Ammonite Planets (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #1-3

by Gillian Andrews

  As fast as it had started, the heat trail dissipated into the surrounding liquid, leaving no trace. He looked around him, until he spotted another amorph cruising past, and then went quickly over to see if that, too, was leaving a heat signature. It was. Being hyperfluid, the ortholiquid simply transmitted the heat in a wave through the lake, but it was definitely detectable for a short time. Six remembered that the Sellites had called the phenomenon second sound. And the amorphs were moving much more quickly in this medium than they had on land. They were clearly very used to traveling in this way.

  Slowly Six began to approach the centre of the lake. The roof of the cavern lowered at this point, almost touching the surface of the liquid, so it was relatively easy to see where to go. As he got nearer, he found more and more of the amorphs, until he was touching them as he swam. These, however, were barely moving, though they seemed hotter to the touch, leaving a strong residual heat signature in the lake. Nowhere was there any sign of Arcan, or of the bracelets. He began to lose hope of ever finding the orthogel entity in this enormous area. The lake itself covered macrocubits; there was simply no way he could hope to explore all of it. And he had already dived beneath the surface a couple of times, to find that the lake was too deep for him to be able to touch bottom.

  Just swimming in the ortholiquid was a strange experience. It felt almost as if he were swimming through air, due to the lack of friction. Yet for some reason, there was buoyancy, and if he rested his arms momentarily he found himself floating. It was strange.

  Well. At least it hadn’t ejected him – yet. He rested for a few moments to catch his breath, and then swam on firmly, pushing the amorphs aside, and hoping that they wouldn’t burn him.

  Finally he reached the lowest point of the roof, at the centre of the lake. He found to his surprise that, instead of being deeper here, it was more shallow, and close to where the ceiling dipped into the ortholiquid of the lake he was able to stand, although his head almost touched the smooth rock above him. He relaxed slightly, and took stock of his surroundings.

  The amorphs were thickly congregated here in the middle of the lake. There must have been hundreds of them, and they seemed not to want to notice his presence. And yet … Six blinked. There were three of the creatures right in front of him that seemed to be trying to get his attention. He blinked again. No, he wasn’t imagining it. Three amorphs in particular were bobbing under his hands, trying to encourage him to move. They were quite insistent; the pressure they were putting on him was enough to make him lose his footing on the floor of the lake, and he found his legs beginning to float to the surface again.

  As he did so, the three friendly amorphs began to push him along. How they did it, he couldn’t tell, but there was no doubt that they did. They were trying to move him away from the centre of the lake, out into the deeper waters. Just as they did so, he became aware of a loud humming behind him, and turned his head just in time to see the most peculiar thing he had ever seen.

  Behind him the thick mass of amorphs seemed to have coagulated into one solid lump, and inside the lump he thought he could see a pattern of holes forming a latticework. Then there was a high-pitched sound of vibration and he had the strong impression of something spinning, yet the group of amorphs apparently remained stationary. Even so, there was a thin throbbing noise which seemed to come from the cluster.

  He rubbed his eyes, and peered again. There seemed to be a massive wave running right through the pile of amorphs, starting in the centre like a volcano, and then spreading out in a concentric wave through the bodies of the amassed amorphs and disappearing into the ortholiquid of the lake. There was an orange light coming from the centre of the lake, but as he watched this turned to white, and then a brilliant white flash covered him with light, leaving him almost blind.

  At about the same time he became aware of the increase in the waves of heat which were pulsing through the lake. They were rising in intensity, and becoming highly uncomfortable. If he had been any closer he would have been burnt.

  Now he realized that the three amorphs had been trying to help him, and he started to swim back in the direction of the shore. There seemed no point doing anything further to help Arcan – it was an impossible task. He concentrated on getting back to the group without having to be shoved along by his self-appointed guard of honour.

  As soon as he got into earshot he asked the visitor to take a quick trip to the centre of the lake, and to record what was happening there. The sphere whirred its acceptance, though Six didn’t see it go since it was still blended.

  The girls pulled him bodily out of the lake with relief.

  “Are you all right?” asked Grace, worriedly.

  “Phew! Glad to be back!”

  “Arcan?”

  “No sign. But those amorph things are truly weird!” He told them what he had seen.

  The video camera came back. “Most interesting,” it said. “We should take a couple of specimens back to the ship for study.”

  Grace frowned. “Is that wise?” she asked. “I mean – if they can create that much heat then they could be dangerous, couldn’t they?”

  Diva nodded. “You’re right. We shouldn’t take them up in orbit, however harmless they look. Perhaps we could do some limited experiments here, on the surface?”

  Six agreed. “Nothing is going back to the binary system,” he declared. “There is no way we can risk some kind of epidemic there. Not unless everything has been checked and double-checked a million times.”

  “We’ll take a couple to the surface with us then,” Diva decided. “—If we can find any that are prepared to come, that is. They only seem to live down here, so it will be no good looking for any when we get out.”

  She looked around. Six pointed to the three which had escorted him out of the lake, still close by. “Those are the ones that seem to have been assigned to my safety,” he told her. “Try those.”

