Chu Li was disappointed but had to agree. Without her, these two were lost in the technology of this vessel, which to them was incomprehensible and magical.

Now was not the time to see what weightlessness was like.

Reluctantly, she turned and led them out through the container corridor, past the cages and the closet, and back into the passenger cabin. She was somehow relieved to find it just as they had left it.

She looked again in the electronics room and at the mindprint machine and its numbered cartridges. "That machine makes you learn things you do not know or be things you are not," she told them. "It is how the captain learned our language so well. I fear that we will have to try them and see if one has the key to speaking to the ship."

"But would that not be in his true language?" Chow Dai asked. "Would he have something to teach his own native tongue in there?"

"I doubt if the pilot computer speaks the captain's language. All such computers are produced by Master System in factories peopled only by machines. They speak their own language, a language of numbers, on a level humans cannot possibly comprehend. The way humans talk to them is by a shell, a pretend environment where what the computer speaks is translated into a human tongue and where human language is translated into machine.

These ships are built according to standards that existed long ago, in the times of our ancient ancestors, and those outside of Earth continue to use those ancient languages."

"But it could have been changed to any, could it not?" Chow Dai persisted.

"It could, but I do not think it was. I have heard the captain curse many times, and it is a truth that one tends to curse in one's native tongue. His curses were equally unintelligible, but they were in a softer, more melodic tongue than the one used for opening the doors. It is a harsh, nonmelodic, almost machinelike language, an ugly tongue. It is there. It must be there. Otherwise we will arrive at Melchior anyway, just without the captain. I worry about what might be on some of the others. There are close to forty cartridges here, and only nine spaceports on all of Earth, so a captain would have need of only the nine languages of the Administrative Centers for each spaceport. I know nothing about the other worlds, but even if we give them nine or ten, it still leaves half the cartridges unexplained."

"But if we must, we will try them all and see," Chow Mai said pragmatically.

"I fear we must, yet I do not like it. Anything may be programmed by a master mindprint machine on those cartridges. Things that change your mind, your memory, everything. Some of these might be traps for the unwary, just in case ones like us got to this point. Even if not, these are to be taken sparingly, and never more than one a day, to avoid confusing and muddying the mind. We do not have thirty-eight days."

"There are three of us," Chow Mai pointed out. "Each of us could try one and see. Perhaps fortune will smile. If not, we try again, then wait to see if anyone has troubles. We have nothing to lose. Just hours ago we had lost all hope and you were in his power."

"You are right," Chu Li responded. "Let us begin now, for when we sleep this "time, it will be long and deep. Perhaps we can at least find some pattern to their arrangement. I can read the numbers, although they are in a foreign system. That type of number is used in all computer work. One of us will take the number one, which is an odd number and at the start. Another will take thirty-eight, an even number at the end. The third will take nineteen, an odd number in the middle. Then ten, twenty, and thirty. Then we will see if we can find a pattern. Beware, though. It does more than teach; it changes the mind. I am a living example of that."

"I will go first," Chow Mai said, "because you will have to show us how it is operated."

"It is quite simple. Just sit in the chair there and relax. No! Do not put the headset on as yetf Not until there is a cartridge in the system. To do so would cause brain damage. Now-watch. Number one in just so, and only this way. Wait for the small green light there. So! Now you may put on the headset, and I will adjust it."

Chow Mai seemed almost disappointed. "I feel nothing "

"You will. Now, put your head back on the rest and close your eyes. When I push this activator, it will begin. Push it again and it will stop, so if we see something terrible happening it can be halted by being quick. Otherwise it will run as long as it runs, and you will be awake yet as if asleep. Ready? Chow Dai-you should push the activator."

Chow Dai hesitated a moment, then pushed it. The green light changed to amber, then to flashing red.

Suddenly Chow Mai said, "It asks a question in my head. A single word I do not know."

Chu Li thought a moment. She hadn't even considered password protections for a setup like this, "Answer with the same word as it asks, only give it as a statement," she instructed Chow Mai. "No need to say it. Just think it."

