Pilch was for some moments again, the wall-screen as if about something with it. "Well, we'll that for now," she said finally. "Let me tell you what's been these months, starting with that amnesia-covered on Harvest Moon. The Maccadon Colonial School has courses, so there won't be much to do. The those I mentioned and your of is obvious, isn't it?"
Trigger nodded.
"Good. When you got the Service check-up at Commissioner Tate's demand, there was very little to go on. The didn't immediately—not very unusual. The might be of the circumstances. Otherwise the check you p. 225were in a good than normal condition. Outside of total processes—and I you know that's a long haul—there wasn't much to be done for you, and no particular to do it. So an amnesia-resolving was and you were left alone for a while.
"Actually something already was going on at the time, but it wasn't until your next check. What it's to has been a minor but and process. Your memories of those of I was talking about, along with groupings, have been up. Emotion has been away, have faded. Associative lines have shifted.
"Now that's nothing in itself. Any good have done the same for you, and much more rapidly. Say in a hours' hard work, spread over to permit progressive without disturbances. The very thing is that this little to have been going on all by itself. And that just doesn't happen. You now?"
Trigger nodded. "A little. Mainly I'm why somebody wants me to not-dislike plasmoids."
"So am I wondering," said Pilch. "Somebody does, obviously. And a very somebody it is. We'll out by and by. Incidentally, this particular part of the has been concluded. Apparently, somebody doesn't to make p. 226you wild for plasmoids. It's that you don't them."
Trigger smiled. "I can't see anyone making me wild for the things, they tried!"
Pilch nodded. "Could be done," she said. "Rather easily. You'd be bats, of course. But that's very different from a like the one we've been discussing.... Now here's something else. You were about this for a while. That wasn't somebody's fault. That was us. I'll explain.
"Your have with the little in a number of ways. That wouldn't have them a thing, so they didn't. But on your third check they something else. Again it wasn't in the least obtrusive; in someone else they mightn't have it a second look. But it didn't fit at all with your major patterns. You wanted to where you were."
"Stay where I was?"
"In the Manon System."
"Oh!" Trigger a little. "Well—"
"I know. Let's go on a moment. We had this inclination. So we told Commissioner Tate to you to the Hub and keep you there, to see what would happen. And on Maccadon, in just a weeks, you'd that to be in the Manon System up to a first-rate compulsion."
Trigger her lips. "I—"
"Sure," said Pilch. "You had to have a good reason. You gave one."
"Well!"
"Oh, you were of that man, all right. Who wouldn't be? Wonderful-looking lug. I'd go for him myself—till I got him on that couch, that is. But that was the time you hadn't been able to a of months away from him. It was also the time you'd started about competition. You now had your justification. And we," Pilch said darkly, "had a fine, solid with no very to it to work on. Just one thing with that, Trigger. You don't have the any more."
"Oh?"
"You don't even," said Pilch, "have the original inclination. Now one might have some there! But we'll let them for the moment."
She did something on the desk. The wall-screen up. A soft, amber-glowing plane of blankness, with a of it.
"Last night, you up," Pilch said, "you had a dream. Actually you had a series of eight the night which here. But the ones were structures. In one way and another, their is in this final symbol grouping. Let's see what we can make of them."
A shape appeared on the screen.
Trigger started, then laughed.
"What do you think of it?" Pilch asked.
"A little green man!" she said. "Well, it p. 228be a of to the little yellow thing on the ship, couldn't it? The good little and the very little dwarf."
"Could be," said Pilch. "How do you about the notion?"
"Good and plasmoids?" Trigger her head. "No. It doesn't right."
"What else right?" Pilch asked.
"The farmer. The little old man who owned the farm where the was."
"Liked him, didn't you?"
"Very much! He a of things." She laughed again. "You know, I'd to have him out—but that little green man also me a of Commissioner Tate."
"I don't think he'd mind it," Pilch said. She paused a moment. "All right—what's this?"
A second shape appeared.
"A of of a wild, horse," Trigger said. She added thoughtfully, "there was a like that on that farm, too. I you know that?"
"Yes. Any about it?"
"No-o-o. Well, one. The little farmer was the only one who that horse. It was horse, actually—one of the Life Bank that didn't work out so well. Enormously strong. It work forty-eight hours at a without noticing it. But it was just a plain animal."
