In another twenty meters he stopped and pointed. "There's the other runoff. And something has been this way quite a few times." The gray-green sedges at the side of the streambed had been flattened and broken. Their crushed stems were coated with a brown layer of dried sap.
"Animals?" Graves leaned down to rub at his scraped shins and calves, which had begun to itch maddeningly.
"Maybe." Perry lifted his foot and pressed down on an unbroken stem, gauging its strength. "But I doubt it. Whatever flattened these wasn't far from human body weight. I've never heard of anything in the Pentacline that massed more than a quarter as much. At least this makes it easy to track."
He began to walk down the stream side, following the line of broken vegetation. The verdurous gloom had deepened, but the path was easy to follow. It ran parallel to the dry watercourse and then inched over into it. Thirty meters farther on, the bottom of the path became veiled by a thicket of tough ferns.
Graves put his hand on Perry's shoulder and moved on past him.
"If you're right," he said quietly, "then from this point on it's my show. Let me go in front, and alone. I'll call you when I want you."
Perry stared for a moment, then allowed Graves to step ahead of him. In the past five minutes the other had changed. Every sign of instability had vanished from his face, leaving in its place strength, warmth, and compassion. It was the countenance of a different man—of a councilor.
Graves stepped cautiously along the streambed until he was no more than a couple of paces from the veil of ferns. He paused, listening, then after a few seconds nodded and turned to Perry. He winked grotesquely, parted the ferns, and stepped through into the dark interior of the thicket.
It was the Carmel twins, it had to be; they had been located, although Perry would have given high odds against it when he, Graves, and Rebka had left Opal. But what was Graves saying to them, hidden away in the darkness?
A few minutes in the Pentacline so close to Summertide felt like hours. The heat and humidity was horrible. Perry looked again and again at his watch, hardly able to believe that time was passing so slowly. Though it was full day, and Mandel must still be rising, his surroundings grew less and less visible. Was there a dust storm brewing far overhead in the atmosphere? Perry stared straight up, but he could see nothing through the thick multiple layers of vegetation. Underfoot, however, there was plenty of evidence of Quake's activity. The root-tangled forest floor was in continuous, steady vibration.
Thirty-five hours to Summertide Maximum.
The clock kept running in Perry's head, along with a question. They had promised to return J'merlia and Kallik to where they had found them. That promise had been made in good faith and without reservations. But could they allow such a thing to be done, knowing that Quake would soon be a death trap to everything except its own uniquely selected organisms?
Perry was startled by a sudden bright light in front of him. The curtain of ferns had been pulled aside, and Graves stood behind it gesturing him forward.
"Come on in. I want you to hear this and serve as an additional witness."
Max Perry eased his way in through the bristly fronds of the ferns. Lit from the interior, the dark thicket was revealed to be less than it seemed. The ferns formed only an outer framing web, a convenient natural fence within which stood a flexible tent supported by pneumatic ribbing. Graves was holding a door panel open, and when Perry stepped through he was astonished by the size of the interior. The floor area was at least ten meters square. Even with the inward-sloping walls the living area was substantial. And the furnishings were amazingly complete, everything that was needed for normal pleasant living. Some form of cooling and humidity-control unit was operating, to hold the internal conditions at a comfortable level. And it was well hidden from any normal searcher. No wonder the twins preferred to stay here, rather than in the cramped quarters of the Summer Dreamboat.
The tent must also have been totally lightproof, or else the lights had only just been turned on. But Perry had time for only one look at the line of glowing cylinders around the walls, before his attention was drawn to the tent's occupants.
Elena and Geni Carmel were sitting over by the far wall, side by side, their hands on their knees. They were dressed in russet jumpsuits and wore their auburn hair hanging low over their foreheads. Perry's first impression—an overwhelming one—was of two identical people, with the same resemblance to Amy that had left him unable to breath when he had first seen their pictures back on Opal.
