"TGW ship of Captain Farz! This is Starwolf. I am First Mate Najendra, of Lewuvul, and at present I am 109.
the only ranking officer on this ship." Or even crew-member, she thought, unless we count a tied-up Skive, prisoner of five women! "Captain Farz? You have spoken only with a s.p.a.cefarer First-a DSer. Respond, please."
No reply came, and time stretched. She noticed how pale her hand was, and realized that the dye was about gone. Her skin was almost back to its natural tanned pink and her hair must be approaching its light ash-blond. She heard another minute snick off the console chronometer and looked at it for no reason at all. She shifted her glance back to the outship commlink, and glowered at it.
Just as she was about to try again, the comm came alive.
"This is TGW ship four six-six Tee, under command of R.O. Farz, Captain. I am Engineer Sakyo. My captain is at your secondary airlock, with a Security aide. What is the problem, Starwolf? Is Captain Farz being met?"
"Only if I run," Janja said, and slapped off the commlink. She ran.
She nearly ran into an apparition she a.s.sumed was Intaglio. The woman had been poured and shrunk into a body-hugging suit of pure white that gleamed like satin, and a waist that Janja thought must be about as big around as her thigh proved that this living male dream phantasy was corseted just as the girls were.
"I"m Najendra, Mate of Lewuvul," Janja snapped in pa.s.sing. "We"re being boarded-Starwolf is! Hurry to the cabin where the women are being held!"
She ran on without waiting for reply or to see how Intaglio reacted. Well, Janja thought, soon Intaglio would be free-and then what would Manjanungo"s weirdest slave do? Starwolf was large and the auxiliary airlock 110.
far. Janja easily called up the ship"s layout in her mind, and easily raced in the right direction.
Right around this bend, she thought, and dead ahead. Then all I have to do is identify myself and gain Farz"s aid, and we"ve done it. Dead ahead . . .
She whirled around the corner into the short side-tunnel and was face to face with the handsome, s.p.a.ce-suited man entering the ship from airlock. For some reason he had removed the helmet of his miss or s.p.a.cesuit, and she recognized him. He and she stood as if frozen, each with leveled stopper. Whether Captain Farz existed was not important; Starwolfs boarder was not with TransGalactic Watch, although he was a ship"s captain. He was captain of s.p.a.cer Coronet. A slaver. He was from Qalara and he was the man who had enslaved Janja and whom she had killed, twice. His name was Kislar Jonuta.
"Jonuta!" The single word was propelled from her as if someone had punched her in the small of the back.
After a long moment in which tension closed in like thick fog, the s.p.a.cesuited man holstered his stopper in a slow and very deliberate, obvious manner. Only then did his deep voice come rumbling up.
"Janja. It really is Janja. Put up your stopper, Kenny."
The s.p.a.cesuit just behind him was helmeted. Its suit-mike said, "But-"
"Do it. Janja will not use her stopper on you, unless you force her. Don"t force her, Kenny. You were a friend to her." As he spoke, Jonuta"s gaze never left Janja"s eyes. "Well, Janja. I won"t pretend this isn"t an enormous surprise-you don"t resemble Manjanungo in the least. Going to Poof me again?"
"You-you"re the cool one, slaver!"
"I"m a good actor, Janja, that"s all. And never 111.
cautious enough, hmm? How could I be other than scared wet-pantsed? This time I saw two fabulous yachts just hanging in s.p.a.ce, airlocks linked, and I saw a marvelous opportunity for profit. TGO stole a lot from me, you know, because it or they thought I attacked and blew away a TGW s.p.a.cer-"
"We know now that it was Corundum," Janja heard herself say. She felt strangely chilly, tingly in every nerve and had the ridiculous feeling that this couldn"t be real.
"We. So I thought. At any rate, TGO knows I didn"t do it, but hasn"t contacted me to repay the millions- millions, yes!-it stole from me as punishment for murders Corundum committed. So-"
"Where is Captain Farz?"
"Inside my head, Janja. There is no Captain Farz. As a matter of fact I should have retired that one already. I-"
"Didn"t that idiot Paridon even request visual comm?"
Jonuta nodded. "Of course. He saw a grim, tight-a.s.sed man with thin tight lips; a man in the gray and red of TGW."
"Holoprojection," she murmured, remembering, realizing. She had worn one that first time she killed Jonuta-except that she had "killed" a holoprojection.
"Farz was merely my means of entry. I saw opportunity for big-cred profit plus ridding the s.p.a.ceways of a burden none of us likes, on any side of the law-Manja-nungo. Obviously TGO had the same thought, hmm Mate Najendra?"
