Songs From The Stars

by Norman Spinrad

  "And I suppose the Spacers forced you to accept their gifts too?" Lou snapped. "They forced you to start trafficking in black science, is that what you expect me to believe?"

  "Aw..."

  "Everybody does it..."

  "But not everybody gets caught, is that it?"

  Both of the mountain william men hung their heads and stared at the floor. It seemed to Lou that they were finally coming to realize that they had brought their current bad karma upon themselves. They had played with sorcery and they had lost. They might have been mindfucked into it by the Spacers, but it was their own greed that had allowed it to happen. The Lightning Commune had proven its own karmic unworthiness. It would be better if they could admit it to themselves.

  "What—what are you going to do with us?" Nate asked, looking up at Lou with pleading eyes.

  Lou pondered his answer long and hard. Obviously, the Lightnings had to be disbanded. But the purpose was to cleanse, not to punish, and he would do well to remember that. If these Williams were now ready to serve justice, perhaps justice might be able to serve them.

  "That depends on you," he finally said. "Your tribe must be disbanded. The Lightning Commune's collective karma has become so thoroughly blackened that no one will ever dare do business with you again, even if I were to permit it. That much justice you've given yourselves already."

  He paused, hardened his eyes, and spoke more slowly, chewing over each word as he said it for effect. "However, personal justice for each of you is something I must decide. You could each be exiled from the towns of men forever... you could each be karmically reborn... you could be required to work off restitution debt for the rest of your lives... Or you could give me a reason to be merciful..."

  Nate and Buckeye's ears pricked up at this. Poor bastards! Lou found himself thinking. True justice was going to be hard to find in any of this. The Lightnings. Sunshine Sue. The Eagles. All of them had been led to blacken their karma, but the real villains were the Spacers, and those fuckers were beyond his grasp. Absolute justice demanded that he judge them, and that was impossible. The whole process, therefore, was beginning to seem a little hollow.

  "You must choose to stop serving the Spacers and serve justice," he told them. "Justice not for yourselves but for those whose karma you have blackened. You must tell me the truth: did Sunshine Sue or any of her tribe know that the radios you sold them were black, or was that a lie that the Spacers ordered you to tell?"

  Nate and Buckeye exchanged fearful glances, which alone was enough to tell Lou what he wanted to know. Levan's instincts had been right—Sunshine Sue had been set up. By the Lightnings, and the Eagles, and the sorcerers whose pawns they were.

  "And if we tell you...?" Buckeye said in a bargaining tone of voice.

  You've already told me, asshole! Lou thought. But I won't rob you of the chance to choose your own fate. "I'm not bargaining with you," he said. "I'm asking you to serve justice of your own free will."

  "Aw... shit, all right," Nate said. "Truth is, we don't know. Yeah, the demons told us to say we told Sue about the atomic power cores. No, we didn't really tell her—"

  "But that don't mean she didn't know!" Buckeye said belligerently. "Them Sunshines know as much about radio circuitry as we do by now; they coulda known! That Sunshine Sue's so black she'd sure as shit not care if she did know!"

  "But you do admit you told the Spacers' lie for them?"

  "Theirs is the power," Nate said, hanging his head.

  "Over your tribe," Lou said, "not over each of you, not anymore. Your tribe existed only to serve the demons. Now I disband it, and you will all be scattered, each to follow his own personal Way and make of it what you will. Do try to walk a little more carefully from here on in."

  The mountain williams regarded this with sullen acceptance, an inevitable bitter morsel which must be swallowed. Justice did not yet taste sweet to them. Lou hoped that some day it would. He hated justice forced upon the unwilling; if it tasted sour to those who received it, it could not taste sweet to him.

  And how much more bitter food for the soul would he have to hand out before this skein of evil could be unraveled? What will my karma taste like after justice is finally given for all? he wondered.

  "Here he is now," Levan said, and Sunshine Sue followed his line of vision to the stairs leading to the upper floor.

