Z lensman, p.22
Z-Lensman, page 22
As he stepped past the reception lines and the carpeted rest areas with their soft chairs, overstuffed leather .couches, and thick rugs, he noted they were gone, swallowed up by the dancing crowd.
The voluptuous blonde was back in position where he had first seen her, now with a handsome Lensman on her arm. She saw him and dragged the Lensman over to where he was. Cloudd was about to avoid her when the thought came to him that her actions were precisely like one who exploited every opportunity to gather information. He let her approach. One look in her exceedingly pretty but vacuous face told him she was not the person.
He excused himself and began to circle the floor. The brunette whom he had impulsively liked was talking with some high-ranking officer whose back he didn't recognize. When she saw him her eyes went cold and she pulled the tall man onto the crowded floor, where they disappeared. Cloudd felt he was becoming paranoic. Everyone seemed suspicious to him now. He caught sight of the girl with the flaxen hair. It was the color of a palomino's mane, absolutely stunning, and just a bit too showy. She turned, showing the front profile of an equally stunning figure in a gown that was slightly fluorescent in a color, or rather colors, changing from a pale peach into a pale blue-green and back again. The thread of the fabric was the two-shade type, which constantly shimmered as the.cloth moved with her body. The Lensman's left arm was around her slender waist, the cuff of his sleeve not high enough to show his Lens. The girl's diaphanous skirt billowed around his legs.
Her dress was tightly fitted to her upper body, with long full sleeves starkly accentuating the skimpy cut of her bodice.
They were an extraordinarily handsome couple. The white streak in his dark blond hair made him as dashing as the girl with the palomino hair. For whatever reason it might be, Cloudd had a strong, almost overpowering, feeling of dislike for them. He became conscious of the fact that he wasn't the only one who was intrigued and gaping. There were others impressed who turned around to look for a second time at the dancing pair, the jaunty officer and the dazzling girl.
Now what was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to go up to them and take the girl away from her handsome partner and pick the truth out of her? Was he supposed to get into some kind of brawl and ask the man to step outside and then beat the truth out of him?
Was he supposed to go to Tregonsee and report his miserable feelings and watch Tregonsee's secret police arrest the couple?
Cloudd decided that he would break in on them and see what would happen.
Feeling like a fool, he approached them when the music had stopped, bowed formally, and said, " I am a newly chosen Wearer of the Lens and I have by tradition the right to ask the most beautiful woman in the room to dance with me. Will you grant me that honor?" He ignored the rather dark scowl on the face of the man but was careful to note that the man's uniform bore the tiny badge of the M.I.S. He was one of Tregonsee's own men!
Cloudd now was certain that he was on to something.
The girl turned her face up to him. "My name is Lizbeth Carter," she said. "I am a nurse at the hospital." She couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen years old. Her eyes were blue or gray and their gaze so direct that he couldn't bring himself to look into them for more than a fraction of a second at a time. He put his arm around her soft waist and danced away with her. She said nothing. And he said nothing. And the dance ended. He had had a marvelous time and had accomplished nothing. When the blond man with the white streak in his hair pulled him gently back by the shoulder, Cloudd almost struck him in anger. He hated that man. The man was daring to come between him and the stunning, the lovely, the remarkable Red Lensman he had so briefly held in his arms. Red Lensman?
What made him think that? And then he knew the man. He had seen him that morning at the hospital when the man had stepped between him and Clarrissa, the Red Lensman. He had seen him again over Kallatra's shoulder at the conference that Kinnison had briefed.
Cloudd was convinced the man was the spy. He was relieved to know that it wasn't the extraordinarily beautiful girl whose eyes seemed to have the power to paralyze him. What should he do now?
Cloudd, for the want of something else to do, extended his hand to the man and introduced himself. "I am Lensman Benson Cloudd," he said.
'And I am Lensman Grahame Duncan," the other one said. There was an awkward moment of silence. Cloudd had seen no sudden flash of terror in the man's eye that he was being unmasked. Nor had he seen what he had really been looking for. As the sleeve flew up under Cloudd's vigorous pumping, he saw there was no Lens on the man's wrist. Nor was it on the left wrist, which his 'dancing posture had exposed when the left hand had been held high. A Lens, fastened to his wrist where all could see, would have probably exonerated him. No Lens simply meant that this Lensman may have done what many Lensmen before him had done.
