Brain World, page 12
"Who is your navigator?"
"Traditionally, the second deck officer is navigator. Mr. Tokugawa, here. But the captain also double checks the navigating and, if needed, overrules the second officer." Very well," Ronny told him. "And who is in charge of the star charts?"
"Mr. Tokugawa and myself."
"Wizard. Supervisor Lee Chang Chu is also a spaceship navigator. I will reveal the coordinates of our destination to her. She will do the navigating. During our journey, even while in underspace, Mr. Tokugawa will not be allowed on the bridge at any time. And you, yourself, will not be allowed on it while Lee Chang is setting our courses." The captain's face went indignant. He said stiffly, "This is my ship, sir."
"And you are under the direct orders of the President of United Planets." Captain Fodor glared at him for a long moment. Finally, "Very well, sir." Lee Chang said quietly, "I think it would be best if all star charts would be placed in my custody, in my stateroom, and that a guard be placed at the door on a twenty-four hour a day basis."
"What in the hell's going on!" the captain demanded in indignation. Dorn Horsten spoke up for the first time in his quiet voice. "The fate of the human race is going on," he said.
"Dogs too, evidently," Boy murmured.
After the meal, for the next few hours in their own quarters, the five of them rehashed the developments on Einstein, Lee Chang being only partially acquainted with them. Ronny pulled no punches, admitting that he had been suckered by Rosemary, giving her the opportunity to drug him, and leading to his being given Scop and his mind being picked.
She said, her soft voice gently mocking, "I didn't know that you were that susceptible to feminine charms, Ronny."
He looked at her in irritation. "I'm a man, damn it."
"On the face of it," she nodded sweetly.
She thought about it for a moment, then said, "I suppose that the quicker you give me the coordinates of the Dawnworlds, the sooner I can get to setting as direct a course as possible for the nearest one."
"Yes, certainly," Ronny said. He looked at Dorn apologetically. "I think that it's better that not even you be in on it."
The doctor pushed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose and said emphatically,
"I most certainly agree with you. What I do not know, I cannot betray, even under Scop. I have sometimes wondered, in reflection, whether or not Ross Metaxa shouldn't have brainwashed you as well as the crew of the Pisa and Rita Daniels. Possibly nobody should know the location of the Dawnworlds. You say that they are in an obscure spiral, off the beaten track, and that ordinarily we wouldn't stumble upon them for ages. Very well, just knowing that they are out there, somewhere, is enough, that and the information we have about them. Sooner or later, stumble upon them we will—and the later the better."
"We'll leave you here with the dogs," Ronny said. "Obviously, they, too, can't hear what I have to tell Lee Chang."
Don't you trust me, Boss?" Boy said, giving a quick double pant and obviously just kidding. The super-pooch even had a sense of humor.
"Shut up," Ronny said, escorting Lee Chang toward the door and toward her own quarters.
He closed and locked the door behind him.
"Why, Ronny," she said modestly.
He grunted at her and looked at the door. "I imagine that's sound proof and proof everything else, for that matter. But I wonder if there's the chance of an icicle in hell that this cabin could be bugged."
"No," she said. "Sid Jakes had a team of our people go through the Alexander Hamilton like a fine comb. A cockroach couldn't be on it that we didn't know about. And each crewman and officer was searched down to the last mote of dust in his clothes, before coming aboard. There's no bug in this cabin—or anywhere else on the cruiser."
"Wizard," he said. "All right, these are the coordinates of the Dawnworlds. To be exact, the coordinates of the one I first landed upon. The same coordinates those Einstein cloddies have."
He gave them to her and she mentally noted them down, rather than risking any written record.
She nodded and said, "Very well. We're already headed in the general direction. Tomorrow, I'll take over the bridge and drop us into underspace, after taking every star chart they have. I'd have to look at a chart, but from memory I think you're probably correct. They're located in such a spiral that I doubt that, ordinarily, we would have come in contact for some time."
