“To deal with your points in order,” Xoralundra said sharply, “the Culture Mind was both lucky and smart; we were fortunate; the Culture can do little because they do not, as far as we know, have any Changers in their employ, and certainly not one who has served on Schar’s World. I would also add, Bora Horza,” the Idiran said, putting both huge hands on the table and dipping his great head towards the human, “that you were more than a little lucky yourself.”
“Ah yes, but the difference is that I believe in it.” Horza grinned.
“Hmm. It does you little credit,” observed the Querl. Horza shrugged.
“So you want me to put down on Schar’s World and get the Mind?”
“If possible. It may be damaged. It may be liable to destruct, but it is a prize worth fighting for. We shall give you all the equipment you need, but your presence alone would give us a toe-hold.”
“What about the people already there? The Changers on caretaker duty?”
“Nothing has been heard from them. They were probably unaware of the Mind’s arrival. Their next routine transmission is due in a few days, but, given the current disruption in communications due to the war, they may not be able to send.”
“What…” Horza said slowly, one finger describing a circular pattern on the table surface which he was looking at, “…do you know about the personnel in the base?”
“The two senior members have been replaced by younger Changers,” the Idiran said. “The two junior sentinels became seniors, remaining there.”
“They wouldn’t be in any danger, would they?” Horza asked.
“On the contrary. Inside a Dra’Azon Quiet Barrier, on a Planet of the Dead, must rank as one of the safest places to be during the current hostilities. Neither we nor the Culture can risk causing the Dra’Azon any offence. That is why they cannot do anything, and we can only use you.”
“If,” Horza said carefully, sitting forward and dropping his voice slightly, “I can get this metaphysical computer for you—”
“Something in your voice tells me we approach the question of remuneration,” Xoralundra said.
“We do indeed. I’ve risked my neck for you lot long enough, Xoralundra. I want out. There’s a good friend of mine on that Schar’s World base, and if she’s agreeable I want to take her and me out of the whole war. That’s what I’m asking for.”
“I can promise nothing. I shall request this. Your long and devoted service will be taken into account.”
Horza sat back and frowned. He wasn’t sure if Xoralundra was being ironic or not. Six years probably didn’t seem like very long at all to a species that was virtually immortal; but the Querl Xoralundra knew how often his frail human charge had risked all in the service of his alien masters, without real reward, so perhaps he was being serious. Before Horza could continue with the bargaining, the helmet shrilled once more. Horza winced. All the noises on the Idiran ship seemed to be deafening. The voices were thunder; ordinary buzzers and bleepers left his ears ringing long after they stopped; and announcements over the PA made him put both hands to his head. Horza just hoped there wasn’t a full-scale alarm while he was on board. The Idiran ship alarm could cause damage to unprotected human ears.
“What is it?” Xoralundra asked the helmet.
“The female is on board. I shall need only eight more minutes to get the gun—”
“Have the cities been destroyed?”
“…They have, Querl.”
“Break out of orbit at once and make full speed for the fleet.”
“Querl, I must point out—” said the small, steady voice from the helmet on the table.
“Captain,” Xoralundra said briskly, “in this war there have to date been fourteen single-duel engagements between Type 5 light cruisers and Mountain class General Contact Units. All have ended in victory for the enemy. Have you ever seen what is left of a light cruiser after a GCU has finished with it?”
“No, Querl.”
“Neither have I, and I have no intention of seeing it for the first time from the inside. Proceed at once.” Xoralundra hit the helmet button again. He fastened his gaze on Horza. “I shall do what I can to secure your release from the service with sufficient funds, if you succeed. Now, once we have made contact with the main body of the fleet you will go by fast picket to Schar’s World. You will be given a shuttle there, just beyond the Quiet Barrier. It will be unarmed, although it will have the equipment we think you may need, including some close-range hyperspace spectographic analysers, should the Mind conduct a limited destruct.”
“How can you be certain it’ll be ‘limited’?” Horza asked sceptically.
“The Mind weighs several thousand tonnes, despite its relatively small size. An annihilatory destruct would rip the planet in half and so antagonise the Dra’Azon. No Culture Mind would risk such a thing.”
“Your confidence overwhelms me,” Horza said dourly. Just then the note of background noise around them altered. Xoralundra turned his helmet round and looked at one of its small internal screens.
“Good. We are under way.” He looked at Horza again. “There is something else I ought to tell you. An attempt was made, by the group of ships which caught the Culture craft, to follow the escaped Mind down to the planet.”
Horza frowned. “Didn’t they know better?”
“They did their best. With the battle group were several captured chuy-hirtsi warp animals which had been deactivated for later use in a surprise attack on a Culture base. One of these was quickly fitted out for a small-scale incursion on the planet surface and thrown at the Quiet Barrier in a warp-cruise. The ruse did not succeed. On crossing the Barrier the animal was attacked with something resembling gridfire and was heavily damaged. It came out of warp near the planet on a course which would take it in on a burn-up angle. The equipment and ground force it contained must be considered defunct.”
“Well, I suppose it was a good try, but a Dra’Azon must make even this wonderful Mind you’re after look like a valve computer. It’s going to take more than that to fool it.”
“Do you think you will be able to?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think they can read minds, but who knows? I don’t think the Dra’Azon even know or care much about the war or what I’ve been doing since I left Schar’s World. So they probably won’t be able to put one and one together — but again, who knows?” Horza gave another shrug. “It’s worth a try.”
“Good. We shall have a fuller briefing when we rejoin the fleet. For now we must pray that our return is without incident. You may want to speak to Perosteck Balveda before she is interrogated. I have arranged with the Deputy Fleet Inquisitor that you may see her, if you wish.”
Horza smiled, “Xora, nothing would give me greater pleasure.”
The Querl had other business on the ship as it powered its way out of the Sorpen system. Horza stayed in Xoralundra’s cabin to rest and eat before he called on Balveda.
The food was the cruiser autogalley’s best impression of something suitable for a humanoid, but it tasted awful. Horza ate what he could and drank some equally uninspiring distilled water. It was all served by a medjel — a lizard-like creature about two metres long with a flat, long head and six legs, on four of which it ran, using the front pair as hands. The medjel were the companion species of the Idirans. It was a complicated sort of social symbiosis which had kept the exosocio faculties of many a university in research funds over the millennia that the Idiran civilisation had been part of the galactic community.
The Idirans themselves had evolved on their planet Idir as the top monster from a whole planetful of monsters. The frenetic and savage ecology of Idir in its early days had long since disappeared, and so had all the other homeworld monsters except those in zoos. But the Idirans had retained the intelligence that made them winners, as well as the biological immortality which, due to the viciousness of the fight for survival back then — not to mention Idir’s high radiation levels — had been an evolutionary advantage rather than a recipe for stagnation.