They came to a draw by perpetual check: Mach prevented Bane from winning by checking his king continually, forcing him to protect the king rather than closing in on Mach’s. Bane used his pole to block each check, but Mach simply moved to a new position for check. This repetitive motion caused the board to assume the same configuration for a third time, by definition a draw.
At that point all chessmen of either color that had not moved during the game were to be huffed, or removed from the board as if taken. There were none, so the huff proceeded to those who had been longest without moving, as traced by the Game Computer in Proton, without regard to color. This proceeded until either the position was freed, or it proved to be impossible to free it in this manner. In this case, it was freed—but it left Mach in a weaker position than before.
Play resumed, but he was in trouble. Bane’s small advantage in pieces was looming more formidably. Mach saw a chance to play for another draw—but saw also that the resultant huffing would make him yet more vulnerable. Only if he could achieve a draw whose breakup would benefit him could he afford to take it. He used his pole increasingly, which meant he was moving his other pieces less often, and that made them vulnerable to huffing. If he could only get Bane to neglect his pieces—
But he could not. Bane had evidently drilled in this, and was playing with machinelike conservatism. He made no errors, simply letting his advantage operate.
Mach tried a desperate strategy that he knew was flawed, hoping that Bane’s machine mind would not perceive the flaw. But the effort failed, and Mach’s position became hopeless.
He had to resign. He had lost the game, and the first match.
Chapter 14 Chase
They played the grid again. This time it did not seem remarkable to Bane that he could match against his other self through the console; the three grueling chess games had made it seem natural. But this time he intended to stay well clear of board games; Mach’s experience in that regard was far greater than his, and it had been mere luck that he had learned chess from his father, Stile, and been able to add that experience to Mach’s stored knowledge and the advice of the Oracle. If he encountered a game in which he was inexperienced, he would not be able to upgrade sufficiently to be competitive. It had been close, as it was.
He had the numbers, so he chose 1. PHYSICAL. That eliminated the major region of danger! He had had a lot of experience with physical games of all types. Mach had too, of course, but Bane now had Mach’s physical body and could match any of his experience by opening the appropriate memory file. He wasn’t sure how they would be able to play a physical game, but the Oracle said it would be arranged. Soon he would discover what the Oracle had in mind.
Mach chose A. NAKED. So it was to be man against man, unadorned. The man in the machine body against the robot in the living body. Bane was ready, if the framework could arrange it. The second grid appeared on the screen:
5. SEPAR 6. INTERAC 7. COMBAT 8. COOPER
E. EARTH F. FIRE G. GAS H. H20
He had the numbers again. He chose 6. INTERACTIVE, becoming more interested in the challenge to the system than in the game itself, for the moment. A separate game would be easy enough: they could race against a common clock, or lift similar weights, or do individual dives for rating on a common scale. But Interactive meant that they had to touch or at least be affected by each other, as with Hide and Seek. How could they do that, physically, across the frames?
Mach chose H. H2O. So it was to be a water sport! Bane had no fear of that; he had swum joyfully since infancy. Were they going to stretch a pool across the frames?
But as it turned out, the H category was more than water; it was a catchall for all the surfaces: Flat, Variable, Discontinuous and Liquid. The list of qualifying games included one as simple as splashing, and one active as water tag, and—
Bane gaped. The magic games were there too! Levitation Tag, Conjuration Dodge—how could these be played in the frame of Proton? If he tried to make himself float magically, he would get nowhere; if he tried to conjure a snowball to hurl at his opponent, none would appear.
But there had to be a way, or the grid would not be showing these choices. This gave him the chance to select a game with which Mach had no experience!
They assembled and played the third grid, and the result was Transformation Chase. Bane had never actually played that one, because of the number of formchanging spells required; a single game would have exhausted his spells for months. But he had always liked the idea of it, and envied the unicorns who could play it with their natural magic, changing forms effortlessly. Human magic was versatile, but limited to one invocation for any given spell; the animals could do their particular magic without limit. In that way they were superior to man. But they could not do any other magic.
The game was set. There would be a month for training. But Bane could hardly wait to talk to the Oracle, and ask: how? How could he transform his body into the several animal forms that would be required for the proper playing of this game? Mach would have no trouble; they could teach him the necessary spells. But this was Proton!
“Mach is in 1A,” the Oracle explained. “You are technically in 2C—Machine-Assisted Mental. He will transform directly; you will transform in emulation.”
“I be in Machine-Assisted Mental? But the grid—”
“This is a special situation. What he can do directly and physically, you cannot. But the emulation will make it equivalent.”
“How can we know that? Mine emulated figure could have powers my physical one has not.”
“The emulation will exactly match the powers of your physical body. There will be no advantage physically. You will have to convey game information to Mach so that the Red Adept can set it up there, but this will be no problem.”
“But magic—transformations—”
“Your consciousness will be attuned to the game setting, and to Bane’s mind. It will be as real to you as your current existence is, and as accurate.”
Bane realized that the Oracle knew more about altered states of reality than he did, but still he argued. “Look, if we are to play this chase game properly, one o’ us must be the Predator and the other the Prey. When the two come together, the Predator be the victor; an we complete the circuit without that happening, the Prey wins. So we can overlap not during the game itself. Therefore there can be ne’er any connection then. So—”
“The connection will be maintained,” the Oracle explained patiently. “The awareness will be displaced. Your body will pace his throughout, but your awareness will be with your representation in the game. Have no concern.”
Bane gave it up. His lifetime in Phaze simply had not prepared him for the peculiar convolutions of science. “If everyone else be satisfied…” He shrugged.
He joined Agape. “I think I have a few hours off before training for the next round starts. What be good for relaxation?”
“Normally it does not require so much effort for you to think of your favorite relaxation,” she said with a smile.
He had to smile back. “Thou’rt so certain we males have but one interest!”
“Not so, Bane. You have but one interest at a time, in the manner of an animal. That’s not quite the same.”
“Let’s go walk in the park.”
They took a conveyor to the park. This was designed to resemble a wooded region of Old Earth, with fair-sized trees spreading their branches overhead, and ferns growing below. It was arranged to seem considerably larger than it was, because of the premium on space within the dome, but the illusion was effective. Stray breezes wafted through, making the leaves quiver, and butterflies flitted randomly about.