A Jungle of Stars (1976) (28 page)

"The Bromgrev was still swimming toward shore, mounted on the surviving lizard, when he met old man McBride swimming out to get his daughter. The Bromgrev worked a quick Kah'diz loyalty conversion on the man, and had both a possible host and hideout.

"What bothered me, after the fact, was that McBride had talked to the State Police and other authorities -- he could hardly avoid it, what with the accident and all. That's why the lizard's body was missing: McBride couldn't be the host until the interviews had been cleared up. Of course, by the time I got there The Bromgrev had formulated his plan, put it into effect, and was perched on McBride's back.

"The next problem with the scenario was another that bothered me: Why make yourself conspicuous? Particularly when you knew trained agents of Haven would be around? The answer was obvious, but I didn't see it. He wanted me to discover him. He eavesdropped on me and Jenny that morning under the guise of selling ice cream, and found the two of us very much attracted to each other.

He knew I was the agent simply because he couldn't read anything but my surface thoughts; Jenny, though, was wide open. Only when the two of us came down to breakfast did he break off contact. By then the plan was set."

"You told me it was a whirlwind romance," Gayal put in. "So this was all according to The Bromgrev's plan?"

"Exactly," Savage affirmed. "Using the Kah'diz's powers, he stepped up both Jenny's and my own emotional relationship, pushing an instant attraction into a passionate love affair and binding us together. It never occured me at the time how irrationally I was acting, but I continued to act that way, never thinking that The Hunter had never blocked the empathic paths to my mind.

Using children and implying the possibility of a morning takeover of the whole town, The Bromgrev induced quick action while making certain that Jenny stayed with me."

"But how could you have known?" Gayal Sympathized. "After all, he put on such a good show."

"A flawed show, dammitall!" growled Savage. "I'm a trained observer and problem solver, yet I continually let the obvious slip by. If he had a force-field generator from the ship sufficient to protect him, why did he let us through? Why not just seal himself in the cellar until the ship was raised?

Only one reason -- because he wanted me to seek him out and kill him. I'm sure it was a shock that Jenny did the deed, but the same result was obtained."

"And the passion he induced . . . ?" Koldon prompted.

"Camouflage, to give some glimmer of a rationalization for the fact that we got in at all. But that, too, was a major mistake I should have noticed and did not, since it forced home the fact that my empathic channels were open and I was as open to that sort of manipulation as Jenny. It should have been a tipoff, and I missed it."

Savage paused for a second, and there came a faraway look in, his eyes.

"He took her almost immediately . . ." he whispered.

Satisfied now that the ship is vulnerable, The Hunter draws from the energy around him what he needs to transmute the liner material inside the scoop to his purpose: a material that is fluid, much denser than lead, but with far less mass.

The material forms around him as he works, and begins slowly to flow into the depths of the great engines. Had the safety mechanisms not already been neutralized, the knowledge of the gaps in the lining would have been instantly transmitted to the cybernetic pilot in time for a system shutdown.

No alarms ring. The ship goes on, the material oozing back into the figure-eightshaped plasma bottle; past the high-flux density coils it flows. The material begins to slow the generated tachyons to the point where separation becomes impossible. Huge numbers of tachyons are created, having both positive and negative half-spin.

"So The Bromgrev entered Haven by the back door while we concentrated all our efforts on the new arrivals like yourself."

"So why blow it by taking over Vard?" Koldon asked. "Surely he was perfectly hidden, and we could only suspect he was there."

"True," Savage replied, "and it's here that the improvised plan showed its weaknesses. As Jenny, The Bromgrey wasn't on a crew and so couldn't get outside easily. I think The Bromgrev was telling the truth when he told me, as Vard, that he was 'squeezed' in Haven. But he did need that information -- and he accomplished two other things at the same time. One was to focus attention on the two of you, since all three of you had been kept apart from the rest of the new arrivals, and the second was to precipitate action on The Hunter's part. The non-space of Haven shocked him; I think The Bromgrev planned to have his host and Hunter's killed at the same moment, and then engage Hunter, Kreb to Kreb. For some reason, he thought he could win on those grounds -- perhaps prevent Hunter from getting a new host, or force him to a host that would neutralize him. A crystalline world with a much slower time rate, for example.

But he dared not take the chance in the null-space of Haven, whose properties Hunter knew and he did not. Therefore, he had to get The Hunter out of Haven.

"But The Hunter was smarter than The Bromgrev thought. Instead of rushing out in panic, he sent us instead -- each team, in turn, out of Haven with the rest isolated inside. If those bits of information Vard stole were so vital, they would be transmitted to the Mind even if The Bromgrev took pains to avoid being obvious. Subtle shifts and better organization were noted after our training flight, so Wade knew The Bromgrev was one of us. Even so, Hunter had totally forgotten Jenny. Even I was a suspect; he called me in to set us all up for the kill, I think, and I didn't know what to do. It became apparent to me that we would all die in whatever scheme he'd planned, unless I acted fast. So I told him who The Bromgrev was in exchange for two things.

"First, I wanted to know how he was going to kill The Bromgrev -- since that would ensure that I could take steps to see it wasn't worked on us. And, second, I wanted Ralph Bumgartner to have to face The Bromgrev when the showdown came. I was convinced that he'd change sides readily, and as a result be the one The Bromgrev would trust to bring him to The Hunter. He would be the logical choice, since, once I discovered who The Bromgrev was, I wouldn't likely be very cooperative in the double-kill."

