We must have blacked out in shock following our
entrance into the atmosphere, for when I was again conscious of my
surroundings, we lay in a ship which no longer vibrated with life—though it swayed under my half-aware movements as if we were caught
in a giant net and there was no stable earth under us. I screwed
the helmet of the suit back into place and saw that Eet had been
prudent enough to return to the box. Then I crawled, inch by inch,
to the hatch, the LB slipping and shuddering under me in the most
alarming way.
The inner catches on that were simple, devised for survivors who
might have been injured and able to use only one hand. But when I
tried to push it open there was resistance, and curls of white
smoke trickled in. I had to fight the stubborn metal until I was
able to wedge open a space wide enough to scramble through without
tearing my precious suit.
There I was met by more puffs of thick smoke. I looked around
for a stable foothold. The LB seemed to be sliding sideways and I
had little time for choice. When it gave a convulsive tremble I
jumped into the smoke, and crashed through that veil into a mass
of splintered and broken foliage, some of it afire.
A branch as thick as my wrist, with a broken end like a spear
point, nearly impaled me. I caught it with both hands and hung for
a moment, thrashing wildly with my feet for some hold. But it bent
under my weight and I slid inexorably down it in spite of my
struggles. I crashed on, down through more branches, bringing up at
last on a wider one where my harness caught on a stub of mossed
wood and I found a precarious landing. There was a heavy tearing a
little ways away. I thought that perhaps the LB had gone down. I
clung to the stub which had hooked me and drew a deep breath as I
looked around.
The masses of leaves screening me in were a sickly
yellowish-green, which here and there shaded to a brighter yellow,
or a dull purplish-red. The branch under me was rough-barked, wide
enough for two men to walk, and splotched with purple moss, in
which grew spikes of scarlet crowned with cups which might be
flowers, but which opened and shut as I watched with the rhythm of
breathing or of a beating heart.
There was a great ragged hole overhead which marked more than my
own descent, probably the entrance of the LB. But elsewhere the
canopy of growth was thick and unbroken.
I drew the box containing Eet up beside me and saw that he was
sitting on his haunches, looking about him with reptilian twists of
his long neck, so that sometimes he appeared to turn his head
completely around on his shoulders. There was a crashing which I
did not really hear, but rather felt as a vibration through the
shaking tree, and then a final thud which set my perch rocking
under me. I judged that the LB had at last met the ground. The fact
that so heavy a craft had taken so long to fall suggested two
things—that this net of vegetation grew well above the ground,
and that it was tough enough to catch the entering ship, cushion it
for a space, delay its final landing.
The smoke was thickening, coming from above. If there was a fire
blazing there, then a withdrawal was certainly in order. To outrun
a forest blaze in my unwieldy suit was nigh impossible.
I got to my feet and edged along the limb, heading, I hoped, for
the parent trunk. At least it grew wider and thicker ahead of me.
There were other aerial growths besides the moss with the breathing
cups. One barred my way very soon. The leaves were yellow, broad
and fleshy, curving up so that those in the center formed a cup.
And in that, water, or some colorless fluid, gathered. Above this
leaf-enclosed pondlet was the first animate life I had seen.
A flying thing perhaps as large as my hand unfolded gauzy wings
to flutter away. It had been so much the color of the leaves that
it was invisible until it moved. Another creature raised a dripping
snout and bared teeth from where it crouched on the other side of
the cup. Like the flying thing, it was camouflaged, for its
waffled, warty covering was like the rough bark of the tree limbs,
and of the same dark color. But the fangs it showed suggested that
it was carnivorous, and it was about the size of Valcyr, with long
legs which were clawed, clearly meant to grip and hold, perhaps not
only the aerial trails it followed but also some prey.
Nor did it have any fear of me, but stood its ground, fangs
bared, its ugly head down, its shoulders hunched, as if it was
about to spring.
To advance I must cross the outer leaves of the pool plant. And
while my challenger was small, I did not underrate it for that
reason. There had been no laser with the suit—after ship custom
all arms were locker-stored during the flight. Most Free Traders
carried only the non-lethal stunners anyway. But I did not even
have one of those.
“Let it be.” Eet’s command rang in my head.
“It will go—”
And go it did, with a suddenness which left me believing it had
vanished like some illusion wrought by a Hymandian sand wizard. I
saw a flash across the bark beyond the pool plant, and that was all
that marked its going.
Cautiously I stepped onto the broad leaves. Their surfaces broke
under my weight, and yellow stuff oozed up and about my boot soles,
the leaves themselves turning dark, seeming to rot away at once,
flaking in great shreds from the holes. More of the gauzy things
took to the air, to splash back, as my passing put an end to their
world.
