Songs From The Stars

by Norman Spinrad

  But it could not be denied that those who had walked this Way before had been monsters of evil, black scientists who had destroyed their world. And the Spacers had proven that they were worthy karmic successors to these evil sorcerers of old. They had threatened the stability of Aquaria, halted commerce, and had been readily willing to wreck lives just to bring the two of them together in this configuration of destiny.

  And yet...

  And yet they found each other sweet. And yet Lou believed that Sunshine Sue's heart was good even though she believed in this dream with a burning intensity. More, he found that sweet too; logic could not deny the reality which he felt.

  If she's tainted black, then so must be I, in my heart of hearts, he thought perplexedly.

  "And so that's why I'm willing to deal with the Spacers," Sue said, openly pleading for understanding. "Once they get to their space station, their karma is no longer mine. The World Satellite Broadcasting Network will be as white as the sun that powers it. Where's the black science in using it to bring the scattered tribes of our ruined world back together again? You can see that, can't you, Lou? You'll help me do it, won't you?"

  And he could. And he wanted to. But what would be the cost? How much evil had to be done before her electronic village could be built? Would not the bad karma of the means poison the result? Was this not how black science had once before seduced a world to its doom?

  "I want to believe you, really I do," he said. "But this ship they're building must burn millions of gallons of petroleum to get into space. And what about the energy units to build it? I don't see how you can send a spaceship into outer space without black science, and lots of it."

  Sue looked downward at her breasts. "I didn't say they weren't sorcerers," she said softly.

  "And you didn't say you wouldn't be willing to overlook sorcery to get your world radio network either," Lou said, wincing as the force of truth pulled the words from his lips.

  Sue hesitated, then looked up at him, her eyes suddenly burning with defiance. "No I didn't!" she said. "Maybe we do have to taint our souls with a little sorcery to lift what's left of the human race out of the dust! Fuck it! So be it! Tell me, Lou, what's really more important, the pristine purity of your own soul or the destiny of the world? Neither of us are karmic virgins! If sorcery is what it takes to get a world radio network, then you can paint me black—and proud of the guts it takes to admit it, oh perfect master!"

  A surge of lust poured up Lou's spine as she shamed him with her bravery. Willing to commit her own spirit to a cause that seemed beyond good and evil and willing, too, to accept what karma that would bring her. In her, he saw something that must have gone out of the world long ago, to be rekindled by chance or destiny in a young girl in a Rememberers' hut deep in a darkening forest.

  That in itself smelled of sorcery, and the pride of her courage to brave regions beyond the law wrapped the cloak of dark arts around her like a banner. He knew this, he felt this too, and yet it made him throb with dark desire.

  He touched her on the shoulder and felt electricity shoot through him. Her posture was defiant, her nipples pointed upward in pride. Oh gods, Lou thought, if this creature is evil, then I am lost!

  "But the results of this... this necessary sorcery..." he half stammered. "The poisoning of air and life...? Would you kill what's left of the world to save it?"

  "Will one spaceship trip do more harm than what we let pass through La Mirage just to ease our comfort and pleasure ourselves?" Sue demanded. She peered at him narrowly. "Is out of sight out of mind the true measure of purity, oh favorite perfect master of La Mirage?"

  Now she really had shamed him. For what she was saying was undeniable truth. All Aquaria was tainted with gray if you dared to look with open eyes. People knew it and chose not to know it and tried to walk the path between. And was not that path the Clear Blue Way? Did Sunshine Sue not simply have the courage to admit openly what he hid from himself in the guise of creative ambiguity?

  Yet once this was openly admitted, was not clarity lost? Was the whiteness of Aquaria a lie and the sweetness of its karma hollow? Or could a little necessary evil somehow promote the cause of good?

  "You're making me think strange thoughts, lady," he said, meeting her eyes again. "I've got to admit you make temptation look pretty good. You've got me half believing black is white."

  "Black, white, gray, is that really all that matters?" Sue said. She touched a hand to his cheek and another to his groin. "Fuck it!" she snarled. "What counts is what you feel! And I know what I feel and I can feel you feeling it with me."

  "But we're both flying blind."

