Sliding Scales Read online

  Now it was decision time. Should he broadcast a recommendation to evacuate the building—or try to remove the explosive material? Further probing by his sensors suggested that the concealed explosive materials were presently stable. They would have to be, he knew, if whoever had planted them anticipated having to leave them in place for a while. Since they had not yet gone off, that was manifestly the case. It was a plan that was about to be foiled.

  The first step was to utilize one of the many bits of specialized gear they carried with them. While the Vssey backed off slightly and stood guard, the subofficer and his companions proceeded to carefully shift the concealing stones to expose the package of explosives. Once this was revealed, they then carefully scanned from a safe distance the area surrounding the sizable package. Readouts continued to indicate that the material, while potentially powerful, was presently inert. Scans showed the presence of nothing resembling a detonator; not even a receiver that could be used to apply a remote signal. Only then did Subofficer Jyiivad direct his subordinates to move in and remove the half-dozen individual packages from their hiding place.

  He studied the recovered material with interest. It was of Vsseyan manufacture, cobbled together from chemicals that could be obtained from any one of numerous sources. Ultimately effective, certainly, but also decidedly unsophisticated. He had expected nothing else. After all, the malcontents they were dealing with were only Vssey. That he and his team had located and removed the material before it could be primed for detonation was as much a matter of good luck as skill. That would not matter to the commission headed by the laudable Takuuna VBXLLW, who would be most pleased by the squad's accomplishment and would cite them accordingly.

  As he was slipping one package of explosives into a neatly labeled forensics pouch, he noticed Trooper Isooket leaning back to stare skyward, up between the buildings that enclosed the street on both sides. The subofficer prepared to ask the trooper what he was looking at, but he did not have enough time.

  Pursed by a single tashwesh, the flock of bourebeil spilled between buildings and into the street below, venting air from their lifting bladders as rapidly as they dared. There were thirty of them, perhaps more. Their bulbous, blue-and-red-speckled bodies resembled pop-eyed balloons that had broken free from some psychedelic party. Each sported a pair of equally florid lifting sacs from their rounded backs.

  The tashwesh was an intimidating predator. A glossy blue-black, with double pairs of gliding wings, it harassed the rear of the flock, its four piercing spines protruding from above and below the tooth-lined, circular mouth. One of the Vssey remarked aloud on its odd behavior. Instead of attacking, it almost appeared to be herding the panicky bourebeil into the street. From the ribbed platform of his individual police transport, a companion remarked that the tashwesh might be going for a multiple kill. By forcing the flock into a limited space, it greatly increased its opportunities to do so.

  As he swatted away a descending bourebeil, Jyiivad was only irritated by the distraction. Every sensor in the patrol identified both multiple bourebeil and singular tashwesh as wholly organic. None detected so much as a molecular-level transmitter, far less anything more suspicious. The incident was a perfectly natural, if distracting, occurrence.

  Hemmed in by buildings on either side, pavement below, and the marauding tashwesh overhead, the swirling, densely packed flock of bourebeil set up a desperate mass keening. Jyiivad and his subordinates found themselves wincing. The high-pitched, piercing wail scraped at his ears. One of the Vsseyan police assured him it would end as soon as the unusually patient tashwesh selected its prey from the massed flock and struck. Jyiivad would have been interested to know that he was hearing only a small portion, the AAnn-audible portion, of the massed bourebeil wailing. Much of the noise the flock was generating consisted of subsonic vibrations too low for him and his companions to hear.

  These vibrations happened to affect the explosive material the patrol had just recovered only because said material had been modified specifically to react to them.

  From a safe, innocent distance, Qyl-Elussab watched the smoke rise from the ruins of the collapsed, hollowed-out building that had formerly housed the Aulauwohly City Offices for Export Control. The damage had been even greater than one could reasonably have expected. The unavoidable loss of the tashwesh that had for over a year been lovingly trained to herd and panic bourebeil was to be regretted, but could not have been avoided. A winged, if unknowing martyr to the cause of Jastian independence from Imperial AAnn interference, Qyl-Elussab felt.

