The alien was deadly, dangerous
and inhuman--but he was not the
most feared enemy on the ship!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
If Worlds of Science Fiction September 1963.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
I
One hundred and nine years after leaving Earth, the spaceship, _Hope of
Man_, went into orbit around Alta III.
The following "morning" Captain Browne informed the shipload of fourth
and fifth generation colonists that a manned lifeboat would be dropped
to the planet's surface.
"Every member of the crew must consider himself expendable," he
said earnestly. "This is the day that our great grandparents, our
forefathers, who boldly set out for the new space frontier so long ago,
looked forward to with unfaltering courage. We must not fail them."
He concluded his announcement over the intercom system of the big ship
by saying that the names of the crew members of the lifeboat would be
given out within the hour. "And I know that every real man aboard will
want to see his name there."
John Lesbee, the fifth of his line aboard, had a sinking sensation as
he heard those words--and he was not mistaken.
Even as he tried to decide if he should give the signal for a desperate
act of rebellion, Captain Browne made the expected announcement.
The commander said, "And I know you will all join him in his moment of
pride and courage when I tell you that John Lesbee will lead the crew
that carries the hopes of man in this remote area of space. And now the
others--"
He thereupon named seven of the nine persons with whom Lesbee had been
conspiring to seize control of the ship.
Since the lifeboat would only hold eight persons, Lesbee recognized
that Browne was dispatching as many of his enemies as he could. He
listened with a developing dismay, as the commander ordered all persons
on the ship to come to the recreation room. "Here I request that the
crew of the lifeboat join me and the other officers on stage. Their
instructions are to surrender themselves to any craft which seeks to
intercept them. They will be equipped with instruments whereby we here
can watch, and determine the stage of scientific attainments of the
dominant race on the planet below."
* * * * *
Lesbee hurried to his room on the technicians' deck, hoping that
perhaps Tellier or Cantlin would seek him out there. He felt himself
in need of a council of war, however brief. He waited five minutes, but
not one member of his conspiratorial group showed.
Nonetheless, he had time to grow calm. Peculiarly, it was the smell of
the ship that soothed him most. From the earliest days of his life, the
odor of energy and the scent of metal under stress had been perpetual
companions. At the moment, with the ship in orbit, there was a letting
up of stress. The smell was of old energies rather than new. But the
effect was similar.
He sat in the chair he used for reading, eyes closed, breathing in that
complex of odors, product of so many titanic energies. Sitting there,
he felt the fear leave his mind and body. He grew brave again, and
strong.
Lesbee recognized soberly that his plan to seize power had involved
risks. Worse, no one would question Browne's choice of him as the
leader of the mission. "I am," thought Lesbee, "probably the most
highly trained technician ever to be on this ship." Browne Three
had taken him when he was ten, and started him on the long grind of
learning that led him, one after the other, to master the mechanical
skills of all the various technical departments. And Browne Four had
continued his training.
He was taught how to repair relay systems. He gradually came to
understand the purposes of countless analogs. The time came when he
could visualize the entire automation. Long ago, the colossal cobweb
of electronic instruments within the walls had become almost an
extension of his nervous system.
During those years of work and study, each daily apprenticeship chore
left his slim body exhausted. After he came off duty, he sought a brief
relaxation and usually retired to an early rest.
He never did find the time to learn the intricate theory that underlay
the ship's many operations.
His father, while he was alive, had made numerous attempts to pass
his knowledge on to his son. But it was hard to teach complexities to
a tired and sleepy boy. Lesbee even felt slightly relieved when his
parent died. It took the pressure off him. Since then, however, he had
come to realize that the Browne family, by forcing a lesser skill on
the descendant of the original commander of the ship, had won their
greatest victory.
As he headed finally for the recreation room, Lesbee found himself
wondering: Had the Brownes trained him with the intention of preparing
him for such a mission as this?
His eyes widened. If that was true, then his own conspiracy was merely
an excuse. The decision to kill him might actually have been made more
than a decade ago, and light years away....
* * * * *
As the lifeboat fell toward Alta III, Lesbee and Tellier sat in the
twin control chairs and watched on the forward screen the vast, misty
atmosphere of the planet.
Tellier was thin and intellectual, a descendant of the physicist Dr.
Tellier who had made many speed experiments in the early days of the
voyage. It had never been understood why spaceships could not attain
even a good fraction of the speed of light, let alone velocities
greater than light. When the scientist met his untimely death, there
was no one with the training to carry on a testing program.
It was vaguely believed by the trained personnel who succeeded Tellier
that the ship had run into one of the paradoxes implicit in the
Lorenz-Fitzgerald Contraction theory.
Whatever the explanation, it was never solved.
Watching Tellier, Lesbee wondered if his companion and best friend felt
as empty inside as he did. Incredibly, this was the first time he--or
anyone--had been outside the big ship. "We're actually heading down,"
he thought, "to one of those great masses of land and water, a planet."
As he watched, fascinated, the massive ball grew visibly bigger.
They came in at a slant, a long, swift, angling approach, ready to jet
away if any of the natural radiation belts proved too much for their
defense systems. But as each stage of radiation registered in turn,
the dials showed that the lifeboat machinery made the proper responses
automatically.
The silence was shattered suddenly by an alarm bell.
Simultaneously, one of the screens focused on a point of rapidly
moving light far below. The light darted toward them.
A missile!
Lesbee caught his breath.
But the shining projectile veered off, turned completely around, took
up position several miles away, and began to fall with them.
His first thought was: "They'll never let us land," and he experienced
an intense disappointment.
Another signal brrred from the control board.
"They're probing us," said Tellier, tensely.
An instant after the words were uttered, the lifeboat seemed to shudder
and to stiffen under them. It was the unmistakable feel of a tractor
beam. Its field clutched the lifeboat, drew it, held it.
The science of the Alta III inhabitants was already proving itself
formidable.
Underneath him the lifeboat continued its movement.
The entire crew gathered around and watched as the point of brightness
resolved into an object, which rapidly grew larger. It loomed up close,
bigger than they.
There was a metallic bump. The lifeboat shuddered from stem to stern.
Even before the vibrations ceased Tellier said, "Notice they put our
airlock against theirs."
Behind Lesbee, his companions began that peculiar joking of the
threatened. It was a coarse comedy, but it had enough actual humor
suddenly to break through his fear. Involuntarily he found himself
laughing.
Then, momentarily free of anxiety, aware that Browne was watching and
that there was no escape, he said, "Open the airlock! Let the aliens
capture us as ordered."