Menace Under Marswood

by Sterling E. Lanier

  "Moe, I was raised by the two other Wise Women in our clan, wonderful old women. It was hoped I had the power too, but it does not always come to the same blood, though it sometimes comes from families that had none in the past. When I was a small child and it was realized that I could see things far off, the clan married me to two boys. They are my brothers and more, and they must always protect me, all their lives, until they die or I should decide to give them leave to marry, I mean really marry." She laughed again, a low gurgle. "Moe, they are the only two men I must not sleep with! They are my teachers, about men's things—how men think—and they are my guards. When Thau Lang told me to be captured and come to help him at your fort, they had to go along. They can never leave me, until I formally dismiss them before the clan." She paused and looked up at him. "I have slept with a few boys, Moe. I was supposed to, to know how men think, you see, which I must know as a Wise Woman. I enjoyed it, but it was only ... fun, nothing more. Does that make you angry?"

  "Now that I know you have no husbands, nothing could make me angry, Danna." He paused too. "I think I love you, as we know the thing on Earth. Are you allowed to love me, I mean, after this is over?"

  "I can love anyone I want. No one tells a Wise Woman what to do, except our own council, which meets seldom, and then only on the gravest of matters. It will be hard—if we are to stay together, I mean—but I will think of something. I cannot leave my people. It will be hard."

  She spoke further about the life in her clan, and he wondered again at the fate that had made him her enemy and that he had ever thought the Ruckers savage. Among themselves, they were kind and open-hearted, laughing a lot and full of fun. She had been on many trips into the wild with only her two guardian "husbands" and they had encountered every kind of danger, had fought shoulder to shoulder against Marswolves and other menaces. Being a Wise Woman had not excluded her from work when younger, and she had had to learn to herd bulgotes, to sew and clean hides, to make ammunition, and to weave the wonderful Rucker blankets that they sold at the Truce Fairs for fabulous prices. Indeed, it seemed that she had to work twice as hard as other girls, for the arduous training of a Wise Woman, about which she would not speak, was simply piled on top of all her other duties. He felt very lucky that such a being had chosen him, and also a little humble.

  For him, the two hours went by like seconds, and he did not realize how tired he was until the last three on watch, the colonel, Breen, and Burg, had taken up their posts and he had finally lain down again.

  AFTER A QUICK bite of cold rations and some water from skins on the gotes, they had not marched for more than an hour when Danna called out.

  "There is something ahead, Muller, though what I cannot tell. But it is life of some kind. I can feel it. It does not feel bad, or dangerous, just strange somehow. And there is more room, I think. I sense a great open space."

  The slope was still level, and Muller crouched and began to examine the Rucker map in the beam of his pocket beam-light. "Nothing marked on here, except a lot of forks and branches to be careful of. I'll go with the map in my hand. Behind Burg and Breen. They're the best shots. Keep your guns at the ready, boys. Danna, Nakamura, and Feng lead the animals and you, Slater, bring up the rear. Everybody need to be told to stay alert? Good, let's move out."

  For almost half an hour they marched slowly forward, every sense on the alert. Then a low call from Danna halted them once more.

  "There are many things, so many I can't count them. They feel us too, and they are frightened. Should we go on, Muller?"

  "We have to, Danna. Watch it everybody. Let's go."

  They had gone only a half kilometer more, when the tunnel suddenly widened. They switched on their beamlights, keeping one hand free for weapons, but the powerful beams were lost in the immensity before them. They had entered a cavern so enormous that it simply ate the light, in every direction save down, for the floor stretched level as far as they could see. Here and there rock outcroppings broke the flat expanse and there were viscid-looking piles of some substance staining them and the floor as well, which gleamed in the light. Slater felt a musky and unfamiliar scent in his nostrils. He had the feeling he was being observed too. Then, even as they drew close together, it came.

  They heard the sound of the wind suddenly, far overhead; a wind in the echoing bowels of the planet, where no breeze ever blew. A vast soughing wail, it rose from nothing and then—down it came with hurricane force and in an instant was upon them.

