Part 13 (1/2)
So did Pooketih. ”You made some of us quite silly, Wan-To,” he pointed out. ”Perhaps one of us thought some other of us was trying to kill him. Why should any of us think that, Wan-To?”
Wan-To considered how to answer that. It sounded like a serious question. Was there guile behind it?
He was not quite sure how much guile Pooketih possessed. Pooketih was certainly not one of the cleverest of Wan-To's tribe. By the time he created Pooketih, Wan-To had already noticed worrying signs of insolence from Haigh-tik and Gorrrk and Mromm. And insolence was the first stage of insurrection.
It was quite likely, Wan-To had decided even then, that one of these ages he would have to take measures against them. So when he made Pooketih and the later ones he cautiously withheld from them a good quarter of his knowledge and at least half of his compet.i.tive drive. (But maybe even half was still dangerously much?) ”There is nothing in the universe that can harm any of us, except each other,” Wan-To said cautiously. ”I suppose that the knowledge that you can be destroyed by somebody is likely to make you think of destroying him first-for a certain type of mind, I mean.”
”Do I have that type of mind, Wan-To?”
”Not on purpose,” Wan-To said glumly.
”Do you?”
Wan-To hesitated, almost considering telling Pooketih the truth. But caution vetoed that impulse. ”I made you,” he pointed out. ”I made all of you, because I wanted your companions.h.i.+p. I would miss you if you were gone.”
”You can make others,” Pooketih said sadly.
That was too true to deny. Wan-To was silent. Pooketih went on unhappily, ”It was so nice when you first generated my patterns. I knew so little! Everything you told me was a wonderful surprise. I remember your telling me what your own star was like, and how it differed from mine.”
Wan-To was suddenly uneasy. ”That was a different star,” he said quickly. ”I have moved since.”
”Oh, yes, so have I, several times. But that was so interesting, Wan-To! I wish you could tell me again.”
Now Wan-To was definitely uncomfortable. ”I don't want to do that now,” he said shortly.
”Then tell me something different,” Pooketih pleaded. ”Tell me-for instance, tell me why it is that some groups of stars have suddenly changed their courses and moved away from us.”
Wan-To wasn't uneasy anymore. Now he was quite convinced that Pooketih was trying, in his silly, innocent way, to probe for information he should not have. Wan-To said deceitfully, ”Ah, but wouldn't that be interesting to know, Pooketih? Perhaps you can find out. Try to do that, Pooketih, then you tell me!”
And then Wan-To terminated the conversation and paused to consider.
Was it possible that Pooketih was not wholly without guile after all?
It was with regret that Wan-To decided Pooketih must be slain. As it turned out, though, that wasn't easy to do, because Wan-To himself was not safe. When five consecutive stars of his own type flared, each with a stellar ma.s.s between .94 and 1.12, Wan-To began for the first time in his long life to be afraid.
The resemblance between those stars and his own could not be an accident. Some one of his copies had deduced enough of what Wan-To's home star was like to start a systematic campaign of destruction. Someone's searching fire was specifically directed at him. him.
The option of flight was always open to him. He could quit this star and move to another. He could choose an unlikely one, he thought; maybe a little red dwarf, or one of those short-lived Wolf-Rayet kind of things. Neither was attractive as a permanent home-the dwarf star too confining, the huge infant star too unstable. But that was exactly the reason why no one would look for him there.
But-getting there! That was the problem! It meant abandoning the concealment of his star and launching himself as a pure pattern of energy, as naked and unprotected as any molting Earthly crustacean, across the interstellar void. The danger would not last for long. He would not be easy to spot. There was a good chance that he could make the journey and be safely hidden before one of his sibs detected his presence. He calculated the odds on survival as at least a hundred to one.
That one chance in a hundred was too much to take. Especially, Wan-To thought with pleasure, as he had a few tricks still up his sleeve.
So for some little time Wan-To was quite busy. He was making another copy of himself.
