Supper was over, but the four were still at the table, sipping coffee
and smoking. During a pause in the casual conversation, James suddenly
straightened up.
"I want an official decision, Clee," he said, abruptly. "While we're out
of touch with United Worlds you, as captain of the ship and director of
the project, are Boss, with a capital B. The Lord of Justice, High and
Low. The Works. Check?"
"On paper, yes; with my decisions subject to appeal and/or review when
we get back to Base. In practice, I didn't expect to have to make any
very gravid rulings."
"I never thought you'd have to, either, but Belle fed me one with a bone
in it, so...."
"Just a minute. How official do you want it? Full formal, screens down
and recorded?"
"Not unless we have to. Let's explore it first. As of right now, are we
under the Code or not?"
"Of course we are."
"Not necessarily," Belle put in, sharply. "Not slavishly to the letter.
We're so far away and our chance of getting back is so slight that it
should be interpreted in the light of common sense."
* * *
Garlock stared at Belle and she stared back, her eyes as clear and
innocent as a baby's.
"The Code is neither long enough nor complicated enough to require
interpretation," Garlock stated, finally. "It either applies in full and
exactly or not at all. My ruling is that the Code applies, strictly,
until I declare the state of Ultimate Contingency. Are you ready, Belle,
to abandon the project, find an uninhabited Tellurian world, and begin
to populate it?"
"Well, not quite, perhaps."
"Yes or no, please."
"No."
"We are under the Code, then. Go ahead, Jim."
"I broke pairing with Belle and she refused to confirm."
"Certainly I refused. He had no reason to break with me."
"I had plenty of reason!" James snapped. "I'm fed up to here--" he drew
his right forefinger across his forehead, "--with making so-called love
to a woman who can never think of anything except cutting another man's
throat. She's a heartless conniver."
"You both know that reasons are unnecessary and are not discussed in
public," Garlock said, flatly. "Now as to confirmation of a break. In
simple pairing there is no marriage, no registration, no declaration of
intent or of permanence. Thus, legally or logically, there is no
obligation. Morally, however, there is always some obligation. Hence, as
a matter of urbanity, in cases where no injury exists except as concerns
chastity, the Code calls for agreement without rancor. If either party
persists in refusal to confirm, and cannot show injury, that party's
behavior is declared inurbane. Confirmation is declared and the
offending party is ignored."
"Just how would you go about ignoring Prime Operator Belle Bellamy?"
"You've got a point there, Jim. However, she hasn't persisted very long
in her refusal. As a matter of information, Belle, why did you take Jim
in the first place?"
"I didn't." She shrugged her shoulders. "It was pure chance. You saw me
flip the tenth-piece."
"Am I to ignore the fact that you are one of the best telekineticists
living?"
"I don't _have_ to control things unless I want to!" She stamped her
foot. "Can't you conceive of me flipping a coin honestly?"
"No. However, since this is not a screens-down inquiry, I'll give
you--orally, at least--the benefit of the doubt. The next step, I
presume, is for Lola to break with me. Lola?"
"Well ... I hate to say this, Clee.... I thought that mutual consent
would be better, but...." Lola paused, flushing in embarrassment.
"She feels," James said, steadily, "as I do, that there should be much
more to the sexual relation than merely releasing the biological
tensions of two pieces of human machinery. That's hardly civilized."
"I confirm, Lola, of course," Garlock said; then went on, partly
thinking aloud, partly addressing the group at large. "Ha. Reasons
again, and very well put--not off the cuff. Evasions. Flat lies.
Something very unfunny here--as queer as a nine-credit bill. In sum,
indefensible actions based upon unwarranted conclusions drawn from
erroneous assumptions. The pattern is not clear ... but I won't order
screens down until I have to ... if the reason had come from Belle...."
"_Me_?" Belle flared. "Why from me?"
"... instead of Jim...." Ignoring Belle's interruption, Garlock frowned
in thought. After a minute or so his face cleared.
"Jim," he said, sharply, "have you been consciously aware of Belle's
manipulation?"
"Why, no, of course not. She _couldn't_!"
"That's _really_ a brainstorm, Clee," Belle sneered. "You'd better turn
yourself in for an overhaul."
"Nice scheme, Belle," Garlock said. "I underestimated--at least, didn't
consider carefully enough--your power; and overestimated your ethics and
urbanity."
"What are you talking about, Chief?" James asked. "You lost me ten
parsecs back."
"Just this. Belle is behind this whole operation; working under a
perfectly beautiful smokescreen."
"I'm afraid the boss is cracking up, kids," Belle said. "Listen to him,
if you like, but use your own judgment."
"But nobody could make Jim and me really love each other," Lola argued,
"and we really do. It's real love."
"Admitted," Garlock said. "But she could have helped it along; and she's
all set to take every possible advantage of the situation thus created."
"I still don't see it," James objected. "Why, she wouldn't even confirm
our break. She hasn't yet."
"She would have, at the exactly correct psychological moment; after
holding out long enough to put you both under obligation to her. There
would have, also, been certain strings attached. Her plan was, after
switching the pairings...."
"I wouldn't pair with you," Belle broke in viciously, "if you were the
only man left in the macrocosmic universe!"
