26
Three mornings later, the emergency signal called her back to camp onthe double.
Trigger ran over the developments of the past days in her mind as shetrotted along the path, getting dressed more or less on the way. TheDevagas dome was solidly invested by now, its transmitters blanked out.It hadn't tried to communicate with its attackers. On their part, theFed ships weren't pushing the attack. They were holding the point,waiting for the big, slow wrecking boats to arrive, which would verygently and delicately start uncovering and opening the dome, taking itapart, piece by piece. The hierarchy could surrender themselves andwhatever they were hiding in there at any point in the process. Theydidn't have a chance. Nobody and nothing had escaped. The Scouts hadswatted down a few Devagas vessels on the way in; but those had beenheaded toward the dome, not away from it.
Perhaps the Psychology Service ship had arrived, several days ahead oftime.
The other three weren't in camp, but the lock to the Commissioner's shipstood open. Trigger went in and found them gathered up front. TheCommissioner had swung the transmitter cabinet aside and was back there,prowling among the power leads.
"What's wrong?" Trigger asked.
"Transmitters went out," he said. "Don't know why yet. Grab some toolsand help me check."
She slipped on her work gloves, grabbed some tools and joined him. Lyadand Mantelish watched them silently.
They found the first spots of the fungus a few minutes later.
"Fungus!" Mantelish said, startled. He began to rumble in his pockets."My microscope--"
"I have it." Lyad handed it to him. She looked at him with concern. "Youdon't think--"
"It seems possible. We did come in here last night, remember? And wecame straight from the lab."
"But we had been decontaminated," Lyad said puzzledly.
"Don't try to walk in here, Professor!" Trigger warned as he lumberedforward. "We might have to de-electrocute you. The Commissioner willscrape off a sample and hand it out. This stuff--if it's what you thinkit might be--is poisonous?"
"Quite harmless to life, my dear," said the professor, bending over thepatch of greenish-gray scum the Commissioner had reached out to him."But ruinous in delicate instruments! That's why we're so careful."
Holati Tate glanced at Trigger. "Better look in the black box, Trig," hesaid.
She nodded and wormed herself farther into the innards of thetransmitters. A minute later she announced, "Full of it! And that's theone part we can't repair or replace, of course. Is it your beast,Professor?"
"It seems to be," Mantelish said unhappily. "But we have, at least, asolvent which will remove it from the equipment."
Trigger came sliding out from under the transmitters, the detached blackbox under one arm. "Better use it then before the stuff gets to the restof the ship. It won't help the black box." She shook it. It tinkled."Shot!" she said. "There went another quarter million of your credits,Commissioner."
Mantelish and Lyad headed for the lock to get the solvent. Triggerslipped off her work gloves and turned to follow them. "Might be a whilebefore I'm back," she said.
The Commissioner started to say something, then nodded and climbed backinto the transmitters. After a few minutes, Mantelish came puffing inwith sprayers and cans of solvent. "It's at least fortunate you tried toput out a call just now," he said. "It might have done incalculabledamage."
"Doubt it," said Holati. "A few more instruments might have gone. Likethe communicators. The main equipment is fungus-proof. How do youattach this thing?"
Mantelish showed him.
The Commissioner thanked him. He directed a fine spray of the solventinto the black box and watched the fungus melt. "Happen to notice whereTrigger and Lyad went?" he asked.
"Eh?" said Mantelish. He reflected. "I saw them walking down toward camptalking together as I came in," he called. "Should I go get them?"
"Don't bother," Holati said. "They'll be back."
They came walking back into the ship around half an hour later. Bothfaces looked rather white and strained.
"Lyad has something she wants to tell you, Holati," Trigger said."Where's Mantelish?"
"In his lab. Taking a nap, I believe."
"That's good. We don't want him here for this. Go ahead, Lyad. Just theimportant stuff. You can give us the details after we've left."
Three hours later, the ship was well away from Luscious, travelingsubspace, traveling fast. Trigger walked up into the control section.
"Mantelish is still asleep," she said. They'd fed the professor a dopeddrink to get him aboard without detailed explanation and argument abouthow much of the lab should be loaded on the ship first. "Shall I getLyad out of her cabin for the rest of the story or wait till he wakesup?"
"Better wait," said the Commissioner. "He'll come out of it in about anhour, and he might as well hear it with us. Looks like navigating'sgoing to be a little rough for a spell anyway."
