He was taken aback. “You are speaking to me?”
“Of course I’m speaking to you! I love you!”
She couldn’t have forgiven him! “And I love you. But—”
“I know your culture’s different. You can’t be expected to—I understand that—and anyway, you’re a man. Oh, Darius, please give Ddwng the Chip! It’s the only way we can be together!”
“Colene, I want to be with you more than anything. But if I—”
“It’ll be all right! Honest it will! He’ll let us go, if—please, Darius!”
Why had she turned about so completely? She should be furious with him, yet she was urging him to betray their Modes so that she could be with him. He would have to think about this.
“I will consider,” he told her.
“Please,” she repeated, and faded out.
Darius sat in the chair and considered. He thought of the monster/boy, so recently dead. He thought of Provos, who had said he would kill the monster, and who had also said he would agree to commit to Ddwng. He thought of Colene.
He had offered the boy the chance for a kind of amnesty: fair treatment and a chance to serve the Empire, if he turned his talent to the welfare of the Empire. He knew Ddwng would have honored that, because it made sense. Instead the boy had attacked him—and destroyed himself in the process. Utter folly.
There was no doubt that Ddwng had power over Darius and Colene. He could make them happy together, or keep them apart, or torture them or kill them or let them go. He was no fool. If Darius tried to cross him, Darius would be destroyed. But if he cooperated, he would be rewarded. He was to the Emperor as the monster/boy was to Darius himself. What was his choice?
Provos said he would accede. Colene had begged him to. He didn’t like it, but it did seem to be his only practical choice.
“Get me the Emperor,” he told Cat. The two other Felines were recuperating from their ordeal.
In a moment Ddwng was on the screen. He must have been waiting for this.
“I have destroyed the monster,” Darius said to the Emperor. “I promised the natives I would seek to end the exploitation of their kind as food. I am requesting—”
“The word of a minion of the Empire is good. That exploitation shall cease forthwith.”
That was certainly swift! Darius had promised only to ask, and here he had succeeded in changing Empire policy. But that was the minor issue. He braced himself for the major one.
“Today I am in your Mode, sir, in your power,” Darius said. “In my Mode the power will be ours. I will guide you there, but the Chip is not mine to give. I will introduce you to the Cyng of Pwer, who may elect instead to kill you. You must let Colene and her horse and Provos and me into the Virtual Mode and we shall do you no harm there. This is the deal I proffer.”
“Agreed.”
Darius stared at the man. “No bargaining? You will risk yourself this way?”
“You are a man of honor. You will advise me of the appropriate manner to approach your official. It is enough.”
“A man of honor? How can you know that?”
“It is not only your words and actions we have watched. We know the physical and brain-wave patterns of deceit. You have at times withheld information, but you have not given false information. You are to be trusted, and after I possess the Chip you will be given a ranking position in the Empire, if you wish it.”
“You can not trust a person whose cooperation has been obtained under duress.”
“That depends on the man. Now relax, Captain Darius; your mission has been accomplished, and you will return to Earth.” Ddwng faded out.
So it was done. Darius did not feel uplifted. He had done it to save Colene.
Colene. What were her feelings toward him now? She had seen him with Pussy, then called him back to plead his acquiescence to the demand of the Emperor. She did not know the threat against herself. What could account for the change?
Was there a threat against him too, which she knew about? But if she was angry with him, she could simply let it happen. Instead she had said she loved him and wanted to be with him.
Maybe she really did understand. But maybe she was doing what was expedient now, and there would be a reckoning later. After they were free of the DoOon. If they got free.
CHAPTER 11—CONSORT
COLENE looked at her wrist. The scars had faded. She had not cut herself since meeting Darius. But now she was getting that feeling again.
When she had come here and realized that she and Seqiro were prisoners, she had hoped they would be able to escape soon after Darius arrived. But he had been whisked away almost immediately to a distant stellar system. That prevented her from even trying to flee. She knew she would have to wait until he returned to Earth.
Oh, Ddwng was treating her well enough. He dined with her often, and was always exceedingly polite. One might have supposed that an emperor of a galaxy would have better things to do, but apparently his staff was more than competent, and he seldom had crisis decisions to make. She had feared that his interest in her was that of a man for some wild primitive strange woman, but he seemed genuinely curious about her ways and feelings. What she would do if another type of interest manifested she didn’t know. She didn’t want to make him mad—not while Darius was far away—but she didn’t want any more to do with him than absolutely necessary.
She had three nulls of the Equine persuasion to tend to her every need and want. Indeed, they were compelled to do one or more services for her each day. Had she been a man, she would have had no trouble finding something for Mare each day; she was as luscious a piece of woman-flesh as could be imagined, from the neck down. But Colene was a girl, and though Stallion would have been glad to do for her what a man did, hired sex was not her interest. So she was kept busy keeping them busy.
She was allowed information on Darius’ progress, and she followed it compulsively. Unfortunately that meant being aware of the time he spent with his nulls, particularly Pussy. What an apt name for that juicy Feline!
He called her, to her surprise; she had assumed that direct dialogue between them would be forbidden. So she tested it further by urging him not to agree to give Ddwng the Chip. Then she waited somewhat apprehensively for the Emperor’s reaction.
There was none. She did not trust that one bit.
She was allowed access to Seqiro too. Actually she was in constant mental contact with him, but she wanted more than that. So they played the game of riding, because both agreed that his mental powers should be hidden. The people of this reality had no awareness of telepathy, treating it as a supernatural notion. Seqiro reported that their minds seemed opaque to it, not because of being guarded but because they just did not seem to be organized that way. The animals could be touched, but Seqiro did not even send the mosquitoes away, lest an attendant notice. He was being the complete dumb animal.
She returned to the palace interior to learn from Horse that Darius had tried to call her again. “Well, call him back!” she said, her heart leaping. “Immediately!”
It placed the call. Tom received it. “Darius is busy at the moment,” the cat-head said.
“Oh, he’ll talk to me!” she said confidently.
“As you wish.” The picture changed.
There was Darius, naked, in the process of having sex with Pussy. She was so surprised and dismayed that she couldn’t think of any appropriate reaction. “I guess you’re busy right now,” she said lamely, and faded out. That description was appropriate: she thought she was going to faint.
“You seem surprised at his activity,” Horse said. “I should clarify that it is normal to—”