Quofum (4 page)

“Perhaps not the same rate,” argued Haviti. “Your natives brandish more primitive weapons and show no sign of clothes-wearing.”

“You saw them.” Tellenberg eyed her challengingly. “Why would they need clothes?”

“They might as well come from two entirely different worlds.” N’kosi was turning philosophical. “They’ve apparently evolved here. It’s not a situation like on Fluva, where you have two sentient species living side by side but one consisting of long-term immigrants.”

“Still, we can’t be certain that both are native to this world until we have more information.” Haviti was insistent. “If such proves to be the case, it will be a fascinating development.” Her gaze roved around the table. “The next question is, which species do we first pursue contact with? I would vote for the fuzzies.”

“Why?” countered Valnadireb vigorously. “Because they most closely resemble primates? Who is to say that the jelly-creatures are not more advanced? Or more amenable to further contact?”

Boylan put his foot down. “It’s a scientific decision to be made, but I don’t want to see any of my team strain their brains. You will work out details and I will support you. Enough first contact for tonight. I myself would like hear what else you found today.”

Araza turned back to his work. Though reluctant to comply with the captain’s directive, the scientific quartet had enough common sense to recognize the wisdom of giving so contentious a matter a rest. Talk turned to methods of photosynthesis, productiveness of alcohol-blended seawater versus that of fresh, density of microfauna, and other less controversial discoveries. Eventually adrenaline grew drained, eyes became heavy, and one by one the team stumbled off to sleep. Not a one of them believed that the day’s discoveries had been anything less than inestimable or a red-letter day for Commonwealth science. Given what they had accomplished in a single twenty-four-hour period, who knew what wonders waited to be quantified and recorded over the forthcoming weeks? Only exhaustion finally mitigated excitement and allowed any of them to even think of sleep.

No fool he, Boylan retired first, followed in close order by N’kosi and Valnadireb. Even the seemingly tireless Araza had disappeared into his personal cubicle by the time Tellenberg and Haviti found themselves walking together down the corridor. They had not so much resolved their disagreements as run out of the physical and intellectual fuel with which to power them.

Tellenberg studied the door that opened into his individual space. “I’ve stayed in prefab field rooms like these before. They’re pretty solid. They may look skeletal, but they’re perfectly soundproofed.”

Haviti stepped easily around him. “Forget it, Esra. It’s too early in the expedition, too soon in our relationship, and I’m too excited by what we all learned at dinner tonight.”

He smiled helpfully. “I could assist you in relaxing.”

She smiled back. “I don’t recall requiring any assistance in relaxing on the journey out.”

He persisted. “There are interesting variants on the concept of space-plus that involve the utilization of drives of the non-Kurita-Kinoshita variety.”

“Sounds like pretty elementary physics to me.” Reaching out, she gave him a friendly and (worst of all) semimaternal pat on the arm. “I already know enough about alternate drive systems, thanks. For one thing, when improperly engaged they have a disconcerting tendency to fail at critical moments. We wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?”

“Uh, no, I suppose not.” He blinked at his door. Recognizing the relevant visual and electrical patterns, it clicked open. “I hope you sleep well, Tiare.”

“I always sleep well; on Earth, on other planets civilized and elsewise, on unexplored worlds.” She blinked at the door to her own room, which was next to Tellenberg’s. “It’s good that our individual living quarters are so well soundproofed. I wouldn’t want my snoring to keep you awake.” As the door slid aside, she stepped through. “Myself, I sleep like a stone. After everything that’s happened today, I anticipate doing so with no trouble tonight.”

But she was wrong, and the cause of her
slumber interruptus
had nothing to do with either her occasionally errant breathing or the self-conscious desires of her captivated neighbor next door.

3

Tellenberg had been only partly correct. The surface life-support modules were very well soundproofed—but their sound-dampening properties were not perfect. Certainly not when large, heavy objects came banging and rattling against them in the middle of an otherwise peaceful, dead-silent night.

