“We’ll need this,” said the Linnsy portion of the veccir as they reached down and took the ray gun from Ellico’s side. They tucked it into their belt, then turned and strode from the cave.
Maktel, Pleskit, and Eargon Fooz followed. I was the last to leave, though I’m not sure why. I stood in the entrance, looking back at Ellico.
“Go,” he said when he realized I was still there. He waved a blue hand to send me on my way. Then his bald head dropped back and his eyes closed.
Still I stood watching him.
“Go,” he whispered again, his voice fierce. “Now!”
I turned and ran, clutching the oog-slama to my chest.
* * *
The day was hot. The jungle smells were so rich and thick, they almost made me dizzy. I noticed that Eargon Fooz stopped several times and pulled lengths of vine from the base of certain trees. She bit them off with her strong teeth, then coiled them in her hands.
It made me nervous to see her messing with any vines in this killer jungle, but I figured she knew what she was doing. I did wonder why she was doing it, just exactly what she was up to. But I was far too concerned about Linnsy to worry about it very much. It took two or three hours before I finally got up the nerve to talk to Linnsy… to Linnsy vec Bur.
“So… how’re you feeling?” I asked.
“The Linnsy half of us feels better than it ever has,” they answered. “The Bur portion is mourning for its fallen comrade, but enjoys the excitement of having a fresh mind to merge with.”
“Is this, uh, permanent?” I asked.
“Bur would never force someone to be its partner,” they answered.
I looked skeptical.
“We know that you are thinking that is simply the Bur part of us speaking,” said Linnsy’s mouth. “But you have to understand this goes both ways, Tim. The Linnsy part has access to all of Bur’s knowledge and memory.” Her mouth smiled. “Here’s the good news, Tim. You were right about the galaxy. It’s wider and stranger and more wonderful than any of us back home imagined. Well, maybe any of us but you. The Linnsy part of us almost wishes that you had been the one Bur chose, because you would so much love to find what we are finding as our memories merge. Some of it is scary—more than the Linnsy part wants to know about life right now. But it’s exciting, too. Exciting and wonderful, and she would not trade it for anything.”
I stared at her, having no idea what to say.
Then a new question hit me like a hammer. If we ever did get out of this mess, would Linnsy be coming home with us—or was she now a citizen of the galaxy?
And if that was the case—what was I going to tell her mother?
CHAPTER 17 [PLESKIT]
FAREWELL TO A FRIEND
I watched Linnsy vec Bur uneasily as we traveled through the jungle, wondering if their transition into a joined being had been as simple and complete as Linnsy seemed to think. From stories I had heard from the Fatherly One, I knew that some new veccir feel a surge of excitement when their brains first mesh, but later have a reaction of fear and sorrow over the loss of individuality. I told myself that surely Bur knew this as well, and would be guarding against it, or would know how to deal with it should it happen.
Late that afternoon we came to a clearing in the jungle with an enormous orange stone on one side.
“Ah,” said Linnsy vec Bur, “we know where we are now. We can lead the way from here, Eargon Fooz.” Though they were speaking through Linnsy’s mouth, it was obvious the knowledge came from the Bur portion of the partnership.
Eargon Fooz linked her fingers, then pulled them apart, her people’s gesture of parting. “Your willingness to go on alone is a relief to me,” she said. “I was growing uneasy about venturing this close to the city. I will leave you here, and wish you the best of luck.” Turning to Linnsy vec Bur, she added, “I will return directly to your fallen comrade and protect him as well as I am able.”
“Thank you,” said the Bur portion of the new being. The Linnsy portion, however, looked troubled. I was troubled too when I figured out what that look meant: Linnsy was torn between her concern for Ellico and her fear that if he did live, Bur would leave her to return to him! It was clear she was moving deeply into the vec union.
Maktel stood before Eargon Fooz and bent his head until his sphen-gnut-ksher was pointing at the ground, a sign of deep respect and humility. “I was suspicious of you at first,” he said. “And I do not think that I was wrong to be cautious. But you have proved a good and worthy friend, and we owe you our deepest thanks.”
