Flinx took a step forward, another, a third-and something alive quickly scuttled out of his path, shoving aside empty containers and cans, plastic and metal clinking in the damp alley. He strained to see through the dimness, wishing now that he had had the presence of mind to bring a portable light from the shop. He took a cautious step toward the pile, ready to jump up and clear should the fleurms or whatever prove unexpectedly aggressive.
It was not a fleurm. For one thing, it was too long: nearly a meter. It was thicker, too, though not by much. He thought of the snakelike creatures that roamed the temperate forests to the south of Drallar. Some of them were poisonous. Occasionally, they and other forest predators made their way into the city under cover of rain and darkness to hunt out the small creatures that infested the urban trash heaps. It was rare, but not unheard of, that a citizen encountered such an intruder.
Flinx leaned close to the pile, and as he did so the hunger faded. Simultaneously, the feeling of loneliness intensi-fied; the strength of it almost sent him reeling back against the shop wall. He was certain it came from the snakelike unknown.
The bump of curiosity-which Mother Mastiff was at such pains to warn him about-quickly overcame his natural caution. All be felt was amazement that such powerful mental projections could arise from so lowly a creature. Furthermore, there was no anger in the animal, no rudimentary danger signals. Only that persistent loneliness and the fleeting sense of hunger.
The creature moved again. He could see the bright, flashing red eyes even in the alley's faint light. Not a true reptile, he was sure. A cold-blooded creature would have been reduced to lethargy by the cool night air. This thing moved too rapidly.
Flinx took a step back, away from the pile. The creature was emerging. It slithered onto the wet pavement and then did something he did not expect. Snakes were not supposed to fly.
The pleated wings were blue and pink, bright enough for him to identify even in the darkness. No, the snake-thing certainly was not lethargic, for its wings moved in a blur, giving the creature the sound and appearance of a gigantic bee. It found a place on his shoulder in a single, darting movement. Flinx felt thin, muscular coils settle al-most familiarly around his shoulder. The whole thing had happened too fast for him to dodge.
But the creature's intent was not to harm. It simply sat, resting against his warmth, and made no move to attack. The speed of the approach had paralyzed Flinx, but only for a moment. For as soon as it bad settled against him, all that vast loneliness, every iota of that burning need had fled from the snake. At the same time, Flinx experienced a clarity within his own mind that he had never felt before. Whatever the creature was, wherever it had come from, it not only had the ability to make itself at home, it seemed to make its new host feel comfortable as well.
A new sensation entered Flinx's mind, rising from the snake. It was the first time he had ever experienced a mental purr. He sensed no intelligence in the creature, but there _was_ something else. In its own way, the empathic communication was as clear as speech, the emotional equivalent of an ancient Chinese ideograph-a whole series of complex thoughts expressed as a single projection. Simple, yet efficient.
The small arrowhead-shaped head lifted from Flinx's shoulder, its bright little eyes regarding him intently. The pleated wings were folded flat against the side of the body, giving the creature a normal snakelike appearance. Flinx stared back, letting his own feelings pour from him.
Slowly, the creature relaxed. "The single long coiled muscle of itself, which had been squeezing Flinx's shoulder with instinctive strength, relaxed, too, until it was only maintaining a gentle grip, just enough to hold its position. Pins and needles started to run down Flinx's arm. He ignored them. The animal's head lowered until it moved up against Flinx's neck.
The snake was sound asleep.
Flinx stood there for what felt like an eternity, though surely it was not even half that long. The strange apparition that the night had brought slept on his shoulder, its small head nestled in the hollow of shoulder bone and neck tendon. The animal shivered once. Flinx knew it could not be drawing full warmth from his body because the slictertic formed a layer between them. Better to get the poor thing inside, he thought, suddenly aware of how long he had been standing there in the rain. His new companion needed rest as well as warmth. How he knew that, he could not have explained; but he knew it as clearly as he recognized his own exhaustion.
