"You were right, though you had no right to be. Not that it would
have made any difference what we thought. As long as the general was
cruising around the planet we wouldn't have dared investigate."
It didn't pay to generalize on what they learned from one planet, in
one system. When man had journeyed throughout the galaxy there would
still be surprises waiting for him when he came to the other side. "Let
the expedition worry about hostile acts," said Jeriann. "If the aliens
break off negotiations, so much the better for us."
"You forget we didn't come solely for ourselves. We hoped to make
ourselves useful to mankind. What kind of disservice is that, to
embroil humanity in a war with the first aliens we meet?" His face was
flaring and white and the smile gone.
"Don't," whispered Jeriann. "I'm afraid of lightning--yours most of
all. I expect to hear thunder and be struck dead."
"I'm sorry," he said. "We have a right to think of ourselves but not
exclusively of ourselves."
"I mean, do they care? If they live on that planet they can't
want this. They couldn't survive under such different conditions.
Astronomical observations must be difficult with so many clouds and
without space travel are we sure the aliens even know about this world?"
He blinked wearily. "We took a chance. We had to. They have space
travel. The general wouldn't be so anxious not to offend them if they
were inferior to our own civilization."
"But we didn't see their ships."
"Again we weren't looking in the right place. There's nothing in this
system they travel to. But there is a comparable planet in Proxima, and
in recent months they've been on opposite sides of the respective suns.
They wait for more favorable positions."
It was not luck that had favored the general. Theory said there should
be intelligent life in the Centauri system and it further indicated
that it would be found on an Earth type planet. It was half correct,
and the wrong half had fallen against the accidentals. Stubbornly
insisting on following the plan laid down by his superiors, the general
had won. "What are we going to do?" said Jeriann. "There are hostages
down there."
"We'll get them back," said Docchi. "Nobody can stop us."
"Can we? Their ships are faster than ours."
"They can't use their speed close to a planet. And the expedition
won't be aggressive in someone else's backyard. We can't land without
breaking up the asteroid but we'll go near enough so they won't be able
to intercept our ship."
It was a daring maneuver. The bulk of the asteroid could be used to
cut off any attempt to overtake their returning ship. "There's Roche's
limit," said Jeriann.
"Doesn't apply. We're not a simple planetoidal mass. We'll clamp the
heaviest gravity we're capable of and, barring something unforeseen, we
can hold the crust together at a distance of ten to twenty miles of the
surface."
She understood; they'd take the risk if necessary but it ought to be
avoided, because it was a risk. Nobody knew what solid tides would be
set in the crust of the asteroid as the result of an external gravity
field.
"And then what?" she said. "We get them back and then what?" Her hands
were heavy. The silver mote overhead, shining in the light of Alpha,
was implacable.
"What else is there?" said Docchi with an attempt at cheerfulness.
"We'll get them back, every person, and then we'll go on. To the next
star and the next, and if we have to, the one after that. Somewhere
we'll find a place."
Jeriann touched him wonderingly. "I love you for saying that. I love
you anyway, but particularly for saying that."
He seemed to shrink, flaming where she touched him, fiery fingertips on
his face. "You know?" he said dully.
"Yes. For quite a while now. Anti suspects too. I think we all do. This
was our last chance, wasn't it?"
He couldn't look at her. "We shouldn't have stopped. The next star
surely would have been the place."
"Place," said Jeriann. "It wasn't your fault. Why do you suppose we
were so eager to agree with you? We knew the longer we went on the more
we were at a disadvantage."
It was so drearily obvious that nearly everyone had some inkling of
the truth. The Star Victory was not the only ship of its class; some
were rusting in the spaceyards and some were in use as interplanetary
freighters. And if the Star Victory could be converted easily, why not
the others?
A new drive to replace the obsolete one? Order it and with a little
switching around in the manufacturing plants, diverting it from other
uses, it was delivered tomorrow and completely installed the day after
that. The command unit the accidentals had labored so long to alter?
Every dinky little office had as good and in many cases all that was
required was changing the information spools. And thousands of crews
were available, already trained, used to working together. It wouldn't
be hard to recruit them and add a few officers at the top and a staff
of linguists and scientists.
Nona had given them the one thing they needed and now mankind was
exploding into space. There was no end in sight. The whole neighboring
sphere of space that enveloped the solar system was due for immediate
exploration.
And the accidentals hadn't been forgotten. They were not the objective,
wealth was: planets to be claimed and occupied or mined, civilizations
to be contacted with whom products and techniques and entire new
sciences could be exchanged.
If they were lucky enough to get away from the Centauri system at the
next star they'd find other ships waiting, doing business with the
natives, if there were any; if not, establishing firm little colonies
on everything that was capable of supporting human life. They were
surrounded, overwhelmed by numbers. It was no wonder the general
hadn't been perturbed at the failure of his plan to land unnoticed on
the asteroid. He knew what had been slow in occurring to them. For them
there was no next star.
Docchi gazed in sick defeat at Jeriann. There was no need to talk.
There was nothing to say.
The asteroid was rolling toward twilight as Anti came in. "What are we
doing about those insolent pirates? They have no jurisdiction here. We
ought to aim the asteroid at them. We can smash them." She saw their
faces and the words stopped. "I was hoping--but I guess we can't hide
it among ourselves," she said.
"It's no use," said Docchi heavily. "We'll have to go down and take
them off the planet."
"How will they know? We can't get a beam down with a whole planet in
the way," said Anti. "Let's wait till morning so we can tell them to be
ready."
"I don't know," said Docchi indecisively.
"None of us know anything," said Anti fiercely. "Go home and get some
sleep. We'll think of something by morning."
After they were gone Anti went outside. Looking up she could see the
scout, still visible, glistening in the light of Alpha. It was much
brighter than the stars that had been watching them.
* * * * *