  Six glum and unsavory Lightnings were slinking down the stairs trying to look invisible. Behind them was a spare man of medium height in a blue flying suit. Long brown hair fell in well-groomed waves to his shoulders, his mobile mouth was twisted in an ironic smile, and his big green eyes radiated a deceptively tranquil power, hooded, held back. Every eye in the room tracked him as he descended, but he didn't seem to acknowledge this tense and rapt attention. Or perhaps more accurately, he refused to let anyone see him acknowledging it.

  So that's Clear Blue Lou! Sue thought as she watched him make his way toward their booth in a bubble of private body space. He didn't use this aura to brush off the people who crowded around him, but he didn't let his way become impeded either. Formidable without being arrogant. The cock of the walk so sure of himself that he could play against it. Sue could not help pondering how this would manifest itself in the bedchamber, and she was forced to admit that the fucking scenario still seemed to be working "nominally." The fucking scenario indeed!

  "I have a feeling you've made up your mind about the Lightning Commune," Levan said when Clear Blue Lou reached the booth.

  "I'll speak my justice on the Lightnings when I give justice for all," Clear Blue Lou said loftily, sliding into a chair opposite Sue.

  And just when Sue had begun to discount her first impression and decide he was a pompous ass, he turned those big green eyes on her, beamed her a look complexed with promise and danger, and said, "And how can I speak justice for all until I get to the bottom of you, Sunshine Sue?"

  Did he mean that the way I think he means it? Sue thought. The way he looked her up and down seemed to leave little doubt. "And you're a man used to delving the depths of whomever you want to, Clear Blue Lou?" she said dryly.

  "I don't usually have any problems."

  Sue slowly and deliberately stripped him with her eyes. "I'll bet you don't," she said somewhat snidely. But he had her playing his game already, or at least so he thought. A few double entendres, a zap with those eyes, the karma of the moment, and the bastard assumes I'm going to get it on with him already. That they both knew she was going to make him fight for it only added to the instant sexual tension and made the outcome that much more inevitable. And perhaps that much more tasty.

  Levan grinned knowingly. "I knew you two would get along," he said smugly. The old shrewdie had them in the bedchamber together already. Indeed, he probably thought he had set it up himself, so thoroughly did it suit his own purposes.

  "What do you mean by that?" Clear Blue Lou said archly. "The lady and I don't even know each other."

  "But I know both of you quite well," Levan said with a leer.

  "What is this, a public flesh market?" Sue snapped. "What am I, a fancy dancer auditioning for hire?"

  Lou wagged a finger of mock admonishment at Levan.

  "You're a dirty old man," he said. "Do you dare to suggest I could be persuaded to get it on with someone I'm supposed to judge?"

  Levan just snorted.

  "And are you suggesting I'm so corrupt as to offer my admittedly irresistible favors to a giver of justice?" Sue said, joining in the game of mock outrage.

  Clear Blue Lou smiled ruefully at her. With her. He shrugged, cocking his head toward Levan. "A dirty old man," he said. "He assumes I'm as horny as he is."

  "For sure," Sue said. "Imagine him thinking I'd get it on with someone like you."

  Zingo! Lou's eyes widened. Oh really? they seemed to say. Skies above, what a game this is turning out to be! Sue thought.

  "I mean, a perfect master and a giver of justice," she drawled, running her tongue over her lips. "An unattainable
paragon of detachment and righteousness. Why I'll bet you're under a vow of celibacy for the duration."

  Levan coughed on his reef. Lou, too, came close to breaking up. "At last a woman who understands me," he said dryly. Their eyes met and held. Perfect or not, he was surely a master of something.

  "As I hope you'll come to understand me," Sue said, cutting through the play with an unwavering stare that in itself raised the game to yet a higher level.

  Lou's voice hardened, his mouth tightened, and his eyes seemed to suddenly stare right through her. "I think we're beginning to understand each other already," he said. "Shall we mingle a little and discuss it?"

