THE CITY WHO FAUGHT
by
ANNE MCCAFFREY & and S.M. STIRLING


       BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey
Partnership Anne McCaffrey & Margaret Ball
The Ship Who Searched by Anne McCaffrey & Mercedes Lackey
The City Who Fought by Anne McCaffrey & S.M. Stirling


THE CITY WHO FOUGHT

This is a work of fiction. All the
characters and events portrayed in
this book are fictional, and any
resemblance to real people or
incidents is purely coincidental.

Copyright O 1993 by Bill Fawcett &
Associates

All rights reserved, including the
right to reproduce this book or
portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Book
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
ISBN: 0-671-87599-X
Cover art by Stephen Hickman
First paperback printing, May 1994

Distributed by Paramount Publishing
1230 Avenue of the Americas New
York, NY 10020

Library of Congress Catalog Number:
93-2651
Printed in the United States of America

     ~ PROLOGUE.

  "flow Amos teen
Sierra Nueva said
desperately.

  "Another forty-five
minutes, esteemed
sir," the technician
answered in a voice
flat with focused
concentration.

  Amos touched the
pickup in his ear and
turned back to the
low hills ahead. They
were covered in pine
forest, or had been,
untilaboutan hour
ego. Nowtheywereburn-
ing, a furnace of
resin-fueled candles
fifty meters high The
invaders had barred
their own way with
the blest of
beam-fire from the
airc~fl; but they
seemed lazily indif-
ferent about
inflicting casualties
on their own forces.
The Bethelite
nobleman ground his
teeth in fury at that
lordly disdain;
unfortunately,
itseemedjustified.

  For now. Most of
the resistance to
-the Kolnari invasion
had come from
Bethel's planetary
constabulary, and the
Guardians ofthe
Temple. Those few who
didn't see the
invasion as
punishment for the
sins of godless young
Amos teen Sierra
Nueva and his fol-
lowers had, of
course, resisted. The
faithful had
effectively offered
their throats to the
pirate knife. Sheer
luck that Amos and
those followers had
been preparing even
if their efforts had
been made against the
day when the
Guardians came for
them.

  "Everything is in
place, my brother,"
said the man beside
Amos in the rear seat
of the pickup. Joseph
teen Said was a
commoner worse than
that, a bastard from
the slums of
Keriss but he had
been the first of
Amos' followers, and
had proved to be the
most loyal.

2 AnneMcCa~i~S.M.St~ng
  Not to mention certain skills,
  Amos reminded himself

  "Take me forward to the bunker,"
he said, and cut off Joseph's
protest with a brusque chop of his
hand.

  The gunner behind the
pintle-mounted launcher swayed as
the driver gunned the fans and slid
the vehicle down the dirt track. He
was inexperienced; they all were.
The Second Revelation had trained in
secret with their hoarded weapons,
preparing for the Second Exodus to
Al Mina. Official Temple policy held
there was no need to venture beyond
Bethel when three centuries of
valiant breeding left the Chosen
still thin on the ground in the
initial area of settlement. There
had been no time to acquire much
real skill with the tools of
destruction. The measures had been
insurance, really, in case the
Elders actually were willing to use
force to prevent the settlement
ofthe Saffron system's other
habitable planet.

  Ahead, the fire throbbed and
roared. The pines were a native
variety; candlestick trees, they
were called. They were explosively
flammable this time of year, and the
air was thick with the heavy
resinous smoke. Dust spurted from
under the car as they swung behind
the bunker, just now thrown up with
farming machines and covered with
raw dirt. The driver backed and then
let the vehicle settle on its
flexible skirt, keeping the fans
running and the gunner's line of
sightjust over the top ofthe mound.

  "Good man," Amos said, thumping
him on the shoulder before he hopped
down and ducked to enter the bunker.

  A display film had been tacked to
one wale It showed footage from a
pickup located a kilometer down the
road. Half a dozen men and women in
coveralls and caps were talking into
communicators or hovering over a
schematic display on a rickety camp
table. In the bunker, the air was
full of a crackling tension, louder
to the nerves than the burning
forest was to the ears.

ME CITYWIlO FOUGHT 3

Amos nodded to . . . He officer, he
reminded himself. No longer friends
and retainers, but warriors.

"They are coming," Rachel hint
Damscus said.

  Her plain bony face was tightly
impassive. She was an info~systems
specialist, rare for a woman on
BetheL where most females held to
traditional feminine careers like
medicine or literature. Joseph made
her a formal bow.

"You are well, lady?" he said.

  She gave a curt nod, then turned
back to Amos. "They hit the forest
with some sort of indirect-fire
incendiary weapon, and now they are
advancing through it. Powered
vehicles. Fusion-bubble neutrino
signatures, fairly heavy ones."

  "They probably do not know how
common bad fires are here," Amos
said. He worked a tongue in a mouth
gone dry. Bethel vehicles used
stressed-storage batteries.

  Rachel was holding up well, better
than he had expected. She had a
violent temper, and he suspected a
buried streak of hysteria. She was
also a claustrophobe: the bunker
would add that distress to her
burdens. The more credit to her, for
conquering her phobia.

  "They thought to mask their
approach in the flames't, he said
aloud.

  Their first ambush had killed
several of the invader infantry. Even
a few hours had shown how the
strangers reacted to a challenge:
strike back immediately with
overwhelming power. He cleared his
throat and asked calmly:

"How far are they from the mine?"

  "Two kilometers and closing.
Closing at twenty kph. Onscreen."

  The view through the screen tacked
to the wall trembled. That meant
something was shaking the ground
under the pickup, even though it was
spiked to solid rock. Hills rose on
either side ahead, everything

4 Anne McCq:rg ~ She. Shying

on fire except for the narrow stream
and the road beside it, down at the
base ofthe massive granite slopes.
Shapes were moving through the
burning trees on the lower slopes.
Dull-gleaming shapes, hard to make
out against the background, as if
the surfaces were adapting
themselves, chameleon-fashion, as
they moved. Low turtle-backed
outlines, with long weaponsjutting
from their sloped forward plates,
the barrels built up from coils or
rings, some sort of wave-guide or
electromagnetic launcher.

  One fighting vehicle pivoted. The
muzzle flashed, bright even through
the hot-iron glow ofthe fires. The
viewscreen fogged slightly as a
pickup was blasted into plasma, then
cleared as the system compensated by
spreading input from the others.

  "Well, that gives us a due to the
sensitivity of their
detectors,nJoseph said. He leaned
forward. "Everyone is out ofthere?"

  "Falling back to the launching
ground. There is nobody within
fifteen kilometers," Rachel said.
"We are closest."

"Do it, then," Amos said.

  She touched a control surface. The
screen flashed white and went blank.
Half a second later an actinic glare
flashed through the bunker,
reflected in from the rear entrance
but still bright enough to make
their goggles darken protectively.
Sound and shock followed in a few
heartbeats: a roar like God
returning in anger, an earthquake
rumble through the soil, then a wave
of heat and pressure making their
ears pop.

  "So Keriss died," Rachel said
absently, to herself "Tamik saw it.
He said the flash was like the sword
of God, and the waves a kilometer
high when they broke over the
Peninsula mountains."

  "Everyone leave," Amos said quiedy,
glancing down at the watch woven
into his sleeve. There was nodding
else to say. Rachel's family had
lived in Keriss, the

THE (~IYWHO FOUGHT 5

capital city of Bethel. So had most
of Amos' surviving kindred, and
Joseph's, if he had any. "We will
rendezvous in forty minutes at the
shuttle." He paused. "And, Rachel?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Well done. Very we11 done."

  When they left the bunker, the
pillar of cloud was already
flattening out high in the
stratosphere.

            ~ CHAPr~R ONE

  "SSS." The sensor overmatch AI
filtered a possible message out of
tile interstellar background and
passed it through to the controller
of Station SSS-900.

  "Hissing again, are we?" Simeon
muttered absendy at the subprogram,
and turned his attention back to the
simulacrum.

  Napoleon had just pushed dhe
British north of Nottingham.
Wounded, exhausted soldiers sprawled
across the fields where the defeated
army camped, as the rain drained
down, gray skies darkening over
trampled muddy fields. Away across
the rolling landscape fires still
flickered, where dead men lay gaping
around smashed cannon. The women
were out widh lanterns, looking for
their husbands and sons.

  A dispatch rider came clattering up
to Wellesley's tent with news of
~eJacobin uprisings in Birmingham
and Manchester, and a landing of dhe
Irish reW. The big beak-nosed man
stood in dhe open flap of the tent
as the dripping militiamen saluted
clumsily and handed over the
dispatches, blinking in the driving
rain.

  "The devil widh it," he muttered,
turning to dhe maptable within and
unfolding the heavy wax-sealed
papers. "It's too bad. If we'd won
chat last battle . . . if wishes
were horses, beggars would ride.
Still, it was a damned near-run
thing a very near cling."

  He looked up. "You are to inform
His Majesty dint he and the royal
family must take ship for India

IRE two FOUGHT 7

immediately. These " he extended the
reports from his f olding desk " are
f or Viceroy Arnold in Calcutta. "

I concede the computer said.

"Ofcourse," Simeon answered smugly.

  He switched his primary visual
focus from simulation back to the
lounge and looked down at the big
holotable. An excellent model for use
in war-gaming, the map of England was
scattered with unit symbols. Finer
and finer detail could be obtained by
magnifying individual sectors right
down to the animate models of
soldiers and horses. Or tanks and
artillery, for some ofthe other
games. He focused: on a horse tiredly
nipping at its neighbor on the picket
line, on the stubbled gap-toothed
face of a sentry yawning.

"SSS."

"Whatis that?" Simeon asked.

  The answer floated up into his
awareness from the peripherals;
tightbeam signal, modulated subspace
waves, picked up by one ofthe passive
buoys out on the fringes of the
system. A subroutine had flagged it
as possibly interesting.

  H - am, he thought. Odd. It might
just be the last fading noise from a
leaking mini-singularity about to go
pop. The things tended to cluster in
this area, which was full of
third-generation stars and black
holes, though this one tasted like a
signal. The problem with that was
that there was nothing much out that
way; nothing listed as inhabited for
better than two hundred lights.
Certainly no traffic into the sphere
of Space Station Simeon-900-X's
operations. He would have to see if
anything more came of it. Presumably
if someone was calling, they would
try again.

  Idly, he ran a checklist of station
functions. Lifesupport was nominal,
of course; any variation of that was
red-flagged. One hundred seventy-two
craft of various sorts from the
linerAltair to barge-tugs were

8 ArtneMcCaffre'~ S M. SO

currently docked. Twenty-seven
megatons of various mineral powders
were in transit, in storage, or
undergoing processing in SSS-900-X's
attendant fabrication modules. Two
new tugs were under construction in
the yard. A civic election was
underway, with Anita de
Chong-Markowitz leading for council-
rep in station sector three, the
entertainment decks. Death in the
Twenty-First was still billing as
most popular holo ofthe month.
Simeon sneered mentally, with a
wistful overtone. Historical dramas
were impossible for a serious
scholar to watch because the
manufacturers would not do their
research

  It was not necessary to investigate
much more in detail. With the
connectors, shellpersonSimeon was
SSS-900 X. Little awareness remained
ofthe stunted body inside its
titanium shell in the central column
of the lounge. He ups the station,
and any weakness or failure was,
like pain, intense and personal. As
far as his kinesthetic sense was
concerned, he was a metal tube a
kilometer long, with two huge globes
attached on either end.

  The Chair was in. Simeon had docked
the incoming ship with his usual
efficiency but without his usual
close scrutiny. He deliberately
turned his attention away from
disembarking passengers, refusing to
study their faces, especially the
faces of the women.

  Radon's replacement as Simeon's
brawn was on this ship, and allhe
knew was her work record end her
name. Channa Hap. Probably from
Hawking Alpha Proxima Station, Hap
being a common surname for those
born in that ancient and wealthy
community. He wasn't entirely sure.
He'd fought Radon's retirement too
hard to have much personal interest
in his replacement. All right, Iwas
sulimg, he told himself. Tmle to get
with theprogra~ He'd established a
subroutine to trash the applications
of replacements. That hadn't been
personal, merely a ploy.

  He hadn't wanted her, but they were
stuck with each other now.

IlIE OIYWHO FOUGEU 9

  Liners docked at the north polar
aspect of the two linked globes that
made up the station. The tube was a
kilometer long and half that wide,
more than enough for the
replenishment feeds and a debarkation
lounge fancy enough to satisfy the
station's collective vanity: twenty
meters on a side and fifteen high,
lined with murals, walled and floored
with exotic space-mined stone, with
information kiosks and everything
else a visitor needed to feed at
home.

  "I'm Channa Hap," a woman said to
one of the kiosks. "I need directions
to Control CentraL"

  So that's her. Long bight face,
mediumlength curling dark hair.

  "You are expected, Ms. Hap," the
terminal said. It had a mellow,
commanding voice synthed from several
of Simeon's favorite actors, some of
whom dated back to the twenty-fourth
century. "Do you wish trans-
portation?"

  "If there's no hurry, Ill walk.
Might as well get used to the new
home."

"This way' please.!'

  She nodded. Simeon froze the visual
and studied her; tall, athletic.
Dressed plainly in a coverall, but
she had presence. Nice figure, too,
if you liked subtle curves and
rolling muscle.Afox.

  In an amazingly short time the
door-chime signaled a request for
admittance. Feeling as nervous as he
had when meeting his first brawn,
Simeon said, "Come," and the door
swished open.

  Channa entered. He closed in on the
viewer to what he thought of as
normal conversational distance. That
was an advantage sometimes, since
softshells couldn't get to their
psychologically comfortable distance
with you. She had delicate, clear-cut
features and earnest dark eyes, and
the curly black hair was swept back
from her face in a disciplined
no-nonsense fashion. A

10 AruneMcCo ~SM.Stir~ng

via-show heroine. Perfect! he
thought. To get things off on the
right foot. He switched on a screen
with his own "face" the way he'd
imagined it, ruggedly handsome with
a tan, a Heidelberg dueling scar,
level gray eyes, close~ropped blond
hair and a Centaun Jets fan cap  and
spoke aloud:

"Hubba-hubbal"

Ihe dark eyes widened slightly,
"Excuse me?'l

  He laughed, "That's ancient Earth
slang for 'sexy lady., n

"I see."

  The words were so clipped Simeon
could almost hear them ping on the
deck as they fell through a short
silence.

  Ah, geesh, he thought, this is
going really well. "Um, I meant it
as a compliment." Any didn't they
send me a male orawn? he asked
himself, conveniently forgetting his
request form. Male bonding he knew
about.

  "Yes, of course," she said coolly.
"It'sjustnota type of compliment
that I'm particularly fond of
receiving."

  She'sgot a nice voice, Simeon
thought uneasily. Pity she seems to
be a bitch. "What sort of
compliments do you accept?" he asked
in a tone of forced jocularity which
wasn't easy to manage through a
digital speaker.

  "I accept those that deal with my
quick learning ability, and my
efficiency, or that acknowledge I'm
doing a good job," she said, moving
further into the room and taking a
seat before his column. Until she
had finished speaking, she did not
look directly at him.

  "The sort of compliment you'd give
a servom~banim', if you gave
servo-mechanisms compliments,"
hesadd.

"Exactly." She smiled sweetly and
folded her hands.

  "You've an interesting attitude,
Ms. Hap," he said, laying a little
stress on the ancient honorific. If
she wards togetformal, I7l show
herfor~l. "Moss ofthe women

MEI]Y WHO FOUGHT 1 1

I've worked with didn't object to an
occasional compliment on dheir
appearance."

  She raised her brows slightly and
cocked her head. "Perhaps if they
objected you simply dismissed it as
being part of an 'attitude.' "

  Icould cry, if Icould cay, Simeon
Thought. He'd gotten lonely these
last weeks without Tell Radon. He'd
begun to anticipate thefiun he'd been
going to have with a new brawn.
Someone to talk to.... How could they
have matched him with this . . . ice
princess? They knew he was easy
going, sure, but he'd given them a
very good idea of what he was looking
for in a brawn. Exact specifications,
which Channa Hap hadn't met, fillly.
Was someone in Central taking
advantage of his good nature, somehow
hoping he could straighten her out,
or maybe loosen her up?

  "I find your attitude rather
interesting," she murmured, narrowing
her eyes. "Have you checked your
hormone levels recendy?U

  "That's a radher personal
remark...." Maybe theyj~t want me to
blast her out an airlock when
nobody's looking.

  " 'Sexy lady' isn't?" She smiled
and raised a sardonic brow.

  "That was a compliment, intended to
put you et ease. Have you checked
your own hormone levels lately?"

There was silence.

  After a moment she sat forward and
looked at him levelly. "Look, even
though it hardly seems worth dhe
trouble of officially submitting my
orders to you, on a practical level
we may as welljust admit that, for
the time being, we're stuck with each
other. You need a brawn and I'm here.
I'm well trained, experienced and
hard working. We don't have to love
each odler to work togedher."

  "True, but it gets a lithe cold
trying to maintain your distance wide
someone you see every day. It would
be a lot easier if we could be
friends. Look, why don't wejust

12 AnneMcGo0~SM. String

erase whatjust happened and start
over? Whaddaya say?'

  She pursed her lips, then smiled.
"I'm game. But let's start slow, and
we'll avoid the personal remarks for
the time being, okay?" She cocked
her head at him and raised en
eyebrow. "You start."

  "Hello, you must be Channa Hap.
Welcome to the SSS-90~C."

"Thank you. I hope
I'm-notinterrupting."

  "Nah, I always have time for a pret
. . . colleague." He detected a
slight narrowing of her eyes. "My,
you sure are efficient looking."

"WelL and so are you, you're so
steely and all."

"Fanny, I was just about to say the
same thing about

you."

She stood up. "This isn't going to
work."

  "My fault. I shouldn't have said
that. Look, you must be tired from
all the travel you've been doing.
Why don't you settle in, look
around, relax a little things might
look different."

  "This has nothing to do with my
being tired or your hormones...."

"What is this fixation you have with
my hormones?"

  "Shut-up-and-listen-to-me." Channa
was giving him a look that he could
almost feet She paused and held up
her hands, sitting down again. just
listen," she said earnestly. "I
think that it would be best if we
put our cards on the table. I
haven't studied your files in filll
yet," she admitted with a tired
smile. "I just couldn't make
myselfdo it. But I do know quite a
bit about you." She leaned back and
crossed her long legs. "I know that
you have a fair amount of influence
and a lot of contacts at Central
Admin. And I know that you called on
just about all of them in the matter
of your brawn replacement." She gave
him a severe look. "You made
yourself f amous on just about every
level. "

He was a little lost here. Hehad
kicked up quite a fuss

ICE CI~IY WHO E OUGHT 13

when they forcibly retired Tell
Radon, but what did it have to do
with her?

  "In case you're wondering why I'm
bringing this up," she continued.

  Geeeze, Simeon thought, that's
eerie! She can't possibly mad my
mind. Can shed

  "It may interest you to know that I
have my own contacts at Admin. And
they've told me that you came up with
a list of qualifications that were
extremely hard to fill. In fact, I
was the only candidate who did fit
them, with the glaring exception of
the age qualification. I hear that
I'm four years too young for this
post."

"WeN, you see . . ."

  "Excuse me, I'm not finished. I was
also told that you wentover my
servicerecordslookingfarblackmarks,
and that when you couldn't find them,
you went looking for shadows that you
could pretend were black marks.... "

"Heyl I don't know who you were
talking to."

  "Bear with me a few moments
longer," Channa said, holding up one
finger. '`Then you can have your say.
I'm not going anywhere." She looked
at his image on the screen for a
moment with narrowed eyes, and when
he remained silent she nodded. "I've
been told that all you need do to rum
the day of almcst any Admin executive
is to mention my name. The feeling
you appear to have left behind you as
the smoke cleared on this was that
where there's smoke, there's fire.
And that if you, well-known and
respected brain that you are, would
object so strenuously to my
assignment to the SS~900, despite the
fact that I fit all but one of your
many qualifications, then there must
indeed be something seriously wrong
with me."

  "Oh." He honestly hadn't thought
about that. He'd been so intent on
saving Tell from forced retirement
that no other considerations had
seemed important. Channa Hap as a
person had never entered into his
thoughts.

14 AnneMcCa - PRISM. S - ng

  Channa continued speaking, "I told
myself that it probably wasn't
personal."

God, it's wend the way she can pick
up on my thoughts like

!

  "I told myselfto keep an open
mind. If you had only greeted me as
a fellow professional, then I think
I could have let the whole mess be
forgotten. But the first words out
of your speakers show that either
you can't discern the difference
between a compliment and a lip-
smacking, smarmy, personal remark,
or your campaign to get rid of me
continues."

  "Now wait a minute!" Simeon said.
She opened her mouth to speak and he
overrode her. "It's my turn. Okay,
you said I'd get a turn and I'm
taking it." She raised her brows and
gave him an open-handed gesture,
giving him the floor. "I don't know
who your informant is, but they've
got it all wrong. I'm going to
assume that you know the system well
enough to realize that whoever came
up for consideration was going to be
gone over with a fine-tooth comb. A
space station the size of a small
city requires versatility. I'm going
to assume that you're mature enough
to know that twenq-six is very young
for this posting. Tell was thirty-
eight when we came here, and that's
the general age I was looking for. I
don't think, given the importance of
the SSS-900, that I'm being
unreasonable. But, I suppose that to
someone uninformed, the in-depth
investigation could look like a
campaign to discredit you. That was
honestly not my intention, nor is it
my intention now. If my greeting was
a little too familiar, I apologize,
but I had no way of knowing what
dark suspicions you were harboring.
I'm really very open, Ms. Hap."

  She smiled amiably and nodded.
"Mmhm. This entire charming
explanation of yours is predicated
on the assumption that my informant
is someone's secretary." She shook
her head sadly. "No."

         1ME CrIyWHo FOUGHT 15
Gulp, maybe I did go a lUtlefar....
"Um ..."

  "You can rest easy," she assured
him. "I'm very good at what I do. As
you well know, I have an almost
perfect record...."

  Actually, you do have a perfect
record, Simeon thought miserably.

  " . . . so, whether we actually get
along or not, the station won't
suffer. And I promise you that I'm
notgoing tojust up and disappear on
you once you've gotten used to me.
Because I have it on good authority
that, after what you've done to my
career and reputation, I'd have to
bribe and sleep my way into a
secondary assignment on the meanest
asteroid-m~ng outpost at the farthest
reaches of the explored galaxy." She
rose and said, "I'd dike to look at
my quarters now."

  "Yeah . . . just," Simeon slid the
door to the brawn's quarters open,
"just settle in. We'll work this out,
Ms. Hap you'll see. I'm not as bad as
you seem to think I am. I'll check
out your allegations and see if I can
make things right. Okay?"

  She looked from the open door to
Simeon and back again. She sighed as
she walked to the door. "No, I think
it would be better if youjust left
things alone for a while."

  "Ms. Hap," Simeon called. She
turned. "When a new brawn comes
aboard, station protocol recommends
a little informal gathering of the
department heads. I've arranged one
for this evening at 20:00. That is,
if that's all right with you?"

  She nodded and smiled. "I think
that's a great idea." The door to her
room slid strut behind her.

 ~ TWO                                          1

"I can't keep her levell I can't keep her level!"

  Amos teen Sierra Nueva leaned forward, gripping the edge of
the console as if he could force strength down the commlink and
the beam to the stricken transport.

  "Do not panic, Shintev," he said, firm but calm. "You are too
close to your destination for panic."

  Panic seemed to be the order of the day. The bridge of the
Exodus a minor substation control center for three hundred
years was in pandemonium as the refugee technicians struggled
to activate and improvise. There was a hissing puncture right
through the pressure hull where they had slammed a steel tube
for the coaxial feeds to Guiyon's shelf None of the big
cargo-bay doors were operable so they had had to lash the
surface-to-ship transporters to the exterior of the ancient
ship and climb in through service-hatch doors. The air was thin
and cold, dim with the emergency lighting, full ofthe smell
offear and sweat and scorched insulation.

  "Excellent sir. I think that the enemy has detected us," a
voice said from one corner.

"You think?"

  "I am not sure!" the technician wailed, on the brink of
tears. "They are moving . . . yesl They have detected us!"

  Amos' head whipped around. Then the link from the last
shuttle began to transmit only a long highpitched scream. He
looked back again to see a face rammed into the pickup,
plastered there by centrifugal

ME CI~IY WHO FOUGHT 17

force. Flesh and pooling blood
rippled across the screen before it
blanked out.

  "They are gone," Amos said into the
sudden hush. "Decouple the remaining
shutdes. Prepare for boost."

  Another chorus of screams protested
that they were not ready.

  "The engines are on-line," Guiyon's
calm deep voice said. "That will
suffice for now."

  Amos turned and punched an
override. "Prepare for acceleration!
Acceleration in ten seconds from
mark. Markl"

  A speck of light blossomed across
one of the exterior fields.

  "They got Shintev," somebody
whispered. An extraorbital fighter,
bouncing across the surface of the
troposphere like a skipped stone had
gotten close enough to launch a
seeker missile at the out-of Control
shutde.

  "Attend to your duty!" Amos
snapped. Later *zere will
bet~neforpraye~, andfor tears.

  Force pushed at the ancient ship.
Humming and snapping sounds vibrated
through the hull. Exterior feeds
showed gantries and constructs
bending and breaking under a strain
they had never been intended to
endure. The ground-to-orbit shutdes
were breaking away as well, and a few
figures in spacesuits.

  Darru~atum, Amos thought, looking
away. They were warned! So many lives
rested on his shoulders.

  The great cloud-girdled shape of
Bethel began to shrink in the rear
viewscreen. The visible face of the
planet was obscured by dust and flame
from the fighting. Acceleration
flattened him into his chair as he
read figures from dhe flickering
screens.

"Guiyon!" he said. "We are moving too
slowly!"

  "Peace, Amos. I am trying to yes, I
am venting the life-support tanks."
Tens of thousands of kilotons of
water were jettisoned. "That will
help us. And hinder the enemy."

18 Ar~McCo~ ~ Sol. String

"What force pursues us?"

  "Five ships of small to moderate
size. I think they are the enemy
sentinels. None other are in
position or rigged for pursuit."

"Will they be able to intercept?"

  "I do not know. But I must stress
the engines, and there will be
casualties among the passengers."

"Do whet must tee done."

  The weight pressing into his body
increased until his bones creaked
from the gravity that the antique
compensators could not handle. The
actual gravity would crush.

  Behind the Exodus, half the
universe vanished in a blaze of
drive energies. The hull did not hum
anymore: it creaked, with occasional
rending and crashing noises as
components which had weakened or
reset during the long years as an
orbital station came apart under the
stress and crashed sternwards.
Somewhere a child called for its
mother, again and again.

"What can we co?'' Amos asked.

  "Little, until we clear the gravity
well," Guiyon answered. "Pray,
perhaps, since that was your
custom?"

One by one, the refugees lifted
voices in chant.

  Patsy Sue Coburn glanced over at a
silk clad Channa Hap. Channa was
sipping champagne and listening
politely to a medical officer who
had backed her into a corner to tell
a story that seemed to involve a lot
of cutting motions. The room was
full of station bigwigs, section
representatives, department heads,
company reps, merchanter captains,
the odd artist or entertainer. Trays
floated about at shoulder height,
loaded with beverages, canapes, and
stimulants. Everyone seemed f fled
with a new enthusiasm for
conversations they'd had a hundred
times before, as if the new brawn
had reinvigorated old topics. Patsy
Sue felt the warmth

ICE CITY WHO FouGHT 19

of Florian Gusky's presence even
before his deep voice rumbled softly
in her ear.

"So . . . what do you think ofthe new
girl?"

  Patsy looked at him out of the
corner of her bottlegreen eyes and
flicked back her long blond hair. His
jaw was thrust forward and his thick
neck was hunched into heavy
shoulders, accentuating the rugged
cast of his features. A big man and
nearly as tough as he thought he was.
Gusky was an enthusiast for Revival
Games, particularly rugby; he looked
ready to tackle Channa.

  Or stomp on her with cleats, she
thought. "I think the new w~nan's
elegant," Patsy replied. And makes me
wish I'd been a little more
restrained, she added to herself. Her
ownJunoesque figure was squeezed into
a tight red sheath with a deep
cleavage and a slit skirt. Her ash-
blond hair her own natural coloring
with the barest tint of help from
modern technology was woven with
ropes of black pearls.

"I think sheds a snob," Gusky said
decisively.

  "She seems a bit reserved," Patsy
allowed. Rio wouldn't be, dropped mto
this ~ll~n~sa/ill?

"She seems shallow."

  What is yer problem? Y' lookin' at
the woman like you think she's got
the legs of a cockroach under that
gown. I've neva known you to make
snap judgments. Do you know somethin'
that needs tellin'?"

  He looked into his drink, frowning.
"No . . . it'sjust . . . Simeon's
awfully quiet." He looked up at her
with concern in his brown eyes.
"That'sjust not like him."

  She grinned and flicked her blond
bangs aside. "Well, this will be
quite an adjustment per him after
all," she said. "He en' Tell Radon
were together for decades. Maybe he's
missin' him and doesn't feel like
bein' at a party."

  Gus nodded, pursing his lips.
"Yeah, or maybe he wants to give her
a chance to shine...."

20 An~neMcCa~ ~ SM. Slaking

  They both looked down for a moment
and shuffled their feet. They looked
up at the same moment and said,
"Simeon?" simultaneously, and then
burst out laughing.

  "You called?" The familiar image
bloomed on a screen beside them.

"Ah! Oh, hi, Sim, we, uh . . . we .
. ."

  "We were just saying you're Linda
quiet tonight," Gus finished.

  "Well, with most of my serfior
staff here at the party, I'm sort of
pulling double-duty," Simeon said
listlessly. "Excuse me," and he was
gone.

  Patsy and Gus looked at each other
in amazement, then turned to take a
new look at Channa Hap, now being
introduced to a cargo specialist.

Gus shook his head. "What did she do
to him?"

Patsy smiled. "Trimmed his sails
good and proper."

  "This was not a match made in
Paradise," Gus muttered.

  "Oh, I dunno," Patsy said,
narrowing her green eyes
thoughtfully. "The woman has style,
Gus. This place could use some
style. Look at this party. When was
the last time you came to Simeon's
place and got somethin' besides beer
and pretzels?"

  Gus looked at her in amazement.
"What's that supposed to mean? Are
you telling me you can be bought
with the right canapes?"

  "No. Chocolate truffles maybe, but
not synthesized fish eggs on carbo
wafers." At his growl she continued
more seriously. "What I'm sayin' is,
this place is more like a boys' camp
than the hub of culture and science
and business that it could be.
She'll shake us up all nght, but
maybe that's a good thing. It's
gain' to get a lot more interestin'
around here."

  He went back to glowering. Patsy
went over to Channa to compliment
her choice ofthe Rovolodorus' Second
Celestial Suite as background music.

ICE-IYWlIO FOUGHT 21

  "Glad you like it, Ms. Coburn,"
Channa said. Her smile had the
slightly artificial quality of
someone who has spent the last few
hours fending offwould-be favor
seekers. "You're from Larabie,
though, aren't you?"

  "Ileft," Patsyreplie~
"Didn'tlikethedown-homemusic there,
and I get Bosh oft hems Rant and the
other PioneerStomp stuff Simeonplays.
Nooffense, Simeon."

  "None taker," a voice said out
ofthe air, the"n" fading into
silence.

  Channa's next smile was more
genuine. "I'd have thought the chief
environmentalist would be in favor of
stability," she said.

  "I get sash of watchin' algae
breed," Patsy said, and they both
laughed. "Maybe that's why I had four
husbands in a row just to show I
wasn't a unicellular organism."

  "Goodnight," Channa called as the
door swished shut behind the last
departing guest. The big circular
room looked even larger with the
crowd gone; the bolos on the walls
had reset to restful underwater
scenes with tropical fish

  She turned toward Simeon's screen
image on the pillar a brain's body
was there, after all, and it had
become a matter of courtesy in brawns
to address that position even if the
brain could hear them anywhere on the
station. She stood a moment leisurely
studying the large Sinosian tapestry
that was tastefully draped across his
column.

  "That's a lovely hanging," she said
at last. "I've been admiring it all
evening." She clasped her hands
behind her back and walked slowly
towards him. "Thank you," she said
softly. "This party was very
pleasant, Simeon, and a thoughtful
gesture."

  Once you loosened up a little,
Simeon thought in some surprise,you
wereJi~n, too. If I canniest keepyou
half-tanked, we aught be able to get
all.

22 Anne McCaff7<y PRISM. Sort

  "Well, everyone is more relaxed at
this sortofgathering," he said,
"divorced from their official
positions. You get to see the social
side before you have to contend with
the professional."

  She nodded. "I hadjust enough time
before they got here to glance at
everyone's records. I didn't want to
make the same mistake with them that
I made with you."

"You didn't read my records?"

"No," she said archly, "I wanted to
be surprised."

"So did 1," he admitted.

  She laughed. "Then I guess we do
have something in common after all.
We can both screw up. Goodnight,
simeon."

  Smiling, she gave one Lmt wave at
the column as she went into her
room.

  She has a nice laugh, Simeon
thought, as the door swished closed
behind her.

Phi, Channa thought.

  She thought again, and took several
recondite pieces of equipment out of
her bag.

  When these showed that the sensors
in the walls weren't activated, she
was slightly ashamed of herself for
being so uncharitable about Simeon.

  "There is no chance of repairing
it?" Amos teen Sierra Nueva said.

  "Crapulous none," the technician
rasped. "Esteemed sir," he added,
wiping at the lubricating fluid on
his cheek

  They both backed out ofthe corridor
and dogged the hatchway. A
subliminal hum surrounded them; Amos
was alone among the refugees in
knowing that was a bad sign.
Misaligned drive, no surprise after
the colony ship had spent three
centuries doubling as an orbital
station. It was a miracle that the
engines functioned at all, and a
Chute to the engineers ofthe Central
Worlds. A double

          THE CrIyWHo FOUGHT AS
miracle that they were holding up under the unnatural

 stress of maintaining subspace speeds past redline for so~
 long. Guiyon's doing.                                    ;

  "We win just have to economize on oxygen," Amos said thinly.

"Stop brmthmg?" the technician asked.

  "Coldsleep," Amos replied. "That win cut down our consumption
by at least half. A smaU crew can manage the ship. It was
designed so. Guiyon could run it alone,

  Sweat from more than the exertion of crawling along disused
passageways glistened on the man's brown skin. Amos forced
himselfto breath normally as he walked back to the command
deck. His chest felt heavy but it was impossible to detect any
C02 buildup yet. Purely p~wl~g~cal, he told himselfsternly.

  "There is no chance of repairing the machinery," he said to
the assembled command group. A few of them grunted as if
struck. "At the current rate, we will exhaust the available air
supplies two-thirds of the way to our destination."

  "boy was the ship not properly maintained?" someone
halfshouted.

  "Because this was an orbital station with unlimited supplies
and an algae tankl" Amos snapped, then brought himselfback
under control. Of necessity, they had had to dump the excess
water in the tanks. Too much mass to haul when speed is
essential. "We lost more supplies, too, when the enemy hulled
us."

  "This is our situation," he said, deliberately calm. "We have
to deal with it. A hundred lives and the fate of Bethel depend
upon it."

  They ad nodded. There was no way the Kolnari fleet could have
been kept secret, even in backwaters like the Saffron system,
if there were any witnesses after they left a world. Given time
on Bethel, they would hide their tracks the same way.

24 Anne McCabe &9S.M. Swing

  "What . . . what about coldsleep?"
Rachel said, licking her lips.

  "A possibility presently to be
considered," Amos said. "Guiyon?"

  The brain's voice sounded inhumanly
detached as always. There were four
centuries of experience behind him,
and abilities no softperson could
ever match. Amos shuddered slightly.
Abon~ was the most charitable term
the Faith used for such as he. Corm
trolyourself, Amos chided. Guidon
rescued us all He is our only hope.
The stress was bringing back archaic
fears.

  "Marginal," Guiyon said. "Possible.
We should concentrate all the
personnel in one or two
compartments, pump the atmosphere
from the others back into reserve,
and begin coldsleep treatments
immediately." He paused. "We are not
properly equipped internal
temperature control is very
uncertain. There is a risk
ofsubstantialcasualties."

  "Do it," Amos said, with the ring
of authority in his voice. He could
sense the others relaxing. The
menace was still there, but someone
was taking steps. Note if on, I had
an auk figure, he thought wryly. I
suppose the resp~nsibil:~y has to
stop somewhere. "And may God have
mercy upon us"

"Amen."

  Amos waited until the others had
filed out to bean reorganizing the
hundred-odd refugees.

"The enemy?" he asked softly.

  "Four ships," Guiyon replied. "One
turned back, I think, with engine
problems there were discontinuities
in its emissions. The remainder are
gaining slowly. I am running the
engines over the specifications as
it is, but they were never designed
for this sort of usage. My estimate
is that we have escaped so far
because the Kolnari ships are
carrying extra fuel mass and
sublight maneuver engines. They are
also notredlining their propulsion
systems."

IRE CI-IY WHO FOUGHT 25

  "Will we have enough lead-time to
reach Rigel Base?"

  "That is impossible to calculate,"
Guiyon said. His voice was slowly
taking on an extra tinge of
animation, like a piece of rusty
machinery that turned more smoothly
when warmed up after long disuse.
"Too much depends on intervening
factors mass density in the
interstellar medium, the enemy's
actions, and what awaits us. We still
have several possible destinations,
but there may have been changes since
the last update. My data is very
old."

"As God wills," Amos said
reflexively.

"Indeed."

  The data-inputjumped and fizzled
through the jury-rigged inputs.
Painjagged along Guiyon's nerves in
sympathy with the overstressed fabric
of the ship. Anxiety ate at him as
sector after sector went blank, a
spreading numbness like leprosy.

  Behind him, the rosette of pursuing
Kolnari ships was mostly hidden by
the blaze of his own drive energies.
The sleeting energetic particles of
their beam-weapons were not probing
and eroding at the drive coils of the
ancient, crumbling vessel. Ghost
memories of the ship when it was
young and strong haunted him,
confusing his responses. His own
nutrient and oxygen feeds kept
slipping past redline, and each time
the emergency adjustments took longer
to swing the indicators back.

  We war not make Ravel Base, Guiyon
knew. He would not, and the ship
would not. And if they could, the
softshells on board most certainly
would not. I must select an alternate
desHnahon.

If there is one.

            ~ CHA~;THREE

  "Is it really necessary to
inspectinperson, Ms. Hap?" He
detection systems chiefsaid. "We
have a virtual shy tem for demotes,"
he went on helpfully.

  "No substitute for hands on,"
Channa said with determined
cheerfulness..

  She reached up to the hatchway and
chinned herself, sliding into the
narrow inspection corridor. "Hand me
up the toolkit, will you?"

  Two hours later the chief stood
rigidly as Channa finished her
checklist. His skin was a muddy gray
under the natural brown, and he
seemed to be shaking slightly.

  " . . . and deviations are more
than third percent beyond approved,"
she said crisply.

  "Ms. Hap" the luckless bureaucrat
said, tinging to cut in once
more "those long-range systems are
purely backup. They haven't been
used since the SSS was
commissioned!" At her raised
eyebrow, he continued hurriedly,
"Besides, I'm understaffed, and "

  "Chief Doak," she went on.
"Regular personal inspections are
standard procedure in all
installations of this type. I don't
care if dhe equipment is used infre-
quendy. Backups exist for an
emergent when they had better be
able to perform dhe functions for
which dhey were designed. And I
don't cam if you send in the remotes
every so often. Machinery does what
you tell it to do, whether that's
the right thing or not. Experienced
technicians are supposed to have a
fed

rHE CITY WHO FOUGHT 27

for their equipment. Your people
obviously don't. This isn't
satisfactory. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Ms. Hap," he said woodenly

  Bitch, she read in his eye. That s
fme. You have your rat to an opinion
of me, and I have a right to e~ectyou
to do your word`, she thought,
turning and striding briskly for the
door.

  "1 don't care what anyone says, Ms.
Hap. I think you're going to do a
greatjob."

  It was one of the communications
technicians. Channa smiled pleasandy
at her and said softly, noting her
name tag. "Frankly, Ms.... Foss, I
don't give a damn what you think. I'm
only concerned with the quality of
your work. Which, at dhe moment,
you're not doing." She continued down
the corridor.

  4'Excuse me." Simeon said to Channa
when she was out of earshot.

"Yes?"

"Did you have to be so nasty to her?"

  "Simeon, it would be unprofessional
of me to allow people to choose up
sides dike that. We can chew out a
section chief, but interfering in the
chain of command is petty and
divisive and causes morale problems.
Perhaps I'm not going to be here very
long, and I'm unwilling to leave that
sort of mess for someone else to sort
out. You've got to nip these things
in the bud."

"Nipping is one thing. You cut her
offal the knees."

"Oh, I see. You drink I was unkind."

"You suede! In fact, you were
downright cruel."

  Channa stood a moment, hands on
hips, looking down thoughtfully. Then
she shifted her weight and crossed
her arms. "Simeon, I noticed thatTell
Radon was here twelve years longer
than standard retirement date. "

"He want ready to go," Simeon replied
suspiciously.

"But six years ago he submitted his
resignation."

  "lie changed his mind and withdrew
it. I wasn't about to force him out.
He's a friend."

28 AnneMcCa~lit S.M. S - ng

  "Un-hunh. Well, when I glanced over
some of the meeting records for the
last few years, I couldn't help but
notice thee everyone behaved as
though he wasn't there. On the
infi~ent occasions when he did make
a contribution, it was immediately
questioned. Or don't the words 'Is
that right, Simeon' sound familiar?"

"So what are you getting at?"

  "I'm getting at the basic
difference in our styles, Simeon.
When I'm crud, it's to prevent more
pain further down the line. When
you're cruel, it's to get your own
way."

sprat./

  "Surely you know that
consideration for a friend can go
both ways? Maybe Tell Radon stayed
because he knew you would prefer it
that way. You've had things your own
way around here for quite a long
while now. I don't imagine you were
looking forward to breaking in
someone new. Some stranger who might
want to do things they way instead
of using the nice, smooth routines
you've worked out over time."

"Where are you getting this
bullshit?"

  She shrugged.
"It'sthatoryoujustgotso used to
seeing him humiliated on a daily
basis that you didn't notice it
anymore.
Eitherway,itp~bablyfeltthesametohim
."

  "I know him, Hap; you don't. If
Tell had a problem, he would have
said something. Why would he suffer
in silence when he knew he could
come to me?"

"Have you looked at the recordings?"

"I don's have to look at anything. I
was there."

"They'll confirm what I've said, you
know."

  Mu co~ycPu,7z~ bitch/ "Has it
occurred to you that you're biased?
You've been finding fault with me
since we said hello. Let me tell you
something, omniscient one, you can't
get a good impression of Tell from
the recs. He hated the damn
meetings, 'Hell,' he used to say,
'these fogging meetings make my
brain melt.' He rawly spoke at
meetings. Theyjust weren't his
style."

IRE crrrwHo FOUGHT 29

  "Was it customary to question his
every comment when he did speak?"

  "You're making a simple request for
confirmation sound like attempted
murder."

  Channa bit her lower lip. "Simeon,
the recs will confirm that what I saw
is there, very plain to see,
unmistakable, clear, obvious. You
might find a review ofthe meeting
recs illuminating. Okay?"

  After a moment's reflection,
something in Simeon opened like an
eye and he saw a bitter twist to Tell
Radon's mouth. Tell had always
described it as "gas," but. . .

"You fight dirty, Channa," he said.

  She blushed, but her expression
remained hostile. "I'm angry," she
said honestly. "My career is in
ribbons because you wanted him to
stay on. So when I saw . . ." She bit
her lip again. Then she went on more
calmly. "You have to be careful how
you use expressions dike, 'you cut
her off at the knees' and 'you were
cruel,' around me. It tends to set me
off. Also, you could have taken me at
my word instead of turning self-
nghteous. "

  "Yeah . . . I 11 remember that." He
paused. "Y'know, if you're really so
hot to get out ofhere, I'llback your
bans

her request to the hilt. Since I
didn't get what I asked for last
time, I figure I'm still owed a few
favors...."

  "Ho no. The last time you backed
someone to the hilt, the hilt ended
up protruding from between no
shoulder blades. Thank you so much.
Now that I think about it, I intend
to give Central Admin plenty of time
to forget this mess and my starring
role in it. You're stuck with me for
a couple of years, at least, so you'd
better get used to it. Oh, on the
subject of overlooking

ings. . ."

"Yeah?" Vl~hat now? Is ~eredz~;t on
the lig~f~ures?

  "I came face to face with a little
boy in one of the aft engineering
compartments."

30 ~M~SM.S~

Silence.

  "What? No comment? Does this mean
that you know about him? Aver all,
you are able to view all areas ofthe
station."

  In the silence that followed, she
walked over to the wall and leaned
casually against it. "He was gone
before I could react. But you know
what's really strange? There is
nothing on file about such a kid."
The silence lengthened. "Simeon?"
she asked with some asperity.

"Alittle boy?"

  "Yes, Simeon, about twelve gears
old Standard  give or take a couple
of years. In the aft power com-
partment. A restricted area, I
believe. A kid who looks and smells
like a Sondee mud-puppy. Whose child
is he? What can you tell me about
him? Don't even try to tell me you
know nothing. Kids don't acquire a
patina of dirt like that overnight.
He also looked like he'd been eating
regularly, if not well. So someone's
beenlooking out for him . . .
minimally."

  I d on't Adz saying 'you're cute
when you're ang7y" would be a very good
idea right now, Simeon thought. He
froze her image and scanned it for
temperature variations and pupil
dilation. She was angry on
behalfofan abandoned child rather
than at him. Which makes a nice
change.

Besides, he could use an ally with
this problem.

  "He calls himselfJoat," Simeon
confessed with a sigh. UI don't know
how long he's been here. I dis-
covered him by accident myself He's
mechanically brilliant. The area
he's staked out as his own just
stopped needing repairs. That's
probably the only reason I
investigated. I mean, there are
enough squeaky wheels around here.
Why take notice of one that's quiet?
Then I noticed that the last repair
made in that section was two years
ago. I got curious about nothing
ever going wrong. So I went on a
prowl, using

ME OIY WHO FOUGHT 31

mobile bugs, and kept, well, softpersons
refer to it as seeing things out of the
corner of their eyes. I always thought
chat had something to do with blinking,
you know, eyelashes getting in your line
of sight or something. But I kept seeing
these flickers of movement and I don't
blink. By turning up my sound reception
I could sometimes hear lithe scrapes and
movement, but there was a sort of'white
noise' masking it. It seemed unlikely
that everydling else in the area was
running perfectly with the exception of
my sensors, so I decided to do a
stakeout. Eventually, he got careless
and wandered into my line of sight. The
first time I spoke to him, blip, he
disappeared. It was a long time before I
could get him to talk to me. You'll note
I said talk, not trust. He's incredibly
wary. I can't believe he was clumsy
enough to let you see him."

"Twoyears?"

  [cave it to you, you Echoic, to pick
out the pertinent mformat~n. "I said the
last logged repair was two years ago.
It's been known to happen. What can I
say? Somewhere from two years to two
months, who knows?"

"Who is he, Simeon?"

  "His story is Blat he ran away from a
tramp freighter. Joat told me that He
captain won him from his uncle in a card
game. I know, I know, chat sort of
ding's illegal, but it does happen out
here in dhe Loonies. The tramp left
abruptly and went somewhere not listed.
Joat has never had it soft, but
apparently, the captain he ran from was
of a different order of brutality
altogedher."

 -(::hanna wrinkled her nose. "Sounds like
somed~ng

out of Dickens."

  -  "Yeah, well, the more clings change
. . . " and he left

the sentence dangling. "What are you
going to do?" he
asked warily. After his first,
disastrously wrong,
impression, Channa hadn't struck him as
a bleeding
heart. Would she suggest flooding the
compartment to
flush the poor kid out?

32 AnneMcC~ ~ She. S - ng

  "We've got to get him out of there.
We can't leave a little boy in a
dangerous and restricted area. It's
illegal at best and irresponsible by
any standard."

  He's been badly hurt and
frightened, Channa. He doesn't want
to be with people. The little guy
can barely tolerate me. He lilies
machinery better than people, and I
qualify as a borderline case.
Besides, even l can't find him if he
really doesn't want to be found.
Maybe we should leave him alone for
the time being. He's where he wants
to be."

  Channa looked up with herjaw set,
"Simeon, no child wants to be alone
in the dark and the cold of a power
room, or wherever he's lodged
himself He needs and deserves to be
taken care of It's his right."

  "I agree in principle, but I think
he needs more time. I'll take the
responsibility."

"What does that mean?"

  "I'll take full and complete
responsibility for what happens to
him."

Channa brightened. "Really?"

"Yeah, really."

  "Okay," she said, "I'll call up
some information on adoption
procedures and we can get things
underway. "

  "What?" I'm always screa~r#ng what?
at this woman. I,m begrrrnmg to feel
like a demurred parrot.

  "Well, what else did you mean when
you said you would accept
responsibility?"

  "That, if anything goes wrong, I'll
answer for it." I swear; if I had
hair I'd tear it out. Softshells
have some advantages after all. But,
what is this . . . this . . . wench
t~yingtodotome?

  "Greatl If he gets killed or
maimed, you'll accept a
discommodation? Well, how big of
your" Channa cut Simeon off when he
began to splutter a protest. "By now
you should know that I listen to
what you say, even whenyou don't. I
promise you, Simeon. I will always
call you on it when you try to shut
me up or

MErrYWHO FOUGHT SS

fob me off. You're not going to
shuffle this one off, buddy. I won't
lee you."

  "What are you talking about? I
didn't put him in this situation. I
wane to help the kid. Hell, I am
helping. Ijust d o n ' e s e e a n y
n e e d e o r u s h h i m . T h e f
a c t t h a e y o u s a w h i m may
mean that he's almost ready to come
out on his own. lam certainly opposed
to coercing him. Geeeze but you're
hostile! You're so waling to believe
the worse about me that every time I
talk to you I feel like my circuits
are Wing realigned. Am I really such
an evil bastard? Or," and he changed
his tone from plaintive to trenchant,
"could it be thee you really are the
most bloody-minded, impossible woman
I have ever met?"

  "Oh, Simeon," she drawled, "you
have no idea how difficult I can
be.Juse cross me if you wane to find
out I

  A chill seeeled in Simeon's mind.
Does to mean that so farshe's been
reasonable? Gah'

  "You're about to become a father,
Simeon. Thae's what full and complete
responsibility for a child means.
Congratulations, it's a boy. If your
word is good."

"They're not going to lee me adopt a
kid."

  "Why not? You've been extensively
tested for emotional stability, you
have a responsible job. You even
appear to care very much about his
feelings. Do you chink such a wounded
child, of his age, is going to have
prospective parents lining up to take
care of him? I chink you've got a
very good chance."

  She clapped her hands and rubbed
them together gleefully. "So . . .
let's get to work on it I

  Marttan presented the menu with a
flourish and left them with a bow.

  Channa looked around wide-eyed at
the dimly lit, subdued elegance of
the Perimeter Restaurant. There were
even actual beeswax candles burning
on the tables; a fortune for material
and air-bills both.

No pleasure likesper~someba`t else's
mono, she thought

34 ArmeMcCoJ~ ~ Sw.S- ing

The Perimeter was paying; something
of a goodwill gesture. And it UkZ5
logical for her to get acquainted
with
oneofthestation'spremiertounstatuac
tions.

  SSS-900's finest restaurant was
just down from the north-polar
docking extension; the outer wall
was a hundred-meter sheet of
synthmet set on clear. Stars rolled
huge and bright beyond fixed stars
and the frosty arch of the
Snakeshead Nebula, and the bright
moving points of light that were
shuttles and tugs. Within, the floor
was of glossy black stone set with
squares of gold SSS-900 processed a
lot of gold as a by-product and the
tables were made of real and
precious wood, glossy under the
snowy linen tablecloths. Waiters
moved amid a quiet chinking of
silverware, savory smells wafting
from the platters they carried. A
live orchestra played something soft
and ancient.

  "Stars and comets a little rich
for this outposterl" Channa said.
"I'd head ofthe Perimeter, but
somehow I never expected to actually
come here."

  Patsy grinned. UC'mon now, Hawking
Station wasn't an asteroid minin'
center. Leastwise, not ofthe sort
our sainted Simeon cut his teeth
on."

  "Well, no . . . but I couldn't
afford anything like this when I was
at home. Didn't have the time,
either. After I graduated and
started pulling assignments, I've
been mostly at outposts. Worse than
Simeon's."

  Waiters filled water glasses, laid
their napkins in their laps, brought
warm rolls and softened butter.
Everything except brush our teeth
and massage ourfeet, Channa thought.
It was a little unnerving. Most
places you asked for the selection,
told the table what you wanted, and
a float brought the meal to you. The
sheer expense of having live human
beings do all thisl

  "I'd never've et in here if it
weren't on the station's ticket,"
Patsy confessed in a whisper during
a lull in the service. "Or unless a
date waereal~ tryin' to impress

THE CITY WHO E OUGHT 35

me. More relaxin' with another
female you kin concentrate on the
food without insultin"em."

  "If this weren't complimentary, I
wouldn't be here now, either."

They grinned at each other.

  "Well, thank you fer invitin' me,"
Patsy said. "I woulda thought you
might invite that mea-tech you were
talkie' to last rught."

  "Please, I'm looking forward to
this meat I won't be able to eat if
I remember him. Have you heard some
of his anecdotes?"

  "All of'em," Patsy said, nodding
solemrdy. "You've a point thar,
ma'am. Chaundra's a nice enough
feller, but his stomach's a mite too
strong per me."

  "Besides, you and I have similar
taste in music. You can always talk
to someone who likes the same music."

  Talk they did, touching on
everything from Geranian folk ballads
to eighteenth-century Earth
composers, eventually matching the
personnel of the station to various
types of music.

  "Simeon? Straight honky-tonk, no
question," Channa said fly.

  Patsy laughed. "Oh, ctmon, Channa,
there's unplumbed depths there. He's
not that simple. It'sjust that the
minin' center assignment came at an
impressionable age fer him. Rough,
tough rockjack, you know. His public
image."

  "Well." She looked down at the
menu. It provided motion bolos of the
dishes as she ran her finger down the
page. "I'll start with these
grumawns, first, in the fiery sauce.
Cleardrop soup. Grilled rack of
jumbuk from Mother Hutton's
World good grief, they do have
everything herel baby carrots, salad.
Spun pastry blues confection for
dessert, with Port Royal cog fee.
Castiliari brandy."

  "Sounds good. I'll go with the
jumbuk too, but . . . hmm.
Fennel-leek soup first. Wine?"

56 AIMS USE. Sit

"I don't usually " Channa began.

  "If I might suggest?" Mart'an
appeared at their table. Appeared,
Channa thought, as if he'd blinked
out of some hypothetical subspace.
"The Mon'rach '97 to begin with, a
half-bottle. Then, with the main
course, a Hosborg estate-bottled
'85. I'll open it now so it can
breathe."

  "Sure," Channa said, then sighed
with pleasure. "You know, I was
looking forward to the Perimeter,
ever since they told me SSS-900
would be "

"SSS-900-C, now, Ms. Hap."

Channa blushed. " would be my next
assignment. "

  The first course arrived. The pink
grumawns were coiled steaming on top
of a bed offragrant saffron rice,
the sauce to one side. Channa took a
sip of the wine, chilled and with a
faint scent of violets, then lifted
one grumawn on the end of a
two-tined fork.

  "I did do a lot of work today," she
murmured to herself. She opened her
mouth, and

  The Confederate armor was grinding
through the woods and fields north
of Indianapolis. The burning city
cast a pall of smoke into the sky
behind them. Diesd engines
pig-grunted as the smooth low-slung
shapes of the tanks and
tank-destroyers crashed through
brush and twelve-foot high
cornstalks, past the flaming shards
of a farmhouse and barns. The long
90mmbarrels ofthe tank guns swung
toward the thin strung-out lines of
the Union convoys, caught in the
flank as they attempted to switch
front. The fighting vehicles surged
back on their tracks at each monster
clack of highvelocity cannon fire,
and the air filled with the bitter
scent of cordite. Chaos spread
through the blue ranks as tracer and
cannon fire sent trucks exploding
into globes of magenta fire. A
Northern tank dissolved, the turret
flipping up like a frying-pan, a
hundred meters into the air.

THE WHO F OUGHT 37

  Behind the fighting vehicles, long
lines of men in gray uniforms
followed, advancing with their semi-
automatic rifles carried at the port.
Here and there an officer carried a
sword, or the Stars and Bars
fluttered from a staff.

  "Now!" Geneva Fitzroy Anson-Hugh
Beauregard III said into thebulky
mike hung from his vehicle helmet.

  His command tank was a little back
from the edge of the combat, hull
down; the general stood head-and-
shoulders out of the commander's
cupola. The turret pivoted under him,
the massive casting moving smoothly
on its bearing race. The long cannon
fired in a flash that seared his
vision, just as the opening salvos of
artillery went by overhead. Down
along the road, tall poplar-shapes of
black dirt "outed skyward. Another
explosion shook the earth and sent
heavy vehicles pinwheeling like a
child's models under a careless boot;
the command-tank's round had hit the
tracked carrier for a Unionist
self-propelled gun.

  The general nodded. "Nothing to
stop us short ofthe Lakes," he said.
Nothing to stop them linking up with
the British Guards Armored Corps,
driving southeast out of occupied
Detroit, cutting the Union in two....

  "Conceded," Florian Gusky said, and
lifted the visor of the simulation
helmet. He sighed heavily and took a
pull of his beer, then looked around
the room as though surprised to find
himself alone with Simeon, blinking
away the consciousness of a world and
war that had never been. There was a
slight sheen of sweat on his
heavy-browed face and he worked the
thick muscles of his shoulders to
loosen the tension.

  "You could play it out to the end,"
Simeon's image said from a screen
above his desk.

  "No dam' point. You've whipped my
butt in that simulation
twide,fromboth Unionand Confederate
sides."

38 AnneMcCaffmy ~ S M. S - ng

  "I could take a handicap," Simeon
said with much less enthusiasm, Gus
noted.

  So he nodded. The last time he had
beaten Simeon was in a Caesar vs.
Rommel match on the site of Car-
thage, with the shellperson
commanding Caesar's spear-armed host
against Panzers and Stukas. Even
then he had inflicted embarrassing
casualties.

  "Where is she?" Gus asked. There
was no need to identify the female
in question.

"She's dining at the Perimeter."

  Gus raised his eyebrows in
astonishment. "The Perimeter? That's
some salary she gets." The Perimeter
attracted two sets of guests: the
rich, and spacers looking to blow
six months' pay on one night.

  Simeon laughed. "Nah, she's a guest
of the management. Patsy's with
her."

  "Yeah, Patsy likes her," Gus said,
his tone indicating that this
revealed a serious and heretofore
unsuspected flaw in Patsy's
character. "Can you see them?"

"Yup."

"What're they doing?"

"Talking."

"About us?"

  "I don't know. I'm not listening.
Now they're laughing."

"They're talking about us, alright,
" Gus said gloomily.

"Geesh, Gus, let's get beck to the
game."

  There was a plaintive edge to
Simeon's voice. Gus reached for the
helmet and then stopped, a slow grin
creasing his heavy features.

"Isn'titabouttimewehadadrill?" he
said, thoughtfully..

"Wejust had one. About four hours
ago, remember?"

  "When I was in the Navy we had 'em
six times a day, sometimes," Gus
replied.

  He knew that Simeon badly wanted to
pull Navy duty. Only a few
staff-and-command vessels used shell
controllers and Simeon didn't rate,
yet. In the

THE CITY WHO FouGHT 39

meantime, he put a lot of weight on
Gus' experience as a fire-control
officer on a patrol frigate. That had
been some time ago Florian Gusky had
spent a decade's hard work clawing
his way up to regional security chief
for Namakuri-Singh, the big drive-
systems firm but Simeon had a bad
case of military romanticism. And
real talent, he told himself without
envy of the brain's abilities.

  "I know it's early," Gus went on
persuasively, "but it's important not
to have predictable intervals. So we
don't get complacent."

"Well. . ."

"I'd love to see the look on their
faces."

"Since you put it that way "

  Channa started as the klaxons rang.
They sounded like no other she had
ever heard, a harsh repeated
onuuuga~onunuga sound. The elegant
minuet of movement among the waiters
turned to an inelegant but efficient
scramble for the exits; some moved to
assist guests. Thick slabs hissed up
out of the floor along the outer wall
and the lights flared bright.

  "BREACH IN THE PRESSURE HULL!" a
harsh male voice tone announced.
"EMERGENCY PERSONNEL TO THEIR
STATIONS. SECURE ALL SUBSECTION
REFUGE AREAS."

  Patsy stood and looked at her
barely touched entree with dismay.
"Damn! That's the second time this
shift!" She threw her napkin down
with disgust. "Simeon pulls these
drills like a boy kickin' over an
anthill to see the bugs scurry."

"Simeon!" Channa shouted.

"Yeah?" The klaxons dimmed in a globe
around them.

"Is this a genuine emergency orjust
a test?"

  "Excuse me, brawn-o'-mine, but
you're not supposed to be privy to
that information." There was the hint
of a smug smile in the brain's voice.

40 A~ncMcCo~ PRISM. Sti1Gng

  "Ifyou think I'm getting up from
the best meal dlat's ever been putin
front of Unjust because you're
feeling your oats, you've got
another cling coming. Cut it!"

  As dhe klaxon abrupdy ceased,
people stopped, puzzled, and milled
around uncertainly.

  "Tell them it's over, Simeon.
Don'tjust leave them standing
There."

  "This has been a test," Simeon
informed them in dhe feminine tones
he used for such announcements.
"Return to your stations. This has
been a test."

  "We will discuss dais later,"
Channa assured him icily. "Overdoing
drills is dangerous, irresponsible
and generally counterproductive."

  Ah, hell, Simeon thought
exhaustedly, why did I listen to
you, Gun? I don't thigh you like the
looks on th~rfaces abler all, buddy.
I know I don't. He wondered what he
could do to make it impossible for
her to gain access to him for the
next week.

  Patsy sat down slowly, her wide
eyes fixed on Channa's flushed
countenance. "You really don't lahk
him, do ye?" she said widh some
astonishment.

  Channa looked at her blandly.
"Whatever makes you say Blat?"

Patsy shook her head. 'just a
hunch."

  Channa sighed and smiled ruefully.
"Well, to be fair, there may be a
touch of'transference' there. Wu
see, I've always wanted to work
planet-side. I love dhe feel of wind
in my hair and rain on my face. I
enjoy splashing in an ocean, and the
feel of earth under my feet. So, for
the past two years I've been
campaigning for a particular
assignment." She looked up at Patsy
inquiringly. "Have you ever been to
Senalgal?"

  Patsy nodded and smiled warmly in
reminiscence. "I skier have. I had
my first honeymoon alar. What a gor-
geous place! Beautiful beaches, warm
ocean, flowers eve'rwhar, and
dhefood. I'dlove tolive thar,
atleastlera while." She sighed. "So,
go on."

I1IE Clam WHO F OUGHT 41

  "Well, as you can imagine, the
competition was incredible. I'd been
through twelve interviews, including
one with Ita Secand, the city-manager
of Kelta, whom I would have been
working with. God! What I wouldn't
give to work with her. She's witty,
charming, sophisticated. I felt that
I could learn so much from her. It
had come down to two of us, myselfand
someone else."

  She shook her head. "I never did
know who the other can&date was, but
my f eking was that it was going to
be an extremely difficult choice.
When suddenly, after holding on f or
twelve years, Tell Radon decides that
he has to retire right now! And that
sweet little plum, that was almostin
my hand, was snatched away so f ast
it let ;c scorch marks on my nail
polish. 'You're station born and
bred,' they told me. 'You're perfect
for this assignment,' they said.
'It's an extremely important and
prestigious post,' they assured me.
Rurrrghl As the sayinggoes, I
couldjust spit."

Patsy looked at Channa's bitter face.

  "It's a gyp, alright. Looks like
yer skills ah gain' against you
instead of helpin' you out. So, maybe
you ah takin' it out on Simeon jest
a teensy bit?" She grinned and held
up a hand that measured out a
micrometer between thumb and
forefinger. "Hey, maybe that's good
per him. Now, I think," she placed a
hand on her bosom, "that we need you
mo'n Senalgal does. I mean,
Senalgal's gonna be special whoever
runs it, right? But a station, well,
it can be just a big ol' factory with
the wrong people in charge. You don't
need Ita Secand t' teach you to be
witty and sophisticated you already
ah. We need some a' that right here,
Ms. Hap, an I'm not kiddie'."

  Channa blushed and grinned, taking
a sip of her wine to hide her
embarrassment.

  "WelL thank you. That's quite a
challenge you've set me," she
murmured, and changed the subject.
"Who was that big, handsome,
gray-haired fellow you were talking
to last night? Somehow I never met
him."

42 Verne McCabe ~ SM. Smog

4'Florian Gusky?99

".Flo7'an?"

('We call him Gus."

"I can see why."

  F9atsy smiled warmly. "He's quite
a guy a retired Navy man, a crack
navigator. The stories he's got . .
. I mean to tell you, mmhm.99

"I see he's spoken for," Channa said
with a grin.

  "Not so you'd notice," Pasq said
primly. "I admit I lahk him, though.
I jus' love to heah him talk. When I
was a kid, I thought I'd do what he
did. You know,join the Navy and
scour the universe of evil doers,
jus' like some ferocious holo-hero."
She sighed. '9But heah I am, nothin'
but an algae-herder."

  "An algae-herder?" Channa asked in
amusement. "Algae travel in herds?"

  "Oh, you know what I mean. Instead
of coin' somethin' adventurous,
I'mjust watchin' these bubblin' vets
o' goop. The excitement is not goin'
to give me ulcers." She sighed.
"Sometimes I wish per a real
disaster. Something special."

  Channa looked at her seriously. "Be
careful what you wish for," she
said. "You may get it I

  Channa hummed tunelessly as she
filled out the adoption forms,
looking perfecdy content and at
peace with the world. The sound
irritated Simeon excessively. True,
he could in a sense "leave" the area
and had done so. But he kept coming
back, as though to a blown circuit;
drawn to the irritant, checking
again and again to see if anything
had changed.

  Finally he said, "You seem happy."
Hap. Happy. Bet that tuould bug her
bad.

  "I love filling out forms," she
said. "The more complex the better."

  ;!iomeshowit figures, Simeon
thought. When you becan.sea brawn9
the unn~rsel~stagnsal ta~aud:do1:

THE WHO FOUGHT 43

  "Firing out your side ofthis is no
problem," she said. "Your whole life
is on file. But I'm going to have to
talk to the child soon."

  "I can do that," he said
defensively. I can alsofill out the
damn forms, in half the time or less
and without making opus noises.

  She turned to look at the column
that held him. "Simeon . . . while I
grant you that we should be as deli-
cate as possible." She paused and
gestured helplessly. "I've . . .
we'w, got to get him to Medical.
We've got to prove, by retinal
patterns and gene analysis, that he
exists at an. You know how bureaus
are: no ticker, no washer. We've got
to do a recorded interview of him. So
he's got to emerge, fully grown wed,
almost from the engineering
compartments and into the real
world," she concluded in a rush.

"Okay, I'D talk to him."

  "Simeon," she hesitated, "why don't
you introduce us? I mean, you can
discuss the adoption with him. I can
stay out of sight nearby until he
wants to meet me."

  She's wing conDcilia , he
realized.. Hey doesn't this reossure
me? He forced down nonexistent
hackles and replied in a neutral
tone. "Sure, why not?"

  Channa could hear them talking from
where she sat against the cold
bulkhead.

  "You want to adopt me?" a young
voice asked in disbelief. A yearning
hope sounded through it.

  "Yeah," Simeon said, surprised to
find that he was getting to like the
idea.

  Joat's head popped into Simeon's
line of sight, seemingly from out of
nowhere.

  "You can't do that," he said with
complete certainty, voice flat again.
"They won't let you adopt a kid.
You're not real."

  Simeon was taken aback. "What do
you mean I'm not real?"

44 AnneMcC~S~f. Sibling

  Joat's young Eacewaslit with
amused wonder. "I hate to be the one
to break your bubble, but who's
going to let a computer adopt a
kid?"

  "mere did you get the idea that
Itmju~ a computer?" Simeon demanded
with a hard edge to his tone.

  Channa bit down on the f leshy
part of her hand. That hid d oem't
pull his punefues, she thought. Poor
Simeon beam, th - , does the offered
did kit well" . . . She stifled the
rising guffaw with a swallow. An
audible reaction would be out
ofplace. Definitely..

  "You told me," Joat informed him,
exasperation creeping into his
voice. "You said 'I am, in effect,
the station.' That means you're a
machine. I've heard aboutAIs and
voice address systems."

  To both his observers, his voice
was conciliatory but his expression
reflected an inner anxiety that
maybe this computer was losing its
tiny mind.

  And he probably thirsts taut would
be very inters - , the station
computer losingfunc.tion, Simeon
thought in exasperation. Kids!

  He had noted that, while Joat
could keep his voice disciplined,
his expression revealed his real
feelings. Simeon wondered if he
could maintain that duality in the
presence of the visually-advantaged.
Not that he, Simeon, was in any way
visually-disadvantaged. Quite the
opposite, asJoat would learn soon
enough 'Joat, I think it's time that
notion got altered. There's someone
nearby I'd like you to meet. She's
known as a brawn, and she's my
mobile partner." Which was tme
asfaras it went, Simeon amended.

  Joat's face went wary. "I don't
want to meet anybody," he muttered
sullenly, looking cautiously around
him. "She, you said?" Another pause.
"No, I don't want to meetanyone."

"But we've already met, sort of,"
Channa called out.

Joat vanished instandy.

"He's gone," Simeon said.

THE C~YWHO FOUGHT 45

  "No, he's not," Channa
contradicted. UHe's nearby. Joat?
Simeon?s arealperson,
asrealasyouorme. Buthe~s connected to
the station in such a way that the
station is an exta~sionofhisbody.
I'dbehappyto tellyouaboutit."

  No answer but a receptivity which
she could almost feel beyond her in
the narrow access aisle.

  "Well," she began, "shellpeople
were created as a means of enabling
the disadvantaged to live as normal
a life as possible. At first that was
limited to the creation of
miniaturized tongue or digital
controls, or body braces. The
extension of such devices was to
encapsulate the entire body, though
some people still think it's just the
person's brain because they're called
'brains.' Despite popular fiction,
such an inhumanity is not permitted.
Simeon is there, body, mind and . .
." She paused and then realized that
she couldn't permit personal opinion
to corrupt the explanation. a . . .
heart. Simeon is a real person
complete with his natural body but he
is also this station-city in the
sense that instead of walking about
it, he has sensors that gather
information for him and he controls
every function ofthe station from his
central location."

  "Where is " Joat paused, too,
struggling to comprehend the concept
"_ he? He is a he, isn't he?"

  "I'm as masculine as you," Simeon
said, accustomed to such an
explanation of shellpeople but
wishing to underline his humans He
did note that his voice had dropped
further down the baritone level he
used. Well, whatnot?

"Oh!"

  "Instead of having to give orders
to subordinates," Channa went on,
"to, say, check the life-support sys-
tems, orAirlock 40, or order an
emergency drill, he can do it himself
more quickly and more thoroughly than
any independency mobile person
could."

  "And I dorit need to sleep, so I'm
oncallallthetime.. Simeon couldn't
resist adding dlat.

46 ArrneMcCa~i~ USA. S - ng

"Never sleep?" Joat was either
appalled or awed.

  "I don't require rest, although I
do like relaxation and I have a
hobby...."

  "Not now, Simeon, although _ n and
there was a smile in Channa's voice
"_ I admit that that makes you more
human."

  Were you human . . . I mean, were
you . . . did you live like one of
us?"Joatasked.

  "I am human, not a mutant, or a
humanoid,Joat," Simeon said
reassuringly. "But something
happened when I was born, and I'd
never have been able to walk, talk,
or even live very long unless the
process of encapsulating had been
invented. Usually it's babies that
become shellpeople. We are more
psychologically adjusted to our
situation than adults. Though some-
times pre-puberty accident victims
work out well as shellpeople. I can
look forward to a long and very use-
ful life. But I'm human for all
ofthat."

"Very human," Channa replied in a
droll voice.

  Simeon didn't quite like the
implications, but at least she said
the right things.

"And you run the city?"

  "I do, having instantaneous access
to every computerized aspect of such
a large and multi-function space
station as well as peripheral
monitoring devices in a network to
control traffic in and out."

  "I thought brains only ran ships,"
Joat said after a long pause.

  "Oh, some do, of course," Simeon
said, slightly patronizing, "but I
was specially chosen and trained for
this demanding sort of work." He
ignored the delicate snort from
Channa that somehow reminded him
he'd started out his management
career in a less prestigious
assignment. "Do you understand now
that lam human?"

  "I guess so, " wasJoat's
unenthusiastic reply. "You've been
in that shell since you were a
baby?"

"Wouldn't be anywhere else," Simeon
said proudly,

THE WHO FOUGHT 47

letting his voice ring with a
sincerity no shellperson ever had to
counterfeit.

  There was a slightly longer pause.
"Then it's not true, what I
heard?"Joatbegan tentatively.

  "Depends on what you heard," Channa
said, having learned in academy the
long list of atrocities supposedly
enacted.

"That they put orphaned kids in
boxes?"

  "Absolutely not!" Channa and Simeon
chorused in loud unison.

  "That's totally inaccurate," Channa
said finely. "It's the sort ofmean
thing people say to scare kids,
though The program won't accept
perfectly healthy bodies. To begin
with, the medical costs and education
are incredibly expensive. So is the
maintenance for shellpersons. But
it's better than depriving a sound
mind of life because the body won't
function normally. Don't you think
so?"

Silence greeted that query.

  "And if you've also heard the one
about taking the brains from the
homeless or displaced no, that is
definitely not permitted, either."

"You're sure?"

"Sure!" Simeon and Channa replied
firmly.

  "And we should know," Channa went
on. "I had to spend four years in
academy to learn how to deal with
shellpeople, of all types."

  Which, Simeon knew, was another
backhanded slam at him. Did she never
let up? One thing was sure, Joat's
nusinformation made him more
determined than ever to adopt the boy
and give him such security that that
sort ofmacabre stuffwould be
forgotten.

  "And, no matter what sort of
spaceflot you've been told, Central
Worlds doesn't make slaves of
people," Channa was saying at her
most emphatic. "The very idea sends
chills up my spine."

"Not even criminals?"

48 Am~McCo~ PRISM.lir~g

  "Especially not criminals," Channa
said with a little laugh. "With all
the power available to a
shellperson, you may be very sure
Central Worlds makes certain that
they are psychologically conditioned
to a high ethical and moral
standard."

"What's this ettical?"Joat asked.

  "Code of conduct," Simeon said,
"probity, honesty, dedication to
duty,personal integrity of the
highest standard."

  "And you oum this station?" Joat
asked, his voice tinged with awe.

Channa laughed in surprise at that
assumption.

"I wish," Simeon said fervently.

  "Remember my mentioning that
creating and training a shellperson
is expensive? I wasn't kidding. By
the time Simeon graduated firm
tnuning, he had an enormous debt to
pay off to Central Worlds."

"Hunh. Thought you said they weren't
slaves."

  "They're not Every shellperson has
the right to pay off their debt and
become a free agent. A good many
shippersons do and then they own
themselves. Amanagement shellperson,
like Simeon, will often get their
debt picked up by a corporation, and
when they've worked off the debt,
theywork undercont~"

"Are you paid off, Simeon?"

  "No, though my contract fee is
generous enough. But, as I
mentioned, I have hobbies . . ."

"Like what?"Joat asked.

  "I've got a great sword and dagger
collection which includes a genuine
Civil War flag, a regimental eagle."

"Hey, way cool! Got anyg2`ns?"

Mat IS ~ tush some males? Channa
thought.

  "Yeah," Simeon said eagerly. "I've
got a real Brown Bess flintlock, and
an M22. And one of the first back-
pack lasers ever issued!"

  "No shit!" Joat said, seeming to
forget Channa's presence for a
moment. His voice sounded louder, as
if

ME CrrSr WHO FOUGHT 49

he was drifting back from whatever
refuge he had bolted towards. "All
sorts of old weapons, eh?"

"You name it. A Roman gladius, even."

"Awhat?"

"Good question," Channa said.

  "Shortsword. Over three thousand
years old," Simeon broke in. A pause.
"Of course, it could be a
reproduction. If so, it's still in
awfully good shape for an artifact of
that age. I can trace it back at
least five hundred years' provenance.
The records say it was first owned by
the legendary collector Pawgitti,
then dug up out ofthe ruins of his
villa."

  AN throat is geaing hoarse, Channa
realized an hour later. Amazing what
he knows. Joat had probably neatly
escaped formal education, but had
acquired a jackdaw's treasure chest
of information about his keener
interests. Anger awoke in her. It was
criminal that a mind likeJoat's had
been ignored, like a weed in a corner
lot. Or the barbaric way in which
pre-shell handicapped were ignored as
nonproductive persons. Joat wasn't
just interested in showing that he
knew things that she didn't, either.
There was a naked hunger to learn in
his voice. Closer and closer . . .
She could see a little huddled shadow
and an occasional glint of his eyes
as he turned his head.

  "And weapons are merely a part of
what I've been collecting over the
years," Simeon was saying. "I've got
great strategy games whole boards . .
."

  Channa was shocked. Simeon would
adopt the kid as a games partner?
Then she realized he was only
sweetening the pot.

  "I don't know of a shellperson who
has adopted, but I think it would be
to your advantage,Joat. Certainly it
would mean security and a place to
call your own instead of ducking from
one hidey-hole to the next when
inspection teams go through. You'd
have regular meals, and you could go
to engineering school."

50 AnneMcCo~ ~ Saw. Stirs

  Channa heard a soft "yeah" from
out of the cold darkness.

  "Think it over tonight, why don't
you?" Simeon said. "Tomorrow you can
come up and scan the room I can
assign you. Maybe have dinner with
Channa and tank about it some more."

"Yeah," came more clearly from out
ofthe darkness.

  "Okay," Simeon's voice was
pleased. "Ifyou have any questions
tonight, just speak 'em out, and
I'll answer."

           ~ CllAPrER FOUR

  It's an honor to win the trust a
chin, Simeon thought, especially one
who's been through what the kid has.
Idon't think I've ever been quite
this hazy. He intuited that the
feeling approximated what the word
"tickled" meant, and he also thought
that this was what it felt like to
smile. Since Joat had moved in, he'd
been trying to empathize more with
the softperson worldview.

Of course, there have been some
surtnses....

  Seen for the first time by the full
light of day-cycle floras, Joat was
not prepossessing. Short for his
age, scrawny to the point of
emaciation, with huge blue eyes in a
face that might have been any color
short of black under the gray,
ground-in coating of grime and
machine aiL The mouse-brown hair had
been hacked offend was standing up
in tufts. The clothing was an
adult-sized coverall with the arms
and legs cut off to fit. An air of
sullen suspicion accompanied a
pungent odor.

  "I've never run across the name,
Joat' before," Channa began
casually. Ult doesn't give a clue
about where you're from the way that
some names do. I use 'Hap' as a
surname because I was born on
Hawking Alpha Proxima Station, for
example."

  "Joat's'?<y name."Joat answered,
sticking his chin out aggressively.
"I gave it to myself. It means
'jack-oalltrades,"cause that's what
I do, some of everything."

  "So it's a nickname," Channa said.
"Shall we put you down on the form
asJack, then?"

  Joat looked at her with cool
contempt. "Why? That's a boy's
name."

52 AnneMcCo~ PRISM. Sit

  "You're a . . . girl?" Simeon asked,
bringing the "g" sound up from the depths
of his diaphragm and managing to split the
word in several astonished syllables.

  "What's wrong with that? She's a girll"
Joat declared defensively, pointing at
Channa, as though ducking responsibility.

  Channa burbled with heavily suppressed
laughter before she managed some
reassurance. "Hey, it's all right that
you're a girl. It'sjust that . . . All that
dirt . . ." Channa couldn't risk continuing
in that vein and switched abruptly ". . .
is an effective disguise."

  "Good disguise," Joat said proudly. "Bad
idea to let people know when you're a girl.
Can cause you trouble. But, since you say
I gotta go to a medic," she paused to look
questioningly at Channa who nodded, "best
you don't look surprised then." She grinned
slyly and then looked over at Simeon's
column. "You really didn't know?"

  "Not a clue," he said wonderingly, end
Joat giggled with pleasure. "Hmm. According
to the biological studies I had, it's not
easy to tell with the pre-pubescent . . .
dressed or in disguise."

  "I can always tell," Joat said with some
contempt for his ignorance.

"You're a soPrshell."

4'You sure you're not a computer?"

"Yes, I am stop teasing!"

  Joat grinned unrepentantly. Simeon felt
an un~ sensation and tried to identifier
it. A fluter m the ribcage? he thought
wonderingly.

  "Why haven't they answered the
tight-beam?" Simeon asked nervously a week
later. "I sent everything. The forms were
all correct "

"It's a bureaucrat," Channa said
soothingly.

  "Oh? That's supposed to reassure me?"
Simeon said. A moment later: "Why isJoat's
room always a mess?

1

 IHE CI~YWHO FOUGHT 53                         l

I send in the servos twice a day and it's still in a
maximum-entropy state."

  "It's called 'adolescence,' Simeon," Channa said. "At least
she seems to be settling in at school"

  Simeon's image winced. Joat had unexpectedly cleaned up as
pretty, though she had wrinkled her nose when he'd mentioned
that. She seemed to trust him Channa as well to a limited
extent. Any further social interfacing was . . . lacking.

  "She gets in too many fights," he said. She also fought very,
very dirty. He winced again when he thought of the places some
blows, kicks and punches had landed.

  "She's not used to interacting except as a potential victim,"
Channa replied. "I don't think she's ever been with anyone in
her own age group. She certainly doesn't know the local
rituals. She's an outsider  practically a feral child. We're
lucky she can respond to other human beings at all."

  An awkward silence fell for a moment. Unspoken: and she
didn't thinJ'you were human when she metyou.

  "She's learned about daily showers," Simeon pointed out
helpfully.

  "Oh, there's good stuff in Joat," and Channa grimaced. "Even
if her brand of ethics is unusual, at least she's consistent
in applying it. All she needs is some security and a chance.

"Isn't that all anybody needs?"

  Several hours later, Simeon still glowed with satisfaction
in their accomplishments with Joat. This, being a father
thing, is great, he thought, and warmed measurably towards
Channa. [he got to thank her

  For the first time since she had arrived, Simeon looked into
her quarters and was surprised at how, in that short
time under two weeks, although it seemed like more  it had
changed from the spartan chamber Tell Radon had occupied. She
had tinted the walls a soft, opink

54 Am~eMcCo~ ~ S. M. Staring

and had put "paint-chips" into the
permanently installed
frame-projectors. Thejewel-bright
colors and romantic images of the
pre-Raphaelites, Alma-Tadema and
Maxfield Parish glowed from the
walls, along with some modern
Mintoro reproductions. The bedspread
was an icy gray satin on which were
scattered embroidered pillows of
peach and gray and blue.

  "Say, Channa," he said in tones of
pleased approval, "I like what
you've done with the room."

  Channa emerged from the bathroom
clad in a blue silk robe trimmed
with lace, a brush in her hand and
swept out of her quarters into the
main lounge without saying a word.
She stopped in front of Simeon's
column and crossed her arms, her
eyes blazing. All Simeon's warm
feelings fell into cold ash as he
looked out at her. Maybe if he
didn't say anything, she'd go away
and not say whatever it was that was
burning inside her eyes. Nah, when
have l ever been that luck where
she's concerned?

  Her body was rigid, though her
shoulders twitched and her lips
opened several time. He'd better say
something to stem the acid eruption.

  Using as casual and complimentary
tone as he could manage, he said,
"You have very romantic tastes,
Channa," which seemed to reduce her
blazing eyes a degree or two. He'd
never know why he continued: perhaps
sheer mischief to get a little of
his ownback. "Though your bed looks
amazingly like an ice cube."

  She blinked in astonishment and he
thought,A hit!A van palpable hit!
But then she took a deep breath.

  "I did not think," she said, every
word precise and polished, "that it
would be necessary to actually say
this, ha since I must, I shall.
Because we got offon the wrong foot
end I did not trust you, I swept my
quarters for active scanners." She
crossed her arms. "You will please,"
she went on with careful emphasis,
"not ever enter my quarters without
knocking and requesting admittance,

THE CI~IY WHO FouGHT 55

afoul waiting for my express
permission to enter. Is that clear,
Simeon?"

  "I apologize, Channa. Of course
you're right. I got careless, all
those years with Tell."

  "As to the quality of my taste . .
." she said in a voice even more
britde than before.

Ohplease, hethought,foronce, Store,
shutupandletitgo.

  ". . . it's none of your business."
She glared at him. "Given your own
preference for interior decoration,"
she said indicating his sword and
dagger collection, "I'd say you have
titanium gall to make snarky remarks
about mine."

"But I like it. I said I liked it!"

  "And what," she continued
unheeding, "would someone with such a
morbid fascination with humaniq's
lapses into ritualized slaughter know
about romance anyway?"

  Simeon was dumbstruck. "I've never
. . . thought of my interest in
military history as a 'morbid
fascination.' I am genuinely
fascinated by strategy and military
tactics. But to call it morbid, well,
romance and morbidity have a long and
interesting relationship."

  She sighed with exasperation. "
Let'sjust say that while both can be
morbid, romance and militarism make
uncomfortable . . ." and she winced
". . . bedfellows."

  "Channa, some of the most romantic
people in history have been military
personnel. Doesn't the very word
'warrior' conjure up romantic
images?"

She shook her head discouragingly.
"Not to me!"

"Not even 'knights in shining
armor'?"

  She groaned. "Look, Simeon, it's
late and I'm tired. Let'sjust say
that I don't like my privacy invaded
at any time, by anyone." Her lips
curled in a slight rueful grin. "But
I think I overreacted a tad.
Especially when you made fun ofmy
decor."

  "Well, you might wait till you're
actually berg made fun of before you
start clawing pieces out of people."

56 A - eMcCo~ 6? Sad. Sting

"Sorry.

"Romance has its place," he
murmured.

  She smiled sardonically and raised
one eyebrow. "With all due respect,
Simeon, I doubt that romance has
crossed your mind. Real, genuine
romance, with its aspects of
tenderness and sentiment are, if
you'll excuse me, beyond your ken."

  There was more challenge than
honest regret in her voice, and he
took offense. "Because I'm a
shellperson?" he asked, fairly
purring with suppressed anger.

  Channa's jaw dropped. "N-no, of
course not!" she said, stammering
slightly. Then she caught herselfand
shook her hairbrush at him. "What a
nasty, evil, slimy debater's tuck!
You know perfectly well that I never
even thought of thatl What I meant
was that so far in our acquaintance,
you have yet to demonstrate that you
are sensitive, or idealistic or . .
. well, tender. Passion, now I think
you've very effectively concep-
tualized raw, basic, animal passion.
Which does not exist in the same
universe as romance."

  "Let me tell you something, Ms.
Hap. I'm well aware that romance
happens in the mind and the soul and
the heart. I know that it isn't
necessarily a physical thing
Remember Heloise and Abelard . . ."

"Greatwarrior couple, were they?"
she asked smiling.

  He sighed to himself. What do they
teach them m un*uersi, these days?
"Not they, milady. I see I must
persuade you beyond any measure of
doubt. You've put me on my mettle."
She cocked her head at him. "l shall
court you, belle dame sand merry,
and win your heart."

  She laughed aloud in astonishment.
"You've got your work cut out for
you. I may like the romantical  as
decor but I'm no dewy-eyed
sentimentalist and not at all
susceptible."

"Oh, so you're seduction-proof, are
you?"

  "I'm not even going to dignify that
with an answer. Goodnight, Simeon."

IME CITYWElO FOUGHT 57

  "Goodnight, Channa," he said
quietly as she left without another
word.

  Not susceptible, eh, Happy baby7
Well, get ready for it,
sweetheart you're in for the time of
your life! You want romance? I 11
give you romance, little lady, m such
sulfide and clever portions, you
won't realize that you're bemg wooed
by a very personal phantom lover

  He settled down to consider his
strategy. Softshells could rely on
physical attraction for starters;
that was impossible for him, of
course.

