I into to the pressure gone, but a red of pain remained. I on my and saw men on the around me.
A from my ring. I to up. I couldn’t make it. Then Kramer was me, a into my arm. He looked himself. His was heavily, and one was purple. He spoke in a voice through jaws. His was deliberate.
“This will keep you to answer a questions,” he said. “Now you’re going to give me the to the so we can call off this suicide run; then maybe I’ll doctor you up.”
I didn’t answer.
“The time for up is over, you braggard,” Kramer said. He his and a hard into my chest. I it was his that me conscious. I couldn’t breathe for a while, until Kramer gave me a of oxygen. I if he was to think I might give up my ship.
After a while my a little. I to say something. I got out a of croaks, and then my voice.
“Kramer,” I said.
He over me. “I’m listening,” he said.
“Take me to the lift. Leave me there alone. That’s your only chance.” It to me like a long speech, but nothing happened. Kramer away, came back. He me a large from his medical kit. “I’m going to start on your face. I’ll make you into a freak. Maybe if you start talking soon I’ll my mind.”
I see the watch on his wrist. My mind very slowly. I had trouble any air into my lungs. We would in one hour and ten minutes.
It to me. I had to to the Bridge we hit. I again. “We only have an hour,” I said.
Kramer control. He the knife at my face, through teeth. I my that the along my of my mouth. I it.
“We’re not you were a fool,” Kramer yelled. “I’ve taken over; I’ve you as for command. Now open up this ship or I’ll slice you to ribbons.” He the under my nose in a with fury. The had a thin of pink on it.
I got my voice going again. “I’m going to the Mancji ship,” I said. “Take me to the [58]lift and me there.” I to add a words, but had to stop and work on again for a while. Kramer disappeared.
I I was not in of my senses. I was in a claw. I wanted to roll over. I hard, and it. I Kramer talking, others answering, but it too great an to to the words.
I was on my now, almost against the wall. There was a black line in of me, a door. My a bit. It must have been Kramer’s on me. I my and saw Kramer now with a dozen others, all talking at once. Apparently Kramer’s of had the others worried. They wanted me alive. Kramer didn’t like anyone him. The was violent. There was scuffling—and shouts.
I saw that I about twenty from the lift; too far. The door me, if I the ship’s layout, was a room, small and nothing but a waste hopper. But it did have a on the inside, like every other room on the ship.
I didn’t stop to think about it; I started trying to up. If I’d I would have that at the move from me all seven of them would land on me at once. I on my hands under me, to push up. I a shout, and my head, saw Kramer at someone. I on with my project.
Hands under my chest, I myself a little, and got a up. I ends grating, but no pain, just the claw. Then I was on all fours. I looked up, the on the door, and put I had into at it. My it, the door in, and I on my face; but I was in. Another and I was past the door, kicking it as I on the floor, for the lock control. Just as I it with an finger, someone the door from outside, a second too late.
It was dark, and I on my on the floor, and short-circuited of what would have been pain through my and arm. I had a minutes to now, they the door open.
I to like this, not we were beaten, but we were up. My world, no longer and green, had the to send us out as her last hope. But out here in the and we had our courage. Success was at our fingertips, if we have it; instead, in panic and madness, we were ourselves.
My mind wandered; I [59]myself on the Bridge, half-believed I was there. I was on the OD bunk, and Clay was me. A long time to pass.... Then I I was on the floor, internally, in a room that would soon its door. But there was someone me.
I didn’t too at being beaten; I hadn’t for much more than a breather, anyway. I why this had his action station to there. The door was still shut. He must have been there all along, but I hadn’t him when I came in. He over me, overalls, and at me. He his hand. I was to blows; I couldn’t them.
The hand up, the man and a salute. “Sir,” he said. “Space’n class Thomas.”
I didn’t like laughing or or anything else; I just took it as it came.
“At ease, Thomas,” I managed to say. “Why aren’t you at your station?” I off after that oration.
Thomas was me now. “Cap’n, you’re hurt, ain’t you? I was wonderin’ why you was here in my ’Sposal station.”
