Virtual Mode

CHAPTER 11—CONSORT

COLENE looked at her wrist. The scars had faded. She had not cut herself since meeting Darius. But now she was getting that feeling again.

When she had come here and realized that she and Seqiro were prisoners, she had hoped they would be able to escape soon after Darius arrived. But he had been whisked away almost immediately to a distant stellar system. That prevented her from even trying to flee. She knew she would have to wait until he returned to Earth.

Oh, Ddwng was treating her well enough. He dined with her often, and was always exceedingly polite. One might have supposed that an emperor of a galaxy would have better things to do, but apparently his staff was more than competent, and he seldom had crisis decisions to make. She had feared that his interest in her was that of a man for some wild primitive strange woman, but he seemed genuinely curious about her ways and feelings. What she would do if another type of interest manifested she didn’t know. She didn’t want to make him mad—not while Darius was far away—but she didn’t want any more to do with him than absolutely necessary.

She had three nulls of the Equine persuasion to tend to her every need and want. Indeed, they were compelled to do one or more services for her each day. Had she been a man, she would have had no trouble finding something for Mare each day; she was as luscious a piece of woman-flesh as could be imagined, from the neck down. But Colene was a girl, and though Stallion would have been glad to do for her what a man did, hired sex was not her interest. So she was kept busy keeping them busy.

She was allowed information on Darius’ progress, and she followed it compulsively. Unfortunately that meant being aware of the time he spent with his nulls, particularly Pussy. What an apt name for that juicy Feline!

He called her, to her surprise; she had assumed that direct dialogue between them would be forbidden. So she tested it further by urging him not to agree to give Ddwng the Chip. Then she waited somewhat apprehensively for the Emperor’s reaction.

There was none. She did not trust that one bit.

She was allowed access to Seqiro too. Actually she was in constant mental contact with him, but she wanted more than that. So they played the game of riding, because both agreed that his mental powers should be hidden. The people of this reality had no awareness of telepathy, treating it as a supernatural notion. Seqiro reported that their minds seemed opaque to it, not because of being guarded but because they just did not seem to be organized that way. The animals could be touched, but Seqiro did not even send the mosquitoes away, lest an attendant notice. He was being the complete dumb animal.

She returned to the palace interior to learn from Horse that Darius had tried to call her again. “Well, call him back!” she said, her heart leaping. “Immediately!”

It placed the call. Tom received it. “Darius is busy at the moment,” the cat-head said.

“Oh, he’ll talk to me!” she said confidently.

“As you wish.” The picture changed.

There was Darius, naked, in the process of having sex with Pussy. She was so surprised and dismayed that she couldn’t think of any appropriate reaction. “I guess you’re busy right now,” she said lamely, and faded out. That description was appropriate: she thought she was going to faint.

“You seem surprised at his activity,” Horse said. “I should clarify that it is normal to—”

“Oh, shut up!” she snapped. She charged to her bedroom and flung herself down among the plush pillows, sobbing.

Your mind is in turmoil, Seqiro remarked.

She let him have her feeling in an inchoate blast. Then, aware of his distress, she apologized. I’m sorry, Seqiro! It’s just that—oh, what will I do?

The horse pondered, using her intelligence and his objectivity. You are being polite to Ddwng, because you fear what he might otherwise do. Those watching you are under the impression that you like him. Perhaps Darius finds it similarly expedient to give others the impression that he likes his situation.

By screwing the pussy? she demanded, her image savage.

Yes. It would suggest that he was not acclimatizing, were he to spurn her.

Colene struggled with that. She did know the nature of men; they were always interested in sex, and took it when they got the chance. That night with the boys—she had represented Opportunity. She had had no illusions after that. Darius was a man, and he had treated her decently, and he said he loved her. But how was he with other women? He had not tried to hide that from her: he expected to marry some other woman, and have sex with her if she wanted it, and in his castle he had mistresses. In fact, as Seqiro had read in Darius’ mind in that brief time he was in the palace, he had found the perfect woman to marry, named Prima, who could greatly extend his ability to radiate joy to others. Prima was no love-match; she was twice Darius’ age. The only thing distinguishing Colene from those other women was the fact that he loved her.

Yes.

With a woman, sex and love were aspects of the same thing. That was why the abuse of sex was so horrible; it soiled love. But with a man they were in different ballparks. A man could love one woman and have sex with another. It was part of the basic misunderstanding between the sexes. She had learned the hard way. So Darius could love Colene and have sex with Pussy. She understood that with her mind.

Yes.

Why, then, couldn’t she understand it with her emotion?

You do understand it with your emotion, Seqiro thought. It merely requires time for the pain of that understanding to subside.

She did understand it. Her problem was in accepting it. When she walked carelessly and stubbed her toe and it hurt, she understood what had happened, but the pain remained. After a while the pain faded, and she made sure not to stub her toe there again.

Darius might not even want to dally with the cat-woman. But as Seqiro suggested, if he did not give the impression of going along with the system, he would not be trusted, and would never be given any real freedom.

In fact, she realized something else: if the very walls of Darius’ bedroom could become video screens when he didn’t want it, they must have that capacity anytime. Was it possible that they were always tuning in on him, wherever he was? The four of them—Darius, the old woman Provos, Seqiro, and herself—were strangers here, and there was something Ddwng wanted from them. Why wouldn’t he watch them closely? If he had thrown them in dark prison cells he wouldn’t have had to watch. But not only did he keep them in excellent style, he had given Darius a significant mission to perform.

Because Darius can show him where the Chip is.

Yes. In order to get that Chip, Ddwng would have to trust himself to the Virtual Mode, where Darius could dump him in a deep hole in some barren reality and let him die. If Ddwng had to trust Darius, he wanted to know him well. So it figured that Darius would be watched closely, and all his actions judged. If Darius had caught on to that, he would play the role, because the alternative might be much worse than being a ship captain.

You are forgiving him.

She was forgiving him. Or at least finding reason not to blame him, which wasn’t exactly the same thing. There was a hard core of rancor that remained, but she was good at burying such things. She was capable of accepting what had to be accepted, and moving on.

