Phaze Doubt

7 - Bomb

Nepe, in the form of a serf boy, was running an errand for one of the quislings. She had planted this identity long ago, and had used it before, just keeping her hand in; no computer check would cast doubt on it.

She was sad that Grandpa Blue had had to report for internment, but understood how it was. The spy Alyc had tagged him and all his family and associates; any who tried to skip out would have been pursued. Of course Blue could have avoided capture, but to what point? They would only have chased him until they got him, and meanwhile started imprisoning, torturing, and murdering his associates to encourage him to cooperate. He preferred to avoid that.

So Blue had reported in, and so had Red and Brown, and the former Adverse Adepts: Yellow with her power over animals, Orange with his plants, Translucent with his water magic, and White with her glyphs. Purple and Tan had been freed, and had immediately joined the other side. But five had not: Clef (Tania no longer counted, since Tan had taken back the title of Adept), Black with his lines, Green with his fire. Robot (Flach’s father), and Flach himself, the Unicorn Adept. So of fourteen now-recognized Adepts, seven were captive, two collaborated, and five were hiding.

Nepe knew why the Robot Adept hid: he had taken the Book of Magic, and if he had not been the strongest Adept before— no one was certain whether that honor belonged to the Red Adept—he surely was now. The Book of Magic was the ultimate compendium of enchantments, and could make anyone Adept in short order. It had to be kept out of the hands of the likes of Purple and Tan, if Phaze was to have any chance at all to throw off the Hectare yoke. So the Robot would hide the Book, and if it ever came to the point where the enemy was going to get it, he would destroy it instead.

Nepe also knew why she hid: she was the most elusive creature on the planet, and served as the messenger for the resistance to the invader. She and Flach had had a lot of experience in hiding, and so were natural for the role.

Clef was hiding in order to protect the other single most valuable thing of Phaze: the Platinum Flute. It had been crafted by the Platinum Elves, and yielded by them only for the most serious reason: to save Phaze. When Clef had played it the first time, the frames of Proton and Phaze had been drawn together and temporarily overlapped and then hurled apart, enabling Blue to take over in Proton and Stile in Phaze. When he had played it the second time, the frames had been permanently merged, a year ago, again enabling the good forces to overcome the evil forces, when all seemed lost.

Now, suddenly, the planet was in trouble again, and it seemed that nothing but the Flute could rescue it. But even that seemed too little, for the Hectare were already in control. The Flute had done its job twice; there seemed to be nothing else it could do. But it represented hope, and had to be kept safe. So Clef was doing that, and as long as Clef and the Flute remained out of enemy power, that faint hope remained.

But why had the two other Adepts hidden? They had been associated with the wrong side before, and never evinced much political interest anyway. Were they merely ornery, or were they up to something?

Nepe’s thoughts were interrupted by Echo. She had found Lysander! They had known the man was somewhere in the dome, and that he was in trouble because he had refused to join the enemy, but he had turned out to be surprisingly good at hiding. They needed him, because of the prophecy. Nepe wasn’t sure she believed the prophecy, or that Lysander was the one it referred to, but Mach had said to rescue him if possible, and she was trying to do that.

She knew that Echo would not have brought him if he wasn’t ready to go. As the two approached, Nepe turned and fell in beside them. “Look for a group of three,” she said. “Man, woman, and boy.”

“Who is this?” Lysander demanded suspiciously.

“Who do you think, unbeliever?” she replied without looking directly at him.

“There,” Echo said, gesturing to three serfs walking the other way. “They’re not a group, but—“

“Turn and close on them.”

They did so, and in a moment were following the others. Nepe turned over the body to Flach, who did not have to pretend being male. He murmured some doggerel verse in a singsong: “Make those front three like he, thee, and me.”

The appearance of the three serfs changed. Now the man resembled Lysander, and the woman Echo, while the boy looked like Nepe in boy form.

