[Jan Darzek 05] - The Whirligig of Time

by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.

  But he was looking for a particular shop, and he found it difficult to make the transmitter address coincide with its physical location, He wandered along the vast, brightly illuminated tunnel - illuminated by the entire arched ceiling, which was coated with a luminous substance that gave off a strong, slightly bluish light, Throngs of people, who evidently did not know or care about the slow-motion riots going on over their heads, swarmed in a tangle of movement along the shops on either side of the tunnel.

  Darzek moved with them, searching for the address he wanted, Queries of shopkeepers and passersby netted him little information, He soon found that many of these establishments were short-lived, Sometimes a proprietor occupied a shop only long enough to dispose of a single stock of goods, A number of the shops were unoccupied,

  So was the shop he was looking for when he finally found it, He had the good fortune to locate a shopkeeper who sold fresh foods and enjoyed a steady trade, He had been there for years, and he was able to identify the address Darzek wanted, He also remembered the young Vezpronian who had briefly occupied it about the date Darzek named, He had sold some kind of atomic appliance - seemed to be doing well, sold at a reasonable price, but was only there a few days, Had a limited stock, the shopkeeper supposed, and closed the moment he disposed of it, Such things happened all the time,

  Darzek bought an assortment of greens for Miss Schlupe and moved on to the next address on his list, It proved to be a craft shop that made floor pieces, and its proprietor knew nothing about earlier tenants, Eventually Darzek found a witness who told a story very similar to the one he'd just heard, The same thing happened at a third shop,

  Darzek located the nearest public transmitter and went directly to the governmental complex, where Min Kallof consented to see him immediately,

  "I want to talk to your new Mas of Science and Technology," Darzek said.

  A few minutes later an elderly Vezpronian hurried in, panting, "Listen," Darzek said, and he described in detail the process by which nuclear materials had been illegally brought to Vezpro, "They - or he - started using legitimate firms," Darzek said, "but it must have been a lot of trouble to erase the invoices and collect the shipments without anyone noticing anything or becoming suspicious, So they - or he - solved that problem by setting up temporary businesses, The name would suggest a legitimate use for the material. The supplier, given only the transmitter address and paid solvency in advance, would have no reason to be suspicious,"

  Min Kallof looked puzzled, "It's a brilliant discovery, Gul Darr, but surely it's too late to do anything about these firms now,"

  "It tells us how the materials were acquired to turn the eleventh planet into a sun, Perhaps Nifron D as well, If the villain hasn't already acquired what he needs to destroy Vezpro, a strict control on the acquisition of nuclear materials my frustrate him,"

  "That might be difficult," Min Kallof observed,

  "Not as difficult as evacuating a world, Every firm using such materials should be required to take a complete inventory, place its stock under guard, and hereafter to account for every particle, And you must absolutely control the import of every item on this list."

  "May I have the list?" the new mas asked, Darzek handed it to him,

  "I agree completely," he said, Then he added, with a quiet smile, "It'll be a great relief to have something to do, I've been sitting in my new office wondering, Just wondering, A crisis faced my world, it fell within my sphere of responsibility, and there seemed to be nothing I could do about it. Now there is, What you suggest is eminently logical, No matter how difficult, I'll see that it's done, I only fear that we may be too late,"

  "We probably are," Darzek said, "But we must try anyway," The new mas smiled again and hurried away.

  Darzek said to the masfiln, "I missed your speech, Have there been any positive results?"

  "A few," Min Kallof said, "The crowds in the park are smaller, but that may be only because it's mealtime. You need have no regret about missing it. You'll have many opportunities to hear one just like it before we're finished." He paused, "You're sure this evacuation is absolutely necessary?"

