Masters of the Maze

by Avram Davidson

  And also and much more important: the impressed looks of the young Ma who stood opposite from him at food-taking — and the other young Mas, the non-dams, not yet taken to nest!

  At the thought of this, the Na 14 ‘Parranto 600 began to tingle, and actually moved a bit in his excitement. Shocked into awareness, he immediately fell still once more, heard the Sire’s voice droning on and on. He obliged himself to listen intently. Sooner or later something of importance would be said, and it was important that the Na should understand and remember it. It was very important, indeed, if his plans, his great, great plans, for himself were ever to become more than fantasies.

  • • •

  Arrettagorretta’s instructions were delivered almost by rote, so infinitely often had he done it. But now, as sometimes, he became aware of a sense of rising urgency which made it necessary to concentrate on his words more than he was accustomed to.

  “… thus, after indoctrination into the manners of the vivipars of the Project Areas, comes training in negotiating the many-pathed ways. You must avoid those which lead into death-worlds, into worlds unsuitable for Chulpex by reason of climate or atmosphere or mass or hostile molecular make-up or such similar reasons; also those sociologically unsuitable; also those of Canceled Projects. Empty areas would be of course the best, empty of higher life-forms. But these are rare, few have ever been located, in every case attempts at penetration have been obliged to be abandoned. Moreover, they pose hypothetical dangers, as, thus: May it not be that they are empty of higher life because they are basically unsuitable for higher life? Can it be said for certain that higher life did not once exist there and subsequently die out?

  “Therefore, although empty areas would be theoretically the best, a pragmatic approach requires evidence that Project Areas have been tested by other higher life-forms, specifically chulpechoid ones. And so — ”

  But the old urgency continued its familiar rise. And, speaking the old, familiar words with a minimum of awareness, now he had determined that the urgency did not thence arise, Arrettagorretta tried to analyze it. Hunger it was not, he had taken sufficient food not long ago. Neither was it cyclical necessity requiring relief via either breeding or anger-outlet — although his mind paused to savor, briefly, the future possibilities of both.

  The vast room filled with charts was otherwise empty of any but the Sire and the Na. Outside, he knew, the huge complex was aswarm with life engaged into the endless tasks of food-processing, maintenance and repair and salvage (particularly salvage). Deep, deep down, were the egg-clusters; every multicycle there were more of them. And even deeper were the great generators tapping the central heat of this world; and every multicycle there was less of it.

  Thence, the urgency. Having focalized it, the ‘Gorretta-Sire all but trembled, suppressing his desire to rise from his dais and run roaring through the corridors and swarm-ways, trampling upon the low-nest and ignorant life filling them, and confront with his rage and fear and fury the other Sires.

  But that was not the way. It made no more sense than it would to destroy the egg-clusters — as Arrantoparranto had so long and often suggested. To what end? Merely to extend food supply another few score thousand multicycles? This was not the victory, the life-through-life, which alone could satisfy the sense of race urgency. Thus Arrettagorretta had pointed out to him. And when the ‘Parranto-Sire — so anguished word was brought — had finally refused to breed, Arrettagorretta had risen from his dais and summoned his war-Nas and his work-Nas and marched upon the ‘Parranto and met no resistance and walled him up within his own chamber under the sight of his own eyes.

  And Arrantoparranto had neither moved nor uttered sound.

  Then Arrettagoretta caused another great chamber to be made ready and summoned into him all the ‘Parranto-Mas ready for breeding and had bred with them and told them off into cluster-groups and after that all went as was usual and was proper.

  Sireship among the Chulpex was neither hereditary nor elective. It was occupative.

  Now the last of the ‘Parranto get was coming into full maturity. The pressing Projects must go on, must go on, and on and on, until the proper way of assuring life-through-life was found, and the infinite continuation of the race assured.

  “… strange and alien though the ways of the vivipars are, yet they must be mastered. Distorted though their patterns of logic are, yet they must, whenever possible, be followed. Else the race will die, the Na. The race will die.”

  • • •

  There were natural chambers in the rocky strata of at least one subsection of Current Project Area Four, and the Na 14 ‘Parranto 600 thought about them even as he ventured to break the silence. “Success is certainly assured, the Na,” he said, in his most respectful tones, “not only because of his special training but most assuredly because of the information and instruction he has been privileged to hear from the Sire to whose swarm he has been subsumed.”

  And he would say to the young Na, while she was awed and impressed at hearing of his interview and seeing him eat with his hands, “Is it not that the Na is being trained to become himself a sire? Suredly — and in the new place which he will find he shall prove his potency and the dams of his egg-clusters will be all of a most superior type — such as the young Ma who stands near him now at food-taking.”

  And she —

  “Success is not at all assured,” the ‘Gorretta-Sire declared. “I am grown old and huge and have lost count of the multicycles, and in all this time we have tried and we have tried and we have yet to be making a successful penetration of the many-pathed ways. ‘Success!’ What is ‘success?’ Is it merely to master one vivipar or even one hundred vivipars? Is the Na still wet from his egg-sac to talk of such idiocy?”

