THE NEXT SEVEN MONTHS WAS A PERIOD OF
ADJUSTMENT and personal compromise for all concerned, but somehow
the new crew settled into a group marriage of convenience,
tolerance, and, in some cases, friendship and mutual respect. The
difficulty did not stem only from the alienness of the colonists,
though, but also from the freebooters’ starting attitudes
toward the original group. It was clear that the vast majority of
newcomers still didn’t really believe that the rebels’
scheme could succeed.
Hawks once again demonstrated his leadership skills by forming a
council of captains and treating them with respect. Each captain
was still absolute master of his or her own ship, but each was
under the command of what they had come to consider an
admiral—one who commands not a ship but a fleet. And that one
was Hawks.
In fact, the hardest thing for the freebooters to accept was
Star Eagle’s existence at all, let alone as an equal captain
among them. All their lives had been spent hating machines that
could think on their own. No matter how different they looked, no
matter what languages they thought in or what they liked to eat or
how they liked to live, all of them, even the alien engineer, were
living creatures born of other living creatures. To them, Star
Eagle seemed a member of the true alien race, the one they were
fighting, and it was very difficult for them to trust him.
Star Eagle had certainly done his best for them. Maintenance had
created more elaborate cargo access ports fitted with air locks and
tubes directly into the ships that had to be carried outside, and
hoped to have real pressurization throughout the ship as needed,
even in the cargo bays themselves, within another month.
The interior village was still badly in need of work, but it had
been expanded enough and customized enough to satisfy most of the
needs of those on board who required more than Earth-human
conditions. Savaphoong continued to live on his luxurious yacht
with its transmuter producing luxury goods as needed and human
slaves to wait on him and his subordinates; this arrangement
actually made everyone more comfortable.
Each crew was given an area of the interior shell, along with
working offices in the surrounding middle region, designed as much
to their specifications as practicality and space and data banks
allowed. Ikira Sukotae, for example, actually had a dwelling within
a very dark and grass-covered mound with little or no lighting,
although somehow in there was a miniaturized vaporizer toilet and
running water and much else. Her amphibian crewmember had a hut
with a chamber in which fresh water sufficient to cover her body
was available along with air. The centauroids preferred just a
patch of ground with specially designed water supply and waste
disposal; they didn’t care a bit for privacy.
The others, even the Rock Man, found that the normal hut could
be configured to their needs. The green owlish couple, for example,
used things much the same as everyone else but slept standing up.
So, in fact, did the thick-tailed Buta Killomen and the Rock Man,
while Captain Chun and his exoskeletal mates slept wrapped around
pipes or logs. Only the Makkikor proved a problem to accommodate,
since its native environment and needs were so different—even
if it could breathe human air and a lot of other things, as it
turned out—but it preferred to sleep in the niche it had
designed on the Bahakatan and seemed delighted to help
Star Eagle and the maintenance robots with the renovation and
refurbishment of the freebooter ships.
The transmuter at Melchior had made China the way she was, but
Isaac Clayben had figured a mechanical way to help her out at least
in the area of her blindness. Although the program created by his
old staff had been diabolically clever and designed not to be
circumvented, Clayben and Star Eagle had devised a mindprinter
interpretive routine and a gadget that gave her a sort of sight when
she chose to use it. Sound waves, traveling on a frequency that
would not interfere with ship’s systems and was beyond the
ability of any colonials or Earth-humans aboard to hear, were
translated into electrical signals and sent through nerves to her
brain, where the interpretive program operated. Only the Makkikor
could hear the signals; he found the sounds not only pleasant but,
Hawks suspected, somewhat erotic.
Using the device along with the mindprinter program, China could
“see” well enough to distinguish individual objects,
although she could not discern specific features of a person nor,
for example, read print. She still preferred her memorization
routines, which were now so natural that she hardly looked
handicapped getting about, but in an emergency or in a strange
environment, the device might mean life or death, and she
appreciated it.
They had not wasted the time in other ways, either. They hunted
without much success for other remnants of the freebooter culture,
and finally Hawks decided, with the council of captains concurring,
to go after a ring.
By now the newcomers had been told the whole story—what
they were after, what the rings could do, and why the rings had
been created. Two of the crews had visited Chanchuk, and the
Indrus knew Janipur well, since the people of that world
had been created out of the same original race as theirs and had
kept many of the same customs and forms of the ancient Hindu
beliefs. Captain Paschittawal, in fact, had even seen the ring
itself, in the People’s Treasures collection at Cochin
Center, the chief administrator’s headquarters. Apparently,
he reported, the chief administrator rarely wore it, except on
solemn and highly ceremonial occasions.
“It is a beautiful thing, very big,” Captain
Paschittawal told them. “It is kept under a magnifier, in
fact, so that one can see the exquisite detail work. Two beautiful
birds, mirror images, sitting on small fir branches. It is most
treasured because it is one of the every few artifacts that came
with the Founders centuries ago.”
Hawks nodded. “I want you to get together with Raven and
Sabatini and give them as much detail as you can. I believe it is
time we put Sabatini’s unique talents to work for
us.”
The captain’s eyebrows rose. “I have heard you and
the others talk of this, but I do not understand what you mean by
‘unique talents.’ ”
“You won’t believe it until you witness it, but let
me put it this way. You are Hindu, correct?”
“I am, sir.”
“And you believe, then, in reincarnation?”
“Yes, sir, I most firmly do.”
“Let me just say that Captain Sabatini not only can
reincarnate, but can choose just what and who he’s going to
be. And he does not have to die to do it.” Although
somebody else does, he added a bit guiltily to himself.
After a full briefing by the Indrus crew, Hawks met
with his security staff and Sabatini in his own office deep inside
the guts of the Thunder.
“Well,” Raven said with a sigh, “Nagy said
it’d be the easiest, although I ain’t sure I like it if
it is. This thing’s like something in the regional museums of
somebody’s crown jewels. It’s almost a sacred object
because it’s Earth and it’s original. It will be
guarded and not just by people. It’s gonna have one hell of a
nasty security system on it, since a lot of these Hindu folks
believe things like this got magic. That crew said there are all
sorts of legends about the powers of the gods that come with being
the wearer of the thing. This is a heist problem, and who knows
what kind of technology they bought or what the nasty computers of
that Center came up with? And there’s the racial and cultural
thing.”
Hawks nodded, knowing just what Raven meant. “Those we
will face with every problem. We knew that from the start—at
least I did, and I think you did, too, if you wanted to think about
it. It would have been too much to expect that any of the colonials
were recruited from the freebooters would be members of this race.
I consider it a stroke of real fortune that we, at least, had
people here who knew the world and its people. If this is the
easiest, then this is the one we go for just to see if we have a
prayer of getting the others. Sabatini?”
“This is one I think I’m really gonna enjoy,”
the captain said. “I never been anything this different
before. Still, the basics are here. The chief administrator comes
from a small town up against the mountains on the smaller of the
three continents, and he has an estate there and goes home a lot.
He’s one of them types that likes to spend time with the
people—and, of course, I bet he has one hell of an illegal
high-tech lab there someplace, too. We can’t just walk into
the Center—it’s gonna be too well guarded and it
won’t have the kind of conditions I need to be safe and
secure while I—change into something less obvious, shall we
say. I may have to go through a few people to get in there. Maybe
some townspeople, then to servants at the big man’s place,
and from there to somebody with authority and easy access to
Center.”
“That’s understood,” Hawks told him.
“But I don’t think there is any way you are going to be
able to steal that thing all by yourself. If you can, fine, but if
I know a chief administrator, no matter what the race or culture,
there will be no time when you will be able to become him and
particularly not his security chief without being discovered, and I
would wager much, if I had anything, that it takes at least both of
them to disable that alarm system.”
Sabatini nodded. “I understand that. Still, if I get a
crack at it, I’ll try. If not—well, then it’ll
have to go to the experts up here and we’ll cross that bridge
when we come to it. Right now, I’d say the biggest problem is
getting me in—and out, if need be. Master System knows what
we’re after and it’s got to have that place
monitored wall to wall, and we sure as hell aren’t going to
be able to get close enough in to land a transmuter
receiver.”
“I believe I can help there,” Star Eagle broke in.
“It wouldn’t do to bring the Thunder and
expose the fleet at this point—we may need all that power
later on, if only to fight our way back to Earth. I can use a
capsule, however, with a basic life-support system, and stick it in
a preprogrammed fighter. They are fast and expendable. Janipur
might even let you get down if they couldn’t tell where the
fighter came from, if only to follow it back.”
“Uh huh. And how are you gonna get that fighter close
enough to let it get in? You punch anywhere in the area and
they’re gonna know it.”
“I know. If need be, we have ships to spare, but I would
just as soon not spare any people. It will get you in and confound
Master System, I am sure. It will also tell us just what sort of
forces are in the area, so we can plan for the future. We must,
after all, also get you out.”
Raven turned to Sabatini. “You know, if this all goes as
planned, we’re gonna hav’ta figure some new name for
you, and if it’s one like the Indrus crew’s
got, I won’t want to know it. We’ll also have to
recognize you when we see you.”
Sabatini grinned. “Well, we have a nightingale, a hawk,
and a raven, at least, and I’m told a couple of our new
friends have names that translate out like that anyway. From now
on, why don’t we follow that convention? Why
not—Vulture?”
And Vulture it was. Although all the captains hungered for some
action and volunteered to make the drop, Star Eagle determined that
Pirate One would be their best bet. It could carry the
small fighter with its cargo capsule, and might just fool any
automated defenses. In any case, although none liked to discuss it,
it was expendable.
It was agreed, however, that the small, dark Captain
Paschittawal would fly it, since he had the most knowledge and
experience of any aboard in getting in and out of Janipur. Warlock
would handle weapons, since she was best at that. Only those two
would go; Sabatini, in his capsule inside the fighter, would be
along for the ride.
Thanks to the Indrus’s local charts, they had
excellent maps of the planet and its terrain. It was decided to
attempt a landing in the mountains to the north of the village and
state, where landforms and general weather conditions would provide
good cover for the fighter, which was intended to remain down. The
people of Janipur were not good at mountain climbing, which would
provide some extra security, but might cause problems for Vulture
should he have to return to the ship in Janipurian form. He did not
minimize the difficulties, but he was not that concerned. “I
will get whatever I need, one way or the other,” he assured
them.
The one thing they weren’t all that concerned about was
Vulture returning reprogrammed by Master System. Clayben was quick
to assure them that if such techniques could have worked with
“the creature,” he would have used them back on
Melchior. The very methods by which memory was stored were so
different that none of the common methods would work, and any
biochemical or psychogenetic agents would be neutralized if
introduced. “Remember,” the scientist told them,
“this is not Sabatini, or Koll, or any of the others it has
called itself. It is a unique homemade alien organism only
pretending to be these people, just as it will pretend to
be one of the people of Janipur.”
As an initial test, Star Eagle rigged up Pirate One
with false identification and an automatic program requiring no one
on board. All it would do was punch into the system, go about its
standard refueling, and then return to a predetermined point where
its much more sophisticated scanning records would be analyzed.
Lobotomized, the ship’s core was not much good without a
human at the decision-making level, but it could carry out such
simple and routine tasks and respond to standard queries. They were
not much worried about it being recognized; it was one of an entire
class of automated freighters all of which looked identical. This
was one area in which machine precision and standardization worked
to the advantage of the pirates.
They spent a nervous eight and a half hours while their first
ship was away, worrying that it might not return or might return
altered or containing a cargo of Vals, but it arrived right on
schedule, its tamper seals and passwords untouched. From examining
the sensor data, Star Eagle felt sure that either they were being
led into a trap or Master System was being very cavalier about the
world and its ring. No other ships were evident in the system while
Pirate One was there. An automated satellite relay station
had challenged, then passed, Pirate One.
“I don’t like it,” Hawks told the council.
