The Unreasoning Mask (10 page)

 

 

Ramstan entered the sickbay. The Webnite was floating in a large plastic
tank. A technician-nurse, Hu, and Toyce were also there. Branwen sat in
a chair by the tank. Her left hand was enfolded in the huge webbed hand
of the Webnite. The creature watched Ramstan with large, soft, dark eyes.

 

 

"We're ready to record," Hu said. "But I'll be watching to make sure
she doesn't tire herself out."

 

 

Ramstan bowed to the creature, hoping that she would understand that it was
a gesture of respect. Davis spoke to her in a language with many sibilants
and stops. She then said, "I explained what your bowing meant."

 

 

"You aren't reading my mind, are you?" he said half seriously.

 

 

"I'm just trying to anticipate."

 

 

The Webnite spoke for perhaps ten seconds. Davis said, "She will address
herself to you, since you are the captain. The Webnites are very formal in
certain situations. She believes this is a special situation; she believes
that she is dying."

 

 

Ramistan looked at Hu. "Is she?"

 

 

Hu shrugged and said, "I wouldn't have thought so. But maybe she knows
more about herself than I do. Most patients do, even if they aren't aware
of it."

 

 

Ramstan bowed again, made a coded gesture, and a few seconds later sat down
on the chair-shaped protuberance that had formed from the deck.

 

 

There was a burst of dialog between the creature and Branwen Davis.
Branwen then said, "Her name is Wassruss. She had been picked up by a
Raushghol ship and taken from Webn to Raushghol. The Raushghols wanted
her knowledge of sea-farming techniques. In return, they would give the
Webnites some deep-sea craft and technological artifacts. Wassruss says
that the reasons for her visit are not important. On the way back, the
Raushghol ship took a sidetrip to Walisk. Or she started for it, anyway."

 

 

Wassruss spoke again at some length.

 

 

Davis said, "Wassruss was in her cabin when she heard a peculiar,
penetrating, and agonizing whistle. It didn't come over the electronic
equipment; at least, she heard the captain say it didn't. She had turned
on the intercom connecting her cabin to the bridge. The whistling lasted
for about two minutes, and then it abruptly ceased. The ship's detectors
showed a huge mass nearby. There was no warning of its appearance. It
just was there all of a sudden. The captain said that it couldn't be
there. But there it was."

 

 

"How big was it, and what did it look like? Was it a spaceship?"

 

 

"It was a sphere with a diameter of 13,000 kilometers. At least that's
what she overheard the detector-people report. But . . . she does have
a word for it. Tssokh'azgd."

 

 

"What would that translate as?"

 

 

Branwen spoke some more with Wassruss.

 

 

"It's the Webn name for the Chaos-Monster in their religion. Wassruss
says she had abandoned her faith. But now that she has actually seen
the Tssokh'azgd, she isn't so sure that the religion is false."

 

 

Ramstan said, "Ask her how she knows, or thinks she knows, that the thing
was the whatchaniacallit."

 

 

Branwen Davis spoke again. Then, "She says that it is the Tssokh'azgd.
There is no argument about it. As soon as it's seen, it's known, though
that does the knower no good, because she'll soon be dead."

 

 

Suddenly, Wassruss began talking so swiftly that Branwen had difficulty
interpreting and had to tell her to slow down.

 

 

"I am going to die soon. I wish to die on my native world and to be buried
according to the custom of my people. If you can get me to Webn before
I die, I will pay you well."

 

 

Ramstan was flabbergasted, but he did not show it.

 

 

"It is not necessaiy or even desirable that you pay me. In fact, it would
be illegal for me to accept money or gifts of any kind."

 

 

Toyce said, "Not quite so, Captain. There is a clause which says that you
may accept gifts if the refusal would insult the giver or cause ill-feelings
of any sort. You will then place the gifts in the storeroom as government
property."

 

 

Ramstan said, "Ah, I didn't remember that."