Eargon Fooz smiled and put her hands on his shoulders. Then she threw back her head and made a high-pitched warble that was oddly beautiful.
The next farewell was mine. I was truly sorry to see our friend leave us, and told her so. But I think Tim was sorriest of us all. “You saved my life by taking me to the worms,” he whispered, putting his hands on her long neck. “Thank you.”
I translated his words for Eargon Fooz. She smiled. “The best way to thank me is to use that life wisely. Here, I have a gift for you.”
She handed him the vines she had been collecting and coiling as we walked.
“It’s a rope,” she said. “You may find it useful.”
“Thank you,” said Tim, obviously startled.
Eargon Fooz bent to put her arms around him, and they embraced tightly. After a moment she released him, then turned and trotted away, the shifting colors of her skin causing her to disappear among the purple foliage mere seconds after she had left us.
I felt downhearted at saying farewell to the friend who had helped us so much. Much as I hate to confess it, I had been comforted by having an adult with us. As I thought about that, I realized Linnsy vec Bur was actually half adult, or contained a full adult unit, or something like that. But it was hard to hold the idea in my mind when I looked at the veccir and saw, mostly, the same Linnsy I had met my first day of sixth grade—the same, yet utterly different because of the strange creature clamped tightly on her head.
Toward evening we reached the top of a hill that overlooked the city. The scene was quite beautiful, a symphony of spires and domes lit by beams of light that played over it in lovely patterns.
“What happened to it?” I asked. “Why is it deserted? And why are there so many lights—why any lights at all—if it is deserted?”
“No one knows,” said Bur. “Ilbar-Fakkam has been empty for hundreds of this planet’s years. But all its systems continue to function, as if the city is simply waiting for its people to return. It’s a very strange place—but a good spot for beings who are up to no good to hide in.”
“It’s hard to imagine why anyone would leave this place,” said Tim as we started down the hill. “It looks so wonderful that I feel like I’ve died and gone to sci-fi heaven. Of course, it being deserted does make it easier for us just to walk in. I had been worried about the way Linnsy and I were going to stick out here.”
“What an ango-dabbik,” muttered Maktel.
I shot him a nasty glance. But he was right: it was an amazingly naive comment, at least from our point of view. It struck me again how different Tim’s life had been from mine, how differently we understood the universe.
To my surprise—but a surprise only because I was still not accustomed to what she had become—it was Linnsy vec Bur who explained the situation.
“Tim,” they said gently, speaking through Linnsy’s mouth, “even if the city were fully populated, why do you think you or I would look any stranger to its residents than Pleskit or Maktel? As long as they were already in contact with other planets, we would appear as just one of the many possible variants of intelligent life.”
Tim blinked, then actually laughed. “Boy, do I feel like a bonehead!” He looked at the city again, then shuddered. “It’s kind of like one of those ghost towns from the Old West, only about a million times bigger. It’s going to feel weird just walking in.”
“Actually, we’re not going to walk right in,” said Lin
nsy vec Bur.
“We’re not?” I asked.
“No. We’re going through the sewers.”
CHAPTER 18 [MAKTEL]
THE SEWERS OF ILBAR-FAKKAM
I felt a shudder of revulsion when Linnsy vec Bur told us we would have to enter the city through its sewers.
Clearly Tim felt the same way. “If the place is deserted, why the heck do we have to sneak in?” he asked, sounding as if he had been tricked.
“The city may be empty, but the building where Mikta-makta-mookta has set up her headquarters is protected by some very serious security equipment,” said Bur. “We believe our best chance to approach it undetected is to go through the sewers. However, trying to enter the sewer from the city itself would also attract attention. So we need to start from outside the city.”
“Why don’t we just go into the city and wait until night to lift a manhole… uh, beinghole… cover and sneak into the sewers that way?” asked Tim. “Less time to spend down there that way.”
