The Unreasoning Mask (27 page)

 

 

That was what he hoped would happen.

 

 

A bulkhead screen flashed out in code, "Order carried out. Awaiting next
phase."

 

 

Ramstan could not keep from crying out triumphantly. Then he said, swiftly,
in code, "Next phase."

 

 

The shock-cushion spread out from him, and he arose. The lessened weight
told him that al-Buraq had gone into alaraf drive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

... 23 ...

 

 

A bulkhead screen showed that the two marines had regained their guard
posts. Ramstan gave an order. The brig shrank to compensate for the
widening of the bulkheads directly behind the marines, their hollowing-in
in the central portion, and their lipping-out at the edges. The pliable
bulkheads then swiftly strait-jacketed the two guards except for their
heads. They were helpless to do anything but yell.

 

 

The iris could not fully open because of the bulging out of the bulkheads,
but Ramstan squeezed through it. He had the marines released one by one,
took their olsons, and put one in his jacket pocket. He ordered them to
enter the brig. There he gave another order to al-Buraq. The deck flowed
up and around them until it covered their lips. Though no one but he
could hear them, he did not want to be distracted by their voices.

 

 

An olson in one hand, he left the brig, ran down the passageways to a lift,
and took it down two decks to the port which had swallowed the Tolt launch.
At his order, ship opened up enough to let him in. The distorted bulkheads
parted for him as the Red Sea had for Moses. The port crew was enfolded
in the reddish substance of dock and bulkhead. Their protruding heads
reminded him of a scene from Dante's Inferno. Ignoring their cries for
help, he walked on, the bulkheads dividing for him, and he came to what
was left of the launch. Al-Buraq had crushed it, trapping Branwen Davis
and the Tenolt crew inside it.

 

 

Branwen was the only one alive. The others, unable to get free and
doubtless acting on orders given before they had left the Popacapyu,
had committed suicide. They had probably done it by code words which
had released poison from minute containers in their bodies.

 

 

Ramstan cut with his olson the hull sections which trapped Branwen,
put the weapon in his jacket pocket, and helped her to her feet. She
was very pale and covered with vomit. Her hand shaking, she pointed at
the forward part of the launch.

 

 

"I think there's a bomb there," she said.

 

 

She staggered toward him, and he held her up. The stench sickened him.

 

 

"The commodore couldn't get his hands free to pull a button from his
uniform," she said. "He kept screaming at the others to get loose and
tear the red button off."

 

 

"Button?" Ramstan said. "Are you all right?"

 

 

"Yes. I think that tearing the button off would activate the bomb."

 

 

"I'll tell the crew to take care of it," Ramstan said. He half-lifted her
and urged her out of the port. The heads yelled at him, asking questions,
begging to be released. He ignored them.

 

 

As they went down the passageway, he said, "The Tolt captain admitted that
he'd forced you to steal the glyfa and leave a fake in its place. How'd he
manage to do that? I mean . . . once you were in al-Buraq, you should have
been safe. You could have told us . . ." He stopped. Obviously, she had
had a good reason to keep quiet.

 

 

"The fever?" he said. "That have anything to do with what the Tenolt
did to you?"

 

 

"Yes," she said huskily. "The fever was a temporary reaction to the
artificial protein-explosive mix implanted in me. They took . . .
they took . . ."

 

 

She choked, then said, "They took out a section of my vaginal wall
and replaced it with the mixture. It's undetectable from natural flesh
unless a piece of it is removed and subjected to a laboratory test. The
explosive could be set off with a certain radio frequency. I was told
that if I didn't cooperate with them, I'd be blown up."

 

 

"But you could have told us. The surgeons would've removed the section."

 

 

"With what? Steel or plastic tools would set off the explosive. I was
told that the explosive radiated a field that would cause an explosion
when there was direct contact of any hard substance with the artificial
flesh. Laser beams would also trigger it. I don't know . . ."

 

 

"That what they told you was true?"

 

 

"Yes, but I couldn't . . . wouldn't . . . take the chance."

