Valhai (The Ammonite Galaxy)

by Gillian Andrews

  After the nutripack she managed to strip off her bodywrap. She stood under a cold shower for a moment, then got herself into bed. She was asleep within seconds.

  Six watched through cloudy vision as Diva at last made it to the top floor. He found tears coming to his eyes, and blinked them tiredly away. Well done Diva. Well done.

  He saw her hesitate as she was about to pull herself over onto the terrace, and then turn round, towards him. She was still for a few moments as she searched for him. Then he saw her register that he was about to reach his destination too. A miniature hand came up to wave her approbation. He returned the gesture, finding his throat choked.

  As they pulled themselves up and over onto their terraces they were both so weary from the supreme effort made that they found they couldn’t stand. They swayed, reeling, before they were pulled inside the skyrises by the watching Sellites, where they handed over the precious samples, and the nutripacks Vion had given them. The samples were rushed into the laboratory zones, while both Six and Diva in their separate skyrises were submitted to the indignity of having their bodywraps forcibly removed, being sponged down, made to drink a nutripack, and then put into a bed and left to sleep. It was all they could do. Both had arrived almost comatose at the top.

  Six spared a thought or two for Diva and Grace as he drifted off. He hoped Grace had managed to reach her objective. As for Diva, he thought, that girl was a real fighter! She never gave up. He hoped she would always be on his side. He was glad he had waited for her to reach the top so that they could climb onto the terraces together. It was nice to know that he could have won had he chosen to.

  Diva was so lightheaded that she found her head spinning. She was glad she had waited for Six before swinging over onto the terrace. Even if she could have beaten him hands down, it gave her a nice warm feeling inside to have waited for him. She went to sleep hoping that Grace had managed to get to her floor too.

  Chapter 32

  FIVE HOURS LATER things were getting a little bit worrying on Sell. The air supply was beginning to become scarce in patches, many of the skyrises were reporting first signs of distress. Morale was at its very lowest. If the scientists didn’t come up with something pretty quickly then it looked as if the whole planet of Valhai would become a barren wilderness, with all lifeforms extinct.

  Mandalon was on the tridi to Vion.

  “Haven’t you come up with anything yet?” he squawked, indignation seeping out of every pore. “There is no time left.”

  “I know.” Vion was glum. “We have run out of options. I am very much afraid that—”

  “Vion?” The connexion with Mandalon had been interrupted by the prioritized link to the exoscientists.

  “Here.”

  “We have found a probable cause for the orthogel disease.” It was the head of the 12th skyrise, the exochemist Amoton. “We have consulted with the 13th and the 86th, and between us we think we have a solution. But it will involve somebody getting out to the lake bare planet and administering what we hope will be the catalyst to initiate a cure.”

  “No problem,” Vion told him. “We have people who can go bare planet. What happened to the orthogel?”

  “There has been a severe blockage of positive chemotaxis, stopping phagocytosis, which in turn has led to a build up of folic acid. Detection of bacteria is thus inhibited and the whole ecosystem has failed. The enzyme we have synthesized will restore equilibrium.”

  “What caused it?”

  “We aren’t sure. Probably extreme sensitivity to changes in the electromagnetic field when the entity travelled away from Valhai.”

  “Do you have the catalyst in sufficient amounts?”

  “Luckily, yes. We have all three exolabs working on it, and the first batch can be sent out with your couriers in about one hour. Effects ought to be noticeable within four hours of application, and by then we will have synthesized another batch of enzyme.”

  “Does Sell have that long?” asked Vion.

  “Oh, certainly. Any patches of Sell which are already suffering from lack of air can apply mask packs. There is enough for twelve to fourteen hours. We are confident that within that timeline the orthogel entity can effect a good partial recovery, and reverse our own supply problems.”

  “That is excellent news, Amaton,” Vion said. “Let me know when the couriers depart, please, as I will want to go bare planet myself to coordinate.”

