Kirlian Quest (43 page)

|||Eliminate it. It is vital that the unit be properly functional for Action Hour.|||

|||This is difficult without risking damage to the apparatus. These ancient devices are of borderline reliability.|||

They didn't believe him!
Idiots, I am Herald, Kirlian sapient. This site must be made available to Cluster experts immediately.

|||Inanimate consciousness?||| a Jet exclaimed.

|||Notify X!|||

Not inanimate consciousness!
Herald blared.
I am a living creature. Speak to me!

|||The site has developed self-consciousness!||| a Jet cried, horrified. |||We must destroy it!|||

Uh-oh. Herald decided to shift location; he was making reverse progress here.
Another site near a military base,
he willed.

The Jets vanished. Where was this site? He extended his awareness. It was in Sphere Duocirc, Andromeda.
O
o
. But—

Within the site were more Jets.

Something was wrong. Jets could not be here in an undiscovered site in the heart of Galaxy Andromeda! Unless....

Where was the last site?
he inquired with sudden suspicion.

And had the answer from his Ancient circuits: Sphere Slash, Andromeda.
Not
Glob Jet, but his own home region!

The Jets, verifying their gauges, became aware of him.

|||There is a disturbance in the equipment!|||

Herald willed himself to another site: the one at Glob Jet. The real one.

He bounced. There was no such site.

|||Message from X: Be on alert for machine consciousness in functioning ancient sites.|||

If there were no site in Glob Jet, how had the Jets gotten here? They must have infiltrated the Cluster, somehow locating sites that no other species was aware of.

But the Jets could only have done this by using the sites themselves, as Herald was doing now. Not by Transfer, for them, but by mattermission. Perhaps one of their archaeological teams had uncovered a functioning site, giving them entry into the entire system? And they had used that site for their own purposes, instead of giving the invaluable secret to the Cluster. Now, in the face of the crucial threat by the Amoeba, the Jets were
still
keeping the secret, though they had to know how vital it was for the very existence of Kirlian life. Which side were they really on?

Then Herald perceived what he had missed before: These Jets differed in detail from those he had known. They had a different taper on the fuselage, a distinct pattern of coloration, and thicker support fibers. They were in fact a separate variety of Jet, perhaps a distinct subspecies. No wonder their speech and manner were strange!

|||This unit possesses alien consciousness!|||

Herald wished himself away again. This time he landed in Sphere Magnet of Segment Etamin, Milky Way, a station hidden in an orbiting planetoid. No Jets here, fortunately!

Strange that these hostile Jets had not infused their auras into the mechanism of the sites, as he had done, so they could chase him down directly. That was the obvious course, instead of trying to track him by reading their instruments. Of course, Jets were low-Kirlian, so could not ordinarily Transfer, but this was not an ordinary situation. The Ancient equipment possessed the power of enhancement, so that even very weak auras could be elevated to Transfer strength. Now
any
Kirlian creature could Transfer! They must have discovered this. If they really wanted to catch him....

A Jet appeared in the mattermission aperture. That was another thing: Why did they mattermit so freely? The expense of energy, when Cluster distances were involved, was criminal. The Ancients must have given their equipment huge reserves, but the Ancients were no longer present to restore that energy as it was depleted by wasteful use, and these fabulous sites would inevitably become nonfunctional in time. If these Jets had the finesse to use all these supposedly undiscovered sites, surely they knew the value of energy!

Herald investigated. He concentrated himself in the circuitry adjacent to the control panel and extended his aura into the volume of space the Jet would occupy as he operated these controls.

Sure enough, the Jet came. Herald tuned in on the typically small aura he knew was there—but it was
not
there.

Either he had lost his ability to perceive fractional auras —or this entity
had
no aura.

No aura at all?

He gave it one more try. He drew on the resources of the equipment, enhancing his own aura to almost three hundred, and spread a more powerful perceptive net. If anything, even a millionth of norm, were there, he would pick it up.

