Nor Crystal Tears by Alan Dean Foster
“It’s not inevitable,” Loo objected.
“Is it not?” Ryo turned the saddle and stared up at him. His ommatidia sparkled in the light from the console. “Among my people such a situation calls for resignation. I can sympathize with the desires of your superiors. They wish only to further their knowledge.”
“There are some things more important than furthering knowledge,” Bonnie countered.
“I would disagree with you, Bonnie.”
“Don’t,” she snapped. “You may be willing to go calmly to your death, but I’ll be damned if I’m willing to let you do it.” Precipitation oozed from the corners of her eyes, another human phenomenon Ryo found fascinating. It was astonishing that any creature could generate precipitation in so many different ways and for so many different reasons.
“What could you do?” Ryo murmured. “The decision has been made.”
“Only on a local level,” Loo noted. “The order could be countermanded by higher scientific bodies on Earth. I’m sure that’s why they’ve set the date so soon, so they can commence their little vivisection party before any response could be returned. Oh, they know what they’re about, all right. They’re very clever.” He seemed to slump in on himself.
“We can bloody well go to the council and offer our own objections,” Bonnie said.
“Yes, and you know how much weight they’ll give to that.”
“They have to listen to us,” she objected. “Contact and follow-up is our profession.”
Loo was nodding. “They’ll tell us we did a marvelous job. That our work is finished. We’ll all be promoted and given huge bonuses.” The irony in his tone was clear even to Ryo.
“We’ve got to try.” Loo’s relentless reasoning had reduced her initial angry determination to a hopeful whisper.
“I cannot say that I do not wish you luck,” Ryo admitted, adding a gesture of mild amusement. “You did find the information interesting, as I thought you would. Don’t worry about me. I am content.
“I have learned that intelligence exists in yet another corner of this stellar forest we call our galaxy. That is sufficient revelation to die for. I shall return my component elements to Nature, with dissolution already begun.” The attempt at humor evidently failed; neither human responded as he’d hoped.
Something soft and pulpy was caressing his neck. The burrow was eerily silent. At the same time his antennae twitched at the presence of a malignant, musky odor close by.
He awoke with a start, terribly frightened, wondering where Fal was and if the monster that was gazing down at him had already devoured her.
“Be quiet,” urged the monster in a quiet, familiar voice. “I don’t think we’ve set off any alarms yet. There may not be any to set off. After all, there’s nowhere for you to escape to, is there?”
Slowly his sleepy mind cleared, recognized the fragmented shape of Bonnie standing over him. He lifted his head and looked past her. Several other human silhouettes stood in his burrow. Others were outlined by the light of the distant corridor, visible through the open entryway.
“What’s wrong?” he muttered. “What’s the trouble?” He was still too sleep-drenched to think in Terranglo.
Bonnie’s Low Thranx answered him. “Some of us retain fragments of civilization.” Her tone was bitter. “We owe allegiance to standards not incorporated in official manuals.”
“I believe I understand what you are saying.” He slid off the lounge and fumbled for his neck pouch and vest.
“What I am saying is that a good friend is not a candidate for the butcher block.”
“It’s not at all like that,” Ryo protested. “As a question of scientific expansion of knowledge—”
“As a question of scientific expansion of knowledge,” she interrupted in Terranglo, “it sucks. Have you got all your things?”
He closed the last snap on his neck pouch. “I think so.”
“Then let’s go.” She started for the doorway. He followed automatically, still drowsy and increasingly bewildered.
“Where are we going? This is not a planet. You cannot hide me on this station for more than a short time.”
“We have no intention of trying to hide you on the station.”
They were out in the corridor. Ryo dimmed his perception to compensate for the bright human lighting. Loo was waiting for them, and Elvirasanchez. With them were the cocontroller Taourit, the engineer Alexis, and someone Ryo didn’t recognize as a member of the Seeker’s crew. Six in all. Greetings were exchanged quietly and in haste.
