by Darrell Bain
“Of course. But how do we go about making that happen? I wouldn't want to get Callahan angry, not as long as he has the army behind him.”
“Ah, but does he? Or rather, will he once we land? That's the key. They'll be no more likely to want him to keep running things than the rest of us. Less likely, I'd be willing to bet. After all, most of the troops are youngsters and easily swayed, given the proper motivation.”
“So they are. Do you think we should wait until we land before doing anything?”
Fondez shook his head. “No. We need to begin our campaign now, I believe. After all, telling people that Captain Gordon was drugged is nothing more then the truth, isn't it? What can anyone do to you for telling the truth?”
“Right,” Montingham said. “It's nice to talk to someone who shares my views.”
Fondez parted from the other man but was careful to make sure he was out of his sight before letting the smirk cross his face. Drugged, indeed! No one but a fool like Montingham would believe such nonsense but there were a lot of fools in the world, weren't there?
* * * *
“We seem to have arrived a bit off from the calculated point, sir,” Sissy reported and continued frowning as her glance tracked from the main screen to the figures coming up on her own smaller one.
“What?!” Travis realized heads had turned at the sound of his voice and continued in a quieter tone, “I mean how far off?”
“Quite a ways, sir,” she said, as usual being punctiliously correct while on duty or while anyone else was near Travis. She was quiet for a moment while reading a text com then looked up. “The gang just focused in on our planet. They tell me it'll be several days before we can get to a parking orbit. Captain, I don't know why this happened. I think I had better check with Effers.”
“Do that, please. In the meantime, are we close enough to begin analyzing it for possibilities?”
“In my opinion, yes, sir, but it might be better to consult with the science team.” She began meshing her com with that of Effers while Travis used the main one in the control room to talk with the scientists. In a moment she had Effers on her viewscreen. His face looked worried.
“The backup computer apparently wasn't completely synched with the impellers,” he said as soon as he saw her visage. “I'm troubleshooting now.”
“Can we use the impellers to get into an orbit around our planet?” Her heart jumped at the thought of being stranded so close to a possible home.
“Oh, yeah. What I'm doing won't effect that little move. It's our next interstellar course setting that I'm worried about, if we need to have one.”
“Okay, I'm going to take us on in, then. Get back to the captain when you know something.”
“Will do.”
She signed off and turned to listen to Travis as he and Addie talked.
“I've already begun spectrographic measurements of its atmosphere, Captain,” she said. “It looks good but we'll have to get much closer for a really fine analysis. What happened?”
“I don't know yet but please don't banter it around that we missed where we were aiming for by so much. Keep at it and we'll talk again once we're in orbit, or sooner if you come up with anything you need me for.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Captain,” Sissy said quietly as soon as he signed off, “Mister Effers tells me something's wrong with the backup computers and that's why we were so far off.”
“Uh oh. What's he doing about it?”
She shrugged. “He said he's troubleshooting now. He'll let us know as soon as he finds out what went wrong. In the meantime, he says it's safe to head on into the system and a parking orbit.”
He nodded for her to go ahead. She could see he was trying not to let his concern show. Effers better know what he's talking about or this better be a good planet one, she thought. He didn't spot this glitch. There might be some more he hasn't found.
* * * *
An hour later Travis was in his office questioning Effers. The electronicist's long black hair was greasy from sweating brought on by tension.
“It's not good, sir,” Effers said. “In fact, it's bad.”
“I already know that, Tim,” he said patiently. “Tell me how bad.”
Effers took a deep breath. “Sir, both backup computers appear to have been affected in the same way by that quadrant board that went berserk. It wasn't directly harmed and I don't think the backups were sabotaged in any manner. I believe it happened when the overload from the sabotaged board hit the circuit barrier that was preventing the alarm and switchover and some of the surge passed into them. It's a subtle thing that's probably been building up and not something I'm confident about either routing around or trying for a software fix.”
“Go on.” Travis eyed the young man with a direct penetrating gaze that told him to be as frank as he had to.
Effers shrugged resignedly. “It's like this, sir. I believe we'll make it to our target planet without any problem but I don't think we ought to try another interstellar jump. As near as I can tell, the impellers only began going wrong right at the last instant. Had we gone any longer and the inconstants got involved, there's no telling where we would have come out ... or if we would have come out at all.”
“Why?”
“It's ... sir, it's like I said. When the sabotaged board went down, it affected both backups by a surge jump across that circuit baffle. I can't predict what might happen if we did try another jump but I can tell you that whatever happens would be bad.”
“We can't be any more lost than we already are, Tim.”
“Yes, sir, but what if we wound up way out in space between stars and couldn't go any farther? Or ... well, theory says some of the lost ships in the early days of exploration simply went inconstant and never came out of it.”
“You think that's possible?”
“Yes, sir, I do. Or worse.”
Travis couldn't personally think of anything much worse, since being stranded would result in them slowly starving to death and the other alternative didn't bear thinking about.
“Okay, Tim. Don't say anything about this. And for your own peace of mind, our target planet is already looking pretty good.”