“It’s too easy. Master System isn’t overflowing
with Vals, but it has enough, or it can create enough, to monitor
five worlds, and it could probably have a ship full of its troopers
lurking around each, as well. I can’t believe it would keep
the way open for us unless it had something more sinister in mind.
It is logical—it also would know that this was the easiest
and the probable first target.”
“I agree that it has something up its metaphorical
sleeve,” Savaphoong put in, “but I wouldn’t be
too surprised if it was traditional and probing. I think it may
want to see if we can do it, and, certainly, it does not just want
the few who would steal the ring, but all of us. It thinks in far
longer terms than we. At this point it is not as concerned about us
getting all the rings as it is about us spreading and multiplying
so that it will be in constant danger now and for generations to
come. As of now, our knowledge is more of a threat to it than our
deeds. It will be after we get the ring, señors, that we
will be in the gravest danger. The game is two-way, you see. We
must acquire the rings. It, however, must acquire us and stamp out
the knowledge of the rings and their power.”
Sabatini grinned. “But it does not know about the
Vulture.”
Insertion proved relatively easy, far easier than they had a
right to expect, bearing out both Hawks’s concerns and
Savaphoong’s reasoning. They flew the fighter remotely,
choosing a landing site so rugged and misshapen by rocky outcrops
and towering peaks that it never even saw the sun. Powered down,
the fighter would be practically invisible from the air. Even so,
it was a tricky operation that has to be done with deliberate
speed. Master System’s monitoring satellite had to be on the
other side of the planet when they began, on an orbital swing that
would keep it away from the landing zone for the longest possible
time. The fighter could be powered down before the satellite made
its sweep, but residual heat might still betray it when the
satellite compared notes with its previous pass. Some cooling time
was essential to keep it from showing up like a beacon to the
monitor.
The new fake ship’s identification worked as well as the
previous, with no indication that the system monitor suspected that
it was actually seeing the same ship again. The fighter was
launched as soon as they felt safely clear of the system
monitor’s scan, and Captain Paschittawal, linked in, guided
it carefully toward Janipur, cutting and boosting power as needed
to avoid the orbital scans and finally inserting it in opposition
to and behind Master System’s planetary monitor. It would now
pass over the exact same region as the monitor, but only after the
monitor and always on the other side of the planet from it.
Within two hours, while the alleged freighter was still taking
on fuel, the spot was passed over, checked, and found to be good.
Paschittawal allowed two more orbital passes, so that the area of
the monitor survey would no longer include the target, then
launched the fighter down to the prescribed spot. Vulture wasted no
time in climbing out as soon as he could risk it.
“Very easy,” the captain said with satisfaction.
“It is how we got down to the planet to do business in the
old days.”
They dropped a relay satellite in the dense fueling belt that
could pick up and relay coded subspace communications from Vulture.
The only danger in the relay was that another ship, in for fuel,
might gobble it up, but the odds of that happening were not
great.
Vulture was now loose on Janipur and those back on the
Thunder could only wait.
In the meantime, the members of that odd community continued to
get to know one another and to grow. China had a daughter, whom she
named Star Daughter, and Hawks and the others of the old guard were
more than astonished to hear that Cloud Dancer was also with child.
Silent Woman’s nursery was going to get crowded a bit faster
than expected.
The Chows in particular seemed to be blossoming. Both had taken
well to piloting, which had given them an enormous amount of
self-confidence and a real job that might prove important, even
vital, in times to come, and both were also now spending a lot of
time in the company of the two half-Chinese crew members from the
Bahakatan. Their extremely mottled skin had given them a
low self-image, but the crewmen did not seem to mind. Hawks
suspected that men born and raised in deep space, where they dealt
with large numbers of bizarre colonials, would find the strangely
marked but otherwise attractive women more exotic than
grotesque.
Hawks himself was diverted for a while by Cloud Dancer’s
news, but he could not let it sway him from long-range planning. He
was to have a child and that was important, but for that child to
have any chance at life and a future, his parents and their allies
would have to prepare the way.
Fernando Savaphoong was an initial key to any planning goals. He
had contacts, secret channels of communication and information, and
he used them.
“There is very little out there,” he reported.
“The heat continues to be on, I fear, and I do not know when
or if it will be off. There were an estimated half-million
freebooters out here, and those who have not been caught or killed
are mostly either running or hiding. I have contacted some who are
hiding, but they are of no real use; they expected to hear
news and get information from me, so withdrawn are
they.”
“Anything about the targets? Particularly the missing
ring?” Hawks asked him.
“Little. Stories, nothing more. Even my Center contacts on
the colonial worlds know little that we do not know.”
Ikira Sukotae looked thoughtful. “Now, let me get this
straight. You know that one is on the Mother World, and we know the
second is definitely on Janipur. You have the worlds for two more,
and while they will be harder to find we have some support, at
least in freebooter stories, about them existing there. Yet
nothing, absolutely nothing, on the fifth ring.”
Hawks nodded. “That’s about the size of
it.”
The tiny captain rose. “Let me talk to somebody for
awhile. I never had this thought before, but it’s one way to
go.” She went back and sought out Takya Mudabur, her
amphibian crew member. Mudabur was nice enough and good in a pinch,
but unlike the others, who had been together for many years, she
was a bit of an outsider kept more to herself.
“Takya?”
“Yes, my captain?” She was in her bath enclosure but
stuck her head out when she saw someone enter her hut.
“Something wrong?”
“Takya, we have done well with you dealing with the water
worlds. How many has it been—four? Five?
“Six, my captain. Why do you ask?”
“When you talk to those people, just in general
conversation, did you ever hear of a story or legend about a great
golden ring with a design on it? Birds, perhaps, on a black stone
set in a great gold ring owned by someone of power or
importance?”
Takya thought a moment, then shook her head. “No, never. I
have heard the story of the five gold rings and I am sure that if I
had heard of any such thing I would have remembered it
then.”
“Of the more than four hundred and fifty known colonial
worlds, how many would you say have water people?”
“Not many. Ten, perhaps fifteen percent. You should know
as well as I.”
She hadn’t known, never having counted them, but the total
amazed her. Somewhere between forty-five and sixty or so such
worlds. “Takya, all the water people I have ever seen are
still air breathers like us. All of the ones you visited were. Have
you ever heard of a race of water breathers?”
“Yes, there are some,” she said, “although not
many. There are also some who breathe atmospheres poisonous to us,
as well. Why do you ask?”
“Just following a train of thought. Are there any
freebooters, any spacefarers at all, among such races? Ones that
either breathe water or something else we cannot?”
“I do not know for certain, but I have never heard of any.
They would have to drastically modify any ships they flew, have
special pressure suits and the like, and would have to modify the
atmospheric transmuter systems to produce their required
atmospheres. It was difficult enough for ones such as you and I to
get out. Adding that may be asking the impossible.”
The captain nodded. “Very well. Thank you.” She
headed back up to the council of captains on the
Thunder’s bridge. They all looked at her
expectantly.
“Well? Anything you’d care to let us in on?”
Hawks asked.
“I—I’m not certain. Have any of you ever
encountered a race that requires either water or some noxious
atmosphere or excessive pressures to breathe and survive? Among the
colonials, I mean.”
“There are several,” the insectlike Chun Wo Har
responded. “They are not on the usual freebooter charts
because they are of no practical value. Most cannot even have the
level of technology the standard Centers use, and others exist
under conditions that render them useless for any profit.
Why?”
“I think I see where she’s headed,” Hawks told
them. “Between us all we have represented here eight separate
races. Combining your varying experiences, we have experience with
perhaps a hundred and fifty or two hundred more through travels and
business and contacts with other freebooters. Nowhere is there a
trace of the lost ring, even as a legend or myth or totem of some
kind. Yet we know that it is required by the core program of Master
System to be in the possession of and under the control of a human
being with power. If I were Master System and I wanted it as buried
as possible, I might well place at least one under such
conditions.”
Maria Santiago shrugged. “Why not all, then? It would make
it next to impossible.”
“You are forgetting the transmuters,” Star Eagle
broke in. “We can make what is required.”
“That may be true,” the San Cristobal
captain responded, “but once you are remade you are that way
for good, no? Because there are inevitable minor losses which
become major, even catastrophic, in a second try. So you become
these—people—and you get their rings, but what good
does it do you? The sheer complexity of sustaining yourself in
space or on another world is daunting, and the—how you
say?—payoff, the insertion into Master System, is going to be
under less than ideal conditions, if I guess right. You could steal
them but not use them, and, I, for one, would not wish to be in the
position of risking all to get the ring only to give it up and
trust it to some, let us face it, alien kind of person who can
offer only a promise of some ill-defined reward. If I were Master
System it would be the logical thing to do.”
Hawks nodded, thinking furiously. “Unless—unless
there aren’t five worlds where it could be safely done. I
wish we had an analysis of any one of the rings rather than just a
hologram of Chen’s. These things only look like
rings, and they were designed by Earth-humans for Earth conditions
using existing technology of the period. Below and in the setting
are complex computer circuitry and instructions that, when combined
with the other four at the correct interface, give access to the
Master System core and override any existing instructions. What
could they be made of? I think the gold is just that—gold. I
have seen Chen’s and it looked like gold to me. The setting,
which looks like stone, must be some sort of synthetic to contain
and protect the electronics. Hence we can, for example, rule out
any atmosphere where gold would be corroded or in any way deformed
or broken down.”
Savaphoong nodded excitedly. “Si! Si! It is
logical! If the rings contained anything active, they would be
shorted out in water, for example, ruling that out.”
“They are most certainly passive,” Star Eagle
commented. “It is asking too much to expect anything to hold
a charge nine hundred-plus years, let alone indefinitely. They may
be powered up when connected, but not individually and
self-contained.”
“Water is looking better and better,” Hawks noted.
“Gold is safe in water. It will tarnish, but it is easily
restored even after centuries. The synthetic holding the
electronics would certainly be watertight and airtight. And if they
were water breathers, they would have virtually no contact
with the freebooters. I would say we have a job and that is to
check all the water breathers first. If we strike no gold, as it
were, then we can begin to check the small number with deadly
atmospheres.”
“I believe I can correlate the master files from the
various ships and come up with most if not all the possible worlds
for this,” Star Eagle told them. “However, it will not
be easy to check on them all. Most will never have seen another
kind of human before, and will consider us all, even Takya, as
monsters.”
Hawks sighed. “These are the kind of problems we expected
to have to solve, and we must solve them one way or another. It is
the job of you all to work out methods and a system for doing so
and then implement it when we approve. If Raven and Chen are
correct in their interpretation of the core commands, then it only
must be possible. I do not believe there is any
requirement that it be easy or guaranteed.”
Vulture had been down on Janipur for seven weeks when the
Thunder finally heard from him again. The new voice was
male, very highly accented, and occasionally difficult to
understand, but the message came through.
“I have rigged up a repeater device to the fighter, then
the relay. I hope it works,” Vulture said. “I also do
not know how long this is safe to use, so I will be brief. This is
a far different world from any I have ever known, but there is a
cultural undercurrent that shows a human origin. Much of the world
is primitive, pretechnological, and ignorant, as expected. The
population is dense in the desirable areas—very dense, and
very poor, by most standards. They are administered by five Centers
employing a total of perhaps thirty thousand inside and in the
field. As the good Indrus captain told us, the Centers are
quite modern with full technology complexes. There is a complex and
rigid caste system here, as well, which complicates matters. One
cannot graduate to Center level; one must be born to it, and there
are physical ways to tell.”
“All right, but have you seen the ring?” Hawks
asked.
