her off, God knows what she’d do. I still say it’s disgusting. And the way she dances
with him! She ought to be ashamed of herself. He ought to fire her.” “She’s never been
caught outside the safety zone, and we’ve all been watching her like hawks. In fact,
she’s the only one of us all who has never been alone with him for a minute. No,
darling, she isn’t playing games. She’s playing for keeps, and she’s a mighty smooth
worker.”
“Huh!” Beverly emitted a semi-ladylike snort. “What’s so smooth about showing off
man-hunger that way? Any of us could do that-if we would.”
“Miaouw, miaouw. Who do you think you’re kidding, Bev, you sanctimonious
hypocrite-me? She has staked out the biggest claim she could find. She’s posted
notices all over it and is guarding it with a pistol. Half your month’s salary gets you all of
mine if she doesn’t walk him up the center aisle as soon as we get back to Earth. We
can both learn a lot from that girl, darling. And I, for one, am going to.”
“Uh-uh, she hasn’t got a thing I want,” Beverly laughed again, still lightly. Her friend’s
barbed shafts had not wounded her. “And I’d much rather be thought a hypocrite, even
a sanctimonious one, than a ravening, slavering-I can’t think of the technical-name for a
female wolf, so-wolfess, running around with teeth and claws bared, looking for another
kill.”
“You do get results, I admit.” Stella, too, was undisturbed. “We don’t seem to convince
each other, do we, in the matter of technique?”
At this point the Hilton-Bells tete-a-tete was interrupted by Captain Sawtelle. “Got half
an hour, Jarve?” he asked. “The commanders, especially Elliott and Fenway, would like
to talk to you.”
“Sure I have, Skipper. Be seeing you, Temple,” and the two men went to the captain’s
cabin, in which room, blue with smoke despite the best efforts of the ventilators, six full
commanders were arguing heatedly.
“Hi, men,” Hilton greeted them.
“Hi, Jarve,” from all six, and: “What’ll you drink? Still making do with ginger ale?” asked
Elliott (Engineering).
“‘That’ll be fine, Steve. Thanks. You having as much trouble as we are?”
“More,” the engineer said, glumly. “Want to know what it reminds me of? A bunch of
Australian bushmen stumbling onto a ramjet and trying to figure out how it works. And
yet Sam here has got the sublime guts to claim that he understands all about their
detectors-and that they aren’t anywhere nearly as good as ours are.”
“And they aren’t!” blazed Commander Samuel Bryant (Electronics). “We’ve spent six
solid weeks looking for something that simply is not there. All they’ve got is the
prehistoric Whitworth system and that’s all it is. Nothing else. Detectors-hell! I tell you I
can see better by moonlight than the very best they can do. With everything they’ve got
you couldn’t detect a woman in your own bed!”
“And this has been going on all night,” Fenway (Astrogation) said. “So the rest of us
thought we’d ask you in to help us pound some sense into Sam’s thick, hard head.”
Hilton frowned in thought while taking a couple of sips of his drink. Then, suddenly, his
face cleared. “Sorry to disappoint you, gentlemen, but-at any odds you care to name
and in anything from split peas to C-notes–Sam’s right.”
Commander Samuel Bryant gasped in surprise and the six other officers exploded as
one. When the clamor had subsided enough for him to be heard, Hilton went on: “I’m
very glad to get that datum, Sam. It ties in perfectly with everything else I know about
them.”
“How do you figure that kind of twaddle ties in with anything?” Sawtelle demanded.
“Strict maintenance of the status quo,” Hilton explained, flatly. “That’s all they’re
interested in. You said yourself, Skipper, that it was a hell of a place to have a
space-battle, practically in atmosphere. They never attack. They never scout. They
simply don’t care whether they’re attacked or not. If and when attacked, they put up just
enough ships to handle whatever force has arrived. When the attacker has been
repulsed, they don’t chase him a foot. They build as many ships and Omans as were
lost in the battle-no more and no less-and then go on about their regular business. The
Masters owned that half of the Fuel Bin, so the Omans are keeping that half. They will
keep on keeping it for ever and ever. Amen.”
