One of the lemurs extended a long finger, inserted it between the strands of Infinity’s restraints, and gently poked one of her breasts through the organic material of her shirt. It purred and whistled softly, and then its companion replied with similar sounds.
The two creatures then grabbed Infinity’s restraints and yanked her abruptly from the robot’s appendages. She hit the ground with a thud, causing her to bite into her lower lip.
She was now lying on her back, looking up at a smooth, brown wall perhaps twenty-five feet high and extending into the distance. The city dwellers dragged her to the wall and then passed through an opening into a shadowy chamber. The door leading into the chamber must have closed because the area suddenly went from dim to almost entirely dark.
The two lemurs remained silent and continued dragging her, although it was too dark for her to make out any of the details of her surroundings. Her head hit something as she was hauled over a raised spot, and then the last hint of light disappeared.
In the inky blackness, Infinity felt the force of acceleration—she was in a vehicle of some kind.
The vehicle continued accelerating smoothly for at least a minute. Then it turned sharply, and she slid to the side and hit a wall. Seconds later, another turn sent her sliding into the opposite wall. This went on for what felt like at least five minutes—accelerating, slowing, and turning one way or the other. Infinity was starting to worry that the cycle would never end when the vehicle began another turn, this time angling vertically, heading upward. She slid toward the back of the vehicle until her feet hit the wall, and soon she was actually standing, propped up awkwardly against a wall that had only seconds earlier been the floor. And all of this in total darkness.
The vehicle turned, leveling out again, and once again she was lying on her back.
Finally the vehicle came to a stop. Suddenly, without the warning of hinges squeaking or the rollers of a door opening, she saw flashes of light illuminating a large room, and she had to clamp her eyes shut against the brightness.
Hands gripped her restraints and dragged her a short distance before letting go. With eyes still shut, she heard the pattering of bare feet. Then silence.
She opened her eyes and squinted. Several figures were standing in front of her, at least five of them. She blinked a few times. Although bright light behind the figures made them little more than silhouettes, she could see that they were lemurs.
She blinked again. The light was coming through a huge window that stretched from floor to ceiling. The rest of the room was uniformly brown, the color of unfinished oak but without grain or texture. Infinity turned her head as far as she could. She saw a few more lemurs standing to one side, but otherwise the room was empty—no furniture or anything else.
One of the lemurs kneeled beside her and began cutting the strands of yellow stuff from her face with some kind of tool. The creature did this gently, removing all the pieces from her head and then wadding them into a tight ball and tossing it aside. She noticed four teats on the lemur’s chest, pushing out against the creature’s bodysuit.
Infinity’s first inclination was to spit in the thing’s face. Instead, she said, “Give me my translator so I can talk to you.”
The lemur got to her feet and chattered back and forth with the others. More creatures joined in the conversation from someplace outside Infinity’s field of vision, and she realized that the room was fuller than she had initially thought. As the creatures talked, she looked over the ones she could see. All were wearing solid black bodysuits that left only their heads, hands, and bare feet exposed. Each lemur also wore multiple colored bands on each ankle, more bands than Infinity had seen on any of the other city dwellers. Most of the creatures she could see had two bands of each color, one solid and the other with blue markings. The markings, as Grayface had explained it, were received for hunting and killing a lemur that was armed with a weapon of some kind. Infinity noted that several of the lemurs wore yellow bands—for killing ring-tails.
Another lemur stepped into view, kneeled, and held out Infinity’s confiscated translator.
“That’s it,” Infinity said. “It’s obviously not working now. Put it on my wrist.” She tried motioning with her arm but the restraints made her movements look more like muscle spasms.
The lemurs chattered among themselves briefly, and then the one with the cutting tool returned and freed both Infinity’s arms.
She pushed against the floor, sat up, and held out her hand for the translator. The lemur handed it to her, and Infinity slipped it on. She looked up at the creatures. “Now we should be able to talk. Assuming you haven’t broken it.”
A few seconds later, the device responded by converting her words to yelps, clicks, and whistles.
The lemurs stared at the translator for several long seconds.
Another figure stepped around from behind, and the others backed up slightly to make room. This lemur was a male, and he was noticeably stockier than the others in the room. He must have weighed at least 160 pounds, about thirty pounds more than Infinity. Also, he was wearing more colored ankle bands than any of the others. The bands on one of his legs, in fact, nearly covered the entire area below the knee.
Big Male sat down smoothly on his butt on the floor in front of Infinity. He calmly folded his legs and arranged them with the soles of his bare feet pressed together. He held out a sinewy finger, pointing at Infinity’s translator, and spoke. When he was finished, the translator said, “That is interesting device. We do not have devices like that.”
Infinity glanced at her wrist. “We don’t have these either. They were given to us.”
The lemur listened to the translation and then said, “Who gave them to you?”
Infinity shook her head. “First, I want to know where my friends are. I want you to show me that they’re alive.”
“The others of your species will be here soon. You will see.”
“Your people shot one of my friends.” Infinity put a hand over her left shoulder. “They shot him here. Is he alive?”
