Viscous Circle (36 page)

"Crisis brings things out. You never know how strong a tree is until it survives a hurricane."

"That's the way I felt when I faced Cerberus, before I married you. I was a small tree, a sapling, bent almost to the ground by the force of that monster's mind—its three minds—by the terrible fear it projected. But then I began to strengthen, to rebound. I hadn't known I had that reserve until it manifested."

"I knew you had it. But you never showed it, when you were not in crisis. Now you face a crisis of a different kind, and that strength of character is manifesting again. It confirms my decision."

Her decision to marry him? "You told the second thing I can do, which still amazes me. What was the first?"

She played with the control panel, resetting the course. The ship commenced a curving acceleration. "We are now on our way to Tanya Coombs's Station. It will take a while. So there's time."

"Time?"

"For you to seduce me."

"I'm not sure—"

"I want your baby, Ronald. If you're dead, I'll still have it, if I get it now. And I can get it now."

"The neutralizes—"

"You've been off the sterilizer for the duration of your mission. I'll bet you're fertile now. And I started taking null-contraceptives last week. And a conception aligner, tuned for today. I'm ready right now. Chances are two to one it will take."

Ronald had to laugh. "You certainly plan ahead!"

"I certainly do—when I have reason. I've been waiting four years for this alignment, and I don't propose to miss it. Now let's not waste time. This hour may be all we have."

"Let me see if I have this quite straight. You want me to seduce you now, and Tanya an hour from now—if 'seduction' is not a misnomer in both cases. Did it occur to you there might be certain practical difficulties?"

"Practical difficulties?" she inquired with mock innocence. "I really can't think of any. I'm sure you'll rise to the occasion. She's one pretty woman, and there's always the thrill of new conquest."

"Within one hour? When she's a Monster? I'll hardly get the fun of it that might otherwise—"

"Yes, you may not enjoy it at all," she agreed smugly. "But it's a necessary chore."

How neatly she had planned it! She had disposed her cards so that she obtained maximum advantage from a very difficult situation. She would have made an excellent Transfer agent. And she was doing it all to salvage as much as she could—of him.

Suddenly Ronald found himself flaming with passion for her. It wasn't love; love was what he felt for Cirl, pointless as that was now. But it wasn't merely sex, either; sex was what he would use against Tanya, reversing her own ploy. It was fascination. The emotion that could, when conditions were right, convert into love. Fascination was a house built on sand. If he survived this mission, that sand might very well stabilize into rock and he would love her again. Helen was a lot more woman than he had realized. But right now—

In moments they had the seats converted to full recline. She turned to him, and her liquid and bone-filled aspects became, subjectively, attractive, and it began.

 

 

 

Chapter 19:

Trap

 

 

Their Band hosts had survived. "So we talked them into sending us here one more time, to warn the Bands away from the Site," Tangt flashed. "I admit to being gratified. I'd like to stay here for life, even without my Band mate."

"So would I," Rondl agreed. "But it cannot be."

"I don't think there's much we can do here to forward the mission or the fortune of the Bands. We can convoke circles to explain things, but they don't congregate much in the orbit of Moon Dinge anyway. I just had to be here again, somehow. That's why I went along with you. I'd have gone along with anything to rejoin this host, if only for an hour."

"That was the only reason you came on to me? To get back here?" For she had turned out to be eminently seduceable in the Monster state, and Ronald had enjoyed the experience more than Helen would have thought was fitting.

"No. I was also afraid you'd pull some crazy male ploy and jeopardize the welfare of the Bands. So I wanted to be on the scene to make sure the Bands survive. Just in case."

Ronald distrusted that. She was correct in her suspicion of his "crazy male ploy," but there would be little she could do to stop it in Band form. She might like her Band host, but why would the Solarian authorities care about her preferences? They must have had more compelling reason to accede to this unnecessary third Transfer; they would hardly care if any Bands got wiped out near the Site. That most likely meant they were still using her to explore the extent of his treason.

"That's all?" he asked. "You don't care about the Monsters? Whether they get the Ancient Site?"

