03. Masters of Flux and Anchor (28 page)

Tilghman was relieved to hear that at least they probably hadn't drowned. "Uh—Matson, I don't know what effect Champion's business had on them if they did survive. I think we were fair, though. Gave them every warning, every cut."

The stringer nodded. "Don't worry, Judge. I'm not coming back gunnin' for you and New Eden no matter what. As you say, it was their choice, and no malicious intent towards 'em on your part. That don't mean a lot of others won't be out to get all of you pretty quick, though. You know that. And it still means I got to find 'em, if I can, and if they're alive."

"Just tell the quartermaster below what you think you'll need and you'll have it. You'll make it. You always make it. And, when it's all over and you've reported back, you're welcome back here any time. It'll be decades even at our birth rate before there's enough population to really explore all the possibilities out there. There's almost any¬thing you could want for a man in on the ground floor."

"I'm not sure at all that you got decades, Judge, or even years. You just better pray that after twenty-six hundred years that damned war our forefathers shut their door on is long over."

13

THE NEW LAND

Although its location was kept secret for centuries, Pericles was in a very logical spot for Mervyn, due south of Anchor Logh and exactly halfway from Anchor Logh to the Hellgate. Nothing, however, could be kept a secret indefinitely when determined groups wished to know that secret, and for decades Mervyn had suffered and tolerated a crew of watchers from many groups, including the Seven and New Eden, simply because it was far too much trouble to move and because they still couldn't get in without his permission and he had not been worried about an attack since. When his forces crumbled the Anchor Logh defense years before, he'd actually gone one-on-one with a very good wizard wielding an amplifier, and fought it to a draw without using one himself. It had been the toughest chal¬lenge of his long life and career, but his shield and his sanity had held, and with Jeff or some other adept of great power always around for reinforcement he had dismissed any threat.

The tale of Mervyn against an amplifier was well known, so New Eden had taken no chances with the mysterious Pericles, whose contents they could not know. While the sixty or more Fluxlands had rated only a single amplifier, with a few exceptions where two was thought to be needed, Pericles rated four linked in tandem to a single master program and assaulting from all sides. Those inside would not be fighting an amplified wizard so much as a program, one drawn up by the same machine that Coydt van Haas had first used and developed to create the intricate spells for Spirit, Suzl, and many others, and which New Eden had used for its conversion programs in Nantzee and Mareh. The spell was a twofold affair, beginning with a sudden and simultaneous attack by sheer brute force, all power at maximum, followed immediately by a coercive command spell set at the least common denominator possible. In theory, the shock of the permanent shield being crushed would be followed immediately by the command spell, before a wizard could recover and realize he was under attack and reinforce that shield. The landscape program, following immediately behind, would freeze them in the spell before they could shake it, and they would be set that way with no Flux to call upon to change it.

Most of Pericles had been evacuated as a precaution, along with the most important books, papers, and art, to a temporary location just outside the cluster in Flux, so it was a pretty deserted place now, reminding Jeff, at least, of living in a house where all the furniture had been removed as the owners were moving out. They had tried every way to get Spirit to go, but she was adamant about staying, even though they could hardly explain to her the reasons why. Mervyn finally deduced that it was the Soul Rider, not Spirit, that was adamant, and he gave up. Soul Riders had an insatiable curiosity that often led them to place themselves and their hosts in jeopardy simply to see how it worked and how to get out of it. They, after all. seemed to be immortal, although hosts were not.

So it was that Jeff was lazing in the warmth near one of the ponds while Spirit took a swim, Sondra was tending to the horses in the stable, and Mervyn was going over some new reports from his agents when Tilghman's signal was broadcast.

Ironically, it was Spirit who received the first, and only, advance warning. The message came in from that mysteri¬ous far-off place as it always did, too fast and too complex for her to understand, but now she had a translator. The Soul Rider had made a bigger difference in her life than anything since she'd been trapped by Coydt's spell. For the first time she had someone she could talk to, even if only in her own head, and it had brought her alive again.

Spirit, you must get out of the pool immediately.

