Chaos Mode

CHAPTER 6—MODES

BURGESS rode on the wagon, not comfortable but satisfied to be transported in the way that was feasible. Without this arrangement, he would not have been able to travel through the wilderness or to remain with his adopted alien hive.

His original hive rejected anything alien. It even rejected any thought patterns that were too extreme. That was the cause of his rejection: the possibility that he had been infected by the poisoned hive. He had accepted that rejection, because of his loyalty to the hive. But now he realized that there was an irony. The same restrictions which protected the hive also limited it. No hiver had ever explored the wilderness, so the hive was ignorant of its wonders. No hiver had invoked a Virtual Mode, so those wonders too were not known. Yet the aliens had abilities which could benefit the hive. Such as this concept of “magic,” by which they could change the size of objects, or make fire appear. Such as “telepathy,” which was like the touching of contact points, but from a distance, and with the barriers of contact conventions reduced. Such as “technology,” which enabled them to conceive and make this wagon, so that he could travel with them despite his inability to float here. So though he was having to adapt far more drastically than he had anticipate, benefiting more than he had expected.

He had, so far, taken more from this little hive than he had given to it. It was his nature to try to be an asset to his hive, rather than a liability. Perhaps his time would come to make his contribution.

In due course they came to the lake. This time the ingenuity of the smallest and smartest of the human aliens, Colene, provided them with a new way to cross. They expanded the wagon to large size, so that all of them could stand on it, including Seqiro Horse. They pushed it out into the water, using the poles, until it floated. They fashioned paddles, which they fixed to the wheels. Then they stood one to a wheel and pushed each forward on top, so that its bottom moved the other way and stroked against the water. It was what Colene called a paddlewheel boat. It moved slowly, but they were able to steer it, and it seemed secure from the Anomaly predator.

The Anomaly did appear, but this time it did not attack. It seemed that it learned from experience, and what it had learned was that big wooden craft were not fit prey. Nevertheless, protective nets were set up along the sides, and there were a number of sharp spears ready. The humans did not leave things to chance, if they had a choice.

Across the river they got on land and diminished the wagon until it was possible for the armored horse to carry it. Burgess could float on this path, so he did, sparing them the burden of transporting him. They made good progress.

Then the crab came. It was not as smart as the Anomaly, and did not learn well from experience. But this time they were ready for it.

A fireball burst right in front of the crab. A patch of forest brush blazed. The crab retreated, not liking the fire.

The party continued along the path. After a while the crab came crashing through the brush again, following them. Another fireball appeared, making another temporary barrier. The crab desisted.

They reached the spot where the path was too narrow and rough for Burgess to float across. The three humans picked him up again, strengthened by the horse’s mind, and carried him beyond the obstruction.

The crab came after them again, still refusing to learn from experience. One more ball of flame balked it.

“Say, I wonder whether Nona could stop the hivers the same way?” Colene inquired.

Burgess considered drawing on the human qualities of the hive mind, because by himself he could not reason well. No, he concluded that the hivers would simply put out the fire with sand. If fire struck one of them, they would think it was a natural fire expanding suddenly, and would not be balked. Since there were many of them, they would attack from all sides. Even if a ring of fire were instituted, they would fire rocks and sand in from beyond it.

“Got it,” Colene agreed. “Fire doesn’t balk a sandstorm or a rockfall. But night and armor may.”

They moved on past the site of their first camp and reached the verge of the wilderness. Here they stopped. It was late afternoon, and they had succeeded in making their trip in one day. They had eaten their middle-day food while waiting for the wagon to expand for the river crossing; now they ate their end-day food. They expanded the wagon again, and installed the sides and top, and tinkered with it to make sure it was ready to move. They fixed the harness so that the armored horse could haul the wagon without complication. By the time it was dark, they were ready to go out on the plain.

This time Colene and Nona joined Burgess inside the wagon. They had slit-apertures through which they could peer to see the darkness beyond. Burgess’ own eyes would not extend that far, so could not see out. However, with the linkage to the horse’s mind, he could see all that he required. There was some faint light, after all, because of the moon. It did not show any detail, but the outlines of large things, such as trees, could be made out.

They started moving. Darius walked in his armor beside Seqiro in his armor. Darius guided the horse and kept watch, so that Seqiro could concentrate on his hauling and on the minds of all of them. It was a useful collaboration and separation of contributions that represented the proper functioning of the hive.

The wagon ride was somewhat bumpy, but they were moving slowly and could handle it. While they rode, they conversed.

“Burgess, did you ever have a girlfriend?” Colene inquired.

Contact with a female hiver? It had been constant, when he belonged to the hive, since all members updated regularly. There was no distinction between males and females in this respect.

“No, I don’t mean routine social dates and updates,” Colene said. “I mean going steady, falling in love, having sex, having babies, being a family, not necessarily in that order.”

Love? Sex? Family? These were alien concepts.

“Okay, let’s get down to basics,” Colene said, while Nona remained carefully neutral. “Love is like being just so wrapped up in one person it changes your whole life. Like me with Darius. Show him, Seqiro.”

Suddenly a strange, pleasant, encompassing emotion came, tinged with excitement and fear and desire. Burgess had never experienced anything like it. His closest approach was his devotion to the hive.

“No, that’s patriotism, not love,” Colene decided. “Okay, so you don’t know love.”

“Neither do I,” Nona said.

“So let’s tackle sex,” Colene continued. “How does your kind do it?”

He understood that what she meant was how floaters reproduced. They contributed to the central nest, each blowing seeds of itself into the nutritive substance. The males blew many seeds, the females few. When the seeds encountered their opposites in the nest, they merged and began to grow. Eventually they became large enough to leave the nest. Then they emerged and learned to float. When they floated well enough, they were dispersed to other hives.

