Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) (29 page)

Gaius thought for a moment, then looked up and said, "You are correct on one point. If I am to have a position in Ulsian society, only my military background looks like being of any use to Ulse. However, I'd still have to convince myself I could do the job properly."

"We understand."

"So, provisionally, yes, maybe."

"Excellent," the Queen said, "but don't expect anything to happen quickly. Those up top have a habit of not taking a lot of notice of us down here. Wayward children they are, always trying to ignore parental instructions."

"But they do what they're told eventually," another said firmly.

"Of course," another Queen added, "we down here don't take much notice of them either."

"We rejected all their nominations to command our defence and chose you," another added.

"You trusted your futures to a primitive alien?" Gaius asked in disbelief.

"We did indeed. Mind you, we had some reasons that we aren't going to tell you."

"And our faith was justified," the first Queen added. "Now, we have things to do. You should return to the surface, and please be patient."

"Yes, indeed," a deeper voice added, and yet a different head appeared, smaller, and far more powerful looking. An arm was waved, and the end seemed more like pincers than fingers. "In the end, there are reasons why they cannot ignore us. Let me make a prophecy. Your career is really only beginning."

Chapter 23

The three Terrans were lead by an Ulsian called Kuldek into a small clinic, and instructed to lie down on the beds provided. There was a strange feeling of apprehension as well as elation. As they had been told many times, they were to be given access to equipment which would give them power far exceeding any God from their culture.

"Not necessarily," Gaius smiled.

"Unfortunately," Kuldek said, "we have no choice. Our orders are −"

"I meant the bit about the God," Gaius continued.

"Oh, we know about your religions," Kuldek said in a superior tone. "We have access to all of Timothy's knowledge."

It suddenly occurred to Gaius that Timothy had not known Rebecca, and he had never discussed the Christ. "So with your device, you can die, then resurrect yourself?" Gaius asked.

"What?" Kuldek asked in surprise.

"Can you?" Gaius pressed.

"No," Kuldek said with shake of his head, as if questioning the sanity of his charges. "Death is irreversible, at least as far as the body is concerned."

"One of the religions from my planet claims that is not necessarily so," Gaius explained, "although I should add only the prophet himself claimed to have resurrected his body. In general it is supposed to be spiritual."

"And your point?" the Ulsian asked.

"Even your technology will have limits," Gaius remarked. "It's just a tool to make life easier, not to turn the body into some sort of God. It . . ." He noticed the Ulsian staring at him, his mouth partly open. "What's wrong? You don't believe me?"

"No, no . . . I mean," Kuldek stuttered a bit, "nothing's wrong. I'm just surprised."

"At what?"

"My first task was to convince you of just that," Kuldek replied. "I'm just surprised at how easy that part was."

"We have discussed this," Vipsania said. "We're only too well aware that most of the things we can do with these new devices, we mustn't."

"Good," Kuldek said, with an air of self-satisfaction. "Then we should move on, to stage two, so to speak. I have these headpieces . . ."

Gaius stared at the rather large monstrosities, and said, "I thought we were going to get a small internal device, and we would look more or less unchanged after insertion?"

"You will," Kuldek said, "but because you are a new species we still have to design the items, and before we can do that, we have to learn as much as we can about how exactly your brain works. So, to do that, you will have to wear these. What will happen is this. When you're fitted, we shall get you to do a number of things and experience as many emotions as we can arrange. Some of these, I should add, will be quite unpleasant. You have to feel pain, you have to feel real fear. For the first few tests, let yourselves go. Get as angry as you can, feel as frightened as you can. Whatever else you do, do not try to control yourselves, because that only defeats the purpose. Oh, and don't worry about our judging you. It is accepted that you may behave quite badly just to get through this.

"Then, after that, assuming you survive, and I should warn you that that is not guaranteed, since you won't know fear if you think you can't die, you will have to learn self-control, which means a repeat of what you go through to begin with. It is only after you have learned self-control that we can progress to the next stage. Now I'm sorry for all this. Ulsians can progress directly to stage three, but you can't. It's nothing to do with you personally, and everything to do with the fact that you're a new species for us. We have to learn as much as we can about the way your brain works, because if we make a mistake in the design of what we shall insert in your head, irreversibly, I should add, you could be driven mad, you might even have to be killed. If any of you wish to pull out, say so now. Otherwise, you shall progress, and, I should point out, separately. Each of you will have to face your own individual hell, as well as a heaven, alone. We need as much data as we can get, so we can't afford any collaboration."

They agreed to continue. They already knew about the problem, and they had discussed it thoroughly. They all knew there were risks, but they had all agreed that they could not spend the rest of their lives in that apartment, essentially doing nothing, and stay sane.

"Then I am afraid the next part won't please you either," Kuldek said. "I'm afraid there's no option, but you all have to have your hair removed." He watched their surprised faces, then added, "This headpiece has to make as good contact with the skin as possible, and it will push some microwires into your head. We can't do it unless you remove your hair. We will put something on your head so the hair doesn't regrow while the headpieces are on."

"Does that mean we can't take this thing off?" Lucilla frowned.

"Not until we remove it," Kuldek said. "It will be fixed to your skull, and will go through the bone. Oh, when we do take it off, at that point your skull will be repaired, your head will be slightly larger, and your hair will start regrowing again, I promise."

"Do it," Gaius said, and moved forward. A droid came forward and massaged a strange cream onto his head, and he shuddered as the hair was effectively rubbed away. With a complete lack of enthusiasm, the two women allowed their hair to be removed. Then they each sat still while the device was placed on their heads, and they gritted their teeth as metal bored into their heads.

"Now say goodbye to each other, at least for the time being, and each go through the door marked with your name."

