Nemesis

‘I haven't spotted intelligence anywhere but on this world,’ said Blankowitz.

‘You haven't looked, either,’ said Wu. ‘We'd really have to scan the heavens to spot a Settlement or two, but once you detected plexons from this world, you looked nowhere else.’

‘I will if you think it's necessary.’

Wendel held up her hand. ‘If there are Settlements, why haven't they spotted us ? We've made no attempt to shield our energy emissions. After all, we were pretty confident that this star system was empty.’

Wu said, ‘They may have had the same overconfidence, Captain. They haven't been looking for us, either, and so we've slipped past them. Or, if they have detected us, they may be uncertain as to who - or what - we are, and they're hesitating as to what action to take, just as we are. What I say, though, is that we do know one spot on the surface of this large satellite where there must be human beings, and I think we must go down and make contact with them.’

‘Do you think it would be safe to do so?’ asked Blankowitz.

‘My guess,’ said Wu firmly, ‘is that it would be. They can't shoot us out of hand. After all, they'd want to know more about us before they do so. Besides, if all we dare do is stay here in uncertainty, then we will accomplish absolutely nothing and we ought to go back home and tell them what we have discovered. Earth will send out a whole fleet of superluminal vessels, but they won't be thankful to us if we come back with only minimal information. We'll go down in history as the expedition that flinched.’ He smiled blandly. ‘You see, Captain, I've learned a few lessons from Fisher.’

Wendel said, ‘Then you think we should now go down and make contact.’

‘Absolutely,’ said Wu.

‘And you, Blankowitz?’

‘I'm curious. Not about the dome, but about the possible alien life. I'd want to find out about them, too.’

‘Jarlow?’

‘I wish we had adequate weapons, or hypercommunication. If we're wiped out, Earth will have found out nothing - absolutely nothing - as the result of our trip. Then it might be that someone else will come here as unprepared as we and just as unsure. Still, if we survive the contact, we'll be going back with important knowledge. I suppose we should chance it.’

Fisher said quietly, ‘Are you going to ask me for my opinion, Captain?’

‘I assume that you wish to land to see the Rotorians.’

‘Exactly, so may I suggest- Let's land as quietly as we can, and as unobtrusively, and I'll leave the ship to reco

Wendel said at once, her face seeming to tighten, ‘Why you?’

Fisher said, ‘Because I know the Rotorians, at least, and because I - wish to go.’

‘I, too,’ said Wu. ‘I must be with you.’

‘Why risk two?’ asked Fisher.

‘Because two are safer than one. Because, in case of trouble, one might escape while the other holds off the threat. And most of all, because, as you say, you know the Rotorians. Your judgement may be warped.’

Wendel said, ‘We will land, then. Fisher and Wu will leave the ship. If, at any time, Fisher and Wu disagree on procedure, Wu will be the decision-maker.’

‘Why?’ demanded Fisher indignantly.

‘Wu has said you know the Rotorians and your decisions may be warped,’ said Wendel, looking at Fisher firmly, ‘and I agree with him.’

Marlene was happy. She felt as if she were wrapped in gentle arms, protected, shielded. She could see the reddish light of Nemesis and feel the wind against her cheeks. She could watch the clouds obscure part or all of Nemesis' large globe, now and then, so that the light would dim and turn grayish.

But she could see as easily in the gray as in the red, and she could see in shades and tints that made fascinating patterns. And though the wind grew cooler when Nemesis' light was hidden, it never chilled her. It was as though Erythro were somehow enhancing her sight, somehow warming the air around her body when necessary, somehow caring for her in every way.

And she could talk to Erythro. She had made up her mind to think of the cells that made up the life on Erythro as Erythro. As the planet. Why not? What else? Individually, the cells were only cells, as primitive - much more primitive, in fact - than the individual cells of her own body. It was only all of the prokaryote cells together that made up an organism that encircled the planet in a billion trillion tiny interco

How odd, thought Marlene. This giant life-form must never, before the coming of Rotor, have known that anything live existed other than itself.

Her questions and sensations did not have to exist entirely in her mind. Erythro would rise before her sometimes, like thin gray smoke, consolidating into a wraithlike human figure wavering at the edges. There was always, about it, a flowing feeling. She could not actually see that, but she sensed, beyond doubt, that millions of invisible cells were leaving each second and immediately being replaced by others. No one prokaryote cell could exist for long out of its water film, so that each was only evanescently part of the figure, but the figure itself was as permanent as it wished to be, and never lost its identity.

