03. Masters of Flux and Anchor (47 page)

"Now it sounds like a Fluxlord," Sondra noted.

"That's pretty much what the computers think it's offering," Suzl told them. "If we surrender, it'll give us all Flux power. If we fight, it'll destroy us. And if we're mixed, it'll create Fluxlords out of the ones who go along and Fluxlings out of the rest. Of course, the computers supporting them will be Samish computers, so it'd be hierarchical. However, the computers believe that three in the last year is beyond the bounds of probability. It be¬lieves the odds are even that either the Samish year is very, very long, or else they still believe it's twenty-six hundred and eighty-two years ago. The computer is inclined for a number of reasons to the latter belief."

Matson laughed and clapped his hands. "Sure—now it all makes sense! Nobody, but nobody, waits that long just to invade. No culture, no civilization, is that static, not an expanding, militaristic one with a missionary complex. And even if they did, they wouldn't show up just five minutes after the Gates were opened. They'd leave some kind of sensing device to signal them if and when and go on their way."

The computers took a nanosecond or so to decide pretty much what Matson was doing in a far longer period. They had taken the first three colonies they'd hit after intersect¬ing the human string, then set off the next—World. The three leading ships of the attack force had been sent ahead to negotiate and determine conditions, scout out the land, and make contacts. The main force would follow. But they were converted into energy and then shot as energy along the string in that alternate universe, and when they got here the Gates were locked. They couldn't get in, they couldn't back up, and they couldn't in energy form even get a recall. They might even have blocked the entrance. They had been just outside in that energy swirl all this time—as energy. No time had passed for them.

Considering the span of time, World had simply out¬lived them. And because of World's unique culture and traditions, it had changed the least in all that time, while civilizations rose and fell, messianic campaigns were waged and then ebbed, great discoveries had been made. Only World, and its lonely invaders, had remained stagnant.

The Commander's computer suggested a confirmation question. "We assume the Soviet world was the evil one."

"We do not know that world. The evil one was the People's Republic Expreditionary Force," responded the Samish.

Confirmation! That was the Chinese colony.

The probability, then, was quite small that the horde behind them was even now rushing to World. The problem was boiling down to getting rid of six thousand and a bit more of the Samish, whatever they were.

"We regret that we must refuse your offer," the Com¬mander told them. "You cannot offer as a reward that which we already possess."

"You do not know what you say," the Samish replied. "We have the power to give you control of the energy of the First Lord's universe. We ask only for the worship we are due."

Matson needed no computer to guess the "recent" (to them) history of the Samish. An egocentric race, like humanity, believing it was the center of all creation, had discovered the Flux universe and developed its technology to use it, and apparently not that much differently than humanity had, no matter what the difference in the two races. There was only one way to do it without getting smeared all over creation and they'd done it. Only their method of manipulating Flux differed, and probably only in detail. Somehow they had come upon, the first time, what had happened here on World, a merger of mind and machine. In their case, theology and science had not conflicted. They searched for their god's heaven, and saw it in the Flux universe, one of brilliant and limitless energy and light.

Then they had come upon others out there, on the worlds the strings took you to. They found intelligent life, but life very different from their own—and life which did not have the power over Flux that they did.

The first was righteous, and gave over to Samish.

How human of them, Matson thought. He remembered when Coydt and the New Eden Brotherhood had attacked and seized Anchor Logh. By the time the liberators had arrived, the population had been willing to endure what¬ever indignities and horrors the new government could and would administer to save their own lives and those of their children.

The Chinese, whoever they were, had fought to the last one, although they had lost. That, too, was human. They had chosen death, and a courageous one, to deny their conquerors the spoils of war.

The third, which had split into two camps, was the most human of all. There the Company directors, or their counterparts, had outargued or outmaneuvered the army until it was too late to seal the Gates. The resulting civil war, with the Company on the Samish side, had placed the directors as Fluxlords of that world over the vanquished.

