Midnight At the Well of Souls Read online

  Vardia thought back with the clarity and detachment she now possessed. She remembered saying good-bye to the Political Office staff, walking out, riding to the spaceport, boarding the shuttle.

  Nothing before.

  "I never realized—" she began, but Mudriel cut her off.

  "I know," the psychologist said. "Part of the deep program. It would never even occur to you. And you didn't even know the message you carried, the one that they would go to these lengths to keep private. By programmed exercises you kept yourself in perfect physical condition, and if challenged or cornered you would fight suicidally to free yourself. If trapped, you would have triggered a series of impulses that would have brought about your suicide." Mudriel saw the mixed apprehension and disbelief in Vardia's eyes.

  "Don't worry," the psychologist assured her. "We have removed the deep programming. You will remain you. Would you like to hear the message you carried?"

  Vardia nodded dully, her mind in a fog.

  The psychologist took out a tiny translucent cube and popped it into a well in a small recorder on a table nearby.

  Vardia suddenly heard her voice—her old voice, incredibly, although she no longer possessed the vocal chords to speak that way, saying in a tinny way: "The Commisariat introduces you to Datham Hain, who, with a companion, came on the same ship as the courier. Citizen Hain is on a mission of vital importance to the Commisariat and requires dinner appointments with several Members of the Presidium of Coriolanus, as many as can be accommodated. You are to follow whatever might be his instructions to the letter, without question or hesitation. Keep the courier until at least one such meeting has been arranged, then reprogram it to report on that meeting, said reprogramming to be in Hain's presence and with his approval. All glory to the People's Revolution, all glory to its prophets."

  The psychologist studied Vardia closely as the recording closed. The ex-courier was obviously stunned and shaken, but that shock treatment had to be administered. All over the Entry's body, the Czillian read the mental struggle that had to be taking place within.

  It was a terrible thing to destroy someone's complacent world-picture.

  Finally, the psychologist asked gently, "Would you like to go root and meditate? Take as long as you want."

  Vardia shook her head negatively. "No," she said at last, in a half-whisper, "no, I'm all right."

  "I know," the psychologist soothed. "It is a terrible thing to find the lie in life. That is one reason we are dedicated here to the uncovering of truth. There are societies and people just as bad on this world, maybe even worse. Hain himself is here somewhere, and probably has already fallen in with a bad bunch. Such societies are the enemies of all civilization, and it is with them that we war. Will you join us in the fight?"

  Vardia stood silent a few moments more. Then, suddenly, something seemed to snap within her, and with a fierceness and intensity that surprised even her she said, "Yes!"

  The psychologist gave the Czillian equivalent of a smile and turned back to the file it had before it.

  Picking up a stamp, it brought it down on an empty block on the front of the file. In Czillian it read: Ready for Assignment.

  The last processing was over, and Vardia Diplo 1261 was extinguished.

  Vardia the Czillian left the office.

  THE AKKAFIAN EMPIRE

  (Enter Datham Hain, Asleep)

  Datham Hain had entered the gate with a false sense of bravado, but he was scared to death. He had nightmares of awful proportions, bringing forth every fear in his long life. These surfaced as the Markovian brain picked, analyzed, and classified each subject according to some long-lost, preset reasoning.

  He awoke suddenly, with a start, and looked around. It was the strangest look in his experience.

  He realized immediately that he was now colorblind, although instead of merely the blacks, whites, and shades of gray, there was a mild sepia-tone effect that made certain things look fuzzy and others stand out. His depth perception was remarkable, he realized. At a glance he could tell exactly how far everything in view was from everything else, and his vision seemed to be enlarged to a 180-degree field. That was amazing, as amazing as the view itself.

  He seemed to be on a ledge overlooking an incredible landscape far below. The land was bleak and sandy, broken only by hundreds of cones that looked almost like perfectly formed volcanoes. He strained to get a better look, and found, suddenly, the scene magnifying itself, each time by a factor of two. As it did, a hardly noticed hairline-split midway in his vision also magnified, so that it became a huge bar separating the scene into right and left views. It was as if he were peering through two windows while standing in front of the post that separated them.

  There were things down there, and they were moving. Hain stared in fascination at them, a corner of his mind wondering why he was fascinated instead of horrified or repelled. They were great insects, ranging in size from one to almost four meters long, the median height being almost a meter. They had two large, apparently multifaceted eyes fixed, like a fly's, forward in the head. Below the eyes were huge mandibles flanking a mouth resembling a parrot's beak. With surprise he saw one creature stop while a long, snaky black tongue emerged to clean the face.

  The body was oblong and seemed to have hair on it—the resolution of Hain's vision was so fine that he could almost count the hairs. And yet—yes, flush against the body in the hair were wings, several pairs of them. The rear of the body exposed a barren, bony tip that undoubtedly was a stinger.

  Hain tried to imagine the fate of anyone stung with something that size.

  The head seemed to be on a hinge or circular joint, as some of the creatures moved it slightly in one or another direction.

  For the first time he saw the feelers, giant things that seemed to have a life of their own, moving every way but forward—including straight up. They ended in hair-covered nodules.