Flinx did not for a moment debate the snake's future. Its presence on his shoulder as well as in his mind was too natural for him to consider parting with it-unless, of course, some owner appeared to claim it. Clearly, this was no wild animal. Also, Flinx was well-read, and if this creature was native to the Drallarian vicinity, it was news to him. He had never seen or heard of such an animal be-fore. If it was some kind of valuable pet, its owner would surely come looking for it, and soon. For now, though, the snake was clearly as much an orphan as Flinx himself had once been. Flinx had experienced too much suffering in his own life to ignore it in anything else, even in a lowly snake. For a while, it was his charge, much as he was Mother Mastiff's.
She had wanted to know his name on that first day long ago. "What do I call you?" he wondered aloud. The sleeping snake did not respond.
There were thousands of books available to Flinx via the library chips he rented from Central Education. He had only read a comparative few, but among them was one with which he had particularly identified. It was pre-Commonwealth-precivilization, really-but that hadn't mitigated its impact on him. Those characters with the funny names; one of them was called-what? Pip, he ,remembered. He glanced back down at the sleeping snake. That'll be your name unless we learn otherwise one day.
As he started back for the shop, he tried to tell himself that he would worry about that proverbial "one day" if and when it presented itself, but he could not. He was already worried about it, because although he had only had contact with the creature for less than an hour, it seemed a part of him. "The thought of returning the snake to some indifferent, offworld owner was suddenly more than he could bear. Since he had been an infant, he couldn't recall becoming so deeply attached to another living creature. Not even Mother Mastiff had such a lock on his feelings.
Feelings. This creature, this snake-thing, it _understood_ what he was feeling, understood what it meant to have the emotions of strangers flood unbidden into one's mind, interrupting one's life and making every waking moment a potential abnormality. That was what made it special. He knew it, and the snake knew it, too. No longer were they individuals; they had become two components of a larger whole.
I will not give you up, he decided then and there in the cold morning rain. Not even if some wealthy, fatuous offworlder appears to lay claim to you. You belong with me. The snake dozed on, seemingly oblivious to any decisions the human might make.
The street fronting the shop was still deserted. The lock yielded to his palm, and he slipped inside, glad to be out of the weather. Carefully, he relocked the door. Then he was back in the dining area where the glow light still shone softly. Using both hands, he unraveled the snake. It did not resist as he slid the coils from his shoulder. From the bedroom to his right came Mother Mastiff's steady snores, a drone that matched the patter of rain on the roof.
Gently, he set the snake down on the single table. In the glow lamp's brighter light h could see its true colors for the first time. A bright pink and blue diamondback pattern ran the length of the snake's body, matching the pleated wings. The belly was a dull golden, hue and the head emerald green.
"Exquisite," he murmured to the snake. "You're exquisite."
The creature's eyes-no, he corrected himself, Pip's eyes-opened in lazy half sleep. It seemed to smile at him. Mental projection, Flinx thought as he slipped out of the slickertic and hung it on its hook.
"Now where can I keep you?" he whispered to himself as he glanced around the small living area. The stall out front was out of the question. Mother Mastiff surely had customers
suffering from snake phobias, and they might not take kindly to Pip's presence-besides, the stall was unheated. By the same token, he didn't think Mother Mastiff would react with understanding if the snake playfully sprang out at her from one of the kitchen storage cabinets while .she was trying to prepare a meal.
His own room was Spartan: There was only the small computer terminal and chip readout, the single clothes closet he had rigged himself, and the bed. The closet would have to do. Carrying the snake into his room, Flinx set it down on the foot of the bed. Then he made a pile of some dirty clothes on the closet floor. Pip looked clean enough; most scaled creatures were dirt-shedders, not collectors. He lifted the snake and set it down gently in the clothes, careful not to bruise the delicate wings. It recoiled itself there, seemingly content. Flinx smiled at it. He didn't smile often.
"Now you stay there. Pip," he whispered, "and in the morning we'll see about scrounging something for you to eat." He watched the snake for several minutes before fatigue returned with a rush. Yawning, he pushed his own clothes off the bed, set his boots on the drypad, and climbed back into bed. A few droplets of water had crawled under the edge of the slickertic. He brushed them from his hair, sighed deeply, and lapsed into a rich, undisturbed sleep.
