Tuki gasped. "You come from another world?" Beyond the shimmering doorway was a tiny room with reflective walls made mainly from wonderful glass. Beyond that, a large room with stone shelters in the corners. They went quickly through another door and entered a room with polished walls and a big bed in the middle. More of the windowed boxes lined the walls.
I am on another world? He tried to look at everything, as if something in the cave would reveal to him his new location. But of course it was just stone, and a dozen more strangers gathered around a dozen more strange objects. "What is your world called?" He took a little step forward and quickly turned his eyes to the skyglass.
"Earth."
Tuki raised the skyglass. It was still glowing softly.
General Hilliard, nearby once more, took an involuntary step backward. Another man, larger than any other but still not as large as Tuki, stepped forward. Somebody gasped. Everyone was watching.
“[Is it a weapon, Airman?]”
“[I don't think so... How the hell should I know? Jesus... Watch him.]”
Tuki ignored them. "Earth," he said.
Nothing happened.
"Your world has no other name?"
Dongoske shook his head.
So Tuki said the word that would center the view on his location. In the glass the colors shifted, transformed, until a new globe was showing. Huge oceans dominated strange landmasses.
“[Oh my God.]”
Tuki spared a glance for Dongoske before looking at the skyglass again. "Back. Back." And the world was just a dot in the center of the 'glass with a single moon showing and the yellow spots of meteors.
"You have many meteors here." Two hundred and five. "The Goddess' voice is loud."
"They are not meteors, Tuki. They are starships. They are vehicles, like wagons, that fly between the stars."
Tuki nodded slowly. "I thought they might be something like that, but was not sure. Could it still be a warning from the Mother Blower, do you think, even though they are not shooting stars? The Goddess works in mysterious ways."
"A warning of what?"
"Of the giant bats. They attacked Payota with eggs of fire and hatched dozens of hard shelled babies."
"The gods do work in mysterious ways, Tuki. We can never hope to understand all that they tell us."
Tuki smiled at the human, but Dongoske had already turned to General Hilliard.
“[Sir, the other world is being attacked by the bats as well. Tuki saw the mother ships in his 'skyglass' and tried to warn someone.]”
“[The first thing we have to do is get that damn thing off him so we can work out what the hell it is.]”
“[I don't think he'll let us have it, sir. It has some serious religious significance.]”
“[Isn't everything that's religious serious?]” Hilliard grunted. “[All right then, let's just see if we can get him unconscious, and then we can do what we need to do.]”
“[As ever, sir.]” Dongoske turned back to Tuki. "Tuki we have to let our doctors see you, to make sure we don't have any illnesses that can harm you. And to make sure you don't have any that can harm us."
"I am fit and healthy, Airman Dongoske."
"I'm sure, but it's like the monsters invading. Because the humans of... Payota, was it? Because they've never seen the monsters before, they can't beat them. I may have a disease that does not harm me, but because you have never seen it before, your body will not know how to fight it."
Tuki watched the other man carefully, but it was hard to see his face properly because of the coverings he wore. Tuki suddenly wondered if the monsters did not have hard colorful skins after all. Perhaps, like these humans, they dressed in protective clothing. And if that was the case, who was to say what the creatures inside looked like? Perhaps they were just humans after all.
Tuki shook his head. "No." If he'd been thinking properly earlier and not letting his fear control him, he would not have entered the valley in the first place. If he'd been thinking, he would have run south after leaving Payota, towards Danyon Ford.
"Pardon?"
"No. Your doctors cannot touch me."
"But..."
"I wish to go back to my world."
Dongoske turned to look at his leader. “[General, Tuki wishes to go home.]”
“[What the hell did you say to him?]”
“[Nothing, sir. Perhaps he just knows humans too well.]”
“[Well, tell him he can't go. We need to study him and that crystal ball of his and, if we must, we'll use force to get what we want.]”
