Kirlian Quest (10 page)

They retired without further episode, and all was quiet. But before he slept Herald turned one thought over in his mind. Why
hadn't
Whirl, the Enemy Witness, simply stood aside and allowed the Duke of Kade in the heat of his misunderstanding to violate the covenant by killing Herald? Wouldn't that have served the purposes of the enemy very handily?

He could find only one answer: Whirl was an honest entity who sincerely believed in the case he had made, that the Lady Kade was intermittently possessed, and that this would in time be proven. Whirl wanted the truth to be known, just as the Duke wanted the enemy to be satisfied. Both were honorable entities. Neither would cheat. And that only heightened the dilemma, for both could not be right.

 

 

 

Chapter 4:

Child of Pleasure

 

 

&
All is ready?
&

X
Research units report no political resistance. Survey shows our action units capable of destroying all sapient cultures with minimum damage to environment within three cycles.
X

0
Action units are prepared to meet this deadline.
0

&
It is necessary to review purpose.
&

X
What point? It will only delay our mission.
X

0
In fact, may imperil our mission. More time provides the enemy opportunity to formulate resistance. There are a number of ancient sites in this Cluster remaining operative, and should their technology be employed against us—
0

&
Error. You have permitted the means to become the end. Herein lies potential disaster. Do you not perceive why?
&

X
Is there some trap we have not properly researched that could reverse the outcome?
X

0
Some enemy military capacity we have underestimated? A secret weapon?
0

&
Pay attention. There is a trap, and there is an enemy—but both are within our own formation. You have lost perception of our actual mission. It is not to overwhelm alien species or to seek new enemies or to promote higher technology; those Cluster species are very like ourselves. Only our science makes us superior, only our power. We cull the Cluster because we have a mission that transcends the personal convenience of ourselves and other species; we accomplish this because we have stability and perseverance others cannot match. But this power must not be abused, lest we destroy what we labor so diligently to promote. Do you remember what that is?
&

X0
Yes.
0X

&
State it.
&

X0
Soul sapience.
0X

&
Therefore we must be certain to identify all potentially soul-sapient species and salvage them. Since this is a very subtle quality in its incipient stage, we must proceed with utmost caution. Suppose we should discover that one of the myriad weed-species we have culled was
the
potential soul sapient?
&

X0
Horror!
0X

&
Precisely. Reverify your findings, itemizing each culture by its potential. Pay special attention to subspecies, such as those £ of Sphere Dash, Andromeda; their gross mass makes other forms of empire unpractical for them, encouraging soul sapience. It may be this potential that triggered the site malfunction. When you are satisfied, we shall move.
&

X
It would be better to pick up more samples for direct physical examination.
X

&
No. Piecemeal mattermission of samples would be prohibitively expensive of energy, compromising our sterilization potential. Only if the signs are threshold-positive will we take physical samples.
&

 

* * *

 

In the morning Herald found his muscles radiating pain. He had overextended them, and taken bruises. But the Duke insisted on drilling him in a formal series of calisthenics called squat-jumps, push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and running-in-place. "This program will invigorate the entire body," Kade assured him.

Invigorate? At the end of it, Herald felt even worse than before. But at least he knew how to exercise without crashing into a wall or bringing a girl to the floor.

After breakfast—another sumptuous repast involving the cooked eggs of wheelbirds, diskcakes formed from ground grain, and sweet syrup derived from the digestive tracts of insects—Herald, Psyche, and Whirl settled themselves in the room assigned to Hweeh of Weew, who had become another house guest.

Herald put his hand on the gray mass. "Sound. Sound. Sound. Sound," he murmured, concentrating. Then, as the ear/speaker horn appeared: "Sight. Sight."

When Hweeh was ready, Herald continued: "I am Herald the Healer. I interviewed you yesterday. We were interrupted. I hope you are comfortable."

