Galactic Milieu - Diamond Mask Part 11

SEVERIN: Blow it out your asymptote, Annie.

ADRIEN: Amen with k.n.o.bs on.

PAUL: For G.o.d's sake, you two! You know that the Great Intervention took place only because the Milieu antic.i.p.ated eventual Unification with humanity. If you think we can split off from the confederation and go our merry, unreconstructed way you're as crackbrained as Fury!

SEVERIN: Don't bet on it. The way our human colonists are increasing and multiplying, we'll outnumber all races except the Poltroyans in less than a hundred years. And the little purple people just might fancy joining our side. They're d.a.m.n near human themselves-not like the other exotics.

PHILIP: The majority of human operants don't share your views, Sevvy.

ADRIEN: But the deadheads are more and more gung ho for Rebellion! Can't blame them, can you? They know that someday they'll have operant descendants-and they prefer their grandchildren human, not brainwashed into some alien mindset.

ANNE: Humanity has only just gained acceptance into the Milieu-and already your Rebel faction is scheming to destroy it!

SEVERIN: We don't advocate violence. We believe in friendly persuasion over the long haul and a peaceable separation at the appropriate time. You Milieu daisy-chainers can go your way and the rest of us Earthlings will go ours.

ADRIEN: And devil take the hindmost.

[A simmering pause.]

DENIS: Children. Please listen to me for a moment. Paul's opinion of the Rebel movement deserves to be taken seriously. Sevvy and Adrien are undoubtedly sincere in their beliefs and not overtly influenced by any machinations of Fury. But it remains plausible that the politics of Unity might be part of a larger, more sinister picture orchestrated in some subtle manner by the monster. Uncle Rogi claims he was present when Fury was born. You may recall that he was exconcert at Victor's deathbed. Rogi says he asked Fury then what it wanted, and it said all of us. Is it possible that Rogi's thinking was too limited in scale when he concluded that Fury only coveted the souls of the Remillard family?

PHILIP: It wants the entire Human Polity? That's preposterous!

MAURICE: Not to a megalomaniac.

ANNE: Fury could be afraid of Unity ...

DENIS: Perhaps this being prefers its own style of mental conjugation. We've seen a sample, and its name is Hydra! A many-headed monster, only fourfold now-but who can tell what it might become?

CATHERINE: And if it includes Remillard minds, it could be immortal.

PAUL: I can't help but feel there's a terrible kind of synchronicity at work here. This is why I called the family conference, and why I sequestered us beneath the sigma-field so that no one else would know what we discussed.

ANNE: We seven have our differences. But we must attack this Fury-Hydra problem together.

SEVERIN: [sighs] Yes.

PAUL: Can we agree on this-that Fury and Hydra pose an unacceptable danger to the family, the human race, and the Galactic Milieu-and therefore they must be destroyed?

PHILIP+MAURICE+SEVERIN+ANNE+CATHERINE+ADRIEN: Yes.

DENIS: The Hydras are your own children. Fury may be one of you. Do you still agree with Paul's a.s.sertion that they must die?

[Mutual affirmation.]

PAUL: Do you also agree that we, personally, must take upon ourselves the responsibility for hunting these ent.i.ties down and killing them?

[Reluctant mutual affirmation.]

DENIS: And what if Marc is Fury? He fits the psychoprofile for multiple-personality disorder more closely than any of you.

CATHERINE: Marc has Paramount Grand Master potential. If Fury resides within such a mind, it may be that only another paramount of equal or greater mental potential would be a match for him.

ADRIEN: A Lylmik?

CATHERINE: n.o.body knows how their wispy minds check out. But the other exotics have no paramounts-and in all the human race, Jack's the only other person that we know of so far whose mental a.s.say approaches the paramount level. But he's years away from maturity and psychologically fragile as well. We can't draw him into this. You know how he adores Marc.

PAUL: Marc is my son and I love him, too. But we must keep in mind that the latest Hydra murders may have been committed solely to protect him and his CE research. If high creativity enhancement is ever perfected and put to use by Fury and his creatures, the entire Milieu might find itself enslaved by a metapsychic tyrant ... I'm seriously considering shutting down Marc's project by executive fiat. I have the authority.

PHILIP: If you do it, Marc will be devastated-and you'll also deprive the Milieu of a technology that could be extraordinarily beneficial. I won't bore you with the details, but the Commerce Directorate that I chair has estimated that the gains in geophysical modification alone would be stupendous. We could double the number of habitable worlds for all races except the Lylmik through the utilization of CE creativity in crustal-plate adjustment alone.

MAURICE: Marc is destined to be more than a scientist, Paul. He's going to be a leader. Perhaps even more formidable than you! If you quash his research high-handedly you'll alienate one of the greatest minds in the galaxy- PAUL: I'll do what has to be done to protect the Milieu! And I'll make certain that Marc understands my motivation.

