Kirlian Quest (46 page)

Now Sixteen moved closer, and he felt more of her Transfer aura. "Flame understands," she said. "That is why she elected to stay in circuit and handle the equipment takeover. This is the prime unit, here aboard this ship; all others key into it. So she controls the Amoeba fleet, now."

Herald paused. "
Flame
controls it? But she—"

She was almost upon him, her aura passing two hundred. The equipment had enhanced it beyond Flame's level, obviously. "And Sixteen needs an aura, and I need a host." Now her aura paralleled his own, moving above it. "I, too, understand, Herald. I always understood. The ways of other cultures are not my own, and they cannot be judged in terms of mine. You were a creature of Slash, a foreign Galaxy, alien to me in form and culture, yet love ameliorated everything. All that sustained me through my long exile in hell, desperately hiding, concealing my nature from the meters of the devils, learning their language and custom and the liabilities of their largely automatic system, coming to know that they were after all well-meaning sapients unswervingly loyal to their mission, as I was to mine—all that sustained me was my overwhelming love for you. I
knew
it was returned. Every dialogue you held near Ancient equipment I perceived, though I could not answer lest I betray myself and lose all. Now—"

"Psyche!" he cried, finally recognizing her aura, finally comprehending her meaning. "
You
jumped to the host, not Flame!
You
saved me from execution!"

"We
all
saved you—just in time for the family," she agreed. Then they were together—forever.

 

 

 

Epilogue

 

 

There were a number of details to be worked out. It took about two centuries. To the Kirlian sapients of the Cluster, Ancient science had represented the ideal of complete energy sufficiency and the abolition of the problem of Spherical regression. To the Amoeba, Soul Sapience had represented the ultimate civilization, with potential for truly universal scale—and energy sufficiency. Both cultures were disappointed.

Yet there were tremendous gains to be made through the combination of Ancient science with Kirlian sapience. A great deal more could be accomplished than had been possible before, by either type of life alone, and programs of further research were inaugurated. One avenue of exploration was the heredity of high auras. Another was the classification of information. The Amoeba had no texts, because the semimechanical memory system of the non-Kirlians served far more accurately than that of aural creatures. Ways had to be found to pool the complete knowledge of both types. This led to a continuing series of incidental benefits, elevating the levels of technology and comfort for both.

The program of the Amoeba was changed. There was to be no more elimination of sapient species, regardless of their type. Cluster animals were treated better, since the Amoeba revered
all
Kirlianism. Joint units initiated a quest for Kirlian sapients already existing in other Clusters of the Universe, advising them of the all-Kirlian Cluster and providing the technology to guarantee their survival in Clusters whose majority of sapients were non-Kirlian. These missions demonstrated to other Clusters that the future of sapient life lay in the integration of types. Gradually the super-civilization spread across the Universe, a nucleus of really sophisticated energy use and conservation and unmatchable technology. The process was open-ended, and not without hazard, for the Universe was effectively infinite. But where this wave of reform passed, the frequent wars of energy and genocide of sapients ceased. There was now a better way.

Herald the Healer's part in the resolution of the Amoeba-Cluster crisis served to abate the Curse of Llume on Sphere Slash. He remarried Psyche of Kade. It was not complete bliss, for he had a slightly wandering eye and she had a temper, so they did have their tiffs, but they always made up, and their underlying love was deep. They had a child named Pleasure, of course. But she had lost her body and home, and he his profession, for new means of healing and identification were provided by the Amoeba technology. Constitutionally unable to settle down, they remained active as Transfer agents, always operating as a pair, using multiple and diverse hosts to assist the processes of forming the new order. Both were effectively immortal, owing to continued enhancement of their auras. In fact, immortality was now available generally to those who desired it, provided they were willing to make their lives worthwhile for civilization.

Sixteen of Jet was pleased to serve as Psyche's base host; she had always craved high aura. But as the labors of the Cluster-Amoeba integration increased, Psyche was away from that host for longer periods. This was unfair to Sixteen, who had no local sire for her Kirlian family. Two Kirlian entities learned of this and were moved to act. Flame of Furnace and Hweeh of Weew visited the hosts Herald and Psyche had used. Their natural auras were not as high, but this hardly made a difference in these days of enhancement. When Flame met Hweeh, and their two potent auras interacted and their two fine minds took the measure of each other, something happened. In due course they married and disappeared into private life.

