Mondrian paused in the middle of setting up a playback sequence. “You are wrong, Luther, quite wrong. But that is all irrelevant now. We have to blockade.”
“Travancore?”
“More than that. The whole Talitha system. The only thing that goes in is the next pursuit team.” The screen began to flicker with the preliminary rainbow fringes of a long-distance Mattin Link transmission. “And that’s just the beginning. Nothing comes out.”
“Esro, you re out of your mind. Do you realize what it costs to blockade a stellar system?”
“I know exactly what it costs. It’s more than you think.”
“So why bother? There’s an easier way. I don’t care how tough that Construct is, it can be destroyed if we just pump in enough energy.”
“You’d have to sterilize half the planet.”
“So what? Sterilize the whole damned thing if we have to.”
“And who explains that to the Stellar Group ambassadors?”
“Easy. We blame the Construct. They’re scared out of their minds about it already. Do you think they’re going to question us?”
“I don’t know. I’m not going to find out. Sit down, Luther. I’m not going to argue with you now. I don’t have to, because you hate aliens a lot more than I ever will. Just watch what came in from Travancore — and then see if you don’t agree with me completely about the need for blockade.”
Chapter 29
Skrynol was ready to dim the lights when Mondrian stopped her.
Not this time. If you don’t mind, I want to do something different.”
The lanky Pipe-Rilla clucked disapproval. “I do mind. The agenda is set by the Fropper, not the patient. And recently we have been making very slow progress.”
“Then one extra session won’t matter.” Mondrian had been carrying a narrow black tube, as long as his forearm. He handed it to Skrynol. “I also think this may be relevant to my problem.’
“A recording?” Skrynol glanced around the claustrophobic chamber for an open viewing space. “If it does not involve you, it has no value.”
“It is of me, and of one other. I want you to examine it, and tell me what he was thinking of as we talked. Also, I want to know what / was thinking.”
“Based on visual and aural inputs only? You are a supreme optimist, Commander Mondrian.” But Skrynol was already dimming the lights and setting the recorder to playback mode. To a Pipe-Rilla who was also a Fropper, the challenge was irresistible.
“I must watch this all the way through, Commander. In silence. During the second playing I will integrate my impressions and describe them to you. Before we begin, however, tell me something of the other party.”
“His name is Chancellor Vercingetorix Dalton. He was born and raised on Earth, but in unusual circumstances.”
As the image volume formed, Mondrian described Chan’s background, his odd history and training, and the successful Barchan Simmie hunt. He continued until the image space was completely defined, and Skrynol held up a fleshy forelimb.
“For the moment, that is enough. If I have questions, you can answer them after first viewing.”
She dimmed the lights, and a moment later Mondrian felt the soft touch of electrodes and needle sensors.
“With your permission,” said Skrynol’s voice in the darkness. “Your feelings as you watch may add much to what I can deduce from the recording.”
The projection record began. Esro Mondrian and Chan Dalton were facing diagonally across a table, with Chan apparently sitting in deep shadow. In fact, Mondrian had been at Anabasis Headquarters on Ceres, while Dalton was linking in from S’kat’lan, eighteen lightyears away.
Skrynol watched in silence for twenty minutes. At the end of the recording she sighed. “Ah, that rosy light. I recognize it. Sweet S’kat’lan, world of my dreams! To be there, to be home, instead of here.”
“I am sure Dalton would say exactly the same thing about Earth. Did you get anything?”
“Of course. Wait and see. Never fear, I will tell you what I observe … at the right moment.”
The recording began again.
Esro Mondrian was nodding his head to Chan Dalton. “Congratulations on a great effort on Barchan. You did it in record time, and you didn’t harm a single Shellback.”
(“There is already concealment,” said Skrynol. “On your part. You are thinking, What a change in so short a time. Dalton grew up. But he is tense, taut as a Link-line. 1 must be careful!”)
Mondrian, sitting in the dark, wondered at the wisdom of his decision to show the recording to Skrynol. His pretended interest in his own thoughts had been intended only to persuade Skrynol to offer her insights on Dalton’s thinking. Now it was too late to say that he had changed his mind.
Chan had been placed in a room designed by Mondrian. It was based on tens of thousands of psychological profiles. Humans unsure of themselves usually took the seat nearest the wall, or remained standing. Not Chan. He was sitting in the controlling seat, the chair from which his comments could be made most forcibly.
“Thank you,” he said. “But your congratulations should go to the whole team. It was a combined effort, and I give you thanks on behalf of all four members.”
(“He guards some secret — and he thinks, “Mondrian can see right through me. I think he knows about Barchan. But how can he?’”)
Mondrian’s face on the recording was white and weary, and his eyes unnaturally bright. “I wish I had better news for you, Chan, after all your efforts on Barchan. But I’m afraid I don’t. I have to give you some very bad news.” (“Great fatigue! But that is obvious, without the services of a Fropper. You were thinking: ‘Dalton’s response is wrong. I tell him there is bad news. He tightens, then a second later he is relaxed again. What’s on his mind? He has become unreadable. Who does he remind me of?’ I can of course answer that for you. Chan Dalton reminds you — and me — of Esro Mondrian. Now he is sub-vocalizing: ‘Mondrian can’t know. He wouldn’t put it that way if he did. Keep control. Remember what Tatty said.’ — I feel your own emotional surge at that name — “Work with him, but never let him get an edge. Or he will own you … Angel was right, as usual. No one knows — can know — what happened to the Simmie. Unless the whole thing was a set-up, and everything we did was watched.’”)