Flach spread his hands, holding his companions back. They slowed, letting the mimic-three separate from them. The mimic-boy crossed away from the man and woman, going his own course, but it didn’t matter; it had simply been easier to do the magic on them as a close group.

In a moment Flach guided them into a side passage where fewer serfs walked. When it seemed likely that no one was looking, he uttered another singsong verse: “Take the rest to Oche’s nest.” He willed the implementation, and the two vanished.

Flach walked on, watching for anyone watching him. None seemed to be, but he didn’t trust that. He would wait. He turned the body back to Nepe, who was best at Proton matters.

What would Lysander think, when he found himself back under the harpy’s tree? Nepe wondered. He had just been betrayed by two girlfriends; would he be suspicious of the third? For that was what Echo would be. They had chosen Jod’e for him, but the Tan Adept had gotten her. They had to write her off, as Mach put it. They had feared they would have to write Lysander off too, but somehow he had escaped. The word was that he had banged against the door panel, and it had opened. Tan must have been furious at that malfunction at that critical time! But maybe the prophecy had known that Lysander would squeak through.

But it was more likely that he had simply drawn on his enemy knowledge to make that door open, seemingly by accident. That confirmed that Tan didn’t know Lysander’s nature. Interesting: the Hectare didn’t trust Tan either! They were merely using him, and when he was of no further use to them, they would dispose of him.

But Lysander was dangerous. If it weren’t for the prophecy, they would never have brought him in. would never have brought him in. Suppose he wasn’t the one? Then they were probably lost already, because the prophecy didn’t say there would be one, only that only such a person, alien to the culture and opposed to it, could save it. There might be no such person, or they might have the wrong one, or they might have the right one and he would choose not to save them. It seemed exceedingly chancy.

Chancy—yet their only hope. So she had rescued Lysander, the enemy agent, and Echo would be his woman. Echo didn’t know the truth; she was likely to have a severe disappointment coming up. But if that happened, they would all be lost. If it didn’t, he would save them, and their gamble would have paid off. So Echo would do her best to make Lysander happy, exactly as Jod’e would have, so that when it came to the point of decision, he would be more likely to choose for Phaze instead of for the Hectare.

Meanwhile, she had to check in with others. Satisfied that she was not observed, she ducked into a service niche. “Nepe,” she murmured. “Admit.”

A panel slid aside. She climbed into the rear service area, and the panel closed behind her. The self-willed machines were maintaining a low profile, hoping to escape the notice of the Hectare, but they cooperated with Nepe. That was part of her situation; she had lived among them for years, and her father was one of them, and her grandmother. They trusted her, though her actual flesh was alien.

“Mach,” she said, stepping into a baggage transport cart.

The cart began to move. Nepe focused on her body, changing it slowly from human boy to machine. Flach could change in an instant, but he had to use a different spell each time, so he didn’t waste it. Nepe was slower, but she could do the same form a thousand times if she had to. So she did most of the changing, when it wasn’t an emergency.

She was ready by the time the cart brought her to her father. Actually he was Flach’s father, but it was all complicated, and both Mach and Bane were really fathers to both Flach and Nepe now, since the mergence, and maybe before. She rolled out on small wheels, a spot bag handler.

She rolled up to the larger machine. Mach was in humanoid form, unloading suitcases from a baggage compartment near the airport. Without hesitation he dumped a bag on her, then picked up two suitcases and strode away down the hall. She followed, heeling like a trained canine. The conquest of the planet was fresh, but care was being taken not to disrupt the tourist trade. Many tourists, in fact, didn’t realize that a hostile occupation was in progress. They would not be bothered as long as they didn’t interfere.

“Mission accomplished,” she reported on the machine frequency. Communication of many types and many levels was required to run the complicated society of Proton, and this had not changed with the advent of magic. Anyone in authority could listen in on the machine frequency, but there was little point to it, and there were thousands of exchanges of information going on simultaneously throughout the city. Each machine had limited range, to allow the use of the same frequencies without much interference.

