crossing a street, abruptly and strangely, the transmission ended. I mean, it just stopped. At one moment I was laughing and clutching Janice's arm as we dodged past a stopped truck; I heard Janice scream, and that was it. The next moment I was in total darkness, with no sight or sound or smell at all.
I took the helmet off to puzzle over that for a bit. Something like that had happened before, when the man in the operating room went to sleep. That was anesthesia, I had no doubt. But what kind of person went to sleep in the middle of crossing a New York street?
I had the helmet back on when I felt.1 touch on my shoulder-my real shoulder. When I took the helmet off it was Pirraghiz. She wasn't alone. Standing next to her was a male Doc, reaching out one of his arms in hospitable fashion to shake my hand. 'This is my friend Mrrranthoghrow,' she told me-as close as I can come to his name, which sounded like a voiceless purr, a coughing sneeze and a yowl at the end. 'He came along to help me carry what I needed for you, but he cannot stay this time.'
'I hope to see more of you soon,' Mrrranthoghrow said politely. I mumbled something back. My mind was still full of what I had seen under the helmet; I hardly noticed when he left again.
Pirraghiz was looking at me curiously. 'Are you all right, Dannerman?' she asked. 'Are you hungry?'
Once reminded, I was. In fact, I was ravenous. I don't know how long I had been under the helmet, but while I was devouring the food Pirraghiz set before me, I discovered it was dark outside my window. Not inside the room, though; the whole chamber was illuminated with a soft glow, which, I saw, came from the mossy stuff around the doorframe.
I paid it only minimal attention, still thinking-worrying- about what the Others might be doing to my world. Pirraghiz watched in silence. It wasn't until I had swallowed the last of the berry-flavored tomatoish thing that was my dessert that she removed the dishes and said, 'It is sleeping time. I will show you how to cover the light, Dannerman. Simply pull these drapes out, so, and cover the light like this, do you see?'
She left one little section uncovered, leaving the room dim. But there was enough light for me to see that she was regarding me with concern. 'I will be in the next room, if needed,' she said. 'The Greatmother has given it to me for as long as you want me here.' I grunted. Then she reached down and touched the helmet I had left on the table. 'Did Djabeertapritch give you this so you could see what is happening in your home?'
'Oh, yes,' I said, sitting on the edge of the bed. 'He certainly did.'
She sighed. 'It is a sad thing, I know. All of you from your planet found it most unpleasant.'
That got my attention. 'You mean the copies you made of me?
'Yes, often copies of yourself, Dannerman, but also of the others. Some copies of all of you were shown this material at the beginning of their interrogations.'
'Copies of Pat?' 'Of course. But it was you who were most useful, since you had a broader experience of the world.' She paused, looking down at me in the dimness. 'This upsets you. But information was wanted, and so what happened was inevitable.'
'Inevitable! Making a copy of Pat and killing her was inevitable?'
She looked defensive. 'I am sorry. I know this troubles you. The fact that so many bad things are happening to your people troubles me, too.' She stopped to consider for a moment, then sighed. 'But honestly, Dannerman, it does not trouble me very much. You are not alone. How many sixty-fours of sixty-fours of sixty-fours of sixty-fours of persons have been sent early to the Eschaton in this struggle? And many of them died far more painfully than your Rosaleens and Pats. Here in this nest we have made ourselves look away from such horrors, Dannerman. We could not survive otherwise.'
CHAPTER TWENTY
Those scenes in the helmet had put the fear of God into me- well, fear of the Others, anyway. They were definitely taking over my planet. Every last person I cared about-even Pat, even my other self!-was threatened with becoming a zombie servant of the Others, just like the Docs.
It was about the worst news I had ever had to face. I didn't see how I would be able to sleep with that haunting me. I was wrong about that, though. I dropped off as soon as Pirraghiz left the room, and I didn't even dream.
Maybe that was my own way of turning away, like Pirraghiz, from what was too hard to face. It didn't last. The minute I woke up, there it was. I didn't have any choice. I had to face it.
I stumbled across the dimly lit room to the balcony, my mind full of what I had seen. When I threw the accordion slides open it was bright daylight outside, and three or four Horch were getting into their tricycles to go to work in the fields. I stared at them without seeing them, thinking hard. What I wanted to do more than anything else was to escape from this place, back to Earth, to face whatever was still happening there.
What I had to do first, though, was something different. One additional warm body wouldn't be much help to the human race. To be of any use at all, I had to bring something useful back with me. What's more, I had to do it now… always assuming, that was to say, that what I had seen was what was still happening, and not ancient history.
When Pirraghiz heard me moving around she came in, bringing food. As soon as she was in the room she glanced at the drapes, shook that big head reprovingly and began to fuss with them without waiting to hear anything I might have to say. She scolded, 'You mustn't cover the lights during the day, Dannerman. They have to charge up with sunlight so that you can use them after dark.'
I wasn't in a mood to be instructed about housekeeping. I said to her back, 'How long have I been here?'
She left off fussing with the drapes and turned around, peering at me. 'What?'
'I want to know,' I insisted. 'Those scenes in the helmet, they come from all different times-some winter, some not. I can't tell anything from them, and I need to know how much time has passed.'
'Do you mean since the Horch liberated this planet? Let me see.' She stroked the mossy beard on her chin, counting to herself. 'About four sixty-fours of days, I think. A little more.'
I did the arithmetic in my head. Allowing for the fact that this planet's days were shorter than Earth's, it came out to about six months. A long time, and a lot could have happened. But it wasn't ancient history.
'All right,' I said. 'Now I want to know everything there is to know about the Horch and the Belov-I mean, the Others. Let's get started.'
Pirraghiz was obliging, but she was puzzled, too, and she had a lot of questions. What exactly was it that I wanted to know? When all my answers kept adding up to that same single word-'everything'-she sighed. 'I must have advice on this,' she told me. 'Wait for me. Eat. I will be back very soon.'
She was, too. I was sipping from a ceramic bowl the last of something that tasted salty and faintly sour when she appeared at the door. She looked pleased. 'Much of what you want to learn may be in the Repository of the Nest,' she announced. 'The Greatmother has given permission to take you there-as soon,' she said, tidily beginning to pick up die dishes from my breakfast, 'as I put these in my room.'
I didn't want to wait for that, or for anything, but Pirraghiz was firm. Her room was about the same size as mine-pretty small, for a Doc-and she had fitted it with enough belongings to make me think she planned to stay for a while. Among the tiny potted flowers and the bric-a-brac I saw one of those great, cubical cookers Dopey had used. I thought of how much heat those things could produce, and wondered if Beert knew she had it in his fire-free nest. Pirraghiz caught my stare and asked, 'Is something wrong?'
I didn't want to get into a discussion, so I lied. 'I was wondering why the Horch have so many empty rooms like this,' I said.
'Why,' she said, closing the door and leading me down the steps, 'the reason is simple. When the Horch liberated this planet, all of the captive Horch who wished it were returned home- well, taken to Horch planets, anyway; it has been so long since they were brought here that none of them really has a home anywhere else anymore.'
That much I knew, more or less, but I kept her talking. 'But not Djabeertapritch and these others.'
She gave me one of those massive arms-and-shoulders shrugs. 'The ones who stayed in this nest do not always agree with all the things about the cousin Horch.'
