The Adventures of Deacon Coombs (42 page)

The Equilibrium
of Evil

Revelations

Deacon retired to his room for private deliberation and analysis, leaving the others to converse. Quobit recounted the events that had transpired on Nix to Chubby while Lyanna took advantage of the hiatus to walk with Gem through local markets to purchase supplies.

Later that day, as they gathered for a meal, Deacon was ready to share his findings with them. “The first fatal flaw of any investigation is to look beyond the limitations of what the data suggests. Most certainly, the bending of the Vesper waves has created hysteria in the Alliance”—he looked at Chubby—“and played into the hands of Urzel. Discounting alien invasions, the ship
Sleigher
must have had human help to reach Nix. My early conclusion was simply that the ship was kidnapped; or, more likely, that honest Aralians and Jabu created a deception to travel to Nix for good reasons, which Travers—and now you, Chubby—have confirmed.

“Similarly, we must examine other aspects of this case within the limits of the reality of the data. If we don’t, we handicap ourselves.” Deacon’s blood was flowing. “Let’s dine while I recite my thoughts.”

Chubby’s hands were already sticky in sauce while his utensils lay dormant. Quobit was reciting her prayer of thanks for food. Lyanna and Deacon respected her ritual and waited until she had finished.

“I conversed with Goharn Lok at length about his personal voyage to Medulla. There, with repentance, he learned of his nephew who was banished by the Medullans to a distant, savage planet. He conveyed to me how his efforts to search for the boy, first through the traders, were thwarted. However, Urzel Lok, this offspring of his brother, Phendal, and his Medullan wife, Nedilli, escaped from Nix years ago on a ship commanded by Travers. I discovered from Goharn that the child’s first instinct was to return home, hoping all had been forgiven. However, the mother instilled further feelings of rejection into the child, urging him to flee for his life from Medulla.

“Now the story gets complicated; it takes a bizarre twist.” Deacon knew the others hadn’t figured out what he knew. “There are three episodes that we need to direct our attention to. The first event took place years ago here on Earth, after Urzel’s escape from Nix, after he had planned vengeance on the galaxy and had initiated some of his crimes. Urzel Lok knew of the existence of Goharn Lok from conversations with his mother. Soon the creature needed Goharn’s help, for he became ill with dipholopic fever. Given that he couldn’t return to Medulla, the single person who he could ask for sympathy and help was his uncle, Goharn Lok. So Urzel Lok traveled to Earth to seek his uncle here in Asianda, to seek help with his dipholopic fever.”

Lyanna interrupted. “Did Goharn provide a description of Urzel?”

“Better, as Jim will attest to. Goharn gladly accepted the sickly child years ago in his home. Yesterday, I met and visited Urzel Lok, for he dwells up the mount behind Goharn’s hut.”

“What?” Chubby jumped as he shouted. “You would have us believe this? That Urzel Lok is here in Ketapongo this day? If so, why haven’t you summoned the forces of the Alliance?”

As Chubby spoke, Lyanna also felt uncomfortable about the risk that Deacon chanced, and a look of consternation came upon her face. She nodded her head in agreement with Chubby.

“Because you two are jumping to erroneous conclusions. Remember. Honor the limits of the data.”

“Damn the data!” Chubby said excitedly.

“Urzel Lok is harmless. I guarantee you, Chubby, and I guarantee you, Lyanna. Let me have the chance to explain.” The group directed banter at Deacon as he tried to keep them at bay by motioning with his hands to quiet them down. “When Urzel Lok came here to his uncle, he was deathly ill with the space disease. Dipholopic fever starts with cell degeneration. We travelers get our immunizations in advance of space travel to firm up the cell walls, but Urzel lacked these boosters and contracted the physical ailment.

“His uncle nursed the being and has done so since. As I said, Urzel resides in a small hut behind Goharn’s lodge, and Jim confirmed exactly what Goharn said—that his body is infected with dipholopic fever. He suffers all of the consequences and will die soon.”

Lyanna put her hand up. “Permitted to interrupt? This story generates a hundred queries in my mind.”

“And it will generate more as I continue. If you let me finish, most will be answered. Please. Urzel Lok is deathly ill. Jim’s medical examination of Urzel confirmed it tonight. Jim, if you would please, relate your findings.”