"As a professional, I care. That's my mission. But as a person, I'd rather see the Site in the possession of the Bands. I'm sorry your program of resistance didn't succeed."

Could he have misjudged her motive? It was becoming more important to know. "I need to acquaint more Bands with the situation. All my prior recruits except one are gone. There is a shrine on Moon Glow where educated Bands congregate—"

"I'll go with you," she flashed. "After what has happened, they need explanation and reassurance. And of course the warning to stay clear of Moon Dinge and its orbit. I hate to have the Monsters permanently preempting any part of the Band System, but it's a lesser evil than the extinction of the Band society."

They set off for Moon Glow. "I thought you might be more interested in promoting the Solarian cause," Rondl flashed, still fishing for her true motive.

"Like you, I was converted to the Band cause. I really hoped your program to turn the Monsters back would work. Perhaps I dawdled deliberately, praying that no other action would be necessary."

Rondl felt increasingly guilty about his lie to her. She certainly seemed to be playing it straight with him. Yet he hesitated to tell her the truth even now. She might be bait for a trap, getting him to. confess in time for the Monsters to correct their thrust and nail the real Ancient Site.

In due course they arrived at Moon Glow. The Monsters were departing; the big, clumsy ships were accelerating outward toward the orbit of Dinge. The moon was not directly out from Glow; that happened only rarely. But the location of the Ancient Site he had provided was fairly convenient. The ships thrust outward while allowing orbital inertia to carry them forward. With proper coordination of vectors, they would swing into the vicinity of the Ancient Site without great waste of momentum. The maneuver seemed ponderous, because of the seeming anomalies of orbiting that affected the massive ships.

"It's working," Tangt flashed. "The Monsters are vacating the other moons!"

So it seemed. But would it have continued working, had he provided the real location of the Site? Rondl had assumed that the Monsters would not long be content with the genuine Site; that they would sooner or later clear the System of Bands, as if the Bands were so many annoying insects. So appeasement was not the long-range answer. Yet Rondl was not sure—and if he was wrong—

As they homed in on Moon Glow, there were distant flashes in space. "What is that?" Tangt asked. "This host is far better at visual perception than the jelly-fluid eyes of the Monsters are, but I can't tell—"

Now at last he had to reveal it. "The trap has sprung," Rondl replied. "The Solarians attacked a Bellatrixian enclave. That has prompted Bellatrixian measures of defense."

"Bellatrixian?" she flashed blankly.

"Remember the aliens who made the cave-lighting system? Huge sapient grasshoppers with manual dexterity? They are not pacifists."

"Of course I know who they are! But why should Solarians attack them?"

She really did not seem to know. "They might be considered rivals for possession and exploitation of the Ancient Site."

"If the Bellatrixians had wanted the Site, they could have taken it centuries ago! They were content to trade peacefully here, however aggressive they may be elsewhere. They don't believe in appropriating the resources of peaceful Spheres."

"All this is true. But I suspect the Solarians have foolishly provoked the Bellatrixians to armed reprisal."

"This makes no sense at all!" she flashed. "The Solarians want the Site, not inter-Sphere war."

"I fear I will have to explain," Rondl flashed back. Oh, she was not going to like this at all! "The location of the Ancient Site we gave the Monsters was actually the location of the Bellatrix enclave. Too bad the Monsters were so eager to move in that they did not cross-check coordinates."

"The Bellatrix enclave! But if Solarian ships converge on it in force—"

"And perform their initial bombardment of survey detonations—" Rondl added.

"And start landing ships and disgorging tanks—why, that would cause an explosive reaction!"

"That was my assessment of the situation. I fear we have an inter-Sphere space battle in present progress."

"But how could you make a mistake like that? You said you knew where the Site was!"

"I do know. It was no mistake."

"No mistake! You mean the Bellatrixians already possess the Site? They built their enclave on it?"

"No, the Site is elsewhere."

"You deliberately—"

"I felt the Bellatrixians might do the job the Bands could not: drive out the Monsters."