  The specifics of the destruction could be learned later, by skimming the media. Pivoting, Qyl-Elussab hopped down the pedestrian passage of the main avenue, moving against the flow of stunned, curious onlookers who were hurriedly hopping in the opposite direction, toward the rising column of smoke. The yowl of municipal rescue units could be heard approaching from above. They might be in time to save some of those traitors who had worked in the export agency to further dilute the purity of the Vssey. They would be fortunate to find even fragments of the patrol whose progress Qyl-Elussab had spent the morning tracking from a distance.

  Their transporters inclining slightly forward because of the unaccustomed speed at which they were traveling, a police patrol was coming straight down the avenue. QylElussab studiously ignored their approach. One by one, they whizzed past. Their tentacles writhing in agitation, none of the police turned so much as a wandering eye-stalk in the lone Vssey's direction.

  Public transport conveyed the contented insurgent to the far side of the city. From its next-to-last stop, it was a modest hop to the simple, subsurface living chamber where productive days were spent crafting the next assault on the reprehensible AAnn interlopers. It was a dark, dank place, unlike the well-lit homes and workplaces of many of Qyl-Elussab's former friends. Former, because they either consented to the AAnn presence on Jast, or remained assiduously neutral. In the matter of alien ascendancy there was no neutrality, Qyl-Elussab felt. This was known with the surety that had become the lone Vsseyan renegade's motivation in all things.

  Fortunately, the vital work would soon have allies. Takuuna and his fellow AAnn would have been stunned to learn that thus far, Qyl-Elussab had planned and carried out the attacks in both Morotuuver and Aulauwohly with the help of nothing more than the insistent multiple voices that induced constant headaches within that meter-wide, dome-shaped upper body/head. Painful voices that had plagued Qyl-Elussab for years now, until the cerebral pounding had driven the former officer to finally take action against the only cause remaining when all other possibilities had been discarded: the pushy, increasingly obtrusive AAnn.

  The furtive, unnamed organization of cunning insurgents that had succeeded in unsettling both the AAnn Imperial Authority as well as the Jastian planetary government had an aggregate roster of one.

  That would change soon, Qyl-Elussab knew as he stroked the concealed switch that allowed access to the sub-basement. Dozens of others were already on the way to join with their spiritual and moral leader. Allies who would not question what was being done would offer no objection to the violence that was being planned. Followers who would act and not question.

  In response to the pressure of several tentacles, light came on in the sub-basement. Hopping slowly down the ramp, Qyl-Elussab approached his budding associates. They were budding in every sense of the word: all seven of them. Germinated from Qyl-Elussab's own body, in a few months the maturing sprouts would develop into adolescents capable of taking their first independent hops. Already, their eyes had emerged from their upper bodies, and short but rapidly lengthening tentacles probed inquisitively at their silent surroundings. The parent smiled fondly on these developing offspring.

  What had been done in budding them was highly illegal. To reproduce, one first had to apply to the local branch of the Ministry for Procreation. Uncontrolled reproduction could not be allowed because it would lead to feuding, war, and eventually, serious overpopulation. From time immemori
al there had always been food pressures on the species. War, disease, and famine had kept the Vsseyan population in check until the development of civilization and its benefits. That was when social controls had been put in place to replace the natural ones that had been superseded by technology.

  In order to reproduce legally, a Vssey first had to find two friends or relations to form the traditional circle of support. All would cooperate in the raising of the single young, to the latter's benefit. Although still physiologically possible, multiple budding was strictly outlawed. As for individual parenting, that was a relic of ancient times, a sign of barbarism. Qyl-Elussab, however, was not one to be intimidated by something as impersonal as social convention or Jastian history. Having done what had already been done, the possibility of being branded with a social stigma was hardly a concern. Nor were there any others who could be trusted to keep silent about the sole defender of Jastian integrity's murderous activities. As a proud and expectant Qyl-Elussab bent toward the swiftly maturing young, his eyes roving fondly over their rapidly spreading domes, the now ever-present voices that echoed through the dissenter's head voiced their approval.

