"Cooperation," Polyon said. "Only a little -.

cooperation."

Blindly, drowning in a sea of air that somehow gave her nothing to breathe, Alpha turned her face up to meet Polyon's parted lips.

"Not that sort of cooperation," Polyon told her, laughing gently, "not yet," His eyes measured her with a cold glance that made her more afraid than ever - and, somehow, more excited too. "Maybe later, if you're a good girl. You were too uppity before, you know that, Alpha? Now you're the way I like my women. Quiet. And respectful. Stay that way, and we won't have to discuss any-ah-painful subjects with the others. Come with me and follow my lead. That's all I expect of you - for now."

Submissive, head bowed, Alpha drifted towards the three s.p.a.cED OUT gamers in Polyon's wake. They were still pretending to be totally involved in the game, but she felt sure they had avidly witnessed her humiliation.

She would pay them back. That was certain, she vowed. Fa.s.sa, Darnell, Blaize - they would all learn not to laugh at her.

She didn't even think of retaliating against Polyon.

Nancia quietly transferred the recording of the scene she'd just witnessed to an offline storage hedron.

Having those bits in her system made her feel... dirty.

As if she were somehow implicated in Polyon's s.a.d.i.s.tic games.

Perhaps she should have interfered. But how ...

and why? Alpha was just as bad as Polyon, worse even, to judge from what he'd revealed of her unauthorizedmedical experiments. The two of them deserved each other. Blaize was the only one of the bunch she would care to talk to. The litde redhead reminded her of Flix __- and unlike the others, he didn't seem to have any- thing wrong with him that a few years away from family pressures wouldn't cure.

And what, exactly, Tvitt you say if you do interrupt? Nan- cia couldn't answer her own question. She was a Courier Service Ship, not a diplomat! She wasn't sup- posed to interfere with her pa.s.sengers! She should have had a brawn on board - an experienced brawn - to break up nasty scenes like the one she'd just wit- nessed, to keep these spoiled young pa.s.sengers happy and away from one another's throats for the two weeks of the trip. It's not fair! Not on my very first voyage!

But there was n.o.body to hear her plaint. They were still five days away from Singularity and the decom- position into Vega subs.p.a.ce.

At least I can keep evidence recordings going, Nancia thought grimly. If one of the little brats drives another over the edge, there'll be plenty ofdatahedra to show what hap- pened. But at the moment, the five pa.s.sengers seemed to be getting along reasonably well. Perhaps his sadis- tic games with Alpha had momentarily satiated Polyon's need for command and control; he had taken a play icon and seemed absorbed in that silly role-play- ing game. Nancia relaxed . . . but she kept her datacorders running.

*CHAPTER FOUR

"Why can't I get past the Wingdrake of Wisdom?"

Darnell griped. He had chosen Bonecrush again, but his mighty-thewed play icon was backed into a corner where a winged serpent hissed menacingly at him every time he tried to move.

"You should have bought some intelligence for Bonecrush at the Little Shop of Spiritual Enlighten- ment," Polyon commented. His fingers flicked carelessly at the screen as he spoke, sending Thingber- ry the Martian Mage to spin an apparently pointless web in the night sky above Asteroid 66.

"I didn't know you could buy intelligence." DarneU's lower lip protruded in a definite pout "That wasn't in the rule book."

"A lot of things aren't in the rule book," Polyon said, "including most of what you need to survive. And in- formation is always for sale... if you know the right price. Anything from the secrets of Singularity to the origins of planet names."

"Oh. Encyclopedias. Libraries, Anybody can buy the Galactic Datasource on fast-hedra," Darnell whined.

"But who has time to read all that crud?"

"The price of some kinds of information," Polyon said, "is more than the cost of a book and the time to read it. I could print out the rules of Singularity math for you, but you haven't paid the price of under- standing it - the years of s.p.a.ce transformation algebra and the intelligence to move the theories into multiple dimensions."

"Oh, come on," Blaize challenged him. "It's not that55.

compjjcated. Even I know Baykowski's Theorem."

"A continuum C is said to be locally shrinkable in M if and only if, for each epsilon greater than zero and each open set D containing C, there is a homeomor- phism h of M onto M which takes C onto a set of diameter less than epsilon and which is the ident.i.ty on M ___ D," Polyon recited rapidly. "And it's not a theorem, it's a definition."

Nancia quietly followed the discussion with mild in- terest. The mathematics of Singularity was nothing new to her, but at least when her brat pa.s.sengers were talking mathematics they weren't trying to drive each other crazy. And she was impressed that Polyon had retained enough Singularity theory to be able to recite Baykowski's Definition from memory; common gossip among the brainships in training was that no softperson could really understand multidimensional decompositions.

"The real basis for decom theory," Polyon lectured his audience, "is what follows that definition. Namely, Zerlion's Lemma: that our universe can be considered as a collection of locally shrinkable continua each con- taining at least one non-degenerating element."

