Thousandstar (#4 of the Cluster series) (11 page)

'But if we win the competition—'

"Then I will return as a hero, my criminal record pardoned. They have given me a considerable incentive."

'Then it's decided. We both have incentives. We win the competition!'

"Solarian—"

'Jessica. That's my name.'

"Jessica Solarian—this competition may be more hazardous than you appreciate. We could both perish."

'I understood it was a low-risk mission.'

"It is supposed to be. But I have had news of prior competitions. If the objective is important, the participants get highly competitive. A certain amount of intrigue, even violence occurs. It is not supposed to, but it does."

'Oh,' she said faintly. 'But maybe this objective is not so important.'

"Perhaps. We shall soon know. The ship is stabilizing; we have almost achieved escape velocity."

'Um,' she agreed nervously. 'So we may face real action. Look, Heem, we should get to know each other, so we know how to integrate. It could make a big difference. Exchange memories, compare notes, values—'

He had had enough of this. "No!" he jetted. "Go away!"

'I can't go away. You know that. I'm stuck here in your body until we get to an aura transfer machine, besides which, I genuinely want to help. I feel responsible—'

"I don't want your help!"

'Well, my help has been forced on you. You shouldn't have signed up for this mission, if you really didn't want—'

Heem needled an intense negation at her.

'Hey! That hurt!' she protested.

"Then be tasteless. Silent. I don't want to be aware of your presence when I begin piloting this ship."

'Well, you needed my help before, and I think you'll need it again. Since my own welfare is tied up in this just as much as yours—'

Heem, furious at her persistence, needled angry loathing at her.

Jessica bounced it back at him. The impulse washed through his mind, disgusting him.

'See, I can do it too!' she said. 'I can make your mind just as miserable as you make mine. And I
will
, if I have to. But I don't want to have to.'

"What
do
you want?" Heem demanded. A part of him wondered why he had turned so negative, and another part of him did not want the answer.

'Just to get to know you. So I know what I'm involved in.
Really
know, instead of just that you're—'

"No!"

'Now look, Heem. You're being unreasonable. What do you have against me? Maybe I can alleviate it.'

Heem formulated a savage needlejet, thought better of it, and sprayed irately, "You're alien! I don't want you poking into my mind."

'I think we've been over that, Heem. What either of us wants in that respect is pretty well irrelevant. You knew there'd be an alien transferee—'

"Not a female one!"

'Oh, now we have it, do we? It isn't just the shock of encountering a female where you didn't expect one. You're a male chauvinist!'

"Females are all right in their place."

'And what is that place? In the steaming kitchen, the nursery, the laundry room—'

Heem interrupted her with a spray of pure incomprehension. "What is a kitchen? A nursery? A laundry?"

'Oh, my. Maybe I'd better find out more about your females. Let's start with the basic common ground. Your females do bear children, don't they, so—'

"They do produce litters." But he did not want to discuss that aspect. It was a private female thing about which he knew no details. "What is this kitchen your females belong in? This laundry?"

'They
don't
belong in—oh, never mind. It's where we fix our meals and clean our clothing.'

"Meals? Clothing?"

'You know. We just covered that. Food, to eat, and—'

"You are not revolted?"

'Let's leave the ramifications for later. What do you really have against females?'

"I do not—"

'Yes you do. You are against me not because I'm alien, but because I'm female. I mean to get to the root of this. Why don't you want to associate with a female?'

"Because you invade my privacy! There are thoughts that are not meant to be known to your kind."

'Thoughts? It's not as if I were parading nude in public! I—'

"Nude?"

'Without clothing. Exposed.'

"We wear no such encumbrance. Our bodies are always exposed. Why should any creature
not
be exposed?"

'Well, we Solarians do have some exposure. I meant in a sexual connection. Copulating in public, that sort of thing.'

"What is private about copulation?"

'Oh, my! I think I see the problem. To Solarians, sexual activity is generally private—even the necessary organs are called privates—while thoughts may be disseminated freely to an audience of millions. To you HydrOs, I gather—'

"Thoughts are private!" Heem sprayed, shocked. "Among comprehending males, thoughts may on occasion be broadcast. But never in mixed company."

