Gateways 07_ What Lay Beyond - Diane Carey [16]
Kirk had to put his hands to his ringing ears. Something about the well amplified their voices, but it was pure sound with no articulated words.
Gradually, there seemed to be streams of consensus within the tones, as threads of their comments rose to near-audibility. Kirk relaxed to hear what they said, much the same way he did inside the cells. He realized this was the source of the information feed in action.
Luz is defective. Luz must be put away immediately.
Luz’s mouth opened wide. “But I’m the one who brought you the gateway! Ask him! He wouldn’t have let Tasm take it. She would have lost it!”
Like an implacable river, the thoughts droned on: Luz is defective. Luz must be put away immediately.
Rather than be condemned without a hearing, like Luz, Kirk lifted his hands to appeal to them. “Matriarchs, it was an accident that brought me to your world. I’m no invader! Surely we can come to an understanding”
He could hear their rising agreement even as he spoke, buzzing through the bones of his ears. The invader must be put away. The invader must be put away immediately.
Tasm finally looked satisfied. “I knew it. I’ll make sure it’s done properly this time.”
Kirk started to protest, but a new sentiment began rising from the matriarchs. It was filled with something like warmth of feeling.
Tasm is exemplary. Tasm will soon join us.
Kirk was nonplussed by the idea of what must happen for Tasm to be transformed and joined to the wall of the birthing chamber. She would be stuck somewhere up there among the hundreds….
Tasm took another step closer to the sack that hung in the center of the birthing chamber, raising her empty hand toward it. Her body trembled in eagerness. “The royal gel is almost ready.”
That’s when he understood. The polymer substructure of the Petraw complex was the living body of the matriarchs. It was one vast organism that was growing in the tunnel-riddled cliffs. This well was their brain center. The matriarchs supported their children in their own body, using their own life systems to distribute nourishment and remove the waste.
Kirk refused to let his own cultural bias affect his judgment this time. What concerned him most was the monolithic nature of these Petraw. He would never be able to admire a society that forced all individuality out of its people.
One thing was clear, there was no reasoning with these Petraw. Kirk made his decision and acted instantly.
He knocked against Tasm, grabbing for his phaser. She was so absorbed in gazing at the sac that he twisted it from her hand. The defenders leaped at him, but he bounded up the slight rise and jumped onto the hanging sac.
It swung widely. Cries rose around him, with Tasm’s outraged wail the loudest. The defenders hesitated, pulling back as the sac swung toward them, as if it was taboo for them to touch the royal gel. Kirk scrabbled higher up the side, feeling the tension in the full sac like it was going to burst.
He got to the top. “Nobody turns my own phaser against me, Tasm.”
“You can’t touch the gel!” she screamed.
“Oh, no?” Kirk stamped on the bag, hanging on to the slender tube as it swayed sharply.
Tasm shrieked as the defenders gathered around the base of the sac, cutting off any avenue of escape. The waving arms of the matriarchs and the buzzing of their thoughts warned him that more defenders were being dispatched from the blocks of cells. They would be here shortly. Luz backed toward the door, seeing a chance to escape.
Kirk aimed his phaser down at the sac and fired as he jumped. It was set to kill.
A geyser burst straight up in a spray of yellow blobs of goo. Kirk was propelled higher into the air as the sac exploded in a boiling gush of sticky liquid. Tasm and the defenders were covered.
His feet slipped in the ankle-deep stuff, as he landed. But he was instantly up and heading for the door, phaser firmly in hand.
Matriarchs were protesting in shrill voices, echoing through the well. Tasm was also crying