The Colonel snorted. “They will, all right.” He turned sharply to the pilot who had just come in. “We’re leaving for the colony,” he said, his voice regaining some semblance of control. “We’ll have a hand radio with us, of course, and I’d like a man here on the receiver all the time.”
The pilot nodded. “Any idea how long—?”
“None in the least. Maybe a day, maybe six weeks. I couldn’t even guess, at this point.” He shot a venomous glance at Anson Torm.
Tuck watched the men miserably. The conference had been a failure—obviously. He knew the Colonel had counted on establishing some sort of liaison on the first meeting, some grounds for understanding—and it appeared that he had failed utterly. And Torm had said that unless an understanding was reached, there wouldn’t be any mines left to work! Tuck felt a chill run down his spine. What could he have meant? The colonists wouldn’t dare to stop work, to close down the mines—and yet the colonists were violent—rebels and traitors. They might dare anything. Tuck’s heart skipped a beat as he thought of David Torm’s visit to the ship, and his message suddenly took on a horrible significance. If there had been some plan made, back at the colony, to start a violent outbreak if the conference was not successful—Tuck turned to Anson Torm in alarm. “Your son was here—”
The colony leader lowered his hands from the suit slowly, staring at Tuck, his pale blue eyes widening. “David? You mean he came here to the ship?”
Tuck nodded. “Half an hour ago. He wanted to see you, but we told him you’d left orders not to be disturbed.”
There was alarm on Anson Torm’s face now, and he blinked at Tuck, and then shot a glance at the Colonel. “What did he want?”
“He wouldn’t tell me. Said there was trouble of some sort back at the colony—”
“Cortell!” The word was like a curse.
Tuck nodded excitedly. “That’s right. He said Cortell was organizing his group, or something like that, and that you should get back as soon as possible.”
Anson Torm scowled, his fist clenching at his side. “Did he say anything else?”
“Nothing else. He just left in a hurry.”
Torm half-turned to the Colonel, worried lines furrowing his broad forehead. “This is a horse of a different color,” he said sharply. “I think you’d better let me go in alone—before you come.”
The Colonel’s eyebrows lifted. “Not on your life,” he growled. “Not after the story you’ve been telling me for the last two hours—”
Anson Torm’s eyes flashed. “Colonel, you’ve got to trust me. For the sake of the mines, and for the sake of your own neck. This is something I’ve got to handle alone—”
“I’d say you’ve handled it rather badly alone.” The Colonel’s voice lashed angrily. “Who is this Cortell?”
“I told you about John Cortell. He’s a troublemaker, and he’s dangerous.”
The Colonel regarded Torm for a long moment. Then he said coldly, “I thought you were supposed to be the leader of the colony people.”
Torm’s mouth tightened. “I am.”
“Then why don’t you keep your troublemakers in confinement where they belong?”
“Colonel, you simply don’t understand the situation at the colony—”
“That’s for dead sure!” The Colonel cut him off with a wave of the hand. “I don’t understand a thing you’ve said all afternoon. And that is precisely why I’m not going to stay here now. All I’ve heard is double talk and threats. You want to keep the mines working, but you don’t want to keep the mines working. You’ve gotten extra supplies, but you haven’t gotten extra supplies. You’re the colony leader, but you can’t lead the colony! Bah!” The Colonel’s face was red with anger. “I want to know what’s going on out here, and I’ve had nothing but nonsense handed to me. Now I want the facts. If there’s trouble in the colony that you can’t control, we’ll see what the trouble is, and we’ll see if we can’t control it.”
“You’re determined to go in with me?”
“I am indeed.”
Torm shrugged his shoulders, angrily. “Then you’d better hurry, because I’m going in as fast as I can get there.” He turned back to the pressure suit, and Tuck was almost startled to see the whiteness of his face.
The Colonel turned to Tuck, his voice quieter. “Maybe you’d better stay, if there’s likely to be trouble—”
“If there’s trouble, you’ll need help,” Tuck protested. “Anyway, they won’t dare harm us—not with the crew as close as it is, and you with Security credentials—”
The Colonel frowned for a moment, then nodded. “All right. But you’d better be quick about it—”
A few moments later they were standing in the lock, waiting as atmosphere hissed out of the exhaust pumps until the outer door sprang open. The crane grated shrilly as they descended, and Tuck felt his blood stir as they approached the ground. Now, at last, he would be seeing this strange colony for himself. The people who lived in a bubble! He shook his head, still puzzled that people would choose to live in such a time-forgotten outpost. What could be driving them? And yet, he knew, they seldom came back to Earth, once they had worked on Titan. Occasionally they came back, looking for work, applying to the schools, or just vacationing, but almost invariably a Titan colonist who came back to Earth for any reason was back on the next ship out to Titan again. Of course, everyone knew that they were poor workmen, shifty and lazy and treacherous, and nobody on Earth wanted to hire a man who knew nothing but how to keep methane out of a mining tunnel, and there probably wasn’t a person in the colony who could qualify for entrance requirements at an Earthside University—and with their long history of treachery and violence, who wanted them back on Earth anyway? They couldn’t even run their own tiny colony without constant fighting and revolutionary outbreaks—what place could they find in the civilized society back on Earth?
The three of them reached the floor of the crater, and stepped off the crane, clambering into the cockpit of the half-track. The motor started, and the vehicle gave a lurch, and rolled in a wide arc, crawling over the ragged terrain like a short, stubby worm, absorbing the bumps and declevities with the pillow tires and the caterpillar treads that gave the thing its driving power. Tuck caught a brief glimpse of the tall, slender ship, and then it disappeared as the half-track made a complete circle and started up toward the first ridge of crags. Tuck felt a sudden pang of uneasiness pass through him. At least in the ship there had been a certain degree of safety. But beyond that ridge of rocks—who could say? It was no use fooling himself. They were leaving their safety behind.
He heard his fathers voice in the earphones, a startling sound, as though the Colonel were speaking directly into his ear. “Did the boy say what Cortell was trying to organize?”
“Not a word. He clammed up the minute I asked. Maybe you should ask Mr. Torm. He seems to know what his son was talking about.”
Anson Torm threw a glance at Tuck, then met the Colonel’s cold eyes. “I think you’ll want to find out for yourself,” he said coolly. “John Cortell is powerful—and he’s getting more powerful every day. He has a lot of the colonists on his side, and he wants open revolt with Earth. I’ve been trying to tell you for the past two hours that the colonists have reached the end of their tether out here. They want some changes made, and they’re going to have those changes. And if they find out that you’ve come here without any idea of making changes, I can’t vouch for what will happen.”
The Colonel raised his eyebrows in exasperation. “And as I told you, Security can’t consider making changes unless we know exactly what is going on in this colony. All the Earth asks is the colonists’ cooperation—nothing more.”