Chaining the Lady (22 page)

Four hundred hostages! Melody had eliminated only the eleven in the officer's section of this ship! The whole fleet might well be hostage.

But still, there was some comfort in it. With an average of four hostages per ship, the concentration had to be on the officers. The flagship had a greater number, as it was the most important, but still it was unlikely that much effort had been expended on the crew quarters. The Andromedans overall perspective was on interest also; they were most concerned with the center-galaxy segments like Knyfh and Lodo. Not with the fringe segments like Qaval and Thousandstar. And Etamin. It put her own effort into perspective, such as it was. Tiala had provided a more than responsive answer.

If the Andromedan effort f a thousand years earlier had been organized like this, the hero Flint of Outworld had foiled it by pure luck! How could a Stone Age barbarian have halted the ongoing program of a major galaxy? But by the same token, how could an old female neuter isolated in an officerless ship in space even hope to do similar?

I wish I had known you, Flint!
she thought. For, in addition to his other capabilities, he was supposed to have had a Kirlian intensity of over two hundred, the only other such rating in this galaxy before her own. High-Kirlian entities were doomed to be lonely.

But she had to get on to the second question. “What is the specific locale of the secret of involuntary transfer hosting?”

“I'm not sure. But I
think
it is Planet £ of Sphere Dash. It is a hotbed of Ancient sites, good ones, regarded as shrines to Aposiopesis. Certainly it is somewhere in that sphere, and that is where they've set their closest guard, though it is not one of the advanced Dash worlds. It is said to be quite primitive, actually, though the Dash have occupied it for millennia. Now they have a fleet like this one hovering near it.”

Planet £ and Sphere Dash in Andromeda. If only the Milky Way could transfer an agent there, undetected. Obviously no frontal approach could succeed.

Melody shook her human head. The task was virtually impossible, but it would have to be attempted. She hardly envied the entity assigned to it.

Now for the third question. Too bad the Tarot had not granted her fifteen questions, but it must have had its reason. Three of Energy—meaning, in the old fashion, strength, virtue, communication, and cooperation. Three of Wands. How did that apply to this situation? She was cooperating with Talia to gain information for her galaxy that would strengthen it, but there seemed to be little virtue in it without stretching the implications.

Virtue—the missing element. Was that the hint? Should the third question relate to that?

Tiala looked at her expectantly. The aural indication showed increasing stress. Something was preying on her; she was afraid of that third question. That meant there was something vital, something Melody should not miss. What
was
it?

She couldn't stall; that was not fair play. She had to make her move, right or wrong. Virtue or vice. Maybe...

“What have I overlooked?” Melody asked.

The aural indicator went wild. “How can I know what–?” Tiala demanded, terrified.

Hot on the trail. “That is a nonresponsive remark. You know something I should know. There was no restriction on the type of question I could ask. You are aware of something vital to my interest. Tell me that thing.” It could be that this would amount to two questions: the nature of the subject, and the specific information. She would just have to hope Tiala wouldn't think of this.

“I—
can't
!” Tiala cried.

Melody frowned, not liking this but knowing she had to do it. She knew Skot was squirming; she was putting pressure on Tiala as she had once put pressure on him. “You
can
. Only the manner of the telling is in doubt.”

But Tiala only shook her head.

“You are aware that this constitutes reneging?” Melody demanded, forcing a fierceness she did not feel. Why did there have to be so much brutality to adventure? “You know the alternative.”

The girl nodded mutely. Tears were on her cheeks.
Oh, my sister of aura, why must this be? What sense is there in it?
But Melody steeled herself. How could she afford to be moved by affinity or pity in the face of the savagery of Andromeda's thrust into the Milky Way?

She glanced at Llume, then at Skot. “It seems I must after all make siege against the aura of Tiala of Slash. Opinions?”

“There is
something
she knows,” Skot said reluctantly. “If you're sure it's safe for you.”