Sliding off his inflatable sleeping platform, he stumbled to the hallway door and opened it. Illumination panels emitting their own soft blue internal glow allowed him to see both up and down the corridor without having to touch either wall to intensify the light. Nor did he need anything in the way of artificial amplification to allow him to hear an incensed Boylan roaring in the distance. The captain’s impassioned bellows soared even above the general clamor that accompanied them, like a brass choir rising above the rest of a fully-engaged orchestra.

Another door opened farther down the corridor and N’kosi stepped out. The xenologist was already dressed. Not only that, he gripped his standard-issue field pistol in one hand. Eyeing his alert colleague, it occurred to a still-awakening Tellenberg that this was an eminently sensible reaction to unexpected violent noise accompanied by the initial inklings of mounting chaos. As relevant neurons responding to his increased wakefulness began to fire with greater frequency, he considered returning to his own room to put on some clothes and pick up some gear. On the other hand, he told himself as he struggled toward full awareness, the racket that had awoken him was likely due to nothing more than an unusually unruly equipment malfunction. From the tone of the captain’s voice, Boylan was already on the case.

As a cautious N’kosi came up beside him both men peered up the dim but adequately illuminated corridor. “Any idea what’s going on?”

Tellenberg shook his head. “Something banging on the outside wall woke me up. Now it sounds like it’s moved inside.”

“Same here.” The other xenologist gestured. “I think maybe that’s Boylan coming this way now.”

Since his eyesight was not as sharp as that of his companions, N’kosi could be excused for his mistake. The error rectified itself as the figure barreling toward them resolved itself into a shape. Not only was it not the captain; it was not even remotely human.

Squat and thickset, it was shorter than either of the two gaping scientists; shorter even than Valnadireb. Instead of moving in sequence like the limbs of a terrestrial quadruped, the creature’s four legs appeared to rotate from front to back in the style of a tracked vehicle. Powerful but stubby arms terminated in circular hands that were tipped with inward-curving talons. Additional claws were visible on the feet while the wide mouth set in the middle of the half-spherical skull was festooned with fangs that arced in all directions; a Vesuvius of dentition. Set in pairs at the top and bottom of the skull, a quartet of crimson eyes flashed in the reflected light of the hallway. Additional sharp spines jutted from joints, back, and flanks.

One arm cradled a bucketful of rounded stones. Letting out a roar, the creature reached in, selected a rock the size of a fist, and flung it in the xenologists’ direction. N’kosi ducked to one side and a startled and nearly naked Tellenberg to the other as the rock sailed between them. The assault demonstrated tool-using of the most primitive kind, but tool-using nevertheless. The actual degree of decision-making brainpower being employed by the alien would have to remain a question for future study since at that moment neither man was in an analytical mood. Speedily shunting aside any hesitation about employing advanced technology against indigenous primitives, N’kosi fired. As a marksman, he was an excellent scientist. His wild shot blew a neat round hole in the corridor’s outer wall.

Firing from behind him, Valnadireb put an explosive shell in the center of the onrushing entity’s virtually nonexistent neck. Able to grip his weapon with four hands, the thranx had the advantage of a steadier natural firing platform than did his human companions. Emitting a loud noise halfway between a belch and a bleat, the spiny quadrupedal horror collapsed less than a meter from Tellenberg’s feet. Deprived of its head by Valnadireb’s timely shot, the corpse proceeded to spew greenish-red blood all over the tall xenologist’s lower legs and feet.

By now Haviti had come up alongside the thranx. She was half dressed and armed. If anyone had bet Tellenberg that under such circumstances he would not have stared, he would have accepted the wager. He also would have lost money. Having a ferociously hostile and violently decapitated alien primitive gushing bodily fluids all over his lower body instantly reduced any incipient libido to less than zero. Shaken, Tellenberg rose from where he had been crouching. He began brushing weakly at his legs in a futile attempt to wipe himself off.

Crashing, splintering sounds punctuated by echoing gunfire continued to reach them from the vicinity of the camp’s entrance dome. A grim-faced Haviti pushed past the three males.

“We’d better get up there.”

