Howling Stones (38 page)

“I’ll speak to Ascela about it.” Her comment was non-committal. “When the time is right.” They ate for a while in silence before he spoke again.

“I don’t think it’s going to matter if the howling stones are ever used to reassemble the terminal again or not. Because they were shutting down the tunnel behind me. The engineers.”

“Shutting it down?” She eyed him uncertainly. “How do you ‘shut down’ something like what we experienced? It’s too big, it’s—”

“Small,” he told her. “Very small. In the scheme of things. On the scale of mega-engineering. While they were doing it they sent me someplace else.” The dark spot in his mind that wouldn’t go away flared like burning oil. “They wanted to show me something.”

“Is that what you meant before, when you spoke about being through hell?” Her tone was gentle.

“It was the worst thing you can imagine. Universal evil. Or maybe a universe of evil, I don’t know. All I do know is that I am glad no one will ever be able to access it from Senisran. The engineers are hiding from it. At least, that’s the impression I received.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“I am not certain I do, either.” He finished the last of his juice.

“Why put a terminal on Senisran?” she wondered after a pause. “Why this world?”

“Why not Senisran? Maybe you were right, Fawn, and there are disassembled terminals on other worlds. Now that we know what to look for, we might be able to find
them.” His voice fell. “I’m just not so sure that would be such a good idea. We might accidentally open a tunnel to the wrong place. To
that
place. Only when we know more about the stones, about how they function and on what levels, will humanxkind be able to think seriously about collecting howling stones and accessing tunnels.”

She nodded understandingly. “Other worlds will have to be searched, of course. It’s the way we’re made.”

“I know. But there are all kinds of searches. Vigilant and circumspect is best. To be safe, the knowledge must be restricted and access controlled.”

“I’m certainly not sorry I missed what you went through,” she told him.

“Yes. Be glad that you did. Try as I may, and believe me, I intend to, it’s something that will never leave me. Each time I relive it, I will die a little. But there is something I will always wonder about.”

Leaning back in her chair, she deliberately put her amazing legs up on the table for him to enjoy. “What’s that?”

“If the race we’ve been calling the engineers, with their sun-girdling artificial worlds and plasma tunnels and black-hole energy vents, moved from here to there—and why. Or if this galaxy, this universe, was just another way point in their travels. In their search.”

With effortless and unsurpassing grace, she crossed her legs. “Search? What kind of search?”

Reluctantly he shifted his eyes away from the expanse of exposed flesh. “For a safe place.”

Swinging her feet to the floor and rising from her seat, she walked around the table until she was standing behind him. With great deliberation, she put one hand on his forehead and eased him back against her. She could not see him close his eyes, but she could hear him sigh.

“The Parramati are right about one thing, Pulickel Tomochelor. Each of us picks his or her own road. Me, I choose not to worry about whether one universe is battling for dominance over another, or over several.” She stroked his brow, enjoying the slight but solid weight of him against her. “For a long time I wasn’t sure that I liked you. Then I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to this installation, or to us. Now I’m not entirely sure what I want to do next.”

His voice was easy now, relaxed. “You’re not sure of very much, are you?”

“What do you expect? I’m human.” He sensed rather than saw her smile. “It’s my kusum.”

In another space, in another place unimaginably far away and incalculably difficult to reach, the Xunca considered what had happened. They would not interfere, of course. They had fled for reasons that could not be compromised and in the quiet interval that resulted had raised their civilization to heights greater than even they had once thought possible.

Others were not so fortunate. The Xunca monitored them, and so knew. But they never interfered, limiting their concern to their own safety and well-being. They could do nothing for others lest they pique the interest of the thing. If that happened, they would be forced to move again, and that was no longer such a simple matter. Besides, they had grown fond of their current cosmos.

They were confident but frightened, assured but afraid. Perhaps some day their science would reach a level that would enable them to deal finally with the ancient nemesis. Until then they could only live, and strive, and hide. Lesser civilizations would have to fend for themselves.

In their observations they had made note of one exception. Unpretentious and easy to overlook, it was so extravagantly different even they failed to understand it. Whether it could affect the thing they did not know. It seemed unlikely, but it was such an anomaly that nothing could be ruled out. Or ruled in.

So they continued to watch and monitor and observe. Not out of concern for the survival of the anomaly’s species, or out of any elevated sense of altruism, but because despite their grand and unparalleled accomplishments, they had not lost the curiosity that had raised them to their present lofty level of accomplishment.

Also, they were lonely.

By Alan Dean Foster

Published by Ballantine Books:

The Icerigger Trilogy

ICERIGGER

MISSION TO MOULOKIN

THE DELUGE DRIVERS

The Adventures of Flinx of the Commonwealth

FOR LOVE OF MOTHER-NOT

THE TAR-AIYM KRANG

ORPHAN STAR

THE END OF THE MATTER

BLOODHYPE

FLINX IN FLUX

MID-FLINX

THE HOWLING STONES

The Damned

Book One: A CALL TO ARMS

Book Two: THE FALSE MIRROR

Book Three: THE SPOILS OF WAR

THE BLACK HOLE

CACHALOT

DARK STAR

THE METROGNOME and Other Stories

MIDWORLD

NOR CRYSTAL TEARS

SENTENCED TO PRISM

SPLINTER OF THE MIND’S EYE

STAR TREK®; LOGS ONE-TEN

VOYAGE TO THE CITY OF THE DEAD

… WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE …

MAD AMOS