Light began to fill the room, shining out from several stafflike objects being carried into the room by other Nomes. It was light of a brilliant blue-white color, not exactly what I’d have chosen for lighting; but it saved on batteries and our host had apparently had this whipped together just for us. “That’s just great, Rokhaset!”
“You had your people do that up now?” Jodi asked. “Well, I’m impressed. Can I take a look?”
“By all means, Jodi.” It was still pretty strange to hear such courteous and very well-spoken English coming out of that unmoving mouth. The only oddity to the sound was a slight hollow resonance, but in this cavern setting it was hardly noticeable.
Jodi studied the twisted stony shaft, which ended in a crystal that produced the light. “How do you turn it on and off?”
“I suppose I could instruct it to turn off, but do you not still require the light?”
“Oh, sure, sure. What do you mean, instruct it? Is this gadget voice-activated?”
Rokhaset tilted his head a few times. “There you are, using these words oddly. Tell me, would you call our pets gadgets?”
“You mean those things we call rockworms? No, they’re creatures.”
“Then what you hold there is not a gadget either, if I understand you correctly.”
Jodi nearly dropped the rod. “Are you saying that this thing is alive?”
“As alive as I am,” the High Spirit agreed. “Not, I confess, nearly as capable of other activities as I. We grew that very quickly for one purpose only, to make that crystal hevrat in the same gos as your ‘lights’ . . . how would that be in your language . . . hmm . . . Yes, we made it to glow in the same way as your lights do. It provides little for us to sense, but for you it appears to suffice quite well.”
I shifted uncomfortably, then glanced down at the chair. “And what about . . .”
I almost got the impression of a broad smile. “Ah, you have noticed that they grow, have you? Yes, certainly! How else could we have chairs that all would be comfortable in, for my people vary in size as do yours?”
Jodi and I exchanged glances. I could see her mind following the same path. We kept getting deceived by the Nome’s human-sounding voice and his—or, to be more accurate, the makatdireskovi’s—grasp of our language, derived from the past forty years of broadcasts. Clearly we had much in common with the Nomes, and there was no reason we couldn’t be friends. But, just as clearly, there were some very, very alien aspects to their civilization. The thought that even the furniture I was sitting on, the lights I was seeing . . . “Is everything here alive?”
Surprisingly, that made Rokhaset pause; almost I could see him frowning in thought. “In a sense, yes . . . but not in the same sense as these things, no. The Earth itself is alive in its own way, but certainly there is a difference between the ordinary stone about us and ourselves, or these chairs or your new lights.”
Servant Nomes moved to the High Spirit, and other Nomes came in and seated themselves—leaving a respectful, and possibly fearful, distance between us and their leader. The servants placed several stony bowls, plates, and platters on the table. There was a quick discussion with some glancing at us, which Rokhaset resolved with a gesture. “I presume you have brought at least some of your own food, Mr. Slade, Ms. Goldman? For it is time for me to eat, but I suspect our food is not to your taste.”
“We’ve brought some stuff, yeah.”
Five huge covered platters were carried to the table, heavy enough to require two Nomes each, and placed carefully in front of the diners. The one in front of the High Spirit unfolded its top like a flower at his touch.
In the brilliant blue-white glow, the dishes within shimmered with the colors of the rainbow. There were slices of some rich brown and yellow rippled stuff that looked almost like a chocolate and yellow swirled cake, some brilliantly red fruitlike things, some really peculiar transparent sticks, and other things like noodles, puddings, and crumbled croutons.