On the recording, Chan was at last registering alarm. “Bad news about our team?”
“No. Bad news from Travancore.”
“What’s happening there?’
(“His focus has shifted. Now he is truly concerned, and not for discovery of some secret of his own.”) “The planet has been placed in quarantine by the Anabasis,” Mondrian was speaking slowly, carefully. “I am sorry, but there is no way of making what I have to say less painful to you. The Morgan Construct on Travancore is even more dangerous than we realized. Team Alpha has been destroyed.”
(“He is losing self-control.”)
“Leah? — ”
“Leah is dead. All the team members are dead.”
Chan shivered. He closed his eyes, leaned forward, and placed his hands on his face. “Tell me everything.”
(“And you have control of him — the control that you were seeking. But you are also afraid at this point of the recording. Fatigue is lessening your concentration, when it is most important to retain your dominance.)
“I will tell you what I know.” Mondrian was speaking again. “It is not much. We obtained only limited information after Team Alpha descended to the planet. We know that they decided to explore the shafts that lead down through the vegetation to the true surface. We believe that they encountered Nimrod — the name they gave the Morgan Construct. It is not clear if that name is used by the Construct itself, or given to it by the pursuit team on Travancore. We suspect the former. We believe that the team, contrary to instructions, made the great mistake of attempting communications with the Construct after contact, rather than at once destroying it.”
(“Another reaction from Dalton. Your
words have made him think of some action of his own. I cannot say what.”)
“That was a fatal mistake,” went on Mondrian. “Nimrod is supremely dangerous. The monitoring equipment on the orbital survey vessel obtained one brief sequence involving the Construct. After that there was nothing. No video, no audio, no telemetry of vital signs for any team member. The team members were … gone.”
(“You have lost him. He no longer listens to you. He is reacting to the earlier news, sub-vocalizing again: ‘Leah dead. Dead, dead, dead … they could not bear to kill the Construct, as we could not bear to kill the Simmie. It’s still living by Dreamsea. But this is different, Nimrod is more dangerous than the Simmie could ever be . … Was it painless and quick, or slow agony? Did she think of me, ever, the way I think of her?’ Dalton doubts that his own team can ever destroy Nimrod, if Team Alpha failed. You talk to him still, but now he hardly listens.”)
“You did not know this,” Mondrian was continuing, “because we thought it might do you more harm than good. But now you must know. Livia Morgan had planned to build other capabilities into her later Constructs. She did it, we think, in Nimrod. That Construct can generate a field which disturbs the perception of wholly organic brains. It can induce images, thoughts, even words. The Construct itself is not affected.”
(“You are lying to him,” said Skrynol softly. “Even though you are exhausted. That I know, but I do not know why.”
“I was thinking something different, something that I did not want him to know. I was thinking, Luther Brachis is bull-headed, but he is right. He says, forget the idea of chasing the Construct. Lay waste the whole planet, the whole stellar system if we have to. Blame the Construct for it, and to hell with the worries of the Stellar Group.”
“No.” Skrynol had stopped the recording. “That may indeed be the view that Brachis holds, but it has little relevance to this. You were lying for other reasons. I will return to them later. For the moment …”)
The recording began again.
“What could the field do,” Chan was asking. “Make us unable to move, or unable to think?”
“Not in its original design. The field was supposed only to aid a Construct in escaping from danger, by inducing delusions in organic brains. A living creature would see things that were not there, or imagine situations not based, in reality. It is a form of telepathy. While those false images endured, the Construct would move out of danger. But now we see Nimrod using it as an offensive weapon.”
“Is there a defense against it?”
“There is no defense … except flight.”
(“He is strengthening. You no longer control him. He is saying to himself, ‘Flight, never. It will be attack. Vengeance, for Leah. I will go to Travancore and kill the thing that killed her. Without delay, without argument, without mercy — no matter what the other team members want to do.”) The recording suddenly stopped. Mondrian felt Skrynol’s soft touch on his chest.
“Which, of course, is exactly what you wanted him to say. Dalton was to make that decision, to kill (you see, Mondrian, how easily I say that word, Kill! I am truly insane). He decided to kill, and swiftly. Decided for himself, without ever being told to do so. That is why you brought the recording — to see if Dalton had really been moved as you wanted him moved. We both know that actions taken from internal conviction are far better motivated than any external commands.”
There was a strange tremble in Skrynol’s limb. The Pipe-Rilla was laughing. “Ah, Esro Mondrian, human audacity — your audacity — is as boundless as it is unjustified. To think that you might conceal such simple motives as these from your own Fropper!
