"Oh-oh. I don't have them bugged, for the obvious reason. We'll lose him."
"I'll post emergency guards." And Neq went about the matter quietly, using the underground intercom system to wake those on call. Soon armed men would stand at strategic points in all the halls of that section.
But soon was not now. A horrible picture formed in Neq's mind. The person who would have known Helicon best was its former leader, Bob. He would have escaped if anyone had. Neq used his office now, and was reminded of the man more than he liked. There were little things about the setup, such as the way the metal desk faced the only door, and the gun in that desk, and the wiring for intercom connections to every part of Helicon, and the spotlights set in the ceiling. That office was a little fortress. There had been scorch-marks in it, as in the rest of Helicon--but no corpse. Sol could have caught Bob elsewhere and killed him, of course--but there was no proof of that. Bob might have survived, somehow-- and now he could be returning, determined to be avenged on the child who had rejected his perverted advances....
Abruptly something else came clear. That was why Bob had sent Soli to her presumed death! Vengeance for the embarrassment she had caused him! Instead of submitting, she had driven him off with her sticks... and at any time she could have told Sol. She had had to be eliminated--and what better way than by besieging nomads, Sol's kind?
And therein lay Bob's fatal mistake. He had not acted for the best interests of Helicon, but to avenge and cover his own mistake with Soli. He had let personal factors interfere with his duty.
"What?" Vara exclaimed as Neq entered. "Oh, it's you."
Just as Neq was letting his own involvement with the same girl interfere with his own duty. "There's a stranger in the halls, coming this way. For you, I think. There wasn't time to set guards--"
"Oh!" she said, going for her sticks.
He pushed her down on the bed again. She was heavy and her breasts were huge as he touched her in the dark. "No action for you! That's why I'm here. If he enters--"
"But I have no enemies, do I?" she asked. "Except maybe you, when I empty my belly and start sharing in a few months."
He laughed, but the remark cut him. How could he enforce the system for others, unless he honored it himself? No wonder the social system had not been working well.
Bob's mistake...
"It is over between us," he said. "I love you, but I am master of Helicon. I must be objective. Do you understand?"
"Yes, you are right," she said, and it hurt him that she could agree so readily. "It has to be that way."
He knew then that it was over. She was a child of Helicon; she understood the sharing system emotionally as well as intellectually. She had never been his to keep.
A few minutes later they both heard it. Quick furtive steps in the hall, coming near.
The door opened. Neq raised his claw to strike, wishing for his sword. He nudged the light switch with his elbow. Brilliance erupted.
Vara screamed.
Momentarily blinded, the stranger stood with tousled hair and arms lifted on guard. A woman. Naked.
Pretty face, rather shapely figure, lithe legs, well formed breasts--had he had his sword, he would have cut her down before he realized.
"Sosa!" Vara cried, scrambling from the bed.
The two women embraced while Neq stood with claw frozen. Of all the developments!
"Oh, mother, I'm so glad!" Vara sobbed. "I knew you were alive..."
Sosa: the woman Vara considered her real mother, in preference to Sola. Naturally she had returned to join her daughter. Naturally she didn't care about anyone else. Or to meet anyone else, in her silent nudity. She just wanted to visit Vara and perhaps take her away, staying clear of other entanglements. She had probably had to swim through some of the fringe-cavern waterways, avoiding radiation. The mystery had been solved.
Now the two women were reunited, and oblivious to him. Neq left quietly, knowing he would not be missed.
Vara did not leave. Sosa stayed. She merged with the group so smoothly that it seemed she had always been there. She assumed Vara's duties including the sharing, and though she was of Neq's generation the men were very glad to participate with her. She was a small, active woman in very good condition and easy to get along with. Her immediate past was a mystery; she had disappeared when Helicon was destroyed, and reappeared now that it lived again, and she confessed her troubles to no one.
If Neq had doubted Vara's need for him before, now there was no question. Vara needed nobody but Sosa. It was good that such comfort was available in her period of stress, but it cast Neq loose without even the excuse of jealousy.
Jim's call on the newly-renovated television network awakened Neq again. Another routine emergency!
"Someone in the subway," Jim said. "Going, not coming. Seems to be female."
Vara, he thought, horrified. Sosa had finally talked her into leaving, so that the baby would not be subject to Helicon! "I'll check it myself," he said.
Jim nodded in the screen, perhaps understanding Neq's concern. It was a matter to handle privately.
Someone was certainly in the subway, but not using the cars. Neq let out the breath he had held when passing through the flower-chambers and smelled the other faint perfume, the kind the women liked to wear. Of course she would not use one of the cars; such a drain on Helicon power would immediately alert the monitor. Few people knew about Jim's other monitors, as a matter of policy and security. Increasingly Neq appreciated the various mechanisms of his predecessor, Bob; it was necessary to know what was going on, without having to share that information with others.
There was no dust on the tracks now, for the subway was regularly used. He could not trace her visually. But when he put one ear to the metal he heard some faint brushing or knocking. Someone was walking along the track, headed for the hostel. Someone heavy, a bit clumsy... like a woman large with child.
He followed into the dark tunnel, running silently. Soon he could hear her directly, and he slowed to make sure he would not be prematurely detected. He wanted to catch her before she could do anything rash. Vara could be a difficult handful at the best of times....
She was picking her way along as though afraid of the dark, making slow progress. One person, not two.
Why wasn't Sosa with her? Sosa was catlike in the dark, and she had other routes--but she would not leave her adopted daughter to stumble alone. Actually, Vara herself was a competent night marcher; pregnancy should not change that completely.
He came up behind her and spoke. "Go no farther."
"Oh!" It was a shriek of surprise, and something dropped.
The voice gave her away: Sola. She had been carrying her belongings in a bundle in her arms, together with what must be a fair amount of food and water. No wonder she lumbered!
"What are you doing here?" he demanded, perversely angry at her for not being Vara.
"I'm leaving!"
Obviously. "No one leaves Helicon. You know that better than anyone."
"Then kill mel" she cried, hysterically defiant. "I won't stay with her!"
Why did everyone associate him with killing, still? "Vara? But she needs you more than ever now--"
"Sosa!" The name was hissed.
Belatedly, he made the connection. If he resented Sosa's captivity of Vara's affection, how much more should Vara's natural mother resent being shunted aside at the very time she had expected to be closest to her daughter? He had been narrow to view Sosa's impact only as it applied to himself. He had overlooked the natural reactions of others--just as Bob had, before. Was he fated to make all the same mistakes, until the same end came?
"You have other responsibilities," he said, somewhat lamely. "You can't run away just because one thing isn't right." Yet he had been feeling an increasing temptation to do just that himself, for administration bored and annoyed him as it had when he was a leader in the nomad empire, and without Vara he had little to brighten his outlook. "Here in Helicon there are no mates, no parents, no children--only jobs to do."