"The only trouble with this is that I'll have to depend on your word for it that you've not had an attack. Well, not really. I could put you under hypnosis to find out if you've been telling the truth. But I don't like to do that. It'd mean I don't trust you. I don't want anybody on the ship I can't trust one hundred percent."
Jill felt like running over to him and throwing her arms around him. Her eyes filmed, and she almost sobbed with joy. But she stayed in her chair. An officer did not embrace the captain. Besides, he might misinterpret her behavior and try to take her into his bedroom.
She felt ashamed of herself. Firebrass would never take advantage of any woman. He would scorn using his influence. At least, she thought he would.
"I don't understand about this hypnosis," shesaid. "How could you make all the others go through with it but omit me? That's discrimination which the others ..."
"I've changed my mind about that."
He got up and walked to a rolltop desk, bent over it to write on a piece of paper, and then gave it to her.
"Here. Take this down to Doc Graves. He'll take an X-ray of you."
She was bewildered. "Whatever on earth for?"
"As your captain I could tell you to shut up and obey my order. I won't because you'd be resentful. Let's just say it's something the psychologists learned in 2000 A.D. It would defeat the purpose of the test if I told you what it was all about.
"Everybody else will have to be X-rayed, too. You have the honor of being the first."
"I don't understand," shemurmured. "But I'll do it, of course."
She rose. "Thank you."
"No thanks necessary. Now get your tail down to Doc Graves.''
When she arrived at the doctor's office, she found him talking on the phone. He was frowning and chewing his cigar savagely.
"All right, Milt. I'll do it. But I don't like it that you won't confide in me."
He hung the phone up and turned to her." Hello, Jill. You' ll have to wait until Ensign Smithers gets here. He'll pick up the X-ray photos as soon as they're made and run them up to Firebrass."
"He has a darkroom?"
"No. They don't need developing. Didn't you know? They're just like other photographs, electronically processed at the moment they're taken. Firebrass himself designed the equipment. It's a process developed about 1998, he said."
Graves began striding back and forth, biting hard oh the cigar.
"Damn it! He won't even let me see the X-rays! Why?"
"He said he didn't want anyone but himself to see the X-rays .It's part of the psychological evaluation tests-."
"How in hell could X-rays of the head tell you anything about a man's psyche? Is he nuts?"
"I suppose he'll tell us all about it when he's seen all the photos. By the way, speaking of a man's psyche, I'm not a man."
"I was speaking in the abstract."
He stopped and scowled even more fiercely. "I won't be able to sleep nights worrying about this. Man, I wish I'd lived longer. I shuffled off this mortal coil in 1980, so I didn't get to see the later developments in medical science. Just as well, I suppose. I couldn't keep up with the deluge of new stuff as it was."
Turning to Jill, and stabbing the cigar at her, he said, "Something I'd like to. ask you, Jill. Something that's been bothering me. Firebrass is the only one I've ever met who lived beyond 1983. Have you ever met anyone who did?"
She blinked with surprise. "No-o-o. No, I haven't, now I think about it. Firebrass excepted."
For a moment, she had been about to tell him about Stem. That was going to be a hard secret to keep.
"Neither have I. Damn peculiar."
"Not really," she said. "Of course, I haven't been all over The River, but I have traveled several hundred thousand kilometers and talked to thousands of people. The twentieth-century people seem to have been scattered thinly everywhere. If they were resurrected in clumps, as it were, I never heard of any. So that means that anywhere in the Valley you'll likely find a few, but most of the population segments will be from other centuries.
"So there's nothing remarkable in the rarity of people born after 1983."
"Yeah? Maybe so. Ah, here comes Smithers and two other thugs. Step into my X-rated parlor, my dear, as the spider said to the fly."
36
Extracts from various editions of The Daily Leak:
Dmitri "Mitya" Ivanovitch Nikitin is pro tempore pilot third officer of the Parseval. He was born in 1885 in Gomel, Russia, of middle-class parents. His father was a harness-factory owner; his mother taught piano. His qualifications for candidacy were based on his experience as chief steersman of the Russie, a French airship built by the Lebaudy-Juillot Company in 1909 for the Russian government.
Ms. Jill Gulbirra, chief airship instructor, says that Mit-ya's experience was rather limited from her viewpoint, but he has shown excellent ability. However, according to rumors, he is too fond of skull-bloom. Take a tip from us, Mitya. Lay off the booze.
... Charges will not be brought by the editor against Pilot Nikitin. During a necessarily brief interview in the hospital, Mr. Bagg said, "I've been laid out by better men than that big slob. The next time he comes charging into my office, I'll be prepared. The reason I'm not having him arrested isn't just because I have a big heart, however. I just want a chance to personally knock his brains out. Speak softly and carry a big stick."
... Ettore Arduino is Italian (what else?), but he is blond and blue-eyed and can pass for a Swede as long as he keeps his mouth shut and doesn't eat garlic. As all but new citizens know, he entered Parolando two months ago and was immediately signed up for training. He has an illustrious though tragic history, having been chief motor engineer on the airship Norge and then on the Italia under Umberto Nobile. (See page 6 for a minibiogrpahy of this son of Rome.) The Norge accomplished its primary mission to fly over the North Pole on May 12, 1926. It also established that there was no large land mass between the North Pole and Alaska as reported by that great explorer, Commodore Robert E. Peary (1856-1920), the first man to reach the North Pole (1909). (Though Peary was accompanied by a Negro, Matthew Henson, and four Eskimos whose names we don't remember, actually Henson was the first man to stand on the North Pole.)
The Italia, after passing over the Pole, found itself bucking a very strong headwind on its way to King's Bay. The controls jammed from heavy icing; a crash seemed assured. However, the ice melted, and the airship proceeded. Some time later, the vessel began to fall slowly. The helpless crew was forced to stand by while the queen of the skies struck the surface ice. The control gondola was torn off, a fortuitous event for those in it. These scrambled out and then looked up in shock as the dirigible, freed of the weight of the gondola, rose again.
Ettore Arduino was last seen standing on the gangway to the starboard engine gondola. As reported by a crew member, Dr. Francis Behounek of the Wireless Institute of Prague, Czechoslovakia, Arduino's face was a mask of utter disbelief. The Italia floated away, and nothing of it or the men still aboard was ever seen again. On Earth, that is.
Arduino relates that he perished of the cold after the Italia fell for the second and last time on the ice. His complete account of this horrendous experience will be printed in next Thursday's issue. After this blood-chilling event, no reasonable person could expect Ettore to volunteer again for airship travel. But he is undaunted by this and expresses eagerness for another polar expedition. We don't care what people say about Italians, and we have nothing but contempt for the attitude prevalent in Tombstone, where it was stated as a fact that all wops were yellow. We personally know that they have more guts than brains, and we are sure that Ettore will be a shining adornment to the crew.