“But now” — more electrodes came snaking out of the darkness, to attach themselves to Mondrian — “now we will begin. We will change focus to a more profitable subject. Let us study on that recording not the simple emotions of Chancellor Dalton … but the wondrously more complex ones of Commander Esro Mondrian.”
Chapter 30
Travancore from five thousand kilometers: it was even better than Travancore from half a million. A dream world, a soft-edged emerald ball, colors muted by a deep atmosphere, outlines touched with a misty impressionist palette. Peaceful. Beautiful.
Dangerous.
In Chan’s opinion, if no one else’s.
He stared down at the endless jungle and wondered what it would take to shake the Lotos-eater calm of the rest of the team. The closer they came to the planet, the more their enthusiasm grew. With S’greela saying that Travancore reminded her of the best Pipe-Rilla abstract paintings, while Shikari babbled of misty mornings on Mercantor, how would Chan ever ruffle that complacency?
They referred to him as the junior member of team. S’greela was ninety Earth-years old, and Angel much more than that; but in some ways they were the innocent babies, and he was the wary oldster.
He turned to the other three. They were preparing to enter the landing capsule — the final step before leaving the massive safety of the Q-ship and beginning the spiralling descent to the planet. “What are your impressions after a closer look?”
“Magnificent!” S’greela spoke first, her voice bubbling with enthusiasm. “This is a beautiful world. We are looking forward to seeing it more closely.”
“Don’t judge by what you see. Team Alpha was destroyed down there.”
The other three exchanged looks — smug looks, Chan felt sure of it. They had not been devastated by the news of the first pursuit team’s fate, as he had. He still found that news hard to believe, still expected to see Leah’s face on the communication channel, still wondered when he would hear her voice again.
“We have to be very careful,” he said. “If we’re not, the same thing can happen to us.”
“But it will not happen to us,” said Shikari. “It cannot. For although we are sure that Team Alpha was composed of beings of exceptional talent and intelligence, they could not have made a complete team, as we are a team.”
And there you had it. Nothing that Chan said could influence the opinions of the other three. They had moved in a few days from nervous diffidence to an unshakable conviction that together they would face any situation — and win!
There had been progress, even Chan admitted that. In communication with each other they were reaching the point where he could read the messages in a single wave of Angel’s side fronds, a ripple in Shikari’s base, or one head movement from S’greela. But what the others didn’t know about was Leah’s message to Chan. She too had spoken of an extraordinary level of communication achieved by Team Alpha. Yet her team had failed, disastrously. Chan had other problems that he had so far not mentioned to the other three. He was having blackout periods, times when he could not recall afterwards where he had been or what he had been doing. The attacks came without warning and lasted anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. So far they seemed to have hit only in leisure spells, when he was relaxing with the other team members. But suppose that one came along at a more critical time — even during their possible clash with Nimrod?.
Chan had sent a message to Kubo Flammarion over the Link connection from the Q-ship. Might he be feeling an after-effect of the Stimulator? Flammarion’s reply was no comfort. No one knew enough about the Tolkov Stimulator to predict the side-effects of a successful treatment on humans.
Ought the others to be told what was happening to Chan? At the very least it might knock a hole in their wall of self-confidence. They were staring down at the approaching orb of Travancore with the cheerful curiosity of vacationing visitors.
He gave it one more try. “That’s not Barchan down there, and a Simmie Artefact isn’t a Morgan Construct. The Construct is smarter, better-armed, and murderous. I know we handled the Simulacrum, but this job will be ten times harder.”
“And we are a hundred times more of a unit than we were then,” replied S’greela. “Chan, it is normally the role of a Pipe-Rilla to be the principal worrier in a group. But now I feel totally at ease. We have become — a team!�
��
That was the end of it. They would not budge. They imagined the destruction of Nimrod, if they bothered to think of it at all, as some brief, painless encounter. Maybe an actual video scene, showing the first pursuit team as it was blasted or burned to extinction, would have made them think differently. Chan hated the idea of viewing that murderous meeting, yet he would have endured it, if its showing could drag the other team members to some understanding of their coming danger.
But that was not an option. All the sounds and images from Team Alpha’s descent to Travancore were tucked away in Angels capacious memory, available for recall and analysis in moments — except that the encounter itself was not there. The final video in the Anabasis files showed Nimrod drifting down the shaft toward the waiting team. It did not appear belligerent, or even particularly powerful.
The fight that had followed was not shown. The transmission equipment must have been destroyed with the team itself. But the disaster on Cobweb Station had proved that the Construct was anything but peaceful, and now it had more battle experience. On Travancore it must have destroyed the first pursuit team in a fraction of a second.
That, at least, was Chan’s own preferred version of the event. He could not bear the idea of the team members — of Leah — lingering on horribly wounded beneath that thatch of vegetation for hours or days.
The Team Alpha recording served one other possible purpose. It indicated the location of Nimrod, during at least the brief period of time of the encounter. When Shikari performed a muon survey from orbit, a nearby site at Travancore’s equator seemed to Chan’s eyes slightly brighter on the images. But there were half a dozen other candidates, and he could not decide among them.
“What do you think, Angel?” Chan indicated his favored bright spot. “Isn’t that the point where we are most likely to find Nimrod?”
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