Once the flow of mental energy from the human in the bed had smoothed out and the snake was certain its new symbiote was not about to enter a disturbing REM period, it quietly uncoiled itself and slithered out of the closet. Silently, it worked its way up one of the bed legs, emerging next to the single battered pillow.
The animal rested there for a long moment, gazing through double lidded eyes at the unconscious biped. In-side itself, the snake was warm and comfortable. The hunger was still there, but it had received an indication of sorts that it would soon be fed.
The bed was very warm, both the thermal blanket and the symbiote's mass exuding comfortable, dry heat. The snake slithered across the pillow until it was resting against the back of the human's head. It stretched itself once, the wings flexing and retracting. Then it coiled itself tightly into the convenient pocket formed by the symbiote's neck and shoulder. Soon its own brain waves matched those of the human as it drifted into its own variety of sleep.
Chapter Five
Mother Mastiff was careful not to wake the boy as she slowly began backing out of his room. Her eyes, alert and fearful, remained fixed on the alien thing curled up against his head. There was no telling what it might do if startled into wakefulness.
How the invader had penetrated her tight little home, she had no idea. No time to worry about that now. Her thoughts went to the little gun, the delicate, ladylike needier she kept under her pillow. No, too chancy--the snake was much too close to the boy's head, and she was not as good a shot as she had been twenty years ago.
There was also the possibility the invader might not even be dangerous. She certainly did not recognize it. In the ninety plus years she had spent on Moth, she had seen nothing like it. For one thing, there was no hint of fur any-where on its body. Only scales. That immediately identified it as a non-native. Well, maybe. Moth was home to a few creatures--deep-digging burrowers--that did not sport fur. This didn't look like a burrower to her, but she was no zoologist, nor had she ever traveled far outside the city limits.
Yet she felt certain it came from offworld. Something she couldn't put a mental finger on marked the beast as alien, but that didn't matter. What did was that it had somehow penetrated to the boy's room, and she had better do something about it before it woke up and decided the matter for her.
Get it away from him, she told herself. Away from his head, at least. Get it away, keep it occupied, then wake the boy and have him make a run for the gun under her pillow.
The broom she hefted had a light metal handle and wire bristles. Taking it out of storage, she re-entered Flinx's room and reached past his head with the broom's business end. The metal bristles prodded the invader.
The snake stirred at the touch, opened its eyes, and stared at her. She jabbed at it again, harder this time, trying to work the bristles between the snake's head and the boy's exposed neck. It opened its mouth, and she instinctively Jerked back, but it was only a yawn. Still sleepy, then, she thought. Good, its reactions would be slowed. Leaning forward again, she reached down and shoved hard on the broom. Several of the snake's coils went rolling over to the side of the bed, and for the first time she had a glimpse of its brilliant coloring.
Again, she shoved with the broom, but the snake was no longer on the bed. It hovered in midair, its wings moving so rapidly they were no more than a blue-pink blur. They generated a rich, vibrant humming sound in the small room. Aghast and uncertain how to attack this new threat, Mother Mastiff backed away, holding the broom defensively in front of her. Awakened by the last shove of the broom, the boy blinked sleepily at her. "Mother? What is it?"
"Hush, be quiet!" she warned him. "I don't know how this thing got into your room, but--"
Flinx sat up quickly. He glanced up at the hovering snake, admiring it for the first time in daylight, and bestowed a reassuring grin on Mother Mastiff.
"Oh, that. That's just Pip."
The broom dipped slightly, and she stared narrowly at her charge. "Ye mean, ye know what it be?"