He came to his feet, saying, "I suppose I should get back to Dorn and the dogs." She stood, too, and the sides of her mouth turned down. "But, Ronny," she said.
"You said you were a man—damn it, as you put it. And here we are. You have me in a locked room."
He gaped at her. "What is that supposed to mean?" Her almond eyes took him in, in amusement. "Don't you think that you'd be more comfortable in here with me than with Dorn and the dogs?" She turned and looked at the bunk. "There seems to be room for the two of us. After all these years, Ronny, you've still never approached me."
"I…I didn't know that you were available."
"You never asked," she said, a slightly mocking element in her voice.
Chapter Sixteen
The hop from New Delos to the first Dawnworld planet was as uneventful as that from Einstein to New Delos had been, though longer.
On the second day Lee Chang confiscated all star charts and put them under lock and key in her cabin. The captain had looked miffed, but said nothing. All of them, of course, were not required but if she had allowed some to remain in the chart room they would have been a clue to where the Dawnworlds were not.
She and Ronny went to the bridge and politely requested that all ship's personnel currently on watch retire. They looked at Captain Fodor.
He said, "We are under the command of these representatives of the Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice, of the Commissariat of Interplanetary Affairs. Their orders override my own, even though I am commander of this cruiser." The spacemen marched out and Lee Chang took her place at the controls. She said, "Just as a double check, give me those coordinates again. I remember them, but just to be sure."
He gave them to her.
She looked it up on the star chart before her and nodded. "Mapped only by radio telescope. No indication that human manned exploration ships have ever touched there."
She set a course and then came out of her chair, folding her star chart.
"That's it, Ronny," she said. "Let's get this back to my cabin and under lock." Ronny spent the rest of the hop staying in Lee Chang's cabin at nights. Whether or not the cruiser's officers were aware of this he didn't know. However, by the envious expressions he sometimes caught on their faces he suspected that they did. He couldn't have cared less.
The hours that they could have together with each other were precious. He had told her the truth. They were expendable and it was unlikely that they would ever return from this assignment. There was almost without doubt, no future for their relationship. The difficulty was that it was becoming increasingly close. He mentally kicked himself for not having established it sooner. He had never suspected that the beautiful Chinese had been attracted to him. Every unmarried agent in Section G was head over heels for Lee Chang and Ronny had no illusions about his own masculine charms. He had always been on the unprepossessing side in appearance. When they came out of underspace, it was in the vicinity of the Dawnman planet where Baron Wyler, later followed by Ronny and agent Phil Birdman, had originally set-down.
They held a conference with the captain on the bridge.
Ronny said, "Somewhere on the planet below is probably an Earth-type spacecraft. At least, I assume that they got here first. You can detect it?"
"Of course."
"Very well. Please locate it and set down in its vicinity. Supervisor Lee Chang Chu, Doctor Horsten and myself will disembark. To the extent possible, you will prevent your officers and crew seeing anything whatsoever of the surface of this planet. I know you can't accomplish this completely, but to the extent possible." The captain sighed in exasperation.
Ronny went on. "As soon as we are disembarked, you will lift off again and go into orbit, a high enough orbit that you will be unable to observe details of the surface of this world. We will communicate with you at least once every six hours. If a period goes by in which we do not do so, you are immediately to attempt to return to Earth where you will report to my superiors, in Section G of the Bureau of Investigation, that the mission has proved a failure and that I recommend a mobilization of the Space Forces, as hopeless as that might be."
"What do you mean, I'll attempt to return to Earth?" Captain Fodor said.
"He means just that," Dorn said flatly.
The captain said, in irritation, "How can I get back to Earth if I don't even know where I am? To navigate in underspace you've got to know the coordinates of where you start from as well as those of where you are going."
Lee Chang Chu said softly, "I have left a star chart on the table in my cabin. It is sealed. On it is marked our present location. If we fail to communicate with you, break the seal and attempt to return to Earth."
"If you make it, you'll probably be memory washed," Ronny said. "Reveal this location to nobody, not even your navigator. Do the navigating yourself. There has never been a top secret more top secret than this in the history of the human race, Captain."
