And Eternity

by Piers Anthony

  The first meeting of the two was coincidental: they were both unattached and attending one of the dances arranged by the saucer line. Saucers were the luxury vessels of the day: they had inherited the mantle of the old ocean cruisers, and it was truly said that many an illicit affair began on them. So, in this case, needing partners, the two of them came together. There was a certain air of elegant mystery about Basil that appealed to Obelia, and there was no mystery about the qualities she had that appealed to him: diamond earrings and a well-tempered cleavage.

  So they danced, and it was fairly clear from the outset what each desired of the other: attention and excitement. They proceeded to their first sexual encounter with almost flawless point and counterpoint, in the manner of bidding hands of a card game, the object being not so much the culmination as the challenge of achieving it with proper flair.

  But this was to be more than that, thanks to the influence of Fate's minions. "Let me clarify this," Nicolai said, as he and Vita watched the couple stripping down for sex. "They will have a whirlwind fling—by the threads it seems perhaps three episodes in five hours—but each knows it is only a passing diversion, and they will part when the saucer docks at the moon. He will be wounded in the takeover struggle, and she will be the fifth hostage executed before the saucer Captain caves in and gives the hijackers command. We must intensify their passing passion into burgeoning love, so that neither can tolerate the death of me other."

  "But how will that change what happens?" Vita asked.

  "She will be near the Captain when hostilities break out; their threads indicate this. She may be able to save Basil, and he in turn will save her. But their love must be true, or events will overrun them both. We cannot tell them this, but we can enhance their feelings subliminally. We must be like Romani, deceiving the eye and mind to move our subjects to our will without their knowing. Can you do this, girl?"

  "You mean, sort of get inside her and make her love him more?"

  "Yes, as I must do for him, using the ghost-power Fate has lent me."

  "Gee, I've done sex with a lot of men, but love with only one," Vita said, abruptly reconsidering. "I don't think I could do it with another. But maybe Jolie could."

  But I love Satan! Jolie protested, appalled by this sudden shift.

  "Or Orlene," Vita said.

  Orlene considered. I loved Norton, but must let him go. I like Roque, but would not interfere with you. I think this is an exercise I must attempt.

  "Great!" Vita exclaimed, relieved. She turned the body over to Orlene.

  "I am Orlene, one of the ghosts," Orlene said. "I have assumed control. I will try to enter the woman and enhance her love."

  "That is good. This element is essential, for it is the only way we can accomplish our purpose."

  Orlene approached the woman and tried to enter her the way she had Vita. To her surprise, she succeeded. Apparently her occupation of a physical host did not prevent her from animating another, in this special circumstance Fate had set up. Nicolai disappeared similarly into the man.

  So this is what it feels like to animate another body! Vita thought.

  Don't distract Orlene, Jolie warned. Lives are at stake.

  They had entered the host barely in time, for Obelia was just coming together with Basil. She was about to say something like, "Let's see just how good you are, stud!" but Orlene put forth a powerful thought, and it came out, "Oh, what a handsome man you are, Basil!" Obelia was startled to hear herself say this, for she was jaded about sex and generally preferred to make her men squirm a little even during the height of their passion.

  "Any man must be handsome in the presence of such beauty," Basil replied. Jolie had to suppress her laughter, which might become perceptible and interfere with the mood. There was the smooth Gypsy man talking!

  Obelia felt a small thrill of pleasure at the unexpected compliment. This thrill somehow magnified, well beyond what was called for, as Orlene threw herself into it. As a result, instead of simply spreading her legs and getting on with the sex, Obelia kissed him passionately.

  He seemed surprised, but quickly responded, nattered that she should take such an interest. Maybe she wasn't the hardboiled socialite he had taken her for! She responded to his response. As a result, what both had expected to be a fast, wild encounter became more extended and tender. He forgot her diamonds and noticed her eyes, while she found greater appeal in contact than there had been in mystery.

  After the early passion abated, they remained together and talked, discovering common interests that would otherwise have remained undiscovered. Their three almost competitive episodes became two far more meaningful ones. Love was dawning, amazing them both.