Near the Gate, Onregon Sligh gnashed his teeth and pounded his fist in frustration. He could listen in on the conversation, but the power on both sides was so strong that even if he could break in he'd be ignored. And he had no idea who the hell the Samish were bargaining with.

"I told you there was somebody else," Gifford Haldayne said accusingly. He looked around at the others. They were all there, crowded around the small transceiver: Rosa Haldayne. Chua Gabaye, Ming Tokiabi. Varishnikar Stomsk. . . . All but Zelligman Ivan.

"They're offering us nothing at all," Gabaye snapped. "We already control the whole damned planet! All we did was get suckered into being trapped in Anchor."

"I wonder," said Gifford Haldayne. staring at the transceiver, "if we've been kidding ourselves about that all these years. We opened the Gates, but they sure as hell aren't talking to us."

"Whoever they are, they will soon attack." Sligh predicted. "Then we will attempt to strike whatever deal we can."

Sligh was certainly correct in at least the first part of his statement. Clearly further conversation was getting neither side closer together.

"You may go in peace," the Commander told them, "or you may put down your shield and we can attempt friendly relations. The choice is yours. But we will not subordinate ourselves to another race. We have had quite enough of that among ourselves, thank you."

She still sounded like a librarian, Matson thought, but she was also playing it cool, calm, and correct and she clearly had the guts for this business. Those Soul Riders picked well, it seemed.

"It is unnatural, against the grand scheme of the universe," the Samish responded. "Under-races which deny the primacy of the First Lord also deny the Divine Scheme. Such is corruption, such is evil. Even now there are forces within our shield poised to strike us. We will demonstrate our power."

The small pinched-top section of the main ship began to glow, then with a sound of connectors snapping back it freed itself of the main ship and lifted slowly and dramati¬cally into the air.

"Stand by to place firm thrust attack into operation!" came the Commander's message to the operations officers at the northern and southern Anchors. "The loss of weight of the vehicle may have tipped things in our favor."

They had packed the tunnels nearly solid with every type of explosive known that they could lay their hands on. The Guardians now dropped the safety shield just ahead of the regulator and pumped highly compressed air into the gaps in the massive load. In effect, it was Matson's great cannon, aimed at the massive but exposed underbelly of the ships.

The small flying vehicle made a humming sound as it took off from the Gate and headed out towards the largest New Eden force within the shield. Similar ships took off almost simultaneously from Gates Two and Six, but this time in Flux.

The computers shifted their estimates, and through the district commanders instructed and briefed the wizards in the north about what was to happen. The Nine had been reduced to the Five, but because of their abilities to travel Flux at great speed, Talanane and Serrio were at Gate Two, and the other three were at Gate Six. Their strong powers, combined with that of the local wizards and Fluxlords, was considerable.

The small ships were obviously Flux amplifiers of some sort, but they were within the greater shield and did not have a great deal of shielding themselves. The wizards of the north watched them come, waiting until the last mo¬ment to erect their own shields. Mervyn, alone, had once beaten an amplifier; no one in Flux was alone, and the Nine had amplifiers of its own, used up to now to guard the Gate and pulled back when that had proven useless.

The New Eden defenders were more constrained, but so was the ship. In an Anchor environment its amplifiers were very limited, and they tried to pick up power from the city electrical lines and grids. Suzl was able to pretty much block this, leaving the ship to other armaments.

The Samish were about to discover that they had picked a unique offshoot of humanity, primitive though it was culturally and technologically. This was a hard, nasty race, who'd practiced on itself what the Samish alone believed they possessed. When the feared demons had proven to be no more than strong wizards, the Fluxlords felt themselves right at home.

The New Eden ship rose into the air and hovered there a moment, then shot a series of devastating rays into the main body of troops about a kilometer from Anchor. There was tremendous loss of life and materiel where the rays struck, but hard-bitten commanders who'd conquered three Anchors ordered a return fire with rockets and sweeping heat rays.

