Odyssey iarc-1

by Michael P. Kube-Mcdowell

  Halfway across the plaza, Wolruf got close enough to reach out and catch Katherine by the arm from behind. The jitney veered suddenly, breaking the alien’s grip. But the veer turned into a skid that ended with the jitney sliding sideways with a jolt into the rockform base of a tree planter. In a moment, Wolruf caught up and pounced on Katherine. The air was filled with her convincingly terrified cries of “It’s killing me!” and the alien’s ominous growls.

  When the jitney veered, Anazon had started toward the exit and one of the X-50s began to rise. But when the guard robot saw Anazon responding, it sat back down again. Derec knew immediately that meant the guards’ instructions were so strongly worded that the expectation that Anazon would handle the First Law situation relieved them of responsibility. Only if Anazon failed would they act.

  The moment was slipping away quickly. “Robots-help that woman,” Derec said sharply, stepping forward. “She is being harmed. She may be killed.”

  One of the X-50s stirred slightly. “Anazon will protect her-”

  “The creature attacking her is strong and fast. Anazon will not be able to protect her from injury. Go! Help her! Now!”

  First one, then the other guard rose and took a halting step or two toward the exit. Then they hesitated, the conflicting positronic potentials having reached a new equilibrium. Anazon would reach Katherine and Wolruf in a few more strides and the stunt would be over, a failure.

  Just then, Katherine loosed a blood-chilling cry that even Derec thought real, and the guard robots started forward again. Derec waited no longer. Snatching the artifact up from the table, he turned and ran the other way, vaulting over a console and out through the window.

  His heart pounding, Derec fled the plaza and down an empty corridor. He heard the jitney’s motors whine, but he did not look back. He could not afford to worry about Katherine and Wolruf. He thought he heard the metronomelike running strides of a robot, but he did not look back. Even if he was being chased, knowing it could not make his legs pump faster.

  All he wanted was to reach the dark sections unmolested. All he could think of were the escape route and the rendezvous he had chosen. He ran until his chest ached and his legs were iron, until each breath was pain, until darkness swallowed him and hid him from those who wanted to find him.

  Chapter 19. The Key To Perihelion

  Derec huddled in pitch blackness in the corner of the room and waited. He could not say how long he had been alone there, except that it seemed an eternity. He held the artifact tightly in both hands and sat, rigid and silent.

  Then without warning, he was not alone. Since the corridor outside was as dark as the room inside, Derec could not see when the door opened. But he heard it slide back, and rustling steps as someone entered. His heart began to beat faster and his nerves jangled.

  “Derec?”

  He sighed, and the tension flowed out of him. It was Katherine’s voice. “Here,” he said. “In the corner.”

  She thumbed her torch on and swung it in his direction, and the polished surface of the object he held in his hands sent an answering beam of light back at her and Wolruf. “You did it!” she exulted. “Let me see.”

  Derec crossed his arms protectively over the artifact. “No. Don’t come near me.”

  “What’s going on? What’s happening to you?” Katherine demanded. “We did it. We’ve got it.”

  “So we do. It’s confessions time, that’s all,” Derec said, sliding up the wall to a standing position. “I’ve had some time to sit here and think about things. It’s amazing how being scared will focus your thoughts.”

  “What are you talking about?” Katherine demanded.

  He waggled the key above his head. “It’s real simple. Which one of you is going to stop playing dumb and tell me just what it is we’ve got?”

  Katherine stared at him. “If you’re trying to say that I’ve been holding out on you-”

  “Haven’t you been?” Derec interrupted. “You and Wolruf both. I’m tired of being the one in the dark, the one who’s always one step behind. I want to know everything you know. I’d rather give it back to the robots than have it and not know what it is.”

  “Derec, I don’t know anything more than I already told you,” Katherine said pleadingly, taking a step forward.

  Derec stiffened and gripped the artifact even more tightly. “Don’t try it. Talk to me.”