They taped them to their bodies on occasion or even left them in their specially locked cases in their specially locked safes at home.
With nothing else to do, Cloudd stepped back and watched the couple drift away as the music began again. Should he tell Tregonsee? What if the man was actually an operator investigating a suspect who was the girl herself?
"Now, about tomorrow morning," said a voice. It was Nadreck. "I want you in full dress uniform, just as you are now, which, I am told, is very impressive in a Tellurian culture such as Arrow-22 was raised-ercreated in." Just that, nothing more, and Nadreck was gone.
The regular lights of the ballroom dimmed and were extinguished, leaving only the sparkling ball of many bits of mirrors spinning slowly over the dancers' heads, reflecting the beams of four spotlights from the corners of the room. Dozens of black lights threw their ultraviolet rays down upon the throngs of people. The dancers became faerie images in strange shapes and exotic colors under the lights. Every feminine dress seemed touched with luminescence, and some were completely shining. Every man in uniform had a ghostly jacket criss-crossed with black lines of belts, sashes, and medals, swinging above the floor on black, invisible legs.
For a moment Grahame Duncan, the man with the distinctive hair, was gone. Then Cloudd saw him, swinging the girl's thick palomino tail wildly in flowing arcs. His partner's dress was a pale mist one moment and a vivid blue-green flame the next moment as the unusual fabric radiated differently under the twisting of her supple body. The ballroom was one solid mass of moving beauty.
"Watch closely, Cloudd." This was Tregonsee. "Worsel and Kallatra have thrown a psychic blanket over the dance floor. Some of the lights we have in place are emitting the highest and lowest frequencies we have managed to coax our engineers into constructing. If we are right in our deductions, we will see the Eich or Eichwoor materialize above Kallatra and the person she is with will be our traitor."
"Lalla? Her mind is with us?" "Her body is with us."
"Her body?!"
"Yes, in her new body. She is Lizbeth Carter."
The flush of emotion Cloudd felt was like nothing he had ever experienced before having the Lens. "Cloudd!" Worsel and Tregonsee called his name simultaneously in concern.
"Are you all right? What's the matter?"
"I'm QX," Cloudd said. "I'm QX." He was filled with hatred for Grahame Duncan to be holding Lalla Kallatra in his arms. Lalla Kallatra was Lizbeth Carter! Lalla Kallatra was beautiful!
"There it is!" came Worsel's thought.
Over the dance floor there appeared a flickering image. Only those Lensmen looking for it would ever have seen it.
Cloudd expected to see the weird and vicious face of an Eich. He steeled himself to view a monster with an evil grin whose look could freeze the blood of a mortal man Instead he saw the image of Grahame Duncan! "Yes, Grahame! Yes!" It was Lalla's mind. "We have him stretched along the line. Have Deuce tighten the frequency loop. Use all the Lensmen! Use them all!" Cloudd threw hurried glances around him. The gaiety continued unabated. There was no indication of any special activity, no flurry of grim-faced personnel, no strained looks on any faces. Only in his mind did Cloudd know the intensity of the organized response because he had been permitted to participate.
"We have all sides blocked, Worsel!" That was Nadreck. "There's no way for Eichwoor to go except up or down. Every Z-mind is locked together for as long as you need."
Lalla and the body of Grahame Duncan still danced, but their graceful pivoting had noticeably slowed, be coming fixed on one spot. The eyes of the man stared straight ahead, the girl s were tightly shut.
High above, the shadows also danced like -puffs of thin purple smoke. The Duncan image was now a phantom head around which clustered the flickering images of thousands of other Tellurian heads-and, more dimly, the grotesque shapes of other alien heads of other galactic entities.
"Strike! All sides are blocked, Worsel!" Nadreck repeated. "Deeper than I thought possible. Right into the other plane."
"Nadreck! You are united in the spirit of your reck," Kallatra said.
"Old-Bovreck joins all together."
"Stay silent, Kallatra! Keep your thought upon that line!" This was Worsel.
