Proteus in the Underworld Page 27

  "While you do your best to prevent further advances in form-change?" Bey stood up. "I know exactly what you're saying, and I understand its importance. But it has other implications. You are telling me to abandon everything I have worked for all my life. You are suggesting that instead of helping Georgia Kruskal, I should try to destroy the sort of progress that she is making on Mars."

  "No, I do not suggest that." Capman's voice was gende. "I am here to suggest something quite different; something I have urged before, but never so strongly. Come with me, Behrooz Wolf. Change to a Logian form. Be blessed with the augmented Logian faculties. And comprehend, as you will never comprehend in human form, the whole canvas of the problem I describe. There will have to be, as you say, great changes in purposive form-change. Some of them, from the standard human perspective, may appear to be regressive. They are not, but while you remain in human form they will seem so. I do not ask you to undo or fight against your and my life's work. Rather, I ask you to view that work in a broader context, to elevate it to a new and higher level. I ask you to join me on Saturn, and work with me there. Will you do it?"

  "No. Maybe. God, I don't know." Bey stared sightlessly around the room, looking right through Sondra. "I have to think through all this. Changing form-change. Maybe abandoning form-change. I have to think. And I have to get some fresh air."

  He headed for the stairs. Jumping Jack Flash, who had been sitting all the time at Sondra's feet, stood up and scuttled after him. The house's outer door slammed shut.

  Sondra turned to glare accusingly at Robert Capman. "I've never seen Bey like this before. He's unbelievably upset."

  "Inevitably, and naturally. As I suspected when I flew to Earth, Behrooz Wolf had come so far in his own deductions that there was no alternative to telling him the truth. And there was also no way to make that truth palatable to someone so intimately involved in form-change development." Capman's luminous eyes burned into Sondra's. "I have a question for you, Miss Dearborn. Why were you present when Behrooz Wolf initiated this conversation with me?"

  Again it seemed like a total change of subject. Sondra stared at the Logian in perplexity.

  "Why was I here? I don't know. I guess Bey wanted me here. He invited me, told me to come back from Mars with him, but I had no idea why. Is it relevant?"

  "It is more than relevant. It is crucial. He wanted you to know of his own deductions, and also he wanted you to learn whatever he might find out from me about the reasons for Logian involvement on Mars."

  "So he wanted me to know. I still don't see what that has to do with anything." Sondra stood up abruptly. "And at the moment I don't have time to share your worry about the long-term future of humanity. I'm worried about now. I'm worried about Bey. I'm going to see what's happening to him."

  She ran for the stairs. The Logian, stolid and apparently unruffled, remained at his ship's communications console. "Take your time," he called after her. "There is no need to rush back."

  Outside it was almost dark, a warm, soft twilight in which the first stars were appearing. Sondra paused close to the front of the house and stared around her. The island was not all that big but Bey could have gone anywhere for solitude, to the top of the rocky central upthrust or down along the seashore. She would never find him by sight as it grew darker. She could shout and holler, but she was sure he would not like that. It also did not fit her own uneasy mood. The weather was flat calm, but her nerves were jangling as though a big thunderstorm was on the way.

  She stood still and listened. The night sounds of the island were beginning. Faint rustles of small lizards and large insects, the former pursuing the latter through the undergrowth. The murmur of small waves ascending the sandy beach. A rush of night wings, as bats and small birds flitted above her head in their hunt for moths and gnats; and, far-off to the left, a muted whine of protest.

  Sondra at once headed that way. She had heard that sound before—Janus and Siegfried, waiting impatiently and voicing their complaint until Bey threw the stick or ball out into the shallow water.

  He was sitting down when she came up to him, perched on a jagged rock that had to be less than comfortable. She sat down cross-legged on the sand at his side.

  "You don't have to do it, you know," she said quietly. "You don't have to take any notice of him at all."

  He did not look round, but stared out across the quiet water. It had the oil-black gleam that Sondra remembered from her first visit to Wolf Island. The slow ripples that crept up the beach were tiny. She counted them—one, two, three, up and back. About five seconds between successive waves.