"Part of the smokescreen," Garlock explained. "The re-pairings would
give her two lines of attack on me, to be used simultaneously. First, to
work on me in bed...."
"See?" Belle interrupted. "He doesn't think I've got any heart at all."
"Oh, you may have one, but it's no softer than your head, and that could
scratch a diamond. Second, to work on you two, with no holds barred, to
form a three-unit team against me. Her charges that I am losing my grip
made a very smart opening lead."
"Do you think I'd _let_ her work on me?" James demanded.
"She's a Prime--you wouldn't know anything about it. However, nothing
will happen. Nor am I going to let her confuse the real issue. Belle,
you are either inside the Code or a free agent outside it. Which?"
"I have made my position clear."
"To me, yes. To Jim and Lola, decidedly unclear."
"Unclear, then. You can _not_ coerce me!"
"If you follow the Code, no. If you don't, I can and will. If you make
any kind of a pass at Jim James from now on, I'll lock you into your
room with a Gunther block."
"_You wouldn't dare_!" she breathed. "Besides, you couldn't, not to
another prime."
"Don't bet on it," he advised.
After a full minute of silence Garlock's attitude changed suddenly to
his usual one of casual friendliness. "Why not let this one drop right
here, Belle? I can marry them, with all the official trimmings. Why not
let 'em really enjoy their honeymoon?"
"Why not?" Belle's manner changed to match Garlock's and she smiled
warmly. "I confirm, Jim. You two are really serious, aren't you?
Marriage, declarations, registration, and everything? I wish--I
sincerely and really wish you--every happiness possible."
"We really _are_ serious," James said, putting his arm around Lola's
waist. "And you won't ... won't interfere?"
"Not a bit. I couldn't, now, even if I wanted to." Belle grinned wryly.
"You see, you kids missed the main feature of the show, since you can't
know exactly what a Prime Operator is. Especially you can't know what
Cleander Simmsworth Garlock really is--he's an out-and-out tiger on
wheels. The three of us could have smacked him bow-legged, but of course
all chance of that blew up just now. So if you two want to take the big
jump you can do it with my blessing as well as Clee's. I'll clear the
table."
* * *
That small chore taken care of--a quick folding-up of everything into
the tablecloth and a heave into the chute did it--Belle set up the
recorder.
"Are you both fully certain that you want the full treatment?" Garlock
asked.
Both were certain, and Garlock read the brief but solemn marriage lines.
As the newlyweds left the room, Belle turned to Garlock with a quizzical
smile. "Are you going to ask me to pair with you, Clee?"
"I certainly am." He grinned back at her. "I owe you that much revenge,
at least. But seriously, I'd like it immensely and we fit like Grace and
Poise. Look at that mirror. Did you ever see a better-matched couple?
Will you give me a try, Belle?"
"I will not," she said, emphatically. I'll take back what I said a while
ago--if you were really the only man left, I would--but as it is, the
answer is a definite, resounding, and final '_No_'."
"'Definite' and 'resounding,' yes. 'Final,' I won't accept. I'll wait."
"You'll wait a long time, Buster. My door will be locked from now on.
Good night, Doctor Garlock, I'm going to bed."
"So am I." He walked with her along the corridor to their rooms, the
doors of which were opposite each other. "In view of the Code, locking
your door is a meaningless gesture. Mine will remain unlocked. I invite
you to come in whenever you like, and assure you formally that no such
entry will be regarded as an invasion of privacy."
Without a word she went into her room and closed the door with a
firmness just short of violence. Her lock clicked sharply.
* * *
The next morning, after breakfast, James followed Garlock into his room
and shut the door.
"Clee, I want to tell you.... I don't want to get sloppy but...."
"Want to lep it?"
"Hell, no!"
"It's about Brownie, then."
"Uh-huh. I've always liked you immensely. Admired you. Hero, sort
of...."
"Yeah. I quote. 'Harder than Pharaoh's heart.' 'Colder than frozen
helium,' and all the rest. But this thing about Brownie...." He reached
out; two hard hands met in a crushing grip. "How could you possibly lay
off? Just the strain, if nothing else."
"A little strain doesn't hurt a man unless he lets it. I've done without
for months at a stretch, with it running around loose on all sides of
me."
"But she's so ... she's got _everything_!"
"There speaketh the ensorcelled bridegroom. For my taste, she hasn't.
She told you, I suppose, when explaining a certain fact, that I told her
she wasn't my type?"
"Yes, but...."
"She still isn't. She's a very fine person, with a very fine
personality. She is one of the two most nearly perfect young women of
her race. Her face is beautiful. Her body is an artist's dream. Her mind
is one of the very best. Besides all that, she's a very good egg and a
mighty tasty dish. But put yourself in my place.
* * *
"Here's this paragon we have just described. She has extremely high
ideals and she's a virgin; never really aroused. Also, she's so full of
this sickening crap they've been pouring into us--propaganda,
rocket-oil, prop-wash, and psychological gobbledygook--that it's running
out of her ears. She's so stuffed with it that she's going to pair with
you, ideals and virginity be damned, even if it kills her; even though
she's shaking, clear down to her shoes--scared yellow. Also, she is and
always will be scared half to death of you--she thinks you're some kind
of robot. She's a starry-eyed, soft-headed sissy. A sapadilla. A sucker
for a smooth line of balloon-juice and flapdoodle. No spine; no bottom.
