Velmeran started and stared accusingly at Valthyrra. Everyone present knew from experience that she could not only change the subject but lead it on a merry chase before someone remembered what they were supposed to be talking about. Valthyrra recognized that stare and looked away quickly.
“Now, it seems to me that we were discussing the problem of one very large ship,” he began, sitting back in his chair. “I have now either tried or rejected every idea I can think of — “
“Just how certain are you of that?” Consherra insisted suddenly, although she was not talking to Velmeran but to Valthyrra. “Have you actually discussed the matter with Commander Tryn?”
There was a long moment of silence as everyone, including Lenna, regarded her with a mixture of surprise and mystification.
“No, I did not,” Valthyrra answered. “It is a possibility, but some other crewmember of the Kalvyn, one of Tryn’s offspring, could have easily been your father.”
“That is true, of course,” Consherra agreed softly, then noticed that Velmeran was watching her with an expression of forced patience. “Sorry.”
“I quite forgot what I was saying.”
“You have tried everything,” Lenna reminded him.
“Ah, yes.” He shrugged. “The answer is simple. If — “
“But how can that be?” Consherra interrupted again. “You said that the Dvonnan Kelvessan have been around for about ninety years, and I am going on seventy. I doubt that Commander Tryn had any children old enough to have been my father.”
“Mutant children, perhaps,” Valthyrra answered. “He could have had nonmutant children from earlier matings who share his ability to sire mutants.”
“Oh.” Consherra was utterly disappointed, to everyone’s surprise.
“As you were saying,” Mayelna prompted.
Velmeran looked up and hastily closed his mouth, which was hanging open. “Yes, I was…”
“But you obviously think so,” Consherra insisted.
“Yes, I do,” Valthyrra answered. “Are you not aware of how much you look and act like Velmeran? If you were just a bit taller, you could almost pass for Daelyn.”
Consherra considered that, felt her small nose, and shrugged. “I guess so. And he did remember me.”
“But is that any real trick in a race that has selective recall?” Lenna asked. “And besides that, you all look alike to me.”
“Actually, you do have a point,” Consherra admitted with disappointment.
“Bad?” Consherra regarded him in complete surprise. “Nothing could make me happier.”
The entire group sat in silence for a long, expectant moment as Velmeran glanced from one to the other. At last he sighed heavily and sat back in his chair. “Now, if…”
“You will ask Tryn and Schayressa about it, though?”
“As soon as this is over,” Valthyrra promised, then turned to look at Velmeran, who sat with his arms crossed, staring at the ceiling. “Well, what are you waiting for?”
“I am going inside the Challenger and reprogram her so that she cannot shield effectively,” he said quickly, and waited. This time there was no question that he had everyone’s complete attention — everyone except Lenna, who was so impressed that she again propped up her head and closed her eyes. Valthyrra was speechless, and Consherra appeared likely to explode as soon as she could collect her wits and find her tongue. And yet Mayelna, the source of many past arguments, was not in the least bit surprised.
“There is no way to destroy the Challenger from the outside,” he continued. “We have proven that. The only solution is to do something from the inside so that she can no longer assemble her complete power grid. Consherra, that is your department. What would you do if you had access to the Challenger’s primary programming?”
Consherra was caught off guard by that question; whether he intended that particular result, it had the effect of putting out her fuse before she reached an explosive level. She was about the most gifted programmer in the fleet, with access to the secrets of Valthyrra’s construction. Certainly no one in the Union knew as much about advanced sentient systems.
“Well, there are any number of bugs you can throw into the system,” she answered uncertainly. “Under the circumstances, the best would be to insert a loop that throws power sources back out of the grid as others come on line.”
“But to do anything effective, you have to get free access to the Challenger’s basic programming,” Valthyrra protested. “You know yourself the types of safeguards they are going to have on that system. It probably takes hours to get inside even when you know the codes and passes.”
“True,” Velmeran agreed. “But what if you could bypass the guards and go directly into the system? I can get instant control of the Challenger.”
“Nice trick! How do you think…” Valthyrra’s voice faded suddenly, and her lenses assumed a distant stare. Then, as everyone watched expectantly, she began to recite.
“There once was an entrepreneur
Auditioning girls for his tour.
One girl showed her stuff
But it wasn’t enough.
So he promptly proceeded to… to…”
She seemed almost to blink, then turned her camera pod to look at Velmeran. “And so you get control of the Challenger. What then?”
“Then I order her to open her programming from the inside,” he explained.
“Simple enough,” Valthyrra agreed. “I should be ashamed of myself for always underestimating you.”
“So you should.”
“Where did you come up with that, anyway?”
“Lenna.”
“Yes, I recognize the material.” She turned to Mayelna. “Yes, he really can do it.”
“I have already learned from experience that he can and will do what he says,” Mayelna replied. “So, you create a diversion, land on the Challenger’s hull, and enter through a convenient airlock. I suppose that you can force one without being detected?”
“Easily,” he assured her.
“Then you juggle her programming and get back out again?”
“Preferably in a hurry,” Velmeran added. “We will have to arrange our timing so that Valthyrra will attack as soon as possible after the tampering. That way, even if they know what we did, they would not have time to correct the damage.”
“Wait a moment,” Consherra interrupted. “You can bet that Marenna Challenger has the ability to review her own programming. That is how our own ships develop personalities; they are continually altering and expanding their personalities.”
“Yes, but there must be a way to hide the alteration,” Velmeran insisted.
“Of course. You can insert the alteration in an invisible loop. The information inside such a loop instructs her to be blind to the loop itself while incorporating the alterations into the master program. It is by no means foolproof. Once she realizes that she cannot raise the grid as she should, she will go back in to look for the problem. Still, there will be an interval between the time she recognizes the trouble and is able to correct it. That will be Valthyrra’s one chance to destroy her.”
Velmeran nodded. “I knew that. I was hoping that you would be able to insert an invisible loop that she would find particularly difficult to detect and delete.”
“Well, yes, I could,” Consherra agreed. Then she realized what he had in mind. “Now, wait a minute! That is not my line of work.”
“We all have to start somewhere,” Velmeran said.
“But how do you plan to get me there?” she protested weakly.
