The Final Nexus
by David Clarke
Chapter 16
"Hello again," I said. "This is High Captain Aarnist, and this is Irfan ved Meluan of the Clan of the East, and this is Viisas Gordiss of... somewhere or other..."
"Poicheeme," said Irfan's voice in my head.
"Poicheeme, right," I went on. "And these three are... colleagues of Irfan..."
I hadn't been formally introduced to the other three Konjäauml;ssiem, and had just been thinking of them as 'The Three Musketeers', which I guessed was good enough.
"You know Stefan, of course, and this is Sam Amesbury Two. And we're here because we need to ask for a favour. The High Captain is investigating the death of one of the boys who died while we were on our way back last year - you remember I told you about that? Well, he wants to interview the Grey boys who were with us in order to get a witness statement from them. And so we need you to open us a portal into the Grey world."
Mr Narj stared at me. "You've come all this way just to get a witness statement?" he asked.
"The High Captain is very anxious to prove to his superiors that when he investigates something he does a thorough job," I said.
"Yes, he must be. Are you sure there isn't more to it? Something you're not telling me?"
There was a lot I wasn't telling him, but I was in no position to say so.
"Not really," I said. I turned and spoke to Aarnist in Arvelan. "Would you like me to broach the subject of portal technology now, or would you prefer to wait until we get back from the reptile world?" I asked.
"You can ask, if you like. Just float the question and let's see what happens."
"Well," I said, reverting to Kerpian, "the thing is, the Arvelans have managed to open some portals of their own - in fact they've found a place where there's a really ancient Nexus. You might be interested in that at some point in the future: there are ancient instruction sheets and everything. But they're still in the very early stages, and Aarnist was hoping that you might perhaps be prepared to help them learn more about the whole science of portals."
"I'm not sure about that," said Mr Narj, looking troubled. "It was one thing to share the technology with the people from Elsass: they're clearly a settled and peaceful people, and they had things to offer in return: access to the Tammids, in particular. We don't know anything about Arvel other than what you told us last year, and that wasn't exactly a glowing reference: slavery, a history of warfare, and all that stuff about mental domination and forcing people to do things they don't want to. I'm sure the High Captain can recognise that we don't want to give the science to someone who might easily use it against us, or against our allies."
"I don't thinkthey'd be likely to do that," I said, emphasising the 'think' to hint that I had serious doubts - I hoped Irfan wouldn't pick up on a nuance of language like that. "Aarnist saysthey're more interested in finding empty worlds they can use for mineral extraction, or for colonisation with their growing population."
"But you're not sure?"
That was far too dangerous to answer directly.
"All I can say is that so far the High Captain hasn't broken his word to me," I said.
"Well, obviously I can't decide something like that myself," said Mr Narj. "I'd need authority from Temishar before I could enter into negotiations with a foreign power, and they'll certainly want to send someone senior from the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Tomorrow is an Ertday, but I can send the necessary mail to Kirai Gabor, the Under-Minister, this evening, and we should get a reply in two days' time.
"As for going into the Grey World, I'd advise against it. Although we were on fairly good terms with the ones who got stranded here when you sabotaged their portal, they're not the friendliest of people."
"We know," I said. "The Arvelans managed to open a portal into their world and we went visiting. We were probably lucky to get out in one piece. But it'll be easier over in the Black Forest: first, I can speak the language, and second, if we get as far as the school I know several of the boys there, and I've met their director, too."
"So they speak a different language where you opened the other portal? That's interesting. I suppose it's logical that they have different languages, though... well, if you're absolutely sure you want to go I don't see why we can't arrange it. I'd better send a message to Hub One and tell them we'll need a team there tomorrow."
I translated this for Aarnist.
"Tomorrow?" he queried. "Why not today?"
"It's too late," said Mr Narj. "It takes about an hour to get to Hub One, and then it'll probably take you a little while to sort things out on the Grey side before they let you go to the school - if they do, of course. By the time you get there it'll be dark. You don't want to be over there in the dark, and we certainly don't want to open a portal to bring you back in the dark. Obviously we're not going to leave the portal open while you're there, and we want to see clearly what is waiting for us when we reopen it to bring you back. So you'll have to stay here tonight and make the journey tomorrow, and if you're going to be travelling on an Ertday I need to get on the radio now and make the arrangements. Otherwise you'll arrive at Hub One and find that everyone has gone out for the day."
