Graves nodded. But as Nenda's leg was released, Holder spoke again to Kallik.
"Holder asks," the Hymenopt said to Nenda, "why should your death matter? You were once my master, and perhaps I am trying to serve you, even now. I said that is not so. But Holder points out that the young ones are in need of proper food, and the value of your continued existence is not clear. Holder is sure that you were attempting to spy, even though you deny it. and Finder, the Zardalu who captured you, thought that it saw another stranger, far along the corridor, one that fled when you were taken. Another spy, perhaps, who escaped when you could not? But that is not the issue here. Can you suggest one reason why you should be allowed to live? If so, give it quickly."
Nenda glanced at Julius Graves and Birdie Kelly, then looked away. His face and neck were covered in sweat. "I can give Holder a reason," he said huskily. "That is why I came here. I can be very valuable to you, if you will promise that my life will be spared. And if you don't hurt me any more. I am not able to—to stand more pain."
"Holder is amused by your ignorance and presumption," Kallik replied after another brief exchange with the Zardalu leader. "A Zardalu makes no promise. But it will listen to you, rather than killing you at once. What do you possibly have that is of value?"
Nenda licked his lips. "Tell Holder this. They want to escape from here and get back to a planet in the old Zardalu Communion. Well, I can show them how to do it. Right now."
Another whistled exchange. "Holder does not believe you."
"Tell Holder that I can prove it. In her travels through this artifact, one of our party found the entry point to a Builder transportation system. She told the rest of us about it—explained exactly where it is, how to use it. It's in working order. Tell Holder I can take her there, and they can be on their way to where they want to go. They'll be gone before Speaker-Between even knows they found the entry point."
"Nenda! You can't do this." Julius Graves had dragged himself back to his feet. "God knows, I don't want you or anyone else killed. But think of what you'll be doing if you show them how to make a transition. You'll be putting Zardalu back into the spiral arm, letting them run free to start their—"
A muscular tentacle reached out and swatted Graves across his upper arm and shoulder. Graves cried out in pain and collapsed to the floor.
Birdie Kelly hurried across to his side. While the Zardalu held a longer conversation among themselves, he examined Graves.
"Not broken," he said softly. "A deep bruise. Maybe a cracked collarbone, though I don't think so. Hold still. Don't try to move your arm. I'll tie it against your chest." He glared across at Louis Nenda and raised his voice. "And you, you bag of slime. You're worse than Kallik. You'd better hope we don't get out of this alive. Or your name and Kallik's will be a curse everywhere in the spiral arm."
"Silence." Kallik gestured to J'merlia, who had all the time been crouched close to the floor, his pale-lemon eyes jittering nervously on their stalks from one speaker to the next. The Lo'tfian crept forward to stand next to Julius Graves.
"Help him to walk, J'merlia, if he needs it," Kallik said. "Holder has decided. We are going with Nenda—all of us. The Zardalu will inspect the transportation system. And it had better function as Nenda promises, or you will all suffer." She pointed one wiry limb at the Zardalu standing next to her, where a pale-orange oval was just visible behind the fringe of tentacles. "Holder says we should not try to escape as we travel. The young ones are hungry. They do not mind how their food is provided to them—dead, or alive."
The journey through the darker tunnels of the Builder artifact took a long time. The Zardalu were willing to investigate Louis Nenda's claim, but they were not naive enough to believe that there was no trickery or traps. They went slowly, using hostages to probe suspect areas and inspecting every corridor closely before they went into it.
Julius Graves and J'merlia were made to walk in front, as triggers for possible booby traps. They were closely followed by six Zardalu. Birdie Kelly, next in line, was amazed to see that the newly born were still emerging, even while the blue towers in front of him were gliding forward. As he watched, the bright apricot of two more miniature Zardalu emerged from their birth sacs in the necklace of pouches. As soon as they were completely born they slithered down the rubbery, oil-coated trunk to take refuge beneath the main body, sheltered by surrounding tentacles. Minutes later the little beaks appeared, begging for food. The parents fed them as they walked with scraps taken from the broad webbing satchels circling the base of their torsos.
