MINDBRIDGE by Joe Haldeman

“Then have the L’vrai do it.” She turned up her vocals and her cracked whisper filled the room. “Do you hear me, monster?”

“I will kill you if you turn your weapon on me.” Jacque’s strained voice said. “Not otherwise. Now that I know how you believe you can individually die.”

“He won’t have the chance,” Gus said. “I’ll kill you the instant you take your eyes off me.”

“All right. I’ll save you that. But-“ She sobbed and her vocals clicked off.

“Let me explain further,” it said. “You’re wrong to see me as a monster, though I admit to having been partly at fault.

“I’ve never met another spacefaring race that believed itself to have individual consciousnesses. Individual wills for each part, certainly; otherwise it could hardly be mobile. I assumed . . .

“You see, sometimes my own parts wish to die in interesting ways. I approve; it adds to what I am. I assumed this is what you were doing. Nothing more.”

“To business,” Simmons said. “This is all very interesting. But immaterial, if you’re just going to blow us to—“

“This was never the totality of my plans; for one thing, it will be a long time before you present any real threat to me, or to any other civilized race. I will not destroy you, not immediately.”

“What do you mean by that?” Tshombe said.

Jacque’s voice was getting weak; they strained to hear. “Consider me an observer, a monitor. A teacher, if you will learn.”

“An executioner, if we won’t,” Svenbjorg said.

“Yes, but not in the sense of punishing you for wrongdoing.” It paused. “I struggle with the limitations of your language, and with speaking through this one’s pain.

“I have what you would call an obligation. To a sort of family, which includes organisms who would appear much stranger to you than I do-some of whom you wouldn’t even recognize as life. And some so . . . sensitive that your mere presence would destroy them.”

“You will guide us away from them?”

“Not necessary, yet. Those are still much too far away. Possibly, by the time you can reach them, your own sensitivity will have evolved to where you are no longer a threat.”

“If not, you’ll warn us? Or them?”

“If not, I’ll exterminate you. Which is the only way I can . . . legitimately interfere with your expansion. One day the logic of this will be clear to you.”

“But what about the space we share?” Svenbjorg said. “Do we partition it? Share planets?”

“This is no real problem. You could not survive unprotected on worlds where I thrive. And I would stagnate on yours. I need a great deal of hard radiation to properly reproduce my parts-constant mutation and winnowing-that I may continue to evolve at a proper rate. You reproduce too slowly to take advantage of this. Otherwise you might.. We would have to…

“This one dies. I sympathize with his pain. But his fear of death amuses me. He-“ A loud rattle choked off the last word. The L’vrai released the bridge and Jacque’s body pitched forward to the floor.

Carol spun and her laser glared green. The L’vrai’s head split at eye level and it toppled over, changing as it fell.

“Woman you might have-“

“Shut up!” Gus shouted. “She waited.” Softer.

Carol glided to where her man lay and picked him up. She stood immobile, silent.

Simmons approached her. “Woman? Listen to me. I used to be a doctor. Let me see that man.” Her crystal eyes stared down at him.

“Ah, hell-“ He grabbed Jacque’s dangling arm and pulled. Carol let go and he eased Jacque to the floor.

He ripped open Jacque’s tunic and listened to his chest. Then he straddled Jacque and started pounding on his sternum, putting all his weight behind it.

“He’s young . . . and healthy . . . get it . . . going here . . .” The others gathered around, watching. He kept it up for a while and put his ear down again.

“All right.” He turned Jacque’s head sideways, pinched shut his nose, and began breathing into his mouth. In a few minutes, still unconscious, Jacque was breathing under his own power.

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