Golden Age of Science Fiction Vol XII

by Various

  And so was the frantically splashing figure of Vern Engdahl, trying desperately to swim out of the way in the water before it.

  What kept it from blowing up in our faces I will never know, unless it was the pressure in the tanks forcing the flame out; but it didn't. Not just then. Not until I had Engdahl aboard and we were out in the middle of the Hudson, staring back; and then it went up all right, all at once, like a missile or a volcano; and there had been fifty tankers in that one mooring, but there weren't any any more, or not in shape for us to use.

  I looked at Engdahl.

  He said defensively: "Honest, Sam, I thought it was oil. It smelled like oil. How was I to know--"

  "Shut up," I said.

  He shrugged, injured. "But it's all right, Sam. No fooling. There are plenty of other tankers around. Plenty. Down toward the Amboys, maybe moored out in the channel. There must be. We'll find them."

  "No," I said. "You will."

  And that was all I said, because I am forgiving by nature; but I thought a great deal more.

  Surprisingly, though, he did find a tanker with a full load, the very next day.

  It became a question of getting the tanker to the Queen. I left that part up to Vern, since he claimed to be able to handle it.

  It took him two weeks. First it was finding the tanker, then it was locating a tug in shape to move, then it was finding someone to pilot the tug. Then it was waiting for a clear and windless day--because the pilot he found had got all his experience sailing Star boats on Long Island Sound--and then it was easing the tanker out of Newark Bay, into the channel, down to the pier in the North River--

  Oh, it was work and no fooling. I enjoyed it very much, because I didn't have to do it.

  * * * * *

  But I had enough to keep me busy at that. I found a man who claimed he used to be a radio engineer. And if he was an engineer, I was Albert Einstein's mother, but at least he knew which end of a soldering iron was hot. There was no need for any great skill, since there weren't going to be very many vessels to communicate with.

  Things began to move.

  The advantage of a ship like the Queen, for our purposes, was that the thing was pretty well automated to start out with. I mean never mind what the seafaring unions required in the way of flesh-and-blood personnel. What it came down to was that one man in the bridge or wheelhouse could pretty well make any part of the ship go or not go.

  The engine-room telegraph wasn't hooked up to control the engines, no. But the wiring diagram needed only a few little changes to get the same effect, because where in the original concept a human being would take a look at the repeater down in the engine room, nod wisely, and push a button that would make the engines stop, start, or whatever--why, all we had to do was cut out the middleman, so to speak.

  Our genius of the soldering iron replaced flesh and blood with some wiring and, presto, we had centralized engine control.

  The steering was even easier. Steering was a matter of electronic control and servomotors to begin with. Windjammers in the old movies might have a man lashed to the wheel whose muscle power turned the rudder, but, believe me, a big superliner doesn't. The rudders weigh as much as any old windjammer ever did from stem to stern; you have to have motors to turn them; and it was only a matter of getting out the old soldering iron again.

  By the time we were through, we had every operational facility of the Queen hooked up to a single panel on the bridge.

  Engdahl showed up with the oil tanker just about the time we got the wiring complete. We rigged up a pump and filled the bunkers till they were topped off full. We guessed, out of hope and ignorance, that there was enough in there to take us half a dozen times around the world at normal cruising speed, and maybe there was. Anyway, it didn't matter, for surely we had enough to take us anywhere we wanted to go, and then there would be more.

  We crossed our fingers, turned our ex-ferry-stoker loose, pushed a button--

  Smoke came out of the stacks.

  The antique screws began to turn over. Astern, a sort of hump of muddy water appeared. The Queen quivered underfoot. The mooring hawsers creaked and sang.

  "Turn her off!" screamed Engdahl. "She's headed for Times Square!"

  Well, that was an exaggeration, but not much of one; and there wasn't any sense in stirring up the bottom mud. I pushed buttons and the screws stopped. I pushed another button, and the big engines quietly shut themselves off, and in a few moments the stacks stopped puffing their black smoke.