'And I, as a female able to read many of your thoughts—I guess that has a certain effect on you, as it would on me if I were thrown naked into the men's room at a busy hour.'

"I do not comprehend your analogy, but your emotion seems equivalent."

'Uh, yes. And I must admit your view makes about as much sense as mine. Bodies are not obscene, really; it's only the mind that makes them so. I'd hate to have my thoughts advertised at certain times.'

"You do not object to a male fathoming your most private thoughts?" Heem found the notion incredible.

'Well, you're alien. Your metabolism is completely different from mine. I wouldn't object to walking naked before a dog or a horse or a dragon of either sex; they're different creatures. But the cynosure of my own kind would be devastating. Now you—you're alien, but you're also sapient. That makes it hard to judge. But I think you would hardly care about my human attributes, so it wouldn't matter if you saw them. If you could see.'

Heem pondered that. She only minded being perceived by those who comprehended what they saw? She was certainly alien! Yet her rationale made a certain devious sense. She was so far removed from him that she had little comprehension of his concerns. What relevance, then, did her gender have? He began to feel easier.

In a moment the fluid cushion of the acceleration compartment drained, and Heem found himself in near-free-fall, in control of the ship. He jetted the Mission button. "Welcome to the competition," the ship's nozzle sprayed. "The target planet is Eccentric, in this System. The three host species are HydrO, Erb, and Squam."

"Eccentric!" Heem exploded. "I anticipated Ggoff!"

'I am not familiar with your local geography,' Jessica said. 'I presume this is System HydrO, so Planet Eccentric must be fairly close to your home-world. But where is Ggoff?'

"This is not System HydrO!" Heem corrected her. "This is the colony System of Holestar, shared by three species. My home-world is Impasse. Ggoff is in System Erb, adjacent to us."

'I'm getting confused already!'

"Ggoff really is as close to us as to the Erbs; closer, considering that we have a better established sub-Sphere here. Ggoff is habitable by both Erbs and HydrOs, so—"

'Since we're not going to Ggoff, stop confusing me with irrelevancies. What about Eccentric?'

"Eccentric is quite a different roll."

"The objective is an Ancient site," the ship's spray continued after its reasonable pause. "Suspected of being in operable condition."

'An operative Ancient site!' Jessica exclaimed. 'That's the most important thing there is!' Then she realized: 'Which means this is going to be the most savagely contested competition of the century.'

"Agreed," Heem jetted glumly. "There will be murder."

'We had better get moving right away, then.'

"No. I mean to roll along sedately at the end of the line, vying with no one for position."

'I don't understand.'

"This ship is last among the HydrOs in a race that is guaranteed to be savage. I cannot win the race; therefore I must secure my own survival. I can do this best by conserving fuel, proceeding to Planet Eccentric, landing in a wilderness region—which is not hard to do, since it is a wilderness planet—and preparing to survive the winter. If I retain sufficient fuel, I may be able to use the ship to expedite my construction."

Her reaction was oddly constrained. 'You are aware that this means my death? I cannot survive indefinitely in an alien host.'

"I am aware. But since I can save you only by winning the competition, and I cannot win, I must at least save myself."

There was a pause. Then: 'If you are proceeding to Eccentric anyway, why can't you race there? You might do well enough to make the next cut, and get a tractor. If not, you'd still be on the planet.'

"And under the control of the Competition Authority, who would return me to my own planet. Had the destination been Ggoff, which is further distant, I might have had play to travel there fast enough; I have been there before. But the route to Eccentric is so restricted it must be buoyed, and I cannot gain sufficiently. I will arrive too late, so prefer to make it later yet, to avoid the Competition Authority."

'Oh.' She considered some more. 'You mentioned a hard winter on Eccentric. Are there colonists there who might help you? I mean, you wouldn't have to go home? You could volunteer to be a settler—'

"No. No colonists. The winter is too difficult."

