Robot Adept

Next day he overlapped Mach and relayed the information about the arrangements for the game. The Game Computer had worked out the basics and compressed them into a few code words for Mach to tell Trool. They would overlap again in a few days for verification.

Then: I wish we were locked not in this struggle between ourselves. Bane thought.

The issue must be settled, one way or the other, Mach responded. It would have arisen elsewhere, if not with us.

And that was probably true. Dost know that the source of our exchange be the lingering connection between Stile and Blue?

Mach was surprised. It’s not because we are alternate selves?

Nay. Other alternates can do it not, only us—because we relate to our sires.

And our loves relate to us, Mach concluded.

Aye.

That was all. They separated.

Bane reported for the first game of Round Two. “Plug in,” the Oracle directed.

Bane plugged the cable into his ear.

Suddenly he was standing in Phaze. Mach was standing beside him, and there was a little collection of chairs in which Fleta, Agape, Trool, the Translucent Adept and the Brown Adept sat. Before them was a shimmering curtain concealing the setting of the game, reminiscent of the historical curtain between the frames.

Trool rose and walked to them. “Thou knowest the nature o’ this contest?” he asked Bane.

“Aye, Adept,” Bane said. “But not the nature o’ this dream!”

“It be no dream, Bane,” the troll assured him. “Only thy presence here be a vision and that o’ thine alien friend; all else be real. Do thou play the game to win.”

“Aye, Adept.” The Oracle had told him it would seem realistic, and it was! It seemed that his body was overlapping Mach’s, but his awareness was being projected to the representation of his body here. Thus he saw everything that Mach saw, here in Phaze—without actually being here. He was actually in the Game Computer’s mock-up of the scene, and the mock-up was based on the actual scene of Phaze. Technology was emulating magic.

“Thou knowest the nature o’ this contest?” Trool asked Mach.

“Yes, Adept.” Mach was in Bane’s body, so looked like Bane. Bane glanced down at himself: it was the robot body.

“The machine in Proton-frame has made Bane the Predator, this time,” Trool continued. “Mach be the Prey. An the Prey lap the course three times, he be victor; an the Predator catch him first, the Predator be the victor. The Prey be given a five-second start. Ready, players?”

“Aye.”

“Yes.”

“Then begin.”

Mach stepped forward, into the setting. He disappeared.

Bane glanced at Agape. It was incongruous to see her here in Phaze in her own form, but of course with magic any vision could be Grafted. He waved to her, and she waved back. He wondered whether Agape and Beta were talking together, and if so, what they were saying.

“Go, Bane,” Translucent snapped.

Bane stepped through the curtain.

He found himself on four feet, in a solid, striped body. He was a tiger! His passage through the curtain had triggered the first of the transformations, rendering him into the predator animal.

The setting was an irregular landscape with projecting rocks and descending gullies. There were a number of trees; in fact, parts were as solid as a jungle. This would be a good region to hide and pounce—but he knew he could not afford that. He had to run down the prey, lest it lap the course before he catch it.

He sniffed the air. He smelled mongoose. That would be the Prey form, for the moment. As a tiger, he could readily kill it; the problem was running it down. On an open plain, in real life, that would be simple, but this terrain offered many hiding and dodging places; it would be hard to catch it here.

In fact, that five-second head start made the task of location a problem, let alone the task of catching. The mongoose could be through this region and into the next medium, while the tiger was still trying to sniff out the trail.

So he played it smart. He bounded directly across, going for the lake he saw in the distance ahead. If he could get there first, and cut off the mongoose—

But as he ran, bounding along the highest ground, he peered into the low regions, noting which ones offered the best protection and clearest access for a mongoose. This was a vital part of the game; what he overlooked could cost him the victory.

He had almost reached the water when he heard a splash. The mongoose had raced right through to the next medium!