Flinx Transcendent_ A Pip & Flinx Adventure - Alan Dean Foster [54]
“As to why I came here—well, I did so because it's something that hasn't been done by any of my kind. Not like this, alone and uninvited. I wanted to see what typical AAnn life and society was like for myself, without an official escort. Now that I've done that, I believe more than ever that your kind are as much worth saving as my own.”
“How magnanimouss of you.” Lord Eiipul added an appropriate gesture of second-degree sarcasm. “How noble. No doubt we sshould be eternally grateful for your generouss approval.”
“I speak solely as a friend and mean no disrespect.” Flinx took a deep breath and tried to gaze as deeply into the noble AAnn's eyes as possible. “As to the danger of which I speak, I can if necessary offer incontrovertible proof of its existence.”
“Can you truly?” was Lord Eiipul's diffident reply. “You have chartss sshowing the location of thiss ‘threat’? Sstatissticss attessting to itss sstrength? Imagess, meassurementss, relevant equationss?”
“No,” Flinx admitted. “At least, not enough to convince you, or the scientists you would call upon to analyze such records. Such things are extremely limited in content anyway.”
“Then,” his host quietly demanded to know, “how do you expect mysself, or my more credulouss offsspring, or any other half-mature repressentative of my kind to believe a ssingle iota of what you are babbling?”
Flinx did not hesitate. “I think I can show you for yourself.”
For the first time since Flinx had revealed himself as a stealth softskin, Lord Eiipul's emotions suggested a hint of uncertainty.
“Sshow it to me? How do you proposse to accomplissh ssuch? With what kind of insstrumentss?”
“No instruments.” Flinx spoke softly, matter-of-factly. He had already laid claim to the extraordinary. It was but a small leap to lay claim to the impossible. “I have the ability to ‘go’ to the place from where the threat arises. It still lies behind a region of space impenetrable to nearly all instrumentation. Over the years I have projected myself there or found myself projected there by—others. On occasion others have in this fashion shared the experience of contact with me. I have—a certain Talent.” He looked past the quietly incredulous nye to the three staring youths.
“Kiijeem AVMd asked me to share this experience with him. I turned him down. Just as I turned down your own disbelieving offspring. The threat, the danger, the cosmic specter that I have come to call the Great Evil, is not something for an immature mind to touch upon.” He returned his attention to his host. “There is risk involved. Each time I do this I never know if I myself will survive the experience.”
For the second time that evening, Lord Eiipul IX set his drink aside. “You are a bold and beguiling member of your unfortunately benighted sspeciess, which hass the regrettable quality of having amalgamated with the detessted thranx. You will prove a fit and interessting ssubject for official interrogation and probable dissection, under which circumsstancess I am ssure you will acquit yoursself admirably.” His right hand moved toward the instrumentation embedded in his left wrist.
Flinx's right hand shot forward to grasp his host's left wrist and simultaneously block the mechanism that would summon aid. Each of the twins let out a warning hiss and dropped into a fighting crouch while a seriously flustered Kiijeem debated how he, as a guest, ought to proceed. Almost as soon as Flinx's fingers closed around the nye's forearm, Lord Eiipul twisted and spun. Flinx's grasp was cast off as the nye's tail swung around like a whip. It cracked through the air where the human's face had been an instant before.
Seconds later they