by Jerry
He rubbed the flat of his hand across his right cheek, sighing from emotional weariness. Then he scuffed back into the room. On the way he collected a bottle of bourbon, mixer and glass, and dropped into the big chair.
As he worked on the bottle, all the anxiety and apprehension in him faded. Once he stared at the bottom of his empty glass. Funny how a guy could panic all of a sudden. He remembered it clearly now. Riding into town yesterday from the rocket port, he started brooding over details of Project Venture. Suddenly, an overwhelming black tide of fear worse than he had ever experienced confronted him. Like a man on the verge of insanity he licked his dry lips, staring about him and feeling as if something strange and terrible were taking possession of his mind. And in the middle of his spell a cloud blacker than space itself started reaching for him. That was when he yelled to the startled bus driver to let him out at this hotel. Maybe he could get hold of himself here.
Now, his arms sprawled over the sides of the heavy chair, he drifted off into a snoring stupor.
IN THE morning he awoke to a splitting headache. Somehow it helped to hold his head between both hands and swear at it in a running mutter. Finally he roused himself to go to the bathroom for a cold shower. Afterward, donning his powder blue Captain’s uniform, he went down to breakfast.
He dawdled over crisp bacon and eggs, glanced at morning editions, and all the while the ashes of last night’s emotional holocaust drifted through him. Drifted in fitful vagrant thoughts. He should have said no that first day a year ago. The big law firm made a great to do over the old document from his ancestor. Unique, they said. The chance of a lifetime. And by the end of the first meeting Tom was all fired up. Mining atomic power metals in the asteroid belt would bring the biggest returns, he said. They would be the only ones allowed to compete with the Asteroid Mining Corporation monopoly. And now Tom was building up public excitement in the venture, as if it were a circus. The damned fool. Why had he let his brother talk him into—
Suddenly, his line of thought snapped, and he was acutely aware of staring eyes.
He looked to his left, then felt a warm flush technicolor his cheeks.
“Christy!”
Her blond curls making a soft halo around her jauntily raked hat, the space hostess from his ship gave him a warm smile. She was adequately stacked, Bill reflected, but there was levelheaded firmness and resolution in her too. That was why she was hard to handle.
“Good morning, Bill.”
He didn’t like the accusing gleam in her eye but he was glad to see her.
“Sit down, Christy. Have some coffee.” He held her hands a moment, then eased her into the opposite chair.
He tried disarming her with a show of great enthusiasm. But the way she settled herself into the seat, all the while regarding him with those clear penetrating blue eyes, told him she was going on no snipe hunt.
“When you kissed me goodbye at the port yesterday, Bill, you said you were going directly to the field to be with Tom.” It wasn’t a statement—it was an accusation.
With an elaborate show of casualness he shrugged his shoulders. “Well, I was fagged out from this last trip. Decided I’d do better getting a full night’s rest by myself at a hotel.”
The waiter brought her coffee, and she left it to cool. She folded her long tapering fingers on the table, and a delicate lift to her fine brows gave her an expression of sympathetic concern.
Her smile was regretful. “Rocket men don’t drink, Bill. You know it too. Bad for muscular coordination.”
He said in some surprise, “You mean it’s that loud?”
“Uh-huh.” Christy leaned forward. “What is it, Bill? You haven’t been yourself for weeks. You looked haggard yesterday and when you left the ship you were almost running, as if trying to escape from something. And now this strange avoidance of Tom. He got hold of me this morning early, wanting to know where you were. And I guess it’s pretty important that he sees you, Bill. Seems there’s been trouble at the field.”
It was as if someone had prodded him in an agonizingly sore place and he reacted instinctively. He let his knife clatter on his plate, aware that he was dramatizing himself.
“When I’m ready for a woman’s sticking her nose into my affairs, I’ll send her a special invitation!”
Christy’s delicate nostrils flared, and her bosom rose and fell rapidly. Then she seemed to get hold of herself. “I’m sorry if you got that impression, Bill. I was only trying to help you both.”
