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

by Gillian Andrews

  Diva smiled at him, and he could see that she was looking forward to the trip. Tallen, however, was less convinced. “Surely we could at least have dropped the two laser machines nearer the ortholiquid?” he grumbled.

  Six shook his head. “I would have if we could have,” he said. “But it would have to have been from over fifty feet, and at that distance we could either have broken the machines, fried them in the thrust, or they might have landed in the water instead of on the small island which houses the ortholiquid. I’m afraid there was no choice.”

  Tallen looked again, reluctantly, at the lumps of ice floating on the dark water, and sighed. “In that case,” he said, “there seems to be no alternative.”

  Diva grinned. “Ready, Namuri?”

  The boy straightened up to his full height. “Whenever you are, Merit ... that is ... Valhai.”

  “Then let’s find some ortholiquid.” And Diva stepped fearlessly out onto the first piece of ice, which dipped alarmingly towards the water, causing her to teeter. She stretched out her hands to keep her balance and hastily moved to the centre of the block.

  She turned her face back towards them. “Easy,” she shouted. “It just takes a bit of getting used to. The water has a strange sort of green luminescence. I think there must be banks of krill under us.”

  Tallen made a face, but embarked on a lateral block of ice, and tightened his hold on the sled. Between them, he and Diva dragged it onto a larger block in the middle, and slowly started to manhandle it onto the icy surface, facing towards the small atoll which they could just see in the distance. The rest of the surface was uninterrupted, simply miles and miles of pack ice, disappearing off into the horizon nearly all around them. Only the solid ground behind them, where they had landed the shuttle, seemed in the least bit hospitable.

  Six now made his way gingerly onto the ice, edged past the others to take the front position and took up the strain. He immediately found that it was not a pleasant way to travel. Although the bodywrap kept his feet isolated from the wet ice and insulated his flesh from the freezing cold, he felt that outer space would have been more comfortable. At least there, there was no chance of falling into a sea which was cold enough to make long term survival a challenge, even if in a bodywrap. For once, he felt lucky to be Kwaidian; his people’s genes had adapted over the centuries to cold conditions.

  They had now traveled about fifty metres across the frigid sea, and seemed to have found their stride. The trick was to stay on the largest of the blocks of ice; these moved far less than the smaller ones, and gave at least the illusion of stability.

  Tallen was thinking about his clan. It was hard to see things in the same perspective when you were exploring a planet thousands of light years away. He still felt rage against the meritocrats, but he was finding it hard to understand why the Namuri clan had only used limited tactics against their oppressors. Why had they never openly taken up arms against the meritocrats? There weren’t that many of the pampered tyrants; it would have been easy to drum up enough support to dethrone them. Why had his clan allowed hundreds of their people to be encased alive in rexelene blocks and then have their dead bodies exhibited for the local populace to see? With distance, he could see that there were grave faults in his own education.

  It was all very well to say that the clan didn’t believe in violent changes to government, that they resorted only to civil disobedience, and repositioning of wealth, but they did allow many of their group to be put to death by the meritocrats. Surely that was tantamount to murder by omission?

  One of the slabs of ice suddenly tilted, and Tallen scrabbled to keep his foothold. He felt fiercely against his own clan. They could have done so much more to equalize the system on Coriolis. He swore to himself that, if he ever got the chance, he would do more, and then looked around him, feeling happier. He had never questioned his upbringing, until now, but now that he had, he knew that there could be no going back. It felt good.

  Diva was enjoying herself on the ice. She felt more alive than ever, and the adrenaline pumping through her veins was making her blood fizz. She threw her head back and laughed. This was where she should be. She looked at Six’s back as he solidly tramped across the blocks of ice, and she felt a sudden rush of warmth in her heart to see him there. He was right; there was nobody else she would rather step onto a strange planet with.

  IT TOOK THEM over four hours to reach the tiny islet that hosted the small pool of ortholiquid on the planet, and by the time they did they were all absolutely exhausted. Their muscles were complaining, pulling their spirits down, and demanding instant relaxation.

  But there was no time to waste; they didn’t want to be trapped out on the ice when darkness came. They unpacked the two lasers very carefully from the special covers which the Ammonites had made for them, and set them up at right angles to each other, but with both machines facing the ortholiquid. Ice had formed on top of the warmer pool of dark liquid underneath, but Six ruthlessly broke through that ice, and widened a hole large enough for both rays to penetrate into the dark pool underneath.

  As they were setting up the apparatus, the morphics popped up through the new hole in the ice.

  “That’s better!” said one of the twins. “We can come straight out now, instead of transporting. Have you met any of the local fauna?”

  Tallen looked around warily. “No. Where are they?”

  “They live underwater,” explained the visitor. “There don’t seem to be any air-breathing animals on Tarboleus. The atmosphere is not appropriate, it seems.”

  “Well, not many people like too much nitrogen and carbon dioxide,” suggested Diva.

  “No kidding,” said Six feelingly. “I took an unsuspecting gulp of the air here last time I changed my mask pack, and it was ghastly. Nearly choked me.”

  “You knew you couldn’t breathe it!” Diva was cross. “So why did you?”

