The Day of the Ness by Andre Norton & Michael Gilbert (illus)

Author:Andre Norton & Michael Gilbert (illus) [Norton, Andre & Gilbert, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: children's, SF, aliens
ISBN: 9780802761958
Google: U0goNQAACAAJ
Publisher: Walker
Published: 1975-07-15T07:00:00+00:00

FIVE: IN THE WORKSHOP

The Rav once more pulled at Hal’s wrist.

“Come.”

“But …” Hal began, although he wanted more time to think through his plan.

“Come—Ness there—Stalker needs help to get great cut-through thing,” the small alien stated firmly.

Hal looked at his bare hands. All he had were his flashlight, the knife he had brought to trade, and the now-empty soda bottle. Was the Rav suggesting that they would have to fight off the Ness so that the Stalker could get what was needed? He wanted to protest against any such idea, but again he remembered Dad’s repeated suggestion that it was always best to wait and see.

So once more he followed the Rav at his best speed through one of the tunnels. The Stalker whisked ahead; only the fluttering of his robe made him visible. And Susie bounded along behind the alien to whom she seemed to have taken a fancy from the first, while the Rav came third and Hal fourth. The boy wished he could get to his feet again. He was beginning to feel badly cramped; perhaps when he stood up his arms and legs would be full of kinks.

But at last the Stalker stopped. The tunnel looked as if it had come to a blank end. There was no sign of any door or grating.

Those antennae under the Stalker’s hood were weaving a fast pattern in the air, up and down, back and forth. He faced the blank wall as if it were covered with some very important message. Hal hunched up to watch. The alien was so intent on what he was doing that Hal knew better than to ask any questions.

Now the busy antennae pointed like fingers straight toward the wall and stiffened. Hal saw the widening crack, just as he had seen the crack at the trading rock which had, after so many years, revealed the entrance to the aliens’ hiding place. This was a similar door, and the Stalker was opening it as if it had turned a special key and given the proper push.

But this door was not as wide as the one to the outer world. In fact, its slit was so narrow that Hal was certain he could not slip through it. Perhaps it was made so that the Ness could not get out into the tunnel.

Through the slit, however, came the first real sounds Hal had heard since he had watched the Ness on his whip-cracking tour above the alien town. There was a whirring and a steady clank-clank, which could only come from some kind of machinery.

The Stalker moved forward. He stood right at the slit door, one of his long hands gripping the surface on either side, his antennae still stiff. Hal held his breath. The alien seemed so cautious that the boy felt, too, the need for great wariness.

The Rav’s hand gripped his wrist.

“This place the Ness hold. Here our people must make what the Ness want—things of metal and things of stone—Ness take them all. Bad place—Ness watch all the time.

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