Operation Omina

by Roland Starr

  “Captain!” Bardo came to his feet quickly and reached out to grab Vonner by the shoulders. “You’ve got to stop this mad attempt to land on Omina! You should have left me in charge of the ship when I had control. We’d have been well on our way back to safety by now.”

  “Ed, take a hold on yourself,” Vonner commanded, and thrust Bardo backwards to sit upon the bed. Bardo stared up at him, his face showing some of the stresses acting in his mind. “You’re not under the power of the brainwasher!” Vonner was realizing what Bardo had said. “You remember the mutiny again, Ed.”

  “I remember!” Bardo’s face was sullen. “I can’t make you understand what’s happening, Captain. You’re going to rue the day you didn’t listen to me.”

  “Why, Ed? I’m willing to listen to you now.” Vonner moved to a seat and dropped heavily into it. He leaned forward and fixed his subordinate with a steady gaze. “Tell me just what is on your mind, Ed,” he encouraged.

  “You think I’m suffering from space madness, Captain.” Bardo shook his head. “I’d only be wasting my breath. No matter what I say now, you’re going into orbit around Omina, and you’re going to land.”

  “That’s right, Ed! I’m only sorry that you won’t be there with me. But I’ve got to keep you confined. On the return trip to Earth, we’ll try to find out what’s wrong with the brainwasher, and if we can fix it, you’ll be as good as new.”

  “The brainwasher isn’t taking effect now, Captain.”

  “How do you know that?” Vonner was struck by the sanity that sounded in Bardo’s serious tone. They eyed each other silently for a moment. “Why has the power worn off you, Ed?”

  “It will wear off everyone.” Bardo leaned forward, suddenly energetic again. “Don’t you remember that the brainwasher is made to switch off its power when it reaches the end of the trip?”

  “But going into orbit around Omina isn’t the end of the trip, Ed. It’s only the halfway stage.”

  “It’s the end of the trip.” There was such finality in Bardo’s voice that Vonner could not repress a shudder that touched his spine. “We’re going to finish right there in orbit, Captain, unless you do something drastic.”

  “What is going to happen when we’re in orbit to prevent us from blasting away again?” Bardo did not answer, and Vonner shook his head.

  “You’re still suffering from space madness, Ed. I can’t get any sense out of you. Quillon Reid reports that everything is okay. He’s the most excited man on the ship. I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. You try to rest up, and the doc will see what she can do for you when we start back for Earth.”

  He turned away and rapped on the door so the guard would unlock it. As he stepped back to allow the door to open, Bardo attacked him from behind, leaping at him and striking at the base of his neck with a powerful fist. Vonner thought Omina had fallen on him, and dropped to his knees as if he’d been pole-axed. Blackness swept across the screen of his mind, and he began to lose consciousness. As the door opened, Bardo leaped at the guard, who was not expecting trouble, and they grappled for a moment before Bardo struck a telling blow. Vonner collapsed under the weight of the falling guard, but the movement jerked him out of the black void that tried to engulf him. He looked up in time to see Bardo leaving the cell at a run, and urgency flared through him.

  Pushing himself to his knees, Vonner snatched the unconscious guard’s stun-gun, then leaped to his feet and raced out of the cell in close pursuit. He fired when he saw Bardo at the end of the corridor, and the flailing bolt of energy struck home with telling force. Bardo went down and lapsed into unconsciousness. Vonner went forward slowly, breathing heavily, and as he reached Bardo’s motionless figure, Adah came out of her office.

  “Max! Are you all right?” He nodded and pointed to Bardo.

  “Adah, he was normal when I went in to see him. He had recovered from reprocessing.”

  “I warned you,” she said. “I don’t know why it’s happening, but it will surely affect the rest of the crew.”

  “Then we must start another reprocessing session immediately. Set it up, will you? I’ll get Curran to take over. We must have all key personnel processed again before I start going into orbit.”

  “I’ll be ready for the first man in fifteen minutes. Will that be all right?”

  He nodded. “Use your communicator to call Curran here, will you?” he asked.

  “Max, I think you’re going to find more trouble than you could ever dream of. I don’t like this at all.”