“I have. It is not difficult if you are of the Brahman
caste. As the captain said, it is usually on public display, during
which times it would be impossible to get to. Too many people and
too much split-second security. After dark it is protected by a
labyrinthine set of computer and mechanical devices and switches
that bewilder me, and I am many engineers and computer personnel,
if you remember. To remove it even if you had all the codes and
keys would require at least three people. This is long enough for
now. The rest of the data is being sent serially on my subcarrier
direct to Star Eagle. I will call back when I can, but not before
this time tomorrow.”
“Wait! No chance you can get it without us?”
“None. I am third in rank in Security here and have much
power, and I have even participated in unlocking the thing, but
there is simply no way to do it alone and get away with it. One
last thing. You were right about the trap. At least ten percent of
security forces in this Center and possibly others are ringers.
There may be more outside. Master System is just waiting for us to
try for it. Good bye for now.”
“He has broken connections,” Star Eagle said.
“I have the rest of his information under analysis now. It
appears that the actual system is nearly identical to
Earth’s, but the people there do not look anything like any
of us, and the culture is a rather strange form of Hinduism. I
believe with the help of the Indrus personnel we could
create an effective linguistic mindprinter recording, but unlike
Vulture, the rest of us would require a great deal of study to
change. Culture aside, this will not be body or lifestyle to
easily get comfortable with.”
“But what about the ring defenses itself?” Hawks
asked. “What are we facing?”
“Everything conventional, apparently nothing new. These
people have very poor night vision, making for a daylight culture,
and their regular visual range is even more restricted than yours.
That works in our favor since their light-beam traps are invisible
to them but not to us. The outer doors are locked with a large key,
but the door has its own sensors and visual remote monitors as
well. There is a secondary vaultlike door inside the first, with an
open area that is monitored visually and with sensors. The second
door is computer-operated by coded remote from the master console
in Security. No one individual has the whole code, which is changed
periodically.”
“I see. Go on.”
“The inner display museum is covered by light sensors and
is also visually and aurally monitored. The display cases appear to
have weight sensors under tiles around them, so we will have to
find out what sort of weight will set them off. The display case
itself is thick but transparent, most certainly bulletproof, and
perhaps cutter resistant to anything but a laser torch. Cutting or
breaking through would not work, however, since fine alarm wires
run through it like thin mesh. The only way to open the case is
with two conventional keys, one worn by the chief administrator
himself and the other by the chief of Security. Turning both simultaneously opens the case and sounds an alarm
in Security. If it is legitimate, the alarm is simply ignored, but
it cannot be turned off until the case is closed again and
locked.”
“All right. Anything nasty waiting if you get that far and
remove something?”
“No. It is a good alarm system, but not a spectacular one.
You pick it up, close the case, and if you also miss the alarms on
the way out and relock all the doors you have it.”
“I’d hate to see what you call a spectacular system,
then. This sounds mean.”
“The alarms and locks are all conventional, which means
traditional and essentially antique. The same sort is used at Earth
Centers. The Vatican Center museum, for example, is far better
defended.”
“Hmmm . . . I wonder if there’s
any chance of Vulture being alone on duty in Center
Security?”
“Not likely. If they follow the standard procedure there
will probably be a duty officer and three or four others. You know
the procedure, although if Master System has added personnel it is
a good bet that one or more of those on duty down there will be its
people. The area also has regular watchmen rounds, and the doors
are checked. Bet on all the watchmen being Master System personnel.
You won’t be able to bribe them or turn them,
Hawks.”
“Dealing with the people is Vulture’s job, and
I’m sure he can do a good enough cover to get help.
It’s a sure bet that most of the regulars down there, and
particularly the bureaucrats, are really going nuts under a
near-occupation by Master System. Some of them might well cherish
the idea of really helping embarrass the bastards—if they
didn’t know the theft was for real. Any chance of doing it
the easy way? Cutting in the C.A., for example?”
“Dubious. Any chance we might have had left when Master
System placed its own personnel down there. The chief administrator
is first and foremost a survivor with self-interest paramount. No,
we will have to steal it, and that brings up the first and
certainly not the last of the nasty problems we will
face.”
Hawks sighed. “You have a plan and personnel in
mind?”
“I have both, but let me work on it further. I will also
need supplementary information for Vulture. Make no mistake,
though. There is no getting around the fact that we will require at
least some of our people as Janipurians if we are to get close
enough to this to even have a crack at it. Others, with their own
innate abilities, might not need anything drastic, but will require
more than Vulture’s help to get where they are needed. It
appears clear now that the late Arnold Nagy provided us with the
ones best equipped for this particular job. I am merely building
off his obvious intent with others he did not
anticipate.”
“I know. Damn it, it shouldn’t be now, not for
them. Later, perhaps—you are sure that full
transmutation is the only way?”
“Hawks, think of it from the basis of what you know. Back
at North American Center, what would be the chance of, say, the
Kaotan crew sneaking in, looking over and examining
Security areas in detail, inside and out, while they were open,
then breaking in, stealing something, and getting out and away?
Even if they had a senior Security official on their side? Now add
ten percent Master System forces—and you can bet a Val is
somewhere around to call the shots—and you see the
problem.”
The leader of the pirate band sighed again and nodded.
“You’re right. And in that case some excuse could be
made for an open colonial visit—and they still wouldn’t
be able to do it because they would be watched like, well, hawks
around the chickens.”
“We are stuck. They were obviously provided to help solve
this particular problem. We may try it without them, but we would
be crippled if we did.”
“I agree. I’ll start easing into discussing it with
them. In the meantime, do you have anything visual on what these
Janipurians look like? I think I’d better know what I’m
asking before I ask it.”
“Come up to the bridge. I haven’t any such data from
Vulture, but I have some recordings from Indrus’s
files.”
He went on up and found several members of the various crews
there working at some of the consoles, and Raven, cigar stuck in
the side of his mouth, trying to look as if he were busy too. But
when Star Eagle put up a picture of a Janipurian, all turned and
stared.
“What the hell is that?” Raven asked.
The creature was more animal than human, yet it had some very
human gestures. The face, light tan in coloration, was large and
humanoid, although the nose had flap-covered nostrils, was too
large and wide, and its porous skin glistened with dampness like
many animal noses; the mouth seemed too wide and the chin too
small, giving the face a blocky shape. The pointed ears were
upright and seemed to be on a swivellike socket, able to turn in
any direction. Most inhuman were the eyes, which were large, round
bulges.
The whole body was covered in very short but thick hair. The
torso was tapered, thinner near the thick neck than at the rear and
shaped more like that of a four-footed animal than a bipedal human.
The arms, too, were more like forelegs, and the hands, on
incredibly thick wrists, were enormous, the fingers and thumb long
and pointed and looking deceptively boneless. And from the back of
each hand grew an enormous, thick prominence that looked hard as
steel. The creature was standing more or less erect on its two
feet, although it gave the appearance of being slightly bent over,
as if ready to launch into a four-footed run. Arms and legs looked
to be of equal length, and the feet had huge, splayed toes with
deep, curved nails that seemed to dig into the ground. Again, on
the back of the ankles there was that same steellike growth. Some
kind of brief protective bit of clothing was draped above the
thick, animalistic thighs, but there was no hiding the fact that
the creature was a male.
“If that thing can walk like that, I’ll eat
it,” Raven mumbled.
A young woman, one of the crew from the Indrus,
laughed. “They do not walk like that, you are right,”
she said. “The hands and balancing feet curl up, leaving the
hooves for moving and running. They are quite fast, in fact. They
do get around upright when inside, though, if they have something
to hold on to or the distance to go is very short. Do not let it
fool you, though. The hands are quite dexterous, and the people are
excellent artisans. Those claws can also rip someone open with one
try, and they can wield weapons with deadly accuracy. They do not
see very well at all at night, but always their sense of smell and
their hearing is far better than ours.”
Hawks shivered. What am I asking someone to do? he
couldn’t help thinking. Do I have the right to even
ask!
“You said ‘weapons,’ ” Raven noted, not
encumbered by such a duty. “Do they hunt or have
prey?”
“Oh, no. They are vegetarians, strictly. Their mouths move
more side to side, and their teeth are flat and big. Their design
is based primarily on the fact that they came from a culture that
was highly vegetarian to begin with—although not
all—and this world developed warm as mostly grasslands,
desert, and mountains. The grasslands can support a large
population, but there are limits, so the system added some rather
nasty predators once native to their old region—such as
tigers—to maintain a balance in the early days. Today,
however, most of the predators are strictly controlled and only
occasionally escape from royal preserves. Much of the central
grasslands is intensively farmed now, you see—those claws can
also till soil. They have some domestic animals to aid them, but
their tools are basically wood and stone. Useful metal is rare and
prized there, and we traded a fair amount of it.”
Hawks tried to put his more personal concerns from his mind and
concentrate on the problem at hand. If Cochin Center was anything
like North American Center, and he thought it probably was, its
floors would be of smooth, hard synthetics. Those hooves would make
quite a lot of noise on them. The aural sensors would be a real
problem. On the other hand, if those long, pointed fingers were
really all that dexterous, then they would be an advantage when it
came time to deal quietly with the locks.
“This is a male,” he noted. “What do the
females look like?”
“Slightly smaller, with firm breasts that hang down when
she is on all fours,” the woman told him. “The children
are born as four-footed creatures with only flaps where the hands
and feet will be. These do not begin to really grow out and develop
until they are about seven, and are not really useful until
they’re ten or eleven. The standing, walking upright, and the
developed use of the hands is something they must be taught. This
was thought to be a protective innovation when the world was more
dangerous, as they are still essentially self-sufficient from the
age of two and can walk on all fours in a matter of hours or days
after birth. But it is the hands that make them truly human, that
allow them to manipulate and create and build. The hands and the
mastery of them are the mark of being human there. Also, you note
the coloring?”
“You mean the light tan, almost white hair?”
She nodded. “That indicates that this man is a Brahman.
High caste, probably either a major religious leader or from a
Center, as this one was. The castes are known by their coloring. A
darker tan, a light brown, would be below this one and probably a
professional or a politician or regional leader. Dark, reddish
brown would be working class—farmers and laborers, mainly.
Black is, well, untouchable. Unclean. They roam wild and are
something of a danger to the others.”
“Wonderful,” Raven grumbled. “So what happens
if two castes marry?”
“The effect is interesting, as they take on multiple
rather than mixed or blended coloration. The half castes or less
have the rights and duties of the lowest caste their coloration
shows. Such mixing is rare, but it happens often enough to be
noticeable even in a small village such as the one we used for our
dealings.”
Hawks was thoughtful. “And you say only the light tan get
into the Centers? Nobody else?”
“That is what we were told, and it is logical in a society
where you wear your class and your social potential on your
body.”
“Then it’s another complication. Finding enough of
these light tans to copy will be a problem.”
“No big deal, Chief,” Raven replied. “They got
to come out. If Vulture says they follow the standard procedures,
then they ail got to go on leave for a period—and that means
some are always on leave, right? No, that ain’t the problem.
The problem is that everybody on that level will have everything on
record, birth to death, whatever they use for prints, you name it.
The odds are if they don’t all know each other—them
tans I mean—they know mutual friends and family. It’s
gonna be pretty damned tough to fake.”
Hawks sat back in his chair and sighed. “Oh, I don’t
know. If ten percent are Master System plants, who knows whom down
there these days or can take things for granted?” He leaned
forward again. “No, we can make some of those factors work
for us. We might even get Master System and its friends to take the
fall for the robbery, which will nicely aid our getaway. No, the
two big ifs we have to face aren’t there. We can work all
those out. The first is—is it possible to lift that ring? Can
we do it under all their noses and get away with it?”
“Yeah,” Raven agreed, chomping on his cigar.
“And who’s gonna hav’ta become one of
them for life to spring the damned locks while Vulture
covers?” The ultimate price . . . And this was only the first
time.
The Chows seemed more alive than he remembered them, and
happier, too. He wished this situation could have arisen under more
miserable circumstances. The girls were certainly curious,
particularly when they were summoned to Hawks’s private
office and found him there alone with one of the women from the
Indrus.
