Sweet Starfire (40 page)

“You don’t think they’d survive?”

“I think they’d go the way of the Ghosts,” Cidra said bluntly. “The truth is, Harmonics are not really constitutionally built to survive under adverse circumstances. Do you know that my mother had to be totally unconscious for hours before I was born? The trauma of childbirth is enough to kill a Harmonic female, even if there are no complications. That’s one of the reasons why it’s such a major decision when a Harmonic couple decides to have a child. Desma, I don’t want to be that weak. I’ve learned a great deal about myself during the past few days. Given a choice, I’ll fight. I think, under the right circumstances, I could actually kill another human being. And I’ve already proven that I can kill other creatures.”

“Does the knowledge scare you?”

“A little. But I’ve accepted it. I don’t want to retreat to Clementia. Harmonics are a luxury for the human race. They are valuable and to some extent they are our conscience. But I’d rather be a survivor than a luxury.” Cidra’s mouth curved. “And I’d rather fight with Severance than go back to Clementia and worship Mercer from afar.”

“Who’s Mercer?”

Cidra grinned. “Another Harmonic on whom nature wasted a pair of gorgeous shoulders and the darkest eyes you’ve ever seen. For ages I told myself I loved him for his mind. I lied.”

Desma burst out laughing. “Does Severance know about him?”

“Ummm. Irritates the hell out of him. But I think Mercer worries him too. Severance is afraid I’ll start dreaming of the perfect platonic relationship somewhere between Renaissance. and
QED
.”

“I never could imagine Severance being very good at a platonic relationship with you,” Desma mused.

“He’s not. Oh, he tried hard for a while, Inspired by his noble sense of responsibility, no doubt. But it didn’t last. Now I’m the one who’s worried. He’s shipping me out on a commercial freighter, the same way he shipped out that woman with whom he once signed a convenience contract. What if he doesn’t come back for me, Desma?”

Desma smiled reassuringly. “You’ve got a contract with him to split the credit from this trip, remember? Nothing like a business agreement to tie two people together.”

Cidra brightened a bit. “That’s true.”

Severance had been right about one thing. During the next two days Cidra was aware that she was attracting more than merely curious attention. “Friends” of Severance materialized out of nowhere, professing eager interest in Cidra’s health and welfare. Most were concerned that she enjoy herself in Port Try Again while Severance was gone. Cidra was frequently stopped on the street, and Desma was prevailed upon to make introductions. Cidra handled the new attention with classic Harmonic politeness.

“It would be humorous if it wasn’t for the fact that all this interest in me merely proves Severance was right one more time,” she told Desma at one point. “I’ve had three invitations for dinner this, evening, four for tomorrow night, and half a dozen offers to buy me a drink. One very nice man asked if I was interested in playing Free Market. I got the feeling that I was going to be encouraged to put up my contract as a bet.”

“Severance would explode if he found out.”

Cidra smiled a little savagely. “Yes, he would, wouldn’t he? What’s happening to me, Desma? I never used to be vindictive or… or irrational and emotional.”

“You’re scared,” Desma said gently.

“I’m afraid so. I have no real hold on Severance. A couple of nights in his bed and a shared adventure. That’s all. It’s pleasant to think mat the contract ties us together, but it won’t. Not really. Not the way I want it to hold us.”

“He’s said he’ll come back for you.”

“I know. But he’s a Wolf.”

Desma frowned. “You’re afraid he won’t keep his word?”

“I’m afraid he’ll change his mind; that perhaps when he made the statement, he didn’t really know his own mind.”

“You’re a Wolf too. You might change your mind or fail to keep your word. You might not be waiting for him several weeks from now when he returns from
QED
. Perhaps the gardens of Clementia will hold more appeal than you remember.”

“No.” Cidra spoke with conviction, aware of her inner decision. “I won’t change my mind. If he comes back for me, I’ll be waiting.”

“He has no way of knowing that for sure.”

“He shouldn’t put us to the test.”

“Severance is looking for reassurance, if you ask me.”

“It’s odd, isn’t it, Desma? We’ve trusted each other with our lives more than once during the past few days. Yet we’re afraid to trust each other’s feelings.”

