Judgment at Proteus (30 page)

“Let me guess,” I said. I knew perfectly well what the throats were for, having seen Muzzfor in action aboard the super-express. But I wasn’t ready yet to show him that particular card. “You sing grand opera to calm him down?”

“We sing a set of very specific notes, a tonic plus several of its harmonics,” he said. “All telepathic species can theoretically be reached with the proper tones, though so far we have only discovered the frequency necessary for bringing the Modhri and Modhran walkers under our control. Though it may be that the Modhran tone will also affect a Spider, at least enough to confuse it,” he added thoughtfully. “We still need to experiment with that. It’s possible we’ll need to engineer specific Shonkla-raa with different throat specifications to deal with them.”

“Is that why you haven’t had one of your own installed?” I asked, nodding toward his own normal-sized throat. “You’re waiting to get a Spider throat?”

“I was actually waiting for a Human one,” he said, his eyes glowing. “My plan was always to become the prince of your world once we were again the rulers of the galaxy.”

“Really,” I said. “Out of thousands of possible worlds, you chose our modest little split-level? We’re flattered.”

“You speak sarcastically,” he said. “But you really have no idea. Earth and its solar system have resources beyond anything you can imagine, simply because you in your ignorance haven’t known to look for them.” He smiled. “One of those resources being your people themselves. If all Humans are as effective at combat as you, I will soon have a force that even the other Shonkla-raa will look upon with respect.”

He gestured in the direction of the medical dome, a quarter of the way around the station. “And those unborn Humans in Building Twelve will be yet another step toward achieving that goal.”

“Thanks, I’d already figured that one out,” I growled. “You’re trying to graft some telepathic ability into them, aren’t you?”

“Not
trying
,” he corrected mildly. “
Succeeding
. Another few weeks and we’ll be sending all of them back to Earth, their mothers secure in the belief that their babies’ alleged medical problems have now been corrected.”

“Genetic engineering at its finest,” I said sourly. “No wonder you went ballistic when we suggested Terese might abort her baby.”

“What, you mean this?” he asked, pointing to his nose. Suddenly his blaze began to go mottled, seething with the indications of emotions that clearly weren’t there. “A toy I had the engineers install when they turned my hands into weapons,” he said offhandedly as the blaze faded back to its normal shade. “It adds an additional level of supposed emotional depth to my performances, wouldn’t you say?”

“I would indeed,” I agreed. “Good thinking, that. I’m not so impressed by your army of toddlers, though.”

Wandek shrugged. “We have time,” he assured me. “As to Ms. German, yes, we had originally brought her here to create another slave from her offspring. But shortly after your arrival, we realized we had a far bigger prize waiting for us.”

I raised my eyebrows politely. “Me?”

“Of course not,” Wandek said. “Bayta.”

My stomach tightened into a hard knot. “You must be joking,” I said as contemptuously as I could manage through the pulse pounding in my throat. “She’s barely competent to be my assistant, let alone one of your junior world-conquerors.”

“Please,” Wandek chided calmly. “Did you really think Dr. Aronobal hadn’t noticed on your journey that Bayta could communicate with the Spiders? And since we know Humans aren’t telepathic, it immediately follows that Bayta is something different. A hybrid of Human and Spider, perhaps, since her nucleics are indeed Human. Or perhaps she’s a member of a species we haven’t yet discovered, which has encased itself in a Human shell to avoid detection.” He eyed me closely. “Or possibly she’s one of the beings we’ve always suspected are quietly controlling the Spiders and the Quadrail.”

“Or else Aronobal is just imagining things,” I offered.

“I don’t think so,” Wandek said. “Regardless, I’m sure Bayta will be a most interesting test subject.” His blaze mottled a bit. “Who knows? If it turns out she
is
one of the beings controlling the Spiders, I may decide to leave Earth in someone else’s control and—what is the term? Trade something?”

“Trade up,” I supplied. “But in all honesty, I really think Bayta’s going to be a big disappointment for you.”

“We shall see.” Wandek snorted. “Now that we’ll actually have a chance to find out.”

“Oh?” I asked. Behind Wandek, Jagged Nose was still fiddling with Hchchu’s computer, and I wondered uneasily what exactly he was doing. “What’s been stopping you?”

