The Unreasoning Mask

by Philip José Farmer

  "You shouldn't know everything at once. You couldn't handle all that."

  Ramstan's anger flared up again.

  "What am I? A mere pawn?"

  "Pawns are not mere. Nothing that is necessary is mere. You are a focal point, perhaps the focus. And don't think I mean that you are a thing. A focus can be a person."

  If the glyfa could reach inside him, activate memories and language units, it surely could trigger off emotions. How else explain why he had stolen the glyfa? That was an act that be would not even have thought of, not the captain responsible for the crew of ship and ship herself. He had put al-Buraq and her people in the most extreme danger, and he had never been sure just why.

  Surely, the glyfa had wished him to take it, and it had moved him to the act as if he were a robot.

  Hoarsely, he told the glyfa what he was thinking.

  As usual, he got a half-answer from the thing.

  "I am incapable of inserting desires in others. I can't operate on what doesn't exist."

  "You must have monitored the dying of Wassruss," Ramstan said. "What are the three gifts? What does that question-and-answer chant mean?"

  "There'll be a time and a time for those," the glyfa said.

  Ramstan roared, "I'm fed up with your enigmas! Out you go! Out, I say! The Tenolt can have you back!"

  Silence.

  Ramstan yelled, "Talk, damn you! Unless I get complete and clear answers, i'm going to heave you out of here! I'll show you!"

  Had the glyfa withdrawn, cut off detection? Or was it sitting in that impenetrable shell and smiling whatever kind of smile such a being could have?

  He put his hands upon the egg-shape, lifted it a few centimeters from the table, then took his hands away. The glyfa dropped with a thud but did not roll.

  If he took the thing out now, he would be observed. And the crew would know that he had taken it.

  It would be better to remove it at night and carry it to some place out of sight, say, the top of a rocky ridge half a kilometer away. When the daylight came, or perhaps before that, the Tolt operator of the magniscope would see it. And the Tolt vessel would come down as swiftly as possible to retrieve the god.

  Its descent would be detected, of course, and the crew of al-Buraq would have to be put on alert. Only he would know why the ToIt was moving toward them, and he could not tell anybody.

  But what if the Tolt captain, having gotten the glyfa, decided to take revenge? Would he regard the theft as sacrilege? Would he then attack al-Buraq?

  Or, if he contemplated such action, would he be stopped by the glyfa? Perhaps the glyfa would not want to stop the Tolt.

  He paced back and forth, his head bent, his long chin almost touching his chest, his hands locked behind his back. Finally, he lifted the glyfa, put it back into the bag, and returned it to the bulkhead-safe. The deck trembled very slightly as if al-Buraq was aware of her captain's emotional turmoil and frustration and was shaking with sympathy. Which thought, of course, was ridiculous, Ramstan told himself. He was anthropomorphizing, no, theriomorphizing, too much.

  A call came from the bridge. Doctor Hu wanted to speak to him about Benagur. Ramstan left his quarters almost at once. But as he strode down the passageways, he wondered what had made him keep the glyfa. Was it entirely his own decision? Or had the glyfa subtly steered him toward it?

  ... 14 ...

  Some mystics seek God by travel; others, by staying in one room.

  Benagur had done both. Something had happened to cause him to venture forth from the little chamber in a house in Jerusalem near the Wailing Wall. No one but he knew what it was, but occasionally he had hinted at the event. When questioned by those eager to get the details, he had said that the event was indescribable.

  He would seem to have been unfitted to be a crewmember of an alaraf ship. But he was known worldwide among theologists for his writings on Jewish and Muslim mysticism, and al-Buraq had several berths open for theologists. Benagur was accepted after, of course, the required physical and psychological tests. A deep psychic probe had not been needed to determine that he was eccentric, but it did indicate that he had the stability needed for alaraf-ship living. Besides, he was not the only eccentric aboard.

  If he tended to keep to himself much of the time, he had a good excuse. Like many of the specialists, he was very busy with his professional duties. Unlike most of the others, he was given special privileges because of the rigors of his religion. Whenever possible, he ate by himself and only the foods his religion permitted. The other Jews aboard belonged to sects too liberal for him to regard them as genuine Jews. That was all right with the others; they thought he was a superfanatic. They had, however, a great respect for his knowledge.

  Ramstan had had no trouble with Benagur until the night the glyfa was stolen. Though Benagur was very reserved, that had not bothered Ramstan, who was equally reserved.

  Now, Ramstan felt some guilt. If he'd not done what he'd done, he would not have thrown Benagur into the strange frenzy possessing him.