  In every sense of the word, planning for the future allies of the illustrious insurgency had been carefully conceived.

  The unexpected news from Aulauwohly City left Takuuna much conflicted. On the one claw, he had been looking forward to some time to ease into his new position: rounding up suspects (easy to do with the slow-moving Vssey), questioning, striding importantly through the offices of AAnn officials across the planet. With the attacks on the base compound outside Morotuuver and the export offices in Aulauwohly, he now had a real insurgency to deal with instead of an imaginary one. With the latter, he would have been able to take his time, relax, and enjoy the perks and approbation that came with his new status. Ordered to root out those behind a real uprising, he would be expected to produce results. And swiftly, before any more nye perished.

  Working with the Vsseyan authorities only increased his frustration. It was impossible to obtain rapid decisions or move anywhere nearly fast enough. Every request for assistance, information, personnel had to wend its sorry way through the typical Vsseyan bureaucracy. That meant no less than three officials had to give their approval to anything that came their way. It was a system of mass consensus that had worked very well for the modern Vssey, resulting in a generally peaceful and civilized society. Not that it was devoid of malcontents. They just generally chose to express their disapproval with petitions and debate, not with bombs. That was not the Vsseyan way.

  Obviously, certain unknown elements had arisen that disagreed with that tradition.

  But who were they? Where were they? The sophistication of the two attacks suggested a large, well-organized group of malcontents. It ought not to be too difficult to track them down. Yet all the efforts of his newly formed unit had thus far turned up nothing. The excuse that everyone was still learning their job would carry no weight with his superiors. They wanted results, and fast. They wanted identified individuals they could execute. Takuuna knew that if he failed to find some of them within a tightly proscribed period of time, he would be replaced. And, most likely, demoted.

  Such worries and anxiety dogged him as he lashed out with his tail, striking at Geelin's flanks. Leaping and spinning sideways, she avoided the blow, landed, and lashed out with her right foot. Claws retracted, the hit still stung as it caught him across his bare chest. The scales there took a scraping but did not bruise or bleed, as would have been the case had she so struck a softskin.

  Staggering backwards as she followed the tail swipe with a charge, he tried to recover by balancing adroitly on his tail and kicking out with both feet. Anticipating the traditional defensive maneuver, she slid beneath the double kick, her body slamming into his tail and bringing him down almost on top of her. Then she was behind him, hissing into his left ear, her teeth clamped on the back of his neck, arms and legs locked around his. He struggled halfheartedly in the robust grip.

  “You are disstracted today, companionye. Ssince your heart iss not in thiss mating, I pressume nothing elsse iss, either!” Wrapped around him, the tip of her tail wagged back and forth in front of his face. She was taunting him. In concert with the mild insult, it was clear she was doing her best to stimulate him to action.

  He did his best, bracing himself against her while snapping his body up and over. It broke her hold, but sloppily. They both ended up kicking and tail-thrashing on the sand. Grit flew. While this enhanced the mood, it was still inadequate to draw him out of his preoccupied funk.

  She finally slid out of reach, staring at him across the sand and breathing hard. “If you will not sshare mating with me, try wordss. I am fond of you, Takuuna-nay, but not to the point of coddling. Thiss moodiness iss not like you.”

  Rolling over, he settled into a reluctant defensive position. “It iss my tassking. It troubless me like itching under my sscaless.”

  “We are all troubled by our tasskingss, Takuuna-nay.” She added a second-degree gesture of sympathy.

  “I am charged,” he told her, “with uncovering the Vsseyan perpetratorss of the recent atrocitiess againsst our people here. Though I work hard and drive thosse under me relentlessly, we have found nothing.”

  “Patience rewardss the perceptive,” she responded as she edged toward him across the sand. He was wary of another assault, but she was genuinely trying to show empathy.

  “The Adminisstration will not hear of it. They want ressults, not aphorissms, no matter how true the lineage.”

  Geelin's tail lashed out at him, but not so swiftly that he failed to detect the movement and duck. Morose but alert for such moves, he rolled across the arena away from her. “Then arresst your ssusspectss,” she hissed tightly as she rose into a striking crouch.

