The Rowan Part 11

Reidinger.

You're playing pitch with missiles? The Rowan came totally awake and alert. She could feel Deneb's contact cutting in and out: he must be deflecting the bombardment.

I need backup help, sweetheart, like you and. . . any twin sisters. . you ....... to have.. handy. Jump over.. here, will you?

Jump over? What? I can't!

Why not?

I can't! I am unable to! The Rowan moaned, twisting against the web of the couch.

But I've got. . . to have -- away.

Reidinger! The Rowan's call was a scream.

Rowan, I don't care if you are a T-1. There are certain limits to my patience and you've stretched every blasted one of them, you little white-haired ape!

His answer scorched her. She blocked automatically but clung to his touch. Someone has got to help Deneb! she cried, transmitting the Mayday.

What? He's joking!

How could he, about a thing like that?

Did you see the missiles? Did he show you what he was actually doing?

No, but I felt him thrusting. And since when does one of US distrust another when he asks for help?

Since Eve handed Adam a rosy, round fruit and said 'eat'

Reidinger's cynical retort crackled across s.p.a.ce. And exactly since Deneb's not been integrated into the Prime network. We can't be sure who or what he is - or exactly where he is. I certainly can't take him at his word. Oh, all right.

Try a linkage so I can hear him myself I can't reach him. He's too busy lobbing missiles s.p.a.ceward.

I'll believe that when I see 'em. For one thing, if he's as good as he hollers, all he needs to do is tap any other potentials on his own planet. Thats all the help he needs.

But - But me no buts and leave me alone. I'll play Cupid only so far. Meanwhile I've got a company - and seven systems - to hold together. Reidinger signed off with a backlash that stung.

The Rowan lay in her couch, bewildered by Reidinger's response.

He was always busy, always gruff. But he had never been stupidly unreasonable. While out there, Deneb was growing weaker. She left the capsule and made for the Tower. She should be able to do something once Callisto was clear of Jupiter and the station was operational.

But when incoming cargoes started piling up on the launchers, there were no naval imits waiting for a Deneb push.

'There must be something we can do for him, afra.

Something!' the Rowan said, choked with an unreasonable fear. 'I don't care what Reidinger said: Deneb's genuine and Talents help each other!' Afra looked down at her sadly and compa.s.sionately, venturing to pat her frail shoulder.

'What help can we offer, Rowan? Not even you can reach all the way out to him. And Reidinger has no authority to order patrol squadrons. What about focusing whatever other Talents there are on his planet? Surely he can't be the only one!' 'He needs Prime help and. .

.' She dropped her head, self-defeated.

'And you can barely go past Callisto's horizon,' Afra finished for her, 'which is more than any other Prime can manage.' Keerist!

Incoming missile! Ackerman's mental shout startled both of them.

Instantly the Rowan linked with the stationmaster and saw, through his eyes, the little-used perimeter warning screen, now beeping frantically. Rowan located and then probed out into s.p.a.ce. The intruder, a sophisticated projectile, leaking lethal radiations, was arrowing in from behind Ura.n.u.s. Guiltily she flushed, for she ought to have detected it before the screen had. There was no time to run up the idling dynamos. The missile was coming in too fast.

Deneb was certainly going to prove his peril to Reidinger!

She marveled at his audacity in spinning the ET missile into the heart system.

I want a wide open mind from everyone on this moon! The Rowan's broadcast was inescapable. Mauli! Mick! Go into action. She felt the surge of power as forty-eight Talents on Callisto, including Ackerman's ten-year-old son, enhanced by the twins, answered her demand. She picked up their energy - from the least 12 to Afra's st.u.r.dy 4 - and sent it racing out to the alien bomb. She had to wrestle for a moment with its totally unfamiliar construction and components. With the augmented capability of the merge, it was easy enough for her to deactivate the mechanism and scatter the fissionables from the warhead into Jupiter's seething ma.s.s.

She released those who had merged with her and fell back into the couch.

'How in h.e.l.l did Deneb do that?' afra asked from the chair in which he had slumped. 'Reidinger won't like it!' She shook her head wearily.

'No, but it proves Deneb's problem!' Without the dynamos there had been no gestalt to act as the initial carrier wave for her effort.

Even with the help of the others - and all of them put together didn't add up to one-third the strength of another Prime - it had been a wearying exercise. She thought of Deneb - alone, without an FT&T station or trained personnel to a.s.sist him - doing this again, and again, and again - and her heart twisted.

