Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 (54 page)

The Ammonite crinkled at them again, and they were shown just how long it had taken. They saw generation after generation of scientists take up the calculations, and thousands of Ammonites volunteer as guinea pigs for the experimentation. Many of them had died, but all seemed full of pride to have formed part of the process. It had taken thousands and thousands of years of scientific experiment, they were shown, before the process had become refined.

Now the Ammonite’s long hands waved again, and the small white flame was shown against a different background. There were two pools of ortholiquid, one close by, and one hovering at the edge of the room. The Ammonite pointed at this one, and made signs of great distance with its thin fingers.

That ortholiquid is a long way away, on a far-distant planet
. The thought was cobalt. The Ammonite’s eyes crinkled again in approbation. It indicated many thousands of years of more calculation, of more trials, of failure and despair. Then it stretched out all three fingers of both hands, and smiled. The hands moved again, and the small flame disappeared into the first ortholiquid. The Ammonite conjured up two machines, which it placed at right angles to each other, both focused on the ortholiquid. It set the machines in motion, and a shaft of laser light shone out of them both, to meet inside the ortholiquid.

As they did, there was a flash of light, and a deep pulse traveled from the nearest ortholiquid to the one furthest away.

The Ammonite turned to them, apparently waiting to see if they had followed the process.

They found out how to choose where to go within the ortholiquid system? They found out how to make the ortholiquid stay where they wanted?
The voice was shaded as Diva’s, but sounded uncertain. The Ammonite half assented with its large head, but waited. Bennel’s burnished pewter was the next to hazard a thought.
The animas traveled from one ortholiquid to the other.
Again, the Ammonite nodded, but still seemed to be waiting.

The combined aura struggled to understand. The ancient being in front of them walked towards the hologram, and motioned to the second ortholiquid. Its fingers indicated something going in, but nothing coming out.

Six was the first to realize what it was saying.
You found a way to freeze them inside the ortholiquid!
His disbelief shivered through the whole aura.

The folds around the venerable alien stood out so much from the rest of his face that its iris disappeared altogether. It was delighted, and its pleasure emanated clearly from its wrinkled body.

You stopped light!
The part of the aura that was Six repeated. The Ammonite gave an approving bow.

The aura shimmered as its components struggled to take this in.
They stopped light?
Diva’s cobalt was scintillating with surprise.
How is that possible? How could you stop light?

Bennel’s solidity was showing amazement, and Tallen had stopped too, finding it difficult to grasp the possibility.

These are the animas, then. They sent them away, to a safe planet.
The voice was Six’s again, and the reaction of the alien told them all that he was right.
They wanted to keep them safe, to protect their species when Kintara was swallowed by the black hole. They froze them inside the ortholiquid to keep them from harm.

The Ammonite gestured to the laser machines, and then the distant planet. It placed the two machines in the nearest ortholiquid and they were transported across to the faraway pool. The alien mimed the setting up of the two machines, and then their being switched on. It waved its long fingers in the air, fluttering the digits to indicate that the animas had been freed. Then it looked across at them again.

Six was catching on fast now.
You were going to take the machines over to the planet. You were going to use the lasers to free the animas from the ortholiquid.

The Ammonite crinkled the folds of its eyes into small walls again, and then its shoulders hunched in disappointment. It turned back to the first ortholiquid. With a wave of its hands, the first pool disappeared. It stood looking at the distant pool, and then spread its arms wide in the universal gesture of impotence.

This time it was Tallen who realized the significance first.
The orthogel evaporated
, suggested his thought, tinged with feldspar.
You couldn’t go back. You couldn’t reach them.

Then they all realized at the same time exactly what had happened.
They are still in there, trapped!

The Ammonite sat back slowly in a strangely carved chair, and lowered its head onto its chest. It seemed to have run out of energy.

Six began to jump up and down on the spot, which translated into a soft rolling movement of his alter ego inside the diamond star dream.
They are still frozen in place
, he shouted.
You need somebody to shine a couple of lasers on the ortholiquid pool to free those of you who escaped! That is why you need us!

Inside the aura, Diva shimmered.
Don’t jump up and down like that, Six, you are making us feel sick.

Sorry.

Six?

What?

Do you think we are animas, now?

I ... err ... I suppose we are. Sacras!
Then he gave another small jump, which made the cobalt part of the equation give a mental glare.
But how are we supposed to find these lost animas? If we ever get off this planet and away from the black hole, that is?

The Ammonite stood up again, and waved its hands. The previous hologram disappeared, to be replaced with five other star systems. In each case, the star was a stable red dwarf, and the planets were in close orbit. As they watched, they saw the Ammonites send stopped light to the ortholiquid pools on all five planets.

