[Jan Darzek 03] - This Darkening Universe

by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.

  Miss Schlupe was going through a sheaf of scientific data with Arluklo when the projection of the last recording faded. The other kloa who had been watching quietly withdrew.

  "Does the kloatraz have any record of a similar menace?" Miss Schlupe asked.

  "No."

  "Does it have any comment on the failure of the scientists' instruments to detect the nature of the Udef?"

  "No. It has searched its memory fully and it has no information that would be useful in understanding such a force."

  "Will the klo member of the gesardl recommend that the gesardl and all of the mart's leading traders view the recordings?" Miss Schlupe asked.

  "It will recommend them to all who wish to see them," Arluklo answered.

  Miss Schlupe politely thanked Arluklo and, through him, the kloatraz. She packed up the projector, recordings, and data.

  "This is a disappointment," she muttered to Malina. "I expected but never mind. Would you take these back to the Prime Common? I have work to do in my office."

  They went their separate ways, each trailing a gesardl secretary.

  Jan Darzek's projector had been turned off. He was still seated on the same improvised chair, but now he leaned back with his gaze fixed on the ceiling. E-Wusk had left off worrying about the Udef to worry about his assistants. He was accustomed to working them hard, and they were having difficulty in accommodating themselves to a life of leisure. Since the mart was designed for a furious pace of commercial activity and nothing else, there were no recreational facilities.

  "Why not ask the gesardl if your assistants can play in the park?"

  Malina suggested bitterly.

  Darzek's gaze left the ceiling with a snap. He straightened up and asked, "Whose idea was that?"

  "Mine and Miss Schlupe's jointly," Malina said. "I wanted a place for the children to play. She'd seen the park from the air, so she got permission for us to use it."

  "Interesting that this trouble with your children happened on the day I arrived here. Who knew I was coming?"

  Malina left the answer to E-Wusk, who said firmly, "No one. Rok Wllon said you might come later, but no one knew for certain or had any idea when it would be. You surprised all of us."

  Malina said quietly, "It seems that my children, or one of them, really did throw stones at a native. It can't be more than coincidence that it happened on the day you arrived here. How could anyone have conspired to arrange that?"

  "Someone could have been looking for an opportunity and used that one," Darzek said.

  Before Malina could answer, Miss Schlupe stumbled from the transmitter. Incredibly, she looked as though she'd been crying or was about to. For a moment she could not speak. She stood staring at them.

  Then Rok Wllon stepped from the transmitter, his monster face smugly triumphant. He was followed by an anxiously fluttering Arluklo.

  "He gave them the children!" Miss Schlupe gasped.

  "I asked the kloatraz to find them," Rok Wllon said expansively.

  "It analyzed the possible hiding places and detected a use of water high up in the column above Gula Schlu's place of business. It was a clever place for them to hide. The column had been searched and then watched closely, and the gesardl cannot understand how they could get into it without being seen. Anyway, the kloa have turned the children over to the gesardl, and the gesardl has turned them over to the natives, and justice will be done. We can proceed with our mission."

  Malina was too stunned to speak.

  Miss Schlupe turned on Arluklo. "You dirty traitor! I never thought the kloa would stoop so low."

  Arluklo said plaintively, "But why would you not want to secure justice?"

  "What was that about proceeding with our mission?" Darzek asked Rok Wllon.

  "Since I was instrumental in finding the children, the gesardl has acknowledged that its suspicions were misplaced and the Prime Common was not obstructing justice but attempting to further it. The interdiction has been canceled. We can proceed with our mission."

  "How do you suggest that we proceed?" Darzek asked. Rok Wllon did not answer.

  "There are worse things than interdictions," Miss Schlupe said heatedly. "It's possible to be ostracized and still be respected, and as long as the children were missing, there was hope that we could find a way around the problem. Now there's no hope at all, and in addition, you've made laughing stocks of all of us."

  16

  Malina saw the gesardl distortedly, as through a nightmarish warp of light and tears: she stammering a plea for mercy; the klo member translating; the native observer passive behind his concealing light shield; Rok Wllon, who had been present on some business of his own when she arrived, in a towering rage.

  Rok Wllon left abruptly, not waiting for the end of her plea. And when she finished and stood facing the gesardl's foreboding indifference, he returned, still in a rage and accompanied by Miss Schlupe. Arluklo contritely trailed after them. He seemed pathetically repentant over the role the kloa had played in capturing the children, but for all that they remained captured.

  "Doctor Darr claimed," Rok Wllon said resentfully to Miss Schlupe, "that she threw the stones. She claimed that she was the one responsible. And there were witnesses to the children's deed. You depraved and lying humans will destroy all of my work!"

  "Put the lid on it!" Miss Schlupe snapped. "There's nothing depraved about a mother trying to save her children. We should be doing something ourselves."

