STAR HOUNDS -- OMNIBUS (37 page)

M
eshed with the computer, she dreamed.

Languages assembled, disassembled, paraded through her mind in bare binary bits. Machines, forever and ever, machines and more machines stretched out, staircasing planets to their stars, bridging stars, spanning galaxies.

Click, clack, click.

Zero, one, zero.

And she seemed stretched out on that crucifix of metal and glass now, stretched out, dying for the universe, but detached and with no pain.

Events rippled across this matrix of universal activity in waves and eddies, and she suddenly understood everything … but did not understand her understanding.

Cal was suddenly speaking to her. Very close.

“Hey, Laura,” he said. “I’m over here.”

She went to him, held him.

“I’ve looked for you so long, Cal,” she said. “Been through so much.”

“We’ve been played for fools, Laura,” said Cal, grinning.

“We’ve been chumps. Real pawns.”

“Yes. Yes I know.”

“But the game isn’t over. And if we don’t win, let’s promise that at least we’ll get out alive.”

“Yes, I promise.”

“And we’ll be together in one place, and we won’t have anything else separate us again, ever.”

“No,” said Laura. “We can ride on the
Starbow
. We’ll be safe there, Cal. You’ll see.”

“But we’ve got to get out of the game first, Laura. How do we do that?”

And because she had no answer, he started fading away. “Cal!” she screamed. “Don’t go away! Please don’t go away!”

A very long time began to pass and the stars seemed to slowly shift, like spangles on a cosmic pinwheel.

Oh Be a Fine Girl, Kiss Me Right Now Sweetie, they sang in multipart harmony.

When she awoke, she was on a cybernetic operating table.

“Mish,” she murmured. “Dr. Mish?”

“She’s coming around,” said a voice.

“Obviously, dolt,” said another voice. “Are the bonds secure?”

“Oh yes, we’ve made quite sure of that, Friend Zarpfrin.”

Zarpfrin. The word instantly triggered her adrenaline to pump, searing off the fog. There, standing in front of her, were the rounded features, the rounded body, the hateful sight of Friend Arnal Zarpfrin.

Screaming, she tried to hurl herself at him, but she could not move.

“So predictable,” said Zarpfrin. “So very predictable, Laura Shemzak.”

“I want to kill you,” she shrieked.

“Of course you do,” he responded calmly. “But really, you should control immediate responses like that. Amazing powers of intuition notwithstanding, that sort of stuff does get you in trouble. And you might hurt yourself, besides.”

Her heart was pumping so fast, she thought she would explode. “Where am I?” she demanded. “Why have you got me tied down?”

It was a medium-sized room with a desk, two chairs, and a great deal of white. It looked like a hospital room—the sort of hospital room where Laura had much of her cybernetic work done, only much more spare, much more utilitarian. A full complement of monitoring screens stretched over the walls and ceiling of the room. Near her head lay a surgical workstation with technical readouts glowing within a full array of apparatus: manipulators, retractors, laser scalpels, suction tubes ….

“I think the reason should be fairly clear, considering your reaction to seeing me,” said Zarpfrin, sitting in a nearby chair and crossing his legs. “I get the distinct feeling you’d like to do something very nasty to me, Laura Shemzak.”

“How about tear out your eyeballs and shove them up your—”

“Now now, you should save your voice, Laura. I really can’t possibly understand this temper you’re in. I mean,
you
are the traitor to the cause of Truth and Good, not I!”

“Traitor! You fixed me so that I would shoot my own brother and you expect me to be happy to see you?”

“An expedient, Laura,” returned the man casually. “Computer analysis showed the likelihood of you finding Calspar Shemzak far greater than the probability of you actually rescuing him from the aliens. And we could not risk having our enemy keep him. We do regret losing him, but—”

“Well, of course, you wouldn’t know! It didn’t work, Zarpfrin!” she said tersely, almost victoriously.

Zarpfrin’s smile was wiped from his face. “What?”

