Harry Harrison - Captive Universe

There were more doors here, but he had to go a little distance at least before the search began. He took one turning, then another, every moment tense and waiting to meet someone. He was still alone. Another turning brought him to a short hall, carved from rock again, that ended in a large door. Rather than go back he leaned on the handle and swung it open. He had the weapon ready, but there was no one waiting inside. This was a very large cavern that stretched into the distance. It was broken into many aisles that held bins and countless shelves. A storehouse of some kind. This would do until the girl came to, then he would make her lead him to some safer place — and some food. Perhaps there was even food here, that was not an impossible idea. He ran far into the cavern, to a dark aisle where not much light reached, and dumped her onto the floor. She did not stir so he left her there while he prowled through the place, opening boxes and picking things from the shelves. In one of the bins he found many bundles of black cloth that had been sewn in strange shapes. When he pulled one out he realized that the dangling lengths were like arms and legs and that these were the clothes that the watchers wore. He took up two armloads and went back to the unconscious girl. She still had not moved. He dropped his load and, squatting under the light, tried to find the manner in which the garment was closed. The air here was cooler than in Steel’s room and he would not mind wearing something to keep his body warm.

After a good deal of experimentation, and cutting one of the garments to ribbons in his anger, he discovered that a small metal button, set under the wearer’s chin, could be made to move down if it was turned first. When it moved the cloth parted behind it, opening straight down between the legs and halfway up the back so that the garment almost split in two. He opened a number of the things this way, but threw them away in disgust when he found he could force his legs barely halfway into them. The garments must be made in different sizes and the ones he had found were all of the smallest. There had to be a way of finding the large ones: the girl would know. Chimal went to her but she still lay with her eyes closed, breathing hoarsely: her skin had a grayish tinge to it and, when he touched it, was cool and slightly damp. He wondered if anything was wrong. Perhaps she had been injured when she fell. Moved by curiosity, he twisted the button under her chin and pulled it down as far as it would go and spread the cloth aside. She was not injured as far as he could see. Her skin was white as paper and her ribs poked against it from beneath like hard knuckles. Her breasts were low mounds, like those of a half-grown girl, and he felt no stirrings of desire at all when he looked at her flaccid nakedness. There was a wide belt of some gray substance about her waist, secured at the front by a piece of cord threaded through the ends. He snapped the cord and pulled the belt off and saw that where it had gone around her body, her skin was red and inflamed. When he passed his finger along the inside of the belt it felt both rough and sharp, as though it were lined with many tiny cactus thorns. It was beyond understanding: he threw it aside and looked at the pads that held the flexible rods to her body. Perhaps she was very weak and the rods helped hold her up. But was everyone here that weak? When he pushed at the piece of metal that supported the back of her head it came away, pulling her hood with it. Her hair had been shaved close to her skull and was now only short, dark stubble. None of this could be understood easily. He closed her garment and put the hood into place as he had found it, then sat back on his heels and wondered about these things. He sat there patiently for some time until she stirred and opened her eyes. “How do you feel now?” he asked. She blinked rapidly and looked around before she answered. “I’m all right, I think. I feel very tired.”

This time Chimal used patience when he talked to her; if he hit her and she started crying again he would learn nothing. “Do you know what these are?” he asked, pointing to the pile of clothing.

“They are vabin — where did you get them?”

“Right here, there are many of them. I wanted one to cover my body but they are all too small.”

“They are numbered inside, there, see,” she sat up and pointed inside one of the garments.

“I’ll show you where they are. You find me the one I can wear.”

Steel was ready to help, but she staggered when she tried to rise. He helped her to her feet and in her discomfort she did not seem to be bothered by his touch. When he showed her the bins she checked the numbering and pointed to the last one. “In there, they are the biggest” She closed her eyes and turned her face away when he broke open a bundle and started to pull one of them on. It stretched to a smooth fit and felt warm.

“There, now I look like anyone else,” he said, and she glanced at him and relaxed a bit.

“May I go now?” she asked, hesitantly.

“Very soon,” he told her, lying. “Just answer a few questions first. Is there any food here?”

“I — don’t know. I was only in the warehouse one time before, a long time ago…”

“What is that word you used, about this place?”

“Warehouse. A place where things are stored.”

“Warehouse. I’ll remember the word.” And I will learn what a lot of other words mean before I leave this place. “Can you see if there is food here?”

“Yes, I suppose I can look.”

Chimal followed a few yards behind her, ready to leap and hold her if she tried to run, but stayed far enough away to give her an illusion of freedom. She did find some tightly sealed bricks that she told him were called emergency rations, things to be eaten when other food was not available. He took them back to the secluded corner he had first found before he opened them.

“It doesn’t taste like very much,” he told her after he had broken the transparent skirt and tasted the paste inside.

“It is very nutritious,” she told him, then hesitantly asked for some for herself. He gave a package to her after she had explained what this new word meant.

“You have lived here all your life?” he asked, licking his fingers.

“Yes, of course,” Steel answered, startled by the question.

Chimal did not respond at once, but frowned in concentration instead. This girl must know all the things he needed to know — but how to get her to tell them? He realized that he had to ask the right questions to get the right answers, as though this were a child’s game with different rules. I am a turkey. How can you tell that I am a turkey? What were the proper questions here?

“Do you ever leave here, to go to the world outside the valley?”

She seemed baffled. “Of course not. That is impossible…” Her eyes widened suddenly. “I cannot tell you.”

Chimal changed the subject quickly. “You know about our gods?” he asked, and she nodded agreement. “Do you know about Coatlicue?” Coatlicue who had entered these tunnels.

“I cannot tell you about that.”

“There seems to be very few things that you can tell me about.” But he smiled at her when he said it, instead of hitting her as he might have done earlier, and she almost smiled back. He was learning. “Haven’t you wondered how I came to the place where you found me?”

“I had not thought about it,” Steel admitted frankly: she obviously had little curiosity about things unknown. “How did you get there?”

“I followed Coatlicue in from the valley.” Was there no way of getting information out of the girl? What did she want to hear? “I want to return. Do you think I could?”

She sat up and nodded happily. “Yes, that is what you should do.”