Something-when and how he could not uess-had been implanted in her. It was driving her toward a oal that she could not explain or would not explain because something was keeping her from doing so.
He shivered. He had been conditioned by too many movies with horrible and evil monsters from outer space.
But that did not mean that such things did not exist.
He was in a situation which needed a superhero to deal with it, and he was far from being a Flash Gordon or Luke Skywalker.
He was not even a good imitation. He had never shot a gun and knew nothing of fencing or the martial arts beyond what he had seen in films.
He awoke from a nightmare. He had been in his studio, a studio that had never existed in reality but one he had imagined he would have some day. Bright sunlight fell through the enormous skylight like the shower of gold that had impregnated Dana, bathing a nude Tappy in the center of the room. Not the Tappy he knew, but an older and fully developed young woman. He was before his easel and had the portrait almost done. All he needed were a few more strokes of the brush to get her face just right, to give it a hint of the ethereal. No, of the unearthly.
The light darkened. Looking up, he saw that black clouds had slid under the sun, though the sky had been, a moment ago, without a trace of the nebulous. Then the clouds lowered een-gray tendrils-tentacles-and somehow they came through sky light glass and began misting the room. He could see Tappy only vaguely now.
The horror did not begin at once. It was hidden behind the swirling fingers of the cloud as they reached out for him. They touched him at the same time that he saw that Tappy's skin had become greasy. The glistening fatty exudation dripped from her as if she were a burning candle and pooled around her feet.
The shiny and greasy stuff began to rise before her. Very quickly, Tappy became gaunt, and then she was skin wrapped around bones. Now she was walking toward him, her arms held out. The figure forming from the grease had been left behind, but it was sliding along behind her on the trail. He could see through Tappy's skin and bones despite the weak light, and he could see that the figure was a rapidly swelling replica of her.
He wanted to scream but could not. His throat was plugged with semiliquid fat rising from deep within himself.
Tappy's hand almost touched him. The figure behind her reached around her, slid her arm along Tappy's outstretched arm. and shot her hand toward his mouth.
He came out of the nightmare to find himself groaning.
Though the moon did not relieve the darkness much, he could see Tappy's eyes staring at him. But she could not see him at all, of course. Or could she?
She muttered something. He said, "It's all right. Go back to sleep."
She closed her eyes and began snoring softly.
Larva ... Chrysalis ... Imago, he thought.
Was she going to change from what she was now into something as different as a larva was from an imago'? Or did those words apply to someone else?
Then one of those sudden and unexplainable sh fts of m nd happened, and he began worrying that he might have made her pregnant. After a while, he dismissed the worry with a rueful grin. They were in a situation so serious that the chance that she might have a baby was a slight problem. As of now, anyway.
Nine months from now. it might be very grave. If they lived that long.
He fell asleep again, and he was making love to Mullins Blanchflower, if what he was doing could be called making love. He awoke at the tail end of a wet dream, wondering why his unconscious would choose Mullins for his dream partner. She was a rather plain and chubby girl he had known in high school.
though not in the biblical sense. He had never consciously wished to make her. But copulation with undesirable girls had happened occasionally in his night fantasies. The unconscious was a tricky and unpredictable bastard.
He thought: Now I'll have to wash out my shorts. And I thought I was too tired, hungry, and miserable even to contemplate screwing. If I'd known how things were going to be, I"(I have tried it with Tappy. But then she'd have been too tired, hungry, and wretched or would have thought she was. Anyway, for God's sake, I was just worrying about her maybe being pregnant. Of course, there are other ways to get off. But she might not be ready for those.
What a jerk I am!
He was lying on his side, and something-it must be Tappy's leg-was next to his chest and stomach. He opened his eyes and saw her profile, though dinly. He also saw something dark astride her legs and leaning far forward. Her body was bare to just above her breasts. The nightgown had been pulled up above them.
