Anvil of Stars (35 page)

Martin, Hans, and Cham waited in the weapons store. The air in the hemisphere had cooled to just above freezing and smelled faintly of metals and salt. Hans straightened his overalls and cleared his throat. "We'll meet them casual," he said. "No hands out, nothing. Let them make the first gesture."

"What if we all just stand here?" Cham said.

"I'm patient," Hans said.

A mom entered the store and floated next to Hans. "The craft approaches now," it said.

"Christ, I'm nervous," Hans said.

A field glowed around the pylon, which pushed through a darkness in the bulkhead. Faint clunks and hums resonated throughout the chamber. The pylon returned, bringing at its tip like a fly on a frog's tongue a round craft about three meters wide with a conical protrusion, much like a squat pear. The pylon set the craft gently in a field, and the field wrapped it in purple, lowering it to the floor of the chamber.

"Our gravity will be slightly heavy for them," the mom said. "But they are very adaptable."

"Good," Hans said. His throat bobbed.

Maybe he's got a snake thing, too, Martin thought.

The pear-shaped craft opened a hatch. Within, like rope in a ship's locker, coiled three of the Brothers: red and black, cords gleaming like rich leather. They did not move at first. Then, with uncanny grace, a braid uncoiled from the mass and slid to the floor, the forward end rising and making a faint chirping noise, like summer crickets.

The second and third braids followed, and stood before the three humans separated by only a few meters of floor. Martin smelled fruity sweetness, like cheap perfume. He did not feel repugnance, or even fear; only child-like fascination, as if these were wonderful new puzzles. I like them.

The central braid coiled its rear and lifted its front end two meters above the floor. Then, in birdlike, chirping English, it said, "We we are very pleased to be With you."

Hans swallowed again, eyes wide, and said, "Welcome to the Dawn Treader. To our ship."

"Yes," said the central braid. "We we must all be curious to know. I we do not see any of females. Odd must be very odd to have two sexes when you together are thinking."

Cham grinned. Hans swallowed again. "Not so odd," he said.

"Let get closer, and touch," the Brother continued. "It is perhaps best to know what we we are."

Cham and Martin stepped forward as the central braid swayed and the other two lowered themselves to lie at full length on the floor.

"You may touch any of we us," the Brother said. "I we am speaking because this individual is most skilled this time at your language. I we will pass this along to other individuals by teaching and by giving parts of myself."

Martin bent down next to the leftmost braid and put out his hand. The cords glistened, their smooth skins finely wrinkled. Hans stood behind Martin, not stooping.

Cham touched the rightmost braid, stroked it with his palm. "It's warm," he said. "Almost hot."

Martin could feel the heat even before contact was made, like a dampered stove.

The braid shifted beneath his touch, and a cord slowly uncurled four legs, touching, scraping Martin's hand. Now he shivered; the touch was like pointed fingernails.

The smell became tangy and sweet, like wine.

"You are not touching," the central Brother said to Hans. "Touch."

Hans closed his eyes and gathered his courage. He reached out, and in a move that surprised Martin completely, wrapped his arms around the Brother and squeezed gently. The Brother wriggled beneath the pressure.

The air smelled like fresh soil.

"How do we look to you?" Hans asked, glancing up at the front end. Cords made a kind of knot there, small black eyes—four per cord—rising as the knot undid itself and the cords splayed to inspect Hans' face.

"In your visible light, you are quite interesting," the Brother said. "Like nothing familiar to we us."

"We have creatures called snakes or worms," Hans said huskily. Sweat beaded his cheeks and forehead. "You remind us of them…"

"You do not like snakes or worms? They mean harm or negatives to you?"

"I'll get over it," Hans said, looking down at Martin. "Not too bad, huh?"

"You're doing fine," Martin said.

"Thanks," Hans said, stepping back. "You fellows would be great on a cold night."

"He means," Cham said, "that to us you feel quite warm, pleasant."

"You are pleasing cool," the Brother said. "Now companions will speak. Pardon language. Lacking tongues, we we make sounds with air expelled between parts of components, and with friction on legs interior we our fore part."

"Like horns and violins," Martin said.

"I'll be damned," Hans said.

