“I do not understand this,” Cloud Dancer commented. “Pardon my ignorance, but I must have much of this explained. The evil lord I understand, and his great power, and the use of the talismans to break his power, but—required?”
“Don’t feel bad,” China said. “They just lost me, too.”
“Think about the story,” Hawks urged them. “Master System is incredibly powerful, but it is a computer. A computer designed by humans. All this, all this subjugation of humanity, the reduction of Earth to primitivism, the diaspora that scattered and somewhat dehumanized the vast bulk of humanity, all was simply an interpretation by that computer of its creators’ command. Think about that. Command. It was commanded to find a way so that humanity could never destroy itself completely. It was commanded to find a way so humanity could never use its terrible weapons of mass destruction nor spread them. It was a classic deal-with-a-demon fable. Out of fear, or desperation, or whatever, those people raised a great demon and they offered it absolute power over them and their dominions in exchange for safety. They tried as best they could to build into their wish every safeguard, to close every loophole, but the demon, being a demon, was far too clever for even the most brilliant of mere mortals and found the loopholes anyway. It granted their wish—and took away the souls of their children and grandchildren unto the last generation and swept away all their works. But we’re safe—from everything except the demon.”
“But they must still have suspected or they wouldn’t have created the rings in the first place,” China pointed out.
“Indeed. I think, perhaps, it was simply part of the bargain. The demon, as all great legends have it, must fulfill the wishes as stated. It is compelled to do so. One safeguard was the rings—the magic talismans, as my wife referred to them—and what went with them. A guarantee of some access. The rings must be in human hands—humans with authority. If any are lost or destroyed, duplicates must be made and provided to said leaders. The other part of the bargain must be a guarantee of access. We have a right to go after the rings, to gather them together, and to make our way with them to Master System and use them. A right, guaranteed as part of the bargain—the core program of Master System itself, a core that could not be altered. Another part of the bargain.”
China nodded, and even Cloud Dancer, Reba Koll, and the Chows seemed to get the idea. Sabatini sulked off in a corner in silence, and Silent Woman was as impassive as ever.
“It could scatter them among the stars, because there were now humans out there with authority of sorts,” China said in wonder. “It could try to stamp out all knowledge of the rings and their purpose and use. But it could not violate the basics. It just made it damned near impossible for anybody to actually do it.”
“Perhaps not as impossible as you think,” Raven responded. “We never really thought it was an accident that the data on the rings survived all these centuries, or that it was discovered now. See, there’s a real indication that Master System is gonna radically change people, even on Earth. Wipe out civilization and knowledge, push us back to the start, make us little better than apes with clubs. But, see, that really would make it impossible. Old Master System slipped up. By merely making that decision it forced itself into a vulnerable position. Ten to one it’s pulled back now from doing that, thanks to us, because otherwise it might make a lot more teams like us ‘cause it has to. But before it fully understood what it was doing, we got out—and maybe others. We might not be the only ones who know and got away, you know. We might not even be the only ones Chen arranged for. There’s that ship that was following us, for example.”
That was a sobering thought.
“In the light of first things first, what should we do about that ship?” Hawks asked them.
“Blow ‘em out of the skies,” Reba Koll replied. “You can’t give any quarter in this and expect to succeed.”
“That would solve the problem,” Hawks admitted, “but I don’t see any reason right now to do so. If we must, we must, but I just can’t see any direct purpose to indiscriminate killing. If it was a Val ship, it’s be different, but it’s definitely got humans on board.”
“You got the question wrong, Chief,” Raven interjected. “It’s why is it following us? It can’t take us; but it’s taking a big risk that we’ll take it. If they wanted to join up, they’d have called us by now. If it was Master System, there wouldn’t be people on board for any reason. They’d just get in the way. Figure it’s this Nagy fellow and maybe others from Melchior. They know about the rings thanks to the mindprints they took from you, but they don’t know where to look. We could really use that ship but we have to destroy it or lose it unless they give it to us. They’re just on our tail ‘cause they don’t know where to go and they’re otherwise as lost as we are. I say we try to lose ‘em. Can you shake them, Star Eagle?”
“The problem would be in the energy required for quick punches in and out,” the computer reported. “Yes, I could lose them. It is not that difficult, but it would leave us without punch power for quite some time and exposed while we’re still in the shipping lanes. There is a low, but definite, probability that we might be sensed or sported by Master System.”
Hawks sighed. “All right, then. When we punch out, we’ll give them one chance and a warning. If nothing else, it might reveal just who they are and whether they are acting alone. If we can’t cut a deal and they won’t talk to us, then we will take some sort of drastic action. Before I will kill or expose us to needless risk, though, I would like to know who it is I am killing and why.”
“Ship still back there, Star Eagle?” “Yes. It has dropped back but is still within range.” Hawks sighed. “Open up communications and patch me through, then.”
“Channels are open. You are on the three most common frequencies. I will narrow it when and if they reply. We are exposed in this position although I sense nothing nearby or in range. Even so, I would rather not make broad-band broadcasts. The signals will travel, and it might be one more way of being traced.”
