Exiles of colsec (v1.0) by Unknown Author

Author:Unknown Author
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Some hours later, darkness had fallen over the forest of Klydor, and the night mist drifted in streamers over the empty clearing. Inside the shuttle, the group had made a silent and edgy meal from the food concentrate, and soon afterwards the day’s tensions had taken their toll. Rontal, Jeko and Heleth were sprawled on their makeshift beds, deeply asleep.

But Cord sat silently next to the open airlock, the laserifle across his lap. He was as weary as the others, but there would be no sleep for him for a while. Samella had shown him how to fire the rifle, and he was now standing guard—against two sepa~ rate dangers.

For one, the aliens were still roaming and prowling, among the trees just beyond the clearing. They had been spotted by Heleth, whose under’ ground life had given her an ability to see in the dark that seemed almost magical. And while Cord did not think that the forest beings would attack the shuttle, he was not taking any chances.

And then there was the Lamprey. He was squat’ ting at the far end of the area, seemingly tireless, staring silently at Cord with bright, unblinking eyes.

At the side of the area, Samella was working with fierce concentration on one of GUIDE’S disrupted memory banks. She had recovered now from the mysterious pain, but there were dark circles of fatigue and stress under her eyes. Yet the memory bank in her hands contained, she thought, data about Klydor, and she was anxious to restore it.

She’ll have to finish soon, Cord thought, so she can sleep. And somehow I’ll have to stay awake, to let her sleep.. ..

At that moment Samella stood up, stretching wearily. “That’s the best I can do, GUIDE.”

“Thank you for re-activating me,” the computer’s soft voice replied. “I can now supply data about the forest.”

“Go ahead,” Samella invited.

“The forest stretches over fifty-six square kilometres of one of Klydor’s largest land masses. ..”

“Leave the geography,” Samella broke in. “Tell us about the aliens, and the other creatures.”

“The humanoids,” GUIDE said imperturbably, “are Class 2G forest primitives, who could be said to be the ‘servants’ of the trees. The trees supply much of their food—hard-shelled fruit, gathered annually. And in return the humanoids tend the forest, planting and transplanting seedlings, removing other plant life and all dead trees. And they protect the trees from the large flesh-eating predators.”

“The worm-things,” Samella said.

“Correct,” GUIDE replied. And he went on to describe the quiet lives of the forest people, among the shadows of the great trees. Quiet lives that were interrupted only when some of the worm-things— which were somnolent much of the time—awoke to feed. The monsters ate most flesh, GUIDE said, but found it easiest to feed on the brains of the trees. “The what?” Cord asked.

“The growths on the trees are brains of a sort, and are sentient,” GUIDE continued. (“It means they have minds of some kind,” Samella interpreted.) “They can communicate with one another, and with the humanoids, so they will seek the humanoids’ aid when the predators threaten them.

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