Lovely things sent shivers over her skin, caressed her surfaces, brought warm pleasure to her orifices, dove and swam through her blood, nourished her. And all was well and all was one and she was glad of life.
Then a little pain started-just a small one, near her heart. At first it only troubled her once in a while. It grew worse when some of the things that grew from her were removed, though she could bear even that at first. But it grew worse and worse as time passed and other, sharper, deeper pains shot through her, as if someone had suddenly plunged a knife into her. She seized up and screamed and tried to cry out through the things growing on her, and some heard and cried for her and some were scorched by the force of her cries. Panting, she waited for the pain to pass and it did, until the next time.
Then the first pain, the main pain, the central pain, a pain much like the start of the ecstatic release that had freed her from her ice and rock, intensified, deepened, drove through her until she could stand it no more. At last she lanced her own boil by applying more and more pressure, sending blood and the strength of her muscle and bone, igniting nerves until the area blew, and she lay bleeding, but relieved. The things that nourished her surface rushed over her and centered on the spot to console her, and she felt the consolation, the oneness, the comfort of releasing her pain through those who had first released her.
Gradually the images of a volcano erupting on her left breast dissolved into the image of the pain flowing through the pores of her skin and out. That image dissolved into one of herself accepting Petaybee's pain from within it and releasing it through herself, until she lay spent on the floor, Torkel Fiske sobbing on one side of her with Diego between them, Scan and Steve Margolies on the other side.
The mist had vanished now, and Dr. Fiske sat looking up at the luminous walls, tears coursing down his cheeks, his bad arm draped awkwardly across Clodagh's back and the other one around Bunny.
Slowly they rose and left the cavern. O'Shay and Greene, as last in, were first out to reboard the waiting helicopter. Yana hauled herself aboard and crowded in next to Giancarlo's stretcher, where Nanook lay stretched lengthwise next to the colonel, purring and doing the job usually reserved for his marmalade brethren. Then Sean squeezed in on her other side, and they made the journey in silence.
What was terraformed, Dr. Fiske, was a sentient entity which just happened to be a planet," Sean said when they were comfortably reassembled in Clodagh's house.
"Scientifically, I find that very hard to believe," Dr. Fiske said, sitting as erect as possible on Clodagh's bed.
Clodagh, meanwhile, was stirring up another batch of medicine for the abrasions and burns suffered by Torkel and Yana. Giancarlo had been delivered to the hospital at SpaceBase. O'Shay had taken off again, neglecting to mention to the receiving officer that he had several other passengers, passengers who were attempting to digest a great quantity of new information. He landed the copter at Kilcoole, and those who had been present for Petaybee's revelations disembarked.
Torkel was slowest to revive from the experience, remaining extremely quiet and contemplative when he did. But he also quietly and contemplatively used Steve Margolies's comm unit to order from the contingent of soldiers stationed in Kilcoole an armed guard around Clodagh's house.
He was confused, Yana thought, and she didn't much blame him. She was a little confused herself, and at the same time much more enlightened as to the nature of the bond between this planet and its people. She had, after all, directly experienced in microcosm everything the planet had experienced.
"Scientifically, there probably is no explanation," Sean said, calmly agreeing with Whittaker Fiske. "And I've spent most of my boyhood and all my adult years examining the pertinent sciences with little success and no… scientifically acceptable… answers. I just know that Petaybee works for us, and for itself, in a unique symbiosis."
"Yes, it could be a form of symbiosis, at that," Whittaker Fiske said, nodding as he absently stroked a marmalade cat. "A most remarkable one. Definitely unique. However, I would still very much like to have more details: Was your grandfather aware of the planet's sentience and reactions? Did he establish whether or not its sentience occurred during, or after the terraforming process? How did you become aware of its sentience, and most of all, what protocol is now involved? I don't believe that Intergal has ever encountered such a phenomenon in any system it has explored to date. I do, at least I think I do, understand now why our totally unprepared and scientifically oriented teams could not psychologically cope with their-shall I call it… psychic initiation to Petaybee's sentience? Poor Francisco Metaxos is a good scientist, but he has always been extremely didactic."
"He's better, by the way, Whit," Clodagh told the man. "Better all the time and now, I think, he's more accepting."
A curious, affectionate sympathy had grown up between Clodagh and Whittaker since the event in the cave. Dr. Fiske had held Clodagh's hand all the way back to the copter. The pair had sat together, staring out the copter window, now and then exchanging long searching looks. Yana would have liked to exchange similar searching looks with Scan-but not with a crowd of people around.
"Aisling will bring Frank over," Clodagh went on, "soon's they've finished feeding and grooming the curly-coats. Any chance of bringing Colonel Giancarlo to Kilcoole, too, when he's stable? Being contrary the way he is, he'd never have survived the cave in his weak condition, but strengthen him up a bit and introduce him to Petaybee gradual like, he might even come to understand a bit."
Whittaker nodded, though Yana thought Clodagh was being uncharacteristically and unrealistically charitable toward Giancarlo and far too hopeful about his adaptability. The man was as rigid as the company rulebook.
"I'll tell you what I can, Dr. Fiske," Scan said, leaning forward to plant his elbows on his knees. "And what I've learned about Petaybee. First, we've never tried to keep anyone deliberately in the dark about this, but as you can imagine, it's a little hard to explain and make anyone believe us. All we know is this: when your great-grandfather's terraforming process had been completed and the planet ready for occupation, a proper ecological mix was determined by the Intergal specialists."
Sean had washed off the last of the ash and was wearing pants and a gray cable-knit sweater borrowed from Sinead. With his silver eyes and silvery hair, he reminded Yana of the way she had seen him on the shores of the little stream when she had mistaken him for a seal. She ran her hand softly down his arm from elbow to wrist, and he captured the hand in his own and squeezed, as he continued speaking. "My grandfather, as the Intergal biogeneticist, was asked to make what biological changes were necessary to adapt animals who could function in this planet's harsh climate and be useful to inhabitants where machinery and technology would prove inadequate. He did so, supplying us with an ecological chain that includes plants, trees, grain, food beasts, and those that could be used in a variety of tasks, such as the sled dogs, curly-coats, moose, deer, the other small food and fur animals, birds, insects: all viable on this cold, snowbound planet. All of us here, the vegetation and we more movable creatures, were influenced by his work."
"But he went much further than he should have," Torkel said, less belligerently; more in dismay.
"Not deliberately. He was, like yourselves, a scientist, and he didn't reckon on the planet being a part of his equation. Once awakened, it had its own agenda and entered into the spirit of the changes-taking the ones Grandda made and improving on them now and then, when it felt these alterations were necessary. Those of us who have lived out our lives on Petaybee, like Lavelle, are more affected by those changes than the young people who volunteer for service off-planet. I have never left Petaybee. I know I never can." He smiled with great charm. "I don't wish to leave Petaybee. It has made me part of it, the way it is part of me."