The Space Guardian (16 page)

Lahks laughed. “Not a foreign entity. It’s hard to explain. Presume that there is a portion of the brain that operates on pure logic, independent of the id and ego. Part of the Guardian training teaches you to separate this portion voluntarily and use it as a computer. Also, any violent emotion triggers an automatic takeover by the computer portion of the brain so that a Guardian cannot act under the stress of overpowering emotion. Never mind that. Are you really hurt?”

“No. After the first kick landed, I recovered my temper. I know how to take a beating. I’m bruised, but nothing is broken.”

“Shall I nick you with that pain-killer again?”

“It depends what is next on the schedule.”

“The flyer. You heard that invitation to return after the eighth tu. I can convince the guard to take me to the flyer, and I’m pretty sure if it is guarded that I can take care of any guards. I am not quite sure I can master these old-fashioned controls quickly.”

Stoat stared past her with unfocused eyes for a moment. “Then never mind the pain-killer. I’ll get along. I can’t give you a quick course in old flyers, but as I remember the plans you gave me, the flyer is kept near the outer manor wall. If you can drop me a line, I can come over the wall.”

Concern leveled Lahks’ normally uptilted lips, but she said nothing. Stoat was an adult many hundred times over and knew his own capacity well—when his quick temper was not aroused. She felt around the inner pocket of her superbly fitted stillsuit and, with a smile, extracted a twenty-GC note. Stoat stared. then chuckled.

“I should have known,” he muttered, rising to his feet with an effort. His eyes scanned the domes. “I think the hotel is that big one.”

With unspoken agreement both began to hurry. Before their eyes danced visions of a fresher, of skin soft, moist, and free of grit, of cleanly scented cloth underclothing comfortably warm instead of the slick clamminess of the stillsuit with its clinging ammoniacal odor. Inured to physical hardship, neither had been conscious of discomfort until relief was imminent.

Although the hotel was neither as neat nor as well run as Fanny’s place, they did achieve their main objective of getting clean. Lahks resisted a brief temptation to change back to female form. She would have enjoyed coupling with Stoat again, for he knew more of the fascinating byways of that delight than Lahks had guessed there was to know, but what strength he had left after his mistreatment had to be husbanded. There would be time enough for pleasure when they were off-planet. Sitting cross-legged at the foot of his bed, Lahks concluded a singularly fruitless planning session with a shrug of his/her shoulders.

“There is little that can be decided after all. It depends mostly on whether they found the men in the closets,” she commented with a final giggle.

When he/she returned to the manor, it was apparent that they had. There were guards everywhere, mostly in pairs, which increased the difficulty of disposing of them. Lahks considered and then, when she saw where they were heading, made a decision that gave her an unholy glee. She believed very firmly in poetic justice. As she and the guard Tangu, who had been waiting anxiously at the gate for her, neared the Landlord’s dome, Lahks hung back.

“I did not know your quarters were in there,” he/she said a little breathlessly.

“It will be all right,” Tangu replied. “You need not see the Landlord.”

“1 am not afraid of the Landlord,” Lahks remarked with youthful bravado, “but He/she shrank back again, shaking his/her head, the bravado fading into a rather childish uncertainty. “I am sorry. I cannot go in there. I saw. . .” He/she stopped, swallowed hard, then went on ma whisper. “Perhaps it was the effect of the stunner, but I saw . . . a monster.”

Tangu, who had been tugging her along gently, stopped dead. “What kind of monster?”

Lahks swallowed again and shook his/her head. “You will not believe me. I know it was caused by the stunning, but I . . . they looked so real. Only,” he/she shrank again against Tangu’s side, “I cannot go into that dome. I thought I would be over it, but I cannot go in.”

“What kind of monster? Describe it,” Tangu insisted.

“There were two,” Lahks replied in a small, hurried voice. “One was a long, long flat snake with lots of little legs and—I swear it—a flat, human face. The other—the other was a wall with long human arms and eyes on long stalks.” He/she uttered a shaken laugh and added, “You see how ridiculous it is. Such things cannot be.”

But Tangu was staring at her with starting eyes. “Where did you see this?”

“Through the grille of my cell. I was so frightened that I could not make a sound. Perhaps I fainted. The next thing I knew, 1 was back on the bench again. Then I sat up and hid my eyes—and then you came. After that”—Lahks flicked a small suggestive smile—“I was not afraid anymore.”

The smile had been insurance, but Tangu did not respond to it. Instead, he gripped Lahks firmly by the forearm and dragged her along. “You must overcome your fear,” he said harshly. “This tale must be told directly to the Landlord.”

