"We couldn't even get part way back in a lifetime," he said.
"How old are you, John?"
"Twenty-eight."
"What about me?"
"Thirty." He stared at the panel in thought for a minutes. "What about
shock treatment? It sounds risky."
"I know. It's the only thing I could think of. Why didn't everyone
react the same?"
"That had me wondering for a while. I don't know. Anyway how could you
go about making her remember?"
"Throw a crisis, some situation at her, I guess."
He shrugged, letting his sure hands rest on the panel of dials. I
headed back towards the lab. If I could help her I might help myself.
I was past the rooms when the horn blasted through the corridor. I
turned automatically with the sound, pushing against the rail, towards
the control room. Deep in my mind I could see danger, and without
questioning why I knew I had to be at Control when the sound knifed
through the stillness. John was shouting as I thrust my way into the
room.
"Turn the ship. There's something dead ahead."
I had a glimpse of his contorted face as I dove at the control board.
My hands hit buttons, thumbed a switch and then a sudden force threw me
to the right. I slammed into the panel on the right, as the pressure
of the change dimmed my vision. Reflex made me look up at the radar
control screen.
It wasn't operating.
John let go of the padded chair, grinning weakly. I was busy for a few
seconds, feeding compensation into the gyros. Relief flooded through me
like warm liquid. I hung on the intercom for support, drawing air into
my heaving lungs.
"What--made you--think of that," I asked weakly.
"Shock treatment."
"I must have acted on instinct."
"You did. Even for a sick man that was pretty fast," he laughed.
"I can think again, John. I know who I am," I shouted. I threw my arms
around his massive shoulders. "You did it."
"You gave me the idea, Mister, talking about Dr. Thiesen."
"It worked. I'm okay," I said in giddy relief.
"I don't have to tell you I was scared as hell. I wish you could have
seen your face, the look in your eyes when I woke up."
"I wouldn't want to wake up like that again."
"You're all right now?" he asked. I grinned and nodded an answer. I saw
John as he was at the base, big and competent, sweating in the blazing
sun.
I thought about the rest of the crew too. "We're heading right for a
star...."
"It's been dead ahead for hours," he grunted. I leaned over and threw
the intercom to open. "This is control. Listen ... everyone. I'm over
it. Disregard the warning siren ... we were testing the ship."
The lab light blinked on as Paul cut in. "What was it ... hey, you said
you're all right."
"John did it. He hit the alarm figuring I would react. Listen, Paul. Is
any one hurt?"
"No. Carl is here too. His stomach flopped again but he's okay. What
about food. We're supposed to be checked before we eat."
"We'll have to go ahead without it. Any change?"
"No, I put her to bed. Shall I bring food?"
I glanced at John. He rubbed his stomach. "Yes," I answered. "Bring it
when you can. I've got to find out where we are."
We had to get off course before we ran into the yellow-white star that
had been picked for us. Food was set down by me, grew cold and was
carried away and I was still rechecking the figures. We were on a line
ten degrees above the galactic plane. The parallactic baseline from
Earth to the single star could be in error several degrees, or we could
be right on the calculated position of the star. The radar confirmed
my findings ... and my worst fears. When we set it for direction and
distance, the screen glowed to life and recorded the star dead ahead.
In all the distant star clusters, only this G type star was thought to
have a planetary system like our own. We were out on a gamble to find
a planet capable of supporting life. The idea had intrigued scientists
before I had first looked up at the night sky. When I was sure the
electronically recorded course was accurate for time, I checked
direction and speed from the readings and plotted our position. If I
was right we were much closer than we wanted to be. The bright pips on
the screen gave us the distance and size of the star while we fed the
figures into the calculator for our rate of approach.
Spectroscopic tests were run on the sun and checked against the figures
that had been calculated on Earth. We analyzed temperature, magnetic
fields, radial motion, density and luminosity, checking against the
standards the scientists had constructed. It was a G type star like our
own. It had more density and temperature and suitable planets or not,
we had to change course in a hurry. Carl analyzed the findings while we
came to a decision. Somewhere along an orbit that might be two hundred
miles across, our hypothetical planet circled this star. That distance
was selected when the planets in Earth's solar system had proved to be
barren. If the observations on this star were correct, we could expect
to find a planet in a state of fertility ... if it existed ... if it
were suitable for colonization ... if we could find it.
* * * * *
"So far, so good," said Carl as he laid the papers down.
"What's your guess about planets?"