by E. E. Smith
CHAPTER 9
The _Pleiades_ landed on Margonia's Galaxian Field, where the Telluriansfound the project running smoothly, a little ahead of schedule. Delcampand Fao were working at their fast and efficient pace, but the hairypair from Thaker seemed to be, literally, everywhere at once.
"Hi, Belle." Fao 'ported up and shook hands warmly. "I thought I wasgoing to have the first double-Prime baby, until _she_ appeared on thescene."
"Didn't it make you mad? I'd've been furious."
"Maybe a little at first, but not after I'd talked with her for half aminute. She'd never even thought of that angle. Besides, she thinks thewhole galaxy is fairly crawling with double-Primes."
"That's funny--so does Clee. But there are other things--strictly notangles--that she hasn't thought of, too. If those coveralls were half aninch tighter they'd choke her to death. You'd think she'd...."
"Huh?" Fao interrupted. "_You_ should scream--oh, that ridiculousTellurian prud...."
"It _isn't_ ridiculous!" Belle snapped. "And it isn't prudishness,either--not with me, anyway. It's just that," she ran an indicativeglance over Fao's lean, trim flanks and hard, flat abdomen, "it spoilsyour figure. It's only temporary, of course, but...."
"_Spoils_ it! Why, how _utterly_ idiotic! Why, it's magnificent! Just assoon as it starts to show on me, Belle, I'm going to start wearing onlyhalf as many clothes as I've got on now."
"You couldn't." Belle eyed the other girl's bathing-suit-like garment.Except for being blue instead of yellow, it was the same as the one shehad worn before. "Not without the League for Public Decency sending thewagon out after you."
"Oh, Miss Experience? Well, three-quarters, maybe...."
"Hey, you two!" came Delcamp's hail. "How about cutting the gab andgetting some work done?"
"Coming, boss! 'Scuse it, please!" and two fast and skillful women wentefficiently to work.
* * *
With six Prime Operators on the job the work went on very rapidly, yetwithout error. The _Celestial Queen_ was finished, tested, and foundperfect, one full day ahead of James' most optimistic estimate forconstruction alone. The six Primes conferred.
"Do you want us to help you pick up the other Primes?" Delcamp asked."Your Main, big as it is, will be crowded, and we have three ships herenow instead of one."
"I don't think so ... no," Garlock decided. "We told 'em we'd do it, andin the _Pleiades_, so we'd better. Unless, Alsyne, you don't agree?"
"I agree. The point, while of course minor, is very well taken. We andour Operators--we brought six along; experts in their variousfields--can serve best by working on Tellus with its Galaxian Society ingetting ready for the meeting."
"Oh, of course," Fao said. "Probably Deg and I should do the samething?"
"That would be our thought." The two Thakerns were thinking--andlepping--in fusion. "However," they went on carefully, "it must not beand is not our intent to sway you in any action or decision. While notall of you four, perhaps, are as yet fully mature, not one of you shouldbe subjected to any additional exterior stresses."
"I hope you don't think that way about _all_ Primes," Garlock said,grimly. "I'm going to smack some of those kids down so hard that theirshirt-tails will roll up their backs like window shades."
"If you find such action either necessary or desirable, we will join youquite happily in it. We go."
The four remaining Primes looked at each other in puzzled surprise.
"_What_ do you think about _that_?" Garlock asked finally, of no one inparticular.
"I don't understand them," Fao said, "but they're mighty nice people."
"Do you suppose, Clee," Belle nibbled at her lower lip, "that we'regetting off on the wrong foot with uniforms and admirals and things?That with really adult Primes running things the Galactic Service wouldrun itself? No bosses or anything?"
"Umnngk." Garlock grunted as though Belle had slugged him. "I hope not.Or do I? Anyway, not enough data yet to make speculation profitable. ButI wonder, Miss Bellamy, if it would be considered an unjustifiableattempt to sway you in any action or decision if I were to suggest--Oh,ever so diffidently!--that if we're going to saddle up our bronks andride out on roundup tomorrow morning we ought to be logging somesack-time right now?"
"Considering the source, as well as and/or in connection with theadmittedly extreme provocation," Belle straightened up into a regalpose, "You may say, Mister Garlock, without fear of successfulcontradiction, that in this instance no umbrage will be taken, at leastfor the moment." She broke the pose and giggled infectiously. "'Night,you two lovely people!"
* * *
Belle was still sunny and gay when the _Pleiades_ reached Lizoria;Garlock was inwardly happy and outwardly content. Semolo, however, washis usual intransigent self. In fact, if it had not been for MireaMitala, and the fact that she--metaphorically--did pin Semolo's earsback, Garlock would not have taken him aboard at all.
Thus, after loading on only one pair of Primes, thatauspiciously-beginning day had lost some of its luster; and as the daywore on it got no better fast. Baver of Falne had not learned anything,either--only Garlock's intervention saved the cocky and obstreperousSemolo from a mental blast that would have knocked him out cold.
Then there were Onthave and Lerthe of Crenna; Korl and Kirl of Gleer;Parleof and Ginseona of Pasquerone; Atnim and Sotara of Flandoon, andeighty others. Very few of them were as bad as Semolo; some of them,particularly the Pasqueronians and the Gleerans, were almost as good asDelcamp and Fao.
