Thanks for your kind words and compliments. I'm very much encouraged to keep going all the way through to the end. If I can only get the stupid internet connection to work all the time. It worked well for awhile this morning so I uploaded everything I had so far. The (cable) repairman is due Sunday afternoon. While I wait for repairs, I'll be taking Andy and Cory back to look for the sleepers in the cellars. Things should start to get a little creepy.
Hey! I shoved his hand away from my shoulder. Suns up, Saville. Get up and get your suit on. We want maximum daylight hours for this activity. He moved away, headed for the lockers. I heard him banging around and cursing to himself. The pressure suits are awkward things with an inside skin and all kinds of pieces to hook up if you care to be completely safe from the environment you intend to visit. I always had to inspect Corys suit-up. He had no patience with it. It was easier for me to do this before I suited up myself, so I lay for a full minute there under the blanket, dreading the entire day. Andy! Lets go! Im ready, and its hot in here. I got up. An hour later we were outside and walking toward the city. Cory, test your radio. I hear you just fine. Can you hear everything around us? I can hear our boots on the snow, for instance. How about you? Sure. And the sound of arms and legs rubbing. Its worse than the corduroys I wore as a kid. Im turning down the volume. Stop. When we get down into those cellars we want to hear anything and everything going on around us. You just checked up on those two. They werent moving. Theyre asleep. As you pointed out, the universe is not predictable. Anything can happen. And they could have set up alarms to warn them of intruders like you and me. Youre the boss, but I bet any alarms rusted away a long time ago. And you think all alarms are made of metal? Use your imagination. He laughed. It was a sharp sound in my earpiece.
We hiked over the packed snow, with hardly a mark left by our boots on its ancient surface. I could barely see our footprints from the day before. I tried to concentrate on that, and on what we planned to do once we got into the city, but one thought replayed itself in my head, as it had most of the night. What exactly had Arkin said to Cory about me? I felt foolish about wanting to know because it was not a rational need. It was one hundred percent emotional. So maybe I should just deal with it and get it out of the way. I have a question, Cory, about Arkin. His long stride toward the dark walls ahead of us slowed down, but he didnt stop, and he didnt say anything for a few moments. Then he said, So, ask your question. When, I said, I meanId like to know when, if you can remember when Ask your question, Andy. Just get it out. Were almost there. Never mind. Forget I brought it up. What had I been thinking? I made a personal vow to never, ever again discuss Arkin with this emotionless, rock-headed oaf. The next few steps brought us to the edge of the city. Cory stopped there, and with hands on hips surveyed the gloomy walls and streets. How good was your mapping of this place? Did it show you an entrance to the cellars? Quite a few. One of them is straight ahead, inside that building. There should be an entrance on the other side. We walked down the street toward the building at the end. There was no snow here. Our boots made a dull sound on the bare stone of the pavement. Our suits creaked and rustled. We heard ourselves breathing. The narrow street grew darker as the brown walls around us rose two, three and four stories high, leaning toward each other, but solid and silent and telling us nothing about their builders.
My scans were right. There was an entrance to the building. It was a squared arch without doors, but as normal in height as any we might have found on our home world. Well, well, said Cory. So even if they had scales, tails, wings and beaks, they walked through a door just like you and me. Unless they were fifty feet long and crawled on their bellies, with a pair of legs on each of their fifty body segments. From what I can see of the little room in there, its not big enough for a fifty-foot millipede. Centipede. Wed better hope not. Those are venomous. You still want to go down there, Cory? Are you kidding? I cant wait to see what they look like. They have doors like us. Im real puzzled that you arent even more curious than I am. Youre out here to analyze things that eat, grow and reproduce, right? Nothing more complicated than plants, fungi, insects, bacteria. We arent outfitted for encounters with life forms more intelligent than that. Were surveyors. We map, scan, take samples, and leave. And suppose we do meet them? How do we communicate? Whos communicating? Theyre asleep, arent they? Or dying. There are only two of them and they arent any bigger than we are. Whats the risk? Well take some scrapings from their environment and leave them alone. I said their mass was equivalent. Thats not the same as size. You werent paying attention. Sure I was. I was picturing a couple of gold bricks. What were you thinking? Social insects, with a breeding pair hibernating in the tunnels. I looked at the walls and streets around us. Ants build cities, Cory, and they bite.