  Cringing and keening, the Na waited till the unexpected display of emotion ceased; then whined that he had been furnished with inadequate information. But he was far from being really dismayed. Now and then the sires behaved so; it was their privilege; and when he, the Na, was himself a sire, he, too, would behave so. But, actually, what was the problem? The area of Current Project Four was satisfactory in regard to climate and atmosphere and mass and it was still a young world and it had a chulpechoid population intelligent enough to be useful as long as was necessary and small enough in number to be easily controlled.

  And the name of it, not that this was important, was Red Fish Land.

  • • •

  Having returned from the great sire-chamber to take some rest on the 600 shelf, the Na reflected on his planned conversation in the familiar damp and chill, the familiar scent of his cluster-sibs. He considered getting down and placing more graffitti, but it was even more pleasant to continue lying and planning. Later; he would do it later. He thought of all the ones even now reclining on the Ma shelf … young, yet mature; nubile, yet not yet available.

  And, certainly, not yet available to him.

  Not yet. Not here.

  Presently, with one accord, all arose to go and take food. It was next that things began to go not rightly. To begin with, there were this time no solids among the food to be taken, and so he was obliged to mimic and demonstrate merely with empty-handed gestures how he took food in the presence of the ‘Gorretta-Sire. With the result that the young Ma opposite him, like all the young Mas (and, for that matter, like all the other Mas), did not even look up from her feeding more than once.

  Hastily, the Na 14 ceased talking and dipped his mouth into the food, lest he be deprived of his rightful share. But he ate faster so that he could soon commence speaking again.

  “ — then, having gone through to this new place — ”

  “How is the Na going through to this new place? Information is desired.”

  Breath-aura identified him as the Na 27, also of the 600 cluster. This was ever an assertive one, the Na 14 remembered with just the slightest trace of uneasiness. But, so — let the answer confuse and confound him: “The Na will proceed through the many-fold paths, as he has been
trained.”

  A work-Na at the foot of the table paused and looked up, impressed, food dripping from his pale, oval face. The Na 14 quickly repeated the mime of eating with his hands. The work-Na gaped and grunted.

  But the Na 27 seemed neither confused nor confounded. “Oh, thus,” he said. “And the obstacles?”

  “Obstacles? What obstacles?”

  The Na 27 derided loudly, causing others to look up. “ ‘What obstacles?’ ” he repeated, next. “Obviously training for the Na is far from complete. He knows nothing of those who watch and those who guard and those who fight; monsters and menaces; yet the Na thinks so easily to proceed through the many-fold paths. This is ignorance, this is quite low-nest.” And again he derided.

  The Na felt fury rising. He had after all achieved no prestige as he meant to; worse, he had made himself ridiculous. How to escape? It was at this moment that the work-Na at the foot of the table, his mind working slowly, unwisely contributed to the derision. Such opportunities seldom came the way of his kind and he was unable to resist.

  Instantly the Na 14 flung out his left upper arm and pointed. “It is grown old, the work-Na! See! See how opaque his body! Old! Old! It cannot do a full stint’s work, yet it comes nonetheless to take food! Go, old one, and die!”

  Mouth open in stunned, wordless protest, the work-Na produced a feeble squeak as all turned to look at him. Then they turned back, those near crowding him from the food. Once, twice, it hopped up the line at the table, then down the line, but none would give space. So the old Na turned and went back to its place on the resting shelf and lay down to die.

  The others ate on hastily and did not look up again and the Na 14 felt his fury somewhat subsiding.

  • • •

  Afterward was the pause for digestion, then from every comb-hole in the swarm-house the occupants poured forth to their tasks. The young Ma was bound for the clusters, there to watch for the coming forth of the fry, to lick them dry and do the other things requisite to prepare them for the nursery. The Na moved quickly to walk beside her through the throng.

  “Would you not like to be a prime dam to a new sire in a new place?”

  She did not choose to reply obliquely, to regard this as a hypothetical question. “You are only a Na,” she said, “not a sire.”

  “I shall be! I shall be a sire!”

  “You are small. Sires are big.”

  “They become big,” he said, excitedly. “Sires may eat much protein and as they grow older, they — ”

  “The Na delays me from reaching my tasks promptly,” she said, and, quickening her step, hastened away from him. She was right; the Na turned hastily toward his training-place. But his thoughts were far from thence. Dim, they were, yet infinitely desirable; inchoate for the most part, at best scarcely formed. Strange, new thoughts, hot and frightening and unspeakably exciting. Let the young Ma go to her routine and humble tasks, content to await the summons to the established Sire and to remain but a number in a stud-book. The Na did not need her, the Na could wait, the Na had other thoughts on the subject. Let her go tend the clusters. There were, after all, always plenty of clusters.

  There were always enough eggs.

  • • •

  Unlike the Sire, the instructor-Na did not confuse Current Projects Four and Five. Possibly this was because, unlike the Sire, he had never heard of any but the one he was assigned to. Instructors tended to be very single-minded; if he had heard, he would have designedly forgotten it.

  The other trainees had already begun to don the accoutrements when the Na scuttled in. The instructor eyed him and his silence did not for a moment make the latecomer think that this failure would not be recorded. Hastily he placed his lower, thinner arms to his body and let them follow the folds and curves so as best to diminish the protrusion from the basic lines of the torso. Then with his upper arms he bound the lower ones with the long strip of the thin flexible material from which the other accoutrements were made.

