The Space Opera Megapack: 20 Modern and Classic Science Fiction Tales

by John W. Campbell

  “Thanks, but no jeep. Nobody but you knows that we’ve really got control of the Pleiades, and I want everybody else to keep on thinking it’s strictly for the birds. We’ll ’port in to your office whenever you say.”

  “I say now.”

  In no time at all the two Primes were seated in the private office of Eugene Evans, Head of the Legal Department of the newly re-incorporated Galaxian Society of Sol, Inc. Evans was a tall man, slightly thin, slightly stooped, whose thick tri-focals did nothing whatever to hide the keenness of his steel-gray eyes.

  “The first thing, Gene,” Garlock said, “is this employment contract thing. Have you figured out a way to break it?”

  “It can’t be broken.” The lawyer shook his head.

  “Huh? I thought you top-bracket legal eagles could break anything, if you really tried.”

  “A good many things, yes, especially if they’re long and complicated. The Standard Employment Contract, however, is short, explicit, and iron-clad. The employer can discharge the employee for any one of a number of offenses, including insubordination; which, as a matter of fact, the employer himself is allowed to define. On the other hand, the employee cannot quit except for some such fantastic reason as the non-tendering—not non-payment, mind you, but non-tendering—of salary.”

  “I didn’t expect that—it kicks us in the teeth before we get started.” Garlock got up, lighted a cigarette, and prowled about the big room. “Okay. Jim and I will have to get ourselves fired, then.”

  “Fired!” Belle snorted. “Clee, you talk like a man with a paper nose! Who else could run the Project? That is,” her whole manner changed; “he doesn’t know I can run it as well as you can—or better—but I could tell him—and maybe you think I wouldn’t!”

  “You won’t have to. Gene, you can start spreading the news that Belle Bellamy is a real, honest-to-God Prime Operator in every respect. That she knows more about Project Gunther than I do and could run it better. Ferber undoubtedly knows that Belle and I have been at loggerheads ever since we first met—spread it thick that we’re fighting worse than ever. Which, by the way, is the truth.”

  “Fighting? Why, you seemed friendly enough.…”

  “Yeah, we can be friendly for about fifteen minutes if we try real hard, as now. The cold fact is, though, that she’s just as much three-quarters hellcat and one-quarter potassium cyanide as she.…”

  “I like that!” Belle stormed. She leaped to her feet, her eyes shooting sparks. “All my fault! Why, you self-centered, egotistical, domineering jerk, I could write a book.…”

  “That’s enough—let it go—please!” Evans pleaded. He jumped up, took each of the combatants by a shoulder, sat them down into the chairs they had vacated, and resumed his own seat. “The demonstration was eminently successful. I will spread the word, through several channels. Chancellor Ferber will get it all, rest assured.”

  “And I’ll get the job!” Belle snapped. “And maybe you think I won’t take it!”

  “Yeah?” came Garlock’s searing thought. “You’d do anything to get it and to keep it. Yeah. I do think.”

  “Oh?” Belle’s body stiffened, her face hardened. “I’ve heard stories, of course, but I couldn’t quite…but surely, he can’t be thatstupid—to think he can buy me like so many pounds of calf-liver?”

  “He surely is. He does. And it works. That is, if he’s ever missed, nobody ever heard of it.”

  “But how could a man in such a big job possibly get away with such foul stuff as that?”

  “Because all the SSE is interested in is money, and Alonzo P. Ferber is a tremendously able top executive. In the big black-and-red money books he’s always ’way, ’way up in the black, and nobody cares about his conduct.”

  Belle, even though she was already convinced, glanced questioningly at Evans.

  “That’s it, Miss Bellamy. That’s it, in a precise, if somewhat crude, nutshell.”

  “That’s that, then. But just how, Clee—if he’s as smart as you say he is—do you think you can make him fire you?”

  “I don’t know—haven’t thought about it yet. But I could be pretty insubordinate if I really tried.”

  “That’s the understatement of the century.”

