Chapter Seven
I stepped into a deep gray world that had an atmosphere as thick as the heaviest fog I had ever encountered, a boggy stench, and was alive with swarms of buzzing insects, some of which emitted slow pulses of colored light. The ground felt spongy underfoot. It appeared to be a thick layer of soggy mulch, although no leafy plants were visible to account for it.
“Welcome to the Basin, Fallon,” said Missus Grier, loud enough to be heard over the incessant hums, cricks, croaks, and buzzes. “Above you is almost a kilometer of mist. It is next to impossible to tell day from night down here. Yet there are gargantuan trees that reach almost to the top of the mist. They have wide, flat canopies and thrive on the moist soil, the nutrients provided by their own rotting leaves, and the little sunlight they can gather. Also, as you can see, there is an abundance of life down here, most of which is harmless."
The word "most" stuck in my mind.
"Usually, it is comfortably warm," she continued. "However, with the approaching convergence, it will cool down rapidly. By the time we reach our destination, this fog will begin to condense into rain and the settling will occur. As Sean told you earlier, to observe the protocol, we will travel mostly in silence. When your task is finished, we will answer any and all questions you might have. Look, listen, and make mental notes. You can record your thoughts during our rest periods, if you wish.”
“I’ll take the lead,” said Bedford. “You follow behind me, lad.”
We followed a string of lamps mounted on posts a little over a meter tall. The cable connecting the lamps served as a guideline. Sean explained that the number of lamps in each string had a limit, so the illumination was broken into runs. Each run began and ended at a large post that held two static boxes—one for each direction of lights. At the end of every fourth run was a way station.
We hiked at a brisk pace and our lights only penetrated fifteen-or-so meters, but I scanned the area around me constantly in an effort to record as much as I could in my mind. It was the flying bugs that demanded my attention at first. They were everywhere. Some were the size of a mote of dust, and seemed to drift in the thick atmosphere. Others flew on wings that spanned the width of my outstretched hand. Then there were the knots of the illuminated bugs that seemed to rise from the ground in swirling clouds when they were disturbed.
"We call them luminaires," said Bedford, as if he could read my thoughts. "Because they often seem to clump together, you might think they are all one type of insect, but they're not. Each color is a different species–a female of the species to be more accurate. They pulse to attract a mate. Unfortunately for them, they attract more than mates. Watch closely the next time we rouse cluster. There!"
A many-colored cloud rose from the damp ground.
"You see?"
"Yes. The bigger bugs swooped in. They eat the luminaires?"
"That's the way of life down her in the Basin."
A bit further on we passed through a range of rock formations that formed undulating mounds some three meters high. They looked like more like large cauliflowers than rocks.
The second run of lights skirted the mammoth trunk of a tree that took more than four minutes to pass. The bark was like that of trees from the surface, but the scale of its craggy surface was staggering. A person could comfortably fit into the crevices formed by the splitting bark. Someone could easily scale the tree by traversing the network of crevices. Is that how Missus Grier new the height of the trees and about their wide canopies?
We wended our way through, over, and under a system of roots that could be as thick as a man is tall. At one point, we were assaulted by a vile smell. Nestled in the fork of a root was a mammoth gnarled object that I recognized immediately. It was a fungus–and if what I knew about fungi on the surface held true in this alien world, it was the edible kind. Globs of some sort of jelly-like substance clung to portions of the fungus. Various colored luminaires hovered around the gelatinous globs.
Bedfordraised a hand. "Let's stop for a minute and for the lad sake."
The smell was enough to make me gag. "I'm quite all right, sir. Let's move on."
Sean draped an arm over my shoulders and inhaled deeply. "The smell isn't too much for you, is it, Fallon?"
"No, of course not." I inhaled deeply to prove I was as much a man as he. Half a breath was enough to make me double over and dry-wretch.
"That was rather brutal of you, brother o' mine," said Seamus.
"You are incorrigible, Sean," said Missus Granger as she rubbed my back soothingly. Are you all right, Fallon?"
"Yes, ma'am. I don't need a break. Really."
"I didn't say we should stop to give you a break, lad. I said we should stop for your sake. You should see this." He gestured toward the fungus. "It is a rare sight."
"Bradford's right," said Missus Grier, sounding as if she just understood what Bedfordmeant. "It is something we should have you document. We have written accounts, of course, but no visual record. Can you stand the odor a while longer?"
I straightened myself out, hand pressed firmly against my stomach. "Yes, ma'am." I tried not to groan or sound whiney, but I don't think I succeeded.
Seamus pushed Sean toward me. "Go on you bastard, apologize."
"I… I'm sorry, Fallon." His repentant expression was not at all convincing, "I wouldn't have done it if I didn't like you." The corners of his mouth twitched then broadened into a smile. "Honest." He held his hand up in the sign of peace.
I couldn't help myself. As I returned the gesture, I began to laugh. The twins joined in.
Sean stepped close, wrapped his arms around me, and said quietly, "Sorry, little brother. Truly, I am."
Little brother! I didn't know whether it was just a figure of speech and I didn't care. That was the first time in my life anyone had treated my like family.
"Enough with the bonding, already," Seamus protested. "Let Fallon see what he should see so we can get out of this wretched place."
Missus Grier pointed at a particular puddle of dark goo that rested in a bowl of the fungus. "There's an entire cycle of life to be observed here. See that darker material. That's the remains of two or more adult creatures. To bad there isn't a live adult for you to see. When they are ready to mate, the adults are attracted to the scent of the conjugal plant."
"The giant fungus."
"That is correct. Oh, you are a lucky charm, young man. Look, over there."
A translucent organism floated through the mist. It looked like a fancy gelatin mold of unique design, with a multitude of fine tentacles dangling and writhing beneath. The tips of the tentacles pulsed in the same colors as the luminaires, snagging any insect that came to prey on the smaller insects. The creature looked too heavy to float. Yet it was deadly graceful as its tentacles danced through the air selecting this bug, then that.
"As far as we can tell, there is not a male and female of the species," said Bedford. "But when two or more adults come into contact over a conjugal plant, they embrace each other."
"It's the embrace of death," said Sean.
"And life," said Missus Grier. "As their tentacles intertwine, they sting each other, just as they sting the insects they snare. They fall to the conjugal plant below and decay into the dark, syrupy material I first showed you. The pool nourishes both the fungus and the ten or more embryonic creatures contained within it."
"Those clear globules are juvenile creatures," said Bedford. "The fungus eats more than half of the infant creatures. The ones that survive form tentacles and begin to capture insects. As the insects are digested, the creature fills with gas and expands. Eventually, the buoyancy of the gas is more than the weight of the creature, and it rises from the fungus to hunt the mist until it returns to begin the cycle anew."
"All this is possible because the poor creature doesn't have an asshole and can't fart," said Sean.
"Well then," said Seamus, "you're in no danger of floating away on the breeze, are you? 'Cuz you're the biggest asshole I know."
– End Chapter Seven –
