Read Online The Unreasoning Mask by Philip José Farmer - Free Book Online Page B

backtracking with the hope of finding Pegasus."
     
     
He paused and said, "Or some trace of it."
     
     
A long silence, punctuated by pale faces, followed. Tenno was the first

to crack it.
     
     
"Captain, will we run away every time a Tolt ship appears?"
     
     
Ramstan did not like being questioned, but he said, "We're a scientific

mission. And we must at all costs -- almost all -- avoid anything which

might lead to war."
     
     
He scanned the faces. "All right. Normal operation."
     
     
     
     
Two ship's days passed. Ramstan was in his quarters, considering taking

the glyfa out for another effort to get it to talk, when a whistle sounded.

Ramstan spoke the code word which activated a two-way communication.

Tenno's clark-brown, slant-eyed face appeared on a screen.
     
     
"Captain, we've just rasered some debris at 45,000 kilometers. It might be

from a spaceship."
     
     
"I'll be right up," Ramstan said.
     
     
He felt cold and sick. Could it be what was left of Pegasus?
     
     
     
     
     
     
... 8 ...
     
     
When Al-Buraq caught up with the debris, she was 600,000 kilometers from

the planet Walisk. The pieces of the ship were spreading over a wide area,

though going in the same general direction. What attracted Ramstan's

attention most was a globe with a diameter of 14 meters. Ship matched

pace and path with those of the globe to catch up with it. Meanwhile,

other debris had been identified as of Raushghol origin. This was done

chiefly through furniture torn loose from the deck in the explosion

which had rent the ship. Only the Raushghol, in the Terrans' experience,

had three diamond-shaped holes in the backs of all their chairs and sofas.
     
     
A screen showed the sphere as a slowly rotating object with a surface of

black-and-white squares. Al-Buraq had transmitted signals of its own --

perhaps unintelligible to the receiver -- informing whoever was in the

globe, if there was anybody, that help was coming. No acknowledgment

had been received.
     
     
Al-Buraq jockeyed around, matched, opened a port, swallowed the globe

easily and softly, and closed the port. Air hissed into the chamber, which

held the globe in a depression fitting the lower third. Antibacterial

and antiviral gases mixed with the air for five minutes, then a spray of

weak acid washed the globe, followed by high-pressure sprays of liquid

helium and then boiling hot water. A few minutes later, crewmembers in

spacesuits entered, Toyce among them.
     
     
Toyce said, "Never saw anything like this before, sir. I can't find any

exterior mechanism to open it up for us. If there's a shet in there,

the shet will have to open it."
     
     
Shet was the Terrish nongender, singular and plural, definite and

indefinite third-person indicator, a combination of she/he/it from

English. An alaraf-drive ship, however, was referred to as shet-fim ,

fim being the female indicator.
     
     
"Can we cut into it?"
     
     
"Won't know until we try, sir."
     
     
"It's not likely, but it might contain explosive gas," Ramstan said.

"Everybody out. Let a yeoshet cut it."
     
     
The crew walked through the port into ship; a moment later, a wheeled robot

passed through. The port was shut, but the robot waited until ship had

built up armor-plated layers to enclose the chamber. When Task Completed

was flashed on the screen, the CPO directing the party gave the command.

A laser beam shot out from the tip of one of the robot's arms, and a thin

slice of the equator of the globe fell off.
     
     
"I'll be damned!" Ramstan said. "Water!"
     
     
It spurted out, then the pressure inside quickly eased off, and it flowed

down the side for a few seconds before trickling out.
     
     
"Cut out a hole at the equator," Ramstan said.
     
     
This was done quickly. More water poured out, but the flow ceased within

thirty seconds. The robot moved forward and extended an arm with a tiny

TV camera at its end through the hole. Light flared. The lower