I explained that to Aarnist, and although he clearly wasn't happy, he accepted it, mainly because there was no alternative. Mr Narj went to the office to make his calls, and we waited for him by the arch.
By now the hall had been cleaned up and redecorated, and so there was no longer any sign of the fight we had had there in the summer of 2009. Instead of smelling of petrol and gunpowder, the hall now smelled only of fresh paint.
Mr Narj came back ten minutes later and said that he had arranged for a team of scientists to be available at Hub One the following day, and that he had also transmitted a request for technical assistance for Arvel to the Ministry in Temishar.
"Of course, we're after office hours now - you know what civil servants are like," he said. "That means they won't get the message until the day after tomorrow. But I've marked it 'Very Urgent', so hopefully they'll get straight to it as soon as they open it. Now, as far as tonight is concerned, you can either go back down to Ortsvill or Oriavar and find a hotel - actually, I don't think there is one in Ortsvill because it's too small, so you'd probably have to go right down to Oriavar - or we can put you up here. Our accommodation is a bit basic, but it will save you some money."
I translated that, and Aarnist said straight away that we would stay here. So Mr Narj took us upstairs to the dining hall, where we got a meal that was rather better than the rough-and-ready fare I'd served up when I'd used that same kitchen, and then Irfan told me that the three of us were going to bed.
"But it's still early!" I protested.
"I don't care. I want you safely out of things. I know that means we won't be able to communicate very easily, but that doesn't matter. Besides, if anything important happens I can always wake you up."
He took us to the far end of the dormitory and told us to get ready for bed, and fifteen minutes later he came and shut us all down. And the next thing I knew he was shaking my shoulder and telling me that it was morning and time to get up.
"Time for breakfast," he told me. "Then we'll be on our way. So far you seem to have been sensible - mind it stays that way!"
We got up, washed, dressed and ate breakfast in the dining hall, and then the whole party went downstairs. Mr Narj was waiting for us, and so was a unit of militia.
"Just a precaution," he assured me. "It's been a while since we had any contact with the Greys, and if we're going to open a portal into their world I want to make sure nothing unfortunate happens. So, if you're ready..?"
"Just a moment," I said, and I turned to Irfan.
"You guys are going to need your hands free if you're going to be able to deal with the Greys," I said. "I know there's no point in asking you to leave Stefan behind, but why don't we leave Sam here? He can't speak Kerpian, so he can't cause trouble for you."
"No, I don't think so," said Irfan. "I don't think we'll need to control him, or Stefan either, once we're through the portal - after all, what are they going to do in the reptile world, especially since neither of them can speak the language? No, I think it's a much better idea if we keep the party together. Come along."
And he made a 'carry on', gesture to Mr Narj, who turned and led us into the Capsule station.
Damn, I thought, another idea bites the dust. I wasn't completely surprised, but it was a pity, all the same. Now we would just have to hope that my mother found my message and got it to Jean-Patrick before we came back from Hub One.
The Capsule had obviously been repaired as soon as the renovations had started. Probably there hadn't been a lot to do to get it back into operation: as far as I'd been able to tell, it was simply a problem with the power supply that had caused it to leave us stranded between the two Hubs back in 2009. This time it ran smoothly, and although the journey took almost an hour - which was longer than our one completed journey in it had taken - we arrived at the other end without incident.
Hub One looked a lot better than it had the last time we'd seen it, too. Mr Narj went into the office briefly and returned with a pair of men in white coats, and then he led us along a tunnel to the Nexus Room. The ramp up to the Grey checkpoint was still there, which surprised me a little.
"We'll probably take it out eventually," he said when I asked about it. "But we've been using it to bring in materials for the repairs: it saved us having to dig a new shaft. And of course the Greys put in a proper road up to the checkpoint, too, which helps. Now... you know how this works: we'll open a temporary portal here, which we'll close as soon as you're through it. We'll reopen it at regular intervals... how long do you think it'll take?"
