Cheela - Starquake Part 14

It took most of the rest of the turn to maneuver the flyer into the power plant compound and activate the control console. There were a few blinking bright blue-hot lights that indicated unit failures, but most of the board glowed a cool red under the wordREADY.

'The pressure readings on four of the power wells are above minimum," Coulomb-Force reported. "The other two read zero. Must be breaks in the casing, because the pressure cap connectors have no cracks.

I'm going to activate well number 2, run the flow through the distribution manifold to motor-generator number 2 and see what happens."

There were no objections from above, so Coulomb-Force pressed theACTIVATE b.u.t.ton on the console and the pressure cap on power well 2 opened and allowed the high-pressure, neutron-rich fluid from deep inside Egg to flow to the distribution manifold. The valves held and the pressure gauges on the manifold rose. He then activated another b.u.t.ton and the flow surged into the motor-generator. A deep rumble vibrated through the crust and rose to a steady hum.

"We have power!" Coulomb-Force shouted. "We are on our way!"

Qui-Qui reported the good news through the communications link, then switched the power circuits connecting the console to the flyer so the acc.u.mulators would be charging instead of discharging.

Two more bags of White Rock City sparkling wine and a friendly three-way tussle in the cus.h.i.+oned, but cramped, back compartment of the flyer left them all exhausted. It was a full turn before they left the power plant, the flyer following the power conduit to the site of the gravity catapult a few meters away.

"The catapult looks all right to me," said Newton-Einstein as they raised the flyer up and circled above the gigantic torus lying half-buried in the crust.

"Wouldn't it lose the ultra-dense fluid in the pipes if the power failed?" Coulomb-Force asked.

"No," said Newton-Einstein. "The fluid is really monopole stabilized black-hole dust. It is highly magnetic and the tubes are made of high temperature superconductor. Even without power, the tubes keep the black-hole dust contained."

They landed outside the catapult control compound and went in.

"We're in luck!" Coulomb-Force was looking over at a glowing light above a large power breaker in one corner. "The conduits from the power plant are intact, and we have power! Let's activate the console and check out the status of the cat- apult." He closed the tripped power breaker and the console lights went on. The board was a steady deep red except for a blinking blue failure light in one corner.

Newton-Einstein glided to the console, and the wave motion in his eye-stubs came to a complete halt as he read the engraved inscription above the blinking blue-hot light.

Worried, Qui-Qui flowed over next to him.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"There was a leak; the ultra-dense dust is gone."

They went around the outside of the catapult and found the leak. There was a small funnel-shaped hole in the crust near the base of the foundation where the jet of black-hole dust had dropped into Egg, pulling the crust with it.

"The catapult must have been working when the starquake hit," said Newton-Einstein. "The dust was circling the torus at high speed and all of it shot out of the hole. If it had not been operating, we would have only lost one loop's worth. We could have patched the leak and operated the catapult on the rest."

"Well, there are three more catapults here at the West Pole," said Qui-Qui. "Let's go look at them."

"I hope their power plants are working," Coulomb-Force said. "I don't think we could count on the interconnect power conduits to be unbroken over those long distances."

They didn't even bother to stop at the next gravity catapult. A major break in the crust had torn the large torus into two half-circles. Two turns later Newton-Einstein reported up to the West Pole s.p.a.ce Station.

"None of the gravity catapults are operational at the West Pole. We will have to try the East Pole."

It was Qui-Qui who reported in from the East Pole. Coulomb-Force and Newton-Einstein were too discouraged.

"As we suspected, the machines here were even more damaged. Not even one power well remained pressurized. We will just have to learn to make monopole stabilized black-hole dust and recharge the gravity catapult at the West Pole after we fix the leak. It will take us a few greats, since you are going to have to dictate to us in detail how to go about it; but we'll keep working at it."

The three waited patiently for the reply. It was from Cliff-Web, now back at East Pole s.p.a.ce Station.

"I'm afraid that it is going to take a little longer than a few greats. No one uses monopole stabilized black-hole dust anymore. It hasn't been made for over two dozen generations. We have no information on it up here, since it is an obsolete material. With the library records erased down there, we are going to have to get what information we can from the humans and that will take many minutes, perhaps as much as an hour. Even that information will only be general knowledge. I and the other engineers up here will have to expand that into detailed instructions of how to build the machines to produce and stabilize the black-hole dust, try them out up here on prototypes, then dictate the information down to you. All that will take considerable time."

