Trickster

'I don't care about him,' Bedj-ka said. His voice shook. 'He isn't really my father. He didn't raise me.'

'That's right. And your mother loves you very much, no matter what anyone might say.' Kendi patted Bedj- ka's shoulder. 'She'll get that cold fixed right up, too. I'll even bet she won't make you do what I had to do when I got sick on the frog farm where I was a slave.'

Bedj-ka looked at him, interested despite himself. 'You were a slave on a frog farm?'

'Sure was. Anyway, this one species of frog secreted a substance that was refined into an anti-viral drug. We slaves couldn't refine anything, of course, so when we got sick, we only had one choice.'

'What was that?'

Kendi kept an absolutely straight face. 'We licked the frogs.'

'Blech! You did not!'

'Absolute truth,' Kendi said.

'That's disgusting!' Bedj-ka said just as Ben walked into the medical bay.

'What is?' he asked.

'Kendi was telling me about how he got sick when he was a slave,' Bedj-ka said cheerfully.

Ben groaned. 'He's not telling that atrocious frog-licking story, is he? It's completely apocryphal, you know.'

'Hey!' Kendi said.

'What's 'apocryphal'?' Bedj-ka asked.

'Look it up,' Ben said with a smile.

'Before you destroy the rest of my stories,' Kendi growled, 'do tell me you copied the logarithms into keys.'

'Just finished.'

'Did you trace the line from Roon's home office?'

'Gretchen did. And we got lucky — there's a hotel right up the street from his house. Gretchen's already got a room.'

'Then let's go down there and get to work. Lucia should be back right soon with that clunker ship, and we have a lot to do.'

Bejd-ka sneezed hard.

'But first,' Kendi said, 'we better get Harenn down here. Before that… thing happens.'

'What thing?' Bedj-ka said.

'I don't want to worry you,' Kendi said seriously.

'Oh, god,' Ben muttered.

'Worry me about what?'

'Well… back on the farm there was this one slave I used to work with who sneezed so hard, a big chunk of brain flew straight out of his nose. It landed in a pond and the frogs ate it. I had to cut them open to get it back.'

'Disgusting!' Bedj-ka howled happily.

'You're going to do him more damage than the Enclave,' Ben said.

Keith bent his head and Dreamer Roon himself dropped the Beta medallion around his neck. Dreamer Roon boomed, 'All praise the Dream!'

'All praise the Dream,' shouted everyone. Martina mouthed the words but didn't say them. Keith's face beamed with pride, an expression shared by the six other new Betas on the stage. Martina and the other Alphas, along with their Deltas, knelt on the tiered floor, exactly as they had done the first day Dreamer Roon had addressed them.

She put the thought on her mental list of Confessions- I doubted Dreamer Roon's teachings. Impure! — and went back to telling herself it wasn't real. She could get out of here. She would get out of here, and she would take Keith with her. A while ago-Martina couldn't measure time in days or hours anymore-she would have thought this impossible, but Martina now had something that might allow her to pull it off.

Martina had a keycard.

She surreptitiously touched the palm of her left glove. The little square of plastic was still there. She had spotted it on the floor on her way to this very ceremony. Most slaves learned a certain amount of sleight-of-hand in order to pilfer small treats or hide forbidden objects, and Martina was no exception. With a false grunt of annoyance, she had bent over to scoop the object up, then told her questioning Delta that her slipper hadn't been unfastened after all, so sorry for holding up the group. Her yellow robe had no pockets, but she had folded her hands together inside her sleeves and worked the little card into her glove for safekeeping.

Martina was dying to examine the key more closely. Did it work solo? Or did it work in conjunction with a print or retina scan? No, it had to work solo. She had seen the Deltas use keycards to access computer terminals and open doors, and they hadn't used any other scanners. Their prints, after all, were covered with gloves, and retina scans would take too much time for daily tasks like opening doors, especially since the Deltas all wore hoods or wimples that half-hid their eyes and would get in the way of a scanner. A security weakness, but a necessary one-the Deltas couldn't risk one of the Alphas touching them skin-to-skin by accident and learning they weren't Silent. This was Martina's chance, she knew it. The only problem was figuring out how best to use it.

'You are closer than ever to touching the Dream without the taint of drugs,' Roon was saying on the stage. 'And let your progress serve as an example to your former compatriots. I know it gets difficult, dear Alphas, but believe me when I tell you that it will one day be worth every moment of discomfort and tribulation. I enter the Dream whenever I wish, with no trancing, no drugs, and no time limits. You can be free, as I am. As these new Betas are close to becoming. As you will be.'

Martina tried not to shift. Her knees ached, though not as badly as they had on that first day. Hours spent kneeling had hardened her to that simple discomfort. What she wanted more than anything was to grab Keith's hand and bolt for the door, and the thought filled her with unbearable restlessness. She called upon years of meditation exercises to slow her breathing and bring a measure of calm. At least she didn't have to keep her eyes down anymore. Roon had decided that the Alphas were no longer too impure to gaze upon his face.

'For the immediate future, Betas, you will continue to labor side-by-side with your former Alpha compatriots,' Roon continued. 'But your bodies are more pure, so you will receive even better food and more sleep.'

'Soon we will begin the next stage of your training,' Roon said. 'Some of you will be selected to raise the next generation of Silent. You will be paired with an appropriate genetic match, though there will be no impure sex. Insemination will be artificial. However, a selected few Alphas, women who are particularly impure, will be partnered with me so that my body can show yours the way.'

A small ripple of emotion moved through the kneeling Alphas, quickly silenced by the Deltas. Martina stared, and her stomach wrenched itself into a knot. Was she hearing right? Either she was going to be impregnated with some stranger's child or Roon was going to rape her. Anger and fear fought for ascendency inside her.

Roon continued speaking, haranguing and motivating. The new Betas listened raptly. Martina snuck looks at remaining Alphas and guessed by their expressions and body language that despite Roon's little bombshell, about two-thirds of them were already willing followers of Roon's project and would strive to become Betas themselves. The remaining third were… less than enthusiastic. She made a mental note of these Alphas as potential allies.

After Roon's speech ended, he vanished out a side door. Alphas and Betas stood, stretched, and were allowed to mingle for a time, presumably so the Alphas could bask in the Betas' presence while the Deltas looked on. A small table to one side held munching food, though it was all finger vegetables and sugarless gelatin salad. Party voices murmured and swirled around the room. Martina managed to worm her way up to Keith and draw him aside.

'Congratulations,' she said.

'Thanks,' he beamed. 'I hope you get here soon. I feel freer of N-waves already. And soon we'll be parents!'

Martina ignored the last comment and lowered her voice. 'Remember how we talked about… going elsewhere?'

'You mean… not here?'

Martina nodded. They both had to chose their words carefully, keep their meaning vague in case the computer in their wristbands interpreted their conversation as seditious.

'Why would I want to do that?' Keith said, clearly puzzled.