There was a faint stirring among them, like that of ancient machines being activated after years of lying dormant. They glanced at each other. They fidgeted. Trouble twisted their faces.
"Colonel Halter," said the captain, "I"m warning you. My thumb is on the b.u.t.ton. I"ll release the gas. Do we get the repairs and the fuel to take off from Earth, or don"t we?"
Colonel Halter leaned grimly toward the captain. "You"ve spent fifty years with one idea--to stay out in s.p.a.ce forever. You"ve made no effort to create or do one single constructive act. I"ll tell you whether or not you get the fuel and the repairs--_after_ I hear what someone in your crew has to say."
Silence hung tensely between the control room of the ship and Colonel Halter"s office on Earth. The captain was glaring now at Halter. A tear showed in the corner of each of Dr. Anna Mueller"s old eyes.
Lieutenant Brady was gripping the arms of his chair. Daniel Carlyle"s eyes were closed and his head shook slightly, as though from palsy.
There was a faint, enigmatic smile on Caroline Gordon"s face. The cords on Crowley"s neck stood out through the tan and wrinkled wrapping-paper skin.
_By G.o.d,_ thought Halter, _they"re all sane except the captain. And they"ve got to do it. They"ve got to come out on their own steam or die in that control room._
"I"m waiting," he said. "Is your work going to die and you with it?"
"We"ll leave all the records," said the captain, his thumb poised over the b.u.t.ton on the arm of his chair. "That"s enough."
Halter ignored him. "Each of you can help. You"ve only done part of the work." He stood and struck the desk with the flat of his hand.
"d.a.m.n it, say something, one of you!"
Still the silence and the flickering looks all around.
Halter heard a sob. He saw Dr. Anna Mueller"s head drop forward and her shoulders tremble. The others were staring at her, as if she had suddenly materialized among them, like a ghost.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
Then her voice, through the trembling and the faint crying: "I"ve--I"ve got to know."
The captain got creakily to his feet. "Dr. Mueller! Do you want me to use the gun again?"
She raised her face to his. There was pain in it. "I"ve--got work to do. There"s so--little time."
"That"s right. On this ship. You"re part of the crew. There"ll be plenty of work once we get out in s.p.a.ce again."
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"I"ve got to see if my theory"s right."
"Colonel Halter," said the captain, "this is insubordination. Mutiny."
He raised the gun tremblingly, pointed the black muzzle at Dr.
Mueller, sighted along the barrel.
"Wait," said Halter. "You"re right."
Captain McClelland hesitated.
"It"s quite plain," went on Halter, "that Dr. Mueller is alone among you. She wants to come out and go on with her work. The rest of you want the closed-in uterine warmth and peace of this room you"re existing in. You can"t face the possibility of failure. So I"m afraid she"ll have to be sacrificed. After all, you do need a full crew to move the ship--even if you are all dead a few seconds after blastoff."
He paused, looking intently at Brady, Crowley, Carlyle, Gordon, where they sat in the half circle, staring back at him. "So--"
Lieutenant Brady struggled up from his chair.
"I"ve got twenty-five years of life. I"ve some ships to design."
"That goes for me, too," said Crowley, the rocketman. "Will anybody want to read my novels?"
Astrogator Carlyle leaned forward. "There are many more poems to be written."
"Give me a soundproof laboratory," said Caroline Gordon. "I"ll add another fifty years to all your lives."
"I"m afraid it is mutiny, Captain," said Halter.
The captain started toward his chair, his hand reaching for the b.u.t.ton on its arm.
Lieutenant Brady stumbled forward, blocking his way.
Halter could only watch, thinking, _It"s up to them. They"ve got to do it now!_
He saw the captain draw his shock gun; saw light flare at its muzzle; saw Lieutenant Brady crumple like a collapsing skeleton.
Crowley reached forward, grasping McClelland"s shoulder. The gun swung toward him. A stream of light squirted into his middle. Crowley fell forward, pulling the captain down with him. The three other oldsters were above the three black figures sprawled on the floor, like tangled puppets. They hesitated a moment, then fell upon the ones below them, black arms and legs twitching about now like the legs of dying spiders, struggling weakly.
A flash of light exploded beneath these twisting black reeds and streaks of it shot out all through the waving black cl.u.s.ter.
The next moment, they settled and were quiet.
There was a stillness in the ancient control room, like the stillness in a sunken ship at the bottom of the sea. It lingered for a long time, while Colonel Halter watched and waited.
Dr. Mueller"s voice, seventy-five years tired, said, "He"s--quiet now.
Please come and take us out."
Colonel Halter switched on his desk visiophone.
"They"re coming out," he said quietly. "I"ll be there to supervise."
On the visiophone, the general"s image nodded. "Congratulations, Colonel. How are they?"
"There"ll be one case for psycho. Captain McClelland."
"I"ll be d.a.m.ned!" exclaimed the general. "From his record, I thought he"d never break!"
"Let"s say he couldn"t bend, sir." A pause. "And yet he did keep them from destroying themselves."
"He"ll be made well again.... What about the others?"