Menace Under Marswood

by Sterling E. Lanier

  "Goddamn it all," Feng kept lamenting. "No one's ever seen half these things. I could spend a year collecting and not do anything but scratch the surface!"

  The third time he came out with a similar utterance, the colonel called back, "Remember, Feng, that something collected three previous expeditions, a lot better armed than we are. Our first job is not to join them." The grim reminder sobered the group, and they peered about into the heavy growth with renewed vigilance.

  By noon they had made a useful trail down about four kilometers of the great slope. Everyone had taken turns at cutting trail, and all could feel it in their arms. Muller had vetoed a suggestion by Slater that they burn some of the stuff with their lasguns.

  "Bad thinking, Slater. One, we want no energy discharges if it can be helped. Two, we may need all our reserve charges. Just keep cutting, son, and pray this place has a bottom."

  Danna poked him in the ribs and called him a soft Greenie, which made Slater momentarily angry, since he had been thinking of speed, rather than ease of movement. He wondered to himself as he hacked away whether he would ever reach a stage in which his own thinking anticipated all contingencies, and decided gloomily that he would never make it. Then he reflected that the colonel had probably felt the same way at some time in the past. Suddenly Slater felt more cheerful again.

  Their next and last rest stop came in the late afternoon. The light was growing dim again through the fog and cloud cover, and Muller decided that they had better call a halt.

  "We have enough hazards, known and unknown, without showing any lights. In a few minutes we'll need them to follow this trail, let alone cut it. We'll have a cold camp, stand watches, and start again at first light. I'm just guessing, but we must be close to halfway down, unless this hole goes into the core of the planet. Feng, have you noticed anything about the air?"

  "Yes, sir. Once we stop sweating from movement, it's apparent that it's considerably damper. And new growth, better adapted to the moisture, like heavier mosses and softer, more fragile ferns, are replacing some of the things that grew higher up."

  As he spoke, up through the damp fog came the long-drawn hooting cry that they had first heard on the high ledge at dawn. It was now far louder and deeper, and gave a strong impression of size and volume. While they listened, the colonel said, "There are frogs a millimeter or so long back on Earth that one can hear ten kilometers away on a quiet night. Whatever makes that noise could be Grabbit's size, though I admit it doesn't sound much like it."

  They listened again, but the sound was not repeated. As the night drew on, the screech and wail of ferkats showed that some Terran life-forms haunted the slopes. Once, far away, a bulgote bellowed its whinnying blare, which made Strombok and his fellow, Breenbull (he was Milla's property), stir restlessly at their tethers.

  The great night moths flew by through the mist, the faint flutter of their wings clearly audible in the quiet, and something that sounded like a bird squawked restlessly in a nearby thicket as if it were having trouble settling down for the night. Biting gnats were not absent, but no worse than on any windless night in the Ruck far above. The Terrans used repellent and the Ruckers turned out to have the same tubes, no doubt looted from UN supplies.

  Slater and Danna drew the second watch, but when he was awakened, he felt sure that they would have too much on guard to do more than exchange a few words. Danna, however, had other ideas. He had barely taken up his post on the upper trail and gotten settled comfortably in an elbow root of a vast shrub, when he felt a stir in the dark beside him and her warm, sweet scent rose out of the night into his nostrils.

  Before he could say anything, she murmured, "Milla and Arta will take our places."

  Slater still felt guilty at deserting his post. What would Muller say? The cave was bad enough, but out here in the wild?

  He learned that Wise Women had mental tricks too. "Muller cares nothing except that the watch be kept," she whispered, tugging at him. "Come on, you great stupid Greenie! We may die tomorrow!"

  She had located a bed of leafmold and moss just off the trail higher up, around a short curve. She also had brought her sleep bag rolled under one arm and now spread it on the ground. Under her leather suit she was naked, and Mohammed Slater, man of many conquests, watched the white shape appear in the night with his breath held and his mouth dry as any boy's with his first love. He had no time to ponder this, for then she was in his arms and he could think of nothing, feel nothing but her hands tearing at his leather jacket.

  Much later a whistle, low and clear, brought her out of his embrace with the motion of a greased ferkat. They were at their proper posts and well separated when the two young Ruckers "relieved" them in silence. Slater managed to murmur "thanks," to Burg and felt a friendly squeeze on his shoulder in response. He remembered nothing more until Nakamura's toe prodded him gently awake.

  The big lieutenant said nothing, but an eye closed in one large wink before he turned away. A good officer, Slater reflected ruefully, misses nothing! That makes Nak a good officer! He reflected more soberly that he was fully and passionately committed to Danna and allowed himself a second's wonder at what would happen in the unlikely event of their coming out of this jaunt alive. Then Muller's low call summoned them to eat and listen.

  It was gray again, but the light was good enough to see ten meters before the dripping mists cut off vision. Though not so loud as earlier, animal noises still came from the distance on all sides. From very far off, a snatch of something like a trill of bird song sounded, and Slater wondered what sort of throat had produced it.

