The Xeno stepped back, in a disturbingly human-like way.
"ME LOVE YOU," signed Andreï in Stellar Tongue.
And the Xeno stepped back again to move away.
"It's impossible for it to speak Stellar Tongue, Captain," said Konrad, staring at the Xeno. "It was discovered at the other end of the universe only a few hundred years ago." "Konrad, the last time I saw one of this species, it spoke it perfectly."
The Xeno, now at a safe distance, turned around and fled quickly. They relaxed. Andreï made a report to the Alecto and proposed to follow the Xeno's trail.
"We're armed and ready. I think the nerve center of these Xenos is right on the other side of the planet. If we can be prepared, it will help us. Let's move."
They advanced beneath the hard-beating star. In the distance, a gas giant rose into the sky, filling a third of it. With a bit of luck, its rings would soon provide some shade.
"Captain," said Konrad, pressing the matter again. "You speak of a Xeno like this one, the one who traveled with the Saint of the Xenos-but it wouldn't be the first time two different species looked alike to our eyes."
"I keep an open mind, Konrad."
"My theory," said Pallas, "is that a group of humans came here to rescue Garen Antor. They may have wandered, like us, from planet to planet and brought back a specimen to the HS-not necessarily willingly. Many Xenos survive in the vacuum of space and travel by clinging to the outside of ships."
"If that's the case, we're wasting our time tracking these Xenos here, on this primitive planet."
"Keep an open mind, Konrad."
At last, the ring began to eclipse the sun. By the mathematical arcana of orbital trajectories, the occultation quickened, and night fell suddenly on their path. Konrad had barely said, "finally, some cool air," when they were shoved by great invisible shields. Their pupils had not yet adapted to the darkness, and the force rolled them several meters-where something else rose from the ground. When the sun suddenly reappeared, between two rings, they saw they were inside a large wooden cage whose floor was strewn with grass and excrement. Around the cage stood about ten stick-insect-like Xenos, upright and motionless.
Momoko and Margret shouldered their rifles.
"Captain Andreï, we're ready to fire on your command."
"That seems a bit excessive. Stay alert."
The sun vanished again, and the cage began to move-the Xenos were carrying it.
"Excuse my bluntness, Captain, but this is INSANITY! Come on, Geneva, tell him! What's next? They throw us in a big pot and eat us?" shouted Konrad.
"When we're in the pot, we'll see," said Andreï.
"The bindings of this cage are made of flexible wood. Probably a hunting tool, judging by the droppings on the floor. One blast from a discharger and we're free," said Geneva.
"Very well. Pallas, send a report on our situation and tell the Alecto to enter orbit and follow us closely. I'd like your opinion on their mental resistance."
"They're Xenos, so those are complex interventions," said Pallas, "but I can undoubtedly influence their emotions-to frighten them, if they're capable of fear."
Andreï leaned against one side of the cage.
"I know what you're thinking… You're thinking every minute counts. That these Xenos are sentients from a pre-medieval era who will bring nothing to our mission. That we must absolutely keep doing something-but what? I feel the same. I have no next step. Yes, perhaps, somewhere in the worlds of Multitude, there are other sentient species of interplanetary or interstellar type. Perhaps even the Blind Gods exist somewhere. If that's the case, there may be a trace of them here. Because, whether you like it or not, there's a mysterious link-though we try to deny it-between the Xeno I saw in Francisco's orbit and these ones. Let's wait. You've all had a year of training in handling Xeno contact and emergency situations. We're going to put all that into practice."
And so the cage was jostled for two hours before reaching a strange heap of large dry branches gathered into a spectacular tipi. The Xenos pulled them aside to reveal what seemed to be a great rectangular carved stone. The stone was as tall as a good-sized house and twice as wide.
"Geneva, record everything," murmured the Captain, impressed.
The carvings depicted geometric creatures gathered around a great triangle, and stars were falling from them to illuminate the stick-insect Xenos. The stars formed a message in Stellar Tongue:
ME PROTECT YOU
YOU PROTECT ME
The geometric creatures. No one said a word, but everyone was thinking of the Blind Gods.
The cage was harnessed onto the stone with sturdy ties and wedged in place with large rough rocks.
Then, amid smoke whose cold wisps drifted into the cage, the stone began to rise-and sped silently along a stone pathway carved into the ground, overgrown with grass and small animals. Not a sound.
"Magnetic levitation by superconductivity?" asked Geneva.
"So much for the primitives and their giant stewpot," commented Andreï toward Konrad.
"Maybe we'll be served on a white tablecloth, prepared by master chefs then," Konrad said darkly.
