He thought about it. “Well, it’s true that when you see two guys kissing, you have a whole set of reactions, maybe depending on your own feelings about sexuality, but everybody has reactions because it’s not done. Women kiss each other all the time, and nobody thinks anything of it. And I know women dress more for each other than for men. I can’t remember a boyfriend I ever had who ever noticed that I had had my hair redone, and most of them didn’t notice new clothes or perfume or whatever until I pointed it out to them.”
“But you still notice. Even in Erdom.”
“Yeah, I guess I do. But a lot of that is how they’re brought up, too, isn’t it? I mean, competitive sports, competitive grades, competitive businesses, everything’s competition. Even in Erdom that’s true.” He thought of the sword fighting and other such activities. “I wasn’t brought up like that. What competition I did was on a different level. All appearances and comparing possessions. Men fight or they get the crap beat out of them. Women try to reach a consensus, and a fight between two girls, when it happens, is real scandal or real news. Yeah, I see what you mean, I guess. I stopped seriously competing real early. I was always the consolation prize, if I ever got invited to the dance in the first place, and the kind of life a business career offered never appealed to me. I just wanted to be a scientist. I wanted to find out how things worked and why they worked. I was good at math, and girls weren’t supposed to be good at math. I loved computers, and girls were supposed to hate them. I guess I figured that so long as 1 was already a social geek, I might as well be a total one. I just decided to do what I loved doing. I’d love to do it here, too.”
Mavra nodded. “Yeah, I understand that. That’s another problem with coming through the Well. The high-tech types already know what you know, and more. The others either don’t or can’t use it. Coming from the tech level you do and the occupation you do, you not only would have to learn from scratch, you’d have to unlearn half of what you learned as gospel. The very fact that you stand here as an Erdomese man says that better than I could. The same went double for Julian. Pilots of any sort, and particularly jet and space pilots—well, they’re useless here, aren’t they? So it decided you were useless and dumped you in low-tech. You’d have had a better shot at high-tech if you hadn’t been as smart, frankly. Doesn’t take brains to learn how to push buttons. Same goes for Tony—airline pilot. I think somewhere there was a theory built into the Well that said that if your skills were useless, you should be put in a spot where they couldn’t be used so that you might adjust and use that brain power where it would do some good. Just a hunch—no inside information there. But it kinda holds, doesn’t it?”
“Could be. But in Erdom the knowledge that might be useful is held by that damned priesthood and the price is much too high, and the guilds leave me out of most of the other trades that might be of any interest. It seemed like the best I could be would be some kind of glorified night watchman or street sweeper or something else menial. I mean, like much of the population there, even though I know seven languages and have a universal translator implanted, I’m still a total illiterate in Erdom, and having looked at that language, I probably will remain so. I think that’s why I jumped at your note even though I was under that hypnotic drug’s spell at the time. Cut off or not, I knew when I had an opportunity for something better rather than facing my alternatives there.”
“Well, I never figured on the hypnotic drugs, but I kind of hoped that either curiosity or ambition or both would bring you. Just a few days more and we’ll be ashore in uncharted realms for both of us. I need you. Do the job for me and I’ll make sure you have a future you’ll like. If we lose this race, you’ll have seen something of the world and won’t be any worse off. Fair enough?”
“Fair enough. But thinking about those priests’ drugs brings me back to what kicked off this talk. I still feel uncomfortable with all this. Did you really do this yourself once?”
“Sure. Okay, that shocks you, but as I said, this is a place with 1,560 tiny worldlets with no future and no past, more or less. They’re kinda stuck here. They know there’s a possibility that their kids might be worse off than they are but won’t be better off. Mostly it’ll be hard to tell one stagnant age from another. Deep down most know that or at least feel or sense it. It’s why life can be cheap here, and it’s little wonder some turn to chemical escapes. You mean you never tried some drugs out of curiosity or boredom or depression or whatever?”
