Masters of Space Page 2

  II

  The _Perseus_ snapped out of overdrive near the point of interest andHilton stared, motionless and silent.

  Space was full of madly warring ships. Half of them were bare, giantskeletons of steel, like the "derelict" that had so unexpectedlyblasted away from them. The others were more or less like the _Perseus_,except in being bigger, faster and of vastly greater power.

  Beams of starkly incredible power bit at and clung to equally capabledefensive screens of pure force. As these inconceivable forces met, theglare of their neutralization filled all nearby space. And ships andskeletons alike were disappearing in chunks, blobs, gouts, streamers andsparkles of rended, fused and vaporized metal.

  Hilton watched two ships combine against one skeleton. Dozens of beams,incredibly tight and hard, were held inexorably upon dozens of thebulges of the skeleton. Overloaded, the bulges' screens flared throughthe spectrum and failed. And bare metal, however refractory, enduresonly for instants under the appalling intensity of such beams as those.

  The skeletons tried to duplicate the ships' method of attack, butfailed. They were too slow. Not slow, exactly, either, but hesitant; asthough it required whole seconds for the commander--or operator? Orremote controller?--of each skeleton to make it act. The ships werewinning.

  "Hey!" Hilton yelped. "Oh--that's the one we saw back there. But whatin all space does it think it's doing?"

  It was plunging at tremendous speed straight through the immense fleetof embattled skeletons. It did not fire a beam nor energize a screen; itmerely plunged along as though on a plotted course until it collidedwith one of the skeletons of the fleet and both structures plunged, atangled mass of wreckage, to the ground of the planet below.

  Then hundreds of the ships shot forward, each to plunge into and explodeinside one of the skeletons. When visibility was restored another waveof ships came forward to repeat the performance, but there was nothingleft to fight. Every surviving skeleton had blinked out of normal space.

  The remaining ships made no effort to pursue the skeletons, nor did theyre-form as a fleet. Each ship went off by itself.

  * * * * *

  And on that distant planet of the Stretts the group of mechs watchedwith amazed disbelief as light after light after light winked out ontheir two-miles-long control board. Frantically they relayed orders tothe skeletons; orders which did not affect the losses.

  "Brain-pans will blacken for this ..." a mental snarl began, to beinterrupted by a coldly imperious thought.

  "That long-dead unit, so inexplicably reactivated, is approaching thefuel world. It is ignoring the battle. It is heading through our fleettoward the Oman half ... _handle_ it, ten-eighteen!"

  "It does not respond, Your Loftiness."

  "Then blast it, fool! Ah, it is inactivated. As encyclopedist, Nine,explain the freakish behavior of that unit."

  "Yes, Your Loftiness. Many cycles ago we sent a ship against the Omanswith a new device of destruction. The Omans must have intercepted it,drained it of power and allowed it to drift on. After all these cyclesof time it must have come upon a small source of power and of coursecontinued its mission."

  "That can be the truth. The Lords of the Universe must be informed."

  "The mining units, the carriers and the refiners have not been affected,Your Loftiness," a mech radiated.

  "So I see, fool." Then, activating another instrument, His Loftinessthought at it, in an entirely different vein, "Lord Ynos, Madam? I haveto make a very grave report...."

  * * * * *

  In the _Perseus_, four scientists and three Navy officers were arguingheatedly; employing deep-space verbiage not to be found in anydictionary. "Jarve!" Karns called out, and Hilton joined the group."Does anything about this planet make any sense to you?"

  "No. But you're the planetographer. 'Smatter with it?"

  "It's a good three hundred degrees Kelvin too hot."

  "Well, you know it's loaded with uranexite."

  "That much? The whole crust practically jewelry ore?"

  "If that's what the figures say, I'll buy it."

  "Buy _this_, then. Continuous daylight everywhere. Noon June Sol-qualitylight _except_ that it's all in the visible. Frank says it's frombombardment of a layer of something, and Frank admits that the wholething's impossible."

  "When Frank makes up his mind what 'something' is, I'll take it as adatum."

  "Third thing: there's only one city on this continent, and it'sprotected by a screen that nobody ever heard of."

  Hilton pondered, then turned to the captain. "Will you please run asearch-pattern, sir? Fine-toothing only the hot spots?"

