by John Rankine
Kano said disgustedly, ‘It’s just not interested, Professor.’
Voyager One was starting off again on its Galactic greeting and Koenig said, ‘Cut it.’
Thinking aloud, Bergman said, ‘There’s got to be a way to crack its delete code.’
Unexpectedly, he got an answer. Stepping forward quietly, Linden said, ‘There is, Professor.’
He was composed, very dignified and went on with an authority that drew every eye. ‘The command controls will only respond to precise signals. Persistent attempts to stop it in any other way could trigger its destruct mechanism.’
Koenig asked, ‘What do you know about it?’
‘I was . . . involved . . . in the Voyager Project.’
Bergman was suspicious, ‘I do not recall a Doctor Linden . . .’
‘If you check my personal index you will find that long before I came to Alpha my name was Queller.’
Whatever his impact had been before, there was no doubt he had made his mark now. First to recover, Koenig said, ‘Are you telling us that you are Ernst Queller?’
‘That is correct. I designed the Queller Drive.’
The top brass of Moonbase Alpha had a blow up of Voyager One as a backdrop to their conference as they sat round the table in Koenig’s command office.
Helena, still trying to come to terms with it said ‘Ernst Queller?’
Kano, liking accuracy said, ‘As was. The name was changed to Linden before ever he was assigned to Alpha.’
‘But no one knew.’
Koenig said, ‘He was cleared for duty on Alpha. If he chose not to reveal who he was, that was his right. Everyone has the right to that much privacy.’
Paul Morrow went for first principles, ‘He may have changed his name, but nothing can change what he did.’
There was even a more recent charge on the sheet and Carter put a finger on it, ‘His Queller Drive killed Abrams.’
Morrow added it up, ‘That’s one more to his score, but I’m thinking of the second ship in the programme, Voyager Two. The Queller Drive cut in too soon . . .’
Interrupting, Victor Bergman made a plea for science, ‘It was an error, Paul. Something went wrong . . .’
‘Two hundred people died, that’s what went wrong. A whole community wiped out. My father was one of them. I know something went wrong.’
Anger was mounting with memory and Koenig brought his conference back to the realities, ‘All right, Paul. This is specially hard for you. But we are not here now to pass moral judgement on Ernst Queller. We’re here to decide if Ernst Linden can help us.’
It gained him no credit with Helena Russell. Not meeting his eyes, she said bitterly, ‘You would put the survival of Alpha in the hands of that man?’
Koenig ignored her, ‘Victor, can you guarantee to shut down the Queller Drive in time?’
‘Guarantee? No.’
‘All right. Let’s have Linden in.’
Koenig swivelled in his chair and used his commlock to open the hatch. Linden was waiting calm and composed in spite of the circle of accusing faces. He walked steadily to the head of the table and faced Koenig.
John Koenig said, ‘Doctor Linden, we need the information Voyager can give us. I want to know if you can shut down the Queller Drive so that we can reach that information. Please think carefully. I want to know if you can do it with the facilities we have available on Moonbase. I want, to know if you can do it in the time we have left.’ He looked at Kano for the latest figure.
Kano said, ‘Nine hours, ten minutes.’ Koenig went on, ‘Yes or no?’
There was no hesitation from Linden. He said simply, ‘I believe I can.’
‘Yes or no?’
‘Commander Koenig, twenty years ago, I would have given you my guarantee. Now, all I can say is I will do everything I can.’
The ball was back definitely in Koenig’s court and he looked steadily at Linden’s calm face trying to discard everything he knew for a new estimate of the man. At last, he said, ‘Thank you.’
It was a vote of confidence and Linden took it as that. When he had gone, Koenig looked round the ring of faces, ‘I’m going along with him. Paul, keep this close. I don’t want his real identity widely known.’
Morrow snapped his notebook shut. ‘Not even Haines? Jim Haines lost both parents on account of Queller. He should know who he’s working with.’
Koenig was dubious about that one. If he could have seen into the experimental lab he might have been more convinced that he was right. Jim Haines was currently having enough problems with the device he was building. Linden’s rapid instructions had left him behind, but he was soldiering on with blind faith in his chief.
