James H. Schmitz Telzey & Trigger

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After a moment, they stopped, and Trigger realized the darkness was lifting. A
dim, sourceless glow had come into the air. It strengthened slowly into a
sullen light; she began to make out something of her surroundings. It looked
like a stretch of steep-walled gully filled with sand, a dry watercourse. No
way to tell yet what part was real, what part was illusion.
Then she saw something else. A shape stood on the other side of the gully,
farther along it, back against the overhanging rock wall.
It didn t move. Neither did Trigger, watching it, between moments of scanning
the sand about her. A simulated dry watercourse might have contained some real
rocks, and she would have felt better with a rock in either hand at the
moment. She saw nothing but sand.
She didn t think that shape was Wrann.
The glow strengthened again. The shape remained motionless and indistinct; but
an abrupt jolt of fright had gone through her, for now she recognized the
squat demon figure Perr Hasta s image maker had showed her after she came
awake. The thought that Perr was at play again flicked up, but she discarded
it at once. The image maker had been used to introduce her to the satellite.
It wouldn t be involved here.
With that, she saw the anthropoid creature move away from the gully wall,
start slowly toward her. There was a point some twenty feet to her left where
the rock bank wasn t too steep. She should be able to scramble up there, but
she didn t want to try it yet. She didn t know what was above; a blur of light
shrouded the upper levels of the gully.
She looked back. The water-course seemed to twist out of sight beyond its bank
fifty feet away. She thought she was likely to meet a force field before she
got nearly that far.
She could see the approaching anthropoid more clearly now than she liked. The
dwarfishly broad body looked tremendously strong. He made crooning sounds
which at moments seemed almost to become slurred words. The yellow eyes
stared. Trigger felt a surge of revulsion, began to back away. He continued
his unhurried advance as if he knew she wasn t retreating far and once those
great hands closed on her, all her skills weren t likely to be of much further
use . . .
There was the glow of a force field behind her.
Trigger edged toward the left along the glow. The stalking creature angled in
slowly to corner her between screen and bank. She shifted to the right and, as
he swerved, back to the left. He came at her suddenly then, thick arms
reaching, and she ducked, scooping up two handfuls of sand, slashed sand full
into the yellow eyes, and was past him.
She heard snarling as she made a dash for that not-quite-vertical section of
the gully s bank, scrambled a dozen feet up it, and stopped. A screen had
acquired glowing visibility overhead. She looked back. The anthropoid had
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followed, digging at his face with his hands. She dropped down, slipped under
his swift lunge. Fingers clawed along her back and almost ripped the sweater
from her, but then she was away and coming up with her hands full of sand
again. As he swung around after her, she let him have the second dose. He
uttered a gurgling howl.
Full daylight flooded the gully. Torai Sebaloun s amplified voice announced
from above, I am seriously annoyed with you, Attuk!
Trigger, moving back, glanced up. The haze effect was gone. A view-screen had
taken its place; and the enlarged faces of Torai and Perr Hasta were looking
down through it.
Torai appeared very angry, while Perr obviously was enjoying herself. The
anthropoid peered up at them, blinking painfully, before he turned and
lumbered away. Abruptly, his shape blurred, seemed about to flow apart, then
reassembled itself. What it reassembled into was the quite human appearance of
Attuk, elegantly clothed. He stalked over to the wall of the gully, vanished
into it. The screen had gone blank.
Trigger pulled down her sweater, brushed sand from her palms and turned as
Torai and Perr Hasta came walking up the gully behind her.
So now you know Attuk s a shape-changer! Perr said smilingly to her. What
you saw here is what we think is his own shape. It s the one he almost always
uses when he gets someone into his place in the playground. A crude creature,
isn t he? He would have been rather careful with you, of course.
Careful or not, said Torai, if he d damaged the body in the least, I should
have killed him! As it is, I ll have to think up a suitable punishment for
Attuk. But that can wait. She added curtly to Trigger, I m ready to
transfer.
You ll come along now.
Trigger went along, having no choice in the matter. Torai s ring beams held
her hemmed in as she walked ahead of the two, and the beams controlled the
pace at which she could and must walk. Once she tried to slow her steps, and
they simply lifted her and carried her on a few yards before she was set down
to start walking again.
Attuk did Wrann very well, Perr Hasta was saying chattily from a little
behind her. The voice and manner of speaking, too! Of course, Attuk always is
very good with voices.
Torai said, I m also somewhat annoyed with you, Perr! You shouldn t have let
it go that far. Their bodies can die of fright, as you know. What good would
this one have been to me then?
Oh, I called you in time! said Perr. Trigger s charts show she isn t the
kind to die of fright. She laughed.
Wasn t it beautiful, the way she sanded up his eyes?
The insane conversation went on until they were back in the residence. There
Torai s beams steered Trigger into a narrow room and to an armchair set up at
its far end, turned her around and placed her in the chair. Torai took the
computer control rod hanging from her belt in one hand and brought her
thumbnail down on a point near its lower end. The beam effect released
Trigger.
Stretch your hand out toward me, Torai said.
Trigger hesitated, reached out, saw a screen glow appear in the air a few feet
ahead of her. She drew back her hand. The glow vanished. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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