  The planet was approximately the same size as Terra; its atmosphere,except for its intense radiation, was similar to Terra's. There were twocontinents; one immense girdling ocean. The temperature of the landsurface was everywhere about 100 deg.F, that of the water about 90 deg.F. Eachcontinent had one city, and both were small. One was inhabited by whatlooked like human beings; the other by usuform robots. The human citywas the only cool spot on the entire planet; under its protective domethe temperature was 71 deg.F.

  Hilton decided to study the robots first; and asked the captain to takethe ship down to observation range. Sawtelle objected; and continued toobject until Hilton started to order his arrest. Then he said, "I'll doit, under protest, but I want it on record that I am doing it against mybest judgment."

  "It's on record," Hilton said, coldly. "Everything said and done isbeing, and will continue to be, recorded."

  The _Perseus_ floated downward. "_There's_ what I want most to see,"Hilton said, finally. "That big strip-mining operation ... that's it ...hold it!" Then, via throat-mike, "Attention, all scientists! You allknow what to do. Start doing it."

  Sandra's blonde head was very close to Hilton's brown one as they bothstared into Hilton's plate. "Why, they look like giant armadillos!" sheexclaimed.

  "More like tanks," he disagreed, "except that they've got legs, wheels_and_ treads--and arms, cutters, diggers, probes and conveyors--and_look_ at the way those buckets dip solid rock!"

  The fantastic machine was moving very slowly along a bench or shelf thatit was making for itself as it went along. Below it, to its left,dropped other benches being made by other mining machines. The machineswere not using explosives. Hard though the ore was, the tools were somuch harder and were driven with such tremendous power that the stuffmight just have well have been slightly-clayed sand.

  Every bit of loosened ore, down to the finest dust, was forced into aconveyor and thence into the armored body of the machine. There it wentinto a mechanism whose basic principles Hilton could not understand.From this monstrosity emerged two streams of product.

  One of these, comprising ninety-nine point nine plus percent of theinput, went out through another conveyor into the vast hold of a vehiclewhich, when full and replaced by a duplicate of itself, went careeningmadly cross-country to a dump.

  The other product, a slow, very small stream of tiny, glistening blackpellets, fell into a one-gallon container being held watchfully by asmall machine, more or less like a three-wheeled motor scooter, whichwas moving carefully along beside the giant miner. When this can wasalmost full another scooter rolled up and, without losing a singlepellet, took over place and function. The first scooter then covered itsbucket, clamped it solidly into a recess designed for the purpose anddashed away toward the city.

  Hilton stared slack-jawed at Sandra. She stared back.

  "Do you make anything of that, Jarve?"

  "Nothing. They're taking _pure_ uranexite and _concentrating_--orconverting--it a thousand to one. I _hope_ we'll be able to do somethingabout it."

  "I hope so, too, Chief; and I'm _sure_ we will."

  "Well, that's enough for now. You may take us up now, Captain Sawtelle.And Sandy, will you please call all department heads and theirassistants into the conference room?"

  * * * * *
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  At the head of the long conference table, Hilton studied his fourteendepartment heads, all husky young men, and their assistants, allsurprisingly attractive and well-built young women. Bud Carroll andSylvia Bannister of Sociology sat together. He was almost as big asKarns; she was a green-eyed redhead whose five-ten and one-fifty wouldhave looked big except for the arrangement thereof. There were Bernadineand Hermione van der Moen, the leggy, breasty, platinum-blondetwins--both of whom were Cowper medalists in physics. There was Etiennede Vaux, the mathematical wizard; and Rebecca Eisenstein, theblack-haired, flashing-eyed ex-infant-prodigy theoretical astronomer.There was Beverly Bell, who made mathematically impossible chemicalsyntheses--who swam channels for days on end and computed planetaryorbits in her sleekly-coiffured head.

  "First, we'll have a get-together," Hilton said. "Nothing recorded; justto get acquainted. You all know that our fourteen departments coverscience, from astronomy to zoology."

  He paused, again his eyes swept the group. Stella Wing, who would havebeen a grand-opera star except for her drive to know everything aboutlanguage. Theodora (Teddy) Blake, who would prove gleefully that she wasthe world's best model--but was in fact the most brilliantly promisingtheoretician who had ever lived.