Nothing was there. His field spread through purely mechanical channels. No electrical or semielectrical nervous system at all. It would be impossible for any entity to Transfer into such a host.

Slowly the truth registered.
This species of Jet was not small-aura, it was null-aura.
No wonder they used mattermission: even with the potential of enhancement, they could never Transfer. No wonder they followed Herald only by instrument. The Ancient equipment could detect his Kirlian frame, but this Jet variety was inherently incapable of it.

Non-Kirlian sapience! Completely without aura, yet fully intelligent and competent. He had the proof at last, from direct experience; such species
did
exist in the Cluster. Perhaps the Jets of Sixteen's species knew about this, but had concealed it, fearing their cousins would be destroyed, as all other non-Kirlian sapients had been three million years ago. Now, with the coming of the Amoeba, they could act at last.

|||Alien consciousness manifests in this unit!||| the Jet exclaimed.

And through the Ancient unit came the answer: |||Destroy unit!|||

They were playing for keeps, these sudden allies of the enemy! The Jet nudged the master power switch—and Herald willed himself back to Sphere Slash, Andromeda. Now he knew why Psyche dared not reveal herself. Cutting the power of his equipment would destroy any aura within it.

He arrived safely. His £ host stood in the communication chamber, beside that of Flame's host. Apparently the non-Kirlian Jets had not yet discovered his point of origin.

He hopped quickly into the host. The Jets were no doubt querying the site network about his location. If he got out before they caught up, they might lose him entirely. This particular site had no mattermission facilities, perhaps because there could be so few receivers for creatures this size. It was pure Kirlian. That was a big help. Neither the non-Kirlian Jets nor the non-Kirlian Amoeba could strike directly, physically, here.

Non-Kirlian Jets, non-Kirlian Amoebites—how could he have missed it. Once more he had been blind to the obvious.
These strange Jets
were
the Amoebites!
Non-Kirlian sapience from another Cluster of the Universe.

Where was Flame? Her host was here, but if her aura had followed his into the Ancient equipment....

The flame of Flame appeared in the screen in the holographic image. "Herald? Is that you?"

"Yes! We must depart instantly. The Amoeba has taken over the Ancient network of sites. We must get out, for this is the one site they cannot invade physically. Don't go in the circuitry, because they may turn it off by remote control."

"Herald, I know! But I must tell you—"

"
Move!
Or it is death—for us
and
Cluster! Activate the surfacing mechanism!"

"Herald,
I have found Psyche!
"

His whole £ body stiffened, almost falling against the panoramic wall. "You
believe?
Others think I delude myself about her survival—"

"
I know!
I doubted, but I saw you actually enter the machine, so I tried it myself. While you led the Amoeba a merry chase across the Cluster, distracting them, I surveyed quietly for her aura, and the Ancient net told me. She
did
inhabit the sites, her aura alone, enhanced. Hers was the highest aura ever—"

A pattern of interference rippled across the screen. The image of a Jet appeared. |||Activated site discovered!||| it exclaimed. |||The £ site!|||

"The Amoeba has found us!" Herald cried.

"Transfer directly out—now!" Flame screamed, her image wavering high and yellow. "The Cluster needs you. We can't escape physically; they will control the mechanism."

"We both must Transfer out! You go home to Furnace; I'll go to Slash!"

"Yes!" she agreed. "Then we will each report to the Council!"

He concentrated, and felt the power of the site take hold. But as it started, another ripple of interference came. The Amoeba could not use the Kirlian properties directly, but could perceive the activity of this unit via their instruments. Now it was throwing up machine-Kirlian blocks to cut them off. If Herald made it through to his Slash body, his aura would be so garbled that he would be insane.

Flame's aura plunged into the circuitry, driving back the interference momentarily, clearing the way for him. "Go, Herald, go!" she cried, her flame image flickering with the desperate effort.

He had to go, knowing that she, choosing to facilitate his Transfer, had trapped herself instead. He shifted his destination to his Solarian host on Planet Keep, since the Amoeba had overheard his Slash destination and blocked it off. He tried to draw Flame along with him, but could not. There was no available female host on that section of the planet. All he got was a part of her, a final faint message:
Psyche... at... Amoeba!