A gutless doll-baby. Strictly a pet--you could no more love her, ever,
than you could a half-grown kitten...."
"That's a _hell_ of a picture!" James broke in savagely. "Even with your
cold-blooded reputation."
"People in love can't be objective, is all. If I saw her through the
same set of filters you do, I'd be in love with her, too. So let's see
if you can use your brain instead of your outraged sensibilities to
answer a hypothetical question. If the foregoing were true, what would
_you_ do, Junior?"
"I'd pass, I guess. I'd have to, if I wanted to look at myself in the
mirror next morning. But that's such an _ungodly_ cockeyed picture,
Clee.... But if that's actually your picture of Brownie--and you're no
part of a liar--just what kind of a woman could you love? If any?"
"Belle."
"_Belle_! Belle _Bellamy_? Hell's flaming furies! That iceberg? That
egomaniac? That Jezebel? She's the hardest-boiled babe that ever went
unhung."
"Right, on all counts. Also she's crooked and treacherous. She's a
ground-and-lofty liar by instinct and training. I could add a lot more.
But she's got brains, ability, and guts--guts enough to supply the
Women's Army Corps. She's got the spine and the bottom and the drive. So
just imagine her thawed out and really shoveling on the coal--blasting
wide open on all forty torches. Back to back with you when you're
surrounded; she wouldn't cave and she wouldn't give. Or wing and
wing--holding the beam come hell or space-warps. Roll that one around on
your tongue, Jim, and give your taste-buds a treat."
"Well, maybe ... if I've got that much imagination ... that's a tough
blueprint to read. I can't quite visualize the finished article.
However, you're as hard as she is--even harder. You've got more of what
it takes. Maybe _you_ can make a Christian out of her. If so, you might
have something; but I'm damned if I can see exactly what. Whatever it
turned out to be, I wouldn't care for any part of it. You could have it
all."
"Exactly; and you can have your Brownie."
"I'm beginning to see. I didn't think you had anything like that in your
chilled-steel carcass. And I want to apolo...."
"Don't do it, boy. If the time ever comes when _you_ go so soft on me as
to quit laying it on the line and start sifting out your language...."
Garlock paused. For one of the very few times in his life, he was at a
loss for words. He thrust his hands into his pockets and shrugged his
shoulders. "Hell, I don't want to get maudlin, either ... so ... well,
how many men, do you think, could have gone the route with me on this
hellish job without killing me or me killing them?"
"Oh, that's not...."
"Lay it on the line, Jim. I know what I am. Just one. You. One man in
six thousand million. Okay; how many women could live with me for a year
without going crazy?"
"Lots of 'em; but, being masochists, they'd probably drive _you_ nuts.
And you can't stand 'stupidity'; which, by definition, lets _everybody_
out. Nope, it's a tough order to fill."
"Check. She'd have to be strong enough and hard enough not to be afraid
of me, by any trace. Able and eager to stand up to me and slug it out.
To pin my ears back flat against my skull whenever she thinks I'm off
the beam. Do it with skill and precision and nicety, with power and
control; yet without doing herself any damage and without changing her
basic feeling for me. In short, a female Jim James Nine."
"Huh? Hell's blowtorches! You think _I'm_ like Belle Bellamy?"
"Not by nine thousand megacycles. Like Belle Bellamy could be and should
be. Like I hope she will be. I'd have to give, too, of course--maybe we
can make Christians out of each other. It's quite a dream, I admit, but
it'll be Belle or nobody. But I'm not used to slopping over this
way--let's go."
"I'm glad you did, big fellow--once in a lifetime is good for the soul.
I'd say you were in love with her right now--except that if you were,
you couldn't possibly dissect her like a specimen on the table, the way
you've just been doing. Are you or aren't you?"
"I'll be damned if I know. You and Brownie believe that the poets'
concept of love is valid. In fact, you make a case for its validity. I
never have, and don't now ... but under certain conditions ... I simply
don't know. Ask me again sometime; say in about a month?"
"That's the surest thing you know. Oh, _brother! This_ is a thing I'm
going to watch with my eyes out on stalks!"
* * *
For the next week, Belle locked her door every night. For another few
nights, she did not lock it. Then, one night, she left it ajar. The
following evening, the two again walked together to their doors.
"I left my door open last night."
"I know you did."
"Well?"
"And have you scream to high heaven that I opened it? And put me on a
tape for willful inurbanity? For deliberate intersexual invasion of
privacy?"
* * *
"Blast and damn! You know perfectly well, Clee Garlock, I wouldn't pull
such a dirty, lousy trick as that."
"Maybe I should apologize, then, but as a matter of fact I have no idea
whatever as to what you wouldn't do." He stared at her, his face hard in
thought. "As you probably know, I have had very little to do with women.
That little has always been on a logical level. You are such a
completely new experience that I can't figure out what makes you tick."
"So you're afraid of me," she sneered. "Is that it?"
"Close enough."
"And I suppose it's you that cartoonist what's-his-name is using as a
model for 'Timorous Timmy'?"
"Since you've guessed it, yes."
"You ... you _weasel_!" She took three quick steps up the corridor, then
back. "You say my logic is cockeyed. What system are you using now?"
