"Inhumane, hell!" one of the guards had retorted. "Will you look at that thing's teeth and claws?"
"Advanced primate," said Dr. Odell didactically, "but a ground creature, not overly prehensile. The pigtail, of course, is distinctly atrophic."
"Semi-erect," said Tallullah in buxom intentness from under her broad-brimmed sun hat. "Something like papio ursinus except for a heavier frame and the more canine features. I'd say it weighs close to a hundred pounds."
Danny turned when he heard a snicker behind him.
"There they go with their stupid labels," sneered Nolokov. "What in heaven or hell do they know!?"
"Do you know, Noley?" Danny half-whispered to him.
The Monk searched Danny's face as if speculating whether or not to confide in him. "Definitely! But if Sam or I attempted to explain the Memory of Nature principle we'd be no more understood than that pre-man hybrid itself!" Once more, he walked away abruptly, turning his back on the entire proceedings.
Danny got close enough to the examining group to see the creature and hear what Lalille was saying to everybody including Alonso, Alex, and Cyrus. He wasn't more than six feet away from Frederica whose long black hair lay over her shoulders, provocatively gathered into twin ponytails by rings of native white blossoms, strikingly pagan-like. As she was still obviously playing "feint and fend," he felt almost smug in ignoring her in spite of the sheer summer blouse that was gently sweated against her breast. He told himself that too much else was going on.
Amazingly, the humanoid, dog-faced captive was no longer snarling and spitting. Its slanted ears and two-toed horny feet were too close to the satyr shape for mental comfort. But its blind animal fury had subsided. The peering yellow eyes never left "the Lily's" angelic white face as she sought patiently to converse with it.
"It's not a language," she said, "in the sense of having any morphological characteristics. Yet it isn't exactly animal. It's..."
"Yes, Lalille," Tallullah urged her. "What is it?"
"It's almost – onomatopoeic."
"Nature sounds?" queried Odell.
"Along with its gestures if you'll notice – very imitative." The blond, blue-eyed philologist tossed back her hair and smiled at everyone nervously, seeming to grope for the right words, "I'm tempted to express an intuition here. This creature acts like a pet, as if–"
"Symbiotic relationship with a higher species?" asked Tallullah.
"Yes, as if it had been taught."
"Well, it certainly can't belong to the race who built that temple," commented Cyrus Stockton in obvious rejection.
A ripple of laughter came from the onlookers when the captive creature did a startling imitation of Stockton's nervous mouth twitch.
They were interrupted by Lyshenko. "It's that higher species we're looking for now." He regarded the captive dubiously for a moment and then gazed upward at the temple. "Tomorrow we start the air search. That should uncover something."
Later that afternoon and evening there was excitement of a different nature, which Fitz referred to as "stir fever." There were two violations of the non-exploration rules. Nolokov had blatantly scorned the sentinels and walked off to visit the temple. He had been particularly interested in its cyclopean architecture because of his theory of all such construction in remote antiquity. He and Sam had gotten into some heavy arguments on the subject with Poyntner and Stockton. It was the old idea that huge multi-ton stones had been lifted into place by some antigravitic force, which the swami called "another of Man's lost faculties."
When Pike's security men climbed the long flight of stairs and went in to drag him out bodily, the Monk had compounded the felony by using his psychokinesis. Two of the guards reported before the Council hearing that their stunbeamers had been ripped from their hands by "some kind of voodoo force." Noley declared that he had merely demonstrated the same force that had lifted the great stones of the temple into place. The ancients, he maintained, were capable of using teleknesis in unison, thus developing tremendous power.
In spite of this piece of enlightenment, judgment had been swift. He was confined to quarters and placed under corrective probation. A second offense would land him in the brig on rations. Boozie had seen him and passed some information through the grapevine. Nolokov claimed that the temple should be their first target of exploration. He had mentioned statues, carvings, and symbols that only Sam would understand, but he knew now that the race who had built it could no longer be in their present vicinity. As for his rough treatment by the militia and the summary judgment of the Council, the Mad Monk had told them all to be damned.
"It looks like Uncle Adolf is looking for chances to swing his pike," Fitz grumbled later.
"Noley should have known better," said Danny. "He's restricted by a special ruling from using that TK on anybody. And besides, a full investigation of the temple is on the slate. Rules are rules. One of these days somebody could try something nutty and get us all in trouble."
Gogarty wiped sweat from his brow and scrutinized him testily. He glanced about him furtively to make sure they were out of earshot of the other men who were working on the new water tower. "Look, Danny boy, duty and the rulebook are great, provided there's no shenanigans. You know Pike's a tool for that secessionist bunch. A time's going to come–"
"So we'll wait for it, if it ever comes. We're not just here for the summer, Fitz. Even if we get off of this rock someday, we'll be here for years."
The Irishman's florid square face brightened conspiratorially. "Aye, lad, but getting off is the question. I say somebody's going to try to keep us here, and they want no part of World Council Authority. You ask Boozie. That's why he's clammed up on any talk about his instant communication system!"
"What do you mean? He hasn't said much to me about all this since we've landed."
"That's the trouble with us. Sooner or later, laddy, we're going to have to form our own little club and get our heads together!"
