Chaining the Lady (27 page)

Melody's Mintakan brain was tripartite, each section dominating a type of music: string, percussion, wind. The Solarian brain was bipartite, resulting in confusing dichotomies. This % mind reflected the split brain of the Andromedan creature, but it was not very much like the human brain. The two parts could separate and reunite with other parts, forming new entities. There were actually four genders, which could unite in six distinct combinations. The complete entity was therefore technically neuter, or bisexual. Melody, a changeable neuter, had been able to enter this hostage; a truly gendered entity would have been balked.

The Sphere Knyfh host was also technically neuter. Any Knyfh could mate with any other, their mergence of nucleus and electron orbit resulting in prompt fissioning into two new compromise entities. Thus in both species, population was stable; new entities could be produced only from the parts of the old ones.

Melody paused. There was something strange about this. Population could shrink, from the demise of individuals, but if population could not grow...

How had either Knyfh or % ever gotten started? There had to be a way to create new individuals, to increase the size of the total population. Otherwise the colonization of a sphere or segment would have been impossible. A planet might have several billion sapient inhabitants; a sphere required trillions. Where did they come from?

Melody probed—and her amazement grew. Neither Knyfh nor %
knew
the source of their populations. Mergence and fission proceeded indefinitely; prior combinations were impossible to trace down. Their populations did expand, but there was no known origin if individual entities. They were just there, and seemed always to have been there, logic to the contrary.

Knyfh and % logic did not struggle with this concept. It was not a logic Melody could readily understand, but it seemed to serve will the needs of the species who used it.

At the moment, she had another concern: to rid the ship of hostages. There were nine of them, all with high auras. She had overwhelmed the one with the lowest Kirlian intensity. This ship was the
Ace of Atoms
; Andromeda had regarded it as a critically important target.

Bluefield was liaison officer to the Knyfh crew. On this ship, like all so far, none of the crew was hostage. The most efficient use of Andromedan power was in making the leaders hostage; the crew merely followed orders. It simplified recovery of the ships; eliminate the hostages and all was well. The crew would never know the difference.

Melody performed the routine duties required of her host, drawing on the hostage-mind. There were always snarls to be untangled, substitutions of all entities, special situations. Melody could not leave her post without suspicion until her shift expired. That meant delay, but she managed to use the time to fill in her gaps of knowledge. She hovered at the communications console, making her decisions known by coded fluctuations of her electron shell, and learned.

This ship's armament was magnetic. Since metal was much used in all ships of the fleet, especially alloys of iron, all were subject to magnetism. The fields generated here were so strong they could operate at intership distances, alternately attracting and repulsing the enemy with such force that his ship could be damaged or even broken apart. At greater distances, the enemy's control instruments could be magnetically sabotaged. These magnetic weapons lacked the almost infinite range of the Solarian lasers, but in near proximity, the Knyfh attack would be devastating. Melody know she would not want the flagship to be in range of a hostage-controlled Atom.

At least she had time to plan her logical campaign. She picked out each name from the hostage mind. The Captain was free. He had an aura of 160, too high to take over by an available % entity, and was probably the highest loyalist of the entire fleet. But the Transfer “Officer was hostage to a % with an aura of 135, and–

Transfer
Officer? Melody focused on that. Sure enough,
this ship had a transfer unit aboard!
Melody had assumed that the unit on the
Ace of Swords
was the only one in the fleet, but of course this Atom was a representative of another segment, a more sophisticated one. The presence of the unit made this ship doubly vital. The Andromedans could use it to take over more entities.

No—her host informed her that it was not the proper type. To modify it for hostaging would be to put that secret in the field, something that could not be risked. This was inflexible policy; the secret never left Andromeda. In fact, it never left Sphere –, and hardly ever left Planet £ of that sphere. Bluefield's information confirmed Tiala's; the / hostage had not lied under the Lot of *. Melody found that vaguely gratifying. The policy itself was wise, in terms of Andromedan interest. Had Melody been able to capture a modified unit. Galaxy Milky Way would have had equalization of technology at a single stroke.

