“Skipper,”. Lazarus said to King two weeks after Schultz’s party had headed Earthside, “have you wondered how they’re going to feel about the New Frontiers herself?”
“Eh? What do you mean?’
“Well, we hijacked her. Piracy.”
King looked astounded. “Bless me, so we did! Do you know, it’s been so long ago that it is hard for me to realize that she was ever anything but my ship . . . or to recall that I first came into her through an act of piracy.” He looked thoughtful, then smiled grimly. “I wonder how conditions are in Coventry these days?”
“Pretty thin rations, I imagine,” said Lazarus. “But we’ll team up and make out. Never mind-they haven’t caught us yet.”
“Do you suppose that Slayton Ford will be connected with the matter? That would be hard lines after all he has gone through.”
“There may not be any trouble about it at all,” Lazarus answered soberly. “While the way we got this ship was kind of irregular, we have used it for the purpose for which it was built-to explore the stars. And we’re returning it intact, long before they could have expected any results, and with a slick new space drive to boot. It’s more for their money than they had any reason to expect-so they may just decide to forget it and trot out the fatted calf.”
“I hope so,” King answered doubtfully.
The scouting party was two days late. No signal was received from them until they emerged into normal spacetime, just before rendezvous, as no method had yet been devised for signalling from para-space to ortho-space. While they were maneuvering to rendezvous, King received Ralph Schultz’s face on the control-room screen. “Hello, Captain! We’ll be boarding shortly to report.”
“Give me a summary now!”
“I wouldn’t know where to start. But it’s all right-we can go home!”
“Huh? How’s that? Repeat!”
“Everything’s all right. We are restored to the Covenant. You see, there isn’t any difference any more. Everybody is a member of the Families now.”
“What do you mean?” King demanded.
“They’ve got it.”
“Got what?”
“Got the secret of longevity.”
“Huh? Talk sense. There isn’t any secret. There never was any secret.”
“We didn’t have any secret-but they thought we had. So they found it.”
“Expiain yourself,” insisted Captain King.
“Captain, can’t this wait until we get back into the ship?’ Ralph Schultz protested. “I’m no biologist. We’ve brought along a government reptesentative-you can quiz him, instead?
Chapter 6
KING RECEWED Terra’s representative in his cabin. He had notified Zaccur Barstow and Justin Foote to be present for the Families and had invited Doctor Gordon Hardy because the nature of the startling news was the biologist’s business. Libby was there as the ship’s chief officer; Slayton Ford was invited because of his unique status, although he had held no public office in the Families since his breakdown in the temple of Kreel.
Lazarus was there because Lazarus wanted to be there, in his own strictly private capacity. He had not been invited, but even Captain King was somewhat diffident about interfering with the assumed prerogatives of the eldest Member.
Ralph Schultz introduced Earth’s ambassador to the assembled company. “This is Captain King, our commanding officer and this is Miles Rodney, representing the Federation Council-minister plenipotentiary and ambassador extraordinary, I guess you would call him.”
“Hardly that,” said Rodney; “although I can agree to the ‘extraordinary’ part. This situation is quite without preccdent. it is an honor to know you, Captain.”
“Glad to have you inboard, sir.”
“And this is Zaccur Barstow, representing the trustees of the Howard Families, and Justin Foote, secretary tO the trustees-”
“Service.”
“Service to you, gentlemen.”
“Andrew Jackson Libby, chief astrogational officer, Doctor Gordon Hardy, biologist in charge of our research into the causes of old age and death.”
“May I do you a service?” Hardy acknowledged formally.”Service to you, sir. So you are the chief biologist-there was a time when you could have done a service to the whole human race. Think of it, sir-think how different things could have been. But, happily, the human race was able to worry out the secret of extending life without the aid of the Howard Families.”