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The Precol headquarters dome on Manon Planet was still in the spot whereTrigger had left it, looking unchanged; but everything else in the areaseemed to have been moved, improved, expanded or taken away entirely,and unfamiliar features had appeared. In the screens of CommissionerTate's Precol offices, Trigger could see both the new metropolitan-sizedspaceport on which the Dawn City had set down that morning, and thetowering glassy structures of the giant shopping and recreation center,which had been opened here recently by Grand Commerce in its bid for acut of prospective outworld salaries. The salaries weren't entirelyprospective either.
Ten miles away on the other side of Headquarters dome, new squares ofliving domes were sprouting up daily. At this morning's count theyhoused fifty-two thousand people. The Hub's major industries andassorted branches of Federation government had established a solidfoothold on Manon.
Trigger turned her head as Holati Tate came into the office. He closedthe door carefully behind him.
"How's the little critter doing?" he asked.
"Still absorbing the goop," Trigger said. She held Mantelish's smallmystery plasmoid cupped lightly between thumbs and fingers, its bottomside down in a shallow bowl half full of something which Mantelishconsidered to be nutritive for plasmoids, or at least for this one. Itssides pulsed lightly and regularly against her palms. "The level of thestuff keeps going down," she added.
"Good," said Holati. He pulled a chair up to the table and sat downopposite her. He looked broodingly at plasmoid 113-A.
"You really think this thing _likes_ me--personally?" Trigger inquired.
Her boss said, "It's eating, isn't it? And moving. There were a coupleof days before you got here when it looked pretty dead to me."
"Hard to believe," Trigger observed, "that a sort of leech-looking thingcould distinguish between people."
"This one can. Do you get any sensations while holding it?"
"Sensations?" She considered. "Nothing particular. It's just like I saidthe other time--little Repulsive is rather nice to feel."
"For you," he said. "I didn't tell you everything."
"You rarely do," Trigger remarked.
"I'll tell you now," said Holati. "The day after we left, when itstarted acting very agitated and then very droopy, Mantelish said itmight be missing the female touch it had got from you. He was beingfacetious, I think. But I couldn't see any reason not to try it, so Icalled in your facsimile and had her sit down at the table where thething was lying."
"Yes?"
"Well, first it came flying up to her, crying 'Mama!' Not actually, ofcourse. Then it touched her hand and recoiled in horror."
Trigger raised an eyebrow.
"It looked like it," he insisted. "We all commented on it. So then shereached out and touched it. Then she recoiled in horror."
"Why?"
"She said it had given her a very nasty electric jolt. Apparently likethe one it gave Mantelish."
Trigger glanced down dubiously at Repulsive. "Gee, thanks for letting mehold it, Holati! It seems to have stopped eating now, by the way. Orwhatever it does. Doesn't look much fatter if any, does it?"
The Commissioner looked. "No," he said. "And if you weighed it, you'dprobably find it still weighs an exact three and a half pounds.Mantelish feels the thing turns any food intake directly into energy."
"Then it should be able to produce a very nice jolt at the moment,"Trigger commented. "Now, what do I do with Repulsive?"
Holati took a towel from beneath the table and spread it out. "Absorbentmaterial," he said. "Lay it on that and just let it dry. That's what weused to do."
Trigger shook her head. "Next thing, I'll be changing its diapers!"
"It isn't that bad," the Commissioner said. "Anyway, you will adoptbaby, won't you?"
"I suppose I have to." She placed the plasmoid on the towel, wiped herhands and stepped back from it. "What happens if it falls on the floor?"
"Nothing," Holati said. "It just moves on in the direction it was going.Pretty hard to hurt those things."
"In that case," Trigger said, "let's check out its container now."
