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From Albagens?"
The colonel turned away to watch as new data flowed across half a dozen
screens. He shook his head. "We have a space translations now. And more
coming. Picket ships, scout They're not Alban."
"Don't toy with me! Do you know what they are?"
"Yes, Lord. They are Hunzza. That's the Imperial High there."
Iskander came out of his chair. A'Kasha had kept itself as from Hunzza as it
had from every other race. He knew that empire rebuilt itself from the
rubble, the legend of the Pit of Souls the few who had escaped that doom, had
slowly faded. Now it was ing more than the ghost of a rumor, a tale told to
frighten
Or it had been. He glanced at the central screen, which focused on the
Alban ship. The five great globes that made necklace shape had begun to shift
colors slightly. Suddenly flared in unison and became perfectly reflective
silver.
"What is that ship doing?" he asked.
"It appears, Lord, that it is going out to meet the incoming has raised its
shields."
"One ship?" Iskander said, awed. "Against all of the imperial
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Hunzzan power?"
"It appears so," the colonel replied. "I'hat's some ship."
I can still feel it," Outsider said.
"Yes, I can, too," Jim replied.
"It worries me. Whatever it is, it is immensely strong. You say it is
stronger than you are."
"I think so."
"What if it interferes while we use the Pr/de to attack that Hunzzan fleet?"
"I haven't decided yet whether to attack," Jim told him.
"What? Don't be ridiculous. There's only one possible reason for it to be
here: us. Or at least what it thinks is us." Outsider paused.
"I can see your logic, though. Even if they destroy the Pr/de, we can't be
harmed. We're in the arrays, and the arrays are in Sol
System."
"Which is now surrounded by a similar fleet from Alba," Jim said. "If
Terra is destroyed, then so are the arrays. And so are we."
"You know that Alban fleet can't touch us. We could initiate the Leap spiral
immediately. The singularity would take only moments to form.
Nothing could touch us once the singularity exists."
"No," Jim said. "I'm not ready to do that yet."
'l'hen what are you ready to do? We have all the subjective time we need, of
course. But events do continue on in proper time--and the real problem is
still with us. That other."
"It's what the A'Kashans worship," Jim told him. "What Harpy called the God."
'rhere are no gods," Outsider said. 'qlaere are only patterns, information
encoded by natural selection. Just like the patterns encoded in Harpalaos's
DNA. You watched the process of activation. You know."
As a matter of course, Outsider had invaded and taken over all of the
A'Kashan data-processing systems as soon as the Pr/de had entered
A'Kasha System. While Jim's "body" sat in a cell, its arms holding
Char, Jim had watched Harpalaos's transformation through the observation
systems in the Circle chamber.
"I know," Jim replied. "I'hat's the key to this whole thing;:
understand. What Harpy became. Why he became it."
"Do you understand the key yet?" "Only partially. It's almost as if
something is revealing itself bit by bit. Maybe hoping not to shock me or
frighten me. As an' would teach a child an unpleasant truth. Or a truth too
large child's mind to understand all at once." "Neither you nor I are
children." "Maybe to something else we are."
Outsider snorted. "I'o what would we be like children?"
"I'o a god?" Jim said.
"-re you all right?" Jim said.
Char stirred in his arms. Her eyelids fluttered. "I think so. It's
I can't feel him anymore." She stared up at him. "I think he's Oh, Jim, it
was awful. I've never felt anything like it. He screaming.."
at the end."
Jim sighed and released her. He stood up and slouched door of the cell.
"I don't think he's dead," Jim said at last. "He's changed.
lot of what he used to be is gone, or altered so greatly it's no him, but
Harpy still exists. Maybe what he is now is the real And the one we knew was
only a precursor."
"A precursor? What are you raving about? Harpy was Harpy. he's still alive
or he isn't. Spare me the metaphysical bullshit, He grinned. "Char the
practical. Char the pragmatic. Let me it and feel it, and I'll tell you what
it is."
She sat up straighter. "Don't you frigging condescend to me, bastard.
I am what I am. I've got a mind. My mind exists! And reality.
There's nothing mystical about reality."
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He was silent for a moment, then turned to face her. "You're of course. But
there's room in reality for a lot of things that look tic al You can trust
what your mind tells you, Char--as long as remember that you may not know
everything about reality itself."
"And you do, I suppose?"
"I know more than you do. I know that the physical world encompasses far more
than human brains and human thoughts."
"I really don't want to talk about it, Jim. I know you aren't--hell, I
don't even know what you are anymore. But if Harpy is still alive, I
want to do something about it. I want you to do something if you can.
Can you?"
"I'm working on it," he said, though his tone was vague, dismissive.
"And what about all the rest of this crap? In case you haven't noticed, this
is a cell we're sitting in. You're in contact with the
Pr/de somehow, aren't you?"
He nodded.
"Well, how long are you going to let this crap continue? Everybody kept
telling me how powerful the Pr/de is. So why hasn't somebody come down to get
us out of this cage? And Korkal--what about him?"
"Korkal's fine. He's taking a nap at the moment. It isn't the first jail
he's found himself in."
She stood up to face him, her movements jerky and restless. One by one she
popped all her knuckles as Jim winced.
"God, don't do that," he said.
"A little knuckle cracking bothers the big bad mind machine guy?." she
replied.
"I think it's somewhere ".m the basic codes." He grinned. "I'm still human,
Char. It's hard to explain, but--" He paused. "But I can show you. Sit down
again."
"Huh?"
"Go on, sit down."
She stared at him, then returned to her cot. He came to stand before her,
facing her. "Hold still," he said as he reached out and placed his palms on
either side of her skull.
"Hey, wait a minute! Is this like what Outsider did to you? I don't want any
part
"Hush," he said softly, and closed his eyes.
She gawped at him, suddenly silent, though her lips still moved. Then her
eyes roiled back in her skull until only the whites showed. She began to
quiver.
The cell door slid open with a soft humming sound. TWo Hunzza Circle
guardsmen stood beyond, flanking a small, wizened ld Hunzza riding on a
float-chair. The chair scooted through the doorway.
"Stop that!" Ikearos said. "It's not time yet, and you're only making
matters worse."
Startled, Jim released Char, who stopped shaking and collapsed
limply onto the cot, then sat up again, dazed and blinking. He to face the
ancient Egg Guardian.
"You're Harpy's father," he said. "Who Speaks for the God." 'l'here's
another who would debate you about that, but as it out, he's wrong and you're
right," Ikearos said tartly. "So you who I am and what I am.
But do you know who you are and are?"
Jim raised his head. The two guards eyed him, their we ready, but didn't
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move.
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