Linden was covering sheet after sheet with equations and did not look up when Haines said, ‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing? I don’t.’
‘Just build it, Jim.’
In Main Mission, Carter, was working on a contingency plan and Koenig, after watching Voyager One moving inexorably towards Alpha, asked him to brief him on it.
The chief pilot had a coloured chart on the scanner and had it worked out. ‘It’s a three phase operation, Commander. I’ve hatched in three zones. As soon as Voyager enters the green area, our Eagles go to automatic alert. If it makes the yellow band, we move into position here. The moment it nudges over into the red we blast it with everything we’ve got.’
Koenig nodded. It looked good. He said, ‘Begin countdown.’
Digits began to slide behind the windows of the countdown clock, with a solid clunk on every full minute. It showed seven hours on the nose, a symbolic number. As Koenig watched, it flipped down to 6-59 with a sweep second hand making indecent haste to whip them along to annihilation. When he visited Linden and Haines in their workshop it was down to 4-17 and still busy as a flea.
They had knocked up an impressive three-dimensional artefact that sent flickers through an array of neon tubes and was emitting an audio pulse. It looked impressive enough. Koenig said quietly to Haines, ‘I’d like to speak to Doctor Linden.’
Linden answered for himself, straightening from the bench and nodding to Haines, ‘Jim, those quartz components. They should be ready by now.’
Haines went away to check and Linden was ready, anticipating Koenig’s question.
‘It will be finished on time. As soon as the circuit pattern is complete I can override the command instructions and shut down the drive.’
‘Possibilities of failure?’
Linden was confident, almost boastful, ‘None. I created the Queller Drive. All I need is time.’
‘Do you need more men?’
‘No. Haines and I can do it alone, faster.’
There was a defensive element in the reply that made Koenig ask, ‘I hope you’re not trying to prove something, Doctor?’
‘You and I both want to stop Voyager. I suggest you leave me to do it, Commander.’
Koenig debated. There was not much area of choice. It was his decision and with Helena still against him and gone icily cool he was feeling somewhat isolated. He spun on his heel and returned to Main Mission.
Carter was deploying his Eagles. One by one they were rising to their launch pads and receiving their crew complement. On the Main Scanner, Voyager One was clear to the last detail like a still picture.
Carter said, ‘Eagles Six, Nine and Ten. Launch positions.’
Pilots were answering in sequence.
‘Eagle Six. Ready for launch.’
‘Eagle Ten. In position.’
‘Eagle Nine. Ready for launch.’
Carter was watching the countdown clock. From two hours one minute, it changed with a definitive clunk to two hours dead and a green tell tale glowed into life. On the instant he was calling his pilots, ‘Eagles Six, Nine and Ten. Condition green now operative. Go!’
Vibrations ran through Moonbase Alpha as the motors delivered and the Eagles clawed themselves over the moonscape. He saw them wheel and form a flight pattern and spoke again,
‘We’re watching you. Good luck all.’
Silence fell on Main Mission. There was nothing anybody wanted to say. There was the clock to watch and the leaden minutes sheared themselves off like so much waste metal. In the experimental lab, Linden’s concentration was absolute. Beads of sweat were standing out on his forehead. Once he looked at the repeater and saw the clock at one-forty six. Then it knocked down the single hour, the green light blinked out and came on again in yellow.
Sandra Benes said unnecessarily, ‘One hour to interception.’
John Koenig nodded to Carter and he called his Eagles. ‘Control to Eagles Six, Nine and Ten. Condition Yellow. Move to intercept positions.’
They saw them fan out in a wide arc with Voyager One arrowing in on its undeviating course.
Koenig said, ‘Anything from Linden?’
Bergman looking anxious shook his head.
In fact Linden was running a preliminary test on his brainchild, tapping out a sequence from his console and watching the heap glow and blip to his tune.
Haines looked at it in simple disbelief. ‘Will it work?’
‘It will work.’
