This hive, small and alien though it was, had something strange and enlightening. It enabled him to seem to think for himself. Instead of merely reacting to the latest contact, he experienced the throes of a decision-making process. He was acting like an entire hive—by himself. This was so odd it was ordinarily impossible. Yet the pattern for it was with the aliens, and as he followed that pattern he became conscious of self. He was becoming an individual.
This must be a requirement of survival, on the Virtual Mode. The creatures of the Mode survived, and they had it, so it must be necessary. They touched each other only to compare strategies, not to restore their places in the whole. He would never have conceived of such a thing, had he not discovered its patterning in the Nona thing.
They had to flee into his world, and he had to help them survive it, for they did not know its ways. He had to have initiative. It was a strain in his awareness, especially when he was not in direct contact with the alien, but that was the way it was. Actually he had been developing a crude kind of initiative before, from necessity: cut off from the home hive, he had done what gave him a chance to find a new hive. It had been desperation, because otherwise he would have lost his ability to function as a member of a dominant entity, and would have regressed into animal status. But it was also initiative. He recognized that now. The alien contact had greatly amplified an ability he had not understood before.
He lifted and quested with his jet. He found several round stones, which he sucked in and held for expulsion. They would do for only token attack, but that was all that offered. Just enough to make the others pause, so that escape was possible.
Then he would have to show them the one place where the members of the hive would not go. He believed that the aliens could go there, because they used animal propulsion. They had legs, like those of crustaceans, that pushed against the ground. They seemed to take in air, but to push it out through the same orifice. That was not effective for locomotion. But in this case, their animal nature would help them.
He followed the Nona thing across the Modes. The larger animal went with them. It had four leg appendages, instead of two, but was similarly primitive about its use of air. Its surface was highly irregular, with projections that did not seem to be either eyes or contact points. But it moved well enough, its legs coordinating with bewildering ease. They caught up with the other two. Now there was another surprising thing: the two had merged, and were traveling on only two legs.
They plunged through the anchor almost as a group. The hive members had departed, unable to pursue Burgess through the anchor. They had seen him vanish, and they believed that he would never return. But one was watching, just in case.
Now that one saw the emerging creatures, and honked. That signaled the more distant members of the hive. Soon they would converge, as they had before. There was only limited time to reach the safe zone.
The hive member lifted a trunk. But Burgess, prepared, fired a stone first. It struck an eye stalk, momentarily blinding the hiver. The hiver retreated, unable to decide on a more aggressive course without contact with other hivers. This was Burgess’ advantage, he realized with surprise: he was now able to act with minimal consultation, because of the pattern he had learned from the alien.
The aliens were hesitating. The two who had merged separated again, each using its own legs. Burgess showed the way. He set out toward the nearest section of the wilderness region. He moved as fast as he could, but it was soon apparent that the aliens’ animal legs could propel them faster. That was good, because it meant that the hivers would have difficulty catching them.
But now the pursuit was manifesting. Several hivers were coming into view, converging. He would not be able to outdistance them all. Burgess had several rocks remaining in storage, which he could use to discourage too close an approach. But he would soon be overwhelmed by the greater number of hivers. He saw that clearly now that he was thinking for himself. Also, the same wilderness that blocked the hivers would block him. He could show the aliens the way to their safety, but he could not help himself. He should have remained on the Virtual Mode. Perhaps if he had been more accustomed to thinking as an individual, he would have realized that.
They were moving across the almost level land toward the adjacent river. Beyond it was the wilderness. But now he recognized another problem: the water presented a barrier for the aliens, who could not float across it. He had not thought of their limitations before. Was he leading them into a trap?
The hivers were now closing from four directions. One followed directly behind; two were angling in from the sides; one was coming along the river. The fleeing folk were ahead of three, but the one on the river was cutting them off. So even if the aliens could cross water, they would not escape.
The aliens made exclamations. Burgess suspected that these were expressions of dismay at the sight of the hiver ahead of them. Such dismay was well taken.
Burgess did what he could. He floated up to the river and fired a stone at the hiver. But the hiver saw it coming and slid aside so that it missed. Then the hiver oriented a trunk to fire a return rock.
Then a second rock flew at it—one Burgess had not fired. Surprised, he turned his eye stalks to trace its origin. There stood one of the aliens, making some kind of gesture. In a moment another made a similar gesture—and a rock flew away from it. They were firing rocks!
The hiver on the water floated away, because the rocks were too numerous for it to avoid. The aliens were taking them in their upper appendages, moving the appendages swiftly, and letting the rocks sail out. In this weird manner they were able to do combat!
But the three other hivers were approaching. Burgess floated across the water, hoping the aliens could somehow navigate it, because there was no other choice. The aliens moved into the water. Their legs plunged through it to contact the ground below, and they maintained forward progress. They were able to cross! It was slower than on land, but adequate. Soon all four of them were on the other bank.
They moved on toward the wilderness as the leading hiver arrived at the river. The hiver on the water was now trancing again, coming to join the others. Burgess saw that the river had slowed them so that the pursuit was now much closer. They were almost within rock range. With four hivers firing, that was bad.
Burgess floated as rapidly as he could toward the trees, but he had to veer around a rocky hill. That was impassable, of course. The hivers cut across and narrowed the distance between them.
Then the aliens did something amazing. They moved up the slope of the hill! They were able to navigate it, because they lacked air cushions, which had to be almost level. But they were not safe, because the small hill was in rock range; the hivers would bombard them as soon as they finished with Burgess.
A rock came at him, and bounced off his canopy. That one did not hurt, but others would. He would have to stop and fight as well as he could against the four.
But then the aliens stopped. They gestured, and rocks started flying again. They were hurling rocks down at the hivers! Three of them were doing it, while the largest one stood and watched. Burgess realized that that one could not use its legs for this purpose; all four were confined to the ground. How did it do combat?
For a moment Burgess watched, amazed at the facility with which the creatures handled the rocks. They were not limited to small ones that a trunk could handle; they were taking larger ones and heaving them down. The rocks missed, but the hivers halted their pursuit and floated back out of range. They touched each other, getting current on the situation.
Still the aliens threw rocks. This was another surprise: the rocks were reaching the hivers. The aliens could hurl the rocks farther than the hiver could! Their seemingly awkward limbs were good at this.