Jack Chalker - Medusa - A Tiger by the Tail

“Oh, it’s nothing important,” he assured the Security Chief, “except to me.”

He had spent a little time on Cerberus with Qwin and Dylan, who had been more than willing to take in Bura and Angi and delighted to add two children of a “close relative” to the family. Both Medusan children were finally delivered and looked like normal, healthy Cerberan children, although Dylan complained somewhat enviously over the easy and relatively painless way in which Medusans gave birth. At least children conceived on Medusa bred true to form despite the loss of the Coldah, although the Altavar were, of course, still feeding supplementary data the Medusan Wardens needed to everyone through the Snark computer network.

The Altavar, without asking, did in fact randomly cut a number of Medusans off from the computer, and were somewhat distressed to find that, while the subjects’ Wardens became inert, they did not die off at all. Clearly there was something different about the human-Warden relationship, or something brand new was developing in the system, some new and unique variation of human life. For now he depended on Morah and his staff to keep the Altavar from getting too distressed at that.

The huge picket ship had been brought in-system, to an orbit between Medusa and Momrath, and was now being converted into a massive space factory as quickly as could be accomplished, while new industries, with some grudging Altavar support, were rising on the natural moons of Momrath itself.

Dumonia had also been grudging as he assumed the public title and office of Lord of Cerberus, but it was now necessary. Working with much of Morah’s team, however, he tended to delegate much of the actual running to Qwin Zhang.

Park and Darva had taken a little, short vacation to a small island off the southwest coast of the southern Charonese continent on the suggestion of Mr. Carroll. With a little training and work with Dumonia-trained psychs, they would certainly soon be fully in position to assume control of Charon, something that Morah very much desired for them. As he’d told Park before, the security chief had higher goals than being Lord himself, and, in fact, running the place only got in his way.

Cal Tremon, too, got a sudden yen to get away for a while and do some exploring, first. He might, he was saying, go all the way to Lilith’s north pole. Then, perhaps, with an extended vacation back in the tropics talking with the scientific enclave there, he’d be ready for what he wanted to do next.

After keeping himself busy in this way, Mr. Carroll set course once again for Charon, against all advice. Talant Ypsir was still there, still very much alive, and still pretty vicious, all the more so because his people were learning a new life, one without omnipresent cameras and microphones and computer controls. Such things were needed elsewhere in the industrial rebuilding, and nothing new in that line would.be produced for years.

It was with a sense of déjà vu , then, that Carroll eased his shuttle into the dock of Ypsir’s still vast and impressive space station, now in orbit around Charon. He had not really left it since the war, allowing his. less bitter alter ego, Haval Kunser, to organize things below.

The airlock signaled clear, and he walked into the tube and up to the second lock, getting into the small chamber and standing ready. There was the usual energy spray, but it didn’t bother him this time. He’d already checked with the Altavar and found that, in fact, his body was as infested with Wardens—Altavar-created and artificial and with a neutral program—as anybody else. Ypsir’s ray could do nothing to deaden or neutralize the already inert.

Two security monitors met himon the other side, more out of curiosity than anything else.

“Name?” one snapped.

“Lewis Carroll.”

“What is your purpose here?”

“I wish to pay a call on First Minister Ypsir,” he told them. “I represent the Four Lords in Council and we have need of your fancy computer here.”

They looked uncertain, and he knew how much the mighty had fallen by their reaction. He decided to go easy on them. “Call Fallen. She’ll know what to do,” he suggested.

They nodded and seemed appreciative of the buck-passing suggestion. He sat and waited calmly for fifteen minutes or so until she came. She had never met him before, but he knew her, and she had heard more than enough about him from Ypsir. “Welll You’re either a very big fool or you really have nerve, coming here,” she told him.

He grinned, and it unsettled her a bit. At that moment an alarm rang, and a speaker broke in to state, “Administrator Kunser docking at Gate Three.”

Fallen frowned. “Damn! What does he want up here now, of all tunes?”

“Why don’t we go see?” he suggested. “In fact, I called him to come up. I’m representing the Four Lords in Council, with three votes already taken, and I’m here to arrange things with the fourth. Why don’t we go collect him and we can all save time and see the First Minister at once.”

She frowned. “Okay, but I still think you’re nuts.”

Kunser was as puzzled as Fallen, but right now, dependent on the goodwill of the other Lords, he was in no position to disobey an official request. He was surprised to see Carroll, though, although somewhat pleased. The agent could almost read his mind. Morah’s getting rid of his only threat this way. But both he and Fallen were civil to the agent, and that was for the best. Both seemed interested in what would happen when Carroll met Ypsir, though.

To everyone’s surprise, Ypsir, in a spacious office, was ell smiles and cordiality, the politician supreme. In a corner, on satin pillows, reclined the stunning Ass.

“Well, now, what’s all this about a vote and my computer?” the First Minister wanted to know.

“They need it. Its capacity is probably the largest in the Diamond, and it’s doing nothing but running this station right now,” he told them. “The fact is, this station can be maintained on a much smaller and more basic model Cerberus can and will supply. There are few manufactured goods right now, and we need them desperately. The picket ship is being quickly outfitted, but it’s going to need your computer to control the industry we’re putting into her. Nothing else will do the job, and we can’t make any more major computers until we have the picket running.”

“They had then: nerve, voting without me,” Ypsir complained.

He shrugged. “We tried. You didn’t answer the call. That’s why Morah sent me here.”

Ypsir smiled. One oj the reasons, he thought, in accord with his two assistants, but he said, “Well, I don’t like it but I’m hardly in a position to object at this point. One hopes that the Cerberan techs can do it without having to shut down this station.”

“I’m sure they can.”

“Have you met Ass?” Ypsir asked suddenly.

He smiled and nodded. “Yes, I have. In more ways than one, First Minister. You see, using the Metron Process, I was Tarin Bid.”

Talant Ypsir’s face broke into a wide grin that became a real belly laugh. “Oh, my, but that’s perfect! That’s wonderful!” he chortled.

“The matter of the computer is not the only reason I’m here,” Carroll added. “I’ve decided that I need a better position than errand boy for the Four Lords.”

Ypsir, savoring the irony, hardly heard him. Instead he turned to Ass and said, “Did you hear that, my pretty? You were once him!”

Showing puzzlement and confusion, she looked up at the agent, but. said nothing.

“Ass?” the agent called to her. “Do you know who these people are? This is Haval Kunser, and this is Shugah Fallen, and that is Talant Ypsir.”