Nor Crystal Tears Page 12

  Later they strolled down a corridor that paralleled an immense artificial cavern filled with hybrid aircraft and military shuttles. The latter, part of the planetary defense network, were narrow, round-winged craft armed with missiles and energy weapons. To Ryo’s amateur eye they looked almost new, and, indeed, none had been flown on anything more strenuous than training flights.

  Having lived through an off-world attack, Ryo felt a surge of confidence at the sight of the deadly craft, hibernating peacefully beneath the clith but ready to leap spaceward in defense of the mother world. Everything required to mount such a defense was here, safely underground, except for the ventilators and the forest of electronic receptors that doubtless lay camouflaged somewhere above.

  If only we’d had two or three of these warcraft when the AAnn attacked, he thought. Those broken-plated invaders would have received a lot more than a simple diplomatic reprimand!

  Dwelling on the past was useless, he reminded himself. There was nothing constructive in retained bitterness. He forced the incident from his thoughts, concentrated on admiring the ranks of gleaming ships. Then they’d passed beyond the hangar and were once more making their way through the warren.

  They’d been walking for some time and Ryo’s feet were beginning to hurt around the single footpad and trimmed claw, for his feet were still swathed in the fur shoes Tor insisted they wear to complete their hunter’s garb. He moved next to Tor. “I know we must be headed somewhere—but where? If this is a tour, I’ve seen enough.”

  “It’s no tour. Our roundabout course is intentional. So is our walking instead of taking an internal module. Walking can’t be traced.

  “There are only two sections of this place I’ve never been into. Three, actually, but one of them is the battle command center and we’re not likely to find our answers there. No one’s ever told me what goes on inside the other two and I never bothered to go there and inquire for myself. That’s what we’re going to try today. Surely the best place to hide something that doesn’t exist is in a section where no one’s allowed to go.”

  “You say no one’s told you what takes place in these two sections,” Ryo said. “Does that mean that you’ve asked?”

  “Of course. Even on this visit—and I mentioned the possibility of alien monsters this time. Either my friends are not as friendly as I thought, or their ignorance is genuine. Not one of them professes to know anything about what goes on in the two maximum-security areas. Even officers at the level of Burrow Marshal aren’t allowed inside without special permission.

  “As to the possibility they harbor captured aliens, the thought was met with derision and laughter.”

  “Then how are we going to learn anything?” Ryo muttered concernedly.

  “Let us find the sections first, my impatient friend,” the hunter advised him, “and proceed from there.”

  Gradually foot traffic thinned around them and they came to a turn where the corridor was blocked. No side branches here, only the single dead end.

  It was very impressive, in its understated fashion. Bold and effervescent as ever, Tor sauntered unhesitatingly up to the low barrier that blocked the tunnel. A gate was cut into the left side, near the tunnel wall. A single officer was seated behind the barrier. Two emerald stars shone on her shoulder.

  There were also two guards, one before the gate, the other behind. They were not resting in saddles but stood stiffly at the ready. To Ryo’s amazement, each was armed with a large lethal-looking energy rifle held in firing position, tight in both foothands with a truhand on the trigger stud.

  Neither of the guards turned a head to study the new arrivals. They stared in opposite directions, one up the corridor and the other down. It seemed as if their sole purpose in life was to insure that nothing approached the barrier unseen. They reminded Ryo of pictures he’d seen of ancient warriors standing ready, jaws agape, to defend the primitive hive.

  The officer saddled behind the barrier, however, looked up readily at Tor’s approach and favored him with a greeting movement of her antennae.

  “You’re Tor the hunter, aren’t you?”

  “That I am. At your service.” He executed a fluid gesture of third-degree obeisance combined with two degrees of sexual admiration.

  It did not have any visible effect on the officer. “I’ve heard of you.” She seemed open and friendly. “I am Burrow Tacticianary Marwenewlix, tenth level.”

  Tor took note of her insignia. “Greetings and warmth to you.”

