“I certainly don’t, but then, I don’t need to sleep and I don’t have eyes. I am a quantum entity.” Arcan puffed out slightly.
“Well, bully for you. Why don’t you just shimmy off somewhere and quantamize something, then?”
A rainbow of colours spiraled through the orthogel entity in a complacent sort of way.
“It must be hard for you transients to manage with only mechanical bodies.”
“We are very useful!” Six glared at him.
Arcan seemed to find this funny. He flashed again, causing the Kwaidian to wince.
“I said, don’t DO that!”
“You have traveled the wrong way down the selection road,” said the visitor, who had just joined them, together with the trimorph twins. “You’re at an evolutionary standstill.”
Six took a menacing stride towards the bimorph, who dematerialized, and then appeared again, just in front of his nose.
“Can’t even catch a morphic?” The small globe crowed, puffing out in victory.
Six snatched at the bimorph in the air, but the visitor simply blinked out of existence for a second, so that he was forced to remove an empty hand.
“Hah!” said the visitor, tumbling over himself in amusement. “Those eagle eyes of yours can’t spot where I am? What a surprise! Perhaps you should open those shutters of yours wider.”
Six narrowed the said shutters. “At least I am flesh and blood, not just a pickled neuron!”
“Pickled? Pickled? Who are you call—”
Diva sighed. “Will the two of you stop squabbling about nothing?”
Six looked at her, and then at the visitor. They both seemed equally taken-aback.
“We were just having a conversation,” Six sounded aggrieved.
The visitor spun. “We were merely discussing evolution – or the lack of it, in some cases.”
Six’s face suddenly took on the expression which reminded Diva of a Cesan mule. “Yes, well, seeing you originally came from a race that has membranes instead of hands, you are hardly—”
“Membranes are much stronger, and much more adaptable than hands.”
“No wonder your lot don’t have any ears. Stops them having to listen to a load of rubb—” At that point Six broke off, having become aware that his wife was treating him to an extremely eloquent stare. He looked indignant. “—What? It’s true!”
Diva shook her head and raised her own eyes heavenwards. “I think we should be leaving. Arcan, are we going without the New Independence, then?”
Arcan paused to consider. “No. I think we might need the ship; I will put us in orbit around the planet first. It might be advantageous to let the computer do a preliminary analysis before we take the animas down to their possible new home. Just in case the morphics have missed something.”
“Which they probably have,” agreed Six.
The morphics all began to spin angrily.
“—Judging from previous experience,” added Six. “Such as when the visitor inadvertently dropped us inside a gas giant. If you remember.” He sat back, looking very pleased with himself.
“At least I don’t have a huge body that eats up enormous amounts of fuel to get anywhere at all!” snapped the bimorph. “Any self-respecting organism would have developed quantum travel, don’t you think?”
Six stopped. “No, I don’t,” he said sharply, and then turned to get some support from the others. “We don’t need quantum travel. We have legs to get us around!”
“Yours look pretty inefficient things, if you ask me.”
“Well, we didn’t! And I have great legs! Diva, tell him I’m right!”
But Diva was laughing so much she couldn’t catch her breath. The sight of Six ardently defending his legs had been too much for her. Even Tallen was grinning from ear to ear.
“What’s the matter with you lot?” Six looked around at them all with a fierce expression. “What are you all giggling at?”
Ledin moved forwards to take him by the arm. “Take no notice, First Six. They are just jealous. The morphics would love to have legs like ours.”
This caused Diva to make a muttered comment about dwarves which led to much hilarity, and such a spate of chatter between Arcan and the three morphics that Six and Ledin had time to make their escape.
Diva shook her head, and grinned. “Honestly!”
THE NEW INDEPENDENCE dropped into orbit around the unfamiliar planet, and they all crushed together in front of the rexelene visor for a first glimpse of the planet’s surface.
“Look!” Tallen pointed a finger down at the terrain below them. “What in Sacras is that?”
They stared. They could see the curve of the planet’s horizon beneath them against a night sky full of stars, rimmed by the circle of blue, which was the haze of its atmosphere. The terrain below seemed to be sandy, but interspersed with darker brown mountains, with patches of white.
Six wrinkled his brow. “That can’t be snow, surely? The temperature is much too warm for that.”
Diva examined the console. “Just about ten miles to the south of our orbit there seems to be an area of intense hydrothermal activity. There are surface geysers of warm and hot water, running into connected pools, which cascade down in terraces towards the sea. And the white you are seeing is a result of deposits of carbonates of calcium, not snow.”
“What about flora and fauna? What indigenous lifeforms are there?”
Diva bent down to the console. “Birds, small reptiles, and a species of bat which lives in the instellite caves the mountain areas are dotted with.” She searched the screen in front of her. “There don’t seem to be many more mammals. They are all pretty small. But the air is oxygenized, and there are many trees growing out of the sand and the rock.”
“How can trees grow out of rock?” asked Bennel curiously. “I thought they needed soil.”
Diva examined the console again. “Not these, apparently. The readings say that there are various species which grow directly out of the rock itself.” Suddenly she gave a gasp of surprise, and then pointed. “Look! Over there! Down to the right!”
