"Half of Africa is Communist," General Maguire said.
They drank coffee. They ate doughnuts. They scanned data from the various tracking stations, and results gotten by feeding the data into electric brains with cute names.
"Well under the speed of light," the professor said.
General Maguire said, "Ha!"
Mr. MacMahon put the lighted end of his cigarette in his mouth. "Damn," he said.
About an hour after takeoff, Happy said, "Spaceship coming back into my range, gentlemen. Message from spaceship. Quote: Stepping on the gas, Happy. Unquote. Add to message. Quote: Tell Ape to keep his shoes shined. Unquote."
"There's a tracking ship out in the Atlantic," the professor said. He mopped at his face with a dripping handkerchief.
"I read the spaceship, faint but clear," Happy said. "Quote: Wasn't that juke joint a… Message does not end. Only chatter."
"Let me hear," Dr. Bedoian said. He grabbed an earphone. "Gibberish," he said. "Pure chimpanzee chatter." He handed the earphone to the Senior Medical Officer, who nodded, gravely.
"Message from tracking ship," one of the radio monitors said. "Spaceship directly overhead."
Then: "From electric brain IDIOSYNC," one of the other monitors said. "Spaceship exceeded speed of light for last thousand miles."
"By God," the professor said. "By God."
"Which god?" Dr. Bedoian said, though he said it very softly. "Pan or Jehovah?"
"Message from Tracking Station Fernando Po," one of the radioman said, and there was silence in the room. "Spaceship is coming down. Re-entering atmosphere. He's ditched."
Happy took off his headphones and stood up, walked over to join Ape. "Duty ended," he said.
"Fernando Po reports it can hear gibbering and splashing. Spaceship has ditched successfully," a radioman said.
"Tracking ship confirms," another answered him.
Dr. Bedoian joined Ape and Happy. Nobody was paying any attention to them. They went out, leaving the scientist and the military and the security to find out what they already knew.
Happy settled the white cap he had so often lent to Pan. "He ditched off Africa, where he could swim ashore," he said.
"To the closed, deciduous tropical forest," Dr. Bedoian said. He wasn't a military man; he didn't mind crying in public.
Ape tried to grin. "Them big shots'll find bilge in that spaceship. Just bilge."
"He went the right way this time, and faster than light," Happy said. "He got over being devoluted."
"Retrogressed," Dr. Bedoian said, automatically.
Master Chief Torpedoman Ape Bates cleared his. throat. "Ain't there a word like degenerated?" he asked.
FB2 document info
Document ID: 501f48d6-501f72a2-00-zz
Document version: 1
Document creation date: 06.08.2012
Created using: FB2GEN by archimedes, FictionBook Editor Release 2.6 software
OCR Source: Scan, OCR, SpellCheck: Stan10; Convert, Cover: archimedes
Document authors :
Stan10
About
This file was generated by Lord KiRon's FB2EPUB converter version 1.1.5.0.
(This book might contain copyrighted material, author of the converter bears no responsibility for it's usage)
Этот файл создан при помощи конвертера FB2EPUB версии 1.1.5.0 написанного Lord KiRon.
(Эта книга может содержать материал который защищен авторским правом, автор конвертера не несет ответственности за его использование)
http://www.fb2epub.net
https://code.google.com/p/fb2epub/
Pan Satyrus Page 13