"Did Boozie say that?"
"That he did, and more. He said we're going to have to set up some signals, before it's too late."
Danny straightened up from his work on the pump line. He met the big man's anxious gaze in silence for a moment. Finally he said, "Who's getting stir fever now? He's jumping the gun. Tell him I want to see him."
It was just after supper when the second violation occurred, but this time the offense had not been deliberate. In the early red-hued twilight, Jerry Fontaine was brought back under guard from the jungle. In his defense, he claimed he had merely lost track of where he was going. He had gotten absorbed in the fauna and flora and the amazing richness of the soil.
At the Council hearing in the staff room he had mentioned agricultural potentials, which had struck a note of interest for Alonso. He was sternly reminded of his value to the colony as a soil chemist and that it was not his business to go chasing butterflies. He was not confined to quarters like Nolokov but was restricted to the ship area, also on "corrective probation."
When Danny went to see him in his quarters, Boozie was sitting with him. Jerry was excited and clutched Danny's arm as he spoke, blurting out information he had not dared to mention at his hearing.
"I tell you this place is enchanted!" he exclaimed. "I swear I saw a nymph!"
Boozie smirked as usual and scratched his ear as if embarrassed for Jerry. "Could be something in the air, Danny. Fitz may get to chase a leprechaun yet!"
Jerry was too serious to be diverted. "For God's sake, I'm a scientist, biology included, don't forget! I know what I saw! I use the word nymph for lack of a name."
They let him tell his story then. He had wandered a short way into the jungle, merely examining the plants and small animals and insects, plus the soil, as he had more or less explained to the Council. He had found a small spring and was taking a drink when he caught a reflection in the water. He swore he heard a nymph-like voice that was imitating the sounds of the water and even the evening breeze in the leaves, "like a kind of music."
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br /> When he looked up, the forest creature was standing on the opposite side of the pool wearing nothing but a few garlands of flowers. She was distinctly female but delicately formed and totally unconscious of her undine mystical beauty. There was a childlike innocence about her that would have made it impossible to harm her, he said.
"So," said Danny, "you've made history, Jerry. The first man to discover an extraterrestrial human. You should have reported–"
"No! You don't understand!" Jerry's faunlike brown eyes pleaded desperately. "Not human!"
"What?"
"She was smaller, and too delicate with a different kind of face and head structure! Her skin was softer and clearer somehow, like rose petals. The face was beautiful in a strange, exotic way, mythological and fairylike. She had clouds of golden brown hair that hung on the breeze like gossamer threads, and, I swear it, her delicate ears were flared and pointed!"
Boozie slapped his knee. "Jerry, you're getting carried away! You didn't find any mushrooms out there, did you?"
"When she looked at you–" Danny started to say, but that was when Jerry grabbed his arm again.
"She couldn't look at me, not with her eyes! They were big, all right, but they were filmed over and staring blind!"
"Great. Then why didn't you snag her and bring her back?"
"She had some extra sense that guided her. When I got to my feet, she drew back into the ferns and disappeared."
"Do you think she was afraid of you?"
"No, maybe not. But she sensed the presence of the security guards before I heard them!"
"Well," said Boozie finally, "maybe I wasn't kidding you. We could be anywhere. Maybe the yellow brick road is next!"
* * * *
There was a final note of warning to the evening.
One of the guards had seen something that was probably more incredible than Jerry's wood nymph – a cyclops. He swore he had seen the powerful manlike figure in the jungle to the south, a giant silhouette that seemed to loom as big as some of the trees. It was outlined against the red glow of the volcanic ridge, apparently just standing there and watching the camp in silence. When one of the volcanoes had suddenly flared up with a new fireworks display, the guard swore he had seen an ominous gleam in a single, blood-red eye. A subsequent search with the long-range lights had not revealed anything at first. Belatedly, however, a report came in that humanoid footprints had been found, deep-set in the soil and eighteen inches in length. This was sobering. The shaken guard was taken to sick bay.
"Tomorrow," said Lyshenko with finality.
It meant that the air survey would begin, and whatever was "out there" would be discovered. The ground shook severely that night, and the primeval sky loomed red and angry over Boozie's "anywhere" world.
CHAPTER IX
The air search was delayed because of the weather. During most of the third day the sky was black with low-lying clouds, and a heavy torrent of warm tropical rain fell steadily on the base camp. It turned out to be just as well because the scout-ship needed some maintenance work. Meanwhile, one item of exploration was moved up on the schedule. A scientific group decided to visit the temple.
"I wish we could been there," Jerry told Danny later that day. "Noley said Sam and the Bishop almost came to blows."
"I can't imagine Holy Sam using his fists."
"It was mostly the great Dr. Saussure who was hot under the collar. And Stockton's sneering attitude didn't help matters."
The rain had stopped. The late afternoon sun was raising steam from the stone pavement of the open square. The rusty air was sticky with humidity. Danny had just finished supervising work on the scout ship, since he was to be the pilot the next day. He had stopped under the bow of the life-pod to chat with Jerry, who was feeding "Red," the dog-faced creature. It appeared that Red and Jerry had established an instant rapport, much to Lalille's mystification.