But in the flesh, under the bright lights of the tent, reason quickly asserted itself. If the twins looked like Amy, it was through their dress and hairstyle. Elena and Geni Carmel seemed weary and crushed, as far as one could be from Amy's perky and invincible self-confidence. The tan that he had seen in the image cubes was long gone, replaced by a tired pallor.
And the twins were different, one from the other. Although their features might be structurally identical, their expressions were not. One was clearly the dominant twin—born a few minutes earlier, maybe, or a fraction bigger and heavier?
She was the one meeting Max Perry's eyes. The other kept her gaze downcast, shooting only one shy and lightning glance at the new arrival from large, heavy-lidded eyes. Yet she seemed at ease with Graves, turning her face to him as he closed the tent's panel and moved to sit opposite them.
He waved Perry to a seat by his side. "Elena"—he indicated the more self-confident twin—"and Geni have been through a very difficult time." His voice was gentle, almost subdued. "My dears, I know it is a painful memory, but I want you to repeat to the commander what you just told me . . . and this time we will make a recording of it."
Geni Carmel gave Perry another hooded glance and looked to her sister for direction.
Elena gripped her knees more tightly with her hands. "From the beginning?" Her voice was deep for her slender frame.
"Not from the beginning. You don't need to tell how you won the trip on Shasta—we have all that on record. I'd like you to begin with your arrival on Pavonis Four." Graves held forward a small recording unit. "Whenever you are ready, we can begin."
Elena Carmel nodded uncertainly and cleared her throat several times. "It was going to be the last planet," she began at last. "The last one that we visited before we went back to Shasta. Before we went home." Her voice cracked on the final word. "So we decided we would like to stay out on the surface, away from people. We bought special equipment"—she gestured around her—"this equipment, so we could live comfortably away from everything. And we took the Summer Dreamboat out to one of the dryland turf hummocks in the middle of the marshes—Pavonis Four is mostly marshes. We wanted to get right away from civilization, and we wanted to camp away from the ship."
She paused.
"That was my fault," Geni Carmel said, in a beaten voice a tone higher than her sister's. "We'd seen so many people, on so many worlds, and the ship was smaller than we realized before we started. I was tired of living cramped up in it."
"We were both tired." Elena was defending her little sister. "We camped maybe thirty meters from the ship, close to the edge of the hummock. When twilight came we thought it would be a great idea to go really primitive, just as if we were back on Earth ten thousand years ago, and light a fire. We did that, and it was nice and warm, with no threat of rain. So we decided that we would even sleep outside. When it was completely dark, we put out sleeping bags next to each other, and lay looking up at the stars." She frowned. "I don't know what we talked about."
"I do," Geni said. "We talked about that being our last stop, and how dull it would be to go back to school on Shasta. We tried to see our own sun, but the constellations looked too different, and we weren't sure where home was . . ." Her voice trailed off, and she glanced again at her sister.
"So we fell asleep." Elena was speaking less easily. "And while we were asleep, they came. They—the—"
"The Bercia?" Julius Graves prompted. Both twins nodded.
"Wait a
moment, Elena," he went on. "I want to note for the record here a number of facts about the Bercia. These facts are well established and easily verified. The Bercia were large, slow vertebrates. As nocturnal amphibians, native to and unique to Pavonis Four, they were highly photophobic. In life-style they resembled Earth's extinct beavers. Like beavers, they were communal and largely aquatic, and they built lodges. The main reason they were credited with possible intelligence is because of the complex structure of those lodges. And to make them, they employed mud and the trunks of the only treelike structures of Pavonis Four. Those grow only close to the dryland turf hummocks. It was therefore almost inevitable that the Bercia would appear at night by the hummock where the Carmel camp stood."
He turned to Elena. "Did anyone ever tell you about the Bercia before you set out to camp? Who they were, what they looked like?"
"No."
"Or you?" he asked, switching his attention to Geni Carmel.
She shook her head, then added, "No," in an almost inaudible voice.
