Martel came to the point. "You do not know me. I lied. My name is Martel, and I mean you no harm. But I lied. I beg the honorable gift of your hospitality. Remain armed. Direct your weapon against me—"
Stone smiled: "I am doing so," and Martel noticed the small wire-point in Stone’s capable, plump hand.
"Good. Keep on guard against me. It will give you confidence in what I shall say. But do, I beg you, give us a screen of privacy. I want no casual lookers. This is a matter of life and death."
"First: whose life and death?" Stone’s face remained calm, his voice even.
"Yours, and mine, and the worlds’."
"You are cryptic but I agree." Stone called through the doorway:
"Privacy please." There was a sudden hum, and all the little noises of the night quickly vanished from the air of the room.
Said Adam Stone: "Sir, who are you? What brings you here?"
"I am Scanner 34."
"You, a scanner? I don’t believe it."
For answer, Martel pulled his jacket open, showing his chestbox. Stone looked up at him, amazed. Martel explained:
"I am cranched. Have you never seen it before?"
"Not with men. On animals. Amazing! But—what do you want?"
"The truth. Do you fear me?"
"Not with this," said Stone, grasping the wirepoint. "But I shall tell you the truth."
"Is it true that you have conquered the great pain?"
Stone hesitated, seeking words for an answer.
"Quick, can you tell me how you have done it, so that I may believe you?"
"I have loaded the ships with life."
"Life?"
"Life. I don’t know what the great pain is, but I did find that in the experiments, when I sent out masses of animals or plants, the life in the center of the mass lived longest. I built ships—small ones, of course—and sent them out with rabbits, with monkeys—"
"Those are Beasts?"
"Yes. With small Beasts. And the Beasts came back unhurt. They came back because the walls of the ships were filled with life. I tried many kinds, and finally found a sort of life which lives in the waters. Oysters. Oyster-beds. The outermost oysters died in the great pain. The inner ones lived. The passengers were unhurt."
"But they were Beasts?"
"Not only Beasts. Myself."
"You!"
"I came through space alone. Through what you call the up-and-out, alone. Awake and sleeping. I am unhurt. If you do not believe me, ask your brother scanners. Come and see my ship in the morning. I will be glad to see you then, along with your brother scanners. I am going to demonstrate before the chiefs of the Instrumentality."
Martel repeated his question: "You came here alone?"
Adam Stone grew testy: "Yes, alone. Go back and check your scanner’s register if you do not believe me. You never put me in a bottle to cross Space."
Martel’s face was radiant. "I believe you now. It is true. No more scanners. No more habermans. No more cranching."
Stone looked significantly toward the door.
Martel did not take the hint. "I must tell you that—"
"Sir, tell me in the morning. Go enjoy your cranch. Isn’t it supposed to be pleasure? Medically I know it well. But not in practice."
"It is pleasure. It’s normality—for a while. But listen. The scanners have sworn to destroy you, and your work."
"What!"
"They have met and have voted and sworn. You will make scanners unnecessary, they say. You will bring the ancient wars back to the world, if scanning is lost and the scanners live in vain!"
Adam Stone was nervous but kept his wits about him: "You’re a scanner. Are you going to kill me—or try?"
"No, you fool. I have betrayed the Confraternity. Call guards the moment I escape. Keep guards around you. I will try to intercept the killer."
Martel saw a blur in the window. Before Stone could turn, the wirepoint was whipped out of his hand. The blur solidified and took form as Parizianski.
Martel recognized what Parizianski was doing: High speed. Without thinking of his cranch, he thrust his hand to his chest, set himself up to High speed too. Waves of fire, like the great pain, but hotter, flooded over him. He fought to keep his face readable as he stepped in front of Parizianski and gave the sign,
Top emergency.
Parizianski spoke, while the normally moving body of Stone stepped away from them as slowly as a drifting cloud: "Get out of my way. I am on a mission."
"I know it. I stop you here and now. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stone is right."
Parizianski’s lips were barely readable in the haze of pain which flooded Martel. (He thought: God, God, God of the ancients! Let me hold on! Let me live under Overload just long enough!) Parizianski was saying: "Get out of my way. By order of the Confraternity, get out of my way!" And Parizianski gave the sign, Help I demand in the name of my duty!
Martel choked for breath in the syruplike air. He tried one last time:
"Parizianski, friend, friend, my friend. Stop. Stop." (No scanner had ever murdered scanner before.)
Parizianski made the sign: You are unfit for duty, and I will take over.
Martel thought, For the first time in the world! as he reached over and twisted Parizianski’s brainbox up to Overload. Parizianski’s eyes glittered in terror and understanding. His body began to drift down toward the floor. Martel had just strength to reach his own chestbox. As he faded into haberman or death, he knew not which, he felt his fingers turning on the control of speed, turning down. He tried to speak, to say, "Get a scanner, I need help, get a scanner…"
But the darkness rose about him, and the numb silence clasped him.
Martel awakened to see the face of Luci near his own.
He opened his eyes wider, and found that he was hearing—hearing the sound of her happy weeping, the sound of her chest as she caught the air back into her throat.
He spoke weakly: "Still cranched? Alive?"
Another face swam into the blur beside Luci’s. It was Adam Stone. His deep voice rang across immensities of space before coming to Martel’s hearing. Martel tried to read Stone’s lips, but could not make them out. He went back to listening to the voice:
"—not cranched. Do you understand me? Not cranched!"
Martel tried to say: "But I can hear! I can feel!" The others got his sense if not his words.
Adam Stone spoke again:
"You have gone back through the haberman. I put you back first. I didn’t know how it would work in practice, but I had the theory all worked out. You don’t think the Instrumentality would waste the scanners, do you? You go back to normality. We are letting the habermans die as fast as the ships come in. They don’t need to live any more. But we are restoring the scanners. You are the first. Do you understand? You are the first. Take it easy, now."
Adam Stone smiled. Dimly behind Stone, Martel thought that he saw the face of one of the chiefs of the Instrumentality. That face, too, smiled at him, and then both faces disappeared upward and away.
Martel tried to lift his head, to scan himself. He could not. Luci stared at him, calming herself, but with an expression of loving perplexity. She said,
"My darling husband! You’re back again, to stay!"
Still, Martel tried to see his box. Finally he swept his hand across his chest with a clumsy motion. There was nothing there. The instruments were gone. He was back to normality but still alive.