This was the first time that any pair of them had ever come physicallyclose to any other Prime. Many of them had not really believed that anyPrimes abler than themselves existed. The _Pleiades_ was crowded, andGarlock and Belle were not giving to any of them the deference andconsideration and submissive respect which each considered his uniquedue.
Wherefore the undertaking was neither easy nor pleasant; and bothTellurians were tremendously relieved when, the last pair picked up,they flashed the starship back to Tellus and Delcamp, Fao, and theThakerns 'ported themselves aboard.
"Give me your attention, please," Garlock said, crisply. Then, after amoment, "Any and all who are not tuned to me in five seconds will bereturned immediately to their home planets and will lose all contactwith this group....
"That's better. For some of you this has been a very long day. For allof you it has been a very trying day. You were all informed previouslyas to what we had in mind. However, since you are young and callow, andwere thoroughly convinced of your own omniscience and omnipotence, it isnatural enough that you derived little or no benefit from thatinformation. You are now facing reality, not your own fantasies.
"Each pair of you has been assigned a suite of rooms in Galaxian Hall.Each suite is furnished appropriately; each is fully Gunthered forself-service.
"This meeting has not been announced to the public and, at least for thepresent, will not be. Therefore none of you will attempt to communicatewith anyone outside Galaxian Hall. Anyone making any such attempt willbe surprised.
"The meeting will open at eight o'clock tomorrow morning in theauditorium. The Thakerns and the Margonians will now inform you as toyour quarters." There was a moment of flashing thought. "Dismissed."
* * *
At one second before eight o'clock the auditorium was empty. At eighto'clock, ninety-eight human beings appeared in it; six on the stage, therest occupying the first few rows of seats.
"Good morning, everybody," Garlock said, pleasantly. "Everyone beingrested, fed, and having had some time in which to consider the changedreality faced by us all, I hope and am inclined to believe that we canattain friendship and accord. We will spend the next hour in becomingacquainted with each other. We will walk around, not teleport. We willmeet each other physically, as well as mentally. We will learn eachother's forms of greeting and we will use them. This meeting isadjourned until nine o'clock--or, rather, the meeting will begin then."
Physically, it was a scene of almost overpowering perfection. The menwere, without exception, handsome, strong, and magnificently male. Thewomen, from heroically-framed Fao Talaho up--or down?--to surprisinglyslender Mirea Mitala, all were arrestingly beautiful; breathtakinglyproportioned; spectacularly female.
Clothing varied from complete absence to almost complete coverage, witha bewildering variety of intermediate conditions. Color was rampant.
* * *
Hair--or lack of it--was also an individual and highly variant matter.Some of the women, like Belle and Fao, were content with one solid butunnatural shade. One shaven head--Mirea Mitala's--was deeply tanned, butunadorned, even though the rest of her body was almost covered byprecious stones. Another was decorated with geometrical and esotericdesigns in eye-searing colors. A third supported a structure--it couldnot possibly be called a hat--of spun metal and gems.
Among the medium-and long-hairs there were two-, three-, and multi-tonedjobs galore. Some of the color-combinations were harmonious; some weresharply contrasting, such as black and white; some looked as thoughtheir wearers had used the most violently-clashing colors they couldfind.
The prize-winner, however, was Therea of Thaker's enormous, inexplicablemop; and it was that phenomenon that first broke the ice.
The girl with the decorated scalp had been glancing questioningly atneighbor after neighbor, only to be met by uncompromising stares.Finally, however, her gaze met another, as interested as her own. Thissecond girl, whose coiffure was a high-piled confection of black, white,yellow, red, blue, and green, half-masted her screen and said:
"Oh, thanks, Jethay of Lodie-Yann. I'm glad everybody isn't going tostay locked up all day. I'm Ginseona of Pasquerone. They call me 'Jin'whenever they want to call me anything printable. And _this_," she dug aknuckle into her companion's short ribs, whereupon he jumped, whirledaround, lowered his screen, and grinned, "is my ... the boy friend,Parleof. Also of Pasquerone, of course. Par, both Jethay and I...."
"Call me 'Jet'--everybody does," Jethay said: almost shyly, for a Prime.
"Both Jet and I have been wondering about that woman's hair--over there.How could you _possibly_ give a head of hair a static charge of fifty ora hundred kilovolts and not have it leak off?"
"You couldn't, unless it was a perfectly-insulated wig ... but it looksas though she did, at that...." and Parleof paused in thought.
"Maybe Byuk would have an idea or two," and Jet uttered aloud a dozen orso crackling syllables that sounded as though they could have beenladylike profanity. Whatever they were, Byuk jumped, too, and tuned inwith the other three.
"Oh, it's quite easy, really," Therea said then. "Look." Her mass ofhair cascaded gracefully down around her neck and shoulders. "Lookagain." Each hair stood fiercely out all by itself, exactly as before."All you young people will learn much more difficult and much moreimportant things before this meeting is over. I cannot tell you how gladI am that so many of you are here."
* * *
And so it went, all over the auditorium. Once cracked, the ice broke upfast.
Fao and Delcamp worked hard; so did Belle and Garlock. Alsyne was apotent force indeed--his abounding vitality and his tremendous smilebroke down barriers that logic could not affect. And Therea workednear-miracles; did more than the other five combined. Her sympathy, herempathy, her understanding and feeling, were as great as Lola's own; heroperative ability was as much greater than Lola's as Lola's was greaterthan that of a bobby-soxed babysitter.
