Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 (6 page)

They touched the floor of the chamber. There was an eerie luminous glow in the cavern which made it possible to see without a light, although the details were unclear. Six flashed a light around, trying to pick out the bimorph, and Diva walked over to the edge of the lake made of ortholiquid, and squinted into the distance.

“Visitor? VISITOR!”

There was no answer from the cavern, although her shout was amplified and returned to her in ever-dwindling repetitions of the last syllable. She went towards the walls, where the amorphs could generally be found. There were no signs of them either. She frowned. This didn’t feel right. Something had changed the ecosystem of the cave.

Six was examining his surroundings too. “Can you see anything?” he muttered.

“Something feels wrong, Six.”

“Yes. The amorphs don’t seem to be here anymore. And the lake looks dull, doesn’t it. Out of sorts?”

“Perhaps the amorphs are necessary for its survival. If they have gone …?”

“—And there is clearly no sign of the visitor anywhere. I don’t think there is very much point in staying down here, do you?”

“Not really. But it might be a bit hasty just to leave straight away.”

Diva looked around at the lake and its uncanny green glow. “I suppose.” Her tone of distaste showed exactly how she felt about that, and Six had to stop himself from holding out a hand. He knew that much, at least.

“We should check out the lake,” he said. “Want to come for a swim?”

“Definitely not!”

“Then I’ll go in on my own. I won’t be long – just want to check out that centre column, and make sure I can’t see any amorphs.”

“Fine.” Diva waited as he splashed his way into the lake, looking around her. The further away he got, the more a feeling of isolation took her over, but she certainly didn’t want to get soaked to the skin on top of everything else. Eventually, she sat down near the edge of the lake, and watched him as he swam strongly towards the centre dip, dived a few times and then made his way back. When the ortholiquid was shallow enough for him to touch the bottom with his toes, he began to talk to her again.

“No sign of any amorphs,” he said, trying to propel himself through the liquid and towards the shore with his hands. “They seem to have vanished into thin air.”

“
Six
…!
”

“What?”

“
The lake!
”

He paused and looked around him. “What’s the matter? I can’t see anyth—
uh-oh
!”

Even he could see the massive build-up within the lake; a large swell was coming towards him, and the depth of the ortholiquid increasing accordingly.

Diva stood up. “Be CAREFUL! GET OUT OF THERE!”

Six regarded the oncoming swell and knew that he wouldn’t have time. He saw that Diva was nearly at the liquid’s edge, and held up a hand. When she didn’t take any notice he gave a shout. “DON’T COME IN! GET BACK!”

Diva stopped, her arms hanging uselessly by her side. The chamber around them was filling with a dull roar. It got louder and louder, reverberating around the rock walls until they covered their ears, afraid they would be deafened. Then the lake began to tremble, the surface forming tiny vortices which spun in whirlpools. A vortex had formed with Six at its focal point. The liquid began to swirl around and around him too, and they turned and looked across at each other over the expanse of liquid as the noise became unbearable.

As suddenly as it had started, the thunderous rumble stopped again, and the whole chamber was suddenly returned to absolute silence. They looked at each other in some confusion, and then Six looked around him. Nothing had changed in his near surroundings. Diva opened her mouth to shout a comment, and then closed it with a snap as she realized just what was happening: the surface of the lake was feeling its way up his body.

Even though Six had been expecting something like this it was really hard to make himself stand absolutely still. The liquid began to climb stealthily up his clothes, until it was around his neck. He and Diva gazed at each other in horrified anticipation, as it crept further and further up him, covering first his mouth, and then his nose, before it slipped over his eyes and coated them completely. Then the cavern returned to silent rays of light flickering off a calm surface. There was no longer any sign of Six. Diva stared at the still surface of the lake in horror, one hand over her mouth.

SIX FELT THE coating of ortholiquid drain away from his eyes, and opened them warily. He was standing in front of a huge expanse of more of the liquid, in an underground cavern. But there were just two problems; it wasn’t the same cavern as the last time, and there was no sign of Diva.

He looked all around, frantically searching for the Coriolan girl, but it was useless; she had disappeared. The lake had transported him to a different location. He waded towards the edge of the ortholake, wondering how Diva would take being left alone in the semi-darkness. He shook his head. There was nothing he could do right now about her. As he reached the shore, he closed his mind to the possibility that he might be trapped. Then he walked over to the side of the new cavern, and turned his attention to the walls, peering into the recesses to see if any of the amorphs were here.

At first he could see nothing, but then his eyes became accustomed to the darkness. He moved over to the dark areas below the rocky cliff face which soared into the heights of the cavern dome. There was still nothing to be seen, and he was on the point of giving up when he caught the slightest movement to his right. He froze, not wanting to startle the small beings; not wanting to spoil all his chances of seeing these creatures who might in some way be able to sense who he was looking for. Gradually the amorphs appeared at his feet; they seemed drawn to him, clustering around until he would risk standing on one of them if he moved. He wondered what his chances were of finding the visitor or the trimorphs. If there were many of these underground caverns it could be that he had no possibility at all of finding one particular being. He looked down at the creatures at his feet, and gave a lengthy sigh. Then he squatted and picked one of them up. It lay for a moment in the palm of his hand, and then seemed to spin, and his hand burnt, forcing him to drop it.

