13
She awoke to aching emptiness in a dimly lit, windowless room, and she lay for a long time staring incredulously at the children's deserted pallets. With full consciousness came panic. Had they been found? Was it morning? What was Miss Schlupe doing?
She sprang to the door and opened it. Her gaze met the multiple eyes of a gesardl secretary. At the end of the corridor there was daylight from the lounge windows. It was morning.
She firmly closed the door in the secretary's face and dressed herself. Then she hurried to the Prime Common.
A few of E-Wusk's assistants were at work, heroically attempting to conduct their business as usual in the face of the grotesquely unusual. E-Wusk and Miss Schlupe were talking in low tones in one of the cubicles. Two gesardl secretaries sat nearby, and others stood in a group near the transmitter.
Malina did not have to speak her question. Miss Schlupe looked up, saw her, and shook her head slowly. "We've looked everywhere. Now we're looking again."
"They'll be hungry," Malina said.
"That's what I'm counting on. Eventually they'll turn up at the refreshment stand."
They would be hungry. They also would be frightened and lonely.
"I don't know what to do," she said. Your children murdered a native.
"There's nothing to be done," Miss Schlupe said. "We have an army looking for them. We'll find them."
Malina screamed silently, "Not an army - a police force." And when her children were found, they would not be restored to her arms. The law would claim them.
E-Wusk, apparently uncertain of how to greet the mother of missing children who also were murderers, spoke to her politely from a distance and waddled away. Miss Schlupe started toward her and halted when a secretary followed along suspiciously. "These dratted snoops are getting on my nerves," she announced in English.
Rok Wllon strode in, closely followed by a scurrying klo. Malina said politely, "Good morning, Arluklo." The klo responded, with equal politeness, that its name was Moluklo. Rok Wllon had obtained an interpreter of his own. With the klo's assistance, he began a lengthy conversation with the gesardl secretaries.
Malina seated herself in a vacant cubicle, and Miss Schlupe, still followed closely by the secretary, joined her. Malina asked quietly, in English, "What's going to happen?"
"Better not speak English," Miss Schlupe said in large-talk. "These characters already suspect a conspiracy, and strange intonations make them certain of it. Large-talk they can accept."
Malina repeated in large-talk, "What's going to happen?"
One of the old woman's charms was the engaging directness of her honesty. Where others would have dissembled, she delineated the situation with terse precision. "We're trying to find out. Apparently the natives have kept strictly to themselves ever since the mart was founded. The mart has no record, anywhere, of any kind of an offense against a native. From what I hear, from various sources, the situation is so unprecedented that no one knows what to do. The gesardl seems scared to death. All kinds of high-level meetings are going on right now - including that one."
She was watching Rok Wllon contemptuously. "The lousy turncoat," she said bitterly. "Trying to butter up the secretaries. He's assured them that we'll turn the children over to the gesardl the moment we find them."
"That's his mission, isn't it?" Malina asked. "To get on the good side of the natives? What sort of creatures are the natives?"
"We still don't know. I haven't found anyone at the mart who'll admit to having seen one."
Rok Wllon left the secretaries and joined them. His wide form took up an entire hassock, but he thinly perched on the edge of it. "I never imagined that you'd do such a thing to us," he said accusingly to Malina. "All of our careful plans, the fate of the universe at stake and now, because of your children - "
"That line doesn't buy you anything here," Miss Schlupe snapped.
"You're the one responsible for bringing the children."; "I had every right to expect - "
"You assured Doctor Darr that her children would be safe, and she has every right to expect your support. You weren't thinking of selling her out, were you?"
Rok WIlon looked stonily at Malina before he gloweringly confronted Miss Schlupe. "We've been interdicted," he said. "They think we're hiding the children."
"Where, when, and how?" Miss Schlupe demanded.
"That's what they think. E-Wusk isn't permitted to trade, except to dispose of perishable goods already on hand. The same goes for your business. As soon as you dispose of your stock of perishables, you'll have to close down. They've confiscated your transmitters and flyers, and none of us can leave the mart."
"Perishables be damned!" Miss Schlupe snapped. "I'll close down at once!"
She stormed away. One of the gesardl secretaries leaped to his multiple pairs of feet and followed her. Rok Wllon called after her protestingly as she vanished into the transmitter. Then he lapsed into gloomy silence. Time passed. Miss Schlupe returned looking grimly satisfied.
"Closed," she announced. "Arluklo is producing signs in all the important mart languages. They'll say, 'Closed by an illegal order of the gesardl.' We're putting them up as fast as he finishes them. We'll plaster signs on that column as high as anyone can read them. I've been feeding two-thirds of the mart population, and if this doesn't produce a mild uproar, I'll consider it an insult to my submarine sandwiches."
