Evil Out of Onzar

by Mark Ganes

barren till more data turned up.

  It was not long in coming. Thane had begun to explore the roomcarefully when a door opened. It was Pyuf, armed. "You'll come withme, please." No longer the half drunk duelling attendant, Pyuf was nowquite sober and quite serious.

  Thane went. There were questions to be answered.

  He had somehow expected a long corridor with many doors. Instead, hewalked directly into a brightly lighted room, filled with a great dealof equipment. He recognized the latest model lie-detector, a ratheroutdated narco-synthesizer, a Class B Psychocomputer. Much of the restwas unfamiliar.

  There were two Onzarians in the room. Both, in contrast to Pyuf, whowas dark and shorter than the average, had typical Onzarfeatures--yellow eyes with a slight slant, and golden skin. Pyufgestured towards Thane. "Give him the whole routine. We want to knoweverything you can get. Then let us know."

  Thane, of course, had been prepared for this sort of thing. He'd spenttime in Medico-Synthesis after every major job to immunize him againstinterrogation. He'd had three separate, integrated pasts built up, allquite fictional, which could be used during interrogation. He wasprotected, at a certain level, against physical torture, and he didhave a certain protection against most of the drugs.

  But the older medic simply asked him to sit down. He did, and hisassistant twisted a few dials. Indicators gave readings, quite a fewhundred readings. A metal recorder plate dropped out. The assistantdropped this into the computer which began busily to eject tape. Theolder man read the tape as it ticked out. The computer stopped and hecrumpled up the tape and tossed it into a corner. "Injection A17," hesaid.

  Vaguely he heard his name. He sat up, blinked his eyes open and lookedaround. He was in quite a different room. There were curtains at thewindows, a desk, a rug, even a fire. There was a figure in front ofhim speaking to him. "Roger Thane, we know you now. There is much thatwe do not know, that has been hidden from even our methods. But weknow enough."

  Thane was now fully alert. The voice had been soothing, but the shockon seeing the face, when his eyes had come back into focus, was enoughto change all his ideas. It was Manning Reine.

  Reine was sitting close to him, one elbow casually thrown across thedesk. He smiled, and asked if Thane would like coffee or a drink.

  "I've had both," Thane said, "and they're not what I need now. Rightnow all I want is what goes on. My job, which I didn't particularlywant, was to nursemaid you. Frankly, it's turned out to be quite ajob. After three or four very thorough stoltzings, one space battle, achallenge, and a duel, you have me kidnapped. All right. I've got areasonably open mind. I'll listen. Now just what in the hell is goingon?"

  Manning Reine said calmly, "Undoubtedly you have reason for anger,Thane. It is true that we have used you. We have had to. But youshould know that there was nothing faked about my abduction. Those whotook me were Onzarians, agents of Candar, and they were deadlyserious. It was only with the greatest of good fortune that I was ableto escape. Only the presence of Pyuf at Aberdeen Spaceport made itpossible.

  "And another point for your consideration. We did not know yourposition. Your appearance is Onzarian. We could not be sure that youwere what you claimed, an agent of Liaison. And even if we could havebeen sure, there were considerations that required us to proceed withthe greatest caution. Now, I hope you will accept my apologies andlisten. There is much that you can do, important for us and for thewhole Galaxy."

  Thane controlled his anger and nodded assent. At the moment it was hisjob to listen if he was going to be useful from here on in.

  "You already have some knowledge of the second-stage drive," Reinebegan. "You already know that it frees man for flight through theGalaxy at an average speed ten times greater than that now possiblewith the present warp-line drive. You are aware of the warp-line typeof movement. We cannot leave the warps without reverting to finitedrive. As you know, the warps are electro-gravitic lines of force inspace, along which interstellar travel has proved possible withcertain devices...."

  "As you say," Thane broke in, "I know all that. I know too that thesecond-stage drive allows practically instantaneous travel across thewarps. But just what does that have to do with your disappearance, andthe attacks that have been made on me?"

