Thousandstar (#4 of the Cluster series) by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online

alcove jetted. "Roughly one third of the thousand are HydrO. All are good, healthy, apt specimens, approved by the Society of Hosts; there is no foolishness there. But there is one exception. No entity with a criminal record is permitted in a competition."
    Oh, they really had him!
    "You, of course, are the exception," the alcove continued. "The law awaits you outside. You lack Society of Hosts approval. Your entire career betrays an unscrupulous and low-cunning personality. You possess a combat skill that is suspicious; you could not maintain it legally. You made application to enter this competition under false pretenses. In summation, you are a disreputable entity."
    "You were aware of that when you admitted me?" Heem inquired, surprised.
    "It was your primary recommendation."
    The wrongness magnified. "I am not certain I comprehend your direction."
    "A little individual background, Heem. You are aware that there are approximately one thousand entrants to this competition, utilizing three host species, the Star of representation determined by the transfer entity."
    "I am aware," Heem jetted nervously. Why were they repeating this basic information? Had they nulled his transfer deliberately, punishing him?
    "But the three host species—what of their entrants?"
    "Same applies," Heem sprayed. "Transfer in another entity of the same species, to be the representative. Two minds are still better than one, if their skills are complementary."
    "Or use the host as the representative, and transfer in an alien expert."
    Heem considered that. "Could be quite a combination! If you transferred a renegade Squam into a dominant HydrO host, he'd be a potent competitor against both Squams and HydrOs."
    "Precisely. Odds against the success of that combination would decline from one in a thousand to one in one hundred or so, perhaps ever lower, with the right combination."
    "Still, one chance in a hundred is a long one. Any one of the thousand could do as well merely by cheating a little."
    "Oh, there is no cheating in a Segment competition," the interviewer squirted hastily. "That would lead to voiding of any success achieved."
    "Could be hard to watch every detail, though," Heem suggested, intrigued by the theoretical situation. "This thing is basically a race, and I've been in enough local races to know that the winner is seldom completely clean." He remembered how Hoom had needled him, back in the juvenile stage at Highfalls. His experience in subsequent life had shown him this was typical; the scrupulous seldom finished first.
    "You are an excellent racer," the interviewer jetted in an aside. "This was salient in your profile."
    "Are you implying I am unclean?"
    "The Competition Authority does not accept unclean individuals. We merely have need of a completely competent representative, with the strongest motive to succeed. Naturally we will tolerate no evidence of wrong-rolling, but since it would be an embarrassment to Star HydrO to have a winner with a soiled record, a pardon for your past activities has been filed. You are completely clean."
    Now Heem was catching on. "You are entering me as the Star HydrO representative?"
    "I thought that was understood. Surely you realized that your transferee is extra-Segment, though you covered that information beautifully."
    Extra-Segment? Heem set that aside for the moment. "And if I happen not to overcome the odds—"
    "It is possible that a clerical error would be uncovered, voiding your pardon, and you would again be subject to local System justice."
    The taste was coming through more clearly. "And if I should, just by way of farfetched example, be caught employing unclean means in the competition—"
    "The Competition Authority would deal with you in its own fashion. We certainly would not support such behavior."
    So he had been admitted to the competition because of his record, and was expected to employ his nefarious skills to win for Star HydrO, without being caught. They had