The Chaos Chronicles

by Jeffrey A. Carver

  /// Sun's going to set soon, ///

  Charlie observed.

  /Yah./ He noticed a pounding sound which at first he thought was his heart. It was a rumbling in the ground, coming up through his feet, like an underground train. There was also a distant chittering, like the cries of squirrels. He couldn't see anything moving except the robots, ahead of him. A breeze was picking up, and growing stiff. He forced his legs back into motion.

  /// I could experiment,

  and see if I can increase your oxygen-use

  efficiency. ///

  Bandicut determinedly gathered speed. /Okay. But take it in small steps, all right? I don't want to keel over if you make a mistake./

  /// Understood.

  I'm getting a pretty good idea

  of how your metabolic system works.

  I think the stones can help. ///

  Bandicut pushed himself harder. He soon found that he could indeed pace himself faster. Ik was out of sight now, but Bandicut quickly caught up with the robots. Then he saw Ik standing in the distance, a tiny upright figure almost lost in shadows, but visible against an eerily illuminated cliff-wall that appeared to block the end of the canyon. He heard Ik's voice floating on the wind.

  There was a break in the canyon floor ahead. But only when Bandicut staggered to a halt at Ik's side did he realize that the Hraachee'an was standing at the edge of a steep drop-off. He was holding some sort of sighting device up to his eyes.

  Bandicut's breath was stolen away by the deep gorge that crossed their path, terminating the canyon-plain like a knife stroke. Not far from where they stood, a smooth groove over the lip suggested a place where water had once cascaded from the canyon down into the gorge. It must have been a spectacular waterfall. He could almost hear its rumble. In fact, he was still hearing a rumble, which now seemed to be carried in the air, rather than the ground.

  "John—" said Ik. But he interrupted himself, peering through his sighting device. He let out a piercing cry: "Hiiiiieee, Li-Jare-e-ed!

  "You see him?" Bandicut tried to see where Ik was looking.

  Ik pointed, without taking his eyes from the device. "Down in the canyon! Hiiiiiiieeee! Li-Jare-e-ed!" His voice echoed back from the canyon wall: "—ed, —ed, —ed!" He muttered a dissonant syllable, which sounded like a curse.

  "I don't see him," Bandicut muttered. Half the gorge's bottom was in shadow; the other half was illuminated in a burst of gold and red. A silver thread of water wound down its length. Bandicut half-turned as the robots arrived. "Nappy, do you—?"

  "Look there!" Ik interrupted. He handed the sighting device to Bandicut, pointing.

  Bandicut held the device to his eyes, and found that it both magnified the distant cliff-wall and centered itself at once on a dark, moving figure. He couldn't see it very clearly, but its scooting movements reminded him of a chimp or a mountain gorilla. "Is that him, Ik? Is that Li-Jared?"

  "Yes, but he doesn't hear me!"

  Ik shouted again. His words were interrupted by a burst of chittering sounds, and a much deeper rumble. The wind began to moan ominously through the canyon.

  Bandicut lowered the optics and looked around worriedly.

  "Cap'n, animal forms along the left wall!" shouted Copernicus.

  "What kind? Meerkats?"

  "There, John Bandicut!" called Napoleon, pointing.

  Bandicut started to swing the optics to look, but Ik snatched them out of his hands. "No!" he yelled. "You'll lose Li-Jared!"

  "Sorry!"

  "John Bandicut—urgent warning!" shouted Napoleon. "Severe atmospheric disturbance!"

  Bandicut looked up. The sky over the gorge, far to their right, was bisected by a black tornado funnel. /Damnation! Tell me this is silence-fugue!/

  /// I don't think so. ///

  A jet-engine crackle filled the air as the funnel approached.

  "Aaaiiiieee—Li-Jarrre-e-e-d-d!" cried Ik, waving his long arms frantically.

  Ik was using the optics now, but Bandicut could just make out the movement of Ik's friend as a small dot low on the far wall of the gorge. It was inconceivable that Li-Jared could have heard Ik's cry. But he must have seen the tornado coming, because he appeared to be scrambling up the cliff wall. Up? That made no sense. Unless—

  "Li-Jarrre-e-d-d, wait! NOOOOO!" cried Ik.