Chow Mai looked confused but sat back, closed her eyes, and did as instructed.

The program started running, and Chu Li breathed a sigh of relief. With a computer she was sure she could break any password, but she needed the password to get to the computer. This computer's password, however, was the default: "password."

The machine ran for a nervous half hour with Chow Mai showing no visible reaction, then switched off. Chu Li lifted off the headset. "Remember never to remove the cartridge until this is first removed," she said.

Chow Mai opened her eyes dreamily and saw the worried expressions of the others.

"Do not worry, my sisters, for I am well," she assured them, and wasn't quite certain why they seemed even more upset.

"Chow Mai-do you understand me, your twin?"

She did understand, although it took some concentration to reply. Her first efforts were a hopeless mixture of two languages that could not be mixed, and it took a while before she was able even with difficulty to switch comfortably.

"It is Arabic," Chu Li explained. "One of the Center spaceport languages. I have heard it spoken, although I do not know it. It is not the language of the ship, this I know. It will be difficult for her to sort one from the other for a while, but she will be able to separate them as time passes. This is good. One is a language program. If thirty-eight is not, we will try number two, perhaps.

Chow Mai- go. Lie. Down. Yes."

Still feeling a bit dizzy and confused, Chow Mai went out and collapsed into one of the chairs. Chu Li removed cartridge one and replaced it with number thirty-eight, then got into the chair and put on the headset. She nodded at Chow Dai, then relaxed. The sister pressed the activator.

Number thirty-eight proved to be a highly technical program about the ship itself and paid particular attention to the restraint system, locks, and other protective and safety devices. It was not designed as language-specific but searched in the mind of the user for the right, words and terms; if such terms were not present or possible to construct, one simply didn't understand all of the program. Song Ching's technological center Mandarin, however, was more than adequate for the task.

She awakened feeling elated and recovered quickly, thanks to her long experience with such devices. She removed the headset and saw Chow Dai just coming back into the room. The girl was apologetic. "I am sorry. When I saw you were in no distress, I went to see how Chow Mai was getting on. I did not think it would be so short."

"Long enough," Chu Li responded. "That was a technical tape, the last probably made to date. It makes many references I cannot totally get because they are obviously referring to past modifications, but I know now how much of this operates. I know the restraint systems, the alarms, the door and hatch combinations, and much more. I even know what many of these instruments here do, and what the numbers mean. I know, for example, that those two numbers compared mean that we are about sixty percent of the way to Melchior, but I also know that we have under a week before we come under traffic control that will be able to sense if we deviate from our planned course and raise alarms. We do not have much time if we are to take control of the ship unnoticed."

"Shall I take number two now?"

"No. I am used to it, and the technical orientation did nothing to me. Let us see just how far the languages go." She chose cartridge number ten, then inserted it in the machine in place of number thirty-eight. "I will do this one as well. There should be one of us around with her wits about her, and you are it. Your turn will come in due course." She replaced the headsets and lay back.

"When you are ready."

Chow Dai pushed the activator, then waited. This time Chu Li was not quiet but started to breathe hard, then to moan and thrust. Her hands went to her crotch and seemed to be doing something, but it was unclear what. What was clear was that this was not a tape like the others. Fearful, particularly of the sounds from the chair, Chow Dai pushed the activator off.

Chu Li came down very, very slowly and seemed almost disappointed when she realized that she was no longer switched in. She opened her eyes and looked at Chow Dai; her expression, though foreign to Chu Li's nature, was one Chow Dai had seen before in unpleasant circumstances.

Chu Li had been connected only a couple of minutes and so was able to regain control, although her body trembled slightly. "It was-" she gasped, breathing hard "-a sex tape. A very graphic one. I was-a man-in the body of a man- amidst a horde of foreign, exotic women. All were naked; all were there for my pleasure.

I was to choose one and do as I pleased. It was such a feeling of power, of dominance. I am-was-highly aroused."

Chow Dai did not comprehend the depth of the experience, but she understood the reason for such a cartridge and why Chu Li had responded to it. "Now at least we know where our honorable captain got his urges so readily and what he must have done to amuse himself when no one else was aboard."

