Charles Sheffield - Proteus in the Underworld

The interaction had been a disaster. When two individuals as different as Aybee and Denzel Morrone listened to the evidence and arrived at the same conclusion, what chance was there that anyone would think as she did? It would need someone with superhuman intelligence and intuition to define a different answer that Jtook into account all the facts. No matter what Sondra might have thought in her early student days, she did not claim superhuman intelligence. Anyway, too many people had recently told her otherwise.

It was time to run back to the inner system with her tail between her legs, and hope for Denzel Morrone’s good will. It was not something for which he was famous/ Sondra sat down at the terminal and asked for a preliminary transit ship schedule to Earth.

And then she changed her mind; she would ask for something quite different.

The message was short, but only because she had slaved on it for hours to reduce her original rambling request.

In its final form she was pretty happy with it. If it failed, nothing was lost. And if it were successful …

TO: ROBERT CAPMAN

FROM: SONDRA DEARBORN

IN A RECENT CONVERSATION WITH BEHROOZ WOLF, YOU STATED “ON SOME FUTURE OCCASION I WOULD LIKE TO MEET HER.” I AM THE “HER” IN QUESTION, AND I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO TALK WITH YOU. I COULD DO SO OVER A LINK, ALTHOUGH MY PREFERENCE WOULD BE TO MEET WITH YOU IN PERSON, AND AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Aybee wandered in while the message was still on the screen. He whistled and shook his head. “Dream on, girl. Did Capman really say that he wanted to meet you?”

“He did. But I don’t know why. Did you ever meet him?”

Aybee shook his head. “Not yet. But I’ve had messages from him, ’cause he reads a lot of my stuff. Field theory, mostly. You don’t ask for a meeting with Capman, by the way. He grants you an audience—if he feels like it”

“Bey Wolf has no trouble getting through to him. Capman even tried to recruit Bey, to change to a Logian form and go to work on Saturn.”

“That’s different. Him and Bey have what you might call a special relationship. Bey was the only one who realized what Capman was, way back when everybody else in the system was convinced that the man was a multiple murderer of small children.”

“I know all about that.” It was another legend of the Office of Form Control. “Nothing wicked was going on.”

“Sure, you know it now, we all do. Pretty easy with hindsight But it took real insight to sniff out what Capman was doing back then, and Capman himself was the first to realize that. Like I say, the Wolfman’s a special case. The chances of you or me or anyone else asking for a meeting with Capman and getting one right off the bat is like a snowball’s chance—” Aybee paused. A message was creeping onto the display, its data points filling in from random noise like a pointillist painting.

“—a snowball’s chance on the Ganymede ice cap,” Aybee finished “What do you say to that, then? Guess you’re on your way to downtown Saturn. Leave your rings in the hotel safe.”

To meet in person. Except that of course you couldn’t, not really, when one of you needed an oxygen atmosphere and the other lived in mostly methane. No matter what type of air was provided one of you would choke and die. The best you could manage was a talk with a glass wall between you.

So why had she asked for a face-to-face meeting? Maybe it showed a suspicion that any long-distance link could be tapped. Bey Wolf’s paranoia was infectious. There was no such thing as safe conversation unless it was a direct one between two isolated individuals—and perhaps not even then.

Sondra sat waiting, more nervous than she had ever been. The ship she had ridden to Saturn had parked itself in equatorial orbit not far below the innermost ring. Less than two minutes after her arrival she had seen another little ship rising up to meet her from the brown and crimson thunderclouds of the Saturn upper atmosphere. The new ship lacked any sign of the usual tongue of flame or laser boost needed for flight out of a deep gravity well. It simply rose and rose, until it was clearly homing in on the vessel waiting in orbit.

Sondra felt the slight vibration of a smooth docking. She waited, staring expectantly at the transparent wall. Not many people in their whole lifetime got to see a Logian form. Still fewer were privileged to meet with Robert Capman.

The door of the room at the other side of the partition slid open. A bulky grey form appeared, moving easily on massive triple-jointed legs to stand close to the glass. It raised a hand in greeting.

Sondra had to tell herself that, regardless of appearances, a human being was waving to her. Or rather, he had started his life, like all Logian forms, as a human. Sondra herself, or any man or woman given an injection of Logian DNA and access to a form-change tank, could become as Robert Capman. And if she really wanted to (though few Logian forms ever did) she could then change back to human form.

Capman was studying her, his pearly, luminous eyes drinking in every aspect of face and body. If they ever met again he would recognize her instantly. It was the least of the Logian talents.

“Sondra Dearborn.” Capman’s voice was soft, its sibilants slightly emphasized. “Sondra Wolf Dearborn. Tell me why you are here.”

“I have a problem. I am unable to solve it. I seek your help.”

“Ah.” Capman sounded totally non-committal. “I thought you would know our strict rule: No Logian form will interfere in human affairs.”

“I’ve heard it often enough, but I don’t believe it.” Sondra had decided even before she left the Rini Base that she had nothing to lose. She might as well stick her neck out and go for broke. “In fact, I can prove to you that your statement is not true.”

“I would like to hear that argument.”

“Do you admit that you have offered the Logian form to Behrooz Wolf?”

“That is true.”

“And he refused.”

“That is unfortunately the case. However, I have not abandoned hope.”

“And when it comes to form-change, Wolf is one of the best humans in the solar system. Would you agree with that?”

“No.” The head bobbed forward in the Logian laugh, but Capman went on before Sondra could express her surprise. “I would not quite agree. Behrooz Wolf is not ‘one of the best humans’ in the solar system. When it comes to form change he is the best. Others abide the question, he is free.”

Capman sounded uncomfortably like Bey himself—she was sure that last bit was some sort of quotation—but Sondra could not allow herself to become distracted. “So he’s the best. Now suppose that one day you talked him into changing his mind, and coming to Saturn to be a Logian form and live with you. And suppose that later on a problem arose that Bey could have solved, and no one else. But now he’s a Logian, so he follows the Logian rule, and says he can’t become involved. Isn’t that interfering in human affairs, by taking Bey out of circulation?”

“Indeed it is.” Capman was nodding approvingly. “Please do not think for a moment that such an argument is new to us. Every Logian form removes a person from the human pool. In addition, our very existence particularly the knowledge of our existence—has an inevitable effect on a great deal of human thought and behavior. What would you have us do? Cease to exist?”

“No. I want you to do just the opposite.” Sondra leaned forward, wishing she could reach out and grab Capman by the arm. “Become more involved in what we do! Give advice.”

“That avenue is not open. Not at the moment.”

“Then at the very least, listen to what I have to say. If after that you choose to offer no comment, that is your option.”