05. Children of Flux and Anchor (30 page)

"Haldayne!" Suzl remembered the slippery, evil master who'd been her first encounter with one of the Seven.

"Yes. The shock was very great. I, frankly, lost all memory and sense of identity, and I wasn't alone. Before Haldayne was through, he had us jumping through hoops. He had a theory and he eventually tested it on us. He believed it wasn't necessary to even comprehend a binding spell and have it work. Somehow—to this day I don't understand how—he was right. He took us eventually down into the Gate itself, and enacted the programs, and ordered us to accept the programs and let them flow into us and we did. So long as Gifford lived we were his slaves. In Flux, he could draw on our power to enhance his own without ever worrying that we could change or refuse. It's because of that that I was at the Gate when the
Samish
and the Seven made contact."

"Lucky for us," Gabaye put in.

Come to us, the
Samish
had ordered, and the six members of the Seven present had followed, up to the ship lying slightly askew in the Gate depression. At that moment a huge explosion, a massive force, had come from beneath the alien vessel, blowing it upwards and disconnecting it from the Gate power source. The tremors had caused the huge transmission tower, with which the Gates had been opened in the first place, to fall, and it fell inwards, right on the advancing six figures. Jodi and the other wives had rushed forward as everyone else had fallen back in panic, concerned only with Haldayne. They found Gifford Haldayne dead, his skull crushed beneath one of the tower beams, but of the six, two were still alive. Freed from any obligations to Haldayne but still under the Fluxgirl program, they did not think about who was lying there, they just pulled the bodies from the wreckage and brought them to the Gate lip, where live
Samish
were still scrambling about in panic and confusion.

They managed to bring Gabaye to consciousness
,
where she was able to use the power of Flux first to heal herself, then to restore Ming, who was mangled and near death. Not wishing to meet or take on the
Samish
and not knowing what might be below that caused the explosion, they fled right through the lines of people and soldiers and eventually made it back to Haldayne's ranch in the northwest part of New Eden. There they remained while everything changed, not daring to move.

"Thanks to your reformat, I regained my literacy and my powers," Jodi told them, "but I discovered, to my horror, that none of the three of us could be anything but Fluxgirls. The binding spell, of course, had been done in a Flux environment, so it became a part of our regular coding. The old, original spell holds. Not even today's Fluxgirl! I dress this way because I
have
to. I look this way because I
have
to."

"Believe me,
I
understand, dear," Ayesha sympathized. "Suzl, too, had something of the same problem, although self-inflicted."

"What happened to the other two?" Suzl asked, curious.

"They—couldn't stand it. They went back. I—couldn't. Every time I saw a black-clad man I saw Gifford. I hate his guts, and all their guts, but I still love him, too. It's crazy."

"No," said Tokiabi, speaking for the first time. "It is magic."

"These two saved me, as I saved them," Jodi told them. "They kept me busy, kept me going, kept me from killing myself. I've stayed with them in Flux and tagged along when it seemed I could do some good. You needed wizards who could fight. I looked around here and decided that you were well worth fighting for. Both of them—well, pardon, but they're very old and very experienced. Me, I may be old in Flux terms but I feel cheated. If I could find my Sister-wives, they'd be here too, now. I'll always be grateful to the two of you, but I think I'll stay, if you will have me."

"Then welcome," Suzl responded sympathetically. "I know what it is, what you have gone through, and we can certainly use you. You have studied the binding spell, though? It is in fact unbreakable?"

"Hopeless!" responded Chua Gabaye. "It's a clear blind code spell, just like yours. You know there's no point in going further with it. It could only injure her."

Suzl thought about it. "Still, I'd like to take a look at a binding spell that can be forced on someone who is both reading and math illiterate. Come with me to see Krita. Would you mind?"

"No, I'd be pleased, but you know they're right. A binding spell is a binding spell."

"So I have heard," Suzl responded, "but, somehow, I've never been able to totally accept it." She paused a moment. "Anything else?"

