Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 (79 page)

Diva looked interested. “Arcan can bring us some costumes for swimming from Xiantha, then. I, for one, am not missing the chance for a good soaking in something nice and hot, even if it is only water!”

“And look!” Grace was pointing up towards the source of the water, high above them, almost at the summit of the mountain.

They stared. It was quite away above them, but they could clearly see three large geysers, which soared for quite ten metres in the air, before crashing down into the first of the series of pools, tumbling down the mountainside towards the warm ocean below them.

It was hard to take everything in; there was little chatter as they all made their way towards the assortment of pools. Once there, Six bent and pulled out the three beautifully carved boxes from the carrysack he was holding, laying them carefully on the white edge of one of the pools.

Arcan had clouded over. “All this sun is bad for me,” he explained. “You have to remember that my natural habitat is Valhai, where I live on the dark side.”

“Perhaps if you had eyes and eyelids,” said Six meaningly, “you would find it easier.”

Arcan gave an ominous pulse.

“It
is
bright,” said Ledin hastily, screwing up his eyes against the powerful sun. “What star is that?”

The visitor buzzed. “Nobody knows,” he said. “This system is invisible both from Dessia and from the binary system, so it isn’t on any of the normal star charts.”

“If this is Enara,” said Grace, “then that star will have to be called Enaris.”

“I guess it is time to find out if this is the planet the animas have been searching for.”

Arcan shimmered once, and several canths appeared, with the canth keeper, who had been transported together with the chair he had been sitting on, since he still couldn’t stand. It looked highly incongruous.

The man who spoke to canths looked around, and then nodded. “We can begin the meeting.” He raised his fingers to touch the muzzle of his own canth, which was standing with its head down, close beside him.

The canths began to hum, a disconcerting sound. It grew louder and louder, and then the three boxes in front of them seemed to take the sound, amplify it, and return it to them. Then the onlookers saw that the boxes were beginning to open. A chink of light appeared along the division in each of them, and a brilliant white radiance began to seep out. The humming of the canths came to an abrupt stop, and they waited patiently.

The three boxes were opening.

At first, in the brilliant light of the young red star which was the local sun, they couldn’t see the lost animas. Then, one by one, the descendents of the Ammonites began to rise up out of the boxes, wisps of ethereal life against the dusty brown stones which littered the ground, the azure sky, and the rays of blinding white light. They iridesced, and Grace got the impression that they were looking around, assessing the planet.

Suddenly they were gone, speeding out in all directions.

Grace counted to a hundred, and then they were back, glinting again in front of them all. They hung, poised like that, and then slowly began to weave themselves into diamond shapes. These hovered for a few moments, and then floated over towards the centre, beginning the merge into one multifaceted aura, which instantly started to rearrange itself into a star.

Finally, it was ready, and as the minute lifeforms coalesced into the star, the bipeds at the meeting moved uncomfortably.

“I hope it is not going to take us over again,” hissed Six. “I’d rather go up against the Dessites!”

“Shh! They will hear you!” Grace sounded worried.

“Just saying, is all.” He fell silent again, considering. “Things were easier when you could just put a sword through your opponent. Cleaner, somehow. All this mental stuff is too much.”

“Too much for you, you mean,” crowed the bimorph.

“All very well for you, Visitor. They didn’t rummage around in all
your
memories, did they?”

“They couldn’t.” The visitor sounded inordinately proud of himself. “They were unable to penetrate my brain.”

“Probably couldn’t find it.”

“Shut up, Six!” Diva glared over at him.

“He started it!”

Diva moved away from him meaningfully.

“Really! He did!” Both he and the visitor gave her a resentful look, but Diva ignored them both.

Grace put a hand on his arm. “No. Look!”

A large diamond shape was taking place opposite the star. The canths were allowing their own animas to dissociate from them, and these were taking shape too. But they didn’t become a star, just the rhombus which they had all seen before, during the battle of Pictoria.

The diamond aura of the canths suddenly burgeoned out, enclosing all of the bipeds inside it.

Immediately they were all back in their own auras, a state they were beginning to get used to. Being in the canth’s diamond was not at all intrusive, or overbearing, though. It felt natural, and relaxed. They were all quite happy to let the diamond bring them inside its aura. With all of them inside, there was a strange blend of different individualities, which felt less separate than usual. Sand, pewter, feldspar, emerald green, pearl, cobalt blue and gold all blended together inside the mental shape.

As they became used to the familiar feeling, they looked around. The whirlpool of rainbow colours which was Arcan had joined the diamond, and, beside him, it was easy to detect the temaris tinge which was the visitor, and the sparkling depth of the trimorphs.

Then the new diamond, which had accommodated all of them, faced the star in front and waited.

“This is the planet,” the star of the Kintaran animas told them, speaking, like Arcan, inside their heads. “Thank you. You have found Enara for us.”

Six smiled. “You are welcome, err ... Animas. Will it make a good home for you?”

“Please refer to us as Ammonites from now on. The name anima is unacceptable to us. We wish to be known by the name of our ancestors. Tradition is very important to us. As to this planet, it is adequate. There is plenty of water, although most of that is coming out from under the surface at the moment. The climate will adapt, and become rather less arid with time. There are deep caves should we need shelter, and the flora and fauna will not be affected by our presence. You have done well.”

