Operation Omina

by Roland Starr

  “The main control room is on the other side, Captain,” he said.

  “Good work, Mellon.” Vonner glanced at Curran. “Ready, Philo?”

  “As ready as I shall ever be, Skipper,” the big man replied, and grinned confidently. “Open the door, Mellon, and let me at them.”

  “Don’t shoot unless you have to,” Vonner warned. “The less trouble there is, the better.”

  “I know how to handle it.” Curran checked the stun-gun. “I’ll give them a ten-minute knockout if I have to use it.”

  Mellon watched Vonner’s face, and operated the door mechanism when Vonner nodded. But nothing happened, and Curran was trembling with eagerness, leaning forward, standing on the balls of his feet.

  “The door won’t budge,” Mellon reported. He jammed his thumb against the button again and again with no response, and Curran started cursing to himself.

  “The power is on again,” Vonner said. “What’s the trouble, Mellon?”

  “I can’t tell, Captain! It could be anything. But my guess is that Bardo is aware of the inspection tunnels, and he’s activated a defensive screen around the control room.”

  “So what can we do?” Vonner showed his teeth in a mirthless grin as he pondered.

  “We won’t get through this or any other door,” Mellon said. “There’s nothing we can do right now.”

  “And the screen continues to operate even when the main power is cut,” Vonner mused. “It seems that Bardo is one jump ahead of us.”

  “What are we gonna do, Captain?” Curran demanded.

  “We’ll have to forget Bardo for a bit and try to round up all those mutineers who are not in the flight control room. We’ve got to find some loyal men and arm them, Philo.”

  “Well, we won’t accomplish anything here,” Curran retorted. “Put us in the main corridor, Mellon, and we’ll take it as it comes.”

  “Let’s get into the sick bay first,” Vonner said. “If you can make certain that the brainwasher still operates, we can push all our prisoners through it. When they’ve been reprocessed, they’ll be beyond Bardo’s influence.”

  Mellon turned instantly and began to retrace his steps, and eventually they paused in another part of the tunnel. This time the door operated, and Curran leaped into Dr. Morley’s private office. Vonner, following closely, saw that the office was empty, and there was an indefinable pang in his chest as they went on. Curran jerked open a door that opened into the sick bay office; there were half a dozen men present, with two guards standing by the door giving access to the main corridor. Curran was across the room in half a dozen strides, closing on the two guards and catching them unawares. They surrendered without trouble, and Vonner felt easier when Curran passed him one of the captured stun-guns. The men in the room proved to be prisoners who had tried to resist the mutineers, and Vonner soon took command.

  “We’ve got to arm these men, Philo,” he said. “You’ll have to take over the security block and capture the arms store. We’ll go right through the ship and take over. When we’ve accomplished that, we can concentrate on Bardo.” He looked around at the assembled men. “Anyone here knows where the doc is?” he demanded.

  “Bardo had her taken into the flight control room, Captain,” someone said, and Vonner thinned his lips as he tried to fathom what was happening in his mind. He was unusually concerned about the doctor, but didn’t know why.

  “I want to see the nurses,” Vonner said. “They were confined to their quarters. We’ve got to get the brainwasher working again. Keep an eye on the two prisoners until we know what we can do with them.”

  He sent Mellon back to the engine room with a message for Wayland. They were to maintain pressure on Bardo. He gave the chief a free hand, knowing that Wayland would know a thing or two about using his power to create discomfort for those in the control room. Then he went to find a nurse who could handle the brainwasher, remembering that the superintendent of nurses had given Bardo access to the re-processing room. He discovered that the superintendent was in the main control room with Bardo, but found someone who knew about the brainwasher. Two of the captured guards were processed, and Vonner was satisfied that the machine was still in working order. The guards became amenable, and were in the forefront of the surge of men Curran led to liberate and recapture the ship.

