like he already owned her. Her breath caught as she found herself wanting him to take her, to take her then and now on this hillside, under the bright sun above the pristine valley. In her mind were visions of creation, of his being, his allure, his unexpressed need, his demands.
At the same moment another part of her mind realized that these feelings were the same that one has upon the accomplishment of a great goal, of the motive power that moves the world, of the value implied behind the thoughts and actions taken to claim copper from deep within the earth, build halfmile towers of glass and adamentine steel, or Beardon steel, to shoot men into space on the leading edge of exploding star power, or build and run a transcontinental railroad.
She spun to face him honestly and openly, her need unmasked, her eyes searching his. "My name's Dagny Bearggart. What's yours?"
He smiled down at her, a slight breeze ruffling his hair, his astonishingly clear eyes holding the promise of the future in that one frozen moment.
"Hank Beardon."
Dagny stood breathless, realizing everything she cherished in this world was embodied before her in this man. . . |
