Rogue Ship

15

Browne's instructions were: 'Come to the alternate control room.'

Lesbee guided his powered dolly with the cage on it, out of the big ship's airlock B – 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 auxiliary control room and anchored it magnetically to the floor.

Browne climbed out of his control chair and stepped down from the rubber-sheathed dais to the same level as Lesbee. He came forward, smiling, his hand held out. He was a big man, as all the Brownes had been, bigger by a head than Lesbee, and 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, thinking: '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 speakers to everyone aboard?'

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. The auxiliary control room 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 preemptive 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 the aid of Browne 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 speaker system. 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 glint of anger in his eyes.

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.'

Browne snapped, 'But how did you hope to utilize-?' He stopped. 'Never mind,' he muttered.

Dzing was telepathing again:

'In many ways this ship is very advanced. All automatic systems are well designed and largely self-repairing. There is high-level energy-screen equipment and they can generate a tractor beam to match any we can produce with mobile units. But the atomic-energy drive is most inefficient. The resonating-field coils which control particle acceleration are improperly balanced, as if the basic principle were not fully understood. Instead of being accelerated to near light-speed, the particles are ejected at relatively low velocities where their mass has hardly increased at all. There is not enough mass in the entire ship to have maintained the reactive mode more than a fraction of the distance from the nearest planetary system. Let me furnish you with the data that I am perceiving, for the large computers to interpret...'

Lesbee said in alarm, 'Quick, sir, drop him back while we figure out what he's talking about!'

Browne did so – as Dzing telepathed: 'My analysis is correct! Then these beings are completely at our mercy.'

His thought was cut off abruptly, as he was lowered into the cage with its barrier energy.

Browne was turning on the speaker system. He said into it: 'Sorry I had to tune you good people out. You'll be interested to know that we managed to read the thought pulses of the prisoner and have intercepted his calls to someone on the planet below. This gives us an advantage.' He turned to Lesbee. 'Don't you agree, Captain?'

Browne visibly showed no anxiety, whereas Dzing's final statement had flabbergasted Lesbee. '... completely at our mercy... ' surely meant exactly that. He was staggered that Browne could have missed the momentous meaning.

Browne addressed him enthusiastically: 'I'm excited by this telepathy. It's a marvelous shortcut to communication, if we could build up our own thought pulses. Maybe we could use the principle of the remote-control landing device which, as you know, can project human thoughts on a power-output level comparable to a radio-frequency transmitter.'

What interested Lesbee in the suggestion was that he had in his pocket a three-stage remote control for precisely such electronically amplified thought pulses. Unfortunately, the control was for the lifeboat. It probably would be advisable to tune the control to the ship also. It was a problem he had thought of earlier, and now Browne had opened the way for an easy solution.

He held his voice steady as he said, 'Captain, let me program those landing analogs while you prepare the film-communication project. That way we can be ready for him, no matter what.'

Browne seemed to be completely trusting, for he agreed at once. A film projector was mounted, at Browne's direction, on solid connections at one end of the room. The projectionist and Third Officer Mindel – who had come in with him – strapped themselves into adjoining chairs attached to the projector.

While this was going on, Lesbee called various technical personnel. Only one technician protested. 'But, John,' he said, 'that way we have a dual control – with the lifeboat control having pre-emption over the ship. It's against all principles of flight guidance to subordinate steady state mechanisms to gadgets. I-it's unusual.'

It was unusual. But he was fighting for his life. And it was the lifeboat control that was in his pocket where he could reach it quickly; and so he said adamantly, 'Do you want to talk to Captain Browne? Do you want his O.K.?'

'No, no.' The technician's doubts seemed to subside. 'I heard you being named joint captain. You're the boss. It shall be done.'

Lesbee put down the closed-circuit phone into which he had been talking, and turned. It was then he saw that the film was ready to roll, and that Browne had his fingers on the controls of the tractor beam. The older man stared at him questioningly.

'Shall I go ahead?' he asked.

At this penultimate moment, Lesbee had a qualm.

Almost immediately he realized that the only alternative to what Browne planned was that he reveal his own secret knowledge.

He hesitated, torn by doubts. Then: 'Will you turn that off?' He indicated the intercom.

Browne said to the audience, 'We'll bring you in again in a minute, good people.' He broke the connection and gazed questioningly at Lesbee.

Whereupon Lesbee said in a low voice, 'Captain, I should inform you that I brought the Karn aboard in the hope of using him against you.'

'Well, that is a frank and open admission,' the officer said softly.

'I mention this,' said Lesbee, 'because if you had similar ulterior motives, we should clear the air completely before proceeding with the attempt at communication.'

A blossom of color spread from Browne's neck over his face. At last he said slowly, 'I don't know how I can convince you, but I had no schemes.'

Lesbee gazed at Browne's open countenance, and suddenly he realized that the officer was sincere. Browne had accepted the compromise. The solution of a joint captaincy was agreeable to him.

Sitting there, Lesbee experienced a mixture of joy and doubt. He could not wholly overcome his fear of Browne's motives. On the other hand, it did seem as if communication worked. You could tell your truth and get a hearing – if it made sense.

It seemed to him that he had to believe that his truth made sense. He was offering Browne peace aboard the ship. Peace at a price, of course; but still peace. And in this severe emergency Browne recognized the entire validity of the solution.

So it was now evident to Lesbee.

Without further hesitation he told Browne that the creatures who had boarded the lifeboat were robots – not alive at all.

Browne was nodding thoughtfully. Finally he said: 'But I don't see how this could be utilized to take over the ship.'

Lesbee explained that this robot had a built-in self-destruct system, designed in such a way that, when it was activated, it could be pointed so that it would also destroy anything in the path of the blast.

'That,' said Lesbee, 'is why I had him on his back when I brought him in here. I could have had him tilted and pointing at you. Naturally, I made sure that this did not happen until you had indicated what you intended to do. One of my precautions would enable us to catch this creature's thoughts without -'

As he was speaking, he slipped his hand into his pocket, intending to show the older man the tiny remote control by which – when it was off – they would be able to read Dzing's thoughts without removing him from the cage.

He stopped short in his explanation because an ugly expression had come suddenly into Browne's face.

The big man glanced at Third Officer Mindel. 'Well, Dan,' he said, 'do you think that's it?'

Lesbee noticed with shock that Mindel was wearing a sound-amplifying device in one ear. He must have overheard every word that Browne and he had spoken to each other.

Mindel nodded. 'Yes, Captain,' he said. 'I very definitely think he has now told us what we wanted to find out.'

Lesbee grew aware that Browne had released himself from his safety belt and was stepping away from his seat. The officer turned and, standing very straight, said in a formal tone:

'Technician Lesbee, we have heard your admission of gross dereliction of duty, conspiracy to overthrow the lawful government of this ship, scheme to utilize alien creatures to destroy human beings, and confession of other unspeakable crimes. In this extremely dangerous situation, summary execution without formal trial is justified. I therefore sentence you to death and order Third Officer Mindel to -'

He faltered, and came to a stop.