***
A surge of terror rose from the pit of Yuri’s stomach. It was bad enough to see one of those creatures green and behind a visor. To see it pink and without one set up the sort of contradiction only a maleficent surrealist could paint.
A row of powerful fingers reached out towards him. The astronomer was so paralysed with fright he could only wince as they sank into his flesh and pulled him away from the boulder. Not daring to wonder why he hadn’t been killed outright, Yuri let his captor lead him to the cover of some undergrowth. He was pushed to the ground and held there by the strength of an educated gorilla.
Although the language and movements of his captor were totally foreign to him, Yuri could tell by its premeditated manner that he was going to die anyway and he should be thankful he had been allowed to live that long. The creature carried no weapon but its six fingered hands could have either throttled him or ripped him apart in seconds, depending on how gracious a mood it might have been in.
A rustling from the bushes heralded the arrival of the other oddity pursuing him. By this time Yuri had realised whose side he would prefer to be on if he had been given the choice. He managed to summon enough strength to let out a strangled shout of warning before Kulp smothered him more effectively with his free hand and dragged him into the clearing to use as a shield.
Dax was both mystified by Kulp’s behaviour and baffled as to how she could do something about it without destroying his hostage. If she walked away he would kill it as surely as she was meant to stand there and watch him do it. Then it occurred to Dax that he was trying to provoke her into fighting hand to hand. She was too fast for him to catch so Kulp reckoned he was strong enough to do the same to her as he was doing to Yuri. Crude reasoning for the Olmuke, yet effective in the absence of any other solution.
Kulp’s fingers seemed to turn into claws as they sank deeper into Yuri’s flesh, making him gasp in pain. At the moment he thought his jugular veins were about to be ripped open, the brooding intelligence beneath them made her move.
The ground below Yuri and Kulp suddenly disappeared. Before they could strike the bottom of the pit that had opened up, a shaft of rounded rock swung out from nowhere and batted Kulp high into the air.
Yuri was gently caught in a pool of soft sand and tumbled away from his descending tormentor. Moosevan could have so easily swatted Kulp back to the spaceship he had come from, but seemed content to have Yuri safe. Even the furry creature was a little apprehensive about the sudden reaction from the planet. Seeing that Kulp had landed some distance away, she bounded after him as though her sole interest was baiting him in some game with nonsensical rules.
Panting and weary, Yuri wondered how soon it would be before his next encounter with certain death. He stayed where Moosevan had put him in the hope she would contact him again. No movement or perfumed thoughts drifted up to greet him though, just the trudge, trudge, trudge of tired footsteps making their way towards him.
Once again bracing himself for the inevitable encounter with alien terror, Yuri saw another furry creature. This one was quite a bit plumper and more benevolent in appearance than the other. There was nothing wolfish in the way its eyes flashed when it spied him, and its rolling gait as it approached was anything but elegant.
‘Hello,’ said Reniola with a flicker of the nose that could have been a smile. ‘I suppose you’ve just encountered a couple of unlikely characters pursuing each other? I don’t know which was after which, but that doesn’t matter much.’
Yuri was amazed when the creature spoke. It couldn’t have had vocal cords designed to cope with any human dialect.
Not wondering at Yuri’s reluctance to reply, Reniola went on, ‘Oh, you’ve got two languages, haven’t you? Think I’ll stick to this one if you don’t mind. It’s not much easier, but the one I picked up first.’ She sat down beside him in the sand. ‘All this dashing about is beginning to get to me, you know. I’m sure these bodies were never designed for it. I only hope the original owner of this one doesn’t ever lose the amount of weight from it that I have.’
Still mystified at the arrival of the amiable creature, Yuri pointed to the bushes and managed to utter, ‘Your friend and other thing went that way.’
‘I know,’ said Reniola. ‘But she’s wearing me to a frazzle. They didn’t make compensations for this sort of thing for when the Jaulta Code was broken. It was all meant to be so straightforward, you see.’
Yuri found himself nodding his head in agreement for fear of opening his mouth to ask her what she was talking about. He had a feeling this was another thing he didn’t want to know.
‘Now take those ridiculous Mott...’ Then Reniola saw the bruises on his neck, and assumed he was as multiform as she was. ‘Easily damaged in that skin, aren’t you?’ She smoothed a furry hand over them and Yuri felt the throbbing stop. ‘They have the most incredible anatomy. Genetic engineers decided to take over when Nature didn’t want anything more to do with them. Designed themselves an extra pair of legs and tusks because they thought it would put the fear of demons into whoever they took it into their minds to invade. Did that all right, but now they have to eat through a straw and have trouble finding where it comes out the other end.’ She looked at Yuri’s numb expression. ‘I can’t say I’ve ever come across your type before, though from an on-the-spot judgement I would say you were a trifle overcome about something?’
