by Jeff Carlson
“It would be for their own good.”
“It’d be for our convenience.”
While they argued, the sunfish began to screech and undulate. The intelligent trio led the dance, the four savage males aping their movements and cries, yet there were segments in which the males acted in harmony with Charlotte, Brigit, and Tom. They repeated one sequence again and again like a backbeat or a chorus as Lam observed from below.
CHARLOTTE: Old Ones / We remember / Mothers and mothers.
ALL SUNFISH: Mothers ago.
CHARLOTTE AND TOM: Stronger than the ice
ALL SUNFISH: The Old Ones / Home / Great and safe.
CHARLOTTE: Top quakes took us from you.
ALL SUNFISH: Top quakes / Wind / Freezing death.
CHARLOTTE AND TOM: Old Ones / We remember home.
“This is something they’ve learned by rote,” O’Neal said. “It may be a favorite song.”
“It’s a creation myth,” Metzler said. “We have Great Flood stories from the ocean levels falling with every Ice Age and rising again when Earth warmed. They have cycles of decreased or increased volcanic activity.”
“Listen to them!” O’Neal said. “They’re talking about the empire like they think they’ll find it.”
“Or like it’s paradise,” Vonnie said. “Maybe they believe in an afterlife.”
Koebsch sighed heavily. “Lam, tell them you’re not from the empire,” he said, but O’Neal shouted, “First let them finish! This kind of oral history could tell us a lot of what they know about their neighbors, or if they have religion, or how much they know about planetary science.”
“All right,” Koebsch said. “Let them sing.”
“I think we’re playing with fire,” Vonnie said. “Lam can’t sit and watch while they praise him.”
Charlotte broke from the dance, signing questions of her own as the other sunfish continued. Then they lost the thread of their group song and joined her in quizzing Lam with new animosity.
CHARLOTTE: You are silent / You disapprove?
ALL SUNFISH: Old Ones / We belong to you.
CHARLOTTE: We are strong!
LAM: Strong / Yes / Good and worthy.
CHARLOTTE AND TOM: Old Ones / Take us home.
LAM: My tribe is not the Old Ones / We are younger / From far away / I need your patience.
Their arms writhed slowly, repeating Lam’s shapes as if internalizing his explanation. Among the savage males, the body language was sharper and foreboding, like a brewing storm. They were already forgetting the trust he’d established.
Charlotte maintained control over the males by signing at Lam, using her own belligerence to satisfy them.
CHARLOTTE: Safety / Take us home.
LAM:
MALE SUNFISH #2 and #4: Food / Where is food?
MALE SUNFISH #3: Eels / Food.
TOM AND CHARLOTTE: You will show us eels?
LAM: I will give you new food / Great nutrition / New food and new tools.
CHARLOTTE: Show us.
“Okay, here we go,” Koebsch said to Vonnie and Frerotte.
“My boards are green,” she said. Frerotte nodded. The two of them cross-checked the mecha feeds on their displays, verifying their preparations as Lam led the sunfish from the pocket in the ice.
He entered a wider chasm studded with loose gravel. Below, his sonar revealed several nubs of rock. Tom shadowed Lam as the savage males ranged ahead and above, reforming their pack with Charlotte and Brigit at its center. But there was an obvious difference from before. Now the females keyed on Lam instead of Tom, altering every trajectory to keep Lam — not Tom — in reach. If they met an enemy or if they discovered prey, their strategy would stem from his reaction. The intelligent sunfish seemed willing to rely on Lam, accepting his strange conduct and speech in exchange for the riches he’d promised.
He ducked up and sideways through the holes in the ice, which became rock, then ice again. The male sunfish paused abruptly, detecting scuff marks and traces of fresh moisture in the air.
MALE SUNFISH #2 AND #4: Something passed through here before us / Life / Unknown / No scents / Beware.
TOM: Listen! Listen!
CHARLOTTE AND TOM: Silence / Listen!
LAM:
He stopped, signaling for the sunfish to direct their senses beyond him. The pack resisted, bunching in a defensive knot. When nothing happened, Tom crept forward while the savage males dispersed around Charlotte and Brigit, shielding them, screeching threats into the dark.