"I'm trying to develop one to match yours."
"Oh ... I invited that one, I guess, since I know you aren't afraid of
God, man, woman, or devil ... and you're big enough so you don't have to
be proving it all the time." She laughed suddenly, her face softening
markedly. "Listen, you big lug. Why don't you ever knock me into an
outside loop? If I were you and you were me, I'd've busted me loose from
my front teeth long ago."
"I'm not sure whether I know better or am afraid to. Anyway, I'm not
rocking any boat so far from shore."
"Says you. You're wonderful, Clee--simply priceless. Do you know you're
the only man I ever met that I couldn't make fall for me like a rock
falling down a cliff? And that the falling is altogether too apt to be
the other way?"
"The first, I have suspected. The second is chemically-pure rocket-oil."
"I _hope_ it is.... I wish I could be as certain of it as you are....
You see, Clee, I really expected you to come in, last night, and there
really _wasn't_ any bone in it. Surely, you don't think I'm going to
_invite_ you into my room, do you?"
"I can't see why not. However, since no valid system of logic seems to
apply, I accept your decision as a fact. By the same reasoning--however
invalid--if I ask you again you will again refuse. So all that's left, I
guess, is for me to drag you into my room by force."
He put his left arm around her and applied a tiny pressure against her
side; under which she began to move slowly toward his door.
"You admit that you're using force?" she asked. Her face was unreadable;
her mental block was at its fullest force. "That I'm being coerced?
Definitely?"
"Definitely," he agreed. "At least ten dynes of sheer brute force. Not
enough to affect a tape, but enough, I hope, to affect you. If it isn't,
I'll use more."
"Oh, ten dynes is enough. Just so it's force."
She raised her face toward his and threw both arms around his neck. His
right arm went into action with his left, and Cleander Garlock forgot
all about dynes and tapes.
After a time she disengaged one arm; reached out; opened his door. He
gathered her up and, lips still locked to lips, carried her over the
threshold.
* * *
A few jumps later they met their first really old Arpalone. This
Inspector was so old that his skin, instead of the usual bright, clear
cobalt blue, was dull and tending toward gray. The old fellow was
strangely garrulous, for a Guardian; he wanted them to pause a while and
gossip.
"Yes, I am lonesome," he admitted. "It has been a long time since I
exchanged thoughts with anyone. You see, nobody has visited this
planet--Groobe, its name is--since almost all our humanity was killed, a
few periods ago...."
"Killed? How?" Garlock asked sharply. "Not Dilipic?"
"Oh, you have seen them? I never have, myself. No, nothing nearly that
bad. Merely the Ozobes. The world itself was scarcely harmed at all.
Rehabilitation will be a simple matter, so there's no real reason why
some of those Engineers...."
"The beast!" Lola shot a tight-beam thought at her husband. "Who cares
anything about the rock and dirt of a _planet_? It's the people that
count and his are dead and he's perfectly _complaisant_ about it--just
_lonesome_!"
"Don't let it throw you, pet," James soothed. "He's an Arpalone, you
know; not a sociological anthropologist."
"... shouldn't come out here and spend a few hours once in a while, but
they don't. Too busy with their own business, they say. But while you
are physically human, mentally you are not. You're all too ... too ... I
can't put my thought exactly on it, but ... more as though you were
human fighters, if such a thing could be possible."
"We are fighters. Where we come from, most human beings are fighters."
"Oh? I never heard of such a thing. Where can you be from?"
This took much explanation, since the Arpalone had never heard of
inter-galactic travel. "You are willing, then, to fight side by side
with us Arpalones against the enemies of humanity? You have actually
done so, at times, and won?"
"We certainly have."
"I am glad. I am expecting a call for help any time now. Will you please
give me enough of your mental pattern, Doctor Garlock, so that I can
call you in case of need? Thank you."
"What makes you think you're going to get an S.O.S. so soon? Where
from?"
"Because these Ozobe invasions come in cycles, years apart, but there
are always several planets attacked at very nearly the same time. We
were the first, this time; so there will be one or two others very
shortly."
"Do they always ... kill all the people?" Lola asked.
"Oh, no. Scarcely half of the time. Depends on how many fighters the
planet has, and how much outside help can get there soon enough."
"Your call could come from any of the other solar systems in this
neighborhood, then?" Garlock asked.
"Yes. There are fifteen inhabited planets within about six light-years
of us, and we form a close-knit group."
"What are these Ozobes?"
"Animals. Warm-blooded, but egg-layers, not mammals. Like this," and the
Inspector spread in their minds a picture of a creature somewhat like
the flying tigers of Hodell, except that the color was black, shading
off to iridescent green at the extremities. Also, it was armed with a
short and heavy, but very sharp, sting.
"They say that they come from space, but I don't believe it," the old
fellow went on. "What would a warm-blood be doing out in space? Besides,
they couldn't find anybody to lay their eggs in out there. No, sir, I
think they live right here on Groobe somewhere, maybe holed up in caves
or something for ten or thirteen years ... but that wouldn't make sense,
either, would it? I just don't know...."
* * *
Garlock finally broke away from the lonesome Inspector and the
_Pleiades_ started down.
"That's the most utterly _horrible_ thing I ever heard of in my life!"
