Serfs rushed up. "The alien bitch carried plastic explosive!" Blue roared in Purple's voice. "Fetch my private plane! I'm taking the prisoner to safer confinement!"
When they hesitated, Blue paused to glare about. It was amazing how aptly he had picked up Purple's mannerisms. "And find out who was supposed to guard against weapons being brought in here! Didn't any numbskull think to check for plastic? Look at that cell! Every party responsible will be fired with prejudice!"
Hastily the serfs went about their business; the talk of firing made them extremely nervous.
Foreman hurried up. "Sir, the craft is ready," he said. Then, startled, he opened his mouth again.
Blue's hand snaked out and caught the serfs wrist. Foreman stiffened in pain. "Speak no word," Blue said. "Guide us there."
It was obvious that the submission hold rendered the serf powerless to resist. He backed into an elevator, and they followed. The elevator took them up to a landing area, where the airplane waited. Blue and Bane got in.
"The blob in the cell is your employer," Blue in formed Foreman as he took the pilot's seat. "He may need your attention, before the ignorant serfs dump him in the trash."
Foreman, about to cry the alarm, whirled and ran for the elevator. His first loyalty was to the physical welfare of Citizen Purple.
Blue started the airplane and piloted it into the air. It quickly rose high, flying above the mountains. He touched its front panel. "Blue here, in Purple's private plane," he said. "Escort me home."
Three other airplanes zoomed in. But immediately half a dozen others appeared, closing in on the first three. Citizen Purple's defenses were alert.
"If these be like dragons, we be in trouble," Bane remarked.
"Like dragons indeed," Blue agreed. "But human cleverness can do much." He guided the airplane precipitously down. "There be much joy in machines, an thou dost have the temperament."
And he had a wife and a son who were machines. Bane would have liked this man well enough, even if he had not been so exactly like Stile.
The three friendly craft ran interference, threatening to crash into any of the pursuers who came too close. "Ours be machine-controlled?" Bane asked.
"Aye. Stew-controlled, by remote. Purple's be manned by serfs, who have some care for their hides."
They bumped to a landing by a marker in the sand at the foot of the mountain range. They piled out as the enemy craft dived for them, running to the marker and hauling up on a ring set in it. Blue was panting, for he had no suit to enable him to breathe the polluted atmosphere; Bane, seeing the problem, took over the job and hauled up a portal. A hole opened, and they scrambled in and shut the portal above.
"Service access," Blue gasped. "Say the code!"
"Code?"
"Oh, that's right; you don't know it. Mach does. Damn!
We can't summon the self-willed machines!" He was recovering as the good air here got into him.
"Self-willed machines? I have heard reference to these, and learned that Sheen be one, but I know these not."
"Intelligent, motivated, self-directed robots of all types, but not granted serf status because that's limited to those who look like serfs; I haven't been able to overcome that bias yet. They don't complain because they want the Experimental Project to prove itself first."
"The Experimental Project – that allows androids and machines and alien creatures to be as equals?"
"The same. Agape must have told thee."
"Aye." They were moving on down along a passage. Already there was noise back at the portal.
"Mach be one of them, of course; he gave Agape the code so they would know she came to them at his behest. I never sought to know that code; it was important that Mach grow unfettered by my domination. But now, if we don't summon them, we shall shortly be captive again."
Indeed, there was a swirl of air as the portal was opened above and behind them, and a clamor. Men were piling in.
Bane struggled with the logical brain he now had, as they rushed along. How could he get that code? It should be in Mach's memory – but he had none of that. His own memories had come with him across the curtain between frames. Was there anything he could tap into?
They came to a dead-end. "Here there is a subway transport station for supplies," Blue said. "I had thought to take it – but only the SW's have access. No serfs or Citizens are expected to be here alone, and it isn't watched. The machines have to be alerted."
Heavy feet were thudding down the passage. Bane could tell by the sound that there were at least six men. The two of them had no reasonable chance to overcome that number.
Then something occurred to him. "If they accepted Agape – " he said. "Where must the code be given?"
"To one of these intercoms," Blue said, indicating a small grille set in the wall.
Bane spoke to it. "Accept Agape's code from Mach!" he said.
And the grille answered: "Accepted. What may we do for you?"
"Save us from those who pursue us!"
A panel slid aside, revealing a cargo capsule. "Enter."
They climbed in. The panel closed behind them just as the first pursuer came into sight. The capsule began to move. It was cramped, as it was not intended for human beings, but satisfactory.
"You did it!" Blue exclaimed, dropping the Phaze mode of speech. "How did you know they would accept that? You have hardly seen this frame!"
"Principle of transfer. A message can be passed from one person to another, and if it be valid, it is accepted. They knew Agape's code was valid, so when I invoked it by description, they understood."
"You thought of something I did not – and thereby saved us some mischief," Blue said. "I think you have an aptitude for this frame! Now I shall add my own wrinkle." He addressed the capsule's intercom. "Deposit us at the next station, then go on empty."
The capsule slowed. "Why stop?" Bane asked. "They be surely in pursuit."
"Exactly. They will also have men to intercept us at its destination."
"Oops, aye!"
