The Return of Nathan Brazil

Yua admitted defeat, though she still didn’t understand what was going on, and faded back in, glaring not at the strangers but at Marquoz. “This is some kind of trick! What are you trying to pull, anyway?”

Marquoz sighed. “I assure you, madam, that I have far less an idea of what is going on than you do. My only hunch is that we’ve just been captured by some new alien menace, a scenario that is becoming repetitious.”

“Just don’t make any moves,” the woman in black warned. “We’re about to take a little trip, all of us.”

Marquoz looked around, then at Yua. “How many security guards and Acolytes you got around here, anyway?”

The small woman chuckled. “We won’t meet any of them.” She smiled sweetly at Yua. “What’s the matter, honey? No respect for Nathan Brazil’s great-granddaughter?”

Blackness suddenly swallowed them, and, briefly, they felt as if they were falling. Then there was light again, artificial light. They had materialized in a laboratory of some kind, in exactly the same positions they had occupied in Yua’s chamber.

Marquoz stared at the strange surroundings; Gypsy allowed himself to breathe again; Yua just stared at the small woman in black.

“Welcome to the Nautilus, citizens,” the woman said. “I am Mavra Chang.”

Nautilus—Underside

It was some time before anyone spoke. Finally Gypsy asked, barely audibly, “You got patents for that transportation gadget?”

Mavra Chang laughed. “No, and I daresay nobody ever will.” She looked over at Marquoz. “You can keep your energy pistol. It will not work on the Nautilus. Only our weapons work here.”

Marquoz looked around him. Since he was an alien both in form and mind, and one schooled in human reactions, it was almost impossible to tell what really was going on in that mind of his. Even Gypsy was aware that much of the reptile’s humanity came from feigned mannerisms, that, deep down, something was going on no human could quite understand. And that was more or less a bond they shared, for of all humanity, Gypsy was the one individual the Chugach had never figured out.

Until now. Until this mysterious woman appeared.

The truth was that Marquoz was scared, although he never betrayed the fact even to Gypsy. He was suddenly faced with a total unknown, something that had powers beyond any science of the Com or even the Dreel. He felt like a small child among the wisest of adults: totally helpless. And he didn’t like it one bit.

“There’s somebody else here,” Gypsy announced suddenly. “Not that invisibility trick, either. Somebody’s here, all around us, something really weird.”

Marquoz and Yua felt it too—an almost supernatural presence, hanging in the air.

Mavra Chang gestured silently to her team, and they immediately holstered their weapons and departed.

Mavra, Marquoz, Gypsy, and Yua were standing on a raised platform in the center of an oval room. A large parabolic dish hung overhead. The platform would have been beneath the antenna—or whatever it was—if it were swung out and fully extended. Several meters above a balcony circled the chamber; a metal stairway opposite them led up to it. Sliding doors might have provided exits from the balcony, but it was too hard to distinguish shapes and a solid safety fence and guardrail further blocked the view. All was silent, except for a slight thrumming, as if the entire room were located in the bowels of some gigantic machine.

“Are you really related to Nathan Brazil?” Yua asked at last.

Mavra Chang smiled slightly. “In a way, yes. Many, many years ago, of course. It’s been a long time since we’ve been back to human areas.”

“What is this place?” Marquoz wanted to know.

“You are on a planetoid well out into space, away from normal commercial channels and any habitation,” she told him. “It is, in fact, a fully self-sufficient vessel. We are well into it at this point, and below the equator. The Northern Hemisphere, as you will soon see, has been Terraformed and is quite beautiful. My crew and I live there most of the time.”

Marquoz looked around thoughtfully. “This is Zinder’s computer, isn’t it?”

It was Mavra’s turn to look startled. “Hmmm… Yes, it is. I see we shouldn’t underestimate you.”

Marquoz was more at ease now. He looked up at the still-stunned Yua. “My dear, I suspect you are standing on holy ground here. I would bet that your ancestors were created on this very spot over seven hundred years ago.”

Yua was awestruck. She glanced at each of the others as if seeking an answer.

“Come, I am neglecting my manners,” Mavra Chang said. “Please step off the platform—here, just a meter or two away will be okay, if you don’t lean in.” They did as instructed, and, satisfied, she called out, “Obie, how about a table and chairs, and perhaps some fine food to fit?”

There was no reply. All they heard was a quiet whine above them as the little dish swung out over the platform. There was a purplish glow, the glow disappeared and the little dish swung back.

A banquet table had materialized, heaped with food of all sorts; plush, padded chairs were set around it, one apparently form-fit Yua, who had a tail to consider. One place had no chair; it was assumed, correctly, that Chugach sat on their tails.

Gypsy was first to the table; he had concluded he wasn’t going to be killed, and, since he was hungry, he just accepted the situation. “Jesus! Look at all this stuff! A king’s dinner!” he gushed, then suddenly looked a little fearfully at Mavra Chang. “It’s all real?”

She smiled and nodded. “A hundred percent. Not even synthetics. You might not like all of it after the plastic food you’ve been used to all your life, but try it.”

There wasn’t anything else to do, so they all approached the table. Marquoz was surprised to find a large roast at his place. “Takliss!” he said, amazed. “Broiled takliss! You don’t know how long it’s been!”

As they ate, Mavra explained a few things to them.

“First of all, let me tell you how we came to be here,” she began. “We’ve been doing projects elsewhere, most recently off in M-51, and, frankly, after checking in a few hundred years ago and seeing how the Com had come to terms with its nonhuman races and how smoothly everything seemed to be going—surprised hell out of us, I’ll tell you—we decided to go where we were needed. We’d still be there if Obie hadn’t sensed something wrong. You see, we actually had a small quake here—I think just about everyplace in the Universe did.”

“Obie?” Marquoz broke in.

“Good evening, citizens.” A pleasant tenor voice materialized out of thin air. “My name is actually an acronym but the words are so out of date they have lost their meaning. Mavra, I thought you were never going to introduce me!” he scolded.

She shrugged. “Sorry about that. I thought you might want to get a look at them before they knew you were here.”

“ I knew,” Gypsy pointed out between bites.

“Yes, you did,” Obie agreed. “There are some interesting things about you, sir.”

Yua was just looking more and more dazed. Marquoz noted her confusion and said, reassuringly, “He’s a computer, my dear. We are, essentially, inside of him right now.” He grinned. “Of course, since I saw the tapes of the destruction of New Pompeii, I find this all rather surprising.”

Mavra Chang nodded. “You know the story about Trelig, then?”

He nodded. “Most people do, now. Some historians have made quite a reputation on it.” Briefly he told her of Tortoi Kai’s research and the reason for the breaking of the security seals.

Mavra shook her head at the story of the Dreel and the Zinder Nullifiers. “We knew that a weapon had been used against an external enemy—we’ve picked up a lot of broadcasts and plugged into a lot of computer banks in the few days we’ve been back. We’re filling in the rest of the pieces now, hopefully, with your aid.”

“Glad to be of service,” Marquoz responded pleasantly. “But, tell me, which were you and all those other people come from?”