“A scratch,” I said. I about it for a while. Thomas was doing something about my chest. This was Thomas’ station. Thomas owned it. I if a make a with such a small place way out here, with just an occasional by. I why I didn’t send one of them for help; I needed help for some reason....
“Cap’n, I been overhaulin’ my units, I come in. How long you been in here, Cap’n?” Thomas was about something.
I hard to think. I hadn’t been here very long; just a minutes. I had come here to rest.... Then I was again.
Whatever Thomas was, he was on my side, or at least neutral. He didn’t to be aware of the mutiny. I that he had my with of shirt; it better.
“What are you doing in here, Thomas?” I asked. “Don’t you know we’re in action against a ship?”
Thomas looked surprised. “This here’s my action station, Cap’n,” he said. “I’m a Waste Recovery Technician, First Class, I keep the operatin’.”
“You just in here?” I asked.
“No, sir,” Thomas said. “I check through the whole system. We got three main points and a little ones, an’ I have to keep operatin’. Otherwise this ship would be in a way, Cap’n.”
“How did you in here?” I [60]asked. I looked around the small room. There was only one door, and the of the unit which into their for re-use nearly the space.
“I come in through the duct, Cap’n,” Thomas said. “I check the every day. You know, Cap’n,” he said his head, “they’s some laid-out ductin’ in this here system. If I didn’t keep after it, you’d be gettin’ all the time. So I go through the and keep her clear.”
From somewhere, again. “Where do these lead?” I asked. I how the man the going on around him.
“Well, sir, one leads to the mess; that’s the big one. One leads to the wardroom, and the other one leads up to the Bridge.”
My God, I thought, the Bridge.
“How big are they?” I asked. “Could I through them?”
“Oh, sure, Cap’n,” Thomas said. “You can through ’em easy. But are you sure you like inspectin’ with them ribs?”
I was to that Thomas was not a genius. “I can make it,” I said.
“Cap’n,” Thomas said diffidently, “it ain’t none a my business, but don’t you think maybe I the doctor for ya?”
“Thomas,” I said, “maybe you don’t know; there’s a under way this ship. The doctor is leading it. I want to to the Bridge in the way. Let’s started.”
Thomas looked very shocked. “Cap’n, you you was by somebody? I you didn’t have a or nothin’, you was up?” He at me with an of horror.
“That’s about the size of it,” I said. I managed to up. Thomas jumped and helped me to my feet. Then I saw that he was crying.
“You can count on me, Cap’n,” he said. “Jist know who done it, an’ I’ll ’em into my converter.”
I against the wall, waiting for my to stop spinning. Breathing was difficult, but if I it shallow, I manage. Thomas was opening a on the of the unit.
“It’s O.K. to go in Cap’n,” he said. “She ain’t operatin’.”
The of the two and a to him very little. I under it, on. Thomas saw my step and jumped to help me. He me into the of the and pointed out an opening near the top, about twelve by twenty-four inches.
“That there one is to the Bridge, Cap’n,” he said. “If you’ll start in there, sir, I’ll up.”
I and [61]into the opening. Inside it was metal, with no handholds. I at it trying to in. The pain at my chest.
“Cap’n, they’re workin’ on the door,” Thomas said. “They already been at it for a little while. We goin’.”
“You’d give me a push, Thomas,” I said. My voice the duct.
Thomas into the me then, my and pushing. I into the duct. The pain was not so now.
“Cap’n, you use a special to through these here ducts,” Thomas said. “You your hands together out in of ya, and then your elbows. When your against the of the duct, you forward.”
I it; it was slow, but it worked.
“Cap’n,” Thomas said me. “We got about seven minutes now to up there. I set the on the to start up in ten minutes. I think we can make it O.K., and ain’t nobody else comin’ this way with the goin’. I locked the so they can’t her down.”
That news me on. With the in operation, the step in the cycle was the of the to a near-perfect vacuum. When that happened, we would die with lungs; then our would be into the and into useful materials. I hurried.
