The Spheres of Heaven

28: DEB’S DILEMMA

Deb had listened to Chrissie and Tarbush’s logic for their being the advance scouts. She had been unable to refute it, but that didn’t mean she was happy with the situation.

When they left, crawling cautiously away through the waist-high ground cover, her need to see , to know where they were and what was happening to them, grew stronger.

Vow-of-Silence was lucky. She could look through the periscope. Eager Seeker was more fortunate yet. The Tinker could release inconspicuous individual components, each one able to fly high, examine the situation, and return to integrate its findings into the Composite. Deb and Danny alone were information starved. Even if Deb grabbed the periscope she was not tall enough to look over the top of the ridge.

She stood it for about five minutes, during which Vow-of-Silence’s remarks were basically one comment repeated over and over: “There is no sign of them. They must be proceeding through the vegetation.” Finally she could take it no longer.

She said to Danny, “Stay here and keep your eyes and ears open. I’m going to creep along to the ridge, and just take a peek over.”

He raised his eyebrows, and his wrinkled face looked far from happy; but he nodded, and before he could offer any other reaction she was off, snaking into the brush along the line marked by Chrissie and Tarbush. She came to the band of lurid green that spanned the way ahead, with its assortment of dead and dying animals strung along it like beads on a necklace. She followed Chrissie’s lead in detouring to pass well clear.

She was keeping her head well down and she sensed rather than saw when she crossed the brow of the ridge. Ahead of her, if Vow-of-Silence’s report was correct, the ground sloped down toward the encampment. Thirty yards in front of Deb the vegetation cover would end and be replaced by bare and sterile rock.

That was as far as Chrissie and Tarbush were supposed to go. If Deb peeked out over the top of the plants she should be able to see them.

She parted the ferny top growth as delicately as her suit gloves would permit, wrinkled her nose at the smell of lavender gone rotten, and slowly raised her head.

And gasped.

What were those two idiots playing at? They were far beyond the cover of the plants, walking toward the fenced encampment. Hadn’t they listened to one word of her orders?

Then she saw the third one, way in front of them. It was a human male, and he was wearing the same kind of suit as Bony Rombelle. Friday Indigo, it had to be — there was no other candidate in this whole universe. Indigo was waving, and now Deb could tell that he was speaking though she couldn’t make out any words. Chrissie was talking back to him — and she and Tarbush were still walking, nearer and nearer to the fence around the alien camp.

Deb wanted to shout a warning, but if she did that her own position would be revealed. She watched, gloved hand over her mouth, as Chrissie and Tarbush and Friday Indigo went on, to the gate in the fence and through it. At that point Tarbush and Chrissie stopped. Chrissie took a step backward. Friday Indigo raised his arm and pointed, toward the encampment and the buildings that bordered the airstrip.

Deb saw three creatures, each as big as Tarbush — and he was a very big man. They had broad, blue-black carapaces, held almost level, and lots of legs. Deb didn’t have time to count them, because one pair of the aliens’ formidable front claws were lifting high. They held thick black sticks whose highly polished curved surfaces gleamed in the bright sunlight.

Tarbush and Chrissie were moving, racing away from the fence and back across the bare rocky plain. They were almost at the edge of the dense plant cover when the air between them and the crouching aliens shimmered like a heat haze.

Chrissie went down. Tarbush was already diving forward into the plants, but he fell a few feet short. Neither one moved as the armed aliens cautiously approached and bent over them. Friday Indigo stood as still as a statue, back by the fence. Deb did the same, hidden by the covering fringe of ferns. She heard a strange wailing cry from behind her. Danny, or Vow-of-Silence? Fortunately, the aliens took no notice. Two of them squatted down by folding their supporting legs — ten each, Deb counted — and easily lifted the unconscious humans.

They headed for the encampment. The third alien lagged behind with its black cane still raised. As they passed through the fence, Friday Indigo moved at last. He followed them into one of the buildings, a windowless half-cylinder of dull yellow that seemed to crouch and merge into the black rock.

Deb was desperate to do something. Vow-of-Silence and Eager Seeker did not know it, but she was far from weaponless. She had enough firepower concealed inside her suit to handle a dozen unfriendly aliens. But she was rational enough to know that attacking the building with Chrissie and Tarbush inside would be the worst possible thing to do. If they were dead, delay could not further harm them. If they were unconscious and had been taken as prisoners, an attack by Deb would be a sure way to put all their lives in greater danger.

