Anthony, Piers - Cluster 2 - Chaining the Lady

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Cluster 2 -- Chaining The Lady -- Piers Anthony -- (1978)

(Version 2003.02.11)

Prologue

The security guard was young, fresh from the most rigorous academy, and

human. That, virtually by definition, meant trouble. As the acolytes of the

Cluster Tarot Temple put it, the Suit of Gas equated with both the Sphere of

Sol and the condition of Trouble for excellent reason. No wonder that suit's

symbol was the sword of war, despite the efforts of euphemists to redefine it

as the scalpel of science.

Yet in defense of this necessarily nameless Solarian guard, it must be

stated that he acted in strict accordance with the nature and training of his

kind. All the pertinent regulations were imprinted on his awareness, and his

decision was guided reflex. By the book, he was correct.

He saw the intruder in the private office of the Minister of Population,

poking a tentacle into the computer file cabinet. It was after hours, the

illumination had been set low, and no pass had been authorized. So the

Solarian fired his laser stunner without challenge.

The intruder fell as the beam touched. It was a good shot; the Academy

might not turn out many original thinkers, but it never loosed a sloppy

shooter. The guard alerted his immediate superior by bodyphone, for of course

he honored the chain-of-command requirements, and approached the suspect.

"A Dino!" the man remarked, employing a grossly vernacular term whose

origin had been lost in Planet Outworld's antiquity.

Indeed, it was a Polarian, now heaped in a boneless mass about its

spherical wheel, its tentacle as limp as a dead snake. Not dead, of course;

spies were never killed, because of their interrogation value and because they

often employed local hosts. It would not be right to kill the host for the

actions of the transferee who possessed it. This creature of Sphere Polaris

would recover in a few hours.

"Funny," the guard remarked aloud. Despite the vulgarity he had used a

moment before, he was not a Polaphobe; some of his best friends were alien

creatures. This was, after all, the Imperial Planet, nexus of Segment Etamin,

one of the ten major Empires of Galaxy Milky Way. In fact, without the

constant flux of galactics in human or alien guise, he would have no job,

"Poles don't usually snoop. They call it uncircular."

And this was true. Polarians, in the convenient informal analogy of the

Cluster Tarot, equated with the Suit of Solid, symbolized by the Disk of

Commerce and Culture. Circularity was the foundation of Polarian nature, and

though to ignorant entities it sometimes resembled a runaround, it was also

manifest that direct spying was foreign to Polarian concept. Something was

very strange, here.

The guard lifted the flaccid tentacle and played his recording beam over

the little ball set in its end. "Suspect in Minister's office," he said

tersely into his phone. "Identity on record?"

Identification procedures were efficient on the Imperial Planet. Soon

his superior's horrified voice came back. "You bet it's on record, soldier!

That's the Minister of Research."

For an instant the Solarian guard saw his future laid out: unskilled

manual labor, trimming the thornsuckers off the great vinetrees of the

wilderness reservation, barehanded. Or maybe solitary duty aboard a farflung

outpost planetoid, complete with pillmeals and femmecubes to satisfy his

physical and emotional needs while his mind went slowly as berserk as the

sanity shot permitted.

He had shot a Minister in his own office, a monumentally colossal

blunder worthy of redlining in the annals of punishment. The Regulations Book

would not protect him from the ravages of an inter-Spherical inquiry.

But then something clicked in the gray matter behind his frontlobe

shock, a notion of almost whimsical desperation that abruptly fell into place.

"But he's in the Population office, not the Research office -- without a pass,

outside hours."

There was a pause. "It is not for Security personnel to question the

affairs of segment Ministers," the officer said via the phone. "He could

readily have obtained clearance. He must be in that office ten times a day,

consulting with his associates. He just forgot, this time."

The threat to his future forced the issue. "Sir, it is for us to

question!" the Solarian insisted. "According to the Book -- "

A human sigh, one that implied volumes about dealing with Academy

recruits in non-ivory-tower situations.

"You really want it by the book, soldier?"

