Complete Short Fiction (Jerry eBooks)

by James H. Schmitz

  “The critical date, finally, corresponds roughly to the announced death of the planet’s outstanding psychic leader of the time—an historical figure even on present-day Ulphi, known as Moyuscane the Immortal Illusionist.

  “Corroborative evidence—”

  The reading took some fifteen minutes in all.

  “Well, that’s it, I think,” the general remarked at last. “How the old explorers used to wonder at the frequency with which such little lost side-branches of civilization appeared to have simply and suddenly ceased to exist!”

  He became aware of the colonel’s sidelong glance.

  “You agree with my interpretations, colonel?”

  “Entirely, sir.”

  The general hesitated. “The population on Ulphi hasn’t been too badly debased as yet,” he pointed out. “Various reports indicate an I.Q. average of around eleven points below A-Class—not too bad, considering the early elimination of the strains least acceptable to the controlling mentality and the stultifying effect of life-long general compulsions on the others.

  “They’re still eligible for limited membership—capable of self-government and, with help, of self-defense. It will be almost a century, of course, before, they grow back to a point where they can be of any real use to us. Meanwhile, the location of the planet itself presents certain strategic advantages—”

  He paused again. “I’m afraid, colonel,” he admitted, “that I’m evading the issue! The fact remains that a case of this kind simply does not permit of, solution by this office. The identification of Moyuscane the Immortal as the controlling mentality is safe enough, of course. Beyond that we cannot take the responsibility for anything but the most general kind of recommendation. But now, colonel—since I’m an old man, a cowardly old man who really hates an argument—I’m going on vacation for the next hour or so.

  “Would you kindly confront the Zone Agent with our findings? I understand she is still waiting on telepath for them.”

  Zone Agent Pagadan, however, received the information with a degree of good nature which Colonel Deibos found almost disquieting.

  “Well, if you can’t, you can’t,” she shrugged. “I rather expected it. The difficulty is to identify our Telep-Two physically without arousing his suspicions? And the danger is that no one knows how to block things like a planet-wide wave of suicidal impulses, if he happens to realize that’s a good method of self-defense?”

  “That’s about it,” acknowledged the colonel. “It’s very easy to startle mentalities of his class into some unpredictable aggressive reaction. That makes it a simple matter to flush them into sight, which helps to keep them from becoming more than a temporary nuisance, except in such unsophisticated surroundings as on Ulphi. But in the situation that exists there—when the mentality has established itself and set up a widespread system of controls—it does demand the most cautious handling on the part of an operator. This particular case is now further aggravated by the various psychotic disturbances of immortalization.”

  Pagadan nodded, “You’re suggesting, I suppose, that the whole affair should be turned over to Interstellar Crime for space-scooping or some careful sort of long-range detection like that?”

  “It’s the method most generally adopted,” the colonel said. “Very slow, of course—I recall a somewhat similar case which took thirty-two years to solve. But once the directing mentality has been physically identified without becoming aware of the fact, it can be destroyed safely enough.”

  “I can’t quite believe in the necessity of leaving Moyuscane in control of that sad little planet of his for another thirty-two, years, or anything like it,” the Lannai said slowly. “I imagine he’ll he willing to put up with our presence until the Bjanta raids have been deflected?”

  “That seems to be correct. If you decide to dig him out yourself, you have about eight weeks to do it. If the Bjantas haven’t returned to Ulphi by then, he’ll understand that they’ve either quit coming of their own accord, as they sometimes door that they’ve been chased off secretly. And he could hardly help hitting on the reason for that! In either case, the Senate of Ulphi will simply withdraw its application for membership in the Confederacy. It’s no secret that we’re too completely tied up in treaties of nonintervention to do anything but pull our officials out again, if that’s what they want.”

  “The old boy has it all figured out, hasn’t he?” Pagadan paused. “Well—we’ll see. Incidentally, I notice your summation incorporated Lab’s report on the space-fear compulsion Moyuscane’s clamped on Ulphi. Do you have that with you in detail—Lab’s report, I mean? I’d like to hear it.”