Lahks hung back and protested feebly, the shudders of suppressed laughter lending verisimilitude to her pretended fear. Very soon, however, she found herself in the Landlord’s presence. She was just planning a method for ridding the room of the extraneous guards and councillors when Tangu, ordering her harshly to stand where he left her, made his way toward the dais. After suitable elaborate preliminaries, which made Lahks’ opinion of Landlord Tanguli even lower, he gained his master’s ear. A spate of whispering on Tangu’s part, interspersed with increasingly loud cries of “What!” on Tanguli’s part, ended in achieving Lahks’ objective for her. The room was cleared and she was summoned to the dais.

Ordered to tell her story again, Lahks did so with greater confidence, with sweeping gestures, one of which touched the Landlord’s hand. She went into elaborate detail about the monsters, about their invincibility and their sly ways.

“And,” she concluded, “this horror has befallen your manor because you are an evil man, Landlord Tanguli. This coming has been a warning. If you do not mend your ways, if you continue to punish your men for your evil doing, if you continue to rob hunters and take away their heartstones without giving them some reasonable payment, the beasts will return. Each time you do an evil or an unjust act, the beasts will tear at you while you sleep.”

Tangu had listened to this with eyes starting with horror. In fact, he was less afraid of the monsters than of what his Landlord would do to him for bringing this madman into his presence. The Landlord did nothing, however, except to stare at Lahks like a fascinated rabbit, and he/she turned to Tangu.

“Well, I’ve done my best for you. Old Tanguli is going to be very annoyed when he wakes up and finds out he has returned all the money he stole and has donated his flyer to a good cause. I hope the hypnotic suggestion controls him, but if he gets too outrageous, I would recommend assassination. Of course. . .”

The paralysis of amazement that had held Tangu broke suddenly, and he leaped forward. Lahks, however, was not there. She had stepped aside and shrunk a full meter. The blow that put Tangu to sleep was delivered by a hand the weight and consistency of steel driven by muscles like a pile-driver. Returning to normal size, she felt Tangu’s jaw tenderly to be sure she had not broken it.

“You will not remember this,” she said to the Landlord. “You will only remember that Tangu was very brave and tried to save you from the fruit of your own folly. Now you will take from your strongbox the sum of money you fined the black hunter this afternoon and give it to me. Then we will go to your flyer. You will order it to be fully fueled and have extra fuel put aboard. You and I will get into the flyer, as if to see if all is ready, and you will move the flyer out of its housing and take off suddenly, go over the wall, and land on the other side.”

It was a beautiful plan, and it would have saved Stoat the effort of climbing over the wall. The only trouble with it was that it did not work. When Lahks and the Landlord were inside the flyer, Tanguli sat and stared at the controls. Lahks had a momentary qualm, wondering whether her supply of hypnotics was faulty or inadequate. Maintaining her calm, she reiterated her instructions firmly.

“Move the flyer out of its housing. Raise the flyer and set it down on the other side of the wall.”

Tanguli sat at the control panel, blank and impervious.

Frowning, Lahks asked, “How do you raise the flyer?”

“I do not know,” Tanguli replied.

For a moment Lahks stared as blankly as the Landlord. It had never occurred to her that he might not know how to run the machine. Where she came from, everyone could handle a flyer, except perhaps the very old and very young. Smothering a chuckle at her own stupidity, she glanced at the controls, but they were even more old-fashioned than those of Landlord Vogil’s flyer. She hoped Stoat could handle them; she could not, at least not without briefing and practice. All in all, there was nothing to chuckle about. She could not use Tanguli to send the guards away because his wooden manner had already made them suspicious. But if he called them. . . Lahks gave the order.

The Landlord stuck his head out of the flyer and called. The guard trotted over. A few moments later the guard appeared to come out. He wore a sour expression and walked over to his companion.

“The Landlord wants to give you special instructions.”

That guard disappeared.

After waiting a few moments, the first guard walked back to the flyer. He seemed startled. “Here!” he called to the guards at the wall in a soft, half-strangled voice. “Help!”

Both came running. The first was dropped by a stunner blast from the inside of the flyer, the second by a well-placed chop delivered by the first guard. He now made a quick search of the building and came up with a coil of rope. One end of this he threw over the wall. He was looking about for something to fasten the rope to when it jerked in his hands. Inexorably, his somewhat insubstantial form began to rise as Stoat’s greater weight came full on the rope. A litany of blasphemies curdled the night air.