"I should think it's about twenty minutes... sorry, about six huszaks - each way, and then we'll need maybe half a kend for the actual interview. And it'll probably take a while to persuade them to let us go down to the school at all - we should probably allow another half a kend or so for that. Let's say anything from a kend to a kend and a half, depending how quickly we can persuade them. On the other hand, they might just turn us down flat, and if they do I don't want to be stuck over there for ages until the portal reopens. So I'd suggest you open it after about five huszaks, in case they tell us to get lost, and if we're not there then, try again a kend later, and after that at intervals of half a kend. Does that sound reasonable?"
"I should think so. But if we open the portal and see the remotest sign of Grey soldiers waiting, we'll close it again. You'd better make sure your policeman knows that you could all get stuck over there, because we're not risking having Greys come through the portal in strength."
I explained this to Aarnist, adding, "Are you sure you want to do this? We could get stranded over there if it goes wrong."
"I don't think it'll go wrong," he said. "I'm confident Irfan can handle things."
"Okay, but... look, you really don't need to take Stefan and Sam," I pleaded. "I'm not going to let you down, I swear! Come to that, you don't need to take Gordiss, either, so he could stay here and keep an eye on them, if you're worried about what they might do."
"I'm coming," said Gordiss, firmly. "I'm not going to miss the chance to see a reptile society first hand."
"And so are Stefan and Sam," said Irfan, firmly. And that was the end of the argument.
"Looks like we're all going," I told Mr Narj. "Can one of your men lend me a Kerpian watch? Mine doesn't use the same units."
Mr Narj persuaded one of his militiamen to lend me his watch and we agreed on what the time was and when the portal would be reopened. And then we stepped back out of the way while the scientists connected their temporary portal to the power supply and did whatever it is that scientists do (and they made sure they were doing it with their backs to our party, too, which clearly disappointed Gordiss), and then the portal flickered into life.
"Good luck," said Mr Narj. "I'll see you when you get back."
"I hope so," I agreed, and I stepped through the portal.
The original portal had emerged in a hut that was actually in a stretch of woodland, but this temporary portal was of course not in the same place, and we found ourselves just beyond the edge of the wood. I made a note of where we were so that we could find the portal again and then, once I had got my bearings, I led the party around the corner of the wood to the small Grey town beyond. And of course as soon as we got close enough to the town we were spotted, though here the reaction was rather less panicky than it had been in Region Five: these Greys, after all, had been in contact with mammals before. In less than five minutes we were facing a unit of Grey soldiers carrying their usual automatic rifles.
"Good morning," I greeted them, and that did cause a surprised reaction: only a few mammals had been implanted with the Grey language during the occupation.
"My name is Stone Jake," I went on. "Please could we speak to your commanding officer?"
The Greys looked at each other. It was fairly clear that none of them knew what to do with us, so the opportunity to pass us on to someone else was too good to miss.
"Come with us," said their unit leader, turning and leading us into the town.
There was a small military post not far from the cable car station, and we were ushered inside and told to wait while the unit leader went in search of an officer. A minute or so later he returned and led us into a small office, where we found an older officer sitting behind a desk and a younger one standing behind him. The unit leader stayed in the room, and two of his soldiers took up station by the door with their rifles still in their hands. It wasn't exactly what you'd call a warm welcome.
Once again I explained who Aarnist was and why we were here, and once again the response was one of incredulity.
"You've come all this way just to take a statement about something that happened in a different world?" asked the senior man.
"Well, it's not that far," I pointed out. "The shooting happened only about a hundred and fifty khirokubs from here. It's true that it was also in a different world, but you know how simple it is to step from one world to another."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well," I said, surprised by his rather aggressive tone, "you were using a portal yourself just up the mountain a couple of years ago, so you know it's just a case of stepping through a doorway."
The younger officer leaned forward and whispered into the senior man's ear. The Grey sense of hearing isn't as good as ours, as I'd discovered when I went through Haless's tests the last time I'd been here, so probably they weren't aware that I could make out the odd word here and there: I heard 'excuse' and 'spy' and 'timing' as they muttered to each other.
I turned to Irfan and said, "I'm about to make a pitch for us to be allowed to go down to the school. Time for you and your colleagues to get together and persuade him to accept what I'm saying."
