The image vanished.
Bredon stared at the empty air, trying to decide whether or not to believe the casual confession of mass murder. Had Thaddeus really butchered hundreds of innocent people?
Yes, he probably had, if Gamesmaster had told the truth about what happened on Alpha Imperium.
Bredon's own tribe was safe; they dwelt far to the east of the mountains, while Fortress Holding was far to the west. Still, a shudder ran through him at the thought of what a Power could do to them on a mere whim.
The others were also staring at the air, but their thoughts were clearly different.
“It's a bluff,” Geste announced.
“I don't know,” the Skyler said.
Imp glanced at the others, then turned back to the empty air without commenting, obviously involved in her own considerations.
“Of course it's a bluff!” Geste insisted. “He wouldn't dare kill helpless prisoners like that. Someone would find out. If any of us die, Mother will know, and she'll report it back to Terra, and they'll send someone out to investigate. Thaddeus won't risk that."
“Of course he would!” the Skyler said. “We don't know what's happened on Terra in the last four centuries; someone might have blown the whole planet apart by now. And Mother would send the news at light-speed, and we're hundreds of light-years from Terra. We've been through this before, Geste."
“But he couldn't,” Geste insisted. “Even without bringing Terra into it, if he kills one of us, a cold-blooded murder like that, the others won't permit it. They'll all join forces against him. He won't risk that!"
The Skyler frowned. “Geste, you're being stupid; of course he will. First off, he's crazy. Second, the others are all apathetic and lazy, and they won't try to stop him and he knows it. Third, they can all be blackmailed by threats to the other six, if he kills one-seven is a lot of hostages to risk. And fourth, even if they did all gang up on him, he'd probably still win, because he's ready for it and he's got Aulden."
Geste hesitated, then said, “All right, you're right. I suppose I knew it, but I didn't want to admit it. He will kill them, all seven of them. He says he already killed all those other people, and I don't think he'd lie about that-we could check it too easily. Seven more won't mean that much more to him. But damn it, Skyler, we have to stop him, even if he does kill them! This may be the last chance anyone has. He expects us to give in, so if we attack we can catch him off-guard. And if we don't stop him, he's going to start an interstellar war, and probably kill millions of people. We have to stop him!"
It was the Skyler's turn to hesitate. She pursed her lips and glanced about uncertainly.
“You're right,” she said at last. “I hate it, but you're right. And if you can let him kill Sheila, I won't argue any more. I don't even like most of the people he has there."
“Good! Imp?"
“What?” The redhead started at the sound of her name.
“Do you agree?” Geste asked. “We attack?"
Imp stared at Geste as if not really seeing him. “I don't think so,” she said, oddly detached. She pulled a gleaming object from the air and spoke into it, slowly and clearly.
“Do it, code green, I tell you three times, code green, code green."
Geste lunged forward, grabbing for the device she held, but was not in time to prevent her completion of the command. Imp fell back under his onslaught, landing roughly on the stone terrace with Geste on top of her. A sudden whirring and hissing came from all sides.
Bredon was at first baffled by this entire incident, but then dredged up a bit of information from his imprinted knowledge. The gleaming object was a master-link communicator.
A master-link communicator went straight to the central controls of a system, bypassing all artificial intelligences and working directly on the basic computer functions the intelligences operated unconsciously, much as a human's internal organs functioned without any conscious control. Such communicators existed as a safety measure, to make certain that humans could always override their creations. Only a very limited number of commands could be made over a master link, all intended for emergency situations.
Imp had apparently set up a command of some sort under the name “Code green,” but Bredon could only guess what it was, or even what system her link was connected to.
Geste, sprawled across a motionless Imp, was in a light trance, communicating with his machines.
The Skyler demanded, “What's going on?” Bredon looked at her, and realized she was on the verge of hysteria.
“Damn!” Geste spat, coming out of his trance. “She's aborted every major weapon system we had! I let her take care of coordinating everything, so our weapons wouldn't get in each other's way, and she had saboteur systems built into everything she could get at, all set to shut down on that command!"
“I didn't trust you,” Imp whispered. “I had to be ready."
“Now what do we do?” the Skyler wailed.
Geste sat up and looked at her with disgust. She paid no attention, and his expression altered to a more contemplative one. “We still have the Skyland,” he said. “We can drop it on Fortress Holding if we have to. We'll need to sabotage his protective fields, though."
“Drop the Skyland? Oh, no, Geste. No, you don't.” The Skyler was suddenly calm, shocked back from the edge of hysteria by the threat to her hold. “Not my home you don't. Drop Arcade on him if you like!"
“Arcade doesn't fly, Skyler, and by the time I could make it fly-without Aulden's help-it would be too late to do any good. The Skyland is the only one of its kind, the only real weapon we have left, because Thaddeus would never think we would use it as a weapon."
“And he's right, damn him, and damn you, too, Geste! Nobody is going to do anything with the Skyland!"
“That's right,” Imp said from where she lay. “If you smash the Fortress you'll kill Aulden and the others."
“But…"
“No buts, Geste!” The Skyler's tone had softened somewhat.
Imp said, “I know you mean well, Geste, and maybe you're right, in the abstract, but we can't do it. We can't kill our friends and smash the Skyler's home. We can't."
Geste looked up at the Skyler, and then down at Imp, who still lay sprawled before him.
“You want to surrender?” he asked.
“We don't want to,” Imp replied, lifting herself up on one elbow. “We have to. If Thaddeus has those seven people, we can't let him kill them."
“Would you say that if Aulden weren't one of them?"
“I don't know,” Imp admitted, “I really don't. But it doesn't matter, because he is one of them."
“If he is,” Bredon said, breaking into the conversation for the first time. He had been very carefully thinking over what he had seen, in the light of his new understanding of Terran technology. “Why did Thaddeus only show those images for quick flashes like that? Maybe he faked them, or used old recordings."
Startled, the other three all looked at him. “But Mother said…” Imp began.
“If he faked the pictures, couldn't he have faked that transmission, too?” the Skyler asked her.
Geste stared at Bredon, but said nothing. The corners of his mouth twitched, however, and Bredon knew he was thinking hard, and was pleased with the results.
The two women, after staring at each other speechlessly for a few seconds, turned to stare at Geste, waiting for his response.
“Could he be faking it?” Imp demanded.
“I think,” the Trickster said at last, “that we had better check for ourselves that Thaddeus does have captives, that he hasn't killed them already, before we agree to anything."
“How can we do that, if Thaddeus is faking all the transmissions out of Fortress Holding?"