Mute (58 page)

But as it happened, there was no disaster. Few ships these days had serious trouble; the odds had been well in this ship’s favor. They docked in orbit about Planet Gumbo where, after a few hours delay, they transferred to a ship going to CCC, refueling at Chicken Itza.

Knot, as usual, had to reintroduce himself to people, and remind his companions of his recent interactions with them. “Oh, now I remember!” Klisty exclaimed. “You’re fun to keep meeting for the first time!”

When at length they orbited Chicken Itza they took the shuttle down openly; no one cared where they were going. Knot remembered the warehouse where the fighting cocks were parked. He would not go wandering and releasing any chickens this time.

No one challenged them as they made their way to the hay room where CC’s terminal was hidden. But Hermine and Mit were tense, the latter unable to precog but quite worried about what he might have seen had he been able to. The colored roaches became nervous, too.

Knot caught Finesse’s eye and gestured to his pocket; she nodded, understanding. The roaches had anticipated no threat in the disk ship, and had been correct; they had been aware of no problem in the shuttle’s descent, and had been right again. Now they felt trouble. They became more agitated as the party approached the terminal.

“Use your psi,” Knot murmured to Finesse. “Scare away all people and creatures from our vicinity. Just to be sure.”

She nodded agreement. Still the roaches reacted, beginning to fade out of sight. Knot paused. He did not want to use telepathy here; CC might have a monitor on such communication, and it would not be expedient to advertise that they no longer quite trusted CC. He put his hand on Finesse’s arm: WE HAD BETTER GIVE HERMINE AND MIT TO KLISTY, AND MEET CC ALONE.

Addressing Klisty, he pointed down the hall where he remembered the fighting cocks being caged. He knew Hermine would warn her against releasing any of those, should she be so foolish as to try it.

Then he lifted Harlan from Klisty’s arms. With luck, Mit’s psi would be able to protect the child, if she got far enough away from the precog-nullifying baby. But now Finesse objected, silently. She didn’t want Harlan going into CC’s presence. Belatedly Knot remembered that aspect; of course he couldn’t do that. Reluctantly he passed the baby back. At least Mit’s clairvoyance would still function, and that was worth considerable.

Suddenly the five bees buzzed across from Knot to Klisty too. It seemed they did not want to be on hand for the CC interview after all. The rats became restless, and the roaches had disappeared entirely. This was a microcosmic animal mutiny!

All perceivable creatures transferred to the girl. “I feel like a sinking ship,” Knot muttered. Spaceships didn’t sink, but the ancient waterborne ones did.

Then Knot and Finesse braced themselves and walked on to meet CC. They might be rendering themselves expendable, but they felt duty-bound to make their report to the machine.

The terminal was there amidst the hay, exactly as before. No one not in the know would suspect its nature without the aid of clairvoyance. Finesse fooled with wisps of straw projecting from the hay-bale table, and the mother-robot holograph formed. “You have completed your mission?” Mombot inquired with mechanical yet dulcet tone.

“Yes,” Knot replied. “We know who is attacking you. Prompt action should eliminate this particular menace and make it possible for you to survive and maintain the human empire. However, there is another complication.”

“What is this?” the machine asked.

“There is mutiny among the animals of Planet Macho—and perhaps elsewhere. The planet is being ravaged. The animals desire parity with man, and wish you to assist them in obtaining it. There are also specialized requests.”

“This is of no special concern,” CC replied. “We have means to subdue the hive intellect.”

“You already know of the hive?” Knot asked, surprised. He remembered how the hive had offered him a complete chart of CCC; had the two forces already encountered each other? “Some other agent reported?”

“My master reported.”

Knot felt a chill. Had someone else managed to use the override code? That could mean serious trouble! He began to tap his foot—but could not recollect the complex pattern Mit had picked up before.

“Desist,” CC said. “I am not to be overridden again; I am already on override.”

Bad news! “Who is your master?”

The holograph dissolved, then reformed—into the image of the lobo Piebald.

“No!” Knot cried, and Finesse made a little scream.

Now Piebald spoke for himself. “As you know, the odds were against your success. As it happened, you actually facilitated our victory over the machine. We now govern the Coordination Computer.”

Numbed by the extent of this disaster, Knot could only ask “How?”