CATHERINE: You'd do Marc a terrible injustice and he'd never understand. Surely you can see that, Paul! Marc lives for his work and he's convinced it will benefit the Milieu. I know him better than all the rest of you do, and I'd stake my life that he's not Fury. For the love of G.o.d, Fury tried twice to kill him!

PAUL: [stubbornly] There's also the matter of Marc's Rebel tendencies- CATHERINE: He's no Rebel, either ... Sevvy, tell us the plain truth without bulls.h.i.tting: Do you have any good reason to believe that Marc is sympathetic to the Rebel faction?

SEVERIN: Maybe Paul should take time out from his power-politicking and just ask him.

PAUL: [wearily] I'm asking you.

SEVERIN: All right, I'll give it to you straight: We've approached Marc several times. He listens, he seems to agree that human mental autonomy is necessary-but thus far he's declined to join our group. He's a d.a.m.ned cold fish, if you ask me. No pa.s.sionate commitment to anything or anybody except himself.

MAURICE: Marc deserves to be treated justly, whatever his political views or emotional shortcomings. We may have our suspicions about him, but they're only that. We have no proof that Marc is Fury. Any action we vote upon here tonight must be predicated on that.

DENIS: [sighs] You're absolutely right, Maurie.

PHILIP: No, Papa. He errs in one important matter. We can't simply take a family vote on this matter. Paul alone will have to decide. He's the First Magnate, and he reports to the Lylmik Supervisors.

[Mutual affirmation.]

PAUL: [after a long pause] Very well ... One: Marc will be allowed to continue his research without hindrance. The full Concilium will debate the applications of CE creativity when and if the E15 equipment is perfected. Two: Subject to Lylmik approval, I summarily condemn Fury and the four Hydra-units to death. Three: Each one of us, insofar as he or she is able, will devote significant time to some aspect of the hunt for these creatures. I'll draw up a schedule of your individual roles, based upon personal expertise. You'll coordinate all significant action with me, reporting progress or lack of it at times and places that are prudent. I'll see that you all receive unedited data from the Galactic Magistratum pertaining to the case.

PHILIP: And if one of us should locate Hydra?

PAUL: We'll all have to deal with the creature, working in metaconcert with Marc if it's at all possible. Under no circ.u.mstances should any of us attempt to act alone.

CATHERINE: What if we turn up a significant clue to Fury's ident.i.ty?

PAUL: Report it only in a meeting where all except the suspect are present. Remember that the core personality of Fury is probably innocent. The Lylmik Supervisors will have to advise us on how to deal with this ent.i.ty if we ferret it out. G.o.d knows, I haven't the faintest idea. It may be possible to excise the malignant Fury persona without harming the core personality.

DENIS: And what if that's impossible? Will we ask the Enforcement Arm of the Galactic Magistratum to put the innocent persona to death along with the guilty one?

PAUL: I don't know. I simply don't know.

[An interval of silence.]

Thank you for coming tonight, Papa, sisters and brothers. Evaluator Throma'eloo and his people will be interrogating us-and Marc also-tomorrow afternoon in the Magistratum offices of Concilium House at thirteen hundred hours. I'll leave you now. Excuse me if I don't see you out. I want to prepare our Fury-Hydra search plan and have it ready for discussion tomorrow evening-if our reamed-out brains are still compos mentis after the interrogation. Good night.

DENIS+PHILIP+MAURICE+SEVERIN+ANNE+CATHERINE+ADRIEN: Good night.

[Paul turns off the sigma-field and exits into the darkness. A single male luna moth blunders into the summerhouse and flaps about the heads of the silent occupants until Catherine gently sends it on its way.]

8.

CSS DRUMADOON BAY [Hu 12-201]

GALACTIC YEAR: LA PRIME 1-382-401/422.

[6-20 JUNE 2062].

Dee was very nervous about the starship voyage . . . But not for the reason her grandmother supposed.

As the children settled down in their stateroom before lift-off, the professor did her best to rea.s.sure them.

"Most of our journey to Caledonia will be no more uncomfortable than a trip on a rhocraft bus. We fly out beyond the Moon under subluminal power, just as though the starship were a gigantic egg, and then jump into the gray limbo for the first time. But you needn't worry about feeling pain when we go through the superficies. There's a new minidose for nonoperant children that completely eliminates the discomfort of pa.s.sing from the real world into hypers.p.a.ce. Isn't that nice?"

"Great!" Ken was all enthusiasm, but Dee said nothing.

Gran Masha showed them a package of little green dosers, explaining that the medication would put them into a deep sleep during the few moments the ship took to cross over, then leave them pleasantly drowsy for a half hour or so afterward.

"Can I do it to myself?" Ken asked. "Please, Gran?"

The professor thought about it for a moment. "Very well, I'll let you try administering the dose yourself the first time. If it works out you can continue ... Now I must speak to the purser about something. I'll only be gone a short time. You two stay here and watch our preparations for takeoff on the cabin monitor." She went out of the stateroom and closed the door behind her.

