Close to Critical

V. PEREGRINATION; CONSIDERATION; ESTIVATION

Nick had chosen a fire on the landward side of the hill, so he was the first to have to consider the sea-level problem. In the home valley, of course, the water at night had never gotten more than thirty or forty feet deep; slow as the runoff was, enough always escaped at the valley foot to keep the village itself dry. He knew, from Fagin’s lectures, that the water which flowed away must eventually reach something like a sea or lake; but not even Fagin had stopped to think of what would happen then—naturally enough; the surface of Earth’s oceans compared to the volume of an average day’s rainfall doesn’t correspond to much of a sea-level rise, to put it mildly.

On Tenebra, the situation is a trifle different. There is no single giant sea basin, only the very moderate-sized lake beds, which are even less permanent than those of Earth. What this difference could mean in terms of “sea” level might possibly have been calculated hi advance, but not by any of Nick’s people.

At first, there was nothing to worry about. The great, cloudy drops drifted into sight from far above, settled downward, and faded out as the radiation from the fires warmed them a trifle. Then they came lower, and lower, until they were actually below the level of the hilltop on all sides.

Once a sharp quake struck and lasted for half a minute or more, but when Nick saw that the spit of land joining the hill to the shore was still there, he put this from his mind. Something much more unusual was starting to happen. At home, raindrops which touched the ground after the latter had been cooled down for the night flattened into great, foggy half-globes and drifted around until a fire obliterated them; here they behaved differently. Drops striking the surface of the sea vanished instantly and by Nick’s standards, violently. The difference in pressure and temperature made the reaction between oleum and water much less noticeable than it would be in an Earthly laboratory, but it was still quite appreciable.

After each such encounter, it could be seen that further raindrops falling on the same area faded out a little higher than usual for a few minutes; Nick judged correctly that some heat was being released by the reaction.

He had been watching this phenomenon for some time, interrupted twice by the need to relight his fire when a particularly close drop smothered it, when he noticed that the hill was not an island. This startled him a trifle, and he turned all his attention to the matter. The quake hadn’t done it; he particularly recalled seeing the tombolo intact after the shaking was done. It didn’t take him too long to conclude that if the land wasn’t sinking, the sea must be rising; and a few minutes’ close watch of the shore line proved that something of that sort was happening. He called the others, to tell them of what he had seen, and after a few minutes they agreed that the same thing was happening on all sides of the hill.

“How far will it come, Nick?” Betsey’s voice was understandably anxious.

“I don’t see how it can get this high,” Nick answered. “After all, it hasn’t risen as much as the water in our own valley would have by this time of night, and this hill is nearly as high as the village. We’re safe enough.”

It got a little harder to stick to this belief as the hours passed and the sea grew higher. They could see the pools on shore swell and overflow into the main body; as time went on, more than one great river formed, carrying runoff from no one knew what drainage area. Some of the rivers were frightening, their centers as high or higher than the hill itself before they spread out and merged with the sea. By this time the violence of water-meeting-acid had subsided; the sea, at least near the shore, was pretty dilute.

Of course, “near the shore” might be too casual a statement. No one on the hilltop could tell for certain just where the shore was now. The route they had followed was deep under the acid sea, and the only evidence that dry land existed was the rivers which still came into view above sea level.

The island that had been a hill shrank steadily. The cattle seemed unperturbed, but were driven inside the ring of fires. Then this had to be drawn in—or rather, others had to be built closer to the hilltop; and at last people and animals huddled together behind a single ring of glowing heat, while the sea bulged upward at their feeble protection. The raindrops were clear now; they had fallen from high enough levels to lose their suspended oxygen, and inevitably the last fires succumbed. Their heat had for many minutes past been maintaining a hollow in the surface of the sea; and as they cooled, the ocean reclaimed its own. Seconds after the last spark died every living being on the hilltop was unconscious, and a minute later only a turbulent dimple in the surface of the sea showed where the slightly warmer hilltop was covered. Nick’s last thought was to the effect that at least they were safe from animals; they would be uncovered long before anything could get at them.

