Chapter Two

She had never felt so defeated.

As they flew her back to her XT 9, hidden in the jungle by the native village of the M'towi, Laura Shemzak could still feel the effects of the Federation torture. She was weak and compliant in the backseat between the two muscular, grim guards. The green of the jungle whooshed by underneath the flitter, a sea of vegetation outside the Block compound of Pax Industries, heart of Federation control over this world called Walthor.

They had neutralized the effect of the drug being fed into her system by an interior dispenser, the drug called Zernin, which heightened her senses, sharpening and expanding the nerve endings in her body to allow for the complex feats necessary for piloting a blip-ship. Instantly she had gone into withdrawal, the intense pain of which she could not tolerate. It had been horrible, as though every sinew of her body were being separated, strand by strand. The terror, the despair—she shuddered again at the very thought of it.

The man called Friend, a key leader of the Federation, sat in the front seat of the flitter. This was the man who had allowed her to attempt to rescue her brother Cal, after his capture by the alien Jaxdron, with whom the Federation warred. This was the man who had ordered the override implant inside her, forcing her to shoot Cal upon sight. But she had not shot Cal. She'd shot a replica of Cal, one of several that later attempted to control the secret of the Starbow. This plump, pleasant-faced man, this wretched Arnal Zarpfrin, was the man who had captured her here on Walthor. He had also ordered a new operation on her cybernetic implants that allowed her to be a blip-ship pilot.

Implants that would force her to betray the Starbow crew—people she had come to love.

The sun beat down hard now, and despite the breeze through the open-canopied aircar riding swiftly on gravity suspensors, Laura sweated. A planet like hell, she thought. And she'd rather be in hell now than on her way back to the Starbow, an intelligence agent for the Federation against her will.

Zarpfrin turned around and looked at her from his place to the right of the driver. "Why so glum, Laura Shemzak? After all, if all goes well, you'll get what you want: your brother. And we'll get what we want. The Starbow and its crew. Only a short time more of service, and we'll let you two settle on some pleasant, out-of-the-way planet … a threat to no one."

"You'll excuse me, Zarpfrin, but I find that very hard to believe. A government as vicious as your Federation, headed by men as conniving as yourself, will always find uses for individuals as talented as my brother and myself."

"Ah, yes, but the difficulties of getting you to cooperate would be substantial. And lack of cooperation might be harmful, to us and to you."

"You're getting my cooperation now, aren't you?"

Zarpfrin thoughtfully pursed his lips as he looked down at a river snaking off into the distance. "You are not a being of unlimited resilience, Laura Shemzak. Already our present modifications of the past months have taxed your physical endurance. That showed in your examination test results. Alas, your lifespan is being cut considerably by the device monitoring your voice and actions and the dispensation of both your Zernin and its neutralizer. If we had to use you for anything else, it would surely be the death of you, perhaps in the middle of a delicate operation. Oh, you'll be fine for the weeks ahead. Just make sure you keep your Zernin flowing."

"We're nearing the coordinates indicated by our passenger," the driver said, tapping a grid map on a screen.

Laura craned her neck and peered down over the edge of the car. Down in a clearing ahead was the sparkle of metal: her XT 9, partially buried in vegetation. It was here that she and Tars Northern had landed and walked to the M'towi village where they enlisted the aid of the native Xersi, whom Laura had befriended on her previous trip to Walthor. Xersi had helped smuggle them into the compound, where they were to search for Jaxdron activity.

What a mistake, Laura thought grimly. "There!" she called, pointing down.

The flitter landed smoothly.

Curiously, Zarpfrin did not seem to care how they had gotten from the blip-ship to the compound and then past Security. She did not bring the subject up. Apparently, these Feddies were not even aware of the existence of the M'towi village nearby.

Which gave her a thought as they disembarked from the aircar and headed toward the blip-ship. Xersi and the M'towi were masters of drugs. If she could escape and lose these Feddies in the jungle trails, she could find haven there, and then take refuge in native drugs ….

The question was, could she take the pain of withdrawal the neutralizer introduced? Or would even the simple act of running trigger the device?

She decided it was a risk she had to take.

Her opportunity came as they approached the gleaming ovoid of the blip-ship. She knew that to do anything amiss within the blip itself would be simple suicide. She couldn't run the thing with the Zernin neutralized. She had to run now—her instincts told her that. I f somehow she could override the pain long enough to make it to the village.

Her opportunity arose. She snatched it almost before she was aware of what she was doing. For a moment the guards both stared at this ellipsoid vessel, this new model with almost magical properties. All Laura's training focused upon swift action. With a whirlwind of precise cybernetically placed blows, she smashed the men in just the right places to send them sprawling to the ground. Their weapons never left their holsters.

