Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs (38 page)

So, for my escape, I had constructed several items that I was reasonably sure Argos would not be able to track.

I had also been careful not to reveal the location of our craft.

Now my plan was complete. It was time to implement it, return to my craft, leave this planet—but not return to Poloda.

I knew that sooner or later my disappearance would be noticed, but I’d planned to create the maximum amount of confusion just before my departure. Even so, I was too certain that Argos forgot nothing and its “hatred”—if a machine can have such emotions—of the long-dead Kapar meant that it would not be long before it considered taking vengeance on his descendants. In that much, I wished the machine all the luck it could get.

Unfortunately, it was obvious that once the population of Tonos was restored to its former levels, there would neither be enough resources nor dome space for all the people. At such point, naturally, Argos would look to expand its presence.

By coming to Tonos, I had endangered not just the despised Kapars but all Poloda.

I was resolved to come up with a solution. There was no solution here—only more problems—and no solution back on Poloda, even with the technology I’d learned of. So my best hope was to press on to the other worlds of Omos and see if perhaps on one of them I could find either a world the Unis could inhabit or help that would protect them from not only the Kapars but also the more dangerous machine intelligence, Argos.

There was no reason to believe that Handon Gar would support me in this. In fact, he seemed more than willing to remain with Evina and become the father to a reinvigorated race of Tonosians. If I tried to tell him my fears, I risked losing all, so I decided that I would venture on my own.

All this, naturally, I kept from Danura, for she, too, had a part to play in my plan.

Of course, I was a fool.

It began well enough. It started when I escorted Danura back to her quarters late one evening. After I left her, I went on to my quarters, which I now could check to see if they were empty using a simple electronic detector Argos had provided—for he was in on my avowed plan to usurp Gar and provide more humans to be trained as technicians.

In my quarters, I checked the gear I had stowed earlier, pleased to see that no one had disturbed its location—Argos did not realize that in revealing his tracking abilities to me, he had showed me how to evade them. I was now very good with that sort of electronic circuitry.

After that, I lay down and tried to sleep. I had set an alarm on my communicator and glanced at the time display restlessly as the minutes crawled slowly on.

Finally, unable to take the strain, I made my way to a refresher and showered. I was surprised to find Danura there in another stall.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she confessed with a wry expression.

“Get dressed, and I’ll meet you in the Great Hall, where we planned,” I told her.

Ten minutes later we entered the Great Hall together. The Great Hall was the name for one of the many large gathering places in the dome. It was the place that Danura had led me to that first day when Gar and I were brought to learn the Tonosian language.

We grabbed food and took a table far away from the rest of the morning crowd, eating slowly and waiting for the arrival of Gar and Evina.

They came, Evina moving regally, with her head high and a haughty expression in her eyes. Beside her, Gar looked smug and well-pleased. I knew from the recordings Argos had shown me that both secretly plotted to be the ruler of the other—they were well-matched in their duplicity.

A few well-wishers approached, made obeisance, and moved away. Others left for the food dispensers and returned bearing trays that they set in front of Evina and, with less evident relish, Gar.

“Your friend acts like he’s a Prime Mother,” Danura murmured to me, her eyes flaring with anger.

“If Argos is right, he is even more important,” I reminded her. Danura snorted; the notion that a male could steadily provide offspring was beyond her experience and outside her comprehension, so low had the reproductive potential of the Tonosian men sunk.

“If Argos is correct, your world will change in short order,” I reminded her. “What will it be like when there are hundreds—thousands—of Prime Mothers?”

Danura shook her head, denying the notion.

“It’s time,” I said to her. “Are you ready?”

In response, she rose from her chair and paced toward the cluster that surrounded Evina and Gar. I followed her, my eyes on Handon Gar.

The group surrounding them slowly grew quiet and parted as we approached, eyeing me with surprise and Danura with respect.

“Evina,” Danura said.

“Ah, I see it is Danura risen from her illness,” Evina said to the others with a faint smile on her lips. “Perhaps she has recovered from the news that I bear my
third
child.”

