by E. C. Tubb
“I don’t like it.” Lee moved restlessly about the control room. “I don’t like it at all.” He wasn’t talking of the mission.
Brant joined us then. He was wearing full space armour, his shoulders bowed with the weight of the propulsion unit. His face, rimmed by the open face-plate, was very pale. He shuffled towards us, his body hampered by the tight suit. He glanced at the instruments, checked his suit chronometer by the one on the panel, adjusted the pouched belt at his waist.
“You are clear as to what you have to do, First Officer Prin?” His voice was like that of a robot, utterly devoid of emotion. “I understand, sir.” For the first time the title came easy.
“The timing will be very important.” He hesitated a little. “The success of the mission will depend on how you operate the ship. I know that you will do your best.”
“You can rely on me, sir.” I met the stare of his blue eyes. There was a lot I would have liked to say but the words stuck in my throat. Anyway, it was too late for words.
“Second Officer Lee will attend me,” he said. “He will rejoin you at the earliest moment.”
“Yes, sir.” There was strain between us, a mounting tension, a feeling of unreality. I noticed his gloved hand rising towards me.
“Goodbye, First Officer Prin.”
“Goodbye, sir—and good luck!”
I saluted as he turned away.
Lee went with him, down to the mid airlock, down to the little coffin of steel with the double doors. He would wait in there together with his package of atomic disruption, helpless and alone as I took over his command, waiting as the minutes ticked away to the time when the outer door would open.
I wondered what he would be thinking during that time of waiting.
Would he pray?
Would he think of the home and the friends he would never again see?
Would he have regrets?
Somehow I didn’t think he would. Earth expected allegiance from the Federation and received it. But from her own children she not only demanded allegiance but utter obedience. Demanded it and received it in a manner I was only now beginning to understand.
No wonder Brant had seemed such a stranger.
For the first time I realised just how lonely he must have been.
Lee joined me and together we watched the instruments. He was very quiet, very subdued, his thoughts, like mine, were confined within metal walls. Then a light flashed on the panel and it was time to stop thinking.
We had a chance. A slender one but a chance just the same. Brant had given it to us at a cost I didn’t like to think about. It must not be wasted. The light flashed again and switches moved beneath my hand. The shuddering whine of emergence filled the ship and stars glowed on the screens.
“Take a fix on designation,” I snapped. It was an unnecessary order, the crew knew what to do.
It was an old trick this taking a pin-point sight and emerging smack on the target. Old and dangerous because the closer we came the quicker their torpedoes would reach us. The advantage always rested with the ships in normal space. There was a fraction of time when a ship emerged during which it was a blind, helpless thing. Senses took time to re-orient them-selves, instruments time to scan and be read.
It was like a man jumping out of water; he needed to wipe his eyes before he could see. During that time a waiting ship would have us spotted and missiles on the way. And the closer we were the easier we would be to knock out of space.
“Ready!” Beads of sweat made tiny rivers on my forehead, stinging my eyes. A signal light flashed and again we shuddered to emergence. Then the hiss and thud of the launching tubes shook the ship, a door swung open and a tiny figure flung itself into space.
We were hit twice before we could escape. The acrid stench of burning flesh followed the roar of the explosions. Sanity demanded that we stay where we were, safe in hyper-space, but at that moment I wasn’t sane.
“Get ready!” I yelled. “Here we go!”
Again the shudder, the hiss and thud, the tension of gambling with death. This time we made it without loss but still I wasn’t satisfied. Brant needed cover, he was going to get it.
He was out there, alone in space, gliding towards the big computer installation which I had seen ringed with guarding vessels. He carried a bomb which could smash the hull and disrupt the delicate electronic cells by a blast of radiation. His job was simply to reach the installation, fasten the bomb—and die in the explosion.
Unless he died first.
There was always the chance of that but, as he had pointed out, it was a slender one. Space would be full of our missiles, the enemy gunners concentrating on our ship, their interception torps aimed for the fast-moving destroyers. A tiny, slow-moving object would hardly be noticed on their screens. With space full of blasted debris one tiny fleck among so many would be ignored.
That was Brant’s plan and it was a good one. If one of our missiles, or theirs, didn’t hit him. If he escaped the shrapnel from the exploding interceptors. If we could keep them so busy they would have no time for suspicion.
“Stand by for firing 1” I flung the ship into normal space again, the tubes spitting their torps, not waiting for a correct aim, intent only on filling space with interference. We were distant this time which gave us a fraction longer to see what was happening. We’d been lucky, one of their ships was a glowing cloud.
Then we got hit again and ran for safety. The enemy torp had landed near the control room. I’d been flung over the panel, only luck and instinct had made me grab the right switches, and air was hissing from our ruptured hull. Lee, his face covered with blood, listened to damage reports. “Five dead, two badly wounded, one burned but still operative. Four compartments wrecked and half our launching tubes.”
“Repair hull.” I wiped my own face. My nose felt as if it had been knocked out of place, probably broken but I felt no pain. “How many torps have we left?”
“Enough for another salvo.” Lee grabbed my arm. “Prin! Again?”
“Why not?” I looked at him. I must have been crazy but, if I was, it was catching. “Let’s go!”
God must look after fools. By all logic and common sense we should have been punished for pushing our luck too far. We jerked out right in the middle of them, shot off our torps and ducked away without damage. It was the sort of thing Brant would have done, maybe we had caught our madness from him.
But we had our reward.
It was only a glimpse but it was enough. The installation had a hole in its side and a fountain of burning gas spouted from it like a jet of luminescent mist. Brant? Probably we would never know for certain. It could have been him or it could have been a lucky hit from one of our torps but, guessing how that thing would have been guarded, I felt it was Brant.
I wanted it to be Brant,
We were busy on the way home but not too busy for thought. I was busier than the rest for I had the responsibility of command. That responsibility opened my eyes. I had thought that Seng was the best captain we could have had but I was wrong. He had been a wonderful friend, a good companion, but he was no good to command in war.
War needed something extra from a man. What it was I was beginning to learn. Dedication, perhaps? That and something more. A refusal to be beaten, a total disregard for anything but doing what had to be done, a ruthless drive which nothing could stop.
Brant had had it but he was only a child of his environment. It was an attribute of Earth. It was what had driven them onward and outward. It was responsible for Ormond and all the other worlds of the Federation. It was the thing which would beat the Ilithen no matter how long it took.
We limped home and landed and I went with Lee to report to the tower. The local commodore was from Ormond, he made sympathetic noises when he heard our story.
“Tough,” he said. “Captain dead, ship wrecked,” he shook his head. “You’ll have to be used for replacements to other ships.” He winked. “Still a few of the boys holding onto their co
mmands, I guess you’d prefer to serve under one of your own.”
“No.”
“How come?” He looked pained. “I figured on doing you chaps a favour.”
I told him what he could do with it and I told him what I wanted. A Terrestrial captain or nothing.
It was time I learned how to fight.
THE END