functions.
“But there is life on this globe, a complex ecosystem.”
Garth felt his lips burble with odd laughter. Like a sunken warship in a shallow sea, it has gathered a reef of life that clings to the dust and mud of the surface. But the bulk of it is not natural.
Garth dared to probe some of the Tulk’s defenses as he spoke. Perhaps, when he was distracted, the reins could be snatched away…
Ornth went on, unaware of the probing. Really, we need a team of thousands, a hundred or more trained technicians are required in every control chamber. I fear that by myself, I can’t do what must be done.
Garth thought about launching an assault, but the other’s defenses were frustratingly effective. He could tell the needle-like nerve endings had penetrated too deeply. It was not a simple matter of superior willpower. It was more like being numbed by a drug. No amount of yearning for freedom could force a drugged man to normalcy. The nervous system would simply not respond. But as he thought hard, he came up with another approach.
“I have watched for many hours,” Garth said, “and I do have a great deal of experience with this kind of work. What do you propose to do with the Great Machine if you manage to make it function?”
Is it not obvious? I plan to focus the projectors. I plan to sweep the great ship from the sky, and destroy it before the enemy can infect this world.
Garth was surprised. He’d not calculated that the Tulk would have such high aspirations. To win a war single-handedly? That was not the kind of activity the reclusive Tulk were known for. Perhaps this one was different, as he claimed to be. It made no difference to Garth, however, who only wanted to regain the reins of his own body.
“I can help you,” Garth said at last. “But I must be allowed to control my own hands. How else can I operate the equipment?”
The Tulk was quiet for a moment, mulling it over. Garth wished to urge him to accept the offer, but said nothing further. He did not wish to appear too anxious.
At last, the Tulk agreed. Nerve-needles were withdrawn from the centers controlling the hands and the arms. Garth now not only felt with his fingers, he could flex them. He could move! He stood happily watching his fingers stretch, curl and extend at his urging. It was a wonderful feeling. Hope blossomed within him, and his scheming grew in scope.
Are we to get on with this or not? demanded Ornth.
“Of course. Walk us over to that bank of meters, please. I need to examine them.”
Garth spent time working on the machine, adjusting things and making queries about various details. He knew he had to appear interested, if only to get Ornth to allow him to continue to have his freedom. Truthfully, he had learned a good deal about its operation, but now that he was in charge of the effort to get it working, his mind was more fully engaged. He frowned as he made adjustments, read the gauges, then made further twiddling changes.
Well?
“There is definitely something wrong,” Garth said.
Another gasp of exasperation came from Garth’s own lips. All this time wasted, and you have only this to tell me? You are the cretin I’d expected! And I’m a bigger fool for believing in you.
Garth ignored the insults. When dealing with the Tulk, one had to expect them. “Some of the controls are operable, but not all of them. There has been serious damage, particularly to the power sources. Where are these units located? Can we go there and effect repairs?”
Alas, no. They are on the far side of this station.
“You mean-the place they call Sunside?”
Yes. There are heat-driven collectors permanently aimed at the star. They gather energy to power the Great Machine.
Suddenly, Garth began to put together what might have occurred. Weren’t the natives of this world engaged in mining unusually pure metals from Sunside? Perhaps he now knew the answer to the puzzle of why such a great content of metal existed on this planetary surface. He hesitated to tell Ornth this, however. If Ornth knew the collectors were damaged, why would he continue to allow Garth his freedom? The entire endeavor was doomed.
“Perhaps it would be easier if I had control of my legs as well,” Garth said, “so I might walk where I wished.”
Grudgingly, Ornth allowed the freedom and removed more nerve-needles. As he became more secluded within Garth skull, he began to prattle on about lost opportunities, past Tulk greatness and the foolishness of his comrades. Garth ignored most of it. He had soon determined that the Great Machine would never be fully functional. It would take a thousand men a thousand years to rebuild all the damage the miners had done out in Sunside. The weaponry was magnificent and clearly could produce amazing firepower. Once it had been able to reach from one star system to another, firing intense beams of radiation that could pulverize ships a lightyear away, or sterilize the surfaces of distant worlds, even if they circled distant suns. But the Great Machine had no power source to drive it. Like a flitter without grav plates, it was going nowhere.
It was during the third hour that Garth made his move. Ornth had fallen sullen and quiet, only making a suggestion now and then as Garth adjusted the power input controls.
Garth grabbed up a sharp length of brass-like metal. It was a broken shard from a frozen valve. He’d had to snap the valve with a prying bar in order to force it to turn. Now it was a dagger of metal with a needle-sharp point. He pressed the dagger to the side of his neck, just under the skull.
“Let us discuss a new order between us,” Garth said.
Absurd! cackled Ornth. I’ve been awaiting just such a juvenile attempt. Continue your work, or I will retake the reins and punish your body. Humans are equipped with two ocular organs-one is enough to function. I will burn your left eye from your head until the socket wisps steam.
“Not before I can thrust this point into my skull.”
Again, the Tulk shook with laughter. Garth gritted his teeth with annoyance. He hated this being that had dared violate his body and mind.
I’ve examined your profile. I know of the idle boasts you made to Fryx, exactly this kind of thing. Putting a gun to your own head and the like. I’ll not be cowed in this manner, rebellious creature! You have no intention of killing yourself and exposing me. You will be ridden, and you will come to accept your place in this universe!
“You’re right,” Garth said. “I don’t intend on committing suicide or exposing you. Instead, I plan to drive this metal spike under the bottom rim of my skull. A precise jab will prod your body, and mortally wound it. You are only a pound or so of soft flesh, after all.”
You would not dare! You would never take such a risk!
“Wrong again,” Garth said, curling his lip in pain as he jabbed the needle-like tip into his own neck. Blood ran down his back and mixed with his sweat in a slurry. “I have little to lose under the current circumstances. I do not have high hopes for my own survival, but I can at least finish my life alone in my thoughts.”
The Tulk raged and complained bitterly, but at last he relinquished the reins of Garth’s mind. He would not shut up, however. As Garth climbed up the long shaft toward the surface, he considered jabbing himself in the back of the head anyway, if only to silence the annoying creature.
Aldo and Nina brought their army at last to the southern end of Lavender City. They hid in a dispersed pattern under the spreading domes of a thousand suntrees. Overhead, the great ship could be seen hanging in the sky. From the ground, it resembled an oblong moon wreathed by tiny artificial lights. Nina wondered if it tracked them and if it possessed weaponry capable of annihilating their army.
“We must press the attack without delay,” Aldo said. “We must rush into their ranks and prevent them from bombarding us from above.”
“Order the mechs in first,” Nina urged, not for the first time. “They are our shock-troops. Once they are engaged I will take my knights over the canyon rim. We will flank them and break them.”
“Can your riding machines handle such a fall?”
“If it is no greater than a few hundred feet, these mounts will fall, but catch themselves. The repellers will keep us from dashing our brains out on the streets below.”
Aldo reluctantly ordered the mechs to charge. Nina watched with glittering eyes. This, she hoped, would be
