She gasped, dropped the beer, and flicked a needle gun from the wrist of her suit. She had it aimed and was triggering the release when she saw her assailant.
“Scruffy! Where have you been?” She picked up the animal and held it to her chest. “You fat furball, I never dreamed I’d be so glad to see you.” The ferret snuggled close and whined. “I know, I know. I’m not your human of choice. But Tarbush isn’t here.”
Deb glanced in the direction of the alien encampment. “I hope that your lord and master is all right, but we can’t find out about that until tomorrow. Now I think it’s time for you and me to settle down for the night.”
She placed Scruffy on the floor, removed the flat package of a sleeping bag from the supply case, and waited as it inflated. The expanding bag gave a hiss like a striking snake, making the ferret leap for cover.
“Coward.” Deb laughed. It was good to have someone around you more nervous than you were. “Come on, Scruffy. Let’s see if we can get some sleep.”
She didn’t have high hopes. There was too much strangeness around her, too many frightening issues waiting for morning before they could be resolved. She lay on her back, the ferret a warm oval curled on her belly.
The light faded. As night moved on, the mysterious spheres filled the night sky of Limbo. It was Deb’s first view of them except on a display screen. She studied the globes. They were far less bright than a star or a planet, but far bigger and far more diffuse. She stretched out a hand at arm’s length, and found that she could barely span the biggest one. The spheres were so pale, they seemed to hover at the very edge of color.
Deb closed her eyes. This was what she and Chan and the other team members had hoped to find, back in the happy days before the quarantine. All they had dreamed of, and more. This was not just an alien star or planet, it was an alien universe.
She had intended to open her eyes again, to study in more detail the intriguing spheres of Limbo’s heavens. Somehow it did not happen. Instead she drifted away to other thoughts. What were they doing now, back on the Hero’s Return ? Had Danny arrived, to deliver Vow-of-Silence for treatment and make his report? How was Chan taking it? He was sure to be beside himself, cursing Dag Korin for letting her go without him. He took every responsibility personally, as if he had to solve it by himself without assistance. He didn’t realize that a partner was someone to share problems, and triumphs, and defeats. Maybe defeats most of all.
Deb drifted into sleep. The spheres of heaven glowed pale above her, wheeling their stately course across the night sky.
She became conscious all at once, rolling instinctively to her right and already holding a weapon without knowing what had wakened her. It was deep night. Clouds must have moved in, because the glimmer of the sky spheres had gone and when she opened her eyes she could see nothing at all. Off past her feet she heard Scruffy give a warning hiss.
“Now then, no need for all the excitement,” a cheerful voice said. “Here, I’ll put a light on if it makes you feel better.”
A bright yellow-green glow lit up the night. Deb, shielding her eyes against it, saw a male human standing about six feet away from her holding a luminous cylinder. As her eyes adjusted she realized that it was the same person as she had seen the previous day, waving and talking to Chrissie and Tarbush.
“Friday Indigo?” she said tentatively.
“The one and only.” He aimed a casual kick at Scruffy, who darted away into the low-growing plants. “Get rid of the vermin, and we can talk. I’m Friday Indigo. Who are you?”
“My name is Deb Bisson.” Deb was reluctant to say much until she knew what was going on. Better to ask questions. “I think I saw you earlier. Weren’t you down in the encampment?”
“You got it.” Indigo took a step forward into the clearing, so that he could crouch next to Deb. “I was there to greet your friends on behalf of The One. Pity you weren’t with them.”
That was a matter of opinion.
“I saw them shot. Are they alive?”
“Sure they are. Mind you, they’re not in as good shape as I am, because they haven’t had a chance to meet with The One yet.”
That too might be a matter of opinion. Deb was at last getting a close-up of Friday Indigo. He claimed to be in good shape, but he certainly didn’t look it. Someone who had been drinking three nights in a row and then lost a major fight might appear the way he did, but chances are they would be in better condition. His eyes were bloodshot, his face was pale. Trickles of dried blood ran from his ears down to his neck. His hair straggled dirty over his forehead, his clothes were full of rips and tears, and he trailed his left leg as he walked.
He didn’t appear dangerous, but Deb had quietly been preparing her weapons. If he tried to put a move on her he wouldn’t know what hit him. On the other hand, she had no idea what else might be lurking out there in the dark.
“Who is this The One that you keep mentioning?”
“The leader.”
“Leader of what?”
“Why, leader of the Malacostracans.” He spoke as though that was glaringly self-evident.
“The Marla — costrans?”
“Malacostracans. The people who built the encampment on the other side of the hill. The people who live there. If you saw your two friends shot — their own fault, I told them not to run — then you must have seen the Malacostracans for yourself. Only Level Threes and Level Fours, of course. Nothing like Two-four or The One.”
Deb had no idea what he was talking about, but she didn’t like his tone of voice. It was too self-satisfied, too admiring of the shell-backed aliens.
She said, “Did you come here because you want me to meet with them?”
He laughed. “Good heavens, no. They hardly need the ones they’ve got. I’m here because The One wants more information about humans and our universe than I can provide.”
“I can’t give you information.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To find out if you might have a suit I could borrow. You see, mine was damaged and I can’t use it anymore to travel underwater. I have to do that tonight. Do you have one?”
“Maybe.” Deb knew quite well that the supply case contained a couple of spare suits. “Why would you want such a thing?”
“Because without it, I can’t possibly go to your ship and talk to the leaders of your party. You are the people, aren’t you, who launched the orbiters?”
“What if we are? Why would you want to talk to us?”
Friday stared at her pityingly. “To negotiate, of course. It’s my job to obtain access to your ship’s data bank. I would have used the one on the Mood Indigo , but the poor old thing’s a bit beat up and I can’t get the information systems to work. Don’t worry, I have things to offer you people in return.”
He snapped his fingers briskly, as though his proposal to negotiate on behalf of aliens was the most natural thing in the world, and went on, “Now, Deb Bisson, do you have a suit for me or don’t you? If you do, let’s get me into it and I’ll be on my way. I can’t afford to waste time — The One needs results.”
She had to make a decision, and in zero time. “I have a suit for you. It’s in the supply case. But I should come with you to point out the quickest way to the ship. And I have to go to the bathroom before we leave.”
“I don’t mind waiting while you do that.”
“Well, I mind. Take the suit and put it on when you get to the beach. I’ll see you there in two minutes.”
“Two minutes. All right. No longer.”