Naz Forlan came at the end of the line, along with Wolndur, Melris, Darzek, and the doctor. He called ahead to the personnel experts, "Did any of you recognize him?"
No response was necessary. This gruesomely burned body would be unrecognizable no matter how well one had known it.
The doctor asked bluntly, "Well - are you satisfied?"
Before Forlan could answer, Qwasrolk's lidless eyes turned toward them. They moved slowly, studying each of the party in turn. Darzek had to fight to control his nausea as the glazed vision rested momentarily on him. Then the eyes moved on, leaving him with the feeling that he'd been stabbed with revulsion. They rested briefly on Forlan, on Wolndur, on Melris, on the doctor. Jerkily they returned, focusing vacantly on one gaping observer after another.
Suddenly Qwasrolk vanished, leaving all of them staring disbelievingly at an empty capsule.
7
Miss Schlupe had discovered a new restaurant. There was nothing special about the food except the fungus garnishing that all of the transfer station restaurants offered; but this station had an extremely low orbit and featured a magnification viewer in its dining room. Darzek watched, fascinated, while the terrain unrolled below him.
Fascinated and horrified.
Traveling about by transmitter, one got the impression that an industrial world was paved with industries and cities; but Vezpro, although its industrial cities were huge complexes, produced a high percentage of its own food, and land suitable for cultivation was intensely developed. It reminded him of Earth, seen from a low plane flight, and the idea that somewhere in the galaxy lurked a malignant intelligence that would deliberately incinerate all of that beauty was frightening.
Finally a long bank of clouds drifted beneath them. The viewer, a moment later, focused on outer space and its dazzling panorama of stars, and Darzek nibbled his food and turned to Miss Schlupe.
"You were talking about ESP," she reminded him.
"So I was," Darzek agreed pensively. "Extrasensory perception.
Ever since we first learned that the galaxy is inhabited by vast numbers of intelligent life forms, I've been anticipating a meeting with one that had a portfolio of unnatural powers. Thus far I've found only highly exceptional supertalented individuals that can occur in any life form, including our own. I've encountered unmistakable, startling instances of prognostication or telepathy, but this is my first experience with a genuine teleport."
"Are you certain it wasn't a trick?" Miss Schlupe asked.
Darzek nibbled again and swallowed. "I don't see how it could have been, unless you want to call all of parapsychology a trick. The doctor was at least as amazed as the rest of us-he proceeded to pull t he capsule apart looking for his patient, and then what he had to say in his native tongue was certainly better left untranslated, which the diplomat wisely did. The chief proctor's anger was just as genuine. He thought he was well on the way to solving the case, and then we showed up and deprived him of his only witness. I pointed out to him that an individual with the ability to teleport was likely to vanish at any time and our being there was merely a coincidence, but I don't think he believed me. He's no fool, by the way, but we knew that already. The first thing he did was send a platoon of proctors to the place in the country where this Qwasrolk had been found."
Darzek paused for another nibble. "They found him again. But the moment he saw them he vanished a second time, and he hasn't been seen since - at least, he hadn't been seen again up to the time we left Skarnaf."
"Did you point out to him that it was his own proctors who were responsible for the second disappearance?" Miss Schulpe asked.
"As a matter of fact, I did. And he pointed out in turn that without the first disappearance, his proctors wouldn't have caused the second. He understands our problem, though. He has a rare competence. I like him."
"And how did our esteemed Mas of Science and Technology react to the whole business?"
"He thought it a wasted trip. He'd hoped one of his personnel specialists would recognize Qwasrolk as a scientist who'd worked here under another name after that mysterious disappearance three cycles ago. That would have been a valuable lead. But with those hideous burns, Qwasrolk isn't recognizable under any name, and Forlan realized that the moment he saw him."
"It was hardly a wasted trip," Miss Schlupe observed thoughtfully.
"Now you know - maybe - how he got where they found him."
"Right. I pointed that out to the chief proctor, too. It solves the most knotty problem about the whole business. We had a long discussion, mostly speculating on the possibility of teleporting across space. If this is possible, Qwasrolk's secret research may have been performed on another planet, perhaps even a remote planet - which is a cheerful thought, since it widens the area of search, from a mere world to maybe the whole galaxy. It also raises another question. If teleporting through space is possible, Qwasrolk may have passed near or through a sun - if a teleport actually 'passes.' He may simply leave one place and arrive at another. There aren't any experts on the subject. If that happened, then there was no secret laboratory or illegal nuclear experiment, and Qwasrolk had nothing to do with Nifron D or the blackmail threat to Vezpro. He's only a teleport who got his navigation slightly confused."
"What it amounts to," Miss Schlupe said, getting out her knitting, "is that you've made the Qwasrolk problem much more complicated without contributing a thing to the solution of your other problem."
Darzek looked at her irritably. The sly smile that she had been directing at him from time to time was becoming irksome. "All right," he said. "Out with it. What nefarious activities have you been engaged in while I was away?"
The smile broadened. "I got to wondering if Qwasrolk was the only nuclear engineer or physicist who'd disappeared from Vezpro."
"Good thought. Was he?"
