After they had drunk the wine, his manner changed again. He put his glass down. He said curtly, 'Let's get this ship headed for home.'
He led the way to the auxiliary control room. 'No bridge yet for you,' he said, then warned, 'don't try any tricks now.'
Lesbee walked over to the control board in a deliberate fashion. The question in his mind was: If he simply set the two dials and threw two switches, would Gourdy get the idea that he could handle this himself? On the other hand, if he made it seem too complex, the man might have someone else -Miller or Mindel – check on everything he did.
In the end he did only two unnecessary things. Since Gourdy wanted to know the meaning of his moves, he explained in double-talk what he had done and why. A few minutes later he had the acceleration at twelve g's, and the artificial gravity at eleven, thus leaving a gap of one gravity, exactly the same as on Earth.
The programming completed, Lesbee stood by while Gourdy announced the action over the public-address system, ending with, 'We're going home. Yes, my friends, our destination is Earth itself.'
He instructed: '... sleep in your acceleration belts, since we plan to increase acceleration during the night.'
Lesbee listened, ashamed and embarrassed. Such an 'increase' in acceleration merely meant that he would widen the gap between the drive thrust and the artificial gravity, which was unnecessary. Since Dzing had 'adjusted' the coils in the engines and the synchronizers in the artificial gravity system, they could be stepped up simultaneously to maintain a steady one gravity, no matter what the rate of increase.
However, this had not hitherto been true; so he would not let it be true now. It was to his advantage to immobilize people.
Listening to the man, Lesbee thought with gloomy cynicism: 'The ridiculous truth is, the moment he discovers how near to Earth we actually are, with this new engine control, he'll kill me out of hand.'
21
As the days and the weeks passed, he realized he was the only technical person who was being permitted to go into the two control rooms and in the engine room. It became apparent that whatever was finally done would be up to him.
His brain seethed with schemes. And yet the only possible thing he could actually do occurred to him the first day. He kept rejecting it, saw too many flaws in it, felt its danger. But on the twenty-sixth day he told the idea to Tellier. It was one of those rare moments when he was certain he was not being spied on: Gourdy had left the lower floors only moments before and was obviously en route somewhere and not listening in, and so Lesbee could speak freely.
He grew aware of his friend's dismay. 'Exceed the speed of light!' Tellier echoed. 'Are you serious?'
Lesbee said defensively, 'We won't actually do it. But I've got to get it programmed for and in reserve. He's a killer -don't ever forget that.'
Tellier groaned. 'If this is the best you can think of, we're in trouble.'
Lesbee explained earnestly: 'At our present rate of acceleration, we'll come to 99.999998 per cent of light-speed in about three days. When that happens, it will require only two ship hours to jump many light-years, all the way to the solar system. So we've got to stop accelerating or we'll zoom right out of the galaxy. Now, how do I do all this without letting on to Gourdy who expects the journey to Earth to take thirty years?'
A strange look came into Tellier's thin, intellectual face. He grabbed Lesbee's arm, said hoarsely, 'John – during these three days, why don't you just fix up one of the lifeboats, shut off our engines, scramble the light system, and in the confusion you and me get off?'
Lesbee was taken aback. Leave the ship! Although he considered that the idea was not practicable, he was astonished that such a thought had never occurred to him. But he realized why it hadn't. The ship was a part of his life and not a separate thing at all.
He said finally, thinking out loud, 'There would have to be some fix-up on that lifeboat. It takes a long time to slow down. What I figure is, when we get close to light-speed, I'll juggle the gravity and the acceleration, and then get permission to cut off.'
He stood, scowling, considering. Tellier wanted to know what was bothering him.
Lesbee realized he couldn't explain to any other person the difficulty of dealing with Gourdy. Haltingly, he tried to describe the paranoic suspiciousness of the man. He said, 'He knows enough about the controls to know when they're in operation. Teaching him was my only method of preventing him from having someone check on the engines. If I go to him-' He stopped again, picturing the possibilities, then said, 'It's so vital I can't take the chance that he won't do it now.'
'So?' Tellier wanted to know.
It seemed to Lesbee that he must inform Captain Gourdy that the engines were not functioning properly and get permission to cut off the drives before the ship attained light-speed. He argued the point earnestly. 'But I'll program it so that if he gets suspicious and bars me from upstairs, then, in due course, the engines will start again and take us across the light-speed barrier, and since it will look as if I had predicted trouble, Gourdy will trust me again.'
He grew aware that Tellier was gazing at him admiringly. 'You really do have a mind for intrigue, don't you?' He added anxiously, 'But if he's not suspicious, you'll keep us on this side of light?'
'Of course. Do you think I'm crazy! As an emergency precaution, believe it or not, I've already activated the old sensor equipment for zeroing in, first on the solar system, then on Earth.'
The conversation ended with an agreement as to which airlock they would use for their escape and under what circumstances they would rendezvous there.
Later that afternoon, Lesbee programmed for the additional patterned acceleration, using electromagnetic controls exclusively. It had occurred to him that it would be unwise to trust any mere mechanical device at near light-speed.
The action taken, he went to Gourdy and brazenly made his statement about the drives, that he would have to shut them off to see what was wrong.
Gourdy was instantly anxious. 'But we'll keep coasting along while you're checking them?' he asked.
'Of course,' said Lesbee. 'We'd come to this condition presently anyway, where we have to shut off the engines to conserve fuel, and coast. But that's still months away.'
Lesbee had once toyed with the idea of using that natural sequence. But it had seemed to him that the longer he remained at the mercy of Gourdy, the more impossible his plan would be. Even now, at the stepped-up rate that he had used, simply coasting would require a disconcertingly high number of years to make the journey. It was unfortunate but only within light yards and light feet per second of light-speed were the enormous relative speeds attainable.
They were standing on the bridge. Against the backdrop of unending, star-dotted night. Gourdy's eyes were narrowed. He was evidently having those second thoughts of his. Lesbee felt the tension mounting in his stomach.
Gourdy said, 'Does this trouble have an emergency look?'
'Captain, the sooner I check on what's wrong, the better. But it could wait till the sleep period.'
'Well– ' Gourdy seemed to be coming to a decision. 'I guess it's all right. What about the gravity?'
'It'll have to go off,' Lesbee lied.
'Then wait till after dinner. If you haven't heard from me in an hour before the sleep period, program for engine shut-off during the night. I'll announce it and tell people to sleep in their safety belts. How long do you figure it will take?'
'A couple of days.'