“You think so?” Setstyin said. “Do feel free to try me. And, please, is there anything I can do? Come, let’s sit.”
They rested in a pair of dent-seats with a low table between them. A rather more substantial and grand desk lay just to one side.
“Well, it’s a long story I have for you,” Fassin said.
“My favourite kind!” Setstyin exclaimed, gathering his long robes about him.
Fassin took a moment, as if collecting his thoughts. The fellow seemed, Setstyin thought, dulled, a little slow compared to how he’d appeared before.
Fassin told the suhrl something of his adventures since he’d last seen him, aboard the Planetary Protector (Deniable) Isaut. He also told him a little more of what he’d been doing before, as well, apologising for any hesitations or forgetfulness; he’d been through a lot recently and some memories were still sort of shuffling their way forward into the light again after being lost. He didn’t say exactly what it was he had been told to look for and bring back, and he wasn’t able to tell the Dweller very much that happened after the Voehn attacked the Velpin, but he went into as much detail as he felt was possible.
“I don’t understand,” the Dweller said. “You’re saying you were… you were in other stellar systems? You were on the other side of the galaxy? I… I just don’t…”
“I could not have been more sceptical myself,” Fassin said. “I did all the tests I could think of, but I certainly seemed to be in the places the truetwin captain claimed I was in.”
“They can do wonderful things with fully immersive VR, you know,” Setstyin said awkwardly.
“I know. But this was either real or something well beyond even fully immersive virtual reality.”
Setstyin was silent for a moment. “You know — and please, don’t take this ill — you do look rather, ah, beaten up, Fass my boy.” The Dweller was looking at the various dents and scars that the little gascraft had picked up during its last few months of use. The malfunctioning left manipulator arm hung awkwardly at the flank of the arrowhead, slightly out of true. Fassin felt almost ashamed of the gascraft’s appearance, as though he’d turned up in a rich gentleman’s library in dirty rags.
“Yes,” he agreed. “As I say, I won’t pretend my memory is all it used to be. The gascraft’s storage has suffered and my own brain doesn’t seem to be as sharp as I remember it being.” He laughed. “But I know what I saw, what I felt and heard and tasted. I stood on rocks watching the swell-waves of a salt ocean breaking, and I was really there, Setstyin. I was there.”
The Dweller ruffled his sensory mantle and made the tiny up-and-down sigh-motion. “Well, I’m sure you believe what you believe, Fassin, and I would always tend to believe you rather than not. However, many other people wouldn’t be so forgiving. I’m not sure it would be a good idea to make too big a fuss about this.”
“You could be right.”
“And… I mean to say… If this wormhole thing is so secret, why were you taken to — or apparently taken to — the far side of the galaxy, or to anywhere… anywhere outside Ulubis?”
“To prove the myth was real. Some people, some Dwellers, think it’s time for change. They might not know all the details, but they want the truth known. Nobody wants to take responsibility for just telling a non-Dweller, but some bumpkin might be pushed in the right direction. And that’s me, I suppose; bumpkin number one. Deniable bumpkin number one.”
“And this… travelcaptain? Who was he again?”
“A truetwin.”
“Yes, I’ve heard they often are. I didn’t realise they even pretended to travel so far afield. What was his — their name?”
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t betray that confidence.”
“Of course, of course.” Setstyin seemed to think. “So, if there is this, ah, wormhole thing near Nasqueron, who does it belong to? Who controls it? And, it has to be asked, where exactly is it? Aren’t they rather large and obvious, these wormhole ports?”
“They can be made quite small. But yes, you’d think people would have noticed them by now.”
“Well, yes.”
“And I’d guess they’re operated by a club or fraternity or something like the same sort of organisation that takes care of planetary defence.”
“Hmm. That would be… fairly obvious, I suppose.”
“That’s why I came to you, Setstyin,” Fassin said. “I wondered if you’d heard anything about this, about a group of Dwellers who used these portals.”
“Me?” The Dweller reacted as though surprised, almost shocked. “Well, no. I mean, none of this would be the sort of thing I’d normally get involved with. But, this would be quite something, would it not? I mean to say, if it turned out there was this wormhole here all the time. Wouldn’t it?”
“There are stories, myths, about a whole network of them.”
“This Dweller List?” Setstyin paused, then stared. “Is that what you were looking for all the time?”
“Not the List, the Transform that was supposed to hold the key to the List,” Fassin said.
“And did you find it?”
Fassin was silent for a moment. Setstyin watched the little gascraft make a show of looking around the library. “Is this place quite private? I mean, secure?” Fassin asked.
“I should hope so,” Setstyin said. “Why?”
“Can we signal, rather than speak, Setstyin?” Fassin asked. “It’s not as easy for me as speaking, these days, so bear with me, but it is more secure.”
· Of course, the Dweller sent.
· Well, I think I might have found the Transform, the human sent carefully.
· Really?
·… Really.
· You will understand if I am a little sceptical.
· Only natural.
· Where did you find this Transform?
· On the body of that dead Dweller, in the Ythyn Sepulcraft, on the far side of the galaxy.
· Ah-hah. What ever was it doing there?
· It was in a sort of safekeep box.
· And who would put it there?
· I don’t know.
· And what did this Transform consist of?
· An equation.
· As in mathematics?
· That’s right. It looked a bit like what some people had come to expect it to look like — a code and a frequency for a broadcast signal of some sort — but in the end it was just an equation.
· And this was supposed to unlock the List thing?
· That’s what we were all told.
· Hmm. But?
· But, when I solved the equation, guess what?
· Oh. Ah, I have no idea. Do tell.
— It came out at nothing. Zero. The Transform turned out to be, in effect, a contrived mathematical joke.
Fassin signalled a laugh.
Setstyin shared the amusement. — I see. So, if this is what you were sent to look for, you might be said to have succeeded in your mission, though not in the manner you might have wished. Yes?
· Those were pretty much my thoughts, too.
· Well, at least you missed all the unpleasantness of this inva-sion your people have suffered. Thinking of you, I’ve been watching the situation. It all looks quite distressing. And still going on. And affecting us, too. There were explosions around Nasqueron just yesterday. Did you see any of them?
· I did. I hear there’s a rumour that the invaders might be about to pull out.
· Possibly our planetary defence people again. There have been the usual denials, of course. Umm, I’m afraid even if I did know more, I couldn’t talk about it. You understand.
· Of course. So, Fassin sent. — You don’t know anything about these wormholes? You’ve never heard of them? I just thought, you being so well connected…