The lemur looked up at the others and they exchanged vocalizations. Infinity’s translator remained silent. He then faced her again. “We do not know.”
She studied his face. Was the bug-eyed bastard lying?
Big Male extended his finger again. This time he poked one of her breasts. “Show me you are a female. Show me now.”
Infinity glared at him and fought back the urge to punch his face. But that would only get her killed. In fact, refusing to comply might also get her killed. She gritted her teeth and picked off some of the remaining yellow strands on her shirt. She pulled the shirt up and exposed one of her breasts. “I’m a female. Maybe you should have to show me that you’re a male.” Infinity couldn’t care less, but her anger was getting the best of her.
The lemur listened to the translation and then casually pointed to his bumpless chest. He then pointed to his crotch, where a bulge the size and shape of a peanut shell was visible beneath the black fabric of his bodysuit.
Infinity considered making a demeaning joke but thought better of it. Instead, she silently decided to change his name from Big Male to Peanut.
Peanut spoke again. “You are a female. The others of your species are males. Tell me where to get more females of your species.”
She laughed. “Sorry, you’re out of luck. I’m the only one. And you know what’s really funny? I can’t make babies! I guess this just isn’t your day.”
Peanut stared at her as he listened to the translation. He then spoke to someone behind Infinity. She turned to look as the lemur came around and kneeled beside her. This creature was wearing a contraption in the form of a vest. The device was mostly black with nine rounded nodules arranged in rows of three across the lemur’s chest and abdomen. A tube or cable ran from each side of the device down the length of each of the lemur’s arms, ending in a rectangular block held in the creature’s fingers. The lemur motioned for Infinity to lift her shirt again.
She was actually curious now, so she complied and raised her shirt about six inches.
The lemur leaned in closer and placed one of the blocks against her belly and the other against her lower back, opposite the first block. Everyone in the room remained silent as the creature slowly moved the blocks back and forth and then up and down, apparently scanning for something. The device wasn’t making any sound, and as far as Infinity could tell there was no screen or readout to look at.
The lemur continued moving the blocks around for a minute or so and then pulled them back and got to its feet. It turned to the others and spoke to them.
While the creature was still talking, Peanut barked abruptly. He then spun to the side and kicked the examiner in the gut, and the creature doubled over, struggling to catch its breath. Peanut threw himself on top of his victim and within seconds had locked his legs around the examiner’s neck, using the same scissor chokehold the juvenile ring-tails had demonstrated earlier in the day.
The helpless examiner gasped for air but otherwise barely even fought back. The other lemurs in the room were shifting nervously but doing nothing to intervene.
The room was completely silent except for the sounds of the examiner’s pained choking. The pitiful gasps became weaker as the creature began to die.
Suddenly, Peanut released the examiner and got to his feet.
The smaller lemur sat up, frantically sucking in oxygen. It crawled to the other side of the room and leaned back against the wall.
Infinity watched the terrified creature for a moment and then turned back to Peanut. “What just happened? What did he say to you?”
Peanut had walked over to the expansive window and was staring out. When the translation ended, he turned around and spoke. “I want to know where I can get more females of your species. Tell me what I want to know.”
“What did he say to you?” Infinity repeated. She knew she was probably about to die, but she felt an overwhelming need to know what the examiner had said. What had the creature seen while examining her? Had it confirmed what she had suspected ever since she’d been stabbed in the abdomen by Eddy Chastain at sixteen? “Tell me what he said, goddammit!”
Scuffling, dragging sounds came from behind her. Infinity turned. Two lemurs were dragging a bound body into the room through a dark doorway. They dropped the body, and its head thumped the floor. One of the new lemurs handed a wrist translator to Peanut then quickly stepped back through the doorway. Then, without a sound, the doorway simply disappeared. One second, it had been a dark hole in the wall, and the next second, the wall was solid again.
The bound figure moaned and rolled to one side. A face shifted behind a mask of yellow bindings until one eye was peering out at Infinity. It was Vic. “Good to see you ain’t dead,” he said.
“Good to see you too, Vic. Have you seen the others? Is Desmond okay?”
“Ain’t seen much of anything. They dragged my ass all over the place, but all I seen was the ground and a bunch of filthy lemurs.”
The door appeared again. This time four lemurs entered dragging two bound bodies. The creatures dropped the bodies, handed over two more translators, and withdrew. The door disappeared.
“Infinity!”
Infinity exhaled—one of the figures was Desmond. The other was Terry. “I’m okay,” she said, dispensing with greetings in spite of her relief. “They’ve been questioning me. You’ll probably get the same treatment. I suggest you cooperate. Definitely don’t piss off the big guy. He’s got a temper.”
“Duly noted,” Desmond said. “What about Gideon? Is he alive?”
“They say they don’t know.”
The lemur who had cut Infinity free began making its way from one new arrival to the next, cutting the restraining substance from their faces and arms. As with Infinity, the creature left their legs completely bound. Peanut tossed each of them a wrist translator. Desmond shot Infinity a quizzical look.
“Go ahead and put it on,” she said. “It seems they want to talk.”
