Lesbee's elation faded as rapidly as it had come, for Browne was as great a danger as ever.
Lesbee gazed at the man gloomily.
'For God's sake, Lesbee,' said Browne, 'that thing must be practically back here. Tell me what you want me to agree to, and I'll do it.'
Lesbee said, 'I think we ought to have an election.'
'I agree,' said Browne instantly. 'You set it up.' He broke off. 'And now release me from these tractors, and let's act.'
Lesbee gazed at the man's face, saw there the same openness of countenance, the same frank, honest look that had preceded the execution order, and he thought, 'What can he do?'
He considered many possibilities, and thought finally, desperately, 'He's got the advantage of superior knowledge – the most undefeatable weapon in the world. The only thing I can really hope to use against it in the final issue is my knowledge of a multitude of technician-level details.'
But – what could Browne do against him?
Lesbee said unhappily, 'Before I free you, I want to lift you over to Mindel. When I do, you get his blaster for me.'
'Sure,' said Browne casually.
A few minutes later he handed Mindel's gun over to Lesbee. So that wasn't it.
Lesbee thought: 'There's Miller on the bridge – can it be that Miller flashed him a ready signal when my back was turned to the board?'
Perhaps, like Browne, Miller had been temporarily incapacitated during the period of acceleration. It was vital that he find out Miller's present capability.
Lesbee tripped the intercom between the two boards. The rugged, lined face of the first officer showed large on the screen. Lesbee could see the outlines of the bridge behind the man and, beyond, the starry blackness of space. Lesbee said courteously, 'Mr. Miller, how did you make out during the acceleration?'
'It caught me by surprise, Captain. I really got a battering. I think I was out for a while. But I'm all right now.'
'Good,' said Lesbee. 'As you probably heard, Captain Browne and I have come to an agreement, and we are now going to destroy the creature that is loose on the ship. Stand by!'
Cynically, he broke the connection.
Miller was there all right, waiting. But the question was still, what could Miller do? The answer was, of course, that Miller could pre-empt. And – Lesbee asked himself – what could that do?
Suddenly, he had the answer.
He now understood Browne's plan. They were waiting for Lesbee to let his guard down for a moment. Then Miller would take over, cut off the tractor beam from Browne, and seize Lesbee with it.
For the two officers it was vital that Lesbee not have the time to fire the blaster at Browne. Lesbee thought: 'It's the only thing they can be worried about, so far as I'm concerned.' And as soon as Lesbee was dead, or under control, Browne would grab the mechanism out of his pocket, and activate Stage Three – which would destroy Dzing.
Their plan, as Lesbee saw it, had only one flaw. Now that he had deduced what it was, he could turn it against them.
He realized that he had preparations to make quickly, before Browne got suspicious of his delay.
He turned to the board and switched on the intercom. 'People,' he said, 'strap yourselves in again. Help those who were injured to do the same. We may have another emergency. You all have about a minute, I think, but don't waste any of it.'
He cut off that intercom, and activated the closed-circuit intercom of the technical stations. He said: 'Special instructions to technical personnel. Listen carefully. Did any of you hear an explosion about ten minutes ago?'
He had an answer to that within moments after he had finished speaking. A man's twangy voice came: 'This is Dan. There was an explosion in the corridor near me – seems longer ago than ten minutes.'
Lesbee restrained his excitement. 'Where?' he asked.
'D– four-nineteen.'
Lesbee pressed the viewer buttons, and a moment later found himself gazing along a corridor that looked stove in. Wall, ceiling, floor – everything – was a mass of twisted metal.
No question, Dzing had been blown apart. There was no other possible explanation for such destruction.
Relieved, but aware again that his greatest personal danger remained, Lesbee set up Stage Two of the little device in his pocket in relation to the alternate control board. Then he turned and faced Browne.
The older man seemed uncertain as to what had happened.
'What was all that?' he asked.
Lesbee explained that Dzing was destroyed.
'Oh!' Browne seemed to consider that. 'That was clever of you not to reveal it,' he said finally.
'I wasn't sure,' Lesbee said. 'This ship is really soundproofed. The explosion didn't reach us here.'
Browne seemed to accept that.
Lesbee said, 'If you'll wait a moment while I put away this gun, I'll carry out my part of the bargain.'
But when he had put the blaster away, he paused out of pity.
He had been thinking about what Browne had said, earlier: that the trip to earth might require only a few months. The officer had backed away from that statement, but it had been bothering Lesbee ever since.
If it were true, then, indeed, nobody needed to die.
He said quickly, 'What was your reason for saying that the journey home would only take – well – less than a year?'
'It's the tremendous time compression near light-speed,' Browne explained eagerly. 'The distance, as you pointed out, is over twelve light-years. But with this new principle of acceleration, we can work up a time ratio of 300, 400, or 500 to one, and we'll actually make the trip in less than a month. When I first started to say that, I could see that the figures were incomprehensible to you in your tense mood. In fact, I could scarcely believe them myself.'
Lesbee said, staggered, 'We can get back to the solar system in a few weeks – my God!' He broke off, said urgently, 'Look, I accept you as commander. We don't need an election. The status quo is good enough for any short period of time. Do you agree?'
'Of course,' said Browne. 'That's the point I've been trying to make.'
As he spoke, his face was utterly guileless.
Lesbee gazed at that mask of innocence and he thought hopelessly, 'What's wrong? Why isn't he really agreeing? Is it because he doesn't want to lose his command so quickly?'
Sitting there, unhappily fighting for the other's life, he tried to place himself mentally in the position of the commander of a vessel, tried to look at the prospect of a return to Earth from the other's point of view. It was hard to picture. But presently it seemed to him that he understood.
He said gently, feeling his way, 'It would be kind of a shame to return without having made a successful landing anywhere. With this new speed, we could visit a dozen sun systems, and still get home in a year.'
The look that came into Browne's face for a fleeting moment told Lesbee that he had penetrated to the thought in the man's mind.
The next instant Browne was shaking his head vigorously. 'This is no time for side excursions,' he said. 'We'll leave explorations of new star systems to future expeditions. The people of this ship have served their term. We go straight home.'
Browne's face was now completely relaxed. His blue eyes shone with truth and sincerity.
There was nothing further that Lesbee could say. The gulf between Browne and himself could not be bridged.
The commander had to kill his rival so that he might finally return to Earth and report that the mission of the Hope of Man had been accomplished.
18
Lesbee used the tractor beam to push Browne about six feet from him. There he set him down, and released him from the beam. With the same deliberateness, he drew his hand away from the tractor controls, and swung his chair around so that his back was to the board. Thus he rendered himself completely defenseless.