Quofum

by Alan Dean Foster

  He nodded energetically. “All questions to which we need to find answers.”

  “Tch!lk.” A newly excited Valnadireb semaphored with all four arms. “We won’t learn them squatting here on our abdomens and pushing air.” The thranx was truly reenergized. He turned eagerly to Haviti. “What is the skimmer’s condition?”

  “It’s fine. All it needs is a recharge and a standard preflight check.” She smiled, an expression as familiar to the thranx as his own hand gestures. “You’ll come with us, then, and set your forest studies aside for a while?”

  Truhands whisked through the air. “Mosi has found a whole other world. This one will wait.”

  Despite their impatience to return to the site of N’kosi’s monumental discovery, they took their time stocking the skimmer. There was no telling what they might find or how long they would be away from camp. As for the facility that had become their home, it would maintain itself efficiently in the absence of any human presence. Water would continue to be purified, specimens and food and living quarters would be looked after and maintained, and the perimeter fence would continue to keep out curious or hostile natives.

  The journey southward in the skimmer was more stimulating for Valnadireb than it was for his companions, both of whom had spent much of the previous weeks traveling up or down the coast. In deference to the thranx’s innate unease N’kosi piloted a route that kept the craft inland and as far away from the sea as possible without wasting too much charge on the detour. Though well out of sight of the coast he had no trouble zeroing in on his provisional campsite, having equipped it with a small locator beacon on the day he had originally completed the crude shelter.

  Though both of his companions were anxious to set out for the tunnel, N’kosi insisted they pause long enough to eat a regular meal. Not knowing what awaited them underground, the opportunity to dine might not present itself again for a while. Back at main camp they had taken the time prior to departing to ensure that the skimmer was fully charged. It would be irresponsible not to do the same for themselves.

  “All right, Mosi.” Haviti had risen from the peculiar twisted log that had served as a bench. “I’m rested, I’m hydrated, and I’m full.” She checked to make sure every instrument was in place on her utility belt and that her cap recorder was on. “Time to see this subterranean wonderland of yours.”

  “Believe me,” he told her as he exited the interim shelter and took the first steps inland, “I’m as anxious to see it again as you are to do so for the first time.”

  For once, none of them slowed or paused to study the multifarious life-forms of the captivating Quofumian forest. While they did not entirely ignore novel sights or sounds, colorful new flora or outlandish alien fauna, their thoughts were focused elsewhere. On something bigger, Haviti found herself thinking. On something of far greater import.

  Based on the vit she had watched of N’kosi’s discovery, an unknown intelligence had gone to an enormous amount of trouble and effort to undermine at least a portion of the very forest through which they were presently hiking with an immensely intricate ganglion of electronics and automata. To what purpose, she and her companions hoped to learn. As they strode deeper and deeper into the alien woods she found that her respiration was starting to come in shorter and shorter breaths, until she was almost gasping for air. The cause was excitement, not the gentle upward slope they were following.

  Easy, she told herself. Hyperventilation would exhaust her more quickly than slow and regular breathing.

  The tunnel entrance was exactly as N’kosi had described it and as his vit had shown it. The dark metal shaft pierced the solid rock of the hillside as neatly and cleanly as an antique hypodermic slid into flesh. Detecting and reacting to the darkness, two sets of cap lights and one thranx head flare winked to life automatically when they entered.

  Striding excitedly down the smooth-floored corridor, Haviti was struck by the perfection of their surroundings. The soft padpad of their boots on the alien alloy underfoot contrasted melodiously with the percussive clicking of Valnadireb’s unshod chitinous feet.

  When he had explored the tunnel by himself, N’kosi had proceeded with understandable caution. Having a known destination in mind this time, the three colleagues made much more rapid progress. The first glimpse of light at the end of the passageway impinged on their retinas barely two hours after they had entered.

  They slowed deliberately. Advancing with caution while trying to make as little noise as possible, they approached the egress. N’kosi looked on with satisfaction as an expression of awe and disbelief came over Haviti. Valnadireb’s antennae inclined forward as the thranx strained for the utmost perception of their immediate surroundings.

