Viscous Circle (37 page)

So his lie had ruined what could have been a good relationship—more than good. Yet what else could he have done? He could not even now trust her completely. After all, what would she have stood to gain, under present circumstances, by berating him? Her best course, if she was not in agreement with him, would be to win his trust now, in case the opportunity should arrive to reverse the disaster he had fashioned. He wasn't sure what she could do at this stage, for surely the Solarian ships were being destroyed by the firepower of the Bellatrix enclave, but he remained wary. How sad that suspicion should so interfere with interpersonal relations. Yet this, too, was a cross that Monsters necessarily bore.

Bad as it was, this was not the whole of it. "This may not be a consolation," Rondl flashed, "but I do—did—love my Band mate, Cirl, and may love my Solarian wife, Helen. Even if I trusted you completely, I could not love you at this time."

"I understand," she flashed tightly. Either she was expert at mimicking subtly hurt feeling, or—

They had arrived at the Site. There were no Bands present. The Monsters had vacated the moon too recently. "This looks like natural landscape, and the magnetic patterns are not like those of ordinary machines," Rondl explained. "But this is the Ancient Site, where the Bands first mastered the technology of artificial magnetic lines and became an interstellar species."

"Without Galactic recognition," she commented. "Maybe that's the route we should have gone. Petition for Sphere status for the Bands, seeking an injunction against alien interference until the issue was decided, so their territory could not be raided. A long shot, I admit, yet—"

"The Bands have no government and no interest in Galactic status," he reminded her. "And a petition on their behalf from a non-Band, such as either of us, would not be accepted by Galactic authorities."

"But if you had trained your recruits in the mechanics of token government, instead of in token warfare—"

"True," Rondl agreed, mulling it over. He had not considered all the options. "Yet the Galactic wheels do turn slowly. Sometimes they set up committees whose wheels don't turn at all. Long before Sphere status could be granted, the Bands could be illegally extinct. The Monsters would not have honored any injunction; they would have sent in a covert party to secure the Site regardless, and if challenged would claim the raiders were outlaws."

"Yes, that is the way Monsters operate," she agreed regretfully. "Their actions are even uglier than their appearance. So now it's up to the Site. This was not the route I intended, but now I have to hope that it works. Let's pray the Site has what we need."

They entered the obscure passage to the shrine. The line wound through a series of naturalistic caverns until it looped about within a subterranean river excavation wherein stalagmites joined with stalactites above them to form ornate columns. But these formations were not completely natural; the core of each was of Ancient construction, with specially layered metals imbued with intricate magnetic patterns.

The columns were physically beautiful, in many pastel colors and designs, but it was the internal patterning that was compelling. Rondl and Tangt, as Bands, could detect what the Monster sensors had missed: the exquisitely intricate artifice of each individual column, and a suggestion of the way the larger pattern of columns interacted. This whole cave was the control unit of the larger Site—and it was almost all in operating condition. A Monster shell had interrupted a portion of it; but the Ancient device had already compensated by routing its networks around the gap, without changing anything physically. This was, apparently, that most precious of rarities in the Galaxy—an operative Ancient Site.

"I am awed," Tangt flashed. Artificial Bellatrixian illumination had been installed to facilitate flash communication. "As a Band, I can feel the splendor, though it is faint, very faint. Nothing like this exists elsewhere, I'm sure."

"The ultimate art form of magnetism," Rondl agreed. "There has never been anything to match the achievements of the Ancients."

"But why didn't the Bands draw on this to develop their powers further?" she asked plaintively. "The data are freely available to Band perception. They could have used this information to become the dominant power in this region of the Galaxy!"

"Except that the Bands are utterly anarchistic as well as pacifistic," he said. "They would never abuse power. In fact, they won't even use it. They drew on this technology to fashion lines that extended their reach to neighboring Spheres, such as Bellatrix—and no farther. They arranged only to make alien contact, not alien conquest. To facilitate the freeness of their society. That is their nature."