“Sit down,” he invited. “Make yourself
comfortable. So far you’ve played a background role in all
this. You’ve been very helpful, but I know both of you felt
that you just happened to attach yourself to this group by sheer
chance. Would you be surprised if I told you that you had been
included all along? That much of what happened to you was
deliberate and designed to make sure you came with us?”
That startled them. “We—just happened to be on the
same ship as China,” Chow Dai noted.
“Uh uh. A ship taking you to Melchior, so you could be
handled and strictly controlled until it was time to move. You were
not there by accident. They needed someone with very specific
skills and they ran those skills through their computer and you
came out, having been caught at China Center going through doors
that expert technicians couldn’t crack. Tell me, do you know
how you do it?”
They both shrugged. “How do you sing or dance? You do not
think about it—it is clear in the mind. You know our uncle
was a magician, an illusionist he called himself, who loved to
escape from the impossible. He taught us many of his tricks because
we were good at them. There are only so many ways locks work, and
there is always a weak spot.”
“Huh! And does this explain how you can crack elaborate
electronic combinations of numbers and even coded badge and
fingerprint and eyeprint locks?”
“There are some secrets we must keep,” Chow Dai
replied coyly, “because we swore an oath to our uncle, but
there are always ways of getting the right numbers for finding how
to fake what is needed.”
“Some of those locks at Melchior matched a minutely
detailed hologram. You walked through them like they weren’t
there.”
They both grinned. “There is always an alternate way to
spring a lock. Anyone who needs a lock that complicated must first
be very afraid that someone will get in. After they install it, and
after a few times when it does not work and they cannot
get in, they always have an equal or greater fear that this might
happen all the time. The more complicated the lock the easier it is
to figure out the emergency bypass, since it must work without
triggering the other, more ordinary, way in.”
“Have you ever seen a lock or security system you
couldn’t beat?”
They looked at each other and shrugged. “Yes and
no,” Chow Dai responded. “We have never seen one we
could not beat, but we have been caught because we did not have any
easy way to look over the system and take the time to find out all
about it. We were ignorant peasant girls. At the time, we did not
even know what a visual monitor was.”
“But you do now.”
“Oh, yes. We have spent much time aboard here learning
more and more. Star Eagle has been very kind and has read us
details of the most incredible security systems, and shown
us moving cartoon pictures of them. We know much more
now.”
Hawks wondered who put Star Eagle up to that useful
activity. The crazy thing was, the Chows were exactly what they
said they were—simple peasants taken in as domestic servants
by a spoiled China Center official’s wife. Neither of them
could read or write or showed much inclination to learn; neither
had any formal education at all. Their good speech in English was
due to a mindprinter program and extensive practice aboard the
Thunder. They were certainly geniuses, but their genius
was limited to certain areas.
“You know what this is all about? You understand what
we’re doing out here, don’t you?”
“Oh, yes. You are trying to find the five magic rings that
will bring down the machine that plays god. It is a noble thing
that might free our people one day.” Here it is. “One of the rings is in a Center on a
planet called Janipur. It is guarded by a complicated security
system that is mechanical, electronic, and personally guarded, and
is considered impregnable. This was known to the people who set up
our little pirate band. They felt you could crack that system,
steal the ring, and get away. That is why you are here, why you
have been here all along. To steal that ring.”
“Then we will do it. We have not had a good challenge like
that in a very long time.”
“There is—a problem. A hitch. The problem is that
the people down there are not human like we are human. They are
another kind of human—different from us but no more different
than some of the others we have aboard this ship right now. We
might, under very risky conditions, get humans to the Center, but
they would be useless. They couldn’t walk around, get in any
visual monitor, be seen by anyone there, since there are no
Earth-humans anywhere on that world. Master System also has people
who look like those other kind of humans down there just waiting
for anyone not of that race to even be glimpsed. All our
information, all our experts and computers, say that no one could
get near enough to that ring to even pick the locks who was not of
their race. You understand?”
“You wish us to teach them how to do it?”
He sighed. This was even harder than he thought. “No. We
can’t allow any of them in on this. Not right now. They are
decent people down there, mostly, but Master System is standing
over them and telling them what to do and they can’t fight
it, so they’re not going to do the job for us. We have to do
it ourselves.”
“But you just said—”
He held up his hand. “You remember Song Ching who became
China Nightingale? You know how they did it?”
They looked at each other, then at him. “They—used
some kind of machine. One that changes you.”
“Yes. We have the same kind of machine, and Star Eagle
knows how to run it. This ship was designed to do that, to change
one kind of human into another. But we don’t have any
mindprinter program, or a good means of getting one, that would
teach anyone changed into the kind of people down there how to use
that body. It would have to be learned after someone was changed
into one of their kind. It would be very, very hard.”
“China,” Chow Mai whispered. “They cannot
change her back.”
“No. People are the most complicated of all living things.
We know a lot about how people work, how they’re put together
and why they are the way they are, and we can change much of it,
but it’s not just one part we’re talking about
here—it’s the whole thing, body, brain, blood, you name
it. More cells than anyone can count, all of which have to work
perfectly together. Once always seems to work, but try it again and
it just doesn’t come back together right. It can kill or
cripple or form a horrible kind of monster that’s one of a
kind—and maybe not make the brain work, either.”
The twins were silent for a moment, then Chow Dai spoke.
“You want us to be changed into these—others. Learn how
to be these others. Then go in and steal the ring. And,
after—we are these others forever?”
“Yes. It’s the first time this has been asked of
anyone, but it will not be the last. Many of us, maybe even me,
will have to do the same thing. We have three more rings to get
before we can head home.”
“May we—see what these people look like?”
He got out a holographic still Star Eagle had run off and handed
it to them. It was of the same male he’d seen. They just
stared at it, not revealing their emotions, although Chow Dai
breathed “Oh” very softly.
“I know what I’m asking and don’t think
it’s easy. I expect to have to give this speech again a few
more times. We may all need to do it just to sneak past
Master System to get to its home, but we might not. It’s not
fair, but that’s the way it’s set up. I wouldn’t
ask if I didn’t think it could be done. We have
Vulture—you remember the one who was Koll, then Sabatini,
very well, I think—down there now, as one of them. He’s
in their security system at the Center but he can’t do the
job, only provide information and training and cover in and out. We
will get you out.”
“As—them,” Chow Dai said quietly. “And
then what?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I mean, suppose we can do it. All of it. We get your ring
and then we come back here. What happens to us then?”
“You will still be human beings, damn it. You’ll
still be the same inside, too. You’re both good pilots and we
can use good pilots. We might also need you to train others to pick
other, different locks. You will be no different from the woman
with scales and her nose in the back of her head, or the
Cantonese-speaking crew with their bones on the outside. Still
people, still a part of the team.” He thought about the
missing fourth ring and Captain Sukotae’s theory.
“Someone, perhaps many, might have to become far more limited
sorts than these. We believe one ring may be deep on a world of
water breathers.”
The woman from the Indrus cleared her throat.
“I’m sorry,” Hawks apologized. “This is
Sabira of the Indrus. She has dealt with these people and
knows them well.”
“They are good people,” she told them, “and
their bodies may look strange, but they are actually better than
ours in many ways. They are tough and versatile. And, where it
counts, they are quite human. They love their children, are
generally good to one another, like luxuries and try to enjoy life
as best they can. Most are peasants much like the sort of people
yours are. If we are to win, this must be done.”
The girls were not properly enthused. “If we did not to
this, then what would happen?” Chow Mai asked.
Hawks sighed. “I will not order someone to do this. I
could, but it is not in my nature. Too many bad things were done to
too many people aboard this ship now because someone or something
ordered it done. If you refuse, then we will find volunteers. You
will be expected to teach them all that you can about the problem,
and then they will go and make the attempt. They will not have as
good a chance as you would, but we will try and we will keep trying
until we are down to no one here and we cannot win. We must. If we
don’t get that ring then the rest doesn’t
matter.”
They nodded. “This vault. You have information on it? Yes?
Can we know what it is?”
Hawks gave them as detailed a description of the situation as he
could. They listened attentively.
“That is not a difficult sequence but it is very
tricky,” Chow Dai said. “No amateur, particularly in an
unfamiliar body, could do it. It is worse because it is mostly
mechanical. The mechanisms are not all that different from one big
illusion in our uncle’s show. His wife would get into a
coffin, and then they would fill it with water, seal it with many
chains and locks, and my uncle would have to pick them all and open
the coffin before she drowned. She was a Buddhist who had studied
with some mystics in the high mountains and could remain under for
several minutes, more than most people, but it was still a matter
of speed and skill. As little girls, we knew just how it was done,
and we would often practice with the coffin empty against an
hourglass timer. Many long times it took us up to an hour—far
too long. Now we could do it, perhaps faster than Uncle Li could.
This is a very complicated version of the same problem. No one
aboard here could be taught to do it fast and perfect the first
time in just a few days or weeks or even months, and we cannot
exactly duplicate it here because we have not seen it and its
hidden surprises.”
“Nonetheless, we must try,” he told them.
Sabira spoke. “You would not be going in alone, as you
might have had to do under other circumstances. We—the
Indrus crew and some of the others—have talked it
over. We know the land, the people, the customs. It was decided
that one of us at least should go as well, take the same route as
you are asked to take, to help teach you the subtler ways of those
people. We also have a mindprinter program for the language, which
is basically a very distorted version of Hindi, which is my first
language. The omens of the gods brought us to you, as the minds
behind the attack on the great computer demon brought you here.
With all these things on our side, we cannot fail. Compared to what
we might face with the others, this is ready-made for us.”
They gaped at her. “You would become one of
them, as well? Forever?”
“It is my duty. I will not tell you that I am excited by
the prospect, but I do not fear it, either.”
The twins looked at Hawks. “How long before this would
happen?”
He shrugged. “The Vulture has a lot more to set up, and we
have to coordinate things. We don’t think that getting you in
will be a problem. We’ve been running Pirate One in
and out at regular intervals for months now, so that it appears to
be a new but regular run. It isn’t even challenged anymore.
Vulture can arrange a much easier and more convenient arrival than
we arranged for him. We’ve manage to get his old ship out and
put in one with a transmuting station—the same one we used on
the island world. We can send directly from Pirate One to
that transmuter now, if Vulture is there and we time it right. In
fact, first we have to find prospects for Star Eagle to copy and
study, and get them to Pirate One, where we now have a
transmuter and some storage. Covers must be arranged, and no one,
least of all Master System and its personnel, must suspect. We are
pretty sure that down there at Cochin Center someplace is a Val.
You will have to go in and be accepted there before you pull the
job. Then we have to get you all out and away under their noses.
It’s going to be very tricky and very dangerous. Even Vulture
can’t become a Val.”
“Very well, then,” Chow Dai said almost
matter-of-factly. “Then we will do it.”
He was surprised. “Just like that? Don’t want to
talk it over or think about it?”
“There is no need to do so. We would both be dead at the
hands of the security guards at China Center had this not been
arranged as you say. You have given the reason we have never
understood, which was why we were taken from there and sent to
where only important people are sent. The ones who chose us did not
make us break into the Center apartments and offices or steal. We
did that ourselves, and we were caught for our ignorance. Our lives
and our bodies were forfeit because we were caught. They belong to
the ones who saved us. You cannot know what it is like to be so
helpless as we were, to be beaten and raped not by one but by many
brutish men, again and again. Neither of us has really been able to
get close to a man since then, nor really trust another. When
this—Vulture—creature saved us from Sabatini, we owed
still more. We will do it.”
“Nobody owns anyone’s bodies or lives here.
That’s what this is all about.” He looked at Chow Mai.
“And you? You agree?”
“We do not need to speak. We know each other’s
minds,” the other said.
Hawks sighed. “All right then. We’ll set it
up.”
