This place is safe, so Hotel Security a.s.sures me. Now. What"s all this about?"
He took a deep breath. This was going to be tough going.
"You must recall the Earth shuttle immediately."
"Oh. Must I?" The thick eyebrows rose. "Tell me why."
"I have information that it is in danger."
"Information?"
"A blip from the president of Earth to Lady Disdain." He would have to commit himself if he was to get any action. "I read it." He could still hardly believe it. "They"re going to ma.s.sacre the Secundans!"
The man"s face was impa.s.sive. "You"ve been reading con- fidential blips illegally. You"re the one who"ll be reported to Security. You could be thrown out of your guild, you under- stand? Don"t you have any professional pride?"
"That"s hardly the point!" Was the man stalling, or was he on the level? "Don"t you know what was in that blip?"
"n.o.body knows except my lady herself," he snapped. "If there was a blip, which I doubt. She"s a blipreader; you must know that. All the top people have to be, for the sake of con- fidentiality. Blips between heads of state are composed and read by heads of state alone. They may be confidential, but they do not contain ma.s.sacre plots."
Obviously Lady Disdain wouldn"t have leaked the contents of the blip to her entourage, or anyone else, for that matter.
"Listen." He tried to convey in words the terrible images of destruction contained in the bliprider"s message. Sensing the other"s skepticism, he added, "You wouldn"t want me to tell Security what the blip said, would you?"
82 Michael Coney But the man was treating the whole thing as Imry"s juvenile fantasy. "A conspiracy? Certainly it would dispose of the Secundan problem neatly, but why not simply Revise them on Earth, according to the original plan?" He sat down. relaxing, smiling up at Imry.
"Because Lady Disdain must get to Earth for the mindmeld before the president dies. And the next shuttle doesn"t leave for weeks!"
"Killing the Secundans wouldn"t get my lady to Earth any more quickly."
"It wouldn"t matter. Once all the Secundans are dead, the Froans will grant us longevity. That"ll give the president a couple more years, no matter how sick she is!"
The Cartaginian laughed shortly. "We could kiss good-bye to longevity if we murdered the Secundans to suit our own ends. The Froans would wash their hands of us forever.
Surely even you can see that!"
"It would look like an accident. An equipment malfunction; the shuttle pulled into the sun."
The Cartaginian stood. "All right, that"s enough. I just hope n.o.body else has heard this stuff. You could do a lot of dam- age, spreading these kinds of rumors. We"re going through a very sensitive period in our relations with the Froans. We don"t need some kid blipreader fouling things up."
"At least get hold of Lady Disdain right now so she can ex- plain the blip!"
The Cartaginian said slowly, spelling it out, "My Lady Dis- dain doesn"t have to explain anything to you, or even to me.
She is the ruler of Cartaginia. She is the president"s clone- sister. She is the future president of Earth. And in any event I can"t get hold of her, because she"s on that shuttle herself, bound for Earth."
Imry felt his stomach tum over. "Lady Disdain"s on that shuttle?"
"Of course she is. How else can she get to Earth in time for the mindmeld? Naturally she didn"t relish traveling with the Secundans-who would? But she is devoted to her duties and the human race, so she had little choice. There was no room for myself and the entourage at such short notice, but I can"t say I"m sorry about that."
Imry struggled to come to terms with this. Lady Disdain on THE SMALL PENANCE OF LADY DISDAIN.
83.
the shuttle herself? It seemed he"d made a complete fool of himself. He"d been so sure. "But ... does the president know Lady Disdain"s on the shuttle?"
"My Lady sent a blip informing her, before she left. So I"d say everybody"s quite safe from your hypothetical accident."
Imry left as soon as he could, face burning. G.o.d, what a fool he"d made of himself! There was only one good thing come out of this disaster. Megan was safe.
Irrationally, he found himself hating Lady Disdain more than before. It was almost as though she"d duped him in some way.
It was only when he got back to the bliprider"s quarters that the thought occurred to him: maybe he had been duped. He only had the Cartaginian"s word that Lady Disdain was on that shuttle.
But when he checked with Dispatch, her name was on the pa.s.senger list. That settled it. Now the only thing to do was to forget the whole embarra.s.sing episode. He"d screwed up.
but n.o.body knew except that Cartaginian. In some way he"d completely misread the blip. Or maybe it had been some weird blipreader"s hoax.
And now Lady Disdain"s eyes were open again, watching him. Had she read his mind? No, but she"d experienced a life- time of enemies, which made her hypersensitive to hostility.
Her lips moved.
"You can"t imagine the relief now that Lady Fortune and I have melded. I"ve shared a mindful of ancient skeletons and eased the burden. And now I can think and say whatever I like, without the fear of pa.s.sing on my thoughts and conver- sations for a.n.a.lysis and condemnation. My mind is my own, not posterity"s. I"m free for the first time in my life."
"You must be very relieved to know the future of Earth is in capable hands." It was difficult to imagine that pretty girl bore all the dark secrets of this old crone. Crone? That word hadn"t crossed his mind in two hundred years.
Her gaze became very direct. "I hope it is in capable hands.
As you alone know, there is a flaw in the genes of us clone- sisters. and there is a shame we will carry with us as long as we exist, because the mindmeld ensures we can never forget it Our only consolation is that when you are dead, the flaw 84 Michael Coney will be known only to the clone-sisters. I am forever in your debt for that- But you are well aware of that."
What was she talking about?
He said, playing for time, "We"re all flawed in one way or another."
"But we rulers were bred for perfection. They tell me you still live with Megan Sunrise, and that you have eight chil- dren. It must be very rea.s.suring to blend your genes with those of another person, and know that some of the imperfec- tions will be lost in the process."