  Katherine retreated a step. “Derec, I don’t want to fight you. But this is crazy. We’re all part of a team. I’m not keeping any secrets from you. I never saw or heard of that thing before Aranimas asked me about it. I couldn’t tell him anything and he didn’t tell me anything.”

  She turned and looked into the half-shadow where Wolruf stood. “But Wolrufwas Aranimas’s top aide. And when the robots took the key from the spacecraft, she thought it was worth the risk to follow and find out where it was taken. How about it, Wolruf?”

  “I was ‘ungry. I thought there would be food.”

  “Really? How hungry? Not six weeks’ worth. Three days, that’s all. Is that hungry enough to send you out where the robots were and take the chance of being caught by them? Especially considering how you feel about robots.”

  “If anyone’s keeping secrets, p’rhaps iss ‘u, Derec,” Wolruf said challengingly. “The key was found on the asteroid ‘u claim ‘u were shipwrecked on. Why did ‘u go to that spot when ‘u were escaping? Because ‘u knew that it was therr? Maybe because ‘u’d put it therr and wanted to get it back?”

  Without warning, the lights in the room suddenly flared to life. The only one who did not jump was Derec; he had been expecting it. “The robots are looking for us,” he said. “They’ve reactivated this section, maybe the whole station. They can use the environmental systems to find out where lights are being used, where the oxygen demand is up.”

  “We can’t stay here,” Katherine said simply. “We’ve got to move. We’ve got to get the key hidden again before they find us.”

  Derec shook his head. “Wrong. Unless one of you starts talking, I’m going to wait right here until the robots show up and then hand it to them,” he said with quiet calm. “It’s up to you.”

  “If you let them have it back, we’ll never be able to get it again,” Katherine said angrily.

  “I think you can count on that,” Derec said, undisturbed.

  She turned on Wolruf. “If you do know something, you’d better tell him straight and tell him fast, or the key’s lost,” she ordered. “If you wait any longer we’ll never get away.”

  A wild look in her eyes, Wolruf backed away a step. “ ’U’ll take it and leave me and I’ll never get ‘ome,” she said desperately.

  “That won’t happen,” Katherine said. “We won’t abandon you.”

  “I already promised you that,” Derec said. “I meant it.”

  “Tell him,” Katherine prodded. “Tell us.”

  Wolruf’s darting eyes fixed first on Katherine’s face, then on Derec’s. “Iss one of the Keys to Perihelion,” she said finally.

  “Perihelion? What’s that?” Katherine said.

  “Iss said to be the place nearest to every other place in the universe,” Wolruf said. “ ’U ‘old the key to the room which is the center of all. With the key, through Perihelion, ‘u should be able to travel anywhere.”

  Derec shook his head in disbelief. “Some kind of matter transporter?”

  “No,” Wolruf said. “It is a key that opens the door to Perihelion.”

  Her anger forgotten for the moment, Katherine looked to Derec. “Could it be something that uses the same principle as the Jump?”

  “In a package this size?” he asked skeptically. To Wolruf he added, “You said one of the keys. How many are there?”

  “By the stories Aranimas ‘eard, seven.”

  “What stories? Where did he hear them?”

  “Therr werr three ships before this one came aboard,” Wolruf said, gesturing toward Katherine. “Aranimas learned much from the ‘
umans aboard before he ‘urt them so much they died. Learn ‘ur language. ‘ear many stories.”

  Katherine looked at Derec. “I’ve never heard any stories about a Key to Perihelion. They must have been Settler ships.”

  “That fits-otherwise Aranimas would have run into robots sooner.” Derec turned to Wolruf. “Where did the keys come from?”

  Wolruf twitched her cheeks, a gesture equivalent to a shrug. “Aranimas could not even learn wherr the tales came from.”

  Derec looked back to the key and turned it over in his hands. “How does it work? Where are the controls?”

  “There iss only one control that Aranimas could find,” Wolruf said. “Push each corner in turn. A button will appear.”