"Yes, I think so. I had heard that such things existed, but I had never experienced one before. The images are like memories, like reality. It is as if the scene actually existed for me in the past, and whichever girl I chose 1 would have bedded. To the mind, there would be no difference between the reality and the illusion. I feel the desire to go back and complete it, but I dare not.

Even now I feel the urge to grab you and make mad, passionate love to you."

, Chow Dai felt relieved and smiled. "Is that such a bad thing?"

"To me, no. I have wanted it from the first. But to you it would be perverse."

"No. What the guards did to us was perverse. What Sabatini did to you and to us is perverse. Nothing done in love that harms no one can be perverse. You are half man, half woman. That is enough."

They used the bed in Sabatini's cabin, the scene of much of Chu Li's violation, but it was different now, and afterward they fell asleep, exhausted more by the events of the day than by their own final efforts.

The next day Chu Li, feeling better than she ever had in her whole brief incarnation, decided to tackle things for real. Chow Mai hit another of the pornographic male-oriented cartridges but was not affected in the same way Chu Li had been. Rather, she seemed to have shifted mentally from the male point of view to that of the females in it, and although they stopped the program quite early, she wound up not only very, very turned on but also nonaggressive to the point of total passivity. She also, for some reason, pleaded to have her chains put back on, but they decided that the effects would wear down in a while and ignored her requests.

There were a number of other languages, including one cartridge that seemed to have no particular effect on Chow Dai other than to improve slightly her grammar and vocabulary. They decided that it must have been Mandarin Chinese.

They also discovered many more programs on shipboard design and construction, mathematical tables, basic celestial navigation, and computer module design and operation. One showed the complete interconnect between Sabatini's command module in the rear and the computer pilot, confirming Chu Li's suspicions that this was one of those very ships where Master System was not in charge. And, as suspected, there were some traps.

The machine clicked off, and Chow Dai removed the headset and waited for Chu Li to come out of it. The cartridge had seemed uneventful to the observer and had taken the normal amount of time, so there had been no reason to think anything was wrong. Finally, Chu Li came around, then sat up and looked around, almost panicking.

"What's the matter?" the sisters asked in unison. "What has happened to you?"

"I have been stung," she told them. "I have spent a half hour in a pleasant dreamworld, and now I wake up to find a nightmare."

As they watched, concerned, she looked around vacantly, then tried to get out of the chair and stumbled, holding on to it for support.

"There is only darkness," she told them, a pained tone in her voice. "I am blind."

10. THE GOLDEN BIRDS OF LAZLO CHEN.

IT WAS THE MIDDLE OF THE FOURTH DAY AFTER HAWKS had stolen and used the mindprinter and had begun to have second thoughts about his long-range mission and goals, and by now he was much changed from the scholar who had read what he should have reported and set off on a course to save not only himself but the future of humanity.

At the time-not very long ago, although it seemed an eternity and a world away-he had lived for nothing but his work, had no close friendships or dependencies, and had an exaggerated idea, he knew now, of his importance in the scheme of things. Perhaps it had just been the desire of a lonely and frustrated man approaching middle age to do something that future historians might note and remember. Unable to get back into the head of that man he'd been such a short time ago, he really wasn't sure. The odd fact was that not a single thing that had been important to him then was in the slightest way important to him now.

He and his wives had achieved an incredible level of self-sufficiency in a very short time, and he had stayed away from human contact as much as possible in his travels since that mindprinting had simplified everything. He had not yet used the rest of the whiskey for trading, as he'd intended, because he hadn't had to do so. Now, if all worked out, he would trade it for good, rugged, practical clothing and perhaps some better weapons as well, depending on how hard a bargain could be driven. He now saw a chance at something far better than being a footnote in a future history book; he saw a chance, at least as long as his health held out, of starting over brand new and, in a sense, becoming young again.