Meanwhile she had a date with Ddwng for another meal. It was time for Mare to get her ready for it.

Ddwng was the root of her problem. He was the one who kept her apart from Darius, and put him in the position of having to hold women other than Colene in his arms. If her core of anger needed a focus, that was where it should orient.

Seqiro, link with me when I’m with the Emperor. I want to know what’s truly on his mind.

The horse was doubtful. I have not been able to penetrate any mind in this reality.

But Seqiro couldn’t get into any untame mind in his own reality without that person’s permission. This might merely be a more extreme case of that. I will try to open his mind.

Then she summoned Mare. “Let’s see what you can do when you go all out,” she told the Equine. “Make me into a princess. That is your service today.”

Mare smiled. This was a challenge she was ready to tackle. She swung into a program that demonstrated more competence than Colene had realized existed.

Soon she was clean and garbed in a scintillating pale green dress which made her look twice as good as she could ever be. She had never thought of herself as voluptuous, but in this outfit she was long-legged, sleek-hipped, narrow-waisted, and with a décolletage that could have come from a classic painting. Her face and hair were angelic; special reflective pins even gave the impression of a halo.

Colene stared at herself in the mirror. She would not have believed that she could be this adorable! It was said that clothes made the man, but men were pretty dull physically, regardless. It was the woman that clothes made. She was the living proof of it.

Too bad she had to waste this on Ddwng. She would much rather have wowed Darius. But it was in her mind that the Emperor did have some reason for this frequent interaction with her, and it probably wasn’t sexual, so it was suspicious. If she could manage to dazzle him just a little, to get him closely focused while Seqiro was tuning in, maybe, just maybe, there would be an avenue to get Seqiro into his mind. It was certainly worth a good try.

Stallion guided her to the shuttle. Here in the palace the windows to other cities or ships or worlds weren’t used; it was more physical. Maybe because such windows represented accesses to the palace, and it was supposed to be secure from intrusion. The shuttle was nice enough; it was like an enclosed amusement park ride, gently wafting to its destination. Stallion maneuvered it to Ddwng’s dining hall, let her out, and took it back; private personal nulls were not welcome in the hall itself. Only the palace nulls.

Ddwng was there, resplendent in a purple robe which complemented her dress perfectly. A little alarm sounded somewhere in her head: coincidence? No, probably he had known what she was wearing—because probably those walls had eyes here, just as on the FTL Flay, and he had access to those eyes. This could be confirmation of her prior suspicion that they were all being watched.

But no one here could see what was in their minds. Seqiro had ascertained that. So if she never voiced her true feelings, they could be known only through her actions—and she was pretty good at masking feelings.

She took the Emperor’s elbow and walked with him to the table. The Ovine nulls were there. Ram placed Ddwng’s chair, Ewe placed Colene’s, and Sheep stood by for their order.

Colene hardly noticed the excellent exotic food. She was genuinely interested in Ddwng this time, but not in as flattering a way as he might suppose. She wanted to tune his mind to things which Seqiro might read. She hoped that if the subject were narrow enough, and the interest strong enough, and she were close enough, serving as a focusing point, it just might work. It had to work, because it just wasn’t safe to be ignorant.

She started obliquely. “You know, in my reality, things like antigravity and faster-than-light travel are impossible. They just can’t be done. Are you sure that—?”

“The fundamental laws of physics differ from reality to reality,” Ddwng said. “We have known that, and understand that there are realities in which our science is inoperative, but where magic is operative, or psionic powers. Darius comes from a reality with magic, and his companion Provos appears to remember the future. That, to us, is paradoxical.”

“She knows the future?” Despite herself, Colene got distracted. “I was with her only briefly, before she was matter-mitted to the ship to rejoin Darius, but it was my impression that even if we had spoken a common language, we wouldn’t have gotten far. She seemed to know what we were about to do, but not what had just happened.”

“We are studying her. We find it interesting that her ability does appear to operate in this reality. That suggests that the fundamental laws may not be what they seem.”

Was there a chance that Darius could do magic here? That he could conjure them both away? That seemed too wonderful to be believed!

If she knows the future here, she knows what is to become of us, Seqiro thought.

But Colene was determined not to just let the future happen. She wanted to do whatever was in her power to make it the right future.

She smiled most innocently at Ddwng. “Maybe you should ask her about your own future. I mean, about getting the Chip.”

“You do not want me to have it?”

“I didn’t say that!”

I am getting a bit, Seqiro thought. He knows you are trying to deceive him.

“You do wish me to have it?” Ddwng asked, amused.

“I didn’t say that either,” she said ruefully.

I am finding an avenue. It is very narrow, but I am attuning. He is fascinated by you, but not as a woman. He is intrigued by the challenge of fathoming your motives.

“Perhaps it would be best if you were open with me,” Ddwng said.

“I’m afraid you’re going to rape me,” she said, her deathwish causing her to tread the brink.

He guffawed. For that the sound was direct rather than through the translation ball. “I have no interest in taking any woman involuntarily. I have any I want, either null or human. Set aside your fear.”

“Rape can be more than physical. What do you want with my mind?”

He studied her for a long moment before responding.

There is something horrible, Seqiro thought. Maintain the dialogue, if you can.

“There are three things I want of you,” Ddwng said. “I want the information you possess about the neighboring realities, so that at such time as I enter them, I am aware of their assets and their pitfalls.”

True.

“That’s okay by me,” she said.

“I want you to persuade Darius to guide me to the Chip.”

True.

“I guess that’s up to him,” she said guardedly. “I don’t see why I should try to influence him.”

“Perhaps you will change your mind when you know more of my rationale.”

There is something devious here.

“What’s the third thing you want of me?” Trying to be nonchalant, she took a sip of her alien fizz-drink. It wasn’t alcoholic; she would have gotten sick if it was. Ever since the rape scene, she had detested alcohol.

“I want you to be my consort.”

Colene choked, dribbling liquid on her gown. Immediately, Ewe was there, with sponges, efficiently cleaning her up. But at least the delay gave her a chance to commune with Seqiro before replying.

This is not an evil thing. It is innocent. Something else is evil.

Innocent? That’s marriage!

No, this is form only. You can agree without compromise.