  Bandicut blinked, and thought he saw a tiny flash on the cliff wall. He rubbed his eyes; the figure of Li-Jared was gone. "Ik! Where'd he go?"

  "Hrahhh!" Ik cried. "Through a port—"

  The rest of Ik's words were obliterated by the roar of the tornado.

  Chapter 7

  Paths in the Dark

  /// To the base of the cliff! ///

  Bandicut grabbed Ik and pulled him to the right, waving the robots toward the spot that seemed to offer the greatest protection. All other sounds were drowned out by the roar. They ran in a crouch, beaten down not so much by the wind as by the earth-shattering noise.

  The sky overhead was turning a sickly green. The funnel cloud, momentarily blocked from sight by the cliff, burst into view overhead with a thunderous blast and screamed down into the gorge. Ik and Bandicut hit the ground, covering their heads with their hands, and shook with terror as shadowy air whirled around them.

  The roar seemed to last an eternity. When it finally diminished, Bandicut peered up fearfully and saw the tornado emerging from the far end of the gorge. "My God!" he croaked.

  The tornado shot up out of the gorge, spraying rocks and water in a great plume. It thundered back into the sky like a rocket, spiraling up toward the clouds that had spawned it. When its lower tip reached a height of perhaps a thousand feet, it suddenly flipped itself upward like a scorpion's tail, and its tip drilled a hole through the cloud layer and up into the sky above.

  The cloud surrounding it coiled and twisted into the funnel; the blackness was drawn in like smoke into a fan, leaving eerie green sky around it. When the last of the murk vanished into the contorted, upside-down tornado, it closed with a tremendous BOOM! Bandicut stared up into the sky, open mouthed. The sickly green hue slowly faded, leaving a golden red sunset glow over the canyon. "Ik?" he whispered. "Did you see that?"

  The tall alien rose to a crouch beside him. "Hrrrrrll! John Bandicut—I have never—never witnessed—" Ik lapsed into a mutter that left the translator-stones buzzing.

  Bandicut scrambled to his feet and squinted into the sky where the tornado had vanished. "Mokin' foke! Was it just me, or did that thing look malevolent? Can a tornado be malevolent, Ik?"

  Ik was silent at first. When he looked at Bandicut, his black eyes were lit by two small sparks of fire, one in each pupil. "Hraach! Can a river be malevolent?"

  Bandicut shook his head in bewilderment. He did not like this, not at all.

  /// It is very strange, is it not? ///

  /Strange. Yes, Charlie, indeed. Where the hell are Coppy and Nappy?/ He heard a ticking sound and turned to see Copernicus rolling out from the base of the cliff that he and Ik had not quite made it to. "Coppy, are you okay? Where's Nappy?"

  Tap tap. The wheeled robot's scanning array seemed even more battered than before. "Behind you, Cap'n. Some distance."

  "Uh?"

  "Over there," said Ik, pointing a long finger toward the opposite cliff.

  "Good Lord." The other robot was staggering across the canyon floor toward them. "Nappy, are you all right?" he yelled.

  Napoleon hobbled a little faster, as they went out to meet it. "I am . . . functional, John Bandicut." Its voice rasped with static. It was covered with scratches and grime on its quantum alloy body.

  "What happened?"

  "I became airborne, Captain. I have no maneuvering capability in that modality. I reacquired ground contact against a vertical surface. I cannot—"

  "The tornado blew you into that cliff?"

  "I believe so, John Bandicut. I am no longer able to track the turbulence." The robot's sensors spun wildly.

  "Well, thank God you're okay. The torna
do's gone now." Bandicut surveyed the sky over the gorge. The storm clouds had all vanished. But probably no more than half an hour remained before sunset. Bandicut glanced at Ik, who was looking not at the sky, but over the edge into the gorge.

  "I must follow Li-Jared," Ik announced. "I must go at once. Do you still wish to continue with me?"

  "Continue where?" Bandicut asked. "It's going to be dark soon."

  "Here, yes. But through the portal? Who knows?" Ik raised his sighting device and studied the place where Li-Jared had disappeared.

  "Do you know where he went?" Bandicut was beginning to grow weary of all these changes. Just once, he thought, he'd like to control the direction he was going, and know the reason.

