carefully for the telltale sounds of the aliens. They heard nothing. Nor did they hear or see anything that indicated the forces dispatched from New Eden were in the vicinity. After about an hour, Richard and Patrick returned to the rest of the group and joined in the discussion of what they should do next.
The extended family had enough food for five days, maybe six if each portion was carefully rationed. Water was available at the cistern near the cathedral room. Everyone quickly agreed that the search party from New Eden, at (east this first one, would probably not stay in New York too long. There was a short debate about whether or not Katie might have told Captain Bauer and his men the location of the octospider lair. On one critical point there was no argument: The next day or two was the most likely time period for them to be discovered by the other humans. As a result, except for physical necessities, none of the family left the large room in which they were staying for the next thirty-six hours.
At the end of that time the whole group, especially the hatchlings and the twins, had a bad case of cabin fever. Richard and Nai took Tammy, Timmy, Benjy, and the small children out into the passageway, trying unsuccessfully to keep them quiet, and led them away from the cathedral room, toward the vertical corridor with the protruding spikes that descended deeper into the octospider lair. Richard, who had Nikki on his back most of the time, warned Nai and the twins several times about the dangers of the area they were approaching. Even so, very soon after the tunnel widened and they arrived at the vertical corridor, the impetuous Galileo climbed into the barrel-shaped hole before his mother could stop him. He quickly became frozen with fright. Richard had to rescue the boy from his precarious perch on two spikes just a short distance-be low the level of the walkway that encircled the top of the huge abyss. The young avians, delighted to be able to fly again, soared freely around the area and twice dropped several meters into the dark chasm, but they never went deep enough to trigger the next lower bank of lights.
Before returning to the rest of the family, Richard took Benjy with him for a quick inspection of what Richard and Nicole had always called the octospider museum. This large room, located several hundred meters from the vertical corridor, was still completely empty. Several hours later, following Richard’s suggestion, half of the extended family moved into the museum to give everyone more living space.
On the third day of their stay in the octospider lair, Richard and Max decided that someone should try to discover if the colony troops were still in New York. Patrick was the logical choice to be the family scout. Richard’s and Max’s instructions to Patrick were straightforward-he was to proceed cautiously to the cathedral room and then up the ramp into New York. From there, using his flashlight and portable computer as little as possible, he should cross to the northern shore of the island and see if the boats were still there. Whatever the result of his investigation, he should return directly to the lair and give them a full report.
“There is one other thing to remember,” Richard said, “that is extremely important. If at any time you hear either an octospider or a soldier, you are to turn around immediately and come back to us. But with this one added proviso: Under no circumstances should any human see you descend into this lair. You cannot do anything that will endanger the rest of us.”
Max insisted that Patrick should take one of (he two rifles. Richard and Nicole did not argue. After receiving best wishes from everybody, Patrick set out on his scouting mission. He had only walked five hundred meters down the tunnel, however, when he heard a noise in front of him. He stopped to listen, but could not identify what he was hearing. After another hundred meters some of the sounds began to resolve themselves. Patrick definitely heard the sound of dragging brushes several times. There was some clanging as well, as if metal objects were hitting against each other, or against a wall. He listened for several minutes and then, remembering his instructions, he returned to his family and friends.
After a long discussion Patrick was sent out again. He was told this time to approach as close to the octospiders as he dared and to watch them quietly for as long as he could. Again he heard the dragging brush sound as he drew close to the cathedral room. But when Patrick actually reached the large chamber at the bottom of the ramp, there were no octospiders around. Where had they gone? he wondered. Patrick’s first impulse was to turn around and go back in the direction from which he had come. However, since he had not encountered any actual octospiders yet, he decided that he might as well go up the ramp, out into New York, and carry out the remainder of his earlier assignment.
Patrick was shocked to discover, about a minute later, that the exit from the octospider lair had been sealed tight with a thick combination of metal rods and a cement like material. He could barely see through the cover, and it was certainly sufficiently heavy that all the humans together would not be able to budge it. The octospiders have done this, he thought immediately, but why have they trapped us here?
Before returning to give his report, Patrick inspected the cathedral room and found that one of the four egress tunnels had also been sealed with what appeared to be a thick door or gate. That must have been the tunnel that led to the canal, he thought. Patrick remained in the area for another ten minutes, listening for the sounds of the octospiders, but heard nothing more.
11
“So the octospiders have never ‘done anything hostile?” Max was saying angrily. “Then what the hell do you call this? We’re fucking trapped.” He shook his head vigorously. “I thought it was stupid to come here in the first place.”
“Please, Max,” Eponine said. “Let’s not argue. Fighting among ourselves is not going to help.”
All the adults except Nai and Benjy had trekked the one kilometer down the passageway to the cathedral room to examine what the octospiders had done. The humans were indeed sealed inside the lair. Two of the three open tunnels leading out of the chamber went to the vertical corridor and the third, they quickly discovered, led to a large, empty storeroom from which there was no exit.
“Well, we’d better think of something fast,” Max said. “We have only four days worth of food and absolutely no idea where to get any more.”
“I’m sorry, Max,” Nicole said, “but I still think Richard’s initial decision was correct. If we had stayed in our lair, we would have been captured and taken back to New Eden, where we almost certainly would have been executed.”
“Maybe,” Max interrupted. “And maybe not. At least in that case the children would have been spared. And I don’t think either Benjy or the doctor would have been killed.”
“This is all academic,” Richard said, “and doesn’t deal with our main problem, which is, what do we do now?”
“All right, genius,” Max said with a sting in his voice. “This has been your show so far. What do you suggest?”
Again Eponine interceded. “You’re being unfair, Max. It’s not Richard’s fault we’re in this predicament. And as I said before, it doesn’t help.”
“Okay, okay,” Max said. He walked toward the passage that led to the storeroom. “I’m going in this tunnel to calm down and to smoke a cigarette.” He glanced back at Eponine. “Do you want to share? We have exactly twenty-nine left after we smoke this one.”
Eponine smiled faintly at Nicole and Ellie. “He’s still pissed off at me for not taking all our cigarettes when we evacuated the lair,” she said quietly. “Don’t worry. Max has a bad temper, but he gets over it fast. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“What is your plan, darling?” Nicole said to Richard a few seconds after Max and Eponine had left.
“We don’t have much choice,” Richard said grimly. “A bare minimum number of adults should stay with Benjy, the children, and the avians, while the rest of us explore this lair as quickly as possible. I have a hard time believing that the octospiders really intend for us to starve to death.”
“Excuse me, Richard,” Robert Turner now said, speaking for the first time since Patrick had reported that the exit to New York was sealed, “but aren’t you again assuming that the octospiders are friendly? Suppose they’re not, or more likely in my opinion, suppose our survival is insignificant to them one way or the other, and that they simply sealed off this lair to protect themselves from all the humans who have recently appeared…”
Robert stopped, apparently having lost his train of thought. “What I was trying to say,” he continued a few seconds later, “is that the children, including your granddaughter, are in considerable jeopardy-psychological as
