[Jan Darzek 05] - The Whirligig of Time

by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.

  "The evacuation will be voluntary?" one politician repeated.

  "As long as sufficient numbers of citizens volunteer. It will be your task to make certain that they do."

  "And - if sufficient numbers don't volunteer?"

  "My objective," Darzek said firmly, "is to save the population of Vezpro. That also should be your objective. Supreme has expended vast amounts of solvency and brought the galaxy's leading expert here to assist us. We have a small amount of leeway, so we can test the volunteer system. If it doesn't work, then we will reconsider. Anyone who fails to cooperate will be dealt with severely."

  "How?" a politician demanded.

  "He'll be left here. He can give us a firsthand report on what it feels like when the world one is standing on becomes a sun."

  After a moment of silence, a politician said, "Do you actually believe- "

  "Vezpronians are reputed to have brains in their heads," Darzek said. "Use yours. The author of that threat has done it twice. How much proof do you require? All of you should be ashamed of yourselves-attempting to make political capital when your world and the lives of its citizens are threatened. Your duty is to quiet the protests, not incite them. Now get to work."

  They left. Min Kallof lingered behind to thank Darzek. "Did that mollify them?" Darzek asked.

  "For the present," Min Kallof agreed.

  "You can let it be known that I won't summon them again. If there's further obstruction from any of them, I'll simply act."

  Min Kallof left looking graver than when he'd arrived. Darzek went next door to report the development to E-Wusk.

  "Volunteers?" E-Wusk echoed doubtfully. "How much delay will there be?"

  "We'll have to wait and see. It's a politically delicate situation."

  E-Wusk heaved his tangle of limbs erect and ambled over to his charts. "Then we'll need fewer ships now and more later." He sighed and began to adjust his calculations. "All right. If we must, we'll manage somehow."

  Darzek returned to the Trans-Star office. Gud Baxak was busily at work on a trading transaction. Darzek glanced at him enviously, wishing he could think of something to do.

  In the living room he found a visitor waiting. UrsNollf got to his feet respectfully as Darzek entered.

  "For Supreme's sake!" Darzek exclaimed. "Why didn't you let us know you were coming? Have you learned anything new?"

  UrsNollf gestured apologetically. "Nothing. Or I would have sent a message."

  "Apart from the errors, was there anything of value in that plan of Qwasrolk's?"

  "It was theoretically ingenious, but it couldn't possibly have led to any practical application - especially not in turning a planet into a sun."

  "Are you certain?" Darzek demanded.

  "Positive," UrsNollf said. "Supreme worked out every possible projection and every possible application. It was ingenious, as I said, but it was nothing."

  Darzek shrugged resignedly. "I thought it might give us the beginning of a solution, despite its errors. I thought Qwasrolk must know something about the device. And all it meant is that he is addicted to scientific doodling."

  20

  Eld Wolndur was still missing. Miss Schlupe's commandos and investigators worked an entire day, checking and rechecking all the warehouses and firms on Melris Angoz's list. They found no trace of either Wolndur or Qwasrolk. They produced a stack of reports of which the most interesting items were descriptions of prosaic encounters with an occasional employee who was either puzzled or angry at their intrusion.

  Darzek, who had something more serious to worry about, left the search to Miss Schlupe. The first shiploads of volunteers were leaving Vezpro, and he had gone to the transfer station to watch the departure - and discovered that virtually all of the evacuees were refugees from Hlaswann, Naz Forlan's people. They had planned to leave Vezpro anyway, and obviously this seemed like a propitious moment. No doubt the fate of their native planet was a tale kept very much alive with them.

  The eleventh planet now could be seen clearly in the daytime, a small, remote sun. The people of Vezpro knew all about Nifron D. And still they refused evacuation.

  Darzek went to see Naz Forlan.

  It was the first time Darzek had seen the former mas in a relaxed mood. His normally greenish flesh flushed a deeper green of pleasure when Darzek entered, and he greeted him heartily.

  "You look much less careworn than when I last saw you," Darzek observed.

  "For the first time since all this started, I feel that I'm accomplishing something," Forlan confessed.