I slipped and slid, careful of every slime-coated step, until I
reached the other side. My face was wet with sweat inside the
helmet, and I was breathing slowly and with an effort. I had come
to the end of my air supply, and whether it would mean death or no,
I must open my helmet.
Squatting down on the limb, I clicked open the latches and
breathed, half expecting to have the lungs seared out of me by that
experiment. But, though the air was laden with smells, and many of
those noxious as far as I was concerned, I thought the air less bad
than that I had encountered in the LB.
I could hear now, and there were sounds in plenty. The buzzing
of insects, sharp calls, and now and then a distant heavy thud, as
if someone beat a huge drum and listened to its echoes dying
gradually away. There was a rustling and crackling, too. I could
smell a stench which was certainly born of burning, though I did
not see any movement of tree-dwelling things which would suggest
that the inhabitants of these leafed heights were fleeing a
fire.
Behind me the pool plant shriveled, its bruised leaves falling
away in festering shreds. Now the inner petals or leaves which had
cupped the water unclasped and a flood poured out, to cascade and
then drip from the big limb into the mass of vegetation below,
carrying with it wriggling, struggling things which had lived in
it. The plant continued to die and rot until only a black blot
remained on the limb, a most nauseating odor rising from it, making
me move on.
The limb road grew wider and thicker. Now it was a running place
for vines, which crossed it and looped around it, forming traps for
the feet of the unwary. I continued to sweat as the muggy heat held
me. And the suit became more and more of a burden. Too, I was
hungry, and I remembered the drinker at the pool, wondering if I
could turn hunter with any success.
“Out—!” Eet was economical with words now, but his
meaning was plain. I put down his traveling box and opened it. He
flashed out of its confines and stood poised on the limb, his head
flicking from side to side.
“We must have food—” I remembered what he had said
about being able to tell what was edible and what was not. The fact
that on an alien planet practically all food might mean death to
off-worlders was to the fore of my mind. We might have made a safe
landing here only to starve in the midst of what was luxurious
plenty for the natives.
“There—” He used his nose as a pointer, elongating
his neck to emphasize his statement. What he had selected was an
outgrowth on one of those serpentine vines. It rose like a stem,
from which quivered some narrow pods, more flat than round. They
shook and shivered as if they possessed some odd life of their own.
And I could not see why Eet thought them possible food. They
appeared less likely than the cluster of ovoid berries, bursting
with ripe pulp and juice, which hung from another stem not too far
away.
I watched my companion harvest the pods with his forepaws. He
stripped off their outer shells to uncover some small, far too
small, purple seeds, which he ate, not with any appearance of
relishing that diet, but as one would do a duty.
He did not fall into convulsions, or drop in a fatal coma, but
methodically finished all the buttons he could strip out of their
pods. Then he turned to me.
“These can be safely eaten, and without food you cannot go
on.”
I was still dubious. What might be good for my admittedly
half-alien companion might not nourish me. But it was the only
chance I had. And there was another cluster of the trembling pods
not too far beyond my hand.
Slowly I drew the space stone from my gloved finger, stowed it
away in a pocket on my harness, and then unsealed the gloves,
allowing them to dangle from my wrists as I reached for the
harvest.
Once more I saw the healing scars of the blisters. My flesh was
pink and new-looking in unseemly splotches against the general
brown of my skin. Though I was not as space-tanned as a crewman
might be, my roving life had darkened my skin more than was normal
for a planet dweller. But I was now spotted in what I was sure must
be a disfiguring manner, though I could not see my face to judge.
Until the blotches faded, if they ever did, I would be marked as
undesirable to any off-worlder. Perhaps it was just as well we had
not made landing at a port; one look at me and I would have been
sent into indefinite quarantine.
Carefully I husked the pellets. They were larger than grains of
hoswheat, hard and smooth to the touch. I raised them to my nose,
but if they had any odor, it was slight enough to be overlaid by
the general blast of smells all about us. Gingerly I mouthed
several of them and chewed.
They seemed to have no discernible taste, but became a floury
meal between my teeth. I found them dry, hard to swallow, but
swallow I did. Then, since I had taken the first step and might as
well go all the way, I harvested all within reach, chewing and
swallowing, giving Eet another two clusters when he signified they
would be acceptable.
I allowed us some small sips from the canister of liquid out of
the ship, which I had made fast to my harness. That cleared the
dry-as-dust feeling from my mouth tissues.
Eet had been moving impatiently back and forth along the branch
as I ate, progressing in darting runs, pausing to peer and listen,
then returning. Although it had been but a short time since his
birth, he had all the assurance of an adult, as if he had achieved
that status.
“We are well above ground.” He came back to settle
down near me. “It would be well to get to a lower
level.”
