Refulgence, or the Great Terrace or the Broken Dome,
amongst several others which he assumed were also
imposing caves buried deep beneath the mountain
ranges of Darien. Yet all they would voice was the pre-
posterous notion that he had been dispatched far into
the depths of hyperspace to some kind of collapsed con-
tinuum, the kind of fanciful idea one might hear from
the shaman of a primitive culture and which he would
normally have handed over to Harry to deal with.
But Harry was silent and had been so since that ter-
rifying ordeal in the Uvovo chamber. As was Rosa's
intersim device which he had put in his gown pocket
back at the Gangradur Falls. He knew that the batteries
were fully charged yet when he turned it on it remained
inert, unlit, blank, empty.
Like me, he thought. Without Harry and Rosa I
feel... alone.
The path they were following was uneven and strewn
with gravel, and damp with the water that seeped in
from above and collected in a myriad little puddles. Up
ahead, Track-Reski was waving one of its retractable
stalk-arms at them from a side tunnel out of which a
pearly runoff trickled.
'We must take this stone lane,' it said. 'Enemies wait
further ahead along Refulgence.'
'Enemies?' Robert said, alarmed.
'This way leads to the lithosphere of Abfagul,' said
Tripod-Reski. 'That regime is inimical towards AI mechs
such as we.'
'True, but it is even more inimical towards our pur-
suers,' Track-Reski said.
'I have seen no pursuers,' Robert said. 'Who are these
enemies?'
A humming sound drew near and he turned to see his
third escort bobbing and gliding along on an air cushion
generated beneath its oval hull.
'Enemies behind,' it said. 'Enemies across . . .'
Gazing across the stalactite-bearded ceiling, Robert
saw a black shape move in the gloom, long and writhing
like a snake made of black smoke. As he watched it
stretched and flowed up to the ceiling and began to
advance across it.
'We must go!' said Hover-Reski. 'Go now!'
Urged on by his escorts and a jolt of unreasoning
fear, he climbed up the sloping passage, quickly follow
ing the glowing beams shining from Track-Reski's
headlamps, gradually slowing as his strength ebbed. Yet
still he stumbled along as the passage widened, its walls
rising higher, and became a rocky path winding along
the bottom of a long, gloomy fissure while an irregular,
semi-musical clanging noise went on far above. Soon
the narrow path became a tunnel again, which dipped
downwards for a stretch, took an odd twist and turned
back upwards, its dank darkness broken by the escort-
ing mechs' wavering lamp beams.
A grey oval emerged from the dark up ahead and
soon Robert was clambering out of a hole on a grassy
slope dotted with huge, mossy boulders. A thick, grey
mist hung low in the cold, still air and the light was
meagre and diffuse, like twilight or pre-dawn. Off to
one side was a still, reflective pool of water, over which
a group of odd insects with long writhing tendrils
buzzed and spun and danced. Feeling weary he sat on
the ground, heedless of the damp grass, watching the
insects as he got his breath back.
'This is the lithosphere of Abfagul,' said Tripod-Reski
as it presented to Robert a square tablet of the fibrous
ration that the mechs had been feeding him since his
arrival.
'Who or what is Abfagul?' Robert said as he bit and
chewed.
'Species and hierarchy,' said Hover-Reski as it glided
past, heading downslope to scout further ahead.
'Are they native to Darien?' Robert said. 'This climate
feels as if it could be on the same latitude as the colony, yet
I've seen no mention of another established culture ...'
'Our apologies, Human Horst,' said Track-Reski, set-
ting down a thin beaker of water for him. 'We cannot
answer your queries - falsifying your frame of reference
may have unwanted consequences.'
Robert frowned and drank the water, resenting the
comment.
'You have offered no proof that we are in some deep
level of hyperspace, as if the universe were built of
layers!' He gestured around him. 'This seems like out-
doors in a temperate climate, yet you call it a, what, a
lithosphere?'
'This lithosphere is one of several in this particular
stratum,' said Tripod-Reski. 'Some of the others are
almost on planetary-body scales, and thus prone to
entropo-pressure collapse. This one is only about I
thousand miles in diameter . . .'
'All right,' Robert said, angry yet willing to humour
his companions. 'Let's say that hyperspace is another
kind of universe . . .'
'Universes,' said Hover-Reski, emerging from behind
a large split boulder.
'The desiccated remains of dead universes sink down
into hyperspace and accrete in a sedimentary fashion,'
said Track-Reski. 'Do we have time to explain the struc-
ture of the Strativerse?'
'No,' said Hover- and Tripod-Reski in unison.
'Then why have I been abducted?' Robert said, sud-
denly angry at this ridiculous situation and wishing
Harry was here.
