by Roland Starr
“All right, Quill!” Vonner cut in, chuckling. “I’m certain you’ve done your homework! Save all that for your colleagues back on Earth. I guess I ought to have known your department would be ready for blast off!”
Reid grinned and nodded. “I’ve never done a more satisfactory assignment, Captain,” he commented. “There were some sticky moments on the way here and after our arrival, but since you disposed of the Zukons everything has gone smoothly.”
Vonner suppressed a sigh as he considered the entire race of Zukons that had been destroyed. But although he had been instrumental in bringing about the end of the Zukons, nothing would have saved the reptilian aliens. Their planet had been doomed before Orion's arrival, and with that small knowledge, Vonner tried to salve his conscience.
“I’ll get back to my Lab and organise spectrograph checks as we return through this solar system,” Reid said. “We’ll collect all the data we can! But I’m satisfied with the detailed findings we’ve already made. Omina is a second Earth, Captain!”
“We’ll be departing in a short time.” Vonner followed the slim, good-looking scientist to the door. “I’ve still got a lot to do, Quill, but I’d better look in on Ed Bardo and see what kind of a state he’s in for the return. And Doctor Morley will be more than busy as soon as we leave orbit.
The entire crew will have to start the monthly brain-washing.
“I’m not looking forward to that,” Reid said as they started along the steel tube of a corridor. “It makes us less than robots, Captain!”
“I’m aware of that, but you more than most will realise the importance of the process. We’d all suffer space mania before the trip was half over if we didn’t have our memories wiped clean.”
Reid nodded as they parted, and Vonner went along to the sick bay. He saw Adah Morley busy in her examination room, and continued through the sick bay to the special observation cubicles. A security guard was standing outside the door of one of the cubicles, armed with a stun-gun, and he saluted as Vonner paused before him.
“Everything under control, Captain!” the guard reported.
“I want to have a talk with Lieutenant Commander Bardo!” Vonner said, and the guard nodded and produced a sonic key, which he pressed against the steel door at his side.
A section of the wall slid aside and Vonner entered the cubicle, pausing on the threshold to look at the figure huddled on the bunk to the left. A hard sigh escaped him as he studied Lieutenant Commander Ed Bardo. They had been friends and colleagues for a number of years, and Bardo had been the finest First Officer in Space Force before the dreaded space mania had assailed him unexpectedly during the last week of their trip to Omina. Now Vonner dared not trust him, although the month’s rest on Omina had apparently restored Bardo’s mental stability. But space sickness was unpredictable, and Vonner had his ship to consider and the safety of its crew.
“Hi, Ed!” he said softly, and Bardo looked up quickly, getting to his feet in a rush, a grin spreading across his fleshy face.
“Captain!” Bardo nodded. “I was hoping you’d drop in before we left orbit.” He was medium-sized, with blue eyes and fair hair, and his uniform was clean and smartly pressed. His gaze was steady now, Vonner noticed.
“What’s on your mind, Ed?” Vonner knew the answer to that question, but he still asked it.
“Doc Morley says I’m back to normal now, Max!” Bardo dropped all formality. “This inactivity is driving me up the wall! I need something to do. The Doc gave me some occupational therapy, but what the hell! I’m capable of running this ship and you know it. I’m ready to reassume my own duties. Let me out of here and I’ll prove it to you.”
“Ed, there’s nothing I’d like more than to take you back into the control room with me, but you know the regulations as well as I do! Any man found to be suffering space sickness must be relieved from all duties and placed in confinement!”
“I know that, but the Doc gives me a clean bill of health now!” Bardo’s face hardened. “It’s going to be a long trip back to Earth and you’re going to need the help of a fully trained man before we get there!”
“The regulations are that even if you are passed fit by the doctor I cannot return you to your duties, Ed! While we’re in Space the sickness could return at any time, unannounced and unpredictably. I can’t take the chance of you running amok in the control room!”
Bardo sighed. “I know all that, but have some thought for me! The Doc says if I get processed along with the rest of the crew then the shock might be too much for my mind!”
“I’m aware of that, Ed! You brain-washed yourself with my cassette and the Chief Engineer’s! It was a wonder you didn’t blow your mind then! But you seem to have come through it all right, and you’ll have to be patient and accept the situation. I’ll have enough on my plate without bringing you into the open and risking more trouble. One thing I don’t need on this return trip is trouble!”
Bardo sighed and sank back upon the bunk, and Vonner took his leave, shaking his head slowly as he did so. The glitter in Bardo’s pale eyes warned him that he could not afford to relax his vigilance at any time, and as he returned to the control room, Vonner knew the future was as uncertain now as it had been on the outward trip.
CHAPTER II
With the ship under computer control and all co-ordinates fed into its control computer, there was little Vonner had to do in the way of handling the craft when it departed from Omina orbit. He felt the burst of acceleration that nudged them out of orbit, and watched the rear scanner screen as main drive thrust them into Lapse speed. Omina soon became an apparently immobile ball behind them, and Vonner considered some of the events that had taken place since their arrival a few short weeks before. He watched the planet until it became a mere bright dot that was quickly lost against the background of stars, and when his unaided sight failed to hold it longer he turned his attention to running the ship.