I to myself. The the corridor. It would continue in that direction for about fifteen feet, and would then turn upward, since the Bridge was some fifteen above this level. I along, and the to upward.
“You’ll have to on your here, Cap’n,” Thomas said. “She out on the turn.”
I managed to over. Thomas was helping me by pushing at my feet. As I a near-vertical position, I a metal under my hand. That was a relief; I had been to have to go up the last the way a a chimney, against one and against the other.
I at the rod, and another with my other hand. Below, Thomas me. I up and got another, then another. The of the helped. Finally my were on the rods. I clung, panting. The in the was terrific. Then I on up. That was some Kramer had me.
Above I see the end of the in the light up through the open door from the room. I the of the on the Bridge now; it had been in the small [62]apartment a and a for the use of the Duty Officer long on the Bridge.
I the top of the and pushed against the cover. It out easily. I see the end of the table, and beyond, the screen. I through and myself out. I nearly at the from my as my weight on my chest. My sang. The light from out. I a clank; then a began, up the duct.
“She’s closed and started cyclin’ the air out, Cap’n,” Thomas said calmly. “We got about a minute.”
I my teeth together and again. Below me Thomas waited quietly. He couldn’t help me now. I got my hands against the and thrust. The air was around my face. Papers to off the table. I my frantically, kicking from the of the slot, the of air. I to the the room, the me. I to my feet. I at the cover, but I couldn’t open it against the vacuum. Then it budged, and Thomas’ hand came through. The metal cut into it, blood started, but the was open an inch. I the table, almost over my feet, a permal T-square, and the up. Once started, it up easily. Thomas appeared, and pale, closed against the being into his face. He got his arms through, himself a little higher. I his arm and pulled. He through.
I the T-square out of the way and the down. Then I to the floor, not out, but needing a bad. Thomas from the OD and me on the floor.
“Thomas,” I said, “when I think of what the security who the plans for this are going to say when I call this little door to their attention, it almost makes it the trouble.”
“Yes, sir,” Thomas said. He on the and looked around the Bridge, at the screens, dials, controls.
From where I lay, I see the direct screen. I wasn’t sure, but I the small object in the center of it might be our target. Thomas looked at the screen, then said, “Cap’n, that there out of action?”
“It sure is, Thomas,” I said. “Our unknown friends the they left us.” I was that he a radarscope.
“Mind if I take a look at it, Cap’n?” he said.
[63]“Go ahead,” I replied. I to the to Thomas. The time since we had started our was two hours and ten minutes; I wanted to close to no more than a twenty mile my missiles; and I had my in case the Mancji first.
Thomas had the off the and was around. He a card out of the of the panel.
“Looks like they the fuse,” Thomas said. “Got any spares, Cap’n?”
“Right you in the cabinet,” I said. “How do you know your way around a set, Thomas?”
Thomas grinned. “I be a third I got waste disposal,” he said. “I had to to on for this cruise.”
I had an idea there’d be an opening for Thomas a little higher up when this was over.
I asked him to take a look at the televideo, too. I was to that Thomas was not simple; he was uncomplicated.
“Tubes here, Cap’n,” he reported. “Like as if you was to set her up to high right near a sun; she was overloaded. I can her easy if we got the spares.”
I didn’t take time to try to that one out. I the on again.
“Thomas,” I called, “let me know when we’re at twenty miles from target.” I wanted to tell him more, but I away. “Then ...” I managed, “first ... shot....”
I still Thomas. I was away, whirling, but I his voice. “Cap’n, I fire your now, if you was to want me to,” he was saying. I to speak. “No. Wait.” I he me.
I a long time in a and consciousness. The Kramer had me was potent. It my mind clear when my were out of action. I about the my ship.
I what Kramer and his men were now, how they about having let me through their fingers. The only thing they try now was their way into the Bridge. They’d make it. The of these ships were not of the of space life; the Bridge was an fortress. They couldn’t possibly to it.
I that Kramer was having a time of it now. He had the men that we were to sure at the hands of the all-powerful Mancji, and that their Captain was a fool. Now he was with them in the panic he had helped to create. I that in all [64]probability they had him apart.
