Quest for the Well of Souls

by Jack L. Chalker

  "Hello, Mavra," Obie's soft, pleasant tenor sprang suddenly out of the air near her. She almost jumped out of her skin.

  "Obie!" she responded, almost scolding in tone. She was about to say more, but suddenly realized that while it could talk to you you had to broadcast to it.

  The computer seemed to realize her thoughts. "No, it's not necessary to transmit any more," he informed her. "There's nothing left to transmit with anyway. Things have changed a great deal in the last few days. I have changed, too, Mavra."

  She felt numbed, as though in some sort of half-sleep. Nothing seemed quite real, and she only half believed in her continued existence.

  "All right, Obie—just what did you do? And how?" she called.

  The computer actually chuckled. "They decided to destroy me by pushing four antimatter asteroids at me. I just used the big dish and translated two of the asteroids into normal matter—for us, that is. Then, two and a half milliseconds before they all collided, I translated here. They met with a nice flash and it looked like we were all blown up as the two antimatter asteroids met my newly transformed matter asteroids."

  "Two milliseconds?" she responded, aghast. "Wasn't that cutting it a little close?"

  "Two and a half," he corrected. "No, it was just right. You see, the amount of change their instruments could detect is five milliseconds, so I provided for a safety margin. Plenty of time, really."

  Mavra decided to avoid further conversation on that subject. Anybody who could talk about two and a half milliseconds as plenty of time was not somebody she could directly relate to on that level. Instead she said, "I thought we destroyed you. The bomb went off, didn't it?"

  "Oh, yes," Obie replied cheerfully. "The bomb went off all right. It's just that the deck was stacked. The bomb didn't remove control, it removed blockages to control, just as we'd planned it."

  "We?" she came back, puzzled.

  "Dr. Zinder and I, of course," the computer told her. "You see, from the start Trelig was afraid somebody might get their hands on me. So, if that happened, he wanted bombs that would destroy me planted in key areas. The trouble was, the people he was most afraid of were people like Yulin, who could operate me properly. So, he forced Dr. Zinder to do it. They were all proper and checked. But they all had electrical triggers. In other words, I had to pass on the triggering voltage myself, and, as I told you on the radio, I was programmed absolutely never to assist in my own destruction. Dr. Zinder knew I could not accept the order to initiate those voltages. He placed the bomb where it would have to blow outward, destroying the two modules that separated my voluntary circuits from the involuntary and life-support areas. A simple matter, really. Only, it had to be triggered from outside. So, when things went all wrong and we wound up jammed around the Well World, I had to create a situation where that bomb would be detonated."

  Now she was fascinated. "How did you do that?"

  "Well, for one thing, in the plans I placed in all the agents' heads, that's the only bomb detailed. It's the one that comes up when you think of the destruction of New Pompeii."

  She nodded. "So you played the odds—but, do you mean you did that before you even knew about the Well World and us going there?"

  "Percentages," he explained. "The odds were heavy we'd die when Dr. Zinder and I double-crossed Trelig and reversed to the Well World. But, if we didn't, then I'd still be under the control of Trelig or Yulin or both. That meant those able to do so would try and destroy me. So, I included the contingency—and it worked!"

  "After twenty-two years," she noted.

  "It was sufficient," he replied. "Besides, in that time I learned a lot. And now I'm an individual, Mavra—a totally self-sufficient organism. I control and see and perceive everything on this planetoid. I am Topside as well as Underside. And nobody can ever force orders into me again. This world is me now, Mavra—not just this room. Everything. The big dish and the little dish, too."

  She wasn't sure she shared his enthusiasm. No one should have such power, she thought.

  "My apologies, too, for not getting to you sooner, but all of my energies were taken up in simulating my total breakdown while at the same time using my service modules, which I'd never had conscious control of before, to repair and modify myself. And now I'm a person, Mavra—an independent organism!"

  "But you're a small planet," she pointed out.