  They separated at last, for each had other business. She had a formal dinner with the Captain, for her family was a significant investor in the saucer enterprise, while he had to participate in the hijacking. She wanted to cancel the date to remain with him, and he wanted to warn her to stay in her cabin for the next hour, but could not without imperiling his mission.

  The ghosts emerged. "That was very nice, Orlene," Nicolai said.

  "You are an expert!" she replied. She felt a certain shame for the passion she had engendered and participated in, for she had felt it as if it were her own. But she knew she would do it again if the occasion arose. It was a pleasure evoking the positive aspects of people, rather than letting the negative ones dominate.

  An hour later it started. The hijackers brought out makeshift weapons and laid siege to the control room and the Captain's quarters. The saucer's crew was helpless; the only laser pistol was the Captain's, and nothing else could overcome the clubs made from furniture that the hijackers wielded.

  "Give up. Captain!" the spokesman for the hijackers called, standing at the doorway. "Or we will—"

  The Captain drew his pistol and fired. But Obelia, seeing her lover about to be cut down, leaped across and pushed his arm, fouling his aim. The beam missed, ricocheting off the wall, as Basil dived for cover.

  "You kill one of them, there'll be no limit to what they'll do!" she exclaimed, though in truth she would not have acted if she hadn't come to know and appreciate Basil so well. She was shocked that he should turn out to be a hijacker, but that did not erode his appeal. He was like a bold robber who loved a captive lady. It was downright romantic, in a way.

  Outraged by her interference, the Captain pushed her away and retreated to his bastion: the cabinet where he kept the master spell that enabled the saucer to defy both gravity and inertia so that it could fly comfortably between the Earth and the Moon. Without that spell, the hijackers could not operate the saucer—and they could not approach it as long as the Captain had his laser ready.

  The hijackers knew they had just two hours to gain that spell and move the saucer before a police ship came to complicate things. Their bargaining position would deteriorate sharply after that. "Send out an emissary!" their leader called.

  The Captain's eye fell on Obelia. "You're it," he said gruffly. "You like them so much, you go talk to them!"

  Obelia was nervous about going out there, but had no choice. She went. "What do you want?" she asked the glowering hijacker leader. Basil was gone, no doubt to see to guarding the crew or passengers, and she was just as glad, because she didn't want others on either side to know of the relationship between them.

  "We want the master spell, you ninny!" the hijacker barked. "Tell him to hand it over!"

  "But you know he won't do that!" she said, afrighted.

  "Tell him that we will kill one hostage every five minutes until he does."

  She returned to the Captain, who was covering the door with his laser; any other person who tried to enter would get shot. "They say—" Obelia faltered. "They say they will—will kill a hostage every—"

  "And they'll take the whole ship if I give them the master spell!" he replied. "I'll never do it!"

  "I don't like the look of this," Orlene said. "Are innocent people really going to die?"
r />   "They really are," Nicolai said. "But fewer this way than otherwise. We had to choose between evils."

  Obelia returned the Captain's message to the hijacker. "I thought he'd say that!" the man said. "Bring up the first hostage!"

  Two other hijackers brought up an elderly man who looked frightened and bewildered. Without ceremony, the leader clubbed the man over the head, so hard that there was little doubt he was dead. Then he picked up the corpse and heaved it through the doorway so the Captain could see it. "Ask him again!" he cried, shoving her after.

  Obelia, terrified and sickened, stumbled through the doorway to deliver the message.

  The Captain was adamant, knowing that his only hope was to keep the master spell away from the hijackers. "If I give it to them, they'll have no limit to what they can do; all of us may die as they rob and wreck the saucer! I will not do it!"

  Obelia returned to the hijackers. The leader nodded. They brought up a middle-aged female passenger, who screamed as she saw the club descending. It made no difference; her body joined the other.

  "This is terrible!" Orlene exclaimed. "Can't we stop them some way?"