Ignoring the dejected looks of Coulomb-Force and Newton-Einstein, Qui-Qui tried to put a cheerful trill in her tread as she replied. "You had better get busy talking to the humans, then. It always takes them forever to doanything. And while you are at it, ask them to send you a capsule history of that they called the 'Dark Ages.' By knowing how their learned people maintained islands of knowledge while surrounded by ignorance and barbarians, I may learn things that will help me cope with the situation here.

Also, does anyone up there know any magic tricks?"

They returned to the maze at Bright's Heaven. Slowly the information trickled from the HoloMem crystals in the human console to the East Pole s.p.a.ce Station, where it was studied, checked out, and sent on down to the surface below. By the time Coulomb-Force died, he had managed to construct a few more free-s.p.a.ce communication sets. Young scribes, chosen for the honor because of their neat script, copied the information from s.p.a.ce, and the manuals and textbooks were pa.s.sed on to others who attempted to build and operate the machines described with their inadequate tools and resources. There were long periods when no information was being dictated, so many of the scrolls were decorated by the bored scribes with elaborate fluorescent ill.u.s.trations in the s.p.a.ces along the edges and within the technical diagrams.

Qui-Qui spent most of her time in the flyer, gathering food and recruits. She was known to the clans around as the glowing G.o.d of Youth and Knowledge, the Mother of Egg. She could fly through the sky and talk to the stars. She was forever beautiful and never died.

Qui-Qui would arrive at each clan cl.u.s.ter flying high above in the sky in her flyer, circling until each individual in the tribe had seen her. She would then skim low to the surface and hover the flyer above the ground next to a large rectangular stone altar that the clan had erected and piled high with food offerings. While her acolytes were transferring the food offerings to the flyer on one side, the G.o.d of Youth and Knowledge glided out on a nearly invisible crystallium platform on the other side. She seemingly floated in s.p.a.ce, while above her flickered brightly colored curlicues of light from compact ion generators she had pouched in her topside.

Qui-Qui would ask to see the hatchlings and younglings. Then seemingly out of nowhere, she would materialize gifts for the young ones. There were educational toys, special treats (full of important trace elements) to eat, and beginner scrolls to read. Just before the younglings became adults, they were treated to a ride on the flyer back to the Maze Temple at Bright's Heaven, where they were tested. Only a few were chosen to stay. The rest returned to their clans, awed by what they had seen. Once every three dozen greats, Qui-Qui retired to a special room at the sacred center of the maze for a half-great and came back restored to youth.

08:26:37GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE2050.

The last three scout s.h.i.+ps came in from deep s.p.a.ce together, and Far-Ranger reported to the s.p.a.ce Council. "We found them almost at the core. Plenty of neutron stars, even some with life. But none had progressed past the savage stage. Life is too easy on the typical neutron star. With no compet.i.tion, there is no need for intelligence. I guess we can thank the humans for arousing curiosity in us so long ago."

"How are things on Egg?" Steel-Slicer asked Hohmann-Transfer.

'Terrible," she said. "It has been over a whole human hour since the starquake and things are only getting worse. I'm tired of it all. I'm tired of making decisions. I'm tired of fighting to keep us going. I'm tired of life."

"Perhaps you should rejuvenate early," Admiral Steel-Slicer suggested.

"No, I'm tired of rejuvenations, too. You can have my rejuvenation. I resign. You take over. I'm going to tend eggs." She pulled the twelve-pointed stars off her hide, gave them to Steel-Slicer and headed off to the main conference bowl, now the hatching pen and creche-school.

09:31:11 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE 2050.

After generations of use, the old flyer stopped flying despite the best efforts of the engineers in s.p.a.ce and on the ground to keep it running. The clans now had to bring their food offerings to the Maze Temple.

There were more clans now, however, and many stayed near the Maze Temple where they traded food for labor-saving machines. The clans farthest away became forgetful, drifted away from the influence of the G.o.d of Youth and Knowledge, and reverted back to savagery.

Qui-Qui still flew in the sky on special occasions, but now she was levitated above the Maze Temple by gravity repulsor fields from the small prototype gravity catapult her acolytes had managed to make. It only used dense nucleonic fluid, however, for the manufacture of monopole stabilized back-hole dust had proved elusive.

The turns pa.s.sed.

Barbarian

10:10:11 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE2050.

