Medusa: A Tiger by the Tail (26 page)

“And how we—feel—now?”

“Somehow that connection sensitized us to the Wardens. When we contacted that other mind, it was through the Wardens, somehow. And when we broke contact with it, our brains had been taught how to keep in contact with those in our own bodies. Honey, we haven’t changed a bit.
Everybody
on Medusa is like this. But we’re some of the very few aware of the fact.”

“Hey! Tari! Look at me!” Hono’s voice called, and we all turned and gasped at what we saw. It wasn’t Hono at all, but a beautiful, stately goddess, the epitome of grace and beauty and strength—an angel. “I just pictured this in my mind and told my body what that picture was—and I had it!”

Just like that, I thought wonderingly. As simple as that.

We spent the rest of the morning experimenting and found that there was little we couldn’t do if we willed it. Hair came and-went, sex changed and changed again in a matter of minutes, in a curious process that seemed much like stop-motion photography. What you willed you could become, and the others could watch it happen. It was, in a sense, a new art form. Even mass seemed unimportant; the Wardens not only obeyed commands, but seemed able to reduce size if needed or create more cells out of energy. To be sure, it was easier to create the new mass than to get rid of it, since getting rid of it turned out to be extremely painful, but to some it was worth the price.

Since making such changes demanded a tremendous knowledge of biology, biophysics, biochemistry, you name it—knowledge all of us lacked—it became obvious that the Wardens translated the mental visions into reality by drawing on a vast body of knowledge beyond us. Where? I wondered. Some vast, high-speed computer someplace was feeding the things. It had to be.

Was the computer in fact what we had somehow connected with the night before? An alien computer, whose programming would also be so alien and so complex it would appear to us as a godlike superbeing? It was a good theory, anyway, and a computer had to be located someplace. That, in turn, would mean that the Warden organism was not a natural thing at all, but something artificial, something introduced into the environment of the four worlds. And who but those ugly bastards out there on the ice could have done that?

So they were here, below the waters, perhaps by choice, when the first exploiter teams arrived. They hadn’t discovered the place—they had been here all along. Did that mean, then, that
they
could do this as well as we—or better? The combined powers of all four worlds, perhaps—shape-changing, body-switching, the power to create and destroy by sheer force of will…

But if that were true, then why the robots? Why deal with the Four Lords at all, for that matter—let alone allow them to run their clandestine war against the Confederacy? And why that dangerous game of cat-and-mouse on the ice?

The clearer things became, the muddier they became. I was fascinated by the problem and hoped to spend a lot of time on it, but only in an intellectual capacity. I was still sincere about my vow, and this was my retirement mission—although it had a wonderful payoff.

“We have talked with God, and She has made us Her angels!” Quarl whooped with pride and glee, and that seemed to be the general consensus. Only the more pragmatic Hono, a doubter to begin with and with a somewhat wider intellectual horizon than the rest, was anywhere near restrained. Yet even she was exultant with the new power, which was as good or greater than promised.

“It has occurred to me that the Elders have been here and have received this gift,” she remarked to me. “Ugly old crones, aren’t they?”

I grasped her meaning at once, for the same thought had also occurred to me. Although this ability might fade with age or lack of regular workouts, the fact was that it was almost impossible to accept those Elders’ appearances as more than theatrical facades at this point. The others, too, understood the implications, and I was glad to pounce on them.

“Think about what that means,” I warned them. “This power is to be used when necessary, and only for good, not to frighten or amuse yourself or others. You have great power, but you also have a sacred trust now. This isn’t something that can be passed on or taught. We all earned it. Now we must return to use it wisely.”

That statement sobered them a bit, as I hoped. I was anxious to leave before too much of the day was gone. New power or no, I didn’t want to cross that stretch at night with our horror-show friends out there waiting for us, and I really didn’t care to spend another night on this mountain. Once the connection had been established it would be easier the next time, and a few of us were far enough into madness now that no added exposure was needed.