  Nicolai looked grim. "We cannot. I think Atropos is showing us the worst of her dilemmas. I have seen death before, but I do not like this. I tolerate it only because I have seen the threads and know there is no other way."

  "No other way!" Orlene exclaimed. "Where is God? How does He tolerate this?"

  "That is a question to which I would very much like to know the answer!"

  The impasse continued until four passengers were dead. Then the hijacker leader tried another tack. He grabbed Obelia and marched her before him to the doorway. "Tell him that you will be the next!" he snarled.

  Obelia had seen the brutal deaths of the others and had become to an extent numbed and resigned. She went to the Captain. "I am to be the next hostage killed," she said.

  "What do you think of them now?" he asked grimly. "Sorry you saved that one?"

  She thought of Basil, and was hurt and ashamed. She had really been getting to like him, and all the time he had been a brutal hijacker, planning this slaughter! What she had taken for genuine interest must have been no more than a contemptuous dalliance on his part. "I made a mistake," she said dully. "Now I will pay for it." In fact it seemed to her that she was about to pay for her entire frivolous life. What had she ever done to benefit anyone except herself?

  "You don't have to go back there!" the Captain protested, regretting his curtness. "They can't get you here."

  "They will just murder someone else in my place," she said. She walked back toward the doorway.

  "Don't go!" the Captain cried. "I forbid it!" He swung the pistol to cover her.

  She hardly paused. "What will you do—kill me? Keep your conscience clean, Captain; they will do the job for you." She continued walking.

  "I can't give them the master spell!"

  "I know. I agree." She passed through the door.

  The hijacker leader was waiting. "What's he say?" he asked eagerly.

  "It wouldn't be ladylike to repeat his exact words," she said with the wannest of smiles. "But to paraphrase: he analyzed your simian ancestry in some detail, and described rather graphically a solitary vice you should practice to the point of expiration."

  "Don't be cute, slut! What's his decision?" Obelia, expecting to be clubbed momentarily, found herself at a loss for an answer, so Orlene prompted her: "When God kisses Satan and the Incarnations applaud, maybe then."

  In rage, the man lifted his gore-soiled club. Obelia closed her eyes and clenched her teeth, determined not to flinch. This was her single stand for justice, decency and a worthwhile life, however brief; this much, at least, she could do with style.

  There was a thud, but she felt nothing. She opened her eyes—and there was the hijacker leader, unconscious, with Basil standing over him. "There wasn't supposed to be any killing," he said. "But when it started, I figured I couldn't do anything about it. But when you—oh, God, honey, I don't care if I rot in prison forever, I couldn't let him do it to you! I'm through with this business!"

  Dazed, she protested. "But the other hijackers—"

  "Tell the Captain to come out here with his laser, and we'll take them one by one. They won't know what hit them!"

  Obelia hurried in to the chamber. "Captain, Basil—the one I saved—he's changed sides! Come out and he'll help you take the others captive!"

  "A likely trick!" the Captain snorted. "I'll not be fooled by that!"

  "But he means it!"

  "Then tell him to come in here!"

  Obelia went back and told him. Basil nodded. "He's got no call to trust me. Tell him to hold his fire; I'm dragging this hulk in there."

  She told the Captain, who watched alertly while Basil dragged in the leader. Then Basil stood. "Captain, I'm a hijacker, sure. But she saved my life, and I saved hers. If you come out to where you can ambush the four others, I'll lure them in one at a time, and it'll be over with no more bloodshed."

  "I'm not moving away from this cabinet!" the Captain said. "You mean it, you lure them into this room!"

  "All right. Obelia, you go to the others one at a time, tell them Alex says the Captain's still holding out, and to bring in one more hostage each. Quick, before they start catching on that no one's returning!"

  Obelia scurried out, still amazed at this turn of events. She had done right to save Basil! He did love her!

  She approached a hijacker who was guarding the crewmen, locked in their barracks. "Alex says to bring another hostage."

