by Eando Binder
“Start at the other end,” said Thane, “and look for the coat Daryl wore that night at our cabin, when the Vexxans came for the Seed.”
Miribel stood thunderstruck. “You mean you slipped it into…?”
“Yes, into Daryl’s pocket,” said Thane. “It was the quickest and the only thing I could do, when the Vexxans barged in. Daryl lurched in front of me for a moment, blocking the vision of the Vexxans. I took the chance that they would ignore him and not search him. Luckily, they didn’t, knowing he was an Earthman who could not possibly know about the Seeds.”
Miribel was suddenly laughing. “And Daryl didn’t know that all this while he had carried back into his own house the very gem he wanted so badly.” She choked. “Unless he found it.”
“I doubt it,” said Thane confidently. “I’ll bet if you add them up he had three hundred and sixty-five suits, one for every day of the year. Even if not, I doubt he wears the same suit twice in the same week or month. Keep looking for the coat he wore that night.”
Miribel and Thane worked toward each other, swinging back panel after panel and looking over the suits revealed. Not long after, they met in the middle and stared at each other.
“It’s not here at all,” Miribel breathed.
Pale under the greasepaint for his Pharaoh disguise, Thane looked baffled. “Could he have thrown that suit away in the meantime? If so, we’ll never trace it. Of all the rotten luck…”
“Spare yourself the agony,” Miribel said striding across the room. “It’s here on a sideboard, evidently picked out for cleaning. We came just in time at that.” Thane almost leaped over to where the suit lay. Cautiously, he lifted the flap of the left-hand pocket. A spangled glow of radiance poured out.
“That’s it,” he exulted. “I guess Daryl never happened to reach in this pocket when he got home, or open the flap. And he must not have touched it directly, he had no radiation bums.”
Thane was taking a small leaden box from under his costume, and a tweezers. Picking the glowing speck up with care, he dropped it into the leaden box and clapped the lid shut with a sigh of relief.
“Now its betraying rays can’t be picked up by the Vibroscopes of those hovering Vexxan saucers when we leave. It’s only in the open air that the radiations can be detected strongly.”
Miribel was at the window, peering up. “It’s okay. They’re still hovering up there. We got away with it.”
“Let’s get out of this place,” whispered Thane, anxiously. “The sooner we get to our saucer and deliver it to Thalkon, the better.”
“But how can we gracefully withdraw from the party and leave Daryl?” Miribel said thoughtfully. “Oh, I have it. Leave it to me, Thane dear. A man would never think of it.”
As they came down the stairs, Miribel suddenly tripped and stumbled down the stairs.
“Are you hurt?” cried Thane, kneeling beside her with an anxious face.
“Shush,” she said in low tones out of the side of her mouth. “Let me play out my game.”
Daryl was quickly there, wailing his regrets. “Oh, my dear. How awful it happened in my house. You may have broken bones. I’ll call the ambulance immediately…”
“No, no,” Miribel said hastily. “Please don’t. Really it’s just a sprained ankle. My husband can easily carry me to our car and drive me home. If I need a doctor we’ll call our family physician. Thanks so much for everything, Daryl, you dear boy.”
Daryl was still fussing like a mother hen as Thane took his cue and lifted her up, striding out to the parking space. “No, Daryl,” he said for the tenth time. “We don’t want an ambulance, nor a month in the hospital at your expense, nor a trip around the world, or anything. Please, just let me bring my wife home and take care of her myself.”
“All right old boy,” Daryl said, finally giving in. “But let me visit her and cheer her up. And I’ll have those terrible stairs torn out and replaced… dreadfully sorry… two of the finest people I know…”
Thane heard the phrases diminishing in the distance as he drove away. Then one final outburst from behind. “But say. What about that hidden gem, the Seed? I was going to buy it from you… wait… wait!”
“Killed two birds with one stone,” Miribel chortled. “We not only found the Seed, but our sudden exit also cut off Daryl. Home, Pharaoh.”