E-Wusk waddled in and joined them. "Have you heard?" he asked. Miss Schlupe nodded. "No trade for you except to dispose of perishables. They framed the interdiction that way so they could look noble while stabbing you in the back. Forty-nine fiftieths of them are jealous about the amount of business you've been doing. Have you got any perishables?"
"None at all," E-Wusk said cheerfully.
Miss Schlupe dropped her voice. "Get some. Quickly. Isn't there a friend who'll trade you a shipload of perishables and pretend he did it before they issued the interdiction?"
"I suppose so, but - "
"Do it! Now! If one of these multiple lynx-eyed secretaries follows you, tell him you're trying to get the deal canceled."
E-Wusk gazed at her in astonishment for a moment, and then he waddled away.
A congregation of life forms in startling variety began to erupt from the transmitter. One at a time they popped into sight, looked about them, saw Miss Schlupe, and headed determinedly in her direction. She got to her feet and went to meet them. Malina could not decide whether the group was importuning, remonstrating, or berating, but the conversation was loud and interminable, and Miss Schlupe obviously gave as good as she received. When the visitors finally took their leave, it definitely was no victory parade that plodded back into the transmitter.
Before Malina could ask about it, E-Wusk returned. He said quietly to Miss Schlupe, "It's too late. I can't get any perishables."
"Never mind," she said. "We'll do it this way. You have a shipload of perishables on the way, and if you don't trade them here, they'll spoil before you can redirect them. Explain this to the members of the gesardl and ask for bids."
"But I haven't got any perishables on the way!"
"Knowing your trading is restricted, the gesardl members will bid ridiculously low figures. Get their bids in writing. Then we'll expose this perfidious plot against us - them using their governing powers to place a false charge against the children so I'll have to surrender my business to them and you'll be forced to sell your merchandise to them at a loss. The mart should be informed about the way they attempt to profit from their own dishonorable actions."
E-Wusk's massive face was puckered with perplexity. "But if no ship arrives - "
"We'll say the captain got word of what was going on and took the stuff elsewhere. Get those written bids right now. This is important."
"If you say so," E-Wusk said resignedly. "But if I haven't got a shipload of perishables - "
"I'll help you. Draw up a list of perishables, and we'll decide
which one it is."
Still perplexed, E-Wusk returned to his own cubicle.
"What'd you tell the delegation?" Malina asked Miss Schlupe.
"The complaint was that my false and misleading notices were causing turmoil on the floor of the arena. They wanted me to take them down and reopen long enough to dispose of stocks of food on hand and give the mart proper notice of closing. I told them this is impossible while my good character is tainted by unjust suspicions and rumors fostered by the gesardl. The financial loss is trifling, but my good character, my honor, is everything. Also, I suspect that the gesardl has made the false charges in an attempt to force me out so it can take over my business. I've reported this to my own government and asked for an investigation and an assessment of damages. If I do say so myself, it was very nicely put. The delegation retired in consternation. "
Miss Schlupe went to confer with E-Wusk on the handling of his non-existent shipload of perishables. The gesardl delegation, considerably enlarged, made a second appearance. This time Miss Schlupe ignored it, so it conferred with Rok Wllon, pouring out a muddle of unlikely languages that Moluklo patiently put into large-talk.
Malina leaned back and closed her eyes. She should have been doing something, but if the kloa and all the others who knew the mart couldn't find her children, what chance would she have? Perhaps if she tried to imagine where they would go - surely a mother knew her own children well enough to do that - your children murdered a native.
Suddenly the room fell silent. She opened her eyes.
On the other side of the common, E-Wusk and Miss Schlupe had scrambled to their feet, staring, transfixed with astonishment. Everyone was turned toward the transmitter.
A man had stepped from it. A human being.
With him was an alien, nondescript among so many flamboyant life forms, but the man definitely was human - tall, blond, and blue-eyed, and even the baggy, overall-like garment he wore could not conceal a sturdy physique.
Malina leaped to her feet and stared with the rest. Startled as she was, she instinctively appraised him professionally. He looked ill. He was underweight and excessively fatigued. He swayed slightly as he stood there looking about him.
In one hand he held an enormous submarine sandwich. In the other he held a paper mug of cider. He had been eating the sandwich.
The alien who accompanied him also held a sandwich and a mug of cider, but he did not seem to know what to do with them.
The man's gaze fell on Miss Schlupe, who was still petrified with astonishment. He called in English, "Schluppy! What's going on here?"
Miss Schlupe's scream was a fervent hallelujah. "Mr. Darzek! Thank God!"
She hurled herself across the common and into his arms. He gingerly suffered himself to be embraced while safeguarding his cider and sandwich. "Take it easy," he said. "This is the first time in weeks I've had an appetite. I may lose it if I have to eat this stuff off the floor."
By the time she released him, E-Wusk had waddled forward to wrap Darzek in a multitude of limbs and further endanger his food.
"Did you just arrive?" Miss Schlupe asked.
