Behold a Dark Mirror Read Free Page A

busy platinum mine, a Boy Scout troop left for a long hike, planning to be away for a week.  A terror-stricken mayday call came in:  The troop reported that something was harassing them.  "We're surrounded!" they said, "Creatures that stand still in mid-air!  No wings!  They're watching us!"
    It's here.

    "Capture?"  the Scoutmasters yelled, "We can't even touch them!"  Ten youths and two adults consistently transmitted identical details.  All returned;  the troop was shaken up but unharmed.

    Nero walked on;  the hair on his arms started tickling.

    Government authorities at first dismissed the episode as a harmless freak incident;  all resumed their usual lives, with recurring nightmares for some.  Boredom took over the mining town of Hi once more, but that troop's story soon became famous as the first of many.

    A thin flash of light shone across the hangar, marking the arrival of a yellow spherical form.

    Blue, green, red, yellow floating balls the size and shape of large round watermelons appeared in downtown Hi.  Suspended in mid-air, they moved as if self-guided, and appeared or disappeared at will.  Nothing scared them away.  Nobody could touch them.  Yet nothing really happened, except for popular rumors of a new exotic disease plaguing Doka.

    Nero watched the yellow creature hover next to the turbines, then haunt overhanging equipment throughout the building.

    On Earth, distance and ignorance fueled an irrational fear that grew and grew from thin air:  Quarantine was put in force.  Yet platinum shipments continued, and no one got sick on Doka or Earthside;  shipnetting was known to kill anything transported: virus, bacteria, plants, animals.  Anything alive died:  It was a strong inducement not to hitch free rides.
    The creature moved with impossible stops and turns;  Nero's gaze couldn't keep up.

    Time passed without casualties;  rumors died.  Reassured, the rulers of mankind thought it worthwhile to investigate:  The stylish uniforms of Tower officials appeared on Doka.  By then, the evidence had vanished.  The fuzz-balls had lost interest in mankind and disappeared without trace, except for a few unpredictable appearances.  Doka had given birth to a new myth.  The fuzz-balls became taxonomic relatives of werewolves and yetis, if of a gentler inclination.  All good people with a positive attitude agreed–except the residents of Hi.

    The creature's hue of yellow was so intense it almost glowed.  Its blinding shifts came to a sudden halt a couple of meters in front of Nero's face.

    At parties, Doka's sole indigenous animal had become a topic comparable to weather and fashion.  Once, a beautiful conversationalist had called the creatures Cheshires , in analogy to the famous disappearing cat.  The nickname persisted.

    The Cheshire that Nero, during his stay on Doka, had come to name Mr. S. Pook–or Pook for short–now floated in front of his face.  He could distinguish no features in it;  calling it fuzzy was an approximation that meant its contour appeared indistinct.
    Nero took a slow half-step forward.  His discomfort became more intense, but no more precise:  His body could not translate the alien feedback.  Pook's dangling tail was a meter long.  The last time Nero had seen Pook, the tail had been half that length.
    Another imperceptible flash of light–Pook was gone.  No, it wasn't.  The Cheshire now roamed over the control room, restless as a tiger in a cage.  Then– flash –it disappeared.
    Nero was among the few who could perceive the thin flash, which wasn't really light.  It wasn't really there, either.  Trying to read with the corner of one's eye gave a pale idea of the feeling, as if the Cheshire lay out of range of the five senses.
    As after an intense dream, when reality is not yet convincing, Nero felt confused.  Every time he had been that close to Pook he had felt this way.  Now he took a deep breath and looked around:  Everything was normal