Cherishing his irritation, Bill went on, “Seems to me you’re bending over backward helping Tom, playing messenger, private eye—”
Christy broke in with a catch in her throat, “Oh, Bill, please! Let’s not quarrel as soon as we get back.”
Bill shoved his dishes aside, the tone of her voice reaching into him to dampen down the fires of anger. Then he managed a slow faint grin.
“Okay, Christy.” He reached for the check, saying, “Well, if you can stand my company, would you like to come along out to the field?”
With her eyes glistening, she answered, “I’d love to.”
THE PRIVATE rocket landing field of the Staker Space Mining Company was an hour’s drive north of the city. Three miles from the field they made out the two gleaming snouts of the rockets pointing skyward. Then as they approached the edge of the field, Bill turned off toward a two story frame structure that served as office and warehouse.
Bill said, “Might as well check to see if Tom is in the office first.”
At the door Bill poked his head in and shouted up the stairwell, “Hi—Tom?”
A chair scraped, and footsteps sounded across the upstairs floor. “Yeah—that you, Bill? C’mon up!”
They found Tom at a desk before a wide window view of the field. On the office walls hung big graphs of fuel consumption curves, trajectory plots from Earth to the asteroid belt, ballistics computations, oxygen consumption curves per unit metabolism per man.
Christy looking at the rockets, said, “Gee, Tom, they look beautiful. Like monsters straining their tethers.”
Tom looked up at the girl’s profile, and to Bill who was watching, he bore the look of a man savoring what he saw.
“Yes, they are. That first one’s mine, the Space Bird. The other is Bill’s, the Space Dragon.”
Bill cast a professional eye over the charts and graphs on the wall, while far down in his subconscious a sharp twinge of jealousy fulminated, tangling with his fears of space in a hybrid monstrosity. Then like lava in a plugged volcano his obsession found a new outlet. The fear of space now came up disguised as hatred for Tom.
In an unusually calm voice Bill said, “Well, I see you have everything just about completed.”
“Yeah,” Tom glanced up with a significant look. “Someone else was interested in those charts and graphs too the other day. Someone who didn’t bother to use the door.”
“What d’you mean—somebody break in?”
Tom nodded. “Yep. Jimmied a window downstairs. But I don’t think they got anything, because the door to the office was still locked when the watchman surprised them. They got away in the dark.”
Christy’s eyes grew large and round. “Who do you suppose it was?”
Hitching his long body erect, Tom said with a gesture of his right hand, “Well, there’s only one outfit interested in our destination—and that’s Asteroid Mining.”
“Good heavens,” Christy said in great surprise. “You don’t mean a big corporation like that would stoop so low?”
Tom smiled at her. “With a monopoly on power metals Asteroid has been gouging the world. People have become resigned to the situation. But if we can supply uranium ore cheaper there’s going to be a clamor for private enterprise again. Under the present system private enterprise has been withering on the vine. This is our big chance and the public is pulling for us.”
Bill’s hold on his temper slipped another notch. “Yeah, I saw that interview with the television news you had. Saw it last nig
ht.” He folded his arms across his chest. “If that’s your conception of winning support for our venture then you better take up circus advertising.”
For a moment Tom looked like a man who’s taken a bucket of ice water in the face. Then his feet hit the floor. “Say, now, wait a minute, Bill!” he said, half in anger. “Who d’you think’s been shouldering the big share of Project Venture—while you’ve hung on to your job and a pretty salary?”
“Didn’t we agree you’d spend full time on the Project while I acted as consultant between trips?” Bill shot back.
“Yeah, I quit a fair job as first officer on a freighter to handle it.”
“And you are guaranteed fair wages and a fat slice of any profits we make,” Bill snapped. “The thing I didn’t like in that interview of yours was that starry-eyed eyewash about our ancestor being a man of vision, a philosopher and a dreamer. That’s a helluva tag to put on us—‘The Dream Boys’ ! Good God!”
