Supper was over, but the four were still at the table, coffee and smoking. During a pause in the conversation, James up.
"I want an official decision, Clee," he said, abruptly. "While we're out of touch with United Worlds you, as captain of the ship and of the project, are Boss, with a B. The Lord of Justice, High and Low. The Works. Check?"
"On paper, yes; with my to and/or when we to Base. In practice, I didn't to have to make any very rulings."
"I you'd have to, either, but Belle me one with a in it, so...."
"Just a minute. How official do you want it? Full formal, screens and recorded?"
"Not unless we have to. Let's it first. As of right now, are we under the Code or not?"
"Of we are."
"Not necessarily," Belle put in, sharply. "Not to the letter. We're so away and our of is so that it should be in the light of common sense."
Garlock at Belle and she back, her as clear and as a baby's.
"The Code is neither long to interpretation," Garlock stated, finally. "It either in full and or not at all. My is that the Code applies, strictly, until I the of Ultimate Contingency. Are you ready, Belle, to the project, an Tellurian world, and to it?"
"Well, not quite, perhaps."
"Yes or no, please."
"No."
"We are under the Code, then. Go ahead, Jim."
"I with Belle and she to confirm."
"Certainly I refused. He had no to with me."
"I had of reason!" James snapped. "I'm up to here—" he his right across his forehead, "—with making so-called love to a woman who can think of anything another man's throat. She's a conniver."
"You know that are and are not in public," Garlock said, flatly. "Now as to of a break. In there is no marriage, no registration, no of or of permanence. Thus, legally or logically, there is no obligation. Morally, however, there is always some obligation. Hence, as a of urbanity, in cases where no as chastity, the Code calls for agreement without rancor. If either party in to confirm, and cannot injury, that party's is inurbane. Confirmation is and the party is ignored."
"Just how would you go about Prime Operator Belle Bellamy?"
"You've got a point there, Jim. However, she hasn't very long in her refusal. As a of information, Belle, why did you take Jim in the place?"
"I didn't." She her shoulders. "It was pure chance. You saw me the tenth-piece."
"Am I to the that you are one of the best living?"
"I don't have to unless I want to!" She her foot. "Can't you of me a coin honestly?"
"No. However, since this is not a screens-down inquiry, I'll give you—orally, at least—the of the doubt. The next step, I presume, is for Lola to with me. Lola?"
"Well ... I to say this, Clee.... I that would be better, but...." Lola paused, in embarrassment.
"She feels," James said, steadily, "as I do, that there should be much more to the sexual relation than the of two pieces of machinery. That's civilized."
"I confirm, Lola, of course," Garlock said; then on, aloud, the group at large. "Ha. Reasons again, and very well put—not off the cuff. Evasions. Flat lies. Something very here—as as a nine-credit bill. In sum, upon from assumptions. The pattern is not clear ... but I won't order screens until I have to ... if the had come from Belle...."
"Me?" Belle flared. "Why from me?"
"... of Jim...." Ignoring Belle's interruption, Garlock in thought. After a minute or so his cleared.
"Jim," he said, sharply, "have you been aware of Belle's manipulation?"
"Why, no, of not. She couldn't!"
"That's a brainstorm, Clee," Belle sneered. "You'd turn in for an overhaul."
"Nice scheme, Belle," Garlock said. "I underestimated—at least, didn't enough—your power; and your and urbanity."
"What are you talking about, Chief?" James asked. "You me ten back."
"Just this. Belle is this whole operation; under a perfectly smokescreen."
"I'm the is up, kids," Belle said. "Listen to him, if you like, but use your own judgment."
"But nobody make Jim and me love each other," Lola argued, "and we do. It's love."
"Admitted," Garlock said. "But she have helped it along; and she's all set to take every possible of the thus created."
"I still don't see it," James objected. "Why, she wouldn't our break. She hasn't yet."
"She would have, at the moment; after out long to put you under to her. There would have, also, been attached. Her plan was, after the pairings...."
"I wouldn't pair with you," Belle in viciously, "if you were the only man left in the universe!"
"Part of the smokescreen," Garlock explained. "The re-pairings would give her two lines of attack on me, to be used simultaneously. First, to work on me in bed...."
