Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5

by Gillian Andrews

  Ledin turned to the ridge, already picking out the perfect place for Hanna. He could see it, slightly over to the north – a ledge that was a little wider in one spot than the rest, almost at the top of the ridge, but with a view across to the butte, so she would see the avifauna taking off each morning. He picked up the explosive and made his way over to the particular spot he had chosen. Hanna’s Ridge, he thought. Hanna’s Ridge, Pictoria. He thought about everything that had happened in the last year, and gave a deep sigh. How Hanna would have laughed with delight if she had known about Pictoria! He could still see that elfin face in his mind’s eye; still hear her joyous shouts of glee as she rolled down the flower-covered slopes of Kwaide in the summer. It was a bitter-sweet moment. He was glad to have her back, to have finally recuperated her bones from the Valley of the Skulls. And he was glad to be burying her here, in the place she had foreseen so long ago. But the memories of the life they had shared together on Kwaide, before the revolution, were bitter. Harsh and painful; raw wounds that time had not managed to cure. His throat hurt as he thought about it, and he swallowed.

  SIX AND DIVA brought their shuttle down rather nearer to the butte. They wanted to give Ledin some space, and also thought it would be a good idea to check up on the morphics, since they were here. They made their way out onto the planet’s surface, and gazed around with pleased expressions. The day was absolutely stunning, with a much warmer feel to it than usual. They both breathed in deeply, and then found themselves laughing together. There was something about the air. It fizzed through their veins euphorically, blood singing into the hazy morning.

  “Let’s go to the butte first,” suggested Six. “I got the distinct feeling that Ledin wanted to spend some time alone.”

  Diva nodded. “Sounds good.” She looked at the sun, hanging like a golden ball above them in the sky. “We have plenty of time before the wind gets up.”

  They felt rather self-conscious as they walked away, towards the nearest ridge. Both of them were remembering the last time they had raced across Pictoria’s surface; the time when they had tumbled down to the ground together. It wasn’t very long ago, yet quite a lot seemed to have happened since then.

  As they walked, Diva looked at the Kwaidian out of the corner of her eye. He was striding along, completely unaware of her examination, looking around at the Pictoria landscape with his usual nonchalance. As she watched him, something shifted inside her, and she found herself seeing him suddenly in clear perspective. He had grown taller, and filled out. There was little left now of the thin, street-smart boy she had met all those years ago. But then, perhaps she had changed too. She wasn’t sure how much of the Coriolan meritocrat had survived recent events.

  Her attention was fixed on him as he marched beside and slightly in front of her, his figure highlighted against the red-gold sun of Pictoria, and the usual defiant grin lighting up his face. He looked familiar, and yet threatening. She felt an unexpected need to get closer to him.

  She tried to ignore the feeling and the confusion which had suddenly overtaken her, and walked on. Then, while she was still considering this strange revelation, a flash of sunlight rebounded off his hair, giving him a halo of blazing light, and a bolt of something so primeval shot through her that it made her stop dead in her tracks, pinning her to the ground with its intensity, and leaving her breathless.

  She stared at Six, who had now stopped too, and was looking back at her rather quizzically, with one eyebrow raised. The sun flashed again off his hair, leaving him silhouetted against the sultry light, and the steady beat of her heart gave a stagger, and thumped disagreeably. She was aware of a strange sense of inevitability, of belonging, a sense of rightness. A jolt traveled all the way down her spine.

  “What?” said Six.

  Diva shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. She raised one eyebrow, and gave a slow smile.

  Six took a moment to look at her more closely, and his heart melted. He knew, with a certainty that he rarely felt, that the time had come. He turned back towards her, stepped across the sand, and reached out to take hold of her hands. His eyes asked her the question he wouldn’t put into words.

  Diva met his gaze with her head held high. She wouldn’t pretend not to understand, he knew. There was a long silence, and then he caught a slight, almost imperceptible nod. They stared at each other; then Six slowly drew her forwards, until she was in his arms. He found his hands were shaking. Diva put her arms around his waist, and they held each other like that, just for a moment which felt like a million years. Then she moved even closer, and he saw eagerness in her eyes.