Apparently he wasn’t quite right. When they woke up the next morning and brushed the thin frost of quartz crystals from their scales, all the people were there, but the herd seemed to have diminished. A count confirmed this; ten cattle were gone, with only a few scales left behind. It was fortunate that the animals were of a species whose scale armor was quite frail, and which depended more on its breeding powers to survive; otherwise the meat-eaters who had come in the night might have made a different choice. The realization that things lived in the sea came as a distinct shock to the entire party. They knew just about enough physical science to wonder where any such creature got its oxygen.

But the new situation called for new plans.

“There seems to be a catch in the idea of telling Fagin just to hunt along the seashore until he finds us,” Nick commented after breakfast. “The seashore doesn’t stay put too well. Also, we can’t afford to stay near it, if we’re going to lose eight or ten per cent of our animals every night.”

“What we’ll have to do is some more mapping,” commented Jim. “It would be nice to find a place protected by sea but which doesn’t get submerged every night.”

“You know,” remarked Nancy in a thoughtful tone, “one could find a rather useful employment for this place right here, if the proper people could be persuaded to visit it.” Everyone pondered this thought for a time, and the tone of the meeting gradually brightened. This did sound promising. Idea after idea was proposed, discussed, rejected, or modified; and two hours later a definite— really definite—course of action had been planned.

None of it could be carried out, of course, until it was possible to get off the island, and this was not for a dozen hours after sunrise. Once the tombolo appeared, however, everyone went into furious activity.

The herd—what was left of it—was driven ashore and on inland by Betsey and Oliver. Nick, making sure he had his axe and fire-making equipment, started inland as well, but in a more southerly direction. The other five fanned out from the base of the peninsula and began mapping the countryside for all they were worth. They were to determine as closely as possible how much of the area was submerged by the sea at its highest and make their report no later than the second night following. The group was then to pick a more suitable campsite to the north of the previous night’s unfortunate choice. They were to settle at this point, and send a pair of people each morning to the base of the peninsula until either Nick returned or ten days had passed; in the latter event, they were to think of something else.

Nick himself had the task of contacting Fagin. He alone of the group was just a trifle unclear on how he was to accomplish his job. Tentatively, he planned to approach the cave village at night, and play by ear thereafter. If Swift’s people had gotten into the habit of moving around at night with torches, things would be difficult. If not, it might be easy—except that his own approach would then be very noticeable. Well, he’d have to see.

The journey was normal, with enough fights to keep him in food, and he approached the cliff on the evening of the second day. He had circled far around to the west in order to come on the place from the cliff top; but even so he halted at a safe distance until almost dark. There was no telling where hunting parties might be encountered, since there was a path up the cliffs in nearly constant use by them.

As darkness fell, however, Nick felt safe in assuming that all such groups would be back at their caves; and checking his fire-lighting equipment once more, he cautiously approached the cliff top. He listened at the edge for some time before venturing to push his crest over, but no informative sounds filtered up and he finally took the chance. The cliff was some three hundred fifty feet high at that point, as he well knew; and he realized that even a single spine would be quite visible from below by daylight. It might be somewhat safer now, since no fires appeared to have been lighted yet.

When he finally did look, there was nothing to see.

There were no fires, and it was much too dark for him to see anything without them.

He drew back again to think. He was sure the village and its inhabitants lay below, and was morally certain that Fagin was with them. Why they had no fires going was hard to understand, but facts were facts. Perhaps it would be safe to try to sneak up to the village in the dark—but the rain would come soon, and that would be that.

Then he had another idea, found some small wood, and went to work with his fire-making tools, a drill and spindle made from tough wood. He rather expected some response from below when he got a small blaze going, since it lighted up the sky more effectively than daylight; but nothing happened until he executed the next portion of the idea, by tossing a burning stick over the edge of the cliff. Then everything happened at once.

The light showed Fagin, standing motionless fifty yards from the foot of the cliff. It showed an otherwise empty expanse of rock and vegetation; the people were in their caves, as usual. That, however, was only temporary.

With the arrival of the fire, a rattle of voices erupted from the caves. Evidently, if they ever slept, they weren’t doing it yet. After a moment Swift’s tones made themselves heard above the others.

