Marcus calmly announced: [Slugs behind us. About one hundred meters.] My heart rate spiked as I turned to look. I slipped on the wet rock and went down hard. And FAST. I mean, BAM! It’s one thing when a fork falls off a table; it’s quite another when you’re the fork.
[Are you all right?] Steel asked.
[Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.] I wasn’t. Even with the protection of the e-suit I’d really banged my hip. I struggled to get up. Thankfully Yuri’s servos did most of the work.
[Nothing to be alarmed about,] Marcus said, [just some traffic. Let’s move to the side of the trail and let them pass.]
Even the reality I had done on the Lightdancer all those months ago didn’t prepare me for the size of the slugs. More like whales than walruses, they were ten to fifteen meters long and half again as tall as I was where their carapaces rode on their backs. Just three in this group—gliding along about walking speed, maybe a little faster—they came upon us and passed as though we were just part of the scenery. I was so close that the overhang of their shells intermittently protected me from the rain. The color displays on their sides were fairly subtle compared to the ones I had witnessed on the reality of Brainard’s last sortie—just some pale blue dots and geometric figures shifting, morphing and scrolling across their wrinkled, nubbly skin. All three had similar patterns. I wondered if that meant anything. I was sure that Brainard had wondered the same thing five hundred years ago.
And then they were past and moving off down the trail. No problem. Just out for a walk. I tried to slow my heartbeat.
[Okay,] said Steel, [Let’s keep going.]
We formed back up and resumed our journey.
“Couldn’t we just take some slime off the trail?” I asked, reasonably, I thought.
[I don’t think it would do us any good,] Arch replied. [There will be rainwater mixed in and, I mean, if we want to ensure a pure sample ...]
“Yeah.” What else could I say?
[In the colony they’ll be under shelter. Many of them won’t be moving. It’ll be easier there.]
“Right.” Nobody said the job would be routine.
[Hey, everybody,] Tamika’s voice.
[Yes?] Marcus responded.
[Yuri just spotted some basalts. And there seem to be several layers of volcanic ash separated by—I don’t know— various kinds of sedimentary rock. It’s going to take some more climbing. We may want to fly down into the canyon and land on one of the lower plateaus.]
Marcus checked in with Steel. She just seemed frozen. I understood why. The wrong decision could cost so much. After a moment Marcus said, [Very good. Let us know what you decide.]
[Will do.]
Even in the rain my first glimpse of the colony was beautiful. There’s no other word to describe it—a fanciful batch of deep chocolate globes and ramps, piled up like soap suds in a bubble bath, little towers of bubbles here, overhangs and balconies there, all integrated in a marvelous celebration of randomness and harmony, glistening in the emerging sunshine.
I would have enjoyed the esthetics more if the traffic hadn’t been getting worse. As we neared the colony more and more slugs were wandering here and there. None of them seemed to notice us at all, but they hadn’t seemed to notice Drake either until they killed him, or grabbed him or shook hands with him or whatever they’d thought they were doing. We tried to stay out of their way as we entered the main gate—a large brown globe with a slug-sized hole cut through it.
“Alice, I want you to navigate,” Steel ordered.
“Got it,” Alice replied. I was glad somebody was doing that. As soon as we got inside I was lost. We had entered a system of roughly cylindrical passages. The ramps curved and climbed and descended again in no apparent pattern, crossing and branching elegantly, naturally, but more like a circulatory system than a street grid. Doors opened off into what, private homes? Cocoons? Cells? No two bubbles were the same size or shape. Some of them had metal objects on the floor, odd little knobs and twists just lying around haphazardly.
“What are those things?” I asked.
[They seem to value them,] Archie answered, [They seem to trade them, but I don’t know why. No one’s ever seen a slug do anything with one except bring it back to a colony and leave it in one of the rooms.] She picked one up and placed it in her pouch. [They look like iron, but I’ll analyze it just in case. You never know.]
We seemed to be climbing more than descending and, after an initial left turn, generally curving around to the right. Slugs would squeeze past us without touching us then move on down the passageway. “I’m glad I’m not claustrophobic,” I said.