Warm up the dynamos, Brian. There will probably be more of those missiles.

afra looked up, startled.

'To ill.u.s.trate the point Deneb's trying to make, Afra.

Prime Rowan of Callisto Station alerting Earth Prime Reidinger and all other Primes! Prepare for possible attack by fissionable projectiles of alien origin. Alert all s.p.a.ce stations and patrol forces. She lost her official calm and added angrily, We've got to help Deneb now - we've got to! It's no longer an isolated aggression against an outlying colony. It's a concerted attack on our heart world!

Rowan! Before Reidinger got more than her name into her mind, she opened to him and showed the five new projectiles driving toward Callisto. For the love of little apples! Reidinger's mind radiated incredulity. What has our little man been stirring up?

Shall we find out? Rowan asked with deadly sweetness.

Reidinger transmitted impatience, fury, misery, and then shock as he gathered her intention. Your plan won't work. It's impossible. We can't merge minds to fight. All of us are too egocentric. Too unstable. We'd burn out, fighting each other.

You, me, Altair, Betelgeuse, Procyon, and Capella. We can do it.

If I can deactivate one of those h.e.l.l missiles with only forty-eight minor Talents and no power for help, five Primes plus full power ought to be able to knock any sort of missile off Then we can merge with Deneb to help him, that'll make six of us. Show me the ET who could stand up to such an a.s.sault!

Look, girl, Reidinger replied, almost pleading, we don't have his measure. We can't just MERGE - he could split us apart, or we could burn him up. We don't know him. We can't gauge a telepath of unknown ability.

You'd better catch that missile coming at you, she said calmly. I can't handle more than ten at a time and keep up a sensible conversation. She felt Reidinger's resistance to her plan weakening.

She pushed the advantage. If Deneb's been handling a planet-wide barrage, that's a very good indication of his strength. I'll handle the merge because I d.a.m.ned well want to. Besides, there isn't any other course open to us now, is there?

We could launch patrol squadrons.

THAT should have been done the first time he asked. It's too late now.

Their conversation was taking but brief seconds, and yet more missiles were coming in. Earth itself was under attack!

All right, Reidinger said in angry resignation, and contacted the other Primes.

No, no, no! You'll burn her out - burn her out, poor thing!

Old Siglen from Altair was babbling. Let us stick to our last we dare not expose ourselves, no, no, no! The ETs would attack us then.

Shut up, Iron pants, David said.

It's our responsibility, Siglen, you know that! We simply must!

Capella chimed in waspishly. Hit hard first, that's safest!

Siglen's right, Rowan, . . . Reidinger said. He could burn you out.

I'll take the chance.

d.a.m.n Deneb for starting all this! Reidinger didn't quite shield his aggravation.

We've got to do it. And now!

Tentatively at the outset, and then with stunningly increased force, the leashed power of the other FT&T Primes, augmented by the mechanical surge of five great station generators, siphoned into the Rowan. She grew, grew, and only dimly saw the puny ET bombardment swept aside like so many mayflies. She grew, grew until she felt herself a colossus, larger than ominous Jupiter.

Slowly, carefully, tentatively, because the ma.s.sive power was braked only by her conscious control, she reached out to Deneb.

She spun on in grandeur, astounded by the limitless force she had become. She pa.s.sed the small black dwarf that was the midway point.

Then she felt the mind she searched for: a tired mind, its periphery wincing with weariness but doggedly persevering in nearly automatic reactions.

Oh, Deneb, Deneb! She was so relieved, so grateful to find him fighting his desperate battle, that tears merged before her ego could offer even a token resistance. She abandoned her most guarded serf to him and, with the surrender, the ma.s.sed power she held flowed into him.

The tired mind of the man grew, healed, strengthened, and blossomed until she was a mere fraction of the total, lost in the great pain of this immense mental whole.

Suddenly she saw with his eyes, heard with his ears, and felt with his touch, was immersed in the t.i.tanic struggle.

The greenish sky above was pitted with mushroom puffs, and the raw young hills around him were scarred with missile craters that had been deflected from targets.

Easily now, he was turning aside the barrage of warheads from three immense vessels.

Let's go up there and find out what they are, the Reidinger segment said. Now!

