by Colin Kapp
Yet when he awoke there was no pain, only the memory and the fear of it. His comrades, with bars and bare hands, had shifted back the debris of the tower, and now he lay in a clear space believing himself to be dead and wondering how in death he could still summon a living consciousness. Then Absolute came over and peered down at him with no trace whatever of concern.
"Get on your feet, Lover! We don't give rest days. here. You've just finished your training course right up to the actual combat stage€”and in about a tenth of the normal time. I said I wasn't judging you by ordinary standards. So tomorrow I'm going to start you on something new and experimental."
Dam, who had supposed his lack of further pain to be due to nervous injury or a pain-killing injection, was overcome by an immense surge of emotion which manifested itself in a burst of blind anger as he found he was still functioning and able to move. More from her expression than from her movements, he read Absolute's next intention, and as her foot travelled towards his ribs he twisted with the speed of a cobra, seized her ankle, and threw her off-balance. Instead of kicking him, she fell on top of him. He could feel her shaking spasmodically as she lay, and wondered what unimaginable spasm of anger he had aroused. But when he rolled her over she was laughing.
CHAPTER XV
In the quiet room, Liam Liam read the report with eyes which became increasingly grave. Sinter Pauls and the others maintained a discreet silence until he was finished. Finally the agent laid the document back on the curved table and turned to face the assembly.
"That was inevitable, you understand?"
"Was it, Liam?" asked SinterPauls. "You were given leave to carry out an intelligence mission on Lightning€”and don't let's be mistaken, you did a brilliant job. But the scale of your exercise leaves the rest of the Hub worlds open to a charge of armed intervention. Decades of carefully maintained neutrality have been jeopardized, and Terra now has a very good case for punitive reprisals against almost any world in the Hub. Are you deliberately trying to drag us into war?"
"You're playing with words," said Liam scornfully. "It's an idiocy of politicans that they can't distinguish between words and deeds. Terra was already attacking where and when she chose. All that's changed is that she doesn't now need voice such elaborate justification for doing what she intended to do anyway."
"Nonetheless," Sinter Paul's voice was serious, "the Terran General Ultimatum has shaken the Hub Council to the core. Suddenly each world sees itself as a potential battlefield."
"Which is nothing but the reality I've been preaching for years. Surely here's the impetus we need to make a joint effort to halt Terra. Against a united Hub, there's no way the mother-planet could win."
"The Council's aware of your advocacy of interstellar war, but they don't subscribe to your ideas. In fact they take the reverse view. In their opinion, your activities are endangering interstellar peace. Frankly, what has become known as Liam's war must cease."
"Cease?" Liam rose to his feet angrily. "That's out of the question, you understand?"
"That's an order, Liam."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then I've no alternative but to dismiss you from the Service. Sorry, Liam, but that's the way it has to be."
"Sinter€”you're incredible! Surely you don't subscribe to this insanity?"
"Unfortunately my own feelings are irrelevant to the issue. I have a directive to enforce. Either you terminate Liam's war against Terra, or you cease to be a member of Hub Intelligence. Black or white€”no shades of grey. How do you answer?"
Attempting to control the storm rising within him, Liam, hands clenched the desk edge, longing to pound his anger into the wood, but remaining motionless with only the whiteness of the knuckles to betray the tension.
"Sinter, you know what my answer must be. I've already acquired certain resources donated by some who do not have their heads buried in the sand. It would be easier with your help, but even without it Liam's war must continue. There is no alternative, you understand?"
"I will give you ten seconds to change your mind."
"Sinter, you know me!"
"Yes, I know you, Liam. That's why I had your discharge papers already prepared. Your dismissal takes immediate effect, and the Council will be so informed. Now sit down and let's get on with the rest of the business."
"What?"
"I said sit down, Liam! As an ex-member of Hub Intelligence, you've no right to be still on the premises. I should hate to notice you hanging around. Senator Anrouse, I think you had a point to raise."
"Yes indeed!" Anrouse rose to his feet. "The Castalian Space Army Command has been checking its inventory, and some gross accounting errors have come to light. Briefly, we're about to write-off from the books nine major warcraft."
"Nine? That sounds rather careless, Senator."
"It's atrocious, especially as the loss includes volunteer crews, spares, fuel, munitions and full backup facilities."
"It seems to be the day for losing things," said Sinter Pauls, consulting his notes. "No less than eight other Hub worlds have already anticipated similar losses. I make it a total of thirty four first-line fighting vessels plus support craft, all running apparently without registry or territorial insignia." He glanced at Liam slyly. "Such a fleet would be a rare acquisition for any ugly and unscrupulous character who was planning on conducting his own war. Especially if he happened to be otherwise unemployed."
"You are all mad, you understand?" Liam was perilously near to tears as the magnitude of the plot unfolded in front of him. "How long do you think Terra will be fooled by such a fiction?"
"Fiction? Surely these must be the insurgent forces Terra has been fighting for years?"
"Point taken!" said Liam. "But why do it this way?"