  "Just this. I am, you know, one of the researchers responsible for thedevelopment of the second-stage drive. I am more than that. I am alsothe present leader of the Onzarian underground."

  * * * * *

  Manning Reine relaxed in his chair and sipped his coffee. "At the sametime I want you to understand that I am completely, wholeheartedlyloyal to the Allied Systems. As you know, I was educated at EarthUniversity at a time when that was possible for an Onzarian. I leftOnzar for good at the beginning of the Candar revolution, expecting todevote the rest of my life to research within the A.S. But now I amconvinced that Candar must be overthrown if our own systems are tosurvive."

  "It's a proposition that will take some explaining," Thane saidcoldly.

  "The basic ideas are simple enough," Reine said, "once you see how theyfit together. There is, of course, nothing new about the basic theory ofthe second-stage drive. Even at the beginning of the ancient atomic era,scientists were groping for the Unified Field. The basic unified fieldequations were the first step. Then came the charting of theelectro-gravitic lines of stress in space, which we know familiarly aswarp-lines. That was the foundation for faster-than-light travel, andall that went with it. But of course it was awkward. We could not leavethe warp-lines unless we returned to finite speed. We could changedirection only at the intersection of warps. Many star-systems were faroff the warp-lines, and could be reached only after days or weeks oftravel at finite speeds."

  "All very true," said Thane, "but it still doesn't explain a thing tome. About your place in this or Candar's."

  Reine hardly noticed the interruption. He went on, professorially."The solution has always seemed clear. In order to travel at willthrough space, at faster-than-light speeds all we needed to do was tocreate our own Field with its own warp-line. If a ship could generateits own electro-gravitic warp it would be able to travel in almostunlimited directions with no time lapse except for pauses at eachwarp-line crossed. The power factors were such that an entirely newprinciple of operation was needed. We have found it in the so-calledgold catalyst principle, and we now have a practical, economicalsecond-stage drive."

  Thane frowned. "But that would seem to make Onzar less important. Whydo we need to worry about them now?"

  Reine was about to answer but the door opened and Pyuf was there. "Howgoes it, duellist?"

  "It was a great fight," Thane said, "until you decided to tear up therules. You forgot to tell me that you included 'kidnapper' in yourlist of trades."

  Reine smiled. "That's just one of many that Pyuf forgot to mention.Forger, propagandist, and political theorist might also have beenadded." He turned to Pyuf. "I've about covered the technology. Whydon't you give our friend the politics?"

  "Sure." Pyuf sat on the desk swinging his short legs. "First, though,I'm sorry about the duel, Thane. We had to do it."

  "Reine's already assured me of that once or twice," Thane said drily."I would like to know, though, just how you did it."

  "That's simple enough. For months now we've been using the duellingcourt on Kadenar as an exchange point in the underground. It's beenvery helpful because of the ease that duellists have in gettingthrough customs. In your case we were lucky. Or I should say thatAstrid was quick and intelligent enough to take advantage of afortunate situation. A few words from her were enough to instigate theOnzarian officer to challenge you. Remember that Onzarians have atradition of duelling, and you had insulted him. Furthermore, he wasstill confused from the stoltz artillery."

  "Clear enough. But may I ask why you bothered to let the duel go on atall? Why not just take me when we got to the court?"

  "We wanted to explain your disappearance. At the same time that youwere unconscious, your opponent and the o
ther junior officer were alsoout. With a touch of post-hypnotic suggestion, they were both quiteconvinced that the Third Officer had won the duel and that you weredead. We had no trouble getting your 'corpse' back through customs andto Onzar."

  "Probably," Thane said, "you had a purpose for all this. Before we goany further, let's have it."

  "If you were an agent of Candar we would have eliminated you," Pyufsaid. "You had already learned too much, and you had shown that youwere a dangerous man. If you were a Liaison agent, it was stillnecessary for you to 'die.' At the moment, it's imperative that noword of our activity gets to the Allied Systems. And,