  "No other force like this has ever been assembled," Hilton went on. "Inmore ways than one. Sawtelle wanted Jeffers to head this group, insteadof me. Everybody thought he _would_ head it."

  "And Hilton wanted Eggleston and got _me_," Sandra said.

  "That's right. And quite a few of you didn't want to come at all, butwere told by the Board to come or else."

  The group stirred. Eyes met eyes, and there were smiles.

  * * * * *

  "I myself think Jeffers _should_ have had the job. I've never handledanything half this big and I'll need a lot of help. But I'm stuck withit and you're all stuck with me, so we'll all take it and like it.You've noticed, of course, the accent on youth. The Navy crew is normal,except for the commanders being unusually young. But we aren't. None ofus is thirty yet, and none of us has ever been married. You fellows looklike a team of professional athletes, and you girls--well, if I didn'tknow better I'd say the Board had screened you for the front row of thechorus instead of for a top-bracket brain-gang. How they found so manyof you I'll never know."

  "Virile men and nubile women!" Etienne de Vaux leered enthusiastically."_Vive le Board!_"

  "Nubile! Bravo, Tiny! _Quelle delicatesse de nuance!_"

  "Three rousing cheers for the Board!"

  "Keep still, you nitwits! Let me ask a question!" This came from one ofthe twins. "Before you give us the deduction, Jarvis--or will it be anintuition or an induction or a ..."

  "Or an inducement," the other twin suggested, helpfully. "Not that _you_would need very much of that."

  "You keep still, too, Miney. I'm asking, Sir Moderator, if I can give mydeduction first?"

  "Sure, Bernadine; go ahead."

  "They figured we're going to get completely lost. Then we'll jettisonthe Navy, hunt up a planet of our own and start a race to end all humanraces. Or would you call this a _see_-duction instead of a_dee_-duction?"

  This produced a storm of whistles, cheers and jeers that it took severalseconds to quell.

  "But seriously, Jarvis," Bernadine went on. "We've all been wonderingand it doesn't make sense. Have you any idea at all of what the Boardactually did have in mind?"

  "I believe that the Board selected for mental, not physical, qualities;for the ability to handle anything unexpected or unusual that comes up,no matter what it is."

  "You think it wasn't double-barreled?" asked Kincaid, the psychologist.He smiled quizzically. "That all this virility and nubility and glamoris pure coincidence?"

  "No," Hilton said, with an almost imperceptible flick of an eyelid."Coincidence is as meaningless as paradox. I think they found outthat--barring freaks--the best minds are in the best bodies."

  "Could be. The idea has been propounded before."

  "Now let's get to work." Hilton flipped the switch of the recorder."Starting with you, Sandy, each of you give a two-minute boil-down. Whatyou found and what you think."

  * * * * *

  Something over an hour later the meeting adjourned and Hilton and Sandrastrolled toward the control room.

  "I don't know whether you convinced Alexander Q. Kincaid or not, but youdidn't quite convince me," Sandra said.

  "Nor him, either."

  "Oh?" Sandra's eyebrows

  "No. He grabbed the out I offered him. I didn't fool Teddy Blake orTemple Bells, either. You four are all, though, I think."

  "Temple? You think _she's_ so smart?"

  "I don't _think_ so, no. Don't fool yourself, chick. Temple Bells looksand acts sweet and innocent and virginal. Maybe--probably--she is. Butshe isn't showing a fraction of the stuff she's really got. She's heavyartillery, Sandy. And I mean _heavy_."

  "I think you're slightly nuts there. But do you really believe that theBoard was playing Cupid?"

  "Not trying, but doing. Cold-bloodedly and efficiently. Yes."

  "But it wouldn't _work_! We aren't going to get lost!"

  "We won't need to. Propinquity will do the work."

  "Phooie. You and me, for instance?" She stopped, put both hands on herhips, and glared. "Why, I wouldn't marry _you_ if you ..."

  "I'll tell the cockeyed world you won't!" Hilton broke in. "Me marry adamned female Ph.D.? Uh-uh. Mine will be a cuddly little brunette thatthinks a slipstick is some kind of lipstick and that an isotope'ssomething good to eat."

  "One like that copy of Murchison's Dark Lady that you keep under theglass on your desk?" she sneered.

  "Exactly...." He started to continue the battle, then shut himself off."But listen, Sandy, why should we get into a fight because we don't wantto marry each other? You're doing a swell job. I admire you tremendouslyfor it and I like to work with you."