  “Press the corners clockwise or counterclockwise? Starting where? And which side?”

  “It does not matter,” Wolruf said. “Turn it any way ‘u choose. The button always appears in the last corner ‘u touch and always on the side facing ‘u. If ‘u do nothing, the button disappears again.”

  “And if you push the button you go to Perihelion?” asked Katherine.

  “No,” Wolruf said sadly. “That is what should happen, I think. But it does not. The key does not function.”

  “You tried it? With Aranimas?”

  “Many times.”

  Derec looked down at the glittering metal bar resting in his hands. Its finish was mirror-smooth and seamless. There was no sign of a concealed switch. When he squeezed the upper right corner between thumb and forefinger, there was no give, no sign he had done anything at all.

  But when Derec pressed the fourth corner, it pressed back against his thumb. A three-centimeter square section on the corner sprang smoothly upward, looking just like a button waiting to be pushed. At the same time, it seemed to be an immovable part of the rest of the artifact, as though the silver covering was some sort of metallic membrane.

  Katherine looked back to Wolruf. “If it doesn’t work, why were you so eager to get it back?”

  “Maybe Wolruf can fix,” was her forlorn reply. “Only way to go ‘ome now.”

  Just then, they heard a voice calling them from the corridor outside. “Derec-Katherine-come out,” it said. “Derec-Katherine-you do not have to hide.”

  Wolruf dropped to her crouch and loosed a barrage of guttural moaning sounds. “Shut up!” Katherine hissed at the alien, then turned to Derec. “Do something,” she urged.

  “What?” Derec snapped back. “This room has only one exit.”

  At that moment the door slid open, drawing Derec’s attention away from Katherine. He glimpsed a golden robot filling the doorway and advancing across the threshold. Then suddenly Katherine was blocking his view. She had moved closer and was reaching for the key, a determined expression on her face.

  Derec’s immediate thought was that she was going to grab the key and try to run. He did not have enough time to snatch the gleaming artifact out of her reach. There was time only to tighten his grip.

  Too late he realized Katherine had never meant to take the key. Her hands closed firmly over his, locking them in place. Her thumb drove the small square button back down into the body of the key.

  “No!” cried Wolruf.

  “Wait-” Derec started to say.

  But there was nothing anyone could do to stop it-not Derec, not the robot, not even Katherine. There was a soundless burst of color that stabbed deep into Derec’s eyes, driving out the sight of all else. And when the light faded to gray and his sight was restored, Wolruf, the robot, and the room had all vanished.

  They found themselves standing as they had been standing, both gripping the key, at the center of a tiny place within a great space. There was nothing to prevent them from seeing vast distances, except that there was nothing to see.

  All around them was a soft gray light that was to the eye what a hum is to the ear. The air had the fuggy, dusty odor of a house that has been closed up for the summer. There was no sound except their own tight, frightened breathing.

  They clung to each other and to the key and tried to understand and accept their sudden displacement to this unreal reality. It was a place which could be nowhere in space. They were somewhere outside, thrown there by the staggering power of the little silver bar. It was a place without time, without life.

  “Perihelion,” Katherine whispered.

  “Wolruf said that it was the nearest place to everywhere,” Derec said. “It feels more like the farthest place from anywhere.”

  Katherine twisted her head around, looking. “Where is she?”

  “Back on Rockliffe Station, I guess. Left behind.”

  “Why didn’t the key bring her with us?”

  “Maybe for the same reason it wouldn’t work for her,” Derec said. “Maybe because she was too far away from us. Maybe you have to be touching it, or touching someone who’s touching it. I don’t know. But we have to go back and get her.”

  “But the robots-”

  Derec shook his head. “It was Alpha. You didn’t even look. It was Alpha.”

  “I didn’t know,” Katherine whispered. “Press it again. Let’s go back.”

  “How do we know we will?”

  “I was thinking about escape when I pushed it. Think about going back.”