Linden had almost worked himself to a standstill. As he went to the bench for some final adjustments he was talking to himself. ‘Nothing can stop us now. We can override the onboard computer, the security codes are irrelevant. We can shut down the Drive any time we like.’
Haines watched him with his mind suddenly switched on a new thought. He said, ‘What? Override the onboard computer? Security codes irrelevant? How did we do that?’
‘You don’t understand, Jim. We have recreated the control pattern for the Queller Drive.’
‘That’s not possible.’ The idea in Haines’s head was crystalising out into a terrible certainty. ‘There’s only one man who could do that. Only one man had the knowledge.’ He was close to Linden, grabbing him by the lapels of his coat as the truth became plain. ‘Tell me who you are.’
‘Please Jim.’
‘Hell! Tell me! I want to hear it from you. Tell me.’
Linden’s face was grey. There was no need for speech. Haines was shaking him in a blaze of anger. ‘You’re Ernst Queller. That’s right, isn’t it?’
All the tension of the last hours and the sense of betrayal that he should have given loyalty and even affection to this man burned in a red tide through Haines’s mind. He threw Linden away from him across the room.
Linden stumbled backwards, fought for balance, hit the bench with the back of his legs and flailed wildly with his arms. There was a blinding flash and the crack of exploding tubes. Linden pitched forward face down. Haines suddenly ice cold looked at the wreckage.
The countdown clock clunked the demise of another minute. It stood accusingly at 0-45.
CHAPTER SIX
Ernst Linden was out cold, face like set wax. Watching Helena and Bob Mathias go to work with a mobile trolley of medical gear, Koenig reckoned bitterly that they were wasting the precious minutes still pounding out of the clock.
‘How is he?’
Helena Russell connected another electrode and answered obliquely, profile averted, ‘Fractured ribs. Shock. All set, Bob. Switch on.’
As the energy flowed, Linden stirred. She said, ‘Again,’ and Linden’s eyes opened slowly.
Koenig said, ‘How did this happen?’
This time he got a full face response, but it was more of a slow burn. She was too angry to speak and merely looked away towards Haines.
Haines himself was still overcome by the enormity of what he had done. He said haltingly, ‘Commander, believe me . . . I didn’t intend . . .’
Koenig’s voice was like a whip crack, ‘Stupid. You’ve destroyed the only chance we had . . .’
Unexpectedly, Haines had an ally. Linden called weakly, ‘Commander . . . Please. It was not his fault.’
Haines started an apology, ‘I’m sorry . . .’ but he was cut short by Koenig, ‘Get out!’
Linden was trying again, sweating with pain as he tried to move himself off the deck, ‘Voyager . . .’
‘Don’t concern yourself with Voyager. We can’t save it now.’
There was silence. Koenig went to the work bench to inspect the damage. To his eye, they had a write-off. Linden shifted himself with a superhuman effort to get a look at the clock. They had thirty-four minutes. He said, ‘I can. There’s still time.’
He was on his feet, holding his rib cage, face twisted by pain, dragging himself to join Koenig at the bench. ‘Don’t destroy it yet!’
‘Right now there are three Eagles lining up their sights on Voyager.’
‘I must finish what I started.’
Helena could hardly believe what she was hearing. She said, coldly, ‘Why? You’re not doing it for us. You’re doing it to resolve some kind of personal conflict. You’re fighting a battle no-one gives a damn about.’
Linden ignored her, ‘May I resume my work now?’
The communications post blipped urgently for attention and Sandra Benes appeared on screen, ‘Commander. Main Mission. Urgent.’
Koenig was at the hatch before the picture faded. As a parting shot, he said to Mathias, ‘Do what you can to prevent this man killing himself.’
All eyes in Main Mission were on the operations scanner. Three bright specks had materialised way behind Voyager. Sandra said, ‘Three objects, Commander. Following Voyager’s course.’
Kano’s computer started to jibber and Kano had a print-out to read, ‘Positive identification, Commander. They’re spacers. Flight path identical with Voyager One. Heading for Alpha.’
Sandra did some delicate timing and they had it plain on the main scanner. Voyager One was zooming in with three hurrying specks closing on her trail.
