Mother Lode

have any effect at all on Mop's behavior. Mop lifted his left rear leg and scratched energetically. He squirmed, began to scratch with the other leg. «Hey,» Erin said. «I didn't mean it, buddy. You don't have fleas.» He continued scratching. She reviewed what had happened. Mop was getting a bit frantic, scratching and biting, and Erin knew that the sanitary measures taken before Mother left New Earth made it impossible for the dog to have fleas. What had she done? She talked to the dog, told him he didn't have fleas. Mop whimpered and scratched as if he were being eaten alive. She said angrily, «What in hell did I do?» His left ear twitched. «I am angry with you,» she stormed. «I have told you that you do not have fleas. Now stop that scratching.» Mop gave his right ear one final little twitch with his hind leg and sank down onto the deck. Anger. Or pretended anger. Anger penetrated the barrier. She experimented. «I want water,» she said angrily. Mop rose, stretched, went to press the button that gave him fresh water. «I want food,» Erin grated. Mop ate. He was a champion button pusher. Although he was color blind, he knew which button to push for water, which for his regular food, and he knew that pushing the button for his milk bone worked no more than twice a day. «It's all right, baby,» she said, still talking as if she were angry. «It's all right. Go lie down.» Mop looked around in puzzlement, seeking Erin. «I'm here,» she yelled at him. His stubby tail did a few circles as he turned all the way around, looking for her. He padded to the workroom and saw her there at the console, jumped into her lap, climbed up behind the controls and looked at her with his deep, brown eyes, saw the blankness in her face that meant she would not talk to him. «Over here, Mop,» Dent called. Mop jumped to the deck, leapt into Dent's lap and onto the console. Dent managed to pat him once before the male alien sent a wave of pain, his way of saying, «Leave the dog alone and concentrate on your work.» «It's all right, boy,» Dent whispered. «She'll be back.» The communicator rang. John Kenner's doorbell sound indicated that a radio call was being received. Mop bounced to the deck and announced that someone was at the door, barking excitedly. «No, no,» Erin shouted at him, because they were becoming annoyed by the noise. The doorbell sounded again thirty seconds later. Mop, seeing that neither Erin or Dent was doing anything about it, barked hysterically. That might be one of his friends at the door. «Mop, Mop, shut up,» Erin yelled, in real fear that they would do harm to Mop. But, although Mr. Mop was usually a very gentlemanly little dog, when there was an alarm to be sounded he did his duty. On the third sounding of the doorbell—Rimfire's communications officer had been ordered to broadcast the call to the Mother Lode several times at thirty second intervals—the female alien turned, let her lovely emerald eyes rest on the excited Mop for a moment before sending a small wave of force that hurled Mop out of the room and sent him sliding across the deck of the bridge to bang painfully into the pedestal of the command chair. He yelped just once and then crawled under the console, shivering in fright. Erin forgot to speak with mock anger as she tried to comfort him, but then, as she turned her attention to The She, her anger was real, causing Mop to quit licking his bruised leg and lift both ears in alarm. «You bitch,» Erin screamed, «you bloody, mothering bitch.» If pure hate could have killed, the alien would have died at that instant. It was the wave of enmity sent by Erin that made The She inquire about the irritating sounds issuing from the communications system. The male alien got the information from Dent's mind, sent Dent to activate the communicator, listened to the message from the Rimfire. He did not have to voice questions. He merely willed that Dent answer. «Rimfire is a large spaceship,» Dent said. «She has several hundred people aboard.» He went on and on, giving all of the information he had. Dent told the alien what he knew about the armament of an X&A explorer. There was no possibility of holding back anything. He had merely to command and Denton had no choice but to obey. Had he been able to resist, the alien could have gone directly into Denton's mind to find the answers. The aliens had become totally contemptuous of the presence of the humans. The He didn't bother to close off his thoughts as he said to The She, «The new ship will be useful.» «Captain to the bridge,» the communicator said, waking Julie Roberts from a dream of childhood in which she had been feeling such a sense of love and warm security that, on losing it, she looked at the plain walls of her cabin and shivered. She went to the bridge. Lieutenant Ursulina Wade was on watch again. «Ursy, if you're going to make a habit of waking me every time you have the duty—» Julie said. «Sorry, Captain,» Ursy said. «I thought you'd like to see these.» She punched buttons and brought up detailed photographs of the surface of the planet which Rimfire was approaching. «Well, hell,» Julie said, for the planet was raw. There was water and an atmosphere rich in oxygen, but barren, incredibly sharp and rugged mountains touched torrent-raining clouds and mighty rivers spread over the rock surface. There was no green. «Some days there just ain't no fish,» Ursy said. «Yep,» Julie said. «If the air is good, there'll be mining stations. And she'll be a good source of water if anyone ever finds a planet nearby that has soil but not much