“Not you, certainly,” Wandek said. “The fact is that pure happenstance has thwarted our every move. First, we arranged to put the two of you in separate quarters, so that she would eventually be forced to travel the hallways of
Kuzyatru
Station alone. But then
he
”—he jabbed a finger contemptuously at the unconscious Minnario—“somehow was assigned one of those same rooms. Our next thought was that you would attend the preliminary hearings alone, which would again leave her vulnerable. But again, the Nemut brought her in as a witness.”

“Lawyers are often pests on our worlds, too,” I said. Suddenly, a lot of the strange things that had been happening aboard Proteus were starting to make sense. “And the reason you killed Tech Yleli instead of just trying to clobber me was so I’d be arrested for the murder and locked up, which would again leave Bayta alone. Only she spent the night with me in the security nexus, where you couldn’t get at her without going through a whole wall of patrollers first.”

“Indeed,” Wandek said, scowling at the memories. “Still, we knew you wouldn’t be under suspicion for long, not with that
msikai-dorosli
tagging along wherever you went. So we maneuvered
Chinzro
Hchchu into assigning you to investigate Tech Yleli’s murder, knowing it would take you far across the station.”

I grimaced. “That one nearly worked, too.”

“Yes,” Wandek agreed. “We even chose to risk our investment in Ms. German and her child by making her ill, hoping Bayta would stay by her side, out in the open where we could get to her, while you carried out your investigation.” He snarled an evil-sounding Fili phrase. “Only yet again this stupid Nemut spoiled it, coming in to prepare her to testify at your trial.”

“And then
Isantra
Kordiss tried to take me out and failed, and you chased everyone out of the subsector with a fake evacuation drill and sent two more of your goons after me, who also failed,” I offered helpfully. “And Ms. German’s disappearance was presumably again designed to split us up, with me handling the investigation while Bayta went off hunting for her.”

“Correct,” Wandek confirmed sourly. “Only this time it was
Chinzro
Hchchu who intervened by restarting the trial.”

“Which again kept Bayta and me together,” I said. “You’re really not batting very well on this one, are you?”

“Perhaps,” Wandek said. “But as with all games, it’s only necessary for us to win once. And now we have.” He half turned. “
Asantra
Prllolim?” he invited.

“It is done,” Jagged Nose announced, tapping one final key on the computer and standing up.

“Excellent.” Wandek turned back to me. “Let me explain to you what is about to happen. In two minutes’ time my companions and I will depart, leaving the door locked. You have no comm, we have all the Nemut’s equipment, and
Chinzro
Hchchu’s computer and intercom are both frozen. Approximately ten minutes after that, the receptionist will return from the errand I sent her on and resume her position as guardian of
Chinzro
Hchchu’s office. I should mention that the office door is completely soundproof, so you won’t be able to call out to attract her attention. But you’re welcome to try.”

“Let me guess,” I said. “Eventually, she starts wondering why she hasn’t been called in to water the plants, and comes in to find Minnario and me all alone with Hchchu’s body.”

“Not at all,” Wandek said calmly. “Approximately ten minutes after she returns, the computer will send out an emergency signal, which will be received by both her and the nearby patroller office. One minute after that, to allow for their response time, the door will unlock.
Then
they will all enter to find you and the Nemut and the body.”

“Nice,” I complimented him. “There might be a couple of problems, though.”

“How so?” Wandek asked politely.

“First of all, the coagulation curve on
Chinzro
Hchchu’s blood will prove he was dead long before he supposedly sent out his distress call,” I said. A small part of me was screaming that warning him about potentially fatal errors wasn’t a particularly smart thing to do. But Wandek had such obvious contempt for Humans that I needed to let him know that, in my field of expertise at least, I was smarter than he was. “And second, it’ll be obvious to anyone with half a brain that my hands couldn’t possibly have made the wound that killed him.”

“How foolish of us to have forgotten such things,” Kordiss said sardonically.

“How foolish, indeed,” Wandek agreed. “
Asantra
Prllolim?”