I in and out of consciousness. It was just as well; I needed the rest. Then I Thomas calling me. “We’re closin’ now, Cap’n,” he said. “Wake up, Cap’n, only twenty-three miles now.”
“Okay,” I said. My had been preparing itself for this, now it was again. I the in my arm. That helped, too.
“Hand me the intercom, Thomas,” I said. He the in my hand. I for a announcement.
“This is the Captain,” I said. I to keep my voice as as possible. “We are now at a of twenty-one miles from the enemy. Stand by for and possible action. Damage on the alert.” I paused for breath.
“Now we’re going to take out the Mancji ship, men,” I said. “All two miles of it.”
I the and for the key. Thomas it to me.
“Cap’n,” he said, over me. “I notice you got the set for your chemical warheads. You wouldn’t want me to set up pluto for ya, would ya, Cap’n?”
“No, thanks, Thomas,” I said. “Chemical is what I want. Stand by to observe.” I pressed the key.
Thomas was at the radarscope. “Missiles away, Cap’n. Trackin’ O.K. Looks like they’ll take out the left a that dumbbell.”
I the again. “Missiles on target,” I said. “Strike in thirty-five seconds. You’ll be to know we’re chemical warheads. So there is no of or defense from the enemy.” I the news would a mutineers. David wasn’t using his on Goliath. He was going after him bare-handed. I wanted to some of response out of them. I needed a as to what was going on below.
I got it. Joyce’s voice came from the annunciator. “Captain, this is Lt. Joyce reporting.” He all the way through, and desperate. “Sir, the has been by the members of the crew. Major Kramer is under arrest. We’re prepared to go on with the search for the Omega Colony. But Sir ...” he paused, gulping. “We ask you to now any attack. We still have a chance. Maybe they won’t with us when those go off ...”
I the direct screen. Zero second closed in. And on the screen the of the left hand of the Mancji ship was by a of yellow, then another. A against the dark surface. It spread, and a over it. Now [65]specs be moving away from the ship. The elongated, with leisure, widening.
“What’s happenin’? Cap’n?” Thomas asked. He was at the scope in fascination. “They launchin’ scouts, or what?”
“Take a look here, Thomas,” I said. “The ship is up.”
The was an long now, by a of smaller bodies, and of the ship. Now the moved free of its companion. It rotated, a toward us, then as it from its twin, its elongation. The had wide open. Now the itself into two halves, and these in turn crumbled, in a spiral.
“My God, Cap’n,” Thomas said in awe. “That’s the I seen. And all it took to set her off was 200 a PBL. Now that’s somethin’.”
I the again. “This is the Captain,” I said. “I want ten four-man to go out in fifteen minutes. The enemy ship has been put out of action and is now in a condition. I want only one thing from her; one live prisoner. All Section report to me on the Bridge on the triple.”
“Thomas,” I said, “go in the and open up for the Chiefs. Here’s the key for the combination; you know how to it?”
“Sure, Cap’n; but are you sure you want to let them boys in here after the way they jumped you an’ all?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but he me to it. “Fergit I asked ya that, Cap’n, pleasir. You ain’t been yet.”
“It’s O.K., Thomas,” I said. “There won’t be any more trouble.”
EPILOGUE
On the of the of Reunion Day, a of well-heeled the room and overflowed onto the of the Star Tower Dining Room, from 5,700 above the beaches, the Florida Keys, a hundred miles to the south, were visible on clear days.
The Era the entry way the crowd, for from he might of color to the day’s transmission.
At the of the room, by admirers, the Ambassador from the New Terran Federation; a portly, graying, ex-Naval officer. A minor passed at close range, looking the other way. A cabinet at the talking to a player, a group of reporters and fans.
The Era stringer, an [66]hand, passed over the hard pressed VIP’s near the center of the room and started a face-by-face check of the less seated at tables along the of the room.
