The Space Between (30 page)

After the room lurched slightly, Keeble
smiled. "Hey, we're going down." He pulled free of the restraining
hand and pushed his way across to press the button again. Nothing
changed. He pressed a second time. Still the little room dropped
deeper into the ground. Then it stopped and the door opened.

Keeble's smile grew. "That's amazing." He
stabbed at the button again. One of the soldiers reached for his
arm, but too late. The doors started to close immediately, and the
big black dwarf reached forward to hold them back. Keeble nodded,
impressed that he could seemingly hold back hydraulics without any
effort at all.

The corridor beyond the door was still bare
stone, a beauty to behold. Wonderful stone. Ripples of color flowed
in random patterns. Pale blue and yellow. Black and brown. All
dancing the red of the wall like the notes of a Song. Keeble moved
forward, running his fingers along the stone. There were still
small touches of magic, but they were ancient workings. Further
down, near the first branching of tunnels, a frieze had been
carved. Two dwarves, one of them huge, walking side by side, deep
in conversation while over their heads a full moon dominated. The
natural colors of the wall had flowed to color the figures as if
they'd been painted. On another wall someone knelt by a pool of
still blue water, and over there a little dwife stared at the stars
high above.

Keeble stopped to examine the work. He
didn't get much of a chance, though. The big dwarf nudged him
forward and he hurried to catch up with his companions. Kim was
looking more nervous with each step she took. She fiddled with the
collar of her shirt, twisting it this way and that in her long
fingers. Meledrin moved calmly, as ever, not looking to either
side, seeming to listen to the idle conversation of the escort.
Keeble wished he could understand them as well. He could understand
some, when they spoke slowly.

"What are they saying?" he asked
Meledrin.

"They speak of others."

"Other whats?"

"Other people. A group of soldiers. They are
not sure, themselves. And one other in particular. They refer to
her as 'the other'."

"Her? Another bloody dwife?"

Meledrin shrugged. "I merely assume it is a
woman as the 'other' appears to have some religious capacity."

"Well, have you noticed that with these
dwarves the women aren't in charge? Your people will learn one
day."

Meledrin didn't answer, and Keeble smiled.
Kim studied the back of the big black dwarf, as if a map to their
destination might be sewn into the fabric on his broad back.

“
[Where are we going?]” she
asked.

One of the dwarves from the car answered.
“[We're going to meet General Hilliard. He's in charge.]”

“
[And Room 32?]”

“
[It's a conference room
off the General's office.]”

“
[Sure it is.]”

“
[Have I given you any
reason to doubt me?]”

“
[You've hardly said a
word. But you work for the US government, and we're walking through
a tunnel under Area 51. Should I believe you?]”

The dwarf shrugged. “[Perhaps not. But it
makes no difference to my life either way.]”

Keeble looked at the wall and touched the
smooth stone while he walked. He could feel it dancing under his
fingertips.

Eventually, after a dozen turnings and
several short flights of stairs, they stopped in front of a plain,
deep-set metal door. They'd seen nobody in all of their travels, no
hint of activity. All of the hallways had been empty and
featureless, apart from the swirling patterns on the walls that
occasionally coalesced into striking pictures. Keeble was surprised
to realize that they were apparently at their destination. He went
inside when the door was opened.

The room beyond was four meters to a side
with a metal locker to the right of the door and a table and four
chairs in the middle. A second door, flanked by two beds, was
directly opposite the entrance. The biggest dwarf Keeble had ever
seen was lying on one of the beds. He was fast asleep and hanging
over the edges. The door closed and Keeble turned to discover that
he, Kim, and Meledrin were alone with the stranger.

“
[Looks more like a cell
than a conference room,]” Kim said, taking a chair as she examined
the stranger on the bed. “[Who's he, do you think?]”

Meledrin and Kim babbled for a few minutes
as Keeble circled the room. He opened the second door and
discovered a bathroom with a shower, toilet, and sink. The locker
contained some books and cardboard boxes. He closed the door and
continued circling.