“[Sir, we shot the last aliens we saw here. Do we really want to do that again? Do you think we'll be able to overpower this guy?]”
“[We have technology on our side, Airman.]”
“[And he has the right on his.]”
General Hilliard sighed. “[Don't you think I know that, Airman? Do you think I want to do it?]”
“[Sir, I —]”
“[We are talking about the survival of the human race here, Airman. The bat-aliens seem pretty stupid at the moment, but if they ever start to think we could be in real trouble.]”
Tuki could not understand a word the two men were saying but thought he understood well enough anyway. He started backing towards the door, and his suspicions were confirmed when two men moved to block his route.
“[Airman Dongoske, tell him we won't attempt to take the ball from him, but he must allow us to conduct tests on him.]”
“[Tests, sir?]”
The General sighed. “[We aren't talking lab-rat tests here, Airman. We're talking medical tests to make sure that neither he nor we will be harmed by our interaction.]”
“[Very well, sir.]”
“[I wasn't asking, Airman.]”
Airman Dongoske spoke again, and Tuki stood silently while he listened. "Do I have your word? And the word of the General?" Tuki did not think that the word of these humans would hold them to anything, but still he asked. "Do you swear on the moons and the stars?"
“[Sir, he's asking us to give our word.]”
“[So give it.]”
“[I think he'd take it very seriously and, if we broke our word, would basically never trust us again. In any situation. Ever. He's friendly at the moment, and he has knowledge that we don't have and may never acquire on our own.]”
“[Give it, Airman. Swear on whatever he asks.]”
Tuki watched as Dongoske sighed and turned back to face him. He knew that the Airman would swear, and he knew that General Hilliard would break the trust. But there was nothing he could do except as they asked.
"Tuki, you have my word. And the word of the General."
Tuki sighed, himself, then. Only days amongst humans and he knew them already. "Very well. What must I do?"
"Just lie down on this bed. It will be a little small, but that should be okay."
Tuki moved to the bed indicated by the Airman and lay down. His legs hung over the end, and it was too narrow by far, but he said nothing. He stared at the red stone of the ceiling and clutched the skyglass in his hand.
"Now, we're going to give you a needle so we can take some blood and study it. It may hurt a little bit, but only a very little. And it won't last long."
"They wish to stick that in me?"
"If you like, we can stick a needle in somebody else, first, on the other side of that window, to show that it will do you no harm."
"That would be good." Though he knew it would make no difference. With a last look at the skyglass, he muttered the word that switched it off then handed it to Airman Dongoske.
20: Other
Keeble raced down the stairs of the plane and onto the floor of the huge shed.
The men on the second flight hadn't spoken to him at all. They weren't nearly as friendly as the others. Normally, being stuck in his seat with minimal talk would have driven Keeble to distraction, but with all the information swirling through his mind he'd had more than enough to keep occupied.
On the ground aga
in, he took the chance to examine the wing to see if it was the same shape as the last one. What a marvel that such a simple idea could be the secret to flight. He ran his hand along the flaps, felt the heat radiating from the engine. He was left on his own for several minutes before one of the men came to collect him. Then he was led across to where Kim and Meledrin waited near a normal sized door that looked out of place amidst the otherwise huge scale of the shed.
“[Where are we?]” Kim asked a stony faced dwarf.
Keeble couldn't understand her, so he touched the door to see if he could work out what type of metal it was.
“[Groom Lake,]” the dwarf replied.
“[Yeah? Great.]”
“[Area 51.]”
“[Oh.]” Kim looked around as if some startling revelation had suddenly made everything clear. Keeble looked around the shed as well, but everything still looked the same as it had a moment ago. Three small planes, smaller even than the one they had arrived in, were partly stripped down. Keeble wanted to go and look, but he knew he wouldn't be allowed. A little room hung suspended from the wall at the back. Fields of green canvas had been pushed up into mountains by piles of unseen items beneath.