  Malina slumped to the floor and muffled her sobs with her hands. Miss Schlupe spoke to Arluklo in large-talk. "I want to talk to the gesardl, and I don't want any possibility of being misunderstood, so I'll use this language. Will you translate carefully?"

  Arluklo made his multi-limbed gesture of assent.

  "I heard a comment when I came in," Miss Schlupe said. "Something about animals that tell deliberate untruths. I answer - what kind of animals are you, to deny ultimate responsibilities?" She paused while Arluklo translated the question. There was no response. "The children were in Doctor Darr's care," Miss Schlupe went on. "In a moral society she would be fully responsible for their transgressions. Her error was in assuming that this is a moral society. I am shocked, as she was, that the morality of this planet and this galaxy is so primitive that this fact must be explained to you."

  Arluklo translated, and then he translated the reply of a quivering mass of flesh that sat beside the shielded native. "Naturally visitors to the mart are subject to the law of Montura. How could it be otherwise? If each visitor chose to observe his own laws, chaos would result."

  "This governing body somehow has managed to completely misunderstand the import of what is happening," Miss Schlupe said. "You're attempting to apply the legal procedures normally followed when citizens of another world are in conflict with a Monturan native. The situation here is that citizens of another galaxy are involved, and this brings the case under the sternly enforced intergalactic laws that unfortunately you have not taken the trouble to become familiar with. I suggest that you remedy this oversight immediately. Defiance of intergalactic law calls for harsh reprisals. I advise all of you to complete your trading commitments as soon as possible and dispose of your inventories."

  She helped Malina to her feet and firmly guided her through the transmitter without waiting for Arluklo to finish his translation. They reached the Prime Common with Rok WIlon still remonstrating at their heels. Miss Schlupe told him, "Sit down somewhere and count to a million. I'll talk to you later."

  In their own apartment, Jan Darzek stood looking out of the lounge windows. Miss Schlupe got Malina settled on a hassock and wearily seated herself on another. "I blew it” she announced. "I let my mouth run while my brain was turned off, and before I got the two synchronized I'd threatened intergalactic intervention. Any chance we could import your thousand ships for a weekend, just to frighten people?"

  Darzek said, without looking around, "My thousand ships wouldn't be noticed. Ha
ve you any idea how many ships are docked at Monturan transfer stations this moment? Probably ten times that many. If you think the arena is a turmoil, you should watch the ships exchanging goods in space. Their techniques are worth studying."

  "Then scratch the ships," Miss Schlupe said resignedly. "Is there any chance my stupid threats will have some effect?"

  Darzek kept his face to the window. "The natives are the problem. You have no clue whatsoever as to how they think. And no matter how much you frighten the gesardl, you won't accomplish anything unless the gesardl is somehow able to pressure the natives. I'm afraid it isn't."

  "We have one clue as to how the natives think," Miss Schlupe said. "They consider the intention the same as the deed. We've got to do something and quickly, but it's no good threatening reprisals if we haven't the means of carrying them out."

  "You have the means." "Where is it?"

  "On the way. Announce that Montura will be permanently closed to all commerce and communication. Announce that the population - natives and traders - will be exterminated. If they ask you how, show them a few of my recordings." He went on meditatively, "It'll be rather interesting. On every world we've recorded, only one life form was involved. Each life form has its own innate resistance to the Udef, ranging between extremes of two to about ten minutes. On a world with a single life form, everyone is affected almost equally. On this world there'll be a tremendous variety of reactions. It'll be a genuine drama. This is the proper location for it. The place looks like a motion picture set. The mart was constructed here for the same reason motion picture sets are built in the middle of some damnable wasteland - because the land was cheap and conveniently located. As soon as the last scenes are shot, the mart will be dismantled and carted away. The landscape will be much more attractive without it. A little beauty in an ugly place is as much a blight as a little ugliness in a beautiful place."

  "Why don't you say it?" Malina demanded harshly. "What does the fate of two children matter when sooner or later the Udef would kill them anyway?"

  Darzek turned. "I've seen so many high civilizations destroyed," he said softly, "and so many promising worlds reduced to garbage heaps of rotting corpses, and so many innocent intelligences suddenly murdered that I find myself looking at that crowd in the arena and wondering why everyone is still alive. The danger is real enough. This galaxy next, and then ours. The only thing that stands between the Udef and all the intelligent life in the universe is time. But I wouldn't willingly abandon even one child, any more than I'd abandon one civilization. The question is what possibly can be done."

  "They may be dead already," Malina said dully.

  "They may be. I'd think it unlikely, but we're dealing with wholly unpredictable mentalities. They may be dead, or they may be in no danger at all. If they're in danger, Miss Schlupe's threat may have bought some time. Remember, we're as unpredictable to the natives as they are to us. If they're wise, they'll proceed slowly and carefully until they find out whether we have the means to make good the threat. Is there any clue as to why Supreme thought the natives so important?"