"This looks like a cell," he said after
completing his third lap. "Are we prisoners? What did you tell
them?"

But Kim paid him no mind, and neither did
Meledrin.

The walls were only about a meter thick. He
could feel the resonances. They were perfect, not a fault, not a
weak point. Without a Rock Song, even with the proper tools, it
would take him the best part of a couple of days to tunnel through.
Wonderful stone. He stood for a long time, feeling the Song slowly
building in his mind. It wasn't until he sounded the first note out
loud that he got control of himself.

With a shudder, he clamped his mouth shut
and went to sit down on the vacant bed. Meledrin and Kim were
talking quietly.

He wished he had something to do. He
unstrapped his arm and examined the rusting gears but, having no
tools, that just made him more frustrated than when he'd
started.

He was relieved when the big, sleeping dwarf
stirred and started to sit up.

"Find out who he is," Keeble said to
Meledrin before the stranger had even swung his legs over the side
of the bed. "Find out what's going on. See if he can get us
out."

"Give him a chance, Keeble," the dwife
replied.

Keeble grunted and turned to the stranger.
"Hello," he said with a smile. "I'm Keeble." He pointed to himself.
"Keeble." There was no reply. "Do you know the way out? Do they
have coffee here? And who made this place? It's wonderful stone."
He had to fight to keep his attention from wandering.

The big dwarf just turned to look at him for
a moment and then lowered his head to his hands. He had strange
tattoos on his left arm and shoulder.

“
[I think he's been
drugged,]” Kim said softly, and that started off another lengthy
conversation.

Keeble looked at the wall behind the big
dwarf. It was smooth and shiny, though old beyond thinking. Such
amazing stone. His Song was singing.

21: Lost Ones

"Ask him his name," Kim said to
Meledrin.

Meledrin gave a slight shake of her head.
"It does not work like that, Kim."

"Then how does it work?"

The big man, hardly more than a boy, really,
had been babbling to himself for five minutes, cowering in the
corner like somebody was going to hit him.

"I can learn a language from listening to
someone speaking it, but without some context from which to work,
it is difficult to even begin."

"Okay. Great." Kim rose to her feet and
paced the room before slapping herself in the forehead for being
such a fool. She crossed to the giant and crouched down nearby.
"Kim," she said, pointing to herself. The lad seemed to ignore her.
"Kim." Still no response. He just looked at her and continued to
babble. "Keeble, come here." She beckoned the dwarf over. It took
awhile for him to react, but eventually he turned away from the
wall and introduced himself to the giant again. Meledrin watched
silently, apparently not thinking it worth her while to speak to a
mere boy.

"Kim," Kim said again. "Keeble."

The giant stopped his muttering but didn't
reply. So Kim just started to talk, describing her travels over the
past few years. She tried to keep her voice steady and even, and
kept a smile on her face. Still, he made no reply.

After ten minutes of this, Kim returned to
her seat and sat down. Keeble filled the silence with his own
ramblings. Kim understood several words: car, plane, electricity.
The giant seemed to listen more intently, though obviously he
couldn't understand even as much as she.

"Do you know any legends about giants,
Meledrin?" Kim asked as she watched the one-sided conversation
between the dwarf and the stranger.

"Not really. No full tales because it has
been millennia since the last giant was seen."

"Until today."

"Possibly."

"So what do you know, then, if there are no
complete tales?"

"It is said that the gods spoke to them
directly, guiding them with voices in the stars. They were called
the Navigators, because they guided all people through the shoals
of the gods' wishes."

"Very poetic."

Meledrin gave Kim the condescending look
that she was getting used to. In the corner, the stranger finally
spoke in reply to Keeble's babbling. Kim smiled at the thought that
he was probably telling the dwarf to shut up. Meledrin glanced
across to the corner as Kim went over and introduced herself again.
Keeble slowed down long enough to followed suit. Then, with a
sneer, he introduced Meledrin.