 

 

"There were plenty of times when we were far away from the ToIt ship.
They couldn't send a triggering frequency then, and I'm sure that Doctor Hu
would've figured out something. At the least, you could have told us what
the situation was. Maybe we couldn't remove the section, but we wouldn't
have been ignorant . . . blind . . ."

 

 

"Look who's telling me what a cowardly traitor I am."

 

 

"You were afraid, and you kept silent," he said. "I have no love for
the Tenolt. But they can't be blamed too much. I did steal their god,
and they believe that without their god they are nothing. Nothing!
By the way, how did they know that I did it? What about Benagur and Nuoli?"

 

 

"They figured that you were the only one with enough authority to keep
the officers and crew from asking questions. But I suppose they didn't
really know who'd taken it. Their speculations were right, though. You
did steal it!"

 

 

They entered his quarters. She went to the bulkhead where a symbol,
three wavy black horizontal lines, was at her eye-level. She pointed at
her open mouth, and the bulkhead bulged out, became a down-curving pipe,
and a section formed a cup which fell off. She held the cup until it
was almost full of water, signaled for the outpour to stop, drank, and
then slapped the cup against the bulkhead. It seemed to melt and shortly
was part of the bulkhead again. The pipe-form remained in case ship's
captain might wish a drink also. The affection circuit was responsible
for this. Without it, ship would have automatically retracted the pipe.

 

 

Ramstan drank also. Branwen came up to him. Her green eyes, reminding him
of the surface of the Persian Gulf, seemed to expand, to grow like balloons
in his mind, to crowd out all else that was vital at that moment.

 

 

"Can you really blame me?" she cried. "What was I to do? Ethically . . ."

 

 

He said, "Yes, ethically?"

 

 

"Right or wrong? That's what I mean! Weren't the Tenolt basically right,
justified? Weren't you the criminal, the unjustifiable? What was I to do?
I believed, half-believed, anyway, that they had the right!"

 

 

"There's no time for this kind of talk," he said. "Any kind of talk.
I'm here, not on the bridge, and . . ."

 

 

"I don't know what kind of hold the glyfa has on you," she said. "But you
betrayed . . ."

 

 

"Be quiet!" he yelled.

 

 

She quivered, reminding him for some reason of the shaking of the deck
when al-Buraq was excited or anxious about him.

 

 

"Why should I?" she said. "What can you do to me? Or for me? You're nothing.
I know that you're not the captain, you're in disgrace, you've been brigged.
Benagur told the Tolt captain, and he told me. Only . . ."

 

 

She waved a hand to indicate that she did not understand what was going on.
Even in her shock, she must comprehend that the situation was not what had
been described to her. Otherwise, how would Ramstan have been able to leave
the brig, rescue her, and come to his quarters?

 

 

"Take your seat, and stay there," he growled.

 

 

"I'll take it. I may not stay."

 

 

By then the bulkhead was glowing with forty-nine screens, each showing
a key-point in ship. By now, some crewpeople were trying, without using
lasers or other violent means, to get Indra out of the grip of the
storeroom. They were failing, of course. Other screens showed faces
with many differing expressions or without expression, which was as
indicative of emotions as the liveliest masks. Most displayed various
kinds of anxiety or fear or panic or stunned incomprehension which
concealed a comprehension their owners did not want to admit.

 

 

Ramstan now concentrated his thoughts on Benagur. What he ordered was
what the crew would do. Unless he, Ramstan, snatched the leadership
from Benagur.

 

 

He paced back and forth, knowing that he had to act very soon.
Branwen, smiling strangely, spoke.

 

 

"I'm very passionate, but I've been without sex since I was first captured
by the Tenolt. The friction of anything in my vagina would set off the
explosive. That's why I turned you down when . . ."

 

 

He whirled and said, savagely, "This is no time to talk about such
trivialities!"

 

 

"Trivial! I can't ever go to bed with a man again! There's no way the
section can be removed!"

 

 

"There are other forms of sexual intercourse."

 

 

"Spontaneous sex means spontaneous combustion," she said, and she giggled.

