Of Man and Manta Omnibus

by Piers Anthony

  Veg donned protective gloves and marched toward the most luxuriant display. 'Not those!' Aquilon cried, startling him into drawing a breath through his mouth. Her voice was apt to do that to him. He expelled the air hastily, realizing that she wanted to preserve that particular group for a portrait, and moved over.

  The atmosphere of Nacre had been exhaustively tested and pronounced safe - in moderation. A few breaths through the mouth would not cause serious discomfort, and all personnel were trained to breathe automatically through the filters, even in sleep. Veg knew this, but the unfiltered air seemed unclean and it upset him to inhale it.

  The flora and fauna were another matter. Some of these were deadly in unexpected ways, and most had yet to be tested and classified. The rule: Do not touch until the laboratory has taken apart and approved.

  Aquilon glanced at him as he advanced upon the bend of the outcropping, but he did not interrupt her sketching. Veg stopped, spread out a collection sheet, and carefully reached out to grip the nearest offerings.

  The fungi were even fancier than he had thought, and so thickly packed that there was no clear way to isolate them for individual harvest. Yellow goo flowed where his feet had crushed minute growths, and he regretted this accidental destruction. He reached for an Earth-sky-blue six-inch stinkhorn, afraid the projecting tip would break off and crumble in his hand, but to his relief and surprise it was as solid as a stick of wood. He worked it free, sadly snipping off the wirelike root strands, and laid it on the cloth.

  Farther along was a specimen about the size of a softball, with innumerable spaghetti-like threads twisting about. These moved as his hand approached, startling him. He jerked back, almost losing his balance, and glanced over the outcropping of mushroom-rock into the alcove beyond.

  He stiffened.' 'Quilon,' he called in a low tone.

  She knew immediately that something important was there. She came swiftly and quietly and followed the direction of his gaze. 'I see it,' she said, as tense and quiet now as he.

  It was a bay in the sea of dust, and squatting in front of a smaller inlet was a creature about the size of a small crouched man. From this vantage point the most distinctive feature was its enormous single eye.

  'What is it?' she asked him. Veg did not reply. The creature stood unmoving, its eye, three inches across, focused unwaveringly upon them. The body was hunched into a globular mass balanced upon a single muscular foot.

  They exchanged glances. Veg shook his head at the unspoken question. 'We're only supposed to note the lay of the land,' he said. 'We don't dare mess with the local life - not something as strange as this.'

  'It doesn't look dangerous.'

  'But eighteen men were killed before we arrived - by something. ...' He did not need to say more. They were conditioned to caution as members of a semiprivate troubleshooting expedition investigating a promising but dangerous planet. Pay was to some extent contingent upon success in solving the problem, and qualified volunteers were scarce. Strange people enlisted and strange things happened - but individuals avoided risks not so much for personal safety as from consideration for the needs of the expedition. A foolishly brave man was a liability.

  Veg had wondered from time to time why Cal was allowed to stick with the group, since he was most apt to get himself killed. Perhaps it was because he was also most apt to put his finger, feeble as it might be, directly upon the source of trouble, and thus save many other lives and much time.

  At any rate, they were bound to watch this strange creature, but not to approach it, however much they might be tempted to.

  Aquilon was already sketching, wasting no motions. Color flowed from her brush, seemingly of its own volition. She flicked it, once, at Veg; a bright red dab flew to spatter against his cheek. Satisfied, she returned to her picture, the magic strokes quickly evoking a lifelike image of the animal ahead.

  'Got a tail,' Veg said, wiping at his face with good humor, 'but no jaws. Not like the omnivore. How does it fight?'

  She did not comment, rapidly filling new sheets of canvasite. All the animals they had observed on Nacre - and there were not many - were constructed on a roughly similar blueprint, as though radiating from a common ancestor. Just as the animals of Earth had settled on four limbs and two eyes, regardless of the vertebrate species, those of Nacre stayed with one foot and one eye. But, as on Earth, these animals diverged into large and small, bold and shy, predator and prey. The most savage of them all was the omnivore.