Then I coughed gently to get the Grey officer's attention.
"Look," I said, "I know you probably don't like humans very much, but really Aarnist is just an officer like yourself trying to do his job. We're not going to make a nuisance of ourselves: we just want your permission to go down to the school in the town below and interview the two boys who saw what happened. We'd be perfectly happy for you to send an escort with us to make sure we go straight there and come straight back. If you let us go down there now we'll be back very soon - so what about it?"
There was a brief silence, and then the officer said, "All right."
The junior started to speak, clearly not agreeing, but the senior officer raised his hand to cut him off.
"But there are conditions," he said. "First, you certainly don't need a party as large as this to carry out a simple interview, so most of your party can stay here - and that way they'll also act as a surety for the rest of you. Your policeman can go, and I suppose he needs you as a translator, but the rest can stay here. Second, I'll be sending some of my men with you, and you're to do what they tell you and not go anywhere except straight to the school and back. If you can accept that, you have my permission to proceed."
I translated this for Aarnist.
"See if you can persuade them to let one other person come," he said. "It's not that I don't trust you, especially if Stefan and Sam are going to be here with the rest of the party, but I'd prefer to have Irfan along if possible."
"I'll try," I said, and turned back to the officer.
"Interviews are normally carried out by pairs of officers," I said. "I'm not a policeman, obviously, so he'd like to take one other officer with him to make sure everything is done according to law. The rest can certainly stay here with you. Would that be acceptable?"
"I should think so. You'd better tell the others they'll be staying here for a while, and then you can go. If you leave now you should be back well before midday."
So I warned the rest of the party what was happening.
"Be careful," Stefan told me. "I don't want to find you disappearing again now that I've finally caught up with you."
"Trust me," I said. "I really don't want to stay in this world any longer than I have to."
The junior officer still didn't look very happy, but at least he'd stopped arguing, although he insisted on accompanying us to the school and back himself. He collected four riflemen and more or less marched us to the cable car station.
"I see you've replaced the cable cars," I commented as one arrived in the station. "The old ones were wooden and a bit creaky. This looks a lot more solid."
"You've been here before?" asked the officer.
"Yes, I was here two years ago." I dug into my bag and handed him the pass card that had been made for me at the time. "A couple of boys at the school were doing a project on the differences between my species and yours, and they brought me here to run the experiment."
"And what were the results?"
"As you might expect, I suppose: there are things you do better than us, and things we do better than you."
"Really?" he asked, as the car began to take us down the mountain. "What do you do better than us, then?"
"Well, on most physical things you're better than we are, but we have better stamina over long distances. And we adapt far better to extremes of temperature, of course, because we're warm-blooded - endothermic, I mean. But you see far better than we do, and in average conditions your reactions are faster than ours. We do a bit better at figuring out problems, though. I always thought that if we worked together we'd be really hard to beat."
"I think you'd have to admit that we're generally hard to beat on our own," he said. "If it hadn't been for the interface malfunction we'd still be running things in your country now."
"Oh, Kerpia isn't our country," I said. "We just came through it to get here. We come from two different worlds, and we'll be going back there once we're finished here. We only came this way to make use of the Kerpians' portal into your world."
"I see," he said, handing the card back.
For some reason he seemed to relax a bit, though why it should have made any difference which world we came from was beyond me. But for whatever reason he seemed a little less hostile for the remainder of the journey down to the town, and when we got there he was happy for me to lead the way to the school.
I remembered the way easily enough, though it wasn't difficult, and soon we had reached the school. I knew where the director's office was, too, so I led the officer and two of his guards there while the other two stayed with Aarnist and Irfan in the hall.
"I don't know if you remember me," I began, as we entered the director's office.
"Certainly I do. You were the subject of the mammal project two years ago. What are you doing here now? Come back for an update?"
"Not exactly. See..."
Once again I explained the situation, and the officer backed me up.
"I can't see any reason why your policeman shouldn't speak to Torth," said the director. "Provided he only wants to speak to him, of course. Obviously there's no question of Torth going anywhere to appear in a trial or anything like that."