  "He traveled all the way from Saturn just to talk to me," Bey replied at last. "A Logian, coming to see a human. It's unheard of. I owe him an answer."

  "Then give him one. Tell him no. Tell him you are retired." Sondra placed her hand gently on Bey's thigh. "You've had experience with that particular line, haven't you? Or tell him that you believe he is wrong."

  "Sure. Except that I don't. He's right." The dogs ran up from the water to shake themselves and shower the two humans with salt spray. Bey did not even flinch.

  "Do you know," he went on, "what Capman said to me wasn't even a surprise. I'd had the thought myself, but I always suppressed it as personal heresy: Purposive form-change runs contrary to evolution. We change to match a different environment, but it isn't a genetic change. We don't become any better suited to living in a place, generation by generation, the way that all of Nature adapts to its surroundings. In the far future, humans might evolve by natural selection until they could live on Mars as it is today. But they won't do it as long as we have form-change."

  "So make that point to people, Bey. Tell them. Use the insight to change the way we think of and apply form-change. You can do it, if anyone can. But don't run away to Saturn, not when you are needed here on Earth. You think Denzel Morrone has to be kicked out of the Office of Form Control, and I agree. But who will take over from him?"

  "Not me. I worked my shift."

  "Other people won't want to hear that. You'd be my first choice, the absolute best person." Sondra listened to her own words, and was surprised by the passion in them. "Not that anyone is going to ask my opinion, I know that. I'm a peon. But you're not. Even if it's only for a little while, you ought to help out when Morrone goes."

  "Capman thinks that I should help, too—on Saturn."

  "Yes. And you know why?" Sondra felt a faint itch inside her, a mixture of anger and impatience. "It's because he wants you there for himself. He likes you. You have a lot of common interests and he loves to talk to you. You are the only person in the solar system who reaches Capman whenever you like. He wants you there on Saturn for his sake, not yours or mine. Aybee says that Capman doesn't normally ask people to become a Logian until they're mentally past it, and you're nowhere near that."

  "Aybee is wrong, Sondra. I love him like a son, and on the right subjects he's the smartest being in the solar system; but sometimes he's an idiot. You've heard Capman—did you think for one second that he is past it?"

  "He's old. Well over a century."

  "And he hasn't lost a stroke. I'm not in Capman's league, Sondra, but I'm getting old too."

  "Now that's nonsense!" Bey was facing her, but in the dark she could make out his face only as a pale oval. She wished that she could see his eyes. "You're getting older," she went on, "but so am I. We're all doing that, every day. You pretend to be old, but it's all a big put-on, part of your act. Anyone who spends time with you soon realizes that you have more curiosity and energy than a teenager. Mary Walton and Sylvia Fernald certainly didn't think you were old where it mattered."

  "Now where the devil did you hear those names?" Bey was silent for a moment, then he laughed into the darkness. "Aybee."

  "Who else? 'The Wolfman and his bimboes.' "

  "I'll kill him. Anyway, that was a long time ago."

  "Four years, if you call that a long time. I don't. But Trudy Melford wasn't a long time ago, she was yes
terday. And she made her views clear enough: you can have her and everything she possesses. You'll never convince me she was talking about money. She doesn't think you're old and ready to be put out to pasture. Out to stud, maybe."

  Sondra felt the muscles of Bey's thigh tighten under her hand. It was a long time—three waves to the shore— before he said: "She was just trying to tell me how grateful she is for what I did for her son."

  "Sure. You think that if you choose to, but I know better. Trudy meant exactly what she said." Sondra felt the level of emotion flare inside her. "Listen, give her half a chance and she'd just love to jump your bones. Try telling her that you are too old, once she gets her hot little hands on you. See how much it slows her down."

  She had told Robert Capman that she was coming outside to learn what was happening to Bey Wolf. Now Sondra was beginning to wonder what was happening to her. The internal pressure was rising.