  Vonner made his headquarters in the sick bay, and prisoners were soon streaming in under guard to be reprocessed. In an hour most of the ship was back under Vonner’s lawful command, with the notable exceptions of the communicators’ center and the flight control room. Bardo had the two most important departments under his control, and Vonner could find no way to dislodge the mutineers. Then Vonner received a message that Bardo was threatening to smash the flight computer unless there was a truce for bargaining, and Vonner reluctantly agreed to withhold his plans and talk.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Vonner returned to the engine control room to find a state of tension existing. Farrell was beside himself with worry, and as soon as Vonner appeared, the communications officer started talking about the emergency message that had come through earlier.

  “Howie,” Vonner told him, “I’ve taken back most of the ship, but we can’t get into your department or at Bardo. I’m here now to try to work something out. There’s only a handful of men with Bardo in the control room, and half a dozen of them in your place. Bardo has surrounded the area with a force field that even the atomic disintegrator can’t touch. I’m as worried as you about that emergency signal, but we can’t do anything about it yet.”

  “We can throw another screen around the one Bardo set up,” Dalus Wayland said. “We can’t get in, but we can prevent them from getting out. I don’t know if they’ve taken food and water in with them, but if they haven’t, then we can force them to submit.”

  “But that will take days,” Vonner said. “In less than five days now we have to swing into orbit around Omina. We’ve got to regain control immediately.”

  “Got any ideas, Skipper?” Wayland demanded. “I’ve exhausted my mind. As far as I can tell, there’s nothing we can do either to get into the control room or get them out. Bardo has set into operation the remote control gear. It was designed for just such a situation as we have facing us. They’re drawing emergency power straight from the engines themselves. We daren’t shut down the main drive if we’re to maintain our planned course, and even if we did, they would still generate enough power to stay where they are.”

  “Can’t you rig up some kind of an emergency cut-out, Chief?” Vonner demanded. “There must be something you can do. We can’t let Bardo command the ship much longer.”

  “He wants to talk to you, Captain,” Aaron Marr reported.

  Vonner nodded and went to the desk. He sat down heavily, and waited for a few moments to compose his mind. Then he opened the line to the control room, and Bardo spoke to him.

  “Ed, you don’t have a chance now,” Vonner said with more confidence than he felt. “I’ve regained control of the rest of the ship, and the entire crew have been reprocessed.”

  “You might have the body, but I have the brain under my control, Captain,” Bardo replied exultingly. “I’m giving you one last chance to surrender to me. You’ve got five minutes. I’m timing you as of now. In five minutes I’m smashing the flight computer. That’s all I’ve got to say to you.”

  “Don’t be too impatient, Ed!” Vonner retorted sharply. “Just listen to me for a minute. You won’t do any damage to the ship, because you’re scared to die out here in space. That’s the reason you organized this mutiny in the first place, isn’t it? You said you thought I was going to kill us all by following orders which you decided were wrong. So you’re scared to die, Ed. Now let’s get down to brass tacks. Farrell received an emergency signal just before your men attacked him. We can’t get back into the communications room to decode it and act upon its information. It may even now be too late to take the necessary steps, but if you don’t want to die out here then you’ll le
t me know the contents of that signal.”

  “Nothing doing, Captain. You can’t bluff me. No doubt you’re wondering how I’m managing to be two jumps ahead of you all the time. I know you tried to get in here through the inspection tunnel. But you couldn’t make it, and you haven’t the power anywhere on the ship to get at me. I know all this because I processed myself with your cassette. I know how you react and what you would do in any situation. As soon as you plan a move, I know about it.”

  “If the brainwasher works like that, then you ought to know what’s troubling me now, Ed,” Vonner retorted thinly. “You are as concerned about the safety of the ship as I. You know I’m telling the truth when I say we all stand a very good chance of dying out here if you don’t surrender. I can’t give in to you. I have my duty to do, even if it does mean the end of the ship.”

  “I’m already working on the flight computer, Captain,” Bardo said. “I’m giving it new orders. We’ll be turning soon to follow a home course. We’re going back to Earth.”

  “And what will happen when we reach there, Ed?” Vonner demanded gently. “This is a spaceship, remember. You can’t go down through Earth’s atmosphere. You’ll have to take me into the orbit base, and there you will be arrested.” Vonner paused and shrugged. “This is, if you ever find your way back to within a billion miles of Earth.”