Hweeh quivered, testing for comfort. He was now in a large wooden bowl that the Duke's obliging household staff had provided. "Yes, Healer. Most comfortable."

"I am here to treat you for shock. You are a most important research astronomer, and your Segment wants you back in service. I fear they are overworking you, causing you to suffer breakdown."

"By no means!" the Weew responded forcefully. "I am devoted to my work."

"Even though it takes you away from your family?"

“I have no family.
Only
my work. Without my research slides and tables, I would have no life at all. I am eager to return."

So he was a creature dedicated to his profession, as Herald was to his own. Herald found himself liking this Weew.

"I am eager to have you return, Hweeh. But it is not enough merely to rouse you from shock; we must abate the cause of it. It seems that some facet of your research sent you into shock, and it is necessary that we nullify this before you are exposed to it again."

"Nothing in my research could shock me! What harm or horror can there be in material that has been on record for decades or even centuries or millennia?"

"I took the liberty of consulting with an entity of your Segment, Swees of Weew, a logistic mathematician now retired. He said much the same."

"Oh, yes, the scholar named after my home planet. I had him verify certain of my data once. A fine mind! I must chat with him some time."

"So it seems we have a mystery here that neither my kind nor your kind fathoms. Perhaps you saw something in your telescope—"

Hweeh made a shudder of mirth. "Sir, I use no telescope! I am a
research
astronomer. I would not know even how to turn on a living telescope, or how to aim it. And how could I see anything new? The images I might see in a scope would have taken a million years to reach me. My research holographs, made by survey teams scattered throughout the Cluster, and buttressed by periodic information from the Net, are mattermitted to my library. They are far more current than any direct view could be."

"So you are assured that nothing you might perceive through your research could shock you?"

Hweeh changed color briefly. "Oh, I would not make so encompassing a statement as that! Were I to perceive a Cluster-sized black hole developing, its advancing edge within a light-year of the Milky Way—"

"In that event, we would
all
go into shock, not to mention tidal disassembly and eventual compression into nothingness!" Herald said. "But nothing less than that...?"

"Well, even a Galaxy-sized black hole, or a Segment-sized one, if it were close enough...."

"Yes, I daresay it would be an unnerving thing to reside adjacent to even the smallest, cutest black hole! In this you differ from no other sapient species. Yet you did go into shock. Is it likely that you did in fact perceive such a threat?"

"Hardly! Black holes do not manifest so abruptly in that manner. Few natural events
do
. Are you
sure
I was in shock? I might merely have been meditating."

"I am sure, sir," Herald said gravely.

"You will permit me the smallest, cutest skepticism?"

Herald smiled. A lively mind here, not without humor. Certainly not paranoid or confused.

Whirl of Dollar made a quiet buzzing signal. Herald glanced at him. "What is it, Witness?"

"I do not wish to interpose as this is not my business. But I am reminded of my prior conjecture, that there may be a parallel that could offer enlightenment. Not Possession, precisely, but—"

"Who is this?" Hweeh inquired.

"I interview you in a special circumstance," Herald explained. "It is necessary that I keep the company of two other entities. I regret this infringement of your privacy."

"No objection. I have no guilty secrets, unfortunately."

Herald had to smile again. "This is Whirl of Sador, the Earl of Dollar, here to witness my performance on Planet Keep. In the other chair is the Lady Psyche of Kade, another client. They will respect your confidence."

"What is this parallel the Sador sees?"

"You may answer him, Witness," Herald said.

"It is that in each case the subject is not aware of the manifestation, or chooses not to believe in it. The Lady Kade is ignorant of the actuality of our case against her, and the astronomer of Weew is not aware that he goes into shock at the mere utterance of—"

"Hold!" Herald cried.

"A certain phrase," Whirl concluded without pause. Psyche tittered.

"Do I do this?" Hweeh inquired, interested. "What is this phrase?"

"If he told you, you'd zonk out again," Psyche said.

"This has happened in your presence?"