“I'm glad to hear that, Captain. Very glad.”
* * * *
“I heard we're lost again,” Lawrence Tanner said as he took the duty clipboard from Sandy and prepared to begin his shift as weapons tech.
“No shit. Really?”
“Yeah, that's what I heard. We didn't come out where we were supposed to or something like that.” He glanced at the board and punched in his name and the time.
“Jesus Christ!” Sandy was appalled.
“Yeah. We're near a star, though. Maybe we'll find a planet.”
“Hell, weren't we aiming for one in the first place?”
“Sure, but you know how that goes. The ship is supposed to come out of hyper right near the life zone of the star it's aiming for. It didn't.”
“Well, is this the star system we're supposed to be in?”
“I don't know.”
“Go find out and come back and tell me, huh?” She didn't like to think of how the crew would react if they were really lost, like the ship could never find the place it aimed for.
“If I can.”
An hour later he poked his head into the tiny service space of the number two laser cannon. Sandy heard him call to her and backed out.
“You can relax. We're heading inward and it's not only the same system we aimed for but the planet's looking good. Maybe this will be it!”
“I hope so, Lance.” She heaved a sigh of relief then noticed that his eyes had tracked to her breasts and back to her face.
“Yeah. Uh, Sandy, how about us, uh, maybe getting together when we're both free?”
Well, shit. She hated to turn him down. From the look on his face it had taken him a while to work up the courage to ask. Too bad. She would have accepted earlier but not now.
“Lance, I'm so
rry but I'm sort of committed to the twins.”
“Twins?”
“You know, the redheaded army guys.”
“Oh yeah, I've seen them around a couple of times.” He hesitated, then spoke again. “Did I hear you say you're committed to both of them?”
“You know of any law against it? Besides, in case you haven't checked, there's about three men on board for every two women. Or worse.” She saw the hurt befuddlement and softened her tone. “I'm sorry, Lance. If you had said something earlier on the trip ... maybe it would have worked.”
“My fault, I guess. I should have asked. Uh, are you planning on getting married?”
“Lance, I don't know. Hell, I don't even know what kind of laws we're gonna have. Maybe there won't be such a thing as marriage. No one has said.”
“Maybe some one should.”
“I couldn't agree more.”
* * * *
Jimmy was dressing to go on duty after Maria had stayed with him for a few hours. She had brought some distressing news and he didn't quite know what to do about it. One thing, though, Captain Callahan should know about it if he didn't already. Such ugly talk as Maria had relayed to him could reverberate throughout the ship and cause untold problems. He believed in free speech, he supposed, but not ugly slander like that. Drugging Captain Gordon! That was as far from reality as they were from earth and he had told Maria exactly that. He hoped she would rebut any more of it she heard and he thought not only that she would, but would buck it upstairs to Major Grindstaff.
A little later he reported to the control room for duty, hoping to find the captain there but he wasn't. He dithered and started every time anyone came or went through the hatch until Sissy finally asked him what was wrong.
“Uh, I heard some talk,” he looked around to be sure no one was listening then continued, “about Captain Gordon.”
“What kind of talk?”
“Uh, Maria ... you know Maria, the army sergeant?”
“Jimmy, everyone in the control room knows you're sweet on her.”
He blushed but carried on. “Well, she told me that she'd heard a couple of people talking about how maybe Captain Callahan drugged Captain Gordon so he could take over.”
“What!?” She realized she'd spoken way too loud and attracted attention. She motioned him over to the little privacy alcove. “Now tell me that again, slowly.”
“I said Maria heard a couple of people talking about how the captain had drugged Captain Gordon so he could take over. Isn't that crazy?”
“It's worse than crazy; it's disgusting and subversive and needs to be stopped right now.” She punched in the com code for the captain's office.
Travis looked up. “Yes?”
“Sir, I'm sending Jimmy to see you. He has something you need to hear.”
“Okay, I'm free now. Send him on over.”
She pointed at Jimmy. “Go!”
He hurried off, knowing he should have done it on his own without being told to. But it was so ... so idiotic!
* * * *
“...and that's it, sir, but Sergeant Mirando didn't mention who it was she overheard.” He carefully hadn't mentioned that Maria had let him in on what she'd heard during some idle pillow talk.
Travis was amused at the young man's attempt to conceal the fact that he was consorting with an army sergeant and wondered why he bothered. There certainly wasn't anything wrong with it nor was it a secret. Probably not wanting to let anyone else know they were lovers, he thought, as if she needs her reputation protected. It made him wonder whether he was as senseless at that age or, give him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he was just trying to maintain a professional attitude. Not that it mattered at the moment. Talk like he was reporting had to be stopped and the sooner the better.
“Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Jimmy. You did the right thing. And just in case you had any doubts, there is absolutely nothing to the story other than vile, slanderous gossip.”
“I never thought otherwise, sir.”
“I'm sure you didn't.” He rose and escorted Jimmy out then returned to his desk and commed Grindstaff.
