"Excuse my ignorance of the case, but I don't follow your logic."
"Well, it is conjectural. But I think they were intended for the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Five miles down, they'd never have been found. I think they were accidentally dropped a few miles too.far west—by somebody who didn't know the local geography too well. I'd say they died by accident, and somebody was keen to hide the evidence as far away as they could. You don't look very surprised," Wolf added, seeing that Green was slowly nodding agreement.
The big man squeezed himself into a chair and rubbed his chin with an eleven-inch hand.
"It fits with some of the things I know myself," he replied. "What else did you find out about the three dead men?"
"Not much," replied Wolf. "They were Belters, all off the same ship, the 'Jason.' They arrived here on Earth three weeks ago with plenty of money. Nobody heard of them again until they were found off Guam. We don't trail U. S. F. citizens unless we get a request from you for it."
"That's all correct as far as it goes," agreed Green. "You are missing a few things that make a big difference. First, you say they were Belters, and technically you are right. But in U. S. F. wording, they were really Grabbers. They had been out in space on the 'Jason' for over two years. . . ."
Caperta Laferte, spotter for the U. S. F. Class B cargo ship 'Jason,' was watching the scope of the deep radar with mounting excitement. By his left hand, the computer print-out was chattering with increasing speed as it performed the final orbit match and confirmed the tracking of the find.
Laferte wiped the perspiration from his face with a dirty cloth.
"It matches exactly," he told the other two. "And it looks like a big one. I'll be able to get us a radioactivity reading from it in a couple of minutes. But it's a piece of old Loge, no doubt about it."
The others hovered about in impotent excitement. Until they had matched and docked it was one man's work and they could do nothing more useful than speculate on their trophy. Grimy and worn, all three looked like men who had endured more than two years of solar flares and radiation storms, celibacy and grinding boredom. It would all be worth it. If this were the big one, it would pay for all of it. Wine, women and song were on the way.
"Radioactivity count coming in now," announced Laferte. "I've tuned it for the 15 MeV dipole transition from Asfanium. Keep your eye on the counter. If it hits forty or better, it's the jackpot."
The digital read-out was climbing steadily. At twenty they lost it for a second. Laferte swore, bent back over the control panel, and recalibrated. It climbed again, past twenty, to thirty, to forty, and was still moving steadily upwards. They all shouted and James Manaur and Lao Sarna Prek joined hands and began a curious Walrus-and-Carpenter dance. It was the best that could be managed in the combination of free-fall and confined space. The future was a rosy glow, full of wealth, high living and excitement. Old Loge had been gone a long time, but enough of him had come back to gladden a few hearts.
* * *
"—looking for transuranics," said Green. "Maybe you know, the only natural source in the Solar System is still the fragments of Loge that come back into the System as long-period comets. The Grabbers just sit out there for years and monitor using deep radar. One decent find and they are made for life. The 'Jason' caught a good one about three months ago, packed with 112 and 114, Asfanium and Polkium. They extracted the transuranic elements from the fragment and rolled into Tycho City a month ago, rich as Karkov. They started to celebrate and three weeks ago they came to Earth to continue the spree. After that we lost touch with them and don't know what they did. We expected them back when the fleshpots palled. Want me to make a guess on what they did?"
Wolf nodded. "I think I see where you are leading, but go on."
"They came to Earth," continued Park Green. "Now, I saw them just before they left Tycho. They looked terrible. A couple of years of hardship in space, then a celebration that you wouldn't believe when they reached the Moon. If you came to Earth in that condition, wouldn't there be a big temptation to do something a bit illegal—and hookup for an intensive session with a bio-feedback machine, set to get you back to tip-top physical shape as fast as legally possible—or faster?"
"There certainly would," Wolf agreed. "I know a thousand places where it could be done. What you say makes perfect sense. Now let me pick up on my side of it."
He pressed the inter-office communicator and asked John Larsen to join them. When Larsen entered the room, Bey Wolf turned again to Park Green.
"Before I get John's opinions, tell me what you know about Robert Capman. I assure you it's relevant," he added, seeing Green's puzzled look.
The big U. S. F. man thought for a moment before he replied.
"All I can really tell you is what I've heard in Tycho City," he said finally. "Capman was a great man here on Earth, a genius who invented the series of form-changes that we now call C-forms, adapted for life in space. He did it using human children as the subjects for form-change experiments. Some of them died. He was found out a few years ago and died himself trying to escape. Is there more to know?"
"I think there is, but I may be biased," replied Wolf. "For one thing, it was John and I who handled the case and blew the whistle on Capman. Now let me ask you, do you have strong feelings about Capman, personally?"
Green hesitated again. "That's really a tough one. I know his reputation for great genius. And honestly, I don't know enough to say if he was fairly treated when he was accused of using human children in his work. But I will tell you, as a representative of the U. S. F. I have to be against Capman. After all, he was the man who invented the forms that are supposed to make me and my fellows as obsolete for life in space as the dinosaurs—the forms he came up with don't need much air, they're radiation tolerant, and they can adapt to run at high or low metabolic rates. I've no reason to like the man, for those reasons alone. Why do you ask?"