She was puzzled, but she went to the side and hauled herself up and out onto the grass. She thought of the Soul Rider less as a boss than a friend, and she was not com¬pelled to take such advice; but when it came it usually meant trouble and was to be ignored at her own peril.

"What's the matter?"

The fools in New Eden have activated the landscape program for the cluster. An attack of overwhelming force will be mounted any second now on Pericles, followed by the direct transformation of Flux to Anchor.

She grew suddenly afraid, the memory of the collapse of her own little Fluxland still a nightmare in her mind even after all this time. "Can we warn the others?"

No. The nature of the attack, the landscape program, and the relative powers here present too many variables to be restructured in the time remaining. We can only attempt to repair some of the human damage once it has been done and its strength can be assessed. Brace yourself.

She looked over at her son, half asleep propped up against a tree. Jeff! she practically screamed with her mind.

Incredibly, he stirred, looked suddenly up and around, a confused expression on his face. "Huh? What?"

The blow struck Pericles with a force that was beyond any experience, beyond any level that even allowed for rational thought. The great shield crumbled, and the full force of the master program drove in upon it.

Mervyn was thrown backwards as if tossed by an invisible, giant hand, but prepared and instinctive survival spells came into play before he had recovered even a small part of his wits. The Pericles shield could not be rebuilt and strengthened in the few seconds the attack allowed him, but his personal shield came up immediately, dulling the force to a still terrible yet manageable attack.

The line of electrical fire snaking across Flux crossed the boundary of the four attacking amplifiers and shut them down, but as their attack spell was written, in the same basic machine language as the master landscape program, it was incorporated into the master program itself. Throughout the cluster, the full force of Flux energy exis¬tent inside the cluster now included the New Eden spell, and it was not one to be denied by any wizard.

Pericles did not melt and collapse; instead, it simply winked out, leaving a very brief moment of pure Flux containing only the human and animal forms there, and some trinkets with a lead base or alloy. Other than that, everything created by the handiwork or mind of man was reconverted Flux energy and then used again in the master program.

There were, in fact, two writhing, snake-like lines of fire a thousand meters apart, the front line doing the erasing and reconverting and the rear enacting the program itself, but so swiftly did the lines move that no human eye could have seen that.

All humans and animals were stripped bare and frozen as the first wave rolled over them; then the second wave hit, and behind it winked in an entire landscape. In and around Pericles hills and thick green forests winked in at the blinking of an eye. and water rushed through new stream and river beds that looked natural and well-entrenched.

Sondra felt dizzy, weak, and helpless, and slid to what was suddenly a grassy forest floor.

Mervyn summoned all the protection he had to his mind, and when the second line struck he felt horrible, searing pain throughout his entire body. The pain was beyond standing, but the line was past before it could completely break him down. Still, he collapsed on the ground, breathing hard and waiting for the pain and shock to subside.

Like the other two wizards, Jeff's defenses snapped on automatically, but like Sondra he felt himself consumed by the force and sank down to the ground.

Spirit alone was able to watch it come, although she was powerless to stop it. To her, what was nearly instantaneous seemed to happen in slow motion, and she watched the snaking fire approach and cancel, then roll through and past her. As she could wear no clothing or other artifacts, there was absolutely no effect. The second line approached like the leading edge of a gigantic, invisible artist's brush that with one stroke painted an elaborate and complex scene as it came toward her. Her own formidable defenses were already on, and were now tremendously reinforced by the complex mathematics of the Soul Rider. The line hit, then passed, and she fell forward as if she'd been standing on a rug that had been suddenly jerked out from under her. Yet the program had somehow ignored her, and she remained unaffected.

Spirit was, perhaps, the only human being not changed or affected by the master and subordinate programs in the entirety of the affected Flux. All others not drowned in the formation of the great sea and lesser bodies of water were left naked, transformed, and bewildered, whether they had been wizards or common people, inhabitants, travelers, or guests.