Mindless bugs dont build cities like this. I dont believe it. Im going down. Are you coming or are you going to wait here? Were staying together. He was too reckless and clumsy to be left on his own with something like this. I could easily imagine him trying to scrape samples off the shoulder of a giant beetle, waking it up and getting himself devoured. My head started to ache. I followed him into the building. The room was dark and small but we saw a narrow opening in the wall. Cory walked over to look through it. Steps, he said, and there was no mistaking the surprise in his tone. Its a staircase going down to another level. And theres a light. He backed away a couple of paces. For the first time in all our time together, I saw Cory without his usual earnest bravado. I dont know what hed expected to find as an entrance to the cellars, but a staircase was clearly not what either of us had considered. I had just assumed thered be stone ramps. He raised his hand as if to scratch at his head and made a fist of annoyance against the interfering helmet. I said, So what now? Are we going down? Have you changed your mind? He waved at the opening. Go look at what the lights coming from. You can see it from the top of the steps. I walked over and looked down. The light came from three candles. It seems that the sleepers had awakened and knew we were here. Incredible. This, I said out loud, is absolutely amazing. And were the first, Cory! Were the first to discover them! I started walking down the steps.
I heard Cory catch up to me. He was loud and heavy on the steps. Hey, Andy. Slow down. Tell me what you think about these steps and candles Are we related to these people? Not a chance. Were at least forty light years away from our home world. This is all obviously an illusion for our benefit. When we reached the bottom of the steps and stood next to the candles that couldnt be there, he pulled me around to face him. An illusion? Are you talking magic wands and rabbits in top hats? Thats ridiculous! Theyre awake now. Maybe they always were, or at least ever since we landed on their planet. And they obviously know all about us since there are steps down to the cellars and candles lighting the way. Im guessing that the steps are an illusion to mask stone ramps. That would make sense. The candles, however, puzzle me since we dont use them on the ship. They had to dig pretty deep for that effect. After all, an ordinary light bulb would have been just as good. UnlessCory, have you been thinking about candles, by any chance? He didnt answer. Cory ONeill, you surprise me in so many ways. Then the candles are your fault. Are you telling me that these people are seeing what Im thinking about? Thats what theyre doing. Theyre telepathic.
Youve gone around the bend on this one, Saville. A flight of steps and a couple of candles and youve decided these things dont really exist and that the two bodies in the cellar are mind readers. I patted him on the arm. Careful what you think about them, Cory. They might assume its how you want them to look. You wouldnt want it to be your worst nightmare. I could almost see him staring at me right through the dark face plate of his helmet. He said, If thats true, Andy, then we cant meet them, can we? They can see us but we cant see them. Not really, only what they want us to see. I was just giving you a rough time, Cory. It was a joke. Do you understand what weve discovered here? Telepathy! People talk about it. Theyve tried experiments to prove it, but no one has ever seen anything like this. Were making history here. And I see the way down to the next level. Lets go. There was another break in the wall, with more steps going down into the shadows. Cory stopped me with his arm. He said very quietly, Hold still and dont say anything for a minute. I heard something. I doubted it, but gave him his minute. The minute was almost over when I heard it, too. There was a faint patter of sound, as if some small thing scuttled over stone. And it was from above our heads, not from the cellars below.
I'm having an absolutely horrible time with my connection so I've posted quickly. Fortunately, there weren't too many pictures for this part, since there's not a lot to see, yet.
Argh! Curse you, Internet connection! Our heroes are about to have a giant spider jump on their heads and you leave us hanging!
Without a sound I pulled out my handheld and aimed it overhead and around the walls of the small chamber. It did not register a single thing. And it never occurred to me that a scanner meant for ordinary mortal flesh could not see the beast who followed us. “Nothing at all,” I said. “But you heard it, didn’t you?” “Yes, I did. Maybe this area manages to stir up a breeze once in a while. We landed less than two days ago, and we haven’t been paying very much attention to the atmosphere. That was Arkin’s field.” “Didn’t sound like a breeze. But we’re here to see what’s sleeping in the cellar so let’s get it over with and get back to the lander.” He started down the steps. “You still haven’t won me over on this theory of telepathy. The steps under my boots are no illusion. Neither are the candles. I have my own theory. How about a common ancestor? Way back, say a million years ago, someone went around and left colonists on a bunch of planets. Candles and staircases just naturally follow.” “Ockham’s razor.” “What’s that supposed to mean? You think your theory is simpler?” “No. The simplest theory would be that some patterns in life are inevitable, like feet and eyes. Feet require stairs. Eyes require light, starting with fire, followed by candles. That’s all I meant.” We reached another landing that led to yet another set of stairs going deeper. There were candles on this landing, too. And on the next one below. “But these candles,” I added, “haven’t been burning for very long. The wax drips and falls to the floor, which doesn’t have much wax on it. In fact, hardly any. So who lit them?” “Maybe that breeze has got matches.”