  'Could have weapons that don't show,' Veg said, having nothing to do while Aquilon painted. 'That eye-'

  Even from this distance the eye was impressive. It glittered from a convex surface like a lens, as deep and dark as a well. Inside, perhaps just beyond the visible spectrum, there seemed to be a flicker, almost a glow.

  '... something about it,' Aquilon agreed, sketching an enlarged view of the organ.

  Veg drew her back at last, his two hands on her slender shoulders while she continued to paint. 'We'd better get home and report this thing. Might be important.'

  She acquiesced reluctantly. They backed away until the creature was hidden from view behind the projecting arm of the mountain; then Veg stood guard while Aquilon ran to the tractor to explain the situation to Cal. Veg kept his hand on his sidearm, hoping he would not have to draw it. For one thing, he never liked using a weapon, though he did when he had to; for another, he had no guarantee that the repellant fog it emitted would be effective, since this creature was quite different from any seen before.

  After allowing Aquilon time, he backed the rest of the way to the tractor. He had been careless to harvest mushrooms without checking the area thoroughly first. The thing could have crept upon them silently....

  'That's all I got,' he said apologetically to Cal as he deposited the single fungus and closed up the compartment. The little man only nodded, and Veg knew he was wishing he had been able to see the new creature. A single glance would mean more to Cal than ten minutes to Veg. 'I'll glide by it as we go. You can watch through your periscope.'

  'If only radio worked on this planet-' Aquilon complained as he joined her in the front. It was a familiar grumble; parties did not like being out of contact with the main base, but the dust seemed to blank out most electromagnetic radiation in the atmosphere. Later, alternative communication would be worked out; but now they had to desert a phenomenal discovery because they could not summon another party from the base. 'We may never see it again.'

  He started the huge motors and ground slowly forward. The vehicle rounded the edge of the mountain and cut into the bay.

  The animal remained, flickering inscrutably. Veg drew carefully opposite, then stopped and turned, hoping Cal was getting a satisfactory view. The man was fascinated by extraterrestrial life of all kinds, but especially by the larger animals. This would make his day.

  The tractor spun to face its own retreating spoor. Aquilon, still curious, mounted the back of the seat to watch over the top of the vehicle as they departed. Veg glanced once at the several square inches of soft thigh exposed, then bit his lip and concentrated upon his driving. His expression was thoughtful.

  The creature moved. Veg could see it in the rear vision screen. It made an awkward, high leap, twisting in the air to land on its foot a dozen feet nearer the tractor. The lambent alien eye still watched intently.

  'I think it's as curious about us as we are about it,' Aquilon said brightly, still facing behind as they picked up speed. 'It's following us.'

  Veg grinned, relieved now that the three were safely in the moving machine. 'Maybe it wants to race.' He accelerated to an even twenty miles per hour. 'Let me know when it gives up.'

  'Not yet,' the girl said. She watched the creature leap and leap again, approaching the tractor, while Veg watched her watching. 'It's catching up to us.'

  Veg grunted and played with the controls, letting out the mighty engine until the indicator registered thirty-five.

  'It's still gaining,' Aquilon said, genuinely
excited now and even more attractive in that condition. 'But - it isn't the same. I mean-' She faltered and glanced at him as though expecting a rebuke. 'It - I think it changed its shape. To hop faster.'

  This was no overstatement, as he could see for himself. The body had flattened out and elongated, and the bounding effect was gone. The foot had become a pistonlike pushing member, touching the ground at intervals of twenty feet, sending the body forward in long shallow trajectories. The large eye was in the front of a head now tapered like a rocket, fading back into a neckless trunk, and the long tail streamed behind.