In the north, the Fluxlord's shields went on. It would not stop the ray weapons, but it sure as hell stopped the ships well short of the main body. Wizards who had conquered other powerful Fluxlands knew well to disperse their troops and their most powerful wizards, but they would have to take some losses from the rays until the commander made her move.

"Now!'' came the order from Holy Anchor, and simulta¬neously small sparks of Flux flew from the firewalls into the explosive. The projectile was not shot or shell, but air—compressed air, which would go through the shield, propelled by the mighty force of the giant explosions which had no place to go but out the tunnel.

All three ships shuddered, and for a brief moment their shields flickered, but then reformed. For New Eden it was not enough, but for the northern defenders in Flux it was the opening they waited for. Power from the Fluxlord's shields reached out like a living thing and struck and engulfed the tiny ships in the few precious seconds of power cuts. Mighty fingers of force gripped the ships and squeezed them, compressing them more and more into dense balls of metal glowing with great heat. Now the commanders, using their Soul Rider connections, concen¬trated everything they had on the master shield. It wavered, and broke several times, reforming as a smaller and yet more powerful shield. They smashed it again and again, and did manage to restrict it to the area just around the Gates, but from that point the alien shield held. They kept the pressure on, but knew they would have to find an alternate way to the Enemy's heart.

In the south, the alien's flying craft was faring better. Capable of instant bursts of great speed and near supernatu¬ral maneuverability, it was having no trouble keeping out of the way of the weaponry being hurled at it, and its ray projectors definitely had a far better range.

"We taught them respect in the north." Spirit said glumly, "but those ships were too heavy for what we had to explode. They still have their power and their equipment."

Matson looked over the small company in the control center. "Other than Suzl and yourself, who has the great¬est Flux power in this room?"

"In practical terms, the twins," she responded, "although Mom has greater potential. She can't use it herself, but with spells fed to her, her past experience will make them the most effective. Why?"

"Because I think there's a power big enough to budge that ship, if she's willing to go along and if you're willing to do the dirtiest thing you've ever done in your whole life."

"The computers can't divine your meaning. Explain."

"The key to what you said is potential. Do me a favor. Ask your computer who was stronger in absolute terms, Coydt or Cassie."

Spirit looked surprised. "Why—in relative access ability, she's much stronger. But—she lost to him!"

"That's the point. Your Mom overall has had a pretty unhappy life for somebody always at the top. She took on Gifford Haldayne with almost no training and beat him as easy as you'd step on a bug. Then she totally remade an entire Fluxland and stopped massed armies from fighting in a matter of minutes. In the backwash, without even knowing it, she restored me to life. I understand how it was done now, but she doesn't—and I don't think it'd ever been done before. It wasn't intellect, although the intellect's there, that made her so powerful, or Coydt, either. It was emotion—raw, burning, overpowering feelings. It strength¬ens the link to the computer and acts like a massive amplifier. The computer here will deliver whatever it takes."

"But she lost to Coydt!"

"Deep down she wanted to lose. She'd had two decades of living a life of terrible responsibility and near total deprivation as the head of the Church. She knew I was there, and it damn near killed her because she wanted me and couldn't ever have me. All she needed to do was to keep Coydt occupied until I blew that amplifier. She didn't need to beat him to defeat him, and she knew it."

Spirit shook her head sadly. "Oh. my God!" she whispered. She looked over at her mother and felt the onset of tears. She understood, too, the truth of what he was saying. The Soul Rider had not understood it, merely tapped it when it was present, but it knew. Under the height of passion in the Hellgate. Suzl had assumed her powers and gained sufficient computer access, at least for a time, to sense the presence of the control room and to break the unbreakable spells that had bound Spirit. The key was always there, but the computers did not think as humans thought, and what was not quantifiable was not truly real to them. Even now they resisted, granting his point but also noting that such a level cannot be deliberately reached, and that was to be regretted. With the power of raw Flux to tap just behind her. and the regulator to keep it in bounds, the amount of force that she could potentially generate could indeed do the job—could, in fact, do al¬most anything.