“As do I,” Danura returned easily. Evina’s eyes went wide and Gar shot me an astonished look. I held my expression tightly, not knowing what Danura meant.

“So, little Yamoda will be disappointed,” Gar said, rising from his chair and moving toward me with a hand outstretched, “but I imagine congratulations are in order.” He grabbed my hand and murmured to me, “You old rogue, you.”

“Did you miss me?” I asked him.

Gar’s smile widened and then slipped. “I, ah, didn’t notice you were gone for quite a while, to be honest.”

“I presume congratulations are in order,” I said, nodding toward Evina.

“Perhaps twice,” Gar said, his smile broadening as he nodded toward Danura. “Unless you are claiming responsibility.”

“It would be easy enough to tell,” I said, masking my mixed emotions over this revelation about Danura.

“Not even on Poloda do we know how to do that,” Gar said, shaking his head. “One could make assumptions based on looks, but that is not always accurate.”

“No,” Danura said, stepping over toward us, “there are ways to tell who is the father.”

“What are you talking about?” Evina demanded, moving to regain her position in the center of the conversation.

“Gar,” I said, turning to the Polodan, “did you not wonder where I was during my absence?”

“I presumed you were either pouting or otherwise occupied,” Gar said with a wide grin, his hands moving to gather Evina and Danura against him. Evina moved in reluctantly, unused to such male behavior, but Danura slipped out of his grasp with a look of fury.

“You are not my master!” Danura said.

“No,” Evina purred to her, “but soon
I
will be. As Prime Mother, you are bound to my rules.”

“There are two Prime Mothers here, Evina,” Danura replied tightly.

“Maybe more,” I said with a smirk toward Gar, who, to my surprise, laughed at the quip. Clearly, he had no inkling of his danger.

“What matters most,” I said, “is the care and raising of children, the preservation of the dome, and the people.”

Evina snorted at my statement of the obvious.

I raised my voice to carry, “What if all men could sire children and all women bear them safely? What then?”

I could see by the reactions of the others that this idea intrigued them.

“That is not possible,” Evina said. “Too many men are weak, as are so many women.”

I nodded to Danura, who smiled and pulled forth her communicator, tapping a quick code into it.

“What is that?” Evina asked, brows furrowed. Gar’s head snapped around, and his eyes widened as he guessed at what Danura held. Then he whipped his head to me.

I merely waited, a smile forming on my lips. Oh, I was going to enjoy this!

We had only to wait a moment before two worker machines noiselessly entered the room, moved to us, and stopped, lowering themselves for us to mount.

“This is the future of Tonos!” Danura declared, climbing aboard her machine. She pulled a reader from her large thigh pocket and waved it over her head. “This is what we forgot hundreds of years ago, and what I’ve learned again!”

As Gar, Evina, and the rest stared at us, two more machines noiselessly moved in and, at Danura’s gesture, lowered themselves in front of Evina and Gar.

“Come with us if you want to save Tonos!” Danura cried daringly to Evina. She saw the fear in the other’s eyes and said, with a sneer, “Or stay here to die in ignorance.”

Gar needed no urging, eyeing the machine thoughtfully for a moment before climbing effortlessly aboard. It rose silently into the air once more, and he turned to me, eyes shining.

The murmur of the crowd changed from confusion to disapproval of Evina, and the younger Prime Mother glanced around anxiously before reluctantly following Gar in climbing aboard her mount.

“Where to now, Tangor?” Gar asked.

“You’ll see,” I said, nodding to Danura, who entered a command into her communicator. The worker machines moved silently out of the room, followed by all the eyes of Tonos.

It was hard to determine which was more ecstatic—Gar or Argos—over the addition of our personnel. Certainly Evina was the most anxious, shrieking when Argos’s voice first erupted into the control room. She was also the slowest of us all to learn to read and disliked the effort required. At best she would never be more than an indifferent reader and a terrible technician. It was clear that Danura was by far the smarter of the two, a fact not unnoticed by Gar who spent time trying to distance himself from the other woman and spend more time with Danura.

