announced, Haynes bruskly cleared his office and sealed it against any possible form of
intrusion or eavesdropping. He had aged noticeably since these two had had that
memorable conference in this same room. His face was lined and careworn, his eyes
and his entire mien bore witness to days and nights of sleeplessly continuous work.
“You were right, Kinnison,” he began, Lens to Lens. “A stalemate it is, a
hopeless deadlock. I called you in to tell you that Hotchkiss has your nullifier done, and
that it works perfectly against all long-range stuff. Against electromagnetics, however, it
is not very effective. About all that can be done, it seems, is to shorten the range, and it
doesn’t interfere with vision at all.”
“I can get by with that, I think-I will be out of electromagnetic range most of the
time, and nobody watches their electos very close, anyway.- Thanks a lot. It’s ready to
install?”
“Doesn’t need installation. It’s such a little thing you can put it in your pocket. It’s
self-contained and will work anywhere.”
“Better and better. In that case I’ll need two of them – and a ship. I would like to
have one of those new automatic speedsters. Lots of legs, cruising range, and
screens. Only one beam, but I probably won’t use even that one . . . .”
“Going alone?” interrupted Haynes. “Better take your battle-cruiser, at least. I
don’t like the idea of you going into deep space alone.”
“I don’t particularly relish the prospect, either, but leg got to be that way. The
whole fleet, maulers and all, isn’t enough to do by force what’s got to be done, and even
two men is too many to do it in the only way it can be done. You see, sir . . . .”
“No explanations, please. It’s on the spool, where we can get it if we need it. Are
you informed as to the latest developments?”
“No, sir. I heard a little coming in, but not much.”
“We are almost back where we were before you took off in the first Britannia.
Commerce is almost at a standstill. All shipping firms are practically idle. but that is
neither all of it nor the worst of it. You may not realize how Important interstellar trade
is, but as a result of its stoppage general business has slowed down tremendously. As
is only. to be expected, perhaps, complaints are coming in by the thousand because we
have not already blasted the pirates out of space, and demands that we do so at once.
They do not understand the true situation, nor realize that we are doing everything we
can. We cannot send a mauler with every freighter and liner, and mauler-escorted
vessels are the only ones to arrive at their destinations.”
“But why? With tractor shears on all ships, how can they hold them?” asked
Kinnison.
“Magnets !” snorted Haynes. “Plain, old-fashioned electromagnets. No pull to
speak of, at a distance, of course, but with the raider running free they don’t need
much. Close up-lock on-board and storm-all done !”
“Hm . . m . . m. That changes things. I’ve got to find a pirate ship. I was planning
on following a freighter or liner out toward Alsakan, but if there aren’t any to follow . . . .
I’ll have to hunt around . . . . .”
“That is easily arranged. Lots of them want to go. We will let one go, with a
mauler accompanying her, but well outside detector range.”
“That covers everything, then, except the assignment. I can’t very well ask for
leave, but maybe I could be put on special assignment, reporting direct to you?”
“Something better than that,” and Haynes smiled broadly, in genuine pleasure.
“Everything is fixed. Your Release has been entered in the books. Your commission as
captain has been cancelled, so leave your uniform in your former quarters. Here is your
credit book and here is the rest of your kit. You are now an Unattached Lensman.”
The Release! The goal toward which all Lensmen strive, but which so few attain!
He was now a free agent, responsible to no one and to nothing save his own
conscience. He was no longer of Earth, nor of the Solarian System, but of the galaxy as
a whole. He was no longer a tiny cog in the immense machine of the Galactic Patrol,
wherever he might go, throughout the immensity of the entire Island Universe, he would
be the Galactic Patrol!
“Yes, it’s real.” The older man was enjoying the youngster’s stupefaction at his
Release, reminding him as it did of the time, long years before, when he had won his
own. “You go anywhere you please and do anything you please, for as long as you
please. You take anything you want, whenever you want it, with or without giving
reasons-although you will usually give a thumb-printed credit slip in return. You report if,
as, when, where, how, and to whom you please – or not, as you please. You don’t even
get a salary any more. You help yourself to that, too, wherever you may be, as much as
you want, whenever you want it.”
“But, sir . . . I . . . . you . . . I mean . . . . that is . . . . .” Kinnison gulped three times
before he could speak coherently. “I’m not ready, sir. Why, I’m nothing but a kid-I
haven’t got enough jets to swing it. Just the bare thought of it scares me into hysterics !”
“It would-it always does.” Haynes was very much in earnest now, but it was a
glad, proud earnestness. “You are to be as nearly absolutely free an agent as it is
possible for a living, flesh-and-blood creature to be. To the man on the street that would
seem to spell a condition of perfect bliss. Only a Gray Lensman knows what a frightful
load it really is, but it is a load that such a Lensman is glad and proud to carry.”
“Yes, sir, he would be, of course, if he . . . . .”
“That thought will bother you for a time-if it did not, you would not be here-but
don’t worry about it any more than you can help. All I can say is that in the opinion of
those who should know, not only have you proved yourself ready for Release, but also
you have earned It.”
“How do they figure that out?” Kinnison demanded, hotly. “All that saved my
bacon on that trip was luck-a burned-out Bergenholm-and at the time I thought it was
bad luck, at that. And vanBuskirk and Worsel and the other boys and the Lord knows
who else pulled me out of jam after jam. I’d like awfully well to believe that I’m ready, sir,
but I’m not. I can’t take credit for pure dumb luck and for other men’s abilities.”
“Well, cooperation is to be expected, and we like to make Gray Lensmen out of
the lucky ones.” Haynes laughed deeply. “It may make you feel better, though, if I tell
you two more things. First, that so far you have made the best showing of any man yet
graduated from Wentworth Hall. Second that we of the Court believe that you would
have succeeded in that almost impossible mission without vanBuskirk, without Worsel,
and without the lucky failure of the Bergenholm. In a different, and now of course
unguessable fashion, but succeeded, nevertheless. Nor is this to be taken as in any
sense a belittlement of the very real abilities of those others, nor a denial that luck, or
chance, does exist. It is merely our recognition of the fact that you have what it takes to
be an Unattached Lensman.
“Seal it now, and buzz off!” he commanded, as Kinnison tried to say something,
and, clapping him on the shoulder, he turned him around and gave him a gentle shove.
toward the door. “Clear ether, lad I”
“Same to you, sir-all of it there is. I still think that you and all the rest of the Court
are cockeyed, but I’ll try not to let you down,” and the newly unattached Lensman
blundered out. He stumbled over the threshold, bumped against a stenographer who
was hurrying along the corridor, and almost barged into the jamb of the entrance door
instead of going through the opening. Outside he regained his physical poise and
walked on air toward his quarters, but he never could remember afterward what he did
or whom he met on that long, fast hike. Over and over the one thought pounded in his
brain, unattached! Unattached ! ! UNATTACHED ! ! !
And behind him, in the Port Admiral’s office, that high official sat and mused,
smiling faintly with lips and eyes, staring unseeingly at the still open doorway through
which Kinnison had staggered. The boy had measured up in every particular. He would