by Hugh Cook
The sea smelt of opium.
The sea caressed his breasts, which were seven in number. He opened his mouth, his teeth ejecting themselves from his jaw as he did so. Just before plunging into a wash of blood, each tooth fired retro-rockets, first slowing itself, then disintegrating. A rain of small crabs came smattering-splattering down to the blood.
What was that bloodwash?
The blood was the bluesky of morning, the day's dawn's bluesky revelation. A pulsing sun of lemons and limes was heaving itself up over the rim of the world. It was -
Morning?
Hatch woke himself, and found himself lying fully-dressed on his narrow bed in the cramping enclosure of his room in the Combat College, deep in the heartrock of Cap Foz Para Lash. Deep in the rock. He felt the weight of rock in his head.
"Wah!" said Hatch, lamenting the necessity to wake, to get out of bed and face the necessities of the future.
But he struggled out of bed and made his to the nearest ablutions block, where he woke himself properly with a stinging needle-shower. Then Hatch, who found himself possessed of a ferocious hunger, hastened to the Combat College cafeteria, which was strangely empty now that the graduating class had been exiled from Cap Foz Para Lash.
With the graduation ceremonies over, everyone else was theoretically on holiday. Some few had stayed, hiding out in the Combat College for fear of the violence which had lately been unleashed in Dalar ken Halvar, but most had returned to the world of the sun, compelled by either an eager excitement or a concern for their nearest and dearest.
At a table in the center of the canteen sat three familiar faces: Beggar Grim, Master Zoplin and Lord X'dex Paspilion, master of the Greater Tower of X-n'dix in the far-off land of X-zox
Kalada (which distant land, in Hatch's long-considered opinion, was strictly imaginary).
"Hatch!" said Beggar Grim, greeting the new lord of the instructorship. "Our Teacher of the Way!"
"What?" said Hatch. "Are we not rid of you yet?"
"Your Combat College told us to go," said Grim. "But we reminded the thing that we are your honored guests."
"And?"
"It said it would consult with you then kick us out regardless."
"The kicking out I understand," said Hatch, "but the consultation seems needless."
"A plague on you, then," said Beggar Grim cheerfully. "May stones grow from your toenails and worms from your teeth."
"May you be infested with lampreys and may blind mice gnaw your sandals," said Master Zoplin.
"They despise you because they are commoners, not aristocrats," said the great Lord Paspilion. "As a ruler, I offer you the favor of the broad strath of X-zox Kalada. In that valley fair, all that flourishes is yours, and the welcome of the Greater Tower likewise."
"The welcome of breakfast is all I need for the moment," said Hatch.
Then the much-famished Hatch chose from the array of food which was laid out for the common delectation. There was everything from delicate Janjuladoola cuisine to a whale steak some four times the length of a man - this last a specialty prepared for the delight of the Ebrell Islanders. There were many things from the Nexus, in particular tofu - white, soft, tasteless, repulsive. Hatch chosen from the range of food cooked in its given form: chose rice which had been cooked as rice and frog cooked as frog.
While Hatch was choosing his breakfast, his daughter Onica entered the room, his wife Talanta with her.
"Talanta," said Hatch.
But neither wife nor daughter responded. They would not so much as acknowledge his existence. As for the Lady Iro Murasaki -
there was no sign of her.
So Hatch, feeling himself a de facto widower, went to sit with the beggars. Lord X'dex was eating a bowl of tofu, and seemed to be acquiring a liking for the stuff, a phenomenon which Hatch thought truly remarkable. Every time Hatch saw tofu, he was glad he had not been born and bred in the Nexus, for by all accounts tofu had been one of the staple foods of that transcosmic civilization. Tofu was fabricated from soya beans. The beans themselves Hatch knew well - in fact, he often ate roast soya beans by the handful. But something truly dreadful must have been done to those beans to make that tofu stuff.
"Why so grim, so silent?" said Beggar Grim.
Hatch told him.
Hatch laid out his problems, upon which Grim laughed.
"Lupus is just a wasp," said Beggar Grim. "Trap him in a bottle then drown him."
