"Good god!" exclaimed Mary. "It's Hairless Bear and it's coming this way!"
Step by monstrous step it moved closer!
"It follows the path!" said Talking Owl.
"Of course," said John. "Why wouldn't it take advantage of the path? Otherwise it would be walking through trees and boulders."
"It's carrying something!" said Jack.
"The animals say that it moves the forest," said Talking Owl.
"It holds a tree trunk under each arm," said John, who was watching it through telescopic night-vision goggles. "It drags the trees up the path towards the Mountain! I see a dozen owls flying above it also."
"Fascinating," remarked Doc.
"Terrifying is the word I would use, Doc," said Chief Mike Talking Bear, who had just arrived from the Lodge with a dozen rifle-armed warriors. Strapped to their backs were satchels that held torches. "It's obviously too late to light the woodpile that was surrounding Hairless Bear. The woodpiles surrounding the Lodge are being readied for lighting. In the meantime we can try out our rifles and torches on it when it gets closer. We also carry Molotov cocktails. I'm telling my bear brothers to stay away; there is nothing they can do to help us. Bullets and fire may be flying soon."
"I am telling the wolves the same," said White Cloud, "while thanking them for raising the alarm."
"Why attack it?" asked John. "It is obviously bullet-proof and so far it hasn't attacked anyone."
"Perhaps the Mohawk has a good point," said Mouse, who had suddenly appeared at the side of Chief Mike.
"Right!" added Ed. "Why piss it off? So far it hasn't attacked humans and humans haven't attacked it either. You even fed it some nice tasty firewood."
"Very well, we'll hold our fire for now," said Chief Mike. "If it moves to attack us, the lab, or the Sacred Lodge, we will attack it."
"For now let's also get ourselves off the path and out of its way!" said Running Bear.
The shocked group moved towards the lab, which was fifty yards to the right of the main path to the Lodge.
Taking monstrously huge steps, Hairless Bear soon crested the lip of the amphitheater and was in plain sight of the terrified onlookers. It indeed held a massive six-foot thick tree trunk under each arm, trunks with pointy ends that looked like they had been gnawed through by a giant beaver. They were large- sized Douglass fir trees, Ed guessed. Most of the rest of each tree was dragged behind the creature, a great tangle of mangled limbs several times as long as the monster was tall.
Up close Hairless Bear looked less like a bear; its fingers and toes were too monstrously large: fingers large enough to grasp huge trees, and huge diamond-tipped toes to dig into rock for better traction in order to drag trees up the icy Mountain. It didn't look hairless either; much of it was covered with long crystals that rather looked like hair, though like the scales they were probably made of quartz or diamond or both.
It paused and looked about as though considering which way to go. Straight ahead of it the path ended at the Sacred Dome on the far lip of the amphitheater. It ignored the lab and the gathering of humans that watched it.
"It's looking mostly at the Great Lodge," said Chief Mike. "If it heads for the Lodge we're going to light up our fires and shoot it!"
"It is simply trying to carry the trees to its hungry kin upon the Mountain." said Talking Owl, "I can hear them crying out in hunger! The Lodge blocks the straightest path!"
"Yes!" Ed exclaimed. Talking Owl was at last sensing Stone-Coat feelings! "I can hear them too! Thousands of them!"
"Light a new path for it to get to the Mountain!" John exclaimed. "Don't shine your lights directly on the creature and provoke it; point your flashlights at a spot on the ridge of the amphitheater to the left of the path!" With a large flashlight in hand, the Mohican ran off, along a side-path that led to the main path at a point ahead of Hairless Bear.
"Do as he said," seconded Talking Owl. "We must try to lead it around the Lodge and not through it! Perhaps it can be done without loss of life."
"Good plan," agreed Chief Mike. "Red Hawk and Swift Deer, take more flashlights and a pair of snowshoes to the Mohican. Lose your rifles; I doubt they would be much good anyway against a diamond-plated giant. Everyone else keep your flashlights pointed at the left rim and away from Hairless Bear. We don't want to draw him here with our lights; we want to show him a path to the Mountain that avoids the Great Lodge."
