“But even bad situations have their good points. At least, this place is a good training ground for probationers.”
“Probationers?”
“Right. Probationers who don’t even know they’re being tested.” He smiled.
“People with the qualifications for Senior Agent are hard to get. Most of them are latent—asleep. We can’t expect them to walk in—we have to find them. Then we have to wake them up. It can be tricky.”
He lit his cigarette, eying Stan thoughtfully.
“I suppose you’ve heard some of the stories that fly around about the Corps. The truth of the matter is, the Senior Agent isn’t any superman. He’s just a normal human being with a couple of extra quirks.”
He held up a finger.
“First, he’s trouble prone. A nasty situation attracts him much as a flame attracts a moth.
“There are a lot of people like that. Most of them are always getting themselves clobbered. The agent usually doesn’t.”
He held up a second finger.
“Because he has a compensating ability. When he turns on the pressure, people do just as he tells them—most people, that is.” He sighed.
“That’s the latent ability. Sometimes full control is buried so deeply it takes something like a major catastrophe to wake the guy up to the fact he can use it.” He smiled wryly.
“Oh, he pushes people around once in a while—makes ’em uneasy when he’s around—makes himself unpopular. But he’s got no control. He’s got to be awakened.”
“Yes, but—”
“Uh-uh. It sounds simple, but it isn’t.” Michaels shook his head.
“You don’t just snap a finger in front of this fellow. You’ve got to provide him with real trouble. Pile it on him—until he gets so much pressure built up that he snaps himself into action. Makes a place like this useful.”
“I begin to see. You mean all this stuff I’ve been going through was sort of a glorified alarm clock?”
“Yes. You could put it that way. That, and a trial assignment as a junior agent. Still want to be a Special Corpsman?”
Stan looked around the office consideringly, then got to his feet.
“I stood it without knowing what was going on. Even had a little fun once in a while. Maybe I could learn to like it if I knew what I was doing.” He shrugged.
“What’s next?”
Michaels shoved a stack of papers toward him.
“Administrative details. You just can’t get away from them.” He took a pen from his desk.
“After you sign all these, I’ll get a couple of people in here for witnesses while we give you your oath.
“It’s practically painless.”
THE END
NARAN MUKUN looked across the table at the caravan master.
“And you couldn’t find a trace of him?”
“Nothing. Not even a scrap of his cargo or so much as the bones of a long-neck. He just dropped out of sight of his whole train. He went through this big estate, you see. Then he cut back to pick up some of his stops on the northern swing. Well, that was all. He didn’t get to the first one.” The other waved a hand.
“Weird situation, too. Oh, the null was swirling, we know that, and he could have been caught in an arm. It happens, but it isn’t too often that an experienced man like your brother gets in so deep he can’t get out somehow—or at least leave some trace of what happened.” The man picked up his cup, eying it thoughtfully.
“Oh, we’ve all had close ones, sure. We’ve all lost a long-neck or so, now and then. Whenever the null swirls, it can cover big territory in a big hurry and most of that northern swing is null area at one time or another. One of those arms can overrun a train at night and if a man loses his head, he’s in big trouble.” He sipped from his cup.
“Young caravan master got caught that way, just a while back. A friend of mine, Dr. Zalbon, was running the swing after the null retracted. He found what was left.”
“Told me he ran into a herd of carnivores. Fifteen or twenty real big fellows. Jaws as long as a man. He killed them off and then found they’d been feeding on what was left of Dar Konil’s train.”
He shook his head. “It’s not a nice area.”
“Hold everything.” Naran leaned forward. “You said my brother went through this big estate. Anyone see him come out?”
Dar Girdek smiled. “Oh, sure. The Master of the Estates, Kio Barra, himself. He saw him to the border and watched him go on his way.”
Naran looked doubtful. “And what kind of a character is this Barra?”
“Oh, him!” Dar Girdek waved a hand. “Nothing there. In the first place, he holds one of the biggest estates in the mountain area. So what would he want to rob a freight caravan for?” He laughed.
“In the second place, the guy’s practically harmless. Oh, sure, he’s got a title. He’s Lord of the Mountain Lake. And he wears a lot of psionic crystalware. But he’s got about enough punch to knock over some varmint—if it’s not too tough. Dar Makun might be your weak brother, but he’d have eaten that guy for breakfast if he’d tried to be rough.”
“Psionic weakling, you mean? But how does he manage to be a master Protector of an Estate?”
Dar Girdek smiled wryly. “Father died. Brother sneaked off somewhere. That left him. Title’s too clear for anyone to try any funny business.”
“I see.” Naran leaned back. “Now, what about this null?”
“Well, of course you know about the time the pseudomen from the Fifth managed to sneak in and lay a mess of their destructors on Carnol?”
“I might. I was one of the guys that saw to it they didn’t get back to celebrate.” Naran closed his eyes for an instant.
“Yeah. Way I heard it, you were the guy that wrapped ’em up. Too bad they didn’t get you on the job sooner. Maybe we wouldn’t have this mess on our hands now.” Dar Girdek shrugged.