On Planet Keep of Sphere Sador, Segment Etamin, the Duke of Qaval emerged as the most powerful noble of that society. He arranged to be designated heir apparent to the Throne of Crown, and assumed effective political control of the planet. He promoted the Baron of Magnet to be the new Duke of Kade. Magnet was the only other survivor of the destruction of Kastle Kade, as he was being conducted under guard to his own castle when the nuclear detonation occurred, and had been tough enough to roll out of the mess that remained of his guards as the mushroom formed so close behind. He was slightly radioactive, however. He did his best to salvage what remained of the rich herds and pastures of that region, and to render aid to other sapients who had been near the holocaust. Prince Qaval, meanwhile, brought in sophisticated Kirlian equipment to ensure that never again could a sapient entity be burned at the stake for Possession—falsely.

So the Kirlian Quest was ended in the Cluster—and initiated in the Universe. The figure of Herald the Healer, savior of the cluster, became a part of history, joining those of Melody of Mintaka and Flint of Outworld. Only one more story remained to be told: that of the last— more correctly
first
—of the shapers. This was the founder of the Temple of Tarot, whose amazing private experience provided the philosophical grounding for all that followed. He was Brother Paul, an obscure novice in an obscure sect of pre-Spherical Planet Earth during its Fool period. His was the quest for the God of Tarot.

 

 

 

Cluster Political Geography

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

 

 

This is the concluding novel of the original
Cluster
trilogy, first published in 1978. I later wrote two more novels,
Thousandstar
and
Viscous Circle
, set in the
Cluster
framework, but not true sequels; they concerned individual adventures of less than galactic scope. Perfectly good novels, and
Thousandstar
is one of my career favorites; just not of the same adventure magnitude. Instead the series progressed to
Tarot
, a quarter million word novel about Brother Paul of the Holy Order of Vision, who was credited with starting the Cluster Tarot deck of cards and concepts. He was a character in the small initial novel,
But What of Earth?
, that introduced the wonder and danger of mattermission and started Earth's expansion into Sphere Sol, and he appeared in Herald's vision in this novel. One thing mentioned in that novel was the colonization of Planet Conquest; in
Chaining the Lady
one character is Hath of Conquest, so evidently that colony succeeded.

I took a month each to retype the first two novels, but a reader in Switzerland, Renata Iellamo, scanned this one for me, saving me a month of typing time. I had mentioned my project in my bimonthly www.HiPiers.com column, and she read that and emailed me. Her scanner was plainly better than ours, which had been defeated by the welter of special symbols. Hers did miss some, and the illustrations, but overall it was a pretty clean copy, better than my typo-riddled typing.

Again, I found I had forgotten much of the novel in thirty years. I did remember several sequences in the first half, such as the nasty shield of arms, the dying child, the concept of the Enemy Witness, and Psyche. But it was as though the novel ended with Psyche's death; the whole second half had been lost from my memory. All I remembered was that Psyche did survive via the Ancient network. So once more it was like reading someone else's novel. Fortunately I found it a thrilling story, and I was desperate to discover what the secrets of the Ancients and the Amoeba were, and gratified by the resolution of mystery of the Ancients. It makes such perfect sense, once explained. But I don't blame Melody of Mintaka for refusing to tell.

I noticed something else: a certain common theme I developed in another manner in my later ChroMagic fantasy series of five big novels. Protagonists with special powers, galaxy-spanning adventure, quest for ancient mysteries, and a horrendous threat to all contemporary life. It seems my mind runs in certain channels. But similar elements are common in the science fiction / fantasy genres, and in related movies, so I'm in good company. Apart from that, ChroMagic is quite different from Cluster, being notably sexier and having volcanic colors of magic and a consistent set of characters throughout the series.

The scanning did make a few errors. Once Herald the Healer became Herald the Heater, and miles became mites. But I had more trouble with spot changes I had to make. My present computer word processor does not have the Duocirc °
_°
symbol, so for Chaining the Lady I substituted %, Percen. But here in
Kirilan Quest
% was the speech mode of Knyfh. What to do? I decided to leave this novel alone, in this and other conventions, such as the capitalization of Transfer, hoping the readers will bear with my compromises. I had to substitute new symbols for those the scanner couldn't handle, but since they don't appear in the prior novels, it should be all right.

Naturally the illustrations didn't scan, and naturally I had to wrestle with the program mechanism to remake them. Fortunately my struggle with this aspect in the prior novels gave me a head start, and I was able to do it. The OpenOffice Drawing Toolbar is a marvelous thing, just a bit short on instructions or consistency. It wouldn't let me make one circle overlapping another side by side, but I managed to make them overlapping at a tilt, then re-engage to pull one down to the same elevation. It wouldn't let me make an oblong shape for a card, but would let me make a square and then pull it out of shape. So by hit and miss I struggled and finally won.