Lola burst out. "Like wasps--only worse--_people_ aren't bugs! Why don't
all the planets get together and develop something to kill every Ozobe
in every system of the group?"
"That one has got too many bones in it for me to answer," James said.
"I'm going to get hold of that Engineer as soon as we land," Lola said,
darkly, "and stick a pin into him."
They found the Engineering Office easily enough, in a snug camp well
outside a large city. They grounded the starship and went out on foot;
enjoying contact with solid ground. The Head Engineer was an Arpalone,
too--Engineers were not a separate race, but dwellers on a planet of
extremely high technology--but he did know anything about space-drives.
His specialty was rehabilitation; he was top boss of a rehab crew....
* * *
Then Lola pushed Garlock aside. Yes, the Ozobes came from space. He was
sure of it. Yes, they laid eggs in human bodies. Yes, they probably
stayed alive quite a while--or might, except for the rehab crew. No, he
didn't _know_ what would hatch out--he'd never let one live that long,
but what the hell else _could_ hatch except Ozobes? No, not one. Not one
single damn one. If just one ever did, on any world where he bossed the
job, he'd lose his job as boss and go to the mines for half a year....
"Ridiculous!" Lola snapped. "If Ozobes hatched, they couldn't possibly
have come from space. If they _did_ come from space, the adult form
would have to be something able to get back into space, some way or
other. _That_ is simple elementary biology. Don't you see that?"
He didn't see it. He didn't give a damn, either. It was none of his
business; he was a rehab man.
Lola ran back to the ship in disgust.
"Something else is even more ridiculous, and _is_ your business," James
told the Head Engineer. "Garlock and I are both engineers--top ones. We
know definitely that a one-hundred-percent clean-up on such a job as
this--millions--simply can't be done. Ever. Under any conditions. Are
you lying in your teeth or are you dumb enough to believe it yourself?"
"Neither one," the Engineer insisted, stubbornly. "I've wondered,
myself, at how I could get 'em all, but I always do--every time so far.
That's why they give me the big job. I'm good at it."
"Oh--Lola's right, Jim," Garlock said. "It's the adult form that
hatches; something so different they don't even recognize it. Something
able to get into space. Enough survivors to produce the next
generation."
"Sure. I'll tell Brownie--she'll be tickled."
"She'll be more than tickled--she'll want to hunt up somebody around
here with three brain cells working and give 'em an earful." Then, to
the Engineer, "Do you know how they rehab a planet that's been leveled
flat by the golop?"
"You've _seen_ one? I never have, but of course I've studied it. Slow,
but not too difficult. After killing, the stuff weathers down in a few
years--wonderful soil it makes--what makes it slow is that you have to
wait fifty or a hundred years for the mountains to get built up again
and for the earthquakes to quit...."
"Excuse me, please--I've got a call--we have to leave, right now."
The call was from the Inspector. The nearest planet, Clamer, was being
invaded by the Ozobes and needed all the help they could get.
* * *
In seconds the _Pleiades_ was at the Port of Entry.
"Where is this Clamer?" Garlock asked.
The Inspector pointed a thought; all four followed it.
"Let's go, Jim. Maybe...."
"Just a minute!" Lola snapped. She was breathing hard, her eyes were
almost shooting sparks as she turned to the old Arpalone and drove a
thought so forcibly that he winced.
"Do you so-called 'Guardians of Humanity' care at all about the humanity
you're supposed to be protecting?" she demanded viciously, the thought
boring in and twisting, "or are you just loafing on the job and doing as
little as you possibly can without getting fired?"
Belle and Garlock looked at each other and grinned. James was surprised
and shocked. This woman blowing her top was no Brownie Montandon any of
them knew.
"We do everything we possibly can," the Inspector was not only shocked,
but injured and abused. "If there's any one possible thing we haven't
done, even the tiniest...."
"There's plenty!" she snapped. "Plain, dumb stupidity, then, it must be.
There must be _somebody_ around here who has been at least exposed to
elementary biology! You should have exterminated these Ozobe vermin ages
ago. All you have to do is find out what its life cycle is. How many
stages and what they are. How the adults get into space and where they
go," and she went on, in flashing thoughts, to explain in full detail.
"Are you smart enough to understand that?"
"Oh, yes. Your thought may be the truth, at that."
"And are you interested enough to find out whose business it would be,
and follow through on it?"
"Yes, of course. If it works, I'll be quite famous for suggesting it.
I'll give you part of the credit...."
"Keep the credit--just see to it that it gets _done_!" She whirled on
James. "This loss of human life is so _appallingly_ unnecessary! This
time we're going to Clamer, and nowhere else. Push the button, Jim."
"All I can do is set up for it, pet. Whether we...."
"We'll get there!" she blazed. "It's high time we got a break. _Punch_
it! _This_ time the ship's going to _Clamer_, if we have to all get out
and _push_ it there! Now punch that button!"
James pushed the button, glanced into his scanner, and froze; eyes
staring. He did not even whistle. Belle, however, did; with
ear-shattering volume. Garlock's mouth fell open in the biggest surprise
of his life. They were in the same galaxy!
All three had studied charts of nebular configurations so long and so
intensely that recognition of a full-sphere identity was automatic and
instantaneous.