‘Things are getting on top of me...’ Yuri managed to explain. ‘I keep imagining this green thing which turns pink is wanting to kill me, and that this very large thing which is something like ninety thousand million years old is in love with me.’
‘So?’ inquired Reniola innocently, as though these things were a normal occurrence.
‘This I would not worry about so much,’ Yuri faltered, ‘but I think I fall in love with it as well.’
‘Oh, splendid. That might keep the old dear quiet for a little while. Can’t work too well with all this thrashing and rolling about, you know.’
‘But she is ninety thousand million years old?’
‘Good age. She should go on for another third of that without any mishap. How old are you then?’
‘Forty-eight or nine - I think,’ he admitted guiltily.
‘What? Thousand million?’
‘No ... years.’
‘That’s what I said. Thousand million years?’
‘No, no, no,’ Yuri shook his grey frizzy hair, ‘I mean forty-eight or nine years. How old are you?’
Reniola gave him a long studied look. ‘Er... a hundred thousand million or so.’
‘This I do not understand,’ Yuri said, having no reason to doubt her.
‘Well, it’s quite simple, old thing...’ Reniola was about to explain, then hesitated; she couldn’t think of anything that would make sense of the matter to her, let alone to the immature creature beside her. ‘Perhaps our years run at different speeds.’
‘That is probably it.’ Yuri nodded sagely, not believing it for one second. ‘What do you think I should do about this creature called Moosevan?’
Reniola scratched her muzzle. ‘If she fancies you, I don’t see any harm in it myself.’
‘Now she will not speak to me.’
‘Lover’s tiff already? You’ll have to humour her. Promised to someone else are you?’
‘Oh yes. But my wife will not mind.’
‘No?’
‘She would not believe it. She believes nothing I say. Though she would probably insist we have divorce if I tell her I love female ninety thousand million years old.’
‘Not a very understanding sort of creature, is she? As I see it, some life forms are so blinkered, they never think of investing in anything except what is immediate to their senses.’
‘What else is there to invest in?’
Reniola paused for a moment before replying. ‘Ah - I see now! You’re one of the first species types. That accounts for the age.’ She scratched her muzzle so vigorously this time a couple of whi
skers came adrift. ‘We were a good deal further up the ladder when we opted out of this galaxy. What’s left here is mostly supernovae remnants and a general selection of genetic riffraff.’ She turned to him with a piercing gaze. ‘You must still be in the birth/death league?’
Yuri was mystified. ‘What other league is there?’
‘Oh, lots and lots. Most of the species left in this galaxy somehow managed to genetically engineer themselves back into the birth/death one. They thought my people one day launched themselves into space and fell off the edge of the Universe.’
‘Where did you go then?’
Again Reniola gave him a deep look with her crimson eyes and decided to be kind to him with half a truth. ‘No universe has an edge to it, small strange one.’
‘You mean space is not curved by gravitation, but infinite?’
‘Not so much curved, as moving and crumpled.’
Yuri’s brain had to work to comprehend Reniola’s model. When he thought he had grasped at least part of it, he asked, ‘Then you mean that space is being crumpled like so many pieces of paper, and where each crease makes contact with another, there are two bodies of great density pinning them together?’
‘Something like that,’ Reniola assumed her comprehension of the stuff he was calling paper was the same as his, ‘overlapping pieces of paper.’
‘That means matter can be sucked into one dense body and ejected through mirror companion to other side of crease?’ He was encouraged by Reniola’s half nod. ‘So each piece of paper is like universe?’
‘Or part of the same universe folded back on itself.’
‘And that is how we could make gateway to other parts of space?’
‘It’s the only way to get about,’ Reniola assured him. ‘It’s just a matter of knowing how to harness gravity. This galaxy is only sitting on a crease that has grown very large.’
‘So there can be no end to universes?’ Yuri faltered. Little of this tied in with human theory. ‘But what about Big Bang?’
Reniola thought hard before replying, ‘That must have been me falling off a rock.’ She stretched her legs. ‘Well, it’s been nice chatting to you, but I must go now. Remember to keep away from that green thing that turned pink, won’t you,’ she advised him. ‘Got to see what they’re up to, I suppose. Cheerio.’
And before Yuri could reply, her long legs had carried her in the direction of her slim friend who enjoyed tormenting green creatures that turn pink.
The departure of the cosmic entity opened up a void in Yuri’s universe. His confusion changed to despondency.
He rose to dawdle from the patch of sand and wonder what he had wanted to do when first stepping into the fairy ring. His thoughts on the matter were no longer real, though. Moosevan had grown a wall of imaginings about him that made fact fancy and fancy fact.
Careful to move in the opposite direction from the other eccentrics, Yuri passed through the curled, satin grass of a plain spangled with bright red and yellow flowers. It seemed odd not to hear bird song and even the breeze was quiet as it brushed through the vegetation. Intently he listened for the sound of Moosevan’s voice. She was silent and keeping her passionate low whispers to herself. He tried to persuade himself that it was ridiculous to fall in love with a planet, and that nothing could ever come of it, yet the planet dweller had filled a void he had never realised was there before.
