Part 9 (1/2)

Gloom descended.

”Wait a minute,” said Pelquesh. ”If he can do that, why hasn't he escaped from us?”

Magruder watched the wall become transparent. The room was filled with aliens now. The big cheese, Thagobar, was at the pickup.

”We are curious,” he said, ”to know why, if you can go anywhere at will, you have stayed here.

Why don't you escape?”

More fast thinking. ”It is not polite,” Magruder said, ”for a guest to leave his host until the business at hand is finished.”

”Even after we...ah...disciplined you?””Small discomforts can be overlooked, especially when the host is acting in abysmal ignorance.”

There was a whispered question from one of Thagobar's underlings and a smattering of discussion, and then: ”Are we to presume, then, that you bear us no ill will?”

”Some,” admitted Magruder candidly. ”It is only because of your presumptuous behavior toward me, however, that I personally am piqued. I can a.s.sure you that my race as a whole bears no ill will whatever toward your race as a whole or any member of it.”

Play it up big, Magruder, he told himself. You've got 'em rocking-I hope.

More discussion on the other side of the wall.

”You say,” said Thagobar, ”that your race holds no ill will toward us; how do you know?”

”I can say this,” Magruder told him; ”I know-beyond any shadow of a doubt-exactly what every person of my race thinks of you at this very moment.

”In addition, let me point out that I have not been harmed as yet, they would have no reason to be angry. After all, you haven't been destroyed yet.”

Off went the sound. More heated discussion. On went the sound.

”It has been suggested,” said Thagobar, ”that, in spite of appearances, it was intended that we pick you, and you alone, as a specimen. It is suggested that you were sent to meet us.”

Oh, brother! This one would have to be handled with very plush gloves.

”I am but a very humble member of my race,” Magruder said as a prelude-mostly to gain time. But wait! He was an extraterrestrial biologist, wasn't he? ”However,” he continued with dignity, ”my profession is that of meeting alien beings. I was, I must admit, appointed to the job.”

Thagobar seemed to grow tenser. ”That, in turn, suggests that you knew we were coming.”

Magruder thought for a second. It had been predicted for centuries that mankind would eventually meet an intelligent alien race.

”We have known you were coming for a long time,” he said quite calmly.

Thagobar was visibly agitated now. ”In that case, you must know where our race is located in the galaxy; you must know where our home base is.”

Another tough one. Magruder looked through the wall at Thagobar and his men standing nervously on the other side of it. ”I know where you are,” he said, ”and I know exactly where every one of your fellows is.”

There was sudden consternation on the other side of the wall, but Thagobar held his ground.

”What is our location then?”

For a second, Magruder thought they'd pulled the rug out from under him at last. And then he saw that there was a perfect explanation. He'd been thinking of dodging so long that he almost hadn't seen the honest answer .

He looked at Thagobar pityingly. ”Communication by voice is so inadequate. Our coordinate system would be completely unintelligible to you, and you did not teach me yours if you will recall.”

Which was perfectly true; the Dal would have been foolish to teach their coordinate system to a specimen-the clues might have led to their home base. Besides, General Orders forbade it.

More conversation on the other side.

Thagobar again: ”If you are in telepathic communication with your fellows, can you read our minds?”

Magruder looked at him superciliously. ”I have principles, as does my race; we do not enter any mind uninvited.”

”Do the rest of your people know the location of our bases, then?” Thagobar asked plaintively.

Magruder's voice was placid. ”I a.s.sure you, Thagobar Verf, that everyone of my people, on every planet belonging to our race, knows as much about your home base and its location as I do.”

Magruder was beginning to get tired of the on-and-off sound system, but he resigned himself to wait while the aliens argued among themselves.

”It has been pointed out,” Thagobar said, after a few minutes, ”that it is very odd that your race hasnever contacted us before. Ours is a very old and powerful race, and we have taken planets throughout a full half of the galaxy, and yet, your race has never been seen nor heard of before.”

”We have a policy,” said Magruder, ”of not disclosing our presence to another race until it is to our advantage to do so. Besides, we have no quarrel with your race, and we have never had any desire to take your homes away from you. Only if a race becomes foolishly and insanely belligerent do we trouble ourselves to show them our power.”

It was a long speech-maybe too long. Had he stuck strictly to the truth? A glance at Zandoplith told him; the chief psychologist had kept his beady black eyes on the needle all through the long proceedings, and kept looking more and more worried as the instrument indicated a steady flow of truth.

Thagobar looked positively apprehensive. As Magruder had become accustomed to the aliens, it had become more and more automatic to read their expressions. After all, he held one great advantage: they had made the mistake of teaching him their language. He knew them, and they didn't know him.

Thagobar said: ”Other races, then, have been...uh ...punished by yours?”

”Not in my lifetime,” Magruder told him. He thought of h.o.m.o neanderthalensis and said: ”There was a race, before my time, which defied us. It no longer exists.”

”Not in your lifetime? How old are you?”

”Look into your magniscreen at the planet below,” said the Earthman in a solemn tone. ”When I was born, not a single one of the plants you see existed on Earth. The continents of Earth were nothing like that; the seas were entirely different.

”The Earth on which I was born had extensive ice caps; look below you, and you will see none.

And yet, we have done nothing to change the planet you see; any changes that have taken place have come by the long process of geologic evolution.”

Gleek!” It was a queer sound that came from Thagobar's throat just before a switch cut off the wall and the sound again.

Just like watching a movie on an old film, Magruder thought. No sound half the time. and it breaks every so often.