  And worst of all, Bey was laughing again. This time he was making no sound, but she could feel it in his thigh muscles.

  She snatched her hand away from his leg. "What did I say now that's so funny? I'm being serious here."

  "Sorry. It's just the alien idea of Bey Wolf as a sex object. I'm not used to that. I guess it really is time I went to Saturn, before women start to swarm all over me."

  "I don't want you to go." Sondra suddenly realized what she did want. "I want you to stay on Earth, and it has nothing to do with form-change or who runs the Office of Form Control. You keep saying you're getting old, but you'll be around for at least another fifty years. Half a century is enough time for a lot of excitement and a lot of fun. I'm going to quote one of your fusty old dead poets at you—and don't dare ask me how many hours I've wasted reading the stuff since we first met, because I'm not going to tell you. Remember this?: Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be; the last of life, for which the first was made. In case you don't recognize what you're hearing, I'll spell it out. Bey, this is a proposition."

  He sat rigid. He did not move, he did not speak. Sondra waited, breathless. Her own words had surprised her, uttered before she knew they were present in her brain.

  Finally he shook his head. "You're my relative, remember?"

  "Your remote relative. You taught me how remote."

  "It would never work."

  "It might not. But it might. How do you know, if you don't even try?"

  "Crabbed age and youth—"

  "Bullshit! You said that to me before, to point out why you and I couldn't possibly work together. And we've worked together just fine, better than I've ever worked with anybody. I don't want to hear another word of stupid old poetry from you—unless you can make it romantic poetry."

  He was standing up, brushing off sand, turning away. She had offended him. "Bey, wait! Don't go."

  He reached out and took her hands in his, lifting Sondra easily to her feet. "I have to. You can come to the house with me if you like, or stay right here if you'd rather. I'll be right back."

  "Why do you have to—"

  "I've got to tell Robert Capman that I'm not going with him. Don't you think we owe him at least that much?"

  * * *

  The communications center was still active, the display screen still turned on. But there was no sign of a Logian form within the imaging area.

  "He's gone." Sondra stared at the control console as though expecting Capman to pop up out of the middle of it. "I can't believe it. He said to take my time, there was no need to rush."

  "Because when he spoke to you he already knew he would be gone by the time that we got back." Bey flipped to display the storage stack. "I thought so. New recorded message—and addressed to both of us. Here we go."

  Capman's head and bulky upper torso were again filling the image area. If he was annoyed by the disappearance, first of Bey and then of Sondra, he showed no sign of it.

  "The Logian reputation for perception is quite unwarranted, you know," he said cheerfully, as soon as the display region had stabilized. "If I were really astute, Bey, I would have known your answer as soon as I saw that Sondra was with you for our conversation. That, and your and my shared tendency to masochism, should have sufficed. I can assure you that Saturn is great and the Logian form wonderful, and both statements are quite true. But you would rather remain on Earth and Mars, and bear those ills you have, than fly to others that you know not of."

  "I told you he just wanted you for chit-chat with him," Sondra hissed. "Bey, he's as bad with quotations as you are."

  "Shhh!"

  Capman was continuing. "Remain there for the moment, that is. Next year, or the year after, who knows? The Logian form encourages a long perspective. I can wait. And if I am realistic, your presence on Earth and Mars will help to re-shape thinking about form-change better than you could do it on Saturn.

  "As for you, Sondra Dearborn." The great head turned toward her, as though even in a recording Capman knew just where Sondra would be standing. "You are young and perhaps incorrigible. But you have fire and courage and conviction. You do not allow yourself to be diverted or intimidated. The two of you will make an excellent team. And who knows? Perhaps Behrooz Wolf will yet bring you to enlightenment, and an appreciation of great literature." The grey head bobbed in laughter. "But I won't bet on it. And now I have work to do. I look forward to talking with you again in the near future. Both of you."

  A massive arm lifted. Luminous eyes flickered and danced with humor. And Robert Capman was gone.