“Me? Not much. Some marijuana now and then—I did it heavy in college, I admit, but less once I got a job—and some alcohol but nothing hard. I tried cocaine once at a party and darn near choked. Never touched it or anything else again. Why?”
“And these were all legal substances?”
“No. Alcoholic drinks, yes, but not marijuana or cocaine. Not in my lifetime, anyway. But it’s not the same.”
“It is the same. Even legal, it’s used for the same purposes. Illegal just feeds the whole business. The same ones who got your illegal drugs in also brought in the rest, of which you disapproved. Your money went to help them finance the ships and men like this one. I’ve not only been with them on this level, I’ve fought the ugly side of the business, too, against the thoroughly rotten people at the top. You might say that far back in the distant past I saw the future of this as well, and nothing you see here can compare to the depravity of what lies ahead.”
“But it’s a matter of degree. Some is harmful, some not.”
Mavra Chang sighed. “I remember a people once in east Africa. Two tribes, same ancestry, all that, but one of them lived by a great river and tilled the land and mined gold and such from the nearby mountains that served as a barrier separating them from the others. Those others, they lived on the other side, a lot of the same geography and possibilities, but their home was in a virtual cannabis forest. They were a far happier tribe and more content, but for generations they remained no more advanced than the People of the upper Amazon. I don’t judge. The tribe that remained in the forest was probably happier than the other one that built a great city, but the happy ones were stagnant, stuck, just like the Well World.”
“You’re one to talk!”
Mavra shrugged. “We used some drugs from the native forest, you know, and not always as a practical thing. What can I say? After being kicked around for a few thousand years I called a halt. I didn’t like Earth much, Lori. I didn’t like it much at all. It was uglier and more primitive than I could have imagined in ways I never dreamed it could be. I’m sorry, but that is my perspective. I left it. I escaped where it wasn’t so ugly, and I remained there rather than come out to face more ugliness. One day things would be different. There would be what I considered real progress and advancement, and they would discover interstellar travel. By that time the rain forest would be cut down, and I’d be able to get off that miserable planet. I do know that I’m not going back there. Or if the Well somehow forces me back there, I am not going back as Mavra Chang or anything remotely like her. If I can, I’m going to be something else.”
“Yes? What, if I may ask?”
“I don’t know. If what I believe is true, I won’t have to face that problem. If not—I don’t know, but I’ll think of something.”
Since Mavra was in a talkative mood, there being little else to do aboard the ship, Lori was about to go into just what Mavra thought of men—at least, men who hadn’t been changed into women and vice versa. It seemed to him as if she hated them in general, on a gut emotional level, even if accepting them intellectually. That Portuguese ship and crew must have been a holy horror, but had it, after so much experience elsewhere and even before, in some former lifetime, driven her over an edge she hadn’t been over before? Or had she never liked men? Why had she separated from this Brazil guy so long ago, and why did she seem to both hate and fear him now? According to Tony and Anne Marie, this Nathan Brazil sounded like a pretty nice guy. He’d saved two lives out of clear compassion; Mavra had put lives in jeopardy, ruined o
ne or two maybe, and waxed nostalgic for the days when she’d been a drug runner.
He never got the chance. “Ship! Port, fifty-one degrees,distance nine kilometers and closing at flank speed!” came a sharp shout from the bridge, where, in this high-tech hex, all the technological gear was active.
The captain was in the wheelhouse in moments, looking at the scope. “I don’t like this. It’s got the size and speed to be a privateer. How far is it to the Dlubine border?”
“Twenty kilometers, sir!”
“Damn! So close and yet so far! Any attempt at communications?”
“None yet, sir. Instructions?”
Captain Hjlarza thought for a brief moment. “Zitz! Hail them, then. Ask them who they are and why they are bearing down on us. Warn them that we are an armed ship and that we deal mercilessly with pirates.”
The Zhonzhorpian was on the radio immediately, barking a challenge and sounding doubly mean. With that crocodilelike throat and mouth, he could make it sound very menacing indeed.
