The Unreasoning Mask (8 page)

 

 

"We stood in a corner and watched a ritual which was not explained to us
and which I won't describe, since it is available in a report. The ceremony
was interrupted when Commodore Benagur suddenly fell to the floor. Though
he seemed to be unconscious, he struggled when I picked him up to take
him to the ship. Two priests helped me carry him out, and he was still
struggling violently while we did so."

 

 

The bridge personnel were uneasy, no doubt wondering why he was describing
what was well-known.

 

 

"The commodore was examined, but no evidence was found that he had suffered
some kind of epileptic seizure. He himself reported that he had been
overwhelmed by a white light, a light that should have blinded him but did
not. After what seemed like hours, but which I can testify were only a few
seconds, he began to see something in the center of the whiteness. This
was not clear, but he had an impression of a huge blue eye. It became
larger, and, as it grew, he felt an increasing heat. Not all over his
body, but inside his head, seemingly concentrated in a tiny spot. When
the heat suddenly became unbearable, he felt as if he were falling into
a bottomless well.

 

 

"Nuoli later reported experiencing subjective phenomena, too. But these
differed in intensity and kind from the commodore's. She could detect
pulsations, variations in air pressure, and then the pulsations became
visible as multicolored square waves. They disappeared simultaneously
with the commodore's collapse."

 

 

At the time, Ramstan had reported that he had neither seen or heard or felt
anything describable as unusual subjective phenomena. Only Benagur had
questioned that report. Benagur had accused him of lying after Ramstan had
ordered ship to leave Tolt. Ramstan had continued to deny experiencing
anything unusual. He had also said that Benagur was still obviously unfit
for duty and that he would remain on sick list until he had proved otherwise.
Benagur had stormed out of Ramstan's quarters. But there was nothing he
could do about it. Ramstan had not reported this incident nor had Benagur,
as far as Ramstan knew, said anything about it to anybody.

 

 

An hour after returning to ship, Ramstan had left it. He had, of course,
told Tenno, now second-in-command, that he was leaving, but he had not
said why. He had walked unchallenged out of the port, down the long street
that led to the temple, walked past the guards, who obviously were not
aware that he was present, and half an hour later had again boarded ship.
Five minutes later, al-Buraq had taken off.

 

 

"I was convinced that the glyfa was dangerous," Ramstan said after
a few seconds of silence. "Despite which, under other circumstances,
our scientists would have been directed to study it. As far as I know,
it's unique. But when I went back to the temple to discuss what had
happened with the high priest, I was told that we were no longer welcome
on Tolt. The priest made no threats. He just said that the glyfa wished
us gone."

 

 

Ramstan assumed that the officers were wondering why he had not logged
the conversation. However, none dared voice the question. He proceeded
to tell them what had happened in the hotel. He omitted his conversation
with Commodore Benagur.

 

 

"There is no proof that the masked people were Tenolt, but there are no
other suspects. I have no idea at all why the Tenolt have followed us here
or why they should have made an attempt to anesthetize me. Doctor Toyce's
report of the breakdown of the Tolt sailor in the tavern suggests that
something horrible has happened to their planet. Obviously, they don't
want to tell us what it is. I don't know why.

 

 

"However, the disappearance of Pegasus is the number-one priority now.
For all I know, that might be tied in with the Tenolt's strange actions.
In any event, we are backtracking with the hope of finding Pegasus."

 

 

He paused and said, "Or some trace of it."

 

 

A long silence, punctuated by pale faces, followed. Tenno was the first
to crack it.

 

 

"Captain, will we run away every time a Tolt ship appears?"

 

 

Ramstan did not like being questioned, but he said, "We're a scientific
mission. And we must at all costs -- almost all -- avoid anything which
might lead to war."

 

 

He scanned the faces. "All right. Normal operation."

 

 

 

 

Two ship's days passed. Ramstan was in his quarters, considering taking
the glyfa out for another effort to get it to talk, when a whistle sounded.
Ramstan spoke the code word which activated a two-way communication.
Tenno's clark-brown, slant-eyed face appeared on a screen.

