It was a long time before the mirror lit up again. It was a very long time since any light had fallen on that surface at all.
And when, finally, we saw an image, we realized the meadow did not look quite the same as it did now. The circle in the middle, now overgrown with grass, was empty, grey, like the concrete circle of a giant hatch. You could even make out the curving depression in the ground differentiating the circle from the surrounding earth.
“See!” Alice as overjoyed. “That is the right field!”
“Be very careful now.” I said. “You don’t want to cut of anything important.”
“I understand.” Zeleny said. “I’m not a child.”
But he was unable to make his precise incision. Dappled and very bright, almost transparent from impatience and intense curiosity, the empathicator managed, at the least opportune moment possible, to strike Zeleny’s elbow. The vibroblade slide through the thickest part and cut deep into the mirror. The mirror flower split in two and fell on the floor.
Out of total shame and embarrassment the empathicator shrank to half its size and started to grow dark. It wanted them to kill it. It rushed around the laboratory, striking the infuriated Zeleny, who tried to catch it, with its stick legs; finally, it threw itself on the floor and turned totally black.
“Don’t worry.” Alice tried to calm down the misfortunate empathicator. “That could have happened to anyone. We know that you didn’t do anything.”
She turned to Zeleny, who was still cursing the empathicator out at the top of his lungs, and said:
“Zeleny, please don’t! The empathicator is so sensitive he could die from embarrassment. And anyway, we have a whole bouquet more.” Alice pointed out. “You said so yourself.”
“All right.” Zeleny agreed. He was a retiring person and, in general, even tempered. Too bad. We’ve wasted so much time. But in a minute we’ll discover the secret of the Second Captain for certain.”
The empathicator, on hearing this, shrank down even further.
Zeleny led the way as we returned to the crew’s lounge. The empathicator danced in following us, still showing almost entirely black, and the vile looking bushes stretched out their branches to trip him so he fell.
We never even made it to the crew’s lounge. Zeleny stopped in the doorway and just said,
“Oh!”
I looked across Zeleny’s shoulder; both vases were overturned on the floor and the flowers were broken, smashed, destroyed by some ill-wishing force. Not a single complete mirror flower remained. Their leaves were scattered about the compartment.
And unknown to all the blabberyap bird had vanished again.
Chapter Eighteen
The Spy
The flowers were destroyed. The Blabberyap bird had vanished. We were back to square one. How could we help the Captain? I reached for the microphone and called Poloskov.
“Gennady,” I said, “we’ve got a complication. Where are you now, exactly?”
“Flying over the planet’s north pole. Haven’t seen anything yet. What happened back there?”
“No time to tell now. In general, we’ve used the mirror flowers to find out what happened here four years ago. Or more precisely, almost. Someone managed to break all the mirrors at just the right moment. We need more mirror flowers. How long would it take you to reach the field?”
“About twenty minutes.” Poloskov said. “But then I’d still have to decelerate and land.”
“Then don’t bother about it.” I said. “Continue your flight.”
“I don’t think so.” Poloskov answered. “I’m returning to the Pegasus now. If someone managed to destroy the flowers it means they’re still on the ship you have enemies right outside. Don’t take any actions without me.”
“Fine.” I agreed.
When I put down the microphone Alice said:
“The faster we get to the field the better.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Isn’t that obvious? To get new flowers. Their secret must be so important…”
“But…”
“Let me go there in the flitter.” Zeleny said. “Nothing will happen to me. I’ll dissect down to the year four layer and let you know right away…”
“I’m with Zeleny.” Alice said.
“I have no doubt you are!” I snapped back. “But we will wait for Poloskov. He has the landing boat and we can get to the field far faster than in the all terrain vehicle. And the worst thing we could do now would be to split up. And in the mean time we’ll look around and see how anyone could have gotten aboard the Pegasus at all to destroy the mirror flowers.
I went out into the corridor and headed for the airlock. If the airlock was closed, it meant that our malefactor was still aboard the Pegasus, hiding. If it was open it meant that someone had boarded our ship, performed his odious deed, and ran off. But I did not believe this very much. The perpetrator would have had to have gotten aboard the ship, found his way to our crew’s lounge, just to destroy all the flowers. And how was he able to know to do this while we were all busy looking at the flowers’s layers from four years ago? How could they have guessed? I could not understand this thug was able to hide himself on the ship and had found out we were about to solve the mystery of the Second Captain.
But who could it have been? Zeleny, Alice and I had all been in the laboratory together. If you ignore the Empathicator… Ah yes, the Empathicator! He had bumped Zeleny’s elbow.
“No, it couldn’t have been the Empathicator. True, he is a very sensitive creature, but really, he’s must an animal, that’s all he is, no more He can’t even speak. Or perhaps he doesn’t want to.”
Then I was at the airlock. Booth airlock doors were wide open.
All my theories came crashing down in tiny shards. There was just now way they could hold together. If I had just bothered to search my memory a little more I would have remembered that the Empathicator had not left us for a second and therefore could not have broken the mirrors in the crew’s lounge.
The airlock was wide open, and the mysterious malefactor had left our ship, carrying with him our precious Blabberyap bird. Perhaps the very last Blabberyap bird in all Creation.
The sun beamed down onto the meadow in front of the ship, the bushes were a palette of colors and birds were singing. Peace and contentment. It was even difficult to credit the idea that any very untoward events had occurred here recently.
I glanced up at the sky? Could that be Poloskov up there? Poloskov as not due for some time. So high it was right beneath the clouds themselves the Crockadee bird was circling overhead.
“Help me, Captains!” I suddenly head a familiar voice. “Forward into the breach dear friends, forward!”
“Where are you, Blabberyap?” I shouted. “Do you need help? I’m coming!”
“‘The grand old Duke of York, he had ten thousand men,’“ the voice of the Blabberyap sang from the bushes in the voice of the First Captain, “‘he marched them all up a hill, and marched them down again.’“
I hurried toward the bird’s voice, pushed aside the bushes and saw the Blabberyap bird. The bird could not fly because hew as holding onto the heavier diamond backed turtle with his front beak. He steadied himself with his feet, wings, and with his free beak he sang songs and called for help.
“There you are, thank goodness!” I said. “Thank heavens. And here were beginning to get worried that you’d vanished again.”
The Blabberyap bird proudly fluttered and then carefully folded its wings. It had done its job.
I picked up the turtle.
“Smart bird!” I told the Blabberyap. “You saw our prankster was running away, chased after it, caught it and dragged it home. For this you deserve five pieces of sugar tonight, no less.”