Man Who Used the Universe (28 page)

Now they would greet a ship devoid of the passenger they planned to welcome. Loo-Macklin's people planned with commendable speed, but an experienced psychologist could plan faster.

The captain remonstrated with the Nuel commander, who replied to every argument and expletive with commendable restraint. Yes, I realize this is unusual. Of course, you can lodge a formal protest. No, the family member in question is not being taken off your ship by force, as you can plainly see. No, there are no hidden reasons for this action. Merely coincidence that upon stopping to assist us, we happened to encounter a fellow citizen whose journey we can expedite, and thank you very much, captain. You have been most cooperative.

There was not much the captain could do except rave to any who would listen. His own subofficers wondered what all the fuss was over. The Nuel had paid for his passage. If he preferred to interrupt his journey to go off with his own people, why object? The ship was a cleaner place without the slimeskin oozing about anyway.

Besides which the Nuel who came on board the liner were armed. Lightly, it was true, but the human crew was not armed at all. And even if they had been, the captain could hardly precipitate a violent incident on behalf of an alien passenger who wished to depart of his own free will. So he fumed and broadcast a report toward Dumarl as he watched the Nuel ship wink out of normal space, taking the individual he'd been directed to keep watch on with it.

So it was that Chaheel was finally able to relax in the familiar confines of a family ship. He congratulated himself at having confounded Loo-Macklin's hirelings. The man was not omnipotent, after all. The family starship was driving at high speed for the nearby empty region that lay between UTW and Family-dominated space. Interception by a private UTW vessel was now impossible. Interception by a military craft, should Loo-Macklin be able to arrange such a thing, would be impossible within minutes.

The commander of the vessel was new to Chaheel, and looked very young. Or perhaps I have aged more rapidly than I like to believe, the psychologist mused. She sounded upset and confused. Well, that much was understandable, Chaheel knew.

"I was ordered to intercept the ship you were traveling on and take you off. I was empowered to use force as well as farce if necessary to accomplish it. I would very much like to know why this little shadow play was so important."

"It is not necessary that you understand and perhaps better for you if you do not," Chaheel said. He was not in the mood to debate possibilities with this youth. "The information I carry can be disbursed only to representatives of the Council itself."

The commander seemed to accept that. "It was a lot of trouble and could have precipitated a potentially damaging incident."

"The human vessel was purely commercial," Chaheel reminded her. "There was no possibility of an armed confrontation, as you saw."

"There can be violence without arms."

"It happened too quickly for the humans to react, even had they been so inclined. Can you imagine a group of unarmed humans rioting on behalf of a slimeskin, and one leaving voluntarily at that?"

"The human captain was very distressed and appeared ready to fight," the commander argued.

"I'm sure he was, but not by himself. The man was loyal, but starship captains are not fools. Are they, Commander?"

"I have no more questions," said the commander with sudden alacrity. "Should you require anything, please let me know."

"Truly, I will do so. Thank you very much, Commander. You and your crew have performed admirably."

The commander acknowledged the compliment with a gesture of eyes and tentacles and left Chaheel to his thoughts.

They were busy, and pleased. Loo-Macklin had finally made a mistake. By acting quickly Chaheel had not given the humans time to plan. They'd been forced to react with comparable speed and in so reacting had provided Chaheel with the proof he'd been unable to find.

He'd been unable to prove that the mysterious Tremovan and the golden-scaled alien Loo-Macklin had conversed with were one and the same. More important, he'd been unable to find out why Loo-Macklin had kept knowledge of the Tremovan a personal secret for some twenty years.

In trying to forcibly stop Chaheel, Loo-Macklin's operatives had thereby given him proof that there were more than reasons of commerce for keeping the Tremovan hidden. What those reasons were the psychologist could still only guess at.

But now Loo-Macklin would know that the Council of the Families, if not his own government, was aware of the existence of the Tremovan and his ties to them. It was going to be interesting to see how the human would react.

His questioning of the central computer in Cluria had set off all kinds of alarms. That implied that there was something worth becoming alarmed about.

Loo-Macklin could keep his silence still, of course, and wait to see what happened. What Chaheel intended should happen is that representatives of the Si should question the man under a truth machine. Between that and the lehl they would learn what twenty years of secrecy concealed. If it was merely business, why then, that was fine.

If it was something else and Loo-Macklin somehow plotted against the Nuel, then he would achieve his martyrdom earlier than he planned.

Loo-Macklin, or Loo-Macklin's subordinates, had tried to have Chaheel Riens killed, or at least to prevent him from leaving the UTW. To Chaheel that was confirmation enough that something nasty was going on.

He slumped into the warm mudbed, quite pleased with himself and only just realizing how tired he was. Right or wrong, at least he was going to have an answer. And perhaps the war department would gain its much-desired new deepspace transmission beam.

He fell into a deep sleep, which was not as undisturbed as he might have wished.

Chapter 14

The reaction to his information was not exactly what he'd expected. If he didn't know that the reply came from a personal representative of the Council of Eight he might have suspected that the individual was somehow in Loo-Macklin's service.

They were resting in a comfortable room, which the university repository on Jurunquag had provided for its distinguished psychologist guest. Outside it was dark and wet, a lovely day. Inside, the bright sunshine of disbelief seemed to be burning Chaheel's eyes.

"The Council simply doesn't believe that there is anything sinister behind these revelations and suspicions of yours, Chaheel Riens." The representative seemed bored and anxious to get away from the dour, moody scientist she'd been ordered to report on. She was a handsome female with eyes alive with iridescent green flecks and the flashes of purple light from her flesh were more frequent than most.

Though not mating season, Chaheel found her attractive. He would have been more than just professionally interested in her save for two preventatives: his hormone level would allow nothing beyond visual admiration and she was obviously uninterested in him.