“We’re all committed to this,” Sanchez informed him solemnly. “You risked your life for something you believed in, believed in enough to risk condemnation from your entire people. Well, there are a few of us who are capable of equally strong beliefs.”
“The shortsighted will always be among us,” Ryo replied philosophically. “Those who try to reach out with their minds are more often restrained from behind than from ahead.”
“I know.” The captain gestured around her. “These are the only ones who agreed.”
“Will the others not betray you?”
Sanchez smiled. “They’re convinced we’re all talk and no action.” She looked past him. “I think you know Dr. Bhadravati.”
Ryo turned, was surprised to find the young scientist who had questioned him so many times. He had considered him the least friendly of the three and confessed his astonishment at seeing him now.
“I’m not here because I think this is reasoningly or legally the right thing to do,” the young human said, “but morally I don’t see how I can do anything else. I believe that you are one of God’s creatures, that you have a soul, and that what they intend doing to you is wrong both in the eyes of man and of God. I don’t know if the term is one you’ve learned, but prior to my matriculation as a xenologist I was a theology student. I draw support for these actions tonight from the Bible, the Rig-Veda, and the teachings of Buddha. What I do here now is part of my journey down the noble Eightfold Path.”
“I do not understand all of what you say,” Ryo replied, “but I welcome the result of your reasoning. I believe you would consider me a Theravadist.”
“That is impossible to reconcile with belief in—”
Sanchez stepped between them, spoke to Bhadravati. “You can try converting him later. Our searches turned up no monitors, but sooner or later someone’s going to make a personal check of our guest’s condition.”
They hurried down the corridor. The station was big and the Seeker was docked a considerable distance away. It was general sleeptime for the humans.
I have done this before, on a more familiar world, Ryo mused suddenly. It seems I am destined forever to be escaping to someplace or from somewhere.
They were running down a narrow serviceway where the light was subdued and Ryo was grateful for the respite from the usual glare.
“That’s far enough!”
The humans running ahead of Ryo came to a halt. He peered around Sanchez. Blocking the corridor was a single human male. Ryo recognized the object he was holding as a weapon. After a moment Ryo recognized the figure. It was one of the Seeker’s crew. One of the two who’d sneaked hostile glances in Ryo’s direction when he thought no one else was looking.
“Hello, Weldon,” Sanchez said easily. “I had a hunch you might have suspected. You always were a sharp one.”
“Shove it, Captain.” Sweat was pouring down his cheeks and his thinning hair was in disarray. “It wasn’t hard to figure that you were planning something. So I listened.” He smiled, but there was no humor in it. “I listen well.”
“Okay, so you listen well. What are you going to do, turn us in?”
“I don’t care what you do. I don’t have anything against you, Captain. Against any of you. You’ve been under a strain. We all have. It’s clouded your vision, but not mine. Not Renstaad’s, either, but she isn’t up to this. Someone’s got to do it.”
“Do what?” Sanchez.
“What might come, Weldon?”
“The invasion, of course. All these centuries they’ve been watching us, waiting. Now they’ve duped us into bringing one of ’em back with us. He’s the advance scout. Somehow he’s even managed to hypnotize you all into taking him back. Back with the vital information they need. Centaurus will be the first. After that, they’ll probably go straight for Earth itself.”
“Weldon, you just said yourself we’ve all been under a strain. Ryo is—”
“Don’t call it that!” he screamed. “Don’t give it a name. Things don’t have names!”
“He’s a friend. We’re the ones threatening him, not the other way around.” She took a step toward him and the muzzle of the gun moved ever so slightly to one side.
“Don’t try it, Captain. I said I’ve got nothing against you, and I don’t, but by Heaven I’ll shoot every one of you down to save the rest of us if you force me to.” His gaze, wild and fanatic, turned to the one who’d been standing behind her.
