Carl Sagan’s Hunt for Intelligent Life in the Universe (4 page)

Hsissh knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Ish, and if he pressed too much, The One might separate him from Noa. He’d lose his chance to see her escape this world. He sniffed, and changed the subject. “I smell fresh rat blood.”

Ish’s hindquarters began hopping again. “This place is crawling with them! I killed three before the service—silly, really, I can only eat one at a time. Would you like to come finish off the rest with me?”

If he had any poison, it would have pooled on his tongue. “Does a bear shit in the woods?” Hsissh replied, using an expression Dad used from time to time.

“What?” said Ish, head drawing back.

“Never mind,” said Hsissh. “Lead me to those rats.”

“With pleasure,” said Ish. Pivoting on his forequarters, Ish darted for the back of the church. Hsissh followed, muscles and joints protesting all the way. He was vaguely aware of Jacob whispering as he slipped after Ish through a door just barely ajar.

Hsissh followed his fellow werfle up a stairwell, and then another to the attic of the church. There were two dead rats laid out in a sunbeam, like a scene from a dream.

An hour and a half later, after a delicious snack, the creaking of floorboards awoke Hsissh. Eyes blinking open to a blur, he heard Jacob say, “There you are, rat!”

For a moment, Hsissh was confused. The rats were long gone; he and Ish had gorged themselves quite completely. But then he was caught in a crushing grip, he felt his ribs fracture, and the world went dark. It took him a moment of frantic sniffing to realize he’d been dumped in a burlap sack. His hearts’ beating increased in speed exponentially. “Let’s see what happens to Noa when you don’t come back!”

Intellectually Hsissh knew he might be able to claw his way out, or gnaw a hole. But his werfle body couldn’t abide confinement and just … stopped. He didn’t have to concentrate to leave his shell; the patterns that made him himself scattered onto the waves almost too quickly. As he collected them, he felt Shissh’s consciousness. “It’s about time! Now you can leave that debilitating sentimentality behind.”

And he had already. The deep emotional pull he felt to Noa and her family was gone, as was all the pain of his previous body. He saw Ish cowering in a corner as the boy lugged the sack across the room. Ish called out through the waves, “I’m sorry, Hsissh. My body’s calling for revenge, but this is the most perfect research opportunity.”

“It’s fine,” Hsissh said, thought, and felt; they were all the same here.

He hovered a bit. He saw Noa racing up the stairs. “Hey, I’ve got your werfle,” Jacob taunted. “What are you going—”

Jacob was interrupted by a lightning fast kick to the stomach that sent him stumbling backward into the wall, dropping the sack in the process.

Noa bolted toward the sack Hsissh’s old body was in. Falling to her knees, she gently pulled out Hsissh’s body. “Fluffy?” she cried. And then she screamed, “Fluffy!” and fell to her knees, her entire body wracked with sobs.

“Ha, ha, made you cry!” Jacob said. “You’ll never be a pilot!”

And Hsissh had to leave. Not because he felt a pull to Noa, but because he didn’t.

“
I
t’s
great to have you here.” Shissh opened and closed her pincers; they didn’t clack so much underwater. “You’ll get over Third in this form.”

Hsissh’s pincers drooped. No mention of needing to forget Noa or her family.

Waving her eye stalks, Shissh continued, “It’s too bad about the humans—I talked to Chisssh about tweaking their DNA to make them wave aware, but they reproduce too slowly … it would take ten hundred cycles at the least.” She pointed with a pincer down the reef. “The elders of these hosts meet every three cycles of the moon. I’ll see you then; we’ll ask them to tell us the stories of the dark waters. In the meantime—my side of the reef is over there.” She waved with her pincers and eye stalks. “Stay away.”

On that cheery note, she crawled away. Not that Hsissh minded. This particular species wasn’t sociable.

He skittered down his side of the reef, cracking open tiny mollusks and sucking them into his primary orifice. The waters weren’t dark, even though the sun was a distant dream, cut off from them by meters of ice. The seas of this moon were alive with bio-luminescent organisms that drew their life’s energy from the heat that poured through the vents to the moon’s raging magma core.

Food was plentiful. Shissh had already taken care of all potential predators. Company was available if he wanted it. But he didn’t. It was the perfect place to explore, live, and not hurt.

He lasted only three rotations of the moon.

“
Y
ou’re an idiot
,” Shissh said.

Hsissh flexed the claws of the new werfle hatchling’s body he’d acquired. “Probably,” he agreed. Shissh’s consciousness floated away. He didn’t say goodbye. Blinking awake from his nap, he got up and resumed tunneling through the underbrush. He was barely weaned from this body’s third. None of this body’s three parents had been host to a member of The One. They were sweet, kind, and boring. Hsissh would miss them, the third especially; but he remembered Noa kicking Jacob across the room, and then sobbing for a creature that wasn’t her species. He missed Noa more—the tightening in his hearts was unmistakable. As he hopped toward the Sato family, he felt elation in his sorrow. It felt so good to feel again.