Trigger nodded and sat down in the control next to his. After a whilehe glanced over at her.
"How did you get her to talk?" he asked.
"We went back into the woods a bit. I tied her over a stump and broketwo sticks across the first seat of Tranest. Got the idea from Mihulsort of," Trigger added vaguely. "When I picked up a third stick, Lyadgot awfully anxious to keep things at just a fast conversational level.We kept it there."
"Hm," said the Commissioner. "You don't feel she did any lying thistime?"
"I doubt it. I tapped her one now and then, just to make sure she didn'tslow down enough to do much thinking. Besides I'd got the whole businessdown on a pocket recorder, and Lyad knew it. If she makes one more gooftill this deal is over, the recording gets released to the Hub's newsviewer outfits, yowls and all. She'd sooner lose Tranest than riskhaving that happen. She'll be good."
"Yeah, probably," he said thoughtfully. "About that substation--wouldyou feel more comfortable if we went after the bunch round the Devagasdome first and got us an escort for the trip?"
"Sure," Trigger said. "But that would just about kill any chances ofdoing anything personally, wouldn't it?"
"I'm afraid so. Scout Intelligence will go along pretty far with me. Butthey couldn't go that far. We might be able to contact Quillanindividually though. He's a topnotch man in a fighter."
"It doesn't seem to me," Trigger said, "that we ought to run any risk ofbeing spotted till we know exactly what this thing is like."
"Well," said the Commissioner, "I'm with you there. We shouldn't."
"What about Mantelish and Lyad? You can't let them know either."
The Commissioner motioned with his head. "The rest cubicle back of thecabins. If we see a chance to do anything, we'll pop them both intoRest. I can dream up something to make that look plausible afterwards, Ithink."
Trigger was silent a moment. Lyad had told them she'd dispatched theAurora to stand guard over a subspace station where the missing kingplasmoid presently was housed, until both she and the combat squadronfrom Tranest could arrive there. The exact location of that station hadbeen the most valuable of the bits of information she had extracted sopainstakingly from Balmordan. The coordinates were centered on theCommissioner's course screen at the moment.
"How about that Tranest squadron?" Trigger asked. "Think Lyad might haverisked a lie, and they could get out here in time to interfere?"
"No," said the Commissioner. "She had to have some idea of where to sendthem before starting them out of the Hub. They'll be doing fine if theymake it to the substation in another two weeks. Now the Aurora--if theystarted for Luscious right after Lyad called them last night, at bestthey can't get there any sooner than we can get to the substation. Ifigure that at four days. If they turn right around then, and startback--"
Trigger laughed. "You can bet on that!" she said. The Commissioner hadused his ship's guns to brand the substation's coordinates intwenty-mile figures into a mountain plateau above Plasmoid Creek. They'dleft much more detailed information in camp, but there was a c
hance itwould be overlooked in too hurried a search.
"Then they'll show up at the substation again four or five days behindus," the Commissioner said. "So they're no problem. But our own outfit'sfastest ships can cut across from the Devagas dome in less than threedays after their search party messages from Luscious to tell them whywe've stopped transmitting and where we've gone. Or the Psychology shipmight get to Luscious before the search party does and starttransmitting about the coordinates."
"In any case," said Trigger, "it's our own boys who are likely to be theproblem."
"Yes. I'd say we _should_ have two days, give or take a few hours, afterwe get to the station to see if we can do anything useful and get itdone. Of course, somebody might come wandering into Luscious right nowand start wondering about those coordinate figures, or drop in at ourcamp and discover we're gone. But that's not very likely, after all."
"Couldn't be helped anyway," Trigger said.
"No. If we knock ourselves out on this job, somebody besides Lyad'sTranest squadron and the Devagas has to know just where the station is."He shook his head. "That Lyad! I figured she'd know how to run thetransmitters, so I gave her the chance. But I never imagined she'd be agood enough engineer to get inside them and mess them up without killingherself."
"Lyad has her points," Trigger said. "Too bad she grew up a rat. You hada playback attachment stuck in there then?"
"Naturally."
"Full of the fungus, I suppose?"
"Full of it," said the Commissioner. "Well, Lyad still lost on thatmaneuver. Much less comfortably than she might have, too."
"I think she'd agree with you there," Trigger said.