“It will only take a second.” His finger started to tighten on the trigger. “Messier than a spray, but just as effective—”
“Don’t do it, Weldon!” Loo stepped sideways, waving his hands. “We can!—”
The gun made a slight hissing sound. Something struck Loo in the chest and knocked him backward. His arms, already disconnecting from his brain, flopped loosely in the air. Bonnie screamed. Taourit pulled something from his jacket pocket. Weldon turned to face him, brought his pistol around as the dart from the little gun struck him in the forehead. His eyes glazed instantly and his body went as rigid as if he’d been frozen. He made a loud thump when his head hit the floor.
Bonnie was kneeling next to Loo. She was not crying. Alexis was pulling at her.
“Come on. It’s too late.” He put a hand over the man’s chest. There was a very large hole in it. “It’s too late, Bonnie.” The others were looking down at them.
Ryo touched his antennae to the back of Bonnie’s neck. She jerked at the airy caress, looked back at the sharp mandibles, the great faceted eyes.
“I am sorrowed, friend Bonnie. He was my friend too. The minute of lastlife is gone and cannot be recaptured.”
For a moment sanity left her gaze. Then reason and reality flooded back in. “We’re wasting time here.” She stood, disdaining Alexis’ offer of assistance. “Let’s not waste everything.”
They started up the serviceway, stepping over the still rigid body of the man named Weldon. No one stood guard over the airlock leading to the Seeker. People did not steal Supralight-drive ships. It was almost comically easy. No one was in a humorous mood, however.
The hatches were unsealed. For a second time the crew of the Seeker prepared to flee with their ship. Only this time they were running not from another people but from their own. How Wuu would love this situation, Ryo mused, thinking fondly of the old poet and wishing he were present to offer advice and companionship.
I had two equally fine human companions, he reminded himself. Only now one of them is dead, because of me.
It was true there were no alarms to set off, no traps to trigger. But when the Seeker’s maneuvering engines were engaged and the umbilicals connecting it to the station power system were jettisoned, portions of the orbiting city’s instrumentation came alive rapidly.
Ryo stood in the control room, watching his friends. Bonnie threw herself into her work, becoming an emotionless appendage of her station. Dr. Bhadravati paced and fidgeted as if he did not know what to do with his manipulating digits. Not being a member of the crew, he was at that moment as useless as Ryo. Unlike Ryo, however, he was dying to do something.
From the first, there was nothing ordinary about the inquiries that sounded over the console speakers. “You there, aboard DSR Seeker, acknowledge! You have disengaged and your engines are functioning. DSR Seeker is not authorized to disengage. Who is aboard, please? Acknowledge, DSR Seeker!”
“This is Captain Elvira Manuela de loa de Sanchez. I acknowledge for DSR Seeker. Received and acknowledge orders to check out sublight engines and life-support prior to boost to C-III for overhaul prior to next EX flight. All okay here. Sorry about any confusion.” She clicked off. “That ought to keep them busy for a while.”
Indeed, by the time the speakers squawked again the station was just a disk against the reflective side of Centaurus VII. The voice that came this time was deeper and more emphatic than that of the station’s duty communicator.
“Seeker, this is Colonel G.R. Davis, Centaurus Station commander. You are ordered to return to base forthwith. We have checked with both station command computer and EX Control on C-V. The Seeker is not due for overhaul for another six weeks.”
“I know,” Sanchez replied calmly. “We thought we’d start her out early and bring her in slow so we could give her systems a thorough run-through in case there are any on-the-verge problems. I’m anxious to be rid of her.”
“You will be rid of her permanently—and all other possible commands if you don’t return her to dock immediately.” Voices could be heard arguing in the background.
Another voice came over the speaker. Ryo recognized this one as belonging to the Eint elder human.
“Seeker, this is Dr. Rijseen, in charge of the direct contact branch of the special xenology project here at the station. We have discovered that the alien is absent from his quarters. A thorough search has been made of the station. While it may be that he is hiding somewhere, we have every reason to believe that he is on the Seeker, and not as a stowaway. We will continue to operate on that assumption unless we can be persuaded otherwise.”