Perhaps as I had depended upon his instincts to find us food, so
I should harken to him now. But the suit was clumsy to climb in,
and I feared a false step where the vines were so entwined.
I crawled on hands and knees, testing each small space in
advance. Thus I came to the point from which those vines spread,
the giant trunk of the tree. And that bole was giant indeed. I
believe that had it been hollow, it would have furnished room for
an average dwelling on Angkor, while its height was beyond my
reckoning. I wondered just how far it was to the surface of this
vegetation-choked world—if the whole planet was covered by such
trees.
Had it not been for the vines, I would have been marooned aloft,
but their twists, slippery and unpromising as they looked, did
afford a kind of looped stairway. I had two cords with hooked ends
coiled in my harness—intended to anchor one during space repairs,
though I had not discovered them in time to keep me on the Vestris.
These I put to use now, hooking them to vines, lowering myself to
the extent of the cord, loosing by tears to hook again. It was an
exhausting form of progress, and I grew faint with the struggle.
The muggy heat made it worse.
Finally I came to the jut of another wide branch, even larger
than the one I had left. I dragged myself out on that, thankful to
have reached such a small link with safety. The thick foliage made
this a gloomy place, as if I were in a cave. And I thought that if
I ever did reach the surface of the forest floor, it would be to
discover that day was night under the sky-hiding canopy. Perhaps it
was the tear made by the LB which allowed even this much light to
filter through.
Those patches of moss with the breathing cups were not to be
seen on this level. Instead there was a rough, spiky excrescence
from which hung long drooping, thread-thin stems or tentacles.
These exuded drops of sap or a similar substance. And the drops
glowed faintly. They were, I believed, lures, attracting prey
either by that phosphorescence, or by their scent. For I saw
insects stuck to them, sometimes thrashing so hard to be free that
the thread-stems whipped back and forth.
Eet halted beside me, but I could sense his impatience at the
slowness of my descent. Unburdened by a suit, he could have already
reached the ground. Now he kept urging me to go on. But if he had
some special fear of this arboreal world, he did not share it with
me. His attitude had grown more and more like that of an adult
dealing with a child who must be cared for, and whose presence
hinders and makes more difficult some demanding task.
Groaning, I began the descent again. Eet flashed by me and was
gone with an ease I envied bitterly as I took up my crawl, hook,
hold, free, hook, crawl. As the gloom increased I began to worry
more about my handholds, about being able to see anchors for the
hooks.
It was as if I had started at midday and were now well into
evening. The only aid was that more and more of the vegetation
appeared to have phosphorescent qualities and that the spike
growths with lures became larger and larger, giving a wan light.
This glow grew brighter as darkness advanced. Perhaps the dusk
really was due to the passage of time, and planet night was nearly
upon me.
The thought of that led me to greater efforts. I had no wish to
be trapped, in the dark, climbing down this endless vine staircase.
So I passed without halting two other limbs which offered tempting
resting places and kept doggedly on.
Since that creature which had drunk from the pool plant had
vanished I had seen no life except insects. But there were those in
plenty and they varied from crawlers on vine and bark to a myriad
of flying things. Some of the largest of those were equipped with
spectral light patches too. Their antennae, their wings, and other
parts of their bodies glowed with color instead of the ghostly
grayish illumination of the plants. I saw sparks of red, of blue,
of a clear and brilliant green—almost as if small gems had taken
wing and whirled about me.
I was sure it was night when I slipped over the last great loops
of vine which arched out and away from the tree, and which carried
me, as I clung to their now coarse-textured surfaces, down to the
floor of the forest. I landed feet first on a soft sponge of decay,
into which I sank almost knee-deep. And it was as dark as a
moonless and starless night.
“Here!” Eet signaled. I was floundering, trying to
get better footing in the muck. Now I faced around to the point
from which that hail had come.
The roots of the vines stretched out about the monster bole of
the tree, so that between them and the trunk was a space of utter
dark, where none of the light plants grew. It seemed to me that my
companion had taken refuge in there. Painfully I pulled loose from
the sucking grip of the mold, using the vine stems as a lever, and
then I edged between two of them into that hollow.
Save that we lacked light, and weapons, we had won to a
half-safe refuge. I could not guess as to the types of creatures
roaming the floor of the forest. But it is always better to assume
the worst than to try for a safety which does not exist. And on
most worlds the lesser life is tree borne, the greater to be found
on the ground.
I half sat, half collapsed in that hollow, the spread of a tree
root giving support to my back. I faced outward so that I could see
anything moving beyond that screen of vine roots. And the longer I
sat there, the more I was able to pick out, even in the dark.