  "Then let's have the courage to admit it! Admit one thing, and I'll gladly accept whatever justice you give. Admit that we're riding this karma together."

  Lou's heart skipped a beat. All at once the voice of justice spoke loud and clear within him. They were in this together, for together they had both reached the bounds of their previous moral comprehension to face an unknown void in the hidden region beyond. From where they now stood, neither of them could tell black from white, good from evil, or see with clarity the Way between. If such a Way even existed.

  "You've got me," he said, kissing her lightly on the lips. "Like it or not, we both are in this together."

  She started to kiss him back, but Clear Blue Lou gently restrained her, cupping her face in his hands. She wasn't going to like this; she wasn't going to like it at all. But the necessity was inescapable.

  "What's wrong?" Sue asked nervously.

  "Now justice must speak," Clear Blue Lou said. "And I hope you'll accept it as you've promised. Our current personas have reached a blind alley. There's no clear justice to be seen from where we are now. We've lost the Way, and we can't find it again without being reborn."

  "You're talking about karmic rebirth, aren't you?" Sue snapped angrily, pulling away from him. "You want to fill me full of rex and make my mind over in your own image!

  As far as I'm concerned, that makes you as big a mindfucker as the Spacers!"

  "It has to be done," Lou said defensively. But truth be told, he was hard put to deny the justice of what she said.

  "Fraud! Mindfucker! Bastard!"

  "What if I take the rex, too?" Lou blurted. "What if I lay myself as open to you as you are to me? Am I still a fraud?"

  Sue's eyes widened in astonishment. Her anger melted into amazement. She touched a tender hand to his cheek. "You'd do that?" she said softly. "You'd really do that for me?"

  Lou nodded, for once having said it, he realized that this unprecedented karma had called forth a higher level of justice. As far as he knew, no perfect master had ever taken rex with the subject of karmic rebirth; no perfect master had himself been karmically reborn. But no perfect master had ever been in this moral space before either.

  "Justice demands it," he said. "As you say, we are in this together now."

  Sue's lower lip trembled. She seemed about to say something, then held her words back. She sighed. "You son of a bitch," she said roughly, "If I don't watch myself, you're going to make me fall in love with you."

  The Court of Justice could no longer be called a party by the time she and Lou returned to the Garden of Love, and Sunshine Sue felt immediately in tune with the tired-out, waited-out, downbeat vibes. The casual revelers and good-time people were gone now, the buffet spread was an unholy mess, half-empty glasses and bottles were everywhere, and the miasma of stale wine and old reef smoke and a night's worth of sweat stank of tense weariness.

  All those whose karma would be affected by the giving of justice were still there of course. Exchange merchants and magnates jammed Levan's booth and spilled over into the tables in front of it, still speculating on the fate of the town. Levan himself was now a bone-weary old man staring at the ceiling and trying to stay awake. A dozen members of her own tribe in the far end of the room glowered across at the Eagles, who occupied three booths near Levan's entourage. In the center of the room huddled the l
oathsome Lightnings, given a wide berth by everyone.

  A shrill babble greeted their entrance, and even Levan awoke instantly from his daze. Sue and Lou walked hand-in-hand to the buffet table, every nuance of their appearance the subject of excited conjecture.

  "—holding hands—"

  "—gotten it on—"

  "—knew he couldn't resist—"

  "—Clear Blue sailing—"

  Oh shit, Lou, let's get this over with, Sue thought as conflicting energies roiled nauseatingly inside her. She had saved her tribe and Word of Mouth and tentatively gained an ally and a lover. Just as the Spacer scenario had predicted. Thus far, she had followed it with "nominality," and so had Lou, down to sentencing her to a shared karmic rebirth that had been inevitable all along. Oh Lou, you were right when you said we were both flying blind! But even you don't see the strings that are guiding us.

  As if reading her mood, Clear Blue Lou cleared the crud off a section of the buffet bar with an imperious sweep of his arm and sat himself down on it like a king on his throne above the eye level of the room.

  "Hear my justice," he said. "Gather round, folks, and have your minds relieved." He squeezed Sue's hand, grinned, and pulled her up beside him.

