Life on other planets -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space warfare -- Fiction
"I got a little in the moment before the explosion. Not much." Camilla
was deep in study. "It is going to be quite a job of reconstruction.
One thing of interest to you, though, is that this 'X' had quit
sabotage temporarily and was on his way to Lyrane IX, where he had some
kind of important--"
"Nine?" Karen asked, sharply. "Not Eight? I've been watching Eight, you
know--I haven't even thought of Nine."
"Nine, definitely. The thought was clear. You might give it a scan once
in a while. How is mother doing?"
"She's doing a grand job, and that Helen is quite an operator, too.
I'm not doing much--just a touch here and there--I'll see what I can
see on Nine. I'm not the scanner or detector that you are, though, you
know--maybe you'd better come over here too, in person. Suppose?"
"I think so--don't you, Uncle Trig?" Tregonsee did. "We can do some
exploring as we come, but since I have no definite patterns for web
work, we may not be able to do much until we get close. Clear ether,
Kay!"
* * * * *
"The fine structure is there, and I can resolve it and analyze it,"
Camilla informed Tregonsee, after a few hours of intense concentration.
"There are quite a few clear extraneous sequences, instead of the
blurred latent images we had before, but there is still no indication
whatever of the location of his home planet. I can see his physical
classification to ten places instead of four, more detail as to the
sun's variation, the seasons, their habits, and so on. Things that seem
mostly to be of very little importance, as far as we are concerned.
I found one fact, though, that is new and important. According to
my reconstruction, his business of Lyrane IX was the induction of
Boskonian Lensmen--_Black_ Lensmen, Tregonsee, just as father
suspected!"
"In that case, he must have been the Boskonian counterpart of an
Arisian, and hence one of the highest echelon. I am very glad indeed
that you and Karen relieved me of the necessity of trying to handle him
myself. Kinnison will be very glad to know that we have at last and in
fact reached the top--"
Camilla was paying attention to the Rigellian's cogitations with
only a fraction of her mind; most of it being engaged in a private
conversation with her brother.
"... so you see, Kit, he was under a subconscious compulsion. He
_had_ to destroy himself, his ship, and everything in it, in the
very instant of attack by any mind definitely superior to his own.
Therefore he couldn't have been an Eddorian, possibly, but merely
another intermediate, and I haven't been of much help."
"Sure you have, Cam! You got a lot of information, and some mighty good
leads to Lyrane IX and what goes on there. I'm on my way to Eddore now;
and by working down from there and up from Lyrane IX we can't go wrong.
Clear ether, Sis!"
XIX.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account