The Blood Red Game

SIX

They were the golden children of the galaxy. The Shaarn - the searchers, the wanderers, the enquirers. They were the magnificent bringers of gifts, bestowers of wisdom, dealers of justice. In their great star-travelling ships they brought the concept of mercy and law to the planets of their galaxy and formed order out of chaos, cut justice from the stuff of chance.

The Shaarn hurled their ships inwards to the Hub, outwards towards the Rim.

Proud, wise and merciful, self-confident and self-critical, they spread their sons to inhabit planets in many different systems. The laughing darlings of an ancient culture, they poured outwards, always searching.

The Shaarn ships sang and hurtled through the bewildering regions of hyperspace, avoiding war, recognising privacy, but bringing their wisdom and knowledge to anyone requesting it. They had come, also to accept that all intelligent races took the same form as themselves.

The mighty Shaarn were cynics and idealists, innocent and ancient - and their ships coursed further towards the worlds of the Rim.

The starship Vondel, captained by Roas Rui, burst into normal space half a light-year from a binary star the Shaarn called Yito. Around Yito circled eleven worlds, each following a wider orbit than the next - eleven mysteries which Roas Rui and his crew of scientists' and sorcerers regarded with excitement and curiosity. Eleven balls of chemicals and vegetation, organic and inorganic life. Would they find intelligence? New concepts, new knowledge? Roas Rui hoped that they would.

The Shaarn, in their early days of space-travel, had known fear when encountering foreign cultures, but those times were gone. In their power and their confidence, they were unable to conceive of a race greater than their own, a technology more highly developed. On some worlds near the Rim they had come across traces of a star-roving people, but the traces were incredibly ancient and pointed to a long-dead race - their ancestors, perhaps - who had travelled the stars and then degenerated. Thus, it was not with fear that Roas Rui regarded the fourth world nearest Yito when his ship, its reactor idling, went into orbit around it.

Roas Rui reared himself effortlessly on to his four bind limbs in order to see better the purple-clouded world which now filled the viewing-screen. His shaggy, dog-like head craned towards the screen and his mouth curved downwards in an expression of pure pleasure. He turned his head and showed his long, slim teeth to emphasise his delight.

'It's a huge planet, Medwov Dei,' he released to his lieutenant who stood by the screen control board, manoeuvring dials in order to bring the world into closed perspective.

Medwov Dei thought, without moving his head, 'The gravity is almost identical to that of Shaarn.'

Rui thought. 'Noui Nas was right in his hunch again. He always picks the planet which most closely approximates Shaarn in gravity and atmosphere. He's one of the best sorcerers we have in the Division.'

Medwov made a clicking sound with his mouth to indicate agreement. He was very big, the largest member of the crew and every inch of five feet high. He was dedicated to the Exploratory Division, even more than the other members. With regard to his work, he was a fanatic, probably due to the fact that, because of his immense size, he had little success with the female Shaarn. At least he, personally, blamed his height, but it was well known that, as a young cadet, he had once killed a domestic beast in anger. Naturally, this had led to his near-ostracism and had precluded his ever rising above the rank of Lieutenant. Medwov inhaled wetly and continued to work at the control panel, deliberately blocking his mind to any but the most urgent thoughts which might emanate from his commander.

Almost childishly, Roas Rui laughed the high-pitched whine of the Shaarn. His excitement mounted as he directed his. two pilots to prepare for descent on to the planet's surface.

'Prepare defence screens.' He sent out the traditional commands as a matter of course. Some of his orders were obeyed by the control operators before he even thought of them. 'Switch to gravity-resisters.' Machines moaned delicately throughout the huge bulk of the starship. 'Descend to two thousand feet.'

The Vondel plunged through the atmosphere of the new planet and hovered two thousand feet above its surface. Now the screens showed a vast landscape of forest land comprised predominantly of waving indigo fronds which stretched like, a sea in all directions, broken occasionally by clumps of taller vegetation coloured in varying shades of blue. It was beautiful. Roas Rui's long body shook with emotion as he beheld it. To the Shaarn all new planets were beautiful.

'Begin testing,' he said.