“Tsetse is being assigned to Brown,” Mach replied. “Investigate.”

Nepe detoured into a side hall and rolled up to a disposal unit. Her bag was a dummy. She had the unit take it in, and then herself.

Soon she was connected to the command network. Troubot— status of Tsetse, she sent.

In a moment a message came back: Order just in. Guidebot to take her to Brown Demesnes.

By whose order?

Citizen Purple.

The renegade Citizen! That meant that some sort of mischief was afoot. Yet what would Purple’s interest be in the Brown Adept? She was harmless to the Hectare, now that she was under house arrest.

Could this relate to Grandam Neysa’s odd behavior, when she had hustled Flach from that wooden castle? Well, maybe Nepe could satisfy her curiosity while performing her investigation.

Assign me.

Done. Reach this location ASAP. City coordinates followed.

Nepe disconnected and got moving. Troubot would do anything for her, even if it weren’t business. As she caught a machine transport and zoomed to the address, she reflected briefly on that.

Troubot was a machine she had associated with for years. She considered him male, and he considered her female. He was in love with her. That might have seemed ludicrous to anyone offplanet, but it was feasible on Proton, where the self-willed machines could have feelings. But in Phaze, Troubot became Sirelmoba, the pretty little bitch who was Flach’s Promised. There, the sexes were reversed. But for years it had been assumed that alternate selves had to be of the same sex, and almost always they were. Why was it different here?

She had pondered this before, many times, but could come to only one conclusion: the sexes did match, either male to male or female to female. The only exceptions were when one of the selves was neutral. Troubot was neutral, because a machine had no inherent sex. Troubot thought of himself as male, so he was male, but there was nothing else to substantiate it. Nepe’s father Mach (technically, Bane in Mach’s body) thought of himself as male, so he was male. Her Grandmother Sheen thought of herself as female, and indeed she looked and acted female. But all were in essence neuter machines. All could be set up with other bodies and other programming and be of opposite sex. So there really wasn’t a change of sex, just a change of perception.

Nepe herself, like her mother Agape, was also neutral in essence. Her living component was Moebite, whose species was sexless, but assumed sexual identities when visiting other planets, in deference to the prevailing standard. So she, like the machines, simply assumed a sex, and remained with it because she preferred it. So when she became Flach it wasn’t any true sex change, only an apparent one. He was male and she was neuter, technically.

Yet it certainly felt different!

She reached the location. A gray-eyed, silvery-haired serf woman of about thirty sat in a shipment station. The hair was no sign of decline; it had been permanently tinted. She was an extremely pretty woman despite being past the flush of youth. This was Tsetse, formerly Tania’s obliging receptionist, then Citizen Purple’s mistress. Beautiful, complaisant, and not unduly smart: she had been ideal for her positions.

Nepe had known Tsetse for five years, and privately liked her. The woman was fundamentally innocent, amenable to whatever was required of her. But since she was now Purple’s serf, if no longer his mistress (he knew her age), she was not to be trusted. It was important that Tsetse never suspect Nepe’s identity.

“Guidebot for serf Tsetse,” Nepe said through her speaker grille.

The woman stood. “Here.” She looked nervous, and her eyes were a bit puffy. She had evidently been crying.

“Follow.” Nepe rolled down the hall at a comfortable walking pace. There were many means of transport, but serfs typically walked unless the distance was far or their assignments were urgent; that was why the halls were usually filled. Normally a serf did not rate a machine guide, but if the mission was important it could happen. Anything could happen at the whim of a Citizen, of course, and that was evidently the case with those who served the new masters. It was also possible that the assignment of a guide was a reminder to a perhaps reluctant serf that the directive was to be obeyed without question.

Since Tsetse was the most docile of serfs, why was such a reminder considered to be in order? She should simply have been given the order to report to her assignment at a given hour, and left to find her own way there. All transport was free for serfs, on the presumption that they were serving the interests of their employers, and directories of routes were available at convenient locations. She could have gone alone.

