The Wind From a Burning Woman: Six Stories of Science Fiction (12 page)

Snakes, I said. The screen is warm. Is this part of the snake ship?

Sonok shrugged. I looked around the cabin to find other smooth surfaces. They were few. Most were crisscrossed with raised grills. Some were warm to the touch. There were any number of possibilitiesbut I doubted if I would hit on the right one very quickly. The best I could hope for was the survival of some other portion of my ship.

Sonok, is there another way out of this room?

Several. One is around the grey pillar, he said. Another hatch with six dogs.

What?

Six... He made a grabbing motion with one hand. Like the others.

Throw-bolts, I said.

I thought my Anglo was improving, he muttered sulkily.

It is. But its bound to be different from mine, so we both have to adapt. We opened the hatch and looked into the next chamber. The lights flickered feebly, and wrecked equipment gave off acrid smells. A haze of cloying smoke drifted out and immediately set ventilators to work. The bear held his nose and jumped over the seal for a quick walk through the room.

Is something dead in here, he said when he returned. Not like human, but not far. It is shot in head. He nodded for me to go with him, and I reluctantly followed. The body was pinned between two bolted seats. The head was a mess, and there was ample evidence that it used red blood. The body was covered by grey overalls and, though twisted into an awkward position, was obviously more canine than human. The bear was correct in one respect: it was closer to me than whiskered balls or rainbow snakes. The smoke was almost clear when I stepped back from the corpse.

Sonok, any possibility this could be another mascot?

The bear shook his head and walked away, nose wrinkled. I wondered if Id insulted him.

I see nothing like terminal here, he said. Looks like nothing work now, anyway. Go on?

We returned to the bridgelike chamber, and Sonok picked out another corridor. By the changing floor curvature, I guessed that all my previous estimates as to ship size were appreciably off. There was no way of telling either the shape or the size of this collage of vessels. What Id seen from the bubble had appeared endless, but that might have been optical distortion.

The corridor dead-ended again, and we didnt press our luck as to what lay beyond the blank bulkhead. As we turned back, I asked, What were the things you saw? You said there were ten of them, all different.

The bear held up his paw and counted. His fingers were otterlike and quite supple. Snakes, number one, he said. Cans with breasts, two; back wall of your cabin, three; blank bulkhead with circular marks, four; and you, five. Other things not so different, I think nowsnakes and six-dog hatches might go together, since snakes know how to use them. Other thingsyou and your cabin fixtures, so on, all together. But you add dead things in overalls, fuzzy balls, and who can say where it ends?

I hope it ends someplace. I can only face so many variations before I give up. Is there anything left of your ship?

Where I was after disruption, the bear said. On my stomach in bathroom.

Ah, that blessed word! Where? I asked. Is it working? Id considered impolitely messing the corridors if there was no alternative.

Works still, I think. Back through side corridor.

He showed me the way. A lot can be learned from a bathroomsocial attitudes, technological levels, even basic psychology, not to mention anatomy. This one was lovely and utilitarian, with fixtures for males and females of at least three sizes. I made do with the largest. The bear gave me privacy, which wasnt strictly necessarybathrooms on my ship being coedbut appreciated, nonetheless. Exposure to a Teddy bear takes getting used to.

When I was through, I joined Sonok in the hall and realized Id gotten myself turned around. Where are we?

Is changing, Sonok said. Where bulkhead was, is now hatch. Im not sure I cognize howits a different hatch.

And it was, in an alarming way. It was battle-armored, automatically controlled, and equipped with heavily shielded detection equipment. It was ugly and khaki-colored and had no business being inside a ship, unless the occupants distrusted each other. I was in anteroom, outside lavatory, Sonok said, with door closed. I hear loud sound and something like metal being cut, and I open door to see this.

Vague sounds of machines were still audible, grinding and screaming. We stayed away from the hatch. Sonok motioned for me to follow him. One more, he said. Almost forgot. He pointed into a cubbyhole, about a meter deep and two meters square. Look like fish tank, perhaps?

It was a large rectangular tank filled with murky fluid. It reached from my knees to the top of my head and fit the cubbyhole perfectly. Hasnt been cleaned, in any case, I said.

