"I'm glad you do, Allen."
"It's a funny place, but I like it. The station and all its wacky
inhabitants. They're heterodox as the very devil and would have trouble
getting a dog catcher's job back home, but they're all refreshing."
Lancaster snapped his fingers. "Say, that's it! That's why you're all
out here. The government needs your talents, and you aren't quite
trusted, so you're put here out of range of spies. Right?"
"Do you have to see a rebel with notebook in hand under every bed?" she
asked with a hint of weariness. "The First Amendment hasn't been
repealed yet, they say. Theoretically we're all entitled to our own
opinions."
"Okay, okay, I won't argue politics. Tell me about some of the people
here, will you? They're an odd bunch."
"I can't tell you much, Allen. That's where Security does apply.
Isaacson is a Martian colonist, you've probably guessed that already.
Jessup lost his hand in a--a fight with some enemies once. The Dufreres
had a son who was killed in the Moroccan incident." Lancaster remembered
that that affair had involved American power used to crush a French spy
ring centered in North Africa. Sovereignty had been brushed aside. But
damn it, you had to preserve the status quo, for your own survival if
nothing else. "Hwang had to go into exile when the Chinese government
changed hands a few years back. I--"
"Yes?" he asked when her voice faded out.
"Oh, I might as well tell you. My husband and I lived in America after
our marriage. He was a good biotechnician and had a job with one of the
big pharmaceutical companies. Only he--went to camp. Later he died or
was shot, I don't know which." Her words were flat.
"That's a shame," he said inadequately.
"The funny part of it is, he wasn't engaged in treason at all. He was
quite satisfied with things as they were--oh, he talked a little, but so
does everybody. I imagine some rival or enemy put the finger on him."
"Those things happen," said Lancaster. "It's too bad, but they happen."
"They're bound to occur in a police state," she said. "Sorry. We weren't
going to argue politics, were we?"
"I never said the world was perfect, Karen. Far from it. Only what
alternative have we got? Any change is likely to be so dangerous
that--well, man can't afford mistakes."
"No, he can't. But I wonder if he isn't making one right now. Oh, well.
Give me another beer."
They talked on indifferent subjects till Karen said it was her bedtime.
Lancaster escorted her to her apartment. She looked at him curiously as
he said good night, and then went inside and closed the door. Lancaster
had trouble getting to sleep.
* * * * *
The corrected equations provided an adequate theory of
super-dielectricity--a theory with tantalizing hints about still other
phenomena--and gave the research team a precise idea of what they wanted
in the way of crystal structure. Actually, the substance to be formed
was only semi-crystalline, with plastic features as well, all interwoven
with a grid of carbon-linked atoms. Now the trick was to produce that
stuff. Calculation revealed what elements would be needed, and what
spatial arrangement--only how did you get the atoms to assume the
required configuration and hook up in the right way?
Theory would get you only so far, thereafter it was cut and try.
Lancaster rolled up his sleeves with the rest and let Karen take over
the leadership--she was the best experimenter. He spent some glorious
and all but sleepless weeks, greasy, dirty, living in a jungle of
haywired apparatus with a restless slide rule. There were plenty of
failures, a lot of heartbreak and profanity, an occasional injury--but
they kept going, and they got there.
The day came--or was it the night?--when Karen took a slab of darkly
shining substance out of the furnace where it had been heat-aging.
Rakkan sawed it into several chunks for testing. It was Lancaster who
worked on the electric properties.
He applied voltage till his generator groaned, and watched in awe as
meters climbed and climbed without any sign of stopping. He discharged
the accumulated energy in a single blue flare that filled the lab with
thunder and ozone. He tested for time lag of an electric signal and
wondered wildly if it didn't feel like sleeping on its weary path.
The reports came in, excited yells from one end of the long, cluttered
room to the other, exultant whoops and men pounding each other on the
back. This was it! This was the treasure at the rainbow's end.
* * * * *
The substance and its properties were physically and chemically stable
over a temperature range of hundreds of degrees. The breakdown voltage
was up in the millions. The insulation resistance was better than the
best known to Earth's science.
The dielectric constant could be varied at will by a simple electric
field normal to the applied voltage gradient--a field which could be
generated by a couple of dry cells if need be--and ranged from a hundred
thousand to about three billion. For all practical purposes, here was
the ultimate dielectric.