Tom stood up, facing his brother in icy silence. Finally he said, “Is that all you’ve got to offer—a lotta carping criticism?”
The planes of Bill’s cheeks flattened under the downward pull at his mouth corners. The black ugly tide was running in him now and he could not stop its sweep. His fear of space, the frantic will to escape from it again, all the irritation and anger were deep currents and he was a mere piece of flotsam tossing on the advancing wave of the black tide.
He said, “No, damn you. I’ve got something else in my craw too. It’s Christy. I’ve seen the way you look at her, and I know that whenever my back is turned you’re doing your damnedest to break us up!”
Tom’s face turned gray and suddenly his eyes were wide open. Knots stood out on the points of his jaws.
In a strange half choked voice he said, “That’s a blasted lie—and you know it. It’s an excuse to cover up for your own peculiar behavior lately. I think—”
Christy broke in with. “Bill—Tom, for heaven’s sake stop it!” Her beseeching eyes were glancing sharply from one to the other in growing panic.
Bill stood lightly on his feet, his fingers curling and uncurling into balled fists.
Tom went on, a bleak look in his eyes. “I think you’ve been in a soft berth too long. The monopoly you work for has softened you, taken out the guts a man needs to stand on his own feet—”
Bill suddenly stiffened. His right shot out in a hard, sharp blow that crashed against Tom’s chin. Tom grunted, a surprised look in his eyes, and sagged to the floor.
For a moment Bill stood over him, nostrils flaring, his whole body tense and waiting. But Tom was too groggy to get up.
“Oh, Bill, how could you!” Christy cried out, dropping to her knees beside Tom.
Bill strode with measured step to the door. There he turned, and looking back with a sneer, said, “Sweet dreams, Dream Boy!”
IN A luxurious office of Asteroid Mining Corporation on the twenty-third floor of a Manhattan skyscraper a furious official of the corporation faced an uncomfortable underling.
“I’ve heard of some pretty crude tricks in my time, Heilman, but breaking into the Staker Company’s office like a common house thief takes the tin medal for low grade brains!” the official ranted, pounding his desk. “I suppose you thought that was an excellent way to advance yourself in the corporation, eh? Finesse, Heilman, finesse. That’s what it takes in matters like this. Asteroid Mining, before it got the monopoly, stopped competition, but not by common housebreaking—”
“But—but I thought,” Heilman explained lamely, “that we could get a copy of their trajectory and then deal with them after they got out to the quadrant. You know, fire a ‘meteor’ at them, blanket them with radio jamming, ruin their radar sighting—”
The official snorted and leaned disgustedly back in his leather chair. “No, no you big dumb ox! You’re retired from the team, benched. Now you can sit on the sidelines and watch how the first string fix Staker and Company.”
When Bill asked for his key, the clerk handed him the key and a faintly lavender tinted envelope.
Mystified by the feminine handwriting, Bill sat in a lobby chair, and tore open the jasmine scented envelope.
The note was brief. It said, “Dear Captain Staker: Please call on me at your earliest convenience, Apt. 5B. It is a matter of utmost importance to both of us. Margo.”
Ever since leaving Tom’s office, Bill’s mind had been spinning about a center of hatred and ugly rumination. But now the stimulus of the jasmine fragrance struck a spark of adventure on the edge of his churning mind. The tangential path led off into inviting mysterious shadows and he was going to follow.
The elevator stopped at the apartment floor of the hotel’s north Tower. In the softly lighted corridor his feet fell soundlessly on the deep pile rug. He turned a corner, then walked up a short flight of steps to the door of Apt. 5B.
In response to his knock the door was opened by a vision in white satin. She was startlingly beautiful. Dark heavy lashes, creamy skin, white even teeth in a flashing smile, a lithe body poised with the ease of a jungle cat. She was fulsome and high breasted, and as she followed Bill’s quick appraising glance, she seemed to smile knowingly that all he saw was displayed to best advantage.
Hat in hand Bill said, “I’m—I’m Captain Staker.”