  He got Darzek seated and inquired as to Gula Schlu's health and the success of Darzek's own endeavors.

  "One of them, at least, is having no success at all," Darzek said. "No doubt you saw the viewer coverage of the protests. The Vezpronians refuse to be evacuated."

  Forlan said thoughtfully, "That's hardly surprising. You're asking them to believe something that even the most competent scientist can't understand. And people naturally are reluctant to leave all that they possess and disrupt their lives because of a mere phantasm."

  "Your own people were the subject of a worldwide evacuation," Darzek said. "That's why I came to see you. How was it managed? An exploding sun is a concept that must seem almost as phantasmal as turning a world into a sun."

  "I have no recollection of how it was managed, because I was an infant. But a known natural phenomenon, even if it happens rarely, is not phantasmal. No doubt the scientific data was available to everyone, and all scientists were in agreement as to what was about to happen. In this case there are two problems. First, why would anyone want to do such a thing, even if he could? Such a malevolent being is phantasmal. Second, how could he do it when the best scientists of the galaxy can't figure out the way? That, too, is phantasmal. So they resist a forced evacuation. Wouldn't you do the same?"

  "I'm not a representative specimen," Darzek said with a grin. "I come from an Uncertified World. Evil is not phantasmal to me, and since I've seen the eleventh planet and read all the reports on Nifron D, I know that it can be done. The eleventh planet, at least, is obvious to anyone who looks up. Why can't the citizens of Vezpro accept it?"

  "I don't know," Forlan said. "You have the handicap of your origin. I have the handicap of my education." He brightened - visibly, since his greenish hue, which had faded, flushed vividly again. "But your evacuation may prove unnecessary. It very much looks that way. We're finally making progress."

  "You're about to figure out how it's done?"

  "Turn a world into a sun? No. What good would that do us? The committee I appointed was composed of elderly idiots, and it's my fault. Now I'm using younger scientists whose imaginations haven't atrophied. We aren't worrying about how it's done. We're concerned with keeping it from being done. Right now we're concentrating on triggering mechanisms. However the device is made, there are only a certain number of ways to set it off. If we can develop techniques that will keep all of them from working, we'll save the planet. Would you like to visit our projects?"

  "No, thank you," Darzek said firmly. "I wouldn't understand any of it. But UrsNollf is back, and I'll send him to see you. If you can make use of him, please do so."

  "Thank you. We'll welcome his assistance. Concerning your problem -" The greenish hue deepened again. "I'm afraid I can't help you. I, too, have seen the eleventh planet and read the Nifron D reports - and I have no intention of leaving Vezpro. This is my home, and my world, and if I fail and Vezpro dies, I'll die with it."

  Darzek returned to the Trans-Star office feeling both disappointed and dejected. He was disappointed that Forlan could make no positive suggestions to help with the evacuation and dejected about the research his group was doing. He refused to share Forlan's confidence that the number of trigger types was limited and ways could be found to frustrate all of them. He told UrsNollf that Forlan had a job for him and returned his attention to his own problems.

  He found E-Wusk in a state of
total frustration. Most of the aliens from Hlaswann had left. Vezpronian volunteers came in a trickle individually, by twos, now and then a family. "At this rate, it'll take days to load one ship," E-Wusk protested.

  "Then that's how many you'll evacuate," Darzek said. He went to the living room, sat down, and slipped his shoes off.

  Miss Schlupe came in and settled herself in her rocking chair. Her report was brief. Her commandos still hadn't found Wolndur, and now Melris Angoz was missing.

  Darzek said to her, "Have we ever flopped as badly on any problem as we have on this one?"

  "Of course," she said. "We always flop until we get something figured out. The trouble here is that we've tried to rely on scientific experts, and naturally they've confused the real issue to a point where it isn't recognizable."

  "And what is the real issue?"

  "The real issue," Miss Schlupe said, "is not how a world is turned into a sun, or who knows how to do it, or who has already done it with a couple of worlds nobody cares about, or how to stop someone from doing it. The real issue is who would want to do it to Vezpro. We've been trying to solve a scientific problem, and we should have been looking for a criminal."

