Chapter Seventeen – The Oootoon Fights Back
Belinda joined them. All three looked down as, silently and swiftly, the yellow blob of oootoon grew larger. The placktoids continued to hasten out of the door. Carrie grabbed Dave’s arm and motioned to the departing machines.
The alarm stopped, but the placktoids continued streaming out.
“Hmpf, so the oootoon’s harmless?” said Belinda. “What do you think that’s going to do when it gets here? Cuddle us?”
Carrie bit her lip. “Maybe, just to be on the safe side, we should get out of here.”
“Yes, let’s go,” said Dave.
But Gavin was still on his back, wriggling.
“Hold on. We can’t leave Gavin,” Carrie said. As she spoke, the last placktoid reached the door. It disappeared through, and the door slid shut. The only remaining signs of the mechanical aliens were the stacks of black boxes they had left behind. The three humans and Gavin were alone.
“What’s wrong with him?” asked Dave, looking at the incapacitated bug.
“Don’t you know anything, you two?” said Belinda. “His aural sensory organs were overloaded by the alarm. In his species they’re very sensitive. He’s still recovering.”
“Maybe we can push him?” suggested Carrie. “But can we even get out?” She ran to the door. It wouldn’t open no matter how much she pushed or dragged the smooth surface. The surrounding wall was also smooth, with no buttons or other means of unlocking the door. There was nothing to be done but to return to the hatch and watch the oootoon approach.
The yellow blob was larger. Carrie estimated they had only minutes before it reached them. She wondered what it would do when it arrived. She also wondered if her earlier defence of the oootoon might have been misguided.
“Wait a minute,” said Dave, “can’t Gavin start up the mist, like he did when we were on the planet? Isn’t that how he came to this ship? We can escape that way. Go back to Earth, or wherever. Just somewhere that isn’t here.”
“Yes,” exclaimed Carrie. “Great idea.” She went to Gavin, whose legs were still waggling weakly. His multi-eyed head lolled from side to side. “Gavin, please, can you open a gateway? We have to get out of here. There’s going to be a fight. ”
Gavin clicked and chittered. He said something that sounded like, “Too loud, too loud.”
“Damn,” said Belinda.
“Can’t you do, it then, with your equipment?” Dave asked Belinda.
“Of course not. Movement between planets is restricted in the same way that movement between countries is restricted on Earth. You can’t just travel from world to world. Only authorised officials can create gateways.”
“Wow,” said Carrie, “look at that.” She was back at the hatchway, craning over it. A bolt of light had left the placktoid ship. The bolt tore through the centre of the oootoon mass. A hole gaped for a moment, then the liquid oozed inwards and sealed it. The oootoon was solid again. As the three humans watched, another placktoid bolt struck the same place, and once more the oootoon sealed the hole. Another bolt and another struck, and each time the oootoon repaired the damage, though blobs of custard were breaking off and floating away into space.
Carrie wrung her hands. “Poor oootoon.”
“Poor oootoon?” said Belinda. “You have noticed we’re being attacked, right?”
“It’s attacking the placktoids, not us, and it must have a very good reason—” She gasped. “Oh no.”
The bombardment from the ship had succeeded in splitting the large mass of oootoon in two.
“Yes,” cried Belinda. “We got it.”
“Not quite,” said Dave. The two halves had reached out to each other and were oozing slowly together.
“Hah,” said Carrie, and threw Belinda a triumphant look.
Another blast severed the oootoon in half again. The bombardment intensified, and the halves became quarters.
The placktoids were succeeding in breaking the oootoon apart, but they did not slow its pace. The oootoon quarters continued to fly towards the placktoids' ship at the same speed, and continued to draw closer together. The placktoids' weapons attacked each part separately, driving holes through them, which oozed relentlessly closed.
“Noooo,” said Carrie, her hand over her mouth.
“Honestly,” said Belinda, “anyone would think you wanted the oootoon to succeed.”
“It isn’t aggressive. You don’t know it like I do.”
“Not aggressive? What do you call that lump of death and destruction flying towards us? I bet you haven’t even read the history of the conflict, let alone the species profile on the oootoon.”
“Look,” said Dave. The oootoon was in multiple pieces now, and it was slowing down. But still it came on.
“I’ve spent time with it,” said Carrie. “You couldn’t have listened to it for more than a few minutes. You just read the placktoids' side of the story and assumed that was all there was to it.”
“For goodness sake, it’s a barely intelligent species. I have no idea why the Transgalactic Council list it as a civilisation. And it’s captured and probably killed hundreds of placktoids who were legitimately settling on unused land.”
“Says who?”
“The placktoids, of course. The oootoon is hardly going to admit to it.”
“And you believe them?”
“I read the official report. It’s there in black and white.”
“But it was written from the placktoids' viewpoint.”
“And how would you know that?”
“Because the oootoon doesn’t communicate like you and me.”
“Wh-what’s happening?” Gavin flipped onto his front and straightened his twenty legs. He stood unsteadily. “I remember some kind of—”
“The oootoon is attacking the ship,” said Belinda. “You have to open a gateway to allow us to escape.”
“Oh I see. That is what the alarm was about, was it?” Gavin lurched over to the others at the hatchway.
“How on Earth is it doing that?” asked Carrie. “Flying up here, I mean.”
“I have no idea,” replied Gavin. “But I agree we should leave the scene of the conflict. Now, let me see.” He retracted his inner jaws and his head wobbled from vertical to horizontal.
“Woah,” said Dave. He stepped back from the hatch. “It’s made it.”A custard-yellow mound of oootoon bulged up and into the room.
“No,” shouted Belinda. “Hurry up, Gavin, hurry up. Before it surrounds the ship.”
But the bug was still groggily waving his feelers in the air. His inner jaws moved in and out.
“What’s the hurry?” asked Carrie.
“You can’t open a gateway within the oootoon,” said Belinda. “It throws out some kind of counteracting field. Nothing can get out from inside it. If it surrounds us we’ll have no hope.”
“Now then, where was I?” said Gavin. “Oh, I remember, a gateway, that was it.”
A circle of green mist began to form. It brightened and became thicker. A spiral began to swirl into being. Belinda lifted her bag higher on her shoulder and stepped up to be first through. But then the mist thinned and the spinning slowed. The three humans watched in dismay as the spiral faded and sputtered out.
Belinda swore. “Great. Just great. Now we’ll never get out of here.”
Above them, the placktoid ship’s brilliant lights blinked out and were replaced by a dull red glow. Beneath her feet, a vibration that Carrie had not noticed before, which she assumed must be the ship’s engines, stopped.