He was in luck; the straight-backed gray-haired in the dark suit, alone at a table in an alcove, his eye. He moved closer, for a clear through the crowd. Then he was sure. He had the biggest possible catch of the day in his sights; Admiral of Fleets Frederick Greylorn.
The hesitated; he was well aware of the Admiral’s for near-absolute on the of his already cruise, the of the Galahad. He couldn’t just in on the Admiral and answers, as was with publicity-hungry politicians and people. He score the biggest of the century today; but he had to him right.
You couldn’t to a man like the Admiral; he wasn’t somebody you push around. You the solid iron of him from here.
Nobody else had noticed the diner. The Era man closer, moving unhurriedly, furiously. It was no good trying some approach; his best was the straight-from-the-shoulder bit. No point in hesitating. He stopped the table.
The Admiral was looking out across the Gulf. He and up at the reporter.
The news man looked him in the eye. “I’m a reporter, Admiral,” he said. “Will you talk to me?”
The Admiral to the seat across from him. “Sit down,” he said. He around the room.
The the look. “I’ll keep it light, sir,” he said. “I don’t want company either.” That was being frank.
“You want the to some questions, don’t you?” the Admiral said.
“Why, yes, sir,” the said. He started to key his pocket recorder, but himself. “May I record your remarks, Admiral?” he said. Frankness all the way.
“Go ahead,” said the Admiral.
“Now, Admiral,” the began, “the Terran public has of ...”
“Never mind the patter, son,” the Admiral said mildly. “I know what the questions are. I’ve read all the of the crew. They’ve been out at the of about two a year for some time now. I had my own for not wanting to add anything to my official statement.”
The Admiral into his glass. “Excuse me,” he said. “Will you join me?” He the waiter.
“Another glass, please,” he said. He looked at the [67]wine in the glass, it up to the light. “You know, the Florida are as good as any in the world,” he said. “That’s not to say the California and Ohio aren’t good. But this Flora Pinellas is a original, not an Rhine; and it with the best of the old vintages, particularly the ’87.”
The and the waiter poured. The had the to silent.
“The question is usually, how did I know I take the Mancji ship. After all, it was big, vast. It over us like a mountain. The Mancji themselves almost two each; they liked six gravity. They our off the air, just for practice. They talked big, too. We were in their territory. They were by us. So where did I the that our attack would be anything more than a joke to them? That’s the big question.” The Admiral his head.
“The answer is simple. In the place, they were six by using a configuration. The only for that type of layout, as students of early space design can tell you, is to setting up a using force. So they had no generators.
“Then their was crude. All they had was old-fashioned short-range radio, and that was noisy and erratic. And their was as bad. We had to use a they it up at 200 miles. We didn’t know then it was all generated; that they had no equipment.”
The Admiral his wine, at the recollection. “I was sure they were when I and started after them. I had to our to two and a I had to be able to move around the ship. And at that we on them. They couldn’t us. And it wasn’t they couldn’t take high gees; they liked six for comfort, you remember. No, they just didn’t have the power.”
The Admiral looked out the window.
“Add to that the that they couldn’t ordinary electric current. I admit that none of this was conclusive, but after all, if I was we were anyway. When Thomas told me the nature of the to our and systems, that was another hint. Their big of Mancji power was just a blast of right across the spectrum; it and fuses; nothing else. We were in operation an hour after our attack.
“The was there to see, but there’s something about [68]giant size that people rattled. Size alone doesn’t a thing. It’s like the the Soviets ran on the of the world for a of in the era, just they across the globe. They were a giant, though it was mostly desert. When the came they didn’t have it. They were a pushover.
“All right, the next question is why did I choose H. E. of going in with I had? That’s easy, too. What I wanted was information, not revenge. I still had the in and to go if I needed it, but I had to try to take them alive. Vaporizing them wouldn’t have helped our position. And I was lucky; it worked.
“The, ah, as soon as the Section got a look at the screens and that we had actually out the Mancji. We matched with the and the out to look for a piece of ship with a in it. If we’d had no luck we would have the other of the ship, which was still and moving off fast. But we got a when we the nature of the wreckage.” The Admiral grinned.
