Piers Anthony - Mode 4 - DoOon Mode

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DoOon Mode by Piers Anthony

Piers Anthony

DoOon Mode

CONTENTS

1. Felines

2. Dragon

3. Doe

4. Travel

5. Earth

6. Julia

7. Horse

8. Monster

Author's Note

ONE

Felines

Cat crouched on the stand, pondering. It was not given to the stresses of emotion, but did feel

troubled. The situation of their trio was not good, and the Feline nulls were suffering. Something

needed to be done, but the course of action that offered was not benign. Perhaps they would be best

off if they simply waited out the negative period, trusting to time to ameliorate the problem.

Cat felt as if its tail were twitching nervously, though of course there was no tail. The course of

action that offered had a limited period for adoption, and that period ended in one more day.

Thereafter that option would be lost, and it seemed unlikely that it would be repeated. Cat suspected

that it related to the Virtual Mode project; if so, it was of special interest to the Felines. Perhaps it

should be mentioned to the others. Yet their emotions governed them unduly; it was their nature.

They were too apt to react rashly.

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DoOon Mode by Piers Anthony

There was one day remaining to decide. Cat put its head down and napped, awaiting the return of the

others.

There was no mistaking their arrival. Tom's extended toe-claws clacked against the floor, evidence of

anger. Pussy was mewling, evidence of grief. Something ill had happened.

They burst into the chamber. Tom was a powerful figure of a human man, his only feline aspects

being his head, retractable claws, and a certain furriness. Pussy was a lovely figure of a human

female, with the facial features of her feline persuasion. They were really human androids with their

features tweaked to make them suggest cats, exactly as was the case with Cat itself. Male, female,

and neuter: the Feline nulls.

"Oh, Cat!" Pussy cried, stepping into Cat's reassuring embrace. "It was awful!" Now, in privacy, she

felt free to let her tears flow.

"It was an outrage!" Tom snapped, striking the featureless dummy and raking it with his claws.

"Let me guess," Cat said, letting Pussy sob into its shoulder. "The Swine?"

"The Swine," Tom agreed. "We were just trying to dance at the null club. No one asked us, so Pussy

addressed a Canine. Hound looked interested. They were about to dance, when Sow cut in and took

Hound herself. The others laughed. They won't let us forget, even for a moment." He clawed the

dummy again.

"Hound would have danced with me," Pussy said brokenly. "He liked me. I could tell. He would have

taken me into the private stall and humped me. I haven't been humped in a month! And Sow knew it."

"And I can't hump any of the females," Tom growled. "They all look down on me, because I'm

unemployed."

"Because we're unemployed," Cat said. "Remember, we are in this together."

"I wish we could get an assignment," Pussy sobbed, not much comforted. "Why can't we?"

"You know why," Tom said, clawing the dummy again. "The employers don't want us."

"But it wasn't our fault!"

"But they still blame us," Tom said. This time he actually gouged out a chunk of material.

"It's so unfair! We're good nulls. We never fouled up."

Cat was on the verge of deciding. He postponed it for a moment by clarifying their situation once

again. "We are good nulls, and it is unfair to make us pariahs. But this is the way the limited minds of

the Swine work, and the others take their cues from them."

"Because the Swine serve Ddwng," Tom said. This time he punched the dummy, and it rocked back

with the force of the blow. Because his hands were essentially human, he could do this when he

chose.

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DoOon Mode by Piers Anthony

"So they fouled up," Pussy said, finally disengaging from Cat. "So why aren't they blamed?"

Cat tried to find a way to explain it that she could accept. She was emotional, and that got in the way

of her thinking. "It is the convention that the master can't make a mistake. So when something goes

wrong, someone else must be blamed. I doubt that anyone could have protected Ddwng from that

error, but it is the job of the Swine to facilitate his convenience in any way feasible, so the

implication is that they failed. They can't accept that, so they suggest that we, as the nulls serving the

alien visitor, must have been at fault. Therefore the blame falls on us, and we have no one to pass it

along to. We have become the pariahs of convenience. Therefore unemployable, until the situation

changes."

"Just what did go wrong?" Tom asked. "All I heard was that Ddwng was ready to go with the alien

party, there in the palace. Then he changed his mind, and they were gone without him."

"There was a factor none of us in the DoOon Mode understood," Cat said. "Do you remember the

horse?"

"Horse?" Pussy asked blankly.

"The young woman Colene came with a beast of burden, a horse," Cat explained. "A stallion who

was immediately stabled. It seems that the animal was telepathic."

"Telepathic! You mean it could read minds?"

"Yes. That horse was in mental contact with the girl. It was able to receive and project thoughts.

When Ddwng was ready to travel on the Virtual Mode, the horse sent him a thought: a command to

free the anchor. Ddwng did that without realizing it until after the fact. I believe it was a very sudden,

very powerful thought, striking at a time when the master was making an effort to be mentally

receptive to the nature of the Virtual Mode. So he was ambushed, and the alien party escaped."

"But a horse—a literal horse, not an Equine null? They don't have human intelligence. How could a

mere horse do such a thing?"

"Whether the animal was sapient at the human level I don't know," Cat said. "I suspect there are

stranger things on the Virtual Mode than we know. But it may not have needed such intelligence. It

merely obeyed the will of the girl. She was the key to the loss of the Virtual Mode. It seems that

Ddwng seriously misjudged the situation, not realizing the power the girl had through the horse."

