He studied the inverted world. Was it the same as this one? A mirror image, even? Widespread green swathes mostly covered it, also sparkling inland seas and wandering veins that could be rivers. There were also brown patches, deserts perhaps. He didn’t recall seeing any of those on the approach to the lower world.
Cloud drifted over the upper landscape. It suddenly struck him that both worlds were in broad daylight.
Peering through the encompassing forest, he was able to locate a small bright sun—presumably another artificial sun like those which lit Erspias 1 and 2. It sent down slanting rays from a position near the rim of the upper world.
Examining it carefully, noting the shallow angle of its rays, he realized that it was ‘set’ from the other world’s point of view. It was not currently visible there at all.
Where, then, was the upper world getting its light from?
The question would have to wait. Stepping from the platform, Laedo descended the stairway. Once outside the station’s resident gravity field he was surprised by an abrupt drop in body-weight.
Experimentally he jumped off the step, to find himself floating slowly to the ground.
Evidently Erspia-3’s gravity was maintained at only a fraction of Earth-normal. Why was that?
Behind him, Histrina was also experiencing reduced weight. To her, it was a complete novelty. It had merely puzzled her when she saw Laedo falling with the slowness of a leaf, and on stepping down the stairs the new sensation left her confused. Unlike Laedo she was not accustomed to walking in low gravity and she bounced along the turf like a balloon.
Turning to him, she laughed the laugh of a delighted child on some fairground amusement, jumping high in the air and giggling uncontrollably as she sedately descended.
Laedo smiled. “You walk like this, see?” He showed her how to step with sliding movements which did not send one rocketing upward. She quickly mastered the trick, but for the moment seemed more interested in leaping about with abandon.
Laedo meanwhile stood quietly gazing about him. The being or beings who had made the Erspia worlds had a real talent for it, there was no question about that. A forest of normal-sized oaks might look like this to a small animal such as a squirrel, he told himself. He saw no sign of animals of any kind, but one would not necessarily see animals in a Harkio forest straight away. Arboreal creatures were good at keeping out of sight.
He recollected the flying creatures he had seen. Peering up through the foliage, he squinted.
Here they came again.
A clarion call sounded through the aerial glades. Flit turned to Gauzewing, trying to put a look of courage on his delicate features.
“We are called to arms.”
Both tilted their faces to the sky, searching for the tell-tale glints that would precede a gnome attack. So far, though, there was nothing to see. The gnome-world overhead glared at them balefully, but passively.
Perhaps the gnomes were trying something new.
“Go into the forest with the other women, Gauzewing,” Flit ordered. “Wait until it’s safe.”
“Oh, let me come and see what happens,” she implored. “I’ll fly away quickly if there’s fighting, I promise.”
Flit knew he could not change her mind once she had come to a decision. “Stay to the rear, then,” he said.
Then he was off, launching himself into the air and flying swiftly towards the armoury, past numerous tree-villages one would scarcely see unless one already knew they were there. He dipped under the forest cover until he came to the local military training camp.
The camp was unusual, for fairy habitations, in being on the ground. Gauzewing alighted on an overhead tree branch on the edge of the clearing, so slender it almost bent under her weight. Flit meanwhile fluttered to the entrance of the large storage hut.
In the glade there was an air of excitement. Other fairy men were descending on the clearing, consternation on their faces. A sergeant thrust a bow and quiver of arrows at Flit.
“Here, put these on. Did you see the strange object? It’s landed somewhere by the Arn stream.”
“Yes, I saw it. Are you sure it’s from up above?”
“Where else would it be from? We don’t make anything like that. Probably packed with a hundred gnomes. Let’s make short work of them.”
He ushered Flit out of the camp, together with everyone else who had been issued arms, to make way for the others who were arriving.
Flit found himself with the first troop to set out. They flew low over the tree cover. Glancing back, Flit spotted Gauzewing following at a distance, gliding from hiding place to hiding place in the treetops.
The clearing through which the Arn stream flowed came into view. And there was the huge, frightening gnome thing, bigger than any tree house, bigger even than the great lodges which spread over three trees or more for holding festive gatherings. Despite all the brave talk, the fairies did not launch themselves into an immediate attack. They flew round the edge of the clearing while the marshals discussed what to do.
Down below were two figures, who had presumably emerged from the giant round thing. One was jumping up and down, the other was simply gazing around as if in wonderment. The fairies had expected gangs of ferocious gnomes to come rushing out, killing everyone in sight, and the turn of events puzzled them.
Eventually the air marshal selected Flit and another trooper, Flutter, to take a closer look. Flit saw Gauzewing put her hands to her face in fright as she realized what was afoot, but he steeled himself to risk his life. He and Flutter swooped down, straight for the strangers.
The figure which had been jumping about stopped on noticing the fairies and stood staring at the surrounding troop with no apparent sign of alarm. Neither figure carried anything which looked like a weapon, which Flit also thought unusual. He and his comrade swooped so low towards the two that they could clearly see the expressions on their faces. Then their shimmering wings carried them up again to make their report.
“Well,” barked the air marshal, standing on a winding bough, “are they gnomes?”
“Yes,” said Flit.
“No,” said Flutter at the same time.
The air marshal looked from one to the other.
“They must be gnomes,” Flit insisted. “They don’t have wings.”
“They don’t have wings,” Flutter agreed, “but they are not gnomes. They look more like us.” He glanced sidelong at Flit. “You can see they’re not gnomes.”
“What else can they be if they don’t have wings?” Flit argued in puzzlement.
Once more the air marshal peered down into the clearing.
Suddenly Gauzewing was by their side. “I think one of them’s a girl!” she proclaimed.
Before they could stop her she had spread her wings and was lunging fearlessly in a steep glide into the clearing. Pulling herself up sharp, she dropped her feet on the grass before the two visiting strangers.
Above her towered the metal wall of the strange flying building. She glanced at it only briefly, before looking directly into the faces first of the woman, then the man.
“Hello,” she said.
Laedo was astounded.
They weren’t birds, or bats, or flying reptiles.
They were people.
On first seeing them circling the clearing, Laedo had assumed them to be wearing nullgrav packs. He hadn’t quite believed his eyes on sighting the shimmer of dragonfly-type wings. Only when two of their number descended into the clearing for a closer look, hurriedly returning to their perches, had he realized the truth.
A fair-sized number of the winged humans were looking down on them, and they all carried primitive weapons—spears, bows and arrows—causing Laedo’s hand to go instinctively to the gun at his waist.