It did not seem possible, Mayhem thought now, that a mistake could be made. Then--a sudden change in plans?
It had never happened before, but it was entirely possible. Something, Mayhem decided, had come up during transmigration. It was terribly important and the people at the Hub had had no opportunity to brief him on it.
But--what?
His first shock came a moment later. He walked to a mirror on the wall and approved of the strong young body which would house his sentience and then scowled. A thought inside his head said:
_So this is what it"s like to have schizophrenia._
_What the h.e.l.l was that?_ Mayhem thought.
_I said, so this is what it"s like to have schizophrenia. First the world"s worst headache and then I start thinking like two different people._
_Aren"t you dead?_
_Is that supposed to be a joke, alter ego? When do the men in the white suits come?_
_Good Lord, this was supposed to be a dead body!_
At that, the other sentience which shared the body with Mayhem snickered and lapsed into silence. Mayhem, for his part, was astounded.
_Don"t get ornery now_, Mayhem pleaded. _I"m Johnny Mayhem. Does that mean anything to you?_
_Oh, sure. It means I"m dead. You inhabit dead bodies, right?_
_Usually. Listen--where are we?_
Glory of the Galaxy--_bound from Earth to Mars on perihelion._
_And there"s trouble?_
_How do you know there"s trouble?_
_Otherwise they wouldn"t have diverted me here._
_We"ve got the president aboard. We"re going to hit the sun._ Then, grudgingly, Larry went into the details. When he finished he thought cynically: _Now all you have to do is go outside yelling have no fear, Mayhem is here and everything will be all right, I suppose._
Mayhem didn"t answer. It would be many moments yet before he could adjust to this new, unexpected situation. But in a way, he thought, it would be a boon. If he were co-inhabiting the body of a living man who belonged on the _Glory of the Galaxy_, there was no need to reveal his ident.i.ty as Johnny Mayhem to anyone but his host....
"I tell ya," Technician First Cla.s.s Ackerman Boone shouted, "the refrigeration unit"s gone on the blink. You can"t feel it yet, but I ought to know. I got the refrigs working full strength and we gained a couple of degrees heat. Either she"s on the blink or we"re too close to the sun, I tell you!"
Ackerman Boone was a big man, a veteran s.p.a.cer with a squat, very strong body and arms like an orangutan. Under normal circ.u.mstances he was a very fine s.p.a.cer and a good addition to any crew, but he bore an unreasonable grudge against the officer corps and would go out of his way to make them look bad in the eyes of the other enlisted men. A large crowd had gathered in the hammock-hung crew quarters of the _Glory of the Galaxy_ as Boone went on in his deep, booming voice: "So I asked the skipper of the watch, I did. He got shifty-eyed, like they always do.
You know. He wasn"t talking, but sure as my name"s Ackerman Boone, something"s wrong."
"What do you think it is, Acky?" one of the younger men asked.
"Well, I tell ya this: I know what it _isn"t_. I checked out the refrigs three times, see, and came up with nothing. The refrigs are in jig order, and if I know it then you know it. So, if the refrigs are in jig order, there"s only one thing it can be: we"re getting too near the sun!" Boone clamped his mouth shut and stood with thick, muscular arms crossed over his barrel chest.
A young technician third cla.s.s said in a strident voice, "You mean you think maybe we"re plunging into the sun, Acky?"
"Well, now, I didn"t say that. Did I, boy? But we _are_ too close and if we are too close there"s got to be a reason for it. If we stay too close too long, O.K. Then we"re plunging into the sun. Right now, I dunno."
They all asked Ackerman Boone, who was an unofficial leader among them, what he was going to do. He rubbed his big fingers against the thick stubble of beard on his jaw and you could hear the rasping sound it made. Then he said, "Nothing, until we find out for sure. But I got a hunch the officers are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of them politicians we got on board. That"s all right with me, men. If they want to, they got their reasons. But I tell ya this: they ain"t going to pull any wool over Acky Boone"s eyes, and that"s a fact."
Just then the squawk box called: "Now hear this! Now hear this! Tech/1 Ackerman Boone to Exec"s office. Tech/1 Boone to Exec."
"You see?" Boone said, smiling grimly. As yet, no one saw. His face still set in a grim smile, Ackerman Boone headed above decks.
"That, Mr. President," Vice Admiral T. Shawnley Stapleton said gravely, "is the problem. We would have come to you sooner, sir, but frankly--"
"I know it, Admiral," the President said quietly. "I could not have helped you in any way. There was no sense telling me."
"We have one chance, sir, and one only. It"s irregular and it will probably knock the h.e.l.l out of the _Glory of the Galaxy_, but it may save our lives. If we throw the ship suddenly into subs.p.a.ce we could pa.s.s right through the sun"s position and--"
"I"m no scientist, Admiral, but wouldn"t that put tremendous stress not only on the ship but on all of us aboard?"
"It would, sir. I won"t keep anything from you, of course. We"d all be subjected to a force of twenty-some gravities for a period of several seconds. Here aboard the _Glory_, we don"t have adequate G-equipment.
It"s something like the old days of air flight, sir: as soon as airplanes became reasonably safe, pa.s.senger ships didn"t bother to carry parachutes. Result over a period of fifty years: thousands of lives lost. We"d all be bruised and battered, sir. Bones would be broken.
There might be a few deaths. But I see no other way out, sir."
"Then there was no need to check with me at all, I a.s.sure you, Admiral Stapleton. Do whatever you think is best, sir."
The Admiral nodded gravely. "Thank you, Mr. President. I will say this, though: we will wait for a miracle."
"I"m afraid I don"t follow you."
"Well, I don"t expect a miracle, but the switchover to subs.p.a.ce so suddenly is bound to be dangerous. Therefore, we"ll wait until the last possible moment. It will grow uncomfortably warm, let me warn you, but as long as the subs.p.a.ce drive is in good working order--"
"I see what you mean, Admiral. You have a free hand, sir; let me repeat that. I will not interfere in any way and I have the utmost confidence in you." The President mopped his brow with an already damp handkerchief. It _was_ growing warm, come to think of it. Uncomfortably warm.
As if everyone aboard the _Glory of the Galaxy_ was slowly being broiled alive....
Ackerman Boone entered the crew quarters with the same smile still on his lips. At first he said nothing, but his silence drew the men like a magnet draws iron filings. When they had all cl.u.s.tered about him he spoke.
"The Exec not only chewed my ears off," he boomed. "He all but spit them in my face! I was right, men. He admitted it to me after he saw how he couldn"t get away with anything in front of Ackerman Boone. Men, we"re heading on collision course with the sun!"
A shocked silence greeted his words and Ackerman Boone, instinctively a born speaker, paused dramatically to allow each man the private horror of his own thoughts for a few moments. Then he continued: "The Admiral figures we have one chance to get out of this alive, men. He figures--"
"What is it, Acky?"