‘Then why make me jump like that?’ Reniola crawled from the cleft she had squeezed herself into.
‘Must be something to do with these mortal reflexes. I seem to have as much trouble with them as you do with your tail.’
‘Let’s turn into a couple of armour-plated shale crawlers. I they‘ve got nerves of pure diamond.’
‘They also have intellects lower than that of solid rock and we would probably spend the rest of that incarnation wondering what we were doing in here. Now stop moaning and come on.’
They reached the layers of rock Reniola was sure she had already blasted through. Dax vaporised their way through them until they detected the accretion control signal, only to discover a new addition to the planet’s defences.
Dax was bewildered. ‘Where are we?’
‘This was never here before,’ Reniola protested. ‘She surely couldn’t have done this in so short a time.’
‘She’s extremely determined if she did.’ Dax scratched her nose in uncharacteristic inelegance.
As far as they could see, a domed wall stretched away; it was made of the hardest crystals ever to grow. Dax couldn’t measure their depth. They were still growing as she watched: layer upon layer to encase the control equipment from their reach.
‘How long have we got now?’ asked Reniola, not doubting Dax’s ability to break through the barrier, but doubting that they had the time.
‘Not long.’ Dax reset her cutting beam. ‘Are you sure the control’s behind that?’
‘Positive.’
Without another word, Dax aimed the beam at the nearest cluster of crystals sparkling defiance at her. At first they seemed to grow again as fast as she vaporised them. Then without warning she switched her position and aimed her cutter at another spot. Not able to compensate in time, Moosevan gave her the chance to break through. Soon the disintegrating surface flowed past their feet in streams like hot syrup. The streams became rivulets. Their flow suddenly ceased as the beam penetrated the accretion control chamber which lit up as it recognised the entities that had installed it.
The massive chamber was more or less the same as it had been left many millions of years previously, and the machine to operate the linking of the planetoids still sat in its transparent cocoon like an idol on a plinth. It winked and twinkled with the rotating lights that had been alight since its construction.
Dax, not given to intuitive twinges, missed the obvious presence that Reniola immediately spotted.
There was someone standing in the shadow of the equipment. They weren’t close enough to be illuminated, and too far behind it to be seen clearly.
As soon as she realised someone was there, Dax stopped trying to break through the casing of the equipment.
Not knowing what to expect, and even a little put out by the fact that it had taken two intelligences like them so long to get so far, she called out, ‘Who’s there?’
The intruder didn’t understand what she had said, though was able to guess the gist of it, and walked into the light of the equipment. Dax and Reniola immediately realised that there was something else they should have taken into account.
Reniola asked the human in its own language, ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Delivering a message,’ said the woman carrying a pink handbag.
Dax recovered from her surprise. ‘Why like this?’
‘Moosevan is stubborn,’ Diana explained. ‘She insisted on doing things her way. It obviously didn’t work, so I’m here to make you understand it.’
Reniola was mystified as to why the human couldn’t have used less dramatic a means of delivering it. ‘Understand what?’
‘You must not activate the signal that will accrete the new planet. A major part of its mass is inside a world that has many life forms of its own.’
Dax sighed. ‘That’s all we need.’ Her knees buckled and deposited her narrow backside on the most convenient rock. ‘That’s why she didn’t want to go.’
‘It figures,’ agreed Reniola. ‘I’ll just run a test through the gate and check.’
‘It’s got to be the truth. If there wasn’t a planet there, where would she be getting her boyfriends and messengers from?’
‘I didn’t think of that.’ Reniola felt an embarrassed blush beneath her fur. ‘I wonder why it never occurred to us?’
‘Perhaps there’s no difference between knowing everything and seeing nothing. We’ll have to be more careful in future.’
‘So now what?’ asked Reniola. ‘Goodbye Moosevan?’
‘No,’ protested Dax. ‘There has to be a way out of this.’
‘Well, don’t take the one that blasts a hole in my planet,’ Diana warned, waving her handbag at them. ‘I would like to go back there when this party’s over.’
