In his mind, the Zone had seemed a brave outpost on a perilous planet, but it had now become a cramped and comfortless workaday place, where frigid winds whipped gritty dust. Even Bosun Brong had dwindled in the drug’s aftermath. No longer the enigmatic master of arcane powers, or even the romantic halfbreed outcast, he was now only a worried little man, handicapped with artificial limbs, having trouble getting through on the holo.
Nobody answered when he tried the apartment Cyra and his father had found—a larger place than the Crew station, he explained, with space they wanted for a lab and a shop. Spacedeck information was busy when he tried to call there, but at last he reached a harassed yeoman in the operations office who said Kyrone and Sair were out on the job in Shuttle Pit Two. No, sir, he couldn’t get a message to them. Not in this new emergency. If he did catch them free, however, he would try to tell them that Kyrone’s son had arrived.
“Please do,” Brong said. “What’s this new emergency?”
“You haven’t heard?” The yeoman’s image stared. “About the tachyonic transport. First thought to be carrying more humanoids to Kai. Changing course now. Headed for us. Kyrone and Sair are rushing their weapons system. Fighting to get it going in time to defend the Zone.”
“How much time—”
“Sorry, sir. Another party calling.”
When the holo flashed again, it was Vythle Klo, her sleek, dark elegance not visibly ruffled by any emergency. The Admiral had learned of their arrival from Kai, and he would be pleased to see them at Zone Command.
“A mean old mutox!” Brong spoke of Vorn as they climbed the steep granite canyons under a green streak of sky. “I hated his guts for years. Hated his schemes to murder Malili for the profit of his fleet.”
“Hated him?” Keth panted, “Yet you drove his sanicraft?”
“To earn my keep. And meet my friends.” Brong chuckled. “Drove no better than I had to. Wrecked more craft than I brought back.”
“But you get on with him now?”
“Well enough. Because we both dislike the humanoids. He’s doing what he can for your father and Sair.”
On the wider streets around the spacedeck, they saw young men and women rushing to duty stations. Perhaps, he thought, these pioneers really were a sturdier breed, not so ready to accept the humanoids.
At Zone Command, Vythle Klo came out to meet them in the anteroom. She greeted Brong with a look of awe, as if she had just learned of his Leleyo tricks. The Admiral would see them in a moment.
She turned to take Keth’s hand, her own grasp warmly firm. Meeting her level eyes, he felt something veiled but intense beneath her cool reserve. Recalling the position with the Navarch she had given up to follow Vorn here, he decided to admire her. She led them inside, and Vorn received them with an unrevealing grin that turned ferocious when he spoke about his niece.
“There’s a holo report that you murdered her.” His hard stare fixed on Keth. “Killed in a way I couldn’t believe. The Bosun says I don’t have to.”
“Don’t,” Keth said. “The thing that came back on the Fortune wasn’t Chelni, but a humanoid look-alike. Another humanoid told me she’s alive and well. I don’t know.” He shrugged unhappily. “The humanoids lie.”
“Look-alike?”
“They copied people. Sent the copies back to take over Kai.” He told how her copy-thing had called him to Vara Vorn. “And they say they came to save us!” Moving like some tormented animal, Vorn stalked away and whirled back again. “It’s their devil’s tricks I want to talk about. Because I mean to hold the Zone. We’ll beat them, Keth! With your brave father’s help and Crewmate Sair s machine.”
34
Rhotiou A rhodomagnetic quantum. Carrying exchange forces across the interface between the tachyonic and electromagnetic spectra, it is responsible for such telurgic phenomena as telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation.
Padding back and forth across that high room, pausing now and then to peer off into Malili’s yellow mystery or down toward the spacedeck, Vorn spoke of the conflict coming. He had warned the orbital stations and mobilized his own command. Down on the spacedeck, Keth’s father and Crewmate Sair were assembling their defensive monopole.
“They say it ought to shield the Zone.” His broad red face looked bleak. “With luck, maybe twenty kilometers more, outside the perimeter. That will be our universe. Between the humanoids above us and the bloodrot below—”
“Your wife, sir.” Vythle spoke from the doorway. “On the beam from Kai.”
