The little machine buzzed, and seemed pleased. “Thank you, Arcan. If you are satisfied with my intervention, then I am more than happy to accept my punishment.”
“These people are my friends, and we help each other. Perhaps your people did not understand that?”
The machine whirred. “Perhaps.”
“We will remember your help. Thank you.”
“I have never had a friend.” The voice behind the machine sounded almost plaintive.
“Well, now you have,” said Grace, “and that means that we will help you when you need it too.”
“I am afraid that you will be unable to stop the inevitable,” it told her, “but I thank you for the sentiment.”
“We shall visit you in person,” Arcan told it, “as soon as we have sorted out the problem with the missiles, and we have got Six back to the orbital station safely.”
“What is wrong with Six?” Diva’s hand went to her throat.
“He is fine, except for a new scar across his cheek, but I think he must have gotten into a fight with the Sellites, because the ship is lacking some essential parts.”
“Only the ship?” asked Diva.
“I believe Six is intact, yes.”
“Are you sure? Only I sometimes think the Elders removed part of his brain at an early age. Did you check he still had one?”
“Thank goodness he is all right,” sighed Grace. “It will be great to get back together again.”
Diva was still rather pale. “Great,” she agreed.
ARCAN WAS GETTING stronger by the minute, and he knew that if he didn’t move now he would be too late. Even now, the Sellites may have had time to relocate part of their nuclear stock.
First he concentrated on the stocks on Valhai itself, identifying them with the help of the girls and the markers in a few seconds, then transporting them into orbit around Nomus.
“I think we have got all of them,” Grace told Arcan. “It should take them years to rebuild.”
“Never, if I get to hear about it,” said Arcan. “And I don’t think they can do much on Valhai that I won’t get to know about.”
But Grace wasn’t so sure. “I hope not.” It was said doubtfully.
Arcan shimmered. “What is the matter, Grace?”
“I don’t know,” she said slowly. “I just have a bad feeling about this new orange flash thing that they used on you. And I would like to know more about the magnetic plate they tied Diva to. It was obviously specially made, so I think we have to assume that it would probably have stopped you transporting her out of there. I think we may have some big problems with the Sellites in the future.”
The video camera gave a hum of disapproval. “Even if the Sellites were type 3a, they would be no match for us!”
Grace bit her lip. “The Sellites make very bad enemies.”
Arcan glittered in agreement.
Diva snapped her fingers, making them all look around at her.
“Can we talk about this later?” she asked, “only Kwaide is on the point of being blown into Lumina, and maybe Arcan should stop that first. Just an idea, you know.”
“Yes,” said Arcan. “That might be best.”
He turned his attention to the Sellite ships closing on Kwaide, and began to transport the marked missiles out of the ships and into the declining orbit around Nomus.
Finally, it was done. He took a moment to dock Six’s ship into the orbital station, and then transported Six onto the Variance.
The Kwaidian looked around him. “Ah,” he said, “the statistics ship.”
“At least our ship is still in one piece, nomus!” Diva told him, deliberately ignoring the angry new scar he was sporting.
“Well hang on a moment! I bet you didn’t have to escape four missiles being lobbed at you all at the same time,” he replied, aggrieved. “I think I did rather well.”
“Arcan says your ship is nearly a write-off,” criticized Diva.
“I’d like to see you do any better, madam flutter-by!”
“I bet I wouldn’t have wrecked the ship in the process! Those ships are really valuable to Kwaide!”
“And I suppose you would have managed to make all four missiles autodestruct at the same time?” challenged Six.
“I would have had a jolly good try!”
“Just looking at them would probably have done it. Specially with that expression.”
“This is my normal expression, no-name!”
“I know. Must have been a terrible shock to your mother the first time she saw—”
Diva gave a low growl, and launched herself on the Kwaidian, taking him by surprise and knocking him to the floor. He gave a howl of mock fear.
“No! Help! The deadly Diva is trying to vaporize me. Don’t let her look at me! Help! Help!”
“I’ll do worse than vaporize you soon, Six,” she muttered, rolling off him and getting to her feet. “Get up, clown!”
Six obeyed, brushing down his clothes deliberately. “I know you are glad to see me, but there is no need to fling yourself at me like that!”
Diva threw the pilot’s manual at him.
MEANWHILE ARCAN HAD been examining the bevy of missiles which were now slowly falling towards Nomus. He had realized that there was no need for them to explode inside the failed star. You never know, he thought to himself, even in such an inhospitable place, there may be some sort of life. He concentrated hard, drawing all the missiles together to a point well above the radius of Nomus itself. The missiles moved closer and closer, until the first two that touched exploded in a white flash. That triggered the next, and the next, until all of the missiles had been detonated harmlessly in space.
Arcan watched from a distance. Only a ring of debris and gas, travelling outwards from the point of impact, showed where the weapons had been only seconds before. It was done. A flash of colour illuminated the bubble, causing the others to look at him, surprised.
“The weapons have been destroyed,” he told them. “I have detonated them high above the failed star. Nothing has been harmed.”
Six blew a long sigh of relief and then smiled. “Thank you; you have saved Kwaide.”