  The ship was alive.

  Solemnly Engdahl and I shook hands. We had the thing licked. All, that is, except for the one small problem of Arthur.

  * * * * *

  The thing about Arthur was they had put him to work.

  It was in the power station, just as Amy had said, and Arthur didn't like it. The fact that he didn't like it was a splendid reason for staying away from there, but I let my kind heart overrule my good sense and paid him a visit.

  It was way over on the East Side, miles and miles from any civilized area. I borrowed Amy's MG, and borrowed Amy to go with it, and the two of us packed a picnic lunch and set out. There were reports of deer on Avenue A, so I brought a rifle, but we never saw one; and if you want my opinion, those reports were nothing but wishful thinking. I mean if people couldn't survive, how could deer?

  We finally threaded our way through the clogged streets and parked in front of the power station.

  "There's supposed to be a guard," Amy said doubtfully.

  I looked. I looked pretty carefully, because if there was a guard, I wanted to see him. The Major's orders were that vital defense installations--such as the power station, the PX and his own barracks building--were to be guarded against trespassers on a shoot-on-sight basis and I wanted to make sure that the guard knew we were privileged persons, with passes signed by the Major's own hand. But we couldn't find him. So we walked in through the big door, peered around, listened for the sounds of machinery and walked in that direction.

  And then we found him; he was sound asleep. Amy, looking indignant, shook him awake.

  "Is that how you guard military property?" she scolded. "Don't you know the penalty for sleeping at your post?"

  The guard said something irritable and unhappy. I got her off his back with some difficulty, and we located Arthur.

  Picture a shiny four-gallon tomato can, with the label stripped off, hanging by wire from the flashing-light panels of an electric computer. That was Arthur. The shiny metal cylinder was his prosthetic tank; the wires were the leads that served him for fingers, ears and mouth; the glittering panel was the control center for the Consolidated Edison Eastside Power Plant No. 1.

  "Hi, Arthur," I said, and a sudden ear-splitting thunderous hiss was his way of telling me that he knew I was there.

  I didn't know exactly what it was he was trying to say and I didn't want to; fortune spares me few painful moments, and I accept with gratitude the ones it does. The Major's boys hadn't bothered to bring Arthur's typewriter along--I mean who cares what a generator-governor had to offer in the way of conversation?--so all he could do was blow off steam from the distant boilers.

  * * * * *

  Well, not quite all. Light flashed; a bucket conveyor began crashingly to dump loads of coal; and an alarm gong began to pound.

  "Please, Arthur," I begged. "Shut up a minute and listen, will you?"

  More lights. The gong rapped half a dozen times sharply, and stopped.

  I said: "Arthur, you've got to trust Vern and me. We have this thing figured out now. We've got the Queen Elizabeth--"

  A shattering hiss of steam--meaning delight this time, I thought. Or anyway hoped.

  "--and its only a question of time until we can carry out the plan. Vern says to apologize for not looking in on you--" hiss--"but he's been busy. And after all, you know it's more important to get everything ready so you can get out of this place, right?"

  "Psst," said Amy.

  She nodded briefly pa
st my shoulder. I looked, and there was the guard, looking sleepy and surly and definitely suspicious.

  I said heartily: "So as soon as I fix it up with the Major, we'll arrange for something better for you. Meanwhile, Arthur, you're doing a capital job and I want you to know that all of us loyal New York citizens and public servants deeply appreciate--"

  Thundering crashes, bangs, gongs, hisses, and the scream of a steam whistle he'd found somewhere.

  Arthur was mad.

  "So long, Arthur," I said, and we got out of there--just barely in time. At the door, we found that Arthur had reversed the coal scoops and a growing mound of it was pouring into the street where we'd left the MG parked. We got the car started just as the heap was beginning to reach the bumpers, and at that the paint would never again be the same.

  Oh, yes, he was mad. I could only hope that in the long run he would forgive us, since we were acting for his best interests, after all.

  Anyway, I thought we were.