Peanut stepped over to Vic and gazed down at him for a moment. The creature then crouched and roughly groped the Marine’s chest and crotch. He stood back up and spoke. Vic’s translator said, “You are a male.” The lemur repeated the same process with Terry and then Desmond.
“Do I even want to know what he’s doing?” asked Desmond as Peanut was finishing his examination.
“I’m pretty sure he wants to start breeding us,” she said. “He’s upset that I’m the only female.”
Terry shifted his body, trying to find a comfortable position for his bound legs. “The assholes want to hunt humans for sport. I hope you told them to go to hell.”
Infinity didn’t feel like explaining that she’d been more focused on what the lemur with the examining device had learned, so she didn’t reply.
Peanut spoke, and Infinity’s translator said, “Tell us where we can find more females of your species.”
Infinity sighed forcefully. “I’ve already told you. There aren’t any more. Not anywhere in this entire universe. We came here from a completely different universe, and there’s no way you can ever get there.” Her device began translating for the lemur, and she turned to Desmond, Vic, and Terry. “These sadistic bastards can never get their hands on bridging technology.”
They all three nodded. Desmond said, “It’d be like unleashing a plague.”
Infinity turned back to Peanut and realized the creature was eyeing her. Peanut then began speaking to the other lemurs, and a wave of uncertainty washed over Infinity. Had her device translated the words she’d said to Desmond, thinking she was still talking to the lemur?
Peanut placed his fingertips on the floor and moved his face closer to Infinity’s until he was no more than a foot away. He stared at her for a moment, studying her eyes, and then spoke. “If the words you say are true, then we cannot obtain more of your species. If we cannot obtain more of your species, then you are not worth keeping. If you are not worth keeping, then we will hunt you in the course… field… arena.”
Infinity glanced down at her translator. Apparently it had struggled to come up with an accurate translation.
The lemur raised himself back up to his full height and spoke briefly to the other lemurs. He then gazed at the four humans, his eyes moving from one person to the next, lingering on each of them for several seconds. Finally, he extended his arm and pointed a finger at Terry.
Two of the lemurs immediately sprung into action, grabbing Terry by the feet and dragging him to the wall.
“What?” Terry sputtered. “What are you doing?”
The doorway in the wall silently appeared. Two other lemurs stepped out from the darkness beyond and dragged Terry from the room.
Terry started to struggle. “What the hell, man? Why can’t I—”
The doorway vanished, cutting off his words.
Infinity twisted her head around and shouted at Peanut. “This is how you treat people who visit your city? If you hurt one more of my friends, our people are going to come here and destroy your entire goddamn civilization!”
The lemur listened to the translation. Then he casually circled her until he was standing in front of her. He crouched down, putting his face inches from hers, and said, “You speak interesting words. We would be very happy if your people came here and tried to destroy our civilization. I hope that the words you speak are true.” He waited for the translation to end, stood up, and spoke again. “I will now explain more about us and our city.” He motioned to someone behind Infinity.
Lemurs came forward, dragged her, Desmond, and Vic across the room, and deposited them in front of the expansive window.
Infinity couldn’t help but stare. She had never been in a building taller than a ten-story apartment building. Now she found herself looking down upon the lemur city from at least a quarter mile up—maybe even higher. The landscape below was segmented into three distinct areas. Arranged in a miles-wide half-circle beneath her was a modern
-looking city, with hundreds of gleaming, cylindrical buildings, the tallest of which was only half as tall as the one she was looking down from. Beyond the city was a band of brownish-gray, haphazard shacks, interspersed with vast, smoking trash piles and blocky structures that appeared to be factories. Beyond all that was green forest stretching to the horizon—the enclosures for the various lemur species the city dwellers hunted for sport.
Peanut began speaking again. Desmond’s translator began interpreting while the creature was still talking—apparently this was going to be a long speech. “Surely you must see that our civilization is extraordinary. We are more powerful and successful than all the other intelligent, speaking species. The other species provide us with honor and with fun. The other species also provide us with much more than honor and fun. They provide us with order… lawfulness… obedience. I will now explain.”
Desmond’s translator paused for about ten seconds and then resumed. “Hunting the other species for honor and fun is what we all wish to do. But only some of us have the wealth to be able to hunt the other species. The others do not have such wealth. That is the way it must be, because only a limited amount of wealth can exist. But we must give hope to those without wealth. We must give them a reason to continue working. We give them opportunities to hunt, but only if they continue to work, only if they continue to serve the city.”
The lemur paused and waited until the translator finished. He then began talking again as he pointed out the window at the expansive green forests beyond the slums. “Those are enclosures we built for the other intelligent species. Many of our wealthy hunt and kill in those enclosures, for honor and for fun. Only our wealthiest can hunt in the enclosures.”
He paused as the translator caught up. He pointed out the window again, this time toward a wide, sprawling structure among the gleaming buildings below. Infinity didn't see any streets crisscrossing the city, but she guessed the massive structure would cover at least ten blocks of a human city.
The Trial of Extinction Page 15