He tried to shout and at the same time to rise and grab the thing sitting on Tappy. He could only tremble; his throat and tongue seemed numb; his body had no more muscles than a log.
He hurled his will at his body, screaming at it to move. But he was as lax as if he had been bitten by a poisonous snake.
Now he was able to see the figure on her a little better than when he had awakened. Though it was not raping Tappy, as he had first thought, he did not lose any of his sickening fright. It was bending far over her, its face against her breasts or between them. Then it sat upright, pulled its legs up, and got to its feet.
Jack rolled his eyes sidewise to keep its head in sight. He could make out, dinly, the knight's-helmet face of a honker, and its male organ. It-he-bent over to look down at Jack. His tongue moved far out and then back in. Faint as the light was, it showed the white thorny tip at the end of the honker's tongue.
The honker patted Jack on the forehead as if it were reassuring or comforting him. It turned away, still bending over, and placed something between Tappy's breasts. Then it climbed slowly down from the platform and faded into the blackness.
Jack, sweating despite the chill, wondered if he was to stay Paralyzed until he starved to death or, more likely, was eaten alive by beasts or Then he felt ashamed, because he had considered his own plight before thinking of Tappy's.
He did not know how much time had passed when he began to be able to move his fingers and toes. After a little while, he could turn his head. Some time later, he could utter some slurred words is arms and legs. Meanwh'Ie, Tappy was also making (I moving her head and limbs. Presently, both he and she something fell from her chest and between her legs onto him. She lifted it up and put it close to her eyes, though could do that when she was blind Jack did not know. She handed it to him. As soon as he had it in his hand, he knew that ' was the quarter he had given the honker in exchange for the food.
He did not have time to think about the implications of its return. Thinking would have done no good, anyway. Tappy, weeping, was in his arms. Jack stroked her bare back and told her that everything was okay. She shook her head. rubbing her face against his chest. Then she pulled away took his right hand, and placed it between her breasts.
He said, "My God!"
A hard swelling the size of a marble was under her skin. It felt very warm.
She touched the side of her neck and put the tip of one little finger on the side of his neck. The pressure made him aware that wheit she had touched was very tender. He felt sicker. The honker must have stuck the thorny tip on its tongue into the!- necks and in ected a temporarily paralyzing poison.
When dawn came, they climbed down and washed their hands and faces to refresh themselves. Jack decided that he would wash out his shorts and bathe when the air became much warmer. He told Tappy to lift her nightgown so that he could examine the, swelling between her breasts. It had grown no bigger. and the skin over it did not seem as warm. As he could determine, there was no break in the skin. However, when full sunlight came.
he looked closely at it and saw a very. small reddish dot in the center.
The honker had stuck the thorny excrescence-maybe it was an organ-into her chest. The thorn must be both a poison injector and an ovipositor, though he did not know if an egil. had been shot through the thorn's hollow shaft into her. Whatever it was that had been planted just under the skin, it had grown very fast.
Or was there some other explanation'?
"For God's sake, Tappy." he said, "If you have any idea of what's going on, you must tell me if you can! Talk, Please talk!
Tappy, looking distressed, shook her head. Her index finger felt the round lump.
He mastered the impulse to grab her by the throat and force words out of her. That would not do it. he knew. or thought he knew, but he felt that he had to do something to get answers to his questions. If he did not soon get at least an explanation of what had been happening, he would go crazy. amok. completely out of his mind.
At that moment. a deep thrumming came from above. He seized her hand and pulled her along until he came to one of the nay-row breaks in the forest celling. Above him, far up, was something enormous. It was descending slowly, and the sound it was making becoming ever louder.
"It's got to be that ship I saw out by the moon," he muttered.
Though the s ze of the vessel was awesome and its mission was unknown and, thus, possibly dangerous for him and Tappy, he almost felt relief. Whatever happened, he might be able to get some answers. Though it was probable that he would not like them.
He told Tappy to stay where she was while he climbed a tree.
