Starquake.pdf

straight toward her, moving rapidly. Soon, down the road, she could see a Slink, moving as fast as its
tread could ripple.
"Hello, Fuzzy-Pink." Speckle-Top greeted the Slink as it came up to her, its furry top turning
reddish-white from exertion. Speckle-Top liked animals and she formed a tendril to
reach out and pat the fuzzy hide. The Slink dropped a small scroll on the crust and, avoiding her pat,
moved off away from her and waited, its eyes looking first at her, then at the scroll. Speckle-Top moved
by the scroll to pat the Slink, but it circled around behind her, picked up the scroll, and put it down next
to her tread again.
She gave up trying to pat the Slink and used her tendril to push down on the scroll as she had seen done
on the video in the holovid shop displays. The scroll flattened out on the crust. There was some writing
on it. A few of the words she knew, like "IN" and "OUT," but the rest she couldn't read. The Slink
moved restlessly back and forth as she tried to decipher the message. Suddenly she recognized another
word. It was "HELP." She paused. Whoever she helped would probably wonder where she got all the
expensive body paint and call the clankers.
"Sorry, Fuzzy-Pink," she said, letting the scroll roll up on the roadway. "Get someone else. I got to take
care of me."
She started off to enter a food shop along the road. The Slink picked up the scroll, raced ahead of her
and put it down in her path, its twelve eyes looking intently at her every motion. She tried to go around,
but the Slink moved quickly to block her way. She stopped to rumble a laugh into the crust and reached
out again to pat the animal. It dodged and started making quick trips off down the road in the direction it
had come, stopping to see if she followed, then running back to repeat the motion. It made anxious little
chirps in the crust as it moved.
"All right, Fuzzy-Pink, I'll come." She followed the Slink off down the roadway, her tread alert for the
sound of a clanker.
The Slink led Speckle-Top toward centertown. When they came to an entrance of a large compound it
entered one of the gates in the compound walls. Speckle-Top hesitated, because this was where all the
big-badge thinker types worked. A few times she and her gang had thought of sneaking in to see if there
was something to steal, but the clankers had kept them out. Seeing her pause, the Slink came back to
fetch her, its chirps becoming more and more anxious sounding. She moved inside the compound and
heard a faint voice off in the distance, calling. Something was wrong. The voice sounded as if it were
coming from inside the crust. She scrubbed her tread hard and waited for the next call. The direction to
the voice
was definitely downward. Feeling very insecure, Speckle-Top followed the Slink toward the voice until
it stopped some distance ahead and intensified its chirps. They were answered by a voice.
"Rin-Tin-Tin! You're back!" Zero-Gauss said as she spotted the pink ball of fuzz at the top of the ramp.
"I do hope you found someone to give the message to." She placed part of her tread against a side wall
and raised the level of her tread vibrations. "Hello out there! Help! I'm trapped in a hole! Help!! Help!!!"
Rin-Tin-Tin raced away and soon was back. This time a young cheela eyeball was peeking over the
back of the Slink. The eyeball quickly retracted.
"Bright's Spew-hole!" Speckle-Top said as she drew her eye in under its flap and tried to forget the