Dry-mouthed, knowing his chances of salvaging even a vestige of respect

were fading, the guard answered "Yes, sir."

"So noted. You are the Entity on the Spot, per that Book. I decline

responsibility for your action but I honor the Book. An investigation team

will be with you immediately."

"Thank you, sir." It was like holding up one finger to stop an

avalanche, pleading Book justification in defense against the coming charge of

aggravated incompetence. He might well be shipped to the sunside mines of

Inworld, a fate marginally preferable to full personality obliteration for

involuntary hosting. Nobody shot a Minister with impunity! Not even if he

stood upon a stack of Books. The Ministers had written the Book.

In just forty-three Solarian seconds the investigation team arrived:

four entities from Executive. They had been selected by lot from the segment

pool reserved for such occasions, and represented four Spheres: Nath, Canopus,

Polaris, and Sol.

The guard made a formal if shaky salute to the four. "I am the Entity on

the Spot," he said. And how! "I stunned this Polarian, believing him to be an

intruder. I proffer the Manual of Sentient Entity Protocol, Subsection

Defense, on my behalf. I believe my action was technically justified." He

hoped no one would laugh out loud.

The Solarian officer made an elegant bow from the waist. "I represent

the interest of this Entity, who is native to my Sphere of Sol," he said. The

guard noted with mixed satisfaction and alarm that the man wore the insignia

of a full colonel; a thoroughly experienced officer of Sol's military

apparatus. This was good because his decision would carry considerable force

with the segment authorities, but bad because ranking officers were

notoriously indifferent to the problems of enlisted men, especially when the

image of the Sphere was involved. Still, the human advocacy was vital; at

least a Solarian had the capacity to understand.

The Polarian glowed momentarily in salute, then buzzed his ball against

the floor. "I circle the Injured, who is of my Sphere of Polaris."

The Nathian rippled its thousand miniature hooks in waves, resembling a

windblown deep shag rug. A portable translation unit rendered its clicks into

audible language. "I pull for the situation, concerned with proper procedure."

"I supervise," the Canopian Master said in perfect Solarian. He

resembled a monstrous insect, and he did not deign to salute. The Canopian

Master species had evolved to command, and what it commanded was a humanoid

species. In many respects Canopians were the true governing force of Segment

Etamin. When it came to the efficient exercise of authority, this species was

matchless. Even the often-unruly Solarians preferred to allocate their

supervisory positions to the insectoids, knowing that the job would be done

with precision and dispatch.

The formalities completed, Polaris lifted the stunned Minister by

heaving him up with his trunk. "My brother is unconscious but undamaged," he

announced, letting the Minister slump back to the floor.

"Then my client-entity can not be judged guilty of inflicting injury,

merely of causing inconvenience," the Solarian officer said. The guard relaxed

slightly, his image of the sunside mines fading. Nath swarmed over the body,

blanketing it, his little hooks tapping everywhere. "Require Kirlian readout,"

it clicked.

"One might question the need for this step," Polaris objected in the

roundabout fashion of his kind. "I recognize the Minister directly."

"Yet he was out of place," Sol pointed out. "It is our duty as

investigators to explore all potentially pertinent factors. A reading of his

Kirlian aura could have bearing."

"Agreed," Canopus said, exerting his decision-making propensity.

"Recognition is not the issue; circumstance is. The Minister should have been

aware he was in violation of regulations." He produced a unit outlet and tuned

it to the stunned Minister.

And exhibited surprise; an emotion uncommon to his species. "This is not

the aura of the Minister of Research."

The guard looked up, hope flaring. "An imposter?"

"But I am certain of his identity!" Polaris protested with uncircular

vigor.

"Both true. This is a Kirlian transferee. An alien mind in the

Minister's body. This aura is not in our records."

"This is verging on the angular," Polaris said. "Our Minister would not

lend his body to such use."

"Not voluntarily," Sol said.