Desperately, the guard shed his shoes. His feet narrowed, hardened, and formed spike-like points. Clinging to the rope, he leaped into the air and came down at the base of the wall, spike feet first. The spikes sank well into the earth. Now the rope tightened again. The guard’s clothing hung baggily as Lahks shrank and strained to hold the rope. More blasphemies oozed from her lips as she felt the spikes give. Then, just as it seemed they would slip completely, she heard Stoat gasping softly at the top of the wall. He twisted lithely and slid expertly down—right on Lahks’ head. Both collapsed.

“Why the hell didn’t you get out of the way?” Stoat whispered incredulously as he rolled off her.

At first Lahks could not reply. She pointed to her feet, still sunk into the earth. She could see the whites of Stoat’s eyes travel from her spike feet to her face and then make another round trip, It was all she could see because brown irises and black face were alike swallowed up in the dark.

There was a short period of stunned silence before Stoat asked in a somewhat strangled voice, “That was easier than tying the rope to something?”

“To what?” Lahks asked between giggles. “You didn’t give me a chance to look. You grabbed it as soon as it went over.”

“One ties the rope first,” Stoat said gently, “then one throws it over.” There was, however, a Suspicious tremor in his own voice, and he rose suddenly and began to walk toward the flyer housing.

Lahks had still not freed her feet because she was laughing so hard, and she hissed after him, “Wait. Tanguli’s in the flyer, and he’s primed to stun anyone who sticks his head in.” She got up. “We’ll have to stun him through the flyer in order to get in.”

Stoat stopped and looked at her. “What is the Landlord doing in the flyer?”

“I had a lovely plan to save you the trouble of climbing the wall . . . a lovely plan.”

“So why did I end up climbing the wall, anyway?”

“Because that idiot Tanguli never learned to fly his own flyer.”

Again there was a brief silence. Stoat seemed to struggle with himself. “Very few Landlords fly their own ships. Very few kings drive their own land cars, for that matter.”

“Very few Guardians fight their own wars—but they know how,” Lahks replied tartly. “I knew he would not be an experienced pilot, but all he had to do was to raise it, get it over the wall, and set it down.”

They had reached the flyer housing, slinking cautiously in the shadows of the wall. In the brightly lit building, Stoat dropped to the ground with a grimace of pain. He used the guard’s gun that Lahks handed him to dispose of the Landlord and then swung himself into the flyer. He stood looking at the five bodies cluttering up the floor with distaste. “Do you want this collection for anything?” he asked.

Having freed themselves of the plethora of bodies, Stoat studied the flyer controls and raised his brows. He seemed about to speak, but then snapped his fingers and dropped out of the flyer to kneel beside the Landlord. Lahks, seeing him turn out the Landlord’s pockets, leaned out to call softly that she had retrieved their money. Stoat shook his head without replying, but a moment later he extracted a ring with a flat, notched metal device attached. He sighed with relief as he hoisted himself somewhat wearily back into the flyer.

“This ship is so old, it takes a key to make it work,” he remarked in explanation. “It’s lucky you did bring the Landlord along. It would have taken me an hour to figure out how to start the ship without it.”

The key seemed to solve Stoat’s problems, however. He had the machine safely out and away in only a little while. Lahks looked out at the stars. So much had happened that it seemed later than it actually was. In reality they had almost a full night ahead of them.

“Stoat,” she said suddenly, “let’s pick up Fanny.”

“You feel that things have been too dull and uncomplicated up till now, I guess.” Stoat remarked blandly. “And, no doubt you are sure we will be
persona grata
in Lendlord Vogil’s cup.”

“Well, no, not the latter,” Lahks replied with a grin, “but I promised myself I would get Fanny a new stone, and he wouldn’t keep it a day if he stayed on Wumeera. Ergo, let him come with us. Besides, I have a soft spot for gorls, and in addition to that, if we have to deal with the Guild he may be useful.”

The ship had already begun to swing northeast, but Stoat’s head snapped around toward his companion. “Now, wait. Now, just you wait.” His voice rose a little. “What is this ‘Deal with the Guild’ bit? I am not overanxious, Beldame, to get involved with the Guild. Their net stretches wide and . . . I am not unknown to them.”

“Retinal pattern?”

Stoat’s lips tightened. Then he shrugged and laughed. “Palm prints, fingerprints, footprints, ear shape, retinal and genetic patterns—they have them all.”

Lahks emitted a long, low whistle of admiration. “So you were a Master of the Guild. Well, well. You left that pursuit because you felt it to be dull?”

“No, it was interesting enough, but even a Master lives only so long. I left long enough ago to make it dangerous to be recognized, but not long enough ago, I fear, to have the patterns deadfiled.”

