He was wavering, Clarity saw. Thinking of going with the human and thranx. Of leaving her again. Just when she thought she had forgotten all about him, he had come back into her life and turned it upside down again. What did he want from her? What did she want from him? How could you live with and love someone who knew what you were feeling even when you might not be certain yourself?
She wavered, he vacillated, and the two minidrags, mother and offspring, were no less confused than their respective humans.
What about your headaches? Flinx reminded himself. Can you place that burden on Clarity? She's already seen what they can do to you. How can you ask her to be with you when the next pain in your skull might kill you? She has a good life here on New Riviera-she's told you so. Do you have the right to ask her to leave that just to help you with your problems? And even if she were to agree, would it be the right thing to do?
He was aware that they were all watching him, waiting, anxious to hear what he would decide. Bran and Tru in the hope that he would agree to go with them and help them. Clarity in the hope that-in the hope that...
What did Clarity Held really want? Was she more certain what she wanted than he? If he didn't know what he wanted, how could he trust her to know what she wanted? He responded to the inquiring stares as he had so often done when confronted by difficult situations in the past. He stalled.
"Since you've been in contact with members of the scientific community," he asked Truzenzuzex, "have they been able to determine how fast this shadowy section of the cosmos is advancing toward the Commonwealth and when it might begin to affect us?"
Truzenzuzex looked up, a purely instinctive gesture of the kind that even thranx Philosophs are subject to.
"It's approaching at a slight angle to the plane of the galactic ecliptic," he replied. "The area in question is so vast that velocities are not constant throughout, or so I have been led to understand. While an averaging is not precise, it is the best that can be hoped for until better measurements can be taken." Flinx saw multiple visions of himself mirrored in the manifold lenses of the thranx's eyes. Each one was slightly different from the one next to it-as were his own multiple visions of himself.
"Suffice to say, krr!!lt, that neither the Commonwealth nor any portion of our immediate galactic environs will begin to be affected until everyone in this room is long dead, and likely not until our offspring are also deceased. This estimation assumes, of course, that the phenomenon does not continue to accelerate. In that event, all current predictions are to be discarded. But as of now, we believe the first contact might not be felt for thousands of years or tens of thousands. Or outermost star systems could begin to be affected within a few hundred years. No sooner than that, I'm told, unless the rate of motion accelerates exponentially."
"A few hundred years," Clarity murmured, "at the soonest." When both thranx and man nodded, she turned sharply to Flinx.
"Then there's no hurry. There's ample time to find a way to counter this entity."
"Provided," Tse-Mallory reminded her softly, "the rate of acceleration does not increase. That is something we cannot predict. Knowing as little as we do about the nature of this phenomenon, we are of course equally ignorant of its capabilities."
"You're asking Flinx to devote his immediate future and maybe even the rest of his life to combating something that won't pose an actual threat until long after he's dead."
Truzenzuzex gestured with a truhand. "Yes. That's exactly what we're asking him to do."
"Why should he?"
Flinx gazed affectionately at her. She was giving voice to his thoughts. Was that an indication of love? She was arguing for his happiness.
Not a complicated equation, he decided. His happiness versus the galaxy's future. One man's contentment versus the end of everything. As was so often the case, the choice was simple. Making it was the hard part.
Tse-Mallory was watching him closely. So was Truzenzuzex. They were among the most important friends and mentors of his youth, now returned to ask his help in dealing with a far more momentous problem than whether an ancient artifact was a weapon, a musical instrument, or both. Their empathy, sincere and unrestrained, felt like a flow of soothing liquid warmth rushing through his mind. He believed he owed the Commonwealth nothing, the galaxy nothing. But what did Philip Lynx owe Bran Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex?
Others were involved. He met Clarity's open gaze. His talent was fully active, sensitive to the feelings of everyone around him. "I'm confused, Clarity." He smiled disarmingly. "It's threatening to become an endemic condition. When I'm confused I try to turn for advice to those whose opinions I respect. I've known both these wanderers for a long time. I've known you for less but more intensely."
"Don't you mean intimately?" She smiled, and he felt affection roll out of her like a wave.
"I guess I mean both. I don't know what to do. I really don't. When I don't know I have to ask. Clarity, I'm asking you. Just you. What do you think I should do?"
She was taken aback. The forceful stares of the two scholars didn't make it any easier. "That's right, Flinx. Don't ask about something simple and straightforward like you and me. Just place the future of the galaxy and humanxkind in my hands."
His smile became that same youthful, almost childlike grin that had first attracted her to him years ago on Longtunnel. But his tone was quietly serious. "What are real friends for, Clarity?"
Slowly, she put both arms around his neck and lost herself in those deep green eyes. Eyes that had already seen far too much yet were full of the uncertainty of youth. Eyes behind which lay an incredible but still immature talent. Did she love him? Or did she feel sorry for him? Did she want to be with him always, or just help him overcome and survive? He had told her he didn't know what to do, which implied he didn't know what he wanted. What did she want? They were two confused people confounded by the options fate had dealt them, thrown together originally by circumstance and brought back together by need.
Love by any other definition, she thought.
