Apes and Angels Read online

  Dutifully, the Gammans shuffled toward the stairs.

  “Stop!” Brad shouted. “You don’t have to die. Stay here, safe from the monsters.”

  As if to mock his words, a cat suddenly appeared on the rim of the shattered roof, staring down through the broken branches at the terrified Gammans. Without thinking, Brad shot it through the throat, swinging the laser beam back and forth to sever its head from its body.

  The Gammans moaned, whether in awe or fear or anger, Brad could not tell.

  “You don’t have to die!” Brad repeated.

  Drrm pushed past him and headed for the stairs, insisting, “It is our way, Brrd.”

  “Then your way must change.”

  “No, the Sky Masters have ordained it.”

  The Gammans lined up behind Drrm and started down the stairs. Some seemed more reluctant than others, Brad thought. He saw that Mnnx was dawdling toward the rear of the line.

  Desperate, Brad shouted, “The Sky Masters have changed! I bring you their new commands!”

  SKY MASTERS

  Already several steps down the staircase, Drrm stopped and turned. Brad still stood in the middle of the circular room, the rain pounding on him and the others. Some of the Gammans had flattened themselves against the curving wall in a pitiful effort to get out of the downpour.

  “You are not a Sky Master,” Drrm said. “You cannot speak for the Sky Masters. Their commands are eternal.”

  Thinking on his feet faster than he had ever done in his life, Brad countered, “The Sky Masters send the monsters from Beta, don’t they?”

  “Yes.”

  Raising his pistol above his head, Brad said, “I have killed many of the monsters. And I can kill many more.”

  “But that is wrong,” Brrd argued.

  From the rear of the column of Gammans, Mnnx asked, “Did the Sky Masters send you to us, Brrd?”

  Brad leaped at the excuse. “Yes! The Sky Masters sent me to save you.”

  “No!” Drrm gasped. “That cannot be. Their commands are eternal.”

  The rain was slithering down his helmet, and Brad could hear his suit’s air-circulation fans whining like angry insects. Pointing at Drrm with his free hand, Brad challenged, “You told me that there was a time before the Sky Masters brought on the death time, a time of many villages.”

  Drrm hesitated before finally answering reluctantly, “Yes, long ago.”

  “Then their commands are not eternal. They change their commands.”

  “Yes, but…” Drrm fell silent.

  “I bring you the new command of the Sky Masters. Live! Do not submit to the monsters from Beta. Save yourselves.”

  The Gammans muttered among themselves. This is a lot for them to swallow, Brad knew. But he also knew that he had one powerful force working in his favor. They didn’t really want to die. Like all living organisms they had an innate drive to survive, to struggle against death.

  At last Drrm said, “You bring us the new commands of the Sky Masters.”

  Careful, Brad warned himself. Don’t carry this so far that you can’t get free of it.

  “You don’t have to die,” he repeated. “You don’t have to give yourselves up to the monsters from Beta.”

  * * *

  Aboard the Odysseus, Kosoff glared at the holographic display with anger boiling deep inside him.

  “He’s interfering with their basic beliefs!” he growled. “He’s breaking every rule we’ve established for contact with an alien civilization.”

  Littlejohn, sitting to one side of Kosoff’s desk, pointed out, “Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about it.”

  The two men were watching the video transmission from Brad’s biosuit, knowing that what they were seeing had happened minutes earlier.

  “He’s taking it upon himself to appear to them as a savior, a god!” Kosoff rumbled. “That’s reprehensible.”

  “He’s trying to save their lives,” Littlejohn said.

  “Reprehensible,” Kosoff repeated.

  Abruptly, Emcee’s face appeared in the three-dimensional display. “Dr. Abbott wishes to speak to you, Professor. Urgently.”

  “Not now,” Kosoff snapped.

  “Dr. Abbott has traced the means by which the felines of Beta are transported to planet Gamma, sir.”

  “Not now, dammit!”

  “As you wish, sir.”

  The view from Brad’s helmet of the Gammans standing in the rain-soaked upper floor of the village’s largest building returned to the three-dimensional display.

