Richard could not restrain himself. Before Nicole could say anything, he stepped the few meters off the path, stuck his face in one of the huge flowers, and inhaled deeply. The smell was magnificent. Meanwhile, one of the two fireflies flew back in their direction and began zigging and zagging in the sky over their heads.
“I don’t think our guides approved of your sortie,” Nicole said.
“Probably not,” Richard replied, returning to the path. “But it was worth it.”
As they continued to walk, more flowers, of all shapes, sizes, and colors, surrounded them on both sides. Neither of them had ever seen such a profusion of color. At the same time, the sounds they had been hearing abated. A little later, when Richard and Nicole were in the middle of me flower region, the noises disappeared altogether.
The path narrowed to a couple of meters, barely wide enough for them to walk side by side and not brush the plants on which the flowers were growing. Richard left the trail several times to inspect and smell one of me amazing flowers. Each excursion caused the fireflies to swoop back in their direction. Despite Richard’s enthusiasm for his trips into the forest, Nicole heeded the guides and remained on the path.
Richard was about eight meters off to the left, trying to obtain a closer look at a gigantic flower that looked like an Oriental carpet, when he disappeared suddenly from view. “Ouch,” Nicole heard him yell as he fell to the ground.
“Are you all right?” she said immediately.
“Yes,” he said. “I just tripped over some vines and fell into a bunch of thorns. The bush surrounding me has red leaves as well as tiny, bizarre flowers that look like bullets. They smell like cinnamon, incidentally.”
“Do you need any help?” Nicole asked.
“Nope. I’ll just climb out of here in a jiffy.”
Nicole glanced up and noticed that one of the two fireflies was racing off in the distance. Now, what’s that all about? she was wondering when she heard Richard again.
“I may need some help after all,” he said. “I seem to be stuck.”
Nicole took a cautious step off the path. The remaining firefly went crazy, zooming down almost into her face. Nicole was temporarily blinded.
“Don’t come over here, Nicole,” Richard said abruptly a few seconds later. “Unless I am losing my mind, I believe this plant is preparing to eat me.”
“What?” Nicole said, now frightened. “Are you serious?” She waited impatiently for her eyes to recover from the overdose of fight.
“Yes, I am,” Richard said. “Get back on the path. This bizarre bush has wrapped yellow tendrils around my arms and legs… some crawling bugs are already drinking the blood caused by the thorns… and there is an opening in the bush, toward which I am slowly being pulled, that looks like a distant cousin of some of the more unpleasant mouths I have seen in zoos. I can even see some teeth.”
Nicole could hear the panic in Richard’s voice. She took another step in his direction, but again the firefly blinded her.
“I can’t see anything,” she yelled. “Richard, are you still there?”
“Yes,” he answered. “But I don’t know for how much longer.”
They heard the sound of animals moving quickly through the forest, along with a high-pitched whine. Suddenly three octospiders appeared, brandishing peculiar long, skinny weapons. The octos fired a liquid spray at the carnivorous bush and within seconds the bush released Richard. The aggressive plant immediately hid its mouth again behind its many branches.
Richard stumbled over and hugged Nicole. They both yelled ‘Thank you” as the trio of octospiders vanished into the forest as swiftly as they had appeared. Neither Richard nor Nicole noticed that the two fireflies were again hovering over their heads.
Nicole examined Richard carefully but found nothing except cuts and scratches. “I think I’ll stay on the path awhile,” he said, smiling wanly.
“That’s probably not a bad idea,” Nicole replied.
They talked about what had happened as they continued to walk through the forest. Richard was still shaken. “The branches close to my left shoulder pulled apart,” he said, “and there was this hole, initially about the size of a baseball. But as the wave action of the tendrils carried me in that direction, the hole grew larger.” He shuddered. ‘That’s when I saw the little teeth, ringing the circumference. I had just started thinking about how it would feel to be eaten when our friends the octospiders arrived.”
“So what’s going on here?” Nicole said a little later. They had left the flower region and were again surrounded by trees and jungle growth and intermittent animal noises.
“Damned if I know,” Richard replied.
The forest ended abruptly just as Richard and Nicole were becoming unbearably hungry. They stepped out upon an empty plain. In front of them, perhaps two kilometers away, a great green dome filled their view.
“Now what is—”
“It’s the Emerald City, darling,” Richard said. “Certainly you recognize it from the old movie. And inside is the Wizard of Oz, ready to grant all our wishes.”
Nicole smiled and kissed her husband. “The wizard was a fake, you know,” she said. “He didn’t really have any power.”
“That’s open to some question,” Richard said with a grin.
While they were talking, the two lights that had been guiding them sped away toward the green dome, leaving Richard and Nicole in near darkness. They pulled their flashlights out of their packs. “Something tells me we’re near the end of our hike,” Richard said, striding across the ground in the direction of the Emerald City.
They could see the gates through their binoculars from a distance of more than a kilometer. Both Richard and Nicole were becoming quite excited. “Do you think that’s the home city of the octospiders?” Nicole asked.
“Yes, indeed,” Richard said. “It must be quite a place. The top of that green dome is at least three hundred meters above the ground. I would guess that the area underneath exceeds ten square kilometers.”
