Adagio. Part 3

"My power is greater."

"this thing has moved us without us seeing the move- what you have done is no more"

"Will you serve me on faith, or must I kill this thing?"

"you must kill this thing"

Mantchee was slowly moving toward sunset, but enough time remained. Tobias pressed the remote trigger and watched as the ship disappeared in a sheet of light and sound. Too bad, he thought as he watched the heat carry the flames and black smoke high into the shimmering red of the sky. It's too bad that it happens so quickly. If they could see it, the flaming death of this thing would impress the rocks.

He sat back to wait. It would take another nine days for the rocks to see that this thing was destroyed.

The portable communication unit began making strange buzzing sounds. He looked at the operation panel inside the case. The only image on the screen above the tiny keyboard was an instructional line: SWITCH FUNCTION TO NORMAL RECEIVE.

He did as instructed and sat back in shock, withdrawing his hand as though it had been burned, as an angry, deep snarl came from the unit's speaker.

"Tobias! Tobias, I'm coming for you! Do you hear me?"

After his shock pa.s.sed, Tobias grinned. "Is something wrong, Forrest?"

"The ship! Why did you blow the ship?"

"I think you know, old thing. Shall I put on a nice, hot cup of N-669 when you come calling? By the way, old thing, what are you using for food these days?"

The unit was silent. Tobias laughed as he switched the function selector back to the rock channel. It didn't seem so long a time. The nine days. The voices provided some entertainment. Still, they were muddy, too distant. But at times they even seemed to sing. Especially toward the end. Strange songs. Forrest never did show.

"It is time to decide."

"this thing brings us pain and death-G.o.d what do you bring us"

"The good."

"G.o.d we will serve you"

"And now will you have faith in me?"

"G.o.d we will have faith in you"

"Tell the others. All must serve G.o.d."

"G.o.d we will tell the others"

Does perception of time adjust to the local framework of time? Tobias let the thought sit just behind his eyes as he made his weary way to the stream. There didn't seem to be enough time in the day to do everything. Lug water, eat, talk to the rocks, and try to get them to understand about the acid vapor. He had gone back and dug up Lady Name's body, hoping there would be some clue in her notes. She must have had some idea about how to get the rocks to expel the vapor. But her breast pocket was empty. If anyone had those notes, it was Forrest.

But it was the feel of the dead breast behind that pocket that captured his attention. Hard. Unyielding.

He uncovered it and found it to be made of gray stone. Her entire body had been replaced by the gray. Back at Graveyard Hill, he uncovered part of Osborn's body. He had been replaced by gray and green. He didn't bother to check out Mikizu. Whatever the rocks were doing, they were only doing it to the dead. That was none of his concern. Not yet.

He came to the bank of the stream and lowered his containers to the ground. The stream was dry. He climbed down the bank and dug at the cracked surface of the bed with his hands. Dry.

He sat back on his heels, his gaze resting on the distant hills. That's where the water comes from, he thought. And that's where Forrest is. That's where he cut it off.

And that's where I'm going to kill you.

The light and the dark. Days. It seemed that so much time had pa.s.sed that he ought to have forgotten what he was trying to do. At moments he would forget.

He finished securing the portable communication unit to the mule next to the driver's seat. In the vehicle's tiny cargo bay were the remainder of his rations, the water containers, his soft suit and respirator, and his supply of bombs. He looked back at the two green rocks that had been keeping him company for- How long? He looked at the communication unit. There was a date- and time-indicator function. He didn't know the date. For some reason it seemed important to know.

He opened the unit, energized it, and switched the function selector to date/time. The figures were unreadable, a smear of flashes, as though the indications had been recorded in time lapse and replayed at normal speed.

The reflection of his image in the screen showed the face of an old man.

"G.o.d"

"What?" Tobias looked up and around. He looked back at the communication unit. The function selector was still on date/time. The voices again?

"G.o.d"

He looked again at the two green rocks.

"What?"

"take me with you" "Why?"

"there is a new one more powerful than this thing"

The rock on the right. He didn't know how, but he knew that was the one that was talking to him. Have I slowed down that much, he wondered, or have the rocks finally gotten it into high gear? Or have I lost my mind?

"G.o.d bring me" "Why?" "I can help you"

"Help me to do what?"

"I can help you fight Lucifer"

So Forrest is calling himself Lucifer. Tobias leaned against the mule and looked toward the hills. He nodded. "Sure. You come."

And he saw the rock move.

It seemed to flow across the red dust. A balloon filled with water. Light and dark. Rapidly shifting shadows. Time. Again light, the dark, light. The rock was now next to the mule.

He watched Mantchee streak across the sky, leaving him not in day or night but in half-light. That fast, he wondered, or have I become that slow.

"Am I seeing this as you see it?"

"I do not know how G.o.d sees"

Tobias pulled himself into the driver's seat. The brace he had grabbed came away in his hand. The metal of the mule was pitted, corroded, like lace. The supplies, the soft suit, the water containers-all dust.

He stood naked, a film of gray over his skin. He sank down next to the green rock. "I can't make it. Too tired. Too old."

"we will carry you"

Tobias watched the landscape move. Green, gray, black, and white globes flowing around the red. Rapid rivers of shapes. He felt himself lifted and carried. In the sky Mantchee was an even bar of yellow light against the dim pink.

As he was moved along, floating upon that softly undulating river of life, the edge of a thought-what would he do when he met Forrest?-came and left many times. My mind, he said to himself, really is going. But Forrest will be just as old, if he's still alive.

He was at the hills. He could not push himself up to look. The rocks rose beneath his head and shoulders.

"Forrest."

There was no answer, except for the stinging pain all over his body. He watched his skin peel and blacken, curling away to expose the bones beneath. The acid. Forrest taught them to s.h.i.t acid.

"I can't fight him. I am dying."

"G.o.d you must live-become as lucifer"

"I am G.o.d. Good cannot become as Lucifer. I am good."

"lucifer says he is the evil-is good less powerful than lucifer"

"I cannot change my purpose."

"change not purpose-change form-become as lucifer"

The thread of a thought spoke to him. Lucifer has no protection against the acid. Then what has Lucifer become? And what must I become to live?

"I am afraid."

"G.o.d-you want us to have faith in you-have faith in us-become as luctfer"

There was not enough tissue left to force air through vocal cords that no longer existed. His thought was his response. Very well. I will become as Lucifer.

He stood, his height above the crest of the hills, his reach wider than the plain beneath his feet. Beyond the hills a ma.s.sive head leered back at him. The face was rot, corruption, evil.

"You are G.o.d," it hissed.

"Lucifer."

A glow invaded the engineer's heart. He reached out his great arms and wrapped his fingers around the monster's throat.

When they came to investigate the weak, garbled signal from the Oids Belt, they quickly located the beacon. It was from a type of commercial cargo ship that hadn't been in use for over a century. Of the ship, pa.s.sengers, and crew, the only trace remaining was a curious statue of two naked human men, in mortal combat, standing upon the bodies of five other humans, the sculpture surrounded by a wall of red masonry. The local life form informed them that the statue was t.i.tled "Equilibrium."