Thousandstar (#4 of the Cluster series) (41 page)

"The Lord Morrow grieves for his cherished wife, but needs another," Flowers said gravely. "His estate is large, and his son is yet a child."

"He could hire a nurse," Jessica pointed out. "God knows he's rich enough! He certainly doesn't need to preempt another clone-female from an already critically short supply." She felt a genuine indignity.

"Lord Morrow is not a reasonable man," Flowers replied, in a typical understatement. There had been stories of Morrow in his younger days, taming rogue dragons, substituting for a gladiator in a genuine contest and winning, traveling the Cluster in transfer for the mere sake of adventure. Neither caution nor finance had ever stopped him from indulging his mood of the moment, until his slip of a wife had twined him about her finger. Morrow's weakness had at last been exposed: he could not deny the woman he loved. Now it seemed he had been loosed again, having been also unable to deny his wife her demand for death.

Jessica remembered another male who had been that way, to a certain extent. Tough to the point of foolishness, but weak against females of any species. Heem...

"Actually, it will be a good deal for the one he chooses," Jesse remarked. "Even if he takes a child bride, he has a lot to offer, both physically and socially. I understand he's very gentle, at home."

"But an ogre in public," Jessica amended. She nerved herself, and glided to the ballroom entrance to greet the widower.

Morrow was a huge, dusky man, black of beard, with muscles like those of the gladiator he had impersonated. It was rumored that he still exerted himself with archaic barbell weights by way of entertainment or meditation. Certainly no runaway baby dragon would have crushed
him
. Jessica was daunted by his gruff power that seemed to radiate from his body.

"Welcome to HydrO-clone Ball, my Lord Morrow," she said formally, showing the deference due an elder clone. Actually, he was only a decade older than she, but age was not the only distinction. "This is an unexpected pleasure."

The giant stared at her, his eyes narrowed appraisingly. "I like your costume not," he said. "Remove it."

Jessica smiled in her masculine mode, though she felt an ugly chill. There was something about this man, a barely leashed violence. "My Lord?"

Morrow shot forward a monstrous hand, catching her forearm with a punishing grip. "Off with the mask, hypocrite!"

Jessica choked off her scream, for it would have betrayed her nature instantly. She struggled ineffectively to free herself. "My Lord Morrow!"

The entire ballroom quieted. The clones were watching the scene, smiling, assuming it was a programmed skit for their entertainment. Only Flowers realized that this was no skit, and knew the possible consequence. He started forward, his extra feet bumping against his real ones.

Morrow grasped the lapel of Jessica's suit with his other hand and exerted his horrible muscles. The flimsy material tore lengthwise down the front, exposing her strapped halter.

"What is this?" Morrow demanded, as the smiles of the clones broke into appreciative laughs. Nakedness was nothing, but
involuntary
nakedness was exciting, even in a skit. "A bandage on the uninjured man?"

"Yes," Jessica cried, numbed. "An injury—" An injury to her spirit more than to her body.

Flowers arrived. "My Lord, if you please—"

Morrow hooked two fingers in the strap and ripped down. The material tore, and suddenly both Jessica's breasts were bared. Now she screamed.

"See what we have hiding here!" Morrow bellowed, tearing away the remainder of her suit and turning her around for all the clones to view. Flowers tried to cover her with his jacket, which he had providently collected on the way, but Morrow shoved him gently but forcefully away. "I would not hurt you, old man; I seek your service for my own estate. But stand clear." And the retainer had to withdraw.

"See!" Morrow repeated, half cupping one of Jessica's breasts with an open hand.

For a moment the clones stared in disbelief. Then one whistled. "Those are real!" he exclaimed, laughing. Jessica found herself too numb to protest.

"Yes, it is funny, is it not?" Morrow roared. With a bound and reach of surprising swiftness he approached and caught the laughing young man. "We laugh as we strip away our pretenses, do we not?" And he tore the man's Squam-costume lengthwise.

The young clone, cowed, clutched his tattered costume to his body.

"Laugh!" Morrow bellowed, ripping away more of it.

The lad laughed, somewhat hysterically, now standing naked.

Morrow lurched to the side, catching a girl in a HydrO costume. He ripped it off her. "Laugh!" he commanded. She shrieked her embarrassed laughter.

The huge man whirled on the rest of them. "Off, off with it all! Laugh! Laugh! It is funny, is it not?"

And in moments he had the whole room naked, himself included, everyone laughing nervously.

Morrow returned to Jessica, who had remained frozen. Her nightmare had finally become literal, and it was every bit as bad as she had ever feared. "You I claim," Morrow announced, like a dragon roaring over a fresh kill. "I found you, and you are female and you are fair, most fair, and what shame remains to you that these others do not share?"

