Under Nameless Stars by Christian Schoon

Author:Christian Schoon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Osprey Publishing Ltd
Published: 2014-03-28T04:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

“The Shepherds,” Treth whispered. “Could it be?”

Fane reached out and gripped the Groom by the arm, both of them staring awestruck at the looming Khurspex.

The aliens held themselves on four stout back legs, with two small, arm-like tendrils waving before their erect upper bodies, giving them the appearance of distorted centaurs. The two tendrils extending from the torso ended in four flexible appendages at their tips, something like an elephant’s trunk.

Even in the present situation, Zenn found herself straining for a better look at these beings – it wasn’t every day one encountered an entirely new species, let alone an intelligent, technologically advanced species.

As the creatures moved further into the light, she realized each Khurspex was not merely a single animal, but a symbiont – a cooperative unit made up of multiple individual creatures.

The “back end” appeared to be some kind of quadruped, its four triple-jointed legs holding up a separate, barrel-shaped creature that was topped by the large, projecting head. The central “torso” creature appeared to have a short, muscular tail that fit snugly into the length of a groove that furrowed the back of the leg section, holding the two animals tightly together. The head was a third, separate creature, slightly darker in color and almost all braincase and facial area, with a pair of tentacle-like arms gripping the central chest section below it. The face, long and flat beneath the globular skull, tapered to a narrow-tipped snout. There were two eyes: visible, bright pink, sunk in narrow slits. Within the lipless mouth, a small, shiny black beak opened and closed, as if tasting the air. Most remarkably, the smooth, rounded forehead flickered with a display of soft, multihued light that shimmered and flowed just beneath the surface.

Zenn could also see that the Khurspex’s epidermal layer of skin appeared to be peeling off in ragged sheets and dangling strings, as if the animal was molting its outer layer. Occasionally, one or the other of the two would shudder slightly, then recover.

Zenn knew there were other instances of multi-animal colonies of organisms living as a single being, like the Portuguese man-of-war in the oceans of Earth and a few symbiont tree-dwelling crustaceans from the Sirenian rainforests. But these were lower-order examples, uncomplicated, and only functioning at the simplest level. And Cepheians like Ambassador Noom, of course, were symbiotic but consisted of the same species. The Khurspex, however, looked to Zenn like an example of complex multispecies integration that was undreamt of in Accord science.

As the creatures moved up next to Pokt, the crowd pulled back further. The jostling pushed one group of passengers away from the fire light surrounding their barrel, closer to the doorway where Zenn and the others crouched. In the shadows of the saloon, one of those in this group stopped, looked in their direction, and stared. Had he seen them? It was too dark to see the person’s face or to know if they’d been discovered.

“Back. Go back,” the Captain whispered, harshly. They returned down the corridor till they came to an open cabin.

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