"'Crazy-mean,'" Pilch, "was the about it."
Trigger nodded. "I I used to think it was for that to want to go around kicking and to pieces. Which was about all it wanted to do. I it was crazy, at that."
"You weren't in any from it yourself, were you?"
Trigger laughed. "I couldn't have got near it! You should have the of place the old farmer it when it wasn't working."
"I did," said Pilch. "Long, wide, straight-walled in the ground. Cover for shade, of food, water. He was a good farmer. Very high locked around it to keep little girls and anyone else from too close to his useful monster."
"Right," said Trigger. She her head. "When you people look into somebody's mind, you look!"
"We work at it," Pilch said. "Let's see what you can do with this one."
Trigger was for almost a minute she said in a voice, "I just what it shows. It doesn't to anything?"
"What it show?"
"Laughing on a farm. A of farm. It looks like it might be the little green man's farm. No, wait. It's not his! But it to other little green people."
"How do you about that?"
"Well—I those giants!" Trigger said. "They're cruel. And they laugh about being cruel."
"Are you of them?"
Trigger at the screen for a seconds. "No," she said in a low, voice. "Not yet."
Pilch was a moment. She said then, "One more."
Trigger looked and frowned. Presently she said, "I have a that something. But all I is that it's the of two clocks. On one of them the hands are going around very fast. And on the other they go around slowly."
"Yes," Pilch said. She waited a little. "No other about those clocks? Just that they should something?"
Trigger her head. "That's all."
Pilch's hand moved on the again. The wall-screen blank, and the light in the little room slowly. Pilch's was reflective.
"That will have to do for now," she said. "Trigger, this ship is on an urgent job else. We'll have to go and that job. But I'll be able to return to Manon in about ten days, and then we'll have another session. And I think that will this little up."
"All of it?"
"All of it, I'd say. The whole pattern to be moving into view. More will up in the ten-day interval; and one more then should it out in full."
Trigger nodded. "That's good news. I've been a little up with being a of walking enigma."
"Don't you at all," Pilch said, almost like Commissioner Tate. "Incidentally, you're a lady at present, but if you do have an hour to from time to time, you might just and to thinking. The way are going, that should a of to view."
Trigger looked doubtful. "Listen to myself thinking?"
"You'll the of it quickly," Pilch said. She smiled. "Just off in that direction you the time, and don't work too hard at it. Are there any questions now we start to Manon?"
Trigger her a moment. "There's one thing I'd like to be sure about," she said. "But I you people have your problems with Security too."
"Who doesn't?" said Pilch. "You're secure for me. Fire away."
"All right," Trigger said. "Commissioner Tate told me people like you don't work much with individuals."
"Not as much as we'd like to. That's true."
"So you wouldn't have been with me if has been going on weren't somehow with the plasmoids."
"Oh, yes, I would," said Pilch. "Or old Cranadon. Someone like that. We do give service as when somebody has the good to p. 232ask for it. But obviously, we couldn't have that other job just now and come to Manon to clear up some difficulty."
"So I am with the mess?"
"You're right in the middle of it, Trigger. That's definite. In just what way is something we should be able to next session."
Pilch off the light and up. "I always to off and something like this," she admitted, "but I'll have to anyway. The are near the of the Federation's problem list at present. They're just up fast."
When Trigger her office next morning, she learned that the Psychology Service ship had moved out of the Manon area an hour after she'd been returned to the Headquarters the night before.
None of the members of the team were around. The Commissioner, who had a opinion of sleep, had been up for the past three hours; he'd left word Trigger him, if necessary, in the larger of his two ships, next to the in Precol Port. Presumably he had the ship sealed up and was in the cabinet, with the I-Fleets in the Vishni area. He was likely to be at that for hours more. Professor Mantelish hadn't yet got from his latest trip, and Major Heslet Quillan just wasn't there.
It looked, Trigger decided, not at all reluctantly, like a good day to into her Precol job a bit. She p. 233told the staff to not her way, and leaned.
A set of reports from Precol's Giant Planet Survey Squad had been around Headquarters yesterday's conferences. She the G P Squad and a check search. A team of Hub ecologists, who had for themselves that weren't on Manon, called in from a station to report that their was out. Trigger the "Manon Fever" on her desk, and toupees.
