Adagio. Part 2

So long Cage.

From the entrance to the dome, Tobias watched Forrest study his subjects in the dying light at the end of another week-long sunset. He was seated on top of one of the large red stones. Surrounding him were nothing but red rocks. All quite alive.

Lady Name had told them: "You must fight this thing, not each other."

"how to fight this thing"

"Play dead."

Tobias chuckled as he gnawed at his rations. Forrest's new army, as well as his original force, were immobilized. They wouldn't fight. Lady Name had given the green the command to tell the gray about truth. The word had even spread to the white and the black. If you don't fight, you don't have to kill. If you don't fight, you don't have to die.

Tobias laughed out loud. Play dead; turn red. It would be a simple task for the rocks, requiring only the sacrifice of each rock's surface members. The surface dies, but inside they live. And growth takes place against the ground.

He saw Forrest's head turn slowly in his direction. The small man studied him, his face as expressionless as one of the rocks. He called out, "Tobias!" He held up the current generator. "Tobias, what if I kill them all? What if I just go from stone to stone and give each a little shot?"

"Then you'd have nothing left to play with except your radish, Forrest. Your game would be over."

He lowered his shock stick and grinned. "You joined the wrong side, Tobias."

Tobias laughed and turned into the dome. He finished off his nutribar, tossed the wrapper on the floor, and flopped down in a chair facing the doorway. He had taken to sitting and sleeping facing doorways. When someone's out to get you, paranoia is just practical thinking.

He glanced at the position of Mantchee and frowned. Lady Name was going to meet him to explain the new sequence they were going to initiate. She had determined that the rocks had the ability to excrete their waste products in the form of a highly corrosive vapor. It wouldn't kill the rocks. Their ability to obtain what they needed from the atmosphere wouldn't be affected. Creatures with lungs, however, would die.

The soft suits and respirators would leave only Forrest inhaling acid. The only real problem was trying to convince the rocks to do it. Lady Name suspected that for some reason, the rocks might object to wandering around in a cloud of their own s.h.i.t.

The doorway darkened. It was Forrest, and he was holding something in his hands. He squatted in the doorway.

"You know, Tobias, there were many times in my life when I thought I had all my ducks in a row. When I thought I was on top of everything. It wasn't always true."

Tobias hooked another chair with the toe of his boot and pulled it closer to him, crossing his legs at the ankles upon it. "Welcome to the club."

Forrest looked down at what was in his hands. "It might not be true for you."

"Just stop f.u.c.king with the rocks, Forrest, and it'll be all over."

He glanced up and grinned. "You think so?" He placed what was in his hands upon the floor, stepped upon it with one foot, and lifted as the sound of a sharp crack reverberated around the dome.

He stood and tossed the object across the s.p.a.ce that separated them. Tobias caught it with his left hand as Forrest turned and left the doorway empty.

It took a moment, but Tobias recognized the object. It was the hilt of Lady Name's knife.

"there is a new one"

"it is this thing"

"it signs as truth signs"

"it is this thing stronger"

"there is a sign"

"truth do you sign"

"Truth is dead."

"truth cannot die"

"Call truth and see."

"we call truth - truth see our sign - truth"

"Truth does not see your sign. Truth is dead."

"who do we serve now"

"You know me."

"this thing" "must we again kill and die to serve" "You know me." "we know you"

By the light of the Oids he had found her among the mountain of red rocks beyond the ship, on the way to Cage's Chasm. That's where she had stashed her half of the equipment. Her soft suit had been slashed, her respirator broken. Her portable communication unit was missing. She was dead. Tobias extinguished his light and turned away. Forrest must have taken some time to mutilate Lady Name's body. Had Forrest found the other suit and communication unit? Tobias looked back toward the gentle silver gleam of the ship. To h.e.l.l with it. Let Forrest play with the d.a.m.ned rocks if that's what he wanted. What did Tobias care? Keep going with the rations, stay out of Forrest's way. Wait for rescue. Simple.

He turned back, knelt on both knees next to her body, and clumsily began pushing the red ash over her. "You dumb b.i.t.c.h. You dumb crazy b.i.t.c.h."

"what must we do to atone"

"There is another. Kill it."

"to kill what we cannot see-how"

"Find a way."

The edge of another new sunrise. Tobias looked through the dome window at the pink of the slow dawn. How long had it been since he had seen Forrest? Back when the man had broken Lady Name's knife. He frowned. Had only one night pa.s.sed, or was it two? Or three?

He sipped at his steaming beverage, lowered his cup, and looked at it. Somewhere back on Earth there was a person with a degree in nutrition who had never stepped outside of his or her environmentally controlled city. That person had invented N-669 Beverage, Survival, Hot. More than likely that person had never tasted N-669 Beverage, Survival, Hot. At odd moments Tobias had a fantasy about finding that person, cramming a funnel down his or her throat, and pouring in ten or twelve liters of N-669 Beverage, Survival, Hot.

A sound. He slowly looked up and turned.

The sound had been something between a groan and a creak. He looked up at the inside of the dome. No problem there that he could see. His head turned toward the doorway. As he took a step toward it, half of the dome came crashing down to the floor next to him; it knocked him clear across to the wall of the undamaged half.

Another crash. Another.

He cleared his head, opened his eyes, and watched the open sky in horror as a ten-meter column of rocks teetered, then came falling toward him.

He scrambled to his feet and leaped into the rubble to escape, a deafening roar and a choking cloud of dust overtaking him.

The sounds stopped, and the dust settled. He opened his eyes and chanced a glance at his surroundings. The dome was nothing but rubble crisscrossed by collapsed columns of rocks. He pulled himself to his feet, climbed up the rocks and rubble until he stood on top. Except for where he was standing, the landscape was unchanged, the long shadows of the morning pointing away from the bit of Mantchee that showed over the horizon.