You had better be right, Seqiro! Darius is the only man I—But that remained a complex emotional mess too.

Her seizure had concluded. “I thought you had no such interest.”

“I see you misunderstand. I have many consorts. All are attractive women. Most are mistresses. Their proximity to me gives them unique authority, for it is known that I do not like to embarrass them. I sometimes use them as emissaries. I would like to have you with me as I make a business trip this coming period, and the proper format for this is as consort.”

True. But there is something else. You have his attention; question him.

Colene leaned forward, evincing the appropriate amount of suspicion as well as presenting a bit more of the flesh of her bosom for inspection. “You mean I should go traveling with you, and everyone will think I’m having sex with you, but it won’t be true?”

“Correct, if that is the way you wish it.”

True.

“And maybe I’ll have to do some public task for you, the way Darius is with that far-flung mission?”

“Correct. You should find it interesting.”

True.

“And this is the way things are done in the Empire, so it’s okay and won’t sully my reputation?”

“Correct.”

True.

“And somewhere along the way I should talk Darius into giving you the Chip?”

“Correct. I believe your word will influence him.”

True.

“Though he thinks I’m having sex with you?” she asked sweetly.

He is receiving information. I think you are under constant surveillance, and he knows your heart rate and muscle tension. He knows you are hiding something, and wants to know what it is, but he can not read minds so must persuade you to cooperate. He is enjoying the challenge.

“I see that this would be disruptive,” Ddwng said. “But there is no problem. Darius will be informed of the nature of the relationship, if you wish.”

Now Colene took a long moment, gazing at him. She was not considering her answer; she was focusing on Seqiro’s thoughts.

All that he has told you is true. But there is something he knows would distress you greatly, that he hides. It ties in with Darius. That is what you must ascertain.

“Ddwng, I don’t know what’s going on in your mind,” she said in what she judged was a three-quarter truth. “And you don’t know what’s going on in mine.” Another three-quarter truth. “You’re playing these little games with me, wasting your time, when all you have to do is drug me and make me do anything. It doesn’t make sense.”

“You are perceptive. But it does make sense.”

He is playing with you as a cat does with a mouse.

“I’ll make you this deal, Ddwng: I’ll do all those things you are asking me to do, if you will tell me exactly what your real game is.”

Ddwng smiled. “Then the game will be over.”

Now he is thinking of it. I have it! Agree to everything. I will cover this with you later.

Colene trusted Seqiro. But she didn’t like to capitulate readily, as a matter of obscure principle. “Then maybe I’ll just do none of those things. What do you say to that?”

“I would not recommend such a course.”

There is something else. He is grim.

“So what would you do about it?” she demanded, treading the brink again.

“I would have your horse vivisected.”

True.

She stared at him. “You aren’t kidding, are you!”

“I do not joke. But I would hope that such inducement would not be necessary.”

She sighed. “Okay, you win. I agree to do the three things you say you want of me.”

“Excellent.”

He is surprised. To him your moods and decisions are strange. He can not be sure when you are telling the truth.

They finished the meal. Then Stallion came to escort her back to her suite.

Colene had Horse tune the wall-screen to an entertainment program. She did not relate well to the sort of television the Empire had, but it gave her a cover for her contact with Seqiro. That business about vivisecting him had her seething. But she knew that was only part of what was wrong. Now tell me what gives. What’s Ddwng’s big secret?

He told Darius that if he does not cooperate, you will be lobotomized and the reproductive cells of your body taken surgically for use by the people of this reality, to replenish their stock. They are too conformist, genetically; they must introduce variety, or suffer slow degeneration.

Colene was stunned. Now she knew why Darius was playing the game! She was the cause of it.

She tried to keep her face straight and her body relaxed, so that the hidden sensors could not read her reactions well. Whoever was watching her would know that something was bothering her, but might assume it was the stupid wall-program. Or the threat to her horse, which wasn’t far wrong.

The more she dwelled on this news, the firmer her reaction became. It was utter fury. The Emperor was keeping her close to him and treating her like a great lady, while threatening her horse and herself with dire consequences. Rape? He was expert at it!

So what was she going to do about it? Ddwng seemed to hold most of the cards. He was holding them hostage against each other, and was unscrupulous enough to make good on all his threats. But if they all went along, and the Emperor got that Chip, he could ravage the other realities too. Was their welfare worth it?

If they didn’t cooperate, it might not stop Ddwng. He would kill them and head into the Virtual Mode on his own, and maybe he would find the Chip anyway. His chances of getting it would be greatly reduced, and his chances of getting lost or killed increased, but he was obviously one tough nut and he well might get through. In which case they would have sacrificed themselves for nothing.

No, the only sure way was to be rid of Ddwng. To agree to do his will, get him into the Virtual Mode, away from his minions, and destroy him. Feed him to a telepathic bear or something.

But right away she saw several problems with that. First, Ddwng wouldn’t fall for it; he would know not to trust them. Second, Darius wouldn’t give his word unless he meant it, so Ddwng could trust him, and for Ddwng’s purpose Darius was the only one who mattered. The rest of them were just to make sure Darius didn’t change his mind; they had to keep encouraging him to give Ddwng that Chip. How could Colene do anything else, when Seqiro would be hurt? There was probably some sort of threat against Provos too, so she kept her mouth shut. She might know what was going to happen, but not be able to prevent it.

That gave her a passing notion. Seqiro—did you tune in on Provos when she was here? Did she know our future?

Her mind is permeable but strange. She was just beginning to know it. She takes time to remember, in a new reality. She seemed to see us being here for ten days, then going back into the Virtual Mode with Ddwng. She could not see beyond that.

Well, that’s enough. So we are going to do it.

Yes, as she sees it.

Colene felt a surge of despair. It was already decided! They were locked into the Emperor’s fell plot. Whatever they did, Ddwng would win, because he was what he was and they were what they were. If only Darius weren’t so honest! If he agreed, even under duress, he would carry through. Colene herself would have no such compunction; a pledge made under duress was not binding. Knowing what she now knew of Ddwng, she would have no compunction about lying to him. She would not let the DoOon exploit the other realities as they had this one! But she had no power. Darius didn’t want to see her hurt, so he would agree, and that would be that. Should she condemn him because he really did love her?