  How to beam, he wondered. Well,
with Channa, I suppose I could start
with deft cooperation and
nineteenth-centur' manners. I'd
better look into the mores of Hawking
Alpha Proxima Station and see what
their courting customs are. Nothing
so blatant as gifts right off harem.
Ah-ha! Music! After all, it hath
charms to soothe the savage beast, or
breast. Both apply in this case. Now,
171~ust access her musical reper-
toire which doesn't invade her
privacy, merely her overt records .
. .

  "Hey, Simeon, what's going on?"
Joat said, turning from her breakfast
to stare at his column.

"Going on, my dear?" Simeon said.

  "Yeah, going on. All of a sudden
you're so smooth you'd make a wombat
puke, and Channa looks as if
she'djust found a dead body, a
longtime dead body."

  Channa snorted suddenly. Since she
was in the middle of a mouthful of
coffee, the results were spectacular.
Joat silently offered her a napkin as
she coughed and sputtered.

  "You're imagining things," Simeon
replied, with a touch of asperity. He
shifted into a mellow tone: "Are you
all right, Channa?"

  "What's wrong with Simeon?" Patsy
asked, sotto voce. They were in the
shadow of an impeller pump, and the
vibration would make voice-pickup
difficult.

58 A7meMcCaff~ PRISM. S60

"Wrong?" Channa said, frowning.

"Yeah, he's agreein' all the time.

"Now that you mention it . . ."

  The woman from Larabie shrugged.
"Don't look a gift horse in the
mouth, Chan. But, if you do, Fleck
the teeth her file-marks."

ChiefAdministrator Claren gave a
final keystroke.

  Hat's the projections matched
against the past five years," he
said. "You'll note turnover is a
little high, but on a transit
station, it's difficult to keep
people."

  Channa frowned. "I'd think it would
be easier here," she said. "More
Agility facilities."

  "Also easier to leave," Claren
pointed out, nodding towards the
large passenger terminal.

  "We should do more in the way of
social and cultural activities,"
Channa said. "The contingency fund
would cover it, and in the long run,
such amenities pay for themselves
and then some. There are a lot of
mining and exploration sectors
around here" which was exactly why
SSS-900-C had been established in
the middle of the duster of
mineral-rich fifth-generation
suns "and their people need leisure
activitiesjust as much as their
equipment and ships need servicing.
The Perimeter's a gold mine for its
owners and for the station, to name
your only real star attraction. If
the outposters could get
entertainment and commissary
supplies in a range from cheap to
expensive, they wouldn't need to
travel further in towards Center.
This whole area would take a big
step further toward being part of
the Central Worlds and not just a
primitive frontier zone.

  "Exactly, Ms. Hap," Claren said. He
was a mousylooking little man, with
thinning black hair combed back over
hothead. He dressed dike a
humorist's caricature of a
bureaucrat, down to the keypad
holder on his belt. "It's what I've
been saying for years.

IRE CI-IYWHO FOUGHT 59

"What do you think, Simeon?" Channa
asked.

  "Sounds good to me," the affable
city manager replied.

  Claren coughed violendy; one of his
hovering assay tents scurried forward
widh a glass of water.

  Channa waited until he had
recovered. "Surprise you, did he?"

  "Surprise me? Me? No, no, something
caught in my throat. Air's dry, I
dank." He hastily swallowed another
sip of water to reinforce
dlatinterpretation. "Now, here," and
his fingers flew over the key of his
terminal, "are some plans we've had
pending, widh the projected "

  "Answer the question, please,
Administrator Claren," she said
firmly but quietly. She might be new,
but she could recognize "sign
now,pliase," when she heard it.

  "Well, ah, this isn't the first
time these specific projects have
been put forward," Claren said. "But,
ah, there has never been a
sufficiently positive reaction to
implement the schemes. Until now,
that is. It's a pleasure to work with
someone who can appreciate planning
ahead and is so naturally decisive.
Ahhhhh, oh dear." His voice trailed
off.

  Channa's took on a steely note.
"Changed our mind, have we, Simeon?"

  "This station wasn't in a position
to plunge into such an ambitious
project. Much less have the
incentive," Simeon replied smoothly.
"Tell was a roughneck like me.
Neither of us had the background for
coordinating such enterprises. Here,
anyway."

  Channa turned, subliminally aware
of something moving through the air
behind her. It was a message tray,
floating at elbow height. The domed
top folded back, revealing chilled
glasses and a frosted, uncorked
bottle of a fine vintage. A single
red rose lay on the white napery. Her
lips grew thin but, as she saw Claren
watching her closely and knew that
she must

60 AnneMcCo~ PRISM. Stirling

be flushing, she controlled her
impulse to sling the bottle at the
sensor that linked Simeon to this
office.

  UYes, by all means let us drink to
the success of this undertaking,
Claren," she said and began to pour.

  Facetiously, she lifted her glass
towards the sensor and sipped,
mildly surprised at the dry crisp
taste. "Hmm. Not a bad white Didn't
know you haditin you, Simeon."

  UI'm not without a few talents of
mine own," he replied, wishing there
was an imager in Claren's office so
he could project the suave smile he
was feeling.

  She downed the rest of the glass,
replacing it on the float. "If you'd
just transfer the plans to my
terminal, Administrator Claren, I
can peruse them at my leisure." Then
she strode purposefully out of the
office.

  She was storming by the time she
got to their lounge. "I bet you
think you were beingsubt~l Subtle
like colliding with an asteroid,
you_ n She swung around to the screen
which he had prudently left blank,
giving her anger no focus. Then she
began to hear the sounds filling the
room.

  Simeon delightedly watched her
expression gradually alter from
livid to astonished and finally to
enchanted as the lilting sounds of
the Reticulan mating croon filled
the lounge. The sounds were long,
low, dreamy. There was no formal
melody, but somehow the theme
suggested the stillness of deep
forest and dew falling like liquid
diamond in streaks of sunlight
dazzling through the leaves.

  Channa stood still for a moment.
She winced slightly as the door
closed with an audible swoosh,
annoyed that any other sound marred
the prelection of what she was
hearing. Then, stepping carefully,
as though fearful that cloth
brushing against cloth or shoe
against carpet might cause her to
lose a precious second of the
complex music

Wife WHO FOUGHT B1

dlat surrounded her, she walked to a
chair. She sat down so slowly she
seemed to float down to it, scarcely
seemed tobreathe as she absorbed the
music.

  Myf~st impassion of her was
correct, Simeon thought, watching
Channa. She is a fox! Then, peering
more closely, he wasn't so sure, for
her eyes were half closed, starred
with tears, and his acute vision let
him see the skin of her face
relaxing, smoothing out. She doesn't
look thatfoxy now! In fact, she looks
kinda . . . sweet.

  When the croon had drifted offing a
serene silence, she sat without
moving. Then she closed her eyes and
slowly leaned back, clasping her
hands before her. When she opened her
eyes, they shone and her voice was
husky.

  440h, Simeon . . . I can forgive
you a lot of tricks for thatt I might
even kiss you. In appreciation, of
course. That was so beautiful.. Thank
you," and she smiled.

  Simeon modulated his voice so that
there was a'4smile'' in his tones
when he answered her. "You're
welcome. Do you happen to know what
thee was?" He didn't think she was
likely to, but he kepethat outofhis
tone.

  She wiped an eye and said, "I've
never had the opportunity to hear
one, but that has to be a Reticulan
croon."

  You're right about chat," Simeon
said with satisfaction. "But I'll bet
you'll never guess who performed it."
He tried hard to keep any snugness
out of his voice.

  44Now, how would I know who sang,
much less who could, beside
Reticulans, and they're on the other
side of this galaxy. Oh! It couldn't
be . . ." Her eyes went round in awed
surprise. "NoeHelva? She's supposed
to be able to sing them. But . . .
you . . . and Helva, the ship who
sings?"

"None other." Simeon was gratified by
her reaction.

44You know her?"

  Kindred I do," and Simeon allowed
hi~r~fto speak with considerable
pride. "She drops by every now and

62 Am~eMcCa~y erase. Sang

then to visit " he couldn't resist a
little pause for effect " me. We
discuss and exchange contemporary
music from all parts ofthe galaxy.
Since there are so few recordings of
Ret~culan croons which we
shellpeople enjoy so much she
herself made me a gift of this one."
The memory of his thrill at
receiving such a prize colored his
tone.

  Channa smiled in response. "Finally
read my personnel tape, did you?"

  "WelL I'd love to say that I'mjust
terribly perceptive, but music's
mentioned as a significant interest.
I just thought this particular
recording might please, too."

  "Oooh," she said with a quaver in
her laugh, "music hath charms
department? As you said not long
ago, " and there was an edge of
combined sarcasm and chagrin, "you
have a few talents." Then she added
brightly, "Do you sing, too? That's
not mentioned in your personals. n

  Simeon made a throat-clearing,
clearly selfdeprecating sound. "I am
not like Helva and make no claims to
musical discrimination. I listen to
what I like, but I don't know if
I'll like something until I hear it.
"

  "So what else have you heard and
liked?" she asked, relaxed in the
afterglow of the beautiful croon.
"Besides rockjack, that is?"

  His tone was embarrassed. "I really
don't~e Rant much. I just got used
to it, you know. The guys on those
early mining belt assignments I had
didn't play anything else. Most of
what I like turns out to be clas - 1
or operatic. "

  "Me, too," she said, smiling
towards his column with a kindliness
he had not seen in her before.
"Well, if Helva liked you enough to
give you that superb Reticulan
recording, and you actually admit to
a preference for classical and
operatic, perhaps we should call a
truce?"

"Atruce? Do we need one?"

  She narrowed her eyes. "In a manner
of speaking, we do. We have struck a
few sparks." She grinned. "A

THEI~IY WHO FOUGHT 63

mutual appreciation of music is so
far probably the firmest common
ground between us. Halfway through
secondary school, I realized that my
best friends were also my
choirmates." She leaned toward the
column, with the first intimacy she
had so far shown him. "We used to
produce and cast ghost operas."

"You did what?"

  "We'd choose a subject or theme,
and a composer, then select a cast.
The rules said Blat composer and cast
have tobedead."

  "Really? How bizarre!" Simeon
paused to consider the notion. "Do go
on."

  "We'd start with . . . the name of
this opera. Say, 'Rasputin.' Have you
heard of him?" The merry tone of her
voice was subtly teasing, challenging
him.

  "Of course, I have. He's often
credited with being dhe indirect
cause of a successful revolution."

  She regarded his column with a wry
expression. "You would know about him
if he caused a war, wouldn't you?"

"Do we, or don't we have a truce?"

"Wedo," she said,
holdingupbothhandsinsurrender.

"Who writes this 'Rasputin' opera?"

  "Oh, Verdi," she said instantly.
"Such a grand dheme as well as dial
particular time would appeal to him.
Don't you dank? Now, you
tellmewhoshouldplaydlelead."

  Simeon accessed the necessary
historical information from his
files. "In the available likenesses
of him, Rasputin has enormous eyes
and a riveting gaze, so we want a
singer who's physically powerfi~1 and
dramatically able to dojustice to
such a role. How about ITlac Suc, dhe
Sondee tenor?"

  "Eh . . . he does have a compelling
gaze, I grant you, and his eyes are
Large. But don'tyou think he has a
few too many of dhem7 Besides he's
only retired, not dead."

  Simeon Bipped back a massive leap
in the research file. "Um, Placido
Domingo?"

64 ArmeMcf~ ~5~. S - ng

  "I know of him! He dived in a time
blessed with great tenors. He's
perfect! Tall, lean, big brown eyes
and whet a voice. Nice choice,
Simeon."

"And he's dead, too."

  "I ran see it now," she said,
standing suddenly and clutching
histrionically at her throat. "They
poison him, you see," and then she
flung her arms wide, "and he sings!
They stab him," she mimed a thrust
to the bosom, before flinging her
anus wide again, "and he sings! They
drown him," she flapped her arms as
though splashing frantically, then
placed both hands on her heart, "and
he sings! They shoot him," she
staggered to Simeon's column and
leaned herback againstit.

"Channa, he's got to stop singing
sometime."

  She raised a finger, "Sotto voce,
he sings, 'it is over.' " She slid
down the column into a graceful
art-deco position, "And he dies."
Her head flopped forward and her
hands dangled loosely from her
wrists.

  The com chimed and the screen
cleared, allowing communications
specialist Keri Holen an unob-
structed view of Channa slumped at
the base of Simeon's column. "Oh!
What's hap . . . I mean, Ms. Hap!
Simeon, is she all right?"

  Channa was instantly on her feet,
palm up in a ca]ming gesture. "I'm
fine,'' she said, serenely adjusting
her tunic blouse. "Whatis it?"

  "Uh . . . a message from Child
Welfare on Central, from a Ms.
Dorgan. If it's convenient, she's
scheduled a conference call for 1600
today."

  "Perfect," Simeon said, "tell her
thank you," and he broke the
connection.

  "I thank the powers that be that
wasn't Ms. Donovan herself," Channa
said nervously.

  "I like that 'ifit's convenient,'
" Simeon said, musingly. "Channa,
have you ever replied, 'No, it's
damned inconvenient'?"

Channa regarded him with a
singularly blank

DINE CI-I Y WHO FOUGHT 65

expression. "No, actually I haven't.
But then, in my branch ofthe service,
it shouldn't everbel"

  Simeon studied Joat nervously,
wondering if they should have dressed
her differently. All the other
children her age wore the same
shapeless clothes, disgusting and
often raucous color combinations, but
not necessarily what the prudent
guardian would recommend for this
kind of interview. The com chimed.

  Too late, he thought. Channa seemed
calm, but then Channa always seemed
calm. Odd when she can exude such
depths of hostility.... Still, she
always did them with a controlled and
icy demeanor. Yeah, Channa was fine.
Joat's hands were clasped in her lap.
Poor hid, herkn?~-les are white. But
otherwise she seemed composed. Tm
fme, too, he thought. am not calm,
but [m f net

  Ms. Doqgan studied them from the
screen, dike a teacher assessing a
class of delinquents, then smiled, a
tight, supe tier lithe smile. Her
hair was gray, cut short, combed in a
simple disciplined style. She wore a
severe dark blue suit with a prim
white blouse and no jewelry. The view
of hi -ground behind her was official
and equally unsoftened by anything
even remotely unofficial.

  I'll bet she starches her bras,
Simeon thought. He remembered Patsy
Sue using that expression: entirely
appropriate right now.

  Ms. Dorgan nodded to Channa, then
fastened her cold little eyes onJoat.
"Hello, dear," she said in syrupy
tones. "I'm Ms. Dorgan, your
case-worker."

  Joat's face had hardened to
wariness, her whole body going rigid.
Simeon wondered how his nutrient
fluid had suddenly gone so cold, but
he didn't dare divert an erg of his
attention away from these proceed-
ings. He didn't even dare reassure
Joan. She mumbled a barely audible
"hello" in response.

  "Well, dear, you made some very
impressive scores on the tests. Did
you know that?"

66 AmleMcC~S.M. Stag

A nearly inaudible "no" answered
her.

  Ms. Dorgan glanced down at
something below the screen's range,
and then her right hand became
visible, probably pressing the
button to scroll her file forward.

  "You are, however, considerably
behind your age group in a good many
subjects, with the exception of
mathematics and mechamcals, where
you positively excel." That much was
said with some genuine enthusiasm.
"You've no idea the excitement
you've generated in some quarters. I
think you may now anticipate a much
brighter future than your past may
have led you to expect, dear."

  Simeon spoke for the fast time,
keeping his promise to his protege.
"Joat wants to study engineering.
You obviously concur that she has a
unique talent in that field. n

  Ms. DorE;an's studied smile wavered
and the tendons an her neck stood
out with the strain of not obviously
peering around the room. "You are
the . . . shellperson?" She seemed
to hold her thin lips away from the
word as though it might soil them.
Her eyes roved between Channa and
Joat as though hoping one of them
might be ventriloquising the male
voice.

  "Yes. I am Simeon, the SSS-900-C.
I'm applying to adoptJoat as a full
daughter and full relation."

  Ms. Dorgan's hand delicately
brushed a strand of hair back into
place.

  "Yes, well, as to that," she raised
her brows as though surprised that
he had spoken at all, "you realize
that other prospective parents have
put in applications for children
with Joat's potential. We usually
give preference to couples." There
was a faint emphasis on the final
word. She fingered her collar
nervously. "InJoan's case . . ."

'Joat," saidJoat, Simeon and Channa
in unison.

  '7oat's case, I've shown her file
to a quantum-lattice engineer, who
is a professor of my acquaintance,
and he immediately expressed an
interest in her. He's extremely

IlIE ~YWl10 P OUGHT 67

enthusiastic about tutoring someone
of such promise. He's malTied, too,
on a life-contract with a poet. Such
a situation would have many
advantages for the child."

  Simeon watchedJoat's face go white.
"As a station manager, I am
intimately acquainted with a variety
of sciences,
includingregularupdatesonstat~of-th
e-ar~ so I am quite capable of
tutoring her, on the practical level
she prefers, in any specialty
thatinterests her. Relax,Joat. Ms.
G=gon's merely mentiorung options and
possibilities. "

  The case worker loudly cleared her
throat. "My name, Station Manager
Simeon, is Dorgan, with a D. Which
reminds me, Joat, somewhere on the
application, ah, hereitis, it says
thatyour name isanacronymfor'jack-o
all-trades.' Where Jack' was a
gender-inappropriate first name, ~in'
was substituted. How would you feel
about being calledJill?"

  "About the same as I'd feel about
being called shit," Joat replied,
every inch the belligerent
corridor-kid now, scornful and angry;
no trace of her earlier diffidence
remaining. "And I wouldn't answer to
it 'cause it's not my name."

'Joat!" Channa gasped.

  "Don't you see it, Simeon, Channa?"
Joat said, her blue eyes sparkling
with contempt. "This is an ajoke!
This al' Ms. Organ . . ."

"Dorgan, if you please."

  I . . . bitch has made up her mind.
What are we wasting our time and
credit talkie' to her for?"

  "Calm down,Joat," Simeon said.
"Let's notjump to conclusions yet.
Ms. Dorgan, although I have unlimited
communication links, my time is
heavily scheduled, and I was assured
by the authorities that this was
merely a formality. Shall we move to
setding the details now?"

  Slightly pink in the cheeks, Ms.
Dorgan took a deep breath and
released it in a small huff.

"I can'tbilievethatyouwouldpersistin
thisapplication,

68 Anne McCourtS M. Saw

knowing that a human couple is
interested in the child. It would be
one thing if no one wanted her, but
that is not the case.
Inthefirstplace, since
she'sataverysensitivestageof
levelopment, there is no way that
someone like you could appreciate
what sloe's going through. N

"Because Simeon is male?" Channa
asked quietly.

  "Because he is a shellperson. My
dear Ms. Hap, as a professional
brawn, you are surely
well-acquainted with the
peculiarities of these persons. Why
deny that they are practically a
different species? With no real
understanding of what it's like to
be independently mobile? How could
he possibly raise an active,
grouting child?" The slight emphasis
on the two adjectives made Channa
clench her teeth in disgust.
Dorgan's question was also
rhetorical.

  "Well, now,Joat," Simpson drawled,
heavily borrowing from Patsy Sue
again, "I guess you were right. Ms.
Gorgon had made up her mind before
she saw us."

  "That's Dorgan," the case-worker
said, leaning heavily on the "d."

  "Toldja," Joat said, "of' Ms.
Organ's already decided."

"DoIgan. Dorgan. DORGAN!"

  "Stop it' All three of you." Channa
cast her glare over Simeon's column,
Joat's flushed face, and finally
settled it on the Child Welfare
representative. "You have some very
strange ideas about shellpeople, Ms.
Dorgan, with a D. My advice would be
to consider carefully before you
make any more bigoted remarks. I
particularly resent your denying
Simeon his intrinsic humanity. I've
never met a shellperson who wasn't
at least as able and responsible as
a softperson. And indisputably more
ethical! In fact, your remarks
indicate active prejudice on your
part. Prejudice which is, I might
remind you, legally actionable."

  Ms. Dorgan raised her chin.
"There's no need, no need at all,
Ms. Hap, to make threats. No
doubtitis due

THE ClTyWHo FOUGHT 69

to your long association with such
persons that you no longer consider
them . . . abnormal." Before Channa
could get over sputtering at that,
the case-worker smiled smugly. "In
the child's best interests, I'm
afraid that I shall have to deny this
petition. I shall make arrangements
for her transport to Central, where,
after a short stay at our orphan
facility, she will no doubt be
adopted by apple." Still smiling she
broke the connection.

  "Well?" Simeon almost shouted into
the ensuing silence. "You're not
going to let her have the last word
on this, are you?"

  "Don't she have it? Far's this
orphan child's concerned?" Joat
demanded bitterly. "I knew this'd
happen. I told myself this'd happen.
But you two trained brains were both
so damned sure." She sneered as she
counted off her points. "You knewjust
where to go and just who to talk to
andjust what to do. But you know
what? You don't know ANYTHING! But
after all, how could you?" she asked
her eyes beginning to f 11 with
tears. "Everything's always gone your
way. Everything's alwaysjust been
handed to you." She started to sob.
"Shells, education, food, a living
place. Well, they don't get handed
out, femme tell ye. And look what
you've done to met Now they know I
exist and where I am, and they're
coming to get met For all I know,
that lattice engineer wants to play
diddly on my lattice work. Only he's
human and a professor and's got en
'in' with hem: You got me into this,
but I'm sure not waiting for you to
get me out. I'm not gain' anywhere
with nobody I don't want to!" Her
voice had reached scream level before
she pivoted and ran from the lounge.

  "Joatl" Channa moved to follow her,
but Simeon closed the door in her
Ace. "Simeon!" she said in disbelief

  "Let her go, Channa. What could you
do now? Lock her in her room until
they come for her?" Channa

70 Am~eMcCo~ USA. Stirling

looked as though he'd struck her.
"She needs time and privacy. She
needs tofeelincontrolagain.
Letheralone."

  "There are things we can do,
Simeon. I'm not going to let that
woman win. We can go over her head
in Child Welfare. We In appeal to
SPRIM and Double M for help. You
taped that interview, didn't you?"

  He laughed, for once pleased to see
her so combative. "Yes, I did, and
won't the Mutant Minorities and the
Society for the Preservation of the
Rights of Intelligent Minorities
dump on La Gorgon for her attitudes!
Good thinldng, Channa. I'm this very
moment apprmug them ofthisincident.
Y'know, thiscouldevenbefun."

  Late that night, Simeon noticed
that a light came on in Channa's
quarters. He had assiduously kept to
his promise, but the faint glow
under the door was plainly visible.
Well, to anyone with photonscanners
like mine, he amended. Still, he was
observing the principle of the
thing.

  Channa heard a chiming sound and,
after a surprised pause, called out
"Hello?"

  Simeon's voice, carefully adjusted
to low audibility, answered from the
lounge, "May I come in?"

  She smiled and laid aside the
reader she'd picked up. "Yes, you
may."

  She lay in bed, looking tousled and
sleepy. Simeon thought that she
looked little more than a kid
herself. "Can't sleep?" he asked.

  She shook her head, "I keep
thinking of Joat, alone down there
in the dark."

'30at's been asleep for hours."

  "How do you know that? She might
still be crying her heart out for
all we know."

  "I know because I can hear little,
Joat-sized snores issuing Mom one of
her favorite haunts."

"She didn't turn on her
sound-scrubber?"

"Nope. She was upset!"

"No, she was thoughtful. She is
becoming more

IRE CrrYWHO FOUGHT 71

civilized if she didn't want us to
worry." And Channa laughed in relief,
then sobered. "She's such a good kid.
She really didn't deserve Gorgon on
her case. Look, Simeon, B & B's are
considered couples by Central Worlds.
Our contracts tend to last a lot
longer than mere marriages. If I
stayed on for say, ten years and
applied for joint custody with you,
most of Gorgon's objections would be
invalid."

  Joint custody, huh? Well, Gorgon
can't say a female brawn isn't a good
role model. I've got cornlines
hatting up, but what I don't know is
how many others at Child Welibre
suffer f rom Do~gan's pre judice. I'd
hate to see you make such a 'supreme
sacrifice' for nothing. Fighting Ms.
G - on through the bureaucracy won't
turn us to stone,
butitcouldboreourbrainsintooatmeaL"

  Channa gave a little "tsh" of scorn
"It's not like I've got anywhere else
to go."

  "I know, I heard about Senalgal.
Sorry, Channa. I know what it's like
to lose an assignment you'd sell your
soul to get a

  She raised her eyebrows
inquiringly. "What was it for you, if
you don't mind my asking a
planet-based city, a scout ship? Or
maybe you looked as high as a whole
planet?"

  "I'vegot a city, more or less.
Definitely not a scout ship. The
brain/brawn scout ship is too
claustrophobic and limited.
Ilikedealingwithalotofpeople. Ienjoy
the give and take of various
personalities and situations. More
challenge on a station this size. I
love Beirut challenged."

"Not a city, not a ship. You're after
a planet?"

  "No, I wouldn't want that much
responsibility. And a planet's too
sedentary. But a ship, definitely, so
I could get around a lot."

  "Ah," she said, making the
connection between his leisure
interests and the only ship
assignment that applied, "a Space
Navy command-ship." She cocked her
head. "Are you in line for one?"

72 AnncMcCa~ PRISM.t~ng

  "Theoretically, yes. I've applied
and what do I get? 'You're too
important where you are,' " he began
in a singsong monotone, " 'You're
too perfect where you are, there's
no one else as well-trained as you
are for such a highly specialized
situation.' I've always," he added
wryly, "considered SSS-900-C to be a
temporary assignment."

"Forty years is temporary?"

"With shellpersons, of course it
is."

  "Maybe we aren't so imperfectly
matched after all." She paused a
moment, then in a flippant tone
added, "With Joat to sweeten the
deal, I don't think I would regard
staying here as a 'supreme
sacrifice.' Ugh! Orphan facility,
indeed! Pick her up? Like some sort
of a package?" She peered out of her
room towards his column. "Do you
think we stand a chance of reversing
Dorgan's decision?"

  Simeon wouldn't have taken bets,
-but he had barely tackled dhe task.
On the up side, he felt something
deep inside him beginning to uncoil.
"With a B & B partnership, we have a
chance. I appreciate your
willingness to consider one very
much, Channa. Right now though, dear
lady, why don't you sleep on it?"

  She sighed. "Mm, but I'm resdess,
and," she played with an edge of the
reader, "there's nothing I really
want to read."

  "Then," he said, gendy dimming the
lights, "I shall recite a bedtime
poem for you. Setde in." He waited
until she had scooted down and
adjusted covers and pillows, smiling
as she did so. He began, "We who
with songs beguile your pilgrimage .
. ." Her eyes closed, and gradually
she drifted off to sleep as Simeon
recited.

" . . . softly through the silence
beat the bells,

Along dhe golden road to Samarkand."

             ~ CHAPr"FnE

  Channa emerged into the lounge,
heading for the table and her
morning coffee. A wave of sound
struck her very much a wave, like
plunging into a curling jade-green
wall that seized her and bore her
back towards the beach.

  She couldn't help but recognize the
music as "The lliumphal March" from
IheEn~ o{Gar~nzede by User.

  She paused with a slight frown when
she realized that she had
unconsciously altered her stride to
suit the march tempo. She stopped,
and her pause was the length of a
measure. She laughed when she
realized it. "Does this mean I get
to be queen today?"

  "Actually, after your restless
night, I decided something upbeat
would suit."

  "WelL I sure got off on the right
foot, then," she said with a sound
approximating a giggle.

  Simeon was pleased. Last night
their relationship really had turned
a corner. They were going to be all
right.

  "So, a good morning to you,
Simeon," she said with an impish
smile.

  "And a good morning right back
atcha, as Patsy Sue would say."

  Channa's appreciative smile faded
slowly into a frown. "I'd consider
it a real good morning if I could
see and speak to Joat as soon as
possible. I'm very worried that she
mightjump ship on us, and that would
ruin every step of progress we've
made with her.

74 An~eMcCo~ ~ SM. 5~ -
  "Wish I could oblige you on that,
Channa, but I don't know where she
is now. She turned on her
sound-scrubber early this morning
and effectively vanished." He
hurried on when Channa'sface showed
her disappointment clearly. "I don't
think she'd leave on two counts.
One, she knows her way intimately
between the skins of this station,
and it's certainly big enough for
her to change hidey-holes on an
hourly basis if necessary. And two,
none of the ships undocking today
are the type she could stow away on
or hire out on. I've got every
sensor tuned to her registered
patterns, and I've discreetly
alerted key personnel."

  Channa nodded and went to her
console, pulling the notescreen
towards her. "Then we had better get
to work. SPRIM ought to be moving on
that dispatch you sent offlast
night." Her anxiety lifted at
Simeon's knowing chuckle. She ran
her fingers in a tattoo on the
console. "And I suspect Child
Welfare won't like being on
theirhitlist."

  "Hit list?" Simeon spoke with some
alarm. 4'Are they that way
inclined?" He didn't wish Ms. Dorgan
any petal harm.

  "The way SPRIM execs rave about
hu?nanocentnc chauv~usm is enough to
turn even a tolerant person into a
xenophobe. They've got money and
They're tireless in ensuring
protection. That slur she made on
shellpeople, well . . . And dhe MM
make SPRIM look like a quilting
party."

  "Quilting party?" Simeon searched
his lexicon for the term.

  "Old-fashioned way to spend a
productive and socializing evening,"
she explained absendy.

  "Oh. Not much we can do until they
get beck to us, I suppose."

  Simeon sounded unhappy. Channa
quirked a corner of her mouth.

THE CHYWHO FOUGHT 75

  "We can't go in with lasers blazing
and slag Child Welfare Central, if
that's what you mean. If the station
had full self-government, they
wouldn'tbeable to mess with us so
let's concentrate on station business
for now, shall we?" She cleared her
throat. "I've been going over your
accounts, Simeon, and I've got to say
that you have some wed entries. For
example, tucked away in the fourth
quarter is the notation 'stuff.'
You'll have to be more specific then
'stub' "

  "Why? 'Stuff' is acceptable to the
accountants,. he said in a facetious
tone.

  "I'm not an accountant. I'm
supposed to be your partner. Would
you explain 'stuff'?"

  "it's like this, Channa, I buy
things that interest me. Me, Simeon,
not the station master brain." Never
mind that that also accounted for why
he hadn't paid off his natal debt to
Central Worlds. So I'm apackrat. Is
that her by now?

  Far out in space, Simeon's
peripheral monitors, the ring of
sensors that warned of incoming
traffic, began to transmit
information that suggested a very
large oyact was headed their way.
From the ripples it caused in
subspace, it was very large or very
fast or both. He split his attention
between her and the alert, and sent
a communicator pulse in the direction
of the disturbance. There were strict
rules on how to approach a station.
Approaching unheralded broke half a
dozen regs and invariably caused
stifEcredit penalties.

  Respond to hailing, he transmitted.
Respond immediately.

  "Well, we've got this inspection
and audit coming up in two weeks," he
heard Channa saying in a firm let's-
not-beat-about-the-bush tone. "We
havegot to have everything shipshape
and Bristol fashion, partner..

  He did appreciate that she subtly
reminded him of her promise to help
with Joat, but this was no time for
petty details.

76 Am~Mc~rr'ESM. Swag

  "I don't have a ship shape, Hand "
he muttered in his distraction, "but
I do have something very unusual out
there, approaching me without due
protocol."

  Visual information was now
reaching him. Dropping out of
insular tenet and approaching at . .
. Gem Gin, .17 c!Alarge vessel whose
profile did not fit any known human
ship. The basic hu~it>rm was
spherical, but carried a web of
crazy quilt additions, aons~ons of
girder and lat~cowork.
Someofthemlcokedasiftheyhadbeen
slashed off short with energy beams,
and the cutpoints were tattered.
People were generally not sloppy
with cuttiny tools. Enemies were.
Simeon relayed a standard
"pleaseidentify"message~ndputthetug
haysonstandby.

  "Nor am I abristle," he continued
to Channa. "The inspectors will be
when they come, though."

  Channa groaned. "Even for you that
was lame. You're being unusually
ridiculous, Simeon. You know the
mentality that goes with these
inspections senfence first, trial
aflcr~"

  "In other words, off with our
heads, if they could reach mine."

  "And us running as fast as we can
to stay in one place, too. Which
capability you also don't have. Now,
since this is my first time with you
. . ."

"Oh, Channa . . . pant, pant."

  "Simeon," she said warningly. "I
know where the controls for your
hormone balance are."

  "Heh inch, sorry. What's the worst
they can do to me? Send me back to
asteroidic purgatory? Like I told
you, I'm only on temporary dub here
anyway."

  Channa had been running a scan.
"There are twelve entries for the
word 'stuffst You want this to be a
temporary assignment? Well, you
maygetyourwish."

  "It's not a wish, my dear, I never
said 'I wish they'd take me away
from here and put me anywhere else.'
I've a very definite destination in
mind, as you so astutely concluded
the other evening. If I had my

THE CrrYWHO FOUGHT 77

druthers, I'd be running a command
ship and waging star wars on the
Axial Perimeter. But," and he gave a
huge audible sigh, "who believes in
wishes anymore?"

  "You do, with all your war games
and tactical daydreams."

  The approaching ship still had not
responded, nor was it dumping speed
as fast as it should. In fact,
whoever was in command had waited
much too long to begin doing so. The
flare of drive energies should be
blanking out that whole quadrant, and
the neutrino flux was barely enough
for a pilejust ticking over. Simeon
came to a disagreeable conclusion.

  "Whoa, there, Channa. We've got
stuff, not mine, coming in to make
mince of us if we're not careful.
Have a look?"

  Simeon slapped up a main screen
view of the intruder bearing down on
them. Surprise and alarm held her
motionless for only a split second
before she reacted.

  "I'm alerting the perimeter guard,"
she said, wiping her previous program
and inputing the new.

  "Rightt" Although he already had,
two sources ofthe same alert
emphazised the emergency. "I'm busy
calculating how to cushion the impact
of that great hulking mass whistling
towards us. I hope they know where
the brakes are." Nice to have a brawn
to share emergency work. The station
personnel should get used to dealing
with her.

  Stabbing the alert button on the
main console, Channa then called up a
finer resolution of the object, which
to her appeared to be a darker mass
against the black of space.

  "Unannounced arrivalt" She
transmitted the image to the
personnel on perimeter traffic
control, alerting them to the
pertinent vector and ordering them to
begin rerouting incoming traffic.

"How do you know it's u~histli'~g
toward us?" she

78 Anne~Cl - SAM. S - ing

asked in as calm a voice as he was
using while her fingers flew over
the controls. "There's no sound in
space."

  Simeon could detectjust a
micro-tremor of fear in her
noncommittal tone. "If I think it
whistles," he answered, "it
whistles."

  "Perimeter says it's like nothing
they've ever seen before either
and " she paused and licked her lips
" it's about to cut a broad swath
through the proper traffic pattern."

  Simeon took full control of the
traffic control boards. He could see
and respond to the necessary changes
in traffic patterns faster than any
unshelled human. He was
simultaneously redirecting and
responding to dozens of ships.

  Suddenly Channa started cursing.
"Damn their eyes and innards! These
damned civilians are asking ques-
tions instead of doing what they're
supposed to in emergency routines.
Now you see why I didn't like you
calling those false alarms. No one's
paying a blind bit of attention to
thisgenw emergency! Wolf-cryerl"

  "I've put it on every public
screen. They'll know it's no drill,"
Simeon said,
hisvoicevelvetwithmalice, "and it's
coming straight at us. I don't think
it'll stop."

  Ididn'treal~eyou could
bar~rw)~nyou'ret~ ed, he thought
with tight control, though it helped
being able to set your analogue of
adrenal glands.

  Channa stared, stunned, as the
screen filled with the alien ship.
"You haven't activated the repel
screen? Hit it for God's sakel" She
pressed her rocker switchjust a
fraction of a second behind Simeon.

  Joat gritted her teeth and wiped
eyes and nose on the back of her
sleeve. It was a good shirt, and
clean. Dumb, she told herself
fiercely. Dumb, dung, dumb bitch, d
unrig gash, JUst like the chin told
you you were. Especially when he was
drunk. He'd always been worse then.

THE CrrY WHO FOUGHT 79

  She turned her attention back to
the lithe computer. It was the best
she'd ever been able to steal, a real
Spug]ish; jacked into the station
system right now, with the
skipper-unit she'd cobbled up to keep
the station from knowingjust where or
why.

  Ship schedules / departures /
outsystem, she told it. Machines
didn't lie to youl You could trust
machines and, if they didn't do what
they were supposed to, it wasn't
because they had lied. Maths and
machinery could be believed.

  A barking sob broke through her
lips, spattering drops on the screen.
She bit down on her hand until the
pain and the taste of her own blood
let her continue. Then she wiped the
machine down with the tail of her
shirt. Machines didn't let you down,
either.

  Departures, the computer said.
Look, Joat, you don't have to leave
here. Chest me, we're _

"No!" she screamed.

  Joat stuffed the scramblers into
her pockets and went of Edown the
duct at a scrambling crawl, ignoring
projections and brackets that only
slightly impeded her progress. The
motions were reflexive, with a
graceless efficiency.

  Nobody's going to give me away
agam, she thought. Get me used to
eatingregularand school and
everything, then give me away! The
thought went round and round in her
head, filling it, so that it was
minutes before the klaxon penetrated
her self-absorption.

  "Oh, shit," she whispered in a
still small voice, listening. Then
she turned and went back the way she
came, faster still. The computer was
back there, and without it, she
wouldn't be able to find out what was
really going on.

Her spacesuit was there, too. This
sounded serious.

  "THIS IS NO DRILL! REPEAT, THIS IS
NO DRILLI" The words rang down the
corridors and hallspaces, without the
melodramatic klaxons Simeon

80 An~neMcC~i7'~S~. Stirling

had always used. "Nonessential
personnel report to secure areas.
Report to secure areas. Prepare for
breech of hullintegrity."

  This time the citizens ofthe
SSS-900 C listened, hastening into
suits, gathering children and pets
and heading f or the central core
car section shelters. Crews pelted
onto dleir ships, even as moorings
were detached and entry locks irised
shut and each "all on board" signal
was relayed to Simeon. Emergency
crews flocked to dheir assigned sta-
tions. Infirmary patients who could
not be moved were placed in
individual, independency powered
lii~support units. All too soon,
most ofdle citizens of SSS-900 C
could only wait, imagining their
station crushed like an egg as the
invader plowed into them.

  Simeon worked frantically, ordering
ships of all sizes out ofthe
projected path ofthe incoming ship,
brutally suppressing the knowledge
that ships with ordinary, unshelled
pilots could barely handle the split
second timing he was asking ofthem.
So far, so good no one out there
seemed destined to die today. For a
heartstopping moment he thought the
alien might be decelerating, but the
blaze of energies sputtered and
died. It's only shed 7% of relative
velocidy, he calculated dismally.
Not near, enough.

"Why didn't they program mobility?"

"Who?" Channa asked distractedly.
"Where?"

  "In me! In this station! I r~n't
duck! I've no weaponry to blast it
out of my way. I can't even fend off
such mass. All I can do is watch
What lasers I've got canjust about
handle a decent-sized meteor. The
best I can do is warm up his hull a
little, and I have to wait till he's
up my ass to do it! Damn! This
station is like a paraplegic
spaceship!"

  "Whoa! Did you see that?" Channa
shouted. The mass had seemed to
deliberately veer aside from an
ordinary asteroid miner vessel,
something the miner pilot himself
probably couldn't have done.
"Watch,"

THE CI~IYWHO FOUGHT 81

she said, "there! Did you see?
Itjiggedjustabietomiss that incoming
ferry traffic.. It is being guided."

  "But by what?" Simeon asked. He ran
calculations on the ballistics of
those maneuvers. The deviations were
absolutely minimal for the effect.
"It's traveling so fast now, no human
pilot could stop it and stay con-
scious. They don't answer any radio
messages. They're ignoring the damn
warning flares. Shit, maybe they
think we're welcoming them. Ah,good!"

  "But they are decelerating again,
Simeon," Channa said, glancing up
from her own screens to the main
viewer before she went back to other
chores which she had assumed.

  "Yeah, marginally longer this time.
No, cutting out  no, decelerating
agam. Rate of energy-release . . .
God, but they're still not dumping
enough velocity" And still on a
collision course!" His voice went
slightly wild. "They must want to
destroy me! "

  "I don't see any weapons," Channa
said, trying to finish her current
task in time.

  "Who can tell in thatjumble of
struts and boxes and crap! Besides,
dlatd~ingitse~fisaweapon." Simeon had
just one card to play and at exacdy
the right moment for maximum effect.
"You're not even suited up, partner.
Atleast take shelter in my shaft
core, Channa."

  She shook her head, "Not till I'm
through evacuating dhe alien
quadrant. 'Sides, chose Letheans
scare easily enough as it is without
me appearing in f ull gear. "

  She had managed at last to get
through to dhe leader of dhe Lethe
contingent. A people so formal that
emergencies required a ceremony,
mercifully brief, for deferring dhe
usual endless courtesies in favor of
survival. Had Channa not performed
dhe ceremony and explained dhe
situation to them, they would have
died rather than commit such a breach
of manners as assuming that something
was actually wrong. She broke dhe
connection atlast end exclaimed,
Joat!"

82 Am~eM~ie, ~ Sat. Stag

  "She has a suit," Simeon said,
"first thing I gave her. She's
probably in it right now. Why aren't
you?"

  She dashed for the cabinet holding
her space suit and began to struggle
into it.

  "Come to me, Channa," he said, in
a wildly facetious tone, "come,
touch the hard, male core of my
innermostbeing."

  "Ee-ynck, is that the sort of
romance you've been studying? Try
another mode."

  "When I've world enough and time,
lovely one, but have a look at what
I've managed to arrange as stop
signs. "

  Seemingly from out of nowhere,
three communications satellites came
diving towards the incoming ship,
two striking it head on and one
slightly astern. Whole sections of
the scaffolding and outer skin ofthe
derelict sublimed in white flashes
that expanded into circles with
zero-g perfection. The alien ship
was not slowed  there was too much
kinetic energy in that mass  but its
vector altered slightly.

  "Comsats aren't supposed to be able
to move like thatl" Channa exclaimed
tightly. Simeon's sensors could hear
the pounding of her heart, analyze
the ketones her sweat-damp skin was
emitting. Fear under hard control.
We lady hashes, he thought.

  "A little something I cooked up on
my own," he said smugly.

  "Cooked in the wrong sort of pot,
you crazy loon. Without those
satellites, we'llbe out
ofcommunication with half the
universe for weeks."

  "Channa, if I hadn't done that we'd
be out of communication with the all
of the universe permanently.
Besides, my satellite tactic
worked!"

  Channa looked up at the main
monitor and saw that the projected
vector had skewed slightly. "Not
enough," she muttered. "Please don't
use any more of our comm satellites
like billiard balls, Simeon. If we
do survive this, they'llbe needed
more than ever."

THE OIYWHO FOUGHT 83

"Oh-oh," Simeon muttered.

"Oh-oh?" she repeatedly anxious.

  It means, I screwed the pood',
Channa, Simeon thought. Aloud he went
on. "SS Conrad, dump your carrier
modules end get out ofthat sector.
You are now directly in the path
ofthe incoming ship."

  "No~an-do SSS-900-C. I've got a
full load here. The company'll have
my ass if I desert it,"

  "The company'll have to hold a
seance to get it, then, 'cause if you
stay put, you're about to become
immortal. Jump it!"

  "Now'" Channa shouted. "It's less
than two k-thousand kilometers from
you. Now, dammit!"

  "No shill" the pilot shouted and
disconnected the "cab," the crew
quarters and control section ofthe
ship, from the much larger freight
storage sections.

  They watched the tiny cab move with
agonizing slowness across the
seemingly endless bow of the strange
ship.

  "Down on station horizon," Simeon
instructed, "ninety-degrees, straight
down."

  "Down? You want me to stop? With
that bastard coming right for me! Are
you crazy?"

  "It's your only chance, buddy.
She's shadow on the bottom but, by
Ghu, is she wide! Show me what kind
of pilot you are! Not what kind of
smear you'll make."

  Obediently, the little ship flared
energy, applying thrust at
right-angles to its previous vector.
Its path shifted, slowly at first and
then with growing speed like a
bet/-curve graph across a computer
screen. Slowly, slowly, descending, a
bright spot against the ever larger
mass approaching them.

  "Oh shit, oh shit," the captain
whispered desperately. "Help?"

  The intruder was less than a
kilometer away, now, from the cab
which looked like a white pin-point
against the black hull of the
stranger. At half a

84 Am~McCa~ &,SM. Swing

kilometer it cleared the leading
edge of the incoming ship and the
pilot began to laugh wildly.

  4`Keep going," Simeon ordered
sharply, to be heard through the
hysteria. "It's about to hit your
freighter. Keep moving till I tell
you to stop."

  "It's ore," the captain gasped
though he sounded more as if he was
weeping, "iron ore. Nickel-iron-
carboniferous, in ten-kilo
globules."

  AL crap! Simeon thought, as the
intruder struck the freighter with
majestic slowness. The forward third
of its hull vanished in the
fireball, and so did much of the
freighters cargo. The eneIgy-release
and specu~aphic analysis would tell
him a good deal about the
composition. Right now he had
millions of special delivery meteors
pouring down from the breached holds
onto his station. Great example of
Newtonian physics, action and
reaction.

  The collison had, serendipitously,
damped much of the incoming ship's
remaining velocity, but the frag-
ments of ship and cargo had picked
it up for themselves. He tracked the
myriad trajectories of the space
flotsam and relayed the information
to the ships in the scatter area,
directing them into still more
impossible flight patterns. He
assigned the computer responsibility
for tracking and blasting the larger
chunks of ore with the station's
lasers. No problems with dispersion
when the stuff was in your face. On
the other hand, there was one hell
of a lot of it. Simeon set the
computer to figuring outjust how
much would get through.

  He realized that Channa was staring
at the monitor in horrified
fascination. "Hey Hap, Happy baby,
get in the shaft core."

"Why?" she asked. "It's stopping"

  "Slowing, yes, but if it so much as
kisses me on the cheek, it'll breach
the station and you're on a one-way
trip to the nebula. We need you
here, so shaft me baby."

IREHO FOUGHT 85

  "Shaft yourself," she said. "It has
come to a complete cessation
offorward movement."

  A final flare of energy left the Al
third of the intruder's hull slumping
and melting, the drive cores and
conduction vanes white-hot and
misting titaniumrutile monofiber.

"So it has," Simeon said mildly.

  Channa gave a giddy whoop and
slumped against the central shaft,
trying to wipe at the sweat that
filmed her face.
Herglovecla~dag~nstthefaceplateother
helmet.

  "Dead, stock still," he said,
feeling intense relief. "Relative to
the station, thatis."

  With a glance at his column, Channa
hit the disconnect switch and the red
warning lights stopped flashing.
Simeon began to announce stand-down
to Condition Yellow in dulcet,
paternal tones. Channa took off her
helmet and began to confer with the
Lethe leader, reestablishing the
usual formal relations.

  When at last they disconnected from
their various crucial chores, Channa
looked at her incoming electronic
messages and laughed. "By Gad, but
we're a resilient species. Look at
these."

  Simeon scanned them and laughed,
too. "I haven't even finished
flushing the excess adrenalin from my
system and they're already
complaining about lost cargo and
insurance. I love the human race.
We're consistently more concerned
with trivia than serious threats."

"And we're not even out of danger,
are we?"

  "Out of mortal danger. That thing
could have totaled us. The ore will
cause a lot of trouble and expense,
so let's maintain Condition Yellow
for a while."

  That would keep nonessentials out
of the exterior compartments, mostly
industrial areas anyway, and everyone
in suits with helmets in reach and
within sprinting distance of the
shelters. Megacredits of

86 Am~McCaJ7i-~ USA. Sit

money were being lost' of course,
most of which would be paid by
Tloyds' Interstellar.

  Channa was examining the strange
ship on a close screen.

"Next question is who' or what's,
aboard."

  "And if there's anything left of
the pilot captain," Simeon added,
"who's broken regulations I didn't
know existed till now. I sent out a
dozen probes to secure available
information on what's left Ah!
Input!"

  The main screen blanked, and then
displayed a schematic of the strange
craft' shifting to a three-
dimensional model as the computers
extrapolated.

  "So that's what it looked like
before it started hitting things and
melting down its drives'" Simeon
murmured as brain and brawn surveyed
an elongated sphere amid its tangle
of extensions. "And now I'll sub-
tract what doesn't appear to be part
of the original construction."

  The resulting model didn't look
much like the slagged ruin tumbling
slowly through space in the
real-time image that Simeon kept up
in the lower righthand corner of the
screen. Channa leaned forward and
frowned at such an u~nili~ design.
Huge it certainly was. At least
eighty kilotons mass, with
extravagant ship-bays and airlocks,
old-fashioned cooling vanes around
the equator . . .

  "That looks like human
construction," she said
thoughtfully. "Just not any model
I've ever seen or heard about."
Human civilization had been unified
at the beginning of starBight and
their ships bore a family
resemblance.

  "it does look vaguely human-made,"
Simeon agreed, "butt can't even find
a match m historical fees of
Ja~es'AII e Gala~'s Spacebars for
the last century. The composition is
odd, too; metal-metal fiber matrix.
Ferrous alloys. No comparable design
f or the lasttwo centuries. T Immune
"

"Something?"

THE Clip FOUGHT 87

  "This." He called up an image
beside the reconstructed ship.

"Close but no cigar," Channa said.

  "That's the last of a line of heavy
transports that one was a Central
Worlds space-navy troop-transport.
Designers were Dauvigishipili and
Sons. They used to make a lot of
military craft, operated on stations
out of the New Lieutas system. See,
there is some use to being a military
historian. Ah, here."

  The image changed and now there was
a virtual one-to-one match.

  "Colonial transport," Simeon said.
"They stopped building them about
three hundred years ago, so it could
be up to four hundred years old.
Original capacity was ten thousand
colonists, in coldsleep of course,
with a crew ofthirty. There were a
lot of odd little colonies back then,
people looking for places where they
could practice as weird a religion as
they wanted and not have the Central
Worlds bugging them. The few that
survived are still pretty flaky. Are
you surprised to learn that the
ship-class was called the Manifest
Destiny vehicle? A few of the later
models had brain controllers before
Central Worlds put a stop to that
practice on humane grounds. Some of
those minor cults were " he made a
brief pause to consult his lexicon
" aberrant! Hmm, and I'd bet this one
got transmogrified into an orbital
station. Look at all that stuff'"

"Your kind of'stuff'?" asked Channa
ingenuously.

  "Gadgetry," he amended in a firm,
this-is-serious voice, "plastered on
the exterior: observation stuff,
transmission stuff, the usual. And
intended to be used in orbit. I mean,
who would try to fly any ship with
all that crap sticking out? For
starters, the thrust axis wouldn't be
through the center of mass anymore,
so for starters, it's unbalanced."

Channa scanned through more probe
transmissions,

88 ArtneMcCaffre'~SM. Slang

including some views taken by the perimeter sensors as the hulk
baked in, so they could see the havoc caused by collision end
too rapid deceleration.

"They may have had cause for their precipitous

 intrusion," she said, and froze a view ofthe stubs ofthe  i

radar and radio antennas. "Those look like battle
damage to me."

  "Hmmm." Simeon did a rapid close-scan and match with the naval
records in his files. "You're right, Channa-rnine. Transmission
antennae sheared off so they couldn't have responded to our
hails. Whoever shot those darts knew his stuff, and their most
vulnerable points. See the long star-shaped ripple patterns in
the hull? And those long sort offuzzy distortions clustered in
the rear third of the hull? Those are beamers at extreme range,
lid say. Hard to tell 'cause it's so messed up." He spoke more
slowly, in an almost somber tone. Hell, Channa, beamers like
that are naval ordnance weapons. The real thing." Oh, , this is
not like a simulation at all. USomebody was trying to destroy
that strip."

  "While the victims were desperate enough to fly dose to blind
and totally deaf," Channa said. That was not a safe thing to do,
even in the vastness of interstellar space. "My
nextintelligentquestionis, did they escape? Or are they stall
being Dursued?

"Ahead of you there, partner," Simeon replied, feel

 ing slightly smug that he had anticipated her. "I can't   ~
 detect anything coming in on the same vector." He         j

heaved an audible sigh of relief that coincided with
hers. "Or . . . no, they were blind. The pursuit could
have dropped off long ago, and they wouldn't have
had any way to tell. But we'd better establish who and
why. If, and it's a big if, there's anyone alive in there
now toteUus the facts. I'm notinclined to tee charitable.
For ad we know, they could be pirates or hijackers, and
they were running from Central Worlds' naval pursuit.

IRErrYWHo FownT 89

Either way, they came within
centimeters of smashing us to a
smithereen."

  44Smithereens," Channa said
thoughtfully,, 44because it's
fragments they are and they have to
be plural to be dangerous. I rather
discount their being illegals. Sonze-
thing real deadly must have pushed
them to run in a craft that
unspacaworthy. Someth ng that came to
their planet suddenly. Why else
wouldn't they take the time to cut
away that mass clinging to the ship?
Maybe their sun went nova. Anyway,"
she said briskly, 44if there are
people on board, They're in bad shape
and what have you been doing to
rescue and/or apprehend Them?"

  "Ahem, Ch~nn~-mine. You're the
mobile half of dais partnership.
Remember? So go be brawn for me. And
be careful!"

  Channa paused. 44Ah, yes, so I am.
Thank you for reminding me of dhatl"
Her tone was brightly britde.
"Somehow this wasn't The sort of duty
I Thought came along widh this
assignment."

  '4Well, it has!" he said, making
his voice lilt. "Hate to have caused
you to get into that clumsy suit for
no reason at all."

She lifted her helmet.

  44Thatta girll" Simeon said radher
patronizingly. She ignored him. "Oh,
and Channa?"

"What?"

  "Before you lock your helmet, do
switch on your implant."

  "Ah!" She touched The switch
grounded in bonejust behind her ear,
the contact responding only to her
individual big-energy. "Are you
receiving?"

44Check."

"Can I go now?" she said rather
patronizingly.

"Check."

And mate, Simy baby."

44Got it," Joat muttered to herself
as she rescued the

90 AnneMcCa~:rr~ PRISM.~ng

computer from the shadowed ledge and
turned it on, fingers clumsy in the
space suit gloves. Joat had become
well-acquainted with the station's
drills but, with survival slcills as
finely honed as hers were, she had
put the suit on when the klaxon
sounded Red Alert. Besides, she'd
had a chance to time just how fast
she could get into the flip pin'
thing.

  "Wow!" was her reaction to the
activity the computer duly reported.
"FaTdlingAwow!" The system was
taldug in some heavy data, Inverting
it and f ceding it to Simeon the way
it transferred data from the
pickups, though neverin this density
or aamplexiq. "Heavyread!"

  Joat did her best to follow, but
the speed was too much. Then, "Got
it.n Now the main computerwas also
encoding it for her little friend.
She fiddled to get a finer tuning,
get rid of the drivel, giving her
the visual and aural stuff. She
reared back in surprise, hitting her
head on the metal bulkhead but
ignoring the pain as she realized
what she now had.

  Hey, this is from Channa. Strange,
heavy strange I,m getting what she's
seeing. She must have an implant to
input directly to Simeon like this.
And what Channa was seeing made Joat
feel a little more charitable
towards her. Channa wasn't
squishstuff, her private term for
organic tissue.

  "Beats hacking in to the holo
system any day," Joat muttered, eyes
glued to the miniature screen. She
squirmed into a more comfortable
position, plopped down a purloined
pillow so she wouldn't slam her head
again, braced her feet against the
roof of the duct, plugged the
earphone into the helmet outlet, and
absorbed the action.

  "Real-time adventure halo!"
Perfect, apart from a wavering line
down one side of the picture-cube
that must represent breathing and
life-signs and stuff. "Go, Channa,
go!"

              ~ CHA~Sn~

  Station-born and bred, Channa had
gone spacewalking as soon as she was
old enough to fit into a juvenile
suit. But there the difference
between her HawkingAlpha Proxima
Station days and now ended.

  Theoretically, she knew that
SSS-900-C was at the edge of the
Shiva Nebula. Trade routes crossed
here, carrying processed ores
essential for drive-core
manufacture. As the ship which had
brought her had approached the
dumbbell-shaped station, she'd
watched the process on her cabin's
screen with great interest. But
theory, and that shipboard view in
complete safety, had not prepared
her for the great arc of pearly mist
that filled her vision plate; mist
glowing with scores of proto-suns in
a score of colors.

"Spectacular, ain't it?" Patsy
asked.

  Channa came to herself with a
start. "What are you doing out
here?"

  "This tug's my emergency station,"
she said, grinning broadly inside
her bubble helmet. "The algaell keep
right onbreedin' for a while without
me, randy little bastards. An' I'm a
right good tug pilot, too."

  "Believe you, ma'am," Channa said,
throwing a salute from her bubbled
temple. Wkat's Simeon on about?
He'sgot a fleet of sorts to command.
"Let's go."

  In turn, they slid down into the
cramped cabin ofthe tug and plugged
suit feeds into the ship system. The
tugs were stripped-down little
vessels, just a powerplant and drive
with rainily controls; wedgeshaped,
with grapnel fields and an
inflatable habitat for

92 AnneMcC~ PRISM.thfing

taking survivors in their dual role
as rescue vessels. The docking bay
and the cabin itself were open to
vacuum, but she felt a low whining
as Patsy brought the drive up and
lifted them out. There was the usual
disorienting lurch as they passed
out of station gravity. Now the only
weight was acceleration, and the
barbell shape ofthe station was a
huge bulk beldw them instead of
behind. Her senses tried to tell her
she was climbing vertically in a
gravity field, then yielded to
tuning as she made herself ignore up
and down for the omnidirectional
outlook that was most useful in
space.

"Vectoring in," Patsy said into her
helmet mike.

  Other tugs were drifting motes of
light, fireflies against the
blackness. The analogy remained in
force as they circled the driving
hunk of the intruder; it was big.
Forward was a frayed mass
oftendrils, and the rear still
glowed red-white, heat slow to
radiate in vacuum.

  "Readings?" Channa asked. Her nose
itched; it always did when she had a
helmet on.

  Simeon's voice answered her. "Main
power system went out when they
burned their drive," he said. "Be
carefi~1 about that, by the way it's
radiating gamma, real museum piece.
Main internal gravity field's dowry
There are localized auxiliary
systems still operating amidships,
and traces of water vapor and
atmosphere. There might be a chamber
in there still running life

support n

  Channa scanned the bridge section
of the ship again The instruments
available in the cockpit of the tug
were basically little more than
sophisticated motion detectors.

  "I can't get a thing," she said in
frustration. "Am I missing
something?"

  "Not much," Simeon told her.
"There's too much dirt out there,
which'll confuse readings. See if
you can get aboard."

"Right," she said, and looked down
the hull toward

THE Crier WHO FOUGHT 93

the equator where the shuttle bays
should be located. "Bring us in
there, Patsy."

  Channa flicked an indicator light
on the hull. They sank gradually,
until the ancient ship filled halfthe
sky.

  "Don't build 'em like this
anymore," Patsy said as they beheld
shuttle bay doors which were easily
two hundred meters long, big enough
to accommodate a small liner.

  "They don't have to," Channa
answered absently. Drive cores were a
lot cheaper and safer nowadays, which
made ships this size obsolete.
"Somebody did not like them."

  This close in, the scars on the
hull were enormous, metal heated to
melting with a slagged look around
the edges of the cuts, but
miraculously there didn't seem to be
much structural damage as they swung
further into the bay.

  "They have to be alive," Channa
murmured. "Nothing could kill people
this lucky."

Exceptrunningoutofluck," Simeon said
grimly.

  "There is that." She came at last
to a smaller shuttle bay and
attempted to open the portal with
several standard call codes. "Simeon,
what does the library suggest we use
for a ship this old? I'm not getting
any response with He usual ones."

"Three one seven, three one seven
five?"

'died it, nothing."

Simeon relayed several more codes.

  "Nothing's working," she said in
disgust. "Could they have locked
them?"

  "Hard to say until we're sure
they're crazy or not. Ity another
bay. That one
mightjustbeinoperative."

  She had Patsy fly out and down the
massive ship's side until they came
to another shuttle bay. It, too,
refused her admittance.

  "This is ridiculous," she said in
exasperation. "They got in, so there
has to be an operable entrances"

"Considering the visible damage,
maybe you'd have

94 ArmeMcC~ ASH.6rEng

more luck with a service hatch.
There're close to a hundred of them
and only six shuttle bays. Try some-
thing midship."

  "That's a good idea," she said,
feeling more optiTrus tic with such
odds. 'just in case, what do we use
for a can opener? We don't want any
survivors dead of old age before we
reach them."

  The very first hatch they tried
opened, about half a meter. Channa
looked at it, Simeon looked at it
through her eyes via the implant
which connected directly to her
optic nerve.

  "You're not that big, but you're
also not that small," he said with a
wistfill note.

  UI'm putting us down," Patsy said.
"Contact." A faint ch~,zk came
through the metal of the tug as the
fields gripped the big hull.

  "And I'm going to try and effect
entry. I think it's wide enough."
Channa told Simeon.

'Just you be very careful
Channa-mine . . ."

  "For Ghu's sake, Simeon, I've been
space-walking since I was five. I'm
a stickfoot."

  "Yeah, but I don't think your
station ever experienced a hostile
attack. And there's all that flying
junk! Could knock you right of f the
hull . . . or smear you across it. "

  "You do know how to give a girl
confidence. I'm going, Simeon, and
that's that." She muttered to her-
self about titanium twits and
agoraphobic asses as she prepared to
leave the tug. Patsy Sue at least
gave her a cheerful grin and a
thumbs-up. "We need to know what or
who's in there."

  "No problem," Patsy cut in,
reaching into the toolbox under the
pilot's seat. Her hand came out with
the ugly black shape of an arc
pistol.

  Channa looked around, herjaw
dropped. "Aren't those illegal?"

  Patsy waggled the pronged muzzle.
"Not on Larabie, they ain't."

MEI-IYWHO FOUGHT 95

  Channa shook her head, then picked
up where she'd left off. "You know,
Simeon, they do give us browns
training. I've done search-and-rescue
before."

"How often?"

  "Once. My inexperience will only
make me more cautious. I can do this,
Simeon. Once I'm inside maybe I can
do something to widen the hatch
opening. Direct some of the other
tugs this way so I'll have reinforce-
men.~s nearby, if I need them."

  Patsy waggled the arc pistol,
apparendy accustomed to the weight
ofthe weapon.

  "Assuming it's needed," Channa
added cheerfully. "Have you got any
positive life readings, partner?" she
asked as she eased herself with
practiced care out of the tug. With
one hand on a hull bracket, she let
herself drift to the hub where the
stickfield of her boots held her
safely.

  "According to my sensors, nobody's
conscious. But there might be "

  "Stop being so reassuring," she
said facetiously. "Have you got a
medical team ready?"

  "We were just getting to know each
other," he said regretfully.

  Channa paused, caught by the
emotion in his voice. UYou are the
most manipulative creature it has
ever been my misfortune to meet," she
said coldly, clipping a reel of
optical fiber to her suit. Simeon
sighed. "Look, I'm not a total idiot.
The tug win shield me on one side,
and I'm only two strides away from
the hatch."

  "Me? Manipulative? I'm supposed to
keep my brawn fi om risking its
fluffy little tail."

  Carefully breaking boot contact,
she took the first step to the hatch,
and the second. Then clipped both
feet free and floated neatly to the
opening to examine it more closely.
The magnetic grapple built into the
left forearm of her suit twitched,
with a feeling like a light push. The
contact disk flicked out, trailing
braided

96 AnneMcCo~ SAM.~ing

monofilament, and impacted on the
door of the bay. She activated the
switch that reeled her in. Patsy
followed with an expert somersault
leap that landed her less than an
arm's length from her friend.

"Showoff," Channa said.

  "You ain't the only one with walk
experiences" Patsy said. Her voice
was light, but the arc pistol was
ready as she peered within the
half-open hatch. "Coburn to rescue
squad. We're about to enter the
Hulk. Stand by."

  Channa licked dry lips. It's the
suit air, she told herself firmly.
Always too dry. She spoke aloud to
Simeon. "You'rejustjealous of me,
Bellona Rockjaw, heroine of the
space frontier."

  "I'm right there with you, Channa,"
Simeon said with a trace of
wistfulness in his voice.

"Hmmph."

  She struggled to get through the
narrow opening, grunting with
effort.

"Do not get stuck," he advised her.

  Channa started to giggle. "Do not
make me laugh," she admonished. "And
stop reading my mind."

  With the unpleasant sensation of
metal and plastic scraping against
each other, she pushed through at
last. The chamber had held
maintenance equipment of some sort
long ago; there were feeds and racks
for EVA suits, and empty
toolhc~lders. Only a single strip
fit the dim interior. On the
hullside wall was a massive,
clumsy-looking airlock, and a
blinking row of readouts beside it.

  "Some systems still active," she
said. "Patsy, prop yourself against
the frame and see if you can't push
the hatch door open."

  "Nevah get through Ibsen I dean,"
the older woman muttered. "Makes me
wish I were flat-cheated, too."

"She is not," Simeon replied
vehemency.

  Channa grinned, but Patsy Sue was
busy getting herselfinto position in
tile hatchway, attaching her
filament to the inside of the hatch
before she grabbed the top of

DECRY FOUGHT (17

the frame with both hands and gave a
mighty heave. The hatch did not so
much as budge a millimeter.

  "No, it's jammed tightertn . . .
nemmind. You got a polarizin'
faceplate?" Patsy asked.

"Standard."

"Okay. I'll try somethin' subtle."

  Coburn stepped back, raised the arc
pistol and fired four times. The bar
of actinic blue-white light was
soundless in vacuum, but a fog of
metal particles exploded outward like
glittering donuts centered on the
aiming points. Patsy nodded in
satisfaction and twisted herself
around to brace her feet on the hatch
and grip two handhold loops on the
hull nearby. Channa could hear her
give a grunt of effort, and the
hatchway flipped out into space,
tumbling end-overend.

"Nice brand of subde you wield,"
Channa said.

  "Think nothin' of it," Patsy said,
pretending to blow smoke off the arc
pistol's barrel. "Any luck?"

  Channa bent over the touchpad
beside the airlock. "Not much. Ah,
that's got it. Simeon, how's the
transmission holding up?"

  "Loud and clear, since Patsy got
the door out of the way. I maylose
Patsy's signalfurtherinside. Maybe
you should wait? There're four more
tugs closing in on your position."

  Channa ignored the pleading note,
not without a pang of guilt. But what
the hell, the situation is Bible, she
admitted. She had been trained as an
administrator-partner-troubleshooter,
but most of the time, circumstances
were fairly conventional. Not boring;
she wouldn't have made it through
brawn

  ning if she were bored with it. On
the other hand, she wouldn't have
been picked if dhere weren't an ele-
ment of the adventurer in her
psychological profile.

  "String this, would you, Patsy?"
she said, passing over the reel. The
optical fiber was encased in woven

98 Am~eMcCaf~ 0? Sit. SO

tungsten-filament, with
receptor-booster chips at intervals.
BaTety thicker than thread, it had a
breaking strain of several tons.
Tacked to the wan behind them,
neither her implants nor Patsys suit
communits could fade out. Patsy
welded the outer end to the hug
beside the hatch, using the spot
heater in her construction suit's
gauntlet.

'Ready?" Channa said talking a deep
breath.

  "Surely am." Patsy came up behind
her, arc pistol ready.

"Standing by," Simeon said.

  The keypad lights blinked green and
aniber. "I thinly it's saying there's
some doubt about the atmosphere,"
Channa said. "It's definitely
pressurized in there." She attached
a sensor line to the surface.

  "They're in trouble," Simeon said.
"Hear that whining?" Channa shook
her head, and felt him boost the
audio pickups of her helmet. A faint
tooth-grating sound came through.

"What~s that?"

  "That's the main internal drive
cores," Simeon replied grimly. "The
powerplant's down, but they're still
superconducting. The alloys they
used back then were tough. They
built 'em more redundant then,

too.n

'iWhich means?"

  "Which means . . . to stop this
thing, the pilot put everything the
powerplant had into the drive. The
exterior coils blew before it could
go all out. Now the internal coil's
going to go."

"Bad news," Patsy said.

  "It's going to blow?" Channa asked
apprehensively. The energies needed
to move megatons between stars were
n7une7zse.

  Simeon listened. "NotJust yet, but
soon. Building, but the noise will
be considerably more audible before
I'd panic. Get that inner hatch
open, womanl Ill send

IRE CrIyWHo FOUGHT 99

the troops. You've got about thirty
minutes before you have to be of["

  The interior airlock slid open. The
two women kept their helmets firmly
on as it slid down again and the air
hissed in. Channa looked down at the
readouts on her sleeve and punched
for analysis.

  "Oxygen's down, C02's way up," she
said grimly. "Necrotic ketones, or so
it says decay products. I'd hate to
have to breathe this stuff. Could
anyone breath it and live?"

  "Depends on natural tolerances,"
Patsy replied. "And it might not be
bad further in." Being an environ-
mental maintenance specialist, she
knew the parameters. "From the volume
of n.k.'s, their scrubbers must have
been down for a while."

  The inner hatch of the airlock slid
open. Now that they were no longer in
a soundless vacuum, the exterior
pickups of their suits relayed the
hiss. Unfortunately, a high-pitched
whine was now equally audible: the
kind that made the hair on your anus
lift up. Channa looked down the long
corridor, shabby with age and dim
with the emergency glowstrips'
ghostly blue light.

  Flies buzzed around them. Patsy
slapped one against the wall.

  "Blowflies," she said after a good
look. There was a faint quaver in her
voice. "Had 'em on the ranch."

  "Sound pickup says there are live
ones down there," Channa said. "Let's
go."

  Doctor Chaundra's hands flew over
his keypad as he made notes. He was
a smallish brown-skinned man with
delicate bones and a precise,
scholarly manner.

"Fifty maximum, you say?"

  Simeon switched back to the implant
data filling another part of his
consciousness. Channa's breathing
sounded ragged; her heartbeat was
elevated, and the

100 Anne McCarthyS M. Spiring

stomach-acid level indicated
suppressed nausea. Simeon wasn't
surprised. The things she was seeing
mace trim feel a little sick in an
entirely nonphysical way that was
still highly unpleasant.

  "Short-term, improvised attempt at
coldsleep," she said, voice
struggling for the oyochvity of a
report. He looked at the tangle of
cobbled-together equipment around
living and dead. "Probably to cut
down on air consumption.
Heavyequipmentfailures."

  The latest chamber held mostly dead
ones, eyes fallen in and dried lips
shrunk back over grinning teeth.
Maggots, too. Some of the corpses
were children, dead children nestled
against dead mothers. In a few, the
maggots gave a ghastly semblance of
life, moving the swollen, blackened
limbs. About the only mercy was the
elastic nets that held living and
dead down to the pallets on the deck
or to dhe bunks. Evidendy someone
had foreseen that the interior
gravity fields might go. Simeon
imagined walking into one of those
chambers and finding the putrefying
bodies floating loose....

  "This one " Channa began,
swallowing and bending over a body
that was either still alive or only
recendy dead. Drifting maggots
brushed the surface of her faceplate
and clung wetly, writhing. She
retched, then forced herself to
brush Them away.

  A chump sound echoed through the
still air. "What was Blat?''

  Simeon split his viewpoint yet
again. The rescue ship hovering off
the side of the hulk had launched a
missile carrying a large-diameter
hose and attached to a pumping
system: a force-deck system which
punched through dhe hull and sealed
itself.

"Air harpoon," he said. "We'll be
pumping in a second. "

  "I kin hear it," Patsy said from
the corridor. Her arc gun crashed,
opening a sealed door. "More in
heah. 'Bout dhe same.9'

"With fifty living, we should have
no trouble," the

IREmWHo FoucHT 101

doctor was saying to Simeon in the
safe, clean sickbay office. Chaundra
tapped for a closeup on one of the
recordings, looking at the life-signs
readouts beside the wasted face of a
refugee. "Coldsleep dosed, the old
partial method; very unsafe dosage,
and oxygen deprivation. Dehydration,
starvation, but mostly inadequate
air. Hmm..

  He blinked. "Physical type?
Sometimes there is genetic divergence
on isolated colonies. I must check.
These look to be of sudeuropan
race archaic type, very pure. We
should evacuate them as soon as
possible."

  "I'm working on it," Simeon said
with controlled passion. I'm
nevergoing to look at battlefield
recon~ Qume the same u~ayagam, he
thought.

  Through Channa's ears, he heard
feet clacking in the corridor
outside, stickfields in the suit
shoes substituting for gravity. The
volunteers came in briskly enough,
inflatable rescue bubbles in their
hands, then halted in disbelief One
tried to control his retching for a
moment and then went into an
excruciating and dangerous fit of
vomiting inside a closed helmet. His
squadmates removed it, only to have
his paroxysm grow worse as the stink
hit his nostrils. The luckless
volunteer went into the first of the
bubbles.

  "Get moving!" Channa ordered. Only
Simeon could hear the tremors in her
voice beyond the range of normal
ears. "The living ones are marked
with a slash of yellow from a cargo
checker. Use plasma feeds, the
emergency antidotes, and get them out
of here. These people belong in
regeneration. Now."

  Raggedly, then with gathering
speed, the stationers moved to their
work. Channa escaped back into the
corridor, exhaling a breath she had
not been conscious of holding. Simeon
was profoundly thankful she had not
tried cracking her suit seals when
the air hose went in. It would take
months of vacuum to get the stink out

102 Anne McCoy PRISM. Stirling

of this ship. Much more time than
the vessel had. The final fire of
the interior coils would at least
cleanse it.

"How long?" she asked.

  "Not less than an hour, not more
than three," he replied. "I think
the pirate hypothesis is out."

  Shanna nodded jerkily; too many
families and dlildren. Pirates were
much more common in fiction than in
fact, anyway. Bodies floated in the
next chamber down, and medics
working over the three living before
transferring them to life bubbles.

  "Ms. Hap, I'm !Tez Kle." The Sondee
wore a medical assistant's arm-flash
on his suit.

  Channa glanced at him in surprise.
Not many aliens chose to specialize
in Terran medicine. Of course, Son-
dee were rather humanoid, if you
managed toignore the four eyes two
large and golden about where eyes
should be, and two more above the
whorled ridges that served as ears;
you could not sneak up on a Sondee
and the lack of any facial features
apart from a nos~ils]it and round
suckerlike mouth. They had lovely
voices, with far more vocal range
and control than a human.

  She came up beside the bubbles.
"You're in charge?" He nodded. "Let
me give you a hand," she said.

  The first figure she turned to had
reddish-black hair, a short muscular
man with a square face. She released
his restraints and lifted him, then
gave him a gentle shove into the
body-length sack, sealed it and
activated it. His color seemed to
improve immediately. She turned to
his companion and froze.

  "Channa, your vital signsjust did
the strangest little jig. What's the
problem?" Simeon asked.

  This young man was tall, close to
two meters, broadshouldered and
slim-tripped, shapely and muscular
as an athlete. He had a clean,
classically perfect profile, with
finely molded chin and sensitive
mouth. His de]icately curving
cheekbones were brushed by long dark
lashes, the corners of his eyes
tilted upwards. His long

ME WHO FouGHT 103

hair was blue-black, curling back
from his high intelligent forehead to
fall almost to his shoulders.

  Channa sighed in admiration, then
caught herself: This shell is so
handsome even berg sick makes hem
look good .

  "Oh ho," Simeon crowed. "Very nice,
Channa, but if you don't put Adonis
there in his sack, he's going to go
a very unflattering shade of blue."

  "Em . . . right." She unbuckled the
man and sealed him in his sack,
connecting the two bags together.
Then she tugged them behind her to
the lock where she turned them over
to the waiting med-techs. The goods-
transporter's hold was filed with
floating,jostling sacks while Channa
and the mea-tech chiefstood in the
lock, checking their sensors for
heart-beats.

  "Guess we got them all," ITez Kle
said. "But I don't think we can save
them all. We left those we were cer-
tain we couldn't help," he said
apologetically.

  "Nothing else you could do," Channa
told him. "We don't have time for
anything else. Go," she said, and
slapped his shoulder. "I've got a tug
outside." She sealed the end of the
caterpillar lock behind him and
waited impatiently for the pilot to
retract it. "Damn, I wish we could
have gotten to the bridge."

  "You and Patsy give it a try,"
Simeon answered. "Every bit of data
will help, but we're cutting it a
little close. I'm positioning tugs to
push that wreck away from the station
and soon."

Chins looked up sharply.
"It'sstilladangertoyou?"

  "Nothing this brain can't handle,"
Simeon said blithely. "You do what
you can, brawn."

  She looked down at the notescreen
tethered at her waist, studying the
map ofthe ship's interior which she
had managed to acquire from its own
data banks, archaic as they were.

  "I'll try through here," she said,
struggling with the toggles of the
hatch. "It'd be the more direct
route, if it's open. If itisn't,
I'llrendezvous with
Patsyimmediately."

104 AmurMcCa - ~SM.S - ng

***

  "I need some people for tug and
detonations work," Simeon announced.
"It's going to be dicer."

  The assembly room beneath the
south-polar docking bay was full of
second-wave volunteers, those not
needed or qualified for the
emergency medical work. Every single
one stepped forward. Despite the
seriousness of the situation, Simeon
found time for a grim internal
smile. That old She's works its
challenge since GiL gamesh, he
thought, proving that even the
oldest books on military psychology
were right. People were very
reluctant to appear frightened in
front of others, especially their
friends. He called the roll of those
he needed. They were already suited
up, helmets under their arms. Gus,
of course, and six of the more
experienced tug pilots, with six of
the mining explosives experts who
had been taking R & R on the SSS.
"Thank you and I thank all the rest
of you, too."

  As soon as the room emptied of all
but the participants, he began the
briefing with the truth.

  "That ship is going to blow. The
engines, by the sound of them, are
critically unbalanced, redlining far
off scale.. We've got the survivors
off her. But we've got to get her
far enough from the station so that
when she goes, she won't take us
with her. That's not the only
problem. We've got to be sure she'll
break into the smallest possible
fragments and that they are thrown
in a favorable dispersal pattern."

  The explosives men grinned at each
other. "Easiest thing in the world,
Simeon," their spokesman said with a
rakish smile. "Ifyou know what
you're doing."

  "We do," one of the others said,
thumping the spokesman jovially on
the back. The man didn't so much as
rock on his toes.

  "That's good to know, guys! Can you
tug pilots match their skill by
redlining your engines a lirde to
pull her as far away fi om us as you
can?"

IlIE (~IYWHO E OUGHT 105

  "Hell, Simeon,. Gus said, "you
oughta know we'd have no trouble
doing that little thing for you."

  "I'll be monitoring and should be
able to give you fair warning to get
yourselves clear." He paused a
moment, anxious despite their obvious
disregard for the inherent dangers.
"Have l made the situation dear?"

  Gus grinned. "Couldn't tee clearer,
station man," he said, giving his
broad shoulders a preparatory twitch
in response to the challenge. "And we
don't have much time for further
dlatterl"

  Another voice broke in: Patsy's.
Simeon keyed her visual transmission
to one of the ready-room screens; she
was back in the control seat of her
tug.

  "My, ain't the mad~no level high
around here? You got one tug already
in place, Simeon mine. Count me in,
too.

Gus winced. "Look, Patsy, we're in
very deep, ah "

  "Very deep shit," she finished,
grinning at him. "Ah know the words,
Gus."

  Everybody laughed. Simeon looked
them over and s~r1 a wave of bitter
banging. A military commander of any
stature led his troops from the
front, not from an
impervioustuaniumaolumn Don'two~,
~fth~yfadyoullbe
theonioneLpto~yudath~,
~antstothatsametian~m column If
~oumnivew~hyour~, Watts.

  "I'll keep my eye on the coils and
give you enough warning to peel off,"
Simeon promised.

  Almost simultaneously, helmets
covered the faces of this smallband
of heroes.

  "This is taking more time than it's
worth," Channa said in disgust,
giving the control panel a final
thump with her fist. The door valved
open.

  "T)amnl And I thought that was a
station legend," she said. "Does it
work for you, Simeon?"

"Having a servo whack me with a
wrench to make

106 A7~McGaf - PRISM. - ng

me work properly?" he asked. "No,
not often. The bridge ought to be
right down there. And hand."

  "How are we handling the
demolition?" she asked him, stepping
through the half-open door and
trotting down the darkened way, her
helmet light fanning ahead.
Mercifully, no bodies Boated about
this section.

  441've got a team rigging
explosives all around the ship to
blow it to," he paused, his own
nerves making him play the clown,
"smithereens. Real, genuine, non-
station piercing smithereens. It
would be disgraceful, utterly
disgraceful, to get holed by flying
debris after surviving this morning,
don't you think? Ah, the tug
volunteers are in place, ready to
grapple. Ah! They've broken her out
of orbital inertia."

  Movement was not obvious this far
in the bowels of the dying ship.
"Who's in charge of the team?"
Channa asked.

'4Gus."

  "Patsy said he was a good pilot,"
Channa commented. "Soon as I finish
here, I'lljoin her. Is she still
standing by at the hatch?"

  "She is, to pick you up and bring
you straight back to the station
with any information you discover."

  44I can scan the info back to you,
Sim-mate, but first I have to find
it, you know." She stumbled over
some jumble piled in the corridor
and recovered herself.

  44You and Patsy getstn`ight back
here. I can't have my brawn risking
her neck when . . ."

  "Simeon," she said reasonably,
44brawns are supposed to risk their
necks for theirbrains. And if you,
the station, areatrisk,Iamrequired
to reduce thatriskanywaypossible.
This time I can do it by helping tug
the risk away from here. Have I made
myselfclear on this point?"

  44I don't like it," Simeon said in
a disgruntled mumble. 44Foolish
risk."

44Thank you for your input, but
Simeon . . ."

'yeah?"

ICE CRY WHO FOUGHT 107

  "Don't you ever try to forbid me to
do the job I'm here to do. You got
that?"

"Rightin the forehead, sweetheart "

  "Not quite where I was aiming, but
it'll do," Channa said.

  "if you get through to the bridge
of that ship, in I ask you for a
download?" Simeon said plaintively.

  "Why else am I penetrating this
about-to-blow-up wreck?" Channa said
"Patsy, you read me?"

  "Welcome to the panty, Channa,"
came Patsy's cheerful voice.

"You don't mind my crashing?"

Patsy laughed. "Watch yeah choice of
words, girl."

  "I just noticed something," Channa
said, slowing her pace.

"What?"

  "Paper. What's all thispaper doing
around?" There were sheets of it
drifting down the corridor and
sticking with static attraction to
the rubbery walls.

  "This lumbering hulk must be filled
with gear so ancient it's exotic,"
Simeon said.

"Paper storage?" she said dubiously.

"Maybe they regressed."

  "Could it originally have been
piloted by a shellperson?" Channa
asked, suddenlyjumping to some
conclusions that ought to have been
more obvious to both herself and
Simeom I f she got the edge on him on
this one . . .

  "Highly unlikely," Simeon said
patronizingly. "B & B ships weren't
that common then. AD of these little
backof-beyond colonies were literally
a shot in the dark, too risky to
expend us on. C'mon, forward is to
your right, one more passage to reach
that control room."

  "Aye, sir," she said. She worked
her way forward, past leaking pipes
and the occasionally sparking control
boxes, ruptured by the overloads of
the catastrophic deceleration.

108 A7u~eMcCa~ PRISM. Sting

  "Paper," Channa said in wonder,
wishing she could touch the valuable
substance with her bare hands.

  "And books! At least I think that's
what I saw when you glanced into
that corner. No, further right. Yes!
Books!"

"No time for browsing now," Channa
said foray.

"Right," he said. Antiquarian
reflex, sorry."

"Ah, I am now at the control room,"
she said.

  It was large and circular, most of
the consoles were under
shrink-shrouds of plastic that
looked rigid with age. Raw,
hastyjury-rigs had restored a few
panels to functionality. She had to
duck under festoons of cable which
were draped to and fro with no
noticeable pattern. In the dining
light, she sawjury-rigged control
boxes taped to consoles. The whole
bridge seemed to have been
reconstructed with mad abandon.

  "Ghu! They flew this thing?" Simeon
exclaimed. They must have been
crazy, he thought and cocked a
weather-ear to the sound from the
engine. "The log," Simeon reminded
her. "Though I'm inclined to doubt
that this outfit has anything that
fang. Strip the data bank, too.
Wewantanyinformationwocanget."

  "You tell me how to retrieve
information from this archaic mess
and you've got it," she answered,
peering from workstation to
workstation, trying to figure which
one might access the mainbanks.

  "I've got to go a long way back in
my own files to find something
comparable," he said. "There're only
three centuries of buggering-up to
decode but . . . ah, try the second
console to your right. About the
only one they hadn't been trying to
use."

  She drew the information feedline
out of her glove and pressed it over
the inductor surface. The screen
beside it clicked to life and began
flowing with a spaghetti complex web
of symbols.

"Oh, my oh my," Simeon muttered.

Problems, Sim?"

THE C~IYWHO FOUGHT 109

  "Nothing al' Simeon can't handle,"
he said. "But the code is old. I
don't have anything that esoteric on
file. Nothing I can's eventually
decipher."

  "Don't let your modesty run away
with you," she muttered, looking down
at her wrist chrono. Pond of time,
she thought. Tahoe.

  "I'm just cracking the interface
and downloading it to decode at
leisure," Simeon replied. "Don't get
your tits in a tizzy."

"~at did you say?"

"Old slang," he replied blandly.

"Anotherantiquarianreflex,
nodoubt,"shesa den hly.

"Touche. Okay, gotit," he said, "Get
out ofthere."

"Gawd damn this thing!" Patsy said in
frustration.

  The tug was presenting its broad
rear surface to the ancient colony
ship. Channa scanned carefully on
visual and deep-magnetic, looking for
a place to engage their grapple.

  "Time is a factor here, Ms. Hap."
Gus's voice was a little testy.
Aligning an extra tug in the pattern
had taken more time than anticipated.

  "I just got up here, Mr. Gusky. I'm
looking for a flat spot among these
struts. I can see why you gave it a
pass. It's a mess. Wait, I think I
see something now, it's . . ." She
looked again and increased the
magr~fication. "Bloodybell!" she
cried.

  "Crap!" Simeon's voice overrode
hers. It took the others a few
moments longer.

"I don't believe it," Channa
whispered.

"What?" Patsy demanded. "What do you
see?"

  "It's a shell. There's a
shellperson out there, strapped to
the hull."

  "Are you sure?" Gus' voice cut in.
"Look, everyone else is in place, we
have to get this thing away from the
station ~

Simeon ordered in a roar that nearly
fractured

110 ArmeMcCa~y PRISM.t~ing

eardrums. "BELAY THAT, GUSKY!" A
moment of stunned silence followed.
"Checkit out, Channa. Now!"

  "Aye, aye, sir," Channa said even
as she strobed a landing spot where
Patsy could set the tug down. "Yes,
Mr. Gusky, it's a shellperson all
right. Granted, it doesn't look like
anything you're likely to have seen,
but brawns learn to recognize 'em
all."

  She hoped Simeon never had occasion
to bellow lilts that again, with the
decibels going off the gauge.
Understandable, of course, or at
least to her. If brains had a
collective nightmare, it was being
cut off from their equipment and
left helpless. Attached to their
leads and machinery, a shellperson
was the next thing to immortal, a
high-tech demigod in this world. Cut
off from it, they were cripples.
span ipecac, as the obscene joke had
it. Neither Simeon nor she were
capable of abandoning a shellperson,
even if its occupant should prove
dead.

  "Gus, why don't you set the haul in
motion," Channa said, knowing her
priorities hadjust shifted.. "Patsy
and I will get this shellperson off"

  She anchored the grapplejust above
the shell and as quickly as
possible, reeled the tug to it. She
studied the shell in the monitor as
she drew closer. "It's inward
facing, they did that right at
least."

  "Fardlingnght?" Simeon cursed. "Did
it right? There is nothing right
about this. What kind of
shit-for-brains did this? That
shellperson was lodged on the
exterior of the hull! Anything could
have happened to him or inert
Bastards, bastards, bas~rds. Get him
out of there!"