“Wow, it really is a hive,” Colene said. “No family life at all. No child rearing. How do you stand it?”

It was the way it was, and that was sufficient. However, the rearing of young floaters did occur. It was spread throughout the hive. The little ones made contact first with selected nurse-floaters, who familiarized them with the conventions of the hive. Then they circulated more widely, learning more with each update, until they were fully current. That was it; they were full members of the hive, and would remain so until they lost air and expired.

“What happens then?”

The expiring hivers went to the nearest burial bog and let themselves sink in. It was bad form to expire either in the main camp or on the plain, because then the hive had to go to the trouble of moving or of burying them in dirt.

Colene sighed, which was a way to express resignation. “I guess it’s no worse than what our kind does. We mostly pickle our dead and bury them in boxes. But I’ll bet you find life with us on the Virtual Mode more interesting.”

It was already more interesting.

Suddenly it became too interesting. Through Darius’ eyes they saw something rise up from the ground. A pit worm! They had to be avoided!

The wagon lurched as the horse skittered to the side. But the monster’s snout oriented on the man, and began to suck. Air whistled into that mouth, and a short distance away there was a jet of air carrying out the exhaust. The principle was similar to the way the floaters used air to float and to bring in food or blow out stones. But here the suction was what counted, for the pit worms swallowed their prey whole. Then they closed their aperture shells and digested what they captured. A few days later they would blow out whatever remained undigested. In the interim they were invisible, because their shells covered the two ends of their burrows and dirt settled over them. A floater could float over many without noticing. Since they did not hunt by day, it didn’t matter.

Darius was drawn into the mouth. It was just a round hole, with dust sucking in. The suction was so strong that the man was in the mouth before he could flee. But he held his pole crosswise, so that it came up against the snout. He hung on to it, though his feet were drawn into the maw.

Burgess knew that this was not enough. The worm would simply close its maw on the man and withdraw into its hole, carrying him along. Then it would start digesting his feet. The wooden armor wouldn’t help, since the digestion was fluid and chemical. Darius had to get free immediately. Burgess could do it.

Seqiro picked up this assessment. Then the two human women were opening the wagon. They let the back panel fall down so that it formed a ramp. Burgess could not float up an incline, but he could float down one. He sailed out of the wagon and over the ramp, flowing into the dirt beyond. Then he righted himself and moved to the side, where the worm was already withdrawing into its hole, carrying the man’s lower body along. He moved up right next to it, poked his outtrunk in next to the man, and started blowing. He shot a steady stream of dirt and pebbles into the orifice.

Colene and Nona, understanding what he was doing, got down and scooped more sand to Burgess’ intrunk, so that he did not need to move. Thus bolstered, he poured more through, filling the worm.

Soon the worm, realizing that it was sucking in the wrong substance, desisted. The terrible draft died down, and Darius was able to wrench himself out of the maw. “Thanks,” he gasped as the worm disappeared and slammed down its shell plate.

Thanks? A member of the hive defended the hive and all its members. There was no other way.

“Are there more of these suckworms?” Colene asked. Her accompanying thought was trying to place this monster among those she had seen in the pictures her teacher Amos Forell had shown her, but she couldn’t, quite. She thought there had been a wormlike thing armored at both ends, but that was all.

There were many. They tended to cluster, so it was better to avoid the region. Because they were hidden under the dirt, it was hard to be sure one was near until it lifted its shell and began sucking.

“But trying to circle around something when we don’t know where it is will take too long,” she protested. “It’s not that far to the anchor site. We need a better way.”

“Also,” Nona said, “there won’t be any other predators, where there are suckworms.”

“What alerts the suckworms?” Darius asked. Any weight on the ground close by, or any disturbance. They were sensitive to vibrations and compression of the ground. They remained hidden until the disturbance was close; then they popped up to suck it in.

Darius picked up a rock. “Then maybe this will do it.” He threw the rock a short distance ahead.

Nothing happened. He threw another, with no reaction. But the third brought an eruption. “So it’s clear up to there,” he said. “You folk get back in your cage; I can handle this.”

They helped Burgess into the wagon, and joined him there. They closed it up and tuned back in on Darius’ perception. He was throwing more stones, verifying the safe route through before leading Seqiro there.

“Hey, horsehead,” Colene asked. “Can you tune in on the suckworms, so we know where they are more directly?”

In time, yes. Immediately, no. Their minds are small and foreign.

Slowed by the necessity of checking the route with stones, they proceeded at a painstaking pace. Unable to help, Burgess settled down to sleep, and the women did too, depending on the horse to wake them if they were needed. They lay on the dark floor on either side of Burgess, where they were able to reach up and touch a contact point at need. This was not comfortable for any of them, physically, but a certain rapport remained even when they weren’t touching, and that made it comfortable emotionally. Burgess was gradually coming to appreciate emotion; was good to feel.

JUST how slow it was they didn’t realize until the three were abruptly wakened. Light was coming; it was dawn.

There was sound. Burgess recognized it: hivers!

“Hey, you out there, get a wiggle on!” Colene cried. “Hivers coming!”

“It’s chancy,” Darius responded. “We have threaded an interminable bed of worms, and there may be more.”

Not when light came; the worms did not suck by daylight.

“So go, go, go!” Colene cried. “It can’t be far to the anchor, and we don’t want to be trapped out here by the hivers.”

The man and horse broke into a run. The wagon ride got considerably bumpier. But there remained some distance to go to reach the anchor point. Burgess had chosen it for seclusion and convenience for himself, not considering how close it was to the wilderness.

There was a honk. That was a hiver, sounding alarm! Now they would come.