In my harness was the beamer, yet I hesitated to flash it unless
the need was great. For such a light might well attract attention
we would desire most to avoid. I could sight some of the sparks of
light marking flying creatures. And now there were others which did
not wing through the air, but crawled the ground.
There were sounds in abundance. A dull intermittent piping began
once I was settled. And later a snuffling drew near and then faded
away again. I craved sleep, but fought it, my imagination only too
ready to paint what might happen if I closed my eyes to a danger
creeping or padding toward our flimsy refuge.
The beamer was in my hand, my finger on its button. Perhaps a
sudden flash of light would dazzle a bold hunter and give us a
chance of escape, were we cornered.
Eet climbed to what appeared to be his favorite resting place,
my shoulders. His weight was more than I had remembered; he must be
growing, and faster than I had known any animal cub or kitten to do
so. I felt the rasp of his wire-harsh hair against my skin.
Certainly Eet was no pet to be smoothed.
“Where do we go now?” I asked, not because I thought
he could give me a good answer, but just for the comfort of
communication with another who was not as alien as this place in
which I crouched.
“At night—no place. This is as good as any to hide
in.” Again I read impatience in his reply.
“And with the morning?”
“In any direction. One is as good as another. This is, I
think, a large forest.”
“The LB crashed not too far away. Some of its survival
tools—the weapons—if they still work—”
“Commendable. You are beginning to think again. Yes, the
ship should be our first goal. But not our final one. I do not
think any help will come seeking us here.”
I found it harder and harder to fight sleep, and felt the tickle
of Eet’s fur as he settled himself more heavily across my
shoulders and chest.
“Sleep if you wish,” his thought snapped at me.
“Treat your body ill and it will not obey you. We shall need
obedient bodies and clear minds to face tomorrow—”
“And if some night prowler decides to scoop us out of this
hole? I do not think it is any safer than a tark shell.”
“That we shall face if it happens. I believe my warning
senses are more acute than yours. There are some advantages, as I
have said, to this particular body I now wear.”
“Body you now wear—Tell me, Eet, what kind of a body is
really yours?”
I had no answer, unless the solid wall which I sensed snapping
down between our minds could be considered an answer. It left me
with the feeling of one who has inadvertently insulted a companion.
Apparently the last thing Eet wanted to disclose was the life he
might or might not have had before Valcyr swallowed the stone on
the swamp world.
But his arguments made sense; I could not go without sleep
forever. And if he had those warnings which animals possess and
which have long been blunted in my species, then he would be
alerted long before I could hear or sense trouble on the way.
So I surrendered to sleep, leaning back against the tree root
with the night of the strange world dark and heavy about me. And I
did not dream—or if I did, I did not remember. But I was startled
out of that slumber by Eet.
“—to the right—” A half-thought as sharp as a spear
point striking into my brain roused me. I blinked, trying, to come
fully awake.
Then I could see it, a glimmering. I thought that the dusk in
which I had fallen asleep was not nearly as thick now.
It stood, not on four feet, but as a biped on two, though
hunched forward, either as if that stance were not entirely
natural, or as if it were listening and peering suspiciously.
Perhaps it could scent our alien odor. Yet the head was not turned
in our direction.
Like the colored insects and the plants, it had a
phosphorescence of its own. And the effect was startling, for the
grayish areas of light did not cover it as a whole but made a
pattern along its body. There was a large round one on the top of
the skull, and then below that, where the eyebrows of a human might
be located, two oval ones. The rest of the face was dark, but
ridges of light ran along the outsides of the upper and lower
limbs, and three large circles such as that which crowned the head
ran in a line down the center of the body. For the rest I could see
that the four limbs were much thicker than those lines of light,
and that the body was roughly ovoid, the wider portion forming the
shoulders.
It moved a little away from the vines where it had stood and now
I perceived that it carried a club weapon. This it swung up and
down in one quick blow, and I heard an ugly hollow sound, which
marked the striking of a victim. The attacker reached down a long
arm and gathered up a limp body. With its kill in one hand and the
club in the other it turned and was gone, bursting through the
vines at a speed which almost matched that of the drinker from the
pond plant.
It was certainly more than an animal, I decided. But how far up
the ladder from primitive beginnings I could not guess. And it had
been as big as a tall man, or even larger.
“We have company,” I observed, and felt Eet move
restlessly.
“It would be wisest to seek the LB,” he returned.
“If that is not too badly damaged—The day is coming
now.”
As I got to my knees to crawl out of our temporary shelter I
wondered in which direction we should go. I certainly could not
tell. And if Eet did no better we could pass within feet of the
wrecked ship and perhaps never sight it. I had heard of men who
wandered lost in circles in unfamiliar territory when they had no
guides or compasses.