  "Lie down—get the gotes down flat," Muller screamed above the howl of the storm. There was no time for more.

  Slater saw the blackness, a living, pulsating blackness strike the beams of their upheld lights and then he was down on his face as things, countless soft things, flapping beating things, a living blanket of dark life, poured at and just over them, in a tide of matter, moving as one down the tunnel from which they had just emerged. He caught a glimpse of one individual as the wave of creatures hit them and saw the blunt eyeless head, toothless red mouth, the arch of shiny wings, and then nothing more as the gale force of the living wave flew past and through them. The noise of the countless pinions beating was actually deafening to his ears.

  As it had come, so it was gone. The whole thing was over in a matter of seconds. The silence seemed deafening as they raised their heads and stared at each other. The gotes were snorting and trying to rise, and Danna gave them their heads and stroked them until they subsided while the others checked their weapons and examined them and each other for damage. Amazingly, beyond a few bruises, no one was hurt or even scratched.

  "I ought to be shot," Muller said suddenly. "Quick, all of you except Danna, use your lights. I was holding the map and the rush of those bloody animals tore it out of my hand. I kept the light and my gun and the map's gone. We have to have that map!"

  But the map had vanished. They searched far back down the tunnel and far out into the great cave, whose limits they could not even guess, but found nothing except the long-dead body of one of the creatures that had assaulted them and piles of what they surmised must be the things' excrement, the shiny goop they had first glimpsed in their lights.

  The usually silent Feng was almost rhapsodic about the dead animal. "Fascinating! Observe the wings are neither a bat's nor a bird's, but more akin to the ancient flying reptiles of the Jurassic age back on Earth."

  The thing was not too large, the body light and vaguely mammalian in appearance, jet black all over. The earless head was also eyeless. It might have spanned a man's outstretched arms with its strange wings, of which it possessed two pair. There were small claws on the wings and two hook-clawed feet near the rump. The total weight, allowing for dessication of the specimen they held, was no more than two kilograms, about that of a small chicken.

  "What can they feed on, and where do they find it?" Feng mused. "There are no teeth. And yet there must have been many thousands of them to overwhelm us the way they did." He carefully stowed the strange carcass in one of the bulgote packs and then joined the others.

  "This place is a real maze," Muller said. "Without the map, I have no idea how to proceed. But we have a hidden asset, which has saved us before, and I hope will again. Danna, can you lead us out of here or sense the most direct way to the surface?"

  "Let me think for a moment, Muller. Those creatures, which did not hurt us and were very frightened, must have lived far up on the roof of this cave. There are stories among my people of things that fly at night, in great clouds, at certain seasons of the year, though no one has ever been close enough to see what they were. I think these strange things also once had eyes and lived up on the surface, just as I think that devil thing you bombed once did. But they have no thoughts and it did, at least a hate of others. They were only scared.

  "Anyway, I think there is a way out up top, far above us. But it will probably be concealed and very small. And we have no way of getting there. I am not happy about this. I cannot sense the surface, not down this deep. In the wild, the
Ruck, I can use animals when I am lost. The bulgotes know direction if one tells them what is wanted. Even certain of the wild things will come to a Wise Woman and will not attack, if they are told what to do. But I cannot use the gotes this deep underground. Their direction finding is useless here. If only I could get hold of some other creature, even a ferkat, or something that lives here. But alone, I fear that I can do nothing. Do you suppose we could catch a flier, one of those things that hit us?"

  "Don't see how," the colonel said. "Anyone else have any ideas?"

  "I surmise they have all gone, perhaps to another cavern that connects to the tunnel," Feng said. "Do you sense any life, Danna?"

  She shook her head. Even Muller could think of nothing to say, and they all stood in silence, racking their brains for a way out of this unpleasant impasse. Were they doomed to wander at random in the endless tunnels and caverns until their food and water gave out? It was not a cheery thought, and even the tough soldiers and their hardened foes of the Ruck found it hard to maintain their poise. The Long Silence cast its pall.