To their surprise, they looked across at what had been a blank wall, and saw three named doors. Gaius kissed Vipsania, then wished both Vipsania and Lucilla luck, then walked towards his door. Just as he reached it, he felt a tug on his arm, and he turned to see Kuldek holding a hand up to his mouth.

"Just wait a minute," he said.

Gaius shrugged, and watched the women go through their doors.

"Gaius," Kuldek said at last, "You are going to a special testing centre. When you get there, it is absolutely imperative that you give everything you can to the tests, and when asked questions, make sure you answer with absolute accuracy. You're in a slightly different position to your women."

"How so?" Gaius frowned.

"Because there's only one of you," Kuldek explained. "We have two women, and we can average out discrepancies, or at least we can check for inconsistencies, but for men, you are our only source of data, so we have no idea how to screen for emotions you're trying to hide, through pride, ego, or whatever. Your duty is to see we get the fewest as possible."

"I understand," Gaius nodded.

"Good! Well. On the other side of that door's a capsule waiting to take you to the testing centre. There's a team of Ulsian specialists there who've been assembled, at some cost, I should add, because they're supposed to be devoted to the war effort. So, be on your way, and do your best to follow their instructions as closely as you can. Good luck."

Gaius nodded. Marvellous! The whole exercise was set up with the built-in excuse for the Ulsians that he had not contributed properly. Still, there was nothing for it but to keep going. He walked through the door. There, before him, was a capsule, lid open, so he got in, and closed the lid. A light flashed, inviting him to commence when he was ready. He took a breath, then he pressed the "Start" button.

Nothing happened. He pressed the start button again, more firmly this time. Again, nothing happened. What had he done wrong? He looked at the instructions, and they were quite clear: destination pre-selected; when ready, press Start. He was now becoming more than a little concerned as he pressed for the third time. Once again, nothing happened. For some reason, this wretched capsule was not working. There was nothing for it but to go back and complain or explain. He released the catch for the lid, and pressed.

It would not open. He released the catch again, and tried again. Nothing! What a disaster! He was not even going to be able to get started on his tests, because he was stuck in this . . .

He looked around. Nothing. He looked over the back of the seat, and saw a small piece of . . . what? It did not matter. It was wedged into the floor behind the seat, and it almost looked as if it were there to stop the seat sliding backwards, although when he pulled it out and pushed, the seat seemed firm enough.

He pushed down the release catch, then wedged in the object. The catch was held down. Now, with both hands free, he pushed with all his might against the lid. It refused to move. He yelled at the top of his voice. Nobody came. He pushed and pushed, and yelled again. Nothing happened. He slumped back in despair. The air was starting to get thick. If he did not find a lever soon, he would die for lack of air!

He started pressing buttons. Suddenly the capsule shot forward, he was flung back into his seat by the acceleration, and from nowhere a safety harness wrapped around him. He tried to reach the controls, but somehow the seat had slid backwards. There, ahead was the entrance to the tube in a small bank upon which stood a huge building. Faster and faster the capsule went, then suddenly it leaped off the line, heading straight at the bank, and at the same time, the lid finally opened.

They were flying towards the edge of the building at such a speed. He was going to die! Right there, in an out of control transport capsule! Then suddenly they hit something, the capsule veered, and there was a tremendous bang as the corner of the building tore off the lid. The capsule was now spinning through the air at a rate that Gaius knew would make him sick on some trajectory that . . .

There was another bang, and Gaius felt water across his face. He opened his eyes to see them bouncing across some sort of lake. The capsule almost made it to the other side, but not quite. It then began sinking.

It was then that Gaius suddenly realized he had no idea how to release the emergency harness, particularly since the seat was not in its correct position. It was designed to automatically hold the occupant into the seat for protection when the capsule lost control, and the instructions for how to deal with this, and other disasters, were apparently written on the inside of the capsule lid. Now the capsule was gradually sinking, and the lid was somewhere back there.

He yelled for help at the top of his voice. And again. And again. Nothing.

Water was now surging into the capsule. He pulled with everything he had. Nothing moved, except the water was now up to his neck. He yelled again. The water was now up to his chin. Somehow he had avoided dying in a collision with the building, only to drown here! He yelled once more. Then he felt a slight bump.

The capsule had grounded, the water just below the level of his lips if he stretched upwards. It was then he noticed how cold the water was. Charming! Instead of drowning, he would freeze to death.

It was then that he discovered that the harness was not holding him quite so tightly, and somehow he could feel metal through the seat. Yes, for some reason, the padding in the seat was shrinking. In principle he could wriggle free.

He began wriggling. It was no use. The harness was looser, but he could never get the rest of his body through the shoulder harness. He was trapped.

No! Perhaps not. If he couldn't get his body through the top of the harness, perhaps he could get his head through the other way. He took a deep breath, then slid down into the water. He found he could hold the harness up, and he could get his head through and . . . Not quite! He was stuck. His lungs felt as if they were bursting. He had to go back up.

He just managed to wriggle up again, and get his head above the water line. Deep breathing; that was what was required. The attempt had been so close, but so far from success. But there was no choice. He had to try again, this time wriggling his body down as far as he could, so he could get his head deeper.

He breathed deeply once . . . twice . . . and on the third he slipped down. He wriggled his hips down, pulling on the seat, cancelling all his previous efforts, then he pushed up on the harness and desperately tried to get his head through. Almost . . . almost . . . the harness was pushing against the wretched headpiece. If he got that off . . . but no, he could not. Pulling wires out of his brain did not seem like a good idea. He pushed again, his lungs almost bursting, his mind becoming almost giddy, then . . . somehow the harness slipped over the top of the headpiece. He wriggled and wriggled and forced himself up.

The air was so good! So sweet! Now, by not being held back into the seat, he could get his shoulders above the water line. Then he screamed. The capsule jolted, and began sinking further.