Van Elling was fired without prejudice, but I knew he'd have some time
trying to get back into the service after the publicity of the trial.
Collins was held over for a higher review of his case on the
possibility that his background was subversive. I was sure they'd find
some capitalistic group he'd belonged to briefly in college.
I was back on Mars when I got word through the new pilot that Horse
had never been brought before the higher tribunal. Somewhere, Van had
managed to buy an obsolete, atomic two seater, and Horse had broken out
of Embardo. The two of them had been seen by one of the Gideon ships a
few million miles beyond Galaxy E.
Typical fullback thinking--that--taking off into space. If he'd wanted
to hide, Earth was the place for it. Where could he get to with a clunk
of a two seater? He was a navigator, granted. But he'd have to have
something worthwhile to navigate.
Both the new pilot and the new robot master were young and properly
respectful, space-dedicated boys, and my life, I knew, was going to be
pleasant. And once I had mastered navigation, I was going to be damned
near irreplaceable.
As we bored through space on the old familiar run, the thought came to
me that probably Horse would head for his asteroid, and if he should
make it, wouldn't that be something? Two men and one girl. I wonder how
long Van would live.
Van was no fullback, nor a reasonably accurate facsimile thereof.
Unless he had a weapon, he'd be no match for Horse.
The image of the girl came back to haunt me. I knew there'd been an
expedition or two lost in asteroid alley on early exploratory trips,
but they hadn't carried women. And her face was familiar.
I went to a library and thumbed through some old newsprints. Of course!
The photograph fairly leapt at me. Elsbeth Parrish, the science
hater, the woman who'd gone on a lecture tour ridiculing the powers
that be, making converts first in the women's schools and then in the
co-educational institutions. The 'Live for Love' girl, Elsbeth Parrish.
Naturally the government had cracked down and tried to deport her to
Mars. She'd disappeared a week before the trial, and one of those old
Interplan Rocket Sedans had disappeared with her. The government had
given her up as lost in space.
* * * * *
I could understand now why Horse had made the confession at his trial
and why he'd been so submissive on the return trip from Jupiter. He'd
tricked me into swearing there was no life on the asteroid. And now he
could safely head there, because I was the one man alive besides him
and Van Elling who knew there _was_ life there, and my future depended
on my not revealing it.
But could he make it in an atomic two seater? And two men for one
woman--if he did make it? I had to know the answer.
When we came into asteroid alley, I had the scanner's magnification
on at full strength, and I also had the automatic scanning control
adjusted to the orbits I wanted. Even Horse Collins couldn't have
pin-pointed it any better.
I wish I'd missed it. For both of them were there, Horse and Van,
looking up my way and smiling, too. The slobs. There wasn't _one_ woman
there. There were three, all beautiful.
_Two_ men and _three_ women.
The dirty, science-hating sons.