 

 

Davis had already translated for Ramstan. Wassruss, forgetting Davis's
request for slowness, broke into a torrent of phrases. Ramstan did not
know what she had said, but he could not mistake the appeal and the
desperation in her voice. Her facial expression looked to him like a
threatening snarl but was no doubt a smile to her species.

 

 

Davis said, "Her people are real homebodies. She is the first to leave her
planet, and she isn't sure that what happened to her isn't a judgment of
her God. You see how quickly she abandoned her atheism, how superficial
it was. She is scared, though. To her it's a terrible thing to die far
away from her native sea. And a worse thing not to be buried, not to
sink down into the depths and be taken back into the bosom of the ocean."

 

 

Wassruss spoke.

 

 

Branwen Davis listened, then said, "She wants to know what I told you.
She wants to make sure I'm translating correctly. It isn't easy for me;
there are so many phrases I don't know or which may have subtleties I
didn't grasp when I was learning her speech."

 

 

Branwen replied. The Webnite seemed to be thinking for a minute, then
rattled off another train of phrases.

 

 

Branwen said, "She insists that you accept her gifts. But she says, and
I'm not sure I understand her, that these gifts are unique. They do not
have their like anywhere in the world."

 

 

Ramstan snorted and said, "How would she know? Has she been throughout
the cosmos?"

 

 

Branwen translated before Ramstan could stop her. He felt his face warm.
He was embarrassed, but he was also angry at Branwen.

 

 

She must have guessed what he was thinking. She said, "I only asked
what the gifts were. She says that she is very tired now and would like
to sleep."

 

 

Ramstan bowed to the Webnite and left. So, the monstrous but somehow
attractive seal-centaur was going to bestow upon him certain treasures.
He did not expect them to be overwhelmingly valuable or beautiful. He was,
however, curious about them and about the real reason for her giving them,
though it was possible that she was not concealing any motives.

 

 

Their uniqueness did not mean that they would be interesting, desirable,
useful, or any combination thereof. Many artifacts could be unique and
yet of little significance except to the owner. Or to a sentientologist,
who was theoretically interested in everything non-Terran.

 

 

At one time the concept of God, which concept was a mental artifact,
could have been of value only to its owner.

 

 

That was a strange intrusion of thought.

 

 

What was it doing, sidling in through a crack in the wall of thinking?

 

 

And why the crack?

 

 

Never mind. He could not dwell long on that, though it might not be as
irrelevant as it seemed. Nor could he ponder long upon the promise of
Wassruss. What seized his mind most of the time, awake or dreaming,
was the destruction of the Walisk natives. Had this been done by the
thing that the whisperer had warned him of, the bolg?

 

 

There was one who might have the answer. Who might even have been the
unseen warner in the Kalafalan tavern. But it had spoken once while he
was carrying it from the Tolt temple and a second time after he had heard
the voice in the tavern.

 

 

He had since sat down before the table seven times and looked through the
microscope at the surface of the egg. His eyes roved over the sculptures
of some microbe Michelangelo who had worked them how long ago, perhaps eons?
Whatever dwelt inside that impervious shell surely had to extend an antenna
to transceive thoughts. Or, perhaps, one of the figures crowding the surface
of this little world was an antenna. Or perhaps he was not thinking in the
correct category. It might not need an antenna.

 

 

Or, and at this a chill skipped up his spine like a cold stone thrown by
a clammy hand over a frozen lake, perhaps the egg was an antenna?

 

 

In which case, who was the transmitter of the thought he received?

 

 

He didn't know. One thing all worlds shared was a superabundance of
questions and a poverty of answers.

 

 

 

 

Seven ship-days after leaving Walisk, while walking to the bridge from
his quarters, he was startled by a loud piping noise and the change of
a circle on the bulkhead from a pale yellow to a flashing orange-yellow
over which rotated a scarlet spiral.

 

 

He began running, at the same time calling out, "Bridge! What is the alarm?"

 

 

Tenno's face appeared on one of the circles keeping pace with him.