“Richard,” Nicole asked when they were only about six hundred meters away, “what is our plan? Are we just going to walk up and knock on the gate?”
“Why not?” Richard answered, his pace quickening.
When they were two hundred meters from the gate, it opened and three figures emerged. Richard and Nicole heard a yell as one of the figures began moving rapidly toward them. Richard stopped and used his binoculars again. “It’s Ellie,” he shouted. “And Eponine… They’re with an octospider.”
Nicole had already dropped her pack and was jogging across the plain. She grabbed her beloved daughter in her arms and lifted her off the ground with the strength of her embrace, “Oh, Ellie, Ellie,” she said, the tears cascading down her cheeks.
5
This is our friend Archie. He has been a big help to us while we have been staying here. Archie, meet my mother and father.”
The octospider responded with a sequence that began with a brilliant crimson and was followed by a teal green, a lavender, two different yellows (one a saffron and the other a lemon, tending toward chartreuse), and a final purple. The band of colors ran completely around the octospider’s spherical head and then disappeared back into the left side of the slit formed by the two long, parallel indentations in the middle of its face.
“Archie says it’s a pleasure to meet you, especially after hearing so much about you,” Ellie said.
“You can read their colors?” Nicole asked, quite shocked.
“Ellie’s great,” said Eponine. “She’s picked up their language very quickly.”
“But how do you speak to them?” Nicole asked.
“Their eyesight is incredibly keen,” Ellie replied, “and they are remarkably intelligent. Archie and a dozen others have already learned to read lips. But we can talk about all that later, Mother. First tell me about Nikki and Robert. Are they all right?”
“Your daughter grows more adorable every day; and she misses you terribly. B
ut I’m afraid Robert has never completely recovered. He still blames himself for not having protected you better.”
The octospider Archie politely followed the personal conversation for several minutes before tapping Ellie on the shoulder and then reminding her that her parents were probably tired and cold.
“Thanks, Archie,” Ellie said. “Okay, here’s the plan. The two of you are to come inside the city for at least tonight and tomorrow-a kind of hotel suite has been set up just inside the gate for the four of us-and the day after tomorrow, or whenever you are properly rested, we will all return to the others. Archie will go with us.”
“Why didn’t the three of you simply come to where we were in the first place?” Richard said after a brief silence.
“I asked the same question, Dad… and never did receive what I considered a satisfactory answer.”
The bands of color on Archie’s head interrupted what Ellie was saying. “All right,” she said to the octospider before turning back to her parents. “Archie says the octos wanted you two especially to have a clear idea of what they are all about-anyway, we can discuss all this after we settle in our suite.”
The great gates of the Emerald City were thrown open when the four humans and their octospider companion were about ten meters away. Richard and Nicole were unprepared for the overwhelming variety of strange sights that greeted their eyes as they entered the city. Directly in front of them was a broad avenue, with continuous low structures on either side, leading to a tall, pink and blue, pyramid-shaped building several hundred meters in the distance.
Richard and Nicole were virtually in a trance when they took their initial steps into the octospider city. Neither of them would ever forget that incredible first moment. They were surrounded by a kaleidoscope of color. Every element of the city, including the streets, the buildings, the unexplained decorations mat lined the avenue, the plants in the garden (if that’s indeed what they were), and the wide range of animal creatures that seemed to be scurrying in all directions, was emblazoned with bright colors. A group of four large worms, or snakes, resembling wriggling candy canes except much more profusely colored, were coiled just inside the gate on the ground to Richard and Nicole’s left. They had their heads lifted high, apparently straining to get a view of the alien visitors. Bright red and yellow animals with eight legs and lobster like claws were carrying thick green rods across an intersection fifty meters in front of Richard and Nicole.
Of course there were dozens, maybe hundreds of octo-spiders, all of whom had come to the gate area to catch a glimpse of the two newest humans to visit their city. They were sitting in groups in front of the buildings, standing beside the avenue, even walking on the rooftops. And they were all talking simultaneously in then- bright bands of color, accenting the static decorations of the street scene with dynamic bursts of various hues.
Nicole looked around, glancing only for a moment at each of the bizarre creatures staring at her. Then she leaned her head back and gazed at the green dome far above her head. Some kind of thin, flexible ribbing could be seen in isolated spots, but it was mostly covered over by a thick green canopy.
“The ceiling is all growing vines and other plants, along with the insect like animals that harvest the useful fruits and flowers,” she heard Ellie say beside her. “It is a complete living ecosystem that has the additional advantage of being an excellent covering for the city, sealing out the Raman cold and atmosphere. After the gates are closed, you’ll see how comfortable the temperatures are normally inside the city.”
Scattered around under the dome were about twenty very bright sources of light, considerably larger than the individual fireflies that had guided Richard and Nicole through the octospider domain. Nicole tried to study one of the lights, but quickly gave up because it was too bright for her eyes. The illumination seemed to be provided by clusters of the same fireflies that had led them to the Emerald City.
Was it fatigue or excitement or a combination of both that caused Nicole to lose her equilibrium? Whatever the reason, while she was gazing at the green dome above her, Nicole began to feel as if she were spinning around. She stumbled and reached out a hand for Richard. The burst of adrenaline that accompanied her dizziness and sudden fear caused her heart rate to surge.
