by Moulton, CD
"If my friends wish to come along they will be most welcome."
"The threats aren't serious?" Kar asked.
[ They're probably meant seriously, whatever they are. If the fellow can't write in the wizard's script he isn't a member of the group that Martin taught. That isn't to say he won't be extremely powerful. Kene explained about the psy power to your ancestor. It's real and it's deadly dangerous. If this self-made sorcerer has such powers this could be very serious by any reckoning. The danger is very real! ]
"But you will defeat him?" Kar asked.
"One way or another," Z promised, thinking the fleet may really be brought in, but NOT by whoever was doing this!
"We'll go right on to the dark continent. I want to spend some time in Teeme so I'll get it over as quickly as I can. If I get angered by some idiots who think they can scare me I'll probably do something enormously stupid so anyone who comes along will have to watch me. Most of you know how vile my temper can be!
"All aboard who's gettin' aboard!"
They went back to the clamshell where Linx offered to go with them, but there wasn't enough room. He grinned and said he really was scared to go, but thought he should offer.
Then they were off heading directly across the straits and northward toward the dark continent.
[ Maita, have they possibly heard our broadcasts in Maitan? ]
*There's automatic scrambling on all of our channels so all they know is we're using radio. I have the floaters waiting for you and have your destination programmed. This is one of those times Z will have to come up with a plan. First project is to find who they are and what they're doing.*
"Let's speak in Tlorgian and keep it in character so far as names go," Z said, then shifted into Tlorgian. "Okay, here's what we'll do. They think we're from the empire so we'll be a wizard and his demon friends who can't understand their writings. They'll think the magic bit is typical trickery so we'll use it against them. None of their machines can fight it.
"I wish T Six were here – that's a friend of ours, Kurk – because it knows the spell a magician used on a ship to remove the energy from it so completely even the hundred year emergency torches wouldn't light. THAT was magic of a kind we could really use! T Six learned it from a magician on a world halfway across the galaxy from here."
"T Six?" Kurk asked. "That's a number!"
[ T Six is a machine. It's very intelligent and is a close friend of the emperor's and of ours. There are a few known machine societies. ]
"They made a big mistake when they signed the name they did to that note," Z said. "They signed the name of another friend of the emperor and of ours. We happen to know exactly where he is right now. The emperor called and confirmed he's there. That shows that they know nothing at all about us. They threatened to call the empire fleet in, which only the emperor can do."
*And I damned well might have to, but against them! What's your plan, Boss?*
"I'll go in totally confused and ask them what in the hell this squiggly script crap is about. I'll want to know why they can't write in the true wizard's script. Meanwhile, Maybe and Extrx can be placing various sensors around and can chart the entire area. Kurk can go along with me to scare them a bit. We'll need some good shielding, of course. They might fire on us."
[ Maita sent some spy units. They're waiting for us. I take it we'll be making our plans as we determine their weaknesses? ]
"Yes," Z replied. "Extrx, you'll be able to climb trees and so forth while Maybe can climb off of that floater and use its tentacles. I think Kurk's figured the body's false."
"I wasn't sure, but it didn't seem to have any substance to it," Kurk agreed as Thing dropped the flowing robes and climbed onto Ehrak's shoulder.
[ It may be necessary to leave my floater at times. I have to admit I'm getting tired of sitting there so much. We're near the shoreline now. Maita, lift the holoscreen and show us whatever you've found with the floaters. ]
A little holoscreen came out of the center of the table showing the progress of a TV camera through jungle.
*Maybe half a kilometer ahead is the main camp. I've located it through energy emissions and haven't scanned it yet. This is as new to me as it is to you. Ah! There they are! Maybe we'll have an answer or two before we.... They're....*
[ Jornians! ]
"You know of the race? They aren't like those Immins?" Kurk asked.