"I have a reason," said Wolf. He turned to Larsen. "John, you were there when Capman died. Did he die?"
"I thought so at the time. "John Larsen sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Now, I'm not so sure." He turned to the U. S. F. man. "Bey is convinced it was a set-up, and I must admit it had the makings of one. He hasn't been heard of for the six years since then, but I'll tell you, in the last day I've been thinking about him. These Guam form-changes have just the marks of Capman."
Wolf looked at Larsen with relief and increased respect. "I'd been thinking that, John, myself, but it seemed too unlikely to come right out and say it." He turned again to Park Green. "Now, you see how our thoughts have been running. Earth's greatest expert ever on form-change, Robert Capman. Maybe still alive, in hiding, somewhere on Earth. And along comes a set of form-changes that defy all logic, that conform to no known models. It could be Capman, up to his old tricks again. Either way, if Capman is alive, he'd be just the man to talk to about this. John or I could have added one other thing—neither of us ever met a man, before or since, who impressed us as much with his sheer intellectual power."
Green moved about uneasily in his seat. "It's clear you're selling me something, but I still don't know what it is. What are you leading up to?"
Bey Wolf nodded vigorously. "Only this, I want to find Robert Capman. And I have a very strong suspicion of my own. I think he's not on Earth—hasn't been for the past six years. Will you help me reach him, if he's somewhere in the U. S. F. territories? I don't know if it's the Moon, the Belt, the Libration Colonies, or where—but I do know I can't get messages out there without U. S. F. help!"
Green looked speculative. "I can't give you an instant answer," he said. "I'll have to discuss it in person with Ambassador Brodin, and he's in Argentina." He stood up. "What's the best way to get me there?"
"Through the Martin Link system. There's an entry point in central Argentina. We are only ten minutes away from the Madrid link—two jumps and you'll be there. Come on, I'll show you how to use it."
They hurried out, as Green explained that
he was having trouble getting used to the complexity of the Earth system. The Moon had only four link entry points. The Earth had twenty and he had heard there would be more added. Was that true?
It was not, and it would never be. The Mattin Link system offers direct and instantaneous transmission between any adjacent pair of entry points. But the number of entry points, and their placing, is very rigid. Since it requires perfect symmetry of any entry point with respect to all others, the configuration must fit one of the five regular solids. Plato would have loved it.
The dodecahedral system, with twenty vertices on the surface of the Earth, is the biggest single system that can ever be made. The Lunar system, with its four entry points at the vertices of a regular tetrahedron, is the simplest. And Mattin Links away from planetary surfaces are impractical because of changing distances.
Gerald Mattin, who had dreamed of a system for instantaneous energy-free transfer between any two points anywhere, died a disappointed man. The present system is far from energy-free—because the Earth is not a homogenous perfect sphere, and space-time is slightly curved near it. Mattin had an energy-free solution defined for an exact geometry in a flat space-time. He died twenty years before the decision to build the first Mattin Link system, twenty-five years before the first university was named after him, thirty years before the first statue.
* * *
"We have a go-ahead, but I had to bargain my soul away to get an agreement from the Ambassador. Now, where do we go from here?"
Park Green was back in Bey Wolf's office, shoes off, long legs stretched out and adding to the general appearance of confusion. Wolf and Larsen were again over by the wall display, plotting the Mattin Link paths from the Mariana Trench entry point and the Australia entry point near the spaceport where the crew of the 'Jason' had arrived on Earth. Wolf read off the results before he replied to Park Green.
"The North Australian entry point connects directly to the Marianas, Southern New Zealand and an Indian Ocean transfer point. The Mariana entry point connects directly to North China, Hawaii and back of course to North Australia. None of those connections looks promising, there's no big form-change lab near any of them. So either my guess about the use of the Link system is wrong, or the people who moved the Monsters did more than one jump in the system. Two jumps takes us a lot further afield—to almost anywhere. Up to the North Pole, to Cap City at the South Pole, or into India, or up to western North America."
He looked over at Park Green. "It's a mess. I'm more convinced than ever that we need to find Robert Capman and develop some idea what was happening when the three men died. They obviously started on some form-change program and somewhere along the line it got fouled up. How? I wish I could ask Capman that question."
"So let me repeat my question," said Green. "What do we do next, and where do we go from here? Advertising for Capman won't solve the problem—he'll be treated as a mass murderer if he ever does show up alive."
"I think I can produce a message that Capman will recognize and be intrigued by, but others won't," answered Wolf."As for protecting him if he does show himself, I'm not worried about that. I'm sure that he'll have found a way to cover himself in the past six years. I've got another worry of my own. We have no way of knowing how urgent this thing is. It could be a once in a lifetime accident or the start of a general plague. Until we know which, I have to look on it as the hottest thing on my list of problems. Let me take a cut at the message to Capman."
The final announcement was short and simple. It went out on a general broadcast over all media to the eight billion on Earth, and by special transmission to the scattered three million members of the United Space Federation.
'To R.C. I badly need the talents that caused me to pursue you six years ago through the by-ways of Old City. I promise you a problem worthy of your powers. Behrooz Wolf.'