Friend Arnal Zarpfrin was several more paces away, a more difficult target. He shook his head and smiled, shading his eyes from the glare of sun as he threw his own handgun away into the vegetation.

"I know how well you fight, dear Laura, so I shan't contest. Adios!"

She swiveled and began to run.

There was hope then, she thought as she whipped past branches and vines, feeling strength pouring back through her body. Automatically her feet found the path they needed and she looked back. Zarpfrin hadn't run after her or tried to board the skimmer to give chase. He was bent over the two men on the ground.

She swept along the path, gaining speed and strength and self-confidence.

Had they been bluffing about the device planted in her? It was a possibility. She prayed it was so. Xersi could hide her until she could somehow get her blip-ship back. It didn't matter how long, just as long as the Starbow and its crew got away safely. She would catch up with them somewhere down the line.

Hope bloomed like a desert flower and she ran as fast as she could, her mind seething with possible plans.

The next thing she knew, she was face first in the dirt. Writhing. Screaming. Her head seemed to have blown into scattered pieces, seemed to be lying now, bleeding in the jungle. Her inhalations were like breaths of raw fire. She seemed to feel every nerve ending in her body. Each was like a lit fuse.

All shreds of her consciousness were torn from anything like hope or promise or light. She was solely obsessed now with one thing: her drug. Zernin. She NEEDED it. More than air or water or food, she NEEDED the crystalline calm and sharpness of it. Her life, her spirit flowed as the drug coursed along her bloodstream and through her mind; without it she was mere death and agony. In that exquisite moment, spasming and gasping in the perfumed soil of an alien planet, Laura Shemzak knew that she would do anything, ANYTHING to make this agony stop, to feel her drug again cruising calmly between axon and dendrite, easy and confident and brilliantly tuned …. Anything! Even betray those she loved.

Because there was nothing like love in her now. There was only pain, fierce sharp pain, and despair. Suddenly, amidst her eternity of suffering, she was vaguely aware of someone standing over her.

"Laura, Laura, Laura," said a muffled voice from miles above. "Though I must say I am not surprised. Perhaps I even suspected it, anticipated it. Still, better now than later."

She felt a pinprick on her arm; saw from the corner of her eye the glint of a metal needle: a syringe.

Almost instantly a wave of relaxation passed over her, and her pain joined the ghosts of memory. Weakly she lay there, breathing in the humid air slowly.

"You see, the implant does work, Laura, very well. Only I suspect that no one on board the Starbow has just the right solution to counteract the neutralizer," said Zarpfrin, almost casually and sympathetically. "And by the time they figure out what is wrong with you, your mind will just be a quivering mass of burned-out jelly. But, oh, that will take a very long time, and I suspect that the longer you lack the effects of our wonderful drug, the worse your agony will become."

He patted her gently on the forearm. "How are you feeling, then? We really don't have much time to waste. Your friends will be wondering where you are."

Somehow she managed to get up.

Zarpfrin helped her walk back to the blip-ship.

"I really think that we are coming to understand one another, Laura. And after all this is over, perhaps we might work together again."

Laura was suddenly sick all over an alien plant.

"Well, perhaps we needn't take it that far," said Zarpfrin when she was finished.

Zarpfrin's men were groggily awake when they returned to the blip-ship. They eyed Laura warily as she approached. But they needn't have worried. Laura was in no shape to beat on anyone.

Limply, she coded in her access code on the metal membrane on the hull of her ship. The panel opened, revealing the bank of her controls, her chair, her plug-ins and jacks.

She shuddered as she looked at all the shiny plastisteel and metal. Before she had always loved this sight. Now, it made her shiver with dread.

"Well, Laura, are you ready?"

She nodded.

"You may not believe it, but there is good reason for all this. I'm doing all of it for the greater good, the welfare of humanity. You'll see, once it's all through."

"All I see right now," said Laura, glassy-eyed and dead-voiced, "is that I'm beaten, Zarpfrin. No less and no more. Now let me go before I vomit again because of your stink."

Zarpfrin laughed as he stepped back to allow her to leave. "Foul-mouthed to the bitter end. Please don't give my best to your friends, Laura. Oh, and Laura—you'll have a token chase by a couple of Federation ships. We want to make your escape look believable to Captain Northern. Please see if you can resist the urge to blow them up—I've ordered them not to harm you. Ta-ta."

Laura got in her blip-ship, plugged herself in, and blasted off from Walthor to betray the people she loved.