[I am, too,] said Marcus. [Just stay alert.]
At one point the passage opened out onto a curving balcony and we could see how far we had climbed. We were looking west; the sun was starting to set over sculptures winding between tube fields and groves of spider-plane trees. We could see the trail. All traffic was incoming now. No one was leaving. We curved back inside.
[There,] Archie said. [That one.] She pointed to a cell that was occupied by a slug that was napping maybe, or meditating or pondering some unknown mystery of slugginess. [This will do. Come on, Alice.]
Marcus said, [Captain, Mo, flank the doorway. I’ll take a position at that last junction.] He moved back down the passage about ten meters to where it branched, then set up the laser cannon. Steel and I took our positions as Archie and Alice went inside.
We stood there for awhile as the occasional slug wandered past, then we heard Archie say, [Skag.]
[What’s wrong?] Steel asked.
[There’s no slime. I forgot. They only secrete the stuff when they’re moving, when something is happening that, you know, I guess upsets them or something. When they’re under some kind of stress.]
[What do you want to do?] asked Alice.
[Well, it would be great if I didn’t have to try to get a sample from one of these guys when it’s moving. I’m not sure how I would do that.] Archie thought for a moment. [Hmm, maybe I can stress it somehow. Here, Alice, you hold the collector for a minute.]
[Okay.]
We heard a meaty thud.
[Hmm, nope, nothing.] We heard another, louder thud.
“What are you doing in there?” I asked.
[I’m slapping it.]
“You’re what?”
[But I don’t think I’m getting through to it. Mo? Come in here for a sec.]
“O-okay.” I checked in with Steel and Marcus. They waved me in.
“What do you want me to do?”
[Just haul off and hit it as hard as you can.]
I took a look at the mountain of flesh sitting in front of me. “Um, really?”
[Yeah, you won’t hurt it. I just hope it notices.]
I didn’t think I wanted it to notice. I tried to remember all the crazy skag I’d done in my life, but I couldn’t come up with anything that compared to this. “Are you guys covering me?” I asked.
[Oh, right. Alice, draw your laser. Um, we’re gonna draw our lasers, okay, Marcus?]
[All right. You’ll have to use them at your discretion. Steel and I need to stay out here, I think.]
[Yes, I agree,] said Steel. [There’s quite a bit of traffic.]
[Yeah, sounds good,] Arch answered. Alice and Arch pointed their ray guns at the slug’s flank. [Okay, Mo, whenever you’re ready.]
That might be never, I thought, but I pulled back my fist, took a couple of breaths and said, “Okay?”
[Yeah, yeah. Go.]
I punched it.
[No, no. Harder than that.]
That wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but I answered, “Right,” and pulled back my fist again.
[Are you left-handed?] Arch asked.
I was pulling back my left arm. “Well, I’m kind of ambidextrous, I suppose. I eat with my right hand, but I do lot’s of other stuff with my left.”
[Hmm. I guess I never noticed. Okay, whenever you’re ready.]
I did everything I could to prepare
myself for a horrific demise, cocked my fist and then punched it as hard as I could. We waited for a few seconds, then Arch said, [No, still nothing. Tell you what,] she looked at me, [why don’t you go back out into the passageway and just run right into it.]
“You want me to—”
[Yeah, just take a running start and ram it.]
Holy freakin’ mother of Buddha, Krishna and freaking Zoroaster. Images of Drake’s ruined body pathetically grasping for something unseen as he rotted in his pod flooded my vision. “Okay.” I walked back out into the passage, pausing momentarily at the door of the chamber while a slug passed, and checked in with Steel. She looked at me like, ‘What are you waiting for?’ Turning back to face the napping slug, I charged myself up and started running. Like I said, it takes a little while to get going in one of Yuri’s e-suits, but once I was moving I had a lot of momentum. I didn’t hit it very fast, but I made a big impression. As I bounced off of it, the slug shuddered and shook. Then its skin started to get shiny.
