Starswarm

by Jerry Pournelle

  None of them had ever seen a mine, but Kip agreed, the excavations along the left side of the gallery looked like mines in TRI-V stories. "Anyway," he said, "there aren't any centaurs here now, and they sure didn't leave anything behind. And there aren't any signs of anything else here."

  "Why didn't Dr. Henderson study this place?" Marty asked. "Doesn't he know about it?"

  "I'm sure Uncle Mike told him," Kip said. He looked significantly at Lara. "But maybe he has reasons not to draw attention to mines."

  "I'm sure that's it," Lara said.

  "What are you talking about?" Marty demanded. "What do you two know that I don't?"

  Lara giggled. "A lot."

  "Oh, come on now," Marty said.

  "Well, it's a long story," Kip said. "But I don't think Dr. Henderson wants the GWE people poking around here."

  "So we're safe from the security geeks," Marty said.

  "I'm sure Dad won't tell the security people anything," Lara said.

  "I don't know," Kip said. "Won't he panic when he finds out you're gone?"

  "He'll know I'm with you," Lara said. "Mother will worry, but Dad won't."

  "Hey, they'll know I'm out here with you too," Marty said.

  "That ought to make them feel better," Kip said. The water was boiling, and he put a tea bag into the kettle.

  Marty laughed, but not hard. "You still don't like me, do you?"

  "Should I?"

  "Yeah, you should. Look, I acted like a butthead when I first got here, but I don't anymore, and you know it."

  "Well, maybe—All right, you don't, and I don't have any reason not to like you." Except that you spend too much time with Lara, Kip thought. But he didn't want to say that.

  "Friends, then? For real?" Marty held out his hand.

  "Yeah, OK." Kip took his hand. "And thanks for coming with us."

  "Well, I guess I was more worried about Lara than you," Marty said. "Guess I have to tell you that."

  "I sort of suspected."

  They slept fitfully. The only way they could tell when morning came was by their watches, and by then the flash they were using as a floodlamp was getting dim. "We're not doing much good in here," Marty said.

  "We're better off here than in jail," Kip said.

  "Well, maybe," Marty said. "But it's spooky in here, and there's nothing to do. At least we could explore the cave. Find out what the centaurs used to do here."

  "Well—"

  "Don't you want to know?" Marty demanded. "Lara does. Don't you?"

  "Sure," she said, but she didn't sound very sure.

  "Look, you say there's some reason why Dr. Henderson wouldn't want the GWE people looking in here," Marty said. "So he didn't send his science people here either. But we're already here, and we've got nothing else to do. Let's explore. Gee, maybe when things quiet down we can publish in a real journal."

  "So?" Kip asked.

  "It would help with university admission applications," Marty said. "A real publication."

  "You still thinking about that?" Lara asked.

  "Yeah, I'd like to go to Zurich."

  "Will you come back?" Kip asked.

  "Never. You like it here on this planet? But then you never lived anywhere else, how would you know? This place sucks."

  "Where did you live, back on Earth?" Lara asked.

  "Minneapolis. That's in the United States—"

  "Kip knows that," Lara said. "Kip, tell him what the population of Minneapolis is."

  "Current population, Minneapolis?" he asked automatically. There was no answer. The silence was terrifying. "I don't know that."

  "I thought you knew everything," Lara said. "Kip never forgets anything—"

  "That's not true," Kip said. He frowned at the thought. He had known, if not everything, then everything he had ever heard, and most of what anyone else knew. All he had to do was ask. Now—What did he remember and what had he forgotten? He was so used to relying on Gwen to be his memory that he wasn't sure he knew how to think without her.

  "Well, you sure didn't used to forget," Lara said. "He remembers all kinds of stuff. Not just from school."

  "Maybe I don't anymore," Kip said.

  "How can that be? Kip, what's wrong?" Lara asked.

  "Nothing—"

  "There is too," she said, puzzled. "If you don't want to tell me—"

  "That's not it, there's nothing to tell."

  "Sure."

  "Let's explore," Marty said. "What harm can we do?"

  "Well, I guess so," Kip said. He wanted to ask Gwen, but that was impossible. He couldn't even ask her about the best way to explore, or tell her to remember what they saw. She wouldn't be watching, so he might forget how to get back! "We have to stay together, really close together. Maybe we ought to rope up—"

  "It's not steep," Marty said. "No point. Come on, I'll lead if you want. We can leave our stuff here."

  "No," Kip said. "We take everything. Just in case. And clean up so no one knows we've been here."

  "Good thinking," Marty said. "But it won't work. We'll never cover up the footprints." He shone his light on their footprints mingled with those of the dogs.

  "Yeah, I guess not."

  "Let's go, then." Marty stood and lifted his pack.

  The dogs stood up eagerly. It was clear they were even more bored than the humans.