With a throaty laugh that could have been carefully timed, she said, “And I’m Margo. Come right in Captain.”
Bill walked onto a white rug, and unobtrusively took in the rich furniture Twenty First Century Modern, the warm brown of the logarithm ruled walls, paintings in the style of Van Gogh, sharply angled table lamps, the gold drapes at the windows.
“It was kind of you to come so promptly,” Margo continued, settling into a chair.
Bill brought his glance back to her. “Well, frankly, I was curious to know what a perfect stranger could have in common with me.”
She laughed indulgently. “Nasty of me, wasn’t it?—taking advantage of a human weakness.” She gestured at Scotch and bourbon on the coffee table. “I’ll let you do us the honors, Captain. Bourbon for me.”
Presently, glass in hand and a spreading warmth in him, Bill fixed the girl with a quizzical look. “Tell me, Margo, just what is this matter of utmost importance to both of us?”
She put her glass on the table, then sat back and Bill felt the full impact of her dark lustrous eyes. “It’s a business matter, Captain. You’ve been recommended as a man of high purpose and dependability. As the heir to my father’s controlling interest in Intercontinental Lines I am badly in need of a man with your experience to handle traffic details.”
Bill lifted a brow. “Intercontinental Lines? Never heard of it. Exclusively airline traffic on Earth?”
“It’s a new company formed under monopoly regulations. Of course, I realize you’re a spaceman, but staying on Earth would have its compensations. You can name your own salary.”
Bill leaned forward and mixed another drink. This was something unexpected and pretty tempting too. No more fighting his fear of space. He downed the drink in a few gulps, then stood up.
“Well, I—I’d like to think things over,” he said with hesitation, walking slowly to the window.
Margo followed, saying, “I don’t mean to rush you, Bill—yet the situation needs your experienced hand.”
“I know, but my brother and I are all set to make a scouting trip to Beta Quadrant.”
Margo leaned against the window drapes, smiling with frank admiration. “I know you are. How in the world you can take off from Earth and hit a target far out in space is beyond me. Is it something like firing artillery?”
The warm glow already suffusing Bill’s senses took on added lustre when he looked into her questioning eyes. Expansively, he began drawing diagrams, and explaining the elements of space navigation.
“Now here’s the trajectory my brother and I are planning to use,” he went on, drawing a complex curve with loading figures and fuel consumption and point of contact with the Beta
Quadrant.
When he paused once, Margo touched the gold sunburst emblem on his arm. “That’s fascinating, Bill, but making a trip like yours is all a gamble. I’m not offering you a gamble. I’m offering you a sure thing.”
“Yes, I realize that.” Bill got to his feet. “But just the same I want to think your proposition over, Margo.”
She leaned toward him putting her hands on his lapels. “Bill, don’t risk your neck out there in space. I need you desperately in the company.”
Suddenly, Bill was electrically aware of cool, smooth arms sliding up and around his neck and her soft red mouth within fragrance distance.
And he was exquisitely aware of the full soft length of her pressing against him. The scent of jasmine reached him with bewitching stealth. That was when he closed the gap to her mouth in a sudden rush.
Bill came out of a whirling state of pure feeling to hear the visiphone buzzing insistently.
“The phone,” he mumbled.
Margo opened her eyes dreamily, then comprehended. She walked over to the phone, picked up the receiver.
After a moment she turned around looking at him questioningly. “It’s for you, Bill.”
He took the phone and said, “Captain Staker speaking.”
The desk clerk said, “A gentleman to see you, sir. Shall I send him to Apt. 5B?”
“No,” Bill answered. “I’ll be down to my room in a few moments and see him there.”
He turned to Margo. “I guess business comes before idyll, Margo. I’ve got to go.”
Her lustrous dark eyes searched his face intently. “How long must I wait for an answer, Bill?”
“Can you wait until Thursday—three days?” Time enough to thresh things out with Tom.
“I guess I can,” Margo said, touching him with an inviting glance, “but do I have to wait that long before I see you again?”