The computers began their intricate job of classifying all the components of the planet. At the same time, the sorcerers began to put themselves swiftly into trance-state, seeking to discover intelligent life of any kind, whether natural or supernatural, and also its attitude or potential attitude to the Exploratory Division.

The findings of computers and sorcerers were relayed instantly to Roas Rui, himself now in semi-trance. Both parts of his brain received the information and assembled it into an ever-increasing, detailed picture of the newly discovered planet.

Woui Nas:

I have found a mind. Bewildered. Uncertain. Passive. More minds. As before. New! Mind. High intelligence. Anger. Controlled. Urge to destroy very strong: directed at (possible) Rulers or Representatives. New! Mind. Low IQ. Misery. Bewildered. Passive. New! Something bad. Very bad. Evil here, but am finding resistance to probes.

Pause…

Power. Evil. Great resistance to probes. Am formed to fight or retreat. Require orders!

Pause…

Repeat. Require orders!

Roas Rui beamed a message to the controllers to continue recording the data and concentrated all his attention on making a full link with Woui Nas, who had 'pathed the urgent request.

'I am with you now, Woui Nas. Can you bring me in?'

'Unprecedented reaction, captain. Please absorb.'

Roas Rui could sense the frightened amazement of Woui Nas as he submerged himself in the other's mind and allowed the old sorcerer to guide him outwards towards the source of the emanations. Almost instantaneously, he felt the aura of disgusting malevolence, coupled with an intelligence more powerful than his own. Roas Rui was one of the most intelligent members of his race - his capacity for absorbing and relating knowledge was tremendous - but he had found more than his match in the mind which now sensed the presence of his own.

Roas Rui, under the direction of Woui Nas, probed further into the mind which he had contacted. He probed while his senses shrieked with danger and urged him to retreat.

Suddenly his brain throbbed as a thought came savagely from the contacted entity: 'Get out! We intend to destroy you, intruders'

There was no attempt to ask questions of the explorers. No tinge of curiosity. An order - and a statement.

Roas Rui and Woui Nas retreated from the malevolence and separated minds.

'What now?' Woui Nas asked from his cabin, a quarter of a mile away from the control room where Roas Rui sat shaking.

'Incredible,' the captain said. 'Quite unprecedented, as you remarked. There is a force here to equal the Shaarn - even to better it. But the evil!'

'I must admit that, as we neared the planet, I sensed it,' Woui Nas informed the captain. 'But it was difficult then to define it. These entities are capable of blocking off our most powerful probes.'

'Our ancestors would have been far more careful when making a new planet-fall,' Ross Rui said grimly. 'We are becoming too complacent, Brother Sorcerer.'

'Were,' Woui Nas remarked dryly. 'Perhaps this is the kind of shock our people need.'

'Possibly,' Roas Rui agreed. 'But now we are in danger of turning our immediate peril into a philosophical problem. Since this contact is unprecedented, and since the regulations state categorically that we should obey any culture which demands that we leave its environs, I would suggest to you that a group makes contact immediately with Headquarters on Shaarn and asks for instructions.'

'And meanwhile?' Woui Nas enquired.

'I do not wish to be destroyed. And neither, I think, do any other members of the ship's complement.' He beamed a quick order to his pilots. 'We are returning to Shaarn. This is an emergency.' He knew that his pilots would need no further orders.

Swiftly, the Vondel climbed into deep space and merged into hyperspace.

So the initial contact between the Shaarn and the Thron was made.

Another millennia of ignorance of each other's existence, the exploratory team which had come to a Thron-dominated world brought the two mighty cultures into contact at last It was inevitable.

And the war between Shaarn and Thron was also inevitable.

It was not a war like most wars. It did not hinge on economics. It only partially hinged on conflicting ideologies. It was simply that the Thron refused to tolerate the presence in the galaxy of another intelligent race, physically like themselves and almost as powerful.

They intended to destroy the Shaarn. To obliterate completely all traces of their civilisation. The Thron had not concentrated so much on the building of starships, but it did not take them long to build ships which almost equalled those of the Shaarn.

Thron controlled an Empire comprising twenty-six systems. The Thron themselves were comparatively few in number - but they had total dominance over their subject planets.