The region of the anchor came into sight. Burgess verified it through Darius’ eyes. But the hivers were already closing in on it. They did remember where it was, and would cut off the party before it got there.

“Damn!” Colene muttered. “So close…”

“Burgess,” Darius called. “Have the hivers ever encountered armor?”

No. It was an alien concept.

“So they won’t be able to figure its weaknesses in a hurry?”

True. They would blow sand and rocks at it.

“And not try to interfere with the wheels?”

They had never encountered wheels before.

“Suppose we just charge right through them?”

They would get out of the way and blow rocks from the sides.

“Hear that, Seqiro? We’ll just gallop right at the anchor and through it. They won’t get in our way.”

“But swerve around the bigger rocks!” Colene called. “We don’t want to tip over!”

Indeed, the wagon seemed about to fly apart. But they charged recklessly at the group of hivers near the anchor. Rocks and sand struck the wood panels and bounced off. Darius and Seqiro were struck too, but suffered no damage.

As they came to the anchor, the hivers floated aside, not wanting to be struck. The hivers continued to hurl dirt, but though it made for a choking environment, it didn’t stop the motion. They were almost to the anchor, moving at speed.

Then a front wheel struck something. It jumped and came off. The axle dropped to the ground and the wagon plowed into the dirt. The three of them inside were thrown against the front panel. It broke loose and fell outward on the horse, while the two women tumbled to either side and Burgess jetted frantically to keep from being turned over on his top.

The hivers, surprised by this display, halted their firing. But Burgess knew that would not last long. He slid down off the panel and back onto the main body of the wagon.

Darius ran back and put his hands on the fallen axle. “Give me strength, Seqiro!” he gasped. Then the axle came up so that it was level.

“Haul it on through!” Darius cried.

The horse lurched forward—and disappeared. But his harness still connected, and the wagon moved. Darius staggered, hauling the axle—and disappeared too. So did the front of the wagon. There was nothing there but sand and the circle of hivers.

“Move!” Colene cried, getting to her feet. Nona got up and started forward too.

The hivers realized that the prey was getting away. They resumed blowing rocks. But they were too late. Both disappeared, and the rocks bounced harmlessly off sides of the wagon, which remained erect. Then the of the wagon disappeared, with a line across it that steadily erased it backwards. Finally that line reached Burgess, and the wagon reappeared, with its back missing but resuming as the line moved on behind.

The axle dropped as Darius let go, his brief strength exhausted. He sat on the ground, panting. Colene ran to him and flung her arms about his head and shoulders as she dropped to her knees. She hauled the wooden helmet off and brought his head in to her chest. “You poor, wonderful man!” she cried. “Your arms must be just about yanked out by the roots.”

Nona came around to Burgess. She got beside him and put her hand on a contact point. That was when he got the update so that he was able to make sense of the expressions of the others; he had heard them but not properly understood them before. Now it was as if he had always understood them.

Indeed, he was understanding them more than before. Colene was hugging Darius, and kissing him, and loving him, and Darius was loving the hug and kiss and her. The emotion was of such intensity that it made Burgess himself want to love, though he did not know how. He felt that he had been missing something wonderful, all his life. But how—?

“Like this,” Nona said. She got down beside him, leaned forward, put her arms around his top section, and touched her mouth to him, between two eye stalks. “You have now been kissed.”

It felt very good, in an alien way.

THEY diminished the wagon and the armor for man and horse, so that they could walk free. But they did not walk. Darius and Seqiro had been up all night, doing hard labor, and both were fatigued. So they slept while the women and Burgess took care of the details and did some preliminary exploration. The plain extended around them, uninhabited. But it might come to life at any time, and the suckworms might come out by night. So they used poles to poke the ground for worm shells, making sure it was safe. Then they made a campsite.

“Now we must eat and drink only what we brought with us,” Colene said.

But there were fruit trees in sight, with ripe fruit. Burgess was satisfied to be sustained by those.

“Nuh-uh, airfoot. You got things to learn about the Virtual Mode, just as we did. Let me show you.” She stooped to pick up a rock. “Watch where it goes.” She threw it a short distance.

The rock flew through the air and landed on the ground, exactly as it should have.

“Now something we brought,” she said. She took out a round bit of metal. “This is a coin from my reality. I can’t spend it here, so I’ll throw it away.” She did so.

The coin stopped in midair and dropped to the ground.

Burgess was surprised. The coin should either have landed beside the stone, or disappeared as it crossed the boundary between Modes.

“Now let’s carry stuff across,” Colene said. She picked up another stone and held it out to him. “Hold this in your trunk, and we’ll step across to where that rock landed.”

She stepped and Burgess floated. They moved together across the invisible line. Nona, standing to the side, disappeared.

The scene did not change significantly. But the stone vanished. He had not dropped it; it had just stopped being with him. “See? You can’t carry something from a Mode across the boundaries. Unless it’s from an anchor Mode. And look—where is that stone I just threw here?”

Burgess knew where it was—but it, too, had vanished.

“See, it didn’t cross either. It stayed in its own reality,” she explained.

They crossed back. Nona reappeared. There on the ground beside the coin was the rock Burgess had held in his trunk. And there beyond was the rock Colene had thrown.

“We see the reality we’re standing in,” Colene explained. “But we can’t go more than ten feet across it. Because then we step into the next reality, and leave the things of this one behind. We can’t take any of it with us. Now suppose you eat a fruit, and cross the boundary?”

Burgess understood her point. The fruit would vanish in the same manner as the rock, leaving him unfed. But the things of his own Mode remained with him, if he carried them. So his food had to be what they had brought in the wagon. Much had been lost when the wagon started to come apart, but much remained.

