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Brooks studied Kell, and realized that he could not pursue the topic any further.
“Very well. Would you like to give me your perspective on what occurred?”
“No,” Kell said. “I would not like to. But I will.”
The being began to pace, circling the pool, his eyes gazing into it. He seemed to be searching for words, and Brooks gave him the time he needed.
“What is in that chamber should not be,” Kell finally said.
“In what sense?”
“Any,” Kell replied sharply. “The man known as Michal Denso is gone, and what now occupies that space is an abomination.”
The Ambassador’s eyes raised from the icy water to meet Brooks’s. “I do not use that word lightly.”
Brooks could not hide his surprise. “Nevertheless, we must aim for a positive outcome.”
“That is impossible,” Kell replied. “At least in the sense that Michal Denso will never exist again as was once known.”
“He’s dead?” Brooks asked.
“He is something else,” Kell answered, his eyes going back into the water. He had paced around the pool and was now opposite Brooks, where he stopped. “What, though, I do not yet know.”
“Except that it’s abominable, apparently,” Brooks said. “Can you give us any useful information on what he is? You’ve said before that I can’t understand these things – but we must try. And there are few places in known space where we could do a better job of trying to understand.”
Kell said nothing, only looking into the water.
“The words do not come to me to even attempt to try, Captain. Understand that I do not intentionally keep you in the dark. There are simply limitations to what I am capable of imparting to you through words.”
“Through words,” Brooks echoed. “Does that mean there is another way you could impart them?”
Kell looked up at him again, and something flashed across his face. Amusement? Mocking?
“How did Denso crack the glass?” Brooks asked. “Can you describe that?”
“By hitting it,” Kell replied.
“But you saw that it broke in places he didn’t touch – even where he hit it, it broke after his hands struck. Several moments later.”
“That is not what I saw,” Kell replied.
Damn it, Brooks thought. He was certain of what he’d seen; he’d reviewed the footage. But Kell had apparently seen something different.
“How aware do you think he is?” the Captain asked.
“I cannot answer that,” Kell said. “He does actions with intent, but I do not know what – or how much – he perceives.”
“What do you make of him asking to go home?” Brooks asked. “Denso was from the Neo Solaria system, do you think he is aware that we can’t take him there? Or do you think he meant the ship he had served on, the Sunspot?”
The ship which, as far as Brooks knew, was still floating derelict in the Terris system – if it was lucky. More likely it had already suffered a matter failure and ceased to be.
“The being that you continue to call Michal Denso has a connection to something deeper than a place,” Kell replied. “Its home is not a physical location as you think of it.”
“What do you think it means, then?”
“The place where he was born.”
The answer made no sense to Brooks, and he almost asked for clarification, but then it suddenly clicked in his mind.
“The Terris system itself,” he breathed.
Kell nodded. “That is where this being began. Where it was . . . created. I believe it wishes to return. Why? That I cannot begin to answer, so do not ask. But more than anything else about this being, I am certain of this.”
“So if he felt he had been ‘born’ in the location that the Sunpot happened to exist in . . .”
“Then it may consider that space to be adjacent to its home, yes,” Kell replied.
Brooks went quiet, and Kell turned away, touching a panel. The plain wall turned into a view of the stars beyond the ship, and Kell began to pace again, crossing and re-crossing the far side of the pool, while gazing into the void.
“Why do you think he responded to you as he did?” Brooks finally asked, breaking the silence. “It seemed to be outright aggression, not simply . . . excitement.”
Kell unclasped his hands, letting them fall to his side. His mouth curled slightly, but it portrayed no happiness, no pleasure. It was a mocking, baleful grimace that went even into the eyes of the being as it stared into Brooks. Through him, in a way, into a place that Brooks knew he could never understand.
“One abomination recognizes another,” he said.
Brooks found he could not speak. He took a few moments to compose himself. In the dark room, something seemed to stand out against the dark; not Kell, not the shape of man he presented himself as, and not even the . . . mass that he had seen in deep space when they’d encountered the Leviathan.
No, it was the eye. Again, the shape of it, burned into his vision.
“I see,” Brooks finally managed to say. His voice sounded hoarse in his ears. “And . . . and what do you think we should do?”
“Kill him,” Kell said simply. He turned, facing towards the wall screen that showed the stars. “There is no other choice. Good day, Captain.”
Brooks tried to thank Kell, but his voice had failed him. He offered just a nod, and turned towards the door.
The Eye seemed to be there, too, on the wall. It was not until the door opened into the brighter hall that it was washed out – or gone. He could not know which.
Brooks realized that his hands were shaking.
Other Terrestrial 