Rogue Ship

21

As the days and the weeks passed, he realized he was the only technical person who was being permitted to go into the two control rooms and in the engine room. It became apparent that whatever was finally done would be up to him.

His brain seethed with schemes. And yet the only possible thing he could actually do occurred to him the first day. He kept rejecting it, saw too many flaws in it, felt its danger. But on the twenty-sixth day he told the idea to Tellier. It was one of those rare moments when he was certain he was not being spied on: Gourdy had left the lower floors only moments before and was obviously en route somewhere and not listening in, and so Lesbee could speak freely.

He grew aware of his friend's dismay. 'Exceed the speed of light!' Tellier echoed. 'Are you serious?'

Lesbee said defensively, 'We won't actually do it. But I've got to get it programmed for and in reserve. He's a killer -don't ever forget that.'

Tellier groaned. 'If this is the best you can think of, we're in trouble.'

Lesbee explained earnestly: 'At our present rate of acceleration, we'll come to 99.999998 per cent of light-speed in about three days. When that happens, it will require only two ship hours to jump many light-years, all the way to the solar system. So we've got to stop accelerating or we'll zoom right out of the galaxy. Now, how do I do all this without letting on to Gourdy who expects the journey to Earth to take thirty years?'

A strange look came into Tellier's thin, intellectual face. He grabbed Lesbee's arm, said hoarsely, 'John – during these three days, why don't you just fix up one of the lifeboats, shut off our engines, scramble the light system, and in the confusion you and me get off?'

Lesbee was taken aback. Leave the ship! Although he considered that the idea was not practicable, he was astonished that such a thought had never occurred to him. But he realized why it hadn't. The ship was a part of his life and not a separate thing at all.

He said finally, thinking out loud, 'There would have to be some fix-up on that lifeboat. It takes a long time to slow down. What I figure is, when we get close to light-speed, I'll juggle the gravity and the acceleration, and then get permission to cut off.'

He stood, scowling, considering. Tellier wanted to know what was bothering him.

Lesbee realized he couldn't explain to any other person the difficulty of dealing with Gourdy. Haltingly, he tried to describe the paranoic suspiciousness of the man. He said, 'He knows enough about the controls to know when they're in operation. Teaching him was my only method of preventing him from having someone check on the engines. If I go to him-' He stopped again, picturing the possibilities, then said, 'It's so vital I can't take the chance that he won't do it now.'

'So?' Tellier wanted to know.

It seemed to Lesbee that he must inform Captain Gourdy that the engines were not functioning properly and get permission to cut off the drives before the ship attained light-speed. He argued the point earnestly. 'But I'll program it so that if he gets suspicious and bars me from upstairs, then, in due course, the engines will start again and take us across the light-speed barrier, and since it will look as if I had predicted trouble, Gourdy will trust me again.'

He grew aware that Tellier was gazing at him admiringly. 'You really do have a mind for intrigue, don't you?' He added anxiously, 'But if he's not suspicious, you'll keep us on this side of light?'

'Of course. Do you think I'm crazy! As an emergency precaution, believe it or not, I've already activated the old sensor equipment for zeroing in, first on the solar system, then on Earth.'

The conversation ended with an agreement as to which airlock they would use for their escape and under what circumstances they would rendezvous there.

Later that afternoon, Lesbee programmed for the additional patterned acceleration, using electromagnetic controls exclusively. It had occurred to him that it would be unwise to trust any mere mechanical device at near light-speed.

The action taken, he went to Gourdy and brazenly made his statement about the drives, that he would have to shut them off to see what was wrong.

Gourdy was instantly anxious. 'But we'll keep coasting along while you're checking them?' he asked.

'Of course,' said Lesbee. 'We'd come to this condition presently anyway, where we have to shut off the engines to conserve fuel, and coast. But that's still months away.'