Thus, when half of the hour was gone, Garlock heaved a profound sigh ofrelief. He wouldn't have half the trouble he had expected--it was notgoing to be a riot. And when he called the meeting to order he waspleasanter and friendlier than Belle had ever before seen him.
"While I am calling this meeting to order, it is only in the widestpossible sense that I am its presiding officer, for we have as yet noorganization by the delegated authority of which any man or any womanhas any right to preside. Yesterday I ruled by force; simply because Iam stronger than any one of you or any pair of you. Today, in the lightof the developments of the last hour, that rule is done; except,perhaps, for one or two isolated and non-representative cases which maydevelop today. By this time tomorrow, I hope that we will be foreverdone with the law of claw and fang. For, as a much abler man hassaid--'To the really mature mind, the concept of status is completelyinvalid.'"
"_He's putting that as a direct quote, Alsyne, and it isn't._" Bellelanced the thought.
"_He thinks it is_," Alsyne flashed back. "_That is the way hismathematician's mind recorded it._"
"This meeting is informal, preliminary and exploratory. A meeting ofminds from which, we hope, a useful and workable organization can bedeveloped. Since you all know what we think it basically should be,there is no need to repeat it.
"I must now say something that a few of you will construe as a threat.You are all Prime Operators. Each pair of you is the highest developmentof a planet, perhaps of a solar system. You can learn if you will. Youcan cooperate if you will. Any couple here who refuses to learn, andhence to cooperate, will be returned to its native planet and will haveno further contact with this group.
"I now turn this meeting over to our first moderators, Alsyne and Thereaof Thaker; the oldest and ablest Prime Operators of us all."
"Thank you, Garlock of Tellus. One correction, however, if you please. Iwho speak am neither this man nor this woman standing here, but both. Iam the Prime Unit of Thaker. For brevity, and for the purposes of thismeeting only, I could be called simply 'Thaker.' Before calling forgeneral discussion I wish to call particular attention to two points,neither of which has been sufficiently emphasized.
"First, the purpose of a Prime Operator is to serve, not to rule. Thus,no Prime should be or will be 'boss' of anything, except possibly of hisown starship.
"Second, since we have no data we do not know what form the proposedGalactic Service will assume. One thing, however, is sure. Whateverpower of enforcement or of punishment it may have will derive, not fromits Primes, but from the fact that it will be an arm of the GalacticCouncil, which will be composed of Operators only. No Prime will beeligible for membership."
* * *
Thaker went on to explain how each pair could obtain instruction andassistance in many projects, including starships. How each pair would,when they were mature enough, be coached in the use of certain abilitiesthey did not as yet have. He suggested procedures and techniques to beemployed in the opening up of each pair's volume of space. He then askedfor questions and comments.
Semolo was the first. "If I'm a good little boy," he sneered, "and doexactly as I'm told, and take over the region you tell me to and not theone I want to, what assurance have I that some other Prime, just becausehe's a year older than I am, won't come along and take it away from me?"
"Your question is meaningless," Thaker replied. "Since you will not'take over,' or 'have,' or 'own,' any region, it cannot be 'taken awayfrom you.'"
"Then I will...." Semolo began.
"You will keep still!" came a clear, incisive thought, just as Garlockwas getting ready to intervene. Miss Mitala then switched from thought,which everyone there could understand, and launched a ten-second blastof furious speech. Semolo wilted and the girl went on in thought: "He'llbe good--or else."
A girl demanded recognition and got it. "Semolo's right. What's the useof being Primes if we can't get any good out of it? We're the strongestpeople of our respective worlds. I say we're bosses and should keep onbeing bosses."
Garlock got ready to shut her up, then paused; holding his fire.
"Ah, yes, friend Garlock, you are maturing fast," came Thaker's thoughtand, in answer to Garlock's surprise, it went on, "This situation will,I think, be self-adjusting; just as will be those in the as yetunexplored regions of spa
ce."
The girl kept on. "I, at least, am going to keep on bossing my ownplanet, milking it just as I...."
Her companion had been trying to crack her shield. Failing in that, hestepped in close and tapped her--solidly, but with carefully-measuredforce--behind the ear. Before she could fall, he 'ported her back upinto their quarters. "This happens all the time," he explained to thegroup at large. "Carry on."
Discussion went on, with less and less acrimony, all the rest of theday. And the next day, and the next. Then, argument having reached thepoint of diminishing returns, the three starships took the forty-sixcouples home.
* * *
The six Primes went into Evans' office, where the lawyer was deeplyengaged with Gerald Banks, the Galaxians' Public Relations Chief. Bankswas holding his head in both hands.
"Garlock, maybe _you_ can tell me," Banks demanded. "How much of thisstuff, if any, can I publish? And if so, _how_?"
"Nothing," Garlock said, flatly.
"What do you think, Thaker?" Belle asked. "You're smarter than we are."
"What Thaker thinks has no bearing," Garlock said.
Belle, Fao, and Delcamp all began to protest at once, but they weresilenced by Thaker himself.
"Garlock is right. My people are not your people; I know not at all howyour people think or what they will or will not believe. I go."
"That lets Deg and me out too; then, double-plus," Fao said with a grin,"so we'll leave that baby on your laps. We go, too."
"Well, little Miss Weisenheimer," Garlock smiled quizzically at Belle,"You grabbed the ball--what are you going to do with it?"
