Pleased, he returned the nod. If he had had doubt about whether she was civilized, it was being resolved.
Ovines brought in platters. Each had an array of odd but interesting-smelling substances. But she hesitated to choose, not wanting to make some gauche error. “Please—you choose,” she said to Ddwng.
He nodded again. In a moment she had a plate of things, similar to his own. She watched him lift a utensil resembling a single chopstick. When he touched it to a morsel, a bite-sized segment of that morsel adhered to it. Good enough.
They ate in silence. The food, strange as it was, was excellent; she could get used to this in a hurry. There was a beverage too, tasting like a cross between beer and chocolate milk; she hoped it wasn’t alcoholic, and it didn’t seem to be. Ddwng wasn’t trying to get her drunk. Why should he bother? She was in his power. That was the fly in this lovely ointment: soon enough Ddwng would get down to business.
They completed the meal, and the servants brought mouthwash that left her mouth feeling absolutely clean after one rinse. That was certainly easier than brushing her teeth!
Then they adjourned to a chamber containing a fountain whose fluid changed colors as it moved. Around it were exotic plants—perhaps ordinary here, but alien to her.
“Now we shall formulate our understanding,” the ball said.
“Of course,” Colene agreed, hoping that her suddenly renewed tension did not show. “What is your interest in me?”
“You are traveling the Virtual Mode with your animal. I have an interest in the Virtual Mode. I would like to know where its device of origin is located.”
“I don’t really know about that,” she admitted honestly enough. “It must have been set up by Darius. I am traveling along it to reach his home reality, or to meet him along the way, I hope.”
“Darius is your promised man?” The ball was doing the talking, but the expressions were on the face of Ddwng, and soon it was as if he were talking. He evidently had some kind of ongoing translation, so that he understood what she said.
“Yes. I love him.” She wanted no misunderstandings: she was taken.
“He is a fortunate man.”
She tried to suppress her girlish delight in being flattered. “I would like to get moving again tomorrow, with my horse. We had to cross quite a number of realities that were, well, empty. Do you know whether the ones in the other direction are okay?”
“We have not had occasion to explore far, but they seem to be similar to those through which you passed.”
“You went to a lot of effort, setting up those paths. Why did you bother?”
“When the Virtual Mode was established, we could not know its origin or mission,” the ball said. “We knew that those on it would have difficulty with this region, and perhaps suffer harm. So we constructed paths as far as feasible, and set markers beyond them. This seems to have been effective, as you arrived on one of these paths.”
“Well, I’m sorry I can’t help you. Why do you want the Chip?”
“A Virtual Mode is normally a temporary thing. With the Chip, we could establish Virtual Modes at our discretion. This would be an excellent thing for our society.”
“The Chip can do that? Can set up a Virtual Mode from anywhere, anytime?”
Ddwng smiled. “Indeed it can, Colene,” the ball said. “So you can see that a Chip is one of the most valuable things in all the realities.”
“I sure do now! I thought it was just some routine thing they could do in Darius’ reality.”
“That may be the case. But I gather it is not routine in your reality, as it is not in mine.”
“In my reality, we don’t even know that there’s more than one reality!”
“How did you discover that?”
He seemed interested, and nice, so she told him. In fact, she was acting just a bit more naïve than she was, because deep down she definitely did not trust him. Stupidity and ignorance could be significant assets for a girl, when they weren’t actual. “Darius was looking for a wife, and he didn’t like the ones where he was, so he made a spot trip to my reality. Somehow he knew that I wanted out of my situation and might go with him. But I didn’t quite trust it, and didn’t go. Then he set up the Virtual Mode, and now I’m trying to get back to him. But it’s one hell of a trip!”
“Surely so. But have you considered that if you are traveling toward his reality, and he is traveling toward yours, you may pass each other without meeting?”
“Se—” she started, then caught herself. She didn’t want him to know that the horse could pick up Darius’ mind when he came within several realities. “Seems I didn’t think of that! Gee, I hope I haven’t already missed him!”
Ddwng smiled again, satisfied about her naïveté. The ball spoke again. “I am sure you have not, because he has not passed through this reality, which seems to be between his and yours.”
“But maybe he went through a corner of it and you didn’t see him.”
“That is unlikely. The void realities are extensive, and difficult to pass. He should have intercepted one of our paths and followed it here, as you did.”
That did make sense. She now saw where Ddwng was leading, so she set it up for him. “But how will I know which path he’s coming in on? I mean, if I go out tomorrow—”
“Readily solved. You will simply wait here for him, and be reunited here. This will surely be best in any event, because we have excellent facilities, and he may be tired from the struggle with the void realities.”
“Gee, that’s nice of you!” she exclaimed happily. But inside she was not at all sanguine. This person had gone to an extraordinary amount of trouble to make long paths, and she doubted that he was doing it from sheer niceness. He wanted the Chip, as he said, and that meant he needed Darius to lead him to the reality where the Chip was.
But that Chip was the potential source of almost unimaginable power. What would Ddwng do once he had it?
She wished she could think of a way to see that Ddwng didn’t get it. But if she made any suspicious move, she was now afraid that she would proceed from the status of Guest to that of Prisoner.
She would have to wait until Darius came, and then warn him not to tell where his reality was. Maybe they could head back to hers, until they got free of Ddwng, then cross this region somewhere else. Or start toward his reality, and turn aside. There were surely ways and ways, if she could just warn him without alerting Ddwng.
“It sure is lucky that you’re here, with a good reality in the middle of the bad ones,” she said brightly. “I’m afraid we would have been in real trouble otherwise.”
“It is fortunate,” the ball agreed.
It was a disaster, she feared.
CHAPTER 10—CAPTAIN
SUDDENLY they were in a barren region. There seemed to be no life at all in this Mode, though the prior Mode was lush.
Darius looked at Provos. “Do you have any memory of this?”
“I have no memory of this,” she said, not answering so much as anticipating his coming response. “We do not remain here long.”
“Let’s move on, then,” he agreed.
They crossed into the next, and the next, but the barrenness continued. This seemed to be an entire segment of lifeless Modes, unlike any they had passed before. The ground was nothing but rock and sand; there was no water.
She could not remember their future as long as they kept crossing to new Modes. But suppose there was no resumption of living Modes within their walking range? Her memory of the future would do them no good; they would be dead.
“Provos, you may not remember the terrain,” he said carefully. “But can you remember your association with me? Do you know me from more than a few days in the future?”