The eyes blinked, and Tick-Tock's natural bronze-brown color suddenly
flowed over her head, down her neck and across her body into legs and
tail. Against the side of the terrace, as if materializing into
solidity at that moment, appeared two hundred pounds of supple, rangy,
long-tailed cat ... or catlike creature. TT's actual origin had never
been established. The best guesses were that what Telzey had found
playing around in the woods five years ago was either a bio-structural
experiment which had got away from a private laboratory on Orado, or
some spaceman's lost pet, brought to the capital planet from one of
the remote colonies beyond the Hub. On top of TT's head was a large,
fluffy pompom of white fur, which might have looked ridiculous on
another animal, but didn't on her. Even as a fat kitten, hanging head
down from the side of a wall by the broad sucker pads in her paws, TT
had possessed enormous dignity.
Telzey studied her, the feeling of relief fading again. Tick-Tock,
ordinarily the most restful and composed of companions, definitely was
still tensed up about something. That big, lazy yawn a moment ago, the
attitude of stretched-out relaxation ... all pure sham!
"What _is_ eating you?" she asked in exasperation.
The green eyes stared at her, solemn, watchful, seeming for that
fleeting instant quite alien. And why, Telzey thought, should the old
question of what Tick-Tock really was pass through her mind just now?
After her rather alarming rate of growth began to taper off last year,
nobody had cared any more.
For a moment, Telzey had the uncanny certainty of having had the
answer to this situation almost in her grasp. An answer which appeared
to involve the world of Jontarou, Tick-Tock, and of all unlikely
factors--Aunt Halet.
She shook her head, TT's impassive green eyes blinked.
* * * * *
Jontarou? The planet lay outside Telzey's sphere of personal
interests, but she'd read up on it on the way here from Orado. Among
all the worlds of the Hub, Jontarou was _the_ paradise for zoologists
and sportsmen, a gigantic animal preserve, its continents and seas
swarming with magnificent game. Under Federation law, it was being
retained deliberately in the primitive state in which it had been
discovered. Port Nichay, the only city, actually the only inhabited
point on Jontarou, was beautiful and quiet, a pattern of vast but
elegantly slender towers, each separated from the others by four or
five miles of rolling parkland and interconnected only by the threads
of transparent skyways. Near the horizon, just visible from the
garden, rose the tallest towers of all, the green and gold spires of
the Shikaris' Club, a center of Federation affairs and of social
activity. From the aircar which brought them across Port Nichay the
evening before, Telzey had seen occasional strings of guest houses,
similar to the one Halet had rented, nestling along the park slopes.
[Illustration]
Nothing very sinister about Port Nichay or green Jontarou, surely!
Halet? That blond, slinky, would-be Machiavelli? What could--?
Telzey's eyes narrowed reflectively. There'd been a minor
occurrence--at least, it had seemed minor--just before the spaceliner
docked last night. A young woman from one of the newscasting services
had asked for an interview with the daughter of Federation
Councilwoman Jessamine Amberdon. This happened occasionally; and
Telzey had no objections until the newshen's gossipy persistence in
inquiring about the "unusual pet" she was bringing to Port Nichay with
her began to be annoying. TT might be somewhat unusual, but that was
not a matter of general interest; and Telzey said so. Then Halet moved
smoothly into the act and held forth on Tick-Tock's appearance,
habits, and mysterious antecedents, in considerable detail.
Telzey had assumed that Halet was simply going out of her way to be
irritating, as usual. Looking back on the incident, however, it
occurred to her that the chatter between her aunt and the newscast
woman had sounded oddly stilted--almost like something the two might
have rehearsed.
Rehearsed for what purpose? Tick-Tock ... Jontarou.
Telzey chewed gently on her lower lip. A vacation on Jontarou for the
two of them and TT had been Halet's idea, and Halet had enthused about
it so much that Telzey's mother at last talked her into accepting.
Halet, Jessamine explained privately to Telzey, had felt they were
intruders in the Amberdon family, had bitterly resented Jessamine's
political honors and, more recently, Telzey's own emerging promise of
brilliance. This invitation was Halet's way of indicating a change of
heart. Wouldn't Telzey oblige?
* * * * *
So Telzey had obliged, though she took very little stock in Halet's
change of heart. She wasn't, in fact, putting it past her aunt to have
some involved dirty trick up her sleeve with this trip to Jontarou.
Halet's mind worked like that.
So far there had been no actual indications of purposeful mischief.
