Jack of Swords

lie?'

'What do you know, man?' Avorot was impatient. 'Speak or waste no more of our time!'

The Hausi stiffened, an almost imperceptible gesture which the cyber recognized. Despite his demeanor the man had pride.

Khai said, 'You wish to speak to me in private? Commissioner, if you will be so kind? During your absence perhaps you will compile a total list of the cargo the ship carried. And I would be interested to know exactly what was left in the shelter we found.'

Small errands, but they would salve his pride, and from him had been learned all of use. As the door closed behind the rigidly stiff back of the officer the cyber said, 'Well?'

'A small matter first, my lord. If my information should be of value?'

'You will be rewarded. A prediction as to the immediate future of the market in chelach meat.'

It was enough, the service of a cyber at no cost and information which could lead to an easy fortune. Taking a step closer to the desk the Hausi lowered his voice.

'Sufan Noyoka is an unusual man. For years he has been interested in things out of this world. By that I mean his interests lie elsewhere. His lands are poor, his herd depleted, yet he is not the fool many take him to be. Goods have been converted into money. Friends have been made.'

He went on, telling of things the cyber already knew, but he made no interruption, knowing the man was merely trying to inflate his importance. And verification was always of value. Only when the agent had finished did he speak.

'Are you certain?'

'My lord, why should I lie? I handled the matter myself.'

'The Hichen Cloud?'

'All available maps of the area together with reports from those who had either penetrated the Cloud or who had ventured close. I sold him an artifact, a thing of mystery, one found on a wrecked vessel discovered by a trader.'

The Hichen Cloud! It was enough. After the Hausi had left, gratified with his prediction, the cyber rose and stepped into an inner room. It was one used by Avorot when working late and contained little aside from a cot and toilet facilities.

Locking the door Khai rested supine on the couch, resting his fingers on the wide band locked around his left wrist. A device which, when activated, ensured that no scanner or electronic spy could focus on his vicinity. Like the locked door it was an added precaution; even if someone had stood at his side they would have learned nothing.

Relaxing, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the Samatchazi formulae. Imperceptibly he lost the affinity with the sensory apparatus of his body. Had he opened his eyes he would have been blind. Closed in the womb of his skull his brain ceased to be irritated by external stimuli, the ceaseless impact of irrelevant data impossible to avoid while in a wholly conscious state. Isolated, it became a thing of pure intellect, its reasoning awareness untrammeled. Only then did the grafted Homochon elements become active. Rapport was immediate.

Khai became vibrantly alive.

A life in which it seemed every door in the universe had opened to emit a flood of light. Light which was the pure essence of truth, flooding his being, permeating his every cell. He was the living part of an organism which stretched across endless space in a profusion of glittering nodes, each node the pulse of an intelligent mind. All were interconnected with shimmering filaments, a glinting web reaching to infinity. He saw it, was a part of it while it was a part of himself, sharing yet owning the tremendous gestalt of minds.

At the heart of the web glowed the mass of Central Intelligence, the heart of the Cyclan. Buried deep beneath miles of rock on a lonely world, the massed brains absorbed his knowledge as a sponge sucked water. A mental communication in the form of words, quick, almost instantaneous, organic transmission against which that of supra-radio was the merest crawl.

'Dumarest? There is no possibility of doubt?'

'None.'

'Your prediction as to present whereabouts?'

'Insufficient data for prediction of high probability but certainly in the direction of the Hichen Cloud. Other factors, unknown to me, may have important bearing.'

A moment in which he sensed the interchange of a million diverse items of information, facts correlated, assessed, a decision reached. The multiple intelligence doing what one brain alone could never achieve.

And then, 'Chamelard. Word will be sent. Follow.'

That was all.

The rest was sheet intoxication, which filled him with a pleasure beyond the scope of ordinary flesh.

Always it was the same during the period when the Homochon elements sank again into quiescence and the machinery of the body began to realign itself with metal control. Like a disembodied spirit Khai drifted in an empty darkness while he sensed and thrilled to strange memories and unlived experiences; the overflow of other minds, the emission of unknown intelligences. The aura which radiated from the tremendous cybernetic complex which was the unifying force of the Cyclan.

One day he would be a part of it. His body would age and his senses lose their sharp edge, but his mind would remain as active as ever. A useful tool not to be lost. Then he would be taken and his intelligence rid of the hampering constraints of flesh. His brain, removed, would join the others to pulse in nutrient fluid, hooked in a unified whole, all working to a common end.

The complete and absolute control of the entire galaxy. The elimination of waste and the direction of effort so that every man and every world would become the parts of a universal machine.

Chapter Six

Death had come very close and Usan Labria knew it. Now, lying on the cot, she savored every breath, the touch of the blanket which covered her, even the soft vibration of the Erhaft Field, which sent the vessel hurtling through space at a speed much faster than that of light. To feel. To know that she was alive. Alive!

Looking down at her Dumarest said, 'How are you, Usan?'

'Earl!' She stared at him with sunken eyes. 'You saved my life in the shelter. If you hadn't given me those pills-was I very foolish?'

'No.'

'At times they have odd effects. I seem to remember babbling some nonsense.'

'Memories of childhood,' he lied. 'And you thought the sound of the ship landing was that of thunder.'

'Yes.' She looked at her hands, knowing he was being kind. 'Have we been traveling long?'

'A day. You're under quick-time, so be careful.'

They were all under quick-time, the magic of the drug slowing their metabolism so that hours became minutes-a convenience to shorten the tedium of the journey.

'I'll remember.' Slowly she reared to sit upright, leaning her back against the bulkhead. 'So we're finally on our way,' she said. 'To Balhadorha. What did you hope to gain, Earl? Why did you join us?'

'If you remember, my lady,' he said dryly, 'I had little choice.'

'True, but even so you will share in what we find. An equal share, I shall insist on it.' For a moment she fell silent then said, 'Earth. I keep remembering the name. Your world, you say, but if you want to return then why not simply book a passage?'

'Because no one seems to know where it lies.'

'Then-'

'It exists,' he said. 'I was born on the planet and I know. I left when a boy, stowing away on a ship, not knowing the risk I ran. The captain was more than kind. He could have evicted me, instead he allowed me to work my passage. And, when he died, I moved on. World after world, each closer toward the Center, where worlds were thick and commerce heavy. Traveling deeper and deeper into space until even the very name of Earth was unknown. And then the desire to return, to find it again, to search and probe and, always, meeting with the blank wall of failure.

'A quest,' she said. 'An obsession perhaps, and now your reason for living. But why, Earl? What does it matter