At last the port clanged shut and the ground-crew tromped away. Since even an over-age ship like _Mozart"s Lady_ was close to ninety percent automatic, there was no crew. Only the pilot--who was Bartock--and the pa.s.sengers.
Bartock was about to set the controls for blastoff when he heard footsteps clomp-clomping down the companionway. He toyed with the idea of locking the door, then realized that would arouse suspicion.
A square woman"s face over a plump middle-aged figure.
"I"m Mrs. Moriarity, pilot. I have a hundred young girls aboard. We"ll have no nonsense."
"No, sir. I mean, no ma"am."
"Well, make sure."
"Yes, ma"am."
"And I want an easy trip, without fuss or incidents. For half of our girls it"s the second time in s.p.a.ce--the first being when they came out here. You understand?"
"Yes, ma"am."
"What happened to the pilot who took us out?"
"Uh, pressed into service last week on a Mercury run. I"m surprised the control board didn"t tell you."
"They didn"t. It doesn"t matter. You do your job, and that"s all."
"Yes, ma"am," House Bartock said. "Just my job."
A few moments later, _Mozart"s Lady_ blasted off.
"Stop! Hey, wait!" Pitchblend Hardesty bawled at the top of his voice.
But it didn"t do any good. The police rushed up behind Pitchblend, not daring to fire.
Moments before, they had found the dead pilot"s body.
They knew at once what it meant, of course. They had been not more than a minute too late.
"Call Central Control on Neptune," a police officer said. "We"ll send a cruiser after them."
"Won"t do any good," Pitchblend Hardesty groaned.
"What are you talking about, fellow?"
"Unless the cruiser"s brand new."
"On Neptune? Don"t be silly. Newest one we"ve got is ten years old."
"Like I said, won"t do any good. I worked that ship over, mister. I know what she"s like inside. She may look like an over-age tub on the outside, but don"t let that fool you. She"s got power, mister. She"s probably the fastest thing this side of the Jovian moons, except for those experimental one-man rocket-bombs down at Neptune Station. But chasing a big tub in a one-man s.p.a.ce-bound coffin--" here Pitchblend used the vernacular for the tiny one-man experimental ships--"ain"t going to do anybody any good. Best thing you can do is track _Mozart"s Lady_ by radar and hope she"ll head sunward. Then they could intercept her closer in."
But _Mozart"s Lady_ did not head sunward. Radar tracking confirmed this moments later. _Mozart"s Lady_ was outward bound for Pluto"s...o...b..t. And, with Pluto and Neptune currently in conjunction, that could even mean a landing, although, the police decided, that wasn"t likely. There were no settlements on Pluto. Pluto was too weird. For the strangest reason in a solar system and a galaxy of wonders, Pluto was quite uninhabitable.
More likely, _Mozart"s Lady_ would follow Pluto"s...o...b..t around, then make a dash sunward....
The radar officer threw up his hands. "I give up," he said. "She"s heading for Pluto"s...o...b..all right. Call Neptune Station."
"Neptune Station, sir?"
"You bet. This job"s too big for me. The bra.s.s will want to handle it."
Seconds later, sub-s.p.a.ce crackled with energy as the call was put through from Triton City to Neptune Station.
Whatever else history would write about him, it would certainly call Johnny Mayhem the strangest--and literally most death-defying--test-pilot in history. Of course, testing the sleek experimental beauties out of Neptune Station and elsewhere wasn"t Mayhem"s chief occupation. He was, in a phrase, a trouble-shooter for the Galactic League. Whenever he had a spare few weeks, having completed an a.s.signment ahead of schedule in his latest of bodies, he was likely to turn up at some testing station or other and volunteer for work. He was never turned down, although the Galactic League didn"t approve.
Mayhem was probably the galaxy"s best pilot, with incredible reflexes and an utter indifference toward death.
For the past two weeks, having completed what turned out to be an easier-than-expected a.s.signment on Neptune, he had been piloting the s.p.a.ce-bound coffins out of Neptune Station, and with very satisfactory experimental results.
A few minutes ago he had been called into the station director"s office, but when he entered he was surprised to see the Galactic League Firstman of Neptune waiting for him.
"Surprised, eh?" the Firstman demanded.
"I"ll bet you want me to quit test-flying," Mayhem said with a smile which, clearer than words, told the Firstman his advice would be rejected.
The Firstman smiled too, "Why, no, Mayhem. As a matter of fact, I want you to take one of the coffins into deep s.p.a.ce."
"Maybe something"s wrong with my hearing," Mayhem said.
"No. You heard it right. Of course, it"s up to you. Everything you do, you volunteer."
"Let"s hear it, Firstman."
So the Firstman of Neptune told Johnny Mayhem about _Mozart"s Lady_ which, six hours ago, had left Triton for Pluto"s...o...b..t with an eccentric wealthy widow, a hundred girls, and a desperate escaped killer.
"The only thing we have out here fast enough to overtake them, Mayhem, is the one-man coffins. The only man we have who can fly them is you.
What do you say?"
Mayhem"s answer was a question, but the question didn"t really require an answer. Mayhem asked: "What are we waiting for?"
The Firstman grinned. He had expected such an answer, of course. The whole galaxy, let alone the solar system, knew the Mayhem legend. Every world which had an Earthman population and a Galactic League post, however small, had a body in cold storage, waiting for Johnny Mayhem if his services were required. But of course no one knew precisely when Mayhem"s services might be required. No one knew exactly under what circ.u.mstances the Galactic League Council, operating from the hub of the Galaxy, might summon Mayhem. And only a very few people, including those at the Hub and the Galactic League Firstmen on civilized worlds and Observers on primitive worlds, knew the precise mechanics of Mayhem"s coming.
Johnny Mayhem, a bodiless sentience. Mayhem--Johnny Marlow, then--who had been chased from Earth, a pariah and a criminal, eight years ago, who had been mortally wounded on a wild planet deep within the Saggitarian Swarm, whose life had been saved--after a fashion--by the white magic of that planet. Mayhem, doomed now to possible immortality as a bodiless sentience, an _elan_, which could occupy and activate a corpse if it had been frozen properly ... an _elan_ doomed to wander eternally because it could not remain in one body for more than a month without body and _elan_ perishing. Mayhem, who had dedicated his strange, lonely life to the service of the Galactic League because a normal life and normal social relations were not possible for him....
"One thing, Mayhem," the Firstman said, now, on Neptune. "How much longer you have in that body of yours?"
"Five days. Possibly six."
"That doesn"t give you much time. If you"re caught out there when your month is up--"
"I won"t be. We"re wasting time talking about it."