A Jungle of Stars

by Jack L. Chalker

  He would have driven women on Earth wild, except for one thing.

  "You didn't regrow the hand!" Koldon exclaimed. "We all thought--"

  Savage gave a slight, wistful smile. "I have reasons for not doing so right now," he said enigmatically. "Later on, in a future trip, I will. But the claw they gave me is still great--slips on and off the stump with no straps needed!" He showed them by twisting slightly and pulling the pincers off. He slipped it back on quickly. "All electronics now," he proclaimed proudly.

  All three of the others thought he was crazy.

  "Where the hell did you get the idea for the new look?" Koldon asked him. "It's certainly distinctive--and it's still you, sort of, but--er--well, straightened out, put in all the right places."

  Savage laughed. "From a cover painting on a paperback of an old pulp hero," he replied. "I'll show you sometime. 'The Man of Bronze.' " He chuckled, then turned serious. "Now you, Jenny," he said brightly.

  "I--I really don't--" she started to say.

  He moved over to her and kissed her. "It's best," he told her. "Go ahead--and don't be scared. It's not like a regular operation."

  The Valiakean stood waiting with passive indifference. Jennifer finally put on a brave front and took the creature's hand.

  Once seated for the examination, the Valiakean took out some notes of some kind. Jenny could hear the paper--or whatever it was--rustle.

  "You have never seen before," it said to her.

  "No," she answered. "Never..."

  "Very well," it replied. "Having looked at your eyes and the neural connectors from the plates we made as you sat here, it looks like a simple matter. However, we will not allow you to see until we take you back into the ship and do it gradually. The connections are delicate and such things must be eased in, both for medical and psychological reasons. Do you also wish cosmetics?"

  "No!" she almost snapped at the Valiakean. "I--I want to see myself the way I've always been."

  "Very well," said the Valiakean in a tone indicating that it couldn't care less--which it couldn't. "I will take you over to the operating area. Just lie down and be comfortable. You will be unconscious for the actual re-encoding."

  Back in the ship they all waited nervously, Savage the worst of all. He kept pacing back and forth, and, despite a very comfortable temperature, was sweating. The air conditioning was hard put to rid the air of his cigarette smoke.

  "Do not worry," Gayal tried to reassure him. "In my time at Haven, I have come in contact with many Terran women. Should she never have met you before, she would nevertheless desire you now," she said. "In fact, I would be honored to be one of your wives myself."

  He looked down at her and smiled. "Don't tempt me," he muttered, and resumed his pacing. "What's taking so long?"

  "It's only been ten minutes," Koldon told him. "What with examinations, interviews, and the like--"

  He stopped. They heard someone in the lock.

  The Valiakean guided Jenny back into the cabin. It pulled out the cot on the bridge and lay her upon it. Her eyes were covered by thick pads, apparently many layers of them, held by a thin band.

  "I wish to do this slowly," the Valiakean told them. "It is better."

  "Take your time," Jenny whispered, trembling slightly.

  They all came as close as they could. The Valiakean turned her head away from them, toward the soft wall lighting, and removed the first small strip from each eye.

  "Tell me when you perceive anything," it told her.

  One by one, very slowly, the extremely thin strips started to come off. About a quarter of the way through the apparently infinite layers, Jenny gasped.

  "It's--it's different! Lighter!" she breathed.

  For the first time in her life, she was perceiving light itself. The Valiakean continued.

  "Very good. Now what do you see?"

  "Little lines--indistinct--running up and down and from side to side," she whispered. "And... a whiteness."

  "Very good," repeated the Valiakean. "That is the bandage."

  He got down to the last thin layer, then removed the one from her left eye, then the right. She blinked.

  The creature held her head looking at the wall. None of the other three breathed.

  "Which of you is her mate?" asked the Valiakean.

  Savage answered, "I am." His voice sounded dry in his throat.

  "Step forward to the cot," it ordered. "The others please stay back."