The were displeased. A medical skip-boat out of the to go to their rescue; and Trigger gave it its while for the medical who'd allowed the visitors to avoid their shots. She had a with the man, and left him as the G P Squad came on to the reports had been yet. Trigger to a of being in the good old groove.
Then a message from the Medical Department out on her desk. It was to Commissioner Tate and that Brule Inger was now able to speak again.
Trigger frowned, sighed, her lip and a moment. She for Doctor Leehaven. "Got your message," she said. "How's he doing?"
"All right," the old said.
"Has he said anything?"
"No. He's scared. If he up the courage, he'd ask for a lawyer."
"Yes, I imagine. Tell him this then—from the Commissioner; not from me—there'll be no charges, but Precol his resignation, end of the month."
"That on the level?" Doctor Leehaven incredulously.
"Of course."
The doctor snorted. "You people are soft-headed! But I'll tell him."
The on. Trigger was studying a traffic note that a Devagas ship had in and at the when the G C Center's management called in to report, with some nervousness, that the Center's much meteor-repellent had just dozen of Moon Belt material into the area. Most of it, unfortunately, had around and upon a Devagas ship.
"Not damaged, is it?" she asked.
The Center said no, but the Missionary Captain on speaking to the person in here. To should they him?
"Refer him to me," Trigger said expectantly. She on the screen.
The Missionary Captain was a tall, gray-haired, gray-eyed, square-jawed man in uniform. After to his that Trigger was in charge, he her in p. 235that the Devagas Union would her personally for the unless an was forthcoming.
Trigger promptly. He with a nod.
"The ship will now new spacepaint," he pointed out, unmollified.
Trigger nodded. "We'll send a work out immediately."
"We," the Missionary Captain said, "shall the work. Only the best of paint will be acceptable!"
"The very best only," Trigger agreed.
He gave her another nod, and off.
"Ass," she said. She cut in the don't-disturb and Holati's ship.
It took a while to through; he was in the crate. Like Belchik Pluly, the Commissioner, while still a very man, would have been a very much one if it weren't for his hobby. In his case, the hobby was ships, of which he now owned two. What them was that they had been tailor-made to the Commissioner's specifications, and his had provided him with two exact of the two of Scout ships in which Squadron Commander Tate had space for in the good old days. Nobody as yet had got up the nerve to point out to him that private definitely were not in the Manon System.
He came on finally. Trigger told him about the Devagas. "Did you know those were in the area?" she asked.
The Commissioner knew. They'd stopped in at the check station three days before. The ship was clean. "Their all go armed, of course; but that's their by treaty. They've been around and going and in skiffs. The ship's been in till this morning."
"Think they're here in with Balmordan is up to?" Trigger inquired.
"We'll take that for granted. Balmordan, by the way, a big on the Pluly yesterday. Unless his goofed, he's still up there, on as a guest."
"Are you having these other Devagas watched?"
"Not individually. Too many of them, and they're all over the place. Mantelish got back. He in an hour ago."
"You he's in his now?" she asked.
"Right. He had a more into the lab, and he's locked himself in with them and spy-blocked the place. May have got something important, and may just be going through one of his again. We'll out by and by. Oh, and here's a social note. The First Lady of Tranest is shopping in the Grand Commerce Center this morning."
"Well, that should business," said Trigger. p. 237"Are you going to be in the by lunchtime?"
"I think so. Might have some news, too, incidentally."
"Fine," she said. "See you then."
Twenty minutes later the gave her the "to be shielded" signal. Up the again.
Major Quillan's looked out at her from the screen. He was, Trigger saw, in Mantelish's lab. Mantelish at a work bench him.
"Hi!" he said.
"Hi, yourself. When did you in?"
"Just now. Could you up the whoosis-and-whichis and it up here?"
"Right now?"
"If you can," Quillan said. "The professor's got something new, he thinks."
"I'm on my way," said Trigger. "Take about five minutes."
She to her quarters, Repulsive's into the room and the over her shoulder.
Then she still a moment, slightly. Something—something like a of memory, something she should be remembering—was in the of her mind. Then it was gone.
Trigger her head. It would keep. She opened the door and out into the hall.
She down.
As she fell, she to give the the send-off p. 238squeeze, but she couldn't move her fingers. She couldn't move anything.
There were people around her. They were doing swiftly. She was over on her and, for a moments then, she saw her own at her from just a away.
