Agent of Vega and Other Stories by James H. Schmitz

“Yes,” Iliff said briskly. “As long as you get any response from her at all, keep sending her this: `Kill Tahmey! Get off Gull!’ Make it verbal and strong. Even if the beam doesn’t clear, that much might get through.”

“There’s a very good chance of it,” the robot agreed. It added, after a moment, “But the Interstellar operative is not very likely to be successful in either undertaking, Iliff.”

There was another pause before Iliff replied.

“No,” he said then. “I’m afraid not. But she’s a capable being—she does have a chance.”

* * *

FOR DISTRIBUTION AT ANDABOVE ZONE AGENT LEVELS

Description: . . . mind-parasite of extragalactic origin, accidentally introduced into our Zones and now widely scattered there . . . In its free state a nonmaterial but coherent form of conscious energy, characterized by high spatial motility.

. . . basic I.Q. slightly above A-type human being. Behavior . . . largely on reflex-intuition levels. The basic procedures underlying its life-cycle are not consciously comprehended by the parasite and have not, at present, been explained.

Cycle: . . . the free state, normally forming only a fraction of the Ceetal life-cycle, may be extended indefinitely until the parasite contacts a suitable host-organism. Oxygen-breathing life-forms with neural mechanisms in the general class of the human nervous system and its energy areas serve this purpose.

On contacting a host, the Ceetal undergoes changes in itself enabling it to control the basic energizing drives of the host-organism. It then develops the host’s neural carriers to a constant point five times beyond the previous absolute emergency overload.

In type-case Ceetal-Homo-Lycanno S-4, 1782—a drastic localized hypertrophy of the central nerve tissue masses was observed, indicating protective measures against the overload induced in the organism.

The advantages to the parasite of developing a host-organism of such abnormal potency and efficiency in its environment are obvious, as it is indissolubly linked to its host for the major part of its long parasitic stage and cannot survive the host’s death. Barring accidents or superior force, it is, however, capable of prolonging the host’s biological life-span almost indefinitely.

At the natural end of this stage, the Ceetal reproduces, the individual parasite dividing into eight free-stage forms. The host is killed in the process of division, and each Ceetal is freed thereby to initiate a new cycle.

CHIEF G.Z.: FROM CORRELATION

F. The numerical strength of the original swarm of free-stage Ceetals can thus be set at approximately forty-nine thousand. The swarm first contacted the Toeller Planet and, with the exception of less than a thousand individuals, entered symbiosis with the highest life-form evolved there.

The resultant emergence of the “Toeller-Worm,” previously regarded as the most remarkable example known of spontaneous mental evolution in a species, is thereby explained. The malignant nature of the Super-Toeller mirrors the essentially predatory characteristics of the Ceetal. Its complete extermination by our forces involved the destruction of the entire Ceetal swarm, excepting the individuals which had deferred adopting a host.

G. Practical chances of a similar second swarm of these parasites contacting our galaxy are too low to permit evaluation.

H. The threat from the comparatively few remaining Ceetals derives from the survivors’ decision to select their hosts only from civilized species with a high basic I.Q., capable of developing and maintaining a dominating influence throughout entire cultural systems.

In the type-case reported, the Ceetal not only secured a complete political dominance of the Class-Twelve System of Lycanno but extended its influence into three neighboring systems.

Since all surviving Ceetals maintain contact with each other and the identity and location of one hundred and eighteen of these survivors was given in the Agent’s report, it should not be too difficult to dispose of them before their next period of reproduction—which would, of course, permit the parasite to disperse itself to a dangerous extent throughout the galaxy.

The operation cannot be delayed, however, as the time of reproduction for the first Ceetals to adopt hosts of human-level I.Q. following the destruction of the Toeller-Worms can now be no more than between two and five years—standard—in the future. The danger is significantly increased, of course, by their more recent policy of selecting and conserving hosts of abnormally high I.Q. rating well in advance of the “change.”

The menace to civilization from such beings, following their mental hypertrophy and under Ceetal influence, can hardly be overstated.