N’kosi and Valnadireb followed her lead. Tellenberg started to join them, remembered something, rushed back into his room to get his own weapon. He had to run hard to catch back up to them. Focused on recovering his gun, he had not bothered to take the time to get dressed, correctly assuming that his relative nakedness made not the slightest difference either to his colleagues or to the native intruders.

The domed entry chamber was a mess. Equipment and fixtures were scattered everywhere, much still intact, some shattered and broken. As the scientists arrived Boylan and Araza were just stepping out from behind a worktable they had overturned to form a makeshift bulwark. Enough alien body parts to make up four or five of the spike-and-claw-equipped invaders lay scattered around the room or splattered against the walls. A dull, sweetish stink like milk left out too long in the sun permeated the air. Boylan was unhurt while Araza paid no attention to the bloody parallel gashes that creased his right side from beneath his arm all the way down to his hip.

Boylan did not say hello. Gesturing with the pulse rifle he held, he started deliberately toward the gaping entrance. “Quickly! The others have pulled back, but for all we know they re-forming for another try. If so, we have to disrupt them before they can organize themselves!”

This is ridiculous,
Tellenberg thought as he and the others followed the captain.
I should be breaking down and recording the microscopic structure of water-dwelling proteins, not running around in my underwear waving a gun at belligerent natives.
What had begun as a normal, pleasant evening had degenerated into a seriocomic tridee episode.

As it turned out he was not forced to engage in the unwelcome activity for very long. Contrary to Boylan’s fears, a quick survey indicated that the camp’s surviving attackers had fled. That they had taken their wounded with them only confirmed their sentience. Rock-throwing animals would have left any seriously injured behind. Compassion for the wounded was a surer indication of intelligence than any amount of rock-throwing.

The scientists waited while an irate Boylan and the ever-phlegmatic Araza walked the camp perimeter. Once they were convinced no natives were lying in ambush, they moved on to inspect the shuttle. Even though the sealed craft possessed its own automated defensive devices, the captain was taking no chances. This gave Tellenberg and his companions time to catch their breath as well as to reflect on the extraordinary cacophony of nocturnal noises from which they had initially been insulated within the buildings.

“Quite amazing.” N’kosi was squinting up at a trio of multilimbed arboreals who were cavorting in a nearby tree. Tellenberg could not tell if his colleague was referring to the outrageous growth itself, which resembled a cross between a giant spiny succulent and a cluster of amethyst crystals, or the softly hooting animals capering aerobatically among its branches/thorns. As unclassifiable as the growth in which they were performing, the animals smoldered with a weird, internal green light. Seeing the watching scientists edging closer to their tree, they fled into the forest depths like a trio of oversized many-armed fireflies.

“Look there.” Haviti was pointing excitedly. It was almost as if the attack on the camp had never taken place. This instinctive displacement from reality in the face of new knowledge, so characteristic of scientists in the field, was shared by all of them. No exception to the rule, Tellenberg found himself gazing at the slight bulge in the soil where his colleague was pointing.

The bulge was moving. It approached to within a few meters of them before halting. Dirt and ground cover was pushed aside as a drill emerged from the earth. Made of some dark siliceous material, the drill lay in a slot on the back of a small, flaccid-skinned lump that showed only two front legs. Two more heads popped out of the ground on either side of the drill-bearer. Vestigial eyes regarded the awestruck researchers. Apparently seeing or smelling something they didn’t like, the two newcomers picked up the drill-bearer in their front flippers and bodily turned it around. Following it back into the soil, the three subterranean dwellers once again vanished underground.

The astonished researchers had observed a new species in the trees. They had encountered a new species that lived underground. Taxonomically, physiologically, none bore the slightest resemblance to the other. Then there was the matter of the natives who had attacked the camp. Heavyset and ponderous, they possessed a unique method of locomotion. Quadrisymmetrical and belligerent, their bodies were adorned with an armory of fangs, talons, and spikes. Tellenberg’s mental discomfort grew. He did not like it when the rules of science were toyed with. This continuously surprising world might well have an ace or two to show them, but so far the local planetary deck seemed to consist entirely of jokers.