  “It’s here, yes—” A muted alto voice addressed Pagadan a moment later:

  “In fourteen percent of the neuro-plates submitted with the Agent’s report, space-fear traces were found to extend into the subanalytical levels normally involved in this psychosis. In all others,. the symptoms of the psychosis were readily identifiable as an artificially induced compulsion.

  “Such a compulsion would maintain itself under reality-stresses to the point required to initiate space-fear death in the organism but would yield normally to standard treatment.”

  “Good enough,” Pagadan nodded. “Fourteen percent space-fear susceptibility is about normal for that type of planetary population, isn’t it? But what about Moyuscane himself? Is there anything to show, anywhere, that he suffered from the genuine brand of the psychosis—that he is one of that fourteen percent?”

  “Well—yes, there is!” Colonel Deibos looked a little startled. “That wasn’t mentioned, was it? Actually, it shows up quite clearly in the historical note that none of his reported illusion performances had any but planetary backgrounds, and usually interior ones, at that. It’s an exceptional Illusionist, you know, who won’t play around with deep-space effects in every conceivable variation. But Moyuscane never touched them—”

  “Telepath is now cleared for Zone Agent 131.71,” the Third Co-ordinator of the Vegan Confederacy murmured into the transmitter before him.

  Alone in his office as usual, he settled back into his chair to relax for the few seconds the visualization tank would require to pick up and re-structure Zone Agent Pagadan’s personal beam for him.

  The office of the Chief of Galactic Zones was as spacious as the control room of a first-line battleship, and quite as compactly equipped with strange and wonderful gadgetry. As the master cell of one of the half dozen or so directing nerve-centers of Confederacy government, it needed it all. The Third Co-ordinator was one of Jeltad’s busier citizens, and it was generally understood that no one intruded on his time except for some extremely good and sufficient reason.

  However, he was undisturbed by the reflection that there was no obvious reason of any kind for Zone Agent Pagadan’s request for an interview. The Lannai was one of the Third Co-ordinator’s unofficial group of special Agents, his trouble-shooters de luxe, whom he could and regularly did unleash in the pits of space against virtually any kind of opponent—with a reasonable expectation of being informed presently of the Agent’s survival and success. And whenever one of that fast-moving pack demanded his attention, he took it for granted they had a reason and that it was valid enough. Frequently, though not always, they would let him know then what it was.

  The transmitter’s visualization tank cleared suddenly from a smokily glowing green into a three-dimensional view of the Viper’s control room; and the Co-ordinator gazed with approval on the silver-eyed, spacesuited, slender figure beyond the ship’s massive control desk. Human or not, Pagadan was nice to look at.

  “And what do you want now?” he inquired.

  “Agent-Trainee Hallerock,” the Lannai informed him, “6972.41, fourth year.”

  “Hm-m-m. Yes, I know him!” The Co-ordinator tapped the side of his long jaw reflectively; “Rather striking chap, isn’t he?”

  “He’s beautiful!” Pagadan agreed enthusiastically. “How soon can you get him out here?”

  “Even by
Ranger,” the Co-ordinator said doubtfully, “it would be ten days. There’s an Agent in the nearest cluster I could route out to you in just under four.”

  She shook her head. “Hallerock’s the boy—gloomy Hallerock. I met him a few months ago, back on Jeltad,” she added, as if that made it clear. “What are his present estimated chances for graduation?”

  The inquiry was strictly counterregulation, but the Co-ordinator did not raise an eyebrow. Pie nudged a switch on his desk.

  “I’ll let the psych-tester answer that.”

  “If the Agent-Trainee were admitted for graduation,” a deep mechanical voice came immediately from the wall to his left, “the percentage of probability of his passing all formal tests would be ninety-eight seven. But because of a background-conditioned lack of emotional adjustment to Vegan Civilization, graduation has been indefinitely postponed.”

  “What I thought,” Pagadan nodded. “Well, just shoot him out to me then—by Ranger, please!—and I’ll do him some good. That’s all, and thanks a lot for the interview!”