The surge of raw emotion from both of them caused the two minidrags to coil themselves reassuringly around the forearms of their respective masters as well as around each other. Man, woman, and snakes formed an entwined whole. Behind them, Tse-Mallory was whispering something about human courtship rituals to the fascinated Truzenzuzex. Flinx and Clarity ignored them.
"I don't know what you should do, Flinx. You can't ask me or anyone else to decide for you. I do know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you, helping you overcome the confusion and pain that torments you so. If I can." Leaning forward, she kissed him. Tse-Mallory's whispering acquired urgency.
Eventually, their lips parted. "Clarity, if my headaches get any worse I may not have much rest of life left."
"I'll take what I can. But at the same time, I can't be that selfish. As much as I'd like for the two of us just to be together, I know you can't put aside this calling you feel." As she spoke, she toyed with strands of his hair. "Besides, I'd like our grandchildren-or great-great-grandchildren-to have a future. I suppose that means dealing with this thing that's coming, however long it's going to be before it gets here. I think the answer's obvious. You need to help your friends find this mysterious weapons platform you encountered previously. You need to do whatever's necessary to try to divert or destroy this oncoming malicious phenomenon. And you need to take me with you. That way you can do what has to be done, and we can still be together." She looked resolutely back at their silent audience. "I can help you in ways they can't."
Tse-Mallory responded with an avuncular smile. "If Flinx doesn't object to your presence, then surely neither Tru nor I will."
Flinx found himself torn. "It would be wonderful if you could come with us, Clarity, but it's liable to be dangerous."
"Dangerous?" She gazed back at him wide-eyed. "Where Philip Lynx goes? Why, such a possibility never occurred to me! I'm shocked, positively shocked!"
Truzenzuzex gestured approvingly.
"An attitude that might have come straight from one of the nurseries in a major hive. I believe I will enjoy the female's company."
"What about the life you've built for yourself here?" Flinx asked. "Your career, your future?"
"My career has been put on hold before. It can be put on hold again. My personal situation has changed. And despite knowing better, I find myself romantically entangled." Her kiss was quick this time, but no less intense. "I'm afraid you're stuck with me, Flinx. I'm your responsibility now."
"Wonderful." He grinned. "Something else to be responsible for."
Lips pursed invitingly, she exclaimed, "Don't you ever call me a something again."
"This is still the courtship ritual?" the thranx murmured to his friend.
Tse-Mallory nodded. "Not atypical, actually."
"Is he going to impregnate her now?"
"For a member of the hive who has spent as much time around humans as you have, Tru, you still retain a positive ignorance of certain aspects of human behavior."
"Then would it be impolite to suggest that we get a move on?"
"No. Such a suggestion would be quite in order. Time is always of the essence. After all, we don't know how many hundreds or thousands of years we have left."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Her superiors at Ulricam were vocal in their disappointment when she announced that she was taking an extended leave of absence. After all, they insisted, what could possibly be more important than developing the company's new line of oxytocin-laced cosmetics? Clarity elected not to enlighten them. Knowing corporate executives, she was not sure informing them that the future of the galaxy was at stake would alter their opinion.
Despite Flinx's assurance that there was ample room on the Teacher, she chose to take very little with her. Scrap rode lightly on her shoulder, unconcerned as to their destination. Coiling around Flinx's right arm, Pip occasionally snatched a brief, maternal glance at her offspring just to keep track of his location.
"I've been on your ship," Clarity reminded Flinx as they strode through the shuttleport terminal. "Certain conspicuously male nuances aside, it has everything anyone could need."
"You may not recognize it," he warned her gently. "I'm always making changes. There's a central chamber where I go to relax. Sometimes it's full of waterfalls and trees, sometimes desert. Once, I did a tiny bit of beach and fake ocean. Right now, because I was given some interesting foliage on Midworld, it's done in rain forest." He smiled, reminiscing. "I left the parasites out."
"Must be nice. Most people are lucky if they can afford to regularly change the sims on their walls. But then, most people don't have their own starships."
"I told you earlier." He looked uncomfortable. "I had nothing to do with it. It was a gift."
"From the Ulru-Ujurrians." She returned his smile. "I remember. An eccentric bunch of sentients if ever there was one. Wonder what they're up to now?"
"Probably digging," he reminded her. "Always digging, as they call it. Making tunnels on their homeworld. Tunnels that do funny things." He glanced skyward, through the polarized, transparent dome of the concourse ceiling. "As long as we're wondering, I wonder if they're aware of what's coming toward us and if they plan to do anything about it."
"Why don't you ask them?"
"I intend to," he told her. "They might have some good ideas."
"This ancient weapons platform you visited that has your friends so intrigued. Do you really think you can find it again, and, if so, that it might be powerful enough to actually stop something astronomical in scale?"
"Don't know," he admitted. "Can only try. As Truzenzuzex said, right now it's the best hope we have." He put his arm around her and drew her close to him. "And you're the best hope I have."
She glanced backward. Deep in conversation, Bran Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex followed, ignoring the two humans.
"Don't they ever stop arguing?"