"Think about it. If the Hub worlds as a whole declared war on Terra only the destruction of the mother-planet could bring such a war to an end. But with an uncommitted strike force making the trouble-spots uncomfortable, Terra could well be forced to revise her policies at some point short of total war. In case you've missed the point, we're not being motivated by altruism."
"I can see damn well what your motives are. If I start deploying a force like that against Terra, she won't need pick planetary quarrels to work off her surplus aggression. Liam's war will become a prime focus, right?"
"You're starting to get the idea," said Sinter Pauls slowly. "Because you started with nothing, there is nothing you can ultimately lose. You can engage Terra in any way you choose, without being compromised by the necessity to have to defend a particular home-world. And should you win, you can withdraw without the necessity to raze the mother-planet."
"You're crazy like a cockeyed fox, you understand? Thirty four extra ships against Terra's thousands isn't going to win anything. You're using me as a diversion and a cats-paw."
"Read it any way you want. If you don't think you can handle it, say so. I'm sure we could find plenty of experienced commanders around the Hub who've a grudge against Terra. It just so happens you've already, proven yourself to have the one advantage we can't better."
"What's that?" asked Liam Liam.
"You never bloody well admit you're beaten!" said Sinter Pauls.
Outside the door Liam was met by Truman Wing Ai, who was handling technical liaison. Ai's face was grave.
"You've got troubles, Wing?"
"By the megabite. The lab's been working-over the apparatus on that ship you hijacked from Lightning. They've got the damn chamber working, but so far it's killed everything they've put into it."
"Everything?"
"And everyone. That's a lethal instrument, Liam. After losing eight volunteers they had to desist for humanitarian reasons. Maybe the Terrans can make it work, but we don't appear to have captured any of the right technicians."
"Damn! Their ghost warriors could be our Achilles heel. We have to crack that problem!"
"Well, the empirical approach isn't working. The labs want permission to dismantle the whole
thing and re-work it from the basic theory up."
"If we had a couple of years to spare, they'd be welcome. But how much leeway do you think Terra's going to allow us?"
"Months at most. Perhaps only weeks."
"Precisely, Wing! Dismantling's out of the question. I want that ghost-wagon checked out and readied for use. Ditto the mother ship used to transport it through tachyon space. You understand?"
"I understand the order, but not the reasoning behind it."
"It's simply this, Wing€”if we don't have the time to learn to use it, we'll have to acquire somebody who already knows the answers. In the meantime, an issue of prayer-mats and heavy-duty worry beads would seem to be the best alternative."
CHAPTER XVI
Although his initial introduction to para-ion technique had been through Abel, the man's presence had not been very obvious throughout most of the training period. As Director, he occupied some high administrative position which did not bring him into direct contact with the trainees. Whilst there were other instructors also engaged in para-ion training, Dam's contact had been almost exclusively with Absolute; and Abel's authority only returned to the fore when Absolute declared her intention of putting Dam on experimental work.
The truth of the argument was never revealed, but for three days Dam did nothing at all, and the few glimpses he had of Absolute showed her to be in a mood of extreme and continuing anger. Rumour had it that Abel had wanted Dam transferred direct to combat duty, whilst Absolute was determined to use him for an experimental program. There was a long hiatus before Absolute got her way, although nobody doubted that she must finally win, because it was inconceivable that anybody could successfully oppose her regardless of their position in the organization. Nevertheless it was four days before Absolute came to collect Dam for further work.
"Get On your feet, Lover! You've caused me problems enough. Now you've to justify yourself, else you'll be in the front line of the fighting as fast as a translight ship can get you there."
"Do I detect opposition?" asked Dam guardedly.
She shrugged casually, but there was anger in the movement of her shoulders. "You were lucky. Something happened to a combat team which has thrown the emphasis right back on this type of development. Let's get started!"
Absolute led Dam to the huge furnace training environment in which he had had his first experience of the para-ion state. Although she was fully armed it was noticeable that no guards were called to accompany them. She made little noises of impatience as Dam struggled into his metal-mesh suit, then she set the pack on his back and adjusted the time delay.
"Ten minutes, Lover€”and not a second more."
She hastened him to the paraformer and set it in operation with a haste which suggested that she herself had other things to do. Lacking any further instructions, Dam waited until the ion transition was complete, then made his way up the red-hot ramp into the white heat of the furnance chamber. This time the chamber was bare, all the clutter of the walls of the maze having been removed. However, the sheer brilliance and uniformity of the illumination and the lack of positive reference points to aid perspective, destroyed his orientation momentarily. Then as he sharpened his perception he stopped with a kind of shock: Absolute was there, also in para-ion state, but as a naked wraith, barely visible against the uniform incandescence of the furnace wall.
"Absolute?" Dam's initial reaction was that he was seeing some kind of trick projection. Firstly she had not had time to go through the paraformer and enter the chamber ahead of him. Secondly, she quite manifestly had neither mesh-suit nor information modulator pack on her completely unclothed form.
"What's the matter, Lover? Don't you believe what you see?"