“Oh, your device worked all right. I plugged my brother good … but it wasn’t really Cal. It was a clone of some kind. The Jaxdron still have Cal, you see. We’re still looking for him. Don’t think, though, that that doesn’t make me hate you any the less!”

“Tricked somehow … ,” Zarpfrin murmured. “Very clever, but how could they anticipate—”

“The Jaxdron have spies all over the Federation!” said Laura. “And apparently they’ve used Pax Industries as a base! They could be here right now—watching us!”

Zarpfrin did not seem overly concerned, which puzzled Laura. “How curious,” he was saying. “Well. Laura. I should think that they’ve used him as much as they can by now. Too late for preventing any kind of knowledge transference. No reason to kill him anymore. How would you like to get him back?”

“What the hell do you think I’ve been trying to do all this time?”

“No, I mean really get him back. That last time you were simply an emissary of convenience.”

“You’re expecting me to trust you again, Zarpfrin, after what you’ve put me through?” Laura spat disdainfully.

“What makes you think you have a choice, Laura?”

“You mean if I don’t, you’re going to toss me into prison here? You seem not to take into account the fact that maybe I’ve got new loyalties now. And you can bet your ass I don’t want to work for you Feddies anymore, despite my heavy conditioning.”

“You’ve been asleep awhile, Laura,” said Zarpfrin. “We’ve had time to—”

He was interrupted by a frantic buzz on a desk communicator. “Yes?” he answered.

“Friend Zarpfrin,” a breathless voice said. “Friend Lasster has released the prisoner. They’ve escaped to the Eagle, blasting several of our ships!”

Zarpfrin went white. “What?” he screamed.

“Interceptors have been alerted but they were on the other side of the planet. There’s no way to pursue them, or to determine where they’ve gone.”

Zarpfrin stood and he held onto the edge of the desk. His knuckles whitened. After a pause and a long deep breath, he said, “That bastard has done me again!”

So they’d caught Northern too! Laura thought. At first she was alarmed, then she laughed. “The best laid plans of lice and men,” she said.

He spun on her furiously. “You forget, we still have you!”

“I don’t know what good that’s going to do!” she flung back. “They’re sure as hell not going to try and get me back, so you can just kiss their tails goodbye!”

Zarpfrin raised his hand to strike her, but then regained control of himself. “No. I want you conscious. And now, there’s no time to waste.” He turned to an orderly. “Get that doctor back in here quickly.”

“Doctor? Don’t feel good Zarpfrin?”

“I’m sorry, Laura. Actually it’s for you—and you may not realize it, but we’ve already started working on the implant. One of the nice things about cyborg integration is that, although it takes years to get a good blippie like you together, once you do, modifications are a snap.”

She tensed. “I’ll kill myself first before you stick something in like last time!”

“Unlikely,” said Zarpfrin. “You are too well-designed a being, Laura Shemzak, to kill yourself. No. This time you’re going to want to do what we request.”

A long-haired, stoop-shouldered man stepped into the room.

“Are you ready for the mod?” Zarpfrin asked, “We must speed this up.”

The doctor was carrying a technical components case. He placed it on the desk and opened it. “Very well.” He did not meet Laura’s gaze.

“Laura, you have been fitted with quite a sophisticated device,” said Zarpfrin. “Consider yourself privileged … this is the first time we have used it in the field. It is designed to work seamlessly with the rest of your implants … only, of course, we don’t want you to know exactly where it is. You’ll see why very soon.”

The doctor stepped over beside the blip-ship pilot and brusquely exposed her well-muscled abdomen. He began to palpate an area in a manner Laura recognized.

Damn! He was going for her drug dispenser!

“As you are aware, the chemical substance known as Zernin was developed to heighten the senses and efficiencies of our blip-ship pilots and counter the negative effects of their implants. No doubt you have experienced unpleasant effects of running low on the stuff, eh, Laura?”

She could feel herself beginning to sweat at the very thought.

