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pattern. I understand that just about everything amuses them, but I don't
think they'd laugh at that."
She replied evenly. "In a little while we're going to be killing, maybe be
killed in return. I didn't think it would matter so much."
"Try to be more selective in the future." He was delib-erately cool.
Gunecvod reached the dispenser and called for three con-tainers of cold water.
As the second tumbler filled the thought about what had just occurred and
struggled to make sense of it. His upper lip curled, exposing sharp teeth. He
did not feel certain enough to broach his thoughts to any of his companions,
but neither could he simply dismiss what had happened as inexplicable and set
it aside.
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Unlike any others in his squad, he had many years ago spent time as a prisoner
of war on the contested world of Nura. More remarkably still, in that time he
had actually encountered one of the dread Amplitur. It had been inspecting the
facility where he and his fellow prisoners had been interned. Pausing before
him, it had inclined both eyestalks in his direction. To the day of his death
he would be able to visualize those protuberant, glistening orbs hov-ering
close to his twitching face.
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Then had come the probe. He'd stood helpless before it, vaguely aware of but
unable to resist the intrusion, that gentle violation of his innermost
sanctity.
For a while the Amplitur had explored his self, unable to read his thoughts
but quite capable of interpreting his reactions. Then it had withdrawn and
moved on.
Other than a patina of unclean-liness which lingered for some time, Gunecvod
had in-curred no harm as a result of the probe. It was something he would
never forget.
It was also something he had never expected to experi-ence again.
Yet he had. Just now. There was no mistaking it. Though mildly, indefinably
different, it was sufficiently unmistak-able to prohibit confusion.
His first wild, mad thought was that an Amplitur had somehow succeeded in
disguising itself as a Human or Massood and slipping onto the sled. Somehow
that seemed a feat beyond the reach even of those masters of bioengineering.
His attention returned to the man and woman who had been among those who had
suffered as puppets of the Am-plitur. They were conversing among themselves,
not look-ing in his direction. He reviewed what he had just experienced,
scrutinized the relevant circumstances.
If they were thirsty why did they not fetch their own refreshment? Was there
something unseen wrong with their limbs that they should make such a request
of a Massood soldier? He had not wanted to comply, yet that was pre-cisely
what he was doing. And why? Because he'd felt compelled to. Not out of
friendship, or understanding, or a desire to be of assistance. Out of a brief,
seemingly harmless compulsion.
He had served alongside Humans for many years and was familiar with their
aspect. He could tell there was no tension in these two. They reposed utterly
relaxed in their surroundings. Could they be unaware of what at their urg-ing
had just transpired? It seemed unlikely. What had the Amplitur done to them?
What had they become?
Yet they and their fellow Restorees had been cleared to rejoin their kind by
both Military and Science Command and further, to participate in the
forthcoming assault. Against that weight of official evidence he could throw
only a transitory suspicion born of unforgettable experience.
It didn't matter. There was no misreading the sensation, no mistaking what had
just happened to him. The Humans had suggested and he had responded. They had
pushed.
Could any of the other Restorees do it? He didn't know and felt it might be
hazardous to try and find out. From now on he would carry with him the burden
of dangerous knowledge. He would have to watch his back, his move-ments, his
very thoughts lest one of them suspect that they had been found out. Nor could
he tell any of his family or friends. They would not believe him, and his
accusation would surely get back to those under suspicion. He sus-pected they
might readily take steps to preserve their secret.
He feared the Amplitur, but he feared Humans in pos-session of Amplitur
abilities far more.
It was all up to him, until he could either find the means to prove his
theories to others or otherwise rectify the situation. He knew that he had to
do one or the other. The danger was real, real in a way only one who had
suffered the probing of the Amplitur could appreciate. Others might not
understand. It had already been suggested on more than one occasion that his
years in captivity had rendered him slightly unbalanced, fit to soldier but
not to mate.
They were all wrong. His experience had left him en-lightened, not damaged.
Now it fell upon him to put that enlightenment to use for the goodness of his
kind, for the ultimate benefit of all intelligent species. If these muta-tions
were allowed to spread they would constitute a dan-ger to the Weave greater
even than that posed by the Amplitur. They had to be dealt with. If not by a
be-nighted, ignorant authority, then by one who knew.
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If necessary, by soldier Gunecvod acting alone and for the good of all
civilization, praise be to the Lineage!
But not now, not in this place. For now he would have to exercise patience. So
what he did was gather up the three filled tumblers in his long fingers, still
the convulsive twitching of his whiskers and lips, and return to the pair, a
pleasant expression cemented in place. If they wanted to talk, he would talk.
If they wished to exchange jokes, he would joke with them. He would bend the
opportunity to his own needs, use it to learn as much about them as he could.
If they tried to push him again, he would not resist. Unless something made
them suspicious there would be no danger in succumbing to their suggestions,
whereas if he tried to resist there might.
Command did not suspect. Had these Human-Ashregan been developed by the
Amplitur so they could then be scattered throughout an ignorant Weave to wreak
destruc-tion of unknown dimensions? But they were going to at-tack the
Amplitur's headquarters on Ulaluable. Maybe the entire invasion was nothing
more than an Amplitur decep-tion, Gunecvod mused, an elaborate tactical ruse
designed solely to allow their Human puppets to "escape" and in-filtrate Weave
forces.
The Amplitur had infinite patience. Perhaps even their puppets were unaware of
what was transpiring, were con-vinced that the actions they had taken thus far
to return to their species were the result of their own discoveries and free
will. Perhaps unsuspected mental commands had been implanted deep within their
engineered minds, designed to go off next year, a hundred years, from now,
when the Amplitur would make known their true and secret inten-tions and
reassert control over their bewildered minions.
These before him might very well fight hard to dislodge Ashregan and Crigolit
and Molitar from Ulaluable. And all the while equivocating Amplitur would sit
safely in their ships, watching and silently applauding the success of their
duplicitous efforts, sacrificing their ignorant un-knowing allies in pursuit
of some far more intimate, dis-tant goal. It was a plan of great subtlety.
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