Louis Nenda was at Kelly's side. Birdie rebuffed the other man's attempt to talk to him. After a couple of tries Nenda turned around to Kallik, who walked at the rear in the middle of the remaining eight Zardalu.
"Ask Holder somethin', will you?" he said. "Ask what happens when we get to the transportation system. Remind her how much I'm doing to help 'em. Say it's only fair that I should be set free."
There was a fluting whistle from the giant Zardalu as the message was translated.
"Holder agrees, at least in part," Kallik said. "If everything is as you promised, you will not be killed. If everything is not as you say, you should be trembling."
Birdie turned his head. "You ought to be eaten, Nenda, you lousy traitor. That'd save the rest of us—because your stinking carcass would poison every Zardalu that touched it. If there's any justice, you'll be the first to go."
"Justice? Ah, but there ain't no justice, Commissioner." Nenda was staring all around him, eyes bloodshot and intense. "Not here, and not anywhere in the spiral arm. You've been around long enough to know that. There's only people like you and me, and blue bastards like the Zardalu."
Birdie glared at him. The damnable thing was that Nenda was right. There was no justice. There never had been, and there never would be. If there were, he would not be here at all. He would be back home on Opal, safe in bed.
Birdie made his own gloomy inspection of their surroundings as they walked on through dark corridors and big, open chambers. Even this tiny piece of the artifact was huge and eerily alien. Since arriving here and being captured by the Zardalu, he had been dragged from one place to the next, never having an opportunity to know quite where he was going or why. Now, examining the objects that they passed, Birdie realized that he could not guess the purpose of any of them. Something certainly kept the place ticking; there was fresh air in the corridors, food in the lockers, and functioning waste disposal units for beings with needs as different as those of humans and Lo'tfians and Zardalu. But it was a wholly hidden something. There was no sign of mechanisms, no pumps or supply lines or ducting. Birdie had no idea how the artifact functioned. It was depressing to reflect that he was never likely to know.
He was pulled out of his musings when he bumped into the massive back of one of the Zardalu. Ahead of them, J'merlia and Julius Graves had suddenly stopped and turned around. They had reached the edge of a slope that spiraled gently down into darkness.
"What is wrong?" Kallik called from behind.
"It gets really steep down there," Graves said. "The tunnel is narrowing, and past this point it's no more than three or four meters wide. The gravity field is increasing, too. Once I take another ten steps I'm not sure I'll be able to pull back."
"That's all right." Nenda pushed forward through the solid rank of the Zardalu. "Stop where you are. Feel that stronger air current? It comes from the vortex itself. We're nearly there, at the ramp that leads to the transportation system."
He moved forward again, to stand at the very brink of the descending spiral. The breeze from the rotating singularity at the end of the tunnel blew his perspiration-drenched dark hair back from his face. "Kallik, tell Holder we are here. Explain that using the system is easy. All they have to do is walk down and enter the vortex itself."
He turned, trying to move back to join Birdie Kelly. But the Zardalu would not let him through. Instead, Birdie and Kallik were pushed forward, so that within a few seconds all the Z
ardalu stood to the rear of the group.
Holder fluted and whistled.
"They say we must go first," Kallik said. "All of us. Before they enter the system, we must do so. We re going with them, back to the spiral arm."
Nenda glanced over his shoulder, down the curved slope that led to the vortex, then looked back to Kallik. "But I'm the one who brought them here! Tell 'em that, Kallik. Tell 'em they promised I'd have my freedom."
Julius Graves laughed, wincing at the pain it produced in his injured arm and shoulder. "No, Louis Nenda, they didn't promise. No Zardalu said anything like that. You heard what you wanted to hear. They never intended to allow any of us to go free. When we arrive at their destination, and they have no more use for us, you'll learn what their plans for us really are. I am not a vindictive man—a councilor cannot afford to be—but in this case I agree with Birdie Kelly. If there is justice in the universe, you will be the first to go."
"And if there is risk," Kallik said, "then Holder says you will share it. If there is danger down at the vortex, speak of it now. For perhaps with that warning your life will be spared."
Nenda turned to face the Hymenopt. He opened his mouth as though to reply, but instead he placed two fingers between his teeth and produced a high-pitched whistle followed by a loud cry: "Close your eyes! Cover them with your hands."