  Everyone crowded toward the buffet bar; even Levan wobbled forward and collapsed in a front-row seat. Only the Lightnings held back, cowering and sullen, at the outer periphery. The babble was brighter now; Lou's voice, his posture of graceful ease, every move he had made, had told the movers and shapers of La Mirage that things were going to be all right. He radiated confidence and Clear Blue vibes. Only Sue knew how clouded justice really was, how much of this had to be art. Only she could fully appreciate his performance.

  "First of all, I find the Lightning Commune guilty of knowingly practicing black science," Lou said. "All commerce in goods of its manufacture is hereby banned. Since the Lightning Commune is banned from all commerce, it can have no legitimate source of sustenance, so it is hereby disbanded. Since the Lightning Commune now no longer exists and I judge its guilt to have been collective, no further action will be taken against its former members."

  This was greeted by a mixture of joy and indignation. The Lightnings had brains enough left to know that they had gotten off lightly, but they were sullenly pissed off at their disbandment. The movers and shapers were mightily relieved at how narrowly Lou had proscribed former Lightning products when he might have banned Lightning-type components generically. They were also a little displeased that the mountain williams had gotten off so lightly, but self-interest kept them from protesting. Sue could not but admire the dynamic balance of this justice.

  "Secondly, I find the Eagle Tribe guilty of uncoolness," Lou continued, and the room broke up into nervous laughter and mock cheering.

  Lou held up his hand for silence and synced into the general mood. "The Eagle Tribe was only being righteously white in denouncing the atomic power cores in the Lightning radios, or so logic must lead us to conclude," he said with ironic pomposity. "However, while I may not be an expert logician, I know what I like, and I don't like bummers. I therefore find the Eagle Tribe guilty of only being righteously white, of following the letter of the law but not its spirit."

  There was a deep murmur of approval at this. North Eagle stared up at Lou with nervous apprehension. Lou grinned back at him sardonically and stroked his chin as if in thought.

  "Now such obnoxious innocence cannot go unpunished," he said. "It seems only appropriate that I redress the balance of creative cynicism. So I hereby decree that the price of solar eagles be cut ten percent for one year, after which the Eagle Tribe will be free to see if they can get away with boosting it back."

  He looked down at North Eagle with pixie eyes. North Eagle sat there gaping, pleased that the Eagles had gotten off with a backhand slap, but counting up his lost profits nonetheless. "I, for one, intend to take advantage of my own justice, and I hereby order a new eagle to be delivered to me in Clear Blue Lou blue at the new low price, and I advise all my friends to take advantage of this special offer."

  He winked at North Eagle. "You may take a loss," he said dryly, "but you'll make it up in the volume."

  At this, everyone broke up, and even North Eagle could only shake his head and mutter "Son of a bitch!"

  "Finally, the Sunshine Tribe and Sunshine Sue," Lou said more solemnly, speaking in a voice of magisterial detachment. Which, however, did little to suppress the sniggers and cynical smiles as he spoke in this tone with Sue's hand still in his.

  Sue could feel the wave of good vibes directed at her by her fellow tribe members and the somewhat more cynical appreciation of the rest for a job of seduction apparently well done.

  "The Sunshine Tribe was in fact caught with a black radio," Lou went on. "But I don't believe they knew what they were buying, so they get the benefit of the doubt. Levan will appoint independent experts to examine all their other equipment for sorcery, and if no more black science is found, the Sunshine Tribe can continue business as usual, except that all new equipment they purchase must be independently certified for a period of five years."

  Sue sat there woodenly while her fellow tribesmen burst into grins of joy and everyone else into down-and-dirty surmise as to who was responsible for this sweet Sunshine outcome and how she had obtained it. There certainly wasn't any disapproval of Clear Blue Lou's openly passionate justice; it was just the sort of thing La Mirage would consider meet and romantic. But Sue didn't like the face it put on Lou.

  But she loved the good humor with which he carried it. "Now we come to the hard part..." he said slowly. "... in more ways than one," he deadpanned. Everyone laughed their appreciation for the way he had easily admitted to the karmic reality, and even Sue couldn't be entirely angry, though she could do without the onslaught of good-natured leers.

