The Return of Nathan Brazil

Obie approved. “Atta girl, tiger-cat! Steady and I’ll make you into you again! That’ll put the fear of god into ’em!”

She knew that Obie was reaching down to her, that her form was bathed in the violet glow, but the renewal was very quick and was not consciously apparent to her. She knew, though, that her lithe, black-clad human form was being seen by the unseen other or others. If they had any historical records they knew upon whose visage they now gazed. She could sense the astonishment in that strange alien voice-not-voice as it gasped, “You are Mavra Chang!”

“I am,” she acknowledged, grateful also that Obie had eliminated the shock. She felt in complete command. “And who are you?”

The voice was silent for a moment, apparently still astonished and perhaps a bit troubled by the power it had just witnessed. Finally it said, “I am Nikki Zinder.”

Once again it was Mavra’s turn to be shocked. “Now wait a minute! I know how I’m still around—but that’s not possible.” A computer, she guessed. A computer programmed to think it’s Nikki. That has to be it. Obie was strangely silent; built by Nikki’s father, he had considered the girl his sister.

Mavra remembered the original Nikki. Fat, naive, sheltered from reality by her father until they’d landed on the Well World. Nikki had been full of sponge. Mavra had battled to lead the girl and Renard, a servant who was also sinking fast because of the sponge, to a haven of sorts on the Well World. Renard had made love to the girl when they’d both thought they were dying; he, though, had been changed by the Well World into one of the satyrlike Agitar; Nikki had been grabbed by Obie and cared for by him in the minor control room. There she’d borne the daughter Renard had fathered, and named her Mavra. And it was there that both of them had been changed into the form now called Olympian or Pallas. They had been among the First Mothers.

But that had been seven centuries and more ago.

A machine that thinks it’s a long-dead person, Mavra thought glumly. How do you deal with a machine?

“New Pompeii was destroyed,” the voice noted. “I saw it with my own eyes. Obie was destroyed. The history tapes bear me out. You cannot be Mavra Chang.”

“Obie is alive. I remained. We only made it appear that we were destroyed. You know the power of Obie, you know that he could do this, know why I can still be alive and much as I was then. You have Nikki Zinder’s memories—you must know that this can be so.”

There was a short pause. “You speak as if I were not who I say,” the voice noted. “I tell you that I am Nikki Zinder. I have remained alive, now bound to this machine. But I am not a machine. My mind and soul live, are preserved and amplified by it.”

Mavra considered this. “But why? Why you, Nikki? Why not the others?”

“The others, like me, grew old. When it was clear that they would die, when Touri did die, they gathered and made their decision. They would find a Markovian gate; they would return to the Well World and be reborn yet again. They all left and, as far as I know, succeeded, my daughter included.”

“But not you?”

“Not I. We were barely two centuries started; the population was just approaching viability. The Pallas needed guidance to build the proper society, guidance only we of the First Mothers could give them. We had the proper technology. I proposed that we First Mothers be preserved, cybernetically linked to computers capable of sustaining us indefinitely, so that we could lead. The others refused, but they could not force me to accompany them. Since then I have remained; I have shaped the growth and development of my people and led them through the founding of the Fellowship. The greatness you see today is my work.”

Obie?

“I’m afraid it’s true, Mavra. I wish it weren’t. This explains the aberrant culture. Brain and soulcanbe preserved as she says, but brain cells do not regenerate. She’s got to be senile, Mavra— senile, probably quite mad, and still in complete control of a people who don’t know any better. Better play along.”

Mavra considered her words carefully. “Nikki, look. Your own people must have told you. The Com is doomed, perhaps everything is doomed, by stupid people who misused your father’s research. We must stop it, and that can only be done by fixing the Well of Souls itself. Only Nathan Brazil can do so, so we have common cause, your people and us. We have brought together the Com government and ourselves for this; we need your people for the legwork. Will you cooperate with us? Will you order that cooperation?”

Nikki seemed lost in thought. Finally the voice said, “Yes, Mavra. You will have whatever you require. The only condition is that Olympians be present when Nathan Brazil is found.”

“I think we can agree to that,” Mavra replied. “We think he might have been spooked by the cul—Fellowship, though, so we’ll have to be very careful when we find him that we don’t lose him again. I give you my word, though, as the same person who brought you from New Pompeii and kept you alive on the Well World, that your people will have access to him. Will you accept that?”

“It is sufficient,” the voice responded. “Go now. The orders have already been given.” She hesitated. “You can survive in our atmosphere as you are now?”

Mavra nodded. “Oh, yes.” An elevator door opened. She turned and walked toward it, then stopped and turned back to the empty chamber. “Good-bye, Nikki,” she whispered, then got on. The door closed.

Another elevator opened across from Mavra’s and two Athenes emerged in their cloaks of priestly scarlet. They entered the chamber, knelt, and awaited command.

“With a computer such as Obie, the Com records, and our own followers, Nathan Brazil will soon be found,” Nikki Zinder told them. “But beware. You saw how both the High Priestess Yua and the Arch-priestess Tala are bewitched?”

“We saw, Holy Mother,” they responded in unison.

“From Obie our race issued, but it issued at the command of the Evil One,” Nikki said. “We do not know what the Evil One did while in control of Obie, but we can be sure that he was the last one to control my father’s creation. It is more than likely, then, that Obie is still doing the bidding of the Evil One, for, as a machine, he has no choice. Mavra Chang was deformed and died in the assault on the Evil One; this I know for I was present. The thing we just saw was but a construct made by Obie, and, if made by Obie, it too is under the spell of the Evil One. Remember at all times that we are dealing with the devil incarnate; make certain that no others are placed under the spell as our two sisters have been. We require them to find Nathan Brazil. We have a pact with the Evil One, but the devil will keep his word only as long as it suits his needs. There is no honor in him, no trust or goodness. Monitor the operation; do what is requested, but keep out of the Evil One’s control, trust no one under it, and, when Nathan Brazil has been located, be certain that only we get to him. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Holy Mother,” they responded in unison. They had been dismissed and knew it; they reboarded the elevator.

Nikki Zinder, locked into her computer, was alone once more. Nevertheless the eerie voice continued to issue, a horrible crackling laughter.

“Oh, Evil One!” she said to no one. “You think to imprison the Lord God so that you may destroy the Universe! But you will not, you’ll see. As your visage haunts and torments me in the male child, now your very self comes to trick me! I’ll not let you, I’ll not, I’ll not…”

Silence reigned briefly in the chamber, then the eerie voice spoke once more, this time in the forlorn, plaintive tones of a very small girl.

“Oh, Daddy! Daddy! I want you so…”

Kwangsi

Marquoz lit a pipe by breathing on the bowl, then sucked on it for a few moments, blowing billowing clouds of acrid smoke everywhere. Finally he said, “The problem, of course, is keeping the Com out of it. I’m having one