Estate, and went to a phone. Blue called Sheen. 'Come and get us,' he said, smiling faintly.
A private ship came for them. They boarded, and it took off. The seat belts released themselves, freeing them to walk about during the flight. Then the forward compartment opened, and Sheen and Agape walked into the main chamber.
Bane was not aware how they came together. Suddenly he was embracing and kissing Agape, and she was crying with joy. Then, embarrassed, they paused, looking around at the others.
'Sit down,' Citizen Blue said, donning a blue outfit that Sheen had brought along. They sat.
'My wife and I have known for some time that our son was not entirely satisfied,' Blue said. 'He is a product of our most advanced technology. His circuits are more sophisticated than Sheen's. His brain is capable of a type of consciousness that approaches the living standard so closely that we are not certain there is any significant distinction.'
'Very little,' Bane agreed.
'But he was not alive – and he wanted to be. That we could not give him – until he made contact with you. Now he has been able to experience that ultimate state. Do you think he will want to return?'
'Not if he loves Fleta,' Bane said.
'We like you, Bane,' Blue continued. 'I was never able to sire a living son, even before I came to Proton. It was no sacrifice for me to marry Sheen. In fact the laboratory was the only way that I could have a child. And I am satisfied with Mach. But still I always wished that I could have a living child in Phaze. My inability to do so was part of what damaged my relationship to your mother, Bane. It put our love under stress. The Lady Blue desperately wanted a child. Now I see in you the son I might have had.'
Then Blue stopped speaking. 'What he is trying to say,' Sheen said, 'is that if you, Bane, care to remain in Proton, we would be glad to extend to you the same relationship we have had with Mach. If you should wish to marry Agape, we would be pleased.'
'But you hardly know me!' Bane protested, speaking to them both.
'You are the offspring of my other self, sired by this body,' Blue said. 'You have been raised as an apprentice Adept in Phaze. You have come to Proton, as I did. I think I know you well enough. If you wish to remain, and undertake the necessary preparation for eventual Citizenship, you are welcome to do so.'
Bane knew he should have been overwhelmed by such an offer. But this body had better control over its emotions than did his own. He simply considered his own preference, and found no question. 'I would like to do so,' he said. 'An my other self be satisfied.'
'I suspect he will be,' Blue said. 'But there is no need to be in doubt. Contact him, exchange with him, and verify the situation for yourselves. There should be contact between you anyway. On that the Contrary Citizens agree with us. This opportunity to establish correspondence between the frames must not be lost. Where we differ is whether the benefits of that contact shall accrue to our cause or to theirs. The stakes are potentially enormous. Whoever has ready access to both the Oracle Computer and the Book of Magic will have power to remake both frames in a manner hitherto impossible. With that power, I could complete the integration of the diverse elements of Proton society, and in time eliminate the feudal Citizen-serf aspect of our society. With that power, the Contrary Citizens could reverse all that I have accomplished in twenty years and disenfranchise the robots, cyborgs, androids and aliens.'
Bane looked at Agape. 'Thou knowest that ne'er would I do that to thee,' he said to her. Then he kissed her, and no more needed to be said on that subject.
'However,' Blue said, and now Bane felt a chill, knowing that something unpleasant was coming. His own father spoke in just that fashion. 'There are certain counterindications.'
'Somehow I knew there would be,' Bane said.
'My course here in the frame of Proton has not been entirely smooth,' Blue said. 'Progress has been slow, and the Contrary Citizens have fought every step. They have seized upon every possible technicality to frustrate my designs before the Council of Citizens. Compromise has been the order of the day, for twenty years. There are many programs I would have promoted, had I been able; the Experimental Project has been the only one I have been able to implement fully. I daresay my other self in Phaze has had similar problems.'
'Aye,' Bane agreed. 'He sought to make all creatures equal in Phaze, the animals and the men, but found resistance in both animals and men. He made of the Blue Demesnes a center for the education and freedom of animals, and the association of differing species. All be welcome, but few attend, apart from Neysa's oath– friends. Some be afraid of the Adverse Adepts, with reason; some merely cling to their old ways. So it has been mainly in stasis. Phaze be not what Stile dreamed it could be.'
'And so he dare not force any issue that is not vital,' Blue said. 'I know how that is.'
'And he be slowly losing ground,' Bane agreed.
'Now consider the probable impact of the reestablishment of communication between the two frames,' Blue said. 'That contact can generate the power to give one side or the other, in each frame, the decisive advantage. That's opportunity – and threat. If Stile and I have this power, we can do much good; but if the others get it, they can do just as much evil. At the moment it seems that we shall have that contact – but we cannot afford to take any chance with it. The stakes are simply too great.'
'And I represent a liability,' Agape said.
'Nay, I love thee!' Bane cried.
'That is why,' she said. 'Every time you cross to the other frame, you risk falling into the power of the other side, and Mach risks the same. Because we can never be certain of the situation in the other frame, until the exchange is made. The enemy forces do not have to capture you or Mach; they merely have to capture me or Fleta.'
'But we shall protect each!' Bane protested.
She shook her head. 'We can never be sure of that, while we are part of these two societies. I can be secure only in one place: my home planet. It is there I must go.'
'Nay!' Bane cried. 'I cannot be apart from thee! I returned to Proton only to be with thee!'
'And you must return to Phaze,' she said. 'Bane, they need you there. But even if you remain here, or travel back and forth, you cannot afford to associate with me. It will be better if I remove myself from your life.'
'Nay!' he repeated, agonized.
'That is the conclusion Sheen and I came to, independently,' Blue said. 'We can accomplish much, if we cut our risks. That means that your association with Agape, and Bane's with Fleta, must be sundered. Only then can the two of you safely maintain contact between the frames.
Somehow, Bane had known it all along. He gazed at Agape, stricken.
?16. Decision
Mach was back in the Purple Demesnes, but this time as no captive. That much Bane had assured him, in their brief dialogue before the exchange. Fleta had been freed, and the Translucent Adept governed here. Certainly he was no longer clamped to the wall; Bane had evidently stood here to overlap him, but Bane had not been shackled. He hoped Bane would be able to get free, or that Citizen Blue would free him; if not, he would have to return, for the fate of his body was his responsibility.
Purple stood before him, his face expressionless. Mach realized that the man did not know that the exchange had been accomplished. 'I am Mach,' he said. Now he would find out whether the truce would be honored.
'The situation has changed,' Purple said gruffly. 'I turned thine other self over to Translucent. He promised to have thy cooperation. Now thou art free to depart. Hast thou any message?'
'I was bracketed to the wall, there,' Mach said. 'I accepted no message.'
'An I had mine own way,' Purple muttered, 'that were thy fate here too. But till Translucent's policy fail, thou canst go thy way.' He turned his back and walked out of the cell.
Things certainly had changed! Mach walked out of the cell unopposed, and down the tunnel, and on out of the Purple Demesnes without hindrance. Purple really was letting him go!
At the mouth of the cave that was the Demesnes entrance, Mach paused. He stood on the side of a mountain, and could see out over the trees below. This was the north slope; theoretically most of Phaze lay before