Flinx grinned. "When you want to know everything, you're constantly asking questions and seeking answers. I'm a lot like them, I think-nosy but not noisy. Don't worry-there's lots of room on the Teacher, and plenty of places to find solitude. But you already know that."
After passing Security, they headed down a hallway for the transfer station where small vehicles were available to convey them below the tarmac and deposit them next to the shuttlecraft from the Teacher. Then a short atmospheric flight and they would be aboard his craft.
The corridor was unoccupied. Very few private shuttlecraft utilized this, the outermost port serving the city of Sphene. Photophilic paint applied in understated decorative patterns provided sufficient light.
Turning down a curve in the corridor, Clarity saw several transfer vehicles waiting. She was just wondering if she had forgotten anything when Flinx halted so abruptly that his arm nearly made her stumble. Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex both came up quickly behind them.
"Sr!!ck, what is it, Flinx?" Both of the thranx's antennae were fully extended, sampling the air, quivering slightly. Tse-Mallory's eyes scanned every centimeter of the corridor.
"Something." Flinx's expression was tight with uncertainty. "There's something here."
"You're reading emotions." Searching their surroundings, Clarity saw nothing: only empty corridor, transfer vehicles, the decorative lighting and patterns etched on the walls.
"Actually, that's the problem. I can't perceive anything specific. It's like the emotions of others are present but masked somehow."
Clarity was at once bewildered and concerned. "How do you mask emotions?"
Tse-Mallory responded, "Drugs."
The corridor exploded in a burst of incandescence. As Flinx pulled Clarity and the thranx with him into an alcove stacked with supplies, Tse-Mallory threw himself in the opposite direction. He and Truzenzuzex drew the small hand weapons they always carried with them: Tse-Mallory two, the thranx two pair. In seconds, answering fire spurted from their six united guns.
Their unknown assailants fired small explosive shells and sonic bursts.
"This won't do. We've got to get out of here!" From his position behind a protruding corridor section seal, Tse-Mallory yelled to his companions huddled in the storage alcove. Even as he spoke, a shell blew away the top of the metal flange of the seal he was crouching behind.
Who were they fighting? The harder Flinx strove to penetrate the emotional masks of their assailants, the murkier his perceptions became. Were they after him or his companions? If it was him, and they had used drugs to disguise their feelings, that implied some knowledge of his unique talent. Inevitably, he thought back to the two people who had attacked him in the air on Goldin IV. Were these the same people? Had they somehow managed to follow him all the way to New Riviera?
But why wait until he was almost ready to depart to attack him again? Would-be assassins had had ample opportunity to take a shot at him in the preceding months. No, this had to be a new set of assailants. But not necessarily different. There could have been collusion between them and those who had struck at him on Goldin IV.
And he still had not the slightest idea who they were.
With their emotional states cloaked, he could not anticipate their actions or influence them. That didn't stop him from using his own gun. He kept a tight rein on a frantic Pip, and Clarity did likewise with Scrap, since they both knew that in the narrow corridor the flying snakes would have little room to maneuver. Both of them might all too easily be brought down by the concentrated fire.
Retreat was also a dubious proposition. It was a good ten meters to the first bend in the corridor. Even a champion sprinter would find it difficult to negotiate that distance without getting shot.
Tse-Mallory released a burst of defensive fire in the direction of their assailants. "You three run for it! I'll cover you."
Truzenzuzex turned to the two humans. "You two go first, ku!isc."
Flinx shook his head. "We'll go together, Tru." Next to him, Clarity nodded forcefully.
The thranx gestured with a
truhand. The weapon held in its grasp was compact and exquisite, a deadly jewel birthed in the armaments' factories of Eurmet.
"Don't be ridiculous, Flinx. I am a trained soldier. I can lay down four times the firepower you carry, and you are more than tall enough to shoot over me at our assailants, whereas I would feel somewhat inhibited trying to shoot at them between your legs."
Flinx nodded. "Okay, Clarity and I will make a run for it first, but you come right after us." Over a short distance, he knew, the thranx could keep up with even long-legged humans.
Truzenzuzex gestured his agreement. "Another metamorphosis to you both, then, and watch your footing." Had he possessed flexible facial features, he would have smiled encouragingly. "As for myself, thranx never trip."
Tru exchanged hand signals with Tse-Mallory, who then lay down withering fire across the far end of the corridor. Simultaneously, Truzenzuzex fired all four hand weapons.
Answering fire came immediately. From the other end of the corridor.
Once again, the travelers were compelled to withdraw behind their respective cover.
"Crrskk, that didn't work." Truzenzuzex was upset. "If they're behind us as well as in front of us, we are in a very bad position indeed."
Clarity took a cautious glance back up the passageway. "They're still firing."
"I can hear that." Flinx's concern and confusion made him irritable.
"Maybe so-but what you can't tell is that they're not firing at us."
"What?" Keeping one hand tight on Pip, Flinx peered back. The majority of the intense fire pouring down the corridor was directed toward their unknown assailants. Only an occasional burst was aimed at them.
"This makes no sense." Truzenzuzex's golden compound eyes were close to Flinx's face. In the confined space, his scent was almost overpowering. "Can you get a sense of these newcomers, Flinx, or are their emotions shrouded like the others?"