The Dreaming Void (90 page)

Troblum thought he might be sick. His biononics had to work hard at keeping his hormone glands suppressed. And finally he didn't need any programs to interpret the expression both Simonie and Alcinda showed, their fear and loathing. A tear was squeezing out of Simonie's right eye.

“The girls are going to hold you down now for me, Troblum,” the Cat said. “Even their silly little weapons enrichments can overcome your pitiful force field. Higher culture,” she said with a shake of her head. “Where do you people get off calling yourselves that? Talk about insecurities. And you think I've got psychological flaws.”

The two companions started to walk toward Troblum. He ordered the shields on all the cases to switch off, as well as his own integral force field. The Cat's response was instantaneous. She vanished inside a silver glow, as though she'd been encased in moon-washed silk.

“Stop,” Troblum told the companions.

They hesitated, looking at the Cat's glowing shape for instructions.

“Troblum?” The Cat's smooth voice issued out of the protective aurora. “What are you doing? You haven't got any defenses now.”

“Remember this?” he asked, and pointed at a gray ovoid on a table close to the door.

“No,” the Cat said. Her tone was one of dangerous boredom.

“It was on the Ables ND47 you rode through into Boongate,” Troblum explained, wishing he wasn't trembling and sweating so much. “Somebody salvaged it and took it with them to their planet's new world. I never found out why; maybe they thought it would give them some kind of edge over their fellow settlers. But the government confiscated it, and then it got lost in evidence archives for several hundred years. Then a museum found it and—”

“Troblum!” The Cat's angry voice snapped across the chamber.

“Yes, sorry: It's a zone killer dispenser,” Troblum said meekly. “And I was really lucky when I bought it. The museum had kept it in a stabilizer field, so it's still functional and active. The thing's about as antique as you can get, but in a confined space like this one I don't count on anyone's chances, not even in a force field like yours. What do you think?”

There was a short pause. “Are you trying to threaten me, darling?” the Cat asked.

“I've got it on a double activation switch,” Troblum said. “I can trigger it if I think you're going to try to hurt me. Or if you're too quick for me and I'm exterminated, that'll trigger it as well.”

“Oh, fuck me backward with a power blade,” Stubsy wailed. His legs were giving way, sliding him onto the floor. “I can't take any more.” His hands went over his head, and he started sobbing. “Just fucking do it, man. End this, for fuck's sake. Kill us.”

“He won't,” the Cat said. “He's not the type. If you fire that thing, fat boy, we all die, not just me. If you do as I say and help me capture Paula, I might even overlook this little misdemeanor. Carry on, Alcinda,” she ordered.

Troblum sent an order into the dispenser's small management array; its malmetal surface rippled, opening fifty small portals. “No.”

Alcinda had taken one step toward him. Now she stopped again.

“Do it,” the Cat said.

“They don't understand,” Troblum said. “It's not just the insert that helps you control them; they have hope. I don't. I know how stupid that is. I know you. You're probably one of the few people I actually do understand. That's why I turned my force field off. So there's no chance of me surviving the explosion. I know you're going to kill me no matter what. And we both know that I'll never get re-lifed even if the galaxy does survive. This is it for me, the end. Not just bodyloss but real death. So I might as well do the human race a favor and take you with me.”

“What about Stubsy and the girls?” the Cat asked.

“Do it, you fucking bastard!” Stubsy screamed.

“Yes,” Alcinda growled. “Take us—” Her body stiffened, her back arching convulsively. Her spine bent so far, Troblum thought it might snap. She clamped her hands to her head, elegant fingernails clawing long bloody streaks in her scalp as she tried to tear out the source of her agony. She screamed silently as her legs gave out.

“Let's not confuse the issue with other people's poor advice,” the Cat said lightly. “You still think you can get out of this; otherwise you would have fired the zone killer straightaway. What's the deal?”

“I don't know,” Troblum said. “I don't have a tactical program. This doesn't have a logical outcome. I'm just waiting for you to do something scary, then I fire it. We both die together.” He stared at Alcinda, who was writhing helplessly on the floor. Things like furry mushrooms were emerging from her eyes, mouth, and ears; then another one bloomed from her belly button. They began to spread wide, swelling.