"See?" Belle interrupted. "He doesn't think I've got any at all."
"Oh, you may have one, but it's no than your head, and that a diamond. Second, to work on you two, with no barred, to a three-unit team against me. Her that I am my a very opening lead."
"Do you think I'd let her work on me?" James demanded.
"She's a Prime—you wouldn't know anything about it. However, nothing will happen. Nor am I going to let her the issue. Belle, you are either the Code or a free agent it. Which?"
"I have my position clear."
"To me, yes. To Jim and Lola, unclear."
"Unclear, then. You can not me!"
"If you the Code, no. If you don't, I can and will. If you make any of a pass at Jim James from now on, I'll lock you into your room with a Gunther block."
"You wouldn't dare!" she breathed. "Besides, you couldn't, not to another prime."
"Don't on it," he advised.
After a full minute of Garlock's to his one of friendliness. "Why not let this one right here, Belle? I can them, with all the official trimmings. Why not let 'em their honeymoon?"
"Why not?" Belle's manner to match Garlock's and she warmly. "I confirm, Jim. You two are serious, aren't you? Marriage, declarations, registration, and everything? I wish—I and wish you—every possible."
"We are serious," James said, his arm around Lola's waist. "And you won't ... won't interfere?"
"Not a bit. I couldn't, now, if I wanted to." Belle wryly. "You see, you missed the main of the show, since you can't know what a Prime Operator is. Especially you can't know what Cleander Simmsworth Garlock is—he's an out-and-out tiger on wheels. The three of us have him bow-legged, but of all of that up just now. So if you two want to take the big jump you can do it with my as well as Clee's. I'll clear the table."
That small taken of—a quick folding-up of into the and a into the did it—Belle set up the recorder.
"Are you that you want the full treatment?" Garlock asked.
Both were certain, and Garlock read the but marriage lines.
As the left the room, Belle to Garlock with a smile. "Are you going to ask me to pair with you, Clee?"
"I am." He at her. "I you that much revenge, at least. But seriously, I'd like it and we fit like Grace and Poise. Look at that mirror. Did you see a better-matched couple? Will you give me a try, Belle?"
"I will not," she said, emphatically. I'll take what I said a while ago—if you were the only man left, I would—but as it is, the answer is a definite, resounding, and final 'No'."
"'Definite' and 'resounding,' yes. 'Final,' I won't accept. I'll wait."
"You'll wait a long time, Buster. My door will be locked from now on. Good night, Doctor Garlock, I'm going to bed."
"So am I." He walked with her along the to their rooms, the doors of which were opposite each other. "In view of the Code, locking your door is a meaningless gesture. Mine will unlocked. I you to come in you like, and you that no such entry will be as an of privacy."
Without a word she into her room and closed the door with a just of violence. Her lock sharply.
The next morning, after breakfast, James Garlock into his room and the door.
"Clee, I want to tell you.... I don't want to but...."
"Want to it?"
"Hell, no!"
"It's about Brownie, then."
"Uh-huh. I've always liked you immensely. Admired you. Hero, of...."
"Yeah. I quote. 'Harder than Pharaoh's heart.' 'Colder than helium,' and all the rest. But this thing about Brownie...." He out; two hard hands met in a grip. "How you possibly off? Just the strain, if nothing else."
"A little doesn't a man unless he lets it. I've done without for months at a stretch, with it around on all of me."
"But she's so ... she's got everything!"
"There the bridegroom. For my taste, she hasn't. She told you, I suppose, when a fact, that I told her she wasn't my type?"
"Yes, but...."
"She still isn't. She's a very person, with a very personality. She is one of the two most nearly perfect of her race. Her is beautiful. Her is an artist's dream. Her mind is one of the very best. Besides all that, she's a very good egg and a dish. But put in my place.
"Here's this we have just described. She has high and she's a virgin; aroused. Also, she's so full of this they've been into us—propaganda, rocket-oil, prop-wash, and gobbledygook—that it's out of her ears. She's so with it that she's going to pair with you, and be damned, if it kills her; though she's shaking, clear to her shoes—scared yellow. Also, she is and always will be to death of you—she thinks you're some of robot. She's a starry-eyed, soft-headed sissy. A sapadilla. A for a line of balloon-juice and flapdoodle. No spine; no bottom. A doll-baby. Strictly a pet—you no more love her, ever, than you a half-grown kitten...."