“My pleasure, Six. I am happy to have been of help.”
The video camera decided to relay the video of them all as they celebrated the saving of Kwaide. It transmitted the scene to the visitor, high in orbit. The visitor passed the scenes on to the Dessites, who received them instantly on Dessia. Five hundred and fifty-two billion Dessites were able to watch the scene.
Chapter 24
GRACE WAS MANNING the controls of the Variance as they moved gently towards the small Dessite ship, which had suddenly appeared in front of them, having turned off its blending device. It was about the size of a Coriolan bathtub, and the Sellite space trader hung over it like Cian over Xiantha.
Even so, it was going to be a tight squeeze to bring it aboard. The aft hatches of the space trader were much bigger, in order to be able to load cargo, but it would still be a tight fit. Grace was going to have to be delicate with the controls if she wanted to bring the entire alien spacecraft on board without leaving a single scratch.
“Here, Let me do it!” said Six, showing little confidence in her ability.
“No!” said Diva. “With your record in space you would be bound to break it in two. Don’t listen to him, Grace. You are doing fine.”
“I could try to transport it aboard myself,” said Arcan doubtfully, “but it would be safer if I had managed to communicate in a quantum way with the visitor first.”
Grace shook her head. “I will do it,” she said. “Just be a little patient, please.” She looked around as Six opened his mouth. “That means you too, Six,” she said.
There were a tense fifteen minutes as Grace shifted the controls minutely this way or that, then she finally pushed the button which would close the cargo bay doors.
“There!” she said. “Done.”
They looked at each other, uncertain of just what was g
oing to happen next. Then the bubble that was part of Arcan began to grow, slowly but steadily, until it passed through each of them, engulfed the visitor’s small ship and then reached out to the outer hull of the Variance.
Grace felt a slight sensation of vertigo. She saw that the others were hurriedly sitting down. They obviously felt rather strange too. She closed her eyes, and put her head back, trying to relax, trying to be a passive and willing part of the experience.
Grace felt a gradual connexion with Arcan, and through her closed eyes was suddenly inside the small alien craft in front of her. She saw the central tank, full of a lightly translucent liquid which held threads of organic material in it. That part of her which was Arcan paused for a moment, hovered over the tank, and then lowered itself down, letting the luminescent water close over him.
The instant that the orthogel hit the water she felt a frisson of electric sensation travel right through her. She was aware of a larger and at the same time smaller world. She could feel other, unmistakable presences alongside her. She sensed Diva – a kind of cobalt blue, bright and true. Six was gold, shining like molten ore. Arcan was a kaleidoscope of depth that seemed to extend beyond this dimension and into another. Behind and beyond them a myriad of colours swirled in a spiral around her, portraying a sensation of huge depth and mystery. She wondered idly what she would be like to the others.
“You are pearl, Grace, a beautifully bright translucent pearl,” the part of the liquid which was Diva somehow ‘told’ her.
The two shapes that seemed to represent Diva and Six were not of a fixed size; they pulsed as she wondered at them, sometimes smaller and sometimes larger. When they were larger they overlapped, and she saw that at those times the two colours mingled and shone like a ribbon of dazzling mosaic, shining gold speckling the cobalt blue.
She was aware that at times she touched them too, and could feel the change of colours when she did. As she touched them she became aware of their colour, of how they felt and thought. Yet to think of them as colours was not right either; they were much more than that. She could feel them with all her senses and it was an overwhelming sensory perception, much deeper than anything she had ever experienced in her life. Diva was crisp and sharp. Six was smoke and resilient. Arcan had so many different colours and smells that she was dazzled by his presence.
As she touched him she was momentarily made aware of all that he knew, and yet her mind was able to understand it. It was a moment of perfect clarity, of absolute purity. Somewhere in another world her body had tears running down its cheeks.
It must have been only a split second, for they all separated instantly, and it was only the shape of Arcan which moved forward towards one of the floating organic strands. He touched it, and a lightning flash travelled along both organisms as he did so. Then the strand moved forward, and disappeared inside the hazy whirlpool that in some way represented Arcan.
There was nothing for quite some moments, and then, at last, the clouds began to lift, and Grace felt the presence of another being. It was totally colourless, but felt profound. It smelt of the fresh, Kwaidian air on a cold and damp night mixed with the sweetness of a temaris tree under a hot Sacras. It felt benign, pleased with her.
Behind that presence she was aware of what seemed like a solid wall of some kind of strange material. The wall was made up of a seething sea of individuals, far too many for her to take in all at once. She perceived that each individual had its own smell, although all were transparent, but there were simply too many of them to differentiate one from another. And they all seemed to her to be a long way away.
They were immensely strange. Yet she was not scared. She did not try to go closer to the colourless presence or the wall behind it. She knew instinctively that this was as far as she could go.
She watched, however, as the spiral being that was Arcan merged with the presence, and the wall behind the visitor became diffused with some of the colour which was Arcan, although the visitor himself remained colourless. At the same time she was aware that Arcan now possessed a smell of smoky temaris, only an elusive touch, but enough to be noticeable.