The Federation of Shaarn comprised some fifty systems and three hundred planets upon which intelligent races, like themselves, existed. When Shaarn informed them of the impending war, one hundred and sixty-two of those planets elected to join with the Shaarn. The rest claimed neutrality.

The war progressed. It was vicious and dreadful. And a month after it had begun the first planet was destroyed by the Thron - a neutral planet. And all life was destroyed with the planet.

Realising the danger was great, but unable to consider an alternative to continuing the struggle, the Shaarn directed their scientists to devise a means of stopping the war so that no more destruction of life should take place.

The scientists devised a means of removing the Thron from the galaxy, even from the very universe - a means, if it worked as they hoped, of forever exiling that malevolent and evil people.

They discovered the continuum-warp device which, they believed, would be capable of hurling the eleven Thron home-worlds out of their continuum and into another. This would efficiently halt the Thron's insensate aims of ruling the galaxy.

Soa squadron of ships, each armed with the device, reached the Thron home system of Yito and directed their beams on to the planets and their sun.

At first they succeeded only in shifting the planets through space, altering the position around the binary, resulting in the equidistant position they now occupied. The Thron retaliated and the Shaarn hurled the Thron warships effectively into another space-time continuum. Returning their attention to the system, they blasted it with warp rays time after time and, quite suddenly, it was gone - vanished from the Shaarn's space-time into another. The war was over.

But, as it happened, the Shaarn had not been entirely successful in their plan since the system kept right on travelling through the dimensions, eventually establishing an orbit which it still followed. Not only this, but most of the Shaarn ships were caught up in the vortex they had created and were drawn, by means of the force they had themselves released, after the Shifter.

They attempted, desperately, to return to their own space-time but, for some reason, it was now blocked, not only to them but to the Shifter itself. The system could never pass through the Shaarn's space-time again.

The Thron,' demoralised and bewildered, did not offer a threat of immediate counter-attack for they were busily consolidating on their fortress world, abandoning their slaves to any fate that came.

The Shaarn were able to land their ships, establishing a small, well-protected city at the Northern Pole of a planet they called Glanii. Here they remained for ages, vainly attempting to devise a means of returning to their own system.

Later the Thron, too, came to Glanii, where they could be nearer their hated enemies.

The Thron eventually learned what had happened to them and also began work on the problem. They invented a machine which could fling them and all their artifacts through the multi-dimensional space-time streams to their home continuum and exact vengeance on the Shaarn. So far they had not been unsuccessful.

This explained why Renark and Asquiol had found the planet apparently deserted of Thron, who at the time of their arrival had been attempting another jump through the dimensions.

The war between the Thron and the representatives of the Shaarn had become stalemate, both races concentrating most of their energies on attempts to return to their home continuum. So it had been for millennia, with the Thron, resenting further encroachments on their sundered territory, attempting to destroy any newcomers who came, like vultures, opportunistically to the Snifter system.

And that, to the date of Renark's coming, was briefly the history of the Sundered Worlds…

Renark was in a calmer frame of mind when the experience was over. At last he was no longer working in the dark - he had definite, conclusive facts to relate to his questions and was confident that the Shaarn would supply him with further useful information.

Naro Nuis telepathed discreetly: 'I hope the history was of some use to you, Renark Jon.'

'Of great use - but I gather you are unable to supply me with any detailed information of the dimension-warping device.'

'Unfortunately, that is so. From what we can gather, the continua-warp, operating as it did by means of certain laws discovered in the Shaarn continuum, will not work in the same way from outside the continuum. I believe this was deliberately done by our scientists in order that the Thron would never be able to return.'

'I'm surprised that by this time you haven't joined forces with the Thron, since you seem to have a common aim.'

'Not so. In fact, this is our main point of contention these days. The Thron are determined to regain our original universe, whereas that is the last thing we want. We will be pleased to halt the progress of the Shifter in any continuum but our own, and this would destroy, for ever, their chance to continue the war.' The alien sighed - a surprisingly human sound. 'It may be that the Shifting mechanism is an irreversible process. In that case our efforts are hopeless. But we do not think so.'

Renark was bitterly disappointed. If the beings who engendered the Shift no longer understood how it operated, this was logically the end of the trail. But he would not admit to himself that there was nothing more he could do. That was unthinkable.