Lyad's first assignment after Professor Mantelish came out of the dopewas to snap him back into trance and explain to him how he had once morebeen put under hypno control and used for her felonious ends by theFirst Lady of Tranest. They let him work off his rage while he was stillunder partial control. Then the Ermetyne woke him up.
He stared at her coldly.
"You are a deceitful woman, Lyad Ermetyne!" he declared. "I don't wishto see you about my labs again! At any time. Under any pretext. Is thatunderstood?"
"Yes, Professor," Lyad said. "And I'm sorry that I believed it necessaryto--"
Mantelish snorted. "Sorry! Necessary! Just to be certain it doesn'thappen again, I shall make up a batch of antihypno pills. If I canremember the prescription."
"I happen," the Ermetyne ventured, "to know a very good prescription forthe purpose, Professor. If you will permit me!"
Mantelish stood up. "I'll accept no prescriptions from you!" he saidicily. He looked at Trigger as he turned to walk out of the cabin. "Ordrinks from you either, Trigger Argee!" he growled. "Who in the greatspiraling galaxy is there left to trust!"
"Sorry, Professor," Trigger said meekly.
In half an hour or so, he calmed down enough to join the others in thelounge, to get the final story on Gess Fayle and the missing kingplasmoid from the Ermetyne.
Doctor Gess Fayle, Lyad reported, had died very shortly after leavingthe Manon System. And with him had died every man on board theU-League's transport ship. It might be simplest, she went on, to relatethe first series of events from the plasmoid's point of view.
"Point of view?" Professor Mantelish interrupted. "The plasmoid hasawareness then?"
"Oh, yes. That one does."
"Self-awareness?"
"Definitely."
"Oho! But then--"
"Professor," Trigger interrupted politely in turn, "may I get you adrink?"
He glared at her, growled, then grinned. "I'll shut up," he said. Lyadwent on.
Doctor Fayle had resumed experimentation with the 112-113 unit almost assoon as he was alone with it; and one of the first things he did was todetach the small 113 section from the main one. The point Doctor Faylehadn't adequately considered when he took this step was that 113'sfunction appeared to be that of a restraining, limiting or counteractingdevice on its vastly larger partner. The Old Galactics obviously hadbeen aware of dangerous potentialities in their more advanced creations,and had used this means of regulating them. That the method was reliablewas indicated by the fact that, in the thirty thousand years since theOld Galactics had vanished, plasmoid 112 had remained restricted to theoperations required for the maintenance of Harvest Moon.
But it hadn't liked being restricted.
And it had been very much aware of the possibilities offered by the newlife-forms which lately had intruded on Harvest Moon.
The instant it found itself free, it attempted to take control of thehuman minds in its environment.
"Mind-level control?" Mantelish exclaimed, looking startled. "Notunheard-of, of course. And we'd been considering.... But of _human_minds?"
Lyad nodded. "It can contact human minds," she said, "though, perhapsrather fortunately, it can project that particular field effect onlywithin a quite limited radius. A little less, the Devagas found later,than five miles."
Mantelish shook his head, frowning. He turned toward the Commissioner."Holati," he said emphatically, "I believe that thing could bedangerous!"
For a moment, they all looked at him. Then the Commissioner cleared histhroat. "It's a possibility, Mantelish," he admitted. "We will give itthought later."
"What," Trigger asked Lyad, "killed the people on the ship?"
"The attempt to control them," Lyad said. Doctor Fayle apparently haddied as he was leaving the laboratory with the 113 unit. The other mendied wherever they were. The ship, running subspace and pilotless,plowed headlong into the next gravitic twister and broke up.
A Devagas ship's detectors picked up the wreckage three days later.Balmordan was on board the Devagas ship and in charge.
The Devagas, at that time, were at least as plasmoid-hungry as anybodyelse, and knew they were not likely to see their hunger gratified forseveral decades. The wreck of a U-League ship in the Manon areadecidedly was worth investigating.
If the big plasmoid hadn't been capable of learning from its mistakes,the Devagas investigating party also would have died. Since it could anddid learn, they lived. The searchers discovered human remains and thecrushed remnants of the 113 unit in a collapsed section of the ship.Then they discovered the big plasmoid--alive in subspace, undamaged andvery conscious of the difficulties it now faced.