"That is their nature," she agreed faintly. "The very species that most deserves power, refuses to take it. And you know, now that I realize this, I wouldn't change it. The Bands are unique; they must be preserved just as they are."

"Just as they are," he repeated. "A model for all other cultures. One problem I had was that by trying to make the Bands fight to save themselves, I was trying to make them resemble Monsters. Had I succeeded, they would have lost what makes them worthwhile."

"Yet surely some compromise—if the alternative is to suffer extinction—"

"Those are the jaws of the trap. Either way, paradise is lost. Unless the potential of this Site can provide a fast, appropriate, miraculous salvation."

"You have gambled the survival of the species on this hope," Tangt said. "I hope you win."

"I hope so, too. Now let's analyze this Site. If the key is here, we need to know it before the Monsters catch on, make truce with the Bellatrixians, and resume their conquest."

"I'm not trained in electronics or magnetics," Tangt protested. "As a Band I can sense the circuitry all about us here, and revel in its artistic complexity, but I can't truly grasp it. My specialty is social engineering. That discipline is largely wasted on this mission."

"I can handle it." Rondl moved close to a column, letting his Solarian training integrate with his Band perception. Like a Monster using a scalpel to cut open an interesting carcass, he felt inward through the complex magnetic fields. It was like performing microsurgery on a whale. The inherent Band sensitivity to magnetism was finely attuned; no Monster perception or Monster machine could match it. This Ancient construction was a marvel of intricacy and efficiency; Rondl had never imagined such eloquence in concept or application.

The essence was here. This was not actually a "live" Site, he now realized. The better part of its active function had been lost, and he could not fathom what that might have been. Only a small fraction of its circuitry operated as intended by the constructors. But he could read the inert circuitry, much as a tourist might gaze at the ruins of the Parthenon, and be awestruck at its grandeur even in ruins. What an education this was!

It should be possible, he perceived, for Bands using amplified magnetic impulses to master a form of Mattermission. There seemed to be an inherent limit of scale here, but the Band mass was, perhaps by no coincidence, just within its upper extremity. Instead of riding the lines, the Bands could jump them, passing virtually instantaneously from one point to another within the framework. One-step travel of several light-minutes, with little energy wasted. Nothing like this existed within the scientific horizons of the Monsters; it would be hard for any Monster not in Band form to comprehend or accept it. But it was true. With this ability, Bands could avoid the Monsters entirely.

"Mattermission?" Tangt asked as he flashed her his finding. "That's true, that would help—but how long would it take the Bands to develop it?"

"No longer than twenty Solarian years; the technology is pretty clear, but there'd be some complex initial construction involved. The Bellatrixians could—"

"Anything that takes longer than twenty
days
won't do them much good. The Monsters will overrun the planet and wipe them out."

He had been considering the technical aspects rather than the practical ones. "You're right!" he flashed, chagrined. "And even Mattermission won't save them if the enhancement of the lines required for it comes from equipment set up here or on Planet Band. The Monsters will simply destroy the equipment. It's no answer after all."

"What's needed is something that can really stop the Monsters—like a huge magnetic field that bollixes up all Monster equipment."

"Nothing like that here," Rondl said regretfully. "This technology can't affect Monster equipment at all. Only small-mass, magnetic-sensitive creatures like the Bands can use it. Monsters would require centuries to gear to this refinement, and even then they could never use it to transport anything Monster-size. Mail service is about its best Monster application."

"You mean Monsters can't actually use this Site?" she asked, amazed.

"Not to enhance Monster power. This is strictly a small-mass technology, like the magnetic lines the Bands have already derived. For Bands it's wonderful, and scientifically it's as sophisticated as anything we know of; for Monsters it just doesn't work."

"Because they're Monsters," she said.

"Because they're Monsters. Fittingly."

"But then the Monsters have no reason to take this Site! This whole invasion is wasted effort for them."

