Short Stories by Robert A. Heinlein Vol 2 Part 125

"Naturally. The whole s.h.i.+p moves."

"No," said Hugh, "no, no. I don't mean that at all. Suppose it moved by itself. These controls and the little Converter, suppose it could move right away from the s.h.i.+p."

"That's pretty fantastic."

"Maybe so ... but if it's true, this is the way out."

"Huh?" said Joe. "Nonsense. No door to the Outside here either."

"But there would be if this apartment were moved away from the s.h.i.+p: the way we came in!"

The two heads snapped simultaneously toward him as if jerked by the same string. Then they looked at each other and fell to arguing. Joe-Jim repeated his experiment wit.i.t the controls. "See?" Joe pointed out "'Launching.' It means to start something, to push something away."

"Then why doesn't it?"

"'Air Lock Open.' The doors we came through; it has to be that. Everything else is closed."

"Let's try it."

"We would have to start the Converter first."

"O.K.".

"Not so fast. Get out, and maybe you can't come back. We'd starve."

"Hm-m-m, we'll wait a while."

Hugh listened to the discussion while snooping around the control panels, trying to figure them out. There was a stowage s.p.a.ce under the lap desk of his chair; he fished into it, encountered something, and hauled it out. "See what I've found!"

"What Is it?" asked Joe. "Oh, a book. Lot of them back in the room next to the Converter." "Let's see it," said Jim.

But Hugh had opened it himself. "Log, Stars.h.i.+p Vanguard," he spelled out, "2 June, 2172. Cruising as before--"

"What!" yelled Joe. "Let me see that!"

"3 June. Cruising as before. 4 June. Cruising as before. Captain's mast for rewards and punishments held at 1300. See Administration Log. 5 June. Cruising as before."

"Gimme that!"

"Wait!" said Hugh. "6 June. Mutiny broke out at 0431. The watch became aware of it by visiplate. Hull, Metalsmith Ordinary, screened the control station and called on the watch to surrender, designating himself as 'Captain.' The officer of the watch ordered him to consider himself under arrest and signaled the Captain's cabin. No answer.

"0435. Communications failed. The officer of the watch dispatched a party of three to notify the Captain, turn out the chief proctor, and a.s.sist in the arrest of Huff.

"0441. Converter power off; free flight

"0502. Lacy, Crewman Ordinary, messenger-of-thewatch, one of the party of three sent below, returned to the control station alone. He reported verbally that the other two, Malcolm Young and Arthur Sears, were dead and that he had been permitted to return in order to notify the watch to surrender. The mutineers gave 0515 as a--"

The next entry was in a different hand: "0545. I have made every attempt to get into communication with other stations and officers in the s.h.i.+p, without success. I conceive it as my duty, under the circ.u.mstances, to leave the control station without being properly relieved, and attempt to restore order down below. My decision may be faulty, since we are unarmed, but I see no other course open to me.

"Jean Baldwin, Pilot Officer Third Cla.s.s, Officer of the Watch."

"Is that all?" demanded Joe.

"No," said Hugh. "1 October (approximately), 2172. I, Theodor Mawson, formerly Storekeeper Ordinary, have been selected this date as Captain of the Vanguard. Since the last entry in this log there have been enormous changes. The mutiny has been suppressed, or more properly, has died out, but with tragic cost. Every pilot officer, every navigation officer is dead, or believed to be dead. I would not have been chosen Captain had there been a qualified man left.

"Approximately ninety per cent of the personnel are dead. Not all of that number died in the original outbreak; no crops have been planted since the mutiny; our food stocks are low. There seems to be clear evidence of cannibalism among the mutineers who have not surrendered.

"My immediate task must be to restore some semblance of order and discipline among the Crew. Crops must be planted. A regular watch must be inst.i.tuted at the auxiliary Converter on which we are dependent for heat and light and power."

The next entry was undated. "I have been far too busy to keep this log up properly. Truthfully, I do not know the date even approximately. The s.h.i.+p's clocks no longer run. That may be attributable to the erratic operation of the auxiliary Converter, or it may possibly be an effect of radiations from outer s.p.a.ce. We no longer have an antiradiation s.h.i.+eld around the s.h.i.+p, since the Main Converter is not in operation. My Chief Engineer a.s.sures me that the Main Converter could be started, but we have no one fitted to astrogate. I have tried to teach myself astrogation from the books at hand, but the mathematics involved are very difficult.

