Read Online The Chaos Weapon by Colin Kapp - Free Book Online

it your clothes and equipment just as we removed them. I believe it well within your powers to force an escape and get the Chaos Seer off-world before the watch can prevent you. Thusyou gain what you came for, and I do not have a revolution thrust upon me.”
    “Who else knows about this plot?” Wildheit asked dubiously.
    “None but Pilon and the seer.”
    “So if it comes to fighting, the blood will be real?”
    “Having examined your equipment, I doubt the blood will be yours. Let’s not be squeamish, Marshal. In the circumstances, there’s no alternative.”
    For the next hour Wildheit was left contemplating the tortuous nature of human duplicity. Then Pilon entered, bringing with him a wild-eyed girl who had barely reached maturity.
    “Marshal, I bring you the Chaos Seer. By a strange element of foresight, her name is Roamer. Take great care of her, because she’s one of the rarer flowers the Sensitives have yet produced.”
    Wildheit struggled to his feet. “I’d no idea the Chaos Seer was a girl. I’d imagined …”
    “I warned you your plan wouldn’t be wise.” Pilon was fighting with some buried emotion. “I also know the results won’t be those you anticipate. Nevertheless, you’ve forced the issue, and now there’s no turning back. Roamer, this is Space-Marshal Wildheit, a sort of Guardian of the galaxy. His weapons are terrible and his motivations sincere. Nonetheless he’s naive, and misinformed about the nature of the universe. He’ll need much instruction. Treat the stars gently, little one. Perhaps a few of them will survive.”
    As he turned to go, Wildheit caught his arm.
    “Hold a minute! Roamer, had I known you were so young I’d not have asked for you. The journey ahead is going to be difficult and dangerous—and the hunt for the Chaos Weapon even more so. Are you sure you’re prepared to come with me?”
    Pilon looked back, and there was a hint of distant mischief in his eyes. “Well, Roamer, what do you say?”
    “This moment already has its trace in the patternsof Chaos. It’s the casual origin of one of the greatest entropic shockpoints the galaxy has ever seen.”
    “Did you hear that, Marshal? Future history has already given its verdict. Let neither of you consider you’ve any option in the matter. What you have started is due to shake the universe. It is not implied whether for good or evil—merely that it will happen.”
    When Pilon left, Wildheit turned to Roamer. From the look of consternation on her face it was clear that she could actually see the god on his shoulder.
    “You seem surprised at my companion, Roamer,” he said kindly. “You must have great sensitivity. Most people can’t see him at all.”
    “What is it?” she asked. The tension in her vocal cords made her voice seem ragged.
    “It’s a god. His name is Coul.”
    “I don’t understand. God is infinite.”
    “Believe what you must, little frog. But what I tell you is true. There are many gods. All of them are terrifying in their power. None is omnipotent.”
    “Why does he flicker like that?”
    “Because he travels in several dimensions, of which this is only one. He visits the others constantly, thus at no time is he fully here.”
    “Why does he sit on your shoulder?”
    “We’re attached until death—my death. Coul is immortal.”
    “Can’t you take him off—ever?”
    “There’s no way. He lives right into me.”
    “Like a parasite?” The prospect clearly worried her.
    “No, not like a parasite. This is symbiosis. We each contribute something to the other. A sort of partnership, you understand.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “I support Coul with the life forces he needs to maintain a partial reality in this dimension. Because I’m a good host he looks after my welfare when my needs become extreme.”
    Roamer had lost some of her fears now, and her repugnance was turning to fascination.
    “I think he’svery, very ugly.”
    “Touch him.”
    “Should I?”
    “He’d