The nat gave himself (of the two sexes, he was male) another couple of breaths, and sighing, turned. Stared, one tufted ear pointing straight at me, the other closing. He was an org, I’ve seen enough of them, thick and somehow very solid looking. But inside that org body, a force of personality like few I’d encountered gave an extra glow like a sun’s aura.
I tried to make myself as cipherlike as I could.
“Who are you? Where’s Haken?” he barked, with just the slightest undertone of impatience.
“Regrets, lord leader.” I kept my hand in the salute, though I could feel the muscles trembling, reflexive flesh body reaction. “Your assistant Haken has met with a slight accident. I am Jasso. The computer selected me as having the next best qualifications to assist you.”
Of course it had. After we’d primed it a bit. Luckily, they had primitive computers here. There wasn’t a low-tech computer built that a cybber couldn’t play any games they wanted to with. Poor Tango would have more of a job infiltrating the other major power, since they hadn’t advanced to computers much. But that wasn’t my worry. I had to convince this org that he couldn’t do without me.
Course, making the computers spill his psych profile was a prime advantage. We used it to design this synth org body for me. But as I stood there, erect and trying to control instinctive tremors, I wondered. This one was a system-of-a-lot more than whatever the psych profile had indicated. He limped toward me, leaning on a cane, and I saw the twisted mess an early battle had made of one leg. He hadn’t let them amputate, though they’d told him he’d die if they didn’t. Then he’d fooled them a second time, when they told him he’d never walk again.
I was glad we hadn’t used our first, simplistic plan. Tango had been totally in favor. This one standout org had all but united a planet split asunder by war, and would finish the job very soon. Eliminate him, and with any luck, they would fall back into squabbling savagery.
But, I had argued, suppose they don’t. Suppose it’s happened, they unite around his corpse. Can you imagine the havoc they’ll cause? I had convinced Tango to dig a little deeper before we tried anything.
Now here I was, already having found the first datum, the incredible power of this org’s personality.
He stood in front of me, glaring. “I don’t need an assistant at all.”
“No, sir.”
“Or a bodyguard.”
“No, sir.”
“Or anything el—”
“LOOK OUT!” I hurled us both to the floor as the flash of concentrated energy sizzled the air where we’d both been standing. We rolled, but he, because of his greater weight, wound up on top. Even as I struggled to get my handweapon out, he had his and was shooting back in the direction the beam had come from. The synthetic square he had been looking through at the world outside was already mostly vaporized, leaving a huge hole ringed with jagged shards. There was a howl of pain, and a spinning figure hurtled past the emptiness.
I scrambled to my feet, but his cane, still in his off hand, tripped me. “Young fool! Suppose there’s more than one.”
I knew there was only one, a programmed fake-org Tango and I had whipped up, but he couldn’t know that. I crawled rapidly toward the opening, angling so the wall protected me as much as possible. When I got there, I cautiously stuck enough of my head past solidity to see out. I glanced around and said, “Don’t seem to be any more, but you stay there until I can call security and be sure.” “Ump. Call security? They should have come as soon as the window broke and the alarms sou—”
There was pounding behind a closed entryway, and it burst inward. Security had arrived. Too late, of course. They almost skewered me before he could stop them and tell them the attack had been from outside. As it was, they were dragging me away, struggling valiantly, before he could say any more.
“Stop!” It was all he said. All that was needed. Six security types froze, their hands on various portions of my flesh anatomy. I was almost sorry he did it. By the Circle of Stars itself, it was the first time I had been enfleshed that I had found something that helped the itching.
“Sir!” What was evidently the squad leader, a tall and lissome female that made my male body (this was a theoretically egalitarian society, but we’d decided that putting me in a female body and close to the leader might complicate what I had to do) itch in another way, saluted and froze, awaiting orders.
“He helped defend me,” said the leader in a low but firm voice. “The scum who attacked me fell. Find the body, and see if you can get a clue from it.”
“Sir!” The security squad leader straightened her arm as if pointing from the shoulder, and then saluted again. “Suppose the filth managed to drag itself away?”
“I shot the attacker, squad leader.”
“Oh.” She was almost smiling. “Did you leave enough for us to analyze, sir?”
His face was totally blank, yet somehow he had returned her smile without smiling. “I tried, squad leader. Go see if I succeeded.”
Again she straightened her arm and returned to full salute position. “Sir.” Then, with the effect of a cybber about to face a nova, “If you would permit me to keep my squad closer to you—”
It was as far as she got. “No,” was all he said. I knew it was an old argument. He glanced out the… window. “And send somebody up here to replace that.”
She about-faced, and her squad followed, taking me along, whether I wanted or not. Six times my mass dragging me entrywards was a potent argument.
“Leave him.” However softly spoken, it was an order.
Hands dropped away from me.
His lips curled. Radiation blast me if I could have described the expression. But what he said was, “He can help protect me.”
She turned, and her expression was plainly readable. You’ll have to protect him.
I had to suppress the urge to flip my tail at her. It was a totally instinctive reaction, from reflexes Imprinted in the body. I knew what it meant, too. Thinking it over quickly, I almost did it deliberately. Then decided against it.
I might as well have. She gave me a Look.
“My new assistant, squad leader. Better get used to him. Unless—” It was a question, directed at me.
I used another Imprinted instinct, my ears drooping and springing full erect. Then put it into words: “The medics won’t say how long Haken will be in the hospital, or how much longer before he can be any use to you, lord leader.”
“Do you know how to use a computer?”
Do cybs graze rares? ‘Yes, lord leader.”
“Then come along.” To the squad leader. “Go. Send me whatever information you can come up with as soon as possible.”
“Yes, lord leader!” She snapped one last salute and led her squad out. I watched her rump working with total male pleasure.
The leader glanced down and behind me, and I followed his gaze. And saw, with embarrassment, that my tail was sticking straight out behind me. Again, an Imprinted body reflex, reflecting what I was thinking.
“Word of advice, son.” His voice rollicked with amusement. “Let her make the first and the second move.”
“Sir?”
“I’m not fool enough to murky the air with emotion when all should be professional. But I know my people. She has more than her share of female pride. But—” Definitely a smile equivalent. “I understand that nobody lucky enough to be one of her chosens has any complaints, afterwards.”
“Uh, yes.” My tail was sticking out so hard it almost hurt.