  Slowly the Valiakean turned her head. Her eyes were closed, Savage saw, and there was intense fear on her face. It was as if she was refusing to see.

  "Open your eyes!" the Valiakean commanded.

  Jenny seemed to steep up her courage, then opened them. They were, Savage saw, a beautiful nut brown.

  She looked at him, her eyes running up and down his form. She was fascinated, almost awestruck.

  "Hello, lover," she whispered.

  He smiled and kissed her. The Valiakean put its hand on his chest and pushed him away with unexpected strength.

  "Will one of the others come forward?" it asked. "Stand beside this one, please."

  Gayal stepped into Jenny's rigidly held field of view.

  "Oh, you're so beautiful!" Jenny said. "That bluish tint makes you look very sexy."

  Gayal laughed. "It is the color of my people. Your people have many colors, I have seen."

  "I'm going to get into this picture," Koldon grumbled, and stepped up to her.

  She knew he looked like a bear from "feeling" him, but she had never seen a bear, and he was a fascinating sight.

  "You will be extremely dizzy until your mind adjusts to using its new tools," the Valiakean warned. "You must practice, and take it in small steps. It will affect your balance, and you will have to get used to judging depth and distance. Take it slowly. Get around with your eyes open as much as possible, but if things begin to blur or pain you, shut them for a while. In a few days you will be acting as if you were born sighted. I will go now. Others require my services."

  It rose and walked quickly out of the room. They heard the lock open and close. There was a hiss and a shudder as the Valiakean ship soared away.

  Nobody said anything for a while.

  Jenny kept twisting her head and looking--just looking. Ceiling, floor, the three others, the furniture--everything was an object of novelty and fascination.

  "Can you bring me a mirror?" she said at last.

  "None around," Savage told her, "but if you come over to the side bulkhead here, it's shiny enough to see a good reflection."

  She got up and took a couple of steps toward him, then almost collapsed. He caught her.

  "Dizzy," she said.

  But she wouldn't be put off. He led her to the floor-to-ceiling shiny bulkhead. She simply stared.

  "Dumpy-looking fat broad," she said at last. "What a couple we make!"

  Savage stood behind her, ready to catch her if she became dizzy.

  "But we fit in the mirror together so well," he pointed out. He kissed her on the neck, and she smiled.

  "There are some things still better done in the dark," she said.

  STEP FIVE

  CHAPTER ONE

  Wade's office looked even worse than the last time, if that were possible. Savage entered and unpiled the junk from the chair so that he could sit down.

  "What's the word, Wade?" he asked.

  The other turned to him and put out the cigar he had been smoking. He immediately lit another. Despite the blowers and ventilation, the place reeked of stogies. Wade took the cigar from his lips, studying it.

  "These have been my greatest pleasure," he said, addressing the cigar as much as Savage. "I shall miss them when I go."

  "You've decided to go through with it, then?" Savage asked.

  Wade nodded. "I've got to. I haven't any idea what The Bromgrev's plot is, but he will have to act soon or he'll lose almost all of his gains. The armies need him--out there, where he can command, coordinate, and control. We know it
's your group, Paul. We just don't know which."

  "Oh," Savage commented offhandedly, "hell, I've known who The Bromgrev was for some time. It was simple, once everything was put in its proper place."

  Wade reacted as if shot. "You knew who he was?" he thundered. "And you didn't tell me?"

  Savage shrugged. "I had to make my own decisions. It's not easy, you know. I never really thought the decision would fall to me. The Bromgrev seems to have known it, though."

  "Sure!" Wade snorted. "He can pick his own time, place, and people! I couldn't!"

  "Until now," Savage responded. "But what good does all this do us? How can you kill him, anyway?"

  Wade pondered long and hard. "It's a difficult decision to tell anyone. It can be used both ways," he pointed out.

  "Meaning that if I'm The Bromgrev, you'd be committing your own murder," Savage commented. "A nice point. You'll have to gamble. For once, you're in the same spot as all the mortals in the galaxy."