We must have blacked out in shock following our
entrance into the atmosphere, for when I was again conscious of my
surroundings, we lay in a ship which no longer vibrated with life—though it swayed under my half-aware movements as if we were caught
in a giant net and there was no stable earth under us. I screwed
the helmet of the suit back into place and saw that Eet had been
prudent enough to return to the box. Then I crawled, inch by inch,
to the hatch, the LB slipping and shuddering under me in the most
alarming way.
The inner catches on that were simple, devised for survivors who
might have been injured and able to use only one hand. But when I
tried to push it open there was resistance, and curls of white
smoke trickled in. I had to fight the stubborn metal until I was
able to wedge open a space wide enough to scramble through without
tearing my precious suit.
There I was met by more puffs of thick smoke. I looked around
for a stable foothold. The LB seemed to be sliding sideways and I
had little time for choice. When it gave a convulsive tremble I
jumped into the smoke, and crashed through that veil into a mass
of splintered and broken foliage, some of it afire.
A branch as thick as my wrist, with a broken end like a spear
point, nearly impaled me. I caught it with both hands and hung for
a moment, thrashing wildly with my feet for some hold. But it bent
under my weight and I slid inexorably down it in spite of my
struggles. I crashed on, down through more branches, bringing up at
last on a wider one where my harness caught on a stub of mossed
wood and I found a precarious landing. There was a heavy tearing a
little ways away. I thought that perhaps the LB had gone down. I
clung to the stub which had hooked me and drew a deep breath as I
looked around.
The masses of leaves screening me in were a sickly
yellowish-green, which here and there shaded to a brighter yellow,
or a dull purplish-red. The branch under me was rough-barked, wide
enough for two men to walk, and splotched with purple moss, in
which grew spikes of scarlet crowned with cups which might be
flowers, but which opened and shut as I watched with the rhythm of
breathing or of a beating heart.
There was a great ragged hole overhead which marked more than my
own descent, probably the entrance of the LB. But elsewhere the
canopy of growth was thick and unbroken.
I drew the box containing Eet up beside me and saw that he was
sitting on his haunches, looking about him with reptilian twists of
his long neck, so that sometimes he appeared to turn his head
completely around on his shoulders. There was a crashing which I
did not really hear, but rather felt as a vibration through the
shaking tree, and then a final thud which set my perch rocking
under me. I judged that the LB had at last met the ground. The fact
that so heavy a craft had taken so long to fall suggested two
things—that this net of vegetation grew well above the ground,
and that it was tough enough to catch the entering ship, cushion it
for a space, delay its final landing.
The smoke was thickening, coming from above. If there was a fire
blazing there, then a withdrawal was certainly in order. To outrun
a forest blaze in my unwieldy suit was nigh impossible.
I got to my feet and edged along the limb, heading, I hoped, for
the parent trunk. At least it grew wider and thicker ahead of me.
There were other aerial growths besides the moss with the breathing
cups. One barred my way very soon. The leaves were yellow, broad
and fleshy, curving up so that those in the center formed a cup.
And in that, water, or some colorless fluid, gathered. Above this
leaf-enclosed pondlet was the first animate life I had seen.
A flying thing perhaps as large as my hand unfolded gauzy wings
to flutter away. It had been so much the color of the leaves that
it was invisible until it moved. Another creature raised a dripping
snout and bared teeth from where it crouched on the other side of
the cup. Like the flying thing, it was camouflaged, for its
waffled, warty covering was like the rough bark of the tree limbs,
and of the same dark color. But the fangs it showed suggested that
it was carnivorous, and it was about the size of Valcyr, with long
legs which were clawed, clearly meant to grip and hold, perhaps not
only the aerial trails it followed but also some prey.
Nor did it have any fear of me, but stood its ground, fangs
bared, its ugly head down, its shoulders hunched, as if it was
about to spring.
To advance I must cross the outer leaves of the pool plant. And
while my challenger was small, I did not underrate it for that
reason. There had been no laser with the suit—after ship custom
all arms were locker-stored during the flight. Most Free Traders
carried only the non-lethal stunners anyway. But I did not even
have one of those.
“Let it be.” Eet’s command rang in my head.
“It will go—”
And go it did, with a suddenness which left me believing it had
vanished like some illusion wrought by a Hymandian sand wizard. I
saw a flash across the bark beyond the pool plant, and that was all
that marked its going.
Cautiously I stepped onto the broad leaves. Their surfaces broke
under my weight, and yellow stuff oozed up and about my boot soles,
the leaves themselves turning dark, seeming to rot away at once,
flaking in great shreds from the holes. More of the gauzy things
took to the air, to splash back, as my passing put an end to their
world.