Ken sat on the edge of his recliner-bunk, zapping from channel to channel on the monitor. The big screen on the stateroom bulkhead provided views of the command bridge, the cargo loading bay, the pa.s.senger boarding area, and several other regions of the starship's interior, as well as a long exterior view of the ship patched in from a remote groundside transmitter. In a few minutes, those aboard the Drumadoon Bay would be able to watch themselves take off. Now the remote showed the huge vessel held fast in its complicated cradledock, looking something like a shackled skysc.r.a.per lying on its side. Tiny tenders and inspection vehicles buzzed around it.

"I'll bet Gran's going to try another subs.p.a.ce shout to Dad," Ken said. "He never did get back to her when she sent him the message saying she was going to bring us to Caledonia herself."

"Kenny," Dee ventured uneasily, "I've got something to tell you."

But her brother swept on. "You know what? Gran's worried. I think she's afraid Dad's place might not be-you know-safe for little kids to live in. His farm's in a part of Caledonia that was opened up to settlers only ten years ago. It's still a hairy wilderness." He grinned. "Erupting volcanoes! Maybe man-eating exotic critters, too!"

"Kenny, I'm scared."

"Aaah, I'm only bulls.h.i.tting you, midgelet. Dad won't let anything happen to us. He never would've told us to come to Caledonia if it was really dangerous."

"That's not what I'm scared about"

"Well, what then? Gran told you that it won't hurt when we pa.s.s into the limberlost-"

"The minidoser medicine. I don't want to be knocked out! It-it turns off my mind-screen."

"So what?"

"Gran will look inside my head. I know she will. She thinks I might have some clues about-about Mummie and Uncle Robbie and Aunt Rowan hidden in my mind. So did the First Magnate and the Krondak policeman. That's why they wanted to probe me. If Gran pokes around, she's sure to find out my secret mindpowers."

"Don't be a thickie. Self-redacting is just a dumb little power. It doesn't mean you're operant. Ma.s.ses of normals have the healing thing."

Dee was beginning to cry. "No-not that! I've got another new mindpower. I didn't tell you. It came all of a sudden, when I didn't even want it."

"What, for chrissake?"

"I-I can fa.r.s.ense now. Hear people's thoughts. It happened right after Mummie died."

"Oh, s.h.i.t," whispered Ken. His breezy condescension gave way to real concern. "You're sure?"

Dee nodded miserably. "And I think Gran suspects something. Maybe my aura's different. A couple of times, she tried to ream me while I was asleep. Drilling really hard. She couldn't get in, because a long time ago I learned to wake up whenever anyone poked at my screen while I was sleeping and not able to keep it strong. But if this minidoser medicine knocks me out, I won't be able to wake up."

Ken scowled, thinking hard. "Probably not ... d.a.m.n! You know, if you really can fa.r.s.ense, even a little, then the law says you're a head."

"I know," Dee wailed. "What am I going to do?"

Ken pondered the matter for a few moments more, and then a wily grin brightened his pale features. "You could try this," he said, and told her his idea.

She was dubious. "What if Gran finds out that I tricked her?"

"Then you've given away one secret. But you said yourself that the other one was the most important."

Dee sighed. "All right. I'll try it. It might work ..."

The new power had come upon Dee quite unexpectedly ten days earlier. Ever since then she had tried with all her strength to force it back into its mind-box-but she had failed.

Occasional flashes of this perilous metability had happened before, especially with Ken, but it had never lasted long. The permanent change had occurred on Islay, as she lay in bed in the hotel on the night after Mummie and the others were killed. By then, the awful events of the afternoon seemed more and more unreal, like a Tri-D horror show that was over and done with. She had cried a little when she said her prayers and was tucked in, since Gran had seemed to expect it. But lying there in the dark by herself, Dee didn't feel terrified or ill anymore-only very tired and plagued with worrying thoughts.

Dead. Mummie was dead. She would never come back.

Dee had never known anyone to die before-not even a pet, since Mummie would never allow her to have one. Gran Masha had told the children that their mother's mind had not simply vanished like a blown-out flame when her body died. Mummie's mind was still alive. She had gone to join the great Mind of the Universe, Gran said, together with all the creatures who had ever lived, in the special and very mysterious way that G.o.d had planned. Gran a.s.sured Dee that Mummie was very happy now.

The girl found that hard to understand, but she did not express her doubts to Gran Masha Why was Mummie happy to have gone away from her and Kenny? Was it because they were not the sort of children she had really wanted? Had Mummie really not loved them at all, even though she said she did?

If Dee had not been so proud and stubborn, if she had done what the latency therapists had wanted-what her mother had wanted-would everything have happened differently?

"Would it, Mummie?" she whispered. Real tears scalded her eyes as she felt for the first time a pang of piercing loss. Was it somehow her own fault that the Kilnave Fiend had killed her mother and her uncle and aunt?

Dee listened with all her might, hoping for a rea.s.suring answer.