  Channa heard the cold passion in
Simeon's voice and recognized
another aspect of him, one his often
diffident manner and sometimes
boyish enthusiasms had masked.
Shellpeople were as individual as
normals. Why had she thought him
shallow, even trivial? Because of
his fascination with ancient wars
and weaponry?

a
THE CITy WHo FouGHT 111

  "I'm on my way, Simeon," she said.
"Gusky, step on it. We'llget out of
your way. This won't take long."

  "it had better not," the ex-Navy
man said, his voice stillcarryinga
trace ofresentment. "Wilco. Out."

  The surge of acceleration was f
sent but definite as the bulky vessel
began to move. Channa locked a safety
line to her suit before she swung
down to the pitted, corroded surface
of the hull and began to thread her
way through the crazedjungle of
beam-fused girders that covered it
like fungus. The light had the
absolute white-and-shadow of space,
but the froth where vaporized metal
had recondensed looked out ofplace.

  I'm too used to things being new
and functi~mal, she told herself at a
level below the machine-efficient
movements of hands and feet. Fear
coiled at a deeper level still,
shouting that she was risking two
diving humans for a shellperson who
could have died long ago. Brawn
training overrode that trickle of
fear almost before she noticed. A
shellperson could not be left, not
while a brawn could remove him.

"Is the brain alraht?" Patsy asked.

  "Can't tell yea" Churns told her.
Off to her left a white light flashed
and the metal toned beneath her feet.

"What was that?9' she half-squawked.

  "Iron ores' Gus said. "She's moving
into the dispersal cone of that load
of balled ore. There's a lot of that
crap out here. Hurry."

  [m hurrying, I,m hurry, Channa
thought. The shell was a shape like a
metal egg split down the middle, with
a tangle of feed lines and
telemetryjacked into opened access
panels. Three more winks of light as
ore struck at hundreds of kps further
down the derelict's hull, then a
whole cluster. Debris flipped away
into space with leisurely grace.

  "Channa . . ." Simeon began. The
rage was out ofbis voices, replaced
by fear for her. Somehow that warmed
Channa despite the cold clamp she'd
put on her f easings.

112 AKneMcC~i~SM. Swag

  "Can't be helped," she said and
planted her own grapple at the top
ofthe shelLjustbeside the lugs.

  "It's a different design from
mined" Simeon told her. "I'm doing a
search now to see where you can put
a heavy magnet without interrupting
anything vital."

  "Fine," she said distractedly.
"Looks like they just took a dozen
loops of wire cable and tack-welded
it to hold the shell down. Talk
about improvisation!"

  Simeon watched her hands as she
used a small laser to cut through
one of the cables lashing the
capsule to the hull. It broke free
and the shell fell away from the
hull slightly, fine wires floating
like roots in a glass of water. Gad,
it looks so naked, he thought
helplessly.

  Channa's gaze had passed over the
code name incised on the shell so he
could read it. PM~266-S, a low
number brain of very advanced years.
Guidon. The name floated up out of
deep storage where all the names of
his kind rested. A managerial sort.
Working for the Colonial Department
as it was, back then. Paid off his
contract and dropped out of touch,
presumed rogue. A hermit.

  "He's a two-hundred series," he
told her. "Now put the grapple dead
center, upper side."

  Channa used a remote control device
to lower one of the smaller grapples
from the tug, gingerly placing it as
directed. Then she returned to
cutting cables. She was working on
the next to last one when a
pebble-sized piece of ore struck the
back of her helmet, hard enough to
knock her sideways and to burn
straight through her air regulator
from left to right. Simeon saw
specks of plastic spin off in the
wake of the tiny meteor. The
exterior view from the tug's pickups
showed metal glowing white-hot.

  "Channa!" Simeon called. The
med-readouts flashed
unconsciousness. He overrode the
suit and ordered it to inject
stanulants, a horse-dose, anything
to buy her time.

IRE CRY WHO FOUGHT 113

  "Oww." Channajerked and then shook
herself, hauling back on the safety
line until her feet touched the
surface of the ship. A red light
flashed on the inside of her
faceplate and the message:

  "Systemiailure air regulation. Ten
minutes emergent supply only"
appeared. It was replaced by 10:00.
Then 09:59, and the seconds scrolled
down inexorably.

"Channa, you okay? Should Ah git down
there?

"No!" Channa rasped. "Keep ready
forlifL"

Simeon called. "Channa, get inside."

"I'm ahnost finished," she said
gruffly.

"Now," he said.

  She ignored him. He watched the
cable part, and her hands reached for
the last one. From another view he
watched the ancient colony ship being
dragged away at an ever increasing
acceleration.

"Channa! Get your ass in that tug
now!"

"Shut up!" she snapped.

  The final cable parted and the
shell swung free. For the first time,
Simeon saw that the feeder line was
damaged. No, he thought.

08.38.

  Channa began to disconnect the
shell's input leads. It was difficult
work in the unwieldy suit gloves, but
her long-fingered hands moved with
careful delicacy. She closed the
valve on the broken feeder line.

  "Might not be too bad," she
muttered. "There'll be an interior
backup. Probably ruptured when they
stopped."

  Then she keyed the remote to reel
them both back to the tug at a
careful pace, holding on to the
exterior lugs and using her feet to
fend them off random projections. The
shell went ter-unnnggg against the
light-load grapnels up near the apex
of the stubby wedge; the mechanical
claws closed on the hard alloy with
immovable pressure.

06:58

114 Ann`McC - y ASP. Stirling

  She turned and pivoted around a
handhold and dove feetGrstinto the
control seat.

  "Get yo' suit plugged in!" Patsy
snapped, beating Simeon by
nanoseconds.

  "Can't. This is a standard EVA
suit, dhe input valve's upstream of
the break. Get moving, we have to
help haul this diingl"

  "Negative," Simeon said. "Make
tracks back to the station, Patsy."

  "Negative on that," Channa said.
"If we don't get this hulk far
enough away, there won't be a
station to go backto."

  Patsy bit her lip and touched the
controls. The tug sprang straight UPJ
the derelict shrinking from sky-
spanning vastness to child's model
size in seconds as dhe great soft
hand of acceleration shoved at diem.

  "Then you plant that grapnel
field," she said urgency. "We can
help the boost with our own rise.
But when that's done, we're gain'
home, girl."

 ~ Channa began the adjustments. The
tug was designed for straightforward
long slow pulls, not this
redline-everything race against
disaster. She must balance the
uneven pull that might shred the
tug's structure and compensate for
the hulk's weakness by intuition as
much as anything. Who knew what
structural members had given way
within? It would do very little good
to rip a large segment of it
loose.... The giant ship began to
grow slightly smaller.

  She glanced at the readout. "I hate
these clock things," she said
fiercely. "They must have been
created by a sadist. I'm going to
Hun when I run out of air. "

  "Stop talking," Simeon ordered,
"you're wasting oxygen. When that
dock has flipped over another thirty
seconds,you return to station!"

  Gus' command rang through the
conversation. "Synchronize release,
slave controls to mine as Patsy cuts
loose.

IlIE CHYWHO FouGHT 115

Channa keyed itin. "Five seconds. Mark."

  Patsy cursed with scatological
inventiveness as the little craft surged.
Then it flipped end-for-end and the space
behind them paled as the drive worked to
shed velocity. They would have to kill
their delta-V away from the station before
they could return.

   `Priority," she barked over the open
circuit "Everyone git outta my way, 'cause
I ain't stoppin'! n

  Deceleration turned to acceleration
again. Channa wheezed a protest as her
ribs clamped down on her lungs.

04:11

  Simeon's monologue took on a frantic
note. He forced his mind not to calculate
times, with an effort that almost banished
fear.

  IC?gb her mooned, he thought " . . .
madness to have attempted that sort of
linkage. The nutrients might have given
out on the trip. It depends on when the
feeder line was damaged. I might be
responsible for that. It could have
happened when I hit them with the
satellites. What do you think? No, don't
answer, save your air. I know we won'tbe
able to tellanyway until we examine him.

  "What kind of people are these?" he asked
for perhaps the twentieth time. "Could
they be pirates who stole the brain? Then
why didn't they bring it inside? The
access-way? Sure, that must tee it, they
couldn't get it through the hatch. Still,
a shellperson is a valuable resource.
You'd think they try to protect him more
if they had to leave him outside. It could
be some kind of punitive measure by an
insane religious sect. Nah, Central would
never assign a brain to a group like that,
it wouldn't make sense." He began to curse
again. "Hey, Channa, stop rolling your
eyes like that. You're making me dizzy."
The circling increased in tempo. "Okay,
okay, Ill change the subject. Sheesh, take
away a women's abiliqto talk . . ." Channa
closed her eyes. "1

1

116 A~eMcCo~ PRISM. S - ng

was joking, Channa." Her eyes remained
closed. 44You're getting close to the
station. You're going to need to see where
you're going. Remember what it's like out
there." No change. 4'0kay, I apologize. It
was a stupid, ignorant remark and 1 regret
it. I didn't even meanit. Badjoke, okay?"

She opened her eyes.

:03:01

  She was midway between the receding
colony-ship and the station.

  "I estimate that you'll run out of air
three minutes before you reach the
station," Simeon said. 4'But, if you take
the most direct route, that unfortunately
will take you right through the thickest
concentration of spilled ore."

44Shit!"
Patsyhissed.'4Tellmesomethin'Ahdo~itknow!"

  ChaIina fought down an oxygen wasting
sigh. "Play safe?"

  "Then you'll fall short by four minutes,
eight seconds."

"Play safe. Don't want a shell fun a
holes."

  Simeon was silent for a moment, feeding
the pilot instructions for avoiding the
worst of the ore-meteor cloud.

"You've got more guts than sense, Channa."

  Patsy closed one eye and laughed. "Mind
now, Ah didn't say Ah didn't like it, Ah
was just remarkin' on it I She opened her
eye. "Y'hold on now, we're gain' through
like a scalded armadillo."

  Channa's breathing began to rasp;
psychological, but it wasted air.

  Oh, God, don't let her die, he thought.
That shells hangmg out there. Is the mass
of the tug enough to shield h~rnfi~m de -
,

  Even one pebble of ore at the right angle
and all her sacrifice would be for nothing.
Simeon knew Channa was about to undergo an
experience that would feel

1

THE=YWHO FOUGHT 117

like dying. Humans could survive for
several minutes without air hours,
sometimes, in cold water. The length
of time to brain death was utterly
unpredictable but oxygen deprivation
might cause brain damage.

  Despite a very real and intense
anxiety about Channa, his thoughts
inexorably returned to the shell. .
. to Guiyon. He's alone m the dark,
S'meon said to him Channa's got
Patsy, and me. Sensory deprivation
would make every second feel like a
subjective hour, and the backups
would keep the shellperson conscious
until the last precious molecules of
nutrient were gone. Simeon wished
desperately that he could spare him
the nightmare.

  "Headache," Channa gasped. "Huts."
Her head lolled, would have fallen
forward if the savage high-G
acceleration had allowed it.

  Her breathing was rasping louder
now and not psychosomatic. It was
instinct the hindbrain telling the
lungs that they were suffocating. The
readouts showed an adrenaline surge,
just the wrong thing. Reflexes older
than her remote reptile ancestors
were preparing the body to fight free
of whatever barred it from air.

  "Hang on, Channa, hang on,. Simeon
chanted. Then: "Can'tyou go
anyfaster?"

  "Not 'lessn you want this here tug
smeared all over the loadin' bay,"
Patsy said grimly.

  "Isn't inertia wonderfill?" Gusky
muttered to himself, looking down
again at the readings. Fourteen lips
and building. Not very fast, but the
battered remnant of the hulk still
massed multiple kilotons.

  "Bitofa paradox," one ofthe
volunteer miners said. "I want this
thing as f ar from the station as I
can get it but I want to be as f ar
away from it as possible myself. n

  "Ho. Ho. Ho," Gusky said. "Number
three, you're a lime offsynch.
Don'twaste our delta-V."

"What's our safeq ma~in, Gus?"

118 AmzeMcCaJ7i7'~SM. Strong

  "That depends on when Simeon tells
us to cut and rulL"TmrBally,
real1ysorryIgotyou7nad at me,
Sm~eont"I'd like to get twenty
k}icks from the station before we
drop the thing. But, what can I tell
ye? If she blows without warning, if
the explosives don't do what they're
supposed to, if we don't get far
enough away before she goes . . .
actually, I don't think we have a
safety margin."

"Sorry I asked."

"Hmph."

  Simeon's voice broke in. "Prepare
to drop in one
nunutesevensecondsErommark
Mark.Getitti~ht,Gus."

  "Yeah," said one of the miners who
had rigged the charges, "that thing
has to stay in the same attitude.
Chafes won'tbe halfas effective if
it's tumbling."

  "Roger that," Simeon said. No time
for a linkup. They'd havetobsten, -
carefully. "Everyonegotthatmark?"

  A chorus of affirmatives. Gusky
licked sweat from his upper lip.
He'd never told Simeon, exactly, but
his fveyear hitch in the Navy had
been pretty uneventful: patrols,
exercises, showing the flag, mapping
expedieiOns. The most nerve-wracking
moments had been the fleet handball
competitions and surprise
inspections.

"You pull the trigger, right?" he
said.

  You got it, buddy," Simeon replied.
His voice had less timbre, less
humanity to it than usual.

"I hate being reassured in a voice
that calm."

  I've got other things on ~ mind.
"Channa's suit got hit. She's
running out of air."

"Oh." I screzued the pooch again,
goddanutt. "Sorry."

"Get ready."

  The tugs were arrayed around the
great tattered bulk of the intruder
ship like the legs of a starfish,
linked by the invisible bonds of the
grapnel fields. Gusky kept the
rear-field screen on at a steady x25
magnification. When the fields
released, the image of the hulk
seemed to disappear into a
point-source of light in less than a
heartbeat. Vision went gray at the

THE CrIY WHO E OUGHT 119

edges, before the engines cycled down to
something bearable. Tugs necessarily had
high power-to-weight ratios. Then the
shrinking dot of the derelict blinked with
colorless fire.

  Gusky cycled the screen to higher
magnification. "Phew," he said gustily.
The charges had cut the remairung forward
section loose from the half-melted engine
compartment and its core. Joined to the
power module, whatever parts of the ship
did not vaporize would be hyper-velocity
shrapnel in all directions. With a klick
or so distance and a vector away from the
station, much less could go wrong. Blast
is less dangerous without an atmosphere to
propagate in. There is nothing to carry
the shock wave except the actual gases
ofthe explosion and they disperse rapidly.
Given minimal luck, the explosion would
just kick what was left of the hulk
further away.

'`hen will-it "

  The screen blanked protectively. So did
his faceplate and the forward ports ofthe
tug's cabin. Beside him the copilot flung
his hand up in useless reflex. Even from
the rear, the intensity of light was
overwhelming.

  "Did ~ wont?" Gusky called as vi~biliq
returned. That was not as reassuring as it
could have been. Half the sensors and
telltales on the board were blinldng red.

  "Sorry." This time Simeon did sound
sorry. "That ship . . . the engines were
so old, the parameters were different . .
. There's a lot more secondary radiation
and suLflux than I thought there would
be."

  "Thanks," Gusky said facetiously. "All
right, people, report."

  "I've got a flux in my drive cores I
can't damp," one ofthe volunteers said
immediacy. "Induction, I guess. Getting
worse."

  "Let me see it," Gusky said, surprised at
his own calm. This was much bets than
waiting; there wasn't time to tee worried.
"AIlright, you've got a feedbackloop

!

120 AmleMcCo - &,SM.S-ng

there and it's past redline.. Set your
controls for maximum acceleration at nineq
degrees to the ecliptic with a one-minute
delay, then bail out a

"my, this ?5 nay tug.r the volunteer wailed.

  "It's going to be your ball of
incandescent gas in about ten minutes,"
Gusky said grimly. "Or hot gas that
includes you. Take your pick."

  Simeon cut in. "Station will pick up full
replacement costs."

  "Lobachevsy and Wong, you're closest,"
Gusky said, "pick 'em upl" Gusky's pickups
showed the luckless volunteersjetting away
on backpack and their craft streaking for
deep space on autopilot. "The rest of you,
dump me some data."

"Yessir, Admiral," one replied dryly.

  The information dutifully came in. "Okay,
Lobachevsky, Wong, you look functional,
sort of Take the others with overstrained
drives in tow, and we'll go back nice and
slow and easy." With several Ins' worth of
beg - Just became so much scrap. Suddenly
boring routine becomes very attractive as a
way of life. War games are "ci*ment enough.

  He touched the control surfaces to
establish a tight fine circuit to the
station. "Simeon, what about us?"

  "Let's put it this way, Gus. None of you
are going to die. But some of you aren't
going to tee very happy for a while,
either. Sickbay will be crowded." A long
pause. "Congratulations. "

  Gus grinned; half of that was relief from
raw fear. Everyone who dives in space is
afraid of decompression, which is why many
become agoraphobic planetside. Those who do
much EVA work or serve on warships develop
a similar fear of radiation, which has the
added terror of killing insidiously. On the
other hand, most dangers in space either
kill cleanly or letlive.

  "You're welcome," the big man
continued_"What about Channa?"

1

]~EC~rW'lOFOUcHT 121

  Patsy's voicejoined in. "She's
gonna be fahn. Hey, Gus," she went on
lazily, "you thaink people will
respect us for this?"

  Guskykeyedforthevi- -
Hegotadoubleview,overhead from the
docking chamber where the tug rested
in its cradle and f rom the vehicle
itself Both showed Cllanna
HapbeingcalTiedafOnai~ngstretcher.

"Phew. Glad she made it okay."

  "Yayuh, mah sentiments exacdy. Got
a good one than"

  Gusky nodded. On station, Channa
acted like a cryon~c bitch, he
thought, but she's Mere when i, comes
doom to cases. This was the worst
emergency SSS-900 had faced m the
tune he'd been here. SSS-900 C, he
reminded himself.

  "I dunno," he said, PI never
respected anyone who led from tile
rear."

  She laughed. "Hey! This might get
us a nice rest cure somewhar pretty.
We could go tagetha." She made The
last a quest

  "If any two paIts of w are still
stuck together when dais is over,
Patsy, you got a date."

"Unh-hunhl" she said
enthusiastically.

  He', first basel Gusky thought.
Aver dirty months of ritualized
sparring so routine it had gotten to
be as comfortably low-key as playing
war games with Simeon. That is, ;/l'm
not sick as a puce once sickbay gets
through with me. Doctor Chaundra
believed in repairing you rapidly. In
some circles he was known as "Kill or
Cure Chaundra."

"I need a drink," he said solemnly.

"Ahtllbuy," Patsy said.

           ~ CHAPTER SEVEN

  Channa woke to an excruciating,
high pitched wailing.

  The enzymes! she Thought. am Sal on
He dere~ct![ve got to get out of
hare!

  She lifted her head widh a gasp and
laid it beck down again with a
heartfelt groan. This has to be a
fatal headache, she Thought, nobody
couldieel like this and Iwe.

  The ceiling overhead was a soothing
pale blue as were tile privacy
screens around her. There was a vase
of flowers on dhe bedside table and
a bank of portable equipment on the
other side, quietly talking to
itself and occasionally waving a
sensor probe over her body. A suit
of working clothes, oversights
andjacket and belt, were draped on a
clothes stand at the foot of tile
bed. The air had a slight' pleasant
scent of cedar.

Sickbay, she thought. The ambience
was urur~kable.

  The wailing went on and on,
sometimes breaking into sharp yelps.
I hope I liw limp enough to kid
whoever is mung that racket.

"Who is Blat?" she finally demanded.

  "Ah, Channa," said Simeon in a
voice as soft as rain water.

  Channa sighed and closed her eyes
again. It was restful, and her body
was ~ lining to accept dial she was
alive and in no danger. Which was a
difficult cling, if you'd gone under
deeply concerned about your chances
of ever waking up again.

  "Welcome back to the living," said
a Batter voice with a lilting
singsong accent. There was a sound
of movement.

THE ~IYWHO FOUGHT 123

  She opened her eyes to see Doctor
Chaundra leaning over her. He had his
professional expression on; a sort of
antiseptic smile, nothing like the
genuine enthusiasm he showed in a
social situation talking about his
Loyalty. Channa managed the complex
prm cedure of smiling and wincing
simultaneously.

  "My head," she said in a croaking
voice, feebly raising a shaking hand
to rub her brow.

  "Gotjust the thing," he said. He
touched the angle of her throat with
an injector. It hissed and she felt
a touch of cold.

  Almost instantly, the pain boring
its way into her brain began to fade.
"Oh, Ghu! that's better." She licked
dry lips.

  "No, I have merely blocked the
pain," the doctor said pedantically.
"The organic damage is minimal but
win take several days to heal."

"Thirsty?" She raised her brows in
pathetic query.

  Chaundra poured a glass of water
from a bedside carafe, put in a straw
and handed it to her.

  She sucked greedily on the straw,
mindful of her head position, and
handed him the empty glass. "More,"
she demanded. He refilled it, and she
drained it again almost as soon as he
handed it to her. The wailer took
offagain. Channa frowned. "Who's
thatbadly hurt?"

  He grimaced. "She's one ofthe
people we evacuated from the ship;
the first one awake. We don't know
who she is. She's done nothing but
shriek since she woke up. To answer
your other question, no, she's not
badly hurt. She's dehydrated, and
probably has a headache like yours
from that, and she had a bloody nose
from the abrupt deceleration."

  There was an especially violent
shriek and the sound of something
metal tipping over and of things
scattering. Voices murmured soothing
words in edged tones.

  "If she can scream like that with a
headache like the one 1 woke up with,
she's crazy," Channa said.

124 Am36McCo~i~ {PRISM. Ssirl~g

  Chaundra nodded. "That, too, is a
possibility, but I feel that she is
presently venting hysteria as a
by-product of coldsleep." He sighed.
"The earliest methods sometimes had
the effect of suppressing basic
inhibition."

  "Can't you give her something?"
Simeon asked from a wall mike. "That
sound hasjust gone from pathetic to
seriously annoying."

  "No," the medical chief replied.
"Or rather, I'd prefer not to
immediately. They drugged themselves
rather heavily, indeed, presumably
to keep their oxygen consumption
down. I've no idea for how long a
period of time, but from their
physical condition, it must have
been too long." He gave another of
his sighs. "I'd really rather not
put anything else into her system.
Especially since many of the
substances they used seem to have
been past recommended shelflike, or
discontinued types, or both."

  "They say that if someone gets
hysterical, a simple slap across _ n
Simeon began.

  Chaundra interrupted hunt "I am
thinking that has more to do with
relieving the frustration of the
listeners than the distress ofthe
patient," he said with a resigned
smile.

  "You're a saint, Doctor," Channa
told him. Actually she knew that he
was a pacifist widower with a
passion for surgery, but no matter.
"But I'm not. So, before I'm
compelled to go over there and knock
the little git through the wall, I'd
like to get out of here."

  He smiled and touched the machine.
It waved more probes over her,
prodding in two or three sensitive
places. The readouts had him nodding
almost at once. Yes, you can be
going now."

  She stood with a satisfied sigh
"Um, is there anyone coherent awake
yet?"

  "Yes, a young man. He's still more
than a bit groggy, so we haven't let
him up yet. He wants to help this
girl."

THE CI-IYWHO Ft)UGIlT 125

  "Can't you put him on a pallet or
in a chair and push him over there?"
Simeon asked. "It might help both of
them."

"Depends," Chaundra said, "on how
he's doing."

"dust seeing trim might help her,"
Channa suggested.

  "Worth a try," Chaundra shrugged
and grabbed a float chair from a
cluster of them by the door. "Over
here," he said and Channa followed,
pulling on a dressing gown.

  The man in question was the
beautifill lad she herself had packed
up. Simeon watched Channa's pupils
enlarge and decided that she was
probably responding even more
enthusiasucaUy than she had on the
ship. Pheromones, he told
himselfwisely.Andiezuerdis~ns.

  The young man had raised himselfup
on one elbow, a slight sweat
glistening on his shapely brow. He
looked at them with distress in his
light blue eyes.

  "Please, let me go to her," he
pleaded. His accent was exquisite,
his voice a light baritone. The
language was recognizable Standard,
although the vowels had an archaic
tonality.

  From the look on her face, Simeon
decided that Channa would have taken
him to hell if he wanted to go.
Simeon wanted him offthe station.

  Guys like him cause more trouble
than beautifulfemales, Simeon
thought. On the other hand, if he can
shut that screamer up, I'llput him on
the payroll.

  Channa and Chaundra helped the
Adonis into the chair and pushed him
over to the pallet where the young
woman lay. He reached out for her
hand and began shaking it.

  She had waist-length dark hair and
a pale, bony face with plain features
and high cheekbones. Long, goldlashed
eyes of a dark blue that was almost
black stared at him, her screeches
cut off for a blissful moment of
silence. Then the whites showed all
round the iris of her eyes, and
before Channa or Chaundra could stop

126 ArineMcGa~ir~ 0? SM. Sit

her, she had grabbed the carafe from
the table beside her and was
swinging it at him.

"You did thisl You could have killed
mel Iamb diner

  The metal carafe connected with his
temple in a sickening smack. The
young man slid bonelessly from the
chair while, not content with the
damage she'd just inflicted, the
girl strove to climb over the safety
railings on the side of her pallet,
shrieking that it was his fault, all
his fault. Then she began to sob
with equal vigor. "My love, my love,
what have they done to you?"

  Chaundra's interns and head nurse
leaped f or the pallet in
well-choreographed unison. This
infirmary saw a lot of visiting
miners, still high on various
recreational chemicals, not to
mention plain old-fashioned ed~anoL
so they knew what to do. One pinned
her arms and another slapped an
injector on dae nearest portion of
her Sailing body. Instandy she
slumped into uncon~ou~.

  "Doctor," Simeon said firmly, "put
that girl in restraints until she
returns to rationality. She can
blame me for this one."

  UYou have it," Chaundra said. The
nurses buckled the unconscious woman
onto her pallet but were too
professional to show dhe slightest
trace of vindictiveness as they
tightened the straps. Chaundra bent
over the unconscious man.

  "Glancing blow after all," he said,
pulling up one eyelid. "Should
regain consciousness soon."

  "I'll be in my quarters, Doctor,"
Channa said, and gathering up her
clothing, walked wearily to an
elevator. She entered and leaned
against a wan, closing her eyes.

"You okay?" Simeon asked anxiously.

  She smiled. "I'm very okay, thank
you." She opened her eyes and
straightened, rolling her shoulders
to loosen dhe kinks. "I'm st ll
duty," she said, "and hungry, and
alive." Then she widened her eyes in
dismay. "How could I f orget? The
brain, did he make it?"

 IHECI~Y WHO FOUGHT 127

Simeon paused. 44No."

  Channa slumped and covered her face
with her hands. She looked up, her
lips pressed tightly together for
the rest ofthe ascent. Then she
asked quiedy, 44Have you had a
chance to find out anything about
our survivors?"

  "Not as much as I'd hoped to, but
I did find out something about the
sheUperson. He was Planetary Manager
Guiyon. Last assigned to a colony
planet caned Bethel, orbiting the
sun GK728, known locally as
Saffron.. I informed Central Worlds
of his . . . death: beyond the call
of duty, I'd say. They told me what
they had on record. After his
original contract ended, hejust
stayed on, apparendy for no other
reason than he liked Saffron's
pretty yellow color.

  44Bed~el's seeminglyjust an
undistinguished colony of no great
population, located a little off the
beaten path, more than a bit
xenophobia in their attitudes. They
won't trade with nonhumans, for
example. It was established about
three hundred years ago by a
'tightly knit, religiously oriented
group.' Hmmm." Simeon paused. "In
three hundred years, a religion
could develop any number of nasty
kinks. The refugees may have been
cast out. They may have left
voluntarily to establish another
base for their sect. I don't have
that information." He continued
softly. "Guiyon must have been there
a long, long time. A long time and a
long way to die like that, alone in
the dark."

  His final words were said in the
merest whisper and Channa felt tears
pricking at her eyes. It was fitting
for a brawn to mourn a brain. She
let her tears fall. She could.
Simeon couldn't.

  She left the elevator and entered
the lounge, dropping weakly into
tile nearest comfortable chair. She
leaned her head back and closed her
eyes, letting tile tears fall. For a
long tune she and Simeon observed
silence.

"What about the data we got from the
bridge?" she

128 A1mcMcCo~g~S.M.St~ng

said at last, wiping her eyes again
with the back of her hand. "Was it
blank?"

  "I, uh,can't read it," Simeon said.
Under the grief, embarrassment
tinged his voice. "The codes are
ancient. In fact, it may not be
a-code, it may be a language. One I
don't have on record, which means it
must have been extinct before
spaceflight and in limited use even
then."

  Channa began to laugh, suppressing
it with effort before it took her
over. She stifled it with a groan.
"I'm almost afraid to ask this but .
. ." and she found herself glancing
at his column for reassurance.
"What's the
reportonthepeoplewerescued? Besides
the screamer."

  "Forty of the fifty we found
survived to reach the station."

  "Oh, Ghu!" she said and sat
forward, her arms crossed on her
knees, her forehead resting on them.
"We didn't have time to count the
dead, did we? Damnl We could at
least have done thatI" She sat back
again and looked around the room
bitterly, as though resenting its
comfortable, unchanged appearance.

"I know," Simeon told her. "I feel
that I've Wiled."

  "You aren't the only one," she
said, and sobbed once. She placed
her hand over her mouth, pressing
hard, to stifle any others that
might follow. After a moment she
spoke again in a thick voice. "And
the station?"

  "That came out all right," he said,
and gave her a report long enough
for her to regain control: good news
in the fortunatelack of injury to
stationpersonnel, lack of any real
structural damage to the station or
t~aflic, with the notable exception
ofthe ore carrier. He reported that
incoming ships were huddled on the
far side ofthe station just in
case and ended with an invitation to
the party being thrown by the tug
pilot volunteers for anyone who
wanted to come. By the time he was
finished, Channa was struggling to
keep her eyes open.

"I never thought I'd see the day
when I was too

THE Crow WHO FOUGHT 129

drained to debauch," she said in a
hoarse voice. "I must be getting
old."

  "Cut yourself some slack, kid,"
Simeon said, reverting to his
juvenile affectation. "You did
actually die. Subjectively, I mean. I
think it's a bit much to expect to be
in a partying mood two hours after
being brought back to life. Remember,
the slogan is 'eat, drink and be
merry for tomorrow we may die.' So
you're covered."

Channa managed a weak grin.

  She l ooze awful, he thought with
concern, and Me pry looks exactly ye
shefeels. "How would it be if I sent
something down in your name,
champagne or something? n

"Perfect," she said weakly, but with
feeling.

  "And you must eat something. Doc
Chaundra said you'd feel better for
it. It'll stave off a return of the
headache."

  "I'm for that." She rose, reeling
slightly on her way to the small
galley to find whatever was easiest
to prepare. She was staring into a
cupboard, not even registering what
she was looking at, when the door to
the lounge swooshed open. She
stumbled out to see who it was and
arrived in time to see Mare'an,
himself, and a bevy of waiters sweep
into the main lounge.

  "Ah, my dear and valiant
mademoiselle!" He snapped his heels
together and bowed crisply from the
waist. "l salute you. We of the
Perimeter Restauran' would like to
thank you for your extraordinary
bravery which has saved the station."
His arm swept out gracefully,
indicating the serving trolley. "A
mere token of our esteem, I know, but
we put our hearts into everything
that we prepare, and this evening, I
think that we have even surpassed
ourselves. As our gratitude is sur-
passing." He bowed again, a more
modest version, with his right hand
spread across his heart.

  Channa smiled stupidly at him for a
moment until she could gather enough
of her wits together to tell him that
he was very kind.

130 Anne McCa - PRISM.

  He offered her his artn and led her
to a chair. Instantly his cohorts
flowed into action. A table was
brought, a cloth spread, service
laid, wine poured, napkin spread and
food appeared on her plate. The
arrangement alone was a work of art.
Simeon recognized actual Terran
truffles decorating the appetizer
and the entree was no less than
carre d'ag;neau Mistral. A file said
the recipe was by Escoffier,
Mart'an's boyhood hero.

  I Joet they'd chew it for her if
she asked them to, Simeon thought,
amused.

  "Ah, Monsieur Simeon." Mart'an
exhaled a tragic sigh, his face
wearing the blank expression
softshells adopted when addressing
someone unseen. "How we wish we
could offer a similar tribute to
you."

  Simeon put his likeness up on his
column-screen, made it smile
appreciatively and bow slightly. "By
coming to the aid of my brawn in
this manner, monsieur, you are
serving both myselfand the station
superbly. I cannot begin to express
mysppreciation."

  Channa's eyes widened; her mouth,
however, was fully occupied.

  Ha! he thought, triumphantly.
Didn't think I had it in me, didja,
Happy? Dips 'R Us.

  "I wonder," he said confidentially
to Mart'an, "ifit would be possible
for you to clear away at a later
time? Ms. Hap is extremely weary and
I need to bring her up to speed on
station business before she
retires...."

  "Of, course," Marttan said
heartily. With a flutter of his
hands, he gathered his magic minions
together and the whole group
departed as smoothly as they had
arrived.

  Channa sipped her wine with an
appreciative glow on her face.

  "Go easy on that," he cautioned
her. "I know you're thirsty, but
water would be a better choice."

"Yes, Dad." She picked up her fork
and began eating

I~ECI-IYWEIOFOUGHT 131

again, chewing appreciatively. "Too
bad you can't taste foods, but I
assure you this lamb is deeelicious."
She rolled her eyes. "So, bring me up
to speed. What else is there to crown
today's glad tidings?"

  "Nothing more really," he said,
"except that the computer has finally
regurgitated a translation program
for me. The language was
extinct Chuvash, whatever that is.
The AI worked back from loanwords of
known languages, but it's waming me
that there are gaps in vocabulary and
most certainly in shades of mining .
. .

  "What does Cen - 1 Worlds say about
this disaster?" She yawned deeply.
"Or don't we have enough comsat
capability left?"

  "I gave them an outline of events
and the reappearance of . . . Guiyon.
They were more concerned that I was
still operational. Which I am. They
expect a full report, of course, but
I'm hoping to include more
information about the ship. They can
wait. They've the bones ofthe
matter."

"Any news onJoat?"

  "Nothing specific," he said with a
sigh. "With everyone suited up, it
was impossible to tell who was who.
Not all suits have nametags and
skill-codes. I haven't heard a sound
from the engineering section."

  "Well, I want to be sure she's all
right," Channa said, exploding in
angry anxiety. "You open up a channel
down there and tell her that we need
to know if she made it. One lousy
'yes, I did' will be sufficient." She
picked up her fork again but was
merely pushing food around the plate,
her expression almost sulky.

  Simeon regarded her with a mildly
exasperated mental smile. When she
was tired, Channa was amaz-
inglylikeJoat. Sending the necessary
discreet query, he was also relieved
to have received a prompt reply,
though he puzzled overJoat's odd
undertone.

"She made it. I told her one word
would do it, and

132 AnneMcCa - ~SM.St - 7g

she gave me two. Quote, I'm okay,
end~uote. You should try to get some
rest, Channa." A pause. 44No, wait a
minute. She's adding something. Oh,
really? Quote, Tell Charma she did a
neato job. n

  Unutterably relieved, Channa pushed
the table aside. Somehow, knowing
that Joat was safe released the
tension that had kept her going so
long. Like a robots she moved toward
her quarters, made it to the door
before she stopped, holding onto the
frame.

  44Simeon," she said, looking over
her shoulder at his column, her head
of its own accord resting against
the cool metal panel "I am your
brawn, remember. You are required
toiT~rmmeofanyuntowardincident.
Yes?"

44Yes, ma'am," he said meekly.

  She nodded sharply: a 44you'd
better" gesture) and entered her
quarters. The bed beckoned
irresistibly; she had a dreamlike
memory offumbling with the sickbay
wrapper and crawling onto the bed,
of a servo pulling the covers up
around her. Soft music hummed her to
sleep.

  "Good morning," Simeon greeted her
the next day. "You look rested," he
said. I'm learning, he congratulated
himself, I didn't say, you looked
like hell on a rampage last night,
or even, you look a lot better: I'm
acquiring sew siding, he thought
smugly, suppressing the thought that
she had made him so. Hope ~ doesn't
wreck nay stag.

  "I feel rested, too," she said in
some surprise. "After yesterday, I'm
surprised I woke up today. You
didn't," and her tone became
suspicious, "let me oversleep?"

  The essential Channa has not
altered overnight' "Nothing new to
report. I'm still parsing through
the language, but it's odds on we'll
get more out of the passengers than
the logs."

"How are they? Anybody else awake
yet?"

  "Doctor Chaundra says that poor
bastard the screeching Vallyrie
cold-cocked is their leader, name of

IRE C=YWHO FOUGHT 133

Amos teen Sierra Nueva. The valkyrie
is Rachel hint Damscus. I knew you'd
like to put names to the face . . .
es," he added hurriedly, not wishing
to single the man out for her
attention in any way. "The doe says
he'll be able enjoin us at the
meeting."

"Who else?"

  "Leader Amos and his sidekick, a
guy called Joseph teen Said."

  Channa took a sip of the coffee
she'd made. "When are they due here?"

  "We've a station officers meeting
in about an hour. Chaundra, too, if
someone's not critical. Whenever
we've fished chat, I'll call down for
Sierra Nueva and ehisJoseph fellow."

  "Do me a favor," Channa said, "call
him Amos, would you please? Sierra
Nueva makes him sound like one of
chose dances that are supposed to
make your blood boil and your libido
unhinge."

  "You got it. We don't want
forbidden passions running riot all
over the station, now do we?"

  "Well," she said with a grin,
wiggling her eyebrows suggestively,
"that part's negotiable."

  WeU, well, Channa ma belle, nothmg
like dung to loosen a person up, eh?
Let's h pe the ''mellow" lasts a
while canyon.

  He noticed a visitor in the
corridor and opened the door bed ore
the boy outside could ring f or
admittance: a tall thin
twelve-year-old, dark and Lender of
face but with green eyes and a
reddish tint to his brown hair. The
boy stood thereamomentstarded,
hismouthaperfect O.

  UCome on in," Simeon invited.
Channa looked up from her notescreen
and reinforced the welcome.

  UUh, hi," the kid said nervously.
Simeon noted that he walked with a
cane. "I'm Seld Chaundra? I'm in
Joat's class?"

"Oh, really?" Simeon said helpfully.

  "Yeah." Seld's free hand bunched
the material of his trouser leg. "Um,
is she here?"

134 AnneMcCo~ PRISM. Sit

  "Not at the moment," Channa told
him, resting her chin on her fist.
"We'll give her a message," and
Channa added a mentallthink. "Is
there a problem?"

  "Oh, no," he shook his head in
wide-eyed denial "It's just . . .
Well, she wasn't in class today and
I was worried that she might of got
hurt or something yesterday."

  "That's very kind of you," Channa
said approvingly. "But she came
through . . . okayl"

  "We'll tell her that you were
asking about her, Seld," Simeon told
him.

"Will she be in school tomorrow?"

  "Quite possibly," Simeon said
mendaciously. "I'll let her know you
were asking for her and tell her to
contact you. Does she have your call
code?"

  "Yes, sir, she does, sir." Like
all station-born youngsters, Seld
was not unaccustomed to Simeon
speaking from the nearest sound
cube, but he had the good manners to
bow to the column. "Sorry to have
bothered you." He waved at Channa
and stepped back through the door.

  "Well!" Channa said, pleased. "She
has a peer who cares enough about
her well-being to beard you in
yourlair."

"You think that's enough to entice
her back out?"

  Channa deliberated. "I think it
will certainly alter her thinking.
When you're sure no one cares about
you, it's easy to be depressed and
feel hopeless. Go on," she said with
an encouraging smile at his column,
"tell her Seld was here, worried she
might have been hurt, and looking
for her in class."

  "Yeah, he's okay Seld is,
sortof,"Joatsaid. "Bitofa kid,
y'know?"

  "Chronologically speaking," Simeon
remarked blandly, "you're a kid
yourself."

  Joat laughed with more than a
trace of bitterness; it was a sound
like a yelping coyote. "Never had
the time

ME FOUGHT 135

or chance to tee one.
Soit'salittlelate,like, to expect me
to act like one."

  Silence fell in the improvised nest
at the intersection of the ducts, but
the girt heard just the softest sigh
of regret issue from Simeon.

  SoJlie, she thought, with a ruefill
affection. Even if he was . . . what
was the jingle? Spam-in-a can? Nice
guy, she decided. He needs someone to
look Alar him. Besides Channa Hap,
that was. Channa might be his brawn,
but she seemed to have looked after
everyone else yesterday instead of
him.

  "Yeah, Seld's not a bad osco. Sorta
knows his way around a keyboard, in
a kid sorta way. Can't fight worth
shit, though."

  "He says they miss you at school,"
Simeon replied noncommittally.

  Joat gave a second bark of sour
laughter. "Not that bitchite Louise
Koprekm, she doesn't."

  "Pushing her face in the toilet
bowl was a bit extreme,
wasn'tit,Joat?"

"She said I smelled."

  "You did smell. Thenl That's about
the time you considered regular
washing wasn't such a bizarre
notion."

  Joat's lower lip stuck out, and she
turned back to her keyboard and the
collection of miscellaneous
electronic junk which Simeon had been
trying to identify.

"What's that you're contrapting?"
Simeon asked.

"Riffler."

"Dare I
askwhatariffleris?"DoIwanttohnow?

  "Ultrasonic. Pops the caps." At
Simeon's interrogative sound, she
explained. "Bursts the capillaries,
like, you know, instant really,
really bed sunburn?"

  "It what?" Then he modified his
tone to a more conversational level.
"We hadn't planned on dragging you
out, you know."

"I didn't figure you would."

"You haven't . . . ah . . . tried it
out, have you?"

136 Am~eMcCo~i9 EAST. Stirling

Not yet.

44How will you know it works?"

44It willl n The confidence in that
reply was unnerving.

"Is it . . . umm . . ."

  "Wouldn't kill anyone, but it'll
sure make 'em think twice about
following me."

44Ah, I see."

  His visual picked up just the
hint of a grin as Joat bent her
head to continue her handiwork.

44Some things," she said
cryptically.

  Silence fell again. Conversations
withJoat reminded Simeon of
documentaries he had seen of
catching trout by hand. You had to
be very patient to succeed.

44Looks like trouble coming," she
said neutrally.

  4'Trouble'souer," Simeon said.
44Look, Joat, I do apologize f or
not checldng on you during the
alert, but . . . "

  44No need. You gave me a suit,
remember. That was all I
needed,"Joat pointed out reasonably.
"Something threatens you, the
station, we're all in deep kimchee.
Right? Much better you spent~your
time keeping us from getting in so
deep we have to shovel our way out I

  "You've an extremely realistic
attitude, Joat," Simeon said, with a
certain tone of admiration for the
independence in her that also
worried him.

  44I'm no sap," Joat announced with
satisfaction. '4Troubles don't come
by ones and twos, either you get 'em
by kilobyte loads. Tube ready." She
patted the riffler.

"I'm sure you will," Simeon replied
soothingly. Yuh. See you at dinner."

  "At dinner?" He sounded surprised
but that pleased her. 44Umm, yes,
see you then," he added, doing a
good job of sounding casual.

  Joat whistled soundlessly to
herself as she felt Simeon's
attention withdraw most of it,
atheist. She also switched on the
white-noise maker and the scrambler
she'd rigged up. She was no longer
conned

IRE FOUGHT 137

sure they worked, Simeon having had
enough of a look at her contrivances
to perhaps neutralize them. Not that
he'd have had time to bother about
her with so much else on his mind
these days. Even a brain had some
limitations.

  She didn't want an audience while
she reran the stuff she'd recorded
during Channa's exploits on the
intruder ship. First she screened
something that had come in on the
Central datablip just today. The
watchman program Joat set up had cut
it out and routed it to her system
automatically.

  Stretching luxuriously, she popped
the tab on a can of near-beer. She
stayed away from the real
thingbecause it made her feel foggy
and squiff. She bit a big hunk off a
chocolate nut bar, grinning around
the mouthful with vindictive delight
as the scene played on.

  A crowd surrounded the obviously
official building and their chant ran
shrill and menacing as they waved
their placards which bore the same
message they chanted.

"Dorgan the hgot.l Dorgan out! Dorgan
the ingot! Morgan

02It.t"

  The ground-floor windows have been
shattered and a line of riot-armed
police were holding the SPRIM
demonstrators at bay. The visual
shifted to an interior room where Ms.
Dorgan of the Child Welfare depart-
ment, looking rumpled and alarmed,
was gesticulating wildly.

  "And I categorically deny saying
that shellpeople are unnatural
abominations with no right to live!"
she wailed. "Or that they make me
want to pukel"

  Joat grinned. She wanted to be a
systems engineer when she grew up or
maybe even a brawn but editing was a
nice hobby. Editing transmissions of
recorded conversations sent to SPRIM
and MM, for example. Ghanna had the
right idea, but adults had no
enthusiasm for taking an idea and
running with it.

138 AnneMcCaffrey ~ SKI. - ing

  "Like the teacher said," she
muttered, taking another mouthfilL
"I gotta lot of buried hostility I
got to learn to express."

"I felt a good deal like screan~ng
myself;"Joseph said.

  Amos sighed and lowered himself
into a chair. Once Joseph insisted,
the doctor here a man, oddly
enough had moved him into a small
suite, with a private sitting room.

  Appam~ly Paiute, he reminded
himself, though there might well be
listening devices. Otherwise, it had
the common strangeness of everything
here, like soft synthetics for the
walls which could alter shade or
suddenly turn themselves into view
screens. He had commanded that the
space-scene transform itselfinto
something more restful, and the
holograph had turned to a neutral
brown solidity. In its way, that
made him uneasy too. What appeared
to be plain bare plastic was
obviously anything but.

  "It is difficult to believe that we
are safe," he said, rubbing a hand
over his face, which had grown
enough beard to rasp. He resolved to
ask for a sonic, or the local
equivalent. "To be frank, my
brother, I never expected to wake
again."

  "Neither did I,"Joseph said,
prowling with slow restlessness. The
gravity was slightly higher than
Bethel, just enough to be
noticeable. "But we do not know that
we are safe even fiom the Kolnari."

Amos looked up sharply. "We do not?"

  "The shell Guiyon," Joseph amended,
at Amos' frown " said that it "

  "He." Amos compressed his lips
finely alter that correction; the
more so since he himself had never
felt entirely easy with Guiyon.

  Guiyon saved us, he remembered.
More than that. Guiyon had been the
first to listen to his youthful
doubts without recoiling in horror
and ordering him to

THE CIIY WHO FOUGHT 139

do penance. Only families descended
from the Prophet were allowed speech
with the Planetary Manager. Most
Bethelites thought that entity was at
best legend, at worst an abomination
ofthe infidel. I am too old to
believe in nursery tales, Amos
thought. He was a man now, with many
depending on him.

  "He," Joseph said, making a
soothing gesture with both hands. "He
intended to take us to Rigel base.
This is not Rigel."

  "No," Amos conceded. "SSS-900-C.
Although they seem reluctant to tell
us more."

  "Understandable, sir. Would you
immediately trust fugitives who came
so close to destroying them, though
roe knew it not? However, there are
things they cannot help but tell us."

  "Yes," Amos said slowly. "For one,
that this is no military base."

  'dust so, my brother. These are a
peaceful people." At Amos' dubious
look, he went on. "I was raised
dockside, you will remember I know
more of traders and trading than
most. These are respectable merchants
and spacefarers,by their own ethics,
if not by Bethelcustoms. Dockside, we
would have called them easy marks."

  They looked at each other, haunted
by what neither would mention first.
Amos took hold of himself A
respectable, an ethical people
deserved the truth.

  "And we cannot know if the Kolnari
still pursue," Amos whispered.
Sickness tugged at the pit of his
stomach. To achieve safely,
evenforsofeu', andjeopar~m turn
thewsaviors. "We must talk to them!"

           lit CPAPT=EIGHT

  "AI1 things oonside'Ed, we didn't
come out of the day too badly at
all," Cl~iefAdministrator Claren
said, once more running his stylus
down his notescreen to be sure he'd
missed nothing.

  Ducking her head, Channa managed to
hide a yawn. Meetings were meat and
drink to Claren. When he had the
opportunity to-trot out his careful
graphs and statistics for an
audience, he positively glowed and
inflated. Lye a plain girl who'sfust
been aped to dazzle by a h4Fhsdiool
hero, she thought mordancy.

  "We're down about three million
credits," she pointed out, reaching
for dhe water carafe.

  Two section chiefs sprang to fill
the glass for her: fame was already
a bit weaning. The meeting was sup-
posed to have started as a working
breakfast. Plates and crumbs were
scattered around the table. Gusky
was there too, looking a little
pale either from the medications, or
from the party. Not only was he
prominent in his own business, he
was a section representative and,
with the recent favorable publicity,
looked likely to be re elected.

  Patsy was filing a fmgemail.
"Somebody has ta pony up the
expenses," she pointed out. "Fer
example, we commandeered equipment
from Namakuri-Singh  who arh not
known to be a charitable
organization."

  Gusky grunted. "I commandeered the
equipment which will have to be
replaced, which you, Simeon,
audhorized me to use."

"Not me personally. The station!"
Simeon said

lisle CITY WHO FOUGHT 141

sharply. Brains tended to be
sensitive about personal debt, having
had to pay off such a whacking great
amount for their early care and
education. "No one could say that I
didn't do everything possible to ~ni-
mize damage.

  Loss of the tugs was unavoidable
and the station is morally obligated to
compensate their owners for the loss.
Which, Claren, we Al recoup from
Lloyd's, invoking theforce majeur
clause."

  "Yes, yes, of course, it will,"
Claren muttered, making a quick
notation.

  "The other unavoidable losses and
damages which we've discussed today
are going to wipe out the contingency
fund."

"It will?" Gus asked unhappy.

  "Yes, it will," Claren agreed in a
lugubrious tone of voice.

"In a good cause," Simeon said
briskly.

  "On this Lloyd's claim," Gus went
on, "well be dealing with
bureaucrats, bureaucratic accountants
at that. GO bureaucratic accountants,
with lawyers in tow."

  "The withered hand on the
controls," Siphon intoned.

  "We could just rely on their
decency, good nature and inherent
generosity," Gus suggested. Even
Claren laughed at that.

  Channa shuddered. "So we should be
prepared for accusations of
mismanagement and hand-wringing over
the cost of every rivet, bolt and
coupling." She afford a nasal tone.
"Didn't you realize that
seventeen-pointthree seconds boost
would have done just as well as
seventeen-point-seven? "

  ChiefAdministrator Claren assured
them that his entries would be
meticulously checked, all forms would
be properly made out, filed on time
and to the proper bureaus.

142 AnneMcC~S~.Shr~

  "I won't go so far as to guarantee
prompt or even early payment," he
said, allowing himselfa very small
smile, "given that we'll be dealing
with departments over which I have
no control. But, I In promise you that
I will do my best, and that is very
good indeed."

There was a rumble of agreement.

  "At least we," Channa said thinly,
"can authorize immediate release of
the contingency fund to private
persons who suffered damage and
loss, or have to make repairs
germane to station functions.
Claren,just get the claims into the
insurance companies as soon as you
can."

  "Good luck," said the owner of a
minerals company in a wry tone. Y've
noticed they're always more
enthusiastic about collecting
premiums than paying claims."

  That brought another chuckle.
Channa turned to the pillar and
Simeon's image. "As far as the
station exterior damage is
concerned, isn't there a relevant
clause in the station's charter that
guarantees immediate repairs?"

  "Hmmm." The halo turned static for
a moment before Simeon smiled. "Yes,
as a matter of fact emergency
expenses for maintaining station
integrity and saving life and limb
are covered under the general sta-
tion contract with Lloyd's. We ought
to be able to cover everything."

"Excellent," Claren said, tapping at
his keyboard.

  "'Nuther lid thing Fo' all them
drills, Simeon, when we was supposed
to know what to do Ibsen thar was a
real one, thar was a mighty lot of
folks ended up runnin' around like
scalded roosters. Ought to be fined,
to remind 'em to pay attention."

  "Fined? Yes, fined' Fine. Good
notion, Patsy," Simeon said. "And
the longer they've been on station
and should know better, the heavier
the fine. Pinch a pocket, mark the
memory. What bothers me is wily
didn't they know where they were
supposed to be. I can

IHE CllYWHO FOUGHT 143

these drills even if you're always
complaining about them often enough
for everyone to know exactly where to
go and what to do. Their names are
always checked off on the roster, so
why the hell were they running around
bumping into walls?"

  "Aw, thar's allus some folk who
panic, Simeon," Patsy said. "Mos' of
us was whar we shoulda been. And Lord
knows, we got it all done, din we?"
Patsy said.

  "I'm inclined to think that perhaps
we should give them the benefit of
the doubt here," Channa put in. "But
perhaps you should keep an eye on the
group leaders, in the event that they
just automatically check offevery
name on their list without verifying
that everyone is in position and
accounted for."

  "Assign them a buddy," Gus said.
"If they're too helpless to know
where to go and how to get there,
make it ajoint responsibility."

  "Should be the group leaders,"
Chaundra said in a disgusted tone.

  Joint responsibility! Excellent,"
Simeon said, "just like B & B teams."

The resolution was passed
unanimously.

  "Move that we break for lunch,"
somebody said. "It's 1300."

  "Seconded," Channa said. "I think I
need a full stomach to hear what our
guests have to say. SpaceBot suggests
they've got a fairly lurid set of
adventures to tell us. Any
objections? Adjourned."

  A little different from last night,
eh Happy? Simeon watched as Channa
munched on her thin sandwich. He
hoped she was comparing this fare
with the feast Marttan had spread for
her. The deck commissary was not up
to Perimeter standards, although Gus
claimed that they did an acceptable
late-night pizza.

  "So, brief us with what you know,
Simeon, about our latest arrivals,"
Gus sai<l.

144 AnneMcCo~ PRISM. S - ing

  Simeon made a throat-clearing
sound. "Data base describes 'em as
a 'tightly knit, religiously
oriented group' in origin," he
said. 'Judaeo-Sufi Buddhist

roots."

  "Wow," Patsy said. "Thassa
mouthful. But do they believe in
God?"

  Wondering looks, sage nods and
quizzical "ooh's" went around the
table.

  "Probably worshipping snails and
marrying their siblings, or some
such genetically stupid custom,"
~lekers said. The station security
chief was a short, rather squat
woman from New Newfoundland.
"Buddhists, you said? No wonder they
nearly crashed us. That kind don't
know much about mechanical stuff."

  "Wait, just a precise minute."
Doctor Chaundra held up a protesting
hand. "To begin with, I saw no
medical indications of dangerous
inbreeding. They may have loam as if
they didn't comprehend directions or
our comments, but they were an dazed
from their experiences. They are
needing rest and recuperation, but
under that is health Genetic
diversity is low, but there are few
recessives. I would hazard that they
must have had a good screening
program to begin with. The group is
above the norm. One or two may have
endocrine behavioral problems from
the coldsleep drugs. They
administered drugs wed beyond their
storage lives. The Bethelite leader
is a very articulate man, educated
and intelligent.

  "Although," he went on, with a
slight frown, "he has not been
particularly communicative."

  "Unfortunately, education and
intelligence don't always go hand in
hand," Simeon commented. "It's not
that I've got my heart set on the
'religious fanatics drive the
heretics away' scenario, but it does
fit the little I've been able to
decipher of Guiyon's log. Phrases
like, 'Damn rockheaded elders who
said immorality and doubt in the
young had brought doom'; 'told them

THE CITE WHO FOUGHT 145

their children had a right to live';
'feared some ofthem might betray us';
'escaped as best we could'; and sad-
dest of all, 'had to leave some
behind to face death.' n

  Patsy put down her sandwich. "I'm
not hungry anymore.'

  "Nor am I," Channa said grimly.
"It's time to get this from the
mouths ofthe horses."

Stallion, you ?nean, Simeon remarked
very privately.

  Amos teen Sierra Nueva was
accompanied by the smaller, thickset
man who had been found beside him on
the colony ship. Two of Vickers'
guards were discreetly in attendance,
more to guide the floatchairs than
guard.

  They're weak as kittens, Simeon
thought, not to mention unarmed and
with no place else to go and nothing
to go there in. Station personnel
developed a special kind of paranoia
as a survival trait: nothing, no one
must harm their station. Any station,
no matter how state-of-theart and
safety conscious, was totally
vulnerable. Had he, in innocence,
welcomed aboard terrorists fleeing
'rockheaded' elders? Oddly enough,
the presence of Guiyon argued against
that possibility.

  As their chairs thumped softly off
their air cushions to the floor, the
two strangers looked with impassive
expressions at those seated around
the table.

  Simeon heard Patsy murmuring under
her breach; very faindy, almost
subvocalizing. He focused, upping the
gain on his receptors:

  '`Oh, my oh ~ that one ispretty,"
she was saying. "My oh my oh my."

  Patsy's obvious interest in the man
did not surprise Simeon but it did
suggest he might have an entirely
different problem on his hands.
However, if Patsy's charms should win
Amos, Simeon could relax. Then he
caught Channa, glancing
surreptitiously et Amos' classic
profile, slightly clouded with a
worry that only

148 AnneMcCo - PRISM. StirEng

gave him a more Jovian solemnity.
Then, seeing the look exchanged
between Amos and Joseph, Simeon
wondered hopefully if the short,
muscular man was his boyfriend.

  "Dr. Chaundra says that we mustn't
tire you," Simeon said by way of
calling the meeting to order, "but
we'd appreciate your filling us in
on a few details."

  Amos gave a start, and his eyes
widened as he suddenly looked up to
the pillar at the head of the table
and saw Simeon's synthesized face.
So, he knows about shellpeople, but
he's surpris~tofind one here.

  "We are grateful for your succor,"
Amos began formally, bowed his head,
touching forehead and heart with one
hand.

  "I em Amos teen Sierra Nueva, and
my companion is Joseph teen Said."
The short man repeated Amos's esture

  Seeing it, Gusky frowned slightly
and moved his fingers. Simeon read
the message. If inure the short one
fora hard case.

  The brain accepted that verdict.
There were some things that only
personal experience could teach.
Amos continued speaking, pausing as
he sought the appropriate words but
gradually becoming more fluent and
his blue eyes began to warm with
sincerity.

  "We are of the colony on Bethel. I
am loathe to tell you, in the face
of your generosity, of a terrible
scourge, a bright evil that flies
upon us even now."

"A. . . bright evil?" Channa asked
uncertainly.

  Scourge ? Evil ? Sheesh! Simeon
wondered. The archaic syntax made
the man sound as stilted as a his-
torical holoplay. VlKhat's he
talk~gabout? Duds? So he can blame
the whole disaster on the
supernatural? There was a rustle as
the others around the table leaned
forward. They had expected to hear
about something safely in the past,
not anew~reatto the station.
Yesterday's had been more than
enough for a long while.

I1IE WHO FOUGHT 147

  "Indeed, lady, you are in grave
danger." He caught the blank or
startled expressions around the
table. "Has Guiyon told you nothing?"
he asked desperately.

  "Guiyon is dead," Simeon said, and
saw both men go rigid with shock and
grief He thought better of them for
it and paused to let them recover.
"The ship's logs are all but
unreadable. Why don't you fill us
in?" Simeon suggested quietly.

  "He is dead?" Amos's drawn face had
gone pale under its smooth
light-olive coloring. "But, how is
that possible? He was a shellperson,
an immortal. Ah, perhaps that is why
we are not at Rigel Base or some
other Central Worlds facility where
we thought to seek assistance."'

  "He brought you here, to SSS-900-C,
a space station and many light years
from Rigel Base."

  "How can an immortal die?" Joseph
asked softly, suppliant as he spread
his hands wide in his lap.

  "The feeder lines to his nutrient
sources had sheared off and, as there
was no backup . . ." Simeon trailed
offend both Bethelites bowed their
heads a moment, honoring the dead.
"Considering the state of that truly
ancient vessel of yours, he did well
to get you this far."

  Amos glanced at his companion. The
other man's hard blocky face was
drawn, and he nodded his head slowly
twice, as if encouraging. Amos
hesitated, cleared his throat and,
throwing his chin up, spoke directly
to Simeon.

  "This is even worse than I had
imagined. Guiyon must have been truly
desperate. Can you defend
yourselves?"

  "Well, wefended off your
out-of-control ship pretty
successfully," Simeon replied. "What
did you have in mind?"

  Amos leaned forward, supporting
himself on the armrests ofthe chair.
His eyes took on a fierce glow.

  "I will tell you," he said
passionately, sweeping a look at
those around the table. "We of Bethel
are a peaceful

148 Am~cMcCo~i7r~ SUM.

people." His fists met and clenched.
"Virtually a defenseless people."
His mouth twisted in pain. "We were
attacked from the skies above our
peaceful planet. I do not know how
you count the hours in a day or the
days of a week, a month or a year. I
do not know how long we were
unconscious in the Sleep. We fled
our home world for four periods of
twenq-five hours before I took the
drug. Just before I did, Guiyon told
me that he thought we would have a
solid five days' lead. So nine days
oftwenq-five hours two hundred and
twenq-five hours."

  "Sixty minutes in yo' hoah, Mr.
Sierra Nuevah?" Patsy asked.

  Looking over at her
expressionlessly, he nodded slowly.

  Simeon called up a halo of Bethel,
culled and realized from the Survey
Service data base.

  "That is our world as it appeared
before this Exodus," Amos said
bleakly, watching the slow rotation
on the screen. "Our capital city was
there," and pointed to where two
large rivers flowed into a bay.
"Keriss, we called it. The place
where the Pilgrims landed and
erected our Temple. The Kolnari . .
." He broke, squeezing his eyes
dosed, his face a mask of pain.

  Reference, Simeon prompted
silently, feeling the computer begin
its work. Then he felt a mental
lurch as he reviewed whatAmos had
said. The city of Keriss was there:
past tense. Gus caught it as well,
his pupils widening.

  "They demanded unconditional
surrender," Amos was saying, his
face wiped dear of any emotion. "By
sneak attack, they disabled our
orbital habitats, our
communications, everything we might
have used to call help."

  He folded his shaking hands,
clasping them so tightly the
knuckles showed white. "The Council
of Elders convened," he said. His
lips tightened. "They

IRE CllYWHO FOUGHT 149

decided this tribulation was
punishment for the increasing
immorality ofthe younger generation.
Me!"

  He stabbed himself in the breast
with his fingers, "And those like me,
who only wanted a little more
freedom, who only wanted to have
answers to reasonable questions. They
would not listen to me  even though
I am a male descendent, in the
Prophet's own line."

  Locked in bitter memory, Amos did
not notice the surprise his words
generated.

Ah, patrilineal descent system,
Simeon thought.

  "I thank the All-Knowing for
Guiyon, for when I left the council
chamber that last time, he called to
me. Escape, he said. 'To go where?
How?' I asked. He told me then of the
colony ship that had brought us to
Bethel. For three hundred years we
had used it as a weather and relaying
station, nothing more. I left to
gather those who might follow me."

  His hands knotted together. "And
the Kolnari . . . when the Elders
refused surrender, they destroyed the
city with a fusion weapon!"

  A shocked murmur ran around the
table. No one had used fusion weapons
in generations. Certainly not in any
sector answerable to dhe Central
Worlds.

  "Murderers! Looters! Pirates!" he
spat out She words and rubbed his
face widh his hands.

  Anodher murmur. SSS-900-C was in a
very peaceful sector; dhe only
nonhumans were species who did not
practice institutionalized violence.
The solders were mosdy
well-integrated types, if a bit
rambunctious, but no more clan was
expected on a frontier. Piracy was an
historical phenomenon or a sporadic
occurrence far out on dhe Arm.

  In a steady voice, all the more
effective because of its calm, Amos
went on. "A tendh of our people died
in that moment, and all our leaders.
The Kolnari told us Blat we must
capitulate or they would strike
again. They

150 Am~eMcCo~y ~ S.M. Stirling

broadcast their message from a dark
screen. They would strike again and
again until we were obliterated to
the last man. Just this implacable
voice. The cowards! They did not
even show us the face of our enemy.
They gave us two hours to make up
our minds.

  "And so we began. It was very hard.
We had to determine who we could
take." His cheeks grew red with
shame as he continued. "First we
took Guiyon from his column. We
could not open the main bay doors.
Ah, but we were so stupid, so
innocent, so untrained! We'd managed
to get supplies, disconnect Guiyon,
gathered our people, flown to the
ship without being detected and
then," he gave a harsh bark of
laughter, "the doors refused to
open! Some murmured that the Elders
had been right. We were being
punished for our sins.

  "Then,Joseph here," end Amos laid
a light hand on the short man's
shoulder, "opened one of the service
airlocks. Only it was much too small
for Guiyon's shell He insisted that
he didn't have to be inside, that we
must strap him to the hull near the
bridge, so that his brain synapses
could be wired into the command
panel. He had to tell us everything
that had to be done. We knew so
little of such matters." Another
bitter snort. "And we were so
afraid. None of us knew anything at
all about spatial navigation. I had
piloted a ship, but only a small
one, and never beyond Bethel's
moons. Beyond Bethel's moons," and
he made a broad sweep of his arm,
"was not fit for men of Bethel.
Also, we know nothing of the worlds
outside our lithe system. Guiyon
handled what outsystem commerce was
permitted to us on Bethel."

  He paused, swallowing hard, and
Chaundra filled a glass with water
for him. Amos nodded gratefully and
drank before he resumed his story.

  "Guiyon dared not risk bringing us
to one of the nearer colonies for
fear of leading those monsters to an
equally defenseless planet.
Instead," and he gave a

IRE CI-IYWHO FOUGHT 151

mirthless laugh, "we may have led
them to an even more defenseless
space station. At least on a planet,
one may know of safe hiding places.
I do not know why we are here and not
at Rigel Base. Guiyon must have
changed course again There were four
fiends in our wake when I had to
accept the drug. Well-armed warships,
or so Guiyon thought. And we have led
them here to you who have saved the
poor figment of our people who fled
from our once beautiful planet." He
bowed his head, his shoulders
slumping with his consummate despair.

  An appalled silence had broken into
a quickly rmng babble of "they've
brought trouble here," "they led
fiends to us?," "But we're
defenseless." Simeon let out a
modulated howl and they all shut up.

  "Thank you," Simeon said ironically
when silence fell. W7'en in dange';
or m doubt, run in circles, scmam and
shout, he added to himself.

  "Guiyon brought them here because
first, the engines were about to
blow, and second, they were dying
fast anyway, and third, SSS-900-C is,
after all, on the main route in this
quadrant of Central Worlds sphere of
influence. Now, if we could examine
the problem more calmly?"

  Claren turned to May Vlckers. "As
security chief, you're required to
defend usl"

  Vickers looked at the man. With
stundart pistols?" she asked
incredulously. "I'm a police officer
with fifty part-time assistants. I
lock up drunken miners and see
domestic disputes don'tgetoutofhand,"
she said. "I've never had experience
with fiends and I want no part of
four warships." She crossed her arms
across her solid chest and looked
accusingly up at Simeon.

  "Is it possible that you might have
lost them?" Chaundra asked.

The two Bethelites shook their heads
glumly.

"Unlikely," Simeon said, "not when
Gulyon was

152 ArmeMcCo~ &, S.M. Stirling

overdriving the engines and leaving
an ion trail a blind alien could
follow."

Gus nodded. "Any warship could."

  "Iffen they couldn't see the trail,
thar's all them pieces of the ship
rollin' about, saying 'theah heahh!'
" Patsy waved her arms like a
signalman. "We cain't hardly say
they passed on through."

  "My information banks give me no
information at all about any group,
or star system, known as Kolnari,"
said Simeon. "While I realize that
your experience with these people is
short-term, had you even heard of
them on Bethel before they struck?"

  Amos shook his head. "Guiyon had
heard rumors of a band of marauders
in the Arm from the few traders that
came to Bethel. He was also
forbidden by the Elders to tell any
but themselves what news traders
brought of the worlds beyond Bethel.
On the ship, he did tell me," and
Amos furrowed his brow, trying to
remember the exact words the
shellperson had used, "that they
struck so swiftly that no alarm
could go forth. That that was how
they avoided detection by any force
great enough to come against them."

  "Central Worlds, for idstance,.
Channa said with a rueful quirk of
her dips.

  Amos nodded. "The first wave of
destruction was aimed at our air and
space ports, at communication
installations. The strike was as
complete as it was unexpected. They
chose not to show themselves to us
until all our space capacity was
destroyed . . . or so they thought.
All we know of them was from a very
brief time when we fought them. They
follow us to destroy the evidence of
the destruction of Bethel, the
latest of their crimes. They will
kill, and quickly. No doubt," he
added with scorn, "they feel uneasy
being only four instead of three
hundred."

"Three hundred?" Simeon asked.

"Three hundred ships. So Guiyon told
me. He had

IME crrywHo FOUGllT 153

seen them coming in but was forbidden
by the Elders to speak until they had
decided what to do."

  Gus whistled. "If that's three
hundred wards, people, not only do we
have a problem, this whole sector has
a problem." The Navy was much larger,
but it was scattered.

  "Have you had any recent word from
Central, Simeon?" Channa asked him

  "Basically no more than an
acknowledgement of the . . . ah . .
. incidentin the vein of 'Gee~that's
too bad,but you're equipped to handle
it and when your reports are filed,
we'll see what we can do.' But of
course that's based on what happened
yesterday; this may get us action.

  At least I hope it will, Simeon
thought. Three hundred ships! Shit!
Simeon opened a tight beam to Central
with a mayday flag attached.
Hopefully he'd have some hard news
before too long.

  "What sort of annament did they
have?" Gus asked while the rest of
the station's leaders sat, trying not
to look at each other and especially
not at Amos and Joseph. Amos had gone
even paler and the blue of his eyes
had faded. He just sat there. On the
other hand, Joseph was watching each
and every one of the station heads
with a critical gaze and the
slightest of knowing smiles on his
full lips.

  Simeon could see that the initial
numbness his people had felt was
giving way to fear. Gus was fighting
it with trained reflex, but the
others were edging slowly toward
panic.

  "You must have something to fight
with," Joseph said, suddenly leaning
his anns on the table and directing
a piercing gaze from one face to
another. "We fought, and we had
muchless then you did who turned the
vessel from your station yesterday.
With what did you blow it into
pieces? Do you have more? That is
something. It is more than we had who
saw our ships

154 Arn7~McC~Tre~ ~ Sew. Swung

withered to slag. Our city . . ." He
broke off and struck his fists
impotently into the table. "We have
brought you warning. We had none!"

  Amos caught his friend by the
wrists before he could damage his
hands. "Peace, my brother," he said
softly.

  "Oh, youah brothas?" Patsy said in
mild surprise, peering closely at
both to find some familial
resemblance.

  "Not of the blood," and Amos
touched his temple with his index
finger, "of the mind."

  "Unh-hunh!" Patsy blushed and
tightened her lips into a straight
line.

  "I've sent a message to CenttaI
Worlds," Simeon told them in a brisk
voice that he hoped sounded as if he
had matters well in hand. "They're
consulting with the Space Navy
brass to see what to do. I was
hoping they'd tell me what they were
dog, and or what we can do. I
should've anticipated a full fledged
diplomatic-
bureaucratic-governmental-bunfight,
complete with quarrels
overjurisdiction. Everyone with
something to say about this has to
be tracked down and given an
opportunity to give his fardling
opinion in triplicate. Amos, believe
me, kid, I knowjust how you feel
about elders. The good news is that
Navy intends to ace fast, only there
awn's any Navy units close. The
nearest is eighteen days away. This
is assuming the brass cue movement
orders today and not sometime after
we've become the subject of mere
academic debate, because we don't
exist anymore.

  "Which means that at best we can
look forward to thirteen lucky days
with our naked butts hanging out
waiting for a kick from a booted
foot. That nearest Navy unit is a
patrol corvette, a warship only by
courtesy."

  "Then you must flee!" Amos leaned
forward urgently. "You cannot hope
to defeat them. You must leave
Misplace."

"Great idea," Simeon agreed, "in
principle. Only the

~ECtIYWHOEOUGHT 155

station can't move. That's why it's
a station. It's stationary. Getit?"

  "You mock me most unfairly," Amos
replied with solemn and offended
dignity. "I have no knowledge of
space stations or of your
capabilities. Further, I am not
wrong. If the station itselfcannot
move, then its people must."

  "As far as such advice goes," Gus
cut in, "he has a point. We should
evacuate as many as we can  children,
the sick, nonessential personnel.
Whoever we can, or whoever's hot to
go."

  "By my calculations," Simeon said,
finishing them in that instant,
"given the number of ships currently
in or near me at the moment, we
should be able to evacuate over a
thousand souls." He liked that touch.
"Not counting crews."

  There was silence f or a moment. A
thousand was a f raction of the
average ever-shif ring population of
the station.

  Amos broke the silence hesitantly.
"How many people will thatleave on
the station?"

  "Fifteen thousand, or so," Channa
said grimly. "Our population varies.
Simeon, does your estimate include
emptying cargo bays and stuffing our
people into them in suits?" A
desperation procedure and liable to
result in some finalities.

"No, we could evacuate a f ew hundred
more that way."

  Although, given the average
softp~rson's reaction to longtenn
conJin~nnent in tight spaces, we
probably won's get many volunteers f
or traveling that way.

  "And before you ask," Simeon
continued, "no, I havenit even asked
the captains their views on such an
. . . exodus. That's a best case
scenario. We can't prevent those who
aren't docked in the station physi-
cally from leaving, so the scheme is
stiUjust inside this room. I think
that before we start bringing anyone
else into this, we should have at
least one plan to present, preferably
more than one."

156 AnneMcCo~ PRISM. S - ng

  "Evacuation plans?" Chaundra asked,
his brow furrowed.

  "Those," Simeon said, "and plans to
fight for the station."

  There was a certain brightening
around the table. Nothing visible,
but the lift in attitude was almost
palpable.

  "That's right up your alley,
Simeon," Channa said gently, "even
if this isn't a military
installation."

  "To fight," Joseph said, his dark
eyes glinting with revived hope. Or
was it vengeance? "Yes, this is what
we would like to do, but how? Did
you not say that you had no weapons?
And surely they will not give you a
chance to combat them. Why should
they not simply rush in and destroy
you? That would be but child's play
for them."

  "We will employ guile." Geeze,
their Imgo is contagious, he
thought. "Remember, you said these
people were pirates?

  "Yes," Amos said. "When they made
their initial demand for
surrender they mentioned deliveries
of materials, machines, labor.
Pirates, but they speak as though
they were a people, a nation. The
High Clan, they sometimes named
themselves. At others, the Divine "
his mouth puckered in distaste " the
Divine Seed of Kolnar."

  "Right." Simeon spoke briskly. This
isn't another exotic scenano, he
told himselff~nly. Games theory,
e~penence  don't freeze up now.
You've done things like this
thousands of times. "So they're no
more than criminals, not a true
army, disciplined, strategically
trained. More like guerillas. Jump
in, grab what they can, jump out.
Right now, they're pursuing you, and
these four ships aim to destroy you
to keep you from spreading any nasty
rumors about them. So, what we
better do first, is get their minds
off killing by distracting them with
the material things they wanted from
you in the first place. Right?"

I)]E CITY WHO FOUGHT 157

  Every station officer thought about
this. Then Gus nodded slowly.

  "If these people are space-based,
and from the description I think they
must be what a prize the SSS-900 C
would bet" He turned toAmosandJoseph
"What sort of industries does . . .
did Bethel have?"

  "Very few," Amos said, rubbing a
thoughtful hand along his
stubbledjaw. "We could maintain
equipment and manufacture some
components for in-system work. We
traded rare foodstuffs and organic
molecules for what little else we
needed. Traders came perhaps once in
a generation. The latest only last "

  Joseph swore antiphonally with Gus,
Patsy, and Simeon. Channa snapped her
fingers. "They must have been . . .
what's the phrase?

  "Casin' the joint," Patsy said for
she had a store of such archaic
phrases.

  "Spies!"Joseph said. Tears welled
in his eyes, tears of pure rage.

  "Always someone who can be bought,"
Simeon said, giving his holo image a
wise appearance. Orso lo tapes say, but I've 1umer
had to use that tactic.

  Joseph nodded jerkily. "I knew
several who would sell their mothers
and fathers . . . maybe their fathers
. . . for dhe price oftwo bottles of
arrack."

  "Back to the here and now, please,"
Gus said, boulder-solid.

  Amos shook his head, sending the
long black curls flying. "We have .
. . had, very little high technology,
and of what there was . . . much was
in Keriss."

  "So they'll be hurting for
equipment, possibly for skilled
labor," Simeon said. "They've got to
be. Whaddya bet that most of those
three hundred ships are transports,
factory vessels, that sort of thing.
They wouldn't be self-sufficient even
if they have a home base or star
system."

"There've always been fold who'd
rather steal than

158 Am~McCo~ir~ PRISM. Skiing

work," Gus said. He had no arguments
on that score from anyone. "And
they'll want to steal from us."

  SSS-900-C was a maintenance and
repair center. It was also heavy
with rare materials intended for
shipyard and general shipbuilding
use. No one argued with that,
either.

  Simeon addressed the two refugee
leaders. "First, we have to get them
thinking along those lines.
Otherwise they may simply sweep in
and put a couple of highyield
missiles into us. My plan calls for
a sacrifice on your part that I'm
reluctant to ask of you."

  "Ask," Amos said quiedy. "A
drowning man will grab even the
point ofa sword. I should like to
prove worthy of Guiyon's sacrifice.
Askl"

  "1 want to tempt them with booty
too rich to resist and get their
acquisitivejuices flowing. We'll
commandeer one of the company yachts
that salesmen travel in when they
show their samples to rich
customers, and we'll cram its holds
full of things the bastards won't be
able to resist. With the promise of
much more easily available beret"

"Such asp" Channa asked
suspiciously.

  "Technological stuff, upgrades in
software, in computers, the latest
improvements in fuel efficiency.
We'll include luxury fabrics,
perfumes, jewelry, exotic delicacies
. . ."

  "Bribery will only make them
hungrier to sack the station,"
Joseph all but shouted, halrising
from his cow.

  "Peace, my brother," Amos soothed
him, "remember that sicatooths do
not eat grass. One must put out a
goat to bait the trap for them."

"See, you don't shoot the cow you're
milking," Gus

Carl" lI/ULG".

  "Hell no, you don't eat a pig
lahke that all at once," Patsy
said.

Simeon almost laughed aloud to see
the puzzled

THE CrrYWHO FOUGHT 159

expressions on the faces of Amos
andJoseph Good one, Pat* renter that
"my brother"fake they putted onyx and
don't let 'em them they can be were
obscure than we can.

  Chaundra explained the humor and
only raised his brows slightly
whenJoseph asked, "What's a pig?"
Channa herselfwas puzzled. She would
have expected the natives of an
agricultural world to recognize the
name of an important farm animal. Her
own protein came out of vats, the way
nature intended, as far as she was
concerned. If not literally, then she
didn't want to think aboutit.

  "Won't they think it's Linda odd,
though, one guy seDin' so many
different things?" Patsy asked.

  "Not if he's a middle-man type,
importer-exporter, rather than a
manufacturer's rep," Simeon said.
"it's not that hard to deceive people
once, Patsy."

  "But we have none of these things
you have mentioned," Amos said,
puzzled. "We have no cloth orjewels
or softwear. Whatis tills sacrifice
you would ask of us?"

  "We need someone to put in the
yacht we'll be sending out, and I'm
not about to send a living person.
I'd like to send one of your people
who died in transit from ship to
station. Preferably someone who died
as a result of the environment
failure, since that's why he's going
to be out there in this luxury ship,
broadcasting an offer for a huge
reward to anyone who'll rescue him."

  Amos end Joseph looked shocked.
They sat unmoving for a minute, then
slowly turned to meet each other's
eyes.

  "Impossible!" Joseph said, his lips
tight with fury. "What you ask is
base sacrilege!"

  Channa glanced at Simeon's column
as though appealing for help, then
plunged in, knowing no diplomatic way
of putting this. "Your funerary
customs are . . . firmly set?"

  "Yess!"Joseph hissed. "We honor our
dead, we bury them and revere their
resting place."

160 Anne McCaf~y~SM. Stirring

  "Well," Simeon told him, "we have
no place to bury our dead here on
the station, and it's prohibitively
expensive to ship them back to their
home planets. You can't simply bury
them in space because eventually
they constitute a navigation hazard.
Here we cremate our dead."

"And the ashes?" Amos asked.

"Unless specifically requested,
there are no ashes."

  Amos bowed his head. "For our dead,
we request ashes, so that one day,
hopefully, we might return our
friends to Bethel. As to your . . .
your appeal for the body of one of
ours, I think, my brother," and he
turned to Joseph, "that we should
consider that an honor to serve is
being offered one of our dead rather
than sacrilege. Surely, whoever we
choose, would have been pleased to
be of help to those who survived."

"It is wrong!" Joseph said. "And I
object!"

  "My brother," Amos said through
gritted teeth, "if you angle with a
straight hook, only those fish which
are willing get on it. Be
reasonable, or we may all be dead.
It is only a hope, a possibility we
are offered. If they destroy this
decoy, they will then destroy the
station and we willjoin our friends
who are dead and we can all go
unburied forever." He stared at his
companion until, &r a long moment,
Joseph lowered his eyes and nodded.
To Simeon, Amos said, "Choose the
person most suitable for this ruse
from among our dead brothers."

  "Thank you," Simeon said simply,
and the others around the table
murmured their thanks as well.

  "Okay," Channa said, bringing them
back to more immediate concerns,
"these pirates come upon this
derelict space-yacht. They hear the
message, 'Help, help, my environment
system is down, auggh, I'm dying,
save me and I'll reward you with
umpity-zillion credits.' "

"Right."

IRE Clam WHO F OUGHT 161

  "They give him a buzz, no answer,
so they hip on over to his craft and
board it."

"Right."

  "They find whomever several days
dead due to environment failure."

"Right."

"Why don't theyjust hold their noses
and sail on?"

  "Um, well, first, it's the nature
of pirates to be greedy. So we'll
pile the ship high with cases of
samples, clearly marked samples,
clearly marked as coming from SSS-
900-C. Second, no one likes to go
back to their senior officer and say,
'It was a total waste oftime, sir,'
because it makes them look bad in
their captain's eyes. So I think we
can expect them to make at least a
cursory search of the ship. Third,
there'll be a curiosity factor, since
I plan to choose the most opulent
yacht in the area. These guys
probably haven't seen anything like
it hanging around the out-systems.

  "So they'll probably be crawling
all over it saying, 'I can't believe
it! Look at this! What luxury!' One
of these factors will attract their
attention to the com screen, which
will show a report our salesman was
inputing when disaster struck. It
will say something to the effect of
Of raps day, [ve Quest made the
Biggest safe of my career to the
SSS-900-C Eve pronged them delivery
Fourteen days or less. The home
office has confirmed the delivery
date. Order rnarufestfoll~s. Hooray,
hooray, bounce bourwel

  "And there will be a listing that
would make me drool and want to turn
pirate."

  Gus nodded. "It sounds do-able,
though I hate to spare even one ship
fiom the evacuation effort."

  "I can understand that, Gus, but
balance the dozen or so who could be
evacuated on the yacht against the
fifteen thousand plus people at risk
on the station, and I think the
sacrifice isjustified," Simeon
replied. Seeing that he had his
audience listening very carefully, he
went on. "Now, to prepare the rest of
the station for

162 AnneMcC~SM.St~ng

pirate-fall, I want an equipment
disconnected and hidden, or if it
can't be moved, I want it disguised
or dismantled with no spare parts
visible. All menus on all computer
terminals will be changed. I intend
to make them as confusing and
difficult to understand as possible,
in order to encourage any outsider
using our equipment to make as many
horrible and damaging mistakes as
possible. Well need to have the
emergency crews on alert at all
times."

Twenty glum faces surrounded the
table.

  just a minute," Channa said slowly.
"You're suggesting we lit these . .
. thesep~ends occupy the station?"

  "We can's stop them," Simeon
explained patiendy. "we can't stop a
single real warship from sinking a
missile into the stationis equator
and blowing all fin teen thousand of
us to MC-squared. I don't like it
either, Channa. But we have to keep
them from doing too
muchdamageuntilthe Navy getshere and
we know the time frame on that. If
we can confoozLe them long enough so
the Navy can catch Em, that'll solve
how to get rid of them.

  "Once they make a few disastrous
mistakes, they'll prefer to use our
people. Why should they break their
brains trying to learn how to run a
station they'll only be occupying
until they can loot it empty? I want
our people, not theirs, in sensitive
positions. No matter how it looks to
them, I want real control ofthe
station to remain in our hands. I'm
willing to take a few risks to gain
that advantage."

"Oh," Channa said carefully..
"Sounds reasonable."

  "Doctor Chaundra, you're really
going to hate this one."

"You want me to make people sick."

"Got it in one. How'd you guess?"

  "l assume that you know I didn't
become a physician because I enjoy
watching people suffer," he said
calmly. "I will not kill. Otherwise,
who do you want me to do it to and
why do you want me to do it?"

IME CllYWHO FOUGHT 163

  "1 want to be able to declare a
class-two quarantine, make them
reluctant to enter the living
quarters. We can't keep them out
entirely unless we declare that a
deadly disease is rampant on the
station, in which case, we might as
well blow the place ourselves and
spare them the missile. I'd like to
see the infirmary littered with
volunteers groaning in misery, for
authenticity's sake. But,
mostimportant, I wantevery one ofthe
pirates who enters the living area to
walk out with whatever bug you're
using in his or her system doing what
it does best. Fairly soon, they'll
get the idea they should confine
their con~mwnm~on': with stationers
to holocas~"

  Chaundra wore a crooked smile.
"Leper, unclean, unclean," he said in
a singsong voice. Patsy was the only
one at the table who understood his
reference, but Simeon did, too. Then
Chaundra shook his head. "Too little
time to fake that particular disease.
So! Agreed, I will search for a
suitable virus. We can synthesize
readily but we must hope the . . .
Kolnari? have inadequate medics and
no equivalent facilities."

"Patsy?" Simeon began.

UyO' lover."

  "As soon as we've got some data of
a physical nature on these fiends, I
would appreciate it if you could come
up with some spore, or pollen or
mixture of gases that would make our
anticipated visitors teal unhappy. If
you can arrange to afflict their
ships only, and not the station, I'll
like it even better."

  "Oh, Simeon, an opportunity! You do
love me, doncha honey?"

"First and always, sweetpea."

  "Aw, blush." She consulted her
keyboard. "Allergies'd be a good bet.
They're pretty dam' specific in
groups with low genetic divers'ty.
Once we get some tissue samples,
yeeehah!"

  "Seriously, we can evacuate people
or critical supplies like mining
explosives, but not both, " Channa
said.

164 AnneMcC~ ~ SM. Stirling

  "I wasjust coming to that. We'll
have to leave some in the stores or
it would look odd. After all, we are
a supply center. But I want as much
of that particular commodity
relabeled, rerouted, or hidden
wherever. We should leave, maybe,
four percent below the lowest
reserves we've ever recorded. Have
the records show that we're between
shipments, the additional four per-
cent shortage of explodables is
because we used some of the stores
to blow up the colony ship." Simeon
saw no point in giving the Kolnari
free weapons. "I'd dike to do the
same with food and medical supplies
as well. Any questions?"

  "Yeah," one of the supply officers
spoke up, "where are we gonnaput all
this stuff, particularly the
explosives?"

  "You get it together," Simeon said,
"I'll tell you where. Right now,
let's work out what supplies the
evacuation ships will need and I
want you to start pulling together
those tasty goods we're going to use
to tempt the . . . sicatooth."

"You got it," the woman said.

  "We, too, would like to serve,"
Amos said earnestly, "in any way
that we can. Ask and we will aid you
to the best of our ability."

  A passle offarrr~s, rar~chersand
~fr~ma medium ted planet.
I'msurewe'llfirul latsforyoutodo,
Simeonthought.

  Amos continued. "It is to our great
shame that we have brought this
terror down upon you. Better that we
had all died . . ."

  "Shut up!" Channa snapped, the
verbal equivalent of a slap to a
hysteric. "How dare you say that?
All lives are precious. Guiyon
thought so. He recognized that he
must save as many of you as he could
and he did. Stop beating your
chests. You'll only get more
bruises. For al we know, they might
have come this way anyhow."