  "All right," Kip said. "Silver. Stay close. All stay close."

  Marty started off across the main gallery, closely following the centaur path that threaded through stalactites and stalagmites. When they crossed the main cave, they came to a corridor about the size of a hallway in a human house. It branched, and ahead they could see it branched again. It would be very easy to get lost there, but only one of the passages had centaur tracks, and Marty followed those. The passageway sloped gently upward.

  They'd been in the passageway for ten minutes when Silver barked, twice. A warning.

  "Stop," Kip said. "Listen."

  They couldn't hear anything. "Get close," Kip said. "Hold hands. Now turn off the lights."

  At first the darkness seemed total, then, far ahead, there was a dim glow. "A light," Lara said. She sounded scared.

  "Shh—"

  There were faint sounds from the direction of the light. Shuffling noises they could just barely hear. Silver growled, low. Kip reached down and felt the hackles on the back of the dog's neck. They were stiff and erect.

  "Centaur," Kip said. "Silver thinks so, anyway."

  "Now I am scared," Lara whispered. "Kip, shouldn't we go back?"

  "Yeah—"

  The light ahead became brighter.

  "Kip, I think there's another big gallery up there," Marty said. "Not too far. Whatever's up there is in that room. I don't think they're real close."

  "So what do you want to do?"

  "I want to go look," Marty said. "Don't you?"

  "What do I do now?" There was only silence. "Keep the light really dim, and go slow," Kip said. He fingered his pistol in its holster. "Silver. Stay close. All stay close."

  They went ahead another forty meters. They couldn't get lost, because there was still a clear trail worn smooth by centaurs, who must have used this passageway for years, although there were no signs of recent activity. As Marty had predicted, the passageway got wider as they went. Then, suddenly, it opened out so wide they couldn't see the walls on either side, and the ceiling seemed far above them.

  "Lights out," Marty said.

  "Not until we're holding hands," Kip said. They moved closer together. "OK."

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Blaze Again

  AS THEIR lights went out, the lights ahead became brighter. In a moment it was clear why: there were four centaurs about fifty meters away, and each now lit a torch so that they were all holding one. Three of them lifted their torches high above their heads. The burning torches gave off the tarry smell of the greasewood bushes that grew around the centaur grove. Even with all four centaurs holding lit torches there
wasn't much light, but it was enough that they could see that the fourth centaur was coming toward them. "Look out—"

  Silver growled and started forward. "Back!" Kip ordered. "Stay close!"

  The centaur was about thirty meters away, and coming steadily but slowly. Marty shone his torch on the centaur. The light seemed very bright, and the centaur stumbled. "It blinds them," Marty said. "They couldn't hurt us if they wanted to. But he doesn't look like he wants to attack us."

  "Yeah—Marty, that's Blaze!"

  "Sure looks like him," Marty said. "And he's carrying something. Not a spear, something small—"

  The centaur came closer. It stood ten meters from them and suddenly tossed something toward them. Silver charged. The centaur flinched back, then drew an ax from its belt.

  "Back!" Kip ordered. The dog stopped halfway to the centaur.

  "What did he throw?" Kip shouted.

  "I've got it," Lara said. "Kip—Kip, it's another watch! Maybe even the same one, it looks enough like it." She shined her light on Kip's wrist. "But you still have yours."

  "Gift," Marty said. "See, I told you—"

  "Where would they get another watch?" Lara demanded.

  The centaur laid something on the cave floor and backed away from it. After a few steps it turned and went back to join the other three at the far end of the gallery.

  "What is that?" Kip asked. "I think—"

  "Yeah, me too," Marty said. "It's another of those watches. Where the devil are they getting them all?"

  "I don't know," Kip said. "That's four of them, and I bet they're all just alike. Gwen thought there might be an illegal manufacturing facility on Paradise. Counterfeits of Seiko watches. But—"

  "Who's Gwen?" Lara demanded.

  "Someone I know—"

  "How? You mean someone you know on-line?"

  "Yeah, sort of—look, I'll explain some other time." Kip went forward and picked up the watch. As far as he could tell with his flashlight it was identical to the two he already had. "Let's see yours," he told Lara.

  "They really are just alike," Lara said.

  "Yeah." He held the two new finds next to the one he wore.

  "I don't see any difference," Lara said. "So that's three."

  "Four," Kip said. "I'll explain later." He examined the newfound watches for the tiny scratch marks Gwen had noticed, but the light wasn't good enough to be certain he saw them. "Can you hear me?"

  There was no answer. Cave's too deep, he thought.

  "Now what are they doing?" Lara asked.

  Blaze had joined the other centaurs. Now all four stood in a straight line, Blaze at their head, and they were gesturing in unison. They held their torches above their heads with their right arms. With their left arms they motioned, each the same gesture at the same time, like a dance troupe on TRI-V. Then they repeated the gesture.