In that, he bought himself the worst of all worlds. Danura wanted nothing to do with him, and Evina alternated between being clingy and waspish—and I got the distinct impression that the favors she had previously so lavishly bestowed upon him grew far less frequent.

As Evina learned to read and interact with Argos, she and Danura argued more frequently over who to bring next into the control room to learn to read and work on the complex machinery of the domes.

Evina, while not smart, was persistent, and before the end of the second week was demanding proof that the machinery of the domes could help in childbirth.

I myself had been amazed and not a little overwhelmed by the wealth of medical knowledge and ability possessed by Argos and its minions. I had been very careful to ensure that Danura did not learn how to operate the complex diagnostic equipment and so now spent time teaching Gar how to operate it while using Evina as a reluctant and very fidgety patient.

The equipment was a bit more personal than I would have imagined, but she took the invasion of her person philosophically, except when she was not only told the parentage of her child, and the state of the pregnancy but also its sex.

“A girl!” Evina cried happily. “Gar, you’ve fathered a girl!” She leaned forward to grab his face in her hands, disregarding any hope of modesty as she praised him. “You’re such a good boy!”

Gar bore the praise with what grace he could, considering he was being treated as would an infant on Poloda.

“Here, Danura, let’s see about you!” Evina said now, gesturing for Danura to disrobe so as to enter the machinery.

Danura’s cheeks dimpled, and she went slightly pink, turning to me beseechingly.

“Why don’t you get dressed first, and you and Gar can view the examination in the control room?” I suggested suavely. Gar gave me a skeptical look but agreed that the control room was warmer and more comfortable than the cold examination room. He did not know that I’d arranged that on purpose with this circumstance in mind.

After they left, Danura moved into the examination chamber, which was similar to a shower stall; she could stand up in it, her head peering over the top.

I could see tears trickling down her cheeks. I did not know why. The medical machine gave me a reason quickly enough: she was not pregnant.

She met my eyes as I looked up from the readouts. What she was thinking, I could not say.

“I’ve got it,” I told her. “You can get dressed now.”

With a sniff, she retreated from the machine, re-dressed and walked over to where I was examining the readouts.

“The machine doesn’t lie,” Danura said as she looked down on the display. Her expression changed to one of surprise as she said, “It says I’m pregnant.”

I smiled at her. “Yes, it does.”

“But—but—” She stopped as I gestured to another screen.

“Evina and Gar are seeing this,” I said, pointing to the false readings I’d programmed earlier, stolen from one of the training routines. “
That
is what the machine really saw.”

“If Evina finds out that I’m not pregnant, she will become the only Prime Mother,” Danura told me in a low voice. “And she and Gar will—”

“They will have to listen to Argos now,” I reminded her. “Their victory may not be as complete as they’d like.”

“So why are you showing them that?” Danura asked, pointing to the false readings.

“To give you the choice,” I told her.

“They will find out soon enough,” she said sadly.

“You can alter that,” I suggested.

“With you?” she asked. “Or with Gar?”

I did not answer. To be honest, I was not sure if I could answer. Danura was smart and pretty, but her ways were quite different from mine . . . and there was still Yamoda’s kiss to consider.

As a pilot, I thought I had become master of my body, but in the past weeks it had made it clear to me that, in my new Polodan body, the issue was not resolved. Just as the long-lost Ronnie had been replaced in my affections by small Yamoda, was it possible that the tall blond woman standing next to me might replace Yamoda in my heart?

I had work to do and a promise to keep. “Come,” I said to her. “Let’s go join the others.”

By the end of the week, everything was in order for my plan. Gar was growing more and more adept at handling the repairs and learning the routines of Argos, Evina was grudgingly accepting the notion that she and Danura would still vie for the position of Prime Mother, and the Tonosians were slowly being reintroduced to the amazing machinery their ancestors had perfected so many thousands of years ago.

I could see that Gar was scheming to see how he could come out best from this new arrangement just as Argos was convinced that as a machine intelligence it would have no trouble handling all the people on Tonos.