“And it wasn’t your neck the creature was hanging around, I notice!”
She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head from side to side, considering his argument, but was saved from answering by a keening noise which seemed to originate from the centre of the basin, and was growing louder and louder. At the same time a wind was springing up all around them, whistling through the overhead columns of stone and instantly evaporating the little heat they had retained in their bodywraps.
The solid stone around them suddenly seemed insufficient shelter, and they huddled down, dropping onto their knees and covering their heads automatically with their arms. The keening sound was now so intense that it was hurting their ears, and Diva had pulled the bracelet rapidly out of the surface of the lake. It seemed to be still in one piece, but was looking definitely the worse for wear.
“I THINK YOU COULD SAY THAT WAS NOT A GOOD BEGINNING!” she shouted over all the noise. “MAYBE WE SHOULD BE THINKING OF LEAVING!” Her fingers drummed an urgent tattoo on the orthogel bracelet, but Arcan gave no sign of having heard.
“WHO AM I TO ARGUE ABOUT THAT!” Six ducked his head and shuffled awkwardly backwards on his haunches, trying to find the entrance to the passageway, trying to leave the tumult behind him. He was not the only one. The avifauna were just as eager to escape, pushing against him, and chattering with fear.
“THERE MAY NOT BE ROOM FOR US ALL IN THE PASSAGE!”
“GET BACK!” screamed Diva. “GET BACK!”
Six shouted to the girls to put their mask packs on, but it was too late. There was one last thunderous crash of air and sound, and then the whole chamber seemed to shake, the black liquid in the basin rose out of the stone hollow and flung itself outwards, seemingly aiming directly for each of them. There were more squawks from the avifauna, but no time to try to avoid the surge: it was on them in a matter of seconds, engulfing every living thing in its path, coating them all, clinging to them, covering their eyes, their faces and orthoplating each of them. The world hovered for a brief moment and then they were all – suddenly – somewhere else.
SIX COULD BE heard in the background, spluttering and struggling to his feet. Grace looked at herself and saw no trace of the lake on her bodywrap. Then she looked up, and her mouth dropped open. She had been transported to some sort of an underground reservoir, where dark, alien ortholiquid stretched for as far as the eye could see.
The avifauna were petrified with fear. Their eyes were starting out of their heads, and they made worried chattering noises with their beaks as they gazed uncomprehendingly around them. At first, they pressed closer to Six and the girls, seeming to gain some comfort from their presence. Then, as they got their bearings, they appeared to relax. The birds started to look around them in the cave, and Grace saw one leap dexterously up the nearest wall, using the claws on all four limbs to swarm up the rock. It had spotted a large spider which had been taking a stroll along the vertical cavern wall, and terminated its short existence with an efficient use of its beak. Just as fast as it had swarmed up the rock, it let itself down again, swinging limb over limb and clearly very accustomed to the movement.
The cavern they all found themselves standing in was colossal, soaring up above them. Row after row of stalactites hung menacingly down on them, and the floor was pockmarked with corresponding stalagmites which were trying to join forces with their lofty cousins, and in some cases had succeeded, forming columns which gave the cavern a strange kind of beauty. There were no apparent breaks in the roof of the grotto, yet there must have been some, because light from above reached into the vault like a dim spotlight, reflecting golden spots of iridescence on the black liquid which lay everywhere. Grace could see minute specks of dust, lazily spiraling in the beam.
“Err… help?” croaked Six, moving his fingers down to his feet to sign on the bracelet around his ankle, to send a message to Arcan. “Uh-oh!”
“Something is wrong,” said Diva.
“Yes. Brilliant deduction! My bracelet has gone.”
Grace realized that hers had too. “For some reason, Arcan has been absorbed by this … this … stuff.”
“I bet the stuff will regret that. It’s bound to get a belly-ache from Arcan. Totally indigestible, for sure!”
“Yet this liquid doesn’t seem to be aware. It can transport us, but it seems … I don’t know, almost not alive?”
“Arcan told us he had been unconscious for thousands of years,” said Grace. “Perhaps his ancestors never really woke up?”
“They know enough to transport us all here,” said Six, “and this could well be their headquarters.”
Grace was staring at the great expanse of dark liquid in front of them. “There is no sign of Arcan … he doesn’t seem to be able to show himself. It looks as if the alien ortholiquid can do him damage.”
“Terrific. That gives us two problems. First we have to try to rescue Arcan – when we have no idea where he is – and then we have to get out of here.” Six began to search around for some way to escape. “We might be thousands of metres underground.”
Diva shook her head. “I don’t think so. There wouldn’t be any light at all if we were. No. We need some way of getting up to the roof, to see if there are any faults in the rock above us. That light must be getting in somehow.”
“That stuff must have brought Arcan here for some reason,” Grace told them. “It seems to have something in mind for him. And even if we were just the added extras I don’t suppose it is just going to sit there and let us all escape!”
Six shook his head. “It isn’t aware,” he said again. “I’m sure of it. This is a similar substance to the orthogel we know, and it can obviously use quantum decoherence like Arcan, but I don’t get the feeling that it is sentient.”
