oo So you are a segment counterhostage oo the other signaled, lapsing into his native mode of expression. oo Your fiendishly strong aura will not avail you now. Do you wish to exchange identities before I destroy you? oo
"No," Melody replied. She recognized the other entity now: it was Greenaura of oo the Transfer Officer hostage. And she knew the Andromedan was bluffing, at least in part; he would not kill her until he knew more about her. The existence of counterhostages would be a terrible threat to the hostage effort, and Greenaura would have to get at Melody's mind to discover the full ramifications. For all Greenaura knew, she was one of hundreds.
On the other hand, she could afford to dispatch the Andromedan any way she could manage. So the terms of the combat were not so disadvantageous.
Greenaura rolled toward her. His electron shield scintillated with flexible power; he was a fine figure of a Knyfh, in optimum health, and an experienced soldier. The military mind might be rigid to the point of obtusity in general matters, but in combat on this level he was an expert. Melody knew she did not have a chance against him. But she had no chance to escape.
Here she was, vacillating wildly in her estimations, one moment expecting to win, the next moment knowing she would lose. And the Drone had thought she had courage!
Their shields interacted. Controlled current touched her stunningly; Melody's strength was drawn off. She had let herself be vulnerable to a ploy no native would have fallen for. It was like allowing her Mintakan strings to be cut, or her Solarian throat to be looped without opposition. Her shield was now soft, permeable, laying her nucleus open to penetration; she could be fissioned—which, in the absence of prior mergence, meant destruction.
"Help me, Knyfh host!" she cried inwardly, reaching past the quiescent hostage within her to the original Knyfh mind.
And the stunted, suppressed, half-insane Knyfh mind sprang out, knowing only one cause: her galaxy needed help. This mind was Gnejh, a low-Kirlian tigress; on a purely magnetic level, a deadly foe.
Greenaura sent a spear of current through Melody's shield, brushing her nucleus. The sensation was awful; she felt as if her nucleus was being sundered. oo You will identify yourself, now oo the Andromedan signaled. He knew the pain he was inflicting, and he would torture her until she broke under the strain.
Melody was silent. She felt the host-entity gathering, waiting, building up a nuclear charge. There was something horrible about it, like poison dripping from the jaws of a half-crushed reptile.
Greenaura's spear came again—and the host struck. Jaws slicing through, twisting, severing, KILL, KILL. The spearhead was cut off, trapped inside Melody's shield. DIE, DIE!
Greenaura screamed, oooooooooo, a single spasm of current, the sheer agony of amputation—and the Knyfh touched his shield and drew off twice the charge Melody had lost. The predator had poked the supposedly helpless body of his prey, and been caught by the counterstroke. Now the advantage had been reversed.
Gnejh of Knyfh, insane but victorious, went for the kill. Melody let her. The host launched a devastating bolt through Greenaura's weakened shield....
And it aborted! Bluefield of oo, the Andromedan Melody had displaced, had flung herself into the charge and thwarted it as it passed between the two shields. Bluefield herself was destroyed by that interception, but she had accomplished her aim. Melody and her mad host were helpless again.
Greenaura, weakened, still had more strength than Melody did. He rolled into contact, the currents of his shield battering at hers. When that shell collapsed, Melody's host would die. Slowly, surely, her last reserves waned, as they were drawn off to augment the thrust of the Andromedan's shell. The broken electron orbit, Melody thought. So like the Tarot symbol for Aura, of plasmic matter. Was this a fitting end for her?
She suffered a terrible shock. Energy buffeted her shield, hurling her across the room. She had—
No! Greenaura had fissioned! Her enemy was no more. And abruptly Melody knew why: The hostage Knyfh that Greenaura had suppressed had chosen this moment of distraction to strike, just as Gnejh had struck before. The Knyfh had fissioned, destroying himself and his captor.
Melody rolled slowly around the room, gathering in some of the ambient energy released by the explosion of her rival, regaining her strength. She was half dazed by the violence of the battle; these Knyfhs and oos were savage warriors, giving no quarter! She didn't want any more encounters like that!
