Footfall

Arvid said, “So they have an asteroid base.”

“But they are pushing it,” Dmitri said. “Can’t you feel it?”

The hum of the drive: he had learned to ignore it, but it was there.”

Pushing it-yes. Where? I ca

“I was lucky. One of the star-views turned to look sideways at an oval hatch. It opened while I watched, and a big metal snake uncoiled. Then the view shifted, and it was a view from the head of the snake, looking at another metal snake as it coiled itself into its own hatch. Then it turned and looked back along the hull. I saw quite a lot before it turned again and looked at nothing but stars. Aft of the ship is a violet-white haze. Ships are mounted along the rim, big ships, but there were many empty mountings.”

“Empty. Good,” Dmitri said. “Perhaps ships we have destroyed.”

“And perhaps ships that remain to attack our world,” Arvid said. “You have done well, Nikolai.”

Women! It has been long…

26. CONFRONTATION

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

If then I do that which I would not. I consent unto the law that it is good.

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil that I would not, that I do.

The Herdmaster paused at the door. More problems awaited him inside. At least I will no longer have the strange views of Fathisteh-tulk to confound me. One of the guards moved to open the door.

Where can he be? He must be dead. A secret corpse, and a key to more terrible secrets. “Thiparteth-fuft!”

“Lead me, Herdmaster.”

“Have the funeral pits searched. I am certain that the Advisor is dead, and I wish to know how he died.”

“At once”

Dead or not, I had no choice. Pastempeh-keph trampled conflicting feelings deep into the muddy substrate of his mind. The Traveler Herd must continue, and without an Advisor no decisions are possible. A replacement was needed. I have found one. Why am I so disturbed?

Siplisteph is a good choice. He has been to Winterhome. He commanded spaceborn, and they accepted his leadership. The sleeper females acclaimed him even though he is not mated. Now he must mate—  Pastempeh-keph thought of eligible females. There are so few. Would the sleepers accept a spaceborn mare for the Advisor? That would go far toward uniting the Traveler Herd.

The door opened. Pastempeh-keph moved decisively into the theater. He need not have bothered to compose himself. Siplisteph, Raztupisp-minz, and Fistarteh-thuktun were shoulder to shoulder before the projection wall. They did not look up.

Thiparteth-fuft lifted his s

The equipment had come from Winterhome; the only fithp equipment was a makeshift transformer to mate the human recording machines to Message Bearer’s current.

The Herdfnaster stood behind them. The forward and inward walls were a smooth white curve, a screen that would serve under thrust or spin. Advisor, breaker, and priest were in agitated argument. Their waving digits made shadows on the forward wall, where two humans similarly waved their arms and bellowed, trumpeted, a sound no fi’ could have matched. To fithp ears it seemed a song of rage and distress. Their clothes were thick, layered, a padding against cold. The male waved something small and sharp that glittered.

“At last my digits are whole again,” Raztupisp-minz translated.

“Meaning?” the Herdmaster asked.

The three fithp turned quickly. “Your pardon,” the Breaker said. “I did not hear you enter.”

“No matter. I ask again, what was the meaning of what the human said?”

“None. He was not crippled.” Raztupisp-minz turned back to the screen.

The Ilerdmaster waited. The humans on the screen huddled, conspired, all in that ear-splintering keening voice. “Have you ever heard them speak like that?” the Herdmaster demanded.

“Once. Nikolai, the legless one, spoke like that at length once, but far more softly. They call it singing.”

“What are they building?”

Breaker-One Raztupisp-minz only folded his digits across his scalp.

“The other recordings,” Raztupisp-minz demanded. “Siplisteph, you have brought others.”

Siplisteph only needed a moment to change tapes.

The four humans looked soft and vulnerable without their clothing. Two patches of fur apiece only pointed up their nakedness. Alien music played eerily across fithp nerves. “Mating.” Said Breaker-One, “Odd. I had the idea they sought privacy when they did that. Herdmaster, that isn’t the female’s genital area at all!”

“But that is the male’s.”

“Oh, yes. I’ve never seen it in that state… but of course they usually cover themselves. Does it seem to you that she might harm him accidentally?”

The priest spoke. “Why would they record this? Advisor, where was this found?”

“All tapes came from two sources, a building that displayed 83 of such, and one room of a dwelling. They’re marked. Ah, this came from the dwelling.”

The scene had shifted. Here was the same female and a different male, both covered. Not for long. Raztupisp-minz said, “I don’t see how children could be born of this. Yet they seem to think they’re mating… Ah, that seems more likely. Could we be viewing an instnction tape? Might humans need instruction on how to mate?”

“A ridiculous suggestion,” the priest scoffed. “What animal does not know how to mate?”

“Entertainment,” Siplisteph said. “So I was told by one who surrendered.”

“You are certain?” Breaker-one asked.

“No. I know too little of their language.”

Fistarteh-thuktun continued to stare at the screen. “I… I think there can be no good reason for such an entertainment.”

The Herdmaster moved forward to join Siplisteph, It was irritating that his Advisor must here perform two functions at once. “You have been to Winterhome. You have seen thousands of humans, more than any of us. Have you formed opinions?”

“None. Nowhere in these tapes do humans act as I have seen them act. I wonder if they act the part of something other than humans. Not Predecessors, but… there are words, god and archetype.”

“They could hardly pretend to be ready to mate. Show me the first one again,” the Herdmaster said. And presently he asked, “Did we just witness a killing? Show that segment again.”

Siplisteph did. An arm swung; the man in the strange chair mimed agony; the chair tilted and the man fell backward through the floor. “They never die so calmly,” the new Advisor said. “They fight until they ca

“The neck is very vulnerable,” Raztupisp-minz objected. “A nerve trunk could be cut — but the fat one would then be a rogue. Why does the female associate with him? Could a pair of rogues form their own herd?”

“You are quiet, Fistarteh-thuktun. What do you believe of this?”

The priest splayed his digits wide. “Herdmaster, I learn. Later I will speak.”

“You do not seem pleased”

There was no answer.

“A place of puzzles,” Pastempeh-keph said. “They surrender and have not surrendered. Their tapes show rogues acting in collusion. They live neither in herds nor alone. What are they?”

“What do they believe themselves to be?” Fistarteh-thuktun asked. “Perhaps that is more important.”

“An interesting question,” Raztupisp-minz said quietly.

Pastempeh-keph bellowed, “1 want answers! I have enough interesting questions to keep me busy, thank you very much. Razwpisp-minz, bring them all. All humans, here, now.”