He rose to his feet, his mind working intensely, busily forming the recent knowledge into the kind of pattern best suited to his present needs. Well, there was time yet. He had to be optimistic - there was no turning back. He refused to accept any factors other than those he could use objectively. Somewhere in this system…

They left the chamber and made for the ship. On the way, Renark noticed signs of animated work in a large, low-slung building with open-hangar-type doors. It struck him as out of tune with the millennia-long deadlock of which he had just learned.

He remarked on this to Naro Nuis. The alien immediately responded with interest.

'That is the result of a long period of research. We are now building equipment with which we hope to halt the Shifter system.'

Renark stared in amazement. 'What? After the story of gloom you have just told us?'

'I told you our experiments continued,' Naro Nuis replied, puzzled. 'Soon we will begin ferrying the equipment into space, to take it as near to the suns as possible.'

'And yet you still claim to have no knowledge of the Shift principle!' Renark's excitement was mounting at the thought that the creature had been lying.

'That is so,' Naro Nuis told him. 'We have despaired of ever discovering the principle behind the phenomenon. But, with any luck, we think we might bring it to a stop, even though we don't understand it.'

He added: 'This is the culmination of a very long series of experiments. Very long. If we succeed, we shall not need to know, since the phenomenon will have vanished.'

Renark's sudden hope dissipated. 'And what are your chances of succeeding?'

Naro Nuis paused before answering. 'The expedition is fraught with dangers. Our long absence from space has lost us some of our skills in interplanetary flight.'

'What of the Thron? Do they know of your plans?'

'They have some inkling, of course. They will try to stop us. There will be a great battle.'

Renark continued the walk to his ship. 'When do you plan to lift this equipment off?'

'In half a revolution of the planet.'

He stopped abruptly. 'Then I must ask one favour.'

'What is that?"

'Delay your experiment. Give me time to find out what I must know.'

'We cannot.'

There was no arguing with the Shaarn. His tone was uncompromising.

Naro Nuis explained: 'How can we be sure that you will have even a chance of success in your endeavour? Every moment we delay means that our chances of stopping the Shifter and holding off the Thron are lessened.'

'But the future of my entire race depends upon me!'

"Does it? Have you not taken it upon yourself presumptuously to save your fellows? Perhaps the process you described is natural - perhaps the members of your race will accept that they are to perish along with their universe. As for us, there is no need to delay and we must act quickly. The Thron - when they are not attempting to jump through the dimensions - patrol the planet in their ships. As soon as we begin ferrying the equipment there will be a battle. We will have to work speedily and hold off the Thron at the same time.'

'I see,' Renark said bitterly.

Later, Asquiol said: 'But what if you did stop the Shifter? Supposing you stopped it in a universe like the one we have just left? You would be destroyed along with the rest.'

'That is true - but the chances of that happening are not very great. We must risk it.'

'Then you will not wait?'

'No,' Naro Nuis said again, regretfully. 'Your hopes of success are slim. Ours are better. You must understand our position. We have been trying to stop the Shifter for thousands of years. Would you call a halt to your progress on behalf of a race you never heard of - which, according to only two of its members, was in some kind of danger?'

'I might,' Renark said.

'Not after thousands of years,' said Asquiol. 'Not that long.'

Naro Nuis's thoughts came gently. 'You are welcome to stay with us if you wish.'

'Thanks,' Renark said harshly, 'but we don't have much time.'

'I think your efforts will be wasted,' the Shaarn pathed, 'but since you are so anxious to find help you might go to the world of the Ekiversh.'

'Ekiversh?'

"The Ekiversh are intelligent metazoa who have a fully-developed race-memory. They gave us some help in building the machine with which we intend to stop the Shifter. They have lived so long that their knowledge is very great. They are good-natured, friendly and, because of their structure and type, live on the only planet in the system which is not in some way torn by strife. The Thron could learn something from the Ekiversh but, in their arrogance, they would not deign to do so. We have not often visited them, for whenever we leave our city the wrath of the Thron is turned upon us. But we have made telepathic communication when certain favourable laws have applied, for short periods, in the system.'

'Can you point out their planet on my chart?'

'With pleasure.'