Lola, head buried in scanner, had already checked in with the Port
Inspector.
"It _is_ Clamer!" she shrieked aloud. "I _told_ you it was time for our
luck to change, if we pulled hard enough! They are being invaded by
Ozobes and they did call for help and they didn't think we could
possibly get here this fast and we don't need to be inspected because
we're compatible or we couldn't have landed on Groobe!"
For five long minutes Garlock held the starship motionless while he
studied the entire situation. Then he drove a probe through the mental
shield of the general in charge of the whole defense operation.
"Battle-Cruiser _Pleiades_, Captain Garlock commanding, reporting for
duty in response to your S.O.S. received on Groobe."
The general, furiously busy as he was, dropped all other business. "But
you're _human_! You can't fight!"
"Watch us. You don't know, apparently, that the Ozobe bases are on the
far side of your moon. They're bringing their fighters in most of the
way in transports."
"Why, they can't be! They're coming in from all directions from deep
space!"
"That's what they want you to think. They're built to stand many hours
of zero pressure and almost absolute zero cold. Question: if we destroy
all their transport, say in three hours, can you handle all the fighters
who will be in the air or in nearby space at that time?"
"Very easily. They've hardly started yet. I appoint you Admiral-pro-tem
Garlock, in command of Space Operations, and will refer to you any other
space-fighters who may come. I thank you, sir. Good luck."
The general returned his attention to his boiling office. His mind was
seething with questions as to what these not-human beings were, how or
if they knew so much, and so on; but he forced them out of his mind and
went, fast and efficient, back to work. James shot the _Pleiades_ up to
within a thousand miles or so of the moon.
"How long does it take to learn this bombing business, Jim?" Lola asked.
"About fifteen seconds. All you have to do is _want_ to. Do you,
really?"
"I really do. If I don't do something to help these people," it did not
occur to her that she had already done a tremendous job, "I'll never
forgive myself."
James showed her; and, much to her surprise, she found it very easy to
do.
* * *
The vessels transporting the invading forces were huge, spherical shells
equipped with short-range drives--and with nothing else. No
accommodations, no facilities, no food, no water, not even any air. Each
transport, when filled to the bursting-point with as-yet-docile cargo,
darted away; swinging around to approach Clamer from some
previously-assigned direction. It did not, however, approach the
planet's surface. At about two thousand miles out, great ports opened
and the load was dumped out into space, to fall the rest of the way by
gravity. Then the empty shell, with only its one pilot aboard, rushed
back for another load.
"How heavy shots, Clee?" James asked. He and Lola were getting into
their scanners. "Wouldn't take as much as a kiloton equivalent, would
it?"
"Half a kilo is plenty, but no use being too fussy about precision out
here."
* * *
Garlock and Belle were already bombing; James and Lola began. Slow and
awkward at first, Lola soon picked up the technique and was firing blast
for blast with the others. No more loaded transport vessels left the
moon. No empty one, returning toward the moon, reached there. In much
less than the three hours Garlock had mentioned, every Ozobian transport
craft had been destroyed.
"And now the real job begins," Garlock said, as James dropped the
starship down to within a few miles of the moon's surface.
That surface was cratered and jagged, exactly like that of the half
always facing Clamer. No sign of activity could be seen by eye, nor
anything unusual. Even the immense trap-doors, all closed now, matched
exactly their surroundings. Underground, however, activity was violently
intense; and, now, confused in the extreme.
"Why, there isn't a single adult anywhere!" Lola exclaimed. "I thought
the whole place would be full of 'em!"
"So did I," Belle said. "However, by hindsight, it's plain enough. Their
job done, they were killed and eaten. Last meal, perhaps."
"I'm afraid so. Whatever they were, they had hands and brains. Just
_look_ at those shops and machines!"
"What do we do, boss?" James asked. "Run a search pattern first?"
"We'll have to, I guess, before we can lay the job out."
It was run and Garlock frowned in thought. "Almost half the moon
covered--honeycombed. We'll have to fine-tooth it. Around the periphery
first, then spiral into the center. This moon isn't very big, but even
so this is going to be a hell of a long job. Any suggestions, anybody?
Jim?"
"The only way, I guess. You can't do it hit-or-miss. I'm _damn_ glad
we've got plenty of stuff in our Op field and plenty of hydride for the
engines. The horses will all know they've been at work before they get
the field filled up again."
"So will you, Junior, believe me.... Ready, all? Start blasting."
Then, for three hours, the _Pleiades_ moved slowly--for her--along a
plotted and automatically-controlled course. It was very easy to tell
where she had been; the sharply-cut, evenly-spaced, symmetrical pits
left by the Galaxian's full-conversion blasts were entirely different
from the irregularly-cratered, ages-old original surface.
"Knock off, Brownie," Garlock said then. "Go eat all you can hold and
get some sleep. Come back in three hours. Jim, cut our speed to
seventy-five percent."
Lola shed her scanner, heaved a tremendous sigh of relief, and
disappeared.
Three silent hours later--all three were too intensely busy to think of
anything except the work in hand--Lola came back.
"Take Belle's swath, Brownie. Okay, Belle, you can lay off. Three
hours."
"I'll stay," Belle declared. "Go yourself; or send Jim."
"Don't be any more of a damn fool than you have to. I said beat it."