Even so, it took enormous self-control for Deb to retreat slowly and quietly through the thick scrub, over the line of the ridge and back to their own primitive camp. She did not like what she found there. Danny was bending over the knotted body of the Pipe-Rilla, and there was no sign of the Tinker Composite.

He shrugged when she asked him. “Nowhere, everywhere. When Vow-of-Silence screamed, Eager Seeker came apart. It was like being in the middle of a hailstorm. I felt components banging into me and rattling off my suit just like they had no idea where they were or where they were going. Then Vow-of-Silence keeled over. She almost knocked me flat and landed just the way you see her now. I can’t wake her. And I’ve not seen a Tinker component since they all flew away.”

Deb bent down at Danny’s side. The Pipe-Rilla’s long, gangly body had contorted until her head touched the end of her abdomen, and her slender jointed legs were tight-wrapped around the narrow body. Deb tugged at one, and it did not move a millimeter.

“What happened over the other side of the ridge?” asked Danny. “What made Vow-of-Silence scream, and where are Chrissie and Tarbush?”

“Captured. Unconscious. Maybe dead.”

Deb gave a summary of what she had seen, making it as unemotional as possible. At the end, Danny simply nodded and said, “What do we do now?”

It was a relief to have a team member able to understand the implications of a disaster without going hysterical. Deb glanced up at the sky.

“Good question. We have maybe four more hours of light. I would say we ought to settle down here for the night, but we daren’t do that. I don’t think the aliens know where we are, but if they think at all like us they’ll assume that Chrissie and Tarbush didn’t come here alone. If they head our way, we’ll have to run. But this” — she pointed to Vow-of-Silence’s unconscious body — “will make a quiet escape impossible. And then there’s the Tinker. Eager Seeker’s components could come back any time. So we ought to stay here, but I think that’s too risky.”

Deb looked at Danny. He was small, but he was wiry. “Can you lift Vow-of-Silence?”

“Lift her?” His face wrinkled in perplexity.

“Can you pick her up? Can you carry her?”

“Of course I can. In this low gravity, it’s dead easy.” To prove his point, Danny placed his arms around the tight ball of the Pipe-Rilla and lifted her to waist height. “See? No problem picking her up. Trouble is, if I have to run with her through the scrub I’m going to make a devil of a noise.”

“I know. That’s why we have to do it now, and slowly, when nobody’s around to hear us. Come on.” Deb started to retrace their original path, back toward the sea. “If you get tired I’ll give you a hand.”

“Where are we going?”

“First, we’re going to the shore. Then you’re going back to the Hero’s Return with Vow-of-Silence, and you’ll tell the others what’s happening. I’m going to stay ashore for the night and wait for Eager Seeker.”

Danny stopped dead. “Now wait a minute. You may be the shore team leader, but after what’s happened—”

“Danny, ask yourself this. If it comes to a fight who’s better equipped for self-defense, Deb Bisson or Danny Casement?”

“Well, you are. You’re a weapons master.”

“I am. And at the moment there are no Stellar Group aliens around to tell me that violence is totally unacceptable. I’m telling you, if they’ve killed Chrissie and Tarbush …”

The look on Deb’s face worried Danny, but he said, “Leaving you alone—”

“ — Is the only rational thing to do.” Deb moved forward, heading again for the shore and the sea. Danny followed. When they were at the water’s edge, Deb took Vow-of-Silence’s body from him and closed the Pipe-Rilla’s suit visor.

“Sure you can manage both of you underwater?” she asked. “Do you know where you’re going?”

“I’ve got muscles you don’t even know about.” Danny smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ll find the way.” He started to close his own suit, but paused. “There’s one other thing. They’re going to ask me what comes next. What should they be doing?”

“Tell them that tomorrow morning, if nothing has happened here, I propose to take another look at the alien encampment. Tell Chan to give me a full day. If I’m not back then — well, then it will be up to him.”

Danny nodded. “Good luck.” He closed his helmet, took Vow-of-Silence’s body from Deb, and headed without another word into the water.

She watched until he was waist deep, then shoulder deep, until at last his small figure with its outsized burden vanished below the surface. Then she turned and faced inland.

The sun was moving behind a line of clouds to the west, and the evening light suddenly dimmed. The dark vegetation ahead seemed gloomy and impenetrable. As she retraced her steps to where they had left their supplies, Deb told herself that she was being foolish. Danny Casement’s talents included cunning and a certain devious charm, but he would be absolutely useless in any sort of fight. So why did she feel so much less sure of things now that he was gone?