“Anyway, they vaporized the city and a lot of area around it. That was bad, but the aftereffect is worse. We’ve got scholars beating their brains cells together, but all they can tell us is that there’s a big area up there just as psionically dead as an experimental chamber.” He grinned.
“I could tell ’em that much myself. It’s a sort of cloud. Goes turbulent, shoots out arms, then folds in again.
“We’d by-pass the whole thing, but it’s right on the main trade route. Only way around it is plenty of days out of the path, clear down around the middle sea and into the lake region. Then you have to go all the way back anyway, if you plan to do any mid-continent trading. And you still take a chance of getting caught in a swirl arm.”
Naran tilted his head. “So? Suppose you do get into a swirl? All you need to do is wait.” He smiled.
“You know. Just sort of ignore it. It’ll go away.”
“Uh huh. Sounds easy enough. It’s about what we do when we have to. But there are things living there. They can be hard to ignore.”
“You mean the carnivores?”
“That’s right. If you meet one of those fellow out in normal territory, he’s no trouble at all. You hit him with a distorter and he flops. Then you figure out whether to reduce him to slime or leave the carcass for his friends and relations.” He smiled.
“From what your brother said, you wouldn’t need the distorter.”
Naran smiled deprecatingly. “That’s one of the things they pay me for,” he remarked. “We run into some pretty nasty beasties at sea.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard. Big, rough fellows. Our varmints are smaller. But what would you do if you ran into twenty tons or so of pure murder, and you with no more psionic power than some pseudoman?”
Naran looked at him thoughtfully. “I hadn’t thought of that,” he admitted. “I might not like it. Jaws as longs as a man, you said?”
The other nodded. “Longer, sometimes. And teeth as long as your hand. One snap and there’s nothing left.
“When they kill a long-neck, they have a good meal and walk away from whatever�
�s left. But people are something else. They just can’t get enough and they don’t leave any crumbs.” He waved a hand.
“There’ve been several trains caught by those things. A swirl arm comes over at night, you see, and the caravan master loses his head. He can’t think of anything but getting out. Oh, he can yell at his drivers. They’ve got a language, and we all know it. That’s easy. But did you ever try to get a long-neck going without psionic control?”
“I see what you mean. It could be a little rough.”
“Yeah. It could be. Anyway, about this time, everybody’s yelling at everybody else. The long-necks are squealing and bellowing. Drivers are jerking on reins. And a herd of carnivores hears the commotion. So, they drop around to see the fun. See what I mean?”
Naran nodded and Dar Girdek went on.
“Well, that’s about it. Once in a great while, some guy manages to get into a cave and hide out till the null swings away and another caravan comes along. But usually, no one sees anything but a little of the cargo and some remains of long-necks. No one’s ever come up with any part of man or pseudoman. As I said, one snap and there’s nothing left.”
Naran smiled wryly. “Tough to be popular, I guess.” He leaned forward.
“But you’ve been over the trail several times since he disappeared. And you said you’ve seen nothing. No trace of the train. That right?”
The other shook his head. “Not even a cargo sling.”
“You’re making up a train now, aren’t you? I’d like to go along on this next trip. Fact is, I’ve been thinking some nasty thoughts. And I’m going to be uneasy till I find out whether I’m right or not.”
Dar Girdek rubbed his chin. “Want to buy in, maybe?”
“No, I don’t think so. I’ll work my way—as your lead driver.”
“Oh, no!” Dar Girdek laughed. “You don’t put a psionic on some long-neck. Lead driver’s pseudoman, just like the rest.” He sobered.
“Oh, sure. You could handle the drivers, but it just isn’t done.”
Naran smiled. “Oh, as far as the other drivers’ll know, I’m just another pseudoman. I’ve been a ship’s non-psi agent, remember? We earn our keep by dealing with the people in non-psi areas.”
“It won’t work.” The caravan master shook his head. “These drivers can get pretty rough with each other. You’d have to set two or three of them back on their heels the first day. It would be either that, or get a lot of bruises and end up as camp flunky.”
“Could be,” Naran told him. “Tell you what. You turn me loose in an experimental chamber so I can’t fudge. Then send your toughest driver in and tell him to kick me out of there. I’ll show him some tricks I learned from the non-psi’s overseas and he’ll be a smarter man when he wakes up.”
Leuwan, Kio Barra, Lord of the Mountain Lake, Master of the Estates Kira Barra, and Protector of the Common Good, stood examining the assortment of crystals in a cabinet. He hesitated over a large, brilliantly gleaming sphere of crystallized carbon, then shook his head. That one would be pretty heavy going, he was sure. The high intensity summary said something about problems of the modern world, so it could be expected to be another of those dull reports on the welfare of the Commonwealth.
Why, he wondered, did some projection maker waste good time and effort by making up things like that? And why did they waste more time and effort by sending them around? When a man wanted to relax, he wanted something to relax with. What he was looking for was something light.
He turned his attention to other crystals, at last selecting a small, blue prism. He held it up, regarding it, then nodded and placed it on the slender black pedestal near his chair, where he could observe without undue effort.