"Nothing, I guess...." Belle thought for a minute. "We couldn't stuffany part of that down the throat of a simple-minded six-year-old. Wehaven't really _got_ anything, anyway. Time enough, I think, when wehave six or seven hundred planets in each region, instead of only oneplanet. Maybe we'll know something by then. Does that make sense?"
"It does to me," Garlock said, and the others agreed.
"That Thakern 'we go' business sounds rough at first, but it'scontagious. Fao and Deggi caught it, and I feel like I'm coming downwith it myself. How about you, Clee?"
"We go," Belle and Garlock said in unison, and vanished.
* * *
Aboard the _Pleiades_, the next few days passed quietly enough. Jamesset up, in the starship's memory banks, a sequence to mass-produceinstruction tapes and blueprints. Garlock and Belle began systematicallyto explore the Tellurian Region. Now, however, their technique wasdifferent. If either Prime of any world was not enthusiastic about theproject--
"Very well. Think it over," they would say. "We will get in touch withyou again in about a year," and the starship would go on to the nextplanet.
On Earth, however, things became less and less tranquil with every daythat passed. For, in deciding not to publish anything, Garlock had notconsidered at all the basic function and the tremendous ability, power,and scope of _The Press_. And Galaxian Hall had never before been closedto the public; not for any hour of any day of any year of its existence.A non-profit organization, dependent upon the public for its tremendousincome, the Galaxian Society had always courted that public in everypossible ethical way.
Thus, in the first hour of closure, a bored reporter came out, read thesmoothly-phrased notice, and lepped it in to the desk. It might beworth, he thought, half an inch.
Later in the day, however, the world's most sensitive news-nose began toitch. Did, or did not, this quiet, unannounced closing smellever-so-slightly of cheese? Wherefore, Benjamin Bundy, the newscasterwho had covered the starship's maiden flight, went out himself to lookthe thing over. He found the whole field closed. Not only closed, butGunther-blocked impenetrably tight. He studied the announcement, hissixth sense--the born newsman's sense for news--probing every word.
"Regret ... research ... of such extreme delicacy ... vibration ...temperature control ... one one-hundredth of one degree Centigrade...."
He sought out his long-time acquaintance Banks; finding him in atemporary office half a block away from the Hall. "What's the story,Jerry?" he asked. "The _real_ story, I mean?"
"You know, as much about it as I do, Ben. Garlock and James don't wastetime trying to detail me on that kind of business, you know."
This should have satisfied any newshawk, but Bundy's nose still itched.He mulled things over for a minute, then probed, finding that he couldread nothing except Banks' outermost, most superficial thoughts.
"Well ... maybe ... but...." Then Bundy plunged. "All you have to do,Jerry, is tell me screens-half-down that your damn story is true."
"And that's the one thing I can't do," Banks admitted; and Bundy couldnot detect that any part of his sheepishness was feigned. "You're justtoo damned smart, Ben."
"Oh--one of _those_ things? So that's it?"
"Yup. I told Evans it might not work."
That should have satisfied the reporter, but it didn't. "Now it doesn'tsmell just a trifle cheesy; it stinks like rotten fish. You won't goscreens down on that one, either."
"No comment."
"Oh, joy!" Bundy exulted. "So big that Gerald Banks, the top press-agentof all time, actually doesn't _want_ publicity! The starship works--thislack-of-control stuff is the bunk--from here to another star in nothingflat--Garlock's back, and he's brought--what _have_ you got in there,Jerry?"
"The only way I can tell you is in confidence, for Evans' release. I'dlike to, Ben, believe me, but I can't."
"Confidence, hell! Do you think we won't get it?"
"In that case, no comment." The interview ended and the siege began.
* * *
Newshounds and detectives questioned and peered and probed. They duginto morgues, tabulating and classifying. They recalled and taped andsifted all the gossip they had heard. They got a picture of sorts, butit was maddeningly confusing and incomplete. And, since it was certainthat inter-systemic matters were involved, they could notextrapolate--any guess was far too apt to be wrong. Thus nothing went onthe air or appeared in print; and, although the surface remained calm,all newsdom seethed to its depths.
Wherefore haggard Banks and harried Evans greeted Garlock with shouts ofjoy when the four wanderers came back to spend the week end on Earth.
"I'll talk to 'em," Garlock decided, after the long story had been told."Have somebody get hold of Bundy and ask him to come out."
"Get _hold_ of him!" Banks snorted. "He's here. Twenty-four hours a day.Eating sandwiches and cat-napping on chairs in the lobby. All you haveto do is unseal that door."
Garlock flung the door wide. Bundy rushed in, followed by a more-or-lesssteady stream of some fifty other top-bracket newspeople, both men andwomen.
"Well, Garlock, perhaps _you_ will give us some screens-down facts?"Bundy asked, angrily.
"I'll give you _all_ the screens-down...."
"Clee!" "You're crazy!" "You can't!" "Don't!" Belle and all theOperators protested at once.
* * *
Ignoring the objections, Garlock cut his shield to half and gave thewhole group a true account of everything that had happened in thegalaxy. Then, while they were all too stunned to speak, a grin ofsaturnine amusement spread over his dark, five-o'clock-shadowed face.
"You pestiferous gnats insisted on grabbing the ball," he sneered. "Nowlet's see you run with it."
