Chaining the Lady

  "Instant guard dogs," Melody finished. "Yes, I see it now. Not too intelligent, and unable ever to leave the environment of the ship—this is guaranteed loyalty! All you have to do is feed your magnet."

  "Their nature is distressingly Solarian, despite their shape and mode," Llume said. "They are the ultimate thrust-creatures, objects of terror. They are largely invulnerable to conventional weapons even when directly struck, and they have such speed and power—"

  "My sentiments exactly," Melody said. She had learned much of what she needed to know about the magnets, but it was hardly comforting. If a magnet should get confused and attack her, what possible defense did she have? "May we communicate privately?"

  Llume placed her ball against Melody's human throat. It vibrated gently. "This cannot be heard beyond your flesh," the Polarian/Spican said, the words sounding like a voice in the brain. "If you will subvocalize, it will be private, unless there is a spy-beam on us. I do not think that is the case."

  "Thank you," Melody said, speaking almost as silently as she did to Yael. She was now aware of Llume's aura, a really strong one of about one hundred, very attractive. "How did you identify my native Sphere?"

  "Alien cultures are my avocation. There are typical nuances of expression and viewpoint. Yours conform to the pattern of Mintaka. But you conceal it very well. No one not trained as I have been would recognize this, and in some moments your reactions are so perfectly human that I marvel."

  Those moments would be when Yael's reactions came through. This was a most observant Spican! "That's a relief. You read my mannerisms, just as I read your lack of circularity." Melody brought out the Hermit card from her deck, the same face Tiala had seen. "What do you see here?"

  Llume ran her ball over the card's surface. Polarians lacked sharply focused vision, as did Mintakans. The designs of these cards were in trace relief, however, so they could be read by tactile means. The Polarian ball was a very sensitive communication organ. "This is a stylized Undulant swimming toward a star. I believe it is myself." The sperm cell: it was in fact a tiny swimming creature, in its element! That was what would naturally strike the attention of a true Spican first. "Strange," Melody said. "I see communication."

  They were in physical contact; Melody was aware of the fluctuations in the other entity's aura. There was no significant deviation in response to this loaded remark.

  "I suppose a star can be considered so," Llume offered. "It bears light that all may see."

  "I mean the beams."

  "The beams?" Still no ripple. Llume was genuinely perplexed. "Do they form a significant pattern?"

  One more test. "It occurs to me that we may be related," Melody said. "Do you have any alien ancestors?"

  "Yes. I have two. A thousand years ago, Flint of Outworld, a Solarian transferee to our home planet, raped a / agent of Andromeda. He had manifested as an Impact, she as an Undulant, and together with Sissix the Sibilant as catalyst they generated the infant Liana the Undulant. I descend from her. We are most interested in genealogy in Spican waters."

  "We also, in Mintakan fields," Melody said. "I descend from the same two aliens—manifesting as Mintakans. But my loyalty is to Sphere Mintaka."

  "And mine to Sphere Spica—and Galaxy Milky Way," Llume said.

  "Our auras are of the same family," Melody said. "Very close, the closest affinity I have ever encountered. We are as sisters."

  "Yes. Our aural linkage is much more intimate than our physical ancestry, though it is amazing that we are related."

  Melody chuckled. "Illusion. In the thousand Sol years since Flint of Outworld thrust his favors so widely, there has been ample opportunity for every member of each of our Spheres to become related through him. A brief calculation will show that if we allow twenty-five years for an average generation, there would be forty generations in that period. If each female or equivalent produced two offspring, the descendants would now number approximately one trillion entities. Since the average Sphere supports about a hundred billion sapients—"

  Now Llume laughed—an intriguing effect, in its silent vibration. "And I supposed I was so special, possessing those illustrious historical ancestors! The remarkable ones are those who do not share this ancestry!"

  "On the other hand, the nongenetic affinity of aura is quite significant," Melody said. "I have encountered no Mintaken aura as intense as yours, so closely allied to my own."

