by Various
But not him, and not Braxan. He needed to live, and he needed her to live - "Look!"
"What is it?" someone shouted.
"A spinner!"
Keller raised his hand to shield his face from the ice particles and scanned the ugly sky. Beside him, Braxan hunched her shoulders and turned her unprotected face upward.
In the sky a tiny dot grew quickly larger, a bug-shaped metallic vessel with forward mandibles and a bulbous stern. A spinner from Riutta's fleet on the other side of the gateway - and quite literally the last thing Keller expected to see.
Who was piloting it? Was someone bringing a message for him? Had Riutta abandoned the gateway? Had one of the Living crew broken away? A hammer blow of worry hit him.
To a planet that hadn't entertained a visitor in ten thousand-plus years suddenly came the second visitor in a matter of months. Things were changing here - a harbinger now landed upon the plain, a much better touchdown than Keller had managed when he came through.
"Uh-oh ..." he uttered. "This can't be helpful."
"Perhaps it's one of your friends," Braxan suggested.
"Bet it ain't."
At first Keller didn't recognize the man who stepped from the spinner. The smooth silvery skin and dark eyes threw him off. On the other side of the gateway, the skin of the Living revealed its mottled pattern and their eyes were - different.
"It's Luntee, alive!" Braxan chirped, pushing on Keller's shoulder. "This will put to rest the idea that you may not have been honest with us! There were rumors that Riutta and Luntee had died on the other side!"
"They're fine," Keller hoarsely confirmed. "I told you they were fine ..."
He found his feet and pushed his way through the crowd of hunters. They knew him and were curious, so eagerly they parted before him and Braxan, until he was face-to-face with Luntee.
Though they both appeared like Halloween versions of themselves, they recognized each other.
"Couldn't take it, huh?" Keller flatly asked.
Luntee squared off with him, unsurprised and obviously prepared. "You don't belong here. We don't belong Outside. We should never have gone."
Aware of the hundreds of people staring at them like a swarm of bees waiting for a flower to open, Keller held himself in check and went for information.
"What's the status on the other side?"
"They think you're dead," Luntee announced. "Almost all the Anointed are gone. Time is running out."
Keller held up a hand. "We've been getting ready. We've been storing energy to power the transport ships. All the Living will be able to go through the gateway and settle in the Sagittarius Cluster."
Braxan appeared beside him, almost between him and Luntee. "The plan is troubled now."
He looked at her. "Why?"
She and Luntee watched each other as lightning flashed on their faces. "Luntee has returned to us and he is an Elder. There can only be three Elders. Luntee is senior to Issull. Issull is no longer Elder. Luntee's voice will now be heard with the voice of Kymelis."
She might've been trying to be kind or cautious, but everyone here knew what she meant.
The matter broadcast itself when Luntee spoke up again. "We will not go through," he declared. "We will destroy all the transporting vessels and we will live here, as we are meant."
"Meant?" Angry, Keller flopped his arms. "Nobody's 'meant' to live on this pie plate! There's no natural life here at all!" He turned to the crowd and implored, "The gateway is still open. That's a clear message. My friends and Riutta are holding it open. They're still waiting for us!"
Luntee held up his hand and pointed to the skies. "It remains open because his friends are forcing Riutta to push Anointed after Anointed into the processor! Wasted!"
Keller spun back. "Don't talk like that. They're not being wasted. They're saving you, all of you, all you people, if you'll just go through. Riutta knows that now - "
"Riutta is ill in the mind!" Luntee gasped. "You made her weak. The Anointed are almost gone. The gateway is soon and forever to close!"
"And you didn't want to be trapped on the other side," Keller accused. "Why not? Tell your people the truth. You couldn't adapt. You didn't like it over there, you found it uncomfortable, and you like being an Elder. Riutta wanted you to spend your life in space and you can't stand the idea. Here, you're a big fish in a small pond." His finger leveled at Luntee's chest, at the chain-mail shut he couldn't punch with a phaser. "At least admit that this is about you, and not about your people."
Braxan started to say something, then looked at Keller and asked, "What's a fish?"
"What's a pond?" Luntee asked, but in a mocking way. "I hate it there. I'm saving my people - "
"You're saving yourself. You won't take the time to adjust or let us help you. Did Riutta know you were escaping back through the gateway?" Keller plowed on, "Or did you break away on your own? I'm surprised Shucorion didn't knock you out of the sky."
Luntee's expression turned hard. "They think you're dead! Take the spinner! Go away from us and put their fears to peace! And leave us alone!"
"That's exactly what you'll be," Keller said. "Alone." The crowd was nervous, doubtful, and suddenly scared. Their fear crackled as clearly as the electrical frenzy high in the sky, and just as palpable. Push!