No wonder Segment Knyfh was regarded by the Andromedans as a major galactic target. Not only were they technologically sophisticated, they were resolute opponents. A Mintakan might yield when he saw that the issue was hopeless; a Knyfh would fight harder. Which perhaps explained why Mintaka was now a satellite sphere, while Knyfh was a segment.
Two hostages down, seven to go. Did the other hostages know about her? Probably not, because Greenaura had not been certain of her nature until the encounter—and the hostages had to hide themselves from the legitimate officers. Greenaura had investigated privately—and now would make no report. However, soon Greenaura's demise would become known....
"Private audience with the Captain; urgent," Melody signaled into the network again. Then, as an afterthought: "Matter of crew discipline." That would justify her request, gaining the Captain's prompt attention, while reassuring the other hostages. Crew discipline was not a matter to worry about; it was the Captain's concern.
Sure enough: "Audience granted," the net responded. "Immediate."
This meant that Melody was immediately freed from her duties in order to visit the Captain. She hurled herself through the energy network of the ship, maneuvering around magnetic stops as though solving a giant maze. This ship seemed to have no solid walls, but a magnetic baffle was every bit as effective, as she knew from her experience with Slammer on the flagship.
She came into the Captain's presence. He dispensed with protocol, moving in to touch his shell to hers to facilitate private dialogue. "What an aura!" his surface current exclaimed.
"Sir, I am Melody of Sphere Mintaka, Segment Etamin," she pulsed. "I come to inform you that your ship has been infiltrated by Andromedans of Sphere oo. They—"
"I am aware of the oo intrusion," Captain Mnuhl of Knyfh replied tersely.
"You are... aware?"
"I have reserved taking any action until I knew more of their strategy," he explained. "I do not know how many other hostages exist in your fleet, or when they intend to strike. To eliminate the nine Andromedans aboard my ship without that knowledge is futile."
"There are about four hundred in the fleet," Melody said. "We have eliminated perhaps thirty. They wait for the signal 'Six of Scepters' from their hostage-captain on the Ace of Swords—a signal that will never come, because we have dealt with that command-entity."
"I note you have tapped the minds of the hostages themselves," Mnuhl signaled. "This I was unable to do."
"It requires a four-to-one aural superiority, and adaptation of a transfer unit to orient on hostage-hosts," she explained. "Even then, it is by no means certain, as the hostages resist strongly. I can show you how to set your transfer unit."
"What of my original officers? I do not wish to do them harm."
"The harm has already been done. The Andromedans destroy the minds of their involuntary hosts. Do you wish to speak with Gnejh, my host to verify this?"
"I do."
Melody allowed her host-mind to communicate with the Captain. After a moment he drew back. "You are correct, Melody of Etamin. Her personality will no longer integrate with our society, and to permit her to fission reproductively would be merely to spread the malaise."
"Yes," Melody agreed regretfully. "Andromeda is no gentle maiden. She must be chained." Then she gave a pulse of innovation. "Reproductive fissioning... would that destroy the hostages?"
"Not if the host-minds are defunct. It probably would only spread the hostages."
"Not worth the risk," Melody agreed.
"So I shall act," Mnuhl pulsed with de
cision. He moved over to the net input and ran a current through it. "They are now gone."
"Already?"
"The applicable code current will fission any entity of our species," he signaled. "I made arrangements when I identified the hostages. The matter could not be left to chance."
Again, Melody experienced an internal flux of horror. These military entities, of whatever Sphere, operated with a savage efficiency that dispensed with sapient lives as though they were unimportant. She could never be that way!
"Let me show you what is necessary," she signaled. "Then you can transfer me to another hostage ship."
"Agreed. My technicians will—"
He was interrupted by an incoming message. It was only three symbols, but their import chilled Melody to her nucleus.
SIX OF SCEPTERS
Some hostage had caught on, and given the action signal. Now all the hostages would proceed openly to take over their ships. The battle was on.
