had neverbeen established. The best guesses were that what Telzey had foundplaying around in the woods five years ago was either a bio-structuralexperiment which had got away from a private laboratory on Orado, orsome spaceman's lost pet, brought to the capital planet from one ofthe remote colonies beyond the Hub. On top of TT's head was a large,fluffy pompom of white fur, which might have looked ridiculous onanother animal, but didn't on her. Even as a fat kitten, hanging headdown from the side of a wall by the broad sucker pads in her paws, TThad possessed enormous dignity.
Telzey studied her, the feeling of relief fading again. Tick-Tock,ordinarily the most restful and composed of companions, definitely wasstill tensed up about something. That big, lazy yawn a moment ago, theattitude of stretched-out relaxation ... all pure sham!
"What _is_ eating you?" she asked in exasperation.
The green eyes stared at her, solemn, watchful, seeming for thatfleeting instant quite alien. And why, Telzey thought, should the oldquestion of what Tick-Tock really was pass through her mind just now?After her rather alarming rate of growth began to taper off last year,nobody had cared any more.
For a moment, Telzey had the uncanny certainty of having had theanswer to this situation almost in her grasp. An answer which appearedto involve the world of Jontarou, Tick-Tock, and of all unlikelyfactors--Aunt Halet.
She shook her head, TT's impassive green eyes blinked.
* * * * *
Jontarou? The planet lay outside Telzey's sphere of personalinterests, but she'd read up on it on the way here from Orado. Amongall the worlds of the Hub, Jontarou was _the_ paradise for zoologistsand sportsmen, a gigantic animal preserve, its continents and seasswarming with magnificent game. Under Federation law, it was beingretained deliberately in the primitive state in which it had beendiscovered. Port Nichay, the only city, actually the only inhabitedpoint on Jontarou, was beautiful and quiet, a pattern of vast butelegantly slender towers, each separated from the others by four orfive miles of rolling parkland and interconnected only by the threadsof transparent skyways. Near the horizon, just visible from thegarden, rose the tallest towers of all, the green and gold spires ofthe Shikaris' Club, a center of Federation affairs and of socialactivity. From the aircar which brought them across Port Nichay theevening before, Telzey had seen occasional strings of guest houses,similar to the one Halet had rented, nestling along the park slopes.
Nothing very sinister about Port Nichay or green Jontarou, surely!
Halet? That blond, slinky, would-be Machiavelli? What could--?
Telzey's eyes narrowed reflectively. There'd been a minoroccurrence--at least, it had seemed minor--just before the spacelinerdocked last night. A young woman from one of the newscasting serviceshad asked for an interview with the daughter of FederationCouncilwoman Jessamine Amberdon. This happened occasionally; andTelzey had no objections until the newshen's gossipy persistence ininquiring about the "unusual pet" she was bringing to Port Nichay withher began to be annoying. TT might be somewhat unusual, but that wasnot a matter of general interest; and Telzey said so. Then Halet movedsmoothly into the act and held forth on Tick-Tock's appearance,habits, and mysterious antecedents, in considerable detail.
Telzey had assumed that Halet was simply going out of her way to beirritating, as usual. Looking back on the incident, however, itoccurred to her that the chatter between her aunt and the newscastwoman had sounded oddly stilted--almost like something the two mighthave rehearsed.
Rehearsed for what purpose? Tick-Tock ... Jontarou.
Telzey chewed gently on her lower lip. A vacation on Jontarou for thetwo of them and TT had been Halet's idea, and Halet had enthused aboutit so much that Telzey's mother at last talked her into accepting.Halet, Jessamine explained privately to Telzey, had felt they wereintruders in the Amberdon family, had bitterly resented Jessamine'spolitical honors and, more recently, Telzey's own emerging promise ofbrilliance. This invitation was Halet's way of indicating a change ofheart. Wouldn't Telzey oblige?
* * * * *
So Telzey had obliged, though she took very little stock in Halet'schange of heart. She wasn't, in fact, putting it past her aunt to havesome involved dirty trick up her sleeve with this trip to Jontarou.Halet's mind worked like that.
