Hal Clement - Cycle of Fire

Dar was a trifle confused by this argument; he did not entirely understand what the boy was trying to do and understood even less the mental operations of the distant Teacher. He did not know whether or not to be surprised when this argument seemed to convince the creature, but he could tell that Kruger was satisfied with the result.

The robot, small though it was, was too big to go through the trap at the place where Dar and Kruger had talked to the Teacher. At the latter’s direction, the flier was landed near the crater in which the two travelers had been trapped for so long and the machine carried to the building in which they had found the generators. The men returned to the flier, where they all gathered around the television screen tuned to the robot’s transmitter.

“What next?” one of the men asked the Teacher.

“Send your machine down the ramp.” The operator complied; the little box rolled on its caterpillar treads down the slippery surface. The light grew dimmer as the bottom of the ramp was approached, and a bulb on the top of the robot was lighted to permit them to see.

“Along the corridor. Make no turns; there are other passages.” The machine advanced. The corridor was long and apparently led deep into the mountain; it was some time before the way was blocked by a fairly solid door.

“Wait.” They obeyed, and after a short time the door opened.

“Come quickly.” The robot rolled on through and the door swung shut behind it. “Keep on; there are no more branches. I will come to meet your machine, but will travel slowly, as I have to bring my radio with me. I am still near the village.”

“You need not go to the trouble of traveling unless you would rather the robot did not see that part of your station,” replied one of the biologists. “The machine can make the trip without anyone’s being bothered.”

“Very well. I will wait here, and my companions can talk to you as well.”

There must have been a single long tunnel connecting the passages under the generator building with the area under the village by the geysers. It took a long time to traverse, but eventually the robot reached a point where the corridor suddenly expanded into a large chamber about eight feet high, from which a number of other openings branched. The spokesman, who had learned enough of the Abyormenite language to be independent of Kruger or Dar most of the time, informed the Teacher of the robot’s location and requested further directions.

“You are very close; it will be easier to show you the way. Wait there, and I will be with you in a moment.” The men around the television screen watched intently.

In a few seconds a flicker of motion appeared in one of the openings and every eye fixed instantly on its screened image. Their attention did not waver as the newcomer walked toward the robot.

No one was particularly surprised. All except Dar had had more or less experience on Earth’s exploring vessels, and had seen a wide variety of creatures turn out to be both intelligent and cultured.

This one was like nothing the Abyormenite had ever seen in his life. A melon-shaped body was supported on six limbs, so thick at the bases that they merged into each other but tapering nearly to points where they reached the floor. The human observers thought of an unusually fat-bodied starfish walking on the ends of its arms rather than spread out flat. In the light from the robot the upper third of the body appeared deep red to human eyes, with a stripe of the same color extending down to the end of each appendage; the rest was black. There were no visible eyes, ears, or similar items of equipment on the body, except for a spot at the very top which might have been anything from a closed mouth to a color peculiarity. Dar had no way of judging the size of the creature rom its televised image; the operator of the robot, judging its distance with the usual focusing lights, found that it was about Dar’s height and estimated that it must weigh eighty or ninety pounds.

“I take it you see me.” Dar got a distinct impression that the creature’s tone was reflecting irony. There was no room for any doubt concerning this thing’s identity, for the voice now coming from the robot’s pick-up was the same that they had been hearing all along. “If you will have your machine follow me we will be able to relax while you find out what you wish to know.” Without turning, the creature retraced its steps, and the robot followed. A short corridor led into a room about five feet high, very similar to one of those which Dar and Kruger had examined in the city. Dar watched eagerly, expecting to learn the uses of the various puzzling installations.

Some of them became obvious immediately. Three of the dome-shaped objects were occupied by creatures similar to their guide, their bodies centered on top and the six limbs draped down the side grooves. The guide himself went on to the end of the room and settled himself in one of the “wash-bowls,” his limbs spread radially in all directions. It was not possible to tell from appearances that the creatures were examining the robot but there seemed little doubt that they were.

The guide, from his “couch,” resumed the conversation.

“Here we are. Could you perhaps give us a more concrete idea of what you expect to learn by seeing us, and why that knowledge will make you more sympathetic with our ideas?”

“We hope to learn how you live, what you eat, what your abilities and limitations both physical and mental may be, and as much as possible about your connection with the ‘cold’ people who are your children and ancestors. With that knowledge, we may understand better why you object to the spread of technical knowledge on this world. At the moment I must confess that your attitude reminds us of certain historical groups on our own world, and every time in the past that such a group has managed to curtail or control the spread of knowledge the result has been extremely unfortunate. If the people of Abyormen are so different from us that this result should not be expected we’d like to know it.”

“How have the people who have seen you at your work reacted to all this new information?”

“They are almost without exception interested. One at least has learned a good deal, and convinced us that your people are at least as intelligent as ours.”

“I suppose you mean Dar Lang Ahn. No doubt he is planning to expand the refuges of his Teachers or construct a flying machine like yours?”

“He has made no mention of it, but you may ask him. He is here with us.”

Dar was startled at this turn of the conversation, but spoke without hesitation.

“Of course I had not thought of such a thing. I have not learned enough for either task in any case.”

“There is something else I trust you have not learned from these creatures, which your friend Kruger has taught me. However, what you have learned yourself will soon be of little importance.”

“Of course.” Dar became silent and the conversation’s subject changed.

“I suppose you control this machine by some modification of radio,” one of the beings on the dome-shaped “chairs” remarked. The biologist admitted that this was so. “What sort of waves do you use, that are effective through so much rock? The set with which we have been talking to you has a broadcasting antenna on the surface.”

“I cannot give that information in detail myself,” replied the biologist, “as it is not: my field of knowledge. The robot has an antenna, but it is not very noticeable; if you examine its body closely you will find a coil of wire wound many times about the upper part, just below the turret that carries the eye.” The questioner arose from his seat and walked toward the machine on all six limbs; Dar noticed that it betrayed none of the clumsiness or difficulty with motion so often showed, especially in the last few years, by his own Teachers. Arrived at the robot, the being stood on four of the legs and used the other two to grope over its surface. A bundle of small tendrils, which evidently served the purpose of fingers, became visible at the tip of each limb during this process.