I touched the glass to feel how warm or cold it was. The tank lighted up, and I jumped back, knocking Sonok over. He rolled into a backward flip and came upright, wheezing.

The light in the tank flickered like a strobe, gradually speeding up until the glow was steady. For a few seconds it made me dizzy. The murk was gathering itself together. I bent over cautiously to get a close look. The murk wasnt evenly distributed. It was composed of animals like brine shrimp no more than a centimeter long, with two black eyespots at one end, a pinkish spine, and a feathery fringe rippling between head and tail. They were forming a dense mass at the center of the tank.

The bottom of the tank was crossed with ordered dots of luminescence, which changed colors across a narrow spectrum: red, blue, amber.

Its doing something, Sonok said. The mass was defining a shape. Shoulders and head appeared, then torso and arms, sculpted in ghost-colored brine shrimp. When the living sculpture was finished, I recognized myself from the waist up. I held out my arm, and the mass slowly followed suit.

I had an inspiration. In my pants pocket I had a marker for labeling tapas cube blanks. It used soft plastic wrapped in a metal jacket. I took it out and wrote three letters across the transparent front of the tank: WHO. Part of the mass dissolved and re-formed to mimic the letters, the rest filling in behind. WHO they spelled, then they added a question mark.

Sonok chirped, and I came closer to see better. They understand? he asked. I shook my head. I had no idea what I was playing with, what are you? I wrote.

The animals started to break up and return to the general murk. I shook my head in frustration. So near! The closest thing to communication yet.

Wait, Sonok said. Theyre group again.

TENZIONA, the shrimp coalesced, DYSFUNCTIO. GUARDATEO AB PEREGRIND PERAMBULA.

I dont understand. Sounds like Italiando you know any Italian?

The bear shook his head.

Dysfunctio, I read aloud. That seems plain enough. Abperegrino? Something about a hawk?

Peregrine, it is foreigner, Sonok said.

Guard against foreigners... perambula, as in strolling? Watch for the foreigners who walk? Well, we dont have the grammar, but it seems to tell us something we already know. Christ! I wish I could remember all the languages they filled me with ten years ago.

The marks on the tank darkened and flaked off. The shrimp began to form something different. They grouped into branches and arranged themselves nose-to-tail, upright, to form a trunk, which rooted itself to the floor of the tank.

Tree, Sonok said.

Again they dissolved, returning in a few seconds to the simulacrum of my body. The clothing seemed different, howevermore like a robe. Each shrimp changed its individual color now, making the shape startingly lifelike. As I watched, the image began to age. The outlines of the face sagged, wrinkles formed in the skin, and the limbs shrank perceptibly. My arms felt cold, and I crossed them over my breasts; but the corridor was reasonably warm.

* * * *

Of course the universe isnt really held in a little girls mind. Its one small thread in a vast skein, separated from every other universe by a limitation of constants and qualities, just as death is separated from life by the eternal nonreturn of the dead. Well, now we know the universes are less inviolable than death, for there are ways of crossing from thread to thread. So these other beings, from similar Earths, are not part of my undifferentiated infancy. Thats a weak fantasy for a rather unequipped young woman to indulge in. Still, the symbols of childhood lie all aroundnightmares and Teddy bears and dreams held in a tank; dreams of old age and death. And a tree, grey and ghostly, without leaves. Thats me. Full of winter, wood cracking into splinters. How do they know?

* * * *

A rustling came from the corridor ahead. We turned from the tank and saw the floor covered with rainbow snakes, motionless, all heads aimed at us. Sonok began to tremble.

Stop it, I said. They havent done anything to us.

You are bigger, he said. Not meal-sized.

Theyd have a rough time putting you away, too. Lets just sit it out calmly and see what this is all about. I kept my eyes on the snakes and away from the tank. I didnt want to see the shape age any more. For all the sanity of this place, it might have kept on going, through death and decay down to bones. Why did it choose me; why not Sonok?

I cannot wait, Sonok said. I have not the patience of a snake. He stepped forward. The snakes watched without a sound as the bear approached, one step every few seconds. I want to know one solid thing, he called back. Even if it is whether they eat small furry mascots.

