Starswarm

by Jerry Pournelle

  "Go to hell," Marty said.

  "And, you, Mr. Smartmouth—Put the cuffs on him, Carlos."

  Carlos moved toward Marty. Marty's five-month-old dog King growled and charged toward him. Carlos kicked at the dog, and Marty ran toward Carlos, his fists flying.

  "Goddammit, halt!" Johnny shouted. He turned toward Marty.

  "Now, Silver!" Kip shouted.

  Silver leaped at the man's wrist. The other dogs charged Carlos. He fired once. There was a puff of smoke on Mukky's left back leg, and a smell of burnt meat. Mukky whimpered but she kept moving toward Carlos. Then Kodiak leaped and seized the man's gun hand, while King grabbed his trousers leg. Marty ran up and snatched the pistol from Carlos's hand. Silver had Johnny's gun. He brought it to Kip.

  Marty waved the pistol he'd taken from Carlos. "You bastard, you kicked my dog!"

  "Marty!" Lara shouted. "Stop!"

  "Silver. Back," Kip said. "Guard. Marty, give me that gun, please."

  "I ought to burn that bastard's head off."

  "No. Give me the gun, please."

  "Boy, you're in a heap of trouble," Johnny said. "Carlos, you hurt?"

  "No, sir. That dog had hold of me good, but there don't seem to be any blood. Jeez, Lieutenant, I'm sorry—"

  "I didn't do any better than you, Sergeant. Boy, nobody's hurt. Give us our guns back and get out of here and we'll call it square—"

  "No, sir, we'll wait for Dr. Henderson," Kip said. "He's the Director of Starswarm Station—"

  "I know who he is," Johnny said.

  Carlos turned toward Kip. A half-dozen threatening growls stopped him. "Christ Almighty, call off those dogs," he said. "What call you got keeping vicious dogs like that?"

  "They're not vicious," Lara said. "They love people. They just don't like big bullies. If those dogs were vicious you'd have lost some hide instead of just your guns. Kip, Mukky has a burn but it's not deep. She'll have a scar, though."

  The two engineering men who had been operating the bulldozer went into their shelter.

  "They'll be calling for backup," Johnny said. "Think about it, boy, you want to fight a helicopter gunship? 'Cause that's what's coming. Give us our guns and stay away from here and we'll call it square."

  "We'll just wait."

  "Here comes Dad," Lara said.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  More Gourds

  DR. HENDERSON was riding the big-tired motor tricycle they used for distance travel on the tundra. "What's all this? "he asked. "Sir, I'm Lieutenant John Fuller, GWE Security. That's Sergeant Carlos Lopez. Two days ago we sent out a geological survey team to get some soil and mineral samples. About dawn yesterday someone threw a bomb into the compound. Blew up some equipment, bloody miracle no one was hurt. Lopez and I were sent out to protect the survey team. I presume you're Dr. Henderson?"

  "Yes, and I don't understand what you're doing here. You have no right—"

  "Yes we do, sir," Fuller said. "We were told to be careful in Station-owned territory. I've got a map showing restricted areas, and we're not in any of them. We have a right to be anywhere else and we don't have to ask your permission. I was told to tell you that if you raised the point, Dr. Henderson."

  "Told by whom?"

  "By Henry Tarleton, Director of Security," Fuller said.

  "A bomb?" Kip asked.

  "Yeah. Know anything about it? Like did you make it?" Fuller demanded.

  "We haven't been outside the fence in weeks," Kip said. "None of us."

  "He's right," Dr. Henderson said. "The weather's only turned nice in the last week, and I didn't let anyone out over the weekend just in case it turned nasty again."

  "Sure," Fuller said. "How would you know if one of the kids sneaked out?"

  "The gate keeps a record," Dr. Henderson said. "There's no other way out."

  "Yeah, sure. But tell me, Doc, if someone from the station didn't throw that bomb, just who the hell did?"

  "What kind of bomb was it?"

  "Pretty crude. Mostly high explosive, more like a giant firecracker than anything else, but pretty damned powerful all the same. Not much left of it, but it seemed to be made of some kind of paper or cardboard. Homemade, no shrapnel, lots of noise. Like it was made by kids, Dr. Henderson. You got a chemistry lab? Either of you boys study chemistry? I did when I was your age. Made big firecrackers. I figure a kid made that bomb and didn't know how powerful it was, and threw it into the compound as a joke that got out of hand. Like this situation got out of hand."