Four vacuum-sealed metal containers rested on the ice. Each weighed less than ten kilos — smooth, rounded, alumalloy shells with lateral seams.
Lam stayed back, letting the sunfish familiarize themselves with this treasure. They shrieked in delight, using the same body shapes to describe the containers as they used to name the crude metal tools they’d scavenged days ago. They recognized the substance. They thought they could smash it into chisels and blades.
TOM: Tools / There are tools!
LAM: Tools and food / Not danger / Food.
CHARLOTTE: I smell no food / Only metal / How did you cause metal to wait for us?
LAM: My tribe is strong / Listen and wait.
He scuttled toward the containers, advising the sunfish that there would be noises and smells. As he hit each metal shell, it popped open. The air was drenched with the coppery scent of raw meat.
Vonnie and Ash had taken every last ounce of synthetic tissue from their vats to fill two of the containers with cloned blubber, cartilage, and blood. The organic material had been intended for their next round of sunfish-shaped probes. Instead, they’d activated two probes that lacked any disguise, then raced the skeletal, naked mecha into the ice while the colony slept.
Probes 116 and 117 had carried their payloads to the border of the tribe’s territory, leaving a radio beacon for Lam. Afterwards, the probes moved away and found a hollow where they’d hidden themselves.
Twenty kilos of meat wouldn’t serve as more than one or two meals for the tribe, but easy, extra calories were an unlikely gift in the frozen sky.
The other two containers held pliers, screwdrivers, and hammers. These tools weren’t fitted for sunfish. Vonnie hadn’t had time to develop new equipment, and she’d imagined the sunfish would celebrate steel of any shape.
The pack’s cries were a shrill wail. They stroked Lam in elation as they examined the containers. Brigit, Tom, and Charlotte reached for the tools. The savage males swarmed the containers of blood and gore.
Suddenly they hopped apart. Among their many arms, Tom and Charlotte lifted three screwdrivers and a hammer like weapons.
“What is it?” Koebsch said. “What’s going on?”
“The meat could smell wrong or they recognized one of those tools as something on Vonnie’s suit,” O’Neal said. But the sunfish were searching the blackness. Lam’s telemetry flared, analyzing their new postures.
“Some of those body shapes are welcoming,” Vonnie said. “Look at the males. They recognize whatever’s out there.”
Lam said:
—There are new sonar calls above us. The voices belong to four of the intelligent females in Top Clan Eight-Six.
“Von, they’re moving toward our probes,” Frerotte said as her station lit up with alarms.
“They shouldn’t know we’re there,” Koebsch said. “I thought the rest of the tribe was inside their home.”
Vonnie glanced at Metzler. “You said they might have long-range communications we haven’t figured out yet. Is it possible they have better hearing than our mecha?”
“Absolutely not.”
—The sonar calls are increasing in volume and multitude. There are male voices mixed with the female. I estimate a large contingent.
“Christ. Radar shows twenty to thirty contacts,” Frerotte sai
d. “They brought the whole tribe.”
“Can you move our probes?” Koebsch said.
“Where?” Vonnie asked. “Check your radar. They sent two foursomes to encircle the area from behind. Unless we cause avalanches on all sides and trap the probes in the middle, the sunfish will catch them.”
56.
The tribe was unlikely to react well to fake metal sunfish. Tom’s stories of the earlier probes and FNEE mecha were litanies of fear and bloodlust.
Would they connect Lam with the machines and attack him?
In the nervous quiet of Lander 04, Vonnie narrowed her eyes when the opposite thought struck her. What if they connect him with the probes and adopt them into the colony, too?
“Lam, you need to intercept the tribe before they reach our probes,” she said.
“I think he should run,” Johal said.
“He’ll never evade the foursomes of scouts. His best chance is to explain. We can give him control of the probes, let them submit to him where the sunfish can see it, then demonstrate their capabilities. The tribe will want superpowered hunters.”
“Okay, go,” Koebsch said.
—I’m on my way.