“Right now, the good doctor here is going to introduce a chemical into your supply that will not merely negate the effects of the Zernin, but will accentuate the unpleasant feelings of being partially a machine. This will last for only a very short time, Laura Shemzak. Please report to us the effects.”

The doctor, smelling of bay rum and perspiration, had the cavity open. He tapped a small amount of yellow stuff into the receptacle. Then he stepped back and examined his timepiece.

The effect was almost immediate.

A sharp-edged chill spread out from the center of her … out and out in ragged waves of snapping teeth and slashing claws. Laura shuddered and her breathing began to grow sporadic ….

Then the pain began in earnest.

It was like nothing she had ever before experienced. She felt as though every fiber of her being were slowly and methodically being shredded. She tried to scream but found herself incapable. She could not move, though she felt movement roiling within her.

Every atom in her body seemed to cry out for her drug.

Suddenly, a rush of calm flowed through her and she regained consciousness again. Though she felt perspiration cooling on her face, and felt the aftereffects of the knots of agony wind through her muscles, her main emotion was a sense of peace, of tranquillity.

The doctor was nearby, his face expressionless. Friend Arnal Zarpfrin tapped his chin thoughtfully, eyes glancing at a graph filled with multicolored waveforms of her vital signs. His expression was one of immense satisfaction.

“Excellent, Doctor. Just as predicted.”

“The new implant is functioning properly then?” the doctor asked in a monotone.

“That’s right.”

“May I go now?” A bit of distaste crept into his voice. He did not look at Laura, acting as though she did not exist.

“Please do, Doctor. I can handle the rest.”

The doctor departed quickly, as though he wanted to get as far away from this nasty business as possible.

Zarpfrin scooted his chair back, rose, and walked over to examine the patient. “No need to talk now, Laura. Just listen. This is very simple. We are going to escort you to your blip-ship, under your guidance of course. You will use it to rejoin your comrades in the
Starbow
. You will continue with your quest for your captured brother, and all the best to you in your rescue efforts.

“However, you will not mention our little session here. Instead, Laura Shemzak, consider yourself newly rejoined in Federation Intelligence.”

“What?” she muttered weakly.

“Yes. You are our spy in the
Starbow
. Our operative. As often as you are able, you will report the
Starbow
’s activities, in whatever manner possible. Naturally, we will wish to follow you to the Jaxdron planet, to assist you if at all possible. In return, should you be able to free your brother Cal, we shall allow you both to retire to a faraway planet under our supervision, of course. That is, if we also have the
Starbow
, its captain, and its crew under Federation power. You shall work toward this end … but your first priority will be the rescue of your brother.

“Now, I know your rebellious ways. Forget them right now. You have just had a small taste of what will happen should you betray us again, Laura Shemzak. In your cyborg systems, we have added a device which will neutralize the effects of the drug you have become addicted to … the drug Zernin, which allows you to be an efficient blip-ship pilot. This device also monitors every word you speak or write or communicate in any fashion. Certain phrases or thoughts will trigger the release of this neutralizing drug—and you know its effects. Not only that, but you could well die from too much of the stuff. And then who will rescue your beloved Calspar?”

Laura nodded. She felt as though she were crushed. Without Zernin she didn’t even know who she was. She knew that now, and she knew that Zarpfrin had merely tugged on this leash he had connected to her all the time: the drug.

“Yes, I can see that you do understand. And you know now how we have kept our cyborg agents faithful, Laura. You will be provided with more Zernin, by the way. Enough to last you for a small while. But please remember who your supplier is who your supplier will always be: the Federation.” His eyes grew fiery, his voice emphatic. “And never, ever think that you can betray us again.”

Perhaps she could take the blip-ship and hurl herself into a sun, she thought wildly. But she knew she dare not. How closely did the device monitor her words and actions, after all? It might prevent her, and besides, she wanted to live. Even more than to Zernin, she was addicted to life.