THE NEXT SEVEN MONTHS WAS A PERIOD OF
ADJUSTMENT and personal compromise for all concerned, but somehow
the new crew settled into a group marriage of convenience,
tolerance, and, in some cases, friendship and mutual respect. The
difficulty did not stem only from the alienness of the colonists,
though, but also from the freebooters’ starting attitudes
toward the original group. It was clear that the vast majority of
newcomers still didn’t really believe that the rebels’
scheme could succeed.
Hawks once again demonstrated his leadership skills by forming a
council of captains and treating them with respect. Each captain
was still absolute master of his or her own ship, but each was
under the command of what they had come to consider an
admiral—one who commands not a ship but a fleet. And that one
was Hawks.
In fact, the hardest thing for the freebooters to accept was
Star Eagle’s existence at all, let alone as an equal captain
among them. All their lives had been spent hating machines that
could think on their own. No matter how different they looked, no
matter what languages they thought in or what they liked to eat or
how they liked to live, all of them, even the alien engineer, were
living creatures born of other living creatures. To them, Star
Eagle seemed a member of the true alien race, the one they were
fighting, and it was very difficult for them to trust him.
Star Eagle had certainly done his best for them. Maintenance had
created more elaborate cargo access ports fitted with air locks and
tubes directly into the ships that had to be carried outside, and
hoped to have real pressurization throughout the ship as needed,
even in the cargo bays themselves, within another month.
The interior village was still badly in need of work, but it had
been expanded enough and customized enough to satisfy most of the
needs of those on board who required more than Earth-human
conditions. Savaphoong continued to live on his luxurious yacht
with its transmuter producing luxury goods as needed and human
slaves to wait on him and his subordinates; this arrangement
actually made everyone more comfortable.
Each crew was given an area of the interior shell, along with
working offices in the surrounding middle region, designed as much
to their specifications as practicality and space and data banks
allowed. Ikira Sukotae, for example, actually had a dwelling within
a very dark and grass-covered mound with little or no lighting,
although somehow in there was a miniaturized vaporizer toilet and
running water and much else. Her amphibian crewmember had a hut
with a chamber in which fresh water sufficient to cover her body
was available along with air. The centauroids preferred just a
patch of ground with specially designed water supply and waste
disposal; they didn’t care a bit for privacy.
The others, even the Rock Man, found that the normal hut could
be configured to their needs. The green owlish couple, for example,
used things much the same as everyone else but slept standing up.
So, in fact, did the thick-tailed Buta Killomen and the Rock Man,
while Captain Chun and his exoskeletal mates slept wrapped around
pipes or logs. Only the Makkikor proved a problem to accommodate,
since its native environment and needs were so different—even
if it could breathe human air and a lot of other things, as it
turned out—but it preferred to sleep in the niche it had
designed on the Bahakatan and seemed delighted to help
Star Eagle and the maintenance robots with the renovation and
refurbishment of the freebooter ships.
The transmuter at Melchior had made China the way she was, but
Isaac Clayben had figured a mechanical way to help her out at least
in the area of her blindness. Although the program created by his
old staff had been diabolically clever and designed not to be
circumvented, Clayben and Star Eagle had devised a mindprinter
interpretive routine and a gadget that gave her a sort of sight when
she chose to use it. Sound waves, traveling on a frequency that
would not interfere with ship’s systems and was beyond the
ability of any colonials or Earth-humans aboard to hear, were
translated into electrical signals and sent through nerves to her
brain, where the interpretive program operated. Only the Makkikor
could hear the signals; he found the sounds not only pleasant but,
Hawks suspected, somewhat erotic.
Using the device along with the mindprinter program, China could
“see” well enough to distinguish individual objects,
although she could not discern specific features of a person nor,
for example, read print. She still preferred her memorization
routines, which were now so natural that she hardly looked
handicapped getting about, but in an emergency or in a strange
environment, the device might mean life or death, and she
appreciated it.
They had not wasted the time in other ways, either. They hunted
without much success for other remnants of the freebooter culture,
and finally Hawks decided, with the council of captains concurring,
to go after a ring.
By now the newcomers had been told the whole story—what
they were after, what the rings could do, and why the rings had
been created. Two of the crews had visited Chanchuk, and the
Indrus knew Janipur well, since the people of that world
had been created out of the same original race as theirs and had
kept many of the same customs and forms of the ancient Hindu
beliefs. Captain Paschittawal, in fact, had even seen the ring
itself, in the People’s Treasures collection at Cochin
Center, the chief administrator’s headquarters. Apparently,
he reported, the chief administrator rarely wore it, except on
solemn and highly ceremonial occasions.
“It is a beautiful thing, very big,” Captain
Paschittawal told them. “It is kept under a magnifier, in
fact, so that one can see the exquisite detail work. Two beautiful
birds, mirror images, sitting on small fir branches. It is most
treasured because it is one of the every few artifacts that came
with the Founders centuries ago.”
Hawks nodded. “I want you to get together with Raven and
Sabatini and give them as much detail as you can. I believe it is
time we put Sabatini’s unique talents to work for
us.”
The captain’s eyebrows rose. “I have heard you and
the others talk of this, but I do not understand what you mean by
‘unique talents.’ ”
“You won’t believe it until you witness it, but let
me put it this way. You are Hindu, correct?”
“I am, sir.”
“And you believe, then, in reincarnation?”
“Yes, sir, I most firmly do.”
“Let me just say that Captain Sabatini not only can
reincarnate, but can choose just what and who he’s going to
be. And he does not have to die to do it.” Although
somebody else does, he added a bit guiltily to himself.
After a full briefing by the Indrus crew, Hawks met
with his security staff and Sabatini in his own office deep inside
the guts of the Thunder.
“Well,” Raven said with a sigh, “Nagy said
it’d be the easiest, although I ain’t sure I like it if
it is. This thing’s like something in the regional museums of
somebody’s crown jewels. It’s almost a sacred object
because it’s Earth and it’s original. It will be
guarded and not just by people. It’s gonna have one hell of a
nasty security system on it, since a lot of these Hindu folks
believe things like this got magic. That crew said there are all
sorts of legends about the powers of the gods that come with being
the wearer of the thing. This is a heist problem, and who knows
what kind of technology they bought or what the nasty computers of
that Center came up with? And there’s the racial and cultural
thing.”
Hawks nodded, knowing just what Raven meant. “Those we
will face with every problem. We knew that from the start—at
least I did, and I think you did, too, if you wanted to think about
it. It would have been too much to expect that any of the colonials
were recruited from the freebooters would be members of this race.
I consider it a stroke of real fortune that we, at least, had
people here who knew the world and its people. If this is the
easiest, then this is the one we go for just to see if we have a
prayer of getting the others. Sabatini?”
“This is one I think I’m really gonna enjoy,”
the captain said. “I never been anything this different
before. Still, the basics are here. The chief administrator comes
from a small town up against the mountains on the smaller of the
three continents, and he has an estate there and goes home a lot.
He’s one of them types that likes to spend time with the
people—and, of course, I bet he has one hell of an illegal
high-tech lab there someplace, too. We can’t just walk into
the Center—it’s gonna be too well guarded and it
won’t have the kind of conditions I need to be safe and
secure while I—change into something less obvious, shall we
say. I may have to go through a few people to get in there. Maybe
some townspeople, then to servants at the big man’s place,
and from there to somebody with authority and easy access to
Center.”
“That’s understood,” Hawks told him.
“But I don’t think there is any way you are going to be
able to steal that thing all by yourself. If you can, fine, but if
I know a chief administrator, no matter what the race or culture,
there will be no time when you will be able to become him and
particularly not his security chief without being discovered, and I
would wager much, if I had anything, that it takes at least both of
them to disable that alarm system.”
Sabatini nodded. “I understand that. Still, if I get a
crack at it, I’ll try. If not—well, then it’ll
have to go to the experts up here and we’ll cross that bridge
when we come to it. Right now, I’d say the biggest problem is
getting me in—and out, if need be. Master System knows what
we’re after and it’s got to have that place
monitored wall to wall, and we sure as hell aren’t going to
be able to get close enough in to land a transmuter
receiver.”
“I believe I can help there,” Star Eagle broke in.
“It wouldn’t do to bring the Thunder and
expose the fleet at this point—we may need all that power
later on, if only to fight our way back to Earth. I can use a
capsule, however, with a basic life-support system, and stick it in
a preprogrammed fighter. They are fast and expendable. Janipur
might even let you get down if they couldn’t tell where the
fighter came from, if only to follow it back.”
“Uh huh. And how are you gonna get that fighter close
enough to let it get in? You punch anywhere in the area and
they’re gonna know it.”
“I know. If need be, we have ships to spare, but I would
just as soon not spare any people. It will get you in and confound
Master System, I am sure. It will also tell us just what sort of
forces are in the area, so we can plan for the future. We must,
after all, also get you out.”
Raven turned to Sabatini. “You know, if this all goes as
planned, we’re gonna hav’ta figure some new name for
you, and if it’s one like the Indrus crew’s
got, I won’t want to know it. We’ll also have to
recognize you when we see you.”
Sabatini grinned. “Well, we have a nightingale, a hawk,
and a raven, at least, and I’m told a couple of our new
friends have names that translate out like that anyway. From now
on, why don’t we follow that convention? Why
not—Vulture?”
And Vulture it was. Although all the captains hungered for some
action and volunteered to make the drop, Star Eagle determined that
Pirate One would be their best bet. It could carry the
small fighter with its cargo capsule, and might just fool any
automated defenses. In any case, although none liked to discuss it,
it was expendable.
It was agreed, however, that the small, dark Captain
Paschittawal would fly it, since he had the most knowledge and
experience of any aboard in getting in and out of Janipur. Warlock
would handle weapons, since she was best at that. Only those two
would go; Sabatini, in his capsule inside the fighter, would be
along for the ride.
Thanks to the Indrus’s local charts, they had
excellent maps of the planet and its terrain. It was decided to
attempt a landing in the mountains to the north of the village and
state, where landforms and general weather conditions would provide
good cover for the fighter, which was intended to remain down. The
people of Janipur were not good at mountain climbing, which would
provide some extra security, but might cause problems for Vulture
should he have to return to the ship in Janipurian form. He did not
minimize the difficulties, but he was not that concerned. “I
will get whatever I need, one way or the other,” he assured
them.
The one thing they weren’t all that concerned about was
Vulture returning reprogrammed by Master System. Clayben was quick
to assure them that if such techniques could have worked with
“the creature,” he would have used them back on
Melchior. The very methods by which memory was stored were so
different that none of the common methods would work, and any
biochemical or psychogenetic agents would be neutralized if
introduced. “Remember,” the scientist told them,
“this is not Sabatini, or Koll, or any of the others it has
called itself. It is a unique homemade alien organism only
pretending to be these people, just as it will pretend to
be one of the people of Janipur.”
As an initial test, Star Eagle rigged up Pirate One
with false identification and an automatic program requiring no one
on board. All it would do was punch into the system, go about its
standard refueling, and then return to a predetermined point where
its much more sophisticated scanning records would be analyzed.
Lobotomized, the ship’s core was not much good without a
human at the decision-making level, but it could carry out such
simple and routine tasks and respond to standard queries. They were
not much worried about it being recognized; it was one of an entire
class of automated freighters all of which looked identical. This
was one area in which machine precision and standardization worked
to the advantage of the pirates.
They spent a nervous eight and a half hours while their first
ship was away, worrying that it might not return or might return
altered or containing a cargo of Vals, but it arrived right on
schedule, its tamper seals and passwords untouched. From examining
the sensor data, Star Eagle felt sure that either they were being
led into a trap or Master System was being very cavalier about the
world and its ring. No other ships were evident in the system while
Pirate One was there. An automated satellite relay station
had challenged, then passed, Pirate One.
“I don’t like it,” Hawks told the council.