"Several," Gillian replied. "First, someone watched us do all that we did. Not long after the Fluxland was completed, someone attempted entry and was denied. The entry was aerial, so it was a wizard of high power, and the entry was denied, so we know it was a man although we don't know anything else—as we would have if penetration had succeeded."

"Any idea of who or where they might be from?"

"No way to tell, but it had the same feel as several other quick sightings over the past weeks, just beyond real range. We must assume that we have been followed by the same people all the way from New Eden."

Suzl frowned. "Then if they were wizards, why didn't they hit us when we were weak?"

"They had reason to be overcautious," the prime minister told her hesitantly, and for the first time revealed everything about Morgaine. "By the time they recovered, we had exited Liberty and probably outpowered them."

Suzl was upset, and the speaker said, softly, "Morgaine. Morgaine. How could you have been so stupid?" She recovered quickly, though. "What's done is done. I don't blame you for doing it at the time. In fact, I can not think of anything else that
could
have been done. I appreciate you telling me this, though. Anything else I don't know and should?"

"No. Nothing."

"All right, then. So now we know that it's probably my friends and family out there trailing us. But how did they manage to track us this far in spite of all our precautions?"

"You have a string on you," replied Ming Tokiabi with no more expression than Suzl's electronic voice.

"What! Impossible!"

"Beyond the infrared. It is an old stringer trick, used very seldom lest it be discovered and countered."

"Matson! Why, you son of a bitch. ..."

"The
Matson?" Chua Gabaye interjected. "But he's forty years dead!"

"It was faked. The only way he could get some privacy. He's back now, though, and the same as ever. That means trouble. There's no mind quite like his on this world."

Gabaye thought for a moment. "If that is true, then he is but a false wizard. Is that not correct? A master of illusion, but nothing real?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Then he is as defenseless against any of us as were any of the Eves."

"Tell that to Coydt van Haas."

"That was different. He had a wizard almost as powerful as Coydt to keep his quarry distracted."

"He probably has several with him now, if I know his relatives."

"So? Separate him from his wizards, eliminate his protection, and the same mind that sat at a console he did not comprehend, unable to contact the master computers or directly use their powers, who nonetheless was the one who determined exactly how to beat the alien
Samish,
a horde beyond his imagining, and got everyone to do it. Such a mind could easily find New Eden a snap, the whole of World no challenge,
If
he could be turned."

"It's not that easy," Suzl told her. "The man and the mind are all parts of a whole. Tamper with anything and you change it, maybe lose it forever. Any involuntary spell would destroy those very things that would be most valuable to us. No, forget it."

"Bosh!"
Gabaye responded. "The operative word is "involuntary.' There is no one, least of all a man, who can not be turned given the right incentive. You need only have a lever. For some, it's money; for others, power. Yours is a dream, a revolution of greater magnitude than the one that caused World's culture in the first place. For others it's ego, or family and friends, or some code of honor. There's always
something
to use. His turning interests me a great deal, if only for personal reasons. Let me ask you—if you
could
get him to join us, with his mental powers intact, would you take him?"

Suzl thought about it. "I—I'm not sure. He's been very close to me."

"Consider this, then. If you are not willing to run your program on your family and past friends and associates, you are doomed to failure. No Matson could ever be allowed loose even in this Fluxland, let alone the new world you envision."

"Remember, my darling, that
you
were
forced
into New Eden," Ayesha added, stroking Suzl's hair. "He
chose
to live there, and took Fluxwives as well. He is—attractive. Magnetic. But when push comes to shove, he's on New Eden's side. He is here because he opposes us. Perhaps the others are here because of you, my baby, but if we fall, New Eden wins the world. And if he's really as good as his legend, he might well be the only one who
could
stop us. Think of yourself, as you are, but a New Eden slave forever. Did he try and foil them when they made his own daughter a Fluxgirl? No, he moved in and joined them. If they win, you and I will be changed once more, in the mind, where it counts, and we will become animals, sexual whores for carnivals and freak shows. Matson may even visit, may even partake, for old times' sake. You must put all the old loyalties aside forever."