  “What may I do for the three of you?” She was eying their pelts with curiosity and none of the disgust Ryo would have expected.

  Moving forward, Tor rested his truhands on the barrier as he spoke. “My friends are hunter-trappers, as am I. We deal in the skins and skeletons and corpses of those beasts favored for aesthetic and culinary application, which beasts the hive dwellers would rather avoid while the fearsome things still live.”

  “I know that,” she replied. “I have a byorlesnath thorax muff I bought from a concession in the service corridor. The proprietor told me you were his supplier.”

  “Fourth booth, level two?” She gestured in the affirmative. “Young Estplehenzin, yes, I remember. I hope you find the muff to your liking.”

  “It is quite attractive in its barbaric way—and very warm.”

  “Then you can understand, as an appreciator of such items, why my friends and I are always on the search for similar items with which to supplement our stock.”

  For the first time she sounded uncertain. “I’m not sure I follow you.”

  Tor leaned closer, his tone turning conspiratorial. “It’s come to our attention that you might be studying some creatures whose pelts would be especially marketable. More than just the usual novelties, if you follow my meaning. Something will have to be done with them when you’ve finished your studies. We would be glad to handle any post-experiment disposal, with mutual profit to all concerned.”

  “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.” She added two degrees of politeness and one of puzzlement. “No such creatures exist in this section.”

  “Come now, tacticianary,” he urged softly, “we’ve all heard the rumors. Since no such creatures are being studied anywhere else on the base, they have to be back there.” He gestured past her, down the corridor. “Or else over to the south in Section W, right? Those are the only two places in the installation tight enough to hold them, as well as the rumors.”

  “They are not here, nor in Section W, because no such things exist,” said the officer. “The cold has weakened your reason while stimulating your imagination, hunter. I can enlighten you no further.”

  “It’s not that I’m doubting your word, tacticianary. It’s only that the tales I’ve been told have been so persistent and inconsistent. If we could have a quick look for ourselves, why then we could leave easy in mind that we’re not missing out on a special opportunity. Just a quick look. We wouldn’t tell a soul. Don’t but rarely meet anyone else to tell anyway, Outside.” He forced a laugh.

  “I can’t allow you past this point.” She was not amused. “You know that.”

  “Well then, what goes on back there, anyway?”

  “Research.”

  “Real secret research, hmm?”

  “Come now, sir. Enough badinage. Surely you realize that if I must turn away military personnel I could never let one of you past this station, any more than I am able to relate what kind of research takes place here. I can say that most of the time I do not know myself.”

  “Then let us pass,” Wuu interjected, speaking only because he saw chance slipping rapidly away, “and upon our return we’ll enhance your store of knowledge from our own.”

  She eyed him intently. For a moment Ryo thought that Wuu’s instinctively elegant speech had betrayed them.

  The officer’s mandibles moved and Ryo feared she was about to ask the first of many unanswerable questions, when something whoomed! from the far end of the corridor. Even the fossilized guards
unbent, whirling with their raised weapons. Flakes of sealant fell from the corridor ceiling.

  Tor had clung to the desk for stability. Ryo and Wuu barely managed to keep their own balance.

  There was a disquieting pause as the officer took a step toward the source of the explosion. A second blast shook them. This time smoke and a brief flare of orange flame filled the far end. The flame disappeared, the smoke began to dissipate, and shouts and whistles sounded from unseen Thranx.

  Several appeared from behind the smoke, running toward the barrier. They gestured urgently. Without a word the two guards rushed to join them and the little group hurried around the bend that had produced the smoke and fire.

  The officer had hesitated before turning back to face her inquisitive visitors.

  “I’m afraid I must ask you gentlesirs to return to the central sector, preferably to the concession area.” An intercom video console was built into the barrier. The status indicators on it were going berserk. From down the corridor they could hear the shrill blare of warning whistles.

  “We won’t get in the way,” Tor said with admirable calm. “Maybe we can help, if you’ll allow us to—” He broke off suddenly, speechless with amazement.