“Then why did it bring us all here?” asked Diva.
He shrugged. “Just a reflex action, I suppose. The contact with Arcan must have generated a quantum reaction and it simply reacted by bringing everything near it to somewhere where it would be at an advantage.”
“All right.” Diva allowed herself to be persuaded. “In that case, it won’t do anything if we try to escape. Right?”
Grace looked doubtful, but Six nodded. “Right!”
“Then it is perfectly clear what we have to do. First we rescue Arcan, and then we get out of here. If we could contact the visitor things would be much easier …”
There was a chattering, and the visitor’s video camera popped up into sight directly in front of Diva’s face. “What are you all doing here? It has taken me ages to find you.”
“I am glad you did.”
“—Naturally!”
“No, not because we want to see you … at least … I mean, we are delighted to see you, of course, but we need you.”
“This lake is most interesting. I am of the opinion that it is not organic.”
“Hmm. Luckily for you, this is your chance to examine it more closely. We want … that is, we would appreciate it … if you were to take a quick look around it and see if you can find Arcan.”
“He is missing?”
Diva nodded. “All three orthogel bracelets have disappeared, and he might be somewhere in that lake. If you can find where, then Six will wade in and get him.”
“Here, hang on a minute!” said Six indignantly. “When did I volunteer?”
Diva quietened him with one of her famous looks. He subsided into an aggrieved silence. She went on. “If you have managed to get in here, I presume there is a way for us to get out?”
The machine clicked. “I came down the largest of the potholes,” it said. “But the rock is very sheer in places. You are way underneath the surface – some three hundred metres deep. It is large enough for you to use to get out, but I do not think it would be easy for any of you to navigate the rock face.”
“All right. At least we have a chance, but we need to find Arcan first.”
“I am on my way.” The tiny globe flickered and then disappeared from view.
Grace nudged Six with her elbow. “Look!” she said. “Over there!”
Six followed her gaze. Then narrowed his eyes. There were shapes which were moving. They were about the size of a small ball, but were amorphous and moved idly around the rocky floor. Diva, alerted by Six, had by now spotted them too. All three of them stared, unsure if they were watching something which was dangerous to them, or whether this was just a different manifestation of the lake.
The shapes slowly came out of the dark recesses and approached them. The avifauna took very little notice of these creatures, beyond an initial restless chatter. They were obviously not on the list of possible prey.
“Not dangerous, then,” murmured Diva, cheering up instantly. She took a slightly hesitant step towards the shapes, and Six immediately stepped forward with her. Together, they approached the nearest of the shapes. Nothing at all happened.
Finally Diva bent down and touched one of them. It froze, but gave no other sign of noticing. After a small wait Diva picked it up, and carried it over to an area with some beams of light to examine it. It tried to shrink away from the light – it had obviously become slightly photophobic down in this dark cavern, but made no other effort to defend itself.
Diva picked up the amorphous lump and examined it closely as it lay snugly in the palm of her hand. Was it alive? Was it sentient? Six looked on with more reserve, ready at a moment to leap to her defense.
Suddenly, the lump began to move. The outside layers appeared to blur and with an exclamation, Diva was forced to drop the thing.
“It burnt me!” she exclaimed, rubbing the palm of her hand.
“But that’s impossible!” said Six, bending down to touch another of the small balls. “They are quite cool to the touch!”
“That’s as may be, but I can assure you that it has burnt me. It felt like about a hundred tiny scorches – a bit like pin-pricks.” She held her hand out for examination. “Look!”
Six did so, and then drew back with pursed lips. “Hmm. Extraordinary. I wonder how it did that?” He looked around at the other lumpy-looking blobs. “There are quite a lot of them now. Do you think they are dangerous?”
Grace took a step back. “Well, we know not to pick them up now! Perhaps we should leave well alone?”
Diva tossed her head. “How are we going to find out anything about them if we just ignore their presence? We are supposed to be explorers, for Sacras sake!”
“Speak for yourself,” Six told her equably. “I just came along for the ride.”
“Honestly, Six! You don’t have a speck of the pioneering spirit!”
“Well,” he pointed out reasonably, “pioneers are always the ones who get themselves killed first, it seems to me. Why would anyone be happy about that? I hope to live a long and fulfilling life.”
“There’s very little chance of that,” snapped Diva. “Somebody is bound to throttle you before long – you have irritated too many people for too long!”
“Why, thank you Diva!”
“It wasn’t a compliment!”
“No. But it’s nice to know one’s efforts are appreciated!” he said modestly.
“Ogghh!”
“What do you want to do about these … things, Diva?” asked Grace.
“We should watch them, see what pattern of behaviour they have, detail whether they appear intelligent or not. You know …”
Grace nodded. “Fine. Well, to start with, they seem to get on very well with the avifauna, which are not a bit afraid of them. That seems rather strange to me.”
“Yes, that must mean these round things never burn them, I guess.”
“And the balls can move of their own accord. But they seem limited to the ground. I can’t tell whether they are rolling or hovering, can you?”
“No. They seem to sort of float along the floor, don’t they?” said Diva.
“What are we going to call them?”
