Throwback Thursday: ‘The Bicolour Spiral’ by Matthew Hughes

Kaslo had heard the story the day before from one of his contacts within the Indoberia Provost’s Department. Sub-Inspector Fourna Houdibras, a senior provost with whom Kaslo had a long-standing relationship, had informed him of the forthcoming extradition request. It had arrived from the Wardens Force on the secondary world of Fancheree farther down The Spray. Now, as he listened to Kundlemaz give her rendition, he was alert to any points that differed from the official account.

The young woman’s uncle, Lutz Kundlemaz, had been a wealthy magnate of Indoberia. His fortune derived from his ownership of several well-functioning enterprises and his social status from a number of eleemosynary donations to worthy causes. The elder man’s passion, however, was his collection of Erythreotic pearls, of which he had several dozen, including the only known bicolour anyone had ever discovered. Its value was beyond price, and Lutz Kundlemaz was known to have turned down an offer of an entire world — small and somewhat remote, to be sure, but an eminently habitable place with a sparse population who were agreeable to letting someone else see to all the necessities of managing a planet.

At the mention of the Erythreotic bicolour, Kaslo interrupted. “Describe it to me.” 
Purindath Kundlemaz held out a not very large fist. “A sphere a little smaller than that,” she said, “with two swirling spirals of cream and ochre, the edges of each quite distinct from the other.”

Kaslo watched as Purindath described the precious object that drove true collectors into paroxysms and trances. He saw none of that fetishism in the young woman’s countenance and let the story continue.