Next morning, early, Belle on Garlock's door.
"Come in."
She did so. "Have you had your coffee?"
"Yes."
"So have I."
Neither Belle Garlock had recovered; and drain.
"I think we'd this up," Belle said, quietly.
"Check. We'll have to, if we to any work done."
Belle not her surprise.
"Oh, not for the you think," Garlock on, quickly. "Your record as a man-killer is still one hundred point zero zero zero percent. I've been in love with you since we paired. Before that, even."
"Flapdoodle!" she snorted, inelegantly. "Why, I...."
"Keep still a minute. And I'm not going to with you again. Ever. I'm not going to touch you again until I can myself a than I last night."
"Oh? That was mostly my fault, of course. But in love? Uh-uh, I've men in love. You aren't. I couldn't make you be, not with the best I do. Not in bed. You aren't, Clee—if you are, I'm an Australian bushman."
"Perhaps I'm an case. I'm not about your perfect body—you know what that is like already. Nor about your mind, which is the only one I know of as good as my own. Maybe I'm in love with what I think you ought to be ... or what I you will be. Anyway, I'm in love with something with you—and with no other woman alive. Shall we go eat?"
"Uh-huh—let's."
They joined Lola and James at the table; and if Lola noticed anything out of the ordinary, she no sign.
And after breakfast, in the Main—
"About three weeks, Jim, you think?" Garlock asked.
"Give or take a of days, yes."
"And Belle and I would just be in the way—at least until time to Deggi about the ... and all those Primes to ... we'd you here, don't you think, and going?"
"I'll that. We'll as soon as possible."
Lola and James moved a personal planetside; Garlock and Belle the Pleiades across a of space to one of the they had so on their survey. Its name was, remembered, Lizoria; its two Primes were named Rezdo Semolo and Mirea Mitala—male and female, respectively.
After sending a very and for audience—which was in a of and nothing else—Garlock and Belle themselves into Semolo's office, where Lizorian Primes were.
Both got up out of peculiar-looking chairs to their visitors. Both were tall; were thin. Not the of emaciation, but that of structure.
"On them it looks good," Belle tight-beamed a to Garlock.
Both moved fast and with control; were graceful. "Snaky" was Belle's of the woman; "sinuous" was Garlock's of the man. Both were hairless, of and of head—not by nature, but electric-shaver clipping. Both sandals. The man and a shirt-like of or its like; the woman just and to a hundred thousand credits' of in place. She appeared to be about twenty years—Tellurian equivalent—old; he was twenty-three or twenty-four.
"We did not you in and we do not want you here," Semolo said, coldly. "So out, of you. If you don't, when I count three I'll you out, and I won't be too about how many of your I break. One.... Two...."
"Pipe down, Rezdo!" the girl exclaimed. "They have something we haven't, or they wouldn't be here. Whatever it is, we want it."
"Oh, let him try, Miss Mitala," Garlock said, through her hard-held block, in the of her mind. "He won't us a and it may do him some good. While he's I'll notes with my partner here, Galactic Vice-Admiral Belle Bellamy. I'm to see that one of you has at least a part of a brain."
"... Three!" Semolo did his best, with he had, without Garlock's attention. He then to at the physically, despite the latter's in weight and muscle, but that he not move.
Then, through Belle's solidly-set blocks, "How are you doing, ace? Getting anywhere?"
"My God!" came Belle's shriek. "What—how can—but no, you didn't give that to Fao, surely!"
"I'll say I didn't—nor to Delcamp. But you're going to need it, I'm thinking."
"But can you? Even if you would—and I'm just to how big a man you are—can that of be taught? I haven't got the brain-cells it takes to it."
"I'm not sure, but I've our Prime Fields into one and a of other changes. Theoretically, it ought to work. Shall I come in and try it?"
"Don't be an idiot, darling. Of course!"
As as a an organ, Garlock into Belle's mind. "Tune to the ... that's it—fine! Then—I'll do it slow, and watch me close—you do like so ... it?"
"Uh-huh!" Belle breathed, excitedly. "Got it!"
"Then this ... and this ... and there you are. You can try it on me, if you like."
"Uh-uh. No sale. I don't need and I'd like to the that maybe I your if I wanted to. I'll work on Miss Snake-Hips here, the charmer—but say, I'll there's a in it. You can it, can't you?"