“However, we can go as far as we want to the sides,” Colene said. “Because these slices of realities are sort of two-dimensional. They have width and height, but only ten-feet depth. So if you realty want to take a walk without constantly changing Modes, go to the sides. And if you see a monster coming at you, step forward or backward so you can pop out of existence before it reaches you. Even if it’s right in front, you can step into it, and vanish. It’s important to get your reactions in order, because which way you jump on the spur of the moment can make the difference between life and death. Either way: you don’t want to jump into a reality you can’t see, because there might be another monster there, or a deep pit, or a forest fire. So you jump only when you have to.” She glanced at him. “Or fast-float. You know what I mean.”

Burgess did. He moved back and forth across the boundary, carrying rocks, and shooting them in various directions, until he understood exactly how it worked.

Nona expanded a fruit, so that Burgess could make a full meal of a single item. Her magic was a useful thing.

“Say, I forgot,” Colene said. “We’re back on the Virtual Mode! You can do all your magic now, Nona.”

“Why, that’s right,” Nona agreed, surprised. She rose from the ground, floating, but she did not use air. She picked up Colene’s coin and it became a fragment of stone, and then a blade of grass. Burgess was amazed.

“Oh, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Colene murmured.

Nona smiled. Then a tiny plant appeared before her, and grew rapidly until it was as high as she was. It changed color, becoming a tree, and its trunk expanded until it formed a wall. The wall extended to circle Burgess and Colene, and the top leaned over, forming a shelter like that of the closed wagon. Openings appeared in the sides, showing the scene beyond—but every one was different. One was a bright green landscape, with a brighter green sun shining down. Another was a blue chamber with a red creature. The third was white sky with black creatures crossing it. They were not shears, but alien things.

“Blackbirds,” Colene said. “Birds are creatures who fly in my Mode. Most of them are harmless to us, but they eat insects. You’ll see stranger things than that, soon enough, I’m sure.”

The birds turned and came directly toward the window. They passed through it, into the chamber, and became twisting flames. The wall caught fire, and in a moment it was a chamber of fire with a roof of smoke. But there was no heat.

Then the fire lifted, forming a canopy above while the regular land showed below. The canopy diminished, until it was only an insect, which flashed as it flew away.

“A firefly!” Colene exclaimed, delighted. Then, to Burgess: “That was a show of illusion. Of things which are more apparent than real. Everybody in her Mode can do it. They don’t even consider it to be magic, because it hasn’t any substance. But it can be pretty impressive, for those who don’t realize its nature.” She squeezed his contact point. “Of course you were never fooled, were you, air-head?” Then she laughed at his confusion, but her feeling was positive.

He would have liked to see more of that “illusion,” because its nature was hardly clear to him.

Then the firefly returned. It hovered before Burgess’ inflow trunk, and became a small round rock. He touched his trunk to it, to suck it in, but it had no substance. It was merely a discoloration of the air.

The rock expanded into a boulder. Still it could not be touched. His trunk passed through it without effect. It caught fire, but there was no heat at all. It became a fall of water, flowing away across the ground, but had no wetness. It simply did not exist, in all its forms.

“There you have it,” Colene said. “Illusion is something that just isn’t there. But it looks so real you think it is there, until you try to touch it.”

Burgess was impressed. The powers of these creatures were like none he had encountered before.

“No, the rest of us don’t have magic,” Colene said. “Only Nona. And Darius, only his is different. He can magnify joy, and he can conjure. But it’s not safe to conjure on the Virtual Mode, because he can’t tell exactly where he’s going. And he can’t magnify my joy, because I’m depressive. So we won’t be seeing much of his magic soon. And I don’t have any magic at all. Just maybe a trace of telepathy that rubs off from Seqiro. Who isn’t really asleep now, because otherwise we wouldn’t be understanding each other like this. We’re a mixed bag. Now you’re with us, and I guess you can’t do magic either, but you can float and fire out jets of dirt, so you can do more than I can.” Her emotion turned negative as she finished. He wasn’t sure why.

“Because everybody else has special talents,” Colene answered. “While all I’ve got is depression.”

Burgess still could not understand that. There was a concept he thought would relate, but he could not form that concept by himself.

“I’ll help you,” Nona said. “It’s that Colene has what she calls an inferiority complex. But her inferiority is illusion. It isn’t there.”

“What do you mean, it isn’t there!” Colene protested. “I can’t float, I can’t conjure, I can’t do magic, and what little telepathy I can do is laughable compared to Seqiro’s power. I can’t even be happy! So what is there to recommend me?”

“You are our leader,” Nona said.

“I’m what?”

“You are the one of us with the most intelligence, creativity, determination, and initiative. When there’s an emergency, you are the one who takes charge. You are the one for whom the Virtual Mode was started, and for whom it continues. Without you, the rest of us would not be here. We have talents; you have the essence.”

Yes, that was it. The strongest member of the hive had a weakness that was illusion. Something she saw that did not exist.

“You agree with her, doubletrunk?”

Yes, he agreed. His perplexity had been resolved.

Colene shook her head, a gesture which indicated different things depending on the emotion. “Wish I could!”

The illusion still looked real to her.

Late in the day the man stirred and the horse woke up the rest of the way. They remained somewhat tired; the feeling in their bodies carried through with their thoughts. But neither was concerned with this.

“Hey, Colene, what is our course?” Darius asked.

“You haven’t decided on it?”

He smiled. “Well, what do you think it is?”

“I think we’d better just track on around the Virtual Mode until we find your reality.”

“By day or night?”

“Day, of course! We’ll fall in a hole at night.”

“So we’d better start moving at dawn.”

“I agree.”

Again, Burgess saw the way of it. Colene had made the decisions, but attributed them to Darius. It was the way she wanted it.