"Forrest!" Forrest was nowhere to be seen. "Forrest!"

Tobias took several deep breaths and looked down at the destruction of the dome. Without the dispenser what rations he could rescue from the wreckage would last only a few days - Earth days at that. Without the dispenser . . . he looked at the empty cup still gripped in his hand. So long N-669 Beverage, Survival, Hot. There were no more dispensers or rations in the ship's cargo hold. The equipment used to tap into the groundwater supply had been crushed along with the dispenser.

Tobias began gathering up the few nutribars he could find and reach. Already his mind was planning what he would do once he broke out his own portable communication unit and set up his command post. There still remained Lady Name's stunt with the corrosive vapor. Tobias didn't wonder about being able to figure out how to get the rocks to do it. He had to. But first there was food, water, shelter to arrange. Time. It would take time. But he had nothing but time. He spoke in mutters as he worked.

"I'll get you, Forrest. You miserable little son of a b.i.t.c.h. I'll get you."

"we have found truth"

"is truth dead"

"truth is dead-it is a strange creature truth-soft small and made of food" "what of the other this thing wants us to kill"

"we do not know-some toward the beginning of the new light sign about another there far below the surface dead-in the mound are the two who appeared when this thing first appeared -they are dead"

'four of them-still there is this thing" "there is a sign"

"Forrest. Answer if you're reading. Forrest."

"who signs"

"I look for the one called this thing."

"truth is dead-you are not this thing" "are you the other"

"I am G.o.d. Where is this thing?"

"who is G.o.d"

"I am. G.o.d rules all."

"are you like truth or like this thing"

"No. I have more power."

"even we can see this thing"

"If you cannot see this thing we have more power than G.o.d"

"Serve G.o.d or you will suffer."

"this thing already provides us with what you offer us G.o.d-we serve this thing"

"You must serve me."

"Communicate. I am stronger than this thing. Answer. Answer. Answer."

From the top of Graveyard Hill, Tobias surveyed the results of his efforts. He was standing in the center of a circular enclosure of red rocks, a triangular piece of the dome serving as a roof. Inside were some cushions from the dome and a panel he had grabbed from the ship. The panel controlled the array of debris-impregnated seismic charges surrounding his position on the hill. If Forrest or any of his followers wanted to get at him, they'd need a guide to get through the fireworks.

Next to the cushions was a stack of the seismic charges rigged with adjustable time-delay triggers. They were in case Forrest told his rocks to do the falling-column bit again. The soft suit and respirator were still in their containers, in case Tobias ever got some of the rocks to see things his way. Next to the soft suit were his container of water lugged from the surface stream and his supply of ration bars. In addition to the ration bars, he had managed to salvage four containers of the powder that the dispenser used to make up good old N-669 Beverage, Survival, Hot. Vitamins, minerals, and old underwear. He wondered what N-669 would taste like cold.

Next to the rations, on the other side of the cushions, stood the portable communication unit. Tobias bit the skin on the inside of his lower lip. What did the rocks mean when they said they could see Forrest?

He leaned his forearms upon the edge of the red wall and scanned the area behind Graveyard Hill. Forrest was nowhere around. Not even a footprint. And for the rocks to see Forrest, he would have to stay substantially in one place for the better part of nine Earth days. Tobias looked farther to the right, moving his position until he was overlooking the camp. The shelters had been in place long enough to be seen. And the graves. The ship.

He studied the wreckage of the ship. To the rocks it must have appeared out of nowhere. Huge, gleaming. Silver. A color the rocks had never seen before. And then they began getting signs. Certain actions in relation to the signs brought death. Other actions did not. They learned the penalty of disobedience. Good and evil came to stay. And it all began after the ship appeared.

Tobias nodded and sat on his cushions, energizing the portable communications unit. "Oh, Forrest, old buddy. Do I have a numnum for you."

"who signs"

"G.o.d."

"we serve this thing"

"I have found this thing. If I kill this thing, will you serve me?"

"we see this thing-this thing now sees what we think"

"I see what you think. Will you serve me?"

"we see this thing"

"I will kill this thing and appear to you. Then you will serve me."

"we wait"

The directional indicator on the portable unit and a quick move enabled him to triangulate the positions of two of the rocks with which he had been communicating. After marking them, it took only minutes to rig the ship. Remote-controlled seismic charges next to the half-full fuel cells. Tobias quickly searched the crew's quarters and scanned the cargo hold for anything additional that he might be able to use. There was a three-wheeled motorized "mule." He energized it and drove it over and around the mess in the hold until he. was outside, next to the marked rocks. He worked the forks of the mule beneath first one rock and then the next. With the rocks secured, he drove them to the top of Graveyard Hill and parked them where they could see both the ship and the inside of his bunker. Moving the rocks would add some time to the demonstration, but he would be too vulnerable in the open.

His preparations completed, he sat down and waited. If he stayed in the same place, in the same position, with only brief absences to p.i.s.s on Mikizu's grave, the rocks would see him shortly after they were able to perceive the ship. The only problem was boredom. But there were entertainments. Keeping alert for an attack of some kind by Forrest. That and the voices he was beginning to hear.

All a part of going crazy, he reminded himself. Still he wished the voices were loud enough for him to understand. Who knows? His insanity might have something interesting to say.

He sat back and stared at the two green rocks he was trying to convince. A thought pa.s.sed his attention, and he began laughing, "Talk about your hard sells!"

When he calmed down, he began to wait.

"who signs"

"G.o.d. I have moved you."

"your power is great"

"Do you see this thing?"

"we see this thing"

"Do you see me?"

"we see you G.o.d -you are very small - this thing is much larger"