Chapter 3
Seconds after Sienna’s cry, I spotted the creature, which was curled on its side in the middle of the clearing. Slender and humanoid in shape, its golden fur made me think of a sleeping faun from a fairytale. Sienna was crouching beside the creature and as I came closer I saw that it wasn’t sleeping, but dead. Fine, pink threads crisscrossed its body, fastening it to the ground. I yanked out my pocket recorder, just in time to film a fountain of red spurting from the coat. Blood? No, the red tide broke up into thousands of dots, which began scurrying over the body.
I recoiled and Harvey’s voice penetrated my shock. “Above!”
From the pink canopy strung across the clearing, a dark object appeared. It hovered over Sienna’s head and then started coming down fast on about six threads. I’ve never been keen on spiders, and this could hardly be called one, but it sure sent shivers down my spine. It was dark crimson and the size of a cat with a multitude of hairy legs that wriggled madly as it dropped.
“Sienna!”
Harvey whipped in front of me, intercepting my dive and I ended up sprawled over the chair. He cut back across the clearing and into the bamboo forest and I found myself struggling between the physical challenge of scrambling properly onto the chair and the mental shame of having nearly killed myself diving to save a hologram.
As Harvey dodged between the canes, my kneecap slammed into a trunk and I yelped in agony and slid to one side.
“Nick!” Sienna spat in my ear. She was sitting behind me. “Get a grip. We’re not out of the woods yet.”
A strand dragged across my face and then another. I shook my head, not daring to lift even one hand from the bucking chair to wipe away the sticky threads. They were followed by others and through squinting eyes I saw the forest was now festooned with what looked like waving filaments of cotton candy. I glanced up. The leafy clumps at the tops of the canes were shaking – not from the wind, I now realized, but from the spider creatures, leaping and dancing across them. The whole forest was one giant trap.
“Nick, we’re slowing!”
She was right. More and more of the sticky cotton was attaching to the tree trunks and to us. Each new strand made it increasingly difficult to travel. I tried jumping off Harvey to lighten his load but found I was literally bound to him. We were now barely moving at all. My face was covered in a veil of pink and I could no longer see if we were even near the end of the forest.
“Harvey,” I was finding it hard to speak. Much more of this thread and I’d suffocate. “Are we nearly out?”
Harvey sounded muffled. His speakers must have been smothered in the stuff. “We’re close but I don’t think I can keep going much longer.”
As he spoke, we came to a stop.
“Harvey!” I worked to move my jaw. “Raise your surface temperature.”
The silver ball under my legs began growing warm, then uncomfortable, then painfully hot. I strained against the webbing. The heat was making the threads a bit stickier, but they seemed as strong as ever. I smelt smoke – my pants’ legs.
“Yeow, Harvey, enough!”
As the searing heat began to fade I heard Sienna’s muffled voice. “Go the other way, Harvey. Make yourself cold.”
Harvey cooled rapidly, bringing instant relief to my burnt legs until the relief changed to a new kind of pain. Ice formed around his shell and once again I strained to push my legs away from the agony beneath them. There was a crack and strands under my right leg parted. Another push and my leg swung freely.
I struggled, kicking and rocking against the increasingly brittle strands until they began breaking away and I could finally throw myself off the saddle. My hands were still glued to the seatback, but now I had leverage, and waves of chilled air were reaching the top of the chair.
“You’re doing it Nick,” came Sienna’s voice. “Keep going!”
The last of the threads broke off and my hands were free. Not that I could do much yet. My head, cocooned in the pink stuff, was giving off enough heat to stop the threads becoming brittle. I put my left cheek against Harvey’s frozen side and held it there until the fibers hardened. Changing to the other cheek I began tearing away cracked chunks from the chilled side. When my face was finally freed, I sucked in great lungfuls of air and started kicking the pink coating off Harvey.
Sienna spoke glumly. “Much good that’ll do. We’re trapped.”
I looked up and saw that stiff rosy drapes formed prison walls around us, but Harvey’s voice was confident.
“The curtains ahead have been chilled and are brittle. Jump back on, Nick, and we’ll burst through.”
“But after that we’ll hit the sticky stuff again,” I said.
“Yes, but the perimeter isn’t far and my surface temperature should prevent new strands from attaching. I believe we can make it out.”
I climbed on, kneeling in a ball and ducking my head below the seatback as I grasped its sides.
“Go Harvey!” yelled Sienna.
I felt him rise and shoot forward. There was a crack as we burst through the frozen curtain and then new sticky strands began dragging across the back of my head, neck and shoulders. Though I longed to know if the end of the forest was in sight, I kept my head down. Breathing was more important than seeing.
“There’s the edge,” cried Sienna. “We’re nearly through!”
Bright sunlight told me I could lift my head. Never have I been so glad to be out in the open. Harvey took us down to the stream and I plunged in, clothes and all, scrubbing at the strands still clinging to me.
