The Space Between (29 page)

“
[Oh my God.]”

Tuki spared a glance for Dongoske before
looking at the skyglass again. "Back. Back." And the world was just
a dot in the center of the 'glass with a single moon showing and
the yellow spots of meteors.

"You have many meteors here." Two hundred
and five. "The Goddess' voice is loud."

"They are not meteors, Tuki. They are
starships. They are vehicles, like wagons, that fly between the
stars."

Tuki nodded slowly. "I thought they might be
something like that, but was not sure. Could it still be a warning
from the Mother Blower, do you think, even though they are not
shooting stars? The Goddess works in mysterious ways."

"A warning of what?"

"Of the giant bats. They attacked Payota
with eggs of fire and hatched dozens of hard shelled babies."

"The gods do work in mysterious ways, Tuki.
We can never hope to understand all that they tell us."

Tuki smiled at the human, but Dongoske had
already turned to General Hilliard.

“
[Sir, the other world is
being attacked by the bats as well. Tuki saw the mother ships in
his 'skyglass' and tried to warn someone.]”

“
[The first thing we have
to do is get that damn thing off him so we can work out what the
hell it is.]”

“
[I don't think he'll let
us have it, sir. It has some serious religious
significance.]”

“
[Isn't everything that's
religious serious?]” Hilliard grunted. “[All right then, let's just
see if we can get him unconscious, and then we can do what we need
to do.]”

“
[As ever, sir.]” Dongoske
turned back to Tuki. "Tuki we have to let our doctors see you, to
make sure we don't have any illnesses that can harm you. And to
make sure you don't have any that can harm us."

"I am fit and healthy, Airman Dongoske."

"I'm sure, but it's like the monsters
invading. Because the humans of... Payota, was it? Because they've
never seen the monsters before, they can't beat them. I may have a
disease that does not harm me, but because you have never seen it
before, your body will not know how to fight it."

Tuki watched the other man carefully, but it
was hard to see his face properly because of the coverings he wore.
Tuki suddenly wondered if the monsters did not have hard colorful
skins after all. Perhaps, like these humans, they dressed in
protective clothing. And if that was the case, who was to say what
the creatures inside looked like? Perhaps they were just humans
after all.

Tuki shook his head. "No." If he'd been
thinking properly earlier and not letting his fear control him, he
would not have entered the valley in the first place. If he'd been
thinking, he would have run south after leaving Payota, towards
Danyon Ford.

"Pardon?"

"No. Your doctors cannot touch me."

"But..."

"I wish to go back to my world."

Dongoske turned to look at his leader.
“[General, Tuki wishes to go home.]”

“
[What the hell did you say
to him?]”

“
[Nothing, sir. Perhaps he
just knows humans too well.]”

“
[Well, tell him he can't
go. We need to study him and that crystal ball of his and, if we
must, we'll use force to get what we want.]”

“
[Sir, we shot the last
aliens we saw here. Do we really want to do that again? Do you
think we'll be able to overpower this guy?]”

“
[We have technology on our
side, Airman.]”

“
[And he has the right on
his.]”

General Hilliard sighed. “[Don't you think I
know that, Airman? Do you think I want to do it?]”

“
[Sir, I —]”

“
[We are talking about the
survival of the human race here, Airman. The bat-aliens seem pretty
stupid at the moment, but if they ever start to think we could be
in real trouble.]”

Tuki could not understand a word the two men
were saying but thought he understood well enough anyway. He
started backing towards the door, and his suspicions were confirmed
when two men moved to block his route.

“
[Airman Dongoske, tell him
we won't attempt to take the ball from him, but he must allow us to
conduct tests on him.]”

“
[Tests, sir?]”

The General sighed. “[We aren't talking
lab-rat tests here, Airman. We're talking medical tests to make
sure that neither he nor we will be harmed by our
interaction.]”

“
[Very well,
sir.]”

“
[I wasn't asking,
Airman.]”

Airman Dongoske spoke again, and Tuki stood
silently while he listened. "Do I have your word? And the word of
the General?" Tuki did not think that the word of these humans
would hold them to anything, but still he asked. "Do you swear on
the moons and the stars?"

“
[Sir, he's asking us to
give our word.]”

“
[So give it.]”

“
[I think he'd take it very
seriously and, if we broke our word, would basically never trust us
again. In any situation. Ever. He's friendly at the moment, and he
has knowledge that we don't have and may never acquire on our
own.]”

“
[Give it, Airman. Swear on
whatever he asks.]”

Tuki watched as Dongoske sighed and turned
back to face him. He knew that the Airman would swear, and he knew
that General Hilliard would break the trust. But there was nothing
he could do except as they asked.

"Tuki, you have my word. And the word of the
General."

Tuki sighed, himself, then. Only days
amongst humans and he knew them already. "Very well. What must I
do?"

"Just lie down on this bed. It will be a
little small, but that should be okay."

Tuki moved to the bed indicated by the
Airman and lay down. His legs hung over the end, and it was too
narrow by far, but he said nothing. He stared at the red stone of
the ceiling and clutched the skyglass in his hand.

"Now, we're going to give you a needle so we
can take some blood and study it. It may hurt a little bit, but
only a very little. And it won't last long."

"They wish to stick that in me?"

"If you like, we can stick a needle in
somebody else, first, on the other side of that window, to show
that it will do you no harm."

"That would be good." Though he knew it
would make no difference. With a last look at the skyglass, he
muttered the word that switched it off then handed it to Airman
Dongoske.

20: Other

Keeble raced down the stairs of the plane
and onto the floor of the huge shed.

The men on the second flight hadn't spoken
to him at all. They weren't nearly as friendly as the others.
Normally, being stuck in his seat with minimal talk would have
driven Keeble to distraction, but with all the information swirling
through his mind he'd had more than enough to keep occupied.