“I imagine things are much simpler in Clementia.”

“Yes,” said Cidra. “They are.”

Severance silently sent up a word of thanks when the holo-tape crew managed to trigger the Ghosts’ presentation inside the safehold. He had been mentally holding his breath, afraid that the showing he and Cidra had seen had been the final one. If that had been the case, he would have had to take a penalty cut on the contract he’d signed with the company. The safehold, itself, was still valuable but not nearly so valuable as the contents. The mind call itself was no longer functioning. Either that or the conditions weren’t right for activating it. When Severance and the exploration crew had finally located the safehold by a process of quartering all the terrain within an hour’s walk from the river, he had seen at once that the protected circle had shrunk. It was obviously fading, and that meant the valuable scenes inside were probably about to disappear also.

“I’m not sure we’ll get it to trigger again,” the crew chief announced, “but we’ve got it down on holotape.” He looked pleased. “A hell of a find, Severance. When you stumbled across this, it was really your lucky day. Enough history in here to keep half of Clementia busy for years.”

Severance stood in the vaulted entrance of the safehold, gazing at the bubbling stream where Cidra had been bathing the morning he’d awakened from the delirium. The stream was still barely inside the protected area. “My lucky day,” he agreed softly. He forced himself out of the reveries as a crew of technicians bustled past. “Any sign of a mechanism to explain how all this operates? We could use the secret of keeping the terrain clear. Whatever the Ghosts used, it’s more efficient than the deflectors.”

“Nothing so far. We’ve picked up no energy readings and no indications of any hardware hidden in the safehold walls. We may never find the answer. Might not be able to comprehend it if we do find it. This is damn sophisticated stuff, Severance.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “They had the ability to survive. But in the end they just gave up.”

“Never even made a try for space travel beyond the local system,” the crew chief said. “Doesn’t make any sense. So much technical expertise gone to waste. Other things became more important, I guess.”

Severance looked at him. “What could have been more important than the survival of the species?”

“I don’t know. What’s more, I don’t think I want to know. When are you taking the Vinton crew to the home of the big blue monsters?”

“Now. Shouldn’t be as hard to find as this was. I got a fix on it with a directional indicator.” He also wanted to try another shard of one of the shells to see if it still had a homing effect.

The Vinton crew was elated with their find. The shard worked as a directional device but not because of mechanical reasons.

“The shells are naturally attracted to the metal of the ship,” one technician announced. “Like magnets that work over long distances. No wonder you had trouble with your signal.” He ducked into the floodlit hole in the ship where uniformed men scurried around with great caution. “What the hell happened to that gadget on top of the long case? The damage looks fresh.”

Severance ambled in after him and scrutinized the results of the pulser on the device that had activated the illusions. “Had a little trouble with that.” He looked into the case. “Going to open it?”

“No. Not here. It’ll have to be done under controlled atmospheric conditions. Don’t want the skeleton dissolving into dust.”

“Do you think it’s that old?”

The technician shook his head. “No. But we don’t know how it will react to the atmosphere once the case is opened.”

Severance hung around for the rest of the day, assuring that his clients were satisfied. When the teams headed back toward the river to spend the night, he made his decision to leave for the ExcellEx camp in the morning. The sensors were long overdue.

“Hey, Severance, stop worrying about the mail,” Rand Bantforth said during dinner. “You’re making enough off these discoveries to let you forget whatever ExcellEx was going to pay for the
COD
delivery.”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” Severance growled.

“Yeah, well five hundred thousand is a lot of consolation for a principle.”

Another man spoke up as he helped himself to ale. “Severance isn’t making five hundred thou off of this. He’s only getting two hundred fifty. His lady gets the other half. That’s one interesting female you left behind in Try Again, Severance. She’s got enough credit to her name to buy a man his own mail ship. If I were you, I wouldn’t wait too long to get back to her, or somebody else will take on the job of keeping her around.’’

‘’Cidra’s not naïve enough to fall for some fast talking , renegades line of torla manure.’’ Severence swallowed his ale and hoped to hell he was right.

‘’ I don’t know.’’ The other man offered ,’’It’s hard to figure women.’’