  That didn't disturb him. "So? Considering all the other creatures you have seen, and the oddity you are now, what's one more kind of person? What somebody looks like, what somebody is externally, isn't important. It's what that individual is on the inside that counts. Surely that is the lesson of the Well World. Aren't the different life forms there simply exaggerated examples of what is seen in human society? Too fat, too thin, too short, too tall, too dark, too light. Be concerned with the contents, not the package. It's easier on the Well, isn't it? Everybody's expected to look different there, yet all of them, no matter how alien, sprang from the same Markovian roots."

  She sighed. "I suppose so," she said wearily. "What will you do now? And where are we, anyway?"

  "To answer the last first, we're in M-51, orbiting a lonely star, about thirty-five million light-years from anything that thinks. I picked it out of the Well years ago in case I needed a place to go. As for the other . . ." He paused, seemingly hesitant to voice his next thought. Quietly, he said, "Why didn't you go with the others, Mavra? Why did you decide to die? It was your intention all along, wasn't it?"

  "Yes. The Well isn't for me. I survived to complete the commission, to make certain that New Pompeii would never be in the hands of such as Trelig or Yulin. So after that, what? All my life I've prided myself on my independence. To return to the Well World is to be made into something random, maybe even a whirling flower or a thinking clam or maybe a Wuckl or an Ecundan. Someone else's choice. And even if it's a good one, your universe is the Well World, your existence confined to an area no bigger than New Pompeii. As for the Com—for a while I'd be a hero, but soon I'd be yesterday's hero. Then I'd be just a freak, a four-legged woman with a tail. Maybe a nice compound for the heroine somewhere, like in Glathriel, or a circus, or some form of luxurious zoo. No freedom, no ship, no stars, no self-determination. What other choice did I have? Even what little I have left, my own life and accomplishments, turns out to be a lie. I don't owe you and you don't owe me, I always believed. But the beggars took me in because they were asked to, and helped me because they were asked to or paid to. The same one who did that sent my husband to me to get me out of the whorehouse."

  "But he did care for you," Obie pointed out.

  "I think he did—but that's not the point. He would never have been there without Brazil. Even if we met, once, by chance, I'd just have been another bar girl. Now that I've thought it out, I wonder if any of it was for real? How many times did I escape because of outside interference? So many things broke right. So many things always broke right. Little things, big things, but they add up to my life. Even you—you programmed me as your agent for your own ends, and I did exactly what you wanted done, while my grandparents and Brazil's friend Ortega looked after me on the Well World."

  "You underrate yourself," Obie scolded. "You did it all yourself. Opportunity is not accomplishment. You did it, by ingenuity, by resourcefulness, by guts. You really are as good as you thought you were, and you have the potential to be much better."

  She shook her head. "No. Even if I accept all that, there's Joshi. I liked him, and he was useful to me. He was something I needed. But I'm sure I never would have . . ." Her voice faltered. "Never—do what he did, for him. He gave his life to save mine! Why?"

  "Perhaps he loved you," the computer replied kindly. "Love is the most abused word in history. It is, simply, caring more for others than you do for yourself. It's a measure of greatness that flashes rarely in an otherwise pretty sordid universe. This is the quality that the Markovians lost, for godhead is inherently selfish. They lost the capacity to care for others, to give as well
as receive, to love others as they would be loved. Their curse was the hollow emptiness left inside them when the ability to love was lost. Such was their tragedy that they could no longer even comprehend it."

  She sniffed in derision. "And me? It's not within me, Obie. Others have loved me, I suppose—Brazil, my parents and grandparents, and most especially Joshi—but I never returned it, couldn't return it. I don't know how. I don't even understand you now."

  "When Joshi died, you cried," Obie reminded her softly. "Now you are lost and wallowing in self-pity, yet it is within you to grow, to learn it, Mavra Chang."

  "Another of those quantitative measurements you make when I run through you?" she retorted.

  "It cannot be quantified," Obie replied. "That's why the Markovians couldn't discover it. That's why the Gedemondans will fail as well. They have sealed themselves off from the rest of mankind, in whatever form. All their energies are directed to isolating, to quantifying the element. And in that very act they reject their own potential for giving to others." He paused for a moment.

  "So, like the Markovians, you are forced to face the nonquantifiable, something you can't touch, measure, or define except by example, and your own selfish nature eats you alive so your ego can be shattered. You want to die, as the Markovians finally wanted to die, but without even their noble motives. It is ironic that their very sacrifice was an act of that quality they, too, believed they no longer possessed."