"He has not been absent from these demesnes since the last routine

Kirlian verification," Polaris insisted. "He was under no pressure to depress

his aura, and in any event -- "

"He remains with us," Canopus said, studying the indicator closely with

several facets of his eyes. "I now perceive a second aura imprint, suppressed

by the first. This second one matches his own."

"He is an involuntary host?" Sol inquired challengingly. Such a thing

was considered impossible.

"So it would seem. The Minister's aura is normal -- one point two

intensity, not in good health at the moment. The alien aura is more potent --

twenty-seven. It has apparently overwhelmed that of the host. There are

certain indications of strife between the two, augmenting the supposition that

the hosting is not voluntary."

"What is the identity of the alien aura?" Nath inquired.

"This is uncertain without computer analysis," Canopus said. "But it

corresponds to the aural family typical of Sphere *, of Galaxy Andromeda."

There was a brief silence as the implication sank in. The War of Energy

had ended a thousand years before, but only because the Milky Way had achieved

parity. If that parity had been upset, the Second War of Energy was upon them.

It could mean the destruction of a galaxy. Without energy, a galaxy became

nothing, for energy was the very heart of matter.

"Well, verify it!" Sol cried in the thrusting manner of his kind. "We've

got ourselves a spy!"

"That might be uncircular," Polaris said. "If Andromeda can make hostage

our Minister of Research, it may have done similar work elsewhere -- perhaps

in the most critical locations."

"Hostage...." Sol mused. "Involuntary hosting, without the prior

demolition of the host-mind and aura. Apt term."

"Pull-hook," Nath agreed. "And we cannot know how many other hostages

are present. We cannot trust any entity of low aura anywhere. We may already

be at war."

"But if the highest levels of our government itself have been

infiltrated, how can we save our segment -- even our galaxy?" the guard asked.

In this crisis, the distinctions of species and position were lost; all of

them were galactics. "We can kill this spy, but our own chain of command may

be suspect." Then he glanced quickly at the human officer. "Present company

excepted, sir."

"Not excepted," the officer said. "You have made an excellent point,

soldier." There was a certain grimness about his mouth.

"We shall neither kill this entity nor ignore the implications," Canopus

said firmly. "Our own Minster of Research is hostage. We can not execute him

without due procedure. And to do this would be to advise Andromeda that we

have discovered its plot. Obviously the infiltration is not yet complete, for

the invading agents practice secrecy. This one must have been searching the

records of Population for information on the strength of the auras of key

personnel who can be taken over or neutralized. It is reasonable to assume

that it requires a stronger aura to control an entity, as with normal hosting.

This infiltration may be only beginning. We can therefore counter it if we can

ascertain its full extent and master the technology to nullify it. Therefore

we let this hostage go. The security guard shall be duly disciplined for his

unwarranted attack on a Minister. He shall be removed to a far post for an

extended tour, one no Minister would visit. I shall authorize and implement

this myself, on the authority of the unanimous decision of this investigation

team, with the concurrence and waiver of appeal by the Entity on the Spot. An

innocuous report will be filed under the code-name 'March.' I shall proffer

the Executive's sincerest apologies to this wronged Minister for this blunder

by one of our personnel. I doubt the Andromedan agent will take the matter

further; he will not want any commotion that might expose him. Then, secretly,

we shall indeed march." He faced the guard, all facets seeming to bear on him

momentarily. "Do you concur, Solarian?"

The man bowed his head. "I understand. My career is over -- for the sake

of my galaxy."

"Yet if we prevail, and if any of we five entities survive," Nath

clicked, "there will be recompense."

"Such reward as you have not dreamed," the Solarian officer agreed. He

turned to Canopus. "But how can we know who is loyal? We can't check the whole

government! We are merely an ad hoc investigatory team with little authority."

"It becomes necessary to preempt authority," Nath said. "But as my

brother Solarian pointed out," the human officer said, "we ourselves are

suspect. We have no basis -- "

"It would be circular to verify ourselves," Polaris suggested.

"Circular and direct," Canopus agreed. "We must ascertain that we five

are not hostage." His faceted eyes bore on all the others simultaneously.