"That's a of a picture!" James in savagely. "Even with your cold-blooded reputation."
"People in love can't be objective, is all. If I saw her through the same set of you do, I'd be in love with her, too. So let's see if you can use your brain of your to answer a question. If the were true, what would you do, Junior?"
"I'd pass, I guess. I'd have to, if I wanted to look at myself in the next morning. But that's such an picture, Clee.... But if that's actually your picture of Brownie—and you're no part of a liar—just what of a woman you love? If any?"
"Belle."
"Belle! Belle Bellamy? Hell's furies! That iceberg? That egomaniac? That Jezebel? She's the hardest-boiled that unhung."
"Right, on all counts. Also she's and treacherous. She's a ground-and-lofty by and training. I add a more. But she's got brains, ability, and guts—guts to supply the Women's Army Corps. She's got the and the and the drive. So just her out and on the coal—blasting wide open on all torches. Back to with you when you're surrounded; she wouldn't and she wouldn't give. Or and wing—holding the come or space-warps. Roll that one around on your tongue, Jim, and give your taste-buds a treat."
"Well, maybe ... if I've got that much ... that's a to read. I can't the article. However, you're as hard as she is—even harder. You've got more of what it takes. Maybe you can make a Christian out of her. If so, you might have something; but I'm if I can see what. Whatever it out to be, I wouldn't for any part of it. You have it all."
"Exactly; and you can have your Brownie."
"I'm to see. I didn't think you had anything like that in your chilled-steel carcass. And I want to apolo...."
"Don't do it, boy. If the time comes when you go so soft on me as to it on the line and start out your language...." Garlock paused. For one of the very times in his life, he was at a for words. He his hands into his pockets and his shoulders. "Hell, I don't want to maudlin, either ... so ... well, how many men, do you think, have gone the with me on this job without killing me or me killing them?"
"Oh, that's not...."
"Lay it on the line, Jim. I know what I am. Just one. You. One man in six thousand million. Okay; how many live with me for a year without going crazy?"
"Lots of 'em; but, being masochists, they'd drive you nuts. And you can't 'stupidity'; which, by definition, lets out. Nope, it's a order to fill."
"Check. She'd have to be and hard not to be of me, by any trace. Able and to up to me and it out. To pin my ears against my she thinks I'm off the beam. Do it with skill and and nicety, with power and control; yet without doing herself any and without her for me. In short, a female Jim James Nine."
"Huh? Hell's blowtorches! You think I'm like Belle Bellamy?"
"Not by nine thousand megacycles. Like Belle Bellamy be and should be. Like I she will be. I'd have to give, too, of course—maybe we can make Christians out of each other. It's a dream, I admit, but it'll be Belle or nobody. But I'm not used to over this way—let's go."
"I'm you did, big fellow—once in a lifetime is good for the soul. I'd say you were in love with her right now—except that if you were, you couldn't possibly her like a on the table, the way you've just been doing. Are you or aren't you?"
"I'll be if I know. You and Brownie that the poets' of love is valid. In fact, you make a case for its validity. I have, and don't now ... but under ... I don't know. Ask me again sometime; say in about a month?"
"That's the thing you know. Oh, brother! This is a thing I'm going to watch with my out on stalks!"
For the next week, Belle locked her door every night. For another nights, she did not lock it. Then, one night, she left it ajar. The evening, the two again walked together to their doors.
"I left my door open last night."
"I know you did."
"Well?"
"And have you to high that I opened it? And put me on a tape for inurbanity? For of privacy?"
"Blast and damn! You know perfectly well, Clee Garlock, I wouldn't such a dirty, as that."
"Maybe I should apologize, then, but as a of I have no idea as to what you wouldn't do." He at her, his hard in thought. "As you know, I have had very little to do with women. That little has always been on a logical level. You are such a new that I can't out what makes you tick."
"So you're of me," she sneered. "Is that it?"
"Close enough."
"And I it's you that what's-his-name is using as a model for 'Timorous Timmy'?"
"Since you've it, yes."