14
Heart of Spica
/action hour message all field commands: strike as suitable for individual situations/
The human host was in pain. Yael and Skot sat at a table in the control room, watching Llume the Undulant operate the fleet communications net. The magnets were hovering idly.
"Melody!" Yael cried internally, gladly. "How did you—?"
"Segment Knyfh has transfer units aboard their Atoms," Melody explained. "What is going on here?"
"Llume—she—the pain-box...."
Now Melody recognized the sensation. It was a low setting on a Canopian discipline-unit, the device that inflicted pain in the entity to which it was oriented. She had had recent experience with this aboard the Deuce of Scepters, but hadn't known any of these deadly boxes were on board the Ace of Swords.
"Llume put you and Skot on the boxes? Why?"
"She came to talk with you, and found us with the transfer unit. She asked me questions I couldn't answer, and felt my aura and knew you were gone. I tried to hide it—" Yael started crying.
"Dear, you could not hide your lack of a two hundred-plus aura from one possessed of a one hundred-plus aura, once she was suspicious. It was just bad luck she checked, not your fault."
"She went away, but then she came back with the pain-boxes. We didn't know what they were until—Skot tried to fight the one fixed on him, but—"
"You can't fight one of those discipline-boxes. The Canopian Masters who make them are expert at handling humanoid slaves. Once the unit is oriented on a specific person, even his thought of trying to get away from the box triggers—" She broke off as the wave of pain swept through her host. "Yes, precisely," she finished as it subsided. "It is turned to your bodily reactions, tensions, so just don't think about—" The pain started rising again. "Anything," she finished hurriedly.
"Skot wouldn't answer her questions—"
"He wouldn't."
"So she turned up the—Melody, I just don't understand! Why would a close friend do that?"
Melody had forgotten that Yael had not had the same insights she had; in fact, Melody had not really believed it until now. Better to get the painful truth out, though: "Because Llume is another Andromedan agent. A most sophisticated one. That was what Tiala would not tell me in the Lot of *."
Yael was confused. "I knew there was something funny there, but you didn't—why didn't you take over her mind, if you thought that?"
"Because making certain of that fact would have killed me—and maybe you. Tiala knew that I should be told about Llume... but she also knew that Llume would kill me the moment I learned. Tiala must have known about the discipline-boxes, and that Llume would use them. Llume could not act against me directly because of the magnet, but Slammer doesn't understand the discipline-box. He would not have known what was going on, and I would not have been able to tell him. So Tiala would have violated the Lot of * by answering accurately, because an answer that destroys the querent is not valid, by the definition of that code. Tiala had integrity."
Yael mulled that over, not fully comprehending it. "But if you had taken over Tiala's mind...."
"That would have been outside the Lot of *. She would no longer be bound to tell me anything responsively, or to protect me, once the Lot had been invalidated. So she had to submit in silence, lest she betray her honor or her galaxy."
"Then why didn't you—"
"Because Llume would have acted against me the moment I overwhelmed Tiala's aura. Only by remaining ignorant could I save myself—if what I suspected was true. I didn't want it to be true... but it seems it was."
"Your mind is so complex! Why didn't she use the box on you anyway; and why did you let her keep working? You could have told Slammer to bash her! By now she must've told the whole fleet how you got rid of the hostages here!"
"Worse than that. She broadcast the 'Six of Scepters'—the Andromedan signal for the overt takeover. Now, all over the fleet, ships are running up the Andromedan flag, figuratively. The battle is on—and we aren't ready for it."
"But—"
Melody realized she hadn't yet answered Yael's question. "She had no reason to act against me, as long as I didn't know what she was. And I—needed a hostage to reassure the other hostages of the fleet that things were under control despite the setback at the Ace of Swords. So we—tacitly—agreed to let each other alone. For a while."
Yael was amazed. "I don't understand that at all!"
"Well, I'm not sure I understand it either. It seemed the expedient thing to do at the time, since I wasn't sure, and couldn't afford to be sure. Her aura is so much like mine, I just couldn't believe she was Andromedan, though of course aura is no respecter of galaxies, and one of my own ancestors was a / of Andromeda. I was pretty foolish."