"So she tricked Ddwng, and he is angry, and the blame descends on us because we served her man,

Darius," Pussy said, finally getting it.

"Yes. Perhaps we should have fathomed that aspect, and warned Ddwng. We did not, and could not,

because it seems that Darius himself did not know of the horse's nature. The Swine should have

fathomed it."

"It isn't fair," she repeated, her delicate whiskers trembling.

"If only we could fight back!" Tom said.

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DoOon Mode by Piers Anthony

Cat decided. "Perhaps we can."

Both oriented on the neuter, knowing that it never made foolish or emotional statements. "How?"

Tom demanded.

"It is dangerous."

"Anything," Pussy said.

So Cat told them. "As you know, I am undistracted by most passions of the flesh, so I have attention

for intellectual pursuits. I track the releases of special projects. One is now available that I strongly

suspect relates to the Virtual Mode."

"Where Darius came from," Pussy said. "Is he coming back?" She had on one occasion come close to

seducing the man, and surely had a hankering to complete that business.

"Perhaps. I understand there are different Virtual Modes, with different travelers. But it seems likely,

because Darius had the use of a Chip. I believe the Swine have been watching, and are aware when

an anchor changes. I think they want to be ready the next time there is opportunity for our Mode to

become an anchor. Since there needs to be an anchor person or persons, they may have in mind

training suitable prospects. Of course this is mere conjecture on my part; I am surely mistaken on

details, or perhaps on the whole."

"But you know something," Tom said.

"What I know is that there is an opening for volunteers to undertake dangerous training for an

important mission. It may not be this one. But if it is, we may have an inherent advantage, because

we have had contact with a man who has traveled a Virtual Mode."

"Darius," Pussy said dreamily. "I just know I can do him the favor of seducing him."

"I think not," Cat said firmly. "The aliens seemed to have different ideas about sexual relations. The

man may have been amenable, but the young woman did not wish him to indulge with anyone except

her."

"But she didn't indulge with him," Pussy protested. "I just know it."

"Different cultures, different foibles. It is possible that one reason the woman wished to escape our

Mode was that she did not like your association with Darius."

She pondered that. "So I may not seduce him?"

"Not until we know his situation better. But this is academic; we don't know that we will see him

again."

"Unless we take that opening," Tom said gruffly.

"Agreed. And it may be for something else entirely. The chance of mortality is listed at fifty percent.

So this is not something to undertake lightly."

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DoOon Mode by Piers Anthony

"But it would redeem us?" Pussy asked hopefully.

"I believe so, if we survive it."

"So we'll take it," Tom said.

Cat looked at Pussy. She nodded. "We'll take it."

* * *

Emperor Ddwng himself made the presentation. He was a man in his fifties, portly and with receding

reddish hair, but with piercing black eyes. There was an intensity about him that would have alerted

others even if he were not supreme. "Eight teams of nulls are competing. Your mission is to obtain

this flag and bring it back here." He held up a silver banner. "When this one is taken, it will be

replaced by a lesser flag; the team that brings that one back will be the reserve. There are no other

rules." He paused, and they realized that this meant that they could cheat and kill if they had reason.

"But there is a complication. You will be accompanied by two human nulls in the forms of our recent

visitors from the Virtual Mode: a mature man named Dar and a young woman named Col. The man

is trustworthy and knows the location of the flag. The woman can not be trusted, but she knows the

route, and will do what the man wishes. She may have special powers. The man will not reveal the

location of the flag unless persuaded, and the one who can most readily persuade him is the woman.

Thus you will have to relate to these two people, as well as to the hazards of the course itself. The

people will not cooperate unless induced. You will be issued pain controls that will work on nulls,

but caution is advised because once you hurt them, they will feel free to hurt you. We judge the likely

mortality rate to be fifty percent, but this is approximate; it is possible that all of you will die."

He gave them a moment to assimilate this, then spoke again. "The winning team will go into training

for travel on a Virtual Mode. This is a mission of honor, and the team members will assume the

temporary status of full human officers of my court, with the right to address me personally. If the

mission on the Virtual Mode is successful, that status will become permanent."

All around them, the assembled nulls reacted. Human officer status! This was an unprecedented

reward. Cat was not given to emotion, but even it felt the magnitude of this potential. Tom was

staring, and Pussy seemed about to faint. The other nulls were responding similarly. All of them were

awed. This was a prospect well worth the risk of death. Seldom did any null trio achieve such

recognition.

"Your prisoners are in the eight scattered cubicles," Ddwng continued after a moment. "Proceed." He

turned away, dismissing them from his attention.

There was a scramble to reach the cubes. "Let's wait a moment," Cat murmured. "We may profit from

observing."

Tom had been about to launch toward the nearest cube, and Pussy was not far behind. But at Cat's

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DoOonModebyPiersAnthonyPiersAnthonyDoOonModeCONTENTS1.Felines2.Dragon3.Doe4.Travel5.Earth6.Julia7.Horse8.MonsterAuthor'sNoteONEFelinesCatcrouchedonthestand,pondering.Itwasnotgiventothestresseso\femotion,butdidfeeltroubled.Thesituationoftheirtriowasnotgood,andtheFelinenulls\weresuffering.Somethingnee...

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Piers Anthony - Mode 4 - DoOon Mode

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