Foliage like strips of gold leaf floated from a slender branch above him and waxy blooms descended to waft scent into his face as he passed. They were no substitute for the perfumed caress of Moosevan. Sensing that he had lost her forever, Yuri sat in the grass that licked at his legs like cool flames. Stretching out under a rainbow-streaked sky studded with a peculiar small black disc, he closed his eyes from the yellow sun’s rays and let his hand play with the friendly, spiralling blades of grass. Filled with sweet regret he heard his thoughts whisper, ‘Moosevan.’
Soft wisps of mist flowed across his body to engulf him in distinctive perfume. Caressed by familiar fingers, Yuri heard the planet dweller’s gentle voice.
‘Yuri... You are sorry?’
‘Yes. I did not understand. You forgive me?’
‘I am not angry. There is little time for us now.’
‘But the creature I spoke to said you had only lived two thirds of your span,’ protested Yuri. Another thought crossed his mind. ‘You mean I will not live much longer?’
‘You will live to your natural old age. I will soon have to pass from this planet. It is like a body to me. Without it I cannot survive long enough to reach another shell.’
‘But why? Why?’
Moosevan sighed. ‘I am not good at understanding these things. The ways of some creatures are very strange to me. I know that surrounding me is a net that will distort the very space I sit in. This distortion will be so great that it will drive me from my world.’
‘They must be stopped,’ insisted Yuri.
‘I have lived long. I do not kill other creatures, and this is what I would have to do to stop them.’
‘Let me do it.’
‘You are foolish. I would not let you kill for me.’
‘There must be way out. I cannot bear thought of you dying.’
‘It does not matter that much to me. I just wanted to touch you once more before it happened.’
‘What are those tall furry creatures doing here if it isn’t to save you?’
‘They are being foolish as well. They are great intelligences even older than me, but they do not know what I have been told.’
‘What is that?’ asked Yuri, even though he had already worked it out for himself in his piles of exercise books.
‘When those great intelligences passed from this galaxy by developing cosmic forms, they left an escape route for every planet dweller like me. We were unable to adapt as they did, and they realised the time would come when evolution retrogressed and produced species that would turn their greedy eyes to our fertile worlds. They knew that these creatures would sooner or later try to drive us from our bodies and let us perish in space. So they built gateways into other galaxies across the Universe. Through them we were able to slough enough material from our planets to form new ones. In the largest of these pieces they put machines to guide the others to come together when the time came. Being the substance of our own bodies, we could rearrange its elements to suit our needs after it had accreted.’
‘Why didn’t they form whole planets to begin with?’
‘Because they would have been near enough to a sun and with enough elements to form life. What species would want to live on a planet that they are totally at the mercy of?’
‘I see.’
‘I sent a signal to the accretion machine on your planet,’ Moosevan went on. ‘I was told that the densest part of the new planet was embedded in your world when it was accreting material. All life on Earth would be destroyed if I were to allow the machine to operate.’
‘That is true. My world would break up if signal were activated.’
‘It will not happen. I have made the accretion beam cease to function. There will be nothing for me to pass to once I have left this planet.’
‘No!’ protested Yuri. ‘You cannot die like that.’
‘I must. If those two creatures from the Old Ones manage to reach the control inside my crust, they will make the machine function whatever I try to do about it. They must not reach it if you are to live.’
‘If you die I don’t want to live.’
‘You hardly have any life at all as it is. I will not let you die. You must return to your own planet.’
‘Surely they could stop other creatures who made net instead?’ asked Yuri in desperation.
‘If species like the Mott know the Old Ones have returned and the Jaulta Code has been broken, they would exterminate all those people they suspect were responsible. It is a very small price to pay. You must not take this so seriously. You will think it just a dream when you are back on your own world.’
‘It will always be nightmare. Won’t you try to think of way to save yourself, just for me?’
‘It is for you and your kind that I will not.’
‘Let me stay,’ pleaded Yuri, ‘I have nothing much to go back for.’
‘You must live, Yuri. You have such a short life.’
‘You will send me back through that collapsar?’ Yuri asked as he realised what the black disc in the sky was. He hadn’t thought of it as a black hole before, even though it reflected no light, because it had no effect on the planet it circled, but Moosevan’s story convinced him.
‘I will send you back through the gate the Old Ones built to your own world,’ Moosevan reassured him.
‘To go into that thing would crush me out of existence.’
‘You came through it. There is no reason why you should not return the same way. We should not argue like this. You are a strange one to need to argue so much.’
‘I have to squeeze all my arguments into much shorter space of time than you do. I will not argue any more if you do not want.’
‘You must rest now,’ Moosevan whispered, and the soft perfumed veil was once again drawn over Yuri’s thoughts.