"It is true that you always are," the rightmost braid said, the tone sharp and scraping, vowels mere lapses between tones.

Martin, Cham, and Hans looked at each other, puzzled. Martin pondered if the aggregate was echoing Hans' proclamation of damnation; Cham figured out that the statement was actually a question. "I think he's asking, are we always the same person. Do our arms and legs run away when we aren't looking."

Hans grimaced. "We're always the same," he said. The central braid issued a series of cricket chirps and the air smelled of something rich and perhaps not entirely fresh. "Our bodies stay together:"

"We our guide tells us so," the middle aggregate said. "It is difficult for we us to think about."

"I understand," Hans said. "Your lifestyle… your life is difficult for us to imagine, too."

"But we we can friendly," the rightmost aggregate chirped and sang.

"Friendly we are," Hans said, smiling giddily at Martin and Cham.

"You do have no like we us?" the rightmost asked.

"Nothing like we us," the middle clarified.

"Where we… come, came from," Martin began, "colonial, aggregate creatures—beings…" He paused and took a deep breath. The three aggregates made a breathy noise as well. "Creatures made of parts existed only in simple animals and plants."

"Insects," Cham said.

"What?" Martin asked.

"Insects came together to make flowers," Cham said.

"Different," Martin said.

"Stuff it," Hans said under his breath.

"May we we see records of these colonials?" the middle asked.

"Certainly," Hans said.

"Do you regard them with disliking?" the middle asked.

"I've never met any of them, actually," Hans said. Martin admired the insouciance of the answer and hoped it wasn't lost on or misinterpreted by their new partners.

"Think in reality you are colonials, only individual is big social, society," the rightmost said.

"I think he means we're part of a social group, and that's the real individual," Cham said. "Interesting idea. Maybe we can discuss it when we know each other better."

"Do you fight each other?" the middle asked.

None of the humans answered for long seconds. Then Martin said, "Not usually, no. Do you?"

"Constituent parts may fight outside we our control," the middle aggregate said. "Do not interfere. It is normal."

Hans controlled a shiver. Martin said, "We play games, competition, to keep ourselves fit. They are a kind of fighting, but generally, nobody gets hurt."

"Components may be violent," the middle said. "No interference. It is normal. They have no minds alone."

"Make a note," Hans said to Martin facetiously. "Don't step on them."

"We we are interested how we our components react to you," the middle said.

"So are we," Hans said.

The rightmost braid touched "heads" with the middle braid and smoothly disassembled. The air smelled of vinegar and fruit. The components, fourteen of them, lay in an interwoven pile, like centipedes or snakes taught macramé. Slowly, the cords crawled apart, spreading out on the floor until they encountered the humans.

Hans' face dripped and he smelled rank. Martin felt no better.

"Shit shit shit," Cham said, but kept his place.

The cords gently nudged their feet and calves. Several cords used this opportunity to lock lengthwise and roll back and forth.

"Mating?" Hans asked.

"Dominance on their level," the middle braid responded. "It is not fighting to kill. You might call it rough play."

"Your English is wonderful," Martin said, trying to hide his fear.

"I have fine components, and am blessed with interior harmony," the middle replied.

"Congratulations," Hans said.

The two aggregates chirped and whistled-to each other. The air smelled of baking bread and sulfur.

One component advanced up Cham's pantsleg, front feelers spread wide. Martin had noticed that the feelers fit into rear invaginations when the cords locked together.

Cham could barely control his trembling.

"Our companion is not comfortable," Martin said.

"I'm fine," Cham said.

"We we anticipate distress," the middle braid said. "Must you get accustomed."

"We must," Hans said, more to Cham than in answer.

"Right," Cham said. The cord crawled up his leg to his side.

"It is not behaving violently," the middle braid reassured.

"By the way," Cham said, his voice high-pitched and shaky.

"We use names to address each other." The cord advanced around his chest, slipped, grabbed hold of the overalls material.

"You may touch it," the middle braid said.

"How do we… what names can we use for you?"

"We we have discussed," the middle said. "As each of we our aggregates learn language, they will pick names. You may call I me mine Stonemaker. Disassembled braid, when together again may be Shipmaker. Other may be Eye on Sky."