With a shrug, he sat at the hushed holophone. Keth watched Vythle as she watched him, devotion glowing through her elegant reserve. Vora’s cragged face scowled, stubborn jaw jutting like Chelni’s.
“In love with the humanoids!” He rose at last, blinking in disbelief. “She says we’re fools not to make them welcome here. Begging me to come back home and share the wonderful happiness they’ve brought her.” He grinned at Vythle. “We’ll hold out.”
Striding restlessly again, he spoke of his brother and his niece. He had loved them both, and he blamed himself bitterly now for refusing so long to believe the humanoids had injured them.
“But you wouldn’t let me!” He swung on Brong, almost in anger. “With your sly way of hiding all your Leleyo tricks, you wouldn’t let me believe.”
“Sorry, sir.” Brong’s bland tone held no real apology. “But Leleyo facts turn false when you carry them to Kai.”
When Vythle entered again, she brought a message from Crewmate Sair. She and Crewman Kyrone had run into an unexpected difficulty. The monopole was stalled. With the humanoid transport near and descending fast, they were desperate. Sair was on her way to Zone Command to discuss their problem with the Admiral.
Keth was watching the door when Vythle brought her in. Wearing a dirty lab apron, she hobbled on a bandaged foot. Her haggard look shocked him. Eyes dark-rimmed and swollen, dull hair undone, black beads of blood dried along a livid scratch across her cheek. The straggling hairs in the mole beneath her eye had faded white.
“Hello, dear.” She pecked him with a hasty kiss, nodded at Brong, and limped to face Vorn. “Admiral, we’re in trouble.”
“I know.” He gestured at a chair, but she didn’t sit. “Do you want to see me alone?”
“No need.” Her gaunt head jerked toward Brong. “In fact, I think he can help us.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“Maybe he can tell us.” She glared at Brong accusingly. “Our installation is complete. Circuits all hooked up and tested. Full power on. The monopolar field ought to be building up. It isn’t.”
Quivering and grimy, her forefinger jabbed at Brong.
“Ask him why!”
“Sir!” Brong shrank from her, yellow gloves lifted. “I don’t know what she’s up to.”
“I think he does,” she rapped. “But I’ll explain.” Her ragged voice rose. “The device requires an exciter—a weak initial field that should be picked up and amplified. We tried to excite it with our hand weapons—the small monopoles we used to disable the humanoids around the shuttle pad when we escaped from Kai,
“Dead!” Her thin finger stabbed. “Both dead!”
“Why blame me?” Brong’s quick black eyes darted at Vorn. “She’s crazy, sir!”
“Something killed those monopoles.” She limped at him, her drawn face savage. “The evidence points at you. Who else—”
“The humanoids themselves?” Vorn gestured uneasily at the high windows. “They’re nearly here. Reported passing the satellite station hours ago—”
“Not likely!” Hobbling closer to Brong, she raised her wasted hands as if to seize him. “The cause is something closer. Here inside the Zone.”
Though Keth had seen no signal from Vorn, Vythle Klo was suddenly inside the doorway with a level lasergun aimed somewhere between Brong and Cyra. Surprisingly agile, Cyra sprang aside.
“Watch him—and Keth!” Her quavering tones rose and broke. “Our own dear Keth—turning
traitor! Brain rotted with Leleyo drugs. Learning vile Leleyo tricks. If they try anything—”
“Cyra!” Dazed for an instant, Keth started toward her. “‘I’m no spy! I can’t believe the Bosun is—”
“Back!” Her old voice went shrill with terror. “Don’t try to touch me.”
“Stand still!” Vorn shouted. “All of you.” He scowled at Cyra. “Crewmate Sair, can’t you calm yourself? You seem almost hysterical—”
“We’re betrayed by these half-Leleyo devils—”
“Please!” He waved a massive hand. “Frankly, I’m at a total loss. If you think these men are hostile agents, we need to see your evidence.”
“Thank you, Admiral.” She shambled at him. “The facts will convince you. Whoever killed those monopoles knew rhodo science. Most Kai Nu don’t. The Leleyo do—and look at him!”