For Cloud Dancer it had never been clear what they were doing or why. She had attached herself to him initially because he was kind and gentle to her and more than slightly exotic, and she'd fallen in love with him and he with her, and they had married, something not too common in Hyiakutt culture. She understood that he had learned a secret so dangerous that there were many hands raised to track him down and slay him, but they hadn't caught him yet, and she would be at his side if and when they did. She'd had him exclusively for such a little time, but she was well aware that she had been a partner in the decision to include Silent Woman and that at the time she'd had the power to veto that decision.

Cloud Dancer's life had been pretty unhappy up to meeting Hawks, but Silent Woman's past was Cloud Dancer's worst nightmare. Pity had turned quickly to respect for the strange tattooed woman, and Cloud Dancer had participated in the ceremony of blood. She now regarded Silent Woman as one of her own blood and as much her wife as both were the wives of Hawks. The family was not a collection of individuals: The family was One.

The survival program had stripped everything from her concerns except the basics. Her memories were not impaired; it was simply that all she had been was no longer relevant. Family, tribe, nation-their world was now three people in a canoe, and nothing else was important enough to think about. The unit had certain basics that were required. It must be fed. It must find shelter and be hidden from enemies each night. It must be guarded. It must survive. Of necessity the women must be the warriors, and those were the tasks of warriors.

She was also a wife. A tribal wife served and supported her husband, gave her body willingly to him, and, if the spirits willed, bore him many fine children.

Absolutely nothing but these concerns occupied her thoughts and motivated her actions.

The only way to learn about Silent Woman was to ask yes or no questions, but there was little truly to be learned. She had no memory of her past at all, no memory of where she'd come from or where she had received the tattoo and why, or even of ever having given birth to a child- or, for that matter, ever having had a tongue. The shock and trauma of her horrible times had simply been rejected, blotted out, and locked away forever in some corner of the mind where such things go. She had not in fact even thought in a language anyone could have truly recognized, for it was an amalgam of terms and concepts from dozens of languages strung together in a way that worked but was uniquely her own. It was not a complex language. She did not, even with the English recoder, get much of what Hawks or Cloud Dancer said, because her vocabulary was so limited and her rules so basic.

She had known only that she hated the Illinois passionately but that she never had any other place to go. Her geographical world was the village where she'd lived and The Other Place where all the strangers came from and went to. She was still being constantly amazed that The Other Place was so vast, but it still was a single entity in her mind.

Then she'd seen her masters toying with the captive pair and had known that after the game they would kill the man and make the woman like her, and she hated the Illinois and the village. So, when she had accidentally bumped into Cloud Dancer and realized that they were planning to flee, she had thought only about helping them and hoping that they would take her with them, away from the village to The Other Place. And they had. She had never regarded herself as anything but property, but she knew she preferred to be the property of Hawks, a man both handsome and brave, and in whom there was a gentle streak she had not known before, and some sadness or hurt deep inside as well. She had never thought of being a wife to such a one. In fact, she really had no concept of "wife," but she understood that to the other two it made her an equal with Cloud Dancer. That was the heady stuff of impossible dreams.

She was not stupid; that was the mistake the others had made. She was, however, almost totally ignorant, having not even the grounding of a sense of tribe and culture as almost any of the others back in the village had. She was already now at a higher level than she could have conceived possible; she wanted only to preserve that. They were her world, all she had or desired. They were everything. She loved them both. Her whole life was nothing but obedience and service. She would love, obey, and serve them even if it meant her death, and she would never survive them.

They were approaching one of the increasingly frequent bends in the river, one that made the water in front seem to vanish and which might be the same river as that seen distantly through the trees on the right. Hawks had decided against trusting such visions after they tried a portage the first time; the water through the trees had turned out to be an oxbow lake, a bend in the river that had been cut off by built-up silt as the river changed its course. He no longer felt the strong urgency he had up north, considering how long they had been on the river without encountering anyone.

There was a sudden, loud noise as if some giant spring had suddenly popped its winding and sounded off. Birds flew from the trees and the river in panic, and at almost the same moment something slapped them incredibly hard and overturned the canoe.

Hawks came up for air and looked around, then was relieved to see two other heads break the surface. "Head for the far shore!" he shouted to the two women.

"Forget the canoe!"

