Yael was amazed. “Two hundred and twenty-three times normal? It’s impossible!”
“The aura is possible,” Melody informed her. “My cooperation may not be.” Then, aloud: “Flotsam, I like your Polarian logic. Will you assist me in returning to my natural state?”
“With pleasure. It is merely a matter of—”
“Never!” the Colonel roared. “We made a pact, the five of us, to save our galaxy. Do you want me to summon the Canopian? She stays here!”
So Sphere Canopus was involved in this, too. But not Segment Etamin’s own government?
The Polarian was undaunted. “This is not circular. Neither my culture nor the Society of Hosts permit involuntary transfer.”
“Well, Andromeda does!” the Colonel said. “If we don’t stop them, we’ll all be hostages. Then where will your precious individual rights be? That’s what this war is all about.”
Fltosm addressed Melody: “I regret I cannot assist you without exchange of debt. In matters of interhuman protocol I cannot interfere.”
“I’m not human; I’m Mintakan,” Melody said. But the Colonel’s remarks about the galactic situation alarmed her. If another Energy War were really upon them, there was no security in Sphere Mintaka! “I will exchange debt.”
“Watch it,” Yael advised. “Debt is a mighty funny, mighty serious business with Poles. I don’t understand it, really, but—”
“I am roughly familiar with the concept; it is in the Polarian aspect of Tarot,” Melody told her.
“In accordance with the Compromise Convention of System Etamin,” the Polarian said formally, “I proffer a modified debt exchange, abatement inherent.”
“As an entity of vassal-Sphere Mintaka, I accept,” Melody said.
“You can’t do this!” the Colonel shouted, stepping between them.
“You sure can’t,” Yael agreed. “We’re under martial law here.”
“Shut up and watch,” Melody told her. “Flotsam’s one smart musician.”
“I hereby impress you, Entity Melody of Mintaka, into the Society of Hosts,” the Polarian continued. “The Society is now your representative, and will require your return to your own physique within one Sol-day of now. You will perform the single service of exorcising and interrogating one hostage-entity.”
“This is preposterous!” the Colonel said. “No one can—”
“Agreed,” Melody said. “Tell me how.”
“Necessary review,” Fltosm said. “Originally transfer was to ‘empty’ hosts, those bodies whose minds had vacated, and who were effectively dead, with no Kirlian aura associated. The true essence of personality lies in the aura, what some viewpoints call the soul. When the aura of one entity was transferred to the vacant body of another entity, that body became the living personality of the first entity. But the aura could not survive long away from its natural host, and faded at the rate of one normal intensity per Sol-day, approximately. Thus only high-Kirlian entities could transfer.”
“Hey, I didn’t know this!” Yael murmured.
“More recent developments in the science of transfer have resulted in voluntary hosting,” the Polarian continued. “That is, the host is not vacant, but retains its aura, permitting the temporary occupancy of the more potent aura of a transferee. Because the host-aura is able to maintain its body compatibly, less energy is drawn from the visiting aura, and the fading of that visitor is thereby lessened. We have now enabled the transferee to survive in a foreign host as long as ten times the duration originally possible. In certain cases, tenure can be even longer, as with transfer between compatible siblings of the same Sphere. You, Melody, now occupy the voluntary host of a young Solarian female native to this planet. You are not aware of her aura, as it is less than half of one percent the intensity of yours. But that aura is nevertheless promoting your welfare in transfer, and that aura is protected by the Society of Hosts.”
“See, I was supposed to stay hidden,” Yael said. “If they find out I came out—”
“It is our secret,” Melody assured her.
“Now it seems the entities of Galaxy Andromeda have perfected a technique through which involuntary hosting is feasible,” Fltosm continued. “They are able to transfer their high-Kirlian auras into lesser-Kirlian hosts without the prior consent of those hosts. And they have done so, taking over a number of our most sensitively located entities. We call them hostages: involuntary hosts. There is no way to discover a hostage except by aural verification, which requires the application of complex equipment. Thus we do not know which of our government officials are hostages, for we cannot require them to undertake aural verification without alerting them to our suspicion. It is an uncircular situation.”
“Agreed,” Melody said.
“I’ll say!” Yael exclaimed. “Can’t test the spies without making it worse.”
“So we have initiated a quasi-legal program of hostage identification and research. This is not under the direction of our governing Ministers, because we know that at least one of them is himself a hostage. But our program is essential to the welfare of our segment and our galaxy. If the Andromedans infiltrate and conquer us, our entire galaxy may perish—literally. For they mean to draw away the binding energy of our atomic structure to facilitate the power required for their advancing civilization, and our very substance will disappear in the course of a few thousand years.”
Melody understood. She believed the Polarian, and knew now that it was no idle reason that chained her to this host. The survival of her galaxy was at stake. She would have to do what was required, however inconvenient it might be to her personal life.
“We operate through the Society of Hosts,” the Polarian went on, “because they alone possess the aural expertise to assure the absence of hostages in their own ranks. This is why it is necessary for all our operatives to join the Society. Aural verification is an unquestioned requirement for entry. No suspicion attaches. The Society has undertaken research into hostaging, but has been unable to duplicate the Andromedan technology. Perhaps if a living hostage could be studied—but we dare not touch any that we know of on this planet, because that would give away our knowledge to the Andromedans and precipitate an immediate crisis that could cost us the war.”
The Colonel smiled approvingly. “Not only are you sounding like a Solarian, now—you’re talking like a military man.”
“At times thrust has its applications,” the Polarian agreed, glowing with distaste. “But circularity will be required for the resolution.”
“Agreed,” the Colonel said. “Sorry I butted in.”
“It is the nature of your kind,” Fltosm said generously. Then, to Melody: “Society calculations indicate that a hostage can be reclaimed through our existent technology, provided the hostage is rendered unconscious and laid under siege by a completely superior aura of the same family. Perhaps a different aural family would succeed also; that is less certain. You understand how auras exist in related types, apart from intensity, some being compatible and others so diverse as to be incompatible?”
“Yes,” Melody said. “This accounts for what was historically known as ‘instinctive’ attraction or repulsion between given entities. A parallel could be made to your Solarian or Polarian blood types.”
“Yes. But even with a reasonably close match, the margin of superiority would have to be at least four to one over the besieged aura. The technology of Andromeda has evidently abated this necessity, but we of the Milky Way must resort to comparatively crude force. Therefore—”
“I believe I understand you at last,” Melody said. “You have located a hostage whose controlling aura is of my own aural type, too high for any other entity to overwhelm.”