“Maybe it changed its mind.” But a few moments later, the part of the wall nearest the floor rippled. An object shaped like a small sled came floating through into the room and stood six inches from the floor unsupported. Tarbush bent down to lift the lid of the oblong container that sat on top of the sled, and recoiled.
“Sweet Lucy! If that’s what they call food …”
He clapped the lid back on the box, but not before Chrissie had seen dozens of purple tentacles reaching and wriggling out over the edges.
“I wasn’t hungry anyway,” she said. As she watched, the new wall slowly began to darken. It was the only source of light, and within a minute she could not make out Tarbush’s outline. “That little effort didn’t help at all, did it? We’re worse off than we were before.”
“Not really.” Tarbush again turned on the little spotlight in the helmet of his suit. “They’re not watching us any more. We’re free to fiddle around any way we like so long as we don’t make a lot of noise.”
“So what do we fiddle around with all night long?” Chrissie advanced, until she stood in front of him and could tilt her head back to look at his frowning face, shadowed by the lamp above it. “Do we take that sled apart and try to understand how it floats in the air with no support? Or do we sit in the corner and play with ourselves? I don’t have any ideas. Do you?”
The scowl that he gave her was its own answer.
31: THE NATURE OF THE MULTIVERSE
After the Angel’s pronouncement on the nature of the changed Friday Indigo, Dag Korin couldn’t wait to get everyone away from his private quarters.
“Go on,” he said. “Get out of here. It’s far too late for an old man like me, and you must be tired, too. Go get a good night’s sleep.” And to Gressel, “A good night’s transpiration for you, or whatever you do in the dark.”
And then, one by one, Dag Korin contacted every human and told them to come back.
“I had to do it this way,” he explained, when the bewildered group was reassembled. “You know how the Angel would react if I told him I planned to take Friday Indigo and use his guts for suspenders. We need a private planning session without any aliens. What’s the status on the Pipe-Rilla?”
“Still curled tight,” Tully O’Toole said. “She’s in the cool medical unit near me, and every time I go past I sneak a peek. How long can a Pipe-Rilla stay frigid rigid?”
“Months.” Elke was the only one in the room who didn’t look the least bit tired. “It’s not a big deal, they always curl themselves that way when they estivate. In fact, I suspect that stress may simply induce an unplanned estivation. If so, Vow-of-Silence will be hyperactive when she wakes.”
“Then the longer she sleeps, the better. Let’s leave her that way.” With every seat taken, Korin perched on the liquor cabinet. “All right, first question. How much of that guff about the superior science of the Malacosties do we believe?”
“All of it.” Elke replied at once. “I’ve studied our space images a lot more since last time we talked. The buildings around the airstrip morph every few hours, in their numbers and their sizes. An area of seven hundred square kilometers was cleared and sterilized, with no sign of radioactivity. And their aircraft and ships, from everything I’ve seen of them, ought not to be able to fly. They possess technology we’ve never dreamed of.”
“I was afraid you’d say that. Anyone disagree?” Korin glanced around at the circle of gloomy faces. “All right, so I have to believe it. The Mallies have science and weapons different from and maybe superior to ours. What they did to Friday Indigo shows that they regard us as expendable. That tells me there’s no way we can allow them into our universe. The Angels and the Pipe-Rillas may think those bastards can be nice guys, but even a nice guy who can do anything he likes tends to do things you won’t like. If we want to live — and I assume we do — we’d better find a plan of action that lets us.”
“Easier said than done.” Elke was biting her fingernails, already chewed down to the quick. “The Angel and I have a good idea of the structure of the multiverse, and we think we know how to set coordinates to go to any universe — including the one we came from. But we’ve beaten our brains out for a way to get there. Our only chance would be to talk the Malacostracans into lending us one of their ships, and it’s pretty clear they aren’t about to do that.”
“I never said it would be easy, Elke. But any plan, even a terrible one, is a lot better than no plan at all. So I’m going to throw out ideas. You can all chip in or disagree any time you want.
“First, and this one’s a no-brainer: somebody has to go ashore tomorrow morning with Deb Bisson. We have to talk to the Mallies, no matter how much we hate ’em. We’ve been told that they can blow this ship up any time they feel like it, and if we don’t cooperate with them we’ll automatically be considered an enemy. We need to leave here soon — we’d better, because this hulk is dying around us — but right now we’re a sitting duck.
“So who goes with Deb Bisson? Well, I’m not inviting discussion, because this one I’ve already decided.” Korin turned to Chan. “You’ve been itching to go and look for trouble ashore for days—”
“I accept.”
“ — so here’s your chance. You and Bisson seem to work well as a team.”
“We do. Any other instructions?”
“Not without breaking one of my own golden rules. In an unpredictable situation, the man or woman on the spot should make the decisions, not the general sitting on his ass a million miles away from the action. But I’ll tell you what I expect from you. I need time. Time to organize ourselves to leave this ship and establish a base on shore. And time for Elke and the Angel to nail a way to get us through the Link and off this dump of a planet.” Korin waved his hand at Elke. “I know, I know. We don’t have a ship, and I don’t see any half-rational hope of getting us one. We need time for that, too. Yes?”
His question was addressed to Tully O’Toole, who was holding up his hand.
Tully glanced at Danny Casement sitting next to him, who nodded and said, “Friday Indigo didn’t say we could only send two people ashore. He said they only wanted two people to take our answer to them.”
“What are you proposing?”
“We have two of our team members in the hands of the Mallies. Tully and I talked about this even before you called us back here. We’d like to go ashore and take a shot at rescuing Chrissie and the Tarb.”
Instead of replying, Dag Korin leaned back and put his hand over his eyes. Finally he said, “Damn me, that’s a hard one. I don’t know what your friends are going through up there, but I can’t imagine it’s pleasant.” He tilted his head forward and stared at Danny. “Worse than anything, I hate to lose people. Ninety-nine percent of me is on your side, cheering you on to give it a shot. But I can’t let you do it. We have a proposal from the Mallies sitting in front of us. We don’t understand all its implications, but we have to explore it farther. Now, if you make a rescue attempt, whether you succeed or whether you fail, you’ll drop a mine on what Chan Dalton is doing. So it has to be no — though I wish there was some way I could say yes.”
Danny protested, “So we just sit around, waiting?”
“Did I say that? We’re going to be busy, every one of us. Soon we’re going to leave the Hero’s Return and set up camp on shore. We have to pick a site a comfortable distance from the Mallies, preferably in an inconspicuous place that can easily be hidden from overhead inspection. Elke Siry, that’s your job. We must also decide what we need to take from this ship and what we can take — Bony Rombelle, Liddy Morse, and Tully O’Toole, you make the list and assemble everything by the main airlock. Keep it practical and assume we’re never coming back. Food and shelter should be tops, but remember we can’t make many trips and we can’t carry too much. Danny Casement, you and I are going to float. We’ll help out anywhere we’re needed. Any questions?”