  At this point Slater had an inspiration. "Danna, how big does the animal have to be? Could it be small? Very small?"

  The others crowded around, caught up by the excitement in his voice. "What do you have in mind, Slater?" the colonel asked. "Got some bright idea?"

  "Well, sir, it's Grabbit," Slater said, fumbling for the tiny impervium box at his belt. "I took him along and I forgot him, we've been so preoccupied. But he's alive, and I just remembered he was there." He opened the box and the little snapper waved his claws in greeting, his stumpy legs clawing for a foothold on the smooth surface.

  "Jesu Christi!" Nakamura exclaimed. "I thought you left that little horror back at the fort. What the Hell did you bring it along for?"

  The snapper clicked and hummed audibly as they watched it in silence, trying to climb from its box in vain.

  "Moe," Danna breathed, "that is a terrible thing you carry. We kill them whenever we find them. Not even a Wise Woman would have one around. They get into tents and attack children once in a while, or even bite the leg off a bulgote, the bigger ones. You must be very brave." Her admiration was not lost on Nakamura.

  "Or very crazy," he snapped. "What-in-hell good is that vermin now?"

  "At ease, Lieutenant," Muller said. He turned to Danna. "What do you think, Danna? Can you use Slater's pet? It lives on the surface. I assume it wants to get back there. And it seems to like Slater, which is why I've let him keep it in the past. Want to try your luck with it?" He did not add that they had very little choice.

  "I don't know." Danna examined Grabbit at close range with her beamlight. "I never heard of anyone trying to get close to one of these things. Even a rockscorp or one of the big spiders is said to have more feeling to get hold of. But I can feel that you are right. It does like Moe, and it will not attack us. Maybe we can do something. Could we rest, while I look at it more closely and talk to Moe about it?"

  Nakamura said nothing as Slater and the girl walked a little apart, but Slater had no trouble guessing at the ribald comment in his friend's mind. But Danna was bent strictly on business. She sat down and held the box on her lap, motioning to Slater to sit beside her. For a long time she stared at Grabbit in silence, as if trying to see through its very armor. To Slater's surprise, the creature had stopped trying to escape and lay quiescent in the container, as if somehow the girl had calmed it. All at once, before he could even protest, she reached down and tipped Grabbit out onto her palm. Slater almost reached over to seize the snapper. It had had no food since they left the fort. But there was an air of authority about Danna that stopped him from moving. He was watching a Wise Woman at work and he felt her power and authority. Grabbit waved its small chelae once and then lay quiet once again, while she lifted him to her eyes and held him only millimeters away. At last she seemed satisfied and gently replaced the odd little creature in its box.

  "It really likes you, Moe," she said, patting his hand. "The small mind is very strange, harder to reach even then the things we have seen here in the dark of the world, the flying things and the other. And its kind is very old too, as old as they, but different again. I feel that they grew, as part of Mars, but the snappers, if this one is like the others, are stranger in other ways. They give me a feeling, or maybe this one alone gives it, as if it were a creature that had lost its masters. It's like a tame bulgote that one recaptures after it has run away and joined a wild herd, maybe. But I get the thought that it thinks of you as its master, and it knows enough to leave people and things you like alone and eat only what you give it. Is that so?"

  "He never bothers anyone around me. I give him the free run of my quarters, and he catches roaches and things. I keep the door locked when he's not in his box, of course, and I feed him now and then. The scientists I've talked to at Orcus say they can go without food almost indefinitely. No one seems to know how long they live or how big they can get. No one's seen any bigger than a ferkat, unless your people have. I leave wooden stuff lying around and he never chews on it, and the same with cloth."

  "How did you get it? What made you get it, I mean?"

  "Well, he or it, I guess, found me. I was on a stalk for a wild bulgote with some others and I got separated. I took a little nap under a thornbush and when I woke up, there he was, sitting on my belt buckle, cheeping away. I was a little scared, but somehow, damned if I know how, I knew he was friendly. So ... I gave him some of my ration chocolate. He ate it and I put him in my pocket. When I found out how dangerous they can be, I took him to Colonel Muller. He said I could keep him, and to watch if he did anything interesting or new, so that we could put it in the files. I've had him a Marsyear or more."