“I see. You counted on their ignoring you as my assistant. But if we cross them, no one would be ignored.”

“Too true, Beldame.”

“I won’t if I don’t have to,” Lahks said ingenuously. She watched the cocking of her companion’s mobile eyebrows and the wry twisting of his lips. His disbelief in the innocence of her intentions was so patent that she chuckled. “No, really, if they deal Guildwise with us, I will be content. It seems to me, however, that even the Guild would have little control of members working such an outlying planet as Wumeera.”

The probability of truth in that statement drew Stoat’s brows together in a frown. In its own warped way that is, by its own rules the Guild was honest enough with its clients. It was true that loosely controlled peripheral operators might not abide by the rules when clients themselves, rather than goods that needed to be fenced, were in their hands, in fact, now that he thought back, Stoat remembered he had been instrumental in the chase, capture, and elimination of several such “dishonest” operators. Only at that time he had been a Master, had a dedicated army at his beck and call, and had been doing his “duty” to his organization rather than affronting it. Even with all that going for him, the entrapment and punishment of the malefactors— remarkably mobile malefactors, since they had a spaceship at their command—had not been easy. A glow of amusement lightened his expression.

“You and I and Shom, who is useless in a fight against men, and Fanny are to take on a whole shipload of Guild members—very likely pirates—just like that?”

“It will be only a small spaceship,” Lahks said cajolingly.

Stoat choked, but before he could reply to her teasing he was forced to give his attention to his piloting. The mountain range that ran between Tanguli’s and Vogil’s cups was below them, and Tanguli’s flyer was so old that it did not have enough lift to rise above the highest peaks. It was necessary to thread through the defiles while keeping a sharp eye on the terrain. Not long after, they set down on the side of the town farthest from the Landlord’s manor and Lahks shifted to the form she had used when last here.

“It’s too bad we didn’t bring the comcov,” she remarked.

“I think the flyer will be safe enough. I had no lights and the domes are virtually soundproof. Besides, I have the key. Still, if Fanny cannot be convinced in a short time, we had better take our chances without him. Someone might stumble upon the flyer and report it to the Landlord.”

In fact, convincing Fanny raised no problems—as Lahks had foreseen. First of all, gorls were utterly fearless, largely because of their evolutionary history, but also because of their size and appearance. For similar reasons they were not suspicious. Few dared to try to cheat them; those who did were dealt with summarily and ferociously, although with justice. The reputation for tolerating no nonsense added to the generalized reluctance most beings had to infuriate such creatures.

Lahks spoke briefly and to the point, identifying herself and Stoat, offering Fanny a stone, and pointing to the necessity for his leaving the planet. The great head nodded acceptance.

“Price?” Fanny asked.

“You realize that what we are doing is illegal on this planet. We have a caller out for a Guild ship to pick us up at a dead cup. There is a chance they will want our cargo and not want us. We need your help in getting off-planet with our goods, even if it means taking over the ship, killing some of the crew, and bucking the Guild.”

The simian eyes stared steadily. “Price reasonable.” Fanny grunted at last. “Wait. Get valuables. Let barman keep hotel. Good man. Good worker.”

On the way back to the flyer, Stoat remarked to Fanny, “You were easy to convince.”

The great fangs glittered briefly in the dim light. “Landlord mad, anyway, for giving rooms. How would know would steal flyer? Unreasonable. Also, only come for stone. Offer stone. Go with. Costs life? Very well. Not living, anyway, running hotel here.”

Lahks chuckled. “I had an idea Vogil might be a little annoyed at anyone who had anything to do with us. I’m sorry about the flyer, though. I hope he didn’t execute the men who lost it. When we get off-planet, I’ll credit him with its worth, or maybe order a new one for him as a nice surprise. Maybe that will cool him off.”

Once aloft again, Lahks curled up in the baggage compartment and went to sleep. There were, of course, renegade gorls, as there were renegades of any species, but Fanny did not strike her as the type. Moreover, he had no idea where they were going and could be no danger to them until they had landed and unearthed their cargo. She was a little worried about Stoat. He had been badly mauled by Tanguli’s men and had had little rest since then, but there was nothing she could do for him, it was best that she be fresh when they arrived. By then, Stoat would have to sleep.

Fanny showed no suspicion even when they landed in what was apparently an empty cup. Away from the atmosphere of the hotel, he gained in dignity; there was even an air of authority about him as he pushed Stoat back into the flyer.

“Sleep now,” he announced. “Trip finished.”

“Not yet,” Stoat muttered, his black face gray-sheened with the sweat of pain and exhaustion. “We’ve got to dig Shom out.”