"You ... you weasel!" She took three quick steps up the corridor, then back. "You say my logic is cockeyed. What are you using now?"
"I'm trying to one to match yours."
"Oh ... I that one, I guess, since I know you aren't of God, man, woman, or ... and you're big so you don't have to be it all the time." She laughed suddenly, her markedly. "Listen, you big lug. Why don't you me into an loop? If I were you and you were me, I'd've me from my teeth long ago."
"I'm not sure I know or am to. Anyway, I'm not any so from shore."
"Says you. You're wonderful, Clee—simply priceless. Do you know you're the only man I met that I couldn't make for me like a a cliff? And that the is too to be the other way?"
"The first, I have suspected. The second is chemically-pure rocket-oil."
"I it is.... I wish I be as of it as you are.... You see, Clee, I you to come in, last night, and there wasn't any in it. Surely, you don't think I'm going to you into my room, do you?"
"I can't see why not. However, since no of logic to apply, I accept your as a fact. By the same reasoning—however invalid—if I ask you again you will again refuse. So all that's left, I guess, is for me to you into my room by force."
He put his left arm around her and a pressure against her side; under which she to move slowly toward his door.
"You admit that you're using force?" she asked. Her was unreadable; her was at its force. "That I'm being coerced? Definitely?"
"Definitely," he agreed. "At least ten of force. Not to affect a tape, but enough, I hope, to affect you. If it isn't, I'll use more."
"Oh, ten is enough. Just so it's force."
She her toward his and arms around his neck. His right arm into action with his left, and Cleander Garlock all about and tapes.
After a time she one arm; out; opened his door. He her up and, still locked to lips, her over the threshold.
A jumps later they met their old Arpalone. This Inspector was so old that his skin, of the bright, clear blue, was and toward gray. The old was garrulous, for a Guardian; he wanted them to pause a while and gossip.
"Yes, I am lonesome," he admitted. "It has been a long time since I with anyone. You see, nobody has visited this planet—Groobe, its name is—since almost all our was killed, a ago...."
"Killed? How?" Garlock asked sharply. "Not Dilipic?"
"Oh, you have them? I have, myself. No, nothing nearly that bad. Merely the Ozobes. The world itself was at all. Rehabilitation will be a matter, so there's no why some of those Engineers...."
"The beast!" Lola a tight-beam at her husband. "Who anything about the and of a planet? It's the people that count and his are and he's perfectly about it—just lonesome!"
"Don't let it you, pet," James soothed. "He's an Arpalone, you know; not a anthropologist."
"... shouldn't come out here and a hours once in a while, but they don't. Too with their own business, they say. But while you are physically human, you are not. You're all too ... too ... I can't put my on it, but ... more as though you were fighters, if such a thing be possible."
"We are fighters. Where we come from, most beings are fighters."
"Oh? I of such a thing. Where can you be from?"
This took much explanation, since the Arpalone had of inter-galactic travel. "You are willing, then, to by with us Arpalones against the of humanity? You have actually done so, at times, and won?"
"We have."
"I am glad. I am a call for help any time now. Will you give me of your pattern, Doctor Garlock, so that I can call you in case of need? Thank you."
"What makes you think you're going to an S.O.S. so soon? Where from?"
"Because these Ozobe come in cycles, years apart, but there are always at very nearly the same time. We were the first, this time; so there will be one or two others very shortly."
"Do they always ... kill all the people?" Lola asked.
"Oh, no. Scarcely of the time. Depends on how many the has, and how much help can there soon enough."
"Your call come from any of the other in this neighborhood, then?" Garlock asked.
"Yes. There are fifteen about six light-years of us, and we a close-knit group."
"What are these Ozobes?"
"Animals. Warm-blooded, but egg-layers, not mammals. Like this," and the Inspector spread in their minds a picture of a like the of Hodell, that the color was black, off to green at the extremities. Also, it was with a and heavy, but very sharp, sting.
"They say that they come from space, but I don't it," the old on. "What would a warm-blood be doing out in space? Besides, they couldn't to their eggs in out there. No, sir, I think they live right here on Groobe somewhere, maybe up in or something for ten or thirteen years ... but that wouldn't make sense, either, would it? I just don't know...."