  "I cannot say. But the sooner we follow through the portal, the greater the chances of keeping pace with him." Ik snapped his sighting device shut and tucked it into his vest. "I must go. I would be . . . pleased to have you come with me. But if not, we must part here."

  Bandicut stared out over the gorge. "Can you tell me something first? Was that tornado meant for Li-Jared? Or was it just natural coincidence, the way it swooped down into the gorge like that? I'm just wondering. I'd sort of like to know what I'm getting into. For once."

  Ik rubbed his chest. "Hraach. I think it likely that it was meant for Li-Jared."

  Bandicut swallowed. "Do you know why?"

  "I can only guess that he has somehow disturbed the contamination, in the environmental control system." Ik was no longer looking at Bandicut. He was peering into the gorge, looking for a path down.

  "I just want to understand this. You mean the system that controls this whole place?" Bandicut gestured at the land and sky.

  "Yes, the—" rasp "—world room—" rasp "—continent. Whatever." Ik began walking along the edge. "I must go, John Bandicut."

  "World room? Continent?" Bandicut asked stupidly. Following Ik, he was startled to see a meerkat poke its head up over a nearby boulder, then duck back out of sight. "How large a continent?" he demanded.

  "Who can say?" Ik found what he was looking for. He sat down on the edge, swung his legs over, and turned to face Bandicut, holding himself up by the strength of his hands and arms alone. "Is this—urrr, good-bye?"

  "No, damn it—of course not! What the hell would I do by myself in this godforsaken place?"

  Ik made a slight whistling noise. "Then I will assist you in climbing down, if you like." With a lurch, the Hraachee'an dropped out of sight.

  Bandicut knelt and peered over. The tall alien was climbing down a nearly sheer wall. There was a ledge about eight meters below. "Mokin' A, you expect me to climb down there?"

  /// Is that a sharp drop?

  Didn't you first meet me after a

  bigger drop than that? ///

  /We're in close to one gee here, Charlie. It's not like on Triton./

  /// Oh. ///

  "My rope will assist you," Ik called, once he was standing on the ledge. He drew his coiled rope from his belt. Before Bandicut could ask, Ik flung the coil up, holding onto one end. The rope slapped onto the ground beside Bandicut. He reached to pick it up, and was startled to discover that he could not. It was fixed to the stone surface as if nailed down.

  "You can climb down. It will not let you fall."

  "Uh—" Bandicut stared at it, but could think of only one way to test the claim. And there was another difficulty. "How do I get the robots down?"

  "Urrr." Ik thought a moment, then flung the other end of the rope up. "Fasten it to them, then let them down."

  Bandicut picked up the loose end of the rope with a frown. "They're kind of heavy, Ik. I don't know."

  "It will hold. Quickly now."

  Bandicut tied the rope around Napoleon, the lighter of the two.

  /// This is very interesting. ///

  /Glad you think so./ He checked the knot, then said to Napoleon, "I'm going to hold the rope and pay it out. You need to hold yourself out from the wall, and try to land on your feet beside Ik. Got that?"

  "This is an unexpected procedure, John Bandicut."

  "Tell me. Now, did you see how Ik sat down and swung himself around? Do that, if you can." Bandicut braced himself, holding the rope. He hoped he could support the weight. And Coppy was probably twice the mass of Napoleon. "Go, Nappy. Carefully."

  The robot swung out and lowered itself by its monkeylike appendages, as Bandicut payed out the rope. Napoleon looked almost like an experienced climber, rappelling down the cliff. He felt lighter than Bandicut had expected—almost as if the rope were somehow supporting some of the load that should have been on his hands. When Napoleon reached the ledge, Ik untied the rope and threw it back up.

  "No need to hold it, John! Just attach it, and tell the robot to drive off."

  "Uh . . . okay." Bandicut puzzled over the best way to secure the rope around Copernicus.

  "Just wrap it! It'll stay!"

  Bandicut ran the rope around the robot a couple of times. Then he stood back and said, "Uh—Coppy? Just back out over the edge, I guess. Slowly."

  As the robot did so, he was stunned to see the rope contract like a rubber band, taking up all the slack. Coppy tipped over the edge, and dropped dangling toward the others. The rope slowly stretched, lowering Copernicus to safety. Ik tossed the rope up one more time. "Just that way. No delay, John!"