 

 

"For the sake of Allah!" he roared in Arabic. Then, in Terrish, "Must I
throw you out? Be quiet! Let me think!"

 

 

"I've been through a lot," she said. "But I'm not cracking up . . .
I don't think."

 

 

He and Indra could not be the only ones who knew about the affection circuit.
One of the bioengineers would think of it soon, if he or she had not already
done so, and he would notify Benagur. The engineers would cut the circuit
off from the rest of the neural system. How long would they take?
They could not go in ripping and tearing; brutal surgery might damage
al-Buraq's brain.

 

 

A bulkhead screen pulsated orange, then showed the glyfa momentarily bathed
in light. It was in the safe now.

 

 

Ramstan removed it and placed it on a table formed by ship. Branwen's eyes
became large, and she left her chair to walk to a bulkhead which was as far
as she could get from the glyfa.

 

 

"Speak!" Ramstan cried. "I need you!"

 

 

Silence.

 

 

"Damn you!"

 

 

His fist struck the table top. Al-Buraq quivered.

 

 

Ramstan shouted out orders to ship. Immediately, every screen throughout
it, except those connected to the exterior-detection system and those
in Ramstan's quarters, showed him throughout the vessel. He saw Benagur
start when most of the screens on the bridge displayed the prisoner's
face and shoulders. Benagur's face paled as if touched with frost when
he realized that the room behind Ramstan was not the brig but the captain's
quarters. Then Ramstan stepped aside briefly so that the glyfa was visible.
He could almost hear Benagur's blood draining from his head.

 

 

"Yes, I have complete control of ship," Ramstan said. "And you, all of
you, are going to listen to me whether you want to or not. I don't know
if you'll believe what I have to say. I hope you will. If you don't, if
you reject my testimony, then you will put Earth in even graver peril
than she is in now. You'll put the universe, all of the universes,
in . . . you'll doom them!"

 

 

"He's insane!" Benagur shouted. "Don't listen to him! Tenno, get marines
down to the prisoner's quarters and blast through the iris! If Ramstan
resists, kill him!"

 

 

"They won't get near me," Ramstan said. "Ship will capture them. And if
they do get off some shots, they're likely to injure ship. You can't take
that chance, Benagur. Not when the Tenolt may show up any moment now."

 

 

"Tenno, you have your orders!"

 

 

Ramstan bellowed, "Tenno, don't carry them out! Don't even try to! Anyone
who makes a hostile move will be enfolded! And you, Benagur, if you don't
stop talking and start listening, you'll be wrapped up in a deck-extension,
wrapped like a mummy."

 

 

Benagur took a deep breath and shut his eyes. When he opened his eyes,
he said, quietly, "Very well, traitor. We'll listen because we have to."

 

 

"There's no need for insults, even if they should be justified," Ramstan
said. "First, though, you have to know about Lieutenant Branwen Davis,
formerly of Pegasus. That violent sidewise movement of ship was ordered
by me so that she could capture the Tenolt launch and rescue Davis."

 

 

He described how Davis had been forced by the Tenolt to steal the glyfa.
And he explained what might happen if the Popacapyu got close enough to
transmit a radio signal to the artificial flesh-explosive mixture in her.

 

 

"She has no idea what the energy potential in the explosive is. If set off,
it might blow her to pieces and those very near her. Or it might destroy
ship and all in her, of course. That's one more reason why we must play
hide-and-seek with the Popacapyu or find some means of destroying her
before the signal is used."

 

 

He paused and then said, "I hope no one will be cowardly enough to suggest
that Davis be gotten off ship at the first opportunity."

 

 

Tenno said, "But . . . but all we have to do is to put her in a room
with radiation shielding."

 

 

Ramstan smiled grimly. "That's an obvious idea. I told Davis the same
thing, though I suspected that there had to be a reason why she hadn't
confessed everything and then taken refuge behind shielding. It's because
. . . or at least the Tenolt told her this and it may not be true . . .
the transplanted section contains more than explosive. It also has a
time bomb, a biological fuse, a fleshly clock, which is set to go off
at a certain time and trigger the explosive.