Finally the lad pointed to himself and said,
"Tuki."

"Hello, Tuki." Kim then proceeded to
introduce the table. "Table," she said, pointing and indicating
that she would like him to say his word for the item. Eventually he
seemed to get the picture, for he said a single word. Kim then went
right around the room naming everything in turn and getting his
words in response. Then she started pointing to parts of herself.
He seemed unusually shy about that, but gave his words with a
lowered head and rosy blush. Clothes were next.

"What else can we do?" Kim asked. Keeble had
grown bored of the game and had returned his attention to the
walls.

"Concepts, perhaps," Meledrin suggested.
"Large and small. Hard and soft. Colors. Numbers. Anything, so long
as he knows what we mean and is able tell us his own words."

So Kim set to work again with Meledrin
silently watching. Half an hour later, she thought she had
exhausted all of the possibilities and told the elf so. Meledrin
nodded.

"I think that is enough to get started. It
seems an absurdly simple language." She turned to face the lad.
“[Are you well?]” she said.

Tuki's eyes widened in surprise.

“
[I am not sick or injured,
but the humans have taken the skyglass. Thank you for asking,
mo'shi.]”

Kim was slightly shocked herself. She could
almost understand what the lad was saying. She was sure that she
was just a few moments from understanding and listened for when the
moment came.

“
[The skyglass? What is
it?]”

Tuki looked surprised again; whether by the
question or something else was not entirely clear.

“
[It is a glass ball, about
the size of your head, mo'shi. The Goddess speaks through
it.]”

“
[Voices come from the
glass?]”

“
[No. They speak in the
stars, which are shown in the 'glass.]”

"
How long you here?
" Kim asked. She'd
finished the question before she realized she was speaking Tuki's
language. She'd learned Spanish as a teenager, but it hadn't felt
anything like this.

“
[I do not know, mo'shi.
They stuck something in my arm, and I slept. I awoke for the first
time when you were here.]”

Kim only got half of that, which was more
than she should have, but it was enough.

“
[And where is it that you
came from?]” Meledrin again, looking annoyed.

“
[My world is called
Kiva.]”

“
[And what are your people
called?]”

“
[We are moai,
mo'shi.]”

Kim interrupted and made the elf repeat the
conversation back. She discovered that she needn't have bothered;
she'd understood enough. While she pondered the mysteries of
language, Meledrin started talking to the lad once more.

"Now what?" Kim asked when they had gone
through all manner of questions and answers.

Meledrin shrugged. "He says he came here by
choice, but I think he had as much choice in the matter as we did
in the end."

"Yes, I heard what he said."

Kim watched as Meledrin went back to
grilling the moai. Keeble was examining the lock on the door,
bending down to look in the keyhole and fiddling with the handle.
He seemed to lose interest when it didn't magically pop open, and
went to look at the stone walls instead, as if they might offer a
better option for escape. He ran his fingers along the smooth stone
and tried to scratch it with his metal hand. Nothing magical
happened there either, but he stayed where he was, staring and
mumbling to himself. He kept his hand on the wall, fingers spread,
face intense with concentration.

Kim drifted away to sleep as she listened to
Meledrin and Tuki and watched Keeble. The words swam through her
dreams, in murky water at first, but becoming clearer by the
moment.

* * *

Kim divided her attention between the
television and Meledrin and Tuki. The former was tuned to CNN,
while her companions spoke of religion, culture, and agriculture,
and everything in between. More people were being killed by falling
bat-things in most places, but central South America was being
decimated. They didn't have the resources of a lot of places and
were under almost constant attack. Normally both the news and the
conversation might have been interesting, but Kim couldn't
concentrate. All she could think about was that she could
understand what Tuki was saying. Meledrin picking up a language
like a child picked up a lollypop was all well and good, she was an
alien after all, but Kim was just a human.