The woman was evidently unhappy. Had there been a falling-out? Yet this was hardly a punitive assignment. The Adept Brown was a good woman. For many years she had had a werewolf servant whom she had treated well. She would surely treat Tsetse well.

But there was another mystery. Purple had been Brown’s prisoner, and now she was his. Why should he not only allow her to keep her residence, but assign a pleasant servant to her? Purple had never been noted for generosity to anyone.

Nepe rolled up to the airport entrance. “I’m going out?” Tsetse asked forlornly.

“Yes,” Nepe answered, as any machine would. Suddenly she had her answer: Tsetse didn’t know where she was going! That was why she needed the guide—and why she was afraid. She thought she was being punished for some infraction!

Nepe pondered briefly, and decided to take a risk. It might even lead to valuable input. She overstepped the nature of a normal guidebot and volunteered information. “To the residence of the former Brown Adept in Phaze.”

Tsetse pounced on the news with pitiful hunger. “To be his servant there?” She thought Purple had taken over the Brown Demesnes.

“To be her servant there.”

“Oh, if only it’s so!” Tsetse breathed, the tension going out of her.

Nepe was glad she had spoken. Tsetse might not be much intellectually, but she didn’t deserve unkind treatment. Purple was a hard master who evidently used her and abused her without concern for her feelings. He could have told her where she was going, but perhaps had preferred to make her suffer. This was true to his form.

Nepe led the way to a seat on the small airplane available. There were no other passengers. “Brown Demesnes,” she told the control panel, and the plane started moving. Its flight would be coordinated with others, controlled from the ground. They were merely passengers.

“But why should I be assigned to the Brown Adept?” Tsetse asked. “The Purple Adept doesn’t even like her!”

That was exactly what Nepe was wondering. But she was in no position to hold a dialogue on the subject, lest she betray her nature. She did not respond.

The flight was a short one, and soon the plane came down in a field beside the wooden castle. Brown had a Proton identity, but her Phaze identity was dominant, and her Proton self had effectively disappeared during the mergence.

The plane stopped. They got out. The plane took off without them. They were left in the field, gazing at the castle.

A wooden golem came out and approached them. “Who are you?” it asked.

“This is Tsetse, assigned here by Citizen Purple,” Nepe said. “I guided her here, and now am stranded.” Indeed, Purple had cared no more for the convenience of the machine than for that of the serf.

“Follow.” The golem turned and marched back toward the castle.

“I can not,” Nepe called, for her little wheels were useless here.

The golem turned again, strode back, bent, and heaved her up. It carried her awkwardly, but with the unyielding strength of wood. It made again for the castle, with Tsetse following.

The Brown Adept met them at the front door. “What be thy purpose here?” she inquired somewhat grimly of Tsetse.

“I am to be your servant,” Tsetse replied, surprised.

“I know naught o’ this.” She glanced at Nepe, who had been set on the floor. “What be thy transmittal orders?”

“To guide the serf Tsetse to the Brown Demesnes,” Nepe replied. They had assumed she was to be a servant; it wasn’t specified in the order.

Brown looked again at Tsetse. “Thou dost work for Purple?”

“For Tania, then for Purple,” Tsetse said. “I will do good work for you, if you give me a chance.”

Brown was still for a moment, evidently struck by the woman’s eagerness. It seemed that neither party had been told about this assignment. “What type o’ work didst thou do for them?”

“I was Tania’s receptionist, and whatever. For Purple, whatever.”

“What dost thou mean, whatever?” Brown asked sharply. Tsetse looked down, ashamed to answer.

Then Brown caught on. “Purple had thee for sexual purpose?”

“Yes, for a time.”

“And Tania too?”

“Yes,” Tsetse whispered. “When she had no man.”

“And thou hadst no choice, being a serf,” Brown said. “I understand. There will be not such coercion here.”

“I didn’t mind, really,” Tsetse said. “Tania treated me well.”

“And Purple?”

Tsetse was silent.