  Wordlessly Derec complied. The button appeared as before. There was another flash of color, and another few seconds of adjustment. Then their returning vision told them something that should not be, could not be. They were not at Perihelion, but neither were they back in Rockliffe Station.

  They were standing in open sunlight atop a great pyramidal tower, looking down at a still greater city spread out before them. The tower they were on was taller by half than any other building in sight. It was like standing on top of the world, like looking down from an eagle’s eyrie.

  “What is this?” Katherine hissed. “Where did you send us?”

  Derec stared unbelievingly at the towers, cubes, and spires stretching from the base of the pyramid to the horizon. “I don’t know,” he said hoarsely. “I had Rockliffe Station in my mind.”

  She released her grip on the key and grabbed tight to his arm. “Are we on Earth?” She asked it as though the prospect frightened her.

  Derec looked west at the low-hanging disc of the sun. “No,” he said. “The star is too white and too small.” But he knew why she had asked. No Spacer world had a city this vast. Only on Earth had city-building ever been practiced on this scale, and they were not cities but Cities, enclosed and largely underground. “You don’t recognize it?”

  “I’ve never seen such a thing before,” she whispered. “Is it Wolruf’s homeworld? Or Aranimas’s?”

  “I don’t know,” Derec said. “We can find the answer easily enough, though.”

  “How?”

  “By going down there.” He gestured toward the city spread out below them.

  “No,” she said with a shudder. “Send us back.”

  Derec realized that he was still gripping the key in his unfeeling hands. “I don’t know if I can,” he said.

  “Try,” she urged. “Or let me try.”

  “We’ll try,” he agreed.

  Holding an image of the gray emptiness of Perihelion in his mind, Derec called up the control button and pressed it. This time, nothing happened. “What it did has to take a lot of power. Maybe it has to recharge-or be recharged,” he said. “Either way, it looks like we’re here for a while at least.”

  “I don’t want to go down there,” Katherine said. “It’ll be night soon. Let’s stay here until morning and then try the key again.”

  The sun had indeed slipped a fraction of a degree toward the horizon, lengthening the already long shadow of the tower on the city below. “Aren’t you afraid of going over the side in your sleep?” he asked. There was no railing or football enclosing the table-flat top of the pyramid.

  “I don’t expect to be able to sleep,” she said soberly.

  As the sun descended toward the horizon, a breeze
kicked up, teasing at their hair and clothing. It carried with it no scent Derec knew. In fact, for a world so obviously teeming with life, it carried remarkably little scent at all.

  Below them, the city was becoming alive with lightlight cascading down the sides of buildings, light puddling in the streets. In those streets, hundreds of other lights were in restless motion, reminding Derec of the bustle within a colony of bees or ants.

  Too emotionally numbed even to be afraid, they avoided talk. Katherine withdrew into herself, sitting in the lotus position near the center of the tile-covered plaza. Derec wandered near the edges, looking out and trying to abstract the pattern on which the city had been built.

  When the stars came out, he studied them, hoping against hope to recognize their patterns. There was a red star as bright as a planet that might have been Betelgeuse, and a fierce white one that might have been Sirius.

  But each could just as easily be any of a thousand other stars named or merely numbered. There was no way to tell without a spectrometer to take the optical fingerprint of each suspect and a general astrographical catalog in which to search for matches.

  “Do you remember what the stars look like from Aurora?” he called across to Katherine, sitting huddled against herself on the other side of the plaza.

  “I never knew,” she admitted. “I wasn’t interested.”

  Giving up, he went and sat facing her. She was idly rubbing her right bicep through the sleeve of her Lindbergh blouse.

  “Having trouble with the pump?”

  “That’s not what hurts,” she said, tugging the sleeve up and showing him a purple crescent bruise.

  “Nice.”

  “My most convincing scream,” she said with a rueful smile.

  “Wolruf?”

  “She got carried away and bit me. She’s not as harmless as she wanted us to think.”

  “Anything living knows how to defend itself,” he said, then added wistfully, “I wonder what’s happened to her.”