Damn, damn, damn! Ddwng could tell when others were lying, because his instruments read their body signals. Colene was different; he couldn’t quite keep track of her, because she was wildly mixed up inside. The DoOon were pretty much all of a kind, their genetics inbred; that was why they needed new blood, and her ovaries represented that. So Ddwng was trying to understand her, not because he cared about her but because he didn’t want to introduce truly crazy blood into the DoOon strain. He was surveying her as he might a new breed of animal, making sure of the quality. Once he was sure that her mind did not represent a genetic danger to the stock—

Could she pretend she was truly crazy, and scare him off? No, because it was Darius he really needed. He could throw her away if he decided she was worthless. She would do better to satisfy him that she was actually a pretty genetically solid creature, and then do something wild in the Virtual Mode, like pushing him off a mile-high cliff into a mile-wide bed of carnivorous oysters who hadn’t been fed for two years. But he would surely be well armed, and have electronic armor and an antigravity suit and other super-science that would make him invulnerable to any betrayal she might attempt. In fact, he would probably have one of those little pain dials Horse had shown her, tuned to all of them, so that it would go off if anything happened to him and they’d all fry. She would have no way to do him harm, for sure.

But she absolutely refused to let him get away with it. She had faced down Biff in that bleeding contest; there must be some way she could beat Ddwng. Some nasty little plot she could hide in her nutty little mind, that he couldn’t fathom. Some little poison needle he wouldn’t even feel until it was too late. She had read once about a woman who put slow-acting poison in her vagina, and killed her false lover because after sex with her he just went to sleep, while she got up and quickly washed herself out before she got too bad a dose. If Colene had something like that, and Ddwng did rape her, what revenge! Yet even if she had something like that, and managed to kill him—what would his death do to the Virtual Mode? He was an anchor person. A dead anchor—that just might blow up the whole thing, like a rock in a fan, and kill them all. Could she afford to gamble on that, even if she had the poison, which she didn’t? She was ready to die, but she didn’t want to do it to Darius or Seqiro.

The anchor—there was the problem. It wasn’t safe to touch an anchor person. Ddwng surely realized that, so he wouldn’t kill any of them as long as he had any chance to travel their Virtual Mode, and he wouldn’t do anything to them while they were on it. So he was muscling them into shape in other ways, taming them, bending them to his will. If only he weren’t the anchor for this reality!

Then the answer flashed through her consciousness like a lovely meteor. Seqiro! We can do it!

Seqiro considered, using her intelligence and his objectivity. Yes, it is possible, if he does not suspect.

I’ll lull him right to sleep! I’m good at fooling people. Trust me.

I do.

Colene had to laugh. Seqiro was the only one who had ever truly understood her. He trusted her because he knew her for exactly what she was: a conniving little wench. Horse-face, I love you!

True.

AFTER Darius killed the monster in properly heroic fashion, according to the news release, she called him. “Oh, Darius,” she pleaded in distraught maidenly fashion, “please give Ddwng the Chip! It’s the only way we can be together!”

He seemed taken aback, as well he might be. But she was serious. She did want him to agree. “It’ll be all right! Honest it will! Please, Darius!” She even managed to put a quaver of earnestness into her voice, which would have been excellent acting except that it was real. She was absolutely sincere in this, and she wanted this entire reality to know it. Darius had to make the pledge!

He promised to consider. Evidently he did, because soon he did call Ddwng and agree to guide him to the Chip, with certain manly honorable reservations. It was done.

Colene was the dishonorable one. She dreaded to think of the reckoning she would have with Darius when she did what she hoped to do. But it was better than the choice between lobotomy and loosing the DoOon on the realities. Sometimes deceit was the only way.

DDWNG took her to a far planet elsewhere in the galaxy. She had given up trying to wrestle with the concept of faster-than-light travel; it was contrary to the physics of her reality, but evidently just fine here. The same went for instant communication across the galaxy, antigravity, and all the rest. Super-science, another name for fantasy, in her home town.

They would attend an elegant ball in their honor at the chief city of Planet Kyvrn. Mare got Colene garbed for it in a rehearsal, and Horse drilled her on spot protocol. She was the Emperor’s newest and youngest consort, and as such the object of much interest. She would be rather quiet in the Emperor’s presence, and rather haughty when alone, for her status on this planet was second only to his. She would dance with him once, and thereafter with any man she chose. Stallion went through the steps with her, making sure she would not misstep.

“But what’s my mission here?” she asked.

“This is a rebellious planet,” Horse explained. “You will need to restore it to harmony with the Empire.”

Colene was aghast. “A rebel world? And Ddwng is setting foot on it? And I’m supposed to tame it? Why doesn’t he just stick his head in a running meat-grinder while he’s at it, and I’ll just pick up a section of the galaxy and shake some stars loose!”

All three Equines laughed. They had learned early that she made jokes, and accommodated themselves to it. She liked them very well. They were nominally subhuman, but actually they were intelligent enough, with Horse perhaps being smarter than she, and they were perfectly comfortable to be around. She wished there were some way to have such companions with her always, without the degradation of such permanent servitude. She had always liked horses, but would have thought that horse-headed human beings would be disgusting. That was not the case at all; they seemed quite natural now.

“This is not that kind of rebellion,” Horse said. “This is a retirement colony. Most of the residents are former Empire officials. Here they are out of power, with no requirements, and discover that they are restive. They would never actually rebel, but their discomfort would be an embarrassment were it known, as this is supposedly an ideal world. It will be your task, in the course of the next three days, to make them comfortable with their situation.”

“It’s still preposterous!” she exclaimed. “Does Ddwng expect me to perform magic? I don’t know anything about this, and if I did, what could I do? And if I could do anything—three days? I mean, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and—”

“Rome?”

“Famous ancient city in my reality. Forget it. The point is, this is like—like—impossible!”

“Evidently the Emperor has much confidence in you,” Horse said dryly, twitching his furry ears.

