The Unreasoning Mask (15 page)

 

 

"What does that mean?" Ramstan said.

 

 

There was no answer.

 

 

It was evident that the glyfa must know about the destruction of Waliskan
life. Ramstan asked it if that had had anything to do with the bolg.

 

 

"As of now, everything in the universes has to do with the bolg,"
the glyfa said.

 

 

"What do you mean by universes?"

 

 

"You shouldn't know everything at once. You couldn't handle all that."

 

 

Ramstan's anger flared up again.

 

 

"What am I? A mere pawn?"

 

 

"Pawns are not mere. Nothing that is necessary is mere. You are a focal
point, perhaps
the
focus. And don't think I mean that you are a thing.
A focus can be a person."

 

 

If the glyfa could reach inside him, activate memories and language
units, it surely could trigger off emotions. How else explain why he had
stolen the glyfa? That was an act that be would not even have thought of,
not the captain responsible for the crew of ship and ship herself. He
had put al-Buraq and her people in the most extreme danger, and he had
never been sure just why.

 

 

Surely, the glyfa had wished him to take it, and it had moved him to
the act as if he were a robot.

 

 

Hoarsely, he told the glyfa what he was thinking.

 

 

As usual, he got a half-answer from the thing.

 

 

"I am incapable of inserting desires in others. I can't operate on what
doesn't exist."

 

 

"You must have monitored the dying of Wassruss," Ramstan said. "What are
the three gifts? What does that question-and-answer chant mean?"

 

 

"There'll be a time and a time for those," the glyfa said.

 

 

Ramstan roared, "I'm fed up with your enigmas! Out you go! Out, I say!
The Tenolt can have you back!"

 

 

Silence.

 

 

Ramstan yelled, "Talk, damn you! Unless I get complete and clear answers,
i'm going to heave you out of here! I'll show you!"

 

 

Had the glyfa withdrawn, cut off detection? Or was it sitting in that
impenetrable shell and smiling whatever kind of smile such a being
could have?

 

 

He put his hands upon the egg-shape, lifted it a few centimeters from
the table, then took his hands away. The glyfa dropped with a thud but
did not roll.

 

 

If he took the thing out now, he would be observed. And the crew would
know that he had taken it.

 

 

It would be better to remove it at night and carry it to some place out
of sight, say, the top of a rocky ridge half a kilometer away. When
the daylight came, or perhaps before that, the Tolt operator of the
magniscope would see it. And the Tolt vessel would come down as swiftly
as possible to retrieve the god.

 

 

Its descent would be detected, of course, and the crew of al-Buraq would
have to be put on alert. Only he would know why the ToIt was moving toward
them, and he could not tell anybody.

 

 

But what if the Tolt captain, having gotten the glyfa, decided to take
revenge? Would he regard the theft as sacrilege? Would he then attack
al-Buraq?

 

 

Or, if he contemplated such action, would he be stopped by the glyfa?
Perhaps the glyfa would not want to stop the Tolt.

 

 

He paced back and forth, his head bent, his long chin almost touching his
chest, his hands locked behind his back. Finally, he lifted the glyfa,
put it back into the bag, and returned it to the bulkhead-safe. The deck
trembled very slightly as if al-Buraq was aware of her captain's emotional
turmoil and frustration and was shaking with sympathy. Which thought, of
course, was ridiculous, Ramstan told himself. He was anthropomorphizing,
no, theriomorphizing, too much.

 

 

A call came from the bridge. Doctor Hu wanted to speak to him about Benagur.
Ramstan left his quarters almost at once. But as he strode down the
passageways, he wondered what had made him keep the glyfa. Was it entirely
his own decision? Or had the glyfa subtly steered him toward it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

... 14 ...

 

 

Some mystics seek God by travel; others, by staying in one room.

 

 

Benagur had done both. Something had happened to cause him to venture
forth from the little chamber in a house in Jerusalem near the Wailing
Wall. No one but he knew what it was, but occasionally he had hinted
at the event. When questioned by those eager to get the details, he had
said that the event was indescribable.

