The Secret of Spring (2 page)

There was nothing more for him at the resort, however. The time had come for him to move on. But not to the Party Grass Festival. Whatever he had been searching for was definitely not to be found in yet more places like Club Algae. The interlude with Holly had been fun, but he still wanted the elusive "more." It was time to go home.

Snuggling down within the cool cotton sheeting, he drifted off to sleep with dreams of ten nets that were more like hot tubs, and a most accommodating Holly. He did not dream that in less than ten days he would become a pawn in a far deadlier game.

2

Secret

Spring was perplexed. "Father, you want me to what?" Magician Gabriel made an ineffective pacifying motion with his hands. "Just to help me test my equipment, my dear, as you have before."

"Your equipment is fine, father. Nothing's happened to it. Meanwhile, I have all these crystals to catalog. Can't your routine tests wait?"

Gabriel looked pained. "I don't think they can, dear. Something has, um, come up." His hands twisted together in the way they had when he was disturbed.

She looked sharply at him. "Father, is something wrong?"

"Oh, no, no, no, of course not, dear." But his hands continued to writhe.

Spring realized that she would have to humor him, and try to find out what was bothering him. She loved her father deeply, even if he did annoy her on occasion. "Of course I'll help," she said.

"Very good." He sounded relieved, though his hands still quivered. "If you will just sit in the testing chair, and I will adjust the helmet-"

She didn't remind him that she was well familiar with the routine; she had occupied this chair many times before. She set aside her collection of crystals and took the seat. She looked around while he somewhat fumblingly adjusted the helmet and connections. It was important that her emotions be neutral while the monitors were being placed, or the baseline settings would be slightly wrong. So she pretended that she was a first time client, to whom this was a novelty, and ran her father's job description through her mind as if it were an announcement:

This was the office of the Magician Gabriel, one of Planet New Landers' more prestigious healing practitioners. Not only did he enjoy a thriving local practice and the respect of his peers, but he had recently received wide acclaim for his work in Crystallography from both magical and scientific communities. His name was becoming known over the planet, and many new patients were arriving for the special treatments they believed only he could provide. His was a most profitable practice, to say the least.

Given the present circumstances he should have been a happy man. But she knew he wasn't. Because his wife-oops. That would foul the setting for sure! So she carefully neutralized her thoughts again, thinking of pretty crystals, and soon he had things set.

"Now it is ready," he said unnecessarily. "Except for a blip when you thought a naughty thought." He forced a chuckle that only increased her concern. What
was
bothering him? It had to be pretty serious, for he was not a temperamental man. "If you will just recite some ancient history of a routine nature-"

So he hadn't completely zeroed it in yet, and needed more ground neutral mental activity. Spring smiled, and recited the ancient canon, using a singsong voice:

"Lightships, Freezers, and Floaters faded in the sunlight of a former ultra-society that existed in those earliest of days when man had sown his seed from the Milky Way to the constellation Corona Borealis and beyond to galaxies now unknown."

"Very good," he said. "The registration is perfect. Continue."

Perfect? Then why did she need to do more mindless recitation? The equipment should not take this long to get tuned. But she smiled, and spoke the next paragraph of the standard history lesson. "Earth, renamed New World at that time, had one great Central Government, utilizing the finest combination of scientific minds available from all former nations. They banded together, achieving breakthrough after phenomenal breakthrough. That union was in many respects, more feared than the gargantuan military machine. For all their might, it was no secret that the real power of New World rested in the hands of the super scientists."

"Yes, yes, excellent, excellent," Gabriel said, wringing his hands again. "Just a bit more-"

"Father-" she started, allowing some annoyance to show in her tone, though it was really concern that motivated her.

"Oh, no, quite routine, quite routine, very good, no problem at all, just a tiny-a little-nothing to be concerned about, no need to inquire. Merely a trace aberration in the-the attunement. Don't be concerned."

Spring sighed mentally. She had
better
recite some more mind-numbing rote material, to calm her rising concern for her father's state of mental health.

"The entire island of what was once called Japan was designated as the
NWSL,
or New World Science Lab. It was so for several generations after the Great Migratory Act was rigorously enforced. Separate countries ceased to exist. Mandatory integration throughout many centuries eliminated most physical racial differences as New World became one large Family of Man." She glanced at Gabriel again, covertly. He was watching the indicators so intently that she knew something was amiss. Had the equipment suffered a software virus infestation?

Rather than challenge him on this immediately, she continued the recitation, though her limit of tolerance was approaching. "Individualism was ostracized as differing cultures were assimilated into the whole, with none taking precedence above another. This did not come about from any ideal of brotherly love, but by decree from a firm dictatorship, determined in its zeal, that
might would
make right where morality had failed." Even as a child she had questioned that, though her classmates had seen nothing wrong with it. Thus she had become aware that she was different, intellectually, from ordinary children of New Landers, and not just because she was the daughter of the planet's leading magician. And there was the charged concept: magic was an accepted aspect of reality, but there were still those who looked askance at it, as if there were something wrong or strange about it. So she had felt the dawning isolation of her heritage.

But she preferred not to dwell on that, so she resumed the oration. "New World language became
Unispeech
, a simplified mono-phonic pattern of sounds based on mathematical equations. A child of three could communicate fluently in six weeks when aided by a
computotech
implant." She herself had learned to speak that way, of course, and had become mistress of many other disciplines similarly, thanks to equipment simpler than what they were testing right now. By the same token, there was nothing extraordinary about it, and there was no need for a prolonged testing session. She glanced yet again at Gabriel.

