Quest for the Well of Souls - Jack L. Chalker [122]
A tremor shook the control room hard enough to topple equipment. The lights flickered on, off, on . . . then off. The door popped open, as it was designed to do in any power failure, and the dim auxiliary lighting cast a feeble glow here and there throughout the Underside.
Yulin's night vision allowed him to see the control panel, now dark. He flipped the transmitter switch so hard that it broke.
"Obie! Obie!" he screamed. "Answer me! Damn it, answer me!"
But there was no reply. From the distance he heard what seemed to be secondary explosions. Frantically, he looked around, his dreams collapsing about him in the dark.
The two girls on the bridge suddenly stopped running and looked around, puzzled, blank expressions on their faces.
The moment power was lost it was as if a veil had lifted from the women below. They'd barely had time to scream in terror when suddenly they were changed, became disoriented. But not for long.
"Vistaru!" Wooley screamed. "Get a pistol! We've got the bastard now!"
"Behind you!" came another woman's voice, and two figures headed for the stairs, joined by two others.
Vistaru looked back nervously. "Who the hell are you?" she challenged.
"Nikki Zinder!" the other yelled. "Stand clear! Ben Yulin's mine!" she snarled so viciously that the other two let her pass.
Yulin heard them coming, and instantly realized what had happened.
Physical changes were accomplished by biological redesign; they were permanent unless changed by Obie, the Well, or a similar agency. But mental—attitudinal—controls and changes were impositions by the computer, held in place by the computer's continued operation.
Yulin no longer had slaves, he had old enemies.
He threw his chair down the stairs with great force, and the women jumped out of the way to avoid it. Yulin took advantage of their momentary confusion to run out the door.
The two women on the bridge had not previously had strong personalities, having been but animalistic savages, yet they retained the language and skills Obie had programmed into them in the same way that Mavra had retained the plans for New Pompeii. But for a few fleeting memories, the two felt as if they had just been born. They were totally confused.
Realizing their probable state, Yulin raced in their direction. One seemed to be puzzled by her energy pistol and he lunged toward her. Almost upon them, Yulin encountered the Agitar form of Renard running toward him. Yulin was going to be beaten to the girl and the gun.
He stopped, frantic now, and looked back. Four of his former love-slaves were heading toward him, all armed, all grimly determined. From the opposite direction, Renard rushed past the women, pistol drawn.
Yulin opted for Renard. With a snarl he turned and ran into him; both went sprawling.
Yulin rolled, jumped to his feet, and grabbed Renard's pistol. Smiling now, he passed the two women, grabbing another pistol, and backed along the side of the bridge.
The lights in the main shaft were flickering, and there were more rumblings and bangings from below.
"Standoff!" Yulin yelled at them over the din. "Let's everybody stay calm!"
"Give it up, Yulin!" Nikki Zinder screamed, almost drowned out by the din from the shaft. The scene was eerily unreal in the dim and flickering light.
Yulin laughed. "Just stay away." He continued to back along the shaft, and they continued to match him, coming warily forward.
Renard ran into the control room.
"We've got to get him," Wooley called from in back. "If he gets to the ship we're trapped—and he can build another Obie."
But they were bunched a little too close. A single shot from him could take them, but not, perhaps, before one of them also fried him.
As Yulin said, it was a draw, and he was backing along the side of the bridge.
He risked a quick glance back. Almost across now. Once in the corridor, he could outrun them to the car. Just a little farther . . .
Suddenly an orange tentacle