They twisted their necks. There was a huge, natural structure set into the ground, way below them. It was a crater which must have been around 20 kilometres across, and was formed by rings of concentric greenish rock, interspersed with purplish ridges. Each ring was bigger than the previous one, until the final circles melted into the surrounding mountains.
Six whistled. “What in Lumina caused that?”
Grace shook her head. “I don’t know, but it is stunning. It is as if the planet is staring at us. Look at that blue rock! It looks like an eye.”
The visitor buzzed. “No lids, apparently,” he observed in a serene voice, causing Six to look at him sharply. When Diva added her own accusing stare, he went on hurriedly. “It is only a few miles from the coast, I see. All that expanse of yellow must be beach. The sea is an incredible blue colour too, have you noticed?”
“Blue-green,” corrected Six. “Turquoise, actually.”
Diva gave him a warning glance. “It is a very beautiful place.” She checked out the console, which was now giving a summary of the data it had already gathered from the surface. “According to this, that circular thing, the one that looks like an eye, was formed by the collapse of a volcanic dome, and then by erosion down to the layers of igneous rock underneath. The green and purple hues come from a mixture of quartzite and instellite.”
“The Eye of Enara,” said Grace, quietly.
Diva gave her wide smile, showing all of her beautifully matched teeth. “Yes! The Eye of Enara. Perhaps it is a sign that this really is the planet of the lost animas.”
“That eye thingy would be worth going to see, once we have released the animas at the hydrothermal pools. I think we should go on down,” suggested Six, who was moving his arms unconsciously to and fro, he was so eager to set foot on this new planet.
“Watch out for Tarbolean sharks!” Ledin told him, coming up suddenly
from behind and bumping into him deliberately, pushing him off balance whilst making what he clearly thought were shark-like noises.
Six turned on him eagerly, and there was a friendly tussle for a few moments.
Diva wasn’t amused. “Stop it, both of you!”
The two Kwaidians rolled their eyes, and turned sheepishly towards her. “This is another first contact,” she told them severely. “You should be taking it much more seriously.”
“Oh, first contact!” said Six, in a dismissive tone. “You know what I think about that!”
Ledin grinned. “Yeah, you were bowled over by the shark.”
They immediately fell back into a scuffle and had to be separated by a resigned Diva, who was shaking her head and wearing a pitying expression. Both Kwaidians began to chuckle at her face.
“We were just having a bit of fun,” complained Six. “No need to get shirty about it.”
She silenced him with a look, and gave a nod to Arcan. They were ready to go down to this new planet, glad that they wouldn’t have to wear mask packs.
ARCAN DEPOSITED THEM near the hydrothermal pools, and Grace couldn’t help opening her eyes wide in wonder. These pools were something else. One beneath the other, they led down the mountain, each one running into the next, until at the bottom they emptied on the wide beach, and had formed a thin river draining out into the ocean.
But it was the colour of the rock which amazed them at first sight. The rocks had been stained white by the constant action of mineralized water, and dazzled in the hot sunlight.
Grace ran up to one of the pools, and put her hand into it. “It’s hot! Really hot – like a Mesteta wine bath.”
Diva looked interested. “Arcan can bring us some costumes for swimming from Xiantha, then. I, for one, am not missing the chance for a good soaking in something nice and hot, even if it is only water!”
“And look!” Grace was pointing up towards the source of the water, high above them, almost at the summit of the mountain.
They stared. It was quite away above them, but they could clearly see three large geysers, which soared for quite ten metres in the air, before crashing down into the first of the series of pools, tumbling down the mountainside towards the warm ocean below them.
It was hard to take everything in; there was little chatter as they all made their way towards the assortment of pools. Once there, Six bent and pulled out the three beautifully carved boxes from the carrysack he was holding, laying them carefully on the white edge of one of the pools.
Arcan had clouded over. “All this sun is bad for me,” he explained. “You have to remember that my natural habitat is Valhai, where I live on the dark side.”
“Perhaps if you had eyes and eyelids,” said Six meaningly, “you would find it easier.”
Arcan gave an ominous pulse.
“It is bright,” said Ledin hastily, screwing up his eyes against the powerful sun. “What star is that?”
The visitor buzzed. “Nobody knows,” he said. “This system is invisible both from Dessia and from the binary system, so it isn’t on any of the normal star charts.”
“If this is Enara,” said Grace, “then that star will have to be called Enaris.”
“I guess it is time to find out if this is the planet the animas have been searching for.”
Arcan shimmered once, and several canths appeared, with the canth keeper, who had been transported together with the chair he had been sitting on, since he still couldn’t stand. It looked highly incongruous.
The man who spoke to canths looked around, and then nodded. “We can begin the meeting.” He raised his fingers to touch the muzzle of his own canth, which was standing with its head down, close beside him.
The canths began to hum, a disconcerting sound. It grew louder and louder, and then the three boxes in front of them seemed to take the sound, amplify it, and return it to them. Then the onlookers saw that the boxes were beginning to open. A chink of light appeared along the division in each of them, and a brilliant white radiance began to seep out. The humming of the canths came to an abrupt stop, and they waited patiently.