“We all do what in necessary,” Llume said with unusual grimness for her. As an even closer sister of aura, she was highly sensitive to the implications.

Melody's course was clear. Yet she was uneasy. If the Tarot were guiding her to this, why hadn't it offered a face of the Suit of Aura? This was surely a matter of transfer, covered by that suit. Instead the Tarot had shown her energy, the Andromedan suit. She was about to chain another lady, and this one really
was
Andromedan. Why should the auspices be dubious?

More correctly, why should she
think
they were dubious? The card had to be exactly right for what the Tarot had to say. The focus was an Andromeda, not on aura; aura was merely the means to the information. Melody would have her answer, though she might not like it.

She set the machine for the process of overwhelming. Tiala did not move or protest. Why should this entity of Slash refuse to tell what she knew when it would immediately be extracted from her mind anyway, at far greater cost? She had only to give one answer via the Lot of *, and she would be released, with her galaxy no worse off than it would be via the aural overwhelming technique. For Tiala to balk
now
did not seem to make sense; she well knew that Melody was not bluffing about her ability to get the information. Melody was the one entity in this galaxy capable of accomplishing this.

Melody realized that she had a Tarot-type riddle to deal with. Like the pun for dilettantes: what has five suits but exposes everything? The Cluster Tarot deck, of course. The symbols and meaning were present; she had only to interpret them properly. What pattern fit this seeming irrationality? What was there
about
this Lot of *?

It had to be that the unknown question related in some way
to
this Lot of *, so that the revelation would somehow nullify it. Was this another trap? Yet what type of trap could it be, that a lie would not have fostered better than this balk? Tiala obviously did not want to have her aura overwhelmed; her readings showed her terror of it. Why this suicidal course?

Then, from somewhere beneath full consciousness, Melody began to get a notion. She could not quite bring it to the surface, but it was appalling. In fact, it was a thing she very much preferred not to know.

Melody reset the machine and activated it. Tiala slumped.

“You sent her away?” Llume inquired, surprised.

“Yes. We have other business to attend to.”

“But she had not answered the question!” Skot said.

“She answered in her fashion.” Melody pondered momentarily. “Now I must transfer myself to imperial Outworld to give warning.”

“What?” Yael said, astounded.

Melody looked at Skot. “You will have to run the ship. You and Llume.”

“I can't run this ship!” Skot protested.

“Well,
I
certainly can't!” Melody retorted. “I know nothing of the operations of either ship or fleet. And Llume–” Again she paused. She liked Llume a great deal but... “Why don't
you
transfer to Outworld, Skot? We girls can take care of the crew until help comes.”

Yael was screaming voicelessly. “You know Outworld is a death trap! You can't send him there!”

“Yes, that might be better,” Skot agreed. “There is something about this I don't understand, but–”

The ship shook.

Llume put her ball to the deck. “That resembles a meteor impact!”

“Odds are against it,” Skot said. “Meteors strike the ship all the time, but it is extremely rare for one to be big enough to be felt like that. I think someone's firing on us!”

“The hostages!” Melody said. “They have taken over another ship and attacked us! We have no officer in the control room to keep track.”

“We'd better check it out right now,” Skot said. “My report to Outworld would be no good if you got blown out of space.”

“Come on, Slammer,” Melody said. “We have business.”

Llume's assessment had been close, and so had Skot's. The command room's view-globe showed the glowing hulk of a Polarian Disk ship. It had been blown up, and shrapnel fragments were spreading through space. One of them had struck the
Ace of Swords
, but caused only slight damage.

“The hostages must have tried to take over that ship, and been balked the hard way,” Melody said. “It could have happened here.”

The message-input was alive. Calls were on tap from several other ships of the fleet. “This is the flagship,” Skot said. “The nerve center of the fleet. The other ship captains need directives.”

“But our captain is nonfunctional,” Llume pointed out.

“If this fleet loses its central organization, it will be a setup for hostage takeover,” Skot said. “If we don't handle it, a hostage ship
will.
”

“In fact,” Llume said, “this ship was slated to handle it—as a hostage-command.”