As he shouted, a small black ellipsoid came curving up in a smooth arc from the dark depths of the tunnel.
Nenda shot a glance at the others. He cursed. Kallik and J'merlia had at once obeyed his shouted command and tucked their heads down toward the protection of their multiple legs. But Julius Graves and Birdie Kelly were doing the worst thing possible: they were staring straight at the ovoid as it passed over their heads.
He could do nothing about Graves, but Birdie Kelly was within reach. Nenda thrust his arm out, a fraction of an inch from Birdie's face, so that the other man reflexively blinked. Nenda held his arm there and at the same moment squeezed his own eyes tight shut. He threw his other arm up to shield his face. The last thing he saw before his eyes closed was a Zardalu tentacle, reaching up toward the oval shape to smash it back where it had come.
The Zardalu was a split second too late. With his eyes closed and one forearm jammed hard across them, Louis Nenda saw the world turn bright red.
He felt his skin tingling in the flood of radiation. He stood and waited, for what felt like forever and could have been no more than half a second. The light level in the tunnel had to be just incredible if so much could bleed its way in past his arm and through his eyelids.
When everything went black he uncovered his eyes. He grabbed Birdie Kelly in both arms and pushed him over to drop to the floor of the tunnel. He landed on top of Birdie, curling into a ball as he did so.
His precautions were unnecessary. The Starburst must have triggered just a meter or two in front of the assembled Zardalu. When the brightness of a supernova flashed into being, they had all been staring at it. Now every Zardalu eye was covered by tentacles, and fluid was beginning to seep past the fine tendrils at the ends. Disorganized whistles, clicks, and moans filled the tunnel.
Nenda's own world was a maze of flickering images, with the red network of veins in his eyelids superimposed on them. But he could see. Well enough to know that their problems were just beginning.
Sightless Zardalu blocked the way out of the tunnel. They were thrashing around with their tentacles, grabbing blindly at anything above waist height. The way back along the tunnel was closed by a mass of writhing, muscular snakes.
For the moment Nenda was far enough away to be safe. Birdie Kelly had pulled free and was crawling toward a niche where the wall met the floor. Nenda was tempted to follow, but there was barely room for one person. If Birdie could remain tucked into the narrow space and survive the groping tentacles, fine. If not . . .
Nenda turned to the others. J'merlia and Kallik had dropped instinctively to the ground in a splay of thin limbs. The big problem was Julius Graves. The Councilor had been blinded. He was groping his way farther along the tunnel, to the place where it steepened rapidly. A couple more steps and he would fall forward, pulled by the increasing gravity field past the point of no return and into the vortex.
Nenda dared not shout a warning. The Zardalu would home in on his call. He launched himself toward the councilor, grabbed him around the knees, and heaved backward.
Graves was caught with one leg in the air, ready to take another blind step. He fell sideways and to the left, crying out with pain as he landed on his injured arm.
That was all the clue that the Zardalu needed. Half a dozen long tentacles converged at once on the place. They reached for Graves. But they found Louis Nenda.
Before he saw them he felt their touch on his leg, like oiled silk over solid rubber. He tried to escape by crawling farther down the tunnel, toward the vortex. He was too late. One sinewy arm circled his legs; another coiled around his waist. They tightened and lifted him high in the air. His head hit the tunnel roof. Then he was being dragged toward the Zardalu. Even before the pain began, he knew what was going to happen. The tentacles around his body and his legs belonged to two different aliens. One of Holder's long arms had him at the waist, but another Zardalu at the front of the group held his knees. They were both blinded, unaware of what the other was doing. And each was intent on pulling Louis Nenda within reach of its own beak.
Held high above the heads of the Zardalu, Nenda saw Darya Lang, Hans Rebka, and E. C. Tally appear in the tunnel behind them. They each held a flashburn unit. They began using them to sting and burn the Zardalu from the rear, forcing them to spin around so that they would lose their sense of direction, then driving them forward along the corridor in reflexive jerks.
But that would not help Nenda. The two holding him were in the front of the group, shielded from the humans by the Zardalu behind them.