The Commissioner took Repulsive's container out of a desk safe andhanded it to her. Its outer appearance was that of a neat modern woman'shandbag with a shoulder strap. It had an antigrav setting which wouldreduce its overall weight, with the plasmoid inside, down to nine ouncesif Trigger wanted it that way. It also had a combination lock, unmarked,virtually invisible, the settings of which Trigger already hadmemorized. Without knowing the settings, a determined man using ahigh-powered needle blaster might have opened the handbag in around ninehours. A very special job.
Trigger ran through the settings, opened the container and peeredinside. "Rather cramped," she observed.
"Not for one of them. We needed room for the gadgetry."
"Yes," she said. "Subspace rotation." She shook her head. "Is thatanother Space Scout invention?"
"No," said Holati. "They stole it from Subspace Engineers. Engineersdon't know we have it yet. Far as I know, nobody else has got it fromthem. Go ahead--give it a try."
"I was going to." Trigger snapped the container shut, slipped the strapover her shoulder and stood straight, left hand closed over the lowerrim of the purselike object. She shifted the ball of her thumb and thetip of her middle finger to the correct spots and began to applypressure. Then she started. Handbag and strap had vanished.
"Feels odd!" She smiled. "And to bring it back, I just have to behere--the same place--and say those words."
He nodded. "Want to try that now?"
Trigger waved her left hand gently through the air beside her. "Whathappens," she asked, "if the thing surfaces exactly where my handhappens to be?"
"It won't surface if there's anything bulkier than a few dust motes inthe way. That's one improvement the Sub Engineers haven't heard aboutyet."
"Well...." She glanced around, picked up a plastic ruler from the deskbehind her, and moved back a cautious step. She waved the ruler's tipgingerly about in the area where the handbag had been.
"Come, Fido!" she said.
Nothing happened. She drew the ruler back.
"Come, Fido!"
Handbag and strap materialized in mid-air and thumped to the floor.
"Convinced?" Holati asked. He picked up the handbag and gave it back toher.
"It seems to work. How long will that little plasmoid last if it's leftin subspace like that?"
He shrugged. "Indefinitely, probably. They're tough. We know thattwenty-four hours at a stretch won't bother it in the least, so we'veset that as the limit it's to stay rotated except in emergencies."
"And you--and one other person I'm not to know about, but who isn'tanywhere near here--can also bring it back?"
"Yes. If we know the place from which it's been rotated. So theagreement is that--again except in absolute emergencies--it will berotated only from one of the six points specified and known to all threeof us."
Trigger nodded. She opened the container and went over to the tablewhere the plasmoid still lay on its towel. It was dry by now. She pickedit up.
"You're a lot of trouble, Repulsive!" she told it. "But these peoplethink you must be worth it." She slipped it into the container, and itseemed to snuggle down comfortably inside. Trigger closed the handbag,lightened it to half its normal weight, slipped the strap back over herleft shoulder. "And now," she inquired, "what am I to do with the stuffI usually keep in a purse?"
"You'll be in Precol uniform while you're here. We've had a specialuniform made for you. Extra pockets."
Trigger sighed.
"Oh, they're quite inconspicuous and convenient," he assured her. "Wechecked with the girls on that."
"I'll bet!" she said. "Did they okay the porgee pouch too?"
"Sure. Porgee doping is a big thing all over the Hub at the moment.Among the ladies anyway. Shows you're the delicate sort, or somethinglike that. I forget what they said. Want to start carrying it?"
"Ha
nd it over," Trigger said resignedly. "I did see quite a few poucheson the ship. Might as well get people used to thinking I've turned intoa porgee sniffer."
Holati went back to the desk safe and took out a flat pouch, the lengthof his hand but narrower. He gave it to her. It appeared to be worked ofgold thread; one side was studded with tiny pearls, the opposite surfacewas plain. Trigger laid the plain side against the cloth of her skirt,just below the right hip, and let go. It adhered there. She stretchedher right leg out to the side and considered the porgee pouch.
"Doesn't look too bad," she conceded. "That's real porgee in the topsection?"
"The real article. Close to nine hundred and fifty credits worth."