“It’s too easy. Master System isn’t overflowing
with Vals, but it has enough, or it can create enough, to monitor
five worlds, and it could probably have a ship full of its troopers
lurking around each, as well. I can’t believe it would keep
the way open for us unless it had something more sinister in mind.
It is logical—it also would know that this was the easiest
and the probable first target.”
“I agree that it has something up its metaphorical
sleeve,” Savaphoong put in, “but I wouldn’t be
too surprised if it was traditional and probing. I think it may
want to see if we can do it, and, certainly, it does not just want
the few who would steal the ring, but all of us. It thinks in far
longer terms than we. At this point it is not as concerned about us
getting all the rings as it is about us spreading and multiplying
so that it will be in constant danger now and for generations to
come. As of now, our knowledge is more of a threat to it than our
deeds. It will be after we get the ring, señors, that we
will be in the gravest danger. The game is two-way, you see. We
must acquire the rings. It, however, must acquire us and stamp out
the knowledge of the rings and their power.”
Sabatini grinned. “But it does not know about the
Vulture.”
Insertion proved relatively easy, far easier than they had a
right to expect, bearing out both Hawks’s concerns and
Savaphoong’s reasoning. They flew the fighter remotely,
choosing a landing site so rugged and misshapen by rocky outcrops
and towering peaks that it never even saw the sun. Powered down,
the fighter would be practically invisible from the air. Even so,
it was a tricky operation that has to be done with deliberate
speed. Master System’s monitoring satellite had to be on the
other side of the planet when they began, on an orbital swing that
would keep it away from the landing zone for the longest possible
time. The fighter could be powered down before the satellite made
its sweep, but residual heat might still betray it when the
satellite compared notes with its previous pass. Some cooling time
was essential to keep it from showing up like a beacon to the
monitor.
The new fake ship’s identification worked as well as the
previous, with no indication that the system monitor suspected that
it was actually seeing the same ship again. The fighter was
launched as soon as they felt safely clear of the system
monitor’s scan, and Captain Paschittawal, linked in, guided
it carefully toward Janipur, cutting and boosting power as needed
to avoid the orbital scans and finally inserting it in opposition
to and behind Master System’s planetary monitor. It would now
pass over the exact same region as the monitor, but only after the
monitor and always on the other side of the planet from it.
Within two hours, while the alleged freighter was still taking
on fuel, the spot was passed over, checked, and found to be good.
Paschittawal allowed two more orbital passes, so that the area of
the monitor survey would no longer include the target, then
launched the fighter down to the prescribed spot. Vulture wasted no
time in climbing out as soon as he could risk it.
“Very easy,” the captain said with satisfaction.
“It is how we got down to the planet to do business in the
old days.”
They dropped a relay satellite in the dense fueling belt that
could pick up and relay coded subspace communications from Vulture.
The only danger in the relay was that another ship, in for fuel,
might gobble it up, but the odds of that happening were not
great.
Vulture was now loose on Janipur and those back on the
Thunder could only wait.
In the meantime, the members of that odd community continued to
get to know one another and to grow. China had a daughter, whom she
named Star Daughter, and Hawks and the others of the old guard were
more than astonished to hear that Cloud Dancer was also with child.
Silent Woman’s nursery was going to get crowded a bit faster
than expected.
The Chows in particular seemed to be blossoming. Both had taken
well to piloting, which had given them an enormous amount of
self-confidence and a real job that might prove important, even
vital, in times to come, and both were also now spending a lot of
time in the company of the two half-Chinese crew members from the
Bahakatan. Their extremely mottled skin had given them a
low self-image, but the crewmen did not seem to mind. Hawks
suspected that men born and raised in deep space, where they dealt
with large numbers of bizarre colonials, would find the strangely
marked but otherwise attractive women more exotic than
grotesque.
Hawks himself was diverted for a while by Cloud Dancer’s
news, but he could not let it sway him from long-range planning. He
was to have a child and that was important, but for that child to
have any chance at life and a future, his parents and their allies
would have to prepare the way.
Fernando Savaphoong was an initial key to any planning goals. He
had contacts, secret channels of communication and information, and
he used them.
“There is very little out there,” he reported.
“The heat continues to be on, I fear, and I do not know when
or if it will be off. There were an estimated half-million
freebooters out here, and those who have not been caught or killed
are mostly either running or hiding. I have contacted some who are
hiding, but they are of no real use; they expected to hear
news and get information from me, so withdrawn are
they.”
“Anything about the targets? Particularly the missing
ring?” Hawks asked him.
“Little. Stories, nothing more. Even my Center contacts on
the colonial worlds know little that we do not know.”
Ikira Sukotae looked thoughtful. “Now, let me get this
straight. You know that one is on the Mother World, and we know the
second is definitely on Janipur. You have the worlds for two more,
and while they will be harder to find we have some support, at
least in freebooter stories, about them existing there. Yet
nothing, absolutely nothing, on the fifth ring.”
Hawks nodded. “That’s about the size of
it.”
The tiny captain rose. “Let me talk to somebody for
awhile. I never had this thought before, but it’s one way to
go.” She went back and sought out Takya Mudabur, her
amphibian crew member. Mudabur was nice enough and good in a pinch,
but unlike the others, who had been together for many years, she
was a bit of an outsider kept more to herself.
“Takya?”
“Yes, my captain?” She was in her bath enclosure but
stuck her head out when she saw someone enter her hut.
“Something wrong?”
“Takya, we have done well with you dealing with the water
worlds. How many has it been—four? Five?
“Six, my captain. Why do you ask?”
“When you talk to those people, just in general
conversation, did you ever hear of a story or legend about a great
golden ring with a design on it? Birds, perhaps, on a black stone
set in a great gold ring owned by someone of power or
importance?”
Takya thought a moment, then shook her head. “No, never. I
have heard the story of the five gold rings and I am sure that if I
had heard of any such thing I would have remembered it
then.”
“Of the more than four hundred and fifty known colonial
worlds, how many would you say have water people?”
“Not many. Ten, perhaps fifteen percent. You should know
as well as I.”
She hadn’t known, never having counted them, but the total
amazed her. Somewhere between forty-five and sixty or so such
worlds. “Takya, all the water people I have ever seen are
still air breathers like us. All of the ones you visited were. Have
you ever heard of a race of water breathers?”
“Yes, there are some,” she said, “although not
many. There are also some who breathe atmospheres poisonous to us,
as well. Why do you ask?”
“Just following a train of thought. Are there any
freebooters, any spacefarers at all, among such races? Ones that
either breathe water or something else we cannot?”
“I do not know for certain, but I have never heard of any.
They would have to drastically modify any ships they flew, have
special pressure suits and the like, and would have to modify the
atmospheric transmuter systems to produce their required
atmospheres. It was difficult enough for ones such as you and I to
get out. Adding that may be asking the impossible.”
The captain nodded. “Very well. Thank you.” She
headed back up to the council of captains on the
Thunder’s bridge. They all looked at her
expectantly.
“Well? Anything you’d care to let us in on?”
Hawks asked.
“I—I’m not certain. Have any of you ever
encountered a race that requires either water or some noxious
atmosphere or excessive pressures to breathe and survive? Among the
colonials, I mean.”
“There are several,” the insectlike Chun Wo Har
responded. “They are not on the usual freebooter charts
because they are of no practical value. Most cannot even have the
level of technology the standard Centers use, and others exist
under conditions that render them useless for any profit.
Why?”
“I think I see where she’s headed,” Hawks told
them. “Between us all we have represented here eight separate
races. Combining your varying experiences, we have experience with
perhaps a hundred and fifty or two hundred more through travels and
business and contacts with other freebooters. Nowhere is there a
trace of the lost ring, even as a legend or myth or totem of some
kind. Yet we know that it is required by the core program of Master
System to be in the possession of and under the control of a human
being with power. If I were Master System and I wanted it as buried
as possible, I might well place at least one under such
conditions.”
Maria Santiago shrugged. “Why not all, then? It would make
it next to impossible.”
“You are forgetting the transmuters,” Star Eagle
broke in. “We can make what is required.”
“That may be true,” the San Cristobal
captain responded, “but once you are remade you are that way
for good, no? Because there are inevitable minor losses which
become major, even catastrophic, in a second try. So you become
these—people—and you get their rings, but what good
does it do you? The sheer complexity of sustaining yourself in
space or on another world is daunting, and the—how you
say?—payoff, the insertion into Master System, is going to be
under less than ideal conditions, if I guess right. You could steal
them but not use them, and, I, for one, would not wish to be in the
position of risking all to get the ring only to give it up and
trust it to some, let us face it, alien kind of person who can
offer only a promise of some ill-defined reward. If I were Master
System it would be the logical thing to do.”
Hawks nodded, thinking furiously. “Unless—unless
there aren’t five worlds where it could be safely done. I
wish we had an analysis of any one of the rings rather than just a
hologram of Chen’s. These things only look like
rings, and they were designed by Earth-humans for Earth conditions
using existing technology of the period. Below and in the setting
are complex computer circuitry and instructions that, when combined
with the other four at the correct interface, give access to the
Master System core and override any existing instructions. What
could they be made of? I think the gold is just that—gold. I
have seen Chen’s and it looked like gold to me. The setting,
which looks like stone, must be some sort of synthetic to contain
and protect the electronics. Hence we can, for example, rule out
any atmosphere where gold would be corroded or in any way deformed
or broken down.”
Savaphoong nodded excitedly. “Si! Si! It is
logical! If the rings contained anything active, they would be
shorted out in water, for example, ruling that out.”
“They are most certainly passive,” Star Eagle
commented. “It is asking too much to expect anything to hold
a charge nine hundred-plus years, let alone indefinitely. They may
be powered up when connected, but not individually and
self-contained.”
“Water is looking better and better,” Hawks noted.
“Gold is safe in water. It will tarnish, but it is easily
restored even after centuries. The synthetic holding the
electronics would certainly be watertight and airtight. And if they
were water breathers, they would have virtually no contact
with the freebooters. I would say we have a job and that is to
check all the water breathers first. If we strike no gold, as it
were, then we can begin to check the small number with deadly
atmospheres.”
“I believe I can correlate the master files from the
various ships and come up with most if not all the possible worlds
for this,” Star Eagle told them. “However, it will not
be easy to check on them all. Most will never have seen another
kind of human before, and will consider us all, even Takya, as
monsters.”
Hawks sighed. “These are the kind of problems we expected
to have to solve, and we must solve them one way or another. It is
the job of you all to work out methods and a system for doing so
and then implement it when we approve. If Raven and Chen are
correct in their interpretation of the core commands, then it only
must be possible. I do not believe there is any
requirement that it be easy or guaranteed.”
Vulture had been down on Janipur for seven weeks when the
Thunder finally heard from him again. The new voice was
male, very highly accented, and occasionally difficult to
understand, but the message came through.
“I have rigged up a repeater device to the fighter, then
the relay. I hope it works,” Vulture said. “I also do
not know how long this is safe to use, so I will be brief. This is
a far different world from any I have ever known, but there is a
cultural undercurrent that shows a human origin. Much of the world
is primitive, pretechnological, and ignorant, as expected. The
population is dense in the desirable areas—very dense, and
very poor, by most standards. They are administered by five Centers
employing a total of perhaps thirty thousand inside and in the
field. As the good Indrus captain told us, the Centers are
quite modern with full technology complexes. There is a complex and
rigid caste system here, as well, which complicates matters. One
cannot graduate to Center level; one must be born to it, and there
are physical ways to tell.”
“All right, but have you seen the ring?” Hawks
asked.
