from?"
"I am the power," said a vast, deep voice that filled the ship from holdto hold.
"And the glory," said the radio operator reverently. "Don't forget theglory."
"No," the voice replied and it was the voice of Bridey, resonant withall the amplitude of the immense chest cavity he had acquired. "Not theglory, merely the power. I have reached a higher plane of existence. Iam a spaceship."
"Praise be to the Ultimate Nothingness!" Harkaway cried.
"Ultimate Nothingness, nothing!" Bridey said impatiently. "I achieved itall myself."
"Then that's how the Flimbotzi spaceships were powered!" Iversenexclaimed. "By themselves--the Flimbotzik themselves, I mean--"
"Even so," Bridey replied grandly. "And this lofty form of life happensto be one which we poor humans cannot reach unassisted. Someone has tobuild the shell for us to occupy, which is the reason humans dwelltogether in fellowship and harmony--"
"You purposely got Harkaway to take you aboard the _Herringbone_,"Iversen interrupted wrathfully. "You--you stowaway!"
Bridey's laugh rang through the ship, setting the loose parts quivering."Of course. When first I set eyes upon this vessel of yours, I sawbefore me the epitome of all dreams. Never had any of our kind sosplendid an encasement. And, upon determining that the vessel was, asyet, a soulless thing, I got myself aboard; I was born, I died, and wasreborn again with the greatest swiftness consonant with comfort, so thatI could awaken in this magnificent form. Oh, joy, joy, joy!"
"You know," Iversen said, "now that I hear one of you talk at length, Ireally can't blame Harkaway for his typically imbecilic mistake."
"We are a wordy species," Bridey conceded.
"You had no right to do what you did," Iversen told him, "no right totake over--"
"But I didn't take over," Bridey the _Herringbone_ said complacently. "Imerely remained quiescent and content in the knowledge of my power untilyours failed. Without me, you would even now be spinning in the vastyvoids, a chrome-trimmed sepulcher. Now, three times as swiftly asbefore, shall I bear you back to the planet you very naively call home."
"Not three times as fast, please!" Iversen was quick to plead. "The shipisn't built--_we're_ not built to stand such speeds."
The ship sighed. "Disappointment needs must come to all--the high, thelow, the man, the spaceship. It must be borne--" the voicebroke--"bravely. Somehow."
"What am I going to do?" Iversen asked, turning to the first officer foradvice for the first time ever. "I was planning to ask for a transfer orresign my command when we got back to Earth. But how can I leave Brideyin the hands of the IEE(E)?"
"You can't, sir," the first officer said. "Neither can we."
"If you explain," Harkaway offered timidly, "perhaps they'll present theship to the government."
Both Iversen and the first officer snorted, united for once. "Not theIEE(E)," Iversen said. "They'd--they'd exhibit it or something andcharge admission."
"Oh, no," Bridey cried, "I don't want to be exhibited! I want to sailthrough the trackless paths of space. What good is a body like this if Icannot use it to its fullest?"
"Have no fear," Iversen assured it. "We'll just--" he shrugged, hisdreams of escape forever blighted--"just have to buy the ship from theIEE(E), that's all."
"Right you are, sir," the first officer agreed. "We must club together,every man Jack of us, and buy her. Him. It. That's the only decent thingto do."
"Perhaps they won't sell," Harkaway worried. "Maybe--"
"Oh, they'll sell, all right," Iversen said wearily. "They'd sell thechairman of the board, if you made them an offer, and throw in all thedirectors if the price was right."
"And then what will we do?" the first officer asked. "Once the ship hasbeen purchased, what will our course be? What, in other words, are we todo?"
It was Bridey who answered. "We will speed through space seeking,learning, searching, until you--all of you--pass on to higher planesand, leaving the frail shells you now inhabit, occupy proud, splendidvessels like the one I wear now. Then, a vast transcendent flotilla, wewill seek other universes...."
"But we don't become spaceships," Iversen said unhappily. "We don'tbecome anything."
"How do you know we don't?" Smullyan demanded, appearing on thethreshold. "How do you know what we become? Build thee more statelyspaceships, O my soul!"
Above all else, Iversen was a space officer and dereliction of dutycould not be condoned even in exceptional circumstances. "Put him inirons, somebody!"
"Ask Bridey why there were only forty-five spaceships on his planet!"the doctor yelled over his shoulder as he was dragged off. "Ask wherethe others went--where they are now."
But Bridey wouldn't answer that question.
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