Linnsy vec Bur shook her head, an Earthling gesture that made me feel more confident the Linnsy portion was still active. “Access to the sewers from inside the city is not as simple as you think, Tim. You’re still operating from an Earth model. We’d need a security code to get into one of those openings—either that or we’d have to blast our way in, which would definitely attract more attention than we want.”
“What kind of attention are we going to attract in a deserted city?” asked Tim skeptically.
“We told you, the city’s systems are still working. Repair-’bots and security-’bots would be there in minutes. Sirens would probably go off. Mikta-makta-mookta and her crew would be sure to know something was going on.”
“I take back what I said about sci-fi heaven,” muttered Tim. “This is more like a sci-fi nightmare!”
While they were discussing this, I was worrying about something else—namely, the possibility that the Bur portion of Linnsy vec Bur was only helping us break into the schemers’ command room for some selfish reason of its own. I feared that when we got there, we might meet with some terrible surprise, and I was a little disgusted by the simpleminded trusting of the others, who were so glad to have Bur along that they were almost drooling with thankfulness.
Was I the only one who had the presence of mind to be suspicious?
The question plagued me all through our walk to the edge of the city.
As we traveled, the moon rose behind the city—a lonely single moon, much like the one on Earth, though vastly larger than that moon. The towers of Ilbar-Fakkam stretched high in the darkening sky. Small winged creatures flitted through the night, shrieking as they passed within inches of our heads.
Given our experiences in the jungle, I found this terrifying.
“Fear not,” said Linnsy vec Bur, speaking through the Linnsy portion. “They won’t bother us.”
I started to ask how they could be sure, but realized that Ellico vec Bur had undoubtedly studied the planet before we crashed here. And what Ellico vec Bur had studied, Linnsy vec Bur now knew.
We circled a quarter of the way around the city, heading for the river that ran alongside it. I was stumbling with exhaustion by the time we came to the place where we could enter the sewers. The city was built on a bluff that rose about a hundred feet above the river, and—precisely where Linnsy vec Bur had said we would—we came to a deep chasm. Above it, about halfway to the edge of the city, we could see an opening in the side of the cliffs where water was trickling out.
“Well, I guess if the city is deserted, the water won’t be too ooky,” said Tim, looking up at it. “Where does it come from, anyway? I mean, it’s not like there’s anyone in there flushing the toilets.”
“Sewers are meant to carry away rainwater as well as waste,” said Linnsy vec Bur. “Also, there are automatic systems in the city still circulating water for various reasons.” They looked at the chasm. “It’s unfortunate we can’t cross here. It would make things easier. Well, one does what one must. Onward, friends.”
We began climbing the embankment; the rocky slope was smooth and very steep, but not impossible.
“You’ll have to be careful when we go in,” said Linnsy vec Bur just before we reached the top. “There may be some strange things living inside.”
Tim, who had gone up to the opening, pulled back. “What kind of strange things?”
“You never can tell, can you?” said Linnsy vec Bur with a smile on both their faces. Then they stepped in front of Tim and led the way into the dark tunnel that we hoped would let us save the galaxy.
CHAPTER 19 [TIM]
IN THE SEWERS
Dim lights flickered on overhead, almost as if sensing our presence. I jumped in surprise, even though I should have expected that the sewer for this city would be considerably more high-tech than on Earth. Still, it was eerie to think that the lights had been put there by beings who had abandoned the city hundreds of years before.
I quickly realized that traveling through the sewer wasn’t going to be as disgusting as I had feared. This was partly because a ledge ran along the side, about fifteen inches above water level. It was also partly because the city was deserted. Rather than wading through a swamp of alien poop, we were walking slightly above a broad flow of dark water.
The sewer itself was about ten feet high and about fifteen feet across. The walls—so smooth that they felt as if they were made of some sort of plastic—rounded gently into the ceiling without ever forming a corner. A cross section of the sewer tunnel would have been shaped more like an egg than a box.