Deneb approached the three enormous marauding ships. The ma.s.s-mind took indelible note of the intruders, spidery forms that scrabbled about interiors resembling intricate webs. Then, off handedly, Deneb broke the hulls of two, spilling the contents into s.p.a.ce. To the occupants of the survivor, he gave a searing impression of the Primes and the indestructability of the worlds in this section of s.p.a.ce. With one great heave, he threw the lone ship away from his exhausted planet, sent it hurtling farther than it had come, into uncharted black immensity He thanked the Primes for the incomplete complement of an ego-merge and extended in a millisecond the tremendous grat.i.tude of an entire planet which had been so nearly obliterated.

This incredible battle could never be forgotten, and future generations would celebrate the incomparable victory.

The Rowan felt the links dissolving as the other Primes, murmuring withdrawal courtesies, left him. Deneb caught her mind fast to his and held on. When they were alone, he opened all his thoughts to her, so that now she knew him as intimately as he knew her.

Sweet Rowan. Look around you. It'll take a while for Deneb to be beautiful again, but we'll make it lovelier than ever. Come live with me, my love.

The Rowan's wracked cry of protest reverberated cruelly in both naked minds.

I can't. I'm not able! She cringed against her own outburst and closed off her inner heart so that he couldn't see the pitiful why.

Mind and heart were more than willing: frail flesh bound her. In the moment of his confusion, she retreated back to that treacherous body, arched in the anguish of rejection. Then she curled into a tight knot, her body quivering with the backlash of effort and denial.

Rowan! came his cry. Rowan! I love you!

She deadened the outer fringe of her perceptions to everything, curled forward in her chair. Afra, who had watched patiently over her while her mind was far away, touched her shoulder.

Oh, Afra! To be so close and so far away. Our minds were one.

Our bodies are forever separate. Deneb! Deneb!

The Rowan forced on her bruised self the oblivion of sleep. Afra picked her up gently and carried her to the couch in the Tower room.

He shut the door and went silently down the stairs. He positioned a chair so that he could prop his feet on the bottom step and settled down to wait, his handsome face dark with sorrow, his yellow eyes blinking away moisture.

afra and Ackerman reached the only possible conclusion: the Rowan had burned herself out. They'd have to tell Reidinger. Forty-eight hours had elapsed since they'd had a single contact with her mind. She had not heard, or had ignored, their tentative requests for her a.s.sistance. Afra and Ackerman could handle some of the routine freight with generator support but two liners were due in and that required her. She was alive but that was all: her mind was blank to any touch.

At first Ackerman had a.s.sumed that she was recuperating. Afra had known better and, for that forty-eight hours, he'd hoped fervently that she would accept the irreconcilable situation.

'I'm gonna have to tell Reidinger,' Ackerman said to Afra, wincing with reluctance.

Well, where's Rowan? Reidinger asked. A moment's touch with Afra told him. He, too, sighed. We'll just have to rouse her some way.

She isn't burned out; that's one miracle.

Is it? replied Afra bitterly. If you'd paid attention to her in the first place Yes, I'm sure, Reidinger cut him off brusquely. If I'd gotten her light of love his patrol squadrons when she wanted me to, she wouldn't have thought of a merge with him. I put as much pressure on her as I dared. But when that c.o.c.ky young rooster on Deneb started lobbing deflected ET missiles at us. . . Well, I hadn't counted on that development. At least we managed to spur her to act. And off-planet at that. He sighed. I was hoping that love might make at least one Prime fly.

Whaaat? Afra roared. You mean that boule was staged?

Hardly. As I said, we hadn't antic.i.p.ated the ETs. Deneb presumably had only a mutating virus plague to cope with. Not ETs.

Then you didn't know about them?

Of course not! Reidinger sounded disgusted. Oh, the original contact with Deneb for biological a.s.sistance was sheer chance. I took it as providential, an opportunity to see if I couldn't break the agoraphobia psychosis we all have.

Rowan's the youngest of us. If I could get her to go to him physically - but I failed. Reidinger's resignation saddened Afra, too.

One didn't consider the Central Prime as fallibly human. Love isn't as strong as it's supposed to be. And where I'll get new Primes if I can't breed 'em, I don't know. I'd hoped that Rowan and Deneb.

As a matchmaker I should resign Afra broke the contact abruptly as the Tower door opened and the Rowan, a wan, pale, very quiet Rowan, came down.

She smiled apologetically. 'I've been asleep a long time.

'You had a tiring day,' Afra said gently, 'day before yesterday.'

She winced and then smiled to ease Afra's instant concern. 'I still am a little frazzled.' Then she frowned.