She motioned, and two Spherians came forward with a gorgeous jeweled collar, a kind of regal gorget. They fastened it around Tesla's thick neck, and it clicked shut with a strange finality. He could see that it had been fashioned from some of the dragon's-hoard of gemstones, collected from many planets, that he had planned to take back to the Regent, before the Sentinels staged their inconvenient and patently unfair uprising.
Still, he thought, admiring himself in the reflective metal of a nearby power panel, it looked quite striking on him. Something he would one day gloat over, when he had his revenge.
"Thirty seconds," Sue Graham called out.
The ersatz slaves moved to their place in the background. Out of vid-pickup range, guards on either side trained their weapons on Tesla. As the time counted down, Lisa stepped forward a bit, her chains ringing, a sardonic look on her face. "And, Tesla? One more thing: you'd better play your part exactly right."
"Is that a threat, female?"
"It's a fact," Lisa told him evenly. "That collar's locked on you now, and it's got fourteen ounces of shaped Tango-Seven explosive charges built into it. If you disappoint us, I'll blow your head off in front of all your friends down there."
"Surely, in this lower-lifeform gender business, the females are the worst of a bad lot!" Tesla nearly wept. But then a tech was silencing them. A moment later, the image of an Invid officer unit-the heavy cannon mounted on its shoulders making it look like Robotech Siamese triplets-peered out of the screen at them.
It seemed to recoil a bit in a gesture of surprise. "Tesla!" it said in the strange, single-sideband sound of a mecha drone.
"Yes, of course it's me!" Tesla broke in. The lights around him felt disturbingly hot, and he wondered if they might set off the explosives around his tender throat. The Sentinels couldn't be that deranged, could they? On the other hand…
"Let me speak to the Living Computer!" Tesla burst out. "I arrived just in the nick of time to drive our enemies from this star system, but I have important news!"
The officer appeared to hesitate, but Tesla screamed, "Do as you are ordered!"
Used to obeying, it complied. In another moment, a Living Computer appeared before Tesla on the screen. It was far smaller than the one captured on Tirol, and seemed to have less peripheral equipment and fewer convolutions.
We're inside their system! Lisa exulted, trying to look defeated and numbed from beatings.
Here goes.
Tesla began his spiel again: how he had returned to Karbarra in time to repulse the Sentinel raid, and how he needed landing clearance, to repair damage and hold urgent consultation with the Living Computer.
What the Computer didn't see, what Tesla himself barely felt (and dared not register), were lines of mental energy reaching out from Veidt and Sarna. The Haydonites bracketing Tesla from either side in a kind of mental crossfire-meshed their wills and thoughts with his, guiding and reinforcing, sending a steady current of emphasis and believability along the link Tesla had established with the Invid brain.
Invisible to all, Veidt and Sarna manipulated Tesla and, through him, the brain, though their powers were very weak here, so far from Haydon IV. But it didn't take a vast, brute effort of mental force to accomplish what the Sentinels needed; it only took a slight touch here, a psychic stroke there, to create a conducive atmosphere. It only took a convincing patina of truth.
The Living Computer went so far as to call off its red alert-even more than the Sentinels were hoping for-and granted immediate landing clearance.
"And, incidentally," it added. "The Inorganics have captured an alien, a Gerudan, out in the wastes. He's being brought here now. I shall begin the torture slowly, so that you may enjoy the finale."
"No, no, er…" Tesla didn't know exactly what to say, but knew his captors wouldn't take kindly to having one of their number subjected to Invid inquisition.
There was no time to consult with the Sentinels, so the scientist improvised. "I wish to examine him whilst he is still intact. Therefore, have him imprisoned with the other hostages for now."
"Very good, Tesla," the brain responded. "When do you expect to make planetfall?"
"Um, my vessel has suffered damage in the heroic fight to drive away those insurrectionists, and so I will make one decelerating orbit before making my landing."
"As you wish." When the brain signed off, Tesla's knees buckled. He moaned weakly, begging for his captors to remove the resplendent collar. Lisa turned and shouted orders for the bridge. The helmswoman, a Karbarran nearly Lron's size, brought the enormous wooden wheel over. The Farrago left orbit, to edge out of the planetary ring for a Karbarran approach.
Down in the bays and holds and hangar decks, the mecha came to full alert, systems at high pitch. Logans, Alphas, Betas, Hovertanks; drum-armed Spartans with their giant, cylindrical missile launchers; long-barreled MAC Us that were walking hydras of cannon tubes; quad-muzzle Raider X
self-contained artillery batteries; and ground-shaking Excalibers bristling with a half-dozen diverse heavy-weapons systems-the Godzillas of the second-generation Destroids.
Scuttlebutt about the Karbarran children and the concentration camp had filtered its way through all ranks in no time, though nobody had made any official announcements.
So, they think they're gonna gun down a buncha kids, huh?
The mecha formed up and waited, their crews avid for the word to go.
"That's it," Rem said. "That's as much as I can get working. Farrago says turn-to, and that means there's no time left."
Gnea nodded, taking a place behind him in the communications officer's chair since there had been no time to repair the copilot's. She took one last look in the aft hold, to make sure that Halidarre was well secured. Then she said, "Prepared."
Rem smiled, punching up the ridiculous mission the shuttle would have to fly. Admiral Hunter's book said he should let the computers do the flying, but the computers had been used as a scratching pole by a very big polecat. Besides, Rem had invented new computer designs and he didn't trust them as much as people who knew less about them.
The shuttle's engines shrilled, coming up to power.
"Not long now," Rem told Gnea.
The Farrago began its long approach orbit on a course chosen by the Sentinels because it led through the least-well-monitored portions of the enemy detection skynet.
This time, Tesla's face filled the communication screen. His would-be slaves couldn't be exhibited because they were all otherwise involved in getting Farrago and its fighting forces ready to hit Karbarra like a sledgehammer.
"Er, Karbarra Control," Tesla said delicately. He still wore that dismaying, priceless bib; moreover, there were unsmiling Sentinels surrounding him, just out of camera range, with an appalling collection of energy devices and even cruder things-pointed, glittering implements with unpleasant implications.
"Some of these pesky ablative surfaces and hull features on the captive ships I've incorporated into mine have begun to break up under the stress of entry. Inferior technology, you know. I'm sure they'll burn up upon hitting the deeper atmosphere, but you might, um, alert your sensor techs not to pay any attention to the little cloud of objects coming down with me."
The Haydonites' spell was still in effect. "Of course," said the Living Computer, "of course.
Your landing area is at coordinates 12-53-58 relative; we will roll back a segment of the Tracialle city dome to permit your entrance."
Tesla tried to sound enthusiastic and grateful, especially since one of those horrid, overmuscled Praxian harridans stood ready to stick a halberd into his side if he made a mistake.
"Oh! How very kind! I will speak to the Regent of your cooperation and efficiency."