“I have. It is not difficult if you are of the Brahman
caste. As the captain said, it is usually on public display, during
which times it would be impossible to get to. Too many people and
too much split-second security. After dark it is protected by a
labyrinthine set of computer and mechanical devices and switches
that bewilder me, and I am many engineers and computer personnel,
if you remember. To remove it even if you had all the codes and
keys would require at least three people. This is long enough for
now. The rest of the data is being sent serially on my subcarrier
direct to Star Eagle. I will call back when I can, but not before
this time tomorrow.”
“Wait! No chance you can get it without us?”
“None. I am third in rank in Security here and have much
power, and I have even participated in unlocking the thing, but
there is simply no way to do it alone and get away with it. One
last thing. You were right about the trap. At least ten percent of
security forces in this Center and possibly others are ringers.
There may be more outside. Master System is just waiting for us to
try for it. Good bye for now.”
“He has broken connections,” Star Eagle said.
“I have the rest of his information under analysis now. It
appears that the actual system is nearly identical to
Earth’s, but the people there do not look anything like any
of us, and the culture is a rather strange form of Hinduism. I
believe with the help of the Indrus personnel we could
create an effective linguistic mindprinter recording, but unlike
Vulture, the rest of us would require a great deal of study to
change. Culture aside, this will not be body or lifestyle to
easily get comfortable with.”
“But what about the ring defenses itself?” Hawks
asked. “What are we facing?”
“Everything conventional, apparently nothing new. These
people have very poor night vision, making for a daylight culture,
and their regular visual range is even more restricted than yours.
That works in our favor since their light-beam traps are invisible
to them but not to us. The outer doors are locked with a large key,
but the door has its own sensors and visual remote monitors as
well. There is a secondary vaultlike door inside the first, with an
open area that is monitored visually and with sensors. The second
door is computer-operated by coded remote from the master console
in Security. No one individual has the whole code, which is changed
periodically.”
“I see. Go on.”
“The inner display museum is covered by light sensors and
is also visually and aurally monitored. The display cases appear to
have weight sensors under tiles around them, so we will have to
find out what sort of weight will set them off. The display case
itself is thick but transparent, most certainly bulletproof, and
perhaps cutter resistant to anything but a laser torch. Cutting or
breaking through would not work, however, since fine alarm wires
run through it like thin mesh. The only way to open the case is
with two conventional keys, one worn by the chief administrator
himself and the other by the chief of Security. Turning both simultaneously opens the case and sounds an alarm
in Security. If it is legitimate, the alarm is simply ignored, but
it cannot be turned off until the case is closed again and
locked.”
“All right. Anything nasty waiting if you get that far and
remove something?”
“No. It is a good alarm system, but not a spectacular one.
You pick it up, close the case, and if you also miss the alarms on
the way out and relock all the doors you have it.”
“I’d hate to see what you call a spectacular system,
then. This sounds mean.”
“The alarms and locks are all conventional, which means
traditional and essentially antique. The same sort is used at Earth
Centers. The Vatican Center museum, for example, is far better
defended.”
“Hmmm . . . I wonder if there’s
any chance of Vulture being alone on duty in Center
Security?”
“Not likely. If they follow the standard procedure there
will probably be a duty officer and three or four others. You know
the procedure, although if Master System has added personnel it is
a good bet that one or more of those on duty down there will be its
people. The area also has regular watchmen rounds, and the doors
are checked. Bet on all the watchmen being Master System personnel.
You won’t be able to bribe them or turn them,
Hawks.”
“Dealing with the people is Vulture’s job, and
I’m sure he can do a good enough cover to get help.
It’s a sure bet that most of the regulars down there, and
particularly the bureaucrats, are really going nuts under a
near-occupation by Master System. Some of them might well cherish
the idea of really helping embarrass the bastards—if they
didn’t know the theft was for real. Any chance of doing it
the easy way? Cutting in the C.A., for example?”
“Dubious. Any chance we might have had left when Master
System placed its own personnel down there. The chief administrator
is first and foremost a survivor with self-interest paramount. No,
we will have to steal it, and that brings up the first and
certainly not the last of the nasty problems we will
face.”
Hawks sighed. “You have a plan and personnel in
mind?”
“I have both, but let me work on it further. I will also
need supplementary information for Vulture. Make no mistake,
though. There is no getting around the fact that we will require at
least some of our people as Janipurians if we are to get close
enough to this to even have a crack at it. Others, with their own
innate abilities, might not need anything drastic, but will require
more than Vulture’s help to get where they are needed. It
appears clear now that the late Arnold Nagy provided us with the
ones best equipped for this particular job. I am merely building
off his obvious intent with others he did not
anticipate.”
“I know. Damn it, it shouldn’t be now, not for
them. Later, perhaps—you are sure that full
transmutation is the only way?”
“Hawks, think of it from the basis of what you know. Back
at North American Center, what would be the chance of, say, the
Kaotan crew sneaking in, looking over and examining
Security areas in detail, inside and out, while they were open,
then breaking in, stealing something, and getting out and away?
Even if they had a senior Security official on their side? Now add
ten percent Master System forces—and you can bet a Val is
somewhere around to call the shots—and you see the
problem.”
The leader of the pirate band sighed again and nodded.
“You’re right. And in that case some excuse could be
made for an open colonial visit—and they still wouldn’t
be able to do it because they would be watched like, well, hawks
around the chickens.”
“We are stuck. They were obviously provided to help solve
this particular problem. We may try it without them, but we would
be crippled if we did.”
“I agree. I’ll start easing into discussing it with
them. In the meantime, do you have anything visual on what these
Janipurians look like? I think I’d better know what I’m
asking before I ask it.”
“Come up to the bridge. I haven’t any such data from
Vulture, but I have some recordings from Indrus’s
files.”
He went on up and found several members of the various crews
there working at some of the consoles, and Raven, cigar stuck in
the side of his mouth, trying to look as if he were busy too. But
when Star Eagle put up a picture of a Janipurian, all turned and
stared.
“What the hell is that?” Raven asked.
The creature was more animal than human, yet it had some very
human gestures. The face, light tan in coloration, was large and
humanoid, although the nose had flap-covered nostrils, was too
large and wide, and its porous skin glistened with dampness like
many animal noses; the mouth seemed too wide and the chin too
small, giving the face a blocky shape. The pointed ears were
upright and seemed to be on a swivellike socket, able to turn in
any direction. Most inhuman were the eyes, which were large, round
bulges.
The whole body was covered in very short but thick hair. The
torso was tapered, thinner near the thick neck than at the rear and
shaped more like that of a four-footed animal than a bipedal human.
The arms, too, were more like forelegs, and the hands, on
incredibly thick wrists, were enormous, the fingers and thumb long
and pointed and looking deceptively boneless. And from the back of
each hand grew an enormous, thick prominence that looked hard as
steel. The creature was standing more or less erect on its two
feet, although it gave the appearance of being slightly bent over,
as if ready to launch into a four-footed run. Arms and legs looked
to be of equal length, and the feet had huge, splayed toes with
deep, curved nails that seemed to dig into the ground. Again, on
the back of the ankles there was that same steellike growth. Some
kind of brief protective bit of clothing was draped above the
thick, animalistic thighs, but there was no hiding the fact that
the creature was a male.
“If that thing can walk like that, I’ll eat
it,” Raven mumbled.
A young woman, one of the crew from the Indrus,
laughed. “They do not walk like that, you are right,”
she said. “The hands and balancing feet curl up, leaving the
hooves for moving and running. They are quite fast, in fact. They
do get around upright when inside, though, if they have something
to hold on to or the distance to go is very short. Do not let it
fool you, though. The hands are quite dexterous, and the people are
excellent artisans. Those claws can also rip someone open with one
try, and they can wield weapons with deadly accuracy. They do not
see very well at all at night, but always their sense of smell and
their hearing is far better than ours.”
Hawks shivered. What am I asking someone to do? he
couldn’t help thinking. Do I have the right to even
ask!
“You said ‘weapons,’ ” Raven noted, not
encumbered by such a duty. “Do they hunt or have
prey?”
“Oh, no. They are vegetarians, strictly. Their mouths move
more side to side, and their teeth are flat and big. Their design
is based primarily on the fact that they came from a culture that
was highly vegetarian to begin with—although not
all—and this world developed warm as mostly grasslands,
desert, and mountains. The grasslands can support a large
population, but there are limits, so the system added some rather
nasty predators once native to their old region—such as
tigers—to maintain a balance in the early days. Today,
however, most of the predators are strictly controlled and only
occasionally escape from royal preserves. Much of the central
grasslands is intensively farmed now, you see—those claws can
also till soil. They have some domestic animals to aid them, but
their tools are basically wood and stone. Useful metal is rare and
prized there, and we traded a fair amount of it.”
Hawks tried to put his more personal concerns from his mind and
concentrate on the problem at hand. If Cochin Center was anything
like North American Center, and he thought it probably was, its
floors would be of smooth, hard synthetics. Those hooves would make
quite a lot of noise on them. The aural sensors would be a real
problem. On the other hand, if those long, pointed fingers were
really all that dexterous, then they would be an advantage when it
came time to deal quietly with the locks.
“This is a male,” he noted. “What do the
females look like?”
“Slightly smaller, with firm breasts that hang down when
she is on all fours,” the woman told him. “The children
are born as four-footed creatures with only flaps where the hands
and feet will be. These do not begin to really grow out and develop
until they are about seven, and are not really useful until
they’re ten or eleven. The standing, walking upright, and the
developed use of the hands is something they must be taught. This
was thought to be a protective innovation when the world was more
dangerous, as they are still essentially self-sufficient from the
age of two and can walk on all fours in a matter of hours or days
after birth. But it is the hands that make them truly human, that
allow them to manipulate and create and build. The hands and the
mastery of them are the mark of being human there. Also, you note
the coloring?”
“You mean the light tan, almost white hair?”
She nodded. “That indicates that this man is a Brahman.
High caste, probably either a major religious leader or from a
Center, as this one was. The castes are known by their coloring. A
darker tan, a light brown, would be below this one and probably a
professional or a politician or regional leader. Dark, reddish
brown would be working class—farmers and laborers, mainly.
Black is, well, untouchable. Unclean. They roam wild and are
something of a danger to the others.”
“Wonderful,” Raven grumbled. “So what happens
if two castes marry?”
“The effect is interesting, as they take on multiple
rather than mixed or blended coloration. The half castes or less
have the rights and duties of the lowest caste their coloration
shows. Such mixing is rare, but it happens often enough to be
noticeable even in a small village such as the one we used for our
dealings.”
Hawks was thoughtful. “And you say only the light tan get
into the Centers? Nobody else?”
“That is what we were told, and it is logical in a society
where you wear your class and your social potential on your
body.”
“Then it’s another complication. Finding enough of
these light tans to copy will be a problem.”
“No big deal, Chief,” Raven replied. “They got
to come out. If Vulture says they follow the standard procedures,
then they ail got to go on leave for a period—and that means
some are always on leave, right? No, that ain’t the problem.
The problem is that everybody on that level will have everything on
record, birth to death, whatever they use for prints, you name it.
The odds are if they don’t all know each other—them
tans I mean—they know mutual friends and family. It’s
gonna be pretty damned tough to fake.”
Hawks sat back in his chair and sighed. “Oh, I don’t
know. If ten percent are Master System plants, who knows whom down
there these days or can take things for granted?” He leaned
forward again. “No, we can make some of those factors work
for us. We might even get Master System and its friends to take the
fall for the robbery, which will nicely aid our getaway. No, the
two big ifs we have to face aren’t there. We can work all
those out. The first is—is it possible to lift that ring? Can
we do it under all their noses and get away with it?”
“Yeah,” Raven agreed, chomping on his cigar.
“And who’s gonna hav’ta become one of
them for life to spring the damned locks while Vulture
covers?” The ultimate price . . . And this was only the first
time.
The Chows seemed more alive than he remembered them, and
happier, too. He wished this situation could have arisen under more
miserable circumstances. The girls were certainly curious,
particularly when they were summoned to Hawks’s private
office and found him there alone with one of the women from the
Indrus.
