"You won't defeat the Wankhmen that way," gloomed Zarfo. "They'll tell the Wankh only as much as they see fit, and you'll never know the difference."
"What I'd like to do," said Reith, "is work up to a situation where only the truth makes sense and where every other statement is an obvious falsity."
Zarfo shook his head in puzzlement and walked to the spigot to drink. Reith remembered that none of the group had eaten for almost two days; small wonder they were listless and irritable.
Three Wankhmen appeared. The official who previously had spoken to Reith was not among them. "Come along. Look sharp, now; form a neat line."
"Where are we going?" Reith asked, but received no reply.
The group walked five minutes, through odd-angled streets and irregular courts, by acute and obtuse angles, past unexpected juts and occasional clear vistas, through deep shadow and the wan shine of Carina 4269. They entered the ground floor of a tower, entered an elevator which took them up a hundred feet and opened upon a large octagonal hall.
The chamber was dim; a great lenticular bulge in the roof held water; windblown ripples modulated light from the sky and sent it dancing around the hall.
Tremors of sound were barely audible, sighing chords, complex dissonances; sound both more and less than music. The walls were stained and discolored, a fact which Reith found peculiar, until looking closer he recognized Wankh ideograms, immense and intricately detailed, one to each wall. Each ideogram, thought Reith, represented a chime; each chime was the sonic equivalent of a visual image. Here, reflected Reith, were highly abstract pictures.
The chamber was empty. The group waited in silence while the almost unheard chords drifted in and out of consciousness, and amber sunlight, refracted and broken into shimmers, swam through the room.
Reith heard Traz gasp in surprise: a rare event. He turned. Traz pointed. "Look yonder!"
Standing in an alcove was Helsse, head bent in an attitude of brooding reverie.
His guise was new and strange. He wore black Wankhman garments; his hair was close-cropped; he looked a person worlds apart from the suave young man Reith had encountered in Blue Jade Palace. Reith looked at Zarfo. "You told me he was dead!"
"So he seemed to me! We put him out in the corpse shed, and in the morning he was gone. We thought the night-hounds had come for him."
Reith called: "Helsse! Over here! It's Adam Reith."
Helsse turned his head, looked at him and Reith wondered how he ever could have taken Helsse for anything but a Wankhman. Helsse came slowly across the chamber, a half-smile on his face. "So here: the sorry outcome to your exploits."
"The situation is discouraging," Reith agreed. "Can you help us?"
Helsse raised his eyebrows. "Why should I? I find you personally offensive, without humility or ease. You have subjected me to a hundred indignities; your pro-'cult' bias is repulsive; the theft of a space vessel with an Original aboard makes your request absurd."
Reith considered him a moment. "May I ask why you are here?"
"Certainly. To supply information in regard to you and your activities."
Reith mulled the matter over. "Are we so important?"
"So it would seem," said Helsse indifferently.
Four Wankh entered the chamber, and stood by the far walclass="underline" four massive black shadows. Helsse stood straighter; the other Wankhmen became silent. It was apparent, thought Reith, that whatever the total attitude of the Wankhmen toward the Wankh might be, that attitude included a great deal of respect.
The prisoners were urged forward, and ranged in a line before the Wankh. A
minute passed, during which nothing happened. Then the Wankh exchanged chimes: soft muffled sounds at half-second intervals, apparently unintelligible to the Wankhmen. Another silence ensued, then the Wankh addressed the Wankhmen, producing triads of three quick notes, like xylophone trills, in what seemed to be a simplified or elemental usage.
The oldest Wankhman stepped forward, listened, turned to the prisoners. "Which of you is the pirate-master?"
"None of us," said Reith. "We are not pirates."
One of the Wankh uttered interrogatory chimes. Reith thought he recognized the Original Master. The Wankhman, somewhat grudgingly, brought forth a small keyed instrument which he manipulated with astonishing deftness.
"Tell him further," said Reith, "that we regret the inconvenience we caused him.
Circumstances compelled us to take him aloft."
"You are not here to argue," said the Wankhman, "but to render information, after which the usual processes will occur."
Again the Master uttered chimes and was answered. Reith asked: "What is he saying, and what did you tell him?"
The senior Wankhman said, "Speak only when you are directly addressed."
Helsse came forward, and producing his own instrument, played chimes at length.
Reith began to feel uneasy and frustrated. Events were ranging far beyond his control. "What is Helsse saying?"
"Silence."
"At least inform the Wankh that we have a case which we want to present."
"You will be notified if it becomes necessary for you to testify. The hearing is almost at an end."
"But we haven't had a chance to speak!"
"Silence! Your persistence is offensive!"
Reith turned to Zarfo. "Tell the Wankh something! Anything!"
Zarfo blew out his cheeks. Pointing at the Wankhmen he made chirping sounds. The senior Wankhman said sternly: "Quiet, you are interrupting."
"What did you tell him?" asked Reith.
"I said, 'Wrong, wrong, wrong.' That's all I know."
The Master spoke chimes, indicating Reith and Zarfo. The senior Wankhman, visibly exasperated, said: "The Wankh want to know where you planned to commit your piracies, or, rather, where you planned to take the spaceship."
"You are not translating correctly," protested Reith. "Did you tell him that we are not pirates?"
Zarfo again made sounds for "Wrong, wrong, wrong!"
The Wankhman said, "You are obviously pirates, or lunatics." Turning back to the Wankh, he played his instrument, misrepresenting, so Reith was sure, what had been said. Reith turned to Helsse. "What is he telling them? That we are not pirates?"
Helsse ignored him.
Zarfo guffawed, to everyone's astonishment. He muttered in Reith's ear:
"Remember the Dugbo? Pinch Helsse's nose."
Reith said, "Helsse."
Helsse turned him an austere gaze. Reith stepped forward, tweaked his nose.
Helsse seemed to become rigid. "Tell the Wankh that I am a man of Earth, the world of human origin," said Reith, "that I took the spaceship only in order to return home."
Helsse woodenly played a set of trills and runs. The other Wankhmen became instantly agitated-sufficient proof that Helsse had translated accurately. They began to protest, to press forward, to drown out Helsse's chimes, only to be brought up short by a great belling sound from the Master.
Helsse continued, and at last came to an end.
"Tell them further," said Reith, "that the Wankhmen falsified my remarks, that they consistently do so to further their private purposes."
Helsse played. The other Wankhmen again started a great protest, and again were rebuked.
Reith warmed to his task. He voiced one of his surmises, striking boldly into the unknown: "Tell them that the Wankhmen destroyed my spaceship, killing all aboard except myself. Tell them that our mission was innocent, that we came investigating radio signals broadcast a hundred and fifty Tschai-years ago. At this time the Wankhmen destroyed the cities Settra and Ballisidre from which the signals emanated, with great loss of life, and all for the same reason: to prevent a new situation which might disturb the Wankh-Dirdir stalemate."