Nona picked up a leaf and changed it into a piece of bread, which was one of the substances they ate. Then she paused. “I am working from a substance of the Mode we’re in. That means it can’t sustain us, even if I change its nature.”

Colene nodded. “Probably right. We’d better not gamble. We’ll stick to what we brought with us.”

Again she had made the decision. At each turn, Burgess saw the truth of Nona’s statement.

“Oh, stop it, airsnoot! It’s just common sense, is all.”

She was the one with the ordinary sense, yes.

They spent the night behind barricades, taking turns watching. At one point Darius and Burgess were awake, and Seqiro partly conscious, so that they could communicate. “This is just one boundary away from your Mode, Burgess,” Darius remarked. “There should be others of your kind here, yet I have seen nothing.”

There were floaters here. Their signs were all around. Burgess hadn’t realized that it mattered.

“There are? Then why haven’t they attacked?”

Because the nearest camp was a distance away at the moment. Floaters ranged from region to region, so as not to deplete any single area. In this Mode they had camped here half a year before, but now were safely beyond. The remnant of their ramparts was visible beyond the boundary Colene had demonstrated. Unless they were quite unlike Burgess’ former hive, none would range here for another half year.

“So I was worried for nothing! What about the suckworms?”

They were surely all around. But the women had made sure there were none close by.

“So actually the worms protect us, because anyone who comes after us is likely to be nabbed by one of them first.”

That did seem likely.

“But we’ll keep watch anyway,” Darius said. “No telling what we’ll find when we travel. Each Mode will be just a little different from the last, in general nature, but the specifics can change dramatically. We can’t ever afford to let down our guard.”

That seemed wise.

IN the morning they started out. They wanted to be careful, but they didn’t want to be too slow, so they moved along boldly. They remained alert, ready to change course or to proceed with excruciating care when there was some hint of potential trouble.

Darius led the way, holding a staff made from a chip of wood from Shale. When he came to a boundary, the forward end of the pole disappeared, being pushed into the unseen reality. Then Darius disappeared, as if passing through a doorway in a wagon. Then the rear end of his pole followed, as if being fed into an opaque sheet of water. If that pole did not jerk or show any other sign of distress, Seqiro followed. He too vanished in a linear fashion, seeming to be a headless horse, a two-legged horse, the isolated tail of a horse, and finally no horse. If that tail did not twitch, Nona followed. She carried a stick of her own on her shoulder, so that the end of it followed her across the boundary. If the position of that end did not change before it disappeared, Burgess followed. He saw his own outtrunk painlessly cut off, and his own leading section. Then his central eye stalks passed through, and it was his trailing end that disappeared. His canopy eye patches helped verify that he remained intact, but they were normally used only for tracking the spot contours of the ground. Behind him Colene walked, with another pole on her shoulder. He kept one eye oriented always on that pole, and if it did anything odd, he would advance just enough to blow out a stone to alert Nona in the Mode ahead, then turn quickly, ready to blow out another stone in the Mode behind. It seemed complicated, but it was just a chain of cross-checks, so that they could all come quickly together in a central Mode if they had to.

They made good progress. Not only did the scenery slowly change as they crossed it, as would be the case in any normal world, its nature changed. Trees were in different spots in each reality, but of the same type—until he saw that their species were shifting. Their leaves had been green, but they became blue. They had been of average tree height; they became taller and thinner. Then their leaves turned green again, but their height continued to grow.

Every so often there was a gap. A Mode without trees. Or with twisted and dead trees. Then the regular Modes would resume. What had happened to those treeless lands?

For a while they found themselves in jungle, and had to retreat, because Burgess couldn’t navigate it. They retreated, and moved sideways along a suitable Mode, then tried again, and managed to skirt the jungle. This, too, was a fairly abrupt change, as if a few Modes had richer plant life than their neighbors. What trace difference in their nature accounted for so large a difference in their plants?

Sometimes there were creatures. They were usually in the distance, but sometimes they were close. Once there was a suckworm, but it was much smaller than the ones in Shale, and could not harm them. This must be near the edge of their range. Any creatures appeared suddenly when the boundary was crossed, and disappeared as suddenly when the next boundary was crossed.

Then there was a halt. Not an alarm; it was just that when he crossed the boundary, the others were standing there waiting for him. Colene crossed after him, and they stood aligned sideways instead of lengthwise.

The three humans put hands on Burgess’ contact points, so that he could be completely current. “What’s up, beardface?” Colene asked Darius brightly.

“Sign of civilization,” he said.

Burgess felt the thrill of alarm that went through the others. He discovered from their surrounding thoughts that civilization meant that there was an organized society, and that could be dangerous. They preferred to travel through wild regions, because animals were less likely to bother them.

In this case the sign was a pit. It wasn’t wide or deep, so it would be easy to circle around it and proceed, but Darius was concerned that it was artificial, which meant that someone was digging it. He didn’t want to encounter such a person, if he could avoid it. Though nothing from a spot Mode could be taken across the Mode boundaries, any harm they suffered in one would remain with them. Of course Nona had the magic of healing, their thoughts clarified, but it was better not to have to use that.

The sensory line they were following indicated that they were on the route they wanted; if they deviated from it too far, it would be harder to follow. Burgess was learning to pick up the faint rightness of the direction; it indicated where there was another anchor. He could find his way back to his own anchor by tuning in on this, or forward to another anchor. It seemed that each anchor had its ambience extending across the Modes of the Virtual Mode, making it possible to travel without getting lost.

They decided to proceed with caution. Instead of maintaining a walking or floating pace, they went in what Colene termed jerks. Darius stepped across, and Seqiro waited a moment before following. That gave Darius the chance to change his mind and step back if he deemed it wise, without banging into the one behind.