Severence thought about that. He had figured Cidra out almost completely. But he needed her to be sure of herself and she hadn’t the time and the distance to do that. She had been through too much , too quickly , thanks to him. H owed it to her to give hger time and the peacefulness of Clementia in which to make her decision.

‘’Hey.’’ Said one of the holotape technicians. ‘’I bought along a Free Market playing field.. Anyone interested.’’

Severence smiled. ‘’I just happen to have a set of cubes on me.’’

As he crawled into a lonely sleeper that night Severence was aware of the same sense of heroic martyrdom he had experienced on board ship when he’d managed to refrain from seducing Cidra. He had discovered then that the feeling wasn’t much compensation for denying himself her warm , sweetly willing body. Tonight he decided that heroic martyrdom did’nt improve with practice.

Fear gnawed at him as he lay staring at the curved ceiling of the tent. What if she was drawn back in to the safe ,secure world of Clementia? He was taking such a stupid tisk by sending her back home.

But he had to be sure of her.

‘’I’m scared Desma. That’s what the problem is.’’Cidra gazed morosely into her half empty mug of ale.Around her the patrons of the Bloodsuker went about the business of enjoying themselves amid a canopy of smoke and the occasional clatter of Free Market cubes. A big commercial freighter had arrived in port today, and the normal tavern crowd was augumented by the shipload of newcomers. The freighter was due to leave the following afternoon, and Cidra was scheduled to be on it.

Desma eyed her friend with affection. Cidra was wearing her early evening gown, and her hair was done in its traditional neat coil of braids. Cidra was her old elegant self this evening, except in one thing. She was on her third mug of Renaissance Rose Ale. Desma found the process of watching Cidra drink interesting. Desma kept waiting for the effects to show. Surely the fine manners and the gentlelike grace would start disintegrating at any moment. The fact that neither had faded so far only went to show how strong a force good breeding could be. Desma was fascinated.

“If you’re really scared, Cidra, you’re certainly using a traditional means of overcoming the fear.”

Cidra gazed at her mug. “Severance likes this stuff.”

“I know.”

“He should have been back yesterday, Desma. He said he’d be back in three days. This is the fourth day.”

Desma sighed. “I realize that. Renaissance has a way of making folks change their plans in the field. You know he’s all right. He checked in with Security this morning. He’s not in trouble, Cidra.”

“He’s deliberately delaying his return so he can avoid having to see me again before I leave.”

“You’re getting paranoid.”

Cidra considered that. “Do you think so? Harmonics never get paranoid. Everybody likes Harmonics. No reason to be paranoid. But I’m not a Harmonic. So it’s okay for me to be paranoid.”

“That’s a wonderful string of logic. Have some more ale.”

“Thank you,” Cidra said with grave politeness. “I will.” She sipped reflectively and then said with an air of great insight, “He’s a loner. That’s the real problem. I think he likes me, but he’s basically a loner. He doesn’t want to allow anyone, especially a woman, into his life on a permanent basis. The cabin of a mail ship is very small, you know.”

“I know. But the two of you got here from Lovelady without murdering each other.”

“And now he’s sending me away.”

“He’s the one who’s scared, Cidra. He knows he can’t offer you the things you’ll have if you go back to Clementia.”

“Hah. Severance could have used that excuse before he negotiated five hundred thousand in credit for the safehold and the alien ship. It won’t wash now. He’s rich.”

Desma’s mouth curved wryly. “Don’t forget he’s only got two hundred and fifty thousand.”

Cidra flushed guiltily. “He annoyed me. That’s the only reason I made him give me a separate contract. I was very irritated.”

“The fact is, even if he had all five hundred thousand, he’d spend every last credit on Severance Pay, Ltd. This time he’s determined to make his plans a success. He’s seen everything fall apart on him at least twice already.”

Cidra frowned. “What are you talking about?” Desma shrugged. “He went into partnership with Racer because Racer had some capital and wanted to be a wheeler and dealer. Racer had the credit but not enough business sense to make it work.”

“Severance had the business sense?” Desma nodded. “Severance had the ideas and the ambition. But the partnership didn’t work out.”

“It’s a little difficult to continue in a partnership with someone who’s willing to leave you in a sinkswamp with a kill-weaver,” Cidra said.