[Yeah! That’s it!] Archie yelled. She took the collector and placed it against the slug’s side. [Congratulations, Mo! You’re the first human being to get a slug to notice you!]
“Yay for me. Um, did it get any acid on me?”
[They secrete the acid from their ventral surface, not their sides.] Well, she could have told me that earlier. [Great, we’re getting a good sample. Okay, I think that will do it. Let’s get out of here.]
I happened to glance at the floor and noticed that a couple of cracks had evidently formed in the otherwise smooth surface. I bent down and managed to wiggle a little piece of the structure loose. “Hey, Arch, should I take this back with us?”
[What do you have there?] She examined the chunk. [Oh, good. Nobody’s ever been able to establish what they make the colonies out of. Yes. I’ll analyze it back at the lab. Now let’s go before any gossip spreads about alien invasions.] I put the little piece in my pouch. It was surprisingly heavy even in this gravity, like it was made out of lead or something even denser, but it didn’t look like lead. It didn’t look like anything I could think of.
[Form back up,] Marcus ordered. [Mo, Steel, you lead off. I’ll take the rear.] We made our way down the winding tunnel. No one tried to stop us. No one bothered us in any way, the slugs just kept going about their business, whatever that was, and after a few tension-filled moments we were back in the open air again. The system of thunderstorms had moved off to the east, a towering rampart of billowing cloud turned shockingly orange by the setting sun. Everything around us glowed fiery, rosy, in the reflected light.
[Who would have thought?] Archie said as we headed back down the trail. [Of all the different ways Brainard tried to get the slugs to notice him, nobody thought to just haul off and whack one.]
“It wouldn’t be my first choice to open diplomatic relations,” I responded. We kept walking, looking for the spot where we’d entered the trail that morning: the patch of tubes with the trio of spider plane trees beside it.
The sun was on the horizon when we heard Yuri’s voice: [Hey, Captain?]
[Yes?]
[Um, I think we’re going to bivouac here tonight. We got involved and didn’t realize it was getting so late. Tamika doesn’t want to try to land the ultra-light in the dark.]
There was a pause as Steel digested this news, then [Where are you?]
[We’re two tiers down inside the canyon. There’s a broad, flat terrace here. It’ll be easy to take off in the morning, but, uh, not such a good idea at night.]
Steel stewed for a moment as two straggling slugs glided past us heading for the colony. Everyone was closing up shop for the day. Steel said, [So, you figure you have another day’s work to do there, do you?]
[Um,] Yuri prevaricated, [yeah, we could probably spend another day here. There’s lots of interesting stuff—]
[Goddamn it, Yuri! You did this deliberately! If you’d wanted another day out there you should have asked.]
[Point taken, Captain. But, since we’re here, I mean, we have plenty of consumables. It’s not going to be particularly comfortable spending the night in the suits, but it will save us a trip back and forth from the lab. Less flying, you know? Has to be safer.]
Steel gave Marcus a glare of tired exasperation. At that moment the bass throb that signaled the beginning of the slug’s “evening prayers” boomed over us so loud we could feel it. We all started, then looked around at each other. Alice laughed so I did, too. This place was getting to all of us.
Steel said, [I expect to see you two back at the lab before sundown tomorrow.]
[No problem, Captain. We’ll see you then.]
Marcus added, [That’s an order, Yuri.]
[Absolutely. Yes, sir! We’ll be there.]
[Have a good night,] said Steel, and started walking again. I could see Alice’s lips moving through her visor. I think she was bulleting Yuri privately. Brainard’s Planet’s huge, single moon rose silver, almost full, behind the thunderheads in the east as we tromped wearily back to base.
We were all exhausted from the stress of the day so we just dropped off the specimens at the laboratory and headed for the hab. Dinner was more a matter of functional re-fueling than any sort of social gathering. Then, after the briefest of periods of digestion, we all fell into our bunks. So I was surprised to be awoken by a tap on my shoulder a little while later. I rolled over and there was Alice.
“Can I sleep with you guys tonight?” she whispered.
Archie roused, too. We checked in with each other and then I whispered back, “Sure, Alice, climb on in.”
