‘How heavy shots, Clee?’ James asked. He and Lola were getting into their scanners. ‘Wouldn’t take as much as a kilo-ton equivalent, would it?’
‘Half a kilo is plenty, but no use being too fussy about precision out here.’
Garlock and Belle were already bombing; James and Lola began. Slow and awkward at first, Lola soon picked up the technique and was firing blast for blast with the others. No more loaded transport vessels left the moon. No empty one, returning toward the moon, reached there. In much less than the three hours Garlock had mentioned, every Ozobian transport craft had been destroyed.
‘And now the real job begins,’ Garlock said, as James dropped the siarship down to within a few miles of the moon’s surface.
That surface was cratered and jagged, exactly like that one of the half always facing Clamer. No sign of activity could be seen by eye, nor anything unusual. Even the immense trapdoors, all closed now, matched exactly their surroundings. Underground, however, activity was violently intense – and, now, confused in the extreme.
‘Why, there isn’t a single adult anywhere!’ Lola exclaimed. ‘I thought the whole place would be full of ’em!’
‘So did I,’ Belle said. ‘However, with hindsight, it’s plain enough. Their job was done, so they were killed and eaten. Last meal, perhaps.*
‘I’m afraid so. Whatever they were, they had hands and brains. Just look at those shops and machines!’
‘What do we do, Clee?’ James asked. ‘Run a search pattern
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first?’
‘Well have to, I guess, before we can lay the job out.’ It was run and Garlock frowned in thought. ‘Almost half the moon covered – honeycombed. We’ll have to fine-tooth it. Around the periphery first, then spiral in to the center. This moon isn’t very big, but even so this is going to be a hell of a long job. Any suggestions, anybody? Jim?’
The only way, I guess. You can’t do it hit-or-miss. I’m damn glad we’ve had plenty of stuff in our Op field and plenty of hydride for the engines. The horses will all know they’ve been at work before they get the field filled up again.’
‘So will you, Junior, believe me… Ready, all? Start blasting.’
Then, for three hours, the Pleiades moved slowly – for her -along a plotted and automatically-controlled course. It was very easy to tell where she had been; the sharply-cut, evenly-spaced, symmetrical pits left by the Galaxians’ full-conversion blasts were entirely different from the irregularly-cratered, ages-old original surface.
‘Knock off, Brownie,’ Garlock said then. ‘Go eat all you can hold and get some sleep. Come back in three hours. Jim, cut our speed to seventy-five percent.’
Lola shed her scanner, heaved a tremendous sigh of relief, and disappeared.
Three silent hours later – all three were too intensely busy to think of anything except the work in hand – Lola came back.
‘Take Belle’s swath, Brownie. Okay, Belle, you can lay off. Three hours.’
Til stay,’ Belle declared. ‘Go yourself; or send Jim.’
‘Don’t be any more of a damn fool than you have to. I said beat it.’
‘And I said I wouldn’t. I’m just as good —’
‘Chop it off!’ Garlock snapped. ‘It isn’t a case of being just as good as. It’s a matter of physical reserves. Jim and I have more to draw on for the long shifts than you have. So get the hell out of here or I’ll stop the ship and slap you even sillier than you are now.’
Belle threw up her head, tossing her shoulder-length green mop in her characteristic gesture of defiance; but after holding Garlock’s hard stare for a moment she relaxed and smiled.
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‘Okay, Clee – and thanks for the kind words.”
She disappeared and the work went on.
And finally, when all four were so groggy that they could scarcely think, the job was done and checked. Clamer’s moon was as devoid of life as any moon had ever been.
Lola pitched her scanner at its rack and threw herself facedown on a davenport, sobbing uncontrollably. James sat down beside her and soothed her until she quieted down.
‘You’d better eat something, dear, and then get a good, long sleep.’
‘Eat? Why, I couldn’t, Jim, not possibly.’
