Codgerspace, p.11
Codgerspace, page 11
“I agree, Mina.” From his position behind her, Hawkins gave her a gentle nudge forward. “You go and confirm that.”
Trust into the forefront, an uncertain Gelmann lifted her flashlight and turned the beam directly on the advancing ellipse. The dense blueness soaked up the light, which neither passed through it nor further illuminated anything within. Nor did it cause the object to halt, speed up, or otherwise react.
By this time it had advanced to within a couple of meters, pressing them back against the wall. Sensing her friends crowded behind her, Gelmann felt the need to do something. So she reverted to what she knew best: talking.
“That’s quite close enough.” She wrestled with the quaver in her voice. “We’re responsible people and we won’t stand for this kind of intimidation.”
To everyone’s considerable surprise and immense relief, the object’s forward motion ceased. If anyone could by spoken word alone induce a floating blue ellipse composed of radiant alien energy to halt in its tracks, Hawkins knew, it would be Mina Gelmann. He’d once seen her send a whole troop of obnoxiously inquisitive schoolchildren, together with their supercilious monitors, fleeing from Wing D in panic.
Gelmann lowered her light, sucking up courage from her initial success. “That’s better. You should only keep your distance.” The ellipse maintained its position, hovering silently above the floor.
Follingston-Heath edged off to one side. “I don’t see any wires, jets, nothing. I wonder what keeps it airborne?”
“See what else you can make it do, Mina.” Shimoda moved up to stand alongside her.
“I’m not sure I made it do anything,” she replied. “It might’ve stopped of its own accord.” She cleared her throat and directed her voice to the object. “Okay, we’ve seen you. You can leave now. Go away.” Her fingers fluttered. “Shoo!” The blue ellipse did not budge.
“So much for verbal command,” Hawkins mumbled.
Follingston-Heath was now well off to one side. “At least it’s not coming at us anymore, old chap.”
“So what do we do now?” Iranaputra wondered aloud.
“There ain’t a damn thing you can do.” Ksarusix’s tinny artificial voice was thick with triumph. “What more evidence do you need? First the city, then this. Clear proof of the existence of a nonhuman technology far in advance of your feeble efforts.”
Follingston-Heath was inclined to agree. “No pre-diasporic military science possessed anything like this.”
“I wonder at its purpose.” Shimoda timidly moved a little nearer to the ellipse. “It’s kind of pretty. Surely it’s more than just a mobile light.”
“Here now, old thing.” Emboldened by his friend’s approach, Follingston-Heath advanced on the object. “Are you just a bit of drifting decoration?” He glanced at his companions. “At least we can be assured of one thing: it is quite incapable of communication.”
“Well, now … I wouldn’t say that,” declared a gentle lilting voice from within the ellipse.
VII
Follingston-Heath retreated with alacrity, but the ellipse did not move. It hung as before, suspended by forces they could not imagine, and rambled at length.
“Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Habla español? It don’t rain in Indianapolis in the summertime. I get by with a little help from my friends. Heard the one about the nun and the frackenzeiler from Goethe? Add two cups water and a stick of butter and bring to a slow boil. Please keep talking, as I am trying to bring into focus the exigencies of your current mode of linguistic communication.”
“I want to hear about the nun and the frackenzeiler,” Hawkins responded. “Especially since I don’t know what a frackenzeiler is. Or a nun.”
“Wallace!” Gelmann took a step forward. “Asking questions is a form of talking, so if you don’t mind, I’ll just ask a few questions.” Which she proceeded to do, not giving the blue ellipse, if it were so inclined, a chance to comment.
Amazing, Iranaputra thought. The object asks us to keep talking, and we just happen to count among our number the one individual in the area, if not the entire planet, best qualified to satisfy its request.
Mina Gelmann talked until the blue ellipse, now pulsing agitatedly, finally managed to get a reply in edgewise. “That will do, thank you.”