  "Perhaps we are guided in some fashion," Llume said. "I do not subscribe readily to coincidence."

  "Coincidence would have it that at certain stages like entities will meet, as well as unlike entities," Melody said. "This ship represents a deliberate concentration of extremely intense auras, and some will naturally be related."

  "For one who subscribes to Tarot, you are very practical," Llume observed delicately.

  "Tarot is practical," Melody assured her.

  "Apologies; no disparagement of religious views intended."

  Another miscue, but not worth correcting. "Accepted. I believe I can accept you as a genuine Milky Way galaxy entity."

  "Of course! And I accept you. Why—"

  "There are hostages among us."

  "Hostages?"

  "Involuntary hosts, controlled by Andromedan auras. I am here to nullify them."

  Now Llume's aura veered wildly. "Andromedans! Aboard this ship?"

  "Yes. Tiala of Oceana is one; it has been verified. She is a / entity of Andromeda. There may be others. I suspect that is the source of this present commotion. Will you work with me?"

  "I must ask the Captain first," Llume said uncertainly. "I never guessed—hostages!"

  "By all means ask the Captain. But not over the ship's phone system."

  Llume laughed again at Melody's throat. "Of course not! I am not quite that ignorant." She looked down the hall at the magnet. Melody could tell she was looking by her attitude; her skin changed color and brightness slightly. Large objects were visible to Polarians, and of course this Spican intellect had Polarian-host talents. "But assuming the Captain approved, how could I help? I don't know how to identify a hostage."

  "I would like to tell some fortunes," Melody said.

  Again the aura flexed. "I do not comprehend Mintakan humor."

  "Of course not. No Spican would. Or Solarian. Or Polarian or Canopian or Nathian. But especially, no Andromedan."

  "No Andromedan," Llume said, catching on. "You can identify an Andromedan through the Tarot?"

  "I believe so. With your cooperation. If you can tell a transferee by his home-Sphere mannerisms, you should have a good notion who our suspects are. If you can bring them to me without suspicion—"

  "Now I understand! This is how you verified that Tiala was a hostage?"

  "She was already known to be a hostage. I used the Tarot merely to distract her, but found it to be a better tool than I had imagined. As long as I'm confined to this ship, this is a worthwhile application of my skill." For Melody now doubted she would get off this ship as rapidly as had been promised. Not if it was infiltrated by a number of hostages.

  "I agree. If there are many more hostages aboard, we must neutralize them promptly."

  "No. We must identify them—without their knowing it. Otherwise we place ourselves in peril."

  "But if we let them go—"

  "An enemy known is an enemy neutralized—when the appropriate time comes."

  "Yes, you make sense. Probably that detonation in the hold was the work of a hostage."

  Melody wondered about that. No one on the ship besides herself and Captain Boyd had known her mission. How could a hostage have struck so rapidly and accurately?

  "Captain to Llume," the shipvoice said, startling Melody out of her reverie.

  Llume's tail went up to answer. "Awaiting."

  "All magnets have been advised not to molest our guest, Yael of Dragon. Pass without hindrance."

  "Understood. Captain, may I—"

  But the connection had already been broken.

&n
bsp; Llume made an elegant boneless shrug. "I was about to inquire whether I could courier you for the duration; I could not have been more specific at this time. Yet he did not say negative."

  Melody laughed. "That's right. I heard him fail to negate."

  They moved on down the hall, Melody walking, Llume rolling, neither using her natural mode of travel. The magnet hovered in place, ignoring them. But Melody's human flesh crawled as she passed it, and not merely because of Yael's terror. A living cannonball....

  "I suspect the bomb was placed aboard the shuttle before it left Outworld," Dash said. "It was intended to destroy both the equipment—which it did—and the operative."

  "The operative," Melody said, feeling cold. "Me?"

  "You. For this reason I feel it would be better for you to remain aboard this ship for the time being. Evidently someone on the Imperial Planet is aware of your mission, so you are not safe there. Until that entity is located and neutralized, you are safest here where your identity is unknown."