"About one newborn child out of twenty is deformed. I have inst.i.tuted a Spartan code: such children are not permitted to live. It is harsh, but necessary.

"I am growing very old and feeble and must consider the selection of my successor. I am the last member of the crew to be born on Earth, and even I have little recollection of it. I was five when my parents embarked. I do not know my own age, but certain unmistakable signs tell me that the time is not far away when I, too, must make the Trip to the Converter.

"There has been a curious change in orientation in my people. Never having lived on a planet, it becomes more difficult as time pa.s.ses for them to comprehend anything not connected with the s.h.i.+p. I have ceased trying to talk to them about it; it is hardly a kindness anyhow, as I have no hope of leading them out of the darkness. Theirs is a hard life at best: they strive for a crop only to have it raided by the outlaws who still flourish on the upper levels. Why speak to them of better things?

"Rather than pa.s.s this on to my successor I have decided to attempt to hide it, if possible, in the single s.h.i.+p's boat left by the mutineers who escaped. It will be safe there a long time, otherwise some witless fool may decide to use it for fuel for the Converter. I caught the man on watch feeding it with the last of a set of Encyclopaedia Terresriana: priceless books. The idiot had never been taught to read! Some rule must be inst.i.tuted concerning books.

"This is my last entry. I have put off making the attempt to place this log in safekeeping, because it is very perilous to ascend above the lower decks. But my life is no longer valuable; I wish to die knowing that a true record is left.

"Theodor Mawson, Captain."

Even the twins were silent for a long time after Hugh stopped reading. At last Joe heaved a long sigh and said, "So that's how it happened."

"The poor guy," Hugh said softly.

"Who? Captain Mawson? Why so?"

"No, not Captain Mawson. That other guy, Pilot Officer Baldwin. Think of him going out through that door, with Huff on the other side." Hugh s.h.i.+vered. In spite of his enlightenment, he subconsciously envisioned Huff, 'Huff the Accursed, first to sin,' as about twice as high as Joe-Jim, twice as strong as Bobo, and having fangs rather than teeth.

Hugh borrowed a couple of porters from Ertz, porters whom Ertz was using to fetch the pickled bodies of the war casualties to the Main Converter for fuel, and used them to provision the s.h.i.+p's boat: water, breadstuffs, preserved meats, ma.s.s for the Converter. He did not report the matter to Narby, nor did he report the discovery of the boat itself. He had no conscious reason; Narby irritated him.

The star of their destination grew and grew, swelled until it showed a visible disc and was too bright to be stared at long. Its bearing changed rapidly, for a star; it pulled across the backdrop of the stellariwn dome. Left uncontrolled, the s.h.i.+p would have swung part way around it in a wide hyperbolic arc, accelerated as it flipped around the star, then sped off again into the darkness. It took Hugh the equivalent of many weeks to calculate the elements of the trajectory; it took still longer for Ertz and Joe-Jim to check his figures and satisfy themselves that the preposterous answers were right. It took even longer to convince Ertz that the way to rendezvous in s.p.a.ce was to apply a force that pushed one away from where one wished to go, that is to say, dig in the heels, put on the brakes, kill the momentum.

In fact it took a series of experiments in free flight on the level of weightlessness to sell him the idea, otherwise he would have favored finis.h.i.+ng the Trip by the simple expedient of cras.h.i.+ng headlong into the star at top Speed. Thereafter Hugh and Joe-Jim calculated how to apply acceleration to kill the speed of the Vanguard and warp her into an eccentric ellipse around the star. After that, they would search for planets.

Ertz bad a little trouble understanding the difference between a planet and a star. Alan never did get it.

"If my numbering is correct," Hugh informed Ertz, "we should start accelerating any time now."

"O.K.," Ertz told him. "Main Drive is ready: over two hundred bodies and a lot of waste ma.s.s. What are waiting for?"

"Let's see Narby and get permission to start."

"Why ask him?"

Hugh shrugged. "He's Captain. He'll want to know."