The capsule stopped. They hoisted themselves out. It went on. "Now they will be pursuing the decoy," Blue said. "But we still have to get out of here, and they will be watching all the exits. In any event, we're still under the desert, and I don't care to breathe any more of this frame's air. So we'll go back."
"Go back!" Bane repeated incredulously.
"Right to the Purple Estate," Blue said, getting out of his clothes. "I have a little pseudoflesh left, enough to change our facial features. We shall become serfs."
"Be that not risky?"
"Not as risky as our present course."
To that Bane could only agree. Blue applied the pseudoflesh to Bane's face, filling out his cheeks and chin, then did the same for himself. He adjusted their hair. Bane glanced at himself in the reflective surface of a panel, and found that the little bit of adjustment had changed his appearance drastically. Blue was good at disguises!
They took a capsule on the track going the opposite way. While they rode, they talked, and Bane found that he liked this man very well. Blue was, if anything, more open than his father, Stile, less guarded in what he said. He had indeed learned tolerance; Bane did not feel at all like a machine in his presence.
They got out at the Purple Estate. This was a larger station, with many supplies to be moved. They each picked up a box and carried it out of the station and into the Estate.
Things were in chaos there. It seemed that the Citizen had suffered burns and embarrassment, and was being treated. Foreman was furious, and taking it out on any lower serf he encountered. There had already been several firings, and more were in the offing. All this they gleaned simply by listening as they walked through the premises.
They carried their boxes on to the serf transport station. They waited their turn and boarded the ground shuttle, the boxes in their laps. No one questioned them. The shuttle filled with other serfs on errands, and started off. It left the dome and wheeled across the sand toward th
e main city of Dradom.
Thus they made it to freedom, the easy way. They left their boxes in the shuttle for return to the Purple Estate, and went to a phone. Blue called Sheen. "Come and get us," he said, smiling faintly.
A private ship came for them. They boarded, and it took off. The seat belts released themselves, freeing them to walk about during the flight. Then the forward compartment opened, and Sheen and Agape walked into the main chamber.
Bane was not aware how they came together. Suddenly he was embracing and kissing Agape, and she was crying with joy. Then, embarrassed, they paused, looking around at the others.
"Sit down," Citizen Blue said, donning a blue outfit that Sheen had brought along. They sat.
"My wife and I have known for some time that our son was not entirely satisfied," Blue said. "He is a product of our most advanced technology. His circuits are more sophisticated than Sheen's. His brain is capable of a type of consciousness that approaches the living standard so closely that we are not certain there is any significant distinction."
"Very little," Bane agreed.
"But he was not alive – and he wanted to be. That we could not give him – until he made contact with you. Now he has been able to experience that ultimate state. Do you think he will want to return?"
"Not if he loves Fleta," Bane said.
"We like you, Bane," Blue continued. "I was never able to sire a living son, even before I came to Proton. It was no sacrifice for me to marry Sheen. In fact the laboratory was the only way that I could have a child. And I am satisfied with Mach. But still I always wished that I could have a living child in Phaze. My inability to do so was part of what damaged my relationship to your mother, Bane. It put our love under stress. The Lady Blue desperately wanted a child. Now I see in you the son I might have had."
Then Blue stopped speaking. "What he is trying to say," Sheen said, "is that if you, Bane, care to remain in Proton, we would be glad to extend to you the same relationship we have had with Mach. If you should wish to marry Agape, we would be pleased."
"But you hardly know me!" Bane protested, speaking to them both.
"You are the offspring of my other self, sired by this body," Blue said. "You have been raised as an apprentice Adept in Phaze. You have come to Proton, as I did. I think I know you well enough. If you wish to remain, and undertake the necessary preparation for eventual Citizenship, you are welcome to do so."
Bane knew he should have been overwhelmed by such an offer. But this body had better control over its emotions than did his own. He simply considered his own preference, and found no question. "I would like to do so," he said. "An my other self be satisfied."
"I suspect he will be," Blue said. "But there is no need to be in doubt. Contact him, exchange with him, and verify the situation for yourselves. There should be contact between you anyway. On that the Contrary Citizens agree with us. This opportunity to establish correspondence between the frames must not be lost. Where we differ is whether the benefits of that contact shall accrue to our cause or to theirs. The stakes are potentially enormous. Whoever has ready access to both the Oracle Computer and the Book of Magic will have power to remake both frames in a manner hitherto impossible. With that power, I could complete the integration of the diverse elements of Proton society, and in time eliminate the feudal Citizen-serf aspect of our society. With that power, the Contrary Citizens could reverse all that I have accomplished in twenty years and disenfranchise the robots, cyborgs, androids and aliens."
Bane looked at Agape. "Thou knowest that ne'er would I do that to thee," he said to her. Then he kissed her, and no more needed to be said on that subject.
"However," Blue said, and now Bane felt a chill, knowing that something unpleasant was coming. His own father spoke in just that fashion. "There are certain counterindications."
"Somehow I knew there would be," Bane said.
