The curlicue faded from the screen, to be replaced by a diagrammatic image of F. C. Stone’s own keyboard. It was quite recognizable, except to her dismay, an attempt had been made to repeat it three times over. The two outer representations of it were warped and blurred. “Gods!” said F. C. Stone. “How do I use this? There isn’t room for it all.”
“Hit HELP before you use the extra keys on the right and CAP before you use the ones on the left.” Adny’s voice reassured her. “Ready?”
She was. She took a hasty sip of cooling qavv to steady herself and hovered over her keyboard, prepared to enjoy herself as never before.
It was actually a bit of a letdown. Keys on her screen shone brighter green. Obedient to them, F. C. Stone found herself typing CAP A, d, HELP N and then HELP N, a, D. Some part of her mind suggested that this still looked like Danny’s joke, while another part, more serious, suggested it might be overwork and perhaps she should see a doctor. But she refused to let either of these thoughts distract her and typed CAP D, n, HELP A in high excitement.
As she did so, she heard the computer’s childish voice again. “Ready for jump. Candida One, are you sure of this? Your coordinates put us right on top of Nad, in considerable danger from our own defenses.”
“Reassure her,” Adny’s voice said urgently.
Without having to think, F. C. Stone said soothingly, “It’s all right, Candida Two. We have to test those defenses. Nad is under orders not to hurt us.” And she thought, As to the manner born! I’d have made a good Matriarch!
“Understood,” said the childish voice. “Jump as given, on the count of zero. Five, four, three”—F. C. Stone braced herself—“two, one, zero.”
Did she feel a slight lurch? Was there a mild ripple of giddiness? She was almost sure not. A quick look around the workroom assured her that all was as usual.
“Jumping,” said Candida Two. “There will be an interval of five subjective minutes.”
“Why?” said F. C. Stone, like a disappointed child.
Adny’s voice cut in hastily. “Standard for a microjump. Don’t make her suspicious!”
“But I don’t feel anything!” F. C. Stone complained in a whisper.
The keyboards vanished from the screen. “Nobody does,” said Adny. “Computer’s out of the circuit now. You can speak freely. There is no particular sensation connected with jump, though disorientation does occur if you try to move about.”
“Damn!” said F. C. Stone. “I shall have to revise all my books!” An acute need to visit the toilet down the passage came upon her. She picked up her mug of chphy reflexively, thought better of that, and put it down again. Her mind dwelt on that toilet, its bowl stained from Danny’s attempt, some years ago, to concoct an elixir of life, and its chain replaced by a string of cow bells. To take her mind off it, she said, “Tell me what you mean to do when you and the other ships come out over Nad. Does this start a revolution?”
“It’s rather more complicated than that,” said Adny. “Out of the twelve Male Lodges, there are only six prepared to rebel. Two of the remaining six are neutral traditionally and supported in this by the Minor Covens, but the Minor Covens are disaffected enough to ally with the Danai, who are a helium life-form and present a danger to all of us. The four loyal Lodges are supposed to align with the Old Coven, and on the whole they do, except for the Fifth Lodge, which has thrown in with the Midmost Coven, who are against everyone else. Their situation is complicated by their concessions to the Traders, who are largely independent, save for overtures they seem to have made to the Anders. The Anders—another life-form—have said they are our allies, but this flirting with the Traders makes us suspicious. So we decided on a bold ploy to test—”
“Stop!” said F. C. Stone. Much as she loved writing this kind of stuff, hearing someone talk like it made her head reel. “You mean, you’ve gone to all this trouble just for a test run?”
“It’s more complicated than—” began Adny.
“No, I don’t want to know!” said F. C. Stone. “Just tell me what happens if you fail.”
“We can’t fail,” he replied. “If we do, the High Coven will crush the lot of us.”
“Me, too?” F. C. Stone inquired anxiously.
“Possibly,” said Adny. “They may not realize how I did this, but if they do, you can probably stop them by destroying your machine.”
“Never!” said F. C. Stone. “I’d rather suffer—or, better still, win!”
A bell rang. The keyboard reappeared, elongated and bent, in her screen. “Emerged over Nad,” the computer said. “Candy! What is this? I count sixteen other ships emerged, two Trader, four Ander, and the rest appear to be Matriarch. We jump back.”
“Give me functions Nine and Ten!” Adny snapped.
“I authorize Adny—” said F. C. Stone.
“Oh, Candy!” the computer said reproachfully. “Why are you so good to that little creep? He’s only a man.”
“I authorize Adny in functions Nine and Ten,” F. C. Stone almost shrieked. It was the only way she could think of to stop the unpleasant sensations which were suddenly manifesting, mostly in her head and stomach. It was as if surf were breaking through her in bubbles of pain. A tearing feeling across her shoulders made her think she was germinating claws there. And psychic attack or not, she knew she just had to get to that toilet.
“Acknowledged,” the computer said glumly.
She leaped from her chair and ran. Behind her she heard claps of sound and booms that seemed to compress the air around her. Through them she heard Adny’s voice issuing orders, but that was shortly overlaid by a high-pitched whistling, drilling through her ears even through the firmly shut toilet door.
But in the loo, as she was adjusting her dress, a certain sanity was restored to F. C. Stone. She looked at her own face in the mirror. It was encouragingly square and solid and as usual—give or take a sort of wildness about the eyes—and it topped the usual rather overweight body in its usual comfortably shapeless sweater. She raked her fingers through the graying frizz of her hair, thinking as she did so that she would make a very poor showing beside Adny of the golden voice. The action brought away two handfuls of loose hair. As always, she was shedding hair after a heavy session at the word processor—a fact she was accustomed to transfer to her aliens, who frequently shed feathers or fur during jump. Things were quite normal. She had simply been overworking and let Danny’s joke get to her.
Or perhaps it was charred chili powder, she thought as she marched out into the passage again. Possibly due to its hallucinogenic nature, that damnable whistling was still going on, pure torture to her ears. From the midst of it she could hear Adny’s voice. “Ned Coven, do we have your surrender, or do we attack again?”
I’ve had enough! thought F. C. Stone. She marched to her desk, where the screen was showing Adny’s curlicue, pulsing to the beat of the beastly shrilling. “Stop this noise!” she commanded. “And give me a picture of Partlett’s flight deck.” If you can, she thought, feeling for the moment every inch the captain of the starship Candida.
The whistling died to an almost bearable level. “I need function Eleven to give you vision,” Adny said—irritably? casually? or was it too casually? He was certainly overcasual when he added, “It does exist, you know.”
Give him what he wants and get rid of him, thought F. C. Stone. “I authorize function Eleven then,” she said.