Hono picked up her spear. “We walk down, then.”

I thought a moment. “No. Maybe we don’t. Let me try a little experiment here. Be brave, and don’t be
too
surprised if it doesn’t work.” I looked at Ching, winked, then concentrated, drawing on my long practice of mind control and autohypnosis.

At once I began to change. I knew it, could see it, feel it, even as I willed it, and I knew that the message was adequate even as the process started.

The others, Ching included, watched in amazement at the transformation as my hunch paid off. Somewhere in that Warden computer there were the blueprints for a very large creature that flew.

“What is it?” several cried in alarm.

“How the hell do I know?” I croaked back. “But it has talons to pick up and rend prey, and it
flies.
Draw upon yourselves, become this thing as I did, and have a little faith. Then we’ll
fly
back over that cold waste!”

That very thought—of flying strongly for a day or less rather than three days of dangerous walking—was enough. Now, for the first time, I could see in the others the creature I had willed up from some unknown source. Great, black man-sized birds, with oddly human eyes and curious, twisted beaks and taloned, powerful feet that could grab and rend if need be.

“Now what?” somebody called out.

“Let the Wardens do the work!” I called back. “We want to fly, so we will fly!” Awkwardly I walked out of the protected rock shelter and into a pretty strong wind. The drop was not sheer, but the ice-covered ground did fall away fairly fast. If this didn’t work, I was going to be a bug spot down there someplace, that was for sure. And yet, I had to be first. Mind control and autohypnosis would provide the relaxation and confidence I knew I’d need, control the others sorely lacked. But
if 1
took off, if I flew, faith would no longer be necessary, and would be replaced in them by will.

I concentrated for a moment, then looked out again and could
see
the air as clearly divided layers and swirls. Not as something solid—I could still see
through
it—but rather as differences in
textures,
a softness here, a bright clarity rushing through there. “Take off with a strong leap into the wind!” I told them, then summoned up my courage and leaped, spreading my great wings as I did so.

I plunged down at an angle, barely skimming the tops of the slope, and only my mental control kept me from panicking and crashing. Down, down, and then I let loose the last of the tenseness and—as I’d told them—allowed the Wardens, replacing the bird’s instinct, to take over. I bottomed out the drop and glided upward at an equal angle, up into empty, cloud-filled skies!
I flew!

Ching, to her credit, got over her amazement quickly and followed my lead as I watched from above with nervous eyes. Oddly, she had an easier time of it than I had. Perhaps, I thought, there’s more to faith than I’d thought. Then, one by one, the rest launched themselves, and I circled nervously and waited for them.

Once in the air, most were exultant, like little children, doing loops and swirls and having a grand time. I finally had to move to herd them in, reminding them, “We have a long way to go—don’t waste your energy. You’re not immortal, just powerful.”

“And strong,” Hono shouted back. “We are truly blessed!” But she accepted my lead as we formed up close together and headed back out toward the ice.

I hadn’t taken the low ceiling into consideration. We were still certainly within easy sight of the ground, as I didn’t want to risk bodies as large and relatively cumbersome as ours controlled by novices in any real storm.

Since those creatures on the ice could see us if they were looking for us, or had some simple radar scan, I wanted to get up some speed to put as much distance as possible between them and us. The air currents helped a great deal; though we had a little trouble with firm control, there were levels where we could just rest on the currents and let them carry us, with a minimum expenditure of effort.

“There’re our demons!” Hono snarled, looking down and to the west. “Looks to be the same four. I don’t think they see us.”

“Let’s keep it that way,” I responded. “We don’t have the time or the experience to tangle with them.”

‘They killed four of us!” Sitzter protested angrily. “And who knows how many others? We are powerful, strong, and blessed by Mother Medusa! We should avenge our sisters!”

“No!” I shouted. “Dammit,
if we
can do this the odds are
they
can, tool” But my warning was too late. The madness that power brings and the religious fervor that had been kindled on the mountain was just too much for them, and, after all, they were hunters. First Sitzter, then Hono, and finally the others peeled off and made for the four large, dark forms below.