"He jabbers a blue streak when you get him going," Jerry explained. "He keeps pointing to the jungle as if he was late to the Mad Hatter's party."
"Maybe he's trying to con you into letting him loose," suggested Danny.
While the red-haired "satyr" eagerly devoured the fruit and nuts Jerry had placed in his cage, the story of the temple search was continued.
The mighty structure was evidently a monument left by a former race of "Great Ones," as Sam called them after he had inspected some of the inner chambers. The statues and wall carvings reflected a former barbaric splendor and a civilization that he judged to be metaphysically highly evolved.
"That's where the argument started." Jerry chuckled. "The Bishop called the builders primitive, superstitious heathens because of signs of sex orgies and some kind of barbaric rite where men fought bull-like animals with their bare hands. Sam told him flatly that he was the primitive. He insisted that the so-called orgies were related to an extremely ancient rite in which men and women were guided by the priest-kings or Great Ones, so that they could mate at certain seasons when the astrological conditions were right." Jerry grinned especially at this point. "Sam came up with a winner when he mentioned that such a system was far less primitive than our own, which he called 'irresponsible procreation dictated by the passions of the lower euro.'"
"What about the bull fighting?"
"That was another argument. Sam pointed out that it was an ancient rite to symbolize man's need for conquering his own animal nature."
Jerry's secondhand report of Noley's account was finally interrupted when Danny had to excuse himself. He had caught sight of Boozie and wanted to talk to him privately. The two of them finally ended up with Fitz in the deserted library and reading room on board. Boozie had urged the meeting in response to Danny's warnings about "Jumping the gun." Fitz and Boozie argued that the policy of wait and see was dangerous.
"You don't wait till they get the drop on you, Danny boy," said Fitz emphatically. "Pike's a tool for the master mind, and something's going on. I still say we'd better workout some signals."
It was the first time that Boozie opened up on his idea for interstellar communication. "I've kept shut about it because, if the secessionists want no contact with Earth, they're liable to arrange another accident like the kind that happened to Torky."
The concept was extremely hypothetical, but Boozie was secretly "fooling around" with the electronics. The original idea had come from Jerry Fontaine, although inspired by Sam. Back on Earth, extensive research had gone into the study of communication between plants. As early as the twentieth century it had been discovered that plants could communicate instantaneously, and were not subject to electromagnetic laws that limited the speed of light. The theory was that plants might be in some kind of communication with other plant life on other worlds throughout the universe.
"Well, plants are innocent enough," Danny quipped at this point. "Since they're not contaminants, it figures they should be able to get through Nature's chastity belt – no Barrier Wall."
Boozie went on to explain that biological telescopes had been experimented with successfully in limited space research, as far back as the twentieth century, but that was as far as the whole concept had gotten. Sam had explained that the plant kingdom had a special faculty which he called a collective consciousness. This, he insisted, was not limited by time and space. So Boozie was studying the possibilities, although at present he was stumped. He ruefully admitted that he didn't know how to modulate the "collective consciousness" of a forest, if the concept turned out to be valid at all.
The Belgian's ice-blue eyes searched their faces pensively. He finally smirked. "You know, throughout the ages, warlocks and wizards and witches have always mentioned an etheric plane where there is no time or space. Noley has told me that Sam can tap that place, but the swami calls it Akasha. The Monk claims this is the meaning of the Memory of Nature – seeing through time. Sam is supposed to be able to read the Akashic Record. That's a form of instantaneous communication in itself." He frowned stubbornly. "Anyway, something bugs me about it.
I can't get rid of a hunch there's an answer somewhere in this whole idea."
Fitz grinned at him consolingly. "You might be pushing it too hard, lad. Maybe you need a trip to the Pit, just to ease the old libido."
Boozie glumly admitted that he hadn't made a Pit trip for months, ever since his HP tape had started to give him static.
Danny looked at him curiously. "What kind of static?"
Boozie shrugged his slight shoulders. "I don't know, like an interference with flickering lights."
Danny remembered his last session with Kitty Keene, and the irritating light reflections. He made no comment about it, attributing the holophonic aberrations to a possible magnetic field in the sector of space they had been traversing at the time.
Later, however, he was to recall the present conversation sharply.
On the fourth day the survey flight got off to an early start. The combination jet and turboprop carrier was a convertiplane and hovercraft, capable of amphibious landings and also equipped with tractors for locomotion through swamps. It was carrying a team of a dozen men in addition to weapons and instruments, including optical and infrared scanners, plus scintillometer equipment. The search for radioactive minerals was as much a priority as the "anthropological phase-in."
While piloting the cumbersome-looking scout ship above the sparkling green mat of the jungle, Danny had reason for recalling another piece of information Jerry had given him in regard to the temple inspection. Noley had told him that the highlight of the tour had been provided by Lalille Sardou. Apparently there had been something about the place that turned her on to an unsuspected sensitivity. She had impressed Sam as being clairvoyant, almost like a prophetess. She had seemed to be frightened by her own visions down there in the cult chambers and initiation galleries. The gist of the matter was that she "felt" that not all of the Great Ones had gone.
Star Quest Page 10