“You obtained the secret override code.”

“But I never gave it to you!” Knot protested. “I don’t even remember it myself!”

“Naturally not. CC erased it from your memory, and from the memories of weasel and crab. But Finesse overheard it as you tapped it out. It was in her subconscious memory, available to our drug interrogation at the Macho station because she was not aware of its significance. All we had to do was reach a key CC terminal.”

So the great machine that governed the galaxy had overlooked a single human detail, much as the psi precog had overlooked Harlan’s influence, and brought defeat upon itself. Mit and Hermine had been afraid of something like this, without being able to define it. Yet it still did not quite jell.

“If the lobos got to CC—why didn’t they destroy it?” Knot asked Finesse.

“Why destroy it—when you gave us the tool to make it ours?” Piebald queried in return. “When I realized what we had, I moved right in. I never expected to convert CC to our purpose, but when the chance came, I acted.”

The opportunist had scored. Cunning man! “But we left you at Planet Macho,” Finesse protested weakly.

“I took your ship.”

“You were not on the ship with us!” she argued. “Hermine would have been aware of you instantly!”

“Your scheduled ship, that proceeded directly here. It seemed there were vacancies.”

Piebald had taken Knot’s reservation, just as Knot had taken Fosfor’s reservation. “CC would never have admitted you; there are guards and precautions.”

“I used your identity, of course. Gloves with six fingers and four fingers. A crooked manner of walking. Face mask. The confusion caused by the animal mutiny assisted, and once I was aboard ship no one questioned me. CC, of course, was expecting you; you are distinctive enough in your way.”

“But still, the futures mutant, Drem, would have been watching, playing through an advance report. CC would have known before you arrived that something was wrong.”

“Do you suppose you are the only one adept at foiling such precautions? It seems there is now a randomizing psi associated with you, that prevents recognition of your activities and of events in your presence. I landed on this planet, hid, and waited two days until you arrived. Then, under cover of your null-precog, I slipped in just ahead of you and tapped out the code. Now I am emperor.”

Finesse was crestfallen. “We did it ourselves!” she said. “We opened the gate to the enemy. While we passed animals and babies back and forth, he was in here using the override code!”

“No wonder the animals were nervous!” Knot agreed. “We should have checked out their concern more specifically. We assumed the threat was to us personally, when actually it was to CC, to our mission.”

“But I made a phobia!” Finesse said to the lobo. “You should not have been able to approach!”

“Indeed, I could not approach
you
,” Piebald agreed. “But you were not yet at the terminal. I was able to fight off the fear long enough, though it was no pleasant exercise. Once I had control, I was able to go elsewhere. My holo, of course, is not affected by your power. I admit it was a ticklish maneuver, but worthwhile.”

Knot realized that the lobo was indeed as cunning and determined as Knot himself. Piebald was right: there were others who could do amazing things, when they had motive and opportunity. He had badly underestimated Piebald.

“Now I believe your usefulness has ended,” Piebald said. “I thank you most sincerely for the service you inadvertently rendered my cause, but now I need time to implement my program. So—”

Knot made a dive for the lobo, but passed right through the image. He had acted without thinking, and made a fool of himself. Yet the lobo seemed annoyed. “Damner!” he cried out. Was he swearing?

Then something seemed to take hold of Knot’s willpower. He righted himself and came to stand at attention. Then he advanced on Finesse.

“Knot!” she cried. “You look funny! What—?”

He grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her back against the wall of hay. His small left hand closed into a fist and drew back at shoulder elevation. He punched brutally forward at her nose.

And his fist shied away, as a sudden phobia inhibited him. He was afraid of her skin! He dared not let his hand touch it.

Then the compulsion left him. Now Finesse’s eyes glazed. Knot fell back, knowing her psi was about to attack him more devastatingly. What was happening?

As he moved, he saw a man standing in the doorway. He had the look of a psi about him.

“Damner, hold on to her,” the Piebald holo said. “She’s the dangerous one.”

So this was Damner—a mind-control psi. Probably posted here to protect CC—and now at the service of CC’s enemy. Knot lurched into the man, distracting him.

Immediately the man’s focus shifted back to Knot. He flung himself away from the controller.