“But that’s no way to fight a war!” Three or four men said this, or its equivalent, at once.
“Don’t judge them by human standards. They aren’t even approximately human. Our
personnel is not expendable. Theirs is-just as expendable as their material.”
While the Navy men were not convinced, all were silenced except Sawtelle. “But
suppose the Stretts had sent in a thousand more skeletons than they did?” he argued.
“According to the concept you fellows just helped me develop, it wouldn’t have made
any difference how many they sent,” Hilton replied, thoughtfully. “One or a thousand or
a million, the Omans have-must have-enough ships and inactivated Omans hidden
away, both on Fuel World and on Ardry here, to maintain the balance.”
“Oh, hell!” Elliott snapped. “If I helped you hatch out any such brainstorm as that, I’m
going onto Tillinghast’s couch for a six-week overhaul-or have him put me into his
padded cell.”
“Now that’s what I would call a thought,” Bryant began. “Hold it, Sam,” Hilton
interrupted. “You can test it easily enough, Steve. Just ask your Oman.”
“Yeah-and have him say “Why, of course, Master, but why do you keep on testing me
this way?” He’ll ask me that about four times more, the stubborn, single-tracked,
brainless skunk, and I’ll really go nuts. Are you getting anywhere trying to make a
Christian out of Laro?”
“It’s too soon to really say, but I think so.” Hilton paused in thought. “He’s making
progress, but I don’t know how much. The devil of it is that it’s up to him to make the
next move; I can’t. I haven’t the faintest idea whether it will take days yet or weeks.”
“But not months or years, you think?” Sawtelle asked.
“No. We think that-but say, speaking of psychologists, is Tillinghast getting anywhere,
Skipper? He’s the only one of your big wheels who isn’t in liaison with us.”
“No. Nowhere at all,” Sawtelle said, and Bryant added:
“I don’t think he ever will. He still thinks human psychology will apply if he applies it hard
enough. But what did you start to say about Laro?”
“We think the break is about due, and that if it doesn’t come within about thirty days it
won’t come at all-we’ll have to back up and start all over again.”
“I hope it does. We’re all pulling for you,” Sawtelle said. “Especially since Karns’
estimate is still years, and he won’t be pinned down to any estimate even in years. By
the way, Jarve, I’ve pulled my team off of that conversion stuff.”
“Oh?” Hilton raised his eyebrows.
“Putting them at something they can do. The real reason is that Poindexter pulled
himself and his crew off it at eighteen hours today.”
“I see. I’ve heard that they weren’t keeping up with our team.”
“He says that there’s nothing to keep up with, and I’m inclined to agree with him.” The
old spacehound’s voice took on a quarter-deck rasp. “It’s a combination of psionics,
witchcraft and magic. None of it makes any kind of sense.”
“The only trouble with that viewpoint is that, whatever the stuff may be, it works,” Hilton
said, quietly.
“But, damn it, how can it work?”
“I don’t know. I’m not qualified to be on that team. I can’t even understand their reports.
However. I know two things. First, they’ll get it in time. Second, we BuSci people will
stay here until they do. However, I’m still hopeful of finding a shortcut through Laro.
Anyway, with this detector thing settled, you’ll have plenty to do to keep all your boys
out of mischief for the next few months.”
“Yes, and I’m glad of it. We’ll install our electronics systems on a squadron of these
Oman ships and get them into distant-warning formation out in deep space where they
belong. Then we’ll at least know what is going on.”
“That’s a smart idea, Skipper. Go to it. Anything else before we hit our sacks?”
“One more thing. Our psych, Tillinghast. He’s been talking to me and sending me
memos, but today he gave me a formal tape to approve and hand personally to you. So
here it is. By the way, I didn’t approve it; I simply endorsed it ‘Submitted to Director
Hilton without recommendation.’ ”
“Thanks.” Hilton accepted the sealed canister. “What’s the gist? I suppose he wants me
to squeal for help already? To admit that we’re licked before we’re really started?”
“You guessed it. He agrees with you and Kincaid that the psychological approach is the