'Only the Construct can tell you that,' said Tripod
Reski. 'And the sooner we reach the upgate, the sooner
you will know.'
After that they said little of substance as Robert
allowed himself to be steered across an austere, hilly
landscape veiled in an unending, misty dusk. Now and
then, mournful, ululating cries reverberated through the
sky overhead and once they heard something answer
from far off behind them, a harsh implacable sound.
Not long after they heard the same harsh call but now
from ahead and away to the left.
'Hunters are out,' said Hover-Reski.
'Are they hunting us?' Robert said, suddenly anx-
ious.
'They hunt anything that strays into their sphere,'
said Track-Reski. 'Luckily, the stone lane to the Great
Terrace awaits us on the other side of the next hill . . .'
Robert could feel his heart hammering and his throat
ached from the quickness of his breath, but he felt relief
when a tunnel entrance came into view. The three mechs
paused on the crest of the hill to scan and map the
immediate area before beginning their descent. They had
all gone a few yards when the mechs suddenly leaped
ahead, dashing downslope.
'Quickly, Human Horst!' said one. 'Hostile is closing!'
'But . . . where?' Robert said, breaking into a run,
looking to either side and seeing nothing.
'Above!'
All he could do was snatch the briefest of upwards
glances and almost stumbled when he saw the winged
horror that was plummeting towards them, a writhing
monstrosity of eyeless,
snapping heads, hooked tentacles
and clutching claws. The mechs were now only slightly
ahead of him and they reached the mouth of the tunnel
and dived inside just as the monster landed heavily and,
with a deafening, multi-throated roar, threw itself after
them.
Gasping and wheezing from the effort, Robert stag-
gered to a halt to lean against the tunnel wall and get his
breath back.
'Keep running, Human Horst!' said Tripod-Reski.
'... sorry . .. need to ...'
The little mech grabbed the flapping hem of his gown
and pulled at it with surprising strength. In the next
moment the tunnel shook as the winged monster
rammed itself up against the entrance, claws tearing at
its edges while tentacles tipped with gleaming pincers
and fanged mouths snaked forward. The tunnel floor
trembled, stones and clumps of earth fell from its roof,
and now all three mechs were urging Robert to retreat.
'Back to solid rock, human Horst,' said Track-Reski.
'Before entrance collapses.'
The grotesque beast was grinding and gouging the
tunnel wider, howling with a dozen mouths as it tried to
wedge itself further along. Running and stumbling along-
side the mechs, Robert heard the deep rumble of a cave-in
from behind, followed by a muffled roar of hate and fury.
Clouds of dust puffed up from the collapse, and several
yards on Robert's knees gave way and he sat down in the
dirt, legs akimbo, gasping for breath, massaging a pain in
his side.
'What was ... that.. . thing} .. .'
'Abfagul,' said Hover-Reski as it hummed off downs-
lope. 'Small one ...'
48
CATRIONA
The hunt was nearing its conclusion. She and her
troupe, two Listeners and eighteen Scholars, had paused
up in the subcanopy to await the arrival of another
Listener and five Scholars from Seacloud on the north-
ern coast. They were some 900 feet above the forest
floor with the light of day waning, golden yellow shad-
ing into amber and filtering down through Segrana's
leafy veils. Gloom was already seeping into the cooling
depths, but Cat knew where their quarries were because
her eyes had other eyes to help her—
From its perch on a low, leafy branch, the kizpi
watches the clearing. A crouching, camouflaged figure
creeps slowly through the undergrowth at one side, its
featureless armoured head moving from side to side to
360 its sensor sweep, its short-bodied and undoubtedly
lethal weapon held two-handed and aimed forward.
Eyes that she could search for and with, but only for
short spans of time - using these small creatures like
this panicked them, causing them to dart away into the
shadows. But now, some 30 yards west of the kizpi, she
had found an umisk, a flighted lizard with excellent eye-
sight and hearing. It had just caught and eaten a large,
juicy insect and had paused on a branch to preen a few
dislodged feathers when movement below snared its
attention—
Ghosting through undergrowth with precise steps,
the intruder stops to scan its surroundings, around and
above. The diminishing light gleams dully on the
helmet visor as it turns and tilts up, arms raising the
weapon along the same line of sight. Its short barrel
gives the tiniest of jerks along with a quiet, flicking
sound, and an arboreal animal, grazer or hunter, falls
to the forest floor with a rustling thud. The intruder
moves on.
Cat let the umisk slip away, aware of the many other
small beasts going about their business in that earthy
darkness. It was actually possible to use her bonds with
Segrana to call on the senses of all creatures in the forest
surrounding the Ezgara, thereby studying it in the
round, but there would be little advantage to it. Besides,
such an act would leave her weak and mentally exhausted
when right now she needed all of her faculties, both old
and new.