  “It was a pleasure,” said the Coordinator. Then, seeing her hand move towards her transmitter switch, he added hastily, “I understand you’ve run into a secondary mission problem out there, and that Correlation foresees difficulties in finding a satisfactory solution.”

  The Lannai paused, her hand on the switch. She looked a! little surprised. “That Ulphian illusionist? Shouldn’t be too much trouble. If you’re in a hurry for results though, please get behind Lab Supply on the stuff I requisitioned just now—the Hospital ship, the Kynoleen and the special types of medics I need. Push out that, and Hallerock, to me and you’ll have my final mission report in three weeks, more or less.”

  She waved a cheerful farewell and switched off, and the view of the Viper’s control room vanished from the transmitter.

  The Co-ordinator chewed his upper lip thoughtfully.

  “Psych-tester,” he said then, “just what is the little hellcat cooking up now?”

  “I must remind you,” the psych-tester’s voice returned, “that Zone Agent 131.71 is one of the thirty-two individuals who have been able to discern my primary purpose here, and who have established temporary blocks against my investigations. She is, furthermore, the first to have established a block so nearly complete that I can offer no significant answer to your question. With that understood, do you wish an estimate?”

  “No!” grunted the Co-ordinator. “I’d forgotten. I can make a few wild guesses myself.” He ran his hand gently through his graying hair. “Let’s see—this Hallerock’s trouble is a background-conditioned lack of adjustment to our type of civilization, you say?”

  “He comes,” the psych-tester reminded him, “of the highly clannish and emotionally planet-bound strain of Mark Wieri VI.”

  The Co-ordinator nodded. “I remember now. Twenty-two thousand light-years out. They’ve been isolated there almost since the First Stellar Migrations—were rediscovered only a dozen years or so ago. Extra good people! But Hallerock was the only one of them we could talk into going to work for us.”

  “He appears to be unique among them in being galactic-minded in the Vegan sense,” the psych-tester agreed. “Subconsciously, however, he remains so strongly drawn to his own kind that a satisfactory adjustment to permanent separation from them has not been achieved. Outwardly, the fact is expressed only in a lack of confidence in himself and in those with whom he happens to be engaged in any significant work; but the tendency is so pronounced that it has been considered unsafe to release him for Zonal duty.”

  “Ninety-eight point seven!” the Co-ordinator said. He swore mildly. “That means he’s way the best of the current batch—and I could use a couple like that so beautifully right now! Psychoing won’t do it?”

  “Nothing short of complete mind-control for a period of several weeks.”

  The Co-ordinator shook his head. “It would settle his personal difficulties, but he’d be spoiled for us.” He considered again, briefly, sighed and decided: “Pagadan’s claimed him, anyway. She may wreck him completely; but she knows her therapy at that. Better let her give it a try.” He added, as if in apology:

  “I’m sure that if we could consult Trainee Hallerock on the question, he’d agree with us—”

  He was reaching out to punch down a desk stud with the last words and continued without a noticeable break:

  “Central Communicator clear for Lab report on the rate of spread of the Olleeka plagues—”

  His mind clearing also with that of any other matter, he settled back quietly and waited for Lab to come in.

  System Chief Jasse, D.C. Cultural Field Investigator, listened attentively till her study recorder had clicked out “Report Dispatched.” Then she sat frowning at the gadget for a moment.

  The home office would like that report! A brisk, competent review of a hitherto obscure section of Ulphi’s long-past rough and ready colonial period, pointing out and explaining the contrast between those days and the present quaintly perfect Ulphian civilization. It was strictly in line with the Department of Cultures’ view of what any group of A-Class human beings, left to themselves, could achieve and it had sounded plausible enough when she played it back. But somehow it left her dissatisfied. Somehow Ulphi itself left her dissatisfied.

  Perhaps she just needed a vacation! As usual, when a new case was keeping her busy, she had been dosing herself with insomniates for the past two weeks. But in her six years of work with Cultures she had never felt the need for a vacation before.