The army officer listened with interest then nodded. “Sergeant Mirando is a good trooper, sir. She wouldn't have told him that if it weren't true. And as a matter of fact, I'll bet she's already reported it to First Sergeant Gomez. At any rate, he's waiting outside with something he said I should know. He commed me a few minutes ago and said he'd be here shortly and he is.”
“Fine. See if you can track down the perpetuators of that tale. It's not good for morale.”
“Gossip never is, Captain. I'll get back to you.”
“Thank you.” He realized he was coming to depend on the army officer for more than just policing the ship. He was as reliable and conscientious as any COESS officer he'd ever known and more so than many of them.
* * * *
Two hours later, Grindstaff commed back.
“Captain Callahan, I believe I may have found the source of the gossip about your ascent to the captaincy but it's out of my jurisdiction. I have no authority to question either Elias Montingham nor Joseph Fondez.”
“Those are the two who started it?” Politicians. Wouldn't you know it?
“According to all my people I've talked to. Some got it secondhand but it appears to have originated with those two.”
“Figures. Politicians can't seem to open their mouths without prevarication. Alright. Thank you, Major. Any suggestions?”
“Only that I'll back you in whatever action you care to take with those two, if they are indeed the ones.”
“I appreciate it. I'll let you know.”
“Glad to help, Captain.”
After signing off, Travis sat for a long time at his desk doing nothing but thinking and trying to decide the best way to handle the situation. His first inclination was to slap them both in irons but on the chance they were innocent he didn't feel like doing that immediately. On the other hand, it couldn't be allowed to go on. The malicious lie had to be stopped, and quickly. The ship was in enough trouble without some people deliberately trying to create dissension. If he could find some way to prove them wrong before taking action, it would be better. But how? With all the other pressing problems he had to consider, it seemed a shame to have to deal with a damned smear campaign! There was no question that he had the authority to clamp down but he wanted to do it right. After a while he began to smile but no enemy of his would have wanted to see it. He commed the surgeon.
“Hello, Captain Callahan. What may I do for you?” Parham asked.
“Briefly, do you have a type of drug in the pharmacy that would serve as a lie detector?”
“You mean could I put a person under with a particular drug and question him or her about something?”
“Essentially, yes, although I don't suppose they would have to be unconscious.”
“They couldn't be completely or they wouldn't be able to talk. But to answer your question, yes there are several derivatives of the narcotic refined from the Shirro plant of Bonnport that would serve. Under very special circumstances, they've been used for legal issues but always under a judge's order and always subject to review by a superior court beforehand. But why go to that extreme? if you're interested in detecting whether someone is lying or not a simple brain scan would work better.”
“Could you do one? Or rather, I'm sure you could but do you have the capability here on the ship?” Now why hadn't he thought of that?
“Certainly. It's a standard office procedure nowadays although seldom used for the purpose you're asking about. I really don't know why the courts haven't accepted it as a tool since it's almost wholly accurate. Some lawyerly bull whacky, I suppose.” The doctor sat at his desk with his fingers twined together, as unflappable as ever.
“Fine. Let me think about this and I may be calling on you again very soon.”
“If it's what I think it is, I'll be glad to cooperate.”
“You'v
e heard?” He was surprised gossip such as had been reported had already made it to the ship's surgeon.
“Yes, and it's pure nonsense. He's my patient. I'd know whether he'd been given the type of drugs that could cause a disruption from reality such as he's experienced.”
He was glad to hear it, having begun to think someone might possibly have somehow dosed Gordon without the surgeon's knowledge.
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* * *
Chapter Seven
“It's looking better and better, Captain.”
Travis nodded. He'd gotten impatient and called for both main scopes to zoom in on the approaching world. The views showed the same brown and blue and green orb as seeing earth from orbit would have. There were two main continents and very small polar caps of almost equal size. Logman was already reporting that he thought it would have a very small axial tilt.
“How about the atmosphere? Still okay?” he asked presently.
“Still fine from what we can tell out here. Almost the exact same proportions as earth. It should be good, although I'd bet living at the equator would be a bit uncomfortable.”
“With no axial tilt, I'd think so, too, judging from the size of the icecaps and I'm not even a geologist.” He chuckled, delighted at the first findings.
“I think most of it will be livable,” Addie said. “The two northern continents seem to have a mix of vegetation from what we're seeing so far. Some prairie would be nice so we wouldn't have to clear forests to farm.”
“Are there any?”
“Probably, but again, too soon to tell. I really do think it's a keeper, though, barring some type of fauna or flora impossible to live with. We haven't found many worlds like that, though.”
“Good. You two stay on it. I have some other business to attend to. I'll be in the surgeon's office if I'm needed.”
Travis left the control room with a lighter mind until he thought of the chore ahead of him. That was going to be a bit depressing but it was necessary. Or so he had decided.
“Come on in, Captain,” Parham said when he arrived. “I'm just finished setting up.”
“Good. We'll be ready shortly, Wes.” He tapped his wrist and meshed his com with that of Grindstaff's. “Do you have the two persons in custody ready for me, Major?”