  Six’s heart was pounding thunderously. He wondered if she could hear it. She met his gaze, and they both began to smile simultaneously. His heart gave a lurch, and then another; he wanted to hold her so tightly that she would never get away. Both their eyes were laughing now, jubilation flashing into a spiral of laughter.

  And then Diva’s lips met his, and they exchanged one single kiss which deepened as Six gathered her to him and held her as if he would never let go. He had been waiting so long for this that he felt a ragged commotion of whirling feelings inside. His heart gave a leap which must have nearly reached Kwaide, and a deep surge of happiness spread through him. Finally, reluctantly, he put Diva down, and stood back. He could feel tears prickling at the back of his eyes, and hardened his resolve. A Kwaidian man never, ever, under any circumstances, cried.

  “You seem to have become more adept at kissing,” said a voice from about a metre away. Six started, and then looked round in surprise.

  “Visitor. Nice of you to … err … drop in on us. Rather unexpected, of course, but nice.”

  “I must say that this time Diva looked as if she was quite enjoying it,” said the Visitor. He sparkled. “Was that a forerunner to sexual activities?”

  “Yes!” said Six.

  “Certainly not!” said Diva, who had gone rather pink.

  “Is that a yes or a no?” he insisted.

  Six grinned. “I was working on it,” he said.

  The visitor whirred. “Then I shouldn’t have interfered?”

  “We-ell …” Six raised his eyebrows. “I have only been waiting about five years for that moment, is all.”

  The visitor gave a sigh of relief. “That is all right, then.”

  Six couldn’t help chuckling, and then looked around. “Where are the terrible twins, and how did you find us?”

  “The twins have transported over to Valhai, to tell Arcan about your sexual activities,” said the visitor.

  Six could feel Diva’s outrage all the way along the arm he still had around her. He began to shake with laughter. “Just on a point of order,” he said. “I should tell you that there hasn’t actually been any sexual activity yet.”

  “Not?” The visitor darkened. “Why not?”

  Six gave him a look. “Err … interruptions?”

  “What interrupt— Oh, I see. You mean I interrupted you?”

  “Well, hel-lo … yes.”

  “Then I am very sorry. —Diva, please excuse me. I will just go and tell Grace and Ledin that you are going to engage in sexual activity, and that they are not to come looking for you.”

  “NO!” shrieked Diva.

  “No, there is to be no sexual activity, or no, they are not to come looking for you?” The visitor was anxious to get things exactly right.

  Diva, pale but shaking, pulled herself up to her highest. “There is to be no sexual activity,” she informed them both.

  Six’s face fell. “Not even a little bit?” he said wistfully. Diva gave him a look.

  The twins arrived. “Arcan is very happy that you are initiating sexual activities,” they said, flashing with pleasure. “And the man who speaks to canths sends his best wishes.”

  Diva was now glaring around at them. “If all of you don’t mind, I think I can be the best judge of when I am about to initiate sexual activities,” she said, still very red. “And it isn’t going to be when a bevy of
morphics are watching.”

  The twins and the visitor anxiously buzzed around Six, who was laughing so much he could hardly stand up. “Go away!” he told them.

  “There isn’t going to be any sex!” shouted Diva.

  Six grinned again. “Spoilsport! There might have been. If—” he shot a glance at the morphics, “—we had been on our own.” Then he remembered his second question. “By the way, how did you know we were here?”

  “That’s easy. The trimorphs can feel whether anybody linked to a canth is close or far away. It is an ability that seems to have been unblocked when the canths visited the planet. They felt you were close, and so we came up to find you.”

  “How nice,” said Diva, through gritted teeth.

  “I knew you would think so. You won’t have to climb down into the cavern now, will you?”

