Asodo Hatch woke in the cure-all clinic to find his sister
Penelope - no, she was Joma, he would make no concessions, Joma
she had been born and Joma she must stay - bending down over him.
        "Joma," said Hatch.
        "Penelope," said she.
        "Penelope, then," said Hatch, too weak to argue the point.
        "Penelope and Lupus," said Lupus Lon Oliver, who was sitting
on the end of Hatch's bed. "The love of Penelope in balance with
the wrath of Lupus."
        Lupus did not look particularly wrathful at that precise
moment, but Hatch could well imagine that in this case appearances
might be deceptive. Hatch was not sure of the exact nature of his
own circumstances, so sent out a tentative probe.
        "What is the measure of this love?" said Hatch. "Penelope's
love, of which you have spoken?"
        "She carried you here," said Lupus. "When you lay in the
rubble of your bowels, Penelope scooped you up and labored you
all the way to this clinic here."
        "How came she to know of my wounding?" said Hatch.
        "Your wounding!" said Lupus. "It was suicide!"
        Hatch let that pass, then said:
        "But she came."
        "Senk called us," said Lupus. "He lacks facilities for the
cartage of bodies, hence needed our arms and our legs for the
purpose."
        "Where were you two hiding?"
        "Hiding?" said Lupus. "We weren't hiding at all."
        "We were on our honeymoon," said Penelope.
        "Your honeymoon!?" said Hatch.
        "Earlier," said Lupus, "Paraban Senk was kind enough to
officiate at our marriage. Then we entered the combat bays. Where
else would we go for a honeymoon? To Dalar ken Halvar, perhaps? To
indulge in the delights of the Day of the Dogs, perhaps? No,
Hatch. We went to the Nexus."
        This struck Hatch as being exceedingly bizarre: that two
people should choose the illusion tanks as the venue for their
honeymoon. Still, it was in keeping with Lupus Lon Oliver's
aspirations, for Lupus truly wanted to be a citizen of the Nexus.
        "Where did you go?" said Hatch.
        "To jungles of ice and beaches of marzipan," said Penelope
dreamily. "To seas of fire and skies of liquid treacle."
        "Meantime," said Lupus, "you were busily engaged in killing
my father."
        Hatch lay in his combat clinic bed, trying to gauge his own
strength. He found himself decidedly weak. He was in no position
to duke or duel with Lupus. Hence decided that silence was the
best policy.
        "Never mind," said Lupus. "My father stood between me and my
marriage, so ... Hatch, let us not let my father's death stand
between you and me."
        This was said with a degree of studied formality, and with a
certain stiffness. Hatch remembered back to an illusion tank
exercise in which he had suggested to Lupus that the pair of them
conspire to kill Gan Oliver. Given the ferocity with which Lupus
had reacted on that occasion, Hatch found it hard to credit the
young man's present forgiveness.
        Hatch rather suspected that Paraban Senk, the venerable
Teacher of Control, had put considerable pressure on Lupus, in
order to coerce Lupus into making a peace with Hatch.
        Still:
        "I am ashamed of myself," said Hatch, making the confession
though every word of it cost him dearly. "I acted in fear and in
haste, and I regret it. I should have given Gan Oliver the chance
to make his peace with me."
        "That's as may be," said Lupus, still speaking with a
pronounced stiffness. "Still, that was a different world, and we
must make our lives in this one."
        Then Lupus formally congratulated Hatch on making himself
emperor of Dalar ken Halvar; and of killing the lockway's dorgi;
and of outfacing Paraban Senk.
        "That reminds me," said Hatch, accepting these
congratulations, and not finding it necessary to disclaim
responsibility for the dorgi's death. "In the corpse of the dorgi
I discovered a trinket."
        "This trinket," said Penelope, displaying that mazadath,
which she had slung round her neck on a chain of a metal which
matched the mazadath's silver.
        "Precisely," said Hatch. "That trinket."