“The coagulation curve in
Chinzro
Hchchu’s records has been reset,” Prllolim said. “It will now show his death to have occurred less than a minute after the emergency call is made.”

“And as to your second point, the capabilities of Human hands are not nearly as obvious to untrained Filiaelians as you might think,” Wandek continued. “Director
Usantra
Nstroo and the patrollers will have to turn to an expert in Human physiology to determine that.”

I felt my brief flicker of professional pride fade away. “You?”

“Who else?” Wandek said. “And I will naturally need several days of study before I can come to a conclusion. I will certainly want
Logra
Emikai to be standing by during that time in case you try to escape.”

“Of course,” I said, feeling my heart sink even lower. And with Minnario injured and probably needing medical attention himself, Bayta would be completely alone. Every direction I tried, every turn I made, the Shonkla-raa had already closed it off.

Maybe Wandek could see the growing despair in my face, or else he simply knew Human psychology as well as he knew our anatomy. “Please don’t assume that I’m telling you all this in order to gloat in your presence,” he said. “As I’m sure you long ago deduced, the Modhran strategy for slipping through mental defenses is to insert suggestions along lines of respect, familiarity, and trust. For us, the preferred strategy is to break down resistance through the creation of fear and hopelessness.”

He stood up and leaned over me. “Do you feel fear and hopelessness, Mr. Compton?”

“Fear is a biochemical response that can be controlled or ignored,” I said as firmly as I could. “And hopelessness is a lie and an illusion. There’s always hope.” I locked eyes with him. “Always.”

Wandek shook his head. “You Humans are remarkable beings indeed,” he said as he straightened up. “I shall look forward to having all of you under my authority. Until later, Mr. Compton.”

He started toward the door, then paused and turned around again. “One other thing,” he said. “Up to now, our plan has included only the modification of unborn Humans. But since you’ll be our guest anyway, I think it will be worth examining whether or not the same techniques will work on a fully developed Human brain.”

“Sure, why not?” I said, fighting down a surge of horror at the thought of Wandek and the other Shonkla-raa poking around inside my skull. “You might as well be efficient about this.”

“Exactly,” Wandek said. “Of course, the technique may also kill you. But if it succeeds, you too will be able to look forward to a lifetime in my service.”

He took a step back toward me. “So tell me now, arrogant Human,” he said softly, “whether hopelessness is only an illusion.”

He turned again and started across the room. Prllolim and Kordiss joined him, Kordiss walking backward so that he could keep an eye on me the whole way. Even a last-second act of desperation was going to be denied me.

They were halfway to the door when an unexpected question hammered through my growing swirl of despair.

Why the hell were they bothering to alter Human brains
?

There was no reason to go to all that time and effort.
Asantra
Muzzfor had already demonstrated that the Shonkla-raa could take control of the Modhri, and the Modhri had just as conclusively proved he could take control of Humans. Instead of spending all this time and energy fiddling with baby brains, why not simply scratch the babies—
and
their mothers—with some Modhran coral and be done with it?

The answer seemed obvious. As Hchchu and Wandek had both stated, there wasn’t any Modhran presence aboard Proteus. No Modhri, no coral, no Modhran walkers.

And yet …

I lowered my gaze to Doug. He was sitting on his haunches, his body motionless, his masked eyes gazing intently back at me. Doug, my faithful watchdog, who had accidentally alerted me to at least two attacks since our arrival here. Doug, whose partner Ty had inexplicably deserted me in order to stay close to Bayta, whom the Shonkla-raa had been furiously trying to get alone. Doug, who had never once greeted Ty with the same yip that both watchdogs invariably exchanged with other watchdogs they happened to meet.

Doug, who by Dr. Aronobal’s own statement belonged to a species that the Fillies knew so well they had no reason to study further.

Deliberately, I turned my eyes from Doug to Minnario. The Nemut was still lying motionless, his breathing still the slow rhythm of unconsciousness.

And then, as I peered into his face, I saw his conical mouth shift in a small, knowing, hard-edged smile.

The three Shonkla-raa had reached the door now. “
Usantra
Wandek?” I called.

He turned around. “Yes?”

“The next time you come after me,” I said softly, “you’d better bring
all
of you.”