  Everything was as N’kosi remembered it: the enormous underground chamber stretching off into the unplumbed distance, the flashing and blinking channels of intense radiant light, the softly pulsing tubes and conduits and cylinders that linked ceiling to floor and to one another like some immense synthetic spiderweb.

  Haviti swallowed. “’E mea maitai roa,” she whispered in her family’s ancient language. “It’s fantastic. Recorded images can give the appearance, but no way can they begin to convey the scale.”

  Standing alongside her on four trulegs, Valnadireb gestured with a foothand. “This is indeed vaster than I imagined, despite Mosi’s strenuous attempts to convey the expansiveness. The mere sight of it proclaims it incredibly sophisticated, immeasurably advanced, and extraordinarily well maintained.” His left antenna flicked back over his head while the right dipped forward. “But the biggest question remains. What is it all for? What does it do?”

  N’kosi started forward. “Let’s have a look and see if we can find out.”

  As she paced him, Haviti found herself looking around uneasily. “What about those guardian globes?”

  “All we can do is try to be as quiet and work as inconspicuously as possible.” He singled out a dense conduit consisting of layers of light pulses that sped in opposite directions between two glowing sheets of foil-thin metal. “Why don’t we start by analyzing this small energy flow here? Readings of strength, speed, and composition should tell us something.”

  While Valnadireb and Haviti unpacked equipment, N’kosi kept watch. Having encountered the sweeper spheres in person, he felt he might be more attuned to their approach than his newly arrived companions. At the first sign of the sentinel orbs they would pack up their equipment and race back into the tunnel.

  The more time that passed and the longer they were left alone, the more accurate and detailed the readings his companions were able to take. The only trouble was, they were not making any sense.

  Rising from where they had been crouched around the conduit, Haviti and Valnadireb compared readouts and personal notes. Her expression and tone reflected her confusion.

  “These don’t make any sense.” She was holding her analyzer up next to Valnadireb’s. “For one thing, they’re way too high.” She nodded in the direction of the energetic conduit whose continued existence and ongoing functionality blatantly belied her comment. “It’s not possible to contain that much energy in so confined a space.”

  “There may be methods of compression of which we are unaware and are therefore incapable of measuring with our instruments. Indeed, such appears to be the case,” Valnadireb opined.

  She eyed him dubiously. “You don’t compress energy in a coherent beam beyond what that beam is capable of containing.” Once again she pointed toward the conduit. “That’s a perfectly ordinary, visible flow, not a seep from the heart of a neutron star.”

  “Still,” Valnadireb started to argue, “it is theoretically possible that…”

  Neither of them being physicists, it was unlikely that the disagreement was going to be easily resolved to their mutual satisfaction. It did not matter, N’kosi knew. At least, it did not matter now. Having materialized in the distance, the orbs he had just detected at the limit of his vision were definitely coming their way.r />
  This time there were five of them.

  Two were purple, two orange, and one a bright, almost cheerful turquoise hue. Even as he spun to alert his companions he found himself wondering at the significance of the different colors. Were they indicative of specialization? Individual powers? Rank? He had no intention of lingering to voice the question.

  Haviti and Valnadireb hurriedly reassembled their gear. Turning, the three visitors broke into a sprint back the way they had come. Looking over his shoulder, N’kosi saw that the quintet of glowing globes was not gaining on them. That in itself was odd. One would expect that should they desire to do so, spheres composed of pure energy could accelerate at speeds no creature of flesh and blood could match. On the other hand, he told himself, there was no especial reason for the guardian orbs to hurry. It was evident that within the complex nothing was beyond their ken, and therefore there was no place for intruders to hide.

  He and his companions could run partway up the tunnel back into blackness, wait for the guardians to grow bored or move elsewhere, and then try to enter the complex again. It was a sensible, conservative plan of action. One he and his colleagues had worked out prior to making their initial entrance. One that took into account everything he had observed and recorded on his previous visit. One that he had presumed would account for everything.