‘We’ll think of something’ Dax tried to reassure her, racking her Torran brain. ‘Only it will have to be quick.’
Reniola seemed to be spending an uncomfortable amount of time rummaging about in the ancient equipment, pulling out bits and pieces of this and that, and putting them back in a different order.
Intrigued and suspicious as to what she was up to, Diana demanded, ‘What’s your friend doing?’
‘She’s just checking things out. Moosevan’s been interfering with the equipment.’
‘As long as she doesn’t mend it,’ Diana threatened, though not quite sure what she was going to do about it if they decided not to listen to her.
‘Not much time now. Hadn’t you better be getting back?’
‘There’s little point in me getting back to where I came from if my planet is going to be blasted into small pieces across the solar system as soon as I arrive.’
‘It won’t be,’ protested Dax.
A deep shuddering pervaded the chamber.
‘What’s that?’ demanded Diana.
‘It’s started. Think of something!’ she called to Reniola.
‘Hope Kulp takes his time over it,’ Reniola said over her shoulder.
‘Kulp may be reformed,’ Dax reminded her, ‘That doesn’t mean it’s affected his efficiency.’ She turned to Diana. ‘How did you get here?’
‘I’m not telling you, and I’m not moving.’
‘Moosevan could only have brought you through the gate. What’s happening to the gate, Reniola?’ Dax demanded.
The shuddering increased. Rocks were dislodged and flung about.
‘All in good time, all in good time,’ Reniola said soothingly, as though oblivious of the beacons triggering their distorting web.
‘We don’t have time,’ Dax protested.
Reniola continued to calmly poke and probe about the equipment, totally immersed in what she was doing.
Aware that Diana didn’t have the same degree of indestructibility as them, Dax hustled her to the shelter of the plinth so she only underwent the minor risk of being struck by the bits and pieces Reniola was rearranging inside it. The shuddering grew, and larger rocks crashed to the floor of the chamber.
‘Assuming we ever think of anything that is liable to suit all of us, and the gate is still operating,’ Dax asked Diana, ‘where would you like us to drop you off?’
‘Assuming my planet isn’t blown to smithereens, I would prefer it to be somewhere on that.’
‘No, no, no. I meant, whereabouts on your planet?’
‘You mean I have a choice?’ Diana was amazed. Briefly she considered a trip to the French Riviera, then remembered she would never get back in time to make Julia’s tea when she returned from her cousin’s.
‘Oh yes,’ Dax assured her as she just managed to catch a small rock before it hit Diana. She handed it to her as a souvenir. ‘Moosevan could only have managed to take people from one particular point selected by the control equipment, but was able to put them down anywhere on her surface. Assuming the planet isn’t turned inside out before the equipment is mended, Reniola will make the system open-ended. It should have been wide enough to get Moosevan herself through.’
&nb
sp; Diana was about to nod her head in counterfeit understanding, when Reniola sang out through the falling pieces of the chamber’s ceiling. ‘All ready now. Where does our friend want to go?’
‘What do you mean? All ready?’
‘While you two were jabbering on, I not only thought of a solution. I have adjusted the equipment to make it work.’ Reniola shrugged. ‘Don’t know if it will, of course, but whether it does or doesn’t, it’ll be easier than walking.’
Dax’s crimson eyes looked into Diana’s wide hazel ones. They both knew they had to accept Reniola’s solution. They could worry about what it was later.
CHAPTER 14
After recovering from having Dax reduce his body to molecules, then fire them into the flight deck of his ship, Kulp sat quiet and motionless as a deep green pool. He patiently waited for the bumbling trio in the Mott monitoring station to trigger what they thought would be the signal to activate the space-distort net. It didn’t need the Olmuke engineer’s greater intellect to tell him that, in their simplicity, they hadn’t anticipated his miraculous return to his ship.