"Amenable?" Sol nodded. Polaris glowed. Nath rippled. Canopus reset the unit.

"And after this," Sol said, "we shall trust no one without immediate

aural verification. Especially not Ministers, though this does present a

problem. They are nominally the heads of our segment government, the highest

officers among us."

"Nominally," Canopus agreed, his inflection carrying significance that

made the others reflect agreement in their separate fashions.

Sol looked at the hostage. "What do we do with this one -- at the

moment?"

"We run it through an aural probe," Canopus said. "Thereby we glean

relevant information about the mechanism of involuntary hosting. Then we take

our information to the single organization we can trust to contain no

hostages."

Sol raised an eyebrow, a feat none of the other species could duplicate.

"Organization?"

"The Society of Hosts."

The others, startled by the obvious, signified agreement.

"Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet," the Solarian murmured, awed at the

concept of this organization becoming the true government of the segment, and

perhaps of the entire Milky Way galaxy.

And the others completed the Litany of Hosts, taken from a poem written

five centuries before transfer came to the author's planet: "Recessional," by

Rudyard Kipling. "Lest we forget, lest we forget...."

PART I -- MISTRESS OF TAROT

1 -- Melody of Mintaka

*occasion for preparatory briefing*

-- summon council governing sphere representatives linked thought

transfer immediate --

COUNCIL INITIATED PARTICIPATING * -- / :: oo

-- welcome ast, slash, quadpoint, duocirc --

:: shall we dispense with the superfluities? we have a galaxy to conquer

-- you certainly bore into the subject, quadpoint --

:: your humor is flighty, as befits avian nature what is the state of

reduction? ::

-- infiltration of all ten major segments of galaxy milky way has been

accomplished in each case concentration has been on war fleets and capital

planets --

oo ratios? oo

-- 400 agents per segment fleet, 100 agents per capital planet total

5000 transfer agents in galaxy all we can manage on present energy budget --

/also present limitation on kirlian resources/

-- true effort should suffice, as subject galaxy remains unaware of

infiltration no apparent reason to alter schedule of overt action --

*seek concurrence for unrevised schedule*

-- / :: oo CONCURRENCE oo :: / --

:: no other business? ::

-- none at present --

*POWER*

-- / :: oo CIVILIZATION oo :: / --

Melody shuffled the deck by emitting dissonance at the mechanism. This

could not be entirely random, but of course that was the point. While she

controlled the arrangement of the cards, she was not supposed to be

consciously aware of the details.

She touched the finished deck with the tip of one whip, activating it.

Its music sprang up, setting her instruments to playing sympathetically.

It was the Queen of Energy that manifested -- in an unfamiliar aspect.

The Queen carried the familiar Wand, rendered as a scepter for this royal

impersonation, that denoted her suit; the established symbols of the Tarot

deck were older than the organized concept that was the deck. The Queen was

naked, standing on a waveswept ledge, her appendages manacled to a huge stone.

And she was Solarian -- or more bluntly, human.

Now of course every card had a theoretic potential of 144 aspects. The

Queen of Energy had faces showing "Queens" of every sapient species in the

Milky Way galaxy. But no physical deck contained all aspects of all faces;

that would amount to 14,400 presentations in all, an unwieldy number. So the

normal pack of the Cluster Tarot contained a representative sampling of each

card. Melody had not been aware that a Solarian course had been included in

this deck. Which only meant she had not been paying proper attention when she

obtained it recently. She was getting old.

Well, this was her card for the day. She contemplated it, evoking the

tapestry of tunes dictated by its impressed symbology. A human woman, wearing

the rare-metal crown of royalty, with the luxuriant mane flowing from her head

-- Solarians were one of the species that had heads -- and with the two great

milk-mammaries of her kind. By human standards, a female on the verge of

impregnation.

This was a notable concept in itself, well worth consideration.

Solarians did not bud, they birthed; and the female was always the birther.

She remained female for life, no matter how many times she birthed. Surely,

she was chained!