  And damn it, her body began to tingle with anticipation as he took her hand, bowed ironically to Levan, and led her away from the booth. So this is what a perfect master is like as a man! It hadn't taken Clear Blue Lou long to get to her on levels where she didn't even know she had levels. The bastard knew all too well what a tasty morsel he was. He knew what the game was before she could even start playing, and he had let her know he was accepting her invitation to duel.

  You think you're so good do you? she swore to herself. I'll show you! I'll show you a game that will leave you gasping for air and wondering what happened.

  But she had a feeling that was exactly what he had in mind.

  And where is the Clear Blue Way here? Clear Blue Lou wondered as he handed Sunshine Sue a glass of wine, clinked it with his own, and watched her eyes watching him watching her over the lips of their glasses.

  Small but generously fleshed, almost muscular, she pulsed with sexuality, at least on his wavelength, and he knew that his mind could not hope to judge her clearly until they had cleared these sexual vibes in the only way possible. Which was to say that both wisdom and foolishness told him that he absolutely had to bed her. And he could tell she felt the same way about him; a woman after his own heart, she had made that clear up front.

  But there was something more, something darker. True, there was good pragmatic reason for her to want to make political love to him, and there was too much measuring in those deep brown eyes for him to believe she was hot for the natural man alone.

  Yet Sunshine Sue burned. That sweet little face under those deceptively angelic blond curls flamed with an intensity that was almost unwholesome. There was certainly nothing pure and simple in her vibes. She burned with some inner passion, breathtaking in its intensity, that cloaked her in tantalizing danger. Lou wasn't so far gone that he supposed this was mere mad lust for him, but he was certainly far gone enough for it to inflame his desire with an illusive energy he had never quite experienced before.

  "Well, are you or are you not a sorceress?" he said. 'That's the essential question, and I don't know how I'm going to decide."

  "Oh don't you?" she said evenly.

  "You have a suggestion?" Lou said. What he wanted to say was let's get it on and get it over with. Why were they locked into this crotch-teasing game? And why was this game turning him on?

  "Don't you?" she said, turning the screw a little tighter. If this went on much longer, he was liable to grab her right here.

  "Should I?"

  "Well, since you've already shared your cloud chamber with an Eagle, two Sunshines, four mountain william girls, and who knows what else, I assumed you had a healthy lust for naked justice," Sunshine Sue said, deliberately projecting her voice and creating an instant audience.

  "So you think my justice can be bought in the bedchamber?" Lou shot back.

  "Oh no, I just think you're a natural man. A fair man who believes in tasting fully of all points of view."

  What's she doing? Lou wondered. What am I doing? What's going on? They were crowded up against the buffet bar, and about three dozen people were doing a bad job of pretending they weren't listening to this.

  "And you want an opportunity to get yours in more fully?"

  "Don't you?" she said.

  Lou could hear choked-back laughter over his shoulder and see two astrologers sputtering in their drinks. What was she doing? Challenging his manhood publicly? Daring him to make a public display of bedding her?

  As he had with Carrie and Laurie? And Little Mary Sunshine? Ooh, so that's it! he realized. She's letting the world know this is a karmic fuck. She's betting her destiny on it, right out in the open.

  What a woman! he thought lustfully. And what a subtle game she's playing, he realized more clearly. You're a perfect master yourself, Sunshine Sue!

  He leaned closer and touched her lightly under the chin. "This is getting a little too personal," he whispered. "Or not personal enough."

  "Shall we go upstairs and get personal in private?" she suggested, touching her upper teeth with the tip of her tongue.

  Not quite yet, lady, Lou decided. You're not gonna get me just the way you want me. "What I had in mind," he said for the benefit of the eavesdroppers, "is you and me just go outside and have a little talk."

  Sue sniffed up her nose at him, another exaggerated public gesture. "And here I thought you were such a natural man," she said to all and sundry. "And all you want to do is talk."

  At this, the onlookers could not keep from breaking into audible moans, and everyone turned pointedly away, some of them shaking their heads in rueful appreciation of the knot she had tied him into. If they didn't get it on, he would not only have publicly refused to pick up her gauntlet, he could stand accused of shallow justice. And now, when they did get it on, as they both knew bloody well they were going to, there was no way that what went on between them in private could be kept out of the public giving of justice.