Brown put an arm around her. “My dear, mine authority be diminished, since the invasion. I remain here only by the sufferance o’ mine enemies, and I know not how long that will be. But thou needst have no fear o’ me during that interim.”

“Thank you, sir,” Tsetse said, trying to stifle her tears of relief.

“Nay, not sir. I be an Adept, a Citizen not, and in any event my power now be scant. Come, we shall get to know each other. But first needs must we clothe thee; this be not Proton, and thy fair form will be chilled in the drafts.”

“But what of me?” Nepe asked. She did not want to get stranded here; she had other business to do.

Brown glanced at her thoughtfully. “Go to my storage chamber until thy service be needed again.”

Nepe headed into the castle and down the hall, making her way to the chamber where the wooden golems stayed when not animated. The matter remained curious. She still had no hint why Purple, who cared little for the welfare of any other person, had sent a pleasant woman like Tsetse to work with Brown. Why did he allow Brown to have even the semblance of freedom? It was obvious that neither woman knew the answer, and Nepe didn’t either. She hoped Mach could make some sense of it. But she didn’t dare send a message from here; Purple was surely monitoring whatever happened at this castle.

She moved back to the darkest recess of the storage chamber. Then she changed slowly back to human form. There was no activity. The two women were probably comparing life histories. Nepe was sure it was lonely here, and the company of another woman would be a blessing to Brown. But that only heightened the mystery: Purple could have sent anyone to watch Brown: a harridan or a cruel man or a machine. He had sent possibly the most compatible person available. That was completely unlike him. Why hadn’t he simply had her locked in a cell?

When her change was complete, she shifted to Flach. He became a flea and jumped through a crack in the wall, working his way outside. When he got there, he became a small snake and slithered through the grass away from the castle. Only when he was well clear did he conjure himself directly to Hardom, where he returned the body to Nepe.

She wasted no time contacting Mach, joining him again on the baggage route so they could talk. “Report on Brown: Tsetse assigned as servant, unknown to either Brown or Tsetse. Mysterious act of generosity on Purple’s part. He let her keep her Demesnes, too.”

“Do the two women get along?” he asked.

“Yes, well.”

“Then Purple means to use Tsetse as a lever against Brown. She will have to serve the Hectare.”

“Brown wouldn’t do that!” Nepe protested.

“She will have to. How did you exit?”

“I asked Brown what of me, and she looked at me and told me to go to the storage chamber. So I did, and sneaked out from there. No one saw me.”

“How did you know where the storage chamber was?”

“Silly! I’ve been there many times before!”

“But you were supposed to be a Proton guidebot.”

Now it sank in. “I shouldn’t have known! The machine shouldn’t have known!”

“Which means Brown caught on to your identity.”

“But she wouldn’t give me away!”

“I’m afraid she would, Nepe, now.”

“But why? She’s on our side!”

“She is being blackmailed.”

“What?”

“Her sexual preference is for women. Trool knew, but kept his counsel until he realized that Purple and Tan were catching on. Then he told me. Neysa was going to help her, but the invasion came too soon. Now they are forcing her to cooperate with the Hectare, lest her secret be publicized.”

“But who cares what she likes?” Nepe demanded. “She’s not the only one! Tsetse—“ Then it came clear. “That’s why Purp sent her! To—“

“To make clear that he knows her secret, and will not only keep it, but give her a lover—if she cooperates,” Mach said. “Carrot and stick. She can keep her Demesnes and nominal freedom, and have a truly lovely and obliging woman—or she can suffer the humiliation of exposure and unkind imprisonment. Rape by males would no doubt be pan of that punishment. She is a good woman, but sensitive and alone. She can not withstand that combination.”

“But do the rest of you really care? I mean, you tied in with an alien blob and a unicorn; what do you care about who she cares about?”

“Nothing. We can accept her as she is. But she can’t believe that. Had we realized how it would be used against her, we would have made our position plain before the Hectare investment. But of course most of us simply didn’t know. She was once smitten with Stile; we had not questioned beyond that. We should have.”