John Running Bear cut across to the path beyond Hairless Bear, and then trudged with difficulty through deep snow to a point on the amphitheater rim to the left of the path. He was gasping for breath when he shined his flashlight into the Face of Hairless Bear and blinked it on and off while shouting at the top of his lungs. Hairless Bear had no visible ears; could it hear him shout? Maybe not; but it didn't hurt to try!
The Stone-Coat turned its red eyes towards Running Bear as Red Hawk and Swift Deer reached the Mohican. Red Hawk slipped snowshoes onto him while Swift Deer mimicked his flashlight efforts. Soon the three snowshoe clad men moved off together along the left rim of the amphitheater, occasionally flashing light at the monster's red eyes. Meanwhile the flashlights of the others made the entire snow-covered left-rim dimly visible in the darkness.
The creature suddenly began to move, towards the fleeing flashing lights to its left along the rim! The creature took huge strides, and soon the three humans that led it had trouble staying ahead of it.
Just when the onlookers feared that the tree-hauling giant would overtake and run over the three men, their flashlights went dark. Without pause the Stone-Coat Ice Giant and the trees it dragged continued beyond the amphitheater, up the Mountain and out of sight.
Happy cheers erupted from the lab crew and from the direction of the distant Lodge. Mouse immediately wanted to powwow in the warm environment of lab, but Chief Mike and his daughter Talking Owl would not go inside until the Mohican and his two Mohawk companions returned, looking a bit weary but otherwise in good health and great spirits. Chief Mike greeted them all with hearty hugs and back-slapping. Talking Owl looked like she might want to give the Mohican a hug herself, but managed not to. "That was fast thinking, John," she instead told him.
"It was mostly your fast thinking, Princess," he replied. "When you said that the Stone-Coat was merely seeking a path to the Mountain, the solution became obvious. Of course on its own the Stone-Coat could have already observed that the lodge obstructed its path and decided to walk around it. Or it may have also noticed that to travel across the amphitheater would take it down and up again needlessly, and that passage along the amphitheater rim would be more energy efficient."
"Your solution wasn't very obvious to me," Ed remarked. "I was mostly too damned scared to think at all."
They crowded into the small lab building. To Ed it felt wonderful to be still alive and out of the cold, and he would love to talk about the astonishing thing that had just happened, but right now had other immediate needs. He rushed towards the small lab bathroom but as usual, Mary beat him to it. He felt some satisfaction however, that a small line formed behind him. At least he was second. "Who's the new kid?" he asked White Cloud, who stood behind him in line. Near them a young boy of perhaps fifteen years sat before a computer terminal and was watching the Bear Claw monitor while he made entries at the keyboard of a laptop.
"That's my cousin Frank Grey Wolf who was raised in Brooklyn by his steel-working dad. He even took some CUNY computer science classes last year. He's the computer whiz that sat up the computers for the lab and Wi-Fi for most of the Reservation. I added him to our science team. Right now he's going to use copper wire to measure electric conductivity through one of the scales of the Bear Claw. Our experiments must continue."
"Absolutely," Ed remarked, before taking his turn in the bathroom.
"The heroics of the Mohican and our men at least bought us some time," Chief Mike was saying, when Ed joined the gathered leadership and science groups. "But we don't know what will happen next."
"Hairle
ss Bear will continue to feed the hungry ones," said Talking Owl.
"That is very likely," agreed Doc. "And if there really is a whole Mountain full of Stone-Coats, that could take a lot of trees.
"The legends say that they eat everything in the area when they wake," said Mouse. "That could include us and our lodges."
"Hairless Bear didn't seem hostile tonight," remarked Running Bear. He was sitting comfortably close to Talking Owl, Ed noticed. "It seemed to be mostly just avoiding our interference. It covered my cameras with ice and then later it avoided the Lodge, the lab, and us. It could have iced us like it did the cameras or crashed us like bugs, but it didn't. Of course, it could consider us to be insignificant or be merely waiting until more of its kind wake before it attacks us."
"Is this the usual way that Stone-Coat awakenings begin?" Mary asked. "And what should happen next? What do the legends say?"