But logic did seem to require a connection between the various
puzzling events here.... A newscaster's rather forced looking interest
in Tick-Tock--Halet could easily have paid for that interview. Then
TT's disturbed behavior during their first night in Port Nichay, and
Telzey's own formless anxieties and fancies in connection with the
guest house garden.
The last remained hard to explain. But Tick-Tock ... and Halet ...
might know something about Jontarou that she didn't know.
Her mind returned to the results of the half-serious attempt she'd
made to find out whether there was something Tick-Tock "wanted her to
do." An open door? A darkness where somebody waited to grab her if she
took even one step forwards? It couldn't have had any significance. Or
could it?
So you'd like to try magic, Telzey scoffed at herself. Baby games....
How far would you have got at law school if you'd asked TT to help
with your problems?
Then why had she been thinking about it again?
She shivered, because an eerie stillness seemed to settle on the
garden. From the side of the terrace, TT's green eyes watched her.
Telzey had a feeling of sinking down slowly into a sunlit dream, into
something very remote from law school problems.
"Should I go through the door?" she whispered.
The bronze cat-shape raised its head slowly. TT began to purr.
Tick-Tock's name had been derived in kittenhood from the manner in
which she purred--a measured, oscillating sound, shifting from high to
low, as comfortable and often as continuous as the unobtrusive pulse
of an old clock. It was the first time, Telzey realized now, that
she'd heard the sound since their arrival on Jontarou. It went on for
a dozen seconds or so, then stopped. Tick-Tock continued to look at
her.
It appeared to have been an expression of definite assent....
The dreamlike sensation increased, hazing over Telzey's thoughts. If
there was nothing to this mind-communication thing, what harm could
symbols do? This time, she wouldn't let them alarm her. And if they
did mean something....
She closed her eyes.
* * * * *
The sunglow outside faded instantly. Telzey caught a fleeting picture
of the door in the wall, and knew in the same moment that she'd
already passed through it.
She was not in the dark room then, but poised at the edge of a
brightness which seemed featureless and without limit, spread out
around her with a feeling-tone like "sea" or "sky." But it was an
unquiet place. There was a sense of unseen things on all sides
watching her and waiting.
Was this another form of the dark room--a trap set up in her mind?
Telzey's attention did a quick shift. She was seated in the grass
again; the sunlight beyond her closed eyelids seemed to shine in
quietly through rose-tinted curtains. Cautiously, she let her
awareness return to the bright area; and it was still there. She had a
moment of excited elation. She was controlling this! And why not, she
asked herself. These things were happening in her mind, after all!
She would find out what they seemed to mean; but she would be in no
rush to....
An impression as if, behind her, Tick-Tock had thought, "Now I can
help again!"
Then a feeling of being swept swiftly, irresistibly forwards, thrust
out and down. The brightness exploded in thundering colors around her.
In fright, she made the effort to snap her eyes open, to be back in
the garden; but now she couldn't make it work. The colors continued to
roar about her, like a confusion of excited, laughing, triumphant
voices. Telzey felt caught in the middle of it all, suspended in
invisible spider webs. Tick-Tock seemed to be somewhere nearby,
looking on. Faithless, treacherous TT!
Telzey's mind made another wrenching effort, and there was a change.
She hadn't got back into the garden, but the noisy, swirling colors
were gone and she had the feeling of reading a rapidly moving
microtape now, though she didn't actually see the tape.
The tape, she realized, was another symbol for what was happening, a
symbol easier for her to understand. There were voices, or what might
be voices, around her; on the invisible tape she seemed to be reading
what they said.
A number of speakers, apparently involved in a fast, hot argument
about what to do with her. Impressions flashed past....
* * * * *
Why waste time with her? It was clear that kitten-talk was all she was
capable of!... Not necessarily; that was a normal first step. Give her
a little time!... But what--exasperatedly--could such a small-bite
_possibly_ know that would be of significant value?
There was a slow, blurred, awkward-seeming interruption. Its content
was not comprehensible to Telzey at all, but in some unmistakable
manner it was defined as Tick-Tock's thought.
A pause as the circle of speakers stopped to consider whatever TT had
thrown into the debate.
Then another impression ... one that sent a shock of fear through
Telzey as it rose heavily into her awareness. Its sheer intensity
momentarily displaced the tape-reading symbolism. A savage voice
seemed to rumble:
"Toss the tender small-bite to me"--malevolent crimson eyes fixed on
Telzey from somewhere not far away--"and let's be done here!"
Startled, stammering protest from Tick-Tock, accompanied by gusts of
laughter from the circle. Great sense of humor these characters had,
Telzey thought bitterly. That crimson-eyed thing wasn't joking at all!
