Masters are waiting. I havewarned you. If, after that warning, you still ask to stay, they willgrant your wish. It needed only your free choice. I am glad you havechosen, but shock treatment is a dangerous chance. Are you sure you loveme--enough?"
"Songeen!" his mind pleaded. "Wait!"
She heard his wordless cry, and waited, opening the glowing, purecitadel of her thoughts to him. She gave no answer in words or glowingthought symbols. She waited.
"No, I haven't changed my mind. I want to stay. Maybe I can learn tolike your world. I want the decontamination--the shock treatment. I'mscared, but I want it, no matter how it hurts. I want to stay here--butnot if you're not here. I want to be with you--Hell, Venus, or evenCallisto--I want to go with you. I love you. If my love is part of mymadness, don't cure me. I haven't asked you, but I'd like to know. Doyou love me?"
Songeen was silent. In the glittering forest of crystalline tree forms,jeweled birds sang wild riots of bubbling, bursting notes. Darknessgathered swiftly in the dense air.
"Didn't you know?" Songeen chimed, matching the bird-notes. "Our namesare already enrolled in the Great Book. It was custom here, our matingrite. It was the only way I could bring you. I did not tell you,because--"
She stopped, then continued. "Because I had to be sure of you. Because Iwanted you to have free choice. Now you must share all my tasks, myresponsibilities. Before, the task was mine alone. Now we must share it.You and I are selected--"
"Selected for what?" Newlin broke in.
He could not see her for thick darkness. But he sensed eery tension ofmovement, and emotion flowed to him from her mind.
"For the great task, the last and greatest of all. We must go backtogether. To Hell. To the system you sprang from. It is for us torelease to them the ultimate weapon. The deadline is close, as I toldyou. Other races grow desperate, now that your system's isolation isbreaking down. Pressure for interstellar expansion is extreme on all ofSol's planets. The technicians work full time at the problems, and theywill solve it, soon. We have until then, to kill or cure the patient.
"Other powers and weapons have been released to them in the hope thatmounting responsibility would bring sanity. Atomic power was turned intodangerous toys, implements of murder. We gave them knowledge of atomicfission and fusion, and they use the knowledge to butcher and destroyeach other. We tried all the minor shock treatments. They have failed.The time has come for the final treatment. The major shock. We--you andI--must give them the ultimate weapon."
* * * * *
Newlin knew his humanity. He protested. "But why? If they have misusedeverything else. Why give them something still more hideous? Why givethem means for further destruction?"
Her answer pulsed through darkness which glittered like black crystal.
"Because it is the final experiment. The last hope for your people, yoursystem. We cannot help them beyond that. They must choose forthemselves, as you did. We must go back to Earth, this time. And it isour task to give them the final treatment and test. The ultimate weapon.Gravity displacement. Once used, it is the end. Planets will be wrenchedfrom the Sun, electrons from their parent nuclei within the very atoms.It is the same force. The choice is theirs--kill or cure. Sanity ordestruction. You and I will stay, try to guide and help, advise, but notinterfere. Like you, your people must have free choice.
"We must stay with them, and share whatever happens. This is their shocktreatment--and yours. We will share it together. But come, the Mastersare waiting. I will take you to them."
"Together!" said Newlin, awed. "You will stay with me and share my--ourshock treatment!"
"Together, always--now. It is a small price to pay, whatever happens,"murmured Songeen.
Her hand drew him close, and she led him outside the zone of crystallinemurmurs. Darkness leaned closer, solid, tangible. Ahead, was a great andterrible light.
Shock Treatment Page 10