'Then why would you want to suffer that winter alone?'

"It is preferable to what awaits me on Impasse, and winter is some time distant. At least I will have the long summer free."

'Followed by the long winter.'

"Short winter. Short but intense."

'I don't understand. Winter doesn't come to an entire planet; when it is winter in one hemisphere, it will be summer in the other. So you could travel—'

"Winter comes all over the planet, simultaneously."

'That doesn't—does Eccentric have an orbit that is—oh, of course! Eccentric! Like a comet or planetoid. With a short, hot summer during the near approach to the sun, and—but you said a short winter.'

"This is a double system," Heem explained wearily. "Holestar. One Star and one Hole. Eccentric orbits—"

'One hole?' she inquired, perplexed.

"So designated. A collapsed star so dense that light cannot escape from it."

'Oh, yes—what we call a black hole. I wouldn't want to get near one of those!'

"Eccentric is near one. It orbits both Star and Hole, and periodically the Hole eclipses the Star. Then—"

'Then all light is trapped by the hole! That would be one hell of a shadow!'

"A distasteful winter," Heem agreed.

"What about Planet Impasse? Winter should be just as—'

"No. Impasse orbits the binary at an angle. It is never eclipsed by the Hole, so its winters are normal."

'Two different orbital planes,' Jessica murmured. 'A star and a black hole. This is some system!'

"Correct. Eccentric is currently on the far side of the binary. The ships must skirt the Hole to reach it. Hence the buoys marking the most direct course that remains safe. The wise pilot will not stray far from the marked channel; he would either lose position or fall into the power of the Hole."

'Yes, I can appreciate the need for caution,' she agreed. 'I suppose technically an orbit about a black hole is no more hazardous than one about a normal star. But emotionally it's horrifying!'

"Not to me," Heem jetted, relaxing. "I find it rather intriguing. I would be interested to explore within the range of no return, except—"

'Damn it, I don't want to die blind!' she screamed suddenly, jarring his nerves. 'You've got to win that competition!'

"Why should I roll away my chance for life, in a futile effort to promote yours?" Heem needled irritably. "You're nothing but a Squam in alien guise."

'I'm
not
a Squam. I'm a human being!'

"As I described. A female alien food-eating—"

'Oh, so that's it again! You just can't stand the thought of an objective female intellect in your sordid masculine brainless brain!'

This was useless, but he continued. "Females just don't belong in sapient minds."

'Sapients don't belong in male minds!'

"Flavor it as you wish. You do not belong in my mind."

'That's what I'm saying! I'm desperate to get
out
of your roly-poly mind before I go crazy!'

"You are already half there."

'Well, I'm not going crazy alone! If you don't at least try to get me transferred home, I'm taking you with me wherever I do go. Right into insanity if need be. See how you like that!'

"If you would rather be crazed than dead, roll on."

'I'm liable to get difficult. I'm very good at that, Heem.'

"Be as difficult as you want. I control my body."

'Fair warning: I'll scream.'

"I don't even know what a scream is."

Jessica screamed. Her sound was transformed to his perception of taste, and it was horrendous. The savage impulses scoured their paths along his nerves. Her terror became indistinguishable from his own emotion; he suffered increasing apprehension and fear, though he knew there was no proper basis for such emotions. Her scream compelled them.

She really
could
roll him with her! Because she was inside his mind; he could not close her out. Soon he would be as demented as she.

"Mute your taste!" he sprayed violently. "I will try the competition!"

The scream-taste abated instantly. 'How very sweet of you, Heem.'

She resembled a Squam, all right.

 

 

 

Chapter 3:

Space Race

 

 

Heem activated the space-taste spray. The flavor of System Holestar was emitted by the machine. There was the fleet of ships strung out ahead; his own was the last. There to the side was—

'I don't understand!' Jessica cried, disrupting his perception. 'What do all those tastes mean? If only I could
see!
'

She was really rolled up about her lost perception. "Why don't you just try tasting?" Heem inquired, irritated. "It is really quite sufficient."