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use to inform the Federation
Station of Soad s presence on Mannafra, and of the plight of the survivors at
the Ralke Mine. She d need luck there, particularly since she could afford to
give only partial attention to it; and as the minutes passed, it seemed luck
wasn t going to be with her. In the viewscreen, the dune shadows lengthened
while the sun dropped toward the horizon. Then the sun was gone and the desert
lay in shadow everywhere. Above it, the starblaze was brightening.
And, finally, there was a development.
Telzey wasn t immediately sure what it was. There was psi charge building up,
and building up here, at the mine.
She waited. Something took shape, was formed swiftly. And now she knew. Soad,
having studied her, was constructing a slave mechanism specifically designed
for her, an involved and heavily charged one. She didn t think it could affect
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her seriously through her shield, but she didn t care to take chances with the
alien device. Her psi knives slashed through it, shredded and tore it apart,
then took care of two designs she found beginning to attach themselves to
Gulhas and Alicar.
Now she and Soad again had learned something about the other s capabilities;
but Soad had learned more than she. That couldn t have been avoided; and since
she was no longer giving anything away, she destroyed the other control
mechanisms still functioning at the mine in quick sequence in the same manner.
Frustrated anger washed about her as she did it so he had intended to use
those constructions in some way when he came.
Minutes later, she realized suddenly that he already was on the move.
Gulhas, she said, any change?
He shook his head without looking around.
None whatever!
Telzey reached through the defensive screen she d closed about his mind, and
took full control of him.
She was sitting in the Romango s operator chair soon afterwards, while Gulhas
lay stretched out on the floor beside Alicar s carrier. Both men were in an
unconscious paralysis from which nothing, specifically new mechanisms employed
by Soad, was likely to arouse them during the next few hours. So was everybody
else at the mine. At least, Soad wouldn t be able to turn enslaved minds
against her again in some still unpredictable way.
The Romango type of computer was unfamiliar, but that didn t make much
difference now. If the machine resolved the blocks they d set it to work
against, a panel on the console before Telzey would turn green, informing her
that the communication systems had been released. She d be able to take the
Romango under voice control then, assuming it was still functional. Her eyes
moved between the panel and the screen which showed the surrounding desert,
scanners defining every detail of the landscape as clearly as in bright
daylight. Somewhere on the dunes, Soad would presently appear.
She knew the moment wasn t far away; and if the computer remained out of
commission, the Ralke Mine s mechanical barriers would be no obstacle to Soad.
His strange body could form its substance into heavy battering rams; he d
break through, flow inside, and when he came to her at last, she d be
destroyed. If that wasn t to happen, she must prevent it herself. Her psi
weapons were ready, but she wouldn t begin to use them until she caught sight
of the swiftly moving great shape in the screens. There was a personal limit
to the sheer quantity of destructive energy she could channel into a single
bolt, a personal limit also to the number of such bolts she could handle
within a given time period. Having tested herself to the danger point, she
knew rather closely what the limits were. At peak effort, she might last a
little more than four minutes. If Soad could absorb such an assault and keep
coming, she couldn t stop him. Nor would she know she d failed. She d be
unconscious, probably close to death.
So she waited. Then it was Soad who struck first.
Telzey didn t realize at once that it was an attack. There d been a gradual
increase in the vividness of the random
psi impressions Soad was pouring out as if he were trying to shroud himself
more completely during his approach.
The impressions were distracting enough; she had to give conscious effort now
to maintain awareness of him. Then something like lines of fire flickered
behind her eyes, blurring her physical vision, and a psi storm burst about her
like shrieking sound, an impossibly swift swirling of hallucinations at every
sensory level.
She knew then what was happening. Soad wasn t able to reach her mind directly
through its shield. But he could let her face chaos. None of it was real, but
she couldn t ignore what seemed to hammer at all her senses simultaneously.
Her attention was torn this way and that.
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It was sweeping to her through her psi contact with Soad. She could stop it in
an instant by breaking the contact.
And that, of course, was what Soad intended. If he put her out of effective
action during the critical period, the mine would have no defense against him.
Telzey thought that if she waited any longer, he d succeed. She either would
lose contact with him and find herself unable to regain it in the short time
left, or get bludgeoned into temporary insanity.
She lashed out with the heaviest bolt she could muster, sensed shock pass
through Soad. The storm of illusion faltered. She struck again at once, and
illusion was gone, replaced by reactions of agonized violence.
Soad had expected nothing like this. His kind never had encountered such a
weapon. Telzey, committed now, slamming in bolt after bolt, searching for
vital centers in the alien mind, felt him slow to a wavering halt, knew then
that he d already almost reached the perimeter of the mine s defense zone.
Stop him there paralyze him . . .
His desperation and fury howled at her. Troublesome as she d been, Soad had
looked on the human psi as an essentially insignificant opponent. Belatedly
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