XV
A second tentacle wrapped about Manz’s waist, and a third coiled tightly around his right arm. The Minder automatically soared to its maximum altitude and hovered there, bobbing wildly as its owner was dragged flailing and kicking up onto the planter. Heavy leaves only partially muffled a string of violent, startled oaths.
Vyra rushed to intervene, but martial arts weren’t much use against something without a face or other immediately accessible vulnerable parts. A thick vine knocked her backwards, stunning her and leaving a red welt across her cheek.
It was left to Moses to react as Hafas raised his pistol. The humaniform lifted his fourth limb and aimed the tip. A line of bright red coherent light crossed the intervening space to impact on the tendril wrapped around Manz’s head. Surprisingly, it didn’t part, but a black scar did appear on the otherwise green surface. As it sloughed away, the mechanical adjusted his aim and targeted the coil around Manz’s waist.
A third burst freed the adjuster’s arm. Tendrils retracted, jerking and convulsing with impassioned green life. At the same time a weird moaning rattled through the air like an echo from distant damp catacombs. It was succeeded by garbled but ultimately intelligible phonetics.
“Yis’shin yeel sif’faph! Stop that … it hurts!”
Even Manz, who suspected more of what was going on than any of his companions, was suitably stunned. Some sort of trainability he’d expected. Actual communication was a possibility hardly to be countenanced.
“I’ll be thrice-befazzed,” Vyra murmured in astonishment. “They talk, too!” She squinted into the vegetation. “How many of you are there? Or do you recognize individuality of being?”
The burned tendrils lay coiled on the soil, twitching spasmodically. “We do not ‘talk.’ The fashioning of obscure movements with primitive eating organs does not constitute proper speech.”
“Telepathy.” Manz’s face was full of wonder. “Or some kind of as-yet-to-be-evaluated equivalent. That explains a lot.”
The inspector’s face was shining. Jackers or not, there in the Juarez el Paso Shuttleport a fortunate few found themselves communicating unexpectedly with the first nonhuman intelligence ever encountered. A realistic Hafas was confident the actual circumstances of this particular encounter would undergo a certain amount of thoughtful revision prior to inclusion in the official histories.
“Evet, it does. Continual communication with nothing to give them away. Nanosecond timing, impenetrable cover … hell, they’re their own cover. End product? The unsolvable crime.”
Vyra was nodding to herself. “And you can bet that whenever whoever’s behind this got tired of jacking Braun-Roche-Keck pharmaceuticals, they’d move on to something else. Meanwhile the landscaping here at the Port would undergo another ‘upgrading.’”
“Sure,” Manz agreed. “Somewhere there’s got to be a jewelry center in need of a face-lift.”
“Or the R&D arm of a major corporation,” the inspector chimed in, “that would like to relandscape its offices.”
“Your implications are unfair,” the peculiarly stilted voice responded. “Despite appearances and what you may think, we are not in favor of antisocial activities.”
“No?” said the adjuster. “You sure seem to have participated in a number of them recently. Unless you have some sort of unique referent for what you’ve been doing that escapes us, you ought to explain yourselves … whatever you are.”
“Not plants, as you seem to believe. We possess characteristics of both plant and animal life. You perhaps have encountered lower orders of similar life-forms on other worlds, or even your own.”
Manz looked to the Minder. “Analyze and respond.”
“Plantlike animals,” the sphere replied without hesitation. “Sea anemones are one example. There are others. They may be either food gatherers, or chlorophyllic, or both. Judging from the appearance of these, I would imagine the latter. Or they may be capable of deriving nourishment from both sources, as well as some we are not yet aware of. An intelligent derivative of lowly lichens, impossible to classify according to current taxonomic procedures. There is as yet insufficient data to pursue this line of inquiry.”
“That’ll do nicely,” Manz informed the device. He looked back into the planter. Which were harmless and which were the aliens? he wondered. It should be a simple matter to isolate them. Just check for the presence of twenty-meter-long roots or vines. “You still haven’t explained your activities.”
A mental sigh filled the minds of each of the awed onlookers. “I don’t suppose it matters now anyway. By the way, though we often work together as one to enhance our lifespans and environment, we do recognize individuality among ourselves. I am designated F’fay’pas, called interlocutor among my brethren. No others will presently communicate, as this is the Design.” A pair of undamaged tendrils rose and formed a tight corkscrew. A greeting, a casual wave, or something else? Manz wondered.
“A number of seasons past, the world of our seeding was discovered by a rather eccentric representative of your species, functioning in concert with a number of your wonderful machines.”
“They’re perceptive, anyway,” Moses observed.
“Be quiet,” Manz admonished the mechanical without looking away from the weaving, slightly hypnotic tendrils.
“This individual was self-designated Koh’ler Phan’tighua.”
“I’d guessed that much,” Manz commented. “Go on.”
“This individual had with him machines that could reproduce certain chemical compounds that are highly desired among my kind. The exact concept is difficult to convey. He was very generous with these compounds, which he explained were available in great quantities on his homeworld. Despite or perhaps because of our different manner of perception, we are not entirely ignorant of what you would call astronomy. In our own way, we are what you would consider highly sophisticated and even advanced. We are simply not very mobile. Hence the gathering of these compounds, much less the accumulation of stores with which to guard against scarcity, is difficult for us.
“The Phan’tighua explained that an agreement might well be reached with other representatives of his kind to supply all that we needed of these compounds. He struck us as earnest and kind, though overfond of biological stimulants. So a number of us agreed to return with him to his homeworld in order to conclude formal agreements of mutual benefit between our species. He made a place for a number of us on his traveling device and there we reposed in reasonable comfort during the period of transposition.
“Upon our arrival we were placed in contact with the Phan’tighua’s … parent … cluster leader? Superior? I am not sure how to formulate the relevant term.”
“Was this individual’s name by any chance Cardinal Monticelli?” Manz inquired quietly.
“Yes! That is the designation. How would it be phrased?”
The inspector was smiling. “‘Monticelli’ will do nicely.”
“Indeed? We discussed a number of agreements with the Mon’iphelli. Only then were we informed that for him to secure the compounds we wished, he in turn required that we obtain certain compounds which were vital to him. This was not as we had discussed with the Phan’tighua, but he was no longer to be sensed, and never returned to us. We regret this. Would you by chance happen to know what has happened to him?”
Manz exchanged a look with Vyra, then turned back to the gently weaving green fronds of the alien. “He sort of got pulled up by the roots.”
“That is to be regretted. May his substance enrich the soil in which he lies. To resume: finding ourselves most confused and isolated on a strange world full of highly mobile creatures, we had little choice but to agree. The method of obtaining the requisite materials for the individual Mon’iphelli was conveyed by him to us. We were given instruction in the use of certain tools and methodology, which we then proceeded to employ according to his instructions.
“We were told in terms most emphatic that if we were to reveal our true natures to others of your kind, we would be misunderstood and destroyed, and our only hope of obtaining the compounds we desired, far less of returning to our own world, lay in our absolute obedience to the individual Mon’iphelli and compliance with his directives.
“Because of your active intervention, we now see how contrary our activities have been to your system of ethics. You must understand that we felt trapped, with no choice but to do as we were told. By your thoughts and actions it is hoped that you intend us no harm. May we hope for the implemention of this condition?”
“Well …” Hafas began uncertainly. Manz eyed him amusedly.
“What’re you going to do, Inspector? Bring up a bunch of alien bushes on charges? You heard the designated F’fay’pas. They’ve been innocent dupes. Besides which, they just handed you Monticelli’s head on a platter.” He looked thoughtful. “Wonder if Cetian testimony will stand up in court?”