  “I’ll devote the imponderable force of the intellect to the problem and check with you later. Now, Gene, about the proposed Galactic Service, the Council, and so on. What is the reaction? Yours, personally, and others?”

  “My personal reaction is immensely favorable; I think it the greatest advance that humanity has ever made. I have been very cautious, of course, in discussing, or even mentioning the matter, but the reaction of everyone I have sounded—good men; big men in their respective fields—has been as enthusiastic as my own.”

  “Good. It won’t surprise you, probably, to be told that you are to be this system’s councillor and—if we can swing it and I think we can—the first President of the Galactic Council?”

  Evans was so surprised that it was almost a minute before he could reply coherently. Then: “I am surprised—very much so. I thought, of course, that you yourself would.…”

  “Far from it!” Garlock said, positively. “I’m not the type. You are. You’re better than anyone else of the Galaxians—which means than anyone else period. With the possible exception of Lola, and she fits better on our exploration team. Check, Belle?”

  “Check. For once, I agree with you without reservation. That’s a job we can work at all the rest of our lives, and scarcely start it.”

  “True—indubitably true. I appreciate your confidence in me, and if the vote so falls I will do whatever I can.”

  “We know you will, and thank you. How long will it take to organize? A couple of weeks? And is there anything else we have to cover now?”

  “A couple of weeks!” Evans was shocked. “You are naive indeed, young man, to think anything of this magnitude can even be started in such a short time as that. And yes, there are dozens of matters—hundreds—that should be discussed before I can even start to work intelligently.”

  Hence discussions went on and on and on. It was three days before Garlock and Belle ’ported themselves up into the Pleiades and the starship displaced itself instantaneously to Margonia.

  Meanwhile, on Margonia, James James James the Ninth went directly to the heart of his job by leading Lola and Fao into Delcamp’s office and setting up its Gunther blocks.

  “You said you want me to build your starship. Okay, but I want you both—Fao especially—to realize exactly what that means. I know what to do and how to do it. I can handle your Operators and get the job done. However, I can’t handle either of you, since you both out-Gunther me, and I’m not going to try to. But there can’t be two bosses on any one job, to say nothing of three or seventeen. So either I run the job or I don’t. If either of you steps in, I step out and don’t come back in. And remember that you’re not doing us any favors—it’s strictly vice versa.”

  “Jim!” Lola protested. Fao’s hackles were very evidently on the rise; Delcamp’s face was hardening. “Don’t be so rough, Jim, please. That’s no way to.…”

  “If you can pretty this up, pet, I’ll be glad to have you say it for me. Here’s what you have to work on. If I do the job they’ll have their starship in a few weeks. The way they’ve been going, they won’t have it in twenty-five years. And the only way to get that bunch out there to really work is to tell each one of them to cooperate or else—and enforce the ‘or else.’”

  “But they’d quit!” Delcamp protested. “They’ll all quit!”

  “With suspension or expulsion from the Society the consequences? Hardly.” James said.

  “But you wouldn’t do that—you couldn’t.”

  “I wouldn’t?”

  “Of course he wouldn’t,” Lola put in, soothingly, “except as a very last resort. And, even at worst, Jim could build it almost as easily with common labor. You Primes don’t really have to have any Operators at all, you know; but all your O
perators together would be perfectly helpless without at least one Prime.”

  “How come?” and “In what way?” Delcamp and Fao demanded together.

  “Oh, didn’t you know? After the ship is built and the fields are charged and so on, everything has to be activated—the hundred and one things that make it so nearly alive—and that is strictly a Prime’s job. Even Jim can’t do it.”

  “I see…or, rather, I don’t see at all,” Fao said, thoughtfully. She was no longer either excited or angry. “A few weeks against twenty-five years…what do you think of his time estimate, Deg my dear?”

  “I hadn’t thought it would take nearly that long; but this ‘activation’ thing scares me. Nothing in my theory even hints at any such thing. So—if there’s so much I don’t know yet, even in theory, it would take a long time. Maybe I’d never get it.”

