Flinx Transcendent_ A Pip & Flinx Adventure - Alan Dean Foster [64]
“Well,” Flinx began, “it's manifestly the largest life-form that's ever been identified—if it can be called a life-form in the usual sense.”
Lord Eiipul gestured second-degree ignorance. “The universse iss far too vasst to be comprehended by beingss as inssignificant as oursselvess. We can look, we can sspeculate, we can even meassure, but we cannot comprehend. Who can ssay but that there may exisst larger entitiess sstill, perhapss even thosse capable of feeding on such an immenssity as threatenss uss now?”
Struggling to imagine something vast enough to threaten the Great Evil that was racing toward the outskirts of the Milky Way, Flinx found that he agreed unhesitatingly with his host. Nothing “living” could be as large as the Great Evil, yet it patently existed. Why could there not exist something greater still? The attempt to envision anything so immense simply overwhelmed the rudimentary network of neurons that comprised an ordinary mind. Even mathematics was overwhelmed. At such times it helped enormously to have an anchor, a grounding. Something solid and real and true to hold on to.
It was at such times that he invariably thought of Clarity Held.
They settled Flinx in a small storage area, aboveground and safely away from passing eyes both AAnn and electronic. Unlike the large subterranean chamber where he had previously been hidden, this one had lights, a heated sand sleeping basin, access to AAnn entertainment, even a window. Lord Eiipul assured Flinx that the likelihood of him being discovered was virtually nil. In the absence of a direct reference or reason, Krrassin Security would never stoop to quizzing the members of an important family about a possible sighting of an offworlder wanted for something as insignificant as credit forgery.
Time proved that the noble Eiipul knew whereof he spoke. Visitors and members of the extended family came and went without coming anywhere near Flinx's isolated chamber. Safe and secure, he was able at last to rest and relax.
The only interruptions to his daily routine arrived in the form of the still wary Eiipul offspring. When not occupied with daily studies, tasks, or family business, they joined Kiijeem in frequenting the softskin's hideaway, peppering him with questions about everything from daily life in the reviled Commonwealth to the nature of the colorful scaled flying creature that was the human's constant companion. Flinx answered them all readily. Ignorance breeds hatred, while conversely, education slays ignorance. Knowledge, he knew from a lifetime of personal experience, is a more effective weapon than a gun. As Truzenzuzex had once pointed out, it's hard to convince an enemy of the rightness of your cause while you're blowing his head off.
He would have been happy to stay in the storeroom awaiting the return of the reconfigured Teacher. Such a simplistic solution to his situation was not to be, however. Converted to a greater reality by what Flinx had shared with him, Lord Eiipul was convinced the attempt had to be made to sway the entire Imperial Gathering. If it could be done, a reluctant Flinx knew, it would be a milestone not only in the history of the Empire but in AAnn-human relations as well.
And all he had wanted to do was spend a few days on Blasusarr to prove to himself that that could be done. Was he fated, he wondered, to never be allowed to do anything small and simple?
When the day arrived to escort Flinx into the very heart of Krrassin there was no need to hide him. Sealed securely in his simsuit