"Sakyo! I remember that name, now-so he told you of our conversation through your helmet"s commlink."
"Uh," Jonuta said; the sound served him for "pos" or "yes." "Now I admit that I very much wish that I"d 112.
gone my way and not succ.u.mbed to greed. All in all, I"d rather be on Bleak. . . . You"ve taken both ships? Surely not single-handedly-not even you?"
The suited and helmeted figure behincf him said, "Jone-" .
"Try to be easy, Kenny. Might as well un-helmet. Janja, you"ll remember Kenowa."
"I remember Jonuta," Janja said, noticing that her heartbeat was up and that she"d gone all p.r.i.c.kly, and that for once she was unable to do anything about it. She still had her stopper in hand; he did not. "Oh, I remember Jonuta. The slaver who stole me off Aglaya, who murdered my Promised, my lifemate to be."
"We both know that it was Arel who killed that lad on Aglaya, Janja, and we both know that he paid in kind. You used Corundum"s stopper on him, didn"t you? As to you-pos. I ordered you taken. Just think of what you"ve accomplished, and what I robbed you of. A short life as an ignorant little hut-wife on an early steel-age planet where the sun is invisible-as invisible as the billions of us who travel between all the suns." He gazed steadily at her. "Pos, I stole that from you, Janja. I stole your ignorance, and you became a person. And-you swore vengeance. Took it, too. You killed me, Janja, up there above Aglaya."
Her face tightened; her stopper quivered as her hand began tightening on its grip. Poof him, Poof him, something inside her urged, and another aspect of her self reminded: That"s murder. It isn"t TGO business that he be killed. Do it now and it"s murder. And she heard the sneering voice of Ratran Yao: You"re a moralist, Janja . . .
"Monster!" the female voice screeched from behind her. "Evil murdering monster! I know about you! Turn 113.
now and face death-I know what you"ve done and you"re going to die! I love Manjanungo, you ugly fat-legged little swine! You lied to him, tricked him! What man was ever so magnificent, so lordly, so deserving of obedience and the adoration of a woman?"
Janja stood stiffly, holding her breath, staring straight ahead at Jonuta while her back crawled and she awaited death from behind. More sickness-she was sure the manic screeching came from Intaglio.
"Me," Jonuta said, and sidestepped as he drew his stopper. He leveled and squeezed it in the same motion.
At the new cry from behind her, Janja whirled.
She was looking at the tall, white-clad and strenuously corseted Intaglio, who held Javad"s pulsar beamer in one hand and the power pak in the other. The slave who had loved Manjanungo stood rigid, so rigid that she trembled. Her bulging eyes were fixed and gla.s.sy.
Sunmother hide Your face-Jonuta just saved my life! Janja glanced around at him.
"You-you"ve had your stopper set on One! Only on One!"
He did not look at her, but kept his black-eyed gaze on the woman he held in the Freeze beam of his weapon"s first setting. "I really don"t like killing, Janja. It really isn"t the cautious man"s way of doing things. Oh, I"ve killed. But I don"t care for it unless it"s absolutely necessary. She"s no danger to us now, but she"s alive. We"d be only a little safer from her if I had Poofed her. If you would just keep left, out of my beam, while you approach her, Janja ... we could synchronize actions. I cut the beam long enough for you to get that really nasty plasmer out of her hands while she"s still disconcerted. We could drop her-unconscious, I mean. Kenowa"s carrying an outworld stopper set on Two."
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Too overwhelmed to think, Janja inanely said, "They"re illegal." Jonuta! All he had to do was let her kill me, then stopper her!
"Oh," said the slaver who was wanted throughout the Galaxy and on many of its planets.
Janja was already walking to the immobilized Intaglio. Her back was to the man she had sworn to kill-and had, not knowing about his secret clone (clones?)- without a thought that she was TGO and he was a slaver and stood behind her with his woman and two stoppers.
The thought hit her only after she had reached Intaglio and said, "Ready." Then she realized. Immediately a few thousand ants seemed to go running playfully up her back, which turned to something resembling ice with an itch.
"Now," his deep ba.s.so said.
Janja saw Intaglio sag limply, still standing, and knew the beam was off. In a few seconds Intaglio would presumably recover use of her mind and body. Swiftly Janja plucked the plasma-hurling beamer from the woman, then twisted the power-pak out of her other quivering hand. Janja took a pace past Intaglio, edging behind her. She turned just as the wasp-waisted woman staggered on her tall, tall heels and caught herself with a hand on the wall.
Plasmer and power-pak in her hands, Janja faced Jonuta. He stood where he had been, his stopper leveled. When he looked into the bore of the plasmer she held, he crooked his arm so that his weapon pointed straight up.