You sent five separate batches?

The alien nodded.

You thought five would be enough. You wanted enough margin of safety.
Diva’s sharp voice flamed inside each consciousness.

It waved its hands and another hologram sprang into place. It showed a beautiful sandy planet, with warm geysers springing out of the ground, and instellite sparkling under a small reddish sun.

Like Almagest,
thought Six.

The Ammonite pointed to the lovely planet, and smiled, its eyes crinkling again in happiness. A name came into their heads at the same time.

Enara. The perfect planet. We needed a planet like this to live, as animas. We thought that perhaps one of the five chosen would be suitable, not as they were then, of course, but in the distant future. We chose them very carefully.

But, as they watched, the hologram of the perfect planet shimmered and dissolved, and they found they were watching one of the other star systems again. Their collective aura watched with growing dismay as a new star entered the system, careened through the whole area, and caused the stable star, together with its planets, to spiral out of the system, sending them spinning out of control over the light years.

You lost one of the planets? There was a rogue star?
Six’s pattern of sunbeams seemed to shiver.
After you went to all that trouble to save yourselves from the black hole, and leave them on planets that would evolve to be perfect, you lost one of the planets? Sacras! That
is
bad karma.

The eyes looked infinitely sad, as the Ammonite nodded.

Then how are we supposed to find that planet? You know, mate, I think you might be expecting a bit much.

The hologram began to zoom out. As it did, they were able to see exactly what part of the galaxy they were looking at.

That is the Bat constellation!
Diva’s cobalt sounded quite sure.

Yes, but look, one of the planets is heading in the direction of the binary system ... See? It seems to be on a direct course for ... Oh!

There was no need for him to say anything else, because they had suddenly realized that they knew where one of the planets had ended up.

Of course! Valhai! It all fits in. That ... that means that Arcan must have ... that somehow, maybe part of the lost animas are part of Arcan!

Yes, but what about the other planets? Look! That seems to be the Decipus system, but I can’t quite make out where, can you? The other three star systems are completely unknown to me. Golly, we are going to need a detailed map if we are to stand a chance of finding it. We know virtually nothing about so much of the galaxy.

The Ammonite, who had been waiting patiently, regarded them.

Sorry. We understand. And we will try to help you.

The alien nodded. It seemed to take that for granted.

There was just one thing that Six realized he had to ask.
What are we supposed to do with the animas when we do unfreeze them? Can they live on any planet?

The answer, when it came, was quite definite. The shape of the Ammonite was slowly disappearing, as was the scene in front of them all. But the answer was clear.

Enara,
it said with complete conviction, even as it disappeared.
You must take them to Enara. You must find the perfect planet.

Yes, but look here, you can’t just expect ...
Six fell silent. He had the feeling that nobody was listening to him, now that the ancient Ammonite had disappeared.

The picture was fading as he spoke, and they were transported slowly back out from the house, back into the thick trees with its myriad of animals and plants. They watched, horrified, as the landscape around them began to deteriorate, as each species disappeared, one by one, and as the luxuriant greenery faded into a yellow, then brown, and then fell into the drying earth and rotted into the soil.

They watched as, over thousands of years, the fertile planet was stripped of all its life by the ever-closer black hole, which seemed to be biding its time, waiting for the moment when it would finally be able to swallow up the defenceless little planet.

They saw that the Ammonites had tried to separate out the strands of light from some of the animals too, had tried to save whatever they could of their homeland, but had failed. They had worked tirelessly to preserve their heritage, but had only managed to save themselves. The other threads of life disintegrated only moments after their creation. Yet there was no sensation of pity within the Ammonites, who seemed fixated on their own preservation, more than that of the rest of the Kintaran fauna. They could sense a strong conviction that the Ammonites considered themselves to be the most important race in the universe.

They had the impression of a civilization almost as old as time itself, one that had wandered the galaxy through the ortholiquid lakes, had traveled to every corner of the quintiles, learning and studying and trying to grow better at every stage. They had never found a planet like Pictoria though, which could sustain the life of their newly-created animas; perhaps at that early stage of the galaxy there hadn’t been any, other than Kintara.

At last they sensed that the diamond shape was ready, that it had shown them as much as they were entitled to see.

Wait!
Six tried to hold up his hand in the mists of the diamond star.
We need to see the star map again – the one showing the ortholiquid emplacements and where the other planets are. We think we know where one of them may be, but if we are to find the others, we will need your maps.

The star map appeared in front of them in the mist, and they grabbed hold of it, studying it intently, trying to make out all of the indecipherable cuneiform markings, trying to see which were the five sites of the stopped light.