"No, they're a mixed bag. Some of them are as fine as any people in the galaxy and some are almost as bad as an average Immin was," Z said. "We know they're here for profit. Their general motivation is greed for material things. They aren't power-hungry like the Immins were."
"You could almost pass for one," Ehrak said. "You're a bit thin and have the Tlorgian hair patterns...."
*He'll do better as a wizard. It'll explain his demons. I can send a couple of the Fromes over if you like. They can be useful for airborne reconnaissance. Fale and its friend at the castle are very worried about you. They're asking the golems to remind you that Fromes helped against the old Count Gess and that Fromes stand ready to aid the people of Tlorg and the great demon-wizard Boss at any time.*
[ That was with Kene. The Frome, Wruk, the Targ and Kene fought a major war against the old count’s army and won. Tell them many thanks, but this is something that we must do alone. We don't want it spread about that so many otherworlders come to Tlorg. I want to know why. Immins were hiding here, but these Jornians are after something! I can't think what it could be. ]
"There isn't psiltripium here is there Maita?" Ehrak asked. "That or blood diamonds are the only things with so much special value that I know of."
*Neither is found here. We'll have to study this to know what's happening. I begin to understand some of the readings from the satellite. They aren't after blood diamonds or psiltripium.*
"Then it's got to be some kind of organic compound," Z suggested. "A drug? A spice?"
[ The Jornians aren't above dealing in addictive drugs, but there's very little market for them in the empire. An unhappy people turn to drugs. That means a spice, most likely. We know about the spicenut. It's flavor is like Z's garlic, which can be grown on any of millions of planets. What would it be? Can you trace back, Maita? ]
*It's possible, but you'll know soon enough. You're landing. The floaters are waiting nearby in the small cave where I'll hide the clamshell.*
"Kurk and I can fly the clamshell right to them! A bit of shock value!" Z said. "That should shake them up!
"It's got plenty of defenses, hasn't it?"
*More than you're likely to need. I'll activate the special shields so they won't be able to use most of their longrange sensors on you.*
"Good!" Z replied. "Extrx, you and Maybe try to locate any out-camps and try to find what they're getting here. Kurk and I can take this note to them and say they sure don't know much about wizard's script and what in hell do they want that they'd threaten a sorcerer who had proven to be stronger than any other person on the planet two hundred years ago?
"I'll point out they're obviously not Tlorgians. Kurk can maybe mention that they aren't demons either because demons don't need or use what are obviously spaceships. Coming from a culture that has some space travel, he would know. If we can get them off guard and off balance and keep them that way we can accomplish a lot. I want to avoid using weapons on Tlorg if I can. Ready?"
They all nodded in their own ways.
"Let's get this play on the stage!" Z said.
Thing and Ehrak climbed out of the floater, the lid closed and they were off.
Boss Rides Again!
Z grinned at Kurk as they flew toward the encampment Maita's floaters had discovered. He explained about the Jornians. "They're mostly all right. "They're from a planet quite a distance from here. They're not greatly evolved socially. They found interstellar drive through a system of accidents and luck. We've found most cultures move past these sorts of things by the time they discover the drive.
"Jornians – a p
ercent of them – are motivated by greed for material things and for personal power over their fellow beings. That leads to any number of things, none of them positive when viewed on a larger perspective."
"Then your own world is far advanced over them and doesn't find motivation in such things?" Kurk asked. "I have to say, in the interest of honesty, that my own race is in that trap, but we haven't discovered the interstellar drive yet. Our personal greeds are why I like this plane and this world. It seems that material gains are more important than even the survival of our children. Hades is becoming polluted. Dangerously."
"We're evolving on Earth," Z answered. "I'm afraid that at this particular stage we're as bad as the Jornians. We almost destroyed the Earth. We still tend to fight among ourselves a lot. There are a lot of people on Earth who are motivated by greed AND by power. We have the TTH drive, but we can't seem to conquer our own selves. There are some very good people as well as some who're unbelievably disgusting. I claim to be somewhere between the extremes, but I've had the experience of maturing with the emperor and friends from many worlds. I've had to conquer my own worst instincts.