The snakes suddenly bundled backward and started to crawl over each other. Small sucking noises smacked between their bodies. As they crossed, the red ovals met and held firm. They assembled and reared into a single mass, cobralike, but flat as a planarian worm. A fringe of snakes weaved across the belly like a caterpillars idea of Medusa.

Brave Sonok was undone. He swung around and ran past me. I was too shocked to do anything but face the snakes down, neck hairs crawling. I wanted to speak but couldnt. Then, behind me, I heard: Sinieux!

As I turned, I saw two things, one in the corner of each eye: the snakes fell into a pile, and a man dressed in red and black vanished into a side corridor. The snakes regrouped into a hydra with six tentacles and grasped the hatchs throw-bolts, springing it open and slithering through. The hatch closed, and I was alone.

There was nothing for it but to scream a moment, then cry. I lay back against the wall, getting the fit out of me as loudly and quickly as possible. When I was able to stop, I wiped my eyes with my palms and kept them covered, feeling ashamed. When I looked out again, Sonok was standing next to me.

Weve an Indian on board, he said. Big, with black hair in three ribbonshe motioned from crown to neck between his earsand a snappy dresser.

Where is he? I asked hoarsely.

Back in place like bridge, I think. He controls snakes?

I hesitated, then nodded.

Go look?

I got up and followed the bear. Sitting on a bench pulled from the wall, the man in red and black watched us as we entered the chamber. He was bigat least two meters tall and hefty, dressed in a black silk shirt with red cuffs. His cape was black with a red eagle embroidered across the shoulders. He certainly looked Indianruddy skin, aristocratic nose, full lips held tight as if against pain.

Quis la? he queried.

I dont speak that, I said. Do you know English?

The Indian didnt break his stolid expression. He nodded and turned on the bench to put his hand against a grill. I was taught in the British school at Nova London, he said, his accent distinctly Oxfordian. I was educated in Indonesia, and so I speak Dutch, High and Middle German, and some Asian tongues, specifically Nippon and Tagalog. But at English I am fluent.

Thank God, I said. Do you know this room?

Yes, he replied. I designed it. Its for the Sinieux.

Do you know whats happened to us?

We have fallen into hell, he said. My Jesuit professors warned me of it.

Not far wrong, I said. Do you know why?

I do not question my punishments.

Were not being punishedat least, not by God or devils.

He shrugged. It was a moot point.

Im from Earth, too, I said. From Terre.

I know the words for Earth, the Indian said sharply.

But I dont think its the same Earth. What year are you from? Since hed mentioned Jesuits, he almost had to use the standard Christian Era dating.

Year of Our Lord 2345, he said.

Sonok crossed himself elegantly. For me 2290, he added. The Indian examined the bear dubiously.

I was sixty years after the bear, five after the Indian. The limits of the grab bag were less hazy now. What country?

Alliance of Tribal Columbia, he answered, District Quebec, East Shore.

Im from the Moon, I said. But my parents were born on Earth, in the United States of America.

The Indian shook his head slowly; he wasnt familiar with it.

Was there But I held back the question. Where to begin? Where did the world-lines part? I think wed better consider finding out how well this ship is put together. Well get into our comparative histories later. Obviously you have star drive.

The Indian didnt agree or disagree. My parents had ancestors from the West Shore, Vancouver, he said. They were Kwakiuti and Kodikin. The animal, does it have a Russian accent?

Some, I said. Its better than it was a few hours ago.

I have blood debts against Russians.

Okay, I said, but I doubt if you have anything against this one, considering the distances involved. Weve got to learn if this ship can take us someplace.

I have asked, he said.

Where? Sonok asked. A terminal?

The ship says it is surrounded by foreign parts and can barely understand them. But it can get along.

You really dont know what happened, do you?

I went to look for worlds for my people and took the Sinieux with me. When I reached a certain coordinate in the sky, far along the arrow line established by my extrasolar pierce, this happened. He lifted his hand. Now there is one creature, a devil, that tried to attack me. It is dead. There are others, huge black men who wear golden armor and carry gold guns like cannon, and they have gone away behind armored hatches. There are walls like rubber that open onto more demons. And now youand it. He pointed at the bear.