The subway returned before it was dark again. This time there were two cars on the train. The front car was bright and open and full of food and water as it had always been before. The second car was totally dark. Its doors did not open and its windows were covered.
“Well, well,” Max said, walking to the edge of the subway slot and trying unsuccessfully to open the second car, “what have we here?”
After the food and water had been unloaded from the front car, the subway did not depart as usual. The humans waited, but the mysterious second car refused to yield its secrets. At length Nicole and her friends decided to proceed with dinner. The conversation during the meal was subdued and full of wary speculation about their intruder.
When little Kepler innocently suggested that perhaps Eponine and Ellie might be inside the dark car, Nicole told the story again of finding Richard in a coma after his long
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sojourn with the octospiders. A sense of foreboding spread among the humans.
“We should keep a watch throughout the night,” Max suggested after dinner, “so that there can be no possibility of any kind of devious trick while we’re asleep. I’ll take the first four-hour shift.”
Patrick and Richard also volunteered to help with the watch. Before going to bed, the whole family, including Benjy and the children, marched to the edge of the platform and stared at the subway. “What could be inside, Mama?” Benjy asked.
“I don’t know, darling,” Nicole answered, hugging her son. “I really have no idea at all.”
An hour before the lights in the dome brightened the next morning, Richard and Nicole were awakened by Patrick and Max. “Come,” Max said to them excitedly, “you’ve got to see this.”
In the center of the main chamber were four large black segmented creatures that were antlike in shape and structure. To each of their three body segments were attached both a pair of legs and another pair of prehensile appendages that were, as the humans watched, busily stacking material in piles. The creatures were a wonder to behold. Each of the long, snake like “arms” had the versatility of an elephant’s trunk, with one additional capability. When any particular arm was not being used, either to lift something or to balance a weight being carried by its opposite member, that arm would withdraw into its “case” in the side of the being, where it would remain tightly coiled until needed again. Thus, when the alien beings were not performing any task, their arms were out of sight and did not impede their movement.
The stunned humans continued to watch with rapt attention as the bizarre creatures, almost two meters long and a meter tall, quickly emptied the contents of the dark subway car, briefly surveyed their stacks, and then departed with the train. As soon as the aliens had disappeared, Max, Patrick, Richard, and Nicole walked over to examine*the piles. There were objects of all shapes and sizes in the
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stacks, but the dominant single part was a long flat piece that resembled a conventional stairstep.
“If I had to guess,” Richard said, picking up a small item that was shaped like a fountain pen, “I would say that this stuff is between cement and steel in bearing strength.”
“But what is it for, Uncle Richard?” Patrick asked.
“They are going to build something, I would assume.”
“And who are theyT Max said.
Richard shrugged and shook his head. “These creatures that just left struck me as advanced domestic animals, capable of complicated sequential tasks but not real thinking.”
“So they are not Mama’s rainbow people?” Patrick said.
“Certainly not,” Nicole answered with a wan smile.
The rest of the humans, including the children, were thoroughly briefed about the new creatures during breakfast. All the adults agreed that if the aliens returned, as expected, there should be no interference with whatever task they were doing, unless it was determined that the creatures’ activities constituted some’ kind of serious threat.
When the subway pulled into its slot three hours later, two of the new beings clambered out of the front car and hurried into the center of the main chamber. Each was carrying a small pot, into which it dipped one of its arms frequently as it made bright red markings on the floor. Eventually these red lines circumscribed a region containing the subway platform, all the material that had been placed in stacks, and about half the area of the room.
Moments later, another dozen of me huge animals with the trunklike appendages poured forth from the two subway cars, several carrying on their backs large and heavy curvilinear structures. They were followed by two octospiders with unusually bright colors streaming around their spherical heads. The two octospiders sauntered into the center of the chamber, where they inspected the piles of material and then ordered the antlike creatures to begin some kind of construction task.
“So the plot thickens,” Max said to Patrick as the two
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men watched together from a distance. “It is indeed our octospider friends who are in control here, but just what in the world are they doing?”
“Who knows?” Patrick replied, mesmerized by what he was seeing.
“Look, Nicole,” Richard said a few minutes later, “over by that large stack. That ant thing is definitely reading the octospider’s colors.”
“So what do we do now?” Nicole said in a low voice.
“I guess we just watch and wait,” Richard answered.
All the construction activity took place inside the red lines that had been painted on the floor. Several hours later, after another subway load of the large curvilinear components was delivered and unloaded, the overall shape of what was being built became clear. On one side of the room a vertical cylinder, four meters in diameter, was being erected. Its top segment was eventually positioned even with the bottom of the dome. Inside the cylinder, the stairsteps were placed so that they wound up and around the center of the structure.
The work continued unabated for thirty-six hours. The octospider architects supervised the giant ants with the versatile arms. The only significant break in the activity came when Kepler and Galileo, who tired of watching the alien construction after several hours, inadvertently allowed a ball to bounce across the red paint and into one of the antlike creatures. All work halted instantly and an octospider hurried over, both to retrieve the ball and seemingly to reassure the worker. With an adroit motion of two of its tentacles, the octospider threw the ball back to the children and the work resumed.
Everyone except Max and Nicole was asleep when the aliens finished their staircase, picked up their residual materials, and departed in the subway. Max walked over to the cylinder and stuck his head inside. “Pretty impressive,” he said coyly, “but what is it for?”
“Come on, Max,” Nicole replied, “be serious* It’s obvious that we are supposed to climb the stairs.”
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“Shit, Nicole,” Max said. “I know that. But H>/iy? Why do those octospiders want us to climb out of here? You know, they’ve manipulated us since the moment we entered their lair. They have kidnapped Eponine and Ellie, moved us into the Southern Hemicylinder, and refused to let me go back to New York. What would happen if we decided not to go along with their plan?”
Nicole stared at her friend. “Max, would it be all right with you if we postponed this conversation until we’re all together in the morning? I’m very tired.”
“Certainly,” Max said. “But tell that husband of yours I think we should do something completely unpredictable, like maybe even walking back through the tunnel to the octospider lair. I have an uneasy feeling about where all this is leading us.”
“We don’t know all the answers, Max,” Nicole answered wearily, “but I really don’t see where we have much choice except to comply with their wishes as long as the octospiders control our food and water supply. Maybe in this situation we must simply have some faith.”
“Faith?” said Max. “That’s just another word for not thinking.” He walked back over to the cylinder. “And this amazing staircase could be taking us to hell as easily as heaven.”
2
In the morning the subway I returned with new food and
water. After it had departed and everyone had inspected the enclosed cylindrical structure, Max argued that the time had come for the humans to show that they were “tired of being pushed around” by the octospiders. Max suggested that he, and anyone who wanted to go with him, should take the single remaining rifle and trek back through the tunnel under the Cylindrical Sea.
“But what exactly are you trying to accomplish?” Richard asked.
“I want them to capture me and take me to where they are holding Eponine and Ellie. Then I will know for certain they are all right. Nicole’s dreams are really not sufficient.”