“What an actress,” said Thane sincerely. “I really thought you had hurt your ankle when you stumbled.” When their car stopped outside their cottage, Miribel sprang out—and toppled to the ground with a groan. “What’s the matter?” Thane said, picking her up.
“I really did hurt my ankle,” she bleated. “Help me into the house, darling.”
“Zylians can make mistakes too, eh?” grinned Thane. After an application of her mysterious medicines, Miribel stood up, her ankle healed. Soon after, their saucer-craft was speeding up into space, toward the giant Vigilante space station positioned in orbit.
When they were ushered into the presence of the tall, regal-looking head of the Vigilantes, Thane handed over the leaden box, explaining in brief terms their adventures in obtaining it.
Thalkon lifted his eyebrows at each phase of the story. At the end he said, “Agent Smith of Earth, you have again displayed those unique qualities which make your services so valuable to us. I will have the Seed analyzed in our laboratories for its outstanding qualities. Therein may lie the clue to what the Vexxans intend to do with it on Earth.”
But the next day, while they were having lunch together, an attendant came in with the leaden box and set it down along with a paper. “Thalkon, sir, we have done our best, with our limited facilities, but our report is incomplete.”
He turned on his heel and left. Thalkon looked over the report. “Hmm. Such data as hardness, melting point, and types of ray emissions are here. But Derivation: unknown. Critical Mass: unknown. Potential Power: unknown. Possible Uses: unknown.”
Chapter 12
Thalkon sighed and looked up at Thane and Miribel. “In other words, that leaves us nowhere. We still have no inkling of how the Vexxans will use it, or what they hope to accomplish. And until we know in what way Earth is threatened, we can’t guard against it.”
“Maybe it’ll make some super-bomb,” Thane ventured.
Thalkon shoot his head. “Hardly anything as simple as that. A critical mass of the Seeds, which the Vexxans are apparently striving to accumulate, must perform some fantastic feat of ominous importance in relation to Earth. How can we figure out what that is?”
He answered himself. “There is only one solution. This Seed specimen must be examined by the prime scientists of the galaxy. I’ll bring it to the main labs of the United Worlds. Thane and Miribel, prepare yourselves to come along.”
Thane was puzzled. “Where are the main labs of the UW?”
“At the center of the galaxy, in what you call the Constellation Sagittarius, some 35,000 light-years from here.”
Thane gasped. It was like somebody who had never left his home town being asked to take a trip halfway around the world. He and Miribel, during the campaign against the Morlians, had gone by spaceship around the solar system. But that was nothing compared to the trip before him into the enormity of interstellar space among remote stars.
“First,” Miribel was saying, “we must return to our cabin and let it be known we’re going on a ‘vacation trip’ or a cruise to Europe or something. Our mail must be held at the post office and such.”
Thane nodded. To be effective Vigilante agents on Earth, they had to keep up the guise of any ordinary married couple and leave no loose ends dangling. The authorities must never have any suspicions or they might be exposed, and the world might learn that flying saucers and UFO’s really existed.
“Take a day to straighten out your affairs on Earth,” said Thalkon. “Tomorrow we’ll make
the trip to UW headquarters. We may be there a week or more.”
* * * *
It was not a sleek-looking ship at all, to Thane’s surprise. It was huge and ungainly with a bulbous central cabin and various booms sticking out at random. It had no discernible rocket power system.
“This is a deep-space transport which is taking one thousand Vigilantes home on leave,” explained Thalkon as he led the way aboard. “It’s not meant to maneuver on Earth or in the solar system. Its use is only to cross the GEP, if you remember what that is.”
Thane did remember, from one of his conversations with Thalkon during the Morlian affair. “The Gravo-electro-psy medium that pervades the whole universe, supplanting the space-time continuum of Earth science.”