  The eight legs were thick and were also covered with hair, longer and down-angled. They were multijointed, and he saw a pair of the creatures using their forward legs like hands to move a rock away from a pathway it was blocking. He could see that the tips were not hair but spikelike and were covered with a secretion that looked sticky.

  The insects moved with amazing speed sometimes, and, every once in a while, one would take to the air briefly. Apparently they couldn't fly very far with all that weight, but could manage a short hop when they felt like it. As Hain watched, he saw that some of them were operating machines! One looked like a snowplow, and it was clearing dust and debris from the roadways as it was pushed forward; others seemed to have no obvious purpose.

  With the realization that these were not animals but one form of sentient life on the Well World, something else hit, as well. He tried to turn his head to see himself, but could not. He opened his strangely rigid mouth and stuck out his tongue. It was more than three meters long, as controllable as an arm, and covered with an incredibly sticky substance.

  I'm one of them, he told himself, more in wonder than in fear.

  He raised his head up and brought his two forward legs into view. He had been right, he saw. Three joints, all bendable in any direction. The tips were spikes; like hard rubber, and he experimented by reaching out and picking up a small rock. As his legs touched the rock, a sticky secretion gave him a grip. When he let go, the secretion turned to a solid film and fell away like used skin.

  He noticed immediately that, when the dropped rock hit, he did not hear it. Rather, he felt it, as a sharp, single pulsation. The antennae, he told himself. They sense air movement, but not as sound.

  Suddenly he was aware that he was getting thousands of tiny pulses through them, and, incredibly, he almost sensed the source and distance of each.

  This has possibilities, thought Datham Hain.

  Using his tongue he surveyed his own body, being careful not to come near the stinger at the rear which he now realized he could feel when he wanted to. No use in possibly poisoning myself this early i
n the game, he thought cautiously.

  He was about three meters long and almost a meter high, he discovered. About medium-sized for those creatures down there.

  He flexed his wings—six pairs, he found—long but looking extremely thin and frail to support his weight. He decided he wouldn't try them out until he knew more about his anatomy. Even birds have to be taught to fly, he thought, and sentient creatures probably had less instinct—if any at all—than the lower species.

  Now how do I get down off this ledge? he wondered. Finally, he decided to experiment, moving his body close to the edge. As his front legs touched the side they secreted that substance and stuck, he saw with satisfaction.

  Emboldened, he pushed off and started walking down the side.

  Doing so was incredibly easy, he found, confidence growing with each step. He realized he could probably walk on a ceiling, if the sticky stuff would support his weight. The main problem would be getting used to the fact that there was so much of him in back of his head. The legs worked in perfect coordination, as if he had been born with them; but the body was hard and rigid, and took some practice to maneuver without spilling end over end.

  It took several minutes to descend the low cliff, although he realized that, with practice, he could probably come back and do it in seconds. Once down, he faced a problem that his reason wouldn't solve for him. He wanted to get introduced quickly, to get settled in here, and to check out the sociopolitical system, the geography, and the like. Also, he was feeling hungry, and he hadn't the slightest idea what these creatures ate.

  But how did they communicate? Not only language, but even the means weren't all that apparent.

  Well, that Ortega had said that the brain would provide for such things, he told himself; but he was exceedingly nervous as he approached one of the creatures coming down the road.

  The other saw him and stopped.

  "What are you doing just standing there, Markling?" the newcomer challenged sternly. "Don't you have any work to do?"

  Hain was stunned. The language was a series of incredibly rapid pulsations transmitted in some way from the creature's antennae to his own, yet he had understood everything! All but the last word, anyway. He decided to try to talk back.

  "Please. I am newly born to this world, and I need help and guidance," he began, then felt his own antennae quiver incredibly quickly as he talked. It worked!

  "What the hell?" responded the gruff stranger, although not really in those terms. Hain's brain automatically seemed to translate into familiar symbols. "You sick or something?"

  "No, no," Hain protested. "I have just come from Zone, where I have just awakened as one of you."

  The other thought about that for a minute. "I'll be damned! An Entry! Haven't had one in over ten years!" Suddenly the old skepticism returned. "You're not just saying that to shirk, are you?"

  "I assure you that I am what I say, and that up until a very short time ago I was of a totally different race and form."

  "You adjust pretty well," the other noted. "Most of 'em have the creeping fits for days. Well, I'll take you over to the nearest government house and it'll be their problem. I have work to do. Follow me." With that, it started on down the road, and Hain followed.

  His guide was almost a third larger than he was, Hain saw. Most of the creatures he passed seemed to be about the same size or smaller than he. A few big ones were around, and they seemed to be the bosses.

  They walked past several of the huge cones, then up the side of one that looked no different from the rest and into the hole on top. Hain noted that the opening was so even because it was rimmed with metal, like an open hatch. He almost lost his nerve on entering. The aboveground part of the cone, about ten meters worth, was hollow to the outside structure. They were not only walking down, but at an angle.

  When they passed ground level, they walked onto a floor which was also some kind of metal. Tunnels lined with tile, with neon or some similar lighting stretching down in long tubes, led away like spokes on a wheel. They were wide enough to hold two of the creatures abreast, and they passed several as his guide led him down a near one.