He had delayed too long. The Amoebites had cut him off again. They were operating the circuits, narrowing down his options, beating down Flame's valiant resistance. Non-Kirlian they might be, but they certainly knew how to operate this Kirlian equipment! One last chance—

He shifted destinations again. And suddenly, as his identity was wrenched from the troubled circuitry of the site, and from the beautiful entity he
could
have loved, who had forfeited her own chance to escape for him; he suffered the most momentous realization of all. The intellectual impact was such as to numb his mind. He had now explored the Ancient equipment even further than Melody of Mintaka had, and knew what she had discovered.
He knew the secret of the Ancients
—and knew despair.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 12:

Amoeba of Space

 

X
We are discovered!
X

&
It does not matter. The weed-species cannot mobilize in time to take effective resistance. We shall proceed on schedule.
&

X
What of the reverification?
X

&
We must do it if we can. Should it be convenient to pick up any sapients for this purpose, we shall do so.
&

X
But we shall not delay action hour for this purpose.
X

&
We shall not delay it.
&

 

* * *

 

Herald found himself in the Jet host on Mars.

The host was weak, of course. He had not yet recovered from either the physical injury or Herald's strenuous travels around the planet. He was under continued medical care, inactive, as the Jet archaeologists still labored to salvage artifacts from the bombed site. But he was recovering, and Herald had no intention of complicating his health again.

"Bring me Sixteen," he said.

The medic balked, not realizing who was speaking through the host. "She cannot be disturbed."

Herald forced his ailing host to move. "This is critical. Read the aural indicator, perceive my identity. My mission is to save the Cluster from invasion."
And to recover Psyche!
he added mentally. He honestly could not tell which was more important to him at the moment—or whether there was really any chance of doing either. No wonder Melody had kept her silence. He now knew more about the Ancients than she did, and the situation differed: It was correspondingly worse.

The medic yielded. He summoned Sixteen.

She came, jetting very slowly and with poor control. "Herald," she said with a gust of gladness. "I thought I would not encounter you again."

Suddenly Herald was ashamed. "Sixteen is your illness because of me? Do you require healing?"

"No illness, Herald. I brought it on myself—"

"I have mistreated you; and now I propose to aggravate it."

"You misunderstand. I always knew—"

"My legal fiancée, Flame of Furnace, gave up her freedom, perhaps her very identity, to promote my welfare. Only through her agency was I able to return here, escaping the Amoeba. Now I must ask you to do the same."

"I will, Herald, I will! Yet—"

"This also you must know: Flame located my dead wife. Psyche is alive."

"She—not dead?"

"Psyche's aura survives. It is imprisoned in the equipment of the Amoeba which now ties into that of the Ancient sites, because the Amoeba has taken over those sites. I must go to the Amoeba to fetch her out. My true love."

"No wonder your legal fiancée died!" Sixteen said.

No wonder!
He did not even try to justify it morally; he simply had to do it. "Will you help me?"

"Herald, I am—I can't—" She broke off. "How may I help you?"

"I need a host for Psyche. To bring her back. Because she no longer has any body of her own."

Sixteen considered. Herald blanked his mind to what might be going through
her
mind. "To be the host for your dead true love. To make her live again."

"It is also an extremely dangerous mission. We may both die. We face a situation that may be impossible to accomplish. We go to the heart of the Amoeba itself."

"Yes," she said slowly. "If I do this, I must either die, or yield my body to—to another female."

"Sixteen, I know you love me!" Herald blurted. "You told me you loved Hweeh of Weew, but you lied. I–do not love you. It is a terrible thing I ask of you. But such is my desperation, I ask it anyway. The Amoebites resemble Jets; perhaps as Jets we can negotiate with them."
Yet Melody's secret undermines it all, for they are
not
Jets!
"You have little to gain, everything to lose, as did Flame, when she helped me. But there is another aspect—"