Chapter Thirteen
Try to control everything and you’re soon juggling too many forces that have their own momentum. It’s like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice problem. When things break down into chaos, you don’t have the right spell to keep control.
—Wisdom of the Raj Dood
Osceola looked out the inceram window at the Venusian landscape on the rim of Gorontium City—ruddy flames, rivers of molten sulfur, cascades of fiery magma sparkling like a July Fourth display, orange light dancing on the poisonous clouds.
Her watch said it was early morning here but you could seldom tell by the variations in light.
She could hear Dudley in the lock of the entrance anteroom getting out of his inceram armor. Clumsy. He sounded like a bull alligator rubbing against a log.
Their penthouse with its quintuple shielding afforded the best available protection against the planet’s searing heat—450 to 600 degrees Centigrade—but she always felt uneasy here and seldom ventured out. Best to come and go by Spiral.
The rooms were comfortable, though, even if they were Spartan and all the furnishings were made out of dull inceram.
Dudley came up beside her and sealed off the view.
“Don’t torture yourself, Osey,” he said. “You don’t have to look at it. You should’ve stayed in Florida this time.”
“Don’t like the secretive way you’re doin’ things. Sometimes, I think you need a guardian. What was so danged important you had to risk going out there in armor?”
“Lutt needs a good woman to bring him into line.”
“Your nephew’s on Earth, not Venus!”
“But there must be ten or twelve women here who fit the requirements for what he needs.”
“According to you! And how you gonna get him here to meet these answers to a young man’s wet dreams?”
“I think it’ll just happen naturally.”
“Natural, my foot! You’re interfering again!”
“A littlest. I kinda whispered to him across dimensions that Venus was the ideal place for his vorcamera demonstration … and for other things.”
“Oh you did, did you? Well why don’t you get him a pass to the Legion cat house? That’s what your Lutt would like.”
“No women for him there. He needs a wife who sets a good example.”
“Wife? He’s not the marryin’ kind, no more’n you are.”
“We might’s well be married. Must be thirty years now.”
“Seems like thirty centuries. Men! You think all it takes is the right woman and everything turns up smellin’ like magnolias.”
“It’s worth a try, Osey. He’s not the same Lutt, what with that Dreen kid sharing his body.”
“I wish you’d drop this whole mess! You haven’t done anything right with the Hansons since you tied up L.H.’s automated limo factory so’s it can only make those rickshaws.”
“That was pretty good, wasn’t it? If he messes up the limo program, all of Hanson Industries shuts down and he knows it. Got his hands tied.”
“You were really getting back at your sister, weren’t you? For marryin’ him?”
“That’s not true, Osey!”
“Then why’d you fix it so’s she has to say ‘Hung Far Low’ before the dang things’ll move?”
“Some of her posh friends think it’s amusing.”
“So does L.H. But you’re not answering my question.”
“It’s good therapy for my sister. Reminds her where she comes from.”
“Therapy, my ass! That prudish little belle still isn’t sure where her sons come from.”
“Osey, you stop that! I know you don’t like my sister and her family but you go too far sometimes.”
“Okay. So now you’re pandering for your nephew. What’s next?”
“I’m not really trying to control things, Osey. Just influencing them a little.”
“Lutt comes up here, he could get hisself killed.”
“I know that, but Venus puts a charge in you. He’s never been on the real edge of death. It’ll be good for him.”
“Yeah, I know—therapy. Sometimes I think you fancy yourself as shrink for the whole human race.”
“Just for those who need me, Osey.”
“Like me, I suppose?”
“It was not I who brought questions to the wise man.”
“That does it! We’re going home.”
“But this is also our home.” He gestured at the dull gray room.
“This ain’t home! This is a game you play. We’re leavin’! Every time you come here you turn into a swell-headed wise guy. ‘It is not I who questions the wise man’!”
“I’m sorry, Osey, but I have to stay for a while.”
“Well I’m goin’ back! This place gives me the creeps. And it’s even worse when I see what it does to you.”
“I tried to get you to stay in Florida.”
“I’m goin’ home but I’ll still be watchin’ you, you dang old fool! Dammit, you try my patience sometimes!”
“I’m glad you’ll be keeping an eye on me, Osey. I’ll sing out if I need help.”
“And maybe I’ll answer and maybe I won’t!”
She went to an oblong panel inset into the wall beside the entrance lock. There she placed a palm against a dark spot and her body melted into the panel, vanishing in a twisted whirl of bright light.
“Maybe it’s time I retired,” Dudley muttered.