  Diva made a sort of snorting noise, and Six looked down at her, worried. He hoped that their brand-new relationship could withstand a few setbacks, but he had to admit that the woman he loved was looking anything but amenable.

  “Yes,” he said to the morphics. “Well, terrific to see you, and all that, but I think you should go and find Grace. She will want to tell you all about Hanna, Ledin’s sister. Err … Diva and I will be fine here … on our own. Tell Grace we are on our way over to their shuttle.”

  The trimorphs and the visitor began a flashing, but silent interchange amongst themselves, and finally reached agreement. “Then we shall leave now,” the visitor said.

  “Thank Sacras! Err … I mean, thank you for popping in on us.”

  “Our congratulations.”

  Six looked at the thundery expression on his wife’s face. “Yes. Well. Might be a bit premature.”

  Diva gave him a look.

  “Definitely a bit premature,” he corrected hastily, then watched as the morphics blinked out of existence one by one. There was a long and very awkward silence between the two people who were left standing on the ridge. Diva was shifting from one foot to the other, reminding Six of a thoroughbred horse which had been spooked by something and was poised to fly.

  “So-o,” he went on, trying to make his voice sound casual and soothing, “that was fun, wasn’t it? I think we should go on over to the butte now, don’t you? Have a quick look around. Glad we won’t have to go down into the cave, though.”

  Diva mumbled something unintelligible, still mortified, and still looking extremely unapproachable.

  Six grinned to himself. He gave her a small nudge, and received an incredulous stare back. He gave her another nudge, this time rather stronger, and received a deep frown. Then he pushed her hard, tumbling her over into the sand. She lay back, her eyebrows nearly meeting in the middle as she glared at him. He danced on his feet.

  “You’ll never catch me!” he taunted.

  Her eyes turned slitty, and he laughed, putting his hands out and shaking them slightly, just as he had the first time they had ever met.

  “Oooh! How scary!”

  With something very like a growl, she leapt to her feet, and pounced in his direction, close on his heels as he took flight. Six ran as fast as he could, looking back at her with a fake expression of terror.

  They flashed along the top of the ridge, and then Six began to leap from step to step up the risers, down one ridge, and up the next. They pounded along ridge after ridge until they were both breathless with the effort. Still they ran on further. At some stage the persecution turned into a race against each other, Diva determined not to let Six outrun her, and Six just as determined to prove he was faster than her. At last, after running for a long time, Six slid to a stop.

  “Pax! I can’t go any further!” he told her, holding his sides and doubling over to try to get his breath. “I have to sit down.”

  Diva was doubled over too. “You can run fast, no-name,” she acknowledged. “Though not as fast as me, of course.”

  “Kind of you to say so, your ladleship,” he said. “I am prepared to concede defeat, on this occasion only. Allow me to escort you to your seat.” He waved her up the risers in front of him until he was almost at the top of the ridge. Then he pretended to brush down the ledge facing west for her.

  “Modom! Your throne awaits.” He bowed elaborately around her until she finally laughed. She sat down on the ledge and he collapsed next to her. They looked out over Pictoria, over the hot red particulate sand, and across to the purple gas giant with its surrounding ring. There was a comfortable silence. The tension on Diva’s face had cleared with the physical exercise. They were too tired to want to talk much. Six knew how uncertain she must be feeling, so he simply sat down beside her.

  “This feels strange,” she said quietly.

  “We’ll get used to it.” He looked out at the view towards the centre of the galaxy, and felt his heart leap with happiness. “We can get used to anything.”

  GRACE WAS WATCHING the distant avifauna when the visitor and the trimorph twins found her. One minute she was completely alone, and the next she seemed to be surrounded by tiny twittering spheres.

  “What?” She got alarmed. “What’s the matter? What are you trying to tell me? Is Ledin all right? Diva? Six?”

  The visitor stopped whirling. “It is Diva and Six. They were participating in the prelude to sex!”

  “Participating in the …?” She looked confused. “… Oh! You mean they were kissing.” Her face illuminated in smiles. “Really? That is wonderful! At last!”