  Veg tried to watch screen, girl and the view ahead, but had to alternate. 'We latched on to something here,' he muttered, rising to the challenge. 'But if it really wants to race-'

  Once more the tractor accelerated. It had been built for high speed over rough terrain, and was as potent a machine as Earth produced. Veg switched on the headlights and maneuvered deftly around the rapidly looming fungi. Aquilon hung on to the hand rail behind the seat as the thick wind tore at her body. Her blouse inflated and hair shot over her face in a rigid bonnet. She faced back still, a look of solemn excitement on her comely features, lips parted but breathing through her nose, intent on the uniped behind. At sixty it began, slowly, to fall away.

  Aquilon reluctantly lowered herself down into the seat, fighting the fierce currents and jolts. 'I never saw anything so fast-' She realized only then that her blouse had torn free of the elastic waistband and now hung loosely over the shoulders and arms.

  Veg nodded appreciatively but made no comment He wasn't going to get her mad at him again!

  She tucked herself together and leaned over to view the screen before the driver. 'Look!'

  Directly behind, the creature was gaining again.

  Veg's mouth dropped open. 'But we're doing seventyfive!' he protested.

  Aquilon watched closely, while Veg peered in frustration past her head. He did not really have the tune to concentrate on the screen at this velocity. He was approaching the limit of forward visibility under Nacre conditions, and Cal would not be appreciating the roughness of the ride.

  'It changed again,' she said, a little smugly, and described it to him. The thing no longer leaped or pushed at all; instead it stayed close to the ground, its foot moving so rapidly that it was invisible at contact. The body moved on an almost level course, flattened all the way into a thin disk ten feet in diameter. The vast front eye still stared ahead, hypnotic, glowing darkly.

  'How could I have thought it awkward?' Aquilon whispered. 'It's the most beautiful thing, like a butterfly - no, like a swimming manta ray, back on Earth. Only it swims in the air, so swift-'

  The tractor leaped forward, its motors roaring. 'This time,' Veg said with grim enthusiasm, 'this time I'm really going to show it dust!' He touched a button and an armored canopy slid over the cockpit, killing the turbulence within. But heavy vibration jarred the occupants as the vehicle sped over the plain in a straight course, blasting apart the mists and shattering the fungi in its path. He was proud of the machine, with its engine composed of a motor for every wheel and its overwhelming impetus.

  The thick dust stirred at last, obscuring the afterview, and once again the pursuer was lost to sight. But in a moment it reappeared, off to the side and still gaining over the tractor's speed of ninety-five.

  'Is there any limit?' Aquilon breathed, staring raptly at it. 'Such a performance...'

  As the tractor continued to accelerate, the flat thing outside slowly forfeited ground, and was finally lost again in the mists. This time it did not return.

  Veg eased off slowly, somewhat intoxicated by the speed. He seldom had a pretext to really push the tractor.

  Aquilon was first to react, lifting her flaxen head like an alert doe. 'Burning,' she said. 'Something is burning!'

  Veg laughed and pinched her bare knee with corded fingers. Then he smelled it. 'Oh-oh.'

  The tractor slued alarmingly. 'Wheel's froze up,' he grunted. 'Got to cut that motor. Damn dust must've-'

  It lurched again, throwing them both to one side. Veg cursed and fought the controls; Aquilon unplastered her bosom from his shoulder and braced herself against the opposite corner. The dust ascended in surging clouds, hiding earth and sky.

  The sturdy vehicle did not topple. They sat quietly while the pocket storm outside subsided, then choked jointly as the reek of well-charred insulation fumed in. Veg released the canopy and forced it back by hand. The incoming swirl of dust washed out the bitter air and gave their filters something tangible to work on.

  'We're stranded,' Veg said bluntly. 'Own fault. This machine won't move for weeks.'

  Aquilon worked it out for herself. 'In this mist and dust there won't be any tracks to follow by the time they realize we're lost... and we can't signal them. A full search pattern would take too long.'

  There was a groan. Her eyes widened. 'We forgot Cal!'