Colene only wished that Seqiro were here. He might have been able to read the minds of the people, and get a notion how to satisfy them. But he was thousands of light-years away, reverted to his dumb animal stage, awaiting her return. She was on her own, and she didn’t like it one bit.

Or was she? If telepathy existed, and faster-than-light travel existed, and Provos could remember the future here, showing that it was her talent, not restricted to her reality—why couldn’t telepathy and FTL merge, and enable her to commune with her friend regardless? Where was it written that the powers of one reality were nullified in another? Maybe some were and some weren’t. Maybe Darius couldn’t do magic here, but Seqiro could project his thoughts instantly across interstellar reaches. She had a receptive mind for him, for sure! If anybody could receive him here, she was the one!

She lay down, theoretically resting the hour before the ball, and closed her eyes. But she didn’t relax, and she didn’t care what the monitors thought; they could assume that she was all twisted up by the enormity of her mission. She opened her mind to her true friend.

Seqiro! Seqiro! Do you read me?

At first there was nothing. Then there was the faintest response. She focused on that, willing it to become stronger. It had to be him! Seqiro! Read me! I need you!

Faintly, faintly, she felt his mind.

I have to find a way to make these folk feel better about being retired and useless. You must read their minds for me, if you can, to get a glimpse of what will do it. That’s my only chance not to blow this mission out of space!

The faint reassurance came. He would do what he could.

IT was a pretty planet. The terraforming had evidently made it into one big garden, with neatly laid-out cities set up like parkland, so that the houses hardly showed through the trees. Small lakes were everywhere, set between hills, with paths between them. There seemed to be no motorized vehicles; if there was mass traffic, it was out of sight. This was the sort of place she would like to retire to with Darius, if that ever came.

Of course that was just the image in the screen. She was sure there were slums and garbage and all the rest of the seamy side of civilization. She knew how it was; she remembered Panama. But the illusion was nice, even so.

Then it was time to get ready. All three Equines pitched in, without regard for modesty; Stallion was drawing something like support stockings up her legs while Horse was fitting her invisible bra for proper uplift and Mare was doing her hair. It was all right; there were no secrets from a person’s nulls. In a surprisingly short time they transformed her from ordinary messed-up teenager to a vision of unbelievable loveliness. Each time they garbed her, they seemed to exceed prior records for success. Then Stallion took her to the matterport and via it to landfall.

She went in a daze through the halls of the receiving complex, feeling the slightly diminished gravity and breathing the slightly strange air. This was a foreign planet, all right; her body knew it. Ddwng was waiting for her at the entrance, resplendent in his own uniform robe of the day. He was actually rather handsome in his brute fashion. She pictured his Swine doing him as the Equines had done her: support stockings, transparent bra, and hair. She had to bite her tongue lest she let slip an indiscreet titter.

The ball was every bit as opulent as Colene had feared. In her wildest dreams of the distant past—circa one month ago—she had pictured occasions at which she would be the cynosure of all, impressing the ladies with her courtly presence and the men with her sex appeal. Now it had come true, and it wasn’t nearly as delightful as her fancy.

The problem was that she had to watch her manners. She couldn’t pick her nose or scratch her bottom or say an uncouth word. Maybe full-grown ladies never even thought of doing such things, but she was fourteen, which was sort of on the verge. There were a number of pleasures of childhood that she wasn’t sure she wanted to give up just yet, like computer games, and multi-decker ice cream cones with nuts and fudge on top, and putting whoopee cushions under the padding of seats in houses of worship. Every time she remembered that joke about the man breaking wind in church and having to sit in his own pew, she broke up. In short, she just wasn’t quite ready for ladyhood.

But here she was, ready or not, on the arm of the Emperor of the Milky Way Galaxy (only they called it the DoOon Galaxy here), resplendent as only Mare could make her. Oh, she was breathtakingly lovely, all right; every mirror pillar reflected this phenomenal creature virtually floating along in her glow. She wore a brown gown that exactly matched the hue of her hair, and both had been somehow enhanced to make them seem more livingly lustrous than any ordinary woman deserved. Opalescent sequins glittered as she moved. She could have done without the mirror-polished floor, however; she was afraid her dainty hard-soled slippers would slip, putting her into an inglorious spin. She also wondered just what the men were looking at when they bowed their heads to her and gazed into that reflective surface. Most of all she was afraid that the butterflies in her stomach would erupt in a grotesque burp, making her die of shame three times before her blush reached full definition. In sum, fun was not the operative term at the moment.

Be calm. You are making a good impression.

Her nerves lost their ragged edges. What would she do without Seqiro! She reminded herself that every lady faced the same problems, and most of them survived satisfactorily. Anyway, this wasn’t forever. After the first dance things would start getting normal.

Ddwng brought her to the center of that stage. He made the little nod to the assemblage, and as one those hundreds returned it. Colene remained frozen, as she had been told to do; her turn was not quite yet.

“I am glad to revisit Planet Kyvrn,” the Emperor said. The miniature translation ball Colene wore at her throat, just above the nascent cleavage of her seemingly-too-low but actually-promising-more-than-could-be-delivered décolletage, murmured his words to her. She was surprised to see that many of the attending men and women wore similar balls. Apparently they could not understand Ddwng’s language any more than she could. That gave her another shot of confidence. A dozen more like it, and she might even begin to think about being at ease. But it would help if someone else made a slip first.

“I am sure any questions will soon be resolved,” Ddwng continued. “To that end I bring you my consort of the moment, Colene, who will be among you three days.” He made an eighth turn toward her, and Colene made the requisite head-nod to him, then did a slow pirouette and bowed more deeply to the audience, so that her upper gown line promised even more of her bosom than before. The material was adhesive, so there was no danger of even a tenth of an inch more exposure than Mare had decreed, which was a relief. She could stand on her head and nothing would pop out. But she might have a problem with her skirt. For a delicious instant she was tempted to do a cartwheel and really wow the audience. But that was her deathwish manifesting, and she had enough to occupy her attention already.

Then Ddwng took her in his arms and danced with her. He was smooth, evidently coached by his own null of the Porcine persuasion. Colene wondered whether he had sex with Sow. But the image wasn’t as insulting as intended, because that female swine was both beautiful and sweet-natured. No Miss Piggy there!