"No, he just wants to interview him," I said, hoping that Aarnist wasn't intending to try to issue summary justice with his pistol, which - for reasons that eluded me - he had not been asked to hand over.
"Come along, then," said the director, and he led us upstairs and ushered us into an empty classroom. He went out and returned a few minutes later with Torth, who looked positively amazed to see me.
"Jake!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm interpreting for this guy," I said, indicating Aarnist. "He's a cop, and he's investigating what happened to Harlan."
Torth took a step back. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Don't worry, he only wants a statement. Actually I think he's more interested in scoring points against his bosses, rather than trying to get you into trouble. He said to me some time ago that he doesn't think he can really try to apply his country's laws to a member of a different species, so all you have to do is tell him what happened from your point of view. And that's all there is to it. Don't worry: there is no way that your people would let him arrest you, and neither would I, come to that. As far as I'm concerned, you did what you had to in order to save Stefan's life."
"Well, actually, I was only..." He stopped and thought for a moment. "Of course, that's partly why... anyway, I'll give him his statement if you're sure it'll be all right."
"I'm sure. Sit down."
Aarnist had brought a small camera with him, and he set this up where it would be pointing at Torth. I sat next to Torth to translate for him, and the director, the Grey officer and Irfan stepped back out of the way.
Aarnist asked Torth to start by telling him exactly what had happened, and Torth did so, explaining that he, Verdess and Sarleth had been waiting for us for several weeks, stranded by the failure of the portal to reappear, and that when it finally did appear they were determined that nothing was going to stop them going through it. Harlan had tried to stop them by holding a gun to Stefan's head, not realising that the Greys weren't concerned with what happened to anyone else.
"But since he had a gun we thought we should use one of ours, too," Torth continued. "So I pointed my rifle at him and told him to put his gun down. He said he would shoot Stefan if I didn't put mine down, and when I said I didn't care if he did he didn't seem to know what to do next."
"Why didn't you shoot him straight away?" I asked. Aarnist hadn't asked that question, but I wanted to get the answer on the tape, because I thought it would be helpful. "After all, he wasn't pointing his gun at you, was he?"
"No, but you said that if I shot him he would probably pull the trigger automatically and shoot Stefan. I was in no danger, so I decided to wait. And then he moved the gun away from Stefan and I was able to shoot him safely."
"Did you think you had to shoot him in order to get through the portal?" asked Aarnist.
"I thought he was dangerous, and that if I didn't shoot him he might shoot me. So I shot first, as was logical."
"And you say that he produced his gun before you got yours?" asked Aarnist.
"That's right."
It sounded to me as if Aarnist was doing his best to exonerate Torth here, and for a moment I wondered why. Then I realised that, since there was no realistic chance of arresting him, Aarnist had decided to tidy the case up as best he could by suggesting that Torth had acted in self-defence. If Torth had been answering these questions in Arvel, of course, the questions, and the outcome, might well have been different, but as it was...
"Thank you," said Aarnist, turning the camera off. "I think that's all I need."
"Is that it?" asked Torth.
"That's it. You can go now."
"Right." Torth looked surprised, but not unhappy. "Then since he's here, can we borrow Jake for a few minutes? I'm sure Haless would like to get up-to-date measurements for his mammal project."
"That's a good idea," said the director. "He'll be able to add a bit about rate of development. I'd say that ours is probably a little faster." He turned to the officer. "Do you mind?" he asked. "I don't suppose it'll take long."
The officer shrugged. "If you want," he said.
Nobody asked Aarnist, and I wasn't going to, either.
"I've got to go and let them take my measurements," I told him. "I worked on a project with them about the differences between mammals and reptiles last time I was here, and they want to update it. I won't be long." And without waiting for permission I followed Torth out of the room: I was curious to see how Haless and Issin had grown since I last saw them.
Torth took me to another classroom, where I found the entire study group I'd met on my previous visit - including Ssyrl, who was no longer sitting on his own. Torth paused the program they were working on and closed the door behind us. I'd expected a fairly friendly welcome, but what I got was surprise, shock and, in one of two cases, what looked almost like fear. I wondered what was wrong. Surely I hadn't changed that much?