She looked frightened but nodded. When he got to the top of the tree, he could see the bottom of a truly titanic ring. It had to be at least a mile in diameter and two hundred feet thick.
The purplIsh-gray sides went up for an ENORMOUS DISTANCE and from its upper edge curved many gigantic metal beams of the same color as the circular base. The curving beams or ribs met at the center to form an open cap or cage. Here and there boxlike structures clung to the circle at the bottom and along the sides of the r'bs. There were no rocket exhausts, no obvious means of propulsion.
As the vessel dropped closer, the thrumming became a roar that was so loud he thought he would scream. Standing on a branch, with one arm wrapped around the thin trunktop, he put his fingertips into his ears. That did not help much.
The circular structure was now about two hundred feet above but a quarter of a mile away. At that moment, the coins, his wristwatch, his jackknife, everything metallic in his pockets, became hot. He tried to get rid of them before they burned him, but he was slowed down because he had to cling to the trunk with one hand.
His fingers were scorched before he had thrown the hot objects down through the branches. He climbed down to find that Tappy had removed her leg brace. They clung tightly to each other while the bellowing around them became so loud that it seemed solid.
Suddenly, there was silence. He looked up through the break and saw, far up, some of the curving ribs. The weight of the machine must have crushed trees beneath THEM AND must have sunk deep into the ground. He released Tappy, and she sat down, pale and shaking. -An animal resembling a furless annealer ran past them. Jack could not fully hear Its shuffling and its claws slapping the ground, but at least his hearing was beginning to return.
Tappy groped around until she found her leg brace. She touched it gingerly, then picked it up. It had cooled off by now.
Jack, not knowing what else to do, wanting to do something, began looking for the items he had discarded. But he stopped.
Tappy was holding the brace up with one hand and feeling along its inner side. That had been covered with a soft thick fabric to prevent skin-chafing, but it had been partially melted away. At one end of the inner side was a long and narrow opening. It had been hidden by a panel that had, for some reason, slid 'into a recess in the brace.
He said, "Hold it, Tappy! Wait!"
He took the brace from her and examined the opening. There were six tiny orange-colored buttons inside, iwo rows of three, with a somewhat larger scarlet button at the head of the rows.
"What the hell!"
He seemed to have been saying that a lot lately.
Only a baby's fingers could have pushed one button without pushing another next to it. He said, "We got something here, Tappy. Just what I don't know."
He took one of the pencils from the leather holder in his Jacket pocket. Holding the pencil in his right hand, he gripped the brace in the middle, and he pointed one end at a nearby tree but away from his body. He made sure that the other end did not point at Tappy.
"Maybe I shouldn't," he said. "Do I know what I'm doing?
No. But I'll do it, anyway."
Using the eraser end of the pencil, he pressed on the larger, scarlet button. Nothing happened. Had he really thought that it would?
He paused to tell Tappy what he was doing. She looked surprised but not as much as he had expected.
He said, "It can't be a weapon, Tappy. It'd be too awkward to use as such, unless . .
Perhaps it was a weapon, but the designer had been forced to camouflage it as a leg brace and, hence, could not avoid cumbersomeness in its handling.
He placed the pencil end on one of the orange buttons nearest to the scarlet button.
The tree the brace was aimed at split soundlessly, though the crash of the upper part on the ground certainly was noisy enough.
The tree had been neatly sheared off.
Shouts filtered through the forest, human voices. The blaring of honkers also came through. He paid them no attention.
Where the upper part of the tree had been, extending from the stump, was a shadowy but clearly visible replica of the part that had fallen off. It was the ghost of the sheared-off part.
TAPPY'S touch on his arm jogged him back to their immediate PREDICAMENT.
THE SOUNDS were drawing erratically closer. Jack did not know what was going on, but he was pretty sure they did not want to fall into the hands of whatever might be after them. Tappy's urgency indicated that she felt the same.