  Again she fell silent, staring at Grabbit. At length, she picked up the box, rose to her feet again, and they walked back to where the others were eating, the torches laid on the rocks casting a subdued light.

  "It may not work, but I can try, Muller," she said.

  "I'm afraid it's you or nothing, Danna," Muller said.

  They assembled their things and the two warmen took the leads of the pack animals. Then, with Danna and Muller in the fore, they set off.

  "I have tried to tell it what I want," Danna said. She held the box, lid raised, in one hand and her light was focused on Grabbit. "We are going to have much luck, if it understands. Now—watch."

  As they looked, Grabbit began to move slowly. It crawled to one corner of the box and stopped. The claws were retracted and the blunt prow, for one could hardly call it a head, stayed fixed, pointing in one direction. At the same time, something else happened that made even Muller catch his breath. From behind the turret of Grabbit's one great eye a minute hole appeared. Out of it came a shiny plume, of a dark-blue tint, like an enameled feather from some tiny bird. This grew to about twenty millimeters in height, then bent halfway, at a right angle. The direction in which it pointed was the same as that in which Grabbit faced. Nothing could have been plainer.

  "My God," said Nakamura. "The little bastard has his own compass radar set! How about that!"

  "When they are dissected," Feng added, "all the internal organs dissolve in some acid. Nothing like this has ever been noted before."

  "From the standpoint of military affairs," Muller said in dry tones, "I'd like my officers to reflect on this creature. It eats anything, lives for an unknown period, is very well armed, and possesses compass-radar or the equivalent. And also it owns an effective self-destruct mechanism that forbids tampering. Any ideas come to your mind?"

  "It, or they, were built." The words hung in the silence even as Slater said them. Instinctively, they all looked around at the great dark that lay about them. The fact of Grabbit's abilities had brought the same thought to all their minds. Who or what had dug the tunnels, and who or what had made the snappers, or bred them, and turned them loose?

  "The idea is quite logical, especially after all we have seen in these caves," Muller said. "Something we can continue to call
Old Martians, for want of a better term, was a bioengineer of fantastic ability. I should not be surprised to learn that the other two life-forms we encountered here, as well as numerous others on the surface, had certain interesting applications. The tunnel system was not dug—nor were the water gutters arranged—by Ruckers. We are in a place built long ago, and for purposes not ours. Be watchful."

  In silence they resumed their march, with Danna in the lead, holding her animated compass before her eyes. The others kept their lights on and flashed them from side to side as they walked.

  The cave was indeed vast. For a long hour or more they tramped across its floor, finding it quite level except for occasional chunks of rubble that must have fallen from the lofty ceiling. Danna kept steadily on, her eye never leaving the snapper's compass-needle plume.

  As he marched Slater found himself stroking the big blindfolded gote he was leading. He realized it only when he stopped for a moment and Strombok nuzzled his ear, the soft lips an obvious caress, and an appeal for more.

  Be damned if he doesn't like me. Who would have thought it? He patted the soft nose and kept one hand on the gote's neck after that. At least he had tamed one of the Ruckers' own beasts, and that was quite a thrill too.

  At last a great wall loomed before them. In its base were five wide tunnels mouths, set some distance apart from one another. Again they came to a halt around Danna.

  "Here's his first big test, Danna," Muller said. "What does he say?"

  The plume turned slowly as they all watched, their breaths held in nervous anticipation. After a moment it stopped. It pointed to their left, and they walked slowly in that direction. After a bit, Danna stopped.

  "It moves no more," she said. "Look, Muller, now it is straight, pointing to that hole, there." Before them a tunnel opened, the second from the left in the line of five. As they went on Grabbit's strange antenna never wavered, its tip angled always to the black mouth they were approaching. In a few moments they were in the tunnel and marching on.