understand you.”
“
Chrissie nodded. “Yes. It is clear.”
“
“All
“I don’t know.” Chrissie’s face was pale, and her nostrils flared. “I just wanted it to go away. I’m not a coward, Tarb, you know that. But I’d have said anything, I was so afraid it would reach out one of those snaky arms and
“Judging from the way the rest of them behave, it’s the big boss. I didn’t care for it, either. Did you hear the options it gave us? If this happens, you die. If that happens, you die. If you do this, you get killed. If you’re real lucky and things work out all right, you get converted into a translator. I’m not sure what a translator is, but I have the feeling I wouldn’t enjoy being one.”
“What are we going to do, Tarb?”
“I don’t know. But I’ll tell you this. If you don’t want somebody to escape, saying that you’ll kill them if they try to escape may stop them trying. But telling them you’ll also kill ’em if they
“We try to escape?”
“That’s my thought. But how?” He stared around the poorly lit room. “No windows. No exit, except the one that leads through to the chamber of horrors there. Floor’s solid, so’s the ceiling. Come on, Chrissie, we need a bit of your magic.”
“You were the one who said you can feel fresh air. That’s not possible unless there’s some sort of through draft.”
“That’s it, lady. Now you’re thinking. Let’s see what we can find.”
They walked slowly toward the dimly lit rear of the room, splashing through water that deepened to their knees. Close-up, the wall showed a definite grain.
“Like wood,” Chrissie murmured. “But I don’t see any joins. It’s like it
“Seamless.” Tarbush extruded the cutting tool of the emergency repair kit from his suit’s forearm and dug at the wall. “And tough. This will pierce most things, and I’m not making a dent.”
“What about this?” Chrissie was bending down to inspect a circular hole in the wall covered by a coarse- woven mesh. “I think this is a ventilator. I can feel a draft.”
“Let me have a go.” Tarbush applied the point of the knife. “This cuts easily. I can remove the whole thing if I want to. Not that it will do us much good. The hole’s only about four inches across.”
“How deep?”
“Hold on.” Tarbush removed the little spotlight from his suit’s helmet, shone it into the hole, and peered after it. “At least a foot. The wall’s a lot thicker than I expected.”
“Let me try something.” Chrissie reached in, until her arm was buried to the shoulder. “I think I’m at the end, and it’s not covered with a mesh. My hand feels as though it’s out in the open, there’s a breeze on it.”
“So your hand can escape. Not too useful for the rest of us. Let’s see if there’s another one somewhere else that’s bigger.”
Working in silence, they went in opposite directions around the perimeter of the room until they came to the keyhole doorway that led to the other chamber.
“Anything?” Tarbush whispered.
“One more ventilation tube, same size as before. You?”
“Nothing. Unless you want to take a look in there.” Tarbush nodded his head toward the central room. With the rocky monster gone, the crab creatures were once more upright and busily moving a set of nested vertical tables to horizontal positions.
“I don’t want to, but we have to.” Chrissie stepped forward. “Stay where you are. No point in both of us taking a chance.”
“Chrissie!” But Tarbush stayed close to the wall as she moved into the central chamber, adding only a hissed, “Stop if they point the sticks.”
“Trust me. But I’m going to try to talk to them.” Chrissie stepped up onto the ledge and advanced to where the translation unit lay on the floor. As she picked it up, three of the biggest of the creatures stopped work and moved in her direction.
“Food,” she said loudly. “The big boss says we can have food.”
The translator produced a sequence of whistles and clicks. Chrissie waited. Eyestalks wiggled. Finally one of the creatures chittered, and the translation unit said, “
It retreated across the floor, to the far doorway of the chamber and beyond. Its two fellows had raised black canes and were pointing them directly at Chrissie.
“What now?” But it was hardly a question, and she did not expect Tarbush to answer. She did not dare to move, and waited frozen in position until at last the creature reappeared. It was accompanied by another half its size.
The small one advanced to stand in front of Chrissie. It waited. Finally it chittered into the translator unit, which said in one rush of words, “
Chrissie could answer the last question. “If Big Rocky is the same as The One, we had a meeting.”
“
“We would like food.” Chrissie did not feel in the least like eating, but it was the only thing that she could think of.
“
“The One told us we could have food.”
Apparently she had said the magic words. The creature in front of her clacked and whistled, and the translation unit said abruptly, “
Chrissie retreated. As soon as she was beyond the ledge, a curtain of mist seemed to close across the keyhole opening. It gradually solidified, until in half a minute it looked exactly like a brighter version of the rest of the wall.
“I guess
“Maybe it changed its mind.” But a few moments later, the part of the wall nearest the floor rippled. An object shaped like a small sled came floating through into the room and stood six inches from the floor unsupported. Tarbush bent down to lift the lid of the oblong container that sat on top of the sled, and recoiled.
“Sweet Lucy! If that’s what they call food …”
He clapped the lid back on the box, but not before Chrissie had seen dozens of purple tentacles reaching and wriggling out over the edges.
“I wasn’t hungry anyway,” she said. As she watched, the new wall slowly began to darken. It was the only source of light, and within a minute she could not make out Tarbush’s outline. “That little effort didn’t help at all, did it? We’re worse off than we were before.”