teeth. He held up his unsheathed claws and showed them his wicked teeth so that they would know he was not making an idle boast.
Melopina sat against the deck railing, her head hung down, her shoulders bent, exhausted, her pretty blue- green neck membranes hanging limp like sails without wind, and she did not say anything at all.
Something must break, Tedesco continued. Either this creature will get weary of us and go away, back to wherever it sprang from — or it will make itself fully understood, impart this compulsive information and deplete its energies of anguish.
And if it does neither? — Jask inquired.
Tedesco grunted. Then you will learn that a man can die from lack of sleep as easily as he can from lack of food or water.
The Hadaspuri Maiden knifed on through the sea as darkness became complete and the stars popped out through holes in the gray clouds.
28
Two days later the five passengers on the Hadaspuri Maiden moved sluggishly about their duties, not like real men but like zombies who had only a minimal charge of life donated them by sorcerers. They spoke hardly at all, either vocally or telepathically, because the amount of thought necessary to keep up a sensible conversation required energy they no longer possessed. Their eyes were swollen and teary. Their limbs felt as if they had been cast from lead; each step became a major journey, each tiny deed a Herculean effort.
Soon they were forced to keep two watchmen at the wheel instead of one, in order not to be accidentally taken off their course for the northern shore of the inland sea. Once, after Tedesco's watch, they found themselves twenty degrees off course, though the bruin, in his state of near-collapse, did not recall altering any of the controls. After Melopina's watch it was found that she had somehow turned them completely about and that they were driving hard for Kittlesticks, from which they had come only days ago. Melopina had no recollection of turning the ship about, though she had often fallen asleep over the wheel, to be awakened by the awful nightmares. Clearly she had not turned them around on purpose; therefore, the double watch was immediately established.
Though they had not originally been affected by the pitching waves through which the Maiden drove, they now found every tilt of the decks more than they could cope with. They zigzagged from place to place, staggering like drunkards, gripping safety rails and wondering when one of them might be pitched overboard.
Their appetites dwindled, became almost nonexistent. They wanted sleep, not food, and they ate what little they could only because they knew they dared not forego food altogether. They tasted nothing they consumed, but they got indigestion from all of it.
Out of desperation and the agony of her total exhaustion and her continuing inability to sleep properly, Melopina came up with the idea that was to save them. It did not seem like much; it had only a small chance of success; but it was, when all was said and done, their only hope of salvation.
The idea came to her during one of her duties at the wheel. She turned to Jask, who was her watchmate, and she 'pathed, Do you think that if we worked together, the five of us could combine our esp powers and create a single psychic probe stronger than any of our individual powers?
Jask did not want to have to respond. His eyes were nearly swollen shut, and his mouth was as dry as a handful of sand. Finally he said, I never thought much about it. I don't know.
Well, think about it now. It's important.
Nothing is important but sleep.
That's what I mean, she 'pathed.
He 'pathed a question mark.
She explained. The reason this creature keeps bothering us is to make full contact with us and — we all seem to agree — tell us something it deems vital to communicate.
So?
Thoughts moved like syrup down a two-degree incline.
She 'pathed, None of us has been able to reach the thing on his own. But suppose that when we pool our talents, we have the necessary — call it “range' — to establish contact.
Then?
Then we let it tell us what it wants.
And send it away satisfied?
Yes.
If it wants more than to just impart a message? If it won't pick up its invisible skirts and go back where it came from?
She 'pathed, Then we kill it.
With our amplified esp power?
Yes. And as Chaney said before, no moralizing. This thing will be the death of us unless we act against it.
No argument, he 'pathed. And I think you really have something here.
Do you really?
It's the only hope we have, in fact.
You don't sound very excited, she 'pathed.
I don't have the energy for excitement, he replied.
When Chaney and Kiera came onto the bridge to take their turn at watch, Jask sent the wolf-man to bring Tedesco into the small, instrument-crammed cabin. When they were all assembled, Melopina repeated her suggestion and opened the floor for discussion.
It sounds good to me — Kiera.
Maybe — Chaney.
Kiera leaned toward him and 'pathed, Have you got any better ideas, Captain?
Chaney — I'd still like to claw it and get my fangs in its neck.
His bushy tail whipped back and forth at that thought.
In effect that's what you'll be doing, Jask said. Only we'll substitute the esp power for claws and teeth if necessary.
Tedesco? Chaney had come to respect the bruin's opinions on most all matters.
I think it's worth a try, but…
But? — Jask.
Practically speaking, the bruin 'pathed, how do we go about establishing this mesh of our talents, this consolidation of forces?
They looked at Melopina.
She bit her blue lip, tossed her black hair away from her face, setting up a sympathetic vibration in her neck membranes.
She 'pathed, First, we ought to have all our attention on the problem. That will mean shutting down the ship and losing some travel time.
Right — Kiera.
We'll lose much more travel time if we don't solve this situation, Tedesco 'pathed. What else?
Melopina thought a moment, and said, Perhaps we should begin by forming a meditation circle, like they do in some religions.
That's an ancient means of focusing concentration, Tedesco said. It sounds like a worthy enough beginning to me.
They sat in a close circle on the main deck, forward of the bridge, while the Maiden rocked gently back and forth. They held hands and looked sheepishly at one another, embarrassed by this childish ritual but not certain how else to begin.
Now, Melopina 'pathed, leading them, we've first got to compress all of our perceptions, esp and otherwise, into a single entity. It seems to me that the best way to handle that is to start with only two of us. Jask and I will