  "We did," Darzek said, "though I must admit we didn't do it very well. So here's the situation. We have two groups of scientists that don't find out anything. We've consulted Supreme and got nothing at all, not even a Delphic pronouncement. We've arranged to evacuate the world, and the people won't go. Our attempt to use the ransom demand as a trap was thoroughly messed up by the world authorities, but there's no evidence that anyone intended to collect it anyway. We tracked down innumerable illegal shipments of nuclear materials without finding out where any of them went. The one promising lead would seem to be Qwasrolk, who vanishes before anyone can get close enough to ask a question. Now my own assistants have disappeared - perhaps kidnapped, though if they don't know any more than I do, and they don't, it was a waste of effort. What do we do next?"

  "Nothing," Miss Schlupe said firmly. "What's different about that?"

  "You represent the authority of the Synthesis, and the Synthesis has done everything it could for the people of Vezpro. They don't want to be evacuated, which is the final contribution it can make, so the Synthesis is withdrawing and leaving the solution up to the people and their government. Announce that publicly, and then we'll all leave. E-Wusk can easily transfer his operations to Skarnaf and be ready just in case someone screams for help at the last minute - and he can continue to evacuate that trickle of volunteers. Gud Baxak can close the Trans-Star office and return to Primores. You can close your office and let Wolndur and Angoz go back to the government when they're found. And you and I will officially leave the planet, though actually we'll move next door and do what we should have done in the beginning - look for a criminal. What do you think?"

  "I want to leave UrsNollf here," Darzek said. "He can keep us informed about what Forlan's scientists are doing. But we'll have to arrange to get him off Vezpro before the new cycle."

  "My ship will be back to evacuate us and everyone who's worked with us who wants to go."

  "All right. I don't see that we can lose anything. I'll notify the authorities by letter so they won't know until we've supposedly left. I'd rather avoid unpleasant confrontations."

  "You can be called away by urgent business."

  "Of course. And I can promise to return before the new year if my schedule permits. I like this idea. I was getting very tired of politicians and scientists."

  "I've always been tired of them," Miss Schlupe remarked.

  Darzek wrote an official notice to the masfiln and had Gud Baxak indite it. E-Wusk simply packed up his records; he could open a new office on Skarnaf and be in business again as soon as his communications equipment was installed. Gud Baxak transferred his uncompleted business to another trader. Miss Schlupe sent one of her investigators to rent a new apartment for them. In the meantime, she rounded up her crew and had her captain apply for clearance.

  The ship left the transfer station before midnight. E-Wusk and Gud Baxak went with it, and Darzek's and Miss Schlupe's names were on the officially filed passenger list. The announced destination was Primores, but the actual destination was Skarnaf, where E-Wusk would set up his new office and Gud Baxak would take passage for Primores on another ship. Miss Schlupe's ship would wait at Skarnaf until she ordered it back to Vezpro.

  Darzek and Miss Schlupe disappeared before the ship left. They moved to their new apartment, and the only things they took with them were Miss Schlupe's rocking chair, which was an awkward contraption to get through a transmitter, their stock of mushrooms, and their clothing. The new quarters came fully furnished, so they left behind them the few gadgets and appointments they had acquired.

  Before they moved, they stuck invisible pieces of tape to their right hands over their solvency credentials. The tape contained a new credential. It was Darzek's invention for changing his identity when he thought he needed to. They then transmitted up to a transfer station on Gud Baxak's credential, joined the throng of arriving passengers, presented stacks of solvency certificates for credit to their accounts, registered the phony credentials as those of newly arrived visitors, and returned to the planet. Now they were incognito, with a world to operate in.

  "Disguises?" Miss Schlupe suggested.

  "I suppose so. Too many people know us. But all we need to do is dress differently and wear a nocturnal's headpiece."

  "And disguise our voices," Miss Schlupe suggested.

  "I don't intend to talk with anyone," Darzek said. "It didn't get me anywhere as an emissary of Supreme. Why should it when I'm nobody?"

