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  4

  There was even less privacy on a spaceship than there had been on Earth. Svoboda and his wife finally stopped looking for a place to be by themselves. They were ordered out of too many sections by crewmen who obviously enjoyed the ordering. They returned to the forecastle and free-sat behind drawn curtains in the bunk space assigned them. From time to time, the rattle of fantan sticks on a magnetized table and the jabber of voices interrupted them.

  He saw through the gloom of the cramped space that her eyes were red and dark-ringed. She was worn down as far as himself. His helplessness to aid her chewed in him.

  ‘But didn’t he even hear your idea?’ she asked. ‘I can’t understand that.’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ sighed Svoboda. ‘He blew a fuse and ordered me off the bridge, as I’ve told you. But by the time we’d returned here to the Courier, he had cooled enough to hear me out when I insisted he do so. I’d used the interim to make some rough calculations, so I proved to him that my scheme really would work.’

  She still hadn’t asked him what it was. But that was typical of her. Like most women, she kept her warmth for human things and left the abstractions to her husband. He often thought she had come to Rustum less for her beliefs than for him.

  Puzzled, she asked, ‘He rejected your plan anyhow?’

  ‘Yes. He listened, agreed it was practical, but claimed it was not practicable. When I started to argue, he lost his temper again and stormed away.’

  ‘It isn’t like Nils at all,’ she murmured.

  Svoboda started. ‘What’re you doing on first-name terms with him?’

  ‘Why, I thought you knew—’ Judith paused. ‘No, maybe not. You kept so busy down at camp, and you were so cold to him, to all the spacemen. I could never see why. He was very kind, both to me and the children. He and Davy were almost inseparable. He taught Davy the local woodcraft, the tricks and trails he had learned on the first expedition.’ She rubbed her eyes. That’s why I don’t understand his attitude now.’

  Well, he is under a strain too,’ Svoboda admitted grudgingly. ‘Losing that ship was a hard blow.’

  ‘Then he ought to be all the more anxious to recover it.’

  ‘Uh-huh. But he’s right in claiming that my idea, while simple and elegant’ – Svoboda grinned lopsidedly – ‘will take a considerable time. A few crewmen will be kept busy. The rest will have nothing to do, once the last bottoms have been unloaded and the mass tanks refilled. There is certainly a good chance Satan will find mischief for idle hands.’

  ‘Can’t they go into deepsleep? They have to anyway, for the trip home.’

  ‘No, I’m afraid not. My scheme does involve some high-powered maneuvering, spurts of several gravities’ acceleration. Once they’ve been reassembled, the coldvats will be too lightly built to stand that. And every ship will be needed for this job, if it isn’t to drag on impossibly long…. No, most of the crew will have to wait on the ground. Kivi is right. It can lead to trouble. He doesn’t feel the risk is worth the gain. I do.’

  A darkness crossed her. ‘I wonder. Already —’ She broke off.

  ‘What?’ rapped Svoboda.

  ‘Nothing.’

  He caught her wrist so she winced. ‘Tell me! I have a right to know.’

  ‘Nothing, I said! A man made a pass at me … one of the spacemen … a few days ago at camp. Nothing happened, really. I yelled and Charlie Lochaber came running. The spaceman made off. There wasn’t even a fight.’

  Svoboda stiffened before he said, harshly, ‘There had better be two separate camps. No social contact between them, and no colonist ever to be alone.’

  ‘But that’s horrible. Those men have worked hard for us. They—’

  Svoboda sighed. ‘Well, we can thresh out the details later. It won’t be easy, whatever we decide. I can sympathize with Kivi’s wish to spare his crew that sort of humiliation. He has their morale to worry about, the whole long way home.’

  ‘And so you think, rather than chance a few of his men getting hurt, he will condemn us to almost sure failure?’

  ‘Evidently.’

  Judith shook her head. ‘No. You’re wrong, Jan. Consideration for his crew is one factor, yes. But Nils doesn’t hate us. You’ve seen his rough side. I tell you, he was never anything but pleasant to me and the kids. He went out of his way to be pleasant. He won’t leave us here to die. He isn’t capable of it.’

  Svoboda studied her a while. She wasn’t beautiful, he thought; not in any conventional sense; but she was Judith, which was more. A wisp of an idea stirred. ‘Are you certain?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes. As certain as I can be of anything, dear.’

