Mattern smiled. "Her commands don't hold good in this universe. You
know that. When I was a kid, she could fool me into believing she had
a hold over me. But the hold is a psychological one; that's the only
thing that could carry over from universe to universe. And I'm strong
enough to break it now."
Although he was not quite serious, it might be, he thought, that the
hyperspace trade and the trips to Ferr had spoiled him for everyday
life, made him too restless for the mundanities of any world. And it
was time for him to settle down now.
He let the kqyres win the game, and then he stood up. "I'd better start
getting things ready for the trip to Burdon."
"You've definitely decided to go?"
"Yes," Mattern said, pleased with himself, "definitely."
He went to the control room and got out the forms that would need to
be filled out before the ship could leave port. Suddenly he remembered
his puzzlement about the young spaceman--what was his name?--Raines? He
pressed a button on the file, and the boy's records flashed up at him.
At first they seemed to be in order: _Alard Raines, aged twenty-five,
educated on Earth_, well and good. But _born on Earth_ ... Mattern was
almost positive that could never have been, not from the way the young
man spoke. And one false statement meant that the whole record was
false.
However, he could not challenge the discrepancy before they left for
Capella. If he spoke to Raines, he'd probably have to dismiss him
then and there. It would be difficult to find a suitable replacement
in Erytheia City. He might have to send for someone from Earth, which
would take months, perhaps a year. First he'd take the _Queen_ to
Burdon, he decided, and then he would fire Raines.
* * * * *
Nearly three weeks went by before they could leave. Mattern found
himself looking forward with some impatience to Burdon. When Lyddy had
a house of her own that she could take an interest in, he told himself,
things would be different; she would be different. This way she was
bored much of the time, and boredom is contagious.
"I've 'vised ahead to Capella, dear," he told her as they boarded ship,
"and rented a furnished multiplex, so we'll have some place to stay."
"Yes, honey," she said, with a strange lack of interest. She
didn't even seem surprised at the size of the ship. Underneath her
elaborate makeup, she was pale; her body was trembling. She saw that
an explanation was necessary. "It's been so long since I made the
Jump. Silly of me to be so nervous, but you do hear things about
hyperspace...."
"You're safer in my ship than anywhere else."
"Yes, I know." Was she merely expressing trust in him, or was there
more to her words than that?
At first he was just vaguely suspicious. Then, the second day out, he
noticed that Lyddy and Raines seemed to be together a good deal more
of the time than chance would account for, and his suspicions secured
a focus. The two had some kind of unspoken understanding, he thought,
watching them as much out of curiosity as anger. _I have become chilled
with the years of alien company_, he thought. _I am incapable of true
passion; perhaps that is what she seeks in another._
But, though he might find excuses for her, he would not condone her.
A bargain was a bargain. At the end of the first week, he said to her
one evening, as he sat on the edge of the bed, watching her brush her
long, thick gilded hair, "Darling, I'm a little worried about one of my
crewmen."
Lyddy didn't turn from the jeweled dressing table he'd had especially
installed for her. "Which one?" she asked.
"Young Raines. Do you know which he is?"
"Yes." She paused. "There's only one young one. Why are you worried
about him? Do you think he's sick or something?" But that was the
question she should have asked _before_ asking the man's identity.
Mattern let a moment elapse, then said, "His papers appear to be
forged."
He glanced at the reflection of her face, but it held neither relief
nor fear, merely its usual sweet emptiness. "Maybe he needed a job real
bad," she said.
"Maybe," her husband agreed, "but why use forged papers?"
"He might of gotten into some kind of trouble--you know how boys are."
"I'd hardly care to employ the kind of spaceman who gets into trouble
serious enough for him to lose his papers. You have to do something
pretty drastic to get them taken away, you know."
She said nothing.
* * * * *
He went on, "What I'm beginning to suspect is that he isn't really a
trained spaceman at all, that he didn't go to any of the Earth space
schools."
"Do you have to go to an Earth space school to be a spaceman? Can't
you study somewhere else?"
"Earth's the only place where they give the conditioning." He told the
truth, figuring she wouldn't understand.
She turned to look at him. "That's so the men shouldn't--see the things
outside when they go through hyperspace, isn't it?"
Mattern was somewhat taken aback. "How did you know? It's not public
information."
She shrugged and turned back to the dressing table. "I've known a lot
of spacemen, hon."
Her face was pale, but why just now? He wondered just what Raines had
told her--how much the boy actually knew. Naturally there could be only
one possible reason he had chosen Lyddy as his confidante.
"There's something between you and Raines, isn't there?" he asked.
There was a slight delay. Then her laughter shrilled through the cabin.