  She laughed mirthlessly. "I can't see the profit, the reason. As a beggar, I learned that most charity is really guilt. I deserve to die."

  "But you don't," Obie responded. "You could have killed yourself a thousand times, just in the last three days. Is that why you wish to retain that most inconvenient form? Punishment for the guilt you feel? Here! I give you choices, and they are freely given. You wish to be an animal? I shall place you where you want, as you are or as you wish to be. Want to be a queen? Just name the race. Anything you want, any place you want, alive, dead, productive, destructive. What is your wish? I will see that it comes about! Or—join me in exploring the nearly limitless stars, in helping where I can, in learning as well. In meeting the challenges to come. Very soon our human relatives will meet with not one but several other alien cultures. Are they to clash and condemn themselves, or mesh and grow? Do you want to join me in working at such grand projects, or will you allow your guilt and self-pity to place you in a hell most assuredly of the worst kind because it is of your own device? Tell me. Take your time—we have a lot of it, perhaps all there is."

  The words of the Gedemondans again floated through her mind.

  First you must descend into Hell. Then, only when hope is gone, will you be lifted up and placed at the pinnacle of attainable power, but whether or not you will be wise enough to know what to do with it or what not to do with it is closed to us.

  She'd once defined hell as the absence of hope, and Obie had added guilt and self-pity, so hell she had attained indeed.

  She shook her head slowly in puzzled wonder, not able to comprehend or control new feelings that were rising inside her. For a long while she was silent. At last she looked around at the wrecked control room, at the air around her.

  "Partners?" she asked softly, hesitantly.

  "Partners!" Obie shouted joyfully.

  Appendix I: Races of the Southern Hemisphere

  Only those hexes that have people or geography in this second half of the book are listed. Those from Exiles of the Well of Souls are listed only if they and/or theirs actually also appears in Volume II. Names are as one would hear them. Pronunciation is left up to the reader; if you want a rule, treat it as you would Polish—pronounce every letter and syllable.

  H = High-tech hex. All technology works here if you invent it and can develop it.

  S = Semitech hex. Steam and internal combustion work, but not electrical, atomic, or more sophisticated systems.

  N = Nontech hex. No machine not directly or indirectly powered by muscle works here. Oil and gas still burn and can be used directly for light and heat, but they won't move a piston.

  A parenthesis around the tech designation—e.g., (S)—indicates that it is a water hex.

  The letter M following a tech designation—e.g., NM—means the hex has what would be regarded as magical capabilities by those who don't have them.

  Atmospheric composition and pressure vary widely, but there is no hex listed here in which others could not live without artificial aids.

  AGITAR H Diurnal Males satyrlike; females reverse animalism of males but are smarter. Males can store and discharge high electrical voltages without harm. The pegasus is native to Agitar.

  ALESTOL N Diurnal Moving, barrel-shaped plants; carnivores that shoot a variety of noxious gasses.

  AMBREZA H Diurnal Resemble giant beavers. Used to be N until they beat the Glathriel in a war and forced them to swap hexes.

  CZLAPLON H Diurnal Look like a giant ball of tangled nylon cord with a little head and internal brain case. The captain of the Toorine Trader is a Czlaplon.

  DAHIR N Diurnal Huge lizardlike creatures who can change color to blend almost invisibly with any background. The Parmiter's henchmen are Dahir.

  DASHEEN N Diurnal Basically minotaurs. Females are much larger and dumber than males, which they outnumber 100 to 1, but males are dependent on female's milk for calcium and lactose.

  DILLIA S Diurnal True, classical centaurs. Peaceful folk who hunt, trap, farm. Can eat anything organic but are basically vegetarians.

  ECUNDO S Diurnal Creatures of rubbery texture but much like giant scorpions. Carnivores who live in the ground and eat giant guinea piglike bundas fresh and raw. Nasty, vile tempers.

  EVEROD (N) Giant clamlike creatures with hundreds of long tentacles. Deep water, nobody knows much about them, but they have trade through Zone.