"The legends say that a few Stone-Coats wake first, and those first ones are to be attacked by Tribe warriors using torches," said Talking Owl. "Obviously we skipped that part. The alerted Tribe is then to burn great fires that cause the aroused horde of Stone-Coats to retreat to the cold sanctuary of the Mountain."
"The Tribe has been alerted," added Chief Mike. "They will soon march from Giants' Rest three-thousand strong. There are woodpiles that surround the Mountain that we will light when the time comes."
"Of course in the past the Mohawk had no clever Mohicans with flashlights or scientists to help them, but the Stone-Coats were contained anyway using fire and the warmth of the coming of spring," said Mouse. "We could do that again this time, but we would likely lose many lives by merely following the path of our ancestors."
"Yes, when they were opposed by us the Stone-Coats fought the Mohawk and killed many of the Tribe," explained Talking Owl. "Talking Turtle had hoped that some other way could be found."
"In my opinion we're at a decision point now," said Running Bear. "Either we facilitate the Stone-Coats or we attack and try to stop them."
"Facilitate them how?" Chief Mike asked.
"Give them what they want," Running Bear explained, "or at least don't impede them. They want to eat trees, so let them eat trees. Let them eat your woodpiles instead of lighting them on fire."
"With what consequences?" Chief Mike asked. "To make them stronger so that they can more easily kill us? What you suggest seems like too big a gamble."
"Good point," acknowledged Running Bear. "We have no idea what they will do if we let them freely feed. The results of that path are unknown. On the other hand, if we fight them your legends say that they can be stopped. That seems to be the more certain path, though it would also likely cost many Tribe lives. Perhaps hundreds or thousands of Tribe lives."
"And that's the usual way of Man, isn't it?" added Talking Owl. "We fear and seek to destroy what we do not understand."
"It is a natural reaction for people to seek their own preservation by destroying a powerful force that could kill them," Chief Mike countered. "We must seek to preserve Tribe lives, Daughter. I am Tribe War Chief. We will gather our warriors and weapons and make ready to attack the Stone-Coats. While the rest of you seek understanding I will go to Giants' Rest to rally our fighting men." The Chief and the two warriors with him quickly left the lab, leaving the others.
"That was a shorter meeting than I figured on," said Ed.
"Talking Bear has no other choice now, he must prepare for war," said John. "Here we should try to find him another choice; either a choice for peace or a better choice of weapons, if war remains the only choice possible. I sensed intelligence behind Hairless Bear's actions. Communications with the Stone-Coats could be very useful. What do the Stone-Coat talkers sense?"
Both Ed and Talking Owl closed their eyes and sat quietly for several minutes while the others patiently waited. "I sense only their hunger," said Ed at last.
"As do I," agreed Talking Owl. "And my owl friends tell me that Stone-Coats return from the Mountain. I can hear them each chattering. There seems to be five of them."
"Yes," said Ed. "I sense five of them also, and they are getting closer." confirmed Ed.
Most of the company hurriedly put on their coats and rushed outside, where they saw five pairs of glowing red eyes moving down the mountain along the route earlier taken by Hairless Bear. The sound of their monstrous footfalls filled the air.
"Yes, there are five of them now!" exclaimed White Cloud. "Each is as large as Hairless Bear or larger!"
"Keep your flashlights off!" John implored. "Let them walk past us without unduly getting their attention."
Indeed the five stone giants were following the path originally taken by Hairless Bear, which avoided the Lodge and lab. Ed could sense the relief felt by the humans that stood with him watching them pass, along with their continuing fear and astonishment. Each giant was a copy of Hairless Bear, but three were twice as big, and the ground shook with each monstrous step that they took.
****
CHAPTER XIII
The Talking Claw
As the final creature passed, it suddenly stopped and turned towards the on-looking humans with its red glowing eyes!
"What the hell!" exclaimed Jack.
"Is it attacking?" Mary asked.
"It is surprised," said Talking Owl. "It listens to something, and I can sense its chattering."
It was Ed's turn to be surprised. "I can sense something in the lab also chattering! It's communicating with something in the lab!"