“Get it! Get wood to it! Don’t just stand there as if you were wet already!” A crowd of figures emerged from the rock and converged on the glowing twig; then they spread out again, as though they had all realized at once that no one had any wood and it would be necessary to find some. Plants were wrenched up from the ground by a hundred different hands and carried, or sometimes thrown, toward the spark. Nick was far more amused than surprised when it went out without anyone’s succeeding in lighting anything from it, and was only academically curious as to whether it had burned out of its own or been smothered by its would-be rescuers. His attention was not allowed to dwell on the problem for long; Swift’s voice rose again over the disappointed babble.

“There’s a glow on top of the cliff, and that’s where the fire came from! Someone up there still has some; come and get it!” As usual, obedience was prompt and unquestioning, and the crowd headed toward the trail up the cliff. Nick was a trifle surprised; it was close to rainfall time and the cave dwellers were carrying no fire. Something drastic must have happened, for them to overcome their lifelong habit of keeping to the caves at night. However, it was hardly the time to speculate on that subject; the cave men were seeking fire, and Nick happened to have all that there was around at the moment.

It took him about five seconds to dream up the rest of his idea. He lighted a stick at his small blaze and started toward the head of the trail from below, lighting all the plants he could reach as he went. When he reached the trail he tossed aside the nearly spent torch he had been using, made himself another which he hoped was small enough to shield with his body, and headed on along the cliff top. If the cave men were satisfied to take some fire, well enough; if they wanted him too, perhaps they’d look along the fire trail he had laid, which would lead them in the wrong direction. He wasn’t really hopeful about this, knowing their skill at tracking, but anything seemed worth trying once.

He kept on along the cliff top, toward a point some two miles away where the cliff broke gradually away to the lower level. He was out of direct view from the head of the trail when Swift reached it, but did not let that fact slow him down. Once at the broken-rock region he picked his way carefully down, dodging boulders loosened by a sharp quake, and started back, hiding his little torch as well as he could from anyone overhead. Fifteen minutes after the disturbance had started he was beside Fagin, apparently unnoticed by any of Swift’s people.

“Teacher! Do you hear me? It’s Nick.”

“I hear you, all right. What are you doing here? Did you start this fuss? What’s going on, anyway?”

“I threw the fire down the cliff, yes; I had to make sure you were here. The rest was a by-product. I’m here because we’ve found a way to get you out of Swift’s hands without having to worry about his getting hold of you again afterward.”

“That’s encouraging. I thought I had a way, too, but troubles have arisen in that direction. I need badly and quickly all the help I can get, and I can’t see Swift being very helpful for some time. Let’s hear your idea.”

Nick described the doings of his people since Fagin had been kidnapped, and dwelt particularly on the geography of the spot where they had spent their first night at the sea.

“We assume,” he said, “that you can live under the sea the way you can in rain; so we thought if you fled to this hill, and Swift followed you, he’d be trapped there at night; and while he was asleep you could take away all the weapons of his people—which would be a help anyway, since we’re getting so short—and if we couldn’t figure out anything else to do with him, just shove him downhill to a point which stays submerged all day.”

“Would he last long in such a place?”

“Probably not, as there are animals in that sea that ate some of our cattle; but who cares? He didn’t mind killing Tom and Alice, and would have done the same to the rest of us if he’d felt it necessary.”

“How about the rest of his people?”

“They helped him. I don’t care what happens to them.”

“Well, I see your point, but I don’t entirely share your view. There are reasons which might make you feel differently, but I can’t go into them yet.

“Your plan, if it really rates the name yet, has some good points, but it also has some weak ones. If this place of yours is a day and a half’s journey from here even for you, I’m not at all clear how I can keep ahead of Swift long enough to let me reach it; remember, you can travel faster than I. Also, now that you’ve brought them back the fire they’d lost, I’ll be very surprised if it’s as easy to get away at night as it would have been before.”

“What do you mean? They brought fire with them from our village.”

“They brought it, but didn’t know how to make one fire except from another. They let what they had go out during the day after we arrived, and have been fireless ever since. They’ve been doing their best to teach me their language so I could show them how to make more, but I’m having a lot of trouble—for one thing, I can’t make some of their shriller noises. Swift’s been remarkably patient, though, I must say. Now he’ll be even easier to get along with, I should imagine; but he certainly’ won’t be easier to get away from.”