"Ironic, but true. The Monsters will destroy a superior species, commit sapienocide, for something they can't even use. If only they had known it at the outset!" He paused, reflecting. "That must be why the Bellatrixians weren't interested. They surely had located this Site in the course of their dealings with the Bands. They installed these lights, after all. They knew the Site was useless to their kind—to the kind of creature who needs heavy spaceships to travel between planets. That includes the great majority of all sapient species. Any of them who investigated in past centuries or millennia would have discovered this. Only the Solarians bulled ahead without reconnoitering to be certain the Site would be worth their own possible bloodshed."

"So all we need to do is tell the Monsters, and they'll go home. Not because they care for the preservation of the Bands, but because they never spend energy without promise of immediate material gain."

"I think so!" he agreed, realizing. "We should have done it your way at the outset. All this mischief with Sphere Bellatrix, all the slaughter of Bands could have been avoided."

"You'd better inform the Monsters now," Tangt said.

"No good. I have ruined my credibility by lying to my employer. You will have to tell them the truth; you never knowingly deceived them. Their interrogation will exonerate you, and so they will believe you."

"Perhaps so," she flashed after a pause. "But they will suspect what I suspect. You lied to me before; why should I believe you now?"

"Because I'm telling the truth now!"

"How convenient. If this Site were a bonanza for Monsters, would you tell me that? Do you expect me to shill for you a second time? You know the truth, whatever it is. Only a direct interrogation of you will convince them—or me." Her flashes had an adamantine sparkle of anger.

He had ruined his credibility with her, too. He had, in effect, scorned her, though their objective was the same, and he knew females could react very strongly to this sort of thing. If only he had been sure of her before! "At this stage, seeing the Site useless to the Bands in the existing circumstance, I'd have to turn it over to the Monsters regardless. But as it happens—"

"I trusted you before, and was deceived. I can't afford to trust you again. You must be up to something, and I'm afraid whatever it is will cost the Bands a lot more than the truth."

What infernal mischief his original lie was making! Rondl heartily wished he had stayed with the truth. "What could I be up to?"

"I'm working on that. You want me to tell the Monsters something that will bring them right here in force. You refuse to go to them yourself, despite the fact that they could have the truth from you as readily as from me, using special interrogatory techniques. Now why should that be? What could I do that you could not?"

"You could bring them here to see for themselves much faster than I could! Deep interrogation takes time. You—"

"Since you obviously think in terms of traps, and the nature of the trap is in your mind, not mine—"

"It's no trap!" Rondl protested. "I just want the Monsters to see that there's nothing for them in System Band, so they'll leave the Bands alone."

"So you say. Now suppose this Site has the capacity, as some Ancient Sites do, to explode like a nova, destroying all creatures in its vicinity, and the entire Monster contingent is within range—"

"It has no such capacity! These magnetic circuits are physically very weak. They can hardly even be detected by—"

"Or a more subtle radiation, that wipes out all local auras—"

"How can I convince you?" he flashed desperately. "I'm telling you the truth this time! I deeply regret the lie I told before, and I renounce my Monster nature that led me to it. I want only to save the Bands by showing the Monsters that they have no use for this Site!"

"After the way you deceived me before—"

"I should never have done that! I will never deceive anyone again! It's an abomination on my conscience!"

"And let me seduce you," she continued furiously. "Or was it vice versa? You performed at the behest of your wife, of all things! How can I ever trust you again?"

"But we share the will to preserve the Bands—"

"Do we? I have been trying all along to save the Bands, and I thought you were, too. But now I must wonder—"

Rondl saw that he had hopelessly alienated her, and he could hardly blame her. The situation had passed beyond the redemption of apology. The suspicion of her that had caused him, for what he had deemed at the time to be sufficient reason—ah, the arrogance of ends and means!—to lie to Tangt—that suspicion now clouded his own credibility. There was nothing he could say that would convince her of his sincerity. She was angry; she did not want to be convinced. She had been doubly deceived, and was determined not to let it happen again. In her position, he would feel the same.