He turned, examining each corner of his empty study, then took his sapphire-tipped golden staff from under his arm, placing it carefully on a rack built into his chair arm, where it would be convenient to his hand should the need arise.
One could never be too careful, he thought. Of course, he could deal with any recalcitrant slave by other means, but the distorter was convenient and could be depended upon to give any degree of pressure desired. And it was a lot less trouble to use than to concentrate on more fatiguing efforts such as neural pressure or selective paralysis.
One must conserve one’s powers for times when they might be really needed.
Too, there was the remote possibility that some lackland wanderer might come by and find a flaw in the protection of the Estates—even somehow penetrate to the Residence. Barra shuddered at that thought, then shrugged it off. Kira Barra was well protected, of that he had made sure. Ever vigilant surrogates were deposited in all the strategic spots of the Estates—not only to allow quick observations of the condition of the lands, but also to give automatic warning of the approach of anyone of inimical turn of mind.
He eased his bulk into the chair, twisted about for a few moments as it adjusted to fit his body, then leaned back with a sigh of relaxation and directed his thoughts to the crystal before him.
Under the impulses of his amplified thought, the crystal glowed, appeared to expand, then became a three-dimensional vista.
The high intensity summary and excerpt leader had been not too deceptive, Barra told himself as the story unfolded. It was a well done adventure projection, based on the war with the Fifth planet. Critically, he watched the actions of a scout crew, approving of the author’s treatment and selection of material. He, Barra, was something of a connoisseur of these adventure crystals, even though he had never found it necessary to leave the protection of Earth’s surface.
He shrugged, taking his attention from the projection.
The lacklanders, he told himself—entertainment people, caravan masters, seafarers, other wanderers of light responsibility—were the natural ones to be selected to go out and deal with remote emergencies.
Like all stable, responsible men of property and worth, he was far too valuable to the Commonwealth to risk himself in wild dashes to the dead, non-psionic lands, or out into the emptiness of space. As far as risking himself on combat missions of interplanetary war—He shook his head. This was pure stupidity.
He frowned uneasily. It had been a bit unfair, though, of the Controllers. They had completely excused him from service on the basis of inaptitude. It had rankled ever since.
Of course he couldn’t be expected to dash madly about in some two-man scout. Even as his brother’s assistant, he had been a person of quite definite standing and responsibility and such antics would have been beneath his dignity. He had made that quite plain to them.
There had been responsible posts where a man of his quality and standing could have been of positive value. And, as he had pointed out, they could have assigned him to one of those.
But no! They had merely excused him. Inapt!
As far as that went, he told himself angrily, he, Kio Barra, could comport himself with the best if necessity demanded.
Those dashing characters in this projection were, of course, the figments of some unstable dreamer’s imagination. But they showed the instability of the usual lackland wanderers. And what could such men do that a solid, responsible man like himself couldn’t do better?
He returned to the crystal, then shook his head in disgust. It had become full—flat—meaningless. Besides, he had matters of real import to take care.
He directed his attention to the chair, which obediently swung about until he faced his large view crystal.
“Might as well have a look at the East Shore,” he told himself.
As he focused his attention, the crystal expanded, then became a huge window through which he could see the shores of the inland sea, then the lands to the east of the large island on which he had caused his Residence to be built. He looked approvingly at the rolling, tree-clad hills as the view progressed.
Suddenly, he frowned in annoyance. The great northern null was in turbulence again, thrusting its shapeless arms down toward the borders of Kira Barra. He growled softly.
/>
There, he told himself, was the result of the carelessness of those lackland fools who has been entrusted with the defense of the home planet. Their loose, poorly planned defenses had allowed the pseudomen of the Fifth to dash in and drop their destructors in a good many spots on the surface. And here was one of them.
Here was a huge area which had once been the site of a great city and which had contained the prosperous and productive estates of a Master Protector, now reduced to a mere wasteland into which slaves might escape, to lead a brute-like existence in idleness.
He had lost pseudomen slaves in this very null and he knew he would probably lose more. Despite the vigilance of the surrogates, they kept slipping across the river and disappearing into that swirling nothingness. And now, with that prominence so close—
He had no guards he could trust to go after the fellows, either. Such herd guards as he had would decide to desert their protector and take up the idle life which their fellow pseudomen had adopted. A few of them had gone out and done just that. Their memories of the protection and privileges granted them were short and undependable. He sighed.
“Ungrateful beasts!”
Some Master Protectors had little trouble along that line. Others had managed to hire the services of halfmen—weak psionics, too weak to govern and yet strong and able enough to be more than mere pseudomen.
These halfmen made superb, loyal guards and overseers—for some—but none had remained at Kira Barra. They had come, to be sure, but they had stayed on for a time, then drifted away.
And, he thought angrily, it was illegal to restrain these halfmen in any way. Some soft-headed fool had granted their kind the rights of Commonwealth citizenship. Halfmen had even managed to take service with the fleet during the war with the Fifth Planet. Some of them had even managed somehow to be of small value—and now many of them held the status of veterans of that victorious war—a status he, one of the great landholders, was denied.
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