"You like that, don't you?" he pressed on, and actually stepped closer to Luntee, to put the focus where he wanted it. "The difference between you and all these other people is that you want to stay here. Everybody else is debating when to go through. You don't want to go at all. Tell them the truth."
"I speak truths," Luntee said. "I know how long you've been here. We have enough to go, but only if all our energy is used. Is this not also true?"
Keller started to speak, but all he could do was agree. Better not to do that.
Luntee took the silence as a cue. "If we go to space and the gateway closes before we go through, then we all die. All our energy will be used up. We'll freeze and starve by thousands. We have a fresh store of energy, to be used in powerful vessels to go through the gateway to that place of horrors, or to be used to make life better here. More heat, more building, new ways to hunt - "
Feeling his influence slip, Keller took care to keep desperation out of his tone of voice. "But most of the Living want to go through the gateway, as Ennengand intended. Isn't that true? Braxan, isn't it true?"
Her eyes were solemn, communicating to him that his argument was pointless now. "There are three Elders," she said. "If Kymelis decides to stay - "
"The old rules are too old," he argued. "Three people shouldn't be making decisions for tens of thousands of others - not this kind of decision. All of your people - each person has the right to decide whether or not to go."
"No one knows how to make this kind of choice."
"I do!" He turned and met the eyes of as many individuals as he could. "I surely do. This place is appalling. The best you can ever do here is make life barely bearable. Your legends came down of a wondrous place polluted by people who struck off into space. Okay, I'll tell you the truth - things aren't perfect on my side. It's not all wonderful, but it's mostly wonderful. The other things - we're working on all of it. You folks, you're right to stop looking for simple ways to live. You have a spectacular technology here, your metallurgy and your free dancers, and how you've learned to use them ... what a gift! You could improve life for billions of people, and you won't have to suffer anymore. You can be warm and have food - no more hunts, no more orphans - growing, breathing planets, flowers and grass and color - think of it and brace up!"
He paused, and watched the crowd. They were like a pack of gray wolves staring down a deer that wouldn't run. They had all the power and possibility, but didn't know what to do.
"Keller speaks with the voice of Ennengand," Braxan defended. "We should go through. I have always said it and I'm very smart."
He glanced at her, charmed by her ability to find a joke at these kinds of moments. Suddenly he felt strong
er.
"The Elders speak with separate voices," Luntee reminded. "If no two Elders agree, then random order will declare which voice shall be final."
"Hold it," Keller snapped. "What's that mean?" His own question gave him a shiver.
Lowering her chin, Braxan watched Luntee cannily. "It means there must be a hunt decision."
A rumbling ball hardened in Keller's stomach. "What's a hunt decision?"
"Watch the biohaze! When the first free dancer descends, all hunters will retreat except for the two challengers. One will be chosen. The other, the voice left behind, is meant to be heard."
Luntee, who had been reserved, skittish, and overwhelmed on the other side of the gateway, boldly addressed the gathering of hunters - numbers well into the hundreds. He spoke up sharply, and something about the acoustics of this metallic world carried his voice almost to the horizon. Keller had found that out the hard way.
Since all the hunters were gathered anyway and there were free dancers in the sky, the hunt decision would happen here and now. Just as well, wasn't it? To get all this over with? No time to think twice?
The judge would be Cyclops - Kymelis - the impartial Elder. Impartial? Vacillating, really. She was a stocky woman with many children, her right eye and right ear destroyed in some hunt catastrophe. Whether or not she coveted control or just accepted it was a mystery. Since becoming an Elder involved nothing more than surviving more hunts than any but two others, there was no political parrying or ambition in play. Being an Elder, status-wise, was nothing more than jury duty or a rotating chairmanship, except that big decisions were made for big numbers by these entirely random leaders.
Of course, until very recently, the decisions hadn't been so very big.
Kymelis was also dangerously superstitious. She was waiting for a "sign" that this was the right time to abandon their ridiculous planet.
As if there hadn't been enough signs lately! Belle Terre Trail, Blood Junction, Crossover Crossing, Keller Corners - "What if both die?" Keller asked. "If both are chosen?"
"Then neither is meant to be heard," Kymelis explained. Her bulky shoulders changed shades with the violent storms overhead as the free dancer herd noticed the hunt plain and began to gather. "There will be two new Elders."
"Wait - wait a minute. What do you mean by 'two new Elders'? If I'm chosen, Braxan still - "
"You will not be on the hunt plain. Braxan will be."
"This is between Luntee and me!"
"You're not an Elder," Luntee said. "Braxan is the dissenting Elder."
"Yeah, but you're not taking her out there."
"Yes."
"No. This is between you and me."
Luntee shrugged. "Braxan is your voice. A hunt decision is made with Elders."
