Wormbender's Circus

The Semiramis rose rapidly over the sea, up through the atmosphere and out into space. Casey put her into orbit around the planet while Igor finished the repairs.

“Wow, that was close,” Sebastian sighed, watching the grey cloud pass beneath the ship. “I hadn’t realised this could be so dangerous.”

“That was a little hairy,” Casey nodded. “Shouldn’t be so bad from here on in.”

Sebastian gave him a strange look. “I hope not.”

“Entering the hold, boss,” Igor announced.

“Okay, Igor,” Casey replied.

Moments later there was the robotic equivalent of a cry of surprise and anguish. Through the intercom, Casey and Sebastian heard a screech and a crash.

Casey flicked on the hold monitor. Igor was visible as a dented heap in the corner.

“Igor?” Casey called anxiously. The robot stirred slightly. “Igor, what’s the problem?”

Igor righted himself. “Seawater remaining in the hold has frozen, boss,” he replied shakily.

Casey laughed. “Poor Igor! As soon as we hit space, the hold turned into a skating rink!”

When Igor had finished his repair work, Casey steered the ship deeper into the Rann star system, in search of an erg. In the emptiness of space, near the heart of the system, some as yet ill-understood freak of nature had created the ergs, creatures - if one could call them that - of pure energy, and yet appearing to possess some form of intelligence of the most fundamental kind.

On their frequent visits to this desolate corner of the galaxy, men had encountered the ergs, and there had been a kind of mutual fascination. The ergs were of no use to mankind, for space offered endless sources of energy, so they were safe from exploitation by the human race. There was, moreover, no cage which could hold them if they did not wish to be held. Men had tried to coax them away from the Rann system in order to study them, but only twice since their discovery had this been achieved. The ergs, found nowhere else, displayed an attachment to the area more puzzling in many ways than their attachment to men and their ships.

When they approached, clearly sensing the emission of energy from a ship, they would generally wrap themselves around the hull, like a pulsating shell of force, often throwing out electrical systems within the ship, but then reactivating them themselves as if they realised the damaging effect of their power. The strength they possessed was enormous, easily capable of crushing a ship, but they never appeared to be anything but benign. They would usually cling to a ship for a time as it passed through the system, then simply let it go and drift it away. Their appearance was normally of a shapeless blue mass, like a vast amoeba, but to the astonishment of all who witnessed it, they were capable of mimicking any shape. They would approach a ship, generally alone but sometimes in a group of three or four, and floating parallel to it, they would adopt its shape. Captains would report in their logs, with obvious bemusement, how their vessels came to be surrounded by dimly glowing copies, like so many incandescent shadows.

The Semiramis cruised through the system leaving a trail of charged particles which, in a few hours, attracted the attention of an erg. Casey and Sebastian became aware that they were being followed by a pale blue imitation of the ship, perfect to the last detail. It came closer, adopting a course which spiralled around that of the ship, as if the erg wanted to examine it from all sides.

“I have an idea,” Sebastian said suddenly. He switched on the light show on the outer skin of the Semiramis. Untold millions of miles from the next nearest human eyes, the hull of the ship burst into a brilliant display of iridescent colours, proudly displaying the legend: ‘Wormbender’s Galactic Circus’. The effect on the erg was instantaneous. It wrapped itself around the ship, enveloping it like a second hull, glowing deeply and softly pulsating.

After some time, Igor brought a meal. The robot was still showing signs of his mishap, and his movements were stiff and awkward. The two men picked at the food absent-mindedly, their eyes never straying for long from the monitors, where the stars were now seen through a bluish veil. Since the arrival of the erg, there had been a strange feeling in the air, an inexpressible sense of peace and harmony.

The time passed in a kind of gentle haze as the ship crossed the Rann system. Sebastian and Casey scarcely spoke, but they found themselves smiling a great deal.

After some days, they reached the edge of the system.

“Well,” said Casey, “The moment of truth.” He gradually increased the ship’s speed. And suddenly the erg was gone from their screens. None of them showed its departure, it simply vanished. “Damnation,” said Casey. “We lost it.”

“It just disappeared,” Sebastian sighed.

“Well, that was a waste of time,” Casey grumbled. “Not to mention the fact that we risked our necks.”

The silence resumed as Casey set about charting a course towards their next destination. Sebastian lay on his bed and dozed.

When he returned to the control room, Casey was hunched over a monitor, flicking idly through star charts.

“Casey?”

“Yes?”

“When the erg was around the ship, was it just me, or did you feel something, did you feel sort of good, though you didn’t know why?”

“Mmm.”

“Do you still feel something of that?”

Casey stared at him. “Yes. Not so strong, but I do.” He stared harder. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

Sebastian smiled. “Let’s check out the hold.”

The two men hurried to the hold, trying to hasten and yet at the same time cautious, because catwalks and companionways were still rimed with ice. At first they could see nothing out of the ordinary.

Then they spotted the blue amorphous mass of the erg in a corner, hovering a little off the floor. As they approached, it mimicked their shape, so that they found they were facing ghosts of themselves. The erg held their shape for a minute, and then reverted to its own.

Casey turned to Sebastian, beaming. “I think he likes us.”

“Yep,” said Sebastian with a smile. “Wormbender’s Circus has its first attraction.”