Lesbee had once toyed with the idea of using that natural sequence. But it had seemed to him that the longer he remained at the mercy of Gourdy, the more impossible his plan would be. Even now, at the stepped-up rate that he had used, simply coasting would require a disconcertingly high number of years to make the journey. It was unfortunate but only within light yards and light feet per second of light-speed were the enormous relative speeds attainable.

They were standing on the bridge. Against the backdrop of unending, star-dotted night. Gourdy's eyes were narrowed. He was evidently having those second thoughts of his. Lesbee felt the tension mounting in his stomach.

Gourdy said, 'Does this trouble have an emergency look?'

'Captain, the sooner I check on what's wrong, the better. But it could wait till the sleep period.'

'Well– ' Gourdy seemed to be coming to a decision. 'I guess it's all right. What about the gravity?'

'It'll have to go off,' Lesbee lied.

'Then wait till after dinner. If you haven't heard from me in an hour before the sleep period, program for engine shut-off during the night. I'll announce it and tell people to sleep in their safety belts. How long do you figure it will take?'

'A couple of days.'

Gourdy was silent, frowning. He said at last: 'It'll be a nuisance, though I guess we'll do it. But wait, like I said. O.K.?'

'O.K.'

Lesbee dared not say one extra word. He went down the steps, heart in mouth, and he was greatly relieved, while he was in the commissary, to hear Gourdy announce the forthcoming slowdown over the public-address system.

Unfortunately for Lesbee's peace of mind, as Gourdy turned away from the microphone, he found himself remembering that Lesbee had been trained as a technician and not as an engineer. He doubted if Lesbee were really qualified to repair or evaluate the need for repair of the atomic drive.

The question did not include any suspicion of Lesbee's motives. He simply asked himself: Was it wise to trust a technician with something so vital to the future of the ship?

After these thoughts had matured for a few minutes, Gourdy ordered the late Captain Browne's former first officer, Miller, to be brought to the auxiliary control room.

He said to Miller quite simply, 'I have reason to believe the engines are not operating properly. Would you check and give me your opinion?'

For Miller it was a moment of dilemma. He had been an officer his enure adult Lifetime. He despised Gourdy and he disliked Lesbee but, most of all, he hated living on the lower decks. During the incident with the robot at Alta, he had been unconscious while Lesbee and Browne had had their discussion about the speed of light. Accordingly, he had not understood those later snatches of conversation in which those two angry men had referred to the Lorentz-Fitzgerald theory. At no time, then or since, had he been aware that the ship was traveling faster than its best previous speed.

And this was his first time near the controls since Lesbee's take-over. He studied the dials on the big board with genuine interest. It did not take him long to decide that the engines were operating perfectly. In fact, remembering some old manuals that showed theoretical optimums, he had the feeling that on the whole, for a reason that was not clear, the drive was working more smoothly than at any previous time that he had seen it.

Realizing this, he deduced with the contempt of the engineer for the technician that Lesbee had somehow misread the data. His dilemma was: how could he utilize his superior knowledge to get back into a position of greater importance? Should he back Lesbee and get in on the unnecessary repair job? Or should he here and now begin a struggle for position with that individual?

He decided on the struggle. 'After all,' he thought, 'this is every man for himself.',

At the precise moment that he made this decision, his roving glance lighted on the velocity indicators, which were on a separate instrument board to one side. The needles showed an extreme configuration that he had never seen before. Frowning, Miller walked over, mentally calculating a rough approximation of what the figures meant. His puffy face quivered. He turned.

'Captain Gourdy,' he said, 'a lot of things are suddenly beginning to make sense to me.'

Afterward, when he had explained to Gourdy what he meant, and after he had finally been returned below, Miller sought out the unsuspecting Lesbee, and said cockily, 'Captain Gourdy just had me look at the engines.'

Lesbee silently absorbed the terrible shock of that and, being acutely conscious of being spied on, said in a steady voice, 'I was thinking of asking the captain to have you verify my findings.'

