Legacy | Page 7

the very fastest subspace ships the
Manon System was a good nine days away. For the standard Grand
Commerce express freighter or the ordinary liner it was a solid
two-months' run. Manon was a long way away!
It was almost a month since she'd even heard from Brule. She could
make up another personal tape to him today if she felt like it. He would
get it in fourteen days or so via a Federation packet. But she'd already
sent him three without reply. Brule wasn't at all good at long distance
love-making, and she didn't blame him much. She was a little awkward
herself when it came to feeding her personal feelings into a tape.
And--because of security again--there was very little else she could
feed into it. She couldn't even let Brule know just where she was.
She put the solido back in its drawer, reached for one of the bank of
buttons on the right side of the desk and pushed it down. A desk panel
slid up vertically in front of her, disclosing a news viewer switched to
the index of current headlines.
Trigger glanced over the headlines, while a few items dissolved slowly
here and there and were replaced by more recent developments. Under
the "Science" heading a great deal seemed to be going on, as usual, in
connection with plasmoid experiments around the Hub.
She dialed in the heading, skimmed through the first item that appeared.
Essentially it was a summary of reports on Hubwide rumors that
nobody could claim any worthwhile progress in determining what
made the Old Galactic plasmoids tick. Which, so far as Trigger knew,
was quite true. Other rumors, rather unpleasant ones, were that the five

hundred or so scientific groups to whom individual plasmoids had been
issued by the Federation's University League actually had gained
important information, but were keeping it to themselves.
The summary plowed through a few of the learned opinions and
counteropinions most recently obtained, then boiled them down to the
statement that a plasmoid might be compared to an engine which
appeared to lack nothing but an energy source. Or perhaps more
correctly--assuming it might have an as yet unidentified energy
source--a starter button. One group claimed to have virtually duplicated
the plasmoid loaned to it by the Federation, producing a biochemical
structure distinguishable from the Old Galactic model only by the fact
that it had--quite predictably--fallen apart within hours. But plasmoids
didn't fall apart. The specimens undergoing study had shown no signs
of deterioration. A few still absorbed nourishment from time to time;
some had been observed to move slightly. But none could be induced
to operate. It was all very puzzling!
It was very puzzling, Trigger conceded. Back in the Manon System,
when they had been discovered, the plasmoids were operating with
high efficiency on the protein-collecting station which the mysterious
Old Galactics appeared to have abandoned, or forgotten about, some
hundreds of centuries ago. It was only when humans entered the base
and switched off its mechanical operations that the plasmoids stopped
working--and then, when the switches which appeared to have kept
them going were expectantly closed again, they had stayed stopped.
Personally, Trigger couldn't have cared less if they never did move. It
was nice that old Holati Tate had made an almost indecently vast
fortune out of his first-discovery rights to the things, because she was
really very fond of the Commissioner when he wasn't being irritating.
But in some obscure way she found the plasmoids themselves and the
idea of unlimited plastic life which they embodied rather appalling.
However, she was in a minority there. Practically everybody else
seemed to feel that plasmoids were the biggest improvement since the
creation of Eve.
She switched the viewer presently to its local-news setting and dialed

in the Manon System's reference number. Keeping tab on what was
going on out there had become a private little ritual of late.
Occasionally she even picked up references to Brule Inger, who
functioned nowadays as Precol's official greeter and contact man in the
system. He was very popular with the numerous important Hub citizens
who made the long run out to the Manon--some bent on getting a
firsthand view of the marvels of Old Galactic science, and a great many
more bent on getting an early stake in the development of Manon
Planet, which was rapidly approaching the point where its status would
shift from Precol Project to Federation Territory, opening it to all
qualified comers.
Today there was no news about Brule. Grand Commerce had opened its
first business and recreation center on Manon, not ten miles from the
Precol Headquarters dome where Trigger recently had been working.
The subspace net which was being installed about the Old Galactic base
was very nearly completed. The permanent