  “Certainly. I will also inform Mandalon in person of the advances made.”

  “Thank you.” Vion swiveled his chair around to face Cimma. “They did it, Cimma!”

  “Almagest was with them,” she said. “Will we be in time?”

  “They think so. But Six and Diva and Grace and I will have to go bare planet to apply it.”

  “Then we had better prepare a few mask packs, and a change of bodywrap for them. You too, Vion. It wouldn’t do you any harm to have a couple of nutripacks yourself. Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you give them out to everybody else but you don’t take any yourself.”

  “I . . . I haven’t been ill or anything.”

  “The future of the whole of Sell depends on the four of you now. I think we can spare a few nutripacks. You will do your job better if you have some food inside you. If you can call that liquid stuff food,” she added darkly.

  “You are right, Cimma. I will have some.”

  “You will sleep for a couple of hours, too,” she said firmly. “The others will have rested, but you have been up for the last twenty-eight hours. I will monitor the screens for you. Go and lie down. I promise to wake you up when the others get here.” She insisted in his drinking two nutripacks before going to sleep, and then forced him onto the put-up bed he normally used in the doctors’ station. At first he protested, but then he allowed himself to be persuaded. In ten minutes’ time he was soundly asleep.

  Diva was ready to go. Adrenalin was pumping around her body. The Sellites had packed the flasks of the synthesized enzyme which would effect the cure into a back-carry, which she slipped her arms through. As she bent to take up the load she staggered slightly and it was then that she realized that going down wasn’t going to be a spring walk in Mesteta either. The heavy weight on her shoulders would pull her out, away from the rungs of the ladder. Still, she thought, surely it would be easier than the journey up?

  The exochemists had clustered around the terrace exit. They were clearly frightened just at the thought of somebody attempting to negotiate the iron stairs. She gave a chuckle. This terror of open spaces was hard to understand for someone who had grown up on Coriolis and then been shut up in a bubble for a year and a half. Going bare planet didn’t scare her, though the drop down was a different matter.

  The biolock was opened, and Diva found herself outside, alone. The row of faces pressed curiously against the window only made her feel more isolated. With an inner sigh, she made her way over to the ladder, in a new, stiff, bodywrap.

  The worst was getting out onto the ladder with the heavy weight pulling on her back. It made her feel she was going to fall, and she clutched at the ladder anxiously. It took quite an effort not to look down, and although she had looked over at the next skyrise in the hope of spotting Six, there had been no sign of the Kwaidian. Never mind. Her job was clear, whether Six was with her or not. Get to the lake, extend the enzyme over as wide a range as possible, using the aspersion kit supplied.

  Once she got used to the unbalancing pack she found that it was indeed much easier than going up had been. She made herself go slowly and steadily as she had on the way up. Hand, breath. Foot, breath. But the energy needed was much less, and she was making much better time. She lost count of the floors, and only realized that she was nearly down when the terraces gave way to the rexelene blocks. She couldn’t help blowing a relieved sigh. With great care, she negotiated the last two floors and then stepped down cautiously onto the planet.

  “Hey!” A hand touched her on the shoulder, and she gave a start which lifted her
quite a foot off the surface of the planet.

  “Six!” she said. “You can kill a person doing something like that!”

  “I wish it were that easy.” he said. “Now you could kill a person just by looking at them.”

  “Flattery will get you nowhere, Kwaidian.”

  “Took your time getting down, didn’t you?”

  “Just waiting for you, nomus. I thought you were still up there.”

  “Huh! I was only a couple of floors below you. Your view must have been blocked by one of the terraces.”

  “I guess. So. Shall we make for the lake?”

  He nodded. “At all speed. Though we should stop by the 367th to pick up Vion?”

  “Definitely. He will know how to best apply this, and we can trade in the used mask packs.”

  “Okay, milady. Follow me.” Six turned and set up a smart pace, past other skyrises and down to the medical house.