  ‘Okay. Then I begin to follow Kivi’s logic. He doesn’t believe we will stay here without that equipment. He expects we’ll return with him to Earth. So of course he won’t be a murderer. He can even tell himself he’s doing what’s best for us. Nobody denies that a lot of us would die, the first few years on Rustum, no matter what resources we had.’

  ‘Yes, that must be his idea. You can’t expect him to admit there’s any sense in this colonizing.’ Judith smiled faintly. ‘Why, it’ll be generations, no doubt, before we can build spaceships of our own.’

  ‘There’s more involved than that.’ Svoboda looked at her till she squirmed uneasily. And the knowledge grew within him.

  He had not imagined he could feel as much pity for a man as he did now, when he saw Kivi’s real hope.

  ‘Are we going to quit, then?’ Judith whispered.

  He answered absent-mindedly, his eyes never leaving her: ‘I expect a majority will vote to do so.’

  ‘And then the minority can hardly stay, can it?’ Her lashes fluttered, as if seeking escape from his gaze. ‘Every-one’ll have to return.’

  ‘How do you feel about that?’

  ‘I… oh… of course I’m sorry, Jan. It seems so … such a pity. And we sold everything to finance this, we’ll come back poor, to an Earth full of strangers. And it meant so much to you.’

  ‘But still, you wouldn’t be altogether heartbroken. Would you?’

  ‘What are you getting at?’ she bridled. ‘Quit staring at me!’

  Svoboda clamped teeth together. There was no chance to explain. If any of the bored men outside the bunk curtain understood English, they were surely eavesdropping. To lay his plan out openly was to destroy its value.

  Nor did he want to put it in words under any circumstances. Having seen the captain’s weakness, he, Svoboda, should have done his best to forget what he saw – not use it so coldly against the man. He proceeded because he must; but the taste of his action was bad.

  He took his wife’s hands. ‘Judith,’ he said, ‘I’ve something to ask. The hardest thing you ever did for me, and you’ve done more already than I had any right to expect.’

  She grew steady again, though her smile was uncertain. ‘What do you want?’

  ‘However the vote goes – even if every single one of the others chooses to return – will you stay on Rustum with me and the kids?’

  She drew a quick breath. He felt her fingers grow cold.

  ‘I’m not out of my head,’ he pleaded. ‘We can do it I swear we can. Or if not— Don’t you remember what Earth was making Davy and Josy into?’

  ‘Y-you always said—’,

  ‘Uh-huh. The old proverb. Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.’

  ‘A nice slogan,’ she said bitterly. ‘No. I won’t.’

  He made his final cast. ‘Whatever happens,’ he said, ‘I am staying.’

  Then he sat quiet. At last she pushed herself into the circle of his arms. ‘All right,’ she said.

  He embraced her. To hell with any listening spacemen.

  For a while they talked of what to do, if indeed they found themselves alone in High America. But Judith leaped from the subject with a strained little laugh. ‘We may not have to,’ she said. ‘I may be able to talk Nils into salvaging the Pioneer?

  ‘Not if you approach him directl
y,’ said Svoboda. ‘He’ll only tell you to be sensible, shut up and come home to Earth.’

  ‘What is your salvage method anyhow, Jan?’

  ‘Oh. That.’ Svoboda smiled behind his bandages. ‘An obvious one, actually. Somebody else would doubtless have thought of it if I hadn’t. You know the mechanism that creates the Van Allen belts? Well, a planet’s magnetic field is comparatively weak at any given spot, but covers an enormous volume of space. That’s how it can trap those particles. A spaceship’s protective magnetic screen can’t possibly be that extensive, so it has to make up in sheer intensity. The forces which can deflect a fast-moving ion in a distance of a few kilometers are enormous. Only a thermonuclear power plant could generate them.

  ‘Well, the Ranger is a metallic object, loaded with other metallic objects. A conductor. If you move any conductor across a magnetic field, or vice versa, you generate an EMF, whose value depends on the speed of the motion and the intensity of the field. Have you ever seen that classroom demonstration where a sheet of copper is dropped between the poles of a strong magnet? As it enters the field, its rate of fall slows down quite dramatically. The reason is that it cuts the lines of force. This sets up eddy currents in the copper. The energy of its fall is converted from velocity to electricity, and so eventually to heat.’

