Ertz bad a little trouble understanding the difference between a planet and a star. Alan never did get it.
"If my numbering is correct," Hugh informed Ertz, "we should start accelerating any time now."
"O.K.," Ertz told him. "Main Drive is ready: over two hundred bodies and a lot of waste mass. What are waiting for?"
"Let's see Narby and get permission to start."
"Why ask him?"
Hugh shrugged. "He's Captain. He'll want to know."
"All right. Let's pick up Joe-Jim and get on with it." They left Hugh's apartment and went to Joe-Jim's. Joe-Jim was not there, but they found Alan looking for him, too.
"Squatty says he's gone down to the Captain's office," Alan informed him.
"So? It's just as well. We'll see him there. Alan, old boy, you know what?"
"What?"
"The time has arrived. We're going to do it! Start moving the Ship!" Alan looked round-eyed. "Gee! Right now?"
"Just as soon as we can notify the Captain. Come along, if you like."
"You bet! Wait while I tell my woman." He darted away to his own quarters nearby.
"He pampers that wench," remarked Ertz.
"Sometimes you can't help it," said Hugh with a faraway look.
Alan returned promptly, although it was evident that he had taken time to change to a fresh breechcloth. "O.K.," he bubbled. "Let's go!"
Alan approached the Captain's office with a proud step. He was an important guy now, he exulted to himself. He'd march on through with his friends while the guards saluted; no more of this business of being pushed around.
But the doorkeeper did not stand aside, although he did salute, while placing himself so that he filled the door. "Gangway, man!" Ertz said gruffly.
"Yes, sir," acknowledged the guard, without moving. "Your weapons, please."
"What! Don't you know me, you idiot? I'm the Chief Engineer."
"Yes, sir. Leave your weapons with me, please. Regulations."
Ertz put a hand on the man's shoulder and shoved. The guard stood firm. "I'm sorry, sir. No one approaches the Captain wearing weapons. No one."
"Well, I'll be damned!"
"He remembers what happened to the old Captain," Hugh observed sotto voce. "He's smart." He drew his own knife and tossed it to the guard, who caught it neatly by the hilt. Ertz looked; shrugged, and handed over his own. Alan, considerably crestfallen, passed his own pair over with a look that should have shortened the guard's life.
Narby was talking; Joe-Jim was scowling on both his faces; Bobo looked puzzled, and naked, unfinished, without his ubiquitous knives and slingshot. "The matter is closed, Joe-Jim. That is my decision. I've granted you the faver of explaining my reasons, but it does not matter whether you like them or not."
"What's the trouble?" inquired Hugh.
Narby looked up. "Oh. I'm glad you came in. Your mutie friend seems to be in doubt as to who is Captain."
"What's up?"
"He," growled Jim, hooking a thumb toward Narby, "seems to think he's going to disarm all the muties."
"Well, the war's over, isn't it?"
"It wasn't agreed on. The muties were to become part of the Crew. Take the knives away from the muties and the Crew will kill them off in no time. It's not fair. The Crew have knives."
"The time will come when they won't," Narby predicted, "but I'll do it at my own time in my own way. This is the first step. What did you want to see me about, Ertz?"
"Ask Hugh." Narby turned to Hugh.
"I've come to notify you, Captain Narby," Hugh stated formally, "that we are about to start the Main Converter and move the Ship."
Narby looked surprised but not disconcerted. "I'm afraid you will have to postpone that. I am not yet ready to permit officers to go up to no-weight."
"It won't be necessary," Hugh explained. "Ertz and I can handle the first maneuvers alone. But we can't wait. If the Ship is not moved at once, the Trip won't be in your lifetime nor mine."
"Then it must," Narby replied evenly, "wait."
"What?" cried Hugh. "Narby, don't you want to the Trip?"
"I'm in no hurry."
"What sort of damn foolishness is this?" Ertz demanded. "What's got into you, Fin? Of course we move the Ship."
Narby drummed on his desk top before replying. Then: he said, "Since there seems to be some slight misunderstanding as to who gives orders around here, I might as well let you have it straight. Hoyland, as long as your pastimes did not interfere with the administration of tbe Ship, I was willing for you to amuse yourself. I granted that willingly, for you have been very useful in your own way. But when your crazy beliefs become a possible source of corruption to good morals and a danger to the peace and security of the Ship, I have to crack down."
Hugh had opened and closed his mouth several times during this speech. Finally he managed to get out: "Crazy? Did you say crazy?"
"Yes, I did. For a man to believe that the solid Ship can move means that he is either crazy, or an ignorant religious fanatic. Since both of you have the advantage of a scientist's training, I assume that you have lost your minds."
"Good Jordan!" said Hugh. "The man has seen with his own eyes, he's seen the immortal stars, yet he sits there and calls us crazy!"
"What's the meaning of this, Narby?" Ertz inquired coldly. "Why the razzle-dazzle? You aren't kidding anyone; you've been to the Control Room, you've been to the Captain's veranda, you know the Ship moves."
"You interest me, Ertz," commented Narby, looking him over. "I've wondered whether you were playing up to Hoyland's delusions, or were deluded yourself. Now I see that you are crazy too."
Ertz kept his temper. "Explain yourself. You've seen the Control Room; how can you contend that the Ship does not move?"
Narby smiled. "I thought you were a better engineer than you appear to be, Ertz. The Control Room is an enormous hoax. You know yourself that those lights are turned on and off by switches -- a very clever piece of engineering. My theory is that it was used to strike awe in the minds of the superstitious and make them believe in the ancient myths. But we don't need it any more, the Crew believe without it. It's a source of distraction now I'm going to have it destroyed and the door sealed up."
Hugh went all to pieces at this, sputtered incoherently, and would have grappled with Narby had not Ertz restrained him. "Easy, Hugh," he admonished. Joe-Jim took Hugh by the arm, his own faces stony masks.
Ertz went on quietly, "Suppose what you say is true. Suppose that the Main Converter and the Main Drive itself are nothing but dummies and that we can never start them, what about the Captain's veranda? You've seen the stars there, not just an engineered shadow show."
Narby laughed. "Ertz, you are stupider than I've guessed. I admit that the display in the veranda had me mystified at first, not that I ever believed in it! Then the Control Room gave the clue: it's an Illusion, a piece of skillful engineering. Behind that glass is another compartment, about the same size and unlighted. Against its darkness those tiny moving lights give the effect of a bottomless hole. It's essentially the same trick as they used in the Control Room.