She glowered at Brong.
“Half Leleyo himself, and harboring all of them that ever got inside the Zone. Learning their language and smuggling in their mind-rotting feyolin. Picking up their secret science—”
“Bosun!” The Admiral swung to challenge Brong. “What do you say?”
Shuddering away from her, Brong raised his yellow gloves as if her jabbing finger had been a deadly blade. His lean throat pulsed and his brown lips quivered, but no sound came.
“Guilty!” Her shriek was triumphant. “Watch him squirm—but don’t let him get away. When he can talk, ask him about those secret rhodo sources. Ask about his Leleyo friends and all they’ve taught him. Ask how he can jump from here to Kai—and how he brought Keth back here!”
Her wild voice shook and fell.
“I’m afraid of him, Admiral—”
“So are the humanoids!” Keth burst out. “Those are exactly the facts they were demanding from me when they had me trapped at Vara Vorn—”
“They’ll trick you if they can!” She spun to glare at Brong, her eyes glazed and mad. “Why should the humanoids fear their own spy?”
“But he isn’t!” Shivering, Keth appealed to Vorn. “Listen, sir! I think—think I’ve seen what all this means. Will you give me just a moment? Let me ask her a couple of questions?”
“Why not?” With a glance at Vythle, Vorn shrugged. “If you can make some sense of this—”
“Don’t!” Cyra shrilled. “Don’t you see they’re only playing their vicious Leleyo game?”
“We’ll soon find out.” He nodded at Keth. “Ask your questions.”
“Cyra”—fighting a chill of horror, he had to gulp for his voice—“do you remember the gift you bought me for my seventh birthday?”
“Of course I do, dear.” Her voice turned softer, though she still watched him with a wary hostility. “Your father and I were just married, and I wanted you to love me.”
“Do you remember what it was?”
“A little red sled, for the moontime snows.”
“Do you remember the first job I got, running a route?”
“Certainly.” Impatiently, she frowned at Vorn. “Admiral, this makes no sense.”
“Do you remember what sort of route?”
“You were selling hologame tapes.” She limped a little toward him. “To all your little friends up and down the tunnel.”
“Crewman, we’ve no time for nonsense,” Vorn rumbled. “I see no point—”
“Just one more question—please!” He peered at Cyra, shrinking back as she hitched toward him. “Do you remember the thing I thought was a dragon’s egg?”
For an instant she looked puzzled.
“Now I do.” She almost smiled. “You were still a little boy, and what you called the egg was a round black pebble some older kid had found in the gutter. He told you it was something wonderful, and you gave him all your quota tokens for it. Your father laughed when you brought it home, and you were crushed—”
“That’s enough!” Keth backed toward Vythle, with a frantic signal to Vorn. “Enough, sir, to prove—what she is!”
His voice was a breathless croak.
“The gift was not a sled, but the tutor we called Doc Smart. The job was a recycle route. The thing I thought was a dragon’s egg—that was the rhodo monopole I found on the dead levels under Greenpeak.
“And the real Cyra knows—”
“Keth, dear!” She hobbled at him, her voice sharp with distress. “You’re ill again. Out of your head. You must have been neglecting your shots—”
“Stop that thing!” he gasped at Vythle. “It’s a humanoid!” Its hand darted under the dirty apron, and he caught the glint of a tiny needle.
“The real Cyra—my real father—they never escaped!” He cringed from the needle. “The humanoids caught them and sent copies—”
“The poor dear!” He was hoarse with terror, and its shrilling drowned his breathless rasp. “Subject to these dreadful paranoid delusions when his shots are neglected—”
“Don’t let it—” He was trying to scream at Vythle, but no words came. “That’s euphoride—”
Vythle looked bewildered, her lasergun wavering between him and the humanoid.
“Never mind him, Admiral!” it was squealing. “A dreadful affliction, but his shots always soothe him—”
No longer limping, it was darting at him, faster than a human being could move. He turned, trying to run, but its thin, blue fingers had caught his wrist in a merciless grip.
35
Platinomagnetics The tachyonic energy spectrum assorted with the third triad of the periodic table of the elements: osmium, iridium, and platinum.