I slipped and slid, careful of every slime-coated step, until I
reached the other side. My face was wet with sweat inside the
helmet, and I was breathing slowly and with an effort. I had come
to the end of my air supply, and whether it would mean death or no,
I must open my helmet.
Squatting down on the limb, I clicked open the latches and
breathed, half expecting to have the lungs seared out of me by that
experiment. But, though the air was laden with smells, and many of
those noxious as far as I was concerned, I thought the air less bad
than that I had encountered in the LB.
I could hear now, and there were sounds in plenty. The buzzing
of insects, sharp calls, and now and then a distant heavy thud, as
if someone beat a huge drum and listened to its echoes dying
gradually away. There was a rustling and crackling, too. I could
smell a stench which was certainly born of burning, though I did
not see any movement of tree-dwelling things which would suggest
that the inhabitants of these leafed heights were fleeing a
fire.
Behind me the pool plant shriveled, its bruised leaves falling
away in festering shreds. Now the inner petals or leaves which had
cupped the water unclasped and a flood poured out, to cascade and
then drip from the big limb into the mass of vegetation below,
carrying with it wriggling, struggling things which had lived in
it. The plant continued to die and rot until only a black blot
remained on the limb, a most nauseating odor rising from it, making
me move on.
The limb road grew wider and thicker. Now it was a running place
for vines, which crossed it and looped around it, forming traps for
the feet of the unwary. I continued to sweat as the muggy heat held
me. And the suit became more and more of a burden. Too, I was
hungry, and I remembered the drinker at the pool, wondering if I
could turn hunter with any success.
“Out—!” Eet was economical with words now, but his
meaning was plain. I put down his traveling box and opened it. He
flashed out of its confines and stood poised on the limb, his head
flicking from side to side.
“We must have food—” I remembered what he had said
about being able to tell what was edible and what was not. The fact
that on an alien planet practically all food might mean death to
off-worlders was to the fore of my mind. We might have made a safe
landing here only to starve in the midst of what was luxurious
plenty for the natives.
“There—” He used his nose as a pointer, elongating
his neck to emphasize his statement. What he had selected was an
outgrowth on one of those serpentine vines. It rose like a stem,
from which quivered some narrow pods, more flat than round. They
shook and shivered as if they possessed some odd life of their own.
And I could not see why Eet thought them possible food. They
appeared less likely than the cluster of ovoid berries, bursting
with ripe pulp and juice, which hung from another stem not too far
away.
I watched my companion harvest the pods with his forepaws. He
stripped off their outer shells to uncover some small, far too
small, purple seeds, which he ate, not with any appearance of
relishing that diet, but as one would do a duty.
He did not fall into convulsions, or drop in a fatal coma, but
methodically finished all the buttons he could strip out of their
pods. Then he turned to me.
“These can be safely eaten, and without food you cannot go
on.”
I was still dubious. What might be good for my admittedly
half-alien companion might not nourish me. But it was the only
chance I had. And there was another cluster of the trembling pods
not too far beyond my hand.
Slowly I drew the space stone from my gloved finger, stowed it
away in a pocket on my harness, and then unsealed the gloves,
allowing them to dangle from my wrists as I reached for the
harvest.
Once more I saw the healing scars of the blisters. My flesh was
pink and new-looking in unseemly splotches against the general
brown of my skin. Though I was not as space-tanned as a crewman
might be, my roving life had darkened my skin more than was normal
for a planet dweller. But I was now spotted in what I was sure must
be a disfiguring manner, though I could not see my face to judge.
Until the blotches faded, if they ever did, I would be marked as
undesirable to any off-worlder. Perhaps it was just as well we had
not made landing at a port; one look at me and I would have been
sent into indefinite quarantine.
Carefully I husked the pellets. They were larger than grains of
hoswheat, hard and smooth to the touch. I raised them to my nose,
but if they had any odor, it was slight enough to be overlaid by
the general blast of smells all about us. Gingerly I mouthed
several of them and chewed.
They seemed to have no discernible taste, but became a floury
meal between my teeth. I found them dry, hard to swallow, but
swallow I did. Then, since I had taken the first step and might as
well go all the way, I harvested all within reach, chewing and
swallowing, giving Eet another two clusters when he signified they
would be acceptable.
I allowed us some small sips from the canister of liquid out of
the ship, which I had made fast to my harness. That cleared the
dry-as-dust feeling from my mouth tissues.
Eet had been moving impatiently back and forth along the branch
as I ate, progressing in darting runs, pausing to peer and listen,
then returning. Although it had been but a short time since his
birth, he had all the assurance of an adult, as if he had achieved
that status.
“We are well above ground.” He came back to settle
down near me. “It would be well to get to a lower
level.”
