His father had made numerous attempts to pass his knowledge on to his son. But it was as hard to teach complexities to a tired and sleepy boy as it had been for the older man to learn those complexities himself under similar circumstances. Lesbee even felt slightly relieved when his parent died. It took the pressure off him. Since then, however, he had come to realize that the Browne family, by forcing a lesser skill on the descendant of the original commander of the ship, had won their greatest victory.
As he finally headed for the recreation room, Lesbee found himself wondering: Had the Brownes trained him with the intention of preparing him for such a mission as this?
His eyes widened. If that were true, then his own conspiracy was merely an excuse. The decision to kill him might actually have been made more than a decade ago, and light-years away...
As the lifeboat rocketed toward Alta III, Lesbee and Tellier sat in the twin control chairs and watched on the forward screen the vast, misty atmosphere of the planet. Dr. Tellier had never understood why spaceships could not attain even a quarter of the speed of light. His records showed that he had hoped to reach velocities greater than light, but his death had occurred too soon for him to train his son to carry on after him. No one since had had the necessary knowledge to continue his work.
It was vaguely believed by the scientists who succeeded Dr. Tellier that the ship had run into one of the paradoxes implicit in the Lorentz-Fitzgerald Contraction Theory.
Whatever the explanation, it was never solved.
Watching Tellier, Lesbee wondered if his companion and best friend felt as empty inside as he did. Incredibly, this was the first time he – or anyone – had been outside the big ship. 'We're actually heading down,' he thought, 'to one of those great masses of land and water, a planet.'
As he watched, fascinated, the massive ball grew visibly bigger.
They came in at a slant, a long, swift, angling approach, ready to jet away if any of the natural radiation belts proved too much for their defense systems. But as each stage of radiation registered in turn, the dials showed that the lifeboat machinery made the proper responses automatically.
The silence was shattered suddenly by an alarm bell.
Simultaneously, one of the screens focused on a point of rapidly moving light far below. The light darted toward them.
A missile!
Lesbee caught his breath.
But the shining point of light veered off, turned completely around, took up position several miles away, and began to fall with them.
His first thought was: 'They'll never let us land,' and he experienced intense disappointment.
Another signal sounded from the control board.
'They're probing us,' said Tellier, tensely.
An instant after the words were uttered, the lifeboat seemed to shudder and to stiffen under them. It was the unmistakable feel of a tractor beam, probing from the other craft. Its field clutched the lifeboat, drew it, held it.
The science of the Alta III inhabitants was already proving itself formidable.
Underneath him, the lifeboat continued its movement.
The entire crew gathered around and watched as the point of brightness came closer, resolved into an object, which rapidly grew larger. It loomed up close, bigger than they.
There was a metallic bump. The lifeboat shuddered from stem to stern.
Even before the vibrations ceased, Tellier said, 'Notice they put our airlock against theirs.'
Behind Lesbee, his companions began that peculiar joking of the threatened. It was a coarse comedy, but suddenly it had enough actual humor to break through his fear. Involuntarily, he found himself laughing.
Then, momentarily free of anxiety, aware that Browne was watching and that there was no escape, he said, 'Open the airlock! Let the aliens capture us as ordered.'
13
A few minutes after the outer airlock was opened, the airlock of the alien ship also folded back. Rubberized devices rolled out and contacted the Earth lifeboat, sealing off both entrances from the vacuum of space.
Air hissed into the interlocking passageway between the two craft. In the alien craft's lock, an inner door opened.
Again Lesbee held his breath.
There was a movement in the passageway. A creature ambled into view. The being came forward with complete assurance, and pounded on the hull with something he held at the end of one of his four leathery arms.
The creature had four legs and four arms, and a long, thin body held straight up. It had almost no neck, yet the many skin folds between the head and the body indicated great flexibility was possible.
Even as Lesbee noted the details of its appearance, the being turned its head slightly, and its two large expressionless eyes gazed straight at the hidden wall scanner that was photographing the scene, and therefore straight into Lesbee's eyes.
Lesbee blinked at the creature, then tore his gaze away, swallowed hard, and nodded at Tellier. 'Open up!' he commanded.
The moment the inner door of the Earth lifeboat opened, six more of the four-legged beings appeared, one after another, in the passageway, and walked forward in the same confident way as had the first.
All seven creatures entered the open door of the lifeboat.
As they entered, their thoughts came instantly into Lesbee's mind...
As Dzing and his boarding party trotted from the small Karn ship through the connecting airlock, his chief officer thought a message to him.
'Air pressure and oxygen content are within a tiny percentage of what exists at ground level on Karn. They can certainly live on our planet.'
Dzing moved forward into the Earth ship, and realized that he was in the craft's control chamber. Then, for the first time, he saw the men. He and his crew ceased their forward motion, and the two groups of beings – the human and the Karn -gazed at each other.
The appearance of the two-legged beings did not surprise Dzing. Pulse viewers had, earlier, penetrated the metal walls of the lifeboat and had accurately photographed the shapes and dimensions of those aboard.
His first instruction to his crew was designed to test whether the strangers were, in fact, surrendering. He commanded: 'Convey to the prisoners that we require them, as a precaution, to remove their clothing.'
...Until that direction was given, Lesbee was still uncertain as to whether or not these beings could receive human thoughts as he was receiving theirs. From the first moment, the aliens had conducted their mental conversations as if they were unaware of the thoughts of the human beings. Now as he watched, the Karn came forward. One tugged suggestively at his clothing. And there was no doubt.
The mental telepathy was a one-way flow only – from tie Karn to the humans.
He was already savoring the implications of that as he hastily undressed... It was absolutely vital that Browne should not find out about this.
Lesbee removed all his clothes; then, before putting them down, took out his notebook and pen. Standing there naked, he wrote hurriedly:
'Don't let on that we can read the minds of these beings.'
He handed the notebook around, and he felt easier as each of the men read it, and nodded at him silently.
Dzing communicated telepathically with someone on the ground. 'These strangers,' he reported, 'clearly acted under command to surrender. The problem is, how can we now let them overcome us, without arousing their suspicion that this is what we want them to do?'
Lesbee did not receive the answer directly. But he picked it up from Dzing's mind: 'Start tearing the lifeboat apart. See if that brings a reaction.'