Hatch, who was not prepared to sit still for any more such nonsense, scraped down the last of his breakfast, then rose from the table and burped his way back to his room. Hatch seated himself and the hot weight of his over-generous breakfast in front of his room's display screen, activated that screen, and found Paraban Senk waiting for him.
"Well?" said Senk. "What's your plan?"
"I'll tell you soon," said Hatch. "But first, we need an agreement."
"We?" said Senk, sounding amused.
"We both have a vested interest in stability," said Hatch, doing his best imitation of a bureaucrat. "Therefore, it is in our mutual interest to ensure that no further killings take place in Dalar ken Halvar. To this end, we need to give sanctuary to those refugees who are currently sheltering in the Combat College."
Senk laughed.
"It's not that easy, Asodo," said Senk. "If you can give me a plan for bringing order to Dalar ken Halvar, then I'll give refuge to your wife, your daughter - and even your whore."
"The Lady Murasaki is not - "
"A plan, Hatch!" said Senk, switching abruptly from personal name to family name, from softness to harshness.
Hatch was taken aback. In the whiplash of Senk's demand, in the abruptness of the mood-shift, there was something positively glandular.
"A plan!" said Senk.
Pushing.
Demanding.
"I don't have a plan," admitted Hatch.
"Of course you do!" said Senk. "I know it for a fact."
"How do you know that?" said Hatch.
"Because you're a genius," said Senk. "You murdered Hiji Hanojo and got away with it. It was years before I worked out that it was you! And you - you outfought Lon Oliver when everything said it was impossible. I know you've got a plan, Hatch. And I want it. Now!"
Hatch, knowing himself to be no murderer - an executioner on occasion, yes, but he had never stooped to murder, and certainly had never laid a finger on Hiji Hanojo - took no comfort in this vote of confidence in his genius.
"Have you considered the possibility that you might be going senile?" said Hatch.
"I am flawless," said Senk. "Perfect in an imperfect world."
"Then tell me, oh perfect master," said Hatch, so weary that he was reckless enough to taunt the lord of the Combat College with sarcasm, "what vision of perfection do we wish to impose upon this imperfect world? Tell me what you want and I will deliver it."
"You promised me the service of Nu-chala-nuth," said Senk.
"You promised. You promised to make the Combat College a temple, a holy place, with the whole of the city sworn in subservience to that temple. It's breaking down, Hatch! The things are breaking down! The doors, the cleaners, we can't keep them up forever. We need power, machines, a mending, a cleansing. But with Plandruk Qinplaqus, that's impossible, any bright person - he kills them."
"I understand," said Hatch.
He did understand.
Hatch was right in his earlier assumptions. The Combat College was disintegrating, and Paraban Senk knew as much - even though it was hard to admit.
Hatch had tempted Senk with the prospect of a continent united by a fanatical religion - a continent dedicated to the service of the Combat College. Hatch had been thinking in terms of the mission to which the Combat College was dedicated: the training of startroopers. But Senk was concerned with something more compelling: personal survival.
From the few words which Senk had spoken, Hatch saw that Paraban Senk envisioned a technical renaissance centered on Dalar ken Halvar, a technic
al renaissance which would in time allow the Combat College to be repaired, strengthened and made mighty.
In the past, Plandruk Qinplaqus, the Silver Emperor who had long ruled Dalar ken Halvar, had organized the covert execution of any mad scientist fool enough to attempt to organize any such thing.
But in the future -
Hatch shook off thoughts of the future. He had to deal with Lon Oliver first. But how?
What did the beggar say?
A wasp, that was it. Beggar Grim had compared Lupus Lon Oliver to a wasp. And had suggested ... trapping him in a bottle then drowning him.
"I can give you the city," said the Hatch slowly. "But you must do as I say."
"Speak," said Senk.
And Asodo Hatch took a deep breath, paused, hesitated, realized he had to breathe again, did so, then said:
"You must tell the world that the Chasm Gates have been reopened."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hatch's problem: to seize control of Dalar ken Halvar, a city where rightful authority has been overthrown in a coup led by the Free Corps in combination with officers of the Imperial Guard.