Fa.s.sa del Parma pouted and jabbed her play icon across the display screen in a series of short, jerky moves.

"Very useful information, I'm sure," she said in a sarcas- tic voice, "but do the rest of us have to pay the price of listening to it? All this theoretical mathematics makes my head hurt And it's not as if it were good for anything, like stress a.n.a.lysis or materials testing."

"It's good for getting us to the Nyota system in two weeks instead of six months, my dove," Polyon told her. "And it's really quite simple. In layman's terms, Singularity theory just shows us how to decompose two widely separated subs.p.a.ce areas into a sequence of compacted dimensionalities sharing one non- degenerating element. When the subs.p.a.ces become 56.

Anm McCaffrey & 57.

singular they will appear to intersect at that element -.

and when we expand from the decomposition, pon

out of Central subs.p.a.ce and into Vega s.p.a.ce we go."

Nancia felt grateful that she'd resisted her impulse to join in the conversation. Her Lab Schools cla.s.smates had been right about softpersons. Polyon knew all the right words for Singularity mathematics, but he'd got- ten the basic theory hopelessly scrambled. And clearly he didn't understand the computational problems un- derlying that theory. Pure topological theory might prove the existence of a decomposition series, but ac- tually forcing a ship through that series required ma.s.sive linear programming optimizations, all per- formed in realtime with no second chances for mistakes. No wonder softpersons weren't trusted to pilot a ship through Singularity!

"I agree with you," Alpha told Fa.s.sa. "Bo-ring. Even the history of Nyota is better than studying mathematics."

"You'd think so, of course," Fa.s.sa said, "seeing that it was discovered and named by your people." The small grin on her face told Nancia that this was a jab of some sort at Alpha. Hastily she scanned her data notes on the Nyota system, but nothing there explained why the Hezra-Fong family should take a particular interest in it "Swahili is a slave language," Alpha said haughtily.

"It has nothing to do with the Fong tribe. My people come from the other side of the continent - and we were never enslaved!"

"Will somebody give me a map of this conversa- tion?" Darnell said plaintively. "I'm more lost than I was during Polyon's math lecture."

"This particular information," Alpha told him, "is free." She drew herself up to her full height, several inches taller than Fa.s.sa, and favored the top of her sleek, dark head with a withering glare, "The system we're going to was discovered by a Black descendant of the American slaves. In a burst of misguided en- thusiasm, he decided to give the star and all the planets names from an African language. Unfortunately, he was so poorly educated that the only such language he knew was Swahili, a trade language spread along the east coast of Africa by Arab slavers. He called the sun Nyota ya Jaha - Lucky Star. The planets' names are fairly accurate descriptions, too. Bahati means For- tune, and it's a reasonably decent place to live - green, mild climate, lots of nice scenery that stays put.

Shemali means North Wind."

polyon groaned appreciatively. "I know. Unlike some of us, I did read up on my destination. The place is called North Wind because that's what you get for thirteen months out of the year."

"Thirteen months you have in the year? Oh - I get it! Longer rotation period, right?" Darnell beamed with pride at his own cleverness.

"Shorter, as it happens," Polyon said. His voice sounded remarkably hollow. "Shemali has a year of three hundred days, divided into ten months for con- venience. I was being sarcastic about the feet that there is no good season."

"Never mind," Alpha told him almost kindly, "it's bet- ter than Angalia. Actually the full name is Angalia! with an exclamation point atthe end. Itmeans Watch out!"

"Dare I ask what that means?" Blaize inquired.

"It means," Alpha told him, "that the scenery - un- like that of Bahati-doesn't stay put."

Blaize and Polyon stared at one another, briefly companions in misery.

Polyon was the first to recover himself. "Oh, well,"

he said, turning back to the game screen, "you see the value of information, Darnell - and the fact that it isn't always in the Galactic Datasource. And some of the information that isn't - ah - publicly available - is the most valuable of all." With delicate gestures he 58.

&f nudged the joyball while the fingers of his left hand tapped out codes to enlarge and strengthen Thingberry's magical net. "You need to think of ways to trade for that kind of information. For instance your shipping company - such as it is - could offer discreet transport for parcels that don't get on the cargo list, or that go by a slightly misleading name-in some cases, disinformation or the lack of information is as valuable as actual data."

"Who'd want that?" Darnell objected. "And who cares, anyway? Can't we just play the game?"

Polyon favored him with a dazzling smile. "Dear boy, this is the game - and a far more rewarding one than s.p.a.cED OUT. Why, I can think of any number of people who might want a - suitably discreet - cargo carrier service. Myself, for starters."

"Why you?"

"Let's just say that not all the metachips going off Shemali are going to be in the SUM rationing board's records," Polyon said.

