Hal Clement - The Nitrogen Fix

The Observer wondered how the human beings would react to this, and rolled an eye or two in their direction. Surprisingly, only two people were now visible. Both were in the doorway, and both had their back turned to the Observers. The latter could not even guess at the reason for this behavior; the memory that Kahvi and Earrin preferred to be alone when they communicated bore no obvious relevance.

For several more minutes the smaller being extracted glass, twice pausing for another brief embrace to firm the memory of where the splinters were located. Some of them had gone too deep to be seen or grasped, and had to be squeezed out with the aid of the more powerful handling tentacles.Eventually Bones was able to stand with reasonable comfort, though healing would take time. What should be done next was too obvious to be a matter for communication, though details were foggy. There was much to be learned about the underground city, since neither unit had seen much of it. This would require getting out of their present location and away from human control.

The smaller unit, behind bars, would have the greater trouble with this. The concept of doors and locks for other than environmental purposes as in a spaceship, was foreign to the Observer mind, but they did remember how the prisoner had gotten into the cage originally. They were completely defeated by the padlock; the finer handling tendrils could get into the keyhole and determine the interior structure fairly well, but were not nearly strong enough to move any useful components. The smaller unit had of course found this out long before. There was a mystery here.

Since the keyhole was obviously far too small for any human appendage, and no tool was present to do the job, the whole device must be intended to be opened only by some selected individuals. The concept of individual intelligence was growing, but the idea that some might act in direct conflict to the interest of others — even the idea that individuals could have conflicting interests — had not yet taken root in the Observer mind. Bones thought seriously of going to the door, getting the attention of a human being, and seeking help with the lock.

The idea was dismissed after a moment; clearly the people did not want the Observers free to travel.

However, there seemed nothing more to be learned here; there was nothing of interest in the room except pad, bars, and lock, and both units already knew all about these that their unaided senses could learn.

Bones therefore walked to the door and pulled gently on the shoulder of one of the human beings.

The latter turned at once, and almost as quickly began to speak. The units could not get enough of the words to make connected sense of them.

“They’ve finished!” was the cry that caused the other people to turn their attention back to the room.

“The big one’s trying to get out!”

“Don’t let it!” another voice called emphatically. “Three of you keep the door blocked. Get anyone outside to help. The rest, inside. Drive it into the cage — who has the key?”

“I do.”

“All right, you get the lock off and be ready to open the cage door when we get it near.” One of the human figures slipped past Bones. Three more — the group had increased in numbers — spread out to each side of the now blocked doorway and then converged toward the nearer captive. Bones could understand well enough that the idea was to get the second unit into the cage, and that this would require the opening of the door.

Two sets of bulging eyes kept the human beings covered. The owners were not in real communication, but none was necessary; their minds had blended so recently that each knew what the other would think and how the other would act — though of course neither thought of the other as an other.

Bones retreated to within two meters of the cage door, and saw it open under the handling of one of the people. As it did so, both Observers acted at once. The smaller one hurtled through the opening, colliding with the woman who had unlocked it and sending her to the floor. Bones’ handling tentacles simultaneously grasped two of those approaching and jerked them violently forward. One stumbled as intended and staggered through the door into the cage; the other kept his feet but came between Bones and the other humans. The two Observers raced around the off-balanced group and drove into the ones blocking the doorway. Their momentum was ample to break up the plug.

There were no other people in the work room outside, and the escaping pair raced across it to the only door. Beyond this was the corridor through which they had been brought. Naturally, they separated; there was nothing to be gained by both seeing the same things. The smaller unit headed to the right, the direction which led back to the air lock.

There were people in the tunnel that Bones followed, but not very many. Most of them went to some pains to avoid contact with the Observer.

Presumably there would sooner or later be some organized effort to recapture the escaping pair, but there was no way of guessing how long this might take. For one thing, it would have to depend oncommunication, and this would have to be a slow process with the sound code — though the Observer still had doubts that this was really the only method available to the human species.

Bones had no thought of hiding to avoid capture; this would have defeated the prime objective of learning as much as possible about the city and its inhabitants. This in fact called for communicating with the latter if at all possible, but apparently it wasn’t. None of the beings seemed even to realize that the waving appendages indicated a desire, much less an attempt, to talk to them. They either fled rapidly or backed cautiously away, usually producing loud sounds at the same time.

That left little to learn except the pattern of the tunnels and the nature of any artifacts which might be found. The former had already given trouble, since they were not very straight; within minutes the Observer had to give up hope of finding, except by chance, either the lock through which the capture party had come or even the scene of the recent partial escape. Horizontal directions were bad enough, and it was obvious that the city extended vertically as well.

At first it seemed wise not to leave the level of the lock until its details had been learned; there might be a need to leave the city. However, it was hard to see how such a need could arise, or could possibly carry as much weight as the need to learn, and presently Bones was as thoroughly lost in the third dimension as in the first two. It was not even possible to keep track of levels; the floors of Blue Hill were anything but horizontal. Boston, long before, had bragged that its street pattern represented the paving of the early settlers’ cow paths. The settlers’ descendants, who had excavated Blue Hill when it became evident that the change in Earth’s atmosphere could not be stopped, had similarly been guided by convenience in attacking the local geology. About the only rule had been to refrain from penetrating an existing room or tunnel without prior arrangement. There were corridors, living rooms, storage rooms, workshops, and large and small spaces whose purposes were beyond the Observer’s ability to guess in spite of years with the Fyn family.

The incredible part was that all were deserted. There had been no human beings in sight since the first half hour or so after the escape. This would have been incomprehensible even if Bones had known about the more than seventy percent population drop since the city had been founded; surely the people would have been scouring the tunnels for the escaped aliens. By rights, they should have been back in custody within an hour of their escape; neither knew anything of the city, even the way out. Neither had anything which would serve as a weapon, and neither would have thought of using such a thing anyway. A population with any sort of organization and any agreement about what should be done would have had no trouble either in finding or securing their lost prisoners.