"So I would like to add the physical description of the Bercia to this record. All human experience with these beings suggests that they were gentle and totally herbivorous. However, to chew through the xylem of the tree trunks, the Bercia were equipped with heavy jaws and big, strong teeth." He nodded to Elena Carmel. "Please continue. Describe the rest of your night on Pavonis Four."
"I'm not sure when we went to sleep, or how long we slept." Elena Carmel glanced at her sister. "I only woke up when I heard Geni cry out. She told me—"
"I want to hear it directly from Geni." Graves pointed his finger at the other sister. "I know this is painful, but tell us what you saw."
Geni Carmel looked terrified. Graves leaned forward and took her hands in his. He waited.
"Pavonis Four has one big moon," Geni said at last. "I don't sleep as soundly as Elena, and the full moonlight woke me up. At first I didn't look around me—I just lay in my sleeping bag and stared up at the moon. I remember that it had a dark pattern on it, like a curved cross on top of a pyramid. Then something big moved in front of the moon. I thought it must be a cloud or something, and I didn't realize how close it was until I heard it breathing. It leaning over me. I saw a flat, dark head, and a mouth full of pointed teeth. And I screamed for Elena."
"Before we continue," Graves said, "I would like to make another easily verified addition to this record. The planet Shasta, homeworld of Elena and Geni Carmel, has no dangerous carnivores. But at one time it did. The largest and most dangerous of those animals was a four-legged invertebrate known as a Skrayal. Although anatomically it in no way resembles a Bercia, it possessed the same superficial appearance and was roughly the same size and weight. Elena Carmel, what did you think when you realized that a Bercia was leaning over your sister, with a ring of them surrounding both your beds?"
"I thought—I thought that they were Skrayal. Just at first." She hesitated, then words came in a rush. "Of course, when I got a good look at them and thought about it, I knew they couldn't be, and anyway we had never seen Skrayal—they were gone before we were born. But all our stories and pictures were filled with them, and when I first woke up I didn't even know where I was—all I saw were big animals, and the teeth of the one next to Geni."
"What did you do?"
"I screamed, and picked up the light, and turned it on all the way."
"Did you know that the Bercia were strongly photophobic and would go into terminal shock at high illumination levels?"
"I had no idea."
"Did you know that the Bercia were possibly intelligent?"
"I told you, we'd never even heard of the Bercia. We found all that out later, after we checked the planetary data base on the Summer Dreamboat."
"And so you had no way of knowing that those Bercia were the only surviving mature members of the species? And that the infant forms could not survive without adult care?"
"We didn't know any of that. We learned it after we returned to Capra City and heard that we were being looked for so we could be arrested."
"Councilor," Perry interrupted. He was looking again at his watch. "We've been gone three hours. We have to get back."
"Very well. We can pause here." Graves picked up the recording instrument and turned to Elena and Geni Carmel. "There will have to be an inquiry and trial back on Shasta, in controlled conditions, and also a hearing on Miranda. But I can assure you, what you have told me is already enough to establish innocence of intent. You killed by accident, not knowing that you were killing, when you were terrified and half-asleep. There is still one mystery to me—why you fled. But that can wait for explanation." He stood up. "Now I must take you both into my custody. From this moment, you are under arrest. And we must leave this place."
The twins flashed split-second glances at each other.
"We won't go," they said in breathless unison.
"You must. You are in danger. We are all in danger."
"We'll stay here and take our chances," Elena said.
Graves frowned at them. "You don't understand. Commander Perry can give you details, but I'll put it simply: you may feel safe enough just now, but there is no way you can survive Summertide if you stay here on Quake."
"Leave us, then." Elena Carmel was close to tears. "We'll stay. If we die, that ought to be enough punishment to satisfy everybody."
Graves sighed and sat down again. "Commander Perry, you must go. Get back to the others and take off. I cannot leave."