Still, that unmodified unit was important. It was probably heavily guarded as it was potentially a key mechanism of communication. Put a low-Kirlian voluntary host at each end, and the ships of Segment Etamin and Segment Knyfh could coordinate operations closely. Spot a hostage ship, and if it escaped Knyfh's magnetism, Sol's laser could beam it down. The Andromedans thought the loyal members of the fleet had no communications that could not be monitored by strategically positioned hostages—but here it was!

Should she go first to the loyal captain, or tackle the hostages one by one herself? Obviously the first. It would be almost impossible to nullify eight more hostages without attracting attention. The Captain could handle it most expeditiously. That approach had worked twice before, and as Yael would have put it in her cute Solarian idiom, one did not change a winning game.

But she could not just roll into the captain's office. On this ship there was protocol to be followed. This was essential in any encounter here, since any two Knyfhs possessed the capacity to mate. Such mating would change the identity of each, and that would be awkward in a military situation. In fact, mating—or as Knyfhs put it, exchanging—was forbidden during this tour. The Captain especially was protected from temptation.

“Request permission for private audience with Captain,” Melody signaled formally into the officer's circuit. Her present body possessed none of the senses of the Segment Etamin hosts she had previously used; everything was magnetic. But she was becoming accustomed to differing modes of operation, and hardly noticed.

“Hold,” the network responded. Presumably the captain was preoccupied at the moment. Melody returned to her routine.

Soon a Knyfh appeared. “Request dialogue,” it signaled.

Melody oriented on it. The magnetic imprint resembled that of the captain, but the aura differed. She had become highly attuned to aural nuances, for this was her primary tool for identifying hostages. This entity had a powerful aura; too powerful. It had to be a hostage.

“You are not Bluefield,” the hostage signaled. “Therefore you must be–”

Melody attacked. She could not afford to have her identity betrayed to the hostages yet. She hurled herself at the globe of the other entity.

Unfortunately, she had not had occasion to study the art of Knyfh personal combat. Her attack was a clumsy thrust that the other entity easily avoided. Melody rolled past and received in return a disorganizing jolt of current. Her prior aura-versus-aura battles had seemed equivalent to physical encounters, since they were all on a single level, but now that she was in a real physical encounter, she discovered there was no real parallel at all. In aura-versus-aura she had a tremendous advantage; here she was merely even, or less than even. That dimmed her confidence considerably.

%So you are a segment counterhostage% the other signaled, lapsing into his native mode of expression. %Your fiendishly strong aura will not avail you now. Do you wish to exchange identities before I destroy you?%

“No,” Melody replied. She recognized the other entity now; it was Greenaura of %, the Transfer Officer hostage. And she knew the Andromedan was bluffing, at least in part; he would not kill her until he knew more about her. The existence of counterhostages would be a terrible threat to the hostage effort, and Greenaura would have to get at Melody's mind to discover the full ramifications. For all Greenaura knew, Melody was one of hundreds.

On the other hand, Melody could afford to dispatch the Andromedan any way she could manage. So the terms of the combat were not so disadvantageous.

Greenaura rolled toward her. His electron shield scintillated with flexible power; he was a fine figure of a Knyfh, in optimal health, and an experienced soldier. The military mind might be rigid to the point of obtusity in general matters, but in combat on this level he was an expert. Melody knew she did not have a chance against him. But she had no chance to escape.

Here she was, vacillating wildly in her estimations, one moment expecting to win, the next moment knowing she would lose. And the Drone had thought she had courage!

Their shields interacted. Controlled current touched her stunningly; Melody's strength was drawn off. She had let herself be vulnerable to a ploy no native would have fallen for. It was like allowing her Mintakan strings to be cut, or her Solarian throat to be looped without opposition. Her shield was now soft, permeable, laying her nucleus open to penetration. She could be fissioned, which in the absence of prior mergence, meant destruction.

“Help me, Knyfh host!” she cried inwardly, reaching past the quiescent hostage within her to the original Knyfh mind.