"Yes. It goes like this." He her. "It takes full of the Prime Field, but you've got that."
"Oh, wonderful! Thanks, Clee darling. But do you to actually say I can now you or any other Prime out?"
"You're going too far, ace. Me, yes—but don't that there very well may be people—or things—as ahead of us as we are ahead of pups."
"Huh! Balloon-juice and prop-wash! I just know, Clee, that you're the of the whole, entire, universe."
"Well, we can dream, of course." Garlock his mind from Belle's and his attention to the now Semolo. "Well, my over-confident and squirt; are you done around or do you want to keep it up until you what you have?"
The Lizorian no reply; but glared.
"The trouble with you half-baked, juvenile—I almost added 'delinquent' to that, and I should have—Primes is that you know too much that isn't true. As an old Tellurian saying it, 'you're too big for your britches.'
"Thus, you have a years on one single and haven't anyone able to up to you, you've on the idea that there's nobody, anywhere, who can. You're wrong—you couldn't be more so if you had an army to help you.
"What, actually, have you done? What, actually, have you got? Practically nothing. You haven't started a starship; you've started making plans. You that the is not in any of the books, that you'll have to it out for yourself, but that is work. So you're still just and your weight around.
"As a of fact, you're a in a lake. There are thousands of millions of planets, and thousands of millions of Prime Operators. Most of them are a than you are; many of them may be than my partner and I are. I am not at all that you will pass the screening; but since you are without question a Prime Operator, I will deliver the message we came to deliver. Miss Mitala, do you want to or shall we drive it into you, too?"
"I want to to anyone or anything who has a and who can do what you have just done."
"Very well," and Garlock told the general-distribution of the of the Galactic Service.
"Quite interesting," Semolo said loftily, at its end. "Whether or not I would be depends, of course, on there's a position high for...."
"I very much if there's one low enough," Garlock cut in sharply. "However, since it's part of my job, I'll in touch with you later. Okay, Belle."
And in the Main—"What a jerk!" Belle exclaimed. "What a half-cooked, half-digested pill! I at your forbearance, Clee. You should have him out and him up to dry—especially the ears!" Then, suddenly, she giggled. "But do you know what I did?"
"I can guess. A of in the arm?"
"Uh-huh. Next time he into her she'll his ears right off. Oh, brother!"
"Check and double-check. But let's to Number Two.... Here it is."
"Oh, yes," came a smooth, clear, diamond-sharp in reply to Garlock's call. "This world, as you have perceived, is Falne. I am Baver 14WD27, my Prime is Glarre 12WD91. You are, we perceive, Bearers of the Truth; of great skill and of high advancement. Your visit here will, I am sure, be of to us and possibly, I hope, of some small to you. We will be to have you 'port yourselves to us at once."
The Tellurians did so—and in the very of Garlock was met by a blast of the like of which he had imagined. The two Falnian Primes, both, had up their possible and had without any hint of warning.
Belle's mind, however, was already with Garlock's. Their were in action; their counter-thrust was nearly so. Both Falnians until they were stopped by the room's wall.
"Ah, yes," Garlock said, then. "You are indeed, in a small and way, Seekers after the Truth; of which we are Bearers. Lesser Bearers, perhaps, but still Bearers. You will profit from our visit. You err, however, in that we may in any respect profit from you. You have nothing that we have not had for long. Now let us, if you please, take a of time to acquainted, each with the other."
"That, indeed, is the logical and thing to do." Both Falnians up and forward; neither apologetically, but as though nothing at all out of the ordinary had taken place.
Each pair the other. Physically, the two were alike. Baver was almost as big as Garlock; almost as muscled. Glarre have been in Belle's own mold.
With that, however, all ceased.
Both Falnians were naked. The man only a and in of pockets; the woman only a leather from one shoulder—big enough, Garlock thought, to a week's for an Explorer Scout.
His was thick, bushy, unkempt; sun-bleached to a of colors. Hers—long, heavy, middle-parted and dressed—was a two-tone job. To the right of the part it was a red; to the left, an blue.
His skin was tanned. The color of hers was by a of designs done in semi-indelible, multi-colored dyes.
"Ah, you are of an of Truth. Hear, then, the message we bring," and again Garlock told the story.