Perry remained standing, but he took a sidearm from his belt and pointed it at the twins. "This can kill, but it can also be used at stunner setting. If the councilor chooses, we can take you to the aircar unconscious."
The young women stared apprehensively at the weapon, but Graves was shaking his head. "No, Commander," he said wearily. "That is no solution. We'd never drag the pair of them up that slope, and you know it. I will stay. You must leave, and tell J'merlia and Kallik what has happened." He leaned back and closed his eyes. "And go quickly, before it's too late."
A rumble of thunder, far overhead, added weight to his words. Perry looked up, but did not leave.
"Tell me why." Graves went on. He opened his eyes, stood up slowly, and began to pace the length of the tent. "Tell me why you won't come back with me. Do you think that I'm your enemy—or that the governors of the Alliance are all cruel monsters? Do you believe that the whole system of justice is set up to torment and torture young women? That the Council would condone any mistreatment of you? If it would help, I can give you my personal promise that you will not be harmed if you go with me. But please, tell me what you are so afraid of."
Elena Carmel looked questioningly at her sister. "Can we?" And then, at Geni's nod, she spoke. "There would be treatment for us. Rehabilitation. Wouldn't there?"
"Well, yes." Graves paused in his pacing. "But only to help you. It would take away the pain of the memory—you don't want to go through the rest of your life reliving that night on Pavonis Four. Rehab isn't punishment. It's therapy. It wouldn't hurt you."
"You can't guarantee that," Elena said. "Isn't rehab supposed to help with mental problems—any mental problems?"
"Well, it's always focused on some particular incident or difficulty. But it helps in all areas."
"Even with a problem that we might not think is a problem." Geni Carmel took the lead for the first time. "Rehab would make us 'saner.' But we're not sane, not by the definition you and the Council will use."
"Geni Carmel, I have no idea what you are talking about, but no one is totally sane." Graves sighed and rubbed the top of his bald head. "Least of all me. But I would undergo rehab willingly, if it were judged necessary."
"But suppose you had a problem you didn't want cured?" Elena asked. "Something that was more important to you than anything in the world."
"I'm not sure I can imagine such a thing."
"You see. And you represent Council thinking." Geni said. Human species thinking."
"You are human, to
o."
"But we're different," Elena said. "Did you ever hear of Mina and Daphne Dergori, from our world of Shasta?"
There was a puzzled pause. "I did not," Graves replied. "Should I have?"
"They are sisters," Elena said. "Twin sisters. We knew them since we were little children. They are our age, and we have lots in common. But they and their whole family were involved in a spaceship accident. Almost everyone was killed. Mina and Daphne and three other children were thrown into the pinnace at the last moment by a crew member, and they survived. When they got back home they were given rehab. To help them forget."
"I'm sure they were." Graves glanced at Perry, who was gesturing again at his watch. "And I'm sure it worked. Didn't it?"
"It helped them forget the accident." Geni was pale, and her hands were shaking. "But don't you see? They lost each other."
"We knew them well," Elena said. "We understood them. They were just like us; they had the same closeness to each other. But after rehab, when we saw them again . . . it was gone. Gone completely. They were no more to each other than other people."
"And you would do it to us," Geni added. "Can't you understand that's worse than killing us?"
Graves stood motionless for a few moments, then flopped loose-limbed into a chair. "And that's why you ran away from Pavonis Four? Because you thought we would take you away from each other?"
"Wouldn't you?" Elena said. "Wouldn't you have wanted to give us 'normal' and 'independent' lives, so we could live apart? Isn't that included in rehab?"
"Lord of Lords." Graves's face was back to its spastic twitching. He covered it with his hands. "Would we have done that? Would we? We would, we would."
"Because closeness and dependence on each other is 'unnatural,' " Elena said bitterly. "You would have tried to cure us. We can't stand that idea. That's why you'll have to kill us before we will go with you. So go now, and leave us with each other. We don't want your cure. If we die, at least we die together."
Convergent Series Page 20
