The Abyss of Time

Chapter Twenty Three

     The going was easy at first. It was almost possible to imagine that they were on a recreational trek through the forest. A group of friends out to enjoy the scenery and get close to nature; a rare and expensive privilege in the twenty fourth century. The surface suits spoiled the illusion somewhat as their bodies grew slick with sweat and they had to keep wiping the condensation from their faceplates to see clearly, but it was still a walk across uneven ground and the exercise gave Miller's legs a gentle ache that he found quite pleasant at first.

     That wouldn't last, he suspected. As a former military man he'd gotten into the habit of keeping in shape. He ran, he exercised. He played squash with his colleagues. The fact remained, though, that his job, for the last several years, had mainly involved sitting, either at desks or the control station of a spaceship. Add to that the fact that he wasn't as young as he used to be and he knew that his legs would soon begin to ache.

     And some members of their little procession were older than him, and in worse shape. Professor Felgin and Connie, his zoologist wife, were both in their sixties, although they were striding along seemingly without a care in the world so far, and Ellen Gilbreth was in her middle fifties. She had a look of determination on her face that worried Miller, as if she were determined not to show discomfort in her hips or knees. What would they do if she started to lag behind? Maddie and Phil were both small. Perhaps they could move them onto the same mule, freeing up the other for the engineer. She'd probably get proud and obstinate about it, but if she couldn't keep up the pace she'd have to just accept it.

     As the day wore on, the incessant roar of water percolating down through the forest canopy was added to by the sounds of wildlife, as creatures that had fled or been scared into silence by the crashing shuttle returned to their normal habits. The sounds they made, mating calls or whatever, were universally low pitched, as high pitched sounds would have been drowned out by the sounds of falling water. Drumming. The rhythmic sound of tight surfaces being struck repeatedly. A variety of pounding rhythms, some coming in rapid fire, others, louder than the rest, in the form of a single isolated boom followed by minutes of silence before it repeated.

     "Nothing larger than a mouse, you said," Connie said to Alan Felgin with a playful smile. "Whatever's doing that's a bit larger than a mouse."

     "Large enough to be dangerous?" asked Miller with a frown.

     "Your guess is as good as mine," Felgin replied.

     The professor's eyes suddenly widened with interest, staring at Miller's shoulder. Miller twisted his head around to try to see what he was looking at, then froze still as Felgin reached out towards him. Miller felt something being pulled from his suit, and shuddered with disgust when he saw the thing squirming between the fingers of Felgin's gauntlet.

     It looked like a baby octopus, except that every tentacle ended with a round mouth rimmed with teeth. Eye stalks waved around, some staring at Felgin as he lifted it up to get a better look at it, and an iridescent film of cilia caused rainbow streaks of colour to flow across its body. It was simultaneously the most beautiful and the most hideous thing Miller had ever seen.

     "What the hell is that?" he asked as everyone gathered around to look.

     "It doesn't appear to belong to any of the usual phyla of animal life," said Connie, taking it from her husband. Some of its mouths clamped onto the fingers of her surface suit and chewed at them, without being able to make any impact. "All the repeated body structures, I wonder if it's some kind of communal organism? Like a siphonophore." She saw blank looks on the faces around her. "Like a Portuguese man o' War. Several individuals working together for their mutual benefit."