Six gave an exasperated sigh, and both girls looked in his direction. He waved a hand. “Nothing! Sorry I moved!” Then he muttered something to himself that the girls couldn’t quite catch, something about the female of the species.
“How about the ‘amorphs’? They don’t seem to hold the same shape all the time.”
“Yes, that’s good. Well, then, the amorphs seem to be at least organic, because they moved towards us with something like curiosity—”
Six gave a snort. “Has it occurred to you that they might be looking for lunch, and have pegged us as the tastiest thing in town?”
Diva took him seriously. “Yes, but if they were, why didn’t they attack us? That one just seemed to want me to let go of it. I have the definite feeling it had the capability to do me more damage if it had wanted.”
“Some of them are going into the lake,” pointed out Grace.
The others looked around. Sure enough several of the amorphs were floating into the ortholiquid quite fearlessly, and disappearing under its surface. Others were emerging. Now that their attention had been caught, they began to see that these small creatures were literally all over the immense cavern which they had been brought to.
“The ortholiquid isn’t harming them, then,” went on Grace. “So it appears that it doesn’t see them as a threat, either.”
“There seems to be a sort of symbiosis going on,” hazarded Diva. “Some sort of exchange which is valuable to both entities. But we don’t think the ortholiquid is alive, so that doesn’t make much sense, does it?”
The visitor suddenly reappeared in their midst, buzzing a little as it spotted the new species and noted how many of the amorphs had appeared.
“There is no sign of Arcan anywhere,” it said dismally. “I have been right around the lake, and there is nothing to be seen except these strange … things. Of course, I can’t go inside the lake, or see what is under the surface.”
“Are they sentient, do you think?” asked Grace.
The visitor flickered in the dim light. “Definitely, I would say,” it told them. “These creatures are moving through the lake, and in and out of it. They are aware of your presence, and they seem independent units. I can see no sign of quantum traces, though, so I would give them a preliminary classification of 3c – sentient but very limited intelligence. Like the birds here that act like large monkeys and look like dinosaurs …”
“The avifauna,” explained Grace. “And we have called the round creatures amorphs.”
The video camera buzzed. “Noted. What are you going to do now? Arcan has been missing for quite some time.”
Everybody turned to look at Grace. She took a deep breath and then let it out slowly as she thought about it. “I suppose,” she said, “that we have to decide whether to go into the lake to look for him, or give up our search.”
Six looked horrified. “Give up the search? We can’t do that!”
“Then you are volunteering to go into the lake, nomus?” asked Diva.
Although the light was very poor in the cavern, they could see that Six had changed colour. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it again, regarded the lake out of the corner of his eye, and then opened his mouth again. “Yes.”
Diva raised one of her eyebrows in surprise. “Are you? Then I suppose I had better come with you.”
“And me!” piped up Grace.
“NO!” Six, who had already foreseen this possibility, held up his hand. “Grace, you don’t even know how to swim, so your going is out of the question. And as for you, Diva, you know I am a much stronger swimmer than you – I can dive, and you can’t. Apart from anything else, we don’t know what will happen in the lake, and it is pointless for more than one of us to go in. No, you and Grace should stay here.” He looked around at them all, before adding, “And if you want my opinion, the visitor should tell the part of Arcan which is still on board the Independence not to come down here!”
That struck a note with the small globe, which whirred excitedly. “You are right! The last thing we want is for the rest of Arcan to com
e down and get lost too!”
“Exactly! We could find ourselves stranded for ever here in the Pictoris system.” Six pointed out.
The little machine crackled. “Done,” it said after a few seconds. “He will stay on board the trader until we get back.”
“Just as well you persuaded him to stay mostly up in orbit, Diva,” said Grace with feeling. “Even so, we have to try to get the part of him which was in the bracelets back! We have no idea what can have happened to him!”
Six straightened his shoulders, and stretched, cricking his neck from side to side. “Well, wish me luck!” Then he moved tentatively up to the surface of the underground lake, pointedly avoiding the few amorphs which were moving around in the foreground, and let himself slide under the surface of the ortholiquid.
Chapter 4
SIX WAS NOT particularly optimistic about this swim. He thought the chances of finding traces of Arcan in the lake were slim to none, but he also felt that they had to try. It would be terrible if they were to leave part of Arcan trapped down here without trying to rescue him.
He sank down into the watery fluid, and began to swim strongly towards the centre of the lake, taking care to disturb the liquid as little as possible. It was ironic, he thought, that his life would probably come to an end here – 30,000 light years from home, in a dungeon on a windswept planet. He had fully expected to die during the battles for Kwaide, and yet he had come through all that virtually unscathed.
He saw an amorph just in front of him in the liquid and swerved to avoid it. It accelerated suddenly, swept past him at a high speed and disappeared towards the centre of the lake, overtaking him easily. His hand detected a slight wave of heat the amorph had made as it passed, and he drew his arm back, surprised. After a moment, he investigated a little more, and found that it was quite possible to track the little creature, simply by following the flashes of heat which swept through the lake. The amorphs could travel quickly through the fluid, then, but left a distinctive pattern of heat when they did.
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