“Invaders from Earth,” repeated Vadesh, “who returned to the city again and again until they murdered every man, woman, and child of the native people.”
“They were not native,” said Umbo. “They were captives.”
“They were a new native life form, half human, half facemask,” said Vadesh. “It was a beautiful blending—painful and frightening at first, for both, but then a fruition of both. As if they were trees that could not bear until they pollinated each other.”
“You’re a poet of parasitism,” said Rigg. “Are these the stories you told the possessed people, to convince them they were even better than humans or facemasks alone?”
“It’s the simple truth,” said Vadesh.
“And yet the people without facemasks were not persuaded,” said Rigg.
“Here’s a thought,” said Umbo. “What if the facemasks let go of the people they possessed, so the people could see how much better it was when they had the parasite? Then they could take them back by their own free choice. Or not.”
“Impossible,” said Vadesh.
“So you admit they would never choose to take the facemasks back,” said Loaf.
“Impossible to detach them. Both would die.”
“I don’t believe you,” said Rigg. “I think the facemask would die, but the human would return to health.”
“Both would die,” repeated Vadesh. “The bond cannot be undone. It was fatal to both. Always. Do you think we didn’t try, at first?”
“I’d think that the ability to detach would be the first civilizing virtue you’d get the facemasks to acquire.”
“They tried,” said Vadesh. “As they incorporated the genes they harvested from their human hosts, each new generation was more compatible. They needed humans more, preserved more of human nature. But the one thing they could not do was make themselves less effective as parasites.”
Rigg looked at Loaf, Umbo, Olivenko. “Finally, an honest sentence—Vadesh admits that the facemasks are parasites.”
“Of course they’re parasites,” said Vadesh. “I was the one who warned you not to drink from the stream, wasn’t I? I didn’t want you infected.”
“Where is all this leading?” asked Loaf. “What do you want from us?”
“I want you to bring humans back to my wallfold,” said Vadesh.
“So you can infect them again?”
“No,” said Vadesh. “Do you think I failed to learn the lesson of the past? Humans do not respond well to seeing other humans parasitized. They think of them as monsters, they destroy them to the last man, and then die out themselves, for fear of becoming infected.”
“They died out?” asked Loaf.
“They killed each other,” said Rigg bitterly. “When they were sure they had killed the last facemask-controlled person, they killed themselves—”
“Each other,” said Vadesh.
“Collectively killed themselves,” said Rigg, “so there was no chance that their keeper here could breed them with more facemasks.”
“They didn’t understand that I would never do that,” said Vadesh. “I am incapable of harming human beings.”
“But you can let them come to harm. Goad them to it, trap them. Aid their enemies.”
“Humans must be free,” said Vadesh. “It is deeply ingrained in my programming. I cannot defy that. All choices are to be made by humans. I merely help them carry out their plans.”
Rigg could not let that stand. “You are such a liar,” he said. “I was raised by one of you, and he was certainly not carrying out anybody’s plan.”
“He wasn’t carrying out your plan, you mean,” said Vadesh.
“Nor mine,” said Umbo.