Jim opened his body screen and spoke. “Let me please present more facts to you. The being Urzel Lok is in his mid-teens, according to the scale used on Earth. He is thin, bony, frail, and undernourished, and his body cannot retain significant amounts of necessary fluids. He is five foot six and weighs a paltry ninety pounds. Irrefutably, the child suffers. His metabolism fights the disease unsuccessfully. He maintains a day-to-day existence, but death is 98 percent certain within a year by my calculations. The cell disruption is too far advanced to be reversed. Observe the deviations from a normal teen on these graphs, and observe the much lower water retention, the lower metabolism, and the erratic brain wave patterns.”

“Thanks for the confirmation, Jim,” said Deacon. Jim took a bow and stepped back. “I have some surprises for you. This afternoon I determined that the hair specimen of Asiandan that we found on Nix matches Urzel Lok’s hair sample that Jim took, proving only that Urzel Lok was on Nix at one point in time. You see, the sickly child that I saw on the hill tonight is indeed Urzel Lok, and he has been gravely ill for years, and he is the child abandoned on Nix by the Medullans.”

“Then he could not have slain Como and Geor,” said Chubby, “and also be the being I saw and you saw on Nix.”

“Wrong, Chubby, for he certainly did commit these crimes.”

“How? You make no sense.”

“When I saw the bloodred eyes of the being tonight and heard him utter a few words, I was convinced that this was the creature that I saw on Nix. It wasn’t, though. I do know now whom I saw on Nix.”

Lyanna spoke up. “This had better be good. I am keeping track, and you have contradicted yourself seven times.”

“Patience. The first clue to understand what has transpired is the dipholopic fever. It is fatal. When Urzel first escaped from Nix, he made the plans that Chubby revealed to us earlier. Then he grew ill. However, the records of the traders that Chubby laid open to me showed a lapse of activity coinciding with Urzel’s arrival here on Earth. I spent the last few hours comparing these records. The reason for this dormant period is now clear to me. He was here with his uncle, Goharn Lok, being treated for dipholopic fever.

“You must believe what the facts tell us. The creature came to Asianda. Why? It felt the weakening of itself, it knew it was losing its life, it needed help, and Urzel was desperate. He sought the comfort of family, his own kin, and pleaded for sympathy from a man unaware of any criminal activities.

“The second important event is here.” He slammed the heartbeat and voice profiles in the middle of the table. “Here are copies of data Gem recorded on Nix. Urzel’s voice and metabolic patterns are here. Observe: the heartbeat pattern of the being that Jim and I witnessed is remarkably similar to these patterns registered by Gem on Nix. However, the heartbeats are different.

“Gem first noted that the heartbeat of the being on Nix had similar patterns to those of Earthlings. As a matter of fact, the traces most resemble us of Earth except for this subtle yet omnipresent double beat, a deviation from Earthling heartbeats, but not unusual. At first I dismissed this as a unique metabolism, an adjustment to the planet’s conditions, or an imperfection of the heart. Now look at Urzel’s heartbeat that Jim captured tonight.”

Lyanna was quick to respond. “My, they look not exact but quite similar.”

“Now the third piece of crucial evidence before I reveal the murderer. The child Urzel is the offspring of an Earthman and a Medullan. Goharn Lok treated this sickly offspring with the intent of aiding kinfolk. Recently Goharn told me that he has heard a strange sobbing sound in the bushes near Urzel’s hut. Unsuccessfully, he searched for the intruder. If we operate with the set of facts that I have laid before you, there is only one conclusion.”

“There is a twin,” said Chubby.

“No!” replied Deacon. “The clues I have given to you are pointing to one conclusion. Urzel Lok retreated to the only hope he had during his bout with dipholopic fever. Here in Asianda, in the solitude of Goharn’s hospitality, with cell degeneration in an onslaught, Urzel Lok fought to survive, as all human forms do, and made a most astonishing discovery to survive.

“Urzel is a genetic experiment that failed. The pathetic, sickly creature that I observed tonight did not ask to be created from this wedlock, but it was. Dipholopic fever attacks the cells of the muscles and bones, but it is not present in spiritual Medullans. All beings, whoever they are and wherever they are, will find the will to survive when their lives are threatened… and Urzel Lok found it.

“What Urzel discovered in those desperate hours of fighting for his life was that part of him could shed this disease and survive; the other half couldn’t. In other words, the spiritual part of Urzel left the sickly body just as the Medullans abandoned corporeal flesh years ago. In time, the two completely separated into spirit and body.”

Chubby seemed to be skeptical. “How do you know this?”