In the experimental lab, Linden, face a mask of sweat was driving himself to repair his damaged transmitter. Reluctantly, Helena Russell gave him some credit in human terms, whatever the motive, he was a fighter. As he stopped, racked with a surge of pain, she came forward with a charged hypo gun and gave him another pain killing shot.
As his breath steadied, he said, ‘Thank you.’
‘You can’t take much more of this.’
‘I know what I’m doing.’
‘Do you?’ Her voice was less challenging. She was almost apologetic, ‘Don’t you see? It’ll have to be destroyed. You’re killing yourself for nothing.’
‘You wouldn’t understand.’
The countdown clock clicked hitting fourteen. He switched on. There was still a small segment of the circuit giving no joy. He went on working at it.
When the clock hit five, Koenig was ready to give Carter the clear. Paul Morrow watching the big screen said, ‘Those ships are definitely following Voyager.’
Whatever the reason was, Koenig knew it was secondary to their present problem. He dismissed it from his thinking and listened to the exchange between Eagle Six and Carter.
‘Eagles maintaining intercept positions.’
‘Check. Hold it there.’
Linden, blind to anything but his circuits was ready for another dry run. Even Helena felt his triumph as the whole device glowed into life. He went to his console, tapped a trial sequence, put his head on his hands and drew deep quivering breaths.
Carter called evenly, ‘Three minutes to intercept.’
Main Mission was tense. Voyager One filled the big screen.
Carter called, ‘Eagles to firing positions.’
Responses came in from his pilots, ‘Eagle Six Copy.’
‘Eagle Nine Copy.’
‘Eagle Ten Copy.’
‘Lock weapons.’
They answered again and Carter, ready for the moment of truth looked across at Koenig. The countdown clock hit 1 and the last seconds began to flick past. The yellow tell-tale died and the window glowed red.
Carter was ready to fire and Koenig intervened sharply, ‘Wait Alan.’
‘We can’t . . .’
Kano confirmed it, ‘Voyager One now in
space area red.’
A slight rumbling noise began to build and every head in Main Mission turned to Koenig.
Morrow said, ‘Commander!’
Eagle Six came in with the pilot’s voice hard edged and anxious. ‘Waiting for instructions to fire, Alpha!’
Alan Carter looked at Koenig’s set face and voiced the appeal that was in every head, ‘You must give the order to fire, Commander. Now!’
‘I said wait.’
The rumbling increased. They were being held in the path of an unstoppable juggernaut. Only ingrained discipline and the long habit of accepting Koenig’s decision was keeping them at their desks.
Sandra Benes spoke like a zombie, ‘Countdown minus fifty seconds.’
The communications post blipped and Linden’s haggard face joined the symposium. ‘I’m ready. I need computer link up.’
Carter’s voice cracked out, ‘It’s too late.’
But Koenig was already giving the go-ahead to Kano, ‘All right, Kano. Link him up.’
In the experimental lab, Helena was watching the final stages of an incredible endurance effort. Linden’s machine was pulsing and glowing like a monstrous heart. The pay-off was at hand and she could see that the man himself was almost overcome by all the memories and implications of what he had achieved. He was bowed over the console almost reluctant to make the final notes.
She came up behind him and said sincerely, ‘Good luck.’
It was the trigger he needed to get him in action for the last phase. He looked at her, managed a wry smile and began to tap out rapid sequences on the console keyboard with a firm and positive hand. Responding to the master touch, the circuit pattern changed pitch and key and began to talk persuasively to the onboard computer on the hurrying Voyager One.
Main Mission was still under stress. Vibration was undiminished. The electronic voice of Voyager One’s computer came in almost as an insult, ‘THIS IS THE VOICE OF VOYAGER ONE.’ But there was a change, something was throwing it out of kilter. It began to distort, accelerating as though it was determined to say its piece, ‘GREETINGS. GREETINGS FROM THE PEOPLE OF EARTH.’ It rose in a scream of gobbledegook and then cut out leaving a stunned silence.