"We did it!" Friedrichs slapped Lancaster's back till it felt that the
ribs must crack. "We have it!"
"Whooppee!" yelled Karen.
Suddenly they had joined hands and were dancing idiotically around the
induction furnace. Lancaster clasped Rakkan's talons without caring that
it was a Martian. They sang then, sang till heads appeared at the door
and the glassware shivered.
_Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush--_
It called for a celebration. The end of a Project meant no more than
filing a last report and waiting for the next assignment, but they ran
things differently out here. Somebody broke out a case of Venusian
aguacaliente. Somebody else led the way to a storeroom, tossed its
contents into the hall, and festooned it with used computer tape.
Rakkan forgot his Martian dignity and fiddled for a square dance, with
Isaacson doing the calling. The folk from the other end of the station
swarmed in till the place overflowed. It was quite a party.
Hours later, Lancaster was hazily aware of lying stretched on the floor.
His head was in Karen's lap and she was stroking his hair. The hardy
survivors were following the Dufreres in French drinking songs, which
are the best in the known universe. Rakkan's fiddle wove in and out, a
lovely accompaniment to voices that were untrained but made rich and
alive by triumph.
_"Sur ma tomb' je veux qu'on inscrive:
'Ici-git le roi des buveurs.'
Sur ma tomb' je veux qu'on inscrive:
'Ici-git le roi des buveurs.
Ici-git, oui, oui, oui,
Ici-git, non, non, non--'"_
Lancaster knew that he had never been really happy before.
* * * * *
Berg showed up a couple of days later, looking worried. Lancaster's
vacation time was almost up. When he heard the news, his eyes snapped
gleefully and he pumped the physicist's hand. "Good work, boy!"
"There are things to clean up yet," said Lancaster, "but it's all
detail. Anybody can do it."
"And the material--what do you call it, anyway?"
Karen grinned. "So far, we've only named it _ffuts_," she said. "That's
'stuff' spelled backward."
"Okay, okay. It's easy to manufacture?"
"Sure. Now that we know how, anybody can make it in his own home--if
he's handy at tinkering apparatus together."
"Fine, fine! Just what was needed. This is the ticket." Berg turned back
to Lancaster. "Okay, boy, you can pack now. We blast again in a few
hours."
The physicist shuffled his feet. "What are my chances of getting
re-assigned back here?" he asked. "I've liked it immensely. And now that
I know about it anyway--"
"I'll see. I'll see. But remember, this is top secret. You go back to
your regular job and don't say a word on this to anyone less than the
President--no matter what happens, understand?"
"Of course," snapped Lancaster, irritated. "I know my duty."
"Yeah, so you do." Berg sighed. "So you do."
Leavetaking was tough for all concerned. They had grown fond of the
quiet, bashful man--and as for him, he wondered how he'd get along
among normal people. These were his sort. Karen wept openly and kissed
him good-bye with a fervor that haunted his dreams afterward. Then she
stumbled desolately back to her quarters. Even Berg looked glum.
He regained his cockiness on the trip home, though, and insisted on
talking all the way. Lancaster, who wanted to be alone with his
thoughts, was annoyed, but you don't insult a Security man.
"You understand the importance of this whole business, and why it has to
be secret?" nagged Berg. "I'm not thinking of the scientific and
industrial applications, but the military ones."
"Oh, sure. You can make lightning throwers if you want to. And you've
overcome the fuel problem. With a few _ffuts_ accumulators, charged from
any handy power source, you can build fuelless military vehicles, which
would simplify your logistics immensely. And some really deadly hand
guns could be built--pistols the equivalent of a cannon, almost."
Lancaster's voice was dead. "So what?"
"So plenty! Those are only a few of the applications. If you use your
imagination, you can think of dozens more. And the key point is--the
_ffuts_ and the essential gadgetry using it are cheap to make in
quantity, easy to handle--the perfect weapon for the citizen soldier. Or
for the rebel! It isn't enough to decide the outcome of a war all by
itself, but it may very well be precisely the extra element which will
tip the military balance against the government. And I've already
discussed what that means."
"Yes, I remember. That's your department, not mine. Just let me forget
about it."
