Duffold mopped his brow. “Don’t like the idea,” he said stubbornly. He indicated the two outside the lock. “Don’t tell me you got a volunteer for the investigation?”
Pilch’s gleaming black hair swung about her shoulders as she turned to look. “No,” she smiled. “Albemarl came along to see Wintan off. You’ve been honored, by the way. He’s an itinerant sage of sages among Palayatans—I.Q. one hundred and nine! He and Wintan have been working together for months. Of course, Wintan’s immune to the emotional reactions—”
“I see,” Duffold said coldly. “No doubt he’s also had thorough psychological conditioning?”
Pilch grinned at him. “Not many,” she said, “have had as much.”
2
The Psychology Service ship that swallowed up the transport a few hours later was a camouflaged monstrosity moving along with the edge of an asteroid flow halfway across the system. For all practical purposes, it looked indistinguishable from the larger chunks of planetary debris in its neighborhood, and from its size, it might have had a complement of several thousand people. Duffold was a little surprised that out of that potential number, only five Service members attended the conference, two of whom were Wintan and Pilch. It suggested an economy and precision in organization he had somehow failed to expect here.
The appearance of Buchele, the senior commander in charge of the conference, was almost shocking. He had the odd, waxy skin and cautious motion of a man on whom rejuvenation treatments had taken an incomplete effect, but there was no indication of the mental deterioration that was supposed to accompany that condition. His voice was quick, and he spoke with the easy courtesy of a man to whom command was too natural a thing to be emphasized. He introduced Cabon, the ship’s captain, a tall man of Pilch’s dark slender breed, who said almost nothing throughout the next few hours, and a red-haired woman named Lueral who was, she said, representing Biology Section. Then the conference was under way with a briskness that made Duffold glad he had decided to bring Outposts’ full records on Palayata along for the meeting.
They went over the reasons why Outposts was interested in maintaining a Station on Palayata. They were sound reasons: Palayata was a convenient take-off point for the investigation and control of an entire new sector of space, the potential center of a thousand-year, many-sided project. Except for the doubtful factor of the natives, it was as favorable for human use as a world could be expected to become without a century-long conditioning program. The natives themselves represented an immediate new trade outlet for Grand Commerce, whose facilities would make the project enormously less expensive to Government than any similar one on a world that did not attract the organized commercial interests.
Buchele nodded. “Assuming, Excellency, that the Service might be able to establish that the peculiarities of the Palayatan natives are in no way dangerous to human beings, but that the emotional disturbances they cause will have to continue to be controlled by drugs—would Outposts regard that as a satisfactory solution?”
Duffold was convinced that under the circumstances Outposts would be almost tearfully thankful for such a solution, but he expressed himself a little more conservatively. He added, “Is there any reason to believe that they actually are harmless?”
Buchele’s dead-alive face showed almost no expression. “No,” he said, “there isn’t. Your records show what ours do. The picture of this Palayatan culture isn’t fully explainable in the terms of any other culture, human or nonhuman, that we know of. There’s an unseen controlling factor—well, call it X. That much is almost definitely established. With the information we have, we could make a number of guesses at its nature; and that’s all.”
Duffold stared bleakly at him. No one in Outposts had cared to put it into so many words, but that was what they had been afraid of.
Buchele said softly, “We have considered two possible methods of procedure. With your assistance, Excellency, we should like to decide between them now.”
With his assistance! Duffold became suddenly enormously wary. “Go ahead, commander,” he requested affably.
“Very well. Let’s assume that X actually is a latent source of danger. The section of your records covering the recent deaths of two human beings on the planet might suggest that the danger has become active, but there is no immediate reason to connect those deaths with X.”
Duffold nodded hesitantly.
“The point that the Service and, I’m sure, Outposts are most concerned with,” the gentle voice of the dead-alive man went on, “is that there is absolutely no way of estimating the possible extent of the assumed danger. As we sit here, we may be members of a race which already has doomed itself by reaching out for one new world that should have been left forever untouched. On the basis of our present information, that is exactly as possible as that the Palayatan X may turn out to be a completely innocuous factor. Where X lies on the scale between those two possibilities can almost certainly be determined, however. The question is simply whether we want to employ the means that will determine it.”
“Meaning,” said Duffold, “that the rather direct kind of investigation I understand you’re planning—kidnapping a native, bringing him out to this ship, and subjecting him to psychological pressures—could start the trouble?”
“It might.”
“I agree,” Duffold said. “What was the other procedure?”
“To have Outposts and Grand Commerce withdraw all human personnel from Palayata.”
“Abandon the planet permanently?” Duffold felt his face go hot.
“Yes,” said Buchele.
Duffold drew a slow breath. A spasm of rage shook through him and went away. “We can’t do that, and you know it!” he said.
Lusterless eyes hooded themselves in the waxy face. “If you please, Excellency,” Buchele said quietly, “there is nothing in the records given us by your Department to indicate that this is an impossibility.”
It was true enough. Duffold said sourly, “No need to underline the obvious! We’re committed to remain on Palayata until the situation is understood. If there is no danger there, or only ordinary danger—nothing that reaches beyond the planet itself—we can stay or not as we choose. But we can’t leave, now that we’ve brought ourselves to the attention of this X factor, before we know whether or not it constitutes a potential danger to every human world in the galaxy. We can’t even destroy the planet, since we don’t know whether that would also destroy X, or simply irritate it!”
“Is the destruction of Palayata being seriously considered?” the Service man said.
“Not at the moment,” Duffold said grimly.
For the first time then, Buchele shifted his glance slowly about at the other Service members. “It seems that we are in agreement so far,” he said, as if addressing them. He looked back at Duffold.
That was when the thought came to Duffold. It startled him, but he didn’t stop to consider it. He said, “My Department obviously has been unable to work out a satisfactory solution to the problem. I’m authorized to say that Outposts will give the Service any required support in solving it, providing I’m allowed to observe the operation.”
There was a momentary silence. It was bluff, and it wasn’t fooling them; but the Service was known to go to considerable lengths to build up good will in the other Departments.
Pilch said suddenly, “We accept the condition—with one qualification.”
Duffold hesitated, surprised. Buchele’s gaze was on Pilch; the others seemed to be studying him reflectively, but nobody appeared to question Pilch’s acceptance. “What’s the qualification?” he asked.
“We should have your agreement,” she said, “that you will accept any safety measures we feel are required.”
“I assume those safety measures are for my benefit,” Duffold said gravely.
“Well, yes—”
“Why,” said Duffold, “in that case I thank you for your concern. And, of course, you have my agreement.”
The others stirred and smiled. Pilch looked rueful. “It’s just that—”
“I know,” Duffold nodded. “It’s just that I haven’t had any psychological conditioning.”
* * *
Pilch was called from the conference room immediately afterwards. This time Duffold was not surprised to discover that she appeared to be in charge of the actual kidnapping project and that she was arranging to include him in the landing party. There seemed to be a constant easy shifting of authority among these people which did not correspond too well with the rank they held.
Others came in. He began to get a picture of unsuspected complexities of organization and purpose within this huge, ungainly ship. There was talk of pattern analysis and factor summaries at the table at which Buchele remained in charge, and Duffold stayed there, since they were dealing with material with which he was in part familiar. It appeared that Wintan, the Service operator who had been working planetside on Palayata, had provided the ship’s Integrators with detailed information not included in previous reports; and the patterns were still being revised. So far, Buchele seemed to feel that the revisions indicated no significant changes.