  "I study chemistry and I could have made that bomb," Lara said. "I didn't, but I could have."

  "What situation? Kip, what happened?" Dr. Henderson asked.

  Kip explained briefly. "Then the dogs took their guns away. One of them burned Mukky, but I guess it's not serious."

  "Well, I can understand Marty getting mad at you about kicking his dog," Dr. Henderson said. "And you not only had no right to disarm Kip, it was stupid to try. Leaving children out here unarmed is a very dangerous thing. And stupid as well. Then you shot Mukky. Lara, are you sure she's all right?"

  "Yes, Dad, it's not deep. Mostly fur."

  "You worry more about that damn dog than about us," Lieutenant Fuller protested.

  "You're right," Dr. Henderson said. "The dogs are my responsibility. Security officers stupid enough to get into this kind of trouble aren't. Who is your superior?"

  "No need for that," Fuller said. "Look, like I told the kid, you forget about this, we'll forget about it. I'll put the bomb down to a joke that went bad, and the rest is a misunderstanding. No harm done."

  "Kip?" Dr. Henderson asked.

  Kip bent over to inspect Mukky's burn. It was about six centimeters long, a straight line of burnt fur along the dog's left hindquarter, but it didn't look serious, just deep enough to scar, and the fur would grow back over to cover that. "Is King all right, Marty?"

  "Yeah, he didn't really land that kick. Just tried."

  "Then I guess there's no harm done," Kip said. "So it's all right. We can forget this part."

  Dr. Henderson nodded. "All right, then."

  "But they shot the centaur," Kip said. "The leader, the one that brought us the spear, has a bad burn. It sure looks like a laser burn to me."

  "Did you shoot that centaur?" Dr. Henderson demanded.

  "Hell, first it's dogs, now it's the centaurs," Carlos said.

  "That'll do, Sergeant," Fuller said. "Yes, Dr. Henderson, I burned the centaur. It was getting too close to the bulldozer. It kept coming after three warning shots, so I zapped it. I could have killed it, but my orders are to have minimum impact and cause you as little trouble as possible, so I was damned careful not to do it any permanent harm. Matter of fact, I'm a bit proud of my shooting. And don't tell me I don't have the right to protect the survey crew. Those centaurs aren't exactly domestic animals, you know."

  "I'll grant you that. How long are you people going to be here?" Dr. Henderson demanded.

  "Should be done in five or six days, Doc. Then we'll be out of here, and it won't be too soon for me."

  "All right. Kip, return the Lieutenant's weapons. And I want you kids to stay away from the survey crew from now on."

  "Yes, sir."

  "As to you, Lieutenant, is it necessary to let mud wash into the lake?"

  "I'll get that cleaned up," Fuller said. "I wasn't happy with that dirt pile when I got here, but before I could make them clean it up, it rained like hell. I'm sorry about the mud that got washed down to the lake. Nothing I could do. Now that it's not raining, I'll have them clean up. That's in my orders. Doc, I told you, we're supposed to cause you as little trouble as possible."

  "All right, then. We'll try to stay out of your way, and I won't report this incident if you don't."

  "That's a deal, Doc." He held out his hand to Kip. "Shake?"

  Kip didn't like it, but there didn't seem to be anything he could do. "All right." He shook Fuller's hand, and gave him back the two pistols.

  Dr. Henderson
got on his trike. He hesitated a moment, then drove back toward the station.

  "Come on," Kip said. "Let's look at the lake."

  The muddy water nearest the shore of the lake roiled with bubbles and lashing tentacles. The agitation lessened farther from die shore, and the water was calm from the center of the lake to the other side. As Kip and his friends came closer to the lake, the furious activity began to die away, and by the time they reached the lakeshore, the lake was nearly calm.

  "I think it knows us," Lara said.

  "It's a plant, for heaven's sake," Marty said. "How can a plant know who we are?"

  "I don't know, maybe the Starswarm doesn't know us, but I think those do," Kip said. He pointed toward the centaur grove. The lead centaur was moving cautiously toward them. It was holding one of the dull gray gourds they had seen the centaurs bring up from the seacoast. It eyed Kip and the others and moved clockwise around the lake away from them until it was about two hundred meters away. Then it threw the gourd into the water. A Starswarm tentacle came up to seize the gourd, and both vanished under the lake water.

  "I wonder what that was all about," Marty said. "That stuff with the gourds."