  Unfortunately it did not take into account the possibility that the way out might be blocked.

  The sentinel orb that hovered in front of the tunnel entrance pulsed a deep, ominous magenta. Its lambent fringe extended beyond the edges of the tunnel as well as below the base and above the ceiling. There was no room, no space, to squeeze between it and the wall and into the metal shaft. Haviti looked back. The five other spheres were drawing close. They displayed no signs of impatience. There was no reason why they should, she realized. She and her friends were trapped.

  Given the existing options, she did not hesitate. Neither, she saw out of the corner of an eye, did Valnadireb. Drawing their sidearms almost simultaneously, they took aim and fired at the center of the dark reddish sphere that was blocking their only way out. While the thranx wielded a pulsepopper, she employed a more conventional beamer. From the muzzles of both weapons, fire, as diverse as it was destructive, lanced out to strike the sphere.

  A pair of small circles appeared on the lustrous curvilinear surface where their shots struck. These briefly glowed a more intense color than the surrounding area. Then they faded.

  N’kosi had his weapon out and was now firing also. The aggregate effect of their combined attack was to produce three ephemerally glowing circles on the surface of the sphere instead of two. Recognizing the futility of the assault, Haviti holstered her weapon. Stepping forward, she attempted to squeeze herself between the tunnel wall and hovering sphere. Making contact with the orb, she let out a yelp of pain and drew back sharply, grabbing at her left side. Looking down, she expected to see scorched fabric and burnt skin beneath her clutching fingers. Instead, there was nothing. She and her clothing were both unscathed.

  Except for her exclamation of distress and the sound of her companions’ weapons repeatedly discharging, the entire confrontation was played out in complete silence.

  Slowing to a halt behind them, the quintet of multicolored orbs had formed a line blocking any retreat in that direction. The three scientists were now well and truly trapped between the five spheres they turned to face and the larger one that continued to block the entrance to the only exit. Instinctively, they crowded closer to one another. Valnadireb’s natural perfume was stronger than ever. Haviti kept glancing down at her side, still not quite able to accept the fact that her body and clothing showed no evidence of the searing sensation she had experienced on contact with the shimmering magenta globe.

  “Why aren’t they crowding us out?” She found herself whispering without knowing why. “You said the two that blocked your path before pushed you out.”

  “I don’t know,” he muttered apprehensively. “I don’t know, but at the moment I’m glad they’re not.” He indicated the five orbs that continued to hover in a glowing line before them. “If they were pushing, we’d be squeezed between them and the one you touched.”

  Valnadireb did not whisper. “You’re certain, trr! lk, they are not intelligent?”

  “I’m not certain of anything.” N’kosi shook his head. “I didn’t see any conclusive signs of it before, and I don’t think I’m seeing it now. They act more like devices than sentients.” He looked to his right as Haviti let out a sharp, nervous laugh.

  “Toilet plungers. That’s what they are. And if that’s the case, then we are simultaneously redefined.”

  “Take it easy.” Without thinking, he put an arm around her shoulders. As a gesture it was mildly condescending, but she made no move to shake it off. “They’re not exhibiting aggression.”

  “Perhaps trying to decide what to do next.” Skittering to his left, Valnadireb attempted to dart around the outermost orange sphere. It did not move to block his path.

  N’kosi frowned. “That’s strange.” His arm still around Haviti’s shoulders, he tugged gently. Keeping a careful eye on all the guardian spheres but most especially on the leftmost orange one, the two humans mimicked the action of their thranx colleague. As with Valnadireb but unlike on N’kosi’s previous visit, the orbs did not move to intercept.

  The three of them found themselves standing, untouched and unharmed, behind the six spheres. The way into the depths of the incredible subterranean complex was open and unblocked. They could not really revel in their achievement for the simple reason that the only way back to the surface was still barred.

  “What now?” N’kosi wondered aloud.