  Wade looked both angry and frustrated. "Dammitall! I had to go and build the blocks on you people so thoroughly that The Bromgrev himself couldn't get through without making such cornmeal mush of your insides that he'd get no information!! I really don't have much choice, do I?" he said almost to himself, in a voice much calmer and lower than before. "If you are The Bromgrev, I'm delivering myself into your hands. But if you're not...

  "Hell, Savage, it's a draw. After all these thousands of years, it's still a draw. It'll go on forever unless one of us can knock off the other. I know that--and I think he does, too. That amount of time builds up a lot of hate. I've--Oh, shit. Okay, who is it?"

  "You'll have to tell me how you're going to do it, before I'll tell you who you'll do it to," Savage prodded.

  Wade swallowed hard and told him. "We are creatures of pure energy," he began. "The only obvious way is to disperse that energy over a wide area too quickly for the consciousness to react and get out. And here's how we'll put The Bromgrev where we want him and do what must be done..."

  Savage just nodded at the plan. When Wade finished, the detective said, "It won't be too hard. After all, The Bromgrev requires the same circumstances for his plan. We'll use that." Savage nervously lit a cigarette. "By the way, how'd you know it was my group?"

  "Oh, that was easy. Each group was sent out on a training flight, one at a time. We simply watched the enemy. Oh, he tried hard to pretend The Bromgrev wasn't back, but couldn't avoid betraying it--and acting on some of the information The Bromgrev had. They needed it too badly. During others--nothing. During your flight, bingo!"

  "I'll be damned," Savage commented. "There is one last thing--one last price to be paid."

  Wade smiled. "I think I know it already. You're revenge-motivated, Savage. Go on, say it! It's easy to arrange."

  A dangerous tone rang in Savage's voice and a faraway look came into his eyes.

  "McNally," he whispered.

  ***

  "It is true we're going to attack Rhambda itself?" Koldon asked Savage.

  "That's right," the other replied. "Sort of the reverse of what The Bromgrev had planned for us--and a little retaliation. Look, it makes sense: destroy the home world of the cats and you deprive The Bromgrev of the mass of his best troops--himself."

  "But it's impossible!" Gayal objected. "The Mind's force alone will overtake ships that get close enough to destroy the planet! Remember Exmiril's story?"

  "That's true," agreed Savage, "but if you remember all of Exmiril's story, you'll also remember that the Mind didn't take the Caltik Federation ship. The Bromgrev was on board and was able to block the Mind without any aid. Imagine what could be done if he had cybernetic augmentation such as we use for our command ships. Amplified a million times!"

  "That means The Hunter must lead the attack personally," Koldon pointed out. "Isn't that just what The Bromgrev wants? To get The Hunter out of here?"

  "Calculated risk," Savage explained. "Break Rhambda and you break the army. The Bromgrev goes back to being weaponless once again, and we become masters of our fate once more--at least until the next time something nasty like this comes up. And we'll be together, looking to see that such a weapon never falls into The Bromgrev's hands again."

  "If The Hunter likes it, okay," Koldon gave in.

  "Glad you agree," Savage told them both. "Because we're to crew the command ship with The Hunter on board."

  Both of them gasped.

  "When?" Gayal asked.

  "Tomorrow. We leave at 0600 tomorrow morning. Get some sleep."

  ***

  Savage was making his way back to his quarters when a young Terran woman in the dark black cloth uniform of Haven ground personnel called to him. She was nothing much--the clerical type you never look twice at in the office. Savage remembered seeing her in Food Services, but he didn't know her. She knew him, though.

  "Can you come with me for a few minutes, Mr. Savage?" she asked in a high, kittenish, sexy voice.

  "It's tempting," he smiled, liking his newfound romantic idol status since his shape change. He had turned down a lot of offers.

  "I am The Bromgrev," she whispered.

  He stopped dead in his tracks.

  "Not another one!" he exclaimed.

  She shrugged. "When it suits my purpose. The technique is laborious and quite involved, unless I am in contact with the Rhambdan Mind."