water.» «You're a little ray of sunshine,» Julie said. «She's negative in all areas of detection down to earthworm size,» Ursy said. «I can see why, but we'll have to check the seas.» «I've laid out an orbit, Captain,» Ursy said, bringing up measurements on the screen. «Close enough to take good readings for metals and minerals and to send down the scouts for air and water samples.» «Very well,» Julie said. «Do you mind, Lieutenant, if I go back to bed now?» «Not at all, ma'am,» Ursy said. «Have a nice rest.» Julie didn't bother to undress. She had slept for four hours. She punched up coffee and sipped moodily as she considered the implications of the current situation. Even if the planet that Erin Kenner had led her to was not a Class A Habitable world, it was a world, and it did have water and atmosphere. If it was the source of Erin's gold, it wouldn't be a complete washout. She'd squeak through without a reprimand, but the admirals wouldn't be happy. «Damn it, Erin, where are you?» she said aloud. It wasn't likely that Rimfire would find F.R.A.N.K. on a planet that wouldn't support a mouse. But if Erin wasn't on the planet, where was she? The temporary blink beacons from the Mother Lode ended here, at the orbit of that blue planet. It didn't add up. Erin Kenner was not irresponsible, not easily excited. Erin was, in Julie Roberts' opinion, one of the last people to bring Rimfire several thousand parsecs on a spook chase. She finished her coffee, paced the deck. She was moving toward the communicator to give orders to make a thorough surface search with scanners set to detect the presence of a small spaceship, Mule class, when she heard Ursy's voice to the communicator again. «Captain to the bridge. Captain to the bridge.» Julie patted an errant lock of hair into place and walked to the bridge. Ursy was grinning. «You did it again,» Julie said. «We've found her, ma'am,» Ursy said, motioning toward a viewer. At first the shape of the image on the screen did not make sense, and then Julie realized that what she was seeing was two ships, a squarish Mule and a sleek converted fleet destroyer lying side by side, air locks joined. «I assume you have tried radio contact?» Julie asked. «Yes, ma'am. Negative.» «Readings?» «Life readings. Four entities of roughly humanoid bulk, and one very small one, in the area of five pounds.» «Roughly humanoid?» Julie asked. «Two of them are quite large. One of them weighs in the neighborhood of four hundred pounds.» Ursy's eyes were wide, her cheeks a bit pale. Julie nodded, knowing what the lieutenant was thinking. «Did you double-check those readings?» «Affirmative, ma'am.» Ursy was being very formal. It helped her to control her excitement, but then the agitation broke through. «It's F.R.A.N.K., Captain, sure as hell.» CHAPTER TWENTY Although Mop learned quickly, it was very hard for him to keep silent when the doorbell that John Kenner had installed to indicate an incoming radio call rang again and again. Muffled «murfs» rumbled in his throat. He sought out Erin and Dent, stood on his hind legs to put his forepaws on their legs. Once he lost control and barked, risking the anger of the thing that had hurt him by throwing him across the deck. Erin scooped him up and closed his mouth with her hand, saying, «Shush, shush.» The big X&A explorer was picked up by the Mother Lode's instruments when she was still several astronomical units distant. Erin and Denton had been left to their own thoughts ever since Rimfire had announced her presence near the core by her first attempts to contact them. The aliens had closed themselves off mentally and physically. Erin and Dent stayed mainly in Erin's cabin. It was a relief not to have every move directed by an alien will, but the relative freedom served to make the knowledge of their helplessness even more bitter. Once, after several hours of noninterference from them, Erin went out onto the bridge and actually had the communicator on before a wave of pain swept through her. Compared to The She's usual efforts, the pain was not severe. It was as if the alien was so preoccupied with other, more important matters that she couldn't really be bothered to render more than a token punishment to Erin for her attempt to warn Rimfire. However, as Erin sent the mental order to her finger to activate the communicator, partial paralysis came with the pain and she backed slowly away toward her cabin. «We must do something,» Erin whispered. Denton, too, had been trying to think of some way to evade the control of the two winged beings. «I know,» he said, «but…"He spread his hands. He didn't have to say more. She'd been over the same things time and time again. Although she could not feel the alien's control at times, it was there, as she'd proven again by her attempt to use the communicator. Even if her macabre fantasy of using a nonexistent self-destruct button to disintegrate Mother and everything aboard her had been possible Erin would not have been able to push the button, for The She knew Erin's every thought, every impulse. Still Erin considered means of killing the aliens, or, at least, means of destroying their flesh and blood bodies, and it gave her pause to realize that she was thinking murderous thought about them without being punished. Her service hand weapon was in its holster on her flexsuit. It was capable, given time, of burning a hole in Mother's stout, double hulls. If the mining laser had not been left on Haven and if she could have jury-rigged some way to turn it on Mother, then some serious holing would have resulted. But