"TGO," he said quietly, "is in charge."
They stood exchanging a look for a few seconds that seemed thousands.
In an abrupt movement, Kenowa stepped out and tried to place herself in front of Jonuta; between Jonuta 115.
and the leveled beamer. He swept her easily aside and held her away. Janja was more than surprised by the big woman"s act; she was more than touched. She felt an emotional jolt at knowledge that Kenowa had sought to protect her man by exposing herself.
In the same quiet voice as before, he asked, "What now, Janja?"
Janja tossed the beamer and its power-pak aside. They made a frightful noise in falling, and Intaglio jerked, half-whirled, and started to bend for the device not invented as a weapon. Without emotion, Janja took a half-step and gave her a TGO punch to the back of the neck, wondering once again who or what "Rabbit" had been; the deviser of that blow. Intaglio fell down and lay still, napping.
"I have various helpers," Janja said, "and I have these two ships secured. I don"t seem to want to kill you anymore, Captain Cautious."
"Uh. That"s never what I"ve wanted to do with you, either. But as a TGO agent to a ... an independent businessman, Janja .. . ?"
"I suggest that you return to your ship, break off, and disappear."
Jonuta gazed at her for a time. He nodded.
Then he looked down at the slumped body in its skintight whites, a fantastically s.e.xy bundle on the floor. His face went speculative.
"Jone," Kenowa said, "if you even think about bringing that wasp-waisted s.e.xpot onto Coronet, I"m going to start begging Janja to take you in for trial."
10.
"Good sense" means enlightened self-interest, the ability to learn, and acting on both.
-Kislar Jonuta "At last I"ve found real purpose-something to do with my life. Those poor dear girls of his "hareem" know nothing! Poor s.e.xy youngsters, they"re almost children and forced by my wicked, wicked cousin into a life of bondage and stilt heels, corsets and s.e.xual use ... by one man! Slaves to one man! Lady Vike Victorious, what a slimy grunjok he was!"
This from the Lady Seerava, seated in her yacht"s mate"s chair in snowy, blousy blouse and snug midnight pants. Janja was beside her in the first chair, staring at the con. It was done. She had stopped Manjanungo, rescued Lady S, and several others. She had Manjanun-go"s ship and several prisoners. With the aid of the Jarps, entirely her allies, and of a subdued, reflective Val.u.s.triana See, TransGalactic Order agent Janja now moved both luxury s.p.a.cecraft toward the nearest planet. That happened to be, weirdly, Qalara. Home planet of Jonuta-free once more on the s.p.a.ceways, and presumably not headed for home.
Once he was the only purpose I had in living, Janja 116.
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thought, staring at the con and seeing nothing. Aglii"s Light-what a gray, gray universe it is!
"True purpose, firm!" Seera bubbled on. "I"ll take care of those dear sweet girls he cruelly tore from their families and planets. Poor things! I"ll find a way to put purpose into their lives. I"ll find a way to give them purpose and an honest livelihood. Do you know that they go to pieces just at mention of divesting them of those terrible corsets? Not a muscle left in their tummies, young as they are! They like the stilt heels he made them wear, the monster. They need direction, orders, or they might well stay in one place and starve to death! Fully conditioned, like animals. What a trainer my swine-cousin and that freaky martinet Intaglio were! They- oh. Will she be imprisoned, Janja?"
Janja only glanced at the woman beside her, and returned to her face-forward posture in the captain"s chair. "I can"t say, Lady Seerava. She was conditioned too, of course. His creature enough to love him or think she did, and to try to kill me. My job now is just to take her in, with the others. Others will decide what to do with all of them. Maybe she can be changed, psychologically. I don"t even know whether she belongs in prison or not."
"After she tried to kill you?"
"You were just talking about conditioning, Lady Seerava. Intaglio is Manjanungo"s victim, too."
"You certainly are an unusual woman, Janja. You just can"t be typical of TGO. Certainly not what we all think TGO and its agents are, anyhow. You certainly are unusual."
I"m that, all right. Janja gazed straight ahead. s.p.a.ceship Lewuvul hurtled straight ahead, impalpably and almost soundlessly. Telits and gauges, screen and mini-screens reported constantly, silently. Janja was looking 118.
at them without seeing them, that a.s.sortment of pastel lights designed to attract attention without diverting it, and to be easy on the eyes of s.p.a.cefarers.
"Oh, and call me Seera, won"t you? Think of those poor girls! All for the whimsy of one man-Manjanun-go. My co-my late husband"s cousin." Seerava shook her head. "Awful. Pitiful and piteous."