The three boxes were opening.
At first, in the brilliant light of the young red star which was the local sun, they couldn’t see the lost animas. Then, one by one, the descendents of the Ammonites began to rise up out of the boxes, wisps of ethereal life against the dusty brown stones which littered the ground, the azure sky, and the rays of blinding white light. They iridesced, and Grace got the impression that they were looking around, assessing the planet.
Suddenly they were gone, speeding out in all directions.
Grace counted to a hundred, and then they were back, glinting again in front of them all. They hung, poised like that, and then slowly began to weave themselves into diamond shapes. These hovered for a few moments, and then floated over towards the centre, beginning the merge into one multifaceted aura, which instantly started to rearrange itself into a star.
Finally, it was ready, and as the minute lifeforms coalesced into the star, the bipeds at the meeting moved uncomfortably.
“I hope it is not going to take us over again,” hissed Six. “I’d rather go up against the Dessites!”
“Shh! They will hear you!” Grace sounded worried.
“Just saying, is all.” He fell silent again, considering. “Things were easier when you could just put a sword through your opponent. Cleaner, somehow. All this mental stuff is too much.”
“Too much for you, you mean,” crowed the bimorph.
“All very well for you, Visitor. They didn’t rummage around in all your memories, did they?”
“They couldn’t.” The visitor sounded inordinately proud of himself. “They were unable to penetrate my brain.”
“Probably couldn’t find it.”
“Shut up, Six!” Diva glared over at him.
“He started it!”
Diva moved away from him meaningfully.
“Really! He did!” Both he and the visitor gave her a resentful look, but Diva ignored them both.
Grace put a hand on his arm. “No. Look!”
A large diamond shape was taking place opposite the star. The canths were allowing their own animas to dissociate from them, and these were taking shape too. But they didn’t become a star, just the rhombus which they had all seen before, during the battle of Pictoria.
The diamond aura of the canths suddenly burgeoned out, enclosing all of the bipeds inside it.
Immediately they were all back in their own auras, a state they were beginning to get used to. Being in the canth’s diamond was not at all intrusive, or overbearing, though. It felt natural, and relaxed. They were all quite happy to let the diamond bring them inside its aura. With all of them inside, there was a strange blend of different individualities, which felt less separate than usual. Sand, pewter, feldspar, emerald green, pearl, cobalt blue and gold all blended together inside the mental shape.
As they became used to the familiar feeling, they looked around. The whirlpool of rainbow colours which was Arcan had joined the diamond, and, beside him, it was easy to detect the temaris tinge which was the visitor, and the sparkling depth of the trimorphs.
Then the new diamond, which had accommodated all of them, faced the star in front and waited.
“This is the planet,” the star of the Kintaran animas told them, speaking, like Arcan, inside their heads. “Thank you. You have found Enara for us.”
Six smiled. “You are welcome, err ... Animas. Will it make a good home for you?”
“Please refer to us as Ammonites from now on. The name anima is unacceptable to us. We wish to be known by the name of our ancestors. Tradition is very important to us. As to this planet, it is adequate. There is plenty of water, although most of that is coming out from under the surface at the moment. The climate will adapt, and become rather less arid with time. There are deep caves should we need shelter, and the flora and fauna will not be affected by our presence. You have done we
ll.”
“You certainly are in our debt. At least; you are in mine.” Arcan’s voice was uncharacteristically cold. “Your ancestors forced me to risk my life, to save yours.”
There was a pause as the threads of life seemed to take in the orthogel entity. “We are aware that you saved us, and that you have quantum abilities. But you have evolved from the fusion of part of our race with ortholiquid during an interplanetary collision, when many of our people were destroyed. We are now the only pure survivors of the Ammonites.”
Arcan darkened at their use of the word pure.
The Ammonites went on. “Kintara is gone, destroyed by the black hole. It is time for the beings you think of as the lost animas of Xiantha to take the name of the Ammonites, to come to live with us here on Enara. They are part of our heritage.”
“Not so. They have evolved, adapted to Xiantha.”
“No. They must join us here on Enara. They must split from these equines.”
The canth diamond shimmered in the strong Enaran sun. “We will not leave our home. Who are you to ask this of us?”
“We are your ancestors. We demand your loyalty to our culture. It is necessary for us to maintain our purity. We will not allow you to mix with this equine species.”
A ripple of displeasure traveled through the canth diamond. “Why do you speak of purity?”
The stellate shape pulsed in response. “Our ancestors worked for hundreds of thousands of years to enable our race to survive.”
The canth diamond clouded over. “We had to survive on Xiantha. We have changed. We have adapted.”
“That is not acceptable. We insist.”
“Or? Are you threatening us?”
“We do not understand your reticence. You should be delighted to see us. The race must be protected. How can you doubt that? No foreign material must be allowed to pollute our heritage. We are the oldest race in the galaxy.”
A new gold-tinged voice interrupted. “Who do you think you are? You can’t order the canths around, you know!” Six was sending out little ripples of displeasure. “And if you ask me, you aren’t much like the original Ammonites!”
Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 Page 66