Artishain

Artishain, described as the tenth planet, becomes the destination of James Mowry’s next assignment when he is ordered to replace Kingsley, whose silence suggests that he has been captured or killed. The brief reference turns Artishain from a distant point in the setting into the site of the mission that follows Mowry’s arrival at the end of the novel.

Identification

Artishain is identified as the tenth planet. The passage supplies no further description of its terrain, settlements, or political conditions, so its importance here rests on its place in the planetary sequence and on the operation assigned there.

Kingsley’s Disappearance

An officer tells James Mowry that another agent, Kingsley, had been on Artishain. Kingsley has not sent a signal for some time, and the officer judges that he has probably been captured and “stepped on and squashed flat.” The line presents Artishain as a place where an agent’s fate is uncertain and potentially lethal, while offering no confirmation of what happened to Kingsley.

Mowry’s Assignment

Rather than receive the ceremonial praise he expects, James Mowry learns that he is to take Kingsley’s place. The order is immediate: he is to leave the next day. When Mowry reacts with surprise, the officer makes the purpose explicit: the authorities want him to become a wasp. Artishain thus marks the transition from Mowry’s completed operation to a new assignment, carrying forward the novel’s image of the individual agent sent to unsettle a larger power.