Bundy came out of his trance. "_What_ a story!" he yelled. "We'llplaster it...."
"Yeah," Garlock said, dryly. "_What_ a story. Exactly."
"Oh." Bundy deflated suddenly. "You'll have to prove it--demonstrateit--of course."
"Of course? You tickle me. Not only do I not have to prove it, I won't.I won't even confirm it."
Bundy glared at Garlock, then whirled on Banks. "If you don't give methis in shape to use, you'll never get another line or mentionanywhere!"
"Oh, no?" For the first time in his professional life Banks gloated,openly a
nd avidly. "From now on, my friend, who is in the saddle? Who isgoing to come to whom? Oh, _brother_!"
When the fuming newsmen had gone, Garlock said, "It'll leak, of course."
"Of course," Banks agreed. "'It is rumored ...' 'from a usually reliablesource ...' and so on. Nothing definite, but each one of them will wantto put out the first and biggest."
"That's what I figured. It'll have to break sometime and I thoughteasing it out would be best ... but wait a minute...." he thought fortwo solid minutes. "But we're going to need a lot of money, and we'rejust about broke, aren't we?" This thought was addressed to Frank Macey,the Galaxians' treasurer.
"Worse than broke--much worse."
"I could loan you a couple of credits, Frank," Belle said, brightly."But go ahead, Clee."
"People like to be sidewalk superintendents. Suppose they could watchthe construction of an outpost so far away that nobody ever dreamed ofever getting there. Could you do anything with that, Jerry?"
"_Could I! Just!_" and Banks, went into a rhapsody.
"That's the first good idea any one of you crackpots has had for fiveyears," Macey said, suddenly. "But wouldn't transportation of materialand so on present problems?"
"No; just buying it," Garlock said, soberly. "Oh, rather, paying forit."
"No trouble there...."
"What?" Belle exclaimed. "'No trouble,' it says here in fine print? Howthe old skinflint has changed--instead of screaming his head off aboutspending money he's actually _offering_ to. Frank, I'll loan you _three_credits!"
"Hush, honey-chile, the men-folks are talking man-business. Look, Clee.We'll use the _Pleiades_ at first, while we're building a regulartransport. A hundred passengers per trip, one thousand credits oneway...."
"Wow!" Belle put in. "Our ex-skinflint is now a bare-faced,legally-protected robber."
"By no means, Belle," Evans said. "How much would that be per mile?"
"Say ten round trips per day. That would be twenty million a day grossfor a small ship not intended for passenger service. When we get shipsbuilt ... and the extras...." The money-man went into a financial revelof his own.
"Lots of extras," Banks agreed. "And oh, _brother_, what apublic-relations dream of heaven!"
"Maybe I'm dumb," Garlock broke in, "but just what are you going to usefor money to get started?"
"The minute we confirm any part of the story, the credit of the GalaxianSociety will jump from X-O to AA-A1."
"Oh. So Belle and I will have to lose our _Pleiades_ for a while. Idon't like that, but we do need the money ... but we can have her forthis coming week?"
"Of course."
"So maybe we'd better break the story now, instead of letting it leak."
"Can you, after what you just told them?"
"Sure I can." He set his mind and searched. "Bundy, this is Garlock...."
"So what am I supposed to do--burst into tears of joy?"
"Save it. I changed my mind. You can break it as fast and as hard as youlike. I'll play along."
* * *
"Yeah? Why the switch? What's the angle?"
"Strictly commercial. Get it from Banks."
"And you'll--personally--go on my hour with it?"
"Yes. Also, we'll demonstrate--take you to any star-system in thegalaxy. You and all the rest of the newshawks who were here and anyfifty VIP's you want to invite. Tomorrow morning all right with you?"
"You, personally, in the _Pleiades_?" Bundy insisted.
"Better than that. The other two starships, too. You've gotthem--particularly those four Primes--clearly in mind?"
"Not exactly, there was so much of it. Spread it on me now, huh?"Garlock did so. "Thanks, pal, for the scoop. I'll crash it right now,and follow up with Banks. 'Bye!"
"Think you can deliver on that, Clee?" Banks asked.
"Sure. Both Deggi and Alsyne will need a lot of extra money, fast.They'll play along."
They did; and that three-starship tour--which visited twenty solarsystems instead of one--was the most sensational thing old Earth hadever spawned.
Belle and Garlock did not spend that week end on Earth. "We go," theysaid, as soon as the _Pleiades_ was empty of pressmen, and they tookJames and Lola along. "If we _never_ see another such brawl as this isgoing to be," Belle told Banks, who was basking in glory and entreatingthem to stay on for the show, "it will be exactly twenty minutes toosoon."
Thus it came about that Earth's first four deep-spacemen were completelyout of reach when unexpected developments began.
* * *
Alonzo P. Ferber was one of the VIP's on Bundy's personally-conductedtour of the stars. As has been said, he was a very able executive. Hehad an extremely keen profit-sense. This new thing smelled--simplyreeked--of money. SSE would _have_ to get in on it.
Ferber was not thin-skinned; where money was concerned it would nevereven occur to him to cherish grudges or to retain animosities. WhereforeSSE's purchasing department suggested to the Galaxian Society thatnegotiations be opened concerning licenses, franchises, royalties, andso on. These suggestions were politely but firmly brushed off. Thenemissaries were sent, of ever-increasing caliber and weight. Next,Ferber himself tried the tri-di; and finally, he came in person.
