"There's nothing mysterious about it, actually," explained Saxon.
"When the men sold out to General Atomic they must have submitted to
being hypnotized by GA's neuro-psychoanalyst. They could be given
orders while in the hypnotic state, then commanded to forget them,
forget in fact that they had sold out to General Atomic until after the
Little Death. The Little Death was to act as a post-hypnotic command,
recalling their memories and instructions."
"By Pluto!" ejaculated Murdock. "I believe you've hit it!" He regarded
Saxon with increased respect.
The slight, homely Villainowski rubbed a nine day's growth of
beard, musing, "It was a beautiful scheme. Then men couldn't betray
themselves. They couldn't be tripped up by the lie-detector because
they honestly believed they were still loyal to Government."
Again Saxon nodded. "I was trying to find Q62," he said, "when Ileth
was Q62 all the time, although she didn't know it until she woke up
from the Little Death."
* * * * *
Brand, the bio-chemist, who had been lying on an upper bunk silently
listening, broke into the conversation. "But why did General Atomic
wait until after the Little Death before having their men seize the
ship? It doesn't make sense. I should think they'd want to get the
drive to one of their laboratories, where it could be examined as soon
as possible."
It was Murdock who replied. "That's not difficult to explain either.
General Atomic couldn't afford to take a chance. If they'd grabbed the
_Shooting Star_ within reach of Government's space navy, they would
have been apprehended sure. Remember, every observatory in the System
had us in view until we went into the time field.
"No one but Villainowski knows how to use the stellar drive, so they
couldn't have used that to escape. But after we reached Alpha Centauri
we were beyond reach of the electronic telescope on Luna, even beyond
radio contact. Their engineers would have a chance to examine the drive
and learn enough to operate it, at least. They could return then.
Nothing can catch the _Shooting Star_ when she's operating in the
Little Death."
Saxon listened with somber eyes to the T.I.S. agent's explanation. It
was right, he felt, as far as it went. But it didn't account for the
aliens, nor for Saxon's strange experiences during the Little Death,
nor the death of that N.P.A. before they sailed.
He heard the door to the brig click and glanced up just as it slid
aside.
Ileth Urban stood in the entrance.
Ileth's green jodphur-like trousers emphasized her long legs and slim
waist. Her black shoulder length hair had been pushed back, disclosing
small peaked ears.
She came inside, with a look of determination, and the guard closed the
door behind her, but didn't lock it.
"I ..." she began, caught Saxon's eyes and blushed furiously.
Unconsciously her chin went up and she squared her shoulders. "I don't
know how to say what I've come to tell you." Again she hesitated,
biting her lip. "I think it'll be good news...."
"Good news?" echoed Murdock sarcastically. "Have the crew been
massacred by Centaurians?"
"There's no sign of living Centaurians yet," she replied. "Not on this
planet anyway."
"Living Centaurians?" asked Murdock. "What do you mean 'living'
Centaurians? What have you found?"
The silence was alive. Saxon could feel the intangible fear of deep
space grip every one of them. There was, he realized, a decided
pathologic quality about it, as if every one of them were not quite
sane on the subject.
"A city," said Ileth in a suppressed voice.
There was a quick intake of breaths.
"Yes," she went on, "a city. About twenty-five kilometers northeast of
here. A perfectly huge city without a single inhabitant."
"What planet is this?" Villainowski asked suddenly.
"There's no harm in telling you, I suppose," said Ileth, "because we
haven't the faintest notion. Our astronomer says that it belongs to
Alpha Centauri A, although he hasn't figured its period yet. He says
it's about midway between Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. It's a
little larger than Earth but not so dense. Gravity is about four fifths
what it is at home." Her face sobered at the word "home." "Oxygen
content a little high, but not much. The rest of the atmosphere is
composed principally of non-poisonous inert gases. Now you know as much
as we do."
Jon Saxon became aware of a thought emanating from Murdock: "_Seize the
girl. Dictate terms to the others._" The same thought, Saxon realized,
was forming in their bio-chemist's mind as well.
Ileth must have suspected something, because her hand crept up to her
small high breasts and she said, "Before I go on, you'd better know
that I'm not so unprotected as I look. We were all hypnotized back
on Earth and our orders given to us in that condition. Then we were
commanded to forget them until after the Little Death. I'm telling you
this so you'll understand."
The prisoners exchanged glances.
"General Atomic," Ileth continued hurriedly, "prepared for any
eventuality. If anything happens to me, Q63 will take over. I don't
know who he is, and he doesn't know it himself, but any accident
befalling me will be the post-hypnotic signal for him to remember.
There's also a Q64, Q65--all the way to Q70. So you see it's useless to
think that by doing anything to me you can get the upper hand."
"Rather like queen bees," suggested Saxon. "Secret order with a
vengeance."
"_Even from you, darling!_" he caught Ileth's irritating thought.
* * * * *
He saw Murdock relax on his bunk, intercepted his furious frustration.
The T.I.S. agent, he realized, was like cold flame on the inside.
"But that's not my news," Ileth said. "I've come to offer you your
freedom--within limits, of course."
"Eh?" said Villainowski in surprise, and the rest tensed expectantly.
Ileth said, "General Atomic believed that it would be to their
advantage to go ahead with the expedition as soon as we got control
of the ship. We would be on the spot, and any information relating to
Alpha Centauri's planetary systems, natural resources, inhabitants (if
any), possibilities of colonization and trade--that sort of thing--is
of the utmost importance.
"I feel...." She hesitated, and Saxon caught a glimpse again of that
same intolerable fear gnawing at her mind.
"I feel that we should stick together--while we're here at least. If
we're fighting among ourselves...."
"In other words," Murdock interrupted in a voice without inflection,
"you're asking us to go on with the expedition as if nothing's
happened?"
"Only while we're here," she hastened to assure him. "You won't be
given arms, of course. There are only five of you. What earthly chance
would you have against the entire crew and the rest of the staff? And
this way you won't have to stay locked in the brig. You can carry on
with your investigations. We--we don't know what alien form of life
inhabits this planet. But the city...."