Dam moved towards her, the better to see how her apparent situation was achieved; but the spectre which was Absolute slipped nimbly away from him, and, encumbered by his own suit and the pack, there was no way he could match her speed.
"If you're real, you're not conforming to what you've taught me about the principles of the para-ion state."
"I'm real enough, Lover€”as real as anything can be in para-ion."
To emphasise her point she moved suddenly across and struck him a blow to the face with her hand. Although they were both para-ion analogues, the blow caught Dam hard, and he staggered and fell against the furnace wall.
"Satisfied?" she asked critically.
"I believe you," he said, regaining his feet. "Satisfaction would be something different again. I still don't see how you survive ion-state without a suit."
"You'll understand€”later." There was an undercurrent of bitterness in her voice which the situation did nothing to explain. "But let's explore the advantages, Lover. Your records credit you with an expertise in unarmed combat which, given your size, I normally couldn't hope to match. But the advantage of the mobility given by the new process I am using should swing the advantage decidedly in my favour. We're here to put that proposition to the test."
"You mean you want me to fight with you?"
"I'm not giving you the option. You're going to fight with me. As things are developing, we'll one day likely meet enemies with para-ion capability, in which case weaponry will be useless. It'll be hand against hand, man against man, with our new technique to give us the crucial advantage. You've eight minutes to reach the farther paraformer before your pack turns off."
"So?"
"I intend to stop you reaching it, Lover. Which means you're fighting for your life. That's my assurance that you'll really try."
She positioned herself between him and the exit, a nymph-like wraith, apparently as fragile as she was translucent; quite a different character from the dominant Absolute but not one bit the less dangerous. Her face was occupied by the same inexplicable passion which Dam had found there on other occasions when she was about to submit him to a grueling ordeal. With sharp memories of the past, Dam was under no illusions about the realities of his present predicament. To underestimate Absolute could easily be fatal.
He therefore took the initiative and began to move against her with an earnestness and intensity which was backed by the full weight of his former training in unarmed combat. However, the advantage was Absolute's right from the start. The restriction of the mesh suit and the modulator pack on his back told against him, whereas her easy mobility, enhanced by the para-ion state, made it virtually impossible for him to land a telling blow. Her retaliation, however, was cruel, and after a while her close approaches brought him such punishment that he was forced to retreat before her. Even more maddening was her look of vicious triumph as she expertly explored her advantage.
The only factor which turned the battle in his favour was his own growing sense of desperation as the seconds passed and the necessity for him to gain the paraformer became paramount. The knowledge of what was at stake turned him from a practised fighter into a dedicated killer, ignoring all pain and adversity in the single-minded intention of achieving his goal. The growing understanding that Absolute intended to keep him in the furnace chamber until his programed time had expired lent genius to his movements and brought unknown resources to power his muscles. Even so, it was only a mistake on the part of his adversary which permitted him to land the one blow which dropped her like a stone to the floor. He scooped her out of his way and literally hurled her prostrate body to one end of the chamber before leaping down the far ramp and reaching the paraformer with only seconds to spare.
Even here, Absolute had anticipated him. The transparent walls of the paraformer enclosure were already lowered, and nothing he could find to do would cause them to open and admit him. He watched the chronometer run to zero, and braced himself for violent dissolution as the pack switched off. When nothing happened, he retraced his way back to the furnace chamber, knowing that even his supposed deadline was one of Absolute's tricks. She was still on the floor, stirring feebly when he reached her, and he scooped her up and carried her down the slope by which he had entered the training envi
ronment, and laid her outside the paraformer whilst he made his painful transition back to the normal molecular state.
Absolute had made her own transition, and was waiting for him by the time that he emerged. The fact that she had been able to achieve reversion to molecular state without the need to use a paraformer was something which raised a line of speculation on Dam's brow. He conquered a desire to seize and hold her naked form, reading in the clinical intensity of her expression no sign that such a move would bring him anything but rebuff and punishment. Her uniform was nearby, and she began to dress slowly, but not before he had noticed that her body was completely unbruised despite the blows he had landed.
"Did you gain what you wanted?" he asked.
"For this part of the exercise, yes. If I can stop somebody with your fighting proficiency reaching a paraformer with a closing deadline, then I can stop virtually anything. So the technique's viable on two counts: greatly increased combat efficiency, and a freedom from dependence on a paraformer. We have the edge we need."
"Is it likely that anbody else has even started to develop the para-ion technique?"
"It's a certainty they will develop it. On Lightning the insurgents destroyed one paraformer ship and cleverly hijacked the reserve. With that plus their recent intelligence effort, it's only a matter of time before we meet them in the field."
"What happened to the para-ion team on Lightning?"
"We lost every one of them. That's why Abel wanted you for immediate combat duty on a new team."
"And you stopped him?"
"It was the Lightning incident which stopped him. To date we've lost three paraformer ships. It's the weak link in our operating system. This has put the emphasis back on the development of our new technique which doesn't require the use of a main paraformer at all. Apart from myself, you're to be the first to be equipped for it. Come, I want to show you something."