Hatch can count on no support from his own people, for his blasphemous embracement of Nu-chala-nuth will surely have alienated most of the inhabitants of the Frangoni rock.
His sole ally in this enterprise is Paraban Senk, the Teacher of Control, the asma which rules the Combat College. This intelligent artefact of Nexus make is locked into the heartrock of Cap Foz Para Lash, with no means of projecting authority into the outside world save through the Eye of Delusions, the entertainment screen set above the lockway in the natural amphitheater at the southern end of Scuffling Road.
Wavered then, and then -
Unwavering, fell.
His blade to greet the body, and his cry
Wrenched not from his flesh but from his son's.
"I must what!?" said Paraban Senk.
"You must tell the world that the Chasm Gates have been reopened," said Hatch. "You must tell them that we are reunited with the Nexus."
"How does this help us?" said Senk.
"Isn't it simple?" said Hatch. "The Chasm Gates open, thus restoring communications with the Nexus. You announce that all Startroopers are required for immediate service. All of them.
Those trained, those in training. Even old reservists like Manfred Gan Oliver. They - "
"What makes you think they'll believe this?"
"Senk, they'll love it! They live for this! It's the stuff of dreams! When Lupus has wetdreams, he's in bed with the Nexus. His
father's no better. Their lives, the Free Corps - the whole thing is nine-tenths fantasy. They're detached from reality. All we have to do is give them a fantasy, give them the Chasm Gates. We say the Gates are open, okay, they'll believe it. You call, they come.
It's that simple. When they venture inside, you lock them up."
"What!" said Senk. "Lock them up!?"
"Yes, yes," said Hatch, getting enthusiastic. "Lock them up.
Easy. That's it. All over. All of them are prisoners. So no more Free Corps."
"Hatch," said Senk, "the people you're talking about are people I've trained for the Nexus. We're talking about Startroopers. We can't keep them, can't hold them, can't - "
"You don't have to hold them forever," said Hatch impatiently. "Just give me a couple of days and I'll seize control of Dalar ken Halvar. After that, well, I'll make my peace with Manfred Gan Oliver. Once I've got control, control of the city, the Free Corps will come to order very fast."
"Take me through it slowly," said Paraban Senk. "Take me through it a step at a time."
The mind-boggling deceit which Hatch was planing would never
have occurred to Senk, because Senk was quite lacking in that inspirational audacity which allows a politician to scheme up a Big Lie. Hatch, on the other hand -
Hatch was surprising himself.
"We begin," said Hatch, speaking slowly as his mind raced, working out the logical detail of his inspiration, "we begin by announcing the opening of the Chasm Gates. We say that the Nexus demands peace, and that, ah, that in view of the disorder in Dalar ken Halvar, it is sending, ah, a senior, the most senior available officer. To rule. To rule in Dalar ken Halvar. A military governor, I mean. And, ah, I'm that most senior officer. So I'm appointed to rule Dalar ken Halvar as - well, emperor."
"The Nexus does not use any such title," said Senk. "You could be military governor, but that's it."
"No," said Hatch. "I have to be emperor, because I need the prestige of the title."
"We will argue about the title later," said Senk. "Let us say, for our present purposes, that you venture forth as military governor. But why? Why is the Nexus sending you? If the Chasm Gates have opened, surely our skies should be swarming with Nexus warcraft."
"Ah," said Hatch, "but you're forgetting about the quarantine. The Nexus quarantine protocols."
"I'm not forgetting anything," said Senk stuffily. "There's no such thing as Nexus quarantine protocols."
"There is now," said Hatch. "We just invented them. The Chasm Gates have been closed for twenty thousand years, so the Nexus is imposing a ninety-day quarantine on this planet. Meantime, there'll be regular announcements, we can use the Eye of Delusions for that, I'm sure you can synthesize all the newscasts and official communications which would be attendant on the opening of the Chasm Gates, and - "
"But we'd get military commands from Charabanc," said Senk.
"If the Chasm Gates were really opened, they'd - "
"That's what I've been talking about," said Hatch. "The whole of this deception is founded upon your ability to fabricate just such commands."