“Grandam Neysa—that’s why she hurried us on,” Nepe said. “Why she went back. Maybe she told Brown it was all right.”

“Neysa is conservative. It took her almost ten years to accept Fleta’s relationship with me.”

“So she wouldn’t go for it,” Nepe said. “So Brown thinks that’s how we all think!”

“It is an irony of the situation. We were distracted by the coming conquest, and didn’t realize how this would relate.”

“So Brown will tell on me, because she has to. I wish I hadn’t given myself away! What do we do now?”

“We shall have to move quickly, before the golems stake out the Poles.”

Nepe was baffled. “What are you saying?”

“Something I preferred not to, before. We have set two counterploys in motion. One is the Magic Bomb which Black and Green have made.”

“The what?”

“Its detonation will destroy the planet and all on it. So if we lose, we will take the Hectare with us. But we prefer not to lose.”

Nepe was daunted by the horror of the notion. “I had no idea!”

“We preferred to shield you from that sort of reality,” he replied. “But it is time for you to know, so that you understand the importance of your own role.”

“But I’m just a messenger!”

“Your messages are critical. You will have three, and you dare fail in none. Soon all of us will be captive except you. Here is the message capsule. Do not attempt the second until the first is done, or the third until the second is done.”

“I’ll try,” she said. “But—“

“I have erased my own knowledge of the plan,” he said. “I was the only one who knew the full course. Now none of us can betray it to the enemy. I can only say that its details will be completely surprising. If you are caught, destroy the capsule without reading it.”

“But then we will all be destroyed!” she protested. “By the Magic Bomb!”

He cracked a small smile. “Get offplanet if you can.”

“But Daddy—“

“You are on your own, alien flesh.” It was an endearment he used on her, referring to her Moebite ancestry. “On your way, and do not communicate with me again.”

She knew he meant it. She scooted away from him, the weight of the planet suddenly on her little shoulders. They were playing what in the game was known as hard ball.

When she was safely alone, she activated the capsule for the first message. It was simple: GO TO NORTH POLE.

That was all. She waited, hoping that there would be some explanation, but was disappointed.

She pondered it, her mind whirling. Tsetse had been delivered to Brown, and suddenly to save the planet Nepe had to go to the North Pole! How could she make sense of that?

Well, she could make a little piece of sense of it. Brown now understood what was at stake for her. Brown had also caught on to Nepe’s presence. That meant that the enemy would be on her trail. But maybe not immediately. Brown might take a few hours to realize what she had to do, and Purple might have trouble tracing Nepe after that, even with magic. So maybe there would be no pursuit. But the Hectare might have devices that no one else knew about, that could sniff out even a magic trail, with a little advice from an Adept. So they couldn’t take a chance. So Mach had given Nepe the full dose, on the assumption that they would trace him down through her, and take him out of the game. He could not afford to assume otherwise.

So before she went to the North Pole, she had better mask her trail. But quickly, because she didn’t know how much they already knew. Mach had said they might have Brown’s golems stake out the Poles. What did the Poles have to do with all this? Probably the answer was in the Book of Magic, which Mach had taken somewhere. He must have hidden it where it wouldn’t be found by the enemy, because with it they could overcome anything any Adept tried.

Where would that Book be? Where else: the North Pole! So if she went there and got it, maybe she could use it to do whatever else was needed.

Nepe moved about within the city, crisscrossing her trail so that it would be excruciatingly difficult for anyone to track her by any normal means. She was good at hiding, as good as any creature could be, but there remained that lurking doubt: if Brown had told immediately, and Purple had put a magic tracker on her, that would be impossible to shake by physical means. So she might be wasting her time here.

Still, Flach was experienced at magical hiding, and he could do his best to nullify that tracker spell. So after she was done here, she would turn it over to him, and he would complete the job.

It all seemed reasonably simple. But she very much feared it wasn’t.