"My course here in the frame of Proton has not been entirely smooth," Blue said. "Progress has been slow, and the Contrary Citizens have fought every step. They have seized upon every possible technicality to frustrate my designs before the Council of Citizens. Compromise has been the order of the day, for twenty years. There are many programs I would have promoted, had I been able; the Experimental Project has been the only one I have been able to implement fully. I daresay my other self in Phaze has had similar problems."
"Aye," Bane agreed. "He sought to make all creatures equal in Phaze, the animals and the men, but found resistance in both animals and men. He made of the Blue Demesnes a center for the education and freedom of animals, and the association of differing species. All be welcome, but few attend, apart from Neysa's oath– friends. Some be afraid of the Adverse Adepts, with reason; some merely cling to their old ways. So it has been mainly in stasis. Phaze be not what Stile dreamed it could be."
"And so he dare not force any issue that is not vital," Blue said. "I know how that is."
"And he be slowly losing ground," Bane agreed.
"Now consider the probable impact of the reestablishment of communication between the two frames," Blue said. "That contact can generate the power to give one side or the other, in each frame, the decisive advantage. That's opportunity – and threat. If Stile and I have this power, we can do much good; but if the others get it, they can do just as much evil. At the moment it seems that we shall have that contact – but we cannot afford to take any chance with it. The stakes are simply too great."
"And I represent a liability," Agape said.
"Nay, I love thee!" Bane cried.
"That is why," she said. "Every time you cross to the other frame, you risk falling into the power of the other side, and Mach risks the same. Because we can never be certain of the situation in the other frame, until the exchange is made. The enemy forces do not have to capture you or Mach; they merely have to capture me or Fleta."
"But we shall protect each!" Bane protested.
She shook her head. "We can never be sure of that, while we are part of these two societies. I can be secure only in one place: my home planet. It is there I must go."
"Nay!" Bane cried. "I cannot be apart from thee! I returned to Proton only to be with thee!"
"And you must return to Phaze," she said. "Bane, they need you there. But even if you remain here, or travel back and forth, you cannot afford to associate with me. It will be better if I remove myself from your life."
"Nay!" he repeated, agonized.
"That is the conclusion Sheen and I came to, independently," Blue said. "We can accomplish much, if we cut our risks. That means that your association with Agape, and Bane's with Fleta, must be sundered. Only then can the two of you safely maintain contact between the frames.
Somehow, Bane had known it all along. He gazed at Agape, stricken.
16. Decision
Mach was back in the Purple Demesnes, but this time as no captive. That much Bane had assured him, in their brief dialogue before the exchange. Fleta had been freed, and the Translucent Adept governed here. Certainly he was no longer clamped to the wall; Bane had evidently stood here to overlap him, but Bane had not been shackled. He hoped Bane would be able to get free, or that Citizen Blue would free him; if not, he would have to return, for the fate of his body was his responsibility.
Purple stood before him, his face expressionless. Mach realized that the man did not know that the exchange had been accomplished. "I am Mach," he said. Now he would find out whether the truce would be honored.
"The situation has changed," Purple said gruffly. "I turned thine other self over to Translucent. He promised to have thy cooperation. Now thou art free to depart. Hast thou any message?"
"I was bracketed to the wall, there," Mach said. "I accepted no message."
"An I had mine own way," Purple muttered, "that were thy fate here too. But till Translucent's policy fail, thou canst go thy way." He turned his back and walked out of the cell.
Things certainly had changed! Mach walked out of the cell unopposed, and down
the tunnel, and on out of the Purple Demesnes without hindrance. Purple really was letting him go!
At the mouth of the cave that was the Demesnes entrance, Mach paused. He stood on the side of a mountain, and could see out over the trees below. This was the north slope; theoretically most of Phaze lay before him, but all he could see was the nearest section, seemingly untouched by man.
A floating watery bubble appeared before him. Mach smiled warily. "Hello, Translucent Adept," he said.
"And a greeting to thee, Mach of Proton," the Adept replied. "What be thy current desire?"
"To find Fleta."
"She was freed by thine other self; methinks she fled to the Blue Demesnes."
"Makes sense," Mach agreed.
"I can transport thee there, an thou prefer."
"Thanks, Adept, but I think not. I won't come to you unless I'm ready to do business."
"Fair enough," Translucent said. "The door be open always." His bubble of water faded out.
Mach considered. He would go to the Blue Demesnes. But how? It might be a long march by foot, but he was uncertain of his powers of magic, particularly now that he was alone. His spells had worked well only when Fleta had helped him with her music, or when he had built up to them carefully. If he tried to transport himself, and garbled it, in what condition would he find himself? Also, each spell only worked once; there was no point in wasting them. So – he would go by foot.
He started walking north. It was slow, because of the slope; it was about as hard going down as it would have been going up, to his surprise. He was soon sweating, for it was the middle of the day and he was alive. In his robot body he neither tired nor sweated, but now he gloried in these physical manifestations.
A harpy flew into view. She wore a fright wig. "Phoebe!" he exclaimed.
She heard him and swerved to approach. "The imitation Adept! Alone?"
"I'm looking for Fleta," he said. "Have you seen her?"
"Aye, a day ago. I put her on the way to the Blue Demesnes."
Confirmation! "I'm going there now."
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