At least he was closing with his mistress, and would be at her side within a couple of hours, if he could figure a way to cross this water. He would have swam it, as a last resort, but even that option was denied him—the current, although not exactly raging, still moved at a clip that would have transported him much farther downstream that he cared to be carried. So he needed to pick a direction and push forward hoping the water would narrow, or present some as yet unimagined opportunity for crossing.
Marty allowed himself the momentary luxury of ferociously rolling about on this bare patch of ground in a continuing effort to dislodge the remnants of sticky pollen still clinging to his matted fur, then turned to his right and ran upstream.
***
Betty at last stepped from the fungi forest and into the large clearing between her and a nearby protruding section of the cavern’s wall. Before her, several fair sized logs had been positioned around a ring of stones circling an ample fire. Forked sticks on either side of the flames supported a horizontal spit on which roasted some small creature bereft of its fur. In the cave’s wall on the other side of the fire, an opening hinted of sanctuary within, and protection against whatever threat might approach this way. Last, sitting on one of the logs and directly facing Betty, sat an old man in dirty, tattered clothing, sharpening the end of a crude spear with a large pocketknife.
The man sat frozen, staring in utter disbelief at Betty, as if refusing to believe his eyes.
“By Roshi’s rampaging rheumatism, either I’m dead or have finally gone stark, raving bonkers!”
“Bonkers?” replied Betty. “Is that some obscure euphemism you dredged up from some old vid-cast? You were always crazy, Kiro...so you must be dead!”
Kiro Wantanabe let out a whoop of pleasure, and leapt to his feet with such enthusiasm, Betty thought he might bowl her over in his excitement. He dropped his spear and knife as he rounded the fire-pit and embraced her, slapping her on the back, laughing as he called her name over and again. Betty returned his hug and held him tightly as his laughter turned, by degrees, to unrestrained sobs mixed with joyous murmurings of welcome.
“Oh, god...Betty, I had all but given up hope of ever seeing another human being! Bless you! Bless you, girl!”
Betty gently held the elder gentleman as his sobs continued to rack his body, allowing him the emotional release necessary to bring him back from the dark edges of insanity that had threatened to overwhelm the man during the long weeks of isolation and helplessness.
While off to one side, the lone spider-bot crept out of the forest and into the glow of the fire. Its batteries were all but exhausted and it needed to shutdown to conserve what power remained. It selected a spot near one of the logs, in the hope it would be far enough away to avoid being tripped over, plopped to the ground, retracted its legs and slipped into hibernation mode.
***
Sam checked the readings from the scanners one last time before turning the ship for the return trip to Kaman’s World. Launching the Sara had gone off without complication and it now orbited in lock step with the planet despite the ten million kilometers separating them. He knew the distance was overkill as far as the margin needed to insure the planet remained untouched by the coming explosion. But, since some serious hard-radiation was involved, he simply wanted to make extra certain the safety factor would surpass the figures Charlie had provided by a couple hundred percent. They had plenty of time, and there was no need to rush any step of the procedure; that way, everything would go smoothly and nothing would be overlooked. The only thing remaining was making sure they were in position when the probe initiated the feedback overload of the onboard warp-engine and AG generator.
“Charlie, what’s the time remaining?”
“Relax, Sam! We have a little more than three hours to get into position! But, we might as well line-up into position as soon as safely possible. That way we can calibrate the long-range sensor array for the graviton burst.”
“Understood,” replied Sam. “If this doesn’t work, Betty’s going to wring our necks! She’ll probably do it anyway...she hates it when I break equipment!”
“Well, when she’s back onboard, just blame me!”
“Hell, Charlie, I was going to do that anyway!”
***
Marty stopped for a moment, letting all the night’s noises impinge upon his senses. He wasn’t having much success trying to figure out why it had gotten dark in this large cave: there was no sun, and he was far underground, so...just how did it get dark? He just couldn’t process such abstracts. He would have to wait till he reached Betty; she wasn’t far off, and he should reach her before too much longer.
He had reluctantly slowed his pace as the darkness descended. Not that he needed light to find his way, but as the gloom had deepened, the forest came alive with the sounds and calls of all types of new creatures. Even when there had been light, Marty often spotted animals out and about, as well as birds of all sizes, along with other flying creatures moving about in the upper reaches of the cavern. There was no shortage of insects and higher orders of life in this strange environment. But with the dark, the whole place had seemingly come alive with noise. And there were dangerous creatures about, large ones that obviously shunned exposure during the periods of light—night hunters. Marty could feel them moving out there. Some of them were also aware of him, but they kept their distance; something about Marty spooked them. Of that he did not mind, it gave him more time to concentrate on the matter at hand—finding his mistress.
***
“This is just too bizarre,” said Betty. “How in the world does it maintain a diurnal cycle? How can it measure the time upstairs?”
“I’ve been trying to puzzle that out for weeks, Betty. This is only a small portion of the local complex...an antechamber, if you will. But throughout the entire system, a circadian rhythm is measured, day-in, day-out.”
“You keep referring to “it”, like you’re discussing a single organism.”