“So what now, genius?” he asked himself. “Think of something useful to do!”

Hard as he tried, he couldn’t make any progress. He had managed to find an underground cavern, certainly, but last time it was the three amorphs that had found him, not the other way around, and he didn’t know enough about the habits of these small creatures to know how to get their attention. His mind kept turning to Diva, alone in the dark. Finally he slumped down to the floor. He would need to rest for a while if he were to make any attempt to scale the alarmingly vertical rock faces surrounding this particular cavern. And he could see very little light above him. It may be that this cavern was not connected to the surface; that there would be no escape for him.

SIX WAS GLOOMILY propped up with his back to one of the soaring rock faces when the creatures found him. The first one suddenly appeared, hovering in front of him.

“Six,” it acknowledged.

“Visitor?” He scrambled to his feet eagerly.

The small being modified its shape slightly, showing its discontent. “No,” it said. “The visitor is gone.”

“Gone? How can he be gone? Arcan?”

“I am the fusion of one of the Arcan amorphs with the black canth.”

“So that makes you what Grace calls a trimorph.”

The small globe considered the name, and then flashed. “I like that. Yes.”

There was another glitter of light, and an identical being appeared beside the first.

“Why did you leave me on my own …” it said rather crossly, before noticing the larger shape in front of it. “Oh! Hello, Six!”

“You must be the other trimorph.”

“We call ourselves the twins,” it told him sternly.

“Err … How do you do? Are you quite well? Did the joining with the canths go according to plan?”

The twin twinkled in the darkness of the cavern. “It was most satisfactory. There was a feeling of unity, of … of inevitability. It was as if this were something that should have happened many, many millions of years ago. The lost anima symbionts have come home.”

Six looked from one to the other. “I can’t tell you apart.”

“Of course not. That is why we call ourselves the twins.”

“Do you think alike? I mean, do you both think like Arcan, or do the canths come into your characters too?”

The trimorph went a beautiful shade of brilliant white. “The canths are part of us. They help us shine. We have Arcan’s brain – though with limited potential, of course – but their sense of emotion, and the lost animas of Xiantha give us the most wonderful memories and feelings, too. It is marvelous – we can be happy!”

“Is Arcan never happy, then?”

The first trimorph – Six thought it was the first – went momentarily dark. “No. He doesn’t have it in him to be happy, exactly. He is … alone.”

The second one twittered alongside his twin. “Alone,” he agreed. “He can never feel like we do. But we—” he spun and spun until he lit up the cavern, “—we have each other. We are never alone.”

“But you don’t know where the visitor bimorph is? You haven’t seen him?”

“He isn’t here. We can feel him, because we have the quantum non-locality of the lost animas – but he is so far away that it is only the slightest touch. We have been waiting for you all to come, because the visitor is trapped.”

“Trapped? Where?”

“On Dessia.”

“DESSIA? How? What? When?”

The two twins spun around each other and Six lost any hope of telling them apart.

“You are so slow, Six. Can’t you get your mind to work any more quickly?”

“My mind works quicker than most.”

They seemed to titter amongst themselves. “Relative to what? A monkey? A vaniven?”

Six glared. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all,” they chorused politely. “Not if you don’t. Though it is hard to see how you couldn’t.”

“Are you just going to hover there insulting me all day, or are you going to help me get out of here?”

“How did you get here?”

Six told them about the lake, and that Diva was back in the original cavern, probably worried.

The twins didn’t seem able to grasp the concept of worried. “She knows where she is,” one of them told Six.

“Yes, but she doesn’t know where I am,” he pointed out.

“And that will make her sad?”

Six wasn’t too sure. “It
might
.” Even he could hear the rather wistful tone to his voice. “She will be … uncomfortable. She might be scared.”

“
Diva
?
Scared
?” they chorused.

“Well, she might be worried about me.”

They consulted silently with each other, a series of flashes traveling through both of them. They didn’t appear to find that very likely. Then they turned to Six. “All right,” one of them told him. “Would you like us to visit her now?”

“Yes, well. Girls, you know. There is something about dank dark caverns that seems to upset them.”

“You do not mind the dark yourself?”

Six gave a rather false laugh. “Me? I am used to the dark. But Diva is bound to be wondering where I am, so I suppose I will have to stop sitting around having so much fun, and get myself out of here. She will need somebody to haul her up the last part. Grace came down to Pictoria in the other shuttle with Ledin. She won’t be much use – not the way her hands are now, but Ledin ought to be able to help Diva up that last shaft. You will have to transport to the top of the butte, too, and tell them what has happened.”

“You think you can manage on your own?”

Six looked miserably upwards. The walls of this cavern looked particularly vertical; he had no rope and no light. He gave a sigh.

“You might like to check back on me from time to time.”

“We will come back to you as soon as we can.”

“I will tell my butler to admit you.”

“I don’t understand.”