The False Mirror

  "Please my inadequate words excuse, but it has my experience been that visuals time as well as confusion save."

  Removing a control wand not unlike those in the possession of his military colleagues, he adjusted it while waving at the empty space between them. Several star systems were rudely swept aside, to be replaced by the floating image of a Human skull. As he spoke, sections exploded and expanded to reveal hidden secrets.

  "You all are or should by now be conversant with the recent studies which were conducted on this world on one of the genetically altered Humans who were preborn abducted by the Amplitur. It was my privilege in charge of those studies to be." The wand moved.

  "Before the individual in question was at his request returned to Eirrosad an operation was carried out in which the Amplitur-induced alteration to his brain was surgically isolated from the rest of his nervous system, thereby negating its influence." Slitted pupils monitored Humans and Massood for reaction.

  "I remind you that my staff and I considered this individual's release and return premature."

  "That's old news, not bad news," commented the nearest Human.

  "Truly." The surgeon's tone was sharp. "Under natural conditions Human neural tissue rarely regenerates. Modern Hivistahm and O'o'yan technology enables us such regrowth artificially to induce, thereby rendering the Human physiologic condition known historically as 'paralysis' a medical anachronism.

  "Prior to the conclusion of surgery on the individual in question the Amplitur-induced neural nodule within his brain was biopsied. A computer projection on recent analysis based a potential capacity for self-regeneration of this organ suggests." As he spoke, animated neurons reasserted themselves within the immensely magnified image rotating before them.

  "This is a prognostication only," observed the male Massood. "The fact that such growth can occur does not mean that it will, or that the Amplitur organ will successfully reconnect itself to the appropriate portions of the individual's brain."

  "Such rapid cellular growth could even be carcinogenic,'/' pointed out one of the S'van in uncharacteristically humorless fashion.

  "That is not an impossible scenario," First-of-Surgery admitted. "In that event the individual might die before the condition could be detected and treated. Conversely, if successful regrowth and reconnection were to occur, he might despite all our arduous work with him here, under the sway of the Amplitur again find himself. Or the clash of what he knows with what he feels might well unbalance him mentally."

  "Then all our work here was for naught," said another S'van.

  "Not true. We learned much of importance." With a wave of the surgeon's wand the magnified bits of Human brain and neural tissue vanished. "We are certain in the future others modified by the Amplitur to encounter. Perhaps by then we will have how permanently to inhibit the Amplitur organ from regenerating discovered." To the ensuing silence he added a note of hope.

  "As has pointed out been, this a prognostication only is." Double eyelids blinked. "Such regrowth may not take place, or if it does neural reconnection may not recur, nor may there be any harm to the individual. This but one of many possible physiologic scenarios is."

  "You assign the worst case a high priority, though, or you wouldn't have interrupted this conference to tell us about it."

  First-of-Surgery regarded the scaleless warrior Human. An ineffable sadness colored his laconic response. "Truly."

  The other Human nodded slowly as he spoke. "What we really need to do is find the world where the Amplitur are doing the actual modifications on Human infants and embryos and blow the goddamned place all the way back to the First Cause."

  First-of-Surgery shivered slightly at the Human's unbridled ferocity. If not for the need to recruit species capable of combating the advance of the Amplitur, he might not have been above consideration of a little genetic engineering himself. Though from the beginning he had concealed his feelings well, the whole business had unnerved him more than he would have cared to admit.

  One thing his studies had led him to ponder was if a "civilized Human" might not be a contradiction in terms, a biological impossibility. He was glad he would not be around to find out, for even the most optimistic scenario had the war against the Amplitur continuing far beyond the end of his projected lifespan.

  Even so, his sleep was troubled.

  17

  As was traditional, victory celebrations were kept to a minimum. However, Military Command decided that its triumphant but exhausted soldiers deserved not merely a rest, but that greatest of all rewards for those who serve in combat: a visit home.

  Had Ranji been given the option he would have chosen to stay on Eirrosad. His genuine hesitancy was, however, interpreted as modesty, and together with his friends he was shipped back to peaceful Cossuut. His subtle hints that he be allowed to remain behind were swamped in the flush of congratulations. Realizing that excessive demurral on his part would only eventually attract unwanted attention, he had no choice but to accept the enforced vacation.

  As a Unifer much attention was focused on him. Whenever possible he tried to have his subordinates answer the innumerable questions that were put to the group, with the result that he became more than ever an object of curiosity and interest. In seeking obscurity he found only fame, or at least fame as it was known within the homogenized ethical orbit presided over by the Amplitur.

  Though the cephalopodians had no need of such intangibles themselves, they recognized the importance of maintaining good morale among allied races and did their best, when circumstances were appropriate, to encourage it. Public feting of the victorious was useful. Modest adulation was not discouraged. As for the Amplitur themselves, they ascribed glory to an abstract rather than to individuals.

  Saguio proudly appointed himself guardian of his brother's solitude, shielding him from the queries and attentions of the curious. I wonder if he would be so zealous in my defense, Ranji mused in the privacy of his apartment, if he knew how hard I fought recently to avoid combat. But he was glad of the privacy.

