Part 28 (2/2)

She wrestled herself into shape, with a powerful tail and small guidance fins. She had only a vague notion of the proper form of a fish, never having antic.i.p.ated the need to a.s.sume this form; it took time and concentration to mimic a given form perfectly, and advance preparation was necessary. That was why she always a.s.sumed the same human form; it was far easier than developing a credible new one. But the approximate form of the fish she could manage, and it should swim well enough.

She worked her flukes and commenced swimming against the flow. But she quickly realized that the flow was too strong; she could not swim fast enough to counter it, let alone make progress against it. Already she was warming with the effort, while actually being carried along backward.

Warming? There was the answer! She did not need to escape the pipe; she could swim with flow, heating herself, and making even better progress than planned.

She turned about and swam. She did not push harder than she needed to maintain her body heat. She knew she would arrive ahead of schedule, and in good order.

Then she began to suffer from oxygen shortage. She should have lasted the full time, but realized that the energy consumed in the shape-change and the swimming was exhausting her reserve at several times the antic.i.p.ated rate. She was in trouble again.

She stopped swimming immediately, conserving her remaining oxygen. But the damage had already been done; she knew she did not have enough to carry her through.

She was in water; didn't that carry oxygen? In fact, it was made of oxygen, in part! If she could tap into that. . .

She worked on the fish form, generating gills. These were really a variant of the lungs she used in her human form, not too complicated to work out. She let the water flow through, but it really didn't move. She realized she had to swim to cause the water to move through the gills. Then it worked, and it was like breathing, less effective because she didn't have the gills down as well as she had the lungs, but good enough. It took less energy to swim than to walk on land, so the reduced efficiency of intake could be tolerated; she took in less oxygen but required less.

After another hour the water warmed. Evidently the pipe had emerged from the deep rock and was now at or near the surface, possibly even above it. The pipe was level or angled for a slight descent, to help the flow, but it had originated in the mountains, and now was at the level plain. Surely the sun was beating down on it, elevating the temperature. That relieved the problem of cold; now, recharged with oxygen and no longer needing to swim to generate heat, she could melt back into a ball and allow herself to be carried along.

She did so, and had a comfortable hour. But the temperature of the water continued to increase, making her uncomfortable. Heat was as bad as cold; worse, really, for her life-tolerance was not much above her normal body temperature. She could guard herself against cold by various mechanisms, but how could she keep cool when immersed in hot water? The threat of the Citizen to boil her in a big pot had appalled her; she would have been dead within minutes. Now- She rea.s.sessed her situation. She was now in the fourth hour, closing on her destination. The water was heating slowly. If she relaxed totally, she might get through before it got too hot. That seemed to be her best and only course.

She found that the water was slightly cooler at the bottom of the pipe. She formed herself into an eel-shape and planed her way as low as she could, hugging the bottom. This helped.

The water stabilized. The pipe must now be in shadow. What a blessing!

She heard a tapping. She came alert; that was the signal! And in a moment she came to a division in the pipe; a smaller offshoot diverged, and the tapping was from its direction. She wriggled into it, flowing up to a narrow spigot. She squeezed through it, landing in a basin supervised by a testing machine.

She formed an eyestalk so that she could see more clearly. There were no serfs here; this unit was completely mechanized. Good; she formed into her full human shape.

”Go to the overseer's office,” the grille on the testing machine said. ”Follow the line.”

Agape looked, and saw the line. It traveled down the center of the chamber, and was evidently used to guide the less intelligent machines. She followed it out of the chamber and down a hall, and in due course came to the office.

”a.s.sume this form,” a new grille told her. A picture flashed on the adjacent screen.

”But-but that's a man!” she protested.

”Is it beyond your ability?”

”No.” She realized that she had become too thoroughly wedded to the original human form she had a.s.sumed. She thought of herself as female, but she could have become a male. Probably the machines wanted to conceal her ident.i.ty completely, and this was the way to do it.