  “Felt like trying it.”

  Diva looked heavenwards. “Felt like trying it! Really Six, I give up. You don’t seem to think like other people.”

  “Well, of course I don’t. Anyway, if you want to know, I thought it would be nice to see what Tarboleus smelt like.”

  “And?”

  He looked confused. “And what?”

  “And what does it smell like?”

  He whistled. “You don’t want to know, believe me. It would put you off eating for at least a week.”

  “You are lucky it didn’t put you unconscious.”

  “Nah. No problem. I only tried a little. You have to live, sometimes, don’t you?”

  She stared at him. There were some things about Kwaidians that she thought she would never understand. However, the comment Six had made the day before about being henpecked still stuck in her mind, so she compressed her lips and managed to hold her tongue. Six raised one eyebrow at her in surprise, and then bowed his head with an understanding glint of amusement in his eyes. Diva struggled even more not to say anything. She grabbed one of the lasers, and stomped over to the other side of the bowl, setting up the machine with rather jerky movements.

  Six did the same with the other machine. Finally, he signalled to her, and they both switched them on.

  The lights shone with a bluish tinge in the grey penumbra of the ice planet, and met some distance below the surface of the ortholiquid. There was a moment of doubt, and then, where the two lasers met, the ortholiquid began to shine. The two beams crossed, and the junction glowed until it became incandescent.

  They stared, entranced, as the light began to grow bigger and bigger. As it did, they could see that it was in fact made of a mass of intertwined lights, each curling around the rest, weaving in and out of the other flashing forms.

  The pattern grew larger and larger, until they were able to see that it was, in fact, stellate in shape. A shimmering diamond star similar to the one which they had seen on Kintara was materializing in front of them.

  “See? We were right. They were here!” Six nodded at Diva to
turn her laser off. Whatever happened, the machines had clearly served their purpose.

  The diamond star continued to grow until they could actually discern the individual beings in the shape, each one a tiny luminescent form, buzzing with life. The aura expanded until it encompassed the whole of the ortholiquid pond.

  The forms shone white against the dull background of the planet, but not a dim white. It was a blinding, mind-numbing brilliant white which seared Six’s eyes and seemed to penetrate his soul.

  He could tell how very old they were, despite their tiny size. They seemed curious, venturing as close as they dared to see exactly what sort of beings had liberated them from their self-enforced hibernation inside the ortholiquid. They pulsed with energy, and Six had the strange sensation that they were examining him intently. He hoped that he would meet their approval.

  Then the diamond star moved, and the animas were inside his mind, merging him with Diva and Tallen in the same way as they had back on Kintara.

  But this time the transfer of information was in the reverse direction. Six was aware that his memories were somehow being accessed, and it felt as if it were a violation. He tried to draw back, but a steel grasp seemed to maintain its hold on his mind, and all ability to move had been taken away from him. His consciousness flared in response, and his mood blackened. He could feel Diva and Tallen struggling mentally too, but the creatures which had been trapped for so long were implacable. They took them back to the landing on Kintara, to the long journey with the canths, to the meeting with the Kintaran animas, the explanations, the presentation of the lasers, the map, and the boxes, and then led them to relive the end of the planet, and the struggle to escape.

  Finally the diamond star let them go, and the three of them slumped down onto the ground, where they lay, trying to get their strength back.

  Six glared at the star shape, and then at his wife. “And you complain about the way I make first contact!”

  Diva clutched at her head. “Ouch! That really hurt! Are you two all right?”

  Tallen groaned as he tried to look upwards.

  They stared back at the star shape, which was now slowly separating again into its tiny component parts.

  The visitor’s voice broke into their minds. “Are you back with us? You went away for some minutes. I couldn’t hear you.”

  “Didn’t they take over your mind?” asked Six.

  “They did not!” The visitor seemed pleased with himself.

  “Well, we didn’t have much choice!”

  “No, they took over the trimorphs, too. The twins are not immune, but I am.”

  The twins spun in disgust, and their change of colour showed just what they thought about the newly released animas.

  The visitor regarded his fellow morphics with sympathy. “I know how they feel. I wasn’t immune when the Dessites attacked us, although they were. This time it was the other way around.” Then he darkened. “Though they were able to protect me against the Dessite minds, and I wasn’t able to protect them just now.” He gave the morphic equivalent of a sigh. “However, it must be much worse for you transients! You have no protection whatsoever against them, do you, you poor things? Especially Six!”

  “Leave me out of this, spindle-brain! Couldn’t you have stopped them?”

  “I am unable to penetrate their diamond star,” the bimorph said, with some dignity. “On the other hand, they are unable to penetrate my mind either. I am sorry, I couldn’t intervene.”

  Six, Diva and Tallen began to stagger to their feet again, as the tiny alien forms seemed to suddenly fan outwards from the island, disappearing in a flash to examine the planet.

  But by the time they had packed up the machines in their wrappings, the animas were back. They re-formed into diamonds, but this time did not combine to form the star.

  “This planet is not acceptable. This is not Enara.”

  “Can you hear them, Six?”

