Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 (55 page)

But as they were puzzling the map out, the mists began to clear, a brilliant white light washed over them again, and Six found himself back in the grotto, standing just as he had been before, except that he and Diva were no longer holding hands.

The others had emerged from the cloud of radiance too, and they stared at the diamond star.

Six looked around him, to find that the ledge he had seen in the recent vision was in front of them, and that now he could see several objects lying on it. He moved quickly up to it, and grasped the lightest of the objects. Then he looked down at his hands in amazement. He was holding the star map. He stared at it. Then he looked sideways, towards Diva, who had joined him at the ledge. She was holding a small carved box in her hands, turning it over and over with an expression of confusion, and there were four more just like it on the shelf. Six also caught sight of Bennel and Tallen, each stretching down to pick up a carefully wrapped package which protected a machine identical to the lasers that the Ammonite had used to turn the threads of light into matter, and then into light again, and then to stop light.

The four travelers were absolutely silent for a long time, and then Bennel cleared his throat. “I think it is time for us to leave,” he said, his voice rather shaky. “I think we already have what the animas wanted us to take from here. But where are the trimorphs?” He looked around at the dome of the cavern.

“We are still here.” A small voice came from behind Six. “Are you all right? Can you get us out of here? These aliens pulled us here against our will, and refused to let us go.” The twins buzzed heatedly. “We don’t like this race. Even now, when they have released their hold on us, we can’t sense our way out. The gravity well of the singularity is blinding us. They brought us here to die. And they knew we would be trapped.”

The diamond star was still shimmering and they were all suddenly taken over by a backwash from the alien aura. They could hear words implanted inside their heads, an explanation which wasn’t in their own language, but which was finally comprehensible. The lost animas were addressing them directly.

“
We had no other choice,” they said. “The future of our entire race depended upon it.”

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few ...” murmured Six, causing Diva to look sharply at him. He met her glance, and shrugged. “Remind you of anything, Diva?”

She gave a curt nod. It truly didn’t feel like the sort of thing that a superior species should be saying. You would have thought that by now they could have devised a way to behave which didn’t involve sacrificing other people. Arcan would never do something like that.

She saw from Six’s eyes that he had had the exact same thought. Arcan would never risk the life of any other creature, flimsy or not. Suddenly they realized how much they had come to take him for granted. Diva nodded slowly. They would have to be a little more wary about these new animas, who, it seemed, would stop at nothing to survive.

“
We were planning to use the ortholiquid to find the perfect planet for our animas, stored meanwhile in the stopped light. We thought we had plenty of time. But then the ortholiquid here on Kintara disappeared. We have no idea why, but overnight it evaporated. We were left here stranded, unable to search for the perfect planet, unable to wake the stored animas, unable to contact them, unable to do anything.

“We have been waiting for millennia, trapped as we are on the remains of this dying planet. We began to think that we would never find anyone to wake them up, never find anything to take over the search for the perfect planet. You have nearly come too late, for the planet will last only a matter of hours more in its present state. You are our last and only hope of avoiding the extinction of our race. We had to bring the two morphics over to us.”

“Ye-e-s.” Six didn’t seem convinced. “But why didn’t you build your own spaceships?”

The animas shifted, their light flickering almost shiftily across the dark confines of the cavern. “We had become used to the ortholiquid. We traveled through the galaxy using that. There was no need to develop any sort of interstellar vehicles. We never thought ... that is ... we assumed ...”

Six smiled. “You took the ortholiquid for granted. So the rest of you were stuck here?”

“Indeed. The rest of us were ... as you put it ... stuck here. By the time we realized we needed to build spaceships, the radiation levels had decimated our population, and it became an impossible project. In any case, it would probably have required more energy than we could harness to reach escape velocity, because of the intense gravitation around the black hole. Those of us who were left did everything we could to resolve the situation, but we finally had to admit defeat. About a thousand years ago, after we had set up everything needed physically for a possible rescue, we gradually began to transform into animas. Then we settled in to wait, in the hope that somebody would come by, one day
.”
The animas seemed to shiver. “Until today, that has never happened.”

“So we are to be the saviours of your race.” Six glanced again at Diva. “Has it occurred to you that we might well be trapped here ourselves?”

“Naturally.” The light of the Ammonite animas glittered in the shadows. “But we have sensed the existence of a larger quantum being, through the minds of the trimorphs, although we have not been able to bring him here. He has the ability to transport you away. We believe that he will have a chance of survival. He will have to come. It is worth the risk.”

“To you, perhaps. The larger quantum being may not agree with you.”

“He must. It is our only chance of survival.”

“You have put him in a position where he must risk himself to save us.”

“Yes. He might not have done it otherwise.”

Diva tilted her head to one side. “You don’t know Arcan. He would have come to your rescue anyway.”

The trimorphs spun. “We are going to speak to Arcan about that. It is not ... pleasant to be dragged away from your home. My twin and I do not want to be so vulnerable again.”

The anima which was speaking flashed. “We did not plan this deliberately. We only drew the morphics here, to us. We could sense their quantumness as soon as they came into range. We knew that it would be our only chance. If you do not wish to save our race, then you must leave the artifacts here.”

“That would seem rather churlish, wouldn’t it? Not a very hospitable thing to do?”