  Was Benagur crazy? Was he not, by all standards except Ramstan's, sane? Would not the others be acting much like him if they suspected what Benagur suspected?

  On the other hand, none of them might have been affected as deeply. They did not have Benagur's psychic constitution; they were not near the edge of insanity and needing only a slight push to shove them over. After all, Maija Nuoli had been subjected to the same overpowering light, and she had not become psychotic. She had become more introspective than before, and she did not care to talk about her experience in the Tolt temple. But she had carried out her duties as a botanist as efficiently as before.

  Ramstan wondered why the glyfa had asked for her to accompany him and Benagur. What part did she play in the drama the glyfa was undoubtedly writing? For that matter, what part did Benagur have? Perhaps he was no longer in the thing's designs. Whatever it was that had flooded the senses of the three, it had unbalanced Benagur and made him useless to the glyfa.

  It was possible that the glyfa had summoned Nuoli and Benagur to come merely to ensure that Ramstan would not be singled out as the thief. They, too, would be suspects. If so, the glyfa had miscalculated. Suspicion had not fastened upon Benagur or Nuoli.

  The glyfa might have some other reason, however, for inviting them.

  Ramstan entered Doctor Hu's office. Hu rose from behind her desk as the captain entered.

  "Sit down, Julia," Ramstan said. His use of Hu's first name indicated that no formalities were to be observed.

  Ramstan made a sign, and a chair formed from the deck. He sat down, and, after the silence lasted for several seconds, said, "Well?"

  Hu did not look at Ramstan. "Commodore Benagur claims that you stole the glyfa from the Tenolt."

  Now it was in the open, Ramstan thought. No, not really. It could perhaps be kept to Benagur and Hu.

  "You gave him a lie-test?"

  "Of course. It indicates that he thinks he's telling the truth."

  "In which case, then, he's psychotic," Ramstan said.

  Hu hesitated and then looked Ramstan in the eyes.

  "That remains to be proved."

  Ramstan reared up from the chair, bellowing, "What?"

  Hu spread her hands out and shrugged.

  "He's going to bring formal charges against you."

  Ramstan sat down and bit his lips.

  "I can't allow that. We're in a very grave and dangerous situation. The Tolt vessel . . . the terrible destruction of Walisk . . . no. All normal procedures will have to be suspended."

  "You won't allow Benagur to make the charges?"

  "I can't permit it now. Alter there's no more danger, I will, of course."

  He leaned forward, his upper arms on his thighs, his hands clasped.

  "Listen. If Benagur can be shown to be psychotic, then there's no need to log these ridiculous charges."

  "He's certainly upset, which is not, however, the same as being unbalanced."

  Ramstan le
aned back and said, smiling slightly, "Has he also accused me of not believing in God?"

  "No. He said nothing about that. Why?"

  "A little while ago, near the seashore, he made that accusation. He seemed to think that it made me guilty, as criminal, as if I had stolen the glyfa. In fact, more so."

  "He would be psychotic if he'd included that charge in the others," Hu said. "But be didn't."

  "He came close to attacking me while we were on the beach."

  Hu lifted her eyebrows. "Yes? Was his intention overt? Did he threaten you or make any obviously belligerent moves?"

  Ramstan had done far worse than lie, but he just could not bring himself to lie about this.

  "No. But it was evident that he would have liked to attack me."

  Hu's grimace indicated that that was not enough justification to think Benagur psychotic. It also seemed to Ramstan that it said that Benagur wasn't the only crewmember who would like to assault him.

  Ramstan stood up.

  "Benagur will be kept in his cabin unless his condition gets worse and he has to be restrained. You or one of your colleagues will give him therapy."

  Hu rose.

  "There's nothing in the BEG readings or blood samples to indicate a psychotic condition."

  "But those aren't sure methods of determining neurosis or psychosis, are they?"

  "By no means. The psychosoma is vastly complex and often tricky. Centuries . . ."

  "You have my orders," Ramstan said. He strode out. Hu could give the command for the chair to shrink back into the deck. It was protocol for the chair-riser to be the chair-ridder, but to hell with the doctor.

  While walking back to his quarters, he used the skinceiver.

  "Garrick, order all personnel to return to ship at once. We jump for Kalafala in an hour. I'll be on bridge in thirty minutes."

  "'What is the number of the worlds?'

  "'More than many.'

  "'What is the number of paths?'

  "'More than many. Yet they are one.'

  "'What is at the end of the paths that are one?'