‘Let her sleep first, I think, Jim,’ Belle said, and followed with her eyes as Jim picked his wife up and carried her into the corridor.
‘We’d better eat something, I suppose,’ Belle said thoughtfully. ‘I don’t feel like eating, either, but I hadn’t realized unrealized until this minute just how much this had taken out of me, and I’d better start putting it back in… She did a wonderful job, Clee, even if she couldn’t take it full shift toward the last.’
‘I’ll say she did. I hated like the devil to let her work that way, but… you knew I was scared witless every second until we topped off.’
Exhausted and haggard as she was, Belle laughed. ‘I know damn-blasted well you weren’t; but I know what you mean. Fighting something you don’t know anything about, and can’t guess what may happen next, is tough. Seconds count’ Side by side, they strolled toward the alcove.
‘I simply didn’t think she had it in her,’ Belle marvelled.
‘She didn’t. She hasn’t. It’ll take her a week to get back into shape.’
‘Right. She was going on pure nerve at the last, nothing else … but she did a job, and she’s so sweet and fine … I wonder, Clee, if … if I’ve been missing the boat…’
‘You have not.’ Garlock sent the thought so solidly that Belle jumped. ‘If you’d just let yourself be, you’d be worth a million of her, just as you stand.’
‘Oh? You lie in your teeth, Cleander, but I love it… Oh, I don’t know what I want to eat – if anything.’
‘I’ll think up yours, too, along with mine.’
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‘Please. Something light, and just a little.’ ‘Yeah. Sit down. Just a light snack – a two-pound steak, rare; a bowl of mushrooms fried in butter; french fries, french dips, salad, and a quart of coffee. The same for me, except more of each. Here we are.’
‘Why, Clee, I couldn’t possibly eat half of that…’ But after a quarter of it was gone, she admitted, ‘I am hungry, at that -simply ravenous.’
‘That’s what I thought. I knew I could, and figured you accordingly.’
They ate their meals slowly, enjoying every bite and sip, chatting on a wide variety of subjects as they ate. Neither was aware of the fact that this was the first time they had ever been on really friendly terms, even in bed. And finally every dish and container was empty, almost polished clean.
‘One hundred percent capacity – I can still chew, but I can’t swallow,’ Garlock said then, lighting two cigarettes and giving Belle one. ‘How’s that for a masterly job of calibration?’
Belle nodded. ‘Your ability to estimate the exact capacity of containers is exceeded only by your good looks and by the size of your feet. And now to get some sleep for an indefinite but very long period of time.’
Still eminently friendly, the two walked together to their doors. Belle put up a solid block and paused, irresolute, twisting the toe of one slipper into the carpet.
‘Clee, I… I wonder if…’ Her voice died away. T know what you mean.’ He put his arms around her gently, tenderly, and looked full into her eyes. T want to tell you something, Belle. You’re a woman, not in seven thousand million women, but in that many planets full of women. What it takes, you very definitely and very abundantly have got And you aren’t the only one who’s tired. I don’t need company tonight, either. I’m going to sleep until I wake up, if it takes all day. Or say, if you wake up first, why not punch me and we’ll have breakfast together?’
“That’s a thought. Do the same for me. Goodnight Clee.’ ‘Goodnight, Belle.’ He kissed her, as gently as he had been holding her, opened her door, closed it after her, and stepped across the corridor into his own room. ‘What a man!’ Belle breathed to herself, behind the solid
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screens of her room. ‘He thought I was too tired, not just scared to death too. What a man! Belle Bellamy, you ought to be kicked from here to Tellus …’ Then she threw back her head, drove a hard little fist into a pillow, and spoke aloud through clenched teeth. ‘No, damn it, I won’t give in. I won’t love him. I’ll take the project away from him if it’s the last thing I ever do in this life!’
She woke up the next day a little before Garlock did, but not much. When she went into his room he was shaved and fully dressed except for one shoe, which he was putting on.