Calling the crew to full alert, he checked all departments, and received satisfactory reports from all quarters. Handing over to Lieutenant Hanton, he went along to the Medical Section, intent upon witnessing the mental processing of the entire crew. After the malfunctions and failures before their arrival at Omina he was not prepared to take any chances.
He found Adah Morley ready to start the process, and already a line of off-duty men was stretching back along the outer corridor. A pang of regret touched Vonner’s thoughts as he presented himself to the woman he hoped to marry when they returned to Earth, and as Captain he would be the first to experience the psycho-processes that needed boosting each month. The brain-washer, as it was popularly called by the crew, bolstered the duty patterns that had been fed into the mind of each crew member during documentation. At the same time all memory roots had been blotted out, so that no one could recall anything of his former life before the trip began. Even instincts had been blocked from the mind, and each man’s duty cassette merely impressed upon his blank mind the mental patterns needed for the fine performance of duty.
Vonner was aware of this as he passed Colonel Curran, who was standing beside his sergeant and a couple of guards. The sergeant had a check list of the entire crew, and it was Security’s duty to ensure that no man missed the psycho processing. The process had been reversed while they remained in Omina orbit, but now they were on the way home and the past had to be removed, erased completely in order that the crew would become suitable for the long period of confinement that lay between them and their arrival back on Earth.
Adah was in her office, and Vonner was relieved to find her alone when he entered. She arose and came around the desk, pushing herself into his arms, and Vonner was aware of a pang of regret as he kissed her.
“This will be the last time until we return home!” she whispered gently. “But you won’t have anything to concern yourself about, Max. You won’t be aware of me after the processing.”
“But another two years out of our lives!” He spoke harshly. “No wonder the crew are getting
upset about the idea of being brain-washed again. Even I can feel an instinctive protest against it.”
“Let’s go and get it over with so I can start working on the rest of the crew,” she said. There was reluctance in her tones, and for a moment Vonner considered refusing to process. But he knew before the idea really took hold in his mind that he could not. He had the eternal duty of setting an example to his crew, and he allowed her to precede him. They passed the queue of men awaiting the process, and entered the room.
There was a chair beside a computer, and Vonner sat down, looking up into Adah’s face as she locked him in the seat. A sigh escaped him as she attached electrodes to his temples and forehead. She crossed to a metal filing cabinet set by the far bulkhead and extracted Vonner’s personal cassette, and when she came back to the machine there was an expression of regret upon her lovely features.
“Goodbye until we get home!” she said softly.
“Goodbye, Adah!” He fought the desire to kiss her. He wanted to delay the process for as long as possible, but duty awaited him, as ever, and he sighed again as she pressed his cassette into a slot in the top of the computer.
Adah threw a switch and the hum of power erupted, filling the small room. Vonner saw a needle flicker inside a dial and begin to creep around the white face. Moments later she flipped a second switch and a whine added its high pitch to the hum. Lights began to flicker on the computer — reds and greens alternating in clusters.
Vonner met Adah’s gaze, and saw a slow, regretful smile on her lips. He tensed, for she was reaching out to grasp the lever that would set the whole process into motion. He drew a deep breath and nodded his readiness, and she depressed the lever.
It was like a mental blink, the way his thoughts died inside his mind and a curtain fell to cut them off from him. He scarcely heard the sound of the process. All personal thoughts disappeared from his head and he was instilled with fresh patterns of duty. Within three seconds Adah cut the power and released him from the seat, and Vonner stood up, breathing steadily. He looked at her, his gaze impersonal now.
“Thank you, Doctor!” There was a sharp note in his voice. “Continue with the process, and let me have the check list as soon as you’ve completed it. There is to be a guard on this room at all times until the ship reaches Earth orbit. We want no repetition of the trouble we experienced on the outward trip.”
“Very well, Captain!” Adah’s voice was incisive, and she had stifled her emotions. She looked into Vonner’s face and saw no emotion in his expression. He was, to all intents and purposes, a flesh and blood robot. He had forgotten that they were in love, even that she was a woman! Until the end of the trip he would have no memories beyond the point of being released from the brain-washer. All the thoughts occupying his mind would be dealing with duty.
Vonner left the room and confronted the big, watchful Philo Curran, who saluted.
“I’ve got the process details arranged, Captain!” the colonel reported. “All off-duty men are ready, and then we’ll work through the duty list.”
“Check personally that each man reports, Philo,” Vonner said. “It is this first processing that’s most important.”
“No one will skip it, I assure you, Captain!” came the confident reply. “But what about Bardo?”
“Yes, Bardo!” Vonner drew a heavy breath and restrained it for several seconds while he considered. “I can’t come to a decision about him yet! I’ve spoken to him and he still has that glint in his eyes. He’ll remain under close observation, of course, and put only your best security men on that chore, Philo. But I don’t know if we can risk his life by subjecting him to the process again.”