"There were times when I've embarrassed all of them with my stupid prejudices. The proof I've overcome that is right here with me right now. It's you."
"Your horrible demon?" Kurk said, grinning a mouth full of frightening teeth. "I think we get along pretty well for only knowing one another for a few hours."
"It seems like forever," Z replied. "There's the camp. What we'll do is go in where you can tell them it's the Plutons who are using radio, not us. I can play a game of not knowing what's going on while knowing more about reality than they do.
"These are shields. I can wire myself under the robe, but I can't see how you can wear it. Stay very close. I can expand the force field enough to protect you to an extent."
"I think we'll be safe if they don't try to shoot down this clamshell," Kurk said. "We'll have them wondering. They'll hold off trying anything to bring anymore trouble on their heads. If they came to the realm to attack you in the guise of sorcerers it would be explainable. Here they'll wonder how you made it so fast and who else knows you're here. If they're worried about your empire they'll be careful."
"We can hope," Z agreed as he landed the floater beside the Jornian ship. There was no attack, but there was no obvious sign of life, either. Z had the shell opened for a few minutes before he and Kurk slowly climbed out. They pointed at the ship and talked, walked all the way around the encampment, returned to the floater and waited another few minutes. Finally Z walked to the base of the entrance ramp of the ship where he called, "Otherworlders! Boss is here! You have challenged and I have answered! Will you cower in your metal ship or will you come to face me?"
The port slowly opened. Two Jornians came slowly down the ramp, showing their obvious fear of Kurk and curiosity about Z.
"You were ordered to leave here," one of the Jornians said in Maitan. "This is a restricted planet."
"I do not speak your particular demon tongue," Z replied condescendingly. "Dardeesh Frome?"
"Get us a translator, Froh," the first Jornian said to the other. "This one doesn't speak Maitan. Something's very wrong here. Nobody from the empire would be in the company of one of those demons!"
"Wait a moment, please," the second Jornian said in very bad Tlorgian as he turned to go back into the ship. He soon returned with a standard translator machine which he set for Tlorgian and Jornian.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I'm the demon-wizard, Boss, and this is my good friend, a demon from Hades, a Pluton. He's called Kurk," Z answered. "It is considered polite to give one's own name before asking that of another."
"I'm called Nax Plea," the first Jornian said. "This one is called Froh Kim.
"What is your business here?"
"We're citizens of this world," Kurk replied. "There's no reason why we should be asked OUR business. You're obviously NOT from Tlorg. It would be for you to state YOUR business. It was YOU who challenged the wizard, you will recall.
"Well, he's answered that challenge. He's here. Shall we see if you can really destroy him?
"Personally I doubt you can compete with his actual powers. I'm from a plane where we have spacecraft, nuclears, lasers and the rest of it. I know full well we can't defeat him with all of that."
"Are you saying this primitive magic shaman can defeat our science?" Nax sneered.
"I'm standing right here," Z said quietly. "You speak as though I were somewhere else. There is no call for this rudeness. You may wonder how I knew where you were if you doubt my powers. You would be wise to wonder how I know this document is a threat to me, though I can't read the script. I have defeated many very powerful sorcerers in the past. It is because I can use whatever they send to me against them. I can return any of your evils, too.
"Beware! Arrogance and pride precede defeat!"
Froh waved a hand laser at Z and said, "You have no concept of what this magic wand can do!"
"It is not a magic wand," Z replied placidly. "It is but a device that has no magic in it. It has much energy stored in the part inside of your hand. It will throw that energy. I can turn that energy back on you. Beware!"
"It's called a beam laser, Boss," Kurk said. "It beams the energy. It can burn through the hardest steel."
"It is only energy," Z insisted confidently. "It will turn when properly commanded."