Hecame from the north, subjugating all in his path. His name was Ferocious-Eyes, the Terrible One, and he rode on the back of a giant Swift. He was small, but his wiry, heavily speckled body was more than a match for any of the warriors in his army, for they feared the ferocious glare from his twelve pink eyes more than they did his whip-sword.

As a two-great-old hatchling, just barely able to talk, he had been abandoned on the north slopes of the Exodus Volcano by the elders of his food-short clan. Without even one sharp-seeing "common" eye, the heavily speckled one would be useless for work in the fields. The hungry hatchling had found the nest of a pair of wild Swifts before the Swifts found him. When the Swifts returned, he was sitting, satiated, among the tattered remains of one of their eggs. Raised by the Swifts as one of their own, he soon was partic.i.p.ating in raids on the herds of the clans around them.

Many turns later, now a youngling, he rode into his old clan compound on the back of one of his nest brothers, flicking the whip-sword that he had invented by tying sharp shards of dragon crystal onto a long strand of woven fibers. Unreachable on his perch high above the ravenous five-toothed maw of his mount, he was invincible. He slashed the leader of the clan to shreds, fed him to his mount, and took over the clan. Until that time, he had no name. Now he took one, Ferocious-Eyes, from the awed whispers he could hear as he rode through the compound.

Three dozen turns later Ferocious-Eyes was satiated. His eating pouches were satiated with food; his brain-knot was sa- tiated with stories he had commanded from the Old Ones; and his ego was satiated with compliments from the fawning cheela competing for the sc.r.a.ps of food he discarded. His desire for power was not satiated, however, for he would never forgive the cheela race for abandoning him because he was too speckled.

Ferocious-Eyes picked out three of the cheela in the clan, the speckled ones that had the most pink eyes, and taught them how to ride Swifts. It was easy for the speckled ones, for with their pink eyes, they could see subtle color changes in the hides and eyes of the Swifts that allowed them to read the moods of the dangerous animals. Ferocious-Eyes left one of his new warriors in charge of the clan and took the rest of his small army to conquer the next clan.

The pattern of conquest of the Terrible One was simple. His army would surround a clan compound, then he and a small group of bodyguards would ride into the compound. He, personally, would challenge the leader of the clan. If the leader was foolish enough to attempt to duel, he soon was meat for Ferocious-Eyes' Swift. The army would stay long enough to feed themselves and their mounts, disarm and subjugate the clan, pick and train some recruits, then move on, leaving one or two of their number to keep the clan under control. At some of the first clan compounds they had experienced resistance, but any opponents left alive after the battle was over had all but one eye lopped off and were set free to bring a warning to the next clan.

The Terrible One, now at the head of a small roving army, had six captains who each led a dozen mounted picked warriors. They were supported by a much larger army that extracted food and supplies from the subjugated clans and transported it by long lines of porters that stretched from the West, North, and East Poles to wherever the army was. The lines were now converging on the northern outskirts of Bright's Heaven.

"We are coming upon Bright's Heaven, O Terrible One," said Falling-Quint "The home of Qui-Qui, the G.o.d of Youth and Knowledge. She lives in a Maze Temple protected by magic. It is said that no one but her has been able to find the way to the center of the maze."

"She is no more a G.o.d than I am," said Ferocious-Eyes.

"But they say she can talk to the stars and fly in the sky. They also say she is forever beautiful and never dies."

"She can do no more than the ancient ones that lived before the big crustquake," said Ferocious-Eyes.

"G.o.d or not, I bet the juices will still come out when you throw one of your quirrls down on her."

His Swift roared and snapped at the Swift carrying Falling-Quirrl. They both had to slap their mounts on their sensitive eyes before they could quiet them down.

"The Swifts are getting hungry," she said.

"We'll stop here and kill a Flow Slow to feed them." Ferocious-Eyes slid down off the tail of his mount.

His tread slapped the crust in a loud command.

"Where is that slave carrying the sparkling wine?" he demanded. "I'm thirsty!"

"The Terrible One is just north of the city," the messenger reported. "They have stopped to eat and feed their mounts."

"The Terrible One," mused Qui-Qui, suddenly very tired. The rejuvenation robot had been pestering her to undergo yet another rejuvenation, but she had been putting it off as the news of the Terrible One had been coming in.

"It seems like history on Egg is following the history of Earth. We even have our own Attila. Only instead of Attila-the-Hun, Scourge of G.o.d, he is Attila-the-Speckled, Scourge of Bright."