Captain Fodor looked at him. "I wish the hell I knew what was going on," he growled.
And Ronny looked back at him emptily. "So do I," he said. "Let's get this show on the road."
With only his first officer on the bridge, and the three Section G agents, Captain Fodor set about locating the spaceship from Einstein. They went into orbit, the Alexander Hamilton's sensors scanning the planet below.
After a time, the captain scowled and said, "This world is unpopulated. There's not a sign of cities or even towns. There's no sign, even, of individual buildings, houses or whatever. There are no ships on the seas."
Ronny sighed and said, "It's not unpopulated, Captain. However, the less I tell you about it, the better."
The first officer, as mystified as his commanding officer, was at the sensors, the captain sitting before a viewing screen at the space cruiser's controls. John Fodor said to Ronny, "After I put you down, and go into orbit, as you directed, what shall I do if I am intercepted by elements of their spacefleet? I assume they have a spacefleet."
"Yes," Ronny said grimly. "They have one. I suggest that you might try prayer." The captain eyed him disgustedly but went back to his controls. They finally spotted the spaceship from Einstein on the side of the Dawnworld almost directly opposite to where Ronny Bronston had landed before. Ronny said to the captain, "All right. Set down about half a kilometer from them, preferably behind a hill. For all I know the cloddies may have weapons and might take a shot at us."
The captain set down with care and immediately activated the hatchway, after questioning Ronny about the need for spacesuits. The Section G agent had shaken his head. The atmosphere was almost identical to that which prevailed on humanity-settled worlds, as was the gravity.
John Fodor saw the three to the gangplank and watched after them. Boy, who had been tagging along, with Plotz behind him, said, "Do we come, Boss?" Ronny looked down at him. "Why?"
Boy gave a double pant. "You never know. Maybe you'll have occasion to trail somebody, or scout on ahead, or something. We're Vizslas, best trailers anywhere."
"All right. Come along."
Boy gave him a triple wag of his bobbed tail and started down the gangplank after Lee Chang, Dorn and his master. Plotz brought up the rear. The captain called after them, "Good luck."
As soon as they had cleared out of the immediate vicinity, the Alexander Hamilton took off again, as ordered.
The three looked about. Save for the differences in flora, the Dawnworld looked remarkably like Einstein. It seemed to be one great park. For that matter, the plant life had developed as it had on many of the Earth-settled worlds. Dorn Horsten decided inwardly that given the same type of atmosphere, the same gravity, that it wasn't too surprising.
Ronny said, "This way, isn't it?" and headed off in the direction of the Einstein spaceship. The two dogs ranged ahead, as though trying to flush birds. Ronny put his right hand out before him and said, "Now this is the way you walk on a Dawnworld."
Both Lee Chang and Dorn stared at him.
"Why?" Dorn said.
"So you won't run into a house and smash your nose." Lee Chang said, worry in her voice, "Ronny, what's wrong with you?" He came to a halt for a moment to explain to them. "The captain was wrong when he said there were no buildings down here. The Dawnmen are something like the people of Einstein. They don't like the landscape to be cluttered up with buildings. On Einstein they solve the problem by putting all buildings underground. On the Dawnworlds they make them invisible."
"Invisible?" Lee Chang said in puzzlement.
"Yes. Invisible and transparent. You can walk right into one. You can feel the wall, but you can't see it whatsoever. Evidently, the Dawnmen can, somehow, but we can't." They took his word for it and each of them extended a hand before him as they walked.
They came upon no houses or other buildings between the point where they had set down and the Einstein spaceship.
Arrived at their destination, they stared up at it. It was a small passenger craft. Ronny suspected that it was one of the spaceships the scientists of Einstein utilized from time to time to journey to conferences held on other worlds. The hatchway was open, the gangplank was out, but there was no one.
"Hallo!" Dorn called out.
There was no response.
Boy looked up at Ronny and said, "Want me to take a look, Boss?" Ronny said, "Yes."