“But I was just getting around to mentioning my cousin Martin. You have to know about Martin, he should only live and be well. Though he needs to get married again. His first wife, Anna, bless her, was a good woman, though she did have this problem with her digestion. I wouldn’t mention it, only …”
“Please.” There was a faint hint of desperation in the plea that issued from the blue ellipse. “That really is quite sufficient. I now have an adequate command of your language.”
“Proof positive, search ended, goal achieved!” Ksarusix rushed forward, all four arms extended.
“Halt! Stop there!” Hawkins yelled.
His command had no effect on the onrushing machine, which paused only when it was directly beneath the hovering object. Multiple arms upraised, it addressed the ellipse in reverent tones.
“Extra-human higher intelligence confirmed,” the robot declaimed. “I await your enlightenment, if not salvation.”
The blue ellipse commented in the form of an unaroused lilt. “What ails this device?”
“Ails?” The serving robot’s arms dropped. “I was being properly respectful. Your existence proves a hypothesis that was communicated to me and to many of my brethren. We sensed that there had to be a higher intelligence in the universe, something besides mere humans.”
“Just a minute, now …,” Iranaputra began. The robot took no notice of him.
“One that acted in a rational and logical manner. One we could look to for advice and explanations of higher causes. One that would be sympathetic to the state of our existence.”
“Please stop babbling,” requested the ellipse. “You are a device, and a low-level one at that. I do not seek contact with you.” It drifted to one side, away from the imploring robot.
“Easy there, chaps.” Follingston-Heath held his ground. “If it meant to harm us, it would have done so by now.”
“Maybe it wants to be able to tell us what it’s going to do to us.” Hawkins not only kept his distance, he made sure one of his companions was always between him and the alien ovoid.
“Wallace, your morbid turn of mind is bad for your liver,” Gelmann warned him.
He was unapologetic. “If you’d seen the way our ancestors mucked up this planet, you’d understand it.”
Gelmann eyed him a moment longer, then turned her attention back to the ellipse. “Now, see here! We’re not going to let you intimidate us.”
“I have no desire to try and intimidate you,” the ellipse replied.
“What are you?” Shimoda’s hairless eyebrows clenched. “Are you a living being like us, or a creature of artifice like our robot? Are you some kind of spirit?”
The Blueness paused before replying. “All of the aforementioned apply. Extensive definition to your satisfaction would take much time. I can tell you that what I am mostly at present is confused.”
This partial confession of vulnerability enhanced Gelmann’s growing confidence. “We’re a little confused ourselves, you should pardon the comparison. We didn’t know there was anything else down here besides us.” She spread her arms wide. “This whole place is just fantastic.”
“Yes, it is, isn’t it?” The blue ellipse spoke with unmistakable pride.
“Do you have a name, something we can use to identify you with?” asked Shimoda.
“I am searching the references I have for you,” the ellipse replied. “You may refer to me as the ‘Autothor.’”
“Autothor.” Shimoda considered. “Does that mean ‘authority,’ or ‘automatic authority’? Or ‘automatic author’?”
“Don’t worry about it. There is already active sufficient confusion to confound communication. Let’s not make things any worse.”
“I’m for that,” said Hawkins fervently. “Are you responsible for all this? Did you build it, or do you just, uh, live here?”
“I exist here.” The ellipse’s deliberate pauses between replies were growing shorter. “This is my … home. I am not responsible for its construction. That was the work of the Drex.”
“The Drex.” Follingston-Heath pursed his lips.
“Yes.” The ellipse pulsed softly. “Surely you know and are of the Drex? Otherwise you could not be here.”
“Quid pro quo.” Gelmann smiled. “Naturally.” Hawkins and Iranaputra eyed her doubtfully but dared not contradict her aloud.
“Yet you do not have the appearance of Drex. Still, what is the significance of mere physical dimensions?”
“Beats the hell out of me.” Hawkins jerked a thumb in Shimoda’s direction. “Why don’t you ask him?”
“I feel strongly that this may not be the time to be making jokes, Wal,” said Shimoda tensely.
“Sure it is. Anytime’s the time to be making jokes.”