  "You have been harbingers, and
though such aren't much appreciated,
I'd like to say now that 1, Simeon,

          THE CrrY WHO FoucHT 165
SSS-900-C, am grateful to you, and
particularly to

Guiyon. If you'd all died at Bethel,
no one in this sector would have
known of the Kolnari and how they
operate." Simeon paused. "I gather
they operate on a scorched earth
policy?" When the two Bethelites
looked puzzled, he added gently,
"They clear away all traces that
they've been there? That anyone's
been on that planet? Hmm. Thought so.
Can't leave clues behind if they want
to keep on cutting their swath of
destruction."

  Simeon caught an odd sound coming
from Joseph and did a quick
enlargement of the man's face. The
Bethelite was actually grinding his
teeth. Amos' blue eyes dulled with
the pain of his own thoughts on the
subject of total annihilation.

  By now that concept was dawning on
three or four stationers and their
expressions reflected their shock.
Piracy and looting were bad enough,
but these Kolnari had gotten away
with implied multiple acts of
genocide.

  "Central and the Navy are receiving
hourly update blips," Simeon wonton
to provide what reassurancche could
that SSS-900 was already ahead of the
Kolnari on the dice roll. -"Bethel
will have retribution, if not blanket
reparations when the accounting is
rendered. You've saved not only
yourselves, but us and what's left of
your world."

  a 'He who fights and . . .' "
Diplomatically Channa edited the old
adage slight " '. . . escapes away!
Lives to fight another day.' " She
even made it rhyme. She went on
firmly. "Dying wouldjust . . ." She
waved her hands, racking her mind for
the right words.

  "Would be wasteful suicide," Simeon
concluded for her. "And allow the
Kolnari to sweep the board." He
caught Channa's little grimace over
his constant use of war-gaming
terminology.

  "Exactly, and you can't let those .
. ." Again she fumbled for a dire
enough epithet.

166 A1ineMcCo~ CYST.t~ing

  "Black-hearted sons of bitches?"
Simeon offered. Nice combination of
infonnality and traditional epithet,
pleased with himself.

  "Thank you . . . black-hearted
sons of bitches go on killing and
stealing. So, if you want to wish
somebody dead, wish it on them,"
Channa finished, thumping dhe table
with a fist for emphasis.

  Amos smiled in chagrin. "You have
burnt away my weakness widh your
fiery speech, beautifi~1 lady. I
shall direct my hatred towards our
mutual enemy."

  "Fine! Glad that's been settled.
Now I'm going to adjourn this
meeting," Simeon said, "Channa and I
have to address dhe ships' captains
in two hours and you all have plenty
to do. I'd like progress reports
every six hours from everyone,
please. You may contact me at any
time widh any difficulties
encountered. Amos, would you be good
enough to accompany Doctor Chaundra
to the morgue to choose our decoy.
He'll also assist you with
pn~erfuner~1 arrangements for the
othervictur="

  Amos nodded solemnly. Chaundra put
his hand sympadhetically on dhe
younger man's shoulder, powered up
tile floatchair, and they left dhe
lounge togedher.Joseph's float,
activated by one of dhe guards,
started back to dhe infirmary. The
station officers bushed off, no one
of a mind to chat or rehash dhe
meeting. Only Channa remained,
staring off, her eyes unfocused.

"I take itback."

"What7"

  "At dhe moment, I'm deeply and
utterly grateful dlat you chose to
study war instead of romance."

            ItIIAI~R NINE

"There goes another one," Simeon
said glumly.

  A spot crawled through the plotting
tank Simeon was screening on one
wall of the lounge, trundling out of
SSS-900-C's vicinity and heading for
the low-mass zone and its
interstellar transit.

"How did they find out?" Channa
said.

  "That's the Herod's Dream. She's an
independent. One of those
merchant-family ships that kick
around the Hinges, picking up
stuffthat's not worth the big
outfits' while. They don't have to
be told about trouble. They can
smell it."

  "I suppose it's understandable.
They've sunk their savings in their
ships which produce their
livelihood." Channa sighed
tolerantly. "What about the others?"

"They should be . . ." He broke off.
"By Ghu!"

  Channa also heard the tramp of
boots in the hall and swiveled in
her chair as a half-dozen variously
dressed figures swung into the
meeting room.

  They may well head out again faster
than they came in, Simeon thought as
he watched captains file into the
room in pairs, or clumps, or singly.
As motley a crew as ever docked
here. Shipsuits were designed to be
comfortable under a pressure outfit.
From there on, individuality was
often loudly or vulgarly expressed
by adjustments to that basic attire.
For instance, the woman with the
shaved, tattooed skull wore a par-
ticularly vile shade of pinkish blue
that wasn't the least bit
becoming if highly visible. The two
nonhumans didn't need to be anything
but themselves to fit in with

168 Ar~McC~Ji~ easel. Smug

the other surly faces. They know
sorr~thin~s up, but at least they
came to listen, unlike those who
scampered.

  What the hell, he thought wadh a
mental sigh, we'll use what w'vegot
and bugle we'vegot it to use.

  As the captains began to fill the
room, few taking chairs at the
table, Channa, looking far too
elegant in a light blue suit, had
gone to dhe head of the conference
table. When a minute had passed with
no new arrivals, she opened her
notescreen on the podium and looked
out at the assembled captains,
waiting for them to setde.
Especially after a couple of
~Icker's part-time police appeared
just beyond the entrance, with
breather masks and gas projectors as
wed as shock rods and dart guns.
Channa made a note to remind Vicker
chat the enemy was not yet here and
not to make enemies out of anyone
elsejust now.

"Thank you all for coming," she
said.

  you're probably wondering why I've
called you here today, Simeon
thought, anticipating Channa's
opening words.

  "No doubt you're wondering why
we've asked you here," Channa said.

Close, but no cigar:

  "Station SSS-900-C is currency
involved in an emergency. I am
Channa Hap, brawn to Simeon and we
are invoking section two, article
two of the station's chatter." Which
she tried to read out so dlat
everyone knew the station had the
right to commandeer their vessels.

  A roar, surprisingly loud from so
few defrosts Though the non-humans
helped a lot, swelled through the
room, drowning her out. An
occasional "whereas" or "said
captain" were all that could be
heard.

  Let 'em get it out of t) -
rsystems, Simeon Thought. It was
understandable breaking schedule
would be expens*e, particularly for
the small companies and the
independents. Hopefully they'd be
more cooperative

THE CllyWHo FOUGHT 169

afterwards. In any case, he had
control of them all, either because
their ships docked to the station or
their skippers were attending this
meeting. And nobody going to leave
without accepting an assignment. Not
a single captain here had an ounce of
altruism, but station vouchers would
be valid anywhere on their routes.
There'd be insurance when the dust
settled but, psychologically, neither
voucher or insurance-when-it-
might-be-paid was as comforting as
cash-in-hand.

  At Last they wound down. Simeon
turned his volume up to an almost
painfi~1 level.

"Sit doom, please. "

  The mechanical roar filled the
room. He added subsonics that ought
to make the humans feel uncertain and
cowed.

  "Now that I have your complete
attention," he said suavely,
adjusting to a more bearable level,
"I'd like to remind you that we have
duly declared an emergency."

  He paused and examined the defiant,
angry faces. "The station is
expecting to be under attack
shortly."

Another roar, this time offear.

  "SHUT UR"A second's pause. "Thank
you very much. We're all in this
together. Except that you
gentlebeings are going to get away
safely, which is more than the
restofus can look forward to. Please
keep that in mind.

  "Now," he went on, "we're going to
evacuate everyone we can; children
under twelve and pregnant women
first, of course. They number eight
hundred, give or take a few." Not all
that many, but passenger facilities
on freighters severe generally
nonexistent or cramped cubicles.
Adding any more bodies would make a
voyage of weeks uncomfortable, but
would at least keep life in those
bodies. "I want to reduce all the
edible supplies on the station, so
commissary is advised to stock you up
to your cowtowers." There was a mur-
mur of appreciation. "However, at
this moment in

170 AnneMcCa~ry PRISM. Sit

time, I cannotguarantee full
compensation for cargo or
non-delivery fines. I'd like to and
you'll probably get it, but I can't
guarantee it."

  'just a damn minute!" a stocky
captain with a bulldog face roared.
"Who's attacking the station? We're
three month's transit time from any
trouble, and that's minor."

  4'Pirates'" Simeon said succinctly
and that one word was sufficient to
cause sturdy captains, and even one
nonhuman, to pale. He waited as
accusations and counter-accusations
bounced about the hall, noticing
hands going to belts that were, by
station regulation, empty of
accustomed defensive implements.
This time it was Channa who brought
them back to order.

  Adjusting the volume on her
microphone to the highest notch, she
bellowed, "SIT DOWN!"

  "As you were," Simeon said sweetly.
"Could we consider any further riots
as done and noted, and not waste
valuable escape time? As I started
to explain, a complement of four,
heavily armed, pirate ships were in
pursuit of the colony ship that . .
. ah . . . docked here yesterday.
Having ascertained details from the
survivors ofthatvessel, we are
reliably informed that these pirates
were in hot pursuit. We are given
the distinct impression that these
pirates will either destroy the sta-
tion immediately, or strip it of
everything valuable and then destroy
it. We have to evacuate as many as
possible, which isn't that many,
even if you are generous in your
assistance. But you're all we have
to save as many as we can. Sorry."

  "You're sorry?" the bulldog was on
his feet again. "You're sorry! I'm
supposed to leave my cargo behind
for pirates and you're sorry? Well,
I'm sorry, too, cause 'sorry' don't
pay no bills!"

  "Captain . . . Bolist," Channa said
smoothly, checking the list on her
notescreen, "you're telling me that
a cargo of . . . chemical salts is
more important to you

THE CITY WHO FOUGHT

than saving the lives of forty
children, which is the number that
can be accommodated on the size of
vessel you command?"

  The man lowered his head, like a
bull considering a charge. "Ms. Hap,
me and mine worked for ford years to
get the Gung Ho. We're still paying
offour loans. Losing a major
cargo we'll pay forfeits if we don't
get the load to Kobawaslo et
Pales could break us. Then we'll be
on the beach. Hell, I like kids
stmuch as the next guy, but a man's
gotta live."

  "Well, then, Captain, you'll be
pleased to know that children are
much lighter than chemical salts.
Exchanging one for the other should
get you well out of the danger zone
in excellent time." Channa gave him
a pliant smile, and held his gaze
until the man's eyes dropped. "Yes,
you have a question?" And she pointed
to the shaven, tattooed captain who
had leaped to her feet, waving both
hands to be heard.

  When the question of how to deal
with pregnant women giving birth on
her ship was satisfactorily set~led
by assuring her of a trained medic in
her consignment, she subsided.

  In the end, all capitulated, but
nine begged a few hours' leeway to
ditch and buoy-mark such cargoes that
a period in space wouldn't damage
beyond use.

  "Phew," Simeon said as the captains
walked out. "That was unpleasant."

"Not by comparison," Channa said
grimly.

"Comparison to what?"

"Announcing it to the station," she
said.

"Oh."

  "You are shifting me, Joat," Seld
Chaundra said scornfully. "Pirates!
Whardo you think I am? A playschool
kid?"

  Us, Joat thought. "I am not lying,
shit-for-brains," she said.

172 AnneMcCo~i~ PRISM. Sit

  They were in Seld's quarters, which
were comprised of a bedroom and
study, off his father's suite near
the main sickbay in North Sphere.
The study was crammed with ship
models and holoposters, most of them
from travel catalogues but a few
from adventure serials. Joat
particularly liked the one of the
bug-eyed man screaming in the jaws
of one flanged head of a
three-headed monster which waved him
above the rubble of a burning
building. Curiously enough, the man
resembled the captain who had won
her from her uncle.

  "Gimme another bar," she added.
Seld flipped it over from the sofa
where he sprawled. Joat caught it
out of midair and discarded the
wrapper on the floor. Seld winced
but said nothing.

  "How can you eat so many ofthose
things?" he asked as she gobbled it.

  "Gotta eat Em while the getting's
good," she replied, chewing with her
mouth open. He winced again. He's a
muss, she thought. "Anyway, they're
supposed to be here soon."

"Suuuuure."

  Suddenly Seld was tumbled backward
against the back of the sofa. He
gave a strangled squawk asJoat's
thin strong hands, crossed at the
wrist, gripped his jacket below the
throat. Her bony knuckles dug pain-
fully into his windpipe. He couldn't
breathe at all, as she was also
kneeling on his stomach.

"Look, you muss "

"I am not a wuss!" he wheezed.

  ~ and I am not shifting you! Here."
She let him up, marched over to his
work table and slapped a chip on the
receiver plate of his screen. It
lit, showing the control lounge and
Simeon's pillar, the shouting
captains surging around it.

  Seld listened open-mouthed.
"Pirates," he concurred weakly.
"Hey! That's private, you stole
thatchip!"

IRE CrIYWlIO FOUGHT 173

"Did not, justjacked the feed and
copied it."

  "Unauthorized copying is stealing,
Joat. And eavesdropping on official
meetings is . . ." Seld trailed off,
unable to identify the offense though
he knew it must tee one.

  F6rdEnguruss, she thought.
HesoundsJust like hisfather when he
says thmgs like that Yet his father
was a lot nicer than hers had been.
Her memories of paternal care were
the kind you woke up at night
sweating from. Hopefully he was dead
fromJeleb nightmare-smoke by now. Her
uncle had been worse, after he took
her over, but at least she knew her
uncle was dead. She pushed such
thoughts aside as time wasters.

  "Okay, I'm a Sondee mud-puppy
eavesdropper and data~bandit so
listen to what they're saying, win
you?"

  Seld blinked and did so. "Holy
shit," he whispered. "We are going to
be attacked by pirates." His eyes
lit. Hey,Joat, this is like a holo."

Joat kicked him.

  "What did you do that for?" he
demanded, outraged.

"Because I like you, fool," she said.

  "You do?" he said, straightening up
and then wincing. "Hell of a way to
show it, fardler."

  "Fardler yourself This ain't no
hole, Seld. Those pirates, those
Kolnari, are for real. Half the
outies on that ship that nearly
clipped the station were dead, osco.
That's d-e-a-d, dead, finished, off
to the big tax-haven in the
afterglow, dead. This is major
criminal we're talking, Seld. Like,
we could get seriously fardled up
you, me, Simeon, Channa, your dad."

  "Yeah," Seld said, in a small
voice, looking totally scared. "But
what can we do'" That word came wob-
bling out as Seld tried not to
showJoat how lightened he really was.

 "Come close and listen to momma,"
she said. Simeon has some ideas. I
got more."

174 Am~eMcCoJ~ey USA.

***

  Rachel hint Damscus sat and
shivered on the edge of the bed.
There was nothing under it. Not even
legs to hold it up, just some sort
of field mechanism, yet it did not
move. She shivered again, looking
down at the pill in her hand. The
strange dark man they called Doctor
Chaundra had given it to her, saying
that it would make her feel better.
She didn't want to feel better. She
wanted to feel pain, because pain
told her she was still alive.

  Her eyes flicked around the little
cubicle. There was a sink in the
corner. She darted to it and threw
the pill down the drain, scrabbling
at the unfamiliar controls until a
gush of water followed it. Then she
scrambled back to the bed,
humiliatingly conscious of how the
thin hospital gown revealed her
body. Conscious also of the emotions
roiling beneath the surface of her
mind, dike great boulders grinding
and moving in the dark....

  I wish I was home, she thought
desolately. But home was gone,
further than all the light-years
between this accursed place and the
sun Saffron.. Home had been in
Keriss . . . Keriss was poisoned
dust floating in Bethel's skies.
Mother, she thought. I: Little
sister Delilah.

  Most of the other Bethelites who
escaped had been from the Sierra
Nueva lands. Amos' family had been
direct descendants of the Prophet,
members of the Synod of Patriarchs
for twenty generations. They had
owned the city of Elkbre outright
and tens of thousands of square
kilometers around it. And they had
always been an enlightened family,
as much as any, more than most.
Hence, the Second Revelation had
spread widely there. Rachel had come
to it late. After I heard Amos
speak, she "bought, burying her face
in her hands. He was like the
Prophet come again. A new voice,
sweeping away the intolerable stuffy
load of convention. And he is so
beautiful....

IREHYWHO FOUGHT 175

  The partition door opened. Joseph
came through first, one hand under
the flap of hisjaclcet as was his
custom. Amos followed, and Rachel
flung hereof forward into his arms,
gripping him fiercely. It was a
moment before she felt the
awkwardness with which he patted her
back. She withdrew, dutdling at the
gown. That only emphasized its
skimpiness, and she flushed deeply,
looking down at the floor.

44Pardon, excellent sir," she said.

  He made a dismissive gesture. 44No
need to be formal, RacheL" he said.
'you are well?"

  '4Relieved," she said. 44They would
only say that you would return, but
not where you had been taken or why.
Where have you been?" She raised her
eyes anxiously to his face.

  He hesitated for a moment. 'Joseph
and I have been meeting with the
station managers. We have arranged a
funeral service for those who died on
ourjourney here."

  She turned aside to spare his
embark 4'They are not to be trusted."

  44What do you mean, Rachel?" His
tone was apprehensive but also stern.

  44Nothing, yet," she said sullenly,
hanging her head. Then she grasped
his wrist painfully tight, meeting
his eyes earnestly. "But who knows?
They are mezamerm." Stranger. In the
ancient liturgical language, model.

  "Rachel, do not start parroting the
Elders at this late date,"Joseph said
in exasperation. More gendy, he put a
hand on her shoulder. "Did you take
the medication?"

  "Yes," she said brusquely,
shrugging off his hand. Then she
turned to Amos with a sigh. "I am
sorry, Excell . . . Amos."

  The memory swept over her again:
the crowded chamber and the
sickly-sweet taste at the back of her
mouth as the coldsleep injection took
effect.

  "I . . . thought I had died, when I
woke here," she said. "My father . .
. &d I tell you?"

176 Anne McCann ~ S. M. SO

  "No," Amos said, taking her hand.
His large darkblue eyes held a
sudden compassion. "He cursed you?"

  "Yes. When I left home to follow
you, he put the Patriarch's curse
upon me: hell, and miserable
rebirth, and damnation again,
forever."

  Amos blanched slightly for, though
his father had been disappointed in
his son, even appalled by his son's
apostasy, he had not uttered the
curse. Perhaps that would have come
about had his father not died during
Amos' early teens. If I had been
cursed ? Perhaps that was why l,
fatherless, cold become the reader
of the Second Revela lion, he
thought. What courage my followers
had, to dare the cursefor me!

  "I thought I was damned indeed,"
she whispered. "Since I awoke . . .
I . . . I really do not feel myself,
Amos."

  "It is to be expected," he said,
patting her cheek. "You will feel
better soon."

  "And did you tell them of what
follows us?" she asked, blurting out
the words since his touch had given
her the courage to speak them. "Have
they defenses?"

  Joseph had been brooding, facing
slightly away. Now he laughed
bitterly. "Defenses? These people
are as open as a canal-side harlot."

Rachel drew a shocked breath.

  "You forget yourself, Joseph,"
Amos said as Rachel drew closer to
his side, an instinctive move toward
his protection. "There is a lady
present."

  The shorter man bowed. "Apologies,
Excellent Sir," he replied stiffly.
A deeper bow. "My lady."

  "I cast your own words back, my
brother do not imitate the Elders,"
Amos said. Unnoticed, Rachel
stiffened.

"Is it true?" she said. "They have
no defenses?"

  Amos nodded, his mouth drawn into
a line. "Yes. These are peaceful
people, as we were. Fortunately,
they are in communication with the
Navy of the

ME CHYWHO FOUGHT 177

Central Worlds. Unfortunately, the
Kolnari will be here before that help
arrives."

Rachel gasped. "How can we flee from
here?"

  "We cannot," Amos replied,
shrugging away the chance of flight.
"There are ships, but they are small
and have no facilities for
passengers. Children, those with
child, and the infirm are to be
evacuated. The rest of us must remain
here and seek to delay the enemy."

"They will know usl" she said in a
trembling voice.

  Joseph shook his head. "I think
not, Lady hint Damscus," he said
formally. "Not in this place, and
among such as inhabit it. Already we
have seen more races of men than I
knew existed outside legend. Some
very different customs," he pulled
his mouth down in disapproval, "and
non-men as well."

  Rachel's eyes went wide. The most
cogent incentive for the Exodus to
Bethel had been the Prophet's deter-
mination not to pollute the pure
blood by congress with non-humans.
Nonhuman intelligence was the
creation of Shaithen, whether flesh
or machine.

  Joseph made a soothing gesture.
"They are not rulers here. Still,
among so many and so various, our
handful will disappear and not be
remarked by the Kolnari for what we
are. The fiends must believe that
they strike without warning, that no
help will be called to this station.
So they will wait, thinking to feast
at their ease. Then the warships will
come, to rescue us and return us to
our poor Bethel."

  "Yes," she said, thoughtfully. "I
had not thought of . . . returning."

  "In a sense," Amos began, and her
eyes snapped back to him with a fixed
attention, "we have won the war. Now
we must try to survive it. Please,
Rachel my sister, would you go among
the other women and children? They
are awakening, and will be lost and
frightened. Prepare those who are
eligible to leave here."

"I obey, Amos." She looked around,
realizing that

178 Am~eMcCa+3~SdJI.Sh~

she could not go even among women
and children of her own people in
what she wore.

  Joseph opened one of the closets
and handed her a large, shapeless
robe. Rachel nodded a distant thanks
before she donned it and left, the
full folds sweeping behind her.

  "We have something we share, she
and I," Joseph said bitterly,
throwing himself down in his float
chair. Even his solid bulk did not
make it bob on its supporting field.
Amos noted the fact and filed it.

  I must make a quick review, he
thought. Find what tech nolog?es
have ansen dunug our isolation on
Bethel. Whatever
supportsthechairco?dd tee altered
tosu~totherhea~weights.

"What do you share?" he asked the
other man.

  "We both aspire above our
stations, she and I," Joseph
replied.

  Amos blinked in surprise. "Oh," he
said after a moment. "Sits the wind
so? I had thought her merely devoted
to the cause."

"So she is, but that is not the
whole story."

  "Even if we followed the old
customs, I would not take her even
as a second wife," he said with a
dismissive shrug. "Since I have not
even a first, speculation is
useless." Then he raised one
eyebrow. "You have not pressed your
suit?"

  "Was there time?" Joseph asked
rhetorically. Then he sighed. "Amos,
could you see me going to her father
for permission? Bastard son of a
whore and a dockside pimp he would
have called me, whether he had
disowned her or no and it would be
no more than the truth."

  Amos laughed grimly and thumped
his follower on the shoulder.
'Joseph, my brother, you are a bold
man who has saved my life more than
once. But there are times when you
allow your birth to blind you as
much as any hidebound Elder."

  At Joseph's puzzled look, he
continued. '~Joseph, where did
Rachel's father live?"

ante CrrY WHO FOUGHT 179

"Keriss ahl I see."

"Where did the Elders live, for the
most part?"

  "Keriss and those that did not,
they were in the city for the
council meeting," Joseph said. "You
ham had time to think, eh?"

  "It is necessary that someone do
so," Amos said. "We of the Second
Revelation were planning to leave,
to escape the bonds of customs gone
sterile in their changelessness,
Joseph. When if we return to Bethel
with the Space Navy at our backs,
very little will remain unchanged
after what the Kolnari have done.
God has given us a sharp lesson. If
we ignore the universe, the universe
will not necessarily ignore us. And
on Bethel . . . the last shall be
first, and the first, last; that at
the very least.

  "Furthermore," he went on, with a
man-to-man grin, "I now stand in her
father's place; in law. I hereby
formally give you leave to press
your suit, and for the marriage
portion, I will dower her with the
Gazelle Rancho at Twin Springs."

  Joseph's laughter matched his
leader's. "I may press, but I doubt
she notices my existence," he said.
"Consent may be as far away as the
Rancho." A pause. "Although that is
where I would take her to live, if
we were wed and our cause
victorious. She is stronger than she
suspects, I think but her liking for
the new ways you preach is of the
head, not here." He touched his
heart. "As lady of an estate, there
would she be happy. She would not
thrive among strangers."

            ~ CHASTER TEN

"Detection. Ship track."

  Belazir t'Marid looked up from his
crash couch where he had been
rerunning a tactical manual on dhe
screen.

"What signature?" he said.

  "Ion track, very faint," Baila
said. "Could have been weeks ago."

  Belazir ran his hand through dhe
long blond mane of his hair and
cursed inwardly. The second m two
days, he thought. They were getting
into well-traveled space, despite
dhe fact dlat their data showed
lithe or no setdement in this area.
The centuries-old Grand Survey
reports listed no inhabitable
planets, although there was a nebula
with potentially valuable minerals.
There must be a regular traffic now,
perhaps habitats or small space
colonies. Dangerous' very dangerous.

  A time would come when the Kolnari
would not have to skulk around the
fringes of known space, hiding like
scavengers. But Blat time was not
yet.

  "Reduce speed," he said. "Pulse
message to dhe consort ships. Keep
formation on new vector." That form
of communication was so short-range
Blat it was undetectable. "Anything
more on dhe subspace monitors?"

  "Plenty of nearby traffic, but
mostdy encrypted," the intelligence
officer said. Belazir nodded.
Perfect codes were an old
phenomenon, available to anyone with
decent computers.

"And the prey?" he asked.

Baila shrugged. As she was almost as
well-born as

THE CrIY WHO FOUGHT 181

Belazir, he decided to let the
informality pass unreprimanded. Also,
she was daughter to a staff officer
of Chalku's.

  "The track is firm and hot," the
woman said. "We gain, at an
increasing rate. Signs of
deterioration, as one would expect
from old engines heavily stressed
sublimated particles from exterior
drive-coils and cooling vanes. She
cannot survive much longer."

  "Much longer, much longer! You've
been saying that for days!" Belazir
snarled, starting half-erect. The
junior officer's eyes dropped before
the captain's lion stare. Belazir
sank back, satisfied that deference
had been restored.

  "Transmit to all vessels," he went
on. "Maximum alertness. We strike
hard and then we run. Plasma tells no
tales."

  "Dad, I'm not going," Seld Chaundra
flatly told his father.

  The head of SSS-900-C's medical
department looked up in surprise. For
a moment, he tried to fit the words
into a context that made sense as his
hands continued automatically packing
a carry-all for his son's trip. Then
he shook his head. He was very tired.
Since the announcement was made two
days ago, there had been absolute
chaos in the station. Literal chaos
in some instances, and sickbay was
full of injuries, everyd~frum
carelessness thoroughfare ups
toattempted suicide.

  "Do not make troubles now, son," he
said. "There is too much to be
doing."

"I'm not going, Dad," Seld said
again.

  Gods, but he looks like his mother,
the doctor thought with despair. She
had had exactly that set to her jaw
when she decided to stand on an issue
of principle. And I could Truer
convince her of her error when she
looked like ~at, either Fortunately,
he did not need to convince his son,
who was still a minor.

182 A?meMcCa~ ~51~. S - ing

  "Yes," Chaundra said, "you are
going. I need for you to go."

"Well, I need for me to stayI"

  Chaundra grabbed his son by his
upper arms and shook him gendy.
"You're all I've got, Seld. You're
tile most important thing in my life
and I've got to keep you safe." He
pulled out his ace. "It's what your
mother would have wanted."

  Seld's red-headed temper flared
and, for the first time in his
twelve years, he contradicted his
father. "No, she wouldn't! She'd say
what I'm gonna say. You're all live
got, and if you cane be safe dhen
I've got to be with you!

  He pulled his son to him in a
fierce hug to hide the sudden
glisten of tears in his eyes. Then
he sank into his armchair, covering
his eyes with his hand.

  "Yes," he said thickly, "that's
just what she'd say. But," he
pointed a finger at Seld, "she'd be
talking about herself, not about
you."

"Dad . . ."

  "I have packed one change of
clothes, two changes of underwear
and one," he held up one finger for
emphasis, "thing you can't bear to
part with. I'll be back in halfan
hour to walk you to die ship."

"Dad!"

  "Half an hour." He stood and left.
There are times when a man must weep
alone.

  Joat!" Simeon said in exasperation,
"Answer me! I'd hate to have to send
someone in there to flush you out."

  He heard laughter echo softly then,
from somewhere in the ductwork.
Damned turmel rat, he thought in
exasperation. She had rigged the
sensor in her room to show her
present and he was still trying to
figure out how it had been done.

"You know they wouldn't find me."

THE Cm WHO FOUGHT 183

  "C'monJoat, you've got to go. Channa has
packed some of your things. She'll meet
you at the loch You're one ofthe lucky
ones. You don't have to wear a suit and
travel in the hold for the whole trip."

"Hunh. Done it before."

  "Well, you don't have to do it now. Come
on! They're leaving in fifteen minutes."

"I'm not going."

  "Perhaps I left something out here?
Pirates, heavily armed, almost certain
death and destruction? Did I mention any
of those?"

"You need me," she said simply.

  "Yeah," he said slowly after a moment's
pause, "but I think I should do without
you for a while."

  Joat came into view, grinning. "You are
so soft," she said and shook her head.
"You need me because no adult except you
knows this station the way I do." She
crossed her arms smugly. "This is my home,
too, and I want a crack at defending it.
Besides, I'm not about to deliver myself
to Dorgan the Gorgom" If she's sell alive.
Those demonstrators looked mean. "So here
I stay!"

  "Joat, is avoiding Ms. Dorgan and the
orphanage worth risking your life for?"

  "You better believe it!" That forced an
unwilling chuckle out ofSimeon.

  "Look, Joat, no more kidding. Channa and
I are fighting for our lives. If we have
to worry about you, too, it might make
thatlastlittle bit ofdifference end get us
killed. We can'tafford distractions from a
kid."

  Joat's lips went white. "You fight
dirty," she whispered.

"I fight to win," Simeon replied.

  "Well, sodol!"Joatshouted. "And I'malive,
aren't I?" She paused for a moment,
breathing hard. Then the urchin grin came
back. "I've got an instinct for this kinda
thing. Trust me." She took a step back and
disappeared.

f

184 Am~McC~S~.S~

  I wish I knew how she did that, Simeon
thought. It would come m hand, when the
Kolnan get here.

  "Channa's expecting you on Boat Deckl" he
called after her.

  A voice filtered in from nowhere. "Tell
her I'll be seeing her."

  "Detection . . . ship detected! Ship
detected! Captain to the bridge!"

  Belazir t'Marid had been kneeling between
his wife's thighs, with a heel in each
hand.

  "Demonshitl" he swore, diving off the
pallet and toward his clothing. The
woman she was his second wife, and a third
cousin cursed antiphonally, rolling away in
the other direction.

  "The Divine Seed damn them," she said,
hopping on one leg as she stuck the other
into her skin-quit.

  "Easy for you to say," he snarled and
kicked at her, struggling with the
humiliating and acutely uncomfortable
process of getting into space armor in a
state of arousal. Then he raised his voice.
"Battle stations, full alert. Briefme."

  "One vessel Approaching on path of our
trajectory, in normal space."

  "Normal space?" he said. The door hissed
away as he trotted out of his quarters
which were aft ofthe bridge and one deck
down.

  "Confirmed," Serig said as Belazir
stalked into the bridge. While the captain
slept in hostile space, the executive
officer stood the watch. He now rose from
the commander's couch; a squat man for a
Kolnar, a hand below Belazir's height, and
muscled like a troll. "You have the bridge,
lord."

  "Acknowledged." Belazir felt an obscure
comfort as he slid into the crash couch and
let his hands fall on the contr~ls. And,
Hat cold plashc Mater has settled lay
odherprobl~rn, he thought with an inward
quirk ofthe lips. "Data"

1

THE CI-Iy WHO FOUGHT 185

  "Vessel is in the one kiloton mass
range." The baffle team was on the
bridge now, the circular room
brightening as consoles came up to
ready status. "Neutrino signature
indicates merchanter-class engines,
presently running on ballistic. There
may be eneIgy or kinetic weapons, but
I detect no triggers for fusion
warheads."

"Interesting," Belazir said calmly.
"Serig."

"Command me, lord."

  "Indeed. We're going to take a
closer look. Prepare for drop into
normal space. Notify the flotilla."

"Lord . . ."

  "Yes, yes. The primary mission. We
are gaining swiftly and have the
time. Also, if we detect this ship,
it may have detected us." The Kolnari
fleet had the best instruments they
could steal or copy, but there was no
telling how much performance had
improved in areas in close contact
with regular shipyards. There had
been one or two nasty surprises like
that before in the Clan's history.
"If they have, all the more reason to
investigate and make sure they have
no tale to tell anyone."

  "Prepare for breakthrough." Alarm
climes tinkled and sang. "Thirty
seconds, mark."

  A twisting at the fabric of the
universe; the view on the exterior
screens did not change the computers
compensated during FTL running but a
subtle sense of reality returned,
something at the corner of the mind.

  Serig's voice spoke beside Belazir.
"Lord, we have her on electromagnetic
detectors. No answer to hailing.
Shall we use the kinetics?"

  Their relative velocities were in
the thousands of kps; solid shot
would strike with nuclear force.

  "Not yet," Belazir said
thoughtfully. "Give me a visual."

The image sprang out before him a few
seconds

186 Ar~McCaffr~ PRISM. Sting

later. There was a noticeable lag
now that they were confined to
Einstein's universe. A flattened
spheroid, quite a small ship. Fairly
fast, from the size of the exterior
coils; neatly made, nearly new. And
totally unarmed, as far as the
detectors could determine. Certainly
not meant for rapid transit in
atmosphere as a Kolnari warship
ofthat size would be.

  "They have a small laser," Serig
said. "Meteoriteclearing type. Apart
from that, nothing."

"Is she dead?"

  "The cabin is at sixteen degrees,"
he replied, and touched a control.
The screen's image split. A molded
double of the ship appeared,
infrared scanning to show
temperatures.

  "But no reply to our hail,"
Belazir mused, tugging at his lower
lip. "This is too interesting to
pass by. All ships, establish zero
relative velocity and stand by."

  "Great Lord." The communications
officer. "The Age of Darkness is
hailing, imperative code."

  "Put her through" Belazir nodded
to himself; exactly what he would
expect. A face that might have been
his brother's flashed into a screen
on his couch

  "Franz t'Varak," dhe man said.
Equal-to-equal greeting, full
personal and subclan-name. Socially
correct as the t'Varak were one of
the noble yens of the High Clan, but
a military solecism. One of the
problems of a family business.

  "t'Varak," Belazir said, reminding
him of it. In a social situation, he
would have replied with his own full
name.

"Why are we halting?" Belazir
waited. "Sir."

  "Because there is a potential
prize of great value here," Belazir
said mildly. "In any case, we must
deal with it."

  "A missile is quick." And Mar
Ghaliu is Patient: the unspoken
Thought was plain enough

"A missile is wasteful," Bestir
said. He grinned for

ICE CrT1f WHO FOUGHT 187

an instant. Aragiz looked slightly
alarmed. "But your objection is noted.
You will not, therefore, insist on
sharing in the prize credit you or your
ship."

  Now Aragiz's face was unreadable black
iron. Fool, the captain of the Bride
thought. Everyone on the Age would be
monitoring this, as the Bride was
broadcasting in ship-to-ship clear. An
intact merchantman could be a prize of
great worth, particularly a new, fast
ship, suitable for conversion to a
family transport or an assault carrier.
No matter how well-born or ruthless, a
captain could not afford to alienate the
common crew too badly; not to mention
the relatives who would fill most ofthe
command positions.

 -   TVarak hadjust sharply reduced his
chances of sur
viving to flag rank. Belazir's hand
cut off his protests
and the intership screen.

  "Serig," he said, allowing himself a
slight feral smile of satisfaction. "You
will take the assault team. One boat,
three fighters. Full monitor at all
times."

  Serig grinned, white against his ebony
face. Being petit-noble, he could afford
such open enjoyment at the t'Varak's
discomfiture.

  "Perhaps there will be a scumvermin
woman aboard," he said.

The lock cycled open.

  Serig na Marid signed behind himself:
on the courts of there. He felt good,
loose and easy and fast, the plasma gun
in his hands an extension of his body.
Nothing else felt quite as good as the
tensionjust before combat: not sex or
wealth or satisfied revenge. The
knowledge that his lord would be
observing through the helmet pickups was
an added bonus. Whatever he accomplished
would not be just another small byte in
the chaotic melee of laIge-scale
destruction: it would be uniquely his,
with commanders and officers on all four
ships watching.

188 AnneMcCa~ir~ ~S.lYI. Sling
  "Nowl"

  Swiftly, smoothly, the three
figures in dark combat armor swung
into the lock. The deck rang under
their boots as they landed in the
interior field.

  "Still no sign of reaction," Serig
said. "Field is point six-three GK."
Kolnari gravities, that was. It was
1.0 G Terran, the old human
standard. "Pressurizing."

  Serig dropped to a three-point
stance on the floor, fingers of his
left hand, toes of both feet, knees
bent. The two ground-fighters were
on either side of the airlock. The
inner portal was of standard form,
circular, with a seam down the
middle where the leaves met. Air
hissed into the lock, and the light
went from vacuum-flat to a wanner,
yellow tone. Much like that on some
planets he had seen, although the
Kolnari fleet still kept the hat

brightness oftheirvanished
homeworld.

"Go!"

  The leaves snapped back. In the
same instant Serig vaulted forward,
plasma rifle ready. A single
octagonal corridor lay in front,
ending five meters ahead in a
Tjunction. He went to
groundjustbefore the intersection
and pressed a thumb to the stock of
his weapon. A long stiff thread
extended out, and Serig keyed the
image it carried onto his faceplate.
More empty corndor, this time
running north-south through the main
axis of the ship. Again octagonal,
2.0 meters in diameter, with a
synthetic fabric covering on the
"down" side and the ceiling;
extruded synthetic sides, luminous
at regular intervals, and recessed
hatchways. Another door was at the
north end of the corridor widh a
keypad, and a duplicate at the
soud,.

  A careful one second later the two
backups leapt past him, facing
either way. They waited in silence,
eyes flickering in trained patterns.

  "Nothing," Serig said, coming to
his feet and walking into the axial
corridor. He glanced down at the
readouts on his gaundet~

~iE(~IYWHO FOUGHT 189

  "Air is Te~Tan-standard basis."
Thinner than Koluar, but with more
oxygen and less sulfuric acid and
ozone. Homeworld had much ozone at
the surface, little in the
stratosphere. "Slightly depleted
oxygen levels, high level of necrotic
decay products. Wouldn't like to have
to breath it."

"P?oceed," Belazir's voice said.

  "As you command, lord," Serig
replied. In the language of Kolnar,
that phrase was one word. "Proceeding
up axial corridor now."

  Almost all human-made ships still
had a notional "bow" at the north
pole, and that was the most common
location for a bridge. Serig directed
his subordinates forward with hand
signals. They moved from one
compartment to another, opening each,
checking inside with a vision thread
and then going on to the next.

  "Sensors detect no live presence,"
Serig reported. They moved forward
again, two covering the one exposed,
up to the small ship's control
center. "These chambers appear to be
staterooms, lord, presently disused."

  "Better and better," Belazir's
voice said. That implied extensive
life-support facilities.

  The north-end hatch yielded to the
same simple random-number code as the
exterior entrancoway. The control
chamber was a domed hemisphere with
three couches, only one occupied. It
had half-closed around the pilot's
body in a coldsleep cocoon, not fully
deployed.

Serig moved to look down at the body.

"You were right; a woman," Belazir
said dryly.

  "Not one that appeals to me," his
second-in-command replied. "Tshakiz,
get a tissue sample." He was glad for
the filtered, neutral air that flowed
through his helmet.

The rotting flesh slid greasily away
from the probe.

190 A1~McCo - &9S~.St~

Serig looked elsewhere, touching the
controls with slow caution. The shrill
accented voice of the Medical Of ricer
broke in. That was a low-status
occupation, and the man was the gelded son
of a slave mother.

  "Subject has been dead approximately
four days," he announced. "Scan, please,
mygreatlords."

  One of the ground fighters detached a
sensor wand from her belt and ran it
slowly from head to toe of the corpse. A
minute's silence followed.

  "Preliminary analysis: death from
overdose of coldsleep drugs, combined with
oxygen starvation and dehydration when
cocoon failed to properly deploy."

  Serig nodded. On single-crewed vessels
the pilot would often use coldsleep,
relying on the AI systems to hen& the
simple and tedious work of long
interstellar transits. Slightly risky, but
it saved lifespan.

  "Ship systems are live," Serig said.
"Cryptography, please." He punched a jack
into the receptor and waited while the
powerful machines on the Bridle worked on
the guardian programs of the enemy ship.
"Worm is through. I have control of the
computer." That was simple, he thought.
Not much computer security at all, and .
. .

"Ahl Lord? The coldsleep system was
sabotaged."

  "How wicked," Belazir said, and they
shared a chuckle. "Why?"

  "A moment, lord. Yes, by the dugs of the
Dreadful Mother! This is a commercial
courier. The female was an agent for some
merchant house, traveling with samples.
She boasts of making the 'sale of a
lifetime' at her most recent stop, a
nexus-station designated SSS900-C. Some
rival did it."

 "It was the sale of her lifetime,"
Belazir said.                       -
This time Serig could hear more laughter
in the back

 ground. He turned sharply to his
assistant "Nobody                      ~'

you to stop wo' - ," he barked. "Divine
Seed of Kolnarl
Lord, I have accessed the
cargomanifestl"

MEln WHO FOUGHT 191

  He could hear Belazir grunt like a
man bellypunched as the figures and
data scrolled across to the Kolnari
warships. Computers and computer
parts; engineering software;
fabrication systems; drugs; luxury
consumer items, wines, silks . . .

  "And lordl The cargo compartments
have full climatic control!"

  Rigged for the carrying of delicate
cargo? That made the vessel beyond
price to the Clan. With
climate-controlled holds, she could
be easily and cheaply rerigged to
hold families or troops in coldsleep.

  Belazir's voice grew sardonic.
"Captain t'Varak, I hope you are
satisfied." Nothing came over the
circuit but the sound of teeth
grinding. One of the other captains
did venture a comment.

  "Does this not seem too much like
the answer to a prayer?" he murmured.
"I sacrifice much to myjoss and the
ancestors, vessels of the Divine
Seed, but . . ." The pass help the
strongestfist, the saying went.

  "Under other circumstances, Zhengir
t'Marid," Belazir answered him
coolly, "I might agree. But cousin,
who could know we forayed in this
direction? Only those we pursue, and
they press forward in a dis-
integrating hulk with no
communications capability since we
blew it away." Command snapped in his
voice. "Serig. Secure the ship.
Discard the corpse and flush the
environmental systems. Are fungibles
adequate?"

  "More than adequate, Great Lord,"
Serig said, hammering the glee out of
his voice. My Ids! My greed! he
thought. A full percentage point
would be his as noblein-command of
the boarding party. My lord is well
pleased with me, he decided. He must,
to give his bastard half-brother such
an opportunity. Petit-nobles had been
translated to full status for less.

  "There is plenty of air," he went
on. "Surplus water. The pilot never
awoke to renew."

192 AnneMcCo - ~S.M.S~

  "Good. Await the prize crew Adze
b'Marid will command it and then
return. Expeditel We will resume
superluminal in less than an hour,
or skin will be stripped."

  Alyze was the commander's new
third wife. Serig suspected she
might be pregnant, and Belazir
anxious to have her out of harm's
way before even the slight danger at
the end oftheir chase. He nodded to
himself) Such was good noble
thinking, for a man's honor was in
the diffusion of his portion ofthe
Divine Seed.

  "Hearkening and obedience, lord,"
he said. And this SSS-900-C will
also be in the path of our pursuit,
Serig thought. Idol bight ten hicks
to my pers~naljoss in apology.

  He had kicked the little idol
across his cabin in anger when he
learned they were to be sent on a
footless, honorless pursuit mission
while their comrades and clanfolk
plundered Bethel. It seemed he had
been premature.

           ~ CHAPTER8LEVEN

"Told ya,"Joat said.

"Yes," Seld Chaundra said, turning
his head aside.

  The transit levels of SSS-900 C
were skill chaotic and
barely-suppressed panic was rampant.
Squads of weeping children pressed
by, herded by an adult with a child
in her arms. A caterpillar of
toddlers held on to a cord which was
tethered to a few protesting sub.

  Joat and Seld were off to one side
in the shadows of an access bay.
There were many at the upper globe's
north pole, what with the pumping
and docking facilities and the
multiple feeds needed. The
housekeeping programs were laboring
overtime, pumping odors of pine,
sea-salt and wildflowers into the
air. It still smelled of vomit and
unchanged diapers and fear, and the
baffles only muted the roar of
voices. The two teenagers stepped
backward as a man wearing the
arm-band of a part-time policeman
went by.

  "I hate running out on my dad like
this," Seld said in a choked voice.
"He's gonna kill me, Joat."

  "No, the pirates may kill you, but
all he can do is slap you around."

Shocked, the boy looked up. "Dad
never hits me!"

  "Well, then you've got a pretty
good dad, and you're not running out
on him you're staying ~ him. 'S what
you wanna do, isn't it?"

  "Yeah." He turned his face to the
wall. "I can't go . . . my mom.... "
he said in a fierce eone. "I never
saw her again . . . I woke up and
she wasjust . . . gone."

Surprised at herself she generally
hated to touch

194 Anne Md~ USA. swag

people Joat put an awkward arm
around his shoulders. He clutched at
her for a moment, sobbing.

  "Sorry about blubbering," he said
after a moment. Then he grew
conscious of the bearhug grip he was
exerting, and broke away.

  (( 'Salright,"Joat said. Somehow it
is, she thought, then flogged her
mind back to practical matters.
"Need a snot-rag?"

  ((Thanks. " He blew noisily on the
one which she off ered
andthengaveitbacktoher.'~Whatdowedo
now?"

  ((We get out of sight. Channa's
going to go ballistic, and she's
nearly as hard to hide from as
Simeon. Worse, 'cause I can't screw
up her sensors."

((There she is," he said.

  Joat's head whipped around. The
noise was reaching tidal proportions
around the tall lean figure of
Channa Hap. Only the escort of
~lcker's security personnel kept her
from being bowled over in the crowd.
She had a canvas carrier bag in one
hand. Joat recognized the foot of
the stuffed bear sticking out one
side.

((That satisfies the letter of it,"
she said. "Let's go."

  Channa stalked into the lounge,
opened the door to Joat's room and
flung the canvas bag she carried as
hard as she could against the room's
far wall. It made a solitary spot of
disorder in the servo-neat room.
Then she shut the door and walked
stiffly to her desk, sat down and
began keying through her messages,
back hunched in rejection.

((It's not my fault," Simeon finally
ventured to say.

She turned slowly to glare at his
column.

  Oooh, I'm glad this is titanium
crystal, Simeon thought. Now, if
only there was something similar
availablefor the psyche.

  Just as slowly,just as silently,
Channa turned back to her console.

ICE CrrYWHo FoucHT 195

  Simeon sent her a message that
read. "I'm sorry you had to go
through that scene at
Disembarkation."

  Channa let out an exasperated
little hiss and slapped the screen.
Simeon's image appeared on it,
wincing realistically.

  Unwillingly, a smile quirked at her
mouth. "Simeon, I would have been
there anyway, to speak words of
encouragement, to wish well, to shake
hands, to show solidarity." She swung
a fist in a go-get-'em gesture. "But
I would have had a lot more
credibility if I hadn't been standing
there with an overnight bag in my
hand. Did you see the suspicious
looks I got? Half of the evacuees
probably think I'm on one of the
other ships. You could have said
something, a quiet word of warning in
my ear, as it were. Then I could have
dumped that damned incriminating
bag!" She turned to look at his
column again. "Why wasn't she there?"

  "She wouldn't go," Simeon said
weakly. "Shesaid she'd see you. 1
thought she means there et the Boat
Dock."

`'You did?"

  "Well, I hyped," Simeon said. "I
tried my best to get her there.
Pushed every emotional button I
could. Manipulated shamelessly, you
know the way I can."

"O1' silver-tongued Simeon-slips up
again, huh?"

  " I can't exactly get out of my
shell and chase her down and hog-tie
her, Channa. She wouldn't go. She
told me that we could never find her
in fifteen minutes and she was right.
Evenyou'd have to agree with that.
Stying to manipulate Joat is like
trying to suck liquid hydrogen
through a straw."

  Channa sighed. "Indeed! But
standing there with that bag was
hideously embarrassing for me.
Besides, I really wanted to get her
to safety."

  "I know how you feel," he soothed
her. "This surrogate parent stuff is
pretty intense." And it was your
idea, he reminded himself Oddly, he
felt no impulse to remind her. Iguess
Ilike it, he decided.

196 Anne McCourt USA. Stirs

  She ground the heels of her hands
into red-rimmed eyes. "I apologize."

Well, that's Amherst. "I accept."

  "Announce me," Amos teen Sierra
Nueva said to the door.

  It hinged softly, and he knew it
would be turning to a screen on the
interior, showing his image in
real-time. Such things still made
him a little nervous. Bethel had
never used much in the way of
sophisticated electronics. Doors
there were usually plain honest
wood. He smiled slightly in spite of
himself Here, wood was an
unthinkably expensive luxury, and
the most advanced technology, the
stuffofcommon life. At least he had
been able to dress properly, from
the baggage somebody threw into the
shuttle at the last minute. It was
demoralizing to look like some
cottonchopper goatherd from the
backlands. Loose black trousers
tucked into his boots, silver-link
belt emphasizing the narrow hips,
open robe throwing his broad
shoulders into relief. He bowed
ceremoniously as he entered,
sweeping offhis beret to Channa.

  "Come in." Channa's voice was flat
and tired as the door opened, but
her face lit in an inadvertent smile
of welcome.

  Good, he thought, smiling back.
Even in this desperate hour, it was
pleasant to have so exotic and
attractive a woman smile at him.
Then he bowed again, to the column.
To Simeon, he forced himself to
think. And tried not to think of the
pale deformed thing in there, among
the tubes and neural circuits.
Whenever the image came to him, a
slight tinge of nausea accompanied
it. He was afraid that Simeon could
detect his reaction. He could
imagine several sensors that would
make it difficult or impossible to
lie to a shellperson. Guiyon he had
never thought of so. Guiyon had
always

THE CITYWHO FOUGHT 197

been there in the background, a
sympathetic voice from his earliest
days. Gugon was mgiriend.

  "I am sorry to disturb you," he
began. "Now that the most urgent
tasks are done, I wish to reiterate
my desire to assist in the coming
battle."

  "When our plans are more solid, I
assure you there will be a place for
you in them," Simeon said.

  Amos's mouth quirked. You mean,
wh~nyou've figured out something we
can do, he thought.

  "We are not trained as soldiers,"
he said with a selfdeprecating smile
and a shrug. "And we are from a
backward world. But," he raised a
finger, "I have thought of something
which you both, being so close to the
matter, may have overlooked." He
glanced from Simeon to Channa and
back again. "It is something that
Guiyon said that makes me think of
this.

  "He said to me, I am one of
Cent;ral Worlds' most valuable
resources. The Kolnando not have any
bramships~ntheirfleet and I do not
intend to be theorist.

"Oh," Charma murmured.

  "Hell," Simeon said. "I knew it but
I didn't think of it. Brains are so
rare, out in the backlands."

  "Yes." Amos nodded vigorously. "We
must hide the fact that Simeon
exists. Or theprst thing that the
Kolnari do will be to cut out
Simeon's shell and send it back to
their fleet. This must not happen."

  "Indeed it must not," Simeon said,
his voice slow and flay All three of
them knew what followed from that. If
the Kolnari did get their hands on a
brain one trained in strategy, at
that it would immediately change them
from a wandering pack of scavengers
to a first-rate menace.

  "Simeon would never _ n Channa began
body, dhen trailed on

  "Yes." Simeon's voice was now as
expressionless as a subroutine
robotic. There were dozens of
unpleasant ways of forcing a captive
brain to capitulate. The most

198 Am~McCo - ~SM.S60

effective was also the worst simply
cut offthe exterior sensor feeds
which would mean sensory deprivation
fugue in days orless. "I tend to
forges how. . . helpless I am, most
of thetime," hewenton.
"FotgetI'macripple, sotospeak."

"You are notes Channa blazed.

  Amos blinked at the sight. She
seemed to bridle, the widow's peak
of her rusq-brown hair rising. I
would not like to have this lady
wrathful with me, the Bethelite
thought respectfully.

  She forced herselfto be calm.
"Compared to you, we are cripples,
Simeon," she said. "You have a
hundred abilities we lack."

  "Thank you," he said in more normal
tones. "Still, what Amos says is
true. At all costs, we can't let the
Kolnari get their hands on me."

  The self-destruct sequence surfaced
in the minds of both brawn and
brain, like some monster rising from
the depths ofthe ocean, with a wave
of cold black water sweeping before
it.

  Amos coughed. "There is a way, I
think. We may fool them. Convince
them that there is no brain
controller on this station. If
indeed," and his lips peeled back
over his teeth in a nasty grin,
"barbarians such as the Kolnari even
know of such persons."

  Seeing Channa about to speak, he
held up his hand to forestall her.
"Do I assume that Simeon's name
appears on far too many documents or
news bolos or whatever, for us to
hide his very existence? Also, some-
one is sure to lapse and mention the
name, thus giving rise to questions.
So," and he gave his cloak a little
flourish, "I have come to offer
myselfas a false Simeon. To deceive
them." He looked from one to the
other eagerly. "Is this not a good
idea?"

  "It's . . ." Channa began, and
looked at him with shining eyes.
"It's damn brilliant!" She sprang up
and hugged him for a moment, then
began to pace. "If we can get the
substitution to work."

 ME CITYWI10 FOUGHT 199                         l l

  "Well, it sure beats suicide," Simeon said, for he had had to
consider that as his only option. "One small point pops up,
Amos. I've been here for forty years, and you're what,
twenty~ght?"

  "Ah, a valid point to consider," he said, "but as you have
already pointed out, during Their stay in dais station, they
are unlikely to spend time reviewing its history. They would
have no reason not to accept me as Channa's assistant. If you
feel it is an important concern, we could always tell Them that
Simeon is a tide, I could Then be The Simeon-Amos."

  "Yes," Channa said enthusiastically, "we could pretend it's
a traditional title. A position named after the first person
who held it, an honorific! Why would they check if we say it is
so and has always been? And that ploy would involve jimmying
fewer personnel records dlat's a major plus. Especially with
people who've been here a while. Faking that is like trying to
pull one card out of a tower. Every change means more changes
and pretty soon it cascades out of control"

  "There are The transients," Simeon said meditatively. "Most
of them don't bother about who manages what so long as they're
not inconvenienced. We've pretty near dispatched so many who do
know that the ruse mightjust work." Simon began to enlarge The
concept of deception. "Mmm, you know, we could use that old
secondary control center that was on-line when The station was
being built. Before I was installed here. These quarters don't
look much like an office. We could say this is a living
accommodation."

  "Ah! Then you accept my offer as impostor," cried Amos.
"Excellent! I shall move here as soon as you require me. Until
then, I'd like to remain with my people. If you do not mind a
companion in your lovely rooms?" he asked, turning swiftly to
Channa, concorned that he also might have offended her with his
presumption.

200 AnnexSM. Stirs

"Well let you know when," she said,
a lithe dazed.

  "Ofcourse," he said. He took her
hand and kissed it tenderly, smiled
in Simeon's direction, and left.

  Channa stared at the closed doors
for a moment, then turned to
Simeon's shaft. "Excuse me, but did
we just accept his of her?"

"Well, not exactly, but we didn't
say no."

"I noticed that. Why not, I wonder?"

  Simeon was a little amused at the
idea of Channa being bowled over by
another personality. "Hmm. Maybe
because we agree with him?" Slyly:
"Or it could be the pheromones, in
your case, Happy baby."

  Channa bridled and threw a cushion
at the column. "Get serious. It is a
good idea, even if I didn't think of
it first. You ham to tee protected
from dhe Kolnari."

  "Yes," he said, enduring
excruciating eminent atthattruth.
"NorcanI seeanyreasonnottotakehimup
on his offer. Maybe having an
outsider close to our counsels will
keep us on our toes, so to speak."

  Channa gave a lithe grunt. "As I
said, it's a good idea, but on
second thoughts, why him? He'd have
to learn a lot in very lithe time to
sound as if he knew what he'd been
doing all this time. I still have
trouble finding my way around, and I
not only grew up on a station, I had
time to study the layout of the
SSS-900 before I came here. Why not
someone from the stations Someone we
know and have confidence in?"

  "I think we can have confidence in
him, Channa," Simeon said
thoughtfully..

  "Hunh! Based on what?" she asked
challengingly, hands on her hips.

  "Audhority usually stems from
character, Chant. I've been watching
him widh his people, and There's no
doubt chat he's the man in charge.
They look at him the way that people
look at someone dhey can depend on.
Cons sider the shocks dheive all
been through, especially him.

THE CIrsrWHO FOUGHT 201

Don't forget he went with Chaundra
down to the morgue. Then he came to
us with this . . . Gable, I think .
. . plan. We could do worse than
accepting his offer. Besides, who
else is there?"

USince you ask, I was considering
Gus."

  "And who's going to be Gus, while
Gus is being me?" He watched her
cross her arms over her bosom and
frankly pout. "We could end up
changing every name in the station if
we go that route. What with this and
that, we could get so snarled up, we
wouldn't know our arse ends from our
ears."

  She laughed, suddenly visualizing
the corridors full of people checking
their noteboards to see who they were
that day.

"Besides," Simeon said, "I like Gus."

"What's that got to do with it?" she
replied. "Oh."

  Whoever fronted as the station's
manager was the most likely to
receive the brunt of occupational
hazards. She liked Gus, and even on
such short acquaintance, she liked
Amos. He was undeniably nicer tolook
et end had already been through
several layers of helL On the other
hand, somebody had to do it. If she
was right there beside him to
givejudicious guidance and
beingbesideAmos was not a chore,
maybe they'd get through without any
really bed gaffes.

  "All right," she said, raising her
hands in capitulation. "Shuffling
people around really could become
more difficult than teaching one
stranger the ins and outs of station
management. At least enough to fool
these thugs. But, on your enhanced
head be it, my brave brain, if he
turns out to be a disaster."

  "I accept your challenge, my
beautiful brawn. ShaU I have him move
in tonight?"

  For a moment, Channa looked as
though she'd inadvertently swallowed
something too large and lumpy. "Ah,
of course. We'll have to get his
training started right away, won't
we?"

202 AnneMcCo~ 0? Sew. Stag

***

  Amos frowned. As attractively as he
smiled, Simeon noted.

  Sheesh. Men this is over, he could
earn megacredits as a vid-starunth
Smgan Entertainments, r~nghiskn~als.

"But I had wanted to stay with my
people," he said.

  "I know,- Simeon told him, "but
we're placing the least injured in
their own quarters, effective
immediately, and scattering the
rest. We can't risk having them
identified as a group, you know."

  The young man clasped his hands
behind his back. "Yes, I see. All
will be strange to the Kolnari, in
many different ways. Our strangeness
will be one more anomaly."

  "You're not that strange," Simeon
felt compelled to say. Too bloody
handsome for my peace of mind. Or
maghe being that handsome is
strangers I realize.

  The elevator opened onto the
corridor outside Simeon and Channa's
quarters. Channa stood in the open
door ofthe lounge to greetAmos. She
held out her hand to him, wearing a
formal, welcoming smile. He took her
hand tenderly in both of his, bowed
over it gracefully and kissed it
gently, his eyes never leaving hers.
Channa raised one brow and smiled
crookedly, takiIyback her hand and
gesturing him into the lounge.

  "I know you wanted to stay with the
others," she said, "but there's a
lot you'll have to be briefed on,
and we should get started. Also,
Simeon may have told you, they'll be
moving to their own quarters this
evening."

"Yes, so he has told me," Amos said
softly.

  He looked at her with a warm
attention that she found unnervingly
intimate. This will be yours," she
said, opening the door farthest from
her own.

  He entered, looked around, his
hands clasped behind his back once
more. He noddedjudiciously, "It is
very nice," he said. He opened a
closet, empty but for a few hangers.

THE CrrYWHO FOUGHT 203

  "One of the things we'll have to do
is fit you out according to your new
position," Channa said from the
doorway.

  He smiled at her. "Yes, I need
everything. And Bethel clothing would
not be appropriate."

  He walked over to stand right
beside her. She had noticed that the
Bethelites did that; their social
distance was close and they were a
very tactile people.

  "I shall enjoy that," he said, "if
you will help me choose?"

  She lowered her eyes. "Perhaps, if
time allows. Though you'll be guided
by experts in men's fashions, which
I am not." Doom, girl! she told
herself.

  The door chimed and Simeon opened
it. UI've sent down to the commissary
for dinner. I doubt you've found the
time to eat, Amos, so I've taken the
hearty of ordering for two," he said.

  "You do not like to cook?" Amos
asked, turning to Channa in surprise.

  "Not when I have more important
things to do," she answered. "It
isn't among my hobbies."

  "Ah, well, doubtless your servants
are skilled." His voice implied that
a chatelaine should still oversee
them personally.

  Ah, good one, Amos. Simeon thought,
feeling more cheerfilL He had been
reviewing what little was known of
Bethelite culture. He did not think
Churns would find it agreeable. Hey
d~n'tyou ask herto sit on thefloorand
mbyour tiredieet whileyou're at it,
then retire to the rear of the house
while the men talk business?

  It was worrying, though. Much as I
hate to admit it, maybe Channa was
right. This plan has inherent elk of
disaster. If argot to take into
consideration that he's from an
insular and probably rU be kind,
ol~fa~7ioned. Nah.' US be
kind backward culture. All their
preparations were a mishmash of
improvisations. Would this be one too
many?

204 Anne McCo - HS~.S~ -
  Amos looked quickly from Simeon's
column to Channa and said in mild
dismay.

  "I have caused offense. Please,
forgive me. This was not my
intention." He smiled ruefully down
at Chains and sighed. "I clearly
have more to learn than I had
imagined. Even my speech the more we
talk, the more I am conscious of how
old-fashioned I must sound to you.
And, forgive me, we of Bethel are
not used to dealing with people of
strange of different customs. That
was one thing I disliked about my
home, the insularity."

  Hell, Simeon thought. He's not
stupid. Adaptable, in fact.

  With a smooth professional smile,
Channa gestured for him to take one
of the seats at the table.

"Then let us begin," she said.

  To his back she made a small moue
of distaste, which quickly turned
into a smile as he held out her
chair and looked at her expectantly.
She grinned and waved him to his
seat.

  "First," she said, "you must learn
that we're much less formal here. We
reserve our 'company manners'
strictly for company."

  "But," he said, smiling as he took
his seat, "a beautiful woman should
always be treated like a treasured
guest."

  Channa served herselffrom a platter
Id passed it to him, letting go of
it almost before he'd gotten a grip
on it.

  "Flatterer. I'm not ugly, but I'm
no great beauty, either."

  He almost dropped the hot platter
in surprise, its contents tilting
alarming close to the edge and
burning his thumb. He put it down
hastily and sucked the injury for a
moment.

  "No, truly," he said, flapping his
hand to cool it. "I think you are
most attractive." There was no
doubting

IRE CITYWHO FOUGHT 205

the sincerity in his wide,
gentian-blue eyes. The lashes, she
noticed, were long and curled. His
gaze grew playfuL "In a strange,
foreign, exotic fashion, of course."

  "Well, you're very attractive, too,
Amos," she said seriously.

  "I dike attractive women," he said,
and his gaze was subtly challenging.

  "Mmh, I don't like attractive men,"
she said positively. Actually, I
don't approve of them, which is not
exactly the same thing, she emended
to herself. "They tend to tee spoiled
and self-centered and in general much
more trouble than they're worth. Now,
let us eat before the food cools. We
have a great deal of work to do and
not much time and energy to spare."
She gave him a direct stare. "I'm
sure we're going to have an excellent
business relationship, manager to
manager."

"Of course," Amos said with a neutral
social smile.

  "Shouldn't you start calling Amos
Simeon-Amos, Churns?" Simeon broke
in, before the atmosphere got any
cooler.

"Good idea," Channa said.

  Amos, as far as Simeon could tell,
was sulking slightly.

  Aha, Simeon thought. With those
looks, plus brains and charisma and
high position, he's probably used to
women sum combing to his every ploy.
And, he noted charitably, the
Bethelite was only in his early
twenties. All the textbooks said
softshells were highly subject to
hormonal influences at that stage in
their pitifully short development
spans.

  Nine gets you ten, he told himself,
that there's a worry down track in
the carpet between their doors within
a week. The notion was oddly
unpalatable. He put it aside and
launched into some of the nineteen
million things Amos would have to
become familiar with about station
management.

            ~ CHAPr=TW=VE

  Ahhha,gotcha! Simeon crooned to
himself. "Channa? You awake?"

"You can always tell when I'm awake.
Why ask?"

"Because it'spolite," he replied.

  "What is it?" Her tone noted that
the sleep period was three hours
gone and, in barely five more, she
would have to be awake for more of
the interminable meetings and
briefings.

  "I've found out something about our
expected and uninvited guests," he
went on.

  That brought her alert, sitting up
in bed and reaching to key up the
lights and switch off the soft fugue
she had been playing to court sleep.

"Couldn't sleep anyway," she said.
"Let me have it."

  "Got a download from Central. Had
to burn some butts to get it
released. It's not much. Planet
named Kolnar, settled way, way, way
back. Quite a ways from here, too,
as such things go. About forty times
as far as the sun Saffron, further
in on the spiral arm."

  Channa frowned. "That's really out
in the Loonies, settled in the
second or third waves."

"Uh-uh. It wasprst wave."

  She pursed her lips in a silent
whistle. "Right at the beginning of
interstellar colonization

  He went on. "Involuntary
colonization. Translation program
running . . . Okay, a whole bunch of
bad-hat groups; the Khimir Reddish
face Cosmetic, the TemilLarge
Striped Felines, the New Council
Men, the Resurrected Aryan-Germanic
Statewide Associationist Employees
Party,

IRE cmw~o FOUGHT 207

the Sons of Chaka, the Lummescent
Footway, the Danum Wilson Society,
the "

  "What's so amusing?" she said as
she caught the laughter ripple in his
voice.

  "You'd have to be a historian to
understand, my voluptuous popsie," he
said cheerfully. "Anyway, according
to the records, they sent out about
ten thousand of these oscos, and
about three thousand reached their
destination."

"Bad voyages?"

  "Internal fighting in the holds,"
Simeon said. "With fists and teeth
and soft plastic cups, since they
didn't have anything else. Then when
they got there, they realized they'd
have to interbreed, like it or not."

"What sort of planet is Kolnar?"

  "Nickname was 'Hell's Orifice.'
They picked itbecause it was easier
on tender consciences. Society could
pretend the planet killed the
convicts, who deserved it, from the
records. One-point-six Bees, hot sun,
enormous heavy-metal concentrations,
thick but low-oxygen air, superactive
and largely poisonous biosphere. No
ozone layer. Vulcanism, unpredictable
climatic shifts . . . the whole nine
yardsl Not much visited since. When
the Grand Survey went through a few
centuries later, they were fired on.
Evidently the locals have a nuclear
war about once every f orty years or
so, and the ship got in the way of
one. Their descriptions of the
physical type match whatAmos and the
others say. There's been some contact
with them since. That incident with
the survey seemed to remind them that
the rest of the universe was still
there, ."

"Unfortunately?"

  "Well, I've got cross-references
under piracy, brigandage, police
actums, war cranes and anon. Also
entries in the anthro files
underg~nocide, slavery, cud, tural
pathology, xen~hoha and societal
d~uolu~n. There are apparently
pockets of the descendants of the

208 AnneMcC~ ~ Shy. Sti~ng

original social aberrants scattered
through a number of systems in the
area nowadays. Little asteroid
colonies, freebooter dens,
unsurveyed worlds."

<<Urk. Characteristics?"

  "Apart from not being very nice?
Dark skin is a climatic
adaptation all that UV and the hair
and eye color genetic drift you'd
expect in a small initial
population. They breed like, hmm,
rabbits, though. Puberty at eight,
all children twins or triplets.
Overall, the Kolnari subrace seems
to have very efficient immune
systems. They're extremely strong
and fast. You'd expect good reflexes
on a planet like that  those with
bad ones didn't survive. They can
see in the dark like cats, and
they've got an amazing tolerance for
ionizing radiation. There's so much
fallout and natural background
radiation on Kolnar that they've
genetically adapted to it. The
scientists seem to disagree whether
their paranoia is inbred orjust
cultural"

"Hard to get rid of, I'd expect."

  <<Like cockroaches," Simeon said,
deliberately misunderstanding. <<One
Space Navy type a few generations
back said the only way to solve the
Kolnari problem would be to drop
antimatter bombs from orbit. Even
then, you wouldn't be really sure of
destroying them all."

  '<Very depressing, thank you, and
now can I get some rest?"

  Later that night, still unable to
sleep, Channa called out his name
soMy.

<<You should be sleeping, Channa."

  <<I know, but I've got to clear my
mind first. Will you tank with me?"

  A pause hung in the air. She took
a breath and went on. <<I know I
haven's been es good a brawn es "

  <<Ancient history," Simeon said.
<'You've been handling a hellacious
emergency better than most

THE CITY WHO FouGHT209

anyone could. I can certainly listen.
What's on your mind?"

  "He is," she said, as if the two
words covered the problem adequately.

"Ah. Not what you expected, huh?"

  She sighed, "No, the opposite. Too
much what I expected. He's . . . I'm
afraid I won't be able to work with
him."

  Why am I not surprised ? Simeon
thought. "Why? What's wrong?"

  "Aside from his being a smug,
pushy, egotist, you mean? Well, he
doesn't have any faith in my com-
petence and I expect to have to fight
to keep him from trying to usurp my
position. He's very much a takecharge
kind of person, you were right about
that. And he has no respect for
women."

  "What makes you think that?" Let's
hear howyou came to that cliff cult
conclusion. Simeon enjoyed the
challenge of following the workings
of her mind.

  "For crying out loud, Simeon, he
expected me to cook for him! Oh, yes,
he got over that. He's always ready
with an apology for 'different
customs.' But, deep down, he doesn't
really believe it. He thinks
'customs' is whether you sit on the
floor or on a chair, stufflike that.
He doesn't grasp the difference in
fimdamental cultural views."

  "Channa-my-sweet, back on Bethel,
there aren't any fundamental
differences. This quarrel he had with
the Elders, it's hard to grasp
exactly what it was about . . . but
it seems overwhelmingly important to
them. "

  "Oh, I understand why he's that
way," Channa said, striking the
pillow with a frustrated fist. "And
it's not as if he's stupid. He's
intelligent and he notices things,
but that makes it more irritating,
not less. You could ignore what a
stupid person does. What's more,
suddenly he's living in my pocket.
I'mjust a little surprised he didn't
ask to see the other rooms in order
to choose the one

210 ArmeMc~r~ Fisk. Siting

he preferred." Her face suddenly
flushed a becoming rose.

  Simeon noted that. After all, he
could see in the dark, too. "And he
came on to you like the colony ship
he flew in on, didn't he?"

  "Damn right he did," she muttered,
half under her breath. "'I like
attractive women,"' she said in
exaggerated imitation of his manner
and accent. "What do you suppose he
does when he has to deal with an
un-attractive woman? Carry a bag to
put over her head? I hate men like
that!" She thumped the bed with both
fists for emphasis.

  "I thought you were attracted to
him," Simeon said in a calm and
mildly curious tone.

  "I am,- she said with exasperation.
"I hate that part of it the most."

  "I'm a little confused here. EIow
can you be attracted to someone you
can't stand?"

"I don't know," she said grimly.

"Pheromones?" Simeon asked slyly.

"Maybe. It happens." She sighed.

  The mysterious pheromones strike
again, he thought. There are thnes
I'm extremely glad I'm a
shellpers~m. At least I can adjust
my own hormone feeds. The thought of
having his biochemistry
unpredictably mucked about by emo-
tional factors was nerve-wracking.

  "You mean," he said carefully,
"this has happened to you before?"

  Alook of annoyance crossed her
face. "Notjust to me. It's happened
to a great many people."

He waited expectantly and pa Andy.

  With a resigned sigh, she went on.
"He was a professor of economics, of
all people! I fell for him like a
stone. And the weird thing was, I
never liked him. Quite the opposite.
He was attractive enough, but he was
sarcastic and lazy and snide ugh!
Never to me, but it bothered me to
see him doing it to other students.

I1IE CrlYWHO FOUGHT 211

One day I was sitting there and I looked
up et trim and I said to myself, I'm n~
love with h - ." She widened her eyes and
held out her hands in a "go figure"
gesture and let them flop back onto the
teed. "Hmmp."

"So . . you're in love . . . with
Simeon-Amos?"

  "Nol Of course notl I said I was in love
with my professor, not Simeon-Amos.
They're two different cases." She started
to laugh "I'm older and wiser now,
Simeon-Simple."

"As long as you're not sadder, love."

She chuckled. "No, not sadder."

  "Naturally you and Simeon-Amos will have
to undergo a bit of a period of
adjustment," he said seriously, "but he
really wants to help. And he's going to be
very busy helping That'll go a long way in
cut ing any ardent tendencies he may have.
Try to cut him a little slack, Channa;
he's the victim of an inbred culture.
Besides which, we're all under threat of
death"

  "Mmm. Tell that to the subconscious it
interprets threats of death as a reason to
get more interested. I do wish this crisis
wasn't so immediate." She sighed again,
wearily. "Maybe they're not out there.
Maybe they gave up and went beck to
Saffron, to Bethel. All we'd have to do is
file a report, while the fleet floats by
us."

"I wouldn't bet on it, babe."

  "I must be mellowing," she observed,
"I've allowed you to call me 'love' and
'babe' and . . . I actually let you get
away with 'luscious popsie,' didn't I?"

"Yeah. I'm counting coup. Maybe you like
me?"

  "I wouldn't count on it," she said
grinning. "Goodnight, Simeon."

"'Night, Channa."

  "Oh, God, not another meeting," Channa
mumbled to herself around the light-pencil
clenched in her teeth. In one hand, she
held the notescreen she was studying and,
in the other, a cup of come. Hot as hell,

1

212 AnneMcCaf - ~S~.S~

black as death, sweet as love: qwt
the way she generally drank her
caffeine, but the proper dose to
jolt a body into action after
inadequate sleep. For something
stronger, she would have to go to
Doctor Chaundra.

  "Why meetings?" she continued to
herself as she stumbled into the
lift at the end of the corridor.
"Why can't I just send memos?"

"Mornin', honeybunch," Patsy's voice
said.

  Channa started so violently at the
presence of two other people on the
lift that she almost slopped the hot
coffee over her hand. Gus put a
steadying grip under her elbow.

  "Why meetings?" Gus repeated,
"because they're civilians. They're
not used to facing a military emer-
gency. They need to be told the
information again and again before
it'll seem Hal to them."

  The lift hissed to a stop.
"Fortunately, I don't need to be
told so often, so I can get right on
with my work," he said. "See you
later, ladies."

  Channa looked across at Patsy. The
older woman was leaning into the
padded corner of the lift, eyes
closed and a dreamy smile on her
lips. "Patsy?"

  One eye opened reluctantly and a
sweet smile lightened her expression
as she stretchecllanguorously.
"Yeah?"

  "You look almost as exhausted as I
am. Aren't you getting enough
sleep?"

  Patsy's eyes widened, and she
worked her eyebrows
melodramatically. "Not much," she
said with some enthusiasm. "Unless
you use 'sleep' in the euphemistic
sense."

"Anh hanh. Gus?"

  "Con mucho Gustol" Patsy giggled.
"Ah've read about this. People in
crisis, they jest get together,
y'know? You ask Simeon aboutit.
He'll tell ye."

  "I wouldn't presume to ask Simeon
about private matters. I suspect
he's morbidly fascinated by the sub-
ject. Besides, I know whet you
meant"

THE crrYwHo E OUGHT 213

  "Ohho! Ah heard about yoah pretty
li'l roommate," Patsy said with a
wink. "Hubba hubba." She nudged
Channa with her elbow.

  Channa cleared her throat, stuck
the light-pencil over one ear and
took a sip of her coffee. Ghastly'
she thought. "Simeon told me that
'hubba hubba' meant 'sexy lady.' "

  "Did he? WelL when he says it, it
probably does. No, really, itjest
means somethin' sexy, anythin' sexy.
What, is up to the beholder." Patsy
rose onto her toes and clicked her
heels together a couple of times. "Ah
think Simeon-Amos is sexy," she said
teasingly.

  "Right now you'd think taffy was
sexy," Channa said repressively.

"Oooh, yeah, ya can puulll it . . ."

"Patsy!"

  "Loosen up, girl! If ya get too
tense, all yore hair falls out.
Doncha know that?" She grinned and
waved as she got offon her floor.

  "Damn," Channa said, leaning
against the wall. The padding held a
faint trace of Patsy's body heat.
"It's been entirely too long since I
went to work with a smile like that."

  "Great Lord, we cannot determine
whether the craR we pursue left the
area of the station or not," Baila
said, tugging at the cupid's bow of
her lower lip.

  Belazir tapped a meditative thumb
against his lower lip. "Why not?" he
said mildly.

  The technical officer swallowed.
"There is too much traffic here,
lord. Individual trails fade in the
background clutter."

  Belazir raised his brows, the only
outward sign of an icy stab of
concern. According to their best
calculations, the way the fugitive
ship had been pushingits engines, it
should have blown itself to a ball of
plasma and f~gments long before now.
Granted that, in the old days,

214 AnneMcCaf~ PRISM. Sting

ships had been built to last, still
. . . If, by unforeseeable fortune,
they reached a well-traveled zone
first, the unthinkable could happen.
The Clan would be in danger. He
would be in even more danger from
the rest ofthe Clan.

  "Computer," he said, the
command-voice that slaved its
attention to him. "Extrapolation:
the vector ofthe prey, matched
against last definite location and
possible destinations, as updated
from the chartlogs ofthat captured
merchantman."

  A spray of possibilities flicked
out in the 3-D tank. "Now, eliminate
all those that would require more
than four days' transit from last
known location."

  AU faded but one. "Ah, that
station," he said. It was the most
probable search vector in any case.
"We must continue the pursuit.
Comments?" he asked the other
captains' faces. They were present
by halo, a ghostly ring of faces on
the shadowed command-couches of
their respective bridges, similar to
the Bnde's.

  Aragiz t'Varak, of the Age of
Darkness; Zhengir t'Marid, of the
Rumal Strangler, in the old tongue
Pal t'Veng, of the Shark, old and
scarred and the only woman among
them, the only one with an inde-
pendent command in the Clan fleet.
Enemies and rivals; his ability to
make them move in concert was
another test the Clanfathers
imposed. That which does not kill
us, makes usst~onger, he reminded
himself.

  "Captains and kin," Belazir said.
"You have the data We must decide
whether to continue the pursuit, or
break on My recommendation is that
we continue."

  Aragiz's face pushed forward,
tensing like an eagle held byjesses
to a hostile wrist. "Ifyou had not
stopped to loot, we would be closer
on the preys tmil," he said sharply.

  Pol cut through his words with a
snort. "Irrelevant. We must continue
the mission."

Belazir nodded at her.

ME CI~YWElO FouGHT 215

  "I donotlikeit," Polsaidin her
gutturalrumble. She was known to be
a canny and prudent commanders.
"Something is just slightly out of
kilter." She made a rocking gesture
with the claw-scarred hand.

  Belazir considered her remark. What
had that con tractor one of the ones
the Clan fenced loot to
occasionally said? "There are bold
pirates, and old pirates) but there
are no old, bold pirates."

  "Sell," she went on, "the balance
of risk is clear. We must know if the
prey reached this station. To do
that, we must take it in our fist."

"And if it did?"Aragiz said.

  "We kill send a message torpedo to
the fleet, and we run," Pol said.
''With as little as one week's lead,
we can lose the Navy among the stars
and dust. Nothing is lost save time..

  "And the effort we putinto subduing
Bethel!"Aragiz snapped. "Stopping for
that mewban~ "

  "Was irrelevant and consumed no
significant expense of timer" Belazir
said. "In any case, there is a
substantial chance nothing was left
alive on the preyship by the time it
reached this station. If it did reach
them. In which case, there is the
station itself."

  "Ah," Zhengir said. He was a close
relative, and a man offew words. "A
target of great opportunity."

"Risky," Pol said, rubbing her chin.

  "We come in fast at the limits of
their sensor capacity and launch
hyper-velocity anti-red missiles to
knock out their communications,"
Belazir said. "We pulse our engines
to jam subspace for the time
required. It will look natural to
those who come to investigate later.
A black hole evaporating, or some
such."

"HU]II\~"

  Pol rasped a hand over the horrible
keloid scars that furrowed one half
of her face. Since cosmetic repair
would be easy enough, Belazir
suspected she kept them as an
affectation. But with those scars,
even the

216 A7rneMcC~ir'ESM.St~g

most arrogant seldom remembered that
Pol was a woman. Those grooves had
been made by the claws of an animal
which Pol had subsequendy strangled
with her bare hands. She wore its
tanned hide around her shoulders.

  "Hmmm," she said again. "That
would be minimumrisk strategy.
However, we cannot find out if the
prey reached the station if we
obliterate tile station. We must tee
sure dlatno warning ofus has gone
out. Ondleodher hand, a swift raid,
catching diem unawares, would dis-
cover tile trudh and we can act
accordingly. "

  "Taking with us whatever dhe
station holds," Belazir said,
grinning avariciously. Greed was
quickly kindled, since everyone knew
what the merchant ship had yielded:
the merest trifle in comparison to
what a full station would render up.
"Depending on what we find, we might
even have time to call for the
Clan's transports to come and haul
the loot. Even what we could load on
our frigates makes a raid more than
worth our while."

  Agreement rolled around dhe circle
widh the exception of Aragiz.
Belazir quirked a brow at him. After
criticizing his commander for sloth,
he could not be behindhand now.

  "Attack, then," Belazir concluded.
The others nodded. "Tactical
instructions follow. Confirm on
receipt."

Several of Simeon-Amos's instructors
were female.

  Woof, Simeon thought. Thin, plain
and severely ascetic in middle-age,
Flimma Torkin blossomed visibly as
Simeon-Amos bowed over her hand.

  Her smile died a few minutes
later. He appeared to be hovering
attentively, but . . .

"Mr. Sierra Nueva "

"Simeon-Amos," he said.

"Will you please listen to what I'm
saying? As station

ME C~YWHO FOUGHT 217

head, you should have some knowledge
of how our communications
systemfunctions."

"I am sorry," he said meekly.

  lads should be An, Simeon mused.
The rest of the session went much
more smoothly, although several
timesAmos absently caned the
communications chiefaama.

  Nonstandard. Simeon thought the
computer into action; a few nanos
later it came up with a probable do,
from the languages other than
Standard spoken among the first
settlers of BetheL plus observation
ofthe refugees.

  name: aunt, auntie. Probable
meanings: female authority figure
from childhood, nurse, teacher
[primary].

  "That didn't go too badly," Amos
commented as Flimma left.

  "You learn quickly," Simeon said:
sufficiently true as well as polite
encouragement.

  Meanwhile, Simeon had been busily
switching assignments. The assistant
power chiefwas really the logical
person to briefAmos. The fact that
Holene Jagarth was stacked and less
than thirty was irrelevant; at least
to Simeon and anyone else dealing
with her as an expert on plasma
containment.

  Twenty minutes later she stood,
ominously silent for a moment, then
turned to the pillar.

  "Tabi to him, Simeon. Or send him
around to my place for recreational
dud, but in the meantime I have Cot
to dol" Holene said in a terse voice,
turned on her heel and stalked for
the corridor.

  Amos blinked in astonishment. "What
was the matter with her?" he asked
plaintively.

  "Them," Simeon said, and watched
Amos turn back toward the training
display they'd been using. "I wonder
if you could ted me, what role do
women play in Bethel society?"

218 A=neMcC~S~. S - ng

  "Role7" The question seemed almost
meamngless to him. "They are
mothers, of course; daughters,
sisters, wives. They keep the home,
raise dhe children, follow gende
skills such as medicine and
painting, the writing of novels and
poetry." He looked puzzled. "What do
you mean?"

  "I was wondering if, perhaps, women
played a more subservient role on
Bethel."

  "Subservient? No, of course not!
Bedhel has, as yet, a very srnal1
population. Therefore, to us, dhe
bearing and raging of children is
tile highest calling a woman may
attain. We revere our modlers, and
we feel that women and children are
to be protected and nurtured."

  He frowned, mildly indignant.
"There are exceptional cases, such
as Channa. And I have never been one
ofthose who dank Blat women should
keep to dhe inner rooms and stay
silent in the presence of men. That
is old-fashioned and ridiculous.
Why, some of my primary associates
in the New Revelation were women! I
feel as dhough you are telling me
Blat respect is disrespectful."

  "Not at all," Simeon said
soothingly, "but I think you may be
confusing respect wide
condescension." Amos' face took on
dhe set look it had worn through the
last half of his dinner with Channa.
"A lithe less patting on dhe hand,
Simeon-Amos. You give them dhe
impression dlat you claim authority
because of your gender."

  "No, no," Amos exclaimed, throwing
up his hands in rejection. "If I
have an aura of authority, it is
because of my position on Bedhel.
Birth aside, I am a.iunior member of
the ruling council. I rule the
family estates, of course. I have
been an administrator for several
years now." He smiled in a confiding
manner. "Although, I have found that
women react differendy to my orders.
I do not deny chat I find it simpler
to work wide men." He gave a
negligent shrug. "There is no
problem of seduction between men."

ME CI~IY WHO Eit)UGHT 219

  Well, he's cork at least, Simeon
thought. Make he needs to cling to
whacker ego-conf~r~n~on he's got,
smce he's so displaced.

  "Do you realize," the brain said
coldly, "that you've just patronized
me? Based on your belief that you're
such a treat for anyone to deal with?
I'm a part of this culture. You're
not. I know these people, you don't.
I run this station and have been
running it since before you existed,
and will be running it centuries
after you're dead. And I'll be
running this station throughout this
emergency while you're only pretend-
ing to. So listen up! You're treating
your women instructors as if they're
only adequate until someone real,
meaning male, arrives to take over.
Well, the experts herejust happen to
be female! We're short of time, so
I'm going to pay you the compliment
of expecting you to be able to adjust
to that alien concept. We need you to
be one of us. We need you to forget
about Bethel for the time being.

  "I knowhowmuchwe'reaskingofyou,
Simeon-Amos," he concluded, his voice
less stern and more understanding,
"butyou'reaskingustotrustyou
withourlives."

  Amos gasped, his eyes wide with a
mixture of embarrassment, puzzlement
and astonishment.

  Oh, Bugle, Simeon thought. Channa
novas ram. I do have the sensitivity
of a demolition charge. Seventy-seven
of Amos' followers had died fleeing
Bethel. And, being the conscientious
sort of leader Simeon had seen him
be, he probably had them marching
through his dreams at night, asking,
"Why?"

  "Sorry," Simeon said,
"thatwasbadlyphrased. Look, I need to
know if you can do this. I need to
know now. You'll be dealing with
Channa, under her authority, daily.
I'm not going to waste time. If we
have to replace you with someone who
doesn't have the same hangups you
have, then six hours is all we can
afford to waste on a false start.
Now, can you or can't you?"

220 Am~eMcCaff - &, S.M. Sting

  Amos put a hand to his brow. 70
depended on me, and they died, ran
through his mind like a prayer
response. Followed by: No. I saved
some, who would otherwise have died.
And Bethel mayyet live, That ?S 1~ of it.

  "I have never yet failed to
accomplish a thing thee I have set
out to do," he said grimly. He
touched head and heart with two
fingers as he bowed to Simeon's
column. "Would you be so good as to
convey my apologies to the lady who
hasjust leer?"

  "No, but Ill be happy to show you
how to call her so that you can tell
her yourself." Simeon watched Amos'
Adam's apple bob as he swallowed
hard.

  "Of course," Amos said with a
strained smile. "That would probably
be best."

        ~ C}IAI~ERTHIRI13:EN

This is worse than the
capta~ns'meeting, Simeon thought. It
was absolutely amazing that so
little rumor had leaked out. In that
alone was an indication that they

  ht be able to bring the whole
thing off. SSS-900-C personnel had
an uncanny instinct for keeping
their mouths shut when silence was
more than golden.

  Not so at this meeting, where
everyone was sounding off barring
Channa and Amos and no one was
listening to a word being said.