  They met up with Grace at the 367th block. She had made it faster, though only by about five minutes. She and Vion were just putting on bodywraps, new in Grace’s case since she told them she hadn’t been able to find one on the floor where she had been left.

  Diva stared at her. “You came down in the same bodywrap? That was dangerous, Grace!”

  “I know.” Grace gave a shrug. “They didn’t give me much choice. They just lowered the enzymes down to me on a rope. So it was either that or put on a bodywrap that my father would have been lost in. I thought that was even more dangerous. I remember how Atheron used to drone on and on about bodywraps having to exert the right pressure on your skin.”

  “My friend Atheron,” mused Six. “I wonder if he really exists as a person, or is just artificial?”

  Grace stared at him. “Of course he exists,” she said. “He is head of the educational skyrise.”

  “Then how come he can be in two places at once?” asked Six.

  “He can’t. He uses vimpics, of course.” She looked towards Six as if he had only half a brain, and then decided to take pity on him and elaborate. “Virtual and Intuitive Multipersonality Program for Interscreen Clonation.”

  “But nobody else on Sell uses these . . . what . . . vimpics?”

  Grace wrinkled her forehead. “No-o-o,” she said doubtfully. “But then nobody else needs to use them. Why?”

  “Just an idea. Nothing.”

  “Thinking about an infinity of Sixes telling people what to do?” asked Diva.

  Six grinned at her. “Beautiful thought!” he agreed.

  Diva shuddered. “Pure torture.”

  Vion held up a hand. “Everybody ready?” They looked around at each other and nodded in return. “Let’s get out there, then.”

  Grace did the honours, leading the way down the metal ladder past the two rexelene floors and down onto the planet. Diva and Six followed, with Vion taking up the rear. Vion had taken over Grace’s pack, so Grace was carrying a few nutripacks, and the spare mask packs. They had decided to take enough for a long wait by the lake. They didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

  As they made their way over the grey sands of Valhai, Vion looked up at the sky. The half orb of Cian was a resplendent violet blue, hanging sharp against the rest of the stars in the sky. He could just make out the crescents of Cesis and Xiantha, and the bright white light of a distant Sacras was creating dim shadows on Valhai. It was a magnificent sight. He shook his head in awe. He had lived on Valhai all his life, and had never gone bare planet until the day before. It was inexplicable. How had the Sells shut themselves up so much that they had become prisoners in their own skyrises? He felt liberated. He smiled to himself. To judge by Grace’s steps, he wasn’t the only one. She was practically skipping along, despite the weight she was carrying.

  “Come on, Diva!” groused Six. “I keep tripping over your heels.”

  “So keep your distance, Kwaidian!”

  “You don’t walk straight!”

  “You don’t think straight!”

  Vion listened to the quibbling and gave another smile. Those two seemed happy enough, too. There must be something about this planet. He wondered what would happen in the future. Would the Sellites have to leave Valhai?

  He shook his head. He was woolgathering. First they had to save Arcan. Then Arcan had to save the Sellites. There were too many ifs to worry about what would happen later. He walked on behind the others, last in the little line that was wending its way down to the lake. But he couldn’t help feeling happy, which seemed very inappropriate under the circumstances.

  At last they reached the dark shore. The lake was dull and now had even more strands of sulphurous flotsam on a festering surface. They gazed around them in alarm.

  “How on earth is the small amount of enzyme we are carrying going to solve such a major problem?” asked Diva, echoing everyone’s thoughts.

  “It is going to be like stroking one hair on a warthog,” agreed Six.

  “Adding one atom to Almagest,” said Grace.

  “I think they have grafted on some sort of biological multiplying program,” Vion told them,“because they seemed to think it might get out of control.”

  “Ahh. The cure will kill him if the illness doesn’t. We know a lot about that on Kwaide,” said Six.

  “True,” said Diva. “Killing things. The only thing your planet excels at.”