In the distance of the scene was a ferocious sea monster, one of the

subsapient creatures of Sphere Sol. It was obviously coming to devour the

Queen, whose generous deposits of avoirdupois were surely delectable.

But what relevance did this have to her, Melody, an old Mintakan neuter

entity without head or mammaries or fat? What was the Tarot trying to say to

her?

Well, the five suits of the standard cluster deck represented five or

more sapient species -- those that had figured most prominently in the local

formation of the galactic coalition, who had been the nucleus of this segment

some 120 years before, at the time of the hero Flint of Outworld, Melody's

ancestor. A thousand Solarian years, since those were pitifully brief. The

Suit of Energy, symbolized by the sprouting, flaming Wand, was generally

identified with the massed species of Galaxy Andromeda, because of their

attempted theft of the binding energies of the Milky Way galaxy that had

precipitated the first crisis of civilization. Yet no Andromedan species was

represented in this card of Tarot. More locally, Sphere Canopus was a Scepter

culture, but this card was not that, either. There was a humanoid species in

that Sphere, but it was slave. The chains of the lady -- indicative of

slavery? Doubtful; normally this Queen was not chained. Rather she was

arrogantly free, imperious, fiery. And this one was not humanoid, but human,

definitely Solarian, itself a pretty arrogant species, by no means slave. A

chained Solarian was doubly significant, surely.

The Solarians were the reputed originators of the Tarot. Versions of the

Tarot had been extant on their home planet for several Solarian centuries

before the human colonization of space and formation of Sphere Sol. The

Cluster deck itself was thought to be the creation of one of their males, the

scholar called Companion Paul, or Sibling Paul, or Brother Paul. There was

obscurity about his status, rooted in the human mode of reproduction. Some

said there could be several offspring of a single human reproductive unit,

called siblings, while others said humans sometimes called each other

"Brother" when in fact they were not closely related. Only the Solarians knew

for sure! At any rate, the attribution of this deck to this Paul of Earth had

to be a fond exaggeration; many of the significant aspects of that deck were

unknown to Solarians at the time he had lived. The entire matter of the Energy

War dated fifty Mintakan years after Paul, for example -- that was four

hundred Solarian years -- she really ought to get used to thinking in those

trifling units, because they had become the standard for Segment Etamin, but

the habits of an old neuter changed slowly -- still, the nucleus of Tarot

concept had certainly been Solarian, and the Temple of Tarot had spread

rapidly from Sol to the other Spheres. Melody had suffered an apprenticeship

at the Tarot Temple nearest her once, but had not been satisfied with their

doctrine and had gone her own way for most of her life.

Her phone sounded. Melody activated it with a single clap of one foot,

her strings vibrating dissonantly because of the irritation caused by the

interruption of her morning meditation.

"Imperial Outworld of Segment Etamin summons Melody of Planet

Counterpoint, Sphere Mintaka, for immediate presentation via Transfer," the

instrument played.

Melody emitted a musical snort and broke the connection. "These

practical jokers never give up," she played. A female her age just had to be

the subject of a certain amount of ridicule. Blat!

Then she remembered the card. A chained Solarian female -- her key for

the day. Could that relate to this call?

She considered the card again. A human woman, chained in the Andromedan

suit. Who had chained that lady, and why? What could it have to do with

herself, an entity of quite a different situation? The Tarot was always

relevant, but at times she had a great deal of difficulty ascertaining that

relevance.

Well, she would have to come at it the hard way, by going back to

basics. She was a sapient entity of Sphere Mintaka, itself a unit of Segment

Etamin of the Milky Way galaxy. Each Sphere was a number of parsecs in

diameter, embracing a hundred or more inhabited worlds, the most advanced ones

being near the center. Her own planet, Counterpoint, was in the midrange of a

large Sphere; it possessed atomic science but not much more. It was a suburban

world, where wealthy administrators liked to retire. Toward the Fringe things

became progressively more primitive, until a hundred parsecs from Star Mintaka

the worlds were essentially rural. This was Spherical regression, that

occurred in all Spheres, and could be abated only by the infusion of energy.