Lam screeched and signed, urging Brigit, Tom, and Charlotte to bring their new weapons. The savage males bolted ahead of the pack to join the larger tribe in the catacombs above.
The tribe’s sonar echoed capriciously, fading and reappearing as he flitted through ice. Soon there were other noises. Lam heard thudding arms, the clack of beaks, and a rushing sound like birds in flight.
The eight sunfish in his pack screamed. They were answered with the same malevolent cry from thirty mouths. Then the song was repeated on two flanks by their scouts. All four groups of sunfish were on a collision course with the probes.
Lam redoubled his speed, passing the savage males. He signaled danger / wait, but that caused Tom and Charlotte to lag briefly, robbing him of their participation. The males raced to keep up. If he’d sensed a new foe, they wanted to attack.
He entered a new fissure and swung to meet the tribe before they slithered from a gap in the ice, clawing at the faint marks left by the probes.
The rest of his pack shot into the fissure. They blended seamlessly with the tribe like rain magnifying a river as it rolled and crashed downhill. Only one thing stopped their momentum toward the hollow where the probes were hidden.
Lam. He blocked their way, holding onto the floor in postures of supremacy and disagreement.
Like a river colliding with a dam, the sunfish spread apart. They swept up the walls, then washed together again and pushed toward Lam. At the same time, Charlotte, Tom, and Brigit became other disturbances within the tribe, resisting its flow by signing and crying in shapes and tones similar to Lam’s grinding dance. They conveyed what they’d learned from him even as he reiterated those promises himself.
LAM: My tribe is strange and powerful / Far away / We offer truce / Tools / Food / We are no threat to you.
CHARLOTTE: They bring metal!
ALL SUNFISH: Intruders hide behind him / Strange life / Smell of metal / Why?
LAM: I have more to offer you.
TOM AND BRIGIT: He is strong / He brings food.
ALL SUNFISH: He stands against our tribe / He stands with them / He challenges us.
CHARLOTTE: Wait and listen.
ALL SUNFISH: We are Top Clan Eight-Six!
Twelve savages moved to attack, causing the rest of the tribe to snap and feint reflexively. Lam emitted another unnatural howl, deafening the sunfish with his volume.
The stalemate ended when the two probes emerged behind him. Their arms clattered on the ice. The sunfish pulsated with the horrified shapes they’d used to describe the FNEE mecha, but the intelligent females called for discipline and tolerance.
CHARLOTTE: Listen! Listen!
LAM: My tribe has also fought with
ALL SUNFISH: Enemies / Metal enemies.
LAM: Not your enemy / These metal creatures belong to me / They are tools / They obey me.
CHARLOTTE AND TOM: Listen and wait.
LAM: Listen / They obey me.
MALE SUNFISH #1 and #4: We obey you.
“He’s getting through to them!” Vonnie said.
“Lam, let’s show you’re in control of the probes,” Koebsch said. “We might be close to establishing a truce.”
—Yes, sir.
His data analysis agreed with the central AIs. The tribe was flustered and anxious, yet their mood was rising. They were expectant. Vonnie felt the same emotions. She saw pleasure and satisfaction in Metzler, O’Neal, and Koebsch.
Lam rippled his arm tips in the sunfish gesture for welcome or yes as Probes 116 and 117 mimicked his clockwise shimmy. With perfect synchronicity, the trio continued to sign together like three musicians in an orchestra.
LAM AND PROBES: They obey me / Obey us.
CHARLOTTE: They are metal!
LAM AND PROBES: My tribe creates them like children / They never tire / Never eat / Great strength / They serve me and they can serve you.
Vonnie thought he’d seal the promise of an alliance with the sunfish. They respected endurance and might above all else, but an odd hesitation passed among the tribe. It began with a gesture, then a scent. Lam’s sensors pinpointed the change as originating with Charlotte, although it spread instantly to Brigit. Their arms squirmed with bewilderment and a more intense feeling that Lam found difficult to identify.