A talking box crackled, and one of the agents opened the door to usher Keeble and his companions through. Keeble went last hoping to examine their surroundings. There wasn't a lot of point. The heat of a desert hit him, and he saw Meledrin wilt at the onslaught, but that was about as interesting as it got. There were a couple of dun-colored sheds nearby to match the one he had just exited, and an up thrust of dun-colored hills beyond them. Between the two was a large, flat expanse of nothing. Dun-colored. Inside had been better.
Nearby, there was a big, black car with a sliding door on the side. He was bustled into the vehicle and felt it starting to move, though the windows had been blanked out and he couldn't see through. The soldiers were suddenly fierce looking and serious behind their dark spectacles.
Keeble was uncomfortable.
He glanced across to Kim and noticed that she didn't seem her usual self either. Meledrin looked as she always did, calm and serious. Keeble spared a moment to sneer at her and then went back to worrying. Normally he would've talked to lessen his unease, but who was he to talk to? Meledrin? The dwife stared straight ahead, her copper-colored hair a stark contrast to everything else in the car. Keeble sneered again and turned to face the front.
When the car finally stopped, Keeble was ready to jump out, but nobody else moved. He tried to look as calm as Meledrin, but as the minutes dragged by he began to worry.
"What's happening?" he asked. He couldn't imagine a set of the colored lights out in the middle of the desert to hold up the traffic.
Finally, the van started to move again.
“[What were we waiting for?]” Kim asked.
“[The van was hit by about three dozen different forms of waves to kill any bacteria we were carrying. We're now in a totally secure, totally clean area. If we don't want something getting into or out of this place, then there's no way that it'll happen.]”
“[Supposedly. How do you know all of your waving can kill the germs those two are carrying?]”
“[You don't know anything about the measures we take.]"
“[Do you think Keeble couldn't break any of your mechanical security systems?]”
“[That little medieval rustic?]”
Whatever Kim and the dwarf were talking about was apparently funny, to the dwarf at least. But Keeble sat glumly. He knew they were now underground, he could feel it in his bones, but he couldn't see. He was sure he could hear the hum of electricity. There was also the lower pitched hum of the rubber tires on concrete, with a tap-tap, every now and then when they crossed a join. And the rumble of the engine, spitting out oil fumes like they would last forever. The caves were slipping past without him seeing a single piece of stone.
With everything else he knew of these dwarves, he guessed that any caves would be amazing.
Just when Keeble could stand it no longer, the car came to a stop and the door slid open. A big, black-skinned dwarf stood outside, muscles bulging out of a green shirt with no sleeves. His small, dark eyes watched Keeble for a moment, before he looked both directions along the side of the car and motioned for everyone to come out.
“[General Hilliard is waiting for you down in Room 34,]” the big dwarf said.
One of the dwarves from the car nodded and led the way through a metal door that slid open automatically at their approach. Keeble stopped without going through.
It was a long time since he had been near natural, solid stone, and he felt its presence dancing along his nerve endings. He hadn't realized that he had missed it so much.
The walls of the tunnel were as smooth as the blade of an axe. He ran his fingers along a vein of quartz running though the pale red of the stone. He could hardly feel that the quartz was there.
"Can these dwarves Sing?" Keeble asked Meledrin. She ignored him. "Ask Kim if her people have any knowledge of Rock Singing." He could feel his own Song, like the sound made by the magical gate, building in his mind, unbidden and uncontrollable.
"I have a Song!" It was a shocking thought. He leaned against the wall. "I have a Song."
But Meledrin asked Kim something then said, "Kim says that her people do indeed have knowledge of rock singing."
That explained it then. But the cave must be ancient, for only a whisper of magic still clung to the stone. No dwarf from Sherindel would ever have let magic do the bulk of the labor, needing the feel of tools in their hands to feel that true work was being done, but the strength of the Earth's Singers could not be denied. Keeble laid his hand flat on the wall. With the Song in his mind, he could feel the very presence of the stone.