“Yes,” nodded Thalkon. “Your space-time concept is far too simple and incomplete. The universe is really embedded in a temporal flux of gravitic forces, electromagnetic fields, and a psychic ether. This allows psychons—units of thought—to be brought directly into play when you wish to traverse the GEP. In essence, a blast of psychons sends the ship along the dimensional and chronological framework in which the GEP rests and…”
Thane held up a hand, cutting off the rest. “I surrender,” he said. “Let’s skip the nitty-gritty of it. The end result, as you told me once when we first met, is that the ship goes into the Nth dimension and… uh… what’s the rest?”
Thalkon smiled. “The Nth dimension is where all points in space and time cross. Hence, by entering the Nth dimension, you dematerialize and then rematerialize at your destination, all in an instant.”
“No, it doesn’t even take an instant,” Thane snapped, grinning. “There is zero time in the Nth dimension, you told me. As soon as you disappear from one place, you reappear at the other place, presto.”
“Correct,” laughed Thalkon. “However, it takes very precise charting of the GEP lines crossing the Nth dimension, or you’ll end up anywhere but where you want to go. We will materialize not on, but near, the central UW world in Sagittarius. The captain of the ship must be preparing his charts now…”
Bells clanged all over the ship.
“The warning,” Miribel said, “that at a countdown of ten, the ship will make its transfer.”
Thane counted down to himself. At “zero” he felt sudden giddiness, then a sensation of traveling at enormous velocity, yet without moving at all. It was a queer, paradoxical feeling of going in several different directions at the same time. There leaped into Thane’s mind the wry saying, “He leaped on his horse and rode off in all directions.” That was partly how it felt. The rest was indescribable, as if he were larger than a galaxy and floating off the edge of space.
Yet all this flashed through his mind in the briefest of micromoments. As he cleared his head and looked out of the window, Earth had vanished. In its place was another world.
“No chance for sight-seeing on this kind of trip,” Thane said wryly. “Whisk—and you’re there. But just where is ‘there’?”
“We’re near the hub of the galaxy,” Miribel said. “When the United Worlds organization was established…”
“A billion years ago,” put in Thane, remembering, and still with a shock.
“… they chose a centralized star and its lone planet as their headquarters. We’re approaching it now.”
Thane stared down at the planet looming large. As the veil of thin clouds parted, he gasped. “That city. It extends on and on and on…”
“Yes, it covers the entire surface of the planet. Remember, Thane, there are three million member worlds, most of whom need offices, living quarters, conference halls, large staffs of helpers, and all else that goes with a central government. Also there are vast lab complexes and research facilities. This planet, Unita, is the keystone, the heart, the vital center of galactic law and order. The maverick worlds, those that never joined the UW, would dearly love to destroy this place and plunge the galaxy into anarchy. But of course they can never get through the elite Vigilante squad that guards Unita.”
Below, Thane saw a giant tower a mile high with a broad landing platform at the tip.
“Vigilante supreme headquarters,” said Miribel “Where we’re landing. From here comes control of all the Vigilante units in the galaxy…”
“Totaling twenty-five million recruits and ten million spacecraft,” marveled Thane, from his one-time briefing on galactic affairs.
The ship landed gently on the platform and debarking began. Thane sniffed the air. “Earth-type air?”
“Yes, because at least half of the member worlds of the DW are Earth-type planets with human denizens. You will notice later that beings from other kinds of worlds wear breathing helmets.”
Thane expected to hear a roar from this worldwide city but only a hum came to his ears, as if millions of computers were working away. Above, the sun of Unita was much the size of Earth’s sun but with a greenish tinge.
Thalkon led them into an elevator that went down from the landing platform into the heart of an immense dome. Stepping off, they stopped at a desk behind which sat a Vigilante clerk.
“Name and rank, sir?” he radiated by telepathy.
“Ixorr Thalkon, commander of outer galaxy Vigilante Task Force number eighty-eight, guarding the planet Earth.”
“Warth?”
“Earth.”
“Hmm, never heard of it.”
Thane winced, having taken it all in via the psy-wafer next to his brain. He felt like a bushman just in from the hinterlands.