The problem of disposing of all surviving Ceetals—or, failing that, of all such prospective super-hosts—must therefore be considered one of utmost urgency.

* * *

“They’re telling me!” the Third Co-ordinator said distractedly. He rubbed his long chin, and reached for a switch.

“Psych-tester?” he said. “You heard them? What are the chances of some other Ceetal picking up U-1?”

“It must be assumed,” a mechanical voice replied, “that the attempt will be made promptly. The strike you have initiated against those who were revealed by the Agent’s report cannot prevent some unknown survivor from ordering U-1’s removal to another place of concealment, where he could be picked up at will. Since you are counting on a lapse of two days before the strike now under way will have yielded sufficient information to permit you to conclude the operation against the Ceetals, several of them may succeed in organizing their escape—and even a single Ceetal in possession of such a host as U-1 would indicate the eventual dominance of the species. Galactic Zones has no record of any other mentality who would be even approximately so well suited to their purposes.”

“Yes,” said the Co-ordinator. “Their purposes—you think then if U-1 got their treatment, being what he is, he could take us?”

“Yes,” the voice said. “He could.”

The Co-ordinator nodded thoughtfully. His face looked perhaps a little harsher, a little grayer than usual.

“Well, we’ve done what we can from here,” he said presently. “The first other Agent will get to Gull in eleven hours, more or less. There’ll be six of them there tomorrow. And a fleet of destroyers within call range—none of them in time to do much good, I’m afraid!”

“That is the probability,” the voice agreed.

“Zone Agent Iliff has cut communication with us,” the Co-ordinator went on. “Correlation informed him they had identified Tahmey as U-1. He would be, I suppose, proceeding at top velocities to Gull?”

“Yes, naturally.”

“Interstellar reports they have not been able to contact their operative on Gull. It appears,” the Co-ordinator concluded, rather bleakly, “that Zone Agent Iliff understands the requirements of the situation.”

“Yes,” the voice said, “he does.”

* * *

“G.Z. Headquarters is still trying to get through,” the robot said. After a moment, it added, “Iliff, this is no longer a one-agent mission.”

“You’re right about that! Half the Department’s probably blowing its jets trying to converge on Gull right now. They’ll get there a little late, though. Meanwhile they know what we know, or as much of it as is good for them. How long since you got the last sign from Pagadan?”

“Over two hours.”

Iliff was silent a moment. “You might as well quit working her beam,” he said finally. “But keep it open, just in case. And pour on that power till we get to Gull!”

It did not take long after his landing on that planet to establish with a reasonable degree of certainty that if Pagadan was still present, she was in no condition to respond to any kind of telepathic message. It was only a very little later—since he was working on the assumption that caution was not a primary requirement just now—before he disclosed the much more significant fact that the same held true of the personage who had been known as Deel.

The next hour, however—until he tapped the right three or four minds—was a dragging nightmare. Then he had the additional information that the two he sought had departed from the planet, together, but otherwise unaccompanied, not too long after he had sent Pagadan his original message.

He flashed the information back to the docked ship, adding:

“It’s a question, of course, of who took whom along. My own guess is Pagadan hadn’t tripped any triggers yet and was still in charge—and U-1 was still Deel—when they left here. The ship’s a single-pilot yacht, shop-new, fueled for a fifty-day trip. No crew; no destination recorded.”

“Pass it on to Headquarters right away! They still won’t be able to do anything about it; but anyway, it’s an improvement.”

“That’s done,” the robot returned impassively. “And now?”

“I’m getting back to you at speed—we’re going after them, of course.”

“She must have got the message,” the robot said after a moment, “but not clearly enough to realize exactly what you wanted. How did she do it?”

“Nobody here seems to know—she blasted those watch-dogs in one sweep, and Gull’s been doing flip-flops quietly ever since. The Ceetal’s gang is in charge of the planet, of course, and they think Deel and his kidnapers are still somewhere around. They’ve just been alerted from Lycanno that something went wrong there in a big way; but again they don’t know what.”

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