Thousandstar (#4 of the Cluster series) (36 page)

Heem verified it by his calculations. "Yes." They set the indicator to point to the moon. Nothing happened. Heem rolled on up—and the ramp turned to rollers, dumping him helplessly around the tower and down to the ground.

'So much for that,' Jessica said. 'The Ancients weren't much for looking at the moon. Not much romance in their hearts.'

"What has a moon got to do with romance in a blood-pumping organ?"

'Nothing.'

Windflower had arrived. Heem rolled out of the way, giving her a turn. Swoon made a spray of muted fury, but kept her distance. "She's the expert on the Ancients, isn't she?" he jetted rhetorically.

The Erb flashed at him inquiringly; Heem felt the reflected starlight on his skin, and Jessica formulated a momentarily blinding glint of light. These visual constructs were intriguing. Heem made a little spray of acknowledgment, but did not move. He and Sickh guarded the base of the ramp.

Windflower tried the ramp, and got nowhere. She investigated the globe. She oriented the indicator on the Star, and traveled up the spiral. 'Just like that!' Jessica marveled. 'She certainly
does
understand the Ancients!'

But in a moment Windflower came down again. She was not rolling, but twining along on her own power. Why had she changed her vegetable mind?

The lady Erb came to stand beside them. After a moment Sickh went up the ramp again. Then she returned, under her own power, as the Erb had.

'Must be our turn,' Jessica said. 'I'd really like to know what's going on!'

Heem rolled up the ramp. He reached the second globe and checked it. The indicator was oriented, but not on the moon, or anything else they could fathom. Heem moved beyond the dial—and the ramp was firm.

'Windflower set it correctly!' Jessica exclaimed.

"Then why should she back down, instead of going on to the top?"

'Because she wasn't the first to arrive. We were asking her advice, so she gave it. She showed us where to set the second dial. Now she has repaid us for the chance we are giving her.'

"Where
did
she set it? It seems random to me."

'It must be something she could guess from her knowledge of the Ancients. Something obvious. If the first dial points at the sun, the second—'

"The Hole!" Heem sprayed.

'The Hole!' she repeated. 'Of course!' She considered momentarily. 'We can't go on up; she was only showing us. We have to give her first turn. It's only fair.'

Heem did not argue with her. He rolled down the ramp.

Now Windflower went up. She made it almost to the top of the tower—then slid down rapidly, barely staying on top of her roots. 'She must have tripped a third relay,' Jessica said. 'One that's more difficult than the others.'

"Now we know how to approach it. The three of us will keep taking turns, until one of us scores. That gives us one chance in three to win—with the assurance that a friend will win if we do not. This seems worthwhile."

'Heem, I love you.'

The simple statement almost dissolved him. It was serious; there was no banter in her emotion, no teasing. They were now at the crisis point, within range of success or ultimate failure, either of which meant separation.

Heem made no overt response, because he was unwilling to reconcile himself either to victory or defeat when both meant the end. He merely accepted her statement. That was enough.

Windflower set the bottom dial and moved clear. Sickh and Heem checked it, noting the setting: the one the Erb had tried at the top. The wrong one. This was necessary information—but they could not tell what the dial pointed to. It seemed random, and it assuredly was not.

Sickh reset the dial for the Star and mounted the ramp. She paused at the second dial, then went on, approaching the top. And slid rapidly down. She set the dial, allowing them to see her wrong guess.

"Another moon," Heem decided, checking against his ephemeris. He was still bothered by his inability to fathom the rationale of Windflower's guess, which had surely been an educated one. A wrong guess did not necessarily indicate failure; it might merely be the elimination of a viable but unapproved alternate.

It was Heem's turn again. 'There's got to be some rational setting,' Jessica said. 'Some pattern I can grasp. Windflower understands the Ancients as well as anyone can, but hasn't guessed this one. That means it is either random, which I don't believe, or relates to something we have not yet understood.'

"We need to grasp the purpose of this installation," Heem sprayed. "Then we might know the correct direction."

'Yes. But what
is
that purpose?' They were at the third globe now, close to the top of the tower, almost directly above the base of the ramp. They had spiraled twice around the cylindrical structure, and were a fair height above the ground. So near to victory, yet so distant!