Rebuffed, he made such legally-sound threats that Evans and Macey agreedto a meeting; stating flatly, however, that no commitments couldpossibly be made without the knowledge and approval of the Society'spresident, Cleander Garlock. Thus, at the meeting, the Galaxians madeonly two statements that were even approximately definite. One was thatGarlock would probably return to Earth during the afternoon or eveningof the following Friday; the other that they would take the matter upwith Garlock as soon as they could.
After that meeting Macey was unperturbed, but Evans was a deeply worriedman.
"You see," he explained, "the real crux was not even mentioned."
"No? What is it, then?"
"Operators, Primes, and the practically non-existent laws pertaining totheir ... what? Labor? Skill? Genius? For instance, could Garlock beforced to do whatever it is that he does? On the other hand, if Ferberoffered Belle Bellamy five million credits a year to 'work' for SSE, isthere anything we could do about it?"
"Oh. I thought all there was to it was that you'd delay 'em for a yearor so and that'd be it."
"Far from it. To date I have listed fifty-eight points for which, as faras we can learn, there are no precedents," and the lawyer called ameeting of his staff.
For Belle and Garlock, the week went fast. On Friday afternoon, highabove Earth's Galaxian Field, Garlock said, more than half regretfully,"No more fun. Back to the desk. Back to the salt-mines."
"I weep for you," Belle snickered. "Sob, sob. Shed him a tear, Lola."
"One tear coming up. Oh, woe; oh, woe...."
"Oh, whoa!" James snorted. "Why the sob-and-moan routine, Clee, from aguy who's going to be monarch of all he surveys?"
"His conscience aches him," Belle explained. "This monarching businessis tough if you haven't thought about how to monarch, and he hasn't.Have you, Clee?"
"Not a lick." Garlock smiled slightly. "I been busy."
"You better start to," she advised, darkly. "You aren't busy now and wehave an hour. We better confer--I'll make like a slave-driver."
They 'ported into his room and he set the blocks. His attitude changedinstantly. "Nice act, Belle. What was it all about?"
"That theory of yours. Your predictions are too uncannily accurate to beguesswork, and the more times you dead-center the bullseye the worsescared I get. I really want to know, Clee."
"Okay. It isn't complete--I need a lot more data--but I'll show you whatI have. It's fairly strong medicine and it comes in big chunks."
"It would have to--it covers the whole macrocosmic universe, doesn'tit?"
"Yes. I'll start with the striking fact that, on every out-galaxy planetwe visited, the human beings were _Homo sapiens_ to N decimal places.Fertile with each other an
d, according to expert testimony, with us. Allplanets had humanoid 'guardians,' the Arpalones and Arpales. Some, butnot all, had one or more non-human, more-or-less-intelligent races, suchas the Fumapties, the Lemarts, the Sencors, and so on. These other racesnever seemed to fight each other, but both races of Guardians fought anyand all of them, on sight and to the death. What do those facts mean toyou?"
* * *
"Nothing beyond face value. I've thought about them but I haven't beenable to come up with anything."
"I have." He unrolled a sheet of drafting paper covered with diagrams,symbols, and equations. "But before I go into this stuff, consider thehuman body. How many red cells are there in your blood stream?"
"Billions, I suppose."
"And there are billions of human beings on billions of planets; eachhaving red blood cells identical, as far as we know, with yours andmine. Also white cells. Also, sometimes, various kinds of pathogenicmicro-organisms, such as staphs, streps, viruses, spiros, and so on.
"Okay. My thought is that the Lemarts, Ozobes, and the like areanalogous to disease-producing organisms. We saw the full range ofeffects--from none at all up to death itself."
"But they--the Ozobes and so on--died, too."
* * *
"How long do disease germs live in a human body after they've killedit?"
"But that horrible Dilipic--the golop. They don't seem to fit."
"Try that on for size as cancer. Also, the Arpalones typed us beforethey'd let us land on any planet. Why didn't we blast them out of theway and land anyway?"
"Why, we didn't want to. It wasn't worth while."
"We couldn't. Psychic block. And if we had, we would have died.Different blood-types don't mix."
"So you and I are merely two red cells in the bloodstream of asuper-dooper-galactic super-monster? Phooie!" she jeered. "That chestnutwas propounded a thousand years ago. Are you trying to take me for aride on _that_ old sawhorse?"
"That's the attitude I had at first. So now we're ready for the chart."He pointed to a group of symbols. "We start with symbolic logic;manipulating like so to get this." There was a long mathematicaldissertation; a mind-to-mind, rigorous, point-by-point proof.
"Q. E. D." Garlock concluded.
"I see your math, and if I believed half of it I'd be scared witless.Those few pieces fit, but they're scattered around in vast areas ofblankness and you're jumping around like the Swiss miss leaping from Alpto Alp. And how about our own galaxy, the most important piece of all?It's different, and we're different, mentally. That wrecks your wholetheory."
"No. I told you I need a lot more data. Also, beyond a certain point theanalogy appears to get looser."
"_Appears_ to! It's as loose as a goose!"
"Think a minute. Is it actually loose, or are we getting up intoconcepts that no human mind can grasp? That might be the case, youknow."
"Oh.... You're quite a salesman, Clee, but I'm still not buying."