* * *
Troubles were mounting. Bey spent a couple of hours with a representative of BEC, who insisted on presenting more confidential records to prove that the company had no connection with the monster forms found in Guam. The Central Coordinators sent him a terse message, asking him if there would be other deaths of the same type, and if so, when and how many? Park Green was getting the same sort of pressure from the U. S. F. Unlike Bey Wolf, the big man wasn't used to it and spent a good part of his time in Bey's office, gloomily biting his nails and trying to construct positively worded replies with no information content.
Two days of that brought a stronger response from Tycho City. Bey arrived in his office early and found a small, neatly dressed man standing by the communicator calling out U. S. F. personnel records. He turned at Bey's entry, with no sign of embarrassment at his intrusion, and looked at Bey for a second before he spoke.
"Mr. Green?" The voice was like the man, small and precise.
"He'll be in later. I'm Behrooz Wolf, head of Form Control. What can I do for you?" Bey was somewhat conscious of his own casual appearance and uncombed hair.
The man drew himself up to his full height. "I am Karl Ling, special assistant to the U. S. F. Cabinet. Here are my credentials." The tone was peppery and irascible. "I have been sent here to get some real answers about the deaths of three of our citizens here on Earth. I must tell you that we regard the explanations given so far by your office and Mr. Green as profoundly unsatisfactory."
"Arrogant bastard," thought Bey, while he looked for a suitably conciliatory answer.
"We have been doing our best to provide you with all the facts, Mr. Ling," he said. "It seemed unwise to present theories until they can be definitely verified. I'm sure you realize that this case is complex and has features that we haven't encountered before."
"Apparently." Karl Ling had taken a seat by the communicator and was tapping his thigh nervously with a well-manicured left hand. "For example, I see that you are giving the cause of death as asphyxiation. But you tell us also that the dead men had plenty of air in their lungs, and that there were no poisonous constituents. Perhaps you would like to present your theory on that to me."
Dealing in the past with officious government representatives, Bey had found an effective method of subduing them. He thought of it as his saturation technique. The trick was to flood the nuisance with so many facts, figures, reports and data that he was inundated and never seen again. He went over to his desk and took out a black record pad.
"This has the data entry codes that will allow you to pull all the records on this case. I suggest that you use my office here and feel free to use my communicator to reach Central Files. Nothing will be hidden from you. This machine has a full access code."
The little man stood up, a gleam in his eyes. He rubbed his hands together.
"Excellent. Please arrange it so that I am not disturbed—but I do want to see Mr. Green when he arrives."
Far from being subdued, Ling was clearly delighted at the prospect of a flood of information. Bey escaped with relief and went to give the bad news to Park Green.
"Karl Ling?" Green looked impressed. "Oh, I know him—not personally, but by reputation. He's the U. S. F. leading expert on Loge. He's a fanatic on the subject, really. I saw a holovision program he made a couple of years ago where he traced the whole history of Loge. He began way back, five hundred years ago—"
* * *
(Cameras move from model and back to Ling, standing.)
"School-capsules give the 1970's as the first date in Loge's history. We can find him much further back than that. All the way back in 1766, when a German astronomer came up with a scheme to define the distances of the planets from the Sun. Johann Titius' work was picked up and made famous a few years later by another German, Johann Bode. The relation is called the Titius-Bode Law."
(Cut to framed lithograph of Bode, then to table of planetary distances.)
"Bode pointed out that there was a curious gap in the distance formula, between Mars and Jupiter. When William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781—"
(Cut to high resolution c
olor image of Uranus, with image of Herschel as insert on upper left. Cut back to Ling.)
"—he found it fitted Bode's law also. The search for a missing planet began. In 1800 the asteroid Ceres was discovered at the correct distance from the Sun. The first piece of Loge had been found."
(Cut to high resolution image of Ceres. Zoom in on Ceres City. Cut to diagram showing planetary distances, then back to Ling.)
"As more and more asteroids were found, the theory grew that they were fragments of a single planet. In 1972 the Canadian astronomer Ovenden provided the first real proof. Using the rates of change in the orbits of the planets, he showed they were consistent with the disappearance from the Solar System of a body of planetary mass, roughly sixteen million years ago. He estimated that the missing planet was about ninety times the mass of the Earth. Loge was beginning to take on a definite shape."
(Cut to image of Ovenden, then to artist's impression of the size and appearance of Loge, next to image of the Earth on same scale.)
"The next part of the story came just a few years later, in 1975. Van Flandern in America integrated the orbits of very long period comets backwards in time. He found that many of them had periods of about sixteen million years and had left from a particular part of the Solar System, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Parts of Loge were coming home."
(Cut to diagram showing cometary orbits, intersecting Solar System diagram at point between Mars and Jupiter. Cut back to Ling.)
"We now had the modern view of Loge. A large planet, a gas-giant about ninety Earth masses, disintegrated about sixteen million years ago in a cataclysm beyond our imagining. Most of Loge was blown out of the Solar System forever. A few parts of the planetary core remain as the asteroids, other fragments from the outer crust drop back into the Solar System from time to time as long-period comets."
(Move in to close-up of Ling, face and shoulders only.)
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