  Slipping free of his arm, Haviti studied the line of spheres for a long moment. Then she turned to let her gaze rove free among the fantastical technology that filled her line of sight as far as she could see.

  “There’s an old saying among my family. If the current is too strong to paddle against, go with it. If you are lucky, it will swing around and take you back to where you want to go.” She started off into the complex. N’kosi and Valnadireb were barely a step behind her.

  Hardly a moment or two had passed when Valnadireb announced, “They’re following.” A glance backward revealed that the half-dozen multihued spheres were indeed trailing the intruders. As she recalled the pain of contact with the dark red orb, Haviti experienced a surge of anxiety. She worked to mute it. They could do nothing about the spheres. Only do their best, by exerting considerable effort, to ignore them.

  “They’re not bothering us,” she noted apprehensively. “Maybe if we don’t bother them, or damage anything, they’ll just observe and leave us alone.”

  N’kosi frowned, trying to make sense of it all. “Then why did they push me out before?”

  Valnadireb made a joke his pre-Amalgamation ancestors could never have imagined, so alien had they originally found human beings. “Maybe they’re all male guardian spheres, and they’re more interested in keeping Tiare around than they were you.”

  It raised a smile on the faces of both humans, one that in the context of the moment was invigorating as well as welcome. “Well, it won’t do them any good,” a somewhat less uneasy Haviti declared. “I don’t go out with radiant orbs.”

  “Shame,” N’kosi chided her, trying to join in the heartening spirit of the verbal byplay. “Shape prejudice has no place in Commonwealth society.”

  “All right then,” she corrected herself. “I don’t go out with nonsentient radiant orbs.”

  Having succeeded in lightening the mood, however slightly, Valnadireb turned serious once more. “Do you think they have individual AI, or are they controlled by a central source?”

  “Impossible to say.” Halting, N’kosi began fumbling with the equipment attached to his utility belt. “If we’re lucky, maybe we can pick up something like a recognizable carrier wave. One that is passed from sphere to sphere, or from sphere to somewhere el
se.” He indicated a row of what looked like clear glass ovoids standing off to their left. Three meters in diameter, each massive egg shape pulsed with light. Their interiors were furious, seething clouds of glassy multicolored shards speckled with fiery dots of dancing plasma.

  “Meanwhile, let’s see if we make some sense of that display.” He glanced at the hovering sentinel orbs. “It will be useful to see if our guardians allow us to proceed with our work.”

  Valnadireb looked the nearest ovoid up and down, his valentine-shaped head bobbing on his short neck. “It could be some kind of energy pump. Or highly advanced composter. Or anything in between.”

  Keeping a wary eye on the six drifting orbs, they began to break out the instruments necessary to take the measure of the pulsating alien ovoids. Clustering behind them, the spheres formed a tight semicircle a modest distance from the visitors. The space separating each from its neighbor, Haviti noted, could not have varied by as much as a millimeter.

  Eyeing them charily as she began to set up her own equipment and despite what N’kosi had said about their perceived lack of independent intelligence, she could not escape the feeling that the shimmering orbs were engaged in an intensive examination of their own.

  16

  As the day wore on, the two humans and one thranx accumulated a body of information and recordings a small portion of which would have been sufficient to astound the most venerated gathering of scientists the Commonwealth could muster. No matter where they went, no matter what they did, the silent glowing orbs did not interfere. They followed, and in their own singular eyeless way doubtless observed. But they did not interfere.

  However, when individual chronometers indicated that it was well past nightfall on the surface outside and the trio of visitors attempted to leave, they once more found their way blocked. Not at the tunnel entrance this time, but the very route leading toward it. Their freedom of movement to go forward was in no way restricted, but the energetic spheres resolutely refused to allow them to retrace their steps back the way they had come for more than a few meters. When Valnadireb tried to make a quick dash around the outermost orange orb, it swiftly darted into his path to cut him off. Fleeting contact was made. Like Haviti before him, the thranx was subjected to the same sharp burning sensation. And as had been the case with the human female, he incurred no actual physical damage as a result of the brief convergence.