It was Ssyrl who reacted first.
"Jake," he greeted me. "What are you doing here - and how the hell did you get past the guards? Are they looking for you?"
"Not as far as I know. I came with a cop from another world who wanted to interview Torth about something that happened last year while he was with us. The guards let us through easily enough - okay, they sent an escort with us, but that's all. Why, what's the matter?"
The boys looked at each other.
"I said I'd bring him so that we could update his measurements for our project," said Torth. "So perhaps we should do that? And the laboratory would be a better place to welcome him back, don't you think?"
"Yes, you're right," said Ssyrl. "Let's get along there. Haless, bring your computer - and Rathyk, could you go and find Sarleth and Trethar? We'll meet you at Lab Four."
Well, Ssyrl's status had clearly changed, because everyone simply followed his instructions without arguing. I still didn't know what was going on, but I assumed they would tell me when it suited them, and so on the way to the laboratory I asked him about how he had been treated when he got back from Kerpia.
"It's been interesting," he said. "Force Leader Nass gave me a glowing testimonial and the High Council gave me a commendation and sent me back here, and suddenly everyone was saying nice things about me. The director made me group leader and everyone else has been nice to me ever since, and nobody says anything at all about me preferring the passive role - in fact they seem to think it's an honour to be allowed to practise sex with me. Obviously being a hero is more important than being a pervert. Isn't life strange?" And he grinned at me.
We reached the laboratory and Haless set up his computer, attached the camera to it and pointed it at the scale on the wall.
"Get undressed, then" he said to me. "We'll want to weigh you in a moment. And I want to know if those stupid external genitals of yours have got any bigger."
Well, this had happened here before, but I wasn't entirely enthusiastic about having to strip in front of the entire study group again. Actually at first they just went into a huddle and seemed to be having some sort of serious discussion between themselves, though it was conducted in voices too low for me to be able to hear: this lot apparently had better hearing than the senior officer had. But the moment I took my underwear off they started making comments about me. I did my best to ignore them while I went and stood against the measuring scale on the wall.
"You're now three point seven five kubs," Haless told me. "You're growing, but Issin is growing faster. Show him, Issin."
Issin stripped off and took my place against the scale. The first time we had done this I had been point one seven five kubs taller than Issin; now he was point two five kubs taller than me. He'd been heavier than me to start with, and he still was, only more so.
"So it appears that once we start to mature we do so faster than you," Haless said. "Though your ridiculous genitals still seem to be growing, and you've got even more of that pointless hair, too. Have you found out what it's for yet?"
"The hair? No," I admitted. "We all get it sooner or later, though. What about you, Issin? Has your penis got any bigger?"
"No," he admitted. "I told you last time that it had already almost reached its full size. It just proves that we mature faster than you."
I was about to comment on the difference in size between his genitals and mine, but I didn't get a chance.
"Get dressed, Jake," said Ssyrl. "Turn the computer off, Haless. Now... are we all agreed on this?"
One or two of them looked uncertain, but the ones I knew best - Haless, Issin, Rathyk, Torth and the two younger boys - all said "Yes" loudly enough to carry the mood.
"If anyone isn't sure about this, you can leave now," Ssyrl said. "I can understand if you're uncertain - after all, probably it's only really those of us who have spent time in the mammal worlds who truly understand the situation. If you'd sooner not be here, we're not going to force you."
But nobody moved. I suppose even the ones who hadn't been through the portal had got to know me and Tommi a bit while we were here in 2009, which perhaps explained what followed.
"All right, Jake," said Ssyrl. "We want to tell you something very important: our scientists have worked out how to create our own interfaces. They put together a lot of information from examining the ones they captured while we were in your world, but that wasn't enough to actually construct one. But last year the mammals opened a temporary interface to send Torth and Sarleth through to us, and they got careless and did it in front of them. And when our scientists questioned them, both face to face and under hypnosis, they obtained enough additional information to let them start work on making an interface of our own. And now they've succeeded, which means that we can now move between worlds, just as the mammals can. The interface has been extensively tested, and it's stable, and now..."
"What?" I asked, wondering about the hushed tones and the conspiratorial atmosphere.