  ‘Oh!’ exclaimed Judith. ‘Of course.’

  ‘You see? We’ll send the other ships of the fleet, turn by turn, past the Ranger, as fast and as close as possible. Which can be very fast and close indeed, under autopilot guidance, using a hyperbolic path opposed to the derelict’s orbit. Thirty or forty K.P.S. should easily be attainable, I think. So … their magnetic fields will slow the Ranger. It will lose energy, spiral into a lower orbit. After a sufficient number of passes, it’ll be in a safe region and a repair crew can board it.’

  ‘Why, that’s a wonderful idea.’ Judith hesitated. ‘But how about the other ships? Will they be damaged?’

  ‘Oh, they’ll be decelerated, too. Newton’s third law. But they’ll make the actual passes in free fall, so it shouldn’t impose any real strain. Besides, they won’t be decelerated much. We’ll fill their tanks, increase their mass ninefold.The Ranger’s thanks are all but empty …Anyhow, We can’thurry the process. Eddy currents generate heat, which has to dissipate. We don’t want to melt her.’

  ‘You could get rid of the heat as fast as you want,’ suggested Judith. ‘Rig a pump on one spaceship and squirt water onto the derelict. It would boil off and take the heat with it.’

  ‘Good girl. That angle occurred to me. There are other possibilities which may turn out to be preferable. The important thing is, we can recover the Ranger, if only Kivi—’

  An accented voice beyond the curtains: ‘Pleasse for Meester and Meesis Shofobota report to cappitain’s office.’

  Judith started. ‘What?’

  ‘I expected this,’ said Svoboda. ‘Someone listened to us and hurried to play informer. I’m as glad of it. Let’s have this out at once.’

  They went hand in hand down the passageways. His heart pounded thickly. A knock on the captain’s door brought a harsh: ‘Enter.’ Svoboda let Judith go through, followed, and closed the door behind him.

  The office, which was also the master’s cabin, was small, crowded with booktapes and music spools, otherwise austere as any monkish cell. Kivi glared across the spider-legged magnetic board that was his desk. Somehow, subtly, he had become disheveled. His eyes were hot and dry.

  ‘What’s this nonsense about your staying?’ he demanded.

  ‘It’s our business,’ Svoboda answered.

  ‘Yours, perhaps, You may leave your bones on Rustum if you wish. But your wife? Your children?’ Kivi’s face swung toward Judith. ‘He cannot compel you. I offer my protection.’

  She huddled close to her husband. ‘Nobody is forcing me,’ she whispered.

  ‘But you are insane!’ cried Kivi. ‘This whole project was always a gamble against loaded dice. Now, without the Ranger’s cargo, the risks have shot up so far that most of your people will surely choose to return. Which makes death certain for any who stay behind.’

  ‘Let me judge that for myself,’ said Svoboda.

  Kivi swiped the air, as if to strike him. ‘Judith,’ he said, ‘you do not understand what is involved.’

  Her head lifted. ‘I understand what I promised at my wedding,’ she told him.

  Kivi sagged back. ‘I am not being a monster,’ he pleaded. ‘I want to save my crew trouble, possible manslayings, That is why I would not hear any long-drawn recovery plans.’

  That’s one of your reasons, Svoboda thought.

  ‘I will most gladly take your people home,’ said Kivi. ‘And, yes, I have money. I can help you, Judith, and your family get started afresh on Earth. What other use has a bachelor for his money?’

  ‘No,’ said Svoboda. ‘The argument’s closed. You have no legal power to make us leave. If you try to detain us, there will really be trouble between our parties!’

  ‘Don’t talk that way, Jan.’ Tears stood in Judith’s eyes. They broke off and floated toward the ventilator grille like tiny stars. ‘Nils means well.’

  Svoboda said with chosen cruelty: ‘No doubt. So abide by your statistics, Kivi. Avoid whatever hazard there may be to your crew. Let the colony break up. At worst, it should only cost four lives.’

  And then, as Kivi’s mouth grew unfirm and Svoboda saw victory, he would have given much not to have spoken.

  The captain shivered. He looked at Judith, and away, and back again. ‘You know I cannot do that,’ he said. ‘Very well, we shall salvage the Ranger. Now please leave me alone.’

  Part 4: The Mills Of The Gods

  1

  ‘Nyaah, Nyaah, Nyaah!’

