“Are you hurt?” Sampson said. “Are you all right?” Jacque tongued his outside channel and answered in chorus with Carol that they were all right. “What’s going on?”
“Jeeves came back. . . catatonic. You’re all right, though?”
“Hell, yes. Get us out of these damned tanks!” To Carol: “That’s why we couldn’t get through to her… must have been within a couple of hours-“
“-when she saw the ship,” Carol said. “What could it have been?”
Something I’m glad I didn’t see, Jacque thought. She’s a tough old bird.
Sampson led them around back and helped them out of their suits. “Doc says bring along the bridge,” he told Jacque. “Maybe you can get through to her.”
She was lying on a cot in a room next to the crystal, surrounded at a distance by a large circle of people. A fold of cloth covered a token of her nakedness. She was pale and flaccid and seemed not to be breathing; only her eyes showed life. They moved behind bruised slits.
When Jacque and Carol broke through the circle, Tania tried to sit up. The doctor pushed her back down with his knuckles, trying not to poke her with the empty hypodermic needle he held.
“Lie still for a moment. I’m trying to find a vein.” He kneaded the inside of her elbow with his thumb. “Blood test,” he said in Jacque’s direction. He made a pinch of skin and slid the needle in.
The transparent cylinder filled up with yellow fluid.
The doctor dropped the hypodermic as if stung. “L’vrai!”
It stood up and swept him aside with a casual backhand to the chest. It pointed at Jacque.
They all shrank back. “I’ll get the laser,” somebody said. They had one mounted by the crystal, in case.
“Can’t,” Sampson said. “It’s permanently mounted.” Jacque was standing his ground, staring at the thing that looked like Tania. “Get me a wrench, anything. I’ll kill it.”
The L’vrai shook its head, growled, and stepped toward Jacque.
A heavy ball-peen hammer slid across the floor to Jacque’s feet. He dropped the bridge and picked it up.
The Tania-image shimmered, flowed, grew. It became a handsome man, tall with gray hair: Robert Lefavre at his prime.
“Good trick,” Jacque said, hefting the weapon. “Won’t work, though.”
The creature took two impossibly large steps and was in front of Jacque. He swung at the head but it dodged, and the hammer crunched through collarbone; flesh grew up and over the metal. Jacque pulled on it but it was fast.
The creature seized Jacque by the arm and forced him to the ground. It picked up the bridge and pressed it against his chest.
Jacque’s face contorted with terror. “I-
“I-
“I can . . .” He suddenly calmed. “I can speak to you through this one. We have certain things in common.”
46 – Autobiography 2034
986. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
987. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
988. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
989. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
990. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
991. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
992. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
993. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
994. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
995. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
996. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
997. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
998. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
999. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
1000. I will never hurt cats or dogs again.
Jacques Lefavre
47 – CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Most of the crowd stood frozen, staring. Sampson was edging toward the door.
“None of you will attempt to leave, or to harm me. Normally that would be of little consequence. But it would be awkward, here and now.
“I could kill any or all of you without touching you. I would demonstrate on one but from what I understand of your nature, you would not take the logical course. This is my problem in dealing with you: you evolved a kind of intelligence, but too quickly. Your animal nature was kept separate, not properly assimilated.