Part 9 (2/2)
”Sure, Cal,” Lynwood agreed. It was a measure of their acceptance that they had quite normally fallen into using his first name.
On the emergency signal it took less than three minutes to clear through eleven light-years to E.H.Q.--and then sixteen minutes for the operator at base to find Bill Hayes.
”Sector Chief Hayes here,” the voice said at last through the speaker.
”Gray here, on the Eden matter,” Cal answered. ”Any other E's available?”
”Hm-m,” Hayes answered. ”Wong has picked up on a problem in the Pleiades sector, and left this morning. Malinkoff has given out word not to disturb him if the whole universe falls apart. That leaves McGinnis, who, I believe, is spending his time working on the defense against the injunction by Gunderson. An example of the way petty restrictions can bring a fine mind down to trivial problems. But he said call him if you need him.”
”Please,” Cal said. ”And you might stay on while I talk to him, if you're not busy.”
”Sure, E Gray, sure,” Hayes answered. ”I'm flas.h.i.+ng the operator to locate McGinnis. Seen anything of the police s.h.i.+p, yet? I understand one is following to observe what you do.”
”I'm sure it will be a big help,” Cal said drily. ”Not that it matters, so long as it doesn't get in the way.”
McGinnis came on at that point.
”I'm not yelling for help, yet,” Cal told him. ”But here's what it is like at this end.” He sketched in the details, and heard a sharp gasp at the other end from Hayes.
”Now I'd like to stay on this problem,” he concluded his brief summary.
”But somewhere there's fifty colonists in trouble because this whole thing is out of focus. I'm not a full E, and maybe their lives are more important than my ambition to do a solo job. Certainly more important.
Then, trivial as it is, we'd be playing right into Gunderson's hands if we've sent out a boy to do a man's job.”
”Dismiss the Gunderson side of it,” McGinnis said drily. ”It's inconsequential to the main issue. As for that, I don't know any more than you do. There's never been anything like this. Colonists have been wiped out on other planets, sure; but what happened left traces. This one is an oddball, and I'd say you're as well equipped to handle it as anybody else.”
”I don't--I don't understand this at all,” Hayes said in a worried voice.
”Who does?” Cal asked. ”I'd say set up for continuous communication.
I'll leave it wide open here, so that everything we say will come through. Then, if anything should happen to us, you'll have the record up to that point.”
”It's the only thing we can do,” Hayes agreed.
”If you think I should come out there to stand by, I'll do it,” McGinnis said. But the tone of his voice said he hoped Cal would shoulder the full responsibility, not weaken out of a chance at a real solo.
”I'm not crying uncle, yet,” Cal said. ”But I may have to take you up on the offer. I hope not.”
”But do you _know_ anything is wrong?” Hayes asked incredulously. He was having the same trouble facing the reality as the s.h.i.+p's crew.
”If you were flying to Los Angeles and found only desert where the city is supposed to be, you might a.s.sume something was wrong,” Cal answered drily. ”But I don't know what it is. Do you have a recorder set up, so I can begin trying to find out?”
”Yes, yes, E Gray,” Hayes said hurriedly. He was suddenly conscious that he had been interrupting an E conversation, not once but several times.
”Pardon the intrusions. It was just that ...”
”I understand,” Cal rea.s.sured him.
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