  Veg banged the door open and jumped to the ground. Aquilon slid over and dismounted more carefully. Together, they circled through the settling particles to the rear of the tractor.

  Cal's glasses were broken and hooked over one ear, but there was no blood on his face. Veg unfastened the harness and lifted him down.

  Aquilon flung both arms about the unconscious man and held him up while Veg checked his body quickly for injuries. 'He's okay,' he announced. 'Spinout must've made him light-headed.' He hoped he was right.

  Aquilon set Cal on the ground and cradled his head upon her thighs. Before long his eyes opened. 'There appears to have been a - shake-up,' he murmured.

  Veg relaxed, only now allowing himself to admit how worried he had been. The shock could have thrown his friend into a coma, and if there had been any internal injury - 'a shake-up! Friend, if I woke up in a lap like that, I'd be shook up, and I'd damn well think of something better to say than-!' He was compensating for his concern by showing mock gruffness.

  Cal smiled but Aquilon did not. Veg turned away, irked yet again by his seeming ability to say the wrong thing. They all knew that his little jokes were just thinly veiled appeals for-

  For what? For the same thing the spaceport professionals provided for pay or glamor? Was he that hard up already, that he had to chase after the friend of his friend? And if by some mischance he got her - would she then be no more to him than those contemptible others? Aquilon was a nice girl. What demon prompted him to dream of destroying her?

  'Spores,' Cal said, sitting up with Aquilon's help.

  'Spores?' For a moment Veg was afraid Cal's mind had been affected.

  'This is a fungus world - insufficient light for chlorophyll plants, on the ground, at any rate. Much of this "dust" is in reality a surplus mass of spores, microscopically small, since that is the way most fungi reproduce. A palynologist will tell you that you could fit fifty sextillion of them in a level teaspoon. They float in the air and get into everything, and there are so many types that even on Earth they are constantly feeding on new materials. Probably some worked into the wheel bearings and sprouted in the oil, leading to-'

  Cal was back to normal.

  Veg moved over to stand before a locker in the side of the tractor. He stared silently into the ulterior, frowning.

  'Supplies?' Aquilon inquired. Her head, as she came to stand beside him, barely passed his shoulder.

  'Steam rifle and a compass,' he said with disgust. 'We're in trouble Beautiful.'

  She ducked under his arm and poked into the compartment. 'It's a complete survival pack,' she said, pleased. 'Knives, matches, first aid, handbook.... We can hike back to the base, with this.'

  Veg studied her.

  'Why look,' she continued innocently. 'The compass shows only twenty-four miles. That's not so far-' She broke off, noticing that Veg wasn't responding. 'What's the matter?'

  'I never met a woman yet who could think straight That score miles is straight cross-country; follow level ground, it's more like a hundred. We were a couple of hours out, in the tractor. You
and I,' 'Quilon, might make it....'

  'Oh.' Her hand flew to her mouth. 'Cal....'

  'Yeah.' Veg got to work unloading the compartment and setting up the knapsack provided.

  Already a thin film of the ubiquitous powder falling naturally had formed on the horizontal surfaces of the vehicle. Only the ghostly, dead, white fungus giants interrupted the obscurity of the shrouded plain. It was not cold, but Veg saw Aquilon shiver as he tightened the pack, picked up the rifle, and took his bearing from the compass.

  'Couldn't you cut across by yourself and bring help?' she asked without particular hope. 'You could make it in a day and we'd be safe in the tractor.'

  'If I knew the terrain, yes,' Veg said seriously. 'But there are some bad drop-offs around, worse because you can't see 'em. The camp sits right under a cliff. If something happened to me, or even if I were delayed only a little, you'd be finished. With only one real weapon, no food and precious little water, we can't split up.' He chucked her under the chin, trying to break the mood. 'Besides, I want you where I can keep an eye on you.' He pointed across the fog. 'That way - and pray it stays level after all. Help the lady, Cal.'