“Fanny and I will dig him out, Stoat. You’ve had it. Go to sleep.”

The tight-set tips relaxed, then twitched into a brief, painful smile. “You are so right,” he mumbled, and he slid flat and into unconsciousness in the same moment.

Having unearthed the almech from Stoat’s pack and located the cache, Lahks proceeded to uncover and revive Shom. Fanny watched in silence, helping when he could. He stared for a moment when Shom’s first movement was to open his hand and look at his pea-sized heartstone; in fact, the gorl’s body stiffened, but he made no other move or any sound. Lahks and Shom together shifted skins and carapaces, then dug farther until she could remove the hoard of stones.

These she placed into the concave side of a carapace. En masse they were almost too much to look at, but it was en masse that she presented them to Fanny. Again the emotion so inordinately powerful that an alien could read it in his face passed over the gorl.

“I do not know the size of the stone you had, but you may take any one of these.”

“Size was that.” A finger pointed to a medium, fingernail-sized stone. The pointing hand quivered a moment with longing and then dropped. “Price not paid. Keep stone.”

Lahks bowed deeply and sincerely. “Great Prince,” she said, “if you do not think it harmful to you, taste your joy. As you trusted me to offer, I have faith that you will pay the price when asked.”

“Larger stone maybe make brainsick, but what other harm?”

“I do not know. Do you dream with the stone?”

“Dream?” The gorl stated the word so slowly that he seemed to be tasting it, but at last he shook his head. “Not dream. Desire.”

He reached out and picked up one of the medium-sized stones. His head cocked sideways in a surprisingly gay gesture. His whole bodyseemed to grow lighter and younger. A thick, grumbling wheeze rose from his chest to his lips. “Want to go there”—he pointed outward at the sky—“or there,” swinging his hand to another position, “or there. Want to go!”

At first Lahks was afraid that the stone had affected Fanny badly, but after a few moments the giddiness seemed to pass. He stared at the gently pulsing stone, rubbed it between his hands to increase the pulsations, and stared some more. Finally he hunkered down and faced Lahks soberly. She could see him marshaling his limited Basic to explain something.

“Gorls timid, not about body, but need other gorls. Called Prince. Am. Not rich, how could afford stone? First had, only felt light, happy. Later restless. Wondered how out-planet people live. Traveled. Saw many good things, many bad. Brought ideas home. Some glad; some angry; but much talk and . . . and ex . . . ex. . . experimentation. New paths to gorls. Then stone stolen.”

He had been looking at the ground in front of him and occasionally at the heartstone in his hand. Now he lifted his eyes to Lahks.

“Why want?” He held the stone toward her. “Can go see without stone. Not necessary.” His shoulders shook and Lahks was again reminded that gorls, like most humanoids, laughed in much the same way. “So many years in hotel. Thinking someday hunter comes here before Landlord takes stone. Offer good price—any price—get new stone. Have stone now. Now not want or need. Understand—understand stone only excuse, so can do what other gorls do not do.”

Now Lahks laughed with him. “Stoat and I found out that it is only a learning device. I suppose it has taught you all it can. You can change your mind if you want to and take the flyer back to Vogil’s cup.”

Fanny drew himself up with a slight show of indignation. “Not want stone, but made Deal. Keep Deal.” The simian eyes twinkled. “Besides, want to buck Guild. Never did that!”

They ate, busied themselves with removing the skins and carapaces from the cache and refilling it with earth, and then slept until Stoat awakened. When he had eaten, a council of war was convened. This resulted in building an igloo just large enough for the four of them to creep into out of the crab carapaces and covering it with layers of the silverfish hides. They hoped that from the air the excessive height would not be apparent and that their hideaway would look like a heap of trade goods. The tent was set up near, but not too near, the igloo.

If the Guild landing craft grounded and the crew emerged with peaceful intentions, they could come out peacefully, too. If an attack was launched either from the ship or by the crew, it would be launched against the tent—they hoped. This would give them at least a chance to defend themselves since, presumably, the Guild would not use against them any weapon powerful enough to destroy the stones. Probably they would confine themselves to the use of a stunner—just in case their clients had hidden their treasure.

Lahks did not doubt that they would be able to overcome the landing party. What she and the others could not figure out was how to get aboard the ship. Presumably, when the Guildsmen saw their companions overcome, they would lift the ramp, perhaps even seal the ship. Probably their desire for the stone offered would keep them from taking off altogether. The best Lahks’ party could hope for was some kind of trade that would permit them aboard. That, unless they could take the ship over quickly, would be their death warrant.