STAR HOUNDS -- OMNIBUS (29 page)

Silver indicated a door and Northern followed her. The door was open. The pair strode in as casually as they might if they lived in the place.

The man at the desk stopped writing something and looked up at them. He blinked. His jaw dropped a bit. “Hallo, Jonsty, old friend,” said Northern. “We were just passing town and thought we’d drop in for a visit.”

“Hello, Freemen,” said Silver in a soft, breathy voice.

Tars Northern had never seen his friend at such a loss for words. Freeman sputtered and choked and his eyes grew big and then he finally coughed out “What in God’s name are you—” A terrified look appeared on his face, “Get out! Get out right now!”

Northern stepped forward, surprised. “What’s wrong, Freeman?”

“I get the feeling,” said Silver Zenyo in her normal voice, “that we really should have called first.”

The door squeaked behind them. Freeman Jonst’s eyes flicked to the new arrival.

Northern and Zenyo spun around.

Standing in the doorway was an overweight man, immaculately dressed in high station Federation uniform, his prissy, self-satisfied expression combined with a smile of eager delight.

“Well, well, well,” the man said, lifting a gun. “How constantly surprised I am by the vagaries of chance,” said Overfriend Zarpfrin. “Greetings and well met, Tars Northern. We’ve a few things to discuss, I think.”

L
aura was just about to leave them when the clone twins began to change.

They had just finished a pleasant game of cards featuring high spirits of the Cal kind. Puns and jokes flew, one or the other mimicking famous characters, pure silliness of the sort that the original Cal could be so good at, with a unique intensity borne of playing off himself.

The banter and antics amused Laura so much that for the moment she forgot her impatience with their stop-off in this system. Still, though, she wanted to run a check on her blip-ship. As they had agreed, Northern’s bunch was doing an analysis of the craft, and she wanted to make sure they hadn’t knocked anything out of whack.

She had said her farewells to the pair and was at the open door when one of them, she didn’t know which, called out, “Oh, and Laura, just one more thing!”

Laura spun on a heel, expecting some finale to their escapades. A silly face, a raspberry, a headstand—anything but what confronted her. Cal One and Cal Two stood, their arms joined together in a grotesque mass of shifting, greenish protoplasm.

“What the hell are you doing!” The sentence ended with a shriek.

Their faces had grown rigid, their eyes glassy and vacant, focused on infinity. The bubbling mass of protoplasm spread up to the shoulders and dripped down the chest, translucent enough to show metamorphizing activity. Flesh and bone and electronics were becoming—something else!

“Laura! Laura Shemzak!” they said, their voices blending together into a weird buzz. “Transmission established at optimum moment! Units functioning as programmed. A successful ploy in the minor arcana of stratagem! Field impulsers and limited theta module power dictate immediate action after mobile unit achieves ambulatory wholeness.”

“I’m getting someone to take a look at you guys!” Laura said, more than a bit unnerved at this sight.

Suddenly, their eyes focused upon her. Already their heads were joined. They looked like Siamese twins melting into some ungodly horror. “No, Laura Shemzak. The life of your brother is at risk. Hamper this move and surely he shall suffer pain beyond your imagining!”

“The Jaxdron!” Laura said, feeling paralyzed. “I’m actually talking to—You goddamn bunch of lowlifes! What do you think you’re doing? Let me have my brother back!”

“Ah, then, our readings on you are accurate. A very simple emotional matrix of priorities. How delightfully and outrageously primitive. Oh, the joys of manipulation!” The mouths had grown together by now, the voice had become single. “But stay, Laura Shemzak, for we wish you no harm, and we have word of your brother, whom we hold in captivity.”

“No kidding, jerks! And I’m going to get him back!”

“Please forgive us our lack of variety in the vocabulary of your language, and make your messages simple.”

“I thought that was simple enough! Can you let me talk to Cal?”

“Your brother is being most cooperative and is quite comfortable, Laura Shemzak. He is indeed upon the planet we indicated most melodramatically to the adept one of your crew. Oh, the joys of intimidation! Yes, yes, and you come to save him, but the others … the other humans and non-human have other needs, yes, yes? They care very little for the fate of Cal Shemzak.”

“But he’s safe, you haven’t rotted his mind? Why did you duplicate him, why all this weirdness?”