  “Are you beginning to suffer from the same malady that has gripped Bardo?” He stared anxiously at her face, and felt no relief when she shook her head vehemently.

  “I’ve been in my right mind all the time, remember,” she said. “There’s something not quite right here, Max, and I wish I could put my finger on it.”

  “Never mind that now,” he retorted. “We haven’t the time for anything but the bare duties pertaining to orbit and landing. Get Curran here for me, Adah. I’ll stay until he arrives. Then warn the control room that I’m on my way there and ask for all chief officers to be there. Communications, engines and astrogation can be handled from the flight control room. I want those men where I can watch them all the time.”

  “Please take care, Max!” She turned and hurried into her office, and Vonner tightened his lips as he stared down at the huddled figure of Ed Bardo.

  “I’ll take care,” he muttered. “But against what?”

  He paced the corridor until Curran arrived, and as soon as the security chief had been briefed to supervise the processing of the entire crew, Vonner hurried to the flight control room. He was driven by an inner motivation based on worry and instinct. He couldn’t get out of his mind the thought that Bardo had been trying to warn him of something bad which even the man himself could not explain. In his normal mind, Bardo had seen, or interpreted, some set of conditions which gave him nightmares. But he hadn’t been able to pass on his fears, and now Vonner was unable to work them out, in the same way that Dr. Morley was unable to pinpoint the failure in the brainwasher.

  But the routine of going into orbit could not now be halted, and Vonner was aware of a deep fear in the back of his mind. If Bardo should be proved right in his fears, there would be nothing they could do to prevent a disaster. All they could do now was sit tight and take whatever was coming. It wasn’t a satisfactory way of arriving at the end of a mission. The crew might come apart at their mental seams at any time, and Vonner could only pin his hopes on the failing brainwasher. In a few short hours now, the worst of the maneuvering would be over, and if they could hold together until then they would find the rest of it relatively simple.

  But Vonner was aware of a shadowy doubt forming in his own mind, and when he reached the control room he found a situation that didn’t help bolster his faltering confidence. Howie Farrell, chief of communications, was fighting two guards as they tried to drag him from the communications console, and Farrell was shouting at the top of his voice, babbling incoherently about strange voices calling from Earth. As Vonner arrived, Farrell was overpowered and subdued, and Vonner ordered the man to be taken to the sick bay. The assistant communications officer took over, and Vonner waited for someone to give him a report of the incident. He waited with foreboding gathering in his mind, and for some moments he was on the point of deciding he should abort. But even that choice was denied him now. They were committed!

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  When order had been restored in the control room, Vonner faced Aaron Marr, who was looking excited in contrast to his habitual calm. Dalus Wayland came in at the door as Vonner demanded an explanation, and the chief engineer moved to Vonner’s side to listen.

  “Farrell interrupted my work,” Marr said, indicating his own system of computers and panels. “He called to me that he was receiving voices from Earth.”

  “But that’s impossible,” Vonner said impatiently. “He’d never pick up that kind of signal out here. This must be w
hat Dr. Morley warned me about. Bardo has just had a relapse, and he is as crazy as he was when he led the mutiny. There’s only one thing to do. We’ll all have to go through the brainwasher again.” He glanced at the impassive face of Dalus Wayland. “Would you go and take a look at the brainwasher again, Dalus, if you can spare the time? The doc seems to think it still isn’t functioning properly.”

  “I’ll get along to the sick bay immediately,” Wayland said. “I don’t have anything to do. I’m programmed to the computers now. The engines are out of my hands.”

  “Well, I’ve still got a lot to do,” Marr said, turning back to his console. “I’ll have to start checking the whole sequence again. Captain, you’d better do something about this place. I can’t concentrate with these disturbances.”

  “These disturbances?” Vonner demanded. “Has there been more than one?”

  “Quillon Reid was shouting on the communicator a short while ago. Wanted to have all the coordinates checked.” Marr shook his head and thinned his lips. “I couldn’t help him. I’m too busy. I must check these figures. No need to spell out to you what will happen if I make a miscalculation, Captain.”