  Doorless openings into large chambers filled with all sorts of strange stuff, often with dozens of the creatures working, were passed before they reached one with a hexagon in lights over the doorway. Inside the hex was a wide gray ring, then a smaller black one, then a white dot. It reminded Hain with some amusement of the view of his guide's posterior, with its menacing stinger.

  Several small and medium-sized creatures were working, apparently at some sort of paperwork, Hain noted with curiosity. Huge printing machines, like typewriters, were all over, with television screens displaying what the creatures, using their forward legs, were typing on a strange keyboard. The keyboard was a series of apparently identical cubes, forty or fifty of them, which lit momentarily as they were touched. A crazy dot pattern emerged on the screens in no apparent logical order or pattern. When the screen was filled, a hind leg would kick a large stud and the screen would go blank—and they would be back to typing again.

  So I can't read the language, Hain noted to himself. Well, can't have everything.

  The guide waited patiently until somebody noticed him and looked up from its keyboard.

  "Yes?" asked the worker and the communicated tone was one of irritated nastiness.

  "Found this Markling on the road, claims to be an Entry," said the big guide in that same annoyed tone he had used with Hain.

  There was that word again. What in seven hells was a Markling, anyway?

  "Just a moment," the clerk or whatever it was said, "I'll see if His Highness will see you."

  The office worker went into a side door and stayed several minutes. Hain's hunger was increasing, and so was his apprehension. A hereditary empire, he thought. Well, it could be worse.

  Finally the clerk reappeared. "His Highness will see the Entry," she said—for some reason Hain automatically thought of his guide as masculine and the receptionist and most of the other workers as feminine. The guide moved forward.

  "Just the Entry," said the clerk sharply. "You will return to your duties."

  "As you say," the other replied, and turned and left.

  Hain gathered up his courage and entered the doorway.

  Inside was the biggest creature he had ever seen. But there was something else unusual about him.

  The hairs on his body were white.

  Hain suddenly realized just how hereditary this monarchy was.

  There were some boxes and bags around of more or less conventional design, and one of those typewriters with a much larger screen. Nothing else. The big one reared back on the last four of his eight legs. Hain was impressed and cowed; he hadn't seen anyone else doing that.

  "What's your name, Entry?" the big white one demanded imperiously. The tone, Hain realized by now, was conveyed by the intensity of the signal.

  "Datham Hain, Your Highness," he replied in the most respectful way he could.

  The official ran his tongue over his beak in thought. Finally, he went over to the typewriter and started punching up something—something short, Hain saw, because the screen was still almost empty when the large creature punched the send bar or whatever it was. A moment's wait. Then the screen started to fill with those funny dots.

  The official read the message carefully, studying it for several minutes. Finally it turned back to him as he stood there impatiently, needing almost four meters to negotiate the move.

  "Ordinarily, Hain, we'd just train and condition you to a position and you'd fit in or die." Hain's heart—if he still had one—sank. "But," the royal official continued, "in this case we have special use for you. Too bad you turned up a Markling, but that's to be expected. You'll be quartered near here—I'll have one of my assistants show you where. There's a commissary three doors down. Most of you Entries come through starving, so go in there and eat your fill. Don't worry about what it is—we can eat just about anything. Wait in your quarte
rs until I get instructions from Imperial Headquarters."

  Hain still stood there, digesting all this. Finally, he said, "Your Highness, might I be permitted one question?"

  "Yes, yes," the other said impatiently. "What is it?"

  "What's a Markling?"

  "Hain," replied the official patiently, "life is hard and cheap in the Akkafian Empire. Infant mortality is extremely high, not only from normal factors imposed by nature but for other reasons you'll find out sooner or later for yourself. As a result, to ensure racial continuation, about fifty females are born for every male.

  "A Markling is a female Akkafian, Hain. You've had a sex change."

  * * *

  Datham Hain was led by one of the office staff to the commissary, which proved to be a large room filled with strange animals, plants, and worms, some still alive. Feeding as an Akkafian was not pleasant, at least to Hain's unnormalized psyche, but it was necessary. The creatures frankly didn't taste all that bad—in fact, they didn't taste very much at all, but they filled the void in what seemed to be multiple stomachs. If he didn't think about what he was eating, the changeling discovered, it went down all right.

  That tongue, like a sticky whip, was infinitely controllable. Live prey were simply picked up, thrown to the rear sting area to be paralyzed, then held and fed by the mandibles a little at a time through the beak.

  Discovering that he was now a she wasn't much of a shock to Hain; the odds were that sexuality was so different among these people that it probably didn't make much difference anyway. What was disquieting was that the males seemed to be in firm charge. The Nirlings, as the males were called, were larger and controlled the government and supervisory positions and the technology that kept them in power. The females, mostly neutered, did the work, apparently compulsively. Hain had seen no evidence of force or coercion; the workers carried out their tasks dedicatedly, unquestioningly, and uncomplainingly. Hain understood the system to a degree. It was not unlike that of the Comworlds, where people were bred to work.