“Oh, curious creature, we can only know bits and pieces of transtextural reality, and we have time only for small pieces. Oh, the delights of war, the intrigues of strategy! The extratemporal energies involved in this transmission are outrageous and we must be on our way. Now lead on, Laura Shemzak, for our unit is nearing readiness.”

The two bodies had indeed become one oozing mass of protoplasm, still transforming into some as yet undetermined form.

“That’s why you left the clones!” Laura said. “A pair of Trojan horses! But I can’t let you do harm to this ship or any of its crewmembers!”

“Oh, be advised that no harm is intended now and is not the purpose of the unit in formation. We seek only to uncover a secret of the
Starbow …
a secret you might well have use of yourself, Laura Shemzak. Forgive our threats concerning your brother, but truly it is not in his best interests to have the crew apprised of our activities.”

Laura swallowed. “What do you want me to do?”

The newly created organism—only vaguely humanoid, with eyes that seemed to glow with phosphoresce, with skin that still moiled like a fretful puddle surface covering twinkling diodes, twisting wires—stood unsteadily.

“There is a place at the hub of the radiating spokes that extends from the middle of this vessel—a place that is off-limits to all the crew save the captain, and of course the curious creature known as Dr. Michael Mish. You know of this place.”

Laura did. “There’s a lot of places that are off-limits, but they’re not going to want to let a Jaxdron-controlled beastie in there! And I’m not sure I want you there either.”

“The screams of your brother can be transmitted here easily, Laura Shemzak. Cal is easily obtainable and our methods of torture are exquisite.”

“Okay, okay,” said Laura, resigned. How could she notify the crew of what was happening here? She couldn’t do anything. She prayed that Dr. Mish was watching this and had something ready for this thing that the replicates of Cal had become. “But don’t expect me to help you beyond that.”

“Oh, do not worry,” said the thing, its hide thickening and opaque. “There is a reason for you being there as well, Laura Shemzak. Hail, O blessed strategy! Now my form is complete and ready, and the time is optimum.”

Almost as punctuation to the creature’s prophesy, the red alert klaxon sounded from down the hallway.

“They’ve found you out!” Laura said.

“Oh, no, no. Sensors show that the
Starbow
has an entirely different dilemma which shall occupy its attention and its crew’s attention. This is why this moment was chosen. We are quite a bit less than stupid. Now please, time is valuable. We must go.”

Laura had no choice but to obey the thing. But beneath her fear for her brother and for the well-being of this ship, there was a genuine curiosity.

She was going to find something out about the
Starbow’s
secrets!

C
aptain Tars Northern looked from the bore of Overfriend Zarpfrin’s gun to the stunned expression on the face of Freeman Jonst. “So, I see you’ve got rodent problems here on the Vision, President. May I suggest a good exterminator?”

“May I suggest that right now you divest yourself of your weapons, Tars Northern,” Zarpfrin said, “or I shall exercise my exterminating privileges?”

Both Zenyo and Northern eased their pistols from their holsters and dropped them on the ground.

“Northern, you must understand, there was no other choice,” Freeman Jonst said. “I had to call them in to protect us from the Jaxdron.”

“Sounds like the foxes guarding the henhouse, Jonst,” said Northern.

“I didn’t ask you to come here, dammit! I would have warned you away!” Jonst met Silver Zenyo’s glare, then turned his wrinkle-wreathed eyes away.

“I had hoped you might drop in and visit here sometime, Northern, but I had no idea it would be so soon!” Zarpfrin said. “As for your comment, I have assured President Joust that the Federation’s military presence here in this system is solely to protect human interests in the Jaxdron war. Once this terrible threat is contained, we shall go, asking only continued relations, such as trading, to keep our bonds of humanity tight. We have even signed treaties here to assure one another of good faith. However, there is nothing in these treaties to prevent us from dealing out justice to criminals who happen to stop by unannounced. Now, if you’ll excuse me, please remain very still while I call in some help. I’m not so stupid as to think I can handle you alone, Northern. You’re much too slippery.”

He lifted a communicator from his belt and thumbed open a channel. “Yes, Hodgkins, if you would, send about five fully armed security officers to the president’s office by aircar. We’ve a pair of interesting intruders. Oh yes, and punch in full alert on our spacecraft for Wanted Vessel, Specs 4325A …
Starbow.
We’ve got its captain down here, so it must be somewhere up there. I’d be very pleased if we could capture it, but if we can’t, feel free to destroy it. Over.”