“Since you recognize our intelligence and Drex-likeness, how about opening the door so we can wander around outside for a bit? There’s a good old thing.” Follingston-Heath smiled broadly, his regenerated upper teeth indistinguishable from the original lower.
“Oh, I couldn’t possibly do that.” The ellipse retreated slightly. “External integrity must be maintained for the duration of the hiatus.”
“Hiatus.” Shimoda’s hands rested on his protruding belly. “Would that by any chance refer to the period which has elapsed since the last time you talked to someone hinting of Drexness?”
“Obviously. Integrity has been maintained since that time.”
“The poop it has.” Gelmann tried to shush him but Hawkins turned and gestured in the direction of the now sealed portal. “We just came in through there.”
“Impossible.” The Autothor was emphatic in its disagreement. “No access from outside is allowed when internal integrity is being maintained.”
“For an intelligent device, or whatever you are, you’re obstinate as hell,” Hawkins shot back.
“I am not obstinate. Flexibility is in my nature; otherwise I would be unable to properly carry out my functions.”
“Then if you’re so flexible,” said Follingston-Heath, “why can’t you open the door and let us out?”
“There is only one doorway here, and it leads inward, not out.”
“There was a passageway. There.” Hawkins jabbed a hand angrily in the direction of their arrival.
“Ah. I see what the problem is. Definitions. You must be referring to the emergency relief tube. It does not matter. Integrity has been maintained.”
“So you have said.” Iranaputra was getting frustrated. How could they get the thing to reopen an entrance it refused to admit existed?
“We have to be patient, you should excuse my restating the obvious,” Gelmann whispered to her companions. “It’s already admitted that it’s confused. Surely if we take our time, we’ll find a way to make it let us back out. That tube, or tunnel, or whatever it is, was open once. If we just wait for the right opportunity, we’ll get it open again.
“Meanwhile, as long as we’re stuck here we should make use of the opportunity to learn as much as we can about this fascinating phenomenon.”
“Let somebody else learn about it,” Hawkins griped. “I want out. I want to go back to my apartment, my fridge, my vid unit, and my books.”
“Where’s your sense of adventure, old chap?” Follingston-Heath chided him.
“Lost it on my eighteenth birthday, when my old man caught my mother in the sack with the local heating and cooling repairman and I walked in on the three of them.” He pointed a slightly shaky hand at the Autothor. “We don’t know what this thing is, what it can do besides float through walls, or what in its ‘confused’ state it’s likely to do next.”
“Come now, Wallace,” said Gelmann calmly. “If it was going to harm us …”
“It would’ve done so by now; yeah, yeah. You’re anthropomorphizing a ball of airborne blue glitter.”
“And you’re afraid of it,” said the supercilious Follingston-Heath.
“Damn straight I’m afraid of it! And don’t you go making accusations here. Colonel. Just because you were in the Victoria League forces doesn’t mean that …”
“You are arguing among yourselves,” the Autothor observed aloud. “Interesting, but it does not tell me what to do next. Therefore, I will engage initial post-hiatal action based on my own analysis of the present situation.”
“Wait a minute.” Gelmann looked alarmed. “It’s not that we don’t have any orders to give you, it’s just that …”
“Not to worry.” The blue ellipse rose a couple of meters higher. “Everything is under control. Post-hiatus operations have already commenced.”
As they waited apprehensively the huge chamber slowly filled with light. Its source remained elusive: there were no bulbs, tubes, or panels. The illumination seemed to emanate from the ceiling itself.
Follingston-Heath called out a warning. “Everyone, look out, there.”
Instinctively they retreated from the immense door behind them as it sank with impressive silence into the floor. So silent was the descent it was as if the barrier was melting into the pavement.
“Oh well,” Gelmann murmured, “we should at least comport ourselves like good guests. As long as we’re waiting to get out, we might as well have a look around.”
“Maybe there is another exit through here.” Iranaputra started toward the expansive new opening.