  “I can do it, and I shan’t get caught.” There was a dogged note in Bardo’s voice, and Vonner felt a wave of weariness assail him. “I’d rather take this slim chance than run the risks you would subject us to by going into orbit around Omina.”

  “Let’s get together and talk this over, Ed,” Vonner suggested.

  “Where?”

  “I’ll come up to you.” Vonner was unemotional. He knew what was at stake, but it didn’t worry him. He had to concentrate upon his duty, even if it cost him his life.

  “I’m not killing my screens for anything,” Bardo said. “I can’t trust you, Captain. You’re not in possession of your entire mind, like me. You can’t see danger. You’ve been conditioned to this situation, and you know nothing else. But me, I’m back to normal. I can reason things out for myself.”

  “You’re crazy, Ed, space-crazy. You don’t know what you’re saying! One man cannot run this ship. We’ve put a counter-screen around you. Drop your screen, and you’ll come up against ours. You can’t get out. I’ll starve you into submission if I have to.”

  “You don’t have the time.” Bardo laughed crazily. “In less than three hours, we’ll be heading back the way we came.”

  “You forget that I’m in control of the engines, Ed. I’ll cut our speed to a million miles an hour, and we’ll never get back to Earth in your lifetime.”

  “You won’t do that.” There was a crazy confidence in Bardo’s voice. “You wouldn’t condemn yourself and this ship to space. You’d rather get back to Earth without accomplishing your mission than not get back at all.”

  “We aren’t getting anywhere, Ed.” Vonner reached out to cut the line, but Bardo warned him to wait.

  “I’ve been pointing out to you that I hold all the advantages, Captain. You think it is stalemate, but I have hostages here, and unless you agree to do what I want, then I shall kill my prisoners, commencing with Dr. Morley.”

  “You wouldn’t do anything so foolish, Ed,” Vonner said patiently.

  “Don’t try me, Captain.”

  Vonner tightened his lips.

  “Ed, if you harm any of those prisoners, I’ll have you buried in space alive.”

  Bardo laughed frenziedly. “You’ve got five minutes to surrender to me, Captain,” he said, and closed the line.

  “You can’t trust him, Captain,” Wayland said. “He’s crazy.”

  “Dalus, there isn’t anything else I can do,” Vonner retorted tiredly. The space pallor in his face made him look a lot older than his thirty-five years, and he shook his head as if the problems were too much for him. “You heard what he said. He’s holding all the big cards. We can’t get at him, and we don’t have the time to wait it out. He’s going to smash the ship and kill us all if we don’t get at him.”

  “You just said we can’t get at him,” Farrell said worriedly.

  “We can’t while we’re trying to fight him,” Vonner said, and there was sudden decision in his tone. “But there is one way we can achieve a slim chance.”

  “And what’s that?” Aaron Marr demanded.

  “Do as he says and surrender to him.” Worry showed in the deep lines around Vonner’s eyes. He spoke through his teeth. “That way we’ll get close to him, and we’ll have to watch our chances.”

  “It’s too much of a gamble,” Farrell said worriedly. “In this present mood, he may kill us all.”

  “Not if he thinks that one or more of you is prepared to go along with him,” Vonner ventured. He was deadly serious, his dark eyes narrowed. “This way, we’ve got no chance at all. Time is the operative factor. “We don’t have time. So one of you grab a stun-gun and arrest me. Put me out with a dose of energy; then call up Bardo and tell him what you’ve done. Hand me to him on a platter, and he’ll come out from behind his screens. It’s the only chance we have.”

  “I agree with you,” a voice said from the doorway.

  Vonner looked across to see big Philo Curran standing there, a stun-gun in his hand; the security man was nodding slowly.

  “I’m the best man for the job, Captain,” he said. “I’ll get close to Bardo and put him out. Are you ready?”

