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Updated: August 21, 2024
Trigger wasn't sure in just what section of the main continent they were; but there were only two or three alternatives it was high in the mountains, and night came a lot faster here than it did around Ceyce. She greeted Mantelish and sat down at the table. Then the Commissioner locked the doors and introduced her to the professor's pet. "It's labelled 113-A," he said now.
The plasmoid lay still again. After a minute it was still lying still. "Show's over for the moment, I guess," said the Commissioner. "I'm afraid so," said Professor Mantelish. His big hands went away from Trigger's aching shoulders. "You startled it, Trigger!" he boomed at her accusingly.
Which was understandable, since it was the First Lady herself, Trigger gathered gradually from the noise, who had put Mantelish under the influence, back in his own garden on Maccadon, and within two weeks after his first return from Harvest Moon.
Then the Commissioner cleared his throat. "It's a possibility, Mantelish," he admitted. "We will give it thought later." "What," Trigger asked Lyad, "killed the people on the ship?" "The attempt to control them," Lyad said. Doctor Fayle apparently had died as he was leaving the laboratory with the 113 unit. The other men died wherever they were.
One good thing about it, she thought it wasn't equipped to eye her back. "It goes back to the time," the Commissioner said, "when Mantelish and Fayle and Azol were conducting the first League investigation of the plasmoids on Harvest Moon. You recall the situation?" "If you mean their attempts to get the things to show some signs of life, I do, naturally."
There had been very considerable excitement when it was first discovered, because the description made it sound very much as if they'd finally located 112-113. They hadn't. This one if Trigger had followed Mantelish correctly could be regarded as a cheap imitation of 112.
The instant it found itself free, it attempted to take control of the human minds in its environment. "Mind-level control?" Mantelish exclaimed, looking startled. "Not unheard-of, of course. And we'd been considering.... But of human minds?" Lyad nodded.
"Mantelish brought it back to Maccadon with him, mainly because of its similarity to 113. He was curious because he couldn't even guess at what its function was. It was just lying there in a cubicle.
Stood up for his rights, eh?" "Mantelish gained some such impression anyway. He became more cautious with it after that. And then he learned something that should be important. He was visiting another lab where they had a couple of plasmoids which actually moved now and then. He had 113-A in his coat pocket. The two lab plasmoids stopped moving while he was there. They haven't moved since."
The Commissioner had swung the transmitter cabinet aside and was back there, prowling among the power leads. "What's wrong?" Trigger asked. "Transmitters went out," he said. "Don't know why yet. Grab some tools and help me check." She slipped on her work gloves, grabbed some tools and joined him. Lyad and Mantelish watched them silently.
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