Practice, Wan-To was sure, made perfect. This time he was going to make the exact person he intended, without any possibly dangerous traits. Also, he schemed, with certain memories carefully excised; this copy would never cause him any trouble.
In order to do all that, Wan-To had to scan every part of his memory stores. Copy a pattern here, strike one out there; it was a lot like an earthly computer expert trying to adapt a program for, say, air traffic control to become one for, perhaps, ballistic missile defense. It took a long time, for there were billions of years of memories in Wan-To's store, and during all that time Wan-To could not permit himself any interruptions at all. So he turned off most of his scanning systems, muted the attention calls from his relations, even shut down his communication with the doppel on the planet Nebo. (As it happened, this was too bad in some ways, but Wan-To didn't know that.) He devoted himself entirely to the construction of the new being, and when its patterns had been completed he activated it with pride and hope.
The new being stirred and looked around. ”Who are you?” it asked. And, almost in the same moment, ”More important, who am I?”
”I am Wan-To, whom you love and wish well,” Wan-To told it. ”Your name is also Wan-To.”
”But we can't both have the same name! Can we?”
”We do, though,” Wan-To informed him. ”Of course, just between the two of us you should have a different name, otherwise it would be very confusing, wouldn't it? So, just for the two of us-let me see-yes, I think we will call you 'Traveler.' ”
”That isn't a proper name,” Traveler complained. ”Does it mean I am going to go somewhere?”
”How clever you are,” Wan-To said with pride. ”Yes. You are going to leave this star and take up residence in another one, far away.”
”Why?”
”Because no star is big enough for two like us,” Wan-To explained. ”Don't you feel cramped? I do. We'll be much happier when you have a star of your own.
Traveler thought that over for a time. ”I don't feel happy at all,” he said. ”I feel very confused. Why is that, Wan-To? Why don't I remember why you made me?”
”You're still very young,” Wan-To said promptly. ”Naturally you are still learning. But to develop properly you will have to go to a star of your own, and you are going to do that right away.”
”I am?” the copy wailed. ”But, Wan-To, I'll be lonely!”
”Not at all!” Wan-To cried. ”That's the best part, Traveler! See, as soon as you leave here you will activate your communications systems-do you know where they are?”
”Yes,” the copy confirmed after a moment. ”I've found them. Shall I do that now?”
”No, no!” Wan-To said hastily. ”Not now! now! When you're on your When you're on your way. way. You will call all your new friends, who are waiting to meet you-Haigh-tik and Pooketih and Mromm. You will simply say to them, 'h.e.l.lo, this is Wan-To calling.' ” You will call all your new friends, who are waiting to meet you-Haigh-tik and Pooketih and Mromm. You will simply say to them, 'h.e.l.lo, this is Wan-To calling.' ”
”Is that all I say?” the copy asked doubtfully.
”No,” Wan-To said judiciously. ''You will also want to tell them exactly where you are. That information you will also find in your stores if you look. And then-and this is the most important part, Traveler-then you will forget that I exist. You will be be Wan-To.” Wan-To.”
”I don't know how to do that,” the copy wailed.
”You don't have to,” Wan-To a.s.sured him comfortably. ”You'll find that I've already arranged that; once you leave this star you won't remember anything about it, or me. And then,” he promised grandly, ”your new friends will tell you everything you need to know. They will answer all your questions. Now go, Traveler. And I wish you a happy journey.”
When Wan-To's last remaining sensor informed him of a vector boson blast a few light-years away, he began to feel more at ease. They had taken the decoy. The zapping of G-3 stars would stop.
Now all he had to do was wait until the others had wiped themselves out . . . perhaps, he thought, for quite a long time.
Like Viktor and Reesa, in another place and time, he did not then know just how long that time would be.
CHAPTER 14.
By the time Viktor got his eyes well open he almost wanted to close them again. Even the long, still sleep of the freezers was better than this madhouse! First it was Reesa, shaky, fearful, trying to explain things to him- ”We're about to land on Newmanhome. These people found us and thawed us out . . .”