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Escape to the stars. The brain needed only a lie that both sides could accept
and believe; if that happened, then memories could be rewritten, attitudes
adjusted, and everything resolved to allow function. A new reality was called
for, and a very personal one.
In a miraculous revelation, she suddenly understood what had happened, and
there was no more fight, only awe at the justice of the gods. When the
computer had executed Chu Li, his soul had not gone on but had instead been
placed in the body of Song Ching, who had ordered the destruction of her own
personality in her plot. Her own soul had been cast adrift when this was done,
and Chu Li's had filled the empty vessel in a measure of justice. The soul was
shaped and formed
and purified or dirtied by its experiences in the flesh, but it did not retain
memories as such. Still, she knew it was Chu Li's soul animating Song Ching's
body and guiding her thoughts. That was true justice: The soul of the enemy
who was destroyed by her family was now in possession of her body, her
memories, her knowledge, and those would be used against her family and the
system that supported it. That was clearly the will of the gods.
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There was a price for this, of course. Chu Li's soul had not risen to be
purified; it remained the soul of a teenage boy. He was a man trapped in the
body and with the memories of a beautiful woman. It would be a frustrating
burden to carry, but the symmetry of the justice meted out by the gods
required it. Because the knowledge in her head was so vast, so complete, and
so dangerous to those who must be punished, it was a burden that had to be
accepted. It left someone with the means to avenge, and that had to be
sufficient.
For now, the Chu Li masquerade had to be continued so that the primary goal
could be attained. Later there would be time for explanations and the truth.
The reclining figure sat up, saw the anxious Chow Dai, and smiled. "I am all
right now," he assured her. "I will be all right from now on."
She looked relieved. "I was almost going to call the guard and have you looked
at. You really worried me."
He was glad she hadn't done that, or the ruse would have been up right there.
There being no machines to measure and identify souls, it would have taken but
a moment for the stupidest of medics to realize that this was not a boy named
Chu
Li.
He looked at Chow Dai's ugly, scarred face and reflected on how truly ironic
this all was. He could do just as well looking like her; indeed, it would
solve some potential problems down the line. She, on the other hand, would
prosper and blossom with the body he wore. The scientists could make a sadist
a gentle poet and a peasant into an educated artist with their chemicals and
processes, but only the gods could switch souls. Although it would work out
here, it was in a way a reassuring thought: that there was one thing, at
least, beyond science and reserved for the gods.
Not long after, Chow Mai and Deng Ho were sent in to join them. Deng's
conditioning still held; Chu Li hoped it would hold long enough to avoid any
complications. The two sisters rushed to each other and embraced and cried a
little. Deng grinned at Chu Li. "Hello, Rat. Surviving?"
Chu Li nodded. "And you?"
Deng gave a knowing smirk. "No problems if you just shut your eyes," he
whispered, then grew more serious. "They've been through even worse than us.
It's crazy, but we're going to some mad hell, and / feel sorry for them. Kind
of takes your mind off it."
Chu Li looked over at the sisters, who were chattering away in pure peasant
dialect. They seemed to be talking at the same time, and he guessed from the
few words he caught that they were using a kind of spoken shorthand,
expressing
complete thoughts. That's fine, he thought. He understood full well that the
monitors would never make sense of that garbage.
The girls had only a few minutes for their reunion, though. The door opened
again, and the duty guard stepped in.
"You will all stand and be silent!" he barked imperiously. "You will now be
addressed by the captain of the vessel that will carry you to your final
destination!" He was as stiff as usual, but nervousness was revealed in his
eyes and in small jerks of his head back toward the door.
Chu Li he refused to think of himself as otherwise and certainly not as a
"she,"
all physical evidence to the contrary was startled that such a ship had a
captain at all. A steward perhaps, or even a jailer but a captain?
They heard the barred gate open and then clang shut again, then the sound of
heavy footsteps approached the door, which the guard had continued to hold
open.
When the captain walked in, the prisoners all gasped and stared at him as if
he were some sort of monster.
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