"We had better leave," said Linear-Spring, one of the mechanical engineers. "The Terrible One is irresistible."

"No," said Qui-Qui. "If he is anything like the Attila-the-Hun of Earth, he will not stop until he has conquered all of Egg or dies. If we leave, he will just follow us. We will stay and fight."

"But he has six dozen mounted warriors with him, and dozens and dozens more in reserve."

"Wemust stay and fight." Qui-Qui picked up a p.r.i.c.ker and a long pike. "And he cannot be allowed to win, for if he does, then the Dark Ages will surely fall on Egg, as they once did on Earth."

Ferocious-Eyes moved unopposed through the deserted city of Bright's Heaven. He stopped his army when they came to the Maze Temple. He and Falling-Quirrl circled all around the outside wall. There were a few windows in the high wall, but they were barred and the sliding panels had been shut tight.

Every few millimeters there were portholes-some at crust level and some at eye level. Through a few ports they caught the glimpse of an eye-ball looking out at them. Along the top of the wall there ran a spiral of metal. Occasional flashes of light appeared in the loops.

"Those must be the 'magnetic barriers' our newest slaves told us about," said Falling-Quirrl.

"It is strange that something that is not hot and glowing can burn." Ferocious-Eyes suddenly whipped his Swift and rode directly at the wall between two portholes, flicked a tendril at the top of the wall and rode away again.

"It burns," he said, sucking the tip of his tendril. "We can't go over."

There was only one entrance to the Maze Temple. It was large, and because it had no door or bars it looked ominous. The entrance opened into four narrow corridors that immediately took sharp turns as they branched off into the maze. The corridors were too narrow to allow a Swift to pa.s.s.

Ferocious-Eyes gathered his warriors, "Falling-Quirrl. You and your warriors will dismount and prepare to enter. Three into each corridor.

Arm yourselves with short swords and p.r.i.c.kers for close combat. The rest are to ride your Swifts up to the wall on either side of the entrance and fill those portholes with pikes and quirrls. If they can't see, they can't fight."

The picked vanguard of the Speckled Horde arranged themselves in a rough line, one sharp-seeing 'common' eye always watching their commander. He unpouched a pair of limber-swords and waved them in a complex pattern.

"Attack!" he shouted.

They charged, the mounted warriors rapidly outdistancing Falling-Quirrl and her dozen warriors on tread. As the Swifts moved across the bare ground, they began to roar and swerve to one side or the other despite the efforts of their masters to keep them under control. From a porthole in the wall an eyeball was watching.

"The undercrust magnetic barriers are bunching them up into the firing lanes," Weber-Gauss reported to the control room. "Let loose the terror tops!"

Ferocious-Eyes suddenly heard high-pitched screams arising from all along the outer wall of the maze.

Through the holes at crust level there emerged a stream of spinning screaming objects that danced across the crust. They were wide at the top and narrowed down to a tiny point at the bottom. By some magic means they were able to stay balanced on the tiny point instead of falling over as one would expect.

Sticking out from the whirling body of the screamers were sharp knives that slashed long gashes in Swift and warrior alike. Panicked by the high-pitched screams, the Swifts bolted and the warriors fled.

One of the screamers came straight at Ferocious-Eyes. He watched it come, then gave it a flick with the tip of his whip-sword. The screamer changed course and curved around his nervous mount.

Ferocious-Eyes rode to meet the fleeing Falling-Quirrl.

"I said for you to attack!Look at me!"

Falling-Quirrl stopped instantly and all her eyes went up on rigid stalks. Ferocious-Eyes rode up to the nearest eye-ball, formed a pincer manipulator and slowly crushed the eye-ball.

"Attack," he said.

Falling-Quirrl gathered her warriors and led them back toward the waiting entrance to the deadly Maze Temple. The Swifts refused to approach the wall, and all the warriors were forced to dismount and make their way on tread across the open ground.

More of the spinning screamers came from the wall, but the surprise was gone. The speckled warriors continued their advance. They tried to dodge the screamers and stabbed at them with their pikes and swords to knock them over, but the strange random motion of the screamers across the crust and their rigid resistance to being pushed over caused many casualties. The remaining warriors finally got close enough to the wall that most of the screamers now shot out past them.

"The terror tops have them bunched into the firing-tube target areas," Weber-Gauss reported to the control room. "Initiate ripple-barrage on areas one through eight."