  The meeting was being held in the
largest auditorium on the station.
Aim thank Ghu, Simeon thought with
relief, is not nearly large enough
to hold all of the station's
population. The sensible had stayed
in their quarters watching the whole
spectacle on halo. The skeleton crew
now running the station would have
their own briefing later.Just as wed
I didn't bother to activate
soundirofn the pr~equarters'screens,
he thought wearily. He was getting a
good enough cross section of opinion
right here. For the f irst tone in
myth e, I than ad like to be able to
sleep Hugh something.
Icanalwaysturntheaudio off . . . No,
that's useless.

  He contacted Channa on the
implants in her mastoid. "This was a
mistake. We should have briefed
their counsel-reps, who would have
briefed their aides, and so on. This
could build panic to critical mass."
For some reason the shouting in the
auditorium rose to a higher pitch.
"Or simply get so loud the noise
shakes the station to pieces and
saves the damn pirates the trouble."

  "Hindsight," she said softly, "is
always soclear.Actually, they look
more angry than frightened to me.
I've gotten

222 ArmcMcCa~ ~S.M.S~

more used to the smell of fear than
I like, but the ambience here has a
different reck. Of course,
Ican'thear what they're saying,
they're all yelling so loud."

  Simeon picked out phrases from the
uproar with directional sensors:

". . . those goddamned assholesin~at
colony ship . . ."

  a . . . yeah, how many ways are
they going to try to get us killed .
. ."

  " . . . where's the damned Navy?
That's what I want to know. They
cripple us with taxes and . . ."

  " . . . this is crazy. They don't
even know this is what's gonna
happen? Meanwhile, I'm sittin' here
rosin' money.... what do they expect
us to do?"

  "WHAT DO WE EXPECT YOU TO DO?"
Simeon asked in a tone that overrode
the babble. He added in a stew of
subsonics intended to stun and
intimidate. The noise dropped off
abruptly, pleasing him.

  "For starters, shut up and listen!"
he suggested in a reasonable tone.
"We expect you to take the emergency
seriously, to listen to instructions
and to carry them out." He paused
for a moment to let that sink in
"This meeting will give you what you
need to know on how to handle
yourselves during the anticipated
emergency. Remember, whet you
don'tknow, you can's reveal. From
this point on, I remind you that
rumor helps the enemy, not you or
me, and not this station.

  "Ifyou hear something you think is
a rumor, report it to your section
leader, who's the same person who
leads your ordinary emergency
evacuation team. If it's true and it
concerns your safety, he'll know
about it. If he hasn't heard it, he
can check with me and I'll confirm
or deny it. I will tell you the
truth. Do not spread rumors.
Remember that. We fully expect
shortly to be occupied by an enemy
force which has a very bad
reputation for space piracy."

  Echel Mckie, station newscaster,
waved both alms for attention.
Simeon acknowledged him.

THE CITY WHO FouGHT 223

  "Pirates?" he asked. "Look, is this
another one of your damned games,
Simeon?"

  "Absolutely not. This is as real as
death. They'll be here in less than
three days. We've notified Central
and the Navy, who assure us that a
rescue mission is already under way.
But it won't be here before the
pirates are likely to arrive.
Therefore this station and its
personnel must initiate such delaying
tactics as possible. 1b stay alive!"
That silenced the last bit of
muttering.

  "Why weren't we told this earlier?
Every ship has left  we're stuck
herel" Mckie's face was a study in
outrage.

  Channa moved forward to the front
ofthe dais. "You weren't told because
we used the available space to
evacuate children and the sick," she
said crisply. "Any objections to
that, Mr. Mckie?"

  "As I said," Simeon went on, "we
are not only expecting to be
occupied, we are hoping we Al be." He
paused again to see that they had
absorbed that distinction. He was
proud of his people! They got it in
one! Shocked pale faces now accepted
what he did not, after all, have to
spell out.

  "Listen up now. These are your
station manager's orders. Don't offer
direct resistance. Cooperate whenever
necessary but don't volunteer
anything. We expect that most of the
enemy won't speak Standard, so
misunderstand when you can. Make your
answers as brief as possible, when
you can't be silent. If you don't
know, say so, but do not tell them
who does know. Stay in your quarters
as much as possible. Keep your
emergency suits ready to use. Listen
to information passed to you by your
group leaders rather than anything
you may hear over the via. Remember,
we're on your side. They won's be.

  "Finally," he said, "this is
Simeon-Amos." Amos stood up and bowed
politely. "This is the only Simeon on
the station. He is co-manager with
Channa Hap, the term

224 Am~eMcGaf~ SUM. Sty

Simeon means co-manager. We have a
longstanding tradition of having the
male station managers carrying that
name. It's in honor of one of the
first station managers. There is no
begun or brawn on this station,
there never has been. Shellpersons
are only used on ships."

  He paused to gauge their reaction,
studying their grim faces. "Ifthey
don't know about me, I'll be able to
continue running the station
unimpaired literally behind the
scenes. If they disconnect me firm
the station and they will, if they
find out about me we're all in
trouble. So, as of now and for the
duration, I don't exist. This is
Simeon-Amos, your station
co-manager."

  Amos smiled and nodded. The
audience had that stillness of
about-to-boil-over. Faces began to
reflect expressions now; mild alarm,
disbelief, skepticism.

  "This . . . this bachoorld mudfoot
is supposed to manage us in an
emergency?" somebody said, with all
the hauteur of the space-born. Amos'
head went back, and he stared down
his classical Grecian nose with ten
generations of aristocrats behind
his eyes.

  "Topretend to run things," Simeon
said. "Furthermore, he wlunte~red to
front for mel Not a role you'd get
many to take under the
circumstances," he added, and got a
few snorts of agreement. "So, before
anyone frets over Simeon-Amos'
leadership qualifications, I'd like
to replay the man in action. The
tape's authentic. I've checked it."
Nobody could do that better than a
brain.

  What Simeon screened for them then
were shots that he had accessed from
Guiyonfs files. Itbegan when a wail
flashed with intolerable brightness,
then diminished to show troops in
black combat armor trotting down a
burning street of brick-and-timber
buildings. The sensor was pitched
low, looking up from a half-basement
window or a hole in the ground.
Across the way, a human figure hung
out of a window,

IlIE C:IIYWl10 FOUGHT 225

long black braids trailing in a pool
of blood on the sidewalk. A child's
body lay there too: its crushed skull
suggesting it had been thrown against
the wall.

  The screen was abruptly blank. Then
lit up again with a dimmer scene.

  Ames' recorded voice cut through
the blurr-roar of flames. "Now," he
said.

  The picture shook as the ground
heaved, and the burring walls
cascaded across the street, drowning
the black figures in a tide of brick
and flaming timbers and glass. Other
figures darted forward, Bethelites
tojudge by their rough, improvised
uniforms. When the first power-quits
began to claw their way out of the
rubble, the defenders were ready.
Amos was unmistakably leading them,
an industrial jetcutter in his hands.
He plunged it down on the massive
sloped helmet that jerked itself free
of the ruins, and helm and head
exploded in steam.

  The screen jerked, a different
scene coming into abrupt focus: a
manor-house among formal gardens,
only a few scorch-marks on its walls.
Invader infantry stood at their ease;
the picture had the slightly glassy
look of a flatpic extrapolated by a
long-distance camera. Armored
fighting vehicles rested in leagues
on the lawns, their cannon pointing
outward in a herringbone pattern,
lighter weapons on their upper decks
tracking restlessly across the sky.
An aircraft slowed overhead. Bulky
armored shapes disembarked, one in a
suit marked with complex blazons in
a script of angles and sharp curves.

  The viewpoint zoomed in, as a group
of young women in long robes were
pushed out of the front door of the
manor, many carrying bundles. They
knelt under the alien guns; one
opened the chest she carried, filled
with miniature crystal vials. She
smiled, gesturing to the bottles,
opening one and smelling, extending
it to the warrior in the decorated
suit. From

226 Am~eMoCaffi~ SAM. Strong

her looks she was about sixteen
Standard years and very beautiful,
with the classic features similiar
to Amos'. The pirate raised both
gauntlets to his helmet, lifted it
free and tucked it under one arm,
bending to sniff. The exposed face
was scored with age, roughened skin
pockmarked by radiation damage,
blossoming growths, thinning blond
hair startling against dark
complexion. It smiled . . .

  Leery, Simeon thought, reviewing
the scene. I,w I, b
anever~Uyseen~co~o~mge~p~=s~07z ~
noun

  The view of the pirate's face was
brief. Even as he bent, a red dot
appeared between his brows. Less
than a second later, his head
exploded into mist.

  The body stayed erect in the
armored suit, blood pumping in a
high arc from dhe stump ofthe neck.
The girl widh tile perfume box
stood, smiling truly tills time as
dhe blood bathed her. Until one of
the ocher warriors stepped forward
and, gripping her head in a powered
gauntlet, squeezed. Her head burst
in a spray of pink bone and gray
matter. The other girlsjoined hands
and were singing when the plasma gun
scythed them into ash and strata.

Someone in dhe hall was retching;
several sobbed.

  "For dhe deadh of that Kolnar, I
claim only the marksmanship," Amos
said, his archaic accent adding
gravity to his clear tone. "The
bravery was my sister's. Sahrah led
dhe maiden volunteers. I did not
know what she had planned. I was
frying to reach dhe manor before the
enemy could. We think . . . we think
dolt dead dog was fourth or Oh in
rank among the pirates."

  All heads turned to him; his was
slightly bowed. "Such was Bethel,
when dhe Kolnari came to us," he
said. "They have dhe souls of " he
spoke a nonstandard word.

"Rats," Simeon said.

" rats that walk like men. They kill
for killing's

THEHYWHO FOUGHT 22 7

sake, they rape and torture and
steal, and what they cannot steal,
they fouloutofdepraviq."

  Another halo came up. "Keriss,"
Amos said. There was total silence
now. A city by a bay, astride a
river, lower-built than the worlds
influenced by Central's architectural
styles, bright-colored buildings amid
broad gardens. A scattering of taller
buildings at its center, and one that
led the eye up and up in a leap of
towers and domes.

  "The Temple," Amos said. "This was
a remote pit kup, a news-service
shot,justbefiore the end."

  White light flashed. The city
dissolved as the bulging donut shape
of the shockwave billowed out. The
slow scene gave it a terrible grace;
trees exploding into flame under the
heat-fiash and scattering as less
than splinters an instant later, the
water of the bay beginning to flaw
and swell into a wave taller than the
hills.

"So died Keriss," Amos whispered.

  "I'm not calling wolf this time,"
Simeon said, matching that same tone.
"Ifanyone doubts, speak now."

  He let the ensuing silence echo.
"Does anyone think they're better
equipped to play me than Simeon-Amos
is?" No one gainsaid him. "This
emergency is all too real. Until help
arrives, we're going to have to rely
on each other. I believe we can do
that," he said confidently. "If you
weren't pretty brave and independent
sorts of individuals, you wouldn't be
on a station anyway. You'd be on a
planet somewhere trying to figure out
how to get the bugs offyour
vegetables."

  This got more of a chuckle than it
deserved, he thought, but they needed
the release from tension.

Channa rose, ubiquitous notescreen in
hand.

  "There will be a meeting for
council members at two," she
announced, "and there will be a
meeting of evacuation group leaders
at four. Subsequent to those
meetings, evacuation groups
themselves will meet at times
appointed by the group leaders. We
aren't going

 228 Anne McCourt ~ SM. S ngl

to take questions because we're now on a need-toknow basis. We
thank you for your cooperation. Ladies and gentlemen, this
meeting is adjourned."

  "Right, listen up, you crap-headed rock hounds," Gus bellowed.

  The noise level in the docking chamber fell fairly quickly.
Stands to reason, he thought. These were working spacers, not
data-pushers and entertainers. About fifty ofthem glared up at
kiln as if he'd thought up this little crisis himself. The
shapes of the tugs and miners in the interior dock bulked at
their backs, huge and shadowy with all but one of the overheads
turned on That cast a puddle of light over the assembled pilots
and crew. He had staged the meeting this way at Simeon's
suggestion, to make them feel like a group.

  "You know what's coming down," he said, making his voice
intense without making it loud. "All our shipping with
interstellar capacity has been moved out."

  "Not all," one of the miners said, running a hand over her
luridly tattooed head.

  "Can it, Shabla. You can do maybe ten lights, scouting for
minerals. That won't get you to the next system."

She shrugged, grinning at those ranged about her.

  "What we've got leftis the tugs," said Gus, "and some mining
scouts. It isn't much, against four frigate-class warships."

  "It's fardling nothing," another said. "Unless you want us to
ram 'em?" The man didn't think much of that idea even as he
voiced it.

  Ramming was not completely out of the question; if you cut
something heading toward you at high speeds into smaller pieces,
you were just multiplying your troubles. You had to blast it
into gas, or deflect it, before you were safe. They all
understood the principle, and the limitations.

THE If FOUGHT 229

  "Ramming's not on," Gus said,
shaking his head even as he gave them
a sly grin. "Not when we lose to any
beam-weapon they care to turn on us.
But," and he waited until a schematic
of a standard tug came up on the
screen behind him, "what has a tug
got? A bid normal-space engine and a
great big power plant, and a fardlin'
humongous grapnel field. Mining
scout's about the same, only with a
sampling laser. So there isn't much
sense in us getting into slugging
matches with warships." He caught the
universal sigh of relief that wafted
about the bay. "But " and he held up
one gnarled finger " there am things
we can do."

  Then he outlined the changes needed
on the screen behind him. Gratified
and slightly vulpine grins replaced
frowns even when he explained the
strategy to be effected by such
alterations.

  "Hey, wait," Shabla said. "I got a
husband two, actually on this tin
can. You want me to leave 'em here
while the place is taken over?"

  "Exactly," Gus said, giving her
stare for stare. "What the crap could
you do for 'em here? Get your head
kicked in? Start a firelight in a
corridor and blow the pressure hull?
Out there, we've got a chance to do
something worthwhile for all our
skins. We've all got someone here, or
nearly all of us. This is what we can
do for 'em. Who's with me?"

The cheer was more nearly a howl.

  He's really much more attractroe
when he Isn't *yin" to be, Channa
thought dismally. And when he's
really wording. Which he was, now.

"And it's been so long, " she
murmured to herself.

  Amos turned to look at her, his
brow furrowed in concern. "Something
troubles you, Channa?" He gunned.
"Besides, thatis,
ourpossiblyimrninentdemise?"

  She gave him a jaundiced smile. He
would non that, she thought, just
when I was getting involved

230 AnneMc~ ~S-M. S - ng

enough not to think about it. Well,
smce we mint all die, why not take
the plunge?

"This is beginning to get to me. I
feel so . . . so alone."

  His eyes kindled, and a lovely
feathery warmth tickled her lower
belly. Her smile spread to a grin,
and he rose from his place and came
to sit beside her, their thighs
lightly touching. He took her hand
in both of his.

  Ooooo, she thought. If this one
were on the holes, there wouldn't be
a dry seat in the house.

  "You're not alone! I'm here," he
said, his voice rich with sympathy.

  An hour later, things had
progressed to the point where they
had drifted into Channa's quarters
arm in arm. And damn Simeon's
opinion, Channa thought. lam gowgto
enjoy myself.

  They were both three-quarters
undressed and a lot warmer when
Simeon imitated the sound of a knock
on the door and shouted from the
lounge.

  "Simeon-Amos, Rachel's here." The
voice was flatly neutral, but Channa
savagely thought she could detect a
suppressed giggle.

  "What!" Amos shrieked softly as
they both sat bolt upright.

  "Here?" Channa demanded. "What do
you mean, here?"

  "She's in the corridor outside,"
Simeon said cheerfully. "Should I
let her in?"

  "Just a moment," Amos said
desperately, leaping from the bed
and frantically grabbing up clothes.

  "That's mine," Channa said,
rescuing her shirt from the pile.

  Amos bolted from the room, opened
the door to his quarters, flung his
clothes in and ran to the door.
Realizing he was in his underpants,
he ran back to his room, grabbed his
robe, and struggled to pull it over
his head as he staggered back to the
lounge. The arms

THE CITY WHO FouGHT231

seemed to knot and tangle so
deliberately, he wondered if the robe
had turned animate and was resisting.
Amos made desperate, despairing
little sounds.

  Channa rolled her eyes, sighed, and
headed for the bathroom. "Cold water,
pulsed, shower," she told the
fixtures. As if I need one with
Rachel at the door, she thought.

  Amos took a deep breath, finally
pulling the robe down over his body.

  "Why am I agitated?" he asked
himself "I do not have to account for
my actions. There is no one in
authority over me." On the other
hand, Rachel could make an
unfortunate scene. At least there
would be no outraged father, brother,
uncle, or cousin likely to break in
with a huntingrifle and blow off the
offending equipment.

  He opened the door. He hopped
backward just in time to avoid a blow
from Rachel's fist, aimed at the
lounge doors. "Rachel!" he snapped.

  She stood glaring at him. She was
breathing fast, her nostrils flaring,
a sheen of sweat across the pale
olive of her skin.

"What are you doing here?" she
demanded.

He looked at her in astonishment.

  "You know perfectly well what I am
doing here," he said. He had himself
sufficiecdy under control now to
speak with his usual gentle
authority, and he could see her
purpose falter "I am living in dhe
manager's quarters because I am to be
a co-manager of dhe station. I'm
studying very hard and constantly to
be worthy of dais honor. I have told
you dais. I told everyone." He let
his eyes widen slighdy in unaffected
innocence.

  She narrowed her eyes. "It is true,
Amos, that you told everyone. But,
you did nottellme!"

"All right," he said soothingly, "all
right, come in."

232 AIMS S=. Sew

He placed his hands delicately on
her shoulders and steered her to the
couch. "Sit!"

  She looked first at hen, then at
the couch as though she suspected
some trap before she cautiously
folded herself down to the cushioned
surface. Looking up at him, she
patted the place beside her.

"You sit down, too," she insisted.

"You win have some refreshment?"

"No. I win have an explanation."

  He drew over a straight-backed
chair, placed it in front of her and
sat down. Her eyes widened and she
sat up straighter, looking, if
possible, even more affronted than
she had been.

  "I am sorry," he said, "if I have
offended you, but I have been very
busy." Unspoken was the inference
that she should be also, helping to
brief the Bethelites and settle them
into their temporary roles. "I told
Joseph about our plans, and I
assumed that he would explain
everything to you."

  "Oh!" she said sarcastically, "You
told Joseph. WeU, then of course
there was no need to enlighten me!
He could tell me whatever he pleased
of your plans and that would have
been sufficient. Then I could go to
sleep this night, knowing that you
had moved in with that blackhearted
slut-bitch, with an untroubled
heart"

  "Rachel hint Danzsc~r' he said
sharply. "You forget yourself"

  She raised both fists above her
head and shouted, "It is not I who
disport with the daughters ofthe
heathen, an act forbidden by every
scripture! Nor is itJoseph's place
to tell me of what we do. It is
yours, yours alone! Are we not to be
betrothed?"

  He stared at her in shock. "No," he
said in blank astonishment.
"Whatever gave you that idea?"

She blinked. 'No?"

"No," he repeated, shaking his head
in the negative.

AU of the color drained from her
face and he could

IlIE CrrYWHo FOUGHT 233

see the white of her eyes all around
the iris. She breathed in and out
through her nose with a sound like
tearing silk. She trembled. She tried
to speak and only a garbled sound
came out, then she said in a grating
voice, "She has seduced you."

  "No," he said and shook his head
again, waving both his hands in the
same negative gesture, but his eyes
slid away from hers.

  "Always," she said harshly, "from
the time we first met, I knew that
you were mine. Mine!"

  "No," he said. "You are meant for
Joseph, who has always loved you. He
will make you happy, and he wants
you." He forced his voice to
gentleness. She has become
unbalanced, he thought desperately.
Of all the times for such a thing to
happen! He had thought her only a
little more given to hysteria than
most of her sex, but something had
changed her; perhaps the trauma of
the attack, perhaps the massive drug
dosages they had been forced to use
on the trip.

  Her eyes widened still until the
whites showed all around the iris. He
had heard of such things, but never
seen them, except once when an
ancient hermit had gone into a trance
and prophesied.

  I should have paid more attention
to my frrst-aid training, he thought
ruefully. Perhaps then he would know
how to deal with her instability.
Whatever her faults, she had
sacrificed much to follow him. She
had been invaluable in the chaotic
scramble of the last days on Bethel.
My dearfri~nd, I havefailed you.

  "He wants me," she said in the same
low growl. "And you do not?" Her
mouth twisted, and she bit her lip as
she turned her head from side to side
and nodded several times. Abruptly
she rose and was out the door before
he could rise from his chair.

  He grabbed his hair in both of his
hands and pulled. "Arrughh! Simeon,"
he asked, "whet have I done?"

"Pissed off Rachel, I'd say."

234 ArmeMcCa~ For SM. Strung

  Amos sighed, then groaned. "No," he
said despairingly, "I have done
worse than that. I allowed myselfto
be talked out of doing what I knew
was right. I knew in my heart that
she should be evacuated, butJoseph
asked me to let her stay. Perhaps I
gave you the wrong answer today, my
friend. Perhaps I cannot play this
role if I am so easily comanced to
go agauIst my better judgement."

"You thoughtJoseph could keep her in
line?"

  "Yes. I hoped that, because he
would be nearby and considerate
other, she would turn more to trim
endless toward me."

  "Not a bad reasoning," Simeon
replied truthfully. "Sending her
away might break whatever hold she
has on reality."

  Amos looked unreassured and more
miserable clan ever. He might tee a
good-looking man, but he sure had
cornered dhe supply of gloomy looks.

  "Today, you have said quite
correcdy that you are older than I,
and also that in many ways you are
wiser. Today I should have been the
wiser." He shook his head
sorrowfully and shuffled into his
room like an old marl

  Well, Simeon thought, what an
interesting evening! Looks like the
forecast for true love is not
smooth. Such marvelous material for
teasing Channa. So tempting to see
how she'd react. No! He had to keep
his mind on more important doings.
Like blat Rachel. The girl had shot
out of dolt interview widh Amos as
if she'd lost her rag. Better keep
an eye on he'; he told himself. And
-so should Doctor Chaundra, if
he'sgot the tine. Most acute mental
illness was chemical, or could be
adjusted with the judicious use of
neutralizing chemicals.

  Widh a weary woof, Doctor Ghaundra
sat at his desk and, setting his
coffee cup in She most spill-proof
area available in dhe surface
clutter, he keyed up his malt It

WEIl: WHO FOUGHT 235

had been two days since he'd had an
opportunity to look at it.
Twenty-five attempted suicides, four
of them among the refugee Bethelites
who chose gruesomely old-fashioned
methods. One had actually harmed her-
selPl Good in one respect: easier to
revive, although there might be some
memory loss from oxygen deprivation,
and he'd have to use a nerve-shunt.
The sight of that bloated,
blue-tinged face with the protruding
tongue lingered unpleasantly.

  He slipped himselfa calmer; just
one, although the gods alone knew
what it would do with all the
caffeine he'd been absorbing. He had
to get on with this accursed viral
project even if he was a doctor, not
a gene-sculptor! It disturbed him to
deliberately make a virus more
harmful: too much like making
medicine into a weapon. Chaundra had
grown up on a planet where personal
violence was fairly common, and done
his internship in a trauma ward. His
own family came from a pacifist
tradition, and the internship had
confirmed him in it.

At least Seld is out ofthis, he
thought with relief

  The first message was yet another
requisition for calmers. He signed it
out; the organosynth machines were
going to be running overtime. Would
pirates take notice of supernatural
calm? The doctor smiled ruefully at
that and told the machine to show him
the next message. It was flagged
persona!, which was odd. He began to
read.

  His heart stumbled; he could feel
the pain in his chest quite
distinctly, but it seemed distant and
unimportant. Vision grayed down to a
tunnel; it was long minutes before he
could speak.

At last he managed to croak "Simeon?
Simeon!"

"What is it, Chaundra?"

  Idon't like the way he looks. The
sound of the doctor's voice had been
sufficiently worrisome for Simeon to

236 Ar~neMcCo~ PRISM.ti1g

activate visuals. The doctor was
visibly tired but, considering the
work load he was pushing, fatigue
would be normal. Nor unusual for
Chaundra who tended to push himself
If Simeon had been capable of
experiencing fatigue, he would be
knackered right now. The slightly
built dark man was gray-faced with
sweat beading his forehead. Simeon
ran a diagnostic program; not good.
Extreme stress, to the point of
endangering the man's health.
Chaundra was not young anymore, and
had endured some very hostile
environments in his career. Not to
mention the current problem.

  "This message . . ." and Chaundra
managed to point to his screen.

DearDad Simeon read.

  "Why on earth didn't this trip my
watchman programs I'll haveJoat's
hide for this, by God!"

   I couldn't go, [m sorry. I hope
you can understand and forgive me,
but if anything rvere to happen to
you and I wasn't there, ad
neverforgive myself I have to be
here, because Mom can't be. I
loveyou.

Seld.

  "Oh!" Simeon paused in full
comprehension of Chaundra's state of
mind. "But didn't you put him on....

  "No," Chaundra said, in a voice
drained of affect. "He was in line,
almost to the lock. Then I received
a bleep message the most urgent of
codes. Seld said I must answer. He
understood that. We embraced, said
good-bye and I left him there."

  Chaundra flopped one hand over
weakly, unable for more effort than
that. "He was practically on the
ship. How the hell did this happen?"

  "I'm SolTy. I've too good an ideal"
Simeon told him. "I'll try to find
out where that wicked young rascal
is right now." He didn't mean Seld,
but did not qualify his term. After
a moment's pause he came up blank.
"I'm

IME crrywHo FOUGHT 237

not finding him, so he's well hidden
wherever he is. That should be some
consolation, Chaundra," he said in a
firmly reassuring tone. "If I can't
find him, neither can our expected
visitors. I'll keep looking. Count on
me for thatl

  Looking anth every eye I oam,
Simeon said grimly. How could the
well-mannered, well-brought up Seld
have fallen for one of Joat's
schemes? And what part would the kid
play in it? And I'm to blame for this
situation and Chaundra's heartache.
Joat had been so eager to learn, and
he'd seen no reason to restrict her
terminal's access to the schematics.
She had been bad enough before this
emergency sent her to cover; now, he
didn't know what she was capable of
doing.

  I've an idiot-savant running feral
in my station, he thought bitterly.
Ten years' precocity in advanced
engineering technics and the morals
of a five-year-old. The selfishness
of small children can be charming,
when they don't have the power to do
much harm. In a nearadult, and a
brilliant near-adult at that, the
possibilities went out of bounds.

  "Well, Seld is here somewhere!"
Chaundra said, recovering himself
enough to shout and to be livid with
rage. "The clock says this message
was entered ten hours after his ship
left!"

  "I know, I see it. Don't worry,
Chaundra. We'll find him."

  "I know we'll find him. What
worries me is that he should hide!
That he is no longer as safe as I
thought he would be by now. Do you
understand? My son could die. My
heart is pounding with the anxiety."

  Simeon ran another quick scan ofthe
station, this tone including
apartments left empty by the
evacuation.

  "Still searching. There are so many
places he could hide and even I
couldn't find him, " he said by way
of read suring Chaundra. "He's a big
strong kid who can handle hiIr~"As
well as any of us, he thought. The
odds for

238 Anne McCann SAM. Sit

anyone on the station were not good,
but there was no point in reminding
Chaundra of that now.

  "No," the doctor said between
clenched teeth, "he isn't a 'big
strong kid,' and he can's handle
himself. He's never going to be
strong. The plague that took his
mother left him with nerve damage."

  "Nerve damage?" Simeon said
incredulously. Regeneration of nerve
tissue was an old technology, and
well understood. Without it,
shellpeople would be impossible, for
the same technique knitted their
nervous systems into the machinery
that supported them and that they
commanded.

  Chaundra shook his head. "I have
done what I could to bypass the
damage, but if he puts too much
strain where the repair exists . .
." His voice trailed off, and when
he raised his face to Simeon's
visual node, he had turned into an
old man.

  "It was a little clinic, you
understand. Mary, she was the
meditech, I the doctor. A new
continent on a new colony world.
Much to do, we were on research
gents. Then people began to die.
There was nothing I could do . . .
They imposed quarantine quarantine,
in this day and age! When I found
what had happened, already it was
too late for Mary. The virus . . .
was a hybrid. A native
virus-analogue combined with a
mutant Terran encephalitis strain.
The native virus wrapped around the
Terran, you understand. So the
immune system could not recognize it
and had no defense. The Terran
element enabled it to parasitize our
DNA.

  "Seld was damaged, on the point of
death. It took three years of
therapy for him to be able to walk
and tank and move as well as he
does."

  Chaundra turned, picking things up
from his desk and putting them down.

  "But he will never be strong. If
they seize him, he'll be as helpless
as someone half his age. There could
be

ME CITY WHO FOUGHT 239

convulsions: stress accelerates the
damage. It is cumulative. Why do you
think I took this position? He must
be near a first-rate facility at all
times. He must not suffer extreme
stress or the effects could snowball
As it is, he will probably not live
much past adulthood."

  Chaundra slumped in his chair,
anger, even anxiety draining out of
him as he-buried his head in his
hands.

  "Then we'll make sure they don't
hurt him," Simeon said grimly. I Fun
let's find him. He's probably
withJoat."

  "Seld's mentioned her." Chaundra's
voice was muffled. "Hehas
manyfriends,butshe sounded. . .
different."

  "She is. Oh, she's different, all
right. And she wouldn't leave,
either. So in a way, you and I are in
the same boat."

  Chaundra rubbed his mouth and chin.
Whiskers rasped; unusual, since he
was normally a fastidious man. "Yes,"
he said and laughed sardonically,
"and the boatis about to leak."

  "Not necessarily." Simeon said
firmly enough to make himselfbelieve
it. "Seld has something else going
for him."

"He has?"

  "Yes. Seld hasJoat, and she's got
such a strong survival instinct that
even if the rest of the station blew,
she'd find a way to stay alive . . .
and keep Seld alive, too. He's
actuary far safer with her than
anywhere else he could be. So I
wouldn't worry about his infirmities,
or stress. Though I hate like hell to
admit it, I can't think of anyone
better qualified to mind him than
Joat!"

  "Seld," Simeon caned. "Seld
Chaundra, come out where I can see
you."

  Joat popped into view rubbing her
eyes, "What are you yellin' about,
Simeon?" she asked, yawning.

  "Send him out, Joat. This is the
only place he can possibly be."

240 Ar~neMcC~ PRISM. S6rEng

Joat crossed her arms and looked
sleepily defiant.

  "Your father is worried, Seld,"
Simon went on. "He sent you away so
that you'd be safe. So you know he's
not really going to kill you for
staying, even though you deserve
it."

  Seld appeared beside Joat, who
shoved him in the shoulder. "Toldja
to stay outta sight!"

  He hung his head and said, "I
know. But I can't let you take my
rap. Mom wouldn'tlike
thatinme.Atleast that's what my dad
says she'd say." He shrugged and
gave her a feeble gnn.

  Joat rolled her eyes. "Do
what'choo want," she said in a
scathing tone, and disappeared.

  "Actually," Simeon told them both,
"I don't see any need to rough
itjust yet. Why not sleep
comfortably while you can, eat what
everyone else is enjoying, because
we're certainly not going to leave
it to the pirates to gobble up. I'd
peer that you hide out when the
pirates arrive. Meanwhile, Seld,
give your dad the benefit of your
company: he needs it. Save your
rations,Joat. Eat with us. Food's
better. For now."

  He picked up her disgusted sigh,
and then she walked into view, arms
still folded, expression still
defiant.

  Simeon warmed to her all over
again. I don't think I was ever than
young, he thought, but, g'kno~ she
makes me wish I could swagger.
"Okayguys, let's go."

         ~ CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  "Very large mass," Baila said,
whispering. "Several score megatons,
at least."

  "You need not lower your voice,"
Belazir said, amused and more so
when several of the bridge crew
jumped. "We are proceeding
stealthed, but sound waves do not
propagate in vacuum."

  He turned to the schematic and
long-range visual views. Im~e
indeed, he thought. Far and away the
largest free-floating construct he
had ever seen. Twin globes, each at
least a thousand meters in extent,
linked by a broad tube. More tubes
at the north and south axis,
evidently for docking large ships,
although none were there at the
moment. Around the station was an
incredible clutter of material:
loose ore, giant flexible balloons
of various substances, radiating
networks, fabricators.

  Large hat soft, he decided. Clue a
huge lump of wellcooked meat,
steaming in its own juices and
touched with garlic, waiting to be
carved into bite-sized pieces. It
was a target so rich that he had
trouble convincing himself of its
reality. Mentally he accepted it,
while his emotions could only kick
in every minute or so, asjolts of
near-orgasmic pleasure. He stretched
like a cat, acutely conscious of the
anticipatory tension beneath the
quiet ordered activity of the
bridge. Everyone in the flotilla
would come out of this a hero. He
couldn't believe this plum could be
snatched away not from the Kolnari
and especially not when he commanded
the Kolnari flotilla! And he,
Belazir t'Marid Kolaren,

242 A7mcMcCo~ ~S.hl. SHrling

would be more than a hero. He would
be placed filmily in the logical
line of succession to Chalku
t'Marid.

  "A pity it is so big," he mused. "A
shame to have to waste any of the
possible plunder." He sighed for, of
course, they would have to destroy
what they could not take.

  The flotilla were warships by
specialty, not cargo carriers. Even
if they had time enough to bring in
the heavy haulers from the Clan
fleet, only the merest tithe of the
goods to be found in this size
station could be transported. On the
other hand, the ecstasy of sheer
destruction had its own euphoria the
knowledge that so much data and
effort could be casually blown to
dust.

"A message torpedo to the fleet?"
Serig asked.

  "You echo my thoughts, Serig,"
Belazir said. "Ready for instant
transmission once we close our fist
on our prey."

  The message sent back with the
captured merchantman would have the
Clan fleet on alert. But the
transports could not yet have
arrived at Bethel, much less landed
there. Rigged for deep-space
running, sufficient ships could be
diverted to assist him without
hindering the effort at Bethel. Say,
ten days' transit from the Saffron
system, to be conservative; two or
three days loading, depending on how
many Father Chalku decided to send.
Then set demolition charges, nice
large ones to leave nothing larger
than gravel. There might well be
prisoners worth taking for skilled
labor. The huge rectangular frame of
a shipyard was now visible on one
side of the station, and that meant
that there would be rare and
valuable slaves to sell.

  With an effort, he restrained
himself from rubbing his hands
together. "Oh, what a surprise they
have in store," he said.

  "Indeed," Serig said. His eyes and
teeth shone in the dim blue lights
of the lodge and his vote was husky,

THE crrrwHo FouGHT243

like a man in the grip of lust.
Which, Belazir reflected, was exactly
what it was. Metaphorically and
literally.

  UKeep your eagerness in chains, my
friend," he said genially. "It is a
good slave but a poor master." He
turned to Baila "What traffic
inbound?"

"None, Great Lord."

"None?" Belazir raised a brow.

  Curious, he thought, a spacesta~on
built in an area near~dwaid of
traffic. 15 it old and due to be
abandoned? Oris it new and as get
rarely used ? A small chill diluted
the perfection of his pleasure. There
were alternatives here; he might be
the hero who brought urun~nable
wealth, or the immortal villain who
revealed the existence of the Clan to
an enemy more powerfi~1 than they.

  He shook his head with a small,
tssh of disgust. Impossible. The
merchantman had been rich with
treasure and it hadjustleft the
station. "Indfications?"

  "Great Lord, the background
radiation is consistent with
large-scale departures over the past
five days." Baila paused, hesitant.
"Lord, it is difficult to be certain,
with the density of the interstellar
medium here. Subspace distortion
damps out very quickly . . ."

  The small chill became fingers of
ice stroking the base of his spine.
His testicles drew up in reflex.

  "I want information, not excuses!"
he said in a harsh voice. "Ready the
seeker missiles." If the accursed
Bethelite cowards had warned the
station prompting the normal traffic
to flee they would destroy it and run
immediately. He was nearly certain he
had crib pled the prey's
communications apparatus in the
pursuit, but "nearly" grilled no
meat. But, if it had escaped, where
was it? Or had the station done his
work for him? A rich station would
have cause to be wary of unexpected
visitors. "Continue stealthed
approach."

  That meant running with the
powerplants down, off accumulator
energy, on a ballistic sublight
approach.

244 AnneMcC~ &~S.M. S - ng

Slow, they would take years to come
near at this speed, but quite safe
at a respectable distance. At any
moment they could power up and close
in swiftly at superluminal speeds.
This was a modification of a tactic
the Clan sometimes used against
merchantmen on the outskirts of a
solar system. And they were close
enough that lightspeed was not much
of a problem for detection purposes.
Briefly, he considered running back
on ETL for a few parsecs, to see if
he could pick up traces of in- or
outbound traffic over the past week.
Then he shook his head, rejecting
that plan. Signal degraded too much
over distance, and his own tmil
would advertise his presence. While
the station retained subspace
communicator capacity, it presented
the Clan with a deadly risk.

  Taking time to consider a problem
from all angles was no excuse for
inaction. Strike the hardest blow
you could, then see if another was
needed; that was the Kolnari way.

  "See if you can pick anything up
from their perimeter relay beacons,"
he said. In dust this thick even
local realspace beacons needed
amplification.

"Message, Great Lord," said Baila.

"I would hear it."

  Immediately a woman's crisp voice
filled the control center, "Warning
all ships, warning all ships.
SSS-90~ C is under Class Two
quarantine: I repeat, Class Two
quarantine. The following species
are advised not to make port at
these facilities under any
circumstances."

  A list of alien species followed,
most of them unknown to t'Marid.

  "Human visitors are restricted to
the dock facilities and the
entertainment areas immediately
adjacent to them. You are advised to
continue on to your next port of
can. Warning . . ."

  The message began to repeat and
Baila cut it off. "Further scan,
lord: there are two debris fields.
Both of

IHeC=rWHoFouGHT 245

them between us and the station. The
one nearest the station is largely of
natural ferrous compounds, prob-
ability ninety-seven percent-plus
semi-processed asteroidal material.
The other, nearest the Bride, is of
. . . metal and ship-hull compounds,
finely divided. Computer assessment
is that the mass represented by the
metal debris is equivalent to the
mass represented by the prey ship."

  She touched several controls, and
the multiple screens displayed a
scene of tumbling scraps of half-
melted metal, no single piece larger
than a meter wide or long. Most were
a fog of metallic particles.

  His eyes narrowed. The quarantine
could explain the absence of
shipping. Baila's analysis suggested
that, either the prey ship, which he
knew had been ancient, had
disintegrated under the stress of
redlining or the station had
destroyed it. The former was more
likely since no weaponry had been
detected on the station. No doubt the
truth of the end to the Bethebte
refugee ship would be found in the
station's records.

"Your appraisal?" Belazir asked his
weapons officer.

  "Great Lord," the man said,
collating a probability run, "the
bunk of the f ragments are def mitely
the result of ultra-high temperature
breakdown. The profile is completely
compatible with sudden energy
discharge from the main internal
drive call of a very large ship. Some
of the other debris " he called up
relevant views ~ show blast
fragmentation. That could either have
been the result of direct hits with
chemical-energy warheads, or
secondary propagation effects when
the engine blew. The shockwave
through the hull . . ."

  "I'm aware of the phenomenon,"
Belazir said dryly. The weapons
officer shrank back. Belazir t'Marid
had fought his first space engagement
before the younger noble was born.
"Continue scan and analysis. Inform
me of any anomalies."

"They blew up," Serig said.

246 A,v~eMcCaf~ ~ SM. S - ng

  Just as they arrived? How
convenient," Belazir said. He gnawed
a thumb. "Possibly too convenient?"

  "Possibly. However, we were
expecting their engines to fail
catastrophically at any moment. They
were sublimating bits of their
cooling vanes for the last thirty
light-years."

"True. It is still a coincidence."

  "Once is coincidence," Serig said
in ritual tone, "twice is
happenstance "

  ~ and the third time is enemy
action, yes," Belazir finished
irritably. "But for the station to
be plagueridden at the same time?"

  "The scumvermin races are weak of
body, lord," he noted.

  Belazir signed confirmation. The
seed of Kolnar was strong. It had to
be, to have survived so long on a
planet not suitable for human
beings, and further devastated by so
many centuries of reckless develop-
ment and continual war with every
nuclear, chemical and biological
weapon ingenuity could produce. When
the Clan fled a losing struggle,
they had kept the tradition of
culling any child who showed signs
of vulnerability to infection. In
fact, it was a stroke of fortune to
have the enemy immobilized by a
menace that was no menace to the
Kolnari.

"Hold position. Call in the
consorts."

"Yes, Great Lord."

  Belazir glanced at his
communications officer. Her face was
bright with excitement, too. He
smiled. She was young; this was her
first term of duty. He remembered
well that sharp, eager feeling. He
gnnned. Ah, but he was feeling now,
at the ripe age of thirty, that his
life was halfover.

  "All captains confirming receipt of
your orders, Great Lord. Moving into
position."

  "Excellent," he said, glancing back
at the schematic You have already
given a By of distress, oh nch and
bsav~eous

THE CHYWHO FOUGHT 247

station, he dhoughtvindictively.The
entire universe was in conspiracy
against the Clan against all of
Koln;`r and its children.
Soonyoumillscream.

  Channa turned at her desk. "Hi
Joat, welcome home."

  A relieved, shy smile greeted her.
"Um . . . gonna take a shower."

  "You can use it," Channa said,
sniffing. "When you're through, I
want to introduce you to someone."

"Ah," Simeon said lighdy. "We're a
family again."

  "Shut up, you hunk of tin," Channa
said goodnaturedly, throwing a wad of
scrunched-up tissue in the general
direction ofthe pillar. "How does
this look?"

  She punched a key to feed in the
distribution of supply caches.

  "Hmmm.Notbad. Okay, how aboutwe
sealofEdlefollowing passageways?" A
schematic of several decks sprangup.
"Ifyoudidn'tknowaboutmodernfabricat
ion methods, that would look right
for structure members."

"Good, good what does that give us?"

  "About a thousand people we can
stick away in corners the 'b' list."
Those were the ones chat dley hadn't
had space available to evacuate.

  "Nobody essential, I'm afraid,"
Channa said. They had agreed that
they had to let essential staff take
the risks, as their absence would
elicit questions.

  "No, but it'll cut down the number
of potential victims quite nicely.
Also, it'll give us a chance to
scatter around some stuff that'll
come in useful later. Ah,
Simeon-Amos."

  The Bethelite leader's eyes were
red-rimmed, but his smile brought a
warm lurch to Channa's diaphragm. "I
think I have mastered the basic
administrative structure, " he said.
~ It is not too strange. "

  Channa raised a brow. A 900-senes
station sm't too strange to a
backuorld~? she thought.

248 AnneMcCa~ e S.M. Spring

  The thought must have been obvious,
but Amos only spread his hands and
tossed his head, setting aswirl the
coal-black curls of his
shoulder-length mane. The blue eyes
twinkled beneath the broad clear
brow.

  Oooooo, Channa thought, and fought
to bring her attention back to his
words.

  "In any large organization, there
will be certain constants," he said.
"The central authority; officers in
charge of various departments; a
structure for meetings to coordinate
activities; procedures for routine
decisionmaking, and so forth. This
is not too dissimilar to my family's
holdings on Bethel. We, too, were
essentially coordinators of the
activities of many independent
entrepreneurs. There are no ranchers
or farmers here, of course, but both
communities have mining, manufac-
turing, education, cultural
facilities . . ."

  "Culture?" Joat ducked back into
the lobby, toweling her wet hair.
For a wonder, she had on something
more formal than the shapeless,
patchwork-colorfill overalls that
were current fashion among
SSS-900-C's youth. "Like halos and
virtie games and stuff?"

  "Ahhh . . ." Amos hesitated. He had
been thinking more of choral song
and traditional dancing. "The
general principle is the same."

  The servos had been setting out the
evening meal. Simeon had programmed
them to meet the basic dietary
superstitions ofthe Bethelite
religion, although Amos had turned
out to be flexible. Channa shuddered
mentally at some of the things she'd
screened in that Bethel text. How in
God's name, for example, were they
supposed to check that none ofthe
materials had ever been touched by a
menstruating woman?

  They sat down, Amos murmured a
prayer, and for another wonder Joat
waited a second before grabbing the
nearest bowl. She had turned out to
be a monumentally unfussy eater, but
in sheer capacity she belied the
scrawny underdeveloped frame.
Between

IHE ~rywHo FOUGHT 249

or sometimes during mouthfuls, she
grilled Amos about Bethel.

"Sounds du1199' she said atlast

  "I thought so, too," Amos said,
pushing a bowl of steamed millet
closer to her. She shoveled several
helpings onto her plate and heaped
them with sour cream and chives.

  Joat,99 Channa said gendy. "That
really doesn't go wid1 pineapple
slices, you know.99

  "Why not?" Joat asked, turning to
her widh a milk mustache on her upper
lip. The gill licked it away widh
satisfaction as Channa searched for a
reply, gave up, and turned her
attention back to Amos.

  "Hiding away all that stuff was
smart of Channa," she said
thoughtfully. "Always gotta have
supplies in your bolt-hole unless
you're fardlin' stupid."

"Sound strategy," Amos said
seriously.

  He certainly seems to be good with
children, Channa thought, stirring
her food around widh her fork. Gals
don't botherhim. Not pre-pubescent
ones, ailed

  In her inner ear, Simeon began to
croon an ancient song: ''Icrossa
croooowded 7wm. . ."

"Shut up, " she subvocalized.

  "This place has got more
back-alleys than you'd believe," Joat
was saying. "Not dike a ship at all,
really. You can get anywhere from
anywhere and ain't nobody can stop
you, if you know where you're gain'.
Some of the places pinch grudly, but
they're in-able if you're sveltsome."

  "I would have thought it much dike
a ship of space," Amos replied
courteously. Channa could see his
dips move silently for an instant as
he puzzled outJoat's slang. That was
no wonder. Half of it was her own
invention.

  "A whole other order of magnitude,"
Simeon said. "No mass limits on a
station the SSS-900-C wasn't elected
to go anywhere. The outer shell was
fixed, as

250 Ar~McCo~ ~ S. M. Sli~ng

well as some of the major
facilities, but the rest was
intended to allow organic growth up
to a couple of hundred thousand
people, max. We've found natural
expansion is the best way to
stabilize a real community, as
opposed to a transient community,
like a passenger vessel."

  "That is good sense," Amos said
meditatively. "On my family's
estate, planning towns was similar.
If you set down every detail, the
place has no life. When Unde Habib
decides to put his tobacco store
next to Aunti Scala's pastry shop or
Brother Falken's saddlers, and that
brings an ice-cream parlor, it then
follows that the town becomes a
living and efficient entity."

"Why do you talk so funny?"Joat
asked.

  "Why dollop talk so funny?" Amos
parried, and they both laughed.
"Because Bethel was cut offfor so
long. We did not even screen or
broadcast data from other worlds, so
our people's way of speech changed
little, and those changes differed
from those in the Central Worlds,
which had dealings with many other
worlds and cultures. "

  "Central Worlds?"Joat asked. "Oh,
you're Maudlin'  'cuse me way off
there. This is the hi, frontier, you
know."

  "To you, not me." He paused. "I
think, Joat, that someone besides
yourself should know of these hidden
ways of yours."

  "You should see it," she said
enthusiastically. "You wouldn't
believe what's back therel"

  "I would very much lice to see it,"
he told her gravely. "But, I have
not much time led for my studies."
Her face fell. "Still," he said, "I
think that it is important that
trusted people, other than just you
and Simeon, should know these back
ways of yours. Would you be willing
to show my friend, Joseph?"

"He's your head honcho, hey?"

"My brother and my right hand," Amos
said seriously.

"Okay, if he's nanna grudly."

IlIE C~YWHO FOUGHT 251

  Amos gave up trying to interpret
that remark and glanced over at
Simeon's image in the screen.

  "Grudly," thebrain said in his most
professorial "An all purpose
negative. In this context 'not too
grudly'  straight-laced,
conventional, boring, Nave."

  "No, no. To tell the truth and
shame the devil, Joseph was, in fact,
a dockside desperado when I met hen,
Amos said.

  Joat lit up, her urchin smile
taking a year or two off the extra
time life had dealt her, so that she
looked twelve. "Sure! I'll be glad to
show Joseph around. Whenever you
like."

  "Thank you. And now I must return
to my studies." He sighed
theatrically and rose.

  "I know how you feel," Joat said,
shaking her head in resignation.

  "He's made a conquest there,"
Channa subvocalized. "Wonder how he
did it?"

  'goat is no longer a feral child, "
Simeon pointed out. "We broke the
ground for him. Being glamorous
doesn't hurt. And he listens to her
He's naturally interested in people,
I think under the weird
socio-religious stuff they manned
down his throat."

  "You're right," Channa said aloud,
looking dreamily at the now closed
door of Amos' quarters.

  Well, Simeon-Amos, Simeon thought,
you're a hit with both my girls. A
petty observation, but couldn't he
indulge in pettiness in the privacy
of his own mind?

  "Coupe I'm right,"Joat said. She
was having more of the pineapple
slices, fresh from the vats, lavishly
dolloped withicecream "You
dippingthesheetswithhimyet?"

  Joatl" Channa said warningly,
reaching over to Bick her on the ear
with thumb and forefinger.

  "Watch it!"Joat said, rubbing the
offended lobe. "I'll report you to
Gorgan the Organ." She grinned
unrepentantly. "I know all about it,
y'know."

"You may have observed and I wouldn't
put that

252 AnncMcC~ PRISM.t~

past you for a nano-second, but you
don't Utah whet you've seen. You
also have no manners."

"Yeah, that's true,nJoat said
Complacently.

"Youneedn'tactsosmughbout~elack,"Si
meoncutin.

  "Why not?" Joat asked. "Lots of
way-neat stuff you can't do if
you've got manners."

  My God, Channa thought, looking up
from her note screen .

  All of them were looking terrible,
but Doctor Chaundra looked old. And
haunted as well. Channa was a little
surprised. She would have thought
him one ofthe ones who could handle
the fear.

  "Here it is," he said bitterly,
holding up a small synthetic
container.

  Channa automatically glanced down
at the box, a capsule dispenser,
standard model, but looked more
closely at him.

  "Are you all right, Doctor?" she
said anxiously. There were other
medicos on the station, but only one
Chaundra. Personal factors aside, he
was also the only specialist with
experience in Signal viral rem h

  Wired is all," he said. The
non-Standard accent in his voice was
stronger than usual, a trace of
liquid singsong. He stood for a
momentby her desk looking at the box
he carried, then he placed it in
front of her. "They're ready," he
said, pointing to it.

  Channa touched the dispenser slot
and it dropped a gelatin capsule
filled with clear liquid into her
palm.

"The vans," she said.

  "Yes," he murmured. "I, who am a
healer, have created for you a
weapon."

  "A nonlethal weapon for se~fiense,"
she said in gentle Correction.

  "Hopefully nonlethal. How can I be
sure, with a genetically nonstandard
target population? I cannot even be
carom nobody on the station will die
of itl.

 THE CI-IY WHO FOUGHT 253                                 l
 "The probability " Simeon began in a firm eone.          l
 "_ is vanishingly small, yes, indeed," Chaundra          l
 said. Then he sighed. "There is no sense in complain     ing
after the face. We have made enough so every man          l
 and woman on the station gets five. I can't imagine      l
 anyone being unlucky enough to need more than thee.      l
 What you do, is bite down on it. Don't swallow and       l
 breathe it all over the Kolnari nearest you. It is con-  l
 tagious even if swallowed, you understand, but more      l
 so with direct contact. If the pirate wishes to kiss you,
by                                                        l
 all means lee them."                                     I
 Ught" Channa said, making a face.                        l
 "I've alerted the group leaders to call in at the clinic  l
 to collect dispensers for distribution to their people,"  l
 Simeon said.                                             l
 "Remind them, will you," Chaundra said, "that            l
 anyone who uses a capsule should report as soon as       l
 possible to the clinic for the protective shot. They'll get
l
 a light dose then, but their . . . um . . . victim will get
l
 very sick indeed."                                       l
 "Symptoms?" asked Channa.                                l
 "Headache, nausea, diarrhea, fever, possible             l
 delirium." He shivered. "I must get back to my lab. So   l
 much more needs to be done, and there is so little time  l
 to do it all in."                                        l
 "You need to sleep," Channa said firmly. "Go to bed      l
 for a minimum of six hours."                             l
 That's an order, Chaundra," Simeon told him, "as         l
 of now, you're of Eduty until tomorrow morning."         l
 "Yes, of course." Chaundra nodded abstractedly.          l
 "And the volunteers," he continued, Have them in the     l
 hospital as soon as the pirates appear. We can accelerate l
 the onset "                                              I
 "Go to beg/" Channa took him by the arms and gave        l
 him a little shake, finally getting his starded attention l
 "Oh . . ." He smiled. "Good idea. Um . . ." He paused    l
 at the door and blinked. "Oh, yes. Joat I have met       l

254 Am~McCa~ ASH. smug

youngJoat. She is a bit . . . more
mature than I thought she was." He
frowned, looking concerned. "Do you
think it will be all right, their
being together so much? Her and
Seld, I mean."

  Channa blinked. At least nobody has
been unkind enough to m~nany~ri~
tales of Joat's lifestory, she
thought.

  "Uh, I don't think it will matter,"
Simeon said, slightly amused.
"They'll be kept well occupied, you
know, and they are neither ofthem
physically adult I

  "You are very off-handed for a
proper father of a daughter,"
Chaundra said owlishly.

  "WelL I am her father or will be
when the papers are completed.
Truly, Chaundra, I think we can
depend onJoat to be responsible. I
trust her. She may operate on her
own code of ethics, but she is more
consistent about it than many adults
I have encountered. I'm not warned."

  Chaundra sighed. "I wish I had a
credit for every time someone has
told me that they are not worried.
They're at a volatile age and they
can't even trust themselves. Hell,"
he said throwing his arms wide,
"under all this pressure, the adults
on this station can't trust
themselves. How can we expect these
kids to?"

  Channa felt her color rise. "We can
only anticipate the problem and tam
to them and hope for the best. If
they're so inclined," to her
surprise, she couldn't force
herselfto be more specific, "they'll
find a time and place where we can't
interfere. So let's not wear
ourselves down worrying about it."

  A whole new set of problems, she
thought. Correcting the damage done
to Joat's psychosexual development
was probably going to take many
years. Right now the girl needed
Seld to be her friend, not her bed
partner. He was definitely her
friend but . . . Channa remembered
whatboys were like at that age, too.
There's name of a danger that she'd
break his arm. But she needs a
friend. Something else to lie
sleepless and worry over. Or had

ICE CI-IY WHO FOUGHT 255

anyone told Joat about Seld's medical
problems? Primal, she thought. Seld
had the right to deal with that in
his own time.

  "Hey!" Simeon said. "Yoohoo!
Channa! Chaundra. You're both tired.
Everything looks manageable when
you've had some sleep. So go sleep.
We'll take care of the capsules and
we'll organize the volunteers. Don't
worry about a thing."

  Chaundra sighed again and assumed a
wry expression. "Amateurs," he
mumbled. "What you're experiencing,
Simeon, is denial. You can't avoid
such problems by pretending they
don't exist." His shoulders felt
"I'll have Seld bring her home with
him after they're through working
today." He waved goodbye and lefe.

  "Denial," Simeon said musingly.
Strange, knowing what he did of her
past, he knew that sex was the last
thingJoae would think of as a
recreational activity. That was the
commonest symptom of the particular
form of abuse she had suffered and
still the idea made him uneasy.
fatherhood.

  "I don't want to talk about it,"
Channa told him, and marched briskly
back to her desk. She sat down and
spun the box of capsules around with
one finger. "I was thinking," she
said, "wouldn'titbe greatiEwe could
up the ante on these?" She looked at
Simeon's column.

  "Yeah, it would. But we're already
putting our people at risk. I'm not
willing to do the enemy's work for
them. Y'know?"

  "Mmm. True. What if we could make
them believe it's worse than it
really is?"

  "Hard to say without knowing their
physiology, tissue samples . . . Oh.
You're talking about a con game,
aren't you, Happy?"

  "It all depends on their
psychology, of course. And I'mnot
happy."

"Well," Simeon said dubiously, "the
Navy psych

256 AmieMcCa~ e SM. Sting

reports aren't too detailed. These
splinter groups are usually aberrant.
Generally speaking, the reports say the
Kolnari are extremely aggressive towards
those they perceive as weak, treacherous
but willing to bargain with their equals
in power, and have a f ightlaubm~on ret
lex towards superiors until the superiors
let down their guard, which is a sign of
weakness."

  "Oh, what a love-feast their culture must
bel" Channa said. "Hmmm. They'd be
vulnerable to status and power anxieties,
then. And lots of internal rivalries."

  "You betcha. According to the reports,
they're also as superstitious as horses.
They know some science, but they're not
scientific, if you know what I mean."

"I think I get the picture. So?"

  "We could modify some ofthe
holo-projectors beside the security
cameras and flash 'hallucinations' for the
benefit of those who've had the virus.
Auditory hallucinations are no problem. I
could project them and no one would be the
wiser."

"Oh, really?"

  Yeah," he seemed to be whispering
directly into her ear, "and we ~gyou1 Age
~

  "Wow," she said, touching her ear,
"that's spooky. How did you do that?"

  "Just threw my voice heterodyning waves
from multiple sources. It takes practice,
but as you saw, the effect is worth it a

  She shook her head, wide-eyed. "Ifyou can
come up with something visual to go with
that, they'll be running for their ships
the first day."

  "Can't overdo it. It'll be easiest if
they're alone when they see these things,
otherwise it could be considered
suspicious. I'll sound Joat out. That
girl's a fountain of ideas."

  Channa winced and forbore to ask what
kind. Chaundra's comments almost visibly
flooded back into her conscious mind.

!

THE crrywHo FOUGHT 257

  "Don't let it worry you, she's a
good kid," Simeon said emphatically.

"I don't want to think about it I

  "You really are concerned about
Rachel's sanity, aren't you?"

  Amos and Channa were settled
comfortably on the settee. Simeon had
tactfully withdrawn his image from
the pillar screen, leaving a
strikingly realistic crackling fire
inn's place. Somehow he had even
manage to replicate the scent of
burning cedarwood. Amos had had to
tactilely reassure hunsdf that the
fire was an image.

  "Yes, she is definitely unstable,"
he said, his shoulders sagging
hopelessly. "Among all the other
problems, I must worry about this! It
is so . . . sopet'."

  "Humans can be a remarkably petty
species," Channa said
philosophically. Particularly that
hysterical bitch Radial. "When you
get down to cases, lots of'big
issues' have been decided on personal
matters. From Harmodias and
Aristogetion on down." Amos looked
blank. "Two ancient Greeks. Never
mind. Briefly, a government was
overthrown because of a lovetnangle."

  Amos sighed again and reached for
his snifter of brandy. "I care
nothing about her and my best friend
would give his life for her," he
said, shaking his head. "Channa "

uyes?~.

  "I know here " he touched his head
" that this . . . delusion of hers,
has nothing to do with me. Buthere "
he touched his heart ~ I cannot help
but feel that I num somehow be to
blame. I was a . . .
caller-of-spirit: you would say a
preacher. Oh, yes, I knew that half
the women in those crowds were in
love withme. What of it? I would
never touch any of them, for that
would be dishonorable and destroy my
cause more surely than any other
offense. The folk of Bethel are . .
. inflexible

258 Ar~neMcCo~iry ~ S. M. Stirling

about such matters. Yet if I knew
and accepted love, if it flattered
my vanity, am I not in some manner
responsible? How desperate she must
be, and how lonely. It is sad."

  Channa patted his arm and smiled
soothingly. "From your description,
it was never this bad before. If
you're to blame, then so is every
charismatic politician and halo star
since time began. Her . . . delusion
. . . may have been aggravated by
those drugs, although she's not
responding to medication. Simeon,
has anyone talked to Chaundra about
this?"

  "Not yet," he said, after a tactful
pause to suggest he hadn't been
listening.

  "I have decided to keep her under
my eye," Amos said, adding
reluctandy, "Mental care, dhe cure
of souls. It is part of our religion
that only chose consecrated can
perform cures ofthe human soul."

  "Mmm." Your rely sucks wind, she
thought silendy. No sense in
offending Amos, of course. Humans
shouldn't be forced to take
religion. That should be free
choice. "Maybe we'd better let
Chaundra know that Rachel isn't
responding to treatment. She may
need stronger calmers. Let's face
it, when dhe pirates arrive, you're
going to have a surfeit of problems
to keep under your eyes."

  "I can keep my eye on more clan one
thing at a time, Channa," Simeon
cutin abruptly. "Simeon-Amos?"

  He nodded. "I agree widh Channa. I
will speak widh dhe doctor of dais.
This is my burden, my obligation. I
will do it." He rose and disappeared
into his room, shoulders bowed.

  Channa shook her head, "You'd dank
he was sending her off to be
executed."

  "Who knows how his people view
psych treatment? Confession seems to
be a major element in their
religion. To him, treating this as a
medical problem could be equivalent
to blasphemy."

THE CrIYWHO E OUGHT 259

  "Hmph." She turned to squint at his
column. "By the way, don't try to
tell me dlat you didn't enjoy Blat
litde interruption, Simeon. I know
you too well by now."

"Okay." His voice was downright
cheery.

  She smiled ruefully. Just don't
make a habit of it, okay?"

"There are no guaranwin life,
Channa."

  "Oh, no? If I ever get the idea
dlat you're engineering any more
little disruptions of my love life,
I guarantee that you'll regret it,"

  "Hey, be reasonable, Channal What
could I possibly have to do widh
Rachel going honkers? I didn't
evenlet her into dhe lounge. I could
have, y'know."

Channa shrugged and grunted.

  "I thought about not telling you
she was trying to beat the door down,
I really did. But then I figured
she'd go grab a laser and cut her way
in. And, of course, if she had caught
you two in flagrante delicto, she
wouldn't have stopped at cutting up
doors."

  "Oh, thank you, Simeon, you am such
a hero, saving me from a fate worse
clan deadh and deadh itself. Consider
yourself hugged and slobbered over in
an ecstasy of gratitude."

"That's short for 'my attitude's
back,' isn't it?"

  She got up and started for her
room. "Yes, Simeon, my attitude's
back."

"WelL why? What did I do?"

  She spun on her heel and darew up
her hands. "I'm horny, all right? I'm
horny and I'm frustrated!" The door
snapped shut behind her.

  Simeon shut down his pickups in the
lounge, escaping the charged
atmosphere in the only way he could.
Sheesh, he Thought. Sofcshells were
strange.

          ~ CHAPTER EIFIEEN

  "Nothing, Great Lord. Nothing but
rebroadcasts of the same warning
message."

  "Tsssk. You have had no success in
monitoring internal ~nununi~?"

"No, Great Lord."

  This time Baila's voice held a
slight touch of resentment. This was
no backwater, no half-barbarian slum
that used electro-magnetic signals
for internal communication. This was
a sophisticated Central Worlds
installation they were planning to
attack. It had internal optical
circuitry. What did the Great Lord
expect her to do? Fly over to the
station and burn her way through to
tap a line?

  We are all impatient, Belazir
thought. The Clan impulse was to
leap upon the prey and take it. Loot
it bare, move on. They had been very
successful following that course of
action for a long time.

"Any other ships?"

  "None since that freighter who
acknowledged their warning beacon
and sheered off," she said.

"Serig."

  "Command me, lord." The
verbalformula was more than routine
in Serig's mouth; he fairly quivered
with anticipation.

  "We win move in exactly
one-point-five hours from next
day~ycle termination." This was
about three hours Terran Standard
time, since Kolnar rotated more
slowly than Manhome. "All vessels to
launch their seekers simultaneously
and then begin subspace jamming
pulses.

ME WHO FOUGHT 261

Strangler end Age of Darkness will
remain on combat overwatch, ready to
provide fire support as necessary. DO

Bride and Shark will move in to the
upper and lower polar axis
respectively and ague dock, then
occupy the station. Here are the
areas to be secured. n

  His hands keyed a sequence, and the
schematic of the SSS-900-C was
overlaid with color-coded plans for
movement.

  "Move swiftly! Crush any sign of
resistance with utmost force. If
resistance slows the infantry down,
secure those decks and blow them open
to space. I will be with the second
wave at the north polar axis."

"Lord."

  "Captain Lord Pol is not to
disembark before the target is Filly
secured. Those are my orders. Repeat
theIn to her in the message."

  "I hear and obey, Great Lord,"
Serig said. He made a few notes to
himself. "Tlghtbeam?"

"Ofcourse."

"I may lead the assault party?"

  Belazir and his henchman shared an
identical wolf grin. "Ofcourse."

  Joseph teen Said nodded gravely. "I
am glad that you have shown me these
things,Joat."

  Joat looked downshaft between her
legs it was the only way to see the
Bethe]ite's face since they were both
climbing up and smiled cockily. They
had paused at this intersection with
two small feeder ducts so she could
give him directions. He had hooked
one thick arm around a rung so he
could squint down the other shaPcs.

  "You learn pretty quick," she said.
"Hey, and you don't get fardled up in
a tight spot, neither."

  Joseph's square face split in a
raptor's smile. 'Joatmy-friend, where
I grew up one learned quickly, or one
died. Also I spent much time in
narrow places.

262 Anr~eMcCaffr9, &, SM. Sting

Sewers and tunnels, rather than
ductwork, but the principle is the
same."

  "Yeah, I guess we got a lot in
common," she said. You poor Cant,
she added to herself Not aloud.
Evidendy these oscos were sensitive
about language.

  "But I am surprised that you can
move with such freedom when any
section can be closed off and air-
evacuated," Joseph went on. He
cracked his thick-fingered hands
reflexively, and took out a long
curved knife to trim a caUus. "And
then there are the maintenance
servos, also centrally controlled."

  "Yeah, well, you gotta look at
that sort of thing from the bottom
up,"Joat said. "Follow me."

  They muscled upward, back and legs
against opposite side of the
passageway, then crawled out into a
slighdy wider connecting way.

  "See? There's the seal,- she said,
running one finger along dhe edge of
dhe octagonal opening where tile two
ducts crossed.

  "Ah." Joseph peered more closely.
"I see a thin sheet?"

  "New, interlocking pointed wedges,
's stronger or some Girdling thing.
Don't get in the way if it's gonna
close. They don't have no safeq
pressure stops here where people
aren't supposta be, so they'd cut
you right in half."

  Joseph nodded, continuing his
examination. "And this?" He touched
a slightbulge.

"Access panel. Here."

  Joat brought up a square piece of
electronics from her harness and
touched it. The bulge withdrew into
the wan. Inside were readouts, a
keypad, and a datajack. She squirmed
until her backpack was on dhe floor
between her knees, then pulled out a
jackline from her Spuglish and
clipped it into the socket.

  The machine lit. Hello, Joat,
scrolled across it. Simeonts gone
bye-bye wurfl

IlIE CrIY WHO FOUGHT 263

"What is that?"Joseph said,
fascinated.

  "I usta think it was Simeon in a
grudly strange comedown," Joat said,
her fingers flying in a rapid
ta~aptaptiptiptip. "Only it isn't. 'S just a
really neato

program running on the station main
computers. Fools ye, y'know? Real
easy to get to thinking it's a real
person, but it isn't. Smart piece of
junk, but I can get around it. When
it thinks you're Simeon, it really
comes down as an animal."

  Hello, Simeon, the screen printed.
Whae's up, boss? Huh? Huh?

  Joat's fingers scrambled. Nothing
much, she keyed. Updating Shame on
Me, she added.

  Don't rightly know that one,
pardner, the machine replied. Uhyip.
The tip of Joat's tongue was clenched
between her teeth in a rictus of
concentration. At last, she leaned
back and sighed, cracking her fingers
twohanded.

"Now it thinks I'm Simeon again," she
said.

u 'Shame on Me'?" Joseph enquired.

  "Fool me once," Joat said, quoting,
"shame on you. Fool me twice, shame
on me."

  Joseph's laugh was quiet and
appreciative. Joat felt the quiet
glow of satisfaction you only got
from another operator. Seld was neat,
but he wasn't a . . . Well, he wasn't
grown up, in the special wayJoseph
was grown up. She'd known a lot of
people who were grown-up that way,
butJoseph was the first one she had
ever liked or trusted.

  "So you manipulate the system
through the central computer?" he
said.

  "New, not most of the time. Too
con-spick-cue-us. Finkin' obvious, in
fact. There's a distributed node sys-
tem, fambly thousands of little
campus, all got backup authority, if
you can cut in. And nobody cuts in
like Jack-of-all-trades, my man.

Joseph clapped a hand on her
shoulder. She

264 Arc USA. song

stiffened and stared at it. He took
it away, not snatching or lingering,
either.

  "How did you pick this up?" he
said in admiration, pointing at her
Spuglish.

  "Dad." Fardliry~ sit. "Learned
more from the bastard who won me
from my uncle," she said. "He was
smart, really smart, when he wasn't
drunk or . . . well, when he was
sober. Knew his way around any
system there was. Never got caught,
except once."

"Who by?"Joseph asked.

  Joat turned her face toward him,
and for a moment it was not a
child's face at all. "Me," she said
softly. "He forgot me. And I cracked
his system. They think he's still
alive. He went thataway out the
lock, peeing brood. His ship's
computer said everything was fine."

  "Well," Joseph said with a cold
smile, "if it's good enough for the
official records, it's good enough
for me. Now, show me how you
decouple the local subsystems
again."

  "Like, it's got to be
physical,"Joat went on, animated
again. "You "

"I am glad to see you two are
friends," Amos said.

  Joat and Joseph had walked in the
door laughing uproariously, slapping
each other on the shoulder.

  Joseph smiled at his leader and
bowed formally, hand on heart. "My
brother, you have done me a great
favor by introducing me to this
young sorceress," he said. "And our
cause."

"You guys are brothers?" Joat asked
suddenly.

  "No," was the spontaneous answer
from Channa, Simeon, and Amos.

  "Oh?" Joat looked from one to the
other, frowning slightly, then she
shook her head dismissing the prob-
lem. "Yeah, we had a great time!"
she went on. 'doe here picks things
up pretty good, for a grown-up."

"For a grown-up?' Amos said, raging
a brow.

IRE C2IYWHO FOUGHT 265

  "You know,"Joat explained kindly,
"for somebody who's old."

  Amos pursed his lips. He was a year
older than Joseph. "I am glad to see
you found him worthy," he said dryly.

  "Yeah, I did." Joat frowned. "Can I
ask you something?" she said.

  "By all means, foster daughter of
Channa," Amos said.

  "Most grown-ups are funny about
kids knowing things," she said. "You
aren't. How come?"

Amos blinked. "You are . . . what,
twelve?" he said.

  "'Bout. Gets hard to tell when you
do a lot of ETL 'n some coldsleep."

  "At your age, I was running my
family's estates," Amos said. "Of
course, I would not have been, had my
father lived. Sons of poorer folk are
apprenticed at twelve, doing a day's
work and paying for their own food.
Should I be surprised if you can do
likewise?"

  Joat glowed. "At last," she said,
turtling triumphantly to Channa.
"Told you I'd learn more doing a
realjobl"

  "What did I say?" Amos asked,
flinching at the glare Channa leveled
at him.

  "Promised I'd go catch Seld,"Joat
said, wolfing down the last of her
breakfast and sticking a few pieces
of fruit in the pockets of her
shapeless overall "Ta-ta, all."

  "Speaking of the Chaundras," Channa
said meaningfi~lly, glancing atAmos.
"I have to run. More ackl
pfthtl meetings. Don't forget"

  Joseph waited until silence had
fallen again, then looked at Amos
with concern. "Something is wrong
with you, my brother?"

  Amos looked at his plate. "No," he
said. He gestured Joseph to a seat,
but stood himself, his hands clasped
behind his back. "There is nothing
wrong with me. This concerns Rachel."
He held up his hand to forestall

266 An~neMcC~ &, S.M. S60

Joseph's protest. "Let me finish.
She came here the other night,
furious, raving. She claimed we were
betrothed. Her ~yes, Josephl They
were wild, and she shook . . . her
face was so white." He looked at his
friend. "Our Rachel is shaking to
pieces before our eyes. I am going
to tell Chaundra what I have told
you, and if he decides that she
needs treatment, then she shall have
it."

  Joseph nodded jerkily, resting his
face in one hand. His shoulders
moved convulsively, then he
steadied.

  "I am grateful that you share your
thoughts with me," he said. "Though
you now stand as her father."

  "We have no Healer of Souls here,
Joseph," Amos said with deep
remorse.

  "So Rachel must lose her soul's
privacy before an inIideL an
outsider,"Joseph replied.

"I had not thought you so pious."

  Joseph sighed, shaking his head
wearily. "It is strange how
ingrained is the truing of one's
childhood. At the lash I find I,
too, amasonoftheTemple."

  "Ifyou truly are against such
procedures, I will not force her,"
Amos said.

  Joseph rose and gave Amos the
embrace of brothers. "Thank you," he
said, "but, if my heart rebels, my
mind tells me you are right . . .
damnably right. That is an
irritating habit you have, Amos teen
Sierra Nueva."

  Amos grinned. "So I have been
told. To myself not least, brother.
Do you wish to be with her?"

  Joseph hesitated, then shook his
head. "No," he said, after a moment.
"As she is . . . it would be no
kindness. I will continue with my
work." His mouth quirked. "Work is
truly the mercy of God, as the
Prophet said. No?

  "I find more truth in his words
every time I return to them," Amos
replied seriously, his hand on the
other man's shoulder. "Truth too
strong for the chains of dogma. Go
in peace."

IREHYWHO FOUGHT 267

"To make ready for war,"Joseph
observed.

  Amos laughed ruefully. "Another
truth the Prophet left us: 'Ifyou
would have peace, then prepare for
war.' "

  "What a pity the Elders thought
that meant the spiritual struggle
alone,"Joseph said.

  "The Prophet was a surprisingly
practical man," Amos observed. "I
strive to emulate hire"

  "You do so. You do so very
well,"Joseph replied and bowed
formally: a rare gesture between
them.

  "Let's go get Seld Chaundra,"Joat
suggested when Joseph caught up to
her at the elevator. "We're supposed
to go into hiding when the pirates
show up, so he'll need to see this
stuff, too."

"I have no objection,"Joseph said
mildly.

  "You and Simeon-Amos fighting about
something?" she asked bluntly.

  "No."Joseph shrugged. "We are angry
together, at what is and cannot be
changed."

"Yeah, life's like that,"Joat
observed.

  They reached the main corridor and
took two people movers down from the
wall.Joseph looked a little dubious
as he stepped onto the disk. As it
silently lifted from the floor, he
gripped the handhold tightly with one
broad spatulate hand. Joat
showedJoseph the address to tap to
reach the Chaundras' home. The lirde
floardisks took off, dodging agilely
through traffic and summoning
elevators when their route took to
the upper decks.

Seld himselfopened the door.

"Hi" he said somewhat nervously.

  "Hi, this is Joseph teen Said,"Joat
said in dicating the swarthy men
beside her. "Simeon-Amos suggested
dial I take him round, and I thought
you might like to come."

  "Aw, I'd love to," he said, all
eagerness which dissolved the next
moment. "I can't. I'm grounded."

"You're what?"Joat asked, puzzled.

268 Am~McCo~ eiSM. SHrling

  Seld blushed to the roots of his
auburn hair; the colors clashed
horribly. "I'm being disciplined. I
can't leave our quarters."

  Joat's expression was amused and
aghast. Gird I don't have pangs, she
thought. I won'tget Muck someplace I
don't want to be.

  "Geeze, Seld, your dad can't seem
to get it right. First it's too much
'go,' now it's too much shy." She
shook her head in awe. "You can't
win playing that way. So come
anyhow," she added, cocking her head
at him.

  "I can't," he repeated, glancing
nervously atJoseph The Bethelite
crossed his arms and looked at the
ceiling, humming an idle tune.

"He's okay,nJoat assured him. "Why
not?"

"'Cause Dad's gonna call and check
up on me."

  Joat rolled her eyes. "So call in
to the answering machine Wry so
often. If he's called, you can call
back and say he caught you in the
head. He's so worried about your
safety, Seld, he should worry more
if you don't know this. You gotta
know your way around the backside of
the station. Heyl If it really
bothers you we can ask Simeon to
help, or Joseph . . . ?" She turned
appealing eyes up to his.

  Joseph uncrossed his anns. "I
believe it could be put to your
father " He broke off, his eyes
focused on some one in the
corridorbeyondJoat. "Rachel?"

  Rachel hint Damscus stopped,
looking him coldly up and down.
"Well, Joseph teen Said. I wonder,
do you have any messages that you
are withholding from me?"

  He was nonplussed. "Whatever are
you talking about, my lady?"

  "No lady of yours, peasant," she
said, spitting the last word at him,
her eyes wide and flashing. "Amos
told me that he had delegated you to
inform me that he was moving in with
that lanky, sallow-faced slut. But
you, apparently, chose not to tell
me. Why is that?"

"We are at war," he said shortly.
"Time is short.

          THE Cl~yWHOFouGHT 269
Rachel hint Damscus, be known
toJoat," he said, ges

luring courteously to her, "the
foster daughter of Simeon. Be known
also to Geld Chaundra"

  Rachel looked at the two young
people as though he had introduced
her to a pair of rodents. "Simeon .
. . ?" she said, picking up what was
important to her.

  "Yes," he hissed in a whisper,
moving closer to her. Not now, his
expression said. Spare these
children.

  "Who is this 'Simeon' that everyone
addresses with such respect?"

"He and Channa run the station,"Joat
told her.

  "Ah," Rachel said, looking at her
with a false smile, "does that make
you the whore's foster-daughter,
too?"

  Joseph's hand moved very quickly,
deflecting Joat's hand, which was
halfway to delivering what it held.

"I)rop it," he said. "Now, Joat."

  Struggling against his grip,Joat
drew her lips back f rom her teeth,
but she had to comply. The grip on
her wrist was not tight enough to
hurt, but it had the implacable
solidity of a mechanical grab. The
Bethelite wrenched the small square
box f rom her with his other hand.

  "Weapon?" he said, turning it over
briefly. "Do not strike without
thinking, Joat. And rarely from
anger. That causes problems, always."
He handed her back the gadget.
"Wait."

  Rachel's face had turned an ugly
mottled color, partly from fright and
partly from being humiliated. Her
complexion went brick-red as Joseph
grabbed her by the upper arm and
began to pull her further down the
corridor.

  "Take your hands from my arm,
peasant," she shouted. Joseph ignored
her stolidly, as he did her attempts
to halt theirmovement. "Letgoofme!"
she shrieked.

  Passersby turned at the sound of
her voice. Joseph cast a look up and
down the corridor. There was little
privacy here and none within easy
reach. He released her arm and spoke
in a fimn low voice.

A:

270 Anne McCoySM. Stay

  "My lady, you are not yourself.
The coldsleep medications have
affected your . . . balance. Please,
accompany me to the sickbay and ~

  "Yes! Back to the infidel doctor,
so he can drug me, poison me, leave
so-wonderfillAmos to wallow between
the thighs ofthatslut, that whore "

  He reached out a hand, a pleading
gesture. Rachel struck it away with
the contempt she would have dealt a
spider.

  "Don't touch me, you peasant
whore's-getl You make mesick. Don't
touch mel"

  She struck again, a hard ringing
slap across his face, backhanding
him again and again Joseph's head
moved only a little on his thick
muscular neck, although a trickle of
blood staIted f rom his nose and the
corner of his mouth. On the fourth
slap, he caught her hand. She began
to thrash, trying to f ree herself f
rom that implacable grip. He turned
her hand, exposing bleeding cuts
where her knuckles had smashed
against teeth and bone.

  "My lady," he said, cutting
through her shrill cries. "Strike me
if you will, but you will hurt your
hand using it so. Here, take this."

  His free right hand made a small
flip, and a knife appeared in it: a
short leaf-bladed dagger with a
plain leather-wrapped hilt, looking
sharp enough to cut light. Rachel
shrieked and pulled back again, but
Joseph's hand made another movement,
holding out the hilt. He waited, his
eyes on hers. Silence fell broken
only by Rachel's rapid, gasping
breath. The bystanders were crowding
away, their voices sunk to a murmur.
Then Rachel pulled loose and ran,
blundering into a corner as she
scrambled out of sight down a side
aisle.

  Joseph clicked the knife into its
wrist-sheath, his eyes thoughtful.
yelping his face on a kerchief, he
returned to the two adolescents.

"I don't think I like her,"Joat said
laconically.

"I apologize," he said quietly.
"Lady Rachel was

IlIECITYWHO FOUGHT 271

gently reared. She is subbing from
stress and adverse reactions to
medication."

  "She's bughouse,nJoat said bluntly.
He's gone on he; she thought. Gch! US
a fardlm' waste. People should
reproduce the way bacteria did,
splitting cells. That was cleaner.
Even ungrudlies like Joe got strange
when they had the hots.

Joseph frowned et hen "Negative
reaction, as I said."

  "Yeah, bughouse, like I said....
Okay, forget it. How did you do that
thing with the knife?"

  "Spring-loaded sheath," Joseph
said, obviously relieved to change
the subject. He bent back his wrist
and showed them.

  Joat glanced at Seld, caught his
eye. He shook his head in silent
agreement. Adults! They'd Russ.

  Channa stumbled into the lounge and
fell facefirst into the cushions of
the couch. "I hoe commuting," she
said with a theatrical groan.

  "Hah!" was Simeon's mocking
comment. "Call that commuting? Why,
in my grandfathers' day . . ."

  "In your grandfathers' day," she
said pulling herself into a sitting
position, "they probably commuted by
ox-cart through subspace and drifts
of snow fourteen feet high, and that
was in high summer, being dive bombed
by stinging insects the size of
ore-freighters, just to borrow a cup
of sugar from their next-door
neighbor three light years away. I,"
she said, indicating herselfwith a
delicate hand and a raised eyebrow,
"am not as hardy. And I hate to
commute."

"Not a problem I'm likely to have,"
he commented.

"No!" she agreed.

  "So I should just offer sympathy
and understanding," he suggested.

  "Absolutely, and I, of course, will
accept this with gratitude as the
very balm my bruised and battered
spirit craves."

272 Ar~McCo~ SAM. Stirding

"Poor baby."

  "Ah," she sighed. "Well! I feel
better. What's new on the home
front?"

  "Apparently Joat's gotten Seld
grounded until he turns twenty-one."

"How'd she manage that?"

  "Chaundra disciplined him for
staying behind and she talked him
into exploring the station with her
and Joseph."

"Poor Seld. What'sJoat's reaction?"

  "Oh, it's all her fault, she's got
the kiss of death or something...."

Seld staying behind is her fault?"

  "No, no. It's all her fault. The
minute we decided to adopt her,
Bethel was attacked, so that Amos
escaped, the pirates chased him and
the station is now endangered. You
see the logical sequence of events.
One of her depressed moods."

  Those tended to be temporary but of
unpredictable duration.

  "I can't deny," she said, fighting
a laugh, "that the logic's
inescapable when the data is
structured in that fashion."

They were stat laughing when Amos
came in.

"What causes such merriment?" he
asked, gunning.

  Channa looked at his handsome face,
and it seemed to her that for a
moment the station stood still.

  "Oh," Simeon told him, "the horrors
of being twelve."

  Amos shuddered. "indeed," he said,
rolling his eyes. "Would that all
horrors were both so transient and
so amusing in retrospect. I fell in
love with the cook. When that was
over, I decided I was religiously
inspired and never recovered from
that. "

  Ghanna gave an involuntary snort of
laughter, glanced over at him to be
sure, then dissolved in whooping
gales of laughter.

IME Crr r WHO FOUGHT 273

  "At least," she said, wiping her
eyes with the back of her hand, "you
don't take yourselftoo seriously."

  "I cannot afford to," Amos said,
bowing with hand on breast. "Far too
many others do. If their prophet
cannot laugh athimselfnow end then,
theyarelostaswelL"

  "My adolescence was worse," Simeon
said. They turned and looked at the
pillar. "Imagine my pure, unsullied,
young self thrust among hardened
asteroid miners."

"It certainly left its mark," Channa
said dryly.

  "No one escapes without being
marked," Amos said wisely.

"And no one gets out alive," they all
said together.

  "Are you talking about the
station?" Joat asked in horror,
emerging from her room.

  "No, no," Channa said. "Life."
Teenage life, actually, but let's not
be specific n ght naw.

  Joat began to rearrange Channa's
desk, banging down the implements.

  "It's so stupid!" she said,
clattering a note organizer screen
down.

  "What is?" Simeon said, soothingly.
Sometimes that tone annoyed Joat so
much she forgot what was troubling
her. This time she was too focused.

  "Seld," she said. "I mean, this
could be the last week of our lives
and Seld is locked in his room! What
a great way to go! Y'know?"

  No one answered her. Channa and
Amos wouldn't meet her eyes. A look
of mild exasperation crossed her
features and she tried another tack.

  "Look, I need him," she said
earnestly. "He's really pretty good,
in ajunior-grudly way, hey? I want to
help. Y'know? So, I thought we, Seld
and me, could . . .H She stopped,
tapped her fingertips together and
stared upward,bitingherlip. "I
thought we could maybe make up some
of those signal disrupters I use,"
she said in a rush.

274 AmleMcCa~ PRISM. Storm

  "You mean the ones that keep me
from seeing or hearing you?"

"Yeah," Joat appeared fascinated by
her fingernails.

  Coat, you could do that in the
engineering lab. Anyone there will
be happy to help you. If we get
enough people assembling the
elements, we could make quite a few
in the time we have left."

  "No,"Joat said and sat down,
looking right at Simeon's column. "I
mean, I like the idea of working in
the engineeringlab, don's get me
wrong on that. Butthesignal
disruptorisn~ idea, and I'm not
going tojust give it away. I know
I'mjust a kid, but I know you
don'tdothat."

  "I'm not going to let anybody steal
the credit for your invention, Joat.
I fully intend to watch out for your
interests. I give you my word on
that H

  "Thank you," she said simply. A
silence fell, oddly solemn. After a
moment, Joat continued, "Y'know,
it's probably not a good idea to
have too many of them around. I
mean, the more there are, the more
likely some jerk will lose one and
the pirates will find it and figure
it out, then where'll we be?"

"A valid point," Channa
saidjudiciously,

  "So," Joat slapped her legs, then
rubbed her palms up and down her
thighs, "what I thought was, Seld
and me could make up enough for you
guys," she turned to point et Amos
and then at Channa, "and as many of
the councilreps or team leaders as
we can." She looked at the adults'
faces, checking their expressions,
then turned to Simeon's column.
"Whaddaya say?"

  "I'd say you'rea heartless
hard-bargainer, ablaclunailer, and a
techno-witch. That said, I'll talk
to Chaundra, and I think hell allow
Seld to assist on an author pro ject
But use more sense next time,Joat.
When I adoptyou, you're going to
have ~nits, too. Oh, and dolitwork
him too baril. He's just not . . ."
Simeon tried to finish the caution
diplomatically a . . . the hardy
type."

ICE CrIY WHO FOUGHT 275

  "I know," she said softly, nodding
solemnly. "I'll take care of him, I
promise." Then she smiled a tight,
professional-looking lithe smile, and
rose. "Well, goodnight, everybody."

"Goodnight," they wished her in
return.

  When the door had closed behind
her, Amos looked warmly at Channa,
then dropped his eyes. "I, too, am
weary, and there is still so much to
learn."

  "Do what you can," Channa advised,
"and play the rest by ear."

  "And don't forget," Simeon told
him, "all you have to do is ask and
I'll try to help. Channa, why don't
you give him that contact button
now?"

  "Yes." From a desk drawer, she took
a small box, which she presented to
Amos.

  "We should probably give one to
both Joat and Seld," Simeon
suggested.

Channa nodded.

Amos took out the small button
curiously.

  "That gadget will let me see what
you see, hear what you hear, and
respond in relative privacy," Simeon
told him.

"Itisso small,nAmos said, examining
the tiny device.

  "But so effective," Simeon answered
through the button.

Starded, Amos dropped it.

  "I can see that it could be very
useful," he said, laughing as he
retrieved it. "Thank you, Simeon."

Channa hesitated. "See you in the
morning."

  "Yes, altogether too briefly," he
replied, giving her a rueful bow.

  Channa yawned hugely and looked up
at the time display. Evening again
already! Almost time for dinner.
Hopefully it would be more cheerful
than breakfast, which had been
subdued in the extreme. "Gods,
another day gone? Where is everyone?"