  The officer had produced a pistol, which she held in a foothand. It displayed not the civilized snout of a stinger or of an energy weapon, but that of a charged-projectile device whose tiny explosive pellets could blow a person’s chiton to splinters. “Please return the way you came,” she instructed them brusquely, with maximum-degree assurance, “or I will be compelled to kill you here.”

  “Kill?” Wuu repeated stupidly. It was the first time Ryo had ever heard the poet at a loss for appropriate words. “We haven’t done a thing. We—”

  “You have five seconds. One … two …”

  “Enough. We can argue later.” Tor turned and started running. Ryo did not need further urging. As he ran he turned to glance back over his shoulder. The officer had resumed her saddle, her hands flying over the console’s controls. The ugly projectile weapon lay close at hand atop the barrier.

  “Outrageous!” Wuu was muttering. “Whatever trouble they are experiencing is no excuse, no excuse. Such a breach of common courtesy, of farewell custom! They cannot—”

  “This is a restricted military installation,” Tor interrupted him firmly. “They can do anything they wish.”

  “Surely she would not have shot us with that thing?” Ryo said wonderingly. They turned down a bend in the tunnel.

  “Did you not see her posture or note the inflection in her voice?” Tor asked. “No question in my mind. She would have blown us apart as we stood there gaping at her; bang-bang-bang, one-two-three. Good-bye hunter and his curious friends, just like that.”

  “But why?” Wuu wanted to know. “What trouble could have provoked such a threat? It’s unthinkable, a throwback to the primitivism of the hive wars.”

  “She would have done it because she’d been ordered to,” Tor told him. “I can see that neither of you has spent much time around the military. We can consider her reasoning later.” He turned sharply to his right.

  “We did not come this way, I think.” Ryo looked backward again. They were alone now. “Do you think it’s possible … those explosions …”

  “I don’t give a damn what’s possible,” snapped their guide. “We’re not going to ask questions until they put away projectile weapons and such. I want no part of anything that’s got them so jumpy.”

  “Don’t you see, though? This may have something to do with the monsters,” Ryo told him.

  “And maybe it has something to do with a top-secret weapon that’s going haywire,” Tor responded. “We’ll find out later, when mysterious explosions aren’t going off and attractive officers aren’t threatening to shoot us. For the moment I think the sensible thing for us to do is follow her advice and relax with the other nonmilitary back in the concession area.”

  By this time they were running through a particularly narrow corridor laced with conduits and pipes. “Maintenance tunnel,” Tor said, stating the obvious. “There’s going to be a lot of confusion in the nearby corridors. This way, we’ll miss the traffic and come out close to the concession level. I could use a cylinder of hot cider right now, as well as a little calm. If there’s been a general mobilization, we’ll learn about it just as fast and a lot more comfortably while we’re drinking.”

  “Two explosions,” Ryo was muttering. “I heard at least two.”

  “I also heard them, my boy.” Wuu was breathing hard and having trouble keeping up with his younger comrades. “I thought the second closer but smaller than the first.”

  “I’d give a great deal to know exactly what’s going on,” Ryo said.

  “Perhaps we’ll encounter personnel in the concessions who know something and are more willing to talk about it,” the poet replied. “Confusion and excitement can loosen the tightest of throats.”

  Ryo moved on as Tor dropped back to assist the slowing Wuu. Noise sounded from ahead.

  “They’re probably trying to shut down power, and so forth to the affected area,” the hunter declared. “Maybe the maintenance workers can tell us something. I may be more cautious, but I’m as curious as either of you as to what’s happening.”.

  “I’ll ask.” Ryo sent a greeting whistle toward the hidden work crew. “Greetings, friends! Do you know what is happening? Did you hear the explosions? Can you tell us? …” He turned the corner and stopped.

  The work crew he’d expected to find was not there, but something else was.