  His self-imposed isolation during the voyage back to Cossuut was interpreted as introspection and suitably respected. After a while even the most persistent left him in peace, allowing Saguio to relax his vigil.

  Ranji used the time to try and prepare himself for the inevitable forthcoming confrontations. Despite his best efforts, however, he was unprepared for the storm of emotions that tore through him when he was greeted at the shuttle disembarkation point by his joyful parents. He was able to maintain control only by lavishing his attention on his little sister, Cynsa, of whose genetic makeup he was relatively certain. As certain as he could be of his own, he reminded himself.

  "Good to have you home, firstborn." As a sign of paternal Ashregan affection his father was rubbing Ranji between the shoulder blades.

  "Yes, son. We worried, and missed."

  Both his mother's warmth and his father's radiant pride struck Ranji as so genuine that for a moment he nearly forgot everything that had happened to him in the previous months. Once more solid reality dissolved into an unsettling speculative mist. Once again his identity fled the realm of verifiable knowledge for distant, uncertain biological shores.

  He found he could not look long in his parents' direction. Not while the great question remained unresolved. Were they innocents or collaborators, empathetic dupes or cold-blooded agents of the Amplitur? How much of what they did and said was of their own volition and how much at the prompting of Amplitur "suggestion"? Was their "love" for him and his siblings anything other than the consequence of "careful calculation? Would he ever know?

  Modern technology could pinpoint the location and dimensions of black holes and quasars, antimatter accretions and Underspace ... but where was love? How did he find it? By intuition, research, simple triangulation, what?

  Cynsa's hugs and laughter provoked no such introspective agonies. At the heart-wrenchingly familiar family compound he played with her incessantly, luxuriating in her
innocence and ignorance. She didn't care who or what she was, only that her beloved elder brother was home for a while.

  But she was growing, developing the same acute reflexes and lanky form as her brothers. Ranji knew that her innocence could not be preserved indefinitely, any more than had his own.

  He'd been home more than a month when the authorities asked him to speak at the commencement exercises for the next group of graduating fighters. It was impossible for him to refuse.

  Now he looked out across a sea of young Ashregan faces. Twice as many as in his original group bore the telltale marks of Amplitur genetic manipulation. He wanted to cry out to them, to hold each and every one close while explicating the appalling details of alien duplicity. Their upturned gazes were focused on him, eager and expectant. The Amplitur had stolen their birthright and crippled their capacity for independent thought. To stand there on the podium and look down at them was almost more than he could bear.

  As his silence persisted murmurs arose from the other speakers and dignitaries seated behind him. His trauma, those in the know explained knowledgeably. It will pass.

  He forced his lips to move and sensed sounds emerging from his throat, but it was as if another person was speaking. He, Ranji-aar, was completely detached. The cool, robotic presentation garnered more approval from the captive audience than it deserved. Any who found it disappointing were too polite to voice their opinions.

  Only recently he had been as young as those now raptly and unquestioningly listening to him. He could pity, but not condemn. The great lie of their condition was not of their choice.

  He had returned to seek truth and dispel lies. Now he saw that this was neither the time nor place to try and depose something half so elusive. They would surely lock him up or worse, seek the advice of an Amplitur "specialist." In the confusion that would invariably result, he would be quietly disappeared.

  Though the knowledge he carried threatened to choke him, somehow he made it to the end of his speech, reciting the prepared text as mechanically as any artificial diaphragm. The prophylactic distance between himself and his audience vanished when he was asked to answer a few questions.

  Had he been blind he still could have told the pure Ashregan in the audience from the modified Humans by the nature and emphasis of their queries. His perception had been altered by experience and revelation. Never again would he mistake an Ashregan for a Human or vice versa. He had become irrevocably attuned to the differences.

  He was careful to reply as an Ashregan, muting the Humanity he had acquired on Omaphil. The audience hall would be a bad place in which to arouse suspicions. It was not without some relief that he allowed himself to slip back into the familiar mannerisms of his childhood, to be nothing more than a young warrior, even a young hero, surrounded by friends and relations.

  Afterward it was impossible to forget the many faces that came up to congratulate or greet him personally, impossible not to see. beyond shining eyes and obscenely swollen cheek ridges to the bastardized DNA beyond. Buried within those coils, at least, was the real truth.

  Raised as Ashregan, they would be sent to slay Humans. Returned to Humanity, they would exert twice the effort to kill the Ashregan who had betrayed them before they were born. That, too, was truth, one he didn't much care for. Even at his young age he had learned that it was not in the nature of truth to be likable.

  Only the fact that confusion nearly outweighed his anger enabled him to keep his emotions in check. While he was certain he could no longer be what he had been, neither did he yet know if he was truly capable of being what he was. Whether out in public or at home with his family he was careful of what he said and how he acted lest it occur to someone that he might be acting "Human."

  As it mounted, the fury he felt only served to further confirm his Humanity.

