Songs From the Stars by Norman Spinrad Page B

him.
    Nate and Buckeye Lightning hunkered down on the soft floor of the cloud chamber as if they were facing Clear Blue Lou across some tribal council fire. Lou himself was barely aware of the incongruity of the setting—the soft candlelight, the pink incense fumes, the memory of the lovemaking that had taken place here not so long ago. Only the four Lightning women seemed to sync into the sensual vibes of the chamber, reclining together in a stoned-out heap, brain-burned into a simpler and sweeter world.
    "All right, now let's get to the bottom of this," Lou said firmly. "You've openly admitted that you're servants of black science. You want a chance to deny that now? Be-cause otherwise, you know what I'm going to have to do..."
    "Aw, we're all really ripped, is all," Nate whined. "Buckeye didn't mean—"
    "Don't tell me what I mean!" Buckeye shouted angrily. "I know what the fuck I mean! And I also know that this dude can't touch us—"
    "Shut up, Buckeye!" Nate hissed, elbowing him in the ribs.
    "Let him speak!" Lou commanded.
    "That's right, you tell him!" Buckeye growled, bleering at Lou. "You fly an eagle, don't you, perfect master, and the solar cells for it came from us, and you know where we got 'em from. The demons gifted you too. You're as black as we are. The demons have you too."
    "I'll be the judge of that," Lou said. But he didn't like the ring of justice in the ugly truth he was hearing. These Lightnings were self-admittedly evil, and they had open contempt for anyone less honest about his tainted morality than themselves. And who could say there was no truth in that?
    "That's not what the demons tell us," Buckeye said smugly.
    "What? What's not what the demons tell you?"
    "The demons have protected us with a curse," the mountain william told him. "We're under their protection. You disband the Lightnings, and nobody gets gifted with solar cells or nothing anymore. You got the balls to do that, low-lander?"
    Great was Lou's ire. Nobody was crazy enough to threaten a giver of justice in the middle of the process. Not even the Spacers would likely dare that. Surely they didn't suppose they could save these assholes from disbandment with such a crude threat. More to the point, would they take such a risk just to save a tribe of mountain Williams that they had set up in the first place? No way! Those black-hearted bastards!
    "You really believe that?" he said. "You really believe the Spacers can save your tribe from disbandment after you've openly admitted to peddling atomic power?"
    "You can't afford not to let us get away with it," Buckeye insisted belligerently.
    "Come on," Lou said, "you're not really that stupid.
    "You think the Spacers care enough about your dirty hides to risk playing a game like that just to save them?"
    "But they said..."
    "The demons... the demons lied to us?" Nate said softly. Finally the message was getting through.
    "What do you think? That the Spacers are so righteous that they wouldn't lie to you to get you to do their bidding? That they'd throw away everything they're doing just to avenge your disbandment? Are you really that stoned?"
    "Oh shit," Nate said woodenly. "They just used us. They told us they'd protect us, and now they'll just throw us away."
    "And you were so stupid you didn't see it coming?"
    "Y' don't understand," Nate said shakily. "Y' don't know what the demons are like. They told us what we had to do. If we didn't do it, we'd never be gifted again."
    "And you'd be forced to make a righteously white living," Lou said unsympathetically.
    "You don't understand," Nate insisted. "We didn't know the Eagles would find the atomic cores in the radios. But when they did and when the Spacers told us we had to admit we knew about it, what could we do? We were caught anyway, and who else was going to protect us? You? Lowlanders? Man, you can't fight the demons, they don't just tell you what to do, they make you do it."
    "And you had no choice in the matter?" Lou said