Kulp found it hard to take instructions from creatures who could change shape easier than he could change colour. That was tempered by the conviction that he wasn’t only on the right side now, but the winning one. He wondered briefly how Tolt and Jannu would react to his new way of looking at an ugly galaxy, and was slightly perturbed to find that he couldn’t guess. If greed and fear hadn’t overtaken them, perhaps they too could release that small suppressed area of the brain that allowed a glimpse of sparkling honesty. Not knowing what honesty was, let alone that it sparkled, the experience might have proved too much for their already confused minds.
Kulp had realigned the beacons and persuaded the two errant robots Ea 8 88 and Ex 8 89 to take theirs to the right positions before Tolt fitted the firing mechanism in the Mott’s observation chamber. He then reconnected the firing command and monitored their signal to make sure his synchronised with theirs. He expected there to be some delay as they squabbled about how safe it was and who was to do the dirty deed, so he waited, cat-like, to pounce as soon as the signal was activated. Then things would be completely out of their incompetent control, and it mattered little whether they discovered his presence or not.
Immediately the signal was activated, Kulp swung into action. Every beacon surrounding the unfortunate planet and its black companion triggered the lethal net that ensnared Moosevan in a web that excluded the normal laws of physics. The ensuing distortion began to twist the peaceful world out of its natural shape and rearrange every atom in it.
Soon the planet was no longer round, but ovate, then cylindrical, then finally spinning like a flat disc. Carefully following Dax’s instructions, Kulp held it in that position just long enough to ensure nothing could survive. Then he let it snap back into shape with a suddenness that made Tolt, Jannu, and the Mott on the monitoring station jump.
‘It worked! It worked!’ whooped Tolt in relief.
‘So it did,’ the Mott agreed non-committally, still watching the planet on the monitor. ‘I hope this is only a passing effect?’ he asked threateningly.
‘What effect?’ Jannu was bewildered and scrutinised the image to see what the problem was this time. He didn’t need to scrutinise it for long; the reality was all too obvious. Instead of the lush, fertile world they had promised the Mott for their new outpost, this one looked pretty sick, if not dead.
‘What’s happened?’ asked Tolt. Bewilderment was now his reaction to most things.
‘If you can’t answer that,’ snarled the Mott, ‘there’s no point in asking me.
‘It should be fertile,’ protested Jannu.
‘Of course it should still be fertile!’ screeched the Mott. ‘That was what we paid Kulp so much in advance for! Even the Mott artillery could have laid the planet waste without all this paraphernalia. Bombs don’t cost a fraction of what Kulp was asking.’
Jannu looked thoughtfully at the derelict smoking heap that had once been a planet, and suggested carefully, ‘Perhaps we could come to some arrangement about this?’
‘I’ve already worked out what arrangements I’m going to make,’ promised the Mott ominously, ‘and after the first few minutes you cease to figure in them.’
‘Now don’t do anything rash,’ pleaded Tolt. ‘Remember we could stand as witnesses at your trial.’ This was a rather pointless appeal, as the Mott knew full well that he would be dead before the evidence of his court martial was heard.
‘Perhaps we could lay our hands on some rapidly evolving plants and things?’ Jannu prevaricated.
‘So where would you find the atmosphere for them to breathe?’ snarled the Mott. ‘Shall I lend the planet yours?’
‘Oh, I’m sure we could lay our hands on that somewhere as well,’ Tolt said evasively. He glanced at the image on the monitor again. ‘Look, look! The collapsar’s gone.’
‘Pity,’ growled the Mott. ‘I was going to shove you two through it. But no matter, you might as well float around in this piece of space for the rest of eternity as anywhere else.’
‘Oh you wouldn’t,’ protested Tolt, knowing quite well that they were lucky to be let off that lightly.
‘I have this terrible phobia about open spaces,’ pleaded Jannu. ‘You would too if you spent the most impressionable time of your life confined in a jar.’
The way the robots ignored Jannu’s instructions to stop moving towards them, suggested the Mott had taken the precaution of deprogramming the instructions he had given them.