"We never think of it that way."
"Megan Sunrise once told me I was a useless old woman.
At the time I resented her remark very much. But when the ... thing happened, and I found myself living with a shipload of Secundans for six months, I began to think. I saw Secundan crones going willingly to their death for the imme- diate good of their race, and I contrasted that with the way my own clone-sister had acted-or would have acted, if I hadn"t forestalled her. And I realized we are the useless ones. We, my clone-sisters and I, the rulers of worlds. We are parasites feeding on the work of humans in the pretense that we are leading them. But neither Earth nor Cartaginia need leading.
They are stable societies that run themselves."
When you"ve had a fixed notion for two hundred years it"s difficult to shake it. Imry turned to the window in case she read the amazement on his face. Lady Disdain"s clone-sister, the president of Earth, had done something terrible, it seemed.
Something so terrible that it meant the genetic structure of the rulers was flawed.
What could be that terrible?
Ordering the ma.s.s murder of ten thousand Secundans could be that terrible!
Had he been right after all, two hundred years ago?
He turned back to face her. "Tell me one thing, my lady."
Suddenly he could bring himself to call her that. "Why did you take the Secundan shuttle to Earth?"
She looked at him exoressionlessly for a long time, but her eventual words showed astonishment "Good heavens, you had it wrong. And still you didn"t betray us ... I took the Secundan shuttle so that my sister could not destroy it, of course. She hated the Secundans-they stood between her and a chance of THE SMALL PENANCE OF LADY DISDAIN.
65.
longevity. She was dying and she was desperate-so desperate that she could not foresee the consequences of her actions. She threw three worlds into confusion by rea.s.signing you people to Secunda, with some stupid notion of atoning for the Secundans she intended to kill. She risked sending a blip to warn me, to make sure I wasn"t killed as well. At least she showed that much sense of duty. preserving the mindmeld. But otherwise ...
"She betrayed everything she"d been created for and lived for, simply out of a primitive fear of death. She was mad, didn"t you know that? My biggest fear was that she was so mad she"d destroy the shuttle anyway, with me on board.
"When I reached Earth we mindmelded, and ever since then I"ve lived with a small cancer of madness in my head- her madness. I killed her immediately after the meld. It was quite easy; I won"t go into the details. Her madness was so fresh in my mind I found I could be primitive, too. It wasn"t murder; she was my clone. It was more like lopping off a dis- eased branch."
Imry said, "I doubted my own reading of the blip. When you took the shuttle, I thought it was simply your quickest way home."
She smiled. "You hated me, didn"t you? I don"t blame you.
A niter has to be seen to be a ruler, and you don"t make friends that way. You hated me, but the reason you didn"t be- tray us was because you had no confidence in your own judg- ment. Well, it"s as good a reason as any."
"Blipreading"s an art more than a science. And I was young. And I was so glad Megan was safe that 1 put the whole thing behind me. And suddenly we were all going to Secunda instead of Cartaginia. That was the clincher. Why didn"t you countermand your sister"s instruction and send us to Cartaginia anyway? It was what we were trained for."
"That was a shameless bribe. And unnecessary, as it turns out."
"Your sister might have gotten away with it," he said won- deringly. "She wasn"t so mad that she wouldn"t have covered her tracks. You knew that. So ... You risked your life for the Secundans, didn"t you?"
"Dreadful people! But there"s a world of difference be- tween locking people up for a week, and ma.s.sacring them.
86 Michae! Coney The voyage was my small penance for my clone-sister"s sins."
"I"m sorry I misjudged you, my lady."
"So I needn"t have told you all this. And I don"t need to bestow an honorable t.i.tle on you."
He laughed. Suddenly she was more like an old friend. An old friend who had once saved Megan"s life. "But I know ev- erything now."
"Who would believe you? That bliprider was the only proof you had, and it"s been dead over two hundred years.
And I thought you"d had it retabolized, and would produce it one day."
Imry gave a theatrical sigh. "So I"ll never be Lord Imry of Secunda?"
He heard a breathless cackle. Lady Disdain was laughing.
"Go and see Lady Fortune about that," she said- "Her mem- ories are identical to mine since the meld. All except the last hour while you and I have been alone. I"m sure you take my meaning."
Imry touched her dry hand and left.
Lady Disdain closed her eyes. It was done. Her life was tidied up, so far as any human life could be tidy, and night was not far away-
RHUUM SERVICE.
Brad Ferguson
"^A arvelous," said Chaylaifa, his breath finally coming IVI back to him. He was on his back, smiling; his tail was comfortably wrapped around his left thigh, out of the way.
The chosha was not smiling at all, but she nodded agree- ment "Excuse me for a moment, Chaylaifa," she said.
"Of course," he said. The sha watched her by the dim light as she left their bed and headed for the bathroom. Nasu still cuts a fine figure, he thought idly, particularly for someone of her years. I chose well, so long ago. She is both good com- pany and a good friend ... and she still provides this old warrior with a stout enough ride, willing as she is to try new things- "Chaylaifa?" came a small, high voice near the foot of the bed.
"Ah," he said. "Slill with us, eh, my dear? Ha! Come a lit- tle closer."
She did. "I thought you"d forgotten all about me."
87.
88 Brad Ferguson "Not possible. Did you doze off?"
"Just for a moment. It has been a long day." The thaka"thott rolled across the sweat-stained sheets of the strongly built bed and snuggled like a youngling into Chaylaifa"s pelt Fehlorah ran a paw through the matted fur on the sha"s chest, her slightly ex- tended claws barely grazing the sensitive skin beneath.
"I am glad the Bloxx was delayed," she breathed.