  Bandicut cinched the rope around his waist and felt it take hold like a boa constrictor. As he turned to climb over, he saw two meerkats peering at him from a boulder. Their eyes gleamed, meeting his. Disconcerted, he lost his grip and slid over the edge. He flailed in the air, dangling from the rope. He floated down until Ik's hands helped him to stand upright.

  "You are safe, John Bandicut."

  "Mokin' fokin' fr'deekin' hell you say!" he gasped, his heart thundering. "Do you do that all the time?"

  "You have been through worse danger, have you not?" Ik asked calmly, coiling up the rope, which had detached itself from both Bandicut's waist and the cliff overhead.

  Bandicut grunted. He looked around. They were on an uneven ledge, conceivably the start of a path, but not an easy one. The sun had dropped behind the top of the gorge, and shadows were darkening around them. "Where to now?" he asked, trying to keep his voice even.

  Ik pointed across the gorge. "There," he said. "Let us move on."

  /// This looks challenging. ///

  Bandicut didn't bother answering. Ik was already hiking down the perilously angled ledge, and the robots clicked into motion, following. Bandicut stayed close behind.

  *

  There was indeed a path, a difficult one. Daylight was gone by the time they worked their way down the near face of the gorge. Twice again, they used Ik's rope to lower the robots. The third time, they dropped them all the way to the bottom, leaving Ik and Bandicut to make faster progress.

  Only starlight illuminated the terrain by the time they reached the stream bed. Ik surveyed the area with his binoculars, then pointed out the route he meant to take, first along the stream bed, then across and up the other side. "In darkness?" Bandicut asked, knowing the answer.

  "Quickly," Ik said.

  /// Is the darkness a problem? ///

  /Well, I don't have lanterns or light augmentation./

  /// Maybe I can help. ///

  Bandicut felt a tingle in his left wrist, and another tingle behind his eyes. The scene brightened slightly, enough to bring more of the rock features into focus. /That's good, Charlie. That's very good. You're learning this stuff fast./

  /// The daughter-stones helped.

  And the normalization. ///

  "John!" Ik had walked on while he was standing there talking to the quarx.

  "Coming!" As he hurried, he saw more meerkats peeking over rocks. They reappeared at intervals as he strode with Ik along the glinting stream.

  He wondered if they were trying to tell him something.

  *

  They crossed the stream at a narrow point where Ik and Bandicut could jump across wit
hout getting their feet wet. The robots simply splashed across. Walking back upstream a short way, Ik paused. "We might wish to sample the water here. And refill our containers."

  Bandicut agreed and fished his canteen out of his backpack. Well, here it is, he thought. Time to try the local water. Ik had already knelt and scooped water into his hand. He held it close to his mouth, as though smelling it, then took a taste. After a moment, he drank more deeply. He looked satisfied—which was encouraging, but hardly proof for a human. /How are you doing with those medical studies?/

  /// Okay.

  I note that the meerkats

  are drinking the water, too. ///

  Bandicut peered downstream and saw two of the animals crouched at the edge of the stream, lapping at the water. They looked up, their eyes palely luminous, then returned to their drinking.

  "It seems fairly pure to me," Ik said. He seemed to understand Bandicut's uncertainty. "I find that I am better able to judge such things since my normalization." Ik drew a small, flat pouch out of his vest and immersed it in the stream. After a few moments, he lifted it and sucked experimentally on its corner. He muttered in satisfaction and dunked it back in the water.

  Bandicut sighed, knelt, and scooped up some water. He could almost, but not quite, make out his reflection dancing on the stream's moving surface. The water was cold. It looked okay, smelled okay. He tasted it. It tasted okay. Actually it cut his thirst like good beer. He hadn't even realized he was thirsty. He drank a little more, then filled his canteen.

  /// Feel okay? ///

  /Best water I've tasted in years./

  /// Good.

  I wasn't sure what I was going to do

  if you keeled over. ///

  /I thought you said you'd finished your medical training,/ he said, with an edge of alarm.

  /// Well, I have a certain

  level of familiarity now.

  But the normalization already altered

  your absorption characteristics,

  in much the same way I would have attempted.

  It seems to work rather well. ///