Mr Stone looked up as they came in ‘Well! the star boarders,’ he announced. He was sitting with a small recorder in his lap, a throat mike clipped to his neck.
‘Dad, it was unavoidable,’ Castor began. ‘We —’
‘It always is,’ his father cut in. ‘Never mind the details. Your dinner is in the cozy. I wanted to send it back but your mother went soft and didn’t let me.’
Dr Stone looked up from the far end of the living room, where she was modelling a head of their older sister, Meade. ‘Correction,’ she said. ‘Your father went soft; I would have let you starve. Meade, quit turning your head.’
‘Check,’ announced their four-year old brother and got up from the floor where he had been playing chess with their grandmother. He ran towards them. ‘Hey, Cas, Pol — where you been? Did you go to the port? Why didn’t you take me? Did you bring me anything?’
Castor swung him up by his heels and held him upside down. ‘Yes. No. Maybe. And why should we? Here, Pol — catch.’ He sailed the child through the air; his twin reached out and caught him, still by the heels.
‘Check yourself,’ announced Grandmother, ‘and mate in three moves. Shouldn’t let your social life distract you from your game, Lowell.’
The youngster looked back at the board from his upside down position. ‘Wrong, Hazel. Now I let you take my queen, then — Blammie!’
His grandmother looked again at the board. ‘Huh? Wait a minute — suppose I refuse your queen, then — Why, the little scamp! He’s trapped me again.
Meade said, ‘Shouldn’t let him beat you so often, Hazel. It’s not good for him.’
‘Meade, for the ninth time, quit turning your head!’
‘Sorry, Mother. Let’s take a rest.’
Grandmother snorted. ‘You don’t think I let him beat me on purpose, do you? You play him; I am giving up the game for good.’
Meade answered just as her mother spoke; at the same time Pollux chucked the boy back at Castor. ‘You — take him. I want to eat.’ The child squealed.
Mr Stone shouted, ‘QUIET!’
‘And stay quiet,’ he went on, while unfastening the throat mike. ‘How is a man to make a living in all this racket? This episode has to be done over completely, sent to New York. tomorrow, shot, canned, distributed, and on the channels by the end of the week. It’s not possible.’
‘Then don’t do it,’ Dr Stone answered serenely. ‘Or work in your room — it’s soundproof.’
Mr Stone turned to his wife. ‘My dear, I’ve explained a thousand times that I can’t work in there by myself. I get no stimulation. I fall asleep.’
Castor said, ‘How’s it going, Dad? Rough?’
‘Well, now that you ask me, the villains are way ahead and I don’t see a chance for our heroes.’
‘I thought of a gimmick while Pol and I were out. You have this young kid you introduced into the story slide into the control room while everybody is asleep. They don’t suspect him, see? — he’s too young so they haven’t put him in irons. Once in the control room — ‘ Castor stopped and looked crestfallen. ‘No, it won’t do; he’s too young to handle the ship. He wouldn’t know how.’
‘Why do you say that?’ his father objected. ‘All I have to do is to plant that he has had a chance to… let me see —’ He stopped; his face went blank. ‘No,’ he said presently.
‘No good, huh?’
‘Eh? What? It smells — but I think I can use it. Stevenson did something like it in Treasure Island — and I think he got it from Homer. Let’s see; if we — ‘ He again went into his trance.
Pollux had opened the warming cupboard Castor dropped his baby brother on the floor and accepted a dinner pack from his twin. He opened it. ‘Meat pie again,’ he stated bleakly and sniffed it. ‘Synthetic, too.’
‘Say that over again and louder,’ his sister urged him. ‘I’ve been trying for weeks to get Mother to subscribe to another restaurant.’
‘Don’t talk, Meade,’ Dr Stone answered. ‘I’m modelling your mouth.’