There were a number of men in the project who would agree with that, Ashe knew. And a greater number in the country and Alliance at large. The public was used to reckless gambles which paid off, and there had been enough of those in the past to give an impressive argument for that point of view. But Ashe, himself, could not agree to a speed-up. He had been out among the stars, shaved disaster too closely because the proper training had not been given.
“I shall report that I advise a take-off within a week,” Ruthven was continuing. “To the council I shall say that—”
“And I do not agree!” Ashe cut in. He glanced at Kelgarries for the quick backing he expected, but instead there was a lengthening moment of silence. Then the colonel spread out his hands and said sullenly:
“I don’t agree either, but I don’t have the final say-so. Ashe, what would be needed to speed up any take-off?”
It was Ruthven who replied. “We can use the Redax, as I have said from the start.”
Ashe straightened, his mouth tight, his eyes hard and angry.
“And I’ll protest that . . . to the council! Man, we’re dealing with human beings—selected volunteers, men who trust us—not with laboratory animals!”
Ruthven’s thick lips pouted into what was close to a smile of derision. “Always the sentimentalists, you experts in the past! Tell me, Dr. Ashe, were you always so thoughtful of your men when you sent agents back into time? And certainly a voyage into space is less risky than time travel. These volunteers know what they have signed for. They will be ready—”
“Then you propose telling them about the use of Redax—what it does to a man’s mind?” countered Ashe.
“Certainly. They will receive all necessary instructions.”
Ashe was not satisfied. He would have spoken again, except that Kelgarries interrupted:
“If it comes to that, none of us here has any right to make final decisions. Waldour has already sent in his report about the snoop. We’ll have to await orders from the council.”
Ruthven levered himself out of his chair, his solid bulk stretching his uniform coveralls. “That is correct, Colonel. In the meantime I would suggest we all check to see what can be done to speed up each one’s portion of labor.” Without another word, he tramped to the door.
Waldour eyed the other two with mounting impatience. It was plain he had work to do and wanted them to leave. But Ashe was reluctant. He had a feeling that matters were slipping out of his control, that he was about to face a crisis which was somehow worse than just a major security leak. Was the enemy always on the other side of the world? Or could he wear the same uniform, even pretend to share the same goals?
In the outer corridor he still hesitated. Kelgarries, a step or so in advance, looked back over his shoulder impatiently.
“There’s no use fighting—our hands are tied.” His words were slurred, almost as if he wanted to disown them.
“Then you’ll agree to use the Redax?” For the second time within the hour Ashe felt as if he had taken a step only to have firm earth turn into slippery, shifting sand underfoot.
“It isn’t a matter of my agreeing. It may be a matter of getting through or not getting through—now. If they’ve had eighteen months, or even twelve . . . !” The colonel’s fingers balled into a fist. “And they won’t be delayed by any humanitarian reasoning—”
“Then you believe Ruthven will win the council’s approval?”
“When you are dealing with frightened men, you’re talking to ears closed to anything except what they want to hear. After all, we can’t prove that the Redax will be harmful.”
“But we’ve only used it under rigidly controlled conditions. To speed up the process would mean a total disregard of those controls. Snapping a party of men and women back into their racial past and holding them there for too long a period . . .” Ashe shook his head.
“You have been in Operation Retrograde from the start, and we’ve been remarkably successful—”
“Operating in a different way, educating picked men to return to certain points in history where their particular temperaments and characteristics fitted the roles they were selected to play, yes. And even then we had our percentage of failures. But to try this—returning people not physically into time, but mentally and emotionally into prototypes of their ancestors—that’s something else again. The Apaches have volunteered, and they’ve been passed by the psychologists and the testers. But they’re Americans of today, not tribal nomads of two or three hundred years ago. If you break down some barriers, you might just end up breaking them all.”
Kelgarries was scowling. “You mean—they might revert utterly, have no contact with the present at all?”
“That’s just what I do mean. Education and training, yes, but full awakening of racial memories, no. The two branches of conditioning should go slowly and hand in hand, otherwise—real trouble!”
“Only we no longer have the time to go slow. I’m certain Ruthven will be able to push this through—with Waldour’s report to back him.”
“Then we’ll have to warn Fox and the rest. They must be given a choice in the matter.”
“Ruthven said that would be done.” The colonel did not sound convinced.
Ashe snorted. “If I hear him telling them, I’ll believe it!”
“I wonder whether we can . . .”
Ashe half turned and frowned at the colonel. “What do you mean?”
“You said yourself that we had our failures in time travel. We expected those, accepted them, even when they hurt. When we asked for volunteers for this project we had to make them understand that there was a heavy element of risk involved. Three teams of recruits—the Eskimos from Point Barren, the Apaches, and the Islanders—all picked because their people had a high survival rating in the past, to be colonists on widely different types of planets. Well, the Eskimos and the Islanders aren’t matched to any of the worlds on those snooped tapes, but Topaz is waiting for the Apaches. And we may have to move them there in a hurry. It’s a rotten gamble any way you see it!”
“I’ll appeal directly to the council.”
Kelgarries shrugged. “All right. You have my backing.”
“But you believe such an effort hopeless?”
“You know the red-tape merchants. You’ll have to move fast if you want to beat Ruthven. He’s probably on a direct line now to Stanton, Reese, and Margate. This is what he has been waiting for!”
But if we contacted the media, public opinion would back us—”
“You don’t mean that, of course.” Kelgarries was suddenly coldly remote.
Ashe flushed under the heavy brown which overlay his regular features. To threaten a silence break was near blasphemy here. He ran both hands down the fabric covering his thighs as if to rub away some soil on his palms.
“No,” he replied heavily, his voice dull. “I guess I don’t. I’ll contact Hough and hope for the best.”
“Meanwhile,” Kelgarries spoke briskly, “we’ll do what we can to speed up the program as it now stands. I suggest you take off for New York within the hour—”
“Me? Why?” Ashe asked with a trace of suspicion.
“Because I can’t leave without acting directly against orders, and that would put us wrong immediately. You see Hough and talk to him personally—put it to him straight. He’ll have to have all the facts if he’s going to counter any move from Stanton before the council. You know every argument we can use and all the proof on our side, and you’re authority enough to make it count.”
“If I can do all that, I will.” Ashe was alert and eager. The colonel, seeing his change of expression, felt easier.
But Kelgarries stood a moment watching Ashe as he hurried down a side corridor, before he moved on slowly to his own box of an office. Once inside he sat for a long time staring at the wall and seeing nothing but the pictures produced by his thoughts. Then he pressed a button and read off the symbols which flashed on a small viewscreen set in his desk. Punching a code, he relayed an order which might postpone trouble for a while. Ashe was far too valuable a man to lose, and his emotions could boil him straight into disaster over this.
“Bidwell—reschedule Team A. They are to go to the Hypno-Lab instead of the reserve in ten minutes.”
Releasing the mike, he again stared at the wall. No one dared interrupt a hypno-training period, and this one would last three hours. Ashe could not possibly see the trainees before he left for New York. And that would remove one temptation from his path—he would not talk at the wrong time.
Kelgarries’ mouth twisted sourly. He took no pride in what he was doing. And he was perfectly certain that Ruthven would win and that Ashe’s fears of Redax were well founded. It all came back to the old basic tenet of the service: the end justified the means. They must use every method and man under their control to make sure that Topaz would remain a Western possession, even though that strange planet now swung far beyond the sky which covered both Western Alliance and Greater Russia. Time had run out too fast; they were being forced to play what cards they held, even though those might be low ones. Ashe would be back, but not, Kelgarries hoped, until this had been decided one way or another. Not until this was finished.