"Our galaxy is a bit of specialized tissue--part of a ganglion, maybe.Over here, see? I'll have to leave it dangling until we find some morelike it."
"I see. But anyway, you haven't a tenth's worth of real material on thatwhole sheet. Feed everything you have there into a computer and it'djust laugh at you."
"Sure it would. The great advantage of the human brain is its ability toarrive at valid conclusions from incomplete data. For instance, whatwould your computer do with the figures you shot at me the day westarted out? 'Thirty-nine, twenty-two, thirty-nine. Five seven. Onethirty-five.' Yet they're completely informative."
"To anyone interested in that kind of figures, yes."
"Which includes practically all adults. Then take the figure three pointone four one five nine. Compy would still be baffled; but, unlike thefirst set, most people would be, too."
"Yes. Perhaps two out of ten would get your message."
"Now take something really new, like the original work on gravitation orrelativity. No possible computer would be of any use. That takes a_brain_!"
"The brain of a Newton or an Einstein, yes." Belle thought for a minute,then grinned at him impishly. "Now watch the brain of a Bellamy perform.Get into high gear, brain.... I wish I knew something about biochemicalembryology; but I read somewhere that ova are sterile, so our galaxy isan ovum. Therefore our super-galooper is a gal--which incontrovertiblefact accounts for and explains rigorously the long-known truth thatwomen always have been, are now, and always will be vastly superior tomen in every quality, aspect, and...."
"Hold it!" Garlock snapped. His face hardened into intenseconcentration. Then: "Do you think you're kidding, Belle?"
"Why, of _course_ I'm kidding, you big...."
"Look here, then." He picked up a pencil and filled in blank after blankafter blank. "I'm making one unjustifiable assumption--that the_Pleiades_ is the first intergalactic starship. The super-being is afemale, and she is just becoming pregnant...."
"Flapdoodle! There are no blood cells in a sperm, and I don't thinkthere are any in an ovum."
"I didn't mention either sperm or ovum. The analogy is so loose herethat it holds only in the broadest, most general terms. The actualprocess of reproduction is unknowable. But wherever we went, we changedthings. Not only by what we actually did, but also as acatalyst--no...."
"No, not a catalyst. A hormone."
"Exactly. Each of these changes would cause others, and so on. Aninfinite series. Calling the first three terms alpha, beta, and gamma,we operate like this...." Garlock's pencil was flying now. "Followingme?"
"On your tail." Belle was breathing hard; as the blank spaces becamefewer and fewer her face began to turn white.
"From this we get that ... and _that_ makes the whole bracket tie intothe same conclusion I had before. So, except for that one assumption,it's solid."
* * *
"My Lord, Clee!" Belle studied the chart. "I mentioned Newton andEinstein ... add to that 'the brain of a Garlock, better than either.'"Then, seeing his reaction, "You're blushing. I didn't think...."
"Cut the comedy. You know I couldn't carry either of their hats to adog-fight."
"And I would _never_ have believed that you are basically modest."
"I said cut out the kidding, Belle."
"I'm deadly serious. A brain that could do _that_," she waved at thechart, "... well, even I am not enough of a heel to belittle one of themost tremendous intuitions ever achieved by man. Not that I like it.It's horrible. It denies mankind everything that made him come up fromthe slime--everything that made him man."
* * *
"Not at all. Nothing is changed, in man's own frame of reference. Itmerely takes our thinking one step farther. That step, of course, isn'teasy."
"_That_ is the understatement of all time. What it will _do_, though, isset up an inferiority complex that would wipe out the whole human race."
"There might be some slight tendency. Also, since my basic assumptioncan't be justified, the whole thing may be fallacious. So I'm not goingto publish it." He glanced at the chart and it vanished.
"Clee!" Belle stared, almost goggle-eyed. "With your name? Thetremendous splash ... I see. You're really grown up."
"Not all the way, probably; but pretty nearly--I hope."
"But some of the ... not exactly corollaries, but...." Belle's face,which had regained some of its color, began again to pale.
"Which one of the many?"
"The most shattering one, to me, concerns intelligence. If it is truethat our vaunted mentality is only that of one blood cell compared tothat of a whole brain ... and that intelligence is banked, level uponlevel ... well, it's simply mind-wrecking. I've been trying madly not tothink of that concept, at all, but I can't put it off much longer."
"Now's as good a time as any. I'll hold your hand."
"You'd better hold more of me than that, I think."
"I'll do even that, in a good cause." He p
ut his arms around her; heldher close. "Go ahead. Face it. All the way down and all the way up.You've got what it takes. You'll come back sane and it'll never botheryou again."
She closed her eyes, put her head on his shoulder. Her every muscle wenttense.
Neither of them ever knew how long they stood there, close-clasped andmotionless in silence; but finally her muscles loosened. She lifted herhead; raised her brimming eyes.
"All the way down?" he asked.
"To almost a geometrical point."
"And all the way up?"
"I touched the fringe of infinity."
"Intelligence all the way?"
"All the way. I couldn't understand any of them, of course, but I lookedeach one squarely in the eye."
"Good girl. And you're still sane."
"As much so as ever ... more so, maybe." She disengaged herself, satdown on the bed, lighted a cigarette, and smoked half of it. Then shestood up. "Clee, if anything in the whole universe ever knocked hell outof anything, that did out of me. I'm going to do something that willtake about ten minutes. Will you wait right here?"
