But at least he knew where to find electricity.
You found it near buildings with humans in them.
The scrub ahead of Masklin opened out onto a track.
He turned onto it, and ran faster. Go along any track, and you'd find humans on it somewhere.
There were footsteps behind him. He turned around, and saw Pion. The young Floridian gave him a worried smile.
"Go away!" Masklin said. "Go on! Go! Go back! Why are you following me?
Go away!"
Pion looked hurt. He pointed up the track and said something.
"I don't understand!" shouted Masklin.
Pion stuck a hand high above his head, palm downward.
"Humans?" Masklin guessed. "Yes. I know. I know what I'm doing. Go back!"
Pion said something else.
Masklin lifted up the Thing. "Talking box no go," he said helplessly.
"Good grief, why should I have to speak like this? You must be at least as intelligent as me. Go on, go away. Go back to the others."
He turned and ran. He looked back briefly, and saw Pion watching him.
How much time have I got? he wondered. Thing once told me the Ship flies very fast. Maybe it could be here any minute. Maybe it's not coming at all.
He saw figures looming over the scrub. Yes, follow any track, and sooner or later you find humans. They get everywhere.
Yes, maybe the Ship isn't coming at all.
If it isn't, he thought, then what I'm going to do now is probably the most stupid thing any nome has ever done anywhere in the total history of nomekind.
He stepped out into a circle of gravel. A small truck was parked in it, with the name of the Floridian god NASA painted on the side. Close by, a couple of humans were bent over a piece of machinery on a tripod.
They didn't notice Masklin. He walked closer, his heart thumping.
He put down the Thing.
We used to talk, he said. Well, maybe it's time to try again.
He cupped his hands around his mouth.
He tried to shout as clearly and as slowly as possible.
"Hey, there! You! Hu-mans!"
"He did what?" shouted Angalo. Pion ran through his pantomime of gesturesagain.
"Talked to bumansy' said Angalo. "Went in a thing with wheels'?"
"I thought I heard a truck engine," said Gurder. Angalo pounded a fistinto his palm.
"He was worried about the Thing," he said. "He wanted to find it someelectricity!"
"But we must be miles from any buildings!" said Gurder.
"Not the way Masklin's going!" Angalo snarled. "I knew it would come tothis!" Gurder moaned.
"Showing ourselves to humans! We never used to do that sort of thing inthe Store! What are we going to do? Masklin thought, Up to now, it's nottoo bad. The humans hadn't really known what to do about him. They'd evenbacked away! And then one of them had rushed to the truck and talked intoa machine on a string. Probably some sort of telephone, Masklin thoughtknowledgeably.
When he hadn't moved, one of the humans had fetched a box out of the backof the truck and crept toward him as if expecting Masklin to explode.
In fact, when he waved, the human jumped back clumsily.
The other human said something, and the box was cautiously put down onthe gravel a few feet from Masklin.
Then both humans watched him expectantly. He kept smiling, to put them attheir ease, and climbed into the box. Then he gave them another wave.
One of the humans reached down gingerly and picked up the box, lifting itup in the air as though Masklin was something very rare and delicate. Hewas carried to the truck. The human got in, and still holding the boxwith exaggerated care, placed it on its knees. A radio crackled with deephuman voices.
Well, no going back now. Knowing that, Masklin very nearly relaxed.
Perhaps it was best to look at it as just another step along life'ssidewalk.
They kept staring at him as if they didn't believe what they wereseeing.
The truck lurched off. After a while it turned onto a concrete road, where another truck was waiting. A human got out, spoke to the driver ofMasklin's truck, laughed in a slow human way, looked down at Masklin, andstopped laughing very suddenly.
It almost ran back to its own truck and started speaking into anothertelephone.
I knew this would happen, Masklin thought. They don't know what to dowith a real nome. Amazing.
But just so long as they take me somewhere where there's the right kindof electricity.
Dorcas, the engineer, had once tried to explain electricity to Masklin, but without much success because Dorcas wasn't too certain about it, either.
There seemed to be two kinds, straight and wiggly. The straight kindwas very boring and stayed in batteries. The wiggly kind was found inwires in the walls and things, and somehow the Thing could steal some ofit if it was close enough. Dorcas used to talk about wiggly electricityin the same tone of voice Gurder used for talking about Arnold Bros.
(est. 1905). He'd tried to study it back in the Store. If it was put intofreezers it made things cold, but if the same electricity went into anoven it made things hot, so how did it know'?
Dorcas used to talk, Masklin thought. I said "used to." I hope he stilldoes.
He felt light-headed and oddly optimistic. Part of him was saying: That'sbecause if you for one second think seriously about the position you'veput yourself in, you'll panic.
Keep smiling.
The truck purred along the road, with the other truck following it.
Masklin saw a third truck rattle down a side road and pull in behindthem. There were a lot of humans on it, and most of them were watchingthe skies.
They didn't stop at the nearest building, but drove on to a bigger onewith many more vehicles outside. More humans were waiting for them.
One of them opened the truck door, doing it very slowly even for a human.
The human carrying Masklin got out of the truck.
Masklin looked up at dozens of staring faces. He could see every eyeball, every nostril. Every one of them looked worried. At least, every eyeballdid. The nostrils just looked like nostrils.
They were worried about him.
Keep smiling.
He stared back up at them, and still almost giggling with repressedpanic, said, "Can I help you, gentlemen?"
Chapter 9
Science: A way of finding things out and thenmaking them work. There is a lot more Science thanyou think. - From A Scientific Encyclopedia forthe Enquiring Young Nome by Angalo deHaberdasheri.
Gurder, Angalo, and Pion sat under a bush. It gave them a bit of shade.
The cloud of gloom over them was almost as big.
"We'll never even get home without the Thing," said Gurder.
"Then we'll get him out," said Angalo.
"That'll take forever!"
"Yeah? Well, that's nearly as long as we've got here, if we can't get home." Angalo had found a pebble that was almost the right shape to attach to a twig with strips torn off his coat; he'd never seen a stone ax in his life, but he had a definite feeling that there were useful things that could be done with a stone tied to the end of a stick.
"I wish you'd stop fiddling with that thing," Gurder said. "What's the big plan, then? Us against the whole of Floridia?"
"Not necessarily. You needn't come."
"Calm down, Mr. To-the-rescue. One idiot's enough."
"I don't hear you coming up with any better ideas." Angalo swished the ax through the air once or twice.
"I haven't got any."
A small red light started to flash on the Thing.
After a while, a small square hole opened up and there was a tiny whirring sound as the Thing extended a little lens on a stick. This turned around slowly.
Then the Thing spoke.
"Where," it asked, "is this place?"
It tilted the lens up and there was a pause while it surveyed the face of the human looking down at it.
"And why?" it added.
"I'm not sure," said Masklin. "We're in a room in a big building. The humans haven't hurt me. I think one of them has been trying to talk to me."