«How kind,» it said. And it stepped across the perimeter, as if to sit down in the chair I had just vacated.
The stuttergun blew it into gravel. An instant later a shriek of dismay made me turn toward the ship. Hu Moon rushed from the lower egress, her hands raised in horror. She ran up to me and looked out at the place where the stuttergun had destroyed the scholar. «Oh no, no,» she said, clutching her head with both hands. «We've killed V. S. P. Swin. Oh, this is terrible.»
«Who? No,» I said. «It was one of them. See, there's no body, the stone worms have already burrowed away.»
Her eyes were rolling in a manner I had never expected from the ordinarily composed Hu Moon. «Are you sure?» she asked. «I know his face as well as my own. It was him, I saw him on the security monitors.»
«I'm sure it wasn't human.» I waved my hand at the ruins, where the other monsters went about their business, oblivious to the scholar's destruction. «Who are you talking about?»
«V. S. P. Swin! He discovered the tectonic machines on Meld. He's a god in pangalac archaeology. He revived the Single Point Diaspora theory of human expansion. A god!»
«You knew him?» I asked.
She blinked and put her hands down. «No, but I've seen every holodoc he ever made and he made a lot.»
«So you never met him?»
«Of course not,» she said with a sneer, apparently trying to regain her dignity. «He died 700 standard years before I was born. But I would have given anything to speak with him. He could tell me what's going on here. On this terrible little world.»
She hurried back into the ship, leaving me to wonder about her sanity.
By the time the next scholar appeared, two nights later, Hu Moon had given me explicit instructions regarding what she called «manifestations.»
I was not to injure or provoke them, should they attempt communication. I was to carry a security camera at all times, so that she could personally evaluate any interaction I had with these manifestations. And I was to call her the instant any manifestation reminded me in any way of V. S. P. Swin.
Three nights later the next scholar staggered in through the moonlit ruins. It looked something like a plump, pink-haired woman in an out-of-fashion dress. It was drunk, apparently, its red face alight with carelessly concealed malice. Its features were surprisingly sharp in that round face. There was a curious pallor to its face, and a sense of transparency. Later I would realize that it was like looking at a malleable white marble bust cloaked with a thin layer of living skin.
«Oho, the gatekeeper,» it shouted. It stopped, wobbling, a good meter short of the perimeter. Its gaze flicked up and down the line, marked by sensors glowing a faint red against the black soil. The movement of its head was inhumanly swift, and I wondered how anyone could mistake such a creature for a real person. «You planning to kill me, too?» it asked. «Like you did poor old Swin?»
I nodded politely. «I can't prevent the gun from firing, if a non-carbon-based life-form crosses the perimeter. Jang locked the security system into that mode, and only he could reset it.»
«And you? Do you suspect me?» Its eyes were too sharp. «Why?»
«Well,» I said. «To me, you're implausible.»
«'Implausible?' What a learned word to come from the mouth of the lawn boy.» It smiled condescendingly, but for some reason I was only amused.
«It seems like the appropriate word,» I said. «For example, the satellite security web reports no other ships have touched down here since our arrival. In fact, no other ships have come within the system limits.»
«Fah!» it said. «Are you so bereft of imagination you can't come up with an alternative?»
«Well, yes,» I said. «I suppose that's my only advantage.»
«Well, imagine we're part of an intellectual community set up here before you arrived. What then?»
«Is that your claim? Then consider Dr. Swin. Did you know he wasn't human?»
«You say he wasn't. Not me!»
I shrugged. «I saw the doctor's remnants turn to stone and wiggle away into the ground.»
«Yes, we've noticed there's an extremely rapid decomposition cycle here on good old Graylin IV.» It made a harsh sound, almost a bark, but then its mouth turned up at the corners and I understood that it was laughing.
«Ahhh...,» it said, shaking its head. «Not easy to fool a moron, is it? Never mind, Leeson, you don't matter.»
«How do you know who I am?» This was unpleasant, being named by a predator on an alien world. It made our situation seem particularly precarious.
«Doesn't matter,» it said. «Go get the bosslady, young man. I need to talk to someone who's got enough imagination to believe in impossible things.» It gave me another cruel glance. «That's almost everyone but you.»
I would have killed it happily then, but Hu Moon was already running from the ship, armored and carrying a smartgun. I assumed she'd come to her senses and that we would question the creature together, learn as much about it as possible, and then destroy it.
«Maidan O'Binion,» Hu Moon said, in awestruck tones. «It's really you?»
«Yes, dear. It's me, and I'm delighted to be here,» it said briskly.
«Well, please,» Hu Moon said breathlessly. «Come in, sit down. I'm so glad to finally meet you.»
It shook its head. «No, dear, I'm afraid I can't. Your little janitor tells me the ship's security will blow up anyone who comes into the perimeter, if they're not part of the original crew. Inconvenient, but we'll have to have our little conference right here. But do send the janitor away; his face is too leaden to bear.»
«Go back to the ship,» Hu Moon ordered.
I was astonished. «It's one of them! Can't you tell?» I said in fairly shrill tones. «It'll kill you if you give it the chance. This is another of your heroes, isn't it? Another one that's been dead a few hundred years? Ask it how it got here.»
The creature laughed again. «Dear lad, have you never heard of cloning? Of experiential transfers? Of private lazarus havens?» It winked at me.
Hu Moon turned to me. I couldn't see her face behind the visor of her armor, but her voice was flat. «Back to the ship.»
I went away. I had the security video. If she survived her encounter with the creature, I would show it to her.
But when she returned to the ship at daybreak, her face was exalted and she refused to look at the recording.
«You might be right,» she said. «At the moment, I don't care. She stays on her side of the line; I stay on mine. I'm armed and armored. What can happen?»
«Ask Jang,» I said.
She made a petulant face. «That was obviously different. Maidan didn't have a sword, or even a dagger.»
«Maybe it doesn't need it.»
«Yes, maybe she plans to talk me to death.» Her tone was sarcastic. «I don't care. I've been going crazy, locked up in my cabin with Dueine and no one to talk with.»
I didn't know how to respond.
«It's really none of your business, Leeson,» she said. «It's a risk I'm willing to take. I mean, Maidan O'Binion! The greatest cultural anthropologist of the last two millennia. When I was talking to her, it was like a blinding light. I've never had a conversation like that. I've been so bored! Oh, it's so good to talk to someone with an actual brain. I won't give that up.»
A moment later I noticed Dueine standing in the doorway, head bowed fearfully, hands clasped together tightly under her breasts, a posture that suggested she'd been listening for a while.
Hu Moon turned and saw her, but offered no apology or explanation. When she turned back to me, her eyes were hard. «Stay off the perimeter, until further notice. In fact, I want you to stay in the ship. Maidan told me she'd return tonight with some of her friends. I don't trust you to act reasonably.»