THEY WON’T LIKE FINDING US

1563 4D

Putting his back against a smooth dry patch of wall, Andrew slumped down to sit at the side of the long radial understreet. The only useful light came from a single ceiling lamp a few strides further on; the next one glowed like a pinprick far away. “I’m tired,” he said. “Let’s take a few breaths here.”

Jeddin sat next to Andrew, and bowed his head; the lone light glinted off his thick hair. They talked, every now and then stopping to look both ways along the understreet, checking for other footsteps or voices. Andrew dabbled a finger in a small rivulet of seepage that ran from the wall next to him out to the center of the street to vanish in a stride-long crevice serving as a drain.

Jeddin surprised him. “Your son’s datacard gave me the clue about innerspace. I lied to you. I deciphered the message, and went to the University and talked with Professor Norgrist. He told me more than he knew he had. And when they tried to trap me, I ran into a guard who had an alien living in him.”

“Why did you lie to me?”

“I didn’t mean to. I would have erased the whole thing from my mind if I hadn’t already heard about the monopole search. After that, I couldn’t let it go.”

“So, what did you hear? None of my business, I suppose?”

“No need to get sarcastic. It’s a big thing. The alien ship drive uses some properties of the monopoles, I think. I was lucky to get out with my life — that’s all I found out there. Nobody wants to tell me more.” Jeddin explained his escape, and the biocrypt, and the stone wall he met in Naga Zone.

“But I’d found those two women with aliens in them. Deen and Marra.” Jeddin shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck, staring at a point by Andrew‘s feet.

A shock ran through Andrew. “Deen and Marra?” He remembered the dreams of breasts and kisses, and then Turiosten. “They stuck me back together. So that’s why.”

“That’s what they can do with the aliens in them. They fixed up Ezzar, years ago. They’ve probably healed a lot of people. Look what Turiosten did for you and me. And then when Onnhasshakh came into me, she finished putting my cracked spine back together.” Jeddin smiled and shook his head. “But Marra and Deen. What a pair. We celebrated the qaqanhialh together. Making love will never be the same. Oh, my, no.”

Andrew opened his mouth to speak, then shut it. Making love with two old women? They’d been spirited and lively, as he recalled from his time with them, but lovemaking? He looked hard at Jeddin‘s face. The man seemed perfectly serious.

A vague shift in the air, maybe at the corner of his eye, caught Andrew‘s attention. He looked back down the street. Had something moved? “What I don’t get is, where did all these aliens come from all of a sudden? There were always a few around in the City, but only in Poly Town, and now it seems like they’re all over the place.”

“Let’s go, and talk as we walk. The time is short.” Jeddin said. They stood up and continued walking. Following Andrew‘s glance, Jeddin looked back along the street. “The aliens reproduce. It’s connected with their qaqanhialh, but there’s got to be more. They’ve been on this planet with us for quite a while now, thirty years at least.”

Andrew said, “Maybe they’re getting ready to kill all of us, like they did a long time ago.”

“Then why haven’t Onnhasshakh and Turiosten killed us? We’re no special use to them, except transportation and joining each other. They could have forced all that if they’d wanted.” Jeddin stared very hard, back down the length of street they had just traversed.

“Maybe they’re divided about us. After all, Onnhasshakh was exiled here for opposing the killoff. And Turiosten faces punishment from her own kind. If they were people we might call them renegades, something like you and me. What are you looking at?” Andrew stood up as Jeddin sprang to his feet.

“We’ve got company, back there,” Jeddin whispered. “It’s a small group, moving quickly and very quietly, and they aren’t far off. I’d guess they’re infiltrators. They won’t like finding us at all.”