  "No, But I refuse to gamble with five billion lives,"

  Min Kallof gestured resignedly, "Better evacuate and be wrong than leave them here and be wrong, Yes, We must, But it's so difficult to persuade people to leave their homes over such an unbelievable threat, even with the eleventh planet becoming more vivid each night. This suggestion of yours, to restrict essential materials, seems promising. And of course the scientists will continue to work until the last moment. Naz Forlan is setting up a large establishment and financing it entirely himself. But I can see that the evacuation must proceed. We must not gamble with our citizens' lives," He sounded as though he were trying to convince himself.

  Darzek left him and returned to the Trans-Star office, Melris Angoz was waiting for him, She asked anxiously, "Where is Eld? He hasn't been in his office today."

  Darzek wearily dropped into a chair, Wolndur. He had completely forgotten him, Miss Schlupe had told him to do something - yes, Find Qwasrolk. "He has a job that'll keep him away from the office for a while" he said.

  She left reassured, but Darzek was not. He checked with Gud Baxak, Wolndur had not returned. There was no reason why he should, Miss Schlupe had given him no specific instructions, and he wouldn't come to report unless he had something to report.

  But Darzek had suddenly thought of the long list of nuclear scientists who had disappeared from Vezpro. Wolndur was a nuclear scientist.

  Was it possible that those missing scientists had been kidnapped?

  19

  Darzek decided to perform his own survey of the milling mobs in the parks. As a result it was late when he returned, and Miss Schlupe already had gone to bed.

  He was unable to sleep. He felt like a juggler with too many plates in the air. There were scientific plates - Forlan's group, the Zarstans, UrsNollf and Supreme; there was Qwasrolk, who had some connection not yet guessed; there were the politicians, the demonstrating citizens, and E-Wusk's evacuation plans; there was the investigation into the missing nuclear materials; there were the vanished scientists and Wolndur's possible disappearance. Every time the plates went around, he had the feeling that he'd forgotten one and there would be a crash behind him.

  He got up, finally, and sat in the Trans-Star office until his calendar clock said dawn, thinking.

  Melris Angoz arrived early, looking much more concerned than she had the previous day. "Eld hasn't come to his office," she said. "He's never late. And he didn't return to his dormitory last night. I asked."

  Miss Schlupe walked in while she was talking, refreshed by her mushroom farm excursion and a night's sleep and looking - as she put it herself - at least six days younger. "What's that about Eld?" she asked.

  "He's missing," Darzek said.

  "He's probably wandering around trying to do detective work. I saw him yesterday."

  "Where?" Melris asked quickly. .

  "On my way to the mushroom farm. There are queer stretches of shops in tunnels under the city. I think I mentioned them to you."

  "I saw one yesterday," Darzek said.

  "That's where the fungus is grown - in intersecting tunnels. There must be acres if not square kilometers of fungus farms - they go on and on. Anyway, on the way there I saw Eld walking along the tunnel where the shops are."

  "Was he ... all right?" Melris asked anxiously.

  "He looked a little vague, as though he had something on his mind, but there certainly wasn't anything wrong with him. I didn't speak to him because he was on the other side of the tunnel and the trader I was with was in a hurry."

  Melris left for the office, reassured but still concerned. After she left, Darzek remarked, "I've been sitting here wondering if Wolndur has been kidnapped."

  "Why would anyone do that? There are far more competent scientists around."

  "He knows what we've been doing."


  "Would that help anyone?" Miss Schlupe demanded.

  Darzek reflected. "No. But the kidnapper wouldn't know that." "True enough," Miss Schlupe said. She pushed a chair forward and flopped down. "Had your viewer on lately?"

  Darzek shook his head.

  "Everything's about to bust loose. The political opposition is openly opposing the evacuation. The masfiln is said to be considering resigning."

  Darzek quickly activated the screen.

  A Vezpronian, undoubtedly a politician, was orating. "Should we leave our homes, our businesses, our factories, our farms, to escape a figment of the masfiln's imagination? There are hundreds of explanations for the transformation of the eleventh planet, whose composition was nothing like that of our beautiful world. Let us forget these demented outpourings, get on with our work, and celebrate the coming of the new cycle in our usual joyful fashion."