"Enjoy stars," the leftmost braid said.

"Like Hakim," Martin said.

"Your names," the middle braid requested.

"Our names are sounds, sometimes without meaning," Martin said. "I am Martin. This is Hans. And this is Cham."

"Bread and jam food," the leftmost said.

"Cham, not jam," Cham corrected.

"Martin animal," Stonemaker observed. "From word lists."

"Hands for picking up with," said Eye on Sky.

Hans smiled stiffly.

"Do you like component, Jam?" the middle braid asked Cham.

"It hurts when it grabs," Cham said. "Can you speak to them?" The cord's feelers explored his face. Cham bent his neck back as far as he could.

"No," Stonemaker said. "But we we make them assemble. Looks it enjoys humans."

"Wonderful," Cham said.

"No biting," Stonemaker observed.

"Yes, we've had some concerns… about that," Hans said. "Can they hurt us?"

"That would be distressing," Stonemaker said.

"End of aggregate whose part did wrong," Eye on Sky added.

"Wouldn't want that, would we?" Cham said. He put his hands up to stroke the cord, which had crawled lower. It had wrapped around his chest, tail under right arm, head and feelers under left, and stopped moving.

"It likes the way you smell," Martin said to reassure his crewmate.

"Very true," Stonemaker said. "To me self my you smell friendly."

They don't know us very well. We stink of fear, Martin thought.

"Good," Hans said. "If Stonemaker agrees, we'll try a larger group next. Twenty of our crew, twenty of his individuals. Then we'll combine Dawn Treader and Journey House and carry on with the Job."

Stonemaker chirped and the room smelled of tea and lilac. The cord dropped abruptly from Cham's chest and landed on the floor with a hollow smack, then aligned with the other cords beside Stonemaker and reassembled. The braid reared and stretched until it touched the base of the pylon, twelve feet over their heads.

"We my components reproduced and made Shipmaker," Stonemaker said. "He is either brother or son, perhaps we we talk which sometime."

Twenty of the human crew and twenty Brothers gathered in the schoolroom. Martin could not tell the Brothers apart yet. Clicks and chirps and bowed violin speech; Rosa Sequoia, approaching and embracing a Brother; Paola Birdsong singing to another; there was a carnival atmosphere to the meeting that set Martin at ease. However strange the Brothers might seem, there was enough common ground and likable traits for both sides to demonstrate quick, almost easy friendship.

Ariel stayed close to Martin after the first ten minutes. "It's going well," she said.

"Seems to be."

"I thought it would take a while," she said.

"So did I. They haven't broken down into cords yet. Cords aren't quite as personable."

"So Cham told me. The difference between animals and people. Will that cause problems?"

Martin pushed his lips out, frowned. "Probably," he said. "I think we can adjust."

"We've been stuck with each other for so long," said Jennifer. "It's nice to have somebody new to talk to." She walked past Martin and Ariel, a Brother following closely, chattering in broken English about numbers. Martin smelled cabbage cooking and wrinkled his nose.

Giacomo played a finger-matching game with another braid. He lifted his closed hand, shook it twice, opened two fingers. The aggregate reared back, shivered with a sound like corn husks, weaved its head through a figure eight, said, "I we am wrong, wrong."

Rex Live Oak approached Martin. "Hans wants the past Pans to convene in a few minutes in his quarters."

Cham and Joe Flatworm accompanied Martin along the connecting hallways. Joe was ebullient. "Christ, they're snakes, but they're real charmers."

"Snakes charming us, is that it?" Cham asked.

"Ha ha. Much easier than I thought," Joe said. "We can work with them."

Hans seemed gloomy as they entered his quarters. They sat in a broken circle and Hans squatted to finish the loop. Rex Live Oak stood outside the circle, arms folded.

"Stonemaker and I talked a little," Hans said. "He still has the best English. I asked questions about their command structure. Here's what I've learned so far. Every few days—our days, not theirs—they create a command council by pooling cords, each braid donating two. The pooled cords make a big slicking braid called Maker of Agreement or something like that. This braid uses memories from all the cords and makes decisions. The cords take these decisions back to their braids. There's nothing like giving orders. That worries me. "