Her attitude was making her rapidly less desirable anyway, even though she was only reporting the opinions of others.

"But don't they see the connection?"

"They see no connection," the representative replied coolly. "Lewmaklin the human remains a vital element in the overall Plan to subvert and control the sphere of worlds dominated by humankind. Perhaps, I was told, the most crucial element. No indication has he given us, truly, that there is any reason for us to doubt his sincerity.

"What you have given us," she went on, forestalling Chaheel's incipient protest, "is a tale founded on personal suspicions, an unhealthy position for a scientist to put himself in. It is known that you personally dislike and mistrust the man."

Chaheel's lids snapped half together. "Are you saying to me that I have been the subject of observation?"

"The Si are a prominent family because they have spent ten thousand years exemplifying the meaning of caution. Yes, you have been watched, Chaheel Riens."

"And exactly what have my watchers decided?"

"That you are no less brilliant than ever, but that you have allowed your obsession with this particular human to cloud your judgments where he is involved. Your obsession has made you valuable because it has compelled you to work hard. Now, however, it has affected your professionalism."

"Truly think they this?"

"Truly. Can you deny it?"

"I am obsessed by nothing and no one. Certainly not a mere human. This Lewmaklin is, as you say, vital to the future plans of the Families. He is an interesting specimen. I would hardly call my interest an obsession, and while I truly suspect the human's motives, because I cannot puzzle out his motivations, I do not hold personal dislike for him."

"That is not the opinion of others." She seemed to soften slightly. "I am not privy to the details of the case, of course.

"We digress. The facts are these, as I am aware of them. Twenty years ago one of this human's exploration vessels contacts an alien race of new type. Two years ago the commander of your support vessel intercepts and descrambles a communication between an alien and this Lewmaklin. The communication takes place on an unused frequency and via a beam also of new type.

"One: we have no proof the aliens of twenty years ago and those the human talked with two years ago are the same. Two: as long as the lehl functions, and periodic checks indicate it is healthy and intact, we have no reason to suspect Lewmaklin's intentions. We have only your word that his minions attempted to harm or restrain you."

"If the Council doubts my word . . ." he began furiously.

"Not your word, truly," she said calmingly, "but your motivation. Much as you doubt this Lewmaklin's motivations. It is not enough, psychologist. Do you not see that?"

"Of sight speaking," Chaheel said tiredly, "doesn't anyone see that if Lewmaklin is running a lucrative and secret trade with these Tremovan—for I am convinced they are the golden-scaled aliens of the intercepted communication—that there would be some evidence of ship movement in the region of space marked by the communications beam? And that the human's business empire would show evidence of such trade in the form of large shipments of rare ores or new technology, or something? There is no hint that twenty years of secret commerce with a new race has been taking place!"

"Such trade could be small, difficult to detect signs of, and still quite valuable," she argued. "Some trade in rare gems, for example, or in the tiny components of advanced intelligence machines. You would have to destroy expensive and bulky equipment to discover the latter."

"In twenty years even gems or componentry would make itself known to the marketplace," Chaheel shot back.

"Perhaps," the representative suggested with infuriating indifference, "he is stockpiling them for saturation release at some still future time."

"For twenty years? You do not understand this human. No one does. Not even I, who have studied him for years. That is not the manner in which he operates. He does not waste anything, least of all time. Certainly not twenty years."

"Certain economists would regard such a stockpiling not as a waste of time but as a shrewd business move," she told him confidently.

"Is it important enough to try and intercept me to prevent me from telling you all this?"

"Again, we have only your insistence that the humans were attempting to do so. You say that you observed a group of suspicious-looking humans waiting to assault you prior to your departure from Evenwaith. You say that because of this the captain of the starship on which you were traveling resisted your departure.

"Those humans, even if they were the type you believe, could have been waiting for someone else. They might have been Clurian police watching for a fleeing Evenwaith criminal. As to your starship captain's reaction, it is only logical that he would be upset to have a booked passenger removed in midspace from his vessel. Particularly if that passenger was a member of an alien and sensitive race."

"Rationalization!" Chaheel was surprised at the violence of his outburst. He was beginning to despair. "None of you sees what this human is up to. None of you want to see. He has made blind cave crawlers of you all!"

"Rationalization," replied the government representative, unperturbed by the psychologist's outburst, "is an excellent defining of your own theories. You have built implication of betrayal out of your own personal suspicions and deductions. Proof you have naught of. I begin to believe," she added grimly, "that you are indeed obsessed with this human. Unhealthy are you, psychologist."

All the resistance, the will to argue, went out of him.

"You don't know of him, what he's capable of. No one does."

"Even admitting truth to all that you have declaimed," she said placatingly, "what would that leave us with? You admit you've no idea what he 'supposedly' works with these Tremovan."

"No," said Chaheel exhaustedly, "I do not."

"He provided you with a position close to his base of operations," she went on, "openly and without concern for what you might discover. You had access to sensitive information. Are those the actions of one with much to hide?"

"He had no reason to suspect that I suspected his intentions," Chaheel replied. "I expressed such misgivings once and he thoroughly disarmed me of them. Besides, by offering me a position near him, he could have his people keep an eye on me."

"You say he disarmed your suspicions. Now you say they returned."

"We must find out what business he has with these Tremovan! Twenty years, representative. Twenty years of secrecy."

She rose on her cilia and prepared to depart. "Truly, Chaheel Riens, I would expect less hysteria from one of your learning and experience. Think a moment. Who has given us more reason to doubt his intentions? Lewmaklin . . . or yourself? You have worked long and hard for the Families, Chaheel Riens. Too long and too hard, perhaps. Too much time spent away from home, too much time living among bipeds. Time perhaps to be concerned about yourself and not aliens whose loyalty has been proven many times over."