  “Generally speaking,” the instructor-Na intoned, “the higher vivipars of this area tend at all times to shield their bodies with these and similar accoutrements. Reasons to explain this are obscure. Vivipars have said it is because of heat; conversely, they have said it is because of cold. Innumerable are the inconsistencies of the vivipars, primitive life-forms which must give way to superior ones.”

  The trainee-Nas with much less difficulty than earlier had now completed decking and cloaking themselves, and sat upon a sort of detached shelf raised on legs.

  “Whatever the reason for this cumbersome practice,” the instructor continued, “it is obviously of infinite use to the Chulpex. The importance of it cannot be overstated. Therefore, we must consider the exceptions to it. The vivipars sometimes remove their coverings, it seems, in the presence of their own mates. As mating between us is physically impossible, such situations will not arise. Also, they have been known to remove them when they rest. To avoid this it may be necessary to explain that you are too hot, or, conversely, too cold. The last likely situation concerns the fact that, because of their primitive metabolisms, they frequently grow unclean and find it essential to wash their bodies in water; sometimes they immerse themselves in it. It has been observed that on such occasions, particularly in the absence of members of an opposite sex, they uncover themselves — sometimes completely, sometimes partially. The Na 14 ’Parranto 600, the Na 97 ‘Murriste 526, conjecture such a situation, and proceed.”

  The two played a rapid finger-game to see who took which role, and then enacted the necessary scene. It was well enough, the instructor said, when they had done; but he was not fully satisfied with their manipulation of the language. “It may not be wise to depend too fully on hypervocalization,” he said. “We must have more drill on common speech. For this purpose the instructor-Na could desire an actual vivipar. The instructor-Na believes that on previous occasions actual vivipars were made available, and this possibility will be brought to the attention of those in charge. Admittedly the difficulties are great.”

  “The instructor-Na.”

  “The Na 14.”

  “Mention has been made of ‘difficulties.’ Does this refer to the many-pathed way in general and in particular to those who watch and those who guard and those who fight — monsters and menaces?”

  The other trainees looked at him in surprise and with some degree of uneasiness. The instructor-Na looked a longer while than was usual before speaking. Then he said, “The question will not be answered, for the reason that it refers to matters not yet reached by this training group. The instructor-Na is not pleased that the Na 14 presumes to bring up matters in advance of their proper place on the training schedule. All trainees will promptly erase this subject from their minds.” He paused. “The instructor-Na has observed in the Na 14 tendencies toward an archaic and dangerous quality to which the ancients gave the name personal ambition. He informs the Na 14 that this quality might imperil the success of the Current Project.”

  Again he paused. “Further manifestations may result in the Na 14’s being directed to cease to take food.”

  A slight, a very slight stir passed through the group. After a sufficient keening, the one addressed said, “It is regretted very much by the Na that he did not at once erase from his mind information improperly supplied him by the Na 27 ‘Parranto 600. He will do so immediately, appreciating the unparalleled excellence of the instruction being furnished his training group.”

  The instructor was mollified. They proceeded with speech drill. And when, subsequently, the Na 97 ‘Murristo 527 inquired of his former partner in vivipar miming what the purpose was of the latter’s cluster-mate in improperly supplying him with information, the Na 14 answered that he did not understand the question.

  In point of fact, he did understand it, for he had not erased the subject from his mind at all. It was fortunate that hypervocalization between Chulpex and Chulpex was impossible — as it seemed also to be between vivipar and vivipar. The Na intended hencef
orth to be most circumspect, to cease from giving evidence of identity-assertion as much as he could help. He was, after all, not yet a sire — he was still very far from even the proximate possibility. There were dangers in the many-pathed ways, then. This was true, the instructor-Na had as much as admitted it. Such being the case, it was well to avoid all dangers here at hand.

  The Na was learning, he was learning fast, and by no means was his learning confined to matters on the instruction-schedule.

  • • •

  Arristemurriste did not follow the more-or-less solitary life favored by Arrettagorretta in the latter’s chamber. Hence, it was by the agitated scurryings of his many attending-Nas that he first had notice of the latter’s unprecedented approach. The days of Sire warring upon sire had long since passed; it was not for this that the war-Nas drilled and trained, although no doubt many of the tactics and maneuvers used dated back to the time when Chulpex lived on the world surface, when Sun Sarnis had not begun to cool, and it was not even unknown (so the records said) for swarm to fight swarm. Still, there were traces of protocol established in those hot, harsh days which still endured. As witness:

  “The Sire, the Sire!”

  “Why this commotion? Speak, informing me clearly and briefly.”

  “Arrettagorretta, the ‘Gorretta-Sire, is approaching on our ramp!”

  Not showing the astonishment he felt, he inquired in what state the other Sire was approaching — and was informed, slowly and alone.

  “ ‘Slowly and alone …’ Thus. When he reaches the summit of the ramp he will ask for my permission to proceed further. Inform those there that the permission is already accorded him. Prepare food, the Nas.”