SEARCHING IN BABIAR

1541 4D

A young andro male, bulky and well-muscled in a full-length skinsuit, stepped from the ship’s portal in the black depths of Babiar Zone, the refuse-heap of life at the base of the City. Anhmharh of the Zashinhalh rode at the base of the andro‘s brain, guiding the andro carefully.

To Anhmharh, the complicated neurosystems of these creatures made fine control difficult, especially in this darkness. A faint luminescence gilding the walls and ceiling gave a few fleeting gleams of light, and that was all.

No matter how many human and andros Anhmharh had ridden, she still found each new one a challenge, even after more than eleven of this planet‘s years. Even the tiniest and subtlest things, like balance and gait, demanded constant neural monitoring and management, at the fastest rates of nerve-impulse transmission. These humans were far deeper slaves to their biology than their more-evolved predecessors here had been.

It was tiring work, but it was interesting.

The ship, the parhirh, vanished back to its moment. How crude these time-bound creatures were! They were closer to the understreet‘s insects than they were to the glories of the Zashinhalh. It was the riddle of Arohsa that some of them carried sentattar, the ability to influence the sheaves, the permanent worldlines of all things in this narrow place.

The darkness stank; the nose of Anhmharh‘s andro host-being wrinkled, and its mind recoiled in disgust and fear.

“I am in danger here,” the andro creature said to Anhmharh. “This is Babiar, the pit of the City. I will be killed and eaten.”

What will kill you? Anhmharh spoke into the creature’s mind.

“Others are here that eat humans.”

We will see. Here. Turn left into that crevice. The host followed orders. A gasp, from somewhere ahead. Anhmharh took full control of her host again, moved closer to the sound, generated hyperopsins in the host’s eyes, bringing up the faint light. On the stone floor lay an ancient woman, damaged and thrown aside.