Habu. James B. Johnson

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СКАЧАТЬ long. Since the beginning of the Change before this one.”

      She whistled. “A dwindling few, no?”

      “Yes.” It was like an exclusive club, being an Original Earther. Of course, by definition, that club would be spread out over the entire Federation, and heading farther as the frontier expanded on all sides. “Where were you from?”

      “Part of the North American Federation,” she said. “Canada.”

      “I know it.” Though he’d been born well before they ever had a North American Federation. “I’m from Vir­ginia.” He still remembered foggy mornings and vari­colored leaves and mountains and crisp, clean air.

      Reubin felt rejuvenated. Thus it wasn’t difficult to force an unhappy and disapproving Habu farther back. He had more success controlling Habu than he could wish for; that success made him feel closer to Alex.

      But, like him, she had a reserved attitude. They be­came closer, but did not discuss the past.

      Maybe Reubin wanted her companionship too much. Maybe it was his overactive imagination. Maybe it was his chilling thought as they left the lounge. He realized that Alex bore a certain resemblance to his massacred wife. She’d been from Olde Earthe and had died on Tsuruga. Her high forehead, a turn of her shoulder, her quick smile.

      The realization was so intense, the image so vivid, that it triggered Habu.

      Habu shot to the surface poised, ready to kill.

      It stopped Reubin physically as he stepped into the cor­ridor.

      Alex continued on for a few meters until she realized he wasn’t with her. She turned. She saw his face. “Reu­bin? What’s wrong?” She came back to him.

      Habu was clouding his consciousness.

      -Goddamn it, leave me alone! Reubin breathed deeply.

      Habu peered about, questing for control, looking for the enemy, an enemy, any enemy. Reubin felt adrena­line gallop through his body. He would pay later for any movement now. His body could move superfast, faster even than the human body was designed to go. Such speed and extra strength was difficult to handle unless Habu was in total control. His human persona could handle it, but cautiously, by moving in an exag­gerated slow motion. He froze himself as Alex stopped next to him.

      *Where is the enemy?*

      -There is none. Go back. Do not interfere.

      *No.*

      -We are on a starship. In transpace. You know that. Take no action, for you will kill us all. Reubin fought for control. He ran a biofeedback operation to cleanse him­self of the adrenaline. The concentration helped him to shut Habu out. He was winning the battle. Habu re­treated, still emanating disapproval of the woman.

      “Reubin? Tell me. What’s wrong? Are you all right?” Alex was looking with concern into his eyes.

      She touched his arm and he had to restrain himself from jerking away and hurting them both. A few more moments, just a few more.

      She watched the struggle going on within him and gri­maced in sympathy. “It passes.” Her voice was reassur­ing.

      She’d mistaken his symptoms. She thought he was going through the mind-bending mental torture which occurs when you haven’t had a Change in too long. When you were overdue for the Change, the pressure built and built and ripped your brain apart with excruciating pain. It was why people suicided.

      “Sss—okay,” he managed to get out.

      “I’ll comm a medic for a painkiller,” she said and moved to a wall comm unit.

      “No, pleasse. I’ll be all right in a minute.” He moved slowly to dissipate some of the accumulated energy.

      Ironically, he realized that pressure, in fact, was build­ing within his mind, reinforcing the point that he was overdue for the Change. But it wasn’t bad. Yet.

      When he recovered, he went to the recreation deck and ran for two hours on the treadmill. He set the machine on the maximum resistance and at a forty-five degree angle. It was the equivalent of running uphill with twice your own body weight.

      As he ran, Alex sat and watched him.

      Occasionally, people would come over and observe, marveling at the almost impossible physical feat. Reubin ignored them. The more he ran, the more energy he burned. Sweat rained from his body and with each drop he was more and more free of Habu. He was purging himself of adrenaline inspired energy and at the same time of Habu.

      Alex got tired of watching him and worked out on weight training machines while he finished up.

      “I need a beer,” he said when he was done.

      “You need to replace fluids,” she told him.

      “Make it protein beer, hold the alcohol, then.” While emotionally and physically drained, he felt like his old self.

      “I’ve read of therapeutic effects of inordinate physical exertion,” Alex said, “but that’s more than I can handle. Did it really work to relieve the pressure?”

      “Yess,” he said.

      The romance progressed.

      Being Original Earthers brought Reubin and Alex closer together. Reubin overheard the purser calling them “very conspirational.”

      Reubin decided that Alex Sovereign was hiding some­thing. Or didn’t want to address something. No matter how much she discussed the past, it was her current life to which she referred. Nothing about her previous lives, if any, prior to her last Change and other Changes before that. It was common courtesy and protocol not to inquire too deeply into previous lives.

      Also, there were little things. Alex was highly intelli­gent. Reubin detected a hint of dissatisfaction with her work; he thought that some problems had occurred lately in her job. But he didn’t ascribe too much importance to these thoughts because she was a government minister, and in any government—especially in a high position—there is bureaucratic infighting, political pressure, cliques, cronyism. Reubin always thought that governments should be run as businesses under the free enter­prise system.

      On the other hand, he liked and respected her. Her values were similar to his, her judgment faultless. Reubin respected her privacy. After all, he was hiding some­thing and did not wish her to pry into his past—and she hadn’t.

      All of which made Reubin sad—for once—that he was changing lives again. Another giant step from his past. While there were ways you could trick the Long Life Institute, when they gave you the Change, they ar­ranged your passage to new or even soon-to-be pio­neered planets. This was their basic charter, and one of the reasons governments seldom tried to interfere in LLI business.

      But no matter what he did or where he went, he could never, ever lose Habu.

      Reubin had no answers. He had arranged passage to the sector capital, Webster’s, where the liner was head­ing. He had business (mostly financial arrangements) to take care of before he took the Change. Alex would transship back to Snister.

      The СКАЧАТЬ