Browne smiled engagingly. 'Anyway, good people, though we can't unbreak the eggs that were broken then, we can certainly start healing the wounds, without' – his tone was suddenly firm – 'negating the fact that my own training and experience make me the proper commander of the ship itself.'
He broke off. 'Captain Lesbee and I shall now jointly attempt to communicate with the captured intelligent life form from the planet below. You may watch, though we reserve the right to cut you off for good reason.' He turned to Lesbee. 'What do you think we should do first, John?'
Lesbee was in a dilemma. The first large doubt had come to him, the possibility that perhaps the other was sincere. The possibility was especially disturbing because in a few moments a part of his own plan would be revealed.
He sighed, and realized that there was no turning back at this stage. He thought: 'We'll have to bring the entire madness out into the open, and only then can we begin to consider agreement as real.'
Aloud, he said in a steady voice, 'Why not bring the prisoner out where we can see him?'
As the tractor beam lifted Dzing out of the cage, and thus away from the energies that had suppressed his thought waves, the Karn telepathed to his contact on Alta III:
'Have been held in a confined space, the metal of which was energized against communication. I shall now attempt to perceive and evaluate the condition and performance of this ship -'
At that point, Browne reached over and clicked off the speaker system. Having shut off the audience, he turned accusingly to Lesbee, and said, 'Explain your failure to inform me that these beings communicated by telepathy.'
The tone of his voice was threatening. There was a glint of anger in his eyes.
It was the moment of discovery.
Lesbee hesitated, and then simply pointed out how precarious their relationship had been. He finished frankly, 'I thought by keeping it a secret I might be able to stay alive a little longer, which was certainly not what you intended when you sent me out as an expendable.'
Browne snapped, 'But how did you hope to utilize-?' He stopped. 'Never mind,' he muttered.
Dzing was telepathing again:
'In many ways this ship is very advanced. All automatic systems are well designed and largely self-repairing. There is high-level energy-screen equipment and they can generate a tractor beam to match any we can produce with mobile units. But the atomic-energy drive is most inefficient. The resonating-field coils which control particle acceleration are improperly balanced, as if the basic principle were not fully understood. Instead of being accelerated to near light-speed, the particles are ejected at relatively low velocities where their mass has hardly increased at all. There is not enough mass in the entire ship to have maintained the reactive mode more than a fraction of the distance from the nearest planetary system. Let me furnish you with the data that I am perceiving, for the large computers to interpret...'
Lesbee said in alarm, 'Quick, sir, drop him back while we figure out what he's talking about!'
Browne did so – as Dzing telepathed: 'My analysis is correct! Then these beings are completely at our mercy.'
His thought was cut off abruptly, as he was lowered into the cage with its barrier energy.
Browne was turning on the speaker system. He said into it: 'Sorry I had to tune you good people out. You'll be interested to know that we managed to read the thought pulses of the prisoner and have intercepted his calls to someone on the planet below. This gives us an advantage.' He turned to Lesbee. 'Don't you agree, Captain?'
Browne visibly showed no anxiety, whereas Dzing's final statement had flabbergasted Lesbee. '... completely at our mercy... ' surely meant exactly that. He was staggered that Browne could have missed the momentous meaning.
Browne addressed him enthusiastically: 'I'm excited by this telepathy. It's a marvelous shortcut to communication, if we could build up our own thought pulses. Maybe we could use the principle of the remote-control landing device which, as you know, can project human thoughts on a power-output level comparable to a radio-frequency transmitter.'
What interested Lesbee in the suggestion was that he had in his pocket a three-stage remote control for precisely such electronically amplified thought pulses. Unfortunately, the control was for the lifeboat. It probably would be advisable to tune the control to the ship also. It was a problem he had thought of earlier, and now Browne had opened the way for an easy solution.
He held his voice steady as he said, 'Captain, let me program those landing analogs while you prepare the film-communication project. That way we can be ready for him, no matter what.'
Browne seemed to be completely trusting, for he agreed at once. A film projector was mounted, at Browne's direction, on solid connections at one end of the room. The projectionist and Third Officer Mindel – who had come in with him – strapped themselves into adjoining chairs attached to the projector.
While this was going on, Lesbee called various technical personnel. Only one technician protested. 'But, John,' he said, 'that way we have a dual control – with the lifeboat control having pre-emption over the ship. It's against all principles of flight guidance to subordinate steady state mechanisms to gadgets. I-it's unusual.'
It was unusual. But he was fighting for his life. And it was the lifeboat control that was in his pocket where he could reach it quickly; and so he said adamantly, 'Do you want to talk to Captain Browne? Do you want his O.K.?'
'No, no.' The technician's doubts seemed to subside. 'I heard you being named joint captain. You're the boss. It shall be done.'
Lesbee put down the closed-circuit phone into which he had been talking, and turned. It was then he saw that the film was ready to roll, and that Browne had his fingers on the controls of the tractor beam. The older man stared at him questioningly.
'Shall I go ahead?' he asked.
At this penultimate moment, Lesbee had a qualm.
Almost immediately he realized that the only alternative to what Browne planned was that he reveal his own secret knowledge.
He hesitated, torn by doubts. Then: 'Will you turn that off?' He indicated the intercom.
Browne said to the audience, 'We'll bring you in again in a minute, good people.' He broke the connection and gazed questioningly at Lesbee.
Whereupon Lesbee said in a low voice, 'Captain, I should inform you that I brought the Karn aboard in the hope of using him against you.'
'Well, that is a frank and open admission,' the officer said softly.
'I mention this,' said Lesbee, 'because if you had similar ulterior motives, we should clear the air completely before proceeding with the attempt at communication.'
A blossom of color spread from Browne's neck over his face. At last he said slowly, 'I don't know how I can convince you, but I had no schemes.'
Lesbee gazed at Browne's open countenance, and suddenly he realized that the officer was sincere. Browne had accepted the compromise. The solution of a joint captaincy was agreeable to him.
Sitting there, Lesbee experienced a mixture of joy and doubt. He could not wholly overcome his fear of Browne's motives. On the other hand, it did seem as if communication worked. You could tell your truth and get a hearing – if it made sense.
It seemed to him that he had to believe that his truth made sense. He was offering Browne peace aboard the ship. Peace at a price, of course; but still peace. And in this severe emergency Browne recognized the entire validity of the solution.