Maybe because she had no one to boss around now. When you were organizing what other people did, there was less time to worry about yourself.

Deb came to the big supply case in the clearing that marked their original base. It was exactly as she and Danny had left it, with no sign of Eager Seeker. As she pulled out a folding chair and sat down, she could hear unnerving rustles and see small movements in the plants around her. In the growing dusk the native animal life became more active.

It suddenly occurred to Deb, much to her surprise, that she was very hungry. No one had thought to eat since they left the Hero’s Return over twelve hours ago.

She opened the supply case, pulled out four sealed containers, and examined them. A solar system culinary selection: shellfish from the nurseries of Marslake; Europan sea-kale, not her favorite but a highly nutritious vegetable; korlia , the richly flavored protein that started life as a warm-blooded engineered plant in Earth’s polar regions; and finally, beer made from the synthetic grains of the Oort Harvesters. On second thought, Deb reached into the supply case and pulled out another container of that.

She ate and drank slowly and thoughtfully. Now and again she looked up at some faint sound in the scrub, thinking that maybe it signaled the return of some of Eager Seeker’s components. It never was.

The sun was on the horizon now, and full night could be no more than an hour away. Before dark she would need to pull out a sleeping bag and a light in case she needed it before morning. There were no weapons in the supply case — the Stellar Group aliens would have vetoed those — but Deb had all she needed hidden away inside her suit.

She leaned her head back to drain the second container of beer. As she did so, something rushed out of the plants around the clearing and jumped into her lap.

She gasped, dropped the beer, and flicked a needle gun from the wrist of her suit. She had it aimed and was triggering the release when she saw her assailant.

“Scruffy! Where have you been?” She picked up the animal and held it to her chest. “You fat furball, I never dreamed I’d be so glad to see you.” The ferret snuggled close and whined. “I know, I know. I’m not your human of choice. But Tarbush isn’t here.”

Deb glanced in the direction of the alien encampment. “I hope that your lord and master is all right, but we can’t find out about that until tomorrow. Now I think it’s time for you and me to settle down for the night.”

She placed Scruffy on the floor, removed the flat package of a sleeping bag from the supply case, and waited as it inflated. The expanding bag gave a hiss like a striking snake, making the ferret leap for cover.

“Coward.” Deb laughed. It was good to have someone around you more nervous than you were. “Come on, Scruffy. Let’s see if we can get some sleep.”

She didn’t have high hopes. There was too much strangeness around her, too many frightening issues waiting for morning before they could be resolved. She lay on her back, the ferret a warm oval curled on her belly.

The light faded. As night moved on, the mysterious spheres filled the night sky of Limbo. It was Deb’s first view of them except on a display screen. She studied the globes. They were far less bright than a star or a planet, but far bigger and far more diffuse. She stretched out a hand at arm’s length, and found that she could barely span the biggest one. The spheres were so pale, they seemed to hover at the very edge of color.

Deb closed her eyes. This was what she and Chan and the other team members had hoped to find, back in the happy days before the quarantine. All they had dreamed of, and more. This was not just an alien star or planet, it was an alien universe.

She had intended to open her eyes again, to study in more detail the intriguing spheres of Limbo’s heavens. Somehow it did not happen. Instead she drifted away to other thoughts. What were they doing now, back on the Hero’s Return ? Had Danny arrived, to deliver Vow-of-Silence for treatment and make his report? How was Chan taking it? He was sure to be beside himself, cursing Dag Korin for letting her go without him. He took every responsibility personally, as if he had to solve it by himself without assistance. He didn’t realize that a partner was someone to share problems, and triumphs, and defeats. Maybe defeats most of all.

Deb drifted into sleep. The spheres of heaven glowed pale above her, wheeling their stately course across the night sky.

She became conscious all at once, rolling instinctively to her right and already holding a weapon without knowing what had wakened her. It was deep night. Clouds must have moved in, because the glimmer of the sky spheres had gone and when she opened her eyes she could see nothing at all. Off past her feet she heard Scruffy give a warning hiss.

“Now then, no need for all the excitement,” a cheerful voice said. “Here, I’ll put a light on if it makes you feel better.”

A bright yellow-green glow lit up the night. Deb, shielding her eyes against it, saw a male human standing about six feet away from her holding a luminous cylinder. As her eyes adjusted she realized that it was the same person as she had seen the previous day, waving and talking to Chrissie and Tarbush.

“Friday Indigo?” she said tentatively.