Garlock away from the Inspector and the Pleiades started down.
"That's the most thing I of in my life!" Lola out. "Like wasps—only worse—people aren't bugs! Why don't all the together and something to kill every Ozobe in every of the group?"
"That one has got too many in it for me to answer," James said.
"I'm going to of that Engineer as soon as we land," Lola said, darkly, "and a pin into him."
They the Engineering Office easily enough, in a well a large city. They the and out on foot; with solid ground. The Head Engineer was an Arpalone, too—Engineers were not a race, but on a of high technology—but he did know anything about space-drives. His was rehabilitation; he was top of a crew....
Then Lola pushed Garlock aside. Yes, the Ozobes came from space. He was sure of it. Yes, they eggs in bodies. Yes, they alive a while—or might, for the crew. No, he didn't know what would out—he'd let one live that long, but what the else Ozobes? No, not one. Not one single one. If just one did, on any world where he the job, he'd his job as and go to the for a year....
"Ridiculous!" Lola snapped. "If Ozobes hatched, they couldn't possibly have come from space. If they did come from space, the adult would have to be something able to into space, some way or other. That is biology. Don't you see that?"
He didn't see it. He didn't give a damn, either. It was none of his business; he was a man.
Lola ran to the ship in disgust.
"Something else is more ridiculous, and is your business," James told the Head Engineer. "Garlock and I are engineers—top ones. We know definitely that a one-hundred-percent clean-up on such a job as this—millions—simply can't be done. Ever. Under any conditions. Are you in your teeth or are you to it yourself?"
"Neither one," the Engineer insisted, stubbornly. "I've wondered, myself, at how I 'em all, but I always do—every time so far. That's why they give me the big job. I'm good at it."
"Oh—Lola's right, Jim," Garlock said. "It's the adult that hatches; something so different they don't it. Something able to into space. Enough to produce the next generation."
"Sure. I'll tell Brownie—she'll be tickled."
"She'll be more than tickled—she'll want to up somebody around here with three brain and give 'em an earful." Then, to the Engineer, "Do you know how they a that's been by the golop?"
"You've one? I have, but of I've it. Slow, but not too difficult. After killing, the in a years—wonderful it makes—what makes it slow is that you have to wait fifty or a hundred years for the to up again and for the to quit...."
"Excuse me, please—I've got a call—we have to leave, right now."
The call was from the Inspector. The nearest planet, Clamer, was being by the Ozobes and needed all the help they get.
In the Pleiades was at the Port of Entry.
"Where is this Clamer?" Garlock asked.
The Inspector pointed a thought; all four it.
"Let's go, Jim. Maybe...."
"Just a minute!" Lola snapped. She was hard, her were almost as she to the old Arpalone and a so that he winced.
"Do you so-called 'Guardians of Humanity' at all about the you're to be protecting?" she viciously, the in and twisting, "or are you just on the job and doing as little as you possibly can without fired?"
Belle and Garlock looked at each other and grinned. James was and shocked. This woman her top was no Brownie Montandon any of them knew.
"We do we possibly can," the Inspector was not only shocked, but and abused. "If there's any one possible thing we haven't done, the tiniest...."
"There's plenty!" she snapped. "Plain, stupidity, then, it must be. There must be somebody around here who has been at least to biology! You should have these Ozobe ago. All you have to do is out what its life cycle is. How many and what they are. How the into space and where they go," and she on, in thoughts, to in full detail.
"Are you to that?"
"Oh, yes. Your may be the truth, at that."
"And are you to out it would be, and through on it?"
"Yes, of course. If it works, I'll be famous for it. I'll give you part of the credit...."
"Keep the credit—just see to it that it done!" She on James. "This of life is so unnecessary! This time we're going to Clamer, and else. Push the button, Jim."
"All I can do is set up for it, pet. Whether we...."
"We'll there!" she blazed. "It's high time we got a break. Punch it! This time the ship's going to Clamer, if we have to all out and push it there! Now that button!"
James pushed the button, into his scanner, and froze; staring. He did not whistle. Belle, however, did; with ear-shattering volume. Garlock's mouth open in the biggest of his life. They were in the same galaxy!