"I've been here since yesterday," Darzek said. "I spent the night going from common to common trying to find someone who spoke a galactic dialect or had heard of a disreputable trader named E-Wusk”.
“No one did or had. Very disillusioning - I figured by this time you people would have taken the place over and made large-talk the official language. This morning we went down to the arena to try our luck there. At the central column something smelled like breakfast, but all the windows were closed, and of course we couldn't read the notices. I pressed my nose hungrily against a window, and behold - a former clerk of E-Wusk's was working inside. He recognized me, and pressed these samples on us, and guided us as far as your bakery, where everyone was sitting around wringing hands - E-Wusk's people have lots of hands to wring - while the bread burned."
Miss Schlupe giggled. "I told them to burn it. I wanted to find out whether they could raise enough stink to make the mart uninhabitable."
"I don't know about 'habitable,' but they've made that particular level off limits to people with noses. You weren't there, so my guide took me other places and finally sent me here. Why all the consternation?"
"Gul Darr!" E-Wusk gurgled. "You couldn't have come at a more opportune time. The most terrible thing has happened! The most incredible tragedy!"
Darzek said wearily, "E-Wusk, don't talk to me of tragedies. The word has lost its meaning."
"It's Doctor Darr," E-Wusk persisted. "Her children - "
"Whose children?" $
"Doctor Darr's. She took them to the park, and - " "Who is Doctor Darr?"
"The medical specialist Supreme recommended."
Darzek calmly took another bite of sandwich, and then he looked about the room again. For the first time his eyes met Malina's. He called to her, "You're Doctor Darr?"
She nodded.
"Why are they calling you 'Darr'?" "Because it's my name."
"You come from Earth? But of course. That's the only place humans come from, isn't it? I've been in space a long time. You're Doctor Darr, and you're called that because it's your name and your profession, and you're from Earth, and you have children. Why did you bring them here?"
"She wouldn't come without them," Miss Schlupe said, "so Smith - Rok WIlon - let her bring them. He assured her they'd be safe. He hired her the same way he hired you. For a million dollars. And get this. He hired her because Supreme told him to get a skin specialist which she is - and because her name is Darr."
Darzek was calmly studying Malina. "What about her children?" "They're lost," Miss Schlupe said.
"Why isn't she looking for them?"
Malina felt too nonplused to speak.
"How old are they?" Darzek asked.
"Eight and ten," Miss Schlupe said.
"Then they're too large to be trampled underfoot, even in the arena. What are you doing about it?"
"Everyone is looking for them."
"I doubt that. Those zoological specimens in the arena are mostly looking for bargains in bric-a-brac and used alfalfa, but even in that conglomeration it shouldn't be easy to overlook two human children. Does she have photos of them?"
Malina hadn't thought of the photos, which weren't unpacked yet. "That's only the beginning of the problem," Miss Schlupe said. "See those characters?" She pointed to the gesardl delegation. "The moment the children are found, they're going to arrest them."
Darzek drained his mug of cider. Then he dropped onto the nearest hassock and took another bite of sandwich. His alien companion sank down beside him and closed his eyes.
"What happened?" Darzek asked.
"These characters say the children murdered a native when they were playing in a park near here - threw a stone and hit him. The gesardl has a treaty with the native government providing that any alien involved in an offense against a native must be turned over to the native system of justice."
"There's nothing unusual about that," Darzek said. "It isn't even unreasonable."
"They have the death penalty for murder."
"So do a lot of countries on Earth. But children - "
"They make no distinction between children and adults." Miss Schlupe, too, had been questioning Arluklo.
Darzek said, "I see." He turned and met Malina's eyes again - gave her a long, searching look - and then he turned to Rok Wllon, who still stood with the gesardl delegation. He spoke conversationally. "How did you ever manage such a pyramiding accumulation of stupidities?"
Rok Wllon said defensively, "I did nothing at all without consulting Supreme. Supreme approved everything. How could I know that such barbarian instincts could mature at such an early age?"
Darzek had started to take another bite of sandwich. Instead, he yawned massively. His companion had drooped forward, obviously sound asleep. His tipped mug of cider was trickling its contents onto the floor
.
Darzek turned to Miss Schlupe again. "Schluppy, we haven't slept for a week. Or weeks. I'm starved, and this sandwich tastes delicious, and I'm too tired to eat. I worked all the way here, non-stop, so I'd be ready for action when I arrived, and now I'm too exhausted to think. Give us a couple of beds. When I wake up, whenever that might be, you can tell me about all the messes you've got yourselves into."
"Of course," Miss Schlupe said. She shook the alien awake and led the two of them away.
Bitterly Malina watched them go. This was the brilliantly resourceful Jan Darzek, who always knew what to do. She sank back onto her hassock and watched the milling gesardl delegation. Your children murdered a native.
[Jan Darzek 03] - This Darkening Universe Page 14
