"You must know all, for you are they who have come."
Once again the iris opened on the surface. This time a blaze of light flared upward, lighting a metal-lined chamber.
"We have waited. As you have said, I am old."
"We?" Vinn asked.
They saw a dimly lit room that extended away into what seemed to be infinity. Oblong objects with transparent domes lined each wall. They, too, extended forever, perspecting away until walls and domed oblongs merged together at the limit of vision. It was not possible to look into the clear-domed containers. There was movement and it was as if they flew down the center aisle of the room into the distances only to turn and soar through still another long room filled with the same oblongs from which glowed soft, yellow lights.
"Together we will decide if it is time to waken them."
The computer screen was blank. There were no induced images in Vinn's mind. He turned away from the console, his face white. "Waken them?" he whispered.
"Let them sleep," Sarah said, "for when they awaken the universe willtremble."
"Listen," Pete said, "don't fight it. We are they who have come."
"With all due respect," Vinn said, "cynical humor is just a bit out of place."
"Yes, sorry," Pete said. "Look, I'm going down there, whether any of you go with me or not. There's too much at stake. A new source of cheap power. And have you thought that what that thing can do—speaking directly into our minds—just might open up a totally new method of communications?"
"We have assumed that Mom and Pop Webster were lured down to the surface by the high metallic readings," Vinn said, "and that the others went down to reclaim the bodies of their dead. Are we to be lured down by the promise of great wealth and power through new technology?"
"Vinn, it's talking to us," Iain said. "It thinks we are the fulfillment of some kind of prophecy. Look, aside from a few little tricks of telepathy and this gravity thing, the weapons we've seen are pretty primitive. Fusion engines. Solid fuel missiles. A short-range laser."
"But it flew the Erin Kenner into a sun," Vinn said.
"We can handle anything it has to dish out," Iain said. "Hell, it's nothing more than a super computer."
"More than that," Vinn said. "It's a self-repairing, self-perpetuating artificial intelligence. The best estimates of the destruction of the Dead Worlds now range into the millions of years. We're dealing with something that's older than our civilization, older even than man on Earth."
"I'll go with you, boss," Iain said.
"And I," said Kara.
"Vinn?" Pete asked. "I'd feel better if you were along. You're the computer man, after all."
Vinn nodded. "I'll have to admit that I'm more than curious."
"We'll take the two atmoflyers," Iain said.
The atmoflyers were two-place vehicles powered by small flux engines and armed with both sappers and laser cannon.
"At least one person stays on board," Iain said. He took Kara's hand.
"I'm afraid it'll have to be you, love, because if something goes wrong down there, I want someone on the ship who knows all of her systems."
"Yes," Sarah said. "I want to go. I want to see this thing. I want to understand why it killed all of my family."
Neither Pete nor Sarah were proficient in the operation of scout-type atmoflyers. It was decided that Pete would ride with Iain, leaving Sarah with Vinn. The two vehicles dropped away from the Crimson Rose, engaged flux engines to drive them into the thin atmosphere, dropped to hover over the circular opening. The cavernous room below was brightly lit. The metal walls and floor were devoid of markings or features. Iain's flyer settled to rest first. Vinn put his vehicle down nearby. He had the flyer's weapons ready. The iris of the hatch closed quickly over them.
"You will find the air to be to your needs," the Watcher said to them. "I will signal you when the pressure has been brought up to Earth normal.
You may then remove your E.V.A. gear so that you can be comfortable."
"I think not," Vinn said.
"As you will."
Vinn didn't wait for the Watcher's signal that pressure had been raised in the chamber. He cracked the hatch of the flyer and let the vehicle's instruments test the air. It was pure, and rich in oxygen.
At the end of the chamber an irised opening appeared. "Come, please," the Watcher said.
Iain led the way, saffer rifle in hand. Pete and Vinn carried hand weapons. Sarah moved awkwardly in the heavy gear. They walked down a blank corridor. A door opened into a room that was furnished oddly but attractively. A woman in a silver gown that reached to her shapely ankles stood up to smile at them.
"Goddamn," Iain said in surprise.
The female voice was pleasant as it spoke English. "If I make you uncomfortable—"
"Not at all," Pete said. "You're very attractive."
"I am nothing more than an extension," she said.
"You are the Watcher?" Vinn asked.
"Yes. I felt that you would be more at ease if I spoke with you in this form."
"May I?" Vinn asked, stepping close. The woman held out her hand. It was smooth and cold. "In whose image are you formed?"
"In the image of they who have come."
"We're here," Pete said. "You said it was time to talk. We're ready."
The Watcher was, of course, able to function on many levels. Physical contact had been established with the orbiting ship. Lines of force now connected the Watcher with the Crimson Rose. As the extension smiled and talked with the four who were inside, it was a simple matter to send a significant fraction of the energy of the planet's field into the mind of the one who monitored the instruments on board the ship. The force detonated inside the skull of the female, shattering bone and turning her brain into a pale gray soup.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The Watcher, in the form of a maturely attractive woman, waved one hand gracefully toward chairs arranged in a conversational circle. Vinn Stern nodded at Pete and Iain and set the example by accepting the Watcher's invitation.
Sarah de Conde sat on the edge of her chair, her hands in her lap. She stared at the Watcher with her eyes squinted belligerently.
The material that covered Vinn's chair made a dry, crackling noise as he lowered his weight. The furniture was functionally simple in design and made for the humanoid form. As Vinn leaned back and crossed one leg over the other, a faint whiff of age and dry rot emanated from the chair.
The walls showed a faint geometric pattern. Light came from a glowing square in the ceiling, which was an expanse of otherwise unbroken white.
In the center of the circle of chairs was a low table on which sat a free-form sculpture. Pete de Conde picked up the piece, judging it to be carved from a stone very much like marble.
"I am sure you have questions," the Watcher said, through the extension. "If, however, you will allow me to speak, I think that most of them will be answered."
"We are your guests," Pete said, inclining his head toward the extension.
"It is in the intent of creation that each living thing consummate the purpose for which it was intended." The extension leaned forward slightly and spoke in a low, intense voice.
"What gives you the right to speak for creation?" Sarah demanded.
The Watcher ignored the interruption. "Life is the apogee of the cycle of cosmic evolution and no one form of life is more favored than others. I'm sure that you think me wrong, for you consider yourselves to be the penultimate achievement of creation and evolution. I say penultimate rather than ultimate because you are not content with life as it was given to you. You cling to the belief, or the hope, that there is something after this life, that you are destined to evolve into an even higher form. Once you were so certain of this uncertainty that you manipulated your genes to take the form of that to which you aspire."
"Are you speaking of the fossil remains of winged beings on Erin Kenner's world?" Vinn asked.