  "What we should have done," Miss Schlupe said, "is bring someone to front for us and keep ourselves incognito from the beginning. For all we know, the villain could be the masfiln himself. He's not a scientist, but he could hire some."

  "Or kidnap some," Darzek suggested.

  "Precisely," Miss Schlupe said.

  On the wall of the transfer station's restaurant was an enormous structure that looked like an abstract sculpture with moving parts. It was reported to be an ingenious chronometer that told the time anywhere in the galaxy if one knew how to read it. Darzek didn't.

  Staring at it, he muttered, "World enough and time. We 'certainly have world enough. What we desperately need is time."

  They were clothed in the flamboyant robes of their disguises along with the light shields that covered half their faces. Miss Schlupe wore a wig. Darzek had experimented with facial hair, but it was too much trouble to put on and take off. Also, it itched.

  "We might as well sum up," Miss Schlupe said. They were speaking English, which was as good a way as any to encipher a conversation. It didn't even sound like a language to anyone closer than the planet Earth.

  Darzek nodded. "All right. Sum up."

  "Point one. Psychology. Will he or won't he? Is he just trying to stir things up and inflict wear and tear on a lot of nervous systems, or is he actually malicious enough, or nutty enough, to kill a few billion intelligent beings? I suppose we could consult an expert in alien psychology, if there is such a thing, but preserve us from another scientific expert. Also, he may be Vezpronian, which on this world isn't an alien. Will he or won't he, and I don't see any way to find out before the new cycle. Does that cover it?"

  "Perfectly. "

  "Point two," she went on. "If he will, the question is whether he can be stopped. The scientists are working on it, and we can wish them luck, but we won't know whether they've succeeded until the new year, and if they haven't it'll be too late to try anything else."

  "Very well put," Darzek said. "Is there a point three?"

  "There is. We'll have to identify the villain before the new year and put him out of action. Then it won't matter whether he will or won't, or whether the scientists' gadgets actually work. Am I right?"

  "Certainly. All we have to do is catch him and take his atomic contraption a
way from him. And maybe slap his hands."

  "Points one and two are for scientists," Miss Schlupe said. "We're the experts in tracking down criminals."

  "True, but when I look at the size of that world I don't feel very expert - especially when I consider that our villain may not be there, may never have been there, and may not even show up until a minute before midnight on New Year's Eve and then stay just long enough to place his gadget in a nice concealed place and run."

  Being incognito had not destroyed their sources of information.

  There was no Official Secrets Act on Vezpro. No documents were stamped TOP SECRET. Miss Schlupe had spread her net of investigators widely, and they knew everything the government was doing. They also managed to remain in contact with UrsNollf, at Forlan's research center, and Raf Lolln, on Zarst.

  Eld Wolndur had returned. He had been looking, unsuccessfully, for Qwasrolk. Melris Angoz also had returned. She had been looking for Wolndur. The two of them had gone together to the new Mas of Science and Technology and asked if they could continue to work on the projects given to them by the special emissary of Supreme before he left, and the mas not only agreed but offered them any additional assistance they required in the way of equipment or personnel. All of this surprised Darzek immensely; he couldn't imagine what projects they were referring to.

  Darzek spent several days thinking about Qwasrolk, after which he acquired a new office. He called it "Klinoz Engineering Consultants," had a computer installed, and hired the best computer specialist available to feed information into it and train a task force of Miss Schlupe's investigators. The result was that the investigators paid surreptitious visits to all those firms whose records had been tampered with; and everywhere they found a blank where an invoice had been erased, they inserted the phrase "Record transferred to Klinoz Engineering Consultants." In the meantime, the computer specialist was creating fake invoices from Melris Angoz's data and feeding them into the new computer. Darzek hoped that Qwasrolk, in his search for information or evidence, would sooner or later happen onto one of the notices and pay a visit to Klinoz Engineering Consultants. If he did, carefully trained employees who staffed the office continuously might - possibly - be able to engage him in friendly conversation, offer food and comfort while he studied the phony records, and even get the answer to a question or two.