"And I said I wouldn't. I'm just as good...."
"Chop it off!" Garlock snapped. "It isn't a case of being just as good
as. It's a matter of physical reserves. Jim and I have more to draw on
for the long shifts than you have. So get the hell out of here or I'll
stop the ship and slap you even sillier than you are now."
Belle threw up her head, tossing her shoulder-length green mop in her
characteristic gesture of defiance; but after holding Garlock's hard
stare for a moment she relaxed and smiled.
"Okay, Clee--and thanks for the kind words."
She disappeared and the work went on.
And finally, when all four were so groggy that they could scarcely
think, the job was done and checked. Clamer's moon was as devoid of life
as any moon had ever been.
* * *
Lola pitched her scanner at its rack and threw herself face-down on a
davenport, sobbing uncontrollably. James sat down beside her and soothed
her until she quieted down.
"You'd better eat something, sweetheart, and then for a good, long
sleep."
"Eat? Why, I couldn't, Jim, not possibly."
"Let her sleep first, I think, Jim," Belle said, and followed with her
eyes as Jim picked his wife up and carried her into the corridor.
"We'd better eat _something_, I suppose," Belle said, thoughtfully. "I
don't feel like eating, either, but I never realized until this minute
just how much this has taken out of me and I'd better start putting it
back in.... She did a wonderful job, Clee, even if she couldn't take it
full shift toward the last."
"I'll say she did. I hated like the devil to let her work that way, but
... you knew I was scared witless every second until we topped off."
Exhausted and haggard as she was, Belle laughed. "I know damn-blasted
well you weren't; but I know what you mean. Fighting something you don't
know anything about, and can't guess what may happen next, is tough.
Seconds count." Side by side, they strolled toward the alcove.
"I simply didn't think she had it in her," Belle marveled.
"She didn't. She hasn't. It'll take her a week to get back into shape."
"Right. She was going on pure nerve at the last--nothing else ... but
she did a job, and she's so sweet and fine.... I wonder, Clee, if ... if
I've been missing the boat...."
"You have not." Garlock sent the thought so solidly that Belle jumped.
"If you'd just let yourself be, you'd be worth a million of her, just as
you stand."
"Yes? You lie in your teeth, Cleander, but I love it.... Oh, I don't
know what I want to eat--if anything."
"I'll think up yours, too, along with mine."
"Please. Something light, and just a little."
"Yeah. Sit down. Just a light snack--a two-pound steak, rare; a bowl of
mushrooms fried in butter; French fries, french dips, salad, and a quart
of coffee. The same for me, except more of each. Here we are."
"Why, Clee, I couldn't _possibly_ eat half of that...." Then, after a
quarter of it was gone, "I _am_ hungry, at that--simply ravenous. I
could eat a horse and saddle, and chase the rider."
"That's what I thought. I knew I could, and figured you accordingly."
* * *
They ate those tremendous meals slowly, enjoying every bite and sip; in
an atmosphere of friendliness and good fellowship; chatting on a wide
variety of subjects as they ate. Neither was aware of the fact that this
was the first time they had ever been on _really_ friendly terms. And
finally every dish and container was empty, almost polished clean.
"One hundred percent capacity--can chew but can't swallow," Garlock said
then, lighting two cigarettes and giving Belle one. "How's that for a
masterly job of calibration?"
"Me, too. It'll pass." Belle sighed in repletion. "Your ability to
estimate the exact capacity of containers is exceeded only by your good
looks and by the size of your feet. And now to hit the good old sack for
an indefinite but very long period of time."
"You chirped it, birdie." Still eminently friendly, the two walked
together to their doors. Belle put up a solid block and paused,
irresolute, twisting the toe of one slipper into the carpet.
"Clee, I ... I wonder ... if...." Her voice died away.
"I know what you mean." He put his arms around her gently, tenderly, and
looked deep into her eyes. "I want to tell you something, Belle. You're
a woman, not in seven thousand million women, but in that many planets
full of women. What it takes, you very definitely and very abundantly
have got. And you aren't the only one that's pooped. I don't need
company tonight, either. I'm going to sleep until I wake up, if it takes
all day. Or say, if you wake up first, why not punch me and we'll have
breakfast together?"
"That's a thought. Do the same for me. Good night, Clee."
"Good night, ace." He kissed her, as gently as he had been holding her,
opened her door, closed it after her, and stepped across the corridor
into his own room.
"_What_ a man!" Belle breathed to herself, behind the solid screens of
her room. "He thought I was too tired, not just scared to death too.
What a _man_! Belle Bellamy, you ought to be kicked from here to
Tellus...." Then she threw back her head, drove a hard little fist into
a pillow, and spoke aloud through clenched teeth. "No, damn and blast
it, I _won't_ give in. I _won't_ love him. I'll take the Project away
from him if it's the last thing I ever do in this life!"
* * *
She woke up the next morning--not morning, either, since it was well
after noon--a little before Garlock did, but not much. When she went
into his room he was shaved and fully dressed except for one shoe, which
he was putting on.
"Hi, boss! Better we eat, huh? Not only am I starving by inches, but if
we don't eat pretty quick we'll get only one meal today instead of
three. Did you eat your candy bar?"
"I sure did, ace."
