“Who’s there?” demanded Hugh and leaned his head out of the deep chair. “Oh, it’s you. Hello.”
“Ertz wants to see you. Come on out of there.”
“O.K. But come here first. I want to show you something.”
“Nuts to him,” Joe said to his brother. But Jim answered, “Oh, come on and see what it is. Won’t take long.”
The twins climbed into the control station and settled down in the chair next to Hugh’s. “What’s up?”
“That star out there,” said Hugh, pointing at the brilliant one. “It’s grown bigger since the last time I was here.”
“Huh? Sure it has. It’s been getting brighter for a long time. Couldn’t see it at all first time I was ever in here.”
“Then we’re closer to it.”
“Of course,” agreed Joe. “I knew that. It just goes to prove that the Ship is moving.”
“But why didn’t you tell me about this?”
“About what?”
“About that star. About the way it’s been growing bigger.”
“What difference does it make?”
“What difference does it make! Why, good Jordan, man, that’s it. That’s where we’re going. That’s the End of the Trip!”
Joe-Jim, both of him, was momentarily startled. Not being himself concerned with any objective other than his own safety and comfort, it was hard for him to realize that Hugh, and perhaps Bill Ertz as well, held as their first objective the recapturing of the lost accomplishments of their ancestors’ high order to complete the long-forgotten, half-mythical Trip to Far Centaurus.
Jim recovered himself. “Hm-m-m. Maybe. What makes you think that star is Far Centaurus?”
“Maybe it isn’t. I don’t care. But it’s the star we are closest to and we are moving toward it. When we don’t know which star is which, one is as good as another. Joe-Jim, the ancients must have had some way of telling the stars apart.”
“Sure they did,” Joe confirmed, “but what of it? You’ve picked the one you want to go to. Come on. I want to get back down.”
“All right,” Hugh agreed reluctantly. They began the long trip down.
Ertz sketched out to Joe-Jim and Hugh his interview with Narby. “Now my idea in coming up,” he continued, “is this: I’ll send Alan back down to heavy-weight with a message to Narby, telling him that I’ve been able to get in contact with you, Hugh, and urging him to meet us somewhere above Crew country to hear what I’ve found out.”
“Why don’t you simply go back and fetch him yourself?” objected Hugh.
Ertz looked slightly sheepish. “Because you tried that method on me, and it didn’t work. You returned from mutie country and told me the wonders you had seen. I didn’t believe you and had you tried for heresy. If Joe-Jim hadn’t rescued you, you would have gone to the Converter. If you had not hauled me up to no-weight and forced me to see with my own eyes, I never would have believed you. I assure you Narby won’t be any easier a lock to force than I was. I want to get him up here, then show him the stars and make him see, peacefully if we can; by force if we must.”
“I don’t get it,” said Joe. “Why wouldn’t it be simpler to cut his throat?”
“It would be a pleasure. But it wouldn’t be smart. Narby can be a tremendous amount of help to us. Jim, if you knew the Ship’s organization the way I do, you would see why. Narby carries more weight in the Council than any other Ship’s officer and he speaks for the Captain. If we win him over, we may never have to fight at all. if we don’t … well, I’m not sure of the outcome, not if we have to fight.”
“I don’t think he’ll come up. He’ll suspect a trap.”
“Which is another reason why Alan must go rather than myself. He would ask me a lot of embarrassing questions and be dubious about the answers. Alan he won’t expect so much of.” Ertz turned to Alan and continued, “Alan, you don’t know anything when he asks you but just what I’m about to tell you. Savvy?”