  Before Vonner could say anything more, Curran shot him with the stun-gun. Vonner opened his mouth to call out, but the bolt of energy bludgeoned him instantly, and he didn’t even have the sensation of falling to the steel floor. Blackness more dense than deepest space enveloped him, and his mind blanked out …

  In ten short minutes Vonner recovered his senses, to find himself back in one of the cells, and this time his electronic key was missing. He sat up slowly, waiting for the shock of the energy bolt to leave him, and by degrees his mind became clearer and he felt easier.

  Finally, the door of the cell opened and a guard appeared, carrying a stun-gun. Vonner got to his feet without a word and was escorted out. They went along to the sick bay, and when they entered the reprocessing chamber Vonner felt alarmed. But Dr. Morley was there, and so were Bardo and several other men, mostly guards. Vonner tensed when he saw that the guards was carrying lethal Othic ray guns, but his eyes went to Dr. Morley’s face and stayed there.

  “Captain, I’m glad you came to your senses,” Bardo said, coming forward. “I’ve assumed complete command of the ship, and the entire crew is working satisfactorily. I can trust them all now because they recognize that I am the only man able to save them. But I need your help. I cannot trust you, your mental outlook being what it is, so I am going to conduct a little experiment. You are going to be reprocessed, but in reverse. If I take all your technical knowledge away from you, I can safely leave you in the cells.”

  “Don’t be a fool, Ed,” Vonner told him angrily. “You’ve gone as far as you can. I’ve submitted to you because it was the only way to save the ship, but you had better do some straight thinking before you go any further.”

  “You’re wasting my time. I have a tremendous amount of work to do. Sit down in the chair and let the reverse processing begin.” Bardo glanced toward the doctor. “Don’t try to cross me up, Doc, or you’ll never live to try again. Give him the full processing treatment in reverse.”

  Vonner wanted to resist, but he didn’t have much chance with the watchful guards about him, and Bardo took care to remain out of arm’s reach. Max was made to sit down in the seat, and Dr. Morley came close to connect him to the machine. There was the usual tingling sensation at the back of his neck, and pleasant little thrills touched his spine. He kept his eyes on the doctor, and slowly his awareness changed. His alertness vanished, and all thoughts of duty disappeared. His mind emptied completely, then refilled with details of his past life, before Earth blast-
off.

  Dr. Morley, watching his face intently, saw love dawn in his dark eyes, and knew the process was completed. She switched off the machine and came to release him.

  “Adah!” Vonner got to his feet and put his arms around her. He turned to face Bardo when the man laughed.

  “Now you’re a whole man again, Captain,” Bardo said. “You will find your mind becoming filled with the terrors of space when you’ve had a chance to think it all out. You’re no longer a threat to me. You’re deeply in love with our doctor, and that emotion should keep you fully occupied. I’m having the cassettes of all the crewmen amended. By the time I’m finished, they’ll all be slaves to me.”

  Vonner made no reply. He slid his arm around Adah’s waist and turned to her. Bardo watched for a moment, then turned and left, followed by his guards. He didn’t even leave a guard on Vonner.

  Dr. Morley returned the cassette to its file, and Vonner stayed beside her. When she turned, he put his arms around her.

  “It seems such a long time since we were last together,” he told her.

  “It’s seemed longer to me,” she commented. “At any other time I would have enjoyed this interlude. However, the whole fate of the ship is in your hands, and I’ve got to get you back to normal.”

  “Normal?” he said. “But I am normal. I feel normal.”

  “Normal for a man, yes.” She smiled sadly. “But I mean normal for a spaceship captain. I daren’t give you another dose of processing to neutralize that reverse procedure that was just carried out on you. The shock would kill you, or render you completely witless. Commander Bardo certainly knew what he was about. But he did make one mistake, and I’ve taken advantage of it. He started this whole business by sabotaging the machine, and I did almost the same thing but with a great deal more simplicity. I loosened one of the terminals. You didn’t get full strength on the reverse processing, Max, and in about three hours you’ll be just as you were before. I hope it won’t be too late for you to deal with Bardo then. He’s having trouble with his plans, although he doesn’t know it yet. Your fellow officers are just waiting for their chance to jump him, but with those processed guards around him with those lethal ray guns, no one dares take any kind of a chance.”