'They know we're here,' she told the Listener who sat
on the branch next to her.
'Will they be aware of what we have done to their
devices?' said Listener Malir, a Warrior Uvovo from
Overstream.
It had only been hours since scouts discovered
charges set against the central pillar-trees of three main
buttress clusters, the outer north, outer northeast, and
outer east. With the use of potent acid (from several
poroon beetles) and quick-setting syldu sap, the trigger
mechanisms were rendered inert. But Cat was sure that
these Ezgara were getting scanning and update infor-
mation from somewhere, possibly a small satellite left in
orbit which could also provide links to their bombs.
When they were disarmed, some alarm might have been
set off, warning the commandos that their presence had
been detected. Hence their high state of alertness as they
headed southwest, straight towards Pilipoint Station.
A lanky Uvovo swung down from an adjacent tree to
join Cat and Listener Malir.
'Honourable Listener and Pathmistress,' he said, eyes
wide. 'The Seacloud Listener approaches.'
That was what they were calling her - Pathmistress.
She didn't like it but the Listeners of Highsonglade had
decided on it soon after waking from the Segrana-sent
dream they had all undergone. And when she went out
into Segrana's dense heartlands she found that the
dream had not been a localised event. It helped when
she needed information and scouts but made her feel a
kind of responsibility she had never experienced before.
But she was able to put that to one side and focus on her
task, the bargain she had made, the protection of
Segrana and the People of the Leaves.
The Listener from Seacloud was called Okass and his
five Scholars were all armed with fishcatcher whips with
which, they asserted, they could snatch a weapon from
unaware hands in the blink of an eye. She decided to
send them with Malir and his seven Scholars while she
accompanied the other Listener, Juso from Skygarden,
whose eleven were skilled with nets.
Malir and Okass moved away and downwards, fol-
lowing Cat's directions towards the more westerly of
the two intruders while she and Juso went after the
other. While the Uvovo could travel with swift agility,
Cat was forced to make do with a trictra, strapping into
the leathery harness then following on through the inter-
woven branches and lichenous curtains of vines. Her
strange connection to Segrana allowed her to catch
glimpses of the two quarries as well as the Uvovo con-
verging on them, and it was soon apparent that the
Ezgara knew what was happening. Abandoning stealth,
both were charging full-tilt through the forest, with 1 he
Uvovo leaping from tree to tree and gaining on them.
And it was Malir and Okass's Scholars who pounced
>
first, seeking to snare the intruder's feet and disarm him
in one fell swoop. But the Ezgara proved wily, jumped
the hook-tipped whip meant for his ankles, ducked and
rolled under the one coming for his compact rifle. Then
sprayed the forest to either side with arcs of needles or
spines from the smaller weapons held in his lower hands.
Someone shrieked in agony and fell but the hunt contin-
ued.
Catriona lost track of the chase then - most small
animals had fled the immediate area, frightened by the
violence. Moments later she heard a harsh, muffled
buzz coming in short bursts. More cries, then an
uneasy silence. She scoured the nearby forest from the
depths to the heights and found a long-backed vithni a
female out hunting for her cubs. It was easy to per-
suade her that tasty grubs lay in a certain direction
and soon -
The vithni clambers along a series of low branches,
keeping pace with the party of exultant Uvovo who are
carrying a bound figure on their shoulders. Its helmet
and armoured jacket are missing and Cat is astonished
to see that the Ezgara has a very Humanlike face, well-
proportioned male features with calm grey eyes gazing
fixedly upwards. The man does not struggle yet a certain
intensity emerges in his face, the eyes beginning to widen
and stare, the lips drawing back from the teeth, a
flushed hue spreading red and mottled over the skin.
Then his head starts to tremble, his eyes show the
whites, he smiles and fire blooms in his mouth before an
explosion blots out everything
The bond with the vithni vanished and a thunderous
detonation reverberated through the forest. Cat gasped
at the severed connection, gasping for breath, almost
stunned with disbelief. The spidery trictra beneath her
shifted nervously while she tried to calm herself in the
face of this new horror. A suicide self-destruct - was
this another example of Sendrukan cruelty?
'Quickly,' she said to the Scholar escorting her. 'Rush
ahead and tell Juso that I want him to hold back, leave
the intruder alone but keep tracking him.'
The young Scholar nodded eagerly and was off, dis-
appearing into the shadowy trees while Cat urged the
trictra on. Cries of pain filtered through the forest from
Michael Cobley - Humanity's Fire book 1 Page 46