He remained fascinated by the indications. Enough was enough! "Father, something is amiss. I know it. What-?"

"No, no, no, please, please, no problem," he babbled, his hands threatening to twist their own fingers off. "Just a little more, and it's done, it's done."

So she yielded, one more time. "The average life span increased to approximately two hundred and sixty years. Most women waited well into their seventies to bear children, and a woman of fifty was as attractive as a young girl in ancient times. Thus, the planet did not populate more rapidly than before, and with the last phases of the Great Migration in progress, natural resources were replenished by discoveries on bountiful distant worlds." Of course the old technology had been mostly lost now, but lightships still transported beings to the more distant stars. Perhaps in a few more centuries the ancient techniques would be rediscovered; knowledge seemed to grow in patterns, ebbing and flowing in the tides of time.

But she had had enough of this. "Father, I demand to know what this is all about. Why are you so upset, and what does it have to do with this equipment? I won't recite another paragraph until you tell me."

"Quite all right, quite all right," he said, looking quite all wrong. "It's done now, and everything is in order. Now you must emigrate."

"Emigrate? What are you talking about? I have no intention of-"

"Please, we must be off immediately. Do you have your purse?"

"My purse! Father, girls haven't carried purses for centuries! What's this all about?"

"There should just be time to catch the last ship out. We must hurry."

Now she put her foot down, literally. "Father, I will not move one single solitary step until you tell me what is going on! What's wrong with the equipment? Why do I have to leave the planet I've always lived on? Why are you so disturbed? Look me straight in the face and answer."

He gazed at her. Then she saw something that completely unnerved her. His eyes were bright with tears. She had never before seen him like this. Something was terribly wrong.

"Very well," she said, shaken. "I will go, if you want me to. But please, father, tell me why."

"If I must," he said reluctantly. "But on the way to the
lightport
. Time is of the essence. I must dial a taxi."

"But why not use your own car?"

"I fear my private car could be under surveillance." He fumbled with the
vidphone
, but his hands were shaking so much that all that showed on the screen were the symbols for planets, numbers, and punctuation. It was as if the screen were swearing at him-which it was, in its way.

"I'll do it, father,"
Spring
said, having mercy on him. She punched in the code for a rental
portacar
, immediate use. Then she took what she suddenly realized might be her last look around at the office, suffering a siege of nostalgia. She knew that Gabriel would never boot her out like this without compelling cause, and that she had given him no such cause. Something had happened, something awful.

Then they hurried out to the arriving taxi and piled in. She was about to touch the LIGHTPORT symbol on the panel, but he stayed her hand; "Random course," he said.

So she closed her eyes and touched a button blindly. The vehicle lifted and flew across the surface of the planet, going nowhere she cared about.

"Now tell me," she said. She had known the research they were doing was highly secret and probably dangerous, but most of the time she had not understood anything beyond the surface procedures he gave her to complete.

"Until this day, I have not felt it necessary to reveal the entire truth of the project to you," he said. "Now I fear I must, with deepest regret. Do you remember Zygote?"

"Zygote! He's involved with this?" The mysterious magician named Zygote had been coming around to speak with her father, but she was never allowed to remain during their discourse. She knew that he was no friend by the loud voices emanating from the lab. Whenever she questioned her father about him, he had told her not to be concerned, that it was only professional disagreement. Yet, when she had been alone with Zygote during times her father was detained with a client, he had shown an uncommon interest in her personal life that made her flesh
crawl
.

Once, during one of those unfortunate times, Zygote had pressed the limits of her patience. Though he had not said it in so many words, she was certain he was trying to discover whether she was a virgin! Small difference that could have made to him; he was her father's age, but resembled Gabriel in no other way, aside from the power of his magic. He struck her as malignant, not benign. The very notion of those long, swarthy fingers touching her made
Spring
recoil with disgust.

It was not that he was ugly or so old, for she did not regard her father as ancient; in fact mature men could be quite interesting. Though Zygote was neither handsome nor young, he had a charm that would appeal to most women. No, it was just an uncomfortable feeling that she got whenever near him. He was not a man to be trusted, of that she was certain. She couldn't imagine the nature of business her parent could possibly have with such a creature, and was doubly careful to make herself scarce when he appeared thereafter.

Gabriel had given her time to reflect. Now he changed the car's route again, randomly. "Yes, unfortunately. He is very much involved, and your suspicions of him are amply justified. He seeks power for its own sake, without regard to the harm it may do. And I have found a key to power. What I have discovered has the potential for tremendous mischief in the wrong hands, and I have no intention of allowing Zygote to obtain the information."

"Well, of course not,"
Spring
agreed emphatically. "What is this thing, father?"

Gabriel shook his head. "I have no time to elaborate on the actual nature of the information, but it is the gate to great riches, absolute power, and forbidden knowledge. Reason enough for any number of ambitious, would-be tyrants to become interested in my project."

"Such as Zygote," she agreed. "But how does this concern me? I know nothing of it."

Gabriel's smile was chillingly compassionate. "You do know it, my dear-and you do not. That is your secret."

"Father, I assure you I haven't snooped on your-"

"Spring, I have used you, perhaps more cruelly than any man could have. I used a magically enhanced form of hypnotic spell to project secret information too sensitive for my files into your subconscious mind. It now contains the awesome knowledge which will activate only under certain conditions. Brainwashing or other forms of extortion will not gain access to the secrets, though they would most likely leave you mindless. You will not be aware of the buried knowledge at any time, as I feel the burden is too great."