Within ten minutes Kelly was down on his knees with him, helping him trace the intricate circuits.
Max learned, greatly assisted by his photographic memory and still more by the sound grounding in theory he had gotten from his uncle. Kelly was pleased. "I reckon you exaggerated a mite when you said you hadn't learned anything in the _Thule_."
"Well, not much."
"Johansen have the Worry Hole when you were striking?"
"Uh, yes." Max hoped frantically that Kelly would not ask other names.
"I thought so. That squarehead wouldn't tell his own mother how old he was."
There came a watch when Kelly trusted him to do a dry run for a transition approach on the computer, with Noguchi handling the tables and Kelly substituting for the astrogator by following records of the actual transition the ship had last made. The programming was done orally, as is the case when the astrogator is working under extreme pressure from latest data, just before giving the crucial signal to boost past the speed of light.
Kelly took it much more slowly than would happen in practice, while Noguchi consulted tables and called out figures to Max. He was nervous at first, his fingers trembling so that it was hard to punch the right keys--then he settled down and enjoyed it, feeling as if he and the machine had been born for each other.
Kelly was saying, "--times the binary natural logarithm of zero point eight seven oh nine two." Max heard Noguchi's voice call back the datum while he thumbed for the page--but in his mind Max saw the page in front of his eyes long before Noguchi located it; without conscious thought he depressed the right keys.
"Correction!" sang out Kelly. "Look, meathead, you don't put in them figures; you wait for translation by Noggy here. How many times I have to tell you?"
"But I did--" Max started, then stopped. Thus far he had managed to keep anyone aboard the _Asgard_ from learning of his embarrassingly odd memory.
"You did what?" Kelly started to clear the last datum from the board, then hesitated. "Come to think of it, you can't possibly feed decimal figures into that spaghetti mill. Just what _did_ you do?"
Max knew he was right and hated to appear not to know how to set up a problem. "Why, I put in the figures Noguchi was about to give me."
"How's that again?" Kelly stared at him. "You a mind reader?"
"No. But I put in the right figures."
"Hmm ..." Kelly bent over the keyboard. "Call 'em off, Noggy." The computerman reeled off a string of ones and zeroes, the binary equivalent of the decimal expression Kelly had given him; Kelly checked the depressed keys, his lips moving in concentration. He straightened up. "I once saw a man roll thirteen sevens with honest dice. Was it fool luck, Max?"
"No."
"Well! Noggy, gimme that book." Kelly went through the rest of the problem, giving Max raw data and the operations to be performed, but not translating the figures into the binary notation the computer required. He kept thumbing the book and glancing over Max's shoulder. Max fought off stage fright and punched the keys, while sweat poured into his eyes.
At last Kelly said, "Okay. Twist its tail." Max flipped the switch which allowed the computer to swallow the program and worry it for an instant; the answer popped out in lights, off or on--the machine's equivalent of binary figures.
Kelly translated the lights back into decimal notation, using the manual. He then glanced at the recorded problem. He closed the record book and handed it to Noguchi. "I think I'll have a cup of coffee," he said quietly and walked away.
Noguchi reopened it, looked at the lights shining on the board and consulted the manual, after which he looked at Max very oddly. Max saw Kelly staring at him over a cup with the same expression. Max reached up and cleared the board entirely; the lights went out. He got down out of the computerman's saddle. Nobody said anything.
Max's next watch was with Dr. Hendrix. He enjoyed watches with the Astrogator almost as much as those with Kelly; Dr. Hendrix was a friendly and soft-spoken gentleman and gave as much attention to training Max as Kelly did. But this time Kelly lingered on after being relieved--in itself nothing, as the Chief Computerman frequently consulted with, or simply visited with, the Astrogator at such times. But today, after relieving the watch, Dr. Hendrix said pleasantly, "Kelly tells me that you are learning to use the computer, Jones?"
"Uh, yes, sir."
"Very well, let's have a drill." Dr. Hendrix dug out an old astrogation log and selected a transition-approach problem similar to the one Max had set up earlier. Kelly took the manual, ready to act as his "numbers boy"--but did not call the translations. Max waited for the first one; when it did not come, he read the figures from the page shining in his mind and punched them in.
It continued that way. Kelly said nothing, but wet his lips and checked what Max did each time the doctor offered a bit of the problem. Kovak watched from nearby, his eyes moving from actor to actor.
At last Dr. Hendrix closed the book. "I see," he agreed, as if it were an everyday occurrence. "Jones, that is an extremely interesting talent. I've read of such cases, but you are the first I have met. You've heard of Blind Tom?"
"No, sir."
"Perhaps the ship's library has an account of him." The Astrogator was silent for a moment. "I don't mean to belittle your talent, but you are not to use it during an actual maneuver. You understand why?"
"Yes, sir. I guess I do."
"Better say that you are not to use it unless you think an error has been made--in which case you will speak up at once. But the printed tables remain the final authority."
"Aye aye, sir."
"Good. See me, please, in my room when you come off watch."
It was "day time" by the ship's clocks when he went off watch. He went to the passageway outside Dr. Hendrix's room and waited; there Ellie came across him. "Max!"
"Oh. Hello, Ellie." He realized uncomfortably that he had not seen her since his tentative promotion.
"Hello he says!" She planted herself in front of him. "You're a pretty sight--with your bloodshot eyes matching the piping on your shirt. Where have you been? Too good for your old friends? You haven't even been to see Chipsie."
He had been, once, although he had not run into Ellie. He had not repeated the visit because the shipmate who had replaced him had not liked being assigned as chambermaid to cows, sheep, llamas, _et al._; he had seemed to feel that it was Max's fault. "I'm sorry," Max said humbly, "but I haven't had time."
"A feeble excuse. Know what you are going to do now? You're going straight to the lounge and I am going to trim your ears--I've figured out a way to box your favorite gambit that will leave you gasping."
Max opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. "No."
"Speak louder. You used a word I don't understand."
"Look, Ellie, be reasonable. I'm waiting for Dr. Hendrix and as soon as he lets me go I've got to get some sleep. I'm about ten hours minus."
"You can sleep any time."
"Not when you're standing four hours on and four off. You nap anytime you get a chance."
She looked perplexed. "You don't mean you work every other watch? Why, that's criminal."
"Maybe so but that's how it is."
"But--I'll fix that! I'll speak to the Captain."
"Ellie! Don't you dare!"
"Why not? Captain Blaine is old sugar pie. Never you mind, I'll fix it."
Max took a deep breath, then spoke carefully. "Ellie, don't say anything to the Captain, not anything. It's a big opportunity for me and I don't mind. If you go tampering with things you don't understand, you'll ruin my chances. I'll be sent back to the stables."
"Oh, he wouldn't do that."
"You don't understand. He may be an 'old sugar pie' to you; to me he is the Captain. So don't."
She pouted. "I was just trying to help."
"I appreciate it. But don't. And anyhow, I can't come to the lounge, ever. It's off limits for me."