“No reply, sir!”
“They’re stalling! Okay, we’ve given them a legitimate reason for us to turn and run! Kill all lights! Starboard thirty degrees! All ahead full! Zitz! Man the weapons board! Others to arms stations! If they get in range, give ’em all you got! If they call us now, you know the routine!”
“Aye, sir!”
Lori looked alarmed. “I think we better clear out and give them some room,” he said nervously.
Mavra returned a wry smile. “Just don’t get in their way. These are pros.”
The captain kept looking at his scopes. “They’re closing a little, but they’re only a hair faster than we are. At this heading and speed, we should still have a good two kilometers on them when we cross the border. As soon as we cross it, I’m going to give a sharp turn to starboard and full speed into whatever’s there. We’ll still be out of visual and off their instruments. When I do, I want everybody at their sailing positions. Engines, I want full until I tell you, then I want a dead stop. We will put on sail the moment after I order an engine stop. Understand?”
There was a chorus of “Ayes,” and the crew went to station.
“They’re calling us now, sir!” Zitz reported.
The captain gave a low chuckle. “They’ve just figured out they won’t catch us this side of the border. You know what to say.”
Zitz, however, was already saying it. “If you were truly legal authorities, you would have responded to our first call with an identification signal,” he told the pursuing ship sharply. “We’ve been suckered by pirate ploys before. No, sir, we would be derelict in our duties if we yielded to you now.”
They could hear only one side of the conversation, but it was clear that the gunboat had issued an ultimatum and a threat.
“Well, sir, if you can catch us, then do so. If you are a legitimate naval vessel, we will lodge charges against your captain for failure to respond to a legitimate identification check. If you are not, we will have to fight. If we are fired upon, however, we will take that as confirmation that you are pirates and will respond accordingly and without hesitation.”
The captain was just looking at his scopes, throttle wide open. Suddenly he snapped, “Engines, we’ve just had two guided torpedoes launched against us. I will probably have to turn if they don’t both buy the decoy. Be ready.” He leaned out the open window. “Torpedoes! Let go aft decoys!”
One of the spider creatures hit some levers, and there were loud splashes behind them in the water. A minute or so later, well in back of their wake, there was a tremendous bright flash and the sound of an explosion.
“One of ’em bought it; the other’s still coming,” the captain reported. “Launch antitorpedo from aft tube and reload as quick as you can!”
There was the sound like that of a torpedo being fired, and then the spider creature opened a hatch and went halfway down into it, clearly doing something with its forelegs out of sight of the deck. Before it was finished, there was another bright flash and explosion behind them, much, much closer to them than the first one had been.
“Got it!” the captain called with satisfaction. “Zitz, give ’em two rockets! I don’t care if you hit them or not, but it’ll keep ’em back and make ’em think twice about us!”
Lori’s sense of boredom had vanished, but it was replaced with a little bit of fear and concern. Still, all of it seemed somehow unreal, distant. I feel like I’m in the middle of a cheap thriller, he thought wonderingly.
The two rockets went away with a twin thump! thump! sound, and they saw them quickly rise on small jets of flame and disappear into the darkness behind them.
“I hope the folks who live in the water here aren’t the kind to get too pissed off at people blowing up things,” Mavra commented dryly.
“One minute!” the captain shouted. “Everybody brace yourselves and be ready to alter course!” He paused, watching the scopes carefully as the stack billowed black smoke and the wind seemed even chillier.
Lori looked forward and thought he could see some lights off in the distance, but everything looked hazy and distorted. Almost as they reached it, he realized that he’d been looking through a hex barrier at night.
They could feel the tingle of the hex barrier as they crossed it, and suddenly all the electronic gear on the bridge failed as if someone had pulled the plug, and the heated air of the new hex hit them like a solid, hot wet carpet, causing some momentary disorientation. The ship, however, continued at full steam.
