In the center of it all, dangling two or three meters from the floor and so entwined with gray strands that I can barely make out its shape, hangs a giant creeper. As I watch, it twitches spasmodically, and the entire network pulses.
I wait there, two strides past the entrance, but not-Speaker keeps going until a strand detaches from one of the nodes and drops down toward it, writhing and twisting as it goes. The strand strikes not-Speaker just behind the first segment.
It sticks, and not-Speaker freezes in place.
A second strand falls then, and a third, both attaching to its first segment, on either side of its mandibles.
Not-Speaker turns back to face me.
“Welcome to the collective,” it says, its voice slightly more modulated now. “We are pleased to meet you.”
I’m about to reply when I hear a sound like a wet kiss above me. I look up as a tendril detaches and drops down toward me.
Things happen quickly.
I stagger back toward the tunnel, hand scrabbling for Nasha’s burner, trip as the weapon comes free from its holster, then lose my grip on it when my right hip and shoulder hit the stone floor. The tendril strikes stone a few meters away and comes questing toward me. I roll half-over, regain my grip on the burner, and fire. The creepers’ armor is almost impervious to a handheld burner, but it seems this isn’t so for this … whatever this is. The tendril blackens and shrivels where my beam touches it, and after a second or two the entire network shudders and the tendril withdraws. I scramble up to a sitting position and put my back against the chamber wall, burner held out in front of me in both hands.
“Get back!” I shout, struggling to keep a quaver out of my voice. “Get away from me with that shit!”
“Please lower your weapon,” not-Speaker says. “It would be simpler if you allowed us to interface. Communication would be more efficient.”
“Interface?”
Another tendril detaches above me. It drops down a few meters and then hangs there, quivering.
“Interface,” not-Speaker says. “It will not be painful, and may make it possible for you to join with the collective. Will you allow it?”
I raise the burner to aim at the tendril. “Come any closer with that thing, and I will destroy you.”
“We doubt this,” not-Speaker says. “We do not believe you have the power to destroy us.”
A fair point.
“I may not,” I say after a moment’s hesitation, “but my people do. I came here to talk. If you attack me, they’ll reduce this place to rubble.”
“Again,” it says, “we doubt you have the power to do this.”
“We have a starship. You have no idea what we have the power to do.”
A ripple runs through the network around me, and I clutch the burner a little tighter.
“Starship,” not-Speaker says. “This is a vehicle for traveling from one star to another?”
“Correct.”
“We doubt this. Travel between stars is not possible for creatures like you.”
“You sound pretty sure of yourself.”
“We have given this great thought. At reasonable speeds, the time required to travel to even the nearest star is prohibitive, and the energy required to accelerate to speeds that would make such travel practical is impossibly large.”
“Okay,” I say. “So where do you imagine we came from?”
“Unknown.”
“We’re clearly not native to this world.”
A ripple runs the length of not-Speaker’s body. “Unclear. This world is large. We know only a small part of it.”
That stops me for a moment.
“You know about the distances between stars, but you don’t know what’s on the other side of your own planet?”
“We know what we have gleaned from the creatures we have brought into the collective.”
It’s only then that it becomes clear to me that I’m not speaking with the giant creeper.
I’m speaking with the thing that’s captured the giant creeper, the thing that holds it like a fly in a spider’s web.
A chill runs down my spine, and I have to fight back an almost overwhelming urge to run.
“It doesn’t matter,” I say, and I can hear the quaver in my own voice. “You see what this burner can do. You saw what Cat’s accelerator did to the rock face yesterday. These are hand weapons. We have much larger, much more powerful ones back at the dome. Believe me or not, but I tell you truly that we could bring this mountain down on you if we chose to do it.”
“If this were true,” not-Speaker says, “you would not be here now asking for the return of your device. You would simply take it from us.”
“Look,” I say, as the creeper at the center of the web begins to slowly writhe. “I was sent here to deliver a message. I’ve delivered it. Whether you believe everything I’ve said or not, you have to grant that we are potentially dangerous enemies. We’ve shown you that much. We destroyed your vassals when they attacked us. Speaker’s memories should have shown you that as well. The explosion that vaporized them is trivial compared to what we are capable of producing. Also, whether you believe me or not about the fact that our device will eventually kill you if you keep it, the fact is that it’s of absolutely no value to you. Refusing to return it to us is a significant risk to you, with no prospect of gain. It makes no logical sense for you to refuse me.”
A series of pulses ripple back and forth through the network now. The giant creeper at the center of the web shudders, and not-Speaker’s mandibles clatter together. “We disagree with your logic. It is clear to us that this device has great importance to you. We do not need to understand why this is. The fact that you have need of it gives it value, because it provides us with power over you.”
And there you have it.
“Fine,” I say. “You want to bargain. What do you want from us?”
The network quivers, and seems to close in on me. Again, I have to resist the urge to bolt.
“An interesting question,” not-Speaker says. “What can you offer us?”
“We have access to metals. We know these are valuable to you. We could trade some amount of these for the device.”
“Possibly,” not-Speaker says. “However, we also have access to metals. Possession of this device is a unique opportunity for us. We would not trade it for something that we could potentially provide for ourselves.”
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I don’t know what else we might have that you would want.”
It hesitates. When it speaks again, its voice has taken on what I could almost imagine to be a thoughtful tone.
“These weapons. You say you have many more of them?”
I don’t like where this is going.
“We will not trade weapons.”
“No,” it says. “We would not expect you to.”
“Then what—”
“We do not ask you to trade weapons. We ask you to trade service.”
I shake my head. “I don’t understand.”
“We will clarify,” not-Speaker says. “We have a long-standing conflict with the Prime who provided this unit to you. Despite repeated attempts, it has resisted every effort to bring it into the collective. This conflict has cost us much, and has dragged on for many winters. With your arrival, we now see an opportunity to end it on favorable terms.”
I really don’t like where this is going.
“You’re asking us to fight for you?”
“You ask what we require in return for your device. This is our answer. Help us to end this conflict. Once this is done, we will return your device to you.”
020
IT’S FULL DARK when I emerge from the labyrinth. Nasha is waiting for me, just outside the entrance.
“He’s back,” she says over her shoulder, then turns to me. “Mickey? You still you?”