"No. Thus far I've identified more than forty others." She paused.
"You're taking the news calmly. I thought you'd flip. What are you thinking about?"
"The blackmailer," Darzek said. "Why would anyone send a letter like that one and then not follow it up? What's he waiting for?"
After a few attempts to make use of Vezpro's proctors, Miss Schlupe had concentrated on expanding her own investigative agency, and she now had a growing force of more than three hundred agents. She agreed with Darzek that Vezpro's chief proctor - in contrast to the one on Skarnaf - was a twerp, and his entire staff was better qualified to function as garbage collectors than as police.
"But remember - none of them has ever had to function as police," Darzek observed.
"Neither have those on Skarnaf," Miss Schlupe said, "but the ones they sent here were able to ask questions and find out things. I wouldn't send a Vezpro proctor to track down the date of New Year's Day."
She had begun by hiring people in lower-paid occupations to make routine investigations for her in their spare time. They were delighted to acquire extra solvency in such an easy manner. If they performed adequately, she gave them more work to do. Those who possessed genuine talent were given full-time jobs with good pay. She also recruited children, who were equally delighted to earn solvency during their frequent vacation periods. The Vezpro system of education seemed to function in fits and starts, and Darzek, after one attempt, decided not to take the time to figure it out.
On a traders' tour of manufacturing installations, Darzek happened onto one of Miss Schlupe's urchins, wistfully seeking information about her cousin-uncle Xaniff, and he reflected, not for the first time, that Miss Schlupe was a genius. She understood that the true investigator had to be an actor, and she probably had rehearsed this youngster's performance as carefully as though it were to be done on the stage - but only after first doing her own meticulous investigation so as to fully understand all family ties and relationships of the multilimbed Vezpronians.
Darzek was occupying himself with a series of communications with UrsNollf, prodding him to pose scientific questi
ons of Supreme. Some of the questions had been suggested by Raf Lolln when the Vezpro computer found them indigestible. But Supreme, the worldsized computer, remained subject to its own vagaries and limitations. It found the questions equally indigestible.
Days passed. The mysteriously missing Qwasrolk remained missing, whether alive or dead. The doctors on Skarnaf were doubtful that he could survive long outside his healing capsule. Melris Angoz, after her brilliant coup in tracking down a radiation victim Darzek already knew about, had produced nothing further. Raf Lolln continued to dissect scientific formulae with Wolndur's assistance, searching vainly for the fatal error imposed by scientific dogma.
Darzek sat at his desk and moodily contemplated the automated calendar of Vezpro and its sister planets. In front of him lay Miss Schlupe's updated list of missing nuclear physicists and engineers. The total now stood at slightly more than one hundred, which was ridiculous. Had some secret organization hired enormous numbers of nuclear specialists, used them to bring a fantastically complicated research project to a successful conclusion, tested the results on Nifron D, and then threatened the world of Vezpro?
The cost would have been enormous. That effectively ruled out crackpots and terrorist groups, and terrorist groups didn't exist in galactic society anyway.
But neither did the blackmailing of governments and threats of world destruction.
Studying his calendar, Darzek began to wonder about Vezpro's colonies on its sister planets. Some of them might be wealthy; some might be dissatisfied with their colonial status and want independence. Even in galactic society that kind of thing happened, but there were far too many peaceful ways of resolving such differences for either party to think of resorting to violence.
It looked like an unpromising line of investigation, but Darzek had nothing else to work on. He sent for Gud Baxak and said to him, "Tell me about Vezpro's colonies on the other planets."
Gud Baxak cheerfully obliged, and Darzek's idea was torpedoed by his first sentences. Like so many industrial worlds with the good fortune of being the only habitable planet in their solar systems, Vezpro had systematically stripped its sister planets of their resources. The "colonies" planted there had functioned only to mine whatever could be grabbed profitably. One smaller planet, whose mineral resources had long since been exhausted, served as a dump for nuclear wastes. Its population consisted of a few caretaker scientists who lived in an insulated dome behind many layers of lead-reinforced concrete.
Colonists on the other worlds were in fact employees who signed on for limited periods to work in those mines that were still marginally profitable. They were well paid; their working conditions were considered excellent. Such colonists were unlikely to revolt, and in any case they wouldn't have the capital to finance nuclear experimentation.
Darzek pushed the calendar - and his bright idea - aside. Then he picked it up again. "Just a moment. This seventh planet. Zarst. I dimly remember Gula Schlu mentioning that the Zarstans are a religious sect of scientists and technologists. You didn't mention Zarst."
Gud Baxak gestured indifferently. "What is there to tell? The secrets of a religion are known only to its initiates."
"Is it considered a colony of Vezpro?" "I think it is independent."
"What's its population?"
Gud Baxak punched a question on his reference computer and waved a hand futilely. "It is not given. Only the Zarstans know."
Darzek punched out a few questions of his own and turned to the large wall screen. The world of Zarst suddenly had become interesting.
The screen showed him a frozen cinder without atmosphere. The few surface installations obviously related to mining operations. The only available statistics concerned mining production of a hundred cycles previously.