It had already initiated its first attempt to solve the difficulties. Itwas incapable of outward motion and could not change its own structure,but it was no longer alone. It had constructed a small work-plasmoidwith visual and manipulating organs, as indifferent to exposure tosubspace as its designer. When the boarding party encountered the twain,the working plasmoid apparently was attempting to perform some operationon the frozen and shriveled brain of one of the human cadavers.
Balmordan was a scientist of no mean stature among the Devagas. He didnot understand immediately what he saw, but he realized the probableimportance of understanding it. He had the plasmoids and their lifelesshuman research object transferred to the Devagas ship and settled downto observe what they did.
Released, the working plasmoid went back immediately to its task. Itcompleted it. Then Balmordan and, presumably, the plasmoids waited.Nothing happened.
Finally, Balmordan investigated the dead brain. Installed in it he foundwhat appeared to be near-microscopic energy receivers of plasmoidmaterial. There was nothing to indicate what type of energy they wereto--or could--receive.
Devagas scientists, when they happened to be of the hierarchy, alwayshad enjoyed one great advantage over most of their colleagues in theFederation. They had no difficulty in obtaining human volunteers to actas subjects for experimental work. Balmordan appointed three of hisleast valuable crew members as volunteers for the plasmoid'sexperiments.
The first of the three died almost immediately. The plasmoid, it turnedout, lacked understanding of, among other things, the use and need ofanesthetics. Balmordan accordingly assisted obligingly in the secondoperation. He was delighted when it became ap
parent that his assistancewas being willingly and comprehendingly accepted. This subject did notdie immediately. But he did not regain consciousness after the plasmoiddevices had been installed; and some hours later he did die, inconvulsions.
Number Three was more fortunate. He regained consciousness. Hecomplained of headaches and, after he had slept, of nightmares. The nextday he went into shock for a period of several hours. When he came outof it, he reported tremblingly that the big plasmoid was talking to him,though he could not understand what it said.
There were two more test operations, both successful. In all threecases, the headaches and nightmares stopped in about a week. The firstsubject in the series was beginning to understand the plasmoid.Balmordan listened to his reports. He had his three surviving volunteersgiven very extensive physical and psychological tests. They seemed to bein fine condition.
Balmordan now had the operation performed on himself. When he woke up,he disposed of his three predecessors. Then he devoted his fullattention to learning what the plasmoid was trying to say. In aboutthree weeks it became clear....
The plasmoid had established contact with human beings because itneeded their help. It needed a base like Harvest Moon from which tooperate and on which to provide for its requirements. It did not havethe understanding to permit it to construct such a base.
So it made the Devagas a proposition. It would work for them, somewhatas it had worked for the Old Galactics, if--unlike the OldGalactics--they would work for it.
Balmordan, newly become a person of foremost importance, transmitted theoffer to the hierarchy in the Hub. With no hesitation it was accepted,but Balmordan was warned not to bring his monster into the Hub area. Ifit was discovered on a Devagas world, the hierarchy would be faced withthe choice between another war with the Federation and submission tomore severely restrictive Federation controls. It didn't care for eitheralternative; it had lost three wars with the Federated worlds in thepast and each time had been reduced in strength.
They contacted Vishni's Independent Fleet. Vishni's area was not too farfrom Balmordan's ship position, and the Devagas had had previousdealings with him and his men. This time they hired the I-Fleet tobecome the plasmoid's temporary caretaker. Within a few weeks it wasparked on Luscious, where it devoted itself to the minor creativeexperimentation which presently was to puzzle Professor Mantelish.
The Devagas meanwhile toiled prodigiously to complete the constructionswhich were to be a central feature in the new alliance. On a base veryfar removed from the Hub, on a base securely anchored and concealedamong the gravitic swirlings and shiftings of a subspace turbulencearea, virtually indetectable, the monster could make a very valuablepartner. If it was discovered, the partnership could be disowned. Socould the fact that they had constructed the substation for it--initself a grave breach of Federation treaties.
They built the substation. They built the armed subterranean observer'sdome three days' travel away from it. The plasmoid was installed in itsnew quarters. It then requested the use of the Vishni Fleet people forfurther experimentation.
The hierarchy was glad to grant the request. It would have had to getrid of those too well informed hirelings in any case.
Having received its experimental material, the plasmoid requested theDevagas to stay away from the substation for a while.