Judgment at Proteus

earlier tension still showing. Clearly, she’d already learned from the Spiders that I was coming back alive.

She’d also obviously already guessed that the meeting hadn’t been an entirely friendly one. The sight of my new watchdogs could only emphasize that. “These are the guards I’m told we’ve been assigned?” she asked, giving the defenders a dubious look.

“These are they,” I confirmed as I glanced around. The Melding was still sitting together around their pseudo campfire, and I could see that Terese and Rebekah had joined them. Morse, though, was nowhere to be seen. “This is Sam; I’m calling this one Carl.”

“I assume the names have a meaning,” she said.

“They’re from a dit-rec drama called Casablanca,” I explained. “Sam and Carl were two of the hero’s employees.”

“I suppose that makes you Rick?” Morse asked, coming around the side of the tender and striding toward us.

“I did always like his hat,” I agreed, looking past Morse’s shoulder. There was nothing in that direction but more empty station. “Communing with nature?”

“Communing with my colony,” he corrected. “I suppose that makes me Major Strasser?”

“I can see some similarities,” I said, frowning. “What is there for you and your colony to commune about?”

“We’re still sorting through the changes that the Melding has made in my colony’s attitude and our relationship,” he said.

“What sort of changes?”

“For one thing, we can disconnect a bit from the overall mind segment,” he said. “Not completely, not the way I assume Bayta can detach from the Spider network. But at the same time, interestingly enough, my colony and I actually seem to have become a little closer.”

“That sounds like the way Rebekah described her relationship with her symbiont,” Bayta said.

“Which, I believe, was the whole idea,” Morse said. “To make the Modhri more like the Spider and Chahwyn setups, with more individuality for the members but with the best aspects of the group mind still there.” He shook his head. “But it’s definitely going to take some time to sort out.”

Bayta cocked her head suddenly to the side. “Can he move?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” Morse asked.

“I was thinking about the Modhran colony Minnario planted in Isantra Kordiss,” she said. “The polyps were supposed to attach at his optic nerve, where the Modhri could tap into his vision but not control him.”

“Right,” Morse said, frowning as he probably only now accessed that tidbit from the Modhri mind segment. “Otherwise, when the Shonkla-raa fired off their magic whistle Kordiss would go marionette on everyone and they’d figure out what we’d done to him. Am I understanding it correctly?”

“Perfectly,” I confirmed as I realized where Bayta was going with this. “What Bayta’s saying is that if your colony can move to your eyes or ears and away from the motor nerves, then it won’t be able to take over you, either.”

“Bloody hell,” Morse breathed. “You know, that never even occurred to me. Hang on—I’ll check.”

“That’s why Bayta and I are the ones running this zoo,” I murmured, giving Bayta an encouraging smile. “We think about things like that. Good call, Bayta.”

She didn’t smile back.

Morse shook his head. “Sorry, but it’s no go,” he said regretfully. “Once the colony’s in place, it anchors itself and can’t be moved. Even if we could get it loose, it’s really too big to do any serious traveling. Nice thought, though.”

“Yes, it was,” I said. “Might be worth mentioning to the segment-prime for future reference.”

“I already have,” Morse said. “So what’s the story with the Chahwyn?”

“They’ve got a trainload of Melding coral on the way,” I told him. “Once it’s here, we’ll ship it down to Yandro proper. Hopefully, there will be enough to give the whole segment-prime this new and improved outlook on life.” I cocked an eyebrow. “Assuming he still wants this new outlook.”

Morse smiled tightly. “You mean the chance to go from an old black-and-white dit-rec drama to full-blown colored 3-D?” The smile faded. “You have no idea what it’s like for him, Compton. The Chahwyn should have put him together that way in the first place.”

“I’m sure they’d have liked to,” I said, watching Sam and Carl out of the corner of my eye. “But I don’t think the prospective owners were interested in their new weapon having any bells and whistles.”

Morse snorted. “Point,” he growled. “So what’s next on the big master plan?”

“We take Terese back to Earth,” I said. “And we start raising an army.”

His eyes widened. “An army? Where the hell from?”

“Given that the whole Terran Confederation is at risk, I think it’s time we brought the UN into play,” I said. “After we drop off Terese, we’ll go have a chat with Deputy Director Biret Losutu.”

“Director Biret Losutu, you mean,” Morse corrected. “Director Klein stepped down six months ago and Losutu took his place.”

“Ah,” I said. I hadn’t realized I was that out of touch with Earth’s current events. “Congratulations all around. Anyway, we bring Losutu up to speed and see what he can do about raising a quiet army.”

“How quiet?”

“Very quiet,” I said. “Because after that, the plan is to lure the Shonkla-raa to Earth.”

Morse’s eyes bulged. “You want them on Earth?”

“It’s the best place in the galaxy for a showdown,” I pointed out. “Thanks to all those restrictive coral-import laws there aren’t any Modhran outposts there for them to use, and therefore only a handful of Eyes. Though I suppose you know the numbers better than I do.”

“No, you’re right, there aren’t very many,” Morse acknowledged, his forehead wrinkled in thought. “Maybe a thousand, spread out over the whole planet. How exactly do you intend to lure them in?”

“By messing with whatever Riijkhan’s grand scheme is for the Confederation,” I said. “He essentially promised me he would keep his hands off Earth if I would join them, which undoubtedly means he’s already got some alternate plan under way. We find that plan, we start raining bricks down on it, and hopefully he and his buddies will come charging in to make us stop.”

“Okay,” Morse said doubtfully. “Sounds bloody iffy, if you ask me.”

“But I’m the boss?” I suggested.

“You’re the boss,” he agreed. “I suppose we can work out the actual details later.”

“Exactly,” I said. “Do me a favor, would you, and go tell Terese that she’s going home?”

“You don’t want to give her the good news yourself?”

“She tends to glower whenever I get near her,” I explained. “Which tends to obscure her other expressions and emotions.”

Morse’s lip twitched. “In other words, you also want me to try to figure out how she really feels about going back.”

“Exactly,” I said. “There’s a lot we still don’t know about her. More is always better.”

He nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”

He headed off toward the Melding circle. “He doesn’t know who she really is?” Bayta asked quietly.

I shook my head. “I asked Rebekah to keep it quiet for now.”

“I didn’t know she could do that.”

“Keep things private from the rest of the Melding?” I shrugged. “Apparently so. Not really surprising when you think about it. After all, you and I have kept secrets from the Spiders and Chahwyn.”

“Yes, we have,” Bayta said, her voice gone odd. “They’ve also kept a few from us.”

I winced. “Bayta—”

“It’s all right, Frank,” she said. Her voice still held some tension, but there was nothing but warmth and trust in her hand as she wrapped it gently around mine. “I just don’t like not knowing everything that’s going on. But I understand that’s how it has to be.”

“I appreciate that,” I said, searching for a way to change the subject.

For once, even if unknowingly, the Chahwyn came to my rescue. At the far end of the station, the long train of