A Jungle of Stars (1976) (24 page)

"Go back to the beginning? I could never reread a locked-room puzzle,"

he said. "Really louses things up when you know the answer. But," he continued, kissing her, "you'll be learning to read regular print soon enough, you know."

She was silent for a moment, a stiffness betraying an inner apprehension. "Paul," she said quietly, "I'm kind of scared. How long will it be until. . ."

"Until Valiakea?" he completed. "Not long, love. With this space drive, there's more time spent in slowing down on a long trip than in actually getting there."

It was his present to her, this trip: a combination business and pleasure trip that Wade had approved. Savage himself had mixed emotions about the whole thing. On the one hand, for Jenny to have eyes, to be able to see for the first time in her life, was the greatest gift he could give her. Yet, underneath, he felt uneasy about it. It wasn't merely that he would lose her dependence on him -- he felt he was big enough to accept that -- but it was all the insecurities of a life of ridicule and derision about his looks.

Deep down, he was afraid that she wouldn't like him when she saw him. He feared this, and couldn't put it out of his mind.

"Coming in," Gayal's voice, somewhat metallic sounding though the wall speakers, told them.

"Shall I strap in?" Jenny asked.

"I don't think it will be necessary," Gayal replied. "We are not in a fight or any other kind of rush. I can put us in orbit and hold, so that you won't even know we've changed position."

Jenny had steadfastly refused Savage's attempts to put a helmet on her, even though she would "see" with the helmet as guide. She tried to put on a brave front, but she, too, was a product of conditioning from birth. Deep down, she was comfortable the way she was. She liked depending on Paul, partly because it bound him closer to her. Blindness was a normal condition. This was the unknown.

"There are two dozen or so ships in orbit," Gayal's command voice cut in. "At least four are unfriendlies. What shall I do?"

"Don't worry about it," Savage assured her. "This is truly neutral territory. The Valiakeans don't like anyone fooling around with that -- and within their own sphere of influence they can zap anybody who violates the truce. Besides, anybody who did so would be forbidden to use their services again -- and The Bromgrev needs them as much as we do."

Koldon growled in the background, and Savage turned to see that the huge creature had removed its helmet and was lifting itself up from the gunnery position into the bridge section. "Maybe everybody else thinks it's just great," he grumbled, "but all that damned thing does is give me a bad headache."

"I've accepted Valiakean control and we are in a stable orbit," Gayal reported.

Savage reached over and flipped a switch on the panel, causing Gayal's mind to break contact with the ship's automatics. No pilot could ever do it on his or her own, and automatic and manual systems were provided to ensure that every pilot was brought out.

Gayal groaned, and awakened in the chair next to Savage. She turned off the console and removed her helmet, then brushed her hair with her hand so that it mostly covered the shaven places where the contact points in the helmet touched her skull.

Savage broke free of Jenny's hold and grabbed the transceiver mike, dialing the Valiakean hailing frequency.

"This is Haven Special in early for appointment," he reported. "Can you handle two subjects?"

"Two?" Jenny repeated. "Who else?"

"That depends, Haven," came the Valiakean answer. "We have one, Haven spectrum sight installation here. That is a minor matter. What is the nature of the others?"

"Cosmetic," Savage replied. "I'll read you the data as I have it, and let you decide."

Whereupon, Savage picked up a sheet of notebook paper and read-in a long series of seemingly meaningless figures and gibberish words.

"We can handle that easily enough, although you'll have to do it one at a itme. We have only a supplemental carrier ship to service you. Business is quite heavy, as you can see."

"That's all right," Savage responded. "We'll do the supplemental first."

"Very well. We are finished early on another party and will send the supplemental over in five or six minutes."

"Fine. I compliment you on your service," Savage responded politely and switched off.

"Who's the other?" Jenny asked him.

"Me, of course," Savage replied with a laugh. "When you see me, I'll be a handsome devil."

"Just don't let them touch the most important part," she warned.

"Only to make it bigger and better, my dear," he replied, and kissed her.

