Part 11 (1/2)
Too much! Athaclena tried to form a glyph of peace in the s.p.a.ce before her, to hold back the pain and horror. But every pattern was blown away like spun snow before the hot wind of a flame.
”They're killing th' humans and ”rillas!” one of the chims on the hillside cried, running forward. Benjamin shouted after him. ”Petrie! Come back here! Where do you think you're going?”
”I'm goin' to help!” the younger chim yelled back. ”And you would too, if you cared! You can hear 'em screamin' down there!” Ignoring the winding path, he started scrambling down the scree slope itself-the most direct route toward the roiling fog and the dim sounds of despair.
The other two chims looked at Benjamin rebelliously, obviously sharing the same thought. ”I'm goin' too,” one said.
Athaclena's fear-narrowed eyes throbbed. What were these silly creatures doing now?
”I'm with you,” the last one agreed. In spite of Benjamin's shouted curses, both of them started down the steep slope.
”Stop thi, right now!”
They turned and stared at Athaclena. Even Petrie halted suddenly, hanging one-handed from a boulder, blinking up at her. She had used the Tone of Peremptory Command, for only the third time in her life.
”Stop this foolishness and come back here immediately!” she snapped. Athaclena's corona billowed out over her ears. Her carefully cultured human accent was gone. She enunciated Anglic in the Tymbrimi lilt the neo-chimpanzees must have heard on video countless times. She might look rather human, but no human voice could make exactly the same sounds.
The Terran clients blinked, open-mouthed.
”Return at once,” she hissed.
The chims scrambled back up the slope to stand before her. One by one, glancing nervously at Benjamin and following his example, they bowed with arms crossed in front of them.
Athaclena fought down her own shaking in order to appear outwardly calm. ”Do not make me raise my voice again,” she said lowly. ”We must work together, think coolly, and make appropriate plans.”
Small wonder the chims s.h.i.+vered and looked up at her, wide-eyed. Humans seldom spoke to chims so peremptorily. The species might be indentured to man, but by Earth's own law neo-chimps were nearly equal citizens.
We Tymbrimi, though, are another matter. Duty, simple duty had drawn Athaclena out of her totanoo-her fear-induced withdrawal. Somebody had to take responsibility to save these creatures' lives.
The ugly brown fog had stopped spilling from the Gubru vessel. The vapor spread across the narrow valley like a dark, foamy lake, barely covering the buildings at the bottom.
Vents closed. The s.h.i.+p began to rise.
”Take cover,” she told them, and led the chims around the nearest of the rock monoliths. The low hum of the Gubru s.h.i.+p climbed more than an octave. Soon they saw it rise over the spine-stones.
”Protect yourselves.”
The chims huddled close, pressing their hands against their ears.
One moment the giant invader was there, a thousand meters over the valley floor. Then, quicker than the eye could follow, it was gone. Displaced air clapped inward like a giant's hand and thunder batted them again, returning in rolling waves that brought up dust and leaves from the forest below.
The stunned neo-chimps stared at each other for long moments as the echoes finally ebbed. Finally the eldest chim, Benjamin, shook himself. He dusted his hands and grabbed the young chen named Petrie by the back of his neck, marching the startled chim over to face Athaclena.
Petrie looked down shamefaced. ”I ... I'm sorry, ma'am,” he muttered gruffly. ”It's just that there are humans down there and . . . and my mates. ...”
Athaclena nodded. One should try not to be too hard on a well-intended client. ”Your motives were admirable. Now that we are calm though, and can plan, we'll go about helping your patrons and friends more effectively.”
She offered her hand. It was a less patronizing gesture than the pat on the head he seemed to have expected from a Galactic. They shook, and he grinned shyly.
When they hurried around the stones to look out over the valley again, several of the Terrans gasped. The brown cloud had spread over the lowlands like a thick, filthy sea that flowed almost to the forest slopes at their feet. The heavy vapor seemed to have a sharply defined upper boundary barely licking at the roots of nearby trees.
They had no way of knowing what was going on below, or even if anybody still lived down there.