  * * * * *

  Still, things worked out pretty well--especially between Amy and me. Engdahl had the theory that she had been dodging the Major so long that anybody looked good to her, which was hardly flattering. But she and I were getting along right well.

  She said worriedly: "The only thing, Sam, is that, frankly, the Major has just about made up his mind that he wants to marry me--"

  "He is married!" I yelped.

  "Naturally he's married. He's married to--so far--one hundred and nine women. He's been hitting off a marriage a month for a good many years now and, to tell you the truth, I think he's got the habit Anyway, he's got his eye on me."

  I demanded jealously: "Has he said anything?"

  She picked a sheet of onionskin paper out of her bag and handed it to me. It was marked Top Secret, and it really was, because it hadn't gone through his regular office--I knew that because I was his regular office. It was only two lines of text and sloppily typed at that:

  Lt. Amy Bankhead will report to HQ at 1700 hours 1 July to carry out orders of the Commanding Officer.

  The first of July was only a week away. I handed the orders back to her.

  "And the orders of the Commanding Officer will be--" I wanted to know.

  She nodded. "You guessed it."

  I said: "We'll have to work fast."

  * * * * *

  On the thirtieth of June, we invited the Major to come aboard his palatial new yacht.

  "Ah, thank you," he said gratefully. "A surprise? For my birthday? Ah, you loyal members of my command make up for all that I've lost--all of it!" He nearly wept.

  I said: "Sir, the pleasure is all ours," and backed out of his presence. What's more, I meant every word.

  It was a select party of slightly over a hundred. All of the wives were there, barring twenty or thirty who were in disfavor--still, that left over eighty. The Major brought half a dozen of his favorite officers. His bodyguard and our crew added up to a total of thirty men.

  We were set up to feed a hundred and fifty, and to provide liquor for twice that many, so it looked like a nice friendly brawl. I mean we had our radio operator handing out highballs as the guests stepped on board. The Major was touched and delighted; it was exactly the kind of party he liked.

  He came up the gangplank with his face one great beaming smile. "Eat! Drink!" he cried. "Ah, and be merry!" He stretched out his hands to Amy, standing by behind the radio op. "For tomorrow we wed," he added, and sentimentally kissed his proposed bride.

  I cleared my throat. "How about inspecting the ship, Major?" I interrupted.

  "Plenty of time for that, my boy," he said. "Plenty of time for that." But he let go of Amy and looked around him. Well, it was worth looking at. Those Englishmen really knew how to build a luxury liner. God rest them.

  The girls began roaming around.

  It was a hot day and late afternoon, and the girls began discarding jackets and boleros, and that began to annoy the Major.

  "Ah, cover up there!" he ordered one of his wives. "You too there, what's-your-name. Put that blouse back on!"

  It gave him something to think about. He was a very jealous man, Amy had said, and when you stop to think about it, a jealous man with a hundred and nine wives to be jealous of really has a job. Anyway, he was busy watching his wives and keeping his military cabinet and his bodyguard busy too, and that made him too busy to notice when I tipped the high sign to Vern and took off.

  VI

  In Consolidated Edison's big power plant, the guard was friendly. "I hear the Major's over on your boat, pal. Big doings. Got a lot of the girls there, hey?"

  He bent, sniggering, to look at my pass.

  "That's right, pal," I said, and slugged him.

  Arthur screamed at me with a shrill blast of steam as I came in. But only once. I wasn't there for conversation. I began ripping apart his comfy little home of steel braces and copper wires, and it didn't take much more than a minute before I had him free. And that was very fortunate because, although I had tied up the guard, I hadn't done it very well, and it was just about the time I had Arthur's steel case tucked under my arm that I heard a yelling and bellowing from down the stairs.

  The guard had got free.

  "Keep calm, Arthur!" I ordered sharply. "We'll get out of this, don't you worry!"