Naro Nuis accompanied them aboard their ship, looking around him with pleasure and curiosity.

'A bizarre craft,' he said.

'Not by our standards.' Renark produced the chart and the alien bent over it, studying the figures marked there. At last he pointed. 'There.'

'Thanks,' said Renark.

'Let's get started, shall we?' Asquiol drummed his fingers.

'The Thron will be awaiting you when you leave here,' Naro Nuis said. 'Are you sure you want to risk it?'

'What else could we do?' Renark was close to anger.

The alien turned away from him.

Asquiol shouted at Naro Nuis:

'Haven't you any idea what you will do if you stop the Shifter? You could strand us here with no means of saving our people - no means of going back, even if we did find the information we need. You can't begin your experiments yet!'

'We must.'

Renark put his hand on Asquiol's arm. 'We must get to Ekiversh as soon as possible and see what we can learn before the Shaarn succeed in stopping the Shifter in orbit.'

'Then I had better leave,' Naro Nuis said sadly.

With mixed emotions, Renark said goodbye to the alien, thanking him for his help but aware that this pleasant people were about to conduct an experiment which - if it was successful - would shatter his own hopes of learning enough from the Shifter to be able to return to his own universe and save humanity.

Renark sat in the control seat, tensed. Asquiol fidgeted in his own seat by the gunnery panel.

Suddenly the force-dome over the city flickered, flashed bright orange and boiled backwards, leaving a gap. Renark's finger smashed down on the firing switch. The ship trembled, screamed and lifted.

Then they were through the gap in the screen, whining up through the clouds towards the madness of the Shifter's space.

Thron ships spotted them instantly and came flashing in their direction.

Asquiol didn't wait for Renark's order this time. As they sped into deep space, he fired.

The Thron ships flickered 'away from the cold, searing stream of anti-neutrons which Asquiol, in his desperation, had dared again to employ, and which their instruments told them meant "instant disruption. Even so, some vessels were caught for an instant in the periphery of the deadly flow, and must have suffered for it. Anti-neutrons, possessing no electrical charge, could not be stopped by any energy screen.

Asquiol could almost see the Thron licking their wounds.

He had hoped that this first exchange would frighten the attackers badly enough to give Renark time to make a clean getaway. But the Thron had the advantage of being able to manoeuvre in Shifter space. Renark gritted his teeth as he piled on power and plunged into the billowy twistiness which this region presented to his mind. It was almost like piloting a boat through mad, storm-tossed seas.

But they were seas that intruded into the mind.

The Thron came after them, and Asquiol saw them somersault preparatory to firing. He hesitated, reluctant to use his weapon a second time. Then great slams of force hit them.

The ship skidded and bucked. 'Don't pussyfoot, Asquiol,' Renark roared uncharacteristically. 'Let them have it!'

Asquiol clung to the firming arm of the anti-neutron gun. Blindly, he turned up the density to maximum and sprayed space. Phantasmal green flares snowed, on the screen before him, where he scored hits.

Renark closed his eyes and concentrated hard on the piloting. The collapse of atomic structures on a large scale was not a pleasant experience for a space senser.

After that, the surviving Thron ships withdrew. There was silence in the cabin of Renark's ship for some time.

A few hours later Renark made a quick mental exploration. He found what he'd expected. The Shaarn had begun the first stages of the experiment. There was evidence of fierce fighting near the Thron planet, and somewhere sunward a sizeable installation was being set up.

He probed further. At present the Shaarn were unmolested, but not for long. A large fleet was assembled an hour's journey away, and would soon no doubt do much to impede the progress of the Shaarn's labours. In spite of the friendliness shown him by his hosts, Renark began to regret the Thron warships destroyed by Asquiol.

Soon, Renark felt he would be gaining a complete picture of the workings of the multiverse. There were other things he wished to know and he had a feeling that if he lived he would know them soon.

Once again they were experiencing the chaotic and bewildering currents of outer space. But this time there was little emotional reaction, for their self-confidence was strong.

But Renark still had to fight to keep the ship on course in the stormy, lawless and random flowings of time and space, skimming the ship over them like a stone over water, through myriad sterechronia, through a thousand million twists of the spatial flow, to come finally to Ekiversh…