All ready, Chon? Give it to them. Now! Now!"
Cloudd felt a puissance pass through the ballroom and through him. And his own prayers joined with it to move on swiftly-through Tellus and through the galaxy itself like an etheric wind and then come back from infinity to strike a shadow in the darkness of the space above the banners and the flags over the dancers' heads.
"I'm pulling it from my body," said a voice. How he knew, Cloudd couldn't say, but know it he did that this was Grahame Duncan's real essence from somewhere beyond. "I'm pulling it from my body. It is going. Help me, Deuce! Help me,. Deuce! It is going. It is gone. And I am gone."
Cloudd sensed the oppressiveness rapidly dissipating from the thickened air of the vaulted ceiling.
A pressure of undefinable emotion had become excruciating pain within Cloudd's head.
His skull seemed overinflated like a rubber balloon, and then, suddenly bursting, the pressing turmoil was no longer there.
"Eichwoor is beaten," said Worsel. "The leader is vanquished and his armies have retreated."
Cloudd was swept with a sense of peace.
"Duncan and Deuce took Eichwoor. They're all gone. The hole to hell and heaven is plugged."
"Go get the body," Tregonsee' said, "before we turn the lights back on."
_The dancers still pirouetted around the floor, noticing nothing. Through the shadows Cloudd saw some figures move around Grahame Duncan and, enveloping him, almost dance him off into the deeper shadows.
"Duncan was a zombie," Tregonsee said. "Some place within the Academy grounds he died a few weeks ago. That streak of white hair marked his bloodless, fatal wound.
Eichwoor possessed his body, while the Eichwooren held his spirit. From now on all Lensmen must wear their Lenses under all circumstances or be challenged. I recommend this as an order for the Council and for the Patrol."
"Are you all right, Lalla?" said Worsel.
Cloudd held his mind in check although he was as anxious as anyone.
"I'm sorry for Grahame Duncan," came Lalla's voice. And I grieve for my father. I think they've sacrificed their souls for eternity."
"Never!" said Chon. "They've been absorbed into the Cosmos. They'll be a part of all of us!"
"Get out there on the dance floor, Cloudd! And take care of that little lady!"
This was Kinnison's booming order.
Cloudd didn't need a second command to send him springing into the still twirling crowds.
In a moment he had Lalla Kallatra in his arms. This was not the iron maiden he had known.
This was the most glorious girl he had ever seen. This was the real Lalla Kallatra, flesh of her flesh, a woman in a girl's body.
He looked down into her electrifying bluish gray eyes, the same ones he had always been acquainted with, the only things that physically had not changed.
She looked up at him and smiled. She brushed her flaxen hair back away from her forehead. And then she held a thick strand of her long, silken hair in her fingers, half pulling it toward her face, as though to show him.
"This was Worsel's idea," she said. She gave a delightful laugh. "Worsel thinks a palomino horse's tail is beautiful." She winked conquettishly at him. "Blame him for the color not being brown.
"The rest of me, however, is really mine," she said.
Epilogue
P A. Haynes, Lensman President Galactic Council Tellus Honorable Sir: With respect, I hereby submit this report for further clarification and as a simple defense against the scurrilous and outrageously untrue charges leveled against the undersigned, Nadreck of Palain, Lensman, in order that this may be made a part of the official records of the Galactic Patrol.
The two problems that have concerned the Galactic Patrol since the liberation of Lundmark's Nebula or Second Galaxy have been successfully solved.
The menace identified as "The Invasion of the Eich, Eichwoor, and the Eichwooren" is ended. As you will note by cross reference to the separate reports of Lalla Kallatra, Lensman, and Worsel of Velantia, Lensman, the so-called ghost of an Eich, named Eichwoor, together with its assembled cohorts of "the other plane of existence," the so-called Eichwooren, was driven out of our jurisdiction. Evidence indicates that Eichwoor and its Eichwooren were-forced to return to their "other plane of existence."
Many of our most outstanding Lensmen, including Tellurians, Chickladorians, and Klovians, as well as a Velantian, a Rigellian, a Palainian, together with you yourself, Lensman Haynes, were present at the time of the expulsion and witnessed this event. A listing of those present, together with their statements, is attached to this report.