  "The copter was back last night, and I tried again to contact it," the colonel said. "No luck, just as I suspected. Marshal Mutesa will be worried. In fact, if I know him, he'll be frothing." The thought seemed to amuse him, but he did not dwell on it. "The thing that hoots like an old Earth train called later, but from a long way off, unless, as is quite possible, there are more of them. Beyond that, did any of you notice anything?"

  Slater felt relieved that neither Breen nor Burg did more than shake their heads and hoped the flush over his cheekbones would escape anyone's eye. Danna, he noted, looked as blank. childlike, and innocent as the dawn itself, and he wondered what she was thinking.

  "Then let's march. I'll cut trail first. Burg, you guard me, the rest of you come as usual. Maybe today we'll see something besides new plants and animals!"

  By midmorning they estimated that they had descended over ten kilometers from the starting point at the tunnel's exit high above. The path was easier then, for the growths and trees were positively enormous and the vines and scrub growing under them seemed stunted from lack of light and nourishment. Dense mosses were everywhere. It was possible to go around many clumps of vegetation in short detours, and the slope was growing steadily less steep, so that the constant strain in then-calf muscles was reduced. All around them, it was now like a jungle in the Terran sense. A hush seemed to have come over the fog-wrapped slopes. Insects were fewer and quieter, and the sound of water dripping from leaves and roots was much louder. Due to fog and the shadows cast by giant trees and other strange growths, vision was not so good. There was no more talking at all, as they stole from one deep shadow to another like ghosts, one pair going first, then signaling the next. The bulgotes caught the mood and came obediently and silently at the merest tug on their halters.

  The noise of rushing water suddenly burst upon them as they were about to enter the gloom of one of the monster pine-cone things, this one over seven meters around in girth. Indeed, the water saved them, for it made them halt. It was the first they had come near, and Slater saw Feng, Burg, and Breen, who were leading at that point, waving the others back. They had caught the glimpse of a large body moving through a rift in the mist ahead.

  The mist thinned further, and they saw that they were looking across a small but rapid stream whose dark waters poured down from their right, through beds of rank ferns and huge mushroom-like fungi then vanished into the darknes
s to the left. On the bank of this rivulet, for it was little more, a pair of bulgotes grazed on the succulent mosses. The buck, as big as either of theirs, kept glancing nervously about, as if something had alerted him. While the humans watched, a random shaft of far sunlight parted the mists on high, and the two animals were illuminated by it, their gray coats gleaming against the soft greens and ochres of the moss.

  Suddenly a swish was heard in the damp air as it was cut by the movement of a monster whip. From far over the heads of the awe-struck group, a flexible cable of red bronze, almost a meter in diameter, slashed down through the haze, curled about the female gote, and, in one reflex snap, drew the bawling animal out of sight. The buck, baaing in terror, fled down the streambank and was gone in seconds. From the murk high above, there was only silence.

  "Quick!" Feng whispered to the huddled humans. "Danna, keep those gotes quiet! We've got to get back near the base of that thing and then go around it. I should have spoken sooner, but it seemed crazy. That pine-cone thing is either a relative or the adult of the tiny ones we saw catching flies higher up. It's not a plant at all as we know them. If we hurry, the gote may keep it busy for a moment."

  Following the I-Corps captain and making as little noise as possible, they stole back into the shade they had almost left and angled cautiously away from the great cone thing. The gotes fortunately had not spooked at the sounds of their wild relatives' cries and allowed themselves to be led along in silence. Only when the terrible growth was completely out of sight did the team dare relax, and even Muller said nothing as they spontaneously sat down and mopped their foreheads.

  "I take the blame for bringing us into this," Feng said to the colonel. "I wondered about the little bugcatcher Danna found and how much it looked like those giant cones. But they were so damned big! I just couldn't believe they worked the same way."

  "Forget it, Captain," Muller said. "No one knows what's here, and you did get us out fast, which is what counts." He looked around keenly. "Anyone need any more lessons in being careful? That was only a plant or animal, after all. We're looking for much worse things—things with brains, human or otherwise. Let's get moving. We're close to level ground, I think, and we ought to be seeing lots more interesting things."

  "I hear something," Danna said suddenly, bringing them all to their feet, "I hear it with my mind, not my ears. It sounds like something singing, a funny song, over and over, the same little song. It is not close, but not a long way off. Ah, now it has stopped." They all looked at one another and at her in bafflement.

  "Could it have been something like a radio, a machine noise of some sort, on a higher band than most of us can hear?" Slater asked.

  "No, it felt alive. It was not a machine. But what it was I don't know."

  "We can't waste time on speculation," Muller said. "We have to get on with our work. Let's move out."

  The colonel's prediction had been correct. They crossed the little brook lower down and in a short time found themselves on almost level ground. But there the going began to get really rough. There were wide black pools of water between great wrinkled tree roots, and masses of fallen wood and rotting vegetable matter as well. Huge logs, all covered with a riot of fungus growth in every hue of red, brown, and yellow, barred their path at every turn. Dripping fronds trailed down from the mist above and struck them in the face when they tried to move forward. In a short time their pace had been reduced to a crawl as they sloshed through muck and rotting vegetable matter and tried to avoid the obstacles of the dead limb and root tangles. New types of bug appeared too, and stung and buzzed around their sweaty faces. Muller said they should seek the lowest level in the hope of finding more solid ground and, perhaps, a path or game trail.