More laughter as the circle caught her thought. Then a kind of
majority opinion found sudden expression:
"Small-bite _is_ learning! No harm to wait--We'll find out
quickly--Let's...."
The tape ended; the voices faded; the colors went blank. In whatever
jumbled-up form she'd been getting the impressions at that
point--Telzey couldn't have begun to describe it--the whole thing
suddenly stopped.
* * * * *
She found herself sitting in the grass, shaky, scared, eyes open.
Tick-Tock stood beside the terrace, looking at her. An air of hazy
unreality still hung about the garden.
She might have flipped! She didn't think so; but it certainly seemed
possible! Otherwise ... Telzey made an attempt to sort over what had
happened.
Something _had_ been in the garden! Something had been inside her
mind. Something that was at home on Jontarou.
There'd been a feeling of perhaps fifty or sixty of these ... well,
beings. Alarming beings! Reckless, wild, hard ... and that red-eyed
nightmare! Telzey shuddered.
They'd contacted Tick-Tock first, during the night. TT understood them
better than she could. Why? Telzey found no immediate answer.
Then Tick-Tock had tricked her into letting her mind be invaded by
these beings. There must have been a very definite reason for that.
She looked over at Tick-Tock. TT looked back. Nothing stirred in
Telzey's thoughts. Between _them_ there was still no direct
communication.
Then how had the beings been able to get through to her?
Telzey wrinkled her nose. Assuming this was real, it seemed clear that
the game of symbols she'd made up between herself and TT had provided
the opening. Her whole experience just now had been in the form of
symbols, translating whatever occurred into something she could
consciously grasp.
"Kitten-talk" was how the beings referred to the use of symbols; they
seemed contemptuous of it. Never mind, Telzey told herself; they'd
agreed she was learning.
The air over the grass appeared to flicker. Again she had the
impression of reading words off a quickly moving, not quite visible
tape.
"You're being taught and you're learning," was what she seemed to
read. "The question was whether you were capable of partial
understanding as your friend insisted. Since you were, everything else
that can be done will be accomplished very quickly."
A pause, then with a touch of approval, "You're a well-formed mind,
small-bite! Odd and with incomprehensibilities, but well-formed--"
One of the beings, and a fairly friendly one--at least not unfriendly.
Telzey framed a tentative mental question. "Who are you?"
"You'll know very soon." The flickering ended; she realized she and
the question had been dismissed for the moment. She looked over at
Tick-Tock again.
"Can't _you_ talk to me now, TT?" she asked silently.
A feeling of hesitation.
"Kitten-talk!" was the impression that formed itself with difficulty
then. It was awkward, searching; but it came unquestionably from TT.
"Still learning too, Telzey!" TT seemed half anxious, half angry.
"We--"
* * * * *
A sharp buzz-note reached Telzey's ears, wiping out the groping
thought-impression. She jumped a little, glanced down. Her
wrist-talker was signaling. For a moment, she seemed poised
uncertainly between a world where unseen, dangerous-sounding beings
referred to one as small-bite and where TT was learning to talk, and
the familiar other world where wrist-communicators buzzed periodically
in a matter-of-fact manner. Settling back into the more familiar
world, she switched on the talker.
"Yes?" she said. Her voice sounded husky.
"Telzey, dear," Halet murmured honey-sweet from the talker, "would you
come back into the house, please? The living room--We have a visitor
who very much wants to meet you."
Telzey hesitated, eyes narrowing. Halet's visitor wanted to meet
_her_?
"Why?" she asked.
"He has something _very_ interesting to tell you, dear." The edge of
triumphant malice showed for an instant, vanished in murmuring
sweetness again. "So please hurry!"
"All right." Telzey stood up. "I'm coming."
"Fine, dear!" The talker went dead.
Telzey switched off the instrument, noticed that Tick-Tock had chosen
to disappear meanwhile.
Flipped? She wondered, starting up towards the house. It was clear
Aunt Halet had prepared some unpleasant surprise to spring on her,
which was hardly more than normal behavior for Halet. The other
business? She couldn't be certain of anything there. Leaving out TT's
strange actions--which might have a number of causes, after all--that
entire string of events could have been created inside her head. There
was no contradictory evidence so far.
But it could do no harm to take what _seemed_ to have happened at face
value. Some pretty grim event might be shaping up, in a very real way,
around here....
"You reason logically!" The impression now was of a voice speaking to
her, a voice that made no audible sound. It was the same being who'd
addressed her a minute or two ago.
The two worlds between which Telzey had felt suspended seemed to glide
slowly together and become one.
"I go to Law school," she explained to the being, almost absently.