Phaze Doubt

“The Adepts are playing hard!” Lysander remarked, and the others nodded agreement; this had been news to them too. “But it gives me a notion. There must be a similar chamber below the West Pole, that the Hectare can’t enter because it would take them far too long to do so. Similarly, they can’t nullify it from outside, because it is what’s inside that has to be affected; they might destroy it from outside, but if it contains the spell to nullify the Magic Bomb, that would be disastrous. So they are waiting for you, to see how you approach it.”

“But I don’t know how to do that!” Nepe protested. “All I can do is drop the Hec seed in, and then listen to my third message.”

“So if we do nothing,” he said, “your mission will fail, and the planet will be lost. Presumably the nullification process involves the seed, and has to be started today or it will be too late. If your mission fails, so does the Hectare’s mission, because in six weeks they will only have established the apparatus to exploit the planet; they can’t do the job on any faster schedule. So I can appreciate the beauty of the Adept ploy, and I see that I have to help you succeed, for your side and mine.”

“You have the idea,” she agreed. “Now tell me how we can get by that Hec. Can we sneak up on it, or charge it and knock it out?”

“Hardly. The Hectare’s eyes cover the full hemisphere that is the side of the planet where it stands. Those facets are the lenses for its thousand-plus eyes. Each covers one section of the hemisphere, and nothing is missed. It surely saw Alien fly by, but because bats are a normal part of the night it took no action. You can not approach it without being observed as soon as there is a line of sight, and you can not attack it, because the moment you tried to it would recognize the weapon and use one of its lasers to stop you. That single Hectare guard could simultaneously laser all seven of us, because it would orient several eyes on each and coordinate them with the weapons-tentacles. When it comes to observation and combat, no creature on this planet can match the Hectare.”

She had suspected as much, because of the way the Adepts had yielded to the Hectare. The Hectare had their ships threatening the planet, true, but they would not have been eager to destroy it; they wanted to exploit it. So they had to be good on the ground, too. They knew what they were doing, and they were individually sharp. “But there has to be a way!” she said.

“There may be. But it’s a gamble—a big one.”

“Go on. It can’t be worse than the gamble of not getting through.”

“It may be. You will have to approach the Hectare under a flag of neutrality and challenge it to a game.”

“They are gameoholics!” she exclaimed, seeing it.

“And if it agrees, then you can bargain for the stakes. If you win, it must let you and your party through. But if you lose—“

“My left hand!” she said, feeling the pain of amputation, though she would be able to restore the hand from her body mass.

“And perhaps that of any member of your party who wants to pass with you,” he said. “The Hectare like to game, but they like equivalent stakes, too. Since it can stun you and turn you in and gain a commendation for wrapping up the resistance, you will have to offer a lot to balance that out.”

“More than my hand?”

“More than your capture, probably. Since it would know that it is wagering its own betrayal of its side...”

“More than my capture?” This was more serious than even she had imagined.

“Probably you would have to agree to serve the Hectare loyally, betraying all your former associates.”

Worse yet! “I don’t think I can do that. I mean, the fate of the planet—“

“Yes. The fate of the planet, because it would terminate your mission and mine. But you have to bargain in good faith. If you expect it to do so. It will match your honor. The Hectare are creatures of honor; it is their specialty. So my advice to you, as a commonsense thing, is not to make that wager, because you stand to lose everything if you lose, while if you win, you gain only the chance to complete the second part of your mission.”

“But if I do nothing, and don’t complete my mission, we lose anyway!” she protested.

“Unless there is some other mission you don’t know about.”

“I don’t think so,” she said, troubled. “No, I have to go on with it. But I’m supposed to take Sire! and Alien with me, so the risk is theirs too.” She looked at the werewolf and vampire bat. “What do you two say?”

“We must do it.” Sirel said, looking uncomfortable.

“I agree,” Alien said, evidently feeling no better.

“Then the three of us will approach the Hectare and bargain,” Nepe said. “The rest of you will have to wait for us—if we win. If we lose, you must go back and tell the others to hide from us, because we will be your enemies. You must not delay, because the Hectare will be after you.”

Neysa, in human form, nodded. Echo looked doubtful.