  They had been wandering in the bogs and shadows for a couple of hours, seeking a more or less dry spot to rest, when Breen, who was leading, held up one hand, stopping them in their tracks.

  "I see more light ahead. Danna, come up here and listen, with your head as well as your ears."

  She sloshed to the front, pinching Slater's rump as she passed. A merry smile was visible through the dirt and muck on her face. When she peered ahead in the direction Milla indicated, she listened intently, her eyes shut.

  "There is no life I can hear but the small things that creep and fly," she said, turning to the colonel. "But—remember, I could not sense that big plant thing that almost caught us. There is so much life here that it is hard for me to pick out one mind unless I concentrate for a long time. But Milla is right; I can see light, or less dark, up there, in front to our left."

  They slowly stole forward in the direction Breen was leading. Now they could all see the lighter zone he had spotted, even through the mist. It ran across their path like a fence as far as they could see.

  "Slater, you and Arta go up and take a look," Muller said. "Keep your gun handy, Slater, but, Arta, use your bow. If something has to be killed, do it quietly." He turned to the others. "That's a good rule for all of you from now on. No guns or energy emissions except in dire emergencies!"

  Slater and Burg crept forward, their eyes hunting every spot of darkness as they sought for danger. All at once they could make out something solid rising ahead, a darker shadow under the light. It was a bank of higher ground that rose like a spine above the mud and water of the level they were on. As they drew closer, they could see more clearly that nothing seemed to grow upon it, save for moss and tiny creeping things, which was why the light filtering down through the constant fog was so much brighter there. At length both of them slid up the side of the mound, or whatever it was, and slowly raised their heads to examine the surroundings. The dirt under the close-growing moss and crawlers seemed dense and firm.

  Stretching away on either side, as far as they could see, a close-packed road of beaten soil and crushed moss ran into the mists. That it was a road and not an animal trail was obvious at once, for a section just to their right was timbered, in a place where the road had collapsed in the past. Short logs had been fitted into the hole and dirt and rocks rammed on top, but the butt ends of the logs, with obvious tool marks, stuck over the side of the bank on which the road had been laid.

  "Men have passed here, not lately, but not so long ago, either," Milla said. "And they were big men, Slater, as big as your friend Nakamura. Muller must know this. Watch the track while I go back and tell him."

  In seconds, Burg was back, the colonel beside him. Slater had been trying to pick individual footprints out of the marks on the road, but beyond seeing that something had passed, he could do no better. The skills bred in the Ruck were not his, he realized.

  After a minute of study, Muller made up his mind. "This is where the alleged 'new clan' comes from, the giants. Milla, go back and bring up the others. We'll follow the track, down to the right. One way may be as good as another, but I think that the center of things lies that way. There's still a tiny drift of this swamp water in that direction, and it just feels right, anyway."

  When the others crept up, Muller explained what he wanted. "This dike or whatnot is obviously to keep the road above water."

  Danna had been studying the tiny mosses that sprouted over most of the road, and now she held up her hand. "Wait, Muller. What keeps the plants from growing here? Right up to the edge of this thing and even over it, they are not just short, they are cut." She held up a few thicker stems to show the trimmed-off tops. "That is not all. Under the footmarks and the moss, Milla, you missed something. This road is pushed down—flat. Something comes along here and it weighs more than a Greenie tank. We have to be very careful, I think."

  The colonel scratched his head. "Glad we have a Wise Woman along to show us scouts what to look for, eh, boys?"

  Milla Breen looked up, his dark face darker than usual. "I am stupid. I don't deserve to be one of Danna's husbands."

  "Forget it," Muller said. "I've spent more time tracking than anyone, except maybe Thau Lang, and I missed it. But thanks, Danna. We'll have to be more careful. I
f that's possible."

  Chapter Eleven – The Road to Time's Attic

  THE GROUP once more took up their march into the unknown. The two Rucker warmen led as points, one on either side of the raised road. Then came Muller, Danna and the two beasts, while Slater and Nakamura brought up the rear, with Feng coming last. Around them swirled the pearly mists, which often cleared for sudden moments to the right, left, or front, then shut down and sealed the view as quickly as they had lifted. The surface they walked remained level, as smooth as if some colossal lawnmower had passed.

  From the fogs and shaded swirls on either side came the sounds of Mars they all knew, the buzz of insects, the calls of birds, and some they had never heard. A bulgote bellowed far off and in the silence that came after it, they all strained their ears but caught nothing but the drip of water and the whine of insect life.

  They had gone a mile or so when an alert whistle from Burg brought them to a halt, weapons raised. Now they could hear it. From far off came the hooting they had heard from higher in the great rift. After a brief silence it came again. This time it was louder and deeper. Another pause, and again it came, closer yet, as if in the misty depths of the fourth planet, an archaic tugboat from Earth's past was steaming down upon them. But there was somehow an animal undertone to the hooting that no steam whistle ever produced.