Jannu and Tolt were bundled into the airlock of the Mott station. Thankfully they were still wearing spacesuits. Hardly had their helmets been clipped tight when they were catapulted into the endless sky with a thousand supernovae remnants as a backdrop.
Helplessly they watched Kulp’s silent ship hanging some way off, knowing that without the means of locomotion their atmosphere would run out long before chance drifted them together. Even if they had managed to reach it, there was no way in for them and, if the planet had been a little nearer, its dead and dingy surface looked far from promising.
‘Wonder whether this would have happened if we hadn’t double-crossed Kulp?’ Jannu pondered over his communicator to Tolt.
‘Of course not. He was going to blast us, remember?’
‘Oh yes. Funny how you forget things when everything happens so quickly. I suppose we should count ourselves pretty lucky, considering what the Mott have been known to do to people who’d never even upset them.’
‘At least we won’t need to worry about having to patronise one of those hideous-smelling deformities again. I suppose Kulp was the best of a bad deal if you look at it from the point of view of ignorant egotism versus egotistical genius.’
‘I wonder if there’s any life after death?’
‘Well,’ replied Tolt, ‘we’ll soon be able to ask Kulp.’
‘I always thought he was life after death. At least he was the nearest thing to metamorphosis I ever knew.’
Kulp winced uneasily at that last comment as he listened on his person-to-person receiver. They weren’t making it easy for him to decide whether to go and pick them up or leave them to follow their orbit around the yellow sun until some more efficient species decided to clean up the littered galaxy.
‘Jannu..?’ asked Tolt thoughtfully.
‘What is it?’
‘Who was that fluffy creature Kulp got upset with?’
‘That was Dax. Surely you’ve seen a Torran before?’
‘Oh yes, I’ve never met one face to face though.’
‘You haven’t been around much, have you?’
‘Making up for it now anyway. What’s the chance of finding a surviving robot from one of the beacons and persuading it to take us back to the Mott station?’
‘Don’t talk rubbish. You don’t know when you’re well off.’
‘Just a thought. My air’s getting a bit thin.’
‘It will do,’ Jannu told him. ‘Try
not to think about it.’
‘Not much else to think about out here is there? On one side are the dwindling remains of so many sick societies, and on the other, the end of the universe.’
‘It’s no good having profound thoughts now. Anyway, you know what happens to philosophers.’
‘Something like this, wasn’t it?’
Kulp switched the receiver off, unable to stand any more of their banal banter, and powered up his ship. The Mott would notice him as soon as he moved, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. He would probably only send out a couple of robots to uphold his honour in combat.
Tolt and Jannu were still engaged in a conversation that was becoming more and more bizarre as their atmosphere grew thinner and thinner. They were so drowsy they didn’t notice the hull of Kulp’s ship block out the sun’s rays. The Mott commander did though. In his mind, the survival of Kulp only confirmed the suspicion he had of them all being engaged in some almighty double-cross. In the one last fling he knew he would have time for before Mott justice caught up with him, he ordered the robots to take the monitoring station out of orbit and send it at ramming speed towards Kulp’s ship.
***
‘Don’t say anything to me until you’ve breathed enough air to make sense,’ Kulp warned Tolt and Jannu, depositing them on the floor of his flight deck where he could watch them as well as the dangers outside.
‘I thought you were dead,’ Tolt eventually managed to gasp, not willing to admit he was glad to see Kulp again.
‘Evidently not. At least I only had to be rescued once. You two actually muffed dying three times. If you weren’t so incompetent, I wouldn’t have bothered to save you. Having two idiots like you around makes me feel secure in my superiority.’ Kulp saw the Mott monitoring station zooming towards his ship. ‘Now shut up while I concentrate on what our four-legged friend is up to.’
‘When the Mott know they can’t colonise the planet dwellers’ homes,’ Jannu whispered to Tolt, ‘it’s going to upset the plans they had to take over the galaxy.’
‘Of course it is! What do you think I’m doing here?’ snapped Kulp. ‘Now shut up!’
The Planet Dweller Page 14