“Then maybe I shouldn’t have come, Teacher. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not. My original plan for getting in touch with you again has already failed, so if you hadn’t come we’d be in even worse shape. All I meant was that we have some heavy planning to do before we’re out of this mess. You’d probably better get away for a few hours at least, while I think; there’s no point hi having you caught by Swift, too.”

“But how will I get back again? They have fire, now— for that matter, as soon as they come back they’ll know I’ve been here, and probably start tracking me. I’d probably still be in sight, even if I started now; it’s beginning to rain, and I can’t travel without a torch, and that will be visible for miles. I was expecting you to come with me right away.”

“I see your trouble, but don’t quite know what to do about it. It’s hard to believe that Swift won’t be back here in the next few minutes.” Fagin paused, as though in thought; Nick of course did not know that such pauses really meant a tense conference among several men a hundred and sixty thousand miles away. “Look, Nick. There’s a good deal of burnable material around, right?”

“Yes.”

“And there is only one path from the cliff top, and that a narrow cleft?”

“Yes, not counting the way around — a good four miles.”

“Hmph. I could wish it were longer. Do you think you can build a fire big enough to block the foot of that path for a while, so as to delay them while we get going? You’ll have to work fast; they must be coming back by now, I should think, unless they’re still looking for you on top.”

“I’ll try.” Nick could see that this was no time for theorizing. “Someone’s probably looked over the edge and seen me by now, but there’s nothing to lose. If I don’t catch up to you, head east-northeast until you reach the sea, then follow along its daytime shoreline until you meet the others. I’ll do what I can to interfere with Swift’s trackers; you’d better get going now.”

Nick didn’t wait for a reply; he was already racing toward the foot of the cliff trail, gathering fuel as he went. His torch was nearly gone, but he started a rough heap of wood a few yards inside the cleft, and managed to get it burning. Then he hunted around madly, tossing every bit of combustible matter he could find into the four-yard-wide crack.

A raindrop came squeezing its way down the gully and vanished as it neared the fire, but it was early enough in the evening for there still to be a good deal of oxygen in it. Nick was pleased; evidently no torch-bearing cave dwellers were yet on the path, or the drop would have been destroyed much sooner. That gave so much more time.

With the pile big enough to satisfy him, he set off along Fagin’s trail. Even Nick could follow it, a five-foot-wide track of flattened and crumbled vegetation, except where it led through hollows already filling with liquid water. He could have gone through these with his torch, since the liquid was still fairly safe to breathe, but he chose to detour around. Even so, he caught up with Fagin within a mile.

“Keep going,” he said. “I’m going to do a little trail erasing.” He applied his torch to a bush beside the trail, and to the crushed, brittle material on the track itself; then he started in a wide arc to the north, setting fire to every bush he passed. Eventually, a glowing belt of radiance extended from Fagin’s trail almost east of the cave village around to the track down which the robot had been brought from the north. Nick thought he could hear excited voices from the caves, but wasn’t sure. He raced northward at the top of his speed for another mile, and started another series of fires there. They should be visible from the cliff, too; and perhaps the cave dwellers would come out and search along the route to the old village rather than start tracking right away.

Then he raced back to intercept Fagin’s trail, shielding his torch with his body in the hope that its glow would not be seen from the cliff. He found the trail with little trouble, though Fagin was sensibly keeping to the valleys as much as possible, and finally caught up with the Teacher. Fagin heard his report, and approved.

“It’s probably the best you could have done,” he said. “I’ll be surprised if we get through the night without having company, though.”

“So will I,” admitted Nick.

In spite of this pessimism, the hours passed without any sign of pursuit. Nick’s higher speed allowed him to keep up with the robot, even though he had to detour puddles which the machine took in its stride. The raindrops grew clear, and correspondingly dangerous; puddles and lakes larger, deeper, and harder to avoid as the bottom of Tenebra’s atmosphere gradually underwent its nightly change in phase.

“Even with your staying on dry land and leaving such an open trail, they must be having trouble following by now,” remarked Fagin during one of the brief spells when they were together. “A lot of the places where you went must be well under water by now, and they can’t be boiling them off with torches at this hour; the water’s too clear to let them get away with it. I’m starting to feel a little happier about the whole situation.”

“I’m not,” said Nick.

