Rogue Ship

30

After Hewitt left the engine room, Lesbee ostensibly returned to his work on the panel he was removing. But his attention was actually on the flickering spy light.

It stopped flashing suddenly.

He waited to make sure. When there was no longer any doubt, he ran for the viewplate that connected with the bridge, turned it on, and looked through it at the solar system.

The sun was a bright star of the first magnitude. He made a computation on the basis of his measurement of its brightness, that it was somewhat less than a hundredth of a light-year away.

Taking into account what Hewitt had said of the motion of the Hope of Man through the solar system, Lesbee made various readings on his slide rule, and calculated that the ship had been projected from fifty to one hundred and fifty years into the future.

That was something to know.

It defeated any plan Hewitt might have to assert his rights to command the ship.

Lesbee's next act was to tune in on the bridge's radio receivers, which automatically picked up all incoming messages from the surrounding space. Since Gourdy's take-over, no one but Gourdy and himself had had any real opportunity to receive such messages.

The message that came through now was the first Lesbee had heard.

The message began with a simple three-bell signal and was followed by the words:

'Earth calling. Incoming ships use control channel 71.2 meters for initial communication.'

Lesbee broke the connection, shut off the engine-room viewer – and ran for the door. He had to take the chance that Gourdy was preoccupied with Hewitt and that accordingly he would not be seen.

Although it was a dangerous thing to do, he used one of the elevators to go up to the bridge.

Arrived there, he opened the radio-receiver panel, reached in, and tore loose the wires that connected the radio with the enormous aerial network that picked up incoming messages from space.

Hastily, Lesbee replaced the panel and raced down to the alternative control room. Still depending on Gourdy being occupied, he used the scanner system of that complete control board to locate the room where Tellier was held prisoner.

Through the scanner, he saw Tellier lying down in one of the bunks. Lesbee called out softly, and Tellier sat up, then came over to the communicator. Lesbee said, 'Listen, we're going to have to get off the ship fast at some specific future time.'

He explained rapidly what he had done and said that if necessary he would come down and rescue Tellier at the proper time. He finished, 'Don't ask any questions. Just tell me – you'll be prepared to come?'

Tellier was properly responsive. 'Same old Lesbee,' he said admiringly. But there was a strained look on his face as he added, 'John, this is going to be a close thing. But yes, I'll take the chance of going on your say-so.'

Lesbee broke the connection and once more ran at top speed along the corridors. Arrived at the engine room, he sank down in a chair for a few minutes to catch his breath. Then he resumed the phony task of fixing the engines.