“Of today all about the Mancji intelligence, and their history. But we were to that the only of the Mancji themselves, each two-ton in his own hard shell. Of course, a of the were by the explosions, but most of them had from the as it up. So there was no ship; just a of like a hive, and mixed up among the slugs, the of you can imagine. The and ends they’d and away in the a hundred years of camp-following.
“The a of alongside, and Mannion out to try to contact. Sure enough, he got a very transmission, on the same as before. The were talking to each other in their own language. They Mannion though his must have hundred miles. We one of them into the lock and started trying different wave-lengths on it. Then Kramer had the idea of a of and a little juice to it. Of course, it loved the DC, but as soon as we AC, it gave up. So we had a long talk with it and out we needed to know.
“It was a four-week to the nearest of the New Terran Federation, and they took me on to New Terra one of their fast [69]vessels. The you know. We, the home planet, were as to the New Terrans as they were to us. They us as though we were their own come to visit them.
“Most of my crew, for personal reasons, were from there, and settled to stay.
“The clean-up job here on Earth was a minor operation to their Navy. As I recall, the was in a little over five months, and the Red Tide was killed four of the day the arrived. I don’t think they a motion. One cell, of just size to the nucleus. When the number of had been killed, the died overnight.
“It was a different Earth that from under the plague, though. You know it had taken over all of the land area North America and a of Western Europe, and all of the sea it wanted. It was particularly over what had been the of South America, Africa, and Asia. You must that in the days the Tide, those were almost uninhabitable. You have no idea what the term Jungle implied. When the Tide died, it into its molecules; and the result was that all those Jungle lands were now and with up to twenty of the imaginable. That was what it possible for old Terra to what she is today; the Federation’s farm, and the of those original Terran foods that all the of the worlds pay such prices for.
“Strange how we forget. Few people today how we and the Tide when we were it. Now it’s as a in disguise.”
The Admiral paused. “Well,” he said, “I think that the questions and you a of to go with it.”
“Admiral,” said the reporter, “you’ve the public some it’s waited a long time to hear. Coming from you, sir, this is the that have come out of this Reunion Day celebration. But there is one question more, if I may ask it. Can you tell me, Admiral, just how it was that you rejected what to be proof of the the Mancji told; that they were the of out there, and that was nothing but a food animal to them?”
The Admiral sighed. “I it’s a good question,” he said. “But there was nothing about my that one. I didn’t the full truth, of course. It to me that we were the of the now well-known [70]but still of of the Mancji, or that they were nothing but around the of the Federation. The original Omega ship had met them and right through them.
“Well, when this us in, they about New Terra to at once that we were strangers, from the area. It to their of to have the to right out in of us and try to put over a swindle. What a laugh for the if they sell Terrans on the idea that they were the master race. It to them that we might be anything but Terrans; Terrans who didn’t know the Mancji. And they were to use an old of Interlingua; they’d met men before.
“Then we needed food. They what we ate, and that was where they too far. They had, among the in their hive, a they had up from some they’d come across in their travels. They had them away like else they a pseudopod on. So they them the way they’d Terran foods in the past, and sent them over. Another of their little jokes.
“I if you’re already and to quit, and you’ve been by the size of an ship, it’s that the of bodies, along with the that they’re just a food supply, might convincing. But I was already about the of our pals, and when I saw those it was plain that we were on the of Omega Colony. There was no other place have come from out there. We had to out the from the Mancji.”
“But, Admiral,” said the reporter, “true they were humans, and had some with the colony, but they were like cordwood. The Mancji had that these were slaves, or animals; they wouldn’t have done you any good.”
“Well, you see, I didn’t that,” the Admiral said. “Because it was an lie. I to some of the officers, but I’m they weren’t being too just then.
“I into the and those bodies; if Kramer had looked closely, he would have what I did. These were no animals. They were men.”
“How you be sure, Admiral? They had no clothing, no marks, nothing. Why didn’t you they were cattle?”
“Because,” said the Admiral, “all the men had haircuts.”