 

 

He would seem to have been unfitted to be a crewmember of an alaraf ship.
But he was known worldwide among theologists for his writings on Jewish
and Muslim mysticism, and al-Buraq had several berths open for theologists.
Benagur was accepted after, of course, the required physical and
psychological tests. A deep psychic probe had not been needed to determine
that he was eccentric, but it did indicate that he had the stability needed
for alaraf-ship living. Besides, he was not the only eccentric aboard.

 

 

If he tended to keep to himself much of the time, he had a good excuse.
Like many of the specialists, he was very busy with his professional duties.
Unlike most of the others, he was given special privileges because of the
rigors of his religion. Whenever possible, he ate by himself and only the
foods his religion permitted. The other Jews aboard belonged to sects
too liberal for him to regard them as genuine Jews. That was all right
with the others; they thought he was a superfanatic. They had, however,
a great respect for his knowledge.

 

 

Ramstan had had no trouble with Benagur until the night the glyfa was stolen.
Though Benagur was very reserved, that had not bothered Ramstan, who was
equally reserved.

 

 

Now, Ramstan felt some guilt. If he'd not done what he'd done, he would not
have thrown Benagur into the strange frenzy possessing him.

 

 

Was Benagur crazy? Was he not, by all standards except Ramstan's, sane?
Would not the others be acting much like him if they suspected what
Benagur suspected?

 

 

On the other hand, none of them might have been affected as deeply. They
did not have Benagur's psychic constitution; they were not near the edge
of insanity and needing only a slight push to shove them over. After all,
Maija Nuoli had been subjected to the same overpowering light, and she
had not become psychotic. She had become more introspective than before,
and she did not care to talk about her experience in the Tolt temple. But
she had carried out her duties as a botanist as efficiently as before.

 

 

Ramstan wondered why the glyfa had asked for her to accompany him and
Benagur. What part did she play in the drama the glyfa was undoubtedly
writing? For that matter, what part did Benagur have? Perhaps he was no
longer in the thing's designs. Whatever it was that had flooded the senses
of the three, it had unbalanced Benagur and made him useless to the glyfa.

 

 

It was possible that the glyfa had summoned Nuoli and Benagur to come
merely to ensure that Ramstan would not be singled out as the thief.
They, too, would be suspects. If so, the glyfa had miscalculated. Suspicion
had not fastened upon Benagur or Nuoli.

 

 

The glyfa might have some other reason, however, for inviting them.

 

 

Ramstan entered Doctor Hu's office. Hu rose from behind her desk as the
captain entered.

 

 

"Sit down, Julia," Ramstan said. His use of Hu's first name indicated that
no formalities were to be observed.

 

 

Ramstan made a sign, and a chair formed from the deck. He sat down, and,
after the silence lasted for several seconds, said, "Well?"

 

 

Hu did not look at Ramstan. "Commodore Benagur claims that you stole
the glyfa from the Tenolt."

 

 

Now it was in the open, Ramstan thought. No, not really. It could perhaps
be kept to Benagur and Hu.

 

 

"You gave him a lie-test?"

 

 

"Of course. It indicates that he thinks he's telling the truth."

 

 

"In which case, then, he's psychotic," Ramstan said.

 

 

Hu hesitated and then looked Ramstan in the eyes.

 

 

"That remains to be proved."

 

 

Ramstan reared up from the chair, bellowing, "What?"

 

 

Hu spread her hands out and shrugged.

 

 

"He's going to bring formal charges against you."

 

 

Ramstan sat down and bit his lips.

 

 

"I can't allow that. We're in a very grave and dangerous situation.
The Tolt vessel . . . the terrible destruction of Walisk . . . no.
All normal procedures will have to be suspended."

 

 

"You won't allow Benagur to make the charges?"

 

 

"I can't permit it now. Alter there's no more danger, I will, of course."

 

 

He leaned forward, his upper arms on his thighs, his hands clasped.