Perhaps as I had depended upon his instincts to find us food, so
I should harken to him now. But the suit was clumsy to climb in,
and I feared a false step where the vines were so entwined.
I crawled on hands and knees, testing each small space in
advance. Thus I came to the point from which those vines spread,
the giant trunk of the tree. And that bole was giant indeed. I
believe that had it been hollow, it would have furnished room for
an average dwelling on Angkor, while its height was beyond my
reckoning. I wondered just how far it was to the surface of this
vegetation-choked world—if the whole planet was covered by such
trees.
Had it not been for the vines, I would have been marooned aloft,
but their twists, slippery and unpromising as they looked, did
afford a kind of looped stairway. I had two cords with hooked ends
coiled in my harness—intended to anchor one during space repairs,
though I had not discovered them in time to keep me on the Vestris.
These I put to use now, hooking them to vines, lowering myself to
the extent of the cord, loosing by tears to hook again. It was an
exhausting form of progress, and I grew faint with the struggle.
The muggy heat made it worse.
Finally I came to the jut of another wide branch, even larger
than the one I had left. I dragged myself out on that, thankful to
have reached such a small link with safety. The thick foliage made
this a gloomy place, as if I were in a cave. And I thought that if
I ever did reach the surface of the forest floor, it would be to
discover that day was night under the sky-hiding canopy. Perhaps it
was the tear made by the LB which allowed even this much light to
filter through.
Those patches of moss with the breathing cups were not to be
seen on this level. Instead there was a rough, spiky excrescence
from which hung long drooping, thread-thin stems or tentacles.
These exuded drops of sap or a similar substance. And the drops
glowed faintly. They were, I believed, lures, attracting prey
either by that phosphorescence, or by their scent. For I saw
insects stuck to them, sometimes thrashing so hard to be free that
the thread-stems whipped back and forth.
Eet halted beside me, but I could sense his impatience at the
slowness of my descent. Unburdened by a suit, he could have already
reached the ground. Now he kept urging me to go on. But if he had
some special fear of this arboreal world, he did not share it with
me. His attitude had grown more and more like that of an adult
dealing with a child who must be cared for, and whose presence
hinders and makes more difficult some demanding task.
Groaning, I began the descent again. Eet flashed by me and was
gone with an ease I envied bitterly as I took up my crawl, hook,
hold, free, hook, crawl. As the gloom increased I began to worry
more about my handholds, about being able to see anchors for the
hooks.
It was as if I had started at midday and were now well into
evening. The only aid was that more and more of the vegetation
appeared to have phosphorescent qualities and that the spike
growths with lures became larger and larger, giving a wan light.
This glow grew brighter as darkness advanced. Perhaps the dusk
really was due to the passage of time, and planet night was nearly
upon me.
The thought of that led me to greater efforts. I had no wish to
be trapped, in the dark, climbing down this endless vine staircase.
So I passed without halting two other limbs which offered tempting
resting places and kept doggedly on.
Since that creature which had drunk from the pool plant had
vanished I had seen no life except insects. But there were those in
plenty and they varied from crawlers on vine and bark to a myriad
of flying things. Some of the largest of those were equipped with
spectral light patches too. Their antennae, their wings, and other
parts of their bodies glowed with color instead of the ghostly
grayish illumination of the plants. I saw sparks of red, of blue,
of a clear and brilliant green—almost as if small gems had taken
wing and whirled about me.
I was sure it was night when I slipped over the last great loops
of vine which arched out and away from the tree, and which carried
me, as I clung to their now coarse-textured surfaces, down to the
floor of the forest. I landed feet first on a soft sponge of decay,
into which I sank almost knee-deep. And it was as dark as a
moonless and starless night.
“Here!” Eet signaled. I was floundering, trying to
get better footing in the muck. Now I faced around to the point
from which that hail had come.
The roots of the vines stretched out about the monster bole of
the tree, so that between them and the trunk was a space of utter
dark, where none of the light plants grew. It seemed to me that my
companion had taken refuge in there. Painfully I pulled loose from
the sucking grip of the mold, using the vine stems as a lever, and
then I edged between two of them into that hollow.
Save that we lacked light, and weapons, we had won to a
half-safe refuge. I could not guess as to the types of creatures
roaming the floor of the forest. But it is always better to assume
the worst than to try for a safety which does not exist. And on
most worlds the lesser life is tree borne, the greater to be found
on the ground.
I half sat, half collapsed in that hollow, the spread of a tree
root giving support to my back. I faced outward so that I could see
anything moving beyond that screen of vine roots. And the longer I
sat there, the more I was able to pick out, even in the dark.