  "They're not really gourds," Lara said. "We have one at home. It's more like a sea kelp bulb. It stinks. It's hollowed out, with a stopper, like they keep liquids in it."

  "What kind of liquids?" Marty asked.

  "Daddy didn't tell me."

  "Maybe it's booze," Marty said. He chuckled. "Wonder what a drunk centaur would be like? Man, I bet they drink powerful stuff."

  "Any idea of what was in the gourd?"

  "ONE MOMENT. DATA FOLLOWS: FOURTEEN SUCH GOURDLIKE CONTAINERS HAVE BEEN RECOVERED FROM THE LAKE SINCE YOU SAW THE CENTAURS DELIVERING THEM THERE. THEY ARE IN FACT PLANETARY ANALOGUES TO KELP BULBS FOUND ON EARTH, BEING PORTIONS OF LARGE WATER PLANTS. AT LEAST SIX OF THOSE COLLECTED WERE GROWN IN FRESH WATER. AT LEAST FIVE OF THE OTHERS ARE DEFINITELY PART OF SALTWATER PLANTS. THREE REMAIN INDETERMINATE IN ORIGIN BUT ARE AT LEAST FIVE YEARS OLD, AND ONE OF THOSE MAY BE CONSIDERABLY OLDER THAN THAT. THEY ARE PROBABLY USED REPEATEDLY BY THE CENTAURS, BUT THEIR PURPOSE IS NOT WELL UNDERS'FOOD. EACH OF THE GOURDS CONTAINED TRACES OF COMPLEX ORGANIC CHEMICALS WITH AN OVERSUPPLY OF HEAVY METALS, BUT THE CHEMICALS WERE DIFFERENT IN EACH GOURD. THERE WAS SOME EVIDENCE THAT THE GOURDS HAD CONTAINED SOLID MATERIALS AS WELL. DO YOU WANT THE FULL ANALYSIS?"

  "Anything interesting?"

  "THERE WERE TRACES OF BOTH URANIUM AND PLUTONIUM IN ONE OF THE GOURDS."

  "Why didn't you tell me before?"

  "I DID NOT LOOK FOR THIS REPORT UNTIL YOU ASKED. IT IS IN A FILE ON THE STARSWARM STATION MAIN COMPUTER. I HAVE ONLY RECENTLY GAINED TOTAL ACCESS TO THAT MACHINE. I HAVE NOT FULLY EXAMINED ALL ITS FILES PENDING COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THE SECURITY SYSTEM. I NOTE THAT DR. HENDERSON HAS PLACED THE ANALYSIS OF THE GOURDS IN A CLOSED FILE. I HAVE GAINED UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO THIS FILE, BUT IT IS NOT ACCESSIBLE TO THE GREAT WESTERN ENTERPRISES COMPUTER SYSTEM."

  "He hid the file. Why would he do that?"

  "DR. HENDERSON HAS INCLUDED A MEMORANDUM WITH THE FILES. THAT MEMORANDUM STATES THAT HE IS CONCERNED THAT GWE OFFICIALS WISH TO EXTERMINATE THE CENTAURS. THE SCIENTIFIC VALUE OF THE GOURD CONTENTS IS OUTMATCHED BY THE CONSEQUENCES OF GIVING GWE ANYMORE EXCUSES FOR HUNTING THE CENTAURS. HE HAS THEREFORE DECIDED TO SUPPRESS THE INFORMATION."

  "You're sure quiet," Marty said.

  "Sorry. If what's in those gourds really is centaur booze you sure better stay away from it," Kip said.

  "I can handle anything—"

  "Maybe you can, if it's alcohol," Kip said.

  "You sure wouldn't want to drink anything that came out of the gourd thing we have!" Lara said. "It stinks something awful."

  "And centaurs eat carrion," Kip said. "More necrotic products?"

  "What's a necrotic product?" Marty asked.

  "Means it comes from dead things when they rot," Lara said. "Seriously bad stuff."

  "Yeah, I believe that!"

  "THE COMPLEX ORGANICS IN THE RECOVERED GOURDS BEAR NO RELATIONSHIP TO THE NECROTIC PRODUCTS NORMALLY FOUND IN THE CENTAUR GOURDS, OR TO ANYTHING ELSE IN MY

  RECORDS."

  "Look, the centaur has another gourd thing, a red one," Marty said.

  "I think he pulled it out of the lake," Lara said. "Kip, did you see?"