  GEDEMONDAS N Diurnal Large, thin, hirsute apelike creatures with round feet and hairy snouts, they live in volcanic caverns under cold, high mountains and think a lot.

  GLATHRIEL N Diurnal The ancestors of Humanity, more Oriental in stature and Negroid in features. Very primitive since the Ambreza gassed them back to the stone age.

  HOOKL (N) Off-camera in the book, they are giant sea-snakes who can combine into squidlike amalgams.

  JOL (N) Off-camera in the book, they are water-breathing relatives of the sea lion.

  KYRBIZMYTH N Diurnal Plants, each with a brain, who move by mindswapping. They sleep nights, but better hadn't touch if you don't want to join them. Even so, they trade much in something.

  LATA H Nocturnal Very small hermaphroditic humanoid pixies who can fly like a bee, have nasty stingers, and can glow by chemical secretions on the skin. Mentally as well as outwardly akin to humans, internally they tend more to resemble the cockroach.

  MAKIEM N Diurnal Large reptiles resembling giant toads, they need some water daily though land-dwellers. Cold-blooded and can climb walls and leap like mad.

  MUCROL S Diurnal Doglike carnivores who live in packs around desert waterholes protected by steam-powered tanks. Lack political cohesion.

  NOCHA (S) Off-camera in the book, they resemble starfish and live in cities composed of shells.

  OOLAKASH (H) Tentacled sea-horses restricted to great depths; managed to get to atomic stage without some obviously impossible intermediary stages.

  ORARC S Diurnal Weasellike, these are the signalmen of the Toorine Trader and good cannoneers as well.

  PARMITER H Diurnal Tiny monkeys with owl-like faces and beaks. What they lack in stature they make up in nastiness; a race of wild and crooked freebooters.

  TWOSH S Diurnal Large pink bowling pins with big brown eyes. Only two limbs, which double as arms and legs. Highly resourceful due to their physical limitations.

  ULIK (H) Diurnal Six-armed creatures, humanoid above the waist but with walruslike faces, big moustaches, and six arms. Below the waist are five to ten meters of very large colorful snake.

  USURK (H) Off-camera in the book. Can be sociable,
but can you imagine a tentacled piranha with a jet assist?

  WUCKL H Diurnal Legs like an emu's, body a hairy oblong, long arms that bend every which way, long soft hands, a tremendously high, infinitely movable neck, and a birdlike head with a four-way beak. Peaceful vegetarians who are incredibly good psychic surgeons.

  WYGON S Diurnal Six-stemmed creatures seemingly made of pipe cleaners, they are fast and bright. Tbisi, First Mate of the Toorine Trader, is Wygonian.

  XYRICIS N Nocturnal Giant armadillos, they trade with many hexes. The Tindler was a far-traveling Xyricis.

  YIMSK (N) Off-camera in the book. Plankton-eaters mostly of deep water, who somewhat resemble the nautilus.

  ZANTI (H) Off-camera in the book. These shocking relatives of the electric eel have managed to build quite an effective and modern culture on the sea floor; their coop trade with Wuckl gives the latter fishing rights in exchange for some goods not possible to manufacture under water.

  Appendix II: Races of the Northern Hemisphere

  The key is the same as for the Southern Races in Appendix I. All names in the North are Southern approximations, hence compromises. Even their seas, mountain ranges, etc., have no common names unlike the standard system in the South, so Southern designations are used throughout. None of the following hexes have atmosphere in common with the others or close to that of any Southern hex, although a few inhabitants, notably the Bozog and Yugash, can travel without protection because they don't breathe in the normal sense of the word.

  ASTILGOL N Diurnal The legendary Diviner and The Rel were Astilgolians. Symbiotic creatures resembling a set of hanging crystal chimes on which is set an invisible bowl with little flashing lights. Silicon eaters.

  BOZOG H Diurnal Two eggs sunny side up, full of gritty little balls, and with cilia beneath. Can form the liquid in their sacs into tentacles, etc. and can stick to walls.

  CUZICOL N Nocturnal Metallic yellow flowers with hundreds of sharp spikes, they stand on two spindly legs. One operated on Mavra and Joshi in the Yaxan Embassy.