«No, I don't think so,» I said. «No, if you showed me an apple, I could probably still make a painting of it, and it would look like an apple. But it would only be an apple, neither more nor less, except by sheer accident. So I'm told, though I admit I've never felt like making the trial.»
Jang considered this. A long silence passed, while I tried to calm myself. The conversation had become unexpectedly uncomfortable. Usually I'm so grateful to be treated as a fully human person that I don't mind a little awkwardness. But this was too much, somehow.
Finally Jang stirred and spoke. «Leeson, I'd like to ask a favor of you. Would you do a sketch of the dead woman for me? We have the security camera images, but they were poorly defined, since she was well outside the perimeter. Hu Moon will issue you a slate and metastylus.»
«I suppose so,» I answered. «Why?»
«I'm a completist,» Jang said, with one of his almost imperceptible smiles.
«What about the analysis?» I asked, as Jang rose from the bench.
«The stone? It was curious stuff, quartz mainly, with a few rare earth inclusions and veins of magnetite. Odd crystalline structure, and nanoscale vesicles filled with sodium silicate. The ship computer seems to think it might become somewhat malleable, with a slight shift in the orientation. Similar in some ways to known silicon-based life forms, but no exact correspondences.» Jang nodded, closed his visor, and returned to the ship.
I WAS SITTING in the ship's observatory level, staring at the unmarked slate, when the alarm went off again.
This time I didn't rush to arm myself. I assumed Jang would deal with whatever specter was currently visiting the camp, and I didn't think I would be able to make any vital contribution to the defense. I went to the nearest port, which looked out on the camp and the ruins.
I caught a glimpse of Jang, armored and moving with unnatural swiftness. He passed through the perimeter and into the ruins. One of Graylin IV's small moons shed a dim light over the wasteland, but in his black armor Jang disappeared into the shadows, so that I soon lost sight of him.
Hu Moon's voice crackled over the ship's intercom. «Leeson! Where are you?»
«Here, in the lounge,» I said, still trying to see where Jang had gone.
«Is Irvane with you?»
«No. I'm alone. What's happening?»
But there was no answer. After a while the alarm cut off abruptly and the ship filled with silence.
I didn't want to go down to the perimeter, particularly. But in this case it seemed to me that I should find out why the alarm had sounded, and if some danger threatened. Aimless curiosity is one thing most of us can do without, but too much detachment can be dangerous, as I had been told by those who supervised my treatment. «You still have to pay attention to your environment,» they said. «Even if it doesn't interest you very much.»
At the northern edge of the perimeter, I found Hu Moon. She wore a suit of antique power armor, which had the appearance of tarnished silver inlaid with swirling gold lines in the pattern of her tattoos. Very stylish, I thought. She peered intently into the dark wastelands, a small graser held ready in her hands.
Dueine was peering from the doorway of their shelter, clutching the collar of her robe, her face tautly fearful. I couldn't see Irvane and evidently Jang was still outside. I approached Hu Moon, who whirled and pointed her weapon at me. I stopped and raised my hands carefully, in case she had a dumb gun.
«Just me,» I said.
«Leeson,» she said in a strained voice. «Where's your weapon? You're supposed to arm yourself whenever the alarm sounds.»
«Sorry,» I said. «I'll get it now.» But she'd already turned back to the darkness.
I got my smartgun and wished I owned a suit of power armor, as everyone else apparently did.
I assumed a suitably subservient position just behind Hu Moon and tried to see what she was looking for. «What is it?» I asked.
«Another impossibility,» she said. «And we can't find Irvane.»
«Impossibility? More dead giants?»
She shook her helmeted head impatiently. «No. Let's not get into it just now, all right? Just keep your eyes open and your mouth shut. In fact, why don't you make yourself useful? Go watch the south perimeter until Jang returns. Shout if you see anything strange.»
I was dismissed. I went reluctantly to the other side of the perimeter, which overlooked the remnants of the colony. The worn bones of the walls were pale stripes in the moonlight; the site was as peaceful as a graveyard.
The creatures seemed to rise from the ground.
There were dozens of them, squat and powerful, their naked almost-human bodies knotty with muscle, their skin white as marble. They might have been the trolls of Old Earth legends, or goblins or other fairy tale grotesques. But their faces were the faces of beautiful evil children, wearing small malicious smiles. They were so strange that I couldn't for a moment make a sound. They were still, but not as still as statues; they occasionally shifted position slightly, an inhumanly subtle movement that accented their impossibility.
They watched me with hungry lovely eyes; they looked like they wanted to kill me and eat me, but only after torturing me to the point of death. I suppose this might seem an excess of imagination, but I have no imagination. So I think I must have perceived the message of those terrible angelic faces accurately, though I could not now say exactly what there was about their expressions that seemed so dreadful. The faces were undistorted by anger or madness or any of the obvious darker human emotions.
I finally found my voice and croaked out a wordless sound of alarm, just as the main stuttergun swiveled toward the south. Hu Moon ran to me, armor clanking and whirring.
«What...?» she started to say, but then she saw the creatures.
«What are they?» I whispered.
«Not real,» she said firmly, shouldering her weapon.
I was wondering whether we ought to wait for Jang's return before committing any irrevocable act when she fired a long burst from her gun and shattered the nearest creature.
It disintegrated as if struck by a great hammer, its remnants clattering like gravel along the ground.
The other creatures took no notice, still watching us with undiminished intensity, or so it seemed.
«Why'd you do that?» I asked.
«Shut up, Leeson,» she answered. There seemed to be an edge of hysteria in her voice, for which I didn't blame her. I watched the creatures, who seemed unruffled by the death of their fellow goblin. She aimed at another and now the creatures flickered into swift erratic movement, moving in no discernible pattern beyond the perimeter, gray blurs in the uncertain light. The muzzle of her weapon jerked here and there, indecisively, and even I could tell that hitting one of the creatures would have been very difficult.
«What are they doing?» she said, finally.
«Playing hard to get,» I guessed.
Hu Moon kept her weapon trained on them, but did not fire again.
After a minute she asked, «If they come inside the perimeter, I don't know if the autoguns can deal with them. Why isn't Jang back?»
I might have mentioned my last glimpse of him, but she was clearly not interested in conversation with me.
Finally she turned away from the impossible creatures. «I'm going back to Dueine. She's frightened.»
«Me too,» I said, and in the moment I took my attention away from the creatures, they disappeared, as if into the ground. Which I suppose was exactly what happened.
Hu Moon looked back and her pale face grew paler in the glow of her helmet light, the blue contour lines of her tattoos too bright now.
«I can't deal with this,» she muttered, and I knew she was still wondering if Jang would return.
But in the morning, just after a redly ominous dawn, the weapons master returned, carrying a naked and mutilated body across his armored shoulder. He dropped Irvane just inside the perimeter and sat down heavily.