But there was not enough energy; the Ethic of Energy had already spawned one

intergalactic war and might some century spawn another.

So the Tarot Suit of Energy related to her general situation, though she

herself associated with the Suit of Aura. Since every sapient entity in the

universe was similarly affected by the availability of energy, this was

unlikely to have individual meaning. It had to be more specific.

Very well. The manner in which energy affected civilization was

primarily in transport and communications. There were three modes of travel

between the stars. The cheapest was physical travel by spaceship. Fleets

traveling at half-light speed had colonized the various Spheres long ago. But

it took almost a full year -- how many Sol-years? Oh, yes, eight -- to cover a

single parsec, and no single lifetime was long enough to traverse even the

smallest Sphere. Ships were sufficient to colonize worlds, but not to build an

interstellar civilization. For more direct communication, mattermission was

used -- instant transmission of the entity, whether person or thing. But this

required a horrendous amount of energy, and though it had been much employed

in the past, today it was limited largely to microscopic message capsules. So

in practice, the really civilizing mode was transfer -- the transmission of

the Kirlian aura of a sapient (i.e., intelligent entity, as opposed to

sentient or merely conscious entity) to the body of another sapient. The aura

reflected the complete mental being, but required relatively little energy for

transmission. Even so, there were crucial limitations, such as the

availability of suitable hosts; the transfer across galactic distances did

require significant energy.

So energy controlled civilization, and the Suit of Energy reflected

that. Some even called that suit "Civilization" but Melody considered that to

be too narrow a view. Energy was more than civilization, and more than the

quiescent Andromedan menace; it was a complex multi-relating phenomenon in its

own right. And she still didn't know how it pertained to her, today.

In fact, no one knew the answer to the problem of Energy, and no one

ever had -- except perhaps the Ancients. The Ancients had spanned two galaxies

in a unified, high-level culture. Yet they had passed from the scene three

million years ago, and most of their works were defunct. They were identified

with the Suit of Aura, because they had to have been a super-high Kirlian

species, and they had evidently possessed Kirlian science beyond anything

known to modern galactics. Melody had studied what little was known about the

Ancients, fascinated by them, and she identified with them so strongly that

she considered her own Significator, her particular card in the Cluster Tarot

deck, to be the Queen of Aura. She would give anything to solve the riddle of

the Ancients!

But her card of the day was not in the Suit of Aura, though it was a

Queen. It seemed to have aimed for her but missed, although the Tarot never

really missed. It had a will of its own that did not cater much to the foibles

of its adherents. The Queen of Energy, a chained human lady -- what could it

mean? This was becoming a frustrating meditation!

She moved to her sonicscope and listened to the great panoply of the

stars. Each had its own faint tune within the magnificent symphony of the

galaxy. Mintaka, home star of her Sphere, loud and bright and beautiful.

Alnilam and Alnitac, twin brights. Rigel, blue-white beacon in the visual

spectrum, hardly audible to her senses but still impressive. Red giant

Betelgeuse. Oh, the marvel of her segment, her galaxy! And the foreign galaxy

Andromeda, focus of Energy.

Suddenly it clicked into place. Suit of Energy -- Andromeda -- chained

human lady -- there was a connection! In the old myth-fabric of the Solarian

originators of Tarot was the story of the female entity Andromeda, and it was

relevant.

Andromeda was the child of Cepheus and Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia was a

beautiful woman Solarian who, in the manner of her species, tended to be

arrogant and troublesome. She proclaimed that she was more lovely than the

Nereids, golden-maned nymphs of the sea. This was not necessarily true, and

the vanity of one obscure queen was hardly worthy of note, but the lord of the

ocean, Poseidon, took umbrage. He sent a sea monster to ravage the coast of

Cassiopeia's kingdom of Ethiopia. Oh, those Solarians! Their troublesome

antics assumed the status of art at times. No Mintakan would have participated

in such mischief.

