"Exactly," Clingman said. "There was no question of your loyalty or
determination but the Tareegs' methods of persuasion might cause the
most stubborn man to tell more than he should. So no one who was not
essential to the work was given any information whatever. Dr. Rojas
applied certain medical measures which prevented Mr. Newland from
recovering prematurely ... prematurely from our point of view, that
is. It did not keep you from completing your other preparations but
ensured that you would not actually leave unless we believed the move
had become necessary, as a last resort."
* * * * *
Troy shook his head. He'd been working against something there had been
no way of knowing about. "Was that Rojas waiting for me in the tunnel?"
"Yes. At that point, we knew we would win, and it had become safe
enough to tell you. Unfortunately, you believed it was a trap."
Troy chewed his lip. "On that home-world of the Tareegs when the two
factions were fighting--the losing side did something which blasted the
whole planet apart?"
"Not exactly," Clingman said. "The appearance of it is rather that the
home-world came apart in an almost gentle manner, section separating
from section. How that could be done is something no one on Earth had
worked out at the time we left. The original survey group brought back
samples of the asteroid swarm for analysis. A good deal was learned
from them."
He paused, frowning at his cigarette, said slowly, "The twin worlds
have developed a new scientific Tareeg caste which was considered--or
considered itself--too valuable to be risked on the interstellar
expedition to the Cassa system. I think that was a very fortunate
circumstance for us. Even before we left Earth, even when it was
believed they were all dead, what had been deduced of the Tareeg genius
for destruction was more than a little disturbing. The apparent purpose
of that last defensive action on the home-world was to strip the
surface oceans from the hostile sections of the planet. Obviously, the
process got out of hand; the entire planet was broken up instead. But
one can't really doubt that--given more time--they would have learned
to master the weapon.
"The killing agent developed by the opposing side evidently had been
very thoroughly mastered. And again we can't say how they did it.
It can be described as a large protein molecule, but its properties
can be imagined only as arising out of a very complex organization,
theoretically impossible at that level of life. It is confined
to water, but its method of dispersion within that medium is not
understood at all. At one instant, it is here; at the next, it
apparently will have moved to a point perhaps several hundred miles
away. It is life which has no existence, and cannot exist, except as
a weapon. Unlike a parasite, its purpose is simply to kill, quickly
and efficiently, and go on at once to another victim. Having exhausted
the store of victims--a short process, obviously, even in an area of
planetary dimensions--it dies of something like starvation within days.
"That, of course, was as practical a limitation to those employing it
as the one that it attacks only Tareegs. They did not want to be barred
indefinitely from an area which had been cleansed of their enemies,
and neither did they want food animals in that area to be destroyed.
They...."
His voice trailed off, and Troy stirred restlessly. Dr. Clingman was
slumped farther down in his chair now, and the pale, protruding eyes
had begun to blink drowsily. He seemed about to go to sleep. Troy said,
"If the thing killed the Tareegs on Cassa One inside an hour after
they'd gone into the sea, then they couldn't have had the time to start
the interstellar drones back towards the twin worlds."
Clingman's head turned to him again. "No," Clingman said. "Of course
not."
"And even," Troy went on, "if they had been able to ship a couple of
loads of infected water back, it would have been harmless long before
it reached their worlds."
* * * * *
Clingman nodded. "Quite harmless. As harmless as the new ocean on Cassa
One would be by this time to Tareegs who entered it." He paused. "We'd
thought, Gordon ... as you might be thinking now ... of sending the
drones back instead with a load of asteroid ice containing the inert
agent. That, of course, would not have reduced its effectiveness.
Nevertheless, the scheme wouldn't have worked."
"Why not?" Troy asked.
"Because the drones, in the Tareeg view, were sacred messengers. They
could be used only to announce in a certain prescribed manner that the
Tareeg interstellar expeditionary force had discovered a water planet
and taken possession of it, again with the required ceremony, for the
twin worlds. The transmission of lumps of interplanetary ice would
never have fitted that picture, would, in fact, have been an immediate
warning that something very much out of order had occurred.
"That Tareeg insistence on exact ritualistic procedure--essentially a
defensive measure in their dealings with one another--also happened to
delay our own plans here very badly. Except for it, we would have been
ready at least a year ago to flood Cassa One and entrap our captors."