But the great ring of the base of the ship surrounded them. The thing had come down on them like a monstrous cage-which was what it probably was. Somehow it had known where they were, approximately, and enclosed them so that its personnel could canvass the limited region and make them captive. Exactly as he would have done to capture a moving bug he did not want to squish: set a jar over it first.
So how could the bug get free before the end? Tunnel under the rim of the jar? Fly up into the center? Surely not!
He looked again at the brace in his hand. The scarlet button was faintly glowing; he had not noticed that before. That could be the on/off switch-and the device was still on. Ready to fire again.
That notion made him freeze. He pointed it upward and used his pencil to touch the largest button again.
The glow faded. Right: now it was off. He resumed breathing.
Tappy was tugging at his arm again. He looked the way she was facing. "But that's toward the rim!" he protested, keeping his voice low. "You haven't seen it, but take my word: that thing is two hundred feet thick! No way we can get by it without mountain-climbing gear. We'd be better off dodging them in the center, and using this thing if we have to. It just sheared off a tree!"
"Wait, wait, Tappy!" he protested. "I guess you know what this thing isid you always know?" She shook her head no. "You remember now? Our entry into this world jogged your memory?"
She nodded yes. "So now you know how to control it? You know how dangerous it is?" Yes.
"Then you will have to show me," he said. "This thing is so powerful I don't dare use it ignorantly. It was just luck I didn't have it pointing toward one of us instead of that tree!"
He got down and scraped the leaves and twigs away from a section of the ground. "Here's a diagram of the buttons on this thing," he said, taking her hand and using her finger to draw it, so she would know exactly what he was doing. "Here is a big scarlet button, which is the on/off switch; it glows faintly when it's on."
her finger into the dirt. "Here are six smaller orange buttons, one-two-three, one-two-three. When I turned the big one on and touched this one, zap! It cut through that tree."
Tappy disengaged her hand and took his instead. She was going to make him point to a button! He extended his finger.
>
"You have me over the orange buttons," he told her as the tip of his finger moved. "The scarlet one is farther over." But she knew where the buttons were; she seemed to have a good memory for what she had touched. She pushed his hand down.
"That's the third orange one in the right-hand row. That's the one you mean?" She pushed his hand down harder. "Okay, I got it, Tappy! Third button!" But still she pushed.
What was wrong here? "Look, Tappy, I don't think this will do anything unless the scarlet one is turned on first, so-"
She nodded affirmatively, but still kept his hand down. "There's something different about this? I can't let go of it?" She nodded yes. "But of course I can let g h! Do you mean sustained fire?" She nodded again and finally let his hand go.
"Got it," he said. "Turnit on, touch that button, and treat it like a gushing fire hose. Don't point anywhere I don't want to cut, even if I'm no longer touching the button. Thanks for warning me!"
Once more she pointed urgently toward the rim. It was high time; the searchers were uncomfortably close, by the sounds.
one and set off for the rIm. They weaved around trees and bushes, keeping low, and left the sounds of pursuit behind.
This was interesting, he thought as he moved. He had assumed that the most dangerous place was nearest the rim. But may they figured the bugs would not go near the glass of the jar, so they were concentrating on the center. The bugs were moving in an unexpected direction.
How was it that their pursuers knew in a general way where they were, but not specifically? If there was a bug on them-a radio frequency emitter-it should enable others to close on them readily enough. Not that there should be a bug. Unless Unless that honker had planted it! That marble under Tappy's skin, between her breasts: what about that? First the marble, then the rant ship, one-two.
But several things made him doubt it. That honker had seemed friendly rather than threatening, despite what he had done. And if that had been a location device, why was it so ineffective at close range? And why so obvious? It would have been easier simply to plant it in Tappy's clothing, so that they would never know it was there. So whatever that marble was, it was unlikely to be a bug of that kind.
THE CATERPILLARS QUESTION Page 5