  “That and warthogs,” agreed Six.

  “Of both types.”

  He frowned. “What do you mean, of both types?”

  “Animal and human!” Diva gave an agile leap, to make sure she was out of reach of retribution.

  Six snorted. “Huh!” he said, sounding so much like a Kwaidian warthog that the others laughed.

  With a fierce frown Six began to unpack the enzyme, and the others followed his lead. They assembled the various components of the spraying units on the shore, and then piled the flasks of enzyme nearby. They decided to space themselves out, each at the greatest possible distance from the others, and this took some time to effect. Once they were in position, each of them fixed one of the flasks to their atomizers and began to spray the lake.

  It took them two hours to terminate all the enzyme. Then they all made their way back to the original spot and sank down on the slope up from the lake. They drank a nutripack each, changed their mask packs, and settled down for a long wait.

  They were too anxious to talk, so they simply stared mutely at the surface of the lake, hoping to detect some sort of change. At first it seemed that nothing was happening. They carefully avoided looking at each other. Time passed, slowly.

  It was much later when Grace shook Diva’s sleeve, and pointed to a spot nearby. She thought she had detected a swirl of black within the mud. They all concentrated on that area. Again, a whirl of black under the strings of floating slime. Diva nodded. She had caught it too. They waited, almost afraid to breathe.

  After five minutes the patch of black had increased, and they were seeing other inky patches appear through the brown. For the first time their eyes dared to express hope.

  Fifteen minutes later the area close to them had cleared almost completely, although the floating strands were still on the surface. Grace moved forwards to the edge of the lake, and put both hands on the surface, waiting patiently for some sort of signal from Arcan, knowing he would find it easier to sign them than to talk.

  Her hands and arms had begun to ache with the effort before she felt pressure against her fingers.

  “Hello Grace!”

  “Arcan!” Her shout startled the others.

  “I am here,” the orthogel told her.

  “Are you all right?” Grace asked.

  “I am recuperating. What happened?”

  Grace explained what had been done, and also that there would have to be more enzyme, and then possibly something to stop the enzyme when it was no longer needed.

  “But the Sellites are in danger, Arcan. They can’t survive if you don’t open the orthogel tubes and lifts.”

  The lak
e nearby swirled. “I will do that as soon as I can. I think if I concentrate all my energy there, I should have enough to open the tubes at least. The lifts may take a little longer.”

  “Do that then. As long as they can have food and water and air.”

  There was a long pause. Then. “It is done.”

  Grace clapped her hands. “Fantastic,” she told the others, and there was a general whoop of glee.

  “We will have to go now, to fetch more enzyme for you,” Grace told Arcan.

  “Grace?” the entity said.

  “Yes?”

  “I was wrong about you ‘flimsies’. Even though you can never attain a fraction of my mental capabilities, you use organization to supplement your great limitations. You are very useful.”

  “Is that a thank you?”

  “A recognition of your usefulness. Yes.”

  “So you don’t know everything?” she asked mischievously.

  “I see that I don’t,” agreed Arcan.

  “Remember that!” Grace signed.

  “Of course. I never forget anything. But I see now that I may need to learn more things. I was not in possession of all the facts. That was the problem.”

  “We will be back soon, Arcan. Keep getting better.”

  “Of course.”

  The four made their way back jubilantly to the skyrises. They were let in by a victorious Cimma, who gave each of them a hug.

  “You are heroes!” she said. “Though I don’t suppose the Sells will ever accept that!”

  They looked at each other and then burst out laughing. “Heroes!” scoffed Diva. “We are no such thing!”

  “Well, nobody else could have saved Arcan and Sell,” Cimma was sure.

  Diva dug Six in the ribs. “Hey, hero!”

  “Hey yourself, heroine!”

  They did a little dance around the hospital room. Grace joined in, laughing and they went round and round until they bumped into Vion, knocked him over, and all fell in a heap on top of him.