The Adventures of Deacon Coombs: The Case of the Vanishing Vesper by Ambit Welder

Author:Ambit Welder
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781491705629
Publisher: iUniverse
Published: 2013-11-04T16:00:00+00:00

The following day’s conversation with Schlegar centered on the Nicosians: their physicality, their habits, their patterns, their social structure. Then the stolen arms were addressed, with Gem showing Schlegar and Lyanna the video footage in the caves. Eventually Gem displayed footage from the top of the mount, and Schlegar saw the weakened state of his son.

“When will you have his funeral?” asked Deacon.

“No funeral. Just as in Como’s case, we simply commit the ashes into space.”

“What? The remains of millions of dead Aralians float around in space?”

“Yes. Aralia at some time in her past became so cluttered with nonproductive burial plots of Aralians that it was decided to convert the remains of prominent citizens to pure energy at Vesper stations and send misguided beams to the edges of the galaxy. Travers’s remains have already been sent.” Schlegar talked about this subject matter coldly; Deacon and Quobit were dismayed to not have one last solemn minute.

“You should have told me this yesterday so I could have paid my final respects,” Deacon said. “It seems such a cruel…” he was at a loss as to how to finish his thought.

They soon moved on and completed hours of discussions on the details of the trek, Schlegar insisting on every intricate detail of his version about the sermon on the mount. Later, after Deacon had retired and reread the Owlers’ accounts of their investigation, he conversed with the Owlers privately. “We have overlooked a connection somewhere. There are no obvious candidates for Urzel in your report, and no Asiandans.” Pointing a finger at them, he said, “Check and double-check every person again. And visitors to Medulla! This list lacks any obvious leads. Jim, we must check all ships that have passed there and their inhabitants.”

Before Jim had time to orate his speech about the Owlers’ efficiency, Deacon vanished down the hallway, frustrated at their total inability to identify Urzel. Some clue had been overlooked.

Urzel is an Earthling

Back in Schlegar’s lab, Schlegar had been waiting for Deacon after conducting his own assessment of Urzel, and he attacked him at the first opportunity, as Lyanna witnessed. “I don’t doubt what you witnessed, Deacon; I simply state that there is no Earthling with the mental powers that you described. Outside of the Medullans, who can stretch their mental prowess, all other races who exhibit the power of the Uscher zone have to be in proximity to their subjects, and I have examined our files over and over. This Earthman doesn’t exist.”

Lyanna added to Schlegar’s outburst. “Suddenly, Deacon, you expect us to believe that an Earthman can control thousands of minds at great distances, as you saw on Nix. ‘Quantum leap’ would be an understatement for what you saw. Again, I don’t doubt what you observed; I, as Schlegar, simply question the obvious interpretation. Urzel is not an Earthman.”

“Schlegar, Lyanna—let me state the facts. Urzel is not a machine, not an apparition; he is an Earthling. He did manipulate minds at great distances. I can’t explain it, but he did it! Gem’s recording of the ceremony and his biological analysis support these facts.

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