The needle thrust—and stopped.
‘“Help!” the aged voice squeaked. “Murd—”
The squeak was cut sharply off. The clutching hand slid from Keth’s arm. The worn old body spun past him and rolled on the floor, grotesquely stiffened. Brong crouched above it, pointing one gloved finger at its stiffened face. Vorn was reeling backward as if from a dazing blow. Vythle caught his arm to steady him, and slowly lowered her lasergun.
“Sir, it was—is—a humanoid.” Brong drew slowly back, still squinting at it, wiping a sleeve across his wet-beaded face. “I was able to knock it down. For how long, I don’t know.”
Keth felt, cold and nearly ill. Staring at the ceiling, its bloodless features were fixed in pained amazement, and a thin brownish wisp trailed from the gaping lips. He caught a bitter whiff of burnt plastic.
“Your father—” Vorn’s face had the look of gray wax. “The thing—”
“Another copy.” Keth crouched away from the dead machine on the floor. “Their big monopole must be a fraud. A scheme to cripple any real defense, while they learn what they could about the Leleyo.”
“Which means we’ve lost—” Vorn’s hoarse voice failed, and he stood for a moment staring at Vythle. “Lost everything . . .”
His voice died again.
Darkness had fallen across the room. Outside the great windows, the lemon sky was gone, blotted out by a vast silver-black mirror that held a dimmed and twisted image of the tower and the Zone.
The humanoids were landing.
Her cool elegance somehow unshattered, the lasergun still in her hand, Vythle walked around the humanoid to where the Admiral stood. They smiled very soberly at each other and turned together to the window.
Keth heard her gasp. Stumbling nearer the window, he saw panic on the spacedeck below. Pedestrians peered up at the descending ship and fled madly from beneath it. Racing vehicles ran them down and crashed together in metal avalanches.
“They can’t—” Vorn turned to Vythle, his broad face sick. “Can’t be landing—on top of all those people.” Shaking his head, he peered down again. “They’ll have to stop, because they have a Prime Directive that will—”
But the transport didn’t stop. Its own swelling bulk hid the fate of those caught beneath. No human sound reached that high room, but the whole mountain quaked. The floor shuddered. Toppling objects crashed and jangled. A ring-shaped dust cloud rolled out to veil the ruin.
“Their Prime Directive—” Vorn made a savage face.
“They don’t want it changed,” Keth said. “They think people with rhodo know-how might try to change it. I guess they’ll be after the Bosun now.”
“Me?” Brong recoiled from him. “After me?”
“They have the Zone. Now you’re all they need to fear.”
“Our last hope, Bosun.” Vorn padded toward him. “You and your Leleyo friends.”
“No help from them, sir.” Brong licked at his lips, the pink tongue strangely quick in his dead face. “They’re not back from their winter migration, wherever they go. With the humanoids here, they may never come back.”
Warily, he glanced at the still humanoid.
“Nor help from me, sir,” he muttered. “I can focus force enough to put one out of action. Maybe two or three—but not a million!”
“But you can—jump,” Keth whispered. “Can’t you take us anywhere?”
“Nowhere you’d want to be.” He backed toward the doorway, as if expecting the machine to move. “I can only reach places I know. There are humanoids everywhere I’ve been on Kai and Kyronia. Bloodrot everywhere outside our little perimeter here.”
Vorn and Vythle stood silent, holding hands.
“Admiral, sir.” Brong’s voice startled them. “I’ve one request. There are sanicraft standing down in the shop. One I used to drive. Before the black metal imps come swarming down. May I take it, sir?”
Vorn looked somberly at Vythle, slowly back at him.
“Why not?” The wide cragged face looked bloodless as the thing on the floor. “I suppose you’ve earned it.”
“Thank you, sir!”
“Where—” A spark of life came back to Vorn’s dull voice. “Do you know some refuge?”
“The craft itself, sir. I want to drive it out where I hope the humanoids can’t follow. Far enough, if I’m lucky, to meet the Leleyo when they come south for the summer. You see, sir, there’s a gamble I never dared.”
The Humanoids- The Complete Tetralogy Page 47