276 Ar~uMcCo - SUSHI. S - ng

  "Amos is on his way back home and
should be here any second,. Simeon
said. "Joat is committing
illegalities in the engineering lab,
chortling madly with Seld, when I
can pick them up at all. She'll be
back here to eat, or so I believe
her plan to be."

  Channa stretched. "I need a break."
She flopped into an easy chair and
said, "Would you put on the
'Hebrides Suite,' please?"

  He listened to it for a moment and
said, "This is nice."

  "One of my favorites. My
great-grandmother once told me that
this music held the soul of Ea~th's
oceans in its phrases. I've loved it
ever since."

"Your greet-grandmother was from
Earth, Channa?"

  "No, but she'd been there. Oh, this
is my favorite part alittlelouder,
Sim."

  She raised her hand, palm up to
show that he should raise the volume
again, and again. The door opened on
Amos, who stepped backward as though
the magnif~cent swell of sound had
washed him out on a wave of music.

  Channa laughed at his startled
expression and signaled Simeon to
lower the sound. "Sorry," she
called.

  Amos poked his head in cautiously,
"Whew!" he said. "Channa, it is
dangerous to play music at such
volume. Your hearing will be
impaired."

  She made a face at him. "Don't be
a pries, SimeonAmos. No one ever
lost their hearing on classical
music."

"Beethoven?" Simeon suggested.

  "Hah!" she said. "You men all stick
together," and stumbled to the
galley for coffee. When she had doc-
tored it with cream liqueur and
whipped Jersey floating on the
surface, she took an appreciative
sip. "Ah! That's good!" Although
when I learned whereJene, originally
camefrom, I nearly lost ?79 lunch, she
added to herself Simeon had picked
up on her tastes quickly.

MEI-IYWHO FOUGHT 277

  "Now, that is something I feel I've
missed out on," Simeon said.

Mmmh?"

  "Coffee, food, everyone who sits
down to dinner at the Perimeter says,
'Wow! That smells good!' closely
followed by 'Mmm! This is delicious!'
and I haven't got an analogue for
either of those sensations. Smell and
taste you'd think they could have
given me one of 'em. Oh, I can taste
when something's off in the chemo-
synthesis plants, and I can smell an
ion-trail, but it's not the same
thing. Sometimes the people at Medic
Centr;d are downright inhumanly
utilitarian."

"Why don't you putJoat on it?" Channa
suggested.

"Put me on what?"Joat asked, arriving
at that point.

  "I was just saying that I've missed
out on tasting coffee, or smelling it
even, everyone says it smells so
good. I don't even know what that
means. I just can't get my mind
around the concept. I don't like the
feeling that I'm being denied one of
life's greatest pleasures. However,
the thought of anyone poking about
with my neural interfaces is enough
to keep the thought merely wistful.""

  Channa and Amos locked eyes a
moment, then flicked away. Not before
Simeon had caught the look.

  "That's terrible,"Joat said
sympathetically. "'though, maybeifyou
gave me your specs . . ."

  "Now, sex . . . sex provides a lot
of mental pleasure." Simeon continued
with relish. "I'd be willing to bet
that I get almost as much sexual
pleasure out of my own imagination as
anyone does actually having it."

Joat made a derisive grimace.

  "I'd say in your dreams, Simeon,
but that would be redundant," Channa
said archly, making her way back to
her desk. "What have you got there?"
she asked, pointing to the box
inJoat's hand.

  "Oh, this is something for you
guys."Joat opened it to display the
two short, gleaming metal rods,
perhaps

278 Ar~?eMcCo - SAM. Stirling

three centimeters long, with
crystals at either end.Joat looked
at Channa expectantly.

  Channa took one out of the box,
turning it over. In the center of
the rod was a small gap, bridged by
a narrow tube whichjoined its two
halves. She touched the crystals
experimentaDy, then looked queringly
atJoat. "It's pretty?" she asked,
puzzled atits use.

  Joat laughed. "Seld said we should
make 'em into jewelry, but I figured
we didn't have time to experiment
with the ef f act that might have. I
wear mine in a sheath in my boot."
She tugged up her pant-leg and
pulled down the cuffofherboot to
show the top of an identical wand.

  "How does this artifact of yours
work?" Amos asked her, picking up
the other.

"You push the two halves together to
make a contact-"

  Amos did so. There was a click as
the two halves came together to form
a smooth even surface. He looked at
Channa end Joat, then at himself "Is
. . . is it working?"

  "Ask him," Joat said, jerking her
thumb at Simeon's column.

"Simeon?"

  Simeon didn't answer because he
hadn't heard the question. He had,
however, seen Amos wink out of
existence, and he was experiencing
some very uncomfortable feelings
about that disappearance. Suddenly,
he was unsure that he wanted anyone
besides Joat to have this ability.
Such disappearances definitely gave
him the wiDies.

  "Apparently not," Channa said,
pleased. She didked her own rod
together and vanished from Simeon's
sighs end hearing.

  Amos leaned dose to her. "I can
already see much potential for his
device." His smiling eyes were warm
and fullofmeaning.

  "Seld and me knocked seven ofthese
of Etoday,"Joat explained to Simeon.
"We'll contrapt more tomorrow,

ME (=YWHO FOUGHT 279

now that we've found the parts we
need. What's the matter?" she asked
in response to Simeon's groan.

  "Sorry, Joat, seven is pretty good
really, and there's nodding to say
that we can't share these around.
Right, Channa? Channa? Ollie-ollie
in-freel"

  Channa grinned smugly at Amos. "He
really can't see us, can he?" Then
she pulled gendy at the rod.

  "How nice of you to drop in,"
Simeon said in a sour tone. Damned if
I it letyo?~ bww how much that bother
me.

  "Sorry," Channa said. "I know it
bothers you," she subvocalized.
Somehow Sim connected it with being
cut off from his sensory input. Me,
now lam a sensory input? She turned
toJoat. "Um, do you actually have to
have it on your person for it to
work? Or would it work if, say I had
it on the desk beside me?"

  "It should keep you disappeared if
you stay very close to it. You're not
really blanked out. It's more like a
local override command to the sensor
not to record you, you know? I didn't
really measure it very close." Joat
gave a self-deprecating twitch of her
hands. "I need more theory and stuff,
I know."

  "Well, I'm impressed,Joat." She
clapped her hands togedher. "Let's
celebrate, and send out for Tinner."
She took the rod out of Amos's hands
and unsnapped it.

  "You know," Simeon commented as
Amos reappeared, "this invention of
Joat's could be the biggest boon to
burglars since hacking."

  Channa froze, then looked over
atJoat. The girl managed to look
sweet, innocent and furtive at the
same moment. It was true. AI-driven
surveillance was universal in public
places. So were attempts to
counteract it. Joat's seemed to work
better than most. Of course, once the
device was publicized, counter-
measures would be initiated. No
wonder Joat wanted to keep her
ace-in-the-hole secret.

  Well, of course, she steak! Simeon
whispered in her ear. How d id you
think she sunned bed ore you took a
hand ?

280 Ar~eMcC~i~ PRISM. Stirs

  "Iike many swords," Amos agreed,
"it is two edged But, they will be
of help, and I shall enjoy testing
mine." He smiled at Channa.

  Channa looked at Simeon's column.
'Just think, we'll be able to keep
secrets from you, Sim. How will you
stand it?"

  Amos tiptoed carefully out of
Joat's room. "She never
woke,nhesaidinahalf-whisper. "I
putablanketoverher."

  Channa shook her head.Joat's
subconscious seemed to know who to
trust. This evening was the first
time she had noticed the girl
sleeping with the limp, irresw tible
finality ofthe trusting child. She'd
also had a long, hard, if
triumphant, day.

  "I thought she'd never get enough
of your stories about Bethel," she
said. And neither would I. It didn't
have the urban sophistication of
Senalgal, but Amos could make his
world and his way of life sound . .
. beautifi~l, she decided. Of
course, he was an eloquent man, and
he was describing what he truly
loved. He had described what she had
always yearned for in a planet-side
posting: the hugeness, the
variousness, the alikeness of a
breathing world.

  "It was as much for me as for
her," Amos said, leaning back on the
sofa and raising his face to the
ceiling, eyes closed. "I speak, and
I seewhatcanneverbeagain."

  She put a hand on his. "Bethel
will be freed and made beautiful
again. The Kolnar only stripped the
surface, not the nature ofthe
planet."

  "Yes. Yes, I believe must believe
that." His fingers curled around
hers; fine long-fingered hands, a
little calloused.

  In ~:~mg horses, she thought. A
sport she had only read of before.
Sirneon had provided bolos, and
riding looked more dangerous and
exciting than piloting
mini-shuttles.

"YetwhentheenemyaredrivenofE,
thewounds. . . and

ME3IYWHO FOUGHT 281

beyond that. We need to change, we
must change. More than I thought or
wished, and I was a Impious
youngster, a radical, a breaker of
images, or so they called me." He
turned his head to her. "The enormity
ofthe task ahead frightens me,
overwhelmeme. Yetwith help . . ."

  Oh, great, she thought. To herself:
"Lost prince of beautiful, exotic
planet, seeks helpmate/com-
panion/lover to assist in
rescue/reconstruction. Requires
intelligent, forceful manager with
strong sense of duty. WiD furnish
lifelong love and affection, plus
palaces, estates, interesting
experiences. Apply Amos teen Sierra
Nueva." What was that quotation? Get
dice behind me, Satan?

  Amos sat quietly beside her and
placed Joat's box in her lap. His
glance was filled with meaning.
Channa opened the box and dhey each
took out a crystal-tipped rod. Then
dhey glanced at Simeon's column widh
identical scheming smiles and clicked
the two parts together.

  Amos leaned over. They kissed; she
stroked his dark hair and gendy
cupped the back of his head in her
hand.

"Isis good to have privacy," he said
huskily.

  "Yes," she agreed, "it is good."
And it adds spice, she thought. Lit'
sneaking out of bounds wAcnyou're in
school.

  Simeon watched Channa's door open
and close, though no one appeared to
be near it. He suppressed a burst of
resentment. He had told dhem he'd
turn off the sensors if they
requested it. But no, they'd just
gone and shut him out without a word
. . .

  Hat is the dBASE comma to ? he
thought in irritation. Besides,
there's a c~1dpresent.,

  A child who had presented him widh
a techno-itch he could not scratch.
On reflection, he decided the analogy
was maddeningly accurate. Ity as he
might, his attention came looping
back to the nagging gaps in his
recordings. He was accustom to
knowing everything

282 ArmeMcCa~q ~ Ski. swings

that went on. Joat's earlier
white-noise machines and
attention-deflectors were minor
imitations compared to this newest
gadget. Of course, she hadn't had
access to the engineering labs
before this.

  "The child was probably born with
~ microtool in her hand," he
muttered. Now, how did the wands
function? Joat had, after an, given
him a hint. She might be a genius,
but Simeon was a shellperson, with
an the computer power and experience
that unplied.

  And am also c~h~l~y unable to
resist p; - ng up the gauntlet, he
thought happily. There were tones
when the only way to get rid of a
temptation was to give in to it....

  I can't believe this, he told
himself, fifteen minutes later.
Equipment made by the best minds in
the Central Worlds flummoxed by a
preteen! Which confirmed longheld
thoughts about the quality of minds
attracted to the Central Worlds
bureaucracy. Simeon had long thought
that it was a private rnirade he
hadn't come out prosthetized into a
camel, since the design teams were
committees. Now, he must meet this
challenge.

  Channa arched her back against
Amos's weight, her hands caressed
the slick, silken skin of his back.
He kissed her throat and she sighed
happily, ready for

"Oh, Cha~arm~a, l seeeycoou."

"Ack, dkgak!"

  Amos raised his head from the crook
of her neck to look at her. The
mixture of puzzlement and sensuality
on his face looked very silly, not
to mention slightly nauseated.
Simeon laughed.

  Oh' this is terr:~l~, Channa
thought. Yet it was impossible not
to see the moment from Simeon's
point of view for a second. She
laughed, caught between rage and
helpless mirth. Amos bobbed up and
down with her laughter. His
expression assumed a martyred
quality that caused her to lose
control completely.

"Channa," he said desperately,
rolling offend holding

THE CITY FOUGHT 283

her in his arms. "Channa, my
darling are you all right?

  She struggled to speak, to reassure
him that her sanity was intact. "Sim
. . . Sim . . . he. . . hehe . . .
hchche," she had to avoid the word
he. "Sim . . ." she gasped, "my
implant . . . he . . . hche, mmrrmph
. . . can see us."

  She stopped, panting and watched
his look of concern melt. Suddenly
she was slightly frightened. This was
a man accustomed to redressing
insult, and his ego hadjust received
a terribly humiliating one.

  "Simeon!" he roared. The door
seemed to recoil before his headlong
passage, and the cooler wind from the
lounge brought goosebumps to her
skin.

  Amos picked up the first thing his
hand encountered, a vase, and threw
it against Simeon's column.

  "You incest eater!" he bellowed.
"You filthy pi dogl Banchutr

  Channa appeared in her doorway,
wrapped in a sheet. I,w newr seen a
naked, erect man in a fit of rage bed
ore, she thought dazedly. Oh, I
really shouldn't ham broken up. Men
get so focused at that papillar
moment!

  "How could you do something so
vile! Have you no decency?" Amos was
demanding.

  "What the hell is gain' on?"Joat
asked, and stopped, poleaxed at the
sight of a naked and ragingAmos.

  Amos dived for the sheet Channa was
wearing and they tussled for it. He
settled for dragging a small corner
of it over his hips.

  He drew himselfup. "Go back to
bed,Joat, this does not concern you."
The pure mad anger had drained out of
his voice. Bethel had a nudity taboo,
and he was suddenly and acutely
conscious of being naked before a
twelve-year-old girl.

  "Don't take it out on her,
Simeon-Amos, I'm the one you're mad
at," Simeon said.

Amos spun round, losing his grip on
the sheet. "I am

284 Anne McCaffr~ PRISM. S60
unlikely to f orget that! " he said
between clenched teed

"Nice buns,"Joat murmured in
abstract appreciation.

Channa and Amos Burned to stare at
her.

  "Hey, you guys," she said blushing.
"I'm young! I'm not dead."

  "What kind of people are you?" Amos
murmured in shock. "Your children
leer, your shellpeople are voyeurs .
. ." His gaze snapped to Channa.
"And you, what sort of pervert are
you?"

  "Me? Oh, now wait just one minute,
Simeon-Amos, I'm a victim here,
too."

  "I do not think so. You find this
amusing, but I do not!" Turning his
back on them all, he strode to his
quarters in a fury, the door calmly
swishing shut behind him.

  "Whoa!" Joat said enthusiastically.
"What's a voyeur?"

  Channa's mouth firmed grimly. "A
voyeur, Joat, is a nasty-minded son
of a bitch who keeps poking his nose
into private matters."

  "Ah. Sorta like Dorgan the Organ
from Child Welfare."

Ouch, Simeon winced.

  Channa nodded, with crisp malice.
"I promise I'll explain tomorrow,
butrightnow I have to talk
toSimeon."

  "Oboyoboy," Joat said. "are you
ever in the deep pucky, Simeon." She
slapped his column on the way back
to her room. "Naughty, naughty!"

  Channa hiked up the sheet and sat
herself down in one of the lounge
chairs. She clasped her hands in her
lap, saying nothing, chewing her
lower lip.

  "Um," Simeon said. "He's still
furious. He's throwing things around
in there."

"Stop spying on him!" Channa said
irritably.

"I don't have to spy. Just listen."

  Itwas true, even through the door
the sound of objects hitting walls
could be heard. Then an ominous
silence.

IME cmwHo FOUGHT 285

After a minute, a f ally deemed Amos
emerged and left the quarters without
a backward glance or a further word.
Charma rose quickly and took a step
in his direction.

  "Hey! You can't follow him like
that! Besides, where's he gonna go?"

  "Well . . . I suppose this show of
your vigilance was our own faults"
Channa said grimly. "We would chal-
lenge you." She smiled, a wintry
expression. "I guess you showed us."

  Simeon gave a soft groan. "I'd
rather end the evening on a positive
note. I now know that I can contact
you even when their sensors can't
find you."

  "Yes, there is that application of
tonight's experimenS" she said
tiredly. "I'll be sure to point that
out to Simeon-Amos when next I see
him. If I see him."

  "I'm sorry, Channa," Simeon said
contritely after an awkward pause. "I
was out of line."

  "Yes, you were. For that particular
activity, an invitation is required."

  "And I know that it's difficult for
you folks when coitus is
interrupted."

She raised a brow. "Are you asking
for information?"

"Um, nooo," he said hopefully.

  "You am a swine, Simeon, an utter
filthy pig! If you want to know, look
it up, in a medical texts skip the
pornography." And then she gave a
despairing laugh. "Oh, God, he'll
never speak to me again. Where is
he?"

  "He's still on the move. At a
guess, he's going to Joseph's. Best
thing for him really, a little male
bonding. Maybe they'll get drunk
together and complain about how badly
the women in their lives treat them."

  "This woman in his life was
treating him just fine until you
showed up!"

"Is it my fault he's so parochial?"

  "Parochial!" Channa exclaimed.
"Simeon, wrong use of that word. A
man, any man who is one, will take
offense at being spied on while
making love. So now

286 ArlenecCaJ~ 6? S. M. SO

you've called him a name, it's all
his fault, and none of your own, is
that it?"

  "No," he said calmly, "I still
accept responsibility for what I
did. Let'snotf~ghtaboutSimeon-Arnos,
Channa."

  She leaned her head against the
back of the chair, "No, let's not
fight about Simeon-Amos. We don't
have time." She looked at his column
from the corner of her eye. "It
occurs to me that you were defending
him not so long ago."

"Maybe I was wrong."

  "No, you weren't. You know it, too.
We are putting a lot of pressure on
him when he'd arrived already under
a crushing weight. He's lost
everything, Sim, a whole world,
family, friends.
Heblameshimselfforbringingthe
pirates to our door. Now he's
working himselfinto the ground to
save us from them. We should try
very hard not to subject him to
these little power games we play."

"Ah . . . sure."

  "Because, Simeon, if you can't,
you're not the person I thought you
were. And if you aren't, I don't
want to have anything to do with you
once this is over."

"Channa!"

  "Think about it, Simeon. You're
sixty-eight years old. Grow up.r'

  Amos returned to the lounge for
work the following morning, pale,
distant, and polite. Simeon found an
opportunity to apologize and
convinced the Bethelite of his
sincerity, vowing never to do such a
thing again. Amos accepted the
apology with the same detached
courtesy that he received Channa's
explanation, then dosed
himselffirmly in his room.

  Dinner conversation that evening
was so stilted that even Joat
noticed. It was still early when
Channa was left sitting alone next
to the titanium pillar.

"Simeon, come talk to me?"

"Ah, she asks now instead of
demanding."

THE CrI-yWHo FOUGHT 287

  "Your charm has humbled me," she said
with a grin. "Besides, I'm bored and
really crave your company."

"You sure it's my company you crave?"

  "Heh. Last night I was horny! Tonight I'm
bored. Different things, Ella"

"I think that if I were you, I'd rather be
horny."

"Then you'd be an idiot," she said
scornfully.

"But I wouldn'tbe bored."

  She was silent a while. "Simeon, I'm
scared. We may die."

  "Yeah," he replied. "I'm scared, too,
Happy. Real scared. We don't have much
time left." Another pause, and he added
more brightly, "That was a hint."

  "Nah!" she said, shaking her head. "The
moment came, was interrupted, and went.
Amos needs someone kinder than a
ball-buster like me."

 -     "Channa!" Simeon exclaimed,
laughing and

appalled. "I wouldn't call you a
ball-buster."

"You probably have."

  "But that was before I knew you," he
admitted. "Rachel is a ball-buster.
You'rejustabitprickly."

"Prickly?"

"Yeah."

  "Maybe I am horny," she said
thoughtfully. "Lordy, all the male
generative organs that are creeping into
this conversation. But you know I'm right.
We have to maintain a certain distance to
carry this thing off. . . Simeon, say
something to make me feel better."

"Um, how about . . .

"Stern daughter of the Voice of God!

O. Duty! if that name thou love . . .

Mitten erupts terrors overawe;

From yarn temptations cost settee . . ."

"Hey!"

288 AnneMcCa~ SM. S ng

"No huh? Wrong mood?"

  "You might say that," she answered
between clenched teeth. "Right now,
the stern voice of duty is
overrepresented in my thoughts"

"True. Hmm. Different mood. Okay, how
about:

"Sound sleep by night; study and
ease

Together mixed; sweet recreation;

And innocence, which most does
please

With meditation. "

"Sarcasmillbecomesyou, Sim.
Don'tyouwant tohelp?"
"Sorry, one more try,

"I am the lion, and his lair!

I am the f ear thatinghtens me!

I am the desert of despair!

And the night of agony!
Night or day, whate'er befall,
I must walk that desert land,
Until I dare myfear and cad

The lion out to lick my hand."

  She was silent for a long time. He
could tell by her breathing that she
was not angry, and he waited for her
to think it through. At last she
sighed.

"You know me pretty well on short
acquaintance, Sim. "

  "Channa, he won't refuse you. He
needs you as much as you need him
right now. I screwed the pooch! I
admit it. My only excuse " she gave
him a tired smile "_ is that it's an
area of life I'mjust not equipped to
understand very well. Why should you
both be miserable alone, when you
could be much happier together?"

  "After last night? And don't
forget, I've already turned him down
once, Simeon. He's got one free
refusal coming to him."

  "What is this? A competitive sport?
There are scores and free throws and
penalties?"

IREYWI10 FOUGHT 289

  She laughed. "Sometimes. Depends on
who you play with."

  "Take up military history, Channa.
It's a lot easier on the psyche."

  She sighed again. "Not when you're
about to become military history?"

  "Oh for Christ's sake, Happy, get
your butt off the couch and go knock
on his door! You know you want to.
C'mon, be honest."

  "I'm going to get changed, first,
at least," she said glumly, striding
into her room. "And don't call me
Happy," she called over her shoulder.

  Why should Iaccommodateyou on that,
Channa, whenI,ve noticed than,
whenever I call you "Happy, "you do
what I tell you. I'm notgiving up an
advantage like that.

"Ready?" he called.

"What do you think?"

  He opened a sensor inside her room.
She now had on a simple black
skin-quit, but he thought it showed
her off to advantage.

"You'll do n

  Channa walked glumly to the door.
"Here I am, courting rejection. You'd
think I learned about that back when
I wasJoat's age."

  The door slid aside to reveal Amos
on her threshold, his hand raised to
knock. They exchanged looks. After a
moment, they reached out to one
another, and touched. Amos stepped
into the room and the door slid
firmly dosed.

  They melted into an embrace that
marked the first step in a clunk to
the heights of passion.

  Simeon echoed the thought offthe
computer. When it came back, it had a
fruity announcer's voice. He keyed on
Ravel's "Bolero," an insinuating
thread of sound that swelled and grew
in intensity and volume until its
passionate, vibrant climax. On the
council

290 Anne M~S~.S60

table, he projected scenes: palm
trees crashed in the wind and waves
rolled in to welcoming shores,
trains roared into tunnels and out
again, wild beasts roared in the
forests and people worked wet clay
into messy phallic symbols on
spinning potters' wheels

  "Perfect," he decided, saving the
program to hard storage. It wouldn't
be tactful to show it anytime soon,
but someday they would be a lot
older and more mellow. Providing, of
course, they survived the next
weeks. Shellpeople had a lot of time
to fill in. He listened to the music
as it billowed and soared and
swooned.

  Bless you my children, he thought
in the direction of Amos and Channa.
And now I will check in again with the
au~l~ry Midge. Soon to be the
fake/real command center for
SSS-900-C's encounter with the
Kolnari.

         ~ CEIAPI1ERSIXI.EEN

"Hey, Simeon," the Traffic Control
watch said.

"Yeah,Juke?"

"I think I've got something here."

  Simeon shunted much of his
attention to the sensors. This was
part of the reason no computer could
ever replace a colloidal brain;
apart from the inherent lack of
self-consciousness, of course.
Computers were wonderful at
collecting and collating data, but
they could never really interpret it
the way a human could.

  Arul there's no interface like that
between a shellperson and his eons,
Simeon thought smugly.

"Yeah, thatis something," he said
aloud. "But whet?"

  "No powerplantneutrino
signatures,nJuke Cielpied said. He
was a freshfaced young man with a
thatch of blond hair. "But the mass
is there, that's for Holy
shithouse!"

  Suddenly the sleepy torpor of
Communications and Navigation was a
blur of activity. "Missile
signatures, multiple, homing!"

  Simeon made an incoherent prayer.
This was it. They might have no more
than thirty seconds to live.

  "Starting mayday call," he said.
'Jammed! Engines pulsing.

  "Oh, boy, I'm getting powerplant
signatures nou'," Juke said. "They
just kicked online and then
steadied. Four. Big mothers. Way
overpowered for the masses, even
more than a tug.''

"Warship engines," Simeon said
grimly.

The missiles were streaking in from
all sides. He

292 AtrneMcco~ CHASM. S - ng

deployed the anti-meteor laser.
Seconds later it slagged and
exploded in a spectacular burst of
vaporized synthetic and metal.

  "Neutral-particle beam," Simeon
said. "Damage report follows." Thank
The Powers That Be that it hadn't
hit an inhabited area, at least.
"Red alert. All personnel to
emergency stations."

  This time there would be no fooling
around. It was for real.

Ooops.

  Simeon activated his sensors in the
lounge and listened, hoping that
things hadn't gotten too far in the
very few moments that had passed
since he'd politely turned them off.
Unfortunately, judging by the soft
sounds emerging from Channa's
quarters, that was a vain hope.

  She'll never believe I didn't plan
this, he thought, and wavered. It's
an hour before they'll be here. His
sensors showed the ships boosting at
a very respectable normal-space
acceleration. But if I don't tell
he; lam going to be in the same bad
odo';~ust a different situation. A
more important situation. Okay, here
goes everything. He knocked.

  Channa froze and Amos slowed down.
"I'm going to kill him," she said.

  Amos chuckled and kissed her; his
hips moved and she gasped. "Why
don't you ask what he wants first,"
he advised.

"WHAT IS IT NOW?"

  "Uh, the enemy's just come into
sensor range, four heavily armed
ships, E.T1L forq-one minutes.
Sorry, guys, you needed to know!"

  Channa clasped Amos to her with
arms and legs. "That's . . . enough
time," she gasped. "And if you . . .
stop I'm going to kill you."

  The hull of the station toned like
a giant bell as the sprayshot
slammed into the subspace antennae.

ME CllY WHO FOUGHT 293

Automatic alarms made their banshee
wail. Dutifully waiting with his
sensors turned down, Simeon might
have mistaken Channa's high shriek,
under other circumstances, for a cry
of alarm.

"Briefus," she called a few moments
later.

  Mite brief, Simeon thought, but did
not say. He began, using a focused
beam to cut through the noise of a
very quick shower.

  The corridors had been full of
rushing people. Now their floatdisks
were speeding down empty hallways,
banking at the corners in
emergency-override maneuvers as the
population suited up and huddled in
their shelter-sectors. The silence
held no calm, only a tension so great
that Channa expected sparks to pop
from her hair. She gripped the
handhold and looked aside at Amos.
His face was set and remote, a carven
image framed by the fluttering black
curls of his hair.

  "I'm sorry," Simeon said to Channa,
whispering through her implants for
the tenth time. "I wish this hadn't
happened."

  "Oh, giveita rest, Simeon.
I'mhardlygoingtoblame you because the
rest of the universe won't organize
itselffor my convenience."

"Sure! Sorryl"

  She grinned. "And for future
reference, buddy, I much prefer
'Carmine Burana' to alarm klaxons as
background music."

  The enemy warships were in plain
sight now. Simeon magnified,
analyzed, and projected the results
on the big screen in the secondary
control chamber. The room was the
usual shape, a C with a lame virtual-
screen at the flat section and a bank
of positions and consoles. There had
been a full crew here for the past
few days, to eliminate dhe slightly
fussy air of an unused facility. Now
the circulators were working overtime
to

294 An=McC~ry PRISM. Swing

carry off the ketones of
tension-sweat, and there were very
convincing coffee-stains and rings
by most of the recliner seats.

"That is the enemy," Amos said
somberly.

  The ships were very different from
the usual stubby egg shape:
elongated darts, with triangular
vanes sweDing along most of their
lengths, like flight-feathers on an
arrow. Designs scrawled across their
sides in the spike-and-curve script.

  "Yup, Kolnari naval architecture,"
Simeon said. He set the computer on
the names. "Phonetically: Shak
Kel~ug, Dhnga, R~ru~l."

  "Why the odd design?" Patsy said,
leaning forward. "Not your most
efficient layout."

  "It is optimized for rapid
atmosphere transit," Simeon said
grimly. Courier Service ships are
much like that. I think the Kolnari
have different maneuvers in mind for
their vessels. For example, swooping
down to sack a town planet-side.
Note the design's not uniform. They
probably build, or rebuild captured
hugs, as they get the chance. But
it's still a class-type. Roughly
equivalent to a Navy frigate, I'd
say. Bigger hull, though; they must
carry a humongous great crew. A
hundred, at least." He studied the
armament and whistled. "And, with
all those weapons mountings, they
must sleep in shifts."

  "I'm glad you've finally gotten a
chance to indulge your hobby,"
Channa said tighdy.

"I'm not," Simeon said. Odd, he
thought. Th~lt'5 bue.

  "Closing," Juke said, licking his
lips. "Two of them are orbiting the
station around our notional equator.
The other two are closing at the
poles. Closing fast. Herr

  Exterior screens dampened to cue
dhe energy flux of sudden
deceleration. Alarms cheeped and
burbled as energetic particles
sleeted into dhe exterior shielding
fields.

ME CRYWHO FOUGHT 295

  A voice roared through the hull; an
induction field, vibrating the
substance of the station itself. The
words were blurred by the coarseness
of the medium and by a thick accent;
It sounded dike the shouting of an
angry god.

  "SCUMVERMIN SUBMIT.r Then a
feedback squeal tore at their
eardrums as the broadcaster adjusted.
"SLAVE TO THE SEED OF HIGH-CLAN
KOLNAR ARE YOU, PERSONAND NONPERSON
THING OUR POSSESSION. CEASE EXTERIOR
SCANATONCEr'

"What " somebody began.

  Then the lights faded for a second.
Everyone gasped as pressure
fluctuated, and the temperature rose
perceptibly. On the heels of the
pressure wave came a rising wave of
vibration through the hull. Banks of
lights flashed from amber to red.

  "Hit! We have been hit!" Patsy was
shouting from her environmental
systems console. "Loss of pressure,
N-7 through 11!"

  Simeon's hands itched,
metaphorically. He had to step back
and let the infuriatingly slow
responses of softshells handle has
station, his body. There was one
thing he could do. He cut all the
active exterior sensors immediately.
Except, of course, for the one that
had just been converted to vapor
along with a section of hull.

  "Passive scanners only," Juke said.
"Th . . . that was a high-energy
particle beam."

  "Chaundra here." The doctor's voice
had the slightly flat tone of a
vacuum suit pickup. "Rescue squads in
place. The people here were all
suited up. No fatalities so far.
There will be radiation problems."
From secondary gamma sleeting, where
the beam had struck matter.

  Channa acknowledged his report.
Injuries could have been much higher.
Would have been if the warship had
come on them with no notice whatever.
A

296 Arms McCourt ~ She. Smug

screen activated, showing suited
forms moving down an interior
corridor, but it had the depthless
bright look of light in vacuum, no
blur at the edges of the shadow.

  The huge voice struck again. "OBEY.
GENTLE WARNINGS NONE MORE WILL BE
FOREVER. STANDBYTOBE TAKENINTO
THEFISTOFHIGHCLANKOLNAR,
SCUMVERMIN."

  "Eat shit and die, you fardling
maniacs," Channa muttered. Amos cast
her a quick look, then nodded and
gave a thumbs-up gesture.

  "Still closing," Juke whispered.
The infrared and other passive
receptors were still working.
"Closing on the docking tubes,
butinboard ofthe docking rings."

  "Quick," Simeon said to Channa,
like thought in her inner ear. '~Get
anyone there away from the tubes. "

  "All personnel in north and south
polar docking tubes, into the core!
Movel" Channa barked. Then, to
privately to Simeon: "Why?!'

"They're going to force-dock. I've
heard of it."

  The Dreadful Bride floated close to
the docking tube. So close, that of
a sudden she seemed small to
Belazir, waiting impatiently in the
off-corridor to the boarding tube,
with his personal guard around him.
He had an exterior feed, one of the
multiple tiny screens around the
lower rim ofthe helmet's interior.
It took long training to assimilate
the information without being
distracted. His ship seemed like a
tiny fleck of brightness next to the
huge bulk of the target.

  "Now," he said. But a knife issma~r
than a man, toot he thought with
hammering glee.

  Serig stepped forward and slapped
an armored palm on the bulkhead
beside the combat lock. The assault
party filled the antechamber.
Decking shuddered beneath their
feet. From his helmet's exterior
view, Belazir could see the
accordion-folds of the boarding tube
extending their armored length.
Grapnels and

THE CrrYWHO FOUGHT 2g7

cutting-beams protruded from the
forward edges like the teeth of a
hungry monster. Afaintclu1'g went
through the ship as the tube struck.
Then a savage roar ofwhite noise as
the weapons punched an oval hole
through hull, conduits and inner
surface, into the enemy vessel,
force-sealing it with a sudden crude
weld.

  Air whistled past them from the
higher pressure of the Bride into the
station.

  "Go!" shouted Serig. The first team
leapt forward, pushing a floating,
armored powergun platform before
them. "Go, go, gol"

  Serig followed them. Belazir bit
down on his tongue, suppressing the
impulse to take immediate command.
Instead, he froze the joints of his
armor and commanded the faceplate to
show Serig's inputs, seeing what he
would see.

  "Oh, smooth, very smooth," Simeon
said in some dismay. Channa made an
Inquiring sound into the clenched
silence of the control room.

  "To begin with, they're wearing
heavy field armor," he replied,
calling up interior shots.

  The Kolnari were in powered
hard-quits. At once more massive and
sleeker than the Central Worlds naval
equivalent, the suits were a soft
mall black, and moved with thejerky
quickness of servo-powered systems.
In a closed environment they looked
more elephantine than they had in
Amos' shots from Bethel, more
unstoppable. The deck thundered under
their weight, though the pirates
moved with fluid precision and the
snapping quickness of long practice.
Teams of three or more secured
corridorjunctions; lochs moved behind
them, tying down control of one
facility after another.

  "And look at the way they're
moving," Simeon went on dolefully.
"Look." He brought up a schematic of
the station. "Power, atmosphere,
communications. They're coming here,
too. They've done this before."

298 ArmcMcC~ 5? S.M. S1

And those plasma guns they're cawing
like rifles are crew sewed weapons
in the Nag, he added to himself

  "Yes," Channa said, "that's how it
looks to me. They've done this
before. Only where?" And did that
star lion die? Do I Renumber Suer
hearing of a dead station? She
watched in a morbid fascination as
the units moved inward, following
the direction of the conduits. "Of
course, they're heading here now."

"No resistance," Serig reported.

  Either they are wise cowards, or
simply wise, Belazir thought.
"Secure the control center! Pol?"

  A miniature of the scarred face of
the Shark's commander came up on one
helmet screen.

  "My people are meeting no
resistance," she said. "All targets
occupied on schedule. We have them
in a nutcracker fist."

  "Good, clan-kin Captain," he said.
He trusted Pal more than most. She
had no ambition to climb beyond her
present position. Any equal of his
own rank and age was a dangerous
rival rival by definition, and
dangerous if they had survived to
climb so high "Now we will crush
their stones. Serig! Watch and wait
when you've secured theircommand
center. I'lljoinyou there."

  "I hear and obey, lord," Serig
said, slamming through another door
with his assault team.

  Serig's pickups showed a roomful of
suited figures. Plain vacuum suits,
some small enough to hold children,
and the chamber looked to be an
emergency shelter, reinforced and
near the core ofthe station. The
people moved away from the armored
violence of the Kolnari like grass
rippling under wind. To Serig, their
cringing was a profoundly satisfying
sight.

  "Faugh!" he said in sharp disgust.
"There are non humans here! Shall I
open fire, lord?"

  "No, Serig," Belazir said
patiently. Of course, nonhuman
sentients were worse than
scumvermin.

IME WHO FouGHT 299

They bore none of the Divine Seed
that made Rolnar. "We're going to
destroy this place and everything in
it, Serig. Or had you forgotten? In
the meantime, we need it functional."

  "I abase myselfbefore you, Great
Lord," Serig said formally another
one-word expression in their tongue.
"Preceding with plan."

"Ooof," Channa said.

  They were all lying with their
faces in the fortunately soft decking
with their hands tied behind their
backs. The Kolnari had not moved or
spoken since they ordered the others
down on the floor, except when one of
the stationers so much as twitched in
which case they prodded them with the
muzzle of a plasma rifle, hard, as
one had just done to Channa. None of
them spoke Standard, she thought,
except perhaps the leader with the
gold slashes on his arm. He had the
same thick accent as the amplified
voice which had hailed the station.

  The iron tramp of powered-armor
boots sounded in the corridor
outside. Another squad of Kolnari
entered. All she could see was feet
and a glimpse of something heavy
carried in by the last two. A voice
spoke in the invader's incongruously
musical, lilting tongue, and the feet
with the load put something over the
main communications console. There
was a chung and then a minute of
high-pitched bumng, f allowed by
silence.

  More clanks and clicking sounds.
They're getting old of their armor,
she thought, watching a pair of bare
feet step to the deck.

  "You may kneel," a voice said in
Standard, much less accented than the
first. Either an interpreter, or the
big boss; from the authority in the
tones, the latter. "Let those who
once led here, identify themselves."

  "Obey!" screamed the other voice,
the first one, and a foot sank into
her side.

300 Anne McCoy IS M. Stirring

  Channa grunted and came to her
knees, sinking back on her heels.
Then she raised her eyes and gasped.

  The pirate chieftain was the most
beautiful human being she had ever
seen. 190 centimeters, but so
perfectly proportioned that he
looked shorter. His skin was black
 not the dark-brown usually mi~lled
as such, but an actual gunmetal
black; tighdy stretched over long,
swelling muscles, and he stood and
moved as lightly as a racehorse.
Much of this was visible, because
what the pirates wore under their
armor turned out tobea pair of tight
briefs the same color as their
skins, and an equipment belt. The
chieftain's face had the same
inhuman exotic perfection as his
body: high cheekbones, slightly
aquiline nose, full lips, slanted
yellow eyes, and She long mane of
white-blond hair was caught at the
back with a clip of silver end
iridescent feadhers.

  Channa blinked, shook her head, and
forced herself to look at the
others. Apart from a pair still in
power armor, the rest looked eerily
similar. Two of those were women,
with the same features and long lean
bodies. Even their breasts looked as
if dhey were carved out of ebony . .
. and the expressions dig fered, of
course. The pirate beside the chief
was paring his nails with a small
sharp knife. He looked at her and
smiled. Channa glanced down again.

  Oh, great, Simeon thought, noting
the reaction from the others as
well. We'w been boarded by the
Ultimately In~nidatmg Elves from
Hell. Ow! That hurt. Something
tugged at him, calling.

  Behind Channa, one of the armored
troopers touched his belt. The
unoccupied suits turned and marched
like a dine of lockstep golems to
stand themselves along She walls.

  Ow! Pain-signals flooded in from
the computer extensions of Simeon's
mind. Emergency overrides. He turned
his attention imwards.

 THE CrIY WHO FOUGHT 301                       l

***

  "Simeon?" Channa subvocalized. There was no reply.
"Suneo7~t'f

Silence.

  "I am the Lord Captain Belazir t'Marid Kolaren,f' the
pirate chiefsaid softly. "Master here now, by right of
conquest. I hold your lives in my fist, to spare or crush
as I will. Who led here before we came?"

         ~ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

helpbosshelpbossowowow OW!

  Simeon had never told anyone about
the AI system. Well, nobody but Tell
Radon. He was interfaced with the
computers directly, of course; he
could "remember" anything in the
banks and use their capacities the
way he could those of his own human
brain. The AI program was something
else again. It was as sophisticated
as anything this side of Central. He
and Tell had spent many a happy hour
tweaking it further. Simeon needed
the best. There were limits to how
many tasks even a shellperson could
do simultaneously, and many were far
too routine for continual
supervision. An ordinary human had
the hindbrain for running heart,
lungs, and other physical basics, a
consciousness for thought, and a
subconscious for monitoring and men-
tal housecleaning. Simeon had the
Al.

help! boast

  Of course, it was impossible to
actually visualize what was going on
in the AI system, any more than you
could visualize every neuron firing
in your brain. Simeon had chosen to
make it something of a playground,
with something he had always wanted.

"Here, boy!" Simeon called.

  He was standing he had a softshell
body in the virtual world of the
AI on a grassy plain, cut up into
pathways by tall hedges with gaps.
The sensations were full-tactile;
only smell and taste were missing.
This part of the landscape was
memory-scan and basic accesscontrol
programming, all analogued to the
physical.

T7IE CrI Y WHO FOUGHT 303

Both sense and response,
automatically translated into
algorithms by a subprogram.

"Here boy!" He whisded sharply. "I'm
here, boyl"

  A dog bounded into view around a
corner. It was the dog of his dreams,
big and shaggy-red, with floppy ears
and a cold wet nose. It was also the
SSS-900-C's primary artificial
intelligence program.

  Now it was surrounded by a swarm of
wasps, huge malevolent things with
wingspans a meter across. Their beaks
were hollow, and out of them wormed
long pink tongues, lashing and
rasping with serrated teeth set along
their sides. A dozen bleeding wounds
marked the dog's sides. One of the
wasps clung to its head, with the
tongue pulsing out and into the
animal's ear.

boss! help!

  The dog's barking voice was
weakening. Simeon stepped forward,
and the ground shook with his anger.
Beneath it was bean The pirates had
clamped something to the
communications console and now he
knew what it was. A Canalized battle
computer, stocked with worm and
subversion programs. If it took over
his hardware, he was doomed.

  He turned the Jets cap backward on
his head and gestured. A glowing
green enchanted bat appeared in one
hand, a hand that was suddenly
gauntleted with steel, part of the
armor that covered him. With the
other steel glove he grasped the wasp
on the dog's head and crushed it,
pulling. The long tongue flailed as
he pulled it out of the brain,
jerking and cutting bone with a
tooth-grating sound.

  On my own, then, Channa thought. "I
am Station Chief Channa Hap," she
said. "This is my colleague,
Simeon-Amos."

  The Kolnari commander remained
motionless, like a statue in oiled
ebony. His companion reached down

304 AnneMcCa~ ~ SM. S - ng

and jerked her to her feet by the
front of her coverall. Fingers like
steel rods slammed into shoulder,
ribcage, hip. Pain flowered through
her in a wave that snapped her teeth
shut with a grinding clack and left
her limply boneless when he released
her to sprawl facedown on the
decking.

  For minutes she was too limp to do
more than sprawl. Amos had surged
halfway to his feet. The Kolnari who
had struck Channa turned and gave
him a casual buffet across the side
ofthe head: the sound was like a wet
board hitting concrete. Amos flew
backwards two meters and ploughed
into the deck at an awkward angle.
One of the others hooked him back to
Channa's side with a foot. He lay
with glazed eyes, breathing in a
harsh rasp that sent bubbles of
blood oozing from nose and mouth.
She forced down an overwhelming
impulse to rush to him, but their
lives depended on her wits.

  "Scumvermin address the Divine Seed
of Kolnar as 'Great Lord,' n the
second-in-command said. He put a
foot on Channa's neck and ground her
face into the coarse fabric that
covered the floor. "When the Lord
Captain Belazir addresses them, they
respond with 'Master and God.' "

Eat shit and die, Master and God,
Channa thought.

  "Master and God," she managed to
choke out, the words muffled by the
synthetic fabric.

  Belazir nodded benignly, a slight
smile on his carven lips. "Let her
rise to her knees once more.
Ignorance pardons nothing but
explains much. Do you understand?"
he said to Channa.

  "I understand perfectly, Master and
God," she said to the Kolnari
leader. "You're the Good Pirate and
he's the Bad Pirate, eh?"

  Belazir frowned a moment, then
threw back his head and laughed in
delight as he caught the reference.

THE ~IYWHO FouGHT30B

  "No, no," he said, restraining his
companion with a slight gesture. The
feral aggression in the ocher man's
face was unchecked, but he sank back
obediently. "You do not understand my
good Serig's role at all." He Burned
to the ocher prone figures. "Up on
your knees, scumvermin. Announce your
functions."

  The lights flickered. Belazir
looked up sharply. One of the Kolnari
spoke from beside the mechanism
clamped to the commumcahoDs terming.

  Channa felt her stomach clamp with
a fear older and more visceral than
the pirates. Something was ineerfer-
ing with basic station functions.

  The dog lay panting, healing
visibly but more slowly than it
should. The wasps lay crushed or
buzzing malevolently at a distance.
Simeon's great bronze shield
prevented their approach. On its
surface were concentric rings of
figures. Great heros: Armstrong, da
Luis, Helva. At last the dog crawled
over and licked Simeon's ankles,
whimpering.

good better malre'emgonway(!) boss

  Simeon checked the dog, who had
sustained no permanent damage,
although there was some memory loss.

`'Get up," he said. "Run."

Nan!

  "Change it as you go," Simeon said.
"Game." He added specifications.

gamer

  The hedges melted and shifted as
the dog ran, long ears flopping in
the mild afternoon sun. A new sound
came from around a long corridor in
the memorymaze. Along raw = ~ sound,
like what was that ancient holo? Like
a chain saw! Then the beast that made
the noise surged around the corner.

Wow, Simeon thought. Wormpro~am,
indeed.

  The end of the creature stretched
off into the din tance, a
grayish-pink tentacle covered in
rough-edged

S06 A7~McCa~ PRISM. S - no

scales. It was two meters thick, an
endless segmented arm of tough
fibrous muscle, dripping acid
mucous. Where it passed, the bare
ground smoked. Each drop of slime
turned the dust into a pulsing
globule the size of a fist, like a
wet cyst. When these popped, a long-
tongued wasp crawled out, flexed its
wings, and took to the air tojoin
the buzzing cloud around the worm.
The head ofthe thing reared up
suddenly, sprang open like a fleshy
blossom. Twenty looping pseudopods
whirled around it, each one tipped
with a lidless eye. At their meeting
was a series of circular mouths, one
within the other, each ringed with
pyramid-shaped teeth of urinecolored
diamond. The teeth spun and clenched
and gritted over each others'
adamantine surfaces in a continuous
blurred roar of hostile sound.

  "By their programs shall ye know
them," Simeon intoned, suddenly
wishing that he had not made the
construct he inhabited in this
virtual reality quite so vividly
lifelike. He could definitely do
without the dry mouth, pounding
heart, and sinking stomach right
now, for example. He could change
the setting, but that would deprive
him of one more slender advantage:
his familiarity with it. So long as
the matrix remained, the intruder
had to fight on his terms.

  "These people are not going to
garner many SUM's," he said
resolutely, and stepped forward,
raising his shield. Central awarded
Social Utility Marks to a number of
unlikely people, but this would
really be stretdling the bounds of
possible recipients.

  "Come on, you bastard!" he shouted
aggressively. "Nobody hurts my dog!"

  The worm program struck. Simeon
groaned, stamped his feet into the
ground, and braced his shoulder
against the shield. Data/fangs
gnawed at it, recoiling with a sound
like frying bacon amid choking
clouds of green vapor. His bat
flailed, knocking aside
eye-tentacles and tongue-wasps. For
a long subjective

THE CITY WHO FOUGHT S(Y7

time there was only batter and
strike, leap and wiggle and dodge.
The oozing serrated mouth loomed in
constant menace. It wants to swallow
my pattern whole and assimilate it in
one gulp! Tongue-worms flicked alarm-
ingly around his head. They would
subvert the Master Control Programs
with their probes. He continued to
flail the wasps out of the air,
stamped them underfoot, swung the
bat, and an eye exploded in a shower
of black syrup like a giant overripe
fig. Finally, the worm recoiled for a
moment, and Simeon whirled aside and
fled, dodging andjinking through the
maze.

  Got to keep it oJ7-halance,
confused, he thought, listing to its
triumphant screeching hard on his
heels. Every muscle in his "body"
already feltbr`iised. Butit was more
satisfying that way, too. Knowing
you'd disorganized a section of code
wasn't nearly as much fun as seeing
blood  or ichor, in this case fly and
feeling flesh pulp under a blow. The
howl sounded again, closer.

  "Talk about your slash-and-burn
data collection," he gasped in time
with the pounding of his stride. What
sort of maniacs would let something
like this loose inside an information
system? It had to be destroying as
much as it gathered.

  Got to make it them :a's won,
eventually. Isolate it in the outer
subsystems of the computers, keeping
the ultimate control-keys behind
barriers the worm thought were the
edge of the entire system. Overwise,
it would infest the whole system,
lice maggots in rotting meat.
Induding his own mind, unless he
committed suicide by severing all
connections between his organic brain
and the data system.

  That was an unfortunate image. He
flashed back to the refugee ship and
the dead Bethelites, their bodies
moving with burrowing life.

  I win pull the plug first, he
thought grimly. Theoretically, it was
impossible to self-destruct the
station. In practice, he probably
could. Win ordie.

308 ArmeMcCa~ ~ She.ti?hng

"~_!" the worm screeched.

  "As Channa would say, eat shit and
die." Simeon panted the words out as
he turned a corner and took a stance
again. Thorns and leaves flew into
the air as the data-worm tried to
smash directly through to him. Then
there was a huge Alit sound and a
wailing cry of pain as it ploughed
into the stone core of the hedge.
That persuaded it to come around the
corner. It seemed larger; frothy
pink blood streamed around the
working, palping mouths. Some of the
teeth had shattered on stone, but
they regenerated as he watched. The
worm's approach made the ground
shake. Behind him, he could hear the
wufEle and growl of the AI, setting
new barriers and deceptions.

  "Step right up, lay right down!"
Simeon bellowed. Don't worry about
the others. This is going to take
all your attentionfora while.

"Raaaaa=~!"

  This time the gravity bounced them
about as the lights flickered.
Belazir turned to the technicians
with a well-controlled snarl of
impatience.

"What now?"

  "Great Lord, there is unexpected
resistance. We thought the worm was
successfully penetrating the Master
Control programs, but they wiggled
free. We are making progress, but
the AI is exceptionally agile  the
parallel "

  Belazir cut them offwith a gesture.
"I am interested in results,
no/jargon-laden excuses. Grasp the
core in your fist, and quickly."

  He turned back to his prisoners.
Mat nakedfaces they have, he
thought. In a new conquest, it was
often so. Those who survived long
learned better, but it could be
entertaining.

  Reports of the station's assets and
supplies were flooding in.

THE CrIYWHO FOUGHT S~

  Better than I expected, he thought
exultantly. Fir better Unr1nagmably
tech! This facility could build drew
noughts, given a little time and the
plans which were available in the
Clan's computers.

  The High Clan's greatest weakness
was the lack of large purpose-built
warships. They could turn out
frigates, more or less, but for
larger craft they could only modify
captures. No cobbled-together
merchanter could rival the
performance of real batdec~. A
warship was more than a ship with
weapons and defense-systems: it was a
single organism, almost living in
itself. Must we abandon He shipyard?
The frustration was as agonizing as
the satisfaction of taking the
station was euphoric, with its
destruction as a second orgasmic
"hit." On the other hand, possession
of such equipment would cut genera-
tions from the great plan, the
spreading of the Divine Seed of
Kolnar and the power of the Clan.

  Even worse was the humiliation the
Clan had suffered for too long. The
human galaxy teemed with such pnzes,
yet the Clan fleet must skulk about
the outworlds, gnawing discarded
scraps: border worlds, miserable
settlements of poverty-stricken
exile, like Bethel. Skulk
likejackals, even as they had been
driven from their lands and
possessions on their ancient
homeworld. Gnawing poor bones, while
feasts like this lay spread before
them. Intolerable! It was not to be
borne!

  His pleasure dissolved. "You have
maintained physical separation? " he
asked, his irritation at this check
palpable.

  The technician ducked his head. "Of
course, Great Lord. No data enters
our machines from this system save by
hedron. All such hedrons are first
analyzed to the last byte of
information. Our duplicate backups
are kept powered down and physically
severed while any captured data is
running."

  Belazir nodded. Continue," he said,
satisfied that elementary precautions
were being taken. Mu war suffer you
will suffer, akAhh, how you will
suffer, he thought,

310 Anne McCoy ~ S. M. SO

barring mental teeth at the universe
that stood between the Clan and its
apotheosis. AR of them would writhe
in the fist, one day. "You have a
preliminary report?"

"Affirmative, Great Lord," the
technician said.

  Why can technicians never use a
simple word where their accursed
slang can be stretched to f t?
Belazir wondered as he heard the
technician out.

  "We captured the message logs in
the first penetration, before the AI
reacted. No nonroutine messages to
Central, except the arrival and
spontaneous destruction of a large,
mysterious ship. Little evidence was
left. Central said they would search
their files."

  With a white-toothed gnn, Belazir
condescended to give a nod in reply.
"Excellent! Order: launch the mes-
sage torpedo. Summon the transports,
all that can be spared; also
personnel for the disassembly."

  He looked around at his fighters,
smiling. "Well done. We will settle
in, drinking the prey dry and eating
it to the bone at our leisure.
Staff; draw up a preliminary plan to
strip as much as possible as quickly
as possible and load efficiency when
the transport arrives. "

  Smaller, high-value loot would go
to the victorious flotilla, of
course. He would have to arrange
priorities: priorities that would
give the Bride the first end best
pick, and t'Vamlc'sAge of Darkness
the last and worst, of course.

  Part of his attention had been on
Serig's interrogation of the
prisoners. He brought his head up,
smiling at dhe executive officer's
wit.

  "He says," he translated for the
benefit ofthe scumvermin Serig had
been taunting, "that he will explore
your internal environment,
Environment Systems Officer Coburn."

No! Channa thought hard at her.
Don't mist, Patty!

  The older woman's broad fair face
was flushed, red spots on her cheeks
showing her rage. the pirate reached
a hand down her shirt and squeezed a
breast casually.

THE CITY WHO FOUGHT 3 1 1

Patsy spat in his face.

  Channa started to rise.
Belazirjabbed a precisely calculated
toe into her bruised stomach. She
collapsed to the deck again. The
pirate grabbed her ear in strong,
almost prehensile toes and forced her
head around.

  "Watch, scumvermin," he said
pleasantly. "And learn not to defy
the High Clan."

  Behind her there was a flurry as
Amos tried to rise again. A Kolnari
pounded her heel into the small of
his back over the kidneys and he
collapsed with a stifled shriek,
thrashing. Nobody else moved.

Simeon, she thought desperately.
Simeon!

  Serig touched his face where the
spittle ran and spoke in his own
language. The other Koluari laughed
or grinned, watching with bright-eyed
interest. Patsy took advantage of his
inattention, lashing out in a kick at
his groin. A fist snapped down and
met the rising foot with a sound dike
a mallet hitting rock. Patsy gave a
sharp gasp of pain. With bound hands,
she was thrown outbalance and
staggered back against the coffee
table. The Kolnari laughed as she
almost fell, stripping away his
harness and tossing it aside. The
briefs came away with it,
memory-plastic rolling up into the
belt. The stationer's clothes
followed, torn away as if they were
paper while one hand held her
immobilized, clamped to herjaw. He
stepped back and stood like a
licentious Greek statue, gestured.

"Down," he said in Standard.
"Spread."

  Yes, Belazir thought, looking down
at Channa. In the end, this one is
mine. But not at once. With subtlety.

  As a child, Belazir t'Marid had
been the despair ofhis mothers and
nurses. For all their whippings and
shockrod treatments, for all the
day-cycles spent locked in the
hotbox, they could never break him of
the nasty habit of toying with his
``food."

           ItI'EREIGHTEEN

  Simeon dropped to the ground,
panting. Atop the distant mountain,
another wing of the castle crumbled
and fell into the gulfs below with
an earthquake rumble of rock. The
worm screamed triumph and wound
itself further around the central
tower as flames billowed into the
darkening sky. A tiny figure stood
on the battlements above the
monster, waving a bat that glowed
iridescent green. Queasy, Simeon
switched viewpoints, just in time to
see the open maw engulf his
pseudo-construct duplicate. The
gnashing teeth ripped it into
shreds. The illusion faded and his
last sight from it was a rushing
universe of light and
onoffonoffonoffonoff Onoffas the
code was disassembled and "digested"
by the intruder.

  Phew, he thought, shakily turning
hisJets cap rightside around again.
That ought to hold hint For a while,
at least. The worm would be here,
always probing and testing, as long
as the Kolnari battle-computer
stayed clamped to the SSS-900-C's
system. Even if he destroyed the
program and purged his system, that
would merely ring every alarm the
enemy had. They'd only launch
another worm immediately, with a
different configuration. Despite its
self-modifying abilities, he hzew
this one now!

  Gently, stepping backward, brushing
his footprints out of the sand, he
faded from the blasted landscape of
cinders, where pustules in the soil
spewed line after line of questing
wasps.

 l~ECl - WHOFOUGHT    313

"The Knight came home from the quest;

Muddied and sore he came.

Battered of shield and crest,

Bannerless, bruised and lame "

  Channa Is weeping. That was his
first thought, as his "other"
awareness flared back. Everything was
a little murky, but he could see
clearly enough down into the lounge.
She was sitting on the sofa next to
Amos, head cradled against his
shoulder, sobbing with slow misery.
Both of them looked battered, as if
they'd been thrown f rom a moving
vehicle. Amos winced every time he
moved.

  "Channa!" Simeon said when a few
microseconds' of a scan told him the
room was safe. A little further
adjustment put an innocuous scene on
the security system the Kolnari and
their computers were monitoring.
"Channa, are you all right?"

  "sphere wereyour Channa shouted,
springing erect. "Where were you,
Simeon?"

"I was "

  Simeon noticed what was playing over
the general channel, again and again,
locked in from the command circuits.
Nearing the end of one loop, Channa
was kneeling by Patsy's side, trying
to staunch the hemorrhage with the
scraps of her clothing.

  "Please, Master and God, may I
summon the doctor?"

  "Of course," the pirate chieftain
said. "We are a reasonable people." A
broad smile. "As you see, you were
wrong. I am the 'bad pirate.' Serig
is the worse pirate."

  Simeon blinked back to the present.
He felt his automatic feeds cut in,
damping down hormonal flows and
adrenal glands, filtering his blood.
Even so, he came as close to feeling
faint as he ever had.

  "I . . . oh, God, Gad," he
whispered. "Shit." There were no
words adequate in any lexicon.

314 Aru~McCa~ ~ S. M. S - red

"Where were you, Simeon?"

  "Fighting," he said. "Channa, they
put a worm pro gram into the station
system. I had to fightit, it was is
 a monster. If I hadn't, it would
have burrowed right into my brain
and eatenme. I'd also be under their
control and telling them everything
they wanted to know. I couldn't even
self-destruct!"

  "I see," Channa said. "Not that
there zoos anything you could have
done for us. Excuse me." She walked
quickly into her quark: he could
hear water splashing.

  Amos stood, left hand clenched
around right fist. "Though they be
thieves from their birth, for this,
they shall pay," he said softly,
almost to himself "For Patsy, for
Keriss, for my sister and my
father's house and for all they have
done, by the living soul of God,
they shall pay in full, everyjot and
little."

  Channa came back, her face set
harder than Simeon had ever seen it.
She waved Amos back and turned to
the pillar.

  "What damage did you sustain?" she
asked in a professional tone.

  "Nothing crucial yet," Simeon said.
"I've got to keep a fair share of my
attention and the system's capacity
involved in just watching and
waiting. That worm program mutates
like a retrovirus: the sort that
never gives up. I could clean it
out if I dared. Apart from that,
I've lost about a third of the
memory and computational capacity.
That's what could be termed
'occupied territory' at the moment.
With luck, their computer will keep
thinking that's all there is. It's
powerful but specialized. They
haven't hooked up their ship
computers to the station, yet.
Probably afraid of us hacking in to
them.

  "But," he went on, "I've got to be
really careful. Any action I take in
what they think is safe territory
has to be elaborately screened. I
canjimmy the records. However, even
I can't make the impossible
convincing."

 IME CITY WHO FOUGHT ~ 15                      I

  She narrowed her eyes. "Could you take back those functions
in a hurry?"

  "Somewhere from seconds to minutes. They'd know pretty
quick, and that battle-computer they've got jacked in could .
. . hmm. Come to think of it, I could probably take that over,
too. But they'd know."

"No problem . . . later. Can we conference?"

  "Yeah, I've got all of their people under continuous
surveillance."

"We'd better get moving as soon as we can," she said.

  Simeon made an affirmative sound. "Our people are going to
be pretty shook up," he said. I sure and "We've got to gee
things in hand, before they start lashing out. It'll take some
time though, for a cycle when they're all available."

  "Good. Let's get, hmmm, Chaundra, the section leaders, and "
Amos began.

  "Everyone's gone," Seld Chaundra said in a low and careful
voice. "You sure we oughta do this, Joat? Joseph said ~

  'Joe can wait a minute, 'n so can you, carrot-face," she
whispered. "Now keep that thing running, hey?"

  He nodded and bent again over the two modules and the jack
clipped to the main conduit above them. This way was very
narrow an adult would have to be a dwarf to get through but it
came in conveniently over the sickbay entrance.

  "Look," he went on, without glancing up. He was still
breathing hard from the effort of crawling up the axial
ventway. "Look, maybe Ms. Coburn doesn't need someone else
talking to her right now? It's been less than a day, and "

  "Yeah, I saw the broadcast, too," she said. She had. Seld
had fainted. His mods weren't doing him as much good as they
should. "You stay here."

She crawled f orward' pushing the local sensor-oveIIide

816 AIMS. Saw

unit ahead of her. To the naked eye,
the cover ofthe duct was a
paneljustfike an the others. The only
realdifference was thatit was
selectively permeable and much
thinner. It recessed o~y andJoat
looked down into a darkened room. One
floatbed, the usual furniture, and a
figure under the sheet. She curled
her~elfinto a ball and somersaulted
slowly through the cperung, holding
on with her f~tips and then dropping
the final meter to the floor.

  "You awake?" she said, moving to
  the bedside. "It's
Joat"

  Coburn's eyes were open. She lay
motionless, but they tracked through
the darkness. Joat shone a small
light under her own chin. She had
procured for herself a very expensive
coverall, made of adjustable light-
fibers. Simeon had gotten it for her
because it was fashionable, but with
a little creativity you could rig it
to mimic the ambient background
color, which was right now a mottled
charcoal gray. Her face floated above
it in the lightstick's feeble
low-setting glow.

  "Go 'way, Joat," the woman said in
a dun voice. Her face looked old,
under the sealant bandages. "I don't
need any more sympathy. Leave me
alone."

  "Great, 'cause sympathy's not what
I'm gonna give you," Joat said. She
brought her face closer to Patsy's,
and her own eyes held the same Hat
deadness. "Let me ted you thing about
me." She explained, in a flat,
matter-of-fact tone an about her
father, her uncle, the captain.

  "So I hung, Ms. Coburn," she went
on. "Forget what anyone else's said.
They dor~tknow lack shit. ButJoat,
she knows Andy how you feet And like
I said, you don's need
sympadhyrightnow.
Iknowwhatyoudoneed."

  Slowly, Patsy raised herself on her
elbow. "An' what would dint tee?"

  Silendy,Joat reached around and
opened herhaversack. Her gloved hand
came out with Patsy Sue Coburn's
Sunbelt and arc pistol

IRE (=YW~O FOUGHT 317

  "Payback,"Joat whispered steadily.
"And here's how it s goring be "

  The medical-storage room had its
own surveillance subloop. That made
it a good place for the clandestine
meeting. It was also curly, bare, and
crowded. The walls
weregraymetalbinsoutlinedwithfluore
s~ntpau~

  Appropriate, given the state of our
morale, Channa thought.

  "I have two hundred fifty-seven
people down with the virus," Chaundra
said. "The symptoms are spectacular
but not life-threatening, as long as
they stay hooked to the machinery. I
have also treated sixty-four patients
for traumas and wounds of various
sorts. No fatalities, so far. One or
two are in critical condition, but
they should recover. This total
includes several of my medical aids
who have been assaulted by Kolnari
coming to check up on our 'sick.'
They seem to find the sight
disgusting and . . . exciting at one
and the same time. Several of
thepatients have been assaulted."

  So much for scaring them off with
the virus, Channa thought. "Patsy?"
she asked aloud. She's Befriend.
Patsy hadn't wanted to talk to her or
anyone else, which was
understandable. But I want to know
about her

  "She . . . there were no broken
bones, apart fromthe foot. I
internally splinted that " gluing the
bones together in a synthetic sheath
stronger than the original material,
to give them a matrix to heal
" replaced the lost blood, and
plas-sutured an the softtissue
injuries. Ms. Coburn is mobile
although in some . . . physical . .
. discomfort. With the usual growth
stimulators, full recovery should
take no more than a week."

  He licked his lips nervously. "I
cannot answer for her mental state.
I fear catatonic. I have administered
the usual psychotropics, but the mind
is more than the brain and its
chemistry."

318 A~M~SM.S~

Channa noddedjerkily. "Anything
else?"

  "Yes. I now have . . . abundant
tissue samples from the Kolnari.
There are things we should discuss
privately."

  Amos looked at the faces in the
screen. "Continue as planned," he
said. "The enemy are pushing you to
work. Be as stupid as you dare. Make
mistakes as often as you dare. Above
all, keep as much material half-
disassembled as you can."

  "When are we going topcoat them?"
somebody burst out. "You and Simeon
talked a good fight, about Cochise
and the Viet Gong_ n Cong, Simeon
corrected silently "_ so far all
we're doing is rolling over!"

  "There is the virus," Simeon said.
"That's working, they're catching
it. I've begun psychological opera-
tions. Most important, I've
deciphered their language." That
brought a rustle. "It's not much
like the ones in the survey
files both are pidgin SinhalaTamil,
but . . . anyway, I've got it.
They've ordered sixty units here."

"Oh, great!" the men barked. "More
oftheml"

  "Shut up," Channa remarked. "That
means they're notjust going to strip
the station of everything they can
carry in their warships and then
blow it up. You can't kill a cow and
milk it. It'll be at least a week
before the transports arrive. There
ought to be about sixty of them. You
know how long it takes us to load
sixty freighters with homogenous ore
when we're Wing to work fasts
Imagine what it will take to remove
and load fixed equipment, with
everyone dragging their feet. And
the more of them that are here, the
more will be caught when the Fleet
arrives."

  UAnd," Amos said, with a feral
smile, That means we can be more
direct in the interim. Do not worry,
my friends. They, too, will suffer,
know fear and pain."

That brought a chorus of
satisfaction.

We think revenge is prime, Simeon
thought, until

THE C~YWHO FOUGHT 519

need it to satin indignity and
humiluztum. He was feeling
considerable desire in that disunion
himsd

  Amos lifted a hand. "Wait. We want
to lure as many of them into the
station as possible as insuIar~, and
so we can wear them down. But we
cannot risk key people who know a
good deal about our plans and our
station prisoners being dragged in f
or interrogation because they thought
they could be clever. No anion is to
be taken save on my express orders.
The personnel to effect those orders
will be Fred with a suicide tooth and
have psych profiles which assure its
use. Wait until you receive orders.
We have a fine general " he nodded in
Simeoris direction ~ and we must f
allow his words.

That brought silence.

  "We'll try levering them to cut
back on the atrocities," Channa said.
"Say it's reducing working
efficiency that's true enough. Stay
tight, endure! We'll see them all
fried yet! Out."

  One by one the faces vanished from
the screen, except for Chaundra's.

"The bad news' Doctor," she said.

  This meeting was a fleeting thing,
time stolen as they were all
supposedly on their way somewhere
else. They could fool the sensors for
a while, but nobody could explain
being in two positions at once, one
of them under the real-time eyes of
the enemy. Only the fact that there
were fifteen-thousand odd of the
stationers and less than a tenth that
number of Kolnari made it possible at
all. That and the invaders' imperfect
control of dhe surveillance
computers.

  Channa studied Chaundra's grim
face. "What is it?" she asked him.

  He scrubbed his face with bodh
hands and shrugged, exhaustion in his
voice. "It's not working."

"What is not working?" Amos asked
impatiendy.

  '`The virus)" Chaundra said. "They
are infected  somewhat but it hardly
bothers them at ale"

320 AnncMcCo - HS~I, Smog

  44Shit!" Channa swore. She had
hoped theiB4ness would make the
Kolnari shun civilians of their own
volition. 44Doesn'tithaveanyof~ct?"

  4'Mild headache, some nausea, one
or two cases of diarrhea for a day
or JO. All in ad, much less than our
people have experienced even with
the immunization. The afflicted
individuals act ems, not frightened,
and their companions laugh at them."
Chaundra shrugged in despair. 44I
movethatwediscontinue this plan
Ourpeople are getting raped, beaten,
humiliated and catching the flu
while the Kolnari just have fun. I
tested their tissue samples the
Kolnari immune system is barely
hunter If some of the rape victims
were not pregnant, I would doubt
that the Ri~hzan are human. No, I
correct that. Of human origin. Their
actions certainly are not," he added
bitterly.

44Pregnant?" Channa asked,
bewildered.

  441 terminated," he said, 44ectopic
pregnancies, in the fallopian tubes.
This despite slow-release implant
contraceptives." Those made the
body's own immune system treat sperm
as foreign matter until
counteracted.

  44Channa, the pirates seem to have
metallic-salt and other contaminant
levels that should make every one of
them stone sterile. Instead, their
sperm are a whole order of magnitude
more motile than the norm. The rest
of their systems are built the same
way. Their antibody response is . .
. their bodies use the poisons to
kill bacterial or viral invaders.
Their DNA is locked into position
with redundancy and self-repair
mechanisms like nothing I have ever
seen, resistant both to radiation
and to viml contamination."

  44I refuse to believe these animals
are supermen," Amos said.

  "Oh, they're not that," Chaundra
said. 44From their DNA, I'd say they
have shorter !ifespans than ours. I
imagine the degeneration past early
middle-age is . . .

IME crrywHo FOUGHT 321

spectacular and swift, as the whole
system abruptly ils. Several other
disadvantages; for example, they
could not live without dioxin and
arsenic compounds in their food. An
equivalent of scurvy would sterile
them."

He 5:11 silent.

  "There's something else you're
hiding, Doctor," Channa said quietly.
Amos sat more erect, glancing
narrowly from the woman to the
screen. "Tell us!"

  Bongo, Simeon thought, narrowing in
on Chaundra's pupil Elation and
breathing.

  "There is a possibility," Chaundra
said, looking aside from the pickup.
"Another virus." A long pause. "The
one that killed Mary. It is of
unparalleled virulence. Possibly the
worst natural . . . unnatural disease
ever to be discovered."

  Amos' head jutted forward. "Why did
you not mention this before?" he
asked harshly.

  "Because it killed my wife!"
Chaundra shouted suddenly; the more
starding coming from so mild a man.
"Because it is killing my son!" More
softly, more rationally: "Because I
swore that the filthy disease should
never kill another human being. I no
longer classify the Kolnari under
that heading."

  "Still," Channa said, "the virus is
a good plan. The enemy don't have
much medical capability at all. And
Chaundra has lucidly explained why
they don't need it. For our purposes
they are medically ignorant. Little
expertise beyond treating wounds and
broken bones, really. I get the
impression they just sort of . . .
junk anyone who's sicker than that."

  Chaundra looked thoughtful,
professional competence taking over
despite himself. "I do not have the
live virus, you understand. But I
have the information on a minihedron.
The protein is nothing, the
replicator can produce it
immediately. But modifications . . .
yes. What sort of disease did you
have in mind?"

322 ArmeMcCo~ ASK. Swag

"Something scary," she said.

"Something fatal," Amos added.

  "if possible," she agreed. "But at
the least, spectacularly
incapacitating, disgusting,
horrifying. Something widh mental
deterioration? We want dhem
terrified, and what's more
terrifying than madness?"

  "Whoa now' I dunno'" Simeon said.
"Do you really want a stationload of
crazy Koluari? Crazier than they
already are, I mean."

They looked Thoughtful and slighdy
sick.

  "No, no, wait a tnoment," Chaundra
said, and paused. "As Channa
suggested, we could target only
those who've had the virus. They
catch it. It's just not capable of
getting much beyond the first few
cells. Antibody response is very
quick. That's a manageable part of
the Kolnari force, enough to hurt
and rattle them without driving them
into a killing frenzy. It would be
cumulative, spread among themselves.
Close contact is needed, and I could
increase that. Immunize our people
steadily, under dhe guise of normal
treatment. It can be done. I'm sure
of it I

  "Get on it, then," Channa said.
When the doctor's image had faded:
"That takes care of death"

  Simeon's image nodded. It was less
mobile than usual, with so much
capacity tied up. This is a war of
morale. Guerilla war always is. We
have to demoralize them, and much
more important, maintain our own
morale."

  Orourpeoplewdl Hand someone
wilgoto~eKolnan, went unspoken among
them.

"Speaking of which," Amos said,
Using.

Must you? Channa said quiedy.

  "Yes, I must," he replied, walking
over to her and lifting a hand to
his lips. The gesture seemed far
more natural dean it had at first,
less staged.

  "This isn't going to work for
long," Channa said to the air, after
he had led

ME C~YWHO FOUGHT 323

  "It doesn't have to," Simeon
replied. "Only long enough.

"Get ready, Seld," Joat breathed.

  "I'm ready," he whispered back. He
was pale and sweating heavily.

  Her hand rested on the diaphragm
that separated the vent from the
corndor. Her other hand gripped the
spring-loaded device, adjusting it so
the red dot on the notescreen image
beside her lay prolixly over a spot
in the corridor. Below, Patsy waited
at thejunction ofthe passageways, one
hand behind the concealing wale That
hand held the arc pistol, but if an
went wed they would notneedit.

  If all did not go well, they were
probably going to die in the next
twenty seconds or so. Die quickly if
they werelucky.

  UOne of them," Seld said. "Still
only one." He was peering into the
miniscreen jacked into the security
cameras from their local lead. "Still
coming."

  Bare feet scuffed lightly below.
The Kolnari came swiftly, not
running: they seemed to walk on dhe
balls of their feet in a light
half-trot most of the time. He
checked slighdy at dhe sight of
Patsy.

"Who goes?" he called.

  Stationers not on essential duties
were supposed to be in dheir cabins.
Then he recogruzed her and smiled.
One taken by the na Marid was a
prestigious victim and here she was,
walking alone. He started towards
her, speeding up as she dodged around
dhe corner.

  The warrior was stopping and
turning even asJoat keyed the
diaphragm open. His speed was
awesome, but she had triggered the
hand-cobbled device at dhe same
instant the pang came down. Behind
her there was a click that meant Seld
had cut in dhe damper. For dhe next
few minutes, security records would
show an empty corridor. Safe, unles
s a human observer were

324 An~McCo~ ~ S.M. Sarling

looking. Even checking the files
would show recording errors, normal
enough considering the havoc the
Kolnari had caused the station
computers.

  The darts struck the Kolnari as his
finger was tightening on the trigger
of his own weapon. A hundred
thousand volts flowed through the
thread-thin super-
conductorwiresbehind them. He
convulsed.

  mush. Hot air blossomed away from
the plasma rifle
aroundarodofsun-hotviolence.
Literally sun-hot; itwas an
ultra-miniaturized, laser-t~iggered
deuterium fusion pellet focused by
magnetic fields. Normally the
pirate's muscle and refiox would
have been enough to hold it steady
on his aiming point. Now the
superheated gas stewed his lifeless
body around and the substance ofthe
walls sublimed away, the beam
chopping through synthetics and
conduits and the empty chambers
beyond. There was a hiss and
che~che~p of pressure alanns as the
outer hull was punctured.

  Joat winced. That was not part of
the plan. "Quick," she said in soft
urgency. Dropping down into the cor-
ridor and grasping the pirate's
weapon, she heaved it up.

  "Har," she gasped, wobbling under
the burden of the clumsy thing.
Between them, Seld and Joat got it
up into the duct. Then she bent and
grabbed one of the Kolnari's arms.
She heaved and her heels skidded.
The juddering, twitching body was
head, far heavier than a man dressed
only in a belt and briefs ought to
be. Patsy darted back.

"It's nothing," she said`.

  "It'll do for starters," Joat said
with a grunt. 64C'monl"

  Together they dragged the body to
the airlock around the corner and
cycled it through

  "Meet you at N-7a x L,"Joat panted,
trotting back to the open diaphragm.
"Need that stuffon the list."

"I'llbe there," Patsy said.

***

IRE ClIY WHO FouGHT 825

  "It will work," Joseph said
reassuringly. "At least once," he
amended. 'Joat is an odd child, but
any contraption she claims will
function, will function."

  Amos nodded dubiously. I have
neverfound reason to doubt you in
matters of violence, he thought. That
was comforting. On the other hand, no
man was infallible, and evenJoseph
was an amateur at war.

  They were in the lower-equatorial
park, near the central core of the
station's upper globe. For a wonder,
there wed no surveillance cameras
here. By Central World law, there had
to tee such places in any substantial
habitat. Most of the inhabitants
being law-abiding types, SSS-900-C's
was in the park. It was fairly large,
several hundred hectares, with part
of the station water-reserves
deployed as lakes and ponds.
Currently it was in nightcycle, and
the Kolnari seemed to find that
fascinating. Amos could understand
that. He had found it heartbreakingly
like, and yet unlike, Be~eL The
scents were strange, greener, and
fresher than the arid hills of the
Sierra Nueva estates, milder than the
irrigated lowlands. Strange birds or
was it small animals?  chirred and
rushed in the under He was an out-
doors man, but these were not the
fields he knew.

"They come,"Joseph said. "To stay,"
he added.

  He moved off into the shadows of
the bushes, bent low, moving with a
skill he had learned in the alleys of
his childhood and the hunting grounds
of his leader's properties in later
years.

  God was not entirely unfair. The
Kolnari hearing was not quite as good
as human norm; it need notbe in the
thicker air of their homeworld. Amos
crouched with hunter's patience,
waiting as if for sicatooth.

  God of ourf athers, be wed me now,
he prayed with utter sincerity.
Stren~enmymmagain&t~echildrenofHel~.

  "Hal, dog-turds, what brings you
out this fair night?" Joseph's voice
rang clear. "Tired of banging your
mothers or looking f r sheep?"

326 ArneMcCo~ PRISM.

  Amos felt a lurch offear. They were
counting on the enemy's inexperience
with guerilla tactics, their
arrogance. That was perilously dose
to counting on the Kolnari being
stupid, and that was dangerous.

  Pounding feet came closer: Joseph's
heavier tread, and the lighter,
faster sound of the folk the
hell-planet bred. Joseph flashed
between the trees with his head
down, arms and legs pumping. The
pursuers seemed to float by
contrast, loping effortlessly lice
men on a low-gravity moon. Their
eyes and trailing manes glowed
lambent in the simulated starlight,
and their movements had the aching
gracefulness of swans taking flight.
They were beautiful, and horrible
beyond belief, and he feared them in
a way that had nothing to do with
the long knives in their hands.

  He stepped out. They stopped with
a plunging abruptness. Their heads
turned to scan him with the smooth
accuracy of gun-turrets trading
under computer control. Joat had
counted on that in designing her
gadget. A scanner detected the
alignment of their eyes.

  The thmg he carried strapped to his
chestyawped. Then it was red-hot,
and he was scrabbling to rip it
loose and toss it away. The pirates
stumbled as if they had run into a
wall of iron. They screamed as if
that iron were white hot and dropped
their knives to tear at their faces
in a frenzy of pain.

  Scream, dogs, Amos thought,
gratified. Stream as Bethel
screamed, asPat~ysaeamed,
scumverminfi8h.

  Cries of pain were not going to
attract attention on the SSS-900-C:
not while it was held in the Fist of
HighClan Kolnar.

  A dozen men and women edged out of
the shadows. Cutting bars and
lengths of dull~leaming synth tubing
were in their hands. Amos reached
over his back and drew a long curved
sword from its sheath with the
slender sound of steel on steel: the
motion so bug practiced from

 ICE CI-I~YWHO FOUGHT 827                       l

blade-dance training that it was as unconscious as breathing.
The heads of the Kolnari turned toward the sounds he made;
their ruined eyes were circa les of blood-red now, and tears
of blood dribbled down their cheeks They moaned in their
agony, but they moved toward him, teeth bared in a rictus of
pain and savagery.

  "Quickly, but carefully," Amos said to the others closing in
on their victims.

  Afterwards they must throw their clothes into disposal and
go through full decontamination cleansing.

  Joseph was behind the banded pirates, a half~ozen stationers
at his back. Two knives glinted in his hands.

"Nowr Amos said.

         ~ CHAPTER NINETEEN

  "Shall I perform an autopsy, Great
Lord?" the eunuch medico asked in
its shrill whine.

  Belazir t'Marid looked down at the
bodies in their separate bags.
Separate bags, but who knew what
went where? One bag might be a few
parts short or extra, for all he
could ten.

  "Creature," he said to the eunuchs,
cuffing one aside, "when men have
their skulls crushed by heavy
blows as these have and their eyes
gouged out  as these have and their
throats cut to the neckbone  as
these have and their bodies cut to
pieces, as Use have, then generally
speaking, as a rule, they die. An
autopsy seems somewhat superfluous."

  The noble's voice was even and
pleasant, as it usually was, but the
slave medico sank deeper and deeper
into a crouch of abasement with
every word, as if they were blows
from the powered whip normally used
on such At the last, all the eunuch
could do was whimper.

  "Cease," Belazir said. "Now, this
other; in that, I have interest."

  The medico sealed the bags
containing the bodyparts of the two
dead Kolnari and hastened to the
intact casualty. Relatively intact.
He stroked a hand down the opaque
material, and the stuffturned
utterly transparent.

  "Whatever killed him, he was not
pleased with it," Belazir remarked
to Serig, looking at the dead man's
bulging, staring eyes. Shifting to
the interrogative tense: "Creature?"

MIE CAIN WlIO F OUGHT 329

  "It is uncertain, Great Lord.
Either the electrocution or the
explosive decompression would be
fatal, of course. Here, the dart
struck. See, a burned patch, high on
the shoulder, towards the angle
ofthajaw. As he was turning to
confront that which killed him, it
struck from the rear."

  "Blindingly obvious," Belazir said
facetiously. "Go. Preserve the
bodies."

  "And what do you propose to do,
t'Marid?" the third Kolnari noble
present said.

  "Do, lord Captain t'Varak?" Belazir
said, turning with an expression of
perfect courtesy.

  T'Varak's presence provided a
welcome distraction. A kin-enemy was
always more entertaining than
outsiders, if more predictable. He
waved a languid hand about them, at
the dew-cool grass, at the bolos f ar
overhead that mimicked the blue
cloud-scattered sky of Earth. The
temperature was far below what
Kolnari preferred, but they could
endure anything down to and below
freezing without undue discomfort.
None of them needed to wear more than
briefs and shipbelt for utility. For
status, the nobles wore long
open-necked robes of watered silk,
jewelry offretted silver, and
homeworld fire opals. Their hair was
brushed to shining shoulder-length
waterfalls, pinned back with combs of
sea-ivory and precious metal, and the
kni~sharp feathers of Kolnari birds.

  Belazir stretched. His robe was
severely plain, dazzling white with
gold and indigo trim.

  "I shall enjoy the beauty of this
place. So fair, and so tragic because
soon it will perish as if it had
never been." He added a classical
quotation on transience and death in
the three-tonal scale.

  Anger glowed from the other man,
lambent as hot metal He might have
been Beliers twin, except for a hair
clip of gold rather than silver and
the petulance of his expression.
Belazir t'Marid never showed an enemy
his frustrations.

330 Am~eMcCo~ PRISM. Sit

'`Three of my men aredead, t'Marid,"
he said.

  "Dead!" agreed Belazirina mild
tone. "One slain from ambush,
another two destroyed hand Hand, by
scumvermm. Of course, to be caught
so carelessly, they became little
better then scumverrrun themselves.
Far better for the Clan that they
were cut offbefore they could
breed." Orbreed much; Kolnaribecame
fertile early. "Cullingby the
universe, not so? They will leave no
sons of disgrace to propagate lines
of weakness amid the Divine Seed."

  For a moment, he thought Arab would
attack him here, while Belazir was
in dear command, with Serig at his
side and armored crewfolk from the
Dreadful Bride at his back. If he
did, he was better culled out of the
Divine Seed. That was the point
ofthe delicate insult, of course.
Back on Bethel, old Azlek t'Varak
had taken off his helmet a moment
too soon and lost his head by such
precipitousness. That had been a
scandal of some note' shadowing the
prestige and honor of all his sons
A=giz t'Varak not least. The t'Varak
were always hotheads, Belazir
thought, amused at his own pun.
Azlek had been all of fifty, though;
time enough to be slow and senile.
Aragiz should know better.

  He did, though barely. "You should
bring the scumvermin here under
better control," Aragiz said in a
bland tone which matched Belazir's.
"Kill a few hundred. A hundred for
one."

  "T'Varak, t'Varak," Belazir
murmured. He bent and plucked a
flower, sniffed deeply of it. "There
are fill thousand or so scumvermin
on this great fat-dripping morsel
that the Clan and Father Chalku, by
the latest message yearns to pop
into its ever-hungry mouth. And, if
the scumvermin suspect that almost
all of them will die when we are
done, some one of them will sabotage
this station and rob the Clan of
that feasting, for all that we can
do. Despair makes even scumvermin
brave. Hope brings forth their
cowardice, each one hoping for
himself"

I1IE COIN WHO FOUGHT 331

  A songbird swooped by. Belazir's
hand snapped out like a trout rising
to a fly and caught dhe tiny creature
within tile cave of his hand. He
brought it up under Aragiz's nose as
dhe soft Ladlers brushed his skin, in
rhythm widh its heartbeat.

  "I have them in my fist, cousin,"
he went on. "She' ~ open it " he
suited words to action " and lee Them
go?" The bird flew away.

  "Blood calls for blood," Aragiz
said. "Avenge our blood, or you are
no Clan leader."

  "Blood-call can wait a few days,"
Belazir said, his voice flint-hard as
the two men stared face-to-face.
"Until the transports arrive," he
added negligendy. "Eight days to load
and leave, and watch this station
vanish in a spark of fire as we go.
Because Father Chalku's message
giving me mandate over all dhe High
Clan in this action has already come,
has it not?"

  "It has," Arab said. "Be glad, O
cousin, be very glad of dart."

  "Be assured I am," Belazir said
ambiguously. "And' now, Lord Captain,
load your ship with choice loot. Let
you and your fighters enjoy
themselves as they will among the
scumvermin, so long as They do not
reduce the slave work-output." He
dropped his voice to a whisper. "Do
not obstruct me, t'Varak. Not until
you can bring the Clan a prize like
dlis."

"No. Not yet..

  Belazir watched him go. "Serig," he
said, "behold. Never underestimate an
enemy."

"A7~z, lord?" Serig said
incredulously.

  Belazir threw back his head and
laughed merrily. "No, no. I should
have specified; never underestimate
even a scumuernun enemy. As that dolt
does. This station's two leaders,
they have between Them a dlree
hundred percent increment upon poor
Aragiz's sum totalofwits. He has The
technique of atunglor."

332 Anod McCoy PRISM. Stying

  That was a metaphor for the younger
Kolnari, who had never seen
homeworld. In Kolnar~s seas, there
was an animal more or less an
animal that concentrated the
abundant nann~nics from seawater in
a specialized section of its gut. It
sucked in water and sprayed it on
the heated chamber that resulted,
expelling it behind as steam for
propulsion. Tunglor massed in at
about the same as the Dreadful
Bride, and they attacked by rising
from depth at fifty or sixty knots
and ramming with their
metal-sapphire-fiber prows, never
deviating from the shortest course.
Belazir's ancestors had made
themselves nobles by hunting
tunglor, hunting them to gain
plutonium for weapons and
powerplants.

  "As you do when you take your
pleasure," Belazir went on, slapping
his companion on the back of the
neck in mock reproof

  &rig grinned slyly. "It's not as if
they were women." He omitted the
"lord" in this brief instance,
speaking man to man. "And how will
you take this Channa creature?"