“The evidence. Urzel Lok once functioned as an entity with one metabolic rate. The heartbeat that Gem recorded on Nix identifies Urzel Lok the Medullan. Medullans don’t have hearts, but they maintain a metabolism, which has a rhythm, like throbbing. That is what we measured on Nix—a pattern of throbbing metabolism occurring within the Earth heartbeats. What I thought was an irregular human heartbeat was really the throbbing of the organic functions of a Medullan.

“When I viewed this thing on Nix, the sickly corporeal child Urzel Lok was here on Earth. Think of it. The creature had existed as one entity for sixteen years. It discovered it could separate into two beings, and the beginning of new energy patterns emerged. I believe that the sobbing in the woods is the spiritual Urzel, come to pay his last respects to his dying other half.” He had their attention.

“Imagine,” said Quobit, “a child punished through no fault of its own since it was born insane. No playmates. No normal life. Abandoned among brute savages on Nix. Then, upon escaping, it returns home to suffer humiliation through rejection again. In its will to survive, it realizes it can separate into two entities: one doomed to die, the other a powerful, strong, mad spirit now free to conquer all humanity.”

Lyanna decided to challenge Deacon. “How can you be so sure?”

“Lyanna, the matching hair samples, the voice patterns, the complementary heartbeats, the separation to save itself. It makes sense.”

Chubby asked, “I know that he murdered Geor and Como. But why?”

“Geor’s wife Geolo told me that Geor came to her and surprisingly stated that the case against Travers led elsewhere. He must have stumbled onto some truths about Urzel. Regarding Como, I can’t speculate yet.” As they contemplated his theory, he said, “Add the murders of Geor’s son and Travers, and that makes four counts.”

“Five including Jonessee,” said Chubby.

“Chubby, here’s a thought. It is also possible that if Urzel twisted Como’s mind to kill himself, he also could have programmed him to blaspheme Travers nationally in front of all Aralians.”

With a note of urgency, Lyanna said, “You were there on Nix, Deacon. You witnessed it. Why hasn’t Urzel Lok been able to murder you in two attempts?”

“I don’t know, but indeed that must be one of the factors that we must focus on to defeat him. I think he fears me. And it is three attempts, Lyanna. He has had two opportunities to eliminate me—once on Nix, secondly in space—and he failed. He also sent Morris Mydloan to assassinate me rather than perform his own dirty work. This is a critical clue yet to be explained.”

Chubby was animated. “I want to know why Landrew visited the
Sleigher
. I told you that he traveled to Aralia and we all sat there waiting until he was the first to enter. You said, Deacon, that this was highly irregular. Imagine, the high ruler himself visiting a demented crew.”

Deacon grinned. “I have found the answer. If I tell you, this must be our solemn secret.” Chubby hugged Deacon and then shook his hand to signify the oath. Quobit and Lyanna moved closer to complete the oath.

“Often, paths to power are marred with temptation. Thus is the case of our revered politician Landrew. While investigating all the current members of our esteemed High Council, I retraced the past histories of their political careers. Upon leaving Earth, I carried that data in Jim’s memory banks. It was only on the return voyage from Nix to Brebouillis that I realized an unpleasant truth that I had uncovered.

“Landrew is a great man. His conquests in making all our lives safe and rewarding are irrefutable. Yet he made one fatal mistake. Slight as it was at the time, I believe that he suffers more than anyone knows. I must journey to Liberty City to test my hypothesis.”

“Which is?” Lyanna said, speaking for both herself and Chubby.

“I speculate, so don’t jump to conclusions. I believe that Landrew journeyed to Aralia to be the first to view the
Sleigher
because he was looking for evidence of Urzel Lok. As with his conversations with me on Earth, I felt that Landrew knew what I might discover in space. I now know why he thought this.

“When Urzel was born, Landrew was the chief security minister of the Alliance. As such, among his responsibilities were the planet Brebouillis and all the security files. Jim and Gem proved that there is no reference to Urzel in those files, but there should be. It was during Landrew’s reign as chief security minister for the Alliance that Urzel was born. His birth, with an Earthling as one parent, should be documented. It isn’t.

“Even if the birth was an oversight, tales of this maladjusted child with extreme mental powers are known, and if Chuen and Goharn Lok can uncover them, then surely the resources of the Alliance can. The Alliance must have at one time investigated this creature. Conclusion: the so-called complete files of Brebouillis are incomplete. They do not have any references to Urzel Lok’s birth and powers; this has been done deliberately by Landrew.