"Suppose somebody wants to borrow a sniff? Wouldn't be good to have themfumbling around the pouch very much!"
"They can't," said the Commissioner. "That's why we made it porgee. Whenyou buy a supply, it has to be adjusted to your individual chemistry,exactly. That's mainly what makes it expensive. Try using someoneelse's, and it'll flip you across the room."
"Better get this adjusted to my chemistry then. I might have to take ademonstration sniff now and then to make it look right."
"We've already done that," he said.
"Good," said Trigger. "Now let's see!" She straightened up, left handclosed lightly around the bottom of the purse, right hand loose at herside. Her eyes searched the office briefly. "Some object around here youdon't particularly value?" she asked. "Something largish?"
"Several," the Commissioner said. He glanced around. "That overgrownflower pot in the corner is one. Why?"
"Just practicing," said Trigger. She turned to face the flower pot."That will do. Now--here I come along, thinking of nothing." She startedwalking toward the flower pot. "Then, suddenly, in front of me, therestands a plasmoid snatcher."
She stopped in mid-stride. Handbag and strap vanished, as her right handslapped the porgee pouch. The Denton popped into her palm. The flowerpot screeched and flew apart.
"Golly!" she said, startled. "Come, Fido!" Handbag and strap reappearedand she reached out and caught the strap. She looked around atCommissioner Tate.
"Sorry about your pot, Holati. I was just going to shake it up a little.I forgot you people had been handling my gun. I keep it switched tostunner myself when I'm carrying it," she added pointedly.
"Perfectly all right about the pot," the Commissioner said. "I shouldhave warned you. Otherwise, I'd say all you'd need is a moment to seethem coming."
Trigger spun the Denton to its stunner setting and laid it back insidethe slit which had appeared along the side of the porgee pouch. She ranthumb and finger tip along the length of the slit, and the pouch wassealed again.
"That's the part that's worrying me," she admitted.
* * * * *
When Trigger presented herself at Commissioner Tate's personal quartersearly that evening, she found him alone.
"Sit down," he said. "I've been trying to get hold of Mantelish for thepast hour. He's over on the other side of the planet again."
Trigger sat down and lifted an eyebrow. "Should he be?"
"I don't think so," said Holati. "But I've been overruled on that. He'sstill the best man the Federation has working on the various plasmoidproblems, so I'm not to interfere with his investigations any more thanI can show is absolutely necessary. It's probably all right. ThoseU-League guards of his aren't a bad group."
"If they compare with the boys the League had watching the PlasmoidProject, they should be just about tops," Trigger said.
"The Space Scouts thank you for those kind words," the Commissioner toldher. "Those weren't League guards. When it came to deciding who was tokeep an eye on you, I overruled everybody."
She smiled. "I might have guessed it. What's there for the professor tobe investigating on the other side of Manon?"
"He's hunting for some theoretical creatures he calls wild plasmoids."
"_Wild_ plasmoids?"
"Uh-huh. His idea is that some of the plasmoids the Old Galactics wereusing on Manon might have got away from them, or just been left lyingaround, so to speak, and could have survived till now. He thinks theymight even be reproducing themselves. He's looking for them with aspecial detector he built."
Trigger held up a finger on which was a slim gold ring with a smallgreen stone in it. "Like this one?" she asked.
"He's got a large version of that type of detector with him too. But hethinks that if any wild plasmoids are around, they're likely to be alongthe lines of 113-A. So he's also constructed a detector which reacts to113-A."
"I see." Trigger was silent a moment. "Does Mantelish have any idea whyRepulsive is the only plasmoid known to which our ring detectors don'treact?"
"Apparently he does," Holati said. "But when he starts in on thosesubjects, I find him difficult to follow." He looked soberly at Trigger."There are times," he confessed, "when I suspect Professor Mantelish issomewhat daft. But probably he's just so brilliant that he keeps fadingbeyond my mental range."