Desperate to abate this menace from the sea, the Ethiopians consulted

another intriguing artifact of Solarian culture: the Oracle. This was a

fortune-telling entity; apparently no form of Tarot existed then. The Oracle

informed them that only by sacrificing Andromeda to the monster could they

achieve relief. Andromeda was even more beautiful than her mother, and did

indeed rival the Nereids in appearance, which was perhaps why the monster

desired her as a morsel. Melody found the motives of Solarian monsters to be

as opaque as those of Solarian sapients, but it was not her task to revise the

myth. So they chained this innocent, beautiful lady to a great rock by the

edge of the ocean, to be consumed by the monster.

As it happened, the hero Perseus happened to pass by -- coincidence was

not a matter of much concern to myth-makers -- and when he viewed this naked

girl he was overcome by the urge to impregnate her. This too was typical of

Solarian males in such circumstances: the very sight of the body of a young

healthy woman caused chemical and physical reactions. Her mind or personality

did not seem to matter. But Perseus could not simply impregnate and leave her,

despite the convenience her situation offered. Chained as she was, she could

not readily have resisted him, had she been so inclined, but her offspring

would not have survived consumption by the monster, and therefore the

reproduction would have been incomplete. In many other species the offspring

formed immediately and became independent, but Solarians for some obscure

reason suffered a delay in parturition after copulation. In this instance such

delay would have been most inconvenient. So Perseus accepted the alternative

course. He slew the monster and made Andromeda his formal mate.

There it was: Andromeda, the chained lady of the card, awaiting her

fate. In moments the monster would be upon her. The hero Perseus was not

visible in this picture, but presumably he was on his way. Andromeda did not

at this moment know that her fate was to be impregnation rather than

consumption. How would she have chosen, had she been given the choice in

advance? Suppose things became confused, and the monster impregnated her

before Perseus slew her? Or were the two actions merely aspects of the same

theme? A most intriguing card!

But as this was her omen for the day did it mean that some such

difficulty awaited Melody herself? She did not consider the Tarot to be

precognitive; it merely revealed what was in the hidden mind of the querist,

the one for whom the cards were read. But sometimes the net effect was

predictive. She did not relish the implication here. Would she be faced with

the choice between death or impregnation, figuratively?

The door sounded. She broke off her reverie with another chord of

annoyance and opened it.

Outside stood Imperial troops headed by a Mintakan officer. "One ignores

the Eye of the Dragon at one's peril," he played.

Melody's strings shook. That phone call had been genuine! The Dragon

world of the segment had summoned her -- and she had passed it off as a prank.

Now she would pay the consequences.

In fact, she was about to be chained for the Dragon -- of course, merely

an aspect of the sea monster. The Tarot had tried to warn her. But she, mired

in the complexities of its ramifications, had missed the obvious.

Was there also a Perseus on the way?

2 -- Yael of Dragon

*notice transfer plus 200 level kirlian aura within target galaxy*

-- specific location? --

*segment etamin to imperial planet*

-- probably in order agents there are on quest for leading enemy auras

to be nullified or converted --

*this aura not handled by our agents*

-- possible enemy action, then message the dash command of that segment

to investigate --

*POWER*

-- CIVILIZATION --

Melody emerged in alien form. At first she was alarmed and disgusted.

This body has no music. But soon she adjusted. She would not remain in

Transfer long; only long enough to find what the Imps wanted and tell them no.

She could stand it for that little time.

This host did have certain compensations. Its vision was superior. In

fact, she realized now that she had never before experienced true vision, only

a kind of sound-augmented approximation. Touch was good, hearing fair. And it

could do something she had no prior experience with: smell. Furthermore, it

was young and bouncy, possessing quick reflexes and more sheer muscular power

than she had imagined feasible. Why, it could even jump.

She was in an orientation cell -- padded, silent, undistinctive. Just as

well, for she took several tumbles getting adjusted to only two feet, and she

preferred not doing this in public. This body was bilaterally symmetrical,

instead of trilaterally, and it made a difference.