“This is Jon Nighthawk aboard the Thunder to the ship in our wake. Respond, please.”
There was no reply.
“This is Hawks aboard the Thunder. I would rather talk but I cannot risk this sort of broadcast for long, If I receive no response from you I will have no choice but to determine you a hostile ship and order fighters to launch and commence action against you. You have one minute.”
He paused, then said, “Fifty seconds,” and counted down every ten seconds. He was not bluffing, but if he launched he would have to recover those fighters, as well, and that would be needless delay in the middle of a shipping lane. “Ten... nine... eight... seven...”
“All right, damn it! We’re here,” came a gruff male voice through the speakers. “I suppose this was inevitable anyway.”
“You are following us,” Hawks noted, “not the other way around. You must have thought it through—that if you were close enough to keep us on your sensors the reverse was also true.”
“We assumed nothing of the sort. Who would have believed you could attain mastery of a ship like that in so short a time? Very well, let’s talk. You’re in trouble, and so are we.”
“We are not nearly in the same predicament as you are. If we are all on the same side here, why follow? Why not hail us and join us?”
There was a pause. “Because it would be my death at the least if I were to fall into your hands, and a very unpleasant one, that’s why.”
“I’d know that voice anywhere,” Reba Koll muttered. “That’s Clayben! Shoot him, damn it! Rip his guts out!”
Hawks was startled by the outburst, but ignored it. “I can see your point from the reaction here, Doctor. Captain Koll considers just your existence in my sights to be sufficient grounds to blow you to hell.”
“That is not Captain Koll. Koll’s dead, been dead almost two years now. That is an inhuman, terrifying monstrosity, a horror. It’s the thing that killed Koll and assumed her identity. I should kno
w. I created the damned thing.”
“Stand by,” Hawks said. That uneasy chill he felt only when danger lurked close at hand was creeping into him. He turned and looked at Koll. “Isn’t it about time you explained this, or should I ask him?”
“He told you true,” she admitted unhesitatingly. “At least about the fact I ain’t Koll and that I’m not human and that he’s responsible for it. I kinda object to the horror and monstrosity parts, though. I ain’t such a bad sort. I only kill at all ‘cause he made it so I have to. I got choices, though. I got a conscience. I don’t kill none who don’t deserve it unless it’s them or me. You gotta believe that.”
Hawks felt his throat going dry, and he licked his lips nervously. “We were depending on you to take us someplace safe. If you’re not Koll, then even if the rest of what you say is true, how am I to trust you?”
“‘Cause I got all of Koll’s memories, you idiot! I’m a damned near perfect imitation—absolutely perfect when I wanna be!”
“Doctor? You want to explain all this?”
There was a pause on the radio. “It was a grand experiment,” Clayben said finally. “Melchior, all of it, was devoted to just one ultimate goal: Beating the system. Cheating it. Eventually, hopefully, destroying it. I was taking up the work of my predecessors, that’s all. We—our computers and our experts in security and biology—thought we had a part of the answer. A weapon, as it were, in human form. A being who could beat the system at will. Become anyone it wished. Sail through security ports, passing every test—memory, retinal prints, even blood and tissue samples. Gain the full knowledge of whomever it imitated and therefore have full access to anyplace human beings could go. The first of a race, an army, that would collapse the whole control system. We used the transmuter for the final prototype. It worked, but it worked too well. The—thing—saw no difference between humans and computers. It hated us all. It killed half the station before we found a way to incapacitate it and stabilize it. We could have killed it—absolute incineration or transmutation to gas or energy would have done it—but we could not. It was so close. It almost worked. We kept it—stabilized. In human form. With the chemical compounds we used, it would remain stable for two, three years. Then it would have to have another template, another form. We used prisoners for whom we had no other use.”
“Like Koll.”
“Like Koll. But the next time it—feeds—and changes, there won’t be any compound. No chemicals. It will be free to do it at will. It will kill all of you and absorb your knowledge, your memories. It wants the rings for itself. God will be an insane monster!”
Hawks stared at the frail-looking Reba Koll.
“Bullshit,” she said. “I don’t know what sane is, but I sure as hell ain’t hankerin’ to eat the lot of you. It’s true what he says—right at the start I was nothin’ much but an animal, a killer, but the more people I become, the more memories I got, the more ways I had to behave, the more human, I guess, I got. I got all them memories, all that knowledge up here in my head and all over my body, I guess. I don’t even know how it works. The only thing I don’t have is who I was to start with. Only he knows that. You think I liked killin’ Koll, or the others? I didn’t pick ‘em—he did. Just to keep me alive so he could study and figure out how to make a ton more of me he could control. His own Vals, in spades. I want the rings, sure, but not alone. Nobody should have that power alone, not even me. You need me to get ‘em, Chief. I can go down to them worlds no matter how much they’re monsters there, and I can become one of ‘em and know all the rules right off, and I can waltz right in and take them rings off the fingers or whatever them leaders have. You can’t.”
“I doubt if it will be that easy, even for you,” Clayben replied. “But you see why this is as close as I can approach. You haven’t the power to keep her from me, Hawks, and I would fight to the death before I would allow that.”