"Sure," he said cheerfully. "I, uh, heard something; last night, so I went outside to investigate." He gestured with a thumb at the snake. "It was back in the garbage, cold and hungry. Hey, I bet he's still hungry, and--
"I'll bet it is, too," she snapped, "and III not have some scaly, gluttonous carrion eater crawling about my house. Get out!" she yelled at it. "Shoo!" She swung the broom at the snake once, twice, a third time, forcing Flinx to duck the flying bristles. Each time, the snake dodged nimbly in the air, displaying unexpected aerial agility. Once it darted straight to its left, then backward, then toward the ceiling.
"Don't!" Flinx shouted, suddenly alarmed. "It might think you're trying to hurt me."
"A guardian angel with beady eyes and scales? Mockmush, boy, it knows well what I'm swinging at!"
In fact, the snake was well aware the new human had no intention of banning its symbiote, for it could feel the honest affection and warmth flowing between them. It did not worry on that score. Conversely, no love flowed toward it from the new person, and the shiny thing that was being thrust at it was hard to avoid in the small, enclosed space.
"Please, Mother," Flinx pleaded anxiously, scrambling out of bed and dragging the blanket with him, "stop it. I don't know how it'll react."
"We're going to find out, boy," she told him grimly. The broom struck, missed, bounced off the far wall. She cocked her arms for another swing.
The snake bad been patient, very patient. It understood the bond between the two humans. But the broom had backed it into a comer, and the hard bristles promised danger if they connected solidly with the snake's wings. It opened its mouth. There was a barely perceptible squirting sound. A thin, tight stream of clear liquid shot forward. It sparkled in the light and impacted on the broom as it was swinging forward. As Mother Mastiff recovered and brought the broom back for yet another strike, she heard a faint but definite hissing that did not come from the snake.She hesitated, frowning, then realized the noise was coming from the broom. A glance showed that approximately half of the metal bristles had melted away. Something was foaming and sizzling as it methodically ate its way down the broom.
She dropped the weapon as if the metal handle had abruptly become red hot, her expression fearful. The liquid continued to sputter and hiss as it ate away the metal. Soon it had worked its way through the last stubble and was beginning to eat holes in the metal handle itself.
"Boy, get out of the room while ye have the chance," she called huskily, staring wide-eyed at the snake while continuing to back toward her own bedroom. "If it can do that to metal, there's no telling what--"
Flinx laughed, then hurriedly put a hand to his mouth and forced himself to be understanding. "I'm sorry, Mother," he said apologetica
lly. "It's just that Pip would never hurt me. And he's just proved that he wouldn't hurt anyone close to me, either."
"How do ye know that?" she sputtered.
"You know," he replied, sounding puzzled, "I don't know how I know it. But it's true. Here, see?" He extended his left arm.
Still keeping a wary eye on the woman, who continued to block the exit, the snake zipped down to land on the proffered perch. In an instant, it had multiple coils wrapped around the human's shoulder. Then the snake relaxed, the pleated wings folding up to lie flat against the gleaming body.
"See?" Flinx lowered his arm and gently rubbed the back of the snake's head. "He's just naturally friendly."
"Naturally ugly, ye mean," Mother Mastiff snorted. Bending, she picked up the remnant of the broom and inspected it. All the bristles were gone, along with several centimeters of handle. A weak crackling still came from the raw edges of the tube where the metal had dissolved, though the extraordinarily corrosive liquid seemed to have largely spent itself.
She showed the remains of the broom to Flinx, still nervous about getting too near the thing wrapped around his shoulder. "See that? Imagine what it. would do to your skin."
"Oh, Mother, can't you see?" Flinx spoke with all the exasperation of the young for the aged. "He was protecting himself, but because he senses that you're important to me, he was careful not to spit any of it on you."
"Lucky thing for it," she said, some of her normal bravado returning. "Well, it can't stay here."
"Yes, it can," Flinx argued.
"No, it can't. I can't have some lethal varmint like that fluttering and crawling all over the place, frightening off the customers."
"He'll stay with me all the time," Flinx assured her soothingly. His hand continued to caress the snake's head. Its eyes closed contentedly. "See? He's Just like any other house pet. He responds to warmth and affection." Flinx brought forth his most mournful, pleading expression. It had the intended affect.