The speed kept increasing, soon reaching five hundred kilometers per hour, then seven hundred. A poor leather-winged bird was caught in the slipstream and decapitated by a bar of the cage. They put on their helmets to withstand the whipping air, which was somewhat deflected by large stones. The Alecto confirmed it was tracking their position-both through orbital observation and via Konrad 2.
During the transit period, the Captain's gaze met Pallas's. She probed his mind, and he sent her this thought:
"Ravzan secretly sends the New Horizon here through an infiltrated agent and kills the crew aboard. They find Garen and bring him back. Just before his discovery, he exfiltrates Garen, and we later find the New Horizon drifting in space. But that doesn't explain Garen's powers. That said... there are fifty years between the return of the New Horizon and that of Garen. That leaves time to prepare-or to find some Transient Artifact lying around in the military vaults. Have we really scanned all of Lodovico's reserves?"
"Your explanation is very tempting," replied the Captain aloud, surprising the others. "I'm almost convinced. But when I look at him, that almost feels deep and vast as the interstellar abyss."
They decelerated before the edge of a jungle that loomed on the horizon like a tsunami wave-and like a tsunami, kept rising higher, forming a mass of green mountains. But it was indeed the oversized canopy of an immense vegetation.
At the heart of this jungle, with its huge ochre trunks covered in moss, haunted by sinister arachnoids, shadowy birds, and monstrous centipedes, the stone came to a stop and the cage was unloaded. The Xenos carried it down a stone stairway, and only after an hour, in the sudden darkness of the woods, did Geneva notice they were following a ramp that descended into one of the planet's great channels, with the ravine's walls entirely carved.
When they reached the bottom-it took hours-they were led to the center of the canyon. The canopy opened above, and they saw that the sun had set and the stars were appearing in the sky, though their eyes were drawn to the silver arrow of the Alecto.
Before them stretched the giant golden serpent of a river as wide as the Amazon, flowing through the channel. Its water glowed from within, as if filled with luminescent plankton. And ahead, lit by the golden river, stood a great sculpted temple-cyclopean, a shelter for titans-its carvings impossible to make out from this distance.
The cage was set down behind the temple, in darkness. The golden light drew in the shadows the outlines of enormous trees along the canal. A few tremors-movements among the Xenos in the temple, likely conversing on subjects utterly incomprehensible to them.
The Captain assigned night watches, but no one truly felt like sleeping. Human-Xeno encounters abounded in fiction and were the daily bread of xenobiologists-often idealists, sometimes with suicidal tendencies-but to live one was rare indeed. Fear wasn't tangible, but excitement was. They shared their last nutrition bars. Andreï remained silent. He seemed to be waiting.
"I don't like to be the killjoy," said Pallas, "but I'm pessimistic about what we'll find here. Dialogue seems impossible. I feel like I'm seeing a civilization that has degenerated, or that's reusing the benefits of another it once conquered."
"There are the geometric figures. Aren't we here to find the Blind Gods?"
"Geneva, surely I don't need to tell you that mathematical representations of the Blind Gods are everywhere? Civilizations inherit them from the beliefs of the Transients. Tell her, Konrad."
Konrad had leaned against one of the bars of their cage. He lifted his eyes toward the Alecto in the sky, barely visible now among the stars.
"Oh Alecto, with your food and drink, your clean floors and your lack of smell-or hostile Xenos... your soft beds... I miss you. Oh Alecto..." he sang mournfully.
He broke off mid-song, as if struck in the throat. Gasping, he murmured, "Captain…"
Everyone stood and looked at him-but he was pointing at the sky. They all searched for ships up there, or even the dwelling place of the Blind Gods-but only Andreï saw and understood.
And what he saw defied imagination. Trembling, he gripped the bars.
The sky of that mysterious planet was filled with stars forming brilliant constellations.
And each constellation was a glyph of the Stellar Tongue.
Some god-or supreme power-had literally written a message in the sky by moving distant suns, a message visible only from this planet.
The Captain translated, hardly believing it:
THE PILGRIM BE YOU
THE PILGRIM TOUCH THE FORM OF THREE
THE PILGRIM STRAIGHTEN TIME
THE PILGRIM MEET US THE PILGRIM RECEIVE KEY OF [the glyph was incomprehensible, so the Captain said "something"]
WE LOVE YOU
REASON BE
WE BE YOU
With an awed sigh, the Captain added, "I never really believed in the Blind Gods. In truth, the possibility of their existence was just convenient for me. But now... my crew... I'm beginning to believe. Yes, I'm beginning to believe for real."