He wondered if anyone else shared his growing unease. Without asking, there was no way of knowing. He considered confiding in one of his colleagues. Haviti, perhaps.

No. A general feeling of disquiet was not a scientific tenet. Before he could discuss it with someone else he needed to better codify his distress.

His attention and that of his companions was disrupted by the return of Boylan and the silent Araza. The captain had shouldered his rifle. A good sign, Tellenberg decided.

“Expeditions are rarely greeted with open hospitality,” Boylan muttered, “but this is first one I’ve been on where I was attacked before contact was even offered.” Araza had walked over to a storage shed and was unsealing the locks. “Some of you might want gloves,” Boylan continued. With one hand he gestured at a gap in the perimeter wiring where the attackers had broken through. “We going to have to put up a full-charged barrier. Salvador and I can do it, but it go a lot faster if all of you pitch in. I not ordering any of you to assist.” He mustered a lopsided grin. “But the sooner main barrier is up and activated, the better we all of us sleep.”

Boylan was lying, Tellenberg knew. As captain, commander, and the man in charge of military affairs for the undersized expedition, he very well could have ordered them to help with the work. Sagely, he had phrased the necessity as a request instead of a command. Having been roughly roused from their rest and frontally attacked, the researchers wanted to see the charged barrier erected as quickly as did their leader.

With all six of them contributing, one post after another was rapidly and efficiently put in place. Even so, securing the camp’s perimeter required them all to work through most of the night. Boylan’s prophecy proved correct, though. As soon as the em-placed defensive system was completed and successfully tested, every one of them promptly retired to their cubicles to sleep the sleep of the exhausted. This included Boylan and Araza. Utterly drained, the lot of them were compelled to rely on the automatics they had set up to warn them if another attack by the natives was imminent.

Fortunately, nothing came creeping out of the remainder of the night or the early morning to test the newly erected defensive barrier. A couple of small hopping things inadvertently impacted the crisscrossing beams and were promptly flash-fried. The system’s integrated AI was sufficiently sophisticated to analyze these encounters, determine that they did not represent a greater threat to the camp it was charged with protecting, and leave the alarms inert.

The desire for knowledge being a more powerful motivator even than caffeine and its synthetic derivatives, the following morning saw all four of the xenologists assembled in the camp’s living area. Less driven and perhaps more tired, Boylan and Araza did not join them. Around cups of reinvigorating liquid and self-heating breakfast packs, the expedition’s science team discussed the previous night’s onslaught and the afternoon’s prospects. The two were now unavoidably entwined.

“I want to get back into that river.” Devoid of the makeup she did not need anyway, Haviti was shoveling down food with energy and an appetite more suited to a burly heavy-lift operator. “The sand and mud shallows alone are swarming with the most incredible assortment of arthropoidal wrigglers and bizarre bivalves I’ve ever seen in one place. And that doesn’t even take into account the big stuff that keeps swimming, paddling, or jetting past.” She paused her rapid-fire speech and consumption long enough to meet each of their gazes in turn. “But we can’t work under conditions like last night.”

Sipping his breakfast through the spiraling siphon of a distinctive thranx drinking vessel, Valnadireb readily concurred. “The next attack, should there be one, could well occur in the middle of the day in less defensible surroundings.” He gestured in Haviti’s direction. “While one or two of us are working alone at a field site, for example. Under such conditions and given a sufficient disparity in numbers, even modern weaponry might not suffice to hold off an assault by truly determined antagonistic natives.”

“I don’t understand.” On the other side of the table, Tellenberg was shaking his head. “There was no attempt to communicate, nothing at all. I talked to Boylan. He confirms it. It was a straightforward, headlong charge by the spikers. Fortunately, the external sensors alerted him and Araza in time.” He sipped at his chosen brew. “You’d think that when confronted by something as utterly beyond their experience as this outpost, curious primitives would try to learn something about it before trying to destroy it.”