 

 

"The EVD has detected a USO, sir. It suddenly appeared from behind the
asteroid we passed three hours ago. Raser is checking it out now, sir"

 

 

By the time he'd reached the bridge, the raser report was in. The EVD
(Ether Vibration Detector) had noted the disturbance in the recently
traversed tunnel. EVD was not capable of radar or raserlike powers
of location and dimension measurements, however. It could note only
intrusions at a relatively near distance and those within a limited
time period.

 

 

Warrant Officer Yazdi reported that the unidentified space object was
260 meters long and 210 meters wide and was oyster-shell-shaped. Ramstan
did not listen intently; he could see the data and the object itself on
a display screen.

 

 

"Looks like the Popacapyu," Tenno said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

... 10 ...

 

 

Ramstan did not reply to the obvious. It could be another Tolt ship, but
he doubted that. As far as he knew, the Tenolt had only two alaraf-drive
ships. This one must have followed them from Kalafala. Which meant that
the Tenolt were more technologically advanced than the Terrans had supposed.
Not until just before al-Buraq's last jump had Earth's alaraf scientists
developed a device to detect the vibrations of passage of ships in the
"tunnels." This was in a primitive stage and capable only of sniffing out
the tracks of vessels that had passed within a period of ten to twelve hours.
The scientists had thought that, by the time al-Buraq returned to Earth,
the EVD would be capable of a finer and more extended discrimination.

 

 

Tenno shook his head and said, "Perhaps it's only coincidence, and they
didn't follow us here. It's difficult to believe that they have a better
EVD than we. In fact, I can't believo they have any at all."

 

 

"You're showing your prejudice," Ramstan said. "Just because they worshiped
-- I mean, worship -- an idol and have certain customs we regard as retarded,
if not degenerate, doesn't mean that their science is on a low level.

 

 

"Anyway," he continued briskly, "they are here. And we can assume that
they've followed us for some reason."

 

 

Tenno and Yazdi looked out of the corners of their eyes at each other.
Were they both thinking of the object which their captain had brought
into ship in a bag? If so, why didn't they have the courage to say what
they thought? He would, if he were in their position. Were they really
that afraid of him? Or was it that they were more afraid of being shown
up as foolish if they were wrong?

 

 

"What we have to do first," Ramstan said, "is to attempt again to communicate
with them. Maybe this time they'll respond. If they don't, then we'll do some
backtracking. If it's not just coincidence, if they do have an EVD, they'll
follow us."

 

 

Tenno's expression said, "And then what?" But he turned and spoke to the
raser operator, who gave the second-level bridge raser operator an order.
Presently the 2-L RO reported that he was getting no acknowledgments,
even though he had transmitted in Tolt. The unknown (it was still
classified as such) was, however, scanning al-Buraq with radar and raser.

 

 

"They wouldn't talk to us on Kalafala, and they won't talk to us here,"
Tenno said. "Why're they dogging us?"

 

 

"We have to make absolutely sure that they are," Ramstan said.

 

 

Reluctantly, he ordered that ship return to the Walisk window. This
involved a 360-degree maneuver which required five hours. The stranger
began to turn also a few minutes after al-Buraq did.

 

 

"That does it," Ramstan said. "There's no use in going into alaraf drive.
Head her back toward Webn, Tenno."

 

 

The stars on the visual screen wheeled, and then al-Buraq was locked into
the former course, guiding herself by the configuration of stars and
the position of Webn's sun. When she had first arrived in this window,
she had had no data about star fixes, of course. But once her navigators
had figured out the correct course to Webn and had then fed in the data,
she could navigate on her own. All she needed was the command, verbal
or punched.

 

 

In the same way, she could backtrack to any other window, including
Earth's, with only one short command.

 

 

Ramstan was relieved. He had not wanted to go back to Walisk for fear of
what might be lurking, if such a word was applicable, in the window.
Or it could be in another window connected to a "tunnel" leading to the
Waliskan window. Which meant that the thing could pop out and confront
the Terrans with no warning.