Return From Omina

by Roland Starr

  “I can’t explain the scanner’s reaction to the men’s interrogation!” Adah said slowly. “It is accepted that if the scanner screen remains blank after a man has been asked a question then he is concealing the truth. But why would two men lie about seeing Bardo in the engine room?”

  “I’ve been asking myself that question since I learned of what happened.” Vonner shook his head, his face betraying the intensity of his thoughts. “Bardo couldn’t have been in the engine room! If he was, supposing, then his two security guards are lying, and if he wasn’t then the two engine room crewmen are lying!”

  “They could have been mistaken!” Adah suggested.

  “No! They were both emphatic about what they saw, and the way they described Bardo gave an exact picture of what he is wearing at this time.”

  “Then that should indicate that they are not lying!” Adah mused. “Those two crewmen couldn’t possibly know what Bardo is wearing in his observation cell!”

  “That’s right!” The frown on Vonner’s harshly set features deepened a little. “But if we assume that Bardo was in the engine room then the two guards are lying!”

  “They would do that only if they were under Bardo’s influence! But I used the eraser cassette on him, then reprocessed him.” Adah sighed in frustration. “I will admit that we are in the realm of the unknown where Bardo is concerned, in view of all that’s happened to him. I’ll give him a thorough examination when he comes in, but I don’t know what I’ll be looking for!”

  “Something is going on, that’s certain!” Vonner said softly, “and we’ve got to put a stop to it before something really serious happens.”

  They talked desultorily until Curran returned with the two guards and Bardo. Vonner stared at Bardo as the man was brought in, but Bardo was impassive and co-operative. He was strapped in the seat and attached to the scanner. The screen at his back flickered and showed a series of dots to indicate that the power was flowing, and then it remained a dull grey colour.

  “Ed,” Curran said, when Adah gave him a nod to indicate that all was ready, “I want to ask you some questions about your activities since you were put in your room after reprocessing. Exactly what have you done since I saw you last?”

  Vonner watched the screen, and tightened his lips when it remained maddeningly blank. But his scalp tingled and he frowned as he watched and listened. Curran knew his job well, asking irrelevant questions to put Bardo’s mind at rest, then slipping in the vital interrogation, but each time they met with a blank screen, until Vonner touched Curran’s arm and intimated that they should bring the farce to a halt.

  “Take Bardo back to his room, replace the guards with fresh men, and bring the two guards back here,” Vonner instructed.

  Curran nodded and followed out the prisoner and the guards.

  “Are you still certain there’s no malfunction?” Vonner asked the doctor.

  “We’ve got a mystery on our hands,” she replied, shaking her head. “Although there was no response from the scanner I did get a strange reaction on the detectors. Bardo has an immense resistance to the process. If we take an average resistance at Point One, and above average at Point Four, then Bardo’s resistance would rate Point Twelve.”

  “Did you check the resistance of both engine room crewmen?” Vonner demanded.

  “I noted them. One rated Point One and the other was Point Two.”

  “So what is the significance in Bardo’s rating of Point Twelve? What are you trying to tell me?”

  “If Bardo’s rating is correct then he would have the ability to mentally overpower the scanner.” Adah’s voice was low pitched, and there was a trace of incredulity in her tones. “And that is not all! I calculate that with a Point Twelve resistance, Bardo’s mental power is such that he might well be able to project images into the minds of crewmen around him.”

  “Images?” Vonner seemed to hold his breath.

  “Perhaps the engine room crewmen were forced to believe they saw Bardo in the engine room, although Bardo never left his observation room.”

  “Bardo forcing them to imagine it, no doubt!” Vonner’s tones held disbelief in their harsh content. “If Bardo did that, who sabotaged the machinery?”

  “The crewmen, acting under Bardo’s influence!”

  “And Bardo would be able to prevent the scanner from reading and projecting his mind and the minds of anyone else he desired.”

  “I imagine that’s what happened,” Adah said.

  “If Bardo is intent upon stopping the ship then why permit you to discover this and report it to me?”

