Realware

"Phil's back!" Babs called to Cobb. "Along with this dog and two women! Yoke's mother."

"I know," said Cobb. "Hi, Darla. Hi, Tempest."

"Kin you flaaah me and Planet down to Tre and Terri's, Cobb?" Tempest wanted to know. "I bet they been worried sick."

"Worried sick that she'll come back," Yoke giggled to Phil.

"I'm go

"Ah don't have that kind o' money."

"Here," said Yoke, pulling a big bill out of her purse. "Now scram, Tempest. You can't be the focus. We've got Phil and my mom here, we've got seven Metamartians disguised as moldies, we've -- "

"Seven aliens?" cried Tempest. "Kill them!"

"Shut your pie-hole, Tempest," said Cobb. "They're leaving anyway. Go the hell home."

"And don't blab," cautioned Yoke. "No need for the Snookses to get worked up."

"You were so dumb to tell her, Yoke," put in Babs. "She's such a redneck."

"Xoxx all of you," said Tempest, and stomped off, dragging Planet after her.

"You're lifted, Cobb?" said Babs. "How lame. Did you find out how to make an alla? Did you get the message about the plutonium to Om?"

"I'm not really lifted," said Cobb. "Just buzzed. And, yes, I told Siss to tell Om to please not let us make plutonium or uranium. Siss was surprised that we thought instant atomic bombs would be such a big problem. Weird. It's the two-dimensional time thing again. On Metamars it doesn't matter all that much if a city gets blown up; it'll still be around in all the other time lines. But, yeah, she passed the word to Om. Check in your catalog and see if you can still make plutonium. And, um, as far as copying allas goes, Siss told me that Phil already knows how to do it. Is that true, Phil?"

"Yeah," smiled Phil. "Om told me. We can make allas for everyone. Everything's going to change."

"Yes!" exclaimed Yoke.

"And Om really got the message!" exclaimed Babs, who'd been focused inward on her alla. "I just checked, and plutonium is like grayed out in the catalog. Uranium too."

"So maybe I'm not so lame," said Cobb proudly. "More news. The Metamartians are leaving here tonight because, um, the seven of them are pla

"They're leaving Earth?" asked Yoke. "We're off the hook?"

"Not quite," said Cobb. "They're not ready to leave Earth entirely. Like I say, they have to finish mating and, um, gestating and all that. And they want to kind of keep an eye on things too. To make sure we aren't ruining everything with the allas. Did I say that they're pla

"A saucer?" said Phil. "Have they been talking to Kevvie?"

"You hit the nail on the head," said Cobb.

"You're kidding!" said Phil.

"He's not," said Yoke. "Kevvie's been working here on the Anubis with the aliens since you left. She and Haresh are -- "

"We have been coworkers," said Haresh, suddenly reappearing from the far side of the hold with Kevvie at his side. "Kevvie has been giving me insights into your race's mental archetypes and into the rawer forms of human emotion. Om suggested that we give her an alla to test in practice what such a person might do. I must apologize in advance for what is about to occur. This is a necessary test." Kevvie was striding along with her head held very high and her lips moving. She was talking to herself and making little gestures with her hands. Phil had seen this mental state before; when Kevvie got really lifted, she turned grandiose as a spoiled child playing Queen--and mean as a killer robot.

"Kevvie's a crazy, skanky slut," snapped Yoke. "Can't you see that, Haresh, you xoxxin' birdbrain?" Yoke said this quite loud. Kevvie heard her.

"The man-hungry little moon-maid has a nasty mouth," said Kevvie regally. Her eyes were unforgiving. "I don't tolerate it. Begone!" She raised her hand as if she held a scepter. And now Phil glimpsed the purple tube of an alla in her hand.

It was over as soon as it started. Phil was turning to get in front of Yoke, Randy was leaning toward Kevvie, Yoke's mouth was opening to say something--but Kevvie's wish was fast as thought. In the same instant when Phil saw Kevvie's alla, a bright-line control mesh had already sprung into tight relief around Yoke's body and --poof--Yoke was gone, transmuted into a puff of air. Yoke's gold alla clattered to the stage and rolled to one side; it was the only sign of her that remained. Numbly, Phil picked it up. He couldn't wrap his mind around what had just happened. It was impossible. He'd just given Yoke Da's ring. They were going to be married. Everything was -- Phil pawed softly at the air that had been Yoke. Could she really be gone?

"See, Phil!" shouted Kevvie. "See!" Randy was trying to wrestle her to the ground.

"Kill her!" screamed Darla, and she, Tempest, and old Cobb moved forward to exact blood-vengeance. But Haresh didn't want any further violence. The alien sent Randy tumbling across the stage. And then Haresh picked up Kevvie and ran across the great hall, disappearing again through the far door.

"What's the use?" muttered Phil, as Darla tried to muster their forces for further pursuit. "Yoke's gone."

"Siss warned me something bad would happen," said Cobb, his body sagging. "But she said, um, Randy would know how to fix it."

"Where's Yoke's alla!" Randy was yelling, frantically crawling around on the stage. "Did anyone get it?"

"I got it," said Phil listlessly. "It's in my pocket."

"Well don't despair, old son." Randy's voice cracked with an odd jubilance. He looked around and lowered his voice. "Her alla remembers her. Body and mind both. Let's go back to Babs's where it's safe. We'll see if we can't whomp up a new realware Yoke."

"I --I want my Yoke," said Phil wretchedly. "I gave her Da's ring."

"Go

"But we're not just information," murmured Phil brokenly, as Randy led him toward the door to the bar. "There's souls. I saw them in hyperspace. I had so much to tell everyone. Ow!" Ramses Snooks had just slammed into him.

"Where are those new moldies!" Ramses was shouting. He

O

had a phalanx of twenty Snooks moldies behind him. "That old woman said they're aliens! We have to exterminate them!" He and Isis were carrying serious-looking flamethrowers, and most of the other Snookses were packing O. J. ugly-stick rail-guns, each of them capable of shooting a thousand flechettes per minute. They surged into the ballroom, with Tempest following along, looking bloodthirsty and vindictive.

"They've gone up the back stairs to the deck!" called Kevvie, suddenly appearing from the far door again. "Someone stop them! They mustn't leave without me! I'm --I'm their Queen!"

"Keep goin', gaaahs," Randy murmured to Babs, Cobb, Phil, and Darla. They were already out in the bar. "Don't go after Kevvie. Might just get another of us killed. Only thing we gotta do now is get back to Babs's and fix Yoke before something happens to her alla. Up the stairs and out!"

So Phil stumbled up the stairs with the others. They got up top before the Snookses did, and sure enough, the seven Metamartians were on the deck, standing in a circle holding hands -- or legs in the case of tiny Josef, who hung suspended between devilish Peg and sinister Siss.