On the ground again, he took the chance to
examine the wing to see if it was the same shape as the last one.
What a marvel that such a simple idea could be the secret to
flight. He ran his hand along the flaps, felt the heat radiating
from the engine. He was left on his own for several minutes before
one of the men came to collect him. Then he was led across to where
Kim and Meledrin waited near a normal sized door that looked out of
place amidst the otherwise huge scale of the shed.

“
[Where are we?]” Kim asked
a stony faced dwarf.

Keeble couldn't understand her, so he
touched the door to see if he could work out what type of metal it
was.

“
[Groom Lake,]” the dwarf
replied.

“
[Yeah? Great.]”

“
[Area 51.]”

“
[Oh.]” Kim looked around
as if some startling revelation had suddenly made everything clear.
Keeble looked around the shed as well, but everything still looked
the same as it had a moment ago. Three small planes, smaller even
than the one they had arrived in, were partly stripped down. Keeble
wanted to go and look, but he knew he wouldn't be allowed. A little
room hung suspended from the wall at the back. Fields of green
canvas had been pushed up into mountains by piles of unseen items
beneath.

A talking box crackled, and one of the
agents opened the door to usher Keeble and his companions through.
Keeble went last hoping to examine their surroundings. There wasn't
a lot of point. The heat of a desert hit him, and he saw Meledrin
wilt at the onslaught, but that was about as interesting as it got.
There were a couple of dun-colored sheds nearby to match the one he
had just exited, and an up thrust of dun-colored hills beyond them.
Between the two was a large, flat expanse of nothing. Dun-colored.
Inside had been better.

Nearby, there was a big, black car with a
sliding door on the side. He was bustled into the vehicle and felt
it starting to move, though the windows had been blanked out and he
couldn't see through. The soldiers were suddenly fierce looking and
serious behind their dark spectacles.

Keeble was uncomfortable.

He glanced across to Kim and noticed that
she didn't seem her usual self either. Meledrin looked as she
always did, calm and serious. Keeble spared a moment to sneer at
her and then went back to worrying. Normally he would've talked to
lessen his unease, but who was he to talk to? Meledrin? The dwife
stared straight ahead, her copper-colored hair a stark contrast to
everything else in the car. Keeble sneered again and turned to face
the front.

When the car finally stopped, Keeble was
ready to jump out, but nobody else moved. He tried to look as calm
as Meledrin, but as the minutes dragged by he began to worry.

"What's happening?" he asked. He couldn't
imagine a set of the colored lights out in the middle of the desert
to hold up the traffic.

Finally, the van started to move again.

“
[What were we waiting
for?]” Kim asked.

“
[The van was hit by about
three dozen different forms of waves to kill any bacteria we were
carrying. We're now in a totally secure, totally clean area. If we
don't want something getting into or out of this place, then
there's no way that it'll happen.]”

“
[Supposedly. How do you
know all of your waving can kill the germs those two are
carrying?]”

“
[You don't know anything
about the measures we take.]"

“
[Do you think Keeble
couldn't break any of your mechanical security
systems?]”

“
[That little medieval
rustic?]”

Whatever Kim and the dwarf
were talking about was apparently funny, to the dwarf at least. But
Keeble sat glumly. He knew they were now underground, he could feel
it in his bones, but he couldn't
see
. He was sure he could hear the
hum of electricity. There was also the lower pitched hum of the
rubber tires on concrete, with a tap-tap, every now and then when
they crossed a join. And the rumble of the engine, spitting out oil
fumes like they would last forever. The caves were slipping past
without him seeing a single piece of stone.

With everything else he knew of these
dwarves, he guessed that any caves would be amazing.

Just when Keeble could stand it no longer,
the car came to a stop and the door slid open. A big, black-skinned
dwarf stood outside, muscles bulging out of a green shirt with no
sleeves. His small, dark eyes watched Keeble for a moment, before
he looked both directions along the side of the car and motioned
for everyone to come out.

“
[General Hilliard is
waiting for you down in Room 34,]” the big dwarf said.

One of the dwarves from the car nodded and
led the way through a metal door that slid open automatically at
their approach. Keeble stopped without going through.

It was a long time since he had been near
natural, solid stone, and he felt its presence dancing along his
nerve endings. He hadn't realized that he had missed it so
much.

The walls of the tunnel were as smooth as
the blade of an axe. He ran his fingers along a vein of quartz
running though the pale red of the stone. He could hardly feel that
the quartz was there.

"Can these dwarves Sing?" Keeble asked
Meledrin. She ignored him. "Ask Kim if her people have any
knowledge of Rock Singing." He could feel his own Song, like the
sound made by the magical gate, building in his mind, unbidden and
uncontrollable.

"I have a Song!" It was a shocking thought.
He leaned against the wall. "I have a Song."

But Meledrin asked Kim something then said,
"Kim says that her people do indeed have knowledge of rock
singing."

That explained it then. But the cave must be
ancient, for only a whisper of magic still clung to the stone. No
dwarf from Sherindel would ever have let magic do the bulk of the
labor, needing the feel of tools in their hands to feel that true
work was being done, but the strength of the Earth's Singers could
not be denied. Keeble laid his hand flat on the wall. With the Song
in his mind, he could feel the very presence of the stone.

"Ask her if we will get to meet a Hummer. Or
even a Singer."

"Kim says that it is not likely that any
singers will be in this area."

"Oh."

The big, black dwarf took Keeble by the arm
and drew him beyond the door. But once there, there was nowhere to
go anyway. The room was tiny, with just a single button for
decoration.

Keeble tried to go back out to examine the
wall some more, but the big dwarf grabbed his arm and held him
still. A moment later, someone pressed the button and the doors
slid closed.