  "You've got a point there, Jarve, at that, and I'm one of the few whoknow what kind of a job _you're_ doing, so I'll relax." She flashed hima gamin grin and they went on into the control room.

  It was too late in the day then to do any more exploring; but the nextmorning, early, the _Perseus_ lined out for the city of the humanoids.

  * * * * *

  Tula turned toward her fellows. Her eyes filled with a happilytriumphant light and her thought a lilting song. "I have been tellingyou from the first touch that it was the Masters. It _is_ the Masters!The Masters are returning to us Omans and their own home world!"

  * * * * *

  "Captain Sawtelle," Hilton said, "Please land in the cradle below."

  "_Land!_" Sawtelle stormed. "On a planet like _that_? Not by ..." Hebroke off and stared; for now, on that cradle, there flamed out inscreaming red the _Perseus'_ own Navy-coded landing symbols!

  "Your protest is recorded," Hilton said. "Now, sir, land."

  Fuming, Sawtelle landed. Sandra looked pointedly at Hilton. "Firstcontact is my dish, you know."

  "Not that I like it, but it is." He turned to a burly youth withsun-bleached, crew-cut hair, "Still safe, Frank?"

  "Still abnormally low. Surprising no end, since all the rest of theplanet is hotter than the middle tail-race of hell."

  "Okay, Sandy. Who will you want besides the top linguists?"

  "Psych--both Alex and Temple. And Teddy Blake. They're over there. Tellthem, will you, while I buzz Teddy?"

  "Will do," and Hilton stepped over to the two psychologists and toldthem. Then, "I hope I'm not leading with my chin, Temple, but is thatyour real first name or a professional?"

  "It's real; it really is. My parents were romantics: dad says theyconsidered both 'Golden' and 'Silver'!"

  Not at all obviously, he studied her: the almost translucent,unblemished perfection of her lightly-tanned, old-ivory skin; the clear,calm, deep blueness of her eyes; the long, thick mane of hair exactlythe color of a field o
f dead-ripe wheat.

  "You know, I like it," he said then. "It fits you."

  "I'm glad you said that, Doctor...."

  "Not that, Temple. I'm not going to 'Doctor' you."

  "I'll call you 'boss', then, like Stella does. Anyway, that lets me tellyou that I like it myself. I really think that it did something for me."

  "_Something_ did something for you, that's for sure. I'm mighty gladyou're aboard, and I hope ... here they come. Hi, Hark! Hi, Stella!"

  "Hi, Jarve," said Chief Linguist Harkins, and:

  "Hi, boss--what's holding us up?" asked his assistant, Stella Wing. Shewas about five feet four. Her eyes were a tawny brown; her hair aflamboyant auburn mop. Perhaps it owed a little of its spectacularrefulgence to chemistry, Hilton thought, but not too much. "Let us away!Let the lions roar and let the welkin ring!"

  "Who's been feeding _you_ so much red meat, little squirt?" Hiltonlaughed and turned away, meeting Sandra in the corridor. "Okay, chick,take 'em away. We'll cover you. Luck, girl."

  And in the control room, to Sawtelle, "Needle-beam cover, please; setfor minimum aperture and lethal blast. But no firing, Captain Sawtelle,until I give the order."

  * * * * *

  The _Perseus_ was surrounded by hundreds of natives. They were alladult, all naked and about equally divided as to sex. They werefriendly; most enthusiastically so.

  "Jarve!" Sandra squealed. "They're _telepathic_. Very strongly so! Inever imagined--I never felt anything like it!"

  "Any rough stuff?" Hilton demanded.

  "Oh, no. Just the opposite. They love us ... in a way that's simplyindescribable. I don't like this telepathy business ... not clear ...foggy, diffuse ... this woman is _sure_ I'm her long-lostgreat-great-a-hundred-times grandmother or something--_You!_ Slow down.Take it _easy_! They want us all to come out here and live with ... no,not _with_ them, but each of us alone in a whole house with them to waiton us! But first, they all want to come aboard...."

  "_What?_" Hilton yelped. "But are you _sure_ they're friendly?"

  "Positive, chief."

  "How about you, Alex?"

  "We're all sure, Jarve. No question about it."

  "Bring two of them aboard. A man and a woman."