  “Perhaps he wants you to know!” Adah shook her head slowly and bit her lip.

  “That sounds crazy to me!” Vonner asserted.

  “Isn’t it crazy that Bardo should want to destroy the ship on its homeward trip?” she countered.

  Vonner considered for a moment, then sighed again. He breathed harshly, his dark eyes glinting as he considered. When he looked into Adah’s face he saw that she was apprehensive.

  “Have you Bardo’s records?” he asked. “What was his resistance rating before we reached Omina, before all the trouble started?”

  She turned without a word and crossed to a filing cabinet, quickly locating Bardo’s file. After flipping over a few pages she paused and read for several seconds, then looked up to meet Vonner’s hard gaze.

  “Bardo’s rating has always been Point Two,” she announced.

  “So how has he managed to jump an incredible ten points?” he demanded.

  She shrugged her slim shoulders and shook her head. “I think we’d better check that reprocessing file in the brain-washer room. It automatically records the resistance rating of each crew member.”

  Vonner followed her, and as they went along the corridor he tried to organise his thoughts. He was silent while she checked through the files in the brain-washer room, but stiffened mentally when she uttered an ejaculation.

  “Captain, I can’t believe it,” she said in hollow tones, and her pale eyes, when she looked at him, were wide and round in shocked surprise. “It was about twelve hours ago when we reprocessed Bardo, and at that time his resistance rating was Point One, just below his average. I didn’t pay much heed to that at the time because of the strain and stresses to which he had been subjected during the previous two months. But in twelve hours his resistance has leaped forward in a gigantic bound.”

  “Eleven Points, to be precise!” Vonner moistened his lips. His hands suddenly felt clammy and he experienced a chill premonition as he considered. “Something has happened to Bardo because of all the reprocessing he’s been subjected to! Can you give me any explanation, Doc?”

  “Not right now! But Bardo’s mental capacity has far exceeded any human rating ever recorded. I can quote instances of the powers reported of men with resistance ratings of Seven, Eight and Nine, and some of the reports would frighten you.”

  “I’ve got to handle this situation,” Vonner said steadily. “You’d better tell me everything you can, Doc!”

  “A man with a resistance rating of Seven killed a guard just by concentrating his mental power upon the man. An examination revealed that the guard died of brain haemorrhage, and there were no external signs of bruising on the guard’s skull. Yet the brain itself looked as if it had been battered with a club.”

  “You mean a man with such mental power can actually cause bodily harm to another human merely by concentrating upon such a thought?” Vonner demanded incredulously.

  “Let’s go into my office,” Adah suggested. “I have a number of books on this subject. Experiments were carried out about fifty years ago, and quite suddenly all tests were dropped. Some of the findings of the scientists involved on the Project were astounding.”

  Vonner’s taut face wore a frown as he followed her into the office. Curran’s voice hailed him as he was about to leave the corridor, and Vonner paused to look around, finding the colonel and Bardo’s two guards coming towards him.

 
“I’ve brought the guards for scanning, Captain!” Curran reported.

  “Let them wait in the sickbay. I want you present to hear what Doc Morley has to say,” Vonner retorted.

  Curran sent the guards on to the sickbay and followed Vonner into the office. Vonner watched Curran’s face as Adah explained what she had already told. The colonel’s face paled a little, and he threw a swift glance at Vonner.

  “Captain, if Doc is correct then we’ve got a real problem on our hands,” he said.

  “You’ve had some experience of this kind of thing, Philo?” Vonner demanded.

  “Yes, and it wasn’t pleasant. When I was a Lieutenant aboard the old Space Rover! It was the first trip of the Lennox Exploration. We had a crewman who evinced signs of space mania, and his resistance rating was Eight; kept mounting all the time after the ship’s doctor processed him to keep him quiet. That crewman tore out a solid steel cell door just by staring at it. I witnessed it, and was never so scared in all my life. I was duty officer that day, and had just entered the Security Section to check on the prisoners. A guard tried to restrain the crewman after the door went down and was dropped as neatly as if he had stopped a stun-gun bolt. Afterwards it was found that the crewman had grown in mental strength from normal to Point Eight!”