“Sit down,” he invited. “Make yourself
comfortable. So far you’ve played a background role in all
this. You’ve been very helpful, but I know both of you felt
that you just happened to attach yourself to this group by sheer
chance. Would you be surprised if I told you that you had been
included all along? That much of what happened to you was
deliberate and designed to make sure you came with us?”
That startled them. “We—just happened to be on the
same ship as China,” Chow Dai noted.
“Uh uh. A ship taking you to Melchior, so you could be
handled and strictly controlled until it was time to move. You were
not there by accident. They needed someone with very specific
skills and they ran those skills through their computer and you
came out, having been caught at China Center going through doors
that expert technicians couldn’t crack. Tell me, do you know
how you do it?”
They both shrugged. “How do you sing or dance? You do not
think about it—it is clear in the mind. You know our uncle
was a magician, an illusionist he called himself, who loved to
escape from the impossible. He taught us many of his tricks because
we were good at them. There are only so many ways locks work, and
there is always a weak spot.”
“Huh! And does this explain how you can crack elaborate
electronic combinations of numbers and even coded badge and
fingerprint and eyeprint locks?”
“There are some secrets we must keep,” Chow Dai
replied coyly, “because we swore an oath to our uncle, but
there are always ways of getting the right numbers for finding how
to fake what is needed.”
“Some of those locks at Melchior matched a minutely
detailed hologram. You walked through them like they weren’t
there.”
They both grinned. “There is always an alternate way to
spring a lock. Anyone who needs a lock that complicated must first
be very afraid that someone will get in. After they install it, and
after a few times when it does not work and they cannot
get in, they always have an equal or greater fear that this might
happen all the time. The more complicated the lock the easier it is
to figure out the emergency bypass, since it must work without
triggering the other, more ordinary, way in.”
“Have you ever seen a lock or security system you
couldn’t beat?”
They looked at each other and shrugged. “Yes and
no,” Chow Dai responded. “We have never seen one we
could not beat, but we have been caught because we did not have any
easy way to look over the system and take the time to find out all
about it. We were ignorant peasant girls. At the time, we did not
even know what a visual monitor was.”
“But you do now.”
“Oh, yes. We have spent much time aboard here learning
more and more. Star Eagle has been very kind and has read us
details of the most incredible security systems, and shown
us moving cartoon pictures of them. We know much more
now.”
Hawks wondered who put Star Eagle up to that useful
activity. The crazy thing was, the Chows were exactly what they
said they were—simple peasants taken in as domestic servants
by a spoiled China Center official’s wife. Neither of them
could read or write or showed much inclination to learn; neither
had any formal education at all. Their good speech in English was
due to a mindprinter program and extensive practice aboard the
Thunder. They were certainly geniuses, but their genius
was limited to certain areas.
“You know what this is all about? You understand what
we’re doing out here, don’t you?”
“Oh, yes. You are trying to find the five magic rings that
will bring down the machine that plays god. It is a noble thing
that might free our people one day.” Here it is. “One of the rings is in a Center on a
planet called Janipur. It is guarded by a complicated security
system that is mechanical, electronic, and personally guarded, and
is considered impregnable. This was known to the people who set up
our little pirate band. They felt you could crack that system,
steal the ring, and get away. That is why you are here, why you
have been here all along. To steal that ring.”
“Then we will do it. We have not had a good challenge like
that in a very long time.”
“There is—a problem. A hitch. The problem is that
the people down there are not human like we are human. They are
another kind of human—different from us but no more different
than some of the others we have aboard this ship right now. We
might, under very risky conditions, get humans to the Center, but
they would be useless. They couldn’t walk around, get in any
visual monitor, be seen by anyone there, since there are no
Earth-humans anywhere on that world. Master System also has people
who look like those other kind of humans down there just waiting
for anyone not of that race to even be glimpsed. All our
information, all our experts and computers, say that no one could
get near enough to that ring to even pick the locks who was not of
their race. You understand?”
“You wish us to teach them how to do it?”
He sighed. This was even harder than he thought. “No. We
can’t allow any of them in on this. Not right now. They are
decent people down there, mostly, but Master System is standing
over them and telling them what to do and they can’t fight
it, so they’re not going to do the job for us. We have to do
it ourselves.”
“But you just said—”
He held up his hand. “You remember Song Ching who became
China Nightingale? You know how they did it?”
They looked at each other, then at him. “They—used
some kind of machine. One that changes you.”
“Yes. We have the same kind of machine, and Star Eagle
knows how to run it. This ship was designed to do that, to change
one kind of human into another. But we don’t have any
mindprinter program, or a good means of getting one, that would
teach anyone changed into the kind of people down there how to use
that body. It would have to be learned after someone was changed
into one of their kind. It would be very, very hard.”
“China,” Chow Mai whispered. “They cannot
change her back.”
“No. People are the most complicated of all living things.
We know a lot about how people work, how they’re put together
and why they are the way they are, and we can change much of it,
but it’s not just one part we’re talking about
here—it’s the whole thing, body, brain, blood, you name
it. More cells than anyone can count, all of which have to work
perfectly together. Once always seems to work, but try it again and
it just doesn’t come back together right. It can kill or
cripple or form a horrible kind of monster that’s one of a
kind—and maybe not make the brain work, either.”
The twins were silent for a moment, then Chow Dai spoke.
“You want us to be changed into these—others. Learn how
to be these others. Then go in and steal the ring. And,
after—we are these others forever?”
“Yes. It’s the first time this has been asked of
anyone, but it will not be the last. Many of us, maybe even me,
will have to do the same thing. We have three more rings to get
before we can head home.”
“May we—see what these people look like?”
He got out a holographic still Star Eagle had run off and handed
it to them. It was of the same male he’d seen. They just
stared at it, not revealing their emotions, although Chow Dai
breathed “Oh” very softly.
“I know what I’m asking and don’t think
it’s easy. I expect to have to give this speech again a few
more times. We may all need to do it just to sneak past
Master System to get to its home, but we might not. It’s not
fair, but that’s the way it’s set up. I wouldn’t
ask if I didn’t think it could be done. We have
Vulture—you remember the one who was Koll, then Sabatini,
very well, I think—down there now, as one of them. He’s
in their security system at the Center but he can’t do the
job, only provide information and training and cover in and out. We
will get you out.”
“As—them,” Chow Dai said quietly. “And
then what?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I mean, suppose we can do it. All of it. We get your ring
and then we come back here. What happens to us then?”
“You will still be human beings, damn it. You’ll
still be the same inside, too. You’re both good pilots and we
can use good pilots. We might also need you to train others to pick
other, different locks. You will be no different from the woman
with scales and her nose in the back of her head, or the
Cantonese-speaking crew with their bones on the outside. Still
people, still a part of the team.” He thought about the
missing fourth ring and Captain Sukotae’s theory.
“Someone, perhaps many, might have to become far more limited
sorts than these. We believe one ring may be deep on a world of
water breathers.”
The woman from the Indrus cleared her throat.
“I’m sorry,” Hawks apologized. “This is
Sabira of the Indrus. She has dealt with these people and
knows them well.”
“They are good people,” she told them, “and
their bodies may look strange, but they are actually better than
ours in many ways. They are tough and versatile. And, where it
counts, they are quite human. They love their children, are
generally good to one another, like luxuries and try to enjoy life
as best they can. Most are peasants much like the sort of people
yours are. If we are to win, this must be done.”
The girls were not properly enthused. “If we did not to
this, then what would happen?” Chow Mai asked.
Hawks sighed. “I will not order someone to do this. I
could, but it is not in my nature. Too many bad things were done to
too many people aboard this ship now because someone or something
ordered it done. If you refuse, then we will find volunteers. You
will be expected to teach them all that you can about the problem,
and then they will go and make the attempt. They will not have as
good a chance as you would, but we will try and we will keep trying
until we are down to no one here and we cannot win. We must. If we
don’t get that ring then the rest doesn’t
matter.”
They nodded. “This vault. You have information on it? Yes?
Can we know what it is?”
Hawks gave them as detailed a description of the situation as he
could. They listened attentively.
“That is not a difficult sequence but it is very
tricky,” Chow Dai said. “No amateur, particularly in an
unfamiliar body, could do it. It is worse because it is mostly
mechanical. The mechanisms are not all that different from one big
illusion in our uncle’s show. His wife would get into a
coffin, and then they would fill it with water, seal it with many
chains and locks, and my uncle would have to pick them all and open
the coffin before she drowned. She was a Buddhist who had studied
with some mystics in the high mountains and could remain under for
several minutes, more than most people, but it was still a matter
of speed and skill. As little girls, we knew just how it was done,
and we would often practice with the coffin empty against an
hourglass timer. Many long times it took us up to an hour—far
too long. Now we could do it, perhaps faster than Uncle Li could.
This is a very complicated version of the same problem. No one
aboard here could be taught to do it fast and perfect the first
time in just a few days or weeks or even months, and we cannot
exactly duplicate it here because we have not seen it and its
hidden surprises.”
“Nonetheless, we must try,” he told them.
Sabira spoke. “You would not be going in alone, as you
might have had to do under other circumstances. We—the
Indrus crew and some of the others—have talked it
over. We know the land, the people, the customs. It was decided
that one of us at least should go as well, take the same route as
you are asked to take, to help teach you the subtler ways of those
people. We also have a mindprinter program for the language, which
is basically a very distorted version of Hindi, which is my first
language. The omens of the gods brought us to you, as the minds
behind the attack on the great computer demon brought you here.
With all these things on our side, we cannot fail. Compared to what
we might face with the others, this is ready-made for us.”
They gaped at her. “You would become one of
them, as well? Forever?”
“It is my duty. I will not tell you that I am excited by
the prospect, but I do not fear it, either.”
The twins looked at Hawks. “How long before this would
happen?”
He shrugged. “The Vulture has a lot more to set up, and we
have to coordinate things. We don’t think that getting you in
will be a problem. We’ve been running Pirate One in
and out at regular intervals for months now, so that it appears to
be a new but regular run. It isn’t even challenged anymore.
Vulture can arrange a much easier and more convenient arrival than
we arranged for him. We’ve manage to get his old ship out and
put in one with a transmuting station—the same one we used on
the island world. We can send directly from Pirate One to
that transmuter now, if Vulture is there and we time it right. In
fact, first we have to find prospects for Star Eagle to copy and
study, and get them to Pirate One, where we now have a
transmuter and some storage. Covers must be arranged, and no one,
least of all Master System and its personnel, must suspect. We are
pretty sure that down there at Cochin Center someplace is a Val.
You will have to go in and be accepted there before you pull the
job. Then we have to get you all out and away under their noses.
It’s going to be very tricky and very dangerous. Even Vulture
can’t become a Val.”
“Very well, then,” Chow Dai said almost
matter-of-factly. “Then we will do it.”
He was surprised. “Just like that? Don’t want to
talk it over or think about it?”
“There is no need to do so. We would both be dead at the
hands of the security guards at China Center had this not been
arranged as you say. You have given the reason we have never
understood, which was why we were taken from there and sent to
where only important people are sent. The ones who chose us did not
make us break into the Center apartments and offices or steal. We
did that ourselves, and we were caught for our ignorance. Our lives
and our bodies were forfeit because we were caught. They belong to
the ones who saved us. You cannot know what it is like to be so
helpless as we were, to be beaten and raped not by one but by many
brutish men, again and again. Neither of us has really been able to
get close to a man since then, nor really trust another. When
this—Vulture—creature saved us from Sabatini, we owed
still more. We will do it.”
“Nobody owns anyone’s bodies or lives here.
That’s what this is all about.” He looked at Chow Mai.
“And you? You agree?”
“We do not need to speak. We know each other’s
minds,” the other said.
Hawks sighed. “All right then. We’ll set it
up.”