"Don't be silly, hon; I hardly know the man! All I've done was speak
to him a couple of times!" She got up and put her soft arms around her
husband. "You're jealous, Len," she said, and there was complacency
mixed with the fright in her eyes.
He felt a pang of disgust, but tried not to let it show. Gently, he put
her away from him.
"But that's so silly," she murmured. "How could I prefer a dumb pimply
kid to you?"
In theory, that was quite true, but Len knew women had strange tastes.
And possibly "a dumb pimply kid" _had_ more to offer her emotionally
and, in reverse, intellectually, than he had. It was not impossible
that she was telling the truth, but Mattern could not, of course,
believe her. And there was no point in making a further issue of it
now. When they reached Burdon, he would fire Raines simply on the basis
of the forged papers. No need to bring Lyddy into it at all. So that
problem would be easily solved, but what of the others?
He went to play chess with the kqyres. "I trust you have got over your
whimsical notion to retire," the xhind said hopefully.
"No," Len told him maliciously, "I've practically made up my mind to
quit. There doesn't seem to be any point to it any more."
"The woman _has_ changed! That's the whole trouble, isn't it? Even
though it's not apparent, in some way she has changed?"
"No," Len said again, "she hasn't changed at all. In fact, I think
that's what the trouble is. She hasn't changed, but _I_ have."
"I never thought of that," the kqyres confessed.
* * * * *
The night of the Jump, Mattern turned in at the kqyres' suggestion.
"For once, your men can take care of the ship," the xhind said, "since
there will be no trading stop." Lyddy would be drugged, but Mattern
would not need drugs, for hyperspace held no more horrors for him. Or
so he thought.
But that night he was awakened by the sound of a screaming so hideous
that, if he hadn't known voices don't change during the hyperjump,
he would be tempted to think it was one result of the law of
mutability--so monstrous were these shrill, worse-than-animal cries.
* * * * *
He rushed out of his cabin.
In the corridor stood Lyddy, still screaming, her face contorted with
terror that only the sight of Alard Raines standing there in his normal
shape let Mattern know that they had already passed the Jump.
The shrieking separated into words. "I saw it! It was horrible!" And
she made an ugly noise in her throat. "You were right, Alard. It's
true! There's a monster on board and it did something _awful_ to
me...." Her voice ebbed to a bubble as she looked down at her body
beneath the thin veil of fabric and found the same voluptuous curves
she had started out with.
Mattern sighed. "Better come into my cabin, Lyddy." And then he jerked
his head at Raines. "You come, too." He paused in the doorway when he
saw there was no need for privacy. "Where are the other crewmen?"
"Asleep," Raines said. "Drugged. As usual. Who do you think you're
fooling, anyway?"
Mattern was too disturbed at the news to take notice of the boy's
manner. "But they weren't supposed to be drugged this trip! And who's
in charge then? _You?_"
Raines flushed and struggled to pronounce the word he wanted to use in
return. "Your kek--kqyres, I'd say, is in charge. Like he always has
been," he concluded triumphantly.
Mattern shut the cabin door behind the three of them. Lyddy went over
and sat down on the edge of the bunk, quieter now that she found her
personal transformation had been ephemeral. Seeing a monster is not,
after all, anywhere near as bad as being a monster. Her fright dimmed
and was outshone by a strong sense of personal injury.
"I thought all Alard's talk of kek-kek-monsters was just superstition,"
she babbled, "but it's _true_. I saw that thing with my own eyes and
it's _hideous_! Len, _why_ do you have it on board, especially when
_I'm_ here?"
"I have to," Len said. "He's my partner."
Her blue eyes widened in shock. "Then you've been doing more than just
_trading_ with the hyperspacers. You've been _associating_ with them,
and they're even worse than extraterrestrials because they're so much
more--extraterrestrial!"
She went on talking in this vein, but Mattern ignored her and turned
his attention to the boy. "I suppose you told her not to eat or drink
anything so she'd see the hyperspacer?"
Raines nodded, his face essaying contempt but imperfectly concealing
terror.
"And I suppose you yourself did the same thing, not knowing the men
weren't going to be drugged this trip?" Len sat down behind his writing
table and looked thoughtfully at the young man. "You must have done the
same thing before, on other trips, to know as much as you seem to. You
must have heard and seen a great deal, eh?"
"Plenty," Raines said, through brave, stiff lips. "Plenty."
_Obviously the boy hates me_, Mattern thought. _But why? Is Lyddy
enough reason?_
* * * * *
"Why did you bring her into this?" he asked, almost mildly.
Lyddy didn't give Alard a chance to answer. "Because he wanted me to
see you as you really are!" she shrieked.