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The resulting chaos was perhaps more dangerous than true animosity. For as the
pentad grudgingly began to trust Jindigar and Krinata again, the herds
arrived.
Already, though, they saw a hive where they had expected to see a fortress and
armored troopers. The leaders of the stampede could not stop with all the tons
of hurtling flesh behind them but they turned away from the "hive" as a river
current cuts around a solid boulder.
Jarred out of the rapport, Krinata heard the hatch clang open, troopers' armor
clattering into the echoing darkness. The Commander's reedy Cassrian voice
called, "You can't stop them now! They're going to "
The deck shifted hard under them as something hit the fortress, and Krinata
tumbled off-balance into Jindigar.
TWELVE
Ad Hoc Oliat
Krinata was on hands and knees when the next impact jarred the unprotected
fortress. Then they came thick and fast, the vibration reaching deafening
proportions. Around them bulkheads deformed, stretching joints designed to
withstand energy-bolt fire in space, the stresses of takeoff and landing, or
the recoil of firing weapons but not without cushioning energy screens.
Soon cracks opened, connectors parted, and sparks showered. Momentarily
Krinata was gripped by deja vu infused with a sense of horror. Dying in agony.
Malevolent sand dunes. Cry of betrayal. "No!" she whispered, "it's not the
same now." She crawled to a bulkhead where, using both hands, she made it to
her feet.
Jindigar was sitting on the floor holding his head, the duad linkage bringing
Krinata only a hint of his pain as the fragile boundmind gestalt shattered.
The Cassrian Commander, even more dazed, stared at a cascade of sparks dousing
a pile of his troopers.
"Commander," called Jindigar over the roar from without and the growing babble
of voices within. "Can you deploy your auxiliary ground anchors? The mains
aren't holding!"
Brought back to himself, the Commander made it to his feet in a virtuoso
demonstration of suit armor handling. Swaying, he answered, "We lost them when
the tornadoes demolished the other two fortresses."
Jindigar wiped a smear of blood trickling from his nose and got to his feet,
standing knees bent, arms flowing to keep his balance. "Then let's get the rim
attitude jets going to keep us away from the cliff."
"Blew the circuits when we landed. My last technician is in sickbay,
unconscious. Onboard Sentient has lost too much circuitry to help."
Jindigar swore, then glanced at the pentad. They were climbing to their feet
by using the wall and each other, while the Outriders consulted in loud
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bellows. Jindigar called to them, "I have the fortress blueprints. If the
pentad can locate the problem, maybe I can fix it in time."
The Commander began an objection while Darllanyu as Outreach consulted the
others. Krinata grabbed at Jindigar's elbow to maintain her balance and
captured the Commander's attention. "Jindigar can do it if you can find him
the tools."
The Commander hesitated only a moment, then spoke into his communicator. But
Jindigar was having less luck. He moved to the pentad, arguing in Dushauni
Oliat jargon that Krinata couldn't follow. Then, in exasperation, he paced
away from them, hissing something that sounded like, "Clumsy amateurs!" He
turned to Krinata, summoning the duad. //Scan with me.//
It didn't come as words but as an urge to seek the integrity of the
fortress to reach for the gestalt that included the inanimate thing.
Tantalizing, the perception hovered at the edge of knowledge, giving them only
a few cryptic details of close-by functions. Just for a flash she realized
what Jindigar had had with Truth and Arlai when he hosted an exploring Oliat
aboard.
Jindigar hissed, frustrated, "No good. If a pentad can't make it, no duad
could, either."
Cy had now rigged some kind of a line over a track that ran the length of the
cargo bay. He handed the end to Jindigar, who absently accepted it. Keeping
his balance by swinging from the line, Jindigar rounded on the pentad while
the Outriders tore loose more cables and rigged more lines, the troopers
picking up the idea and doing likewise.
"We're going over that cliff," said Jindigar grimly.
The Outreach replied dispassionately, "Animals have already plunged over. The
people below are evacuating the area. There may be a pile of carcasses to
cushion our fall."
Jindigar spat, "The fall will split this fortress open."
The swarm of insectoidals was not far beyond the river now, the lead flyers
already flitting across the span of water in huge leaps, smaller mites carried
on their backs. Krinata's flesh puckered in revulsion but she thought the mass
of tiny bodies was beginning to deflect its course.
"What do you propose, Invert!" It wasn't Darllanyu speaking but the pentad,
gripped by fear of what logic suggested.
Krinata staggered toward them and yelled to be heard, "Those poor beasts out
there deserve to be saved as much as we do. If this is to be our world, we
have to act like it. With just a small amount of power to the shields, maybe
we could form a cushioning wall to keep them from going over the cliff!"
Jindigar looked from her to Threntisn, to Darllanyu, decision hardening his
features. "Threntisn has earned his proof of the Archive's condition. I'll
take your Center, with Krinata as my Outreach. I have the blueprints, you have
the perceptions. Your hands can use my skills we might be able to save a few
hundred animals and ourselves and this fortress for the community."
Jindigar's Oliat. Because he had a bare fifty years until Renewal, this would
be one of the shortest-lived Oliats on record. She could be part of that at
least until a Dushau could take her place. Again he was asking her for a
commitment without apprising her of the dangers. But this time she didn't
mind. It would be worth her life if they could pull it off. Their eyes met as
he added, "I renounce Inversion while bound to this Oliat, and so will
Krinata."
Five pairs of dilated indigo eyes locked onto her. With the duad wide-open,
she knew with Jindigar the factors they weighed with the swiftness only the
Oliat linkages could achieve. They had grieved with her and survived it. But
an Oliat link was closer. Would the tarnish on her soul rub off onto theirs?
But she and Jindigar had turned away from Inverting when the hivebinder had
constructed the vision of a hive over them.
She had things of her own to consider. While I'm in the Oliat I can't have
children or a husband. If she fell in love, it might kill them all. She had to
make up her mind to live celibate and helpless before the forces of this
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world. She'd never needed marriage, but celibacy wasn't her way of life,
either.
Opening her mouth to say, Surely you can find someone better than I, she saw
herself forever locked out of the awareness that had come to mean so much to
her. The sensory deprivation frightened her more than the risks. It won't be
for a whole fifty years.
Jindigar said, "We can't do skills-suffusion with less man an Oliat. Without
that there's not enough time. We can't even abandon the fortress now. We're
surrounded."
Suddenly Krinata was shamed at wasting time pondering her personal feelings.
"I don't know what oath you'd accept from me but I renounce Inversion for as
long as I'm part of Jindigar's Oliat, and I'll abide by the laws and customs
of Aliom even though I don't know what they all are right now."
After she'd said it Krinata waited, heart in her throat, hoping they'd accept
her, and fearing it.
With the duad wide-open she felt the pentad examining their balance. In the
back of her mind there grew a bizarre image of ten separate Dushau eyes
winking in a rippling pattern in rhythm with her own heart. Wispy Dushau
fingers combed through her emotions. Her throat constricted around a scream,
but she let them inspect sensing they sought to discern her place in the
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