He placed the communicator back and smiled warmly. “Now then, Captain, you know it might go better with you if you help us get the
Starbow
. Spare your crew—things like that. So why don’t you simply cooperate?”

Northern shook his head and returned Zarpfrin’s smile.

“You know I couldn’t do that.” He strode nonchalantly toward the liquor cabinet. “You don’t trust me and I don’t trust you. We’ve been wonderful enemies, Zarpfrin, and I don’t know of any good reason why that should not continue just as long as possible.” He poured himself a drink. “Mind if I carry along a couple bottles of this stuff, Freeman? It’s one of my favorites.”

“Get away from there, man!” said Zarpfrin, raising his voice. “Has that stuff rotted your brain? I’ve got a gun on you. I can shoot you on the spot!”

“Oh, maybe, but somehow I very much doubt it, Zarpfrin. Sometime you’ll want me dead—or at the very least, sucked out and erased. But for right now, I would venture to say that you’ve got your gun on stun.”

“A little more power than that. I’d prefer to have you conscious and undamaged, Northern, but if necessary—”

Silver Zenyo was still looking at Freeman Jonst. “I still don’t understand how you could sell out,” she said.

“Two weeks ago,” Jonst said, averting their eyes, “the Jaxdron broke through our defenses and laid waste to a large portion of our capital. The attack was devastating—but more devastating was with what ease they accomplished it … and the implicit promise that a larger force would be back to deal out further decimation. To see all we’ve worked for so long, destroyed by a bunch of faceless aliens …. it was too much. Zarpfrin is right, Silver. Blood will out. When it comes to a clinch, humans must unite.”

“No, no, something is very wrong here,” Silver said, shaking her blond locks emphatically. “Can’t you see it, Freeman? Or have they got control of you, riddled you with their puppet strings until you’re just jerking about at the twitching of their bent fingers?”

“This really is getting to be a bit much,” said Zarpfrin wearily. “I’ve had enough of your traitorous ways, Tars Northern. I am moved by the ultimate loyalty of President Jonst to his people and to humanity. Ideas are fine, but our first duties are to the race, no? And your perverse ways have led you to prey on that race, Tars Northern. Now, if you would—”

Suddenly, Zarpfrin’s gun was blasted from his grasp. The Overfriend yelped and instinctively pulled his hand back, rubbing it as he stared, shocked, at President Freeman Jonst.

“This doesn’t change our deal, Zarpfrin,” Jonst said. “If I wanted that, your head would be all over the wall. I didn’t expect my friends to drop in, though, and while I’m a damned faithful leader, I’m also a faithful friend.” Keeping his gun trained on the nonplussed Zarpfrin, he turned to Zenyo and Northern. “Now would you two get your asses out of here before that security detachment arrives?”

Tars Northern saluted. “I knew you wouldn’t let us down, Freeman. Just so this trip isn’t entirely wasted … ” He grabbed a full bottle of rare Cognac from the top of the table. “And watch out for this snake here.” They both scooped up their guns. Northern grinned at his adversary. “I should take this opportunity to do what I should have done a long time ago, Zarpfrin. But in honor of my friend Jonst here, I won’t.”

“I’ll make you wish you had, Tars Northern,” Zarpfrin said. “I promise you that.”

“We’ll be back sometime to liberate Kendrick’s Vision, Jonst,” said Northern. “Meantime, enjoy your enslavement.” He indicated to Silver Zenyo that this time the window was appropriate.

“Well see about that!” Freeman Jonst called after them. Zarpfrin made a move, but the president of Kendrick’s Vision quickly realigned the sights of his gun and said, “I wouldn’t do that, Overfriend. Until they get clear of here, consider our agreement suspended. I must say, if you happen to get shot, I’m sure that the Federation has someone to replace you, so don’t tempt me.”

“They won’t get away!” Zarpfrin cried. “They can’t. I’ve alerted all my forces here. Why throw in with them, Jonst, when they are the losers?”

“A temporary aberration, let’s say. But for right now, just stay where you are and we shall have a negotiating session. There are some aspects of our deal which I realize now don’t quite suit me.”

Zarpfrin fumed.