  ‘Gawan, get inna back. Way inna back. You stink.’

  ‘Yahh, he stinks. They grew him inna ole fertilizer tank, tha’s what they did. A ole fertilizer tank.’

  ‘Hey, Danny, who’s your sister? That there cow your sister, huh, Danny?’

  Jan Svoboda slapped the control panel with his open hand. ‘Okay, enough,’ he called. ‘Quiet! Sit down.’

  ‘Get ‘at ole Danny way inna back,’ said Pat O’Malley. ‘I don’t want any ole animal grown inna tank nex’ to me.’

  ‘Nyaah!’ said Frank de Smet, and shoved, Danny Coffin went to his hands and knees in the aisle. Frank and Pat bounced from their seats and began to pummel him.

  ‘That’s enough!’ Svoboda hit the panel again so it crashed under his palm. ‘Next time this will be somebody’s behind.’ He half rose, turning around. A score of small boys fell silent and went back to their seats. Whenever his turn at being school-bus pilot came up, Svoboda soon got a reputation as a terror. That was in self-defense. The kids weren’t really bad, but he ferried them between classes where they worked hard and homes where they worked harder. Somewhere along the line, they had to let off steam. Svoboda preferred not to have it let off while this old rattletrap was in the air.

  ‘You’re very mean to pick on poor Danny,’ said Mary Lochaber, she of the starched blouse and the long golden curls. ‘He can’t help he was grown in a tank.’

  ‘You pipe down too,’ Svoboda said. ‘You were grown in a tank yourself. It happened to be a uterus rather than an exogenetic apparatus. One of these days your parents will be adopting their own exogene baby, and hell be exactly as good as you are.’ He hesitated. ‘Not quite so lucky, is all. Okay, strap in.’

  Danny Coffin snuffled and wiped his nose as he found a seat by Frank de Smet. He was a stocky dark-haired boy with a broad face and straight black hair: a touch of Oriental in his chromosomes. Since the school term began, he had grown very quiet. He hadn’t fought back much when the others hit him, had mainly tried to ward the blows off.

  Ishould speak to Saburo about him, Svoboda thought. Hirayama, who was his business partner, also taught judo in the upper grades. A little special instruction might givethat poor kid a chance to win respect … Maybe not,though. With a
fourth again as much gravity as Earth, Rustum’s no place to use such tricks irresponsibly. He shivered. Not long ago he had seen still another accident, a man fallen off a roof. Ribs had been driven into the lungs and the pelvis was smashed. On Earth, the victim would probably have broken nothing worse than a leg.

  He touched the controls. Rotors grabbed air. The bus lumbered upward until the school, seen through windows, became a sprawl of sod roofs enclosing a dusty playfield. The few dozen timber buildings which were Anchor village dwindled with it, to a blot across the juncture of three bright threads. For here the Swift and Smoky Rivers running down from the Centaur Mountains in the west, joined to form the Emperor. Otherwise the landscape was green, with a faint overcast of metallic blue. Here and there stood a dark patch of woods, a pale patch where some farmer’s corn and rye struggled to grow. Northward the country turned murky with forest; southward it rose in hills ever steeper and stonier until the Hercules range walled off that horizon.

  This close to the autumnal equinox, Rustum divided its 62-hour rotation period almost evenly between day and night. The sun stood at late afternoon above the Centaurs, reddening their snowpeaks, casting their shoulders into black relief. Shadows stretched enormous across the land. It was too big, that sun, and too bright, and at the same time too orange; it crept too slowly down a sky too wan a blue.

  Or so those colonists felt who had been adults on Earth. The new generation, like Svoboda’s busload of first-graders, found it merely natural. To them Earth was a word, a history lesson, a star which their elders named Sol. After seventeen years on Rustum – no, damn it, ten Earth-years – Svoboda found his own recollections of the mother planet getting blurred.

  ‘Nyaah, teacher’s pet. You hadda go squeal, didn’tcha? You wait till I get you tomorrow.’

  ‘Belay that, Frank,’ called Svoboda. The de Smet boy gulped and glared. The thick air of High America, more than twice the sea-level pressure of Earth, gave transmission so loud and clear that the children had never acquired those tricks of separating sound from noise which were second nature to their elders. This was not the first whisper Svoboda had overheard.