Read Online The Unreasoning Mask by Philip José Farmer - Free Book Online
Authors: Philip José Farmer
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regained control. He said, loudly,
"All posts stand by for an announcement."
His voice boomed out from the panel, was booming out throughout the ship.
Three clangs of a bell and a short whistle followed.
"You're all wondering why I issued the Burning Troy," he said. He had
turned by then and was looking at the officers. Most just continued to
stare at him, but a few nodded.
"Before I tell you why I ordered the ship to leave Kalafala, I must
remind you of one thing. That is, we are primarily a scientific survey
expedition. Though al-Buraq is a ship of the line, we use our weapons only
in self-defense. And then only when no other action is open to us. As you
all know, I have been ordered to avoid military conflict even if honor is involved.
"Until today, we have confronted no sentients with overt hostile intentions.
But the sudden appearance of the Tolt ship, her unorthodox approach, using
Kalafala as a shield to avoid our detection equipment, a maneuver which
required enormous energy, and her recklessness in flying in at treetop
level and literally dropping into the spaceport, are strange actions."
Ramstan knew what they were thinking. Why then did you not call a Burning
Troy immediately? Why did you go to your quarters at the hotel instead?
And what about our precipitate departure from Tolt?
"Though the actions of the Tenolt were suspicious," he said, "I did not
believe that they implied attack. If they had wished to attack us,
they could have caught us wide open, unprepared, when they appeared at
the port. Yet they made not the slightest move toward us. I judged that
the Tenolt intended no overtly hostile moves.
"On the other hand, it was evident that they were up to something. I have
no idea what that is. But it might derive from the incident which took place
during our brief stay on Tolt."
That widened the eyes of those on the bridge.
"As you know, Benagur, Maija Nuoli, and I were the only personnel invited
by the Tolt religious authorities to the anuglyfa ceremonies. That
the captain and the second-in-command would be invited was expected,
but it was a mystery why other officers were skipped and a lieutenant
invited. I made some delicate inquiries of the Tolt high priest -- I had
to be sure not to offend any religious prejudices -- and he replied that
the glyfa itself had asked that we three be honored. Our rank had nothing
to do with it. He would add nothing further except that we three must have
the required sensitivity . I asked him what that meant, but he did not
answer.
"And so we three were conducted with an honor guard into the holy of holies,
a large room constructed of ivory and lacking ornamentation or paint.
The only furniture was an altar in the middle of the room, a nine-cornered
block of solid ivory high as my waist -- it was taken from the tooth of an
extinct beast -- and on the altar was a diamond. It was twice as big as
my head, and on top of it was the glyfa. This looked like an egg shape
carved out of ivory. It was white and between 14 and 15 centimeters
long. Tzatlats, the high priest, said that it was so heavy that four
men could not lift it.
"Tzatlats told us that the glyfa had been dug out of the earth some
ten thousand years before, that it had been the god of the stone-age
tribe that found it and was now the god of the whole planet. The glyfa
had fallen from the skies long before the Tenolt had evolved into sapiency.
It was older than the universe; it had survived the birth and death of
many universes.
"We found it difficult to believe that a species as highly developed
scientifically as Earth's could worship an idol. We thought that we must
have misunderstood Tzatlats. It must be that the glyfa was a symbol of the
creator, just as a crucifix or a statue of Vishnu are only symbols. But
no. Tzatlats said that this was the god, not a symbol nor an
"All posts stand by for an announcement."
His voice boomed out from the panel, was booming out throughout the ship.
Three clangs of a bell and a short whistle followed.
"You're all wondering why I issued the Burning Troy," he said. He had
turned by then and was looking at the officers. Most just continued to
stare at him, but a few nodded.
"Before I tell you why I ordered the ship to leave Kalafala, I must
remind you of one thing. That is, we are primarily a scientific survey
expedition. Though al-Buraq is a ship of the line, we use our weapons only
in self-defense. And then only when no other action is open to us. As you
all know, I have been ordered to avoid military conflict even if honor is involved.
"Until today, we have confronted no sentients with overt hostile intentions.
But the sudden appearance of the Tolt ship, her unorthodox approach, using
Kalafala as a shield to avoid our detection equipment, a maneuver which
required enormous energy, and her recklessness in flying in at treetop
level and literally dropping into the spaceport, are strange actions."
Ramstan knew what they were thinking. Why then did you not call a Burning
Troy immediately? Why did you go to your quarters at the hotel instead?
And what about our precipitate departure from Tolt?
"Though the actions of the Tenolt were suspicious," he said, "I did not
believe that they implied attack. If they had wished to attack us,
they could have caught us wide open, unprepared, when they appeared at
the port. Yet they made not the slightest move toward us. I judged that
the Tenolt intended no overtly hostile moves.
"On the other hand, it was evident that they were up to something. I have
no idea what that is. But it might derive from the incident which took place
during our brief stay on Tolt."
That widened the eyes of those on the bridge.
"As you know, Benagur, Maija Nuoli, and I were the only personnel invited
by the Tolt religious authorities to the anuglyfa ceremonies. That
the captain and the second-in-command would be invited was expected,
but it was a mystery why other officers were skipped and a lieutenant
invited. I made some delicate inquiries of the Tolt high priest -- I had
to be sure not to offend any religious prejudices -- and he replied that
the glyfa itself had asked that we three be honored. Our rank had nothing
to do with it. He would add nothing further except that we three must have
the required sensitivity . I asked him what that meant, but he did not
answer.
"And so we three were conducted with an honor guard into the holy of holies,
a large room constructed of ivory and lacking ornamentation or paint.
The only furniture was an altar in the middle of the room, a nine-cornered
block of solid ivory high as my waist -- it was taken from the tooth of an
extinct beast -- and on the altar was a diamond. It was twice as big as
my head, and on top of it was the glyfa. This looked like an egg shape
carved out of ivory. It was white and between 14 and 15 centimeters
long. Tzatlats, the high priest, said that it was so heavy that four
men could not lift it.
"Tzatlats told us that the glyfa had been dug out of the earth some
ten thousand years before, that it had been the god of the stone-age
tribe that found it and was now the god of the whole planet. The glyfa
had fallen from the skies long before the Tenolt had evolved into sapiency.
It was older than the universe; it had survived the birth and death of
many universes.
"We found it difficult to believe that a species as highly developed
scientifically as Earth's could worship an idol. We thought that we must
have misunderstood Tzatlats. It must be that the glyfa was a symbol of the
creator, just as a crucifix or a statue of Vishnu are only symbols. But
no. Tzatlats said that this was the god, not a symbol nor an
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