Irresistible Forces

'The dark warrior's need for healthy, beautiful plants rather than destruction,' Assam stated. That certainly was straight from the textbook.

'I feel there's more,' Polly said. 'After all, we've only just made the connection that explains Monty.'

'Which is?' Jenny was glad for the distraction, even though she felt as if she was back in sixth-form history.

'Someone recently found a film in the archive called The Full Monty. Monty,' Polly said with the air of one sharing an exciting treat, 'turns out to mean naked!'

'Naked snake?'

'No, no! The snake is obvious. It's the serpent in the Garden of Eden — and that connects to shrubbery, of course. And Holy Grail is the ultimate freedom from strife to which all humanity aspires. But nakedness builds powerfully on the concept of Eden, don't you see? Nakedness in Eden — honesty and openness— threatened by the python of deceit.'

'Ah,' said Assam, 'but what about the rabbit?'

Jenny wanted to kick him.

Polly merely gave him a look. 'We don't quite understand the rabbit yet. I think it warns that the threat to the grail, to Eden, can trick us by appearing harmless.'

'Well, that rules out the blighters. We've known they were bloody nasty since first settlement.'

'I don't know,' Jenny said. 'I think we'd have mostly forgotten about them if they didn't show schoolkids that film of the scout being ashed.'

'That's a crucial part of Gaian history,' Polly protested.

'Perhaps, but it gave me nightmares for weeks.'

Assam moved closer to the embrasure. 'Anything new going on there, Gyrth?'

'Not really.' Gyrth turned and climbed out. 'Let's go to the Merrie. See what people are saying there.'

No one argued. They headed out, but Jenny carried gloom with her, remembering the film of the scout's death.

Settlement was always preceded by exploration, and the first wave, the scouts, wore full recording equipment that sent real-time data to the ship. New worlds are unpredictable, after all, and corpses don't tell what killed them.

In this case, the data told the tale but left a mystery. Even though the suit-sys recorded 360 degrees, it had shown nothing, absolutely nothing, of what had attacked. The various sensors had recorded no change in air pressure, temperature, or radiation.

The body system readouts, however, had charted extreme stress — a racing heart, rapid breathing, and sky-high adrenaline and blood pressure. The scout had gasped and expressed terror, but she had screamed only once, at the point of death. The oblivious suit-sys had kept on recording, even when the person inside had become a pile of ash, but it had registered as little after the event as before.

Hostile Amorphic Native Entity.

Jenny could imagine how often that data disk had been viewed and reviewed, but in the end Gaia had been approved for settlement. There'd been no further attacks, and in all other respects it was the best EPP — Earth Potential Planet — ever found. It had the rarest of rare earths to provide an economic base and needed little amendment. It had even been free of anything close to a sentient species that might complicate ownership.

The perfect place, but when they emerged into the light and bustle of High Wall Street, Jenny sucked in a deep breath. She'd not thought she was claustrophobic. 'Does anyone smell something funny?' she asked.

'Just the chip shop fat,' Gyrth said. 'Look, there's Dan.'

Jenny turned, suddenly breathing more easily. Dan, and he looked normal. Not worried at all. Everything must be all right.

He was in his fixer uniform of brown shirt and trousers, with assorted badges and braids of significance to those who understood them, but there was nothing special about his looks. Average build, average height. Brown hair and blue eyes in an average face. Like her, really. But not anymore.

Something drew people to Dan Fixer like flies to jam. A fizz in the air, a brighter light, an energy that meant there was never a dull time when Dan was part of a group. Jenny thought she could feel the fizz now, even though he seemed relaxed, as if this were just another evening in Anglia. Work over. Time to play.

'I wondered where everyone was. Poking around down cracks between buildings?'

'Peering out through arrowslits,' Jenny said, hooking arms with him as they all turned to go down the circular staircase to ground level. 'And reanalyzing Monty Python. Polly, tell Dan about the monty stuff.'

That kept things light and away from blighters for a while. Now, with Dan by her side and showing no sign of concern, Jenny wanted to forget about it all.

But it wasn't so easy. Despite the chatter and laughter, that something grated on her like an off note in music. When she and Dan ended up together behind the others, she had to ask, 'Are there really more blighter attacks near the equator?'

His look was quick, and perhaps guarded. 'Yes, but don't worry. It's all under control.'

Leave it. Leave it. But she couldn't. 'Then why are people pouring north?'

She thought he wasn't going to answer, but he pulled a face. 'You'll hear soon enough. Central has recommended that everyone in the affected areas leave until the hellbanes are stamped out. After all, one person ashed is one person too many.'

He declared it as a trite motto, but Assam caught it and turned back. 'Damn right. But the problem won't reach here, will it? Polly can't travel now.'

Polly and Gyrth stopped to listen.

'Blighters have always been more active near the equator,' Dan pointed out. 'There are plenty of fixers there, and Hellbane U as well, with the most skilled and experienced of us. They'll deal with it.'

Jenny relaxed, and Polly said she was too tired to walk. Assam suggested a tram and Gyrth went with them.

Jenny and Dan strolled along in comfortable silence for a while, but she had questions, and this seemed the time to ask them. 'Fixers can feel blighters, can't they? That's how you hunt them.'

'I wouldn't exactly call it hunting. Just stand around and they come.'

'I thought you had trouble finding them.'

'True, but the only way we know is to bait a trap.'

'With what?'

'Cow, pig…'

'Then you zap it?'

'That's the idea. Ideally before it ashes the poor beast.'

'Do fixers ever fail? I mean… die?'

'Very rarely.'

They paused to let a tram pass, and Jenny thought about that. She'd never imagined that fixing might be dangerous. 'What does it feel like?'

He pulled a face. 'It can't really be described. It's like a nightmare. It evaporates if we try to describe it.'

As they crossed the tracks, she asked, 'Can nonfixers sense this? At a distance, I mean?'

His look was quick and sharp. 'You're sensing something now?'

'No! Maybe… I'm not a fixer, Dan. Don't even think it!'

'I don't, but some people have a trace. What are you picking up?'

She tried to explain, but it was as he'd said. Like trying to tell a dream. She didn't like the fact that it seemed to make sense to him. 'So you're feeling the same thing, but much stronger?'

'I assume so.'

'So they are coming?' she asked.

'No. Seriously, there's no need to worry, Jen. The action is all in the hotter lands.'

She stopped. 'What action?'

'The blighters, and the fixers dealing with them.' He grabbed her hand. 'Come on. The others will be there long before us.' But three steps later he stopped and put his hand to his ear. He muttered something, but pulled the fine wire from his earring round to his mouth. 'Fixer.'