For a time she fell silent, before she seemed to remember Janja"s presence again as other than a pair of ears. Seerava looked at her. "And what about you, my dear, dear Janja?"
Janja did not glance at her. She continued to stare at the s.p.a.cer"s console as the ship plunged toward Qalara -accompanied by Starwolf with a restored Val.u.s.triana See at the con. Janja hoped she was restored, at least. That ship, Manjanungo"s ship, was the property of TGO. So were its prisoners, and the prisoners in Lewu-vul"s hold. Lewuvul remained the property of the Most n.o.ble Lady Seerava. Janja had the authority, and was happy with Seera"s enthusiastic request to be allowed to care for Manjanungo"s girls. It was just that Lady S"s enthusiasm was so d.a.m.ned noisy.
"I am an agent of TGO, Seera. I already have another a.s.signment."
"Another? I didn"t even know you had communicated . . . Holy Lady Vike protect us! You"ve just been through all this danger and nearly killed-don"t you TGO people get vacations!"
Janja kept her gaze on the console. It didn"t matter. The ship monitored itself and guided and ran itself-or SIPAc.u.m did. And Janja had no need to monitor SIPAc.u.m. It reported to her constantly, quietly, and would do so noisily should any emergency arise or even look imminently possible. Barring the accident that was one chance in a ridiculous number of millions, Lewuvul 119.
and its SIPAc.u.m were perfectly capable of taking themselves to the Galileo star-system and right on in to Qalarastation for docking. It did not matter who sat in the mate"s chair. As a matter of fact no captain was needed. Just now Janja and Seerava were equally extraneous to high technology.
"We have vacations, Lady Seerava. I just don"t need one right now."
She wasn"t sure that she deserved one, either. She had seen no reason to talk of the encounter with Jonuta, and several reasons not to mention it. She had watched him and Kenowa right back out the airlock and along the S-tunnel into s.p.a.cer Coronet. He had departed without incident or further communication. "There is ... there is an awful lot to do."
"Well, I suppose so. It"s a wicked, wicked Galaxy."
"True," Janja said, sounding tired. Staring at the con; staring at nothing. Purpose, Lady Seerava said. And love, Intaglio said. Could she actually love such a man as Manjanungo? Someone to love . . . My purpose is TGO. This time I"ve been face to face with Jonuta, and off he"s gone. As to love . . . a man to love . . . whatever I feel for Rat isn"t that. No, not love.
Before her, lights pulsed in several colors, pale orange and yellow, pink and turquoise, while gauges continuously changed their readings. Numbers winked in ever-changing measurements and recordings. Everything normal. Dull. s.p.a.ce travel could be dull, after so many centuries and so much technology. This flit had become dull. Yet after all the tension and rushing activity, Janja didn"t mind. She was trying to think of a woman named Daura, and a man named Ramesh Jageshwar. Daura"s brother. Another man kept intruding into her thoughts. His name was Ratran Yao. Janja either loved him or hated him, and was not sure which.
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Both, she mused. It"s true hate, too, but not true love. Biology and animal magnetism. That"s what it is, Sun-mother for/end. I hate or rather abhor or despise him, my recruiter and trainer and "lover," but I am s.e.xually drawn to him . . . I love f.u.c.king with him. Admit it, Janjaheriohir. (I am not Janjaheriohir. She is gone forever. I am Janjaglaya Wye, TGO.) Admit it, Jan-jaglaya. He"s a good lay. And to him-you are. What else is there? After all this time, after slavery and burnout, after killing Jonuta and standing talking with him now, months afterward . . . after he who enslaved you has now saved your life and you"ve "let him go"-what else is there?
Love? The word was a sneer in her mind. Love! She"d had that. As Janjaheriohir, a primitive "savage" on "barbarian" Aglaya, she had known love. He was dead and love was dead. Janja was not even sure that she was capable of love, man-woman love, any more.
I am a b.l.o.o.d.y flainin" good TGO agent, though!
"All my life I"ve heard that the purpose of TGO, the real purpose, was to prevent war," Seera said. "We"ve all learned what war is but we"ve never experienced it: nations or even planets testing their weapons while tr.i.m.m.i.n.g their population and establishing the power of the rulers. The old people in government proving their manhood and ego by sending the young out to fight for it. Your a.s.signment was my cousin. Manjanungo, poor sick Manjanungo . . . was he a war threat, Janja?"
Janja looked at her, and Janja"s face fell just short of showing no emotion at all. "We learn that the primary purpose of war was to divert the people"s attention from internal problems and give them something to fear and hate. As to Manjanungo and your question . . . maybe, eventually. He was very, very ambitious. But no, I came after him because he was too arrogant, Seera. He made 121.