 

 

"Listen. If Benagur can be shown to be psychotic, then there's no need
to log these ridiculous charges."

 

 

"He's certainly upset, which is not, however, the same as being unbalanced."

 

 

Ramstan leaned back and said, smiling slightly, "Has he also accused me
of not believing in God?"

 

 

"No. He said nothing about that. Why?"

 

 

"A little while ago, near the seashore, he made that accusation. He seemed
to think that it made me guilty, as criminal, as if I had stolen the glyfa.
In fact, more so."

 

 

"He would be psychotic if he'd included that charge in the others,"
Hu said. "But be didn't."

 

 

"He came close to attacking me while we were on the beach."

 

 

Hu lifted her eyebrows. "Yes? Was his intention overt? Did he threaten you
or make any obviously belligerent moves?"

 

 

Ramstan had done far worse than lie, but he just could not bring himself
to lie about this.

 

 

"No. But it was evident that he would have liked to attack me."

 

 

Hu's grimace indicated that that was not enough justification to think
Benagur psychotic. It also seemed to Ramstan that it said that Benagur
wasn't the only crewmember who would like to assault him.

 

 

Ramstan stood up.

 

 

"Benagur will be kept in his cabin unless his condition gets worse
and he has to be restrained. You or one of your colleagues will give
him therapy."

 

 

Hu rose.

 

 

"There's nothing in the BEG readings or blood samples to indicate a
psychotic condition."

 

 

"But those aren't sure methods of determining neurosis or psychosis,
are they?"

 

 

"By no means. The psychosoma is vastly complex and often tricky.
Centuries . . ."

 

 

"You have my orders," Ramstan said. He strode out. Hu could give the
command for the chair to shrink back into the deck. It was protocol for
the chair-riser to be the chair-ridder, but to hell with the doctor.

 

 

While walking back to his quarters, he used the skinceiver.

 

 

"Garrick, order all personnel to return to ship at once. We jump for
Kalafala in an hour. I'll be on bridge in thirty minutes."

 

 

"'What is the number of the worlds?'

 

 

"'More than many.'

 

 

"'What is the number of paths?'

 

 

"'More than many. Yet they are one.'

 

 

"'What is at the end of the paths that are one?'

 

 

"'Death or wisdom or both. And one more thing.'

 

 

"'What is the way to the three?'

 

 

"'There are many places to start. Webn is one.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'Ring the bell at the first entrance past Webn.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

The chant was obviously a navigational chart for the journey from the
planet Webn to wherever and whatever the final destination was. Ramstan
had seen that within ten minutes after hearing Davis's interpretation
of Wassruss's ritual-song. He doubted that Wassruss knew what it meant;
she had learned it by rote and given it as required, however meaningless
it was to her. The Webnites had no means for space travel except as
passengers on the alaraf ships of other sentients. Whoever had given
the chant and the three gifts to Wassruss's ancestor had known what the
chant meant, but had not explained it to the donee. Or perhaps the donor
had done so but the explanation had been forgotten.

 

 

The Webnites did have bells, and so the donor had been able to use "bell"
when translating the chant from his or her language into Webnian. But the
seal-centaurs did not have dumbbells, those muscle-building devices which
consisted of two spherical objects connected by a shaft. It wouldn't have
helped their understanding of the chant any if they had had them. It was
extremely unlikely that their word for it would have been the transfer-
meaning or pun used in Terrish.

 

 

Ramstan doubted that the originator of the chant had meant any connection
between a "bell" and a "dumbbell." But the Terrans had made such a
connection since there seemed to them to be a "shaft," sometimes called
a "tunnel," between the "bell" of one star system and the next. It was
possible and perhaps very probable that the originator of the chant had
used a word meaning "bell" in his language. There had been no implication
of "dumbbell" in the chant. The originator had just meant that when you
entered a "bell," that roughly spherical shape with an opening or "mouth"
through which you went to the next star system, you were "ringing" it.