  “Get back to it then, Aaron,” Vonner said, frowning. “I’ll attend to this.” He moved to the side of the assistant chief of communications. The man sat before a massive board of switches and flashing lights. “Can you tell me what it was that upset Farrell?” he demanded.

  “Sorry, sir! I just don’t know. Mr. Farrell was checking the main receiver. He had earphones on, and I didn’t. Suddenly he leaped to his feet and said he was getting Earth voices. He pulled off the earphones and handed them to me, but there was just a lot of static sounding when I listened. Mr. Farrell wouldn’t believe me when I said I couldn’t hear a thing. He called me a liar and hit me. You came in as they were taking him out of here. That’s all I can tell you, sir.”

  “Carry on.” Vonner suppressed a sigh and turned to look at the forward scanner screen. Omina was plainer than ever, and he was struck by the resemblance it bore to Earth. There were no features visible at the distance, but shades of blue, brown and green showed clearly on the screen. He remembered the last picture he’d had of Earth before blasting away, and this reminded him of it.

  Wayland cleared his throat, and Vonner looked at the man. They were the same age, and Wayland seemed to be the steadiest man on the ship. There was nothing that Wayland didn’t know about engines. He could recite chapter and verse of the history of the engines, going back to the Twentieth Century. Man had first pottered about with mechanical power four hundred years before, and he had come a long way since those primitive days.

  “Captain, what’s going on here?” Wayland demanded.

  “Your guess is as good as mine, Dalus. I think the brainwasher is to blame, but we shan’t know the truth until it’s been thoroughly checked.”

  “I’d better make a start and do something about it,” Wayland told him. “But I can assure you, Captain, that there’s nothing wrong with it. I checked it a couple of days ago, and it was in perfect working order.”

  “I’d better go and see Reid. I wonder what’s eating him now!” Vonner was already running through his mind for the points he had to chase up. He dismissed Wayland, and the chief engineer went off. Crossing to his desk, Vonner sat down and opened a line to Reid’s office. The chief scientist came through immediately.

  “Captain, I’m glad it’s you.” Reid sounded excited. “I must talk to you. This is urgent. Can I see you right away?”

  “Certainly, Quill. Hand over what you’re doing to your assistant and come up to the control room immediately. Make it in a hurry, because I’m busy.”

  “Be right with you!” The line was closed, and Vonner sighed and sat back. His eyes strayed to the forward scanner screen; now Omina was very close, and beginning to take on detail.

  “Captain, my computer is going haywire!”

  Aaron Marr leaped to his feet and hurried to a bank of instruments. He fingered buttons and watched dials for reaction, and then he turned to face Vonner, his eyes glinting with a wild light that Vonner had never seen before in any man. “Captain, all my coordinates have vanished. I don’t have a thing to work on.”

  Vonner sprang to his feet and hurried to Marr’s side, reaching out a steadying hand to the man’s shoulder.

  “Take it easy, Aaron,” he said. “Perhaps you inadvertently wiped the tapes clean.”

  “Are you kidding?” Marr grinned, and there was a shadow on his features that scared Vonner. “It happened just like that, while I was sitting there. Everything went haywire, and now there are no coordinates.”

  “How long will it take you to prepare another sequence?” Vonner watched Marr’s face closely.

  “At least three days.” Marr waved his hands. “Everything’s gone.”

  “The memory banks will have stored everything you’ve done since we left Earth orbit. Check back and pick up where you dropped everything!” Vonner was certain Marr was feeling overworked.

  “I just tried.” Marr shook his head as if awakening suddenly from a deep sleep. “I got a flash on the panel indicating no more readings.” His face suddenly underwent a change, as if he had just realized something which had slipped his mind. “I’ll tell you what’s happened,” he said in an awed tone. “We’ve just come in range of Omina’s magnetic attractions. The memory banks must have been wiped clean, but how I don’t know. We can’t reverse them and get a return course to Earth. There’s nothing to go on. We’re not going to get back to Earth, Captain!”

