The Unreasoning Mask

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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

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