Part 11 (1/2)

Speckle-Top shook off the pile of Slinks that had been clambering all over her and, shoving back an inquisitive mini-Swift, she left the compound she had made. The eye-waves on the big-badge grown-up had a twitch that showed she was worried about something.

”Whole species gone. Wiped out!” said Zero-Gauss. ”All we have left is the collection from my laboratory, and it is solimited”

”Looks to me like we got lots of everything,” said Speckle-Top. ”The stores are full of food, and when we want something special, we can eat one of your food Slinks. What is the taste of the striped ones?”

”No!” Zero-Gauss was nearly panic-stricken at the thought. ”We must not eat them. They are the last ones on Egg. I must breed them to keep the species alive. The plants, too. They are the only ones left. I have to save the plants, too.”

She went to the edge of the hole and looked down at the dozens and dozens of plants many millimeters below. They would survive there for a time, but they or their seeds must be laboriously hauled up on the crust if they were to be available for future generations,if therewere any future generations.

Speckle-Top had come up beside Zero-Gauss as she peered down the hole at the plants. The feeling of the immature body next to hers caused the collapse of Zero-Gauss's last defenses against the Old-One syndrome. She spread out a hatching mantle and covered the scarred, paint-smeared, speckled topside of the ugly youngling.

Speckle-Top had seen adult cheela do many strange things, but it was a new experience for her when the professor developed a long ridge just underneath her eyeflap bulges. The ridge became a sheet that slid up over her speckled topside.

A strange feeling came over her. It wasn't the intense feeling she got when playing eye-ball games with Crumpled-Tread, but a relaxed, warm,safe feeling. She could finally relax the eternal vigilance that had kept her alive since her first terrifying days in the dump with the wild Slinks hunting her.

Someone was now taking care of her. Someone was now watching out for her. She pulled all her eyes in under their eyeflaps, contracted her body into a small egg-shaped ball under the hatching mantle and rested. She liked the professor and the professor liked her. She liked the animals and they liked her. She wondered if this was what it was like being part of a clan. She decided she would stay if the professor wanted her to.

06:58:08 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE2050.

The last place Qui-Qui checked was the Rejuvenation Center. As she expected, everyone was dead there, too, even the ”dragon plants,” snapped off at their roots. The large rods of dragon crystal that had supported the plants now lay glistening on the crust. She moved past a motionless robotic body on her way out and stopped as she felt an electronic tingle.

”Emergency! Emergency!” a metallic voice whispered. She moved closer to the robot. The body of the robot didn't move, but the electronic tingle became stronger.

”Emergency! Emergency!”

”The emergency is over,” Qui-Qui's tread vibrated through the crust. The robot continued its alarm as if it hadn't heard her. She switched to whispering herself.

”The emergency is over,” Qui-Qui whispered, using her body to set up oscillations in the sea of electrons around them.

”Emergency! Crustquake! Activate Plan Two! Call Doctor!” said the robot.

”Stop!” commanded Qui-Qui, who owned a dozen personal robots. ”Emergency Over! Restart! Report Condition!”

”Three-greths functional,” said the robot. ”I must report to a medical doctor. A failure has occurred.”

”Stop! Restart! Emergency over! Tell me how to activate communications links to Bright's Heaven.”

”I must report to a medical doctor,” said the robot. ”You are not a medical doctor.” It fell silent.

Qui-Qui was puzzled. The robot's eyes were useless. How did it know she wasn't a medical doctor?

She went back to the main offices, found the remains of M.D. Sabin-Salk, pulled off his ornate badges, and replaced her glow-jewel decorations with badges. She went back to the robot, but didn't get too close. She could have done a good imitation of M.D. Sabin-Salk's tread accent, but she had never heard him whisper. She did the best she could.

”Tell me how to repair the communication links to Bright's Heaven!” she commanded.

”Open box,” said the robot.

Qui-Qui was bewildered. She looked around, then saw a large metal box in one corner of the room.

The room wall had suffered a large dent where the box had slid into it. She went over to the box and read the badly faded label. It was another robot! According to the label, it was a maintenance robot for the next bank of enzyme machines that were due to be sent to the rejuvenation center. She undid the latches and slid off the heavy lid. Twelve gla.s.sy eyes raised up from a Slink-sized dome and looked around. The top of the dome had the design of a cleft-wort plant.

”Energy!” it said. The end of the box fell away and the robot glided out on its undulating underside. It paused by the damaged robot to exchange information, then moved into the enzyme machine room, where it found a partially full acc.u.mulator and reenergized itself. Qui-Qui followed it. The robot ignored her and started to lift an enzyme machine back onto its base.

”Stop!” she said. ”Repair the communication links to Bright's Heaven.”

”That is not my function,” said the robot. ”My function is to maintain the Rejuvenation Center in operational condition.”

”Reset!” she commanded. 'The Rejuvenation Center cannot operate without doctors. All the doctors are dead. You must get new doctors. The doctors must be called from Bright's Heaven. You must repair the communication links to Bright's Heaven so the doctors can be called.”

The robot paused in its repair of the damaged enzyme machine. It moved to the main offices, found one of the video link consoles, and opened it. It carried out a few tests, then moved to the next console.

Since none of them were operational, it then took out a part from one console, other parts from another console, more from a third, and put them in a fourth. It left the room for a while and came back with a small energy source to power the console. It went through its testing routine again.

”The communication link is repaired. Bright's Heaven does not respond.” It returned to its work of fixing the enzyme machine.

Qui-Qui tried the video-link console. She had made so many long-distance calls in her life that she knew all the screen blotches and tread murmurs that indicated the condition of the various portions of the links.

The call probably made it to the central exchange at White Rock City, but the fibers were dead from there to Bright's Heaven. She tried to get the robot to go to White Rock City to fix the central exchange, but it refused to leave its a.s.signed duty station and the enzyme machines. She finally gave up and set out for White Rock City herself to pick up her flyer.

As soon as the flyer was activated, the acoustic coupler to the deck vibrated the floor with a recorded message.

”Qui-Qui! Respond on channel 36. Qui-Qui! Respond....”

The communications set was already on channel 36 so she activated the transmitter.

”Qui-Qui here,” she said. After two long grethturns there was an eager reply.

”Lieutenant Shannon-Capacity here, Qui-Qui. Are you all right? I'm switching you right over to the admiral.”

The harsh voice came rasping through the deck. The admiral sounded even more hara.s.sed than the first time.

”Your behavior is inexcusable!” said Admiral Hohmann-Transfer. ”From now on I want you to make contact every turnfeast and midturn. Do you understand? Where have you been?”

”I was trying to find somebody else,” said Qui-Qui. ”I was not successful. Were you?” She then went through another long wait.

”No,” said Hohmann-Transfer. ”What am I going to do? We are doomed!” There was another long pause. ”If only we had someone else than astupid entertainer.”

The link to the admiral clicked off. Qui-Qui was about to turn off the power when she heard Shannon-Capacity again.

”There is someone else who wants to talk to you,” he said.

”... h.e.l.lo? ... is this Qui-Qui? ...” came the voice. ”I ... ah ... I met you some time ago . .. didn't really meet you really ... I saw you when you were going through the Rejuvenation Center ... my name's Cliff-Web ... run a construction company ... or used to.”

Qui-Qui had been through this before. Another male overfl.u.s.tered by her large eyeflaps.

”I rememberyou” she said in her best stage tread. ”The doctor said you needed to do some extra exercises. I didn't think so. You looked fine to me.” After another long wait, Cliff-Web replied. He had regained his composure.