THE CATERPILLARS QUESTION

It was no use trying to compliment the emotionless AI! "So what is the best way to bring the Gaol ship to us?" he asked.

"By 'best' I mean to take into consideration brevity of time, concealment of our motive, and our chances of converting its perso

"I am unable to assess these values with competence."

Jack looked at Garth. "Are you?"

"Yes. It would not be wise to try to bring the full ship here, as it would apply stasis to this craft and investigate it in detail from a secure distance. Any living creature who boards this ship, or who approaches closer to it than one light-hour, will be destroyed after completing its business."

"You have a point," Jack agreed. "The big ship is not going to let us near it. But how about a small shir a robot ship?

could we take over that, and use it, without the big ship knowing

"I could accomplish this," Garth agreed.

"And because it's a robot ship, with no living creatures aboard to be corrupted, they may not even check it," Jack continued.

"Now, Candy-what can you do to make them worry about the secur ty of the mago host, without alarming them enough to take precautions we couldn't circumvent?"

"A minor equipment failure-perhaps a malfunctioning sensor, suggesting that there is no problem, but the sensor is giving a false indication. A robot ship would routinely but promptly replace the sensor. The Gaol leave Iittle to chance."

"Garth, can you cause a sensor to malfunction? Do you know which one is minor enough to generate no real alarm?"

"Yes. Yes."

And is there room on such a robot repair ship for the four of us?"

"No."

Jack's heart sank. "For three? Two?"

"No. No."

"One?" Jack asked despairingly. Their plan was coming apart already.

"No."

"Not even one? Then how can we use the robot ship?

"We can remove its robot and substitute one of us."

Oh. "And then that one can convert the Gaol battlewagon, single-handed, and return here to rescue the others," Jack said.

"Yes."

He would have to watch that irony; these creatures tended to take him literally. "Which one? Tappy?"

"Yes. Only the Imago can convert the ship, and she is the host.

She must take the facilitator, because she will not be able to maintain close contact with any perso

"But Tappy knows nothing of a Gaol ship," Jack protested.

"She would get lost or caught immediately."

"My empathy indicates that your argument is specious," Garth whistled. "You do not desire to risk the host, because of your special feeling for her."

Right on target! But Jack realized that if this was the only way out, and they didn't try it, their alternative would be to float here forever in space, leaving the Imago as effectively isolated as the Gaol intended. Maybe they could set up another dream realm and have it a lifetime of love on a garden planet, but that wouldn't do the galaxy any good.

"The host must be confined in the life-support container when the robot comes," Candy said. "Otherwise the robot will know as it approaches and uses its detail sca

"Then Tappy can't be the one to go," Jack said, feeling mixed frustration and relief.

"She must be confined until the robot boards, then unconfined after it has been incapacitated," Garth whistled.

Jack saw that it had to be. He could not let his personal feeling for Tappy, which was romantic, interfere with the mission of the Imago. It was that mission which had brought them to this realm of super-science. He had been close to Tappy from the time he first met her, and the ambience of the Imago had been working on him all this time; he had to do what was best for it.

They worked on Tappy for the next several hours, drilling her on the interior of the Gaol guard ship, which it seemed was similar to the one in which they had first encountered Malva.

Garth clarified that the robot would dock at a special port, where it would be cleaned in vacuum, so she would have to wear a space suit. But because that area did not have life sensors, she would be ignored by the machines, and could make her way inside. There she would have to remove the suit, but retain a face mask, because the ship was pressured with Gaol atmosphere that she couldn't breathe.

"But you are breathing our air!" Jack protested.

"I am not. I am wearing a transmutation filter." Garth unfolded an arm to tap himself at his base, between the wheels. Jack had assumed that this was part of the creature's transmission, since the axles for the wheels projected from it, but realized that he had been anthropomorphizing. Men did not breathe from their bases, but it seemed that the Gaol did. And of course they did not use the same kind of air; they were alien creatures. Maybe the honkers could share air with the human beings- that was why both species lived on the honker planet. But that must be a rarity of compatibility. He just hadn't thought about it before.

What about Malva, then? She hadn't worn a mask. But she hadn't been in the company of any Gaol, either; she probably had her own sealed atmospheric chamber. He really had taken too much for granted.

He returned to the present situation. Once Tappy was aboard the big ship, she would have to make her way to the Nexus Gaol, or what Jack called the captain. She would use the facilitator to corrupt that individual, and then he would help her corrupt the rest of the ship. Jack didn't argue about the term "corrupt"; he knew that Garth did not mean any affront.

But how could Tappy ever accomplish such a thing? The odds were against her. There were so many things that could go wrong!

"What are the odds?" he demanded grimly. Then he had to explain to them what he meant.

Candy and Garth held a dialogue, and came to agreement. "The odds of the host's success in this endeavor are approximately one in three. But if she fails, the odds are nine to one that the host will be dead, and the Imago will be free. That, too, is success.

So the endeavor, taken as a whole, is worthwhile."

"Great," Jack said, sick at heart.

"If I am to leave you, perhaps forever," Tappy said, "I want to make love with you one last time."

"Of course," Jack said numbly.

But when they went to the bed, the specter of her death loomed so large in his mind that he was impotent. It was as if he were sending her into it, and somehow it seemed that if he renounced this part of it, she would not suffer the other part. "I'm sorry, Tappy," he said.

"I know. I feel your guilt and sorrow. Just hold me."

That much he could do.

"If I do not return," she said after a while, "you must take Candy as your lover. It will not mean anything to her, but it will help you to forget."

"I don't want to forget!" he exclaimed.

"You would not be here, except for me. I could not live or die in peace if I left you to the emotions you now feel. Promise me that you will take her."

"I promise," he said. Because otherwise she would have been even more unhappy, and it would be his fault. There were ways in which this newly adult Tappy was harder to accept than the lame blind child had been.

Then they slept, embraced but without great solace They set it up. Tappy gave Jack the hatchling, which had come back to her after converting Garth. It was able to eat human food, because its flesh was from a liua being. She returned to the coffin and Candy locked her in. Then Garth selected a sensor and sent a piercing whistle through it. Jack was aware of no change, but both Garth and Candy assured him that the sensor was now malfunctioning, and would attract the attention of the monitoring ship.