All three had of so long and so that of a full-sphere identity was and instantaneous.
Lola, in scanner, had already in with the Port Inspector.
"It is Clamer!" she aloud. "I told you it was time for our luck to change, if we hard enough! They are being by Ozobes and they did call for help and they didn't think we possibly here this fast and we don't need to be we're or we couldn't have on Groobe!"
For five long minutes Garlock the while he the entire situation. Then he a through the of the in of the whole defense operation.
"Battle-Cruiser Pleiades, Captain Garlock commanding, for in response to your S.O.S. on Groobe."
The general, as he was, all other business. "But you're human! You can't fight!"
"Watch us. You don't know, apparently, that the Ozobe are on the of your moon. They're their in most of the way in transports."
"Why, they can't be! They're in from all from space!"
"That's what they want you to think. They're to many hours of zero pressure and almost zero cold. Question: if we all their transport, say in three hours, can you all the who will be in the air or in space at that time?"
"Very easily. They've started yet. I you Admiral-pro-tem Garlock, in of Space Operations, and will to you any other space-fighters who may come. I thank you, sir. Good luck."
The returned his attention to his office. His mind was with questions as to what these not-human beings were, how or if they so much, and so on; but he them out of his mind and went, fast and efficient, to work. James the Pleiades up to a thousand miles or so of the moon.
"How long it take to learn this business, Jim?" Lola asked.
"About fifteen seconds. All you have to do is want to. Do you, really?"
"I do. If I don't do something to help these people," it did not to her that she had already done a job, "I'll myself."
James her; and, much to her surprise, she it very easy to do.
The the were huge, with short-range drives—and with nothing else. No accommodations, no facilities, no food, no water, not any air. Each transport, when to the bursting-point with as-yet-docile cargo, away; around to approach Clamer from some previously-assigned direction. It did not, however, approach the planet's surface. At about two thousand miles out, great opened and the was out into space, to the of the way by gravity. Then the empty shell, with only its one pilot aboard, for another load.
"How shots, Clee?" James asked. He and Lola were into their scanners. "Wouldn't take as much as a equivalent, would it?"
"Half a is plenty, but no use being too about out here."
Garlock and Belle were already bombing; James and Lola began. Slow and at first, Lola soon up the and was blast for blast with the others. No more transport left the moon. No empty one, returning toward the moon, there. In much less than the three hours Garlock had mentioned, every Ozobian transport had been destroyed.
"And now the job begins," Garlock said, as James the to a miles of the moon's surface.
That surface was and jagged, like that of the always Clamer. No of activity be by eye, anything unusual. Even the trap-doors, all closed now, matched their surroundings. Underground, however, activity was intense; and, now, in the extreme.
"Why, there isn't a single adult anywhere!" Lola exclaimed. "I the whole place would be full of 'em!"
"So did I," Belle said. "However, by hindsight, it's plain enough. Their job done, they were killed and eaten. Last meal, perhaps."
"I'm so. Whatever they were, they had hands and brains. Just look at those shops and machines!"
"What do we do, boss?" James asked. "Run a search pattern first?"
"We'll have to, I guess, we can the job out."
It was and Garlock in thought. "Almost the moon covered—honeycombed. We'll have to fine-tooth it. Around the first, then into the center. This moon isn't very big, but so this is going to be a of a long job. Any suggestions, anybody? Jim?"
"The only way, I guess. You can't do it hit-or-miss. I'm we've got of in our Op and of for the engines. The will all know they've been at work they the up again."
"So will you, Junior, me.... Ready, all? Start blasting."
Then, for three hours, the Pleiades moved slowly—for her—along a plotted and automatically-controlled course. It was very easy to tell where she had been; the sharply-cut, evenly-spaced, left by the Galaxian's full-conversion were different from the irregularly-cratered, ages-old original surface.
"Knock off, Brownie," Garlock said then. "Go eat all you can and some sleep. Come in three hours. Jim, cut our speed to seventy-five percent."
Lola her scanner, a of relief, and disappeared.
Three hours later—all three were too to think of anything the work in hand—Lola came back.
"Take Belle's swath, Brownie. Okay, Belle, you can off. Three hours."
"I'll stay," Belle declared. "Go yourself; or send Jim."