  "You won't bring _any_!" Sawtelle thundered. "Hilton, I had enough ofyour stupid, starry-eyed, ivory-domed blundering long ago, but thisutterly idiotic brainstorm of letting enemy aliens aboard us ends allcivilian command. Call your people back aboard or I will bring them inby force!"

  "Very well, sir. Sandy, tell the natives that a slight delay has becomenecessary and bring your party aboard."

  The Navy officers smiled--or grinned--gloatingly; while the scientistsstared at their director with expressions ranging from surprise todisappointment and disgust. Hilton's face remained set, expressionless,until Sandra and her party had arrived.

  "Captain Sawtelle," he said then, "I thought that you and I had settledin private the question or who is in command of Project Theta Orionis atdestination. We will now settle it in public. Your opinion of me is nowon record, witnessed by your officers and by my staff. My opinion ofyou, which is now being similarly recorded and witnessed, is that youare a hidebound, mentally ossified Navy mule; mentally andpsychologically unfit to have any voice in any such mission as this. Youwill now agree on this recording and before these witnesses, to obey myorders unquestioningly or I will now unload all Bureau of Sciencepersonnel and equipment onto this planet and send you and the _Perseus_back to Terra with the doubly-sealed record of this episode posted tothe Advisory Board. Take your choice."

  Eyes locked, and under Hilton's uncompromising stare Sawtelle weakened.He fidgeted; tried three times--unsuccessfully--to blare defiance. Then,"Very well sir," he said, and saluted.

  * * * * *

  "Thank you, sir," Hilton said, then turned to his staff. "Okay, Sandy,go ahead."

  Outside the control room door, "Thank God you don't play poker, Jarve!"Karns gasped. "We'd all owe you all the pay we'll ever get!"

  "You think it was the bluff, yes?" de Vaux asked. "Me, I think no. Nameof a name of a name! I was wondering with unease what life would be likeon this so-alien planet!"

  "You didn't need to wonder, Tiny," Hilton assured him. "It was in thebag. He's incapable of abandonment."

  Beverly Bell, the van der Moen twins and Temple Bells all stared atHilton in awe; and Sandra felt much the same way.

  "But suppose he _had_ called you?" Sandra demanded.

  "Speculating on the impossible is unprofitable," he said.

  "Oh, you're the most _exasperating_ thing!" Sandra stamped a foot."Don't you--_ever_--answer a question intelligibly?"

  "When the question is meaningless, chick, I can't."

  At the lock Temple Bells, who had been hanging back, cocked an eyebrowat Hilton and he made his way to her side.

  "What was it you started to say back there, boss?"

  "Oh, yes. That we should see each other oftener."

  "That's what I was hoping you were going to say." She put her hand underhis elbow and pressed his arm lightly, fleetingly, against her side."That would be indubitably the fondest thing I could be of."

  He laughed and gave her arm a friendly squeeze. Then he studied heragain, the most baffling member of his staff. About five feet six.Lithe, hard, trained down fine--as a tennis champion, she would be.Stacked--_how_ she was stacked! Not as beautiful as Sandra or Teddy ...but with an ungodly lot of something that neither of them had ... norany other woman he had ever known.

  "Yes, I am a little difficult to classify," she said quietly, almostreading his mind.

  "That's the understatement of the year! But I'm making some progress."

  "Such as?" This was an open challenge.

  "Except possibly Teddy, the best brain aboard."

  "That isn't true, but go ahead."

  "You're a powerhouse. A tightly organized, thoroughly integrated,smoothly functioning, beautifully camouflaged Juggernaut. A reasonablefacsimile of an irresistible force."

  "My God, Jarvis!" That had gone deep.

  "Let me finish my analysis. You aren't head of your department becauseyou don't want to be. You fooled the top psychs of the Board. You'vebeen running ninety per cent submerged because you can work better thatway and there's no glory-hound blood in you."

  She stared at him, licking her lips. "I knew your mind was a razor, butI didn't know it was a diamond drill, too. That seals your doom, boss,unless ... no, you can't _possibly_ know why I'm here."

  "Why, of course I do."

  "You just think you do. You see, I've been in love with you ever since,as a gangling, bony, knobby-kneed kid, I listened to your firstdoctorate disputation. Ever since then, my purpose in life has been toland you."