"So? What's it worth to me to oblige you?"

"I could pay you back with Net contacts. I can work the Net like no hacker since the days of the first virus breeders. It's an unsecured hedron to me. How soon could you rebuild OG Shipping if you knew ahead of time about every big contract about to be let in Vega sub- s.p.a.ce ... and what your opponents' sealed bids were?"

DarnelFs pout vanished to be replaced by a look of stunned calculation. "I could be rich again in five years!"

"But not, I fancy, as rich as I could be from selling metachips," Polyon murmured. Thingberry's web glistened on the screen above him, strings of jeweled fight looping and floating above the play icons on the surface of Asteroid 66. "What would you say to a friendly wager? The five of us to meet and compare notes, once a year - to see how we're each doing at making lemonade out of the lemons of a.s.signments 59.

our dear families have landed us with? Winner to take a twenty-five percent share in each of the losers'

operations - business, goods, or cold credits?"

* do we decide to stop and make the final evaluation?" DarneU asked.

"Five years - that's the end of most of our tours of duty, isn't it?"

"You know it is," said Alpha quickly. "Standard tour.

And," she went on under Polyon's firm gaze, " I think it's a fliarvelous idea. I've got my own plans, you know."

"What?" Darnell demanded.

Alpha gave him a slow, lazy smile. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"I'm sure we would all like to know," Polyon put in.

Adeft twist of the joyball set Thingberry's jeweled web spinning over the top half of the display screen. "Will you enlighten them, Alpha, or shall I - er - con- tribute my own sc.r.a.ps of information?" He crooked his finger, beckoning to her, and she moved closer to his control chair.

"Nothing much," Alpha said. "But . . . Summerlands is a double clinic. One side for the paying customers - mostly VIPs - and one side for charity cases, to improve their SUM rating. I've got some ideas for an improve- ment on Blissto - something we can give addicts in controlled doses. They won't get locked into a cycle of craving and ever-increasing hits of street drugs."

"Hey, / like Blissto," Darnell protested, "and I don't get into that cycle."

"Good," Alpha told him. "You're not an addictive per- sonality. Some people aren't that lucky. You've seen Blissed-Out cases? Big enough doses, over a long enough period of time, until their nervous systems look like shredded wheat? My version won't do that. We'll be able to take Blissed-Out cases out of the hospital and send them out to do useful work as long as they stay on their meds. And I'm the one who did all the preliminary 60.

6? 61.

design work on this drug. Actually, it was a side-effect of my work on - well, there's no need to discuss all the boring details of my research," she concluded with a sidelong glance at Polyon. "What matters is that I've got the formulas and all the lab notes on hedra."

"But won't Central Meds hold the patent, if you did the work there?"

"When-and if- it's patented," Alpha agreed.

"And you can't sell it until it's pa.s.sed the trials and been patented - so it's no good to you!"

Alpha's eyes met Polyon's over Darnell's head.

"Quite true," she agreed gravely, "but I think I may find a way to profit from the situation anyway."

"What about you, Fa.s.sa?" Polyon asked. The girl had been very quiet since her jab about the slave names of the Nyota system. "You going to take this boondocks construction company Daddy handed you lying down?" His tone invested the question with a wealth of obscene possibilities.

"Double profit on every job," Fa.s.sa announced calmly. "I've got a degree in accounting. I can fix the books in ways an auditor will never catch."

Darnell whistled appreciatively. "But if you are caught - "

Fa.s.sa coiled herself on the other side of Polyon's chair in a series of languorous, sinuous movements that drew all eyes to her. "I think," she said dreamily, "that I can distract any auditors who may think about checking the books. Or any building inspectors who need to sign off on materials quality." Her slow, dreamy smile promised a world of secret delights.

"There's a lot of money in construction ... if you go about it the right way."

The four of them made a tight grouping now: Polyon in the control chair, Darnell standing behind him, Fa.s.sa and Alpha seated on either side of him.

Four pairs of eyes gazed expectantly at Blaize.

"Well," he said, swallowed, and started over again.

*^h - PTA doesn't offer quite as much scope for creativity as the rest of your outfits, does it now?"

"You're with us or against us," said Polyon. "Which is it to be, little cousin?"

"Ah -neutrality?"

"Not good enough." Polyon glanced around at the other three. "He's heard our plans. If he doesn't join us, he could have some idea of informing...."

Alpha leaned forward, smiling sweetly. Her teeth looked long and very white against her dark skin. "Oh, you wouldn't do that, would you, Blaize dear?"

"I wouldn't even think about it," Darnell put in, tap- ping one pudgy fist against his open palm.

Fa.s.sa licked her lips and smiled like a child antic.i.p.at- ing a treat. "This could be interesting" she murmured to no one in particular.

Blaize glanced around the circle of faces, then looked towards Nancia's t.i.tanium column. She kept her silence.