Lesbee guided his powered dolly with the cage on it out of the big
ship's airlock--and saw that the man in the control room of the lock
was Second Officer Selwyn. Heavy brass for such a routine task. Selwyn
waved at him with a twisted smile as Lesbee wheeled his cargo along the
silent corridor.
He saw no one else on his route. Other personnel had evidently been
cleared from this part of the vessel. A little later, grim and
determined, he set the cage down in the center of the big room and
anchored it magnetically to the floor.
As Lesbee entered the captain's office, Browne looked up from one of
the two control chairs and stepped down from the rubber-sheathed dais
to the same level as Lesbee. He came forward, smiling, and held out
his hand. He was a big man, as all the Brownes had been, bigger by a
head than Lesbee, good-looking in a clean-cut way. The two men were
alone.
"I'm glad you were so frank," he said. "I doubt if I could have spoken
so bluntly to you without your initiative as an example."
But as they shook hands, Lesbee was wary and suspicious. Lesbee
thought: "He's trying to recover from the insanity of his reaction. I
really blew him wide open."
Browne continued in the same hearty tone: "I've made up my mind. An
election is out of the question. The ship is swarming with untrained
dissident groups, most of which simply want to go back to Earth."
Lesbee, who had the same desire, was discreetly silent.
Browne said, "You'll be ground captain; I'll be ship captain. Why don't
we sit down right now and work out a communique on which we can agree
and that I can read over the intercom to the others?"
As Lesbee seated himself in the chair beside Browne, he was thinking:
"What can be gained from publicly naming me ground captain?"
He concluded finally, cynically, that the older man could gain the
confidence of John Lesbee--lull him, lead him on, delude him, destroy
him.
Surreptitiously Lesbee examined the room. Control Room Below was a
large square chamber adjoining the massive central engines. Its control
board was a duplicate of the one on the bridge located at the top of
the ship. The great vessel could be guided equally from either board,
except that pre-emptive power was on the bridge. The officer of the
watch was given the right to make Merit decisions in an emergency.
Lesbee made a quick mental calculation, and deduced that it was First
Officer Miller's watch on the bridge. Miller was a staunch supporter of
Browne. The man was probably watching them on one of his screens, ready
to come to Browne's aid at a moment's notice.
* * * * *
A few minutes later, Lesbee listened thoughtfully as Browne read their
joint communique over the intercom, designating him as ground captain.
He found himself a little amazed, and considerably dismayed, at the
absolute confidence the older man must feel about his own power and
position on the ship. It was a big step, naming his chief rival to so
high a rank.
Browne's next act was equally surprising. While they were still on the
viewers, Browne reached over, clapped Lesbee affectionately on the
shoulders and said to the watching audience:
"As you all know, John is the only direct descendant of the original
captain. No one knows exactly what happened half a hundred years ago
when my grandfather first took command. But I remember the old man
always felt that only he understood how things should be. I doubt if
he had any confidence in _any_ young whippersnapper over whom he did
not have complete control. I often felt that my father was the victim
rather than the beneficiary of my grandfather's temper and feelings of
superiority."
Browne smiled engagingly. "Anyway, good people, though we can't unbreak
the eggs that were broken then, we can certainly start healing the
wounds, without--" his tone was suddenly firm--"negating the fact that
my own training and experience make me the proper commander of the ship
itself."
He broke off. "Captain Lesbee and I shall now jointly attempt to
communicate with the captured intelligent life form from the planet
below. You may watch, though we reserve the right to cut you off for
good reason." He turned to Lesbee. "What do you think we should do
first, John?"
Lesbee was in a dilemma. The first large doubt had come to him, the
possibility that perhaps the other was sincere. The possibility was
especially disturbing because in a few moments a part of his own plan
would be revealed.
He sighed, and realized that there was no turning back at this stage.
He thought: "We'll have to bring the entire madness out into the open,
and only then can we begin to consider agreement as real."
Aloud, he said in a steady voice, "Why not bring the prisoner out where
we can see him?"
As the tractor beam lifted Dzing out of the cage, and thus away from
the energies that had suppressed his thought waves, the Karn telepathed
to his contact on Alta III:
"Have been held in a confined space, the metal of which was energized
against communication. I shall now attempt to perceive and evaluate the
condition and performance of this ship--"
At that point, Browne reached over and clicked off the intercom. Having
shut off the audience, he turned accusingly to Lesbee, and said,
"Explain your failure to inform me that these beings communicated by
telepathy."
The tone of his voice was threatening. There was a hint of angry color
in his face.
It was the moment of discovery.
* * * * *
Lesbee hesitated, and then simply pointed out how precarious their
relationship had been. He finished frankly, "I thought by keeping it
a secret I might be able to stay alive a little longer, which was
certainly not what you intended when you sent me out as an expendable."