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mentioned is Erdis Blaine. Now wouldn't the new captain make everybody happy by
naming his woman Third Hat, over the heads of three who have seniority on her?"
Bran nodded. "Yeah, I see it. Well, make her a Chief anyway, for future
reference."
"I plan to. There's more than one vacancy at that rank now."
Impatient with the subject, Tregare said, "Okay . . . but who do you peg for
Third?"
The captain paused. "It's a tossup, mostly, but I lean toward Gonnelson."
"The man who never uses one word if he can get by with none. At least he won't be
nagging the watch to death. Well, if you think he can handle the job, I'm for it."
"He looks to be turning into a fine pilot-good marks, fast reflexes, solid judgment.
Gets along well with the Drive room-just tells them the bare bones of what he wants
and lets them do it, without fussing over details."
"Yeah." Bran knew what he meant. Farnsworth, for instance, practically told
Mallory which knob to turn, and how far.
Monteffial stood. "Gotta go. Oh, yes . . . one more thing. Not right away, but when
you find time for it, I'd like you to replace the antenna cluster just aft of the topside
air lock. Groden, down in Stores, will have the parts assembly ready for you, and the
tools."
"Sure. It'll have to be after my upcoming watch, though." Then he thought. "Just
a minute. Who do you want me to take along on the job? I mean, that stuffs more
than a one-man load."
"Gotcha!" Leon grinned. "Not in the power suit, it isn't. Use the two-anchor
system, though; no showboating."
"Right. I'm not much for hitchhiking."
153
Before his watch began, Tregare had more than half of the damaged instruments
replaced. He sent the removed items down to the Shops level by one of the cadet
observers. Then after relieving Farnsworth he let his Comm board technician take
the pilot's chair, telling her to notify him of any change on the monitors. So, during the
first half of his watch, he restored the consoles to full function-except for one aux
board, where he put a cable splicer to work on a burned-through trunk line.
At the half-watch break he patched the main forward screen, and the intercom,
down to the galley. And was starting to leave for that oasis when the intercom came
on. "Captain here. Tregare, would you mind taking your break in my quarters?
Little meeting going on. Shouldn't take long."
So he changed the patching to put view and squawkbox to the captains digs. Bran
hadn't had time yet to move into Seconds quarters, but Monteffial and Farnsworth,
he knew, had made their own moves already. Gonnelson, whether he'd relocated
into Tregare's previous room, Bran didn't know about.
Entering the skipper's suite, Bran found the lanky, blond Gonnelson there as well
as the two senior officers. Walking over to the stand that held the coffee urn, Bran
made a head move at Gonnelson and said, "You tell him yet, Leon?" Monteffial
nodded, so shifting his coffee cup to his left hand, Tregare went over and offered a
handshake; Gonnelson took it. "Congratulations, Third Hat. I expect we'll all work
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"Yes. Thanks." Two low-voiced words, then nothing more.
Well, there were worse habits than not being gabby. Bran turned back to the
other two. "A meeting, you said?"
"Yes," the captain said. "Let's sit down." That done, he went on. "Question of
where we go next. Cleet thinks we should go on in to Terranova, per sked, bluff it
out and get refueled on the strength of our original mission documents. Fake the log
from about two jumps back, to leave Rigueres off and promote everybody. What do
you think?"
It took no thinking. "We don't have a chance in hell, getting away with that. And
the Uties we have, locked up-we'd need to space the lot. I-"
"No such thing," Farnsworth put in. "Stick 'em in freeze, listed as high-priority
passengers for our next stop."
Freeze. Tregare knew, when he stopped to think, that the had freeze chambers.
The MacArthurhad none, because
154
155
Korbeith in his independent way had had them removed. But .Bran had seen the
Tamurlaine's during his first hurried tour of the ship; he'd forgotten about them, was
all. But how many were there? He frowned. "Twelve of those, we have; right? And
twenty prisoners."
"Which is too many," Farnsworth said. "I keep telling you-" He spoke now to
Monteffial. "-nearly half of those, now they've had time to think, are safe to let loose
and put to work. Then we wouldn't be so bloody shorthanded, and-"
"And on Terranova," Bran cut in, "they'd all go on ground-side leave and keep
their little mouths shut. Sure they would." He shook his head. "I can't go with any of
that. Captain, what's your idea?"
Monteffial cleared his throat. "Well it also has its risks. But different ones. I
haven't told anyone before, but I have what purports to be a coded set of
coordinates for five Hidden Worlds. To reach one of these would require only a
thirty-degree course change, which I believe is within the limits of our fuel reserves.
So-"
Thirty degrees. Let's see: pi-over-six radians. Plug in the sines and cosines; yes. A
right-angle change took as much energy as slowing to zerch and coming back up to
speed, like a planetary stopover. But a lesser turn-decel would be one-minus-the-
cosine of the angle, and accel factor would be the sine. Pi-over-six; okay: decel, dot-
one-three-four. Accel a flat point-five. A little over five-eights then, total, of stopover
fuel need. Discounting gravity, because the Drive field fed it back, mostly. Tregare
blanked his hand-calc.
He said the numbers. "Leon-do we have that much extra?"
"And enough more to let us sleep easy."
"Then do we vote on this, or what?"
Monteffial said, "I suppose so. I vote for the Hidden World:"
"Terranova," said Cleet Farnsworth.
Bran laughed. "I'll take thirty degrees and out!"
Gonnelson, as they all looked at him, kept them waiting. Having been granted a
vote, he could lock it all up now, if he chose, in stalemate. Finally the serious face [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