"Now we're going to use it," Ssyrl went on. "The plan is to open an interface and use it to invade Kerpia again. Except this time the interface will be on the surface, and it'll be big enough to allow armoured vehicles through. They're going to open it some way west of here, where there's a wide plain that will be easy for our tanks to manoeuvre through..."
"You remember where we went after we crossed the big river?" Sarleth interrupted. "After Torth got shot, I mean. That's the plain we're talking about."
That was the southern end of Alsace, of course.
"We've got two complete armoured divisions lined up," Ssyrl went on. "That's close to four hundred tanks, with supporting infantry."
"Right, but... why are you telling me this?" I asked.
"Two reasons," said Torth. "First, because we think this is wrong. Most people, and the High Council in particular, seem to think mammals are just animals, and that we shouldn't treat them as proper people like ourselves. But all of us who have spent time with mammals know that isn't true. It wasn't just you and your friends, either: all of the other mammals we met treated us like proper people. The religious men in the place with all the interfaces treated us exactly the same as they treated you, giving us food and shelter; the people in the hot world were the same, and the boys there played with us just like they did with you; and even the Kerpians were good to us, helping us to get here even though they'd been at war with the people of this world very recently. And you and your friends saved my life more than once: you led us out of the mountains to find food and shelter - and you even carried Sarleth when he couldn't walk. And when I got shot by the river, Verdess told me you risked your own life to rescue me. I know it goes against the way we usually think, but you proved to me that mammals and reptiles can live together. So that's the first reason: we think you are real people, and that we shouldn't be on the point of invading your country and killing you just because we want the minerals and land you have."
"And the second reason?" I asked.
"Well, we know the Kerpians don't have much of an army," said Ssyrl. "Nothing's going to stop the invasion. So we wanted to warn you so that you and your friends can get out of Kerpia before it's too late."
"Why? When is the invasion going to happen?"
"In two days' time."
"Oh, my God...'
Of course we could get out of Kerpia before then. In fact I expected to be out of Kerpia later today, either - if Aarnist kept his word - back to Elsass, or - if he didn't - back to my own world. But I didn't simply want to walk away and leave Kerpia to its fate - and besides, I didn't for a moment think the Greys would be content with one world, not if they really could create their own portals. And there were already portals to Elsass in Kerpia, both at Hub Two and in Strasbourg: if Hub Two fell to the Greys, Elsass could be next in line for invasion. And in the Elsass world Europe had been at peace for two hundred years, so they didn't have much of an army, either.
"Do you know exactly where the interface is going to be?" I asked.
"Sorry," said Ssyrl. "They're keeping that a secret. We know it's going to be on the plain we told you about, and somewhere near the southern end of the mountain range to the west of the plain, but that's all. Jake, there's nothing you can do to stop it. We just want you to be out of the way when it happens."
"You know I'll have to tell the Kerpians, don't you?" I asked.
"We thought you would. That's why we were a bit worried about telling you, because if the High Council find out that we leaked the information we'll be in serious trouble. If you can find a way to blame someone else for letting it slip we'd appreciate it. As you know, we don't usually do anything to put ourselves at risk, but this time we thought we had to. But that doesn't mean we want to get caught!"
"I'll do my best to make sure that you aren't," I promised. "Now I'd better go before they come looking for me. Torth, can you take me back to where we left the others?"
I said goodbye to the rest of the Grey boys and followed Torth back to the other classroom, doing my best to compose my features when I got there.
"So, how do you compare now?" the director asked me.
"You were right," I said. "Issin has matured faster than me. I'm still developing and I've probably still got another half a kub or so to grow, but Issin's just about full-grown."
"You see? That's another advantage of our race," he said. "My boys will all be fully grown and ready to join the army long before their mammal equivalents."
"Oh, we don't have much of an army," I said, as nonchalantly as I could. "We're fairly peaceful these days - in the land where I live there hasn't been a war for two hundred years, and I really hope there isn't another one for at least two hundred more."
The director said nothing, and nor did the Grey officer, though they must have been thinking interesting thoughts at that point. It was a real pity that Irfan couldn't read Grey minds, because I'm sure they would have given him plenty to think about.