"Then you lied to me! And caused me to lie to the Solarians!"

"So it seems." She certainly seemed to be surprised and chagrined by events, which suggested that she had not been playing a double game with him. The snafu theory of the bureaucracy's failure to act must be correct. He had been lucky there. Too bad he felt so guilty!

"Why?" she demanded, distracted.

"Because I do not believe appeasement is effective against Monsters. The only way the Bands can be saved is if they use the resources of the Ancient Site to drive off the Solarians."

"But they can't, because the Monsters already control the location of the Site. The Bands need the Site to win control of the Site. It's that vicious circle we discussed before."

"The Monsters just vacated that region. The Bands can now move in."

"Where is the Site?" she demanded.

"Here on Moon Glow."

She flew flashless, mulling that over. Now the lie was out, and it was too late for her to correct it. The trap had sprung; Monster blood had been shed.

"You realize that now we can never go back?" she demanded after a time.

"Did you want to?"

"Certainly—for a while. To wrap up my affairs."

"We'll go back on schedule, when our auras are recalled. We have no choice, since we cannot remain indefinitely in alien hosts." Actually, Rondl was contemplating exactly that: to allow his aura slowly to fade out, until he became his host and had no further recollection of his origin. It was as peaceful a way to expire as existed.

"We'll go back to mind-destroying interrogation and imprisonment and possible aura-wipe so that our vacant bodies can be used as hosts for others, for more loyal visitors or alien Transfers. You have doomed us!"

"Doomed
me
. Not you. You were innocent; interrogation will reveal that."

"No. I conspired against the Monsters too. I just happened to compromise more than you did. I tried to buy off the Monsters rather than fight them. I failed to be properly suspicious of your motives, so I am culpable too. Now the fight is on."

"But you did want the Monsters to have the Site. That's worth something."

"Not much. I felt that giving them the Site would be the least injurious course. That's not the same as liking it. I like your way."

"You like getting lied to?"

"That, no, though I should be used to it by now, from men. I thought we had an accord. I thought you trusted me as I trusted you. I see now I was foolish."

Not half as foolish as Rondl had been, he thought. He had mistrusted the motive of Speed, the Human Chief, during the episode of the telepathic dog. Speed had been honest. Now he had done the same with Tangt, again wronging an honest person. What mischief lay in such unfounded suspicion! "If I had been sure of your motive, I would not have lied to you. Now I'm sorry I did."

"And our liaison in Solarian host—that, too, a lie?"

"My Solarian wife sent me."

"Beware of dealing with Monsters!" she exclaimed. Then: "Your
wife
sent you?"

"She suspected your motive, so felt I should allow myself to seem smitten by you. To give you false security. So I played along."

Another facet registered. "You were so slow responding. Before you came to me, did she—?"

"Yes. She wants my child."

"And I thought I was losing my touch!" She dimmed, the Band equivalent of a half-rueful head-shake. "I wonder what I could have done with you, given a fair chance."

"Considerable," Rondl admitted. "Yet even as it was, it was quite—"

"It never occurred to either of you that I might actually be attracted to you? That I might like you for yourself?"

"You're married—"

"One term, not to be renewed. No present significance. I assumed it was the same with you. It's the time for explorations, and considering the unique experience we shared—" She dimmed more abruptly, the equivalent of a shrug.

"You are a trained Transfer agent," Rondl continued defensively. "You should be in control of your emotions. Most agents are. I assumed you were using me."

"I was certainly a fool. Normally I don't get involved with associates. You seemed to be the one person who understood the lure of the Band society. That made you special. I suppose I just wanted to believe in you."

Rondl felt worse and worse. Had he sprung a trap upon himself? "I wanted to save the Bands above all else. I may have been blinded by that. I misjudged you, and I'm sincerely sorry. You were less important than the Bands."

She relaxed, her flight becoming smoother. "I understand. It's the same with me. If you had not supported the Bands so firmly, I would not have been interested in you. But if only you had trusted me, it would have been so much better."