  "No, I wasn't watching," Kip said. "But that's what they did last time, wasn't it? Threw in the ones they brought up from the coast and fished out red ones."

  "I think the water turns them red," Marty said.

  "Water doesn't make the one we have at home change color," Lara said.

  "Oh. Well, maybe it's not the same gourd, then," Marty said. "Only where did it come from?"

  "The Starswarm grows it," Lara said. "That's what Daddy says. The ones down on the coast grow one color, and our Starswarm grows another. No mystery there." She scratched her head, and mused, "Except why the centaurs haul them around. And why the Starswarm gives them to centaurs but has never let us see one."

  "They're not 'giving' them the gourds," Marty said. "It's a plant, it doesn't think. The centaurs just take them."

  "Then why do the centaurs find them and we haven't ever found a red one?" Lara said. "All the ones Daddy's people found were from the seacoast. Most of them they got the day after they dragged the lake. A lot of them floated up the next day. But not one red one."

  "But we saw the centaurs bring the red ones," Kip said. "Just the day before Dr. Henderson came out to drag the lake."

  "So you think that plant makes those gourds for the centaurs?" Marty asked. "Hmm. Actually, maybe that's what happens. The Starswarm makes them for whatever reason, the centaurs like the red kind for some other reason, and they find red ones because they know how to find them, and we don't. And they got them all before Dr. Henderson came out here."

  "Well, we won't get that one," Kip said. "He's taking it into the grove." He scanned across the grove entrance with his binoculars. "The other two are just watching the bulldozer. Wait, there's another one, hiding in the thicket there. I wonder just how many there are?"

  "We saw a dozen at once," Lara said.

  "All males," Kip said. "So we know there are more. I don't think we ever saw a live female—"

  "THAT IS CORRECT. NO LIVE FEMALE CENTAUR HAS EVER BEEN SEEN OUTSIDE THE GROVES. THE FEMALES TEND TO BE MUCH SMALLER, AND IT IS NOW BELIEVED THEY DO NOT LEAVE THE GROVES AT ALL. THE MALES DO ALL THE HUNTING AND TRAVELING, WHICH CAN BE EXTENSIVE, JOURNEYS OF OVER FIVE HUNDRED KILOMETERS BEING RECORDED. THE REASON FOR SUCH LONG-DISTANCE TRAVEL IS NOT KNOWN. IT MAY BE SIMPLE CURIOSITY, AS THERE IS NO OBVIOUS ADVANTAGE TO THE CENTAURS. THE ANATOMY OF THE CENTAURS SUGGESTS A FORM OF MAMMALIAN ANATOMY ALTHOUGH WHAT IS FED TO THE YOUNG IS NOT ACTUALLY MILK. ANTON LEVAC, A BIOLOGIST AT PEARLY GATES UNIVERSITY, SAYS 'IT IS MILK ONLY BY A LONG STRETCH OF THE ANALOG.' DO YOU NEED MORE INFORMATION?"

  "No."

  "KIP, I AM FORMING A HYPOTHESIS ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE STARSWARM AND THE CENTAURS. DO YOU WISH ME TO TELL YOU NOW?"

  Lara was looking at him strangely. He was getting used to carrying on conversations with Gwen while others were present, but it was still difficult. "Not now. Is there something I should look for?"

  "NO, BUT CONTINUE TO OBSERVE. I AM ALSO CURIOUS ABOUT THE WINKING LIGHTS ON THE STARSWARM."

  "Kip, what are you doing?" Lara asked.

  "I can sure cause that."

  "You'll see—" Kip looked around for a leaf. This time of year there wouldn't be many bugs or worms, and he had to look for a while.

  "You like feeding that thing, don't you?" Marty said.

  "Well, it's interesting," Kip said. "Here's some." One of the cabbage-appearing plants had partly rotted and the underside of the leaves on the ground had a few bugs and worms clinging to it. Kip took the leaf over to a part of the lake where the water was clear and threw it in. Before it hit the water a tentacle had flashed up to seize it. The Starswarm's lights blinked in a merry pattern. "Did that help?
"

  "IT GIVES ME MORE DATA TO ANALYZE. THANK YOU."

  And then it was getting dark. The workmen and security people had parked the bulldozer in the fenced compound next to their shelter, and were nowhere to be seen, but the centaurs were still watching from in front of their grove. As Kip and the others went over the ridge, Kip thought he saw the centaur they called Blaze come out of the grove to stare at him, but he couldn't be sure.

  Chapter Twenty-Three