Although she had no sense of time passing, the wall began to disappear from view, fading until it was no longer visible. The presence that was the visitor began to retreat, with no haste, until the figure of Arcan was pure colour again. The colours swirled, the sensations vanished, and she was sitting at the pilot’s station on the Variance. It was over.
She felt changed in some indefinable way by the experience. It had been too big, too important to be able to put it into any words. She looked across at Six and Diva, both sitting with glazed expressions. Grace’s eyes were wet. She put up a hand surreptitiously, and wiped the tears away.
The bubble which was Arcan shimmered and then spoke.
“Very interesting,” it said.
Grace thought she detected a hint of the spectacular colours and a trace of wood smoke as she looked at him. Six seemed more golden, and Diva had a slightly blue aura around her. Grace closed her eyes, and felt horribly queasy for some long moments. Then a black brick of pain settled firmly right in the middle of both eyes and she closed them. Her mind reeled, and she felt herself falling down onto the floor. She didn’t care, so long as the pain went away. She let the merciful blackness take over.
SHE WOKE UP to a low conversation between Arcan and the visitor.
“This is what comes of letting inferior species have any kind of quantum contact,” the visitor was saying. “I expect they will be damaged permanently. Their minor brains simply could not cope with the stress.”
“They are not so minor as you think,” came Arcan’s deep reply. “You have seen them in action yourself. These creatures are full of motion, quick and most adaptable. I think they will surprise you. I have found that their brains are very flexible. If they have had difficulties in assimilating the meeting this time, they may not experiment the same difficulties next time.”
“You are considering exposing them a second time?” the visitor’s two-way communication gave a chirrup of surprise. “Do you think that is wise?”
“They are my friends,” Arcan said simply. “Where I go, they go. I have learnt one thing. They need me, and I need them. They will not be a part of my world for long, and I will not travel without them.”
“Then we must hope that they can adapt.”
Grace pulled herself up onto one elbow and gingerly opened her eyes. “Ouch!” She closed them again, quickly.
“Grace? Are you all right?” Arcan queried.
She got up and managed to maintain her balance. Six and Diva were staggering to their feet too. They had clearly had the same side effects that she had. She tried to smile at them, but all that came out was a quiver at the ends of her mouth. At least the black brick between the eyes was lessening its hold. She took a shaky breath.
“I am fine,” she croaked. “Never better.”
“Six? Diva?” Worried shadows pulsed through the orthogel.
“I am well, thank you, Arcan,” Six said, “though Diva is very shaken up.”
“Not true!” Diva bristled. “You were the one who came over all woozy, Six!”
“I did not—” Six began hotly.
Grace held up a feeble hand. “Stop it! If your heads are feeling anything like mine, then you’ll know that this is definitely not the time to bicker.”
They both turned to her with identical scowls which made her laugh. “Pax!” she begged. “My head won’t stand any more!”
“Mine is feeling a bit battered too,” Six admitted finally. “Leave it alone, Diva, will you?”
The Coriolan girl tossed her head, and tried not to show that the movement had been painful.
“You two are soft,” she said. “But then, you haven’t had my training!”
“Surprised you could squeeze any in between the baths in Mesteta wine!”
“At least I had baths,” she retorted. “Not like some I could mention, who thought a shower was stan
ding outside in the rain with your arms open!”
“How do you think it got the name shower?” he asked. “Really! Girls! I ask you!” He shook his head sorrowfully, and then spoilt it by wincing as the movement brought back the dizzy pain.
“I think we are all right, Arcan,” said Grace, “but it might be a good idea to have a rest for a bit if you are thinking of doing that again soon. Was that quantum communication?”
“It was. Grace, they have been to Pictoris!”
“No! Can you ‘see’ it?”
Arcan nodded. “I think so. I think we could go.”
The video camera whirled round. “Pictoris?” said the visitor. “Where is Pictoris? Which constellation is it?”
Arcan darkened. “It is private,” he said. “I do not wish all Dessia to know about my motives. “Are you transmitting to them now?”
“Naturally. I always transmit when I am in your presence. You are a type 2 being, and I have instructions to transmit everything pertaining to type 2 beings.”
“What about us?” demanded Six.
“Sometimes I transmit, but usually only if the orthogel entity is present. Dessia has little interest in type 3 lifeforms.”
“You might tell us when you are transmitting and when not!”
“Type 3 beings have never been aware of transmission before, but I believe Dessia would not consider their opinion to be of any importance whatsoever.”
Arcan caught Grace’s glance in his direction. “It doesn’t matter, anyway,” he said hastily. “I think we should get you three back to Kwaide. You have all been away for too long.”
“That would be good,” said Grace.
“I will transport this space trader back to the space station there, and you can put the repairs of Six’s ship in hand. I will leave the visitor’s ship in orbit around Valhai. I think he will want to stay here?”
The camera clicked. “Definitely.”
“Well then.” Arcan and the little machine disappeared from view and the console proximity alert was screaming that they were now docked at the orbital station above Kwaide. They could see a curious Ledin staring at them with surprise through the rexelene on the other side of the airlock. Six was home.
Ammonite Planets (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #1-3 Page 47