They did go around the pit. It would have given Burgess trouble, though he could have gotten out of it. It was not the kind made by floaters. They seemed to be beyond the floater Modes now. Burgess felt a peculiar emotion as he realized that; now he was truly in an alien realm.

There were increasing signs of civilization as they continued. Then Nona called a conference. “This is near Julia! My Mode,” she said. “The hills are starting to assume fractal form.”

“You’re right!” Colene exclaimed. “It’s your reality we’re coming to. But do we want to stop there?”

“No,” Nona said. “They will want me to be queen.”

“And you’d still rather be hiking through nowhere with us, than queen at home?”

“Yes.” There was no doubt in Nona’s mind; the certainty came to them all.

“I suppose it’s not surprising,” Colene said. “Julia was the closest Mode to Provos’ Mode, when she let go her anchor. So maybe the anchors are in the same order. Which means the next one beyond that will be Darius’ anchor. Then—” But she did not finish either word or thought.

“Then you and Darius get off,” Nona said.

“Yeah. But what about you? When we started this, you and Burgess weren’t along. In fact, Seqiro wasn’t along. So—” Again her thought was incomplete.

“I want to explore the Virtual Mode,” Nona said. “Since my magic works on it, I feel reasonably safe. I would be satisfied to travel with Seqiro and Burgess, if they were interested.”

Colene’s shock of concern was intense. “Seqiro! How could I live without you?”

“You will have some decisions to make, Colene,” Darius said. “You know that it is no perfect life I can offer you in my Mode. I love you, but if I knew that you would be happier elsewhere with Seqiro—”

“I think I would die without you, Darius,” she said seriously. “And without you, Seqiro. But unless the others want to get off at the same anchor Mode—”

Now the horse spoke, without making any sound. I wish to remain with you, Colene. And with you, Nona. It is my nature to desire the company of human girls.

Nona smiled sadly. “It might be best if Burgess and I wanted to join you in that Mode. But if I settle down, I should do it in my own Mode. Until then, I hope to remain on the Virtual Mode. How do you feel, Burgess?”

This was a surprising and confusing question. Originally it had seemed that the four creatures were a unified hive, but now he understood that they were separate individuals, and that this group was not permanent. That made it difficult, because he needed a hive. A hive of two creatures was too small to be viable.

“Oh, that’s not a problem,” Colene said. “Whenever someone vacates an anchor, a new anchor appears, with a new anchor person. Just as you did. So there’ll always be five folk in the group, as long as this Virtual Mode exists. But look, people: here we’re off on a discussion, and we really don’t need it now. We can make our decisions when we get to Darius’ Mode. Maybe we’ll work something out by then. Right now we know we’re passing the Julia Mode, and we don’t want to stop there, so we’ll just sashay on by, and Nona’s our guide. We can pick up speed, now, because Nona’ll know when there’s danger. So let’s put her in front and move on.”

Colene had exercised her leadership again. Nona exchanged places with Darius, and they proceeded at their full walking velocity. The Modes continued to vary, the configuration of trees and grass constantly shifting. Sometimes they found themselves in the midst of rain, and then as suddenly it would be sunny again. But it was always day, and the same time of day, and the landscape shifted only slightly with each Mode, if at all. They chose a route which enabled Burgess to float across fairly level terrain, traveling, as Colene put it, along a contour. They discovered that it was possible for one of them to push him, on slopes, so that he could ascend, and he could slow his descent by diminishing his air so that his canopy dragged slightly. He was keeping the pace satisfactorily.

Until they came to a wall. It angled across their route, evidently artificial. It was twice the height of a man, and had bits of sharp stone embedded in its hard surface. They avoided it by moving to the side, where it cut off. It looked solid, extending all across the hill they were on and the gentle valley beyond, but vanished when they crossed the Mode’s boundary. Those boundaries made even the most formidable barriers easy to pass.

But the next Mode had its own wall, angled differently but just as extensive. They avoided this also, by moving farther to the side. Then they came up against a third wall, and this one was angled so that it was exactly crosswise—which meant it extended along the width of their section of this Mode, and they could not readily get around it.

They halted again for a consultation. “Your folk responsible for this, Nona?” Darius asked.

“They could be,” Nona agreed. “In Julia, we reversed the flow of magic, so that it now touches women instead of men. But in other Modes it may not have changed, and the despots may be doing unkind things to the land, or trying to pen up the peons. It is the way their minds work. I think we should get past this quickly and leave it far behind. I do not want to become the captive of despots.”

“None of us do,” Colene agreed. “They’re mean jerks. Okay, I guess you can fly over it, and Darius and I can put wood panels on it and climb over. But what about Seqiro and Burgess?”

“We’ll have to build a hoist or a ramp,” Darius said. “I think a ramp is better, because Seqiro can walk up it himself.”

“But what about the other side?” Colene asked. “That wall is right up against the next Mode boundary, by the look of it; we’ll be dropping off into the unknown.”

“We’ll check the next Mode, of course. We won’t have to jump blind.”

“And what about Burgess?” she asked.

“Seqiro can haul him up the ramp on a sledge or wagon.”

They got to work. Darius carved a wooden structure, a long ramp with supports, wide enough for the horse. Nona flew up and over the wall, to check the next Mode. She reported that it was clear, with a wall that wouldn’t interfere with them; they could set the ramp on the far side of this one without a problem. Darius set the model ramp beside the wall, so that it aligned, running in the same direction. Then Nona made it expand. She had already expanded the base of the wagon they had used before, so that it was just large enough to support Burgess.