Hearts pumping, he increased his speed. Time on the crustacean moon had passed more slowly, due to a difference in gravity. Noa was several cycles older and would be taking exams soon. He had to reach her, and be there to sit on her shoulder and her lap while she studied to offer moral support. He had to snuggle with her at night so she wouldn’t be afraid of rats and could get enough sleep. He had to see her get off this planet before his kind unleashed the Fourth Plague—more and more humans were arriving every day, and many of The One were pushing to advance the date.

Hsissh had chosen his hatchling’s body for its proximity to the Sato’s homestead. He was at the edge of the trees, dirt stained and exhausted, just past sunset. He came to an abrupt halt before he entered the garden. There were boys outside of Noa’s window. He felt venom pool on his tongue. Were they there because of some human “elopement” ritual?

A voice rose among the boys—it sounded like Jacob’s, but deeper. “You’re not going to race your brother’s new antigrav bike?”

Noa was silhouetted by light and he couldn’t read her facial expressions. But through the wave he felt her fury. “I’ve already beaten your ass twice, Jacob. Now I’ve got to study.”

“Waste of time,” said Jacob.

“If you’re only interested in being in the Luddeccean Guard, sure,” Noa hissed.

“Nothing wrong with joining the Guard,” said another voice … again, familiar but deeper. Hsissh sniffed. It was Sergei! He’d grown since Hsissh had been gone. Noa’s silhouette turned to Sergei and Hsissh could feel the war within her. He rushed through the garden, all ten legs pumping.

“She’s lost her edge,” said Jacob. “Let’s go.”

The boys turned away.

“Wait!” said Noa, her eyes on Sergei.

Hsissh leaped into the ivy on the side of the house and began climbing the vines.

“Noa?” Sergei said.

“I heard something!” Noa said, and Hsissh could feel her concentration had left the boy.

“A wild werfle!” Jacob cried, “Kill it!”

Noa shouted, “Stay away from him or I’ll kill you!” Before Hsissh could blink or think, she was soaring through the window above his head and landing lightly on the ground.

“It’s your funeral if he bites!” Jacob said.

Dad’s voice roared through the night. “Who’s there!”

Hsissh took the opportunity to sneak in the window and leap onto Noa’s bed. He heard Sergei say, “It’s her dad, run!”

Inside the house, there was the sound of Mom’s footsteps running toward Noa’s room. Hsissh dived behind the pillows on Noa’s bed just before Mom burst in. Outside, he heard the boys’ retreating footsteps, Dad’s thunderous approach and booming voice. “Noa, what was going on?”

“They wanted to go racing,” she said. “And then Jacob tried to attack a wild werfle.” He could hear her rifling through the ivy.

Hsissh watched Mom go to the window, peer out, and then turn to shoo Masako and John from the room.

In the garden, Dad said, “Go back inside.”

“But the werfle …” Noa said.

“Will be fine,” said Dad. “You go inside …”

There was the sound of soft, quick steps and then a thump against the house. A moment later, Noa was climbing through the window, a few pieces of ivy clinging to her fingers.

“That wasn’t what I meant!” Dad shouted.

“I have to get back to studying!” Noa said, landing lightly on her feet and immediately going to her hologlobe. The device was larger than the one she used to have—this one was as large in diameter as two grown werfles. Hsissh felt her concentrate. The globe glowed and within it appeared a scene of Fleet ships below a time gate.

Noa’s paws balled at her side. “The Guard won’t take me …” she muttered. Shaking her head, she focused ... and then her mind was alight with the thoughts of members of the Reserve Fleet Training Corp.

“Hey, Noa, you’re back!” said a boy Hsissh didn’t recognize.

“You weren’t kidnapped by crazy fundies and forced into marriage with a man five times your age,” said a girl who looked to be about Noa’s age.

“Ha, ha, you’re hilarious,” Noa said aloud. The words were picked up by the nanos in her mind and sent across the galaxy to her friends. Noa punched the air. “Let’s get back to the Battle of Time Gate Five. What would we have done in Captain Malik’s position? I was thinking … ”

Hsissh dropped from her consciousness. He was warm between the pillows, but an uncomfortable feeling was coming over him. Noa didn’t really need his help. She was going to leave. She had to, not because of any plague, but because she didn’t belong here. Maybe he didn’t, either.

I
t wasn’t
until she was putting on her pajamas that Hsissh slunk from his hiding place. Her back was to him, and he was pondering quietly leaving … but then she turned suddenly. Her eyes grew wide at the sight of him—and he reared on his hind legs at the sight of her. She’d grown in the time he was gone, and developed the secondary sexual characteristics of her kind, but she was still lean, her skin was still a beautiful rich brown, and her eyes that deep almost-black.

“Fluffy?” Noa said, reaching out hesitantly. In the waves he heard her thoughts.
It’s not really Fluffy, but so much like him, he’d stand just like that …

With a strike of inspiration, Hsissh dived beneath the covers and did his circuit. Coming up for air, he gave the squeak of ‘all clear.’ He tugged at the waves, and tried to reassure her,
I won’t bite.