  "As you all surmise, certain events have destroyed any pretense of objectivity on my part in the case of Sunshine Sue," Lou went on. "Not that I've ever pretended to objectivity in the first place. Furthermore, thanks to my magnetic personality, the lady herself can't be clear on the nature of her karma in her current incarnation either. Our karma has become entwined, and in order to find final justice, we've got to clear it."

  The room grew quiet, and when Lou spoke again, his voice was deadly serious and his face thoughtful and perhaps artificially composed. "I decree that Sunshine Sue must undergo karmic rebirth under my direction," he said. "She must seek a new level of truth in order to regain the Way."

  Dead silence greeted this announcement. Karmic rebirth was no subject for jest or conjecture, and even La Mirage respected its seriousness. But this being La Mirage, Sue knew that many would question the fitness of a perfect master to direct the karmic rebirth of his own lover. And all at once, she saw the political reason why Lou was ready to take the rex with her. It was in fact the politic thing to do, and it was also truly just. In La Mirage, that amounted to the same thing.

  "But since my karma is involved with hers, I myself will take the rex as well, opening myself to Sunshine Sue as she opens herself to me," Lou said, after his audience had had just enough time to recognize its misgivings as to the purity of his justice. "Every master must dance his own song."

  A gasp, a sigh, then a wave of loving vibes, greeted this unexpected gesture of humility and stunning self-judgment. No perfect master had ever gone through rebirth as an equal before, and that he was doing it with a lover made his justice only sweeter.

  Justice had been given, and as Sunshines and Eagles, merchants and magnates, friends and congratulators, crowded around them, it was abundantly clear that Lou's justice tasted sweet to one and all. The heat was removed, La Mirage would continue on its merry way, eagles were cheaper, and Sunshine Sue and Clear Blue Lou would meet as lovers in the ultimate sacrament of the Way. How could you get more Clear Blue than that? seemed to be the unanimous opinion of the critics.

  But as she stood there holding hands with the perfect master of the Clear Blue Way, Sunshine
Sue began to wonder.

  Clear Blue justice, all right! she thought. But also exactly what the Spacer scenario called for. Harker would be smugly pleased by its nominality. The two of them had played out the scenario perfectly.

  Sue had gone into this knowing she was trapped in the Spacer scenario and hoping that the perfect master of the Clear Blue Way might rescue her free will. Instead, he was trapped in the scenario with her. Because she had chosen to let him be trapped rather than reveal the whole ugly truth: that even his taking of the rex was part of sorcery's scenario.

  She stole a sidelong glance at Lou. Just how Clear Blue really are you, lover?

  New Lamps for Old

  They had arrived by eagles at the rude log cabin perched on a forest-shrouded ledge in the high mountain country near sunset the night before, just as the sun was beginning its descent over the panorama of wooded mountains and bare ochre peaks that fell before them to the west. The world had seemed clean and virginal to Sunshine Sue up here in the high pines, where scattered birdsong had only served as grace notes to punctuate the huge silence. It was as if the Smash, the Spacers, Aquaria, La Mirage, and all the convoluted folds of the human mind lay a million years of evolution in the future. That evening even Sunshine Sue had felt her animal roots, lost in a world that existed in its own primeval now.

  They had eaten a cold meal of bread and dried fruit together in the blaze of sunset, made love under the stars, and fallen asleep in each other's arms. Sue had drifted off almost peacefully, up here in a perfect master's arms, where scenarios and justice and the Clear Blue Way had taken her, beyond the time-bound reality of her human past, ready to face the truth of tomorrow's rebirth with an open heart.

  But she had slept fitfully all night, awakening again and again to stare up into a skyful of high mountain stars, brilliant against the utter darkness, but cold as steel in the shiver of the crystal air. They seemed to be watching her, aware of every move she made, every thought, and discounting her free will beforehand, just like the sorcerers whose emblem they seemed to be. The dream that the Spacers followed shone up there, hard, and brilliant, and cold as diamond. What Arnold Harker saw up there was an endless sweep of infinity that somehow drew him to its cold-hearted immensity, but what Sue saw was a harsh desert of darkness and ice-hard chips of light which she presumed to dare in the service of her own destiny.