  "With slow care, fool, as all true
pleasures should be savored: wine, a
woman, revenge. And on the Dreadful
Bride, when we have left," Belazir
said.

  Serig raised brows in surprise.
"You think her worthy of bearing
slaves, lord?" he said.

  "Many." The male offspring would be
castrated  that was how such as the
medico were made and the females
bred back to the Divine Seed. In
four or five generations, with
careful testing, they could become
Kolnari of the lowest caste.

  "I will need some pleasure to relax
me after our labors," Belazir added.

  Serig nodded, needing no further
explanation. They would have to
destroy and leave for Bethel
immediately. The Central Worlds Navy
would be all over these stars as
soon as they learned of the

THE C'TYWHo FouG'rr 333

destruction of SSS-900-C. The Clan
would run a long, long way, to wait
among unpeopled, unsurveyed systems
while they assimilated this treasure
and bred the strength to use it.
Empty systems held raw materials and
energy in plenty, if you had the
tools, and the universe was
unimaginably vast. That voyage would
be a giant step nearer the good day
when it was the Central Worlds'
scumvermin who were the scattering of
fugitives, and the Divine Seed the
power that bred and covered world
upon world upon world. A long, if
necessary, flight would be tedious.

  "So, leave me," Belazir said. "See
to the preparations for the
transports Now I will speak with the
two scumvermin."

  Their Kolnari guards seemed
incapable of letting themjust walk
through a doorway. The prisoners were
always propelled over the threshold
with a hearty shove. Thus far Channa
and Amos had managed to keep their
feet, which seemed to inspire ever
more energetic pushing. Channa
wondered if the two guards bet money
on which of them would stumble first.
Such treatment irritated her and
it-must infuriate Amos beyond
endurance, since he was born noble
among a ceremonious people.

  The last door gave onto the nature
deck, one of the jewels of the
SSS-900-C. Amos straightened then,
almost smiling. The deck covered
several hundred hectares; lakes,
several small wooded areas, and
meadows. A stream wandered from
Savannah to a miniature rain forest,
through prairie and into the softly
informal confines of a classic
country-house garden, here by the
entrance. Herons stalked through the
reeds by the river, alert for the
fish that leaped after dragonflies.
The smell was overwhelmingly green.
Of in the middle distance, a herd of
small deer browsed.

334 Am~McC~ PRISM. S - ng

The air was full of birdsong.
Normally there were parties of
picnickers and the shouts of
children. Now a plasma gun swung
down before them.

  "Wait the Great Lord's pleasure,
scumvermin," the amplified voice of
the Kolnar said.

  Ohoh, Channa thought, with a
sinking stomach That sounds bad. She
and Amos had discussed what to do
under interrogation, but she had
doubts about his ability to keep
control of his temper.

  As for me, ret live thrDug~ what
Ihave to. And All dance on
theirgraves, she thought grimly. She
had been one of the first to take
the new virus.

  "Buck up, kid," Simeon's voice
whispered in her inner ear. It had
the odd gravelly tone he adopted in
tense moments. "Remember, I've got
no fixed sensors in there, so the
implants will have to do. I'm with
you, and I'll give a running
translation of anything the pirates
say in their jabber. Okay? And from
the structure of their language, the
phrase theyjust used means
somethinglike 'front and center.' "

"Got it, " she subvocalized.

  They jumped back against the wall
smardy when a Kolnari bossman came
through, looking as if he would
rather walk over them For a moment,
Channa thought it was Belazir, and
then caught the few subde
differences which told her he was
not. Simeon's voice confirmed it.
Serig followed, a minute later. They
both cast dheir eyes down, to avoid
showing dhe raw desire to kill they
shared.

"Now, scumvermin)" the guard said.

  "Ohhhhh, am I getting sick of
heaving that word, " Channa
subspoke.

  "You and me and Simeon-Amos both,"
Simeon agreed. The Bethelite had the
button in his ear, but he hadn't
been able to train a subvocal level
that was inaudible. The Kolnari
didn't hear all that well at the
margins of audibility and had no
reason to use sensitive hearing
devices.

ICE CITY WHO FOUGHT . 335

  Belazir had set up his command post
beneath a huge oak tree. He lolled at
his ease on a reclining chair, a
wreath of fresh wildflowers adorned
his hair, dappled shade moving on his
sleek skin and the priceless silks of
his clothing. On one side of him was
a mobile console and a table
scattered with notescreens,
printouts, small pieces of equipment.
Also some artwork which Simeon
recognized, garnered from galleries
and the museum.

  One piece Channa did not remember
and the brain could not name, a
flamboyant carving in some bone or
ivory of a . . . submarine win fangs?
jet propelled spea~'sh? Whatever, it
had the same air of ruthless speed
that a striking hawk might.

  "Ah, your eyes light on the
tunglor," Belazir said affably. As
always, the sheer physicalp'esence
ofthe man struck her like a blow.
"From homeworld . . . Koln~r."

  The guard behind them reached out
an arm to force them down.

  "No, to one knee will do," Belazir
said easily. His Standard was better,
even in these few days. "Do you wish
refreshment?"

  He waved to his other side to the
table where food and botdes of wine
rested, patency supplied by the
Perimeter Restaurant. The young
waitress was from the Perimeter, too,
although there she had worn clothes.

  "No, Master and God," Amos and
Channa said in meek unison.

  Belazir smiled and held out his
hand. The waitress put a water-glass
tumbler of Mart'an's famous apricot-
brandy liqueur into it. He drank it
off in ten long swallows and Channa
knew a moment's wild hope.

  Simeon's voice was sour. "No joy,"
he sent. "I checked with Chaundra.
They metabolize ethanol so fast he's
only be mildly buzzed."

  "Well," the pirate said in that
voice like a bronze bell that purred.
"There is business. The matter of the
attack on the Divine Seed of Kolnar."

3Q.6 Am~,McCo~ PRISM. Stag

  "He's not too upset, I think,"
Simeon told them. "Heartbeat
absolutely Kolnar-normal, no pupil
dilation. Got an idea the victims
may have been f rom one of the other
ships. Play i/polite-firm."

  ULord and God," Channa said. "The
criminal. will be found and
punished."

  Subvocal from Simeon: "You hit
hisfunnybone tush that, Happy. He's
killmghimsef laughing issue."

  Channa went on. "I've made several
general broadcasts caning for
obedience, Master and God."

  "So you have. I notice, too, that
it is always you and not your
companion . . . colleague?"

  "Simeon-Amos is " Channa fell
silent as the Kolnari's hand
indicated that Simeon-Amos should
answer.

  "I am the junior, Master and God,"
Amos said, eyes fixed on the ground.

  "Look at me, Simeon-Amos." The
stares met for long seconds. Then
Belazir gestured again, turning his
attention back to Channa. "Well and
good. As we expect to hold the
station in our fist for some time,
these acts. of stupidity must
cease."

"LymgthrougA his teeth, babe."

  "You sent messages desiring
audience, Channahap," Belazir went
on. He rose, like a black fountain
tipped with white gold, the loose
sleeves floating hack scam his arms
like wings. He looked down from his
near two meters of height.
"Continue."

  "Master and God," she said, in a
tone as empty of any but the formal
semantic content as she could make
it, "your troops fornicate like "
she paused to search for a word
" rotweilers."

"Big chuckle at that one, Channie. "
Simeon was furious.

  Belazir crossed his arms. "Why does
this not seem complimentary?"

  Channa looked up at him. "They
bite," she said emotionlessly,
covering her disgust, "all the
time."

ME ~YWHO F OUGHT 337

  "Then the sc the chosen ones should
not resist their fate, " Belazir said.
~ It is our custom when we meet
resistance."

  "They don't resist!" Channa said
sharply, then managed a taut smile.
"Should we bite back?"

  A rustle went through the line of
armored troops behind Belazir and the
cluster of officers with feathers
andjewels in their hair. The noble
silenced them with a toss of his head.

 -  "I would not recommend it," he
said sardonically.

"The custom to which I refer is that
of enjoying the
fruits of victory. A most ancient
custom, surely, even
you must know of it? Make another of
your speeches.
Outline their duties. A hard, sincere
effort to please.
Then they shall be caressed as they
labor, not savaged."

  "Master and God, when you bruise the
fruit too much it goes bad! The problem
is that I have a hundred people in
sickbay being sewn back together and
under medication due to human bites and
various other wounds. Ideally, there
were three hundred sick to begin with,
not counting the ones who've been
flogged. "

"Are they injured?"

  No, apart from shaking and crying and
waking up with nightmares, she thought.
The Kolnari had a whip that did
something to the nervous system. "Master
and God " however she tried, she
couldn't quite keep the sarcasm out of
At " the problem involves vital work
positions which are left empty. This
isn't a planet. It doesn't run itself.
Everything has to be done without error.
Fatigue leads to error, error leads to
failure, and failure can lead to death.
I cannot do the impossible, order me
however you want."

  "Now that," he said, "is the wrong
tone." Suddenly he was much closer, and
took her chm between thumb and
forefinger. "Entirely. Do you
understand, Chan~ap?"

  "Yes," she murmured, "yes, I
understand." Time seemed to slow.

338 Am~eMcGo~ PRISM. Sty

  He smiled. "Excellent. However,
your remarks, if not the manner in
which they were delivered, are
reasonable. I shall give orders that
my troops be . . . gentler with
their slaves. Alter you have
emphasized the proper attitude
toward their duties."

Channa's eyes widened.

  He actually laughed this time.
"Yes," he assured her, "that, too,
is our custom. Those of you that
please us or are useful will leave
this place on our ships." He watched
her absorb this privilege.

  "Walk with me," he said, putting a
hand under her arm. Shajerked
slightly at the contact, like the
touch of a live conductor.

  Amos started to follow. A
servo-powered gauntlet dosed down on
his skull, so gently that it would
not have cracked an egg. A duplicate
of the one that had crushed his
sister's skull. Wind blew through
the trees above them, making the
leaves move in a dance that
contrasted to the stillness ofthe
humans below.

  "A strange way to spend so much
effort," Belazir said, as he nodded
to the landscape around them. A
chuckle passed his lips. "Preferable
to expend effort and strength on
this than on weapons."

  'echo does ha think built his ships
and the weapon - 'or carrying?"
Simeon whispered in her ear.

Channa shrugged in answer to both.

  "Still, it is beautiful," he said.
His hand traced the back of her
neck, lightly enough that the pads
of his fingers just touched the
hairs. She shivered involuntarily.

  "I am not Serig," he added,
stroking the fingers down her spine
and away. "This is like Earth, is it
not?"

  "Mostly," Channa said.
Unconsciously she tilted her head to
one side away from Belazir as Simeon
gave her the relevant information.
"A few of the plants and organisms
are from Rigel 4, but they're
compatible."

"Like looking bade into the past,"
he said. They

IRERYWHO FOUGHT 339

stopped, out of sight of the tables.
He looked up into the sky.
"Computer," he said. "Night."

  The constellations of Earth's
northern hemisphere blazed out, as
they had not in reality since men
learned to bend electricity to light.

  "Yes,~ t'Marid said, looking upward
at the false sky. "Very beautiful,
but it seems too much openness. As if
a body might fall upward and be
sucked out into limitless space."

  WeU, a weakness, she thought. Many
spaceborn were slightly agoraphobic.
That could be useful, if Bel~ir had
been spaceborn.

  She thought a smile appropriate.
"The sensation is called vertigo.
I've occasionally experienced it
myself when planet-side. I was born
and raised on a space station, so I
feel more comfortable under a
ceiling."

  "Somethingofthat," he admitted.
"But also . . . Computer. Night on
Kolnar. From Maridapore."

  Channa gasped in shock at the
change. The dark sky overhead
vanished. In its place was a glowing
mooncolored cloud full of colored
lights from horizon to horizon. She
blinked, then realized the light was
not that much more brilliant than the
Terran sky. Yet this phenomenon was
not a sky: it was a ceiling across
heaven.

'A dozen ~esfull Lana I, ~ Simeon
supplied.

  Off to the north, auroras circled
and moved, scrolls vaster than
worlds, electric blue and white and
pearl. Beneath them, on the horizon,
a volcano was a glowing firestorm
spout, powered by its own natural
fission reactor. Something gigantic
and winged slid across the alien
constellations. Smaller things
pursued it, diving and tearing as it
fluted an intricate song of grief

  "I have never seen this sky," he
said thoughtfully. "Not really. Not
even a simulation as good as this."
He issued a second command and the
Earth night returned. "This is more
restfi,L"

34(} Anne McCoy IRISH. Stirling

  "Ah . . . The birds won't like it
if you change day to night like
this," Channa said. "You'd better
set it back when you leave. Master
and God," she added absently.

  He looked at her in astonished
amusement. "The birds won't like
it?" he said. "Channahap, you are a
wonder. The birds won't like it, the
insects will be din turbed . . .
does this matter?"

  "We brought them here, to a totally
unnatural environment. If we expect
them to thrive, then it's our
responsibility to provide them with
whatever they need. They're a part
of all this," she said gesturing
widely. "Without the birds and the
insects, this would be sterile, a
lifeless tableau. So we have to be
mindful of their needs."

  He nodded. "I shall leave it on
night setting and dawn shad be in
twelve hours. Things have changed
here. Even the birds must realize
it."

Channa had no reply for that bit
ofarrogance.

  "That is the supreme law, of
course," he went on, "for Earth, for
Koloar, for the universe."

She made an interrogative sound.

  "Adapt! Master changing
circumstance, or die unbred. The
Seed the genes, you would say are
the reality that underlies all this.
Taking energy from the Dead World,
growing in complexity and adapta-
tion. AU this," and, with a swift
movement of his hand, he caught a
dragonfly by its legs for a second,
then released it, "is waves on the
surface. Beneath is the Seed,
seeking to replicate itself. All
beings, all mind, all war and trade
and art and science, mere waves on
the changeless sea." He smiled
kindly. "And fittest of Al, of
course, is the Divine Seed of
Kolnar. Of that Seed, fittest is the
High Clan. Whidh is why you long for
union with it, for such
immortality."

"I disagree. Lord and God."

  "No, you do not. Your mind may, but
that is merely the vehicle of the .
. . gene. Watch, when we return.

IlIE CrrYWHO FOUGHT 541

Your Simeon-Amos will be enraged.
Naturally enough, for he suspects the
immortality you offer is to be taken
from his seed." He sighed and turned
back towards the tables, hidden
behind alineoftrees. She trotted to
keep pace, although he did not seem
to hurry. "Enough of pleasant
idleness and philosophizing. To
work!"

  "Simeon, why do aR nit Prince
Chargings turn out to be toads?"
Channa subvocalized. Amos stood stiff
end withdrawn beside her on the
people mover as it slid down the
corridor. "Is he really jealous?
Under these circumstances, that's
ridiculous!"

  "It's also maybe involuntary. Your
girl goes waling in the woods wig
Lucifer; chatting it up . . ."

'absurd!"

  "Beats me, Channa. But I'll now;
ribht, turn onya. RibbB.r

  "Or turn me on, either It's nice to
know someone is still safe to be
with."

  Whoa! Kick me again, Channa, I
think some of my ego is still
unbruised.

  "That is the scariest son of a
bitch I've ever had the misfortune to
meet," she said. Amos nodded silendy.

"Simeon-Amos?"

"Yes, Channa?"

  "Hold me, would you?" His arm went
around her, and she melted into dhe
firm supportive warmth of his side.
"Thank you," she said.

"For what?" His tone was light.

  "For not really being green and
warty or eating flies."

  "Ah, guys?" This time Simeon's
voice came to bodh of them. "I just
figured somed~ing out a

"What?" Amos said.

"Bad news about Bethel."

  The Bethelite stiffened again, his
face drawing in lines that showed
what he might look like on his

342 ArmeMcCoJ~e, PRISM. Sty

deathbed, in the currently unlikely
event that he would live to die of
old age.

"What?" Amos repeated, this time as
a command.

  "These scumbags I'm not going to
use scu~-nun, even in reverse theire
planning to loot me bare and then
blow me up."

  Simeon was understandably upset if
he was referring to the SSS-900-C as
"me."

  "That is bad news for you," Amos
said, steeling himselffor how that
would also be bad news for BetheL

  "But if they do that, the Central
Worlds Navy will find out would find
out, even if the Kolnari had pulled
this hijack off the way we fooled
them into thinking they had. Central
Worlds'd send flotillas all through
this sector and look behind every
space rock. For sure, they'd inspect
any inhabited system. While the
Saffron system may be fardlin'
remote, it's still on the maps. And
the Kolnan know that, hey? So
they're saucing their chance of
stripping Bethelin exchange for the
station. Means they gotta leave
both,fast. So what odds they plan on
doing Bethel the same way they do
me, when they go? Blow it, too, and
cover any traces they hadn't time to
sweep under the carpet. These guys
are pigs, but they're not stupid."

  "Yes, I see," Amos said, barely
moving his lips. "Sound strategic
analysis. Thank you, Simeon."

  Thanks for nothing, the brain
thought dismally. Amos had had the
comfort of knowing the Navy would at
least rescue the survivors on his
homeworld, win or lose here on
SSS-900~.

  "Anything we can do about that?"
Charma asked as they entered the
lounge.

  "Not much more than what we're
doing now," Simeon said. "But it's
going to be a very close run at the
end. We've got to be ready, at all
costs. Minutes may make the
difference."

***

THE CITYWHOFOUGHT 843

  Keri Holen tried to read, but she'd
been on the same page for some time
now and still had no idea of its con-
tent. Trivia, she thought. Before her
life was put in danger, all her
friends and family's lives, she
hadn't known what triviality was. It
was anything that didn't have to do
with keeping you alive; anything that
didn't have to do with winning.

  "On the other hand, fretting
doesn't do me any good, either," she
said. ~ did I volunteer? she asked
herself. Well, thenskwasthereanyway,
and we need toget the second vans
working, she thought. Not everyone
was a gymnast and martial artist,
either.

  Frustrated, she threw the reader
onto the cushion beside her and rose
to pace the room. There was a soft
chime and Simeon's public face
bloomed on the wall

screerL

  "The Kolnari are in your area," he
said, warrung all those in the
threatened sector. "Get your virus
capsules in position. Don't panic.
Don't argue or they will harm you.
Remember, place the capsule in your
mouth, bite down, try not to swallow.
Good luck," he added fervency.

  Keri rushed to the cabinet where
she had stored her supply among other
pharmaceuticals. Her hands were
shaking so much the capsules flew out
ofthe bottle like confetti when she
at last got it open. Moaning, she
rushed to gather them up and put them
away before the Kolnari arrived. She
put one in her mouth, holding it
between cheek and gum.

  She returned to the living area and
stood watching the door, fingers
twining with the tabs of her robe.
She could feel her pulse beat in her
lips and fingertips, she felt as
though she'd been running.

The door opened.

  God, she thought as she bit down on
the capsule. There arefourof them'
The capsule dissolved with a rush of
coolness. Keri smiled broadly and let
the robe drop.

"Welcome to my parlor." Said the
Spiro thefly.

             ~ CllA~rER~

  Mazkira entered the elevator and
selected her destination. The mining
components fabricator was a treasure
of immense value to the Clan. With
it, they could scavenge several
crucial materials from uninhabited
asteroids at need. Besides that, the
scumvermin operator was a pleasure
to torment, in several different
ways. She grinned. Then die expres-
sion faded. She could smell him, the
scent was heavy in the cage far more
than it should have been when he
merely passed through several times
daily.

  She looked up . . . into the barrel
of a rock-cutter and above it the
grinning face of Kevin Duane.

  "Eat this, bitch!" he snarled and
powered up the cutter. He cut the
Kolnari woman in half lengthwise and
smiled as he watched the two sibling
halves crumple to the Boor.

  The elevator arrived at his level
and he replaced the hatch cover.
There was the access tunnel, just
where Joat had told him it would be.

  He handed Joat the rock-cutter and
she raised an inquiring brow. He
gave her a grin and a thumbs-up
sign. Suddenly the elevator dropped
out from underneath him and he was
holding on by his elbows, feet
scrabbling against the slick shaft
wars. He inched his way in, his
broad shoulders making it difficult
to maneuver. Farbelow he could hear
the elevator coming up again.

  "Hurry up!" Joat said, sliding the
rock-cutter down the access tunnel
and turning back to pull him in by
his shirt.

DIE (=YWHO FOUGHT 346

  All she succeeded in doing was
pulling it up over his head; his arms
were almost immohili~ed by the tough
fabric.

"Stop," he said. UStop it a

  "Hurry up!" she cried and slid
backwards to give him room. "Or that
elevator will smear your carcass all
the way to the top ofthe station."

  He was most of the way in now, but
couldn't seem to get his feet in He
began to panic, barking his knees on
the side walls of the tunnel, the
space too narrow to allow him to turn
or pull up his legs. In a panic, he
caught atJoat's legs and yanked. Her
palms squealed on the slick metal as
she struggled futilely to keep her
place.

  The drag wasjust enough to get him
all the way in, the side ofthe
elevator lilbed the soles of his feet
gently as it passed.

  Kevin dropped his head into his
arms and giggled with mild hysteria.

  Joat glared at him for a moment,
then grinned and whispered, "Hoorayl
Another one for our side."

"Yes?" Belazir said, looking up from
his not escreen.

  It was the medico again. The
Kolnari repressed an impulse to kick
it. If you hit messengers, messages
ceased coming. On the other hand, his
time was valuable. Especially now,
with the transports here and loading
round the cycle.

  The thought restored his good
humor. Sixty ships, a fifth part of
the Clan's fleet, under his command.
Not only transports, but a fighting
platform and a couple of the factory
ships. It was as good as having
Chalku proclaim him successor.
Better, since his chances of living
long enough to claim it were much
higher. A formal announcement might
drive some brick-skull like Arab
t'Varak to desperation.

"Great Lord, there is . . . a
problem."

346 Anne McCabe ~ Sly. Swing

  "Mine or yours, creature?" he said,
slightly impatient. The loading was
going sosl~ly.

"Great Lord, we have disabling
sickness."

"What?" Suddenly he was looming over
the eunuch.

  "No, please! Don't hurt me. It's
only old Veskis, the bonesetter.
Please, my Great Lord?"

Belazir's aquiline nostrils flared.
"Speak."

  "Over sixty ill warriors have
sought medical aid, Great Lord. We
have never seen the like." It swal-
lowed. "Great Lord, we do not know
how to cure the illness!"

  Belazir had just finished a lame
meal. Now it lay like cunlled hot
lead in his gut. Impossible. He
tapped at the notescreen, accessing
recent files. Yes, over thirty war-
riors put down or suicided for
infection. Not completely
unprecedented, but among the
heaviest numerically of instances on
record. If another threescore had
reported sick, Here mustbe many who
had not.

"How does the illness run?" Belazir
asked.

  "Swiftly in some, Great Lord.
Fever, loss of nervous control,
debility, nausea. Others more
mildly. Still others recover quickly
and are whole. From the blood of
those I may produce a vaccine, in
tone."

  "Do so," Belazir ordered.
"Swiftly." In time to amid spoiling
net trunk here, he thought. "Wait."

  He tapped his notescreen again.
Most sickness occurred among those
on no fixed duty. Of those,
t'Varak's ship suffered the most
casualties. Belazir racked his brain
for what he knew of diseases. Not
much, since Kolnari were rarely
bothered by disease: accident, yes.
He reflected on this problem,
queried the inib-banlcs, thought
again.

  "Orders," he said. "Isolate those
infected." Those whom Hey could,
that is. A noble could be killed but
not placed under restraint. "Thismay
. . ." He hesitated. "May be related
to the disease troubling the
scumvermin." Hideous, that a disease
would strike the Divine Seed

IlIE Crl-Y WHO FOUGHT 847

more strongly than mere scumvermin.
"The infected scumvermin are to be
avoided. Go, post the orders."

  That such a scourge should arise
now, he thought) looking back at the
notescreen. Loading was moving far
too slowly. Chalku had given him a
deadline; past that, they were to
abandon anything remaining, kill and
leave. If there was much less than he
had promised, he would go from hero
to goat. Even if the total he did
manage was more than any other
Kolnari had amassed, performance and
prestige would be measured against
expectation.

  "Time'" he muttered. Time was
wasting, and the margin for error
with it. He stood. "Computer. Kolnar,
noon at Maridapore."

  White-blue light flashed across the
parkland, hurtful even to him in the
instant before his pupils shrank to
pinhead size.

  Jekit nor Varak prowled the
corridors. He was not in powered
armor. There were not enough suits to
go around and their maintenance
requirements were fierce. The patrol
was to enforce curfew and prevent
sabotage, which was becoming a
problem. He was in a flexible suit,
with a comlink and a plasma rifle.
The corridors in this section were
darkened, which gave his IR-sensitive
eyes the advantage over any
scumvermir~

  As if I needed it, he thought. His
main enemy was tedium. The corridors
were changeless and identical. Ten
paces left, take a turn at random.
Trot down a long length, checking
that the seals on the doors were
unbroken. Flatten to a wall and wait.
He did isometrics then, muscle
pulling on muscle against the strong
flexible bones of his body. Nothing
much else to do; except that he tired
too soon, probably because of the
damnable light gravity he had been
living in on this station. It would
be a relief to get back to
Kolnar-standard on the ship.

348 Am~eMcCo~ ~ SM. Soling

  Although there were compensations.
Keriholen, for example. Jekit's
teeth clicked together as he remem-
bered how they had taken her, he and
his brothers. Many ennes since the
first occasion.

  Worth the trouble, he thought.
Limber as an eel and tow less as a
real woman. Women were scarce for
commoners. The nobles took so many.
He and his four brothers  they were
born at one birdling had only two
wives bee

tween them, held in common, and a mere
eight children. Jekit was sweating.
He wiped his face on a sleeve and
resumed the pacing, crying to push
such thoughts out of his mind. Not
until after his watch. It was hot,
whatever the gauge said. His stomach
felt odd. Maybe the plundered food
was bad, although the Divine Seed
could eat pretty well anything
organic.

  Simeon watched the pirate. This
Jekit was a perfect choice.
Definitely had the Mark-II virus,
too pigignorant to know it and he
was almost asleep from boredom
anyway. A little surprise would be
good for his circulation.

  He checked the progress of the
relief party, ten soldiers and a
squad leader. Plenty of witnesses,
also perfect. Tuning was the key.
They had only two guards to relieve
before they reachedJekit.

  Hurt my people, unit you, Jekit' he
thought. Okay, now
let'sseeh~youikebeingon#'eothwend of
the sink.

  He began whispering. The words were
loud enough to be audible, but not
loud enough to be understood. Just
nonsense syllables pronounced in
inflections similar to the Kolnari
language, minute after minute, not
steadily but rising and falling and
stopping altogether for random
intervals. Then an increase in the
volume until the nonsense was a
cease, tantalizingly on the edge of
audibility. Add subsonics guaranteed
to have the hair standing up along
the spine, although Kolnari didn't
have body hair.

THE (~I~YWHO FOUGHT 349

  Goosebumps,then, he decided. Jekit
paced, stopped, shook his head and
brought the plasma rifle to port,
thumbing off the safety.

  Doesn't this mark have any nerves?
Simeon asked himself in frustration.
Then he added the refinement; this
flickering at the edge of vision. The
pirate was probably seeing things
without Simeon's visual aids since
the sensors said his temperature was
five percent over normal and rising.
Sweat poured down his face. That was
rare since the Kolnari metabolism
didn't waste moisture.

  Simeon constructed a less
transparent image. Ah, that made him
jump, Simeon thought. "Rahkest!" he
whispered,justloud enough to be
understood.

Die, in Kolnari.

  "Who's there?"Jekit called out,
swinging his weaponaround. "Who goes?
Answer mew

  Simeon had a conversation going
now, male and female voices
whispering vehemency. He moved the
whisperers down the corridors,
through chambers and halls and
galleries. Now dhey were around She
corner, now they were overhead, now
right behind him.

  Jekit spun' his weapon leveled.
"Scumvermin!" he shouted. The warning
indicator flicked as his forefinger
took up the slack on dhe trigger key.

  The squad had exited the elevator
onJekit's level and were marching
towards his station. Trotting like a
wolf-pack, rather; the leader was in
armor, moving at the same pace.
Slam-slam-slam, half a tonne pounding
down at every step.

  The Kolnari had his back pressed to
the wale Simeon overlaid the
power-quit's footfalls, turning them
into drumbeats in time widh the
fevered warrior's own heart. His head
was snapping back and forth wildly,
rims of white showing around She
amber of his slyest

  Off to the right, around dhe corner
from which his replacement would
come, a voice called.

350 Anne McCabe ~ Sat. Stirling

  "Jekit!" His officer called. "Turn
to, idler, fool! Report."

  Jekit almost moaned with relief,
opening his mouth to call back. When
he did he found the words matched,
overlaid, neutralized bysomething.
Shout, scream, nothing but the same
blurred yammer.

  "Painrod for you, seedless
slothman," came the warning from his
of ficer.

  Jekit crouched and began making his
way along the wall towards the
voice. Halfway down the long wall,
he jerked and vomited convulsively,
bewildered. It had never happened to
him before, that he lost his food.

  Footsteps sounded from around the
corner as the replacement squad
advanced smardy towards him. He
heard a soft hiss behind him and
turned. He screamed as he looked
into a shape out of homeworld
legend, a twenty-eyed worm with
gnashing concentric mouths, thicker
through the body than a man was
high.

  'dacha!" he screamed and fired.
Index: There was nothing wrong with
his reflexes yet, and the spear of
nuclear fire lanced through the
monster.

  Gotcha, Simeon thought again. He'd
been pretty sure that worm program
was modeled on something native to
Kolnar. So its name was "grinder"!
Appropriate enough.

  "Grinder" vanished. Behind it was
a figure in power armor, slowly
topping over backwards with the
whole upper part of the torso gone.
The squad behind had already gone to
earth and returned fire. A line of
light touchedJekit's right shoulder,
and the plasma gun fell away. The
blurring, blanking wall of un-sound
fell away from his ears so suddenly
that he could hear the slight whine
as the weapon automatically cycled
another deuterium pellet into the
chamber. A plasma beam licked out
atJekit and his legs vanished from
the knees down.

And he was still hot. His wounds did
not hurt yet,

I1IE CI~YWHO FouGHT 351

insulated by shock, although he could
smell the heavy fried meat odor. But
his head hurt, it hurt . . . The
others were rushing forward to secure
him forinterrogation. It would go
very badly for them if he died fun

  AwrigJ~t Simeon thought. Still, it
should be fun lis teeing toJekit, the
mighty warrior, explaining why he
creaked like that. Now who's Hi?

  Belazir and Aragiz knelt together
before Pb1 t'Veng. She was wearing
the black robe and hood of an
adjudicator and, in the dim light,
that left only the yellow glow of her
eyes visible. Belazir knelt with
grace. The t'Veng was inferior by
rank and birth, but she was
efficient. Also a woman, of course,
but that meant less these days than
it had on Kolnar. Everything in space
was a protected environment, like the
fortress-holds. You either lived or
died, generally. Aragiz knelt in
quivering tension and the smell of
his rage was musky, irritating to
Belazir.

  "I find," she said at last,
"thatJerik nor Varak, free
common-fighter of subclan t'Varak,
opened fire on clan-kin while in
hostile ground, without prior
attack." That was the only excuse,
and motivations or reasons mattered
nothing, by Kolnari law.

  "He killed: one petit-noble officer
of subclan t'Marid. He destroyed: one
suit of powered armor. Here is the
judgment ofthe High Clan.

  "At the next rendezvous of all
units, t'Varak yens shall render to
Belazir t'Marid forty hundred units
of Clan credit or goods to the same
value, neutrally appraised. They
shall also render five breeding-age
but unbred females of petit-noble or
higher rank, fully educated. In
addition, Belazir t'Marid may go
among the concubines and wives of
Aragiz t'Varak for one cycle and sow
there as he wills. Aragiz t'Varak
shall do likewise among Belazir
t'Marid's. Judgement is rendered.

352 A7meMcC~;r~ PRISM. Strong

  As one, they bowed low enough to
touch their foreheads to the deck. A
good judgement, Belazir thought.
Fair, wise, and most of all,
expedient. Part of the longstanding
trouble was that the t'Varak yens
were not as closely linked by seed
as the rest ofthe High Clan
families. They had been landless
mercenaries on homeworld, and had
had the bad luck to sign on with the
High Clan just before a war that
ripped up half a continent and ended
in headlong flight for the sur-
vivors. Technically mercenaries were
not subject to the
extermination-proscription ofthe
vanquished nobility. Like peasants
and commoners, they could switch
allegiance to the winning side.
Technicalities did tend to get lost
in the fine glow of victory,
though....

  Of course, Aragiz t'Varak would tee
unhkelytolookatit in quite that way.
Still, in the long term, knowing the
closer relationship would reduce
hostility. Hopefully.

  Without word or gesture, Aragiz
rose and stalked out. No style at
all, Belazir thought. The fine was a
trifle compared to what the station
was bringing in, and they both had
sixty or sevenq children already. He
merely hoped the t'Varak intellect
was traming and not a taint.

  The lights came up, and Pol removed
the hood. That changed her from
adjudicator to ordinary noble once
more. "Fool," she said, with no need
to say exactly who.

"Dolt," he agreed, and snapped his
fingers.

Serig entered. They setded in
comfortably. Loa&g is going too
slowly," Belazir said.

"Truth, lord," Serig answered.

  "Okay," Simeon whispered in
Channa's ear. "He's in p icon n

  The loading bay at the south-polar
docking tube was more crowded than
it had ever before been in the
station's sevenq-odd years, mostly
cluttered with disarm sembled
equipment from the electronics
fabricators two levels below, broken
downjust enough to let them

IME ClTYWHo FOUGHT 353

be moved through the freight
elevators. It would be more efficient
to strip them down further and box
the components, but that made them
too easy to sabotage. There had been
executions of stationers after
Kolnari inspections showed how easy.
Delicate electronics . . .

  Wed, Channa thought,
ostentatiouslylooking clown at her
notescreen. There had been no
reprisals at all for the deaths and
there had been a fair number. The
Kolnari had just increased their
patrols, as if taunting the
stationers.

  Channa turned to the pirate
technician. Even mender. You didn't
think of pirates as having
technicians. They looked much the
same as the sleekly dangerous
warriors and flamboyant nobles,
butbrisker.

  Men agam, they've kept thousands of
people and hundreds of strips gomgfor
three generations seven of theirs.

  "Lord," she said in the appropriate
meek tone, "here's the next load. Do
you accept?"

  The Kolnari looked at the
fabricator. It was a spindleshaped
synth-and-metal machine about dlree
meters long and one through at the
widest point; half tubing and
molecular shape champs, halfmodules.
Both points of the spindle ended in
tapped burls that fitted into a
bearing race.
Underneathitwasailoaterc~llewith app
arendy
 sixarmsandatwenty-centimeterbase.

  The Kolnari said something in her
own language to her team women were
more common among their technical
class, evidently and they went to
work, plugging in their own
info-systems and a portable
power-feed to bring the fabricator up
to standby.

  "All order is," the pirate said to
her, waving her back. "Scumvermin,
next bring."

  The loading bay was one hundred
meters by two hundred by three. Two
Clan transports were docked at the
outer hatches. Two-thirds of the way
down the deck, the enemy had drawn a
red line. On either side was a squad
in power armor. Floating over them
were

354 AnneMc~ PRISM. - ng

pods of small servo-guns,
antipersonnel weapons, heavy
needlers Blat could be fired widhout
endangering the fabric of the
station. The weapons were highly
dangerous to anyone not in combat
armor, of course. Stationside of
tile line were civilians, working
mosey in their own teams with a few
Kolnari for supervision. Dockside of
tile line were only the Clan crews.
There were three checks from tile
initial position to dhe line: once
while dhe equipment was being
stripped down, a second when the
stationer stevedores took charge,
and a third when it was ready to go
over the line itself:

  If any of dhe checks showed damage,
dhe stationers in charge were
flogged to death wild, a powered
whip. Falling below quota earned ten
strokes, which reduced the team's
efficiency drastically but was a
very potent mot~vator.

It was ingenious, and working far
too well.

Simeon murmured again. "Yeah,
they're locked in."

  Channa forced herself not to look
at the eyes of dhe Kolnari. However
Simeon was doing it, it was not
simple holographic projection. Maybe
tightbeam on the retina....

  Amos was whisking cheerfully as he
swung the lifter around. God, he's
even Or than he is prep, Channa
thought. They'd volunteered for
this. Too many nerves had been
shattered by the holocast record of
the floggings. Someone had to
restore confidence. To the Kolnari,
it looked like the leaders were
giving an example of endhusiastic
obedience. Joseph bowed low as he
handed over the controller pad for
the cradle. Across the back of his
overall was printed Scumver~un R?lle
OK. One of Simeon's suggestions to
build morale.

  The cradle followed obediently over
the red line, behind dhe Kolnari
technicians and toward the waiting
cargo bay of the transport. The line
divided the gravity fields; one
Standard gravity at the line itself,
running quickly up to 1.6 at the
lowered ramp-entrance. The

WE c~rYwHo Former 355

work party moved through the crowds
and the waiting chains of lifters.
There was a howl as the Our light
arms  suddenly there were only
four of the cradle gave way. The
Kolnari team leapt in fearlessly, but
the lifter failed in a burst of
sparks and boomed hollowly to the
deck plates. The fabricator stewed
out of the broken cradle and onto the
bent legs of the crew chief as she
heaved back at the weight ten times
her own.

  The pirate alarms rang like angry
windchimes. Channa and the others
froze. So did the damaged tech. The
other Kolnari lifted the damaged
fabricator and set it down on a pad
of packing-fiber nearby; lifting with
unison grunt of effort and walking
six steps with a lowvoiced chant.
They set the machine down with a
mother's tender care. The ten lay
with the broken bones projecting
through the dark skin of her
kneecaps, blood welling around them
and the whites showing all around her
honey-colored eyes. The flying guns
swooped in. Channa found
hemelflooking down the business end
of one, and so did each of the group
that had brought the ruined machine
to the edge of the Kolnari line.

  Warriors followed, not the armored
specialists, but crew on rotation
duty. One was pulling a powered whip
from his belt as he came. Channa
closed her eyes, but the first stroke
never landed. She heard his voice
munnur the Koluariequivalent of,
"Yes, sir."

  She opened her eyes again. Amos and
Joseph were rocking back on their
heels as if they'd been ready to
spring.

  "He queried the ~ bass, " Simeon
ghost-spoke through her implant.
"Belazi~stdding~ntocheckthein~pectio
nrecords. ~

  The Kolnari did, snapping away her
notescreen, then going over to check
the injured technician. Nobody had
attended to her. Despite her being an
enemy, Channa felt a little squeamish
looking at the white splinters and
the quivers of pain that ran across
the fine-boned oval face.

356 Am'4McCo~ PRISM. Stirling

  "She's saymg;~ was a regu~n
med~m-heavy 1 - win she looked ~
oven; " he said. "He's checking.
Belar~rsays i's not yourfau8."

  Sweat was running down Channa's
back. She began to relax, then swore
under her breath as the warrior drew
a krnfe. The technician closed her
eyes and tilted her head; a quick
stab in the back of the neck and she
was stilL

Swede, that works, " she said to
Simeon.

Sat doyou mean?"

"Tm not quite sure. "

  The fabricator would have to go
back to the machine-shop, two levels
up, to be repaired. The machines
required to produce replacements for
the damaged parts could not be
disassembled until the work was
done.

  Belazir moved a squadron of light
cruisers to a new quadrant and set
beck. So, he thought.

  Amazing. Channahap was fighting him
to a standstill in this strategy
game. She had actually won one of
the earlier rounds. A very, very
good player; few Kolnari senior
officers could have done better, and
war-game tournaments were one of the
main ways they filled their leisure.

  "The Channahap does well?" Serig
said. He looked over his commander's
shoulder into the Bride's display
tank, then reran the opening moves
on a smaller screen nearby. "Well,
indeed."

  Belazir nodded. Mat a woman! he
thought enthusiastically. He had
stopped referring to her as
scumvermin to himself some time ago.
The battle of delay and lies she had
waged against him wasjust as skill
ful and tricky as the war games. It
was a true pity she was not of the
Divine Seed; an even greater pity
that she would not live very many
years in the environment of the
Clan's ships. Outsiders rarely found
the air, food, and

MIE (=YWl10 FOUGHT 357

water of Kolnar life-supporting.
Cerminly the Kolnari's own ancestors
had not, until they adapted.

Bid I wit - ~, USA As.

  "Now, these reports," he went on to
Serig. Whey read like the ravings of
the insane. What do they mean?"

  "An excellent question, my lord.
One that I should like to ask some
ofthese scumverm~"

"You consider this to be the result
of enemy action?"

  "It seems reasonable to me, my
lord. Drugs to the troops affected.
Or, they may know something about
these phenomena."

  Belazir considered his second. "Or
they may know nothing. It could even
be some sabotage scheme of Aragiz,
difficult though that is to believe.
Or a side~ect ofthis . . . illness."

  "Bad for morale either way, my
lord. And the illness itselfmay be a
weapon."

  He nodded. "Very well. Take five
slaves, chosen at random, none
critical to the station's function,
and torture them."

  "Only five, my lord?" Serig's soft
voice expressed astonishment.

  "These are an unusually soft and
sensitive people'" Belazir answered.
"Five win be quite sufficient. More
would cause panic. For now, let the
scumvermin as a whole remain calm and
complacent and cooperative. Let them
panic later at a time of our
choosing. Hmm? Torture the five for
the information we need on this
phenomenon. If they know nothing,
take others."

"Shall I broadcast that?"

  "No, no, Serig. If we broadcast our
ignorance, we make plain that there
is something our warriors fear. If it
is enemy action, they will know what
we seek or the next five."

Serig bowed from the waist. "Very
good, my lord."

Belazir returned his attention to the
game.

***

358 Ar~McCqJp~ PRISM. Strong

"Why?" Channa asked.

  "You will take your hands from my
desk and you will stand straight,"
Belazir told her calmly, painting a
slender dagger at her. He stared at
Channa until she complied.

  "Two of those people are probably
going to die," she whispered,
breathing hard. "Lord and God. They
were tortured."

"Ofcourse they were. I ordered it
so."

"Butw)'y?"

  He stood and walked slowly around
the desk to stand close behind her,
then spoke softly into her ear. "We
are conquerors. We do not Clam our
actions. This is not a game such as
we play in your quarters, lovely
Channa, this is reality."

  She carefully folded her hands
before her and lowered her eyes.

  "I apologize for my impetuousness,"
she said humbly. "I was trained to
take my duties seriously, and
sometimes this makes me rash. It's
why I must ask about this terrible
matter. I can't believe that you
enjoy doing such things." She looked
at him appealingly over her
shoulder. "Phase don't hurt my
people."

  "And you lie so badly," he said. He
studied her face for a moment. "My
troops," he went on thoughtfully,
"spoke of'things' flickering at the
corners of their eyes, of'voices'
murmuring things not quite heard."

"What has that got to do with us?"

  He walked around her and sat on a
corner of his desk. "Perhaps
nothing, perhaps everything. That is
what we wanted to know."

  "And it never occurred to you that
perhaps something in the mixture of
gases that we breath might cause
this effectinyourpeople? Or that
these 'things flickeringjust out of
sight might be an ins Station of
insects . . . n

  "Oh no, they were, according to the
reports, much too large to be mere
insects."

"Some other vermin, then."

         THE CITY FOUGHT 359
"Doubtful"

  "Well, what about my first
suggestion, perhaps our atmosphere
requires adjustment?"

"Possible."

  "Then perhaps you could send some
volunteers to our medical center for
tests."

  Belazir laughed. "No. We know that
a virus is loose. However, we have no
interest in a cure for it. If it
causes troops to become
nonfunctional, we will kill them our-
selves. Unless it endangers this
mission, we will take no
countermeasures. "

Channa gaped for a moment.

  "We did not become the Divine
Seed," he continued, "by pampering
weakness. After investing so much
capital and time in training, it is,
however, inconvenient to have adults
die. When we return, we will spread
the virus ourselves, quite
deliberately, among the children of
the High Clan. If this sickness is
your doing, you do us a service as do
those who ambush our troops in the
corridors. It reduces the ranks of
imperfect Seeds."

  "Ah, she is magnificent," he quoted
softly to himself in his own
language. "Her stride is the
lightning striking. In her right hand
is a sword of flame, in her left the
goad of pain. Her voice is the shriek
of the north wind. In her eyes flash
comets, portents of wonder, and her
hair is a storm at midnight. Between
her thighs is the road to Paradise. I
look upon her and my strength rises,
yet I rage without fulfillment." He
leaned closer and Channa could feel
his breath on her lips.

  Well, Simeon thought, that last hit
rasher neatly sums up my relationship
Ash Channa. He relayed a running
t~nslat~on.

"You'vemadea real curtest, Happy."

'That is not funny," Channa
subvocalized.

  The Kolnari touched her lightly
with the point of the dagger, then
returned to his chair, leaving her

360 AnneMd~ry ~ S.M. S - ng

shivering where she stood. He
touched his tongue to the bead of
blood on the steel.

  "Perhaps," Belazir said, his voice
amused, "I should take you with me
when we go. I would give you some-
thing to fight besides boredom. You
deserve the challenge." Then he
smiled. "You may go."

  Channa turned and walked away on
shaking legs. When she was in the
elevator, she vented her fi.ustra-
tion in a savage tone.

  "I really want to kill him, Simeon.
I can see myself doing it, just what
I would do, and I think I would
enjoy it." She paused. "See how bad
company corrupts my morals?"

"What did you think ofthat poem?"

"I wasn'tlisterung."

"I think he was trying to flatter
you."

" 'Her voice is like the shrieking
of the north wind'7"

"I thought you weren't listening?"

  "Well, I caughtthat." She laughed
weakly. "Never tell a woman her
voice reminds you of something
shrieking. It won't win you any
points."

"Important dating tip, Channa, thank
you."

  "Oh . . . I love you, Simeon. You
keep me sane. And the Prince of
Darkness can _ n

  " eat shit and die." I love you
too, Channa, and you drive me crazy.

        ~ CHAPrEUr'VENIY-ONE

Another point of light flared in the
holo tank.

  "You have destroyed my
dreadnought," Belazir said, surprise
and amusement in his voice. He
looked up at Channa. She was
sweating heavily, strings of black
hair plastered to her forehead. The
Kolnari was calm as ever as he took
another draught ofthe sparkling
water flavored with metal salts.

  That makes . . ." He paused to
recollect. "Seventyfive wins for me
and three for you. Ah, well." He
clapped his hands, and attendants
brought his equipment. "Enough
pleasure; there is work to be done."

  "Okay, people," Simeon said. The
voices died down "We've got a little
time. You-know-who's sleeping the
sleep ofthe wicked."

  The screens went silent, and so did
the little clutch of men and women
seated around the lounge table.

  "They're going to be more or less
finished in one more day-cycle," he
went on.

  "One?" Amos said. They have more
items marked for shipping than they
could handle in one day."

  "Trust me. I've been eavesdropping.
They're doing that to fool us.
Nearly fooled me! Only their top
people know."

"How long has it been?" Patsy
whispered.

"Sixteen days," Simeon said.

  Doctor Chaundra swallowed. "A
hundred dead. Many times that are .
. . injured, in various ways. We
cannot endure more ofthis."

362 AnnrMcCa~ ~ SM. Saw

  "We won't have to. One more day,
and we're saved or we're all dead."

"The Navy?"Joseph said.

  "They dropped a scout into the
system today," Simeon replied. His
image raised a hand to stem the
babble. "It's heavily stealthed. I
have the recognition codes> or I'd
never have detected it. Yes, the
flotilla is coming.

  "They should be here, and soon.
However, we've got to have a plan
for the worst case." He paused
before he could go on. "The worst
case is the Navy doesn't get here
quite in time. We've got to give it
our best shot. The Kolnari've got a
lot of their people spread out, and
their ships docked. They're planning
on keeping it that way until the
last minute. I've figured out a few
indicators that'll tell me right
down to the minute."

  Channa swallowed and nodded. One
ofthem would be Belazir coming to
take her offto theDr~adfulBrile.

  "The battle platform will undock
first. When they start that, we've
got to begin our uprising! If we can
cut enough ofthem off from their
ships and keep the ships from
undocking I've got some plans on
that tactic  then they can't blow
the station."

  Amos nodded somberly. "The cost .
. . the cost in lives will be very
high. But there is no alternative."

  "We cannot fight for long," Joseph
said. "A delaying action at best.
They have the weapons, armor,
organization. And they need not fear
damage to the station. They will use
their onwatch ships to force-dock
through the hull, outflank us. We
have no real weapons."

  "How many times have we gamed the
uprising?" Amos said, rubbing his
hand across his face. "Forty, fifty?
Not once have we won, no matter if
you or I command."

  Simeon nodded. "Better to die on
your feet than die on your knees,"
he said. Grim smiles greeted the
sally.

ME CITY WHO FOUGHT 363

Most of them had seen his tapes of
the Warsaw Ghetto. "I can disorganize
them a lot more than they expect," he
went on. "We've got some weapons,
too."

They all looked at the column.

"Mikesun?" he said.

  The section rep was haggard and
drawn, as you would expect from
someone who had been working in
cramped quarters for more than two
weeks.

  "I've got them unpacked and ready,"
he said. His hands moved into the
light. "'Bout a thousand. Plus the
explosives you told us to get ready."

  Suddenly he had a needler in his
hands. A huge chunky-looking thing,
of no make any of them recognized.

  "Where on . . . where did you get
those, Simeon?" Channa asked.

  "Ah, um." Simeon sounded slightly
embarrassed, she thought. "Well, you
know how I like to collect stud They
were cheap a ship needed some fuel
bad and didn't have credit. And I
just liked the thought of having my
own arsenal. 'Someday we might need
this kind of stuff.' I was right,
wasn't I?"

  "Yes, bless you," she said simply,
because the relief she felt at seeing
honest-to-God weapons was so intense.

  Somebody swore. "Why haven't we had
those before now? I've had my people
attacking Kolnari patrols with their
bare hands "

  "Because we couldn't let them take
us seriously too soonl" Channa said
sharply. "Any sort of formal weaponry
would have alerted them. We had to do
as much damage as we could without
such assists, until the last moment.
They won't be expecting us to have
needlers. We'll have surprise and
shock on our side."

  Amos leaned forward, more warmth in
his tone than was usual when he spoke
to the brain. "How are they to be
distributed?"

364 Am~eMcC~ e SM. Stinting

  "Remember when I said I'd put some
other stuffthat might be useful in
the sealed-offsections? And Patsy
andJoat've been mixing stuffaround,
too, through the passageways."

  "With a thousand needlers " Amos
began, and then shrugged, oddly
hopeless Joseph nodded.

  "Hmm. What make are those?" Patsy
said, with a spark of her old
interest.

  "Ursinar manufacture," Simeon said.
"Obscure race, big and hairy, always
insisted that it was their right to
arm bears."

  "This may only prolong the agony
and delay the inevitable," Amos
said. "So little against so much."
Then he shook himself. "Still, it is
better to die fighting."

"Hell better to win and live,"
Simeon said.

  "In the meantime," Amos said,
standing and sweeping his eyes from
screen to screen, "push them hard.
They are incapable of resisting a
territorial challenge from a weaker
opponent even when it would be
logical to pull back. Take more
risks."

  Well, he takes as many as the rest
of us do, Channa thought. Quite the
little commander all the same. Wry
amusement colored her exhaustion.

"Security monitor'slocked,"Joatsaid.
"Now, yourbit."

  Seld went to the electronics access
panel and began fiddling with its
innards. Then he inserted the hedron
he had prepared. The resulting
picture would be distorted in the
way the security computers had been
since the pirate worm program went
in. But they would distort the
images of Joat and Seld in selective
ways. Making them appear taller,
much darker . . .

  Joat went in the opposite
direction, placing herselfat the end
of the corridor in the lookout's
position.

  When he had finished hejoined her
and tapped her shoulder. "Rome," he
whispered.

ME CrIYWHo FoUGIlT 365

  Just a sec." She opened her pack
and withdrew a monocrystal filament
dispenser. The thread was a molecule
in diameter but incredibly strong.
Dangerous to handle, too. Thinner
than the thinnest knife-blade could
ever be.

  "What are you gonna do with that?"
he asked puzzled. "I thought you were
planting something."

  "Stick around and you'll see," she
said, waggling her eyebrows.

  She knelt beside the wad and
attached an end of the beryllium
monocrystal Slament to the corridor
panel at about knee height. Using the
tiny laser that was part of the
dispenser, the end was soldered into
place, leaving ~a slight stickiness
when she touched the wall. She reeled
out the invisible fiber and tacked
the other end to the opposite wan,
keeping a careful mental image of
where it was.

  Seld turned pale. "You can't . . .
you know what that stufEdoes!"

  'iSure do," she said smugly.
"Ol'Jack-of-AIl-Trades is gonna give
new meaning to 'cut offal the knees.'
~

  "You can't," he said, and grabbed
her arm. "They're bastards, but
they're . . . they're sentinels. You
can't be maiming them like that." His
voice had taken on a tinge of his
father's accent again, but he was
shaking with tension. Drops of sweat
broke out at the edge of his
reddish-brown hair. "It's evil! What
are you thinking about?"

  She snatched her arm from his grip.
"I'm thinking about what they did.
Tortured people. What they did to
Patsy, and your friend Juke. I'm
thinking about

payback."

  He licked his lips. "Not like this,
I won't have anything to do with it.
Couldn't youjust . . . kill them
clean? C'mon,Joat?"

  She pushed him back with her
shoulder and tacked another line
through at about waist height f or a
tall adult.

366 Am~eMcCo - ~S~.S~7g

  "Simsays," she went on, drawing
three more lines about shin-height,
"dlat cutting dhe enemy up is better
than kiDin' 'em. Shakes them up
more, and they gotta take care of
dhem."

  "If we do stufflike this, how are
we different from them?"

  She turned on him, snarling.
"'Cause we live here and we're not
doing this forfiunl Or to make a
nardy credit offitl n

Seld sat down abrupdy against dhe
corridor was.

  "Seld?" she said, her face
smoothing out abruptdy and her voice
changing. USeld, you okay? You need
your mods?"

  "I'm okay. I just . . . I just
don't like you as much when you're
like this, Joat. And I really like
you. You know?"

  Sometimes I don't like me much,
Joat thought. She turned away and
blew out her lips in exasperation.
"Don't go buckawbuckaw on me now,
Seld, 'cause it's gonna get worse
around here before it gets better.
If it gets better."
Eve~thmgalwaysgets worse.

  He raised his head from his knees.
"If I'm going to die soon I want to
die clean," he said. "Gimme your

V-pius.~'

"Why?"

"Lost mine."

  "Okay." They were supposed to take
the pin if they came into contact
with a Kolnari. Joat didn't intend
to, or to live if she did. Seld
pocketed tile pills and stalked of
Etoward his own escape route.

  She pursed her lips and tacked a
new line to She wall at the opening
of the connecting corridor, at what
she estimated as head-height for a
Koluari.

  Then she ducked under it by a wide
margin, tip-toed back toward dhe
first line. She stopped wed short of
it and listened.

Come on, you gntn~fu~, she thought.
F~-move.

IRE WHO FoucHT 367

They should be amazed that it was
taking the first patrol so long to
respond. She went to stand by the
sabotaged panel and listened, hearing
only the pounding of her own heart,
which deltas if it wanted to tear
free of her thus chest. Then at last,
her quick ears caught the sound of
movement. She counted to five and
began to retreat toward the second
line. She entered the corridor lust
as she heard a shouted 'Halt!" in
Koluari.

  Effect, she thought, all the saw
was ~, cowed They hadn't said halt,
scu~ntuermm, either.

  A couple of shots were fired; light
weapons, needles sponging off metal.
The squad leader barked an order for
cease fire and pursuit. Feet tapped
the mesh covering of the corridor, in
the distinctive long strides of the
pirates.

  Screams rang down the corridor,
clanging and echoing in the close
space. Joat leaned forward from where
she crouched and looked out around
the corner. There was a malicious
grin on her face, but it died at what
she saw. Two ofthe Koluari soldiers
lay on the floor in a small nond of
blood, hanging over the ultrastrong
invisible wire that had sawn through
their legs and opened then up from
navel to backbone like a butt`,rflied
shrimp. As she watched, a body fell
to the ground in two pieces, and
there was so Em, so much blood and
guts and all the colors, and a
pink-purple lung . . .

  One Kolnari trooper reached toward
her severed legs and cut her hand in
half to the wrist. Two fingers
flopped uselessly as she clutched her
arm and screamed and screamed, not in
pain or fear but sheer terror ofthe
invisible something that had killed
her.

  "Oh, multi grudly," Joat whispered
to herself. The sound of the words
against what she saw was so out of
place that she felt hysterical
giggles bubbling up. Something warned
her that that sort of giggling would
be very difficult to stop once it
started, so she backed away. Her eyes
were huge saucers in her thin pale
face.

368 AnneMoC~i~ ~ S.M. Sty

  At the other end of Joat's corridor
was one of Simeon's hidden
elevators. She tossed the wire spool
out into the corridor before she
entered it. Behind her there were
shouts: the next enemy squad. From
the ringing sounds, they tested to
find the wires with the barrels of
their weapons. There was a double
thud as one unwary Kolnari turned
too fast into the corridor and
decapitated hiinselfon the final
trap.

  Moving briskly, Joat exited the
elevator three levels up and entered
an access corridor meant for
electrical repairs. She transferred
to one of the small ventilation
shafts and dragged herself quickly
and efficicndy to a larger open area
where an array of the shafts met.
She was safe here: it was one of her
bases, with a pallet and some ration
boxes as well as tools pilfered from
Engineering, if you could call it
pilfering when they handed them to
you willingly. They were celling
Joat the "Spirit of SSS-900-C," or
Simeon's Gremlin.

  Then she was violently sick to her
stomach. Servos arrived, clicking
and cheeping to themselves, and
cleaned up the mess.

  Joat lay down, cradling her face on
her arms, and wept bitterly. Long
wracking sobs, like nothing she
could remember.

  Joat . . . honey, have you been
hurt?" Simeon's voice was soft and
warm, like a vaguely remembered
something that once held her.

  She lifted a face flushed with
weeping, but her lips were white.

  "I'm not as tough as I thought,"
she said through her sobs. "I didn't
think . . . Shit, not I've gotta
heart like a rock. That's me,Joat
the killerl Did you hear me snancing
Seld for a muss?" A cough racked
her, and she wiped her eyes on the
back of her hands. "He'll hate mel I
hate myself It was so " And she
threw herself down and bit the
mattress. An eerie crooning wail
echoed through the corridor.

nIE CITS WHO FouGHT 369

"Shhh, it's all right, it's all
right."

"I wanna go home!"

  Coat. Joat, honey. I'm with you.
You are home. You'll always have a
home with me. I don't hate you, Joat.
You're not bad, honey. But sometimes
things get through to the good part
of you that doesn't like the tough
part of you, and that's whatjust
happened."

  The servos rolled forward and
tucked a blanket around her. Simeon
began to croon, directing it at her
ears where she hugged the blanket
about her head and only tufts of hair
escaped.

"I want CJ'anna."

I can't hold her, Simeon thought. But
I can smut,....

"Do you call me liar to my face,
Aragiz?" Belazir said. "My people
were killed," Aragiz t'Varak replied.
"Security recorded Kolnari setting
the trap, perhaps thinking to throw
the blame on scumvermin. I knew
scumvermin could not "

"Doyoug~w me the lie, t'Varak?"

  The other captain stopped, torn
between unwillingness to retract and
inability to attack. Belazir was
under no such constraints.

  "Did it never occur to you, oh so
straightforward cousin, that it might
be scumvermin posing as Clan? That
they are as capable of playing on our
divisions as we are on theirs?"

"You can me dupe of scumvermin?"

  "I say that you bore me, Lord
Captain Aragiz t'VaTak. You bore me
beyond words, beyond bearing. Your
existence makes the universe a place
of tedium beyond belief!"

  Aragiz's face relaxed, into a soft,
welcoming smile. "When?"

  "When Lord Captain Pol t'Veng's
judgement is fulf lled. To the
fist."Adeath-duelin the old manner,
with spiked steel gloves.

370 A7~McC~ PRISM.~

  "And now," Belazir went on, "get
your household and all else to your
ship." Quick suspicion marked the
other captain's face. "Yes, I know
you were massing your
groundfighters. There is no time for
feud here, t'Varal~ Believe me."

  The screen blanked. Serig took a
step forward, an eyebrow raised.

  "Lord, he is the dolt you named
him. There is nothing wrong with his
reflexes, though."

  "As it may be," Belazir said. "I
spoke the truth. It drives me to
fury to have to call that one
cousin, it truly does." He shook his
head. "Today, we triumph, Serig. By
running, yes: but triumph
nonetheless. So, we "

  The dockside guards' chimes rang
through the bridge. "Great Lord, we
have a scumvermin female, claiming
to have information for you."

  Serig chuckled. There had been a
fair number of scumvermin females
coming to the dock and asking for
Belazir. Some few he had taken
himself, and passed the others on to
Serig or the crew.

"No, wait," Belazir said.
"Information of what?"

  "A conspiracy, involving the
scumvermin leadersthat-were and the
prey-ship, lord."

  "Send her up." Belazir looked at
Serig and shrugged. "Why not?"

  Waiting was swift. "I would speak
with you alone, Master," the woman
said, looking meaningfully at Serig.

  "I am generous to women," Belazir
declared. Quite true, or she would
never have reached him. "So generous
I did not hear you, scumverm~"

  She blinked and swallowed hard,
looking from one to the other.

"Why have you come?"

  "The . . . they held me prisoner,
Master and Gggg ~ Even then, she
could not quite bring herself to
utter the blasphemy. Then Belazir
looked up at her, and she felt

IRE C:I.IlrWHO E OUGHT 371

herself huddle down behind the
barrier of her skull, knowing it was
not enough. So a sicatoodh looked at
a lamb.

  "_ God," she completed, uncertain
if it was the obscene honorific they
demanded or a prayer. "I . . . I have
information." She stammered, put a
hand to her face. Iescapd, she
Thought. They must be really conspir-
ing against her againstAmos, as well.
Holding her from him. She whimpered
slighdy. She could remember his words
of love, the promises and nightmares
of rejection, of flure. The brass
colored eyes were waiting.

  "I am Rachel hint Damscus. I am
from Bedevil. I was on the ship that
you were chasing. Forty of us
survived thejourney and took refuge
on dais station."

Neither of the Kolnari moved or
spoke.

  "So . . . you are from Bethel?"
Belazir leaned his head on his fist.
One finger caressed his lower lip.
"Turn your head. Stand. Bend. Sit
once more."

  Belazir turned to Serig.
"Possible," he said meditatively.
"Similar scumvermin race, but there
are many varieties here."

"Unlikely, lord."

  Belazir nodded. And in any case
academic. They were nearly ready to
go. If tl ply have deceived us, Hat
Ned ter? The memory of his slap in
the face of the Bride's joss came
back to him. Perhaps the old customs
had some real strength after all....

  She stated at him. There was
somedling odd about her eyes, Belazir
decided. Her lips trembled, and her
fingers, but not in terror; he could
always identify that. Some nerve
disorder, perhaps? He leaned forward
and snuffed. Not a healthy scent.

"Yes." She nodded once, sharply.
"Master and God."

  "Why do you tell me this? Surely
you know dlat it is dangerous?"

  The woman began to tremble with
rage, and tears filled her Byes.

372 AnneMcCa~ 6? S. M. Sit

  "She . . . that black-haired,
black-hearted whore seduced my
betrothed! She promised him power!
But she lied. He plays the fool for
her, does what she tells him, sleeps
in her bed . . ." Her voice broke
and she stopped, swallowed a few
times before she could speak again.
"The one you have been told is
Simeon-Amos is truly Amos, the
leader who brought us here from
Bethel. The real Simeon is a
shellperson, a thing they call a
brain, and he is still running this
station."

  "A . . . shellperson?" Belazir
t'Marid closed his eyes for a
moment. "Ah! We have heard, but
never seen."

  Serig leaned down to him. "Lord, a
sort of protein computer, no? But
our worm subverted their system and
holds it in our fist. Would we not
have known?"

  "It would explain anomalies,"
Belazir said, chasing the elements
that made him believe the impossible
"And ah! I am as greet a fool
asAragiz t'Varakl"

  "Surely not, lord," Serig said,
surprised. "Not on your worst day.
Not on my worst day. Not on the
worst day ofthis scumvermin womb
here."

  "I was about to dismiss this, time
being short. Dismiss potentially the
richest single piece of loot on the
station!"

"Ashellperson is so much?"

  "A strategic asset," Belazir said.
"Come, we will look into this. Itis
time, in any case."

  He turned his eyes back to the
scumvermin. From all he could see,
she was manm~depressive, swinging
from healthy, normal terror to an
exalted state where she had complete
confidence in his interest, in his
support. As if he were a player in
her play . . .

  "Mad," he said. "Yet . . . My
vanity, perhaps, but little
Channahap plays the war game far too
well. An encysted brain, tied to
great computers and their data
banks, though?" He cocked an eyebrow
at Rachel.

  "I can only tell you what I have
heard," the woman said, babbling in
her desire to be believed. "I have
been

ItIE CITY WEIO FOUGHT 378

told that they are people who have
been put into a casing as infants and
that they then become like a com-
puter." She wrung her hands and
looked desperately from one to the
other. "I'm telling you the truth.
They are plotting against you, Master
and God!"

  Belazir smiled in polite agreement.
"Ofcourse they are." On that, at
least, they were agreed. He rose.
"Come, we will go and talk to them."
He turned to Serig. "Have Baila tell
Channahap that I will see her in her
office. TeU her to have Simeon-Amos
there as well."

  Simeon spoke, interrupting Channa
at her work station. "Channa, Belazir
"'Bastard is heading this way with
Rachel in tow. I don't know what's
up, but he's looking both grim and
pleased."

  Before Channa could speak, the comm
chimed and Baila's face appeared.

  "Channahap," she said. "The Lord
Captain t'Marid is on his way to your
office. You win await him there. He
commands the presence of Simeon-Amos.
Obey." The screen went dark.

  "Shi," Channa said, and tapped her
fingers thoughtfully. "You're right,
Simeon, this does not look good. I am
so sick ofthat girl. She's driving me
. . . crazy. Simeon?"

  "You're right on the button about
her state of mind, Channa. Our
Rachel's crazy, notjust going crazy
but absolutely nuts, gonzo, a
sandwich shy of a picnic, packin' a
short seabag . . ."

``sim~n

  "Right, I'll have Chaundra draw up
a case history about some kind of
dementia. You briefSimeon-Amos, I'll
spread the word."

  "You got it. Simeon-Amos," she said
over the intercom, "get in here."

"And Channa?"

uyes?n

374 Ar~McC~i~ ~ S. M. S6rlEng

  "I think this is it. The battle
platform just started severing its
stationside power leads. We've got a
real opportunity to hurt them hard
if we can get Belazir out of comm
with his people. It could make the
difference."

  Channa nodded. She had been
prepared to try an assassination on
the Bride, but that, at best, was
unlikely. Fear was remote: no time
for it.

  "Simeon-Amos," she began, when he
entered the lounge. "Belazir's
coming, with RacheL" His face froze.
"Here's what we're going to do no
time for an argument.

  The crates made gende plopping
noises as dhey slid out of the
meter-deep green water of the algae
pools and stood dripping on the
slotted metal of the walkways. Ships
had a closed system of tubing and
enclosed tanks, but this
arrangement open metal rectangles
stacked like trays was more
efficient for a station. The
environment systems workers moved
quickly, without wasted effort or
much talking. This had not been a
cheerful section since their chief
returned to them, but there was a
stolid satisfaction as dhe
vac-covers were peeled back and She
weapons went from hand to hand among
the hundred or so technicians,
office workers, and laborers.

  Patsy Sue Coburn watched the
needlers emerge, brutal and compact.
She slung one over her shoulder.
Ursinid weapons were submachinegun
size for humans. Then she reached
into dhe pool and retrieved her arc
pistol, stripping offdhe plastic
film.

  "Wait for it," she whispered. If
the Kolnari made one last swing
through on Heir usual routes, dhey'd
be by in halfan hour or so.

  The crew were crowding around the
supervisors, getting a quick lesson
on how to use a needler to best
effect. Luckily, dhe weapons had
simple controls: set the dial on dhe
side to dhe full clockwise position
and take

IRE C~I-YWHO FOUGErr 375

up the trigger slack. Look down the
barrel at the target and pull the
trigger. Line of sight weapons with
little recoil at short ranges, they
should do well enough.

 And they're all we've got, she
reminded herself. She felt completely
calm. In a way, she had been calm
since she woke and saw Joat's face
floating before her, like a ghost's
in its pool of light. There was a
feeling under that, a feeling that
when she wasn't calm anymore, it was
going to be very, very bad.

"Reckon I kin wait fern'," she told
herself.

The others were looking at her.

  Just wait 'n till they come
around," she said patiently for the
hundredth time. "Simeontll keep us
all in touch." I hope, Ipurely do.
"Now, when they git here, you burn
'em down. Then go down axial G 8 an'
hit the bunch of'em there.Amostllbeby
about thee. If not trim, thenme."

  She nodded curtly and slung the
needler further around to her beck,
freeing her hands for the climb up
the interval ladder. The entrance to
the venting system was where she
would rendezvous withJoat. Not a dif-
ficult climb at first, since these
were the biggest vents on the
station. The circle of faces fell
away below her, growing tiny amid the
rectangular Escher shapes of the
ponds and the huge color-coded maze
of pipes for nutrient and water and
waste.

  Amos stood impassively behind
Channa, hands clasped at his back.
They dropped to a knee as Belazir
entered. He took the seat before her
desk, gestured to Channa to sit. The
squad of soldiers began to crowd into
the small office. The t'Marid snapped
out an order in his own language and
all but two ofthem withdrew.

  Rachel stood beside his chair. She
glared at Channa and then turned
away, her fists clenched by her
sides. To Amos she smiled
tremulously.

  Deft nitely, as Si:m would say, a
few cans short of a si~cpack, Channa
decided. She looks as if she's
rescuing him.

376 AnneMcCo~ PRISM. Stirling

  Channa folded her hands in her lap.
"Master and God, to what do I owe
the honor ofthis visit?"

  Belazir smiled and indicated Rachel
with his hand. "I have been given
some interesting information a

"I have told him everything!" Rachel
said spitefully.

  Channa and Amos regarded her
blankly, then shook their heads and
turned to Belazir.

"Everything?" Channa asked.

  "She has told me that she and forty
others survived the trip from
Bethel, and that this man," he
flicked his chin at Amos, "is her
betrothed. She tells me that he is
pretending to be Simeon and that the
real Simeon is in fact a brain in a
container or some such thing, who is
running this station and the
resistance to the High Clan."

  He folded his hands and regarded
her calmly. "This truth would solve
certain difficulties.

  Channa fought not to smile, making
her eyes wide with disbelief.
Belazir studied her closely.
Amusement was not what he had
anticipated.

  ''Simeon-Amos," she said at last,
"please inform Doctor Chaundra that
Rachel has been found and ask him to
come and fetch her. Advise him that
he may need some form of chemical
restraint."

Belazir raised an eyebrow.

  Channa looked to the t'Marid for
permission for Amos to comply.
Belazir flicked his fingers. Amos
nodded and went mto his own office
to make the call.

  "She lies yet again, lord," Rachel
said, but she fell silent at a
second flick of Belazir's hand.

  Channa assumed an understanding
expression. "This young woman is
deranged. We don't restnun her
because usually she is harmless and
so are her fantasies. A tragic case,
very resistant to psychotherapy."

  "Foul whore " Rachel began,
urgently stepping forward.

Belazir made a chopping motion with
his hand. A

THE CI-IY WHO FOUGHT 377

guard stepped forward and Rachel shut
her mouth with an audible snap.

"Who is she, then?" he asked.

  "We don't actually know," Channa
said. "She was abandoned here,
apparently by some transient mer-
chanter. She had no I.D. No one came
forward with any information about
her. The doctor isn't sure if her
insanity is the result of drugs or
trauma. He says the only way to be
one hundred percent sure is to do an
autopsy, which obviously is out ofthe
question. She's usually very sweet,
at worst a mild nuisance. Perhaps the
conditions . . ." and Channa made a
vague motion with her hand to suggest
that the occupation might have added
to her instability. Channa made
herself lean back casually in her
chair, appearing at ease. "Perhaps
it's a sign of progress that she is
this aware of, ah, current events,
Master and God. She must have
concocted this fantasy about Bethel
from the newstapes, for example."

  Rachel exploded. "She liesl" She
lunged for Channa, coming up with
ajerk when the guard pulled her back
by her long hair. Her gorgon's mask
of rage did not even register the
pain. She struggled briefly and then
subsided as Amos came back into the
room. "Amos," she pleaded, weeping,
"help met"

He looked at her with sympathy.

  "Ofcourse, I will help you,
Rachel," he said. His mellow voice
rang with sincerity. "We all wish to
help you." He leaned close to Channa.
"The doctor is on his way, Ms. Hap."

  "No! " Rachel screamed. "Nol How
can you do this to me? She is using
you, my lover Do not betray met
Please . . ." Tears began to leak
down her long nose. "Please . . .
please."

  Channa's stomach twisted. She is
crazy. Probably curably crazy most
were. Irritation faded before pity,
and pip faded before the threat ofthe
Kolnari putting any weight into
Rachel's tale.

378 Am~eMcCoJ~ ~S.M. String
 Amos' sympathy was achingly reaL

  "There, there," he said soothingly.
"You are ill, Rachel. Daddy will
call the doctor to make it right."
He offered the rag doll he was
carrying. "You can have Siminta with
you." He pressed it into her hands.

  For a moment Rachel's sobs stopped
and she stared at him in confusion.
"What?" she said. "You are my
betrothed, not myfather!" She looked
down at the dolL then dashed it to
the Boor and stamped her foot. "Stop
moating met"

  Amos shifted uneasily. "I cannot
keep up with this. May I be excused
until Doctor Chaundra comes?"

"It might be best," Channa said,
addressing Belazir.

  The t'Marid's eyes flicked over the
three of them. "Daddy?" he said
dubiously, then quirked an involun-
tary smile.

  Channa sighed. "Last week, she
thought she was five years old and
Simeon-Amos was her father. She
would start to cry if he left the
room. For some reason, she's totally
fixated on him. Chaundra supposes
that he resembles whoever dropped
her on us. We don't know."

"Lies!" Rachel shrieked. "Lies."

  "The doctor should be here by now,"
Amos said, clearly uncomfortable. He
picked up the doll and placed it
carefully on a chair. "Ah . . . she
will grieve later if itisn't there."

  "You may go," Belazir said to him.
His eyes never left Channa's.

  Chaundra strode in. He walked over
to the weeping girl and touched her
shoulder gently. "Poor Rachel," he
said soothingly, Spoor little girl."

  "Doctor," t'Marid said sharply.
Chaundra turned and stood very
straight, looking down. "This is
your patient?"

"Yes, Master and God."

"I do not appreciate having my time
wasted on the

THE CrrYWHO F OUGHT 879

daydreams ofthis madwoman. If she is
so much as seen again no, no point.
You may go. Wait. You have records of
heriDness? I want to see them."

  "Yes, Master and God, but I can't
access them from this computer.
Medical records are on a closed
system to protect the privacy ofthe
patient."

  Belazir made an impatient,
dismissive gesture. "Serig," he said.
"See to it, then back to the Bride,
continue on the matter we were
planning. I willjoin you shortly."
Seng bowed deeply.

  "At your command, lord," he said,
his teeth showing slightly in cold
amusement. "The doll, too?"

Belazir snorted. "Go, insolence.

  Rachel took a deep breath and
seemed to fight for dignity; the
twitching lessened in her face. "They
a" lying, Master and God, you will
see. I am telling the truth."

  That ended in a squawk as Serig
turned her about and pushed between
her shoulderblades. She ran to avoid
faring, and the door hissed open
before her.

"Now," Belazir snarled. Chaundra
followed.

  In the strained silence that
followed, Belazir and Channa studied
each other.

At last Belazir spoke. "Have your man
return."

  Channa pressed the intercom button,
"SimeonAmos, would you come in here,
please?"

  "This Rachelis in love with you,"
t'Marid observed, a hint of laughter
in the yellow eyes.

  "I confess," Amos said bitterly,
"that I am beginning to despise the
very sight of her."

The Koluari raised an eyebrow.

  "One day," Channa informed him,
"she became convinced that
Simeon-Amos was God and went around
the station trying to convert people
to worshipping him. She's been a very
difficult experience for an of us,
but she's beena particular strain on
Simeon-Amos-"

"Simeon-Amos," Belazir said, "is
rather obviously

380 Anne McCa~ basal{. Song

the victim of a similar fixation on you,
Channahap. A strong reason to believe
your tale."

  "Yes, Master and God," Channa said. She
closed her eyes. Suneon? she asked.

  "He's halfway convinced, but still
wondering. Impa~rd. Channa, it's
starting. No more than tweedy minutes
until the pirates'sound alarm."

  She opened her eyes again.
"Simeon-Amos," she said. "Why don't you
go see to the primary warehousing?"

He hesitated for a long second. "As you
wish."

Now, Simeon commanded.

  The worm raised its head from the ruins
of the castle, looking out across a plain of
volcanic fumaroles and blue-glowing lava.
Flights of tongue-wasps patrolled there
and arcs of]ightningjagged over crater
and canyon in patterned displays.

  Thunder rumbled. A barking broke loose,
louder than the thunder, and the vault of
heaven split. The worm reared up,
endless, longer than time, glutted with
its feeding.

  Simeon burst through and new skies
sprang above the blasted landscape. The
light chained from a pitiless white to
the softer yellow of sunshine. The wasps
felt twitched, died. Three-headed and
elephant-sized, the dog paced beside him.
He raised the bat, struck.

  The Grinder lunged and the concentric
mouths clamped on the end of the weapon.
Then it recoiled, as the wood turned to a
hoop and expanded, thrusting the rows of
teeth back. It tried to shake loose, but
the

 dog's three heads pinned its body to
the earth. Wider                     i

and wider the glowing green circle
swelled, until the
mouths were a doorway.

  A scalpel and icepick appeared in
Simeon's hands. He walked into the worm's
mouths and raised the tools

"Heeeeeeere's Siml" he shouted.
"Openw~e."

I1IE (HIS WHO FouGHT 381

  On the auxiliary command deck of
the SSS-90~C, the Kolnari tech was
reaching for the rear casing ofthe
battle computer when he noticed the
telltales.

"Lord!" he cried. "The "

  At that instant, the self~estruct
charge built into the base of the
computer detonated. It was not much
in the way of an explosion, but much
more than was required to destroy the
sensitive inner workings. The
designer had intended that to foil
tampering. However, the ilattened
disk of jagged housing was more than
enough to decapitate the pirate.

  His companion reacted with tiger
precision, scooping up his weapon and
leaping for the doors. They clashed
shut with a snap, and the warrior
rebounded into the control chamber.
It was empty save for him and there
was no other exit. He pivoted,
holding down the trigger of his
plasma rifle and firing from the hip
into the consoles.

  "Naughty," a voice from the air
said. The vents began to hiss. The
Kolnari staggered at the first touch
of the gas. His last act was to strip
a grenade from his belt and trigger
it, carefully held next to his own
head.

  "Damn," Simeon muttered. The mess
was considerable and the equipment
wasn't going to be much use for a
while. Then he took the equivalent of
a deep breath and Several dozen
things must be done at once.

"Let me up," Channa said, stroking
Belazir's back.

  "Not for a while yet," Belazir said
lazily. "I have hastened as it is.
There is another five minutes
available." His body was dry against
her sweat-slick one, but much warmer,
with the higher metabolism of his
breed.

"Are we staying' then?" she breathed
against his ear.

"No," he replied. "You suspected?"

  "That you'd take me with you, or
that today would be the day to go?
Both." She wiggled. "Now,please. I
have to get some stuff."

382 ArtneMcCaf~;re~ ~ S. M. SO

  "I shall keep you well," Belazir
said, then rolled away offher. "Be
swift."

  He lay idly on the sofa, watching
her disappear into the bedroom.
Memorable, he decided. Starting with
her skinning out of her clothes the
moment they were alone. Anticipation
is the best garnish. The Kolnari
consulted his interior timesense:
twenty minutes, unusually swift Well
within the days schedule, too. He
grinned to himself, stretching and
tossing back strands of white-blond
train Tomorrow stretched out before
him in a road of fire and blood and
gold.

"We are close to Channa's
quarters?"Joseph asked.

  They were leopard-crawling down the
ductway; an action that was hard for
one of his shoulder-breadth. Behind
them Patsy was having less of a
problem, since much of her volume
was compressible.

  "Yeah . . ." Joat paused. "I
haven't actuary been this way,
y'know. I was trying to hide from
Simeon." A pause. "We're right over
the main corridor to the elevator
shaft. I think."

  "I think I had better check,"Joseph
said, with a tight smile. "Are you
all right,Joat-my-friend;"

  "Yeah." She threw a smile back at
him. just . . . I got a little
shook, is all. I'm fine."

  She touched the junction node and
herjacker. The membrane beneath them
turned transparent. Chaundra did not
look up. Instead, he glanced behind
him, shook his head, moved on.

  Joat crawled past, then froze as
two more figures came beneath.
Rachel was running, but Serig caught
her easily in one hand, pushed her
against the corridor wall. She
screamed, breathy and catching in
her throat, like someone awakening
from one nightmare into another.

  "Don't do it, Joe, he'll kill your"
Joat cried soffo voce, lunging for the
Bethelite's belt. She missed and
knew it

THE C~YWHO FOUGHT 388

would have done no good. Her hand
could never have defieceed the solid
charging weight of the man. He was
through the space and dropping to the
deck before she could finish the
sentence. His knives were in his
hands: one long and thin, the other
short and curved.

  The Koluari had his hand back to
cuff Rachel attain as she screamed a
second time, hopelessly.

"Pirate," a voice behind them said.

  The warrior threw her aside as
easily as he might a sack of wool,
and she thudded into the corridor
wall. The same motion turned into a
whirling slash with one bladed palm,
a blow that would have cracked solid
teakwood. Joseph was not in its path,
but the long knife in his right hand
was. The yellow eyes slitted in pain
and a broad streak of blood arched
out to spatter against the cream of
the sidewall and flow sluggishly
down. The Clan fighterleaped back
halfa dozen paces, out of reach of
the blades, but also farther from the
discarded equipment belt. He was
naked and unarmed, and the slash in
his forearm was bone-deep. He dared
not even squeeze it shut with his
other hand. The raw salt-copper smell
of blood was strong as the wound
began to ooze more sluggishly.
Superfast clotting would save him .
. . if he did not exert himself.

  "Come to me, pirate,~Joseph said
softly. "Come, see how we fought in
Keriss, on the docks."

  The Kolnari snarled and leaped to
one side, flipped in midair and
bounced off the upper wall. He was a
hundred-kilo blur of muscle and bone
snapping at Joseph behind a clenched
fist. Huddled against the wall,
Rachel gave a whimper of despair,
butJoseph was not there anymore.
Anticipatingsuch a tactic, he had
thrown himself down on his back. Both
knives were up. The piratejackknifed
in midair, but when he rolled erect,
there were two more long slashes
across his chest.

  His grin was a snarl of pain as he
slid forward. The long wounds were
orange, the runneling blood a

384 Am~eMcCaff~SM.S~

shocking deep umber against his
raven-black skin. He held his arms up: one
in a knuckled fist, the other open in a
stiffened blade.

  "Come," Joseph whispered. Rachel blinked
back to full consciousness and the sight
of his face chilled her. "Come to me, yes,
come."

  The knives glinted in either hand,
splashed orangey-red now, the edges
glinting in the soft glowlight as they
moved in small, precise circles.

  What followed was a whirling blur. It
ended with one knife flying loose end
Joseph crumpling back, curled around his
side. The other knife still shone in
defiance. The Kolnari warrior staggered
and shivered for a moment, then drew back
his foot for the f nalblow. Rachel flung
herselfforward, "rasping blindly. Her arms
closed around the poised leg. It was like
gripping a tree, no, a piece of steel
machinery that hammered her aside like
some giant piston-rod. But blood loss and
the unexpected
weightthrewthepirateoff-balance He
staggered forward intoJoseph. For a moment
they stood chest-t~chest, like embracing
brothers. Long-fingered black hands
clamped down onJoseph's shoulders, ready
to tear the muscles of hisbull
neckfreebymainforce.

  Then she saw the Bethelite's left arm
moving. The right hung limp, but the left
was pressed against the Kolnari's side.
There was something in it. A knife-hilt,
and the blade was buried up to the guard;
the curved blade of the Sin, whose density
enhanced edge would carve steer It slid
through ribs as the pirate's killing grip
turned to a f rantic push that arched him
like a bow.

  The two men had fought in silence, save
for the panting rasp of their breath. Now
the Kolnari screamed, as much in
frustration as in final agony. The cry
dissolved in a spray of blood as the
diamond-hard su:a's edge sawed open his
ribcage and ground to a halt halfway
through his breastbone. He flopped to the
ground, voided, and died. Joseph wrenched
his knife

!

THE CITY WHO FOUGHT 3

free and stooped. He forced his
right hand to action, gripped the
dead pirate's genitals, severed them
with a slash. Then he stuffed them
into the gaping mouth of the corpse
and spat in the dead eyes, still
open like fading amberjewels.

  Blood. Rachel wiped at her mouth,
suddenly conscious of the blood: in
her mouth, her hair, over her body,
spattered on corridor walls and
ceiling, dimming the glowstrips,
more blood than she had ever
imagined could be.Joseph was coated
with it, his eyes staring out of a
mask of blood, his teeth red.

  She stared at the mutilated
corpse. "Serig," she said. "His name
was Serig."

  "A dead dog's name dies on the
dungheap," Joseph said in a snarl.
Then he turned to her and his eyes
were alive once more. He bowed,
checked himself with a sharp gasp,
then completed the gesture. "My
lady, are you hurt?" he inquired
solicitously.

  His face, for once, was naked.
Rachel gasped and swayed, looking
down at the body and then at the man
she had despised.

  "Joseph!" she cried, clutching at
his arm. "I . . ." Reality whirled,
splintered, as if a glass surface
between her and her thoughts had
shattered. 'Joseph," she said more
softly, wonderingly. "Something has
happened to me. I . . . I remember
things that cannot be. I " she
blushed " I remember being so cruel
to you, so vicious. And, and I " she
looked up at him, shaking her head
in denial even as she whispered in
growing horror " betrayed Amos to
the Kolnari?"

  He touched her cheek, a feather
soft caress. "Lady, you have been
ill. You were poisoned by the
coldsleep drugs that we took. It is
not your fault."

  "Oh," she said, "oh," and threw
herselfinto his arms, weeping.
"Please forgive me," she pleaded, "I
am unworthy, I am foul, but I beg
you, Joseph, do not despise me. Do
not leave me."

386 Ar~McC~li?SJ!~.S - ng

  "I could never despise my lady," he
said simply. He extended a hand
which she grasped, though the
fingers were slippery with death.

  "Come, we have little time," he
said. "We must get you to a place of
safer, and I have much work to do
this day."

"Then let us hasten,Joseph," she
replied.

  Joat and Patsy dropped down,
halting at the sight of the body.
They scanned the hall tensely, then
edged nearer. Joat looked at it out
of the corner of her eyes, but the
older woman stared hungrily.

The arc pistol rose, then fell
helplessly.

  "It's him," she whispered. "It's
him. And it's been donel" Her tone
was aggrieved, indignant.

  Joat moved up beside her. Boy, is
he ever done, she thought with her
newfound squeamishness' and tried to
ignore the smell. Lois shu~cker
zonked up an artful lot of mad
against himself It was not that she
regretted his death,just . . .

  "Sorry it wasn't you?" she said,
looking up at her companion.

  For the first time since her rape,
Patsy Sue Coburn was weeping.

  "No'" she said, her voice thick.
"No, I'm not sorry. Not sorry he's
dead, not sorry it wasn't me. Jist
glad this dawg will never hurt
nobody agin. I . . . won't have to
remeniber doing it, now."

  "Yeah, that's right,"Joat said
desolately, slaIruning the
doorsofmemoryf~nlyshut.
"C'mon,wegotworktodo."