“The cave-system, yes! If you discount the life forms scurrying about, the animals and insects, and we might as well throw in the plants, too...the entire cavern seems to be some sort of live creature itself!”
“How is that possible? What evolutionary pressure could steer such selective adaptation?”
“You’re kidding, right?” asked Kiro. “Have you seen outside? Of course you have! The surface has been dying for hundreds of millennia! Look, let me show you something...”
He stood and motioned for Betty to follow, leading her over to the nearest portion of the cavern’s wall. He took his pocketknife and proceeded to scrape away at the stone surface. Only, it turned out not to be stone at all. Below the crust of dirt, dust and lichen residue was a layer of dark, spongy material. Kiro took Betty’s hand and made her feel the layer, testing its texture and cohesion.
“I see what you mean,” she said. “You’ve been here long enough to form a hypothesis?”
“What kind of scientist do you think I am?” he mock-sternly asked. “Of course I have a theory!” He motioned her back to the fire, offering her another piece of meat from the spit.
“Imagine, if you will, this world several hundred-thousand years ago: the surface is drying, the bodies of water are disappearing, the atmosphere is slowly changing—becoming oxygen deficient. Now think of caves, large caves, like back on Old Earth...they give shelter and protection to many different forms of plant and animal life! Bats and birds first come to mind! And their droppings, and dead—young and old—support a rich culture of insects below! We’ve seen this played-out many times!
“Now imagine this planet...as the outside world struggles to adapt to the planet’s onset of advanced old age, something like a...slime-mold, perhaps...grows in such a way to cover an entire cave, maybe exposed as the underground rivers and seas recede. Now think what might happen if this mold, or slime, or some microscopic community organizes and maintains an interior environment preserving an ecosystem in which other life form
s could survive! Each and all supporting the other! Of course, the system has to learn to continue in a dimmer world, as the phosphorous cannot produce enough light to support photosynthesis...but you’ve seen this place! You’re a biologist like me! It’s not so hard to come up with a couple dozen scenarios to explain all this!”
“Wow, Kiro...I see you’ve given this some thought,” said Betty. “Couldn’t you have found something better to do with your time?”
Kiro looked at the younger woman in surprise and disbelief for only a moment before bursting into laughter. She joined him as they shared the moment of light-hearted emotional release. He had been speaking almost non-stop since her arrival, so happy was he to again share human companionship.
They continued talking into the night, about anything and everything, unaware that something large, and hungry, moved towards them, slowly and carefully closing upon their camp.
Chapter Seven
With the Flipper-Doodle in a 200-kilometer, synchronous orbit precisely above the pit-fall where Betty had disappeared almost 15-hours earlier, Sam sat anxiously at the controls. There was nothing left to check or perform; it was down to a waiting game. Waiting for the planet to rotate into a position where the sun, the Sara, the hole and the Doodle all came into alignment in a sort of syzygy between objects, instead of celestial bodies.
“How much longer, Charlie?”
“For heaven’s sake, Sam! About five-minutes less than when you asked me last time!”
“Why can’t you give me a count-down clock on one of the monitors?”
“Because it will drive you crazy! Will you please relax already? Timing is not that critical...we can be off several minutes one way or the other!”
“So how much time is left?”
Charlie gave an audible sign of exasperation. “About 15-minutes, Sam...15 short minutes.”
***
Even the thickest portions of underbrush-like growth now parted before Marty. The cavern wall approached rapidly as he streaked unwaveringly for Betty and the man she had found there. Marty felt the large predator ahead of him; it would reach his mistress precious minutes before he could—and there was nothing to be done for it.
Although Betty had proved more than capable of dealing with the small animals she had encountered when she entered this the cave, the one that approached her now would prove a greater threat than he was comfortable having her confront. But he was still some distance off, and that though drove him onward even faster.
***
Betty and Kiro still sat before their fire, the evening meal long finished. Kiro had returned to sharpening his spear and the woman watched as they continued discussing this underground miracle.
“So you met one of those welcoming committees, eh?” asked Kiro. Those fellows are everywhere around the edges of the forest. They’re not much of a threat, but you don’t want them taking you by surprise! If you stay more towards the center, you can avoid them all together.”
“Why do they shun the jungle’s interior?”
“Oh, you’re just humoring an old man, now! Think about it...why would any small predator avoid prime hunting territory?”
“Because there’s bigger predators out there?”
“See! You knew the answer all along!” said the man, gently nudging Betty with his elbow.
She knew Kiro would be hard to fool. She had been watching him closely for quite some time, noting how he never took longer than several minutes at a time without carefully scanning the darkness outside the fire’s glow. This meshed with how he added fuel to the flames several times an hour, keeping it much larger than apparently needed. And she had added these observations to the size of the woodpile, enough to keep a good fire stoked all night...that and how it was clearly evident one of his favorite pastimes over the last weeks had been clearing brush around the camp’s perimeter, pushing the forest ever back, a little each day, giving him more room to defend against...what?
“Do these other guys attack in packs?”
“Thank, god, no!” he replied, placing the spear on top of the small stack beside him on the log. He immediately picked up another blunt, two-meter shaft and began sharpening that one also. “I’d be long gone even if they came in pairs!”