Heem thought of rolling rapidly, gaming momentum, so as to achieve the top of the tower regardless of the friction of the surface, but was sure that would not work. The ascent was too steep and curved, and the Ancients surely had designed their site to prevent so simplistic a solution to the challenge. The low retaining wall outside the ramp might dissolve, sending him hurtling fatally to the ground. Well, no, the Ancients weren't generally vicious in that manner. But they had their ways to enforce their alien directives.

"Can't take time; the others must have their turns, before more contestants arrive." Indeed, from this elevation Heem perceived the faint flavors of one, perhaps two more Squams, and another Erb. Two creatures could not protect the ramp for long; the savage fighting would break out again. Because the only way any contestant could be quite sure of his chance was to eliminate all competition.

'Maybe straight down,' Jessica suggested. 'Star—Hole— Planet.'

Heem set the pointer accordingly. He essayed the ramp beyond—and was sent sliding around and around to the bottom. 'I'd enjoy the ride, if it weren't so serious,' Jessica exclaimed.

He rolled back to the lowest dial and set it to point down: his failed guess.

Windflower ascended again. 'Come on, we have to figure this out while we're waiting, not while we're actually on the ramp,' Jessica said. 'What was this site used for? It can't have been a mere camp, or a city, or even a spaceport; the tower is set in the center of an island—'

"There might not have been water here originally," Heem pointed out. "That must have filled in the depression later, as drainage from the surrounding hills."

'The depression—yes, of course! It's all part of the site, as we thought before. With the barracks further out. This could have been a major research station, with a monstrous reflecting telescope—'

"Telescope?"

'A visual device, like a huge—a huge eye. It gathers light or other radiation in a big sort of cup and focuses it at a central point—' She paused as the meaning burst upon them both. 'Like the apex of this tower. Heem, this is an observatory!'

Heem grasped her picture. "Our experts have used such devices to gather the radiation-taste of the wider universe. But our collectors are mobile, so as to orient on distant phenomena despite the eccentricities of local planetary motions. This is fixed."

'Well, some big reflectors are fixed—but yes, I see your point. This is more suited to maybe sending a signal out, though why so big a disk—'

The two new Squams were approaching. Heem felt a roll of tension: one of them was his nemesis Slitherfear! He wanted to fight that monster, yet he was also afraid, uncertain his needles were accurate enough. The Squam knew of Heem's prowess, and might be on guard against it.

Windflower slid down. Quickly she reset the dial, and quickly Sickh and Heem checked it. They all knew time was shortening. She had oriented this time on the planet of Impasse. That had been wrong.

Heem and Windflower stood at the base, orienting outward, while Sickh slithered quickly up. 'Not the other habitable planet of this system,' Jessica said. 'What would an observatory orient on?'

"Or a beacon," Heem amended.

'A beacon! That's it! Like a lighthouse, shining a huge beam to warn ships clear, so they won't founder. To warn spaceships away from the Hole! The rotation of the planet would make that huge bright beam flash around the sky, a quite obvious signal! Maybe it wasn't light, but some special type of radiation—or, there are infinite possibilities. The pattern would spell danger, and it might have operated for centuries, millennia—'

Heem considered. It did make a certain alien sense. "Yet this does not tell us where the third dial should point."

The two Squams, becoming cognizant of the situation, slithered in toward Heem. But Windflower formed her drill, catching one Squam on the armored body. One scale was ripped out; the creature retreated, leaking ichor.

Slitherfear encountered Heem. The Squam seemed less formidable without his machine-weapon, and Heem felt a spray of confidence. 'No—don't let him know what you can do,' Jessica cried. 'He may think your prior victory over a Squam was a fluke, and not be properly prepared. Wait till you can wipe him out with one shot, when he's not on guard.'

Heem heeded her advice. Surprise was important, and betrayal of his power—assuming he really had it—could cause him trouble at this stage. He must seem to be a typical HydrO, so the Squam would hold him in contempt. For the moment. Objectively, Slitherfear knew Heem was dangerous, but subjectively he might not.