So far there had been no actual indications of purposeful mischief.But logic did seem to require a connection between the variouspuzzling events here.... A newscaster's rather forced looking interestin Tick-Tock--Halet could easily have paid for that interview. ThenTT's disturbed behavior during their first night in Port Nichay, andTelzey's own formless anxieties and fancies in connection with theguest house garden.
The last remained hard to explain. But Tick-Tock ... and Halet ...might know something about Jontarou that she didn't know.
Her mind returned to the results of the half-serious attempt she'dmade to find out whether there was something Tick-Tock "wanted her todo." An open door? A darkness where somebody waited to grab her if shetook even one step forwards? It couldn't have had any significance. Orcould it?
So you'd like to try magic, Telzey scoffed at herself. Baby games....How far would you have got at law school if you'd asked TT to helpwith your problems?
Then why had she been thinking about it again?
She shivered, because an eerie stillness seemed to settle on thegarden. From the side of the terrace, TT's green eyes watched her.
Telzey had a feeling of sinking down slowly into a sunlit dream, intosomething very remote from law school problems.
"Should I go through the door?" she whispered.
The bronze cat-shape raised its head slowly. TT began to purr.
Tick-Tock's name had been derived in kittenhood from the manner inwhich she purred--a measured, oscillating sound, shifting from high tolow, as comfortable and often as continuous as the unobtrusive pulseof an old clock. It was the first time, Telzey realized now, thatshe'd heard the sound since their arrival on Jontarou. It went on fora dozen seconds or so, then stopped. Tick-Tock continued to look ather.
It appeared to have been an expression of definite assent....
The dreamlike sensation increased, hazing over Telzey's thoughts. Ifthere was nothing to this mind-communication thing, what harm couldsymbols do? This time, she wouldn't let them alarm her. And if theydid mean something....
She closed her eyes.
* * * * *
The sunglow outside faded instantly. Telzey caught a fleeting pictureof the door in the wall, and knew in the same moment that she'dalready passed through it.
She was not in the dark room then, but poised at the edge of abrightness which seemed featureless and without limit, spread outaround her with a feeling-tone like "sea" or "sky." But it was anunquiet place. There was a sense of unseen things on all sideswatching her and waiting.
Was this another form of the dark room--a trap set up in her mind?Telzey's attention did a quick shift. She was seated in the grassagain; the sunlight beyond her closed eyelids seemed to shine inquietly through rose-tinted curtains. Cautiously, she let herawareness return to the bright area; and it was still there. She had amoment of excited elation. She was controlling this! And why not, sheasked herself. These things were happening in her mind, after all!
She would find out what they seemed to mean; but she would be in norush to....
An impression as if, behind her, Tick-Tock had thought, "Now I canhelp again!"
Then a feeling of being swept swiftly, irresistibly forwards, thrustout and down. The brightness exploded in thundering colors around her.In fright, she made the effort to snap her eyes open, to be back inthe garden; but now she couldn't make it work. The colors continued toroar about her, like a confusion of excited, laughing, triumphantvoices. Telzey felt caught in the middle of it all, suspended ininvisible spider webs. Tick-Tock seemed to be somewhere nearby,looking on. Faithless, treacherous TT!
Telzey's mind made another wrenching effort, and there was a change.She h
adn't got back into the garden, but the noisy, swirling colorswere gone and she had the feeling of reading a rapidly movingmicrotape now, though she didn't actually see the tape.
The tape, she realized, was another symbol for what was happening, asymbol easier for her to understand. There were voices, or what mightbe voices, around her; on the invisible tape she seemed to be readingwhat they said.
A number of speakers, apparently involved in a fast, hot argumentabout what to do with her. Impressions flashed past....
* * * * *
Why waste time with her? It was clear that kitten-talk was all she wascapable of!... Not necessarily; that was a normal first step. Give hera little time!... But what--exasperatedly--could such a small-bite_possibly_ know that would be of significant value?
There was a slow, blurred, awkward-seeming
Novice Page 2
