She also had infinite patience and waited for the inevitable to happen or not to
happen. She could not even feel any sense of danger or excitement. Her plan was
something that had to be tried on grounds of pure logic; it was that and nothing
else which motivated her. She would not even feel disappointment if she was
apprehended, or even if the door failed to open at all.
But it did open. She waited a moment to make certain that it hadn’t opened to
let an orderly pick up the food, then stood and walked out and down the maze of
corridors, all barriers opening before her. She had been this way in a conscious
state only once, but the route was absolutely clear to her. She met no one but
was fully prepared to kill if she had to. Death meant absolutely nothing to her.
The lab was deserted, as she knew it would be, and she ordered it sealed to the
outside. How long can you avoid someone discovering I am gone? she asked the
computer.
With an adjustment in the records showing that you have been fed and tended to
and adjustments in the staff’s orders, including Doctor Wang’s, I can delay a
minimum of twenty-four hours but no more than seventy-two.
I must escape beyond the reach of Center or Administration so long as the
threat remains, she told it.
I do not see any way that this is possible.
Nor do I. Other than escaping to the service corridors, my only other
possibility is to escape to space with access to a spaceship command module.
Other emergency overrides are possible once I am in that position.
Any spaceship? Any size?
Yes. So long as it will support my biological requirements.
There is one way, but it is complex and for that very reason has only a
marginal chance of success.
Proceed.
There are two prisoners who are completed here and are to be transported in a
matter of hours to an interplanetary courier, to be sent to Melchior.
I have seen them.
The younger of the two is close to your size, and with preparation and in
transport clothing you might pass for him. While they will not look too closely
so long as the paperwork is correct, some extreme adjustments would have to be
made to you in order for you to sustain the masquerade all the way to the
spaceport. Additionally, something must be done with the one whom you will
replace, and adjustments must be made to the other, for he will know immediately
that you are not his cousin and is most likely to betray you.
What measures?
It is not sufficient that you masquerade as a boy. To sustain it, you must be
the boy. There is no point at which you will be stripped on the schedule, but we
are talking thirty hours to clear, during which any slip will be fatal.
Proposal?
The two have been kept sedated on a robot-controlled console table in a medical
cell in the men’s section pending transfer. I can get them here without human
intervention or knowledge for a period of time. If we begin now, I can make some
basic physical and chemical alterations in you within two hours. Because of the
time involved, much of it will be synthetics and a basic shell, but it will be
authentic and convincing. It is not possible to actually switch minds, nor
desirable in this case in any event, because your psychochemistry and physical
requirements are so different, but I can lay his template atop my alterations
and reinforce the illusion with hypnotics. You will act like him, think like him
on the conscious level, walk and talk like him. You will not be him, but you
will think you are. I will then use a strong hypnotic on the other and replace
the mental image of Chu Li with what you will look and sound like, and he will
accept you as his cousin even in the face of true physical evidence to the
contrary. I will also modify the security holograms with animation to show you
and not the real Chu Li in pictorials and charts. Barring the unforeseeable, it
should be adequate.
Duration?
Your template, being unsuited to you, will begin to deteriorate rather quickly,
but it should hold reasonably well for at least the necessary three days, as
will the hypnotics. The hypnotic on the companion, being far simpler, should
last longer. Underneath, you will have access to all your own memories and
knowledge, but your personality will be the new one. Be warned that even with
this, the possibilities of being successful are slim, perhaps two percent.
And the service corridor route?
The possibility of doing more than surviving there is no more than one percent.
Survival possibilities are higher—nine percent. Restored to your original
genetic encoding, which adds the animal safeguards, you have almost a thirty
percent chance of indefinite survival but less than a one percent chance of
doing anything more than that.
Why would I have more of a survival chance as the old Song Ching?
Right now you must think about all alternatives, then make the most logical
decision. The full animal instruction set allows action without thinking and
induces many cautions.
It is not logical to use the corridor alternative, then, since I would be
unable to continue my work, and this is the sole reason for escape. It is not
much better an alternative than allowing the work here to proceed. The space
route is the only logical choice allowing any chance of complete success.
Agreed. However, there is a caution. While the hypnotics and template will
deteriorate, the psychochemical changes will not. You will be a sexually
oriented male and will retain a basically male set of personality
characteristics. As you presently are, this does not seem a consideration, but
it has the potential to cause great anguish later. To undo and restore without
causing permanent damage or alterations would require your template and codes
and an installation such as this, unlikely to be in friendly hands.
Escape is the only imperative. All other problems are potential and therefore
secondary. Enact.
6. BARGAINS AT SPEAR’S POINT
I AM A HISTORIAN, A MAN OR WORDS AND ANCIENT OBJECTS, Hawks told her, feeling
uncomfortable. I am no fighter. I do not lack the courage, but I lack the
training and skills to go against these renegades.
Your muscles are developing in the right places, Cloud Dancer assured him.
And your reactions are quite swift for one who works with words, as I have
seen. Not one of these men I have seen is even fit to carry your spear. Their
strength is entirely in numbers. Apart they would be cowards and helpless.
What you say might be true, but in case you had not noticed, my dear wife, I do
not possess the spear they are not fit to carry, nor bow, nor arrows, nor knife,
nor anything else that they have in plenty. And I move in the dark like a
buffalo, he added.
We shall see. I shall see what we are up against this night, and we will then
make plans for tomorrow night. There may be some way to find things here that
might make weapons. A weapon is anything which can be used as one, after all.
He was startled. You are going out there?
In the early hours, when it is chill and very dark. There are clouds tonight.
That will help. For now, let us find some not so rotten fruit to steal from the
poor animals and get some rest.
When she woke him, he frowned and rubbed his eyes, then saw that the first light
of a dismal gray day was already dawning. It is too late, he mumbled. We have
slept through the darkness.
You slept through. I have been out and around half this village, she
responded, sounding very pleased with herself.
That woke him up fast. What!
Ssssh! They are poor excuses for warriors. Two watched from across the way, one
almost across from the door here and the other from down the street. The one
across from us slept most of the night through, while the one down the street
kept leaving for drinks from a container inside and was seeing anything but us.
The sleeping one was depending on a dog to wake him if we moved, but although
the dog saw me, it approached and wagged its tail, as if waiting for a treat of
food. When it found I had none, it followed a short distance, then lost interest
and returned to its still sleeping master. There are some very mean-looking
guards, it is true, but they guard the landing and the storehouse, which is far
from here. Even they seemed bored and might not be impossible to get by.
But you might have been killed!
She smiled. No, I am the prize, remember? You they might kill, my husband, but
me they want and will take if we do nothing. More, I have made a friend, I
think. One who might be of value to us.
What? Who?
I do not know her name, nor her tribe, but it is certainly far down the river.