  Patting back a yawn in the process of formation, Jasse shook her head, shut off the recorder and stepped out before the study mirror. Almost time for another appointment—some more historical research.

  Turning once slowly before the tall mirror, she checked the details of her uniform and its accessories—the Traditionalist Greens which had been taken over with all their symbolic implications by the Department of Cultures. Everything in order, including the concealed gravmoc batteries in belt and boots and the electronic mind-shield switch in her wrist bracelet. No weapons to check; as a matter of policy they weren’t carried by D.C. officials.

  She pulled a be jeweled cap down on her shoulder-length wave of glossy black hair, grimaced at the face that, at twenty-five or thereabouts, still wore an habitual expression of intent, childish seriousness, and left the study.

  By the lake shore, fifty feet from the D.C. mobile-unit’s door, the, little-people were waiting. Six of them today—middle-aged historians in, the long silver-gray garments of their guild, standing beside a beautifully shaped vehicle with a suggestion of breath-taking speed about its lines. The suggestion didn’t fool Jasse, who knew by experience that, its looks were the only breath-taking thing, about an Ulphian flow-car. The best it would produce in action was an air-borne amble, at so leisurely a pace that throughout her first trip in one of the things she had felt like getting out and pushing.

  One mustn’t, of course, she reminded herself conscientiously, settling back in the flow-car, judge any; human culture by the achievements of another! Granted that Ulphi had long since lost the driving power of Vega’s humming technologies, who was to say that it hadn’t found, a better thing in its place?

  A fair enough question, but Jasse: doubtfully continued to weigh the answer while the lengthy little Ulphian ritual of greetings and expressions of mutual esteem ran its course and came to an end in the flow-ear. Then her escort of historical specialists settled down to shop talk in their flowery derivative of one of the twelve basic human dialects, and she began automatically to contribute her visiting dignitary’s share to the conversation-just enough to show she was deeply interested but no more. Her attention, however, remained on the city below.

  They were gliding only five hundred feet above the lake’s shoreline, but all roofs were low enough to permit a wide view—and everything, everywhere, was in superbly perfect symmetry and balance. The car’s motion did not change that impression. As it drove on, the gleaming white and
softly tinted buildings about and below it flowed steadily into new and always immaculate patterns of sweeping line and blended color, merging in and out of the lake front with a rightness that trembled and stopped at the exact point of becoming too much so.

  And that was only a direct visual expression of the essence of Ulphi’s culture. Every social aspect of the planet showed the same easy order, the same minute perfectionist precision of graceful living—achieved without apparent effort in cycle on cycle of detail.

  Jasse smiled pleasantly at her companions. The puzzling fact remained that this planetary batch of little-people just wasn’t particularly bright! And any population with the gumption of a flock of rabbits should have sent a marauding Mother Disk of Bjantas on its way in a panicky hurry, without having to ask for help to solve that sort of problem!

  She really must need a vacation, Jasse sighed, disturbed by such unorthodox reflections. A-Class humans just didn’t go off on the wrong track, however gracefully, unless they were pushed there—so her doubts about Ulphi meant simply that she hadn’t found the key to it yet!

  Possibly she could do with a few weeks of re-indoctrination in basic Traditionalism.

  “The Tomb of Moyuscane the Immortal—the last of our Great Illusionists!”

  Jasse regarded the tomb with an air of respectful appreciation. Tombs, on the whole, she could do without; but this one undoubtedly was something special. She and Requada-Attan, Historian and Hereditary Custodian of the Tomb, had come together out of one of the main halls of the enormous building complex which housed the Historical Institute of Ulphi’s Central City into a small, transparently over-roofed park. The remainder of her escort had shown her what they had to show and then withdrawn respectfully to their various duties; but Requada-Attan, probably hot averse to having a wider audience benefit by the informative lecture he was giving the distinguished visitor, had left the gate to the park open behind them. A small crowd of sightseeing Ulphians had drifted in and was grouped about them by now.