She melted partially, drawing her hair and b.r.e.a.s.t.s back into her torso, then reformed to match the picture. It was holographic, slowly turning to reveal every detail, so this was not difficult. She hesitated when she studied the masculine p.e.n.i.s, but realized that she could not afford to omit this detail. So, dismayed, she formed it and the attached s.c.r.o.t.u.m.

”You are Sander, traveling to become the employee of Citizen k.u.min. You are new to Proton. Avoid discussion beyond this subject.”

”I am Sander, to become the employee of Citizen k.u.min,” she repeated dutifully.

'Take the air shuttle to Hardom. When there, a.s.sume your normal human ident.i.ty and go to the premises of Citizen Blue.”

Agape walked out of the water processing section, following directions, and to the air shuttle station. This was a busy place, with serfs and machines hurrying to and fro. There were shuttles going to Anidom and Gob-dom and Moudom and Gnodom; she found the one for Hardom and walked up the ramp and took the first vacant seat she found. She had only used such a conveyance once before, and felt uneasy.

Other serfs entered, some with tattoos showing their employing Citizen. The seats filled. A young woman plumped down beside Agape. ”Hey, who you with?” she asked.

”I am Sander, to become the employee of Citizen k.u.min,” Agape said carefully.

”Oh? I'm Lula, and I work for him too. Had to hand-carry a message, now going back. So you're new on Proton ?”

”New, yes,” Agape agreed.

”So you don't know the ropes.”

”Yes.” Agape was not at all comfortable with this.

”Well, we might as well get friendly, since we're going to the same place.” Lula, seated to Agape's left, put her right hand on Agape's left leg, stroking it. ”You're human, aren't you?”

Agape became aware of two things. Lula was not human, she was android; the forwardness of her manner suggested that. And she a.s.sumed that Agape was human, and male, and proposed-what?

”Oh, come on now,” Lula said, evidently taking Agape's silence for timidity. ”This is Proton. We're serfs. n.o.body cares what we do.” Her hand moved, becoming considerably more familiar. ”Get it up, and I'll sit on your lap, and when the takeoff boost comes-hoo!”

”No!” Agape said, blocking the further progress of the hand. ”I can't-”

”Oh, so you figure you're too good for an android!” Lula exclaimed, her anger flaring readily. ”You think just because you're human, you don't have to mingle!”

”You misunderstand,” Agape protested. ”I'm not-”

But she could not go on, because she did not want to reveal her true nature until she was safely in Hardom, away from any possible interception by Citizen Purple.

”Then show it!” Lula said, reaching again.

”Not from this planet,” Agape said, intercepting the hand again. ”Where I come from, it is not this way.”

”Well, brother, you are not where you come from.”

”Oh, leave him alone, android,” another serf said. ”He doesn't have to play with you.”

Lula turned to the other. ”You going to play instead, robot?”

The man smiled. ”You think I can't? Come sit on me, android.”

Lula leaped to the challenge, joining him. In a moment the vacated seat was filled by a new boarder, this one male. Agape relaxed.

Belts snaked out and secured the pa.s.sengers to the seats. Without further ceremony, the shuttle took off. Its nose was hauled up to a forty-five-degree angle, and it was catapulted out through the forcefield that was the city-dome and into the harsh thin atmosphere of Proton. Wings sprang out from its sides, and a jet of fire propelled it onward.

In moments the craft was cruising over the Purple Mountains, proceeding north. Agape stared out the port, fascinated. She realized that a misp.r.o.nunciation of her name would describe it: she was agape. On her prior shuttle flight she had not crossed the mountain range; it had been from the main s.p.a.ceport to Hardom, and she had been distracted by the newness of the entire situation. Now she could focus on the geography, and wonder whether she could spot the particular mountain on which she and Bane had hidden from the Citizen's minions.

Bane. The machines had read her appendage, and verified to their satisfaction that she loved him. But would she ever see him again? The question filled her with melancholy.

”Something wrong, man?” her new companion inquired.

<script>