Arch and I made room between us. It was a little cramped, but not too bad. Alice snuggled in and said in a very small voice, “I miss Yuri.”
Arch and I looked at each other then snuggled in closer. Arch said, “I understand. But Yuri will be all right. You’ll see.”
Alice’s head was on my shoulder. I felt tears. She said, “I miss my dad.” We couldn’t do anything but hug her and stroke her hair. My heart was breaking for her. So it was almost a relief when she said, “I miss Ham. Do you think mom will re-boot him when he gets old?”
I nearly had to laugh, but I whispered, “Well, she might. She’s got plenty of money. I’ve heard of rich people re-booting their pets sometimes.”
She sighed and found a more comfortable position. “I hope she does,” she said, then she fell asleep.
Chapter 36
The next day was a day off for most of us as Archie worked with the new sample of slime and the rest of us worried about Tamika and Yuri out at the canyon. But it sounded like there were significant developments out there. We couldn’t really tell what was going on, and we didn’t want to distract them from their work, but we’d occasionally pick up pieces of their conversation like, [No, that’s not ... that’s not ... umm, we need more resolution. Let’s try, let’s try grav-echo. Yeah, that’s ... that’s ... Shiva, this would have taken years in the old days. Holy skag. Look at that.]
Arch was getting more taciturn as she went about her labors. It was hard to tell if she was making progress or not; she just seemed focused, determined, dauntless. Lunch came and went. As she ate at her workstation, her expression became more and more inscrutable. About mid-afternoon she took a sample of her own blood and passed it through the special lock Yuri had designed for doing just that; she then used the manipulators to place it in the tray holding the slime sample. She recorded what happened but didn’t say anything to us. Then she took a sample of Alice’s blood and went through the same procedure. Steel tried to get her to divulge her results but she wouldn’t be drawn out. She barely responded at all.
Finally she asked Steel, “Is there enough daylight left to make it to the edge of the tube field?”
Steel said, “I think so. Why?”
“I need a specimen.”
“Of what?”
“Doesn’t matter. Just a specimen of Brainardite life.”
“All right. Let’s suit up. Yuri?”
[Yeah.]
“How are you doing out there?”
[We’re just wrapping up. I’d say we’ll be airborne in fifteen or twenty minutes.]
“Good. We’re going out to the tube field. We should be back by the time you get here.”
[Okay. See you then.]
We went no farther than the very edge of the field but Marcus cautioned us to stay alert nonetheless. Arch picked up a zooid off one of the tubes. Then she found a smaller tube mounted on a loose rock. She placed them both in her pouch and we headed back. We arrived just as Tamika and Yuri were landing. They were as boisterous as Archie was subdued.
Yuri said, [You should see the stuff we’ve found. It’s incredible!]
He reached into his sample pouch to show us, but Arch responded, [Just put the samples in trays. I’ll get to them. Mo?] She handed me her specimen pouch. [I’m going to go inside. I want you to damage the zooid and the tube and then place them in the tray with the slime sample. All right?]
“Damage them? How do you mean?”
[Pinch them, poke them. Try to break the skin. Just cause some damage.]
It seemed like we were being more and more obnoxious to the Brainardites, but I acquiesced. Arch said, [Wait till I’m inside. I’ll tell you when.] She went around to the other side of the lab and de-suited while the rest of us tried to avoid stepping in the trail of slime that still reached across the rock from the tube field right up to where the trays were. After a few minutes she said, [All right. Damage them and place them in the tray.]
I picked up the zooid first. I pinched it, then pinched it harder and harder until it started to squirm pitifully in my hand. Finally the skin broke and a little thick fluid started to leak out of it. I placed it in the tray as it writhed and squirmed. Then I did the same with the tube. We watched as the slime covered them both. Within moments they were completely healed.
“Well …” I said, really intending to follow it with something insightful or profound. We stood there looking at the two healthy, happy Brainardites for a moment, then went inside just as the distant drone of the evening prayers reached us over the rock.
Dancing with Eternity Page 49