"Yesterday," she assured him.

"I remember yesterday. I thought it was but a moment ago, and wondered why the interruption. And you also suffer a malady of this nature?"

"They say I am possessed," she said. "That an alien aura inhabits me irregularly. That is why the Healer came."

"Yes, I detect the parallel," Hweeh said. "I can appreciate your skepticism, since what is described is not the manner of hostaging. It cannot be intermittent, unless there is Transfer apparatus in the vicinity. May I touch you, Lady?"

She glanced inquiringly at Herald, who was intrigued by this developing interaction between his clients. There seemed to be no harm in it, however. He nodded.

"Certainly," Psyche said. She rose gracefully and crossed to the Weew, extending her hand and resting it lightly on his surface.

"Lady, you are not possessed," Hweeh assured her. "My aura is only half that of the Healer, but it is five times yours. I question strongly whether you have ever been host to a foreign aura."

Herald maintained a discreet silence in the face of this confirmation of his diagnosis. It took an entity of high aura to appreciate the certainty of such a conclusion. There was really scant chance of error. The Witness would have to wheel on this.

Sure enough, Whirl rolled forward. "May I touch you each in turn?"

"Certainly." "Yes." Hweeh and Psyche said together.

The Sador extended a wheel to contact the Weew first. "You do have a very strong aura, much more intense than mine. Then he touched Psyche. "But yours is less than mine. I agree that there is no Possession
now
, and regret that my aural expertise is not sufficient to verify past status. But my belief, and that of those whose interests I represent, is based on other criteria. I retain my position."

"Unfortunate that the Possession cannot be tested as readily as the shock-phase," Hweeh said. "There is much we have yet to learn about each. May I converse with the Lady?"

"If the Lady accedes," Herald said. "I admit to being frustrated in both cases at the moment. If the two of you do not feel your respective privacies are being infringed upon, speak of what you will. It should do no harm."

Psyche brought over her chair and sat beside Hweeh, resting her hand on him again. "This is very interesting," she said. "I have not had so much diversion and good feeling in two years. I never met a physical Weew before."

"I have perhaps been too much absorbed in my work," Hweeh replied. "I had forgotten how pleasant the touch of an innocent young entity could be. Tell me about yourself, if you will, and if you also will, incorporate in subtle fashion reference to the phrase that allegedly sends me into shock. Perhaps we can assist each other."

Herald glanced at Whirl, and caught the glint of the vanes of his communication wheel angled at him. Could the two subjects successfully interrogate each other?

"There is not much to say," Psyche said. "I have never left the planet of Keep, and seldom even Kastle Kade, since the affliction of my mother. Much of my experience has been imaginative. Why even my name means 'Soul'—but surely that would not interest an astronomer."

"Quite opposite, Lady. Your name unites you to my profession most directly, and tells me much about you."

Her eyes widened in one of her cute naive mannerisms. "Really? How so?"

"Modern astronomy is the study and theory of the manifestation of great space," Hweeh said. Again Herald glanced at Whirl, and again met the angled glint of acknowledgement. The Weew had used the term "Space" himself without suffering ill effect. "But research astronomy has a broader base. It also considers the reactions of sapient entities to views of space in past times. Thus I review the mythology of space as well as its geology."

"The geology of space!" Psyche said. "What a nice concept!"

"Indeed yes; this is one of the many fascinations of my work," Hweeh agreed. "But the mythology is as important, for it provides insights into the nature of the conceptualizations of many creatures. Your own kind, the Solarians, have a very rich astronomical symbolism, for example. The brighter stars were in your prehistory considered to be manifestations of divine entities, gods and goddesses, who lived and died in heroic scale. One of your Sol-system planets, Venus, seemed like a bright star to your primitives, and was called the Goddess of Beauty. One of her children was Cupid, the God of Love, and Cupid married Psyche, a mortal girl who must have been very like you. So you see, I know you through my studies."