The Spheres of Heaven

Now and again she lifted her head, to stare at the super-bright sky. What she wanted to see was the ghostly spheres that everyone talked about, but the blazing sun made that impossible.

“Careful!” Tarbush said from behind, and grabbed her shoulders. Chrissie brought her attention back to ground level. A body-thick stripe of lurid green crossed her path at waist level. Two more steps, and she would have walked into it.

No problem? Maybe — except that the strip glistened , and attached to it she saw the bodies of half a dozen different creatures in various stages of digestion. Not all of them were as small as the dark-red millipede that Danny had picked up. The biggest was long, thick-built and legless, and it probably massed half as much as Chrissie. It was still alive, and wriggling feebly.

“Thanks, Tarb. Looks nasty. For safety’s sake we’re going to take a bit of a detour.”

She headed to the left, to a point where the green strip merged with a stubby upright cylinder like the bole of a sawn-down tree. The bole gurgled faintly. Chrissie moved another four meters to the left before she felt comfortable enough to edge past.

“Ridge top,” Tarbush said, when they had been going for another two minutes. “I’m seeing over.”

His height advantage was substantial. Chrissie motioned to him. “You go first. Keep your head down, and tell me what you see.”

Tarbush pushed forward for another ten meters, then paused. “Got a good view now. Same as Vow-of- Silence said. We have the beginning of the cleared area, maybe twenty meters in front of us. Bare rock. Fence begins about forty meters beyond that. It’s like a network, maybe chain-link, so it’s easy to see what’s beyond. Other creatures at a few places along the fence. Guards, maybe? Lots of legs, big pincers, stalks that probably carry eyes. Big, dark carapaces. Don’t see anything that could possibly be a human. Give me a minute, let me watch what they’re doing.”

While Tarbush stared in silence, Chrissie came to his side and craned up as tall as she could. She was in the middle of a patch of tall, furry plants that smelled like pungent lavender. “Nothing there looks anything like Friday Indigo,” she whispered. “Wonder how sure Vow-of-Silence was of what she saw?”

“No way to ask her now without breaking radio silence. But I’m reading some behavior patterns. See the two different sizes? The small ones are in charge of the big ones, I’ll bet money on it. Some level of language, too, maybe not spoken. Maybe chemical, like ants and termites. I’m going to move forward a little farther, get a better look.”

“Tarb! Be careful.”

Chrissie’s warning was too late. He was already edging out to where the bare rock started.

“It’s all right. It’s business as usual for them, there’s no sign they see me. Maybe they don’t have good eyes. But I think we’ve confirmed what Dag Korin suspected when he first looked at the space images. This is a military operation. These critters move like a military organization, they’re disciplined and in unison when they march. Hold on. They’re lining up now. Hold on.”

Chrissie, hanging farther back, could see nothing. She waited for what felt like minutes, until Tarbush at last said, “Well, I’ll be damned. They’re going away. They’re filing into one of the buildings — every one of them, including what I thought were the guards for the fence. What’s with them? Lunch break? Party time?”

“Keep your head down!”

Tarbush in his curiosity was beyond the cover of the scrub. “It’s all right. There’s no sign of them any more. Hold on a second, though. I’m wrong, here’s one coming out. Lighter-colored, a bit bigger, like … Oh my God.”

“What?”

“It’s a person. A man. Vow-of-Silence was right. There’s a human inside the encampment.”

“Is anyone with him? Is he a prisoner?”

“Doesn’t look like it. He’s on his own. He’s moving toward the fence — he’s coming this way. What do we do?”

Chrissie couldn’t stand it any longer. She hurried forward to Tarbush’s side and stared at the approaching figure, still about fifty meters away. “It must be Friday Indigo. He’s wearing the same style and color of clothing as Bony and Liddy. It was standard issue for the Mood Indigo. He’s limping.”

“Maybe he’s hurt. He sure looks like hell. He probably took quite a beating in the storm when his ship was driven ashore. But he’s smiling — and he’s waving. Chrissie, he knows we’re here. What do we do now?”

“We ought to turn and run. We were told, no risks.”

“Deb said, turn back if there’s any sign of trouble. There hasn’t been any. Chrissie, we’ve at least got to wait long enough to say hello to him. He’s unarmed, and he seems pleased that we’re here — look at that grin, even though he can’t possibly know who we are or where we came from.”

“I don’t know.” Chrissie sounded troubled, but she made no move.

“Hello there.” The approaching man called the greeting. He had passed through the fence and was still grinning. “Welcome to Limbo. I don’t know you, but my name is Friday Indigo.”

“I’m Chrissie Winger, and this is Tarbush Hanson. We came here on a ship called the Hero’s Return. But you’re hurt.”

Now that he was closer, Chrissie could see streaks of dried blood running down from his temples and ears. His feet and calves were water-soaked, and more blood had run from a jagged hole in the left thigh of his suit.

“Oh, that’s nothing.” He was still grinning, and he dismissed his wounds with one wave of his hand. “I don’t need help, and I feel great. This is a wonderful planet. Wonderful people on it, too.”

“You mean the people who made this?” Chrissie waved her hand, to take in the encampment, with its cleared airstrip and the tri-lobed aircraft ready for flight.

“Who else? Come on, I’ll introduce you. You need to meet Two-Four, he’s a funny little devil and a good friend of mine. Oh, and you definitely have to meet The One — especially The One, he’s the greatest.”

He had turned and was leading the way toward the fence and the encampment. Chrissie began to follow, but Tarbush said, “Wait a minute. These people you want us to meet. Are they people ? Or are they aliens?”

“They’re the Malacostracans — bit of a mouthful at first, but you’ll get used to saying it.” Friday was still walking, and they were at the gate to the fence. “They’re people, but not exactly like us. I mean, not actual humans. But that’s all right, because they’re better than humans. Far better.”

“Now let’s hold it right here.” Tarbush had stopped just inside the gate, and he and Chrissie were looking at each other. “I can see I’d think well of anyone who saved my life — but better than humans? I don’t like the sound of that. Did something else happen to you, messing up your head? Your ears have been bleeding.”

“My head is better than it’s ever been. I’ve never thought so well and so clearly.” Friday turned back to them. “Come on. If you’re lucky, The One will make you feel the same way.”

Chrissie took a step backward, away from the buildings. “Who is this `The One’ that you keep talking about?”

“The leader of the Malacostracans. She’s beautiful. Oh, don’t judge by those specimens. They’re lower level and they look nothing like her.”

Friday was pointing toward another of the buildings. Three creatures had emerged.

“Those are the ones I saw before.” Tarbush grabbed Chrissie’s arm. “Let’s get out of here. It was stupid to come this far.”

“Not stupid at all.” Friday called after them. “Hey, it’s running that’s stupid. You’re making my friends do something that you won’t like — I know, because the same thing happened to me. Did you hear what I said? Stop running!”

Chrissie and Tarbush ran faster than ever. They were almost at the edge of the cleared area when Tarbush risked a quick look back. Friday Indigo was standing where they had left him, still urging them not to run away. The three dark-shelled aliens had advanced to stand by his side. They carried black canes, which they were lifting to point toward the humans.

“Down, Chrissie. I think they’re going to fire.” Tarbush started to throw himself flat. Two more meters, and they would reach the safety of the scrub.

He heard a faint popping from behind, like the bursting of children’s small balloons. Then his brain was boiling, turning to liquid and spouting out of his ears. He heard Chrissie scream, and he began his own matching