  “Well, anyway, I want our Celestial Queen done in weeks, not years,” Fao said, extending her hand to James and shaking his vigorously. “So I promise not to interfere a bit. If I feel any such urge coming on, I’ll dash home and lock myself up in a closet until it dies. Fair enough?”

  Since Fao really meant it, that was fair enough.

  For a whole day James did nothing except study blueprints; going over in detail and practically memorizing every drawing that had been made. He then went over the ship, studying minutely every part, plate, member, machine and instrument that had been installed. He noted what each man and woman was doing and what they intended to do. He went over material on hand and material on order, paying particular attention to times of delivery. He then sent a few—surprisingly few—telegrams.

  Finally he called all fourteen Operators together. He told them exactly what the revised situation was and exactly what he was going to do about it. He invited comments.

  There was of course a riot of protest; but—in view of what James had said anent suspensions and expulsions from the Galaxian Society—not one of them actually did quit. Four of them, however, did appeal to Delcamp, considerably to his surprise, to oust the interloper and to put things back where they had been; but they did not get much satisfaction.

  “James says that he can finish building this starship in a few weeks,” Delcamp told them, flatly. “Specifically, three weeks, if we can get the special stuff made fast enough. Fao and I believe him. Therefore, we have put him in full charge. He will remain in charge unless and until he fails in performance. You are all good friends of Fao’s and mine, and we hope that all of you will stay with the project. If, however, we must choose now between you—any one of you or all of you—and James, there is no need to tell you what the choice will be.”

  Wherefore all fourteen went back to work; grudgingly at first and dragging their feet. In a very few hours, however, it became evident to all that James did in fact know what he was doing and that the work was going faster and smoother than ever before; whereupon all opposition and all malingering disappeared. They were Operators, and they were all intensely interested in their ship. Morale was at a high.

  Thus, when the Pleiades landed beside the now seething Celestial Queen, Garlock found James with feet on desk, hands in pockets, and scanner on head; doing—apparently—nothing at all. Nevertheless, he was a very busy man.

  “Hey, Jim!” A soprano shriek of thought emanated from a gorgeous seventeen-year-old blonde. “I can’t read this funny-picture, it’s been folded too many times. Where does this lead go to?”

  “Data insufficient. Careful, Vingie; I’d hate to have to send you back to school.”

  “’Scuse, please, Junior. Unit Six, Sub-Assembly Tee Dash Ni-yun. Terminal Fo-wer. From said terminal, there’s a lead—Bee Sub something-or-other—goes somewhere. Where?”

  “B sub Four. It goes to Unit Seven, Sub-Assembly Q dash Three, Terminal Two. And watch your insulation—that’s a mighty hot lead.”

  “Uh-huh, I got that. Double Sink Mill Mill; Class Albert Dog Kittens. Thanks, boss!”

  “Hi, Jim,” Garlock said. Then, to Delcamp. “I see you’re rolling.”

  “He’s rolling, you mean.” Delcamp had not yet recovered fully from a state of near-shock. “So that’s what an eidetic memory is? He knows every nut, bolt, lead, and coil in the ship!”

  “More than that. He’s checking every move everybody makes. When they’re done, you won’t have to just hope everything was put together right—you’ll know it was.”

  Jim was their man.

  And Fao sidled over toward Belle. There was something new about the silver-haired girl, Belle decided instantly. The difference was slight—Belle couldn’t put her finger on it at first. She seemed—quieter? Softer? More subdued? No, definitely. More feminine? No; that would be impossible. More…more adult? Belle hated to admit it, even to herself, but that was what it was.

  “Deg and I got married day before yesterday,” Fao confided, via tight beam.

  “Oh—so you’re pregnant!”

  “Of course. I saw to that the first thing. I knew you’d want to be the first one to know. Oh, isn’t it wonderful?” She seized Belle’s arm and hugged it ecstatically against her side. “Just too perfectly marvelous for anything?”

  “Oh, I’m sure it is; and I’m so happy for you, Fao!” And it would have taken the mind of a Garlock to perceive anything either false or forced in thought or bearing.