Erythro did not take Aurinel's form again. It had gathered, without being told, that that was disturbing. Its appearance was neutral now, changing slightly with the vagaries of Marlene's own thought. Erythro could follow the delicate changes of her mind pattern far better, she decided, than she herself could, and the figure adjusted to that, looking more like some figure in her mind's eye at one moment, and then as she tried to focus on it and identify it, it would shift gently into something else. Occasionally, she could catch glimpses: the curve of her mother's cheek, Uncle Siever's strong nose, bits of the girls and boys she had met at school.

It was an interactive symphony. It was not so much a conversation between them as a mental ballet she could not describe, something that was infinitely soothing, infinite in variety - partly changing appearance - partly changing voice - partly changing thought.

It was a conversation in so many dimensions that the possibility of going back to communication that consisted only of speech left her feeling flat, lifeless. Her gift of sensing by body language flowered into something she had never imagined earlier. Thoughts could be exchanged far more swiftly - and deeply - than by the coarse crudeness of speech.

Erythro explained - filled her, rather - with the shock of encountering other minds. Minds . Plural. One more might have been grasped easily. Another world. Another mind. But to encounter many minds, crowding on each other, each different, overlapping in small space. Unthinkable.

The thoughts that permeated Marlene's mind as Erythro expressed itself could be expressed only distantly and unsatisfactorily in words. Behind those words, overflowing and drowning them, were the emotions, the feelings, the neuronic vibrations that shattered Erythro into a rearrangement of concepts.

It had experimented with the minds - felt them. Not felt as human beings would mean ‘felt’, but something else entirely that could be approached very distantly by that human word and concept. And some of the minds crumpled, decayed, became unpleasant. Erythro ceased to feel minds at random, but sought out minds that would withstand the contact.

‘And you found me?’ said Marlene.

‘I found you.’

‘But why? Why did you look for me?’ she asked eagerly. The figure wavered and turned smokier. ‘Just to find you.’

It was no answer. ‘Why do you want me to be with you?’

The figure started to fade and the thought was a fugitive one. ‘Just to be with me.’

And it was gone.

Only its image was gone. Marlene felt its protection still, its warm enclosure. But why had it disappeared? Had she displeased it with her questions?

She heard a sound.

On an empty world it is possible to catalogue the sounds briefly, for there aren't many. There is the noise of flowing water, and the more delicate moan of blowing air. There are the predictable noises you make yourself, whether the falling of a footstep, the rustle of clothing, or the whistle of breath.

Marlene heard something that was none of these, and turned in the direction of it. Over the rocky outcropping on her left, there appeared the head of a man.

Her first thought, of course, was that it was someone from the Dome who had come to get her, and she felt a surge of anger. Why would they still be searching for her? She would refuse to wear a wave-emitter from now on, and they would then have no way of locating her except by blind search.

But she did not recognize the face and surely she had met everyone in the Dome by now. She might not know the individual names or anything about them, but she would know, when she saw anyone from the Dome, that she had seen that face before.

She had not seen this new face anywhere in the Dome. Those eyes were staring at her. The mouth was a little open, as if the person were panting. And then whoever it was was topping the rise and ru

She faced him. The protection she felt around her was strong. She was not afraid.

He stopped ten feet away, staring, leaning forward as though he had reached a barrier he could not penetrate, one that deprived him of the ability to advance farther. Finally, he said in a strangled voice, ‘Rosea

Marlene stared at him, observing carefully. His micro-movements were eager and radiated a sense of ownership: possession, closeness, mine, mine, mine.

She took a step backward. How was that possible?

Why should he-

A dim memory of a holoimage she had once seen when she was a little girl-

And finally, she could deny it no more. However impossible it sounded, however unimaginable-

She huddled within the protective blanket and said,

‘Father?’

He rushed at her as though he wanted to seize her in his arms and she stepped away again. He paused, swaying, then put one hand to his forehead as though fighting dizziness.

He said, ‘Marlene. I meant to say Marlene.’

He pronounced it incorrectly, Marlene noticed. Two syllables. But that was right for him. How would he know?