  New graduates not only replaced his battlegroup's few losses but nearly doubled it in strength. He and his fellow Unifers received this statistic and more during a meeting with senior Ashregan officials. In vain he searched the assembled for the revered figure of his teacher Kouuad. That was an individual he would very much like to have questioned. How much did he know? How ignorant had the venerable, fatherly Kouuad been of his students' biological history?

  Perhaps, Ranji thought, he was not present precisely because he was privy to such knowledge.

  Soratii-eev nudged him. They were being addressed by an officer of considerable reputation and rank.

  "You have rested long enough. The Purpose needs again what only you can give.

  "Your sorties on Eirrosad and Koba have been but preliminaries for what is to come, tests in which you and your troops have succeeded admirably. Having accomplished all that was hoped for you, it is time for you to lead a historic assault against the enemies of reason." Ranji and his friends shuffled expectantly in their seats.

  "What's our target this time?" asked Cossinza-iiv from the corner.

  The speaker yielded the podium to another officer. "Eirrosad and Koba are disputed worlds. It is in such places that the forces of the Purpose and those of the Weave have contested for supremacy for the past hundred years." He paused for emphasis. "Thanks to your recent accomplishments the decision has been made at the highest levels to carry the attack directly to the enemy in a manner not attempted for some time."

  Producing a wand, he used it to generate the image of an alien star system, complete to moons and asteroid belt. An occasional comet sped through the three-dimensiona construction to vanish in odd comers of the room. The attentive listeners ignored such cosmic distractions.

  Sharpening focus, the speaker drew their attention to the fourth world out from the slightly pale sun. It exhibited the familiar single large landmass haloed by clouds and ocean.

  "This is Ulaluable." Since his translator was not programmed to react to proper names the officer had to pronounce it slowly for his audience. "Not a large world nor one particularly rich in natural resources, though it has its share. It occupies an important position beyond what the Weave would refer to as its frontline, if such archaisms had any meaning in space." As he manipulated the wand controls illuminated portions of the projection punctuated his speech.

  "It possesses fewer than the usual complement of islands, a benign climate, many highlands, and modest mountain ranges. There are highly productive farmlands. Since it was first settled Ulaluable has been a significant contributor to the enemy resistance. Naturally it is well defended." Pinpoints of light sprang to life on the planetary surface.

  Birachii squinted at the projection. "Mighty extensive troop distribution for a contested world. Where are our forces concentrated? In the opposite hemisphere?"

  The officer caused the globe projection to rotate a hundred and eighty degrees. The scattering of indicator lights on the other side of the landmass was not significantly different from what they had already observed.

  "Ulaluable is not a contested world." Only after the resultant buzz of startled conversation began to fade did he add, "It is in fact a highly developed, thoroughly civilized world, long ago settled and largely colonized by Wais, though there is also a substantial minority Hivistahm population."

  "Which means there's no way we can carry out a landing there." Cossinza gestured at the rotating globe. "The defenses of a settled world would cut us to bits as soon as we touched down."

  The officer turned to her. "Though Ulaluable is highly developed, its largely agricultural nature and intermittent mountainous topography offer unpopulated expanses where a determined landing force might successfully establish itself before the planetary defenses could muster a reaction. Certainly the population does not expect an attack."

  "With good reason," Soratii noted. "Who makes up the defending garrison?"

  "It is largely Massood, with the usual Hivistahm technical support teams. There are some Humans present but according to the best available intelligence their numbers are small." The speaker regarded his audience earnestly.

  "Much time has
been devoted to the gathering of requisite intelligence. There are many reasons besides its topography why Ulaluable lends itself to unexpected attack. Most of its major power facilities lie exposed in the foothills and mountains. Several important communications centers have been constructed nearby. If these could be overrun before the defenders could bring reinforcements to bear, it would give an invading force not only a tactical advantage but considerable leverage in any subsequent negotiations.

  "One reason why something like this has not previously been attempted is because the usual Ashregan-Crigolit-led strike force could not advance from objective to objective quickly enough to make it viable. The enemy's confidence springs from identical knowledge. Your special teams have demonstrated the ability to attack with speed. With your people in the vanguard our tacticians believe a successful invasion of Ulaluable can be carried out. The local Wais population is of course incapable of offering any resistance." He hesitated.

  "I do not think I need speak of the effect such a defeat would have on Weave morale."

  The initial speaker regarded them solemnly. "If more of your kind were available we would consider attacking an even more important enemy world. Ulaluable was chosen specifically because of its perceived vulnerabilities. We value you all greatly and have no intention of sacrificing you on behalf of a gesture.

  "Because of the unique nature of this expedition participation is not compulsory. No opprobrium will attach to any who choose demurral." Silence greeted his words. Wishing badly to say a great deal, Ranji could only keep still. The elder officer gestured approvingly. "I believed and hoped that would be your response."

  His slightly junior colleague surveyed his expectant audience. "You will have the best backup available. Experienced Ashregan, Crigolit, and Mazvec troops drawn from ' other theaters of conflict will fully support your strikes. We are depending on you to provide speed and decisiveness, not overwhelming firepower.