“It is up to you.” The anima fell into a dignified silence.

Six pulled a face, and Diva rolled her eyes. They could hardly refuse to help the animas, when it meant merely taking a few small boxes and a couple of lasers with them. Bennel and Tallen gave slow nods, too. They had come to the same conclusion.

Six stared at the small shapes which still glistened in the darkness. “What about you? We could take you with us.”

“We will stay. We are the last ones. We were meant to witness the end of our planet. It was decided by the Ammonite senate thousands of years ago. Unlike the stopped animas, our destiny is to accompany Kintara on her journey into the abyss.”

Six looked revolted. “You mean you are deliberately going to sit here and wait for immolation? What a dumb thing to do!”

Diva kicked him lightly, and he glared at her. “What did you do that for? They
are
stupid to do it! As if an inanimate planet is going to thank them for sacrificing themselves with it! I ask you! It’s like going back into the age of the rocks.” He bent to rub his shin.

“Over the generations, we came to believe that it is the duty of some Ammonites to succumb with our beautiful world, with Kintara. She should not be shattered apart with no life to mourn her passing. That will be our culminating moment. We are prepared for it. Provided the stopped animas can be awakened, we can greet our end with great acceptance. We are the most ancient civilization in the galaxy, and our heritage must be preserved. Generations of our ancestors have lived only for this moment. Some of the plans were put into place thousands and thousands of years ago. The one thing we wanted beforehand was to make sure that the trapped animas would be released. If we have your solemn undertaking to do that, you free us to prepare ourselves for the end with great joy.”

Six looked at them sideways. He didn’t hold much with rhetoric. “Yes. Well, whatever. I think we should be going now, don’t you, Diva?”

She nodded, and Six stepped forwards. “We will do our best to find your lost planet,” he told them. “Although I will make you no promises.”

“We thank you.”

“Yeah, well, goodbye.”

In front of their very eyes, the diamond star aura began to disassociate itself again, falling gently apart, disentangling each thread, each spun fibre of light, until they were all separate again. The tiny flames of life retreated back to the recesses of the grotto, and hung sparkling against the instellite background.

Six nodded at Diva, and then at Bennel and Tallen, and they all, as one, turned and walked out of the grotto, away from the threads of light, away from the memory of the cubic shape, away from the memory of the slow death of the planet Kintara, and of everything still alive on her.

WHEN THEY STEPPED out from behind the waterfall, the small clearing was not just as they had left it. Although they had felt no vibration, a huge piece of obsidian was lying in front of the statue, which had been defaced by its landing. The scalloped eyes now had a grey line of fresh rock tissue marring them, where the volcanic glass fragment had sliced part of the rims away. It seemed poignant that the statue had been defaced just at that particular moment in time, but it was a necessary reminder to them all that they had very little time left themselves, if they were to get out of the abyss leading to the depths of the planet, and away in the shuttles before the final break-up of the planet itself.

Six stared up at the towering crag above them and at the slabs of stone which they would have to negotiate if they were to get back to the canths. “We have to go.”

Then he turned back to the trimorph twins. “Are you coming with us, or do you think you can get as far as the New Independence, up in orbit?”

The twins darkened, and one of them spoke. “We can’t travel anywhere. We would need ortholiquid. Didn’t you see the small bowl in the centre of the grotto? —You were nearly standing in it, so you should have done. But it is dry now. What little of it was left vanished thousands of years ago.” Both of the small globes spun and irradiated discomfort.

“The ortholiquid somehow knew that the planet was on the point of breaking up? So it left?” Diva raised one eyebrow. “I didn’t think it was intelligent enough to know that it ought to get out of here. And how could
it
leave, if you couldn’t?”

The twins looked irritated. “We don’t know why the ortholiquid does things, do we? We’re only morphics. In any case, we could probably have left too, thousands of years ago. The planet would have been much further away from the black hole then.”

“Well,” said Six. “If we don’t look sharp we are going to get sucked into the black hole along with the remaining Ammonite animas and what is left of Kintara. Arcan insisted that we brought two protected pouches up here for you two twins, so you could travel more safely. They are full of nutrients, and insulated from both heat and cold, which should help to restore you, he thinks. Since you can’t make it out under your own steam, you had better use them. You can transport out of them at any moment, of course, but he said to tell you that you would be wise to stay inside, at least until we get you up to the New Independence.”

Six showed them the two small watertight purses, made of vaniven leather, and waited until they had disappeared into them, one twin in each. Then he handed one to Diva, and tucked the other one as securely as possible inside his clothes.

Diva turned to Bennel and Tallen. “I ... I feel I know you both better. I suppose being in the collective aura has in some way brought us closer.” The other three nodded.

Diva looked over at Bennel. “You have many colours.”

“Thank you,
Valhai
.”

Diva hesitated, and then held her hands out to him. “You are more than worthy to be my friend. I hope that I am worthy enough to be yours. ”

Bennel held his palms up to hers, and they touched fingers. “I am honoured.”

Six gave a snort. “No you’re not, Diva can be pret-ty hard work as a friend.”

Diva shoved him, and he held up the armful of map as protection. “Hey! No! This is too important to be risked!”

Tallen was standing nearby, with a frown. “
I
was in the aura too,” he said.