“How? I thought he tried many times.”
“And failed many times. But a simple solution came to me while exploring Parallax Red some months ago. I’ve yet to test it, because it will have the most deadly of consequences. Now that you’ve told me my plan to increase the population of the transadapts will fail, I have no other option. Once I embark upon this particular path, there is no turning back.”
“Deadly consequences for whom?”
“Everyone.”
Brigid lowered her eyebrows in a frown. “Everyone? You mean on Mars?”
Sindri threw his arms wide. “I mean everyone . Including the inhabitants of Earth.”
She stared at him, confused and puzzled. “You’ve lost me.”
He grinned. “Hardly, Miss Brigid. You’ve won me many times over.”
Grimly she replied, “Stick to the subject”
The grin fled Sindri’s face. “You accused me of being a liar, which is no accusation at all, since it is the truth. You told me my plan to revitalize the transadapt population will fail. I presume that is the truth, not a lie to mislead me.”
He paused, waiting for her response.
After a moment, she said simply, “It’s the truth. Test my egg cells if you doubt me.”
“I don’t. However, if that plan has failed, then there is no reason to continue the deception. I could give the proverbial rat’s ass about the transadapts.”
“I suspected as much,” Brigid said dryly.
As if he hadn’t heard, Sindri plunged on. “Stupid, filthy, childish creatures. The Committee of One Hundred was right. They cannot govern themselves, they should have no decision-making abilities. They are useful only as legs and arms and strong backs. Could you imagine a man like me mating with a subhuman troglodyte like Elle?” He shuddered in genuine revulsion.
“Unfortunately,” he continued, “they were the only followers I had available. The humans viewed me as a jumped-up transadapt and they refused to acknowledge my superior abilities. I had no choice but to seek the transadapts’ aid to accomplish my goals. Despite their other shortcomings, they are easily led.”
“What was your goal, to be king of the Fourth Planet?”
Sindri smiled. “Not bad. If I intended to stay here, I might adopt such a title.”
“In other words,” ventured Brigid, “you weren’t concerned for the welfare of the transadapts due to humane reasons?”
“There is strength in numbers, Miss Brigid. And without sufficient numbers, I do not have sufficient strength to carry out my ambitions.”
“Which are?”
He beamed at her, eyes twinkling impishly. “I’ll bet you can guess.”
She recognized the hungry gleam behind the twinkle and felt nauseous. “You think you can come to Earth and establish your own little empire somewhere?”
“Why not?”
“The barons may have something to say about that, not to mention the Archon Directorate.”
Sindri chuckled conspiratorially. “Ah, yes, the barons. I learned from you and Mr. Grant and Kane they are hybrids of human and Archon genetic material.”
“They claim to be,” she said.
“They have reestablished the ancient god-king system of tyranny. What is needed to unseat them is a leader for disenfranchised Terrans to rally around. After all, from what you three told me, the outlanders aren’t too different from my transadapts.”
“Rebellions have been tried before,” Brigid argued.
“But not in generations, yes? Not since the so-called ‘baron blasters’?”
“True,” she admitted. “That was nearly ninety years ago. The baronies are far more entrenched now than they were back then, their power bases completely solidified.”
“A power base is no more solid than the foundation to which it is attached,” Sindri said vehemently.
He jumped off the stool and paced up and down along the length of the table in excitement, tucking his cane under an arm. “What if that foundation shakes and crumbles beneath them? What if the barons had to turn all their resources toward coping with a host of natural disastersfloods, earthquakes, devastating meteor falls? Would they then not be vulnerable to a concerted, well-equipped effort to dethrone them?”
Brigid considered his words for a moment, trying to imagine how the secluded, pampered and fragile baronial hierarchy would react to unremitting disasters.
“I suppose they would,” she said. “But how can these catastrophes be arranged?”