Certainly Bubbacub had a motive for lying. The failure of the Library to come up with a reference on solar-type life-forms was an embarrassment to him. The Pil also resented totally independent research by a “wolfling” race. Both problems would be eliminated if Sundiver was cut off in a manner that boosted the stature of ancient science.
But to hypothesize that Bubbacub lied brought up a whole raft of problems. First, how much of the story was a lie? Obviously the trick with the Lethani relic was genuine. But where else could one draw the line?
And if Bubbacub lied he had to be awfully sure that he wouldn’t get caught. The Galactic Institutes, especially the Library, relied on a reputation of absolute honesty. They’d have to fry Bubbacub alive if he was found out.
Box IIB had all of the meat in it. It looked hopeless, but somehow Jacob would have to show that IIB was true or Sundiver was finished.
This was going to be complicated. Any theory that had Bubbacub lying would have to explain Jeffrey’s death, LaRoque’s anomalous status and behavior, the Sun Ghost’s threatening behavior…
Jacob scribbled a note and tossed it onto sheet IIB.
SIDE NOTE: TWO TYPES OP SUN GHOSTS? He remembered the remark that no one had ever actually seen a “normal” Sun Ghost turn into the semi-transparent variety that did the threat pantomimes.
Another thought came to him.
SIDE NOTE: CULLA’S THEORY THAT SOLARIAN’S PSI EXPLAINS NOT ONLY LR BUT OTHER STRANGE BEHAVIOR AS WELL.
Jacob was thinking of Martine and Kepler when he wrote that down. But after thinking about it he carefully wrote a second copy of the same remark and tossed it over on the sheet labeled I HAVE FLIPPED OUT — NO(IV)
The question of his own personal sanity took courage to face. Methodically he listed the evidence that something was wrong, under sheet number III.
1. BLINDING “LIGHT” BACK AT BAJA. The trance he’d entered just before the meeting at the Information Center was the last deep one he’d had. He had been awakened from it by an apparent psychological artifact — a “blueness” that cut through his hypnotic state like a searchlight. But whatever warning his subconscious must have been sending was interrupted when Culla approached.
2. UNCONTROLLED USE OF MR. HYDE. Jacob knew that the bifurcation of his mind into normal and abnormal parts was a temporary solution at best to a long-range problem. A couple of hundred years ago his state would have been diagnosed schizophrenic. But hypnotic transaction, supposedly, would allow his divided halves to reassemble peacefully under the guidance of his dominant personality. The occasions in which his feral other half pushed through or took control would logically be when it was needed… when Jacob had to revert to the cold, hard, supremely confident meddler he once had been.
Jacob hadn’t been worried, earlier, about his other side’s exploits, so much as embarrassed. For instance, it was logical enough to pilfer samples of Dr. Kepler’s pharmacopoeia on the Bradbury, given what he’d seen so far, although other means to the same ends might have been preferable.
But some of the things he’d said aboard the Sun-ship to Dr. Martine — they implied either a great deal of justified suspicion churning around in his unconscious, or very deep problems down below.
3. BEHAVIOR ON SUNSHIP: ATTEMPTED SUICIDE? That one hurt less than he thought it would, when he wrote it. Jacob felt disconcerted by the episode. But strangely, he felt more angry than ashamed, as if he had been made to act like a fool by somebody else.
Of course that could mean anything, including frantic self-justification, but it didn’t feel that way. Jacob felt no internal resistance when he probed that line of reasoning. Only negation.
Number three could have been part of an overall pattern of mental decay. Or it might have been an isolated case of disorientation, as diagnosed by Dr. Martine (who since landing had been chasing him all over the base in order to get him into therapy). Or it could have been induced by the something external, as he had already considered.
Jacob pushed back from the workbench. This would take time. The only way to get anything done would be to take frequent breaks and let ideas filter up from the unconscious, the very unconscious he was investigating.
Well, that wasn’t the only way, but until he had solved the question of his own sanity he wasn’t about to try the other means.
Jacob stepped back and began to move his body slowly in the pattern of relaxing positions known as Tai Chi Chuan. The vertebrae in his back crackled from sitting awkwardly on the stool. He stretched and allowed energy to return to parts of his body that had fallen asleep.
The light jacket he wore bound his shoulders. He stopped the routine and took it off.
There was a coat rack by the chief mechanic’s office, across the maintenance shop and near the drinking fountain, Jacob walked over to the rack, lightly, on the balls of his feet, feeling taut and energized by the Tai CM.
The chief mechanic nodded grumpily when Jacob passed by; the man was obviously unhappy. He sat behind his desk in the foam-paneled office, wearing an expression Jacob had seen a lot of since coming back, especially among the lower echelons. The reminder pricked Jacob’s bubble.
As he bent over the drinking fountain, Jacob heard a clattering sound. He lifted his head as it repeated, coming from the direction of the ship. Half of the ship was now visible from where he stood. As he walked to the corner of the rock wall, the rest came slowly into view.
Slowly, the wedge-shaped door of the Sunship descended. Culla and Bubbacub waited at the bottom, holding a long cylindrical machine between them. Jacob ducked behind the rock wall. Now what are those two doing?
He heard the catwalk extend from the rim of the Sunship’s deck, then the sound of the Pil and Pring pulling the machine up into the ship.
Jacob rested his back against the rock wall and shook his head. This was too much. If he was given just one more mystery he’d probably really flip out.… that is if he hadn’t already.
It sounded like an air compressor was being used inside the ship, or a vacuum cleaner. Clattering and sliding and occasional squeaky Pilan oaths implied that the machine was being dragged all over the interior of the ship.
Jacob gave in to temptation. Bubbacub and Culla were inside the ship and no one else was in sight.
In any event there was probably nothing to be lost by being caught spying but the rest of his reputation.
He bounded up the springy catwalk in a few powerful steps. Near the top of the ramp he flattened and looked inside.
The machine was a vacuum cleaner. Bubbacub pulled it, his back to Jacob, as Culla manipulated the long rigid suction member at the end of its flexible hose. The Pring shook his head slowly, his dentures chattering softly. Bubbacub shot off a series of sharp yaps at his Client and the chattering increased, but Culla worked faster.
This was most queer and disturbing. Culla was apparently vacuuming the space between the deck and the curving ship’s wall! Nothing existed there but the force fields that held the deck in place!
Culla and Bubbacub disappeared around the central dome as they made their way around the rim. At any moment they’d be coming around the other side and facing him this time. Jacob slid back down the ramp a few feet, then descended the rest of the way on foot. He walked back to the apse and sat again on the stool in front of the slips of paper.
If there was only time! If the central dome had been bigger or Bubbacub’s work slower, he might have found a way to get down into that force-field gap and get a sample of whatever they were collecting. Jacob shuddered at the thought, but it would have been worth a try.