"And now we're trapped," Yael said bitterly. "Just when we thought we were winning. Llume used the box on me, and I—oh, I told her everything I knew. The pain—"
"I understand. I saw to it that you didn't really know much. It was lucky that I wasn't here, or she would have had it all."
"But she's watching for you now!" Yael said with sudden new alarm. "The moment you come back in a shuttle to retransfer, she'll—" She stopped. "But you transferred back! She doesn't know—"
"Precisely. So we may have a certain subtle advantage. I knew something was wrong when that 'Six of Scepters' signal was broadcast, so I didn't take any chances." Melody sighed. "But I am still helpless; I can't fight the box either."
Then Melody lifted her hand casually and set it on Skot's hand on the table. She could do this without any reaction from the box because she had no intention of attacking Llume or turning off the device. She just wanted to put Skot's mind somewhat at ease.
Skot looked up, startled at the contact. He felt the intense aura and looked at her, wide-eyed. Melody nodded slowly.
"Why didn't you catch Llume the first time, with the Tarot cards, the way you did the others?" Yael persisted. "And why did she help you catch the others?"
"Because she is a very special agent," Melody said. "She doesn't work with the others. In fact, probably only Dash and Tiala knew she was a hostage. She was their backup. It was her job to protect her secret until the time came for her to act. She was extremely well trained, so that she really thought like the entity she represented—a Spican transferee. Any little slips she might have made would be covered by the confusion between her Spican/Polarian identities. She is an expert in cultural nuances, and knows more about them than I do. She well knew what I was doing with the cards. There was no way I could expose her. All her actions were consistent with her role; where a true Spican would have helped me, Llume helped me—even against other hostages. Of course Dash knew what I was doing all along, and he was expert in Tarot, too. They were just letting me play my game, keeping myself busy, while Dash tried to convert me to his cause." She sighed again. "It was a beautiful setup, and it came closer to success than I like to admit. Had I not happened to be an old Mintakan neuter...."
She looked at Llume sa
dly. "It was a most sophisticated operation, ruthless yet effective. All the other hostages of this ship were not worth as much to Andromeda as Llume, which was why Dash accepted defeat and exile without betraying her. He put his duty first."
"I liked Llume," Yael said. "Is that wrong?"
"I liked her myself," Melody said. "Very much. I suppose that was the main reason I didn't want to believe what I suspected. We are undone by our foolish foibles."
The ship's large viewglobe showed a holographic image of the fleet with image enhancement to make the picture clear. Bright motes shone: little swords, cups, wands, disks, and atoms representing the ships of the segment. The flagship was marked in red in the very center, surrounded by the other Sphere command ships. Farther out, but still in the nucleus, were Sphere contingents, grouped like protons. Then, beyond the battleship cluster, the rings of smaller ships began. These were not so readily identifiable by shape; they depended on thrust instead of spin for their internal gravity, and did not collect light. A Polarian scout looked much like a Solarian scout, both being needleships.
"This is Llume of /," Llume announced to the fleet. "I am in charge of the flagship, Ace of Swords, having assumed command in the absence of the scheduled command, Bird of dash of Andromeda, who was lost in the course of ship takeover. I received the Action Hour notice and issued the 'Six of Scepters' alarm; I now coordinate this mission. Hostages have now had time to assume command of their ships as programmed. Vessels will now cluster about me, that we may know our strength. Any ship that approaches without demonstrating its Andromedan nature will be fired on by my lasers. I repeat: I am of Sphere slash, and Sphere slash now coordinates the entire galactic project."
"Very bold bluff," Melody remarked to Yael. "The lasers have the longest range in the fleet. As this ship has the most powerful laser cannon of all the Swords, it can act against any other ship before that ship can bring its own weapons to bear. And she reminded us that she is a slash entity; the slash are natural laser-users, so they really know how to handle such armament. So unfriendly ships will probably keep their distance."