Froh turned the weapon to the side of Z and fired. Z palmed a small reflector shield and waved it into the heat beam, turning the energy beam back to the pistol – which immediately started the sleeve of Froh's robe on fire. He yelled, swearing in both Maitan and Jornian as he dropped the laser.
Z didn't change expression. He seemed almost bored.
"If it had been you or me it would have burned our hand off if we'd put it in that beam," Kurk pointed out. "Believe me, this magic stuff really works. I've been here for six years and I've seen it all. I've got an education in the sciences and can't find a basis to formulate a theory about some of it."
"They are like small difficult children," Z chided. "They will learn in time if they don't first manage to bring death on their own heads.
"What do you want here, otherworlders?"
"How do you know of any other worlds?" Nax asked. "What makes you think we come from another world?"
Z shook his head and spoke condescendingly. "Kurk is from another world. Fale is from yet another and Linx from yet another. I can open portals to those planes to allow my friends to come and go as they please. I would therefore have to know of those few other worlds, from which I surmise any numbers of others, though the demon planes are not other worlds. They are Tlorg at another dimensional nexus. My portals are planal distortions, which allow a movement from one plane to another.
"I speak with these terms because Kurk has taught them to me. I know the planes as other worlds. You are from no planal nexus that can be opened from Tlorg, thus you come from some other world on this plane. No ship is needed to cross the planal interstices so you came here across space in that ship.
"Before you ask how I know about space, I know it is there and I know it has no substance – not even air. I can go there like this."
He used the spell that was shown to Burl that bent light around him. He stayed in the curvature for half a minute, then "returned" to stand as he was before the Jornians. Froh talked excitedly in Jornian about telekinesis and Nax answered that the Tlorgians seemed to have some psy talents. He was excited, too. Both of them were showing some fear now.
"You went into space just then?" Nax asked. "How could you survive?"
"It is cold and it has no air," Z answered. "I can stay for no time. I will die in seconds there. It is space."
Kurk said, "We're here because you challenged Boss, not to discuss his abilities and knowledge. I would suggest you use your most powerful weapons from the first so we can return to Loosta and Teeme. I have some studies to complete and I know Boss was studying
what we Plutons call plasma physics, but which he calls 'energizing the air'."
"We would like to study Boss," Froh said. "The only wizard we know is Zaft. She doesn't have the powers that Boss exhibits. Not even a small part of them. He's amazing!"
"Have you ever heard of Zaft?" Kurk asked Z.
"No," he replied. "She would have little real power or I would know of her. I could go to her use of energy as I came to the waste of energy here. I do not pretend to understand why there is so very much energy stored in a small spherical area below the center of your ship. Perhaps it takes a great deal to cross space. I know there are vast distances in space where there is little or no energy to be used. I know also there are strange directors that hold the energy inside with use of other planals."
"You sense energy?" Nax asked.
"Certainly!" Z replied. "That is such a simple spell even one without the wizard's talent can learn it. It does not even use enough of the psy ability to measure."
"The wizard's talent? TK?" Froh asked.
"Some TK and some plain old-fashioned magic stuff," Kurk agreed. "I believe they have to have some TK to control the magic – or maybe it's the other way around. My theory is that it acts like sensors to detect radio or other broadcast energy, though Boss can easily detect static charges and battery storage such as you use in the laser, too.
"I'm a biologist. I've been studying the power or whatever it is for six years and can't find much about it. I came here with Boss to watch his magic wipe out all your science. I know damned well he can do it! I've seen it before. There were once a shipload of people from a race who called themselves Immins here. Boss didn't even have to come himself. He sent a little demon to kill them all and to make their ship disappear.
"These wizards have incredible powers. They don't need our science, though they're curious about it."
"Why does he use radio, then?" Nax asked. "Can't he simply use the TK?
"How could a ship be made to disappear?"
"He doesn't use radio!" Kurk declared. "Whatever makes you think they use radio?
