A HUM ROSE IN THE AIR

1563 4D

In a regularly-timed sequence, the garden’s invisible sun dimmed to a gentle dusk, then flared to full again, repeating the cycle as if days compressed themselves into heartbeats. The sequence stopped, leaving daylight. The smile faded from Arlen‘s face; he looked up, surprised. Andrew‘s heart thudded. Maybe the rebels had won the Complex. Would it buy him time? And what good would the time do him?

Turiosten‘s voice spoke inside him. What’s happening? Why did the lights change? Andrew didn’t respond. Arlen‘s face worked, shifting from surprise to rage to blandness in a few pulses; he turned away.

Andrew repeated Turiosten‘s question aloud. “What’s happening to the lights?”

“Turiosten. Shut him up. And mind the rest of them.” An angry snarl, and Arlen‘s hand rose and fell in dismissal. He walked away into the garden and disappeared. Andrew tried to call to him, but his voice refused to work; he could only gasp. His mind raced, beat aginst nothingness, groped for command of his arms and legs and voice.

There is nothing I can do for you, Turiosten said to Andrew. Let go and wait. Let go and wait.

Never! Andrew shouted in his mind. Give me my body back again.

Wait. Turiosten‘s mental voice seemed almost to whisper. Wait to see if he comes back. Andrew‘s thoughts caromed in the box of his brain, then settled to a shaking vigilance. Minutes went by.

Andrew found himself able to move his head and neck. He looked first at the sleeping Indrio, and then his eyes returned to the unconscious form of his rejuvenated Leil. She looked beautiful, as if his most cherished memory of her had come to life before him. Her face rested in absolute peace. He couldn’t take his gaze away.

Now her face carried no lines at all, as if the carvings done by love and life had been carelessly smeared away by some peculiar erosive force. The long-developed signs of her wisdom, patience, care, all were missing. He looked at her in wonder and regret.

He’s gone for a while. Turiosten‘s voice jarred Andrew‘s thoughts. I can’t feel that thing, that weapon he carries, not now.

“So what do you want from me?”

I want to find some other of my own kind. A time is here when I must join, in spite of the shunning. I feel it all through myself.

“Why can’t you just do it yourself? Or just stay alone?”

Arlen will not allow it. I have begged him.

Leil‘s face shifted slightly in the green garden light.

“And?”

I can’t stay alone. Without joining, I will die sooner.

“You mean like tomorrow?”

No. Each joining missed can remove a thousand years of life.

“What? You live thousands of years?”

Yes. I appeared in this world in another star system half a million years ago, as I measure it in the years of the many stars’ planets like this one I have seen since then. My life should last another million years. But Arlen—

“A million years? So why worry about a thousand?” More than he wanted, this interested Andrew. He watched Leil‘s lips moved slowly, making words he couldn’t read. He cocked his head to her, hearing nothing. He strained his will to draw closer to Leil, stretch his neck out. Turiosten seemed to be ignoring his wishes, leaving him disconnected like a dead wire.

Every instant is precious.

“Especially if you’re greedy as you seem to be. Come on, set me free,” Andrew urged.

You can’t understand any of this. Not in this life of yours, maybe never. Turiosten‘s voice seemed soft but heavy.

Andrew burst out, “No. Not when we only get a few years of this ‘precious’ life, as you call it. Why don’t you just eat me and be done with it, or just kill me? Or else let me go.” He watched Leil‘s chest rise and fall slowly. If only she would wake up again.

I could save you, and even your wife, if you help me. The alien‘s voice in Andrew‘s mind carried a tone of pleading.

“You could get us out of here? But you said—" Andrew‘s hope came to life, and suspicion followed immediately: another trick, leading him back to Arlen again. What did this creature really want?

Alone, I can’t do anything. But there must be some way of disarming the weapons Arlen has put here to contain me. None of Arlen‘s prisoners could help.

“What is this joining you were talking about?” Draw it out, draw the thing out.

We call it Qaqanhialh. It’s like a wedding of the minds. Sometimes a new one of us appears out of the joining, making the hanhorhn. That’s how we arrive in this world. And how we renew ourselves.

“Like sex.”

Like love and sex together, maybe.

Andrew shook his head, trying to dislodge this voice that rose out of his own brain like dark water. “Love? Aren’t you just a killer?” No reply for a long time.

Let me try to show you some things, Turiosten said. Maybe then you’ll understand more. And maybe we can get out of here.

A surge of strength flowed through Andrew. I can do that, you see? And much more, like this. Elation, exaltation flashed in Andrew‘s brain like long flickering lightning. Again he shook his head.

“I don’t want all that. I want Leil, my wife, again.”

All right. Andrew moved one leg, then the other, stiffly, mechanically, cautiously. He tottered to where Leil slept, and knelt awkwardly by her, letting the stones jab into his knees.

“Leil? Leil, it’s me. Andrew.”

She can’t hear you. I put her to sleep when I left her and came to you.

“Wake her up.” Andrew held Leil‘s face between his hands, lifting her head slightly and caressing her cheeks gently with his thumbs.

I can’t. She’d try to escape, and Arlen would— hurt me.

“I thought you wanted to get out for that joining or whatever it is.”

His machines watch me. When I tried to leave once, they damaged me so badly I nearly died. He was very angry. Turiosten‘s voice shook inside Andrew‘s head.

“Where are these machines, anyway? I know machines.” Andrew laid Leil‘s head tenderly on the grass and looked up at the underground sky. An illusionary blue depth gleamed bright above the garden trees’ leaves.

I don’t know. They’re hidden. I can’t find them, and I’ve looked all around the garden walls. Maybe you can find them.

Andrew stood and walked out along the garden’s twisting pathways tucked between articulated walls of shrub-trellised flowers and vines, winding together in sheets and curls and bulges and tangles spilling sensuous neorchid blooms that ran from deep velvet red up into high pale yellow, streaked and spotted and spattered bursts nestled in the greenery. He walked, looking intently, seeing only the convolutions of the path intersecting its other turnings again and again.

“How does anyone get out of here?” Andrew found himself again and again standing over Leil and Indrio, again and again passing the sunken circles where the others lay. He moved on once more.

There. Stop. Now step sideways to your left about one half stride.

“But that’s—" A nest of heavy green tendrils blocked Andrew.

Do it. This is where Arlen always appears.

Andrew clenched his teeth and took a forceful sideways step. The tendrils brushed past him, and at his left a door appeared. He reached to its handle. “Oh. Let’s—“

No! It’ll— A hum rose in the air. Electricity stiffened the hairs on Andrew‘s head. You see?

“Yes. Now what?”

Exactly.