  "Damn! It wasn't supposed to come to this!" But the man collared a steward and hauled him toward the Captain's chamber, leaving the others locked up. Obelia followed, knowing the hijacker wouldn't trust her in the vicinity by herself.

  The hijacker saw the four bodies. "Hey—where's Alex?"

  "In there," Obelia said. "Now he wants them where the Captain can see them."

  The hijacker seemed doubtful, but the bodies were evidence that Alex was busy. He pushed his frightened prisoner ahead of him.

  As they entered the Captain's chamber, the Captain's laser covered the man. "Drop your club."

  "But—"

  "Drop it," Basil echoed. "You are now the Captain's prisoner. He'll hole you if you make a move."

  The hijacker dropped his club and went to stand by Alex, who was now starting to recover.

  Obelia went out for the next, and the scene was played again. It was surprisingly easy. The hijackers obeyed the word of their leader, and weren't unusually smart. In twenty minutes all of them were captive and the siege was over.

  The total number of lives lost was six: the four murdered hostages, and one crewman who had been struck down during the initial phase, and an elderly woman who had suffered a heart attack when she realized what was going on.

  "I was sorry I missed you," the Captain told Basil. "But Obelia was right; you did good work, and I will testify on your behalf. I don't think you'll spend time in prison."

  "Thank you, sir. But I did get into this to make money, and I'll take my punishment."

  "You may find yourself with money anyway," Obelia murmured, taking his arm.

  Atropos reappeared. "We are agreed: you have good judgment, Nicolai. You may assume the Aspect." She stepped through the wall of the saucer, and Orlene and Nicolai were hauled after.

  This time there was no transition; they were abruptly back at Nicolai's hut. "We shall set a golem to resemble you," Atropos said. "You will seem to have died naturally." She flung more webbing, and it formed into an image of the man, lying on his bunk, unmoving. "Do you wish to leave a message?"

  "No. I am old; they know I am due to die soon. Let it be this way."

  Atropos stepped through the wall again, and again they were hauled after, on the invisible web. They arrived in an apartment where a black woman was making a bed. Atropos gestured, and the great skein of the Tapestry of Life appeared. She reached out and touched one thread, moving it sligh
tly. She nudged another thread so that it lay in the place just vacated. Then a little pair of clippers appeared in her hand, and she cut that second thread.

  The clippers disappeared. She extended her hand to Nicolai. "Take my hand, take my Aspect," she said.

  Nicolai grasped her hand. The two stood there for a moment, then let go. Then Nicolai began to change form, coming to resemble Atropos.

  She glanced at Orlene. "We made the change, girl," she said. "It's his substance, become mine. He is with Fate."

  Orlene looked, and saw the young Clotho, then the middle-aged Lachesis, then the old Nicolai. "But I must masquerade as a woman," he said. He changed, becoming an old gray-haired woman, with a long dark skirt, antique feminine boots, a blouse that looked flat-chested, and a ludicrous little hat. "Will this do?"

  Orlene smiled. "It will do. But watch the whiskers."

  "Oops." The whiskers disappeared. "But I'd better give the body to one of the others, till I catch on better." Lachesis appeared. "Yes, we shall have some adjusting to do. It will be strange for a while, hiding a man!"

  The former Atropos glanced at them. "You folk better get out of here; there's going to be an ugly scene shortly."

  "An ugly scene?" Lachesis asked. "You never told us exactly why you had to step down so suddenly."

  "Because I saw something you weren't looking for, and it wasn't right to use my office to change it, but it had to be changed. My daughter remarried, and I thought he was a good man, but he turned bad, and started beating her, and now he's going to beat her too hard. So I switched out the threads. Go on, get out of here!"

  Lachesis faded out, but did not leave. She had merely become invisible, and Orlene with her. "And give that girl her thread!" the woman called. "She earned it!"

  The woman who was making the bed looked up. "What?" she said, as the magic surrounding the former Atropos faded, leaving her solid and visible. Then: "Ma! But you died ten years ago!"

  "Not quite. I came back to do you one more favor, girl. Now you be sure to testify to what you see—and tell them the background too."