Flinx Transcendent_ A Pip & Flinx Adventure - Alan Dean Foster [160]
He had tried. The weapons platform had tried. It was over, it was done. There was nothing left to do.
No, he told himself, that wasn't quite true. There were two things left to do.
“Take my friends and me back,” he projected. “Back to the system of Booster, back to my own ship. And one other thing.”
DECLARE.
“Let me wake up—please.”
So inured by now to the constant flaring lights and continuous underlying roar in the chamber were Clarity and the others that it was more of a shock when both abruptly ceased than it had been when they had initially exploded to life. The sudden, unexpected silence echoed almost painfully. Eyes that had become accustomed to the ubiquitous bursts of multihued lightning strove to readjust to far more muted illumination. Despite the transformation in their surroundings, her first thought was for the young man who had been lying so long on the alien platform.
Her concern was rewarded when he slowly sat up, wincing. Rocketing off her shoulder, Scrap shot across to the dais and was soon snuggling and sharing his body warmth with Pip. For the moment, the two minidrags totally ignored their respective humans.
Clarity shared more than body warmth as she all but threw herself against Flinx, hugging him and covering his face with kisses.
“I was starting to worry that you might not be coming back.” Her eyes glistened with moisture as she looked up at him. “I knew you weren't dead because you kept twitching and moving. But you didn't respond to words, and Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex warned me not to go under the domes while they were active.”
Rubbing at the back of his head, Flinx found it an effort just to sit up. She eyed him fretfully.
“One of your headaches?”
“No, not this time. I'm just tired.” Turning to his right he extended an arm. Disengaging from her reunion with her offspring, Pip used the limb like a pole as she slithered slowly back up to her familiar resting place on his shoulder. “And famished,” he added. “I feel like I haven't eaten for a week.”
Whirling, Clarity yelled back toward the anxiously watching other members of the little group. “He's okay! He's hungry!”
Leaning over, Tse-Mallory murmured to the two thranx standing beside him. “That's a human for you. No matter how farsighted and intellectually accomplished, we never forget the physical aspects of our being.”
“Our supplies grow dangerously low.” Truzenzuzex eyed the dais where Clarity was helping Flinx to stand. “Let us hope that despite the travails of his trial our young friend leaves something for the rest of us.”
In the restored silence the philosoph's words carried to the platform. “No need to worry about that, sir.” Though he was giving a reassuring response, Flinx did not smile. “We're already on our way back to the Booster system. We'll be back aboard the Teacher in a few days.”
It was not surprising that those on board had failed to notice the latest change in the weapons platform's position. Within the planet-sized sphere there was no sense of acceleration or movement.
Even with the fate of civilization at stake, the two scientists had patience enough to wait until their former charge had wolfed down two complete emergency meals before they began pressing him for particulars. Wanting a full and accurate report from the recently deployed instrument, they knew from experience that it was better to wait until the device in question was ready to operate on a full charge.
He was downing the last drops of a half liter of liquid supplement when Sylzenzuzex could stand the delay no longer.
“Srall!tt, Flinx—what happened? Talk to us! Where did we go? What is the result?”
Lowering the partially imploded, pressurized