Mervyn did not understand what had happened or why, but as soon as the shock had faded sufficiently for move¬ment he managed first to sit up, then bring himself to a standing position. Physically he could see and feel that he had changed; his body, even the color of his hair, beard, and body hair, was that of a much younger man. a man in superior shape with bulging muscles and even a rather large and prominent male sexual organ. This hardly fazed him; he had always been able to become whatever he wanted, male or female, young or old, human or creature, and this wasn't as bad as many of the alternatives, even with the bad headache. More important to him was that he still seemed to be himself; there appeared no discontinuity in his personality, memories, or knowledge—except that he knew such changes would be undetectable, and he also knew he couldn't count on knowing either way.

He looked around and saw the hilly landscape and forest, and for the first time felt the chill that had settled in. The air was quite damp, beading water on his body if he moved, and there were clouds lower than some of the treetops and wisps of gray fog reaching down here and there to the forest floor. In the distance, he heard the rumbling of thunder.

He heard a woman scream, and instantly shook off his confusion and as much of the headache as he could and made off in the direction of the sounds. About a hundred and fifty meters through the forest and downhill he came upon a confused and frightened young woman he'd never seen before. She was stunningly beautiful, with rich orange-brown skin contrasting with shoulder-length hair, brows, and even pubic hair of pure golden blond. She was quite small and delicate-looking, yet she had enormous breasts and the thinnest waist he'd seen on a woman. When she saw him she rushed to him and clung to him, sobbing. She was fully a head and neck shorter than he, but he had no idea how tall he was so that fact was meaningless. He did, however, find himself feeling a bit embarrassed by it all.

He tried to calm her, then stopped a bit to bring himself face to face with her and took her by the shoulders.

"Easy, child." he said soothingly. "Now tell me who you are.''

"S-Sondra. sir." she sniffed. "I—I'm so scared and confused!"

You aren't the only one, he thought sourly, but aloud he said. "You're the same Sondra that was here with Mervyn'.'"

She looked blank for a moment, then seemed to decide and tentatively shook her head yes. "I—I think so. It's kinda hard to remember."

He frowned. At least there no longer was any doubt about which bastards were responsible for all this. They had managed to reduce a brilliant, highly competent stringer wizard to just another common Fluxgirl. Well, he told himself, it wasn't a binding spell, being involuntarily applied. All he had to do was get her into Flux to reverse all this, particularly since she still had the memory information. He looked around at the nearly silent forest. But which way was Flux? Did it even exist anymore?

He thanked whatever fates there were that he had evacu¬ated his staff and precious library and artworks during the grace period, and only hoped that New Eden was as good as its word and that this—effect—was limited strictly to the internal cluster area. But where were Jeff and Spirit and what had happened to them in all this?

"Hello!" he shouted as loud as he could, his strong voice echoing among the trees. "Jeff! Spirit! Is anybody still here?"

At that moment he heard a rustling sound that made Sondra jump. Whirling around, he saw two of the horses idly grazing just a dozen meters away. He sighed. Well, that was something, anyway.

He turned back to Sondra. "Tell me—how do you feel? What are you thinking of?" He wanted to get a general idea of what he was dealing with.

She looked at him in some distress. "It is easier not to think, sir. Thinking—hurts." It was obviously difficult for her to even force through this much of a conversation.

The spell, however, was a basic one, and he had it now. Quite clever, really, since they had to deal with a massive population whose numbers and character were unknown. Physically, the basics were given—not above a certain height, build between certain predetermined exag¬gerated parameters, hormonal levels pushed to unnatural highs, and then a random choice of specific characteristics. No two would be identical, but all would be basically the same. He was quite familiar with the psychological condi¬tioning ideas New Eden had developed—they really weren't that new—and he saw a variation of that in the spell that was diabolical, it didn't matter how bright or capable you were, or what your background was, it hurt to think. The more you fought it. the more it hurt. The only way to feel all right was to try to make your mind a blank. Just do exactly what you're told. He tried to imagine the huge mass of women in the cluster all this way. Those who were with smart, capable men would survive—until discov¬ered and picked up by a New Eden patrol, which would have a huge number of submissive and totally compliant women on their hands.