"Of course. Take all the time you want."
* * *
When she came back Garlock leaped to his feet and stared speechlessly.He could not even whistle. Belle's hair was now its natural deep, richchestnut, her lipstick was red, her nails were bare, and she wore awhite shirt and an almost-knee-length crimson skirt.
"Here's what I'm going to do," she said, quietly. "I'm going to be aplain, ordinary brownette. I'm going to marry you as soon as we land;registered permanent family. I'm going to have six kids and spoil themrotten. In short, I have grown up--partly up, at least--too."
"Plain?" he managed, finally. "Ordinary? You? Yes--like a super-novagoing off under a man's feet!" With a visible effort, Garlock pulledhimself together. "I don't need to tell you what a surprise this is, andcan't tell you what it means to me. But you never have said you love me.Hadn't you better?"
"I'm afraid to. Our next kiss will be different. I'd spoil all this nicenew make-up." She tried to grin in her old-time fashion, but failed. Shesobered, then, and went on with a completely new intensity. "Listen,Clee. I'm all done--forever--lying and pretending to you. I love you somuch that ... well, there simply aren't any thoughts. And when I thinkof how I acted, it hurts--Lord, how it hurts! I don't see how you canlove me at all. It'd take a miracle."
"Miracles happen, then." He put both arms around her, very gently. "Forthe first time in my life I'm cutting my screens to zero. Come in."
"What?" For a moment she was unable to believe the thought. Then,cutting her own shield, she went fully into his mind. "Oh, I didn't darehope you could _possibly_ feel.... Oh, this is wonderful, Clee--simply_wonderful_!"
As the two fully-opened minds met and joined she threw both arms aroundhim and their embrace tightened as though their bodies were trying tobecome as nearly one as were their minds. Finally she pulled herselfaway and put up a solid block.
"What a mess!" she said, shakily. "Lipstick all _over_ you."
"Why words, sweetheart? That was perfect."
"Oh, it was ... but wide open, with such a mind as yours...." shepaused, then came back to normal almost with a snap. "... but say; I'llbet that's what Therea and Alsyne were doing. That 'fusion' thing. We'llpractise it tonight."
He pondered briefly. "Sure it was."
"But he said they learned it from us. How could he have, when we.... Oh,we did, of course, in moments of high stress ... but we didn't actually_know_ it...." She paused.
"We wouldn't admit it, you mean, even to ourselves."
"Maybe; and of course it never occurred to us--callow youngsters we werethen, weren't we?--that it could be done for more than a microsecond ata time. Or that two people could ever, possibly, _live_ that way."
"Or what a life it would be. So let's chop this and get back to you andme."
"Uh-huh, let's," she agreed, but in a severely practical tone. "You'vegot lipstick even on your shirt. So change it and I'll go put on a newface and bring over some stuff and clean you up."
While she cleaned, she talked. "I told you our next kiss would bedifferent, but I had no idea ... wow! _That_ will be as much different,too, I'm sure.... Hm-h-h-nh?" Again she pressed herself against him;this time in a somewhat different fashion.
"Stop that, you little devil, or I'll...." His arms came up ofthemselves, but he forced them back down. "... No, I won't. We'll savethat for tonight, too."
"I'll behave myself!" She laughed, pure joy in voice, eyes, and smile."I bet myself you wouldn't and I won! You're tall, solid gold, Cleedarling--the absolute top."
"Thanks, sweetheart. I wish that were true," he said, soberly. "But Ican't help wondering if two such hellions as you and I are can make a goof marriage--no, cancel that. We'll do it--all we have to figure out ishow."
"I know what you mean. Not at first--it'll be purely wonderful then.After five years, say, when the glamor has worn off and I've had threeof our six children and two of them are in bed with the epizootic andI'm all frazzled out and you're strung up tight as a bowstring withoverwork and...."
"Hold it! Uh-uh. No. If we can live together six months--or even sixweeks--without killing each other, we'll have it made. It's at firstthat it'll be rugged. No matter how rugged it gets, though, we'll knowone thing for certain sure. We _couldn't_ live apart. That'll give usenough leverage. Check?"
"And double check." She giggled sunnily. "I'll take care of any and allsituations, whatever they are, that arise in the first six months.You'll be responsible for the next sixty years. That's a perfectly fairand equitable division of responsibility. Now kiss me and we'll go."
* * *
When Garlock cut the Gunther blocks, however, James' thought cameinstantly in. "Been trying to get you for twenty minutes," and in acouple of seconds he brought Garlock and Belle up to date. "So Fatso'sbeen waiting in Evans' office. He's throwing fits all over the place andEvans and Macey are going quietly mad."
"He'll have to wait," Garlock decided instantly. "No matter how manyfits he has, no such decision is going to be made until there's enoughof a Galactic Council to make it."
"Well, you'll have to tell him that yourself. In person."
"I'll do just that, and tell him so he'll stay told."
"Okay, but shake a...."
Belle and Garlock 'ported out into the Main, arms around each other likea couple of college freshmen.
"... leg-g--ug--gug...." James gurgled.
"_Belle!_" Lola shrieked. "_Why--Belle--Bellamy!_"
"_What_ goes _on_ here?" James demanded.
"Nothing much," Garlock replied, although he blushed almost as deeply asBelle did. "We just decided to quit fighting, is all. Cut the rope,Junior, and let the old bucket drop."
THE END