 

 

"Captain, we've just rasered some debris at 45,000 kilometers. It might be
from a spaceship."

 

 

"I'll be right up," Ramstan said.

 

 

He felt cold and sick. Could it be what was left of Pegasus?

 

 

 

 

 

 

... 8 ...

 

 

When Al-Buraq caught up with the debris, she was 600,000 kilometers from
the planet Walisk. The pieces of the ship were spreading over a wide area,
though going in the same general direction. What attracted Ramstan's
attention most was a globe with a diameter of 14 meters. Ship matched
pace and path with those of the globe to catch up with it. Meanwhile,
other debris had been identified as of Raushghol origin. This was done
chiefly through furniture torn loose from the deck in the explosion
which had rent the ship. Only the Raushghol, in the Terrans' experience,
had three diamond-shaped holes in the backs of all their chairs and sofas.

 

 

A screen showed the sphere as a slowly rotating object with a surface of
black-and-white squares. Al-Buraq had transmitted signals of its own --
perhaps unintelligible to the receiver -- informing whoever was in the
globe, if there was anybody, that help was coming. No acknowledgment
had been received.

 

 

Al-Buraq jockeyed around, matched, opened a port, swallowed the globe
easily and softly, and closed the port. Air hissed into the chamber, which
held the globe in a depression fitting the lower third. Antibacterial
and antiviral gases mixed with the air for five minutes, then a spray of
weak acid washed the globe, followed by high-pressure sprays of liquid
helium and then boiling hot water. A few minutes later, crewmembers in
spacesuits entered, Toyce among them.

 

 

Toyce said, "Never saw anything like this before, sir. I can't find any
exterior mechanism to open it up for us. If there's a
shet
in there,
the
shet
will have to open it."

 

 

Shet was the Terrish nongender, singular and plural, definite and
indefinite third-person indicator, a combination of she/he/it from
English. An alaraf-drive ship, however, was referred to as
shet-fim
,
fim being the female indicator.

 

 

"Can we cut into it?"

 

 

"Won't know until we try, sir."

 

 

"It's not likely, but it might contain explosive gas," Ramstan said.
"Everybody out. Let a
yeoshet
cut it."

 

 

The crew walked through the port into ship; a moment later, a wheeled robot
passed through. The port was shut, but the robot waited until ship had
built up armor-plated layers to enclose the chamber. When Task Completed
was flashed on the screen, the CPO directing the party gave the command.
A laser beam shot out from the tip of one of the robot's arms, and a thin
slice of the equator of the globe fell off.

 

 

"I'll be damned!" Ramstan said. "Water!"

 

 

It spurted out, then the pressure inside quickly eased off, and it flowed
down the side for a few seconds before trickling out.

 

 

"Cut out a hole at the equator," Ramstan said.

 

 

This was done quickly. More water poured out, but the flow ceased within
thirty seconds. The robot moved forward and extended an arm with a tiny
TV camera at its end through the hole. Light flared. The lower half of
the globe's interior was filled with water, darkened with what looked
like blood. In the center floated a dark, shapeless thing.

 

 

The sentientologist said, "It's a native of Webn. A seal-centaur. I've
never seen one in the flesh before, but I've seen Walisk photos of one.
The globe would be the Webnite's self-contained cabin while it's being
transported in the ship. It can also be used for a lifeboat. And it
evidently has. I've heard that . . ."

 

 

 

 

Toyce stopped. Like Ramstan, she'd been watching the globe on the screen
and so was also taken by surprise. But her reaction came from forgetfulness,
whereas Ramstan's came from novelty.

 

 

The globe drooped, collapsed, ran together, poured over the being in
the center, and broke away from it with a pop like bubble gum. Bloodied
water cascaded over the deck, and the globe had disappeared. The body
sprawled in the center of blackened wetness.