"We thank you, sir and madam, from our hearts. We will accept with your help in our ship; we will do all that in us to the of the Galactic Service. Until a day, then?"
"Until a day." Then, to Belle, "Okay, ace. Ready? Go!"
And up in the Main—"Sweet Sin!" Belle exclaimed. "What a pair they out to be! Clee, that me witless."
"You can play that in spades." Garlock his hands into his pockets and about the room, his a black of concentration.
Until, finally, he himself out of the study and said: "I've been trying to think if there's any other thing, slight, that I have and you haven't. There isn't. You've got it all. You're just as fast as I am, just as and as accurate—and, since we now on the same field, just as strong."
"Why Clee! You're about me? You've done too much for me, already."
"Anything I can do, I've got to do ... well, shall we go?"
"We shall."
They visited four more that day. And after supper that night, in the their doors, Belle to her shield, as though to send a thought. Almost instantly, however, she her mind and it to full on.
"Good night, Clee," she said.
"Good night, Belle," and each into his own room.
The next day they nine planets, and the day after that they ten. They ate supper in fashion; then together across the Main, to a davenport.
"It's funny," Belle said thoughtfully, "having this ship all to ourselves. To have a private right out here in the Main ... or is it?"
He the shields, she him do it. "It is now," he her.
"Prime-proof? Not ordinary Gunther blocks?"
"Uh-huh. Two hundred and four hundred kilogunts. Backed by all the of the Prime and Op and the full power of the engines. I told you I'd some in the set-up."
"Private enough, I ... what a those Primes are! And we'll have to make the twice more—when we 'em and when we 'em up."
"Not necessarily. This new set-up ought to give us a galaxy-wide reach. Let's try Semolo, on Lizoria, shall we?"
"Uh-huh—Let's."
"Tune in, then ace."
"Ace, darling?"
"Ace, Darling?"
"Darling. You said you weren't going to with me any more. Okay—I'm not going to try any more to you until after I've myself. I'm tuned—you may fire when ready, Gridley."
They fired—and the mark center. Top-lofty and and as ever, the Lizorian Prime took the call. "I all the time you wanted something. Well, I neither want need...."
"Cut it, you cub, until you can to use that half-liter of you call a brain," Garlock said, harshly. "We're just trying out a new ultra-communicator. Thanks for your help."
On the fourth day they eleven planets; the day saw the forty-sixth done and the job finished. All supper, it was very that Belle had something on her mind.
After eating, she out into the Main and on a davenport. Garlock her. A cigarette out of a closed box and into place her lips. It came alight. She it slowly, without relish; almost as though she did not know that she was smoking.
"Might as well it out of your system, Belle," Garlock said aloud. "What are you about at the moment?"
Belle exhaled; the half-smoked vanished. "At the moment I was about Gunther blocks. Specifically, their total to with that new Prime of yours." She at him, narrow-eyed. "It goes through them just like nothing at all." She paused; him questioningly.
"No comment."
"And yet you gave it to me. Freely, of your own accord. Even I needed it. Why?"
"Still no comment."
"You'd comment, Buster, I my top."
"There is such a thing as urbanity."
"I've of it, yes; though you did I had any. You talk a good game of urbanity, but your of it would you that far...."
She paused. He silent. She on.
"Of course, it put a of pressure on me to myself."
"I'm you used the word 'develop' of 'treat.'"
"Oh, sometimes—at intervals—I'm not dumb. But you knew—you must have known—what a you took in making me as powerful as you are."
"Some, perhaps, but very definitely less than not doing it."
"Getting out of you is than teeth. Clee Garlock, I want you to tell me why!"
"Very well." Garlock's set. "You've had it in mind all along that this is some of a lark; that you and I are Gunther Tops of the universe. Or did that a when we met Baver 14WD27?"
"Well, perhaps—a little. However, the is with every we visit. After all, some has to be tops. Why shouldn't it be us?"
"What a logic—excuse me, it...."
"Oh, you meant it when you said you weren't going to with me any more?"
"I'm going to try not to. Now, that I don't your valid, just that when we visit some some day, you your mind out and I don't—solely I had something I have you and wouldn't. What then?"
"Oh. I that was what you ... but I can't...."
"We won't anything of the kind. But that wasn't all that was on your mind. Nor most."