She followed his steps, and it was exactly as Stallion had shown her. It was a set format, hardly more challenging than the box step, and she could probably do it in her sleep. The weird thing was that moving in unison with Ddwng this way, being lovely in his arms, she could almost fool herself into thinking that he was a decent character. There was just something about dressing up, and about dancing, that made everything seem better than it was. But deep down she would never be fooled. Will you dance with me after my lobotomy, dear? She had to stifle a wry smile; it was her kind of humor. She had been afraid of physical rape, not realizing how much worse things could be. Her reproductive organs cut out of her and put into a cold sere laboratory…

Suddenly the dance was done. Ddwng made the little bow to her, then spun about and walked away. She was on her own.

The tableau was frozen. They were waiting for her. She looked at the circle of men, and spied the oldest and by his clothing the most important. Old men were hardly safe, but tended to be less dangerous than young ones. She walked slowly to him.

“I will dance first with the handsomest,” she said. She heard his ball translating as she spoke.

He stepped forward. “Governor Rrllo,” her ball said. “I thank you for this significant privilege.”

They danced in exactly the same fashion as before; the set routine was handy this way. His hands did not stray. Around them other couples now danced also. The ball was under way.

Engage him in dialogue.

Yes, so that Seqiro could tune in on Rrllo’s focused thoughts. Colene had a mission to perform, and her one-in-a-million chance of succeeding would become even less if she didn’t take advantage of every opportunity to try to understand these folk.

“I didn’t really choose you for your handsomeness,” Colene said to Rrllo. “I wanted to talk with you.”

“I am shocked to hear that,” he replied with a chuckle. Their two translation balls were close together and seemed to be talking to each other. “You thought I would know what’s going on behind the scenes?” The translations had become so facile that his idiom was rendered without hesitation into her idiom.

“Yes. I—” She brought a faintly woebegone look to her face, with little effort required. “I have almost no chance to figure out the problem, let alone solve it, but if there’s anything I can do, I’ll at least try. I thought perhaps you would help me get started.”

You aren’t fooling him, but he is intrigued. You have honored him by selecting him to dance, and he would like to help you. But he is wary.

“You have a better chance than most,” he said. “You have the ear of the Emperor, for the moment.”

“But what is it that the people here want?”

He shook his head. “That is no mystery. But the solution—that is the mystery.”

“It is all a mystery to me! This seems like a nice planet.”

“It is very nice,” he agreed.

He knows. But he doesn’t want to tell.

“Please, Rrllo! After the ball—may I see you? I mean, visit your house, get to know your family, talk with you off the record?”

He seemed taken aback. “Nothing is forbidden to a consort. But our private lives are of little interest.”

He remains wary. You may be trying to trick him into saying something treasonous.

So it was like that. Colene felt that old familiar deathwish-gamble urge coming on. It wasn’t that she truly needed to solve this riddle; she expected to fail regardless. It was that when she got into something, anything, the underlying nature of her started taking over, and the decorous rules started suffering.

“Do you know what Ddwng does to those who displease him?” she inquired.

The man stiffened. “I know.”

“Then you know that I face lobotomy if I mess up.” She wasn’t sure how true this was; it probably depended more on whether Darius messed up. But it was certainly a threat against her. And perhaps against any of the residents of the planet who contributed to that failure.

“That, no,” he said. “Surely not merely for failing an impossible mission.”

“Would you gamble on that?”

He considered, now realizing that his own hide could be on the line too. “I will meet you after the ball. Tomorrow morning?”

She smiled bittersweetly. “Thank you, Rrllo.” She was learning how to handle the reins of power.

After that, she came close to enjoying the dance, though she kept thinking of the Sword of Damocles. That was the case of the courtier who was given a fine meal to eat, with a heavy sword hanging by a thread over his head; distracted by that threat, he hardly enjoyed the meal. Thus the King showed him the liability of power. Colene now had an excellent notion how the poor man had felt.

NEXT morning, more appropriately dressed for going places, she went with Rrllo. “Now show me Panama,” she said.

“I beg your pardon?”

The translator ball hadn’t caught up with that one yet. She felt a small morsel of satisfaction. “I would like to see how the other half lives. The folk who don’t get to go to fancy balls. Who don’t hobnob with the Emperor.” For it was in her mind that it would be from this class that a revolution would most likely brew.

“The servant class,” he said. “We can’t afford three nulls for each person, but there is a cadre of nulls that passes from house to house to catch up on business.”

Nulls. Her expectation deflated. There would be no revolution there. “I changed my mind. Let’s just go to your place and talk.”

“As you wish.”

His place turned out to be an elegant futuristic (to her perception) cottage on the edge of a lakelet, with pleasantly exotic trees and shrubs surrounding it. His wife was exactly the kind she expected, and the neighbors were too. Rebellion? This just didn’t seem to be the place for it.

He remains intrigued by you. There is a certain naïve sincerity you evince which is normally lacking in consorts. He may cooperate.

“Look,” she said forthrightly. “You folk used to have a lot of power in the Empire, and now you’ve been put out to pasture. I guess that’s a comedown. But why would Ddwng think there’s a rebellion brewing?”

“There is no rebellion brewing!” Rrllo protested. “We are satisfied retired citizens.”

“But he has spy-eyes to check every nuance of every reaction of every person. He has to know you’re up to something. Why he figures it’s anything I can do anything about is beyond me.”

“You are speaking with unusual candor.”

He’s getting interested.

“I’m from another reality. I was on my way to meet my—the man I love, and this reality was between, so I passed through here, and he came from the other side, and now we’re both in Ddwng’s power and if we don’t do what he wants we’re in trouble. So I’m doing what he wants. He wants me to fix things here. So if there’s anything I can do, I’m damn well going to do it, so I can get on out of this reality. Now, if you’ll just tell me what you want, maybe just maybe I can do you and me some good. I admit it’s unlikely, but why not give it a try?”

Rrllo was amazed. “You are from another reality? There has not been a connection between realities in a thousand years!”

“There is now. Ddwng wants to get our Chip so he can go into other realities. We’d rather not give it to him, but we don’t have a lot of choice, so we’ll do it. It’s better than lobotomy.”