 

 

"The Raushghols told me that a Webn sphere dissolves in its own water
once it's been broken open by force. Believe it or not, that's what
they said. The stuff it's made from is supposedly woven by a giant
half-sentient sea creature, and . . ."

 

 

"How can a thing be half-sentient?" Ramstan said.

 

 

"I'm just quoting the Raushghol."

 

 

A party rolled the 227-kilogram body onto an a-g sled. The sled rose
into the air, and one man directed it toward sickbay. Ramstan watched
its progress down the corridors and into the ward. Toyce supervised
the three physicians delegated to treat the Webnite. Ten minutes later,
she reported.

 

 

"Something small but hard and sharp passed entirely through her body,"
she said. "It must have been going at such a speed it passed through
the sphere, too. A tiny meteorite? Anyway, the sphere must have closed
up within microseconds after being pentrated on both sides. Otherwise,
the air and the water would have boiled off."

 

 

"Is she dying?" Ramstan said.

 

 

Toyce looked again at the oscilloscopes registering the overall state
of health of the finned and armed mass lying on its back in a shallow
basin on a broad temporary table.

 

 

"She's holding her own -- I think. How would I know? I don't know anything
about the physiology -- or anatomy, either -- of an aquatic sentient from
Webn. Hell, what's her blood pressure supposed to be? And what's her blood
type? You should see the vanadium and magnesium content. Enough to make you
drop dead on the spot if it were in your bloodstream. I'm exaggerating,
of course, but it would make you sick."

 

 

The Webnite was exactly 3.2 meters long, and covered by a sealy
chocolate-brown fur. The flippers extended straight out from her body
and made up one-third of her length. The belly was huge, though she was
not pregnant. The breasts were pendulous and small in proportion to the
size of the body. The arms were long; the hands, very broad and flat;
the fingers, webbed to the first joint. The head was humanoid. Her eyes
were deeply sunk and, at the moment, covered by a transparent inner lid.

 

 

"The lids are far enough away from the eyeballs to form a sort of goggle,"
Toyce said.

 

 

She also reported that the Webnite's nostrils could be closed tightly.
She had no external ears, and this added to the weirdness of her appearance.

 

 

"See, she has a pouch -- much like a kangaroo's," Toyce said. "She may be
of a species that's regressed, anatomically speaking, gone back to the sea.
But a reversion to marsupialism? Doesn't seem likely."

 

 

She forced her hand into the tight opening, looked startled, and withdrew it.
She opened her fist.

 

 

The three flat objects were no longer than Toyce's thumb and seemed to
be greenish soapy stones. One formed a circle; the second, a square;
the third, a triangle. All had circular holes about three centimeters
wide in their centers.

 

 

"What the hell?" Toyce said.

 

 

"Put them back," Ramstan said. "They're her personal property. Notify me
as soon as she regains consciousness -- if she does."

 

 

Al-Buraq moved into a landing orbit for Walisk. Toyce reported that the
labtech computer was making artificial blood for the Webnite, and transfusion
should be started in several hours. She had uttered a number of words
even though unconscious. Toyce had never heard the language before. But
hadn't Pegasus been on Webn? Might not Branwen Davis know some Webnian?

 

 

Ramstan called sickbay. Davis said that she could carry on a limited
conversation in Webnian.

 

 

"I doubt we'll be getting into science or philosophy," Ramstan said.
"Stand by."

 

 

Her green eyes widened, and it was not until after her image faded that
he realized why. She had been hurt by his sarcasm. He cursed himself and
then wondered why he had spoken so. Was it a defense of some sort? Why
did he need a defense?

 

 

He did not have long to think about that nor would he, he realized later,
have done so even if he had had time. His attention was needed for something
much more pressing than delving into his psyche. Al-Buraq was close enough
to the planet Walisk for visual, thermal, radioactive, and raser
observations. The entire planet, from pole to pole, was under black clouds
which were mainly carbon-derived smoke.