  The horrors that turned to confront him held Thranx energy rifles in pulpy, pale fingers. Ryo could not understand how anything so soft-looking could hold even a drinking tankard. Each of the two upper limbs ended in five digits instead of the normal four, and only one was opposable.

  They stared at each other, Thranx and monster equally surprised. Ryo wondered if the two were a mated pair. There were some superficial differences between them, but that was no assurance of mating or even gender. Certainly neither displayed anything like a pair of ovipositors, but then, he reminded himself, most mammals practice live birth.

  Despite the presence of fur he couldn’t be certain they were mammals. Their bodies were heavily clothed and what fur he could see was restricted to their heads. So startled was he by the unexpected sight, he forgot to sound a warning.

  It wasn’t necessary. “What is it, boy?” Wuu called. “Is something the matter?”

  “Yes, do they know—” Tor pulled to a halt down the corridor. They did not round the bend as Ryo had in his haste, but remained out in the main tunnel.

  One of the monsters made a throaty, gargling sound and raised its rifle. Tor and Wuu immediately turned and bolted back the way they’d come.

  Whether out of desire to protect the elderly poet or from some unconscious urging (he never really knew), Ryo stepped in front of the rifle and dropped all four arms. The monster glared down at him out of tiny single-lensed eyes and hesitated. Ryo had confused it.

  It did not run after the retreating Thranx. Ryo noticed that the energy rifle was similar to those the two barrier guards had wielded. Its tip dropped away from him, but as he took a step backward it came up again.

  Ryo stood quietly, staring up at the monster, his antennae working furiously as he examined the creature. There was nothing remarkable about their smell. It was oddly familiar, in fact.

  For their part, the monsters seemed puzzled by Ryo’s calm. They continued to make the strange gargling noises, clearly their method of communication.

  There were other differences besides the amount of fur they displayed. One was slightly larger than the other and they had different shapes. The latter could be due to clothing as much as physiognomy, Ryo reminded himself. They displayed the flexibility of leuks. Their outer skin was mostly bare of fur but was not hard and composed of jointed plates as was that of the AAnn. The softness fascinated him. The creatures had outer coverings as thin as paper.
>
  They seemed to fit no known life grouping. As endoskeletal beings they probably belonged to a lower order, though the AAnn were an exception to that otherwise universal rule. If their physiology followed Thranx norms then the larger of the two should be the female.

  They appeared to be tail-less. Their faces were flat and they had external nostrils instead of antennae; it was likely they could not faz. When they conversed they showed only four canines, two upper and two lower. The rest of their teeth seemed relatively flat and blunt. That suggested they were herbivores, but they didn’t act like plant-eaters. Omnivorous like us, perhaps, he mused.

  Since they were clearly bipedal the lack of a substantial tail puzzled him. Such an arrangement seemed designed for instability, yet they appeared to balance themselves without difficulty in the awkward upright position.

  There were only two upper limbs and he wondered if they could double as another pair of legs like the Thranx foothands. He doubted it. Both upper and lower limbs appeared too specialized for such duality of employment.

  The energy rifles were designed for use with three hands. The monsters managed by holding the stock of the weapon in the space between arm and body, thus freeing one hand to work the lower grip and the other the trigger. They seemed to know exactly what they were doing and he had no doubt they could fire the weapons whenever necessary.

  All these observations registered on his brain in seconds. As he’d hoped, by stepping between their weapons and his companions he’d prevented shooting. Now they were probably trying to decide whether he was sacrificial by nature or merely insane.

  They were neither as terrifying nor as familiar as he’d hoped. If it came to physical combat, he thought he had a good chance. They were each twice his mass, but that skin looked terribly fragile. He hoped there would be no bloodshed. It was only a matter of time before they were recaptured anyway. Surely the hunt had already begun.

  His thoughts returned to the two explosions and he wondered if anything besides property might have been hurt. As he considered that unnerving possibility the taller monster tried to stand erect, bumped its head hard against the corridor ceiling, and made some loud mouth noises. Its rifle’s muzzle dipped and Ryo took a step back.