Miller's response was rough-toned. 'O.K., if you want to pretend. Let me tell you, all kinds of things fell into place when I saw those velocity indicators. I never did understand, when Browne was killed.' He smiled knowingly. 'Pretty smart, getting almost up to the speed of light, never letting on.'

It seemed to Lesbee that his face must be the color of lead. He could have hit the other man, standing there with his round brown eyes full of foolish triumph. He stepped close to Miller, said in a low, vicious voice. 'You stupid fool! Don't you realize that Gourdy can't go to Earth? We're all dead men!'

There was brief satisfaction, then, in seeing the expression of horrible awareness take form on Miller's face. Lesbee turned away, sick at heart. And he was not surprised a few minutes later when he received a call to report to the captain's cabin.

As it developed, he didn't get all the way there. En route he was arrested and placed in one of the ship's prison cages. It was there that Gourdy came to him. His coal-black eyes stared at Lesbee through the bars. He said grimly, 'All right, Mr. Lesbee, tell me all about the speed of this ship.'

Lesbee took the chance that his conversation with Miller had not been monitored – and pretended to be totally unaware of what Gourdy was talking about. It seemed to him that his only hope was to convince this terrible little man that he was absolutely innocent.

Gourdy was taken aback. And because the entire situation was so fantastic, he was half-inclined to believe Lesbee. He could imagine that a technician had simply not grasped what had happened.

But he also found himself inexorably analyzing the other possibility: that Lesbee had known the facts and had planned to stop the ship, get off, and leave those who remained aboard to solve the mystery for themselves. The mere contemplation of it enraged him.

'O.K. for you!' he said balefully. 'If you won't talk, I have no alternative but to treat you like a liar and a saboteur.'

But he returned to his cabin, shocked and unhappy, no longer a well and confident man, conscious that the new development threatened him only and that he must act quickly.

With his strong sense of personal danger, Gourdy let his feelings guide him. The need to take all necessary precautions – that was first. And so, as the sleep period began, he led an expedition down to the lower decks and arrested eighteen persons, including Miller and Tellier. All eighteen were placed under separate lock and key.

Gourdy spent the second hour of the sleep period in a sleepless soul-searching, and there was presently no doubt in his mind that his actions – particularly the executions – had been geared to a thirty-year journey.

'I might as well face the truth,' he thought. 'I can't take the chance of returning to Earth.'

As he planned it then, he would have Lesbee slow the ship to a point where it would require thirty years to get to the solar system. Then, when he had worked out a good propaganda reason for doing so, he would execute Lesbee, Miller, Mindel, and the other real suspects. The reason, of course, would be basically that they were plotting to take over the ship, but the details needed to be carefully thought about so that people would either believe the story or at least be half-inclined to believe it.

He was still lying there an hour later, considering exactly what he would do and say when, under him, the ship jumped as if it had been struck. There followed the unmistakable sensation of acceleration.

Lesbee had been tensely awake as the fateful hour approached. On the dot the forward surge caught him and pressed him back against the belt that partly encased his body. According to his programming, the preliminary gap between acceleration and artificial gravity would be three g's, enough to hold everyone down until they crossed light-speed.

He felt a sickening fear as he realized that at this very instant time and space must already be telescoping at an astronomical rate.

'Hurry, hurry!' he thought weakly.

Although there was no way of sensing it that he knew of, since both acceleration and artificial gravity were increasing together, he braced himself for the fantastically compressed period light-inches before and beyond light-speed. His hope was that it would pass by in a tiny fraction of an instant.

The bracing action was like a signal. As he lay there, expecting agony, he had a fantasy that was gone so quickly that he forgot what it was. Then another fantasy, a face – never seen before – instantly gone. Then he began to see images. They were all going backward: himself and other people aboard, actually walking backward as on a film in reverse. The scenes were fleeting; thousands streamed by and, presently, there were images from his childhood.

The pictures faded into confusion. He was aware of a floating sensation, not pleasant, but not the agony he had expected. And then -

He must have blacked out.