  "Yes...." Melody agreed. She had already decided to remain for a while, but the notion that a direct attempt had been made on her life was appalling, and it unnerved her. But for an accident of timing, that bomb....

  The Captain put his human arm around her shoulders. Suddenly she was crying in very human style against his shoulder. "Oh, Dash—I'm afraid!"

  "Perfectly normal reaction. But there is no need to be concerned—now. I have established very thoroughly that no attempt on your life originated here. I regret I had no chance to explain what I was doing, before, but of course I could not be sure until we had investigated. I regret that the equipment was destroyed, but that can be replaced in due course. All is well so long as you are well, and I shall ensure that you remain well."

  He addressed his magnet. "Slammer, you will accompany Yael of Dragon until further notice, protecting her from any threat whatsoever. Understood?"

  The magnet bobbed.

  Oh, no! "Captain, I'd really rather not have the magnet—"

  "The magnet is your friend," the Captain assured her. "Pay attention." He pointed to a metal chair anchored to the floor of Melody's cabin. "I believe that object intends harm to Yael of—"

  A blast of air rocked them back. The chair exploded. And Slammer hovered back where he had been, the heat of sudden motion dissipating from his shell.

  Only Dash's strong arm around her had prevented Melody from being blown over by the impact of the magnet's motion. The chair was a flattened mass of partly melted metal. Yet it had been done so quickly that Melody had not even seen it happen.

  The Captain gave her a final squeeze and let her go. "No one will even think of harming you now," he said. "You are safe. Believe."

  Melody believed.

  "I was always a sucker for fortunes," the Chief of Coordinations said.

  "You must understand, I make no claims for the supernatural," Melody informed him, tapping the Cluster deck lightly. She had combed out her hair so that it was long and loose, parted in the center and coursing down in brown streams just outside her eyes, in the fashion of the ancient human witches. Yael had been delighted, and had offered pointers on details.

  "Well, as long as it doesn't take too long," he said. "I do have other business."

  Melody leaned forward carefully, holding the deck in both hands so that her arms pressed against the sides of her breasts, making them bulge out of the artfully low-cut décolletage. "I wouldn't want to inconvenience you," she murmured.

  His eyes did a little male-animal dance upon her cleavage. "Oh, no inconvenience. Take your time."

  "Do you know your Significator? The card that represents you?"

  He glanced at her face momentarily, brow wrinkling. "Is there a card named Hath?"

  She smiled. "I don't believe so. What is your planet of origin?"

  "Conquest," he said.

  "Well, Hath of Conquest, let's look through these cards and see if any of the faces reflect your home. I am not familiar with it, so you will have to make the selection." She showed him the first of the Major Arcana, numbered Zero in the deck. "This we call the Fool, though he is not really foolish. It is just that his tremendous vision outreaches his footing." The picture showed a young man about to step off a cliff. She flexed the face, bringing up an alternate. "This is the same key, but in this aspect he is called the Nameless One. There are over a hundred versions of each card; I have only a representative sampling here." She flexed it to the third face.

  "No, wait," Hath said. "That second one; I believe that will do."

  "Oh?" She flexed it back. "Why?"

  "The arthropod. This typifies my world."

  "There are spiders on your world?"

  "No. But related creatures, yes. We cultivate them; they are our primary food. So arthropods are most important to us."

  "That makes sense," Melody agreed. "Very well. This is your Significator, and we shall use this facet of the deck. It is called the New Tarot, though it is not new any more. It was one of the decks created in honor of the so-called Aquarian Age of astrological Earth. It has been modified to fit the standard hundred card format, but otherwise it is reasonably authentic."

  She continued talking, careful to provide him a continuing view of her front so as to hold his attention, but her thoughts wandered. In fact, she had read of Planet Conquest, as it had a certain historical value. It had been the first human extra-Solar colony, the start of Sphere Sol.