  “They have told us to go away,” explained one of the twins. “We interrupted them. Now there isn’t going to be any sex.” It sounded most disappointed, and Grace giggled.

  “Never mind. I expect there will be, at some stage, if they have started kissing each other.”

  “That’s what I had been led to believe,” said the visitor bimorph. “At least, that is what Six explained last year. But he didn’t explain that it was a private occupation.” The visitor sounded quite peeved.

  Grace grinned. “Well, it is. A very private … err … occupation.”

  “We shouldn’t watch?”

  “NO!” Then she moderated her tone. “No, you shouldn’t watch.”

  The visitor scintillated. “I wanted to tell Arcan about it.”

  “It is not something we talk about to other people.”

  “I don’t understand why not. Is procreation not an important part of your lives?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Then why wouldn’t you talk about it?”

  A hunted expression began to cross Grace’s face. She looked around. “I … err … Sex is a very personal thing, Visitor.”

  “It can’t be personal if you need two people, can it? And in any case, I don’t see why it should be. It must be because you are category 3 species. If you were category 2, of course, you would participate involuntarily, because all thoughts are instantaneously transmitted to all the other members of your species. It seems very odd not to talk about it at all. I am not in the least surprised that your species doesn’t live very long. Apart from making it most inconvenient for us, too.” A shadow of cross black ran through him. “How will we know that they have had sex?”

  “You won’t. You’ll just have to assume they have.”

  “Very unsatisfactory.” The twins began to flash at the visitor again; the morphics obviously agreed that the social customs of the transients left much to be desired. When they calmed down again, Grace told them about Hanna, and the purpose of their visit to Pictoria. She asked them if they would like to visit Hanna’s grave. The morphics fell silent, considering.

  “I don’t think so, thank you very much,” said one of the twins. “Why would we want to visit old bones?”

  Grace tried to explain that it would be to show their respect for Ledin, but wasn’t very successful.

  “I like Ledin, but we’d rather go and see him later, when he’s finished with all the old bones,” the visitor told her. “I think this tomb thing is something you should do alone. I don’t understand yo
u 3b’s. It is acceptable to talk about dead people, but not about sex.” He shimmered. “You have some very illogical customs. It would be much healthier the other way round.”

  The trimorphs twittered their agreement with him, and they all shimmered. “By the way,” one of the twins said, “Six and Diva told us to tell you they are on their way over to see you. We’ll come too – once the sun has begun to fall.” The morphics immediately disappeared.

  Grace got up and began to wander back in the direction of the shuttle. She was smiling quietly to herself. In the end this journey of colour had turned out to be important for all of them. She wondered if the man who spoke to canths had known that it would be.

  LEDIN CARRIED THE tools to the spot he had chosen. Before starting to drill the placement holes for the explosive, he checked out exactly what Hanna’s final resting place would see. The nearest butte, and the avifauna – he saw one particularly large avian take off just as he was watching. Three other buttes just visible as smudges on the horizon. The lines of the other ridges, parallel to this one, running north to south. The huge orb of the gas giant hanging overhead, purple-blue in the sky. And above all that, the massive orange-yellow sun which dominated the Pictoris system. The other stars in the system were not visible just at the moment, he saw. But the atmosphere was there; wisps of emerald green and blue against a slightly yellowish cloudless sky.

  Ledin was satisfied. She would be at peace here. Who could not be? It was a special place, and she had been a very special person. The two were meant for each other.

  He moved slowly, and took care with what he was doing. He was no expert in explosives, and he needed to get this right the first time. He had taken advice about placement, so he consulted his notes from time to time, until he was reasonably sure that he had followed instructions correctly. When he was satisfied, he primed the fuse, walked back to a safe distance, and pushed the button.

  There was a crump of noise, and a shudder ran through the ground, reaching him after the flash of light. Then he saw the dust as particles rained down onto the steps of the ridge.