“Mmm, is that right, Eastman?”
“I believe so, sir.”
“Cancel that last order. Bartlett, is your partner willing to go on again after an hour’s break for chow? Without clearing it with LRF?”
“I’ll see, sir.” I spoke to Vicky; she hesitated. I said, (“What is it, Freckle Face? A date with George? Say the word and I’ll tell Captain Bligh he can’t have you.”)
“Oh, it’s all right. I’ll throw the switch on George. I just wish they would give us something besides alphabet soup. Okay, one hour.”
(“One hour, sugar plum. Run and eat your salad. Mind your waistline.”)
“My waistline is just fine, thank you.”
“Okay, Captain.”
“Very well. Please thank him for me.”
He was so indifferent about it that I added a touch of my own. “My partner is a girl, Captain, not a “him.” Her mother has placed a two-hour curfew on it. Otherwise it must be arranged with LRF.”
“So. Very well.” He turned to Eastman. “Can’t we manage to coordinate these communication watches?”
“I’m trying, Captain. But it is new to me…and we have only three watchstanders left.”
“A watch in three should not be too difficult. Yet there always seems to be some reason why we can’t transmit. Comment?”
“Well, sir, you saw the difficulty just now. It’s a matter of coordinating with Earth. Uh, I believe the special communicators usually arranged that themselves. Or one of them did.”
“Which one? Mr. McNeil?”
“I believe Bartlett usually handled it, sir.”
“So. Bartlett?”
“I did, sir.”
“Very well, you have the job again. Arrange a continuous watch.” He started to get up.
How do you tell the Captain he can’t have his bucket of paint? Aye aye, sir. But just a minute, Captain-”
“Yes?”
“Do I understand you are authorizing me to arrange a continuous watch with LRF? Signed with your release number?”
“Naturally.”
“Well, what do I do if they won’t agree to such long hours for the old lady? Ask for still longer hours for the other two? In the case of my partner, you’ll run into parent trouble; she’s a young girl.”
“So. I can’t see why the home office hired such people.”
I didn’t say anything. If he didn’t know that you don’t hire telepaths the way you hire butchers I wasn’t going to explain.
But he persisted. “Comment?”
“I have no comment, sir. You can’t get more than three or four hours a day out of any of them, except in extreme emergency. Is this one? If it is, I can arrange it without bothering the home office.”
He did not answer directly. Instead he said, “Arrange the best watch list you can. Consult with Mr. Eastman.” As he turned to leave I caught a look of unutterable weariness on his face and suddenly felt sorry for him. At least I didn’t want to swap jobs with him.
Vicky took a trick in the middle of the night, over Kathleen’s objections. Kathleen wanted to take it herself, but the truth was that she and I could no longer work easily without Vicky in the circuit, at least not anything as difficult as code groups.
The Captain did not come in to breakfast and I got there late. I looked around and found a place by Janet Meers. We no longer sat by departments-just one big horseshoe table, with the rest of the mess room arranged to look like a lounge, so that it would not seem so empty.
I was just digging into scrambled yeast on toast when Mr. Eastman stood up and tapped a glass for attention. He looked as if he had not slept for days. “Quiet, please. I have a message from the Captain.” He pulled out a sheet and started to read:
“ ‘Notice to All Hands: By direction of the Long Range Foundation the mission of this ship has been modified. We will remain in the neighborhood of Beta Ceti pending rendezvous with Foundation Ship Serendipity. Rendezvous is expected in approximately one month. Immediately thereafter we will shape orbit for Earth.
“ ‘F. X. Urqhardt, commanding Lewis and Clark.’“
My jaw dropped. Why, the silent creeper! All the time I had been lambasting him in my mind he had been arguing the home office into canceling our orders … no wonder he had used code; you don’t say in clear language that your ship is a mess and your crew has gone to pot. Not if you can help it, you don’t. I didn’t even resent that he had not trusted us freaks to respect the security of communications; I wouldn’t have trusted myself, under the circumstances.