The Galaxy Builder by Keith Laumer Read Free Book Online Page B

worried he might be refused. Strange, what with Allegorus being
the high cockalorum in these parts, and himself a mere intruder ...
     
                "Perhaps," O'Leary said coolly.
"Just what is the situation, as you see it?"
     
                "Disaster, in the most literal sense,"
Allegorus replied promptly. "It appears an entropic disjunction has
occurred," he went on grimly, his eyes fixed on Lafayette. "You're
aware of what that could mean, I'm sure."
     
                "Don't be so sure, Al," Lafayette countered
breezily. "It sounds bad, but I never heard of it before." He paused,
awaiting explanation. "But make it fast," he added. "I'm going
to find Daphne. The poor kid's out there —" with a wave of his
arm—"somewhere."
     
                "All in good time, sir," Allegorus hastened
to reassure him. "An E.D. is the most drastic sort of temporal
anomaly—"
     
                "I know about those," Lafayette cut
in. "Central claimed I caused them whenever I focused my psychical
energies—like the time I shifted myself to Artesia, and then when I turned that
swill at the Ax and Dragon into Chateau Lafitte-Rothschilde, '29. At first I
thought I was just sort of hallucinating, you know, my subconscious trying to
bring my inner conflicts to my attention; but Nicodaeus straightened me out. He
told me I was actually moving things around from one reality level to another.
Pretty simple, once you understand it. But right now it seems I've gotten
myself—and Daph, too—into another locus, and I didn't even change a daisy from
white to pink! I don't get it. Maybe you know something about it: Maybe you were
twiddling around with your psychical energies, and somehow loused
everything up. How about it: Have you ever heard of Artesia? That's where this
tower belongs, you know—it was built by Nicodaeus, or not built—but he fitted
out this old garret as his lab." Lafayette looked around at the dim,
cobwebby stone walls, the littered stone floor. "It used to be very
impressive," he assured Allegorus. "But now it's been stripped, since
Nicodaeus was recalled to Central."
     
                The hooded man nodded. "But all this isn't
helping us with the main problem," he pointed out. "I'm very familiar
with dear old Artesia—spent some time there myself once, long ago."
Allegorus sighed, lost in nostalgia.
     
                "Then, let's do something!"
Lafayette cried, "... if you're as powerful as Belarius and Frumpkin
said."
     
                "Ah, yes." Allegorus turned to study
the two under discussion, still standing in their awkward poses.
     
                "I see you took the precaution of
stabilizing them with your Mark V," he said easily.
     
                "Not my Mark V," Lafayette
corrected. "I took that little gadget away from Frumpkin after he'd used
it on me.
     
                "Indeed? And how, might I inquire?"
Allegorus returned, sounding dubious.
     
                "He got a little careless, and I got a
little lucky," Lafayette replied modestly.
     
                "You did activate the 'hold'
capability of the contact device, I trust," Allegorus said blandly.
"Otherwise, of course, its sphere of effectiveness is less than three
minutes."
     
                "I didn't have time to read the owner's
manual," Lafayette explained. "I just stuck it on them the same way
Frumpkin stuck it to me—more or less."
     
                "In that case—" Allegorus began with
sudden urgency, turning toward the pair, too late. Already, Frumpkin was
bending over the trunk—a portable command center, O'Leary now realized.
Frumpkin raised his head, shot O'Leary a haughty look, and flipped switches
even as Allegorus lunged with a yell: "Get them!"
     
                Lafayette charged. There was a deep-toned boom! and the light suddenly dimmed. For an instant, O'Leary seemed to catch