  They turned to Joseph and Rachel.
"Let's boost her up," Joat
continued. "Axial up one aught to be
safe enough to stash her. Then we
can get on with it I

"Simeon?" Channa said softly. "You
back?"

  "Part of me." His voice sounded
dim, although the implant's volume
was always the same. "I'm dancing

IRE C~WHO FOUGHT S~

on a sawblade, keeping their
communications dorm and fighting off
their ships' computers. Can't keep
them out of touch forever." More
sharply. "You all rightly

  "You want to know?" she said,
dressing with calm haste.

"Yeah"

  "it was annoying as hell . . . and
sort of strenuous." A moment's urchin
grin. "And to tell the truth, I'd
have been forever curious if I
hadn't. What I'd like," she said as
she finished sealing her overall to
the neck, "is to see his face when he
realizes I'm not coming back through
that door."

"I'll record it."

"And don't tellAmos."

  A section of the ceiling paneling
turned translucent and slid
back.Joat's face showed through and
then her body somersaulted down.

  "There's a crawlspace we c'n get
into now that leads to a bunch of
air-ducts and electric-conduits. Come
on."

  Channa examined the hatch in the
ceiling and smiled wryly. "Just like
m a holovid," she murmured.

  Joat grinned. "Yeah, only a lot
smaller." She looked anxiously at
Channa's lean length. "You may find
it a squeeze. Had to leave the others
back a ways. Do you nurdly when
you're cramped?"

"Is there a choice?" Channa said.

  "Then you don't. Push yourself
along with your hands and toes. Don't
try to use your knees or you'll
eventually black out from the pain."

"Do you speak as one who knows?"

Uh-huh, I've seenit happen. Give me
a boost?"

  Channa braced, cupped her hands,
lifted Joat towards the ceiling hatch

  "Ready." Joat's voice came down,
sounding a little hollow.

"Stand back Channa crouched down and
sprang

388 Anne McCaffr~ PRISM. S60

upwards, catching the sides of the
hole and pulling herselfstraight
up, arms trembling with the
strain.

  The crawlspace was narrow and
cramped and confining. She had to
breathe and move in different
motions. It was wonderfuL

          ~ CIIAPTERTWEN~O

  `'Okay," Florian Gusky croaked.
"Go." He coughed, hislungs and
throat a mass of pain and fire. The
air system had not been designed to
be occupied for two-week stays. "Go,
you bastards."

  Eight tugs and the mining scout In
Your Dreams brought up their
systems. There had been ten tugsj
but Lowbau and Wong hadn't been
answering on tightbeam for four
days. If something had gone wrong
with their life-support, neither of
them had made a sound while it
happened, accepting death in the
silence oftheir powered-down ships,
alone in the dark.

"Comint home," Gus whispered.

  The tugs had drifted with the
other debris that cluttered the
vicinity of the station. He gave
silent thanks for the fact that
Simeon had never been a neat
housekeeper. More that Channa hadn't
had time to reform him before the
trouble struck. Now the energies
oftheir drives painted halfofheaven.
Acceleration pushed him back into
the padding, beyond what the
compensators could handle. The
screen ahead of him was a
holo-driven schematic, with his
target and approach vector marked
offas a box, and the tug a blip that
had to be kept inside it. Easy work
for a military croft, but these tugs
were designed for hard slow pulls,
not whipping around. Nothing else
mattered but the vector, and the
load of scrap and ore trailing
behind him. Through his body the
drives hummed, pushed past all
prudence and all hope.

His mind f ound time to note the
bright spark that was a

390 AnncMcCo~ PRISM. S - ng

tuggoing up, a pulse fromtheengine
detonationand then the brighter f
lash of the destabilized powerplant.

  "Well, that ought to let 'em know
we're here," he muttered. Whiskers
rasped against the feeding nozzle
and the mike as his head moved in
the helmet. He knew his face must
look neither sane nor pleasant. The
tug surged as he corrected. The
station filled a sidescreen, and the
bristling saucer shape of the Kol-
nari bathe platform docked to its
north polar tube, like some
monstrous tick swelling with blood.

"You're
~ne,"Gusshoutedpastcrackedlips.
'~,Illm*2er'

  Simeon stood in the passageway.
Rock rumbled around him, the bomb
exploded away from a spot above,
chips stinging his eyes and going
Hang off his armor. The long head
that bettered through was scaled in
sapphire and had eyes set all about
it, in a bone ril1 that turned to
spikes. The muzzle split four ways,
and each segment was lined with
fangs. The tongue between was a
metal-tipped spear ready to strike.

  He struck first, grabbing it in an
armored gauntlet and hauling back
before the quadruple jaws could slam
shut. When they did, it was on their
own tongue. A high whine of pain
drove needles into Simeon's ears. He
kept his grip on the lashing end,
whipped it three times around the
muzzle and tied a quick slip-knot.
Then he stood back and took a
double-handed grip on his glowing
baseball bat. ThuJak. The guardian
program shivered, slumped, dissolved
into metallic fragments that
scurried back and forth
disorganized, then decayed instantly
into floating bytes.

  "Next," he said, walking forward
toward the ironstrapped door, which
was probably the entrance to the
CPU. "Geeze, I've got to patent this
AI interface," he said, taking
stance again. "It's

  Boom. Oak splintered, wrought iron
bent and shrieked.

 THE Crier FOUGHT     391

"_ fardlin' "

Boom.

"_fun."

"Lord, ~J"

  The commander of the High Clan
battle platform Shut Crasher pivoted
on one heeL The big circular room was
half-empey; the liberty parties were
only now returning.

  "What?" he barked at the
info-syseems waech-officer. Not now.
He was scheduled to undock and begin
transit first, to be there when the
transports came in for rendezvous
with the reseofthe High Clan.Jusein
case, but the weight of the
responsibility was heavy, and this
was his first independent command.

"Lord, our system is under attacks"

  "The worm program?" Chindik t'Marid
was a specialist in chose. He had
designed the standard Clan attack
worm himself. He was also a game
designer of note, although that was
merely a hobby.

  "No," the tech said. His fingers
were dancing over his board.
"Someehing'sjustmZashmg its way in."

  "Aside." Chindik called up a
graphic. He whistled silently.
Something with enormous computational
power was battering at the defenses
with tremendous force, crying all the
solutions. There was no indication of
realspace location. His computers
were spending all their capacity just
keeping the enemy out. But since
there was only one enemy installation
in sight

  "Cue the cable feeds to the
station," he said. "Battle alert to
all other vessels."

  "I can't cue the feeds," the tech
said. "The retractors won't answer.
Neither do the landline comms to the
rest ofthe flotilla."

  "Well, then " Chindik began. Another
cry stopped him.

"Detection," the sensor operator
said. "Multiple

392 Arm`McCa~ ~ S M. Stirling

detection. Powerplant signatures.
Close, lord, close. Approaching."

  "Attack vectors," the tactical
computer announced. "Vessel is under
attack."

  "Those aren't warships," Chindik
said in astonished dismay as he read
the screen. His head whipped back
and forth, reflex in a creature
attacked Mom all sides. Then he
straightened, strode back to the
commander's station, and sank into
the couch.

  "Combat alert," he said. The chimes
began to sound, wild and sweet.
"Battlestations. Deploy short-range
energy weapons. Fire on any of those
. . . gnats as the weapons bear.
Gantry?"

  "Lord7" The dockside guards were
looking away from the pickup. "Lord,
we hear "

  "Silence! Send parties through the
sidelock and blow the feeds
connecting us to the scumvermin
hulk."

"Lord?"

"Obey!"

  The guards scattered like mercury
struck with a hammer.

  "Blast-broadcast," Chindik said.
"Five-minute signal, all crew rally
to the Crasher. Then undock."

  "Lord) I've been trying to activate
the decoupling procedure. " The
bridge was filling as the standby
crew ran in and Lid into their
stations. "My telltales say itis
working, but the visual scanner
shows no activity."

  "Send a party from engineering to
dog it manually. Engines, prepare to
maneuver."

"Lord, we're still physically
linked."

  "I know. We'll rip loose, and take
the, damage. Estimate."

"Six minutes to readiness, lord."

  The weapons team were working in a
blur of trained unison. "Enemy
closing. Velocities follow.
Preparing to engage . . . Lord, we
need maneuvering room! They are too
close for interceptor missiles."

~lECrIYWHOFOUG~ 393

  "Make it three minutes, Engines."
He turned back to the mmmuni~
console. "Get me the Wanda!"

  "Down two decks, use the emergency
shaft. Down two decks, use the
emergency shaft."

  Simeon's voice rang through the
corridor. All up and down it, the
doors of the residential apartments
were opening. Stationers came out,
first singly, then in groups, in
scores. They ran past the working
park at the corridorjunction, grabbed
whatever shapes were thrust into
their hands: needlers, industrial
torches, bundles of blasting
explosive with fuses cobbled together
out of calculators, handlights and
spare consumer-goods chips. Their
faces were set and tight, or gunning,
or snarling wordlessly.

  Simeon broke off another fragment
of attention as Amos came up.

  "Channa?" the Bethelite asked.
Then, as she moved into
sightErombehindJoseph, he cried in
relief. "Cham nab They had time for
a single swift hug.

  His eye widened slightly as he saw
Joseph's body splashed with drying
blood from knees to neck.

"Mostly not my own, Brother,~Joseph
said gunning.

You are hurt."

"Cracked rib Itis nothing."

  Amos nodded briskly. "So far, they
are surprised," he said to Channa.
"But that will not last." The fabric
of the station quivered beneath their
feet.

  Belazir t'Marid stepped back from
the door. The frame of the chair was
bent in his hands, but only gouges
showed on the surface. He dropped the
shattered mass and looked around, his
eyes narrowed.

  Sol, he thought, and suppressed
anger. There would be time for
recriminations later. Perhaps . . .
He retrieved his equipment belt end
extracted the universal microtool.
There had to be a connecting line

394 Anne McCarty SdM S - rye

somewhere around the entrancaway. He
cast a glance over his shoulder at
the titanium pillar that had been
beneath the tapestries.

  "You win pay for this, my mend,"
he said. "For a very long time."

  "Eat shit and die, Master and
God," Simeon replied. God, that felt
good. I've been waiting to say that.
"You screwed the pooch. You did the
doo-doo, big. You've got a place in
the next edition of Fiom the Jaws of
Tic - ."

  Belazir turned away with a smile
and a shrug, going to work on the
exterior access panel.

  "Can you feel pain?" he said as he
began slicing it oper with the
short-range cutting laser in the
tool. "I hope so. Very much." He
deployed the hair-thin probe.

  "And I was playing below my level
on the war games'" Simeqn added.

"Barricade at the nextjunction,
lord."

  The groundfighter's voice sounded
in her headphones. Pol t'Veng filed
it with the other voices filling her
helmet, squeezing at them with the
force of her will until they began
to assume some pattern.

  "Takiz," she said to her second.
He looked around from the six
power-armored figures at the
junction. Just ahead the corridor
had been wrecked by a satchel~harge;
the tangle of walls, tubing and the
remains ofthe Boating gun was still
white-hot. Two of the suited Kolnari
forced their way into the narrow
place and began to straighten. Metal
screamed as it was deformed again.
Hot gases pooled around them and the
remains of the gun-crew.

  "Takiz, when we're through here,
take four and make another attempt
at Lord Belazir's last location.
Maximum effort."

That translated as "Bring him or
don't come back."

"I hear and obey, Lord Poll"

  "Lord Pal, we have a cleared line
to the main axial corridor."

IMEC~YWI 10 FOUGHT 895

  "Good," she said. Good news, the
first since this started. "Reports."

"Fightingonallthedocldnglevels, Lord.
DatafoBows."

  It did; also pickup views. One for
only a second; the: view from a
power-quit as its wearer backed into
the open port of a Clan transport.
Stationers were firing from behind
barricades of mushily and crates in
the open space beyond. The lights
were out and the view had the glassy
look of light-enhancement. Softsuited
crewfolk ran past the groundfighter.
His plasma rifle snapped again and a
makeshift breastwork exploded along
with the bodies of the scumvermin
behind it. Then all the telltales
that ran below the visual flashed
red. Not good news for the occupant
of that suit, since the internal
temperature was now over two hundred
degrees. The scene began to fogjust
as she could make out a bundle of
plastic bricks wired together arcing
toward the airlock. Then it cut out
abruptly.

  Bad. That was one vessel that would
be undocking with extreme difficulty.
She projected a schematic on the
corridor wall and studied it as the
information flowed in. More bad news,
but at least she had a picture.

  "General transmission," she said.
"Lord Pol thong, assuming command in
the absence of Lord Belazir. Crews,
report to nearest vessel. Those near
the exterior, blow your way out of
the pressure hull and EVA to the
nearest vessel"

  Many of them would be suited, and
emergency clingmasks films that
protected the face somewhat, with a
miniaturized recyder were standard
issue. For that matter, Kolnari could
endure about four minutes of vacuum
if trained and prepared.

"We retreat?" someone asked, shocked.

  "No, fool!" she said. The speaker
was an officer with an intact company
ranged behind him. It was worth the
time to answer as she might herself
fad, in which

396 ArineMcCa~ ESM. Staring

case he would need the information,
"Look!" She downloaded her
appraisal. Whey fight to keep us
here We fight for fighting room. We
have comply our mission.

"I hear and obey, lord."

  "You had better," she muttered to
herself. Now that the blockage had
been cleared, more Kolnari were
gathering in the cross-corridors.

  "We fight our way through to the
axial corridor," she said. "You,
Dittrek. Is that barricade still
holding?"

UYes, lord. I do not have enough men
to rush it again."

  "Blow through the access walls to
either side of your position," she
said. "Then blow through the connecr

ing partitions and flank them.
Quickly."

"Lord."

She turned to the others. "To the
doclcs follow met"

  "Nowl" Gus muttered to hunself. The
computer did the actual release. The
tug released its grapnel field and
applied lateral thrust, just enough
to swing him wide ofthe station
itself

  He removed his hands from the
controls and slapped the main power
switch; the safest thing to do, now.
There were a lot of high-velocity
debris around . . . including the
wrecks of the other tugs. He felt a
curious peace, almost as if he could
sleep.

  "Lord, we boost," the engine comm
of Heart Crusher said. At the same
moment, the weapons console gave a
cry offury.

  "Kinetic slugs inbound. Prepare for
impact. Inner defense batteries on
auto."

"Full maneuver power. Boosting."

  Chindik t'Marid prayed silently to
the platform joss, making reckless
promises. The big vessel lurched and
rending sounds echoed through the
fabric of its hull as the jammed
connectors tore out,

THE C=rWHO FOUGHT S

like roots parting in the earth. The
most effective weapons were on the
underside, and that was still
pointed towards the SSS-900-C. There
was nothing he could do, anyone
could do, except the Al systems
handling the close-in
defense something beyond even
Kolnari reflexes.

  Sprays oftrajectory crossed on the
screens. Absently he noted the
second to last attacking vessel
taking a beam. An irrelevancy now,
after the huge scatter of
high-velocity projectiles had been
loosed against his command. The slew
of dots diminished, as the beams
swept, more and more with each
second as the stubby disk turned its
teeth toward the sky.

  Tinngggggg. Tinnggggg. He waited,
tense. No more contact. The rest of
the incoming flotsam had been
stopped, or missed, or struck the
station instead.

"Damage control!"

  A few lights were strobing from
green to amber to red. The engines
screen came on.

"Lord . . . the exciter coils for
the FTL were hit."

"How long?"

  "A week, lord. It is a dockyard
job." The Kolnari on the bridge
exchanged looks. They hadjust heard
news oftheir deaths.

  "You," Chindik snapped to a backup
crewman. "Take that " he indicated
thejoss " and space it."

"We have Lord Pal, lord."

  The doors hissed open. Belazir
jumped back with a yell as the
plasma rifle leveled.

  "Lord!" The man seemed ready to
weep with relief. Belazir ignored
him, diving for the empty suit that
fo}lowed behind the warrior. For a
wonder, it was his own.

  "Where is Serig?" Belazir barked.
He had expected him to be here, or
taking command. Matters should not
have got so far out of hand.

With the door open, the smells and
sounds of combat

398 A7meMcCoJ~ PRISM.6rl~g

were obvious: deep toningsounds as
explosions tore atthe fabric ofthe
station, far offchuddering of beam
weapons, the stink of hot metal and
ozone. Belazir folded the suit
around bun, leaving the catheters
for later. If I have to piss doron ~
log; so be it. It came alive with a
jerk, and he flexed the
servo-powered limbs and gaundets
with exultation.

  "Lord Serig is dead, Great Lord.
Lord Pol commands. We have a link."

  The news staggered Belazir for a
moment. Seng dead ~ Then he clamped
the helmet. "Lord Pol?"

  "Here! Report follows." Mostly
disaster. They came et us
outofthewalls, musthavebeen hiding
there since the occupation began."

Belazir noddedJerkily.

  "We hold the ships," Pol said
crisply. "Except for one transport
that has, incredibly, been overrun.
They attack the docks and encircle
pockets of our troops."

  "Continue consolidating the pockets
and punch through to the ships," he
said. "Status?"

  "Heart Crusher is free but her FTL
is down," Pol said. "My Shark is
also disengaged and I am notbringing
her back. Half the transports are
moving, but some with heavy damage.
Dreadful Bride has nearly full crew,
plus personnel from others, and is
in control of her docking area and
ready to boost."

"Age of Darkness?"

  "Still not even answering her
comm," Pol said, her voice taking on
emotion for the first time. "My
youngest daughter against a used
wiperag. Her outer info was
penetrated and they did not even,"
she spat the word, "notice."

  "No wager," Belazir said. He
reached back over his shoulder end
swung the punchgun reck clown.
Itclicked into its rest along his
right arm. The aiming bars lit on
his faceplate as he turned and
cycled for sonic and IR scan on the
pillar that held the brain. Ahhh,
yes. There is the interior
structure, and the access hatchway.
"You may

ME CrrS:'WHO FOUGHT 399

assume tactical command from the Age
of Darkness, Lord Pol, once you reach
it. I will follow to the Bride. There
is a matter to attend to here."

  "Through there," Amos said. He
pointed to two broken access doors
across the circular open space. Most
of it had been covered with kiosks,
stores, restaurants and other
structures until an hour ago. Now
those were smoldering ruins,
scattered among that were the bodies
and the wreckage of the servomechs
the stationers had used as their
first wave. "They are back from the
entrance on the second to the right."

  "We'll go through subaxial E-9 and
punch across," Keri Holen replied.
"That's one ofthe hidden sections."

  She turned to her squad, a mix of
station repair people with their
working tools and ordinary civilians
armed with whatever.

  "C'mon, scumvermin," she said.
"Let's go show the lords what we
think of'em. Follow me."

  "How are we doing?" Channa said
beside Amos, bobbing up and loosing a
burst with her needler. Covering fire
from all the stationers lashed out at
the exit shafts as the assault team
dodged forward. The barricade ahead
of them was corycium, brought in by
the handler servos, and plasma rounds
had splashed off the front, or welded
the ingots together and made the
barrier stronger. They still had to
expose themselves to shoot, if only
in a crevice between two ingots.

  Amos ducked down with her as
another series of bolts hit the
metal. They could feel the barricade
shudder and tone. The inner layer was
barely warm, but the temperature
above flash-heated enough to make
their skins tingle. The stink of hot
corycium made them cough, and Channa
thought how worried she would have
been in ordinary times; the fumes
were not healthy. Then the whole
station shuddered, and the gravity
fluxed sufficiently to be noticeable.

400 AnneMcC~ PRISM. S - ng

  Nothmg like a plasma bolt to
groeyou a sense of perspectrue, she
dhought.

  "Not doing too well, my darling,"
Amos said absendy. A team from dhe
Perimeter Restaurant was crawling
from person to person with bags of
sandwiches and juice. More of the
restaurant's people were back
twoJunctions, running a triage
station under the direction of one
of Chaundra's meditechs. "They are
using the bathe platform and the
warship for fire support from
outside, and we cannot stop dhem
uniting dleir scattered groups. The
groups that survived, dlat is." He
sighed and smiled at her through the
black smudges of powdered metal. "I
cannot think of timer company than
yours to travel to God wide, Channa
Hap," he said.

"I'mglad, too," shesaid. "Sorryitwas
thisway, but glad."

  He reached out to touch her
shoulder. Then her face went glacid.
For a moment he feared she had been
hit, before he recognized the
expression. She was communing with
Simeon. Her throat worked. "Amos!"
she burst out. "Thg're taking
Surgeon old of his column/"

  The Bethelite paled. Without their
all-seeing commander and chief of
general staff, the station was
doomed, and quickly. Channa turned
and began to leopard-crawl backward.
He grabbed for her ankle.

"There is nothing you can do," he
hissed

  "I'm his brawn! I have tot" she
cried, and kicked free. Amos looked
alter her and cursed.

  "Joseph!" he said. "We have to
retake main axial, at least for a
moment along the path to the central
command. Take "

  The fin:~1 lead connecting Simeon to
the station came free. No! Simeon
cried into the darkness. The self-
destruct had been left too late. The
Navy had not come, and the enemy
were breaking free. When they had
him on board, the station would die.

He had nothing now, nothing but the
single pickup

LIE CITY WHO FOUGHT 401

and audio circuit thee were part of
his inner shell. Iili' support was on
the backups. It would keep his
nutrient feeds going for days . . .
but a single hand could switch him
into total darkness, utter isolation.
Madness, death without the mercy of
oblivion. No!

  Belazir was still visible, leaning
over the shell. He lifted off his
helmet with both hands, looming over
the pickup to smile whitely. The
shell surged as the powersuited
warriors bent carefully and lifted,
the huge weight coming up slowly as
their armor whined in protest. There
was a slight klinki~ sound as the
helmet rested on the upper face of
the shell itself.

  "So that you should have my face
for yourlastsighS" the Kolnari
chieftain said, reaching for the
keypad on the shell exterior. "When
you see again, you will call me
Master and God . . . and you will
mean it." He touched a finger to the
control. "Beg, Simeon."

"Eat shot and die!"

  The Kolnari chuckled. "Not good
enough," he said, and pressed the
stud.

  The doors to Channa's room slapped
open. Channa stepped through, needler
at the ready. Belazir could feel the
aimpoint on his forehead.

  "You wanted me again, Belazir?" she
said. "Better late than never. Here
I am." A slight movement waggled the
muzzle. "This is set on spray. It's
quite fetal. Now, away from the
shell, please."

  Belazir smiled at her. What a
woman! he thought. I wid beat her;
but not too badly. "There are three
of us," he said, shifting slightly.
Although unfortunately I have my
helmet off and these two are
immobilized by the load they carry,
he added to himself. "We are in
armor. You can scarcely expect to
frighten us with that toy alone."

  Patsy Sue Coburn followed her
friend out of the quarters, leveling
her arc pistol. A red burn-mark
welted one cheek, bleeding knees and
elbows showed

402 Am~McCa~ ~ S.M. Sti~ng

through dhe holes worn in her
coverall, but there was real
pleasure in her smile.

  "Life's full a' surprises, ain't
it?" she said as Belazir snarled
silendy. ~Realbitch sometimes, too."

  Channa tossed her head in a vain
attempt to get dhe sweat-soaked hair
out of her eyes.

  "Yes'" she said evenly, "I do
expect to frighten you. Now, replace
the shell in dhe main column cradle
and reconnect it. Then, all of you,
dlrow your helmets aside and move
over there." She gestured towards
tile door to Amos' quarters. "I
expect your pirates will trade a
good deal for you."

  "And keep your hands up," snapped
a voice from above.

  Kolnari heads turned to dhe
opening in dhe ceiling. A head and
arms protruded, far too small for an
adult of their bigboned race, but
dhe muzzle of the plasma rifle was
held steadily in those slight arms.
The weapon looked absurdly large for
dhe person who controlled it, but it
was braced against dhe interior wall
and doe lip of the hole, and he
could see dhe aimpoint, a red dot
dlat wavered over the dlree pirates.

  "Up," the child repeated, lifting
the muzzle of the weapon for
emphasis.

  Belazir's mind computed the
angles. Good. My lop hand IS not
visible, he drought.

  "You leave us little choice," he
said aloud. Which was true; honor
aside, he had no choice at all. Pol
t'Veng or any other Kolnari noble
would cheerfully let Father Chateau
or their own sires be flayed alive
rather than disgrace deem by paying
ransom, much less do so for him. He
would rather be flayed than live on
chose terms himself

  "Move the shell," he said to the
two troopers. "It's only three
paces."

  He raised his gaundeted hands,
closing his eyes and flagging
positions. The deck boomed like a
dram as die

IHE (3IYWHO FOUGHT 408

pirate groundfighters moved a pace in
lockstep unison, the ton weights of
their suits added to triple that of
titanium and machinery . . . and the
few kilos of a body that had never
seen the light of day.

  Three, he counted and dropped the
flash grenade Before it hit the
shell, he was leaping backwards, and
so were the two other C lan warriors.
He squeezed his eyes tight and willed
his pupils shut, but even so the
flash was dazzling. He hit the
doorframe going out, went flat,
scrabbled the helmet he had snatched
onto his head. The plasma rifle had
crashed simultaneous with the
grenade. A brief scream and the smell
from inside told him it had still
been on target.

  He blinked open his eyes as the
locking ring of the helmet clicked.
The combat medsystem sprayed a mist
into his eyes, but his vision was
severely degraded in any case. He
activated the sonic sensor, to cheep
the location of things at him.

"Takizl" he called.

  "Fully functional, lord," the
warrior answered. "Kintirisdead."

  I will beat her very severely,
Belazir amended. Even with the
dazzles before his eyes, he could see
several arc-pistol shots snap out
through the doorway, and his
machine-augmented hearing picked up
the telltale click of an arming
plasma rifle. The walls were
reinforced here, as well. It would be
tricky, and he had not much time. Now
he did not put it past these
extraordinary scumvermin to blow the
station themselves.

  The comm chimed and Baila's face
filled one of the chins~eens, a vague
dark blur. Her voice was scratchy
with interference but audible. "Great
Lord," she said calmly. "Ships
detected, incoming."

No! he shouted inwardly. No!

  "Lord," another voice spoke. The
senior groundfighter officer. "We're
holding a counterattack on the

404 ArmeMcC~ ~ Self. Smog

main axial, but I cannot guarantee
your withdrawal. Not for any period
beyond now."

For perhaps ten seconds Belazir
panted sharply.

  "I will be there in five minutes,
or not at ale" he said. "Out.
Talciz, follow me. We head for the
docks." Thank the joss, he thought
with savage irony, the north polar
docking Me is so close to here.

  I'm band, Channa thought. Her skin
crinkled, waiting for the clamp of
powered gauntlets. Beside her Patsy
was shooting.

  "Careful, Pats," Channa gasped. The
blackness was starred with red, now,
and she felt needles of pain in her
forehead. Her free hand felt upward,
touched her eyes. Wetness . . .
tears, only tears. The eyesfelt
normal to her fingertips. For a long
moment, she had feared it was
something like that horrible
popperJoat had made.

  "I'm careful, all rant," Patsy
said. "Got my shootin' iron right on
the doorway. They cain't move quiet
in those tin suits."

Joat?"

  "I'm all right," the girl's voice
said. Her voice had a saw-edged note
that denied the words. "Hurts and I
can't see, though. I'm coming down."

  "Don't get between me an' the
door!" Patsy said sharply.

  Channa dropped to her knees and
shuffled forward' hand outstretched.
That touched something hot, which
brought a sharp gasp of pain; next a
warm wetness. She wiped her hand on
the carpet and tried again. The
smooth titanium-matrix surface ofthe
shell was like a benediction. When
she moved to the keypad, a smaller
hand touched hers. They gripped for
a moment, then pressed the key.

  "Nnvooooooooooo~" The scream was
piercing, but Simeon's backup
speakers on his inner shell had
limited

LIErlYWHO FOUGHT 405

volume. He stuttered, babbled, then
omened his voice. "Thhh . . . and
you," he said "Channa? Joat?" Patsy
came into the field of his vision.
"What's happened?"

  "He dropped something," Channa
said. "There was a white light and we
can't see."

  "Flash grenade," Simeon answered.
"Don't worryl It isn't permanent!"

  Channa gave a sobbing sigh of
relief and heard it echoed. "How
long?"

"WeU . . . how close were you?"

"Two meters to six, and looking right
at it n

  "Oh." A pause. "About a day, with
medication, I'm afraid," he said. At
least for the person who was six mews
away. About the others lam womed.
Long-term reaction was variable.

"Oh,great. Thg may come back in the
door "

  "No? they won't. I can hear their
armor moving away toward the docking
tube. Lots of fighting. Look, it's
the answer to my prayers to have
three beautiful women hugging my
shell, but could you get me
reconnected? Please? It'sim~tant."

"We can't life you back, that's for
sure,~Joat said.

  He frowned inwardly at the
shakiness in her tone, but he had no
instant remedy for her.

  "There's plenty of spare play in
the cables," Channa said. "How did
they?" Her voice trailed of
Etactfi,lly.

Simeon felt himselfcringing again

  "No, it's all right." Sure it is.
"They cut the cable guards and
thenjust pulled thejacks," he said.
Cute away my strength, my sight, my
feeling, cuttrug away me. "Problem is
. . . they're color coded. And the
receptors may be damaged."

  "I'll get them sorted out," she
said as she moved out of his severely
limited range of vision.

  How do softshells stand only one
pair of vm07$ sensors? he wondered.
Even for a few minutes, his control
had been strained to the breaking
point.

406 Ames McCoy ~ SM. Sating

  She returned with the cables, a double
armful even with ultra-high-data~ensity
opticals. Thejacks for the leads were like
a spray of fine hairs.

"Oh, oh," Simeon said.

"What do you mean, 'oh-oh,' " Channa
replied.

  "Everyone knows whet 'oh-oh' means,"
Simeon said. "It means, 'I screwed He
pooch.' Your hands . . ."

a . . . are too big," she answered. "Damn."

UI can do it,"Joat said.

"You can't see,Joat."

  "Neither can Channa. I've worked in the
dark lots of times. Had to. Got that
toolbelt with the micros from Engineering,
too."

  "They gave you one?" Simeon said,
momentarily startled.

"No."

  "Don't tell me," he said. "AI1 right.
Someone should stand guard. I can hear if
anyone's coming and give you a bearing.
Patsy?"

  "Surely will," Patsy said. She felt her
way to the doorframe.

"You keep the slack on the cables, Channa."

  "I've wanted to yank your cord for a long
time anyway, Simeon," she said with an
attempt at a "allow's humor. Simeon felt
his heart turn over as she smiled down at
him.

  "Okay, feel your way up the face ofthe
shelLJack-o All-Trades and master of
some." Her small hands slid upward over the
smooth surface to the rounded top. "Stop,"
he said to prevent her fingers from
tangling the hair fine wires protruding
from the receptor couplings.

"You be my hands, kid, I'll be your eyes,
'kay?"

She took a deep breath. "Okay, what do I
do?"

  Walk the fingers of your right hand two
paces forward, one pace to the left. Feel
that wire?"

 "Yeah."                              l

THE C:rIYWHO F OUGHT 4Y 7

"Follow it to the lead. Now, with
your left hand . . ."

  A minute later Simeon yelled
again, Ibis time a long high screech
that sounded something like Patsy as
she had at game~time moting Or the
home team.

  "Sorry, I'm sorb Simeon, I didn't
mean to hurtcha, honest!"

  "You didn't." A bugle fanfare blew
through the lounge, and segued into
a Souza march, then the Ganymede
Harp Meadows.

  "You've bolixed his oxygen feeds,"
Channa said frantically, groping
forwards.

"It's the call Ta-ea-eata-eara
eat-eeraaaa!"

"Simeonl"

"Has he gon' an' lost it?"

  Aragiz t'Varak lolled,
half~reaming. A very pleasant
daydream. He was back onhomeworld,
aterritoriallord like the old
recordings, and somehow Belazir
t'Marid was there. Aragiz had just
defeated him the old way, spec-
eacular battles amid spouting
radioactive geysers. Blasting into
the stronghold with primitive
fission weapons, hand-shaped
plutonium triggered by black powder.
Belazir groveled, begging mercy for
his line, but they were led out and
slaughtered before his eyes. Adz was
just getting into the interesting
post-victory part when the
communications of fiaerineerrupeed
him.

  "Detection . . . Outer ring
satellites. Ship signatures,
inbound."

  The bridge of the Age of Darkness
came alert. Everyone had been
waiting, nothing more to do until
they uncocked next cyc le and
escorted the transports back to
rendezvous. He had brought everyone
in, ready for departure. Now

  "Another pullet for the plucking,"
Aragiz said lazily. He felt tired.
Perhaps from that scumver~run boy,
what was his name, Juke. A nice
active squealer, not like that
unpleasant one who'd gone into fits
after a single kiss,

4" AmueMcC~ fat S. M. SO

back in the corridors. He'd kicked
that one aside with a shudder. Not
for a moment did he think that he
would catch any disease, but it had
been an unpleasant sight.

  "Action stations." The soft chimes
rang, eerie and ironic in their
gentle harmony. "Give me a reading,
and relay to flotilla command and
station-side."

  The sensor officer consulted the
machine. "Very large mass, Great
Lord. Sevenq to eighty kilotons."

  "Probably an ore carrier," the
captain said. "Useful, if not
dramatic" The Clan could always use

"Link is down," Communications said.

  "Agam?" Aragiz barked. He couldn't
decouple from the station without
clearance. That Bad Seed chugrut
Belazir had been fairly clear about
that. Also, running an intercept on
an incoming freighter could be
tricky. And his head hurt, as if
he'd been knocked unconscious and
recovered . . .

  "Check climate control," he said.
It was hot. He was sweating, and he
rarely did, even in combat practice
at Kolnar-noon temperature.

"Yes,
Great wehavelostcon~ur~hthesta~side
watch."

"~at?"Aragiz set bolt upright.
"When?"

  "Some time ago. We have been
getting repeats of the last routine
hailings.-

  That made his stomach lurch, and
suddenly he bent over the arm and
spewed.

  "Fool!" he screamed. "Alarm " He
choked on bile. What is happening to
met He tried to rise, fell back,
thrashed, and slipped over the arm
of the commander's couch into the
spilled vomit.

  Shouts of alarm rose from the crew.
The groundlink screens flickered.
One cleared to show a Kolnari face
being pounded against the pickup.

  The executive officer looked down
at the jerking form ofthe captain,
and took command.

  "Remaining crew, prepare for
boarding action. Suit up and 'I

~ECmWHOEOUGHT 409

"Cancel that," a Waved said.

  The officer hlinlced, and almost
shouted in gratitude. Pol t'Veng
trotted in, her combat armor scored
and seiD smoking in plum, Me that of
the others behind her. Still, she was
t'Veng

  "Lord Captain," he began. There was
a careful protocol about subdan ship
temtories.

  She cue him oiE "Uprising. Couldn't
make the Stark. stationer electronic
scrambled, hostile-controlled.
Emergency. Dumpyourspeemand caDup
thel~up."

  Pol glared at him, sparing the time
until he sum misted and saluted. Then
she sank into the command couch.
Inwardly, she sighed. Every time the
joss seemed to throw the Chin a
little luck, they were knocked back
to a 1~1 of homeless fugitives again.
Every system on the ship dipped, then
fumed, as the duplicate backup
computers came on-line. A Lance at
the captain's readouts gave her the
situation.

"Monitor the incoming," she said.

  "Lord captain, it is a freighter.
Should we not be assisting in getting
the stat ion back in the fist?"

  "Shut up. You awed it was a
freighter. Check thee reading again.
Now!" Her voice was a bellow, its
natural volume increased by the
suit's sys$tem to an ear shateenng
volume.

"Reading . . . Anomalous readings,
lord."

  "Letme see."
Hel~dovertoherthefeeds, unfiltered
data. "Youngfad$
tbalsnotanamatous tbaisF - I"

  She paused a second to free a
sidearm and pump a pulse of energy
into Ara~z's thrashing body. His
squealing was di~aC~R

  "Emergency decouples" she said.
Besides, she had wanted to lull him
for years. This one should have been
culled before he waded.

"We are loading fad!"

"Move."

He did. His hand swept the controls,
and the Age of

410 Amber - 7;~ ~ Sat. swing

Darkness shuddered as explosive
charges blasted it loose from the
SSS-900-C's north docking tube. Fire
blossomed out of the dockway after
them, along with steam and pieces of
cargo and humans. Kolnari as well as
scumvermin, she supposed.

  "Broadcast, override, High Clan
seek Refuge, High Clan seek Refuge,"
she snapped. "Put it on loop, open
Clan Sequent-"

  The of ficer's eyes flared wide.
Thatwas thecommand to break, run and
scatter, to approach the preset
rendezvous points only years later
and with maximum caution. Those
points were in no file, no hedron,
only in living brains and only a few
of those. The final desperation
measure to protectthe DivineSeed,
thatitmightg~wagain.

"Heart Crusher. Chindik t'Marid."

"Put it through."

"Lord Pol, you are receiving what I
do?"

"Yes."

''Data coming in," the sensor chief
said.

  Pol t'Veng looked down again. The
Fleet warships were coming up out of
subspace like tunglor broaching in
the seas of Kolnar; huge masses,
neutano signatures of enormous
powerplants, ripping through into
the fabric of reality

  "Command frequency broadcast!
Identifying following," she said.
"Fleet units emerging coordinates
follow, probables: destroyers,
six correction, six destroyers plus
three light, one heavy cruiser and
possible . . . Confirmed, three
assault carriers. All Clan ships,
report status. Lord t'Marid, report
status."

"We coordinate?" Chindick asked.

  "No. You have not the insystem
boost. Use the station for cover as
long as you can. They will not
endanger it."

"Repeat?"

"Scumvermin psychology. Go. Low
t'Marid, status."

Marid here," the familiar voice
said, harsher than

THE C3IY WHO FOUGHT 411

she could remember. "Bride decoupling.
We can cover." "No, with respect.
Yours is the more valuable Seed." E
- AL smce this ship has
t,Varak'ss~ue~gs as am "Br - , Shark
and Strayer should cover the
transports."

  A pause. "Agreed. Wait for us with
the Ancestors, Pol t'Veng."

  "Guard our Seed and Clan, Belazir
t'Marid," she replied.

  Then her attention went back to the
work at hand. A Central Worlds Space
Navy medium attack group bore down on
them, with a dozen times the
firepower the High Clan had available
here and now, given the general
pathchcbotchup. Aboutequal to the
wholecu~,entr lan armada, give or
take a dozen factors. Pol had fought
the Fleet before and had a healthy
respect for their capabilities.
Theywered~ scumvermin.

  "Helm," she went on. "Set course.
Coordinates follow." She had plugged
the suit's leads into the couch.
"Maximum boost."

  "Lord Captain," the executive
officer said. "That is a coursefor
the enemy fleet. What are we to do
there?" With one undercrewed frigate,
went without saying.

  "Do?" Pol t'Veng roared out a
single bark of laughter. "We die,
fooll"

  The commander's couch reclined,
locking into combat position. "We
will attempt to break through to the
transports," she said. "The warships
will maneuver to protect them. We
fight for maximum delay. Any
questions?"

"Command us, lord!"

"Prepare to engage."

"They are smashing us like eggs,"
Joseph said.

  Amos nodded. Without Simeon, the
stationers lost their advantage of
superior coordination. Against
professionals, he had been the only
one they had had, once the Koluari
recovered their balance.

412 Anne McCourtS M. S~?g

  "Simeon was a . . . a brave man,"
Amos said. A?'d if he were Halley a
man, a dangaeus rival, he added to
himself. "And very skillful.. I
honor his memory."Joseph nodded;
dley clasped hand to foreann.
"Farewell, my brother."

"Fardlin' touching, really," a voice
said in his ear.

  Amos leaped upright, then ducked
again frantically as a bolt
spattered metal near his face.

"Simeon?" he gasped.

  "No, the Ghost of Christmas Past,"
the brain replied. "I'm back. So,"
he went on, glee bubbling through
his voice, "are some other people."

  A halo formed behind the barricade:
a figure in green power armor of a
chunkier, more compact design than
the Kolnari suits Amos was used to.
In the background was the bridge of
a large vessel, battle-clad figures
moving about. A woman, with a man in
like equipment but different
insignia beside her.

  "Admiral Questar-Benn," the woman
said. Remarkably, she appeared to be
in late middle age but undeniably
healthy and close-knit. "Commodore
Tellin-Makie, ofthe battlecruiser
Santayana."

  "Oh, God is great, God is Merciful,
God is One," Amos murmured through
numb lips. "Bethel?"

  "Don't worry. It's a big navy. We
hit them as they were getting ready
to leave. Reports show not much
damage to the planet since you left,
if you're Benisur Ben Sierra Nueva."

  "Keep firingl" Joseph barked to the
others at the barricade. "You can
diejust as dead winning as losing."

  The commodore laughed shortly.
"Profoundly true," he said. "Simeon,
Ms. Hap, all of you, you've done a
very good job. Heroic, in fact. We
didn't expect to fold anything but
bodies and wreckage."

  "It was a close-run thing," Simeon
said feelingly. "A damned close-run
thing." Both the officers seemed to
find that amusing.

"Here's my record ofthe whole thing,
start to finish,"

LIE CrIYWl10 FouGHT 413

said Channa and the Navy officers'
eyes turned. Evidently they had video
of her. Amos hissed a low complaint,
and three more bolos joined the image
of the San~a12a's deck.

  "We've still got a lot ofthe
pirates in station," Channa said.
"Should webackoff?" She swallowed.
"Alotofour people have been hurt."

  "Negative," the admiral said,
shaking her head. "Give them time to
think, and sure as death and fate,
one ofthem will End a way to blow the
station. I've gota Marine regimental
combat team in the transports. We'll
forcedock as soon as I swat the
Kolnari warships. That battle
platform could be tricky."

  The commodore leaned out ofthe
sight picture and spoke to someone
else. "Well, then, get the destroyers
to englobe it, them"

"It's not over until it's over,"
Questar-Benn said.

"Er . . . not the Questar-Benn?"
Simeon asked, awed.

  "Not if you mean Micaya," she said
dryly. "I'm the dull sister, the
straight-leg." She glanced down at
the data flowingin from SSS-900-C.
"Bastards. Murdering sub-human mutant
some. Maybe now the inbred
penny-pinching High Families
incompetent corruptionists back at
Central will get their thumbs out of
their backsides and let us do
something about Kolnar and all its
little offshoots."

'`Ma'am," Tellin-Makie said
warningly.

  "I'm not bucking for another star,
Eddin," she said. "I can afford to
tell the truth without a bucket of
syrup on it." She looked up and out
at the stationers. "Here's what we
want you to do," she went on crisply.

  Gad, Amos thought. 7hankyou. For
victory, and for someone else to tell
him what to do for a change.
Leadership could get very tiring. He
suspected Fate was going to send more
of it his way. The prospect did not
seem as attractive as it once had.

           ~ CHAn~RTWEN~R~

  "I never understood what he
meantbefore," Simeon said, looking
out at the huge docking chamber
which held only the dead, now in
covered silent rows. "I thought I
did, but I didn't."

  The medics and their patients were
gone, to station sickbays or to the
trauma stations of the warships.
Equally silent were the motionless
Marine sentries who stood with
weapons reversed by the Navy dead.
The squad at the docking airlock
snapped to attention as each
shrouded body went by. The civilians
looking among the stationer dead
were nearly as quiet, only a few
sobbing faintly.

  "Understood what who meant?"
Channa said, blinking behind the
dark glasses that hid her bandages.
She appeared detached, almost aloof,
just like the two Navy commanders
who stood with her and the little
group of stationers.

  "Wellington, " Simeon said. " 'I
don't know what it is to lose a
bale; but certairdy nothing mn be
more painful than togam one withthe
loss ofsomanyfr~nds.'He said
thatabcerWaterloo."

  The admiral nodded. "I remember
when I found chat out," she said
very softly. "If you've got a grain
of sense, you never forgetit."

  "Ain't dlat the truHh!" Patsy Sue
Coburn said. Beside her, Florian
Gusky put his synth-splinted arm
campanionably around her shoulders.
She stiffened, then forced herself
to put up a hand and pat it gendy.
"You don't forget anything. But you
learn to live with it. C'mon, Gus. I
do believe you owe me a drink."

IME~YWHo FOUGHT 415

  Channa turned her head toward their
footsteps. "Yes," she said, with a
bitter smile. "We learn to live
withit. If this is heroism, why do I
feellike such crap?.

  "Because you're here," Questar-Benn
said. "Heroism is something somebody
else does somewhere far away. In
person, it's tragedy." Her voice
sharpened. "And it could be worse,
much worse, and would have been but
for you. We did who You are here.
And," she went on more lightly,
"you're heroes in the media, at
least. Which means, by the way, you
can write your own tickets."

"Tickets?" Simeon asked.

  "You always wanted a warship
posting, didn't you?" she said. "With
this on your record . . ."

  Simeon hesitated. Joat had been
standing by Channa's side, quip and
drawn. Now the old coldness settled
over her face, and she began to edge
away.

  Everyone's always left het; or
cheated her, or hurt her, he thought.

  "I'm not so sure," he said aloud,
"that I want a military career any
more."

  Admiral Questar-Benn nodded
vigorously. "That makes you more
qualified. They shovel glory hounds
outoftheAcademy by thejob-lot end we
have to spend years breaking them of
such fatuous nonsense."

  "Besides, I have a daughter," and
his instant and totally gratifying
reward was the dawning of hope on
Joat's face. "Thanks, though. Maybe,
someday." Some dreams don't transfer
wed into reality, he told himself. He
could see Joat's chest lifting with
the deeper breaths of self-confidence
and she didn't look about to
disappear on him.

  "And have you soured on Senalgal?"
the commodore said, turning to
Channa.

  "it's still a beautiful world," she
said, shaking her head slowly. "But
it's not my home." She reached down
toJoat beside her and, touching the
girl's face with her fu~tips,

416 ArmcCaff - ~ S.M. Soling

felt the slightest of resistance to
such fondling. Leaming to trust, and
to be a human being, was not
something that came quickly or
easily. Butyou had to begin
somewhere or you never arrived.
"Besides,Joat's my daughter, too.
And I've f riends here, the best
there are. "

  Questar-Benn threw up her hands.
"Simeon, you're going to be around a
very long time. The offer still
stands. I'll leave it on record."

  "Hey, Pops," Joat said, her voice
a little unsteady despite the cocky
tone. "I meanyou, Simeon."

  "Great Ghu! Canyou, of all people,
not think a more suitable title then
'Pops' to call me?" Simeon demanded
in a semi-indignant tone, but he
would have settled for anything of a
familial nature fromJoat.

  "Sure, but I don't think you'd like
to know 'em!" She smiled her urchin
grin in his image. "Any rate, I'm
gonna be sixteen standard in a few
years. Enlistment age. And I don't
want you blaming me for screwing up
your career plans. I . . . I'd sort
of like to keep this from happening
to somebody else, you know?" She
turned to the admiral. "Think these
brass-a . . . um, generaltype people
might have a use for me?"

  Questar-Benn shuddered. "I'm
probably perpetrating horrors on
some unsuspecting commander left to
deal with you in the future, young
lady, but yes. I'd be very surprised
if we couldn't find a use for Al of
you." She swept the present company
with her piercing gaze.

  "Then we may take you up on that
offer," Simeon said. Although he was
too enervated to enjoy thoughts of
revenge, no amount of emotional
exhaustion could remove the need to
do something about the Kolnari: next
week, maybe. "But right now, I'd
rather call in the gratitude as a
favor, if you don't mind, Admiral,"
Simeon said.

"Favor? For who?"

  "A friend," he said. A holo grew,
of a boy about Joat's age.

THE CITY WHO FOUGHT 417

  Joat started violently. USeld! They
wouldn't let me see ye, said you were
sickl"

  The figure nodded. "You knew that.
You know I've been sick a long
while,Joat," he said with the
incredible patience of the chronic
invalid. "Only it went off the
screen. I cansee this," and helooked
downathisf~ail, limp body, strapped
in an upright position on the bed,
"but I can't f eel anything or move
it, or do anything, really. "

  "Oh, damn!"Joat moved a hand
through the holo as if she could
reverse the damage somehow.

  "The navy medicos have got me
hooked up to a nervesplice monitor,
to keep my heart going and stud
Simeon himself," and now he managed
a proud grin, "is hacking into it."

  Joat blinked. "I'm sorry," she said
in a small voice. "I shouldn't've
called you a wuss. I heaved my
cookies afterwards, too. I guess it's
my fault, hey? Expecting you to do
more'n you could, should!"

  "Nab," Seld on the halo said. "I
was stupid, you know. You could do
all those things I couldn't, and I
was . . . hell,Joat, I was gonna end
up like this anyway, sooner'r later.
Grudly, but I knew it. Dad knew it,
but he sort of didn't at the same
time. I've had a lot of time to think
about it."

  Joat nodded, then narrowed her
eyes. "Those caps were the final
push, weren't they? Why'd you use
one?"

  "'Cause I was so scared of seeing
you get killed,Joat. You're my best
friend. Besides," he went on, "that
Kolnari Lord'djust belted me real
hard. Then . . . I tell you, the
ultimo grudly," and Seld rolled his
eyes in disgust, "when he kissed me,
soIwantedsomeofmyownback."

  "Yeah," and Joat nodded in
approval, "you would at thatl"

  "That's when I had a fit. Would
have happened eventually, really it
would, Jo. Dad says another ten
years, max."

Joat looked around at the Navy
officers. "I don't

418 Am~eMcC~ ~Slll. Sting

think that's good enough. Can't you
guys better the odds for 'm? Doesn't
he deserve more than ten years?" Her
hard voice cracked a little.

  Questar-Benn winced and the
commodore focused his eyes on
something else.

  "l never get used to this," the
commodore under his breath. "What's
the favor, Simeon?

  Channa's head came up sharply.
"Simeon? You've a suggestion?"

  "I do," Simeon said in such a
positive, you-should-have-
known-I-would tone of voice that he
commanded everyone's attention.
"I've been checking around and the
AlexHypatia-1033 told me about new
tricks that Dr. Kennet Uhua-So~s
been working on. No one yet is able
to regenerate the spinal nerve
sheaths. Kenny Sorg developed a
prosdhesis for himself, incidendy,
but it's
suitSeld'sparticularrequirements,
too. Kid,you'retooold to be a
shellperson: you'd never
psychologically adjust. Kenny Sorg's
condition is about dhe same as yours
and he gets aroundjust fee," and
Simeon projected a halo of a man,
moving down a corridor but too
smoothly to be "walking." He
"walked" upright, true, but his body
was framed by an slender
exo-skeleton which held him erect,
with his feet on a platform, similar
but much clicker then the station coat
disks. The base ingeniously held the
power supply and monitoring
equipment. "I'm told, Seld, dolt
you'll have use of your anns and dhe
base is sophisticated enough to do
as much f or your body as my shed
does f or me. Long as you don't try
slipping dough ventilation ducts or
falling headfirst out of services
hatches, you should last as long as
most son tsheDs, skeleton mant "

  In this instance, Simeon's rewards
were many: Joat jumping up and down,
gurgling with laughter while tears
streamed down her face, as weD as
Channa's, and Seld crowed like he'd
turned rooster. There were
expressions of intense reliefon the
faces of adrniraland the commodore.

IHE CrIYWHO F OUGHT 419

  "I do like to see alternative
solutions," Questar-Benn said, "and
we'll put a naval courier B & B ship
at the disposal of Seld and his
father for transfer to the Central
Worlds Medstation where Dr. SoIg is
currently practicing Is that the
favor you wanted, Simeon?"

"The very one," the station replied.

  "Frayus, Skelly Seld,~Joat was
saying to Seld, "I'll be right down
and we can celebrate together," and
she waved ajaunty farewell behind her
as she lilac.

  Exhausted as much by this
unexpectedly felicitous outcome as
the weight of problems still to be
resolved, Channa sank back into her
float chair.

  "One more on the up side," she
murmured to ream sure herself.
"Simeon, I'msortoftired. Could you .
. . ?"

  The others murmured apologies and
moved aside while Simeon guided her
chair away.

  "A moment then, Amos teen Sierra
Nuevo," QuestarBenn. Amos turned in
surprise, shot one anxious look at
Channa's disappearing figure but had
no choice but to
givetheAdmiralhisattention.
"Ifyou'dbegoodenoughto
accom~nytheCommodoreandmetocurquar~
rs..."

  He was as glad as they appeared to
be to leave the sad ambience of the
caIgo bay, though only one more of
his shrieking bend of Bethelites lay
there.

  The Admiral and Commodore noted his
interest in the interior of their
flagship and explained as they walked
through the maze, absendy accepting
salutes or nods as they passed
details of men and women hurrying
about dheir tasks.

  None of the Central Worlds' ships
had taken much damage though the
bathe widh the desperate Rolnari
warships had been fierce, if brief.
The guided tour was enough to make
Amos wonder anew how Guiyon had
managed to get the old Is anywhere,
much less reach SSS-900 C.

  He was sighing in semi-despair for
all the problems he now faced in
giving his poor plundered planet even

420 Ar~McC~ feast. Song

a semblance of the efficiency and
expertise Central Worlds took for
granted.

  "Ah, yes, here we are, Benisur . .
." the commodore said and Amos with
suitable humility corrected him to
"a simple Amos, sir." "We've been
receiving updates of affairs on
Bethel and have need of your
assistance."

  Five men and women were seated
about the lounge' the two youngest a
man and a women in their early
twenties, jumping to their feet at
the entrance of AdIr~l, Commodore
and their guest.

  "Here he is, gentlefolk,"
Questar-Benn, "Benisur teen Sierra
Nuevos, aka Simeon-Amos and the
putative leader of the Bethelites."

  "No, no," Amos said, shaking head
and hand to deny that title. He
didn't want that mantle laid on his
shoulders. Not now.

  "As you will, young man,"
Questar-Benn said curtly, "but you
were the leader of the dissidents as
well as the defender of Bethel and
we need your input." Then while Amos
continued to demur, she overrode him
by introducing the group. "Senior
Counsellor Agrum of SPRIM,
Representative Fusto of MM, Observer
Nilsdotter, PA's Ferryman for SPRIM
and Losh Lentel for MM. Simeon, are
you here?"

"Iam," Simeonsaid,
hisvoiceissuingfromthea~munit.

  He might have warned me, Amos
thought sourly. But perhaps swiply
done is best done. He gave them a
dignified greeting, hand to heart
and mind. The young woman, the
Observer, was both startled and
charmed.

  Suddenly he was seated and stewards
were passing among the group with
drinks and finger foods.

  Perhaps, I'm merely light-headed
with hunger, Amos thought, feeling
the better after a sip of a
sustaining hot drink and a sample
from the plate of delicacies
offered.

  "Quite simply, teen Sierra Nuevo .
. . all right then, Amos," the
senior counsellor began with no more
to-do, "we need your help to
reassure those elements

IRE OIYU1110 F OUGHT 421

of your people who managed to hide
away from the Kolnari. They are
terrified and not about to take the
word of any strangers even when we
holo-ed every surface with 'caste
ofthe Navy taking Kolnari prisoners."

  "And making them unload all the
loot they'd stored," said the
beedebrowed Representative Gusto. He
looked as if he had pemonaDy overseen
that operation and enjoyed it. He had
a narrow face and close-set eyes in
a nanow
headsetonshouldersmuchtoomusallarin
cor~

  "Some of my people survived?. Amos
tried not to wince for this only
reinforced the inevitability of his
return.

"Specific figures number the
survivors as 15,000...."

  ~p~pu~ ~fo~merp~e~ of he thought,
unable to suppress a groan.

  The Observer misinterpreted it with
a mile of great - ~1n~ and und~s~g.
"Your people have been very brave and
suffered tenibly. We of SPRIM and MM,
~ and she pointed to the other f our,
"are empowered to assist the
reconstruction of your world...."

  Amos groaned again. So much to be
done. And his people would resent the
intrusion of infidels, no matter how
well intentioned.

  "We cannot, of course, interfere
with the government of any planet,"
Agrum said, clearing his throat and
giving the woman an admonishing
glance, "but humanitarian aid
certainly falls in ourjurisdiction
and we are able to provide whatever
supplies and materials are needed on
an interim basis."

  Beetle-brows Fusto gave his
opposite number in SPRIM a dark look.
"MM requires you to survive on your
own efforts but we prevent
exploitation of minority groups for
any reason whatever. We prefer to
establish contact with a senior
government official, preferably
elected by the minority in question,
but you qualify according to
Simeon as the logical and most
accessible representative."

422 Anne McCall'S~ing

  For Mu I toys Sit Amos said, hoping
that no one, especially the
Observer, would hear him grind his
teeth.

  "Your planet got pretty well razed
to subsoil," the commodore said. "'S
going to take help to restart," and
he, in turn, gave the MM offing a
quelling look, smiling atAmos as if
to say "they mean well but they're
heavy-handed." "We had to put up a
transmitter," and he shrugged as if
such a facility was a mere nodding,
"and the engineers put up a tamp at
the space field which is littered
with a lot of hulls, some of which
could well be refitted for whatever
lunar milling would put you back
on-line there. "

  A transmitter and space facility?
Re-usable hulls for the craR the
Kolnari had fused. Amos began to
feel less despondent, though
halfofhim resisted.

  "Humanitarian aid will be
sufficient to see your people
through the on-coming winter," Agrum
went on, "using whatever shelters
your culture prefers . . ."

  "We cannot land alter-culturals on
Bethel, of course," Fusto
half-interrupted, "but orbital
staffis not considered by Central
Worlds Authority to compromise
indigenous integrity . . ."

  "Ifyou wish, you may request
additional colonials of your own
persuasion . . ." from Nilsdotter.

Amos turned f tam one speaker to the
other, half dazed.

  "Give the kid a break," Simeon said
suddenly. "Why don't you let him
read the reports so he knows what
you're talking about, huh?"

"Ofcourse," said SPRIM.

  "Our intention, I assure you,
Station Simeon," MM said
defensively.

  "Then let it be so," Admiral
Questar-Benn said, smiling
encouragingly at Amos as she handed
him several disk files and led him
to another room where he could
digest the information in private.

"Not over until it's over," the
Admiral remarked to

  rHE CITYWHO FOUGHT 4St3                       l

the commodore as they watched the sometimes contentious
delegation leave their quarters.

  "And it's never over," Tellin-Makie replied, pouring them
both snifters of brandy in the flag quarters. "I didn't have
the heart to remind them that those aren't the only bunch of
Kolnari running around loose."

  "And if you leave a pair, they breed up again," she said
wearily. aThey know that. Which is the reason I suspect we'll
have Simeon and the others on the rolls in a couple of years.
The Kolnari will be a menace as long as two ofthem are
leftalive."

"The Psych people swear they can be rehabilitated."

  "Rehabilitated to E equals M and C squared," she said, taking
a sip. "Dam' cockroaches." Another sigh. "Maybe this little
atrocity call get us some resources."

  aFor a while, until the general public become inured to these
particular atrocities," Tellin-Makie said, "then we can go
back to peeing on bonfires. It's not as if they were the only
serious problem, either."

"Wouldthatitwereso.Wouldthatitwereso,myfriend."

  She looked at the screen, which showed an exterior view of
SSS-900-C. Repair servos and suited figures were already
working on some of the more urgent damage, though it would be
a generation before the devastation was fully repaired. She
made a mental note to have Engineering help out while the task
f orce was on station here.

  "All in all, though, I'm glad we don't have they problems,
poor heroic sods," she said.

"Amen."

  "Yes, yes," Joseph said eagerly when Amos finished telling
him of the help promised by SPRIM and MM, up to and including
a Brain Planetary manager to replace Guiyon. "We must return
as quickly as possible. n

"Yes, you and Rachel must."

  "Rachel and I?"Joseph repeated, staring in sudden alarm
atAmos.

424 Ann~McC~e S.M Stirling

  "Yes, because there is much to
organize on the ground before we may
accept the beneficence . . ."

  "But it is you, Amos teen Sierra
Nuevo, who must return!"Joseph's
face was stricken. "Itisyourduty.
Our world is but a lake of mourr~ng.
They needyou. They need a hero and
their Prophet."

  Amos paced, hands behind his back,
clenching and unclenching, up and
down the floor of his room in
Simeon's quarters.

  "They need a hero, granted,
Joseph," he said, stopping in front
of his friend, "but if I am a hero,
then so are your"

  "Me?"Joseph laughed. "I am your
henchman. Your right hand, and proud
to be so. Your friend, and prouder
still of that. But you are the
prophet, the hero, the one the
people follow."

  Amos took him by the shoulders.
"You are my brother, as truly es if
the same mother bore us."

  Joseph blinked as Amos drew him
into the double cheek-touch of close
kin to emphasize his words. "And it
is you who will return while I deal
with these infidels and make certain
that what charity they would foist
on us will not weaken our people but
allow them to become strong in such
ways that no other scavenger can
ever catch us unawares." Who saves
the savedirom the savior? he thought

  "And I . . . I wonder," Amos went
on aloud. "I wonder if it is good,
that the new leader is of the old
Prophet's line may God smile on him!
Too many generations have the people
followed the old families." He
winced. "And followed them to niin."

  "You would lead us to
greatness!"Joseph said forcefinlly.
The more so if you doubted yourself
less, he added to himself "You have
shown your strengths as a self-
thinker, a defender of his planet, a
guileful strategist . . ."

  "History does not show many bad
leaders who had the same talent for
beingpeacedeadersi"

IHE CrlYWHO FOUGHT 425

  "But you are of a peaceful nature
until roused to defend what you hold
dear,"Joseph said, "even as you have
seen your dub now to protect us
against those who wish to protect
wl-Joseph turned sternly grim now.
"It is the blind f ace of Channa that
hides your way. "

  Amos looked so fiercely at him
thatJoseph turned his face away, his
shoulders sagging in acknowledgement.

  "I also cannot abandon these here
to whom use, for our very lives, owe
a debt of gratitude. If, in this one
instance, duty and honor are both
served, let me serve it." Amos sighed
deeply, torn between love ~n`1 duq.
"Are Simeon, Joat and Channa to be
merely a chapter of my life because
fourteen generations ago the Prophet
fathered my many-times great
grandfather? We saw on Bethel what
comes of that."

  "Yes, Amos, in all truth we did.
And you are right to wish to be
indebted to all," and Joseph laid a
subtle emphasis on the word, "the
stationers even though the need
foryour special role is now over."

  "Yes, that is over. In its place, I
must assume several roles and do each
well in all honor." Then he gave the
younger man a sudden smile, the sort
that had always drawn the required
response from any recipient. "And I
give Rachel the chance to restc'e
honor to her name, "

  Joseph gave him a sudden stare as
fierce as the one Amos had given him.
"What do you mean?"

  "She was, after all, trained as an
infosystems administrator. It is her
duty to assist you in calling our
people from their hiding places, to
organize the reports that I must
receive to know what is most needed.
With you two side by side that is
what you wish, is it not, Joseph?
Rachel by your side?"

  The younger man laughed and
blushed, which seemed to embarrass
him more.

  "You know it is what I wish but,
Amos' do not blame her for what she
did."

45!6 Anne ~ S.M. Stying

  "I do not," Amos lied stoutly, "but
she will need to redeem herselfin
her own eyesl"

  "Ah, yes," said Joseph with a sigh.
"She is anxious to do that. She
talks to me about it," he went on in
a softer voice. "She talks of you
but she also talks of you to me."

  "Then go to her,Joseph my brother,
my friend. If you insist on making
me wear the mantel of a leader, then
I haveissued en order to you. But
think also otwhatI have talc you,
brother hero. You return to Bethel
as my brother and my equal, not my
retainer notevenf~tamc~ymy
retainers. The time f or those petty
protocols is pass"

  "I go," Joseph said. He turned on
the threshold. "And you, too, have
earned a little happiness, I think.
God willing, may you find itl"

  Channa had insisted on returning to
her brawn's quarters, pointing out
that there was nothing else Chaundra
or his staff could do for her in
sickbay.

  "I'llbe muchhetteroffthere," she
told him, "because I know my way
around. Simeon can remind me where I
put things so I can find what I
need. Only time will make a
difference now."

  Once Simeon had angled the chair
float beside her satin-draped bed,
she lay down, not seeing, not speak-
ing, absorbing the most recent
events. Not that she wasn't
overwhelmingly relieved that Seld
had been granted a reprieve. But
there were so many decisions to be
made, hanging in the air, over her
head, where she could feel them,
even if she couldn't see them. She
could feel a trickle down her cheek
and, with a gesture she hoped masked
the real reason, she blotted the
cheek on the gray satin cover.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

  Because Simeon had picked exactly
the appropriate light tone, she gave
him a wan smile though she wonders
how he had noticed such a small
thing as a tear.

"I've none to sell," she said,
"justbits and pieces float

I)IE CIIYWlIO FOUGHT 427

ing around. Like, Happy endings such
the galactic mvJ~ It s enough to give
you a headache."

"D'you have one?" Instant concern
colored his voices

"No, no," she said, Wing her head on
the pillow.

  "Look, Channa, you wid be all
right," he said in the firm tone one
uses when one is hoping against hope
one s statement is correct.

  She nodded once sharply, minding
her temper and her manners. "Yes,
I'msure I will." Hervoice was tight.

  "I've scanned every report I could
find on this kind of temporary
blindness, Channa," he went, infusing
his voice with confidence. Ed give
anything to be able to howl you m
acorns and confortyou but all I've
got is voice con tact. Talk to me,
Chatuza. "Worse scenario and you'll
still see through my sensors.
Remember that, Channa. And I see real
good and wherever I need tol"

  She had stiffened and cut through
his opening words in a rather shrill
voice. "Simeon, spare me the . . .
Could you do that for me?"

  "Sure," he said, both surprised and
testy. "But surely you knew that.
You've been using my senses for the
last two weeksl"

  Her jaw dropped and then a
tremulous smile crossed her lips. "So
I have, haven't I?" she said in a
broken voice. After a moment's
silence, she added in a contrite
voice, "I owe you, and everyone else
an apology, for acting like a
self-pitying wussl"

  "Well, after all, you've had quite
an adjustment to make."

"But I didn't have to snarl at you."

  "Oh, that? I wouldn't know how to
answer smartly if you didn't. Don't
break that habit, Channa-mine."

Her smile was stronger. "Then I
certainly won't."

  "Because you like the challenge,
don't you? And, by and large, I'm
good company."

"And so modest."

"So witty and intelligent," he
reminded her.

45!8 ~A~C~S*M.St~g

"And so handsome."

"Do you really thinly so?"

  "Oh yes," she said, "1 especially
like your dueling scar, that's a
nice touch."

  "~lank you," he said, gratified.
You're the first person who's ever
mentioned it. I've been waiting for
years for someone to ask about it.
Sometimes people think it's dirt on
the projecoorlens."

She grinned. "It goes wed with the
baseball cap."

He paused a moments unsure, "Um . .
."

  "No, really," she assured him,
"That projection's a perfect
portrait of your personality. It's
not based on a chromosomal
extrapolation, is it?"

  "Naw," he said, putting a grin in
his voice. "It's me as I want to be.
I'd have hated itifan extrap of me
came out with a receding chin and a
big nose, so I never tried to find
out. I'm Simeon, the self~reated!"

"Wise," she agreed, "very wise."

  The door opened end Amos stood on
the threshold. "Channel" he cried
outin a passionate voice.

  She sat bolt upright on the bed,
her lips parted in surprise. "I
thought you'dleft."

 He rushed to her side and drew her
into his arms. How can I leave you
We this?" he said, stroking her
hair.

  Simeon cursed under his breath.
Leave it to Amos to undo all his
hard work-out when law gd her Beard up
and back
tosorru~ngnearh~rnormal forher frame
oSmind.

  Channa put up a hand, ibundAmos'
face and leaned forward to kiss him,
smiling because she had caught the
corner of his mouth and was working
her way into a position that
satisfied her.

  When the long kiss ended, Amos said
with a sigh, "You want me!"

  No,you ass! She wards a double malt
arula ticket to ~ in the
lluer~y-First." Would that Ihad
hands, Oh Amos teen Sierra Nashua,
to cloutyou lip alongside the head
with

Channa didn't answer but held her
head as though

 IMEC3IYWHO FouGHT 429                          l

looking at Amos through her bandages. Amos smiled at her, the
smile of a man who believes he can accomplish anything, a
smile that proclaimed the bearer to be the recipient of a
miracle.

"I came to ask you to come with me," he said, laughing.

  "You did?" she said in a dreamy tone. They kissed again, more
deeply. Churns burrowed deeper into his embrace, sighing like
someone relieved of a pain they did not know they suffered.

"I love you, Channa," he said.

"I love you, Simeon," she murmured.

  Amos stiffened. Channa raised her blind face to his and
whispered huskily again. "I love you."

  He released her and moved back. She hesitated and turned her
head from side to side. "Amos? What is it? Is someone here?"

"Yes," he said stiffly, "someone who comes between us. "

  Puzzled, Channa reached out blindly widh one hand, the other
resting on Amos's chest. "There's no one here but us. What are
you talking about?"

  "Simeon," he said the name with a hiss. "For whom you
havejust declared your love."

  Her face altered abruptly fromjoy to chagrin " I . . . I .
. . " she began in confusion..

  "Agendeman of the Sierra Nueva does not intrude. I am in the
way," Amos said, flinging offher hands and jumping to his
feet. "I win leave you alone together." And he was gone.

  Channa swung her legs from the bed and lunged after him. She
moved with unexpected speed and before Simeon could warn her,
she crashed into the wan, just beside the door. Weeping, she
stepped to the right point and the door opened for her.

  "Amos! Waitl" she shouted and this time Simeon opened the
outside door but she paused on the threshold to get her
bearings and heard, all too clearly, the elevator's closing.

430 AnneMcCo~ PRISM. Sit

  "Amosl Don't got" she cried, and
heard it engage. She stood leaning
her head against the metal, sobbing
gently, tears soaking the adhesive
synthetic of her bandages.

  Inside the descending lift, Amos
leaned his head against the wall,
Channa's desperate voice echoing in
his mind. Almost, but not quite
louder than her whisper "I love you,
Simeon."

"Where do think you're going?"
Simeon asked him.

  He straightened and gritted his
teeth. "To the docks," he said
crisply. "I must return to Bethel!"

  Simeon gave a dramatic sigh. "And
who's to go between Bethel and SPRIM
and MM? Who saves the saved from the
savior?"

  Amos was aghast at hearing his own
thoughts come back at him from
Simeon.

"Someone has to handle them," Simeon
continued.

"Rachel can. She's a trained
infosystems spe . . ."

  "Rachel!" Simeon roared in
surprise. "She wouldn't know how to
handle them. They'd twist her up
into little knots. Not that she
isn't twisted right now."

"They say they cannotinterfere . .
."

  "They say, they say," Simeon
chanted back at him. "Use your wits,
Amos, and don't suggestJoseph. He's
the guy you need on the planet,
coaxing your people out of whatever
lairs they've hidden in. No, you're
the only one who can
bejohnny-on-the-spot herel"

  "What I do now is my business,"
Amos said in a snarling tone. "You
have no right to interfere either .
. ." Only then did Amos notice that
the elevator had stopped moving. He
crossed his arms. "So, do you mean
to hold me prisoner here
untilJoseph, Rachel and the others
have left?"

  "Emotionally you've been a
prisoner since you got here. Why do
think I went to so much trouble to
get SPRIM and MM involved with
Bethel?"

"You did. But theAdmim1 and the
Commodore . . ."

THE CITY WHO FOUGHT 431

  "Listened to what I had to tell
them, which is more than you ever do.
You've got to be here . . ."

  Outrage, indignation, disgust and
fury raced unchecked across Amos'
face. "So? You admitit."

"Huh?"

  "You admit that you only wish to
make of me a sex toy," Amos cried
passionately, "a surrogate for
yourself with Channa!"

  "I what?" Simeon's voice
reverberated in the confines of the
small chamber. "You are bughouse!
Which is probably why it's such an
interesting idea," he added in a
reasonable, half-amused tone, "but
you said it, I didn't. However, it's
not on lay behalf you've got to be
here. It's Channa's. She really is in
love with you, Amos. Can't you get
that through your arrogant
to-the-manor-born head?"

  "Loves me? Loves me? Then why does
she embrace me and say, I love,yo'4,
S~meon?"

  "And, of course, she hasn't been
calling you SimeonAmos for the
pastintense two weeks, has she?"

  "Banchut!" Amos smacked his
forehead with the flat of his palm,
his expression one of utter dismay.

  "It sure wasn't me, or my holo, or
even the shell of me she was
kissingjust now! Cut her a little
slack. She's been bra', dammit! She's
scared, she's exhausted, she's under
pressure. Don't cut the heart out of
her for a slip ofthe lip!"

Aslip?"

"A slip! You ego-centric rag-head
selfish bastard!"

  "But you love her, too!" Amos
brandished his. fist, glaring about
him to f aid a target f or his f
rustration and wrath

  "Yes, I love her.Justas much as you
do. No, probably a lot more. And yes,
she's in love with me a little, and
I treasure that.
ButIcan'ttouchher,Amos. Ican'tholdher
no matter how much I would like to.
What are you worryingabout?"

"That she dreams of you and wonders
what it would

432 Am~eMcGo - HSM.Stirling

be like to be inyour arms." In the
confines ofthe elevator, Amos heard
the sound of his angryjealous words
echo back at him. "I think that she
would like to close her eyes and
hear your voice whisper to her as I
make love to her. I will notbe that
fantasy for her, norforyou."

  "Well, I'll tell you wharf think.
I think that you are a dirty-minded,
fat-headed, parochial, small-minded,
jealous hunk of pig fat. Just lee me
give you a taste of what she's going
through and you stalking offend
leaving her alone withit."

  Simeon turned off the lights in
the elevator. Amos was plunged into
pitch blackness; just long enough to
reach the stage of imagining lights
and colors to console himself. The
human eye is not meant for complete
darkness. Even on an overcast night
with eyes closed there is some
ambient light.

The darkness and motion were
disorienting.

And frightening, the Bethelite
admitted to himself.

  "Stop it." Amos said calmly, but
firmly. Simeon didn't answer. "Stop
it, I said," a trace of unease
creepinginto his voice. An accent,
who would doubt his wool?

Simeon brought the elevator to a
halt.

"It's unpleasant, isn'tit?" Simeon
asked quietly.

  "Yes," Amos said shordy, sullenly.
"Please, would you turn on the
lights?"

  "Channa can't," Simeon observed.
"It's possible they won't come back
on and she'll have to get a
prostheses, one of those devices
they set into your face. Pup, things
could look like this to her
forever."

  "What do you want me to do?" Amos
demanded. "I would give her my sight
if I could."

  "That's a safe offer," Simeon
observed contemptuously, "she
wouldn't accept such a sacrifice
even if it was needed."

  "Then what would you have me do?"
Amos was nearly shouting now,
flapping his arms hard against his
sides.

THE Clip FOUGHT 433

  "Something a lot easier. Hold her.
Just put your arms around her and
hold her close. You softshells need
that. I never had it so I don't miss
it."

Amos shifted position, silent

  "I would hock my shell if I
couldphysically comfort her. But I
can't. I can make sure she gets what
she needs from the one person she'll
accept it from. And let me tell you
something, lordling, even to comfort
Channa, I wouldn't want to stay a
softshell. You're cripples next to
usl You realize that? We have senses,
abilities, that you can't even begin
to imagine. But yes, in this one
area, I amjealous of you. Despite
that, I arranged . . . yes, noble
being that I am . . . arranged for
you to have to stay on this station
to handle all the details the
Bethelite leader will have. So that
you could also comfort the woman we
both love. There I've said it aloud!

  "I've done all I can, Amos," and
now Simeon's voice was tinged with a
helpless note. "I've been with her
since she was brought to the hospital
I haven't left her. When she wakes
up, I wish her good morning and mine
is the last voice she hears at night.
I'm the one who guides her safely
across a room. I'm the one who tells
her that what she's looking for is a
little to the right. I'm the one who
makes sure she gets her meals. I've
put up with her bouts of temper and
self-pity and I've talked her through
her momentsofpanic I'm with her
constantly. Butyouwalkinto the
room at long last I might add and
it's like I've never existed. Did you
see her? She lit up like a star going
nova. Andyou have the gall to walk
out on her! "

  Simeon turned the lights back on
and Amos squinted briefly as his
vision adjusted.

  The door opened and Channa raised
her head, halfdisbelieving she heard
the sound of his step, the eagerness
with which he approached her.

  "Oh, Amos!" She reached out her
arms tentatively toward him.

434 ArmeMcCaff~ f~Shl.S - ng

  "Ah, Channa," and Amos took her
hands and pulled her into the circle
of his arms. This only I May do, he
thought possessively, proudly and
yet, because of that briefdarkness,
sadly, too, because Simeon would
never have this.

  "I'm sorry. Forgive me," he
whispered, stroking her hair.

  Channa sobbed once and tried to
apologize, the words stumbling over
his, but he stopped her with a kiss.

  Simeon watched them enter the
lounge, but decided not to follow
them. This is going to be tough
enough, he thought, I thug ru ~ up
to it gradually. But shan't it a
great game Iplayed ~

  "Before . . . I came to tell you
that I muse stay longer on the
station than we had thought,. Amos
said. "When I must return to Bethel
. . ."

  "Stay?" and the gladness in her
face and voice reassured Amos as no
argument from Simeon ever would, how
much Channa did indeed love him.

  "Stay . . . for now," he said,
trailing caressing fingers around
her lovely face. This, too, I may do
that he carmot.

  "For now?" Then a return of her
deep and genuine fear caught at his
heart.

  "I must return to Bethel," he said
slowly. "I have obligations there."

  "I have them here. I can't leave
Simeon orJoat," Channa said
piteously.

  And Amos knew that she also meant
these quarters which she knew even
in her blindness, and this station
which was surely now as much her
heart's home as Bethel was his.

  "Neither can I leave my people, my
planet. Nor do I ask such sacrifice
of you," he said, using the force of
his person~liq to reassure her. He
smiled down at her, thumbs caressing
the velvety skin of her temples. She
seamed his
facewithherfu~tipsandsmiledinrespon
se.

THE C3IYWHO FOUGHT 435

  "But several times in every year, I
must return to this station on the
business of my people and my world,"
he went on. "That, I may in all
conscience do. n A wry shrug. "If my
people cannot do without their
prophet now and then, then I will not
have taught them welt Perhaps the day
will come when they need no man to
stand between them and God, and I
will be free to raise my horses and
roses in peace."

  Her face lit. "And I could visit
sometimes, couldn't I?" she murmured.

  "WithJoat," Amos said, and then in
a far more persuasive and loving
tone, "although it is not well for a
child to be alone, without brothers
and sisters . . ."

  "Yes," she laughed as she sensed
the change in his stance, falling
formally to one knee but before he
would speak. She held him upright
with her hands.

  "In a matter such as dais, I should
ask penmssion of your father," Amos
said, rising and drawing her close.
"But Simeon will do.

  She fisted him lighdy under the
short ribs "I'll speak to Simeon on
my own behalf."

  "We will then both address Simeon
the Father. But," Amos said in her
ear, after a time. "There is one
condition."

"What?"

  "You must never can me Simeon
again." She drew her head back and
nodded solemnly. He touched her chin
gendy. "You may, however, " he went
on, wishing f or once dolt Simeon ups
listening, "call me Persephone."

             ~ E~JI~OGUE

  The chills were less now, and the
survivors recovering, although
quarter of the crew had died of the
fever and more gone mad.

  Belazir t'Marid clenched his
rattling teeth against a paroxysm
as he la, in the darkened bridge,
while the Dreaded BrideJled outward a/1
alone.

"Someday, "he whispered.

               THE END
                  
  ME ~0 SANG IS NOT
AIIINEI

Anne McCaffrey,
with Margaret Ball,
Mercedes Lackey,
and S.M. Stirling,
explores the
universe she
created with her
ground-breaking
novel, The Ship Who
Sang

O PA~RSHn by Anne McC~ & i_
i~fi

"iPartherS~1 captures the spirit
of 7be Sap Leo Sang to a
surprising degree . . . a single,
solid pid full of creative
nastiness and the sort of
egocentric villains you Iwe to
hate." Carolyn Cushman, focus

                 0-
                 67
                 1-
                 72
                 10
                 9-
                 7~
                 33
                 6
                 pa
                 ge
                 s.
                 S5
                 99
0 1~; SIDP GINO SCAN by Anne
Hey & ME if

Tia, a bright and spunky
seven-year-old accompanying her
exoarchaeologist parents on a dig
b afflicted by a paralyzing ailen
virus. Tia won t be satisfied to
glide thmugh life like a ghost in
a machine. i.ike her predecessor
Helva, 7be Sap libo Sang, she
would rather strap on a spaceshp
~671-72129-1 320
pages. S599

O 1~B CrrY WHO SLOUGH iby An" McCa~
& S.M. S - iiing Simeon was the
"brain" running a peaceful space
station but when the invaders
arrived, his onto hope of
protecting his crew and himself
was to become 7be Car Lao
Aougb,

           0471-721
           66-6 ~
           432 pages ~
           Hardcover ~
           S19 00
And don't miss The Planet
Pirates series:
O SASSli - Y by Anne McCauley &
ieltcabed' Moon

0-671-69863-x. S599
G 1HL DCAlH OP SLB8P by Anne
McCauley & Jody Lynn iNye
0~71~9884-2. t599
O GENERATION ~VARIUORS by A e
McC By & Eilz~ Moon

047t-72041-4. S495

Above three titles are
available together as one huge
trade paperback.
Such a dealt
O THE PilANEI Is
72187-g ~ 512 00
864 judges

fry '/I''i/~/d ,,' Il,''r 6t,,1
/Jr,6~`rr. rl ,,, `/t.
~/~'`~,N/.rIN' `' Ott ,,, [lash
~ ~rn'r,divr/6r

ourrprirr b~ i~rN/~NVr.~ /~V
tlJ./'17 Ihr/4rI1.N)~n/~l~..U
/~/~i

Imp.

.~:

I Iratr robbed ~ duck `,r nuns odor
i', Alar ~rne~uu. .d s

            PRAISE POR
       LOIS MCMASTER BEHOLD
       What the critics say:
  The Warrior's Apprentice: "Now
here's a fun romp
through the spaceways not so much a
space opera as
  space ballet.... it has all the
'right stuff.' A lot of
 thought and thoughtfulness stand
behind the all-too
 human characters. Enjoy this one,
and look forward to
the next."  Dean Lambe, SF Reviews

"The pace is breathless, the
characterization thoughtful and
emotionally powerful, and the
author's narrative technique and
command of language compelling.
Highly recommended."  Booklist

Brothers in Arms "... she gives it
a geniune depth of character, while
reveling in the wild turnings of
her tale.... Bujold is as audacious
as her favorite hero, and as
brilliantly (if sneakily)
successful."  Locus

"Miles Vorkosigan is such a great
character that 1' read anything
Lois wants to write about him.... a
book to re-read on cold rainy
days." Robert Coulson, Comics
Buyer's Guide

Borders of Infinity: "Bujold's
series hero Miles Vorkosigan may be
a lord by birth and an admiral by
rank, but a bone disease that has
left him hobbled and in frequent
pain has sensitized him to the
suffering of outcasts in his very
hierarchical era.... Playing off
Miles's reserve and cleverness,
Bujold draws outrageous and
outlandish foils to color her
high-minded adventures."
 Publishers Weekly

Falling Free: "In Falling Free Lois
McMaster Bujold has written her
fourth straight superb novel....
How to break down a talent like
Bujold's into analyzable
components? Best not to try. Best
to say 'Read, or you will be
missing something
extraordinary.'" Roland Green,
Chicago Su''-Ti~s?es

The Vor Game: "The chronicles of
Miles Vorkosigan are far too witty
to be literary junk food, but they
rouse the kind of craving that
makes popcorn magically van

 ish during a double feature." Faren Miller, Locus

          MORE PRAISE FOR
       LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD
       What the readers say.

"My copy of Shards of Honor is
falling apart I've reread it so
often.... I'll read whatever you
write. You've certainly proved
yourself a grand storyteller."

 Liesl Kolbe, Colorado Springs, CO

"I experience the stories of Miles
Vorkosigan as almost viscerally
uplifting.... But certainly, even
the weightiest theme would have
less impact than a cinder on snow
were it not for a rousing good
story, and good storytelling with
it. This is the second thing I want
to thank you for.... I suppose if
you boiled down all I've said to
its simplest expression, it would
be that I immensely enjoy and
admire your work. I submit that, as
literature, your work raises the
overall level of the science
fiction genre, and spiritually,
your work cannot avoid positively
influencing all who read it."

 Glen Stonebraker, Gaithersburg,
MD

"'The Mountains of Mourning' lin
Borders of IHfini~l was one of the
best-crafted, and simply best.
works I'd ever read. When I
finished it, I immediately fumed
back to the beginning and read it
again, and I can't remember the
last time I did that."  Betsy
Bizat, Lisle, IL

"I can only hope that you will
continue to write, so that I can
continue to read (and of course
buy) your books, for they make me
laugh and cry and think ...

 rare indeed." Steven Knott, Major, USAF

What do you say?

Send me these books!

Shards Of Honor 72087-2 14.q9
Tl e Warrior's AppreHrice 72066-X $4.50
Eli an Of Athos 65604-X $4.99
Falling Free 65 ~g8-g $4.99
Brothers in Ar'H5 697994 S4.99
Borders of IHfiHity 6g84 t-g S4.99 _
The Vor GaHHe 720i4-7 S4.99
Barrayar 72083-X $4.9g _
The Spirit Rim (hardcover) 72 142-9 $ ~ 7.00
The Spirit Ring (paperback) 72 ~ 88-7 $s.ss _
Mirror Dance (hardcover) (available March
igg4)
722 t0-7 52 1.00
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Only from Bacn Books

If these books are not available at your local
bookstore. just checir your choices above. fill out this
coupon arid scHd a cheek or HHOHCy oricr for the corer
price to Bacn Books. Dcpt. BA' P.O. Box ~403.
Rh~crddlc. NY `047~.

NAME:

ADDRESS
I have enclosed a check or money
order in the amount
c.`f $

                ,
        BUG YOUR BOOKSTORE

We've said that a sure-fire way to improve the selection of
SF at your local store was to communicate with that store.
To let the manager and salespeople know when they weren't
stocking a book or author that you wanted. To special order
that book through the bookstore, rather than order it
directly from the publisher. In order to encourage you to
think about these things (and to satisfy our own
curiosity), we asked you to send us a list of your five
best and five worst reads of the past year. And hundreds of
you responded.

So we got to thinking, too. Below you will find what we
think are our top fifteen reads on our current list (in
alphabetical order by author). If your bookstore doesn't
stock them, it should. So bug your bookstore. You'll get a
better selection of SF to choose from, and your store will
have improved sales. To sweeten the deal, if you send us a
copy of your special order form and the book or books
ordered circled on the coupon below, we'll send you a free
poster!

I THE WARRENS Aw~Nnce, Lois McMaster Bujold, 0471 -72066
X, $4.50
 BARRAYAR, Lois McMaster Bujold, 0-671-72083-X, S4.99
 THE PALADIN, C.J. Chenyh, 0-671-65417-9, $4.99
 HAMMER s SLAMMERS, David Drake, 0-671-69867-2, S4.95
 STARuNER, David Drake, 0-671-72121-6, S5.99
 METHUSELAH s CHILDREN, Robert A. Heinlein,
 0-67145597-3, S3.50
 REVOLT IN 2100, Robert A. Heinlein, 0-671-65589-2,
 S4.99
 BARDIC VOICES: THE L\RK AND THE WREN, Mercedes Lackey,
 0-671-72099-6, S5.99
 THE SHIP WHO SEARCHED, Anne McCaffrey & Mercedes
 Lackey,
 0-671-72129-1, S5.99
 SASSINAK, Anne McCafirey & Elizabeth Moon, 0471
 49863-X, S5.99
 THE DEEDoFPAKsENARR'oN, Elizabeth Moon,0-671 721044,
 S15.00
 THE MAN-KzlN WARS, created by Larry Niven,
 0-671-72076-7, S5.99
 MAN KZIN WARS 11 created by Larry Niven, 0-671 72036-8,
 S4.99
 MAN-KzlN WARS lli, created by Larry Niven, 0-671
 72008-2, S4.99
 PRINCE OF MERCENARIES, Jerry Pournelle, 0-671-69811-7,
 $4.95

Fur your Nate msrat. fill out tab coupon, attach special order lorry
and send to Haen Sooks, Dop. By, F.O. fief 1403, Fherdele, Nit 10471.

NAME: ADDRESS:

