The plate slid easily from its holder. No alarms rang, no doors slammed shut, and no monstrous alien guardians materialized to contest their departure. Their return journey to the central island was blessedly uneventful.
Low laid the second plate alongside the first. They looked identical, but who could really tell? On the surface they might be perfect duplicates, while their internal structure might be utterly unalike. Of course, that might equally have been true of the four plates that had initially activated the asteroid-ship, he reminded himself.
The planetarium spire yielded a third plate, the locale in itself an encouraging sign. But no matter how hard they searched, they could not locate a fourth.
Low bore his frustration silently. It was one thing to have one plate, quite another to unearth three and be unable to find the critical fourth. He munched on the last of the food concentrates salvaged from their suits. Their next priority was going to have to be to find food, not cryptic metal plates.
They rested against the wall of the main chamber while they tried to decide what to do next. A resigned Low turned to his companion.
“That’s it, Maggie. I’m fresh out of ideas. Unless…”
“Don’t expect any flashes of brilliance from me. Unless what?”
“You really think you can speak the Cocytan tongue?”
She cleared her throat and rumbled something at him. It sounded like someone with a bad chest cold trying to sing Handel. He nodded approvingly.
“Pretty good. At least, it sounded pretty good. What was it?”
“Nursery rhyme, I think, or the equivalent thereof. Part of the early teaching. What did you have in mind?”
He shifted his backside on the hard floor. “You recall me telling you that I’d found one of the locals?” She nodded. “Let’s go ask it some questions. It may know where we can find a dozen plates. For that matter, it may have some better suggestions. It can’t do any worse than I have.”
She took his hand in hers. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. I know you’re used to solving every problem that comes your way, but no training could’ve prepared you for this.” She squeezed his fingers gently. “So you want me to interrogate an alien. Why not? It can’t be any harder than trying to get a straight answer out of a Beijing bureaucrat.” Her expression turned apprehensive. “What does it look like?”
“Take it easy. Nothing like the tunnel crab, or for that matter, anything else we’ve encountered since we’ve been here. It’s pretty nice-looking, actually. Tall, bipedal, has a face that doesn’t turn your stomach, two arms with hands and fingers, along with a few accouterments I don’t recognize. Its countenance is … I’m not quite sure how to describe it … noble. Yeah, that’s it. Noble. You can feel it. There’s an inner calmness that radiates from it.”
She was eying him uncertainly. “You make it sound like some kind of god.”
“No. There’s nothing deitylike about it. It’s just a decent sort of being that tried hard to communicate with me. Needless to say we didn’t have any luck. I left promising to come right back with you, but as you know, we got diverted. Will you give it a try?”
She didn’t hesitate. “In the words of the famous missing astronaut, what have we got to lose?”
“I’m not missing,” he replied. “I’m right here.”
“Yeah, but you’re a man. Naturally you think the universe revolves around you.” She climbed to her feet. “We’d better let Brink know what we’re going to do.”
“He won’t come.” Low stretched as he straightened. He was too tired to sleep.
Just as Low predicted, Brink was reclining in the storeroom, surrounded by his aura of glowing crystals. The green radiance gave him a slightly bilious look.
“I’ve resurrected a Cocytan,” he told the scientist. “Maggie’s picked up a bit of the language via some kind of cerebral transducer, or something. We’ve found three plates and we’re going to pay it a visit to see if it can point us toward a fourth. After that last business in the deep tunnel I think it would be a good idea if we all kept together.”
“Is that an order, Commander?” Brink eyed him noncommittally.
“No. Just common sense. But then, you don’t need to heed common sense anymore, do you? You’ve got life crystals.”
“I would put it differently, Commander.” Brink smiled beatifically. “But your conclusion is accurate enough. I choose to remain here.”
Maggie took a step forward. “Ludger, I’m surprised at you.
No one’s ever made contact with an alien species before. For that matter, this is the first time humans have run into anything as advanced as a lichen. As a scientist, I’d think conversing with an intelligent nonhuman life-form would be the fulfillment of your ultimate dream.”
“Financial independence and the use of a fully equipped lab is my ultimate dream, Maggie.” His expression was dreamy, distant. “So that I can study these marvelous crystals in greater depth.”
“Dammit, you’re a scientist!”
“And at the moment, a very relaxed one.” He waved imperiously. “Go and chat up your Cocytan, people. If it says anything of interest, I will listen to a report when you return.”
“Let’s go.” Low took her arm. “Can’t you see he’s under the influence, or stoned, or whatever you want to call it? He’s thinking coherently but not linearly. His brain is glazed with green.” He bestowed a look of contempt on the contented scientist, which Brink ignored with equanimity.
They left him staring mutely at the ceiling, looking for all the world like a priest who’d imbibed too much sacramental wine prior to the commencement of devotions. He might not be of any help to them in the forthcoming attempt, but neither was he likely to do any serious damage to himself.
“So this is the tomb spire.” Robbins stood in the portal that separated a familiar vaulted chamber from the transport tunnel, “Impressive.”
“I thought so.” He led her toward the central pyramid. “We have to be careful here. There are a couple of organic guardians. They’re something like the one that caught you, only smaller and cleaner. They don’t manufacture sticky capture ropes either. On the other hand, there’s less room in here to maneuver.”
“Whoa up.” She halted. “You didn’t mention anything about guardians. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m not interested in repeating that experience.”
“You think I’d be here if I didn’t think it was safe enough?”
She considered only briefly before replying. “Yeah.”
“Well, I wouldn’t,” he responded crossly. “I promise: If it’s not safe we won’t try it.” He extended a reassuring hand.
She disdained the hand but rejoined him. The pyramid loomed ahead. “How are you going to know if it’s safe?” The floor clicked hollowly under her boots. “You said there were two of these things.”
“That’s right, and I left them fighting each other. They seemed evenly matched, unable to hurt each other too badly but unable or unwilling to break away either. With luck they’ll still be snapping and kicking at each other. Or maybe they’re both dead.” He entered the tunnel.
“Or maybe,” she added, following dubiously, “they’ve recognized each other as long-lost relatives and they’re squatting somewhere up ahead waiting for the one who reintroduced them to come back.”
“It’s possible. But we’re about due for a break, I think.”
She eyed him sourly. “Now there’s a scientific approach.”
For a change, Low was right. When they paused at the entrance to the first chamber, there was no sign of the battling guardians. Not lingering to look for them, they hurried across the dangerous open area and into the next, narrower passageway. Robbins found the silence unnerving, but to Low it was bliss and balm.
Low’s Cocytan was still in the sarcophagus, but it was no longer sitting up silently surveying its surroundings. The vestigial wings or gills were not fluttering slowly against its back, and the wide intelligent eyes did not turn to inspect the visitors. Low was disappointed but not really surprised. Clearly the life crystals worked differently on different beings, and this one had been dead far longer than Brink. How much longer he could not imagine.
Once again it lay on its back atop the impressive platform, arms placed straight at its sides. Mounting the platform to gaze down at it, Low found himself wishing he’d been more insistent with Brink. For all his abnormal preoccupation with the life crystals, the scientist’s powers of observation and analysis were indisputably greater than Low’s own. He would have had thoughts and ideas to offer.
But Brink wasn’t there, and he and Robbins were. They would have to puzzle things out on their own. One option he did not consider was leaving to bring Brink back forcibly. Not only might he fail, next time entering the pyramid and reaching the inner chamber might not prove so easy.