Free 07. Ghost of the Well of Souls by Jack L. Chalker Page B

deployed on this world," Nakitt stubbornly pointed out.
    "Indeed he did, because he only had one Gate. It stabilized his race, but since he came in through the default entry area, he was added to the population, as it were, as the Well required. Suppose, though, he had the other Straight Gate here assembled, powered up, whatever? If just using one of them can force the system to maintain your racial makeup, then what might two do? Consider the name. Straight Gate. Straight through from any point where you have one end, to any point on this world where you have the other. Your own personal Zone Gate, only you can also use it to go back and forth to your colony home out there among the stars." Even Core was thunderstruck by the concept.
    "We said from the start that Josich seemed to know a powerful lot more than he should have about the Well World, the Chalidang, and such," O'Leary noted. "You don't suppose he was originally from here, do you?"
    "Highly unlikely," Core said, thinking things through rapidly. "They're long-lived, but the royal family of the Hadun is more wedded to genealogy than the Chalidangers, and Josich was undisputed Emperor. No, he was born and raised in our native neck of the woods. But think of what we've said here—that this has been the object of many wars over time here and was almost a mystical legend. No, not Josich, but an ancestor. An ancestor who took the other one through but lost control of it, probably rather early, and was stuck. If he still did well on Ghoma, and if he passed down this knowledge, then the rulers of the Hadun may have been looking for this thing on their end for generations. Finally, somehow, somewhere, Jules Wallinchky found it for them, and it meant nothing to him. Perhaps he simply acquired it in one or another of his illegitimate or even legitimate businesses. He certainly exacted a tremendous price for it."
    "Perhaps too high a price," Tann Nakitt noted. "Is there any word on him? I thought that if he'd lived we'd at least have heard that he's alive."
    "Nothing, but that means little. Do not underestimate him. If he wanted to remain hidden, I believe he could do it, no matter what the complexity. And if he is alive out there, he's definitely going to be madder than hell. At Josich, at us, at the whole universe, even as he would revel in starting off young and in perfect health again. With Kincaid also out there, we'd have three insane megalomaniacs running around loose, untroubled by morals, ethics, those sorts of things. No, for all our sakes, I certainly hope he did not survive, but I have always gone under the assumption that he's out there somewhere. If he is, I do not want to meet him or speak to him."
    "Huh? Why not?"
    "Because I was created as his slave. I did much that was evil in his name and by his orders because I could not disobey him. I have no idea if the programming string was snapped when I came here or not. Certainly he probably was and perhaps is unaware that I am what I am. But if he should find out, I have no way of testing whether I would be forced to be his unwilling slave once again."
    "We have word out all over," the Ochoan ambassador assured Core. "If he's out there, we'll find him. All newcomers, no matter how capable, stick out for a little while, unless they become a creature immobile and alien enough to be incapable of becoming a threat."
    "Indeed? Then you know what Kincaid is?"
    The ambassador hesitated a moment. "Yes, I do. And Chalidang will either dig it out or figure it out as well. Not that it will give Josich any comfort, but it may make her even more impatient and desperate. Kincaid is a hell of a threat to the Emperor, perhaps more than we are, but as they gain knowledge, they may be able to contain or even trap him."
    "So? What is he?" O'Leary and Nakitt asked almost as one.
    "That remains a secret for now, in the hope that it will cause Chalidang to remain nervous for a while longer. Eventually they'll figure it out, but until then