"The Bear Claw!" exclaimed Doc as he rushed into the lab, followed by Ed and White Cloud.
There they found young Frank Grey Wolf, alternately staring in astonishment at both the Bear Claw monitor and at his laptop screen. The cameras watching the Bear Claw showed two wires attached to it on either side of a large scale on the clawed finger.
"What's happening, Frank?" White Cloud asked his grinning cousin.
"Some really wild stuff!" the boy responded. "A minute ago I poked the scale with a copper wire and it stuck on to it."
"What do you mean?" Doc asked.
"The wire became firmly attached like it was welded on," Frank said, "right there where I poked it between the scales. The other end of the wire is attached to this little old-timey volt/amp meter, which began to jitter around like it's doing now."
The amp-meter needle was visibly vibrating. "Some kind of high frequency signal," said White Cloud.
"Right," agreed Frank. "Have you guys got an oscilloscope? At first I thought I might be picking up my own computer's USB signal passing through the scale, but it jitters like that even when I disconnect The USB."
"What USB?" Ed asked.
"The one that I attached to the other side of the scale," Frank said. "It stuck on just like the copper wire did. I was going to see if the low voltage and amperage direct current available from the USB would pass through the scale and maybe suggest hidden carbon nanotubes, or not pass through the diamond scale at all, suggesting no nanotubes. Very crude but you have to start somewhere." The boy glanced at a second device that was attached to a wire that led from the Bear Claw box and from there to the laptop. "The Bear Claw is drawing only a couple of hundred milliamps at five volts from the laptop. What do you suppose it's doing with that?"
"So the Bear Claw is plugged into your laptop?" Ed asked.
"Essentially," Frank admitted. "I intended to merely use the USB as a low voltage source for the conductivity experiment, but besides the voltage line there are of course the two serial data lines and a ground line that are also part of the USB interface. The Bear Claw must have tapped into them all, because my laptop thinks the Bear Claw is some sort of USB device and has been looking for the right drivers to communicate with it. Pretty nifty, right?"
"It's probably related to the radio communications that Running Bear talked about," said Doc.
Jack came rushing in from outside. "The good news is, four Stone-Coats have gone on down the trail, possibly in search of more trees." Indeed, their dis
tant receding footfalls could still dimly be heard even inside the lab. "The bad news is: Hairless Bear or his identical twin stands right outside of this lab, transfixed by whatever the hell is going on in here. One more giant step and this place is history."
"I haven't heard any gunshots," Ed noted.
"John and Talking Owl have managed to restrain Chief Mike's warriors so far," said Jack, "but there are a dozen of them out there now led by Red Hawk, ready to fire up Hairless Bear if he gets destructive. Right now the thing just stands there glancing at us occasionally but mostly just staring at the lab, like it's transfixed by something inside, presumably the Bear Claw."
"It walked right by here earlier without giving the lab a glance," Doc noted.
"It couldn't sense the Bear Claw then," said White Cloud. "The Claw was hidden inside its grounded steel box, which served as an impenetrable Faraday cage as far as electronic signals are concerned. Now young Frank has provided the Claw both a copper wire antenna and a power source. Look at the images; you can see that dark strands of black material have formed inside the Claw where the two wires connect to it."
"You're right," agreed Doc. "Those dark strands of graphite or whatever weren't there before! The Claw has rewired itself to accommodate the interfaces that Frank provided!"
"Guys! Look at this!" Frank exclaimed.
On the laptop screen two words had appeared on an otherwise black screen: 'PROVIDE INPUT' it said.
"Is that the laptop or the Claw asking?" Ed asked.
"It has to be the Claw talking, or even Hairless Bear," said Frank. "If those things are super computers like we suspect them to be, they must have figured out how to communicate with us computer style!"
"I don't understand how!" said Doc.
"Figure out how they did it later," said Jack. "Right now what do we reply assuming it's them?"
"Type in something soothing and friendly, White Cloud," suggested Ed.
White Cloud took Frank's place at the laptop keyboard and typed 'WE SEEK PEACE' and hit the enter key.
Ice Giants Wake! Page 15