Meanwhile Colene was busy searching for rocks. “Come on, airfoot, help me,” she said, touching a contact point. “We want a good supply.”

What were they for? It was not possible to take the rocks across the boundary.

“Look, you know how your hivers didn’t just leave you alone? Well, whoever built or magicked this wall isn’t just going to sit by and let folks cross it. We’re going to see guards conning by on their rounds any time, and if we aren’t across yet, we’re going to have to fight. If they use magic, Nona will have to help us. But if they’re peons, as seems more likely, stones will stop them. That’s what you’re good at. So we’ll have a good supply for you, and we can throw them too. They’ll work just fine, as long as we remain in this one Mode, and once we’re out of it, it won’t matter.”

Now he understood. She was correct. He got to work finding rocks and sand, and storing them in a wooden box she had gotten. By the time they had a good collection, the ramp was almost full size. Nona’s magic seemed to be stronger on the Virtual Mode than it had been on Shale, so she could expand things faster.

Darius walked up the ramp to the top of the wall. He set a wood panel on the wall, making a safe platform. “Um, I didn’t realize this until just now: this wall’s only about two handspans wide at the top. Seqiro won’t have room to cross.”

“What do you mean?” Colene demanded. “He can just come up on this side, and step across to the ramp on the other side, no problem.”

“But we have only one ramp. We’re going to lift it over after Seqiro and Burgess reach the top. So they have to be off it first.”

“Oh.” Colene pondered a moment. “We’ll just have to make a second ramp.”

“I suppose so.” Darius stepped onto the panel on the top of the wall, making sure it was secure.

There was a chime. It seemed to come from the wall itself.

“Uh-oh,” Colene said. “That’s an alarm. I have a suspicion that we aren’t going to have time to carve and expand another ramp.”

“True,” Darius said. “We’ll have to act now. Nona, come up here and expand some more panels for the top of the wall. Those are smaller, so they will be faster to do. Colene, you hitch up Seqiro and Burgess and lead them up the ramp.”

They got to work immediately. Nona flew up to join Darius on the top, and began to expand more panels. Colene hitched Seqiro’s harness to the wagon and led the horse to the base of the ramp. Darius came down, and the two of them borrowed strength from the horse and heaved Burgess up onto the wagon. They put the box of stones on the end of it, where Burgess’ trunk could readily reach them.

There was the sound of barking. Burgess recognized it from Colene’s knowledge: it was the noise made by creatures vaguely resembling the horse, but smaller, with sharper teeth. “Just in time,” Darius muttered. He got on the ramp and hurried up to rejoin Nona.

“Okay, horseface, keep your feet straight in line,” Colene said. Burgess was able to understand her increasingly even when she wasn’t touching a contact point, and through her, the others. “Use my eyes; I’m watching the ramp. Ignore all else. Darius and Burgess will guard us.”

Burgess hoped so. His position seemed precarious as the wagon tilted, being hauled up the ramp. But he followed Colene’s directions too, focusing only on what lay behind.

That manifested soon enough. Several creatures matching Colene’s mental description of dogs came charging along the wall, baying. Their sharp teeth showed at the ends of their long snouts. He knew from Colene’s mind that they would attack savagely without hesitation, like land-bound shears.

He oriented his trunk. As the first dog came within range, he fired a stone at the white of its teeth. The stone struck, hard, and the dog made a squeal and fell to the ground.

But the next dog was already there. Burgess fired another rock, which struck the head between the two matched eyes. That dog spun off to the side, stunned.

But more were coming. They clustered so thickly that it was not possible to score on each one, and his third stone missed. His wagon was now halfway up the ramp, but the dogs were coming up the ramp too.

He worked his trunk to the bottom of the box, reaching the sand. He sucked it in and spewed it out into the faces of the three dogs on the ramp. Their eyes were not on stalks, and could not be retracted, so were vulnerable to this. They yelped and rolled off the ramp.

Colene was now reaching the top, bringing Seqiro’s head with her. “Step close, keep your balance,” she murmured. “Right up onto the wall, here, and along it. We’ll just keep going. There’s nothing else in the world we need to be concerned about, horsehead.”

The dogs were coming again. But now the length of the ramp between them and Burgess was greater. He oriented his trunk, and when a dog came up, he fired the rock at the animal’s head. The dog cried out and fell from the ramp. So did the next, when treated similarly.

But then another creature came into sight. This was a human figure, similar to Darius. That was surely not good.

“Nona, we need your fire,” Darius said from the wall. “Set fire to the grass, so there’s smoke.”

A fireball appeared at the base of the ramp. The remaining dogs yipped and scattered. The grass and dry leaves caught fire, and smoke billowed. There was an exclamation from the man beyond.

Now the wagon was at the top of the ramp. Darius was there. “Steady,” he said, touching a contact point. “There will be an imbalance as the wheels cross the angle between the ramp and the wall. Stay quite still; don’t react. I will guide the wheels.” He leaned over, putting his hands on the front of the wagon.

It was well that he had given the warning, because the wagon shifted and seemed to be falling. But Burgess prevented himself from making a blast of air to right himself. In a moment the wagon found a new equilibrium, and moved on forward. It was on top of the wall. Darius heaved, making an adjustment to the rear wheels, and then the motion stopped.

Burgess was now on the wall, off the end of the ramp. Seqiro and Colene were beyond him. Darius and Nona were behind him, also on the wall, which was now covered by wood panels. But how were they going to move the ramp? It was too big and heavy for them to lift from their awkward position on the wall.

“You watch for enemy action, Nona,” Darius said. “I’m going to conjure the ramp to the other side.”

Darius held something in his hand. It looked like a tiny man. He stepped onto the ramp, and lay down on it. Then he moved the little figure he held.