"You think that's reason to marry a monster?" Jessica demanded, flushing to the waist. How had this brute known her secret? Why had he come for her, instead of for one of the nymphs who would have been glad to have him? Not that he was unattractive, or his attention unflattering, but—

"Not entirely. Yet I promised you this needling of your fundamental shame, and you promised to accept it in the proper spirit. Do you renege, alien female?"

"Alien female!" she repeated. "What address is this?"

Morrow drew her inexorably in toward him. "Do you forget so quickly, creature-who-eats? Did you lie when you claimed your kind suffered no metamorphosis? After we solved the riddle of concepts, threaded Star and Hole, and fought the monsters? You taught me vision, you taught me love, you addicted me to these things, that I can never experience as a HydrO, and now I come to spray with you—do you dare reject me, image-of-Squam?"

"Heem!" she cried, belief and disbelief colliding. "But it can't be—you metamorphosed—"

"Alas, it reverted again. The first time the immaturity of the need for vengeance nullified it; the second time, the alienness of love. I could not yield that emotion, and so it undermined my maturity, and I remembered, and I knew what I had lost, and so I traveled in transfer to seek out my second nemesis and conquer her."

She felt dizzy. "But what of Morrow?"

"You also taught me how truce could be made, even with aliens, even with creatures of anathema, who are no longer evil when understood. I promised the sufferer a good wife, one he would appreciate when his grief abated; he promised me the first month. Thereafter we share. He is a good creature, though he eats; but he is bereft of his love, as I am."

Flowers drew near again. "Jess, is this man hurting you? I have fetched a laser weapon—"

She faced her old retainer. She took a deep breath, for the first time unashamed to show her bosom in public. "Flowers, don't ask questions. Just pick up the largest bowl of pseudofruit punch you can heft, bring it here, and dump it over our heads. Now!"

Bewildered but loyal, Flowers did as he was told. As the other naked clones stared, the sweetened fluid washed over their two heads and bodies, soaking them with its flavor.

"Now we spray together," Jessica said, kissing the creature she loved.

 

 

 

Author's Note

 

 

This is the fourth novel in the Cluster series, but I don't regard it as exactly a sequel. The first three built up to ever-increasing galactic threats to be negotiated by the highest auras of their day. This one, in contrast, is a local story set comfortably within that framework, and aural intensity is not an issue. No galaxies are threatened; it is merely about a contest to win power for a local culture. So it was bound to be a lesser effort.

Well, no. I had forgotten most of it, as I had the others, so read it like new fiction. I remembered mainly that it had been a real challenge to write, because the protagonist had neither sight nor hearing, and I never did that again. I remember it was a love story between creatures who really had no future together. I remembered the human opening sequence, and the concluding sequence: love surprisingly fulfilled. But I discovered that within that framework I had one compelling narrative of alien adventure, replete with taut physical and intellectual challenges. And I think I like it more than the others, because for me it works better as a cohesive and ultimately satisfying story.

I did discover minor scanning errors, and some typos that carried through from the original text. One thing brought me up short: “Her and her concern for living creatures!” “Her” is the subject of a sentence? What was I thinking of? Shouldn't it be “she”? But the more I pondered, the more I realized it was correct. The subject is implied. It might have read “He was frustrated by her and her concern,” with the first four words covered by the preceding material.

The scanner had a problem with the three symbols on the Ancients' device: open circle, filled circle, and double-ended line. I struggled and found equivalent symbols to substitute. I suppose I could simply have described them, but I, being a visually oriented sapient, think actually seeing them has more impact.

I also noted how there was a planet orbiting a star and a black hole. I had that in my decades-later ChroMagic series, having forgotten its use here. But the treatment is different; no one tries to thread the needle in the other series. But I do keep finding myself treading on my own heels, as it were. Perhaps it is a liability of writing over a hundred novels. How many really new settings can a writer come up with?

The main challenge of presenting a main character without eyes or ears makes, I think, this novel unique among my works, and perhaps more widely. To have a romance between two quite dissimilar entities sharing a body is another challenge. I liked the scissors/paper/rock interaction of three species, and the realization that there were no good species and bad species; a seeming monster can become a worthy friend. I was also surprised and somewhat dismayed to discover how HydrOs reproduce. Yet all of it makes sense on its own terms.

I love this novel. I resolved long ago to be aware of my own powers of writing, so as to know when they fade, and not embarrass myself by writing lesser books in the twilight of my career. I have seen it happen with other writers. I'm not writing science fiction adventure at the moment, but this novel makes me wonder: if I did write more science fiction, could I match this level? I hope so, but I'm not sure.