"You'd better," said Berg.
* * * * *
In the month after his return, Lancaster lived much as usual. He was
scolded a few times for an increasing absent-mindedness and a lack of
enthusiasm on the Project, but that wasn't too serious. He became more
of an introvert than ever. Having some difficulty with getting to sleep,
he resorted to soporifics and then, in a savage reaction, to stimulants.
But outwardly there was little to show the turmoil within him.
He didn't know what to think. He had always been a loyal citizen--not a
fanatic, but loyal--and it wasn't easy for him to question his own basic
assumptions. But he had experienced something utterly alien to what he
considered normal, and he had found the strangeness more congenial--more
human in every way--than the norm. He had breathed a different
atmosphere, and it couldn't but seem to him that the air of Earth was
tainted. He re-read Kipling's _Chant-Pagan_ with a new understanding,
and began to search into neglected philosophies. He studied the news in
detail, and his critical eye soon grew jaundiced--did this editorial or
that feature story have any semantic content at all, or was it only a
tom-tom beat of loaded connotations? The very statements of fact were
subject to doubt--they should be checked against other accounts, or
better yet against direct observation; but other accounts were forbidden
and there was no chance to see for himself.
He took to reading seditious pamphlets with some care, and listened to a
number of underground broadcasts, and tried clumsily to sound out those
of his acquaintances whom he suspected of rebellious thoughts. It all
had to be done very cautiously, with occasional nightmare moments when
he thought he was being spied on; and was it right that a man should be
afraid to hear a dissenting opinion?
He wondered what his son was doing. It occurred to him that modern
education existed largely to stultify independent thought.
At the same time, he was unable to discard the beliefs of his whole
life. Sedition was sedition and treason was treason--you couldn't evade
that fact. There were no more wars--plenty of minor clashes, but no real
wars. There was a stable economy, and nobody lacked for the essentials.
The universal state might be a poor solution to the problems of a time
of troubles, but it was nevertheless a solution. Change would be
unthinkably dangerous.
Dangerous to whom? To the entrenched powers and their jackals. But the
oppressed peoples of Earth had nothing to lose, really, except their
lives, and many of them seemed quite willing to sacrifice those. Did the
rights of man stop at a full belly, or was there more?
He tried to take refuge in cynicism. After all, he was well off. He was
a successful jackal. But that wouldn't work either. He required a more
basic philosophy.
One thing that held him back was the thought that if he became a rebel,
he would be pitted against his friends--not only those of Earth, but
that strange joyous crew out in space. He couldn't see fighting against
them.
Then there was the very practical consideration that he hadn't the
faintest idea of how to contact the underground even if he wanted to.
And he'd make a hell of a poor conspirator.
He was still in an unhappy and undecided whirlpool when the monitors
came for him.
* * * * *
They knocked on the door at midnight, as was their custom, and he felt
such an utter panic that he could barely make it across the apartment to
let them in. The four burly men wavered before his eyes, and there was a
roaring and a darkness in his head. They arrested him without ceremony
on suspicion of treason, which meant that habeas corpus and even the
right of trial didn't apply. Two of them escorted him to a car, the
other two stayed to search his dwelling.
At headquarters, he was put in a cell and left to stew for some hours.
Then a pair of men in the uniform of the federal police led him to a
questioning chamber. He was given a chair and a smiling, soft-voiced
man--almost fatherly, with his plump cheeks and white hair--offered him
a cigarette and began talking to him.
"Just relax, Dr. Lancaster. This is pretty routine. If you've nothing to
hide then you've nothing to fear. Just tell the truth."
"Of course." It was a dry whisper.
"Oh, you're thirsty. So sorry. Alec, get Dr. Lancaster a glass of water,
will you, please? And by the way, my name is Harris. Let's call this a
friendly conference, eh?"
Lancaster drank avidly. Harris' manner was disarming, and the physicist
felt more at ease. This was--well, it was just a mistake. Or maybe a
simple spot check. Nothing to fear. He wouldn't be sent to camp--not he.
Such things happened to other people, not to Allen Lancaster.
"You've been immunized against neoscop?" asked Harris.
"Yes. It's routine for my rank and over, you know. In case we should
ever be kidnapped--but why am I telling _you_ this?" Lancaster tried to
smile. His face felt stiff.