Trigger laughed. "My father used to come home from a session withMantelish muttering the same sort of thing." She glanced at the ringagain. "By the way, have any plasmoids actually been stolen around herefor us to detect?"
He nodded. "Quite a few have been snitched from Harvest Moon and variousstorage points by now. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them turn uphere in the dome eventually. Not that it's a serious loss. What thethieves have been getting away with is small stuff--plasmoid nuts andbolts, so to speak. Still, each of those would still fetch around ahundred thousand credits, if you offered them to the right people.Incidentally, if asking you to this conference has interfered with anypersonal plans, just say so. We can put it off till tomorrow. Especiallysince it's beginning to look as if Mantelish won't make it here either."
"Either?" Trigger said.
"Quillan's already had to cancel. He got involved with something duringthe afternoon."
"Oh," she said coolly. She looked at her watch. "I do have a dinner datewith Brule Inger in an hour and a half. But you said this meeting wasn'tto take more than an hour anyway, didn't you?"
He nodded.
"Then I'm free. My quarters are arranged, and I'm ready to go back on myold job in the morning."
"Fine," said the Commissioner. "There are things I wanted to discusswith you privately anyway. If we can't get through to Mantelish inanother ten minutes, we'll go ahead with that. I would have liked tohave Quillan here to fill us in with data about some of the top-levelcrooks in the Hub. They're a specialty of his. I don't know too muchabout them myself."
He paused. "That Lyad Ermetyne now," he said, "looks as if she eitheralready is part of the main problem or is working very hard to getthere. She's had a Tranest warship stationed here for the past twoweeks. A thing called the Aurora."
Trigger was startled. "But warships aren't allowed in Manon System!"
"It isn't in the system. It's stationed a half light-year away, where ithas a legal right to be. Nothing to worry about as such. It's just aheavy armed frigate, which is the limit Tranest is allowed to build.Since it's Lyad's private boat, I imagine it's been souped up witheverything they could throw in. Anyway, the fact that she sent it hereahead of her indicates she isn't just dropping in for a casual visit."
"She made that pretty clear herself!" Trigger said. "Why do you thinkshe's being so open about it?"
He shrugged. "Might have a number of reasons. One could be that she'dget the beady eye anyway as soon as she showed up here. When Lyad goesanywhere, it's usually on business. After Quillan reported on yourdinner party, I got all the information I could on her. The First Ladystacks up as a tough cookie! Also smart. Most of those Ermetynes wind upbeing dead-brained by some loving relative, and apparently they have toknow how to whip up a sharp brew of poison before they're let intokindergarten. Lyad's been top dog among them since she was eighteen--"
His head turned. A bell had begun pinging in the next room. He stood up.
"Probably Mantelish's outfit on the transmitter," he said. "I told themto call as soon as they located him." He stopped at the door. "Care fora drink, Trigger girl? You know where the stuff is."
"Not just now, thanks."
The Commissioner came back in a couple of minutes. "Darn fool got lostin a swamp! They found him finally, but he's too tired to come overnow."
He sat down and scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Do you remember thetime you passed out on the Harvest Moon?" he asked.
Trigger looked at him, puzzled. "The time I what?"
"Passed out. Fainted. Went out cold."
"I? You're out of your mind, Holati! I never fainted in my life."
"Reason I asked," he said, "is that I've been told a spell in a restcubicle--same thing as a rest cubicle anyway, only it's used fortherapy--sometimes resolves amnesias."
"Amnesias! What _are_ you talking about?"
The Commissioner said. "I'm talking about you. This is bound to be ajolt, Trigger girl. Might have been easier after a drink. But I'll justgive it to you straight. About a week after Mantelish and his U-Leaguecrew first arrived here, you did pass out on one occasion while we wereon the Harvest Moon with them. And afterwards you didn't remember doingit."
"I didn't?" Trigger said weakly.
"No. I thought it might have cleared up, and you just had some reasonfor not wanting to mention it." He got to his feet. "Like that drinknow--before I go on with the details?"
She nodded.
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