We reached the bottom. Heavy columns supported a low ceiling. There were more candles than on the higher levels and there was an unusual stone sitting on a table against the wall directly ahead of us. Cory, the geologist, went right to it. His fingers moved like a man with a terrible need to touch what he saw, but he controlled himself. Will you look at this spectacular calcite! Watch. Its changing color. Yellowredwhite. That may be due to thermoluminescence, although I dont see any source of heat. Its also possible theres a UV source down here somewhere thats cycling on and off, although I cant see that either. Ill have to come back here with some of my instruments. Id like a piece of this. What do you think? Should I risk it? While he bent over the crystal on the table, I looked around the chamber and scanned it with my handheld. We were five levels under the street and the handheld signal would not upload to the lander computers. Id have to upload later, but I could tell, at least, that the hibernating bodies were on the other side of the wall. I walked over to an open arch and looked into the next chamber. More columns receded into shadows. More candles burned with small and inadequate flames. Cory, I said. Come here. He left his fascinating crystal and joined me at the arch. He must have heard something in my voice because he hadnt hesitated. We both stared into the next room. There were pods in there, some transparent, some opaque, lining the walls between the columns. The pods closest to where we stood at the entrance to the room contained skeletons.
Cory said, I didnt expect this. Neither did I. Look at all the pods. I think I see openings to other rooms like this one. There are dozens of them. Could be a lot more. We moved slowly into the room and stopped at the nearest one. A skeletal face lay under the glass, staring straight up with empty eyes. I scanned it. Definitely not one of the two Ive been reading in my scans up to now. Some of the pods were empty. The rest contained skeletons. My handheld scanner directed us deeper into the room, toward the far corner, and there we found the living sleepers. Wow, Cory whispered. Look at them. Eyes, ears, nose, two arms and two legs. One is obviously male, the other female. Except their eyes dont look like they would work very well. I dont see eyeballs. Ugh. Maybe someone took them out. Or maybe they never had them. They could be using our eyes. Did you see that? It moved. He was right. The male sleeper moved. The hand that had seemed frozen against the lid shifted and pushed at it, raising it. Cory and I were completely fascinated. It never occurred to us that we should, perhaps, run. Neither of us felt we were in danger from this pale, naked creature climbing out of his glass bed. He breathed deeply, his chest swelling, and his face twisted in pain for a moment. Then he turned his empty eyes toward Cory and me. I am Amathaon of the tribe Eryi, he said. His lips did not move and his voice was a low sound at the base of my skull, as if it were my own voice, although I knew it was not. Telepathy, I thought, and smiled. The creature nodded, and then he, too, smiled.
Eyeless underground telepaths ... scary horned beastie ... not sure which I'm more afraid of! I can't wait to find out more.
Cory put his hand down hard on my shoulder. "You were right, Andy. They're telepathic, and that means we can't believe anything we're seeing here. Let's get back to the lander. Move! Move!" He started shoving me toward the other chamber and the stairs. The creature in the shape of a man without eyes turned his head toward Cory. His voice throbbed in my skull, "The beast who is called Medruzz waits for you up there in the snow. It is hungry. You must stay with me." Cory lifted his arm as if defending himself from a punch to the head, "That's enough! I'm done with this. We're leaving." He pushed me toward the way out. I staggered and fell against one of the columns. "Wait, Cory. We heard something up there. Remember?" "We heard the wind blowing. Keep moving." "Move where? I can't see the way out." Cory grabbed my elbow and pulled me toward the blank stone wall. "It's an illusion, right? We should just be able to walk through it. The door is here...or here. Andy! Pay attention! Do you remember where we came through?" The telepath had followed us and reached out to touch Cory who jerked back as if burned. Cory was breathing hard. I heard it over the radio. I saw it in the way his shoulders moved. Inside our heads the voice spoke again, insistent, "Medruzz is child to the wind, Cory Arkin, and may one day throw over the father. This is its will, and it needs your eyes and your breath to do so. I cannot let you go up there." I said, "Why does he call you Arkin? Where did that come from?" "From an idiot. Who's thinking about Arkin? You can bet it's not me, so it must be you." Cory pushed me behind him and faced Amathaon. "I'm a peaceful man," he said, "but I can hold my own in a fight, if I have to. Open the door!" He raised his hands, gloved fingers bent into awkward fists. Then he suddenly went limp and fell over onto the hard stone floor. I tried to rouse him. I banged on his helmet, pulled on his arms and yelled over the radio. I got no response. Bending close to his head I pressed my faceplate against his and in the shadows could see that his eyes were closed. But he was breathing. And the gauges on his suit displayed normal readings. I stood up and leaned toward the telepath, staring into the expressionless face. "I want him back. Bring him back!" The empty eyes seemed to study me. Then the voice that was too much like my own whispered, "Which one?" "What do you mean, which one? This one! Cory! Wake him up!" The man on the floor at my feet stirred and mumbled, "Whoa, I sure didn't see that one coming."
