Again Susan nodded. "But why did you kill-your past self?"
Hyatt smilled. "I must see that things come out the way I know they must. That, you see, is my destiny."
"And you can actually know your destiny?"
"Yes," he said. "As strange as it might seem, I can. In fact, I do."
Control, Susan thought. With Hyatt, it was all about control. And the means to that control were the pendants.
"Where did you get it?" Hyatt asked.
"Get what?" Then she realized that, as she had thought about the pendant, her hand had strayed to the device hanging about her neck.
But she couldn't tell him how she got it. In that knowledge might rest the very element he needed to make his conquest a success. She couldn't tell him anything.
"No matter," he said when he realized she would not respond. "Eventually you will tell me everything I wish to know. But for now, we will let it go."
"Damn," Susan responded, "I wished I had a blaster. Then I would stop you."
"You two are so very much alike," he said.
"What do you mean?" Susan asked. "Which two?"
"That doesn't matter right now, either," he said. "And a blaster probably wouldn't do you any good-particularly one from another time. A power weapon carried across time lines simply does not work."
She thought about the belter in her quarters on Fleet Base, and the tall man outside the Exchange area. That explained why neither had used his weapon.
"But now for the negotiation of your price," the old man said, scattering Susan's thoughts.
"There will be no negotiation," Susan responded. "I will not deal with you, not for any price."
He smiled. "Not even for Photon? It can be yours. But first, you will be of use to me."
A chill rattled up Susan's spine, yet she remained silent. He knew her weak spot-he knew his offer would tempt her. She wanted that ship more than anything in the world. She needed it. With it, she could get away from all this, leave it behind and begin life anew.
But there was no way she could bargain with this man. Deep down, he possessed an inhuman flaw. A flaw so evil it poisoned the very air he breathed. She didn't know precisely what his motives were, but she did know that whatever he hoped to accomplish would not be in the best interest of humankind.
Yet, why would he make the offer if he knew she would refuse it? Why would he waste his time?
Maybe he wasn't wasting it. Maybe he knew something she didn't. Might he know she would accept his offer? Could she do that?
No! she thought. There was absolutely no way she could accept this man's offer.
When she did not immediately respond, Hyatt said, "You do understand, of course, that you know too much to be permitted to live if you refuse my offer. You are either with me, or you are against me."
As he talked, Susan's mind raced, searching for a means to stop him. Somehow, she must kill this man. She knew that.
"I can almost predict what you are thinking," he said. "You are trying to formulate a way to stop me." He smiled and shook his head. "But you can't, you know."
Both were silent for a few seconds. Finally, Hyatt said, "I don't have time for this, Captain. What is your answer?"
It was then Susan launched her attack. She lunged at him across the desk, grabbing the front of his Survey Service jumpsuit. The fabric tore beneath her prosthetic fingers.
A fraction of a second later, the man in her grasp vanished. Her fingers clutched at empty air.
The door irised opened behind her, and she spun about. Hyatt stepped into the room
"As I said, you can't stop me," the Survey Service Director said. In his left hand he held a blaster pistol he had not possessed only an instant before, pointed at Susan's chest.
"You said a blaster won't work," Susan said.
Hyatt smiled. "One carried across time lines wouldn't. I jumped back only a few minutes, went to the armory and requisitioned a blaster, then returned here. You can't beat me. Eventually you must understand that."
Susan didn't know what to say.
One thing was certain: She could not stop him this way. She knew too little about the pendants and how they worked to put anything together, while he had far more experience with them. The best she could hope for now was a simple escape.
But how could she possibly accomplish even that?
Again, the pendant; it was the only logical answer. She had consciously made it work for her once before, less than half an hour ago, when Lieutenant Krueger had attacked her in her hospital room. Then, she had accomplished it only with considerable difficulty, and Krueger had not possessed a pendant. How might it work against someone who did?
She didn't know, but she had no choice. She knew she must try. It was the only chance she had, and perhaps-just perhaps-she could make it work again.
She could not pull off precisely the same trick. Something as simple as that would not work on this man; he was far too shrewd. Besides, she would have seen herself behind him by now if she was actually going to do it.
But a simple escape…
She focused her thoughts on what she knew must be done. Clearing her mind, she concentrated on-
On what? If she jumped to some time in the past, they would only send someone after her. Someone who would have had considerably more practice with the pendants than she had.
No, she couldn't possibly hide in the past. But what of the future? Might the pendant be capable of projecting her into the future, the same as it had the past?
Of course it could. It had already done exactly that, out on the lunar surface, saving her from dying of suffocation. Or had it?
Not quite, she decided. Then, the pendant had not projected her past a time she had already experienced. What she needed now was to jump to a time beyond any she had yet lived. A time that, in fact, might not yet exist.
But how could she do that? How could she possibly project herself to a time she had never inhabited?
She knew she couldn't accomplish it consciously. Perhaps she could trick her subconscious into performing that feat.
Again she cleared her mind of all thought beyond those necessary to accomplish the task. This time, however, she replaced them with a vague, amorphous thought of the future. It was more a feeling than an actual visualization. After all, this was a future she had absolutely no way of knowing.
Suddenly, she felt the dizziness.
Then, nothing…
Chapter Twenty-six
The scent of antiseptic nearly overpowered her, and for an instant she thought she was again in the hospital room in Luna City. But that wasn't right. This room lacked corners; every line was strangely curved. There was a no-nonsense efficiency to it, and everything was colored a soft blue.
Before her sat a ridiculously bare control console. And her feet did not touch the ground. She floated in mid-air, and could not tell up from down.
Then it hit her: She was in freefall, onboard a ship. But not just any ship. She was aboard Photon.
And it was no longer on Luna-it was in space!
A woman hung suspended in the acceleration webbing between Susan and the console, her back to Susan. The woman was dressed in a black Base Security jumpsuit, and her dark hair was cropped close to her head.
Before she cleared her throat, forcing that other woman to turn around, Susan knew what she would discover. But still, when she did so, and the woman did turn her head to face Susan, Susan's breath caught in her lungs. The woman strapped into the acceleration webbing before her was Susan herself!