"Don't be any more of a than you have to. I said it."
"And I said I wouldn't. I'm just as good...."
"Chop it off!" Garlock snapped. "It isn't a case of being just as good as. It's a of physical reserves. Jim and I have more to on for the long shifts than you have. So the out of here or I'll stop the ship and you than you are now."
Belle up her head, her shoulder-length green in her of defiance; but after Garlock's hard for a moment she and smiled.
"Okay, Clee—and thanks for the words."
She and the work on.
And finally, when all four were so that they think, the job was done and checked. Clamer's moon was as of life as any moon had been.
Lola her at its and herself face-down on a davenport, uncontrollably. James sat her and her until she down.
"You'd eat something, sweetheart, and then for a good, long sleep."
"Eat? Why, I couldn't, Jim, not possibly."
"Let her sleep first, I think, Jim," Belle said, and with her as Jim his wife up and her into the corridor.
"We'd eat something, I suppose," Belle said, thoughtfully. "I don't like eating, either, but I until this minute just how much this has taken out of me and I'd start it in.... She did a job, Clee, if she couldn't take it full shift toward the last."
"I'll say she did. I like the to let her work that way, but ... you I was every second until we off."
Exhausted and as she was, Belle laughed. "I know damn-blasted well you weren't; but I know what you mean. Fighting something you don't know anything about, and can't what may next, is tough. Seconds count." Side by side, they toward the alcove.
"I didn't think she had it in her," Belle marveled.
"She didn't. She hasn't. It'll take her a week to into shape."
"Right. She was going on pure nerve at the last—nothing else ... but she did a job, and she's so sweet and fine.... I wonder, Clee, if ... if I've been missing the boat...."
"You have not." Garlock sent the so that Belle jumped. "If you'd just let be, you'd be a of her, just as you stand."
"Yes? You in your teeth, Cleander, but I love it.... Oh, I don't know what I want to eat—if anything."
"I'll think up yours, too, along with mine."
"Please. Something light, and just a little."
"Yeah. Sit down. Just a light snack—a two-pound steak, rare; a bowl of in butter; French fries, dips, salad, and a of coffee. The same for me, more of each. Here we are."
"Why, Clee, I couldn't possibly eat of that...." Then, after a of it was gone, "I am hungry, at that—simply ravenous. I eat a and saddle, and the rider."
"That's what I thought. I I could, and you accordingly."
They ate those slowly, every bite and sip; in an of and good fellowship; on a wide of as they ate. Neither was aware of the that this was the time they had been on terms. And every dish and was empty, almost clean.
"One hundred capacity—can but can't swallow," Garlock said then, two cigarettes and Belle one. "How's that for a job of calibration?"
"Me, too. It'll pass." Belle in repletion. "Your ability to the exact of is only by your good looks and by the size of your feet. And now to the good old for an but very long period of time."
"You it, birdie." Still friendly, the two walked together to their doors. Belle put up a solid and paused, irresolute, the toe of one into the carpet.
"Clee, I ... I wonder ... if...." Her voice died away.
"I know what you mean." He put his arms around her gently, tenderly, and looked into her eyes. "I want to tell you something, Belle. You're a woman, not in seven thousand women, but in that many full of women. What it takes, you very definitely and very have got. And you aren't the only one that's pooped. I don't need company tonight, either. I'm going to sleep until I wake up, if it takes all day. Or say, if you wake up first, why not me and we'll have together?"
"That's a thought. Do the same for me. Good night, Clee."
"Good night, ace." He her, as as he had been her, opened her door, closed it after her, and across the into his own room.
"What a man!" Belle to herself, the solid screens of her room. "He I was too tired, not just to death too. What a man! Belle Bellamy, you ought to be from here to Tellus...." Then she her head, a hard little into a pillow, and spoke through teeth. "No, and blast it, I won't give in. I won't love him. I'll take the Project away from him if it's the last thing I do in this life!"
She up the next morning—not morning, either, since it was well after noon—a little Garlock did, but not much. When she into his room he was and for one shoe, which he was on.
"Hi, boss! Better we eat, huh? Not only am I by inches, but if we don't eat quick we'll only one today of three. Did you eat your bar?"