"How true. Those Primes. The women. Honestly, Clee, I saw—never imagined—such a of exhibitionistic, obstreperous, obnoxious, swell-headed, in my whole life. And every day it was in on me more and more that I was—am—exactly like the of them."
Garlock was wise to say nothing, and Belle on: "I've been talking a good game of myself, but this time I'm going to do it."
She jumped up and her fists. "If you can do it, I can," she declared. "Like the ballad—'Anything you can do I can do better.'" She to be jaunty, but the did not ring true.
"That's an quotation, I'm afraid. The trouble is, I haven't."
"Huh? Don't be an idiot, Clee. You have—what else do you put me so into the dumps?"
"In that case, you will. So come on up out of the dumps."
"Wilco—and I will. But for a woman who has been talking so big, I low in my mind. A good-night kiss, Clee, darling? Just one—and just a little one, at that?"
"Sweetheart!"
There were more than one, and none of them was little. Eventually, however, the two stood, arms still around each other, in the their doors.
"But kissing's as as it goes, isn't it," Belle said. The was not a question; was it a statement.
"That's right."
"So good night, darling."
"Good night, ace."
And when they next saw each other, at the table, Belle was her self.
"Hi, darling—sit down," she said, gaily. "Your is on the table. Bacon, eggs, toast, jam, and a of coffee."
"Nice! Thanks, ace."
They ate in for a minutes; then her hand across the table. He pressed it warmly. "You look a million, Belle. Out of the dumps?"
"Pretty much—in most ways. One way, though, I'm in than ever. You see, I know what you did to Fao Talaho; and why neither you or else do it to me. Or if they could, what would if they did."
"I was you would. I couldn't very well tell you, before, but...."
"Of not. I see that."
"... the is that Fao, and all the others we've met, are enough, enough—plastic enough—yes, it, weak enough—to bend. But you are strong, and twelve Rockwell numbers than a diamond. You wouldn't bend. If be applied—and that's questionable—you wouldn't bend. You'd break, and I can't it. You're a little older, of course, but not to...."
"How about the that I've been myself for eight years against Cleander Garlock, the top Prime of the and the hardest? That might have something to do with it, don't you think?"
Garlock said, "Indefensible from data. That's just what I've been talking about. No how we got the way we are, though, the is that you and I have got to our own and our own dead."
"Check. Like having a baby, but worse. There's nothing else can do—even you—except maybe my hand, like now."
"That's about it. But speaking of hands, would it help if we again?"
Belle the question for two full minutes; her clouded. "No," she said, finally. "I would it too much, and you'd ... well, you wouldn't...."
"Huh?" he demanded.
"Oh, physically, of course; but that isn't enough, or good enough, now. You see, I know what your personal is. It's unbelievable, almost—I of one like it, maybe a or two—but I you for it. You would never, willingly, pair with a woman you loved. That was why you were so to ours off. You can't it."
"I won't try to it. But you can't me, Belle, so trying. Basically, your is the same as mine. Why else did you our break?"
Belle's solid, and Garlock said hastily, aloud, "Excuse it, please. Cancel. I've just said, and know as an fact, that you've got to do the job alone—but I can't to help my big, in it by in anyway. Let's to work, shall we?"
"What at? Interview the Primes, I'd say—tell them to themselves in to attend...."
"On very notice...."
"Yes. To the big meeting on Tellus. We'll have to make a schedule. It shouldn't be until after Fao and Deggi their ship built—it can't be held, of course, until after you and Jim are out of SSE. Have you got that out yet?"
"Pretty much." He told her his plan.
Belle giggled, then into laughter. "So I'm in it, too? Wonderful!"
"You have to be. If we make him enough, he'll fire you, too."
"Without me first? He couldn't."
"He could, very easily. He doesn't know one-tenth of one of his people. If we work it right he'll assume that you're one of us wage-slaves, too. Lola, too, for that matter."
"Careful, Clee. You and I think this is funny, but Lola wouldn't. She'd be to her sweet little core, and she'd up the whole deal. So be very sure she doesn't in on it."
"I you're right ... well, shall we go out and our friend Semolo? Ready.... Go!"
"Oh, it's you again. I tell you...." the Lizorian began.
"You will tell me nothing. You will listen. Link your mind to Mitala's," and the Tellurian minds the order. "In about two the Primes of many worlds will meet in person on Tellus. Arrange your so that on ten minutes' notice you can Lizoria for Tellus our starship, the Pleiades. That is all."