The young xenologist moved forward. Sanchez gave him a stare, then nodded slowly. Bhadravati spoke toward the pickup.
“Ryozenzuzex is aboard, Maarten.”
“Jahan, is that you? I wondered where the hell you got to when the alarms went off. What’s going on?”
“Well, you know, it’s a funny thing,” the young researcher began. Ryo could see that he was very nervous and uncertain. No hint of this surfaced in his voice, but it was evident in his posture and movements, to which Ryo was more sensitive than most humans. “But the bug, as many refer to him, once saved the lives of every crew, member on this ship.”
“All that’s well known. What has it to do with the crew’s unauthorized action?” The elder spoke with feigned ignorance that would have been admirable to an AAnn, Ryo thought.
Taourit looked over at the captain. “There’s a ship detaching from the station.”
“Supralight?”
The cocontroller shook his head. “Too small. Intersystem capability only.”
She nodded once, listened as Bhadravati replied to Rijseen’s question.
“It’s not right to dissect an intelligent being, no matter that he might be understanding about it. That’s the remarkable thing about this, you know. Ryo sympathizes with the staff’s majority viewpoint. He knows about your intentions, you see.”
“You didn’t have to tell him that,” Davis’ voice said.
Bhadravati laughed. “You’re quite right, Colonel. We didn’t. He already knew. Found his file in the station bank.”
“That’s impossible!” The colonel sounded upset.
“You didn’t put a strong enough block on it. He was rummaging through and came across it himself, did the necessary bypass all by his lonesome. The Thranx are superb logicians and excellent with computers. That’s in his records too.”
The channel was silent for a while. When Davis responded it was in a gentler, more reasoning tone. “Bhadravati, there is more at stake here than you know. I admit that this Ryo individual seems friendly enough, but you cannot positively deny the possibility that his ‘escape’ from his home world might simply have been a ploy to get him to a human system.”
“If it’s a ploy, Colonel,” Sanchez said into the pickup, “it’s working damn well. Better than yours.”
“Captain Sanchez, you and everyone operating alongside you will be completely pardoned if you will just return the Seeker to dock. Otherwise you will be classed as criminals, and treated as such.”
“Ship is beginning to move outward, straight for us,” Taourit whispered.
She nodded again, her attention on the pickup. “Don’t threaten me, Colonel. I react real nervously to threats.”
“Where do you think you’re taking that ship?” Davis demanded. “Centaurus V? Three? Earth, maybe? The word will precede you. The services will be looking for the Seeker at every established station and every shuttleport on all the civilized worlds.”
“Not all the civilized worlds,” Sanchez informed him assuredly. “We considered every alternative before embarking on this, Colonel. If we’re compelled to, we’ll take Ryo home.”
“Then what?” Davis’ voice was more curious than threatening. “Once you return him to his world, where do you expect you can return to?”
“We don’t expect to,” was the quiet reply.
Dead silence came from the speaker. It was matched by the atmosphere in the control room. Since the colonel apparently could not think of a suitable response, it was Rijseen who finally resumed the conversation.
“Very well, then. We will drop the plans for the dissection. The vote was close enough to allow that. Guarantees will be drawn up so that no one can override. Not even the military.”
Davis’ voice, in the background: “You don’t have that authority, Dr. Rijseen.”
“If you will check your records,” the distant voice of the staff head advised him, “you will find that I am in complete control of this project, sir. That authority extends to anything below a direct military threat to the civilized worlds. Human civilized worlds,” he added, with just a tinge of amusement. “I do not regard one isolated and avowedly friendly alien as constituting such a threat.”
“How do we know you’ll do what you say?” asked Sanchez.
“Ask Dr. Bhadravati.”
“Obviously, Dr. Rijseen and I have disagreed on a number of matters. Or I wouldn’t be here at this moment.” Bhadravati flashed a bright smile. “I believe he is trustworthy. I have never known him to break his word. I believe it once cost him a substantial scientific prize and accompanying honors. He is one of the few scientists I know whose word is as sound as his studies.”