  Nevertheless, when Belle went into Garlock’s room that night, storm signals were flying high in her almost-topaz eyes.

  “Fao Talaho-Delcamp is pregnant!” she stormed, “and it’s all yourfault!”

  “Uh-huh,” he demurred, trying to snap her out of her obviously savage mood. “Not me, ace. Not a chance in the world. It was Deggi.”

  “You…you weasel! You know very well, Clee Garlock, what I meant. If you hadn’t given her that treatment she’d have kept on fighting with him and they wouldn’t have been married and had any children for positively years. So now she’ll have the first double-Prime baby and it ought to be mine. I’m older than she is—our group is ’way ahead of theirs—we have the first and only starship—and then you do that. And you wouldn’t give me that treatment. Oh, no—just to her, that bleached-blonde! I’d like to strangle you to death with my own bare hands!”

  “What a hell of a logic!” Garlock had been trying to keep his own temper in leash, but the leash was slipping. “Assume I tried to work on you—assume I succeeded—what would you be? What would I have? What age do you think this is—that of the Vikings? When SOP in getting a wife was to beat her unconscious with a club and drag her into the longboat by her hair? Hardly! I do not want and will not have a conquered woman. Nor a spoiled-rotten, mentally-retarded brat.…”

  “You unbearable, conceited, overbearing jerk! Why, I’d rather.…”

  “Get out! And this time, stay out!”

  Belle got out—and if door and frame had not been built of super-steel, both would have been wrecked by the blast of energy she loosed in closing the door behind her.

  In her own room, with Gunther blocks full on, she threw herself face down on the bed and cried as she had not cried since she was a child.

  And finally, without even taking off her clothes, she cried herself to sleep.

  CHAPTER 8

  Next morning, early, Belle tapped lightly on Garlock’s door.

  “Come in.”

  She did so. “Have you had your coffee?”

  “Yes.”

  “So have I.”

  Neither Belle nor Garlock had recovered; both faces showed strain and drain.

  “I think we’d better break this up,” Belle said, quietly.

  “Check. We’ll have to, if we expect to get any work done.”

  Belle could not conceal her surprise.

  “Oh, not for the reason you think,” Garlock went on, quickly. “Your record as a man-killer is still one hundred point zero zero zero percent. I’ve been in love with you ever since we paired. Before that, even.”

  “Flapdoodle!” she snorted, inelegantly. “Why, I.…”


  “Keep still a minute. And I’m not going to fight with you again. Ever. I’m not going to touch you again until I can control myself a lot better than I could last night.”

  “Oh? That was mostly my fault, of course. But in love? Uh-uh, I’ve seen men in love. You aren’t. I couldn’t make you be, not with the best I could do. Not even in bed. You aren’t, Clee—if you are, I’m an Australian bushman.”

  “Perhaps I’m an atypical case. I’m not raving about your perfect body—you know what that is like already. Nor about your mind, which is the only one I know of as good as my own. Maybe I’m in love with what I think you ought to be…or what I hope you will be. Anyway, I’m in love with something connected with you—and with no other woman alive. Shall we go eat?”

  “Uh-huh—let’s.”

  They joined Lola and James at the table; and if Lola noticed anything out of the ordinary, she made no sign.

  And after breakfast, in the Main—

  “About three weeks, Jim, you think?” Garlock asked.

  “Give or take a couple of days, yes.”

  “And Belle and I would just be in the way—at least until time to show Deggi about the activation…and all those Primes to organize…we’d better leave you here, don’t you think, and get going?”

  “I’ll buy that. We’ll finish as soon as possible.”

  Lola and James moved a few personal belongings planetside; Garlock and Belle shot the Pleiades across a vast gulf of space to one of the planets they had scanned so fleetingly on their preliminary survey. Its name was, both remembered, Lizoria; its two Primes were named Rezdo Semolo and Mirea Mitala—male and female, respectively.

  After sending down a very brief and perfunctory request for audience—which was in effect a declaration of intent and nothing else—Garlock and Belle teleported themselves down into Semolo’s office, where both Lizorian Primes were.