The Spheres of Heaven

down to her right collarbone, to reveal ugly scar tissue in the shape of a fiery star.

“Slither!” In his astonishment Tully reached out to touch the blemish on her white skin, but she stiffened and jerked away. He sat back and shook his tousled head. “I can’t believe this. You and Slither. It’s so disgusting, and you’re so — so—”

“Pure and spotless and absolutely perfect?” Elke gave him a grim smile, revealing the prominent canines. “I suppose you’ve been reading about me in the ship’s files. You shouldn’t believe most of that. I wrote it myself. I decided what to put in — and what to leave out.”

“But Slither. How did you get hooked?”

“I was seventeen. That’s when I knew I was more intelligent than anyone in the universe. I confused that with understanding about life. I’d heard of the Slithers — we all had — but I knew they could never snare me. I was too smart for that. But I let one sit on my shoulder, and it felt wonderful …”

“And it had you. Where did it lodge?”

“Right above my liver. I guess I was lucky, in three cases out of ten it heads for the brain.”

“What saved you?”

“You mean who. General Korin served with my grandfather, out on the Perimeter. When my grandpa was dying, the General promised that when he came back to Sol he would look me up. I should have been easy to find, because I was a star researcher at the Trieste Institute for Advanced Study. And I was there — almost. General Korin tracked me down a kilometer or two away, in a Slither mating cellar. He confirmed who I was — I could still tell him my name — and he went away. He didn’t try to talk to me, didn’t ask what had happened. He came back the next day with three of his officers, bundled me up in a sheet, and shanghaied me away into space.”

Elke studied Tully’s gaunt features, then turned back to her work at the displays. “I didn’t think so at the time, but I guess I had things easy. I had the operation for Slither removal and the chemotherapy to end Slither sexual addiction. But I was on Helene, with round-the-clock nursing, not in another universe wondering if I was ever going home. But you’re improving, Tully. I see it every day. The worst is over.”

“I’d like to think you’re right, but I still dream each night. In my dream I’m sitting there with the little purple sphere in my fist, and I’m all set to touch it to my wrist. Deep inside I know that I mustn’t, that if I do it will start all over again. But I can’t stop my hand. It brings the Paradox globe closer and closer to my skin.”

“Ah, I have a dream like that.” Elke’s face took on an odd wistfulness. “I’m sitting alone, and the Slither is still inside me. It begins calling, `Go and bring me a mate. Bring us both ecstasy.’ It isn’t lying. When you and somebody else with a Slither have sex it’s too good to be true. So I start to stand up, and I’m on the way to the rendezvous point, and I have the promise of ecstasy squared. But I know it will soon lead to death.”

“That’s it! That’s it exactly. You mustn’t touch, but you want it so much. You’ve felt it, too.” Again Tully reached out toward Elke, again he pulled back when he saw her flinch.

He cursed his own lack of sensitivity. No wonder, after being a Slither slave — say something, anything. “So it was Dag Korin saved you. I’d never have guessed that.”

“Why else would I be here, on a ship lost at the end of the universe?” She would not look at him. She had focused her attention on the displays. “No, not lost in the universe. Lost in the multiverse, an infinite set of universes. I’m here for the same reason as you. You came because Chan Dalton wanted you to, I came because Dag Korin wanted me to. This turns out to be the most exciting thing that could happen to a scientist, but I didn’t know that when I agreed to come. Couldn’t you tell I was doing it for the General?”

Tully said nothing, and she looked away from the screens to stare at him. “What is it? What’s wrong now?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s a lie, Tully O’Toole. Your face usually looks white as something dredged from the seabed, and now it’s all pink. What did I say?”

“You said not a word. It’s what I thought.”

“So tell me what.”

“It’s so absurd. I thought that you were here because you were Dag Korin’s” — Tully screwed up his face — “well, this only proves what an ass I am. I thought you were Dag Korin’s mistress.”

“A woman could do worse than General Korin, a lot worse. But me, his mistress? That’s a laugh.” Elke gave a snort that sounded nothing like a laugh. “I couldn’t let him — or any man—”

Elke turned away and bent her blond head over the control board.

“I understand,” Tully said quickly. “After the Slither, any touch would be too much. But it’s all right now I know. Do you want me to go?”

“No, I’d rather that you stay. Two untouchables together. But I must keep on working.”

“Of course you must. Can I help? I once had a working brain, and a good pair of eyes.” Tully moved so that he could study the screen, being careful to keep well clear of Elke. “Do you know what you’re looking at?”

“I’m learning. This is the view from one of the orbiters, just before it stopped recording. The smooth dark area is the sea, and the Hero’s Return is about here.” She stabbed at the screen with a long, tapering index finger. “You can’t see us, of course, since we’re down deep. But the little blob you see beside the inlet is the Mood Indigo.”

“It’s not in the water. It’s on the shore.”

“I know. The storm might have carried it there.”

“Is it a wreck?”

“I don’t know. But the most interesting part of this picture isn’t in the sea area, except maybe for this one spot.” Her finger moved left, to indicate a small white circle. “According to the inertial guidance system on this ship — which I’m going to assume still works correctly, even if the laws of physics are all a bit different here — according to the guidance system, that’s where we first emerged into the Limbo ocean. So my thought is that the little disk is all that’s left of the Link transition point. It comes and goes, and it’s not there now. And don’t ask me how it can be part underwater, instead of in a vacuum or a thin atmosphere, because I have no idea.”

“And this thing?” Tully reached carefully over Elke’s arm to indicate another part of the scene. “Like part of a great big ring.”

“It is. The boundary is an exact circle when you make allowance for the look angle.” Elke ran a finger along the smooth arc. “This marks the edge of a zone of destruction. It only shows on the land and not at sea. Inside this region there’s nothing but blackened soil and dark gray rocks. Outside the burned part it’s a mixture of green and orange. I’m betting that this was originally all growing plants. Somebody sterilized the whole inner region, about seven hundred square kilometers. And guess what’s at the exact center of the black circle?”

“Tell me.”

“Better than that, I’ll show you.” Elke tapped at the board in front of her, and the picture on the display expanded, zooming in on one small area. “This is the highest magnification the image can take without losing detail. But it’s enough.”

Tully counted six drab buildings of muddy yellow, running along each side of a long and narrow stretch of white. At each end of the strip, facing each other, sat two tiny tri-lobed shapes.

“A settlement,” he said softly, “and funny-looking aircraft. I told you that the Bun was reliable. He said he saw one in the sky, and now we know he didn’t lie.”

“We do indeed.” Tully and Elke had been so absorbed in the image that the voice from behind made them jump.

“Aircraft, yes,” Dag Korin went on. He had entered the chamber silently and alone. “But I wouldn’t call that a settlement. See the boundary fence, with guard posts all along it? Throw in the scorched-earth perimeter for kilometers in each direction, and you have yourself a classic military camp. Our head- up-their-wazoo Stellar Groupies can preach peace all they like, but whoever made that encampment had war on their minds. This isn’t their home territory, either, or they wouldn’t blast everything for miles around them. And don’t be fooled by thinking this is all defenses. They may have only a few aircraft, but I’ll bet they have other weapons.”

“More than a few planes.” Tully had been leaning close to the screen as the General spoke, studying the enlarged picture. “Look over here, well outside the camp. It’s not easy to see them because they match the color of the ground. But isn’t that more aircraft?”

“Six, seven, eight.” The way that Dag Korin counted made each word sound like a curse. “Aye, and there’s