Part 11 (1/2)
Chapter Fourteen.
KRIP VORLUND.
There was no night or day in the interior of the Lydis Lydis, but I had that dazed feeling that one has when one has slept very heavily. I put up one hand to deliver the usual greeting rap on the side of the upper bunk. If Maelen had slept too- Maelen! Her name unlocked memory and I sat up without caution, knocking my head painfully against the low-slung upper bunk. Maelen was still out there -in the freeze box! She must be brought in, put under such safeguards as the s.h.i.+p could give. How had I come to forget about her?
I was already on my feet, reaching for the begrimed thermo clothing dropped in a heap on the floor, when the door panel opened. I looked around to see the captain.
Foss was never one to reveal his thoughts on his face. A top Trader learns early to dissemble or to wear a mask. But there are small signs, familiar to those who live in close company, which betray strong emotions. What I saw now in Foss was a controlled anger which I had known only once or twice during the time I had s.h.i.+pped on board the Lydis Lydis.
Deliberately he entered my cabin without invitation. That act in itself showed the gravity of the situation. For privacy is so curtailed on board a s.p.a.cer that each member of the crew is overly punctilious about any invasion of another's. He pulled down one of the wall seats and sat in it, still saying nothing.
But I was in no mood to sit and talk, if that was his intention. I wanted Maelen as safe as I could make her. I had no idea how long I had slept, leaving her exposed to danger.
Since the captain seemed in no hurry to announce his business with me, I broke silence first.
”I must get Maelen. She is in an alien freeze box-up on the cliffs. I must get her into our freeze compartment-” As I spoke I sealed my thermo jacket. But Foss made no move to let me by, unless I physically pushed him aside.
”Maelen-” Foss repeated her name, but there was something so odd about the tone of his voice that he caught my attention in spite of my impatience to be gone.
”Vorlund, how did it come about that you weren't with the rest-that you found your own way into that chain of burrows? You left here in company.” His eyes held mine in intent measuring. Perhaps, had my mind not been largely on the need for reaching Maelen, I might have been uneasy, or taken partial warning from both his question and his att.i.tude.
”I left them on the cliff top. Maelen called-she was in trouble.”
”I see.” He was still watching me with a measuring look, as if I were a piece of merchandise he had begun to suspect was not up to standard. ”Vorlund-” Suddenly he reached up and pressed a stud. The small locking cupboard sprang open. As the inner side of the door was a mirror, I found myself staring at my own face.
It always gave me a feeling almost of shock to see my reflection thus. After so many years of facing one image, it takes time to get used to another. My skin was somewhat browner than it had been on Yiktor/ Yet it in no way matched the dark s.p.a.ce tan which all the other crew members had and which I had once accepted as proper. Against even the slightest coloring my silver brows, slanting up to join the hairline on my temples, and the very white locks there, close-cropped as they were, had no resemblance to my former appearance. I now had the delicately boned Tha.s.sa face, the pointed chin.
”Tha.s.sa.” Foss's word underlined what I saw reflected. ”You told us on Yiktor that bodies did not matter, that you were still Krip Vorlund.”
”Yes,” I said when he paused, as if his words had a deep meaning to be seriously considered. ”I am Krip Vorlund. Did I not prove it?”
Could he possibly think now that I was really Tha.s.sa? That I had managed to masquerade successfully all these months among men who knew me intimately?
”Are you? The Krip Vorlund, Free Trader, that we know would not put an alien above his s.h.i.+p-or his duty!”
I was shaken. Not only because he would say and think such a thing of me, but because there was truth in it! Krip Vorlund would not have left that squad on the cliff top-gone to answer Maelen. Or would he? But I was Krip. Or was it true, that shadowy fear of mine, that something of Maquad governed me?
”You see,” Foss continued, ”you begin to understand. You are not, as you swore to us, Krip Vorlund. You are something else. And this being so-”
I turned from the mirror to face him squarely. ”You think I let the men down in some way? But I tell you, I I would not have dared use esper-not around what controls Griss Sharvan now. Only such as Maelen might dare that. And would not have dared use esper-not around what controls Griss Sharvan now. Only such as Maelen might dare that. And his his change was certainly none of my doing. If I had not acted as I did, would you have your warning now?” change was certainly none of my doing. If I had not acted as I did, would you have your warning now?”
”Only you did not go off on your own for us, to do our scouting.”
I was silent, because again he was speaking the truth. Then he continued: ”If enough of Krip is left in you to remember our ways, you know that what you did was not Trader custom. What you appear to be is a part of you now.”
That thought was as chilling as the fear I had faced in the burrows. If Foss saw me as an alien, what did I have left? Yet I could not allow that to influence me. So I turned on him with the best argument I could muster.
”Maelen is part of our safeguard. Such esper powers as hers are seldom at the service of any s.h.i.+p. Remember, it was she who smashed that amplifier up on the cliff, the one which held us all prisoner while you were gone. If we have to face these aliens it may be Maelen who will decide the outcome for us. She is crew! And she was in danger and called. Because I can communicate with her best, I heard her and I went.”
”Logical argument.” Foss nodded. ”What I would expect, Vorlund. But you and I both know that there is more standing behind such words than you have mentioned.”