The Cat laughed. “Oh, darling, you are delectable. I'm the only person you understand, and because of that you're going to kill yourself. How about you walk out the door and rush into your starship while I wait here for Paula.”

Troblum couldn't stop staring at Alcinda, who had begun to shake in a convulsive fit. Her head was now half-covered in the furry growths, with additional ones pushing out around the edges of her bikini bottoms. Tiny clear fluid drops glistened at the tip of each strand of fur. The shaking grew more violent. Troblum was seriously considering trying to kill her with a disrupter pulse if his biononics could put one together. “I'd never make it to the stairs,” he said, trying desperately to focus on what the Cat was saying. Alcinda's death would be a mercy, and she'd definitely have a secure memory store and re-life insurance. “Stubsy's other companions would make sure of that.”

The Cat made a small gesture with her hand. Alcinda stopped shuddering, her body collapsing limply to the rock floor. “See. If that's all you're worried about, the girls are easily disposed of.”

Troblum thought he was going to collapse himself. A stricken Simonie was gazing at Alcinda's body. The gray fur continued to spread outward. He'd never seen anyone die before, certainly not in such a terrible fashion. “Don't do that,” he gasped.

“Why? I thought you were going to kill us all, anyway.”

Troblum began to accept that he really was going to die. In a way it was kind of fitting that he would do it while eliminating one of the most horrifying human beings who'd ever existed.

The villa nodes abruptly came on, flashing a short encrypted message he couldn't decode. He tried to use them to reconnect to his starship, but they wouldn't acknowledge his u-shadow.

“She's here,” the Cat snarled happily. “Was this why you were stalling, my dear? I thought she wasn't due for another couple of hours.”

“Sorry,” Troblum said. He couldn't help grinning.

“I won't let her save you, darling.” The Cat brought an arm up, bulging through the aurora.

“You can go,” Troblum said quickly.

“What?”

“Go. Have your battle. If anyone can defeat you, it'll be Paula. I'll wait down here. Leave Simonie to guard me if you want. I can't get a message out to warn Paula. If you win, I'll fire the zone killer. If she wins, well, you don't get to call the shots then, do you?”

“Clever boy,” the Cat said in an admiring tone. “I accept. Stubsy, get up. You're going to have to be the bait now that Troblum isn't playing.”

“No!” Stubsy howled. His body jerked madly, and he scrambled to his feet as if the floor had turned white hot. Troblum didn't like to dwell on that idea.

“Do it, you almighty shit,” Stubsy cried at Troblum. “Kill us all. Kill
her
.”

“Tut, tut,” said the Cat. “Is that gratitude?”

Stubsy's mouth slammed shut. A trickle of blood dribbled down from the corner of his lip.

“Simonie, you stay here,” the Cat instructed as she walked out of the chamber. Stubsy Florac hobbled after her, throwing one last desolate glance at Troblum. Simonie stood in the doorway as the malmetal contracted shut, framing her with a dark circle.

“I'm sorry,” Troblum told her. She didn't say anything, though he could see her jaw muscles working silently.

The Cat must be remote-controlling her, he guessed, which didn't leave him much time. Then he noticed the way her eyes kept switching from him to Alcinda's body. The vile gray growth had covered her flesh completely; now it was starting to spread across the floor, sending out fronds that moved like a spilled liquid.

Troblum activated his integral force field again and hurried across the chamber until he came to the longest case in his collection. He was sure he heard some kind of bang from outside, maybe more than one, but the door was an effective seal, and he didn't want to turn off his force field again. Paula must have arrived at the villa itself.

He had to use biononic reinforcement for his muscles so that he could lift the elongated cylinder out of its cradle mountings. The weapon was incredibly heavy, but the designers of the old Moscow-class warships hadn't had to worry about mass. He just managed to lever it vertical, feeling like some pre-history knight hoisting a lance. The cylinder's tip was barely a couple of centimeters from the cavern roof, wavering as he fought to keep it steady. There was no guarantee its ancient components would hold together if he switched it on, nor was he convinced his integral force field would withstand either a malfunction explosion or a successful discharge. But the Cat had eliminated certainty from his life; he was flying on logic and fatality now.

He looked directly at Simonie, whose right eyelid flickered. For the second time in a day Troblum didn't need a program to interpret a human emotion. He nodded back and fired the ship-to-ship neutron laser.