"Are you getting all this?"
"Uh huh-I don't believe it either. McCarthy! Look at the other one!"
The second worm to cuddle against the dead one had lifted its eyes to study the door now. It shifted its glance to the worm that was backing away-as if considering. Then it looked to the door again and apparently made a decision. It slid off toward the nose of the chopper.
Several of the other worms approached the dead one now. They looked like they were sniffing and inspecting it, but none of them moved up alongside it. "Nobody else wants to cuddle... ?" I guessed.
"Would you?" Lizard asked. She dropped out of the turret. "Come on! Something's happening up front."
The worms were forming themselves into groups. There were Iwo groups of four and two groups of three. The bunnydogs looked like they were directing them, but I wasn't sure. I never listened to the person guiding me into a parking place either, why should a worm? The creatures were settling down quickly.
"Now what are they doing-?" Lizard wondered.
The monsters were shaped like stubby cigars, but with a bulge at the front like the nose of an old Boeing 747. That was the brain case, a thick shell of bone shielding the creature's gray matter (or whatever color it was-more likely purple). The monster's arms were anchored here. Mostly the worms kept their peculiarly doublejointed arms folded flat against the brain case, reaching up and over the eyes only to grab or hold something. Or someone.
The creatures' eyes rose up just in front of the brain case. The two eyes moved independently of each other, as if they were mounted on separate swivels, but both organs were enclosed in the same rubbery bag of skin.
At the very front of the creature was the mouth.
When it was closed, it looked like a sphincter; but when it was open, it was hideous-it was a maw, a grinding hole, a pit. Nothing godly was responsible for this beast. No, Lizard was wrong. The worm was not a beautiful creature. The mouth spoiled it.
The worms were moving around the chopper now, inspecting it, looking at it sideways, but always keeping a cautious distanceat least three lengths away. Several of them began moving toward the rear
"Oh, my God-the dead worm!"
Lizard followed me back-I leapt over Duke toward the weaponbay, she climbed into the turret-
"They've found it! McCarthy, look at this!"
I grabbed the box of rockets and scrambled back-I shoved my face up to the accidental window. Three large worms were inspecting the body of the dead one. The bunnydogs moved to keep out of their way.
One of the worms slid around then, bringing itself directly alongside the body. It rolled up to it as if it were ... cuddling? That didn't make sense. Another worm was doing the same thing on the opposite side.
"What are they doing-?" Lizard called quietly.
"I don't know. I've never seen this before. Are you still carrying your camera?"
"Yeah. I'm getting it!"
Abruptly, one of the worms lifted its eyes and looked straight at me. It was studying the door-the same door its colleague had been trying to open when we'd killed it.
The worm slid forward
"I don't know," I whispered back. "Always before, we've seen worms only in groups of three or four. We've assumed those were family groups. We've never had a chance to observe a really large gathering." My voice cracked on the next-to-last word. I swallowed hard.
Lizard looked over at me. "How are you doing?"
"You mean, am I scared?"
"Yeah."
"I'm petrified. How about you?"
She said it matter-of-factly: "I guess you could say I'm handling it as well as can be expected."
I heard the quaver. I reached over and touched her hand. "Under the circumstances, there's not a hell of a lot of other options." She squeezed my hand in hers-almost a little too hard. Then she let go quickly, as if she were embarrassed at having admitted her emotion.
I covered my own reaction by picking up the Pentax again. When in doubt, take care of business. I popped the clip and dropped the memory cassette into my lap. I reached down for a new one and snapped it into place.
I'd filled eighty gigabytes of memory with two hours of highresolution video. No matter what else happened, what we'd photographed here tonight would make an incredible difference to the war effort. We'd seen things that no other human being had ever observed-and we'd made a record of them.
I expected the next hour to be even more interesting. If we survived.
That thought hovered oddly.
I knew that we were very close to death here-and it didn't matter.
I realized I couldn't be scared any more. I'd moved beyond fear. I'd passed into a kind of free-floating euphoria. It was the strangest feeling-I'd used up all my fear. All that was left was interest. I supposed I'd run out of adrenaline-that was probably the medical explanation; but it felt like the freedom of madness.
And I didn't mind.
It was all right to be crazy. It was the best thing to be. I didn't have to be responsible any more. I was tired of being responsible-I floated. I photographed the Chtorran worms, and floated above the land of fear.
The bunnydogs were gathering in front of the worm groups now. They were absolutely unafraid of the worms. The two species were obviously in partnership.
The question was ... which one was the dominant partner? The four groups of worms were arranged in a large arc in front of the chopper. Now, several of the bunnydogs hopped into the focus of that space and began stamping out a large circle, an arena several meters across. A cloud of pink dust rose around them as they moved. It glittered and sparkled in the air around them. They didn't act as if they noticed. They rabbit-thumped their big paddlefeet and pounded the powder into a hard-packed surface. They moved around and around the circle, spiraling out and then in again.
There were at least a dozen of them, and they went about their task with an almost grim determination. 'They were little round pink warriors trying to invent a war dance. As they continued, more and more of the bunnydogs entered the circle and joined the task-until all of them were there, determinedly stamping out an arena.
I glanced to the worms. They were paying very close attention to what was happening here. One by one, they were shifting to face forward. They moved up to the very edge of the circle, but did not enter it. Instead, they settled into positions of quiet readiness. They looked like giant red meat loafs; they folded their arms back and swiveled their eyes forward, and focused their attention on the stubby little bunnies in the circle.
They were waiting on the bunnydogs.
They were a monstrous tableau. Their large black eyes blinked rapidly against the spreading dust in the air. They watched dispassionately. If they had expressions, they were impossible to read.
Very quickly, the bunnydogs finished preparing their arena and stopped. As each one finished, he/she/it? moved to the center of the circle and waited. Finally, they were all of them gathered silently in the center in a loose jumble. For a moment, nothing liappened. The bunnydogs were still. The worms might have been statues. The dust hung in the air-a silent pink haze. Everything was frozen.
"Now, what-?"
"Shhh."
We waited-
The first movements were imperceptible. We saw the dust, not the motion-it rose around the bunnydogs in a fresh pink cloud. They were stamping their feet again-but this time it had a ritual quality. They were trembling. They were shivering and shuddering. And finally, they were moving-all as one now-turning slowly around and around among themselves.
The cluster began to expand. Still stamping, still turning, they began to move outward toward the edges of their circle; at the same time they began to expand the size of their movements. They brought their arms out from their bodies. They lifted their hands over their heads. They opened their mouths wide and a shrill keening rose from their throats.