Set in one wall was a plate of highly reflective metal. Peering at it

from an angle with her amazing twin focusing ball-shaped eyes she saw the

image of part of the room. Now why would such a panel be so placed? She

balanced herself on her stout legs -- Solarians had to have superior balance,

since in order to walk they had to hover on a single support while swinging

the other about -- and managed to get to the bright panel.

She saw the chained lady, lacking only the chains. The same flowing

brown mane, the same huge mammaries, the same facial agony of sacrifice.

Andromeda, alive!

No -- it was herself. Her host-body, a Solarian female, in her natural

state. Possessing all the stigmata of imminent impregnability. Since all human

beings looked pretty much alike to her Mintakan mind, naturally she had taken

it for the image fresh in her memory. But there did seem to be considerable

resemblance.

Well, it should be possible to let the body do much of the work. She had

been trying to make it operate with Mintakan reflexes; suppose she merely gave

it orders and let the buried human reflexes perform?

"Across," she murmured to herself, and was surprised to hear the host-

voice speak in its own language, which she now understood. Animation of a

host-body meant similar animation of the host-brain, so comprehension came

readily. Transfer had solved the problem of inter-species communication. Now

this body walked, smoothly, across the room.

A little practice of this sort would soon make perfect. But she didn't

want it perfect yet, so she staged another fall. She knew the cushioned floor

would protect her, and she had no doubt she was being monitored. When she had

full control she would be removed for her interview with the Dragon, and she

needed time for proper mental orientation first.

In another wall was a small computer terminal. Good; that suggested this

confinement was at least partially voluntary. When she was ready, she could

tell the computer to release her or to provide her with what she felt she

needed. Such as human clothing, for she did know Solarians wore clothing. It

would be reasonable to dress herself, so as to avoid early impregnation by

Perseus -- or whatever other human male happened by. She did not intend to be

reasonable, just to look reasonable. A tantrum would be insufficient if not

futile. She would handle this outrage in her own time, her own way. She would

not remain chained to this body long.

She crossed to the terminal, experimented until she was able to manage

the finger-finesse required, and pressed a digit to the access button. A

peremptory note would have been better, but when in a Sol-host, do as the

Solarians do. Finger, not sound. "Bring me a good Cluster Tarot deck," she

said.

There was a pause. Would the machine deliver? If the Solarians were

smart, they would have Tarot on the proscribed list. But this was not Sphere

Sol, but Planet Outworld, where Tarot was not so well known. Few entities not

conversant with the tool had any significant grasp of its potential. The

average sapient thought it a mere game or harmless superstition -- and the

average Tarot adept was careful to cultivate this impression. It was the major

protection afforded contemporary inter-Sphere magick -- was that the proper

rendering for this concept? Yes, with the ck: the fact that authoritative

entities did not take it seriously, so felt no threat.

The wall-slot opened, and an object thunked down. Victory!

She reached in and picked it up. It was a sealed physical pack of cards,

Solarian-style; she recognized it from her researches. She opened it and

spread the cards in her two hands. It was a tri-channel, hundred-face

collection; not merely a good deck, but one of the best, well illustrated with

correctly aspected symbols. It would do. "Appreciation, Machine," she said.

"Noted," the computer voice replied. That struck her as funny, for

reasons she could not immediately define, and she laughed -- and that struck

her as funnier yet. What appalling sounds the human body made to express its

mirth; what unholy quaking of flesh!

She sat at a table she drew out of the wall, already getting

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Cluster2--ChainingTheLady--PiersAnthony--(1978)(Version2003.02.11)PrologueThesecurityguardwasyoung,freshfromthemostrigorousacademy,andhuman.That,virtuallybydefinition,meanttrouble.AstheacolytesoftheClusterTarotTempleputit,theSuitofGasequatedwithboththeSphereofSolandtheconditionofTroubleforexcellentr...

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Anthony, Piers - Cluster 2 - Chaining the Lady

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