The original crystal swerved round and approached the illusion, orbiting it slowly. In response, the serjeants moved their crystal in a similar motion, the two of them describing an elaborate spiral over Sinon’s head.
That attracted its attention,choma said confidently.
Cochrane arrived, panting heavily. “Hey, Tinks, slow down, babe.” He rested his hands on his upper thighs, glancing up with a crooked expression. “What’s going on here, man? Is she breeding?”
“We are attempting to open communications,” Sinon said.
“Yeah?” Cochrane reached up, his hand open. “Easy, dude.”
“Don’t—” Sinon and Stephanie said it simultaneously.
Cochrane’s hand closed round Tinkerbell. And kept closing. His fingers and palm elongated as though the air had become a distorting mirror. They were drawn down into the crystal. He squawked in panicked astonishment as his wrist stretched out fluidly and began to follow his hand into the interior. “Ho shiiiiit— ” His body was abruptly tugged along, feet leaving the ground.
Stephanie exerted her energistic power, trying to pull him back. Insisting he return. She felt the serjeants adding their ability to hers. None of them could attach their desperate thoughts to the wailing hippie. His body’s physical mass had become elusive, it was like trying to grip on a rope of water.
The frantic yelling cut off as his head was sucked within the crystal’s boundary. The torso and legs followed quickly.
“Cochrane!” Franklin yelled.
A pair of gold-rimmed sunglasses with purple lenses fell to the ground.
Stephanie couldn’t even sense the hippie’s thoughts any more. She waited numbly to see who would be devoured next. It was only a couple of metres from her.
The crystal sparkled with red and gold light for a moment, then reverted to pure white. It shot off at high velocity across the rumpled mudlands towards the town.
“It killed him,” she grunted in horror.
“Ate him,” Rana said.
Alternatively, it took a sample,sinon said to his fellow serjeants. The shocked humans probably wouldn’t want to hear quite such a clinical analysis.
It didn’t select Cochrane,choma said. He selected it. Or more likely, it was a simple defence mechanism.
I hope not. That would imply we have come to a hostile environment. I would prefer to consider it a sampling process.
The method of capture was extraordinary,choma said. Is it some kind of crystalline neutronium, perhaps? Nothing else could suck him in like that.
We don’t even know if gravity or solid matter exist in this realm,sinon said. Besides, there was no energy emission. If his mass was being compressed by gravity, we would all have been obliterated by the radiation burst.
Then let us hope it was a sampling method. Yes.sinon conveyed a slight uncertainty with his thought. Shame it was Cochrane.
It could have been Ekelund.
Sinon watched the crystal slicing freely across the land. It had become a cometary streak. That may yet happen.
Annette Ekelund had established her new headquarters on top of the steep mound which used to be Ketton’s town hall. Rectangular sections of various buildings had been salvaged from the ruins all around and propped up against each other; energistic power modified them into heavy canvas tents printed with green and black jungle camouflage. Three of them contained the last remaining stocks of food. One served as an armoury and makeshift engineering shop where Milne and his team worked repairing the rifles which had been dug from the wet soil. The last, sitting right on the brow, was Annette’s personal quarters and command post. She had the netting rolled up at both ends, giving her a good view out across the island’s blotchy grey-brown land right to the scabrous edges. Maps and clipboards were strewn cross the trestle table in the centre. Coloured pencils had marked out the army’s defensive fortifications around Ketton, along with possible lines of attack based on scout reports of the terrain outside. Serjeant positions and estimated strengths were all indicated.
The information had taken days to compile. Right now Annette was paying it no heed; she was glaring at the captain who stood to attention in front of her. Soi Hon lounged back in his canvas chair at the side of the table, watching the scene with no attempt to hide his amusement.
“Five of the patrol refused to come back,” the captain said. “They just kept on walking, said they were going to pitch in with the serjeants.”
“The enemy,” Annette corrected.
“Yes. The enemy. There was only three of us left after that. We couldn’t force them back.”
“You are pathetic,” Annette told him angrily. “How you were ever considered officer material I don’t know. You don’t just go with your men on walks around the perimeter, you’re their leader for Christ’s sake. That means you know their vulnerabilities as well as their strengths. You should have seen this coming, especially now you can sense their raw emotional state. They should never have been allowed out to betray us like this. Your fault.”
The captain gave her a look of incredulous dismay. “This is ridiculous. Everyone here is worried shitless. I could see that in them clear enough. There’s no way of telling what they were going to do about it.”
“You should have known. You’re on null rations for thirty-six hours, and demoted to corporal. Now get back to your division, you’re a disgrace.”
“I dug up that food. I was in the shit up to my elbows for two days working for it. You can’t do this. It’s mine.”
“It will be in thirty-six hours. Not before.”
They stared at each other across the table. Sheets of paper stirred silently.
“Fine,” the ex-captain snapped. He stormed out.
Annette glared after him, furious at how slack everyone was becoming. Didn’t any of them understand how critical these times were?
“Well handled,” Soi Hon said, his voice verging on a sneer.
“You think he should go unpunished? You wouldn’t believe how fast things would unravel if I didn’t enforce order.”
“Your society would unravel. Not individual lives.”
“You think another kind of society can survive here?”
“Let go, and see what evolves.”
“That’s major bullshit, even by your standards.”
Soi Hon shrugged, unconcerned. “I’d love to know where you think we’re actually heading if not oblivion.”
“This realm offers us sanctuary.”
“Will you cut my ration if I make an observation?”
“It wouldn’t make any difference. I know you. You have your own little stash somewhere, I’m sure.”
“I have learned prudence, I don’t deny. What I suggest you consider is the possibility that the serjeants might be correct. This realm might offer us sanctuary if we were on a planet. However, this island does appear to be terribly finite.”
“It is, but the realm is not. We came here instinctively ; we knew this was the one place where we would be safe. It can be paradise, if we just believe in it. You’ve seen how our energistic power operates here. The effects take longer to form, but when they do the change is more profound.”
“Pity they can’t slowly grow us some food, or even air. I’d probably settle for a little more land.”
“If that’s what you think, why stay with me? Why not run away like all those weak fools?”
“You have the food secure, and there is no bush for me to hide in. Not even a single bush, in fact. Which pains me. This land is . . . not good. It has no spirit.”
“We can have what we want.” Annette was looking directly out of the open end of the tent at the sharp, close horizon. “We can give the land its spirit back.”