"He'll come, too," Belle chortled. "He'll and scream, but he'll come."
"You couldn't keep him away," Garlock agreed.
On the next planet, Falne, the was a little different. The was the same, but—"One word of warning," Garlock added. "It is to be a meeting of minds; not a to set up a pecking-order. If you try any such you will be disciplined; and in public."
"Suppose that, under such conditions, we to the meeting?"
"That is your right. There is no whatever. Whether or not you come will upon or not you two are in Seekers after Truth. Until a day."
And so it went. Planet after planet. On not one of those worlds had any Prime his thinking. Not one was in the Galactic Service as an for the good of all mankind. There were almost as many as there were Primes; but all were self-centered and selfish.
"That it, Belle—busts it wide open. I can—I we together can do either job. That is, either be top and the thing or put in full time some into those hard skulls. We can't do both."
"On paper, we should," Belle said, thoughtfully. "You're Galactic Admiral; I'm your Vice. One job apiece. But we're not going to be separated. Besides...."
"Two (minds) (brains) are much than one," said, for one word, in unison.
Belle laughed. "That settles that. The Garlock-Bellamy is Galactic Admiral—so we need a good Vice. Who? Deggi and Fao? They're and enough, but.... Oh, I don't know what it is they lack. Do you?"
"No; I can't put it into or thoughts. Probably the is too new for pigeon-holing. It isn't or or or or brisance—maybe a of all five. What we need is a pair like us but better."
"There aren't any."
"Don't be too sure." Belle at him in and he on: "Not that we've seen, no. But each of those worlds a of space thousands of planets. Including the Tellurian and the Margonian, we now have forty-eight regions defined. Let's a very fast search-pattern of Region Forty-nine and see what we come up with."
"All right ... but we do somebody who out-Gunthers us?"
"I'd a have it that way than the way it is now. I'll do the hopping, you the checking. Here's the one—what do you read?"
"N. G."
"And this one?"
"The same."
"And this?"
"Ditto."
Until, finally: "Clee, just how long are you going to keep this up?"
"Until we something or out of time for the meeting. Belle, I want to somebody who to something."
"So do I, really, so go ahead."
But they did not out of time. At number four-hundred-something, Belle a shriek—vocally as well as mentally. "Clee! Hold it! Here's something, I think!"
"I'm sure there is, and I'm to see you two people than can possibly be expressed."
Belle whirled; so did Garlock. A man in the middle of the Main; a man very much like Garlock, but with long, badly-tousled and a of fiery-red whiskers.
"Please this intrusion, Admiral—or should it be plural? Improper address, I'm sure, but your joint is a so new and so that I am not yet able to it fully—but you are at such high speed that I had to do something drastic. You will, I trust, here long to discuss with my wife and me?"
"We'll be very to."
"Thank you. I will return, then, more decorously, and her. One moment." He disappeared.
"Wife!" Belle exclaimed, more than in dismay. "They must be, then...."
"Yeah." The of a wife did not Garlock at all. "Talk about power! And speed! To all that and 'port up here in the or so we had the screens open? Baby Doll, there's a guy who is what a Prime Operator ought to be!"
In less than a minute the man reappeared, by a woman who was very pregnant—eight months or so. Like the man, she was in tight-fitting coveralls. Her hair, however—it was a natural red, too—was cut to a length of eight inches, and each out, perfectly and perfectly to the of the from which it sprang.
"Friends Belle and Clee of Tellus, I present Therea, my wife; and Alsyne, myself; of this Thaker. We have numbers, too, but they are used among friends."
Acknowledgments were and a minutes of ensued, which the two each other.
"This looks good to me," Garlock said then. "Shall we go screens half-down, Alsyne, and in each other's beer?"
In thirty of each informed. Those minds send, and receive, an amount of in an space of time.
"Your ship should work and doesn't," Garlock said. "Show me; in detail."
Alsyne him.
"Oh, I see. You didn't work out all the theory. It has to be activated. Like this...." Garlock Alsyne.