"Hm. Yes. Too bad."
"Of course, I've no objection at all to your using a lie detector on
me."
"Fine, fine." Harris beamed and gestured to one of the expressionless
policemen. A table was wheeled forth, bearing the instrument. "I'm glad
you're so cooperative, Dr. Lancaster. You've no idea how much trouble
it saves me--and you."
They ran a few harmless calibrating questions. Then Harris said, still
smiling, "And now tell me, Dr. Lancaster. Where were you really this
summer?"
Lancaster felt his heart leap into his throat, and knew in a sudden
terror that the dials were registering his reaction. "Why--I took my
vacation," he stammered. "I was in the Southwest--"
"Mmmm--the machine doesn't quite agree with you." Harris remained
impishly cheerful.
"But it's _true_! You can check back and--"
"There are such things as doubles, you know. Come, come, now, let's not
waste the whole night. We both have many other things to do."
"I--look." Lancaster gulped down his panic and tried to speak calmly.
"Suppose I am lying. The machine should tell you that I'm not doing so
out of disloyalty. There are things I can't tell anyone without
clearance. Like if you asked me about my work on the Project--I can't
tell you that. Why don't you check through regular Security channels?
There was a man named Berg--at least he called himself that. You'll find
that it's all perfectly okay with Security."
"You can tell me anything," said Harris gently.
"I can't tell you this. Not anybody short of the President." Lancaster
caught himself. "Of course, that's assuming that I did really spend the
summer for something other than my vacation. But--"
Harris sighed. "I was afraid of this. I'm sorry, Lancaster." He nodded
to his policemen. "Go ahead, boys."
* * * * *
Lancaster kept sliding into unconsciousness. They jolted him back to
life with stimulant injections and vigorous slaps and resumed working on
him. Now and then they would let up and Harris' face would swim out of a
haze of pain, smiling, friendly, sympathetic, offering him a smoke or a
shot of whiskey. Lancaster sobbed and wanted more than anything else in
the world to do as that kindly man asked. But he didn't dare. He knew
what happened to those who revealed state secrets.
Finally he was thrown back into his cell and left to himself. When he
recovered from his faint--that was a very slow process--he had no idea
of how many hours or days had gone by. There was a water tap in the room
and he drank thirstily, vomited the liquid up again, and sat with his
head in his hands.
So far, he thought dully, they hadn't done too much to him. He was short
several teeth, and there were some broken fingers and toes, and maybe a
floating kidney. The other bruises, lacerations, and burns would heal
all right if they got the chance.
Only they wouldn't.
He wondered vaguely how Security had gotten onto his track. Berg's
precautions had been very thorough. So thorough, apparently, that Harris
could find no trace of what had really happened that summer, and was
going only on suspicion. But what had made him suspicious in the first
place? An anonymous tip-off--from whom? Maybe some enemy, some rival on
the Project, had chosen this way of getting rid of his sector chief.
In the end, Lancaster thought wearily, he'd tell. Why not do it now?
Then--probably--he'd only be shot for betraying Berg's confidence. That
would be the easy way out.
No. He'd hang on for awhile yet. There was always a faint chance.
His cell door opened and two guards came in. He was past flinching from
them, but he had to be supported on his way to the questioning room.
Harris sat there, still smiling. "How do you do, Dr. Lancaster," he said
politely.
"Not so well, thank you." The grin hurt his face.
"I'm sorry to hear that. But really, it's your own fault. You know
that."
"I can't tell you anything," said Lancaster. "I'm under Security oath. I
can't speak of this to anyone below the President."
Harris looked annoyed. "Don't you think the President has better things
to do than come running to every enemy of the state that yaps after
him?"
"There's been some mistake, I tell you," pleaded Lancaster.
"I'll say there has. And you're the one that's made it. Go ahead, boys."
Harris picked up a magazine and started reading.
* * * * *
After awhile, Lancaster focused his mind on Karen Marek and kept it
there. That helped him bear up. If they knew, out in the station, what
was happening to him, they--well, they wouldn't forget him, try to
pretend they'd never known him, as the little fearful people of Earth
did. They'd speak up, and do their damnedest to save their friend.
