So--what"s on your mind?"
Hilton told him. _I ought to put this on a tape_, he thought to himself, _and broadcast it every hour on the hour_.
"They took the old Masters like dynamiting fish in a barrel," he concluded, "and I"m d.a.m.ned afraid they"re going to lick us unless we take a lot of big, fast steps. But the h.e.l.l of it is that I can"t tell you anything--not one single thing--about any part of it. There"s simply no way at all of getting through to you without making you over into the same kind of a thing I am."
"Is that bad?" Sawtelle was used to making important decisions fast.
"Let"s get at it."
"Huh? Skipper, do you realize just what that means? If you think they"ll let you resign, forget it. They"ll crucify you--brand you as a traitor and G.o.d only knows what else."
"Right. How about you and your people?"
"Well, as civilians, it won"t be as bad...."
"The h.e.l.l it won"t. Every man and woman that stays here will be posted forever as the blackest traitors old Terra ever disgraced herself by sp.a.w.ning."
"You"ve got a point there, at that. We"ll all have to bring our relatives--the ones we think much of, at least--out here with us."
"Definitely. Now see what you can do about getting me run through your mill."
By exerting his authority, Hilton got Sawtelle put through the "Preservatory" in the second batch processed. Then, linking minds with the captain, he flashed their joint attention to the Hall of Records.
Into the right room; into the right chest; along miles and miles of braided wire carrying some of the profoundest military secrets of the ancient Masters.
Then:
"Now you know a little of it," Hilton said. "Maybe a thousandth of what we"ll have to have before we can take the Stretts as they will have to be taken."
For seconds Sawtelle could not speak. Then: "My ... G.o.d. I see what you mean. You"re right. No Omans can ever go to Terra; and no Terrans can ever come here except to stay forever."
The two then went out into s.p.a.ce, to the flagship--which had been christened the _Orion_--and called in the six commanders.
"What _is_ all this senseless idiocy we"ve been getting, Jarve?" Elliott demanded.
Hilton eyed all six with pretended disfavor. "You six guys are the hardest-headed bunch of skeptics that ever went unhung," he remarked, dispa.s.sionately. "So it wouldn"t do any good to tell you anything--yet.
The skipper and I will show you a thing first. Take her away, Skip."
The _Orion_ shot away under interplanetary drive and for several hours Hilton and Sawtelle worked at re-wiring and practically rebuilding two devices that no one, Oman or human, had touched since the _Perseus_ had landed on Ardry.
"What are you ... I don"t understand what you are doing, sir," Larry said. For the first time since Hilton had known him, the Oman"s mind was confused and unsure.
"I know you don"t. This is a bit of top-secret Masters" stuff. Maybe, some day, we"ll be able to re-work your brain to take it. But it won"t be for some time."
X
The _Orion_ hung in s.p.a.ce, a couple of thousands of miles away from an asteroid which was perhaps a mile in average diameter. Hilton straightened up.
"Put Triple X Black filters on your plates and watch that asteroid." The commanders did so. "Ready?" he asked.
"Ready, sir."
Hilton didn"t move a muscle. Nothing actually moved. Nevertheless there was a motionlessly writhing and crawling distortion of the ship and everything in it, accompanied by a sensation that simply can not be described.
It was not like going into or emerging from the sub-ether. It was not even remotely like s.p.a.ce-sickness or sea-sickness or free fall or anything else that any Terran had ever before experienced.
And the asteroid vanished.
It disappeared into an outrageously incandescent, furiously pyrotechnic, raveningly expanding atomic fireball that in seconds seemed to fill half of s.p.a.ce.
After ages-long minutes of the most horrifyingly devastating fury any man there had ever seen, the frightful thing expired and Hilton said: "_That_ was just a kind of a firecracker. Just a feeble imitation of the first-stage detonator for what we"ll have to have to crack the Stretts"
ground-based screens. If the skipper and I had taken time to take the ship down to the shops and really work it over we could have put on a show. Was this enough so you iron-heads are ready to listen with your ears open and your mouths shut?"
They were. So much so that not even Elliott opened his mouth to say yes.
They merely nodded. Then again--for the last time, he hoped!--Hilton spoke his piece. The response was prompt and vigorous. Only Sam Bryant, one of Hilton"s staunchest allies, showed any uncertainty at all.
"I"ve been married only a year and a half, and the baby was due about a month ago. How sure are you that you can make old Gordon sit still for us skimming the cream off of Terra to bring out here?"
"Doris Bryant, the cream of Terra!" Elliott gibed. "_How_ modest our Samuel has become!"
"Well, d.a.m.n it, she is!" Bryant insisted.
"Okay, she is," Hilton agreed. "But either we get our people or Terra doesn"t get its uranexite. That"ll work. In the remote contingency that it doesn"t, there are still tighter screws we can put on. But you missed the main snapper, Sam. Suppose Doris doesn"t want to live for five thousand years and is allergic to becoming a monster?"
"Huh; you don"t need to worry about that." Sam brushed that argument aside with a wave of his hand. "Show me a girl who doesn"t want to stay young and beautiful forever and I"ll square you the circle. Come on.
What"s holding us up?"
The _Orion_ hurtled through s.p.a.ce back toward Ardry and Hilton, struck by a sudden thought, turned to the captain.
"Skipper, why wouldn"t it be a smart idea to clamp a blockade onto Fuel Bin? Cut the Stretts" fuel supply?"
"I thought better of you than that, son." Sawtelle shook his head sadly.
"That was the first thing I did."
"Ouch. Maybe you"re "way ahead of me too, then, on the one that we should move to Fuel Bin, lock, stock and barrel?"
"Never thought of it, no. Maybe you"re worth saving, after all. After conversion, of course.... Yes, there"d be three big advantages."
"Four."
Sawtelle raised his eyebrows.
"One, only one planet to defend. Two, it"s self-defending against sneak landings. Nothing remotely human can land on it except in heavy lead armor, and even in that can stay healthy for only a few minutes."