if a frog had a glass ass, it wouldn't jump but once. Civilized man didn't think about ways to accomplish his own death along with the destruction of his spaceship. He considered ways of bringing about the death of others, if it become necessary. He went armed. Rimfire, in addition to having the best long-range detection equipment in the U.P. sector, was also the most powerfully armed spaceship ever built. With the weapons aboard her, she could make rubble of a world and—although it had never been tried—in the unlikely event that it was ever vital to the continued well-being of mankind, she could make a sun pretty sick. Man was a deadly species, and that made him pretty cocky, so confident in his own ability to meet any challenge that he didn't plan for defeat. Thus there was no self-destruct button aboard the Mother Lode, nor aboard any ship of the fleet, for that matter. There were no explosives on a Mule turned miner, no heavy weapons that could be turned against herself. Perhaps that was why Erin was able to imagine—because it was basically impossible—destroying Mother. She had never actually come face-to-face with death. The statistical risks she had faced during her just over thirty years of life had been small. As she'd once told Dent, everyone knows that he's going to die—someday. But since U.P. man had earned—by good nutrition, medical advances, and the elimination of most of the diseases, malfunctions, and to a large extent even the accidents that had once plagued the race—the lifespan mentioned in the Old Bible in Genesis 6:3, she had lived only one quarter of her allotted span and to her the concept of death was still an abstract idea. Not even in her current situation could she believe that she was going to die. So she indulged in idle speculations about how to overcome them, and felt guilt—for it was possible to concede that others might die—at doing nothing while men and women she knew were coming ever closer to being within reach of two things who had absolutely no regard for human life. She was letting the precious minutes spend themselves and she was doing nothing but lying on the bed with Dent's arm around her wishing that there was something she could do. She wept. Mop, with that canine instinct that knows when a beloved human is in stress, came to snuggle up to her side and licked her elbow just once, politely, as if to say, «Hey, Erin, I'm here and I'm sorry you're unhappy.» She slept. When she awoke to the alien's summons she knew it was too late to help her former shipmates in Rimfire. No longer capable of independent thought or action she went to the bridge and activated the communicator. Mop, having seen the slack look come over Erin's face, followed her out of the cabin and darted under the console and curled up into a hairy ball to wait for Erin to be Erin again. «Rimfire, Rimfire, this is the Mother Lode. « The answer was immediate, telling Erin—and The She who dominated her—that Rimfire had been keeping a constant communications watch. «Rimfire, I am Erin Kenner. I want to speak with Captain Julie Roberts.» «Wait one, Mother Lode. « Erin's trapped mind was writhing, struggling, but it was to no avail. «Hello, Erin,» Julie Roberts' voice said. «We have you on visual. What is your situation in regard to the converted destroyer?» Erin's voice was without inflection as she answered. «We claim salvage. The destroyer has been converted to private use. We found her abandoned and derelict.» «Her registration?» Julie Roberts was looking at the mobile graphs of a voice analyzer. Erin's words were being compared to her voiceprint from Rimfire's files. «There is ninety-eight percent correlation,» a technician said while Julie waited for Erin to answer. «She sounds almost as if she were under the influence of a drug,» Ursy Wade said. «The ship is registered to the Haven Refining Company, of the planet Haven,» Erin said. «Her name?» Julie asked. «Murdoch's Plough, « Erin said. «That's the ship that followed the Mother Lode when she lifted off from Haven,» Ursy said. Julie nodded grimly. Her eyes squinted in thought before she pressed the send button and spoke again. «Erin, it's nice to hear your voice. We got your stat that mentioned Ursy Wade's as yet to be met friend. Explain, please.» There was a long pause. Aboard the Mother Lode it took the alien thirty seconds to dig out of Erin's mind that the «yet to be met friend» was an entity named Frank. Then Erin said, «I'm afraid Ursy will be very disappointed. We discovered some fossil bones, that's all. They're humanoid and very interesting.» «Cap'n,» Ursy said, «If that's Erin Kenner speaking, there's something wrong with her.» «There is a certain oddness in her voice,» Julie agreed. «I think it's time we got down to business.» She pushed the send button. «Erin, our life sensors show four entities on your ship.» With sudden anger, The She caused Erin to turn off the communicator. To Erin's surprise, she was addressed directly, not in words but in thoughts. «They can detect our presence?» the alien asked. For the first time since she'd seen Denton explode into a red mist Erin knew hope. Could she, after all, hide at least some of her thoughts from her captor? «Yes,» she said. She started to add that Rimfire could also determine the body weight of any living thing and that, therefore, those aboard the X&A ship were well aware that the two extra entities aboard Mother were considerably larger than life, but she buried the thought and the alien did not detect it. «Tell them,» the alien ordered, «that you took on two extra spacehands