He had an ulterior motive in doing the cosmetic surgery, of course. If he went first and underwent any kind of modification, it would ease her own fears.There was a shudder and bump through the ship. The Valiakeans were already here.

The Valiakean technician who entered the lock ar looked like the same being who had serviced Gayal and Koldon on their trip in. This was just the Haven nor shape of convenience for them, however, and it might or might not be the same one, the two former visitors knew. Gayal wondered again about the power to instantly change one's molecular structure to meet any conditions.

She had heard that one Valiakean had survived a cataclysmic explosion and hours in hard vacuum when a ship went up.

Savage entered the Valiakean ship and went through the same procedure as had millions before him. After the examination, they stuffed him in that chilly coffin and he went black.

He awoke a few minutes later feeling, he admitted himself, better than he had ever felt in his life. While in, the Valiakeans generally cured your minor illnesses whatever, and even cleaned the cholesterol out of your bloodstream, plus adjusting weight and muscle tone to proper -- indeed, ideal

-- limits.

Savage unhesitatingly re-entered the Haven ship.

Gayal gasped.

He was still tall and dark-complected, but with an almost perfect build.

His apish ugliness, scars, and Neanderthal-like head and shoulders had been altered to the look of a rugged outdoorsman. He'd kept his short-cropped hair and it contrasted superbly with the dark complexion.

He would have driven women on Earth wild, except for one thing.

"You didn't regrow the hand!" Koldon exclaimed. "We all thought--"

Savage gave a slight, wistful smile. "I have reasons for not doing so right now," he said enigmatically. "Later on, in a future trip, I will. But the claw they gave me is still great -- slips on and off the stump with no straps needed!" He showed them by twisting slightly and pulling the pincers off. He slipped it back on quickly. "All electronics now," he proclaimed proudly.

All three of the others thought he was crazy.

"Where the hell did you get the idea for the new look?" Koldon asked him. "It's certainly distinctive -- and it's still you, sort of, but -- er --

well, straightened out, put in all the right places."

Savage laughed. "From a cover painting on a paperback of an old pulp hero," he replied. "I'll show you sometime. 'The Man of Bronze.'" He chuckled, then turned serious. "Now you, Jenny," he said brightly.

"I -- I really don't--" she started to say.

He moved over to her and kissed her. "It's best," he told her. "Go ahead

-- and don't be scared. It's not like a regular operation."

The Valiakean stood waiting with passive indifference. Jennifer finally put on a brave front and took the creature's hand.

Once seated for the examination, the Valiakean took out some notes of some kind. Jenny could hear the paper -- or whatever it was -- rustle.

"You have never seen before," it said to her.

"No," she answered. "Never. . ."

"Very well," it replied. "Having looked at your eyes and the neural connectors from the plates we made as you sat here, it looks like a simple matter. However, we will not allow you to see until we take you back into the ship and do it gradually. The connections are delicate and such things must be eased in, both for medical and psychological reasons. Do you also wish cosmetics?"

"No!" she almost snapped at the Valiakean. "I -- I want to see myself the way I've always been."

"Very well," said the Valiakean in a tone indicating that it couldn't care less -- which it couldn't. "I will take you over to the operating area.

Just lie down and be comfortable. You will be unconscious for the actual encoding."

Back in the ship they all waited nervously, Savage the worst of all. He kept pacing back and forth, and despite a very comfortable temperature, was sweating. The air conditioning was hard put to rid the air of his cigarette smoke."Do not worry," Gayal tried to reassure him. "In my time at Haven, I have come in contact with many Terran women. Should she never have met you before, she would nevertheless desire you now," she said. "In fact, I would be honored to be one of your wives myself."

He looked down at her and smiled. "Don't tempt me," he muttered, and resumed his pacing. "What's taking so long?"

"It's only been ten minutes," Koldon told him. "What with examinations, interviews, and the like--"

He stopped. They heard someone in the lock. The Vallakean guided Jenny back into the cabin. It pulled out the cot on the bridge and lay her upon it.

Her eyes were covered by thick pads, apparently many layers of them, held by a thin band.