Without further warning, the captain brought the Runner around hard right, so hard that loose things on deck shifted left and Lori felt himself being thrown against the rail, then pitched back, falling to the deck.
It seemed as if the ship would never stop its turn, that it would go on forever, but after a while the vessel, which had itself been leaning to the right, steadied itself and came back to a straight-on course. The captain was counting quietly, estimating the speed of the pursuit and the amount of time it had taken them to make the dramatic turn.
Suddenly he shouted, “Sail crew aloft!”
Expertly, the two great spiders scuttled up the masts virtually to the top, and long tentaclelike legs adjusted the holding straps, while Zitz left his dead command console aft, where the two centauresses were watching the show with a mixture of awe and concern, and moved forward to the sail control position.
There was another long pause, then the captain shouted, “All engines dead stop! Boilers to standby! Disengage engines from drive shaft! Lower center board and deploy mainsails!”
There was a sudden, almost deathly quiet save for the noise of the sails being squeakily lowered and fixed into position.
“Rig full, no jibs,” the captain commanded, and first the topsails and then various subordinate sails sprouted, making the transformation to quiet sailing vessel almost complete. The boilers were not out, but since they had been disengaged from the drive shafts, there was a sudden cessation of the steady rhythmic vibration that the engines had sent through the ship.
Mavra went over to Lori and offered a hand. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I think so. Probably gonna have a hell of a bruise on my hip, but it’s no big deal. The hardest part is getting back on my feet.” He made it with her help but needed to lurch forward and hold on to something. “Great body for running, particularly in sand or gravel, but it’s just not good with the casual stuff.” He was calming down now and took stock of the surroundings. “Wow! Feels like home, only worse! This is really hot!”
“It’s at least as hot as Erdom,” Mavra agreed, “but with an ocean’s humidity. Will you be all right here? I want to check on the girls in the back.”
“Yeah, sure, I’ll be okay. I’m just trying to get steady enough to go down and check on Alowi.” He gave a long, relieved exhale. “At least we made it!”
“Don’t feel so confident yet,” Mavra warned him. “They’re still back there, and they’re close. If we don’t lose them, we’ll have
to fight, and we’ll be well within their gun range here. This is semitech, remember, not nontech. Cannons do their usual nasty job here.”
He stared after Mavra as she went aft to check on the Dillians, then said aloud, under his breath, “Yeah, thanks for telling me that cheery set of facts.”
The air felt wet and sticky, and there seemed to be a light rain or mist falling that did nothing to cool things off. He looked to the right of the ship and thought he saw some kind of shimmering, a distortion even of the night fog and mist.
The captain was running directly down the hex barrier, just inside the Dlubine side.
He shook his head and decided ne’d better put his trust in the ones who knew what they were doing and tend to his own business, which was going below.
It was a mess there; the turn had spilled more down there than up on deck, but Alowi seemed all right and relieved to see him.
“I—I was afraid something happened to you up there,” she told him.
“I fell. Hip’s gonna feel like hell later, but I’m all right. What about you?”
“I rolled over, but once things straightened out, I was all right. Everything was flying or rolling around… I just did not know what was happening. Come—let me heal your pain.”
“I’m all right for now.”
“Please! Now is the best time. The last time you almost died from a bad bruise. Let me give you what you need to keep it from happening again!”
It suddenly struck him. The key to the entire Erdomese way and why things were more dangerous for him than he’d realized.
The male Erdomese’s weakness, its Achilles’ heel, was that he and all the rest of them had a kind of hemophilia. The females, in that second set of breasts, carried more than spare water; they carried a clotting factor. The women’s nearly total dependence on the men for most things was counterbalanced by the men’s absolute need to have that which only the women could make readily available. They hadn’t told him or warned him about it. Why would they? Between their customs and their beliefs, and with such a huge proportion of females to males, they took it for granted. No wonder the men traveled with as many wives as they could afford to support!
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