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Updated: June 21, 2025
"Amnesias! What are you talking about?" The Commissioner said. "I'm talking about you. This is bound to be a jolt, Trigger girl. Might have been easier after a drink. But I'll just give it to you straight. About a week after Mantelish and his U-League crew first arrived here, you did pass out on one occasion while we were on the Harvest Moon with them. And afterwards you didn't remember doing it."
"He can't do that, and he knows it!" He reached for the desk transmitter. "Don't bother, Commissioner. I told Mantelish I'd been put in charge of Repulsive, and that he'd lose an arm if he tried to walk out of the lab with him." Holati cleared his throat. "I see! How did Mantelish react?" "Oh, he huffed a bit. Like he does.
"That plasmoid 112 it has, of course, an almost inestimable potential value to civilization." "Of course," the Commissioner agreed. "But it also," said Mantelish, "represents a quite intolerable threat to civilization." "Mantelish!" cried the Commissioner. "It does. You don't comprehend these matters as I do. Holati, that plasmoid must be destroyed! Secretly, if possible. And by us!"
Mantelish stood at a work bench behind him. "Hi!" he said. "Hi, yourself. When did you get in?" "Just now. Could you pick up the whoosis-and-whichis and bring 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."
"Don't get startled. Mantelish!" Mantelish already was coming up slowly behind Trigger's chair. "Don't move!" he cautioned her. "Why not?" said Trigger. "Hush, my dear." Mantelish laid a large, heavy hand on each of her shoulders and bore down slightly. "It's sensitive! This is very interesting. Very." Perhaps it was. She kept watching the plasmoid.
But let's forget them and go on. "When we get here, I manage to see Mantelish just once to try to find out what his requirements will be. He's pretty vague about them. Commissioner Tate is in and out of the Project usually out. He's also turned pretty vague. About everything. Three weeks ago today I'm told he's gone. Nobody here can, or will, tell me where he's gone or how he can be contacted.
When I can't, the kids will shift in automatically." The kids were the five assistants among whom her duties had been divided in her absence. "Major Quillan called me up to Mantelish's lab around ten," she went on. "They wanted to see Repulsive, so I took him up there. Then it turned out Mantelish wanted to take Repulsive along on a field trip this afternoon." Holati looked startled.
"Not necessarily, or even probably, according to Mantelish and some other people who know what's happened. There seem to be too many basic factors missing. It might be necessary to develop a whole new class of sciences first. And that could take a few centuries." "Well," Trigger admitted, "I could get along without the things indefinitely." "Same here," the plasmoid nabob agreed ungratefully.
"What about Mantelish and Lyad? You can't let them know either." The Commissioner motioned with his head. "The rest cubicle back of the cabins. If we see a chance to do anything, we'll pop them both into Rest. I can dream up something to make that look plausible afterwards, I think." Trigger was silent a moment.
"And if you weighed it, you'd probably find it still weighs an exact three and a half pounds. Mantelish feels the thing turns any food intake directly into energy." "Then it should be able to produce a very nice jolt at the moment," Trigger commented. "Now, what do I do with Repulsive?" Holati took a towel from beneath the table and spread it out. "Absorbent material," he said.
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