The clerk was pressing a button that made a star chart spring forth on a screen. “Oh yes. Sun, Sol. Over there by Sirius. Quite a ways off the beaten tracks.”
He might have been talking, Thane mused uncomfortably, about a mud village in the Gobi Desert.
“Earth is not yet a member of the UW,” Thalkon informed.
“Oh, as bad as that. One of the Unevolveds.” The clerk stared at Thalkon, almost as if pitying him for his assignment guarding such an offbeat little planet. Then, “And what is your business, Commander Thalkon?”
“I would like an audience as soon as possible with the High Commander. The planet Earth is in danger. It is urgent.”
The clerk could hardly suppress a smile. “I see. Warth… Dirth… what is it…? Earth in danger, eh? I’ll try to get you an early appointment. Please wait in the antechamber.”
As they moved away, Miribel squeezed Thane’s arm. “Don’t take it to heart dear. That clerk is used to dealing with the affairs of thousands of other important planets with long-time civilizations, known to everyone. He didn’t mean to slur Earth. Don’t be angry.”
“Angry?” Thane chuckled. “No, I’m laughing at the thought of some famous Earth scientist or statesman meeting that clerk, who couldn’t even remember Earth’s name. One ego would be smeared flat.” His face sobered. “But let me tell you it was a lesson in humility, if not humiliation. I suppose the High Commander will have trouble remembering Earth’s name, too.”
Thane threw an I-told-you-so glance at Miribel, one hour later, as they sat in the plush office of the High Commander. “Now you say, Thalkon, that this planet Wart is threatened…”
“Earth, sir,” corrected Thalkon.
“Yes, yes. It is threatened by the Vexxans in what way?”
Thalkon produced his leaden box and lifted the cover displaying the speck of glowing mineral. “By this Seed, as the Vexxans call it. The substance is being gleaned around earth, for an unknown purpose. I request permission to have this Seed analyzed by the main galactic labs to find out its properties in full.”
Thalkon elaborated further, at questioning. Then the High Commander pursed his lips. “Hmm. The planet Kirth… ah, Lurth… Earth? …is so insignificant, it hardly seems worthwhile to take up the time of top scientists to analyze that Seed.”
&nbs
p; Thane reddened. “Sir,” he spoke up boldly, “Earth… that’s E… A… R… T… H, sir… is just as important to me as your native world is to you.”
Thalkon choked and Miribel looked aghast. But Thane stared the High Commander in the eye as he added sharply: “And I’ve never heard of your world either.”
For a moment the High Commander sat stonily. Then his face creased in a broad smile. “Well spoken, Earthman. I like your directness and your loyalty to your home world. I’m sorry if we sounded disparaging.” He turned. “Thalkon, I’m giving you an immediate pass to the galactic labs, for an all-out analysis of your Seed.”
Thane walked out with his head high. “That was marvelous, dear,” Miribel bubbled. “To have the courage to speak up to the High Commander himself…”
“Why not?” Thane said. “He’s only human.”
Thalkon laughed. “A wiser statement I’ve never heard from the best of galactic philosophers. You won the day for us, Thane. To the labs.”
Later, Thalkon came out of the lab without the leaden box. “The analysis may take a week, Earth-time. I have other business, but Miribel, why not take your husband on a sight-seeing tour of Unita?”
* * * *
“Delicious,” Thane said, holding up a forkful of a pale yellow meaty substance. “Tastes like food of the gods.”
They were in a restaurant whose walls glowed with changing colors while ethereal music came softly from above.
“That’s takla,” Miribel informed him. “The flesh of a creature that lives on a world 50,000 light-years away. The seasoning, spices, and gravy all come from different planets. And you’ll notice they cater to nonhumans from unearthlike worlds.”
Thane looked curiously at the glass-enclosed tables at the far end. In one sat a toadlike being, daintily extending a tongue a yard long into a bowl of mushiness. His breathing helmet, which he ordinarily wore, lay beside him.
