The Unreasoning Mask by Philip José Farmer Page B

if they aren't aware

of it."
     
     
Ramstan bowed again, made a coded gesture, and a few seconds later sat down

on the chair-shaped protuberance that had formed from the deck.
     
     
There was a burst of dialog between the creature and Branwen Davis.

Branwen then said, "Her name is Wassruss. She had been picked up by a

Raushghol ship and taken from Webn to Raushghol. The Raushghols wanted

her knowledge of sea-farming techniques. In return, they would give the

Webnites some deep-sea craft and technological artifacts. Wassruss says

that the reasons for her visit are not important. On the way back, the

Raushghol ship took a sidetrip to Walisk. Or she started for it, anyway."
     
     
Wassruss spoke again at some length.
     
     
Davis said, "Wassruss was in her cabin when she heard a peculiar,

penetrating, and agonizing whistle. It didn't come over the electronic

equipment; at least, she heard the captain say it didn't. She had turned

on the intercom connecting her cabin to the bridge. The whistling lasted

for about two minutes, and then it abruptly ceased. The ship's detectors

showed a huge mass nearby. There was no warning of its appearance. It

just was there all of a sudden. The captain said that it couldn't be

there. But there it was."
     
     
"How big was it, and what did it look like? Was it a spaceship?"
     
     
"It was a sphere with a diameter of 13,000 kilometers. At least that's

what she overheard the detector-people report. But . . . she does have

a word for it. Tssokh'azgd."
     
     
"What would that translate as?"
     
     
Branwen spoke some more with Wassruss.
     
     
"It's the Webn name for the Chaos-Monster in their religion. Wassruss

says she had abandoned her faith. But now that she has actually seen

the Tssokh'azgd, she isn't so sure that the religion is false."
     
     
Ramstan said, "Ask her how she knows, or thinks she knows, that the thing

was the whatchaniacallit."
     
     
Branwen Davis spoke again. Then, "She says that it is the Tssokh'azgd.

There is no argument about it. As soon as it's seen, it's known, though

that does the knower no good, because she'll soon be dead."
     
     
Suddenly, Wassruss began talking so swiftly that Branwen had difficulty

interpreting and had to tell her to slow down.
     
     
"I am going to die soon. I wish to die on my native world and to be buried

according to the custom of my people. If you can get me to Webn before

I die, I will pay you well."
     
     
Ramstan was flabbergasted, but he did not show it.
     
     
"It is not necessaiy or even desirable that you pay me. In fact, it would

be illegal for me to accept money or gifts of any kind."
     
     
Toyce said, "Not quite so, Captain. There is a clause which says that you

may accept gifts if the refusal would insult the giver or cause ill-feelings

of any sort. You will then place the gifts in the storeroom as government

property."
     
     
Ramstan said, "Ah, I didn't remember that."
     
     
Davis had already translated for Ramstan. Wassruss, forgetting Davis's

request for slowness, broke into a torrent of phrases. Ramstan did not

know what she had said, but he could not mistake the appeal and the

desperation in her voice. Her facial expression looked to him like a

threatening snarl but was no doubt a smile to her species.
     
     
Davis said, "Her people are real homebodies. She is the first to leave her

planet, and she isn't sure that what happened to her isn't a judgment of

her God. You see how quickly she abandoned her atheism, how superficial

it was. She is scared, though. To her it's a terrible thing to die far

away from her native sea. And a worse thing not to be buried, not to

sink down into the depths and be taken back into the bosom of the ocean."
     
     
Wassruss spoke.
     
     
Branwen Davis listened, then said, "She wants to know what I told you.

She wants to make sure I'm translating correctly. It isn't easy for me;

there are so many phrases I don't know or which may have