  Just like that, she had him—by the Way and by his balls. If she was an evil sorceress, she sure was good at it!

  But perversely, Lou found himself enjoying every minute of it. It had been a long time since anyone had been able to play with him on this level. Whatever her true color turned out to be, no one could say she was innocent.

  Outside the Court of Justice, alone in the quiet darkness of Market Circle Park with him, Sunshine Sue began to get a little wary of Clear Blue Lou. No audience to play to now, she thought as they walked down a deserted path under a thick canopy of night-dark trees, just the two of us, one-on-one. And this was no mere teasing little sex game to end in laughing sport. Everything was at stake here. They would not sport together, and what they would make would certainly not be pure enough to be called love.

  She had to bear in mind that this was not merely a quick-witted and attractive man, but a perfect master; even the Queen of Word of Mouth could not assume she was his match. Might he not penetrate her inner being and see the true color of what lay within?

  And isn't that black? she thought. Aren't I an agent of black science at this very moment? Won't I be following a sorcerer's scenario even as we fuck? And am I really doing all this so unwillingly? Haven't I already decided that a World Broadcast Network is worth selling my soul for without even being aware of when it happened?

  And if he finds that out...

  Lou came to a halt beside a big tree, leaned one hand up against the rough bark, struck an insouciant pose, and challenged her with his eyes. "Now that we're alone..." he said.

  Sue leaned her face close to his, their lips not quite touching. Slowly, she opened her mouth, rolled her tongue, closed her eyes, and made him come to her.

  Their lips came together in a sudden release of tension, and Sue poured her tongue into the depths of him, throbbing in the groin and quaking in the knees but determined to make him respond to her. After a moment of this, he returned measure for measure, and the kiss became a delectable and at the same time rankling contest of wills, each trying to arouse the other, and each succeeding royally.

  Sue pressed her body against him, and they moved together liquidly, thigh on thigh, until they both moaned. She pushed him back up against the tree and pressed her mouth to his ear.

  "Right here, right now," she whispered. "I'm game if you are."

  Slowly he pried her away and held her under
the armpits at arm's length, his thumbs resting on the sides of her breasts. "What about our little talk?" he said.

  "At a time like this?"

  "Especially at a time like this. I think you think you have me thinking with my cock."

  "Don't I?" she teased, slowly running a finger up the vee of his flying suit.

  He laughed. "Don't get me wrong, I'm yours to command," he sighed ironically. "Except when it comes to the giving of justice. Just so we understand each other. I do know what you're doing."

  "Oh you do, do you?" Sue shot back. But it was false bravado, for he had sent a sudden tremor of fear through her. How deep did that go? Could he taste the sorcery that tainted her soul? Could she keep that back from him when their bodies were one? So much of her being was involved, and her body was already not exactly under her control.

  "I think so," he said. "And I think we're both enjoying it. No reason why justice can't be down and dirty. Just don't think he can be bought."

  "I don't," Sue said, realizing that now she meant it truthfully. "But I'm hoping he likes what I'm giving away."

  Lou kissed her teasingly on the lips. "I wouldn't like it half so much if I really believed you were giving it away," he said dryly.

  "Back to your famous cloud chamber at the Garden of Love?" Sue said, touching a finger to his nose. "Or would you rather keep it a secret and have me right here on the ground?"

  He laughed and pressed a mocking kiss into her palm. "I'm not much for outdoor sport," he said. "Let's go back to my quarters in the La Mirage Grande, where nobody will know for sure. Or do you insist on a public fanfare?"

  "What's between you and me is between you and me," Sue said, taking his arm. Besides, she thought, I've already had the public fanfare. Still, she was certain that whatever happened between the two of them would not be something entirely encompassable by Arnold Harker's personality profiles and scenarios.

  Everything really was coming down to one-on-one between herself and Clear Blue Lou. Therein lay both hope and danger.