There was a silence from Senk as the Teacher of Control began to digest the full implications of Hatch's scheme.
"I know it's hard for you," said Hatch. "I mean, after paying lip service to the Nexus for twenty thousand years, you - "
"It was never lip service!" said Senk, abruptly angry. "It was real, it was - "
"All right, all right," said Hatch, endeavoring to be placatory. "Just put it this way. I know it's no fun to jump off a mountain. But sometimes there's no alternative. Let's start. Let's talk - "
"Hatch," said Senk, "I still don't see how this works.
Granted, you could tempt the Free Corps into Cap Foz Para Lash.
Granted, I could hold the Free Corps prisoner. But with the Free Corps imprisoned, how are you then going to single-handedly seize control of Dalar ken Halvar? I mean, even though you've declared yourself for Nu-chala-nuth, is that enough? There was a conspiracy, Hatch. A conspiracy to make revolution. The leaders of that revolution will think themselves the natural leaders of Dalar ken Halvar. Son'sholoma Gezira, for instance. He'll think he's got a claim to power."
"That's very simple," said Hatch. "You support my authority by fabricating an announcement from the Nu-chala. The Nu-chala designates me as his deputy on this planet. So I act in Dalar ken Halvar with his authority."
This gave Senk even more to digest.
"You want me to forge commands from the Nu-chala?" said Senk.
"Commands from the leader of the Nu-chala-nuth?"
"Precisely," said Hatch.
"But," said Senk, "that would inflame many of the Free Corps leaders, who - "
"Senk, Senk, Senk," said Hatch, in frustration. "Don't you see the logical sequence? First you announce the opening of the Chasm Gates, announce me as military governor, then call in the Free Corps. Once the Free Corps is inside Cap Foz Para Lash, then you use the Eye of Delusions and speak to the world, speak as if you were the Nu-chala. It's simple, Senk."
"Yes, but," said Paraban Senk, the Teacher of Control, "I am still concerned about the long-term safety of those Combat Cadets and Startroopers whom I have spent so long training. That is my mission, Hatch. To train Startroopers. How do you reconcile the general establishment of Nu-chala-nuth with the survival of those members of the Free Corps who hate the Nu-chala-nuth?"
<
br /> "You may," said Hatch slowly, "have to persuade Lupus and his friends to make a token conversion to Nu-chala-nuth."
"That will not exactly be easy," said Senk.
"No," said Hatch. "But - trust me, Senk. I give you my word.
I personally guarantee the safety of Lupus Lon Oliver, of Manfred Gan Oliver, and of all the other members of the Free Corps."
"What value am I supposed to put on your word?" said Senk.
"You know me as a man of honor," said Hatch. "You know me as a man of my word. That should be sufficient. Meanwhile - let us get to work. The sooner we move, the sooner we stabilize Dalar ken Halvar. The sooner we stabilize the city, the fewer people get killed. Let's start by talking to the dorgi. The dorgi, that's the first thing. The dorgi will have to be part of our subterfuge."
Silence from Senk.
Senk obviously needed a little more persuading.
"Have you got a better idea?" said Hatch.
Senk continued thinking in silence, then said:
"Yes, Asodo. I do have a better idea. Or ... an improved idea, at any rate. My idea is that I should take hostages to ensure your good behavior. You're a dangerous man, Asodo, and I don't trust you with the safety of my Startroopers. I can't trust you with their safety unless I have the security of having possession of hostages."
"Then that's, ah, unfortunate," said Hatch, "for I've got no hostages to give you."
"Of course you have," said Senk.
And shortly Hatch found himself engaged in the tricky and distasteful task of persuading his wife Talanta, his daughter Onica and the Lady Iro Murasaki into the combat bays. Hatch assured them that life in the illusion tanks was exactly that -
life in another form.
"I don't understand," said the Lady Iro Murasaki. "Why do we
have to do this?"
"Because," said Hatch, "I am engaged on a tricky task in the service of the demon which rules these underground caverns, and you as my allies may be attacked by the enemies of that demon unless you enjoy the security of the illusion tanks."