  Miss Schlupe shook her head. "Supreme missed the mark about their needing a dermatologist. Maybe it's wrong about their being important, too."

  Darzek turned to the window again. "Supreme has been accumulating its data for a long, long time, and it probably has information about Montura that antedates the mart. Supreme reasons from an accumulation of facts, but we don't know whether it weighs the possibility that some of the facts may be centuries out of date, or how it distinguishes between a reliable report and a rumor. The natives' skin condition is a fact. If the report described it as an unfortunate affliction that forced the natives to wear protective clothing, then Supreme would conclude that the natives need dermatological attention. I wouldn't say it missed the mark, though. I questioned Rok Wllon closely. Supreme said we should establish friendly relations with the natives and secure their assistance. A positive statement. And Supreme said a dermatologist might be helpful."

  "Either way, we've blown it," Miss Schlupe said. "How can we establish friendly relations with the natives now?"

  "I'll think about it," Darzek said. He started for his bedroom. In the corridor, he turned. "I've decided to send Rok Wllon to Primores. Supreme should be questioned properly."

  As his bedroom door closed after him, Miss Schlupe said concernedly, "He changed. The old Jan Darzek would have taken on the gesardl the way I did, only he would have made something happen." She got to her feet. "But what can we do? Maybe I'd better lie down, too."

  Left alone, Malina took Jan Darzek's place at the window.

  If her children were to be rescued, she would have to do it herself. She thought for a time, and then she went looking for Arluklo.

  At dusk, Malina watched Arluklo stroll casually through one of the mart exits and head across the landing field toward a remote ship. Malina waited until he'd disappeared behind the ship, and then she started after him at her own casual pace. He was waiting for her on the other side, and they moved off into the gathering darkness.

  Night came on quickly. Although Montura had no natural moon, the belt of storage satellites, transfer stations, and ships that surrounded the planet diffused an ineffectual moonlight that was splendidly supplemented by light from the dense cluster of surrounding stars. Malina gladly would have exchanged all of that for one serviceable moon like Earth's. She stumbled through the darkness, with Montura's crumbling surface making each crumbling step a laborious undertaking. She had worn only a light coat, and the searching wind that swept down the broad valley quickly chilled her.

  She asked Arluklo if he were cold; she sensed, though she could not see, his negative gesture. But if the temperature did not bother him, the treacherous terrain was harder on him than on her despite his multiplicity of feet. Once when the encrusted surface gave way under him, he stumbled and fell. She helped him up and found his leathery body surprisingly heavy. He crunched through the brittle crust as deeply as she did.

  Steadily they floundered forward. They climbed a long, barren slope topped it, descended, and climbed again. It seems to Malina that she had walked an endless distance when finally she felt soft vegetation underfoot. They climbed over the low mound that formed a boundary and set off across the park.

  As the strange, treelike plants became thicker, they blotted out large areas of sky and interposed their own murky shade on the night. Malina walked with hands outstretched in front of her to avoid bumping into them. Down the slope they went and splashed into a stream of water before Malina was aware of it. With sloshing feet she trudged after Arluklo: uphill, and then downhill again.

  Finally she asked, "How much further?" "It is not known precisely."

  "It isn't? I thought you knew where it is!" "I said I would find it. I will find it."

  They moved on: uphill, and then downhill. She had not realized that the park was so vast. Suddenly Arluklo turned aside, and before she could follow she heard a dull, metallic thud.

  She hissed, "Careful!"

  When she reached him, he stood at the side of a tall mound, his multitude of fingers scratching their way across a smooth, metallic surface. Malina bent over and attempted to scrutinize it in the dim light. It was a door, as Arluklo had promised. An entrance.

  Beyond it lay the underground world of the Monturans.

  She moved her hands slowly over the smooth, unbroken surface. Arluklo had stopped his scratching. "It must open only from within," he said.

  She continued to feel the smooth surface. She could detect no latch or knob or button that might control the opening. She could not even trace a crack around the edge of the door with her fingernail, so tightly did metal fit to metal.

  Wearily she stepped back. "What other entrances are there?" "The one under the arena."

  "Too dangerous," Malina said. With Arluklo as a guide, she had explored in that direction earlier in the day. The way led through one of the gesardl offices and a
host of working secretaries. They would be caught before they started, and that entrance, too, probably was kept locked from within. "Where else?"

  "There is no other entrance near the mart."

  "We should have brought a light," Malina said, again searching the smooth surface. She worked at it for a long time before she gave up.

  "It must open only from within," Arluklo said again.

  She sat down tiredly. "It's a dirty shame - it probably isn't used much, which makes it ideal. What about entrances that aren't near the mart?"

  "There are many, but all are at a distance."

  "Is there a map of them? Could you take me to one?" "A map could be made. Yes, I could take you to one." "Good. We'll go tomorrow night."