  “Hard not to. Their voices vibrate through my skull like a juggernaut out of Rexel.”

  “So now they don’t need us in the mindmerge to talk to us. They have found out how to communicate without it.”

  “I don’t think there is much about me they haven’t managed to find out about. I feel like my whole brain was drained out of my skull!”

  “That wouldn’t take them long,” said the bimorph.

  Six glared, but decided to ignore the comment. “I hope that was first and last contact.”

  The visitor flickered. “I expect they do too.”

  Six grinned at that, and inclined his head in the bimorph’s direction. Before he could retaliate, the alien diamond was speaking again.

  “You will find the other trapped Ammonite animas, and then take us to Enara. On arrival, we wish to meet with the beings you call canths, with the morphics and with the orthogel entity. Until the morphics find Enara for us we will survive in the boxes.”

  The light suddenly intensified, and the box, which Tallen had been holding all the time, opened in his hands. He looked down at it, surprised. The myriad of small lights suddenly coalesced into a bright river of life which streamed into the box.

  “How do we open the box when we reach Enara?” asked Six.

  “Our counterparts in the canths will know how.”

  The lights flowed into the box, which closed behind them.

  Tallen stared out into the distance. “They don’t want much, do they? And we still have to cross this ice sea to get back to the shuttle.” He pointed at the distance without enthusiasm.

  Six finished tying the lasers back into the improvised sled, fastened the box on the top as securely as he could, and motioned to Diva. “Better get a move on, then.”

  Tallen grunted. “I will go first, this time.”

  Six shrugged, secretly rather pleased not to have to take up the strain again. He looked over at Diva, and raised his eyebrows.

  She nodded, and stepped back onto the ice in Tallen’s wake. It was easier now that they had the practice, but she was still very careful of where she put her feet. Slowly they began to retrace their steps, tugging at the ropes to pull the sled as gently as they could over the slabs of ice.

  Six thought that they were very lucky that the water seemed more viscous than it would have been on Kwaide. There, it would have been totally impossible to keep your balance on an ice floe.

  They were about half-way across the pack ice on their way back to the shuttle when Six heard a slight cracking sound to one side of him. He squinted at the nearby ice floe. The white-grey colour of the clouds on the skyline blended to perfection with the ice floes underneath it, and it was hard to make out details.

  He frowned. Both Tallen and Diva were further away from the disruption, but Six knew he had to find out what had made that noise. He gave a whistle to attract their attention, and then signalled to Tallen to tell him to stop for a moment. As Six’s rope became slack, he jumped the short distance across the intervening ice until he reached the source of the intriguing noise.

  Once there, Six found himself looking down through the transparent ice. The glow of luminescence was much stronger here, so that in the murky light of the Tarbolean day the area beneath the ice gleamed with a greenish light.

  As he watched, he saw a dark shape coast past him, underneath the transparent ice. It was at least five metres long, perhaps even more, and had mottled spots along a light brown skin, except right on the top of its body, where it seemed to be equipped with a large protective pad, presumably to prevent damage as it banged up against the ice flows. The dorsal fin was back near the tail, where it was safe from damage by the floating ice.

  “Brilliant!” He said it out loud, though there was nobody close enough to hear him. The animals beneath him were certainly magnificent. Through the eerie turquoise glare of the ice he was able to make out five of them, clearly hunting for the krill which was gathered under the ice in a cloud. He stood up to signal Diva. She would want to see this! What a piece of luck, he thought; I must be s
tanding slap in the middle of the most appetizing bank of krill on the whole of Tarboleus!

  Beneath him, another huge grey shadow grazed against the ice, and the floe moved correspondingly. Six struggled to keep his feet, staggered, nearly fell, and then managed to right himself.

  He couldn’t drag his eyes away from the ice beneath his feet. The krill were obviously aware of the presence of a pack of hunting sharks, too, for the luminescence had grown much stronger, and the cloud of green was actually moving away from the gaping mouths of the sharks as fast as it could. It wasn’t, he saw, anything like fast enough.

  One huge fish scraped its back along the underside of the ice and it suddenly became all too clear to Six why he had heard the loud crack, earlier. The krill they seemed to like so much was too close to the underside of the ice, and they had to scrape the protected upper part of their bodies along the dangerous shards to be able to harvest their favourite food. They had such a huge body weight that each time they nudged the underneath of the ice, the integrity of the whole piece was threatened.

  Six fell completely over this time, scrabbling desperately for a hold on the dipping block of ice. The floe quivered in the water, and the sheet of ice creaked ominously.

  Diva was shouting something urgently across to him, but he was too busy trying to get back to his feet and stay on top of the block of ice to make out what she was saying. His feet slipped again from under him as the whole thing did its best to precipitate him into the freezing water.

  Six realized, rather belatedly, that he shouldn’t have come over to examine the source of the noise. He had the sneaky feeling that Diva would have something to say about it if he were tipped into the water by a large fish. He tried to calculate how long he would be able to last, should that happen. The bodywrap should keep the cold out, but when he needed to change his next mask pack he was unlikely to survive the process. The ice would be bound to clog the replacement.