Chaining the Lady by Piers Anthony Page A

of fifty-two times normal intensity.”
    â€œSo you need an aura of two hundred and eight,” Melody finished. “Not many exist.”
    â€œThis is true. The highest available in Segment Etamin is one hundred fifty nine, female—and she is of the wrong type. In fact there are no female auras above one hundred and eighty in the galaxy—except for yours. You are thus indispensable. By the time the hostage's aura fades to under forty, enabling another agent to make the attempt (ignoring for the moment the complication of aura-typing, which may after all be irrelevant), one hundred and twenty days will have passed. We shall have lost a crucial advantage, perhaps even the war itself. The potential information this hostage possesses is incalculable, and the element of surprise is also vital. Because she happens to be in a situation in which the Andromedans are unlikely to suspect any attempt at counterhostaging, we may be able to conquer her without their knowledge.”
    â€œSo you will retransfer me into that body, whereupon I will be able to tap the secrets of Andromeda,” Melody said. “This is the mission for which you originally summoned me, isn't it?”
    â€œTrue.”
    â€œBut you cannot require any more of me than this one service. Within one day I'll be home, and imperial Outworld won't bother me again, though the galaxy perish.”
    â€œTrue. The welfare of the individual preempts that of society in our sphere, and the terms of the debt exchange must be honored.”
    â€œFair deal. Show me your hostage.”
    â€œIt is a Solarian officer aboard a Sphere Sol ship in space—the flagship of the Segment Etamin fleet. It will be necessary to mattermit you to a shuttlecraft, that is now completing its voyage to that fleet. After the mission, we will transfer you directly back to your Mintakan body.”
    â€Very pretty,” Melody remarked. “Were I a Polarian host, I could think of another manner to abate dept.”
    Fltosm glowed. She had paid the Polarian the courtly compliment of suggesting it was a suitable partner for mating. Polarians, like Mintakans and in contrast to Solarians, arranged for mating on intellectual grounds. It was a system that made sense to the mature mind.
    â€œI am jealous,” the Colonel said, smiling. And this was a lesser compliment, for he had seen up her host-legs and was reacting on the Solarian manner. But it reminded her: In this host, sex was not merely a mode of reproduction, but a tool of social influence. She must keep that in mind, in case she had need of it.

Chapter 4:
    King of Aura

    *you missed a council meeting, ::*
    ::necessary omission swallowed a hard rock progress?::
    *located focus of resistance in segment etamin it is the society of hosts*
    ::that will require a special effort::
    *I am sure dash will make it*
    ::with what result remains to be noted::

    * * *

    The fleet was impressive. It was rather like a great city in deep space, or a miniature galaxy. A concentration of planetoids, a diffuse globe—no, a cluster , she decided, with the concentration in the center and thinning hands extending out. Beautiful.
    It was of course an anachronism, since such ships were limited to sublight speeds, so could not ever traverse a single sphere, let along a segment, in a normal sapient lifetime. But the rationale was that it might one day be possible to transfer spaceships. At such time as that particular technological breakthrough occurred, the military reasoning went, the Age of Empire would come. So these ships were built and maintained and operated at phenomenal expense—in a parking orbit around Star Etamin. The other segments all had similar fleets. Similar follies, Melody thought. But the fleet was spectacular, at least in the shuttle's viewscreen.
    The shuttle shot toward the center, decelerating with a vigor that caused respiratory discomfort to the host-body. Melody had been phased in to the