“If you don’t then he’ll be a constant source of danger,” Curran pointed out. “Being cooped up in that observation cell won’t help his mind, and even with the best guards on the ship watching him, two years is a long time to deny a man even the slightest opportunity of escape. Even if we put a couple of men in that cell with him, he’ll find a chance at least once during this trip to give them the slip, and we don’t have to wonder at the damage he could cause.”
“We’ve had an example of what he is capable of,” Vonner said. “I’ll wait until the doctor has processed the rest of the crew, then discuss Bardo with her.”
Curran nodded, and saluted as Vonner went on his way. The first of the crewmen entered the processing room and Adah Morley slipped into the sequence that would take three hours to complete.
Vonner returned to the control room, and Lieutenant Hanton reported Condition Steady.
“I’ll take over now, Lieutenant,” Vonner said. “I’ll handle the first watch and we’ll go into routine handling of the ship as from now.”
“Yes, sir!” Hanton smiled, his dark eyes glinting as he prepared to depart. “I’ll report for processing immediately.”
“There is one thing,” Vonner said, and Hanton paused and turned to face him. “You’ve been acting First Officer ever since Ed Bardo was relieved from his duties. We can’t go on handling the ship under the temporary arrangement. I’m promoting you Lieutenant Commander and First Officer as of this date. All junior officers will be promoted to fill the sequence of vacancies in the establishment that Bardo’s absence has created. Promotions will be in accordance with seniority. You can pass on the word to the rest of the officers, and congratulations, Lieutenant Commander! I’m highly satisfied with the way you’ve been carrying out Bardo’s duties.”
“Thank you, sir!” There was elation in Hanton’s dark face, but a shadow crossed his lean features. “I take it my promotion means that Ed Bardo won’t be fit for duty at any time on the return trip.”
“The regulations are that no man suffering a bout of space sickness can be returned to duty while the ship is in Space!” Vonner shook his head, his face carrying an expression of concern. “I’m afraid it means that Ed is finished with Space Force!”
“It happens to most spacemen in time,” Hanton said regretfully. “I suppose the best we can hope for is that it doesn’t happen too soon in one’s career.”
“That’s the way to look at it,” Vonner retorted.
Hanton departed, and Vonner settled down to commanding the ship. He spent the first watch reviewing the events of the past month spent on Omina, and was not aware that Adah Morley, or any of his off-duty activities, did not figure in his thoughts. He could remember everything down to the tiniest detail about his duty on the alien planet, but emotion-wise his mind was blank.
“Captain!” Aaron Marr approached, and his quietly insistent voice jerked Vonner from his thoughts. The astrogator was looking worried, and Vonner brought his attention back to the ship with a jerk.
“What’s on your mind, Aaron?” Vonner demanded.
“The course we are taking will put us into proximity with Uralis Digis. That much I do remember from the outward trip. But all the notes on the course that were made at the time were obliterated by Bardo when he ran amok. I can’t get anything of value from the computer memory banks.”
“I know, and when I’ve got the reports that the whole crew have been processed we’ll put our attention on the problems of course!” Vonner refused to be alarmed by the fact that they would have to travel blindly for most of the way. It had been planned that the control computer would record all outward course co-ordinates, and the ship would have followed the exact reverse course going home, but Bardo had tampered with the memory banks of the command computer and all the collected information had been erased and was lost.
“We have charts from the Pravans which will help us to cover the foremost part of the trip,” Marr went on, “and when we reach inner space around our solar system we shall have no trouble. But this unknown middle-distance is where we could go wrong. It’s quite likely that we shall miss our solar system by several million light years!”
Vonner did not need to be told of the odds against finding Earth from this black reach of Space. But worrying about the situation would not help anyone, and he wa
s aware that given a little luck and a good memory, they might be able to recall the solar systems they had visited in their search for Omina.
“I can remember the names of some of the systems and constellations we checked out,” he said. “I’m sure Quillon Reid will be able to name others. I think we’ll get through, Aaron.”
“It’s not the way I was trained to do my job!” Marr said stiffly. “I want to be able to lay my plot out now, and check it each time I come on watch,” he commented. “I’ve got the two ends of the course safely enough, but there’s no line joining them, and that worries me a great deal.”
“Have you been processed yet?” Vonner demanded, and the astrogator shook his dark head. “Then I suggest you go along to sickbay and take your turn. It may help to ease your worries.”
Marr smiled thinly and departed, shaking his head, and Vonner watched the man’s stocky figure. He considered the many months of travelling that lay ahead and, but for the mental processing, would have worried greatly about the situation. But he was now finely attuned to his duties, and the meaning of fear had been erased from his memory. He knew he could rely implicitly upon his skill and training, and nothing else counted in commanding a ship such as Orion.
Adah Morley appeared in the control room later, and she was carrying the check list Vonner wanted. He smiled impersonally at her as he took it and scanned the closely printed names of those members of the crew who had been brain-washed.