The tentacles began to tighten on his body, pulling in opposite directions. He could not breathe. His lower back felt as if it were breaking. He was stretched, pulled apart by terrible forces. He knew what was going to happen. In another second he would be torn in two. He could do nothing to prevent it.
In his agony Nenda could not see clearly. When something black flashed past him, flying through the air toward the Zardalu, he did not know what it was. He made a great effort and turned his head.
As he did so, the tearing forces on him slackened for a moment. He realized that the flying object he had seen was Kallik.
The Hymenopt had leapt straight out of a crouched position with all the power of her wiry legs. Her spring carried her high in the air, to the top of the head of one of Zardalu holding Nenda. Kallik's clawed paws dug into the Zardalu's tough hide and held there. She clutched the rounded head above the blinded eyes and the wicked beak.
The Zardalu was reaching up with two of its tentacles, but Kallik did not flinch. The yellow sting appeared from its sheath at the bottom of her stubby abdomen. The furred Hymenopt body moved sideways an inch or two, seeking an exact position. The abdomen tilted. The sting sank with surgical precision into the Zardalu's head, at a point exactly between the great lidded eyes. The abdomen pulsed with a full poison discharge. The sting withdrew. A moment later Kallik dropped free and scuttled back, away from the forest of threshing arms.
The stung Zardalu made no noise, but the killing pressure around Nenda's legs slackened at once. The uplifted tentacles wilted. the great body shuddered, then froze into position. A moment later, the paralyzed Zardalu convulsed and toppled forward. It narrowly missed J'merlia and Julius Graves and lay motionless, poised on the very brink of the steep tunnel that led to the vortex.
And crawling above it, clinging upside down to the ceiling of the tunnel, came the great winged form of Atvar H'sial.
The Cecropian remained hanging on the ceiling until she was past the recumbent body of the Zardalu. Then she dropped down, clear of the still-motionless tentacles, and pushed with all her strength at the hulking body. The
Zardalu hung poised for a moment at the edge, then started away down the slope. Nenda heard it rolling and slithering toward the vortex at the bottom. It made no sound.
He was glad to see it go, but that did not solve his own problem. Although he was no longer being pulled apart, Holder's tentacle still crushed his midsection and he was being drawn steadily toward the gaping sharp-edged beak.
He lacked the breath to cry out for help. Kallik, her sting sac temporarily emptied, had leapt at the second Zardalu, but she found herself gripped by a pair of tentacles. Then she and Nenda were being pulled together toward Holder's beak.
Atvar H'sial had turned from the vanished Zardalu and was watching the wild confusion in the tunnel. The yellow trumpet horns on each side of her head pointed toward Louis Nenda and Kallik as the two were pulled closer and closer to the Zardalu beak.
Atvar H'sial crouched silent, apparently inactive.
Only at the last moment, when Nenda was close enough to reach out and touch Holder's blinded eyes and opening maw, did the Cecropian act.
She took a glassy ovoid from within her wing cases. As Nenda was moved into position and the Zardalu's maw gaped at its widest, Atvar H'sial jumped.
Two hind limbs stabbed at Holder's blinded eyes. That was merely a distraction, while a forelimb thrust the oval object deep into Holder's ingestion slit. A split second after the Cecropian withdrew her arm, the maw snapped shut.
The Zardalu emitted a strange, quivering scream. The great body jerked full upright. The tentacles holding Nenda and Kallik went limp. And as he dropped to the tunnel floor, Louis Nenda saw what no sighted organism in the universe had ever seen before: a Zardalu interior, as it must appear to a Cecropian's ultrasonic imaging.
The Starburst had triggered deep inside Holder. The light it provided was so intense that the body of the Zardalu became translucent, lit from within to reveal the interior organs. A diffuse blue glow shone from the maw, from the beak, from the eyes, even from the lower part of the canopy of tentacles. Nenda could see the dark ellipsoid of the brain, nestled in the center above the long cord of the central nerve conduit. Above that he could make out the shape of the eight-chambered heart, pumping its copper-based blood through the massive body. The Starburst itself was at the back of the maw, a dazzling point of blue.
Convergent Series Page 51