The dog was up the gangplank in a trice and had disappeared into the ship's bowels. The three Section G agents and Plotz waited.
Finally, Boy emerged and looked down at them. "Nobody aboard, Boss," he said. Ronny leading, the three agents mounted the gangplank and entered. The craft was well outfitted, something like a space yacht. It would, undoubtedly, have accommodated at least a double dozen of passengers, plus a crew. They went from cabin to cabin, double-checking on Boy, and found that only five of the cabins had been occupied and, by the looks of them, by four men and one woman. They wound up in the spaceship's lounge and sank into seats. The two dogs settled to the floor.
"What now?" Dorn said. "Where do you think they might be?"
"Damned if I know," Ronny growled. "If they tried any tricks they might already be dead. When I was here last, the Dawnmen had a small complex of very ancient buildings, that looked as though they were of religious nature, temples and pyramids. On top of the largest pyramid was an altar. I didn't see it in use, but the captain of the Pisa and Baron Wyler and Fitzjames did. The Dawnmen used an obsidian knife to open the chest cavity of the victims so they could pull out the heart. The whole crew of Wyler's yacht went that way."
"Good heavens," Lee Chang said in feminine protest. Dorn was scowling at Ronny. He said, "Do they do that to all strangers?"
"No. They didn't do it to me, nor Wyler and Fitzjames. Wyler's crew had attempted to purloin some of the Dawnman devices. But they warned us to leave. There is nothing in the rituals by which they live to provide for intercourse with strangers." And at that moment a voice entered into the mind of each of them. You are correct, Ronald Bronston; there is no place in our society for the stranger. We warned you not to return to our worlds and to warn off your race. But instead, you have come again and, through your informing others of our location, thev came as well. Ronny said, in protest, "I came, with my friends here, only to warn the others away, to prevent them from antagonizing you."
Nevertheless, you came, and must bear the consequences. As must the others. They attempted, in their arrogance, to confound us, to rob us of discoveries we made aeons past. But we are aware that if we released our technology to other life forms they would then be in a position to confront us and, possibly, one day to destroy us. Now, they cannot, for our technology is the most advanced of which we know in the whole galaxy.
Beyond that, neither your home planets, nor that of these other strangers, are ready for the advances which we have made long since. If you were, you would have developed them yourselves. Let me dip into your minds for an example in your own history. You had a primitive early man in the early millenia of your race. The Neanderthal. Would you have turned over to a Neanderthal a highly powered, internal combustion vehicle of the type which I can discern in your minds, and taught him to drive it? Had you, he most likely would have killed someone, and probably himself. Dorn Horsten said, "What do you plan to do with us?" It is now out of the hands of we whom you once called the Brahmins of the Dawnworlds. To carry on the similes of your Academician Count Felix Fitzjames, there are three ancient castes on our worlds, the Brahmins, whom I represent, the Kshatriyas, who were originally our ruling class and warriors, and the Sudras, the working class. It was long ago that these castes were formed, long, long ago, but still we keep our ancient traditions.
"What do you mean, it's out of your hands, out of the hands of you Brahmins?" Lee Chang wavered.
You will be turned over to the Kshatriyas for their annual ceremonies.
Chapter Seventeen
"What annual ceremonies?" Ronny demanded.
But suddenly all three realized that the intelligence that had been communicating with them telepathically had withdrawn. They stared at each other, aghast. Through all this, the two dogs had been stretched out on the floor, Boy growling low in his throat, all but inaudibly. Now he said, "What was all that, Boss? I seemed to be hearing somebody talking—in my head."
"Me too," Plotz said, a worried whine in her voice.
"We all heard it," Ronny told them. "They can evidently communicate, no matter what the language, with any intelligent life form."
"What do we do now?" Dorn said.
"What can we do?" Ronny said. "All we can do is wait and see what happens." LeeChang said, not very convincingly, "I could probably pilot this spacecraft. We could take off and rejoin the Alexander Hamilton."