The blows seemed to come from very far away. They didn't do things like
this out in the station. Lancaster realized the truth at that moment,
but it held no surprise. The most natural thing in the world. And now,
of course, he'd never talk.
Maybe.
When he woke up, there was a man before him. The face blurred, seemed to
grow to monstrous size and then move out to infinite distances. The
voice of Harris had a ripple in it, wavering up and down, up and down.
"All right, Lancaster, here's the President. Since you insist, here he
is."
"Go ahead, American," said the man. "Tell me. It's your duty."
"No," said Lancaster.
"But I am the President. You wanted to see me."
"Most likely a double. Prove your identity."
The man who looked like the President sighed and turned away.
* * * * *
Lancaster woke up again lying on a cot. He must have been brought awake
by a stimulant, for a white-coated figure was beside him, holding a
hypodermic syringe. Harris was there too, looking exasperated.
"Can you talk?" he asked.
"I--yes." Lancaster's voice was a dull croak. He moved his head, feeling
the ache of it.
"Look here, fellow," said Harris. "We've been pretty easy with you so
far. Nothing has happened to you that can't be patched up. But we're
getting impatient now. It's obvious that you're a traitor and hiding
something."
Well, yes, thought Lancaster, he was a traitor, by one definition. Only
it seemed to him that a man had a right to choose his own loyalties.
Having experienced what the police state meant, he would have been
untrue to himself if he had yielded to it.
"If you don't answer my questions in the next session," said Harris,
"we'll have to start getting really rough."
Lancaster remained silent. It was too much effort to try to speak.
"Don't think you're being heroic," said Harris. "There's nothing pretty
or even very human about a man under interrogation. You've been
screaming as loud as anybody."
Lancaster looked away.
He heard the doctor's voice. "I'd advice giving him a few days' rest
before starting again, sir."
"You're new here, aren't you?" asked Harris.
"Yes, sir. I was only assigned to this duty a few weeks ago."
"Well, we don't put on kid gloves for traitors."
"That's not what I mean, sir," said the doctor. "There are limits to
pain beyond which further treatment simply doesn't register. Also, I'm a
little suspicious about this man's heart. It has a murmur, and
questioning puts a terrific strain on it. You wouldn't want him to die
on your hands, would you, sir?"
"Mmmm--no. What do you advise?"
"Just a few days in the hospital, with treatment and rest. It'll also
have a psychological effect as he thinks of what's waiting for him."
Harris considered for a moment. "All right. I've got enough other things
to do anyway."
"Very good, sir. You won't regret this."
Lancaster heard the footsteps retreat into silence. Presently the doctor
came around to stand facing him. He was a short, curly-haired man of
undistinguished appearance. For a moment they locked eyes, then
Lancaster closed his. He wanted to tell the doctor to go away, but it
wasn't worth the trouble.
Later he was put on a stretcher and carried down endless halls to
another cell. This one had a hospital look about it, somehow, and the
air was sharp with the smell of antiseptics. The doctor came when he was
installed in bed and took his arm and slipped a needle into it. "Sleepy
time," he said.
Lancaster drifted away again.
* * * * *
When he woke up, he felt darkness and movement. He looked around,
wondering if he had gone blind, and the breath moaned out between his
bruised lips. A hand was laid on his shoulder and a voice spoke out of
the black.
"It's okay, fella. Take it easy. There'll be no more questions."
It was the doctor's voice, and the doctor looked nothing at all like
Charon, but still Lancaster wondered if he weren't being ferried over
the river of death. There was a thrumming all about him, and he heard a
low keening of wind. "Where are we going?" he mumbled.
"Away. You're in a stratorocket now. Just take it easy."
Lancaster fell asleep after awhile.
Beyond that there was a drugged, confused period where he was only dimly
aware of moving and trying to talk. Shadows floated across his vision,
shadows telling him something he couldn't quite grasp. He followed
obediently enough. Full clarity came eventually, and he was lying in a
bunk looking up at a metal ceiling. The shivering pulse of rockets
trembled in his body. A spaceship?
A spaceship!
He sat up, heart thudding, and looked wildly around. "Hey!" he cried.
The remembered figure of Berg came through the door. "Hullo, Allen," he
said. "How're you feeling?"