The journey went smoothly for the first several minutes. In fact, things didn’t start to get nasty until we heard something splashing in the water next to us.
“What’s that?” I asked nervously.
“Could be anything,” said Bur. “I’d suggest you stay as close to the wall as you can.”
“If I get any closer, I’m going to qualify as wallpaper!”
The problem with keeping so close to the wall was that it slowed us down. As we inched along, I kept gazing down at the water, trying to figure out what might be lurking beneath the surface. But the light was too dim for me to see anything other than the occasional ripple.
About fifteen minutes in, we came to a branch in the sewer, a place where two tubes joined to form the one through which we had been traveling. (Or, considering it from our side, a place where the tunnel split.)
Linnsy vec Bur called a halt while they considered which way we should be going. I got the impression they were having a conversation, even though they were standing in complete silence. When Bur had first chosen Linnsy, my reaction had been relief. Now, for the first time, I felt a flicker of jealousy as I wondered what it would be like to have an alien being linked to my brain, feeding me information.
I got so involved in thinking about Linnsy that I wasn’t paying as close attention to the water as I should have been. All of a sudden I heard a splash, the loudest yet, then felt something grab me by the leg. I looked down and screamed. A thick green tentacle had wrapped itself around my leg. It started to pull me toward the water. I grabbed for the walls, but their smooth surface gave me nothing to hold on to.
“Help!” I screamed.
Pleskit grabbed one of my arms. Maktel grabbed the other. Within seconds I felt as if I had become the rope in a game of tug-of-war. While Maktel and Pleskit gripped my arms, the tentacle was pulling me toward the water with powerful strength. I was stretched out above the surface of the sewer, my body angled downward.
Another tentacle snaked out of the water and grabbed my other leg.
“Hold on to me!” I cried.
Suddenly I heard a sizzling sound. A beam of light sliced through the first tentacle, and then the second. The water frothed as the now stumpy tentacles withdrew. Pleskit and Maktel hauled me back onto the ledge.
The ends of the tentacles, now oozing green goo, were still wrapped around my legs, thrashing like a pair of demented snakes.
“Get them off!” I cried, in near hysterics. “Get them off!”
“Don’t touch them!” ordered Linnsy vec Bur. “They may be poisonous.” The veccir edged past Maktel on the ledge and, using the ray gun on a different setting, carefully sliced off the tentacles. They fell into the water below. We saw a sudden froth of activity, and then they disappeared. I couldn’t tell if they had swum off on their own or if something had grabbed them to eat.
“How did you know how to do all that?” I asked once I was able to talk at all.
Linnsy vec Bur shrugged. “What’s the point of having a symbiotic partner if you can’t work together?” they asked in unison.
Then the Bur part chuckled, which sent a little chill down my spine.
They knelt to examine my legs. “It’s a good thing you were wearing pants,” they announced, speaking through Linnsy. “They protected you from any skin damage.” She paused, and I could tell she was communicating with Bur. “We’re not sure if you should take them off to avoid the possibility of any poison soaking through, or leave them on to protect you in case of another attack.”
“I’ll leave them on,” I said hastily—then wondered if I was making a stupid mistake just to keep from walking around in my underwear.
“We thought you would,” said Linnsy vec Bur. “All right, let’s get moving again.”
“Which way are we going?” asked Pleskit.
“We have to cross over to the other side.”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” squawked Maktel—and the only reason he said it instead of me was because he got the words out faster. I was so shocked by the idea that I couldn’t speak at first. I just pointed at the water going, “But… but… but…”
“We have to go up the tunnel on this side for another quarter of a mile,” said Linnsy vec Bur. “We can cross there, then walk back down this way.”
* * *
As we walked, my legs began to itch. I couldn’t tell if it was because some poison from the tentacles had soaked into my pants or because my imagination was making me feel that way. I knew my imagination could do that to me, because once I got some fleas on me at a friend’s house. Even though we got them all off before I went home, for the next three days every time I thought about it, I kept feeling fleas again.
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