Noa fell onto the bed and scooped him up into her arms. She scratched him behind the ears, the way he’d liked in his old body and still liked in this one. He purred unabashedly and she wept into his fur.

Later, with a belly full of leftovers Noa had sneaked from the kitchen, he curled up with her under the covers. Noa didn’t need him to escape Luddeccea … and he didn’t need to love her. But life without love was like a rat that had been dead for a few days. You could eat it, but it wasn’t as delicious.

H
sissh’s body
was old again. If he moved, his joints would ache, and his fur was thinning. But he wasn’t moving, the chair beneath him was soft and comfortable, and he was warmed by a sunbeam.

“Looks like you’ve stolen my seat, Sir,” said Tim. Hsissh blinked his eyes. Tim was Noa’s husband. His appearance was as striking as Noa’s. Instead of tan skin, his was as pale as a shaved werfle. His eyes were an eerie sky blue, and his hair was the color of dead grass.

Hsissh raised his head. “Oh, don’t get up on my account,” Tim said, scratching Hsissh gingerly behind the ears.

Not that Hsissh would dream of it, even though he liked Tim, despite his disturbing appearance. Tim was an engineer in the Fleet and served on the same “space ship” that Noa did. They were stationed light years from Luddeccea. Noa would be safe when the plague came; just as important …

Noa’s voice echoed from the kitchen. “You’re moving back to Earth?”

Dad answered, “Luddeccea is becoming too fundamentalist.”

The turn in conversation drew Tim to the kitchen. Hsissh watched him go. As far as he understood these things, Tim was a fine specimen of the masculine gender of Noa’s species. Broad-shouldered and tall. But more important, Noa and Tim were happy when they were together—the waves buzzed with their feelings. Hsissh was pleased. Humans, from the werfles’ observation, were mostly polygamous in their youth, but then settled into monogamous relationships as they aged. It seemed to correspond with stability and happiness.

“We just don’t feel comfortable staying here,” Mom said.

Hsissh felt a warm glow in the pit of his stomach and put a proud paw through his whiskers. He couldn’t speak into Mom’s and Dad’s minds, but he’d discovered he could tug at the waves in a way that sparked emotional reactions. Whenever a news report came on the hologlobe about The Three Book’s growing influence in civic affairs, or a riot against new settlers occurred in the city of Prime, he’d pulled hard on the waves and made their natural unease greater. When Dad had gotten a job offer on Earth, Hsissh had augmented his elation. When Mom contemplated moving her own consulting business, Hsissh had increased her optimism.

“We’ll
all
be off world …” said Noa.

Hsissh kneaded his claws. He’d nudged Masako to go there to further her studies—and she’d stayed! John had always wanted to leave; his parents had died in the Third Plague before Mom and Dad had immigrated to the planet. John himself had augmented kidneys because the Third Plague had destroyed his; Dad had taken him to Earth for several operations as he aged so that his “plastic kidney beans” could be replaced with larger ones for his growing body. John blamed the “Luddeccean crazy-late acceptance of nano cures” for his parents’ deaths and the augments that had cost him painful operations. Hsissh had only needed to strengthen John’s resolve to leave the planet.

Mom sighed. “Kenji is very upset about us selling the house.”

Hsissh’s ears twitched. Kenji had been the only member of the family he hadn’t been able to influence. Whenever Hsissh pulled on the waves coursing through his mind, Kenji had heard voices … much as the humans The One had tried to inhabit had. Perhaps it was because Kenji’s mind had special nano augments to make up for a congenital syndrome he had? Hsissh wasn’t sure, but the “voices” had worried Mom and Dad tremendously. Hsissh had to give up his attempts to guide Kenji, but in the end, the boy had left on his own, drawn by the promise of a better education on Earth.

“What will happen to Fluffy?” Noa said, and Hsissh’s body grew rigid.

“Sarah Benjamin has offered to take him in,” said Mom.

“She and Sergei know having an old werfle sleeping in the house is better than no werfle,” Dad said. “Rats hate them.”

“I wish we could take him aboard the fighter carrier,” Tim said. “We have a rat problem.”

Noa said what Hsissh was thinking. “He’d never survive the Fleet quarantine, even if he were younger.”

Mom sighed. “Sergei and Sarah, they’re kind people … they’ll treat the old man right.”

Hsissh’s whiskers twitched. They wouldn’t treat Hsissh at all. He’d be leaving this old body soon. In the kitchen, he heard Noa and Tim discuss their ship’s upcoming voyage. Mom and Dad discussed their upcoming move off-world.

Hsissh blinked. The sunlight felt especially warm, and made bits of dust sparkle in its beam like distant stars and brilliant expectations … He’d done it, he’d seen that his humans would leave this world and make it to safety. It didn’t feel a little like seeing hatchlings leave the nest; it felt
exactly
like that.