The Complete Book of Gree by C. C. MacApp

Author:C. C. MacApp
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pirata Press
Published: 2017-07-19T16:00:00+00:00

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He squirmed back from the edge and automatically looked around before getting up. He saw something against one of the white peaks. Dots; in a line, seeming to rise from the mountainside. He grunted a warning to Fazzool, and let his mind race over the way behind them. No cover near enough. He watched the dots begin to scatter in all directions, including this. It would have to be the basin, and fast.

He got some bad bumps sliding down, and again envied Fazzool his tough hide. They got to the first bushes and he looked back. The sun, at its present angle, didn't make their trail too conspicuous.

They separated until they could just keep track of each other, and crawled under bushes. Minutes passed. Steve got out some cooked meat and chewed on it; swigged water. They'd have to stay here until dark, at least, if they weren't discovered before. While he had the chance, he noticed the fly-eyes in the shrubs around him. They had some kind of symbiosis with the plants, as he'd begun to guess. There were immature ones attached to (maybe growing out of) twigs, matured ones leaving and others coming to attach themselves. In the grass were dead ones, with something like ants working on them. Whoever had set this up had been thorough. They reproduced here—that kept them coming back—and they even died here, to provide fertilizer. He was sure they brought some kind of visual impressions, whether anyone ever read them any more or not. There was no telling how long the thing had been self-perpetuating. Mechanical weapons could rust or wear out, or be ruined by earthquakes, or lose their charges. An ecology like this might go on doing its job for eons. He was pretty sure it wasn't intended for a system of defense—what defense couldn't be breached?—but for an alarm.

The chances were that the objects rising from the mountain meant the alarm had been heard. But they still didn't necessarily know anyone had crossed the moat.

He wasn't surprised, though, when a number of the objects ringed the basin and descended into it. They were a little bigger than Gree sentry globes. He lay perfectly still, but they set up a search pattern and nosed him out quickly. One hovered and incinerated a small circle of ground a few feet from him.

There was no use pretending he didn't get the message. He crawled out and stood up, feeling more disgust than anything else. He'd just gotten too used to his luck, and stretched it too far. Interrogation was the least he could expect; vivisection the worst. Fortunately, he could tell all he knew about Gree and enjoy it.

They let the globes herd them toward the mound in the center.

When they were near it and enringed by the globes, dirt broke upward from the top of the mound and a humanoid figure appeared, obviously supported and protected by some kind of a field. Steve gasped and had to fight panic and the old feel of guilt; the residue of old conditioning.

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