"I see. Thanks." Alsyne and was gone for some ten minutes. He reappeared, his of beard. "It perfectly; for which our thanks. And now that my mind is at complete peace with the universe, we will the of your Galactic Service. You two Tellurians, although you are, have two to the of the Scheme of Things—three, if you count the starship, which is unimportant—each of such that no mind can any of its consequences. First, your Prime Field, the and its screen...."
"Clee!" Belle the thought. "You didn't give him that, surely!"
"Tut-tut, my child," Therea her. "You are about nothing."
"The only trouble with you two is that you aren't quite—very nearly, of course, but very definitely not quite—grown up." Alsyne again; not only with mouth and eyes, but with his whole face. "To the mind there is no such thing as status. Each what he can do best and it as a of course. Rank is not necessary.
"Second, the of the ability to two but minds into one fusion. While Therea and I have had only a moments to play with it, we some of its possibilities. Thus, since she is a Doctor of Humanities...."
"Oh," Belle interrupted. "That's why you what I was about, though I tight-beamed the and my screens were tight?"
"Exactly so. But to continue. With her and empathy, and my and so on, the job of these Primes into shape is, as your has it, 'strictly our dish.' It is a thought.
"You two, on the other hand, have much that we lack. Breadth and and scope of and of vision; yet almost will-power and and resolve...."
"That's the word I was trying to think of—will-power," Belle a at Garlock.
"... always exclusive; but the of which makes your to lead and direct this new and movement. But Therea and I have been and too long. We can be of most use, at the moment, on Margonia; with the Fao-Deggi unit. Therefore, with thanks, we go."
Man and wife disappeared; and, ten later, the Thakern from its world.
"Well, what do you think of that?" Belle gasped. "I was actually to think, a Prime screen. I don't know yet I want to 'em or kill 'em."
"I do. That guy is a Prime, Belle. He's older, bigger, and a than I am."
"Uh-uh," she demurred, positively. "Older, yes. More mature—you baby, you!" She gleefully. "If he hadn't you in that I'd've him, so help me, though it wasn't true. He said himself it's you who has got what it takes to lead and direct, not him."
"Us. We, I mean," he corrected, absently.
"Uh-huh; us-we. One, now and forever. Hot Dog! Anyway, he wants us to and we want to so everything's and so let's to work on Fatso and his Foster. I think we ought to have some fun for a and that'll be a lot. When do we want to him?"
"Any day Monday through Friday. Nine-fifteen A.M. Eastern Daylight time. Plus or one minute."
"Nice! Catch him in delicto. Lovely—shovel on the coal, my engineer!"
On a Wednesday morning, then, at twelve minutes past nine EDT, the Pleiades poised, high over the Chancellery of Solar System Enterprises, Incorporated.
"Remember, Belle!" Garlock was the Main. "To keep 'em we'll have to land and 'em to every punch. You did a job on her last time, and it's been on her since. She's been in of a just how she's going to tear you next time and just how she's going to out the pieces. Last time, you were cold, stiff, formal, and polite. So this time it'll be me, and I'll be and bothered, dirty, low, coarse, lewd, and very, very rough."
Belle her and laughed. "Rough? Yes. Vicious, contemptuous, or ugly; yes. A master of fluent, biting, and profanity; yes. But low or dirty or or lewd, Clee? Or any one of the four, to say nothing of them all? Uh-uh. Ferber's a beast, of course; but he you're one of the men that lived. They'd know it was an act."
"Not unless I give 'em time to think—or unless you do, he Jim—in which case we'll the game anyway. But how about you? If I can 'em too to think, will you on and keep 'em that way?"
"Watch my blasts!" Belle gleefully. "I anything like that—any more than you have—but I'll to be just as low, dirty, coarse, lewd, and as you are. Probably more so, in this particular case it'll be fun. You see, you're a man—you can't possibly and that either in the same way or as much as I do."
"This ought to be good. Cut the rope, Jim."
Even the came to rest, Garlock a into the of the Chancellery—an unheard-of act of insolence.
"Foster! This is the Pleiades in. Garlock calling. Hot up the tri-di and the recorder, Toots. Put Fatso on, and into it.... I said shake a leg!"
"Why, I.... You...."
"Stop and come to life, you half-witted bag! Gimme Ferber and it up—this ship's tricky."
"Why, you ... I never...." Ferber's First Secretary talk. "He ... he is...."