Darzek said slowly, "If Zarst is an independent world, then it must be Certified and a member of the Galactic Synthesis. Otherwise, neither Vezpro nor any other member of the Synthesis can legally be in contact with it, and it wouldn't be sending religious robot shows to Vezpro. And if it's a member, certain statistical information has to be furnished regularly to Supreme and is public property."
"Supreme may know," Gud Baxak observed.
"If Supreme has that kind of information, then every world has it.
On the other hand, if Zarst is officially a colony world of Vezpro and in practice has merely been granted an unusual degree of independence, Vezpro must have statistical information and furnish it regularly to Supreme. Either way, the world's population figures and other information should be readily available."
Gud Baxak tried his computer again. "Nothing."
"A religion of scientists," Darzek mused. "With their own world, yet. What better place for secret nuclear research?" Gud Baxak did not answer. "Where do these religious scientists get their education?" Darzek asked. "Do they have their own university? Or do they send their novices to Vezpro to study science? For that matter, where do they get their solvency? The robot show I attended had no admission charge, and those robots must be expensive to build. Supporting a community on a barren planet like Zarst must be expensive. What sort of a solvency rating does this religious order have?"
Gud Baxak punched his computer. "Nothing."
"Go ask questions," Darzek told him. "The Vezpronian traders should know something about Zarst."
Gud Baxak obediently headed for the transmitter.
He evidently received a thorough briefing from the first person he asked, because he returned almost at once. "It's a religious scientific community," he said. "Zarst was once a colony of Vezpro, but when the ores could no longer be removed profitably, the combine that owned mineral rights and installations sold them - sold the world to the religious community. And Vezpro, wanting to retain the community's good will-and because the world had no value anyway-granted it a cooperative independence."
"What's a cooperative independence?" Darzek asked.
"Vezpro pledged not to interfere in the affairs of the religious community as long as they were not contrary to the welfare of Vezpro's citizens."
"Interesting. In fact, fascinating. Where'd the Zarstans get the solvency to buy a world?"
"It is thought to be an immensely wealthy community. It sells scientific and technological services."
"Mmm - yes. That could make it wealthy. Where does it train its scientists and technicians? On Zarst?"
"They are converted," Gud Baxak said, sounding apologetic. Darzek stared at him. "Do you mean that they only recruit scientists to their religion - people who are already trained?"
"Competent scientists, engineers, and technologists who have no mundane attachments, who are males - or male-like, depending on their species, and all species are welcome - these are invited to become Zarstans."
"No wonder they can sell scientific and technological services!"
"I believe they still work the mines on Zarst," Gud Baxak said.
"That isn't known for certain, but it is thought that they could do it profitably because they would have no labor costs."
"Is there a direct transmitter link between Vezpro and Zarst?" "When they occupy the same quadrant. Otherwise, one goes by way of one of the other planets."
"So transportation is cheap," Darzek mused. "But the members of the community have to eat. They need clothing. They finance their robot shows, and no doubt they maintain recruiting stations on other worlds. All of that has to be an enormously expensive operation. What sort of services do they sell?"
"Industrial design, fabrication design and layout, the solving of fabrication and design problems, marketing consultation -" Gud Baxak made an all-encompassing gesture. "Any kind of problem related to planning the fabrication and marketing of goods can be taken to the Zarstans, and they guarantee to solve it or they do not charge. Their services are indispensable to Vezpro's industry."
"But when they do charge, no doubt their services are expensive," Darzek suggested.
"In some instances, it's a
n agreed fee. More often it's a royalty on each item sold."
Darzek leaned back meditatively. "I suppose this is cheaper for fabricators than hiring their own staffs."
"The Zarstans are said to be highly competent. They work for virtually all fabrication concerns on Vezpro and for those on other worlds as well."
"Then they must be enormously wealthy. That explains why they can offer free robot shows to recruit new members."
"The shows also demonstrate their robots," Gud Baxak said.
"Their skill in designing robots is famous."
"No doubt. I think I'd like to know more about it. In fact, I'd like to know everything about the Zarstans, including what they know about themselves."
Gud Baxak said patiently, "The secrets of a religion -"
"Gud Baxak," Darzek said firmly, "I'm about to frighten a world government silly and shake a few cracks in the foundation of that religious community. And when I finish, you'll be able to punch your computer and get all the statistics you want about Zarst."
"Yes, sire."
"As for secrets, anything known to an entire community can be found out by anyone who wants to take the trouble. It's possible, though, that there are secrets within secrets, and maybe secrets within those known only to a favored few. As I said, I'd like to know everything about the Zarstans."
"Yes, sire."
Darzek thought for a moment. "Cracking foundations is a good act, but I've got to be certain that they aren't holding anything back. I'd better have a look at Zarst myself."
"But sire -"
"How does one go about buying a factory?"
Gud Baxak blinked. He had been with Darzek long enough to accustom himself to the unusual, if not the inexplicable, but totally unexpected questions inevitably caused him acute mental distress. He answered hesitantly, "One would first have to find a factory that's for sale."
"Do so," Darzek said. "If possible, a small factory." "Yes, sire."
[Jan Darzek 05] - The Whirligig of Time Page 7