  “And we’ve just discovered that Bardo’s mental power has reached Point Twelve from Point One in a matter of twelve hours!” Vonner looked at the doctor.

  “Perhaps Bardo did commit the act of sabotage just by thinking about it,” Adah said. “And he could have projected an image of himself into the engine room for those two men to see.”

  “Why would he want to warn us that something was wrong and he was behind it?” Curran asked slowly.

  “If he wants me to know,” Vonner said, “then all I can think is that he intends to fight me for superiority!”

  “He could kill you quite easily,” Adah cut in. “Captain, this is the most dangerous situation you have ever encountered. While Bardo is impassive — and perhaps he has no real idea yet of the power he now possesses — then it’s fairly safe for us, but once he becomes aware of what has happened to him he could destroy the entire ship with a blink of his eyes.”

  “How can we subdue him?” Vonner demanded. “What measures can we take?”

  “We stopped our crewman with a Mark Three Disintegrating Cannon!” Curran said. “Nothing less worked against him. He just stood and took stun-gun bolts right up to maximum emission. By the time we killed him he had destroyed forty-three crewmen out of the complement of two hundred and fifty!”

  Sweat beaded Vonner’s forehead as he looked at the doctor.

  “You seem to know a great deal about this situation,” he said. “If it was aware at Space Force HQ that the monthly reprocessing sequence was so risky then there must have been some safeguards devised to deal with just such an incident as the one facing us.”

  “You have to dispose of Bardo!” Adah spoke curtly. “And you cannot afford to waste any time, Captain! Once he becomes aware of his power there will be no holding him!”

  “He doesn’t know what he’s done yet?” Vonner demanded.

  “Probably not. He must have thought about sabotaging the engine, if he had the opportunity, and it happened because of this terrible upsurge in his mental power.”

  “How can he become aware of this power?” Vonner’s tones were brittle.

  “If he loses his temper and tries conclusions with the guards he will find that they’ll die, and it will make him aware of the true situation.” Adah’s voice shook a little. “You’d better let Colonel Curran take a disintegrating cannon and kill Bardo immediately.”

  “But what if you’re wrong about Ed?” Vonner protested.

  “That’s a chance you’ll have to take!” Adah stiffened her tones, and moistened her lips as she drew a deep breath. “I’m quite certain that there can be no mistake. Everything points to this! You’ve got to act fast, Captain! It’s Bardo or the entire ship and crew!”

  Vonner raised his eyes to gaze at the impassive features of Philo Curran, and gained no aid from the Colonel’s silence. Curran shook his head slowly, indicating that he felt it was a tough decision to be made, but it was Vonner’s alone. Vonner sighed harshly.

  “I’ve shipped with Ed Bardo for more years than I care to think about,” he said softly. “There must be something less drastic we can do, Doctor! What about immobilising him?”

  “We could attempt that, but it will prove uncertain and dangerous. If Bardo becomes aware of his tremendous powers then nothing will save us. He will not be reasonable and his driving force will be towards destruction.” Adah Morley spoke in low, vibrant tones. “I can’t advise you to take any chances. Captain. You have the ship to think of!” The communicator on the desk bleeped insistently, and they all started nervously. Adah leaned forward and opened the line. Vonner heard the duty officer’s voice asking for him and went forward, sitting down at the desk.

  “This is the captain,” he replied. “What do you want?”

  “Captain, Lieutenant Farrell reports that he has deciphered the strange signal he picked up some hours ago. It is a call for help from a starship of Space Force which was on its way to Omina to rendezvous with us.”

  “Hold it!” Vonner interrupted. “I’ll come back to the control room.”

  “What about Bardo?” Curran said. “Nothing is more important than settling the question of his fate.”

  “You would walk straight into Bardo’s room and kill him, wouldn’t you, Philo?” Vonner commented. “You’ve known Ed for a long time, as I have, but you would put an end to his life without consciously thinking about it!”