"I know, Babe, I know—I set that to music and sing it, with gestures. 'Chancellor Ferber is in and cannot be disturbed,'" he mimicked, savagely. "Put him on now—but quick!"
The tri-di up; Chancellor Ferber's image appeared. He was disheveled, and angry, but Garlock gave him no to speak.
"Well, Fatso—at last! Where the have you been all morning? I want some stuff, just as fast as God will let you it together," and he to read off, as fast as he talk, a long list of items.
Ferber for many to in, and Garlock allowed him to do so.
"Are you crazy, Garlock?" he shouted. "What in hell's name are you me with that for? You know than that—make out your and send them through channels!"
"Channels, hell!" Garlock back. "Hasn't it got through your four-inch-thick into your idiot's brain yet that I'm in a hurry? I don't want this today; I want it day yesterday—this junk-heap is to any minute. So and at me, you wall-eyed, slimy, toad. Get that three hundred weight of into action. Hump yourself!"
"You ... you ... Why, I was so insulted...."
"Insulted? You?" Garlock out-roared him. "Listen, Fatso. If I set out to you, you'll know it—it'll all the paint off the walls. All I'm trying to do now is you off that of yours and some action."
Ferber and his in anger.
Garlock louder and harder. "Start up this stuff—but fast—or I'll come there and take your job away from you and do it myself—and for your own hide's you'd I'm not just my choppers, either."
"You'll What?" Ferber screamed. "You're fired!"
"You fire me?" Garlock the scream. "And make it stick? You'd that one up for the funnies. Why, you lard-brain, you couldn't fire a cap-pistol."
"Foster!" Ferber yelled. "Terminate Garlock as of now. Insubordination, and misconduct, of position, incompetence, malfeasance—everything else you can think of. Blacklist him all over the System!"
At the word "fired" Belle, had to her and had stopped laughing.
"Miss Bellamy!" Ferber snapped.
"Yes, sir?" she answered, sweetly.
"You are promoted to be Head of the...."
"Oh, yeah?" Belle sneered, her voice like a knife. "You unprincipled, lascivious, Hitler! Have you got the to take me for a floozie? To think you can add me to your of bootlicking, round-heeled tramps?"
"You're and too!"
"How nice! You know, I don't know of anything I'd have to me?"
"Get James on there—you, James...."
"You don't need to fire me, you fat-headed old goat," James said, contemptuously. "I've already quit—the exact second you Clee."
"No you didn't!" Ferber screamed. "Resignation not accepted. You're Fired! Dishonorably discharged—blacklisted everywhere—you'll another job—anywhere! And here's your slip, too!" Miss Foster was very fast on the machines.
James 'ported his up into the Pleiades, just as Garlock and Belle had done with theirs, and with it as they had; almost instantly.
"Montandon!"
"Chancellor Ferber, are you out of your mind? You can't either Miss Bellamy or me."
"I can't?" he gloated. "Why not?"
"Because neither of us is employed. By anybody."
"That's right, Fatso," Belle said. "We just came along. Just to keep the boys company. It's lonesome, you know, 'way out in space."
Miss Foster a half-filled-out out of her machine and it into a waste-basket. Ferber's and his glassily, but he quickly.
"I can her, though, and maybe you think I won't. Belle Bellamy will another job in this whole as long as she lives, through me! Maybe I'll her some day, for something, and maybe I won't. Are you listening, Bellamy?"
"Not only listening, I'm in every word." Belle laughed derisively. "I to such dreams—or do I? You see, the Pleiades works, and the Galaxians own her; lock, stock, and barrel. You wouldn't have any part of her, remember? Insisted on payment for every nut, wire, and service? Now, they want to us four for a big operation with this starship. Since you only Garlock and James to them, you might have some legal trouble on that score, but now that you've them both—and in such language!—we're all set. So when you us with the Society, let me know—I want to take a tri-di in of you doing it. How do you like them parsnips, Your Royal Fatness?"
"I'll see about that!" Ferber stormed. "We'll have an out in an hour!"
"Go ahead," Garlock said, with a wide grin. "Have fun—the Galaxians have legal too, you know. One thing Belle forgot. Just in case you some time and want to our papers back—especially Belle's; what a that was!—don't try it. They're in a Gunther-blocked safe."
Then, as to on Ferber's face:
"S-u-c-k-e-r," Garlock drawled.
The Pleiades disappeared.