When I’d got rid of most, I trudged up the bank and hesitated only briefly before stripping off my sodden clothing and laying it out to dry. So what if hologram Sienna was watching? The real Sienna would never know. As I peeled off my scorched pants, hologram Sienna came over to inspect the damage. The skin where my legs had been in direct contact with Harvey was an angry red, but his quick cooling had prevented blistering. My left kneecap was purple and swollen and I was feeling generally miserable but things could have been a lot worse.
“Does it hurt much?” she asked.
It did, but I wasn’t going to admit that, even to a hologram. I shook my head.
“It’s okay, but I think I’ll take a rest. Time to break out the lunch Harvey’s carrying.” I wasn’t sure what state it would be in after all the roasting and freezing, but I was pleasantly surprised. Apparently Harvey’s interior is insulated.
As I munched on a sandwich she sat down beside me and murmured wistfully, “I guess we’re done exploring today.”
“We certainly are,” said Harvey. “As soon as Nick has finished his lunch we’ll be returning to the compound.”
Until they’d spoken, I’d been thinking along those lines myself. But Sienna sounded as though she wanted to continue, and Harvey seemed to think he was in command. Both those things changed my attitude.
“We’re not going to let one little mishap set us back, are we Sienna? I still want to check out the cliffs.”
She and Harvey spoke together.
“I’d love to check out the cliffs.”
“Out of the question, Nick. I should never have brought you here. I had thought your arguments for leaving the compound, valid, and yet you were nearly killed.”
“My arguments were valid,” I said. “They still are. Even scientists following all the rules would have been in trouble back there. Look on the bright side. Everyone’s fine and now we can warn the others about that forest. Our experience has probably saved lives.”
“Nonetheless, it is time to return.”
“Not your call, Harvey,” I said firmly. “Out here, I’m the only human. That puts me in charge. You have to follow my orders.”
Sienna laughed when Harvey failed to reply. “Impressive, Nick. The cliffs it is then?”
I flashed her a grin, suddenly feeling just fine, and pulling on my semi-dried clothes, I turned to Harvey. “You heard the lady.” I even managed to mount up without a wi
nce. “To the cliffs.”
Harvey spoke again. “The scientists have reported nothing of interest around the cliffs. The eastern hills should hold more promise.”
I spluttered in disbelief. “The last time I followed your advice I was nearly spider bait. As for the cliffs, there’s a reason the scientists have reported nothing of interest. They haven’t been there yet. That’s where we’re going.”
“I’m sure Miss Williams would prefer the cooler hills,” he said. “It will be very hot at the cliffs right now.”
That nearly convinced me until I remembered Sienna was a hologram. What was going on?
“Harvey, to the cliffs. Now. No arguments.”
Harvey rose silently but despite my pushing hard against the seatback, kept our pace sedate. If he hadn’t been a robot and incapable of emotion I would have said he was sulking.
“I wonder what that faun creature was,” Sienna murmured.
So she’d seen it that way too. “It looked almost human,” I said. “Nothing like anything we’ve seen on this planet. So far the largest animals we’ve found have been the insectoid creatures in the wetlands. Mind you, we haven’t yet covered much distance, thanks to the scientists studying the nearby terrain in such detail.”
“Do you think the faun would have been intelligent?”
I shook my head. “It wasn’t smart enough to stay clear of the spider trap. Intelligent local wildlife would surely know not to go in there.”
“I guess.” She said no more.
The warm breeze finished drying my clothes and I stopped worrying about our slow pace. I was enjoying the ride. Harvey began sinking. We were still a good way from the cliffs when he settled to the ground.
“What now?”
“Hard to say,” Harvey replied. “It’s possible the web has caused some damage. I’ll run a full diagnostic.”
“How long will that take?” I asked, suddenly suspicious.
“An hour, maybe more. I suggest you and Miss Williams have a rest while I …”
I stormed off to a nearby group of trees overhanging the stream. They were a bit like our weeping willows except for the touch of mauve that was typical of much of the plant life on Test 01. The branches seemed to hold nothing nasty, so I stretched out in their shade and Sienna joined me.
“Is it my imagination,” I said, “or is Harvey behaving strangely?”
She glanced back at him. “He does seem reluctant to take us to the cliffs.”
“Hmm.” I decided to try something.
“Harvey,” I walked over to where he sat gleaming in the sun. “Sienna and I have decided not to visit the cliffs after all. We’ll go to the eastern hills instead.”
“Very good, Nick. The problem is fixed. We can leave immediately.”
I smiled as I climbed on. Harvey had had little practice in guile. Sienna appeared behind me and we rose. My push on the seatback was rewarded with an instant burst of speed.
“Oh, you know what?” I said to Harvey as we surged along. “Let’s just skim by the cliffs for a quick look-see on our way to the eastern hills.”
Immediately our pace slowed and Harvey began to sink again.
“The problem appears to have returned,” he said, settling to the ground.
“Gotcha!” I cried. “And now may I remind you Harvey, that robots must never lie to humans.”