”We will split into two groups,” Athaclena told them. ”Robert Oneagle still requires attention. Someone must go to him.”
The thought of Robert lying semi-conscious back there where she had left him was an unrelenting anxiety in her mind. She had to know he was being cared for. Anyway, she suspected most of these chims would be better off going to Robert's aid than hanging around this deadly valley. The creatures were too shaken and volatile up here in full view of the disaster. ”Benjamin, can your companions find Robert by themselves, using the directions I have given?”
”You mean without leading them there yourself?” Benjamin frowned and shook his head. ”Uh, I dunno, ma'am. I ... I really think you ought to go along.”
Athaclena had left Robert under a clear landmark, a giant quail-nut tree close to the main trail. Any party sent from here should have no trouble finding the injured human.
She could read the chim's emotions. Part of Benjamin anxiously wished to have one of the renowned Tymbrimi here to help, if possible, the people in the valley. And yet he had chosen to try to send her away!
The oily smoke churned and rolled below. She could distantly sense many minds down there, turbulent with fear.
”I will remain,” she said firmly. ”You have said these others are a qualified rescue team. They can certainly find Robert and help him. Someone must stay and see if anything can be done for those below.”
With a human there might have been argument. But the chimps did not even consider contradicting a Galactic with a made up mind. Client-cla.s.s sophonts simply did not do such things.
In Benjamin she sensed a partial relief. . . and a counterpoint of dread.
The three younger chims shouldered their packs. Solemnly they headed westward through the spine-stones, glancing back nervously until they pa.s.sed out of sight.
Athaclena let herself feel relieved for Robert's sake. But underneath it all remained a nagging fear for her father. The enemy must certainly have struck Port Helenia first.
”Come, Benjamin. Let's see what can be done for those poor people down there.”
For all of their unusual and rapid successes in Uplift, Terran geneticists still had a way to go with neo-dolphins and neo-chimpanzees. Truly original thinkers were still rare in both species. By Galactic standards they had made great strides, but Earthmen wanted even more rapid progress. It was almost as if they suspected their clients might have to grow up very quickly, very soon.
When a good mind appeared in Tursiops or Pongo stock, it was carefully nurtured. Athaclena could tell that Benjamin was one of those superior specimens. No doubt this chim had at least a blue card procreation right and had already sired many children.
”Maybe I'd better scout ahead, ma'am,” Benjamin suggested. ”I can climb these trees and stay above the level of the gas. I'll go in and find out how things lie, and then come back for you.”
Athaclena felt the chim's turmoil as they looked out on the lake of mysterious gas. Here it was about ankle deep, but farther into the valley it swirled several man-heights into the trees.
”No. We'll stay together,” Athaclena said firmly. ”I can climb trees too, you know.”
Benjamin looked her up and down, apparently recalling stories of the fabled Tymbrimi adaptability. ”Hmmm, your folk might have once been arboreal at that. No respect intended.” He gave her a wry, unhinged grin. ”All right then, miss, let's go.”
He took a running start, leaped into the branches of a near-oak, scampered around the trunk and darted down another limb. Then Benjamin jumped across a narrow gap to the next tree. He held onto the bouncing branch and looked back at her with curious brown eyes.
Athaclena recognized a challenge. She breathed deeply several times, concentrating. Changes began with a tingling in her hardening fingertips, a loosening in her chest. She exhaled, crouched, and took off, launching herself into the near-oak. With some difficulty she imitated the chim, move by move.
Benjamin nodded in approval as she landed next to him. Then he was off again.
They made slow progress, leaping from tree to tree and creeping around vine-entangled trunks. Several times they were forced to backtrack around clearings choked with the slowly settling fumes. They tried not to breathe when stepping over thicker wisps of the heavy gas, but Athaclena could not help picking up a whiff of pungent, oily stuff. She told herself that her growing itch was probably psychosomatic.
Benjamin kept glancing at her surrept.i.tiously. The chim certainly noticed some of the changes she underwent as the minutes pa.s.sed-a limbering of the arms, a rolling of the shoulders and loosening and opening of the hands. He clearly had never expected to have a Galactic keep up with him this way, swinging through the trees.