  Darzek switched off the viewer. "Is that a universal custom, celebrating the new year?"

  "I suppose. This year it may be a warm celebration. Too bad I didn't know yesterday that Wolndur was missing. I could have grabbed him for you. I thought he was just wandering around looking for Qwasrolk."

  "No doubt he was," Darzek said. "What did you think he would do with him if he found him?"

  "I don't know. I've been wondering how Qwasrolk would react if someone behaved friendly toward him, instead of trying to capture him, as you did, or rushing toward him shouting, as that manager did. He might not vanish instantly if he isn't threatened."

  "It's a thought," Darzek agreed. "Is Wolndur bright enough to figure out something like that?"

  "I don't know. I was going to speak to him about it today."

  "I still think the best approach is by way of these lists Melris has compiled. I put all your investigators onto them yesterday."

  "In that case, we might as well help them," Miss Schlupe said. As Darzek wearily got to his feet, she remarked, "Poor E-Wusk. He's all tooled up to evacuate five billion people, and no one wants to go. It's like giving a party when no one comes. He's listening to those opposition speeches and muttering in his own language. I think he's swearing. "

  "He should be.' Darzek said. "Shall we go?"

  After inspecting a dozen warehouses, the two of them sat down on crates and looked at each other. "I think," Miss Schlupe announced, "that one uninhabited warehouse is very much like another. Strange that there's never anyone around."

  "That's why the villain had no problem in removing his materials.

  The owners didn't miss them, since they hadn't ordered them. The shippers had no reason to check, since the shipment had been paid for in advance. By erasing the invoices the receiving transmitter recorded, he removed all traces. If the owners found a few blank spaces in their records, they probably thought that the machines accidentally hiccupped a couple of times, which no doubt happens. It was an ingenious scheme."

  "It's strange they rarely miss things when they don't even have a caretaker," Miss Schlupe observed.

  "Schluppy, that's what's so thunderingly peculiar about this whole business. You and I keep forgetting we aren't on Barth. These people don't need caretakers. Nobody steals. We were talking about kidnapping scientists, but nobody commits such crimes. The traders indulge in sharp dealings, but they're of the kind where one more knowledgeable person outdoes another. One wouldn't think of lying about a deal, and if he did he'd be permanently ostracized. And no one would blackmail anyone, or threaten to turn a world into a sun. No wonder the Vezpronians can't comprehend this threat. I'm amazed that the masfiln and his cabinet had the understanding and the courage to order the evacuation. Do you realize that you and I are the only ones in the entire Galactic Synthesis who can grasp what is going on here and plan effective action?"

  "Not very effective," Miss Schlupe murmured.

  Action, anyway. Maybe it'd be more effective if we had some help."

  "Maybe it'd be more effective if we could figure out how there could be a master criminal in a crimeless society. I've been giving some thought to that myself."

  "And?"

  She shook her head. "Nothing. Are we really accomplishing anything with this tour of warehouses?"

  "We might if we visited all of them." "What are you looking for, really?" "Qwasrolk and Wolndur."

  "All right. Let's keep looking."

  But they finally tired of inspecting warehouses and returned to the Trans-Star office, where a worried Gud Baxak greeted them. "The masfiln," he whispered. He led them into the presence of a grave Min Kallof, who rose to greet them.

  "The Dezmas will meet tomorrow," he announced gloomily. "And it will oppose the evacuation," Darzek suggested.

  The masfiln gestured despondently. "It not only will oppose it; it will forbid it."

  Darzek got the masfiln seated again and made himself comfortable. Miss Schlupe dropped into her rocking chair and began a vigorous movement that the masfiln regarded perplexedly.

  "Does this rejection of your program mean that you must resign?"

  Darzek asked.

  "For a masfiln to resign when the Dezmas opposes him is a confession of error," Min Kallof said scornfully. "I have not erred."