The ramp disappeared. So did Darius.

Then his voice came from near the wall, beyond Colene. “It’s secure. Lead him down.” What had happened? Without direct contact with the man, Burgess could not tell.

The horse resumed motion. Burgess followed, borne along on his wagon. Then Darius was there, quickly updating by touching a contact point, then helping the wheels over the ridge. “It’s clear, Nona!” he called. “Get off the wall!”

The wall disappeared. They had crossed into the next Mode. Now they were coming down a ramp from nowhere. The remaining stones in the box were gone, as was the sand; it was completely empty.

Nona appeared, floating beside the wagon. “I don’t think they could do the same kind of magic,” she said, touching a contact point. “That’s why they used the wall and dogs. But I’m sure they were dangerous. They were bringing up some kind of device.”

“Maybe a cannon!” Colene said. “It’s a good thing we got out of there.”

“A cannon?” Nona was as perplexed as Burgess was. To understand this he needed direct contact with Colene.

Colene made a mental picture of a huge metal tube, which Nona received and relayed to Burgess. From that tube flew an object like a giant cup with a sealed, pointed front, spinning as it flew. It crashed into a mountain, and the mountain became a ball of flame.

Burgess still wasn’t sure what a cannon was, but concluded that he did not want to encounter one. It seemed like an enormous outtrunk with no intrunk, primed with stones that exploded.

They reached the base of the ramp. Then Nona used her magic to reduce it slowly to a size she could carry in her hand. She also reduced the wagon, so that Burgess did not have to be lifted off; he floated off when it was low enough.

“How did you move that ramp?” Nona inquired of Darius. “I thought you conjured only people.”

“I conjure living creatures and the things they carry,” he said. “Otherwise I would arrive naked when I conjure myself. In this case I had my icon embrace a sliver of wood representing the ramp, and then I embraced the real ramp myself. So when I activated the icon and moved it, the ramp moved with me. But this is a tricky, fatiguing device, and I wouldn’t care to do it in other than an emergency.”

Burgess realized that there was still much he had to know about these aliens. He hardly grasped what Darius had done, except that it was magic akin to Nona’s, and that it had enabled them to cross the wall before the Mode creatures had overwhelmed them.

“Let’s find a place to camp,” Colene suggested. “I’ve had enough strenuous escapes for today.” Burgess agreed.

They moved on through the Modes of the Virtual Mode. Burgess followed Colene’s thoughts as they traveled. They saw other walls, but none got in their way. The one had just happened to be in a position that blocked them. Probably the creatures of that Mode had not realized that the party was foreign to that Mode. The wall must have been part of a prison complex, or possibly the border of a military zone.

They crossed a low, grassy hill and a river came into sight. It looked broad and deep. Along it were animals, standing in fields. Those were probably horses or cows, Colene thought.

“Neither,” Seqiro responded with his thought. “Their minds are other. But they are passive, and will not bother us. We can ignore them.”

“That’s good,” Colene said. “I wouldn’t want to meet up with your kind. No offense, horsefoot.”

“My kind would be dangerous.”

“Yeah.”

The animals appeared and disappeared with each boundary crossing, but the river remained constant, shifting only in minor detail. They approached it, and finally stood at its bank. It seemed to have two channels, which interwove. The water was clear, and red creatures Colene thought of as fish were visible. “Are those safe? I mean, can we ignore them too, and go wading?”

Seqiro’s mind reached for the minds of the fish. “No. They are what you call piranha, or similar.”

“So much for sweet nature!” Colene exclaimed, laughing. Her mind clarified that piranha were vicious predatory fish, much like the shears of Shale or the dogs of the walled Mode, but in the water.

“Is that an island?” Nona inquired, peering across the water.

“It seems to be,” Darius agreed. “It looks uninhabited.”

“Why don’t we cross to that island?” Colene suggested. “Then maybe nothing will bother us.”

That appealed to Burgess, and to the others. They were all tired of having to be constantly alert for weird menaces.

Nona got ready to expand the wagon into a boat. But Colene had an idea. “See if you can make those fish afraid of us, Seqiro. Then maybe we can safely swim across.”

The horse focused on the fish. Even without contact, Burgess felt the unease of fear. After a while the fish swam away. Burgess floated out on the water, and found no fish near. He dipped his intrunk and took in water, finding it sweet.

“Hey, you can’t have all the fun!” Colene cried. She got out of her clothes, waded into the water, bent down, swept her hand across the surface, and splashed at Burgess.

Even without contact, he understood her intent. She was pretending to attack him, in what in her thoughts was a game. This was one of the intriguing alien concepts he was learning. So he aimed his outtrunk and splashed her back, but without force.

“Oh, yeah, squirtface? Take that!” She splashed him harder. He responded by splashing her harder, but still not with force enough to hurt. That was important.

Then the others removed their clothing too, and waded in, splashing. Soon they were all making such a commotion that the fish should have been frightened away even without the fear the horse was sending them.

Burgess became aware of a peculiar emotion. Then Nona touched him, and clarified what it was: fun. He was having fun. They all were. It was a pleasant experience.

Then he floated and they swam across the river to the island. The Modes changed several times, and the horse had to refocus each time to put fear in the fish, but otherwise there was no difficulty. When they reached the island it was still uninhabited, and still guarded by vicious fish. That was ideal.

They had their evening meal and made a shelter. They decided that this night they would not have to keep guard, because it was unlikely that anything would intrude on this island. In any event, a Mode boundary traversed the length of the island, so they could quickly cross it if they needed to. They felt as safe as it was possible to feel, on the Virtual Mode.

Burgess, despite the awkwardness this travel through hills and forests entailed, and the problems occasioned by organized alien species, was coming to like it here.