“Yes.,” Melody agreed, seeing it. Dash of Andromeda, the highest aura of the hostage force, operating in the name of imperial Outworld, had in fact been forwarding the interests of Galaxy Andromeda. But for her freak of luck in converting the magnets, Dash would now be in control. “We have to conceal what happened, not only from the legitimate officers of the fleet, but from the hostages, until we have identified and nullified those four hundred Andromedans.”

“But if the legitimate officers don't catch on to our sate here, the hostages will,” Skot pointed out. “Either way, disaster.”

Melody walked around the room. She had discovered that muscular exertion facilitated the operation of the human brain, apparently by pumping more fresh blood-fluid into it. “
I
can't bluff either group. I'm no space entity or military entity, just a visiting non-Solarian civilian. Skot–”

He shook his head. “I'm only 03. I was never privy to command decisions, and never a hostage. I'd flub it, both counts.”

Melody faced Llume. “But you're 04, and you have associated with all the officers, and substituted for most of them at one time or another. You know their jobs about as well as they do. And you helped me run down the hostages; you know where they're from, how they react. You could bluff other hostages—for a while. At least until we have a better idea of where we stand.”

Llume glanced again at the Polarian hulk in the globe. Her Polarian host-state had to affect her reaction. “Yes, I could, for a while.”

“Then you handle communications. Tell them Captain Boyd is occupied with pressing internal problems. The hostages will know why you can't mention it on the fleet net. So you are handling coordinations. Keep the ships reassured; don't let anyone panic. Meanwhile, Skot and I will try to get one of the real officers into operative condition. I know it is not good for the health of an ex-hostage, but this is an overriding emergency. With luck, in a couple of hours we'll have Boyd or someone else able to put up at least the semblance of competency. We must keep up appearances.”

Llume glowed briefly, knowing that was a futile hope. The officers would hardly be ready that soon. But she had the grace not to say so. “I will try to coordinate,” she agreed. “The secret must be kept.”

“Come on, Slammer,” Melody said. “We have to revive your master.” She led Skot of Kade away too.

But she didn't go to the infirmary. She went back to the transfer unit and set it for her own aura.

“I don't understand,” Skot said. “If you go to Outworld now, the fleet—I thought we had agreed that I–”

“Not to Outworld. The hostages have taken over the key positions there. I never intended to ship you there, either.”

“But this unit won't reach farther–” He paused. “You're not going after the Andromedans we sent to the sunside mines!”

She shuddered. “No, they'd crucify me, literally.” She took his hand. “Skot of Kade, I need your opinion. My aura is supposed to be able, with the aid of special equipment, to overwhelm a hostage of one quarter my own intensity. Do you think this is possible at a short distance as well as in close proximity?”

“I'm no transfer expert. But I don't see why not. Transfer is essentially a long-distance mechanism, and the Andromedans did it all the way from their galaxy, a million light years away. But what relevance–”

“You see, I wouldn't want to make a hostage of one of our own people, and damage her as the Andromedans did. But I wouldn't have such scruples about an already existent hostage. That host has already been hurt, and the Andromedan deserves no better.”

Skot gaped. “Yael, you're not thinking of–”

“I am Melody of Mintaka. No need to conceal it anymore. Skot, someone has to identify and deal with the hostages on the other ships. We can't let those ships fall into enemy hands.”

“If I transfer to Outworld, maybe I can–”

“No! That would only give us away. I need you here. I'm going to transfer to some of the other ships, but I don't want anyone else to know. My host, the real Yael of Dragon, will conceal my absence, but you will have to help her, because she knows no more about space than I do. If she makes a slip, your ingenuity will be needed.”

Skot shook his head. “Llume's the only one who might catch on, and we don't need to worry about–”

Melody put a hand on his arm, turning him about to face her. “I don't want Llume to know. It could only distract her at a very inopportune time.”