  * * *

  Mnnx came up to Brad. “Are you truly from the Sky Masters, Brrd?”

  Nodding inside his helmet, Brad replied, “I come from a village in the sky, my friend. I’ve come to save you from the monsters.”

  Still standing several steps down the staircase, Drrm insisted, “No, that cannot be. It is wrong. We must do as the Sky Masters commanded.”

  “If it cannot be,” Brad challenged, “how could I kill the monsters? Why would the Sky Masters allow me to kill them if they didn’t want you to live?”

  “There will be more monsters from Beta.”

  “And I will kill them, too,” Brad retorted, hoping his pistol had enough charge to do the job.

  Mnnx said to Drrm, “Don’t you see, Drrm? The Sky Masters have sent Brrd to save us.”

  “And what do we do when the death time passes and the new Folk arise from the fields?”

  Brad said, “We go beyond the hills that surround this village and build a new village for them.”

  For several long moments Drrm stood frozen on the staircase, with the rain pouring down so hard that Brad could hardly make out his figure. The other Gammans who had started down the steps with him had backed away slightly, leaving the village leader standing alone, drenched, looking forlorn.

  Brad asked, “Is everyone here? Are there any of us missing?”

  Lnng answered from the head of the staircase, “Grrl and his hut mates. I was going to get them and bring them here when you appeared, Brrd.”

  Starting for the stairs, Brad said, “Let’s go get them. I’ll go with you.”

  Drrm seemed to stiffen. Drawing himself up to his full height, he said, “I will go with you.”

  Grinning inside his helmet, Brad said, “Good.”

  And the three of them started down the stairs.

  Kosoff’s voice grumbled in Brad’s earphones, “You’re violating every ethical rule in the book.”

  Switching to his suit’s intercom mode, so the Gammans couldn’t hear him, Brad replied, “The alternative is to let them be killed, and I can’t do that.”

  Then he clicked back to the translating computer’s channel, happy that Kosoff couldn’t bother him again for almost four minutes.

  With Drrm in the lead and Lnng behind him, they sloshed through the floodwater on the ground level and stopped at the building’s only door. It was wide open and outside the rain was teeming down more heavily than ever. The wind was roaring like a wild beast. Mithra’s glare and the eerie light from Beta were all but obliterated by the freshly growing clouds boiling across the sky. Brad could barely see across the village compound to the buildings on the other side.

  “Which one is Grrl’s hut?” he asked.

  Drrm pointed. “There.”

  Like all the other buildings, the hut’s door was wide open.

  Turning, Brad shouted up the stairs, “Close the door behind us. Keep the monsters out.”

  Drrm started out into the rain, but Brad held him back. “Wait. Look for cats first.” And he hoped that the computer translated “cats” to a word the Gammans could understand.

  He switched on the helmet’s infrared night-vision optics. The compound looked clear, although the wind was blowing so hard that twigs, brush, entire tree limbs were tumbling across the compound.

  Drrm stepped out into the downpour as if he had no fear of monsters from Beta.

  “This way,” he said.

  Brad grinned i
nwardly. Drrm’s trying to recapture the leadership of his people. Well, he’s welcome to it.

  Gripping his pistol, Brad stepped out beside Drrm. Lnng followed behind them.

  STARSHIP ODYSSEUS

  It was midmorning on the ship. Felicia was at her workstation in the biology lab, but she couldn’t focus her thoughts on the analysis of the Gamman microbes on the computer display before her. She turned off the display and headed out of the lab, toward the cafeteria.

  The place was open twenty-four/seven, of course, but at this time of the morning only a handful of people were there. Most of the tables were empty and the little serving robots were lined up in a neat row on the far side of the room.

  Felicia trudged to the only juice dispenser that appeared to be working. A young man was already there, filling a large mug to the brim. He was slim, wiry, not much taller than Felicia herself. His skin was dark, his hair midnight black and tightly curled, his eyes deep brown.

  “Hi,” he said as Felicia approached. “You’re not at work?”

  “Neither are you,” she said, reaching for one of the plastic cups.