  “Take it easy, Aaron,” Vonner said firmly, “and keep your voice down. Get back to work. You know what coordinates you need to go into orbit. The drive computer has its final instructions. Just take it easy and let things take their course.”

  “I’ve got a funny feeling that I’ve been making mistakes all along the line,” Marr said, shaking his head, his eyes wide and solemn. “Captain, I think I’ve made a complete mess of things and sent us around in a circle. That’s not Omina we’re coming up to, but Earth. That’s why the readings are gone! It was scheduled to happen on our return flight. When we got this close to Earth, mission control was due to take over. They would look upon us and bring us in.”

  “You’re talking nonsense, and you know it,” Vonner said angrily. “Sit down and shut up, Aaron. I know what’s wrong with you. We all have to get processed again. You’re losing your immunity, Aaron. Just sit down and stay quiet.”

  “It doesn’t matter what frame of mind I’m in,” the astrogator retorted. “I know what I’m talking about.”

  “Just take it easy. We’ll sort things out.” Vonner tried to keep a note of desperation out of his voice.

  “We haven’t got time to sort anything out,” Marr insisted. “We’ll be going into orbit around Omina, and we’ll never be able to get away again.”

  Vonner stared at the man and could hear Bardo’s words in his mind. That was exactly what Bardo had told him! But Bardo couldn’t have known what would happen to the computer banks — unless Bardo had done something that would wipe out the recordings at a certain time.

  “Aaron, did Bardo do something that wiped out the banks?” he demanded crisply, and his sharp tone stirred the astrogator from his daze.

  “Bardo!” Marr got to his feet his eyes showing comprehension. “That fool! He must have set the erasers on a time pattern.”

  “If he did, is there anything you can do about it?” Vonner asked impatiently, although a sense of urgency was building up in his mind.

  “Nothing!” Marr shook his head dumbly, overawed by the prospect of trying to find his way back to Earth.

  “It shouldn’t be too difficult to remember some of the coordinates, Aaron,” Vonner encouraged. “We’re planning to remain in orbit for a month. Perhaps we could send a signal to Earth and get control to send us a copy of the coordinates. They’re tracking us closely, remember.”

  “Sure.” A little color was coming back into Man’s face. He
nodded, and exhaled deeply. “I’m sorry, Captain. I guess I blew my top, huh? We’re all getting a bit tense. Farrell’s behavior must have triggered me off. We can get into orbit all right, and if you send a signal to Earth, we’ll have a reply on the sonic emergency frequency in time for the return.”

  “That’s it.” Vonner felt easier himself. He heaved a sigh. “Take it easy now, Aaron. You’ve been hard at it for days. There’s nothing more you can do right now. We’re in the hands of the computers. They’ll put us into orbit. As far as I can see, there’s nothing to worry about. Let’s all take it easy now, huh?”

  He turned away as he spotted Quillon Reid coming into the room, and Reid hurried toward him. Before the scientist could speak, Vonner held up a hand. There had been too many upsets in the control room already. Everybody was shaken, and Reid himself looked as if he had a bombshell to toss among them.

  “Let’s go into my quarters, Quill,” Vonner said. He caught Lieutenant Hanton’s eyes. “Stand by here, Hanton, and call me if anything comes up.”

  “Yes, Captain.” Hanton moved to the commander’s console and sat down.

  Vonner turned to Reid and saw the scientist standing with his eyes glued to the forward scanner screen.

  “Come on, Quill,” Vonner said gently. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll share your troubles. It might make them seem smaller.”

  Reid said nothing, but turned on his heels and led the way to Vonner’s quarters. Once inside, the scientist turned quickly and faced Vonner, who was surprised to see the gravity in the man’s face.

  “Captain, we can’t land on Omina,” Reid said in a shaky voice.

  “Can’t land!” Vonner was thunderstruck. “Why not?”

  “Our detectors have picked up heavy radiation. I haven’t the exact breakdown yet, but I know from the data already in that it’s lethal.”

  “You reported vegetable and animal life a short time ago, Quill. How do you account for that?”

  “I don’t know, Captain! Half an hour ago everything looked rosy. Now I wouldn’t give you the all-clear to land. But that’s not all.”