"I sure did, ace."
"Oh, I'm still 'ace'? You can me, then," and she her toward his.
He her, still tenderly, and they to and through the Main and into the alcove. James and Lola, the looking and worn, had already eaten, but joined them in their after-breakfast coffee and cigarettes.
"You've checked, of course," Garlock said. "Everything on the beam?"
"Dead center. Even to Lola and her biologists. Everybody's full of and and stuff—as well as information. And we managed to ourselves without you two trumpet-of-doom up. So we're to jump again. I wonder where in we'll wind up this time."
"I'm you said that, Jim." Garlock said. "It me the nerve to a thing on you that I've been around in my mind since we here."
"Nerve? You?" James asked, incredulously. "Pass the coffee-pot around again, Brownie. If that there said what I him say, this'll make your up on end."
"On our jumps we've had too much power and no whatever...." Garlock paused in thought.
"Like a pitcher," Belle suggested.
"Uh-uh," Lola objected. "It couldn't be that wild. He'd have to with his to the plate and the over the center-field and seven down-town."
"Cut the persiflage, you two," Garlock ordered. "Consider three things. First, as you all know, I've been trying to out a that would give us control, but I haven't got any with it than we did on Tellus. Second, all the jumps we've this last one. Every time we've taken off, none of us has had his up. You, Jim, were on the drive, and so were wide open to it. The of us were at least about it, and so were more or less open to it. Not one of us has ordered it to take us to any place; in fact, I don't that anyone of us has a destination. Each one of us has been thinking, at the of of the fields, what you just said, and with the same emphasis.
"Third, this last jump all by itself. It's the time we've in the same galaxy. It's the time we've gone where we wanted to. And it's the time—here's the crux, as I see it—that any of us has been on any at the moment of the charge. Brownie was the Pleiades to this so hard that we all taste it. The of us, if not pushing to here, were at least not to the idea. Check?"
"Check." "That's right." "Yes, I was pushing with all my might," came from the three listeners, and James on:
"Are you saying the thing's alive?"
"No. I'm saying I don't in miracles. I don't in coincidence—that is as meaningless as that of paradox. I do not that we this by against of almost to one. So I've been looking for a reason. I one. It goes against my grain—against I've believed—but, since it's the only possible explanation, it must be true. The only possible of the Gunther Drive must be the mind."
"Hell's blowtorches—Now you're that the thing's alive."
"Far from it. It's Brownie who's alive. It was Brownie who got us here. Nothing else—repeat, nothing else—makes sense."
James for a full minute. "I wouldn't it for one thing. If you, the hardest-boiled that unhung, can the whole bowl of such a as that, I can at least take a taste of it. Shoot."
"Okay. You know that we don't know anything about either or the drive. I'm sure now that the drive is teleportation. If you to 'port without any idea of where you wanted to go, where do you think you'd land?"
"You might all over space—no, you wouldn't. You wouldn't move, it wouldn't be at all. Destination is an part of the concept."
"Exactly so—but only you've been to it all your life. This thing hasn't been to anything."
"Like a new-born baby," Lola suggested.
"Life again," James said. "I can't see it—too many in it. Pure luck, at those odds, makes a more sense."
"And to make worse," Garlock on as though neither of them had spoken. "Just that a man had four minds of one and they weren't together. Then where would he go?"
This time, James whistled; the girls stared, speechless.
"I think we've proved that my of was right—the thing was to purely at random. Fotheringham was wrong. However, I missed the point that if is possible, the must be a mind. Such a possibility to me or anyone with me. Or to Fotheringham or to else."
"I can't say I'm sold, but it's easy to test and the results can't be any worse. Let's go."
"How would you test it?"
"Same way you would. Only way. First, each one of us alone. Then and threes. Then all four together. Fifteen in all. No. Three for each set-up; near, medium, and far. Except Tellus, of course; we'd save that until we learn all we can out. Everybody not in the set should screen up as as they can set their blocks—eyes shut, even, and on something else. Check?"
James did not the that Tellus must by now be so away that no possible it; but he not the implication.
"Check. I'll on a series of numbers. Belle, you work on the possible number of of the color green. Lola, on how many different you can identify by smell. Jim, the button."