  Diva scooped down and grabbed the three he had indicated, and put them hastily into a bag. This she held at some distance from her body until she had determined that they were not about to escape or burn her again. “All right, they seem happy to stay in there, at least for the time being.”

  “There is nothing more we can do,” Six told them rather sadly. “I think they must have killed those parts of Arcan which came with us as bracelets. I just hope that this is not an insurmountable loss, that he can function without them. We have to find a way out of here.” He turned to the video camera, which whirred rather uncomfortably.

  “I can’t help you get out,” it said hastily. “This machine can’t carry weight.”

  “Right,” said Six. “Then we will just have to do it by ourselves. Girls!” He pointed eloquently up the rock face.

  Grace’s stomach sank. “Isn’t there any other way?” she asked hopefully.

  Six grinned at her. “We could always lasso a few of these booby birds and ask them to pull us out.”

  Diva opened her eyes. “They are not booby birds! They are very clever!” That made her think of something. “Maybe they could fly us out?”

  “Sure. And then they could build us a spaceport before breakfast!”

  “Seriously. I could try to establish communication.”

  “You are joking, aren’t you?”

  “No! It worked before!”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Diva, you know these things can’t fly!”

  “Of course they can! They are birds, aren’t they?”

  “They are still dinosaurs. I told you. They will be gliders, not fliers. They wouldn’t be climbers if they could fly well.”

  “They are NOT dinosaurs. They are birds!”

  “Dinosaurs. Their claws all face forwards.”

  “That doesn’t have anything to do with it. They’re birds!”

  “Dinosaurs!”

  “Err … I don’t know how to climb!” Grace’s small voice interrupted them.

  Six turned to her immediately. “It isn’t going to be too bad, Gr
ace. It is only this beginning stage that is so vertical. The visitor says the rest is just like walking up a slope.” This was not exactly true, but he needed to make her feel she could cope. “And I will go first so that you can see exactly where to put your hands and feet. You went up and down those ladders on the skyrises on Valhai, so you won’t have any trouble here!” He was wishing to himself that they had thought to bring a rope. He would have been much happier if he could have secured the girls. He knew there were two 60 metre ropes in the shuttle. He would have to get the girls most of the way up on their own.

  Grace gave a gulp. “I suppose.” She looked up at the cliff above her, spotted a couple of large insects moving industriously across it, and swallowed. “I’ll try,” she said, in a small voice.

  Six gave her a hug. “Well done! You’ll be fine. Diva? Think you can do it?”

  “I bet I could beat you to the top, any day!”

  Six grinned. “I’d like to see you try!”

  Grace made a face. “Isn’t there any other way?”

  Six shook his head. “Not unless we want to starve to death in here.” He called the visitor, which indicated its presence with a soft crackle. “Are there any overhangs on the way up?”

  “Several. Why?”

  Six just looked at it. “Because we won’t be able to get past them?” he pointed out, obviously thinking that a couple of strings of neurons had left the creature under severe brain strain.

  “Oh. I will have no problem at all.”

  “No.” Six waved both his hands in a how-obvious-can-you-get signal. “You are a machine.”

  “I must say, I think you three are very substandard. You don’t seem able to do the least little thing. I honestly don’t know what the orthogel entity sees in all of you.”

  “Thank you. The feeling is mutual.”

  The machine gave a furious whirr. “I hope you are not suggesting that a 2a category life form is sub-standard? Because if you were, then you might find that this 2a life form might just go away and refuse to help you.”

  Six stared in disbelief. “What help are you anyway? You can’t help us get out of this cavern, can you?”

  It clicked. “No. But I can accompany you.”

  “That’s going to be a big help!”

  Grace put up a soft hand. “Six, the visitor will be able to tell us where handholds are, and which the best path is. He will be of great help.”

  “There!” said the machine. “At least somebody appreciates me!”

  Six glared at Grace. “Spoilsport!”

  She tried to raise a grin. “I … I suppose we should get started?” She wondered if the way her hands were shaking would affect her ability to climb.

  Six looked up at the forbidding wall of rock that seemed to tower off to infinity above them. “Yes.” He gave a heavy sigh and then exhaled again. “I will go first, then Diva, then you, Grace. Please watch carefully where I put hands and feet, will you? And try not to fall off!”

  “Speak for yourself, no-name,” said Diva crossly.

  Chapter 5

  THE FIRST STRETCH was nightmarish. Six had been used to climbing when he was young, but this surpassed even the crags and cliffs on Kwaide, and he was out of practice. The surface was vertical and smooth, offering few handholds and footholds. He would have given up at the start, had the visitor not told him that the rock face would be much easier to climb further on. He took his progress slowly, knowing that neither of the two girls would be as fast as he was.

  They were only a few metres into the climb when the avifauna saw what was happening. To Six’s utter surprise, the whole flock turned towards them, and the avians began to scale the rock behind them. He was close enough to see how easy this was for them. They used their large claws to scrabble quite efficiently up the rock. Grace, who was the last of the three climbers, had a look of intense worry at this latest development, and kept looking over her shoulder at the creatures who were following.