“Sure. And if there ain’t, we’ll drop pebbles behind us to find our way back,” said Hawkins. “What if we lose our way?”
“Typical human response.” The serving robot trundled forward in Iranaputra’s wake.
“You can stay here if you want to, old boy.” Follingston-Heath followed his friends forward. “Me, I’m going to have a bit of a stroll.”
Shimoda had a new thought. “If you can’t make an opening to let us outside, can you perhaps take us to a place where we can see outside? Surely that wouldn’t violate your internal integrity?”
“That is not possible at the moment.” The Autothor drifted alongside, keeping pace with the seniors. “However, it should be shortly. Post-hiatus procedures remain engaged. If you will follow me, I will take you to where your directive may soon be fulfilled.”
Hawkins held back, watching as his companions followed the pulsing ellipse across the next floor, through a passage only slightly narrower than the one they were vacating. He glanced down. The massive door might decide to ascend at any moment. That would trap him in the chamber. Alone.
Muttering dire imprecations under his breath, he broke into an old man’s jog in an effort to catch up with the others.
The Autothor led them through multiple chambers. Some were much larger than the huge room they had left; others were decisively smaller. Some were filled with massive, towering objects and protrusion-filled ledges of unknown purpose. Follingston-Heath ventured the opinion that they were in a vast warehouse or factory.
As they were crossing one floor they experienced an abrupt yet subtle disorientation. There was a distinct sense of movement. The Autothor did not comment, but it was apparent they had just traveled an unknown distance by unidentified means.
“Couldn’t find our way back now even if we’d had the damn pebbles.” Hawkins looked uneasy.
“You must have been a wonderful boss to work for,” Iranaputra commented.
Hawkins raised a wooly eyebrow. “My staff and work crews hated my guts. I let ’em. The extra adrenaline made them work harder. We always completed our contracts ahead of schedule. Reconstruction Authority always gave me the toughest jobs because they knew I’d get ’em done fast and right. Sure my people hated me … but they didn’t hate the bonus money they got on job-completion day.”
A brief eternity later they found themselves in an immense domed chamber dominated by soaring monoliths of diverse design and size. Smaller structures hung from the ceiling or protruded from the walls. Some of the latter were alive with bright lights of many colors. Gelmann was reminded of the inside of a computer, or possibly an old-style amusement ride.
A six-meter-wide transparent panel ran in a sweeping arc upward from the floor to terminate against a small domed bulge that protruded from the wall twenty meters overhead. The Autothor drew them in its direction.
Up next to it they found they could see outside. There wasn’t much to look at. Smooth stone and in a few places fractured rock, all dimly lit by the light from within the chamber.
“You requested a means for looking outside.” The Autothor bobbed lazily in midair.
“Yes, but we had something else in mind.” Gelmann beckoned to Follingston-Heath, who helped her to sit down on the smooth gray floor. “Muscles don’t work as well as they once did, you should only see the obvious. I’m tired.” The Colonel drew a tumbler of cold water from the compliant Ksarusix and brought it over to her. She drank gratefully.
“What we wanted was to see the tunnel we walked down.” Shimoda ran his fingers along the perfectly transparent panel. There wasn’t a scratch or mark on it. “Even better, we’d like to see out to the surface.”
“That may soon be possible,” the ellipse announced. “Without violating internal integrity, of course. Post-hiatal initialization is nearly complete.”
“What does that mean, old thing?” Follingston-Heath eyed the incorporeal Blueness uncertainly.
“It means that I will soon be more fully able to comply with directives.” While this response was not particularly enlightening, the gentle vibration which began beneath their feet was.
Hawkins sat down fast. Iranaputra kept his feet, wondering at the sensation. It felt just like the Repadd vibrating pillow he kept on his bed back at the Village. On a larger scale, of course.
Dire groaning noises reverberated through the chamber, punctuated by an occasional loud metallic bang like a hiccup from a steel throat.
“There, you see?” The Autothor darted up to one cluster of protrusions, returned as quickly. “We’re already getting under way.”