        "This," said Penelope, "is a wedding present."
        "Who gave it to you?" said Hatch.
        "You did," said Penelope.
        And Hatch did not feel that he was in a position to argue. In
any case, Lupus denied him all opportunity for argument, for Lupus
said (still with a measured stiffness which spoke of unresolved
homicidal impulses):
        "This must conclude our interview, for now we must withdraw,
for Paraban Senk wishes to speak with you privily."
        Then the young redskinned Ebrell Islander Lupus Lon Oliver
withdrew with his purple-skinned bride, the voluptuous Penelope,
and Hatch was left alone in the Combat College's sickbay.
        "Hatch," said Senk, his olive-skinned features coming to life
on a display screen in the cure-all clinic. "Are you ready to
negotiate?"
        "I am in no position to negotiate," said Hatch. "For I am
flat on my back and weak from my wounding. You have the strength
of two people at your disposal, young Lupus and his bride, and I
think the pair of them will do what you want. Furthermore, you
still have three hostages. I am at your disposal. Accept my
surrender."
        Hatch surrendered thus because he did not want a repeat of
the horrific moments in which Onica, Talanta and the Lady Iro
Murasaki had been exposed to some fraction of the hidden hell
which lay within the illusion tank scenarios.
        "If I could accept your surrender then I would," said Senk.
"But I cannot."
        Hatch thought about this.
        Then said:
        "Then kill me. You have the means."
        Senk certainly had the means, at least in the cure-all
clinic, for the clinic's built-in surgical equipment could easily
be adapted to the lethal dissection of the living.
        "You misunderstand me," said Senk. "I cannot accept your
surrender, because I have been forced to surrender to you."
        "How so?" said Hatch.
        Then Senk explained
        After Asodo Hatch had failed to reemerge from the Combat
College, that college had been placed under an interdict by a Nu-
chala-nuth priesthood led by Hatch's brother Oboro Bakendra and by
the noseless ex-moneylender Polk the Cash. Under the terms of that
interdict, no person would be allowed into the Combat College
until Asodo Hatch had been yielded up by that College, alive and
well.
        "They say," said Senk, "that if you cannot be yielded up,
then I will be deprived of new students forever. I will be
similarly deprived unless I co-operate in teaching the doctrines
of Nu-chala-nuth and the language of Motsu Kazuka."
        "So," said Hatch, "it is your destiny to become a theological
college."
        "My overriding priority is to train Startroopers for the
Stormforce of the Nexus," said Senk. "I must do whatever is
necessary to fulfill that objective. So, if I must teach theology
as well - why, it is considered fit and proper that Startroopers
should know of the Nu-chala-nuth and their language."
        "I will need more from you than that," said Hatch.
        "More?" said Senk. "Isn't this enough?"
        "Not much more," said Hatch. "But a little more. The cure of
my wife, if cure be possible. I trust you have the woman still."
        "She is safe in the worlds of the Nexus," said Paraban Senk.
"Her flesh is still seated in a combat bay, but her mind is at
ease in a deer-park forest. Penelope has spoken with her."
        "She has?"
        "Of course," said Senk. "Penelope has been working very hard
on your behalf, Hatch. She has made Lupus Lon Oliver concede his
will to our truce. I will treat with your wife in this clinic,
Hatch, and I will cure her if her cure lies in my compass."
        "Do you think it does?" said Hatch.
        "I will discover the truth under surgery," said Senk.
        "There will be others who will have need of surgery," said
Hatch.
        "Hatch," said Senk, "I am but one, and Dalar ken Halvar alone
could flood this clinic with more surgical cases than could be
treated inside the surgery."
        "Selected cases," said Hatch. "That's all I'll need you to
treat. I'm no wizard, yet must secure an empire. Polk the Cash has
need of a nose, and Nambasa Berlin likewise. And there will be
others."
        "Tell me of these others," said Senk.
        And thus the pair of them opened their negotiations in
earnest.