“So when is he...or she going to attack? He’s out there, you know...watching us. Must be puzzling over how there’s two of us now!”
She watched Kiro closely, saw him noticeably pale even in the low, flickering light. Whatever was approaching had him scared. Betty stood, unsheathing her blade, this time leaving it in its intended configuration.
“Don’t worry, Kiro...I’ll handle him tonight! You just take it easy and back me up if he gets an advantage on me!”
“Betty...listen to me now! I know what I’m talking about! You’re going to need a lot more that that toad-sticker for this brute!”
“No worries, Kiro! I’ve grown quite a bit since we last met...and Marty’s out there, also. He’s a ways off, but he’ll be here soon!”
“Well, I hope that little fellow is everything you’ve told me...oh, god...he’s here!”
The man had stood while talking, shifting his grip on the spear he held. He tried to grab Betty’s arm and guide her back behind the protection of the fire, trying to keep the flames directly between them and the beast, but the woman avoided his grip and moved around the fire, placing herself between the man and the nightmare advancing from the edge of the jungle.
At the sight of the monster, Betty momentarily quailed in confusion and terror. She tried to understand how this cavern could possibly support such a predator, even if it was the only apex feeder, or even if it turned out to be the only one of its kind, which it wasn’t, how could this interior world hold enough prey to keep this beast fed?
It glided over the ground with a grace that belied its size and power. Bands of corded muscles writhed and bunched with every movement as it flowed fully into the clearing, the brush closing silently behind it. Its large, yellow eyes seemed to glow and shimmer as they locked on the woman, as though it was unaware, or completely unconcerned, with the man’s presence.
Within ten-meters of Betty it stopped, its four powerful legs aligned for any sudden movement it decided to make, its full concentration riveted on her, and as it sized her up, she watched in horror as the animal actually began to drool, as if imagining how sweet her marrow might taste when it crushed her bones between the teeth that appeared as daggers lining its great jaws. It resembled the animals she had encountered earlier in the day only in the vague way in which a shark resembles a whale. Even as it stood stock still, the claws, each as long as the woman’s hands, seemed to impossibly grow even longer, sinking into the soft ground, securing greater purchase, tensing for the attack just moments away.
Now, even though every fiber in her being, every instinct in her soul and from within her subconscious, her vestigial connection to mankind’s deepest ancestral roots to the mindless primitive, called for her to flee from this terror, this animal of unimaginable power, she felt Marty’s thoughts touch her mind, and his strength became her strength, and his resolve became her’s, and she stepped towards the waiting beast.
If the great creature could possibly show surprise, it showed it now. Its head jerked erect and its body seemed to relax just the tiniest fraction. It almost appeared to smile, watching the frail, slight, defenseless creature in front of it move closer, welcoming its death, offering itself as helpless prey to the majesty of its killer.
In that moment of opportunity, with the thought of an instant kill coursing through every sinew of its being, it withheld and contained its cresting blood lust no longer, and with the release of every bit of coiled, muscular power, in every ounce of its tremendous frame, the massive monster gave voice to its thirst and hunger, launching itself across the clearing towards its prey as the entire cavern reverberated, shaking with the irresistible power of its roar.
***
Sam fingered the controls impatiently. He and Charlie had
counted down to the final seconds, and it was now time to see if their gamble would succeed.
“The probe’s about to open the warp, Sam...get ready!”
A little more than ten million kilometers from the far side of the planet, the Sara activated its warp-generator and a hole in normal space opened before it. Simultaneously, the other end of the warp opened a hundred kilometers above the world’s dayside. But instead of moving into the warp-hole, the probe fed all its power into the feedback loop now connecting the warp-generator’s circuits to the AG field generator Sam had installed. After a moment’s delay, the Sara’s mass increased exponentially, trying to convert itself into a black hole. Of course the mass proved woefully inadequate, but it was a good try, and as the overloading circuits routed even more energy inward, the probe blew itself apart in the form of a fair-sized gravity-bomb.
In the ensuing miniature, man-made supernova, a seething, subatomic soup of gravitons absorbed the writhing sea of free electrons, giving life to an explosion of gravitrinos streaking outwards, a substantial portion coursing through the warp-hole, and spewing from the hole’s exit, shooting down to, and through, the planet’s core.
At the same time, Sam activated all scanners onboard the Doodle, all dialed to maximum sensitivity, concentrating the focus on the wide spray of gravitrinos zipping through the world and the targeted area below. Charlie had further tweaked the sensitivity of every circuit to as full a degree as possible—it was the sensory equivalence of creating a microphone capable of recording a pebble hitting the ground from a distance of a thousand kilometers. All circuits open, Sam and Charlie waited for the data to materialize.
While moments earlier, Marty had stopped in his mad dash through the fungi forest, acknowledging the obvious—he just couldn’t reach Betty in time. The large beast was about to attack and his mistress would have to face him on her own. He calmly sat and reached outward with his thoughts; the predator would have proved no match for Marty, but he was too far distant to attack the beast himself. However, if he could act through his mistress; they shared a love and connection far surpassing the physical distance separating then. Marty was certain it would work, and quickly set the plan into motion.