"Ask her if we will get to meet a Hummer. Or even a Singer."
"Kim says that it is not likely that any singers will be in this area."
"Oh."
The big, black dwarf took Keeble by the arm and drew him beyond the door. But once there, there was nowhere to go anyway. The room was tiny, with just a single button for decoration.
Keeble tried to go back out to examine the wall some more, but the big dwarf grabbed his arm and held him still. A moment later, someone pressed the button and the doors slid closed.
After the room lurched slightly, Keeble smiled. "Hey, we're going down." He pulled free of the restraining hand and pushed his way across to press the button again. Nothing changed. He pressed a second time. Still the little room dropped deeper into the ground. Then it stopped and the door opened.
Keeble's smile grew. "That's amazing." He stabbed at the button again. One of the soldiers reached for his arm, but too late. The doors started to close immediately, and the big black dwarf reached forward to hold them back. Keeble nodded, impressed that he could seemingly hold back hydraulics without any effort at all.
The corridor beyond the door was still bare stone, a beauty to behold. Wonderful stone. Ripples of color flowed in random patterns. Pale blue and yellow. Black and brown. All dancing the red of the wall like the notes of a Song. Keeble moved forward, running his fingers along the stone. There were still small touches of magic, but they were ancient workings. Further down, near the first branching of tunnels, a frieze had been carved. Two dwarves, one of them huge, walking side by side, deep in conversation while over their heads a full moon dominated. The natural colors of the wall had flowed to color the figures as if they'd been painted. On another wall someone knelt by a pool of still blue water, and over there a little dwife stared at the stars high above.
Keeble stopped to examine the work. He didn't get much of a chance, though. The big dwarf nudged him forward and he hurried to catch up with his companions. Kim was looking more nervous with each step she took. She fiddled with the collar of her shirt, twisting it this way and that in her long fingers. Meledrin moved calmly, as ever, not looking to either side, seeming to listen to the idle conversation of the escort. Keeble wished he could understand them as well
. He could understand some, when they spoke slowly.
"What are they saying?" he asked Meledrin.
"They speak of others."
"Other whats?"
"Other people. A group of soldiers. They are not sure, themselves. And one other in particular. They refer to her as 'the other'."
"Her? Another bloody dwife?"
Meledrin shrugged. "I merely assume it is a woman as the 'other' appears to have some religious capacity."
"Well, have you noticed that with these dwarves the women aren't in charge? Your people will learn one day."
Meledrin didn't answer, and Keeble smiled. Kim studied the back of the big black dwarf, as if a map to their destination might be sewn into the fabric on his broad back.
“[Where are we going?]” she asked.
One of the dwarves from the car answered. “[We're going to meet General Hilliard. He's in charge.]”
“[And Room 32?]”
“[It's a conference room off the General's office.]”
“[Sure it is.]”
“[Have I given you any reason to doubt me?]”
“[You've hardly said a word. But you work for the US government, and we're walking through a tunnel under Area 51. Should I believe you?]”
The dwarf shrugged. “[Perhaps not. But it makes no difference to my life either way.]”
Keeble looked at the wall and touched the smooth stone while he walked. He could feel it dancing under his fingertips.
Eventually, after a dozen turnings and several short flights of stairs, they stopped in front of a plain, deep-set metal door. They'd seen nobody in all of their travels, no hint of activity. All of the hallways had been empty and featureless, apart from the swirling patterns on the walls that occasionally coalesced into striking pictures. Keeble was surprised to realize that they were apparently at their destination. He went inside when the door was opened.
The room beyond was four meters to a side with a metal locker to the right of the door and a table and four chairs in the middle. A second door, flanked by two beds, was directly opposite the entrance. The biggest dwarf Keeble had ever seen was lying on one of the beds. He was fast asleep and hanging over the edges. The door closed and Keeble turned to discover that he, Kim, and Meledrin were alone with the stranger.
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