  “Don’t look down, Grace!” he shouted. “They are keeping their distance, so just ignore them. They obviously formed a bond with Diva!”

  “That’s right, blame me!”

  “Why else would they be following us?” asked Six reasonably.

  “How am I supposed to know? Perhaps they didn’t want to starve to death down there?”

  At last they got to the top of the first fifty metres, and Six saw, to his great relief, that it did indeed spread out. He waited for the girls to catch up.

  “Look. The going is much easier for the next hundred metres or so,” he pointed out. “The rock surface is more weathered here, see? It flows up almost in waves. We should be able to make good time. And if you look hard enough, you can see a tiny patch of light above us – that must be the opening the visitor told us about.”

  Grace gulped as she stared up at the rock above her. It was interminable, she thought. Then she felt something crawl over her fingers and gave a shriek of pure terror, as her automatic reflexes came into action and she snatched her hand away. Something big and hairy fell off into the gloom. The others jumped.

  Six touched her gently on the shoulder. “All right, Grace?”

  She bit her lip. “F-fine! I d-don’t much like insects.” She thought, and then added, for the sake of honesty, “Or rocks.”

  “You will be all right, you know. This bit is much easier than that vertical climb you just managed.”

  “It’s not this bit that I am worried about! Even though you said it was going to be like going up a hill, but it is much harder than that.” She stared towards the tiny ring of light overhead, trying to make out the details. “The visitor says it is impossible higher up!”

  Six smiled. “Don’t worry about the last bit. I can go up first, and there is some rope in the shuttle, so I can help you with that part.”

  Grace brightened. “Really? That sounds better!”

  “You won’t have any trouble,” Six assured her. “Just keep your hands away from those insects. Some of them look poisonous.”

  “Oh terrific!” said Diva. “Now we have poisonous insects just to make the whole excursion more fun.”

  “And watch the bats. They are insect eaters, I think, but they might not take kindly to sharing their habitat with us.”

  “Anything else?” Diva’s voice was laden with sarcasm.

  He gazed around into the half-gloom. “I suppose that is why the avifauna are at home in these caverns. They probably survive by eating all the insects in here. I expect they have been swarming up and down these rock faces for generations.”

  Grace blew some stray hairs away from her eyes, and bent her head. She would be able to do this. The worst was over. She would not break down and cry. She was not a silly little girl; she was a grown woman who had proved herself in battles. Surely it was time to get over all this fear every time things got difficult? She was never going to be a real heroine at the rate she was going! So what were a few insects? And a few rocks? And a few bats? And a long drop down into a dark cavern? Surreptitiously, she looked sideways at Diva. The Coriolan girl, as usual, was perfectly comfortable. Only Diva could climb a 50 metre sheer drop and turn not a hair!

  Grace gave an inward sigh, and her chin came up. Six gave her an approving nod, which made her feel better.

  The rock had been cold to the touch near the surface of the ortholiquid lake, but got even colder as they moved up the rock face, until each grasp of the fingers was painful. Six found his hands stiffening, and losing their strength. He cursed to himself, but doggedly kept moving. “Nearly at the next resting point!” he shouted over his shoulder, although in fact it would take them at least another hour to get to the spot the visitor had told him about. “Not long now! It is going very well!”

  “M-my h-hands are cold,” shouted Grace.

  “Yes! Just keep moving. It will be worse if we stop.” Six looked around to see where the small sphere which was hovering above them had got to. When he detected it, he sent it back to chivvy Grace. “She has ve
ry little experience of anything like this,” he told it. “Just try to keep her going, talk to her – make the time pass more quickly.”

  The visitor crackled its understanding, and disappeared. Six peered back into the gloom below him. He could hear the avians, so they were still following them, but the light just here was not good enough to see them. He hoped that the birds would make it out of the cavern. It seemed very unfair that these creatures should die just because they had been at the wrong place and the wrong time. Still, Six knew better than to expect fairness out of a world that had often treated everyone he knew unjustly.

  He trudged on, step after step, checking the girls’ progress automatically every few seconds, and trying to ignore the increasing physical discomfort. It was slow, laborious progress. The sheer effort of lifting his own body weight through so many metres was causing him to sweat under the bodywrap, and every breath he took now was a painful effort.

  A shriek from below made him pause.

  “All – all right, Diva?” he shouted.

  “Any reason I – I shouldn’t be?” came back the cross answer. “Just saw some nice bats, is all.”

  He grinned to himself in the dark. “Just wondering if you were weakening, is all.”

  “Dream on, no-name! I am j … just f … fine. Don’t know w …why you have to go s … so slow!” The words came back accompanied by pauses to take huge gulps of air.

  “Not finding it hard going?”

  “Never! Can’t you go a bit faster?”

  AT LAST THEY reached the small platform which Six and the visitor had marked out as the resting spot. The girls pulled themselves up to his level, and lay gasping. The visitor took advantage, disappearing above them to investigate the next step of the climb, and Six rubbed his fingers together to try to get full feeling back.

  “Managing, Grace?”

  The Sellite girl nodded back, but her face was as white as a sheet, and pinched with fear. “I’m good.”