  "My friend, you have cooperated with me fully from the moment I arrived here, with the one exception of substituting the proctors for the females on the ransom ship - and that probably wasn't your idea."

  "No. Naz Forlan suggested it, but I gave it my approval."

  "In any case," Darzek said, "you've cooperated when my suggestions must have seemed peculiar indeed. Believe me I want to save Vezpro, but if I can't do that, I want to save its people. I can invoke all the power of Supreme if that is necessary, or if it would help us. Would it?"

  "Supreme," Min Kallof said thoughtfully, "might seem very distant to the opposition politicians of the Dezmas."

  "I can make it seem very close merely by closing the port of Vezpro."

  Min Kallof echoed perplexedly, "Closing the port -"

  "All ships presently at the transfer stations would be ordered to leave at once. No more ships would be permitted to dock here."

  "And - the ships would obey?"

  "If they didn't obey Supreme, they wouldn't be permitted to dock anywhere." Darzek didn't know how long it would take to make such an edict enforceable, but he doubted that many captains would care to disobey an emissary of Supreme. '

  "That would destroy Vezpro as effectively as turning it into a sun," Min Kallof protested.

  "No," Darzek said. "It would destroy its trade and economy, but it would leave the world intact and its people alive - to be evacuated to safety. The question is whether this is a wise course. Are we justified in using coercion, either on your opposing politicians or on your people? Do we have the right to force the people of Vezpro to abandon their world in order to save their lives, when we ourselves are by no means certain as to what will happen?"

  "The message said the new cycle."

  "The author of the message is without a doubt a genius, but he also must be demented. Who knows what to expect of the insane? Perhaps we sprang the thing on your people without proper, preparation. I have a suggestion. Bring your opposition leaders here, and I'll quiet them for you."

  Min Kallof agreed and departed. Darzek went to the Trans-Star office for a piece of the metallic parchment the Vezpronians used for paper and began to sketch out a proclamation. Miss Schlupe continued to rock.

  "Think you can change their minds?" she asked finally.

  "I didn't promise to do that," Darzek said. "I just promised to quiet them."

  "You're going ahead with the evacuation?"

  "That depends on how much I can quiet them." He continued to write.

  It took Min Kallof some time to locate the opposition leaders.

  Probably they were touring the parks, agitating. Eventually he arrived shepherding a group of a dozen, all of them obviously angry, and never had Darzek seen opposition politicians looking mor
e firmly opposed than this group.

  Min Kallof introduced him. Darzek took the time to give each of them his most sternly disapproving stare. "My understanding," he announced, "is that the intention of your political leadership is to defy a special emissary of Supreme - which by extension means a defiance of the Council of Supreme and Supreme itself."

  That iniquity did not seem to impress them. As Min Kallof had remarked, Supreme was a long way off.

  "Accordingly, I have prepared a proclamation," Darzek told them. He read it. He made their perfidy in defying a special emissary of Supreme sound very bad indeed, and he concluded by expelling Vezpro from the Galactic Synthesis and classifying it as an Uncertified World. He had no authority to take such action without the concurrence of his fellow councilors, but the politicians would not know that.

  There were howls of protest even before he finished. Darzek said sternly, "The moment the Dezmas votes against the actions proposed by Min Kallof's government, which were taken at my recommendation, I will make public this proclamation. All ships currently at the transfer stations will depart immediately, because trade or any other contact with an Uncertified World is forbidden. No more ships will visit Vezpro for any reason. I'll leave to you the problem of explaining to the people of Vezpro how your defiance of Supreme has ruined them."

  The howls had subsided to silence - sullen, but no longer defiant. "Now I'll suggest a compromise," Darzek said. "You will join with the masfiln in making the people of Vezpro aware of the impending danger to their world. For the time being, evacuation will be voluntary. Scientists and others will continue to work on the problem. It may be that they will solve it. In the meantime, nonessential population, especially females with children, should be encouraged to leave. They will be well cared for, and they will be returned the moment it seems safe to do so."