  CHAPTER 23

  EPILOGUE

  It was long past time to go, and still he had not gone.

  Bey, who claimed procrastination as a virtue, was taking it to extremes. Normally he dignified delay by saying that it was a way of keeping his options open. This time he had no real excuse. It was not that he was putting off joining Sondra on the mainland. He was keen to be with her again. After only a week together she was already a familiar presence in his life, and he had been sorry when she left two days earlier.

  She had gone to find a place for them to live. She said she did not want him to be forced to share her cramped apartment with Dill and Gipsy. Actually, Bey knew she had a secret suspicion that he would take far too much interest in the progress of the Dill/Gipsy two-woman multiform. He was beginning to understand Sondra's obsessions—and she his.

  She had called just that morning to tell him she had found a perfect house, ready to move into. He could fly to join her as soon as he was ready.

  And he was ready. He was also oddly eager to see the Form Control office again, the place he had thought himself happy to leave forever. He was quite ready to leave, except for one or two last details; those, and a strange, nagging feeling that somehow he was missing something significant on Wolf Island . . .

  "You know how the food dispensers work, the same as usual. Push these two at once, see?"

  Jumping Jack Flash, watching as Bey operated the solid food delivery system, grunted his agreement. He reached past Bey and pushed the two buttons. The two hounds moved forward expectantly as a handful of solid pellets rolled down the chute and into the dishes.

  "And don't let Janus and Siegfried push them with their noses, you know how greedy they are. They'll eat until they're sick. Just look at them."

  The dogs had gobbled the food and were waiting for more.

  "You can have all the fruit while I'm gone, Flash. The mangoes and papayas are nearly ready but let them get properly ripe, or you'll have the runs same as last time." Bey looked down at the chimp. "But I bet you don't, you dumb ape. You'll get as sick as you always do."

  Jumping Jack Flash stared back at him reproachfully.

  "I know, I know, you learned your lesson last time. Anyway, I'll be keeping an eye on all of you through the house remotes. And Sondra and I will come back in a couple of weeks. When we do, I'll fix you up for another session in the tanks. We've been neglecting that, and just when I thought we might be making real progress. Meanwhile, you're in charge. You've been on your own a lot
recently, you know how everything works. Anything else you can think of that needs doing? If not. . ."

  Bey prowled slowly around the whole house one last time, with the chimp and the two hounds trailing along behind.

  "I guess that's it, then." Everything was clean, everythiing was in order. He had run out of every last thing that might need doing. "Come down to the beach and see me off."

  Even the weather was obliging. It was perfect for the journey, blue skies overhead and the faintest breeze from the south. Bey crossed the sand and walked out onto the jetty.

  "Stay there, all of you, unless you want to get wet. I'll miss you guys, but don't worry. I'll be back soon."

  Bey waved as he stepped into the skimmer. Jumping Jack Flash waved back, one hound standing on each side of the chimpanzee. They all watched as the skimmer made a leisurely semi-circle in the little harbor. Then it accelerated rapidly in a great surge of spray, became airborne in seconds, and arrowed away to the northwest.

  * * *

  The little party on the beach stood silent and motionless until the skimmer was quite out of sight, even to the keen eyes of the hounds. Then Janus whined, pushing at the left hand of Jumping Jack Flash with her muzzle. When the chimp did not respond at once she did it again, more urgently.

  He looked down at her with knowing brown eyes. After a few more seconds of waiting to make sure that the skimmer was far away, he led the hounds back across the sand, around the curving stone path and into the house.

  They entered the main level, where the food and water dispensers were found; but they did not remain there. Jumping Jack Flash descended, until he was in the basement lab far below the surface.

  Janus stepped forward at once into one of the specially constructed form-change tanks. She lay down there. Siegfried moved into another one next to her. Carefully and patiently, like someone who had done it many times before, Jumping Jack Flash made the connections for each of them. Both the dogs were quivering with eagerness when he at last closed the openings of both tanks.