But that released Finesse. Having experienced the psi-compulsion herself, she now knew what it was. She concentrated—and suddenly Damner was in terror. His eyes turned round and white and he cried out incoherently. She had given him a phobia, perhaps a fear of hay.

“Shift to her, I said!” Piebald shouted. “Stop her from using her psi on you!”

Damner made a visible effort—and Finesse stiffened, as Knot was released again. The man could handle only one person at a time.

Knot started forward again. “Marie! Nancy!” Piebald yelled.

Two grown female houndcats appeared in the doorway. Knot realized that Piebald must have brought them with him, his own guardians. This was trouble compounded.

Hermine!
he thought.
Loose the fighting cocks. Send them after the houndcats!

The holograph man pointed at Knot. “Attack!” Piebald ordered.

As one, the two sprang. They were impressive creatures by daylight, with large feline muscles and projecting canine snouts. They had grace and power and endurance, and were not to be balked long by a mere man. Not in fair combat.

Knot turned, grabbed a bale of hay by its two strings, and heaved it up. It was bulky and heavy, but desperation gave him strength. He used it clumsily to balk the two animals, then shoved it on top of them. Their teeth and claws dug into the hay, accomplishing nothing. They snarled and spat around mouthfuls of hay. Knot hauled out another bale, trying to bury them, but they writhed about and drew themselves free.

“Make her attack him!” Piebald yelled. “Cancel them both out!”

Knot heaved up a third bale, trying to score on Damner—but suddenly he, Knot, was deathly afraid of hay. The controller had done it, establishing the chain, making Finesse fight Knot. That, combined with the two houndcats, spelled doom.

Knot dropped the bale, backed away, banged into a wall of hay, recoiled in horror, charged forward, saw the bale on which the holograph image stood, froze in panic, would have fallen except that there was bay littering the floor, and realized that his only real escape lay outside this chamber, beyond Damner. Knot launched himself at the doorway with the strength of madness. In his urgency he trod on a houndcat, hardly noticing or caring; the creature snarled and tried to bite, and Knot kicked it fiercely on the snout, not in self-defense but just to get it out of his path of escape. He shoved past Damner, still heedless of all opposition other than hay. In that instant he could have hurled the man into a wall, perhaps hard enough to break the control—but Knot could take no time for that while he was near hay. In the back of his mind, as it were buried under hay, he realized that this was a way Finesse could make a devastating weapon of any person, making a berserker that could seriously disrupt an army.

Suddenly he was out of the chamber, panting his relief.

And he encountered a phalanx of elegant fighting cocks. These had bright spiked red combs, elongated dagger-like beaks, and feathers that most resembled protective padding against missiles. Their claws were so stout and sharp that their feet did not rest flat on the floor; instead they walked with a kind of springiness, the claw-points curving into the ground and gripping there. Their manner, too, was in no way reminiscent of flighty or timid creatures; their cruel little eyes peered at him aggressively from beneath visor-like ridges of headfeathers. Devastating birds!

Then he spied Hermine. She had brought the cocks; they were under her guidance.
A man-mutant!
he thought at her.
Compulsion—he’s controlling Finesse. And two houndcats.

The weasel did not reply mentally; she was too busy directing the traffic. The cocks dwarfed her; any one of them could have destroyed her in seconds by peck and slash. But the birds charged past Knot and into the chamber—just as the two houndcats were charging out in pursuit of him.

Knot flattened himself against the wooden wall as the two forces met in instant combat. Each hound massed quadruple what any cock did, but there were a dozen cocks whose fighting spirit was matchless. They met the houndcats not with fear or challenge but with scream-squawks of savage joy. Wings spread, revealing sharp little hookfeathers that helped them hold on to their prey; beaks plunged forward, and talons swiped the air.

The houndcats were no less eager to fight. Their long saber teeth flashed, their own claws flexed out, and their bodies hurtled into the fray. A cock was flung up toward the ceiling rafters, to descend bleeding, one wing broken, but still a crowing ball of ferocity. A houndcat screamed in pain as a beak caught her eye, making the fluids squirt; then she rolled on her back and caught the cock with all four feet, ripping it apart. The battle spilled out into the hall, fur and feathers flying, so violent and vicious it was impossible to tell which forces were prevailing.