And the stunned, suppressed, half-insane Knyfh mind sprang out, knowing only one cause: her galaxy needed help. This mind was Gnejh, a low-Kirlian tigress. On a purely magnetic level, a deadly foe.

Gneenaura sent a spear of current through Melody's shield, brushing her nucleus. The sensation was awful; she felt as if her nucleus was being sundered. %You will identify yourself now% the Andromedan signaled. He knew the pain he was inflicting, and he would torture her until she broke under the strain.

Melody was silent. She felt the host-entity gathering, waiting, building up a nuclear charge. There was something horrible about it, like poison dripping from the jaws of a half-crushed reptile.

Greenaura's spear came again—and the host struck.
Jaws slicing through, twisting, severing, KILL, KILL.
The spearhead was cut off, trapped inside Melody's shield.
DIE, DIE!

Greenaura screamed. %%%%%, a single spasm of current, the sheer agony of amputation. The Knyfh touched his shield and drew off twice the charge Melody had lost. The predator had poked the supposedly helpless body of his prey, and been caught by the counterstroke. Now the advantage had been reversed.

Gnejh of Knyfh, insane but victorious, went for the kill. Melody let her. The host launched a devastating bolt through Greenaura's weakened shield.

And it aborted. Bluefield of %, the Andromedan Melody had displaced, had flung herself into the charge and thwarted it as it passed between the two shields. Bluefield herself was destroyed by that interception, but she had accomplished her aim. Melody and her mad host were helpless again.

Greenaura, weakened, still had more strength than Melody did. He rolled into contact, the currents of his shield battering at hers. When that shell collapsed, Melody's host would die. Slowly, surely, her last reserves waned, as they were drawn off to augment the thrust of the Andromedan's shell.
The broken electron orbit,
Melody thought.
So like the Tarot symbol for Aura, of plasmic matter.
Was this a fitting end for her?

She suffered a terrible shock. Energy buffeted her shield, hurling her across the room. She had–

No!
Greenaura
had fissioned! Her enemy was no more. And abruptly Melody knew why: the hostage Knyfh that Greenaura had suppressed had chosen this moment of distraction to strike, just as Gnejh had struck before the Knyfh had fissioned, destroying himself and his captor.

Melody rolled slowly around the room, gathering in some of the ambient energy released by the explosion of her rival, regaining her strength. She was half-dazed by the violence of the battle; these Knyfhs and %s were savage warriors, giving no quarter! She didn't want any more encounters like that.

No wonder Segment Knyfh was regarded by the Andromedans as a major galactic target. Not only were they technologically sophisticated, they were resolute opponents. A Mintakan might yield when he saw that the issue was hopeless; a Knyfh would fight harder. Which perhaps explained why Mintaka was now a satellite sphere, while Knyfh was now a segment.

Two hostages down, seven to go. Did the other hostages know about her? Probably not, because Greenaura had not been certain of her nature until the encounter, and the hostages had to hide themselves from the legitimate officers. Greenaura had investigated privately, and now would make no report. However, soon Greenaura's demise would become known.

“Private audience with the Captain; urgent,” Melody signaled the network again. Then, as an afterthought: “Matter of crew discipline.” That would justify her request, gaining the captain's prompt attention, while reassuring the other hostages. Crew discipline was not a matter to worry about; it was the captain's concern.

Sure enough: “Audience granted,” the net responded. “Immediate.”

This meant that Melody was immediately freed from her duties in order to visit the captain. She hurled herself through the energy network of the ship, maneuvering around magnetic stops as though solving a giant maze. The ship seemed to have no solid wills, but a magnetic baffle was every bit as effective, as she knew from her experience with Slammer on the flagship.

She came into the Captain's presence. He dispensed with protocol, moving in to touch his shell to hers to facilitate private dialogue. “What an aura!” his surface current exclaimed.

“Sir, I am Melody of Sphere Mintaka, Segment Etamin,” she pulsed. “I came to inform you of Sphere %. They–”