“Why not?”

“The pools are getting very big, and some of the valleys ahead are long and deep. I remember the night before last there were some pretty big rivers emptying into the sea. If we meet one of those, and I don’t see how we can help it, we’re stuck.”

“On the contrary, that seems to me the best thing that could happen. Swift can’t follow through a river.”

“Neither can I.”

“Not under your own power. I can carry you, and it’s pretty safe; we haven’t met any creatures in sixteen years capable of living, or at least being active, in clear water— though I must admit I’ve always been expecting it.”

“There were some in the ocean.”

“That isn’t water, for the most part, except late at night. Anyway, I think we needn’t worry about ocean life. You’ve made me happier than I’ve been for some time; let’s look for one of these rivers.”

“All right. I hope you’re right.” Nick was accustomed enough to being knocked out by oxygen-free water, but somehow didn’t like the idea of being carted around like a sack in that state; If Fagin thought it was all right, though…

It looked for a while as though he needn’t have worried. With the common perversity of the inanimate, once a river was wanted, none could be found. They kept on their original course, knowing the futility of zigzagging over unknown ground, and got closer and closer to the sea; but they actually reached it, not too many hours before day, without finding a river.

They had reached the “shore” far south of the region where the others awaited them; Nick had selected their course so that there would be no question of which way to turn when they reached the coast. He had mapped enough to know what measuring uncertainties could mean.

Without hesitation, therefore, he directed Fagin to follow the “shore” to the left. They were, of course, far inland from the hill which Nick had planned to use to trap Swift, but that was the least of their troubles at the moment. The chief annoyance was the lack of a river; a second one, which made itself apparent an hour or so after they reached the sea, was the appearance behind them of a distinct glow of light. There was no question what it was; the sun just didn’t get that distinct, or even that bright.

“They’re gaining on us. I wonder how long my fires delayed them?” muttered Nick when the glow caught his eye. Fagin had not seen it yet, apparently, and Nick saw nothing to be gamed in calling his attention to it. He just looked that much more intensely for a river ahead.

The robot finally spotted the light as well, and understood its meaning as clearly as had Nick.

“If they get too close before we find a river, you’d better go on ahead at your best speed; you can probably outrun them.”

“What will you do?”

“Go into the ocean.”

“Why not take me with you? Won’t that be as good as a river?”

“Not according to your own statement. I don’t want you eaten right out of my arms, and I’m not very well suited to fighting things off if they attack.”

“That’s true. I guess your idea is best, then.”

As it turned out, though, they didn’t have to use it. By the time the glow of Swift’s torches had resolved itself into separate points of light, and it could be seen that the cave dwellers were overhauling Fagin and his pupil at a rate that promised a scant hour of further freedom, a bulge had appeared on the landscape ahead; and in another minute or two this had taken on the shape of a low, rounded ridge snaking across the countryside. It had the dark hue of clear water; and well before they reached it there was no doubt that it was a river. Since it reached above Nick’s crest, there was no way of telling its width; but it must certainly be wide enough to drown any torches Swift’s people might be carrying.

Straight to its edge Fagin and Nick went. Ordinarily such a mass of clear water would be a frightening sight as it oozed slowly by toward the sea; but tonight neither of them felt afraid of it. Nick tossed his torch into it with a carefree gesture, noted with actual glee the way the glow died abruptly from its end, made sure his weapons and fire-drill were securely attached to his harness, and turned to the Teacher.

“All right, I’m ready.”

The white bulk of the robot slid toward him, and four appendages extended from openings in its smooth carapace. Gripping devices on the ends of these clamped firmly, but not painfully, onto two of Nick’s arms and his walking legs, picked him up, and draped him over the machine’s back.

“All right, Nick,” said Fagin. “Relax. I’ll get to high ground as quickly as I can on the other side and dodge raindrops, so you shouldn’t be out long. Just relax.” Nick obeyed the injunction as well as he could as the machine slid into the river.

His body heat boiled a considerable volume of the liquid into gas as they entered; but the gas was oxygen-free and its physical state made no difference to Nick. He lost consciousness within half a minute.

Swift’s warriors reached the spot where the trail entered the river fifteen minutes later. The chief was not philosophical enough to put the incident down to experience.