Jacob chose a seat next to Culla, so he could watch Bubbacub and Martine at work.
The two had little time to do much during the first appearance. No sooner had the Sun Ghost taken a position near the zenith than it had changed into the manlike, threatening shape. Martine hardly got her headset adjusted before the creature leered, shook a balled image of a fist, and then faded away.
But Bubbacub had time to check his ka-ngrl. He announced that the Solarian was not using the particularly potent type of psi the machine was designed to detect and counteract. Not then at least. The little Pil left it turned on anyway, just in case.
Jacob rested back in the seat, and touched the button that allowed it to recline slowly until he looked up at the pink, feathery sky overhead.
It was a relief to learn that the pi-ngrli power was not at work here. But if not, what was the reason for the Ghost’s strange behavior? Idly, he wondered again if LaRoque might have been right… that the Solarians knew how to make themselves partly understood because they knew humans from days gone by. Surely men never visited the Sun in the past, but did plasma creatures once go to Earth, and even nurture civilization there? It sounded preposterous, but then, so did Sundiver.
Another thought: If LaRoque was not responsible for the destruction of Jeff’s ship, then the Ghosts might be capable of killing them all at any time.
If so, Jacob hoped the journalist-astronaut was right about the rest of it; that the Solarians would feel more restraint in dealing with humans, Pila, and Kan-ten than they had toward a chimpanzee.
Jacob considered trying his own hand at telepathy when the creature next appeared. He’d been tested once and found to have no psi talent, despite extraordinary : hypnotic and memory skills, but maybe he should try-anyway.
A movement to his left caught his eye. Culla, staring at a point in front of him and forty-five degrees to zenith, lifted a deck-mike to his lips.
“Captain,” he said, “I believe it ish coming back.” The Pring’s voice echoed around the ship. “Try angles 120 by 30 degrees.”
Culla put the mike down. The flexible cord drew it back into a slot, next to his slender right hand and the now-empty beverage tube.
The red haze darkened briefly as a wisp of darker gas passed the ship. Then the Ghost was back, still small with distance but getting bigger as it approached.
It was brighter this time, and more crisp around the edges. Soon, its blueness was almost painful to look at.
It came once again as a stick figure of a man, the eyes and mouth glowing like coals as it hovered, half way up to zenith.
For several long minutes it stayed there, doing nothing. The figure was definitely malevolent. He could feel it! Dr. Martine’s cursing brought him around, and he realized that he had been holding his breath.
“Damn it!” she tore off her helmet. “There’s so much noise! One moment I think I’m onto something… a touch here and there… and then it’s gone!”
“Do not bo-ther,” Bubbacub said. The clipped voice came from the Vodor, now lying on the deck next to the little Pil. Bubbacub had his own helmet on and stared intently with small black eyes at the Ghost.
“Hu-mans do not have the psi they use. Your attempt, in fact, does cause them pain and some of their anger.”
Jacob swallowed quickly. “You’re in touch with them?” he and Martine asked almost at once.
“Yes,” the mechanical voice said. “Do not bo-ther me.” Bubbacub’s eyes closed. “Tell me if it moves. Only if it moves!” After that they could get nothing from him.
What’s he saying to it? Jacob wondered. He looked at the apparition. What can one say to a creature like that?
Suddenly, the Solarian began to wave its “hands” and move its “mouth.” This time its features were more clear. There was none of the image warping they had seen at its first appearance. The creature must have learned to handle the stasis screens; one more example of its ability to adapt. Jacob didn’t want to think about what that implied about the safety of the ship.
A flash of color drew Jacob’s attention to the left He groped on the panel next to him, then pulled up his deck-mike and switched it to personal.
“Helene, look at about one eight by sixty-five. I think we’ve got more company.”
“Yes,” deSilva’s voice quietly filled the area of the couch occupied by his head. “I see it. It seems to be in its standard form. Let’s see what it does.”
The second Ghost approached, hesitantly, from the left. Its rippling, amorphous form was like a patch of oil on the surface of the ocean. Its shape was nothing like a man’s.
Dr. Martine drew her breath in sharply when she saw the intruder and started to pull her helmet on.
“Do you think we should arouse Bubbacub?” he asked quickly.
She thought for a moment, then glanced up at the first Solarian. It still waved its “arms” but it hadn’t changed positions. Nor had Bubbacub. “He said to tell him if it moves,” she said.
She looked up eagerly at the newcomer. “Maybe I should work on this new one and let him go on with the first one undisturbed.”
Jacob wasn’t sure. So far Bubbacub was the only one to come up with anything positive. Marline’s motive for not informing him of the second Solarian was suspect Was she envious of the Pil’s success?
Oh well, Jacob shrugged, E.T.’s hate to be interrupted anyway.
The newcomer approached cautiously, in short fits and starts, toward where its larger and brighter cousin performed its impersonation of an angry man.
Jacob glanced at Culla.
Should I tell him at least? He seems so intent on watching the first ghost. Why hasn’t Helene made an announcement? And where’s Fagin? I hope he’s not missing this.
Somewhere above there was a Sash. Culla stirred.
Jacob looked up. The newcomer was gone. The first Ghost slowly shrank back and faded away.
“What happened,” Jacob asked. “I only turned away for a second…”
“I don’t know, Friend-Jacob! I wash watching, to see if the being’sh visual behavior might betray some cluesh to itsh nature, when suddenly a shecond one came. The first one attacked the shecond with a bursht of light, and made it depart. Then it too shtarted to leave!”
“You should have told me when new one came,” Bubbacub said. He was on his feet, the Vodor around his neck once more. “No mat-ter. I know all I need to know. I now re-port to hu-man deSilva.”
He turned and left. Jacob scrambled to his feet to follow.
Fagin awaited them, near deSilva and the Pilot Board. “Did you see it?” Jacob whispered.
“Yes, I had a good view. I am eager to hear what our dear esteemed friend learned.”
With a theatrical wave of his arm, Bubbacub asked everyone to listen in.
“It said that it is old. I be-lieve it. It is ver-y old race.”
Yes, Jacob thought. That’s the first thing Bubbacub would find out.
“The Sol-ar-ians say that they killed the chimp. LaRoque killed him too. They will start to kill hu-mans also, if they do not leave f or-ever.”
“What?” deSilva cried, “What are you talking about? how could LaRoque and the Ghosts be responsible!”
“Re-main calm, I urge you,” the voice of the Pil, moderated by the Vodor, carried a tone of threat. “The Sol-ar-ian told me that they caused the man to do the thing. They gave him his rage. They gave him a need to kill. They gave him the truth as well.”
Jacob finished summarizing Bubbacub’s remarks to Dr. Martine.
“…Then he finished by saying that there was only one way that the Ghosts could have influenced LaRoque from such a distance. And if they used that method it explained the lack of Library references. Anywhere anyone uses that power is taboo, closed off. Babbacub wants us to stick around just long enough to check and then get the hell out of here.”