"Shall we go?" I invited Aarnist. "I think I'd like to get out of here before they change their minds about us."
"Why should they do that?"
"No reason," I said. Or at least, none that I could mention. Now I understood the argument between the two officers up at the post near the portal: they must have wondered if we'd caught a sniff of the invasion somehow and had come to nose around. I was fairly sure now that if Irfan and his colleagues hadn't done some mental leaning we'd have been kicked straight back through the portal.
We said goodbye to Torth and the director and collected our escort from the room near the entrance where they had been waiting, and then we walked back through the town and took the cable car back up the mountain. I was wondering if the senior officer had recovered from whatever Irfan had done to persuade him, and what he might do to us if he had: we could all be locked up, at least until the invasion had taken place. Or we could all simply be shot. So I was more than a little nervous when we got back to the army post.
The junior officer told us to wait outside and went in to report to his superior. I'd been doing my best to act normally, though Irfan had clearly realised that something was bothering me, and if the Greys had had Konjäauml;ssiem of their own we'd have been done for. But five minutes later the two officers came out accompanied by the rest of our party, so it looked as if we were going to be allowed to leave.
"I gather you got what you came for," the senior officer said.
"Yes, thank you," I replied. "We appreciate your help."
He gave a grunt and went back inside, but the junior and his men seemed disinclined to leave us.
"We're going now," I said. "Our interface should be available in a very short time."
"Then we'll come and see you off," he said, and they stuck with us while we walked back to the place where the portal was due to reappear in around ten minutes' time. And they stayed with us until it did reappear, too, though they stayed far enough back not to frighten the Kerpians off when the portal was first opened.
I was extremely glad to be able to step through it after the others: if I never set foot in that world again I wouldn't complain, even though I had some good friends there... and at that point my train of thought was abruptly derailed as someone grabbed me and shoved a steel helmet on my head. Behind me the portal flickered and disappeared, but I scarcely noticed: instead I was staring at what was going on in front of me. The unit of Kerpian militia was there, in full uniform including helmets, and Mr Narj himself, similarly dressed in the uniform of a Kerpian militia colonel, but also wearing a helmet instead of the more usual peaked cap. And someone had also stuck helmets onto the heads of Stefan and Sam. The Arvelans were off to one side with a number of rifles pointing at them.
"It's good to see you back in one piece," Mr Narj told me. "We thought this would be the best time to rescue you: they'd have been expecting to see an armed unit here anyway after what we said this morning, so it was just a question of getting you three under a helmet each. Are you all right?"
"Yes, thank you. But how did you know we needed rescuing?"
"Well, we knew something was wrong last night when Stefan didn't say a single word. That's not like him at all. And so late last night I tried to wake you up to talk to you, but you were so fast asleep it was obvious that you'd been drugged. And then this morning, about a kend ago, a message arrived at the hut that leads to your native world. We might have a security problem there, because there were a couple of engineers around the back of the hut at the time working on the mist generators, and they'd left the trapdoor open. They caught the kid who brought the message halfway down the ladder... anyway, we can deal with that when we get back to Hub Two. What do you want me to do with these six? We can shoot them if you like, or we can just shove them through a random portal and let someone else decide what to do with them. Or we could even send them back to their world if you prefer."
"No, right now I think you should just bring them back to Hub Two with us," I said. "There's something you need to know, and it's a lot more important than anything else: in two days' time you're going to be up to your neck in Greys."
I told him exactly what Ssyrl had told me, and his face drained of colour.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Absolutely. It took some courage for those boys to tell me about it, and I'm certain they weren't making it up. In two days' time Upper Alsace is going to be crawling with Grey tanks unless you can find a way to stop it from happening."
"I don't see how we can. You say you don't know where the portal is going to be, and unless we can destroy it the moment it appears we can't hold out against tanks anyway. That's farming country, so there aren't any militia there at all, and even if we rush everything we've got that way, two days isn't enough time to get any significant number of guns there. Look, I must go down to the office and call Temishar. You'd better come with me - I'm sure the brass will have questions for you."
He issued some quick orders to his second-in-command and hurried into the checkpoint, and I went after him. It sounded to me as if, unless there was a miracle, this war was going to be over before it had even begun.
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