“You certainly are in our debt. At least; you are in mine
.”
Arcan’s voice was uncharacteristically cold. “Your ancestors forced me to risk my life, to save yours.”

There was a pause as the threads of life seemed to take in the orthogel entity. “We are aware that you saved us, and that you have quantum abilities. But you have evolved from the fusion of part of our race with ortholiquid during an interplanetary collision, when many of our people were destroyed. We are now the only pure survivors of the Ammonites.”

Arcan darkened at their use of the word pure.

The Ammonites went on. “Kintara is gone, destroyed by the black hole. It is time for the beings you think of as the lost animas of Xiantha to take the name of the Ammonites, to come to live with us here on Enara. They are part of our heritage.”

“
Not so. They have evolved, adapted to Xiantha.”

“No. They must join us here on Enara. They must split from these equines.”

The canth diamond shimmered in the strong Enaran sun. “We will not leave our home. Who are you to ask this of us?”

“
We are your ancestors. We demand your loyalty to our culture. It is necessary for us to maintain our purity. We will not allow you to mix with this equine species.”

A ripple of displeasure traveled through the canth diamond. “Why do you speak of purity?”

The stellate shape pulsed in response. “Our ancestors worked for hundreds of thousands of years to enable our race to survive.”

The canth diamond clouded over. “We had to survive on Xiantha. We have changed. We have adapted.”

“
That is not acceptable. We insist.”

“
Or? Are you threatening us?”

“
We do not understand your reticence. You should be delighted to see us. The race must be protected. How can you doubt that? No foreign material must be allowed to pollute our heritage. We are the oldest race in the galaxy.”

A new gold-tinged voice interrupted. “Who do you think you are? You can’t order the canths around, you know!” Six was sending out little ripples of displeasure. “And if you ask me, you aren’t much like the original Ammonites!”

Another voice, this time reminiscent of sand, agreed. “The canths belong to Xiantha.”
The canth keeper sounded quite definite.

The canths’ diamond shape scintillated, almost amused by such fierce protection. “We have made our home on Xiantha. We cannot leave the canths. They would die if we broke the symbiosis.”

The response from the Ammonites was chilling. “What would that matter? They are only classical animals. They are not quantum. Quantum entities must protect themselves from impurity.”

A new voice joined in, booming into all of their minds with thunderous anger. “You are wrong. To isolate yourselves will only lead to stagnation. You must allow your race to adapt, you must join with the other races, and evolve.”
Arcan sounded extremely cross
.

The stellate form of the Ammonites shook slightly. “That will never happen. Our ancestors struggled and sacrificed themselves for us. Here on Enara we will live separately from the rest of the galaxy.”

“
Good luck with that. Let’s hope the Dessites don’t find you.”
The voice was unmistakably Six’s.

“
The Dessites?”
There was a pause as the star aura accessed what it had learned from the memories of the bipeds. Then a shiver of distaste ran through it. “They are no threat to us. We can overcome such beings with little effort.”

“Well, bully for you!”

“Shut up, will you, Six!”

“Why? They seem to feel superior to everything, don’t they?”

“Shh!”

“Oh, very well, but I ...”

“Six!”

“All right. No need to go on about it, is there?”

It was Arcan’s turn to shadow. “If you can overcome the Dessites so easily, your help will be most valuable if they attack us again.”

A ripple of unease flickered through the star diamond. “We cannot help. It is surprising that the canths have lost the ability to—” The star broke off suddenly.
“
No matter. Do not come to us again. We cannot involve ourselves in exterior problems.”

Arcan turned black. “You will take our help, and then not respond when we might need you?”

“Our customs do not permit it.”

The rainbow incandescence of the orthogel entity seemed to singe all of them.

Six ducked mentally inside the aura.
“
Here, Arcan! Take care, will you?”

“
I am sorry, Six. But if these are my ancestors, then I am bitterly disappointed.”

“Yes, well, I can understand that. You expected to find something better than this, I imagine?”

“I thought ... that they would be superior to me, in every way.”

The Ammonite star dipped slightly. “We cannot apologize for our background. No other race has lived as long as we have. The survival of our species is primordial.”

Arcan darkened again. “What about my survival? I am descended from you.”

“
You are an anomaly, an aberration. We are unable to explain how you came into existence, but we have, sadly, come to the conclusion that those Ammonites that were sacrificed in the mutation which created you are irrecoverable.”

The orthogel entity was swelling up. “I am an aberration?”

“We must ensure the continuity of our line. We must keep Enara as a forbidden place, except for Ammonites. We must allow no foreigners to find us. We must maintain all possible contaminants away from our future planet. We are, of course, most grateful for your help ... and that of these ... small creatures and animals you have brought with you.”

Since the star was hovering meaningfully right in front of that part of the aura which was Six when it used the word ‘animal’ he felt justified in assuming a threatening posture.

“Here! Just who are you calling animal, you frozen lightstick? Don’t you know anything about first contact? You are supposed to be discreet and polite.” He ignored a choke of laughter from his left, and gave a disgusted shake of his part of the aura. “And I haven’t heard any thanks for having toted huge machines out of a burning planet to save your skins.”