She knew Ayesha spoke the truth, but until now she hadn't had to face the problem squarely. Her family and friends, and his, would all be changed. All of them. It could be no other way and work, and it was the only alternative to New Eden forever. She realized that she was being romantic, not practical, about Matson. He had butted, fallen, into this situation not because he really cared but because he loved the game.

"If you can figure a way to get them all on our side, I give my blessings," Suzl told them. "However, we have other priorities, too. We must find a way to duplicate the projector. We need animals—we must send up to Anchor Gorgh and beg, buy, borrow, or steal them. We've got all the useless birds and insects and the like from the Garden, but we need some cows, and horses, too. Lots of them. Gil, you take charge of that. Gabaye, you and Tokiabi have the projector as your primary project. Whatever else you do comes second. Beth, Cissy, Debbie—I want you to fine-tune our new citizens. Also, see if you can develop some of them to replace our losses, although I know that's a real challenge. We all have big challenges. Let's get moving. Jodi, if you'll help me up and guide me, we'll go over and see those two poor wizards and talk to Krita about you." She paused a moment. "Oh, and Tokiabi— break my damned string!"

Jodi did so, and with the aid of a guard they made their way out of the tent. All were aware that the clock was more than merely running.

"Is it true," Jodi asked hesitantly, "that you have . . . in your mouth, that is . . ."

"Yes. I have two, and I'm also a fully functioning female. One day I will give you a kiss you will never forget."

"And they are both . . . potent?"

"Yes. They were taken from functioning males, then a gland was added that prevents male sperm from surviving ejaculation. We did the same thing to the Eves with the material from the Adams. It is a complicated process."

"Far easier to make man female," she agreed. "I'm afraid I've done that quite a number of times. Any time I had relations with any man of lesser power. It was automatic, but it made me feel good, somehow."

"Defense mechanism," Suzl responded. "We'll take a good look at that spell."

Krita was there, expecting someone, but not necessarily either of them. The Adam and the Eve wizards were under guard in a small tent nearby.

"You are sure that they won't bolt or cause trouble if their power is turned back on?" Suzl asked her.

"Positive. They're very scared, and very scarred inside, and deeply disturbed. I used the deepest hypnotics on them."

"Prep them, then. Light hypnotic only. I want the actual decision to be clearly voluntary. When they're ready, we'll turn their power back on. If they hold, I'll feed them what they have to have. Fortunately, in their case there's no real experiences to preserve and no memories that they would want. Jodi, you stand by and be ready, though. If they're putting us on anyway and jump at the power, there will be hell to pay in here."

But there was no resistance. Krita had been right, as usual.

Suzl unleashed their nightmares, and they proved if anything more ugly and horrible than the reality had been. These kids needed help.

My name is Suzl,
she told them, using Flux rather than radio.
I
can free you from the nightmare forever, the ugly dreams, the confusions, and give you peace and purpose.

They both rose to the bait, eager to please.

Iwill give you both a spell. It will be a big one, but you don't have to know what it does. You only have to take it and where I tell you add some numbers to it. Any numbers. When it's done, you'll still have all your powers, but all the bad stuff will be gone, and you will be able to live out your long lives in peace and contentment. If you trust me, do as I say.

The spell was the Ayesha spell, as modified, with the New Human attribute as well. She wanted them all to have children, lots of children, all of whom would have the average wizard power of the two parents and all of whom would grow up to look just like Ayesha, Suzl, and the rest. Suzl would have liked to also have given what she called her "mouth organ attribute," but it would require running that complex machine-language string with the bug in it. One blind wizard was enough.

They took the spell, and it worked its magic quickly on them. "Jodi, meet Fawn and Flower," she said, bringing the two up and out. "I couldn't think of any name with 'E' offhand except Eve, and that's more than taken." They adjusted to the new bodies naturally, as if born to them, which, in fact, they now believed was the case. They looked much like the others, except that their skin was quite fair, their eyes baby blue, and their cape-like hair was a straw-colored blond. There were differences with the others, but the pair were absolutely identical twins.