I picked up my speed and made a dangerous turn, trying to cut them off and steer them away. “This is madness!” I cried, but they were beyond talking now—and the aliens below had now spotted us.

Hono had taken the lead, as befitted her role as master hunter and group leader, and dove on the four dark forms. The aliens suddenly shot up into the air and dispersed, then hovered in an obviously preplanned diamond formation that allowed each to come to the aid of the others. I had a pretty strong feeling that these were pros who had been through situations like this many times before. I didn’t like it at all. A strange idea popped into my head that these four, out here like this, were bait in a subtle trap as well as a discouragement to any mass movement to the sacred mountain.

Hono approached the lead alien, whose pressure suit, complete with some sort of backpack,, was now clearly visible. The alien didn’t let her get very close. The creatures looked really strange now, with just fifty centimeters of each of their ten tentacles showing. Those tentacles were three meters long and apparently independent of one another. Hono was coming at the hovering alien at great speed, but the alien never wavered, never even moved, until the great bird was almost upon it. Then, suddenly, the creature zipped a few carefully measured meters to one side, enough for Hono to miss and also to render her unable to break her forward momentum. Tentacles shot out not only from the target creature but from the next closest, and they hit home. Hono whirled in midair and great feathers flew off in all directions. Clearly she was totally off balance and she plunged like a stone, to the ground.

Quarl and Sitzter flew right behind her, and the other three behind them. Suddenly the sky was a mass of feathers, screams, and flying tentacles extended to full length, skillfully and independently wielded with expert skill.

I pulled up, seeing Ching following behind me, and tried to create a diversion for the others. It worked to an extent, pulling one alien’s attention off the furiously attacking great birds and allowing a gap in their tight tentacle-tip-to-tentacle-tip formation. But instead of using the opportunity to escape, Tyne and Sitzter went after the -exposed alien. Tyne grabbed hold of a snaking tentacle with her talons and, while it wasn’t really clear who had whom, she managed to yank the alien off balance and whip it to one side. The alien let out one of those piercing screams, and fun time was over.

A dozen more suddenly shot up through the ice, and these bore small handlebar-shaped devices held between two forward tentacles. Energy shot from the nub of the “bars,” the newcomers being totally uncaring whether they hit their own or us.

That was enough. Tyne was down with her alien, and Sitzter and two others soon after. I decided there was nothing I could do and swooped up and away, toward the cloud bank overhead. Suddenly I heard Ching scream, “Tari! Watch out!” I immediately dropped, rolled, and sped off in another direction, but not before I saw Ching take the beam that had been meant for me and drop like the others to the sea floor. Then I suddenly made a complete upturn as a handy current came by and shot like a rocket up into the clouds.

I remained there for some time, trying to decide what to do next. Certainly the game had been over ever since Tyne had grabbed that one alien soldier, and they suddenly brought up their reinforcements with their equivalent of hand weapons. The indiscriminate way the gunners had used their weapons could indicate a callous disregard for individual lives, but somehow I didn’t think so. The beam seemed very wide field, and if it were a death weapon it would be better suited to large battles or simply to clean away all comers across the ice from fixed positions. No, it was almost certainly a stun weapon, which meant they were even now cleaning up on the ice below, checking unconscious bodies, both theirs and ours, for signs of life.

That they were killers was clear from their earlier actions, but I didn’t believe they were indiscriminate killers. Otherwise why give the prey what could only be seen as a sporting chance, provided that prey didn’t threaten the lives of one or more of them?

I knew I had to have one more look, perhaps several more, and I came out of the clouds cautiously, ever on the alert to duck back into them. A dozen or so aliens were on the ice below, as I expected, setting bodies out in a row and examining them. Three alien bodies were visible, along with our own people, who were, I noted, rapidly reverting to their human forms. They didn’t see me, and I didn’t drop down too close, getting back up into the cloud cover again and circling around.