Like the probes, Charlotte impersonated him, repeating a few hints of information he’d betrayed with his body shapes… an insinuation of human thinking… a perspective outside the ice…
She coiled and screeched in revulsion. Then the tribe erupted.
CHARLOTTE: You are from above the Top Clans?
ALL SUNFISH: Death / Only death above / Close the ice / Close the tribe!
TOM: Kill him.
CHARLOTTE: It’s a trap.
“Oh shit, here we go again,” Koebsch swore as Vonnie said, “They just figured out where he’s really from! They should be scared. We would be, too.”
He tried to soothe them, repeating the same assurances in a steady, sturdy loop.
LAM: There is more than death beyond the ice / Great age and places / I offer truce / Tools / Food / My tribe brings great tools and safety like the Old Ones.
Inevitably, they swarmed him. Four of the savage males lunged in a frontal assault. The others swept up the side of the fissure like a corkscrew. This was not the dual formation of intersecting waves. This was new. In pairs and foursomes, the sunfish launched themselves in eight different angles despite the meager space, peppering Lam with separate attacks.
He told the probes to shield him. As the probes leapt forward, all three of them howled. Their voices shook the ice.
Dazed, the tribe flailed ineffectively. Many of them tangled with each other in the air. They bounced awkwardly, filling the tunnel and hindering the rest of the tribe.
Lam and Probe 117 swatted four males into the ceiling, then clubbed the next pair to arrive. He howled again. Like a tsunami, the sound brushed the sunfish back. Quivering, they scrambled to the upper sections of the ice with attentive postures. The battered males were less alert but utterly silent.
Inside Lander 04, Metzler grinned. “If you can’t join ’em, beat ’em,” he said, earning a look from Vonnie. She wanted to be irritated with him, but she couldn’t stop herself from grabbing his hand and laughing. Dealing with the sunfish was like dealing with bureaucrats on Earth. Sometimes it was necessary to smack them over the head repeatedly to make them see.
“Lam?” she said. “We have one last card to play.”
—Roger that.
Charlotte and Brigit were the first to sign again, snaking their arms uncertainly. Another intelligent female replied, then three more, then Tom and other males.
The sunfish turned their attention inward. Those on the edge of the group remained mindfu
l of Lam, ready to defend the tribe, but at their center, their tempo escalated. They moved faster than human eyes could determine, seeking consensus about ideas that had been inconceivable before his arrival.
As the tribe squirmed and cried, Lam piped at them, a single, clear, harmless shriek.
They turned.
He held up three arms and mutilated the center arm tip, peeling the cartilage down to his alumalloy frame.
The sunfish screamed. They bared their undersides, but their beaks didn’t clamp or bite. They tasted the thin air, absorbing the scent of Lam’s flesh. Their sonar calls inundated him, comparing his bloody metal arm with the probes’ bare frames.
LAM: I am not sunfish / My tribe is great.
CHARLOTTE AND TOM: You do not hurt / There is no smell of fear / No pain / Your tribe is great.
LAM: We can be powerful allies.
CHARLOTTE: You offer food and tools and more like you?
LAM: Yes / Truce.
As she questioned him, the other sunfish continued their debate. Their frenzy reached its climax. Then they swung on Lam as one, issuing their judgment. It was more than truce. It was a proposal to merge and bond with “Lam’s tribe.”
ALL SUNFISH: Treaty / We deliver ourselves to you / Equals / As equals / Our strength is yours and yours is ours / We offer a treaty with you.
“We did it,” Vonnie breathed. Her excitement was too immense to feel all at once. It percolated through her chest like a geyser, lifting and spreading inside her.
LAM: Yes / Treaty / Yes.
57.
His conversation with the sunfish became more intimate. They engulfed him, sniffing, rubbing. The ritual was similar to their memorization lessons, a method of consolidating Lam and the probes with the tribe by learning each other’s bodies and scents.
Vonnie stood up and glanced at her crewmates, those beside her in Lander 04 and those on the group feed in Lander 05. Koebsch. Frerotte. Johal. O’Neal. Metzler and Ash. They’d developed varying degrees of friendship and trust, but they were united now — united forever — by what they’d accomplished.