  “Snuck out for a caffeine break,” he said. Then he stuck out his free hand. “I’m Yussif Hamibi, sensor tech.”

  “Felicia MacDaniels, biology.”

  “You’re Brad MacDaniels’s wife, aren’t you?”

  She nodded. “That’s right.”

  “How’s he doing down there?”

  Felicia wanted to answer, I wish I knew. Instead, she said, “All right, I guess.”

  “You guess? Don’t you know?”

  With a sorrowful shake of her head, Felicia admitted, “No, I don’t know. What with the time lag and the storms on Gamma, it’s not easy to stay in touch.”

  “Oh. I see.” Hamibi gestured to the nearest table, empty and cold-looking in the glareless overhead lighting.

  Felicia went with him and they sat side by side.

  “I’ve only got a few minutes,” Hamibi said. “Got to get back to the monitoring center.”

  Felicia nodded.

  With a wide grin, he asked, “So, do you come here often?”

  With a mock scowl, Felicia replied, “Is that supposed to be a pick-up line?”

  His smile brightened, strong white teeth against his dark skin. “It’s supposed to be a joke. I didn’t know what else to say.”

  “I see.” Felicia allowed herself a thin smile.

  “So what’s happening on Gamma?”

  “Terrible storms. Some sort of tigerlike animals are hunting down the Gammans and killing them.”

  His eyes widening, Hamibi said, “Really? Wow. And MacDaniels is in the middle of all that?”

  “He certainly is,” Felicia said. Every nerve in her body seemed to be screaming, Brad’s out there alone. He could get killed. But he stayed there instead of coming back to me.

  “Is he all right?” Hamibi asked.

  “He’s shot several of the big cats. He’s trying to help the Gammans get through this.”

  “Inshallah,” Hamibi murmured.

  Suddenly Littlejohn’s voice called from across the nearly empty, echoing cafeteria. “There you are!”

  Felicia leaped to her feet, knocking over her juice glass.

  “Is Brad…?” She couldn’t finish the question.

  “He’s in one piece,” Littlejohn said cheerfully as he crossed the cafeteria and came to their table. “He’s helping the Gammans to survive.”

  “He’s all right?”

  “As good as he can be, considering the conditions on Gamma right now.” Littlejohn stopped at their table and eyed Hamibi. “I’m Dr. Littlejohn, head of the anthropology team.”

  Looking suddenly embarrassed, Hamibi said, “I’d better be getting back to the monitoring center.” He picked up his mug and hurried off into the shadows.

  Littlejohn turned back to Felicia. “I thought he might be bothering you.”

  “No,” she said, surprised. “He was just being friendly.”

  Littlejohn nodded. “Don’t you think you should get back to your lab? It’s too early for lunch.”

  “I … I suppose so.”

  “You’re worried about Brad.”

  “Yes.”

  “He’s fine … physically.”

  Felicia’s innards flared. “What do you mean?”

  Littlejohn’s expression turned almost sorrowful. “He’s taken it upon himself to try to save the Gammans from extinction.”

  “Extinction?”

  “I don’t know if your husband realizes it or not, but he’s taking on the role of a savior for those people. It could lead to all sorts of complications.”

  “Oh.”

  “Kosoff’s furious with him.”

  “But he’s all right. He’s safe.”

  “So far.”

  Felicia stood there, feeling lost, helpless, unable to help the man she loved. The man who’s left me, she reminded herself.

  Littlejohn slipped an arm around her shoulders. “Come on. I’ll walk you back to your lab.”

  And Felicia remembered that the anthropologist had deftly shooed away Greg Nyerere just yesterday. He’s been watching me! she realized. Is he trying to protect me for Brad’s sake, or …

  She shrugged his arm off her, then said, “Thank you, Dr. Littlejohn. I can get back to my workplace by myself.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Of course. Quite sure.”

  Littlejohn smiled crookedly, then said, “That’s fine. I should get back to Kosoff before he pops a blood vessel.”

  They walked together as far as the cafeteria’s door, then Felicia turned toward the moving stairs that led down to the laboratories.