Then she realized that she had made a terrible mistake. She should never have mentioned her knowledge of the lobotomy, because now Ddwng would know she knew, and he hadn’t told her. He could have the hint that she had a source of information he didn’t know about, and that could expose Seqiro and ruin everything.

“You are inadvertently speaking treason,” Rrllo said.

She nodded grimly. “Yes, I guess the news is already at Ddwng’s HQ. But what does he expect when he abducts travelers and threatens them to make them do his bidding?”

He thinks you are trying to trap him into treasonous dialogue.

“There are no recorders here. It would be too expensive to mount and maintain them in an unimportant site like Kyvrn. This conversation is private. But you are mistaken if you suppose we have any animosity toward the Emperor.”

“No cameras?” she asked, hope flaring. “You mean no one will know what I just said, if you don’t tell them?”

“I would not presume to report on the private words of a consort. Surely you have excellent reason for your utterances.”

She smiled. “I guess you couldn’t tell him anything he doesn’t already know.” Apparently the man did not realize the significance of the lobotomy reference. What a relief! “But I’m really not trying to trick you. I’m just telling you that I have a different perspective. I’m really not the Emperor’s mistress; it’s just a title he put on me so he has a pretext to put me here.”

“But he introduced you as—”

“Yes. But it’s not real. I guess he wanted you to think you rated higher than you do. But Rrllo, I’d sure like to make good even though it’s hardly possible. If you’d just help me a little bit, maybe we can both come out ahead.”

He is impressed by your directness. He is inclined to trust you.

“Let me tell you then what I assumed you knew,” Rrllo said. “This planet is a retirement community for officers of the Empire. As such, it is elite, and we receive excellent care. There is no poverty or crime. But some of us feel that we were retired too soon, and that we could have given further years of service to the Empire, and maintained the associated perquisites. Instead we have been displaced by younger, relatively inexperienced officers. Are you surprised that we feel a certain dissatisfaction?”

Colene shook her head, perplexed. “Why retire you if you’re still doing well?”

“This is our question. We feel the policy is misguided, particularly since genetic deficiencies are appearing more frequently in following generations. In all candor, we feel that those who replace us lack, as a whole, the ability we have, even after allowing for the difference in experience.”

“And I guess it wouldn’t do much good just to say that to Ddwng.”

“It has been said to him already.”

“And he responded by sending me.”

“This is the case.”

True.

Colene pondered for about forty seconds. “Maybe it’s his way of changing his mind. If I suggest something he’s ready to do anyway, then he can say he’s doing it for me, and no one will think he’s wishy-washy.”

“Oh, he does not wish to wash anything himself!”

Colene paused, realizing that she had slipped another colloquialism past the translator. “I mean that he’s given to changing his mind readily.”

Rrllo smiled. “He is not given to that.”

“See, I’m about as unusual a consort as he could have, when you get right down to it. I might come up with something pretty wacky, because I’m from out of town. Rather than make it seem that he sent an unqualified consort, he might just agree to what I suggest. So maybe what you need to do is to tell me what to suggest, and maybe it’ll happen.”

Rrllo stared at her. “You are a most unusual young woman.”

“I guess I am. But why don’t we try it? Because suddenly this makes sense of things. That he knows what he’s doing, and he thinks you have a case. So my chances and yours aren’t nearly as remote as we figured—if we play it right.”

You have surprised him. He has decided to go along with you.

“As it happens, we do have a proposal, if the Emperor does not find it insulting.”

“I have a feeling he knows what it is, and that he’s ready to do it.” She was coming to a better appreciation of Ddwng’s subtlety. The man was a cunning and unscrupulous customer, but what he did made sense. She only hoped that he had underestimated her more than she had underestimated him. It was an excruciatingly dangerous game she was playing.

“It is this: we would like to bring our expertise back into play. We would like to be designated advisers in our specialities—which cover the gamut of those necessary to the operation of the Empire—and consulted when there are problems which the younger officers might have difficulty with.”

“To pull things out when they bungle.”

“I would not have put it that way.”

“You’re not an alien teenage pseudo-consort.”

He smiled. “Indeed I am not.”

“Let’s try it! Set me up with the detail and the arguments I’ll need, and make sure I have it straight, and I’ll tell him as if it’s my own idea. If we’re right, he’ll choose to believe that. We have today and tomorrow. Is that enough time?”

“It should be, as our desire is straightforward.”

They got to it, with a growing conviction that this was indeed what she had been sent here to do. Colene met a number of the other officers in person and by wall video, and rehearsed the arguments as carefully as she had done the protocol of the ball. When the time came, she would be ready.

IT happened as expected. It had obviously been choreographed as precisely as the ritual of the dance. Planet Kyvrn was officially designated as an Advisory Resource, and the residents were presumably encouraged and would feel more positive henceforth.

“You did so well!” Mare said enthusiastically as she gave Colene a massage. Her hands were so gentle and proficient that the lingering tension just faded away. Colene could appreciate how Darius, subjected to such treatment, could—but she shoved that hastily out of mind. She understood, but there was a tight knot of emotions that would have to be picked apart at another time.

She returned to the recent exhilaration of the successful mission. So Ddwng had programmed it to succeed; so it still had been fun. He had used her in a harmless way to justify his change of policy.

But something nagged, and her morbid aspect kept trying to sniff it out. She had never been one to accept things without question, especially when they were nice. She was always alert for the worm in the apple, and she liked to fathom the whole worm. Which reminded her of two things: the question about what it was better to find in an apple one was eating: a whole worm or half a worm? Where was the other half of the worm? She had once made a friend sick at lunch with that one. The other thing was a bit of verse her grandmother had told her once, and Colene’s beady little mental eye for the grotesque had fixed on it instantly. The verse was about a college professor who tended to transpose the first letters of words when he got excited. Once he had the unpleasant task of informing a prominent woman that she had taken the wrong pew in church: “Mardon me, madam, but you are spitting in the wrong stew. Please let me sew you to another sheet.” But the one about the worm was what Colene was after now. The prof was bawling out a bad student. “You have missed three of my mystery lectures. In fact you have tasted the whole worm!” Well, when the worm was some subtle flaw in a person’s understanding, it was indeed better to taste the whole thing.