  But he wasn't worried, or anyway didn't show it, since he couldn't. I was the one who was worried. I was up on the second floor of the plant, in the control center, with only one stairway going down that I knew about, and that one thoroughly guarded by a man with a grudge against me. Me, I had Arthur, and no weapon, and I hadn't a doubt in the world that there were other guards around and that my friend would have them after me before long.

  Problem. I took a deep breath and swallowed and considered jumping out the window. But it wasn't far enough to the ground.

  Feet pounded up the stairs, more than two of them. With Arthur dragging me down on one side, I hurried, fast as I could, along the steel galleries that surrounded the biggest boiler. It was a nice choice of alternatives--if I stayed quiet, they would find me; if I ran, they would hear me, and then find me.

  But ahead there was--what? Something. A flight of stairs, it looked like, going out and, yes, up. Up? But I was already on the second floor.

  "Hey, you!" somebody bellowed from behind me.

  I didn't stop to consider. I ran. It wasn't steps, not exactly; it was a chain of coal scoops on a long derrick arm, a moving bucket arrangement for unloading fuel from barges. It did go up, though, and more important it went out. The bucket arm was stretched across the clogged roadway below to a loading tower that hung over the water.

  If I could get there, I might be able to get down. If I could get down--yes, I could see it; there were three or four mahogany motor launches tied to the foot of the tower.

  And nobody around.

  I looked over my shoulder, and didn't like what I saw, and scuttled up that chain of enormous buckets like a roach on a washboard, one hand for me and one hand for Arthur.

  * * * * *

  Thank heaven, I had a good lead on my pursuers--I needed it. I was on the bucket chain while they were still almost a city block behind me, along the galleries. I was halfway across the roadway, afraid to look down, before they reached the butt end of the chain.

  Clash-clatter. Clank! The bucket under me jerked and clattered and nearly threw me into the street. One of those jokers had turned on the conveyor! It was a good trick, all right, but not quite in time. I made a flying jump and I was on the tower.

  I didn't stop to thumb my nose at them, but I thought of it.

  I was down those steel steps, breathing like a spouting whale, in a minute flat, and jumping out across the concrete, coal-smeared yard toward the moored launches. Quickly enough, I guess, but with nothing at all to spare, because although I hadn't seen anyone there, there was a guard.

  He popped out of a doorway, blinking foolishly; and overhead the guards at the conveyor belt were screaming at him. It t
ook him a second to figure out what was going on, and by that time I was in a launch, cast off the rope, kicked it free, and fumbled for the starting button.

  It took me several seconds to realize that a rope was required, that in fact there was no button; and by then I was floating yards away, but the pudgy pop-eyed guard was also in a launch, and he didn't have to fumble. He knew. He got his motor started a fraction of a second before me, and there he was, coming at me, set to ram. Or so it looked.

  I wrenched at the wheel and brought the boat hard over; but he swerved too, at the last moment, and brought up something that looked a little like a spear and a little like a sickle and turned out to be a boathook. I ducked, just in time. It sizzled over my head as he swung and crashed against the windshield. Hunks of safety glass splashed out over the forward deck, but better that than my head.

  Boathooks, hey? I had a boathook too! If he didn't have another weapon, I was perfectly willing to play; I'd been sitting and taking it long enough and I was very much attracted by the idea of fighting back. The guard recovered his balance, swore at me, fought the wheel around and came back.

  We both curved out toward the center of the East River in intersecting arcs. We closed. He swung first. I ducked--

  And from a crouch, while he was off balance, I caught him in the shoulder with the hook.

  He made a mighty splash.

  I throttled down the motor long enough to see that he was still conscious.

  "Touché, buster," I said, and set course for the return trip down around the foot of Manhattan, back toward the Queen.

  * * * * *

  It took a while, but that was all right; it gave everybody a nice long time to get plastered. I sneaked aboard, carrying Arthur, and turned him over to Vern. Then I rejoined the Major. He was making an inspection tour of the ship--what he called an inspection, after his fashion.

  He peered into the engine rooms and said: "Ah, fine."