  "'Death or wisdom or both. And one more thing.'

  "'What is the way to the three?'

  "'There are many places to start. Webn is one.'

  "'And then?'

  "'Ring the bell at the first entrance past Webn.'

  "'And then?'

  The chant was obviously a navigational chart for the journey from the planet Webn to wherever and whatever the final destination was. Ramstan had seen that within ten minutes after hearing Davis's interpretation of Wassruss's ritual-song. He doubted that Wassruss knew what it meant; she had learned it by rote and given it as required, however meaningless it was to her. The Webnites had no means for space travel except as passengers on the alaraf ships of other sentients. Whoever had given the chant and the three gifts to Wassruss's ancestor had known what the chant meant, but had not explained it to the donee. Or perhaps the donor had done so but the explanation had been forgotten.

  The Webnites did have bells, and so the donor had been able to use "bell" when translating the chant from his or her language into Webnian. But the seal-centaurs did not have dumbbells, those muscle-building devices which consisted of two spherical objects connected by a shaft. It wouldn't have helped their understanding of the chant any if they had had them. It was extremely unlikely that their word for it would have been the transfer- meaning or pun used in Terrish.

  Ramstan doubted that the originator of the chant had meant any connection between a "bell" and a "dumbbell." But the Terrans had made such a connection since there seemed to them to be a "shaft," sometimes called a "tunnel," between the "bell" of one star system and the next. It was possible and perhaps very probable that the originator of the chant had used a word meaning "bell" in his language. There had been no implication of "dumbbell" in the chant. The originator had just meant that when you entered a "bell," that roughly spherical shape with an opening or "mouth" through which you went to the next star system, you were "ringing" it.

  Or it might be that the Raushghols had defined their terminology for alaraf travel to Wassruss when she was on their ship. Then, on al-Buraq, she had, Ramstan knew, been told briefly by Davis the Terran theory and terminology of alaral travel. And she had substituted the word "bell" for whatever had been in the chant taught her.

  The speculation about language did not matter. What did was that he believed that he had been given directions which were somewhat vague but still could get him to the destination -- whatever that was. He would try to get there because he might find an answer to the question of the bolg. And perhaps to other questions.

  He went up to the bridge. He did not have to explain why they were going to Kalafala, but he said, "Lieutenant Davis was left there, and, if Pegasus has not been destroyed, she will come there to pick Davis up. We'll stay on Kalafala for a little while."

  Al-Buraq had been in the Kalafalan bell only three minutes when the tec-op reported another spaceship a thousand kilometers distant. She was oyster-shell-shaped.

  "Popacapyu," the operator said.

  Five hours after al-Buraq had landed on the Kalafalan port, the Tolt vessel set down. Ramstan wondered why she had landed here but not on Webn. And why had no Tolt left her yet, though it was protocol for her commander to report immediately to the control tower authority?

  An hour passed. Then the ports of the Tolt ship opened, and about fifty Tenolt came out. The captain headed for the tower with some officers. The others went to the tavern. Ramstan waited until he saw the captain return to his ship. In the meantime, at least half of the original group had also come back to the Popacapyu. Another group then left the vessel for the tavern. Apparently, their captain was giving them a limited shore leave, time for just a few drinks.

  Tenno said, "Sir, do you plan to give shore leave?"

  That depends," Ramstan said, and he did not say on what.

  A half hour passed. Then two jeeps flew from the Tolt ship and headed toward the hotel. The commander sat in one.

  Ramstan relaxed somewhat. He said, "It looks as II they're going to be here a while."

  He told Tenno that there would be a limited and strictly regulated shore leave. Groups of forty could go out one at a time, the second group to leave after the first had returned, at the end of thirty minutes, and so on. They were not to go to the tavern or the hotel, but they could have a few drinks at the port bar. They should be ready to return to ship immediately if a recall occurred.

  "Do you expect trouble?" Tenno said.

  "Not really. But I want my crew closer to their ship than the Tenolt will be to theirs."

  He left it up to Tenno to decide who would be among the shore-leave parties, and he went to his quarters. He took the glyfa from the safe, and, rubbing it as if he were Aladdin trying to summon the djinn from the lamp, asked it to talk to him.

  Silence.

  Ramstan bit his lower lip. Damn the thing!

  He paced back and forth for an hour, stopping every fifteen minutes to call the bridge and get a report on the Tenolt. The captain of the Popacapyu was still at the hotel. The second Tenolt group had returned to their ship, and a third had gone out. The only ones armed were those in the jeeps accompanying the captain.