  “If you gave me an order I would carry it out without a moment’s hesitation,” Curran replied. “But apart from that simple matter of discipline, I do know what could happen if Ed Bardo suddenly realizes what power he possesses. I’m afraid. Captain! This ship would be destroyed in a flash if Bardo wanted it that way.”

  “At any time he might think of a crew member and wish he were dead,” Adah cut in, “and that crew member would drop dead as surely as if lightning had struck him.”

  “What about the immobiliser?” Vonner demanded. “Can you put Ed to sleep and keep him that way? It would give us time, and I feel I need a breathing space before I order the instant execution of a crew member!”

  “If you make a mistake here then you’ll be responsible for the death of the entire crew!” Curran said softly.

  “And there are two guards close to Bardo right now. At any moment they could be killed!” Urgency crept into Adah’s curt tones, and Vonner fought down the sense of disaster that seemed to rise up in his mind.

  “Try the immobiliser!” he said sharply. “I must have time in which to think. But you’ve got to be standing by with a disintegrating cannon, Philo, and don’t hesitate to use it should Ed begin to show signs of becoming dangerous.”

  “That’s a firm order, is it, Captain?” Curran was already turning away.

  “Yes, Philo. I leave you to judge the situation. But whatever you do, you’ll have my full backing!”

  “Thank you, sir!” Curran almost ran from the room, and Vonner could hear him calling to the two guards who had been relieved from watching Bardo.

  “It is a tough decision to make, Captain,” Adah said in quiet tones. “But I shan’t feel easy until Bardo is dead! He’s not the man you knew for years! You can forget that Ed Bardo. No matter what we do to him, he’ll never revert to what he was. The processes to which he has been subjected have taken control of him, charged him as if he were a piece of inanimate equipment, and he will have no compunction when he starts rampaging. He will kill all the crew and destroy the ship.”

  “Get the immobiliser set up please,” Vonner said. “You can tap into the main drive, if necessary, to produce sufficient power to hold Bardo. I’ll come back to the problem as soon as I’ve checked with Farrell about the signal he’s received.”

  Adah nodded and turned
away, and Vonner stood for a moment, wondering what to do for the best. Then he sighed and made for the door. They were less than twenty-four hours out on the homeward trip to Earth and already the problems were becoming difficult to handle. As he passed a communicator set into the bulkhead by an elevator he paused, filled with the impulse to contact Curran and issue Bardo’s death order, but he still could not accept the doctor’s firm opinion of the situation. He had to give Ed Bardo the benefit of the doubt.

  When he entered the control room he found the duty crew in a state of excitement, and crossed to Farrell’s communications console.

  “I’ve managed to break the code, Captain!” Farrell reported, his pale eyes glinting.

  “I got the message, Howie. Is there anything else you can tell me? Have you any details? What ship was calling? Where is it?”

  “That much I can’t tell you. Listen to the recording I’ve made!” Farrell switched on a recorder, and a few seconds later his voice sounded, reading out the message as he had deciphered it. There were no details; merely a call for help from a starship making for Omina rendezvous!

  “What do you make of it, Captain?” Farrell demanded.

  “What can we make of it?” Vonner countered. “Have you tried to find out where the message came from?”

  “I’ve got the equipment operating now.” Farrell nodded slowly. “It depends how far away the ship is when the signal was sent. If it is close then we could pick it up on our direction-finders. But it was such a short message that it might have been swamped by space chatter.”

  “And because it was not a properly constituted distress signal the indications are that it is a real emergency!” Vonner grimaced as he considered. Real trouble aboard a space ship usually meant certain death for its crew. Time was of the essence! “Treat this as a Red Emergency, Howie, and do what you can. Keep me informed of your progress.” He thought of Bardo again, and compressed his lips for a moment. “I have another problem on my hands right now which cannot be delayed. I’ll be in the sickbay!” He departed once more, and in the back of his mind was the thought that trouble didn’t come in twos. It usually struck in batches of three. If there was more trouble in the offing then all he could do was hope it would not be as serious as either of the problems at present facing him…