"There's got to be something better," Keller insisted, "something involving me. I should be able to stand for my own purpose and take my chances."
Around them the hundreds of hunters shifted and bobbed with anxious curiosity. None dared cheer his words or even speak up, though he saw cheers in many eyes. Rules were rules and a lenient crowd wouldn't change them, but the effect wasn't lost on any of the three Elders. After all, if none of these people wanted to go through the gateway, there wouldn't be a problem, would there?
Kymelis's remaining eye shifted back and forth, as if scanning the old records and laws and rules and their details.
How could such a crowd be so quiet? It was like being watched by owls in the night woods.
"She can select a surrogate," Kymelis concluded.
Keller went up on his toes. "Great! Perfect - " He swung to Braxan. "Pick me. Come on, hurry up. I'm right here."
She looked at him, at Kymelis and Luntee, and back at Keller.
"Come on," he urged, twitching like a kid. "Let's go.
Pick me."
"I can't," she murmured. "You are the next Ennengand. You'll find a way."
"But if you - if you're chosen, Luntee's side wins!"
She gazed at him with miserable adoration. "And if you are chosen, there will be no one strong to speak for going. I'm not strong enough to lead. Whatever happens, you must remain to lead the Living. I will stand on the plain."
So she did believe in him. Too much.
"Braxan will go onto the hunt plain for the decision," Kymelis judged.
"No - oh, no!" Keller's head started to pound on the inside and down the back of his neck. He pushed forward toward Luntee and might've hit him - he might have - except Donnastal and Serren held him back.
Maybe they were smart. Maybe there was some little law about hitting an Elder.
What about insulting one?
"You're devious, Luntee," he tempted. "All right, you don't like me - fine. You want me to pay - that's fine too, but don't make me pay with her life!"
"These are our laws." Something had stabilized in Luntee's voice. He sounded much more confident than he had on the other side of the gateway. "You have come here and must live within - "
"I will," Keller blurted, "if you go out there with me, not with her. Let me be my own voice!"
A light came on in Luntee's eyes. "Very well," he complied. "You will be on the hunt plain."
Why had that gone so well?
Braxan shook her head frantically, suddenly overtaken by a new horror. Why?
A groan rose in Keller's throat. "What a low-down trick."
Eminently satisfied, Luntee spoke again to him, clearly enough to be heard well around.
"You, Nikelor, will go out as my surrogate. Braxan will represent the voice to go. You will represent me and the voice to stay. Random order will decide which voice remains to be heard, as it has for five hundred generations."
Keller fought his own inner arguments and tried to add up the situation. If Braxan lived, her "voice" remained and Ennengand's ideal of going through the gateway would prevail. But Luntee could easily muddy the waters, play on Kymelis's doubts, and make the clock run out. He could stall enough to let the last Anointed go into the processor and the gateway to finally close, locking the Living to their fate on this side. Braxan wasn't the type to fight him hard enough.
In fact, Luntee had Keller better than even Luntee realized. Keller had only his one ace, his big secret. He could arrange for one or the other to survive on the Feast Grid. He could do it artificially.
Now what? Admit to these brave hunters that he'd been hedging his bets, immunizing himself and Braxan with tricorder scans? Tell them how different the energy acted on either side of the gateway? Just as the grave ship's power wouldn't read in conventional sensors, the tricorder acted differently, and had different effects.
Cheating ... His own actions left as bad a taste in his mouth as the scans did in the free dancers', but he had a lot to stay alive for. If he didn't influence them, didn't complete his mission, these people would stay here, would probably shuffle along for a few more generations trapped in this hellish place, and probably die off. Without Keller, there would be no one to speak for going to the other side, right now, while they had the chance, while the gateway was still open.
He had to at least appear to be playing by their rules. He had to participate in their society, or they wouldn't respect him.
Now he couldn't even play his one ace. If he did, the free dancer would descend, but wouldn't choose either him or Braxan. He could save both their lives. Then what? Another hunt decision? And another one, until random order was satisfied?
Or if random order defied a choice, then the Elders would decide. By now Keller knew Kymelis well enough - she wouldn't decide. She would want to wait for a sign or a clue that would never come. Luntee would win, because time would run out.
A sly glint lit in Luntee's eyes as he watched Keller. On the other side of the gateway Luntee had seemed a minor player, hesitant and unclever, hovering on the sidelines as Riutta made the decisions. On this side, all that changed. He was not only playing the laws, but daring to make hunches about his adversary and doing it with the rocky nerve of a
riverboat gambler. If Braxan were chosen and Keller lived, representing Luntee, then Luntee's voice was meant to be heard. Luntee's trick was flawless. It left Keller no good way out, no way to win.
The wind tore at Keller, at them all. The sky began to crackle and grow lower. Giant shadows moved across the grid mats.