  “What ssusspectss?” he lamented. “I told you: we have found nothing to implicate sso much as a damned ssprout among the nativess.”

  “If you need ssusspectss, and do not have any ssusspectss, then you will have to invent ssome ssusspectss,” she suggested slyly.

  “Invent … ?” Double eyelids blinked.

  “Why not?” She moved toward him, and he edged to his right to keep out of her reach. “Do you have any sspecial love for the sslugss who are our hosstss?”

  “No, it iss not that.”

  “Well, then.” Rising to her full height, she assumed a tense, muscular stance, challenging him yet again. “There musst at leasst be ssome you predominantly disslike. Ssurely there are ssome Vssey who are vissible in their dissent? Who have expressed disspleassure with our pressence here?”

  “Many,” he admitted as, reinvigorated by her suggestion, he launched himself beneath her, reached up, grabbed her tail with both hands, and twisted hard. She was slammed against the ground. In an instant he was behind her. “Truly, ssuccess hatchess from the egg of invention.” He bestrode her furiously. She clawed up and back, but was unable to do anything more than scrape his ribs. Her continued efforts only served to inspire him further.

  What she was suggesting without realizing it, he understood as he rode her, was that he employ the same stratagem he had used in explaining the death of the softskin. If he could not yet identify the actual source of the organized opposition to the Imperial presence on Jast, Takuuna did not doubt that he could invent one. There were a number of nonviolent, legal philosophical Vsseyan groups who were quite vocal in their dislike of the AAnn visitors. These could be questioned, their motives impugned, their actions scrutinized. Eventually, under “appropriate” questioning, a few of them might crack. After all, there was nothing imaginary about the devastating bombings that had taken place. Why, one of them might even have a line on the identity of the actual saboteurs. He was surprised he had not thought of it himself.

  That the female fighting beneath him had was not only a tribute to her shrewdness but also to her palpable ongoing interest in him. He was already fond of Geelin CCRQPLL. It was apparent that her physical tal
ents were matched by a commendable cunning. As they continued their traditional struggle, he found himself grateful.

  When this was over, he decided, when he had uprooted and destroyed the Vsseyan radicals, he would make a ceremonial offer to formalize their mating. He hoped she would respond with suitable ritual vehemence. Of all the females he had had occasion to skirmish and mate with during his sojourn on Jast, Geelin was clearly superior to the rest, while overtly sympathetic to him personally and professionally as well.

  That did not mean, of course, that he trusted her for one moment.

  8

  Lwo-Dvuum was completely at a loss. So upset was the prisoner that the tips of the tentacles that lined the protruding, disc-like upper third of the educator's body had withdrawn in upon themselves. The flexible eyestalks were also partly retracted. But the teacher's aural frill remained fully erect, intent on catching the slightest reference to ongoing events.

  They had come for Lwo-Dvuum in the middle of the night, rousing the groggy educator from the quiet sleeping cabinet that stood between beloved stacks of antique literary texts and the more modern electronic readout that was used for daily tasking. There had been no need to restrain the prisoner. A Vssey subject to arrest could not hop from the law. All that was needed was to keep a detainee away from other means of transport.

  Objections to the unwarranted intrusion poured forth as fast as the bewildered educator was able to compose them.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Lwo-Dvuum demanded to know of his captors. “Where are you taking me? I warn you, I am a highly respecte' mentor. I will be lodging complaints against this incident at the highest levels!”

  “Then you'll enjoy where we're taking you,” one of the apprehending police informed the outraged captive.

  Enclosing the detainee in the center of an official police circle, they forced Lwo-Dvuum to hop outside the building in tandem with them, leading the educator out of the stylish residence for unbudding professionals and toward the waiting transport. Lwo-Dvuum noted with dismay that it was unmarked. Once inside, increasing altitude prevented any chance of escape as the humming police transport rose above the surrounding structures. A fall of more than thirty body lengths would kill even one of the physically resilient Vssey.