  SACRIFICE

  The rain was coming down harder than ever as Brad, Drrm, and Lnng sloshed across the compound to Grrl’s hut, staggering in the hard-gusting wind that raised whitecaps across the flooded hollow. The clouds were so thick that it was almost as dark as night across the village. Even with his night-vision optics Brad could barely see the building they were heading for.

  Could be a dozen big cats slinking around here, he told himself, and I wouldn’t spot them until they were nearly on top of us.

  The water was getting deeper, up to his knees, making each step forward a real struggle. At least it should slow down any cats that come after us, he thought.

  The two Gammans were straining too, bent almost halfway over as they pushed themselves through the rising floodwater. Brad almost laughed bitterly to himself as he thought, They’re not taller than I am now.

  Drrm staggered and reached out an arm to Brad for support. Despite himself, Brad felt a shudder of revulsion flash through him. His arm was a twisted mass of ropy, muscular tentacles. Alien. Frightful.

  Drrm’s arm coiled around Brad’s shoulders, then withdrew as the Gamman righted himself. Brad hoped Drrm couldn’t sense the irrational disgust he’d felt.

  “Thank you,” said Drrm as he separated from Brad.

  “You’re welcome,” Brad replied through gritted teeth.

  “I don’t see any monsters,” Lnng shouted over the pounding of the rain.

  Trying to buck up his courage, Brad figured.

  Then Drrm answered, “Monsters are out there, lurking in the dark.”

  Pleasant thought, Brad grumbled to himself.

  “Look out!” Lnng shouted. A young tree was sailing through the air, branches fluttering, roots flailing. All three of them ducked low as it hurtled past.

  At last they reached the hut they were heading for. Its door hung open, swinging in the wind and banging against the wall. Brad saw the hut’s interior was pitch black, silent, and still.

  He switched on his helmet’s lamp, making Drrm and Lnng flinch with surprise. His IR goggles automatically swung away from his eyes.

  Inside the hut half a dozen bodies were sloshing in the floodwater, mangled, chewed, dead. The water was dark with their nearly black blood.

  “Too late,” said Lnng. “The monsters have b
een here.”

  Where are they now? Brad wondered. All the other villagers are back in the longhouse. I told them to close their door so the cats can’t get in, but one of those beasts got up to the roofline, for god’s sake. And there’s nothing barring the window.

  Drrm sank to his knees in the bloody water, clasped his hands together, and bowed his head. Brad’s computer picked up a few of the words he was muttering, “Thanks … sacrifice … death time … sacrifice…”

  A prayer for the dead, he realized. Giving thanks for their sacrifice.

  Brad turned back to the open door, still banging in the wind. There’s at least one cat out there, maybe more. I wonder if we’ll be able to get back to the longhouse without being attacked.

  Drrm got back to his feet, slowly, painfully, as though he’d aged fifty years in the past few minutes.

  “Let’s go back,” Brad said as he pulled his pistol from his belt. In the light from his helmet lamp he saw that the charge was not even one-tenth depleted. Good, he thought.

  “Come on.”

  * * *

  Felicia didn’t return to her lab. Instead, she made her way to the monitoring center, halfway across the ship’s interior and two levels up.

  If Yussif is on the monitoring crew, why did he have to ask me how Brad’s doing? she wondered. Aren’t they watching Brad?

  As she walked the long, curving passageway she used her wrist communicator to query Emcee.

  “Emcee, aren’t the monitors watching Brad on Gamma?”

  “Yes, they are,” answered the master computer’s avatar.

  “Then why…?” Suddenly Felicia understood. Yussif was trying to strike up a conversation with me! She wondered if Littlejohn had been right and Hamibi was coming on to her. No, she decided. He was only being sociable, happy to have somebody to talk to.

  She stopped at the entrance to the monitoring center. ADMITTANCE TO AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY, said red-glowing letters on its electronic signboard.

  Biting her lip in indecision, Felicia finally made up her mind to go home, back to her own room. Littlejohn is piping the imagery from Gamma to my quarters, she reminded herself; I can watch Brad at home. Even if he doesn’t want to be with me, I can be with him. Sort of.

  * * *