”We can argue that out later, once we are free from Sekhmet.” Trader code or not, I was ridden by the need to get Maelen into what small safety the Lydis Lydis promised. ”But Maelen has to be brought to our freeze unit-now!” promised. ”But Maelen has to be brought to our freeze unit-now!”
”I'll grant you that.” To my vast relief the captain arose. Whether he accepted my plea that Maelen was crew, that her gifts were for our benefit, I could not tell. It was enough for the present that he would go to her aid.
I do not know what arguments he used with the Patrol to get them to help us, because I left him behind as I climbed to the cliff crest. There was no alien face behind the frostless top plate now. Maelen's small body took so little room in the box it was out of sight. My quick inspection of the fastenings proved that the container had not been disturbed since I had left it. And where I had put the alien body, there was nothing at all. The winds must have scoured away the last ashy remains hours ago.
Getting the box down the cliff face was an awkward job, one which we had to do slowly. But at length we brought it up the ramp of the Lydis Lydis by hand, not entrusting it to the robos. And the Patrol s.h.i.+p's medic waited to make the transfer to the s.h.i.+p's freeze unit. by hand, not entrusting it to the robos. And the Patrol s.h.i.+p's medic waited to make the transfer to the s.h.i.+p's freeze unit.
Every stellar voyaging s.h.i.+p has such a unit to take care of any badly injured until they can be treated at some healing center. But I had not realized, even when I labored to take care of Maelen, how badly broken her gla.s.sia body was. And I think that the medic gave up when he saw that b.l.o.o.d.y bundle of matted fur. But he got a live reading, and that was enough to make him hurry to complete the transfer.
As the hasps locked on the freeze unit, I ran my hand along the top. There was the spark of life still in her; so far had her will triumphed over her body. I did not know how long she might continue to exist so, and the future looked very dark. Could I now possibly get her back to Yiktor? And even if I tracked down the Old Ones of the wandering Tha.s.sa and demanded a new body for her, would they give it to me? Where would such a body come from? Another animal form, to fulfill the fate they had set on her? Or perhaps one which was the result of some such case as gave me Maquad's-a body from the care of Umphra's priests, where those injured mentally beyond recovery were tended until Molaster saw fit to set their feet upon the White Road leading them out of the weary torment of their lives?
One step at a time. I must not allow myself to see all the shadows lying ahead. I had Maelen in the best safekeeping possible. In the freeze unit that spark of life within her would be tended with all the care my people knew. A little of the burden had been lifted from me, but much still remained. Now I knew that I owed another debt-as Foss had reminded me. I was ready to pay it as best I could. And I went to the control cabin to offer to do so.
I found Foss, the Patrol commander Borton, and the medic Thanel gathered around a box from which the medic was lifting a loop of wire. From the loop a very delicate collection of metal threads arched back and forth, weaving a cap. He handled this with care, turning it around so that the light glinted on the threads. Captain Foss looked around as I came up the ladder.
”We can prove it now. Vorlund is our top esper.”
”Good enough. I am a fourth power myself.” Thanel fitted the cap to his own head, the loop resting on his temples, the fine threads disappearing in his fair hair.
”Mind-send,” he ordered me, ”highest power.”
I tried. But this was like beating against a wall. It was not the painful, shocking task it had been when I had brushed against the broadcast of the alien or faced the crowned one; rather it was like testing a complete s.h.i.+eld. I said as much.
Borton had been holding a small object in his hand. Now he eyed me narrowly. But when he spoke he addressed Foss.
”Did you know he is a seven?”
”We knew he was high, but three trips ago he tested only a little more than five.”
Five to seven! I had not known that. Was that change because of my Tha.s.sa body? Or had constant exchange with Maelen sharpened and raised my powers?
”You try this.” Thanel held out the wire cap and I adjusted it on my head.
All three watched me closely and I could guess that Thanel was trying mind-send. But I picked up nothing. It was an odd sensation, as though I had plugged my ears and was deaf to all around me.
”So it works with a seventh power. But another broadcasting body with an amplifier, and this alien able to exchange ident.i.ties, may be even stronger.” Borton looked thoughtful.
”Our best chance.” Thanel did not reach for the cap I still wore. Instead he took out four more. ”These are experimental as yet. They held up under lab testing; that's why they have been issued for trial in the field. Sheer luck that we have them at all.”
”As far as I can see,” Borton observed, ”we have little choice. The only alternative is to call in strong arms and blast that installation off Sekhmet. And if we do that we may be losing something worth more than the treasure the jacks have been looting-knowledge. We can't wait for reinforcements, either. Any move to penetrate their stronghold has to come fast, before these body s.n.a.t.c.hers can rise off-world to play their tricks elsewhere.”
”We can get in through the cat's mouth. They may not yet know about that.” I offered what I had to give. ”I know that way.”
In the end it was decided that the cat's mouth did give us the best chance of entering the enemies' territory. And we prepared to risk it. Five men only, as there were only five of the protect caps. Captain Foss represented the sadly dwindled force of the Traders, I was the guide, and the medic Thanel, Commander Borton, and a third from the Patrol force, an expert on X-Tee contacts, comprised our company.