Why had Ddwng used her for this task? Surely he could have used any beautiful, stupid consort for this purpose. The answer was reasonably plain: he was studying Colene, because if she was crazy underneath, and it was a genetic defect, he didn’t want those genes in the DoOon gene pool. But if he was studying her, did it make sense to turn her loose unsupervised? Surely he would want to have his machines taking her stats all the time, especially when she thought she was unobserved.

So had Rrllo been lying to her when he said he wouldn’t report on her indiscretion? No, because Seqiro had found the man true. But why should Rrllo report? He was just another actor in the play. There would be a monitor on Colene, maybe one Rrllo didn’t know about, so Seqiro couldn’t get it from his mind.

But there couldn’t be a camera following her around! So how could it be done?

“Will there be anything else?” Mare inquired, having completed the rubdown. She spoke through the translation ball, as always.

“No thanks,” Colene replied automatically. “I’ll just lie here and sag for a while.”

Mare let her be. Then an almost tangible light bulb flashed. The translation ball! She had worn a special one at the planet. That was the recorder.

So Ddwng knew what she had said, including the bit about lobotomy. He would know that no one had mentioned this to her. So he would have a direct question to ask her, and if she didn’t have a direct answer, she might face that lobotomy sooner than she had figured. That would ruin her plan for escape, not to mention her life.

Oh sweet Jesus! she thought. How am I going to get out of this one?

You will have to deceive him with a half-truth, Seqiro replied.

She realized it was true. She couldn’t tell Ddwng about Seqiro; that would ruin everything and get the horse destroyed. She couldn’t claim it was a lucky guess; he would never buy that.

She mulled it over, and finally came to something she hoped would work.

Sure enough, on the way back to Earth Ddwng had dinner with her, and after the amenities he put it to her directly. “You surprised me, Colene. I may have underestimated you. How did you know about the lobotomy?”

“I’m telepathic,” she replied without hesitation. That was the half-lie, flat out.

He gazed at her. “We regard such claims as without substance.”

“Yes. That’s why you had so much trouble with the monster of Yils. You just couldn’t believe it was possible to stun someone by pure mental force.”

“Darius is telepathic too?”

“Not exactly. He can receive and rebroadcast emotion, without being affected. He’s more like a catalyst. So the monster couldn’t mind-blast him. As you expected.”

“You are evidently well matched to Darius.”

“I evidently am. His mind, my mind—I think it’s going to be fun, when we finally get together and explore the interactions.”

“What am I thinking now?”

She shook her head. “It’s not that simple, Ddwng. It’s not like watching a program on the wall. Your mind is all guarded and complicated. You have to be unguarded and have a very strong thought, and even then I don’t necessarily get it. The lobotomy was so strong, and related to me so directly, that I picked it up. It was when we were eating, and you told me the three things you wanted of me—to be your consort, and such. I thought it was sex, but it was lobotomy. After that I decided to agree to your three things. You didn’t wonder what changed my mind?”

“I did wonder.”

He is concluding that it is true.

“Well, now you know. The only other thing I got was about genetics. But that wasn’t clear. What do genetics have to do with me?”

Now he believes he knows what you have been hiding from him. Your knowledge of some of his plans.

“Our gene pool is too limited. We have achieved perfect health and uniformity, but along with the liabilities of genetic diversity, we eliminated some of the strengths. You may have genes we can use.”

“So you’re going to breed me like an animal—” She broke off, fixing him with a carefully rehearsed stare. “Surgery! You intend to take my ovaries!”

“So you did receive that thought.”

“How could I miss it! You monster! You told me that you would let us go if we got you the Chip!”

Ddwng lifted his hands in a gesture of conciliation. “I will do that. If we achieve the other realities, there will be many gene sources, and you will be superfluous. It is only if we fail that we shall have to take whatever offers.”

“Don’t take this personally, Ddwng, but sometimes you remind me of a slimy tapeworm. You don’t care whose guts you destroy, so long as you get yours.”

He smiled. “I see we understand each other.”

And it seemed that her ploy had worked. She had shown the correct amount of perception and outrage, and he believed that she could read his mind—in sometime glimpses. He would probably stay clear of her now. But she would have to watch her step most carefully from here on, if she expected to survive and to save her friends. This was no part-time hood she was facing off; Ddwng was deadly dangerous.

THEY traveled back to Earth, which was a great relief. This super-science stuff was all right, but Colene felt most comfortable with Earth, even in its multiple alternate realities. The five anchors of the Virtual Mode seemed to be on Earth, so that all the anchor folk were human or familiar animal, though the underlying rules of the universe might shift. If Darius made it back, and they set foot on the Virtual Mode, and if her plan worked—but she refused even to think of that, lest she somehow give it away. She could afford to make no more mistakes.

The first thing she did on Earth was hold communion with Seqiro. Now she knew better than to vocalize or subvocalize; pure thought was the only way, and that with circumspection, so that there was no outward hint about where her mind really was. In fact, she made sure to have something account for her emotional reactions, as a cover. In this case another violent entertainment program. DoOon tastes seemed to be similar to lowbrow American, which didn’t say much for their improved genetics.

Seqiro! I’m so glad to be close to you again!

It is wonderful, he agreed. His thought came in far more clearly, now that they were close.

It was like a bad connection, there in the region of Kyvrn. I could barely receive you.

Receive me? There was no contact there.

She was startled. But there was! You gave me key readings on the reactions of others. I needed those.

We lost contact when you left Earth. I reverted to unintelligent animal level. I am restored only now, with your contact.

Something was wrong. But I read you!

There was no contact between us. The conviction was absolute.

All that key support from him—had it been only her imagination? Then how had she picked up the attitudes of Rrllo? You mean—I really did read a mind myself?

This seems to have been the case. You have been learning from me during our contact, gaining some of my mental ability just as I gain some of yours.

So her half-truth had been a three-quarter truth! An awesome new horizon was opening to her.

Colene gazed at the stupid program on the wall, her mind reeling. What a development this was!