The sound came again, behind them, and this time the canoe was struck with a full blow. It seemed to rise up, coming apart as it did so, then collapsed into the water as a set of shapeless pieces of skin and frame. The wave from the blow came at them, and they relaxed and let it carry them toward the near shore.

They reached the bank only meters apart and managed to get on shore. There was no thought of remaining in that spot: Another blast of the invisible hand might come at any moment.

Survival wisdom called for them to scatter in three directions and run until pursuit was foiled, but their sense of family overrode that part of it. The land was covered with a shallow film of water out of which a forest grew. There was little shelter and no rocks or other obvious protection. They could only make certain they were all within sight of one another and start running as far in as possible.

"That's right, Hawks. You just keep running," a sardonic voice, electronically amplified, said from what seemed to be everywhere. "You'll find if you keep going this way that the river played a joke on you and doubled back again. If you go right, it'll be on three sides; if you go left, well, you'll run into a big surprise."

They did not pay any real attention to the voice but kept running until, as predicted, they came to a riverbank.

They heard that terrible sound again, and they saw a wall of water coming toward them as if a giant hand were skimming the top. The point was clear. They couldn't swim across, not there.

Hawks stopped the women and gathered them to him. "It's no use," he told them.

"I've been a romantic fool, damn it all! They just sat here and waited for us to spring their trap!"

"Then if we are surrounded, we must fight our way out or die trying!" Cloud Dancer responded bravely, and Silent Woman nodded assent.

How could he explain to these two infrared sensing devices and a certainty that this area had been cleared of all people so only the fugitives would show up? Or the power of some of the weapons that might be at the disposal of the enemy?

"No," he responded. "Long ago you told me of the foolish warrior who charged into overwhelming odds only to show his bravery and die a legend. This is not Roaring Bull and his Illinois or even a tribe as we understand tribes. Right now they could send things through the air, as they did that giant unseen hand, that would make us drop in pain or knock us completely out. It makes no sense to even try to die in such a battle when there is still the small but real possibility of a deal. These are men, not demons. They will talk, and so we will talk."

She was not convinced. "But-"

"I am chief and husband to you both!" he said gruffly. "They will let you leave if you wish. I am what they want. Dissolve the marriage and the tribe here or obey my orders exactly! I permit no other choice!"

Cloud Dancer looked at Silent Woman and frowned, but when she saw the response in the other's face, she looked back at him, resigned. "Talk, then, husband and chief. We are part of you."

He looked around at the suddenly silent, still swamp.

"All right!" he shouted. "So what now? Come out with our hands up? You didn't leave us anything else!"

They did not hear their pursuer approach, although they were more than attuned to such things, but suddenly he was there, not far away. He was ugly as sin, and he held a weapon in his hand that was quite out of keeping with his looks and dress.

"You don't have to shout," the Crow Agency man said. "I'm right here. The name's Raven."

Hawks stared at him. "I must be vital indeed to send a Crow this far south.

Aren't you hot?"

"Steaming." He shrugged. "It's part of the image, you know. You want to tell the ladies not to try anything, that I can knock all of you cold on your asses before you can blink?"

"It is not necessary, Crow," Cloud Dancer responded, making his nationality sound like a foul and obscene thing. "We understand you."

Raven was taken aback, then he nodded. "Yeah, English Cross was in that pack, wasn't it? How'd you like the survival program? I had a part in creating it, which is why I could figure out exactly how you'd act. Damn. Must be a flaw in It. You did get caught, after all."

Hawks actually felt crushed, but he had to make a brave show of it for the sake of his honor. All that running, all that violence and tension, all that taste of freedom- all illusion. The issue had never been in doubt.

"You'd still be free if you hadn't stuck to the river," Raven noted. "Fact is, they'd'a had to send a Val after you to catch you if you just went east or west or even north. The only ones known on Earth the Vals didn't ever catch were ones that just went into the wild and got kinda swallowed up. 'Course, once you took on the many-colored lady here, it was easy to spot you, but some clothes would have taken care of that." He sighed. "Well, come along. We got work to do yet."