Bilford shrugged. "Simple. I fiddled around until I got a subetheric
harmonic that corresponded to the frequencies of the microwaves I was
using. Works fine."
Kiffer chimed in again with: "With the stuff we got from your
instruments on the X-69 I think we can build the weapon we've been so
afraid of."
"Won't the Enlissa be able to analyze it?" Bilford asked,
interestedly. "After all, _we_ figured it out."
"Not the same thing," said Kiffer. "They don't have _aJ_ projectors
yet. They can't accidentally generate the field."
"Besides," Commander Allerdyce said grimly, "we won't leave them any
evidence. If the weapon works, we'll beam 'em down, board 'em, and end
up with prisoners and a perfectly good ship. The Enlissa will never
know what happened to them."
Roysland was about to say something when the door flew open and a heavy
body propelled its way inside.
It was General Director Eckisster, and he was very obviously seething
mad. He glanced around the room and his eyes lit on Bilford.
"May I ask, sir," he thundered, "why I have been kept from seeing
Roysland Dwyn for two weeks? And why these men are allowed to see him
now?" He didn't wait for an answer, but turned toward Roysland. "As
for you, sir, I am filing a reprimand--officially. You had no business
using the X-69 as military vessel during time of war without my
permission. You might have been killed, and I need you!"
Roysland started to answer, but Commander Allerdyce was one jump ahead
of him. He smiled serenely at Eckisster and said: "My dear director,
don't you think such an action would be just a bit confusing? Captain
Dobrin recommended that Roysland Dwyn be given the Golden Cluster
for bravery in action above and beyond the call of duty. I added my
recommendation and sent it on to the Regent's office. The Regent
himself has given his approval. Surely, a reprimand now would be a bit
unseemly."
Eckisster glowered. "My dear commander," he said, "it so happens that
Roysland Dwyn is the mainstay of my directorate. It also happens to be
a fact that I have a perfect right to threaten to do any damned thing I
want to. It keeps him mad at me, so he works like a beaver to show me
up. I threaten, cajole, intimidate, scream, and ask silly questions. It
works. If you won't tell me how to run my directorate, I won't tell you
how to run your spacefleet. At least not very often. Fair enough?"
Again, he did not pause for an answer, but looked back at Roysland.
"And you, you get out of that bed as soon as this twitch doctor lets
you. You have a gun to build. A mindjammer. Get busy. I'll expect you
in my office later. Good-by." He turned and stamped out.
Allerdyce stared at the closed door for a moment, then turned and
grinned. "I guess I got told."
"You did," said Bilford, "and you're going to get told again. All of
you. Clear out. The patient has had enough excitement for today. Scram."
* * * * *
It took the five men several more minutes to leave, but Bilford was
finally alone with Roysland.
"Did you know that about Eckisster?" Bilford asked. "That he needles
people with a purpose in mind?"
"Sure," said Roysland. "I've known it for years. I don't say that
it works the way he thinks it does, but at least it keeps the job
exciting. I think everybody needs a little needling now and then."
Bilford nodded. "I know you agree with him. You're a bigger needler
than he is, any day."
"Me?" Roysland looked surprised.
"Yes, you. Eckisster's needling is effective in a limited way, but
yours is not only effective, but efficient. You ask the kind of
questions that make people think instead of the kind that make people
mad. Where Eckisster jabs in all directions and people jump, you use
your needle with the deftness and precision of a physician using a
hypodermic. Eckisster doesn't know what he wants and he doesn't know
how to get it. And he wants somebody else to do it for him, whatever it
is. On the other hand, you know what you want and how to get it without
making everybody hate you, and you'll do the job yourself, if necessary.
"You gave your staff men, Commander Allerdyce, even me, credit for
finding out what the mindjammer effect was. But the credit belongs to
you. If it weren't for your incessant needling, your ability to arouse
interest in seemingly dull facts, your sometimes radical theories, and
your propensity for asking searching questions, I doubt if we'd have
our answer yet.
"The core of this problem wasn't just the fact that several phenomena
combined to give the mindjammer; that was a purely physical effect. The
big problem was to get human beings to take their individual fields
of thought, work with them in relation to other fields of thought,
and come up with useful information that could be fitted together to
explain the whole.
"Eckisster's type of needling might make a man _work_ harder, it
might even make him _think_ harder--but it won't make him think in a
different way or look at data from a new angle. Even when your theories
are wrong, you use them in such a way that they uncover the data which
proves them wrong. And then you're perfectly willing to drop them and
work out a new hypothesis and get people to try to destroy or confirm
it." He stood up and smoothed a palm over his gray hair.
"And now, if you'll excuse me," he said, "I have some more things to
work on. I have a hunch that these subelectronic polar harmonics can
do a lot more to the human brain than just knock it silly. When you
feel better, I'll tell you all about it." He turned and walked out the
door.
Roysland lay back on his bed and looked at the ceiling. Me, a needler?
he thought, ME?