“What is it, Mother?” Ellie said, alarmed at her mother’s pallor.
“Nothing,” said Nicole, breathing slowly and deliberately. “It’s nothing… I was just dizzy for a moment.”
Nicole glanced down at the ground to steady herself. The street was paved with brightly colored squares that looked like ceramics. Sitting on the street no more than fifty centimeters in front of her were three of the strangest creatures that Nicole had ever seen. They were about the size of basketballs. Their hemispherical tops were royal blue undulating material that resembled, in some ways, both human brains and the part of a jellyfish that floats on top of the water. In the center of this constantly moving mass was a dark, round hole, out of which were poking two long, thin antennae, perhaps twenty centimeters long, with ganglia or knots roughly two or three centimeters apart. When Nicole involuntarily recoiled, stepping back because she felt instinctively threatened by these bizarre animals, their antennae spun around and the trio scampered quickly to the side of the avenue.
Nicole glanced quickly around her. Bands of color were streaming around the heads of all the octospiders she could see. Nicole knew that they were dissecting her latest reaction. She suddenly felt naked, lost, and completely overwhelmed. From somewhere deep inside her came an ancient and powerful signal of distress. Nicole was afraid that she was about to scream.
“Ellie,” she said quietly, “I think I’ve had enough for today… Can we go inside soon?”
Ellie took her mother by the arm and guided her toward a doorway in the second structure to the right of the avenue. “The octos have been working day and night to convert these quarters. I hope they are satisfactory.”
Nicole continued to stare fixedly at the octospider street scene, but what she was seeing was no longer penetrating deep into her cognitive mind. This is a dream, she thought, as a group of thin green creatures that looked like bowling balls on stilts walked through her field of view. There cannot really be a place like this anywhere.
“I too was feeling a little overwrought,” Richard was saying. “We had that scare in the forest. And we have walked a long way in three days, especially for old folks. It’s not surprising that your mother became disoriented- that scene outside was weird.”
“Before he left,” Ellie said, “Archie apologized in three different ways. He tried to explain that they had permitted free access to the gate area, thinking that you and Mother would be fascinated. He hadn’t thought about the fact that it might be a little too much.”
Nicole sat up slowly in her bed. “Don’t worry, Ellie,” she said. “I haven’t really become that fragile. I guess I just wasn’t prepared, especially after so much exercise and emotion.”
“So would you like to rest some more, Mother, or would you prefer to have something to eat?”
“I’m fine, really,” Nicole reiterated. “Let’s go on with whatever you have planned. By the way, Eponine,” she said, turning to the Frenchwoman, who had said very little since their initial greetings outside the city, “I must apologize for our rudeness. Richard and I have been so busy talking with Ellie and seeing everything… I forgot to tell you that Max sends his love. He made me promise that if I saw you, I would tell you that he misses you terribly.”
“Thanks, Nicole,” Eponine replied. “I have thought of Max and the rest of you every day since the octospiders brought us here.”
“Have you been learning the octospider language too, like Ellie?” Nicole asked.
“No,” Eponine answered slowly, “I’ve been doing something altogether different.” She glanced around for Ellie, who had stepped out momentarily, presumably to arrange dinner. “In fact,” Eponine continued, “I had hardly seen Ellie for two weeks until we st
arted making plans for your arrival.”
There was a strange silence for several seconds. “Have you and Ellie been prisoners here?” Richard then asked in a low voice. “And have you figured out why they kidnapped you?”
“No, not exactly,” Eponine replied. She stood up in the small room. “Ellie,” she shouted, “are you out there? Your father is asking questions…”
“Just a minute,” they all heard Ellie yell. A few moments later she returned to the room with the octospider Archie behind her. Ellie read the look on her father’s face. “Archie is all right,” Ellie said. “And we agreed that when we told you everything, he could be here… to explain and clarify and maybe answer questions that we can’t.”
The octospider sat down among the humans and there was another temporary silence. “Why do I have the feeling that this entire scene has been rehearsed?” Richard asked at length.
A worried Nicole leaned forward and took her daughter’s hand. ‘There’s not any bad news, is there, Ellie? You did tell us that you would be coming back with us.”
“No, Mother,” Ellie said. “There are just a few things that Eponine and I want to tell you… Ep, why don’t you go first?”
Bands of color were streaming around Archie’s head as the octospider, who had obviously been following the conversation closely, changed his position to be more directly opposite Eponine. Ellie watched the bands carefully.
“What is he-or it-saying?” Nicole asked. She was still stunned by her daughter’s proficiency with the alien language.
“‘It’ would be strictly proper, I guess,” Ellie said with a short laugh. “At least that’s what Archie told me when I explained pronouns. But Ep and I have been using ‘he’ and ‘him’ when we refer to both Archie and Dr. Blue… Anyway, Archie wants us to inform you that both Eponine and I have been cared for very well, that we have not suffered in any way, and that we were only kidnapped by the octospiders because they had not been able to figure out how to establish a non-hostile and communicative interaction with us—”
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