Piers Anthony: Chaining the Lady

“As an entity of vassal-Sphere Mintaka, I accept,” Melody said.

“You can’t do this!” the Colonel shouted, stepping between them.

“You sure can’t ,” Yael agreed. “We’re under martial law here.”

“Shut up and watch,” Melody told her. “Flotsam’s one smart musician.”

“I hereby impress you, Entity Melody of Mintaka, into the Society of Hosts,” the Polarian continued. “The Society is now your representative, and will require your return to your own physique within one Sol-day of now. You will perform the single service of exorcising and interrogating one hostage-entity.”

“This is preposterous!” the Colonel said. “No one can—”

“Agreed,” Melody said. “Tell me how.”

“Necessary review,” Fltosm said. “Originally transfer was to ‘empty’ hosts, those bodies whose minds had vacated, and who were effectively dead, with no Kirlian aura associated. The true essence of personality lies in the aura, what some viewpoints call the soul. When the aura of one entity was transferred to the vacant body of another entity, that body became the living personality of the first entity. But the aura could not survive long away from its natural host, and faded at the rate of one normal intensity per Sol-day, approximately. Thus only high-Kirlian entities could transfer.”

“Hey, I didn’t know this!” Yael murmured.

“More recent developments in the science of transfer have resulted in voluntary hosting,” the Polarian continued. “That is, the host is not vacant, but retains its aura, permitting the temporary occupancy of the more potent aura of a transferee. Because the host-aura is able to maintain its body compatibly, less energy is drawn from the visiting aura, and the fading of that visitor is thereby lessened. We have now enabled the transferee to survive in a foreign host as long as ten times the duration originally possible. In certain cases, tenure can be even longer, as with transfer between compatible siblings of the same Sphere. You, Melody, now occupy the voluntary host of a young Solarian female native to this planet. You are not aware of her aura, as it is less than half of one percent the intensity of yours. But that aura is nevertheless promoting your welfare in transfer, and that aura is protected by the Society of Hosts.”

“See, I was supposed to stay hidden,” Yael said. “If they find out I came out—”

“It is our secret,” Melody assured her.

“Now it seems the entities of Galaxy Andromeda have perfected a technique through which involuntary hosting is feasible,” Fltosm continued. “They are able to transfer their high-Kirlian auras into lesser-Kirlian hosts without the prior consent of those hosts. And they have done so, taking over a number of our most sensitively located entities. We call them hostages: involuntary hosts. There is no way to discover a hostage except by aural verification, which requires the application of complex equipment. Thus we do not know which of our government officials are hostages, for we cannot require them to undertake aural verification without alerting them to our suspicion. It is an uncircular situation.”

“Agreed,” Melody said.

“I’ll say!” Yael exclaimed. “Can’t test the spies without making it worse.”

“So we have initiated a quasi-legal program of hostage identification and research. This is not under the direction of our governing Ministers, because we know that at least one of them is himself a hostage. But our program is essential to the welfare of our segment and our galaxy. If the Andromedans infiltrate and conquer us, our entire galaxy may perish—literally. For they mean to draw away the binding energy of our atomic structure to facilitate the power required for their advancing civilization, and our very substance will disappear in the course of a few thousand years.”

Melody understood. She believed the Polarian, and knew now that it was no idle reason that chained her to this host. The survival of her galaxy was at stake. She would have to do what was required, however inconvenient it might be to her personal life.

“We operate through the Society of Hosts,” the Polarian went on, “because they alone possess the aural expertise to assure the absence of hostages in their own ranks. This is why it is necessary for all our operatives to join the Society. Aural verification is an unquestioned requirement for entry. No suspicion attaches. The Society has undertaken research into hostaging, but has been unable to duplicate the Andromedan technology. Perhaps if a living hostage could be studied—but we dare not touch any that we know of on this planet, because that would give away our knowledge to the Andromedans and precipitate an immediate crisis that could cost us the war.”

The Colonel smiled approvingly. “Not only are you sounding like a Solarian, now—you’re talking like a military man.”

“At times thrust has its applications,” the Polarian agreed, glowing with distaste. “But circularity will be required for the resolution.”

“Agreed,” the Colonel said. “Sorry I butted in.”

“It is the nature of your kind,” Fltosm said generously. Then, to Melody: “Society calculations indicate that a hostage can be reclaimed through our existent technology, provided the hostage is rendered unconscious and laid under siege by a completely superior aura of the same family. Perhaps a different aural family would succeed also; that is less certain. You understand how auras exist in related types, apart from intensity, some being compatible and others so diverse as to be incompatible?”

“Yes,” Melody said. “This accounts for what was historically known as ‘instinctive’ attraction or repulsion between given entities. A parallel could be made to your Solarian or Polarian blood types.”

“Yes. But even with a reasonably close match, the margin of superiority would have to be at least four to one over the besieged aura. The technology of Andromeda has evidently abated this necessity, but we of the Milky Way must resort to comparatively crude force. Therefore—”

“I believe I understand you at last,” Melody said. “You have located a hostage whose controlling aura is of my own aural type, too high for any other entity to overwhelm.”

“Precisely. It is a female hostage governed by an aura of fifty-two times normal intensity.”

“So you need an aura of two hundred and eight,” Melody finished. “Not many exist.”

“This is true. The highest available in Segment Etamin is one hundred fifty-nine, female—and she is of the wrong type. In fact, there are no female auras above one hundred and eighty in the galaxy—except for yours. You are thus indispensable. By the time the hostage’s aura fades to under forty, enabling another agent to make the attempt (ignoring for the moment the complication of typing, which may after all be irrelevant), one hundred and twenty days will have passed—and we shall have lost a crucial advantage, perhaps even the war itself. The potential information this hostage possesses is incalculable, and the element of surprise is also vital. Because she happens to be in a situation in which the Andromedans are unlikely to suspect any attempt at counterhostaging, we may be able to conquer her without their knowledge.”

“So you will retransfer me into that body, whereupon I will be able to tap the secrets of Andromeda,” Melody said. “This is the mission for which you originally summoned me, isn’t it?”

“True.”

“But you cannot require any more of me than this one service. Within one day I’ll be home—and Imperial Outworld won’t bother me again, though the galaxy perish.”

“True. The welfare of the individual preempts that of society in our Sphere, and the terms of the debt exchange must be honored.”