“I can try to transfer to his ship,” Skot said dubiously. A Polarian rolled into the room. Melody and Skot looked up, amazed. It was not Llume.
“You will remain absolutely still,” the Polarian said against the wall. “I possess magnetic weaponry. Identify yourselves.”
Had another hostage developed? Melody saw no weapon, but didn’t want to risk it. She could put her hand on one of the discipline-boxes in a moment. “I am Melody of Mintaka.”
“Skot of Kade.”
“Llume of Slash, Andromeda.”
Suddenly Slammer launched himself at the Polarian. “No!” Melody cried, too late.
But as the magnet came near the intruder, he lost power, and dropped helplessly to the floor. “I am Mnuhl of Knyfh,” the Polarian said.
Melody’s relief was so great and sudden she found herself laughing weakly. Of course! Mnuhl had thought of the same thing she had, and had already acted on it, taking over the available Polarian host. Had Llume not given herself up, Mnuhl would have contrived to overcome her. “Come, feel my aura,” Melody said. “I may look strange in my human host, but I am she whom you met aboard the Ace of Atoms.”
He did not approach. “In what guise?”
Melody realized that Mnuhl, too, had thought she was dead. He had come over to verify the situation personally. “In the guise of Gnejh, the mad one.”
Now he approached. “Then you are not chained!” he said as their auras confirmed each other. “I was concerned.”
“How did you stop the magnet?”
“We have long experience with lesser creatures of our type,” Mnuhl said. “It is not damaged; I merely depleted its power temporarily.”
Indeed, Slammer was now recovering.
“We are very short of officers,” Melody said. “Our crew-Solarians won’t do for command posts as they are untrained. So am I. Will you be able to help us?”
“We are drawing replacements for our own losses from Segment Knyfh via transfer,” Mnuhl replied. “But we are very short of hosts. Will some of your Solarians serve?”
Melody hadn’t thought of that. “Knyfh officers in Solarian hosts! I will verify in a moment.” She activated the crew-circuit. Her experience aboard Mnuhl’s ship had facilitated her competence here. “Require six volunteers for alien host duty,” she said. “Security of ship depends on it. Volunteers, not assignments.”
“Sergeant Jones of Personnel here, sir,” a male Solarian voice replied. That “sir” startled her, as it always did. She was also surprised by the immediate and routine answer, and had to remind herself that as far as the crew was concerned, nothing unusual had happened. They didn’t know about the savage battle in the officer’s section, or the loss of all but one of their regular officers— or even about the Andromedan threat. In a way, she envied them! “Will there be a performance bonus?”
Melody looked at Skot for advice. She was not familiar with this sort of thing. Skot nodded affirmatively. “Any reasonable requirement will be met,” Melody said crisply. “Use your discretion, Sergeant.”
“Six volunteers on the way,” Jones said.
Just like that! Melody hardly trusted the “volunteer” status, suspecting coercive assignment, but she would make sure before she used them. “We expect to have six suitable hosts,” she told Captain Mnuhl. “Does it matter which sex they are?”
“Immaterial. We are sexless in your sense, and can utilize whatever is offered.”
That had to be true, for the Polarian host he was now using was female.
“Then we shall be ready shortly,” she said.
“Excellent. Bring your ship into proximity so that we can use laser radio in case of emergency. Inform us when you’re ready.” He rolled away, going back to the transfer unit. Skot followed.
Melody decided to take a chance. “Llume, I propose to use you as you used my host. I shall set the discipline-box on you and ask you to guide this ship toward the Ace of Atoms. Do you object?”
“No,” Llume said. She went to the propulsion console while Melody tuned the box. The ship began to move. Melody watched the viewglobe. Already the fleet was fissioning into two clusters. About twice as many were moving toward the Andromedan nucleus as toward the Milky Way nucleus. How were they going to overcome a fleet that was twice their number? Her efforts had only been token; perhaps half a dozen additional ships salvaged.
The truce held. But the time the Ace of Swords joined the loyalist nucleus, Melody had six human volunteers, and had verified that they were indeed voluntary. The promise of bonus and special privileges had made them eager, and they were quite curious about the ship’s maneuvering and what was going on in officer country. They were also motivated by a genuine patriotism for their sphere, segment, and galaxy, once they understood the nature of the threat. They were, in short, good men.
Captain Mnuhl transferred six Knyfh officers into these willing hosts, and suddenly there was a sufficient and highly competent complement. They introduced themselves formally and moved efficiently to the key stations. It was evident from the outset that they were expert. Melody had no further concern about the technical operation of the ship, although she was a bit awed by the evidence that aliens had such a thorough working knowledge of the Solarian ship. They could not have drawn the information from the minds of their human hosts, because the humans knew next to nothing of these jobs. The Andromedans were quite right to view Segment Knyfh as their greatest obstacle to victory!
Her concern about the coming space battle was another matter. The ratio was holding: two hostage ships to each loyal one. Those four hundred hostages had really done their job. Soon the final tally was in: sixty-six hostage, thirty-three loyal. The hundredth ship had been blown up in the preliminary action.
The original cluster fleet: one hundred ships—like the one hundred cards of the Cluster Tarot deck. Probably only a partial coincidence. Had there been Trump ships along with the Suit ships—but that would have been stretching it too far! This ostentatious display of useless power, this show of segment unity that was the fleet, now it threatened the very existence of Imperial Outworld. What irony that this vanity of space was now to be used exactly for what it had been designed: destruction.
Two to one; how were they going to prevail against that force?
There was a Solarian game in Yael’s mind, an ancient system of shaped pieces on a checkered board, called chess. Here there were five types of pieces disposed to protect their King, each with its unique mode of operation. In the game of chess, position and strategy were more important than the individual value of the pieces; was that also true in space?
The net spoke: “Hammer of quadpoint.”
“I have expected your call, Hammer,” Mnuhl replied.
“We appear to have a decisive advantage. Your ships are outnumbered and underpersonnelled. No help can come to you in time to reverse this. We cannot allow you to return under arms to your segment capital. We shall proceed there ourselves, to place Outworld under siege and force capitulation of the segment government. We can accomplish this with half our present force. Indeed, we can accomplish it with a single ship. You therefore can gain nothing by forcing an engagement. We do not wish to destroy good ships unnecessarily, or to indulge in pointless hostilities. We therefore proffer you amicable terms in exchange for your surrender. The demolition of this section of the galaxy will not proceed immediately; you will be permitted to retire for the duration of your lives in planetary comfort, unmolested.”
“We must consult,” Mnuhl replied.
“I await your return call. Truce.”