Torkel looked about to explode, Whittaker’s face was wreathed in smiles, and Braddock Makem almost fainted.
“Not a monstrous sentient life-form”, Messer Anaciliact, but most certainly a sentient being.” Marmion corrected him with a smile, hardly daring to believe the good luck that had brought not only CIS, but Phon Tho in particular, to them at this time. And they had Matthew and his nephew to thank for the man’s prompt arrival! It was a mercy to Matthew that he wasn’t here. The knowledge would probably seriously impede his recovery. She continued, “The sentience is not a monstrous one. That was a perception entertained only by the witness and the people he forcibly influenced. He was the monster.”
“I shouldn’t doubt that a bit,” Anaciliact said, remembering vividly his distaste for the witness in question. “I stand corrected.”
“You also stand on this supposed sentient being,” Torkel snapped, jabbing his index finger at the floor.
The dark arching eyebrows in Anaciliact’s dusky-complected face rose high in his forehead. “Do I take it you mean the planet is sentient?”
“It most certainly is,” Whittaker and Marmion said in firm chorus. Then Marmion, seeing Yana and Sean close by, gestured urgently for them to come to her.
“And this is the finding of the committee?”
“Most decidedly,” Bal Jostique said, with a nervous glance at the piled stone skyscrapers looming where Intergal’s runway and the streets and buildings of SpaceBase had been.
“We were interrupted before formal adjournment, messer,” Chas amended, “but I think if you check with Farringer Ball you will find that Intergal has decided to …”
Anaciliact held up his hand, his expression counseling silence. “Intergal has overstepped its bounds in deciding anything without consultation with CIS. And your statement, Dr. Fiske, that two persons have been appointed governors of this … living body … is totally out of order. No sentient creature may be coerced, only negotiated with.”
“That’s been my argument all along,” Yana said, having been close enough to hear the last statement.
“The problem has been trying to get Intergal to accept that this planet is sentient,” Sean Shongili said, standing close enough to Yana to hold one of her hands discreetly behind him. “Now that we have re-established contact with the secretary-general of Intergal, Farringer Ball, he seems to be willing to believe the proof.” He gestured in the direction of the singularly elevated field.
“That is as well, I suppose,” Anaciliact said suavely, “for the … ab … extrusion seems to have limited itself in a most unusual fashion and in the most clear terms that it wishes this facility evacuated. So that I may commune with the sentience, I will also require the removal of even the indigenous personnel”
He was interrupted by a rumbling that seemed to make the solid floor underfoot ripple from one end to the other.
“Messer Anaciliact,” Marmion said, waggling a finger at him, “I believe the planet just said ‘No.’ It likes the people who live here; it protects them in ways that cause them to die very quickly when removed from its custody.”
The CIS representative’s expression had altered as he staggered to keep his balance. “It cannot so quickly perceive’
Another rumble, quicker, so that it appeared to be more emphatic.
“We weren’t supposed to get any aftershocks,” Braddock Makem murmured, thoroughly dismayed.
“Messer Anaciliact,” Sean began, smiling and with a little conciliatory bow, “I think it would be best if we took you to one of those special places where the planet communicates with us in its unique fashion. I believe it is quite ready to discuss the terms of its … use as a habitation and the uses to which its gifts may be put.”
“Don’t, I beseech you, Messer Anaciliact,” Torkel said, on the point of grabbing the hands of the CIS representative, who deftly avoided him, “go into one of those misty caves! It’s all hallucinogenic. You’ll believe anything.”
“Captain …”
“Fiske, Torkel Fiske.” The man’s handsome features were contorted with the urgency of his entreaty. “You’ll end up like them!” He gestured toward his father, Yana, Marmion, and Sean.
“My dear Captain Fiske, I am conditioned to reject any hallucinogenics and drugs, and trained to perceive illusions or spells of any nature,” Anaciliact replied with imperturbable and gentle reassurance. “I assure you I am well able to probe the substance of sentience in all forms of creatures to the exact degree of self-awareness and percipience. Now, if we may just proceed to wherever it is I may start my investigations?”