"Oh, I'm still 'ace'? You can kiss me, then," and she raised her face
toward his.
He kissed her, still tenderly, and they strolled to and through the Main
and into the alcove. James and Lola, the latter looking terribly
strained and worn, had already eaten, but joined them in their
after-breakfast coffee and cigarettes.
"You've checked, of course," Garlock said. "Everything on the beam?"
"Dead center. Even to Lola and her biologists. Everybody's full of joy
and gratitude and stuff--as well as information. And we managed to pry
ourselves loose without waking you two trumpet-of-doom sleepers up. So
we're ready to jump again. I wonder where in _hell_ we'll wind up _this_
time."
"I'm glad you said that, Jim." Garlock said. "It gives me the nerve to
spring a thing on you that I've been mulling around in my mind ever
since we landed here."
"Nerve? You?" James asked, incredulously. "Pass the coffee-pot around
again, Brownie. If that character there said what I heard him say,
this'll make your hair stand straight up on end."
"On our jumps we've had altogether too much power and no control
whatever...." Garlock paused in thought.
"Like a rookie pitcher," Belle suggested.
"Uh-uh," Lola objected. "It _couldn't_ be that wild. He'd have to stand
with his back to the plate and pitch the ball over the center-field
stands and seven blocks down-town."
"Cut the persiflage, you two," Garlock ordered. "Consider three things.
First, as you all know, I've been trying to figure out a generator that
would give us intrinsic control, but I haven't got any farther with it
than we did back on Tellus. Second, consider all the jumps we've made
except this last one. Every time we've taken off, none of us has had his
shield really up. You, Jim, were concentrating on the drive, and so were
wide open to it. The rest of us were at least thinking about it, and so
were more or less open to it. Not one of us has ever ordered it to take
us to any definite place; in fact, I don't believe that anyone of us has
ever even suggested a destination. Each one of us has been thinking, at
the instant of energization of the fields, exactly what you just said,
and with exactly the same emphasis.
"Third, consider this last jump all by itself. It's the first time we've
ever stayed in the same galaxy. It's the first time we've ever gone
where we wanted to. And it's the first time--here's the crux, as I see
it--that any of us has been concentrating on any destination at the
moment of firing the charge. Brownie was willing the _Pleiades_ to this
planet so hard that we all could taste it. The rest of us, if not really
pushing to get here, were at least not opposed to the idea. Check?"
"Check." "That's right." "Yes, I was pushing with all my might," came
from the three listeners, and James went on:
"Are you saying the damn thing's _alive_?"
"No. I'm saying I don't believe in miracles. I don't believe in
coincidence--that concept is as meaningless as that of paradox. I
certainly do _not_ believe that we hit this planet by chance against
odds of almost infinity to one. So I've been looking for a reason. I
found one. It goes against my grain--against everything I've ever
believed--but, since it's the only possible explanation, it must be
true. The only possible director of the Gunther Drive _must_ be the
mind."
"Hell's blowtorches--Now you're _insisting_ that the damn thing's
alive."
"Far from it. It's Brownie who's alive. It was Brownie who got us here.
Nothing else--repeat, _nothing_ else--makes sense."
James pondered for a full minute. "I wouldn't buy it except for one
thing. If you, the hardest-boiled skeptic that ever went unhung, can
feed yourself the whole bowl of such a mess as that, I can at least take
a taste of it. Shoot."
"Okay. You know that we don't know anything really fundamental about
either teleportation or the drive. I'm sure now that the drive is simply
mechanical teleportation. If you tried to 'port yourself without any
idea of where you wanted to go, where do you think you'd land?"
"You might scatter yourself all over space--no, you wouldn't. You
wouldn't move, because it wouldn't be teleportation at all. Destination
is an integral part of the concept."
"Exactly so--but only because you've been conditioned to it all your
life. This thing hasn't been conditioned to anything."
"Like a new-born baby," Lola suggested.
"Life again," James said. "I can't see it--too many bones in it. Pure
luck, even at those odds, makes a lot more sense."
"And to make matters worse," Garlock went on as though neither of them
had spoken. "Just suppose that a man had four minds instead of one and
they weren't working together. Then where would he go?"
This time, James simply whistled; the girls stared, speechless.
"I think we've proved that my school of mathematics was right--the thing
was built to operate purely at random. Fotheringham was wrong. However,
I missed the point that if control is possible, the controller must be a
mind. Such a possibility never occurred to me or anyone working with me.
Or to Fotheringham or to anybody else."
"I can't say I'm sold, but it's easy to test and the results can't be
any worse. Let's go."
"How would you test it?"
"Same way you would. Only way. First, each one of us alone. Then pairs
and threes. Then all four together. Fifteen tests in all. No. Three
destinations for each set-up; near, medium, and far. Except Tellus, of
course; we'd better save that shot until we learn all we can find out.
Everybody not in the set should screen up as solidly as they can set
their blocks--eyes shut, even, and concentrating on something else.
Check?"
James did not express the thought that Tellus must by now be so far away
that no possible effort could reach it; but he could not repress the
implication.
"Check. I'll concentrate on a series of transfinite numbers. Belle, you
work on the possible number of shades of the color green. Lola, on how
many different perfumes you can identify by smell. Jim, hit the button."