He needled ineffectively at the Squam's armored torso. But the needle struck precisely where he had aimed it. Thanks to Jessica's image, he was ready; he could meet Slitherfear on an even or more than even basis. When it was time.

Windflower oriented on Slitherfear now, and the Squam retreated. But Swoon of Sweetswamp rolled swiftly in from the side and needled the Erb through the stem. It was a devastatingly accurate shot, at close range. Windflower whipped back, hurt.

Then Sickh slid down the ramp. She slithered with such force it was a virtual leap, her pincers reaching for the HydrO. Swoon rolled hastily away.

Heem moved to Windflower, wanting to help but unable. She had been punctured, and there was the flavor of her sap on her stem. It did not seem to be a fatal wound, but she was already wilting, unable to fight. Probably she had not fully recovered from the light-deprivation of the tunnels, so was more vulnerable now to such injury. She would have to withdraw from the competition, retreating to the lake, where she might endure in sun and water until the Competition Authority came to help. "Damn Swoon!" Heem sprayed angrily, borrowing from Jessica's vernacular. The concept "damn" as he understood it meant consignment to an unpleasant region.

Windflower half fell across him. Heem remained still, not knowing what to do. It was his turn to mount the ramp, but he could not simply dump his friend and leave her in this hostile group. Yet neither could he help her; he lacked the resources.

One of Windflower's leaves moved along his skin. It withdrew and moved again, slowly. Then a third time, the same line. 'She's telling us something,' Jessica exclaimed. 'Those are not random lines. I think I understand! This is more than a lighthouse—it is a marker, a surveyed-in point, for general navigation. So ships traveling the Galaxy can use it as a reference, knowing exactly where they are. There must be other survey markers, and we must point to one of them, to show that we know what we're doing, before this one lets us in. Windflower must know where such a site is, because she's studied the Ancients. She may have tried Planet Impasse just in case, but now she
knows
it's another site somewhere else, and she's showing us where.'

"This is farfetched, even for your female-alien light-leaping mind! So many unverified assumptions—"

A fourth time the Erb made the line on Heem's surface. Then she collapsed.

'Got any better notion?' Jessica demanded, her mental voice chill.

"No, but still—"

'We've got to use it, Heem. She gave it to us!'

That he could grasp, almost as if he had her hands. The Erb's guess might be wrong, but it was her final gift, and had to be honored. Heem rolled carefully from under Windflower's body, letting her slide gently to the ground, and rolled to the globe and set it. Sickh blocked Slitherfear. Another Erb was coming near; that would mean trouble for Sickh. He had to hurry, to win or return to help his friend. 'Right,' Jessica agreed.

He paused, one spiral up, to set the second dial and taste the situation below. Slitherfear was trying to get at the globe, but Sickh balked him. Then, as Heem moved up the second spiral, the new Erb lunged his drill at Sickh, chipping off a scale—and Slitherfear caught one of her flailing limbs in his pincers and cut off her pincer. Even Heem was able to feel the vibration of her agony as more of her life-fluid welled out. Sickh, too, had not fully recovered from the ordeal of the tunnels, and could not defend herself adequately.

'That bastard!' Jessica exclaimed, furious. Her image was of a member of her species generated without proper cultural sanction; this seemed to be a gross insult. 'He attacked his own kind!'

"This is fair, in this competition," Heem reminded her. But he was angry too. His worst enemy had unfairly wounded one of his friends.

Slitherfear mounted the ramp. 'We could dump him,' Jessica said. 'But we'd dump ourselves too.'

They came to the third dial. Heem set it in the direction Windflower had indicated. He knew of no significant system or stellar object in that region of space, but if the Erb did—

The upper ramp held. They had found the final key!

But Slitherfear was gaining on them. He could really move on this firm surface, pressing against the small retaining wall for additional leverage. Heem, jetting hard to roll up the steep incline, was slow.

He was tempted to wait and fight the creature here, but yielded to Jessica's imperative and rolled on up. He tasted the stranger-Erb pursuing the Squam, and Swoon was following the Erb. How he wished it could have been Sickh and Windflower on the ramp instead of these enemies! But of course it made no real difference; only the first could be the winner.