"I--you--" Lancaster sank weakly back to his pillow. He grew aware that
he was thoroughly bandaged, splinted, and braced, and that there was no
more pain. Not much, anyway.
"I feel fine," he said.
"Good, good. The doc says you'll be okay." Berg sat down on the edge of
the bunk. "I can't stay here long, but the hell with it. We'll be at the
station soon. You deserve to know some things, such as that you've been
rescued."
"Well, that's obvious," said Lancaster.
"By us. The rebels. The underground. Subversive characters."
"That's obvious too. And thanks--" The word was so ridiculously
inadequate that Lancaster had to laugh.
* * * * *
"I suppose you've guessed most of it already," said Berg. "We needed a
scientist of your caliber for our project. One thing we're desperately
short of is technical personnel, since the only real education in such
lines is to be had on Earth and most graduates find comfortable berths
in the existing society. Like you, for instance. So we played a trick on
you. We used part of our organization--yes, we have a big one, and it's
pretty smart and powerful too--to convince you this was a government job
of top secrecy. More damn things can be done in the name of Security--"
Berg clicked his tongue. "Everybody you saw at the station was more or
less play-acting, of course. The whole thing was set up to fool you. We
might not have gotten away with it if we'd used some other person, more
shrewd about such things, but we'd studied you and knew you for an
amiable, unsuspicious guy, too wrapped up in your own work to go
witch-smelling."
"I guessed that much," admitted Lancaster. "After I'd been in the cells
for awhile. Your way of living and thinking was so different from
anything like--"
"Yeah. I'm sorry as hell about that, Allen. We thought you could just
return to ordinary life, but somehow--through one of those accidents or
malices inevitable in a state where every man spies on his
neighbor--you were hauled in. We knew of it at once--yes, we've even
infiltrated the secret police--and decided to do something about it.
Quite apart from the danger of your betraying what you knew--we could
have eliminated that by quietly murdering you--there was the fact that
we'd gotten you into this and did owe you something. We managed to get
Dr. Pappas transferred to the inquisitory where you were being held. He
drugged you, producing a remarkably corpse-like figure, and smuggled you
out as simply another one who'd died under questioning. I used my
Security papers to get the body for special autopsy instead of the usual
immediate cremation. Then we simply drove till we reached the
stratorocket we'd arranged to have ready, and you were flown to our
spaceboat, and now you're on the way back to the station. You were kept
under drugs most of the way to help you rest--they'd knocked you around
quite a bit in the inquisitory. So--" Berg shrugged. "Pappas can't go
back to Earth now, of course, but we can always use a medic in space,
and it was well worth the trouble to rescue you."
"I'm honored," said Lancaster.
"I still feel like hell about what happened to you, though."
"It's all right. I can't say I enjoyed it, but now that I've learned
some hard facts--oh, well, forget the painful nature of the lesson. I'll
be okay. And I'm going home!"
* * * * *
Jessup supported Lancaster as they entered the space station. His old
crew was there waiting to greet him. They were all immensely pleased to
have him back, though Karen wept bitterly on his shoulder.
"It's all right," he told her. "I'm not in such bad shape as I look.
Honest, Karen, I'm all right. And now that I have gotten back, and know
where I really belong--damn, but it was worth it!"
She looked at him with eyes as gray as a rainy dawn. "And you are with
us?" she whispered. "You're one of us? Of your own will?"
"Of course I am. Give me a week or two to rest, and I'll be back in the
lab bossing all of you like a Simon Legree. Hell, we've just begun on
that super-dielectricity. And there are a lot of other things I want to
try out, too."
"It means exile," she said. "No more blue skies and green valleys and
ocean winds. No more going back to Earth."
"Well, there are other planets, aren't there? And we'll go back to Earth
in the next decade, I bet. Back to start a new American Revolution and
write the Bill of Rights in the sky for all to see." Lancaster grinned
shyly. "I'm not much at making speeches, and I certainly don't like to
listen to them. But I've learned the truth and I want to say it out
loud. The right of man to be free is the most basic one he's got, and
when he gives that up he finishes by surrendering everything else too.
You people are fighting to bring back honesty and liberty and the
possibility of progress. I hope nobody here is a fanatic, because
fanaticism is exactly what we're fighting against. I say we, because
from now on I'm one of you. That is, if you're sure you want me."