  "If it was people doing that I'd say they meant 'follow me,' " Marty said. "And I think that's what they mean too."

  "It sure looks that way," Lara said. "But why? Kip, none of this makes sense! Two more Seiko watches. I think Marty's right, they have to be presents. You had one, now there's two more, one for each of us. But why Seiko watches? Where did they get them?"

  "I don't know where they got them, but they sure brought them for us," Marty said. "But how did they know we were in here? They didn't trail us in, they didn't come in the way we did. So how did they know? Kip, Dr. Henderson says these things are about as smart as baboons, but they sure don't act like any baboons I ever heard of!"

  "Yeah. I'm more worried about why they want us to follow them," Kip said.

  "I think it's great!" Marty said. "I know we'll learn something no one else knows."

  "Like centaur hunting methods," Kip said.

  "Kip, he is right, this could be important," Lara said. "I think we should follow them. Just be careful."

  "Light," Kip said. "One flash is completely discharged. We have three more."

  "And extra batteries for mine," Lara said.

  "Ten hours of light before we have to recharge the flashlights in the sun," Kip said. "Maybe more, but call it ten to be safe. We've been going on this trail for fifteen minutes, call it half an hour to get back being sure of the way. If we follow the centaurs for two hours we can get back here in three hours, and to the entrance in three and a half. OK. We see where they want to lead us. I'll set the timer on my watch for two hours, and when it beeps, we turn around and go back. OK?"

  "We'd be safe following for four hours," Marty said. "But two is probably enough. Where can they go?"

  "We could get lost," Kip said.

  "Nah we won't," Marty said. "There's only one centaur trail, and it's easy to see. We just go back the way we came."

  "Well—"

  "And the dogs can find the way back anyway," Marty said. "Can't you, Silver?"

  Silver looked up at Marty" and waited. The big curled tail wagged.

  "You know, I think your dog is beginning to like me," Marty said.

  "They're supposed to like people. You have to work at making them not like you," Kip said.

  The centaurs were still standing in a line, gesturing forward.

  "This is spooky," Laura said.

  "Yeah. And important," Marty said.

  "I guess it is," Kip said. "But I sure wish I could ask Gwen—"

  "Gwen again," Lara said. "Just how would you do that? Did you bring a satellite link?"

  "Sort of. Not really," Kip said. "All right, we'll do it. Come on. Silver, stay close. All stay close." He led the way forward toward the centaurs. When they were about halfway to the group, the centaurs began to move away from them, still in line, Blaze leading. They looked back from time to time to see if the humans were following, and when they saw that they were, they began to walk faster.

  The path sloped upward. It wasn't straight, and there were other side passages. There didn't seem to be any other paths with footprints, but Kip wasn't sure. "We ought to mark the trail branches," Kip said.

  "They're going too fast," Marty said.

  "Besides, the male dogs are doing it anyway," Lara said. She giggled. "They'll be able to find the way back."

  They went on for nearly an hour, through several more large open galleries followed by more narrow passageways. Sometimes the trail seemed to slope downward for a few dozen meters, but mostly it was uphill, and Kip was sure they'd climbed several hundred meters. There were stalactites everywhere, and some of the passages had pools of water in them. Once they heard a running stream, but they didn't see it.

  "Light," Lara said. "I see light ahead of the centaurs."

  Kip squinted. "I think you do!"

  "I knew that outside passageway was too small for the centaurs to use for mining," Marty said. "This must be the way they get in."

  "But where are we?" Lara asked. "I'm all turned around."

  "Me too," Marty admitted. He looked at his global position indicator card. "These aren't any use here. We're too deep inside to get any signals from the GPS satellites. But I think the centaurs are going outside, we'll know where we are pretty soon."

  "That won't be safe," Kip said. "They'll be looking for us with those choppers—"

  "I think we'll hear them coming," Lara said. "Anyway, no harm in going to the cave mouth. Don't you want to know where we are?"

  "Yeah, I guess so." Kip moved cautiously toward the cave exit. The sunlight outside was very bright. When their eyes were adjusted to the daylight they saw that the cave entrance was hidden in thornybush and other scrub, but there was water beyond it. Marty took out his position indicator card and turned it on.

  "Is that safe? "Lara asked.

  "Sure, they don't send a signal, they just receive one from the satellites," Marty said.

  Kip realized that he could probably call Gwen now that he was at the cave mouth. He told himself that a short message wouldn't do any harm. The temptation was high. Gwen had told him that communications would be dangerous, but she ought to know about th
e watches, and the strange behavior of the centaurs—

  "Kip, we're at the far side of the lake," Lara said. "It's not on the maps, but this cave must go right into Strumbleberry Hill."