  Other people--human and otherwise--were walking past them in the corridor.

  "This is kind of public, don't you think?" she said, and went over to an office door, which opened automatically. The place was deserted. "I have neutralized all of the snooping devices this time," she told him. "We will not be overhead."

  "What's all this about?" Savage asked her. It was difficult not to think of him as a "her."

  "You've been expecting this," she accused him. "You've been waiting for it."

  "Okay, so I knew you'd talk to me. So?"

  "This attack on Rhambda gives me the conditions that I need," she said. "The Hunter will be in your ship. You must neutralize him, both for Rhambda and for my sake."

  "Neutralize him? How the hell can anyone do that?"

  "Both The Hunter and I are basically electrical in nature," she reminded him. "Call it pure energy. When the attack comes, The Hunter will be tied in to massive amplifiers within the command ship--amplifiers built for the purpose of offsetting anything I can do to stop the attack. I have observed the construction of those amplifiers."

  "So?"

  "I will tell you how to short them out," The Bromgrev said calmly. "Such an action will also produce unconsciousness in The Hunter--for several days, probably. Longer than I will need, certainly."

  "And once I've short-circuited him?"

  "You will take command of the ship and bring him to a world near Rhambda. It's a deserted rock pile on which I have a small base. It was once an observatory for another race, long ago. There we will do what has to be done."

  "And what about the others?" Savage asked. "Unlike you, I respect individuals' lives. I once took one in anger that I had no right to take. I cannot bring myself to take innocent lives again."

  "Their preservation can be arranged," The Bromgrev replied. "In fact, the way to do it is built in, for you well know that everyone is a creature like me. Just make certain that you are not tied in to the system when you short--and that they are. The ship will retain their physical bodies and care for them. Their minds will be locked into the ship's systems, but impotent to do anything about it. They, too, will be unconscious--that's the best word. 'Unable to think' is probably more accurate."

  "So how do I restore them?"

  "When you dock, you will disconnect them from the main amplifier circuitry, as I shall show you. They will then revive none the worse for wear, and what must be done will be done."

  The conversation went on some time more, The Bromgrev sketching the details of how the system would be shorted and restored. When Savage could repeat it back flawlessly, the woman's face showed satisfactio
n.

  "It is finished, then," she said. "Go."

  He left her still sitting in the office, wondering if she would collapse in death as Vard had. Probably not, he thought. She might be useful to The Bromgrev in Haven with The Hunter away.

  ***

  Jenny greeted him with almost too much affection when he returned. He laughed, and picked her up, looking into those beautiful brown eyes. "So what's the occasion?" he asked her.

  "I know there's to be a battle," she said seriously. "We might not see each other again for a long time."

  "Then we must make tonight count, beautiful," he whispered, and they started to do so.

  They made quite a night of it, but Jenny had tears in her eyes as he left the next morning.

  "Please come back," she called after him.

  Later, she heard the speakers throughout Haven announce, "Ship's away!" She had a grim expression as she walked back to the apartment.

  ***

  Ralph Bumgartner sat smugly in the command chair of the big Situation Room in Haven. He was feeling very pleased with himself. In charge of Haven while the boss was away!

  A woman, dressed in black clerical garb, entered the big room and looked around, her eyes finally resting on him. She walked confidently over to where the temporary head of the resistance movement sat.

  He looked up at her and smiled. "What can I do for you, babe?"

  "You can listen," she replied evenly.

  Bumgartner's eyebrows shot up. "What the hell is this?" he asked.

  "You are a most interesting individual, Bumgartner. I've studied you for a while. I am here to offer you a proposition."

  "Any other time I'd say 'Great,' but I'm kind of busy right now," he laughed, and started to turn away from her.

  A very strong grip brought him back around.

  "I am The Bromgrev," she told him.

  "You aren't kidding, are you...?" he said more than asked.

  "No," she replied. "I have need of your services. It is essential that you monitor a series of signals--particular signals--from the battle area, and that you have a ship ready for my use."