Howard Waldrop: Scientifiction

“Well, well,” said Doer Tola. “I never thought I would see one. It has to be a Sparky, there’s nothing else it could be.”

There was a hum all around them. The Leader and Doer Sima came up, watched a short while. The Leader was very nervous, putting out as much indecision as the Sparky put out light.

Sima and Tola rubbed antennules and talked excitedly with each other.

“Well,” said the Leader (there was just so long she could watch before she went back to being Leader), “what are we to do?”

“Oooh!” said the crowd. A big long spark curved up out over the Settlement and went into the sea. More showered into the low hills around them.

“Doer Sima will take a party out to see how big it is, and what it’s doing,” said Tola. “They’ll have to go get Fuel-miner’s suits, if it really is a Sparky.”

“What else could it be?” asked the Leader. “We all know what a Sparky is, don’t we?”

“Well,” said Doer Sima, “we reason it to be like what happens when Fuel-miners get two big pieces of true Fuel too close together. Only on a more massive scale. And somehow, they happen by themselves. Perhaps the action of water, or rare shifts in the—”

“Quite right,” said the Leader.

“So it has to be a Sparky,” said Doer Sima. “But we must first find out its size.”

“And I’ll inventory all the Fuel-miners’ equipment, see how much more we’ll need,” said Tola. “The lichen-harvesters should be working—we’re all probably going to be at this a while.”

“Just make sure you deal quickly with this thing,” said the Leader. “I’ve heard stories.”

“We’ve all heard tales,” said Doer Sima. “What we need are hard, usable facts.”

“You should go talk to Grandfather Bugg,” said Lala.

They all turned to look at her, the Leader showing surprise. “Lala, isn’t it? Why should we?”

“He’s seen a Sparky before. He told me once.”

“You and Doer Tola can go see the old relict if you want,” said the Leader. “I’ll be about readying the Settlement for whatever actions we need to take, whatever plan the Doers decide on.”

“My people,” she said, turning to the crowd. “Watch for a while if you like, unless it becomes violent; this is a true wonder. But soon we will be busy, very busy indeed. I suggest that you get rest-phased, for, once we know where we stand, we will not stop. The very life of the Settlement might depend on it…” With a wave, she was away.

Some began to go back down into the corridors and buildings, but kept looking backward, stopped, watched. The Sparky grew higher and higher, more and more beams and sprays came out of it.

It was, as Ilna had said, brighter than the sun. For, to Lala’s surprise, she looked down at the ground, and found that her shadow was on the wrong side.

Not many came here.

It was down one of the unmarked, unused old corridors, where the Settlers had first lived, and had first begun to fill this place of wonders. Lala and her mother had lived here, too, when she was very young, resting-phase and resting-phase ago.

A worker came by on some business or other. No one else was near, unlike the other corridors in the Settlement, where someone was always about.

A strange smell filled the air.

“That’s him, I suppose,” said Doer Tola.

“No, I think it’s the Old Smell. The one from the early days. Maybe even from the Cold World.” said Lala.

“That’s very probably a myth,” said the Doer. “Anyway, unlikely.”

“I’m surprised you and Doer Sima haven’t been here, studying.”

“Believe me,” said the Doer. “The Leader keeps us hopping, and there’s plenty more and plenty more to find out. But this is interesting…” She had stopped to look at digging marks on the wall.

“Doer Tola. The Sparky?”

“What? Oh, yes.” They went down a long dark corridor, the smell increasing. “Well, it’s him, too.” said Lala. Then:

“Grandfather? Grandfather Bugg?”

“Heh? Huh? Who’s that come to see old Grandfather Bugg?”

“Lala. And Doer Tola!”

“Doer… Doer… oh, yeah, yeah. Must be big doin’s! Come on in, the door’s open. Hee hee hee.”

The room was very dark, there wasn’t even a Fuel-lamp open. They let their eyes adjust.

“Over here,” he said. “I ain’t so good on colors anymore, but I’m still okay in the below-red, and me an’ above-purple’s just like that.”

He was more time-diminished, older than even Lala remembered. His chest was sunken in, his legs were spindly (one of them was missing from the second-knee down). His abdomen was very swollen and hung out from his clothing. He had a thing ; in the old days he had kept it covered.

“What’s it, Lala? Been a long time since I seen you. Seems like just a little time ago you was with your mama—”

Doer Tola made a noise.

“Grandfather Bugg,” said Lala. “There’s a new Sparky!”

“You’re excretin’ me,” he said.

“No,” said Doer Tola. “Lala said you’d seen one before.”

“Seen two,” he said.

“Two?”

“Once when I was litty-bitty. Somebody had to hold me up I was so young. All I actually ’member of that one, it was bright. But they talked about it a long while after. That was the really bad one where bad stuff happened afterward.”

“What things?” asked the Doer.

“Well, can’t remember what they’s most upset about. I’s litty-bitty, didn’t understand. Some big things movin’ round, big troubles. But the bad lasted a long time after that Sparky. I saw that myself, growin’ up.”

“Like what?”

“Well, like, like kids being hatched with six legs, you know, another set of arms or legs in the middle. Right out of the knobs. Some wasn’t born at all. Or all wrong. They told me as I’s growin’ it took a real long time to put that Sparky out. Kept tryin’ to come back.”

“You never told me about that one,” said Lala. ‘You only told me about the one when you were grown.”

“Well that one was real bad, but bad right at the first. Lost a lotta people in that one. Came up right in the middle of the Settlement, just past where the Meetin’ Hall is now. Took too much time to get people out, decide what to do, get the work organized. You can tell how bad it was if they needed me to help,” he said.

“The Meeting Hall?” asked Doer Tola.

“Well, yep, just past where it was built. Where this ’un?”

“Outside. Eastward. It’s very big, very bright.”

‘You ain’t seen bright ’til you stared right into the middle of one of’em like I did,” said Grandfather Bugg. “I have to see this. Imagine, three Sparkies in one lifetime!”

“There’ll be time,” said Doer Tola, “no matter how fast we can organize. Unless… unless it gets so bad and hot we have to leave. What do you remember about putting it out?”

“Well, what was you gonna do if I wasn’t around?”

“Organize the Fuel-miners. Get Fuel-miners’ suits for the workers. Make covering slabs out of the Fuel-miners’ suit-metal.”

“That dull grey heavy stuff?”

“Yes.”

“Go on.”

“Well, cover the Sparky with the metal. Two sheets, if need be.”

“That’s good, that’s good. But that’s what they did with the one when I was a baby, that’s why it kept comin’ back. You need some of that black stuff, what you call it…”

“The shiny black stuff?”

“Naw, naw, that crumbly black stuff—oh, excrete, what you call it? That stuff the miners is always havin’ to dig through to get to the Fuel!”