In my harness was the beamer, yet I hesitated to flash it unless
the need was great. For such a light might well attract attention
we would desire most to avoid. I could sight some of the sparks of
light marking flying creatures. And now there were others which did
not wing through the air, but crawled the ground.
There were sounds in abundance. A dull intermittent piping began
once I was settled. And later a snuffling drew near and then faded
away again. I craved sleep, but fought it, my imagination only too
ready to paint what might happen if I closed my eyes to a danger
creeping or padding toward our flimsy refuge.
The beamer was in my hand, my finger on its button. Perhaps a
sudden flash of light would dazzle a bold hunter and give us a
chance of escape, were we cornered.
Eet climbed to what appeared to be his favorite resting place,
my shoulders. His weight was more than I had remembered; he must be
growing, and faster than I had known any animal cub or kitten to do
so. I felt the rasp of his wire-harsh hair against my skin.
Certainly Eet was no pet to be smoothed.
“Where do we go now?” I asked, not because I thought
he could give me a good answer, but just for the comfort of
communication with another who was not as alien as this place in
which I crouched.
“At night—no place. This is as good as any to hide
in.” Again I read impatience in his reply.
“And with the morning?”
“In any direction. One is as good as another. This is, I
think, a large forest.”
“The LB crashed not too far away. Some of its survival
tools—the weapons—if they still work—”
“Commendable. You are beginning to think again. Yes, the
ship should be our first goal. But not our final one. I do not
think any help will come seeking us here.”
I found it harder and harder to fight sleep, and felt the tickle
of Eet’s fur as he settled himself more heavily across my
shoulders and chest.
“Sleep if you wish,” his thought snapped at me.
“Treat your body ill and it will not obey you. We shall need
obedient bodies and clear minds to face tomorrow—”
“And if some night prowler decides to scoop us out of this
hole? I do not think it is any safer than a tark shell.”
“That we shall face if it happens. I believe my warning
senses are more acute than yours. There are some advantages, as I
have said, to this particular body I now wear.”
“Body you now wear—Tell me, Eet, what kind of a body is
really yours?”
I had no answer, unless the solid wall which I sensed snapping
down between our minds could be considered an answer. It left me
with the feeling of one who has inadvertently insulted a companion.
Apparently the last thing Eet wanted to disclose was the life he
might or might not have had before Valcyr swallowed the stone on
the swamp world.
But his arguments made sense; I could not go without sleep
forever. And if he had those warnings which animals possess and
which have long been blunted in my species, then he would be
alerted long before I could hear or sense trouble on the way.
So I surrendered to sleep, leaning back against the tree root
with the night of the strange world dark and heavy about me. And I
did not dream—or if I did, I did not remember. But I was startled
out of that slumber by Eet.
“—to the right—” A half-thought as sharp as a spear
point striking into my brain roused me. I blinked, trying, to come
fully awake.
Then I could see it, a glimmering. I thought that the dusk in
which I had fallen asleep was not nearly as thick now.
It stood, not on four feet, but as a biped on two, though
hunched forward, either as if that stance were not entirely
natural, or as if it were listening and peering suspiciously.
Perhaps it could scent our alien odor. Yet the head was not turned
in our direction.
Like the colored insects and the plants, it had a
phosphorescence of its own. And the effect was startling, for the
grayish areas of light did not cover it as a whole but made a
pattern along its body. There was a large round one on the top of
the skull, and then below that, where the eyebrows of a human might
be located, two oval ones. The rest of the face was dark, but
ridges of light ran along the outsides of the upper and lower
limbs, and three large circles such as that which crowned the head
ran in a line down the center of the body. For the rest I could see
that the four limbs were much thicker than those lines of light,
and that the body was roughly ovoid, the wider portion forming the
shoulders.
It moved a little away from the vines where it had stood and now
I perceived that it carried a club weapon. This it swung up and
down in one quick blow, and I heard an ugly hollow sound, which
marked the striking of a victim. The attacker reached down a long
arm and gathered up a limp body. With its kill in one hand and the
club in the other it turned and was gone, bursting through the
vines at a speed which almost matched that of the drinker from the
pond plant.
It was certainly more than an animal, I decided. But how far up
the ladder from primitive beginnings I could not guess. And it had
been as big as a tall man, or even larger.
“We have company,” I observed, and felt Eet move
restlessly.
“It would be wisest to seek the LB,” he returned.
“If that is not too badly damaged—The day is coming
now.”
As I got to my knees to crawl out of our temporary shelter I
wondered in which direction we should go. I certainly could not
tell. And if Eet did no better we could pass within feet of the
wrecked ship and perhaps never sight it. I had heard of men who
wandered lost in circles in unfamiliar territory when they had no
guides or compasses.