“The one and only.” He aimed a casual kick at Scruffy, who darted away into the low-growing plants. “Get rid of the vermin, and we can talk. I’m Friday Indigo. Who are you?”

“My name is Deb Bisson.” Deb was reluctant to say much until she knew what was going on. Better to ask questions. “I think I saw you earlier. Weren’t you down in the encampment?”

“You got it.” Indigo took a step forward into the clearing, so that he could crouch next to Deb. “I was there to greet your friends on behalf of The One. Pity you weren’t with them.”

That was a matter of opinion.

“I saw them shot. Are they alive?”

“Sure they are. Mind you, they’re not in as good shape as I am, because they haven’t had a chance to meet with The One yet.”

That too might be a matter of opinion. Deb was at last getting a close-up of Friday Indigo. He claimed to be in good shape, but he certainly didn’t look it. Someone who had been drinking three nights in a row and then lost a major fight might appear the way he did, but chances are they would be in better condition. His eyes were bloodshot, his face was pale. Trickles of dried blood ran from his ears down to his neck. His hair straggled dirty over his forehead, his clothes were full of rips and tears, and he trailed his left leg as he walked.

He didn’t appear dangerous, but Deb had quietly been preparing her weapons. If he tried to put a move on her he wouldn’t know what hit him. On the other hand, she had no idea what else might be lurking out there in the dark.

“Who is this The One that you keep mentioning?”

“The leader.”

“Leader of what?”

“Why, leader of the Malacostracans.” He spoke as though that was glaringly self-evident.

“The Marla — costrans?”

“Malacostracans. The people who built the encampment on the other side of the hill. The people who live there. If you saw your two friends shot — their own fault, I told them not to run — then you must have seen the Malacostracans for yourself. Only Level Threes and Level Fours, of course. Nothing like Two-four or The One.”

Deb had no idea what he was talking about, but she didn’t like his tone of voice. It was too self-satisfied, too admiring of the shell-backed aliens.

She said, “Did you come here because you want me to meet with them?”

He laughed. “Good heavens, no. They hardly need the ones they’ve got. I’m here because The One wants more information about humans and our universe than I can provide.”

“I can’t give you information.”

“I’m not asking you to.”

“Then why are you here?”

“To find out if you might have a suit I could borrow. You see, mine was damaged and I can’t use it anymore to travel underwater. I have to do that tonight. Do you have one?”

“Maybe.” Deb knew quite well that the supply case contained a couple of spare suits. “Why would you want such a thing?”

“Because without it, I can’t possibly go to your ship and talk to the leaders of your party. You are the people, aren’t you, who launched the orbiters?”

“What if we are? Why would you want to talk to us?”

Friday stared at her pityingly. “To negotiate, of course. It’s my job to obtain access to your ship’s data bank. I would have used the one on the Mood Indigo , but the poor old thing’s a bit beat up and I can’t get the information systems to work. Don’t worry, I have things to offer you people in return.”

He snapped his fingers briskly, as though his proposal to negotiate on behalf of aliens was the most natural thing in the world, and went on, “Now, Deb Bisson, do you have a suit for me or don’t you? If you do, let’s get me into it and I’ll be on my way. I can’t afford to waste time — The One needs results.”

She had to make a decision, and in zero time. “I have a suit for you. It’s in the supply case. But I should come with you to point out the quickest way to the ship. And I have to go to the bathroom before we leave.”

“I don’t mind waiting while you do that.”

“Well, I mind. Take the suit and put it on when you get to the beach. I’ll see you there in two minutes.”

“Two minutes. All right. No longer.”

He rummaged in the supply case, pulled out a lightweight suit, and limped away. He held his yellow lamp high, and he was humming to himself.

Deb looked around her. As she became used to the darkness she was able to make out the line of the ridge against the sky and the top fronds of nearby bushes, but everything at ground level was invisible.

“Scruffy?” she whispered. “I can’t see you, but can you hear me? Come on, girl. I don’t have much time.”

There was a rustle close to her feet, and a small form brushed against her leg. She bent down and slipped a flat metal ring onto the ferret’s collar.

“I can’t understand you, the way that Tarbush can. But I think you understand me. You’re on your own now. Go find him. Follow his trail.” Dark intelligent eyes gazed up at Deb. “You heard me. Find your idol. Go sniff out Chrissie and the Tarb. This isn’t much I’m giving them, but it’s the best I can do. I’ll be back for all of you as soon as I can.”