"And did he?" Gayal asked.

"I don't know about Bumgartner," Savage told her, "and I won't for some time. But I did know The Hunter's murder weapon, and ran it through the computers. They gave me the answer I expected -- that any way to kill one Kreb would probably also kill the other. You see, in this crazy game of chess, I was playing, too."

The fluid slowed the newly generated tachyons to the point where they interacted with each other in great numbers. Matter canceled anti-matter, and the ship rapidly annihilated itself.

In the moment before cancellation, however, The Bromgrev sensed the presence. He struck out at the unseen presence leaving the ship as the ship and all matter within it canceled. The resultant energy burst dissipated that energy over a great block of space in all directions. It was far too fast and too total to allow escape. The Bromgrev struck out, trying to draw The Hunter back into the trap, to at least know that, as the pure energy forms of the Kreb were dissipated over the cosmos, the contest would end in a draw, with all participants who had died so many times truly dead.

A piercing, agonizing scream came from elsewhere in the ancient observatory. They all heard it and froze. Just as suddenly, it was over.

Savage breathed a sigh, and took out his pistol. Turning to the door, he waited expectantly, his weapon pointed at the opening. The other two remained quiet, quizzical expressions on their faces.

Seconds that seemed like hours in the eerie silence went by, and then suddenly they heard footfalls coming down the corridor toward them.

Immediately the Rhambdan station attendant appeared in the doorway, eyes blazing and with a fierce expression that must have come from Rhambda's primordial past.

The creature saw the pistol and stopped.

"What have you done?" it screamed telepathically at Savage, tremendous violence and menace carried in the words.

"From the looks of you and your screams of agony, I've done exactly what I intended to do," Savage replied calmly. "I've just won The War."

The cat seemed to compose itself and took in some deep breaths. As it did, Savage said to the two, in a lower tone, "You see, the Rhambdan Mind is still The Bromgrev, even if The Bromgrev's dead. All its memories, all its knowledge remain--but not its powers."

"But -- why . . . ?" the Rhambdan asked, almost pleading. "I offered the only solution to the salvation of this galaxy. The Hunter offered only the anarchy you've brought upon it, anyway."

"But it wasn't my idea of salvation," Savage told the creature. "You and Hunter were both so taken by the 'cosmic vision' that the people who were fighting and dying for you were merely so many expendable things, not people at all. Their goals were not your goals. What matter that a man gains the Earth, if he loses his own soul?"

"I can still kill you, you know," the cat snarled. "You are near Rhambda."

"Them. Not me," Savage reminded it. "And what good would that do you?

Revenge? You? Where are your high prmciples then? If you kill for revenge, you will understand what I have done and why -- for you will be on my level."

The Rhambdan stood a moment more; then its features softened, the fire in its eyes seemed to dull.

"You are right," the cat said finally. "Unity is the prime directive.

And now you've won. Now what do you propose to do?"

"The Hunter--" Savage prodded, "did he die as well?"

A note of satisfaction was in the Rbambdan's reply. "I sensed the wrongness in the final moment, and reached out. I caught him."

"That's all I needed to know," Savage told it. "We are now in command.

We -- those of us in this room. You know what will have to be done."

The Rhambdan nodded. "A conference, of course. And you?"

"If you can prepare the ship, we'll go back to Haven to coordinate our side.""It will be done," the cat replied, and left.

Savage allowed it to leave, then made a whistling sound. "Wow," he said, sounding greatly relieved. "I'd hoped it would go that way, but wasn't sure."

After a pause, Koldon said, "But, if I understand things right, you've just killed both of the Kreb. There is no guardian!"

Savage nodded and smiled. "Your problem is that you're still seeing things the way they put them. Each represents himself as an agent of God and the other as the Devil. It wasn't true. They were only two Kreb, both devolved, twisted, and power-mad. The Hunter was certain death for us; The Bromgrev, a prolonged life under the worst kind of totalitarianism. Just look what it did to your world in the name of keeping things right and just, Gayal!"

"But -- but--" Koldon stammered, at a loss for words. "What happens now?" "Well, The War's mucked things up so much that it's doubtful that they'll ever be put back right. But new nature takes its own course. The Next Race -- if there's to be one -- develops or doesn't develop, as the jungle dictates. Whoever survives wins the game."

"But there is still an empire -- Rhambda--" Gayal objected.

"Ours now," Savage told her. "Remember, the Mind is The Bromgrev -- the knowledge of those untold ages -- but the Mind hasn't the wisdom or power to use it. They are now withdrawing to Rhambda in an orderly fashion. The Rhambdan allies will make a quick peace with us or we'll take a combined Haven-Rhambdan force and wipe them out. We now own both sides. We must put things into a semblance of order and get things going again in the postwar period."

"But -- are we -- are you -- up to such a task?" Gayal asked, wonderingly.

Savage shrugged, and smiled a ghostly smile. "I would gladly return to Earth to die, to join my Jenny as I should." The smile seemed more and more forced, the voice somehow distant. "But I am condemned, you see, to live forever. I haven't even the Krebs' way out, for there're none left to do the deed. My curse descends on all of you. The Hunter was right -- he said we were alike."

"Well," Koldon sighed, getting up from the table, "I was always pretty much of an atheist anyway. . ."