  A million Solarians had been moved by matter transmission at phenomenal energy expense to the system of Gienah, sixty-three light-years distant from Sol, there to colonize a supposedly ideal virgin world. But the preliminary survey had overlooked a critical element of the planet's ecology, and it had very nearly wiped out the colony in the first year. The near-fiasco had been hushed up by the Solarian bureaucracy, but it was only a fraction of the disasters that beset the "Fool" period of Earth's history. How aptly the Tarot reflected that situation! Yet, Melody reminded herself, the vision of Paul of Tarot also stemmed from that conflux....

  Of course, such information was also available to the Andromedans. So if a spy or hostage wanted to claim origin on a planet of Sphere Sol, this would do. And a hostage entity would have no reason to pretend; it could draw from its host's mind. She would be wasting her time trying to trap it by means of misinformation. In fact, a person could have a great deal of misinformation about his home planet, since of course most people here in the fleet would be second- or third-generation émigrés whose ancestors had shipped at half-light speed from those planets. A man could call a planet "home" as a matter of cultural pride, when he had never been there. This was another reason it was generally considered that the only sure way to identify a given entity was by aural analysis. "Now these hundred cards are arranged in order," Melody was saying meanwhile. She spread them in her hands, not forgetting to give her impressive bust another jiggle. "First the Major Arcana, the important secrets, as it were, all thirty of them. Actually there are even more than that, but they don't all have separate cards. This one, the Ghost, has fifteen alternate keys. It really stands for all the missing secrets, whose number may well be infinite. So the full extent of the theoretical deck—"

  "I don't really understand about such things," Hath said. "And I do have duties elsewhere. Would you mind doing the reading now?"

  So her bosom would not hold him forever. Well, he had a typical human reaction. Few sapients were sincerely interested in Tarot; they only wanted a slice of their future handed to them conveniently. This would not be a good reading. The querist really had to understand the cards for that. But then, the reading was not her purpose. "Please shuffle the cards now," she told him, handing him the pack.

  His eyebrow lifted. "I have to do the work?"

  "You have to do the work. You may not be conscious of it, but as you shuffle the cards you are arranging them in an order that satisfies you. You determine their final order. I only lay them out and help interpret. There is nothing supernatural about i
t; the cards merely reflect your will."

  "I know you have to say that," he said, his eyes straying at last from her décolletage to her legs, which she had disposed artistically to the side of the table. "There are laws, aren't there? You can't claim anything about spiritual influences, but they're there all the same, right?" He shuffled the cards.

  A born sucker; she had known the type in Sphere Mintaka. They wanted to believe in fantastic agencies, not in mundane reality. The truth was that modern space science had far more effect on most entities' lives than any possible spiritual agency.

  "I only help you interpret the cards," she insisted, knowing he would take this as confirmation of his conjecture. "No spirits exist except as you have conjured them."

  He returned the deck. Melody dealt the first card of the reading. It was the Five of Serpents of the New Tarot, with the five snakes radiating out from the points of a five-pointed star. Too bad; these Minor Arcana were not complex enough to evoke the reactions she needed. What would she do if the whole layout turned out to be like this?

  But she tried. "What does this suggest to you, Hath?"

  He hardly glanced at it. "The patina of reproduction, of course."

  Melody forced her mouth to work. "Of course." Was he teasing her or was this a completely alien reaction?

  She dealt another card: Unity, equivalent to The Lovers in the more conventional decks. It could be considered as representing the commencement of a new way, though of course it was far more complex than that.

  "There is the first shoot entering the nutrient globe," Hath said. "Ready to fission in that egg into the five sexes that will consume the body of the female entity laid out as food, before emerging as shown in the prior card," he said. He looked up. "I'm surprised they are permitted to print such graphic material."

  "Sometimes they do have trouble with local censors," Melody said somewhat feebly. For she had abruptly identified the applicable culture, the only one she knew of that had five sexes. Sphere * of Andromeda.