Everyone is completely agreed that the event of "expulsion" did indeed take place.
Everyone who is specially competent to pass judgment is agreed that this expulsion will be permanent.
Not attached to this report is the hearsay evidence of Deuce O'Sx, Lensman deceased, also known as 24of6. The official Galactic Patrol records, as verified by the Secret Intelligence Services, indicate that this Tsit-Tarian Lensman physically died but mentally took an assignment in the "other plane of existence." His self-proclaimed GP role was to "stand guard" and to be "a watcher" and to be "a blocker" against the intrusion of Eichwoor, that is, "ghost of the Eich," into our material plane of existence.
The Galactic Patrol officially recognized this assignment, and considered the "essence of Lensman Deuce O'Sx" as on "full GP duty. This Lensman, while still officially on duty and considered by the Patrol to be "alive in essence," confirmed the final expulsion. The last communication from Lensman Deuce O'Sx expresses the conviction that the rift in the barrier between the two planes of "ours" and "theirs," or "the living" and "the dead," was being permanently sealed. As a suitable time has passed and thorough investigation seems to confirm this "permanent seal" as a fact, It is recommended that the provisional status of Lensman Deuce O'Sx be confirmed from "disembodied Lensman, on duty"
to "deceased Lensman" and be given full honors as Hero of the Patrol. Lensman Kallatra, his daughter, concurs. , Likewise, it should be noted in the Galactic Patrol records that Lensman Deuce O'Sx claimed that "all Lensmen on this side," meaning on or in the "other plane of existence," took part in the return of the Eich and the Eichwooren and the sealing of the rift. As the Eichwooren is a term to mean many or most or all of "the ghosts of the Eich"
it is obvious that many spirits of Lensmen and many spirits of the Eich battled in that "plane" for dominance and that the Lensmen of the Patrol were victorious.
As of the date of the Sealing of the Rift the Patrol records should show this extraordinary action. This Lensman recommends that all Lensmen be made aware of their possibly continuing duty after death, as is outlined in the special report submitted by Chaplain General Chon.
Also attached to this report is a detailed account of the formation and use of "all competent Z-entities" in the final confrontation with the Eichwooren. This report explains how the Z-entities, by virtue of their peculiar metabolic extensions into multidimensions were able to keep the _ Eichwooren contained within a single frequency by which our forces were able to corner the Eichwooren and subdue them. Although the spiritual help by "Z-entities in the other plane" is reported, as exemplified by the Palainian "reek" spirit of a certain Bovreck, no claim is made of this as fact, there being no proof available.
Within the report of Chaplain General Chon is the explanation of the role of the Chaplain Corps of the Galactic Patrol and how it was mobilized to concentrate "spiritual forces" in parallel with our Lensed "psychic forces" to challenge and overcome and "seal off" the "supernatural powers" of the Eichwooren.
Chaplain General Chon states that the Chaplain Corps was instrumental in the containment of the Eichwooren and will be alert for and capable of the Eichwooren's permanent containment. As such, the chaplains of the Patrol, and especially Chaplain General Chon, should be specially commended. As Chaplain General Chon in his report has suggested the same for the "Z-Body" and especially for its humble organizer, Nadreck of Palain, who is also the author of this report, this person humbly agrees with his recommendation and confirms the rightness of this evaluation.
Although Eichwoor and its Eichwooren are no longer an active menace, their living counterparts, the Eich, are. This Lensman and all Lensmen recognize this fact and in no way will tend to underestimate this enemy. The first appearance of Eichwoor after the occupation of Klovia was the improvised invasion of our realm -by a single disembodied spirit. The second and final appearance was planned and orchestrated by the Eich and Eichwoor, and the operational running of the "invasion" was directed by the Eich. The Eich, therefore, will always be trying to reestablish contact with the Eichwooren.
The Patrol, therefore, will always be on guard against this. The Eich did organize and plan the battle that is now. called The Battle of the Rim, or The Victory of the Rim, by the use of the Spawn of Boskone and the escaped forces of the original Boskonian conspiracy.