Hawks stared at Reba Koll. He had expected to have to make some very tough decisions as the leader but he hadn’t expected something like this at all, and certainly not right off.
“All right, Captain, or whatever you are. You really have the biggest problem. I can’t stop you from killing us all, but you can’t take this ship and run it and you know it. It’s Star Eagle’s ship. But whether you are friend or foe, and whether I have to die, along with others here, making certain our mission fails at the start, depends on you. It’s Clayben—or a shot at the rings. China?”
“The gods who might be, if any, know that I have only hatred and contempt for this man, yet if it is the choice of the rings or him, I will kneel to him and lick his behind before I would throw away the rings.”
“This ain’t fair!” Koll grumped. “I spent ten years dreamin’ of nothin’ but gettin’ that bastard in a position where I could torture him to death real slow. I wouldn’t eat him. I wouldn’t want to be him, and I wouldn’t never be in the position of understanding him. Now you got him and you’re tellin’ me to kiss and make up.”
Hawks was beginning to see the larger picture in all this. He just wished he knew who was drawing it. “It’s why you’re here, Koll, or whatever you are. It’s the reason you’re here and not back on Melchior with Master System in control of it and you. You say you can take anyone. I have no reason to doubt you on that, but can you become a Val? A computer?”
“Of course not, idiot!”
“Master System wouldn’t care how many people you killed. It would study you and analyze you and then melt you down for the final analysis, and it would be perfectly willing to incinerate all life forms on Melchior if it thought it needed to dispose of you. You’re not here by accident. Your name was on Raven’s list. You’re here because you can do what you say—go down and get very close to those who have the rings without penalty. But it’s still a group effort. You think it over. You’re no use to me if you have no self-control.” Hawks turned back to the communications set.
“Clayben, I don’t like you very much, and I don’t trust you at all, but I’m willing to deal you in if you have something to offer me. I can really use that ship of yours, but I don’t require it. Nobody here will shed a tear if I order you blown to bits. You are a problem and a luxury for me. Tell me why I can afford you.”
“My knowledge, my skill, my experience,” the scientist replied. “You have computer people and security people there but not one good experimental scientist. I have aboard this ship the backup copies of all the essentials of two decades plus of research done on Melchior. The data is unique and priceless. It is also coded only to me. Then there is the ship, as you mentioned, and Mr. Nagy’s not inconsiderable background and contacts. He’s been out here before. He knows the freebooters—who can be trusted and who can’t. I don’t think you can afford to pass us up, sir, or I wouldn’t have chased you.”
Hawks turned to the others. “Mute the communications link for a moment, Star Eagle.”
“Muted. We are here far too long, Hawks. We should move.”
“The risk might be worth it. It isn’t the worst we’ve taken and it won’t be the worst we take in the future. Now, listen, all of you. I want to hear it from everyone. Clayben’s right. He has the data we need, and Nagy the contacts. They have a ship we could use that we don’t have to convert from Master System control. Can we trust men like this? No. Their record speaks for itself. They aren’t so much demonic as they are uncaring about human beings or anything except themselves. They’ll be trouble. Raven?”
“Bring ‘em on, Chief. We’ll take care of them if they get out of line. I kinda think they’ll be real cooperative, real team players, until push comes to shove. Besides, it’s a great way to get the ship. If they get nasty later we can always eliminate them.”
Warlock snickered. “We are of Security, Hawks. This is our job and we are good at it. We can handle them.”
“Chows?”
“They are no worse than any of the others we have always faced. If they can do us some good, then it is about time they served someo
ne else,” Chow Dai said. Her twin nodded.
“Cloud Dancer?”
“Whatever you decide I will accept,” she replied. “I am not certain that such evil men can ever be turned to a good purpose, but if we lose to them we deserve it.”
“Star Eagle?”
“By all means let them come aboard. My core defenses are extensive and there is nothing they can do aboard the Thunder without my knowledge. In order for Clayben to use his data he will have to interface with my data banks. Anything he decrypts I will also learn.”
Hawks sighed. “It’s up to you, then, Koll. Think of it this way. For once Clayben will be under our authority rather than we under his. He might try something, but if he does I’ll give him to you, no strings attached. The moment he betrays any one of us, he is yours.”
She seemed to have already made up her mind. “All right—but keep him away from the bridge. Quarantine him. On the ground he’ll be on my turf, as it were, and I think I can handle him if he can handle me. But not here. Not on the Thunder”
“Communications open,” Hawks ordered. “All right, Doctor, you’re invited aboard by unanimous consent, although our one real dissenter here insists that you be kept isolated from the bridge while on this ship. If that is agreeable, approach at moderate speed and prepare for instructions from our pilot. We will punch as soon as we have you securely aboard, so remain in your ship with full life support until we tell you otherwise.”
“Understand. Acknowledge. You won’t regret this.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But you might,” Hawks muttered under his breath.
It took almost an hour to get the Star into an outer hold, but Star Eagle knew his job and was now fully master of the big ship’s systems.
The pilot didn’t hesitate once all was ready, though. The Thunder’s great engines roared into life, raising the massive sonic storm, and within minutes they punched.
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