Quofum (26 page)
Authors: Alan Dean Foster
The images faded. The all-pervasive illumination returned. Around the three artificially enhanced friends the machine world that underlay the natural world of Quofum hummed silently; kindling development, nudging progress, enhancing evolution among thousands of competing species. Not realizing that some among their kind were already aware of the oncoming Great Evil and were desperately trying to do something about it, Haviti and N’kosi and Valnadireb regretted that the destiny that had overtaken them prevented them from conveying a warning.
“Why show us
that,”
Haviti wondered in reference to the recently concluded presentation, “and continue to keep us alive?” Her expression was drawn and her tone had turned deeply cynical.
Valnadireb was less scornful, more philosophical. “As you saw. They hope that one day we may be able to offer a useful suggestion.” Gesturing truhands conveyed mild humor. “Even if we cannot ourselves evolve into one.”
Both of them looked over at N’kosi, who was being quiet. Such unusual reticence was enough to prompt an acerbic comment from Haviti. “What’s this, Mosi? Nothing to say, not even on matters of cosmic import?” Bitter humor did not allow her to fully accept everything she had just seen—but it was a useful temporary defense. And a very human one.
“I was just thinking,” her friend and colleague and companion for what was looking more and more like an everlasting future replied, “that those cute little wiggly-limbed supermen are probably experimenting on us even as they’re keeping us alive and well.” His eyes met hers. They still looked plausibly human, as did the essence behind them. “My only regret is that we can’t share what we’ve just seen with Science Central.”
“Perhaps they are better off not knowing,” Valnadireb observed, unaware that the peril in question had already been documented. “There is nothing anyone could do about it. The Commonwealth is prepared and able to defend itself against external threats such as the AAnn. Coping effectively with a maliciousness that is galactic in size and scope, I fear, will remain beyond the capability of both our kind.”
Turning, Haviti resumed walking. As ever, it required barely perceptible effort and no strain. She found herself wishing that there was a way she could hurt herself, could feel real pain once again. It was not to be. The mechanisms the multiarms had left behind would not allow it. She and her friends were too valuable intact. Much of her adult life had been spent in collecting specimens for research and study.
She had never expected to become one herself.
Maybe they’ll get tired of working with us,
she mused as she strode along assertively between Moselstrom N’kosi and Valnadireb.
Maybe they’ll release us from this planetary laboratory of theirs and let us find the tunnel again.
But what good would that do? They would still be trapped, marooned here on Quofum—a world that much of the time could not even be found at the suggested coordinates in the Commonwealth galographics. Which was the better fate? To live on, nourished and maintained by the multiarms’ machines? Or to die a slow and natural death up on the frenzied, chaotic surface?
There was a third possibility, she reminded herself. What if one of the multiarms’ multifarious ongoing evolutionary experiments succeeded? What if the means necessary to trigger the device implanted deep within the Great Attractor was found?
If
that eventuated, and
if
successful activation resulted, and if the device worked and the vast onrushing menace was subsequently countered, there would be no more need for them on Quofum. If despite being preoccupied with weightier matters the multiarms deigned to remember their three insignificant humanx experiments, might they not in their scientific brilliance and moral munificence find a way to send them home? Or at least to alert others of their kind to their continued survival and existence on Quofum, thus prompting a possible rescue expedition?
That was the possibility, however remote, however unlikely, that convinced her it was worth staying alive. That was what persuaded her companions to do likewise. She was not particularly proud of her decision. It was entirely selfish. She wanted someone to save the galaxy because in doing so the action might also save her and her friends. Whether that was likely to happen she did not know and had no way of predicting.
She knew only that she and Valnadireb and Moselstrom N’kosi had best continue to get along with one another in their enhanced and transformed states because the wait to learn the final answer was likely to be a long one.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A
LAN
D
EAN
F
OSTER
has written in a variety of genres, including hard science fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, Western, historical, and contemporary fiction. He is the author of the
New York Times
bestseller
Star Wars: The Approaching Storm
and the popular Pip & Flinx novels, as well as novelizations of several films, including
Transformers, Star Wars
, the first three
Alien
films, and
Alien Nation
. His novel
Cyber Way
won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990, the first science fiction work ever to do so. Foster and his wife, JoAnn Oxley, live in Prescott, Arizona, in a house built of brick that was salvaged from an early-twentieth-century miners’ brothel. He is currently at work on several new novels and media projects.
BY ALAN DEAN FOSTER
PUBLISHED BY THE RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING GROUP
THE BLACK HOLE
CACHALOT
DARK STAR
THE METROGNOME AND OTHER STORIES
MIDWORLD
NO CRYSTAL TEARS
SENTENCED TO PRISM
STAR WARS
®
: SPLINTER OF THE MIND’S EYE
STAR TREK
®
LOGS ONE—TEN
VOYAGE TO THE CITY OF THE DEAD
…WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE…
MAD AMOS
THE HOWLING STONES
PARALLELITES
STAR WARS
®
: THE APPROACHING STORM
IMPOSSIBLE PLACES
EXCEPTIONS TO REALITY
THE ICERIGGER TRILOGY
ICERIGGER
MISSION TO MOULOKIN
THE DELUGE DRIVERS
THE ADVENTURES OF FLINX OF THE COMMONWEALTH
FOR LOVE OF MOTHER-NOT
THE TAR-AIYAM KRANG
ORPHAN STAR
THE END OF MATTER
BLOODHYPE
FLINX IN FLUX
MID-FLINX
REUNION
FLINX’S FOLLY
SLIDING SCALES
RUNNING FROM THE DEITY
TROUBLE MAGNET
PATRIMONY
THE DAMNED
BOOK ONE: A CALL TO ARMS
BOOK TWO: THE FALSE MIRROR
BOOK THREE: THE SPOILS OF WAR
THE FOUNDING OF THE COMMONWEALTH
PHYLOGENESIS
DIRGE
DIUTURNITY’S DAWN
THE TAKEN TRILOGY
LOST AND FOUND
THE LIGHT-YEARS BENEATH MY FEET
THE CANDLE OF DISTANT EARTH
Quofum
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2008 by Thranx, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
D
EL
R
EY
is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Foster, Alan Dean
Quofum / Alan Dean Foster.
p. cm.
1. Humanx Commonwealth (Imaginary organization)—Fiction.
I. Title.
PS3556.O756Q64 2008
813'.54—dc22 2008027590
eISBN: 978-0-345-50970-3
v3.0