"I wish to do this slowly," the Valiakean told them. "It is better."

"Take your time," Jenny whispered, trembling slightly.

They all came as close as they could. The Valiakean turned her head away from them, toward the soft wall lighting, and removed the first small strip from each eye.

"Tell me when you perceive anything," it told her. One by one, very slowly, the extremely thin strips started to come off. About a quarter of the way through the apparently infinite layers, Jenny gasped.

"It's -- it's different! Lighter!" she breathed.

For the first time in her life, she was perceiving light itself. The Valiakean continued.

"Very good. Now what do you see?"

"Little lines -- indistinct -- running up and down and from side to side," she whispered. "And. . . a whiteness."

"Very good," repeated the Valiakean. "That is the bandage."

He got down to the last thin layer, then removed the one from her left eye, then the right. She blinked.

The creature held her head looking at the wall. None of the other three breathed.

"Which of you is her mate?" asked the Valiakean. Savage answered, "I am." His voice sounded dry in his throat.

"Step forward to the cot," it ordered. "The others please stay back."

Slowly the Valiakean turned her head. Her eyes were closed, Savage saw, and there was intense fear on her face. It was as if she was refusing to see.

"Open your eyes!" the Valiakean commanded. Jenny seemed to steep up her courage, then opened them. They were, Savage saw, a beautiful nut brown.

She looked at him, her eyes running up and down his form. She was fascinated, almost awe struck.

"Hello, lover," she whispered. He smiled and kissed her. The Valiakean put its hand on his chest and pushed him away with unexpected strength.

"Will one of the others come forward?" it asked. "Stand beside this one, please."

Gayal stepped into Jenny's rigidly held field of view. "Oh, you're so beautiful!" Jenny said. "That bluish tint makes you look very sexy."

Gayal laughed. "It is the color of my people. Your people have many colors, I have seen."

"I'm going to get into this picture," Koldon grumbled, and stepped up to her.

She knew he looked like a bear from "feeling" him, but she had never seen a bear, and he was a fascinating sight.

"You will be extremely dizzy until your mind adjusts to using its new tools," the Valiakean warned. "You must practice, and take it in small steps.

It will affect your balance, and you will have to get used to judging depth and distance. Take it slowly. Get around with your eyes open as much as possible, but if things begin to blur or pain you, shut them for a while. In a few days you will be acting as if you were born sighted. I will go now. Others require my services."

It rose and walked quickly out of the room. They heard the lock open and close. There was a hiss and a shudder as the Valiakean ship soared away.

Nobody said anything for a while.

Jenny kept twisting her head and looking -- just looking. Ceiling, floor, the three others, the furniture -- everything was an object of novelty and fascination.

"Can you bring me a mirror?" she said at last. "None around," Savage told her, "but if you come over to the side bulkhead here, it's shiny enough to see a good reflection."

She got up and took a couple of steps toward him, then almost collapsed.

He caught her.

"Dizzy," she said.

But she wouldn't be put off. He led her to the floor-to-ceiling shiny bulkhead. She simply stared.

"Dumpy-looking fat broad," she said at last. "What a couple we make!"

Savage stood behind her, ready to catch her if she became dizzy.

"But we fit in the mirror together so well," he pointed out. He kissed her on the neck, and she smiled.

"There are some things still better done in the dark," she said.

STEP FIVE

1

WADE'S OFFICE LOOKED even worse than the last time, it that were possible. Savage entered and unpiled the junk from the chair so that he could sit down.

"What's the word, Wade?" he asked.

The other turned to him and put out the cigar he had been smoking. He immediately lit another. Despite the blowers and ventilation, the place reeked of stogies. Wade took the cigar from his lips, studying it.

"These have been my greatest pleasure," he said, addressing the cigar as much as Savage. "I shall miss them when I go."

"You've decided to go through with it, then?" Savage asked.

Wade nodded. "I've got to. I haven't any idea what The Bromgrev's plot is, but he will have to act soon or he'll lose almost all of his gains. The armies need him -- out there, where he can command, coordinate, and control.