Free Asgard's Heart by Brian Stableford

talk to whoever's left in
charge of their team, to impress upon him that their interests and ours are
identical. We don't want them deciding to do something silly, and we'll
certainly need their fighting men if there's another attack."
    He nodded again, but didn't even bother to provide a
verbal prompt. He just waited for more. He was certainly expecting a lot from a
mere barbarian. I decided, albeit a little reluctantly, to tell him about my
plans.
    "The Nine have been building a robot vehicle for
me," I told him. "It's designed to cross more or less any terrain,
even through a reducing atmosphere. I intend to take it down through the
levels, relying on the Nine to find me a route. We need to find out what's
happening down there— and whether we can do anything about it. If turning the
power off was as simple as throwing a switch, then it can probably be turned on
again with equal ease, and if one side in this war had a pressing reason for
wanting it switched off, the other side will presumably want to switch it back
on again. If the people fighting this war thought that the Isthomi were
impotent to intervene, they probably wouldn't have tried to destroy them—which
implies that there's something we can do, even if we can't quite figure out
what it is."
    I could tell from his expression that this wasn't
quite the kind of advice which he had in mind, so I stopped. There really
didn't seem to be anything else I could say. I decided that there was no point
in bringing up the Nine's other bright idea about sending a task-force of
personality-copies through software space. I still didn't like the idea very
much, and I wasn't at all sure that I was prepared to volunteer.
    "I'm sorry, Nisreen," I finished, "but
I can't tell you what you ought to do. If there's a role for you to play in all
this, you'll have to work it out for yourself."
    Nisreen studied me carefully, his face quite
inscrutable. "I am indebted to you, Mr. Rousseau," he said. "We
all face a difficult time now, and I must undertake to make what contribution I
can, as my duty demands. I will talk with you again, if I may. But may I ask
one more question?"
    "Go ahead," I said, generously.
    "We once discussed, very briefly, various
hypotheses regarding the possible nature of Asgard and its relation to the many
star-worlds which support humanoid life. Can you tell me which hypothesis you
now consider to be the most likely?"
    It was a very good question.
    "When I talked to you last," I said,
hesitantly, "I suggested that Asgard, or something like it, might have
been the common point of origin of the gene-systems which are scattered around
the galactic arm—that the builders of Asgard had been behind the seeding of the
star-worlds which produced the galactic community. The other hypothesis which
I had in mind was that its task might be to gather genes from star-worlds,
using the habitats in the levels to store and transport them. I can't say that
I'm any nearer to deciding whether either or both of those speculations is true—but
I have to admit that every day that passes seems to lend more credence to an
idea that Colonel Lear favours: that Asgard is some kind of fortress, heavily
armed and armoured to protect the life-systems to which it plays host against
some hostile and destructive agency. If that's true, it seems to have already
come near to failure in that purpose, and to be getting nearer all the time.
    "In fact, if Asgard is a fortress, it looks very
much as if the fortress has been breached, and that the entire macroworld is in
danger—and not just from the slow death that will follow the power failure. We
must at least consider the possibility that if this war is being waged by
invaders of Asgard against its defenders, their objective might be its total
destruction."
    I could tell that I'd impressed him. He looked very
serious indeed—as well he might, considering that I'd just suggested to him
that if the mysterious battle raging around us were to be won by